Swimming and Hiking

We seem to be doing a lot of these two activities lately. This last week we went swimming up at Josh's parent's condo pool on Monday which Tanner and Sydney both loved and Natalie was scared out of her diaper. She did eventually get a little bit wet while she clung to me for dear life. I didn't get any pictures of this event though.
We went swimming on Friday with Dan and Andrea Graham at their neighborhood pool. We are gonna miss these guys! They're moving to Arizona this week. :( Natalie was much more brave this time around. She got pretty attached to Dan though and just snuggled up with him the whole time. It was very cute.

We finally got another hiking backpack for the babies on ebay and we took it out for a test run on the 24th of July. It seemed to appropriate to celebrate our Pioneer day by doing some hiking. We went up to Donut Falls, my old stomping ground from the days of my youth. I spent many a summer evening playing up there. I hadn't been there in years though since they closed for a while due to reckless people. It's such a pretty hike and easy enough for Sydney to do.

This picture was funny because Sydney kept picking these little purple flowers whenever she saw them. Then we rounded a corner and there were bushes covered with tons of little purple flowers. It stopped her in her tracks.

On Saturday we decided we needed a little more of that fresh mountain air. We went to Lake Blanch this time with no intention of actually finishing it. We did about 1/10 of it and turned around. It is a much steeper and longer hike and unlikely that Sydney would be okay with it. Plus it starting raining just before we got back to the car.

Welcome to the world Noah!

We are very excited to have a cousin on the Ruben side! Up until now my kids have been the only grandkids and now they will have to learn to share the attention with a new baby. Rich and Rachel decided kind of last minute a week or two ago that they were going to move from Orem back to Salt Lake and stay in Kim and Nick's basement apartment for a little while. So yesterday was the big moving day but they missed it because at 4 in the morning they were on their way to the hospital! It's so funny how things work out sometimes. Everyone moved their stuff for them though and hopefully they approve of where they put everything. Noah Brett Poulsen was born around 4:15 weighing 8 lbs. 10 oz. and 20" long. He is absolutely adorable! He's got a nice big head which must be a Ruben thing because 2 of my 3 kids have big heads too.

Here are the cute new parents. Rachel was looking pretty good for just going through a 12 hour labor.

Sydney is taking her photography very seriously these days. She got right in their with everyone else that was snapping pictures. She is thrilled to have a new baby cousin!

Idol Mania

Monday night was the big American Idol concert at the E Center. It was awesome! I didn't get great pictures so it was obviously much cooler to be there than it actually looks. I went with my parents, Rich, Rachel, Adam, and his friend Ellen. Here's a picture of all of them singing at the end looking very tiny.

We had really great seats on the front row of the side. They would have been just slightly better if the lady next to me didn't keep moving right in front of me blocking my view. Ggrrr. So during the second half I moved back a row and could see just great.
It was interesting how much better the last singers were compared the the first ones who were cut from the show earlier on and didn't get as much stage practice. Here's my personal judging of how the concert went. I could totally be the next idol judge.
Chikezie and Ramiele were both sharp and I couldn't understand their words a lot.
Michael Johns was awesome and honestly I don't know why he was voted off the show so early.
Kristy Lee Cook was great on "God bless the USA" which gives me goosebumps no matter who's singing it.
Carly Smithson was at the top of her game. Incredibly strong voice. Here's a picture of her.

Brooke White was amazing and great with the crowd. She and Carly were the best amongst the girls in my opinion.
Jason Castro sounded great and looked goofy as usual.
Syesha was very strong. She sounded a bit like she was yelling at times though and she dressed a little slutty.
David Archuletta was phenomenal and brought more than a few people to tears I think with one of his songs. It was little difficult to hear him well though because people were screaming their heads off. Here's a pic of him.

David Cook was also incredible of course and had a great stage presence.
We were all literally deaf at the end of the concert. I don't think I've ever lost my hearing quite so much before. That can't be healthy. But it sure was fun!

Real Fun

Last Saturday I got to go to my first Real soccer game. Josh has gone to quite a few. His friend Nick gets tickets pretty often and invites him to go. This time he had four tickets so Nick and his wife Heidi invited both of us to come along. This was also a momentous occasion because its the first time we dared leave our kids for several hours with a non-family babysitter since the twins have been born. Fortunately, our 12-year-old babysitter did just great with the whole feeding and going to bed routines. This is very exciting for me because I wouldn't mind going on a dates more often with my hubby!
We had a really great time. Our friends introduced us to a little family owned chinese restaurant called the New Dragon which was quite yummy. We got to the game a few minutes late which was a shame because our team scored in the first 3 minutes. Anyways, the game was great and it turns out I am a lucky charm because they won! They've never won at any of the games Josh has gone to so Nick said he must be a curse. Hee hee. The players were really awesome. It always amazes me how they can head the ball without getting a concusion.

Getting around

Natalie is a non-conformist who refuses to crawl the "normal" way. She's going to be a trend-setter when she grows up. You'd think she and Tanner would copy each other a little more but they seem to want to do things their own way. Tummy time is now impossible for Natalie because she can sit herself back up and this is how she gets around. Instead of callused knees she has callused ankles. It's going to be a little tricky teaching her how to go downstairs though I think.