Lake Powell

I wanted to have one last vacation before Baby Girl arrives this week... so William and I tagged along and went to Lake Powell. This was William's FIRST Lake Powell trip. He did so well on the car ride (he is recently potty trained and did not have ONE single accident. I was very impressed). He was so excited to see the water and the boats and to stay on a house boat. He has never done any of this, so it was all very exciting.

When we finally made it to the houseboat we got all geared up and played in the water. He loved swimming in the lake with Kylee. He even went down the houseboat slide with her! (He wasn't such a big fan of this, only because he went under the water. I was so proud of him for going though!)

His favorite thing was riding the jet-ski. Meemaw and Pop pop took him on a very long ride and he was absolutely thrilled. Aunt Bri and Uncle Kaden took him next and he just did not want to get off that thing. He loves it. 

Lots of swimming with cousins and Aunts and Uncles... It was a very windy day!! 

The other love William had was the paddle boat. He had a blast just sitting in it and he got lots of rides from people. It is a great toy for the kiddos!

Bath time!! My cousin Courtney had the great idea to bathe the kids in the sink. These boys went first and had a blast. William is getting too big for this sort of thing tho- he barely fits in there! Ha ha. These boys are seriously hysterical together. (Lots of these pictures are courtesy of Courtney. She is so good at taking pictures!! Thanks Courtney)

Just chillin with cousins. We were only on the houseboat for a couple of nights. William and I were not feeling great (I was 36 almost 37 weeks pregnant and extremely swollen and just getting miserable) and I think William got homesick. Luckily we had cell phone service and called Daddy every night- but that wasn't good enough. The last night I held William while he cried and he cried his self to sleep. It was so sad. Then he woke up a couple of times during the night crying that he wanted to go home. So the next day we packed up and hitched a ride home with my brother Josh and his family. Of course, the minute we got home William was begging to go back to Lake Powell. But it was good that we went home. We got lots of sun and play in. He loved sleeping on top of the houseboat in a tent with Kylee too. I hope he had fun and will remember this trip!

5 Days of Disneyland Part II

For weeks William was telling everyone that he was going to meet Elsa at Disneyland. (This boy LOVES the movie Frozen) I kept telling him that I wasn't even sure that Elsa was going to be at Disneyland, but if she was- that we could meet her. She was definitely at Disneyland- along with Ana- and everyone wanted to meet them. The first time I checked the line was on our 2nd day and it was a 2 1/2 hour wait. I bagged it. I had the brilliant idea to return first thing the next morning. 

We arrived at the park on our 3rd day and I went straight to Elsa's line. Everyone else must have had the same brilliant idea because the line was all ready looped all the way around Fantasy land and down the walkway toward Frontier land. I stood in line for 5 1/2 hours so my little man could meet Elsa and Ana. I was completely fine with it since it was our 3rd day and we still had 2 more days- plus I was swollen and tired being 28 weeks pregnant. And it was worth it- look at how happy this cute boy is that he is next in line:

Holding up "5" for 5 hours... but it was really 5 1/2!!

Meeting the girls. I love how he is so calm and "macho" in these pictures. He has to be all manly about meeting these beautiful girls. What a stud.

Thanks to Meemaw and Pop pop for taking William on rides while I waited in line! And for trading places with me so I could eat lunch!

Another new thing we tried was over at California Adventure- it is the Wilderness Explorer Camp. We have always just walked right past this, but now that Will is bigger we decided to give it a try. (Plus William has always loved the movie Up) It was such a fun area to let him run around and get all his wiggles out- it is HARD standing in lines all day long just to ride for a few seconds. So this area is great to let them just get all that energy out:

We also took William over to Pirate Island. I have been over there before- but it was William's first time and again, he just loved it. Such a fun area to run around, explore caves, and do fun things. He loved all the pirate stuff.

Our last night in the park- had to get a picture in front of Mickey at the entrance. We never do this- and it is a must! We are all exhausted but happy! All 4 of us survived.

Until we meet Disneyland again... (hopefully in a year or so when Baby Girl is big enough) We had such a great time. 

