Weekend in AZ

Last weekend the boys and I made another trip by ourselves. We drove down to see my parents for the weekend. Nate was on a scout campout, water skiing on Lake Mead. Rough life for him. Anyway, so I decided no use in me being home by myself!

We went swimming with my sister and her kids at a really fun pool. It only cost 50 cents for the kids to get in! You probably can't tell but Matthew is sitting in the water with his cousin Casey waiting for the water to fall. He loves his cousin Casey. She is almost 7. My parents both work so I just went over to my sister's house and Matthew was really upset that we weren't at Grandpa's house. So I tried to tell him that Tyler and Hunter (his 2 boy cousins) were inside waiting to play with him but he still was upset and wanted to go and see Grandpa. Then I said Casey is inside and he said, "Casey, yesss!" And jumped out of the car and ran inside! They have a special connection(according to Casey) because Casey and my sister came up to help me right after Matthew was born. One day Casey was holding Matthew, she was only 3, and my sister went to take him and he started to cry so my sister handed him back to Casey and he stopped. Then after another minute my sister went to take him again and he started to cry again. This happened a few more times! It was cute so from then on Casey always told everyone that she was Matthew's favorite! I guess it is still true!

My favorite neighbor girl, Katie is getting married and she had her bridal shower over the weekend. It was so fun to go, I am so excited for her. I can't believe that she is getting married! Heck, I can't believe that I have 2 kids! Time flys!


Of course there was lots of swimming in Grandpa's pool. Matthew is even getting pretty good without the floaties!




And Brayden loves Grandma because she will let him wander all around the neighborhood!

This weekend I am staying home! Nate is taking Matthew to the first BYU football game (I was supposed to go but things fell through, don't worry Nate bought season tickets so I will make it to one of the games!) but Brayden and I will spend a nice quiet weekend at home. And I have a list of things a mile long to get done!

Pictureless Vacation

Nate had meetings in S. Cali this week. He was supposed to be gone Tue-Fri. On Wed he called me to tell me that his meetings on Friday were canceled and his roommate was checking out on Thursday to go home. So he told me to hop in the car and drive on over and stay with him in a nice resort. I was a little nervous to take off with the boys by myself across the desert. Okay more truth...I had gotten into my book for book club and had been neglecting my housewife duties and I really didn't have any clean clothes and the bathrooms were disgusting. So I wasn't going to go and I was going to try to convince Nate to come home early. But late Wed nite I was watching the news and saw that it was supposed to be about 108 in Vegas and about 80 in S. Cal over the weekend. That is when I went in and started laundry. The bathrooms never got clean but such is life!



The boys and I took off and made it in 6 hours thanks to stopping a few times and California traffic. Oh well, I didn't get lost! I am very proud of that! Anyway we had a great time going to the beach, hanging out at the pool, going to Sea World, shopping and just enjoying the nice weather from our balcony(we had a nice ocean view!). It was great. The boys had a great time and even slept through the fire alarm that went off at the hotel at 3 am on Fri nite (that is a Gooch trait...a story for another time)! My favorite Matthew moment was Thur nite we ordered room service because there was no way that I was taking the kids out to a restaurant by myself(Nate had a work dinner). The next morning Matthew decided that he was hungry so he picked up the phone and said, "Hello, I need some lettuce and pizza. thank you, bye." He did this a few times over our stay. It was cute and don't worry we had the phone unplugged(that is always one of the first things we do as those buttons are just too tempting for little fingers! And I did bring the camera but I just never got it out. I think that the boys (including my husband) enjoyed not having to stop to pose for pictures! It was a nice quick escape, now it is back to the real world my laundry pile awaits!


Here are a couple of pictures I found online of our hotel. The second one is pretty much the view we had from our balcony....ahhh I wish we were still there!

And it came to pass...

Reading scriptures tonight Matthew insisted on reading. So we told him (he had his scriptures upside down and was in the topical guide) he could. He looked down and said, "I need to make cookies!" We looked at him and said are you sure that it says that. He said, "Yes, I need to make cookies!"

