It's the Journey...

Christmas 2011

2011-12-26T16:06:00.001-08:00

Time for the big girl bed

2011-12-21T14:17:00.000-08:00

When I got home yesterday afternoon Emery was still napping and I wondered why there were various things sticking out under her door. Tim said she played for a bit and it took her a while to fall asleep. So I peeked in and found this. Apparently after she climbed out of her crib, she couldn't get back in and found an alternative place to sleep, 3 feet off the ground. Guess it's time to switch her to a toddler bed.

Santa 2011

2011-12-15T16:12:00.000-08:00

This is the first year Jackson has ever sat on Santa's lap. One year he stood near Santa, then backed away slowly. But there would be no sitting or talking. That all changed this year. So since they were both sitting so nicely, I had to pay the ridiculous "mall Santa" price for a picture. At least his beard looks real.

Candy houses

2011-12-15T16:04:00.000-08:00

The kids had fun decorating candy houses with their friends.

And when they got bored , the adults had fun finishing them

Self portraits

2011-12-15T16:01:00.000-08:00

Say cheese

2011-12-15T15:59:00.000-08:00

fooling around one night with the camera....

Halloween 2011

2011-11-05T10:08:00.000-07:00

Jackson at his school parade

heading out

Snow Canyon

2011-10-28T14:30:00.000-07:00

We went to Snow Canyon with some friends over UEA weekend.

Jenny's Canyon

Me and Michelle in Jenny's Canyon

Jackson and Sophia on the Petrified Dunes

Three Ponds/Hidden Pinyon trails

Jackson and Sophia had a great time challenging each other to climb things

Yep, the trail goes through there

Lava caves/ Lava overlook trail

The gang at the first cave. It was way too deep to take the kids into this one. Plus I'm pretty sure that thing in the middle is a ghost.

We went in to the 2nd cave

It was a climb to get down into the 3rd cave but it was much bigger inside

inside the cave

Lava river

Fall color part II

2011-10-08T10:55:00.000-07:00

This was a drive up Big Cottonwood Canyon and over the top into the Heber Valley

Cascade Springs

The back side of Deer Creek Reservoir

Adventures at Mirror Lake

2011-10-05T12:43:00.000-07:00

This weekend we drove up Mirror Lake Highway to see the fall colors

and the lake of course

We also stopped at Provo River Falls

The kids love this spot

September

2011-10-05T11:27:00.000-07:00

We went to Silver Lake for Grandparents Day

Emery started preparing herself for winter

And we went to the mountains to see the colors beginning to change

Camping

2011-09-11T18:25:00.000-07:00

We took the kids tent camping for the first time over labor day weekend at Wasatch Mountain State Park. They loved it! We started off at Deer Creek for swimming and playing on the beach so they would be nice and tired by the time we got to the camp ground.

Campground was beautiful..lots of trees

Our view of the Heber Valley and Deer Creek from our campsite

The kids loved playing on the rocks

Smores....

Jackson and Sophia wanted to hike up to the water reservoir behind our campsite. It was steep but had a nice view.

Sliding down....

Then we went for a nice little hike

Emery loves to pose now

1st day of Kindergarten!

2011-08-29T10:47:00.001-07:00

A self portrait:

Ready to go

Taking the shortcut

He was so excited I barely got this picture before he started for the steps....had to call him back to say goodbye! Just hope he's always this excited for school!

Goodbye mom's and dad's

Jackson turns 5

2011-08-22T13:00:00.000-07:00

For his 5th birthday, Jackson wanted a Buzz Lightyear/swimming party. He also had to have a pinata. He's been talking about the pinata for almost a year now. He had a blast!!

Summer Fun

2011-08-21T20:06:00.000-07:00

It's been a busy summer for us which is why I haven't posted in ummm, almost 3 months.....yep.

Tim started off the summer by tearing up the yard and digging big holes to put in a new sprinkling system. It was a looong project.

Which made him tired

In June we went to Vegas. Tim had a conference so we got to play:

On the strip

At Red Rocks National Park

And Hoover Dam

(New bypass bridge to Arizona)

And back on the strip

(side note: I promise Jackson wasn't there alone!)

The kids saw their first parade on the 4th of July

And got to stay up late for fireworks

While Tim worked on sprinklers, I worked on my garden

We had lots of awesome sunsets

We went hiking at Alta

Where there was still a lot of snow for the END of July!

And Jackson learned to pose

We saw Lyle Lovett in the rain at Red Butte

The kids BOTH smiled for me!

