Our Adventures at the Cabin

We just got back from a fun little trip to Steve's family's cabin in Scofield (kind of by Price). It was a lot of fun! When we got there, Grayson ran around the deck about 50 times, giggling maddly. He LOVED it! I wish I had captured the moment, but we were unpacking the car while he was doing it, so we didn't get any pics or video. I got some awesome video of him laughing his head off inside the cabin one day, though -- but alas, I do not know how to upload it to the blog. You will have to settle for the pictures I took instead :) Here are a few of them:

Grayson loved to take his books out onto the deck and "read" them outside. He did this over and over with each of his books. I don't know where he got the idea into his little head to do that, but once he did it, that just where he'd go to read from then on.
This is him "reading" the story out loud to me. It's so darn cute, I wish everyone could hear him babble away. He definitely knows what he is saying and always turns the pages with purpose to continue his story. It's hilarious! Smarty pants :)

There were a lot of deer down there! What beautiful animals! This buck was right next to our cabin, and he just layed down and stayed there for hours! He was fun to watch.
Can you find the deer's head peeking out of the grass?! :)

Yesterday we went into town to the one store they have there in Scofield :) and bought Gray some ice cream -- his all-time favorite treat! He was in HEAVEN! And Ollie was jealous, as you can see.
What a mess! But he was SO happy, so I didn't care :)

Gray and his daddy relaxing and watching "Space Chimps" on Steve's laptop. I love Gray's face when he watches videos -- such concentration!! hehe Aren't they so cute?!

And leave it to Grayson to find a broom to play with. *sigh* I will never understand the fascination my child has with brooms. Oh, and another funny story: We were walking out in the woods, and he says "ball!" and points, and I'm like "What do you think looks like a ball?" and I'm trying to say stupid things like "Yeah, those leaves are the shape of balls, huh!" but he's very insistent, so we go over to where he says the ball is, and sure enough! There's a bright blue ball half-hidden under a bush! I felt really stupid. He just looked up at me and said "ball!" again, with this look on his face like "see, mom! duh!" So we brought the ball back with us, I washed it, and he had a great time playing with it the rest of the trip! I guess I learned never to doubt my son's powers to find balls in very odd places. But seriously, in my defense, who would expect to find a blue plastic ball in the middle of the woods?!?

Just a cute picture of him trekking up the road with Ollie.
Beautiful scenery.
Gray got tired 1/2-way up the hill (it's quite a steep hill), so daddy got to carry him. Lucky daddy :)

One view of the Scofield reservoir. Pretty, huh!

My happy boy driving the tractor. Don't know how far he'll get with a sippy cup in one hand, and his elephant in the other. But he's happy :)
Always happy to get shoulder rides from Dad!
We snooped inside a cabin that's being constructed down there. (You can see it in the background of the previous two photos) It's HUGE! And the view from the top floor was AMAZING!

Then back to the cabin for a nap! :) We had SO much fun! Who wants to come with us next time?! :)

Grayson has the BEST daddy!

Grayson has the BEST daddy in the world! Here's a few reasons why:

Steve is always so happy to see Gray, and is so good to play with him, even after a long day's work! Gray LOVES when his daddy gives him shoulder rides, especially when daddy lets him "drive" him into the wall! It always makes him giggle incontrollably!!!
Steve LOVES his boy, and always shows it! He isn't stingy with the hugs and kisses :)
Also not stingy with the snuggles :)
Gray loves it when Daddy reads him books at night!! When Steve isn't home when I have to put Gray to bed, he still gets a book, goes over to the chair, and says "Daddy." Then he cries if I try to read to him. Sometimes when Steve is at work during the day, he'll look around the house forEVER then scream for his daddy. He gets very sad when he can't find him!
His daddy is always ready to do whatever is needed to make Grayson happy. He'll get in the pool with him when Mom says it's too cold to swim :) He'll stop playing in the middle of his video game because Gray wants him to help build a tower. He'll take a break from homework when Gray crawls onto his lap so he can read him a book or blow bubbles. He has gone to great lengths to make sure "Baby Signing Time" is available on every TV, computer, and iPod in the house -- just so Gray doesn't have to go one day without watching his favorite thing ever. He lets me sleep in on Saturdays and gets up with Grayson so he can have a few hours of alone time with him. He works very hard, and often VERY late, so I don't have to work, and I can stay at home with Grayson. He'll take the batteries out of his own game controllers and put them in Gray's toys if those ones run out. He'll let Gray "help" when he's fixing the computer, the car, etc. -- even though he'd get things done a LOT quicker without him -- he even takes the time to explain what he's doing and lets Gray hold his tools for him.
These are only a FEW of the reasons why Grayson's dad is the best daddy ever!!! WE LOVE YOU, STEVE-O!!! Thanks for being my baby daddy ;)

WAHOOO!!!

