Aquarium and Pool

A few weeks ago, we took a long trip to SLC. It was our family vacation for the summer. We had a great time. We visited the aquarium and the Bountiful Rec. Center.


This little frog was one of my favorites. He is so cute! However, he is VERY poisonous.

The piranhas were kinda creepy.



Lincoln liked parts of the aquarium more than others. He liked looking at the fish......


He liked touching the bumpy star fish......



He thought the pink jelly fish were cool......


But mostly, Lincoln took great delight in pointing to the letters he knows on the signs around the aquarium.

I have to brag for a second. As we were walking into the aquarium, my mom was holding Lincoln's hand. Up by the entrance, the words FIRE LANE were painted on the asphalt. Lincoln approached the word LANE and pointed to (and identified) all the letters. What a smarty!



We had a great time at the aquarium. We will definitely go back sometime.

Later in the week, more visitors joined us in SLC. Tori and Alexis came from St. Louis! Tori's friend was getting married and really wanted Tori to be there so she bought her a ticket and flew her out. FUN!

Lincoln LOVES Alexis. He wanted to play with her all day long. He even tried to wake her up from her naps so they could play. He is so soft and sweet with her and she is as adorable as ever.

Lincoln loves to kiss Alexis' leg. He had so much fun with Tori and Lexie. In every prayer since our visit, he has been sure to bless Tori, Dan and Alexis.

We also went swimming at the Bountiful Rec. Center. They have such a nice facility! Lincoln was so brave in the water. He surprised me! However, it is a little unnerving to have a child who is not afraid of water. Now Lincoln thinks he can jump in the water by himself...AAHHHHH!



My mom really enjoyed all the time she got to spend with Lincoln.




We had a BLAST! Thanks mom and dad for putting up with us for so long. We love you!

Fun on the 4th

INDEPENDENCE DAY 2009



We had a great time on the 4th of July. We woke up that morning and got decked out in our red, white and blue, then headed to Parowan for the traditional festivities.


(Lincoln loves flags now. :)
We watched the parade with the fam...
Then went to the park for races and Popsicles and headed home for some chillin at the house.

We participated in the second annual slip-n-slide event held by the Cecil family. WOW! I am glad we don't have pictures for evidence.

Next, we got the kids cleaned up....

And ready to pose for some cute pictures.


Games, food, fireworks and root beer floats closed the day.
I love our holiday traditions!

Metamorphosis

Metamorphosis: a profound change in form from one stage to the next in the life history of an organism.

See that little froggy in there? Rayn Blair and I took our kids a few weeks ago to La Verkin creek to catch little polliwogs. Lincoln and I caught four and since then, we have been watching them with much anticipation. This little guy has been changing from tadpole to frog for several weeks now. This morning, I was delighted to find that he finished his journey and is now ready for life as a little frog. The ability to witness this profound change has been incredible.


These other little tadpoles are a little slower to make the change, but I am sure that they will start their lives as frogs very soon.

I wanted these little critters to have the best chance of survival and I know that the natural habitat is the ideal environment for them so Rayn kindly offered to take them back to the creek. She wants to teach her children that we should place things back where we found them. That's so nice! I will miss watching these little creatures, but I know that they will be happier and healthier in the creek where they belong.

In writing about these little frogs, my thoughts have wandered a little to another "change" that I am experiencing in my life. It has been a hard change to embrace and I still have a difficult time talking about it from time to time. The change I am referring to is that of a new vehicle. I am going to be an official mini van mom... We sold my cute 4 Runner and we are going for something a little more practical. Rayn laughed when she heard the news. She only laughed because she knows how I feel because she drives a van as well. She was able to put my feelings into words. She said it is kinda like turning 30. My thoughts EXACTLY!

I will post pics of the new ride in a few days after I get the thing...

St. Louis, MO: Day 1

I decided to go to St. Louis to help my sister, Tori, with her new little baby when Tori's maternity leave from work ran out. On May 10th, Lincoln and I hopped on a plane and headed out to babysit little Alexis Tori Cox for five days.

Lincoln had never been on an airplane so I was quite nervous about the whole experience. We didn't get off to a very good start. I somehow chose the only row on the entire plane whose air letter outter thingy was busted out. Instead of a pin size opening jet of ice cold air shooting down on us, we had a coffee mug size opening jet of ice cold air. Immediately Lincoln was not impressed. He was scared during take off and landing so I held him on my lap. (Shh.... don't tell.) Once we were in the air, he warmed up to the idea of being on an airplane. I immediately started pulling things out of my bag of tricks and we started to play. About 10 minutes into the flight, I noticed that Lincoln's shorts were wet on the bum. How could that be? He was nice and dry before boarding the plane! After further investigation, it was confirmed that he had in fact wet through his clean diaper and was sharing the warmth with me. Unfortunately, I disobeyed the cardinal rule of flying by not packing an extra set of clothes in the carry-on. (Sorry Dad. I know I've disappointed you.) There simply was not room in the carry on because it was stuffed with goodies to keep Lincoln happy. Fortunately, I was able to take off Lincoln's shorts and set them under the huge stream of icy air for them to dry. By the time we landed, I was able to put those gross shorts back on Lincoln and I was dry too. (If you don't have kids of your own, don't judge me!)

We met Tori, Dan and cute little Lexie and they whisked us off to Dog Town. It was pretty late by the time we arrived so we visited for a bit and then crashed in our beds.

The next morning, Tori went to work and I was able to spend some bonding time with Lexie. Lincoln even bonded with her! The 6.5 hrs. flew by and Tori came home. It was time to play. We headed over to a beautiful park that is right by Tori and Dan's house. This park is enormous and equipped with playgrounds, water fountains, ponds, bike trails, paddle boats and even a zoo! We tried out the play ground first.



If you know Lincoln, you know he is obsessed with water. We found a pond for him to throw rocks into. He was content to do that for as long as we would let him. I was floored by how pretty and nicely taken care of this park was. Tori and Dan are so lucky to have something like this so close to them to use and enjoy.