Girl Time!

Oh how I have missed you all! I was so excited to get home from my Girls' Trip and catch up on all your goings on. I am home for another week before our final trip of the summer. So here's what I have been up to. Last Friday (Utah's Pioneer Day) my sister, Mel, and I headed on down to sunny St. George. And by sunny I mean 100+ degree temps. Ugh. We had a fun, quick drive and enjoyed some good gab time. We met up with my other two sisters, Jules and Joy, and our mom for our much anticipated Girls' Reunion!

We checked into the Crystal Inn and started catching up right away. Mel had her newly finished wedding book. It was so cute! What a fun day. She has been married for almost a year and a half now.
After chatting for a bit we went out to dinner at Cafe Rio. Let's just say yum. We got the good times rolling with an after dinner nightcap of Old Navy shopping and Season 1 of Arrested Development.

Saturday we got our shop on at the outlets stores. I found some killer deals. I got a new Shade tankini and cute top for $20. I also got some things for the kids, of course. Us out of state girls were craving some In N Out, so we headed over there for lunch. Again, yum.
We saw the afternoon showing of My Sister's Keeper. Wow we were a pathetic crying mess of women by the end. Good movie though. I enjoyed it. If you need a good cry, see this movie. We finished off Day 2 of our getaway with dinner at Chili's, some serious Bananagrams (seriously you must go to Target today and buy this game), and more Arrested Development.
Sunday we all put on our dresses and headed to the shops at the entrance to Zion's. My mom collects some pottery dishes from a shop there, so that was the main purpose, but it was fun to poke around the galleries. On our way to the shops we passed this convertible on it's way to church. Check out the woman's hair. Sweet.
This random metal ram was in a courtyard in front of a gallery. I'm slightly embarrassed that we are all such picture posers. Pretty sure we didn't plan the arms on hips, leaning in, etc.
(Mel, me, Joy, Jules)

After wandering through a few shops and galleries we decided it was time for lunch. We ate at the Pioneer Restaurant. Things got more than a little silly. In our defense the service was rather slow.


Right after this shot was taken, Mel reached halfway across the table for the camera to see how it turned out and knocked her full water glass all over the floor/into her purse. That officially drew the entire room's attention to us and slightly sobered us up. Still fun.

Mel mocking this sappy Native American anniversary card in a gift shop.
We hit up the specialty candy shop last. It had all kinds of fun blast-from-the-past candies like rock candy, candy cigars, Big League Chew, candy buttons, Pop Rocks, mini jaw breakers, and candy lipstick. The final destination of the excursion was this really fabulous hotel that we were checking out for next year's trip.

The sun and shopping in Zion's tuckered us all out, so we had a nice relaxing Sunday afternoon reading, napping, swimming, and visiting. I couldn't help but laugh at our books. Joy was reading Shopaholic and Baby, Jules was reading New Moon, and I was reading Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince. Clearly the classics.
Sunday evening we got a pizza and ate it while playing Bananagrams and watching Arrested Development. Later that night we drove all around town trying to find an open place to get ice cream. During our hunt we found an open Walgreens and Mom needed some tape and mechanical pencils, so we stopped in. We also found some serious high fashion bubble shirts.
We did eventually also find an open Baskin Robbins for our ice cream fix. We almost finished the entire first season of Arrested Development, but finally decided we were too tired to watch the last episode. Monday morning we got up and going, ate breakfast in the hotel, and said our goodbyes. It was such a very fun trip. Big thanks to Mom for paying for our hotel room and subsidizing our food. I am so glad that we were all able to be there and spend some quality time together. Can't wait until next year ladies!

Coming soon: the trip back to Salt Lake saga . . .

Discovery

Yesterday we went to Thanksgiving Point to check out the only venue we haven't yet explored with our annual pass: the Children's Discovery Garden. I really didn't know what to expect. I had heard they have a big Noah's Ark fountain that the kids can play in, so I dressed Weston in his swimsuit and told him all about it. Sure enough, we get there and the fountain is broken. We were supposed to be meeting some friends, but they ended up forgetting, and Weston really didn't want to go do anything else at Thanksgiving Point. He had his heart set on playing in the fountain. We decided to stay and see what else was in the gardens. It was actually really fun.

