Family Time

August is the month of family visits, and I love it!

Last week, Nick's mom and Roger came to visit us.  And they drove, ALL the way from Virginia!  Craziness, and they did it in like two days, even crazier!  Here's why.

They loaded the back of a truck with all of Nick's, for lack of a better term, junk, and hauled it out just for us.  Haha, we have yet to go through it (Nick I mean, his mom and I organized everything).  So it's just sitting in a giant tower in the corner of our "everything we don't want Tristan getting into" room.

They were only able to stay for a few days, but it was soooo much fun!  They got in Tuesday night pretty late, so dinner was just quick at a Chinese dining and Will and Emily joined us.  We chatted a bit, but got to bed pretty quick.  The next day, mom and Roger ended up sleeping in until noon!  It was hilarious.  Nick took Roger to Scofield and they fished for a few hours, while mom took me and Tristan shopping!  First stop, Starbucks!  Then, to the Verizon store.  See, she had an old smartphone, and she gave it to me.  We just needed to get it set up, which took almost an hour, and Tristan kept us busy chasing him al over the showroom floor.  Haha, it was pretty fun.  (Thanks for the awesome phone mom!!!)

Then we went to Old Navy and flushed out the baby clearance rack.  We found a bunch of cute outfits for Tristan because he is getting bigger and his clothes are starting to reveal a lot of skin.  We also went to Ross and each found something cute.  Tristan got some Cars light up shoes, that he loves to click together and make flash, mom found a cute beige shirt, exactly what she had been looking for, and I found a couple of cute trendy tops.  One was this bright green color and when Nick saw me in it later, he said it was the best shirt I've picked out.

Tristan was sleepy by then, so we went home, let him take a nap and we sorted through Nick's boxes.  When the boys got back, we all headed over to the Old Spaghetti Factory because Roger had been craving spaghetti and meatballs.  We were planning on the Brick Oven, but it turns out most of us had gotten food poisoning from there at some point……so that was a no go.  It was a cute little place, Tristan loved the garlic bread, and it was fun to spend time together.  After everyone got hair cuts from mom, we decided to go mini golfing the next day after meeting up at IHOP for breakfast.

Oh man, it was soo much fun!  Breakfast was amazing, as pancakes always are, and then we went to a mini golf course up by Provo canyon.  Now, I'm not very good, but I didn't come in last!  And it was a ton of fun!  I was able to take pictures while everyone else putted, and mom gave me some good tips on how to get my ball in the hole.  Tristan konked out towards the end, poor kid was so tired, and it was dang hot out!  I got a little brown, but poor Emily burned like crazy.  When we got to the last hole, if you got it in the middle ring you won a free game.  My first put, well, the ball didn't really make it and rolled back to me, so I got a redo.  And guess what?  I MADE IT IN!  So I got me a free game, oh yeah!

For dinner that night, I made pulled pork.  Crazy weird recipe that takes rootbeer, but it was definitely tasty.  We pretty much just hung around and chatted after that.  It's nice though, sometimes the best time spent together is the simple laid back and easy going moments where you just enjoy each other's company.  Mom and Roger adored Korra, and she ate up all the attention.  And Tristan had a blast too. He loved being doted upon and paid attention to.  Haha, he probably get's bored with just me. Before Will and Emily went home, we all took some pictures together, and most of the ended up pretty goofy!

The next morning, Friday, they had to head out.  It's a long drive back.  So, we said our goodbyes, and waved as they drove away.  It was short, but it was so much fun.  We packed a lot into three days, and there was never a dull moment.

Thanks mom and Roger for driving all the way out here!  Thanks for the good time and your generosity!  We can't wait to get together again next spring!!!!!

Here are some pictures!

Milk mustache

Nice Nick

Oh my gosh

What in the…?

Ah, there's a nice one

Um…..hehe?

Silly girls!

Chillin after breakfast

All the couple's golf balls ended up together

Putting around

Tristan tried to play too

Now everyone shut up while I whack the 

crap out of this thing!

Tired boy

All finished

Nana and Grandpa Roger with Tristan

He didn't want to hold still

Check out that face haha

There were a lot of bees at the golf course...

And all the stuff

Peepee

My children are crazy.

yes I said children.  Because Korra might as well be a child.  And she is just as bratty as Tristan sometimes.  They both know what "NO" means, and yet, they both ignore it blatantly.