And I finished my garden (mostly)

Moab

2011-05-28T19:48:00.000-07:00

This year for our Anniversary trip, we went to our favorite Southern Utah spot-Moab.

Landscape Arch

Delicate Arch

The fins behind Sandune Arch

Broken Arch

standing on top of one of our favorite places in Moab- Gemini Bridges

Gemini Bridges

we named this arch Soltys-Garvey Arch

Little Wild Horse Canyon

Mmmm....snack time

2011-05-28T19:45:00.000-07:00

Caught ya! I will be keeping this picture to show all future boyfriends.

Neff's Canyon hike

2011-05-28T19:34:00.000-07:00

The beginning of the Neff's Canyon trail overlooks the city

Emery is quite the little hiker!

A year ago Jackson was afraid to try the rope swing but he loved it this year!

Kaiya loves this hike!

Even found some snow still up there!

Our first hiking injury. He fell while running to catch up.

Easter

2011-05-28T19:29:00.000-07:00

Emery turns 2!

2011-04-11T16:30:00.000-07:00

Emery turned 2 years old a few days ago. I made a rainbow themed cake for her party but also wanted to try my hand at cake pops....hence the balls on top of and surrounding the cake.

The look on her face when we started singing Happy Birthday.......

The rainbow cake

Jackie part 2

2011-04-11T16:22:00.000-07:00

The kids had so much fun when cousin Jackie came for a visit. Jackson loved having her read stories to him before bed.

Emery was tired every night from playing.

And she wasn't happy when it was time for Aunt Jill and Jackie to leave

Jackie

2011-04-11T16:09:00.000-07:00

Time to play catch up. Cousin Jackie came for a visit in March. We went to the zoo and the aquarium.

The train was open for the first time this season....always a favorite with the kids. We also saw Michelle, Sophia and Andrew!

Crazy hair and Snow

2011-02-28T14:57:00.000-08:00

Emery's hair is finally getting longer. It's even long enough that sometimes I have to brush it out of the way to put sunblock on her scar! And Tim likes to do this after her bath:

And this:

We also finally convinced the kids that playing in the snow was fun since this is (cross your fingers) probably the last snow storm with enough snow to play in for a while.

Catching up

2011-01-18T12:24:00.001-08:00

It was a very busy holiday season for us. Jackson 's Preschool did the Polar Express for their Christmas program. Jackson had been doing the motions for the song they danced to for several weeks before the big night and we finally understood what they meant! It was very cute and he did great up on stage in front of everyone.

Jackson had fun dressing up warm and helping daddy deliver the neighborhood gifts

Christmas morning

One of Emery's favorites

One of Jackson's favorites

Santa brought a kitchen and Jackson wondered how he carried something so heavy. Guess Santa will have to bring smaller presents from now on.

Nana was counting on Santa to come through and provided all the food and necessities for the kitchen

Zoo Lights 2010

2010-12-23T12:42:00.001-08:00

Zoo Lights this year was a hit! It was a little on the warm side, which makes for a much more pleasant time. The tigers were a bit surly and felt the need to mark their territory. And Emery couldn't stop saying oohh! Look! at everything.

I guess Emery got tired of saying cheese. Tim and Jack too!

See? Surly Tiger

Four years later.....

2010-11-28T08:17:00.000-08:00

Ever since we moved into this house, four and a half years ago, I've wanted a mantle on the upstairs fireplace. I finally got it. I gave Tim a deadline a couple of months ago and he got this up a few days before thanksgiving.

So now I have a place to hang the stockings.

Vegas

2010-11-17T20:16:00.000-08:00

Tim had a neurology conference in Vegas a couple of weekends ago so I went with him. We had a ridiculously large room at the Palazzo, didn't take advantage of not having the kids and were up early enough to see the sunrise and saw The Lion King.

Pumpkin Patch

2010-10-23T09:05:00.000-07:00

A bumble bee, a T-rex and a butterfly

18 months

2010-10-08T18:48:00.000-07:00

Emery had her 18 month well check this week. The doctor walked in and said, "I wrote in my notes last time 'very strong willed child'. Is that still true?" Emery proceeded to kick and scream and fight with the doctor for the next ten minutes. I had to hold her in a bear hug most of the time and even then he could barely do the exam. Um, yeah, strong willed. But still cute.

