Sunny 9 for 2007 July

(1) Mon Jul 16 2007 13:54 Zion and everything after: We have been back for over a week from our Summer vacation. It seems like I am so far behind in blogging that I keep putting it off causing me to put it off even further because I know the next time I sit down it will require more than a few minutes. But I will try and keep the rundown brief so I don't end up with a page and a half of text.

First we flew into Phoenix and stayed with Aaron's sister Melanie and Joe and the kids Collin, Kate, Logan, and Seth. It was the first time in 9 months that I got to see the twins in person (both sets for that matter. Lucky and Laney were so adorable and always dressed in the cutest outfits.), and they had just moved into their new house so I loved getting to see that. I can't wait to see it after all the decor and painting projects are done too. Gunnar played very well with Logan and Seth. Lily adored her cousins...all of them. She and Kate probably played the most in AZ since they are closest in age, but at Zion's she got to see Caden and Lily coupled with Caden and Ethan were the new rat pack. Kate introduced Lily into the world of make believe and pretend and followed suite making the princess fall in love with Prince Eric.

In fact after we got home I heard Lily playing with her dolls saying "Let's get naked. hehe Yay, we're naked." Not quite sure what to think about that. It's probably harmless though since we chase her after the bath and say "naked baby". And I guess it is nothing new since almost every time Lily and Caden played together they would eventually end up naked or just in their diapers. One time I heard Lily in her room with Caden saying, "Come on Caden, let's get naked." But seriously, I know Lily had a fabulous time everyday. I bet she was having the time of her life because she just loves people and she loves playing with her cousins and she throughly enjoyed all the activities that went on everyday.

At Zion National Park we had a great time going to the river, doing the activities after dinner with the group, seeing the beautiful red rock scenery, and catching up with all the cousins. I lucked out because Aaron has such an awesome family/extended family. I feel like all his cousins are my cousins. We got in some solid Werewolf game time. I am not sure I could ever get sick of this game. And yes, we did repeat the tradition of last year by playing into the wee hours of the morning.

On the way home from the family reunion we stopped at the Grand Canyon. I had been once before as a child but it is nice to redo things in your life like this and see it as an adult since I barely remembered it. Gunnar pretty much hated being in his car seat the entire way there and home. It was not a pretty sight. The poor boy has not been healthy since his 6 month shots which gave him a cold and fever, then teething which brought on another cold and fevers, then a week and a half later just about after the first trauma was over, he got a second tooth and right before we got home he was spiking hot hot fevers come to find out he had an ear infection in each ear. Other than that Gunnar did well on the trip. Sleeping wasn't too bad. He got really good at sitting up on his own for long periods of time and without having the help of his arms supporting himself. He scooted around pretty good. He has been eating all kinds of baby food like crazy. He has begun to stare and Lily and just crack up from watching her silliness. He developed stranger anxiety on the trip but I think it is mainly because he was ill most the time. He was very clingy with me. Someone would be holding him and he would see me walk by and he would start fussing. It took me by surprise, Lily never really did that. Gunnar is a mama's boy though so it figures. He has always been really good about letting strangers hold him. I just forgot how bad teething is. They get so fussy and so clingy.

Onto the 4th of July, we had a BBQ at Aaron's parents house. We went home (Mel and Joe's) afterward and didn't stay up to watch fireworks because we were so beat after traveling till 1:00 in the morning the night before. The kids were done for too. We did make it to church at the Springdale ward at the chapel at Zion's that Sunday, which was nice because it seems like I missed church the year before and I love singing the patriotic songs. It's one of the best parts about the 4th.

Aaron had to leave early to go back home and study for the boards that he is taking this week. In case you don't know, it's a big deal test. We missed him and I survived the plane trip home with Gunnar and Lily by myself but not before I wrapped up my vacation with a trip to Cafe Rio. Gotta love their chicken salads...the best!

It is great to be back home. We have lots of work to do around the house. I can't believe the summer is almost over. Aaron has school starting up again next Monday. The year is halfway over too and it feels like we just barely got into 2007. I am already looking into Christmas travel plans. Strange.

A side note about my pictures post. Some of them are blurred, mainly the ones we took at the Grand Canyon. I am so bummed and I can't believe how dense I was seeing the LCD screen and thinking it was some malfunction and not thinking to wipe the smudge that was on the lens. Duh! At least most of them turned out.

(1) Thu Jul 19 2007 14:40 It's been awhile: Since I have done a movie review. Aaron and I have been lucky enough to have seen 2 movies this past week. The first one we saw was Harry Potter on opening day. Aaron called me up last Wed saying he wanted to go and to get a babysitter. I really wasn't in to mood to get all dressed up (because I don't wear make-up unless I leave the house) and go to the movie last minute. I like looking forward to things, but Aaron knows best and I really did enjoy myself and am glad he insisted we see it opening day. I really only agreed because Jake and Erin were coming with us so I knew it would be fun and we sneaked in pints of Cold Stone for the show.

