My favorite thing about the Balloon festival is that they do it two days in a row.  So once again, I woke up Friday morning to hear the boys hollering from Lambert's room, "Balloooooooons!!"  The both climbed into the empyt crib and watched out the window for several minutes until the balloons disappeared back behind the trees across the street.  I think it's fun because it's make them more excited, and for O this was his first "official" time so I think it was cool for him to see them up close the next day.

So Saturday morning, I actually had to wake the boys up.  Go figure.  First day in weeks they decided to sleep past 6:30.  We even talked Erik into coming with us this time.  He's never been before.  So we threw on our sweats, packed up some juice boxes and granola bars, and headed to the junior high where the balloons launch.  There is just something so so cool about watching the huge colorful puddles on the ground slowly inflate and then take off into the sky.  Love it.  The boys were pretty captivated, too.  (Sam did get a bit distracted for a few minutes by the baseball field we were sitting near.)  Once the balloons were all up in the air, we went for a few truck rides and grabbed ourselves a helium balloon before going home.  I really enjoyed it even more with Erik there.  I hope we can talk him into coming again next year.

May 27, 2011

Each year over Memorial Day weekend, Thomas the Train comes to the Heber Valley Railroad.  I've considered it several times since we've had kids, but we are always gone that weekend.  Not this year!  And since my brother, also Thomas, and his family were going to be around, I thought it was a perfect chance to go.  In all honesty, from the grown-up eyes it was ridiculously over-priced and not nearly as grand as expected.  We didn't get rained on, but the weather was crappy.  But the kids loooooved it, and we called the day over when almost all of them were breaking down into fits and falling apart at the seams.  So I'd say that meant we had a great time!!  Really, it was a cute and fun family day, and we all enjoyed ourselves. 

Samuel and Owen both recognized Thomas the Train as soon as we pulled in.  I was surprised at how tiny he was, but none of the kids seemed to be bothered by that.  Our first stop was lunch.  We got two soggy $5 hamburgers and a burnt-to-a-crisp $4 hot dog.  We totally felt like we were getting away with a steal when the lady let us have the Capri-Sun snack packs for just $1 (instead of the single Capri-Sun without a snack.)  While we swallowed down an insane amount of money, the kids were entertained by a magic show.  I commented that I could've done the same thing if I'd gone to the gag store and bought a few boxes of tricks, but the kids were still mesmerized and laughing it up.

After that, we got balloon "animals" while we waited for our turn to take a ride with Thomas.  I thought it was cute how Owen kept talking about his "monkey balloon" and "'a-nana balloon."  And Sam had a few sword fights with his cousins before boarding the train.  Both of the boys were pretty excited to be on a real train.  It was a lot of fun to watch them take it in.  They both were so good and sat pretty still, looking out the window of the sloooooow train.  Erik and I enjoyed pointing out yards that had dandelions way worse than ours.  At the end, the engineers came around with Junior Engineer certificates for all of the kids.

So once the ride was over, it was time to take in the other activities.  First up was a stop for tattoos. I was a bit surprised Sam wanted one on his face, and even more surprised that Owen wanted one at all.  But they both sat perfectly still and beemed at the results.  And they both cried the next night when Erik washed them off.  (Several days later, Owen still points to his arm and tells me, "Tommy Owie's arm all gone.")

Then we went and had a round of mini golf.  It was pretty packed in that small area, but again, that didn't stop anyone from having fun.  All of the kid-sized clubs were being used, but the boys weren't bothered one bit. 

Next up was meeting Sir Topham Hat.  Samuel saw him when we first came in and asked me several times when he would get to meet him.  The line was a bit long, and at this point, O was fading fast.  But Sam really wanted to meet him and say hello.  He watched several kids in front of us freak out and cry, so I think that added to his super cool and laid back approach to the whole thing.  Because Samuel is a BIG boy, afterall.  He walked up and shook Topham Hat's hand, "Nice to meet you sir," then posed cooly for his picture.  Like Sam meets celebrities all the time, right?