So for those of you looking for an excuse for something sweet, according to Matthew, it is written in the scriptures!

A night out!

My parents stopped to visit last weekend on their way back from Utah. So we took them to dinner and then to see the Beliago fountains (the kids were at our babysitting group, hooray for adult conversation!). They have never seen the fountains, we were trying to show them that not everything in Vegas is dirty and scandalous (most of it is but there are a few things here and there that are fun to see!)

More Oregon

No trip to Oregon is complete without water skiing with the Demings. My brother-in-laws parents were kind enough to let us take out their boat for the day. We had a blast and were sore for 4 days after (that is just part of the fun, right?)

Nate wake boarding! I did ski but Nate didn't take any pictures :(

The whole crew!

Nate and Matthew out on the tube. Matthew did pretty well. I think he was scared at first but Nate said he got used to it. Shortly here after my bro-in-law got "pulled" over by the boating police. $800 ticket!! Luckily he just got off with a warning!

My nephew and I on the tube. Right before we started Jake started reading the warning label. "Serious injury or death could occur from riding" YIKES!! Jake thought it was hilarious to freak me out, it has been at least 6 years since I have been out boating!

Brayden trying to drive the boat. He was not happy to be in the life vest and he let everyone know that he thought we were terrible parents for making him wear one. It is hard to be 17 months!



Heading back from a long day!

Matthew on the plane ride home. He thought he was so cool with the headphones...whatever to keep him happy! He did great, Brayden was another story! On our first flight from Oregon to SLC Brayden screamed the last 15-20 minutes and then the last 2 minutes he finally fell asleep. And some lady from the back of the plane as she was getting off yelled at Nate and told him that it was the worst flight that she had ever been on because we couldn't get our kid to stop screaming. Then she stormed up to the front of the plane and chewed out the flight attendant and the pilot before huffing off the plane! Some people have a lot of nerve! Like we were trying to get him to scream, contrary to popular belief we don't enjoy the screaming.

Wedding

Last weekend we went to Oregon (we are trying to escape from the heat as much as possible can you tell?). My sister just moved up there, Nate's old roommate from college was getting married in the Portland temple, and we had some buddy passes on Delta that we about to expire so we figured what the heck lets go! It was beautiful 85 degrees, ahhh nice. It was funny to hear people complain about how "hot" it was, he hee they don't know what hot is. Oh well I don't know what wet is! Anyhoo, the wedding was so nice. His old roommate, also named Nate (yeah that was fun, I slipped once and said I was married to Nate and then got a bunch of funny looks oops not that Nate!) married a really cute girl. And they were so happy it was contagious.

I love going to weddings, it always makes me remember our wedding day. It is always good to be reminded that you are a couple and not just parents. Not that being parents is bad sometimes I think that we just get worn out from taking care of the kids and don't leave enough time for each other.



The sealer gave some great advise to this couple. He talked about living in California and earthquakes. Apparently his family moved about 18 months before the huge earthquake in San Fran. He said that his old house was built on a slab of granite and it was the only house in the neighborhood to not have any major damage. So he compared this to starting your marriage on a strong foundation and that life will bring storms and "earthquakes" but with a strong foundation they would be able to weather any storm. He did a great job.



When Nate and I got married the sealer talked a lot about the covenants that we make from baptism to being married. How important they are to getting us back to our Father in Heaven. It has always helped me to listen better during the Sacrament and at the temple. It was good for me.



So anyone else get any good advise when you got married?

Lazy Days of Summer

As soon as I got the camera out Brayden moved but he was leaning all the way back on the pool, looking around, sucking on a rock. He was doing some serious relaxing. It is very stressful to be a 17 month old.

Of course as soon as I got out the camera, Matthew had to perform going down the slide...little show off!

What else to do on a hot (110 degree) sunny day but play in the bathroom cabinets!