Vacation!

Get ready for pics! I think I made 14 or 15 collages (My mom-a consistent blog reader-told me she doesn't like the collages because the pics are too small...so I'm going big with them. Pictures Pictures Pictures: I might have a slight addiction!)
At any rate here's the vacation run down:
When we go north we stop a ton for natural gas so it was kind of nice to go zipping up the freeway without stops, by Scipio however Grampa was ready for a Pepsi, so we stopped and found this sweet petting zoo just to the side of the convenient store. It was pretty fun.

You might not think the luggage rack at the hotel really warrants picture taking but he was so cute riding on it and playing "peek" with Grampa. Then I missed the picture of him holding one of Isaac's hands and one of Ann's, it's because I was on the other side of Ann holding her other hand but it was stink'n cute. They are good buddies.

My mom was so excited about the going to the bear park, I didn't really get it. Then when I saw how much she paid for it I really did about choke, but it was SO FUN, (totally worth her hundred bucks) Of course all of the pictures of Cannon hanging out of the window are us breaking the rules but we really did keep the windows up for the bear part (except when Isaac rolled it down to talk to the worker and a bear really climbed on our car! It must have smelled the chicken nuggets) but it was pretty impressive. Way better than all of the people in Yellowstone parked on the side of the road with binoculars looking clear across a meadow. The Bear Park was the perfect way to view wildlife!

Along with the drive through bear (and other animals, elk, bison, wolves, mountain goats, and such) they also had a fun little park and petting zoo.We had a blast, it was a great way to spend the afternoon before heading to the family reunion.

The family reunion was my for my Grama Cottam's (Stevens) side of the family. I think 5 of her siblings were there. We stayed at a cabin in Island Park ID. It was pretty fun. It was right by Henry's Fork of the Snake River. Oh and the place had a hot tub-so of course we checked that out.

Cannon (1)  Grama Cottam (82) and I (30) all went on our first Canoeing outing together. It was pretty wobbly in the middle and I was a nervous wreck. Cannon wasn't too sure either until he talked Grama out of her oar, then he seemed fine. I was sitting awkwardly on my ankle and couldn't move without way more wobbling than Grama or I was comfortable with. After a 100 yards or so Grama asked if that was far enough. THANK HEAVEN. Afterwards I wanted to go with Isaac, and actually sit in the seat so it wasn't so wobbly but he was done. He thought it was "dumb to just paddle around" because apparently he's been canoeing tons so I went with my mom's cousin instead. No pics though :( we'd already sent the camera back to camp with my mom and baby that needed a nap. Isaac did report that he had fun visiting with Uncle Dan on the shore.

Island Park being so close to Yellowstone worked out really nice for us because we got to go to the park 2 days. The buffalo (bison...whatever) got center stage on this collage because it was really was just right out the window of the car (closer than at the bear park)  One of the tiny pictures underneath it is of the traffic jam and herd of people watching the buffalo cross the road. There were some people (from the orient, I have no idea which nationality) Who thought someone should call 911 because of the road hazards and the buffalo blocking traffic, I thought that was pretty hilarious. The picture above the buffalo is of all of us spitting, Cannon just kicked into this spitting thing when he got really bored in the car seat, Isaac and I usually tried to join in to make it more fun. He's such a good funny boy and he was a champ for all of the driving we did. The rest of this collage is Old Faithful. (Including Isaac quizzing up the ranger on the best place to view it from.)

We left Yellowstone out the East Side and stayed in Cody Wyoming. (Really this trip was the first time I'd been into Montana or Wyoming-I know-I don't get out much, but I like it that way.) Cody is one of those towns that has a Rodeo every night-lame- but we just happened to be there for the Cody Stampede which is their "real" Rodeo that happens every July 1-4th. So we couldn't pass it up, and it was fun.

Ann was teaching Grama, Grampa, and Cannon how to use the I Pad.  And the poor kid couldn't keep his pants on his skinny rear end to save his life. It was too funny. They are hazardous to a walking toddler too.  Oh and bottom right is a picture of our make-shift crib. It worked GREAT.

