Lake Powell!!!

We spent the week after the 4th of July at Lake Powell with my family.  Sadly, this meant that we missed ALL firework shows.  Kind of a bummer.  Moab celebrates on the 4th, Sunday or no....and everywhere else in the state (Powell included) celebrates on the 3rd when the holiday falls on a Sunday.  So, sadly....no fireworks for us.  But....if I had to trade a firework show for an extra day at the Lake.....HELLO!  Of course I would.

And apparently I did.  :)

Oh....the love I have for this place!  My mom and I counted, and there are a total of only 4 years of my life I have not spent a vacation there.  SO many memories.....

The maiden voyage of the traditional slip-n-slide

Robbie and Clay look SO happy...

I love Mills.  Thanks to her ridiculously large vocabulary, Dax finally started to string some words together by the end of the week.  Our stubborn son just needed the encouragement from a cute girl (even if it is his cousin) to progress.  I wonder if this is a sign of things to come?

Sweaty/wet baby and Daddy.  They look so happy!

Dax loved the slide this year. 

Ok....he loved it AFTER the first time down.

"A boat-car!"

Surprisingly, he wore the sunglasses and bandanna without too much of a fight.

When we would go to the marina to get ice, Dax liked to be super-helpful and push the "car" so PaMa wouldn't have to work so hard.

Whenever we couldn't see him directly, it was typically because he was hiding in Clay and Jen's closet.  

It was very intriguing apparently.  He spent a lot of time in there!

When we would discover where he was, he would run to the door and laugh hysterically as he would attempt to shut it on me.

Our friendly little boy would wave at each passing boat.

"Hi!  Boat!"

I could squish him.

He also liked to get stuck behind the couches.

Until he realized he was stuck.

Then, he got really mad.

Dax learned "Ring Around the Rosie" from his cousins and LOVED to play it.

By the end of the week, he was singing it on his own:

"Wosie....Wosie....DOWN!"

Tessa is too stinkin' cute!

Could she BE any cuter?

Dax and Tessa bonding while the non-pregnant adults took the slide down.

Rylee was upset she couldn't be in the water while her mommy and daddy were taking care of the slide.

Dax loved to drive the boat.  As long as no one was helping him.  

He also liked to honk the horn, trailer the engine, and turn on the bilge pump.

Lightning McQueen enjoyed the trip as well.

Tessa's signature face.

The other is the stink eye.

Only no one has gotten a picture of it yet.  But trust me....it's pretty stinky.

As we were loading up to go home, a huge squall hit, making loading the cars all that much more fun.

The thunder was a little loud for the little guy.

Just waiting for Daddy to bring the car down.

Such a great trip.  I HATE leaving, and am looking forward to the next time.

Attempted Camping Trip Numero Uno

We attempted a camping trip up the mountain with Jeff, Nicole, and Sydney Cornelius over the 4th of July weekend.  The trip started out great...

Dax highly enjoyed running around the hill, chasing Sydney all over the place yelling "Simmee!  Simmee!"

Robbie enjoyed being manly with his knives. 

Dax was TERRIFIED of Rio the dog for, oh....about three minutes.  Then, he followed Rio around, trying to pet him the rest of the time.  He especially liked to try to capture Rio's tail.

...and bond with Rio by laying on his comfy (and super-clean) bed.  I was super-proud.

Unfortunately, when bedtime came, Dax didn't like the idea of actually going to sleep.  Being in a camper next to mommy and daddy with "Simmee" in the room also was a little too much for him to sort through, and he eventually got taken to the car in the middle of the night to try to get him to calm down.  After watching Toy Story 2 TWICE, and noticing that it was then nearly 5 am....I went back into the camper and told Robbie we needed to go. 

As much fun as we would have had the next day WITH sleep....we figured that a nearly-two-year-old with ZERO sleep, a pregnant mommy with ZERO sleep, and a daddy with only a couple of hours of sleep wouldn't be very good company....even with understanding friends. 

So....we packed up and headed home. 

In true Dax fashion, he continued to talk to us until we were within 5 minutes of our house, at which point he finally closed his eyes and conked out. 

We did enjoy the sunrise, however! 

Hopefully, next time we try camping, we'll have a place for him to hang out and fall asleep all by his little lonesome.  That way, maybe we would enjoy the next day!

Dax's Favorite Game

So funny....

Hill Aerospace Museum

After our trip to Bear Lake, we had some time to kill, so we thought that Dax would enjoy the Hill Aerospace Museum.  He DID!  The blurry pictures are no mistake.  He was so excited, I couldn't get a good picture with my phone....and since the good camera's battery was still dead, it's the best I could do.  

