BASEMENT ALMOST FINISHED

Our basement is really coming together. We have a great contractor and it has been rather painless in all ways except in our wallets. However, it is looking like a million bucks and certainly not costing that much. Brent and I were even able to come up with a compromise on building shelves for his massive DVD collection, so our marriage is staying strong as well.

WELCOME TO THE JUNGLE

Stella continues to have the best week of her life. She is constantly entertained by her three cousins while they stay at our house. As if that weren't enough we are keeping busy with fun excursions as well. Today we made our way through the rain to Jungle Jim's Playland. Jungle Jim's is the best place and it only costs 8 dollars and parents are free. Stella and Ava are now much more ride savvy and went on all of the rides, even the scary one. We had a great time, and I never got sick of waving hello to my adorable child every time she flew past me on a ride. I did, however, get very sick after going on three spinning rides in a row.

32 YEARS OF BRENT

Yesterday was Brent's 32nd birthday. We met him at Hires and took him to lunch. After he went back to work we went to South Towne Mall to buy some really cheap and cool clothes for the boys at Forever 21. We were there forever because we just couldn't choose which of the 10 cardigans we found to take home with us. Then we attempted to rush home to get the house and dinner ready for the b-day party. We got stuck in a traffic accident on I-15. By the time we got home and I made the cake, finished the dinner, and helped clean the house (alongside my awesome friend and my sweet Catcher) I was really not in the mood to play photographer. Still, I wanted to document the day. Here are a few pics of Brenty blowing out his candle and opening presents.

THE DIRTY BEDROOMS

Announcing the newest kid band to hit the Salt Lake City/Idaho Falls Area music scene. The Dirty Bedrooms are a group of kids who hope their music will speak to the younger generation. Lead vocalist Cy Gummow has had a passion for music his whole life. He finds inspiration from music by The Beatles and songs he hears on the radio. "I love music," says Cy, "and I have always wanted to be a rock star." Catcher Gummow plays drums and is responsible for keeping the beat. He also writes lyrics for some of TDB's more comical songs. "I got the idea for 'Fireballs Like Smelling David Hasselhoff' from my hero Weird Al. I love Weird Al songs." Stella Sallay is the only female member of the band. "She keeps us on our toes," says Cy. "We love having her in the band, even though she isn't old enough to really do much but dance around." Sallay says, "I look forward to contributing more than just dance moves to The Dirty Bedrooms once I learn how to talk better." Wyn Gummow is the youngest member of the band at only 3 1/2 months. "If we need some crying in a song, we turn to Wyn. He is really good at it," says older brother Catcher.

When asked how their moms feel about being such big stars at such a young age, Cy tell us, "They just really like living out their dreams through their children. It makes them happy to see us do something they wish they could do. My mom always wanted to be on Star Search and this is the next best thing for her." Stella chimed in, "My mom doesn't like Justin Bieber and she just wants us to be more popular than him so he can't make music anymore." Michelle Sallay told us this was true. "We thought about naming the band Bieber Beaters, but I didn't want the kids to ostracize any potential fans."

When asked if they will ever have a world tour, Stella told us, "I think the boys would love to tour, but I might miss my daddy too much." Heidi Gummow, the boys' mom told us, "My kids are starting school next week, and I really want them to focus on their education. Maybe if they had gotten the idea to start a band at the beginning of the summer things could have been different."

The Dirty Bedrooms currently record in Brent Sallay's super duper awesome basement studio and are hoping to release their new album, Don't Look Under the Bed, next fall.

BLOWING AWAY

My dad attempts to keep his store kind of cool with a giant fan close to the front of the store. The last couple of times Stella and I have been there she has totally been scared of the giant air conditioner. Can't blame her--it is loud with some pretty fierce winds. Today she had her brave cousins with her so she was starting to have a little fun with it. The three of them would run up to the fan, act like it was blowing them away, and then run off. Pretty soon the model in Stella remembered that supermodels use fans so she should too, and I caught her striking her new hips pose a few times. Loved these in black and white.

