The Fosses

More fun with presents, and a few Zzz’s

2012-01-13T22:25:00.001-07:00

Here are the boys digging for rocks and gems like little archeologists.

What a fun activity for all the boys! (I’m pretty sure Alex loved it too :) And my brothers were here so they got in on it too. Jeremy even found the piece of clear quartz after we thought everything had been found already.

Look what they discovered!

Three little wizards….

and a blue bag ;)

Zzzzzz

Uncles!

2012-01-13T22:21:00.001-07:00

Here are some fun pictures of the boys with my brothers. Thank you David and Jeremy for being such fun uncles. We love you :)

The kids love Jeremy’s game boy. They call it “the blue thing”… I guess that shows how much they know (or don’t know) about Nintendo ;) They are used to computer games, but actual video games are quite the novelty.

Cookies and Rockets

2012-01-13T22:19:00.001-07:00

A few days after Christmas we made cookies…

And tried out the new stomp rockets at the park with grandparents and uncles.

Christmas 2011

2012-01-13T21:04:00.001-07:00

On Christmas Eve my parents and brothers arrived.

Tyler tried on someone’s glasses (maybe Grandma Beth’s?). He looks like quite the little intellectual, don’t you think :)

The tree and presents on Christmas Eve.

Christmas Morning!

The kids each opened one present, and looked at their stockings before church, and we saved the rest until we got home.

Ready for church.

When we got home the total present chaos began! Oh what fun :)

What a cute little man Erik is!

Now that is one studly little carpenter, if I do say so myself.

We had a great Christmas :)

Captain America shields

2011-12-23T17:00:00.001-07:00

Adam has been wanting a Captain America shield the past few weeks. We still have lots of thick cardboard from the stable building project, so on Monday I got the idea to try and make a shield out of cardboard for Adam. This started out as a project I was doing with the kids…but soon I realized it was too hard to cut the thick cardboard with a knife or scissors, so we needed Alex’s help. When Alex got home he mostly took over the project, but I am glad he did because the shields turned out great, and I was getting a bit frustrated with the project by then anyways.

Amazingly Alex had silver, sparkly blue, red, and white paint left over from other things. Plus the shiny clear top coat to cover it all. I was just going to use the kids’ red and blue tempera paints on a white poster board background, glued to the cardboard – but clearly this project got kicked up to a much more “polished” level by Daddy. We could have used these for Christmas presents if we had kept them a secret, but that’s okay. I didn’t plan ahead enough for that idea. I love how they turned out and so do the boys! Thank you Daddy :) Adam hardly ever put his shield down yesterday!

And Tyler has a little shield made from a paper plate too! I made this one all by myself, thank you very much - impressive I know ;)

In other news, here’s what the boys were doing this afternoon:

Happy day before Christmas Eve!

Gotta love red and green sweater vests!

2011-12-21T00:07:00.001-07:00

Christmas is coming…

2011-12-21T00:03:00.001-07:00

Adam loves to sing this song:

Christmas is coming, the goose is getting fat

Please put a penny in the old man's hat

If you haven't got a penny, a half penny will do.

If you haven't got a half penny, then God bless you!

Sometimes Adam and Erik will substitute different words into the song in the place of penny. For example “chicken”. This was Erik’s idea I believe. Try singing the song with chicken in it instead of penny. It is pretty funny!

Another of their variations goes like this:

Christmas is coming, and Santa’s getting fat

Please put a cookie in the old man's hat

If you haven't got a cookie, a half cookie will do.

If you haven't got a half cookie, then God bless you!

Now some pictures from December…

Adam’s pilgrim hat from preschool.

And the gingerbread house we made…also from a preschool activity.

Getting costumes ready for our church Nativity play. Don’t you know shepherds had cell phones:)

Tyler the shepherd. This is really Erik’s costume, but Tyler wanted to wear it too.

Adam is a sheep…baaaaa!

On the night of the Christmas party and play. Two shepherds and a sheep.

Here is the stable for the play…Alex made it out of cardboard from piano boxes. It was pretty awesome!

Erik with all the other shepherds.

The shepherds listening to the angel.

You can see Erik on the far left, and Adam’s pretty easy to spot in his sheep ears and white fluffy outfit :)

Singing Silent Night.

Old Tucson

2011-12-20T23:57:00.001-07:00

Last week Adam had a field trip to Old Tucson Studios.

His favorite thing was to ride the carousel over and over. Or the “merry–go-round” as he calls it.

Dad took Adam to the “Can-Can Review” in the hotel on Main Street. The music was more than Adam could take and he went submarine on the whole affair. I guess it was too loud for him.

He liked the lake and watching the big water falls and the little baby water falls. He liked it so long as he forgot the carousel.

2011-12-10T23:23:00.001-07:00

The BOOK!
Below is a preview of the book we made from the blog. You can view the entire book. Enjoy.

The Fosse's by Alex & Dawn | Make Your Own Book

Ready for church!

2011-12-05T16:01:00.001-07:00

Horsey-back rides

2011-12-05T15:59:00.001-07:00

It’s always fun to sit on your brother!

Tyler looks like a little monkey holding onto Erik’s back.

Thanksgiving

2011-12-05T15:45:00.001-07:00

What do you do when grandparents and uncles come to visit? Play with their electronic devices of course!

And beg for shoulder rides…better known in our house as “dinosaur rides.”

According to Adam, the whole reason for Thanksgiving was the pumpkin pie!

Tasty :)

The boys loved playing with everyone…

They had a fun time playing Uno with Grandma Beth, Jeremy, and David.

Taking pictures with Papa Dave.

Tyler showing his upset face…

And happy face ;)

Baby #4

2011-11-30T15:05:00.004-07:00

For your enjoyment…pictures!

The bottom photo has the umbilical cord in front of the foot.

It's another brother! Well, at least we get to use our rather large collection of boy clothes again :)

Uh-Oh!

2011-11-19T16:26:00.001-07:00

Tyler made a giant mess with a very full box of tissues.

He got this box from the living room, and brought it to the closet for a more secluded spot to get into trouble. He knew he’d done something wrong…he looked very guilty when Alex caught him. But he wouldn’t take his hand off the box.

Or his finger out of his nose…

Amazingly Alex folded all the tissues back together and got them back in the box!

(And yes, Tyler has a nasty bruise under his eye. He ran into the changing table a few days ago while running around with Erik.)

Fun with a blanket

2011-11-19T16:03:00.001-07:00

Today Alex is off at a scout campout and there is a bunch of stuff I really should be getting done…but instead of doing any or all of that, I am looking at pictures :)

A few days ago Adam and Tyler had fun hiding under a blanket together.

Where’s Tyler?

And Adam?

Love it!

Thanksgiving decorating

2011-11-15T18:58:00.001-07:00

You know all those blogs where ladies share their fabulous crafting and decorating ideas…

As you may have noticed - this is not one of those blogs ;)

This is my version of Thanksgiving decorating:

1. Start with the plastic jack- o- lantern from Target.

2. Turn it around! Voila! You have a Thanksgiving pumpkin decoration :)

Things Tyler lined up in a row…

2011-11-15T18:56:00.001-07:00

Oranges…

and cars.