This was the point where the kids starting losing it fast.  Sam was so mad he didn't get to buy a toy from the gift tent (nope, not for $20) and O was way past his naptime.  Erik shared some cotton candy with the boys and played on the train tables while I rounded up the stamps we should've been collecting all along so we could get our "prize" before leaving.  It was just a fancy spinning paper wheel with Thomas and all of his friends, but again, the boys weren't disappointed.  We walked back to the car, did not opt for the long line to have our picture taken with Thomas, and instead chose to just wave goodbye on our way out.

It was really a great little adventure.  I love family days, and it's always so fun to do something different.  The boys spent the rest of the late afternoon at home playing Thomas and Friends on our train tracks at home while a Thomas movie played in the background, and Erik and I took a nap on the couch.  Yes yes, a very very good day.     

February 4-February 9, 2011

Samuel finally got his wish.  We went to California.  We drove down to Vegas Friday night and got to go to cousin Sariah’s baptism Saturday morning.  After a lovely morning and afternoon with family, we threw Grandma B into the van with us and drove the rest of the way to California.

It was such a NICE WARM BEAUTIFUL little vacation.  It’s never long enough.  But we enjoyed our time there with cousins, park trips, backyard adventures, and a few field trips.  We once again came home wondering, Why the heck don’t we just live there?  Maybe one day.

The boys were up before 7 every morning.  I loved that we could spend it in the backyard picking and eating oranges in our pajamas.  And we could always count on Grandma B joining us while everyone else slept.

Monarch butterflies in the backyard.  Sam excitedly crouched down and began spouting out facts.  “This is the monarch butterfly.  He likes milkweed.  Right now he is migrating to Mexico.”  He sat there and watched it quietly for several minutes.  And later, “Oh, this butterfly has hatched from his chrysalis.  Don’t touch him yet, he needs to dry his wings all by himself.”

All of Sam’s studying made O curious.

Rolling Hills Elementary School park with the Mutters, which apparently turned into a photo shoot for Owen.  No pics of Samuel.  Oops.  He was way too busy playing Kratt Brothers with Tyler.  “You know about the Kratts, too?!”

Beautiful little boy of mine.

And look at this gorgeous little gal.

Rubik’s cube genious.  Before and After.

O pointing to the helicopter and making his helicopter noise.

O got mad at me for something, so into Daddy’s arms he went.  Cuties.

Playing soccer with Daddy.

This picture makes my heart warm.  Two awesome daddys.

Bastanchury Park a little further down the road the next day.

I so so love that these two are such good buddies.

Owen LOVES the swing, which is so funny, because until late last fall, he wouldn’t stay in one longer than 2 pushes.

Erik and O did this about 12 times.  (And again, it’s turned into an exclusive photo shoot of just Owen.  Sam was very busy running around with a 7 year old girl who was very very fond of him.)

This makes me heart warm, too.  I hope my boys realize how blessed they are to be so loved.

Fer cuteness!  Brothers and Brothers.

Our big adventure this trip was a whale watching expedition.  Everyone was concerned about the preggo lady getting sick.  I did mostly ok.  Samuel did not.  He spent most of the 3 hours with his head in the bucket.  We kept yelling, “SAM SAM, LOOK LOOK!” when there was something cool.  He had a hard time spotting the common dolphins swimming by the other boat, and he was totally over the pelicans and the seals by this point.  But when we were right in the middle of a huge pod of bottle nose dolphins, it was a bit frustrating for Sam to not see them.  There were several RIGHT by the boat.  “SAM!!  Do you see them?!?!”  And he’d mutter, “Yeah yeah yeah” from the bucket.  Argh!  But he finally picked his head up long enough to catch sight of one right in front of us.  “Whoa, coooool!!  I just saw a real dolphin!!  Did you see that huge dolphin right there?!”  Yay!  We got our money’s worth for Sam’s ticket.   Then both boys fell asleep for the rest of the ride back to harbor.

Cutest munches ever.  (Who say Cheeeese but never actually look at the camera.)

Pelicans in the harbor, seals (or sea lions? We saw both.) waving goodbye as we left the harbor, lots of birds mean dolphins, hard to see but there are common dolphins in the pictures of the boats, and then a bottlenose fin.

Between manning the boys, the bucket, and the camera, we got very limited pics.  This is the best one of a the bottlenoses swimming right by our boat.