This next one is just another example of me trying to shove too much into one collage. The Cody Chapel has this sweet mural in it. There are some summer missionaries there to give ya the tour and stuff but Cann was a wild man. I think he was just so happy to not be in the car. Finally I just took him outside and we found a merry-go-round. When we were walking back over to the car we accidentally scared a deer our of the bushes at the church, it was just hang'n out. Pretty cool. The middle picture on the right is when Isaac had to run down and touch the river, we tried and tried to drive down but never got very close. The other pics are of a cool little free (miniature) museum we found. They had these trains you could push the buttons and operate, Cannon loved it.

More National Park fun. The top right pic is at Jackson Lake with the Grand Teton's in the background (I think its the only picture I took there.) Cannon's favorite part of the whole trip really was other people's dogs that we got to see when we stopped both in the parks and at gas stations, he LOVED them.

We camped at my Uncle Dan's house in Rexburg the last night. He's great he reminds me so much of my Grama. He has and awesome yard and garden too. Cannon had a good time!

All of the smiles indicate Isaac had a good time -plus he says so- he's just super quiet and never really talks or laughs when we're with my family-he says he just doesn't have anything to say- Occasionally if just my dad is around he'll loosen up just a little bit, but if my mom is there-not a chance. Oh well, its just how it is. He's always good to smile for the pictures, they must mean he's having some fun right? To me he's just not "himself." 2.5 years and a  million or so discussions about it later, I just have to learn to accept that that's how it is.
It was such a fun vacation!  I had a blast, (and obviously tried to document every second of it) and Cannon was so good and traveled like a champ! It was such a nice barrier before August and what's ahead...but now its past...that makes a lump in my throat or stomach or both...

For the 4th of July we went up to the Gunlock Parade. SO FUN, have you ever seen a garbage truck in a parade?...top right pic...they threw candy and otter pops and came around with free root beer floats, it was GREAT. Super short-then they circled back around and went by again. It was just fun. Other than that we didn't get too carried away celebrating the 4th.

...and after all of that... I don't even have the pictures off my mom's camera...so, here are some of my favorites. Is there such thing as too many pictures? NAAAA (just when I go to print the blog out for our family journal and have to pay for so many extra pages-still totally worth it!)

 

 

We have to blog early this week, we're headed to a family reunion and  Yellowstone. I'm not much of a traveler but I'm kind of excited about it. Isaac might be "FREI"D by time we get back. Oh well, with Mississippi ahead I don't even really feel bad. 

Here this weeks pics, I didn't make collages-oh well.

Cann found this food chopper at my mom's house in the cupboards (he's always getting into them), it doubled as a great dog grooming brush. Gross. Good ole Sampson tolerates Cannon most of the time.

 

 

Some of our yummy corn, he is hilarious when he "eats" it he'll barely let it touch his teeth then smile and laugh.

Cannon always loves to be outside and I find myself somewhat enamored with our yard too. I think its just the thought of apt living, which isn't even for sure yet but very much a possibility. Anyway here's Cannon showing off one of our watermelons. In the background you can see we let our lettuce go to seed. Seriously we only even ate it once. It wasn't very good, we usually like darker lettuce and it was a lot of work washing every single leaf. In the back ground , those are pumpkins, which we should plant about now if we want them for Halloween, but turns out its a good thing we planted them early, we won't be around to see them on Halloween. I accidentally bought "competition size" pumpkin seeds so right from the get go Isaac was all about getting them in the ground and seeing how big of pumpkins we could grow.  (Ok I was on board with it too)

 

Somebody's on to what makes the hose work too...

Cann is become more aware, he'll bring us his shoes-anything to get outside!- but so far he only brings one.  He knows when its time to sing primary songs at night, he lays on my lap and sings "JES" its stink'n cute, but then again I think everything he does is cute.

