St George

We spent past weekend down in sunny St George and had such a great trip.  Jack was so excited to go!  He loved counting down the days and picking out treats for the car ride.  When our trip was two days away he kept saying "our trip is tomorrow, tomorrow."  I love the way his brain works.  We went with our friends that Steve has been friends with since high school.  They have 3 cute girls and one on the way (due in a few weeks)!  Katie was a good sport being 8 months pregnant!  Especially with all the hiking we did.  The kids had so much fun together, and couldn't have been better.  Lots of pictures on this post!

The 3 little buddies hiking in Pioneer Park

Ella liked exploring the red rocks a little, and eating the broken glass on the ground a LOT.

Dad took Jack up the scary stuff that Mom and Ella couldn't quite traverse.

A family picture up in Pioneer Park.

The next day we went hiking in Snow Canyon.  These three were awesome hikers!

The trail took us to a lava tube.  The fun Dad's took the older kids exploring down inside of it.

Here's Jack climbing out.  I guess he got pretty scared while down there.  It probably didn't help that I said a bear might live in there right before he went down.

Ella was ready for a nap about halfway through the hike, but she was a trooper like always.

We came back and cooled off with a dip in the pool.  Have I mentioned I love St. George weather!

She was pretty content with the pool, a sucker, and a swim barbie.

Ella seriously has no body fat so every hour or so she would get cold and have to go warm up with Dad for a bit.

Go home day was Sunday so we took the kids to walk around the St George temple.  It was beautiful!

Cute Ella at the temple.

Steve and Pete with all the kids.

 

Ella's hygiene habit

Poor little Ella has been the queen of ear infections this winter, which has resulted in a lot of runny noses.  She learns a lot from her big brother, with the latest being how to blow her nose.  She's pretty proud of her trick and never misses an opportunity to demonstrate when she finds a stray wipe, or tissue, or square of toilet paper.  She takes it all very seriously!

Baby John

April Fools Day brought a fun addition to our family.  My brother Brett's wife Sheree had her baby, John Kent Bingham.  I could not resist the urge to make the trip up to Rexburg a couple days later to meet the little guy.  It's always so fun to hold a tiny newborn.

And when I say tiny, I mean as in 9lb 6oz.  Funny how that still seems little!  He's so cute!

Ella got to come along for the ride and loved raiding John's Easter basket.  That's what he gets for going past his due date and missing Easter :)

Grand baby number 12 for Mary.  It was so nice of my mom to make the drive with me :)

Cute family photo!  They had only been home from the hospital for a couple of hours!

Easter 2013

Easter Sunday 2013

We had such a great Easter at our house.  We had planned on going to the community Easter egg hunt Saturday morning, but Steve and Jack got invited to go 4-wheeling with Pete and his girls, so they of course opted to do that.  Easter eve, Jack put out a carrot for the Easter bunny.  He was so excited to go down in the morning and see if it was gone.  He was thrilled to find the carrot had been gnawed on (and not even by Ella).

Ella wasted no time digging into her candy.  She was a jelly bean drooling mess and refused to eat breakfast.  I guess nothing tastes very good after you've been eating jelly beans. 

Jack found a baseball mitt in his Easter basket, and Ella had some baby animals that she has loved.

He is becoming quite the baseball player already!  We have been playing catch daily this past week :)

Dentist

Jack went to the dentist for his first cleaning.  He's been before just to have the dentist look in his mouth, and it did not go well (as in he threw up on the floor), so I was pretty nervous to take him.  He has grown up so much in a year and was such a brave boy.  He did everything the hygeniest asked him to do, and scored major points with her by calling her doctor.  The best news of the day was that his teeth looked great!

Chucky Cheese

Grandma Mary came to visit us on Friday afternoon a couple of weeks ago.  It was dinner time and she suggested we all go to Chucky Cheese.  We hadn't been there before and decided it was a great idea.  Jack and Ella both loved playing the games and riding the rides.  Jack was pretty wary of Chucky himself, and was happy that he never came over by us.  I knew Jack had a great time when the next morning he said to me, "Mom, when can we go to Lucky Cheese again?"  Thanks for the great idea Grandma!

He was especially into the games since we recently rented Wreck it Ralph.

Ella even got to use a couple of tokens. 

Jack was actually surprisingly good at skee ball.

30 years OLD!

I recently had a landmark birthday!  Turning 30 wasn't as bad as I thought it might be.  I didn't wake up on my birthday morning with deep, grand canyon-like wrinkles in my forehead or anything.  It was actually a really nice day.  And, I look at my life and realize that I'm living a 30 year old lifestyle, so I might as well be 30.

Jack arranged the candles on the cake

My birthday fell on a Sunday, so after church we headed up to Honeyville to spend the afternoon with my family at my parent's house.  I know Steve appreciated my Mom making dinner AND a birthday cake which really let him off the hook.  He did spoil me though, and found someone to watch our kids the following week so we could take in some spring skiing together.  It was the perfect birthday get away.

Ella loves birthday cake!

I sure hope that my 30's don't pass as quickly as my 20's did.  It can't be 10 years ago that I was a young, single, brand new nurse moving to Salt Lake City.  Something tells me though that they will.  Especially since my two kids keep me busier now than I've ever been before. 

Ella and Aunt Heather