After the tour, we were ready for some walking and some food.  We walked around beautiful Balboa, and I seriously could’ve just spent all day there.  After a much needed lunch at BJs, we took the boys to play on the beach for a little bit before it was time to head back.  Grandma gave each boy a toy for the ride home; a whale we named Barfy for Sam, and a seal for Owen that he named Shark.  Perfectly perfect day!

Leaving Wednesday morning with sunburned and blistered cheeks.  Yeah, I felt great about that one.  But still a smile on his face.  California will do that to you.

On Sunday, January 16, my grandpa turned 97.  And he’s still got a lot left in him!  Samuel and I were able to attend a brunch in his honor at the Grand America Hotel.  The band moved themselves over to our tables to play Happy Birthday, and much of the restaurant joined in on the singing.  It was a fun morning for a very special man.

This was the kids’ station.  After finding pancakes and fiiiiiinally hunting down some syrup, this was Sam’s favorite place to go back to.  He loved those fruit skewers.  I stopped counting at his twelfth.  A table between where we sat and the kids’ station starting keeping their eyes open and watching for Sam.  They laughed and waved every time he walked by with a few more in his hands.

November 13, 2010

So Saturday was Samuel’s real birthday.  The night before, I told Sam I would make pancakes . . . NOT the kind you put in the microwave.  I said I could make all sorts of shapes, like Mickey Mouse.  Samuel said, “How about a DINOSAUR pancake?!”  So I put my creative pancake making skills to the test.  Armed with an S, and number 4, a smiley face, and a dinosaur, I would call it a success. 

After breakfast we packed up the car and headed to Colorado for a quick visit.  My mom put together a great little party for Samuel and his cousin Tyson whose birthday was just a few days later.  There were balloons, birthday hats for everyone (including the dogs, per Sam’s request) and presents.  It was yummy, it was loud, it was lots and lots of fun.  Seriously, we know how to do birthdays. 

November 5, 2010

On Friday, November 5th Elder Christian Whitby returned with honor from his two year LDS mission to Portland, Oregon.  We had balloons, banners, family and friends all gathered at the Salt Lake airport to welcome him home.  If I’m being honest, it was a very strange and surreal experience.  A ton of emotions flying around!  I had a hard time convincing myself that the handsome righteous man coming down the escalators was my baby brother!   After hugs and tears and maybe a bit of awkwardness, it was almost like he was never gone.  (Which I’m sure is so different from how Christian felt!)  Then we all drove over to Chili’s for a celebratory lunch.  What an awesome experience!!

Aw, aren’t they the cutest?  All three of them.  Silly faces, fingers in noses.  All mine.

Sam with the sign he made.  “It says ‘Wel. Come. Home. Un. Cle. Chris. Tian. I. Miss. You. From. Sam’”

Here he comes!!  He had this same look on his face for the next 3 hours.

Sam ran up for the first hug.

Welcome home, Elder!  I hear you’ll eventually adjust back to “real” life!!

September 9-12, 2010

Erik has several big projects at work he needed time to work on.  I needed a break.  The boys needed an adventure.  And it was Stake Conference so none of us had Sunday responsiblities.  Cue a trip to Colorado.  I had gotten sick just the day before leaving, but that didn’t stop me from packing up the munchkins and making the 6 hour drive to my parents’ house.  As always, we absolutely loved our visit to the beautiful mountains.

We got to Ridgway Thursday evening.  We only spotted two deer on the Mesa, so Samuel was disappointed.  (He has learned to have higher expectations )  The boys were ready to get out, say hello to the dogs, and get playing in Mormor’s toys closet.  When W got home, it was good to get some delicious hot broccoli cheese soup before sending the boys to bed early and knocking myself out with Nyquil.

Friday was a play day . . . for ME!  I left the boys with my parents and went to visit Tori in Montrose for shopping, lunch, and a glass layering jewelry making class.  The report when I got back was that the boys got wet and muddy and played their hearts out.  Perfect!

Saturday was a family day.  W and Mormor treated us to pizza at Panny’s.  Then we met up with the T Whitbys at the park.  After that, we went back up to the house.  It’s a windy road up the mountain, and with nothing but pizza, rootbeer, and Frosty in his tummy, Sam got sick.  Good thing he had grabbed a doggie poop bag on our way out of the park.  Ha.  Back up at the house, we barbecued and played some more before banana splits for dessert.

