Baby, You're a firework!
Thursday, July 07, 2011 - Posted by Sunny - 1 comments
We thought abut going up to Idaho Falls for the 4th of July. We hadn't been up there since Thanksgiving the previous year so we were well past due for a visit. Then one day talking to Derek's parent's on the phone Hyrum asked them if he could come to their house. They of course agreed and we were committed.

We left town after a crazy three plus hours at church ( the three hours being me and the boys the plus is Derek's of course) On the way up instead of saying "Are we there yet?" Hyrum kept saying"Why are we not THERE yet?" We introduced Hyrum to the Alphabet game which he had a tough time getting into. And we discovered how hard it is to play the alphabet game in the middle of nowhere Idaho. By the time we got there it was after the boys bed time but could not be kept from Daddy and Uncle Dave's old He-man and Transformer toys and all the other "new" toys at Grandma's house.


That was in fact why Hyrum asked to go to their house...to play with the toys. :) We finally got them to sleep at around 11 and we worried if we could wake up with enough time to make it to the parade at 9am. But the boys woke up at 7 bright eyed and bushy tailed. We headed to the parade route well after we should have been there but we ended up unintentionally imposing on the kindness of friends once again and had a pretty good spot to watch.


Hyrum filled his coffers of parade candy and we counted it a win. Hyrum and Noah are big into wearing their shades.


We relaxed and played during the day until we headed to the river to stake our claim of a piece of grass to watch the fireworks on. We were fortunate to find that piece of ground where there was a playground very close by and the boys and I headed out while Derek sat enjoyed the view


and kept our spot. It was a little crazy and nerve racking to keep track of my boys among all the other kids at the park. Hyrum was off to the biggest slides and Noah was happy at the little slide.


Noah needed a more watchful eye so I stayed near him but it made me nervous to have Hyrum so far away and out of reach. Hyrum was none the wiser. He was having fun.


Noah hit his mouth on a bar so we went back to the spot for awhile to see Derek and when his family got there we went back to the park. It was nice to have more eyes on the boys. Noah discovered that Hyrum was on another part of the playground and wanted to go with him Hyrum was good enough to watch out for him...at least once.


He's got a hold of Noah's shirt to keep track of him and make sure he doesn't get stepped on or lost. The next times he just raced up without him but Noah was none the wiser he just kept climbing.

We left the park after awhile but Noah wasn't done. He had a bee in his bonnet and needed to explore so off he went. We were lucky to notice before he was down the street. He took to walking by some older ladies down the street from us and would smile, wave and later blow kisses. He had them in the palm of his little hand. He's a charmer that one.


As Noah was off getting as lost as he possibly could Hyrum stayed close to roost aided by an unbrella to shield him from the blazing and glaring sun.


As dusk fell we decided to get out the glowy things which is a tradition we started after spending a 4th of July with our friends the Jenkins who are much more fun than we are. Hyrum couldn't wait and Noah got right in there with the glowy stick fighting.


Then the fireworks began and we were serenaded throughout.


Noah loved them too, he kept pointing and laughing and at the end he just clapped and clapped.

On our long walk back to the car Hyrum piped up and said "I love you Momma! I Love you Daddy" We told him we loved him too then he said "I love Momma and Daddy and Noah" We smiled as he spontaneously professed his love for us all and we said " We love you too buddy, we have a great family huh?" Then he said "Yeah, I love myself too!" Glad to know my little man has a lot of self confidence. :)


The next day we were going to go to Bear World but after seeing how much it was and knowing there was no way my boys were going to get anywhere near a live bear we opted to go to the zoo in IF. On our way into town we passed signs for the zoo. I turned to Derek and said "Why have I never known there is a zoo here and why haven't we gone to it?" Derek remembered it being kinda little and broken down so they were almost apologetic when we went but it was SOOO GREAT!


It was perfect and so cute! I seriously want to go every time we go up now. Here are some highlights


Noah connecting with the animals from the stroller


Baby camel feeding ( there were so many baby animals at the zoo. It was fun!)


The Lion drinking fountain


Everyone had to try it


And Lions!!

( Hogel zoo doesn't have lions despite having a lion drinking fountain...it was Hyrum and Noah's first glimpse at a real lion)


Otters! ( they were hiding that day but someday I'm sure we'll see them )


Monkeys! They were so intrigued by Hyrum so Derek was being voice for them and Hyrum LOVED it. Every time we talk about the monkeys he says "They liked my hat and thought it was funny that I wore it backwards and then forwards"

Right next to the zoo there is a place called "Funland" that we went to after the zoo. It's a hard place to describe. It's kinda like a traveling city carnival that doesn't travel. We were all but the only people there when we went. We got there and Hyrum conned his grandma into getting him popcorn. Then we decided what to do with the 10 tickets we got. Noah knew immediately what he wanted to do.

Hyrum wanted to do the ferris wheel. He said he was going to be super brave. As Derek and he walked up to it and they started it up...seriously....and they got on. It was a ride for two. Hyrum loved it.


Did you know John Lennon is living in Idaho Falls? :)

Then came the moment Noah was waiting for. His first amusement park ride ever!


Would you look at that smile?


When we got home we got the boys outside to play on the riding toys awhile before we hopped in the car to go home


When I saw Hyrum on the worm toy suddenly I saw this in my minds eye


This might have helped me see that.




Such a good time and so much fun playing with and connecting with grandparents. I just have to tell this story. Derek's dad is notorious for slipping little creatures scraps of food most of the time that little creature is the family dog Blossom but it seems as though Noah picked up on his tendency pretty quickly and was rewarded for his patience.


