Lake Powell

The spent the week at Lake Powell last week with Jared's last week of vacation for his first year of residency. (We've got less than one month of year 1 left. Yay!) We had a great time. This was how it started out. Sam was a little nervous about the "fast boat".

These are some of Sam's cousins. They all had fun riding in the front of the boat.

After a few minutes Sam had warmed up to his cousins and the "fast boat".

The kids and Jared had fun pushing Mike off the boat.

Lake Powell has got some really amazing spots. I don't remember the name of the place we hiked around the first day but we had a lot of fun. The kids found a frog that they all pet and took pictures with and then let it go. Sam was a little hesitant to get near but a few minutes later he found his own "froggie" (He picked up a rock and called it a froggie.) He started petting his "froggie" and even gave it a kiss. Later on in the hike we found a little swimming hole and we were playing in and around that when another group came through. They had found a frog and were showing it to the kids. This time Sam was ready and actually pet the frog. I wish I had taken picture of it but, of course, I left my camera on the boat. (We did keep the rock.)

The second day Mike took us to an old native american dwelling. This is the view from the house. Jared and Sam are in the picture if you look really hard.

This is Mike wading through some very questionable water trying to find a way for us to get up to the house.

I don't think Sam was ever without a stick or rock in hand, unless he was throwing them.

Here is the dwelling. This is the doorway, not a window. These people were either super short or were always bent over.

The ladder takes you down into a hole, I guess another part of the house.

There were lizards all over the place. The kids had trapped one under this rock. Sam was helping out.

Sam loved staying on the house boat and going up and down the stairs all day.

He had so much fun with his cousins. His cousins did such a great job of entertaining Sam. Max, came up with a chant while they were in this tank..."Water is my daughter". It rhymes really well and Sam loved chanting it back to him. That day on the boat Sam would say it and one of his cousins would repeat it and went on and on. They would do different voices and all. Yesterday Sam and I were in Wal-Mart and he started it up with all the voices. It was great, it totally kept him entertained the whole time we were in the store.

I love this picture even though it's kind of sad that at 2 1/2 he already knows about guns.

Another day we went to Rainbow Bridge, one of the wonders of the world. It was pretty amazing.

Here's a lizard we spotted.

The next group of pictures I still can't believe. I took over a hundred because I think it's amazing how brave my kid is and how crazy I am to let my 2 1/2 yr. old do this.

Yes, that is Sam getting ready to go on the inner tube to be pulled behind a speed boat. He totally asked to go out on the tube.

This is right after the boat started, I was so afraid he wasn't going to be able to hold on or that he would totally freak out. He does look a little nervous.

He's totally getting the hang of it.

He's starting to enjoy it.

Now he's waving. He's getting brave.

The kid is not even looking now. Seriously is just me or what because I still freak out every time I'm on one of those things.

No hands. He's too cool now.

I think he was starting to think, "What can I do next to freak out my mom?" My little daredevil.

Here's one last picture of Lake Powell. It is seriously a beautiful place.

We're excited to announce....

we're having another baby boy! We just found out today we're having another boy coming the beginning of October. This one, like Sam, was not hiding his boyhood at all. A minute into the ultrasound Jared said "It's definitely not a girl." The ultrasound tech replied, "you weren't supposed to know that yet."

We're so excited for Sam to have a brother and it's so nice knowing we have pretty much everything ready for this baby. We feel very blessed to have this little guy joining our family and can't wait to meet him.

A Sunday walk.

I took some pictures of Sam while we were out walking around the neighborhood. Here are some of my favorites.

It's done!

I gave Sam a haircut. I think he's pretty happy with his new do or maybe it was the suckers I kept bribing him with so he would let me continue with his haircut. He had so much hair. I think I still want to cut it some more but I think I might Jared do it. His some before and after pictures.
Before.

After.

That was most of the hair I cut off. He had a lot of hair.

I think it's time for a haircut...

Summer is approaching and I think it's time to chop off his little California hair style. I hope it turns out okay. It's just hair, right? Poor little Sam is always rubbing his eyes and saying, "eye hurt", because his hair gets in his eyes. I've only used clippers once, on my brother, and that didn't turn out so well so hopefully Sam's hair cut will go better. If anyone has any tips though, I'd really appreciate it.

Easter, Arizona and visitors

Back at the beginning of March my grandpa past away. It was a bittersweet passing. We were able to go to Arizona for the funeral, spend time with my grandma, and see so many family members that I haven't seen since I was a little girl. And for the first time in probably 15 years, since siblings started marrying and going on missions, my parents were finally able to have all their children and grandchildren together at the same place, at the same time.

Here are all the grandchildren on my side...well so far that is.

Here's a couple random shots of what Sam does best...

...run. He did manage to escape from us when we were inside the church. I found him on the opposite side of the church trying to get back into the building. This kid is way too fast.

We met up with some friends of ours, the Pooles, the Lees, and the Shamos in DC one weekend. We were there for the cherry blossom festival and took a little paddle boat ride on the river. Sam loves anything he can steer. The Shamos stayed in Richmond for a couple of days so we got to hang out with them at the beach and Maymont Park.

Buddies...together again. I almost feel like this next few pictures should be on a slideshow with music.

They are too cute for words.

We were so excited and glad to have my parents and brother come out this past week. Boppa was about as close as Sam could get to saying grandpa or grandma. We had so much fun going to Busch Gardens, Charlottesville, and Maymont. Thanks again, Geoff, for cutting down those trees.

Here's Boppa and Sam watching the animal show at Busch Gardens.

Jared won a stuffed dog for Sam. Sam fell in love with it as soon as he saw it.

We weren't sure Sam would do that well with the bumper cars but he was a born driver. Not sure who he gets that from...

A couple of pictures from the Easter playgroup. Someone told the kids to make funny faces. Sam just happened to be making a face as he was off in his own little world.

I did get a smile out of him though.

Maymont park had a big Easter egg hunt and games for the kids on Saturday.

They even had the Easter bunny.

Saturday was pretty cold but we did get in a few games before we called it quits. Sunday turned out to be a beautiful Easter Sunday. After dropping my family off at the airport we headed over to the hospital to spend some time with Jared. After the hospital we came back colored Easter eggs and did our last Easter egg hunt.