More Halloween…

2011-11-04T16:31:00.001-07:00

Here are the boys in their costumes. A super hero ghost, Super Adam, and super pumpkin!

Their masks are on their heads – should have gotten a picture with them on their faces though.

I told them to turn around so I could see the back of their costumes…look who wouldn’t listen :) Super Adam of course.

A friend gave us supplies for ghost cupcakes – so of course we had to make those as part of the Halloween festivities.

Adam’s ready with sprinkles and candies to decorate with.

The ghost cupcakes!

Tyler did more eating of the candy than decorating with the candy.

Erik’s ghost.

Yum :)

Adam had a field trip to the library and the park. The kids wore their costumes and had a Halloween themed story time at the library. Here is Super Adam trying to “rescue” a friend.

And finally, jack-o-lanterns in the dark…

Oooh, melty sparkly wax puddles. Cool!

Carving pumpkins and lots of dressing up!

2011-11-03T20:54:00.001-07:00

I got this cute skeleton apron as a prize at a pre-school parent meeting. It looks just about the same size as Tyler’s real skeleton!

Adam and Tyler liked to color their pumpkins before we carved them. Adam drew the “happy face” for me to carve on his pumpkin.

Pumpkins make these boys so happy :)

Why couldn’t he smile like this for his school picture?

Silly Adam!

And another great smile!

Tyler wanted to try on my costume. For once, we all dressed up and even had a theme! That’s a first for us. I found this shirt while digging in my drawer…Homecoming 1995…the back says: it’s a bird, it’s a plane, it’s the class of ‘98. Pretty awesome, I know :) And I made the green cape at the last minute out of a pillowcase. Alex had a black mask and a cape (which he didn’t actually wear) to complete the family of super heros!

Time to carve pumpkins.

Tyler’s pumpkin. The design process for Tyler - I would ask him, “Do you want triangle eyes?” He would nod his head. “Do you want an oval nose?” Nod of the head. “Do you want a smiling mouth?” Nod. “Do you want teeth?” Nod.

Adam’s pumpkin – with the face he drew himself!

Erik got home from school just as I was finishing with Adam and Tyler. So then we got started on his big pumpkin.

Erik did “some” … aka “a little” of the carving on his. He designed the face for his on another paper, and then had me draw it bigger on the pumpkin. It was pretty cool with the three eyes.

All the finished Jack-O-Lanterns!

More fun dressing up in “alternate” costumes.

I’m not sure what this look is? Monk/ skeleton, holding a paper turkey?

Getting ready for Halloween!

2011-10-25T20:22:00.001-07:00

The last few days we have been getting ready for Halloween. Last night we went to go pick out pumpkins. Adam was sooo happy to find a cute little pumpkin just like he wanted.

Or I should say a “cool” pumpkin. Adam describes everything as cool, and he insists that everyone else do the same (although we certainly don’t always comply). He gets upset when I say things are pretty…and corrects me with, “No!, It’s cool!”

Anyways, he is so happy about his pumpkin and he keeps talking about it throughout the day. It is really adorable.

Tyler loves his little pumpkin too. He carries it around a lot, and he likes to line up all the pumpkins in a row. (He likes to line up lots of things in rows…blocks, cars, etc. Must be a two-year-old thing. I distinctly remember pictures of me at two lining up my Dad’s chess pieces.)

Erik and Alex both got nice big pumpkins – you will see them farther down the page…

Today I finished making felt super-hero masks. We have paper ones I made months ago, but I decided to make felt ones for Halloween – so they would be stronger.

Adam is talking on his “super-hero phone,” and I guess Tyler has his “super baby doll!”

Here’s Tyler’s upset face. He didn’t want me to take another picture…and Adam still on the “phone”…gotta wonder who he’s talking too? Important super-hero business no doubt.

Alex drew a cool spooky face on his pumpkin. Adam was scared of it at first, but he seems to have gotten over it.

Pumpkins on the TV (and the total extent of my Halloween decorating).

And more pictures after Erik got home from school.

Today I also made a big red felt “A” and ironed it onto a shirt for Adam’s costume. “A” for Super Adam of course – in case you were wondering :)

Busy day, but now I feel much better that we are almost ready for Halloween.

Crazy hair day

2011-10-25T19:34:00.001-07:00

Today was crazy hair day at school.

Erik wanted a mohawk. I wasn’t sure our gel would be strong enough…but it worked pretty well :)

At first Adam didn’t want to do crazy hair. He didn’t want any gel or anything. Then I suggested we just not comb the back of his hair and leave it in it’s natural “crazy” state. He went for that idea…

And here you have it…

Adam’s natural crazy hair!

Meow meow

2011-10-11T18:59:00.001-07:00

Tyler loves to watch kitty videos and say “meow meow.” When the video is over he often says “more-y”…to ask for more kitties!

Adam and Tyler

2011-10-11T17:40:00.001-07:00

Cute kiss.

We got a bag of hand-me-downs from a friend. This is what Tyler and Adam “dressed up” in. Tyler is sporting a train conductor type hat, some swim trunks, and some nice (if too large for him) dress shoes. Adam fell in love with the red race car pajamas and wouldn’t take them off until the next day – even if they are a little too small.

Yeah!

Tyler looks so cute in the hat…

I got a little carried away with the pictures…

… :)

Say cheese.

2011-10-08T00:04:00.008-07:00

In honor of the first two cool days this Fall I've changed to a fall background :) Tyler loves this owl that was on a different background. That one didn't look right on the blog...but the owl sure is cute!

He keeps saying "Owl, hoo-hoo!"

Adam’s first day of preschool

2011-09-08T13:38:00.001-07:00

This morning Adam was excited for his first day of preschool. He got dressed all by himself…not quite the first day of school outfit I would have picked out, but I wasn’t going to complain since he did it all himself :)

He was super happy until we got to the classroom door. Then he got moody in typical Adam fashion. All the parents had to stay for the first day, so I was with him all day. He was happy a lot, but he was grumpy some too. Overall not too bad for the first day. At least he didn’t have any all out crying fits. This is Adam we’re talking about after all.

Two cute brothers ready for school.

I sure love those smiles!

Back to school

2011-08-24T20:20:00.001-07:00

Erik started 2nd grade a week and a half ago on August 15th. I can’t believe the summer is over and he is already a second grader. Wasn’t he just in kindergarten/preschool/diapers?

He has enjoyed his first week back, and today he told me he had a wonderful day! Well that is just great…as a matter of fact it is wonderful :)

Tyler seems to think he is going somewhere too.

Hehe

Bye-bye ducky ;)

2011-08-22T22:50:00.001-07:00

Here’s Tyler saying “birthday birthday” over and over :) And he shows how to blow out the candles. He’s been doing this probably since May when Adam has his birthday…or maybe even since my b-day in April. It’s his classic sing song voice “birthday birthday” with his head going back and forth, followed by the candle blowing. He does it quite frequently whenever he wants to talk about birthdays.

