I had one week off of school and clinicals for the summer (not nearly enough of a summer break) so we headed up to Colorado. We had a blast playing with family and we did a lot of fun things. My next few posts will probably be about the trip because we did so much and I have so many pictures.
I will start with our outing to Red Stone Park. One thing that I love about Colorado is how much they value their parks. They have so many awesome parks there. I absolutely loved this park-my new favorite. I'm sure part of the reason I loved it so much was because we had just come from a place that was hot, dry, dusty, brown & hardly any trees. It was so refreshing to see so much beautiful green grass, trees, water and life :)
This is how excited I was to be there at this beautiful park and breathe in the oxygenated air from the vegetation
They had a great playground and stepping stone creek
They had an awesome sand and water play area-the kids loved it!
Dal has almost finished his first week of Kindergarten! It is so crazy to think that he is already that old. School years here we come! His teacher seems really sweet and he likes her a lot. She seems to have a lot of fun and creative ideas and ways about doing things
He has had a lot of fun thus far and we are excited to see what the rest of the year brings.
Dal got out of bed one night and came to Jake and I and told us that we needed to have a talk. He told us that the next day was Teddy's birthday so we needed to plan a party for him. We tossed around a lot of ideas and made a plan. The next morning Dal made sure we showered Teddy with birthday wishes. Then we played toys with Teddy, made cookies for his birthday dessert, sang Happy Birthday and Jake and Dal even made him a special birthday chair out of blocks. Teddy got to sit in it while we ate his birthday dinner and dessert.
Dal & Teddy
With all the excitement going on for Teddy, Braelyn decided that it was also Pink Baby's birthday, so she got a chance to sit in the special birthday chair too :)
Other excitement that we've had lately is that Braelyn has hit a couple of milestones. She is out of her crib (sleeping on her crib mattress on the floor) and is wearing big girl underwear! Potty training her has been about as fun as you can expect potty training to be. She has done pretty well though. It took us about a week to get her to go poop in the potty and now we are still working on convincing her that it is a lifetime thing, not a one time successful accomplishment :)
This was the first day of our potty training adventure complete with snacks, drinks, Dora underwear and her baby for her to teach how to go on the potty.
Here is B-Rae showing off her big girl bed and her purple underwear
A guy at the kids museum painted Dal's face to kind of look like a clone trooper
Braelyn got my boots out of the closet and was having fun wearing them around so I just had to get a picture
Friday was Chick-Fil -a's Cow Day (where you get free food if you dress like a cow) so we decided to dress us all to sort of look like cows so we could get free food, because free food is always a good thing :) I cut out some black spots to tape on us and I made some ears for Braelyn and I, Jake made Dal a headband that said "Eat More Chickin", and Jake put some spots on his shirt too. The few minutes of prep time was all worth it when the kids got free kids meals and Jake and I got free meals (chicken sandwiches, waffle cut fries and a cool glass of fresh lemonade...yummy :) The kids also had a ton of fun playing in the kid play land and they even put a picture of our fam on the city's 'Night Out' website.
This summer has been really busy with a lot of school and clinical time but I had a Thursday off a couple of weeks ago so we decided to go on a mid-week family camping trip. We went to a lake about an hour north of us. It was our first camping trip with the four of us and we had a great time!
We first went exploring for a little while and then the kids were very excited to set up the tent and put everything in it
We played a family game of horse shoes
Team Black
Team Red
We also played UNO (we recently discovered that the kids love that game)And ate cookies :)
The sunset was really pretty and then once it was dark we got settled in our tent for the night. It was funny though because Braelyn got a sudden burst of energy for a while-I think it was when she realized that we really were sleeping outside in a tent, the four of us all together. She started running around jumping on all of us with squeals of delight :) I'm not sure what time it was when she finally ran out of gas and crashed.
So I would say that our first family camping trip was a success!
Summer semester is fully underway. I'm in clinic 3 1/2 days a week and in class and lab the rest of the time. So it's going to be a crazy summer! But before summer semester began I had one week off and we got to jump on an airplane (or at least ride in one :) and meet a lot of my family in Florida for an amazing vacation! It was so much fun and it was so fun to play with my fam who we hadn't seen for almost a year!
Day 1: Sea World Highlights: The dolphin and Shamu shows, the new rollercoaster, & B-Rae loved the dolphin carousel.
This is the new roller coaster at Sea World and it was awesome - parts of it really felt like we were flying.
Braelyn thought it was so cool to see fish swimming in the ceiling above us
Gotta love those carousels :)
Here we are at a really fun animal stunt show. The animals were pretty impressive.
