Lately....

...we have been having a lot of fun! My cousin, Sean, got home from his mission and he had his homecoming talk in church and party this past weekend. My parents and brothers came down, as did my Grandpa and Vonnie.  We had a fun weekend with lots of family and good food!

Elanor got just a bit spoiled by her grandparents. She got a new princess dress ( I need to take pictures of her in it), a new book about London, and the movie "Tangled". Elanor LOVES Rapunzel and Flynn Rider. It is probably her favorite movie, but Winnie the Pooh and Beauty and the Beast are up there as well. It is so cute to see Elanor start to really recognize everybody and remember names. She has for awhile, but she is getting better at saying everything. She calls my mom ,"Nan", my dad, "Pa",  Ian, "Eeee", and Erik, "Eri". It was a short weekend visit, but still a lot of fun!

I unfortunately only took pictures when we went to Liberty Park and watched Elanor play in the little creeks and pools there.

 My mom and  Ian with Elanor

Elanor loved splashing!

Payson Scottish Festival

This weekend we traveled down to Provo to stay with some good friends of ours and go to the Payson Scottish Festival.  A month or two ago, I was looking up local Highland Games and I sadly realized we had missed the big Highland Games held in Lehi. However, I kept looking and found the festival in Payson, which is twenty minutes south of Provo. The huge benefit of this one is that it is free! Every other Highland Games I have been to or found online always cost about $10-15 to get in, so it was awesome to find a free one!

Elanor and I in front of the Scott Clan's crest (every clan had a booth). Oh, and the adorable kilt she is wearing was mine when I was a wee lass (Tyler wanted me to say "wee lass")!

If you don't know or have never been to a Highland Games it is basically a lot of Scottish (and also Irish and Welsh) people who get together and celebrate their heritage. I am Scottish on both sides (plus my maiden name is Scott) and I simply love Scotland. I would live there if ever given the chance. I have been there once and would love to go back. My heart yearns for Scotland--I know that is cheesy and all that but I feel a connection to it, which I get from my mom since she loves Scotland.

How could I not love a place that looks like this? My dad took this picture, by the way.

FYI---I almost always have a page break  in my posts so make sure to push the "Keep Reading!" button to read the rest of this blog post. I do this so my blog looks neater and you can scroll through all the posts quickly and choose which ones to read. It does have some cons to it since many people don't know there is more to the post. So sorry for anyone who had been confused!

4th of July

We had a pretty fun 4th of July! Our ward, puts on a really fun party. It started off with raising the flag, a short talk, and the local firefighters and their engines were there. Then, there was a 5k race, which we ran (Tyler pushed Elanor in the stroller). I did alright. I had not really run much beforehand, but I felt pretty good running and I really want to run on a more regular basis. After the run, there was a huge breakfast, a little kids parade and a waterfight. It was a fun morning. I forgot my camera for the morning stuff which was unfortunate. 

Later, we headed over to Sugarhouse Park with some friends of ours and looked at all the booths. It was soooo hot.

Elanor and Eli. They are pretty cute and love playing together. Elanor's little flag dress was made by my cousins, Susy and Julie. She looked pretty adorable in it....until we had to change her out of it. Yes, Elanor did go through four outfits on the 4th. Luckily, she has plenty of red, white and blue outfits.

In the Kitchen: Dutch Babies

.....German Pancakes, Puff Pancake, whatever you call them. My family calls them Dutch Babies. I waited until Saturday to post this, because I made these for breakfast this morning and I wanted to to do this for my "In the Kitchen" recipe. This is a breakfast staple in my family. They are easy to make (as in I first made these when I was probably 8) and they are so tasty! The only thing you have to be careful about is to not over mix, otherwise they won't puff up right.

 Here is the recipe:

Hogle Zoo with Elanor!

My wonderful cousin, Julie, took Elanor and I to the zoo last Friday. We had a ton of fun! I had never been to SLC's zoo, so it was fun to go and see what it had to offer. Elanor loved it for the most part (she got a little tired and hot near the end). It was sooo hot. We got there at 9:30 and left at 11:30 and it was already over 90 degrees. Luckily, there were a lot of misters (is that what they are called?) throughout the zoo.

Looking at the monkeys!

Elanor just got right on in there--we did not know these people.