Jackson's First Scooter Ride...

Last Sunday Uncle Chase decided to get the scooter out for the season. Jackson wanted to be apart of the excitement so bad until the helmets became part of the plan. Andersen on the other hand was so excited. Look at that smile... SO CUTE!
Finally after seeing his little brother wear the helmet, Jackson decided to try it. Here is Uncle Chase and Jackson right before their ride; excited but still a little nervous.
A few minutes later they were ready to ride and Jackson had forgotten all about the helmet and it was nothing but smiles. Here he is showing me his guns with his Donkey watch from McDonalds... can't go too far without that!

The ride was a success! Jackson had so much fun and when asked if he wanted to go back home or keep riding, of course his answer was keep going! I don't know what Jackson was more excited about... the actually scooter ride or riding it with Uncle Chase. He loves his Uncle for sure!

Before St. George...

Before we left for St. George this little guy got so sick. Our whole family seemed to get a little piece of this bug, but poor Andersen got it the worse. He had a fever for 3 days straight and spent those days and nights in nothing but his diaper. All he wanted to do was cuddle. I would put him down for a few minutes and all he would do is lay there which is so out of his normal busy, wiggly body. It is so sad to see little ones get so sick, but I loved all the cuddle time for sure!!

Quick Trip to St. George

Nate's Grammy has a home in St. George so Tina and I decided to take a quick trip with the boys to St. George to relax and enjoy some sun while she was off track. We spent the weekend taking it easy by playing and eating. The first day we spent the morning driving around to find different playgrounds for Jackson to play on. This was probably the best playground we found.


Then we headed to the Pizza Factory that night for dinner. Here is Jackson enjoying mine and his dessert.
The next day was spent swimming in the morning. Here is Jackson all ready to jump in!
Andersen on the other hand wasn't too excited. It didn't help that I got sunscreen in his eye.
This was Andersen's first time going swimming and 30 minutes later he still wasn't having fun. It was around his nap time so Nana took him back to sleep while Jackson and I stayed and played. Andersen was so tired he fell asleep in Nana's arms walking back to the house.
Can you tell Jackson wasn't ready to leave yet? I have a feeling he is going to be a water baby this summer if we start getting more consistent warm weather.

That night Nana let Jackson pick where we ate dinner since it was her birthday. What a nice Nana, because of course Jackson picked McDonalds. After dinner we treated Nana to Nielsen's Custard for her birthday. These two are best buddies and I love watching them play together!
Here is Jackson taking his turn with pictures. Not too bad for a 3 year old!
Happy Birthday Nana and thanks for the fun trip to St. George!

Memorial Day 2010

PART 1:
I always say what a great Nana Jackson has and here is another reason why. She knew he would love to go see Thomas the Train in Heber so she was nice enough to take us all there for Memorial Day this year. Jackson was SO excited!! Here he is with Nana getting his tickets for the ride.
We all put on our wristbands
and waited in line for Thomas to get back from the earlier ride.
Can you tell Jackson doesn't mind waiting at all for his turn. He would have waited all day.
Finally, it was our turn to ride. Here is Jackson handing the conductor our tickets.
All aboard!... (Nana is taking the picture for us this time)

After our ride we waited in line to get our picture with Thomas
and then another picture with Sir Topham Hatt... Jackson's favorite!
Thanks Nana for such a fun day out with Thomas and Friends.
PART 2:
After our train ride we were invited to have a BBQ up Big Cottonwood Canyon with some friends. We hurried home from Heber, packed up some stuff for the BBQ and made our trek back to the mountains. It was a perfect night for a BBQ because the weather was beautiful. These two kiddos were loving the fresh air just as much as the big kids.
After we roasted our hot dogs for dinner the boys (young and old) went off to play while the girls talked.
Then all returned for s'mores. Here are the Dad's letting the kids burn marshmallows.


Even though this day was busy and filled with a lot of driving and activities it was a great holiday spent with family and friends!

Orlando

Day 1:

A few months ago we booked a trip to Orlando with some friends. Nate's friend from school has a time share so it was a perfect opportunity to get away without the kiddos. We left Tuesday morning and finally made it to Orlando about 6:00pm Florida time. When we got into town, we went straight to dinner. Garrett loves to try local restaurants that we don't have in Utah, so the first place we tried was Hamburger Mary's. If you can imagine the how the ESA and Gateway are setup close to each other, this is how Hamburger Mary's is to the Arena where the Magic play but the ghetto version. Out of all nights to visit this restaurant we were fortunate (Or unfortunate) to go on "Twisted Sister Bingo" night. Our live entertainment was songs and Bingo by two drag queens!! The first thing they (the drag queens) said was... "Oh, look at the the 3 straight men that just walked in!" Talk about jumping out of the Utah bubble just within hours or getting off the plane. Besides the entertainment, the food was really good, especially their chips and salsa!

Alicia, Drag Queen, and Lyndsay
Day 2:
We spent the day at Disney's Blizzard Beach. It felt so good to be in the sun all day, especially coming from our snowy weather just two days before this. It was high 90's and perfect weather to ride the water slides and layout.
Day 3:
Us girls spent the first part of this day shopping. We started by stopping at Downtown Disney and then later went over to the Florida Mall for some shopping at H&M while the boys stayed back at the rooms playing games, ping pong, etc.
After shopping and before dinner, we went out to the pool to relax and get some more sun.

Day 4:
This was our last day to play. We drove to Tampa Bay to go to Bush Gardens to ride the roller coasters. Here we are riding the train from the parking lot to the entrance.

Right as we got into the park this is what show was going on. I think this was the only time Nate and I wished the boys were with us because Jackson would have loved to see Elmo and Friends! Bush Gardens has a small section of the park dedicated just to Sesame Street. So many cute things just for kids!
Bush Gardens, along with the rides, has a bunch of animals all around the park. Nate took a picture with the snake just to show Jackson.
This is all of us waiting in line for my favorite ride in the park... SHEIKRA!

Sharing a foot long hot dog for lunch
All the boys as they were waiting on us girls to make a bathroom break right before we make the hour drive back to Orlando for dinner.
Day 5:
Consisted of us leaving at the crack of dawn (4am Utah time) to make our flight back home. We made it home around noon on Saturday so it was nice to still have some of the weekend left to play. Although it was nice to wake up to this view every morning...
It was nice to see this too. It was nap time when we got home from the airport so since Nate and I were exhausted from our early morning we took a nap with our boys. Nate and Andersen cuddled on one couch while Jackson and I took the other one. It is always so fun to come home to the kids after being gone for a few days. Jackson of course was so excited to see us, but Andersen wasn't quite sure what to think of it. It was as if he had forgotten us for the first ten minutes and then he was all smiles as he seemed to remember who we were.