Day 2: Universal Studios: Islands of Adventure Highlights: The Harry Potter & Hogwarts area and rides, Dal loved all of the superheroes, & Braelyn loved the Cat in the Hat ride and the Fish ride.
Dal wanted to try to pose like all of the superhero signs and get pics with them. He had some great poses :)
The kids also got to meet Spider-man, which was fun. B-Rae was excited to get her pic with him because Dal was so excited to :)
One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish ride Grandpa & B
Grandma, Dal & Kylie
Jurassic Park
In Harry Potter land! We got to go in Honeydukes and check out all of the fun candy, go on some fun rides, and we even tried some Butter Beer (it was like cream soda with an added creaminess)
Hagrid's Hut
Day 3: Magic Kingdom Highlights: Splash Mountain, Dal liked the Buzz Lightyear ride and Braelyn loved It's a Small World
It's A Small World On Splash Mountain
You just have to get a pic with the Cinderella castle
Here's the whole group, standing in the perfect color arrangement- thanks to Chase :)
After 3 days of going strong we were pretty worn out by the end of the day :)
Day 4: Relaxing, Swimming & Playing tennis at the resort Highlights: The huge water rip slide, Chase & I winning at doubles, & going out to eat at the Cheesecake factory
Our resort
Swinging is one of Braelyn's favorite things
Day 5: Disney Hollywood Studios Highlights: The Tower of Terror, It was Star Wars weekend so we got to see tons of Star Wars characters which Dal loved & Dal got to be in a Jedi training show which was so fun! He loved it and was so cute fighting Darth Vader
Chase & I with Tower of Terror in the background: We just loved that ride and went on it a few times. Gotta love that free falling feeling!
Honey I Shrunk the Kids play area Another highlight of this trip was the kids having so much fun with their cousins. Dal & Kylie had a lot of fun together...
...Dal had fun making Landon laugh...
...And Braelyn liked to look out for "baby Landon"
Dal wearing Mickey's hat
Boo's Door (from Monsters Inc)
Beauty & the Beast show
Disney & Star Wars come together
Dal's Jedi Training Show
One satisfied Padawan
A short video clip of Dal in his Jedi training show fighting Darth Vader and the Storm Troppers (double click on it to watch it full screen)...
A short video clip of Dal's encounter with Darth Mal to get his picture taken with him..
It was such a wonderful trip! It was kind of rough to have to go home and get back to the real world, but I guess that's life :) Thanks Mom & Dad for an amazing trip!
Dalyn says and does the cutest and funniest things sometimes so I thought I would make a running list to remember some of those moments...
~We had eaten at a buffet and Dal loved it. He said "If I'm ever really hungry again just take me to that place where you pay for the first food and then get the rest of the food after that for free." That's a good way to look at a buffet :) (10/2012)
~Dal was doing something and being impatient and I said "Dal, you just need to be patient." He said "Mom, being patient is such a waste of my time." I understand how he feels :) (10/2012)
~Jake was having a bad day and was in a lot of pain. Dal said "I'm going to say a prayer for you daddy." Then he said "Dear Heavenly Father, this is important, my daddy doesn't feel good. Can you please help him feel a little better. Please. In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen" It was the sweetest, most sincere prayer I have ever heard and it touched my heart. (6/2012)
~Dal's kindergarten teacher's birthday is coming up and I asked him if he wanted to make her a birthday card. He got really excited about it and these are some of the things that he was thinking about writing..."Happy Birthday Mrs. Bryan! You are now older than the old number you were before your birthday. Birthdays are a special celebration. Birthdays are special because you are older and bigger." (9/2011)
~ On our way to church today Dal told us that he asked his friend Sadie from school what church she goes to. She told him that she goes to the Kid Church. Dal told her ..."I go to the church of the Son of God" :) (4/2011)
~Dal has decided that when he grows up he is going to have 4 kids- 3 boys and 1 girl. Their names are going to be: Junior, McQueen, & Robin (as in Batman & Robin) for the boys and Sally for the girl :) (4/2011)
~On our way to church today Dal was talking about his friend Cash and said "Cash says he doesn't like church so he doesn't go. But I want to invite him to come to church with me and help him understand how important it is to go to church. Then I will tell him that he came from heaven and that I came from heaven too." Dal is just the cutest little missionary! (2/2011)
~Dal is so creative and imaginative. He has bigger sized lego blocks and he makes those into any toy or character imaginable and then sets up his room as whatever world or place that fits with the theme of his creations. It's so fun to watch and play with him in his toy world. (9/2010)
~Dal came home from preschool and told us he had a new girlfriend. So we started asking him questions and found out that they hadn't really played together or even talked for that matter he just said "She just looked so beautiful." So I guess because of that he decided that she was his girlfriend :) (9/2010)