We wandered through and found a shady courtyard where there were a bunch of easels set up. Apparently on Tuesday and Thursday mornings they do a craft. Yesterday was painting. Weston loved getting to paint a picture. He did a good job of not mixing all the paint colors too.
Not to be outdone by his brother, Davin wanted to craft also. We decided that crayons were more his speed than paint.
The courtyard was in the middle of a little cluster of buildings called the Discovery Station. Only one of the buildings was open, but it was fun. Inside it had a beehive where you could watch the bees come and go and do their work. They also had a puppet theater with lots of animal and bug puppets, and a reading area with books and magazines. Bonus, it was air conditioned in there.

After that we wandered around on the paths and discovered a koi pond with viewing windows. Davin loved watching all the fish swim around in front of the window. Weston liked looking at the lily pads on top of the pond and watching them move when the fish swam close to the surface. We also stumbled upon a mini lighthouse with a red door. It was open, so we went inside. You could climb up the ladder/stairs into the top of the lighthouse and look out. Weston got about halfway up before deciding he didn't want to go up there. He still really liked the lighthouse though.

There were bronze sculptures of animals all around the paths too. We found a couple caves to explore. One had a viewing window to see the back of a waterfall. The other cave was home to a bear! It was just a pretend bear, but when you first walked in you could hear it snoring, then when you got closer to the bear it "woke up" and started growling at us. Weston actually got a little freaked out and ran out before I could explain it was just pretend. This cave also had two tunnels you could crawl up that exited back onto the grounds. They were dark and steep though, so we will have to work up to climbing in them.

Next we took the Nature Exploration path. It had a lookout tower, a climbing area of strategically placed rocks, a building station with natural (tree branch) blocks and big stumps to build on, and a music and movement station.

We had the music and movement station to ourselves for a little bit. The boys really liked pounding away on the wooden xylophone. I couldn't convince Weston to do anything except stand awkwardly on the cool wooden stage.

By the time we finished our nature exploration Weston's painting had dried, so we picked it up and decided we were hot and hungry. After grabbing lunch and playing a bit more on the playplace I drove home two tired little boys. They both fell asleep in the car, but I lucked out and got them both in their beds. We will definitely have to go back to the Discovery Garden and hopefully next time we will get to experience the cool fountain too.

I don't know if I have just been being lazy or if it's just that it's too hot in the non-air conditioned den to be on the computer, but I have been spending more time playing on the floor with the boys. Davin is at the age where he really can start learning to play with lots of the toys, but needs some help. We had a good time horsing around yesterday afternoon. Ian has been working late all week so far, so we have been doing our best to stay busy. Today we are going to go to the pool again. I will do my best to sunscreen myself so I don't get a repeat of last week's sunburn, which just finished peeling.

I am truly enjoying our summer days. It seems like even just having the option of getting outside every day makes staying home with the kids so much easier. Constant sunshine helps my mood too. :) Yay for Summer!

A Very Happy Birthday

Yesterday was a special day. My hubby turned 28! We kicked off the celebration Friday night with a super birthday date. We ate dinner at 5 Guys Burgers and Fries. We had been meaning to try it for awhile. It was yummy. Not as good as In N Out, but still yummy. We had some time to kill before our showing of Harry Potter started, so we went across the street to the mall. We ended up stopping into Anchor Blue and getting a couple things on really good sale. By the time we were finished shopping it was time to head to the theater.

We got some ice cream then went in and sat down. We had perfect seats in a giant theater. It was sold out. So fun. We loved the movie. It was really well done and exciting. We are now needed to re-read some HP.

Saturday morning after I baked Ian's birthday cake, we decided to go to the pool. It was a hot day, so we figured it would be a madhouse, but it really wasn't bad at all. We got there right when it opened, so for the first 20 minutes or so there were very few people. This was great because Weston was brave with no other kids there and tried out the orange tunnel water slide. He loved it and probably went on it about 100 times. I am so glad that this is the summer that he is loving the pool. We all had a really fun time. When we got home it was nap time. Everyone was tired.
After dinner we had some friends come over. We played some Wii, ate chips and salsa, sang to Ian, had cake and ice cream, and played games. It was a really fun night.