Tristan, well, he has a screaming problem.  And he likes to touch things when we tell him no, and he loves to throw food from his high chair onto my newly vacuumed floor.

Korra, she likes to peepee on my carpet.  We take her out, she won't go, then we bring her back in, and she goes.  We yell at her, use a squirt bottle, spank her, she still does it.  We gave her less room in her crate.  That worked for a few days.  Then today, she refuses to poop and just goes crazy everytime we take her outside.  And when I let her out to play with Tristan, she immediately peed on the floor.  So I spanked her and dragged her to her crate for a timeout and she bit me!  Not to mention she yelped like I was killing her (which I was not, this dog is such a drama queen, look at her wrong and she will have a meltdown).

Ulgh!  She is so adorable and sweet, and I want to play with her and cuddle with her.  But I'm always scared she is going to pee on my carpet!  All the dog training tips say to leave them in their crate as much as possible when training, and to be firm with discipline.  I'm probably doing it all wrong, but I thought I was doing ok.  I give her a treat and praise when she potties outside, and I yell at her when she has an accident inside.  Her breed is supposed to be the smartest out there, so you'd think she'd understand the difference!!!  Yelling and spanking hurt, treats are yummy, maybe I should potty outside!!!

Cats rule and dogs drool, Sassy said it.

Sad part is, I adore Korra, and I just want to help her to learn to be good.  But I've never done it before, and I don't know what I'm doing.  I guess it's the same for anybody, you have to start somewhere.  My other problem is I'm terrified of dogs!  (I know I know, so why did I get one????)  So she probably thinks she can get away with things because I'm not very firm with her.  She starts to nip at me, and I yank away.  So she thinks she is the boss of me because I'm a weenie.  Not good.  She's just a tiny puppy for crying out loud!

Now I'm just mad at her because she wizzed right in front of me and then bit me when I told her no.  Yes, I was dragging her by her collar back to her crate……but I was mad!  So I probably deserved that one.  But I don't want to take her out and praise her for pottying because I'm angry.

So, any of you dog owners out there have any helpful suggestions for housetraining a puppy?  I'm at my wits end!

Provo River outing

When we all went to the dinosaur museum a few weeks ago, my dad had said he knew a place where we could go and dig for fossils.  We planned to go sometime when he had a day off, and he called a few days ago and asked if we wanted to go this weekend.  Of course we did!

Sadly, we didn't realize it cost $85 PER PERSON to go in and dig at this fossil quarry, sooooo we decided to save that for another time.

Instead, we went up to the Provo River Falls and took some pictures.  It was a beautiful day, and up in the mountains it wasn't very hot.  Of course, there were a ton of people there as well, but it was still beautiful country.  After exploring the falls, we went downstream a bit for Nick to do some bug sampling.  As we walked back to the car, we were stopped by at least a dozen different people who wanted to ask about and pet Korra.  Apparently she is the most beautiful dog people have ever seen!  She had random strangers picking her up and kissing her all day!

On our way downstream, we saw some people parked on the side of the road taking pictures of each other in front of the woods.  But when we looked behind them, we saw what they were really photographing: a momma moose and her calf!  In Utah!  Oh, that made my day!  I haven't seen moose since I was back home.  I mean these things were scronny and tiny like deer, but they were still moose and we stopped to get pictures as well.

A little ways down the river, we picked a spot to hang out for a bit.  While Nick sifted away through the water, my dad and I watched as Tristan played with rocks on the river bed.  I showed him how to toss them in the water, and he was so excited by the splashes they produced, her started doing it as well.  Inching closer and closer to the water with each throw, eventually he had both legs in the water and was squishing dirt in his fingers.  He loved it!  Then he stood up to walk into the water, but I took his hand and pulled him away.  A minute later, he had inched back down, and this time when I tried to pull him away, he sat down in the water.  So he was muddy and soaked.  Haha, I gave up and just let him get dirty.