Birthdays! Erik turned 7 on August 6th and Tyler turned 2 on the 8th

2011-08-22T21:55:00.001-07:00

As Erik requested we decorated cupcakes for the boys’ birthday party.

It was a messy but fun endeavor!

The kids loved it…

And especially loved the eating part that came next.

Presents for two kids at once gets a little crazy.

It practically seemed like Christmas.

Even Adam got lucky and scored a gift – a “new” Lightning McQueen with “the new spoiler” – he is only slightly obsessed, really.

It may not have been his birthday but he thoroughly enjoyed himself.

Of course so did the two birthday boys!

Erik got to go to Target with Daddy and pick out these toys with his very own gift card. What fun!

On Tyler’s actual birthday we had banana muffins, and sang to Tyler again.

He loved the muffin just as much as the cupcake two days earlier :)

And some more presents!

As you can tell Adam’s always trying to get “race car” into pictures.

Can’t believe this cute guy is two!

What a fun jeep for Erik…

but really for everybody…

Way to drive it baby

Teeth

2011-08-22T20:11:00.001-07:00

On August 3rd Erik’s front tooth was about to fall out.

I had to take pictures to remember what he looked like before loosing those cute baby front teeth.

Tyler wanted pictures taken of him too…

of course :)

It fell out the next day on the 4th.

Six days later the other front tooth came out. Erik actually asked me to try and pull it (unusual for him), and I succeeded. I was amazed! First time I’ve pulled someone’s tooth out (other than my own).

Now he is officially toothless ;)

Pioneer Day

2011-07-30T19:11:00.001-07:00

We had a Pioneer Day party at church. We all dressed up as pioneers and had lots of fun!

We even built a covered wagon from scratch. We don’t have a real wagon or anything we could use to start with…so when I mentioned that the kids could build wagons for the party Alex said we could make one out of cardboard. I thought that sounded rather hard, but Alex for course was perfectly confident it would work fine. And he was definitely right!

All he had to buy was the dowel. Alex made the base from a Costco box, more cardboard, hot glue, wood, etc. Alex had the great idea to put Woody in the wagon! Genius :) That took it to a whole other level of awesomeness!

I found white fabric that was part of an unused dust ruffle to use for the cover. We attached it with double stick tape along the sides, and then I sewed it down around the front and back openings.

I added little blankets and things inside to complete the look.

It turned out pretty cute if I do say so myself :)

Here we are all dressed up. My Mom brought me a bunch of pioneer dress up things she had from years ago, and we have some hats we’ve collected over the years…so we managed to dress up pretty well! It’s quite a coincidence that so much of our outfits are red. It worked out really well.

At the party:

Our wagon was the smallest…but it sure was cute.

Tyler liked to pull it around.

The wagon was quite popular with the little kids. That probably had something to do with “Woody” driving it.

It was fun to see the different wagons people made. This one was really big. Tyler could have ridden in it no problem.

There were lots of cool decorations at the party. Check out this neat “fire.”

A day at the Lake

2011-07-29T16:03:00.001-07:00

A couple weeks ago we went to Patagonia Lake again…this time minus the camping.

It was very nice and we had an especially great time because my family was visiting!

The water level of the lake has gone down a lot since we were there in April. At first I thought it was very odd how shallow the lake seemed, until I realized this.

The kids loved the water and playing in the sand.

The grown-ups had a great time too. Here’s my brothers and dad swimming across the lake.

All the “big boys” swam across the lake and climbed around/jumped off the rocks on the other side.

I hardly took any pictures that week (other than at the lake), but here’s a cute one of the boys with Uncle Jeremy :)

Random stuff from June and July

2011-07-29T15:58:00.001-07:00

Super brothers!

Tasty pears.

Tyler loves granola lately.

Here are some of the onions we grew. We got about 60!

Adam with a giant onion, and Tyler with two tiny onions. Tyler liked the “baby” onions.

And later that same night Tyler got into mischief with lotion. Alex had to take a picture :)

Sleeping

2011-05-31T19:19:00.001-07:00

On Sunday morning, this is what I found when I went in the living room.

Adam rolled over – no one woke up.

I took pictures with the flash – no one woke up.

Adam rolled over again – no one woke up.

Cute!

Alex’s Birthday – May 25th

2011-05-31T19:10:00.001-07:00

Here’s Alex putting out the forest fire of 33 candles.

Erik and Adam put sprinkles and candles on Dad’s cake. They got the candles more evenly distributed than I expected. Not too bad boys! Or, as Adam said, “We made the best cake I’ve ever seen!” Gotta love his enthusiasm :)

Sneaky mischief and a good sleeper

2011-05-17T18:42:00.001-07:00

Tyler got caught red handed in some mischief the other day.

It’s funny how careful he is to make sure each blanket is unfolded “enough.” Meticulous mischief, hehe.

The next day he set a new recorded for sleeping the longest ever. About 18 hours!

Erik made him this baby “merit badge” to commemorate the accomplishment. When Adam asked for one, Erik said no, because Tyler earned it! I mean come on ...we can't just be giving out merit badges willy nilly here...

Tyler liked it, and he was very happy and busy after his long sleep!

He has made sure to get in his fair share of playing with Adam’s new birthday toys. Can’t let those big brothers have all the fun ;)

Speaking of birthday toys…Adam has made up a fun game with his airplanes. The orange one is a snow airplane…so it went to the North Pole to look for Santa. Then I asked where he thought Santa might be? Adam answered, that he was in the red airplane! So now the red one is officially the Santa airplane, and he and the orange jet like to have fun at the North Pole together (the North Pole is located on our very light blue pillow - that looks like snow of course!) Adam keeps asking me to play this game with him. I get to be the orange jet and he is the Santa airplane. When he asks me to play he says, “Will you play nicely with me?” I guess that’s how he perceives the difference between how I play with him – “nicely” and how Erik plays with him – with explosions and typical little boy drama and disasters.

While I was writing this, Tyler saw the picture of the airplanes so he went and got six of them and put them on the desk next to me!

And he brought his merit badge over earlier when he saw the picture of that. Too cute…wait I take that back…as we speak he is getting the blankets out again (see mischief portion of this post.) Art imitates life…life imitates art…I think we are going around in circles here.

Okay…he’s still cute, what can I say?

Adam’s 4th Birthday

2011-05-15T00:09:00.001-07:00

Pre-Birthday preparations:

Presents wrapped - check

Balloons from last year blown up again - check

Cake baked – check

Tyler got to lick some cake batter…and of course he wanted “more, more!”

May 11th:

Our traditional birthday water play :)

Cake…

And Presents!

Adam and Erik got life jackets. (We gave Erik one too since we didn’t want to wait till his birthday at the end of the summer to give him his.) It’s too big on Tyler but he likes to try it on.