It's amazing how quickly the years pass these days. It seems like it was just barely Christmas, but here we are mid-July. I hope Ian knows how much I love him. I so appreciate all that he does and all that he is to me and the kids. I got lucky. Happy Birthday Ian!

I Love to See the Temple

On Thursday we had the opportunity to go tour the new Oquirrh Mountain Temple during the open house. We didn't ever end up making it to the Draper Temple open house, so I was determined to go see this one. Weston was so excited to get to go to the temple. He kept saying "I've never been to the temple before." While I was helping him get dressed in his church clothes before we left I told him that the temple is a special place. I asked him if he knew why. He answered "because the Holy Spirit is there." I was so impressed. That's exactly right. I also told him it was the Lord's house. Weston then said, "Well, the church is Jesus' house." We'll work out the details of it all when he's a little older. :)

We went and picked up Ian at work, ate lunch in the car on the way to the temple, and got there with a few minutes to spare before our "reservation." We got to park nice and close to the entrance. They had giant air conditioned tents set up for watching the video about why we have temples. Weston was very attentive. Davin, not so much. Then we did the tour. It was a "silent" tour. Instead of a tour guide there were signs in each room saying what that room was for. We ended up leaving the stroller and carrying Davin for most of it. The inside was really gorgeous. I especially loved the angular chandeliers. The celestial room was amazing too.

Weston's favorite part was the "pool" and the sealing room "where Mommy and Daddy got married." While we were sitting in the sealing room I asked Weston if he was going to marry his wife there. He said "maybe." I told him that I hoped he would. Hopefully he will understand what it means to be sealed for time and all eternity in the temple as he grows up, and will have a strong desire for those blessings.

Our little family in front of the Oquirrh Mountain Temple.
After the tour, we had the requisite cookies and water in the reception area. Weston was a big fan of the cookies. He thought that was pretty cool. They also had a player piano (that plays on it's own) playing Primary songs. Weston was impressed by that as well. I am so glad that we were able to go and feel the spirit of the temple as a family. What a special experience.

Summer Has Arrived!

Now that we are home from all our trips the summer weather has arrived and we are making the most of it. I am still at the point where I am enjoying the sunshine and the heat. I'm sure by September I will be ready for some cooler temperatures, but for now, bring on the sun!

Today I made my first attempt at taking the boys to the big rec center pool by myself. I was so nervous about it, but it went great. We all had a good time and no one drowned. Whew! Up until now we have been enjoying our blow up kiddie pool out on the lawn, but I think that going to the big pool will be more of an option now. I get wetter that way though. Hmm.

We have also been grilling a lot. We love to grill hamburgers, chicken, and pork chops. Weston always goes outside to help. And by help, I mean he uses the spray bottle to water the plants and plays with sidewalk chalk while daddy grills. I love grilling season for several reasons:
1. I don't have to do it.
2. It doesn't heat up my house to make dinner.
3. It gets Weston out of my hair at the oh so difficult dinner hour.
4. Weston will actually eat almost every thing we do on the grill. That kid loves pork chops!
5. It's delicious!
We are finally playing on our newly seeded back lawn! It's still about half weeds, half grass, but it works and it's green. I enjoy that part of the yard because it's very shady most of the day and since it's not concrete I don't worry so much about Davin falling off his little climbing toy. Davin LOVES to play outside and is just starting to figure out this little slide by himself.
This last Sunday we went to dinner at our friends, the Miller's, house. Another friend from my home ward was visiting, so we had a blast chatting and eating yummy raspberry pretzel jello salad. The Miller's have 4 boys, so my kids enjoy all the new toys and friends.
Here's Davin and Benson sharing so nicely. It didn't last. By the end of the evening Benson kept stealing Dav's binki. It was kind of funny and kind of sad. Weston stayed occupied the entire evening playing with Lincoln, watching a movie, and eating the candy lei that Auntie Lynn made for all the kids.
Last night I had Young Women's in the evening, so the kids were already in bed when I got home, but Weston's light was on because he is good about having "quiet time" before going to sleep if he's not tired. I went in to tuck him in and turn off his light and this is what I saw.
What a sweet, good kid Weston is. I am so lucky to be his mom. I know that I will never be able to just leave Davin with his light on in his room and be able to trust that he will read in bed until he gets tired then turn off the light and go to sleep. Weston, on the other hand, does that fairly often. Weston also loves books. We get 6 or 7 books at a time from the library and read them non-stop for a week. I hope that he continues to love reading as he grows up. Weston is so much like me in that he enjoys his sleep. The other night Weston was up 3 times in the middle of the night. I was so annoyed (not to mention tired) when Davin woke up at 6:45am the next morning. I finally went in and woke Weston up at 9am. He was all lethargic and when I told him it was time for a bath he said "I don't want to do anything. Just sleep and sleep and sleep." A boy after my own heart. I love my cute boys and I am having so much fun with all our summer adventures!

