Perfect February days in Southern Utah!

Blog day travel day...twice in a row!
There's a lot here, but its a work in progress, there's a lot to add and its  not edited  but I'm pretty tuckered out and I just want to get what I have posted and I can worry about the rest later. So....
We had a great time!

Poppa's got another helper!

Its kind of a big deal, this is the first time Colt's got on the tractor with Grampa without screaming.
Saturday we had a little hot dog roast up to the new corrals and Grampa saddled up the horse and everything, AWESOME! Aunt Jayne was in town so that was super cool that we got to see her even if it was only for a minute, and Poppa Great even came up to the corrals too. Here's all kinds of pics from through out the week up there:

 

Sometimes its Colt overload with pics because Cannon is getting so independent especially up to the corrals, its tough to get pictures of him. I asked him too look up when he was running this pitch fork and he said "No, I'm too busy."

He has a blast with the dogs up there too. He was singing "Popcorn Popping" too them and laughing his head off. I tried for pictures but they really didn't do it justice.

This next picture was better before he actually hit Elsie in the back of the head with a rock. :( I hope the lesson is learned (but I'm doubtful) Elsie got a cut in the back of her head but she was super tough and when I asked if getting to ride the horse would make it feel better she assured me it would. Grampa to the rescue! Thanks Grampa!

Sunday was stake conference (which also means our little hot dog roast made them miss the adult session the night before-whoops) but I was really just...not thrilled about going or being there. In the back, hard chairs, dark, trying to keep the kids reverent (mix Kyler's and mine and that's pretty much impossible) the audio was HORRIBLE to start you couldn't understand anything, it was broadcast from the other building. Then Kyler and Kami left, shortly after my mom took Colt out, she came back for Cannon they turned on the audio in the RS room. And eventually they fixed the audio. So I sat there and listened with my dad, (until I felt like I should go and participate in the wrestling of my kids) but anyway this guy spoke, he looked familiar but I didn't know who he was. Then as he kept talking he was talking about being a sealer in the temple and getting to preform marriages and sealings. Then he started telling us some of the things he tells couples that he seals. It sounded really familiar. He was talking about how you treat something if you want it to last. But he said more too, it was CRAZY familiar. Finally I text Isaac (ok technically I text Jenna first but I meant to send it to Isaac-haha whoops) and I said "What was the name of the guy that married us?" (Because Isaac had known the guy from Emery County and picked him and I was cool with whoever.) He text back "Brent Arnold" I text back and said "He just spoke in my parents stake conference!" It was awesome! I loved it. All of the sudden I was really glad we'd gone and the wrestling match didn't matter (my mom was doing the wrestling at that point anyway) the only thing that would have been better is Isaac would have been here with us.
Monday I took the boys over to the temple grounds. We try to do that pretty much every trip.

And then since we were so close we slipped over and met Britton. He's a young man from Santa Clara who suffered a traumatic brain injury in November Cannon loves to follow his blog with me and especially watch the movies of him getting better!  (and write letters and draw pictures for him too) but it was really cool to meet him. We were unannounced and it wasn't visiting hours but...oh well. Its a quick trip for us, and in the evening when visiting hours are--that's corrals and Grampa time so I was just happy it worked out. (Cannon did finally get his fingers out of his mouth and give me a big smile but not until after I'd put the camera away) Britt's giving us a thumbs up-I thought that was pretty cute. And it turned out really lucky that we went Monday because he had some trouble and ended up in surgery later in the week.

Tuesday we played at the Dixie Rocks--a must for Cannon-he asks every time we go into town, because he sees it :)

 We also slipped down and said Hi to Grama Cottam

Wednesday we visited with Alaina and aunt Caroline in the morning then went and visited Grama at work for lunch, at Grampas request we made it an extra special visit and took her some Valentines flowers from him.

We also got to watch Trey play basketball that night it was so fun! He's such a good little player! 

Cannons constantly cracking us up. I should type things on right when he says stuff because I forget so easy but one thing he said was "Why does Grampa have so many trucks?" I said well he has his little truck that he runs around in and his big truck can pull heavy loads, the other one is a farm truck...whatever just did my best to explain and then he asked when he got them. I nonchalantly answered "A long time ago." And Cannon said "Was it in world war 2?" I got a pretty good laugh out of that. There's a story in the Friend Magazine this month set in WW2 that we've read at least 30 times because it has a picture of a train as part of the illustrations, I'm sure that's where it came from but it was funny! 

Colt and the pack n play--disaster! ...the kids a climber.

Colt loved going to Poppa Greats and getting in to the hershey kisses. 

When we asked Grampa what kind of truck he used to drive. (Because Cannon got a Peterbuilt for Christmas and he wants another one) anyway he said "Peterbuilt-if ya see #29 check and see if I'm in it" It was cute-fun (not as ornery as he is now) grampa but it was a fun little family history moment where I felt like we learned something about Grampa too. We go up almost every day when we're there-I should go with a little question like that.

Cannon has been using Elsie's login for online preschool-its awesome-and he LOVES it!

