7 weeks in UTAH!!!

This year we were lucky enough to be able to spend most the summer in Utah with our family.  James got a rotation at the University of Utah in the psych department and we lived with my mom and spent LOTS of time with the rest of our family.   Here's a quick recap of the 7 week vacation...

Scott loved hanging out with his cousins.  He's finally getting old enough that he can really appreciate them.  Here is is with my mom and some cousins on my side of the family. (Dallin, Ellie and Katie)

And of course we spent as much time as we could with Scott's best little cousin - Allie Bowler.  Phil was so good to have around as an extra pair of eyes at 7 peaks water park.  We all had season passes this year and we went there as much as we could.

At Liberty Park with my  mom, kim, mimi and more cousins.

Family BBQ up Payson Canyon with the Palmer Clan.

More 7 peaks!

Scott doing his Buzz Light Year face while jumping with Allie.

At the movies to see Cars 2 with grandma Palmer.

Sara and cousin Ilene (they are about 3 months apart).

Carl's Junior Play Place with Aunt Mimi and Family.

Homemade Fondu Night with the Palmers! (Seriously so delicious!)

We decided that this was our summer of sunglasses.  Neither James nor I ever really wear them but this year we felt like they'd be beneficial.  Plus Grandma Palmer got Scott his very own pair of Batman shades.  We all looked so cool all summer long.

James and I on a date night out to a Fake Neil Diamond concert.  Our favorite part was when the police raided the stage because the singer was going past curfew to sing "Sweet Caroline".

Spanish Fork Rodeo!

Mona Days Face Painting

Scott's Batman of course... with cousins Allie and Dustin

Celebrating Grandma Palmer's birthday at the Art City Trolley.

Scott and Allie just being... Scott and Allie

Uncle Ryan is always giving Scott really cool basketball jerseys.  Thanks Ryan!

Out on a summer evening ride.

Fireworks!

Scott felt very cool that he could figure out the spiderman web thrower finger thing.

more scott and allie

Trip to Bear Lake with the Keyser side of the family.

Daddy and Scott out on the boat.

James on the water weenie with Bridger and Dallin.

Scott driving the boat with my mom's "friend" Brent. :)

Me celebrating the fact that i got up skiing after 6way too many tries.  I can't believe i'm so out of shape!!!

my favorite time of the day... diaper changing parties!  these two are so cute when i change their diapers together.  they just play the whole time.  as much as i want scott to be potty trained i will definitely miss this.

Owl's baseball game at UVU with the Palmers.

Scott and Allie eating their hot dogs at the ballgame.

Trip to Park City with the Palmer family. 

Temple day with the Keyser Family.  We all got together to do my grandma's work along with some other family names.  It was a really great experience. (L-R: Brother-in-law Kelly, Sister Steph, James, Natalie, Brother Mike, Sister-in-law Mimi, Mom, Sister Kim)

Our favorite thing was coming down to grandy's room in the morning to cuddle with her. 

Salt Lake Temple Day with Scott and Sara

I wanted Scott to be able to touch the temple.  He always wants to go inside but i've finally convinced him that it will be better to go in when he's "bigger".

Hike to a waterfall with Grandy Keyser.  (not as easy as it looks.)

i love sara's crazy morning hair.  this picture captures it perfectly.

since we were around for a while i was able to see lots of old friends.  this is my good friend jenny with her kids bella and jonah.

and a sweet girl i knew from my mission... nicki.

and can you believe we even found a way to see brody and anne while we were there.

the 7 peaks season pass also got us in to trafalga.  here's scott and james on the bumper boats (soaking wet.)

and james, me, amanda and ryan living it up at the lazer tag.

splash pad day with keyser cousins katie, josh, kenzie and ellie

me and my sister kim

mauger reunion... scott, sara, addison mauger, and alex mauger

visiting my old work up at the Uof U... jeff johnson and my old boss Jim Parker

some of the ladies i worked with: mary louise, sonia, sandy, kathy and jane

this story is kind of cool... see that bird on the ledge behind scott? well it was on my mom's back deck all injured and not moving anywhere.  so scott and i decided to feed him bread crumbs to see if it gave him enough energy to fly away.  i honestly didn't think it would help, i just thought it would be fun to try to feed the bird with scott.  but when we went back out the crumbs were mostly gone and the bird was too!  i get that there's a chance that the bird just fell off and died somewhere but we like to think that we saved its life. :)

my cute, smiley little girl.

my mom took this picture but i love it because this is just a typical situation with me and my kids sitting in the kitchen enjoying a snack together.  i really do love spending time with these kids.

my old work buddies.. becca morley and julianna barney.

