St George

Okay, so I haven't posted for like five months. Tad behind... I'll admit it. But frankly, since this blog pretty much covers for scrapbooking, journaling, and photo album all in one, I am still going to post all the random pictures from last summer. Yes, last summer. Sorry, I'll be caught up in a few days, so feel free to just skip over the posts til then, they're all outdated anyway. ;-) This first post is actually one I wrote last summer, but didn't get all the pictures attached so it never got posted. This is how I wrote it out then, so I added the rest of the pictures and I'm just going to leave it. One thing I can say about looking back on these pictures is I kinda already miss summer! Oh for the nice and warm sun rays... the snow just isn't doing it for me right now.

So Jonathan and I spent three nights during June in St. George, and this was the first time we've gone on vacation without bringing Benjamin! My mom came over and stayed with him the whole time, isn't she amazing? We were so lucky she could help us! Fortunately she did have some babysitting help from Mary and Will, and also McKell. (Thanks you guys!!!) When we went to pick up Benjamin from McKell's house, he was playing with a ball, and paused long enough to hold it up for us to see and say "ball!" before he turned back around and continued to throw the ball on the ground and chase after it. Glad to know we were missed. ;-) (I was actually really glad he did so well!)

The first morning we were in St. George, we went to a 4 hour rock climbing course with an instructor, who both refreshed some basic climbing skills we used to have and taught us more about top roping. It was a ton of fun! Neither one of us had climbed in years. Now I'm motivated to get a bit more gear so we can climb again!

Made it to the top! Wahoo!

Don't worry, Jonathan made it too. ;-)

We did some hikes while we were down there, this is in Snow Canyon. Behind us is an old volcano that we hiked, which turned out to be not nearly as exciting and interesting as it sounds. That may be due to some negative experiences losing the trail and haphazardly hacking our way up and down the hill... yeah.

Here's the view from the top:

We hiked around in Zion National Park for a day also:

Lots of pretty views. Mediocre photography, but nice views. ;-)

Nice, cool, little oasis we hiked to:

So this was one of my favorite parts of the trip by FAR. We went and saw Tarzan at Tuacahn Ampitheater! It's based off of Disney's Tarzan, which I really like, so I liked this one too. Their "young Tarzan" was AMAZING! He was EXACTLY like I pictured him, and very talented! I found this promotional clip online, and I think he's in it for a few seconds. It was really fun though, and since we went in June the weather wasn't unbearably hot, although it was really windy the night we went.

Yep, we went camping.

Okay, catch up on the fun summer adventures we've been having. So in June we took Benjamin camping for the first time!! We decided somewhat last minute to join our neighborhood for the ward campout, and it turned out really fun. :-)


As we're taking DOWN the tent, I realize this was Benjamin's first camping trip and I didn't even take any pictures of the tent! Yeah, totally NOT worth setting it up again, so this is where the tent was, and you can use your imagination!

This one is a little less backlit, but Benjamin didn't want to stand still for a picture, so he's running off somewhere, oh well!

Ok, I really don't know how we had this much stuff... we only stayed overnight, and we didn't even cook up there at all. We bought a pizza on the way up, and since it was the ward campout, breakfast the next morning was provided (score!). We did set up my family's eight man tent for the three of us, but it gave lots of room for both the air mattress and Benjamin's pack & play, where he slept great all by himself all night long! What a good boy! He did sleep with about 6 layers on, as well as a winter hat and quilt. And although he peed through about 4 of those layers by morning (that was fun), his toes stayed nice and toasty warm, so I still call that success!! And with the entire Pilot filled to the brim we still managed to forget pillows, one of I think TWO things Emily (Jonathan's sister) told us to remember. And she was right. Bunched up clothes are NOT the same!

We had so much fun we just might go again before the summer is over. ;-) (No really, we do want to go again!)

So I may have a confession to make...

So consider this a spoiler alert if you haven't seen the movie, but Jonathan and I went a few weeks ago to see this movie:

LOVED IT!! SO much fun! It really does make you feel nostalgic for your childhood... I guess that's when you can turn around and appreciate being a parent, and experiencing that part of life all over again and in a new way. :-)

So that wasn't the confession though. (Are you kidding, I'm PROUD we went to see it! We had a blast!) But remember poor Lotsa's story? The one about being abandoned, forgotten, and ultimately replaced by his child? The story of how he became all scarred and twisted?

Well, earlier this year we all went to participate at this event:

And only as we were finishing the walk and back to the Gateway did we realize that Benjamin's monkey was missing. This is the monkey he naps with, sleeps with at night, carries into the grocery store, hugs all day long, and drags around by the tail. Gone. No good. He had been holding him in the stroller and apparently had pitched him overboard without us noticing!