I got LASIK done yesterday!!!!!!!!! I am BEYOND excited!! I've had to wear contacts/glasses since 7th grade -- it was time for me to SEE!!! :D Let me tell you, the procedure itself was NOT a fun experience -- I felt like I had been abducted by aliens -- and the first few hours afterward were V E R Y painful -- a whole lot more than I was expecting! But by the end of the day, the pain was just a dull ache. Today, it's just a mild discomfort -- kind of like I'm wearing some very old, very gritty contacts -- nothing some ibuprofen doesn't take care of just fine and dandy! My vision's still a little hazy, but I'm seeing better than 20/20 already, and my doc said it'll even get BETTER from here! I went to the movies tonight with my wonderful hubby and our friends -- and I could see SO many details on the screen -- it was quite exciting! By the way, we saw "The Proposal" -- I highly recommend it -- HILARIOUS! I haven't seen a good chick flick in a long time -- and this one did not disappoint! If any of you out there are "The Office" fans, you MUST go see this, just to see Oscar's dance. BWA HAHAHA!!! I seriously got the giggles! Anyway -- I just had to gloat a little that I was lucky enough to get LASIK -- I'm so excited for the little things -- like seeing the clock in the middle of the night, SEEING where I'm going when I get up in the middle of the night when Gray gets up, etc, etc. I would for sure recommend it to anyone that's been thinking about having it done -- I just wouldn't want to do it again :)

Gray and the Fridge

Grayson figured out how to open he fridge today. He then proceeded to take everything off the door, one bottle at a time, say "Ooooo" or "Wow!" then place it gently on the ground next to him. Then he picked them up one at a time, placed them gently back on the shelves, said "bye-bye" to them, and shut the door. I just watched in amazement and tried my hardest not to laugh.

R.A.M.P

Hey, everyone in Weber County! Do you know about the R.A.M.P. program this summer? Every Saturday this whole summer, there are FREE activities for you and your family to go to!!! There are different venues every Saturday from you to choose from -- like the Treehouse, the North Ogden Aquatic Center, the Roy Aquatic Center, Lorin Farr Pool, The Dinosaur Park, Union Station, etc!!! Check out their schedule HERE (then click on the "summer activities" link). Thanks to the Cox family for letting us know about it! I'm excited to try something new every week! And save some dough :)

Fun in the Sandbox!

My mom and dad just bought the cutest sandbox for their backyard! It's adorable! So of course Grayson had to go over and check it out! He had a BLAST! It's definitely a hit! So here are a lot of pictures of him and the sandbox :) (anyone else think I take wayyyyyyyy too many pictures?! whoo!)

His very first reaction to the sandbox! "WOW!"










Silly Daddy burying Gray's foot.
Trying to eat the sand. He figured out REAL fast that he didn't like it!

Oh good!!

This quote helped me today:

"Oh, it is wonderful to know that our Heavenly Father loves us — even with all our flaws! His love is such that even should we give up on ourselves, He never will." - Joseph B. Wirthlin; November 2007

Oh good!!! :) It gives me hope!

Gray at the Zoo!

Grayson, Steve, my parents and I went to Hogle Zoo on Saturday! We had a BLAST! Gray was absolutely fascinated with the animals -- his favorites were the elephants (of course), the giraffes, the crocodiles (he made me go back to them like 20 times - and they weren't even MOVING! How did he even know they were animals?!), the monkeys, and the bears! The poor little guy got something in his eye and/or got bitten by some weird bug right when we got there, so for the first hour or two his eye was red and tearing up, and he had red spots on by his eyes! He had to have been in pain -- but he was such a trouper and was happy the whole time! He also never took a nap -- I thought he might sleep in the stroller, but of course there was way too much going on, plus he didn't spend much time in his stroller -- 4 adoring adults around that were all too happy to hold him and make him happy! :) We rode the train, (which he wasn't sure of - I THINK he liked it), and the carousel twice (didn't like the animal that went up and down, but liked the stationary one). We stayed for like 5 hours, and then he crashed in the car on the way home (after being awake for about 8 hours straight!! I'm such a bad mom!!!) What a fun day! :)


Cool dudes! Gray and his Poppa in their shades!


The black bear -- Gray giggled when he layed down like this -- guess it was funny.

We stayed by the giraffes for a LONG time! He just stared and stared! And one of them came right up close to us and stretched his neck out to eat leaves off the tree with his long tongue! It was so funny!

In awe!

Look at that tongue!! It was so long!

Mine's not as long. But close!

My dad thought the leaves looked tasty, too.


Gray felt inspired by all the leaf-eating and ate the closest thing at hand -- his elephant's ear.

Gray loved the metal tigers -- kept saying "Maow! Maow! Maow!" over and over!

Look how cute these lemurs are! They're snuggling and have their tails wrapped together!! Awwww! Twuuuu wuuuuv!!!

The mandatory drinking-from-the-zoo-fountain picture.

Gray trying to make me let him go get the monkeys.

The monkeys came pretty close to us, too -- guess they thought Gray was one of them :) hahaha I'm so funny.

This monkey was hilarious! It kept swinging upside-down, and all it's bushy fur would puff out around it!

Trying to make me let him go get the elephant!!

He was so excited to see the elephants! Big smiles!

I tried to appease his urge to get the elephants by letting him touch the big elephant statue -- this thing is pretty cool! It makes funny noises and sprays water from it's trunk! Gray thought it was pretty fun.

We got to watch this elephant take a drink from the pool -- it was cool to watch! Oh, and she's pregnant -- 19 months pregnant -- wow! Poor girl! We're gonna have to go back when she has her baby elephant -- I'm sure Gray would love to see it! Me too :)

More watching the elephant -- he didn't take his eyes off it -- he'd crane his neck around everywhere we went!

The rhino! Look at that schnoz!


We stopped by the gift shop on the way out, and Gray picked up this giraffe right away and wouldn't put it down. So his Nana bought it for him :) And then Steve found this fun, soft monkey, gave it to Gray, and then he also wouldn't put that down!!! So his daddy bought it for him, too :) He clutched both of them, and didn't let go of them until he fell asleep in his car seat! And he's carried one or the other around with him everywhere ever since! Thanks Nana and Steve-o! :) He sure likes em!!!

All in all, a very, very fun day! We'll have to go back soon! Don't ya just love the zoo?!!