We went to the pool a couple days later and had a great time. It was fun to have Erik and Adam be more independent in the water and be able to “swim” with the life vests on. Much less stressful for us too.

What a fun rocket!

The boys were playing with all the new toys non-stop for a long time. Birthdays are so fun!

Then friends came over and we had round two of water play, more cake, then more playing with toys, then hot dogs, and finally ice cream making and eating. I think Adam was busy with birthday fun from 11:30 am to 8:30 pm.

As you may notice no one is wearing a swim suit in this picture…guess what resulted…a lot of wet drippy cold children. Our friends had to change into some of Erik’s clothes. I ended up washing and drying their clothes because they didn’t want to go home “looking like boys.” Since when does a basic t-shirt and solid color knit shorts make you look like a boy? Anyways, it was a very busy, fun, crazy day ;)

Water is Fun

2011-05-09T18:48:00.001-07:00

Water is fun, running water is even better. Whether it’s in the bath or outside with the hose, Tyler loves to play with running water.

Tyler loves the hose. I think he was trying to water his brother ;)

Bunk Beds

2011-05-08T17:08:00.001-07:00

The bunk beds are done! Alex finished them a couple weeks ago, and Erik and Adam love their new beds.

Tombstone

2011-05-08T16:21:00.001-07:00

My parents came to Arizona for the week after Easter. It was great to spend time with them and go on some fun outings. Here are some pictures of the little boys enjoying all the wild west attractions during our visit to Tombstone.

It’s the surrey with the fringe on top…

or no fringe…take your pick.

Yeehaw!

Adam looks pretty serious about this horse riding thing.

And Tyler’s turn :)

Easter!

2011-05-06T18:11:00.001-07:00

Three brothers in matching shirts for church.

Time to look for eggs…

Is that an orange egg, or a flower?

Found it!

I always love the grass in Easter pictures :)

Tyler wanted a real colored egg that was not peeled. He licked and rubbed most of the color off of it. Then I peeled it and he didn’t like it anymore. No fun once it was just white I guess.

Colored eggs and funny faces

2011-05-05T15:35:00.001-07:00

Silly boys with the Easter eggs we colored.

Erik decorated one of the eggs with “math.” He wrote a line of numbers going around it in both directions. I thinks that’s the egg in the bottom left of the picture.

Cutest brothers ever!!! Love this picture!

And then they got really silly…

and sillier…

and silliest!

Tyler tried to be silly too ;)

You can’t see me!

Later, Tyler feel asleep on the floor :)

Fishing

2011-05-03T21:46:00.001-07:00

I (Alex) took Erik and Adam fishing the morning after the puking incident. I got maybe 3 hours of sleep, but surprisingly holding a fishing pole can keep me awake. The boys had more or less fun, not sure really. Erik still has not officially caught a fish. Hopefully I can remedy that this year if all goes well.

Rose Canyon Lake. Home to trout, crawdads, and a couple of really annoying ducks.

Erik is getting pretty good at casting. He can get it out about 20 feet or so. In a few more years I will get him a better casting reel.

Cute little snot faced rug rat isn’t he?

I caught 2 fish within about 30 minutes at the lake. After that I got no more bites. I only kept one though. The second fish I let Erik try and reel in. Alas, he didn’t know to keep tension on the line and the trout wriggled off.

Adam attempted to fish but he really doesn’t have the patience yet to watch a bobber on the water.

When we got home I cleaned the fish and we ate it the next night. Erik and Tyler loved it, but as expected, Mr. Picky Adam Fosse refused to enjoy it. And this after having been super excited to eat the fish since before we went camping.

Note: There were no skunks sighted while at the lake or campground. This in comparison to last September at the lake with the scouts.

Swimming and Camping

2011-05-03T20:56:00.001-07:00

We went camping with the whole family a couple weeks ago during Erik’s spring break. I’m glad we went, and we had many wonderful moments, but there were also many moments when I felt totally justified in the fact that I have avoided camping ever since having children. Lots of things went wrong. More than even I expected…and I expected trouble. Hence the avoidance of camping for years on end.

We went to Patagonia Lake and had a great time swimming. Unfortunately, all their campsites were under construction so we had to find another place to camp.

The Lake was really nice and had sand for the kids to dig and play in. They kept asking to use their floaties and sand toys at a beach…and luckily this qualified as a “beach” in their book! I hate to post a picture of me in a swimsuit, but the kids are so cute…so oh well ;)

Adam growling at birds at Patagonia Lake.

So after swimming for a few hours we had to decide where to go next. Our first backup plan was to camp at Parker Canyon Lake. Luckily Alex asked about this at Patagonia Lake, and found out that this option was out of commission due to parking lot resurfacing! Crazy…how many places can be closed on Easter weekend? So instead we went up Mt. Lemmon to Rose Canyon campground. There is a lake there for fishing, which was important since fishing was a big part of the excitement of the trip for the boys.

Our campsite

After some searching, Alex found us a lovely campsite and we still had plenty of time to set up camp before it got dark. I finally started to think things were working out fine after all. Well, yes…and no…

Erik and Adam had a great time exploring. It was really beautiful in the forest, and I loved that we didn’t feel like we were too close to other people since we had this hill on one side of us.

LOVE this picture!

Cute brothers :)

Tyler by one of the tents.

This would have been a nice picture of the campsite if Adam hadn’t picked that second to lift up his shirt. Hehe :)

So at first the evening went just fine. Some fussing and whining here and there, but overall better than I had expected. Erik and Adam were actually excited to go to bed in their own tent, and they went to sleep just fine. After a while Tyler went to sleep in his pack-n-play inside our big tent. Could a decent nights sleep actually be possible while camping?

No, no it could not.

When Alex and I were thinking about going to bed soon we heard Erik fussing. He said he felt like he was going to throw up…so I told him to come out of the tent FAST…but he was already throwing up EVERYWHERE! All over himself, the outside of his sleeping bag, on the air mats, under the air mats. I was totally overwhelmed thinking “How are we going to clean all this up?” The answer - LOTS of paper towels, and water, and wet paper towels. I got frustrated and luckily Alex took over – Thank you honey! It was not pretty. Amazingly the inside of the sleeping back didn’t get dirty or wet in all of this. So after the whole cleaning ordeal Erik was able to go back to sleep in the sleeping bag.

The good part of all of this – Adam never woke up even though he was sleeping right next to where we were cleaning, etc.

After Erik finally went back to sleep, guess who woke up – Tyler of course. He wouldn’t keep his blankets on himself, so he was cold. He woke up every 20 or 30 min for the next couple hours. Then he threw up a little bit (only once thank goodness and only on one blanket) and then slept with Dad the rest of the night. I think I may have slept for 2 or 3 hours that night. What a night :(

Amazingly, the next morning everyone felt fine and we were still able to go fishing.

So many Fruit Loops!

