Baptism

Tanner was baptized this Saturday. He is our oldest, so the first to get baptized, so it was a big deal at out house. He was really excited and understood how important and special this day was.

Here he is with his daddy all dressed in white.

Here is our little family.

With my parents.

With Kevins parents.

The gang.

Kevins brother Sterling and his family also came as well as our home teachers and several of Tanner's friends. After the baptism I asked Tanner if he was able to feel the Holy Ghost at all during his baptism. He said that he did. He said that he could feel a lot of peace and he knew that was the Holy Ghost. I was definetly a proud momma.

Afterwards we had the family over for Navajo Tacos, fruit, cupcakes and chocolate strawberries. Everything was yummy but I forgot to take pictures. O-well, it wasn't about the food.

Parents Visit

My parents came out to visit for Tanner's baptism. We tried to stay as busy as we could, but the weather was so crummy...They day they got here, we met them at the Thanksgiving Point Gardens. We have a season pass there and had not been to the Gardens yet. It was beautiful and the kids had a blast (we didn't even make it to the Childrens Gardens section).

After the Gardens we went over to Iceburg for some icecream. Sydney was so cute, she just loved the independence of using her own spoon.

The next day it was raining on and off all day, but during one of the rain breaks we made it to the local carnival.

Sydney had a great time on all the rides. It makes me very excited to take her to Disneyland

The boys on the Dragon, Noah looks very unsure about it, but I actually think he really liked it, because he keeps talking about it.

Tanner rode this very scary (to me) ride called the Fire Ball. I was scared just watching him ride it.

I was a good BIG brother and rode the little ride with his very happy sister.

Apparently my 8-year-old has not learned how to eat a carmel apple.

In Tanner's defence, Kevin just reminded me...We would not have a lot of success eating a carmel apple if we were missing our 2 front teeth.

Grand Canyon

We spent our Memorial Weekend at the Grand Canyon (well actually we went to St. George for a few days then went to the Grand Canyon for 2 days and back to St. George). The kids got to do some swimming at grandpa and grandmas pool and in all seriousness they probably would have loved to just do that all weekend, but we tore them away and spent Saturday and Sunday at the Grand Canyon. As we were driving there we passed a National Monurment (I totally forget the name, something Springs) since we have the parks pass it was free, so why not. Here are a few pictures from it. It was an old LDS tithing Farm, cool enough.

Here we are at the Grand Canyon Visitors Center. I know you can't really see us, but thats what you get when you ask some stranger to take your picture.

Look at these tired boys during a hike to Bright Angel Point.

Noah

They are very impressed with the views.

Sometimes he is not so serious.

The family.

Kev and his dad. Kev's parents came with us on this trip. The kids loved having grandma and grandpa with them.

The views were amazing and what a perfect model Tanner was.

Isaac and the canyon.

Even with this metal bars and chain link fencing, I was still pretty nervous (by prettynervous, I mean nightmares the night before and horrible visions of my children falling).

The boys.

So here are my thoughts on the Grand Canyon...I'm sure you want to know. It is a 6 hour drive from here to there. The views are certainly breathtaking. There are only a few shorter hikes (under 4 miles), which is where it lacked for me. With young kids we are definetly not hiking "rim to rim" or "rim to river" and back, so for 2 days there was a lot of down time. We could have covered it all in one long day, so for a 6 hour drive 1 day is not worth that drive, so if you decide to go I would recommend bringing some games to play in your cabin. There were some ladies chillin at the visitors center playing themselves some Mexican Train. Also if your kids are older (7 and up) they have mule rides you can do as well. They also have plane tour rides but that was a wee bit out of our budget.

At the North Rim there are not many places to stay. You can stay at the lodge right at the park (which was full, so not and option for us), Kaibab Lodge (this is where we stayed) which is 5 miles from the park, or Jacobs Lake, which is 30 miles from the park.

At the Kaibab Lodge we stayed in a little cabin with 2 double beds and a set of bunk beds. It was older and somewhat rustic (it had a shower and toilet and mice), but it was a nice little place to stay.

Will we go back...probably when the kids are older.

Family Pictures

Yesterday we went to get some family pictures done. We just went to JC Pennys, and they certainly are not my favorite, but...

Sydney was not all well behaved for the pictures so the whole time we are just trying to keep her just as happy as we can.

Sydney was due for her one year old pictures (yeah yeah, I know I'm a little late, call me a slacker).

You never would have known she was having a hard time by how sweet she looks here.

Tanner was due for his 8 year old pictures. He is always easy as far as taking pictures of him, however he is missing his 2 front teeth so he often smiles a little funny because he doesn't want to show them.