Last Friday Trey tended while Becky and I went to the temple. Oh how I love that place!!!! I came away with a game plan, just a fun date with Isaac with no talk or thoughts of Mississippi, just enjoy each others company. It was really nice and I realized how much the stress is consuming me. Saturday my family came and helped us move beds out. Take away a queen bed, a double bed, my cedar chest, (and a lot of other random junk) and there really is a lot of room in our house. The For Sale sign went up Wednesday. Its kind of sad. Anyway Isaac moved goats all through the night last Saturday, but WOW, for me it is so nice to be rid of those things! They just never quite did it for me, but whatever. Fathers day was fun. Isaac got a cute book of him and Cannon-doing all kinds of fun stuff because that's what they do, all kinds of fun stuff! We went to my parents for dinner. Cannon and Ann sang to Grampa (ok I sang Ann tried to help, threw in a few words here and there and Cannon kicked his legs a little and smiled) but it was dang cute. The video is on Ann's blog I just wish Ky had been as close filming as I was to the kids, the twinkle in Ann's eye was awesome.
This week we had basketball camp. I coughed the Mississippi thing up to my kids. Its so sad, I really think they are my kids (so when those refs suck-whew-boy do I get hot) anyway, it was fun to just enjoy what I could. They play so hard for me. I love it! I was so mad after the little 2 min tournaments (refs! I have no desire to put on a striped shirt and become an idiot) but after I just laughed and was thankful I got to sit on the bench with those girls waiting for our chance to play. They had me crack'n up. GOOD KIDS! The camp tournament didn't end up so great but-we lost on a banked in 3, so lame- but we totally had our chances (and missed a ton of free throws ugh our Achilles heel!). Just like winning "fixes things" losing "exploits things" yikes what a mess but at least it was now, in the summer, not next year when they should be winning a state title. I tried to be the mediator while they hashed a lot out, I hope it did some good. As for me,  I think they know I love'm so good enough. I will definitely miss them. The girls are so cute with Cannon. Mandi's brothers come just to play with him and bring him toys and stuff its is dang cute! Blair's sister loves to tend too and the moms help me out a ton too. He's definitely to the point if he hears or sees me though he WANTS ME!

Friday we did tin foil dinners and played in the Santa Clara River above Gunlock with Matt Nichole and Lilah. SO FUN,  and Isaac and I agreed they were the best Smores we've ever had in our lives!

Oh and we picked corn from our very own garden today -it was such a rush :)- and roasted it on the fire, it turned out pretty good. We have very sweet corn!

Cannon's saying more and more. He'll do the sign language for "Please" -rub his chest- and say "dease"
I get a little goofy "all done" noise some of the time too and sign language to go with it. I love it.

It's a good thing I don't wear much make-up because even if I try to put a little on I have to hold the toilet seat down with my foot, lean my calf up against the toilet paper roll so he can't unroll it, but he still picks off little pieces and carefully sets them on the toilet seat as if he's being helpful. Such a circus. I need to remember to put the camera in my pocket one of these times.
I did take a little video of him saying "Jesus" It's just one of my favorite things he does right now and I don't want to forget it :)

Saturday was Free Day at the National Parks, so we hit up Bryce Canyon (after dropping Bees off in Parowan-we had to multitask) with Burke Emily and Daphne. It was so fun.When we stopped for sandwiches at the park in Panguitch, Isaac found a tracker pull. He was hoop'n and hollering and some guys asked me if he was related to the person pulling right then. Nope, just trying to make it more fun. When we were leaving Burke told Emily something to the effect of "Oh yeah, it was always like this when I lived with Isaac." Exactly.

Bryce was Nice, Cannon wasn't always so happy in the carrier but he did good, they checked out the animals in the museum and we did a nice little hike. I was the one in flip flops this time not Isaac (how's that for a change) but I got along just fine!

 

 

We had a blast, it was super fun to catch up with them. In fact I started planning their life, how bout them next on the crazy Mississippi thing. Blake 2 years ago now Isaac... Burke next, sounds perfect. My friend Angie (in Connecticut) says you can survive anything as long as you have one good friend. Anyway, it really was fun. (For a way better post about our adventures and cute video of the kiddos click on Burke and Emily's blog)
For Family Home Evening we went to the Sand Dunes. We also hit up the play date at the skim boarding hot spot this week. 

We helped at basketball camp. I'm not sure how much help I am with the little guy on my hip but we enjoy it so we go with it.
Things are kind of tough right now and as much as I try to keep the blog positive I confess we've had a few rough days. But coach nailed it when he said "How could anybody a have bad day with that little guy around?" Then he said something about how cute his little grin is. TRUE! That's a perspective I need to remember. Check out this cheeto smile. Melts my heart every time! I'm the luckiest mom in the world!

The perfect Sunday afternoon...

Melts my heart...breaks my heart...

