Pioneer Day

For the last few weeks, we've mainly been dealing with illness. We all caught something and Michael has yet to shake it. Let's just say it makes for some... interesting diapers.

We celebrated Pioneer Day by hiking to the G in Pleasant Grove. In my case, I should say tried to climb to the G, because I made it just over halfway before having to turn back. I felt like I was going to die. In my defense, we were basically climbing up the mountain. No switchbacks or anything. My very kind sister-in-law, Brittney, hung back with me and didn't judge when we turned around. Jeff, on the other hand, made it all the way to the top while carrying Michael! Kudos for him, especially since I had the water. Thankfully, his family shared after I left him to die of dehydration.

After the hike, we regrouped at his parent's house for food and fireworks. I love a good sidewalk fireworks show, so I had a lot of fun putting one on for the kids. I think it went well, despite almost setting the neighbor's yard on fire. Michael seemed to enjoy cuddling with Grandma, and ended up falling asleep in her lap:

Michael is such a sweet boy and I feel so blessed to have him in my life but, in the last week, he has started expressing himself in ways I could do without. I know he hasn't been feeling well with teething and diarrhea, so I've been trying to be extra patient with him but it's hard.

Earlier this week, we were in the kitchen and Michael brushed by the trash can. Hearing the bag rustle, I turned and said "Michael, we don't play with the trash. It's gross". He gave me a look, glanced at the trash can, looked back at me, reached out and grabbed the trash can. What a butt.

He's also taken to letting me know he's ready to get out of his high chair by throwing all his remaining food on the floor, piece by piece.

It really doesn't help that he's gotten into this phase of walking like a drunk and falling every 10 feet or so. He's been doing so well walking that I think he's trying to multitask (like stare at the ceiling while walking) and it's not working out so well. And, since he isn't feeling well, he feels the need to cry and get comforted by Mom every time he falls. It starts to fray the nerves after a few times.

It's not all bad, though. Michael is still stinking adorable. He's been babbling more and is working hard at letting me know exactly what he wants with pointing and "talking". He can go up and down stairs (although I still feel the need to spot him) and he loves to put things away in an almost OCD manner.

Today has been especially fun. He was such a good boy at church and charmed everyone in our temple prep class by running around the room, laughing his head off and "talking" on my phone (it's a small class in a big room). He had a lot of fun playing with Daddy, he laughed at the rain, and danced while playing peek a boo. Then, Michael had his rubber ducky make fart noises in the tub, thinking it was the funniest thing ever. And it was.

Closing pictures that have nothing to do with the post:

He Puts the "Toddle" in "Toddler"

Yup, our boy is officially a toddler!

After our vacation, where Michael spent a lot of time with Ki and Tess -who are close to his size, but run circles around him- our little boy decided it was about time he let go of the furniture and venture off on his own:

Here he is, strutting his stuff, while wearing an old car charger like a boa:

I get to laugh a lot with this kid around.

Even though he's pretty much gotten the hang of walking, he does still love to push things around. One day, I lowered his high chair so he could get a better grip on it and pulled it to the middle of the floor. When he saw his chair at his eye level, Michael screamed and toddled over as fast as he could, immediately shoving it into the nearest gate:

And then he found the buckles!:

Buckles are the most fascinating things in the world right now. After I unclip Michael from his car seat, he'll usually go straight for the clasps and try to buckle himself right back in.

In other news, I had a birthday! I turned 26 years old on the 12th, but didn't really celebrate then because we were all sick. We did go to Tucanos for lunch (I got to beat the tambourine when they brought out the drums) and then brought Jeff home early from work. He let me nap while he watched the boy and then grabbed take out for dinner so neither of us would have to cook. I still felt pretty spoiled and had a great time. Also, last night, he gave me my presents and tonight he's cooking dinner! Being sick turned out to be an okay thing, what with my birthday being drawn out for a week. :)

And now, random pictures of Michael...

