Vacations are relaxing...right?

So in July we made a semi-last minute decision to go to Idaho for John's family reunion. We haven't been in a couple years so we thought it would be fun. We also always try to fit in some golf time with John's Uncle Jerry. Then we thought, hey, why not make a trip to Yellowstone while we're at it. We figured we can't go there for a couple years after baby #2 comes, so why not?

So off we were. We left on a Wednesday after I got off work to head to Salt Lake (a 9 hour drive). While there John would fit in his golf time with Uncle Jerry and Tyler and I got to hang out with Auntie Angie and cousins Zach and Nathan. Tyler and Zach get along pretty well and he's just old enough that Tyler looks up to him so he's a good influence on Tyler. We went to the Children's Museum and it was so much fun for the 3 boys. Then later that same night we loaded up and went to the most awesome rec center. Tyler loves to swim, and this is the best place to go for swimming and fun!!

Friday afternoon when the boys got done golfing we headed to Idaho for the family reunion (a 5 hour drive). The reunion was at John's Aunt Vonda's cabin in the mountains near a big lake. We camped out in her cabin front yard for two nights. It's always fun to hang out with the Idaho family that we don't see that often. Though it was really HOT up there, for being by a lake.

We stayed in Idaho until Sunday morning when we headed out to Yellowstone (a 7 hour drive). We left the family reunion at around 10:30 in the morning and got to our campsite at about 6:30 that night. We did tent camp in Yellowstone...which is a little scary. Our camp neighbors had two dogs and I figured if anything scary came into our campsite they would let us know first. We saw so many cool things in Yellowstone and we were so glad we decided to make that part of our trip. When we checked in to our campsite, the lady told John that a bear had been spotted in the area for the past 5 nights. Luckily, we didn't ever see him. Though we did get to see a bear while we were driving one day...that was really cool...especially from the safety of the truck window.

As if we hadn't done enough traveling we came home on Tuesday and unloaded the truck and then got up at 6 the next morning to head up Cheyenne, WY. Every year, they have a free airshow on the last Wednesday of Cheyenne Frontier Days. We almost didn't go because we were so tired, but then we were so glad we did. Tyler loved the airplanes, and of course, so did John. The other good part is that the show is completely free. You just have to get up there early enough to get a good spot!

All in all, we were tired and worn out from vacation, but it was so nice to get away as a family. Plus, we got to do so many fun things and see people we love that we don't see that often. Though home was comforting when we finally arrived.

Hope you enjoy the slideshow!

Happy Independence Day

We had a great day this year. John was off and we just hung out together in the morning. We stopped by his parent’s house for a bit to see his mom who had broken her arm the Thursday before. Then we hung out with some great friends (the Garrison’s) and then met my family at Benedict Park in Brighton to watch the fireworks, as is our family tradition. Brighton started the fireworks late (as usual) but once they got going they were pretty good.

At our friend Brycen and Johna’s house, they set off some fireworks for the kids. I’m not sure who had more fun, the dad’s lighting the fireworks or the kids watching them. Pretty sure the dad’s win!! Though the kids thought it was pretty great too.

FYI, Tyler’s friend Gianna (Gigi) decided a few weeks ago that she was going to marry Tyler because he’s the “best buddy she ever had”. Plus, she wanted to marry her daddy and after her parent’s explained to her that she could only marry someone she wasn’t related to and listing the options she had, Tyler won out. Although, I’m told John was in the running for awhile, but they explained he was already taken...phew...I’m not sure I could have competed with the 4 year old! She’s a cute little blonde!

Tyler and his "wife" Gigi, watching the guys set off fireworks

Tyler, Gigi and John, CHEESE!Yummy candy! Waiting for it to get dark enough for fireworks

Oooh, aaah

part of the finale...one of the better pictures

The Joys (and stresses) of parenthood...

So a quick story about our little monkey. On Monday this week (June 15) Tyler and I bought John and his crew some ice cream and decided to visit them after we ate dinner to deliver the surprise. Shortly after we got there, John offered Tyler a cookie that had been sent by a grateful citizen. Tyler took the cookie and after about 5 minutes and two bites, he started coughing. We thought maybe he had swallowed wrong so John offered him some juice. Tyler drank it up, but no use. Then he said, "Mommy, I need some benadryl for my mouth." John suggested that I take him home to give him some benadryl since I hadn't brought the diaper bag with us.

At this point, Tyler was coughing a lot and starting to wheeze when he breathed. I told John I didn't want to take him home because he sounded really bad and I would rather be at the station with him if something happened. After trying to figure out what was up for about 10 minutes and Tyler telling John "his breath hurt" we made the decision that we would take him home, give him benadryl and then I would call John 15 minutes after giving it to him and if his symptoms weren't better we would go to the ER. By the time we got Tyler loaded in the Jeep, John decided it was best not to take him home, that we should just go to the ER.

That ended up being the best decision after all. Tyler was a good little patient and let them take his blood pressure and other various tests, and never fought with them. Then when they wanted to listen to his lungs he breathed deep for them, still no complaints. Though he did tell the Dr and two nurses that he had gone to the station and ate a cookie. I think that was to say thats how he ended up at the hospital.