Friends from iowa: Jamie Bingham and Alison Croff

another great photo of the kids in the morning.  this is what i see every day when i wake up.  scott always comes to my bed and happily tells me that sara is awake (she isn't crying she just plays in her crib until we get her.) so scott and i go to her crib and she is just kicking and smiling with this crazy hair of hers. its such a fun thing to wake up to.

Spanish Fork County Fair...

Sawing a log with daddy, allie and ryan.

Classic Skating Day with cousins Katie and Josh (who knew that classic skating now had bouncy castles and a water park!??)

Hogel Zoo with Mom and the kids.  This is my new favorite picture...

Meeting up with our good Iowa friends Shalise and Brooke Kearns.  The last time we saw Brooke she was just a baby so it was so fun to see her and scott play together.

not my most flattering picture but i wanted to show one of shalise...

my favorite missionary couple, the wollastons.

can you believe that sara is big enough to sit in the front of the cart? this poses a big problem at regular grocery stores but luckily costco has carts with two seats up front.

and last but not least my good friend sara tanner.  (as a side note i saw other friends while i was in utah but didn't always remember to take pictures. sorry if i missed any of you!)

on our last night in utah we went to dinner with my family to olive garden.

james and i had to take separate flights back to ohio (long story) so i got another full day of traveling with these two kiddos.  sara didn't love the plane ride but for the most part it went really well... and that guy in the background was a heaven-sent.  he was so nice and he played with scott almost the entire 3 1/2 plane ride.  Thank you random Tyler man that i'm sure i'll never see again!

and of course the second we got in the car at the aiport these two were fast asleep. 

it was an exhausting trip but SO much fun.  it flew by way too fast.  thank you to EVERYONE who gave us beds to sleep in, food to eat, cars to drive and all sorts of time to play with us and make it the best trip ever!

One Photo Highlights

I can NOT believe its been a month since i've updated this blog.  i have a large collection of photos from the past four weeks because we've done so many fun things.  But i have a lot less time and energy to go through them all and put them all up here so i'm just going to post one photo from each event that highlights the fun.

First of all... May 26th was scott's 3rd birthday.  scott talked about having his birthday party with a spiderman birthday cake all month and he's spent the month of june talking about how he wants to do it again.  the hardest thing about turning three for scott has been learning to say "three" instead of "two" when people ask him how old he is.  he'll memorize the new answer soon enough.

 the next party we had was scott's POTTY PARTY!  i tried following the advice of a book that said to do the potty training all in one day with a party theme and treats and the whole deal.  it worked really well for bodily function #1 but not so much for #2 which scott says, "scares me." 
scott was rewarded by this awesome spiderman mask that he REALLy wanted for learning how to pee in the potty.  and of course he's also sporting his spiderman Big Boy Pants!

 playing baseball with daddy... in daddy's hat.

 on memorial day we had a bbq with our friends derrick and crystal lee at a nearby park.  there are SO many fun parks in cleveland!  we're trying hard to see them all while we're here but i think that might be impossible.

one really huge event was when my sister kim came out to visit!  

 we were so excited to have her and since it was so awesome she gets TWO pictures for the blog.  i tried so hard to take her to places with a "cleveland feel".  i took her to kirtland and chagrin falls and here's a pic of us at edgewater park.  i had never been there so i wanted to try it out.  lets just say its a little too close to the city and the "element" that comes along with it.  kim was pretty disappointed that lake erie was so brown.  i swear its not always like that!

 this is sara at age 3 1/2 months

and here she is a week later (also a week and a half ago.)

scott has really perfected the ultimate CHEESE.

we got sara her very own exersaucer and everytime i put her in it scott is right there with her.  he'll spin her around in her chair until she is looking at the toy that he wants to play with.  its hilarious.

here is yet another exciting adventure to our zoo.  scott kept talking about wanting to ride the train so i was going to give in and pay the $3 for us to go on it.  but then i had a fantastic idea!  the tram is like a train and its free!  scott loved it and of course, so did i.

and this is just an event in and of itself.  scott is petting a boa! yikes!

and with summertime comes the splash pads!  aka... scott's happy place.

i had to add this one in... can't you just feel the warmth of that bench?

and here we are TONIGHT at our local beach...the one i should have taken kim to.  (kim! look at how blue the water is!)  and okay, i know james is thin but this picture makes him look REALLY thin.  so please don't think i'm not cooking him enough food!

and last but not least... here's our little beach angel  she seriously melts my heart.  and an extra special event is that today she turned 4 months old!  solids here we come! (as if she needs them... look at those arm rolls!)