 

 

Thursday we had a little Valentines Day/Unbirthday Party--Only I forgot to tell Kami about it so she had other plans. Whoops, oh well. I had brought Primary Shirts for the girls-they opened them later. And Caroline hit up the dollar store for Balloons and a fun Art Project. It didn't really work out like I planned but it worked out and I we had a great time visiting with Caroline and playing with Alaina so--it was great.  

 

Our travels back were pretty uneventful! Thank Goodness!

One of the things Cannon says to me a TON is "Sharing is not fun for me." Oh I hate that line, and I've tried everything I can think of "You can choose to have it be fun. ...  Daddy loves to share.   ...  Tough! Its life deal with it." And many MANY more. But every once in a while, when its his idea, he's a great little share'r. I loved this. 

I don't know if that's everything or not but we're going to go with it and say--good enough!

Oh man, blog day travel day I started constructing this early in the week but after today, WORST. TRAVEL. DAY.  EVER. Whatever ends up here is a miracle. So...

Saturday morning Isaac went to work being our little service man :) he was helping some people in our ward --then in a super cute turn of events Cannon ended up watching a similar situation of a dad going to help someone on Saturday. We don't have tv so we don't watch tv and as sporty as I am I don't really care for the NFL but I usually check or have Isaac check and see if Alex Smith/Andy Reid and the Chiefs have won, but it was the Superbowl (which I really was oblivious to until Sunday after church when the boys totally couldn't be bothered with walking in the door the sandbox lured them in, so they sat and played in the sand white shirts and ties and all

while I text Kim updates from primary anyway our neighbor stopped by and he said something about it being the Super Bowl and that's how I figured out it was this past Sunday.) Anyway this is a tangent on top of a tangent story but last week Isaac had read an article about how Tom Brady's main man trainer guy, body coach, spiritual guide and so on, was a Mormon. So I read this whole big article about Tom Brady-seriously all it said about the other guy being a mormon was that he was a Mormon, that was it, I kept reading thinking it was going to say more (or get good) but it never did but still somehow we found ourselves being Tom Brady fan's for a least the weekend, why not right? Just for the record I think they're were two LDS guys on each team and the Seattle offensive line coach too, or something like that. But still we were seeing if ole Brady could pull it off. Well Cannon being the special little kid that he is (sometimes I wonder what I did right to get to be his mom) didn't want anything to do with watching football --Colt however was enthralled-- anyway Cann was begging to watch Mormon messages instead. How cute is that? Ultimately we did both on different devices but Cannon watched this cute little primary movie and it was Saturday and the kids were so excited that dad didn't have to go to work but then he got up early and left anyway--he was going to be Heavenly Fathers helper and help people, then the kid figured about a way to be Heavenly Fathers helper at home too. Anyway it was just really cute and Cannon loved it and watched it probably 2 or 3 times but it was like he was processing it. -that story ended up being more like 4 and taking a long time to write but whatever-Saturday Isaac also helped Miss Suzanne at her bookstore, but when Cannon got up I called and he and Isaac got to have their fun and take a little trip to the CAT dealership. Colt has reached the age where he really quite enjoys independent play so that is AWESOME. He played and played in the sandbox for me while I cleaned out the car. YUCK! Graham Crackers and fruit snacks smashed in between seat belts and who knows what else. Yuck YUCK YUCK, we're kind of pigs. Oh well. But I was feeling great about getting it all cleaned out!

Here's just a typical Sunday Morning, cannon doing something to make is smile -this time it was roller blades in his undies  :)
 

Tuesday we hit the children's museum before our pass expired, it was awesome, practically empty we got to spend lots of time on our old favorites and even found some new places we'd never been, still, a year later!

Wednesday we did our little Valentines party with Jenna and her kids -ok play date with a few Valentines projects but whatever, of course we had fun but not a single pic, I'm skack'n!

Yesterday we packed 

Today we traveled. The drive across went smooth but then our flight-delayed. On the plane Cannon really would have slept the whole time but Colt was on one and wouldn't let him. Then he had a dirty diaper--BAAAAD ONE. When I went to change it he PUKED ALL OVER the airplane bathroom. Oh to say it was a disaster is such an understatement. --I guess I know why Colt was on one--Me trying to clean it up before I can even get to dirty diaper side of things, yikes yikes yikes, and I had extra clothes for him, but I ended up smelling just as bad. Gross whatever we survived it got here and he ended up launching all over me tonight too...I might have thought I smelled like puke before--that was nothing. 

But we're here! Yay for a trip to Grama and Grampa's Boo for having sick little Colton :(

Falling asleep in Grampa's arms-worth it! (That's Cannon BTW Colton is now FINALLY asleep in mine as I type) and Colt just had to try on Ann's pink shoes and prance around-that's what that was all about-funny kid)

A few more pics

This is what it looks like when the boys "play recycle" at the church while we play basketball. And they were both enjoying a little tablet time :)

My leg is in the way on the one of a Colt but boy do I love these smiles!!!!