Getting out

So I mentioned in my last post about what a bad Utahn/Salt Laker I have been by not taking advantage of the mountains that are SO close to our home. So, I decided that it was an emergency situation, we should get up there immediately. We spent Saturday night at Snowbird. In my defense, I have been up Little Cottonwood Canyon before...just not the Big, until last weekend that is.

We had so much fun. We stayed at the Inn at Snowbird and enjoyed many activities. We did the alpine slide, the mechanical bull, the bungee trampoline, rock climbing wall and rode the tram up the the top of the mountain.


The boy's loved the slide. We rode that enough times alone to justify the cost of the all day pass. Of course, we had to race every time. I had won each run so Nolan's competitiveness got the best of him and he crashed. Being the good Dad that he is, he sacrificed himself for Cole. He has a disgusting burn on his elbow. Luckily he was wearing jeans because they are actually black from being burned by the friction. What a show off!! Not too be out done, I took a spill the next trip down. I fared better physically, but of course made sure I had an audience for my tumble. I probably could have gotten up faster had I not been trying to give the thumbs up to the poor gentlemen whom I scared the tar out of. This is par for the course for me though. I think I've fallen off more than successfully completing the slide. Luckily, the kids were intacted.

After a few rounds on the slide we took the tram up to the top of the mountain. The top is 11,000 feet. It was freezing up there. There was still quite a bit of snow and fresh tracks on some of the areas from the skiers. Skiing in June. We took a little hike, threw some rocks and chased some squirrels. It was so beautiful up there.

We headed back to the hotel to swim and realized we forgot all the swim gear. The beauty of this resort is that I asked my mom and she kindly obliged meeting Nolan half way to pick up our stuff and it only took about half hour round trip for Nolan to get back. Crisis adverted, Thanks Mom!!

The boys loved swimming. It was so nice. The water was a little chilly but the view was gorgeous. Then we did some more sliding and then it was off to bed for the boys while Nolan and I star gazed on the balcony. It was lovely stay-cation indeed.

How cute is this picture?

Beautiful views

Look at all that snow. We had a snowball fight.

Top of the World

Cole looked so cute and little in his harness.

This is the only photo were he does not look absolutely terrified.

The river was moving so fast. It was just beautiful but horrifying to have the boys even close to. This picture of the boys is totally staged by Cy who stuck this pose and kept it until I took a photo. Love that kid.

Father's Day

We tried our best to make Father's Day nice. We let Nolan sleep in and Cy and I made a fried egg and bacon breakfast for Nolan (the first time I've ever made fried eggs by the way). Cy was excited to help. Cole was eager to play Wii and then eat bacon. The boys had made Nolan some beautiful art at Granny's house and were eager to give him his Spider man card.

We had a fine day, just relaxing and then took a drive up Big Cottonwood Canyon. I am the worst Utahn/Salt Laker ever. I had never been up there before. It is truly ridiculous. Beautiful, just beautiful! I cannot believe I have had this gorgeousness right here my whole life and never take advantage of it. Now I am a little obsessed. It was fun looking around.

There was an incident though. One of the two kids had some tummy trouble that was leaving little warning between upset stomach and getting to the bathroom. We pulled off to do a little hike and he had to go to the bathroom. There was an outhouse, good fortune right? We were third in line and he couldn't wait. We made a mad dash to the woods. I told him to just go ahead, apparently he had never pooped in the woods before and it did not go well. Standing perfectly erect, he let it go. It was everywhere!!! I had to leave him standing out there alone while I ran back to the car for a towel and a blanket. To add insult to injury, it started to pour rain. Poor little buddy. It was all left for me though. Nolan was non the wiser as he had jumped in the car to seek shelter thinking that we were in the outhouse. Probably the best Father's Day gift Nolan ever received.

Go Angels!!!

This was Cy's first "real" season of baseball. He played in the 7-8 year old league, which is machine pitch. Nolan helped coach and Cy had a great season. It was so much fun to see how far he came in a short time. He was the youngest on the team, but fared well. He played third base most often, caught a little bit, until took a ball too hard and was quickly over that. I think he really enjoyed it. I know I did. I like to sit out on a chair away from all the other parents. I have too big a mouth to get too close. I was proud of my good behavior throughout the season. Here are some adorable pictures of the lcute ittle leaguer.

How cute is that?

The crack of the bat

Congrats on a in the park home run

So excited

Cy and Cole made some great friends too.

Take a Hike

I just thought these were some cute pictures from a hike we took up Lamb's Canyon on Memorial weekend. We had never been up there before. We saw 2 deer on our hike and decided we really need to buy a cabin in that Canyon. It would be so nice to "escape" 25 minutes away. I'll start saving my pennies.

