Pioneer Day (July 2009)

This picture was right after we met up with my family in Greybull. Ethan warmed up to them almost immediately. That was great because in the past it has taken a day or more.

Ethan and I were so excited to get to go up to Wyoming! Leslie was in the Pioneer Pageant the week of Pioneer Day and Cowley's Pioneer Day. For her talent, she sang a really pretty song and I accompanied her. Leslie is such a tomboy that she was completely out of her element doing a pageant. It was really fun to watch her gain some femininity throughout the week. She did such a great job! The crowning moment was to see her all dolled up in her formal. She's always been cute, but she was truly gorgeous that night! Sadly, I don't have any pictures!!! I think what must have happened was that I was so wrapped up in helping her, I ended up forgetting to take pictures. I hope I was a help to her. Some of the time I felt like she was frustrated with me, but I think it was mostly just the stress of the pageant.

Leslie took this on the way up to Cody to get her shoes for the pageant.

Ethan with his Grandad Blackburn.

Chasing the turkeys(or something?) out at the farm.

This picture contains the entire town where I grew up. If you look closely, you can see the Cowley water tower.

Dad and Uncle Dennis with a new "toy". It was a pretty awesome gun actually!

Don't worry, the car wasn't moving. The wind was blowing though, so it almost looks like a "puppy-hanging-out-the-window" shot.

It's a good thing there were so many cherries because we couldn't get enough of them!

When I was growing up, Cloud was my constant companion. I don't know how many people commented over the years about how we seemed attached. I would do everything from just riding around town to going and getting the mail to spending nearly whole days just laying on his back. He's getting pretty old, but I hope Ethan can have some fun rides while Cloud is still around.

One of their other horses. Ethan looks so tiny up there!

Ethan's great-grandad Blackburn. For as long as I remember, my Grandad has always said "Where's my kiss and hug?" if I seem like I might forget to give him one before I leave. I was glad Ethan was so into giving kisses and hugs while we were in Cowley. This is one of my favorite pictures ever. :)

Ethan was so much fun the whole trip. He was just starting to get to the "helpful" stage and that made for some very funny moments.

Isn't this gorgeous!?!? It's one of the many, many beautiful things to look at in my Grandma's yard.

Family (July and September 2009)

In July, Loren's twin brother Laren and his wife and two daughters came to visit. Ethan and I were only here for a small part of their visit since we went up to Wyoming to help my sister with her Pioneer Pageant. Amy and Ethan got along pretty well, especially when it came to baths! Ethan gets so excited in the water that I was giving him a bath and Amy thought it looked like fun. They are so young that there wasn't any reason not to let them both get in! After that, Amy kept saying she wanted to take a bath with Ethan. Their favorite part was getting Loren and me all wet! CRAZY SPLASHING ENSUED!!! I'm not the biggest fan of getting wet, but they loved it so much I got over it pretty quick. Of course, Loren is always awesome with kids and they liked getting him soaked best of all.

The second time they came to visit was just last week. Laren is job hunting and networking here in Utah so they were here with us for about a week total. Sadly, our house isn't very big and so many people here gets strained and stressful. Not to mention hard to keep up with regarding cleaning! It didn't help that they are in a stressful place and I am pregnant. We got through it though and now they are up with Loren's and Laren's Dad who has a lot more space! We wish them the best of luck in finding a great job as soon as possible!

Camping! (June/July 2009)

We went camping with some friends several times this summer. What a blast! Sometimes the weather was a little rough, and we usually didn't get much sleep, but it was always a lot of fun. :) They are going to be moving about an hour and a half away soon. We are so sad about that, but hopefully we can get together to go camping again next summer!














Family picture on the drive up. We look pretty horrible since we just thought "camping" and not "pictures"




















Oddly enough, I didn't get a picture of any typical camping stuff. This was the closest I got to camping equipment. It's a picture of Ethan in front of our friends' camper. Next time we go camping I'll have to make sure we at least get a picture of our tent and a campfire




















Ethan loved everything about being outdoors! The first camping trip we went on, he grabbed a stick right when he got out of the car and walked around hitting the ground and trees and even tried hitting us. Thankfully, it only took one or two times for him to learn not to hit people! He is a typical little boy and loves rocks and bugs and plants and everything else to do with camping!




















What a cutie! I think he looks so grown up here! Camping was tons of fun and I am excited to see what Ethan thinks of it next year.

Sleepy Boy

About when I got Ethan fully weaned(he was down to just nursing before naps and bedtime for a while), he started to go to sleep on his own really easily. Since then, we've found him in lots of different strange places.















This was when I was cuddling Ethan and he crawled off my lap. I thought he wasn't ready for sleep so I just let him eat some fruit snacks under the computer desk. I guess he was ready for sleep!















One day when it was really hot Ethan got quiet while playing in the kitchen. He had crawled up on the table where the A/C hits and fallen asleep!

Leslie and Ethan(June 2009)

Ethan really loved spending time with his Grandma and Aunt Leslie. Being the only grandson/nephew Ethan gets a lot of attention when he has family around. He loves it. :) I love it when they visit because I get a little bit of a break! Plus, living a ways away from my family makes it really nice whenever I get to see them.



<- Ethan and his Aunt "Loo" munching on popsicles.

ZOO!!! (June 2009)

I will catch up from before all these posts, but when we had family here recently, my memory card decided to play hide and seek. I've been seeking, but it must have hidden really well! I was actually going to start this catch-up project earlier, but since I still haven't found the card from before, I decided I just need to get moving with what I have. I will start putting the month in the title of each blog. That way, even though it won't be in order for on here, for the book that my grandma puts these in for me(THANK YOU GRANDMA!!!) we will be able to look back and have it make sense.

To the Zoo!

Ethan really loved seeing all the animals and he LOVED the crazy noises some of them made! Sadly, it was pretty hot and a lot of the animals were just hiding in the shade. Especially the big cats. My mom loves cougars and I love tigers. Both were pretty hard to see and we didn't get any good pictures of them. I think Ethan's favorites were the giraffes.
















Mom and I thought the groundhogs were cute but I guess they weren't big enough for Ethan to give them much attention. These guys were fighting over a piece of melon and we watched them for quite a while.














Some of the birds that Ethan liked watching.














Ethan was loving all the exotic and colorful flowers that we saw.



















Mom(Grandma) and Ethan chilling in the shade for a minute. It was so hot!



















A Foosa. I couldn't get a very good picture, but this is what the foosa in the movie "Madagascar" actually look like. They make their food hard to get at the zoo to give them a "puzzle". I guess it keeps them entertained since they are normally really active in the wild.














The big snake that Ethan wasn't too sure about. They had a big thing of hand sanitizer so you could get some after you touch the snake. I hope that's just a precaution!



















I think we were trying to decide where to go next...



















There was a fairly young giraffe and for some reason, it really captivated Ethan! He almost got to where he could say "giraffe" in the time we were looking at them.



















Ethan was munching on that piece of toast the entire time we were at the zoo. He didn't have the smile the whole time since it was hot, but often enough we figured he liked the trip. :)














This guy made the strangest noise. He was so LOUD! We sat and ate our lunch at a table near his cage and just laughed at how crazy he was! I got a video and as soon as I get it up on youtube I'll post the link here.














Momma and Ethan after eating lunch. It was really hot, but otherwise, it was a great trip to the zoo!

Hello everyone!

Ok, I think I've gotten some flack from almost everyone I know who checks my blog. The thing is, now I'm so far behind that I've got to make a project of it! The pictures in this post are just some of the random ones from this summer that wouldn't fit really anywhere else. Be prepared for picture overload from here on out!