Happy 1st Birthday Finn!

Kai's soccer season ended on Saturday and Finn's birthday was on Sunday.  So, Saturday night we all went out to dinner at Black-Eyed Pea (Kai's favorite restaurant).  Finn loved the bread, the broccoli rice casserole, and the ice cream.  It really was a good time.

Sunday we had church in the morning, which is always a little rough for Finn.  After we got home, we all had lunch and then Reid and Finn went to take a nap.  That left me and Kai 2 hours to decorate the house and the cupcakes.  Kai was a good taste-tester and was so well-behaved that he certainly deserved every lick he got.  We made monster cupcakes for Finn, from the What's New, Cupcake? book.  They turned out to be very simple, just a bit more time-consuming than I had thought.  But I think they look pretty good.

As soon as naps were over, we sang and had cupcakes.  We even had Reid's sister, Kristi, her family, and Papa on the webcam for the singing.  Finn loved his cupcake and just demolished it.  He's such a different kid from his brother!  Both boys especially loved the dum-dum eyes.

After cupcakes, we opened presents.  Finn received a glow worm from his grandma, a book from his great-grandma, bath toys from Kai, and a Fisher Price Animal Farm from us.  We also got him a Leap Frog Musical Table, but that didn't arrive until Tuesday.  Finn really seemed to get the concept of presents and was so excited to see his new toys.  He loved playing with them and being the center of attention.  I think he had a great birthday!   (Sorry there are so many pictures.  They were just all too cute to pass up!)

End of the Season

This past Saturday, the 16th, was Kai's final day of soccer.  We experienced this 6-week session like an upside-down bell curve.  The first week of class Kai was super excited and ready to go.  The second week of class was a bit more of a struggle and we had a couple of behavior problems.  The third week of class was awful.  He kicked and screamed and didn't want to go.  He laid down on the field and pretended to fall asleep.  He behaved poorly.  The whole thing was a mess.  I was glad that we were on vacation for the 4th week of soccer.

The last two weeks of soccer the kids played games, instead of doing drills and skills.  At the beginning of that 5th week, Kai once again kicked and screamed and didn't want to go.  He didn't want to do warm-ups and he was starting to pull his old stuff.  And then they started the game.  Wow--it was like I had a different kid!  He was happy, excited, running and smiling.  He started the game by being really aggressive and a couple of girls got knocked over thanks to him.  Then they told him not to push so he spent the rest of his time chasing every one.  He was so excited when he got off the field.  He told me he had gotten to chase everyone and it was so fun.  I had to laugh.  Of course he had turned it into a game he could win.  He's way too competitive for a three year-old.

So, for our last week of soccer I told Reid we should all go and cheer him on.  Reid was helping with a move that morning, so I bundled up the kids by myself and we headed out.  Reid met us at the field a few minutes later.  It was cold and we were worried about Finn.  I had him layered real well, but his nose still got a bit red and runny.  Kai was once again so excited about the games.  He was even ready for soccer early again (just like the first week).  For the final game, Kai really got it.  He got to the ball without pushing and kicked it towards the goal.  He scored at least 3 goals for his team.......and a few for the other team, too.  There were several chuckling parents on the sidelines.  Kai was just so happy to be playing.

At the end, all of the kids got medals.  That made Kai's day.  He kept talking about his "new, shiny medal".  So, I guess over-all soccer was a success.  There were moments I questioned it, but it ended well.  Kai's now ready for another class.  He keeps telling me he wants a class every Saturday.  We'll see.

Coach Casey was really good with Kai, and Kai loved it!

 

 

Kai loved to give his teammates hugs.....especially the girls.

Saying good job to the other team at the end.

Kai was the first to get his medal.  Mainly because he wouldn't sit down when they asked him.

Raising his hands and having everyone clap for him after he got his medal.

 

The huddle before the cheer.

"YMCA!"