End of School Programs

Cy and Cole both had end of the year programs and both were very cute. Cy was singing his little heart out as you can see from the pictures below. Cole...not so much.
Cy is finishing out the first grade. I just cannot believe it. He has loved school this year. His program had many fun songs that highlighted things they had learned such as the water cycle, the continents, months of the year, etc. Cy loves this stuff, although he is always a nervous wreck prior to it. Cute kids!

Cole just finished his first year of pre-school. He has learned so much. I think that occasionally I do not give him enough credit, being my baby, I hold him back. This age is just so cute. Cole was singing, although not giving it 100%. He has enjoyed school this year...mostly. He is looking forward to the summer break. His teacher is so sweet and helped him adjust and learn many new and exciting things. He was the youngest in his class by several months, we are proud of him.

Singing a silly song that required some floor time.

Five Little Speckled Frogs

I'm not sure what was going on here.

With so much Drama in the LBC, it's kinda hard being S-K-I- just one B

I had forgotten to blog about our last night in California. It was the most memorable for sure.
We left Disneyland later than we had hoped. We left at eight o'clock and still needed to eat and get to Long Beach. This, as I have mentioned before, was with Cole in pee soaked pants after waiting too long in line for Splash Mountain. I may, or may not have given him the go ahead to pee in his pants after they had become wet on the ride. I can't recall.
Anyway, we got there in a timely enough manner, then got lost for 15 minutes or so. I was getting the panics. The LBC has been hard for Snoop Dogg at times, I thought it might eat the Skiby's for lunch. Anyway, crisis adverted, we found our way to our hotel which was as close to the airport as I had hoped so I was happy. We checked in, getting situated for our 7:00 am departure the next morning, set the alarm for 5:15 (yikes)...getting ready is taking forever, back and forth to the car a million times. Nolan needs to get gas in the rental car so that they do not charge us $7.99 a gallon. I kiss him goodbye and he mentions his fear of his unknown surroundings, something I had given no thought but now I'm really worried about. Making the fear even greater is his terrible sense of direction., he wanders off singing some Gin and Juice. This task takes forever, I get worried, I call to check on him and he is not answering his cell phone! Now I'm about to cry.... finally he's back, too much luggage to answer the phone.
In the room, Cole's picking on Cy who's already fallen asleep, they both start to cry. I throw Cy in bed with Nolan (a wise choice as you will learn in a moment - and super random, I hate to sleep with my kids) and climb in bed to settle Cole down. It's after ten now, at least an hour and a half later then I wanted us to get to bed.
Everyone is quiet and settled until about 10:30 when I hear Cy puking all over the bed....thank goodness I had put him in bed with Nolan. He puked ALL over the bed, the bedding, the sheets, Nolan, his pj's, himself. I clean him up while Nolan goes down and gets new bedding. I make the bed, Nolan takes a shower. Let's try this again.
Ok, all's well until 11:15 when Cole sits up in bed and I grab the garbage can thinking he is going to puke and smack him in the face with it, bringing him to a full melt down. Apparently, he was just rolling over. Whoops! Now he is crying and crying and crying some more. I takes me a good 20 minutes to get him calmed down. Worrying about waking the people next to us the entire time. Finally he falls back to sleep.
All is quiet (expect for the horribly squeaky double beds we are sleeping in that are rock hard and very noisy) until about 11:45ish when the stinking fire detector starts beeping and flashing because the battery is low. This cannot be happening!! We tried to ignore this for about a half an hour. Nolan gives in and goes to the front desk, gets a 9 volt and is trying to install it in the dark on a rolling chair. I come over to hold the chair for him and he sets off the smoke detector. It is blaring!!! Now I have the giggles so much so that I can't hold the chair still, the alarm stops, now I need a pee break. Come back out and Nolan has given up on the alarm, it is hanging from the ceiling, wires and all, but at least it is quiet.
Back to bed.
I had finally fallen asleep close to 1:00 a.m. when I heard Cole hitting the floor, he had rolled out of bed. In a moment that will cost me my Mother of the Year award, I could not even help him up because I was laughing so hard. Poor little buddy.
Anyway, after that it was useless. I couldn't stop getting the giggles and had given up on the idea of getting any sleep. Cole was sleeping crazy, thrashing all around and talking in his sleep.
I think our exhaustion actually worked in our favor this night. I was too tired to get mad about it .
It was all so funny until the alarm went off at 5:15. NOTHING is funny in the 5 o'clock hour.
We had a successful trip home. Poor Nolan, we dropped him off at work on the way home from the airport. The boys and I went immediately to La Puente, we needed comfort food, and then home for "movie night" at noon featuring more Disney, Toy Story 2. After that, all of us settled down for an afternoon nap. That was amazing!
It is a night we will not soon forget and hope never to repeat.