Sunday the boys and I went to church with my parents, stopped by the Ts for mac and cheese and a quick visit before heading back home.  The drive home was soooo much better than the way out.  And our favorite part of the trip might have been coming home to our dear Daddy.  Four days of fun, but it’s always so good to be home.

Did you ever hear about our attempt to go camping last summer?  It failed.  Big time.  But when we were invited to try again this year with the T Family, we said yes.  It was a success!

On our way to Hunstville, we visited the Dinosaur Park in Ogden.  Samuel was in heaven.  He ran from dinosaur to dinosaur with Tyson and Tucker and had a blast.  We could’ve stayed so much longer if we weren’t anxious to set up camp, but we will for sure visit that awesome place again!  Then we drove up the canyon to our camp site in Anderson Cove at Pine View Reservoir.  It was beautiful!  That evening while Erik stayed at camp with 3 sleeping kids, the rest of us launched the boat and took it for a little ride.  Tegan and Samuel got to stay up late with the grown ups roasting marshmallows before we all finally turned in for the night.

The next morning came bright and early, after a loud wind storm that totally had me convinced the boys would wake up screaming and the tents would fold in on us.  We played at camp, had breakfast, and all boarded the boat.  Sam loved it even more than the night before now that the rest of his cousins were there, too, and he already had his life jacket picked out.  Owen hated it.  So he and I got dropped off back at shore and headed up for a nap while the others did some more boating.  After lunch, it was take two on the boat.  With a solid 2 1/2 hour nap behind him, and a sucker in his hand, Owen tolerated the boat.  Samuel went for a tube ride with Erik.  He said he had a good time, but we couldn’t get him to go again for the rest of the trip.  By the evening, everyone was ready for dinner and smores, and a little bit earlier bedtime than the night before.

By now, the playing hard, no naps, and late bedtimes were setting in on our boys.  Samuel handled it like a champ, and slept in until almost 9.  Owen was having a much harder time and was definitely coming unglued.  We decided to go for another boat trip after breakfast.  Samuel shivered and grumped the whole time, and Owen fell asleep.  The kids were very happy to play at the beach after that.  We stuck around for some more time at the camp site and dutch over dinner and dessert.  After that, we packed up and said goodbye to the others who were brave enough to stay a couple more days. 

Owen was so excited to know that he was going home.  Samuel was just tired.  But man alive was it an awesome trip!  We had so much fun, and were so grateful to Tori for all her preparation that made it a piece of cake for us.  We really just had to show up and enjoy ourselves.  If this is how camping is going to be, we are up for it again!!

My Dad called today wondering when he was going to get to see pictures from last weekend.  Clearly I’ve set some pretty high expections with this little ol’ blog o’ mine. 

We were ready for a visit to Colorado.  So we planned a trip over Memorial Day weekend, left Thursday evening and made it in record time, ready for some fun adventures. 

Friday, Tori and the kids came up to Ridgway to play.  The weather was so beautiful.  The cousins rode bikes, played with chalk and bubbles, explored catterpillar cocoons, and found antlers.  Owen was doing aok eating rocks, but I think after a little while he got jealous that’s all he could do.

Late in the afternoon we put O down for a nap and left the 2 boys with Mormor.  Erik and I took off for Telluride and the opening of Mountainfilm in Telluride.  My dad hooked us up big time with a Sunshine Pass to get us into almost anything all weekend long.  We met up with some other family who was in town, and after dinner, crammed into an original (and so tiny) theater for our first movie.  We saw Nico’s Challenge about a 13 year old boy born with one leg who climbed Kilomanjaro to raise money for wheelchairs for people in Africa.  After the movie, Nico was there with his dad to speak and answer questions.  So amazing and so inspiring.  Then we saw First Ascent about some crazy climbers who were going to attempt an insane climb up some wild mountain as part of a mini-series for National Geographic.  After waiting at base camp for 3 weeks they decided it wasn’t worth the risk.  They went up to get their gear, and were killed by an avalanche.  Their friends and coworkers went to recover their bodies and found the footage.  Incredible.  After that we got to see a special presentaion from Ed Viesturs, the first man to climb the 14 highest peaks without oxygen.  I could write so much more about what we saw and did that night alone!  It was so cool!!

