A Good Citizen

Cy received the Good Citizenship Award at the end of this school year. His teacher announced that he was chosen for the award because he is "responsible, reliable and a friend to all." As a parent you want your kids to be smart and to succeed academically I want all of those things too, and luckily Cy is a great student, but it is most important to me that Cy is thoughtful, kind, respectful and empathetic to his peers. This award helped confirmed what I already suspected; he really is a good little boy and I love him so much.

Memorial Day

We went up to Deek Creek on Memorial for the first fishing of the season. It was so nice to get outdoors finally. It has been a chilly, rainy spring and the summer is anxiously awaited by us all.

Angels Baseball

The Angels finished 9-1 this year. It was a great season. Cy did a terrific job and improves every year. He played catcher, short stop, third base and mostly pitcher...in a machine pitch league. I know that sounds funny but he actually gets a lot of action at that position and it requires someone who can field the ball and make the play at first base. It is fun watching the kids learn about the game. We had a good group of kids and supportive parents. Nolan helped a friend of ours coach and did such a terrific job with the kids. I am proud of his patience with the boys as well as in stressful situations (particularly because I am not so calm). We only had one less than desirable situation with another teams coach. I am thankful that I choose to sit in the outfield at those times. Stinkin' work gets in the way of those 5 o'clock games some times, so we are grateful to Mike Bertelsen for being such an awesome coach and to my parents for always making sure that Cy gets to his games on time. We played in the rain yesterday in a Round Robin tournament and won again. Cross your fingers for all-stars.

Pre-School Graduation

As much as I try to slow time, these darn milestones keep coming. This dreaded day, Pre-School Graduation, flew up on me like a locomotive. I reluctantly went, bribing Cole to stay back in preschool and forget about kindergarten. It didn't work. So instead, I cried all the way there, pulled myself together and giggled over how incredibly cute a bunch of dressed up 4 year olds on good graduation day behavior can be.

Seriously, handsome.

Brothers

They wore these glasses while singing "Here Comes the Sun"

Cole receiving his diploma and announcing he wants to be a veterinarian (sometimes it is a vegetarian) when he grows up.

He also wants to be a basketball player and on American Idol.

Cole and his best buddies.

My Boys

Cole had had enough photo ops by this time.

So proud of him!

Mother's Day 2010

I had a wonderful Mother's Day weekend. Thankyou to my husband and kids for being them. Being a Mom is amazing, exhausting, stressful, fun and rewarding. More emotions than you ever thought you had arise when you have your first little angel. I worry more, love longer, laugh harder and put on a brave face (when I can) more often than I ever did before. I am blessed with such good boys who are thoughtful, sweet , smart and funny. Oh and handsome too. Being a mom makes me appreciate my mother so much more. She is a great Grandma but still an awesome mom. I never play second fiddle to my boys who are way cuter and more fun to be around, so for that I thank her. I love her so much.

Field Trips

I chaperoned a field trip to the Dinosaur Museum at Thanksgiving Point with Cy's class. This is a fun adventure for the second graders because they work on a large dinosaur project every year and learn more information about dinosaurs than you can shake a stick at. Cy had a great class this year. Good kids, who are for the most part adorable and good. He had his first male teacher, Mr. Smith, who Cy loved and so did I. He was awesome. I happily agreed to do this, but of course put rules and regulations about my volunteering with Mr. Smith. I asked that one particular student not be in my group. He is a hand full. Mr. Smith, being the funny guy he is, made sure to put him in my group. I won't tell you which one he is in the photo. However, he is the one I lost about 4 times. It was a good day despite that. When the kids got tired of going through the museum, I fired up a rock/paper/scissors tournament that was a huge success. I volunteered often in Cy's class this year and got to know the kids pretty well. Great kids, I'll miss them.

Look out!!!!

Trying not to lose anyone, stay together.

The same week, Cole had a Field Trip to the Bingham Cooper Mine. This adventure started out less than desirable. First, I was running late, shocking, I know. Second, I threw away the directions to the place, found it easily though, no big deal. I had some cash with me to get in, a hundred dollar bill and 3 ones. When I got to the gate the women told me it was $5. I offered her the hundred dollar bill, she couldn't make change. So she watched me shuffle through my wallet and console for 10 minutes and I came up with $4.97. She asked me to drive back into to Herriman, about 10 minutes away to go to an ATM. Really, really? I don't think that anyone every owes me anything, but you can't possibly let the 3 cents slide when you know I am on my way to a field trip that starts right now? Or offer to lend me 3 cents or let me ask on of the many parents from our group that were waiting behind me if they would be so kind. Normally, I would probably have a smarty pants remark for this woman or at least I would have at least tried to be very charming and try and to convince her to let me through or propose to her an of the fore mentioned offers. However, this particular morning I just didn't have it in me. Instead I turned my car around, headed to Herriman and started to cry. I pulled over just a few yards away to go through the car one more time. I called Nolan to complain about the situation and instead of saying that is pure ridiculousness and consoling me the way I wanted him to, he said "you really can't find 3 more cents?" I realize this was not rude or ill-willed but it made my cry harder. And I did find three more cents. I found a quarter, a melted milk dud and a action figure in a pocket I had almost forgotten about in my purse. Then because I was crying, Cole started to cry. Oops, not the way I planned field trip day going.

