Season for Reunions

This weekend we went up to Star Valley for the Jenkins Reunion. This year they picked a spot up Grey's River that's closer to Murphy Lake. It was beautiful and the weather was great! We opted to stay at the Flying Saddle Resort in Alpine rather than tent-it with the baby. It was her first 'long' roadtrip (she's been to Logan and to Fairview--both of which are about 1 1/2 hours away). It normally takes about 3 1/2 hours to get to my parents, but the trip up to Alpine took us about 6 hours! We left our house at about 5:30, stopped for gas, then for cash and a dirty diaper and were on the road by 6:00. We stopped in Evanston to grab dinner and feed Tristyn. The 1 1/2 hour stop included 3 more diaper changes for Tristyn and a complete meltdown from Mason. We also stopped in Cokeville for a quick feeding. I never imagined it would have been such an ordeal to travel with two kids! Luckily, my sister Melissa rode with us and catored to the kids in the back seat. Despite only having about 1/2 hour nap, Mason had to explore the hotel room even though it was midnight and we were all completely exhausted! I think he finally fell asleep at about 1:15 am.

On Friday we went up to the camp and had a great time visiting with everyone. We let Mason play at the lake for a while. He loved riding out in uncle Danny's raft. It was cute to see him and his cousin Emelia shooting water guns at everyone. There was a rope swing across the lake that some of the kids jumped off and my cousin Travis 'remodeled' a log raft that someone left. He looked like Tom Hanks from Castaway out there!

Mason also loved the river at camp. I'm pretty sure he thought it was his duty to throw every branch and pinecone in. If one got stuck on a rock, he'd make us push it out so it would go downstream. Dan went shooting with a few of the guys (I wanted to go, but had to keep track of the kids). We mainly sat around in the shade and visited. My uncles Paul and Doug and their families did a great jop planning it and although we were only there for the day, we had a great time!

On Sunday we stopped at my parents for lunch and to visit for a while. The trip home went much better and we made it in the normal 3 1/2 hours since Tristyn slept until Park City and Mason slept for a while, then was content watching his DVDs. We need to start shopping for a trailer so we can actually camp next year! I'm pretty sure Tristyn will love playing down in the dirt by then! Here are a few photos:

Arriving at Camp

My mom and Tristyn. She slept most of the day.

Dan, Mason and my brother Danny

Mason's new lifejacket left a tattoo on his back! He was the toughest guy at the lake!

Mason and Emelia playing with the waterguns.

Mason inspecting the twig he just threw in the river.

Aunt Ruth chased Mason around for a while to help get his wiggles out!

Pretty in Pink . . . and White!

To end our whirlwind week, we blessed Tristyn last Saturday afternoon. She looked so adorable in her dress!

After getting home from Fairview, we unpacked and started laundry just as my parents arrived. My mom was a lifesaver since she helped me make her yummy salads and baked beans. I never could have had them all ready without her (and Melissa)! For some reason we had the hardest time picking a date that worked to schedule the church and pavilion. We thought we had it all sorted out (and even confirmed with the scheduler the day before), but we were given the wrong key on the morning of the blessing and we weren't able to get everything set up before hand. So, since we had to set up after the program anyway, Dan took a vote with everyone and it was decided to have the luncheon inside the gym rather that at the pavilion. Thanks so much to everyone that attended and helped set tables and chairs up, then helped take them back down! We appreciate all of your support. Although everything seemed like it wasn't planned out well, the only thing that I actually didn't have completely sorted out was the program--I quickly threw something together that morning(you could probably tell by the uncreative handouts that I made)! I didn't realize that we didn't have anyone that could play the piano, but Dan's mom lead us through the song anyway! It ended up being a bad weekend for a lot of our family, so it was a small gathering. Dan gave Tristyn a great blessing and it was a very special day. Thanks so much to everyone that helped bring food, that picked up food for us, that helped with the program, and that took time out of their busy day to spend a few hours with us!

Here are a few photos of Tristyn when we were trying the dress on her. Selecting the dress turned into a huge ordeal! I only had a chance to look at a few stores and didn't really fall in love with any of the dresses, so I shopped online at several stores and finally found a cute dress that was a great price. I ordered it, just to find out a week later that it had been discontinued (I can't figure out why they still have it on their site). I ended up buying her dress from http://www.onesmallchild.com/. I normally don't like the super long dresses and was looking for something that just covered her feet, but when I saw this dress I fell in love with it and after I saw her in it, I knew I had to keep it!

