Colin's 2!!!

September 15th, 2009I can't believe the day would come when my BABY is 2 years old! We had a quiet little family birthday with dinner, cake and presents.

Colin's favorite presents are this car that you shake to rev. the engine, and then set it down and it goes by itself, and his new Elmo.

Elmo was actually a hand-me-down that Devin decided to give to Colin for his birthday (with a little help). He helped me program it to say "Hi, Colin! Let's Play!" It sings songs and talks about Colin's favorite colors and foods and everything. For days after his birthday, Colin insisted on taking Elmo and his car everywhere we went!

It just so happened that Karate fell on Colin's birthday, so we spent a little of the evening at Karate Graduation. Erin and John are now Green belts! For those of you wondering how many that is, the order is: White, Yellow, Orange, Purple, Green, Blue, Red, Brown, and Black. They are half way to their goal of becoming Black belts together! Way to go guys!

Car Washing

John has found a great little car washer! Colin, who LOVES cars, went out the help John wash his car a couple of weeks ago. Well, it turns out that he LOVED it! He had his own little paper towel and scrubbed away! the other kids were there too, but John said that Colin did most of it.

Catch up

Devin has just started school, (OK it was a few weeks ago on Sept 2nd, but I'm very much behind). I bet you can't tell how excited he is! He loves school, and has taken to it like a fish to water!


On Labor day, we went out to a place called Sugar Loaf. It's an extinct volcano out in the middle of nowhere, near Delta (where my parents live). We took a picnic lunch and had a good time out there.

We hiked a bit on the rocks, which are strange, drippy looking, and full of holes.

John, Devin and my Dad all hiked up to the rim of the volcano. I bet you could see for miles!

More to come!

Lake Powell

Last week we had the awesome opportunity to go to Lake Powell with some friends on a House Boat. It was so much fun! Most people would think, "what's the big deal? It's just a Lake." The big deal about Lake Powell is that the water is warm! The weather is warm! And when you go on a house boat, you can drive the boat out into any canyon of this huge lake, park it on the sand, and be almost totally secluded from other people! We spent most of our time Swimming, skiing, playing in the sand and relaxing. It was a great vacation, and a sorely needed one too. With work being crazy for John lately, he deserved a week away to do nothing.

John had a great time there his favorite thing was skiing (though I don't have a picture of it) It took him a while to get up, but once he did, he loved it!

He also went knee boarding, cliff jumping and fishing (though they didn't catch any fish).

My favorite part was the water rocket (aka the water weenie). All of us went on it (except Colin), and it was great! The kids got a slower kid friendly ride, but somehow still managed to tip over. The best part was that they both got right back on after the initial shock was over and still had a great time. Erin even kept requesting faster rides! I also liked the slide on the back of the house boat. We all went on that too (minus colin), though Devin only went once.

After we went off the slide we would swim in the deep water. That became Devin's favorite part!

Erin's favorite part was the knee boarding! Yes, she's an adventurous soal.

She probably spent 90% of her waking minutes in the water! She loved the slide, the water weenie, and the kneeboarding, but she also went skiing! She didn't have to try very many times before she got up for a few seconds!

Even more adventurous, I think, is that she went cliff jumping! She loved that and went so many times, I lost count.

Devin, as I said, loved swimming in the deep water (with Dad of course). He also loved going on the Wave runners (which he called the motor bikes), and went on the speed boat when ever he could.

We took him on the knee board, which I though he would enjoy. He screamed the whole time!!!!! It was really funny, and he never wanted to get back on, but I think he's glad he went. (I think!?!) I'm glad he did.

Is it bad that I think that's funny! I went on the knee board later. I think I know why he panicked. I think it was fast, and he felt trapped. Now that I know I would have dropped him off earlier.

Colin Loved playing in the sand. That's mostly what he did while we were there. The day we got there, he walked out into the water and swam and played. He even cried when I pulled him out. However, I couldn't get him to go back in the water volintarily for the rest of the trip.

He loved the boat, though. Whenever I asked him if he wanted to go on the boat he always said "Yea" in his cute little voice.

