4th of July 2012

My mom has been in the hospital for several weeks now. They still aren't 100% sure what is wrong with her but they think she had a major virus that shut down parts of her nervous system. She is in a rehab center right now trying to regain movement and mobility in her legs and hands. Over 4th of July she was still in the hospital so we packed a big picnic lunch and set up camp in the hospital pavilion. Everyone but Jamen and Scott were able to make it. We missed them, but it's always nice to get together with who you can when you can.

There was a couple of these water features. We were yelling at the kids to stay out of them for 40 minutes straight, but eventually gave up and just let them soak their feet.

We surprised mom with a tablet. She can't type or write or hold books or anything right now so this will help keep her entertained and stay in touch. She was very surprised. She said she'll have no idea how to work it but we assured her we'd help her out.

After the picnic we went swimming. I forgot Spencer's life jacket so I had to hold him the whole time. He doesn't realize he can't swim so there were a couple scary moments when he ran to the deep end and jumped in. It wasn't a very big pool though and it was only our family there so luckily someone would get to him within a few seconds. In the picture below you will see Spencer with a squirt gun. He figured out how to do it by himself and he loved. Much to the chagrin of everyone else.

After a pizza dinner we did poppers and sparklers at Amber's house. Then we drove home to Cedar and were able to see the fireworks as we drove into town from the freeway. It was a great 4th.

Tuckered out

Spencer sometimes refuses to take naps but can't last the whole day. He likes to be around people so sometimes he'll come into whatever room Steve or I are in and fall asleep somewhere. This day we were in the kitchen cleaning up from dinner. He got one boot on and part of his lion costume before he hit the floor drooling.

News!

We are expecting another little boy October 30th.

Steve was very relieved. He admitted to me right before we went into the ultrasound that he was scared to have a girl because he didn't know how to do girls. I felt the same way. So we were really happy when we saw it was a boy.

Spencer was supposed to be holding this shirt for his new baby brother to help announce the news, but he didn't want to. So we just stuck it to him and took the picture.

Memorial Day 2012

For Memorial Day this year our family, Amber's family and Krista's family drove to LaVerkin to visit my Grandpa's grave.

Then we drove over to Hurricane and ate a packed lunch and the kids played in the park and the splash pad.

Spencer was afraid to go through this because he thought he was going to fall through the holes. Kai and Grace were trying to show him it was safe but he still hung back.

Summer fun!

Steve swimming with Spencer while visiting his mom up in Saratoga Springs. We went over mothers day weekend. Steve took me on Monday to see The Avengers movie, out to eat, and then to buy me some new clothes. It was a really nice weekend.

In May Cedar City had it's Scout Expo. I helped run one of the booths. Steve and Spencer came down to visit and check everything out. Spencer saw the helicopter and wanted to stay there the whole time.

Easter 2012

My sister Amber and her family came up to Cedar City for an easter bbq and egg hunt.

At first Spencer didn't get what was going on. He kept trying to hold all the eggs in his arms. I had to take them and show him they go in the basket.

Then he kept trying to open them and eat the candy the second he found them.

Then he tried to take eggs from other baskets.

But eventually he caught on.

He had never really had candy before. He found out very quickly that he liked it... a lot.

Arizona Trip

In May we took a week long family trip to Arizona.

Our first stop was the Grand Canyon. It was...interesting. We drove for about 6 hours to get to the south rim. We stopped at one view point for a few minutes and then went to the visitor center. The visitor center wasn't that impressive and then we decided to ride a bus to go to another viewing spot. Unfortunately we didn't realize there were 2 bus routes: One took you to all the viewing spots and one took you to all the different restaurants and shops. We got on the 2nd one. It went in one big loop that took about 50 minutes. There was one of the stops we could have gotten off at and gotten on one of the buses going the other way but by time we finally figured out what was going on we had already missed that stop. Spencer liked the bus for about 5 minutes and then he just wanted to run around. So for the next 45ish we were holding him down and he was throwing tantrums and crying etc. We got him to calm down for a little while singing songs with him but it was still a long ride. By the time we got off we were all so tired we just left. So that was our Grand Canyon experience.

Singing "Wheels on the Bus" with daddy on the bus.

After the Grand Canyon we drove another 2ish hours and got to Steve's Grandpa and Grandma Oliver's house in Prescott. We stayed 2 nights there and had a blast. His Uncle Ken and wife Laura and her son were visiting that weekend as well. Aunt Karen and her husband Ron lived locally so they also came over everyday to visit. I had never met Ken and his family and Spencer had never met any of them so it was really nice.  

Spencer loved playing with his Tia Karen.

Spencer wrestled with all the uncles, whom for some reason Spencer called "J"-all of them-whether their name started with J or not. We're not sure why but it was cute.

Uncle Ken and Aunt Laura

Grandpa took some pictures of us on our way out the door to church on Sunday.

Spencer reading with Aunt Karen and Uncle Ken.

While we were in Prescott we found this cool Animal Sanctuary park. It was kind of like a mini zoo. All of the animals were exotic type animals that were either rescues or were in a zoo that was shut down and didn't have a place to go etc. It also had a park that Spencer shared with the peacocks. They were cooling themselves in the shade. One was just on the fence next to the play area-the other was chillin' on the play bridge.

This wolf wouldn't take his eyes off Spencer. He was following us as we walked along his fence and would stop when we stopped. Somewhat scary since I'm assuming he was picturing Spencer as a snack but still kind of cool.

They had a "petting zoo" with goats. But the goats were new and weren't used to children yet. So they just ran away every time Spencer tried to get closed to them to feed them the hay the keeper gave him. He got frustrated and finally just gave up.

Spencer's favorite part of the whole thing was the sand pit they had. He probably would have spent all day there if we had let him.

Spencer's 2nd favorite part was the spider exhibit. He would go up to the glass and say "oooooo" and just stand there totally mesmerized. We kept leaving and he kept going back in. We finally had to pick him up crying and run off to find something else to catch his attention. Creepy.

After Prescott we headed to Mesa for a night. We stayed with my Aunt Brenda and cousin Michael. My cousin Sanoe and his family stopped by for a visit from Phoenix. We didn't take any pictures unfortunately. We did take a picture of a painting my Aunt Brenda painted and posted it represent her though. On our way out of town we stopped by the Mesa temple where my parents were married. It was beautiful.

After Mesa we headed down to Safford to visit my Grandma Church. Spencer loved hanging out with Grandma. She was nice enough to watch him while Steve and I went to the temple down there. We stayed with my Grandma for 2 nights and it was so nice to just relax and play games and talk.

We stayed with Grandma a few days before her birthday so we got her some flowers while we were there for an early birthday present.

After Stafford it was time to head home and after an 11ish hour drive we were there. Spencer was an angel the whole time. He just played with his new Buzz Lightyear toy, watched movies, slept, snacked, looked out the window. He never complained or cried the entire Arizona trip in the car. All in all it was a really great trip with a lot of really great memories that we took home.