5 Days of Disneyland Part I

Man- I feel like we haven't been to Disneyland in a looooong time. In reality it has only been about 11 months- ha ha. We were lucky to be able to tag along on Scott's work trip this time. He had a convention in Anaheim! So William and I tagged along and got to go to Disneyland for our LONGEST trip yet- 5 whole days! We have been super excited about this trip and talking about it non-stop for weeks. I was a little nervous being 28 weeks along AND chasing around my 2 year old... so my parents were nice enough to join us! 

We did lots of new things this trip- first up was the Sword in the Stone. I always saw this at the park, but we have never stopped to try it out. All our boys gave it a try:

William just loves trains. We took full advantage of the train this trip. Anytime we could hop on- we would do it. William just loved it, and it was a time to relax for all us adults. 

Big W is tall for his age... he was only 1 inch short for MOST of the rides- so hopefully next time we go he will be able to ride pretty much everything & anything. Some new rides he was tall enough for this trip include Autopia. I think he rode this about 6 times. Look at how happy he is that he gets to "drive" a "car"!!

 Cute Meem & Pop driving along behind us.

We even talked Eric and Colleen into Disneyland for a day! William was SUPER excited to see them at the Park and they were sweet enough to take him on rides that I couldn't. Mater's Tractor Pull is one of his favorites. 

 And he talked Eric into taking him on a drive on Autopia.

The weather this trip was PERFECT- a little overcast and around 72 degrees. I think Sunday was pretty hot... but the rest of the week was amazing. And thank goodness because with all the humidity and walking around- my feet and ankles could barely handle it. I was SO swollen!! All in all- I loved walking around Disneyland and getting lots of exercise. We had so much fun hanging out with Meemaw and Pop pop all week too. We had lots of treats- our favorites are the Mint Juleps and beignets at the Mint Julep bar. We also love the Tigger Tails at Pooh Corner (which is another favorite ride of Will's. He rode it almost 20 times during the week). We got to try a new treat this trip as well at Maurice's Treats in Fantasy Land. We tried the Strawberry swirl bread, the chocolate swirl bread and the garlic swirl bread. As well as the frozen apple drink. It was delicious. 

One more post and more pictures and stories to come...

Car Show

One other mini-vacation we did was a car show up in Park City! Scott is a member of NUMOA (a Mustang Club) and had his car entered in the show, we thought it would be fun and adorable to have William's car entered in as well. We stayed at New Park and it was SUCH a nice place to stay! Here are our cars:

The kids got to participate in a "race"/parade for all the other cars there. William was pretty excited to be a part of it! Here he is getting ready to go.

He got a sucker at the end... and I think that was icing on the cake. He had a BLAST doing the parade. He didn't like dad steering him tho. But he can't quite steer the car yet. Smiles all around!

That night was a banquet for all those entered in the car show and a part of the club. We had a good dinner and had a raffle, an auction and then the awards were handed out. Scott won!! He received this award for his class. We were so excited for him! Good job Honey!

We had such a fun weekend away together.I am so proud of Scott and glad that he shared his fun weekend with us. 

Just had to throw this picture in here... William LOVES riding 4 wheelers. Papa let William ride his 4 wheeler around one Sunday. He had an absolute blast. William sure does love his Papa.

the rest of our Summer...

As I said, we had a busy summer and went on lots of mini vacations! Here is a quick-ish update for a few more things we did. 

In July we went to our favorite place: DISNEYLAND. My parents and sister went with us. We decided to split the drive up and drove to Vegas the first night. On our way we witnessed a semi truck run off the road and tip over. It was really scary and it delayed us for a while. By the time we got to Vegas, we just went to sleep. It was nice splitting the drive up tho. We only spent one day at Disneyland, but it was plenty of time to do all of our favorite things. We ate at Cafe Orleans, drank lots of Mint Juleps, hung out at Carsland, and rode Winnie the Pooh about 20 times. It was William's favorite ride:

My Sweet and Adorable Parents

"Dee-O"

We LOVE Carsland. William loves the Mater ride and the Luigi Tire ride. All of us grown ups rode the Radiator Springs Racers as well. SO FUN!