Until I noticed him drooling a considerable amount.  I thought he might have been sampling the river water, so I tried to pull his hands away.  But I noticed his lips were puckered.  Oh crap!  I stuck my finger in his mouth and pulled out a GIANT rock!  Silly kid, he screamed in protest as I tossed it away, but promptly reached down for another.  I slapped it away before he could get it in, and that was that.  He had a complete meltdown.  He was shrieking and screaming, and trying to throw himself on the ground as I dragged him away up to the car.  My dad helped as I stripped Tristan down to his skimpies, washed him with a wipie, and changed his dirt and poop encrusted diaper.  Yummy (did I mention he has been a Diarrhea-Dan for the last few days?…..)

Poor Tristan, I didn't let him get back in the river after that.  Nick however was able to find a bunch of cool bugs and a small scuplin (fish).  He had me hold it for a picture, telling me it would be lifeless out of the water, but of course it was anything but and I almost dropped it as it flopped to get away.

Our last stop before heading home was a couple of ponds around a natural spring.  Nick was hoping we could find some salamanders in the muck, but we only found beetles and dragonfly larvae.  That's okay, it was still fun to hike around together.  I had to potty, but the outhouses were full of bees, so Nick took me to a spot in the woods behind the outhouses, where there were even more bees!  He and my dad laughed at me as I dodged and ran from every single on I saw all day (because I always would scream when they got close).  What?  I HATE bees!

Driving back towards Heber, we noticed it was considerably smokey out.  Eventually, we saw a big fire that had started while we were gone at Jordanelle reservoir, right behind the camp grounds (where we were just two weeks before for a ward activity!!)  Pretty crazy huh?  You'd think people would be more intelligent about fires after such a bad fire year, but noooooooope.

We had milkshakes and burgers at Granny's, and quaint little joint in Heber that has fabulous food, and then dad took us home.  Tristan screamed the ENTIRE way from Heber to provo.  At least Korra was super well behaved the whole trip.  She mostly sat in her carrier and slept, so we can say we have one well behaved child, haha.

Ahh, I'm glad we were able to get out of town and have a nice relaxing and very enjoyable day.  My dad doesn't mind Tristan screaming, he calls it "singing", and doesn't mind when Nick and I try to get him to stop.  Hahaha, it's pretty funny, and he just laughs at us.  I guess that just comes with being a grandparent, you don't care about babies screaming anymore, because you've been there and done that. I don't know if I will ever develop a tolerance to screaming!  But, screaming aside, we had a fantastic day!

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(Nick)

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Nick was a bit of a camera hog today, but he did get some amazing shots.

8-7-87

I got a call on Tuesday, answered, "hello?"

"So how does it feel to be a quarter of a century old??" was the reply.  Haha, thanks mom for putting it into perspective!  Now I feel reeeeeeeally old!

Haha, actually, to tell you the truth, I don't feel any different.  I guess most people don't.  I'll probably still feel like I'm 20 when I'm 40, so it's all good.

I had a very nice birthday.  It was a little crazy, but hey, that makes it more exciting.  In the morning, I had to take Nick to an eye doctor appointent.  Why?  Because his glasses are happily sitting at the bottom Jordenelle Reservoir.  He needed a new pair and a new prescription.  And while he did that, I ran up to Orem.  More on that later.  Then we went up to Salt Lake for his internship interview.  Tristan and I just bummed around Smith's Marketplace while we waited.  I talked to a few people who had called and Tristan pulled anything and everything off the shelves.  He made a nice tower of vegetable steamers.  The drive home was a little nuts, there were three accidents on the opposite side of the freeway, but of course everyone had to stop and stare, which caused a half hour trip to turn into an hour trip.

Nick had suggested that we buy me a cake instead of making one, so we went to the Sweet Tooth Fairy, he bought me my own box of cakebites, and we got a half dozen cupcakes to have for later when Will and Emily came over to play games.  We ended up playing hand and foot as soon as Tristan went to bed, and cutting up and sampling all the delicious cupcake flavors.

I got a lot of nice presents for my birthday, the island and shirt from dad and diane, a pair of magic boxers (haha) and pj pants from Nick's mom, birthday money from all of Nick's grandparents, and this amazing native wood carving from my parents.  And Will and Emily pre ordered me The Hunger Games (it comes with the mockingjay pin!!!!).  But probably the sweetest gift came from my wonderful husband!

What did he get me you're wondering?  He got me a puppy!!!!!!!

