Family Reunions

Over the last couple of weekends, we've had a couple family reunions. A lot happened, so I'll just share some of the best stories.

Playing at the sand dunes

During the first reunion, I took Kevin and his cousin out on a canoe ride. I was on one end, and they were on the other end. We made it all the way through the channels to the second pond, but on our way back, we got lodged against the side of the reeds.

Just as I pushed away, my two passengers shifted and the canoe tipped over, dumping all three of us into the water. It wasn’t that deep. Kevin's cousin could easily touch the ground, but he started freaking out. He grabbed my elbow and dangled from it, all the while yelling, “I don’t want the leeches to get me!”

It was pretty hilarious, though I was trying to get the canoe turned back over and dumped out. So, I told him, “You’ve got to let go, so I can get us out of the water.” Meanwhile, Kevin was just floating in his life jacket with this look that said, “Why is he freaking out? Should I be freaking out too?”

We eventually got back in the boat and everyone was fine. I bruised my foot a little, and had a small leech on my leg, but I flicked it off. I paddled us back to shore, and we all got out. It was pretty entertaining.

Visiting Mesa Falls, Arkhon was there too, he was just being walked by a cousin

Between the two reunions, we stayed in Idaho, and I had two new nieces born during the week. That was pretty exciting. We also watched fireworks and played with cousins. It was cheaper for us to take the whole week as vacation time than to drive back and forth between the two states, so we stayed and hung out.

4th of July Fireworks

On the 5th of July, I needed some alone time. So, I went outside to think for a while. I was outside when a car came driving up. Thinking that it would just drive by, I ducked under one of the pine trees, because I didn’t want to look like a creeper just standing in front of the house. However, instead of driving past, the car stopped and parked. I didn’t know what to do, so I just stayed under the tree. I was wearing dark clothes, so I knew I couldn't be seen. I just thought it would be super awkward if I popped out, so I didn't move.

Playing at Grandpa's school

The driver turned out to be my younger brother, and he was confused when he saw a female figure walk toward the front door and disappear. When he got inside, he asked who had just come in, and they told him that no one had. He was pretty sure he had seen a ghost. That was pretty funny. We got things cleared up, but we all had a pretty good laugh.

During the second reunion, Kevin was playing with his cousin. Randomly he walked up to him and said, "Zazzy Poopy Sucker." He probably thought it was hilarious, but instead of laughing, his cousin reared back and punched him in the gut. Both of them were 4, and he wasn't seriously hurt, but he was pretty sad. We talked to his cousin about it, and he said, "But...but...he wasn't being appropriate."
Then we talked about how even if he wan't being appropriate, you still shouldn't punch someone in the gut. We asked him to come tell us next time if Kevin was being inappropriate instead of hitting him. He agreed to do so.

We probably are terrible people for this, but we thought it was pretty funny.

Kevin with his great-grandma 

We had a really great time, and it was nice to get away for a while. Things might be happening finally with foster care. The final paperwork has finally gotten to the office, so hopefully we'll know more soon.

Kevin's Third Birthday

Among the many exciting things that happened in November, my son turned three!

We ended up having two birthday parties for him. We had a local one the weekend before his birthday, and then another party actually on his birthday. He had a lot of fun at both.

Before all of his friends and family came over for the local party, he and I built a cardboard castle. I was taping the walls together, but that didn't seem to be working so well, so I decided to sew them together instead. The castle is still standing. It has two towers that can be entered from the main area, and a drawbridge that goes up and down. It's closed in the above picture. 

I was pretty proud of it when we finished. Kevin was also pretty excited to show it to his friends. 

The local party was pretty low-key. We had a piñata, and the kids enjoyed swinging at it. Kevin got to go first since it was his party, and it wasn't broken until my cousin took a whack at it. They all seemed to enjoy themselves. 

It was a Darth Vader piñata. 

Afterward, we had cake and ice cream. Kevin had chosen the cake himself. It was blue velvet and it tasted pretty good. We had cream cheese frosting on top, and I drew a dinosaur. Our boy loves dinosaurs right now.

He got some pretty fun things this year from us (like underwear and bed sheets), and his friends and family brought him some fun things. He was pretty excited about all of his gifts. Mostly, I think he really enjoyed having everyone over to play. 

For his birthday, we promised him that we'd take him to watch The Good Dinosaur. So, the night before he actually turned three, we went and watched it (he was still free). 

He loved it. My dad took the following picture of us at the theater. He and my mom came with us too, and we all really enjoyed it. Kevin loved the movie and his theater experience. It got a little loud sometimes for him, but he only covered his ears during one scene. 

He loved the popcorn though. We had to fight him to get to eat any of it.

The next day on Kevin's birthday, we went to my dad's school to play at his indoor playground and in his ball pit. Kevin had a great time. At one point, he went out to use the restroom. When we exited the restroom, he could see everyone playing through a low window. He headed toward the window while I went toward the door. I thought he was just going to look through it at his cousins. Instead, I heard a loud boing, and I looked to find that he had ran straight into the window and bounced off. Evidently, he thought it was the door. 