I was pretty skeptical of the movie because I love the books and I think the movies are terribly lame. Even the 4th movie which was better than the first 3, was still LAME. Maybe it is because it isn't the actors first time around the block but I really enjoyed it and recommend it.

Second, Aaron and I took Lily and Gunnar to Rattatouille at mom's invitation. Lily sat through about half of it pretty good, a quarter of it ok, and the end not at all. Gunnar was really good the entire time. I probably wouldn't have picked the movie, but since mom invited us, we saw it. I really like it. It was really cute. I sorta missed the climax and so I didn't get to enjoy it like I would have if I watched it without kids but it was cute. I think we will wait another 6 months to try out a theater again with Lily. last time it was Cars and it lasted about 10 minutes. At least we were able to stay the whole time through this one.

Gunnar is pretty much crawling now. He has been able to get around for weeks scooting but not really a controlled one leg in front of the other and alternating hands thing. A funny thing happened yesterday morning. When he wakes up at 6:30 (he rarely wakes up after then) I usually put him in the bouncy seat so I can get a little bit more sleep until he starts fussing. Well, yesterday morning I heard him fussing and I got up to go get him and he was at the side of my bed on hands and knees staring up at me. It was so cutie. I guess he wriggled off the bouncy seat and crawled over to me. He's actually been laying on the floor several times by the bouncy seat too when he starts fussing. Geez mom, ever hear of the buckle?

And Lily the other day said something funny. On one of her toys there is the Yankee Doodle song. She wanted to sing it and said to me, "Let's sing Macaroni Cheese-O song".

Wed Jul 25 2007 10:27 Happy Pioneer's Day, yesterday: I miss those days off in Utah. Now Happy Birthday to my brother in law Davey. It has been raining all week here. It is kinda nice, I would rather it rain than for it to be a drought. Plus it cools things down quite a bit. I wish I knew that this whole summer was going to be one big long monsoon before I hired someone to put in sprinklers in our yard. Now we only have one more summer to water before we move and it totally isn't worth it for that. Not that we even got the sprinklers. We paid all the money and hired the guy but unfortunately for us he didn't really know what he was doing, but that is a whole other story in itself. Lessons learned.

Aaron and I had a fun adventure Friday night at midnight going to our local HEB (grocery store) and bought our copy of Harry Potter: DH. There was no line, and we picked up some groceries and started reading in the car straight away. Aaron finished it Sunday night (technically Mon morning). I on the other hand prefer audio books and I called libraries first thing Saturday morning. I got the last of 50 books on cd at the Spanish speaking library branch close to downtown. Each branch had 2 or 3 copies. Now the wait list is in the hundreds.

Anyways, it is nice to have something to do inside on rainy days, however, it doesn't entertain my children. I need to finish already though because Aaron is dying to talk about it with me. He keeps asking how far I have gotten.

(2) Wed Jul 25 2007 22:42 Funnies: Yesterday, while Lily was saying her prayers she asked for daddy to be blessed at school, and then she paused and said, not mama...mama is too little for school. Teehee

I went to Hairspray for girls night out tonight (cute flick) and came home to cookies that my visiting teacher dropped off. So sweet!

(1) Fri Jul 27 2007 10:50 Free at last!!!!!!!!: Yes, that statement deserved all those exclamation points! We finally put Gunnar is his own room!! Just writing that makes me smile. During the day I will open my door and check around my room just to see how wonderful it looks without a crib or a sleeping baby in the crib there. Just like when I mowed the lawn I kept looking out the window to see how nicely it looked. Or when I make something crafty, I will look at it and think, "my that is dang cute". Does anyone else do this? Just me? I figured I was the only one wacky enough, but I like to appreciate the end results. And this end result? SLEEP. And a cleaner room. And Aaron and I talking before bed. And not having to be quite as I wash my face before bed. And scripture study on the bed. And some other stuff involving a bed. Just kidding, we don't do that.

The first thing I did when we put Gunnar in his room: laundry. I folded clothes on my bed. By myself, as loud as I wanted. It is so wonderful having your own room. You just don't realize it until you go without for awhile. You are probably thinking it's my fault for having him in my room for so long anyway and I'm weird for doing it, and you would be right. I basically did it because he was still waking up at night and I didn't want to walk across the house as opposed to two steps to get him. Plus we have had people in town from Julie's wedding and other family events that it was always, "Oh after this event we will put him in there". So finally we have and it has made life better. Now we just need to move the computer from his room to our room. We just have to set up the new desk we got at IKEA. Hopefully it won't take us another 8 months!