A beautiful American Eskimo girl puppy, and we named her Korra (after Avatar of course).  He couldn't have picked a better puppy, so calm and sweet and affectionate.  She is even sweet with Tristan, no matter how loud he screams at her.  I have never had a pet sit so still on my lap in the car, or snuggle for so long!  Nick definitely made a dog lover out of me!!!!!  Because he is going to be so busy this coming school year, I will probably not see him very much.  So Tristan and I needed som companionship, and Nick decided to get me a little puppy to keep me company.  She was the best out of the whole litter (she is a purebred miniature American Eskimo).  And I couldn't be happier!  I have the most thoughtful and wonderful husband!

Of course, Nick sure loves her too.  He was out playing with her in the field on my birthday, having a grand 'ol time.  And she was chasing him and loving it too.  Oh, the reason I went up to Orem was to take her to get her shots.  She was by far the prettiest pup in the whole clinic!

In short, I had the best birthday ever!  Thank you to all my great and thoughtful family, but most of all, thank you to my dear husband who makes my life so wonderful.  I love you!

This island completes me!  

(in the kitchen anyway! haha)

The awesome native art

rehydrating magic boxer shorts haha

Tristan is ready to go get Korra!

he carried the crate all the way down

the stairs!

Our new little girl Korra!

(Potty training and crate training,

it's like having a newborn again)

"Talking" on the phone

pretty much anything he can

hold up to his ear turns into a phone

My two babies and their chew toys

Playing tug-o-war with a magazine

Me and my little girl

Daddy's little girl

It's amazing how quickly dogs become a part of the family.  She is just so affectionate and loyal already.  I can't wait to see how she changes as she grows up.  One day we can have cat again, but for now, a puppy is the best companion option for me.  And I think she and Tristan will be best of buds in no time, and for a long time.  Isn't she just a doll??

Fun Vacation!

This past week we spent with Nick's Dad and stepmom Diane, and we had a superb time!  I even got to go out and shop alone (thanks Diane!)!  I haven't done that in, oh, over a year?

Friday, was my last day at work, again.  I know I know, you must be thinking I'm crazy.  I might have well been a temp, right?  Well, Nick got a promotion at his current job, and had also applying for one (and he's got another interview!) with a company in Salt Lake before I even went back to work.  Good for us, but not so good for my past job.  I am glad though, I was able to go back, room for the doctors a bit, see some patients who remembered me and I hadn't seen for awhile.  So, all in all, I was happy to work, even if it was for just a little while.  I have to say, it is the best clinic (everyone included!) I have ever had the privilege of going to an being a part of.

Friday, is also when Nick's parents got in.  We didn't waste anytime getting around town tell you what! Diane and I went shopping, Nick and his dad and Will went on a fishing trip for a few days.  Diane and I made curtains for my livingroom (at my sister Faith's house, and we wouldn't have been able to get that material to work without her!), we also went to the zoo, and Thanksgiving Point (my dad and Phil came along as well).  Tristan had a blast.  Especially when we took him to Ikea and let him run around. We let him run around at the museum too, and I tell you what, he's a lot faster than he looks, haha.

I'm really glad Nick was able to have that time with his dad, even if they didn't catch a ton of fish.  And I'm sure his dad really appreciated being able to spend time with his son.  I know they both loved spending time with/spoiling Tristan.  That little boy has grandparents on both sides who just love him soooo much!  What a lucky kid he is, and so are we.  We have such an amazing family, and I'm so glad we are able to spend time together.

Diane took me to Ikea and bought me a stand alone island for my kitchen.  Can I just say, best birthday present EVER?!  But really, the best time was when they boys were fishing, and we were able to stay up late and just talk girl talk.  Girls really need that every once in awhile!  Not to mention all the free advice that comes with it ;)

They just left to fly home this morning, and I was very sad to see them go.  I can't wait till we can visit again, probably next April when they come back for graduation.  Until then, phone calls will have to do I guess, haha. Thank you Dad and Diane for a fantastic week!  We love you!

walking at the zoo

running away in Ikea

looking at al the dino bones

ACK!

going down the slide

collecting rocks at the reservoir 

Fun with Grammy and Papap

I can eat bread all by myself now!

beautiful butterfly curtains!

(I have been wanting this material

ever since I first saw it at JoAnns 

months ago!  Diane made my day when

she said we should make curtains for my

living room.  Look what a good job we did!)