2011-05-01T19:08:00.001-07:00

I haven’t posted since the beginning of April, and two weeks ago that was fine. I just had a few pictures I’d taken recently and everything was under control. We have had a very busy two weeks though…so now I am rather behind. This post contains everything I had already planned to post about two weeks ago. (Yes the title only applies to the first picture.)

Here’s my yummy cake from my birthday on April 9th. It was really tall and straight on the sides, which I thought looked cool.

The cake looks huge in this picture compared to Tyler! It was big, but not that big :)

And the forest fire of 31 candles!

Candles out, and kitchen filled with a lovely smoky haze.

On another topic…Tyler built a”nest.” He gathered toys, pillows, and blankets, and then sat in the middle of it :)

Then he proceeded to move everything to another location behind the big chair in our living room…and sit in the middle of it while hiding behind the chair. After that he moved most of it onto the couch. And you guessed it – sat in the middle of it. Funny!

Peak-a-boo

2011-04-07T18:30:00.001-07:00

Tyler had some fun hiding under pillows, and peaking out!

Head sticking out on one side – foot sticking out on the other.

And fun times wearing Adam’s super mask!

Wow, what was that? This super hero stuff is crazy ;)

Erik’s piano recital

2011-03-31T20:06:00.001-07:00

Last week Erik had a piano recital! He has been learning to play the piano since last April, and he has finished his first piano book. It was so neat watching him play all eight songs that he had prepared for the recital. He was very excited and pretty pleased with himself when it was over :) Good job Erik!

The book he finished was Level 1A, and his new book is 1B…so he tells anyone who will listen about his new 1B book. Most people probably can’t figure out what he is babbling on about 1B and 1A. It’s kind of funny ;) And he tries to show his friends his new books and show them all the things he is going to be learning. I don’t think they pay too much attention, but I am sure glad Erik is so excited about piano and learning new things!

Here are all the cute kiddos at the recital.

The song Erik is playing in the video is about Halloween. Notice how the second verse gets lower so it sounds spooky. :)

And a big thank you to Erik’s piano teacher Camille for teaching him piano and having us all over to her house for the recital!

Saint Patrick's Day, etc.

2011-03-19T20:41:00.001-07:00

What did we do on St. Patrick’s Day? We all wore green :) And Erik had a field trip to the International Wildlife Museum that day too. Alex got to go with Erik’s class, and they had a fun time…or so I hear. I should have pestered them to take the camera, but I forgot, so no pictures.

Tyler wouldn’t sit with his brothers for a picture…he only wanted to sit on my lap.

Lately Tyler really likes to sit (or stand on the chair) at the table and draw with a pencil or crayon. We have to watch out what papers we leave lying around now. He likes to rifle through whatever papers and magazines we have sitting on the table and draw on as many as possible ;)

And here’s Adam hugging a toy puppy. He thought he was pretty cute and wanted me to take a picture of him!

Erik took a nap today. When he woke up his hair looked like this. Hehe.

Open, shut them, open, shut them…

2011-03-15T18:36:00.001-07:00

One Sunday morning I took a few pictures :

First picture – eyes open…

Second picture – eyes shut…

Third picture – eyes open…

Fourth picture – eyes shut!

So 50 percent of my pictures of Tyler will have eyes open?

Then I tried to get a picture of Adam…hmm…maybe not :)

And somewhere in there I got Erik too. I believe he was discussing this red magazine rack of his. He was telling us how he needs to take it with him when he grows up so that he can “organize himself.” Haha, that’s my Erik…thinking ahead to the future. :)

Mountains and Sky

2011-03-12T18:41:00.001-07:00

Two weeks ago it snowed in the mountains.

And one week ago we took pictures of a gorgeous sunset. At one point during the sunset there were pink clouds in every direction around the horizon. Then the clouds opposite the sun started fading in color, and the side where the sun had just disappeared got really bright florescent orange and pink…like you see in the picture. It was very cool.

a haircut and a binky

2011-03-12T18:32:00.001-07:00

Tyler got a haircut.

He looked so cute, but the picture would be cuter without the binky in front of his face.

So I tried to accomplish this…

As you can see, it didn’t work out so well.

Then I gave the binky back, and he was happy as a clam. Tyler’s just like Adam was at this age…loves that darn binky.

Washing the car

2011-02-16T21:05:00.001-07:00

Look at these good little helpers who love to wash the car!

This was at the end of our cold week. It was a lot warmer on this particular day, but still cold enough for our wet hands to get very chilly!

Happy Valentine’s Day!

2011-02-14T17:48:00.001-07:00

To commemorate this valentine’s day we made a giant brownie heart, covered it with pink whipped cream, and decorated it with candy.

I asked Adam why we have Valentine’s Day and his answer was, “LOVE”….hope you all have a great day of love!

On a side note…this is about how I feel today. I’ve got a cold and would have much rather slept all day…but I’m glad we did the fun brownie thing…that was good too ;)

A cold week

2011-02-14T17:13:00.001-07:00

At the begging of Feb. it was actually COLD here in Arizona. It is rather ironic that I should do this post today…at the moment it is at least 80 outside, if not hotter. And it’s 79 inside with the windows open…Ugh!

But a couple weeks ago it was cold, and the boys enjoyed playing outside in the coldness…I guess because it is a novelty here :)

One morning our water wouldn’t turn on due to frozen pipes, but luckily it thawed out in a few hours, and no major damage was done to the pipes. We do need to replace one part on the irrigation system, but thankfully the actual pipes are fine. Apparently lots of people in Tucson were without heat due to problems with the gas lines, but we don’t have gas…just electric, so that didn’t effect us either.

Erik’s school got cancelled one day due to broken pipes and heating issues. It’s pretty funny that we can have a “snow day” here with absolutely NO snow. I mean it wasn’t really a snow day…just a “damage due to cold weather day”? or something… but still ;)

A hug from Tyler

2011-02-05T18:10:00.001-07:00

Awww…so cute.

And let’s tickle Erik. You can’t tell in this picture, but Tyler was getting in on the tickling action too! He’s got some crazy baby tickling skills ;)

The second week in January…

2011-02-04T18:31:00.001-07:00

My brothers came to visit us in January. Oh, the fun with uncles! Adam was crazy all week, but we all had lots of fun!

I didn’t take any pictures until the end of the week…Alex was getting ready to go camping with the Boy Scouts…but that ended up being postponed a week.

Tyler with Uncle David.

Watching Daddy load the car.

Exploring the yard.

Check out my shades!

Trying to get a picture with David and Tyler…”baby stop taking off the glasses…you looked so cute.”

Adam having a “dinosaur ride” on Uncle Jeremy’s shoulders.

My brothers with Adam…

I don’t know where Erik was for all these pictures. Tyler was probably napping…so we get to see lots of Adam :)

And with me too :)

We had a fun week. Thanks for visiting David and Jeremy! We love you :)

An after Christmas visit

2011-02-04T18:28:00.001-07:00

The week after Christmas my parents came to visit. We had a great time with them, and the boys loved playing with their grandparents! Here they are doing horsey-back rides with Papa Dave.

