Summer joy.

McCall and her little family have been spending a few days in downtown Salt Lake at the "Little America" hotel, for a stay-cation.  It is her husband's family tradition to spend the night on the 23rd of July and attend the big "Days of '47 Parade" the next morning.  (July 24th is Utah's celebration of when the pioneers first entered the Salt Lake Valley with Brigham Young, and it's a pretty big deal here - the parade is televised and everything.)

Libby has been in heaven.  McCall told me that Libby was playing around their hotel room and said, "I wish this was our new home."

McCall said that guests of  Little America can use the pool at the Grand America (across the street) as well.  Yesterday, they had the pool pretty much to themselves ... all day long.

Well, I'll tell you what little Libby Love ...

if you guys decide to make that your new home,

I'm moving in with you.

Denver.

Sometime back in June ... maybe it was June ... at least I think it was June ... the girls and I took a road trip to Denver.  Chloe had plans to move to Los Angeles (as I mentioned in this post, here) and Sophie had gotten a nanny job in New York for a year, so Haley (mainly Haley) decided that we should all take a girl's trip to Denver and audition for the X-Factor. It was mostly for the adventure, the fun, the time together, and I was all for it.  Eight hours isn't too bad of a drive, and I have actually wanted to visit Denver for a long time.

Haley and Chloe had both auditioned for American Idol in previous years. ("You've got a nice voice, but it isn't strong enough for American Idol ... Your voice is more suited for Broadway than American Idol ... We've raised the bar now, so it's a no ... Yada, yada, yada.")  I figured their chances of making it onto the X-Factor were pretty slim to none, so I made a suggestion.  You girls would have a much better chance of making it if you auditioned as a group.  There aren't as many groups and you guys sound really good together.

So they learned a song ... one song.  They sounded really, really good.  And I wasn't the only one who thought so.  But this post isn't about that ... it's just a quick one about hair, since I haven't posted in a super long time and I have posts waiting in the wings that I want to do but feel the need to post in the order in which things have happened, sooooo ....

Our favorite hotel to stay at on our road trips is the Hampton Inn.  LOVE IT. Great rooms and the most comfy beds you would ever hope to sleep in, in a hotel.  (At least a hotel that is reasonably affordable.) Sadly, the Hampton Inns in Denver were not reasonably affordable at all.  BOO.  We opted to try our hand at hotwire.com and picked out a cheaper rate in the heart of downtown Denver.

Score.

We had no idea how close the hotel was to the venue, the Denver Coliseum, where auditions were being held - we just hoped it wasn't too far.  Fortunately, we lucked out with the location and how nice the hotel was. (The beds, however, not so much.  Lopsided, with crunchy sheets.  Very disappointed compared to our beloved cozy Hampton.)  But I did love the little bottles of shampoo, conditioner, and lotion:

Good Hair Day - In Good Condition - Peace Be Still

Fantastic marketing.  When I took this picture of the girls I thought it could totally be an ad for shampoo. 

They were nice and fresh.

And looked adorable, ready for this little adventure together.

(They thought they'd be cute and hold hands - knowing I would get a kick out of it.  I totally did.)

At the end of the audition day, they were a little less for wear.  It had been a really, really long day.

But after I took this picture, of these three happy faces, it instantly became

one of my new, all time favorite photos ever.

It makes me happy ... for SO many reasons.  I sure love these three.

(Oh, and then we went to McDonald's.  Of course.)