My parents gave me a nice camera as a graduation present, and I have enjoyed it thoroughly!
This first big bunch of pictures is from our trip to Oregon with the Wright family. It was so much fun! We stayed with Ron's sister and their friends and everyday we went and explored some new thing in the Northwest. It was beautiful!
This was a really cool bridge that we went to on a short Sunday outing. The best part was when Uncle Kevin found the biggest rock that he could carry and he dropped it over the edge! That was a big splash!
On Monday we went to the Beach. I don't know if there is anything I like more than building sandcastles on the beach! I had to make a lightning McQueen for Peter. The movie "Cars" is our thing lately.
Sorry that things are a little out of order. This picture is the lot of us on the train to the airport. The trip went very smoothly.
This is Grandpa Wright feeding the gulls with Silas and Peter.
Ashton made Peter some little sand mounds that he could smash. He LOVES to smash!
Grandma and Silas.
McQueen completed.
This is a gargantuan sand castle that Uncle Kevin, Ronny, Ashton, and Kaden made. Uncle Kevin is so cool! He knew how to involve everyone in building the castle and make it really cool in the process. I always have a hard time letting go of the control of my creations, but I'm glad for his example because I'm sure that in the future my kids will enjoy building a sand castle with me much more then they would enjoy seeing what a cool castle I made by myself.
Peter having a rest.
The smashers.
Peter was so happy at the beach, and it was just so fun to see him so happy! I LOVE Peter so much and he makes my life so fun! I had been stressed out the first day of the trip because kids can be hard to handle sometimes and they don't always want to go at an adult pace. I had resigned myself to having a potentially awful week of herding/policing children, but then I realized at some point that the reason I was getting stressed was because I was selfishly thinking about my needs and what I wanted to see and do that week. I talked with Andrea and we decided that this week and this vacation was not going to be for us, it was going to be for our kids. We focused on them from Monday on, doing what they wanted to do and taking time where they wanted to take it. The result: hands down one of the best vacations we have ever had! We grew closer as a family and had so many fun little moments and we just fell deeper in love with our two boys.
Everyone got to try out these cool beach cruiser bikes. I was so proud of Andrea, she strapped Max on and tried it out!
There was a little aquarium that we went to where Peter got to feed the seals, touch some fish, see and see other cool fish including an Octopus.
Aunt Jackie had a book about tide pool creatures. During dinner she was prepping everyone for finding the creatures at Cannon Beach.
I have never seen so many huge starfish!
The blue hydrangeas in the Northwest are absolutely gorgeous.
On Monday there was a hike around Multinoma Falls. The majority of the family did a full 8 mile loop or something. Peter and I? We just did what he wanted. We went back and forth across the bridge several times, hiked up a little ways then back down several times, and we ate and played with goldfish crackers. I was "Percy" and he was "Thomas" and we flew around this rest area for about an hour. I love hiking and I wanted to go on the hike, but, like I said, we decided that the trip was about the kids. I think I had more fun having some one on one with Peter than I could have had on the hike.
I don't remember what this place was called, but it was near that waterfall. It looked like what I imagine slot canyons in southern utah would look if they were covered in green moss. Beautiful.
There was a tunnel nearby that Peter really loved running around in.
Grandpa and Max, standing by.
The house we stayed at was amazing. It was on 4 or five acres surrounded by wildflowers and berry bushes. Wednesday we spent the morning playing in the yard. Here's Peter trying to figure out the tractor.
This was the first time that Peter really "got" jumping on the trampoline! It was so fun to see him figure it out and enjoy it.
This is the kitchen of that beautiful home we stayed in.
In the afternoon we went to OMSI. This was another time where normally I would've liked to see the whole museum, but we found the children's playground at the beginning and we realized that we weren't going to see anything else while we were there. Once again, it turned out to be so much fun and so relaxing. It's so satisfying to see your children having so much fun!
This is a funny tree that was near where we stayed. It just grew that way, funny huh?
The second half of our vacation we spent in Victoria. This is the part where we took a train to get to Seattle, and then took a ferry from there to Victoria. It was a nice little journey. It was more spacious than an airplane and the kids could get up and walk around.
Max the first morning in Victoria. Angelic.