Tyler, checking out my Dad’s radios.

Tyler loves to take things out of Grandpa’s pocket…

and then put them back in…

take them out again…

and repeat! What a patient Grandpa :)

Here’s a rare picture of me! I got a haircut two days before Christmas and now my hair is all short and stuff :)

Super Hero Adam

2011-01-29T17:22:00.001-07:00

Adam loves to be a super hero with his cape!

Add in some stilts and you have…

The “Super Hero Walk.”

Adam loves Super Why (as I’m sure you all remember from the Christmas posts), so he wanted a green mask. I made one out of construction paper that looks pretty cute on him I must say. Green is his favorite color as a result of his Super Why obsession :)

I love the zooming and swishing noises that he does here. And all his little super phrases…”dat,da,da,…Adam to the rescue,” etc. And all the movements he does while saying these things. I prompted him to say some of his cute phrases on the video, but he originally came up with all of them on his own.

It’s a bird, it’s a plane, it’s Super Adam!

Christmas Day

2011-01-27T15:40:00.001-07:00

And now for lots of pictures from Christmas…

Stockings!

Erik was sick on Christmas :( and threw up a few times…you will notice the white bowl to his right…yeah, that’s why.

Adam insisted on wearing his Christmas socks even though they had sprouted a rather large hole in the toe. Funny kid. He also didn’t want to stay in his pajamas to open presents. He wanted to get dressed first, which is fine, but kinda funny for a three-year-old.

Adam really wanted a “Super Why” toy, that he asked Santa for. He got it, and was very happy indeed. I think it is his favorite present. (The blue and green one is super why, the purple one is alpha pig…just so we’re clear ;)

What is under all those blankets…

Erik’s new “big bike” – hooray!

In the morning he was feeling too sick to go ride it, but thankfully in the afternoon he felt a little better and was able to go try it out ;)

All three kids got Ham piggy banks…thank you Kellogs cereal promotion! :)

And there’s Alex, what more can I say?

“Cutting” food…gotta get ready for that Christmas dinner!

Reptangles…aka “snapping turtles.” They are turtles that snap together to make all sorts of shapes and things.

Adam’s big “tall” present. A new Buzz was in the top box (yes we now have 3 buzzes total, but his other little buzz’s helmet cracked so he got another one), and Rex was in the bottom.

He kept saying that Buzz came form the fish box. I think he was surprised… he probably thought it was really a box of goldfish!

More fun with Super Why and Rex.

My awesome jewelry box that Alex made for me! It’s not quite all the way done, but it is so beautiful :)

Tyler with stacking cups…

and a carrot…

and a cape!

Tyler and Adam got matching super hero capes. So fun!

And Ham number three.

Tyler checking out all the neat books, scriptures stories, etc.

Erik had fun trying out his big bike. He was able to ride it no problem. Adam also got an unofficial present because as soon as Erik got the new bike Adam inherited the smaller one and we put the training wheels back on it for him. He was very happy.

Tyler likes the turtles too.

Adam’s so funny in this picture…Rex, turtles, Super Why, and the holes in his socks :)

A little tired after a fun Christmas…

But while the “big” boys were sleeping Tyler was busy cutting and dicing.

After the nap everyone had some fun with the leftover boxes.

It was Tyler’s idea to put the blanket in the big box. I guess he wanted it to be comfier.

Well, there’s our Christmas :)

Thank you to all our relatives that sent gifts. I am planning to do some thank you notes with the kids sometime, but we will seen when that actually gets done…so in the meantime…Thank you all so much. You really helped to make our Christmas wonderful and super fun for the kids (and for us too of course). We love everything :)

Videos

2011-01-25T16:35:00.005-07:00

Adam on his “brand new bike” as you can hear him say on the video. It’s so cute how it doesn’t faze him at all that it was Erik’s bike 24 hours ago.

Tyler opening a present all by himself:

And cutting up veggies:

2011-01-23T15:58:00.000-07:00

Christmas Eve pictures

2011-01-23T14:59:00.001-07:00

Three brothers by the tree :)

We waited until Christmas Eve to put presents under the tree because we knew Tyler would mess with them. After we got them out he had fun checking out the wrappings and ribbons for a little while before bed. Much better than dealing with telling him not to touch/rip/relocate them all month.

Tyler liked to sit behind the tree and see the presents from that vantage point.

Oooh, ribbons!

Erik all ready for bed and looking cute.

After the kids went to bed… stockings ready… (Kate - We put the cute dogs you sent in the tops of the boys stockings. How adorable is that! Thanks :)

and a few more presents out…

Ready for Christmas!

It’s Christmas!

2010-12-25T14:01:00.001-07:00

Here’s Adam with the Playmobile Nativity set.

I LOVE this picture. I think it’s the cutest thing ever, and very sweet!

Merry Christmas :)

Perry the Platypus

2010-12-23T22:57:00.001-07:00

I don’t know if any of you out there are familiar with Phineas and Ferb, on the Disney channel. It’s a silly fun little show that Alex, Erik, and Adam, (and me too to be perfectly honest) have enjoyed watching ever since last summer. I surprised them all a couple of weeks ago, with this ornament of Perry the platypus. Perry is Phineas and Ferbs’ pet and also a secret agent. I know it sounds strange but it works in the show…really it does…really. ;)

Before I gave it to them all, Alex was so confused as to what I could have gotten from the Disney store that I was keeping a secret from him. I felt quite sneaky and secretive…it was fun! So Perry is our new ornament for the year, in addition to some cute Christmas tree ornaments the kids made out of popsicle sticks, pompoms, and such.

Santa!

2010-12-22T20:05:00.001-07:00

Last Saturday we had a Christmas party at church.

And guess who was there…Santa!

A couple weeks ago my kid's didn't really think Santa was real...or at least they weren't sure. Now they are totally convinced there really is a Santa! It's so funny!

We have actually seen two Santas in the last week and a half. After the first one Adam said, “There really is a Santa on earth! I didn’t know there was a Santa on earth!” Now that he’s seen two he says “There are two Santa's on earth”! He doesn’t seem to see any conflict in that. That’s the beauty of being three I guess.

Erik was also surprised and thrilled to find out there really is a Santa. Now, I didn’t tell them anything about these Santas being real or not…I just left them up to their own ideas and asked them what they thought. And they bought it hook, line, and sinker! It’s pretty fun though :)

Tyler was not so happy to see Santa. I figured he wouldn’t be, but it was worth a try. And he’s still cute, even if he is crying.

We took a picture before church on Sunday. It was another one of our - balance the camera on top of the tv and set the timer – ones. So not great, but it’s better than nothing. The boys were so cute in their sweaters. Erik and Adam can wear the same size sweater vests, so they are taking turns with the red one with the snowman on it. Adam wore it last week and Erik is going to wear it next week I think.

Christmas cookies and a pumpkin for Christmas!

2010-12-21T17:14:00.001-07:00

Last week we made some Christmas cookies.