Neffs Canyon

2010-10-06T09:21:00.000-07:00

Had to get out for one more hike this weekend before the weather changed so we went to Neffs Canyon. Dogs are allowed and Kaiya was loving it.

he pretended the "river" was full of crocodiles and walked across the tree

he pooped out and sat for a while

Mirror Lake and Fall Colors

2010-09-29T12:20:00.001-07:00

Provo River

Mirror Lake Highway

Mirror Lake

Provo River Falls

Mirror Lake Highway

looking at the colors

crashed on the way home

Grandparents Day

2010-09-12T19:50:00.000-07:00

We took Nana and Papa to Bridal Veil Falls and Sundance for Grandparents Day. The weather was perfect and the colors are already starting to change in Provo Canyon.

Papa bought Jackson not one, but two suckers so he pretty much had one in his mouth the rest of the day and I was hard pressed to get a picture sans sucker. But that's what Grandpa's are for, especially on Grandparents day!

We rode the chairlift to the top of Sundance to see the fall colors.

Little Cottonwood Canyon

2010-09-06T15:41:00.001-07:00

Labor Day hike in the canyon

1st day of Preschool

2010-08-23T12:23:00.000-07:00

Jackson was very excited about his first day of preschool. At 8:30 he turned off Handy Manny and said 'ok, I'm ready to go to school!' I, of course, needed to get some pictures and his reaction was to pose impatiently. I dropped him off and teared up a bit, I think more because he didn't have the slightest hesitation about me leaving. He barely said goodbye before he followed the teacher into the classroom.....sniff sniff. A few minutes after I returned home, I found Emery sitting in the rocking chair in Jackson's room, grinning from ear to ear. I'm pretty sure she was thinking 'Ha! He can't kick me out of here now!'

To Windsurf or not....

2010-08-23T08:57:00.000-07:00

The goal used to be to get up to the lake before the winds came up so we could rig and be ready to windsurf as soon as the wind shifted. Now the goal is to get up there early enough that we get a table with some shade and can play for a few hours before the kids have a melt down because it's nap time. But somehow it's more fun this way :)

Wedding Song

2010-08-16T08:30:00.000-07:00

Peter Salett opened for Swell Season at Red Butte Garden last night. Tim and I did not realize who he was but when he started singing I said " this is the guy who sang our wedding song." Then he sang our wedding song. Awww. So of course when he said he would be signing cd's after his show, we had to go meet him. Unfortunately his cd's were cash only. Who carries cash anymore? I had left mine in the car because really, what did I need cash for. We had tickets to the show and a cooler packed with food and drinks. Wouldn't be needing any money until we got home and had to pay the babysitter. Tim had given me his cash, which I stashed in my wallet to pay the babysitter. So we had no cash to get a cd and have the guy who sang our wedding song sign it! And there was no re-entry if you left. Bummer. We went back to our chairs and wondered if there was anyone there we knew who we could bum ten bucks off of. Then Tim went to talk to the girl manning the gate. She said he had better be done for the night because there was no re-entry. So he told her the story about how the guy who wrote and sang the song we danced to at our wedding is here tonight! And he's signing his cd's! Except they only accept cash and all of our cash is in the car! She said, "That's a sweet story, run fast." So he did. And we met Peter Salett. I said "Heart of Mine was our wedding song!" He said "Aww, how many years?" And he signed our cd--Tim and Amy, I see my story has brought you 7 years of good luck. Here's to 50 more!

Jackson's 4th Birthday Party

2010-08-15T11:42:00.000-07:00

After the Thomas the Train cake last year, I swore I would never do blue frosting again. Yet here we are....

A Toy Story party with a Woody cake

A bounce house

and presents

Healing

2010-08-09T21:16:00.000-07:00

The sutures came out today. She fought a lot and I'm amazed the nurse was able to get them out. We wrapped her in a sheet, Tim held her like a football and held her head in the nurses lap while I held her arms and legs. She screamed bloody murder, turned bright red, worked up a sweat and still managed to move quite a bit. She's so strong. The nurse said it didn't hurt to have stitches taken out but I don't believe her. The 12 year old ( he seemed so young!) that stitched her up in the ER used a special stitch called a mattress stitch to sew her up. It's best for healing and will give her the best chance for minimal scarring. Unfortunately they are a lot harder to take out. But the scar is approximating well and I am a lot less nervous about the open wound in the middle of her forehead now that it is covered with the steri strips and looks to be healing nicely. She is such a trooper and continues to climb everything in sight as though this little accident never happened.

