A Chill Friday

Friday evening we went to Justin's parents to eat Anna's famous home-made egg rolls and rice. We watched family videos and just generally had a great time!

This is Justin's cousin Christina. She and Sophie just love to play.
Us hanging out on the floor watching the videos.

Anna's sister Yvonne and her daughter Christina

While we were there, Anna gave Sophie some dutch licorice. She loves it! We figure since it's natural licorice it's okay for her to eat. The funny thing is, we can't get Sophie to eat hardly anything, but she just loves to eat the licorice!

Look how focused she is on it when Anna tried to take it away. And look how dirty her shirt gets, thank goodness for spray and wash!

And Anna was teaching Sophie to walk. We are worried she's going to pick it up pretty quick, and then we'll have a little terror on our hands.

After a night of playing with her Nanna, Sophie doesn't want to go home!

Series of Unfortunate Events

We've all had them. Those days when you wonder if it would be safer to crawl back into bed and pull the covers over your head. I have had just such a day today. It all started out well. Up at 7:00. Feed Justin breakfast and get on with my day. I left to meet a friend in the park at 10:00. On the way there, the ac in our truck went on the blink again, and boy was today a scorcher! We had a fantastic time in the park, and on the way home...

Our tire separated. After dealing with that, I got home in time to fix Justin's lunch. I decided to barbecue and make some broiled fries to go along with it. I always fry the potatoes in a little bit of oil to start with, so the fries turn out nice and crispy. I have never had a problem before, but today...

I started a big old grease fire! The flames scorched my microwave above the stove. When I heard the sudden whoosh sound of the grease flame, I must admit I panicked for almost a whole minute. I screamed, and then the fire alarms started to go off. As the black smoke filled my kitchen, I suddenly reacted. I quickly put on some oven mitts, smothered the flame, turned off the burner, opened all the doors, grabbed Sophie and her diaper bag, and ran out the door. So Justin came home to find us playing on the front lawn. We ate our barbecue outside (grease fire is one of the worst smells ever), and when the smoke had cleared, we ventured in. Only to find...

Sophie's diaper exploded! No matter what brand of diaper we use, sometimes Sophie just explodes, and there is nothing we can do about it! It was Huggies that let us down this time. Sophie did get to take a bath though which is one of her favorite things to do. She kicks her legs frantically and splashes water everywhere! It is quite entertaining!

So, needless to say, I am going to be spending the rest of this day in my house trying to avoid any other catastrophe!

Father's Day

Justin got his father's day present a little early this year because I wanted him to be able to use it before father's day. Since we went to dinner with my parents on Saturday and ate dinner at his parent's on Sunday, I gave Justin his present on Thursday to allow him adequate time to play with it. I got him a charcoal barbecue. He loves to eat barbecue food, in fact I thought he was going to burst into tears the day Famous Dave's closed. So now, he has his barbecue and some Famous Dave's sauce, so he is one happy camper.

This is him assembling his new toy!
Sophie and I watched by the back door.

The barbecue has made a nice addition to our backyard. Justin's parents also gave us a table to go back there, so we are ready for the outdoor parties to begin!

We spent Sunday with Justin's family and had such a fabulous time! Here we all are playing a game of imaginiff...

Super Fun/Super Busy Saturday

Saturday was such a busy day for us. It was jam packed with tons of fun though, so we didn't mind!

We got up bright and early to go rock climbing with some of our friends. We hiked into a canyon and tried out a couple different climbs. We were so sore afterward, but we felt great!

Here I am conquering a big climb!

Justin was so good. He climbed with his tennis shoes because we didn't have climbing shoes his size, and he barreled up the climbs so fast!

He also drew the first blood of the day!

Our friend Nicki. She was so good.
And Paul, the living spider man.

Paul and Justin

Paul belayed us all and did a fantastic job!He also decided to try out his climbing tape instead of his shoes. After it ripped on the way up the climb, Justin decided he would just stick with his tennis shoes.
This was the hardest climb we did that day. Neither Justin or I was able to make it to the top, but Justin made it farther than I did.

Okay, so he made it a lot farther. This is about as far as I got on that one (about 4 feet off the ground). In my defence it was a 5/9 climb!

Justin hiked in and out of the canyon with Sophie on his back. She was such a good girl the whole time. (She did not do much climbing though.)

This is what we hiked in and out of. I'm glad Justin hauled Sophie because I don't think I would have made it!

After a fun climbing experience, we headed over to Hurricane to be with my family. We went out on the Arizona Strip and rode my Dad's four wheeler.

Justin tried to ride Gary's motorcycle, but the thing wouldn't stay on, and it was hard to start. Justin said trying to start the thing made him more sore than all the climbing.

My mom and DeeAnn were all too happy to watch the babies in the car!

Sophie and Tucker side-by-side. They'll be best cousins soon enough!

The Grand Canyon

On Saturday Justin and I went on a trip to the Grand Canyon with Justin's parents and AJ. We also stopped at the Mt. Trumbell schoolhouse, and we went on a hike to some Indian petroglyphs.

Justin and Sophie are ringing the schoolhouse bell. And Sophie and I rang it too.

Mr. Justin teaching the class!

There was a light bulb that ran when someone cranked the handle.

We decided they probably put the bad kid of the class in charge of all the cranking!

Justin and I by a very old, very out-of-tune piano!

A school-day crush!

Dan and Sophie

Our family ringing the bell.

Sophie was so good in the car. Here she is with her upside-down binkie again.

After a long trek on a dirt road, we made it!

Dan and Anna

Our family!

Justin climbing up!

Sophie chillin' in her stroller during lunch.
Anna, Dan, and AJ

We went on a little hike to see some petroglyphs. They were so neat.

Sophie and Dan. Sophie loves her grandpa!

Dan kept Sophie hydrated, and boy did she love back washing in grandpa's water!

Anna and Dan next to some really cool petroglyphs.

And us next to the same ones!