Our Weekend Trip

Visiting Grandparents in Saint George
This past weekend we took a trip down to Saint George, we left on Wednesday night after Sean got off work. Sean's grandparents live there and since his grandma has been having some health problems the past few months we wanted to go for a visit. Sean's parents were also going to be going down there so we got to see them at the same time. Sean's aunt and uncle from California and one of his cousins also ended up making the trip, so it was a full house. We had a really good time visiting with everyone. Kate had a lot of fun once she warmed up to everyone. Sean's grandpa bought a couple of chairs for the living room so there would be more seating with so many people being there all at once. Apparently the chairs came with two little child chairs so they gave one to Kate. She really liked the chair, about as much as they enjoyed giving it to her. It was so cute, great grandpa took her over to the chair and sat her in it and told her that they were giving her the chair and that she could take it home. It was really sweet. I think they really enjoyed having one of their great grandchildren running around the house. It was fun for Kate to spend some time alone with grandma and grandpa and great grandma and great grandpa. It's less intimidating for her that way.

There is a pond on their backyard that has some ducks and fountains in it that Kate really liked watching. They also have a humming bird feeder hanging right outside the window so she was always watching for the birds to come. I just love watching her, she is such a funny girl.








We took Kate to see the Saint George temple and visitor's center on Friday. Sean's grandpa works at the temple so his parents and aunt and uncle did a session that he officiated while we looked around and waited for them to take some pictures. She really loved it. She loves temples, she gets really excited every time we see one and she loves to point out Moroni. We found out the Saint George temple does not have a Moroni, so we tried to explain that to her. This is the first vistor's center she has been to so she got to see the Christus statue and look at all the different pictures. This temple is so beautiful. I love when you look at it from a distance and see how this bright white building stands out against the red rock mountains in the background. Amazing!





Visiting Friends in Las Vegas
Since we were already in Saint George, we wanted to head to Vegas on Saturday to spend the day with our friends Bill and Rachel and their two kids, Livi (4) and Aaron (2). We met them while we were living in Sacramento. We have been wanting to go down and visit for a couple of months. Their little girl, Livi, was diagnosed with Leukemia a couple of months ago and spent quite a while in the hospital in critical condition. She is out of the hospital now and doing so great - it is hard to imagine that she was ever in such critical condition. She is still fighting the disease, but she is doing so well right now - she is able to run around and play, which is something she couldn't do a month ago.

We had a really good visit with them. We went to this go kart place and rode the go karts, a first for Kate. She was very scared to get into the car at first, but once I got her in there with me she had a good time and was waving to the others as we passed them. Then we went down the Fun Slide. Kate loved it! We went down eight times and every time she got to the bottom she wanted to go again. That was the only other thing she could go on since she is so small, but it worked out great because she had so much fun. We went to lunch at Jason's Deli. We had never eaten there before, but it was really good. I would go there again. We went back to their house and hung out while Kate and Aaron took naps. Kate got to sleep in Livi's princess house, which she was very excited about. Thank you Livi!

In the afternoon we went to this cool water park. One side of the park is your typical park, slides, climbing stuff, etc., and on the other side of the park is this water play area that has fountains and stuff for kids to play in. It was really cool. Aaron loved it and started running through it immediately, but it took Kate a bit to warm up to the water spraying at her, but eventually she was running around having a great time too. Livi preferred the play area over the water area, but after a while she did run through it a few times. It was an awesome park, I really wish they had something like that around here. Thanks for taking us to it! We went back to their house and ate dinner which was great and then it was about time to go. Kate took a bath with Livi and Aaron and we read a couple books with them and then we said our goodbyes. We wish we could have spent more time there, we hope to visit again soon. We miss being able to hang out like we used to in Sacramento.

Watching Livi was amazing, she is such a miracle. I am amazed at the progress she has made in such a short time. She truly is a brave little girl. We love you all! Thank you for a great day!