Kids

2010-08-09T14:35:00.000-07:00

We had a birthday BBQ for Tim and I did not get any pictures of him but I did get some cute ones of the kids.

Little trooper

2010-08-05T18:30:00.000-07:00

I've always known I would not do well in an emergency situation but until now I had never really been tested. Emery took care of that for me yesterday. We were having a playdate with Sophia and Andrew. Michelle and I were outside with them. The kiddie pool was out. The kids were watering the flowers, the dog and each other. Andrew and Emery needed to be big like the older kids and climb the stairs into the play house above the swingset. There was a gap where the monkey bars are and I had decided enough was enough and I would close the gap with a baby gate until Tim could get some boards up so we didn't have any accidents. HA! I was in the play house doing just that when Emery decided to climb up the stairs. Michelle saw Emery and went to make sure she made it to the top. At that moment, our dog Kaiya must have decided 'what fun! let's all go!' and bolted up the stairs, knocking Emery through the gap between the stairs. She probably fell about 4 or 5 feet. Michelle tells me she even hung on for a second and slowed herself down. I heard Michelle say "Oh no! Emery!". I saw her fall out of the corner of my eye. I turned and ran down the stairs. She was screaming and we both thought, 'oh good, she's crying'. Crying is good when a kid falls on their head. It means they are conscious. But then Michelle picked Emery up and she was facing me. My stomach dropped and my legs felt weak. I remember screaming "I can see her skull!, My GOD! I can see her skull!" She had landed on the sprinkler head underneath the swingset. There was blood. A lot of blood. Head wounds are like that. I carried her to the deck, a million panicky thoughts racing through my head. I pressed a towel to her head. I heard Michelle saying "I'm calling 911, I'm calling." And I said No! I'll just drive her! See...not good with emergencies. I was crying, Emery was crying and I could hear the sirens. Over and over I said to myself, "she's crying, she's okay, she's crying, that's good." The paramedics arrived, put her on a backboard and stabilized her head, a precaution for neck injuries, because of the height of the fall. She fought them the whole time. She fell asleep in the ambulance on the way to Primary Childrens. It was the longest 20 minutes of my life. She needed to be sedated for suturing and it took 4 of us holding her down to get the IV in. She's a strong kid. The Doctor said there would be three layers of sutures. I figured skin and muscle and asked, so what's the third layer? "There's a layer of fascia that covers the skull" he said. "I'll fix that first." Then the nurse turned to me and said, "so when you said you saw her skull, you were right." Gee thanks. I will forgive Kaiya way before I forgive myself.

Gramma and Grampa

2010-07-28T18:51:00.000-07:00

Grandma and Grandpa Garvey came for a visit. We went to Silver Fork Lodge for breakfast.

Auntie Erin came along

The kids loved the big logs out front

Silver Lake

Just couldn't swim around the dock, they went up and over right in front of us

Aquarium

2010-07-01T13:30:00.000-07:00

Too hot (for me anyway) to go outside so we went to the Aquarium

Penguins

Crawling through coral with Sawyer

Random pics of Emery
Hanging out with Sierra, her new best doggie friend

Bath time

Wheeler Farm

2010-06-24T11:56:00.001-07:00

Sawyer and Jackson

Animals schmanimals...all the boys cared about were the tractors...

Playing

2010-06-24T11:52:00.000-07:00

Jackson's fashion statement. Can't seem to convince him he doesn't need socks.

Kauai Day 5

2010-06-16T14:23:00.000-07:00

Our last day was reserved for sightseeing since we had to catch a plane at 9 pm and checkout at the hotel was at noon.
I remembered to get some pictures of the hotel grounds on the last day

This was the view of the grounds from the beach

The beach that out hotel was on was not a swimming beach. There were signs posted warning of jelly fish, rip currents and a steep drop off. But at night when we got back to the hotel, we would sit in these lounge chairs and watch the waves

This is called the blow hole. There used to be a much bigger one next to it that shot 200 feet into the air. But a long, long time ago, a sugar cane farmer was mad that the ocean spray from the blow hole was ruining about 10 acres of his crop. So he ordered a worker to drop dynamite down the hole. Now only the little one blows.

The Lawai coast near the blow hole

Shipwreck Beach was probably our favorite beach so it was too bad we didn't find it until our last day

Lava Arch was just a short hike from Shipwreck Beach

After we hiked around a bit we sat and watched the surfers at Shipwreck Beach. Seems to be where the locals were.

