Vacation Part 2: Logan/Cache Valley

Troy brainwashed Owen into calling him "T-Bone." I told him that was the dog's name on Clifford but it didn't phase him. Our first night there Justin's parents took us out to Firehouse Pizzeria. That is my new favorite pizza... this kind called Ratatouille with onions, peppers, and FETA cheese. So good. Oh ya and the pizzookie!

That night was.... more fireworks!

And more fireworks! Logan does theirs July 3rd for some reason. So we went to a hill over looking the college stadium to watch. Or not watch, if you're Owen. Really everyone liked them.

Then the REAL Independence day, we did... yep more fireworks! At home once again. This is the last of them I promise.

I just like this picture for Mema's face in the background.

July 5th we took a day trip... First we stopped at a little river to climb around for a minute. It was FREEZING. I believe this is where Justin cut his big toe which has since become nastily infected.

Then on to Bear Lake. My camera decided to stop recognizing my memory card so I used Justin's Dad's (hence the date on the pictures).

Justin's mom made friends with the people next to us (realizing their daughter lived near to them). And lucky for us they had a boat! A little speed boat, but a boat nontheless. And they offered to take Justin skiing (double skis, but skiing nontheless). He has never been in his life and he got up his very first try for like 10 minutes! I did it too, and I haven't been since I've been married. It made me so happy. And sore. No pics of how silly we looked on the skis, sorry.

Before we left we made sure we got a world-famous fresh raspberry shake from a stand there.

That night we went to the Willow Park Zoo.

One of my not-so-great ideas was to do a few stops from the Cache Valley Food Tour. One stop was Cox Honeyland where they advertised we could watch honey being made. In my mind I envisioned a big plant where we could walk through how it's made from start to finish. And this is what we got:
Inside a mom & pop shop full of little trinkets. That lasted a whole 2 minutes. So we didn't do any more food tour stops after that. The morning before we went there I told the girl who was cutting my hair my plans and she was dying laughing at me at how excited I was. Now I know why!

Saturday night we went to the big Cache Valley Cruise-In, which is a parade of fixed-up antique cars. It was pretty cool. And I think the whole city was there. They had leather couches reserving spots like a day in advance!

They have really clean streets there in Logan.

Monday, July 9 was our last night in Logan. We celebrated Justin's mom's birthday a day early with dinner at Olive Garden and later on... Home-made pizzookie! The candles wouldn't stand up in it so Justin had to hold them.

Other Logan/Cache Valley events not pictured:
- Lots of games of SORRY! (where Troy and Justin always ganged up on me which meant Owen won)
- Swimming at the Logan Aquatics Center. That is the best city pool ever!
- Swimming at the pool for the housing community
- Shopping (DownEast had so much cool furniture I wanted to steal)
- Church (when they sang "hello" to Owen in Primary he stood at the podium. They have a permanent primary pianist - wow what a thought!)
- Cafe Rio w/Justin's mom and Owen after the cruise-in.

And I'm sure lots more I'm not remembering. But ya this is long enough for now. Do you like how I mention like everything we eat?

Vacation Part 1

Justin's sister, Ashley and her husband, picked us up from the SLC airport and lent us one of their cars for the whole trip. Hallelujah. Did I mention Owen & Drew did awesome on the plane? 2 layovers even!

After we got settled we went to Liberty Park for water to play in and shaved ice. There are shaved ice stands ALL over Utah.

New baby Raquel & Drew

Then the This Is The Place Monument (way too hot to enjoy).

It was July 2nd but Jared wanted to try out fireworks to see if Tyler liked them. Notice we did them in daylight! It doesn't get dark until like 10.

During the movie that night Tyler kept laying by Owen and giving him kisses.

We left the next morning to go stay with Justin's parents and brother in Logan.

On the way we stopped by at the Hill Air Force Base Aerospace Museum (and ate on base there just because we could).

Then Dinosaur Park:

ROAR!

They had automated life-size replicas that were awesome, even though they scared Owen.

Remember Me?

We're still in Utah and having fun! I don't think I'm coming home.

I've taken TONS of pictures so you might be seeing way more of us than you ever wanted in the near future. But I've been using laptops and dial-up, both of which I hate. Well I don't hate laptops, but I hate not having a mouse to use. Anyway, we can get the pictures started off with a few Kelly McCaleb took of our family yesterday. You can view those HERE!

Also two travel tips I'm glad I discovered: ring pops and turning off the answering machine. The ring pops worked for popping ears on the plane. And the answering machine... I hate returning calls and I'm so happy to know when we get home I will have ZERO messages waiting for me!

Bye Bye

Word Association with Owen
(Brent's request)

What do you think of when I say...

Hot Chips - Huh? (all excited like he thought I had some for him)

Teeth - Sharks

Red - Red light go

Hot - Pot

O - O for Nowen

Airplanes - Shoot airplanes

Beach - My crabs

Gerbils - You want to watch Cole's gerbils?