THE POSE, PHASE TWO: HIPS

This morning, Stella was very excited for church. She knows that she needs to put on a dress for nursery and this morning she let Mommy dress her with no complaints. Daddy always tells her how cute she looks on Sunday, and so after she was dressed she walked over to Daddy, put her hands on her hips, posed, and then waited for Daddy to tell her how cute she looked. I tried to recreate the magic after church, with only limited success. Then I gave up and just had her pose with the sucker I brought home for her from last night's wedding.

STICKER FACE

Stella makes me laugh. She also makes me crazy, but I mostly like to focus on how she makes me smile. Today she decided to put her princess stickers on her face and she thought she was being pretty clever. And since her mom's reaction was laughter and insistence on a photo shoot, perhaps she was right.

Some things that Stella says that make me laugh these days:

• "Piggy-market" - asking me to do "This Little Piggy" with her toes.
• "Bye, love you, see-ya-in-the-morning" - even though sometimes I am going to see her in the next second.
• "Come on!" - in the car, when driving frustrations arise. I am relieved that she is not swearing.
• "Call Ashley" - she is obsessed with calling her aunt Ashley.
• "Bless you" - whenever someone sneezes.
  

In the smarts department, Stella can now also count to 10 and sing her ABCs. She loves to sing her favorite songs which are mostly from nursery--"Hello, Hello," "London Bridge," "The Wise Man Built His House upon the Rock," and "Jesus Wants Me for a Sunbeam."

LAGOON

Today was our stake Lagoon day, and we decided to take the girls for their first trip to iconic Lagoon. I wasn't sure how my little scaredy-cat would handle the rides, but I suppose I didn't care that much because the first thing I did was put her on the one that scared me the most to watch her ride. I thought the ride was one that would just go around, but all of the sudden it was going up in the air and up and down so fast. Stella had a death grip on Ava and a look of terror in her eyes. But when I went to get her she said: "More rides!"

Here is a close up of the Stella death grip:

Next were the cars and boats, which were both huge hits with the girls. I wonder if that was because they were under the grand illusion that they could actually use their steering wheels to control the ride.

Ash and I accompanied them on the carousel ride, which I know Stella liked, but my main goal was just concentrating on not getting sick as we went around and around. I think most of the time on the rides Stella didn't know what to think since this was such a new experience for her. And it wasn't until the rides were over that she was like: "Ok, that was fun--I didn't die or anything."

Then we headed over to the log ride and took them down the big slide. After that one Stella said: "I'm scared. More slide."

Then we waited in line for Puff. As soon as Stella saw it roar past her she wanted out of the line, so we left. Then she wanted to be with Ava so we went back. We had some line drama there and a big group somehow snuck ahead of us one by one, so by the time I pushed my way back to the front, Ashley was already getting on the roller coaster because this rowdy group wanted to be together and there wasn't room for all of them. I just handed Stella to her auntie and watched her terrified look as she flew by riding her first coaster. After the ride she told her auntie that she LOVED it, and came running to me looking pretty proud of herself. She was feeling so brave afterward that she went on a ride all by herself. Again, she looked really freaked out on it, but as soon as it was over she was smiling and said she had fun.

The only time she really cried was when I tried to take her on the train. She just wanted her stroller, and I made her get on it anyway. She stopped crying though as soon as she realized how fun the train was going to be.

I was totally wanting an ICEE the entire time we were there and the hot and humid day made it almost impossible for me not to fantasize about having one while we were on the train. Soon we had our ICEE break, and Stella was kind enough to share hers with me every once in a while. But she had to keep her hands on the straw at all times. After that the only ride Stella was talking about was the cars so off we went to the cars again.

Right after the cars I dropped my camera and broke the lens so that is the last of our Lagoon pictures. Ashley and I used the last of our tickets to go on a few big kid rides like the terribly scary Wild Mouse and the new roller coaster Wicked. Mom was watching both girls during that time and at one point, Ava took off and ran into the line for Wild Mouse, almost getting to the front of the line before she was caught. That was officially our signal that the day was done. We thought for sure the girls would fall asleep on the way home, but instead they just giggled about their fun day the whole way. There were still a few kiddie rides that I had wanted to take Stella on, but I think she had a pretty successful first trip to Lagoon, and she has the stamp to prove it.