We did make our way up the canyon to the pit. I had never been before, it's pretty amazing. Cole has a class full of all boys. His best buddies are Jameson and Cooper. Such cute little guys. We ended up having a fine time and even had a fun date to Winger's after for lunch and a yummy dessert. It was fun having some one on one time with my little guy.

Bingham Cooper Mine

Pre School Friends

Disneyland - April 2010

As I have posted before...I love Disneyland. Love that it is clean, fun and has always been for us, happy indeed. While it is still full of magic, I will soak up every minute of it. This year, however, we started off differently from our other trips. We kept it a secret from the boys. I didn't think I could do it. Who am I kidding. I didn't really do it all that successfully. I had slipped twice. Luckily, they are easily swayed. I can still blame Nolan for something I did when he hasn't been home all day.
Me and Nolan had packed and gotten everything ready for a evening flight on Tuesday. We both went to work, Cy had school and Cole played at Granny and Papa's, so they were oblivious to all of the behind the scenes planning. I picked them up and told them we had to take Nolan to the airport for business. When I said he was going to go to California, they whined and begged to go. After we drove into the airport, I broke the new. Cole was so funny, he just kept saying "We are going to Disneyland this day. This day. No sleeps. This day." After I convinced them that we were not teasing them, they hooted and hollered. It was so fun for us to surprise them.

None the wiser about what is going to happen.

The first day started out a little rocky. I couldn't get our e-tickets to the park to print. Customer Service said that I could take my confirmation # to the ticket booth and it would be okay. The gas station across from our hotel did not have Diet Pepsi in fountain drink form....tragedy. Then when I arrived at the park to retrieve our tickets I realized I forgot my ID....NO. Luckily, I had two credit cards with my name on them and one is a card with the boys' picture on it. I shuffled the boys up for proof that it was us. Kindly, she accepted that as proof of identification. Then the nice women informed me that the tickets I had bought were for 2 days from the current date. I had to take a time out. I was about to cry. She was kind and got it all straightened out for me. This is really typical Cori antics. I'm not sure why I was surprised. Finally, we walked through the gates. Yay, we were there and everything was going to be just fine.

Waiting for Captain EO. During the movie Cole asked me VERY loudly, "Is Michael Jackson a girl or a boy?" Bless his little heart.

Once inside, everything was perfect. The park was very quiet. We started at Star Tours and made our way around the park. We rode all but about 5 rides that first day. We even took a long break to have dinner with a girl we graduated from high school with and her family. That was fun. We went back after dinner to do a few more rides. We stayed until the park closed at 9 and Nolan and I talked about how surprised we were that we were not exhausted after a full day. The park being slow really helps. Just marching from ride to ride is much easier on the feet than racing back and forth. Great day!!!

Cy, Cole and Josie waiting for Pirates

Day two, we met up with the Jewkes'. It was great to spend some time with them too. It is fun to see their girls so excited on the rides and enjoying all the wonder that Disney brings too. Olivia, was a hoot. She talked herself out of being scared on the rides. It was so cute. We did some Disneyland and then went back to the Jewkes' hotel for some swimming. It was SO cold. Of course, the kiddos braved it like it was 95 instead of 60 degrees. The rest of us stayed bundled up pool side.

Eating at the Rain Forest Cafe. You know you've been eating crappy (expensive) park food when this joint tasted like fine cuisine.

Day three was spent at California Adventure. We ended up doing the Aladdin show there. I loved that and so did the boys. We had never seen it before. I couldn't believe it. California Adventure also has one of my favorite rides, Soarin' California. It is amazing. We hooked up with the Jewkes' again just for one last ride and to bid them farewell. This was the day that all of our running around caught up to me. I was so tired. Still stayed late into the evening though. Even with all of our running around and the short lines, we missed a few things. Didn't see any parades and I had been so excited to do the Hall of Presidents....I have fond memories of me and my Grandpa Jo taking a little siesta during that show, and we didn't even get to it.

Woody. Cole was really excited about meeting him.

Nolan took this picture. It's my favorite. Good positioning, Nolan.

Day four was awesome. We slept in, took our time getting ready. Drove down by the Angels Stadium and had lunch. Then we hung out at the pool for a good 6 or 7 hours. It was gorgeous weather. I sipped Mojitos and insisted that everyone enjoy every second of the sunshine (it was snowing back home.) We even called to have pizza delivered because we didn't want to leave. The boys brought their new Lego's down when they grew tired of swimming. We finished it off with watching a movie in bed and going out for ice cream. If only every day were like this day. Life would be grand.

We spent our last day at the beach. The boys love the ocean. I love the beautiful view. We took the ferry over to Newport Beach. The boys thought that was cool. We played at the beach and then we went on a whale watching tour. It was "pretty much just water." That was Cole's take on it anyway. He was pretty much right too.

We saw a hand full of dolphins, but no whales. Even the dolphins, which apparently are usually social and come close up to the boat, were staying far away. Darn it! Even seeing just a couple though is more than we usually see cruising around the waters of Utah. So it was a win.

Cy had to have these aviator sunglasses. So cool!

It turned out to be a great vacation. Could have used a few more days of it. Real life is just not as much fun as someone else cooking, cleaning your room and making your bed, a pool within a few steps and the magic of Disneyland. Can't wait until next year.