Kauai Day 4

2010-06-14T20:23:00.000-07:00

Day 4 was my birthday and we were going to drive to the north side again for my birthday dinner. Before we did that I wanted to see the lava pools and some other sights.

Secret Beach and Lava Pools

Yeah, Tim saw that one coming....but said nothing!

Wailua Falls

Church in Hanalei

Birthday dinner in Hanalei

Kauai Day 3

2010-06-12T11:28:00.000-07:00

We planned to do a 4 mile hike that started at the end of the road on the north shore and led first to a beach and then a waterfall on our third day in Kauai. We stopped for a few pictures on the drive up the north shore.

Ha'ena Beach

The beginning of the Kalalau trail, looking toward Ke'e beach

Na Pali Coast from the Kalalau trail

crossing the river that flows into the ocean at Hanakapi'ai Beach at the end of the first 2 miles

Hanakapi'ai Beach

Opening to a cave at Hanakapi'ai Beach. Had to crawl under the ridge at Tim's waist for about 20 feet but then it opened up

inside the cave

view on the other side of the cave

the next 2 miles was a hike through the forest, including bamboo, to the Hanakapi'ai Waterfall

Hanakapi'ai Waterfall

ending the 8 miles with another view of Ke'e Beach

Kauai Day 2

2010-06-10T19:29:00.000-07:00

We were scheduled for a sunset boat tour in the afternoon /evening so only had a few hours in the morning for a short hike and some sightseeing.

Opaeka'a Falls

This was a short hike through the rain forest to Ho'opi'i Falls

Kilauea Lighthouse

The boat tour was a motor/sail cruise up the Na Pali Coast meaning we motored most of the time and sailed/motored for about half an hour. We saw dolphins, sea turtles and a mother and her new baby humpback whale

Captain Jeff let us drive the boat.

The Na Pali Coast

It was obviously very windy and my hair was toast. But it was definitely a highlight of our trip

Kauai Day 1

2010-06-10T14:56:00.000-07:00

Started to do this post and realized it would be ridiculously long. (no wonder it's taken me a few weeks to do this!) So I'm thinking I'll break it up into days we were there.

The Big Island from the plane...almost there!

The view from our room

Our first full day we went to the west side, aka the dry side. We drove to the top of Waimea Canyon to the Pu'u o Kila Lookout and were greeted with this view:

We knew there must be some sort of view beyond the clouds so we decided to hike a bit down the Pihea trail and see if the weather cleared.

The Pihea trail became the Alaka'i Swamp trail

We eventually turned around and started back up

And suddenly the clouds cleared for about 30 seconds

And revealed the Kalalau valley

From one of the Waimea Canyon lookouts we saw the forbidden Island of Ni'ihau, forbidden because only natives of Ni'ihau are allowed on the island

Hiked down the Canyon trail from one of the lookouts to get inside Waimea canyon

Waimea Canyon....looks a a lot like southern Utah. The previous picture is from a hike down into the canyon on the left.

On the way back from the west side, we stopped at Kauai Coffee, with 3100 acres of coffee beans

Happenings

2010-05-12T10:17:00.000-07:00

New picnic table that daddy built

Went to Earth Jam at Liberty Park where there were cars to drive

Jackson and Sophia

Proof for the future they liked each other at one point

Listening to the School of Rock band at Earth Jam

Emery's first bike ride in the trailer

Swinging at Nana and Papa's

Warm weather and blue hands

2010-04-18T08:49:00.000-07:00

I got this for Emery's birthday but couldn't finish putting it together because it was missing the axles. She spent a week dragging it around the house, waiting patiently for the axles to arrive so I could put the wheels on. I think it was worth the wait. She loves it!

Awesome weather = exploring outside

I often hear stories about kids getting into things and painting themselves with markers, etc., and wondered (okay judged) how people could let that happen. Well now I know. Jackson got a stamp set for Easter and wanted to play with it one morning. I emphasized he HAD to keep it on the paper. Then Emery woke up and I went to get her. When I walked back into the room, he was "painting" himself with the stamp pad. And he was so proud. Never trust a 3 year old. Lesson learned (I hope).

Emery's 1st b-day party

2010-04-15T10:02:00.000-07:00

We celebrated Emery's first birthday this past weekend with a bunch of family and friends, a flower and butterfly cake and some outside time.

ONE!

2010-04-07T18:10:00.000-07:00

She's One! She took 2 wobbly steps today, nods yes, yells mommy when she wants something (usually to get out of her crib), dances to anything resembling music or singing, loves to eat and gets into EVERYTHING!

