Terrible Twos, here we come!

Ethan had an AWESOME BIRTHDAY...

The Birthday boy with Nana- one of the few pictures that he would look at the camera for

Okay... so Ethan has really in been in the terrible twos since he was a year old, but he officially entered them when he turned 2 on Friday. I can't believe my baby is two! He has been obsessed with candles and blowing them out since my birthday in May. He calls them happy and will even sing the first part of "Happy Birthday". It was fun to try to convince him that it was his birthday. All day we were singing the song to him and we kept asking him, "Is it Ethan's Birthday?" and "Who is coming for Ethan's birthday?" We even got him to say, "I'm two", when we would ask him how old he was.

We had a fun party with my family. I am so glad they were able to come! They got to our house around four. He woke from his nap when they arrived and had to open his presents right away when he saw them all. It was cute to watch him open them. He would get a present, open it, barely glance at it, throw it, and start opening another one. When he saw that what he was opening was clothing, he wouldn't even unwrap it all the way. He would just chuck it. Typical boy. He got some fun presents, including a bike, a swimming pool, a t-ball set, a bubble mower, a toy vacuum, and a cool car bed that my Dad made for him. My Dad is so awesome! He also got lots of stuff to decorate his room. We are going to do his room in the theme of "cars" the movie.

After opening his presents we had a delicious dinner of Italian seasoned sandwiches that Chris made. He is such a good cook. After that we headed to a cool park that has a splash pad hooked onto it. Ethan was finally starting to get brave in the water when it shut off for the night. If we would have known it was going to close so early we would of went sooner. He did have fun playing on the playground. He loves slides and he is so good at climbing up the bars to get to the slides.

After the park we went back to our house and we sang to Ethan and he got to blow out the "happy", which is what he calls the cake and candles. I think that that was the most exciting part of the day to him.

He was practically beaming all day and it was so much fun to spoil him and make him laugh. He seems so much older and more mature since he has turned two. I don't know why. I am so proud of him for all that he can do and for being such a good big brother. Happy Birthday Ethan! We love you!

Ethan getting ready to open his presents- so spoiled!

With his new bed- he wouldn't look at the camera

With his new bike, playing in the water at the park, and his car cake

Logan loves the camera- what a cutie!

The "Nuthouse" Reunion

Chris caught a lot of fishies...and so did Nanette

Nanette has done a great job at keeping up with writing blogs. I must say it is interesting to see what is going on with her perspective.

So we once again went camping, this time to Bridger Lake in the Uintahs and with my side of the family. It is very beautiful up there. However, the best part of the whole trip was catching tons of fish. I caught 14 fish up there, which was close to the most of anyone that fished.

The first day we got up there, I realized why I haven't seen too many mosquitoes; that is because they wanted to go camping with us. I'm not kidding, it seemed as if it was raining skeeters all evening. They were everywhere. Too my surprise I only have about 5 bites; thank goodness for bug spray. The fishing was really good for Nanette, she caught six that first night, way to go. We caught ten all together.

The second day was filled with a lot more fishing. I caught a lot more that day with eighth fishies and more bites than I could account for. Nanette did really well. Our highlight was when we got a away from everyone about eight at night and went canoeing. We had fun just talking to each other, me putting worms on her hook, and catching fish.

The last day we were there, I only caught two fish. The wind was pretty bad in the morning and decided that it wasn't worth it and went back to pack up. Overall, I caught 14 fish, most of which were brook trout and 4 were rainbows. I did muster myself to eat one of the brook trout I caught and it was delicious. The meat was nice and red, which means it wasn't a stock fish. I believe I might have some trout for you, Ma; but my mom or sisters have the cooler with the fish in it or we ate all the fish; I don't remember.

Anyway, sorry for the fishing journal. If you haven't been there it is way fun and beautiful.

Busy, busy weekend!!!

This is going to be a pretty long blog. A lot has happened in the last few days.

CAMPING

First off, we went on a fun camping trip to Porcupine Dam from Thursday to Saturday. We went with my fam and had a lot of fun! It was Logan's first camping trip. I think that the boys both enjoyed it, even though it was really cold the first two days.

My mom and Logan- all bundled up!

Chris fishing- the water was so high!
Here's me- we got a lot of bites, but no fish. :(

We went on a hike to a mine and had to cross the creek a couple of times. It was so cold!

Outside the mine- Dad, Logan, Katie, Aaron, Ethan, Naomi, Caleb, Nick, and Chris

Chillaxin'- Logan was so glad to get out of the back pack for a few minutes.

