Walking

Jace has started walking!!! He doesnt' like to perform for the camera though, so I've only caught a few steps on video. I still can't get video to work on blogger so you just get a cute pic.

He actually started last Tuesday, August 18th. He took 6 steps. Now I can't remember if "walking" is defined as 5 or 10 steps. If it's 10 then he officially walked today! He also has finally figured out how to go down the stairs.

Ribbon Frames

Last night (before Jace woke up) I spent working on baby shower and Christmas gifts (I know, kinda early). I made a ribbon frame for my cousin who is having a girl. I got this idea from "Good Things Utah". I'm addicted to the show, mostly for the great ideas I get.

The idea can be used to either make a hair bow holder or to weave pictures in it. All you do is take a picture frame, remove the backing and glass, put tacky tape on 2 of the inside lips (on opposite sides), put your strips of ribbon in and pull them tight, replace glass then backing ( I put a piece of white paper behind to hide the brown of the backing, but you could paint it or use scrapbook paper). It turned out really cute, the hair clips aren't hard to make either.

I'm sending it down to St. George with my mom next week to take to my cousin, I doubt that I'll be able to go down any time soon.

A "Craptastic" Day at the Aviary

My sister-in-law described her day as "craptastic", sometimes that's how I feel too. So I thought I'd plaguerize her saying to describe our trip to the Tracy Aviary (at least part of it).
I seriously don't understand how it can take 20 minutes (or more) to leave the house when everything was ready an hour prior to departure. The diaper bag packed, lunch bag ready. We were just waiting for Jace to wake up from his morning nap so we could leave. Yet it still took much longer than expected to leave.

Not that we were in a hurry, it just took forever.

On the way down we were in the commuter lane, cruise control set at 71 mph, a good distance behind a motorcyclist. All of a sudden he starts looking back at us, slams on his brakes and flips us off. Then he speeds up, slams on his brakes again and moves over into the left shoulder of the freeway, we had to swerve to get around him.

A few minutes later we are being pulled over by the highway patrol because a car in the far right lane (behind us) thought that we were trying to pass the motorcycle while in the HOV lane. Luckily the officer believed us and talked the motorcycle guy out of giving us a citation.

Lesson to be learned: Stay AWAY from motorcycles!!!

We had a pretty good time at the Aviary until at the end of the bird show Levi started to be naughty. He has recently started spitting, I don't know where he picked that up, but he spit and almost hit a guy in the back. He was of course disciplined but it just makes me so frustrated!


Finally we headed home and the boys went down for naps.

The rest of the day was uneventful until Jace woke up at 10:30 p.m. and just wanted to be held all night. Guess how much sleep I got?

Davis County Fair

Last Saturday, Aug 15th, we took the boys to the Davis County Fair after naptimes. We thought that it would be a fun way to spend time with the boys after being gone all week. It was a great deal too. Entrance to the fair was free and parking was only $1 if you brought 2 cans of food. (of course the rides, toys and fair food add up quickly).

They had a petting area where you could feed the animals, pet them, and Levi even got to milk a cow (with help of course).

Jace had a good time seeing all the animals.

Rick and I enjoyed the funnel cakes (Levi thought it was pretty good too, but who doesn't like fried breading mixture with sugar, chocolate, caramel, etc all over it?). Levi was pretty excited to get a little toy horse.

There is nothing like seeing unabashed joy on the face of your child as he is spinning around in a circle or jumping in a bounce house.

The best part of the day is when you look at your boys, know that they are happy and that they are friends.

Vegas, baby, Vegas

As I said in my last post, Rick and I were going to Las Vegas to see Phantom of the Opera Spectacular! It was AWESOME!!!

Let me just say my hubby did real good (I know, fantastic english). He surprised me back in June for my birthday with these tickets as a combo gift for my birthday and our anniversary (tomorrow will be 8 years!). He did all the planning and I just had to pack and find somewhere for the kids to stay. Our good friends the Blass' offered to take them for 4 days, 3 nights. We owe them...

We stayed at the Stratosphere, I would highly recommend it. It was really nice there because there was a lot to do without having to go through the casino much. Also it is at the north end of the strip and so it wasn't as busy, as well as convenient access to the freeway.

We got there Tuesday night and got checked in, walked around to check out the place and had some dinner. Wednesday we slept in!!! Then we bought an all-day buffet (one price, go whenever you want) so we ate there for the day. Following breakfast (at 11 a.m., gotta love sleeping in) we went up to the top of the Stratosphere to ride the rides. We got an all day pass there also. They have 3 rides, the Big Shot, the X-Scream, and the Insanity. NEVER, EVER go on those rides in the heat of the day after eating (let alone a buffet).

Our first mistake was to ever go on the Insanity. It has 5 arms that hold 2 people each and then starts to spin as in moves you over the edge of the tower so that you are looking down about 1000 feet to the ground. Not for acrophobics, but also not for anyone who wants to keep their lunch.

After the Insanity (aptly named) we had to go in where there was some air and get our equilibrium back, as well as let our stomachs settle.

Next we went on the X-Scream, much more fun. It is like a little rocket that shoots you off the side and then after a pause over the edge... it drops a few more feet so that you are looking down about 900 feet to the ground. The front seat is fantastic!

Our favorite ride by far was the Big Shot. You start at about 1000 feet up and then the thing rockets you up another 180 feet before free-falling up and down a few times. It's similar to the one at Lagoon, only a million times scarier. The following pics give you an idea of how it was.

