Bounceville USA

Ok, so I am a bum-but I have really good friends :) so just click the title and you'll see where we went for a recent adventure. THANK YOU, AMARON!!

Trunk or Treat

So, here is the ONE picture Grant gave me permission to take-He only had time for one-he was on his way to the cupcake walk & in a hurry to get there. I did try to get a second shot in, but he reminded he said-one.













Should we tell her he bites?!?!




















Here is Grant trying to devour his 1st cupcake before he can win a second one . . . .

Our friends in their AWESOME costumes-really CHECK them OUT!!!

Yesterday

Yesterday, I asked Jared if the baby in my tummy was a girl or a boy. He responded, "a guwl." I proceeded to ask him what he thought we should name the baby-his answer, "Daddy." Never saw that one coming! :) Got love it.

Disney World!!!

Yes it’s been almost a month since we’ve been to Disney World and we’re just now posting about it, sorry!

Maggi planned for what seemed like weeks for this trip and I remember getting concerned about the amount of time she was spending on it. Well I can say the planning paid of as we had a wonderful time. It was great to get away and spend time together as a family and have fun.

Some things we learned on the trip:

· Jared can go the distance! We did not take strollers, nor did we rent them in the parks. Yes it may sound cruel but we made the boys walk the whole time and they did much better than we expected. We were so glad that we didn’t have to lug around a bunch of extra gear as we traveled between parks! They usually lasted until about dusk and then we’d start giving them piggy-back rides which was fine unless they fell asleep! The crazy thing is that we saw 8 and 9 year old kids being pushed around by their parents!

· Grant is a baby in a big boy body. We went to one of those shows with the 3D glasses and about 15 seconds into the show Grant started screaming at the top of his lungs. He was totally freaked out by the stuff flying out of the screen and he never forgot it. Anytime we started to walk into a theater (or any dark place) he would start running in the other direction screaming about stuff jumping out at him. We usually had to haul him in potato sack style and hug him tight as the show started so that he wouldn’t get too scared. Even the fireworks (which we’ve seen plenty of time before) we too scary for him on this trip!

· I’ll never grow a beard. I forgot my electric shaver so I went without shaving during the trip and I looked like one of those kids in high school that wanted to grow a beard but couldn’t. Oh well.

· We can’t eat as much as we thought. We got the fancy meal plan and we loved having it! We quickly learned however that there was no way that we could eat every meal on the plan. We started using all our meal points that we started accumulating after a few days to eat at the fancy restaurants where 2 meal points equaled 1 of their meals. This was great as we got to enjoy some Disney fine dining. My personal favorites were the Tusker House in the Animal Kingdom (side item sampler heaven!) the German restaurant in Epcot and Ohana in the Polynesian Resort. (Grant loved that one because the waitress kept refilling his juice and he finished 5 cups of that stuff!)

We also got a chance to visit the Orlando Temple while we were there which was great because the boys had never been to one before.

Christmas in July

IT REALLY WORKED-we even had unseasonally cool weather! It was lots of fun.

This morning when Grant woke up the first thing he said-after asking for food of course was-"That Christmas was great. . . fun. I really like throw marshmallows at Dad - then I eat them."

We read the story of the "first Charlie Brown Christmas Tree"

Decorated one!

Had a SNOWBALL fight -in July, mind you . . .

The critics gave it a "thumbs-up"!!!! HURRAY!!!!!!!!

As we departed everyone got to take home some "M&M ornaments" & a special envelope for each family-with a very small Christmas gift enclosed. Needless to say it was fun, fun, fun!

Memorial Day Picnic

So, a friend of ours was kind enough to share his "Jeep" with the kids at the picnic. Needless to say Grant LOVED it, as evidenced by the perma-grin you will see in the following shots. It was so much fun to watch, I don't think he has ever enjoyed any one thing as much as he did riding around the park in a Jeep just his size.