Easter and Buttercream

2010-04-05T18:31:00.000-07:00

Easter morning

Emery found this one all by herself

at Nana and Papa's

I made the buttercream frosting for Emery's birthday cake today and let the kids lick the beaters....mmmm....

but when I took the beater away.....

11 Months

2010-03-13T08:26:00.000-08:00

She's 11 months old and still cruising. She stands by herself for several seconds now and really wants to take that first step but just can't muster the courage. She says mommy,daddy, doggie, bye-bye, uh-oh and (we think) Jackson. She loves to dance and clap.

He really is as close as he looks. Jackson was a bit scared.

The baby tigers have gotten so big! One of these is the mama.

10 months old

2010-02-08T15:34:00.001-08:00

My baby is 10 months old! How can it be going so fast? She is cruising around furniture, waving bye bye and gives high five.

I finally got around to making her hooded towels for her baths--or just sitting and playing :)

One down, two to go

2010-02-03T18:28:00.000-08:00

A simple request to patch a hole turned into a bathroom remodel. We had the plumbing for the whole house redone back in August and were left with a hole in the wall next to the shower in the master bath. When I asked Tim to patch it because I was tired of looking at a piece of green drywall in a sea of baby blue, he decided he might as well patch the one over the sink that was covered by the medicine cabinet, as well. When we gutted the big bathroom on the main floor, we discovered the previous owners had pulled out an inset medicine cabinet in the master bath and just covered the hole with a new cabinet. Lovely. Or genius. Who would ever look behind a medicine cabinet until it's too late!? There was also a hole below the old light fixture that was covered with a piece of sheet metal and painted over. And, as you can tell, said previous owners did not take down the medicine cabinets before applying the aforementioned baby blue paint. So after much, much, much patching of holes and smoothing out walls and sanding and more mudding and moving and re-attaching the electrical box for the light fixture because it was just kind of dangling inside the wall and a few other little setbacks, we have a new bathroom! Almost. We still need to appoxy paint the pink shower. But I'm happy for now. Now on to mudding and taping the new ceiling in the basement bathroom! Then maybe we'll finish the bathroom we gutted a year and a half ago!

Sledding

2010-01-28T15:07:00.001-08:00

A few weeks ago Jackson discovered the small hill in our backyard is pretty fun to sled down. It's the perfect size for a 3 year old to do it all by himself!

Showing off her teeth

9 Months

2010-01-09T10:25:00.000-08:00

Crawling, standing, starting to cruise, climbs stairs, says mama, dada, nana and uh oh.

Christmas 2009

2009-12-28T18:04:00.001-08:00

Making cookies for Santa

Emery's 1st Christmas

Jackson's Christmas pajamas

8 Months

2009-12-17T18:43:00.003-08:00

I've been meaning to do this post for a while now. Emery turned 8 months old a little over a week ago. But you know, it's the holidays and things are crazy. Emery has 2 teeth now, is crawling all over the place and is pulling herself up to her knees. It's all happening way too fast! The other day I was rocking Jackson in his room and realized it was very hard to remember him as a baby, how small he was, how I could hold him in ONE hand. And way too soon it will be very hard to remember Emery as a baby. So I cherish them both now and I keep this blog, to remember....

And one more.....The Christmas pic:

7 Months

2009-11-08T08:03:00.000-08:00

Emery is 7 months old and on the move! She's not quite crawling yet but is scooting, rolling and army crawling to get across a room. She also cut her first tooth yesterday, a full six months sooner than Jackson.

Halloween 2009

2009-11-02T12:28:00.001-08:00

Moab II

2009-11-01T20:01:00.001-08:00

Due to a scheduling error made on our previous trip to Moab, we went back this week for a couple of days. It was a bit colder this time but the snow on the mountains was a gorgeous contrast to the red rock. We went to an exotic animal petting zoo the first day. Jackson got nipped by the ostrich but still had fun.

Jackson was very excited about the train tracks we crossed on the way to Corona Arch

Corona Arch (right) & Bow Tie Arch (left)

This was the longest hike we have attempted with the kids (about 3 miles round trip). They did pretty good considering it was windy and chilly but still so beautiful!

Fisher Towers

Tim has always wanted to take the road to Gemini Bridges. This first part overlooks 191 and Arches.

Then the road winds back into this.

