St. George getaway

A few weekends ago, my mom, the kids, and I took a trip to St. George to visit my brother and his family.  I needed a little getaway this summer, especially before starting my new job here soon.  The trip down was nice and the kids were pretty good.  First trip for the Jeep, too.  We decided to stay in a hotel since we didn't know if there would be enough room at my brother's.  Also, Hayden has such a hard time sleeping unless it's really quiet.  The rooms ended up being suites and were bigger than we thought.  We got settled and then my brother and family for dinner:

My mom, my nephews Tevin and Harrison (don't they look thrilled), and my sweet niece Sloane:

Cute Holden with his massive mustache fry:

The hotel had an indoor pool that we swam in every night.  Most of the time we had it all to ourselves which was nice.  Hayden and Harrison:

Natalia and the HOT hot tub:

The gang.  Check out the sky in the window.  There was a massive storm that first night.  In fact, it rained most of the weekend.  I don't think I've ever seen so much rain down there!  It was actually nice though and made it so we weren't dying of heat.

We went shopping at the outlet stores the next day.  Have you ever seen cuter mannequins?  

Natalia just HAD to get these non-prescription glasses.  She's always wanted glasses (I know, she's crazy) and was thrilled when she found these:

We drove by my grandparents' old house.  It is bank-owned now and looks like it got foreclosed on.  We looked through the windows and it brought back a lot of memories.  My grandparents are no longer living but I have fond memories of visiting them each summer.

We let the kids go play at the park across the street for a few minutes:

Natalia and Sloane swam for a few hours that afternoon while Hayden slept.  I can't believe their energy!  They had tons of fun together.  We met my brother and family again for dinner that night.  We went to Red Robin so we could see my nephew, Tevin, in action.  He works there doing just about everything.  Here are the kiddos:

Krissy got these cute shots of handsome Hayden:

There he is!  He was so busy we barely caught a glimpse of him.  Krissy managed to get these shots.  I'm sure Tevin was mortified. We were so proud of him:

Getting the kids balloons afterwards:

One more shot:

We stopped by the mall after dinner so Krissy could buy a swimsuit.  Here are the girls modeling the sunglasses:

After more swimming, the kids were worn out thankfully!  Hayden actually slept in a crib in the kitchen but they enjoyed some cuddle time watching TV before bed:

The next morning, we checked out of the hotel and went over to the temple.   So beautiful.

I love these next shots.  They are symbolic of the real efforts I'm making to hopefully get both my kiddos to the temple someday:

 Then we went over to my grandparents' grave:

My kids never got to meet them but I'm sure they are some of those angels that have been helping us from above!

Hayden insisted on this spot for the picture and Mommy decided to choose her battles.  I hope Great Grandpa Gibson understands:

We spent some time with Chris and family at their house and then headed back up north.  Sloanie got to come with us and spend a week at Grandma's.  Natalia got her mostly to herself that next day since Grandma and Grandpa were gone.  Natalia loved having her very own big sister and they had tons of fun together.  We were sad to see her go at the end of the week!

Oops, this one is out of order but here is Holden and Hayden.  Hayden loved Holden and thought he was so funny.

A big thank you for my mom for going with me and for everything!

Crash and Burn

I love this video clip for so many reasons.  First of all, make it full screen.

1. At just 1 second in, push pause.  See that face on Hayden?  If that doesn't spell mischief, I don't know what does.

2.  17 seconds in, hilarious.  Unsuspecting dog, rambunctious boy...  Just click 17 seconds over and over again, you'll see.  Poor Ben never saw it coming.

3.  40 seconds.  Hear that scream?  Just wait...

4.  There it is.  Oh Hayden, I can feel the grey hairs coming in droves...

5.  ...especially when you go back for more.

Natalia-isms

Natalia and her friend, Lizzie.

*I asked Natalia to guess how old I was.  She said, “26?”  Nope.  “28?”  Nope.  “I don’t know, twenty……...old?”

*Natalia asked, “Mom, does your hair get sad when you cut it?”

*I commented to Natalia how skinny her legs were.  She rolled her eyes and said, “MOM.  Food goes to your belly, not all the way to your legs!”

*One day in the car, “Is there a casino in Lindon?”

*I was helping Natalia pack and get ready for a trip to Wyoming with her Grandma and Grandpa Gibson.  Natalia’s two main concerns about going on the trip were:

1.       “Mom, what if we run out of gas?  What if Grandma and Grandpa forget to fill up the car?”