Big hug from Daddy (awwwwww):

Michael found a window to the backyard, obviously put there just for his amusement:

Pouting after, "No! Michael, we do not eat the kitty food!":

And getting tickled by Daddy:

A lot:

Vacation

Bear with me, because this is going to be a long post with a lot of pictures.

For the 4th of July, our little family went on a road trip to Colorado Springs to visit my family and their awesome new house. We planned our vacation so that we could stop and visit a number of national parks on the way there and back. We even rented a car so we could have more elbow room and still bring our stroller and cooler and whatnot.

In an effort to make the trip more enjoyable for our boy, Michael was flipped around to face forward in his car seat:

We left early in the morning so we could make it to Goblin Valley before it got too hot and gross. We bought a hiking backpack for Michael so we could easily haul him around. He seemed pretty happy with it:

Before heading down into Goblin Valley:

Michael enjoyed the rocks, if not his hat:

Jeff certainly had fun climbing around:

My favorite formation was the gargoyle head. Can you see it?:

We also stopped by Dead Horse Point:

Point, get it? Hahaha! We're funny.

It was mind blowing and absolutely gorgeous. Jeff told me that a lot of supposedly Grand Canyon movie shots are actually Dead Horse. It makes sense. It was that amazing.

On our way to Cortez, CO, we called our hotel to let them know we'd be checking in late. It's a good thing we did, because it turns out they'd over-booked after losing our reservation and had no room for us. They had to find us another place to stay since it was their mess-up, so it was an interesting drive trying to talk to everyone with phone service going in and out. Thankfully, we did finally get another hotel and a good night's sleep. The next morning, we got an early start to Mesa Verde, stopping at almost every scenic viewpoint we could.

Even though we got there relatively early, we weren't able to get tickets for the Cliff Palace tour. Instead, we went to Balcony House. The tour wasn't as fun as we were hoping, but it certainly wasn't the tour guide's fault.

This picture was taken moments before Michael had a complete meltdown and refused to be comforted. Unfortunately, we were past the point of no return but still at the beginning of the tour. We still had to fight with him up ladders, through narrow halls, and haul him through a 12 ft long, 18 inch wide tunnel that was the only way out:

We tried to hang back and not ruin the tour for everyone else, but it was pretty miserable and embarrassing.

The cliff dwelling was pretty cool, though:

We had planned on staying in Mesa Verde for a few more hours and see more cliff dwellings, but after Michael's freak out we just left. Maybe it will be more enjoyable for him in a few years.

After Mesa Verde, it was a straight shot drive to Colorado Springs -7 hours of driving. We passed through a lot of fun, little towns and saw interesting things like cows and The Feed Store Church.

We finally made it to my family's house after many stops to McDonald's and parks so Michael could stretch and watch other kids play (a favorite past time). Ki and Tess were so happy to see Baby Michael and Michael loved all the attention he got. He played with his aunts and uncle and adored the new large deck:

Tess doted on him, helping him eat and drink and bringing him toys:

We all had a lot of fun with family, playing cards, eating good food, and just hanging out. For the fourth of July, we went up to the Air Force Academy to watch fireworks since CO has a mass fire ban. They were spectacular fireworks. Even Jeff, who enjoys fireworks about as much as he enjoys parades, had a good time.

Jeff and I also had a lot of fun spending time on my Dad's new shooting range. We both got a little better with our handguns and had a great time shooting my Dad's elk rifle and our shotgun.

Michael got some good quality time with his Grandpa Veronin, too:

We had originally planned on visiting a few more National Parks on the way home, but didn't want to risk another Michael freak out. Instead, we stopped by my Grandma and Grandpa Durney's house for a quick visit and made a quick stop at Flaming Gorge dam.

Michael wasn't feeling terribly social, but we did get a nice picture of my grandparents with their oldest great grandchild:

It's really good to be home again. We're hoping to make it a family tradition to take a road trip during Jeff's forced, paid vacation over the 4th of July. Hopefully Michael will get better in a year or two and we can spend more time exploring and hiking wherever looks interesting. And camping. That would be a lot of fun.