August catch up

So it has been such a busy month and I am in shock that it is almost over. I am so far behind that I am not sure where to start. I guess the easiest thing would be to start with the beginning and work my way to now. Alright here we go. Sorry in advance for how long it is. :)

Cannon Beach, Oregon Trip August 6-10: I was able to get away from this heat, my family (I really do love them but it is always nice to have a little break), house cleaning, laundry, grocery shopping, cooking, church duties... to spend some time with a couple of girl friends from high school. There were four of us all together: Lauren Ludlow Cox, Jill Klein Smith, Talese Baxter, and me. It was so much fun and we laughed and stayed up late talking every night. It was so easy to get right back in with them that it didn't even feel like it had been 9 years ago that we had graduated. We were lucky enough to get to stay at Lauren's parents beach house, which brought back a lot of memories for me because I had been there with Lauren and her family every summer that we were in high school and J and I had also stayed there on our honeymoon. Our days were busy and we didn't feel like there was enough time to do all the stuff that we wanted but it was the best. We pretty much ate out every meal and took our time getting ready and didn't have to worry about anyone but ourselves. Some fun things we did were: tour at the Tillamook Cheese Factory (lots of sampling and ice cream), visiting the Goonies house, visiting the school where Kindergarten Cop was filmed, visiting with some sea lions, going to the Astoria Column shopping and more shopping, walking on the beach, and just hanging out. We decided that it is something that we are going to try and do every year on a smaller scale (not so far away for most of them). We hope that more of our friends will be able to come if it is not as big and expensive of a thing. Here are a few pictures (if you want to see more head over to Jill's blog) :

Me, Jill, Talese, and Lauren with Haystack Rock in the background.

Talese, Lauren, and Jill

Me, Jill, and Talese in front of the Goonies house

Me, Jill, and Talese hanging out at the beach house.

Me in front to the biggest daisies (my favorite flower) I have ever seen.

A pretty ocean sunset.

There is a short catch up on that. Well I was home for almost a week before we headed up to Heber to visit with my family while J went kayaking with his father in Washington state. Inbetween the trips I had my ultrasound and as you saw a couple of weeks ago, we are having a little boy. I was pretty sure that it was a boy but still am having a hard time imagining our home with a little boy. It will be fun but definitely a change. Amber was not so sure she liked the idea that is was a boy. This is what she said when we told her:

Me: Amber we got to go and see the baby in my tummy and guess what it is a baby brother.

Amber: I don't want a brother I want another sister.
Me: Well, we are going to have a baby boy so you get a brother. Now you will have one of each, a sister and a brother.
Amber: Maybe we will just have to wait and see.

I thought about scanning the ultrasound pictures of our little man but decided that he didn't need his junk all over the internet. So you will just have to wait and see him when he makes his appearance in January. We also went to the Washington County Fair to see all the animals and exhibits. It was really hot but the girls seemed to enjoy it none the less. Here are a few picture from that:

Amber holding a chick.

Amber petting a goat.

Farmer Amber and Farmer Elle

Watch out here they come.

You can see the excitement on her face.

You can almost see Amber's face in there

They had trick performing bears but I thought that this bear had the right idea of what to do in his down time.

Heber Trip August 16-23:
J and his father, Max, left on their trip to Washington state on Saturday the 15 but Mary, J's mother, and I didn't leave to head up to Heber and Logan/Ogden until Sunday morning. We got to Heber and unloaded all our stuff and Mary took off to go and spend the week visiting family and friends in Logan and Ogden while I stayed with my parents in Heber. We had a very fun filled week. We went to the Thanksgiving Point Dinosaur Museum with most of my family, swimming at the Kamas Rec Center with my mom, spent lots of time with cousins (Zach, Natalie, and Wyatt), went on trips to Salt Lake and Park City to shop for baby boy clothes, went for a picnic up in the mountains, and went to the Hoogle Zoo. As luck would have it while I was up north my roommates from Dixie were getting together for a little reunion and I was able to see all of them as well. As you can see there really wasn't a dull moment, some crazy ones but that is to be expected with two small children that aren't getting there regular naps and beauty sleep at night. We had so much fun. J and Max did make it home from there adventures, where I think they had a good time, and we headed home Sunday with J. Here are a couple of pictures for your viewing pleasure:

Zach, Elle, and Amber checking things out.

