Best Birthday Surprise Yet!

Easton's dream birthday was to have a birthday party and invite "Josh" to come. Truly it's heartbreaking as a mom to hear your little one talk about how much he misses playing with his best friend that we moved away from over a year ago. The Sevy's made his wish come true while making their kids's wish come true with a trip to Disneyland, via I-15 through Las Vegas in November. They texted us as they were entering town and we planned to have the camera close by for the unexpected knock at the door while we were just hanging out nearby on a random Thursday night before Easton's 7th birthday. Easton was speachless, with his eyes nearly popping right out of his head, then let out a yell and couldn't stop laughing. Eli was laughing and I'm pretty sure all of the parents had tears in our eyes, even Big John.
Brandon and I went shopping for decorations days before the surprise event. We got a few party favors that are classic for our boys and the Sevy boys, Hot Wheels, and maybe a bouncy ball (they were traveling, so I knew they wouldn't have much space for added items). We made sure to get balloons and crepe paper and a birthday candle. Brandon held up the glitter-covered blue "6" and we looked at a few others, deciding that the glitter 6 do just fine! Well it was fine, because Easton would be 6 for four more days, but he was turning 7, hello! It was late when we were shopping, and clearly we were not in our natural minds.

San Diego

We ventured away from the traditional Thanksgiving festivities this past holiday. We booked a hotel for the weekend and headed down to the warm San Diego valley. We left on Thanksgiving Day, a little later than we had hoped due to some intense technical trauma upgrading the GPS maps (poor Brandon gets a little worked up with those challenges at times), but with his 'Nascar driver' instincts, we were able to make it for Thanksgiving dinner at Claimjumper just minutes before they stopped seating people for the evening.
Here we are visiting the seals and sea lions at La Jolla's Casa Beach. Easton had just lost his two bottom teeth, much to his excitement, just a few weeks earlier.

Our favorite time! The boys could have played on the beach for hours more into the afternoon. The air was a bit cool, although it got up into the 70s later on. We couldn't believe how wet they were getting, but were loving every minute.
We were able to rendezvous with our friends, the Dildines, who were visiting family in San Diego the same weekend. We went to the Balboa Science Center and to a family-friendly pizza lunch (we had the place to ourselves so we timed it perfectly) at Pat & Oscars, home of the most scrumptous breadsticks you can imagine, and you know how much I l-o-v-e bread!

Who needs a Theme anyway?

I remember Halloween a couple of years ago. Braxton was a baby and Eli was talking about being a Scarecrow for Halloween. We had a warm, cozy Lion costume that Easton loved to wear regularly, so it was decided, The Wizard of Oz it would be. My friend, Julie, had a Dorothy costume she had made years ago, and said I could use it and the little Toto costume for Braxton. Yes, that's Brandon as a Lollipop Kid, he says that's the last time he'll wear tights, but we'll see.

I had planned on dressing Braxton as the Tin Man, but thought Toto would be a good back up. After spraying silver metallic paint on a yellow jumper I had found at some random "Mart" or "-vers" store, and having the paint rub off onto my 5 month-old baby's skin, not to mention the fumes that emanated from the fabric, even after drying for days before the fitting...

Toto was a blessing in disguise (no pun intended).
The picture looks better when you click on it, it didn't scan too well. So much for a theme this year. Everyone had their own ideas and here is what they came up with, just in case you aren't familiar with the characters... Easton "White Ninja" - GI Joe Storm Shadow, he saw a commercial and made the decision. Eli "Hippie" - does that mean he's becoming a pre-teen? I remember it was better to have a cool costume as I got older. Braxton "Black Ninja" - opposite of White Ninja, originally planned to be a Ninja Turtle. I need to remember not to buy costumes weeks before Halloween, more than once my boys have been known to change their minds the day of the event, I guess it's a good one to have for dress up, right? "Witch", I mean Chandy, who said that? I went to a fabulous Witches Tea Party a few weeks before Halloween and had run out of time to paint my face so the boys wanted me to dress up again in the complete costume. I always hesitated to dress as a witch for the fear of looking too true to the part, my blessed pointy nose, at least there's no wart. Brandon or is it "Brandie" a "Worker" as the boys call it (you would never guess that Brandon works in Construction). Braxton actually wanted him to be a "Fat Wrestler" (sumo). Brandon wasn't too sure that would work too well at the Ward Trunk-or-Treat.

Tricks

When we were in Utah in September, Braxton saw his cousin, Boston, riding his 2-wheeler. Boston is a few months younger than Braxton and they have a lot of fun playing at Grandma's house when we visit. Anyway, Braxton decided to try the job out for himself since Boston has the same little bike as him. This was his first go around... Thanks for being on guard Uncle Coby!

Easton showed us his "back flip"... you may notice the Lego Star Wars Jedi-Style nature to it. A few weeks later, when we were home and others had been giving him tips on how to perform an actual back flip, he landed on his head and sure enough the chin went into the chest pretty hard. He was sore for several days and I was worried how the injury could have been so much worse.... Trampolines, ugh!

Eli was determined to Wake Board after a recent boating trip with friends when he declined and regretted the decision afterwards. Too bad Flaming Gorge was beginning to cool back off after its one to two-month warmer temperature in the summer months. You are there, Eli! One more try....?