We went on X-Scream and Big Shot several times (once was too many for Insanity). Then we took a nap, oh the luxury. That afternoon we went to the IMAX and saw Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. The first 20 minutes were 3-D which was pretty cool. Following dinner and another nap we headed back up to the rides. They were super cool at night. We must have rode the Big Shot 7 or 8 times.

Thursday we went to the pool and then shopping to the Outlet Mall. It was more a mall than an outlet. But after Rick had been there 1 1/2 hours I decided that he'd probably had enough shopping (he made it 88 minutes more than he usually does). After yet another nap we went to the Roxy Diner (at the Stratosphere), it was a 50's type diner and had fantastic burgers and fries. The strawberry milkshakes were yummy too. They had some live entertainment, one of the waitresses sang to a couple that had just gotten married 2 hrs before and she was great.

Then we headed to the Venetian for the main event...

The Phantom of the Opera Spectacular

Before the show started we walked around the Venetian and saw the living statues, the Grand Canal (with gondola rides), and watched one of their shows while eating gellati. It wasn't exactly the same as it was in Venice but it was close.

The Phantom was AMAZING...I can't even begin to describe how good the show was so I won't try. We had a great time.

Following the show we walked around for a bit and then headed back to the hotel. Friday morning we headed home and though we were anxious to get back to the boys, we certainly are going to miss our naps, staying up late and sleeping in.

Rick, Thank you for such a great surprise and a much needed vacation.

Summer Update

Wow, I can't believe what a slacker I have been. My last post was May 30th, oops. I check out other people's blogs but don't update my own. So here goes...Summer has been busy for us. We have been enjoying our Tracy Aviary pass. We have gone to the zoo a few times and been able to invite TeeMarie in June, Cecily and the kids in July, and my friend Erin and her kids just a couple days ago. We have had amazing weather every time we've gone and it has not been too hot thankfully. Jace's favorite past-time is pulling all the bibs and kitchen towels out of the drawer...at least it's quieter than pots and pans!

Over Father's Day weekend we drove up to Bear Lake for Fri and Sat for the boys to play in a Father's Day golf tournament. The boys took 5th or 6th place and my dad won a shirt for closest ball to the hole. I hear that the shot he made hit a golf path and took a couple hops toward the pin. It was nice to relax and let the boys play with their cousins.

At the beginning of July we went to the Aviary for a member's only night and got a little tour. During the tour a bird trainer came up and showed us a horned owl that had imprinted (meaning it thinks it's human). The bird began begging making a sound that Levi immediately imitated (and sounded just like the bird). Usually owls make a hoo-hoo sound but when it was begging it made a aaa-ooo sound. Our group stood there and was entertained for several minutes by Levi and the owl. The next morning Levi wanted some of my breakfast and began making the owl begging sound, it took me a minute to figure out what he was doing. He's a sharp little guy.

Levi has been super funny lately. I've been trying to keep track of some of his sayings. Here are a few... At our nephew's wedding his Uncle David asked "Levi, what are you doing" Levi replied "I being good." A few days later Levi grabbed Rick by both cheeks and said "Look at me when I'm talking to you" On the 4th of July he was saying good-bye to Grandma Cook and said "you go home, sleep all night, you get money, yeah" (Yes, we bribe our child to sleep all night) Just tonight Levi brought an apple to Rick and asked him to take the wrapper off (the skin?!?). We get a kick out of both our boys. Just the last week Jace has been scrunching up his nose and breathing hard through it. It is one of the funniest things I've ever seen. When I try to get it on video he won't perform.

On the 4th of July we helped TeeMarie move in to her new home in Woods Cross, just a few weeks prior Jared and Tera bought a house in Washington Terrace. Wow, we are all adults now. It's hard to believe that my baby brother is as big as he is, this Sept. they are having baby #2, another boy. My poor mother is granddaughter deprived. Jared's boy will make 7 boys and only 1 girl in the grandchildren department.

After helping Tee move the majority of the day we brought the boys home for naps and then met our friends Erin and Nate and kids for the fireworks at Fisher Park. Jace was amazed and totally captivated by the fireworks, Levi was scared and hid on various adult laps. He started to enjoy them the last few minutes.

Our next adventure was to Yellowstone National Park for the Cook family reunion. We stayed at my parents timeshare condo in West Yellowstone, MT. It was so nice!!! Levi got a little beat up every day scraping some body part or another. We didn't see any bears but did see a lot of bison and a few elk. It was crazy how close you could get to the bison. We stayed >100ft away at all times but some people were within 10 ft. We got there on Thursday, the reunion was Friday at a park and then spent Saturday with Rick's brothers David and Jon and their families at the geysers and hot springs near Old Faithful. I'd been there before but don't remember seeing all of the other geysers. Sunday we drove to see the Upper and Lower Falls before heading home.

On the 24th of July we had some friends over for dinner and then lit fireworks in the driveway. The kids had a good time.

That's an update on our recent activity. I'll try to update more often.

Rick and I are leaving Tues through Fri for Las Vegas...alone. I'm a little nervous to leave the boys that long (our first time ever to both be gone overnight). We are going to see Phantom of the Opera Spectacular!!! We're looking forward to sleeping in, laying by the pool and not having to plan our day around naptimes.