So yeah... we probably could have done the walk again to try and find him... instead we stopped at Smith's Marketplace on the way home and bought not one, but TWO replacement monkeys, so that next time he lost his money we'd have another one handy.

Aren't we horrible? I actually hadn't given it a second thought until we saw the movie, and then I felt GUILTY!! Oh, sad. Normally "spare monkey" live in the back closet, but these are some cute pictures I took one morning when Benjamin found not one, but TWO monkeys to carry around and play with!! You should have seen him, he was SO EXCITED!! These pictures don't do it justice. ;-)

So yes, I'll have to claim responsibility for the next Toy Story in which the forsaken Benjamonkey joins Lotsa's ranks and they return for revenge.

Underwater swimming!

Look at my swimming boy!! Isn't he so cute?!

Benjamin!!

Okay, it's been two months since I've posted... oops... but it was worth the wait, because here are some CUTE CUTE pictures my fabulous best friend Jenny took of Benjamin a few weeks ago!! Click on the Barrus Photography link on the right side of my blog to connect to their studio. I seriously think she did a fabulous job getting all of these funny expressions!! LOVE IT!! (More posts to come soon!)

Jack and Benjamin :-) (Again... just get used to it!)

We went grocery shopping, and kuddos to Cielle and everyone out there with TWINS!! I mean, it wasn't THAT bad, but I only had both of them for the afternoon! ;-)

They also spent some time rolling around on this blanket together, which I thought was cute:

So, they were great for most of the afternoon, just happy and playing, but for a good 15 minutes they were all anxious with each other! I'd get them calm and playing and one of them would start screaming, and then the other one, (who had been playing happily) would see the first one screaming, and THEY would start screaming! They kept taking turns getting all upset that the other one was upset! Gosh, poor kiddos. ;-) As I was sitting on the floor holding them both, I looked down and just couldn't resist pausing for a minute to get this picture, aren't I mean? Cause it seriously makes me laugh!! It's just so SAD!! Don't worry, after some loving we got everyone happy again! We love having you come play Jack!! We're going to miss you this summer!!

Easter Egg Hunting

Benjamin's 1st Easter Egg Hunt, how did he get this BIG?! It's just going too fast for me. (He LOVED carrying around his basket, he carried it around for most of April until I put it away downstairs until next year. ;-)

Poor kiddo, it was cold outside, and those gloves made it hard to pick up the slippery eggs, but he did it!

Daddy and Benjamin hunting:

Swim Lessons! :-)

Benjamin and I have SO much fun going to swim lessons twice a week! He does a private lesson with a teacher and a parent/tot class with me. The idea is that eventually Benjamin learns to roll over in the water and float on his back should he ever fall into water, and in the meantime we just have lots of fun getting used to going under the water and splashing around! These pictures are from the parent/tot class we went to about a week ago.

Okay, so you have to be patient with the video, this is the first time I've ever attempted to put one together! Thank goodness Jonathan was able to help me with it!

(Question for you all, our camcorder spent most of it's time at the pool having a shutter panic-attack, where it would open and close repeatedly every other second. It did the same thing with the snow, I assume due to reflection? Anyone know how to fix that in the future?)

Okay, here you go, I think this is super cute. ;-)

This 1st picture is one of my favorites, it was actually taken towards the end of the lesson, proving that Benjamin really does like his swim lessons!

Benjamin getting used to the water in his little baby wet suit. Despite the pool being kept around 90 degrees, Benjamin would be cold and shivering half way through his lessons! Poor kiddo is just about 7th percentile for weight and just doesn't have enough body fat to keep him warm! So the wet suit has actually helps. :-)

Benjamin floating, he usually doesn't love this part, but this week he started to relax and wasn't crying!! Success!

This is the "humpty dumpty" game, where we sing a song and then all the babies jump off the wall...

And down into the water!

Yea Benjamin!! :-) He actually doesn't mind going under the water at all, he does great!

Learning to kick in the water:

Another round of humpty-dumpty:

See?! Happy Benjamin! ;-)

More floating, Benjamin still has his lion toy:

In the water Benjamin (I'm humming, disregard the funny expression, we're trying to teach him to close his mouth and hum when he going under water instead of trying to swallow all the pool water... yuck! It's kinda working...):

He is actually looking at a toy that is off to the left...

All done! Just rinsing off, he's so stinking CUTE!!! Look at those baby legs, I love them!!