We tried our hardest to teach him how to say "airplane"....but it was difficult considering they had wheels.  Anything with wheels is a car, you see.  :)

Walking through there and being reminded of the incredible sacrifice made by our military was kind of a spiritual experience.  I am so thankful to live in a free country, and all that that entails.  There are so many reasons to be grateful to these incredible men and women who have fought so that we could be free.

I wish we could have attended the recent air show.  I think that Dax would have loved it, but this served as a great second option!

Bear Lake with the Allreds

A few weeks ago, we went up to Bear Lake with Robbie's family.  We have been staying at a great cabin that somehow manages to fit twelve adults (three of which are pregnant.  'Nuff said.) and sixteen grandchildren.  It's really quite the place.  We spent all our time sleeping, laughing, eating, wading in the lake (40° water isn't all that rad when it's only 65° in the air), having the annual "Movie Night" (thanks, Sara!), and just plain having a good time!

The crappy thing is, that we realized we had left the cord for the camera charger somewhere, and we still don't know where that somewhere is.  Therefore, we have NO pictures of the entire weekend.  SO crappy.

However, I did manage to steal this photo from Eric Dowdle's website.  Every year, we do a puzzle of some sort.  When we FINALLY finished this puzzle the afternoon before we came home, we jointly decided that it either needed to be burned or framed.  It was the most difficult puzzle I, personally, had ever participated in completing.  It. Was. Completely. Ridiculous.

Belated Birthday Post

So, this one time, I poked a little fun at Robbie for not being able to keep any secrets.

So, he got me this for my birthday:

Well, not LITERALLY this, but he took me to visit it!

So, please indulge me, as we take a short trip through Monument Valley, Utah.

And here....well....here, we pulled over the car and bought a new necklace and earrings from a nice Native American man who makes jewelry.  I like to call it my M&M necklace.  It looks like a strand of speckled green M&Ms.  Mmmmm...

And this is where we stayed.  

Look closely.

There really is a hotel on the cliff.

Look familiar?  Yeah....we thought so too!

Ever wonder why they call it Mexican Hat, Utah?

Wonder no more.

And this little cutie was along for the whole ride!  What a champ.

The view from the front of the hotel.

Robbie never met a piece of dead wood he didn't like.  

Even HE agrees that is an accurate statement.  

He just told me.

We got breakfast at the hotel restaurant before heading back to Moab.   

This was our view.  

Wow.

My hubby is the kewlest.

The AWESOME Award

It's very prestigious, and difficult to be nominated. Don't be fooled, not just ANY person can be awesome enough to score this one. But, for next time, I'll clue you in to how I did it:

1. Wake up "super" early to get a good start on the day (like, say, 5:20 am).

2. Carefully pack and prepare everything you need for a ten-day trip to Salt Lake City, making sure very specific items needed for certain events are included.

3. Be sure to pack your son's items in the same bag for ease.

4. Wait until your cute child wakes up for the day to finish packing his items, so as not to wake him prematurely.

5. Zip closed the bags and place them by the car to be put in the back when you grab the keys.

6. Grab the last few items upstairs as you hear your son tumble the ENTIRE way down the stairs, only to be stopped by the baby gate at the bottom.

7. Calm him down and lovingly place him in his carseat with a sippie cup full of milk.

8. Pull out and head to SLC three hours earlier than intended.

9. Feel proud of yourself.

10. Make it to your son's doctor's appointment 30 minutes early so as to properly take care of paperwork and insurance.

11. Be told by the doctor that your son has a pretty awesome ear infection, and that he will conveniently send the prescription on to pharmacy of choice.

12. Meet my cute little sis and mom to help said cute sis out while she packs to move to Connecticut later this month.

13. Head out to grab the prescription (in addition to one of my own) before the pharmacy closes.

14. Be told by the pharmacy that the prescription has not been called in yet, and deal with subsequent pharmacy/insurance issues for over two full hours.

15. Find out, that when all is said and done, that the insurance didn't work anyway, but you wasted two hours of your life for a measly $7.56.

16. Take dinner to your hungry family, eagerly anticipating your return with Costco pizza.

17. Get your son put to bed in a fairly timely manner.

18. Have Erica cut your hair.

19. Come to understand that 18+ good things you accomplished in the day will never make up for the fact that you left your suitcase in the garage in Moab.

The Lake

Making eyes at PaPa (grandpa)

Keagan, Rylee, and Tyler

Naptime when Dax knows people are out there....

Daddy and fuzzy

Fuzzy playing with baby Tessa

Tired Eyes

Does it get any better than this?