First time for everything

So we had a couple of firsts this last week.

First time knocking Craig off the back of my bike and giving him one very big scrape on his back from my tire! Oh can I tell you how bad I felt. So BAD! Bad bad mommy! I was just trying to give him a ride because the little trooper had just ridden 3 miles on his little strider bike and he was so tired! But my good idea turned sour quite quickly. Thankfully it's almost healed now and he's been the sweetest guy about it. Even when K.C. was cleaning it with Hydrogen Peroxide!

First time calling the ambulance for one of our children. And let me just say... I don't ever want to do that again. Savannah found a small piece of a candy wrapper and was chocking on it. REALLY chocking. Freaking us out chocking. So K.C. called 911. (I'm so glad the fire station is only 1/2 mile away!) But thankfully she swallowed it before they got here and they checked her lungs and breathing and all seemed just fine. The culprit showed its self several days later in her diaper. So I'm very glad that it is no longer in her system somewhere for me to worry about.

We don't like to drag things out in our family. No sir! So to get all of these delightful firsts out of the way we just went ahead and did them all in one day. Yep, Craig in afternoon, Savannah that night. In fact the reason that we were distracted enough to not catch Savannah sooner was because we had Craig sprawled out on the floor dressing his wound. Savannah took advantage of the situation. Just imagine. Here I am agonizing about my poor boy, feeling like a terrible mother, trying to take care of him and make it better (if I could) and then to my horror my daughter starts chocking! (Self esteem plummeting. panic rising!) Then when the paramedics are on there way I realize the scene they're going to come in on... A wounded boy, a chocking girl, a frantic mom and a daddy trying to hold us all together. What are they going to think about us as parents? This didn't help my anxiety any.

But thankfully K.C. finished Craig up very quickly and we got all of the medical kit put away just as the doorbell rang. I must admit that I breathed a sigh of relief when the scene they came in on was not one that screamed "REPORT THESE PARENTS NOW!"

I. Was. Exhausted.

And, I think next time we'll go for a first of something a little less traumatic!

Highlights from the Farm

We had such a good time out at the farm! It was fun to see everyone and fun to see Craig having so much fun. Here are just a few of the highlights:

Motorcycle rides

Craig never went anywhere unless it was on this...
He was SO happy! And we heard this all the time... "Eggo drive the motorcycle for a minute, please, okay!" followed by pulling us towards it as hard as he could.

Playing in the field

Shooting

K.C. got to sight in the gun he's going to use for his first hunting trip this fall. And he even got some good practice time in. He's getting better I think. But for several days he walked around with a sore shoulder!

Scrapbooks!

I actually scrapbooked a page that I like! and made a ton of progress on my sad little scrapbook. When I got there I had only got to week 2 of Craig's life. Now I'm on MONTH 11. I'd say that's pretty good progress!

Photo shoots

I got to take pictures of 2 families while I was out there and my little nephew too. Craig was so excited that he had to be in a few of the pictures too!

He was always SO dirty! But look at how cute and he is! (right here he's swinging on a swing that my uncles made from old telephone poles. There are 2 other ropes that you actually climb a haystack with, put your foot in and jump off from about 20 feet high! - This was the more mellow ride!)

Quilt

I made a jean quilt for Craig while we were out there. No one thought that I could do it because we only had 2 days left, but I did it! And I had some awesome help from my 2 little cousins Lindsey and Kelsey. It was fun to work on it with them. Everyone got together and helped me tie it. So all that's left is sewing around the edge which is halfway done too. I forgot to take any pictures of it though.

Ladies Night Out

A fun thing that the relief society does out there. All the girls get together and do whatever sounds fun. This time it was pedicures and boggle. It was lots of ridiculous laughing and fun.

Pool

K.C. had an ongoing pool tournament with my uncle Mike. He was pretty happy when he ended up in the lead with the end score being 7 to 8. Needless to say the battle will resume next time we go out there.

Spaghetti Dinner
We couldn't resist.

Craig and Matthew having a race!