Saturday, we went back up to Telluride but with Mormor and the boys this time.  We rode the gondola, hit up the ice cream social, did some site seeing, enjoyed the crowds, explored the park and trails, had a treat or two, and then sent the boys back to Ridgway with Mormor so the rest of us could stick around for another movie, followed by Adrenaline Rush, a special showing of short movies about different (and new!) extreme sports.  Crazy fun.  I fell asleep on the way home.

Sunday we went for a morning walk, greeted at the front door by a deer.  In the afternoon Mormor put together a picnic, Grandpa W packed up the dogs, and we met the Ts at Ridgway Park for bike riding, climbing, spinning, sliding, and a walk to the river for rock throwing.  Sam was not happy when it was time to go, as illustrated in the progression of the “I Don’t Want to Leave” fit.

Monday we drove down to Montrose to play with the Ts again.  Sam is wild about his cousins.  We spent a hot day outside in the pool, playing on the swingset, making snowcones, throwing water balloons, and squirt gun fighting.  Erik left for home, and a couple more hours later, the boys and I drove back up to Ridgway.  Owen was asleep in 4 minutes, Samuel in 10.  When we got back at 5:30, Sam cried and cried and cried when I tried to take him out of the car.  I dragged him inside, and he walked right upstairs and got into bed.  He slept until I woke him up at 7.  By then, Owen was in bed, so Sam and I had a super fun night roasting marshmallows and hanging out with Mormor and W.

Classic Owen look . . . “I don’t really know what’s going on, so I will silently clutch Mom’s shirt while I decide whether I like it or not.”

Trying to get Samuel to wave at us through the window in the pool.  This is the closest he got.

Tuesday we played in Montrose again for a few hours before finally heading home.  The boys conked out hard for the first half of the drive, and were very anxious to get out of the car the second half.  We were all happy to be home again, but holy moley did we have SUCH an awesome weekend!!

We were due for a trip to California, so with Conference weekend coming up Erik and I had zero Sunday responsiblities, and the fact that it was Easter, we decided no better time!  We left Friday late afternoon and stayed through Wednesday.  This time we didn’t have any big adventures planned, but we still enjoyed the break from every day life, the visits with friends and family, and the beautiful warm sunshine.

The drive.  Samuel travels amazingly well.  Owen not so much.  But he was a trooper.  It helps that Erik is a trooper, too, and willingly drives until 3 am so the boys can sleep a good chunk of the time.

Easter morning.  The Easter bunny found us in California.  We figured Santa told him how to get there.  The boys had a basket to share with a few fun things inside.

The Easter egg hunt.  Grandma B set up a great hunt for us and the Mutters.  Afterwards, it was so cute to watch the kids trade goodies.  Sam got a ton of little toys, so he was more than happy to pass off his multiple frogs and yo-yos for jellybeans and M&Ms.

The Loot.

The Window.  It was Owen’s favorite place to hang out.

The backyard.  Also called Grandpa’s Jungle.  Sam loved going out there to play.  Owen loved it when Grandpa would scoop him up and take him out for a tour.  Erik loved playing with his camera out there.  One afternoon when we were out there, Samuel told me, “I need to get my camera and take pictures of the butterflies like Daddy.”

The playing.  It’s so fun for the boys (and US!) just to have a change of pace.  Plus, Grandma has some of the best toys.  Owen found a whole basket full of dolls when Daddy wasn’t looking that totally kept him entertained in the corner.

The cousins.  Sam’s favorite part of every trip, hands down!  He talks the whole way there and the whole way back about them, and every time they aren’t around at Grandma and Grandpa’s house Sam is asking where they are and when he gets to play with them.  I was lousy about taking pictures when we were with them, but I did grab a couple when we stopped in Vegas on our way home to visit some OTHER cousins!  (Owen and Michael are about 5 weeks apart . . . and O is the older one, that little pipsqueak!)

Erik has a schload more pictures (including Sam holding a lizard he found!) so check ‘em out . . . http://erik.briggsfam.com/2010/04/09/easter-in-the-promised-land/