Then this

This was the only part we really needed the 4 wheel drive for and Tim wanted to check it out before I drove up

Gemini Bridges

Here we are on one of the bridges

The gap between the two bridges is about 8 feet. Someone did attempt to jump the gap and died trying.

Definitely one of the highlights of our trip.

Moab

2009-10-20T20:35:00.000-07:00

We went to Moab a couple weeks ago and it's taken me a while to go through the pictures and get them on here. We had a great time hiking and seeing the sights.

Deadhorse Point

Turret Arch

South Window Arch

Goblin Valley

We had the potty with us just in case...and we used it

Devil's garden

Tunnel Arch

Sand dune Arch...appropriately named because of all of the sand that surrounds it. Jackson had a great time playing in the giant sand box.

All of that wore Jackson out

6 Months

2009-10-11T12:47:00.001-07:00

We were in Moab for Emery's half birthday so I had to play catch up and get some pictures of her today. She had her well check last week and weighs 15 pounds 13 ounces. She is a half an inch shorter than Jackson was at 6 months but weighs 13 ounces more than he did. Considering she started out two and a half pounds heavier and two inches longer than him, I'm happy to see them pretty close in size at 6 months. She talks a lot and loves to bounce.

Bells Canyon

2009-09-26T13:58:00.000-07:00

Donut Falls

2009-09-24T20:06:00.001-07:00

We're heading to Moab in a couple weeks so we did a practice hike today to see how Jackson would do and how far he could go. Donut Falls is a relatively short hike although we took the wrong fork and made it a little longer. Jackson still did great. He could have stayed at the falls all day although I think he was a little disappointed when he realized there was no donut to eat.

The sun was in a bad spot for this pic of the donut but there it is.

The color in the canyon was beautiful and looks like it might peak soon, at least at the top of the canyon.

5 Months

2009-09-09T20:31:00.001-07:00

Emery turned 5 months old a couple days ago. I couldn't decide between all the pics so I just put them all up. She's turned into quite the smiley baby and Jackson loves to make her laugh.

Potty training in the wild

2009-09-07T19:22:00.001-07:00

Two days ago Jackson announced he was a big boy and would pee on the potty now. Finally! Hallelujah!! So we weren't going to let a little Labor Day trip to the lake slow down the progress!

Silver Lake

2009-08-29T14:27:00.001-07:00

Out and about at Silver Lake. Emery has graduated to the backpack!

Baby Snow Leopard

2009-08-17T20:35:00.000-07:00

We took Jackson to the zoo today for his birthday and there were several new babies. The baby elephant was born a week ago and is doing great bonding with her mom but will not be on display for another 5 or 6 weeks. There is also a baby giraffe and a baby snow leopard, both born a couple months ago. The snow leopard was very playful today.

He's 3!

2009-08-17T15:53:00.001-07:00

Today is Jackson's 3rd birthday. I can't believe my baby is 3! It was a fun filled weekend with 2 birthday parties and lots of Thomas the Train.

Project

2009-08-15T18:38:00.000-07:00

We've been wanting to make our backyard more user friendly for a while now and were going back and forth between getting cement poured and doing a deck. We finally decided on the deck about a week ago and Tim tackled it this week. Thanks to a lot of help from Dad, they somehow managed to get it done about an hour before Jackson's birthday party started today.

Emery's Baptism

2009-08-10T20:38:00.001-07:00

4 Months

2009-08-07T20:22:00.001-07:00

She loves to sit up now and must be facing out to the room when you hold her so she can keep an eye on everything. Now we are going to work on sleeping through the night!

Windsurfing

2009-07-27T12:31:00.001-07:00

Went windsurfing at Deer Creek yesterday with the Miscos. The kids had fun floating on the boards and playing on the beach and Tim and I both got a couple of rides in.

Andy and Sophia

Tim

Binky or Thumb?

2009-07-19T20:34:00.001-07:00

Two weeks ago Jackson threw his beloved binky in the garbage. And I thought, what luck! He's going to have to give it up sometime and there's going to be a lot of crying involved. Might as well be now. So when nap time came and he asked for his binky, I told him he threw it away and he was a big boy and didn't need it anymore. And there was a lot of crying.... for about an hour and a half. Then he slept. That night he asked again and cried for half an hour. The next day he only asked at nap time but didn't cry and didn't ask again after that. They say kids don't go to college in diapers or with their binkys. One down, one to go. Why can't potty training be that easy.

Now I'm a little worried because you can't throw a thumb away!

This was my baptism dress and I'm hoping Emery still fits in it in 3 weeks for her baptism. I had to get a picture just in case she doesn't!