~The other night when I was putting Dal to bed he said "Mommy. The Holy Ghost is so cool. I'm going to listen to the Holy Ghost and I am not going to listen to Satan!" I thought that sounded like a great plan. :) (3/2010)
~So Dal came home from preschool and told us that "Conner made a bad choice and squirted my girlfriend." We asked him about his girlfriend and he told us that a girl at preschool told him she wanted to be his girlfriend. We asked him what he said and he told us he said "Ok, but not really." Then we were asking him more and he said "Um, never mind. I don't want to talk about it anymore." On no, barely four years old and it already begins! :) (1-25-10)
~When I take Dal to preschool they always practice writing their names when they get there. Today he wrote his name really fast and crazy like and his teacher said "Well maybe you will be a doctor when you grow up", and Dal said "No, I'm going to be a prophet." That's what he has decided he wants to be when we grows up :) (12-16-09)
~I heard Dal saying his bedtime prayers and part way through he said "Heavenly Father, I love transformers. I know they are expensive so please help us to have more money so that we can buy transformers because they are really fun." (11-20-09)
~The wisdom of a three year old: Dal and I were hitting some of the community trick or treating events and when we got to the last one I told him that after this we were going home. He said "Good. I'm tired. All of this walking around getting candy makes a little kid like me tired." (10-31-09)
~We were reading the scriptures and trying to teach Dal about the second coming, when Jesus would come again. Dal's response: "When he gets here, I'll show him my Batman toy."
~Dal was building a tower with legos and I asked him to do get his shoes on so we could go somewhere. He said "Mom, you're sweet, but here's the thing, I am building a tower of power."
~Dal has a little friend that lives close and comes over to our house often. They play together almost every day. About two days had passed and they hadn't seen each other and then Zach came over and Dal opened the door and excitedly said "You came, you came!! Zach, I was so worried about you!"
~Dal has been on a super hero kick lately, so sometimes when he's at the playground and other kids ask him what his name is he says "My name is Super Duper Super Hero!" It's pretty funny. The other night I also heard him praying that he could be a super hero like Larry Boy. (6/09)
~We were reading out of Dal's picture scriptures and we read about Elizabeth and Zacharias who prayed to be able to have a baby and then she got pregnant with John. Dal asked "Did you pray to have baby sister?" I told him we did and then he said "So I can pray to have lots of baby brothers and lots of baby sisters!" I thought it was funny but thought that it was only a passing thought for him, not that he would really take it to heart:) Then a couple nights later when he was saying his bedtime prayers he said "Dear Heavenly Father, I pray that I can have lots of baby brothers and lots of baby sisters!..." It was pretty cute...but then I thought, uh-oh...hmmm, let's define the meaning of "lots":)
~Out of the blue Dal asked me "Mommy, do you have a puppy in your tummy?" I told him that I didn't and explained that I only carry babies like baby sister in my tummy and that mommy dogs carry baby puppies in their tummmies. I asked him why he asked and he said he asked because he wanted a dog and was wondering if I was going to have one. (He has enjoyed having his baby sister so much and knew that that's where she came from, so I guess he assumed that if he wanted a baby puppy that I would have to have it too. :) (5-13-09)
~In an effort to help Dalyn say his prayers at night I told him that when he prays and thanks Heavenly Father for things he has or got to do that day then it makes Heavenly Father happy. So last night after he said his prayer he jumped up and with both arms in the arm he shouted with glee "Now Heavenly Father is so happy! Heavenly Father is so happy!" I'm sure he was :) 4/12/09
~Dal was in the bath tub and he got out and I asked him what he was doing. He said "I just have to see if I'm so cute." He then pushed the stool up to the mirror so he could see himself, took one look and said "Yep, I'm so cute." Then he got off the stool and got back into the bath tub and continued playing with his toys in the tub. I got a good laugh out of that one. (2-19-09)
~When Dalyn found out that I was taking Braelyn to the Dr for her first check-up Dalyn yelled in a panic-stricken voice "No don't take her back! I want to keep her!" It was pretty cute. I reassured him that we would not be taking her back and that we would get to keep her forever. He was quite relieved. He loves his baby sister.
~Once when Dalyn was holding Braelyn she started rooting around and found his hand and stuck her tongue out. Dal laughed and said "She's trying to lick me!" He then thought that they were playing a game where she was trying to lick him. He just kept laughing and laughing.
~When Dalyn first saw Braelyn he just stared at her and said "She is so small. Her hands are so small. She doesn't have any teeth" He was pretty observant.