2.       “What if Mark and Kellie don’t have any bathrooms?”

I made sure to remind my parents to get gas.  I’m sure they would have slipped their minds had we not given them our friendly reminder. J  I assured Natalia that I was pretty sure Mark had at least FOUR bathrooms in his house.

*Natalia was watching a commercial about an OxiClean stain stick.  She thought it was pretty cool how the stain magically came out.  She said, “I should get stains so we use that magic stick!”

*Natalia’s right hand got tired while she was playing with the badminton racket.  She sighed and said, “I wish I was every-handed…..and every-footed!”

*Natalia’s cousin Sloane was visiting.  She, Grandpa, and Sloane were talking outside on the patio.  Sloane was telling a story about something that had happened to her.  When she was done with the story and there really wasn’t anything else to be said, Natalia (wide-eyed) asked, “THEN WHAT HAPPENED?!”  Apparently Sloane makes for a captivating storyteller.

*While in St. George recently, we went to a girls clothes store called ‘Justice.’  It is VERY girly.  I said, “Wow, Natalia.  It’s really ‘blingy’ in here.”  She replied, “I know. It’s like HEAVEN!”

*Natalia out of the blue said, “I’m so glad I have a mom.”  Before I could be too flattered she said, “Otherwise, there wouldn’t be anyone to take Hayden away when we fight.”  I knew I was good or something…

Intruder

A few weeks ago, I was getting Hayden ready for bed in the kids' room.  As I was turning off the lights and turning on his sound machine, I noticed how loud the birds were being outside.  There's a big tree outside where a bunch of bird families have made their nests.  I had never heard them that loud though, especially at night.

I shut his door, went to the door to go outside, walked out, listened, and said, "Shhh!" as loud as I could.  (I know, like it would make a difference).  I went back in, turned around to shut the door, looked down and saw some kind of critter run right through my legs into the house!  I scared me and I screamed.  I honestly thought it was a mouse.  When I got a closer look though, it was a baby bird!  It was running all over the place, chirping away.  I ran upstairs, yelled for my mom who came down with a laundry basket and broom in hand.  It seemed to come to wherever my voice was and we were able to get it under the laundry basket, to which it promptly crawled through.  It ran under all the nearby furniture but we were finally able to get it in an empty yogurt container.  Ben the dog?  He couldn't have cared less and merely watched from afar in his kennel.  (When I told Dan this later he said this definitely confirmed that Ben had lost all meaning in life).

Isn't it adorable?  It was so tiny and had a really cute chirp.  

We live in my parents basement apartment.  There is an exterior entrance that goes down some cement steps and there is our door.  It must have fallen over the edge from the grass and landed there.  Poor thing.  Natalia opened the door for some reason when I was telling them about it, went up the stairs, and then I heard her scream, "There's another one!"  We went up and lo and behold, there was another one down in the window well.  The was the window to the kids' bedroom...which is why the chirping was so loud when I was putting Hayden to bed.  My mom and I got the ladder, I climbed down and got it in another container.  

I decided to put them together to keep each other company.  Here's Natalia thrilled with her new little friends!

My parents thought they were maybe baby swallows.  When I looked up pictures online, they didn't look anything like them though.  I wasn't quite sure what to do with them.  My dad mentioned that they would just die if we let them go.  I didn't necessarily want to keep them, either.  Who do you call in these kinds of situations?  Dan, of course!  I knew he would know what to do.  Sure enough, he did.  He came over to take a look.  He thought they might be baby quail.  When I looked them up, that's exactly what they were.  It just so happens that one of Dan's lender buddies raises birds and his neighbor raises quail exclusively.  It ALSO just so happens that his friend's pet robin (weird, I know) had just died that morning so they had a cage and heat lamp all ready to go for these guys!  And, yes, they wanted them.  Told you, Dan is the guy for these kinds of situations.

Natalia was sad to let them go.  Dan told her he would take her to visit them soon.  She named them "Fred" and "Kevin"--two characters from the show "Fred."  One of the birds was trying to sleep and the other kept beating up on him so that's how she thought of those names.

Anyways, it made for an eventful evening and Natalia felt good that we hopefully saved their lives.  Let's just hope Dan's friend doesn't raise them for the meat...

Yes, this is a post about eating a piece of bread

Well, if that last post wasn't exciting enough for you, brace yourselves, this one's a PLAY-BY-PLAY.

P.S. Real men aren't afraid to cross their ankles and sit in a pink princess desk.