Here’s Erik waiting for them to come out of the oven. He was watching the timer very intently!

And Adam surveying the aftermath.

I noticed I haven’t posted very many pictures of Erik lately…So here’s another one of Erik!

On another topic…Adam has been asking me to get out his pumpkin costume. He says he wants to be a pumpkin for Christmas :)

I tried to explain that we dress up for Halloween, not Christmas. But he still keeps saying he wants to be a pumpkin, so eventually I got out the costume. After Adam wore it, Tyler wanted to try it on too. I wanted to get a picture of Tyler the pumpkin…but he always seemed to be running away. I got lots of pictures of the back of him.

Except for this one where he was distracted by a book :)

So here’s to my two little Christmas pumpkins!

Laundry cart = vehicle?

2010-12-20T15:50:00.001-07:00

Three weeks ago Tyler had croup, and was in the hospital for a day and a half. Not fun at all for baby or parents, but Tyler did have a good time getting into every bit of mischief he could find in that room ;)

Did you know a laundry cart makes a pretty fun vehicle if you’re one? He pushed it all over the room.

Hanging out on a chair.

See the bright red electrical outlets in the picture below. They were “conveniently” located all around the room. And bright red…just perfect for catching a babies’ attention…lovely.

Sucking on a toothpaste tube and checking out the crib he wouldn’t sleep in…that was a looong night!

He is such a good sleeper at home, but he does not know how to sleep when I am in the room with him. He freaked out when I tried to lay him down next to me on the fold out couch. He would wiggle away from me, run across the room, and then stand there screaming at me. This scene repeated many times. Finally I put him in the crib for 5 minutes and hid in the corner of the room where he couldn’t see me. He screamed of course, but when I picked him up again after that he did better and actually laid down next to me. He slept for maybe an hour and then was up for another hour or two. Eventually he fell asleep again and got about 6 hours of sleep. Too bad I didn’t sleep nearly that long. The fold out couch was very nice and big (for a couch), but still I couldn’t sleep very well on it. Plus it doesn’t help that my mind always knows some random person could walk into our room at any moment…just not conducive to a good sleep environment.

I was grateful though, that our biggest problems that night were just lack of sleep and getting into mischief…not actual problems because Tyler was sick. He was doing much better at that point and acting pretty normal, aside from his noisy breathing.

And, of course, more playing with the laundry cart…over here…

and now over there…

and climbing up to the sink to get a toothbrush.

Merry Christmas!

2010-12-19T20:21:00.001-07:00

Thanksgiving

2010-12-18T22:39:00.001-07:00

Finally a Thanksgiving post! But better late than never I guess :)

My family from CA came to visit again this year for Thanksgiving. It was great to spend time with them and my kids LOVED playing with their uncles and Grandparents!

Tyler and Adam had fun in the sandbox while my brothers dug a stump out of our yard. That was a huge help to us, especially because our bulk trash pickup day was coming, and we wanted to get it out of the ground before then so we could get rid of it.

Adam built a “volcano” in a bucket. Here he is showing it off.

And here are my wonderful brothers removing the remains of our tree that had sadly died in the past several months.

The little girl you don’t recognize is a friend of Erik’s from school, who recently moved onto our street. Now Erik and Adam are often busy playing with her and her sisters. Fun times…a bit crazy when we have an extra 5, and 7 year-old running around…but fun for the kids.

Tyler in my brother’s hat…

and Adam in his boots…

and hat.

Who said girls are the ones who like to wear each other’s clothes. hehe ;)

And Alex making tasty rolls…and putting the table he made to good use. When he was building the table he always imagined kneading dough on it! And now he is :)

Tyler’s Haircut

2010-11-17T18:10:00.001-07:00

I finally cut Tyler’s hair yesterday. It’s amazing how different he looks!

Before:

After:

And who is this?

Tyler?

No – Adam!

They do look very similar, especially now with the haircut.

Super Sandal

2010-11-15T17:18:00.001-07:00

Tyler likes to put Alex’s sandals on his arms. He’ll put his arms out in front of himself like a super hero (although I couldn’t get a picture of him doing this maneuver).

What do you call a baby super hero with sandals on his arms?

It’s a bird it’s a plane, it’s Super Sandal!

One Lazy Sunday Afternoon

2010-11-14T15:29:00.001-07:00

Hi, this is Alex. I just went to use the bathroom and found the following on my bed. Just thought everyone could appreciate this photo.

Tyler is asleep in the other room too. I’m the only one awake. The house is so quiet.

November so far…

2010-11-13T16:07:00.001-07:00

Geriatric pumpkins

(This pictures was on Nov. 3rd, they are much worse now!)

Erik learned to ride his bike without the training wheels on Nov. 4th!

Erik lost another tooth Nov. 10th.

and Adam took a nap…(big news I know ;)

Pooh through the the years!

2010-11-12T16:04:00.001-07:00

Erik ~ 2005

Adam ~ 2008

Tyler ~ 2010!

And this costume was originally my brother Jeremy’s in 1993! I remember that Halloween well. I wore a poodle skirt, David was Aladdin, and Jeremy was Pooh of course ;)

Pumpkins and Halloween

2010-11-08T19:42:00.001-07:00

Erik ghost and Adam pumpkin :)

My cute little Pooh Bear!

Erik the flying ghost.

Adam’s pumpkin

Erik’s “scary pumpkin,” as Adam called it.

My pumpkin

crazy hair day and a lost tooth

2010-11-08T19:20:00.001-07:00

Erik’s crazy hair…and Adam too.

Last month (Oct. 14th), Erik lost his first tooth.

Now he tells everyone who will listen that he lost a tooth, and shows them where the new one is coming in :)

Tyler’s antics

2010-11-01T19:29:00.001-07:00

Hi there blue eyes!

One night I let Tyler tear up a magazine as much as he wanted to. It kept him busy and happy for at least 45 minutes! That is extremely rare for him to entertain himself for that long, so I think it was worth it despite the mess :)

There he is basking in the paper carnage!

Tyler and Erik both had yellow ties on one Sunday. After church Tyler wanted to wear them both.

Too bad this outfit is almost too small, and this was the first time he wore it. I just couldn’t put him in long sleeves in the summer. I mean it still feels like summer here, but it’s slightly less hot summer, aka Fall in Tucson.

fussy

cute

(except for the runny nose which he has had a lot lately)

just woke up

with extra curly hair!

I keep taking pictures of his hair so I can remember what it looked like now, after I cut it.

That is when I get around to cutting it…

so far…I’m just not ready…as you can see :)

it’s a person

2010-11-01T18:14:00.001-07:00

Adam drew a person…see the head, legs, arms…just no body :)

Rainbow

2010-10-05T14:10:00.001-07:00

A few weeks ago we saw a rainbow. (Actually two, but I don’t know if you can tell in the picture. The second one is very faint over the main one.)

It was raining and sunny – so perfect rainbow weather!

Dancing in the rain!

Look at the size of our bushes. They’re huge compared to Erik.