The next morning we drove to San Diego and went to the Zoo. William has never been and Scott and I haven't been in years. William enjoyed seeing animals and walking around. I was horrible and didn't take any pictures! I don't know what I was thinking! Here we are at the entrance:

Seaworld was our last stop. And again- I didn't take any pictures!! Our camera battery had died. But here is William touching some star fish courtesy of Bri. He really liked petting the sting rays and touching the star fish... basically any chance to get in the water was a good time. He really liked the shark exhibit as well. He was really excited about the Shamu show at first... then lost interest pretty fast. It was fun to go and to take William- but honestly, it is not my favorite place. I think we will stick with Disneyland. 

Since we finished so early at Seaworld- I asked Scott if we could go and do a session at the San Diego Temple. We have both always wanted to visit this temple and since my parents wanted to go to Oceanside (where my dad grew up) anyway, they took William along with them and let us go! It is seriously the prettiest temple we have visited so far. We had such a great experience and I am so thankful to be able to do this work with my husband!

My parents had such a blast taking William to see the Ocean for the first time!! Here they are walking along the beach: so gorgeous!

How perfect is this shot??? He is so excited about all that water!! I am sad that I missed this moment with him... but I am glad that my parents and Aunt Bree got to enjoy it with him. He had so much fun.

Once we got back from California... it was literally about a week later that we made a day trip up to Idaho to visit Scott's sister and her daughters! We rarely get to see these guys and we missed them. Sarah was chosen to paint a mural on this city wall at a park. Look at that talent! We are so proud of her.

Next we headed out to the sand dunes. Brett's (my brother-in-law) dad just got a fun new razor and was nice enough to let us all go out and drive it around. William thought it was the coolest thing ever. He really loves four wheelers... so he was thrilled to ride in this "car". 

I have never even heard of these sand dunes before... but man they were amazing! I pictured us sitting around in the blazing sun and heat just being miserable and waiting for your turn on the razor.. boy was I wrong! There were trees and shade and even WATER! There were really cool little ponds of clear water all around the sand dunes! We just parked the truck, pulled up some chairs and let the kids play in the water and take turns riding the razor. It was such a blast and William was in heaven! Thanks to the Thueson family for being such gracious hosts for a fun day in Idaho.

The next weekend we went to Vegas!! I am not one to just go to Vegas for fun. I just don't find much appealing about Vegas to be honest. I don't gamble, party, drink, go to strip clubs or any of that jazz. So unless we have a reason- we usually don't stay here. But- Scott and Eric had tickets to the Star Trek convention. So we all decided to go down and hang out. This is the view out of our hotel room:

William LOVED that pool. He wasn't a huge fan of the synthetic beach... but we had a blast swimming a couple of times over the weekend. Here are our boys at the convention: so cute. We also went to the Bellagio to watch the fountains, walk around and get some ice cream. 

Daddy swimming with his boy in the fun pool just before we headed back home

More updates to come. Including a Mustang show in Park City, the Utah State Fair and more! Thanks to Eric and Colleen for getting us such an amazing room and for letting us spend the weekend with you in Vegas!

This Summer... so far

This summer has been the best one in years! It was a difficult adjustment for me to have a baby... so the last couple summers we have not done much. This year I wanted it to be different. I started off the summer with a trip to Lake Powell. Scott and William didn't want to go, so I left the boys behind and joined my family for a week on the Lake. We had such a blast swimming, tubing, boating, sight-seeing, cliff jumping, playing cards, eating food, sleeping under the stars and enjoying the heat. I can't find my pictures... so I will repost when I find them. We did make a Harlem Shake video. Baby Gavin is the best part. Here is the Youtube link --> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UgHJ02ZwCHU
But it was the BEST time!

A few weeks later my family went on another trip to Yellowstone. My dad rented a cabin in Island Park (just about 20 minutes outside of Yellowstone). Scott had to work, but William and I joined in on the fun. I think William's favorite parts of the trip were the cabin and the water. Anytime we were near a river that was safe for swimming- he would be right in there and wouldn't come out. He may have loved Lake Powell after all....

Next up... a trip to California (not JUST Disneyland this time!!! SHOCK!) A trip to Idaho and a trip to Vegas & Park City. I told you.... we had a busy summer! And it's not over yet!