My Baby Kate

My little baby Kate is no longer a baby. She just turned 2 years old! I can't believe she is that big, the time has gone by so fast! She is such a little kid. She is talking so much and wants to do everything herself. Kate was really excited for her birthday. We told her that she was going to be 2, so now when you ask her how old she is she says, 2! This is a step in the right direction, she used to always say 3! Funny girl. Her birthday started when she woke up, I sang her the Happy Birthday song (which she loves, she even knows most the words and will sing it with you). Then I gave her some balloons I had picked up the night before, and of course she loved them and knew exactly what they were for. She screamed, "Happy Birthday balloons!" We were going to have a party in the evening so we spent most of the morning getting ready for it and making her cake. She had a good time helping me make the cake. I thought it turned out pretty good. Sean came home from work early so she got to play with him while I finished getting things ready. We had a little princess party for her she got to wear a princess crown and necklaces. My family came over to celebrate. Kate had a lot of fun, she loved playing with her cousins, especially Zoriaha! She loved all her presents, it was really funny to watch her open them. When she opened them she would say, "Ooh, for Kate". She wasn't too into eating the cake (she never is), but she liked her ice cream cone. She had a really good time and it was fun for us to watch her excitement. I am so grateful to have such an amazing little girl. I wouldn't trade her for anything!

Zoriaha's Baptism

My niece Zoriaha was baptized on July 5th. She asked Sean to baptize her and he was honored. Since we were at the family reunion that week we had to leave a day early to be back in time. She was so cute, the night before the baptism Sean asked her if she was ready and she said, "Yeah, tomorrow's our big day". It was really neat to be there. I can't remember the last time I went to a baptism. It was the first one that Kate has been too so it was a great opportunity to introduce her to it. Way to go Zoriaha, we love you!

Family Reunion Adventures

Island Park
Last week we spent the week at a family reunion with Sean's family. We stayed in a cabin in Island Park, ID. We had a great time. We even had family reunion shirts which we are sporting in this picture. All of the cousins were together for the first time. Kate had fun playing with all the kids. She was pretty good most of the time, but it was a little hard with her getting off her schedule. The worst part was her sleeping in the room with us. That never goes well. She went to sleep without any problems every night but she would wake up around 1:30am and not want to go back to sleep. She got better as the week progressed, which I was very grateful for, but needless to say I was very happy to put her to sleep in her own bed. We spent the week doing different activities each day. Each night we would eat dinner together and have a short activity before the kids went to bed. As you can see below we stayed quite busy.

Spending the Day in Jackson Hole
We spent Monday in Jackson Hole, WY. We had never been there so we were excited to go. We had a good time. We looked around at the little shops, which was fun, but not as easy to do while chasing an almost 2 year old. We got to take a little carriage ride around town which Kate loved, she kept wanting to poke her head out the window and look at the horses. While I was getting tickets for the carriage ride Sean got us some ice cream, and I must say, it was the best ice cream I have ever had. It was Oreo flavored, and it was so good! YUM!

Our Visit to Yellowstone National Park
We went into Yellowstone on Tuesday. It was a lot of driving but we did get to see some wildlife which was very cool. We saw two bald eagles flying right after entering the park. Apparently there was a nest that Sean saw, but I missed that. It was really cool to see them flying though. We also saw buffalo. We got out to get a picture with this buffalo. It started walking toward the road where we were parked. It was crazy because one minute it was in the meadow and the next it was walking up on the road with the cars. After we got back in our car we were literally 2 feet from it. We stopped and looked at several geysers before stopping at Old Faithful to eat lunch. We were able to make it there in time to see it erupt.

River Rafting
On Wednesday Sean went river rafting with two of his brothers, one of his sisters and her husband. They had a good time. I really wished I could have gone, I have been down a river in such a long time. Sean was in the wettest spot on the raft and he said the water was freezing. Notice in the picture below who is completely covered by the water. They all had a great time.

Grizzly & Wolf Discovery Center
On Wednesday while Sean and the others were river rafting, the rest of us headed up to West Yellowstone to go to the Grizzly & Wolf Discovery Center. It was small, it just had a couple of wolves and a few bears, but it was cool. I have never seen bears as active as there were here. We watched them for quite a while. One bear was standing up on a tree and pushing on it until he knocked it over. It was really neat to see them so active, usually at the zoo they are sleeping or hiding, which is no fun. Kate really enjoyed looking at the bears and the wolves. It is so fun to watch her experience things and to see the excitement in her face. What a joy!

Pool Fun
There was an RV park near the cabin that Sean's parents were staying at which had a pool so we got to go swimming on Wednesday night. It was really fun, Kate loves to swim! I know she just wishes we would let her go and swim on her own.

Cherry on Top
On Thursday we went into West Yellowstone to look at the different shops and eat lunch. While we were waiting for our lunch Kate asked for some chocolate milk because she saw some of her cousins with it. She said, "Chocolate milk please with cherry on top". I was laughing so hard because Sean and I had never heard her say that and we didn't teach it to her. I still don't know who taught it to her, but it was hilarious because it was so unprompted.