Loving our Boy

Some days I just live to hear Michael talk in his cute little voice and sing me songs and tell me stories.  Other days, I want to just cover his cute little mouth with duct tape.  Today is a duct tape day.  Mostly because I'm trying to do something, like blog, rather than give him my whole-hearted attention that he so desperately desires- but only when he notices me doing something else.

Earlier this month, Michael and I were invited to a fire station open house by my awesome sis-in-law, Kaylee, but we weren't able to make it.  Unfortunately, I had already promised Michael fire trucks and he made sure to remind me of my promise all day.  So, thinking fast, I took him to our fire station in Springville, where they have an old truck that kids can sit in:

We also brought our adorable neighbor, Maya, who was giving her mom a migraine.  Michael hogged the driver's seat the whole time but Maya seemed happy just to be there.

It only worked so well because I had (luckily) not mentioned the cotton candy, hats, and everything else awesome that was going to be at the open house up in Orem.  Huzzah for poor memory skills!

We also, in the spirit of Fall, went to a Farmer's Farm (or something silly like that) that was free to get in to and had a mini petting zoo, pony rides, bouncy houses, and food booths.  They didn't tell you in the ad, though, that while it was free to get in, you pay through the nose for everything else.  And they only took cash.  And they didn't even have stamps for reentry if the kids got bored after 5 min in the petting zoo but decide they love it again 5 min after that.

I went with my two neighbors and their kids (5 small children all together) and we all left after just a few minutes of checking out prices and trying to keep the kids from noticing the expensive activities.

Then this:

very smart man approached us on the way out and said he'd let Ashton (I'm pretty sure he just pointed at the closest kid) jump on his trampoline for free since it was really slow and, of course, Ashton really really wanted to.  Then, since he got to, everyone else wanted to try it.

Michael wasn't sure whether to be excited or scared, but he seemed to have fun nonetheless:

Michael has started drawing pictures for us, and he especially loves drawing on the whiteboard.  This masterpiece is "Mommy, Daddy, and Michael."  I love it!:

I love emptying Michael's camera (we have two pretty terrible digital cameras and Michael gets the worse one so he'll leave mine alone).  We get awesome shots of strangers' backsides:

 Fun shots of the boy, taken by Mommy and Daddy:

And shots of Mommy and Daddy that no one else could get (a picture of Daddy is rare in itself, much less a silly Daddy):

And then he gets a hold of the ipad camera and takes 500 pictures in two minutes.  I'm half tempted to print them out and make flipbooks out of the shots:

And this is what he's been doing during the majority of writing this post ("Look at me, Mommy!  Look at me!"):

Family Time

Michael and I have been traveling quite a bit over the last few weeks to be with family.

First, we drove to Colorado to hang out with the Veronins before snow made the mountains practically impassable (horribly miserable and terrifying, if nothing else).  And, while I normally really like road trips, I had an awesomely painful migraine for the majority of this one.  Michael was really good for most of the drive but by the time we reached Castle Rock (about a half hour from Grandma & Grandpa Veronin's house) he was done.  It was about 1:30am when he woke up screaming and kicking.  I pulled over to hold him for a minute to help him calm down and ended up passing out with him.  My brain was fried and I thought it might be smart to stop and actually sleep for a few hours before driving the last stretch.  How wrong I was.

I set up a bed for us in the trunk of our wonderful, beautiful van (we got a minivan- have I mentioned that yet?  It's glorious).  Michael slept like a rock (a very shifty rock that likes to steal covers) while I took catnaps, 5 minutes at a time.  It was pretty miserable.

I eventually gave up and we finally made it to Grandma and Grandpa Veronin's where Michael was very happy to see Ki and Tess and play with them and all of their toys.  His favorite was Ki's quad, which Michael insisted on calling "the motorcycle."  He was surprisingly good at driving it, considering how horrible he was at driving the Jeep last time we visited (it makes sense though, because Michael is pretty good at steering his scooter and tricycle):

I thought for sure I had taken more pictures than this, but apparently not.  I wish I had gotten some shots of Ki and Tess being so sweet to Michael and driving him around in the Jeep (where he preferred to be a passenger rather than the driver) and the kids playing games together all day, every day.  It was a great visit, but I'm glad we left when we did because it started to snow as we drove home (no migraine though).

Another thing I wish I'd gotten a picture of was Michael hanging out with my sisters, Mary and Jessi, who we met for lunch before driving back to UT.  We had calzones and talked for a long time.  In fact, we hung out so long that I was much later than I thought I would be getting on the road and didn't get home til after 1am.  We had a lot of fun though.  I'm really glad I got to see them before I left.  Especially because I'm not sure if I'll get to see them again before next year.

We also went camping with the Days.  It was technically the Goblin Valley family trip, but most of the family was unable to make it and we actually only spent an hour or so at Goblin Valley.  Even Jeff wasn't able to come with us because things were (and are) so rough at work (here is what he's dealing with right now: http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2425215,00.asp).