~We went to the school playground on Saturday to play and Dal found a jump rope that had been left on the ground and he was trying to swing it and he wanted me to jump. I told him that I couldn't jump very good with baby sister in my tummy. So then he wanted me to climb the little rock wall with him to get to the slide and he said "It's okay mommy, baby sister will hold on tight." It was so funny and so well thought out, and yes I did climb the little wall with him.(11-1-08)
~Dal was busy playing cars with his daddy and they were each in character having the cars talk to each other and I had to tell Jake something so I was talking to him. Dalyn repeatedly kept telling me "Mommy, don't talk to daddy anymore!" (I was distracting Jake and Dalyn wanted his full attention while they were playing.) After telling me to stop and I didn't Dalyn then came and took my hands and said "Mommy you go to sit in time out" and he led me over to the chair and had me sit down. I thought it was really funny so I sat there for a minute to humor him.
~I stubbed my toe on the door and said "Ouch" and Dalyn looked at me really concerned and said "Mommy?" So then I told him that I hurt my toe. He said "Okay. I'll come kiss it better." Then he came over to me and got down and kissed my toe. (It was so cute!) After that he said "Are you okay mommy?" And of course I told him that I was now. Even though my toe still hurt there is something about getting a kiss better that just makes it all okay. Amid his craziness he is such a thoughtful kid.
~When someone is at our house and he doesn't want them to leave he'll go and block the door and say something like "It's too hot out there" "You can't go out there" "The door is locked and you don't have key" "You don't have your shoes"...or something of the sort. He's good at coming up with good reasons for people not to go. He just loves to be around people.
~Along those same lines, Dalyn used to get really creative to keep other kids from taking toys away from him that he was playing with. When a kid would come up to him and try to get his toy he would say "It's hot!" in an effort to get the other kid not to touch it and to back away. It was pretty funny.
~Dalyn and I were playing and then he stopped and got this cute look on his face, rubbed my head and said "Sweetheart, I love you." It was just too cute.
~The other day for some reason Dalyn was sure it was his birthday. He sang himself the birthday song, he found something at the dollar store and told me it was his birthday present, etc. Then when we went to check the mail we got a little blue box with a fake ribbon on it and Dalyn excitedly yelled "My birthday present!" When we got in the house he couldn't wait to open it...It was some free sample tampons from Walmart! He was so excited and yelled "A blue one!" "A green one!" and they became swords, laser shooters, rocket ships and anything else he could think of. He had so much fun with his "birthday presents". It was pretty hilarious.
~Dalyn is always looking out for others. Any time I give him a popsicle or something and he sees his daddy (or whoever else is around) he'll say "Where's daddy's popsicle?" He wants to make sure others get in on the good stuff.
~Speaking of popsicles, sometimes Dalyn gets a little creative in how he can get more than one...I gave him a blue popsicle (his favorite) and he said "Daddy wants a blue one too" so I gave him another blue one to give to daddy and then he walks in the room where his daddy is, looks at his two blue popsicles and then comes back in the kitchen and says "Daddy wants orange popsicle".
~We were sitting in church on Sunday and Dalyn unintentionally burped and then looked around him and said "What's that noise?" It was pretty funny!