Road Trip 2010--Days 7 and 8

Our original vacation plan for this year was just a long weekend in Glenwood Springs.  I had researched little places throughout Colorado and thought that that city seemed to be a good match for our kind of vacation.  When Esther decided to get married, our plans changed.  So, the decision to drive halfway back and spend the night in Glenwood Springs was quite exciting for me.  I even knew which hotel to stay in!

We spent the morning packing up at Amy's house and getting ready to go.  We were on the road by 11am and estimated that it would take us about 6 hours (with stops) to make it to Glenwood Springs.  We drove about 3 and half hours before stopping for a late lunch (we had a very late breakfast) in Grand Junction.  After our stop it was only an hour and half more onto Glenwood Springs.  Thankfully by this point in the trip Finn had resigned himself to being strapped into a car seat and was so tired that he could sleep about anywhere.  This trip was much less eventful than our trip out!

We arrived by 5pm, checked into the AmericInn, and immediately changed into our bathing suits to go enjoy their swimming pool/water park.  We all had a good time swimming, and Reid and I even enjoyed several trips down the water slide.  I had no idea that before our vacation Reid had never been on a water slide!  Now he can say that he's gone down two!  After we were done swimming, we changed into jammies and went out for a late dinner at the Dairy Queen Grill and Chill we had seen.  Seriously, this could be my all-time favorite Dairy Queen.  Good thing there's not one anywhere nearby or I'd be there every day.  It was a nice way to end the day.

Finally, it was the last day of our vacation.  We only had a three and half hour drive ahead of us, so we decided to enjoy the morning in Glenwood Springs.  We bought tickets for the tram ride and an 11:20am cave tour.  Kai was super excited to take the tram up to the top of the mountain.  In addition to cave tours there is the Glenwood Caverns Adventure Park, complete with an alpine slide.  The cave tour lasted about an hour and half and included a tour through two different caves (one that is "dead" and another that is "living").  I've been on many cave tours and this one was definitely different than I was expecting.  It was nice, just different.  The formations were beautiful.  Kai also made great friends with the tour guide.  He became her buddy and he loved the fact that he got to be at the front of the group.  Unfortunately, towards the end I had to leave with Finn as he was just hitting his breaking point--tired and hungry.  After the tour was over and Finn was settled, we walked around the park.  Kai was dying to go on the alpine slide.  We decided to wait and come back another weekend when we could relax a bit more and thoroughly enjoy our time.

The view from the tram

Kai touching "cave popcorn"

So, we hit the car.  Our first stop was lunch at the Dairy Queen Grill and Chill, and then we were off.  With only a couple of diaper change stops along the way, we were home by dinner time.  And boy did it feel good.  One of the best things about vacation is that it reminds you how much you enjoy being at home.  It was nice to get away, but it's certainly nice to be back. 

Road Trip 2010--Day 6

After spending the weekend with Kara's family, we were ready to get going on Monday morning.  Unfortunately, Kai's tummy had other ideas.  He woke up feeling quite sick (and, well, tossing his cookies).  So, we let him lay down and watch TV while I visited with Kara some more and slowly packed up all of our stuff.  We weren't sure if we would be able to move on or if we were going to spend another night.  While visiting with Kara that morning I also discovered that Finn had finally cut his first top tooth.  The poor kid had been close for quite awhile, but there it was, tooth number 3!

Around noon Kai woke up and was looking very pale, but asking for food.  I rummaged up some food for him and his color quickly returned.  He kept his food down and said he was ready to play, and he was almost enthusiastic about it.  So, we loaded up the car and decided to press on.  Our next stop:  The Museum of Ancient Life at Thanksgiving Point (aka The Dinosaur Museum).  This was what Kai had most been looking forward to on our entire trip.