This was the weather for the majority of the trip:

We stayed at an RV campground next to a hotel where the kids were able to swim in the indoor pool:

I brought our tent, on the off chance I wanted to attempt to set it up, but mostly intended to just sleep in the van (even though it went so poorly last time, I figured it would be much more enjoyable with a bit more prep- aka, lots of blankets and pillows).  Michael, though, was dead set on sleeping in Grandma's trailer.  He is obsessed with her trailer.  Almost every time we've gone to their house in the last few months, Michael has gotten Grandma to take him out to the trailer.  He seems most interested in the fan in the bathroom and even showed it to Mr. School Bus, his invisible friend who can drive on walls and ceilings.  In any case, Kaylee agreed to let Michael sleep with her and Paxton on one of the beds in the trailer.  Unfortunately, Paxton way too psyched about having so many people around that he couldn't stop talking and laughing (despite the fact that everyone else was dead asleep) so poor Kaylee came and knocked on my van door to trade me places, hoping the isolation of the van would help Paxton sleep.  So I got to sleep in the comfy trailer with my son (who was so out he didn't even twitch when Kaylee left and I climbed in a few minutes later) while poor, pregnant Kaylee got to "sleep" in the cold trunk of my van.  At least the isolation did help and Paxton did sleep, so that's something.

The next morning, I woke to tiny heads poking over the top of the bunk bed (Carly and Braxton), waiting for everyone else to wake up.  Michael didn't wake until Grandpa tried to get out of the Durango (he slept in their trunk) and set off the car alarm, very effectively letting everyone know that it was time to get up.  Everyone but Grandpa thought it was really funny.

Here's Michael staying warm, patiently waiting for breakfast:

After breakfast, we went to the USU Eastern Prehistoric Museum in Price.  Their front entrance statue was surprisingly violent!  None of the kids noticed, but it's one dinosaur lifting another in the air while biting its neck (luckily, it wasn't in color):

Inside, Michael basically ignored everything while demanding toys to play with.  I was able to get some cute pictures of him and Danny in front of some cool bones though:

And then we finally made it to the activity area at the end where the kids could dig for dinosaur bones:

And color pictures:

We ate lunch at Goblin Valley parking lot and dug in the dirt before playing on the rocks in the actual valley:

 We climbed for a few minutes before Michael decided that he needed to pee and no rock or bush was good enough for him to urinate on.  He needed the smelly bathrooms up in the parking lot.  We had to climb back up the new staircase that was installed to decrease the chance of a broken neck while increasing the chance of small children wetting themselves as they slowly struggle to the top.  And, of course, Michael stubbed his foot (Is that a thing?  I don't know.  All I know is that he kicked a stair rather than step on it and started crying) so I had to pick him up and try to run the last 2/3 of the stairs without throwing other small kids out of my way and telling Michael that he was not allowed to pee on me.

I was gasping for air by the time we made it to the top, so of course the wind was blowing air directly from the oh-so-fragrant-bathrooms.  No time to gag, I had to get this kid to the potty.

We waited semi-patiently for our turn in one of the two spider-infested stalls while I tried, yet again to convince Michael to just pee on a bush ("They want to be peed on.  Please!").  Nothing doing.  We got inside and discover the "toilets" are about as tall as Michael, so he can't just stand and pee.  First I try to get him to sit on it but he freaks out thinking he's going to fall in (can't blame the kid, I feel the same way) so I lift him up and tell him to aim.

After I finished cleaning the back of the toilet and the seat (and Michael's hands because he feels the need to touch every public toilet we come across... toddler bucket list?) we are finally free to go outside and enjoy the wonder and beauty that is Goblin Valley.  And, of course, it has started to rain while we dealt with the toilet issues.  We sprint to the pavilion at the top of the trail and wait for the inevitable exodus of sopping wet Days.

We stopped at Grandpa's favorite melon stand in Green River before heading back to Price.  Michael and Paxton had a good time in the back of the van playing peek-a-boo with their blankets.  It was very cute-:

 

-right up until Grandma and Grandpa put on their hazards and pulled off to the side of the highway.  Their transmission had blown, and we needed to call a tow truck.  It actually made me pretty nostalgic for my own family road trips as a child with the old Veronin aerostar van.

Thankfully, I had a minivan (how did we ever live without this van!) and I could pack everyone but Grandma, Grandpa, and Emmy in to take back to Price while the unfortunate three got to dump all their firewood and water out of the trailer to make it easier to tow.  We (Kaylee and I, at least) were hoping to go back to the RV campground to let the kids swim again (but probably get rooms rather than rough it) to end the trip on a good note, but the tow truck was willing to drive the Durango and trailer all the way to AF- basically and offer the Days couldn't refuse.  So we let the kids play at McDonald's for an hour before shoving them all back in the car for the hour and a half drive home.  

Overall, I had a great time and I know Michael loved most of it (the last half hour or so in the van was pretty rough for everyone) and I'm really glad we got to come.

Closing picture:  Michael is getting better at hiding!