I'm so happy that Peter got to laze about for a few hours and watch cartoons! That was always what we looked forward to when we got to stay in hotels growing up.
I'm afraid Peter takes after me when he's asleep, resting his limbs on anyone nearby.
Thankfully, Grandma and Grandpa Wright brought their iPad with Cars on it for when Peter got bored when we were traveling. It was a lifesaver.
When we got back to Seattle on our way home, my cousin Michael was very kind to pick us up and show us around a little bit. It was great to get to know him better. We've always been far apart geographically and he's a bit older than I am, so we haven't had much contact. I hope to see more of him in the future though, he's a great guy.
While we were with Michael he mentioned that my other cousin, his brother Patrick, lived in Redmond. I have no idea how I didn't know that! He asked if we would like to see him and we said of course, so we got to go to his house too! I'm so glad that we got to see them both while we were in the area.
We got home from Oregon on Peter's birthday. Grandma CeCe picked us up from the airport and gave Peter some presents: Two squirt guns, some "Planes" toys, and a "Planes" book.
The next day Poppy brought Peter a scooter!
I LOVE this picture! Peter is an absolute Cars fanatic, and I have become one myself. I have bought cars at ridiculous prices just so we can add them to our collection and so I can see how happy he gets! We made some roads, tunnels, and traffic lights to play on one day. It's so fun. I love how each car has a name and a personality, it's easier and more fun to play with them, I think.
We attempted a little photo shoot in some outfits that Grandma Wright bought. It went . . . okay.
This was at the July birthday party at the Wrights house. There, Peter received Thomas the train toys as well as a collapsable soccer goal and soccer cones!
We went to liberty park one Saturday for a picnic with several friends. They have the coolest wading/splashing thing there. I've never seen anything like it. If your kids like splashing in puddles---what kids don't---they would be in heaven there.
In general, Peter and Max have do very well playing with each other. I think Peter loves seeing all of his old baby toys again.
Throughout the summer I have had fun playing in the court sandbox in the evenings with all of the kids. We've made faces, buried them and made them into Mermaids etc. I love playing in the sand.
Andrea always tried to deflect Peter's anger when he gets upset by telling him to bang on a bucket or draw a picture of how angry he is. It works most of the time!
I love cuddling with my boy!
Andrea, doing the nap-time routine.
Andrea and Peter did a craft project recently. They made a snowman napkin holder. Peter got to paint it himself!
We got to go to the Utah State Fair with our friends Amanda and Tim. We love seeing how huge the cows are!
. . . and the pumpkins. I think this one was around 800lbs!
Peter and Andrea braved the Big Yellow Slide!
Andrea is becoming the most Awesome Mom ever!
Peter got to buy some chocolate ice cream with his own money from his birthday.
He likes to play with his horses in the bath.
Andrea got an explorer pass from the library that allows you to go to Discovery Gateway, The Leonardo, Red Butte Gardens, and the Natural History Museum of Utah for free!
The IHC exhibit is so cool! Peter did a brain surgery and I fixed a broken arm.
Kids in a fort.
Max in the leaves.
Andrea and Peter made fun little ghost puppets to play with. Andrea is loving puppets lately, so she just had to make some with Peter.
This is Peter eating his doughnut on a string at Grandma CeCe and Poppy's house. The rest of the family did it the night before at Sarah's Halloween Party, but Peter had already brushed his teeth so he had to wait until the next day.
My friend Kile Kearns owns the MOST AMAZING BBQ RESTAURANT ever. It's called "Smokin Bones" and it's in Bountiful. If you haven't tried it, you MUST! He mentioned that he would like to display some jack-o-lanterns one day, so I said I could carve some. I wanted to make them kind of BBQ themed, so the left one is eating Ribs, the middle one has drumsticks, and the right one has pizza (Kile makes great brick oven BBQ pizza.) It was fun!
here are links to his restaurant:
Peter and Poppy looking at a book.
This year for Halloween we are the Incredibles! We couldn't have done it without my Mom's forethought and generosity. It has been a stressful few weeks and we hadn't been able to get much together for our costumes, but she was very creative and helped us pull it together. Peter and I didn't get to put our masks on before the party, what can you do?
Here we are afer the party.
Trying to strike a pose :)
