Oh How We Miss Utah! (May 27th- June 1st)

For Memorial Day we wanted to pay Spencer a little visit. So we packed up the van and off we went. First we stopped in Hooper where as you can see, Tori had a blast running around the backyard. It wasn't hot and it wasn't cold, just right for a little 2 year old to have the time of her life! She played with the next door neighbors' dogs and chickens. She got to see cows, horses and goats. It was Tori heaven. She took some time to smell the flowers and hug some trees too! Grandpa really likes to take Tori exploring...they even found a few wild asparagus! Yummy! My favorite.

Our next stop was IKEA. We bought Tori the cute little table that my "gifted" her for her birthday. I am sure that you will see plenty of pictures of her playing on it soon, but none this time. Then we went down to Utah county and met up with our "besties", the Dunns! We are so excited for them...they will be adding a munchkin to their little tribe soon! Tiffany is one of those blessed women who really don't show until the very end of their pregnancy! Although I don't gain all that much weight, I feel like you can see the child within protruding in just a few weeks after I am pregnant! Ha ha ha!
Well, we of course had to meet up with my girls, Debra and Rachie! We met up fpr some delicious grub at Los Hermanos! Yummy! There really is no good Mexican restaurants around our parts of Idaho. So it was nice to have some good burritos and enchiladas. Tori found a new love too... taquitos with chicken inside. Jason had those too! Afterwards we went on a wild goose chase for my favorite cookies...Smart Cookies. I love their sugar cookies and everything else in between too! The one in Provo is closed, so we went to American Fork! I was on a mission, and boy did those cookies taste good!
We spent 2 nights with the Dunns and played until we could no longer keep our eyes open! OH HOW WE MISS THE DUNNS! We went on a walk (I love the picture of Brooke chilling with her feet up on the stroller!), hence all of the pretty pictures and Tori loved to play with Max! Monday festivities included going to see Spencer's grave. We bought him a little pinwheel and found that every grave had a little flower placed by it. And there were so many other people visiting their loved ones too. Tori fell asleep on the way, so Brookie was our model this year!

Tori woke up just in time to go to Thanksgiving Point's Farm! Oh boy, was she in heaven again! She got to pet horses and cows. She saw all kinds of farm animals, but her favorite were the chickens. She spent at least a half an hour watching the chickens. (Isn't the center picture amazing?!)

Tori got to ride her first Pony. We thought that it might not go so well, but she was all over it! She actually went twice. Once with Daddy and another time with Adam.

Monday night we had a bonfire in the Grandpa and Grandma Dinger's pit. The Dunns joined us and so did a lot of Jason's cousins and Auntie Joy. We flew a kite, toasted some wienies and marshmallows (do you see the ones that are the size of your head?!) and of course we made S'mores! We had a blast talking by the fire and remembering. We love you all and cannot wait to see you again (SOON!!!).

Oregon Take Two!

After a long afternoon of bowling one has to get out their artistic wiggles. Deep thought and finger paint result in some magnificent pieces of art. Brookie even got in on the madness! There was paint on hands, in hair, on faces and even in some mouths (mostly Tori's...she licks the paint brush!)

OMSI (Oregon Museum of Science and Industry) was fun. Although a lot of the subject matter was a bit above their little minds, they loved playing. They have a kids place where you can let kids run wild, but that day everyone and their uncle decided to go to the museum. So we decided that we would take a rain-check on that! But we got to pet a snake and see dinosaurs! Tori loves Dinosaurs and the picture is not made up...that is really her surprised look at seeing the large T-Rex in the picture next to the head with her pointing! Tori also loved the toad... she has recently learned how to say "ibbit" (ribbit) and she hopped all over the museum happy that she got to see a real live frog. She also liked looking into a toilet and seeing an alligator and going in the earthquake room with Grandpa.
All in all our trip was amazing. It was great to be with family. It is amazing how many culinary masterpieces you can ingest in in just a little over a week. I think it was worth the one pound that I gained. Good thing that it takes a lot of calories to maintain my weight or else I would have been in trouble! ;)

Oregon! (May 15-23, 2010)

(To see the collages bigger, click on them!)
As you can see by all of the pictures Oregon was amazing! It was so fun to see Lora, Jake, Oscar and Livy! We had not seen Oscar and Livy since last August! That is a long time in little kid years! Jason was there on the weekends and he played an obscene amount of Star Wars Lego the game with Oscar. All of the rest of the gang during the week enjoyed the zoo, OMSI (Oregon Museum of Science and Industry), playing outside, and bowling. We also saw the new Shreck movie. Well...I paid $6 for Tori to take a nap. She did enjoy the Toy Story 3 trailer! Grandma Frann and Grandpa Lee also spoiled Tori and she got fairy wings (not the ones pictured, they just inspired the purchase) and the dinosaur from Toy Story...it moves and talks!

About this collage of Brooke: Brooke ate her first taste of Green Beans and Peas while in Oregon. She didn't make any faces, but only ate a little of each. She loved snuggling with Auntie Lora (who loved to put her to sleep and I even got a picture with her and the baby sleeping, but that is more for blackmail...). Livy was quite the babysitter and would play with Brooke all the time and would sing her songs when Brooke was tired or bored. Lora was enamored...and Brooke now has a new nickname: Sunshine.

Ahhh...Tori! Tori really enjoyed Livy, but it was a love hate relationship. 2 year olds and 3 year olds are a joy! But Livy was really great with Tori even though Tori instigated many brawls and stole a million toys! Livy shared all of her cool insights and now Tori loves to be a fairy, can go down the slide by herself, and has been versed in all things Barbie! Oscar taught her how to say Bebe in his cute little way (When Tori was born Oscar and Uncle Jason would say "It's a BEBE"...in this strange sort of voice and now Tori says it too!) Tori said Ah-car (Oscar), Ivi (Livy), Uncle and Rora quite a few times in Oregon. When they left Tori asked "Ere Ivi, mama?"

My parents are so fun with the kids. It was fun to go to the zoo with them. The highlight was feeding the Lorakeets. Oscar loved Brookie and wanted to hug and kiss and hold her all of the time. He got bored of her quickly, but there was neverending love. I know that picture of him and Brookie is blurry, but it sums up his love for her and hers for him! There was a lot of laughing, game playing, hugging, bubble blowing, reading, singing, swinging, sliding and plain old fun to be had in Oregon.

One of the highlights was Tori's first bowling game and Oscar's first bowling game without the rail. He just chucked that ball down the lane. You should have seen the joy on his face when he got a spare! Tori wasn't so sure about everything. She didn't understand why she had to let the ball go down the rail. She also insisted on playing with the "purpa" (purple) ball (which weighed 9 pounds)! Most of her frames ended with her on the floor throwing a fit. I LOVE that picture of her and Uncle Jake. And no...you are not seeing double...my mom had to buy Livy and Tori matching outfits and boy were they cute! We had a blast in Oregon!
To see Lora's side of the story click here.