MACK!

As all who know Craig know, he is an avid 'Cars' fan (the movie). And so he was in heaven when he actually got to drive (sit in) Mack (which is any big truck to him.) I love his face in this one!

he just kept staring and pointing and talking about Mack. He was so happy. It was fun to be able to do something that he liked so much.

Tradition

It's becoming a sad tradition that we never go on a trip anymore without this happening:

But what really makes me mad about this time is that we just replace all four tires after our last trip, when we got a huge blow out on the way home! LAST WEEK! These are week old tires folks and one just decided to stop holding air! How can a week old tire just go flat for no apparent reason?

But since we just plan on getting a flat every time we go anywhere we have every kind of road hazard warranty they offer so at least this time it will be replaced for free. But still it's annoying.

Cruise Day 1 Miami

OK I'm going to tackle this one day at a time. On Friday night we kissed our little Craig goodbye and Sent him off to grandma and grandpas (he had a blast by the way) but it was hard. then we finished packing and at 2 am started the trip to Vegas so that we could catch our 6 o'clock flight to Miami.
This is when we got to the hotel in Miami around noon on Saturday we grabbed some lunch and then took a very long wonderful nap!

About to go get dinner (I'm in Miami!)

I have a sad tale to tell about Saturday night. Just my luck too. As a precursor to the story though you need to know that we had 3 excursions planed all of which involved quite a bit of physical activity, we were very excited for them.

OK so Saturday night we decided to walk a little ways away to a Cuban restaurant to eat dinner. It was just under the freeway and a couple of blocks away. Never having had Cuban food I was excited. So we got ready and headed out. I'm not gonna lie it was a little scary. The rout we were going was hardly designed for pedestrians and I had heels on so it was a little slow going.

We were about to dash across the off ramp and when I stepped off the curb I somehow twisted my ankle, very badly! I couldn't put any weight on it and K.C. had to pick me up and put me back on the curb. It hurt so bad that I could not walk on it and it immediately started to swell.

We were only about a block away from the food place so after sitting long enough that the pain wasn't so sharp we decided to go the short distance forward instead of going the long walk back to the hotel.

I was so worried that I wouldn't be able to do anything that we had planned. Such bad timing! My foot still hurts today if I'm not careful. I just had to limp around for several days and go very slowly.
Sunday morning (which is where I start counting the days, hence this post is day 1 even though we had been on the road for a day and half at this point.) we headed to the port. Miami is a beautiful city. I was amazed at how much water there is everywhere. I mean it's EVERYWHERE. There are huge rivers and channels running through the city in every direction, and from the airplane it looked as if there were some buildings that were only accessible on foot or by boat. I could be wrong, we weren't too close but it looked that way.
We had a heart wrenching experience when we got to the port. The were putting us all in our lines to board and we realized that we had left K.C.'s passport home! I seriously felt ill. You had to have a photo ID AND proof of citizenship. I had my drivers licence and birth certificate but K.C. only had his Drivers License. Of all the things to forget! But as you can see we made it.
We were about to breath a sigh of relief, and then they said,
"It won't be a problem you can still go, the only time you might encounter a problem is when you're coming back into the states."

We were like:

oh O.K..... wait WHAT!? that happens to be a very very important part! we asked over and over again to see what we could do to make sure we could come back but they assured us that people did it all the time. So we more that just a little trepidation, we were off!

Here's one of the few times that we actually have a picture together!
(Miami port in the back)

this is as we were all lining up on the deck waiting to set sail.

As we sailed out of the port this was the last part of Florida we saw. I am amazed at how close to the sea they build things!

I love how blue the ocean is! it is SO gorgeous! I loved to just sit and watch it.

This was kind of a fun shot of the Miami skyline. I liked it anyways.
We had to get dressed up every night for dinner. That was fun. There were 2 formal nights and the rest were just resort casual (no beachwear or flip flops or shorts, in short NICE attire.)

This was the library

This is the dining room where we went for Dinner every night.