All the Rest

After all the excitement of our first couple days in Oregon we really needed a nice, quiet Sunday. Luckily that is just what we got. We got up and went to church, but only stayed for Sacrament Meeting. The kids were more than ready for naps by then, so we headed home and everyone napped for a few hours. Aly and Ryan came home from part 1 of their honeymoon in downtown Portland that afternoon. They stopped at the house to get more of Aly's stuff and pick up her computer. They decided that they wanted to open presents that night instead of waiting until Tuesday, so after dinner we went over to their apartment and got to watch them open presents. The kids did pretty well, but ended up getting to bed a little later than I would have liked. Oh well.

On Monday afternoon we all drove out to the trout farm. I wasn't sure what to expect since I have never been to a trout farm, but it was more pond/pool like than like a lake. There were tons of fish. Weston only had to wait about a minute before he got his first bite. Unfortunately the fish broke his line when he was reeling him in. He tried again and was so excited to catch his first fish.
It was just too much fun to catch a fish, so he caught 4! We really all had a great time helping Weston and watching him get so excited about catching fish. I was so impressed that he didn't seem squeamish about holding them up by the gills either.
The first 3 fish Weston caught were all about average size, maybe 11 or 12 inches long, but the final fish was a beast. It was 17 inches!

After our fishing expedition it was time for Ian to pack up and head home so he could get back to work. We were sad to send him off, but it was nice to be able to spend a couple extra days with Grandma and Papa.

We had originally planned to go to the beach one day, but after Sunday the weather cooled way down and the beach was supposed to be rainy and only in the 50's, so we decided not to do the big beach trip. Instead Grandma and Papa took us all mini golfing at Bullwinkle's family fun center. It was a really fun day. Weston was much better at golfing this time around. I wish I had taken a video of him because his putting looked more like playing shuffleboard, but it worked. (**Please excuse the weird hue of these pictures. They are from my phone which apparently was set for incandescent lighting)
The day's outing at Bullwinkle's was significantly less fun for Davin who had to stay in his stroller while we golfed and we kept taking away "his" ball. There were many tears, but at this moment with "his" club and ball clutched tight, he was a happy camper.

Me and Weston being Rocky and Bullwinkle. :)
When we were finished mini golfing we went inside to the arcade games. Grandma and Papa got some tokens and we helped Weston play a few games. We earned just enough tickets to get Weston a little army plane and Davin a plastic heart bracelet. Finally, Papa and Weston and I raced on the go karts. It was really fun. I smoked the competition, but eventually had to slow down so I could wave to Weston. This part of the outing was also highly tragic for Davin. He was clinging to the fence screaming because I'm sure he thought I was abandoning him. Poor kid. We finished off our afternoon with some cold treats and tator tots from Sonic.

The kids were pretty worn out, but after some napping in the car they bounced back quickly. Good thing too because when we got home, Aunt Aly and Uncle Ryan were at the house washing their car and requested some help getting their apartment put together. I'm pretty sure we ended up being helpful overall, but with both kids and 5 adults working in a small 2 bedroom apartment it was interesting. The kids (but mostly me) watched Beauty and the Beast, we ate dinner and I helped out a little bit too. It ended up being a little bit of a late night for the kidlets.

Wednesday was nice and quiet. Weston helped Grandma make raspberry freezer jam in the morning while Davin napped. He really enjoyed smashing the berries.
After helping make jam, Weston headed outside to help Papa set up a new canopy for over his old bug. Weston LOVED helping his grandpa out and building a giant tent fort was also very exciting. Denny and I snuck out while the boys were working outside to go to lunch and do a little random shopping. We came home with fabric to make me a tablecloth and to make 3 grandkid aprons.