Sun - The sun is orange

Bathroom - To go pee pee

Drew - Um Drew's sleeping in his bead

Utah - Go on the airplane and play with our toys (we got new toys for the trip and he's dying to get his hands on them)

Sticky - Hmmm right here? (pointing to his sticky self)

Treat - Go on the airplane

Uncle Brent - On his mission (got that confused with Uncle BRETT)

Rain - Go away

Mexico - Dum dum dum dum (quoting "Night at the Museum")

Black - Dum dum dum dum

Good morning - Dum dum dum dum


I think he's done with this game :)

And this is for Rachel:



We don't have any recent video of Owen dancing - this is from last August. But he still loves to shake his bootie. He has this remote control helicopter thingy and he says when it's going it's shaking its bootie.

Pancake Art

I'm just beginning my training as a pancake artist.

I call this "Flower without a Petal" or "Butterfly without a Feeler." Take your Pick.

Sarah, can you stare at THIS for hours and hours?

Ummmm... I think I need a vacation. Oh wait! I'm getting one starting bright & early Monday morning. Phew!

I don't know if Justin's mom has Internet or not. That's actually one thing I love about vacations, a break from the computer. And so who knows how long until I update this. I'm taking requests of what you'd like my last pre-vacation post picture to be. Something that you won't get tired of seeing if you check back every now & then. Not that you'd ever tire of my beautiful art though, right?

Now we're off to the beach AGAIN. Don't be jealous.

Beach Picture Of The Week

Meet Owen's friends, the sand crabs.

I know they're not the REAL sand crabs.
But we don't know what else to call them.

They look like little rocks.
But that's just their disguise!

They open up
and these little clear feet thingys pop out
to dig under the sand
every time the tide goes up and down.

This one Owen singled out as his friend, "Jack."

Jack is the name of one of my brother Cole's gerbils.
Owen likes to watch Cole and the gerbils on webcam.

And this is totally unrelated but last night we were talking about the Plan of Salvation... about how our spirits go to the Spirit World after we die, waiting for us to be resurrected (I know deep huh? But hey it's from Sharing Time!) But anyway then Owen said, "And then we don't pee anymore?" (after we die)

I Get Around

We go to Utah in a little over a week for almost 2 weeks. Yay!

Note to robbers: then would be a good time to break into our house. But I'm warning you - we have a suicidal neighbor and pizza boys get mugged on our doorstep. Also, I have no jewelery worth anything (other than my wedding ring which remains on my finger). And our electronics are outdated. So you should probably just pick another house.

While in Utah we'll be visiting Justin's mom (and hopefully dad) at their 2nd home in Logan. Justin hasn't seen her in 1 1/2 years! We're going to Lagoon. A big family reunion at this mansion with my mom's side of the family. Hopefully Hogle Zoo with Brent & Errin. And this girl who I don't even know but love her blog and her pictures is taking some pics of our family.

To fill in the blanks I've found these ideas while browsing blogs...

THIS BLOGGER likes these places:
Gateway Mall (water play area - bring swimsuits) - I've been there a LONG time ago and remember loving this mall.
Tai Pan Trading
Liberty Park (also bring swimsuits)
Thanksgiving Point (farm & deli) - I know Becky liked this place when she lived there and Cherisse likes it too.

And from THIS BLOG I made a note to go here:
The Soup Kitchen
Dan's Grocery for Dunford's Chocolate Cake Donuts
Provo Bakery for Orange Rolls


I'm going to come home so fat and happy!

Anything else I can't miss while in the SLC/Logan/Provo area?

Sneaky!

We snuck over and met Justin at a park on base yesterday. He's allowed to go to the PX (shopping center) but that's about it other than the barracks where he sleeps. I know, he's such a rebel huh? Drew kept point to him saying, "Da?" like he couldn't believe it was really him :) 5 more days to go!

Which Would You Choose

HAPPY!

HAPPY!
(but guilty)

Justin went to Sam's Club the other day and I told him to bring me back whatever fruit looks good, like a pineapple.

He came home with a pineapple. Fruit roll-ups. And a 5lb bag of Hot Tamales.

If only Fruit roll-ups counted as a fruit I'd be in Heaven. I love those things!

I also love Hot Tamales - Justin got those cause he knows that. And the fruit roll-ups cause Owen didn't want "hot candy." Hey Drew can handle em!

But anyway that pineapple is long gone in my stomach. So I went to the Farmer's Market yeterday and got some other good stuff (most of which is not pictured). I'm turning that big ol zucchini into dinner somehow!

On a side note:

Day 1 was good (nothing worth documenting though).

Day 2 was good (beach & above-mentioned Farmer's Market)

Day 3, today, is... okay. It started out good with a walk and park trip. And NOW It's good that it's naptime. But a couple hours ago when Owen peed in the hall and Drew dumped a can of bread crumbs... not so good. Tonight I have a meeting at church. So I'll call today average. Hope yours is GOOD!

7 more days until...(I can't say in case there are scary Internet people reading this)

OOH OOH I just remembered So You Think You Can Dance and Top Chef are on tonight. Yay NOW today is good :)

Tweet

Baby birds were born under our mailbox on Saturday.Just thought I'd share.

