Huntington, Panguitch, and a few days with Ann-Banan really all probably deserve their own post but we'll just post a bunch of pictures and call it good. Above is my favorite pic from Huntington, he was playing in Grandma's flower garden throwing dirt clods...and having a blast.

This weeks country song reference: live like you were dying. Ok we're moving not dying but I'm thinking its kind of the same so it counts right? But seriously we've just done things we won't have a chance to do in Mississippi, and its been SO FUN...and maybe a little bitter sweet. We'll be back for Christmas though. (Or I'd die)
We had a great time in Huntington! Cannon was showing off all his communication skills and good manners. He's added "Dee Dee" with the perfect tone inflections for "Thank You" maybe even sometimes "Deek Dee" :) to his repertoire, its pretty stink'n cute. Please (Dease whichever) is still just a very effective trick to get him whatever he wants. His VERY favorite thing at Grandma and Grandpa Ison's was to get Lucky a treat and throw it to him off the porch. He also figured out pretty quickly that you can lift the vent covers, and there were lots of cupboards to explore. We just had a great time. 

At home his excavator you ride on...so he did at Grandmas too and helped and helped and played and played. GOOD TIMES

We didn't really need to go to Grand Teton to see a moose, we saw one right up Huntington Canyon when we went to look at the the burn scar, that was pretty cool. Cannon slept through it, and I almost did :) One of the Highlights of our trip was reading some letters Isaac had written home while he was on his mission. He loved his mission, and speaks so highly of it. But the letters totally sold him out, he was a very normal (homesick) kid begging to hear more from home (and even requesting some candy too-so not like him now, so funny) When I gave him a hard time about it he said "I didn't know I was so whiney" It was funny. Out of it we concluded he has to write Uncle Shawn a real letter and soon! (Even though Shawn is serving in the Jackson Mississippi mission where we're headed.) Isaac especially wanted to hear from his younger brothers when he was out, and then he'd send them advice back, too cute.  The other highlight for me was taking Nato's motorcycle for a little spin. Isaac tried and tried to teach me when we were first married but it never worked. There just must be something about Emery County that made it easier and more fun. It was so fun I wish I would have learned sooner, we had Nate's bike forever...I could have been enjoying that thing :) I started out with Isaac as a passenger/coach. The only rough part was when the dog chased us-don't worry, he took over and we went crazy fast -for me- and then he kicked it to get rid of it. Anyway later though Grandma tended and we went for a little motorcycle ride date, Isaac on his bike, me on Nato's. We just rode around the Huntington loop but it was so fun and pretty, and up to the lake, dirt rode, uphill, that was all smooth it was the turning around and down hill that freaked me out but we made it and all in all it was super fun.

Tuesday Isaac had off work so Monday (I'm pretty sure all I did was laundry) we packed up and headed to the Panguitch Lake for a quick over night stay. That place was pretty much the only place we vacationed growing up, and it holds so many memories! It was so fun. The weather was perfect. It was chilly that night then we had rain and sunshine and sprinkles and thunderstorms, oh it was just so fun. Technically its Cannon's second trip to Pangutich but the first one where he could really have some fun. I remember looking through our baby books as kids and seeing things like "First Summer at Panguitch" and such...so pretty much I went hog wild with the camera. Every time I have that thing out taking pictures of every move I think of our friend Burke who asked his wife Emily if she thought there could possibly be over-documentation? My answer: YES and I love it. Here's my latest example.

Love the progression on this one.

 

Wednesday and Thursday we helped tend Ann and Elsie while their parents snuck away on a vacation.
BUSY BUSY BUSY FUN FUN WEEK.

What this world needs is a few more rednecks?

Remember that song?
Apparently we're volunteering. It is still undecided on whether we're taking a uhaul, or taking the truck and pulling the flatbed trailer with little green on it. But that's not what makes me think redneck as much as...well let me just back up. Word is-from our friends Blake and Annie who are 2 years ahead of us in this pursuit of a doctorate thing, that Brandon, a town to the east of Jackson, is a good and safe place to live. SO... in the constant search for a place to live (total waste of time because we're not going to decide until we get there anyway, heart attack?-check) but anyway I'm just looking on craigslist  I type in "Brandon" and we look through them then there's this place called Country Meadows and the rent is WAY cheap- Giddy up, cuz we're going to be super poor- Whoa there horse, totally a trailer park. Anyway, it freaks me out so bad, warranted or not. I don't think of myself as superior to someone who lives in a trailer-I just don't want live in one, or maybe the trailer thing would be fine if it was on private property, but the park I'm just picturing wife beater (tank tops) and beer YUCK YUCK YUCK.  I don't know. BUT, we haven't ruled it out. (*Disclaimer to defend Isaac, he wouldn't ever make me, I'd have to agree to it of my own free will and choice. So really things will be fine apparently I just like to freak out) I've been surf'n the web. Some of them look like cute little communities (do you think they'd let us sneak into a 55 and older one? That would totally be our style!)  but some of them YIKE...dilapidated GHETTO! And here's a little fun trailer fact for you. Those real long skinny ones 16x80, single wide...tell me you're picturing a real beauty in your mind here... they totally have over a hundred more square feet than our house now! The communities have funny little facts on the websites about them too, like the percentage of  homes that have a peaked roofs, or lap siding (I don't know that is) ANYWAY, enough trailer talk for now. Wait, have I mentioned here on the blog Isaac told me (a while ago) he wants to live in a double wide so he can sing that Sammy Kershaw song to me "This here's the queen of my double wide trailer..." GREAT... TRUE story. Apartment living is sounding good. Ok, now really I've gotta move on (however it is a bit of a stress relieve for me to type it out. Coach always said we could make millions and retire from teaching if we'd just turn my life into a reality show, I know I quit already but...may the hunt for a producer begin!)


