Blessing Dress

I decided to work on this baby's blessing dress while Ryan was at Scout camp last week. So that is what I did with my Friday Night and most of Saturday. I taught myself to smock first. It is actually quite easy and a lot of fun. I haven't ever really sewn clothing from a pattern unless of course you count the cowboy vest and chaps I made for Nathan last Halloween. This was a bit different. But the directions for sewing were very clear and I was able to do it. The pictures don't really do it justice. But here they are:

Bees Game

We were lucky enough to get some tickets to the Bees game last night. Our seats weren't half bad, right behind home plate on row 14. They were even better than Thurl Bailey's tickets. He was sitting in the same row but more towards first base. Okay maybe that doesn't make them any worse. We also got a parking pass that allowed us to park right across the street from the entrance. When we got there the first inning was over and the Bees were down 0-4. But the Bees did not let us down. In both the second and third innings they scored 5 runs and easily won the game. It was fun to see so many runs. We even got to see several home runs. Nathan really enjoys baseball. He kept asking if we could play when we got home. We tried to explain how late it would be when we got home. Especially since we stayed for the fireworks, which turned out great and the fun run. Nathan was able to run the bases just like the players. He thought that was the best part of all.

Lagoon

This was Nathan's and my first trip to Lagoon, ever. It was nice to go with a veteran. But it was, let's say, hot! But thankfully we brought our swimming suits and were able to cool off at the lagoon a beach. And thankfully Ryan's mom came along to go on the various rides I was unable to go on. We had a great day and got to do a lot. We even caught a show. Nathan convinced me to buy one of the refillable bottles and so we did keep hydrated. It was a fun day. Here are some of the pictures. Don't pictures just say it best? Nathan's favorite ride was the egg drop. He loved it.

Lake Powell

First of all the day before we left for Lake Powell Nathan had his first dentist appointment. I know I'm a terrible mother. I kept forgetting to put him on our insurance so I finally remembered this year and well, it went great. The dentist says he has excellence teeth and very good hygiene. if you ask me I think he just got good genes. But we found a great dentist and Nathan was so good I couldn't believe it. He is now doing really well keeping his teeth nice and clean. So here are some pictures I took while we were on the lake. Ryan skiing on his new ski. We actually found the smoothest water in last chance this time. Warm creek didn't live up to it's usual perfection.
After a few days on the boat Nathan was dying for some cartoons. This touch sure comes in handy.
Ryan did much of the driving.

Emily got Nathan this crab that he eventually named Bob. Isn't it cute?
Nathan was once again king of the spray bottle. He loved to spray himself and anyone else in shooting distance. It kept us all a bit cooler.
Here is Jason learning to do a front flip on the wake board. I didn't get a picture of his wake skating, maybe Emily can supply one for a visual. But let me tell you it was so funny. He thought he'd be funny and strip down to his speedo. When he got up on the wake skate we all died laughing. Too bad the water was so bad he had planned to do a toe touch for us.
Nathan has really taken to the water this year. No fear here. He would get in to cool off even if nobody else wanted to get in. He did the funniest head duck where he would get ready hold his breath and then 5 seconds later dunk his head in the water. It was pretty funny to watch.

This year we decided to try the restaurant on the dock. We actually ate there twice. Once for lunch and once for dinner. The food was quite good but the wait for our food was long. But it was a fun change of base. All in all we had great weather and no bad sun burns. The heat didn't even bother me and we all slept well at night. Bonus.

Town Days

July is such a great month for festivities here in our little town. I've already mentioned the demolition derby. Well, shortly after returning from New York the carnival came to town. We took advantage of dollars days with some of my family we headed over and enjoyed a few select rides and some treats.
Here we are all riding on the golf car to the carnival.

Nathan and Sydney rode the farriscwheel together. It made me slightly nervous when Sydney started swinging their seat. But they made it safely back to us.

I'm pretty sure Nathan chose to ride the trucks. I think they probably looked cooler than they were.

Here's Nathan on the spaceship. Another looks cooler than it actually is. I'm glad we just spent a dollar a ride. Each ride is normally somewhere between $2 and $5.

The next day we went to the rodeo. Nathan watches the rodeo grounds all year asking when the rodeo is so we couldn't miss it. Alli joined us and we had a good time.

One of our favorite events is watching the kids chase the calves trying to get money off their backs. Nathan can't wait to be 6 so he can join in on the fun.

Another favorite is watching both girls and guys try to ride the hide behind a horse going as fast as they can. The person usually doesn't actually ride on the hide but sometimes does manage to make it holding on the rope like in this picture.

You can tell Nathan is getting tired in this picture. We didn't last through the whole thing but hopefully long enough to hold Nathan off for another year.

While I didn't get my camera out for some of the other town days activities but we participated in most of them. We watched the parade and the movie in the park. We had a group over for dinner on the fourth prior to watching the fireworks from our front yard. We went over for fair food and the festivities the morning of the fourth, at the park. We feel lucky to live where we do.

The Beginning of our New York Vacation

This is the first picture I took of our trip. We took the red eye into JFK and then had a two hour layover until our flight into Syracuse. Nathan slept on the plane thankfully but was wide awake at the airport. To pass the time I let him watch Alvin and the Chipmunks on my ipod. He was totally engrossed. We were luckily able to check into our hotel early (10:00 AM) so we could get some needed sleep. We awoke and went to lunch and then came back to the hotel to swim. Ryan doesn't get to swim very often with Nathan so this trip was nice for that chance.



Ryan picked his parents up at the airport and we stayed in Syracuse that night. The next morning we drove to Palmyra, NY. One of our first stops was to the sacred grove where we saw the log cabin Joseph lived in when he saw the first vision. Doesn't Nathan look happy?

The Palmyra temple is just across the highway and from the inside you can look out a clear window and see the sacred grove.
Here we are in the sacred grove trying to get Nathan to look at the camera.

This is one of many pictures I took in the sacred grove. It is really just like I expected it to look.



After checking into the Palmyra Inn and taking a nap we ventured to the Hill Cumorah. This is in the visitor center. I do have to say that if you are ever in Palmyra you should get ice cream at the Chill 'N Grill. Also the Secret Garden Cafe was quite fun and had delicious food.



Here is Nathan literally running up the Hill Cumorah. For those who haven't been it is really steep and we were constantly asking him to wait for us.

Nathan resting on the top of the hill at the monument. This is where the plates were buried and where Joseph visited each year before being able to take them and translate them.



Since we were so close to Niagara Falls we decided to make the drive one and a half hours to see them. We brought our pass ports to venture into Canada and see the falls from that side which I've been told is the better of the two. It really was amazing.


This is the view we had as we ate lunch at a fun restaurant.
This is the front of the restaurant Edgewaters Grill and Tap.

We don't think it actually rained although there were plenty of clouds, but the mist from the falls was pretty heavy and Nathan will use any excuse possible to use his umbrella.

Nathan got tired of riding in his stroller and insisted on pulling it.

Nathan loved the Palmyra Inn because he had his own twin bed and night stand. He put all his prized possessions in here. You can see his night time books, flip flops, Reese's, bedtime treat, and his brand new Niagara Falls mug.

I didn't get any pictures of the printing press but we were able to go there as well and we went on a tour with Elder Pinegar. He gave Nathan a crisp one dollar bill to start his mission fund. Then later we got large sheets of printed pages from the book of Mormon that he showed us how to fold to get the first 8 pages or so of the Book of Mormon. While we were all folding our pages Nathan was following instructions using his dollar. It is folded nice and small.