Some Braelyn Cute Moments
~Braelyn likes to think that she speaks Spanish. She has learned some Spanish words and is excited to practice them. Sometimes she will come up to us or other people and say something and they have no idea what she is saying. Then she informs them that she is speaking Spanish :) (10/2012)
~Braelyn gives the sweetest hugs and kisses. I love it when she says "I love you mommy (or daddy)! You're my best friend!" (5/2012)
~We were at Wal-mart the other day and Braelyn saw a baby sittting in a shopping and she was so excited to go talk to the baby and turned to me and "Mom! I want one of these at my house!" (3/2012)
~Braelyn absolutely adores babies. Anytime we see a baby she wants to go see it and talk to it. She always says "Awww, a baby!" and "Baby's so cute!" in a cute little voice. She is so sweet with the babies too. She will be such a good mommy some day :) (9/2011)
~Braely Rae is starting to talk a lot and she says some funny things. Sometimes when she does something or asks someone to help her with something she'll look and say "Oh, perfect!" She also loves to play ball and is good at saying "play ball". The other day I was leaving for school and I gave her a hug and kiss and then she said "nuzzle!" and she rubbed her little nose on mine. She also likes me to do her hair and then when we are done doing her hair she'll run to Jake to show him and she says "Daddy, pretty hair!" (4/2011)
~During sacrament meeting Braelyn kept turning to me and holding her finger to her mouth saying "Shhh" and then she's say "Remember Jesus." It was really cute :) (4/2011)
~B-Rae can be so cute and thoughtful. The other day I sneezed and she looked at me, reached up with her little hand to touch my face and then said "Bless you mommy." (2/2011)
~Braelyn loves baby dolls. She has a baby beans doll (which used to be my doll when I was her age) and she carries it around and gives her lots of kisses and tries to give her drinks of water too. (9/2010)
~ Sometimes we think B is a WWF girl in the making. When anyone is laying on the floor (especially her daddy) she loves to go up to him and do a double jump move and then a body slam. She can even pin Dal to the floor with her amazing wrestling moves and we have to go rescue him :) (9/2010)
~Today at church B-rae kept putting her hand up to her ear like she was talking on the phone and she would say "Hello, Hello" and then "Bye-bye, bye-bye" (9/2010)
~Braely loves babies. Every time we see a baby she gets really excited and says "Hi baby! Hi baby! Hi baby!" It's so cute. (9/2010)
~B loves to go outside. If it were up to her she would be outside all day long, either on a walk in the stroller, walking around exploring or going down the slides at the playground by our house. It doesn't matter how cold it is (and Logan is always cold! Well half the year at least) she always wants to go outside. She frequently brings us her shoes and our shoes to take her outside! :) (4/2010)
~B-Rae gives the best hugs. She loves to give hugs. She loves hugging Dal. And she also loves other little kids and sometimes she will try to give a hug to some random little kid she sees in the grocery store. It's pretty cute. She also wanted to give her baby cousin Landon lots of hugs last time she saw him. :) (3/2010)
~Braely Bug tries to say some words really cute...words like orange, shoes, outside, banana, etc. and one that she says really well is "All done". It's funny because whenever we eat dinner she eats her food in her high chair for a little while and then she says "All done" and wants out. Then right when I get her done she runs over to Jake and wants to sit on his lap and have him give her bites of some of his food. She is always sure he's holding out on her and has something better on his plate :)
~B and I have a book that we read together and part of it says "I'll tuck in your blanket and give you a kiss" and its so cute because she knows it says that somewhere in the book so whenever we start reading that book she turns up toward me and sticks out her little lips to give me a kiss--it's the cutest thing!
~B loves her big brother. She loves to chase him around the house, knock down his block creations and then try to help rebuild them, hide under the blanket with him and have us find them and much more. Dal is so cute with her too. He finds fun ways to play with her and he just loves her so much!
~B-Rae loves to eat. Let's face it. She's like her mother and she loves food. One of her favs is cottage cheese. She likes to feed it to herself. It is fun to watch her grab little handfuls and stuff them in her mouth. Cute Cute!
~After a nap or in the morning B loves to grab hold of the side of her crib and rock it back and forth as hard as she can. That girl is amazingly strong and I think she just might break her crib one of these days. (12-3-09)
~Some of Braelyn's Favorite Things: Hold our fingers while she walks around, watch Dalyn jump and dance (it makes her laugh and laugh), crawl up the stairs, eat anything that she can pick up on her tray and feed herself, look at herself in the mirror, be outside, sit in the grass, go on stroller rides, do the sway dance to music...etc.
~B is quite the little crawler. She loves to explore and loves to try to manuever over whatever barricade we put to the stair case. She loves to go up those stairs.
~B Rae is quite the little raspberry spitter. She must love that noise and feeling because she spits and spits and then smiles and smiles. (6-2-09)
~Braely Rae has gotten down the rolling from her back to her tummy but can't figure out how to get back on her back...so when I put her down for a nap a couple minutes later I often hear her crying because she has rolled onto her tummy and feels "stuck" so then I come to the rescue. (5-30-09)
~Braely and a baby about her age were sitting next to each other and they were both squealing, socializing, flapping their arms and laughing. It was so cute and funny! We've already a social butterfly on our hands :) (5-14-09)
~We were at church and I was walking down the hall holding Braelyn. Jake came up behind us and started talking to Braelyn telling her about his day and she just started laughing and laughing as though he had told her something really funny. It was too cute. Baby laughter is one of the best things ever! 4/12/09
~Every morning when I hear Braelyn wake up and I go to get her out of her crib I say "Good morning Princess" and she gets the biggest smile on her face and starts kicking with excitement. She's probably thinking how much she missed me after sleeping the whole night through :)
This is how excited I was to be there at this beautiful park and breathe in the oxygenated air from the vegetation
They had a great playground and stepping stone creek
They had an awesome sand and water play area-the kids loved it!
Some great tennis courts is always a plus