We arrived later in the afternoon and knew we didn't have too much time, but we still were able to enjoy most of the museum.  Kai's excitement level varied during our walk through the museum.  At first he was excited (especially when we were in the general science area), and then he was apprehensive and "scared".  He definitely did not like the dinosaur soundtrack playing and the lighting that casted large dinosaur shadows throughout the museum.  But he loved the hands-on exhibits, especially the large sand and water table and the fossil dig.  On our way out there was a table set up for the kids to make witch hats for Halloween.  Kai enjoyed all of that quite a bit.

Kai next to a dinosaur leg

 

Playing with toy dinosaurs

The HUGE sand and water (and dinosaur) table

 

See Kai covering his ears?  He did not like the roaring dinosaurs!

Compare Kai to Finn.  Finn couldn't be happier.  Such different boys!

 

The BYU dinosaur

From the museum we made our way down to Springville where we had dinner at Hogi Yogi (yes, more ice cream!) and then went to Amy's house for the evening.  It was good to visit with Amy, Dan, and the girls again and it was so nice to be with friends.  Kai and Finn loved their toy room and seeing other kids their size.  I think all of the kids were excited to play together.

With two days left of our vacation, it was at this point that we made the decision to begin the journey home a day early.  We decided that cutting the car ride in half would be easier on everyone and I knew just where we could stay on the way back--Glenwood Springs!

Road Trip 2010--Days 4 and 5

With our time in Salt Lake over, we packed up the car and started south to Provo.  It was so surreal to be back on campus again.  For me, my time at BYU is irreplaceable and truly seems like it was just days ago.  When I stepped onto campus, I all of a sudden felt the years that I had been away and I felt how much I have changed and I realized that it wasn't just days ago.  It was over 8 years ago!  I'll admit it was in some ways a sad feeling.  Campus is beautiful and I enjoyed being there, but I truly felt like I wanted to stop the students walking by and tell them to enjoy every single moment because in a blink of an eye they would be me, the alum from 8 years ago, dragging her two toddlers onto campus for an afternoon of reminiscing.  It all goes way too fast!

One of our first stops was the bookstore.  I seriously forgot how much I miss living near a large and decent LDS bookstore.  I could have spent hundreds of dollars and many hours in there.  Thank goodness I have some willpower!  We also enjoyed lunch in the Cougar Eat (only Subway was open) while we were there.  After all of that, we strolled around for just a bit and then went into the Talmadge Building, where Reid showed us where he spent a good chunk of his life working on his Masters' Degree.  Once we were done walking we went to get ice cream at the Creamery on 9th.  By this point I knew that we would be eating so much ice cream on the trip that it was just unfair to deny Finn and so he joined the ice cream eating party with us.  Yay for almost being 1!

Lunch in the Cougar Eat

Ok, I seriously laughed when I saw this bed tucked away in a

corner of one of the nastiest smelling bathrooms I have ever been in.

Is this a general college thing or is it a BYU specialty to sleep in

bathrooms?  I know I did it a time or two myself, but I'm curious

if this happens on campuses across the US or just at the Y.

(So I'm having blogging issues that I'll have to work on later.  But the
panda picture is from Kung Fu Panda.  A graduate of the BYU computer science
department worked on the movie and so now there's a big panda in the building.)
Kai and the Y

Finn and the Y

Kai, Finn, and Brigham Young

After our Provo visit, we loaded back into the car and drove out to Kamas, Utah to visit Reid's sister Kara and her family.  We spent the afternoon visiting and then all went out to eat at the restaurant where our niece Tessa works, as well as Kara.  We had a fabulous dinner and good time visiting.  Kai particularly loved playing with his cousins and being "on a farm".

On Sunday, we spent the day relaxing with Kara and her family.  In the afternoon, Colin took us out to meet all of the animals.  There are 3 dogs, 2 cats, about 20 chickens (I think), 2 goats, and 9 horses.  Did I leave anyone out guys?  It was nice to visit with family and to see them.  The only other time I had met Kara's family was at the Jones Family Reunion 2 years ago.  So, this was a good chance for me to get to know everyone better and for Kai to see his cousins.  We definitely had a good time!