I've reworked this post a million times so what the heck, I'm just posting it.
I don't want to say too much. I love the blog but sometimes the thought of anyone being able to log on and read my thoughts/feelings makes me want to puke. Oh well. I guess we're going to Mississippi. Isaac is really excited, I wonder if I've ever seen him so happy....and I think that he truly believes he's doing what's best for our family. I'm trying to be supportive (but really pretty sad.)  Isaac's good to say we'll come back here but really I would probably like to have it signed in blood.
I'm kind of numb. So numb in fact I shouldn't admit it but I ran into a pole in the truck and put a big ole scrape/dent down the side of it and I didn't even notice until 5 minutes later when I saw it in the rear view mirror. Good thing we don't drive fancy vehicles, its bad, I need to be careful whether I FEEL or not.
I asked him when he got home late after cows (helping my dad) goats and bees if maybe he could not have quiet so many projects when we live in Mississippi. Pretty sure I got some lecture on how its the busy season and a comparison to basketball for me, oh and why don't I see if I can coach at Jackson State. So pretty much, No, he's not interested in scaling back his projects. We also got some potentially bad news about my Grama's health. I'm tell'n ya, its been quite a week. 
Anyway, all of that aside we have a lot to post (and with Mississippi pending you can pretty much plan on picture overload forEVER) We had the first annual Ison family camping trip and I admit it was pretty dang fun, we went out by Coral Pink Sand Dunes and Cann Mann was in HEAVEN! He LOVED it. The world was his sandbox, could anything be better than that? We borrowed my parents Rhino and Isaac brought his motorcycle, Cannon would hardly let go of his shovel both my boys were so happy, I do love seeing that.

The first pic is a little break we took on the way out (we weren't lost but we were just making sure we weren't) Then Cannon loved the fire and loved helping unload. We took the play pen but it didn't last long. I froze but Cannon seemed fine (I dressed him in warmer PJs) and Isaac (a bit of a covers hog) did too

I totally vetoed climbing up the steep rocks...see how we came down instead. Oh brother. The Rhino was just another car seat to Cannon.  When he was awake he was pretty skeptical, he had a very sober expression. See he does have some of me in him!!

It was so fun, Isaac wanted to go back this weekend. I might have agreed to it on account of him probably moving Goats on Fathers Day weekend, and if we could please get dinner on the way out of town instead of finally getting to our tin foil dinners at 11:00 at night. Its looking like there are other things to do though.
We picked up some more liquid Nitrogen and made ice cream with the Stouts Sunday night. Bubba was having all kind of fun with the "Doer" before church. When we finally got to it, Isaac was like Bill Nye the Science guy. We had a good time.

The rest of the pics are just more fun :) He dug out his cowboy boots from the hand me down pile, they are still way to big, we had a good time going to feed with Grampa, Cann Man was driving everything, and of course the hose is always a blast! He was pretty proud of getting himself a drink.

 

 

 

 

 

Monday we celebrated memorial day with Matt Nichole and Lilah, we had delicious breakfast (maybe brunch) burritos and then headed for the splash pad. It was really fun.
We had basketball this week, Cannon was a champ! It was fun to be back at it, he sat on my lap for 5 of the 6 games, he was whiny if I tried to do anything else with him and he had a little runny nose, then the next day I was tickling and teasing him and I saw a big ole swollen black and blue gum with a little tooth poking through! He's such a good boy! He's been work'n on some teeth for a while I hope they'll get the rest of the way here and give him a break for a while. He was good the next day to and got to hang out and play with Becky.
Lately Cannon always likes to have a utensil when he eats, he's very effective with it--at making a mess. He's chattering more a like always a huge helper. I took this picture then decided it wasn't good enough so I took a little video too.They are putting together screens for the bees. I asked Isaac what he'll do with his bees if we move to MS and he said "give them to Burton and hope they've expanded by 20 times by time we get back" I just liked and hung on to the coming back part of it.

The hay loader is broken and my Uncle that is going to fix it is out of town so Isaac became the hay loader. So much work for him, he's so nice to help. Bubba and I drove for him. I loved that you can see that the windshield wipers are on in the one pic. The kid is a wild man, he's all over the place and has everything going! And of course grampa came to check on us. He calls Cannon "Professor" even that makes me cry with what's ahead! And all of the sudden some of my favorite pictures are the ones with the red mountain in them...

Clearing the hay field was a couple evening project.  We also snagged Ann one morning and went to the splash pad. Hmm another picture that makes me cry. Seriously I'm such a baby!!!! There is really so much I could write about but I think I better just wait and see what happens. Come what may and love it...I'm trying!