Lake Powell

Yesterday, we went down to Lake Powell (about 5 miles down the mesa from Page), which is widely known for its size and the beautiful rock formations/mesas outlining it. There were MANY tourists...mostly from Europe. The kids had fun playing, even though the water has already dropped 10 degrees since the warmest part of the summer. Both Haylie and Connor LOVE the water, but Connor wasn't interested in this big lake. I'm sure it has something to do with Joe being gone too...he likes swimming with Daddy. :) The kids and Grampa (or Pom as Connor calls him).
Little Miss Haylie stopping for a fraction of a second to say "cheese!"
Somehow, I caught this awesome picture of Connor... with his little hands on his hips, frown and all!
Haylie and Auntie Lis
Connor exploring the dunes...
Right before I took this I said, "Haylie, say 'cheese!'" To which she replied, "N-n-no I c-can't because I'm f-f-freezing. That's why I can't say ch-cheese." Her teeth were chattering so hard; it was the cutest thing. :)

Grampa MarkGramma Tami doing what she does best!! The view from the beach...

Connor and Mommy

Gramma Tami and all 3 cousins; Lucy, Haylie and Connor

And last but not least, Haylie and her apple; teeth still chattering away. She hardly looks like a baby anymore. She's definitely become a little girl. So bittersweet.....

More to come!

Page, Arizona

Since Joe is on a 3 week job....ugh.... I figured we might as well come down and visit Joe's mom. She's been dying to see the kids and they miss her, so we stopped off in Burley and met up with Joe's sister Rachel and her little girl Lucy, and headed on down. After a quick stop in Salt Lake City for shopping (of course) we made it. I actually ended up driving for 4 days wich was not exactly my cup of tea, but it was probably better for the kids. There will be more to come, since this is only our first day here, but here's some pictures of the drive down.

Here we were just leaving Salt Lake City. Connor was so dirty in this picture. You can kind of see some of the black on his nose. Shoulda' seen his feet! GROSS!

Poor Haylie just couldn't hack it. She fought sleep so hard, attempting to read a book, but it was a no go.

Haylie thinking she is sooo cool wearing my sunglasses. The drive was soo pretty. This was inbetween a town called Penguitch and another little stop off called Long Valley Junction ( I think).
Haylie and her cousin Lucy on the tractor at a little gas station we stopped at.

Connor LOVING the tractor!

Haylie was throwing a little tantrum at lunch. Go figure.

Kind of a weird picture...lighting is funny, but they looked so cute and they sat still long enough for me to snap this one! History in the making!!!

All 3 kiddos on the giant wooden chair. Haylie and Lucy aren't fighting... again a rarity.

It took us about 5-10 minutes to get these two to get a good picture. And somehow I'm not surprised Haylie isn't looking at the camera. She was very adament about standing by herself behind the cowboy cut out. Looks like we got 'em switched.... whoops! I'm sure Connor'll appreciate this one day. :)

We had a fun day yesterday, but we are very glad to have our suitcase out of the car for a while. It's nice to relax. I think this afternoon we are heading down to Lake Powell to swim, so more pictures to come!!! :)

Yes, even I have weak moments.....

I'm just going to come right out and say it. We skipped church on Sunday. I know. You don't have to say anything. Church is at 12:30, which in my opinion is the worst time to have church.

We got up, normal time. Dinked around the house all morning long until about 11:30, when I realized we only had an hour until church started. So even though we knew it was wrong, we decided that we'd go drive around and see what houses we could find for sale (because we're looking to buy soon)...
So we drive around for a while, get out and looked at some, and finally decide to go home. Once back on the road home, I casually looked down at the clock and it's 6:30. Ho hum. Look back at the clock...OH CRAP! It's 6:30!

We had a temple prep class at 6.

I was so disgusted with myself. The whole way home I felt sick to my stomach mainly because of missing class. I mean, hello? This is what we're getting ready for. It's our lives we're talking about here...! At home we took the groceries inside and I just stood there, disgusted, looking at them, thinking, 'I don't want these.'

So I called Ronda (our teacher) and left her a message (because of course she was at class) telling her how sorry I was for us not showing up.

I decided then, that taking a shower might help me feel not so bad. So I went upstairs, still feeling like dirt, and just broke down. I got down on my knees and just let it all out, praying not only for forgiveness, but for the awful feeling inside me to be gone.

I kid you not, when I sat up, it was gone. I kind of sat there for a minute, feeling like what I had done was so horrible, that maybe I was supposed to suffer for a little bit so the next time I felt like skipping church, maybe I'd think twice. But no matter how hard I waited for that bad feeling to come back, it didn't. It was just gone. I felt SO relieved! The only bad feeling I had was knowing I had to wait until next week to go to church. When I went back downstairs, Joe told me Ronda had called when I was in the shower, saying that the other couple didn't show up, so there was no class that night. Heavenly Father is pretty amazing.... tell me why, again, why I would want to break the Sabbath?

...and yet MORE park pictures...

Haylie just loved the birds...she wanted to go back again and again!
Connor was in awe over these geese...
I thought they were so funny. They waddled all around in this straight line, all making the same little noise.
Kind of a bad picture with the shadow in her face, but oh well!
Haylie was trying to hold Connor's hand, but there was no way he was letting go!
Saying, "HIEEE!"

One of my favorite towns is Walla Walla. I just love it there! It's not too big, not too small and the people are SO nice! Downtown Walla Walla is SO much fun... it's not that there's more to do than most towns; it's just that it's so cute. I don't know- you'd have to go to understand I guess. Anyway, my brother is going to Walla Walla Community College this fall, so I took him today to take his placement test. We had a nice time. The city park which lies in the middle of town, is HUGE and so much fun. They have a bird zoo type thingy, toys, beautiful flowers, huge trees, and much more! I just love it. We were able to take the kids there after Corry's test and let me tell ya.... it was a chore trying to get them back in the car when it was time to go!!!

Drama Queen

Joe is gone this week. Not fun. Tonight, as I was putting Haylie to bed, she suddenly lit up and says to me, "Mom! Can I sleep with you?!"

Cutest thing ever... but she's been pretty naughty this evening, so I tell her, "Well, you haven't been very nice to Connor tonight, so not this time. Maybe tomorrow night if you're really good."

She says to me, "But Mom... I reawy reawy have to! I will be so sad forever!"

Tempting... very tempting.

The Table Fort

A while back, my friend Kim posted a new one about a book she bought called "Unplugged, Play." SO, being the genius that I am, I bought it too. Awesome! One of its ideas was a table fort. Who knew I had to read a book to figure out this one... ;) They had a blast!

Puddin'

Connor has reached the age in his life where he will NOT allow us to feed him anymore. SO... this is what happens when we hand over the spoon. Forget the spoon...
If you click on this picture, it'll enlarge it, and you can see that he's even got it in his eyelashes.