Elle's favorite part was bringing me all the dinosaurs in the play room.

Natalie, Amber, and Zach playing in the sand and looking for dinosaurs.

Zach, Natalie, Amber, and Elle catching a ride.

Amber riding Bonnie's bear (stuffed).

My mom, Virginia, with baby Wyatt.

Elle and Amber taking a look around the mountains.

Jim, my brother, with baby Wyatt.

Amber and me on our hike.

Zoo transportation.

Elle and me riding the carousel.

Amber riding the elephant.

Elle, Bonnie and me riding the train (can you tell Elle is roasting).

Dixie College roommate reunion
Back row: Stephanie, Lisa, and Tara
Front row: Shannon, me, and Carrie

*sorry that this is so long I just knew if I tried to do them separately that I never would.

Postscript

PS: it's a fetus with boy-bits enabled. I'm sure we'll have to pay extra.

Church

I had a bunch of inquiries today as to why I didn't take the opportunity to play the quasi-single dad card and stay home from church (let alone stay the whole three hours). To those that are curious, I have but a simple answer for you: nursery.

Yeah, we had to get cleaned up and into our church clothes, but that just gave us something to do. And giving me something to do with these little people beats the pants off of them just hanging off my leg and pestering me because they're hungry/bored/tired/etc. Having that two hour break (even if one of those hours was spent with bratty 14/15 year-olds) where other adults were in charge of their physical/spiritual well-being? Totally worth it.

Uh, and of course we went to church today because we wanted to learn more about churchy things. Doy.


Proof that they're so cute that even their father couldn't mess them up.

Swimming and future careers

I'll try my best to set the scene wherein I made another dad glad he had a male offspring:

I'm at the pool with Amber and Elle. Elle and I are out of the pool getting her dried off. Amber, still in the water, calls to me, "Papa, look at my new trick!" all excited like. What's her new trick? She's got her legs wrapped around the pool's railing and she's spinning around it. Yes — my three year-old daughter is essentially pole dancing and thinks it's the greatest thing ever.

To her joyful announcement I can only respond: "Well, that doesn't bode well for my future."

Here's where the other dad comes in: he hears my response, looks to Amber to see what elicited such a retort, makes eye-contact with me, looks over at his small boy, and smirks a smirk that can only translate as "sucks to be that guy in 10 years!"

For my part, I'm glad I could make another father appreciate his child just a tad more.
_________________________

Tangentially, here's a quick video of Amber's first days of swimming lessons from July. As a dad (who goes and hides at work all day), I often miss these kinds of events in my childrens' lives so I'm grateful Christina thinks to take some video for me to see and share.

Not to be outdone

Not to be outdone by her sister, Amber also awoke this morning inquiring, if not much more casually, about the whereabouts of her dear mother. When I told her mama was still in Oregon, Amber quite resolutely pronounced:

"She sure is taking a long time, huh?"

Magic

This morning, Elle invented a new way to find mama when she's not in the house (or state, for that matter). After toddling around all the rooms of the house saying "Mama? Mama?" and satisfying herself that mama was in fact not in any of her usual hiding spots, Elle sat down with me on the couch and uttered the following: "Mama? Ta-dah!"

Poor dear — me thinks she thought the pronouncement of the magical declaration would pop her dear mama out of some hat right there in her own living room.

Poor substitute

Howdy all — J here again. As has become my tradition when Christina goes out of town sans children (she's hanging in Oregon with some buddies), I'm taking over this blog for a few days to post all sorts of random stuff. Random stuff like this video of Elle showcasing her mad dancing skillz:



And before I forget in the whirlwind that is semi-single parenting, I'd just like to give a huge shoutout to Grandma Mary and Grandpa Max. They're watching the girls during the daytime hours and letting me run off and hide at work. Thanks!