After being examined, the Dr decided that it was indeed some sort of food allergy (though we have no clue what exactly was in that cookie) and they dosed Tyler up with Benadryl, epinephrine and prednisone. The benadryl made him sleepy and the epinephrine made him bouncy so he was like a yo-yo for the rest of the night. He sat on the bed on his knees and just bounced every now and then. Then he would lay down and look like he was going to fall asleep.

Tyler is completely back to normal now, but that was quite a scare. We now have to make a visit to the lady who made the cookies to find out what exactly was in the cookies. Then we have to make an appointment with an allergist to make sure we know what he was allergic to. We definitely don't want to go through that again!!

Blizzard, snow and fun!!!

We took a trip up to Breckenridge in April to hang out with John’s friend Jake and his family. Jake was turning 30 and his dad was turning 60, so it was their “90th Birthday weekend.” First of all, when we left town on Friday, we were driving through a terrible blizzard. It was nuts, and you can see from the pictures that it got a little iffy for awhile. Luckily, John is a great driver and they didn’t close the highway until we were safely checked into our hotel. And yes, to answer the question for most of you who are thinking it, we are crazy to still head up there in that weather. But it all worked out and it was so much fun.

Once we were there, it was a lot of fun. John and Jake got to ski on Saturday and they said it was “an epic” day of skiing. Apparently, the wet snow John thought was going to make for a miserable ski day was actually about 30 inches of new powder on the hill. The hotel we were staying in had free sleds and tubes and they told us where to find a free sledding hill. It was an awesome sledding hill and it was a big hit with the kids...who am I kidding, it was a bigger hit with the adults. We spent two afternoons on the hill and it was a blast! Tyler also learned about eating snow. It was clean, fresh snow, the kind you can’t get here because we generally don’t get enough snow. I think every kid should eat snow at least once in their life...and of course, he loved it. He also loved sledding so much that was all he wanted to do for two weeks after we came home. Sadly, there was no snow in Brighton so that just wasn’t possible...maybe next year!

So...here’s a quick slideshow of our trip.

Hippity Hop...Here comes Peter Cotton Tail

So, it’s a bit (well, extremely late) but here are some pictures from Easter this year. This was a really fun year for us because it was the first year Tyler could help with coloring eggs and he was able to do an egg hunt.

John and Tyler did most of the egg coloring, they allowed me to make a few, but it was really their project so I made sure they had what they needed (including going quickly back to the store for more eggs when they decided 10 wasn’t enough) and took pictures. Tyler had a great time and for the most part didn’t end up as colorful as his eggs.

We also went to Logan’s house (aka Kelley and Jay’s) for an easter egg hunt with Logan and his friend Miah (sorry if I misspelled that one!). I wasn’t sure if Tyler would get the whole idea of an Easter egg hunt, but I told him to take his basket and find eggs (fully expecting to have to point out a few to him so he wouldn’t go home empty handed). He said, “Okay mommy”, and ran out into the yard and went crazy. He was so quick at spotting the eggs I was afraid he wouldn’t leave any for the other two kids. It turned out they were pretty evenly split. They had such a great time.

Tyler was jazzed to wake up on Easter morning to find the basket the Easter Bunny had left for him. I think he thought that meant he could have chocolate for breakfast...yeah, right. Though we did turn our backs for just a moment and he used one of the bar stools to climb up on the counter. I heard some rustling and turned around and he was fully behind his basket. It couldn’t have been more than 30 seconds before John was there with him (and of course we had to take his picture) and he had cracked open 3 of his plastic eggs to get the candy out. Crazy kid!

A Day at the Museum

Tyler and I spent the day yesterday with my friends Debby and Kelley and their kids (Sophie and Logan) at the Children's Museum. It was a really fun day. Enjoy the slideshow!

YEAH two...

Anyone who has a 2 year old or older knows that you can have the most perfect, mild mannered child...and then they turn two. For us, two has been a turning point for Tyler. I won’t say that Tyler is bad by any stretch, but he has definitely been testing our patience more often now than ever before. I also won’t say that he was without fault prior to turning two, it's just that now he thinks about it and knows he's doing something to "test" us. So he’s just trying to see if we’ll change our minds after he throws a fit, or if he ignores us enough then we’ll stop calling him or asking him a question...and my favorite, if he pretends not to hear us say he should stop doing something then maybe we’ll decide it’s okay for him to continue to do it.

With all that being said, I have no clue what prompted the time-out from the picture below (any number of two-year-old antics I suppose)...but apparently it was wearing on our poor little guy. He was done crying and when John looked over at him, this is what he saw.

Isn’t it hard to be a two-year-old in this day and age?

The picture below is just one reason I had to break out my child-proof door knob covers recently. A while back Tyler figured out he could stand on things in the pantry and get his own snacks. While this is highly discouraged by John and I, it’s just another twoism that we have discovered.

