Friday, July 29, 2011

2011 Week 30

Back to regular life, mostly. The fun family outing for the weekend was taking a day trip to the beach on Sunday. It's been hot hot hot, so the water was really warm (around 80) and thus really great to be in pretty much the whole time. Kaitlyn in particular couldn't get enough. She's quite the little fish.

As I said, the rest of the week was just slices of reglar life.











Friday, July 22, 2011

2011 Week 29

Final week of vacation in Utah and it looks like we squeezed a lot into it.
Camille was able to do haircuts (and color for me) - yay! Not only are we now looking our best, but it was a lot of fun to catch up with her. I also worked in a couple more visit with friends as well.

The Summit County Art Show was going on and we had some down time so we took the kids. They had some fun activities there for them to do - make their own boats, turn sticks into colorful snakes, and bottlecap pins.
The kids and I spent more than one morning over at Karen's arena with Wyatt and the horses.







Dixie is a very patient, wonderful horse isn't she?


Kaitlyn LOVES to go fast - look at that big grin when she got Dixie to trot.


And I got some pretty nice shots of Wyatt jumping on Bear.



We made sure to have a quick, early birthday party for Dad. As you can see, the kids were so excited to get to the cake that they rushed their grandpa through his dinner. Tyler also can't keep a secret and in the 2 minutes it took Kaitlyn to bring out the gift, he tried to tell Grandpa what it was at least 5 times.


It's a new camera - Dad's first one of his own I think. He's pretty excited about it and I made sure to show him how to use it and upload photos before I left.


Quick Granparent photo session with the kids out in the field.


And a final day absolutely PACKED with fun stuff. Grandpa wanted to see Kaitlyn jump off the high diving board (and also used his new camera for the first time) and we already had plans with Dari and the kids so we talked them into going to the pool with us.


(Dad got her going up the ladder and the final splash but nothing in between. Oh well, he's new to this photo thing)

Grandma Jackson made sure to stop by too. She took photos of the kids with her phone and Tyler thought that was a great idea so he took my phone and snapped a ton of photos, most of which are exactly the same :)

On Wednesday we were up at 4AM to make it to the airport. The flights went pretty smoothly and the kids were fantastic on the plane. We were all so so happy to see Sam and go home to sleep in our own beds. But we're still working on the transition to the NC timezone and our regular schedule at home.

Friday, July 15, 2011

2011 Week 28

I had the camera out a lot this week and it was really hard to choose just a few photos. I'll have to post some in depth ones on the personal blog later.

With Sam going home for work and extended family back at their own homes too, the kids and I have been more on our own. I was happy to spend some time with Dari last week, learning how to crochet and I finished my first hat! Kaitlyn was happy to let me take some photos, which turned out cute. Tyler was fascinated by the process and kept wanting to try on the hat as is progressed. He insisted on a blue hat (the favored color for both the kids right now), and Kaitlyn also loving the color blue, I have since made another 2 hats, plus a baby hat just for fun.

Wyatt has been around quite a bit this week. I think he makes a point of stopping by to see the kids every day and usually takes them to do something fun - to the barn to feed and see the baby kittens (there are 6 grey and black striped), riding horses, out for ice cream, and even some crazy spinning on the lawn.








Oh how she loves those kitties! Kaitlyn gets in a session with them almost every day - sometimes up at the barn when Wyatt goes to feed, sometimes bringing them back to grandmas to play for an hour or so. She gave them all names. And Kaitlyn, being Kaitlyn, insisted on getting a couple of books from the library on "raising the perfect kitten" and has been learning from them. She even taught herself how to tell if the cat was a boy or a girl - which led to renaming one or two of them (Victoria - her fluffy favorite - is now Victor).
She is learning quite a bit about taking care of the horses and how to ride. And she gets so excited when Wyatt shows up and is ready to take her on the horse. She scrambles to get ready as fast as she can - in this case she threw on jeans and didn't bother to change her pajama top or let me comb her hair.


Tyler enjoys riding too. Kaitlyn tries to share some time with him, though some days she's more into it than other. Ty and I walked over to Karen's (the neighbor across from my parents) where Wyatt and Kaitlyn were riding one day. When Kaitlyn spotted us she rode out of the arena and over to us, got me to put Ty on the Dixie (the horse) and led him all by herself over to the barn so that she could climb the mounting block on her own and give him a ride.



Friday, July 8, 2011

2011 Week 27

Lots of 4th of July festivites this week - and how happy we are to be enjoying them in Oakley.  First up was the rodeo on Saturday night with my family.  I love the energy you feel at the rodeo.  And the 10 second clips of high energy music all night are so much fun.  The kids had a blast.  Tyler laughed and laughed at the clown and cited the bucking bulls as his favorite part.  Kaitlyn liked the "girls" the best - that would be the barrel racing.  Both kids got completely spoiled with cotton candy and popcorn from their Uncle Wyatt and Aunt Bonnie.

Monday was the 4th of July and the Oakley Parade, of course.  We watched it from our usual spot at the Haakensons'.  We always feel right at home with them and love visiting.  I think we're all a bit nervous after the horse incident of a few years ago, but the parade is still enjoyable and the kids have fun.  It rained a little bit (neither Sam or I can remember it really ever being bad weather on the 4th before) but it didn't really bother anyone.
We spent the afternoon and evening of the 4th with Sam's family.  The kids (and Orvil) had a water fight, played on the swings, lit sparklers, and basically had a lot of fun spending time with their cousins.  Tyler was so worn out that by the time the fireworks finally started, he lay down on my lap and was sound asleep by the third explosion.  It rained again during the fireworks but we were all able to stay mostly dry under the porch.

We wound things up on Tuesday.  Bonnie and Larry went home.  Sam flew back to NC that night (after catching a cold that day.  He was pretty miserable).  I was then able to spend the day Wednesday crafting with Dari while the kids spent some time with my mom.  Thursday was pool time with Colette, Jacklyn and the boys and lunch at Summit Inn (oh it's fun to hit all the typical Kamas Valley highlights).  And Thursday night my friend Jacalyn and I attended Wyatt's kickboxing class and went out to dinner. 

Friday, July 1, 2011

2011 Week 26

Our big trip to Utah!

Our big trip to Utah!
First trip on an airplane - they were so excited.
We flew in Sunday night and got in late late.  Both kids did terrific on the short hop to Atlanta, then fell asleep on the longer flight to Utah and woke up happy and excited to see their grandparents.

We are loving being home in Utah, especially seeing the mountains.  Love the views.
There are three bucks that hang out by the back yard.  We see them most afternoons.

So far we have spent some time with both families (Lenore and the boys were here for most of the week), had a BBQ with Dari and KC, and Sam visited his buddies on the base.