Camping on Mother's Day weekend

This was our first campout of the year and we knew we found a good place to camp when we had to drive through 2 feet of water across a rocky stream to get to the campsite! We setup our borrowed tent promptly and when we finished I noticed that the tent cover didn't stick out over the door like it should, it just hung there about halfway down the front door. I figured out that we were missing a part but didn't worry too much as it looked good enough to sleep in! We roasted fancy chicken apple sausages and had s'mores afterwards and topped it off with juicy juice. What a great night! We cozied up in the tent and were telling stories to each other as we started to hear a thunderstorm quickly approaching us. Within minutes it was dropping buckets on our humble tent and it wasn't long before I had wished I had that extra part to hold the tent cover out over the door. A small river started to form at the front door and that river spread quickly through the tent soaking our sleeping bags. I had no choice but to pack up the boys in the back of the SUV and try to sleep there for the night. As soon as I stepped outside I noticed that not only was it raining but small 1/3" pieces of hail were gathering on the ground around us! Could it get any worse. By the time I got the boys in the car and everything situated I was soaked and exhausted. I probably got about a total of an hour of sleep that night but all my troubles were forgotten when Grant sat up at about 6:00am and exclaimed "What a great nap!" We had breakfast a short time later and then hiked to a great set of waterfalls. Upon arrrival to the falls Grant exclaimed, "That's what I'm talking about!" (we were watching the falls where this picture was taken. Yes I look tired because I was!) After we spent the morning hiking we played soccer while our tent and sleeping bags dried out in the sun. After a short lunch I loaded the boys up and we drove back though the now 2 1/2 foot stream. After we forded the stream a few extra times for fun the boys fell asleep and I watched them in my rearview mirror as they clutched their sippy cups all the way home. Good times!

Just a Typical Day at Our Home

Hey! I'm guarding the baked goods . . . if anybody asks.

They are looking sooo delicious!

I looove cookies!

Gotta make sure my tire pressure is good before our trip

Who needs Luke Skywalker-I'll be your hero!

As you can see, we are professionals, please don't try this at home.

Blocks, anyone?. . . no, well, how about "BUCKET HEADS"?

I'm in the cabinet again!!!! & no, I dont' know where your food processor is! (now, we all know you don't mess with Mom's expensive TOOLS) yeah, right!

Dad, this is NOT a tractor-it's a BUS! (this is serious business)

Mom! STOP looking at us-GET that camera OUT of our FACE!

Grant is singing "Wheels on the Bus" -they are going round & round in this shot.

Jared, let's DRIVE this bus.

Look, we caught one of those rare "quiet" moments-it's a MIRACLE!

Mom, Mom, Mom, look at me (I'm a big boy)

OK, so maybe Grant is a little too comfortable being in front of the camera?

Hey, look at us-we are HIDING!





Well, typical . . . nothing is typical at our house but here's some stuff the boys enjoy.

Grant's 1st Soccer Game

So, it was April 19, 2008 a COLD & misty morning in the mountains-not so cold and misty that we couldn't play soccer, though! Just so you know the funniest part was when Grant scored his goal, he was trying soooo hard not to smile (I cannot figure out why-but it was funny)

RUN, boys, RUN

This is my ball & NO you can't have it. I need it to score a goal

This is Grant's decoy-he is only posing as a goalie.

There's the post goal celebration! Look how excited Coach Tommy is!

Here's the "I am not going to smile, I am not going to smile"

Oh, but look at that -the smile ESCAPES!!!! It appears that he does like playing soccer after all!

Hope you are all doing well!!!! & if you want to come see a game -some are at 10am on Sat. (the others are at 9am & I don't even want to get there by then-so if you are looking for something to do one morning-come join us! It's lots of FUN!!!!)

Hiking at HardTimes Trail

Last Saturday we took a little hike as a family-after making homemade granola chunks (they didn't quite stay in bars-but, hey, it happens!) The boys LOVED being outside and allowed to THROW rocks into the water and play with sticks and "go fishing". Life is so simple right now-I'm loving it-hopin' it'll last forever! (esp. during nap time :)) Anyways! Just wanted to share a couple pix of our outting.

ROCKS!!!

Feel the load, get ready for lift off . . .

Do you see the leaf?

Hey, Jared, check this out! We can make the water SPLASSSSSSSSHHHHHH!

FISHING!!!!

I love how Brian catches the "most complementary angles" -I especially like to use them as the desktop wallpaper on the home computer