You would think that our vacation ended there. But since we left the boat on Friday, and we were so close to the Grand Canyon, we couldn't resist. We spent Friday night in a Hotel, and explored the North rim of the Grand Canyon.

For those of you who have never been to the Grand Canyon you should definately see the South rim first. But since we both have already been there, I'm glad we went to the North rim. I've always wanted to go there, and it was closer to home.

We were very tired after that and glad to have a Sunday off before going back to work.

Camping in August

On the second weekend in August, we went camping with my parents up Nephi Canyon. It is so much work to get ready for camping, and I was worried that John wasn't going to make it because of work. But I did it, and John even made it! It was so fun to sit back and enjoy time as a family without stuff to do and things getting in the way.

Grandpa took Erin and Devin fishing (for a whole 5 minutes, cause there weren't any fish there).

We walked to the creek and threw stones in (Colin's favorite thing to do).

We had a fire going all day on Saturday, cause it was cold!!!

Erin and Devin found some swings to play on.

I made my first dish in the dutch oven ever. We got this dutch oven for our wedding 10 years ago and we've never used it til now. I made peach cobbler and it was awesome!!!!! I won't hesitate to use it again next time.

Colin loved just checking out the trucks. He was even more interested when Grandpa started telling him what everything is.

Erin decided that she found the perfect "Lion's Den" in some grass and convinced her brothers and even her Dad to play along with her. It was so much fun to watch, that I decided to share a little bit of it with you.

These are just some more of our favorite pictures of camping/relaxing.

Catching up

OK, It seems I've been really bad at updating my blog and I have a bit of catching up to do, so I'll start at the end of July.

We went to the open house of the Oquirrh Hills Temple. It is a beautiful temple and it's only just up the street from us. We can see it from out house! It was fun to take all our kids inside to kind of let them see a picture of what we do in the temple. My mom was able to come too.

A couple of weeks before we were at my parents house cleaning out their office, and we came across this dress. My Mom made it for me for my baptism day. We pulled it out and put it on Erin. It was amazing to see it on her! She is taller and skinnier than I was, but it is so awesome to see it on her. It brings back so many memories of my baptism day! Erin loves to wear it, and she chose to wear it to the temple that day.

Here are some cute pictures of Colin. He fell asleep at the counter one day while he was watching Devin play the computer.

In this one he put on John's shoes and told us all he was "Daddy". What a cutie!

What a busy Week!

My Birthday was Sunday the 19th, and between My Mom and Dad bringing me a cake on Saturday, John taking me on a date to see Harry Potter and shop for home decor, and time to scrapbook on Sunday afternoon, I had a great Birthday! Devin was sick that day, so John took care of him all morning. I didn't have to clean up any puke and that makes it a great Birthday! Not to mention that John made dinner and Erin brought me breakfast in bed! It was really nice.

On Tuesday, we met up with one of my good friends from CA, Andrea Barney. They came into town for the week, so we went to the museum of Natural history with them. The kids had a great time, and it was great to catch up with the Barneys again.

On Wednesday, I drove to Delta to help my Mom and Dad get ready for company. My Sister and her family were coming from Iowa, so everyone was coming to see them. We had the whole family there except for my little brother Richard and his wife Callie. (We missed you guys) It was a full house, so I helped Mom clear out a room for an extra bedroom.

My kids had great time playing with their cousins! We played cards, ate a ton of good food, and had a great time catching up.

We also went bowling while the babies were sleeping. It was fun to see some of the techniques used.

Great Form!

Did I mention that we went to a parade on the 24th of July. It's a holiday here in Utah where we celebrate the day the first pioneer settlers came into the Salt Lake Valley. Erin and Devin got another huge bag of candy each at that parade! Erin decided to make some money and go door to door selling it. She made $2.10! Now that's a little entrepreneur we have!

Yesterday was Erin's first day of 2nd grade. Yes, we are on Year round school here, so we start in July. She had a great day despite missing the bus home. She even lost a tooth on her first day of school! Now how many people can say that happened to them?!!!