Then Snowbird

Oh, how I miss this place and long to go back again next year. There's just something about that crisp mountain air that is so therapeutic. Grandma has had a condo at Snowbird for over 30 years so the nostalgia from childhood years comes back each time I visit. She had the week over the Memorial Day holiday for many years, and sold it a few years ago, then bought the week of Labor Day just this year. The weather was so great, a much better time of year to avoid "snowfall" (which we had often over the Memorial Day stay).
We rode the tram for "free" with Grandma's dining coupons (a perk that always stirs excitement in the benefactor, right?)...So, up about 4000 feet we went. It took Eli some time to gain his composure when he saw how high up the mountain we were. He sat down on the platform where the tram parks and wrote his feelings of fear in his notebook before he could walk around and enjoy the high mountain peak (that has a good, flat, football field size or larger area at the top to look down into the valleys below).
I, being the adventurous outdoorswoman type?!, thought it would be a great adventure to hike down the mountain after our Tram ride to the top. I hadn't ever done it, and how bad would it be to hike 3 miles downhill anyway? So, Aunt Lori, Easton and I said goodbye to Grandma, Eli and Braxton (the smart ones) and started down the mountain.... little did we know. About a quarter of the way down, my knees were starting to hurt, we should have turned back at that point, but I didn't even consider that an option. I just wanted to continue down the mountain. I had my goal in mind and there was no turning back.

For years I've dealt with a knee issue whenever I "run". I get about a mile and the pain comes and then it lasts a couple of days. Going down the stairs is always the worst, you would think I would compute the distance of the hike (even if walking) with the downhill grade, and realize I might experience a negative effect. I think I was just so thrilled to take on the challenge of the beautiful mountain and to enjoy the great outdoors, that the consideration for disaster was completely distant in my mind. Three hours later and much to my discouraged spirit, we were back at the condo, and I was in pain for days. Easton, the little adventurer, didn't complain more than once during the hike, he only told me he wished he could "fly" and he would already be back at the bottom. When I asked him if he wanted to go on the hike again tomorrow, he said thoughtfully, "hmmm, naa."

The Farm

Sometimes it seems we are going to Utah for weekend visits every other month at times throughout the year. This particular summertime visit was not going to be one of those quick, jam-packed, whirlwinds, though. We decided to spend the week, and it was wonderful!

Brandon finally had a three-day weekend, with Labor Day, and a flight he needed to use, so he could spend the long weekend with us and still get back to Vegas and work for the week while the boys and I enjoyed a vacation. It was a great time to go to Manila, which is about 3 hours further from Salt Lake, to visit Grandma and Grandpa O. It has been a long time since we were able to make it up there and even longer since we were able to celebrate my favorite Labor Day festivities, the annual Boat Parade and Fireworks display.

Saturday evening was the anticipated event. We enjoyed watching the lighted boats, decorated by the clever mariners, from the top of a hill overlooking Swim Beach bay at Flaming Gorge (Thanks to Blake for knowing a great location to have the best view of both!!)... The picture of the boys with Grandpa does not accurately portray the aforementioned hilltop, but this was another of our fun adventures on the 4-wheelers... back to the parade, from "Nemo" to a "snake" to patriotic "flag flying" shaped lights doned the boats which cruise at wakeless speed around the bay for all to marvel. The spectacular fireworks display followed the parade and even Brandon was impressed by the show (he doesn't generally find as much satisfaction in a fireworks show as I do, maybe there's hope for him yet).

We got to experience Grandpa's farm as he has a newfound "horse" hobby. He bought Chance and Thunder a couple of years ago and more recently got a colt, Charlie, who he has been learning how to train. Eli liked getting the horse to run when he was riding, but once he started realized it was a little scary, especially when the stirrups weren't adjusted to his leg reach. The boys would love being on the farm more often, Brandon, on the other hand was remembering why he would have a hard time living in the country again...the poor guy is so allergic to horses, not to mention the dust and weeds that cover Dad's acreage. He could only stay outside so long for the horseback riding before his throat started to close off and his nose became totally congested.

Easton couldn't get enough of the 4-wheeler. He's one who likes speed, if you hadn't known.

We couldn't get over Braxton and how fun it was to see him in this oversized helmet! He gets embarrassed and upset when he knows people are laughing at something funny he's done, so we tried not to make it known how adorable he was.

Summer Session

Since Eli and Easton were in school for the summer (they had a couple weeks off in June and just got out August 7 for a 2 week break before they move to their next grade), Braxton has been going to preschool at Miss Tiff's. She is a cute girl from church who is working towards her degree in Early Childhood Development. He had been asking to go to preschool for months, so I thought this summer session would be a great little "try" for him - How about that excited, "Here I come Preschool" face. The first few times were okay dropping him off. He would go in a bit hesitant not knowing the other kids or Miss Tiff too well, but always came out happy afterwards, singing the songs he learned and telling me all about the excitement of the day. As the days passed and I thought he would get used to the routine, I found that I needed to remind him how much fun he has every time he goes: dressing the Weather Frog, taking lettuce to feed the tortoise, writing with the "green marker", earning stickers to choose a prize from the treasure box. There was never really a day that he was just fine to get right in the car and go right in the door to school when we got there.

One day, nothing I could say would convince him to go (in my efforts I even told him he would have to pay me back for the money I had spent for tuition. He's 4, Chandy, does he even have a concept of that threat...no, he didn't care about the money, he wasn't going.) He climbed into the back of the car to hide until I told him kindly, with as little frustration in my voice as possible, that he wasn't going to school today. I had to remind myself that 'he's 4', 'it's only preschool', and I guess 'he wanted to hang out with Easton and me today' - BUT, he didn't get to play GameCube when we went home like he had planned on, "because normaly you would be at preschool right now, not playing GameCube" - that makes sense right? He got to run errands with Mom and Easton and we got to play a board game together and read some books - that's better than preschool and GameCube combined I would say.

He is finishing up next week and is enrolled with another teacher (Miss Tiff has been fabulous, but her price changed for the new school year, so we are trying Miss Chantel). He'll also be going with our little friend, Caleb....so, we will see how the next round goes....stay tuned.