He cried for a while, I laughed for a while, and later I took a picture of him with his window. 

I'm such a mean mother.

He recovered pretty quickly, and was soon back to playing. After they had their fill of the playground, we went to the ball pit. He had a great time there.

We all really did. 

After we returned to my parents' home, we had another birthday party for Kevin. He opened a few presents, we sang a few times, blew out some candles, and generally had a great time. 

The birthday boy opening his presents.(I think my dad took this picture too)

He loved his gummy cake that his grandma made him.

It's kind of crazy that my baby is now three-years-old. It's really hard to believe that so much time has passed. 

How did this guy

turn into this guy?

Sometimes, I really miss having a baby around, but it is really fun to see how much Kevin is learning and growing each day. He's my good friend, and I love him very much. It is so fun to see the way that he plays with his dad, his uncles, and his dog. He has so much love and personality. 

Happy birthday, my son. I waited my whole life for you to come, and I can't tell you how grateful I am that we have you in our lives. Our home would be empty without you.

Fun with the Family and Riding Dinosaurs

We had a great time this weekend. Grig, Kevin, Dakota, and I were able to travel to visit with my parents. They hadn't seen Kevin in around two months, so they were pretty excited for us to come visit.

There was just one problem.

Kevin was pretty sick.

The night before we left, Kevin got a really high fever, which made things complicated because I was supposed to go with the missionaries to teach a lesson and I had an appointment with the DMV to get a new driver's license. My grandparents were going to watch Kevin, but my grandpa is susceptible to catching colds, so I asked the missionaries if they could find someone else. They said they could, and so I stayed home that morning with Kevin. I asked my parents if they still wanted us to come, and my mother assured me that they had already been exposed to sick babies.

I was able to go to the DMV while Kevin played with his grandma in the car. I finished in about 45 minutes, and then Kevin and I headed home. I cleaned the house so it would look nice when we got back. Grig returned from work a few minutes later, and we packed quickly and left as soon as we could. We reached my parents' home at about 10:15 p.m. and though I wanted to talk to them, they had school the next day, so we went to bed.

Kevin didn't sleep well that night, or the next, or the next. He kept coughing and waking himself up. He would gag when he would try to nurse and sometimes the coughing would be so intense that it would cause him to throw-up all over me. That aspect of the weekend wasn't much fun, but other than that we had a great time.

Friday we relaxed and Kevin played with some of his cousins. Everyone assured us that they had already been exposed to sickness so it was fine. Kevin wasn't his normal happy self, but he still did quite well. For a sick baby, he was quite cheerful.

Dakota mostly spent the days relaxing and having a wonderful snooze. At my mother's home she isn't allowed in the kitchen, but that doesn't stop her from being as close to us as she possibly can.

Saturday, we went and picked up my new computer from my grandpa's shop. It is amazing. That's actually what I'm typing on right now. We've been saving up to buy it for a long time, and finally we were able to afford it. I want to do a lot of video editing on it, and my grandpa custom-made it to my specifications. It has 16 gigabytes of ram and a terabyte of hard-drive.

New computer

It runs like a dream. Programs that used to take ten minutes to load on my laptop now are open instantly. I love it! We were also able to visit with Kevin's (paternal) Great-Grandparents.

After we returned from that exciting journey, we went to my father's school and played in the indoor playground they have there. They also had a ball-pit, and the kids had a great time playing in that. Kevin really liked it at first, and I thought he might enjoy being tossed into the balls. At any other time, he probably would have, but since he wasn't feeling well it scared him. So, I jumped in with him and he felt better after that. He and his cousins had a great time!

While they were playing, my siblings and I played basketball. I sank around four three-point shots. I was doing pretty well. I forget how much I like basketball. We didn't play soccer this time, but there's always next time.

After the school, we returned to my parents' home, and talked for a while. It was nice to spend time with my family. We have plans to visit Grig's parents this summer as well. We're just trying to figure out when (and saving up for a plane ride).

Kevin found a dinosaur while we were there and decided that he needed to ride it. It wasn't very big, but we found it hilarious. He would carefully place it on the floor, and then try to settle himself on its back. It didn't work too well.

Riding the dinosaur

Sunday, we went to church with the family and Kevin actually took a nap through part of it, so that was good. We ate dinner with them, and then we packed up to leave. As we were about to leave, Grig was holding Kevin and Kevin just fell asleep on his shoulder. I was worried that he would wake up when we put him in the car, but my fears were luckily unfounded. On our way out of town, we stopped by my cousin's house who had just had a baby and by my brother's to say farewell. Kevin slept through both stops and all the way through the three hour drive after that. He awoke briefly when we got home, but after we went to bed, he quickly fell back asleep. He was feeling much better yesterday.

We had an amazing trip. We really enjoyed seeing everyone!