3 months old

2009-07-07T19:19:00.000-07:00

City Library

2009-07-02T17:51:00.000-07:00

Took a trip to the SLC library today. Jackson loves to play in the fountains. I just love the building.

The city county building is in the background

Inside the library....a promenade with shops and food

One of the fountains...Jackson calls it the waterfall

Recycled like new

2009-06-30T21:17:00.001-07:00

Right after Emery was born all I heard form Jackson was I want to go outside! I really needed to be able to send him out and know he would have something to keep him occupied if I needed to be inside with the baby. We decided to go with a wood swingset he could use for a long time and started pricing them. Holy cow are they expensive! We realized it was going to be about $700-$800 minimum for a new set but we got lucky and found this on KSL.com for 300. Love KSL.com. So Tim and my Dad went up to Heber to dismantle it, bring it home, and reassemble it here. Tim put the finishing touches on it tonight. I am so glad to finally have it done. New bolts to reinforce it and a new roof and wahlah...a new (recycled) swingset! Jack is in heaven.

P.S. Yes he's naked in the picture. I was watering and he needed to "help". If you look closely, you can see his soggy diaper hanging over the back of the swing.

I just like this picture (12 weeks today)

Lullaby

2009-06-23T12:19:00.000-07:00

I'll whip this out when he's 10 and decides he doesn't like her anymore.

Rain

2009-06-20T19:41:00.001-07:00

The basil has had it. We've had it. No more rain for a while please.

The kiddos

2009-06-20T12:19:00.000-07:00

Get me out of this house!!

2009-06-17T13:32:00.000-07:00

Jackson and Sawyer at the zoo yesterday. Yes I LOVE my zoo pass.....especially after 8 straight days of rain!!

2 Months

2009-06-11T10:23:00.001-07:00

Emery had her 2 month well check yesterday. She is 11 pounds and 23 inches long....apparently perfectly average. She is a pound heavier than Jackson was at this age and about an inch and a half longer. Strangely their head circumference was exactly the same. So he did have a big head.... She handled her vaccinations like a champ....had a little fever last night but slept well.

This outfit was mine when I was a baby. Awww....

We apparently have been transported to the pacific northwest. We have had a couple of inches of rain in the last week and temperatures WELL BELOW average. I finally broke down and turned the heat on today. It sucks. Luckily Emery still has a few cold weather outfits that fit and I got to dig out this cute sweater.

Airshow

2009-06-07T10:35:00.000-07:00

Tim, Papa and Uncle Todd took Jackson to the airshow at Hill Airforce Base.

I believe this is the C-5 Cargo Plane....HUGE!!

8 Weeks

2009-06-02T19:02:00.000-07:00

Sumo baby and the lady

2009-05-30T11:59:00.001-07:00

This is Emery's future boyfriend Andrew. He is 5 months old and Emery is almost 2 months old. Check out those thighs!

How to get me to like Taylor Swift

2009-05-27T07:55:00.000-07:00

In general I think Taylor Swift is really overrated but this is pretty cool. Jackson made me play it 3 times in a row. Wish I had that kind of talent but he's got to have some serious lateral epicondylitis.

Fun in the mountains

2009-05-25T12:32:00.001-07:00

Little Cottonwood Canyon

We had lots of fun with cousin Jackie this weekend. Saturday we found a hiking trail along the river in Little Cottonwood Canyon. The kids had fun climbing rocks.

Bridal Veil Falls

Sunday we went to Bridal Veil Falls. The river was very high and it was pouring rain. Needless to say I had a death grip on Jackson. It was quite the adventure. Jackson is really going to miss his cousin.

Cousin Jackie

2009-05-22T14:01:00.000-07:00

Jackson and Emery's cousin Jackie and Aunt Jill are in town visiting from Wisconsin this weekend.

This morning we went to the zoo

Spit up

2009-05-22T13:59:00.001-07:00

25: number of burp cloths Emery goes through in 2 days

6 weeks

2009-05-19T15:10:00.000-07:00

Time is flying. Emery is 6 weeks old already. She's smiling a lot more now and is usually only up once at night to eat.

Take a little off the top

2009-05-11T20:28:00.000-07:00

Jackson got his first haircut today. Yes, he's almost 3 years old and has never had one. His hair is like mine...grows extremely slowly. So this morning I mentioned I might take him to get a haircut since it was finally looking kinda unkempt. Tim said he'd do it.

Good job dad.