So the week:

A little inside fun, I'm closely watched, notice the packing tape. It was hilarious when he tried to bite it, that's how I tear it. And there is just something about a face covered in spaghetti sauce that makes me want to take a picture of it.

And outside fun. Definitely Cannon's preference.

Trying to get a drink out of the sprinkler was a bit of an adventure for Cannon-so next he offered me a chance to get in on the fun.Cut little stinker. Below is the best I could do for a picture of those new big chomp'n teeth. Man this kid as a lot of energy when he feels good. After being sick last week he's run me ragged this week :)

Two different times this week I got to spend a chunk of time just visiting with my neighbors. Once with Kristin, once with Kalyn, both SO FUN and thoroughly enjoyed (by me at least) but totally BREAKS MY HEART too. In what's down to a few days-we won't be neighbors, I can't even handle the thought.  Man, I don't like change!

Isaac would like me to be "emotionally stable" through this move. Umm only problem is WE'RE MOVING!!!! It's not going to happen. He doesn't understand why I get so upset. He's says things like "You don't have to say good bye to me...or Cannon." True and I'm grateful for that.  "It's not permanent." Thank Heaven. And of course "You could just learn to think differently, its true, you can." Hmm there are times when he's very sweet, and there are times-like that last comment- when I feel like I married the tin man (I'm no Wizard of Oz wiz, that is the one without a heart right?)
Anyway Anyway Anyway...

I got to go to lunch with Ang and Linds this week, always a blast. Friends are such an important part of life! I love those two. We hit up the skim boarding play date (I'm sad the picture with Ava and Keegan turned out blurry oh well) we visited Grama and Grampa Frei a couple times, and went swimming with Grama at Lory's this week. SWEET SUMMER. So fun.

 On our way to Skim Board we swung by Isaac's work, Cannon talked Isaac into putting this welding glove on, he thought he was so cool walking around the store with it. When we got home he wanted his gloves. Then to go outside and "work" of course. So cute. And slightly over-photographed. I love it.

We're off to Huntington for the weekend. We will have a blast, we always do.

We had so much fun at the Gunlock parade, we headed back up for the rodeo last Friday night and took my cousins Jed and Sye with us. It was so much fun. I love that little rodeo! Jed and Sye got in on the chicken chase’n –actually Isaac took Cannon down there too but he didn’t know what was going on. Sye got to do the boot mix up thing too, he probably came in 3^rd place, too bad only 1^st place wins a new pair of boots.  I think they had fun though.  Cannon boy was SO TIRED, you can see by the picture where he can hardly even open his eyes to eat a bite of snow cone. With him SO TIRED he was extra clingy and was not about to let Jed and Sye, or anybody else for that matter, tend him. :( HORRIBLE NEWS since Isaac wanted us to get to ride a donkey in the watermelon race SO BAD. Luckily one of my basketball players, Whitni, was there. I asked her if she would please be Isaac’s teammate. She countered by volunteering to tend Cannon but when I explained it just wasn’t going to work she conceded.  Isaac was in business.  Whitni’s got to be the most well rounded kid I know. She’s tough as nails-feels like a truck when she hits ya playing basketball, we call it ‘getting Whit’d’- She plays the violin, she dances, she rodeos,  the kid does it all. But she knew all the tricks to tell Isaac: they avoided the white donkeys, and made sure they weren’t first out of the gate, cuz those donkey’s go crazy... and so on. It was HILARIOUS!!!!!!!!!! I was trying to take pictures, but I was too far away, I finally handed the camera to Jed who was on the fence, they’re still so far away they are blurry it was so dark. But I had them perfectly in my little view screen pushed the button to take the picture and looked up and they were both in a pile on the ground. Isaac chased the donkey down, Whit ran back for his hat, I’m laughing all over again typing it.  Anyway long story, and I’m not exactly shortening it much but, they totally won the race! Probably the highlight of Isaac’s whole summer! Jed was so impressed and said “Isaac totally won!” When Whit came back to the stands  I said “you won right?” and she said matter of factly “In it to WIN IT” Then later Isaac was asking her how many rodeos she’d won, she was shirking the question and told him “oh ask my brothers”  (they’re big time cowboys) “they  win a lot” But really Isaac just wanted her to recognize the start of a win streak! They had one under their belt. SO FUNNY! 

Truthfully the rest of the week was mostly uneventful although it pretty much flew by! Well, except for the nights when Cannon was up sick. He ended up with a pesky fever for a few days, he's still so good (maybe not at night) but just not himself. We battled that, we went to the splash pad, and we got to tend Cannon’s buddy Keegan while his mom went to girls camp. Cannon is 2.5 months older and has a couple inches on him but way less hair, but he totally thinks he’s the WAY bigger kid and “helping” with Keegan –when not antagonizing-  he brings him his binky and snacks and tries to give him a hug. It’s cute.  Keegan’s just chill and pretty much goes along with whatever. I totally thought those two were going to grow up playing in the red dirt and doing all kinds of things together…maybe when we get back right?

Bottom one is Cannon's idea of 4:30 in the morning, maybe he was trying to give me a hint with the broom...I was just happy he wasn't still sick....

There goes another week…

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.