A Simple Box

2010-09-30T22:03:00.001-07:00

Last month I (Alex) decided to make a couple of boxes for 2 people for Christmas. The names of said people will remain anonymous. This is box #1.

The lighter wood is curly maple, also known as flame or tiger maple. It is a beautiful example of this kind of figure and is what you might find on the back or neck of a violin or guitar. The top reddish/orange wood is padauk.

The inside of the box is a soft very light sage velvet pigskin suede. The tray slides back and forth but does not come out due to the angle of the box sides. To the special person that gets this for Christmas, Merry Christmas.

The other box will be finished in December after I finish the bunk beds. Dawn won’t let me start until I get the bunks finished. :)

Fishing and some other stuff…

2010-09-30T15:50:00.001-07:00

Alex took Erik fishing and they caught two fish. Alex actually caught them but Erik got to hold one on the fishing pole…so pretty close right?

Adam cleaned up the living room all by himself. When he finished the toy basket look like this. The leaning tower of toys! I’m surprised it stayed up!

Tyler likes to ride on our little rocking horse that Adam got when he was one. Now it is just right for Tyler! (Adam still likes it too of course.)

Giddy-up baby cowboy!

aww

Big babies

2010-09-28T13:50:00.001-07:00

There were some very big babies at my house the other day ;)

(Adam making it clear to Erik that he wanted a turn sooner rather than later!)

more Tyler…

2010-09-28T13:48:00.001-07:00

Sucking on the back massager…mmm

and playing with Woody…

Um, hi there Adam…you didn’t want to be in the picture or anything did you? hehe

Tyler

2010-09-24T15:54:00.006-07:00

Oh he’s so cute I just want to gobble him up! Look at those scrumptious cheeks :)

I love how his hair almost curls on the sides. His hair is getting rather long and I’m thinking of trimming it anytime now. But I’m not sure I want to yet. When I see pictures like this I definitely don't want to cut it. But it doesn't always look so adorable. Sometimes it's just long and scraggly looking. We’ll see.

Tyler took his first step on September 6th, and now he can walk “all the way” across a room.

This video is from Sept. 15th

1st day of school…and a nap on Erik’s bed.

2010-09-20T15:59:00.001-07:00

Erik’s first day of 1st grade was Aug. 16th. Yes we are a month behind, oh well.

And Tyler taking a nap on Erik’s bed :)

Almost home!

2010-09-17T15:28:00.001-07:00

At the hotel in Flagstaff.

We went swimming the next morning at the hotel pool and then on to the LAST day of driving!

We were happy to see cactus again (well almost). At least it meant we were almost home.

Passing Picacho Peak…Tucson in 47 miles…

Turning onto our street…

and our house! Happy day!

I had to take a picture of our little green car that took us all that way :)

After we got home Alex sorted and played with his Legos from childhood that had been discovered at his parents’ house. I unpacked and then unpacked some more, and did laundry. Oh what fun. We had a great time and were very happy to be home :)

And that is the end of posts about our trip. Phew! Finally!

Grand Canyon

2010-09-17T15:24:00.001-07:00

It felt like it took a long time to get there. (We had started in St. George and gone through Zion’s and then on to the Grand Canyon.) But now we can say we have seen it, and don’t have to feel silly about living in Arizona for seven years and never going to the Grand Canyon :)

That’s a big hole in the ground!

We didn’t get many pictures with people in them…but here’s one.

Scenic Views – Aug. 13th

2010-09-16T16:03:00.002-07:00

On this day we left Saint George and drove through Zion National Park. We also went to the Grand Canyon, but that will be a separate post.

It’s cool how the roads are made with the red dirt/rocks giving them a reddish hue.

All the layers of red, white, and brown rocks are pretty neat.

More nifty rock layers!

An arch in the process of forming.

Part of the Grand Staircase.

Vermillion Cliffs.

I love the red cliffs next to the green valley…so pretty!

Temple Square and BYU - Aug. 12th

2010-09-12T20:43:00.001-07:00

As we drove through Utah we stopped at Temple Square and BYU for rather hurried visits. It was good though, and fun to show the kids some places that we haven’t been back to since we were in college.

Adam walked up to the statue of Jesus and said, “It’s a super hero!”

The conference center.

On the roof of the conference center.

and on to Provo…

Where DT (Desert Towers) used to be. It’s been demolished and is no more. Both Alex and I lived at DT when we were freshman. (We were freshman at different times and didn’t know each other then.) We knew it was torn down awhile ago, but it was kinda sad to drive by and see it ourselves.

We drove down 9th East which is the route I walked to school and home every day my sophomore and junior years. Here’s the creamery on 9th where I used to buy food and then try to carry two gallons of milk back to my apartment.

Arcadia Apartments! The red door on the bottom is the apartment I lived in when I met Alex.

Alex lived across the street at Roman Gardens. We met at the hot tub/pool inside the complex.

We hiked the “Y” the first week after we met with my roommate Liz. Supposedly Alex first started liking me during this adventure… or so I’ve been told. I don’t know why…hiking up this nasty trail just about killed me :) Ah, memories!

We went to Kiwanis Park and found what we think is the bench where Alex first told me he “loved me and might want to marry me someday.” Boy was I freaking out when he told me that! It’s crazy to think that was almost ten years ago. And here we are at the same bench with our three little boys :)

We made a hurried stop at BYU. We mostly just went to the bookstore and then hurriedly walked across campus. I wish we could have stayed longer, but at least we got a quick trip down memory lane. I was taking tons of pictures so I could at least remember that we had been there.

I must have looked like such a silly tourist taking pictures of everything and hurrying Adam along behind me. If I had seen myself now when I was a student I’m sure I would think it was a very funny sight!

Here are the shirts we got at the BYU Bookstore!

East Fork of the Lewis River and Multon Falls – Aug. 9th

2010-09-09T19:42:00.001-07:00

Ahhh, pretty river! We wanted to swim in it but the weather wasn’t cooperating. That’s okay though, because it was perfect weather for hiking around and enjoying the scenery.

And, the water is cold even when it’s hot out, trust me. (Alex)

Oh, come on. It wasn’t that cold – I put my feet in and Tyler was screaming to get in the water so I let him touch it and put his feet in too. He would have sat in it and splashed away if I had let him. (Dawn)

cool tree! it’s fluffy.

Tyler loved the rocks. He wanted to suck on them all. nom nom nom.

Alas, we didn’t get the chance to throw any of the children in the water. maybe next time, and yes, there will be a next time.

(Note: the contents of this post may or may not have been hijacked by the spouse. Dawn is having a conniption fit about what I’m typing here. Tough luck. I won’t give her the seat back either, thus HIJACKED!)

Note #2: I put Alex’s thoughts in italics…just so you know ;)

Tyler’s actual Birthday – Aug. 8th

2010-09-09T18:40:00.001-07:00

Eating French toast on his birthday.

New socks from my parents :)

And Erik showing the world that he is 6!