He was actually stuck and calling me to help him. Just after I took the pictures (through my laughter) he decided he wasn’t waiting for me to help him anymore. He leaned back and put his hands on boxes he had used to step up in the first place and swung his feet out and did some strange backward roll that dislodged him from his precarious situation without hurting himself. It was pretty impressive.

Firefighter in Training

As always, when we visit the fire station, I can’t help taking pictures of Tyler doing things with his daddy. It’s just too cute to resist most of the time! This time was John’s idea. The day before this he had been showing a friend and his kids around the station and they put his daughter in a bunker coat and hat. John wanted to see Tyler in his coat and hat...so here you go.

Daddy has more than big shoes to fill

Always Dance Like Nobody's Watching

Tyler and I have been dancing together since the day he was born. I love to dance...I'm not good at it, but there's just something about letting loose and moving to crazy music to brighten a day. It has always been a way for me to entertain Tyler, even in the grocery store. If we hear a good song, we will do some sort of dance, even if it's just moving our shoulders. I hope he always feels free enough to do that...if you feel the music you have to move!

My Buddy n' Me

So yes, this has taken awhile to blog about, but on February 17th Tyler’s buddy Logan turned 3! It was a fun and exciting day. His birthday party was at the Greeley Rec Center in a small room where the do a tumbling class for kids. Turns out that was the PERFECT place for a 3 year old’s birthday party...who knew??

Tyler and all the other kids had so much fun running and jumping and falling and just being themselves. It was virtually impossible for them to get injured in that room, which was even more awesome.

One last bit of cuteness from this day. Logan's grandma was there, of course, and Tyler heard Logan calling her Grandma. So that's what he called her. At one point he saw her leaving the room and he was running after her saying, "Grandma, wait for me." It was pretty funny, especially since she didn't realize at first that he was talking to her.

Do I have twins? Just thought this picture was cool since the mirrors are so clean it looks that way. Though it's a wonder they are so clean with all those toddlers

Don't know what's funny. But something definitely caught Tyler's eye, wish I could have taken a quick enough picture in the direction of that little pointer...

Tyler and Logan rolling Logan's Aunt Lynsey around in the fun barrell


Birthday Boy Logan!! Happy Birthday buddy!

This became a slide for all the kids...it was so cute!

"I need to swim mommy..."

That is all I heard the entire time I was changing and dressing a very pruny little boy after about two hours worth of dragging his poor daddy all over a swimming pool.

Last Sunday, we were invited to a birthday party at the Apex Center in Arvada. It was so cool. They have an awesome pool and rock climbing and ice skating/hockey and just about anything you can think of.

Tyler was psyched that he got to go swimming. We told him on Friday and that's all he could talk about all weekend. Then, of course, he could see the pool area from the room where the party was, and was glued to the window. He only left the window a couple times to try to escape the room and find his own way down to the pool (since his parents wouldn't take him). Oh, and for cake...but nobody passes up yummy cake, right?

They had a blast, but Tyler was heartbroken that he couldn't stay in the water. Even though his fingers and toes were completely wrinkled and his eyes were bloodshot. He kept saying, "I need to swim mommy, I do, I need to swim." Oh, so sad. We'll have to go again...it was very cool there!!!

That was fun daddy!!! I like the big slide!


splashy water! I LOOOOOVE swimming

look over there...lets go there

No fear whatsoever of the water, just like a pro

Friends...

Tyler and Logan just hangin' out on New Year's day while we wait for John and Jay to wake up...you'd think they were up late or something.

Logan had lined up his chairs and was driving a truck...Tyler, however, was riding a train. So I guess it was a truck-train.

Trying to catch up

I guess I had to have a break...it seems we stay so busy from Thanksgiving through New Years. Then we taper off and don't have much to report. It's been nice though because we don't have things planned during every second of every day right now...phew!!

So some new things to report...Tyler recently started talking about a baby sister. One day he said it at random while we were shopping at Target. The next morning while I was telling John the story about Target, Tyler piped up with, "A baby sister mommy." I said, where are you going to get one. He thought for a minute before saying, "Sophie baby sister." Sophie is our friends 10 month old baby girl...guess he's stealing her guys!! We laughed and figured it was just an idea one of his grandma's put in his head. Then a couple days later, he randomly mentioned a baby sister again. I said, "Oh, you want a baby sister?" He quickly said, "Yeah, go get one." So I don't know if any of you know of a place that sells baby sisters, but we apparently need to find one for Tyler. I'm pretty sure that even when we decide to try for baby #2, it won't end up being a girl...so we'll still have to buy one.

Other than that, we have been very slow around here. Just working a ton and watching our son grow and learn new things to make us laugh every day. Here are a few pictures since Christmas for those of you out-of-towners to enjoy.

Logan, Tyler and Sophie hanging out just before Christmas. It was a fun craft day for us all

Tyler got this super cool hat from the Fire District for Christmas. He loves it and tries to put it on himself. He does a pretty good job

Where is Tyler...we just can't seem to find him. I think he ran off with his vacuum...

Oh, my there he is!!

One of mommy's favorites! Super cute Curious George jams and of course Curious George too...great combo!!