And last but not least... the towel animals. (And the bed!... Oh the bed.)


You can't really see in this picture because the covers are filling up the hole. This bed was 2 twin beds side by side. The one close to the window was decent, if you don't mind feeling the springs in your ribs while you sleep. But the one closest to the camera... holy cow. I think that it was the first mattress that The Carnival Cruise lines ever bought and it ended up on Carnival Triumph.

It had a crater in the middle of it. I kid you not if the person on that side was not holding onto the person on the other side they would fall down into the abyss that was trying to be a bed. And it was uncomfortable! We would wake up all through the night.

And it's not like we could both sleep on the one semi-good side either because the ridge in the middle where the mattresses met was like a mountain between the valleys. You couldn't stay perched there without considerable effort and we both couldn't comfortably fit on the one mattress either.

In short: the bed was our enemy.

Home!

As I predicted, we are SO happy to be home! We had a wonderful time, made awesome memories and thoroughly enjoyed every minute of it. And now we are so happy to be here with our son and doing normal life things again.

And for the next week we get to enjoy a school free life until K.C. starts his summer school. But you know right now, even that's ok. It's so nice to feel rested and relaxed and not bogged down by everything that isn't done. (It's still not done) but for some reason it's easier to deal with now.

And our garden got HUGE while we were away. There are like 9 tomatoes growing and about 15 peas ready to eat. So throughout the day Craig and I will run out and grab a pea, it's so fun.

I have every intention of posting pictures of our cruise. There are over 1000 of them... and well I'm excited and it will be fun but I guess we'll just have to see when I can get around to doing something with them. So until then you'll just have to come over and see them all. :)

A Needed Break!

SCHOOLS OUT!

finally! I'm so happy for K.C. He did well in all of his classes (including the one he was worried about) and now...

We are off to Florida for a well needed break and a wonderful adventure!

I can not believe it's actually happening, that I could be going on a cruise. I will miss my little boy though. I'll probably be just as excited to come home and see him as I am to go.

Well we'll see ya all on mothers day. And in case you didn't notice, it's 12:15am and we're headed out the door to catch our flight in Vegas! (If we ever take a trip in the middle of the day I will probably have a heart attack!:)

Bon Voyage!

Dreams really do come true.

Since I was 14 I've been saving my 'rewards points' on my credit card for one specific reason.

And today, it all paid off....

We're going on a cruise!
for FREE!

I am so excited I can hardly hold myself together. I guess it's even better since I've been waiting for it and planing for it and HOPING beyond hope that it would actually happen someday for a long time.

It's a 7 day Caribbean cruise. We'll leave from Miami on May 3 and return May 10th. (Florida? I'm going to Florida?!) A cruise AND Florida all in the same trip. Wow. I'm not gonna lie, this really is a dream come true.

Spring Break Adventures

If you don't have an hour or so, don't even start to read this post because I think there's going to be like 40 pictures! But I guess that's part of the adventure. I love pictures! Love them! So for me, the more the merrier.

It all started out as a trip on Friday night to a wedding reception in Levan UT with our little family and my brother and sister. It was late after the reception and we thought we might as well stay in the area somewhere and then see if we could do something fun on Saturday. (little did we know)

As we unpacked in the hotel I mentioned to K.C. that I was so pleased with us for packing so lightly! I mean we just brought PJ's an extra pair of clothes for each (including Craig) 5 diapers and half a travel size pkg of wipes... That's about it. Because we weren't sure if we'd even stay the night and if we did we would just need enough to get us back home on Saturday. It was lovely.

Party in the Hotel.

On Saturday morning we couldn't think of anything fun to do but Ammon hadn't seen our aunt and uncle since before his mission, none of us had seen their new home that they'd just moved to and since it was the start of spring break, something crazy had to be done.

We went to Wyoming!

It was SO much fun! There was no Internet, no cell service, no running water... (just kidding about the water!) so it was a complete break. We couldn't even work if we wanted to. (that's how spring break should be in my opinion.)