Fairview Museum and Park

As mentioned earlier, last week was a whirlwind! On Tuesday we packed up and headed down to Fairview, Utah, for the Higbee Reunion. It's the first big trip that we've taken with Tristyn, so I didn't realize how much stuff there is to pack for two kids and two adults for 4 days! The Armada was packed tight. The trip down included a few stops and a crying baby. Since my arm isn't quite long enough to hold a binky in Tristyn's mouth from the front seat, we stopped and I climbed in the backseat. Literally seconds after I climbed back there, she was out--without the binky! Crazy kid! Mason slept for the first hour and was good watching a DVD the rest of the way. We arrived at Skyline Mountain Resort in the late afternoon and just hung out for the evening.

On Wednesday the 23rd, we took Mason to the town museum to see this large Mammoth skeleton. He thought it was pretty cool . . . until he realized there was an elevator in the building, at which point the up and down buttons became more cool!

Then we went to the park and Mason played on this huge playset. Well, he didn't play on all of it--about 95% of his time was spent going down the twisty slide at the right. He always heads straight for the biggest slide he can find!

He went down this slide once, but didn't like the hot plastic. Tristyn and I were sitting under the pavilion in the shade and he acted like he'd rather be there with us than playing. I don't blame him since it was about 1 pm and very hot! We decided to go back to the cabin and enjoy the A/C!

Mason loved the swings at the resort and would have stayed on them for 4 days straight if someone would have stayed to push him for that long!

The next few posts will have more photos of our trip!

Fun Fairview Photos

Here are a few more fun photos from Fairview. Apples are one of the few things that Mason eats pretty well. It was cute to see him out on the porch munching away.

We were so excited to take Mason swimming at the resort and were upset to find out that they didn't allow kids in diapers (even swim diapers) in the pool. So, luckily his cousin Andrew brought his little pool and Mason was able to play in it for a couple of hours after the parade. He loves to play with any hose and we have a few of these funny photos where it looks like he's relieving himself!

Tristyn was chatting with her cousin Brooke in this photo. She loves to 'goo' to anyone that will pay attention to her (Tristyn, not Brooke--well, maybe Brooke too!).

This is a quick family photo of us standing on the porch of our cabin. Mason had a great time going up and down the stairs to the loft and loved running around outside. Jim and Cheryl did a great job planning it and we all have fun memories!

On the morning of the 25th we took our turn fixing breakfast with Julie's family and then packed up. The kids were both great and it only took about 1 1/2 hours to get home. We quickly unpacked and started prepping for Tristyn's blessing the next day. We had cleaning to do, salads to make, and final details to sort out. More about that later!

Fairview 24th Parade

On July 24th we headed down to the Fairview town parade at 11 am. Luckily, Dan's brother had saved us a spot under a few shade trees (thanks, Jim). Tristyn slept most of the time. Mason and Dan went out to collect a few pieces of candy--all of which Mason ate immediately. There was a guy next to us that was giving away puppies, so most of the kids spent the first part of the parade playing with them. I have cute photos that I'll try to post later.

It wasn't hard to keep Mason hydrated since a juice straw was glued to his lips most of the trip.

Prying into the candy.

Tristyn just chillin'. In the photo of us at the derby, you'll see who she gets her double chin from!

Gotta Love a Derby!

Fairview has a great 24th of July Demolition Derby! Mason had a lot of funny expressions as he watched the cars crash! He was chearing and screaming louder than anyone around us! We took him to a derby in Logan last fall and he loved it. I guess he inherited the redneck roots!

I think the guy behind us really wanted to be in our photo! Mason was too busy watching the cars to say cheese.

This was a cute photo of Mason looking up at the little flag streamers that they had hanging across the arena. I love the saltine cracker crumbs on his mouth and his great big blue eyes.

The highlight of the night was when one of the cars was pushed on its side (oh, and the churro). Of course, we all wanted it to tip all the way over. It seems like at the Star Valley derby, they offer a prize if you push a car over--it's been a while though, so I could be wrong. It was cool to see all the firefighters out in their gear pushing the car back down.

Thanks to Karen, Clarice and Kareena, who watched Tristyn so I could go check out the mullets and belt buckles! It was very nostalgic. Thanks, Jim and Cheryl for planning this great trip and for standing in line for the derby tickets!

Mamma Mia!