Of course it wasn't long before the dog noticed someone cutting in on her gravy train.
She was all too happy to see the little ones leave. :)

Road trip classic:
On the way home we were playing the alphabet game again but in a more populated area so it was going faster. Hyrum was much more into it this time too. We were looking for the letter "K" and Hyrum said "There it is" pointing at an "R V park" sign. I told him that "R V park" didn't have a K ( thinking of the big letters R and V) then I noticed my mistake and said "You're right Hyrum it does have a K. Momma's a little dumb" Hyrum started to laugh and said "Momma, You're dumb!" Guess I asked for that. :)


Haircuts and donuts
Wednesday, June 29, 2011 - Posted by Sunny - 1 comments
It has become a tradition with my boys (meaning Derek and Hyrum) to get donuts after getting their hair cut. It all started with me asking Derek to pick up something at the store on the way home from getting haircuts one time. And since he was at the store on a Saturday morning he decided to get donuts. Hyrum was with him and he thought that's just what you do when you get a haircut...and so it was.

Noah got his first haircut this last Saturday (the 26th) We took the boys to Brad's Barber shop in Spanish Fork where Derek has been taking Hyrum about a year. Derek grew up going to barber shops and just prefers them... I have to say that I'm becoming a fan as well.


Hyrum needed his hair cut and went first. He is doing SOOOO much better with haircuts these days . I'm so proud of him. He's so brave. He was sad about loosing his curls this time so we had them cut it a little longer than they usually do.


As we waited for Noah's turn I had to get a picture of his only curls. The ones that only appear when his hair is altogether way too long.


He got in the chair and looked so small up there. And he actually sat still...for awhile


Those who have boys know that the worst thing about the first haircut ( and for the next couple years of subsequent haircuts) is the clippers. They are loud and tickly and that's hard to be still when your being tickled especially as a 1 year old


Part of the charm of a barber shop is that everyone get's involved. The two other men there waiting for their haircuts (who were sitting right in front of Noah) were making helpful comments laughing and commiserating on their experiences taking their sons to get first haircuts. It was unifying and fun to share this bench mark event. It seems to me that a boys first haircut is so much more eventful than a girls...but then again what do I have to compare it to?


He did pretty well in no small part to his Daddy making silly faces and sounds to distract him.

We'd brought other things as distraction but nothing distracts like new toys. The barber had a Barber Smurf toy. Noah thought it was great


and tasty

Toward the end of the haircut Noah was done and more extreme measures had to be taken


It was a good thing that he was in the chair by the window. He's very into cars these days.


He did so good all things considered


He thought he was done but then came the vacuum


At the end they presented us with a first haircut certificate that said that Noah had bravely completed all the requirements to getting his first haircut and had officially graduated from babyhood. ( You don't get this kind of thing at Supercuts!)


It was an occasion... and he absolutely got his donut.


What a handsome little man!




Day in the life of your average every day superhero
Wednesday, June 22, 2011 - Posted by Sunny - 1 comments
You have to have a great heroic pose


before you ride to the rescue


You also need a great side kick to warn you of danger


and help you save the railroads


While you perform daring feats


It's also good to form crime fighting teams whenever you can


Can I just say that I love this stage. So fun.






GCC speeding ticket
Monday, June 20, 2011 - Posted by Sunny - 2 comments
A couple of weeks ago Adobe began participation in the Global Corporate Challenge which is a program aimed at getting desk sitters moving. They are grouped in to teams of seven and each given a pedometer ( and a back pack and a hat- which Hyrum loves for some reason) to track their daily steps. If the group averages 10 thousand steps per person through the 16 week challenge it's the equivalence of walking around the world. You can even go onto the website and see your groups progress around the world. As Derek tracked his steps he found that a lot of times at work he would only have around 3 to 4 thousand steps. But on weekends he'd easily get up to 17 thousand. So he tried to walk around during calls with clients that didn't require him being in front of his computer and we tried to take walks when he got home from work. He started to get to where he would average around 10 thousand a day. On his biggest day he had 27 thousand steps. Then came last Friday.

A couple of months ago he'd been talking to the guys he takes a van pool with about if there was an emergency ( earthquake or some other kind of natural disaster ) how they would be able to get back to their families. They decided to try to walk it once to see if they could do it and get a better idea of what to they would need and should keep on hand if there were an emergency. (That would be at least 15 miles and more like 16 or 17 at the end of the day). They'd talked about doing it on April 16th but that fell through and they instead decided to do it on the 17th of June, this last Friday.

They left work at 12:06pm and headed south taking back roads with slower speeds or busier roads with sidewalks. When I heard from him at 2:06 they had already made it to downtown Provo which was about half way. We went to get him Father's day gifts and when we left the store I was afraid that we'd missed his homecoming. We rushed home with a mind to make big signs to welcome him home from his long trek. When we got home at around 4pm, he hadn't made it yet. I asked him where he was and he'd made it to Springville right by where he would catch the van pool, about 3 and a half miles away. We hurried and made signs and I told him to let me know when he was close. I kept vigil over the computer. I expected him any moment but the last few miles were the hardest. I went out to water the garden and when I came there was a message from three minutes ago that said he was at the head of the street. I hurried and grabbed the signs and hurried the boys outside to see him walking up to the house at around 5:15. We cheered and showed him our signs. I'd hoped that we'd be cheering him down the street to our open arms but at least he'd gotten a welcome.


The first thing he said is "I've got to sit down." We hurried him inside and had him sit on the couch. One of the first things he realized about what he would need was better shoes. He got gigantic blisters on the entirety of two of his five toes on each foot as well as a blister on each of the balls of his feet.


Poor kid. But he did it! He shuffled like an old man the rest of the day but he did it! And that night when he went to enter his steps for the day which was over 40 thousand they gave him a speeding ticket and he had to explain why his step count was so high. There were at least two other guys getting speeding tickets on the Global Corporate Challenge for that day too!