Oh Zion, Dear Zion

Trying to play catch-up here. Bear with me as I post about things that happened long ago in an attempt to keep this journal of sorts going.


So, back at the very end of September, we took a trip down to Zion's National Park with some of our very good friends and their kids. We stayed in a bed and breakfast, which in hindsight was a bad idea - next time we are opting for a place where we have to worry less about disturbing other guests (three 2-year-olds plus the need to be quiet = total stress). Despite minor drama, we had a really good time. It was fun to hang out with our friends and fun to watch the kids explore and do all kinds of silly things.

After arriving at the B&B, we let the kids play outside in what amounted to a giant rocky sandbox. Isaac and Johnny got all their cars out and played and played and played. When we finally decided it was time to go get some food, we realized they had buried half the cars in the sand. So, Shelly and I spent a good while searching through the sand for all the cars and sorting out whose was whose. Miraculously, we found them all. Can you say, "Hooray for the super moms?"

For dinner we went out for pizza at a cute little place in town. The boys were mostly very well behaved, and the pizza was delicious.

Isaac enjoyed smashing his cars together.

Oh look, Johnny has similar hobbies.

Yes, that's a soda. We are bad parents. Isaac loved it though. Funny story - the nice girl at the register gave us Isaac's soda free, saying he'd probably just drop it anyway. Which he did. You'd have thought they'd charge extra for that. Nice people.

After dinner we went for frozen yogurt. There was a small mixup as someone (a stranger) who reached the door before us couldn't open it and decided they must be closed, even though the lights were on. We were a bit confused for a minute, and had pretty much decided to go home, when I think James tried the door and it was indeed open. Strange.

Cute boys enjoying their ice cream.

 

Cutest. Kid. Ever.

  

Brad and Shelly enjoying their shake.

The next day we actually did not have breakfast at the B&B, as the owners had to attend a funeral in the morning. Instead, they gave us vouchers to have breakfast at a very nice place about five minutes up the road. It was super yummy, there was a ton of food, we got to eat outdoors in the sunshine, and it was a lot less stressful than hanging out at the B&B, so what was initially a disappointment ended up being a real blessing.

After breakfast, we headed into the park. The boys really enjoyed running around, playing on the various benches and statues, and they especially enjoyed the tram ride. Johnny announced we were getting on a bus and going to school. It was pretty adorable how excited he was. Hopefully that excitement will last him a few more years. ;)

We took a walk along one of the paved trails where the kids could be in their strollers and we could take in some scenery. It was gorgeous, and I really enjoyed getting to talk to James about anything and everything as we walked. Isaac actually fell asleep in the stroller--he was so cute slumbering away. 

Once we hit the end of the trail, the kids had pretty much had it, so we left the park. There's so much to do there. We are definitely going to have to go back. Before leaving for good, though, we took a quick trip out to a little ghost town. There wasn't much there (uh duh, ghost town, I should have realized), but it was fun to just let Isaac run around before making him sit in the car for four hours again.

Just a cool guy with his carrots.

All in all a fun trip!

Happy Birthday, Isaac

So, my darling wonderful baby boy officially turned 2 last month. We are so lucky to have this boy in our lives. He makes us laugh every day, and he makes our lives just so much better than they were before. We are so blessed.

We put off celebrating his birthday, since August was such a busy month, and we threw his big birthday bash yesterday. It was a great time, and we're only sad we couldn't have shared it with more of you. Here are a few pictures and highlights of the day:

Here's the invitation, created on Picnik.

Some of the decorations. This was the "photo booth."

Balloons

Ruffled streamers

All the kids enjoying the swing set. Thanks, Yia Yia and Papa!

Opening gifts. Isaac sure was spoiled -

he got trains, and cars, and books, and a superhero cape, and tools, and a puzzle, and he just loves it all.

The pinata. We did a pull string one - the kids take turns pulling various strings until one opens a trap door. At least that's how it's supposed to work. But we always have some kind of mishap...

So, first it fell out of the tree.

 Then, I began to suspect that the trap-door-pulling string had actually broken, rather than opening the trap door when it was pulled. See, that's my suspicious face.

And my suspicious checking. Running low on ribbons here...

Yep, all the ribbons are gone, and still no candy.

Good thing I had a back-up plan.

Candy chaos!

Isaac's like, dude, I'm outta here.



Playing with toys.

Constance, aka Y-Girl, playing with Isaac's awesome Y banner he received from the Connellys.

Cake time!

Not quite tall enough.

A candle for each month (ok, really, Isaac just likes blowing out candles and I felt like 2 would just be a disappointment for him.)

All the kids eating the shavings off the sides.

Cutting the cake.

All in all, a very fun birthday party. Isaac loved it and is still having all sorts of fun playing with his presents and of course the balloons! :)

Swingset!

Yia Yia and Papa very generously pitched in to buy Isaac a swing set for his birthday present this year. James and I searched long and hard before finding the perfect set at a good price before we settled on the Flexible Flyer Big Adventure swing set from Wal-Mart. We put in our order, waited anxiously patiently for two whole weeks and then it came! It very conveniently arrived on a Friday afternoon, so we had the weekend to set it up. James and I spent most of the afternoon on Friday trying to figure it out - the instructions were not super clear and the parts were not the best labeled, so we put the thing together wrong about 6 times, then later had to take things apart, turn them around, put them in the right place, etc. We were also hampered  helped along by several eager neighbor children who very much wanted to play on the swings and prove just how savvy they were at building. Anyway, once we got rid of the neighbor children and Isaac (the kind neighbor parents took them all to their house), it went much faster, but by then we were losing light, so we only had the frame and the slide up before we called it quits. All the kids from the neighborhood came over to play on it, though, so even in its skeleton state it was a big hit.

Here's Isaac playing on the slide on Saturday morning.

Saturday afternoon, the rest of it went much faster, just hooking up the swings and attaching the see-saw. It was a big hit with Isaac and all his friends.