After we finished dinner, Uncle Eli called to say he was in the area and wanted to drop by to pick up some radio thing. Eli works for AMR driving an ambulance, so it was pretty exciting. We went and hung out in the front yard while we waited for his to get there.

See how close Davin is to walking?!? I am getting impatient with him.
Uncle Eli was very nice to show Weston the ambulance and they even turned on the flashing lights as they pulled into the driveway. I think Weston was a little unsure about sitting in the back of the ambulance though. As Eli drove away he said goodbye to Weston over the loudspeaker. Very fun. Thanks for humoring us Eli!
As soon as Uncle Eli left we went to Borders to get a couple good Scrabble dictionaries. We had been playing lots of Bananagrams (if you've never played it's SO much fun!) and really needed a good dictionary. While there I found so many fun things on sale and ended up getting a jump on some Christmas shopping. I do a Christmas book advent, so I have been looking for good Christmas books to add to my collection and there were a bunch in the clearance box! $4 apiece! I also got Weston this really great floor puzzle of the United States. I will save it for Christmas. My favorite thing though was a really cute early reader book all about Star Wars. Weston is somewhat obsessed with Star Wars and has already seen the whole original trilogy and some of the new movies too. He will love the Star Wars book when he gets it for Christmas. Weston wanted to go get ice cream somewhere that had a playplace, so we went to this McDonalds, but it was definitely a weird/bad experience. I don't know what the deal was, but there were so many scary, bizarre people there! We ended up hustling out of there as quick as we could.

Thursday we headed home. I was pretty frazzled trying to gather and pack that morning because Davin was being so fussy. I finally just went and put him in his bed without his blanket or anything and he conked out, so I let him sleep for half an hour before getting him up to go to the airport. I think the catnap helped though. The boys were SO good for me on the plane. I borrowed the Bowles' portable DVD player and it saved me. As soon as we got up in the air I turned on a movie and Davin just curled up with me and watched until he fell asleep, then about 20 minutes before we landed Weston fell asleep too. They both slept all the way to the gate. I had to shake Weston awake so we could get off the plane. It has been nice to finally be home for a little while and enjoy our lazy summer days. Today I am feeling like I am finally kind of caught up with the house. Laundry is done, the house is clean, and we are expecting a couple 100 degree days this weekend. Hello summer!

Independence Day

We've never spent 4th of July with Ian's family since we have been married. It was so much fun to take part in their traditions. The day was pretty relaxed since we were all exhausted from the day before's wedding fun. I got up with the kids, but then went back to bed for another hour and a half when Ian got up and I didn't really get showered and going until 11ish. Ian helped take all the wedding presents over to Aly and Ryan's apartment. He and Eli were excited to drive their dad's bug on that errand.
There were still quite a few people in town from the wedding, so Weston got to spend a little more time with his great grandparents. Grandpa Squire does lots of fun tricks with his handkerchief. Here's Weston wearing the ears.
Weston also loved holding his new cousin, Ivy. He is pretty good with babies. He "waited in line" at the wedding reception to hold her and then got another turn on 4th of July.
That afternoon Jim grilled a ton of salmon. The whole spread was delicious. After the bbq we headed out to Cascade Locks, a little town on the Colombia River. Their fireworks show was really good. It was fun to play there beforehand too. The park is a long strip along the river and absolutely beautiful. Here's Davin with Aunt Teri and Uncle Mike checking out the river.
Right at the entrance to the park there is a little hamburger stand that serves these giant (and I mean HUGE) ice cream cones. Once we staked out our spot a bunch of us walked back up to the entrance for a legendary cone. I got mine in a waffle cone so it wouldn't drip as much. We got Weston a kids cone and he still didn't finish it. The medium cone was probably 7 or 8 inches high of ice cream. Here's Weston and I working on our ice cream back at our spot.
Davin was just starting to get really tired when the fireworks started, but he was riveted and just snuggled up with me for the whole show. Weston told me that his favorite part was the noises, so no fear there. It was another late night, but well worth it. Happy Birthday America!