My Dad Is Better Than Your Dad

He has lots of great fatherly qualities but I would like to show off just a few of his inventions today. Basically, he can make something out of ANYTHING.

(I stole some of these pictures off my sister Rachel's blog so if you've peeked over there before, sorry about the repeat)

Derek on the upside-down bike

Rachel on the snow scooter

His most recent, a tent on top of his Jeep for camping.
He usually sleeps up there in the open air, but the tent is in case of rain.
Better hope there's not wind AND rain or you're in trouble!

"Grandpa's Train" (my favorite)
He has since added another extension so it will seat even more kiddies.

Max, Bob, Janna

It also hooks to a regular trike if the kids want to do the driving.

In the last year my dad thought up the idea to wrap burritos in foil and leave them on the engine of his Jeep to heat up. He does this on little road-trips or camp-outs to avoid having to stop for food. I was dying the other day at this: He was having problems with his Jeep so he and neighbor Keith were looking to see what was wrong. He lifts the hood and sees 3 burritos on the engine! That wasn't what was wrong, but it was just funny that he forgot about them and who knows how long they were there (he thinks 3 weeks).

Oh and he helped me make the pipe chimes from a couple posts ago :)

Being a good dad by being a good grandpa: Feeding a 6-month old chocolate granola bar :) Hey it made a fussy baby happy!

Happy Father's Day, Dad!

Love you!

And GOOD NEWS for us! Justin doesn't have to work today after all! So we get to celebrate Father's Day TWICE. Which is much better than celebrating not at all. Justin loves Owen & Drew so much. And they love him right back (evidenced by Drew saying "da" way more than "mama" and both of them running for the door as soon as they hear the garage door go up.) We love you!

This picture is from last September up in Raleigh.

Here is Owen's blessing day... the day we came home from the hospital with him. We were lucky to be able to do it at my parents house that day cause Justin had to leave the next day for combat training. Justin is a 1-day old Father in this picture and was SO happy to be a dad and so sad to leave. This is every single person that participated in the blessing. I'm just looking at all the awesome fathers in this picture and am thankful for all of you! We're proud that Owen has Justin's dad's name for his middle name (James) and Drew's middle nams is Alan after my dad.

Publish PostBishop Sherwood, Jared (Karen's husband), Paul (Justin's brother), Dad, Justin w/Owen, (Justin's dad), Linus (Justin's brother), my Grandpa Lunt, Jay (Tami's husband), my Grandpa Martindale

HAPPY FATHER'S DAY!

SO glad families are forever :)

Grill Power

Don't be jealous of my awesome grill w/bird poo on it. I'm just excited cause I finally learned how to use it. For some reason grilling has always been intimidating to me. Then I realize how easy it is and it's fun! Maybe now we can upgrade.

Wednesday I hosted 11-Year Old Scouts at our house cause the leader had to work and we...GRILLED! I decided Scouts is fun and I'm gonna go ahead and call myself to that position.

My other accomplishment for the week is cooking fresh green beans (not on the grill). I always see them at the store, and think they look good but don't know what to do with them. Well, of course those are easy, too. I'm on a roll!

Baby Cohen

Congrats to Lindsey & Kip! Baby Cohen Jett came Saturday weighing in at 6 lbs 15 oz and 20 in tall. I'm checking Kip's blog like every hour waiting for some pics already! Until then... he gets to be this guy!


K here's the real Cohen. Lindsey just sent me this pic since Kip is a slow poke :)

He's so cute!

My Mormon Weekend

Friday - Church (Ward Talent Show)

Saturday - Church (Primary Activity)
Sunday - Church (Church, imagine that!)

Here are the details:

Friday - Talent Show
Pipe Chimes, then & now:

8 yrs old................................ 20 yrs later

Bishop "strongly encouraged" all the auxiliaries to participate in the Ward Talent Show hosted by the Young Women. So the Primary did "Do Re Mi" on the pipe chimes. Carrie is the one standing up, Jennifer is my microphone holder, and Sally isn't pictured. We're wearing drapes a la "Sound of Music" if you can't tell.

Later that night Justin Lawniczak, one of the Young Men, went out to do his guitar solo and anounced that Owen would be on the drums! We had no idea. It was funny even though he didn't play them at all, just sat there the whole time.

Saturday - Primary Activity

Owen built a Temple out of clay w/one of his Sunbeams teachers, Sis Baldwin.

Carrie found a cool home-made clay that looked kind of sparkly (the salt perhaps?).

I manned the Bingo station. I found this link that let me make custom bingo cards using pictures (we used Prophets and Apostles). But I thought it'd be cool to do for Family Home Evening or something... using whatever pictures you want.

And Sally set up an obstacle course.

Sunday - Church

As I stuck Owen's most recent art on the fridge and looked at all his creations, I noticed they all have something in common - bites taken out of them. (see corners)

Owen got to pick up his Temple that had dried after church. I told him I wanted to take a picture so he said, "Okay take it then!" Feisty! He posed himself and the Temple.

Then last but not least... we celebrated Father's Day a week early since Justin is scheduled to work on the REAL Father's Day. HAPPY FATHER'S DAY Justin! I know two boys that think you're pretty cool!