So here's a little of what we did...

Craig has learned a new trick. "smile" only it's more like "make a funny face." I have to be careful not to draw attention to the fact that I have the camera or all I can get out of him is this:

He is such a ham!

A very adorable ham.

We helped my aunt remodel part of her house. Here is Craig helping K.C. carry the wood outside.

Such a good helper. And of course he was making all the appropriate grunting and heave-ho-ing noises.

They let K.C. borrow some sunglasses so he wouldn't get wood in his eyes while he was sawing. This is truly a fashion statement! Honey you're amazing.

We got up at 5:30 in the morning and went with my aunt to help her teach her seminary class. That was very early for me, but surprisingly fun.

We got to take Craig on a horse ride. (Just around the pen, but a horse ride none the less)

He LOVED it!

It was so cold that it didn't last long. (oh and by the way, we had to make an hour long trip into town and get some diapers and wipes, we even found a $30.00 coat on sale for $7.00 so we got that for him too. Because of course all he had was a light sweater. We found many more amazing deals too but I'll mention that again later.)
They live in the coolest place and all I wanted to do was go around and take pictures of everything all day. But it was cold enough that once I started I never lasted long. But here are a few.

So cool hu?

We all borrowed clothes and went to church up there too. That was fun. K.C. and Craig would go with Uncle Kenny every day to help feed the cows and check for new babies. Craig would always wave to the cows and say "hi cows, hi babies!"

One time he fell asleep while they were feeding so K.C. brought him back and laid him down. He slept pretty good for a while and when he woke the first thing out of his mouth, (before his eyes were even open) was, "Cows! cows? babies?" like he was looking for them. It was SO cute. I think he must have been dreaming about them too.

These next pictures were of the trip home. This is an obliging gas station.

Ammon couldn't stop laughing.

And then as we were driving away I twisted around in my chair and poked the camera above the back of my chair. I scared him pretty bad, but I got these 2 pictures. It was quite funny.

Craig got bored on the 8 hour trip home. Let's be honest, we all did. But the poor kid was having a rough time. He was a good sport though. And Wanda helped to entertain him by making a game with his diapers. Yes that's right, diapers.

You wouldn't believe how many different ways there are to stuff diapers around a small person. And he found it quite fun. She also taught him a little rhyme to say and actions to do. He did it like the 2nd time she showed him. Here it is.

"Knock knock" (Knock on forehead)

"Peek in" (pulling his eye open farther)

"Open the Latch" (supposed to lift the end of your nose. He was getting carried away!)

"Walk right in" (Walk fingers into mouth)

"How do you do Mr. Chinny Chin Chin?" (Grab chin and shake it)
I love this picture. He looks like he's thinking about something!

Let the diaper games, BEGIN!

Smile for the camera.

I love his eyes. I'm so glad that he has gorgeous blue eyes! I wish I'd had time to compose this picture a little better but I was afraid he'd move so I had to just take it.

"Is this trip ever going to end?"
(Is this post ever going to end?... Not yet!)

These are more of the pictures we got while there. I would also like to point out that I got a coat too. Only not just any coat, I've been wanting one like this forever. But they are always so dang expensive I could never talk myself into it. But in Kemmerer (where we went to get diapers) we found the original JC penny store. #1. It was pretty cool. They even had the original cash box that you used to have to put your money in and send it up to the loft. Then if you needed change they would have to send you your change back down in the box. I think this was to prevent robberies from being to easy.

Anyways I found this coat on sale for a little over $30.00 instead of $260.00. I was SOLD. and I got several warm shirts for $.97 several scarf/hat/glove sets for $2.00 and several more things for K.C. All said and done we spent about $60.00 and saved, oh you know, about $500.00.

Oh happy day.

So here are some pictures of us and the cool places on the ranch. K.C. is getting to be a better photographer than I am.

There you have it. One adventure and 42 pictures later. It was a great trip! And we were so happy to get home to more than one pair of clothes. I take things like that for granted. But it really does make quite a difference.