St George

On our way up to Utah for a family reunion we stopped at Del Taco for dinner.  We specifically chose Del Taco because they had a kids play place.  But, the play place was closed and that was a bummer.  You certainly can't tell from the look on Henry's face that he is bummed about it.  

Beautiful St. George Temple

 On Sunday we went to sacrament meeting at the first building we could find.  It just so happened to be a senior branch.  So our family was the only one with kids.  It was the quietest meeting I have ever been to!  Luckily, our kids were exceptionally good that week so we didn't stand out too much.  After the meeting an old guy even came up and said our kids were "so well behaved."  

That's Henry with a beanie baby bear inside Devin's church shoe.  He told Devin to take off his shoe and then used it for a boat for his Yogi Bear.  What an imagination!

Ollie was such a trooper in the car

 Henry was so tired he fell asleep at dinner.  He actually does the frequently, while still chewing.

 We went to the dinosaur track museum.  Yes, a dinosaur track museum, not a dinosaur museum.  Not as cool.

 Trying Origami at the museum

 Teething on the chair

 I sat behind the boys for a while because other people were in the van with us.  Here's a few with my super excited kids...

And that's all the pictures I got from our trip.  For all the stuff we did, I should have taken more.  But some of the other fun things we did include:

Grocery shopping at Harmon's (the best grocery store ever).

My own alone time at Robert's Arts and Crafts!  Amazing!

Seeing Devin's grandma, grandpa, aunt, cousin, cousin's husband, and their cute baby.

Swimming in the condo ice cold pool then jumping in the jacuzzi and back in the pool.

Running what felt like 5 miles on a giant hill, but then realizing it was only 2.

Showering in an awesome shower without a door in hot water!  (At home our shower is so far away from the water heater the water doesn't get as hot as I would like it.  "Turn the heat up" you say, but in the kitchen, right next to the water heater, the water will just about scald your flesh so we don't want to do that.)

Sleeping in a KING sized bed.  One of the loves of my life.  Some day we will upgrade.

Seeing my amazing friend Lacee and her itty-bitty baby who was born super early.  Little baby Olivia is sure blessed to have such and amazing mommy!

Getting 2 pairs of running shoes and 4 pairs of running socks for $125!  What a steal of a deal at the outlets in Laughlin!  We stayed there on our drive home so we wouldn't have to do it all at once.

Getting woken up an average of 5 times a night because of Ollie's teeth coming in--SO sad!

Getting woken up about 5 times because of second hand cigarette smoke seeping through the door from the room next door during our night in Laughlin.  I guess that's what you get for being too poor to afford a nice hotel and falling for the cheap rooms in a casino.

Seeing Josh and Joy and their family (My personal highlight of the trip!  It might be Devin's too, but then again it might come second to his Harmon's shopping.)

Creamies.

Oh, yeah, and fixing a flat tire!  Maybe we are jinxed because on our last family vacation (only a few months ago) we got a flat tire too!  This time instead of it being blazing hot, it was really cold because it was really late at night and just off the mountain outside of Fredonia.  I broke down at that point.  Devin was a champ, of course.  I just couldn't believe it happened to us again!  On another long road trip!  But, after Devin got the spare on and pronounced it "pretty low" we said a desperate prayer and went along on our way.  After the prayer I did feel peace that we would arrive safely and we did!  It definitely was a blessing of safety and peace because I was so nervous about that spare!

It was a great trip and we had a lot of fun!

Labor Day

Since Devin works a full time job, a part time job, and is working on getting his masters degree 2 classes at a time, he doesn't have many days "off."  And by "off" I mean where he doesn't have to be any of the above mentioned places the whole day.

So, we were very excited that he was off on Labor Day.

We went to one of our favorite places to go as a family...

Johnny Rockets!

Then we played in the fountain outside.  The weather was nice and the boys were so entertained by the fountain, so Devin and I sat with Ollie and talked while we watched the boys play.  

Precious:)

Henry Turns 3

For Henry's birthday we decided to go up to the cabin.  Nana planned a fun little pirate party that started with popping cannon balls.

 Then Jaxon and Henry got into a brawl over who knows what and I sat on the couch to capture the mess with photos.  After a few punches were thrown, Devin decided it was time to step in.

(I don't just let them fight it out all the time, but sometimes, yes, I do.  They need the chance to figure some things out on their own.)

Ollie was adorable, even when he got sleepy and a little fussy. 

After the brawl, it was time to go on a pirate treasure hunt!

The treasure they found was a pirate pinata.  Because it had rained on and off all morning we couldn't hang the it outside.  So, Daddy tried holding it and with Jaxon swinging the bat I'm sure you can guess what happened.  Seconds before, Josh even said, "We all know how this turns out.  We should be filming this."  He was right.  I felt bad as Devin dropped to the floor, but we all couldn't help but laugh!

 Yummy red velvet cake (of Henry's choosing)

 Devin and Josh went fishing that morning and also caught some crawdads.  We boiled them up and tried to eat them.  I'm not sure if we'll be doing it again or not...

 That's what Jaxon thought of the crawdads:

 But they were fun to wear on his finger!

 Yep, Ollie is under the couch.  He rolls all over when he plays now and he ended up under there.  

Little cowboy!

My man even looks attractive in his fishing t-shirt, baggy pants, and hiking boots!

 Enjoying the beautiful weather while shooting BB guns off the balcony.

 Lucky Henry got some Harry Potter legos from Nana and Papa!

 He's so good at playing on the floor with a couple toys.

 This is Ollie's crawling stance.  He gets into this position and hasn't figured out to drop that right knee.  If he does, he automatically falls to his tummy.  He's so close, but hasn't quite got it yet!  

(He just turned 8 months.)

We are so blessed to have such a wonderful place to go and have family time together.  It was such a great weekend!  

Happy birthday to Henry!

Family Reunion - Manti, Utah

The awesomely beautiful Manti Temple.  We did a session and it was amazing.  

 Jaxon going out on the canoe.  He was fearless, but Henry didn't want to get his feet wet.

We had lifejackets at home, but didn't bring them because we didn't realize we were going to be literally 10 feet from the lake.  Luckily, there was a Walmart near by.  So, now we have 4 toddler lifejackets:)

 Canoe ride with Daddy and cousins!

 Henry with his giant lifejacket.

Snack time 

Balloon swards and hats!  What could be better?!  

(I guess Henry thought no pants would be better so he went for it.) 

Catching frogs by the lake. 

The HUGE screen to watch Tangled.  It was so fun for the kids! 

Jaxon playing with the light saber he won in the auction. 

Mama and Henry and Ollie 

Adorable Henry 

Playing with cousins and light saber! 

All of a sudden the winds picked up like crazy!  The kids were running everywhere and thought it was so fun. 

Then it started hailing!  We ran to the car and waited while Devin helped the guys secure the rain covers to the tents.  

Ollie was happy as ever! 

We got donuts from Millers on our way out of town. 

Then to St. George and our favorite grocery store Harmon's!

3 boys!!!

Devin says he would move to St. George just because of Harmon's grocery store.  We do love it!