Logan playing in Nana's tent and out by the camp fire. He just loves the camera!


CHRIS' BIRTHDAY and FATHER'S DAY

Saturday we went out to dinner at TGI Friday's to celebrate Chris' birthday. He turned the big 26! Ethan didn't want to just sit still and eat.

Me and Logan- he loved being able to sit in the high chair

Sunday was Chris' B-day along with father's day. We went over to his mom's house to celebrate with his family. Here he is goofing off with his bro, Jason.


Chris' mom who made us a yummy dinner


Chris' sister, Tracy and husband, Tyler

His sisters Shanna and Alison

Me and Chris

ETHAN'S SURGERY

On Monday Ethan had tubes put in his ears and his adenoids out. He had to be to the Surgical Center by 7:15 a.m. He couldn't have any food or drink after midnight. He was so good. He was pretty happy and didn't ask for his "ba ba" or anything. Here he is in the car, on the way. Chris' mom watched Logan for us. Thank you so much!

BEFORE:



In the waiting room w/ Chris and playing with the toy vacuum

AFTER: He was pretty out of it when they first brought him to us. He kept drifting in and out of sleep. After about 1/2 hour he started to get restless.

They put an I.V. in his foot. I felt so bad. He kept trying to pull it out. After about an hour they let us take him home. He started running and playing really quick and hopefully will be back to normal in no time... with no more ear infections!

Traveling

Almost two months ago, Nanette and I went on a nice vacation to Mt. Rushmore. We had a great time. As such traveling is one my favorite things to do. I enjoy going on short road trips, getting on an airplane and in matter of hours be somewhere far away, or even just camping.

These next few weekends will be about camping. Camping is a lot of fun because of the great food possibilities and fishing. Who doesn't like to have dutch oven cooking, smores, marshmellers, and my absolute favorite Hamburgers and Hot Dogs. Nanette and I will be up in Cache Valley and then the Uintahs the next week.

As far as traveling goes, I also plan on going to Maryland a couple of times at the end of the year. In fact, I will be going to Maryland twice within a month. Okay, the flying will not be that awesome and the weather will probably suck but that is okay. I plan on going to DC on the second trip during the weekend, which I am extremely excited to do that. Also, I am hoping to bring Nanette out during one of these trips with or without the kids; this will depend on her school work.

Nanette and I also plan on doing a redo honeymoon for our five year anniversary. We are thinking of a few place to go to such as Hawaii, the Caribbean, or Europe. We haven't decided. All three of those places seem pretty freakin awesome. Of course, since it is a redo, we will be staying at the luxurious Logan Regional Hospital one night...just kidding. Sorry for the gloating, but I am just excited about this years travelling.

It's a zoo in here!

As you can tell from the title... yes we did go to the zoo. Although it is often a zoo at my house, on Friday we went to the real zoo with animals. We went with Chris' mom, his siblings, and their kids. This was Logan's first time going and Ethan's second (he went on his first birthday). I think that he enjoyed it a lot more this year, because obviously he is older and he knows what animals are and the sounds that some of them make. It was a beautiful spring day and just the right temperature, so a lot of the animals where out walking around instead of hiding in the shade. We looked at all of the animals and took a little train ride. Ethan fed the ducks and was excited to find that they had a playground with slides. He loves slides and I was proud of him for going down it, because it was a pretty long tunnel slide. We didn't leave until closing time and where definitely worn out, but we had a lot of fun and didn't get sun burns (thank you sunscreen!).

Me and Logan at the rare white alligator exhibit. It is leaving soon, so you better go if you want to see it!

Chris and Ethan about to be eaten by a lion! (oh no) My mom has a picture of her as a little girl by this drinking fountain. It must be really old! (just kidding mom)

Monkeys looking at monkeys! (ha ha. It's late. I really need to go to bed!) Tyler, Jason, Tracy, Breckston, Lori (mom), and Ethan

Elephant eating hay. We were so excited to see the elephant eating. We took a ton of pictures. The things that amuse us. It really is cool how they eat, though.

We also got really excited to see the bears fighting each other. Hey, last time we came they were hiding in their caves!

So sweet! Logan and Chris on the train ride!

The train ride- what a cute family! Blaine, Bryce, Shanna, and Austin... one of the rare pictures of Bryce. He usually hides the instant he sees a camera.

Look at this boy. He should be a professional modeler! Well, he is dang cute, but I am also biased, cuz he's my kid. - outside the zoo when we were leaving.