Tuesday, September 3, 2013

Cabin Fun

 I didn't take many pictures this year at our annual family reunion because my camera died! Luckily others had their cameras so I have a few pics.

Con's first time on the boat he was fascinated!


Conner loved driving with Uncle Jeff

Wake Surfing. I was holding the rope and told them to take a quick pic when I let go because I didn't think the wake was big enough for him to ride it without the rope but when I let go I was surprised to keep surfing for another minute or so!


Mark riding the wave

Mark & Brad waiting to raft down the river

The "best" river rafting group

family pic at the cabin.

This year because there were SO many people and new babies at the cabin we decided to camp outside in a tent. It was so fun to be with so much family.

Steel Days

We took Conner to the Steel Days Carnival in American Fork. I grew up going to this so it was crazy to go and see how much has/hasn't changed. The carnival and the variety of people that go to it have not changed but I've come a long way from my highschool days of hoping to sit with the cute boy on the Zipper :) I  have a reserved seat next to the cute boy now ;) 
I made the mistake of only getting a few tickets. I should have known that Conner would eat. it. up. He would have stayed there all day long and kept point to the really big crazy rides and saying he wanted to ride them. I put my foot down and said only kid rides for now :)

Conner had this smile on his face the whole time! He loved it!

Pure Joy!


Just chillin with his arm up!

Conner is 2!

*Well this post is very late in coming but I wanted to get it documented.

Birthday Boy!! Big 2!

I can't believe my baby is 2 now! (June 2) We love him so much and love what he brings to our family. If I haven't saved his life at least twice by lunch then it probably means he's sick :)  Here are a few things about Conner.
  • Conner is probably the most active, energetic, high-energy, fearless little boy on the planet. Everybody that spends time with him is amazed by his energy and adventuring
  • Conner LOVES to climb! He climbs anything and everything possible. The first time I picked him up from nursery (he went into nursery at 16 months because of our callings) the leader said that she was amazed at the things he could climb and do. She told me she never saw a child climb the things he climbed.
  • Conner is FEARLESS. We always say that the little switch that most of us have that tells us things are dangerous or we shouldn't do them has never been switched in Conner. He honestly has no sense of danger or limits. Not only does Conner go down the biggest slide possible at every park, but he will never go up the stairs to get there. He insists on climbing the rock wall up to the slide or the fireman's pole. 
  • Conner loves the movie Cars! 
  • Conner loves I spy books and finding things 
  • Conner loves playing with Cars, trucks, animals, and tools
  • Conner loves reading books and when we put him down for bed he'll usually spend a good 30 min reading books by himself in his bed or glider before he falls asleep.
Conner on his birthday! This is honestly the best picture I could get :(


racing cupcakes

some of the food

friends and family at the party

Conner's friends helping him open presents! In the future I will have Conner only open presents from others at his party because all he wanted to do was play with the first 1 or 2 he opened.



Conner's new cool bike from Grandma and Papa King


Cars birthday cake pan


The cupcakes were a lot better tasting than the cake but Audrey and Conner loves eating the frosting

Con loves to color and draw so we got him an easel for his birthday (the easel at IKEA is seriously cheap and awesome!) He'll draw for 20-30 min at a time which is a miracle for him.

Happy Birthday Conner we love you!

Brent's Wedding


Mark's brother got married in July so we made a trip up to Idaho Falls to help and see the event! It's kind of embarrassing but I actually didn't even get any pictures of the couple. In my defense I was sick while we were there so I was a little out of it.

Conner Loves being a helper! He saw everyone carrying wood so he decided to carry one as well. I think he picked one of the biggest pieces to prove he could do it!


Conner will never cooperate for family pictures


sis-in-laws & niece

Conner and his cousin Macks. Conner was being true to picture taking form.

They had a vintage shabby shic reception and I wish I could have taken this door with me I was IN LOVE



feeding the ducks outside the Idaho Falls temple






Wednesday, July 3, 2013

California! Home Sweet Home


To celebrate Mark finishing school and getting his Masters degree we decided to go to California! It was such a Hallelujah time for us! Mark is a super diligent, hard worker in everything he does and school is no exception. He managed to work full time and get a scholarship for graduate school...not to mention it was during tax season!!! Mark was good in that he always tried to find and make quality time for us a few times each week but it was a rough few months of me feeling like a single parent. I love the picture above because Conner was just so happy to have his daddy around! I second his smile because I was super happy to have him around as well!

I found a coupon online for tickets to Sea World that are the same price as a single day entry! I swear that you should never buy anything without checking for a coupon or discount code first.
We were wondering how Conner would like Sea World. He's a definite animal lover but his attention span in next to nothing. We decided to do the "One Ocean" show with the killer wales. Conner was a little restless as we were waiting but as soon as the first wale jumped out of the water he was GLUED! He kept doing the sign language for more and saying "more please". (He's stopped using all his other sign as his vocabulary has grown but for some reason he still signs more)













Every time that the dolphins swam by Conner would have his face pressed against the window and cheer and as soon as the dolphin swam away he'd turn to us and say "where go?" is a really sad voice.




So the craziest thing happened when we were watching the killer whales in their tank! It was during feeding time so the trainers were tossing in troves of fish and one of the bigger whales decided he would rather eat bird than fish, so he would spit his fish into the air to lure a big white ingrid in (I think that was the name of the bird). Well after a little while doing this one of the birds took the bait and dove down to get the bird and the whale just jumped out of the water and snatched the bird. Then it got a little graphic at that point as they fought over the bird and ripped it's limbs apart!! A lady standing by us got teary eyed and ran out from the observation deck saying "that's horrible". Conner on the other hand thought it was awesome and loved watching them eat it and play with their food.

I LOVE boogies boarding!! I've tried surfing a couple times and the only time I've had much success is on a long board. Maybe someday I'll return to my roots and live in California so that I can learn how to surf for real! We spent hours every day out boogie boarding. It was really nice because our condo was right on the beach so we could put Conner down for his nap and go out and ride the waves and check on him periodically. My family always laugh at me because I like to say I'm from California :) I WAS born in Redondo Beach California but we moved within a year of me being born. I like to say "you can take the girl out of California but you can't take California out of the girl). There's someone about the sounds of the ocean and playing in the waves that just turns the rest of the world off.
Unfortunately we couldn't let Conner get in the waves much because of his tubes in his ears. I tried to put in ear plugs but he wasn't having that! Luckily he can get in the pool as much as he wants just not the ocean :( He could play in the sand and throw shells and rocks on the beach all day long!
 


We spent a lot of time in the pool and by the end of the vacation Conner was fearless. Too fearless! He would just go run and jump into the water without anyone around and pop right back up with his floaties. It still scares me though because sometimes he gets stuck in weird positions so it's important that someone is always there. 

This is the other place we went to at least 4-5 times a day!!! The complex we stayed in had an awesome pond and he was obsessed with the fishes. Usually the first thing out of his mouth every morning when he woke up was "fishies eat now, fishies eat now"