I couldn't think of a better way to end our whirlwind week (I'll post about that later) than to go to this awesome movie with my mom, sisters, and baby girl! Saturday afternoon after everything was cleaned up from Tristyn's blessing, we arrived late (of course) for the movie, but decided to go in anyway. Although we sat in the 2nd to the front row, we had a blast and I'm glad that we decided to take our chances in finding seats together. Grease has been my favorite musical since high school, but now it has steep competition! If my sisters didn't have other plans after the movie, I would have headed straight to the store to by the soundtrack. I almost bought it on iTunes yesterday, but decided to wait until today. So, I'm on my way out to buy it. Hopefully Tristyn won't mind it blasting in the car on the way home! This was her first movie (pretty good for an 8 week old considering we haven't taken Mason to one--I tried when he was about 1 and ended up leaving about 5 minutes into it) and she only cried for a few seconds before Suzy had her back to sleep. It's nice to know that she'll do okay if I sneak into another movie. I was seriously considering taking her to a matinee today just to watch it again! I think I'll hold off for a girl's night out, though. If you haven't seen the movie and you enjoy musicals, I highly recommend it. I will admit that it's weird to see James Bond shaking his 'groove thing'.

Suzy, Kathy (my mom), Tristyn, Melissa, and Me

Since my mom works 24/7, she never gets out and doesn't have much time to relax. I'm glad that we were able to drag her out since it's been several years since she went to a theater. We didn't have to twist her arm very hard, so we'll have to try it again when she visits next!

Star of the Month

Mason is Star of the Month at his daycare, so they had us take a poster of him to display. His poster from last year is still hanging in his bedroom waiting for me to convert it to scrapbook pages. To save that extra step, this time I made scrapbook pages and adhered them to the poster. It shows photos of the things that Mason likes to do indoors and out. Mason is always entertaining us with the silly things he does and the fun ideas that he has. We're so lucky to be his parents and to are very proud of him. Plus, he's pretty much the cutest little boy ever! He's definately a STAR to us!

This is the poster from June 2007.

Great Big Brother

A little over a week ago we got out this jungle gym for Tristyn to play with. Mason suddenly became her best friend and finally took interest in what she was doing. I guess a sister with toys isn't so bad afterall! Since he was so friendly, I asked if he wanted to kiss her head and showed him how, then he leaned over and kissed her! I almost shed a tear!

Then he got down and touched her hands and feet and gently layed on her stomach, and just watched her. It was so nice to have him finally acknowledge her . . .

Even if it was just because he wanted to play with the toys! After we picked her up, he climbed in and played for a while!

At least he waited his turn! It was great that he played gently with her and didn't try to push her out of the way so he could play.

After we put the toy away, he went back to not paying much attention to her. A couple of nights ago we were in his room reading bedtime stories and I gave him a high five for doing something, then asked if he wanted to give Tristyn a high five and he did. I think he also kissed her head again. Either way, at least he's coming along! He's going to be a great big brother!

Super Cute Blanket (and baby)!

Our Bishop's wife makes these great blankets for everyone that has a baby in our ward. She embroiders the baby's name, birthdate, weight, and height. She also gave us another blanket that just had Tristyn's name embroidered. What a cute gift and a fun keepsake! Thanks Kay! This photo was taken when Tristyn was 1 week old. I love this dress, but she kept wanting to eat the bows when they tickled her cheeks!

Also--I finally finished the posts that were pending from 6/23, so there are a few new posts below!

Slacker

Okay, so none of you need to tell me what a slacker I am! I am really behind in posting our recent activities! At my defense, I have had about 6 posts that are saved with photos--just waiting for me to put words with them! So, hopefully I can get them finished soon!

I do want to mention that we had photos taken yesterday and I'm very pleased with the outcome--mostly because we were able to get a good photo of Mason and Tristyn together. I hoped we'd be able to get one, but didn't really think it would happen (he still will barely acknowledge her). Well, although Mason was all over the room and we it was a miracle we got any of him alone, he did manage to sit still next to Tristyn long enough to get a couple of very cute shots! It will be a couple of weeks before we get the prints, but they're supposed to give me access to them online in 10 days, so I hope I'll be able to attach a couple then. I scheduled the photos to catch Tristyn at one month, but since for some reason I didn't get the packet of photos they took of Mason at daycare, I decided to try to get some of him and an updated family photo. The problem with them taking so many photos is that you end up buying a ton of sheets. With all of the enhancements, it turns out to be more expensive than intended! So, thanks to Dan for not giving me too much grief about spending the money (although he did give me the eye a couple of times)!

Other things going on around here: we've been trying to plan Tristyn's blessing for weeks (the scheduling guy isn't great about getting back to us on dates), we're trying to decide what to do for the 4th (we'll probably go to the Murray parade and fireworks and let Mason play in his pool during the day--also planning to go to the Cache Valley Cruise-In on Saturday), trying to get thank you notes finished and sent out (so I can get the craft stuff off my kitchen table), putting a package together to mail to Charlie in Connecticut, planning for Dan's family party/reunion that's in a few weeks and changing tons of diapers! The next few posts will let you know what else we've been up to.

(the posts that I had pending show below with the date 6/23).