3 years and 3 months

this past thursday scott, sara and i went to columbus to visit our buddies brody, macie and anne.  as any avid follower of this blog will know scott and brody have the same birthday so we went down to celebrate.  can you believe these boys are almost THREE!?!?!

here's the fearsome foursome in their matching batman shirts. i wonder if these kids like posing for pictures as much as we like taking them??

here are the boys opening their gifts from each other.  scott gave brody an airplane (that he was a bit jealous of) and brody gave scott the coolest ever lightening mcqueen blanket that he now sleeps with every night.

these boys had so much fun playing in the backyard together...

eating icecream at graeters...

and just chilling with their sippy cups.  i can't believe they are so old!

speaking of old... does anyone else feel like sara was born yesterday?  she's THREE months today and big enough to be on an exersaucer!

macie and sara are already becoming best buddies.  one of my favorite moments was sitting next to anne with our girls on our laps.  they were just watching each other and gabbing and smiling and i know that in a few months they'll be running around together like scott and brody.

on saturday our whole family participated in a walk for cystic fibrosis at our zoo.  scott's cute friend Porter has CF so we wanted to support him. plus we got to walk around and see all the cool animals.  win win win!
here's scott with his little buddy mitchel. i was impressed at how well they stuck their heads through the slots.

frisbees or hats? either way...

watching the mokeys with their dads.

here we are in front of the brand new elephant exhibit.  we have been waiting all year for these elephants to arrive and they did not disappoint.

and here's my little sara girl when i took her back to the car because it was much to hot for her (or me) to be in the sun any longer.

she really is such a little sweetheart.  and i have to say that even though i've loved her from the day she was born i'm really starting to develop a bond with this happy, smiley little girl of ours.  she truly brings sunshine into our home.

and i just thought this last picture was funny because while i was taking it sara was filling her pants.  and by the time i put the camera away we were both covered in brown poop!  how something so stinky can come from someone so sweet is beyond me!



so many things!

a couple weeks ago we blessed sara which meant we had lots of visitors!  james' dad's family as well as the bryan and annie clan came to town and we had such a fun weekend!

we all met at one of the church historical sites - the john johnson farm - and then we had lunch and played around in a nearby town called chagrin falls.  the kids loved playing together and of course i loved taking pictures!

scott was a little moody in this pic because i had just gotten after him for getting too close to the river.  he was still processing the lecture i gave him on how he could die if he fell into the water.  i love how smiley audrey was despite it all.

scott and caleb LOVED getting pushed around in the stroller.  i could complain about having had to push them all over the place but james had to carry sara all day in her car seat so he wins. 

here are my boys in the john johnson farm. this was a very cool room where the prophet joseph smith had many of the revelations that are in the docterine and covenants. it was a really neat experience.

and of course the group picture outside...

i really wish i had some better pictures of sara's blessing day.  unfortunately it was cold and really windy and sara was having an extremely rough day.  she was crying so much that i never even got a picture of her in her blessing dress!  she wore the same dress i wore when i was blessed so it was really special. i've been meaning to put her back in it for some pictures but that's going to have to happen later.  hopefully before she outgrows it!

well its finally spring in cleveland which also means its BASEBALL season!  i signed scott up for a tee ball league and even though i pulled him out because they ended up combining the 5-6 year olds with 3-4 year olds and scott was WAY out of his league... i still got some great shots of his one day on the team.

here scott is with his team and his coach.  (the first day was inside because of the rain.)

and here is scott .5 seconds later when his attention span came to an end.

i LOVE this picture of scott getting ready to bat.  he was such a little stud.

and here he is manning second base.  i kept telling him to stand up but apparently he was tired.

and here's our little sister sara.  what a big girl she is turning out to be!

i can't believe how much she has grown lately!  she is starting to feel like a real little girl instead of just a female blob.

this picture was taken on mother's day.  i feel like the luckiest mother in the world!

this is sara post-hair cut.  i don't have time in my day to figure out my hair and sara's hair so hers had to come off.  she does look a little boy-ish but we just throw a bow in there and its all good.

this was taken tonight while james played a computer game with the kids for FHE.   its still weird to refer to "the kids" and i can't believe we have two!

not to jinx us or anything but sara has slept through the night for the past THREE nights!!!  i can't even begin to express my excitement for this huge milestone! not to mention the fact that sara is out of our room and sharing a room with scott.  they are so cute in there together.

and that's not all... without being too much of a bragging parent i have to say that this weekend scott learned to open the car door by himself, get in and BUCKLE UP HIS CAR SEAT!!!  i LOVE it!  i mean, i know that i could use the extra exercise running around to both sides of the car to get the kids in but it is still so nice to not have to!