Utah

We mixed work with pleasure and went to Utah for a week. Jeff did the work and we mostly relaxed, although Jeff had fun too. We are grateful that my grandparents let us stay at their house and I love that my kids get to have a relationship with their great grandparents. Cooper is in heaven in their backyard and loves to help grandpa with chores. He follows him around the backyard and says what you doing grandpa? Grandpa put him to work this day and let him water the flowers. He treats him like a big kid and it is funny to listen to him talk to Cooper. I think he forgets he is only 3 but Cooper loves it!

This picture is hilarious. If you look where the hose is going, it is going down the window well! Grandpa kept saying not down the window but I'm sure that is where most of the water went.

And of course the spray bottle. He was spraying the pond and the fishes were coming to the top so he loved seeing the fish.

This is mostly how we spent our days. Just chilling on the swing. We seriously had the best week! I was so sad to go, but hopefully we will be back soon! Jeff enjoyed talking to my grandpa. They were always talking about something important. Jeff talked his ear off, but I know he enjoyed the company. My kids had so much fun and said it was the funnest summer vacation!

Cooper is 3!

This kid is all about the simple things. I love it. I didn't plan a dang thing for his birthday and he was so happy. I gave him this spray bottle and he sprayed all the flowers in the backyard while we just sat and enjoyed the weather. He seriously was in the backyard all day. We didn't even go anywhere for lunch/dinner because I knew he didn't care about that at all. I made cupcakes that evening and we had ice cream cones outside again so the kids could play. I did buy balloons though and blew them up and put them all over the basement so he could run around and play with them. That kept them entertained for the week too.

Cooper got to celebrate his birthday in Utah. It was fun to be by some family. Jillyn had the morning off and we opened presents in Grandma and Grandpa Hansen's backyard so they could watch too. He had so much fun and got lots of fun presents. Becky sent him bubbles before we left and Grandma Shellee had a package waiting for him at Grandma Hansen's house. I didn't need to buy him anything cause he loved Grandma Shellee's presents the best!

Grandma Hansen tried to put candles in his muffin for breakfast but he wanted nothing to do with it. It was kind of funny that he was mad she did it! I can't believe my baby is 3! He has been such a joy in our life. He makes us laugh on a daily basis. He is for sure 100% boy and gets into trouble all the time, but he can also give you the best hugs and kisses out of the blue and makes you forget the little stink he can be. Happy Birthday Cooper!

Oquirhh Mountain Temple

We had the wonderful opportunity to take our kids to the Oquirhh Mountain Temple open house. The spirit was very strong there and I couldn't help get teary eyed as I saw my children looking intently in each room and asking questions. It is a beautiful temple and I am so grateful for temples and that we have always lived close to one. I think when Jeff and I go to the temple now the girls will have a better idea of why we go. We ended in one of the sealing rooms and there was a couple in their that bore their testimony. Jeff took the girls to the mirrors to show them how they can see themselves for eternity. It reminded me of our sealing and I got teary eyed as I could look and see my little family forever through the reflection in the mirrors. It was windy and very sunny so our pictures didn't turn out the best.

I love this picture! It was so sunny so I told the kids to close their eyes and open them when I said 3. Of course Cooper didn't catch on!

Jeff"s Birthday

You've had a birthday shout Hurray!

We want to sing to you today.

One year older and wiser too,

Happy Birthday to you!

We have the best dad/husband in the world. He always works hard for us regardless if it is his birthday. We got to party and swim with our cousins and Jeff was job hunting. Not a very fun birthday, but that was the main reason for our visit. That night though we got to go to our favorite restaurant in Provo, Brick Oven. Oh so yummy! And the girls were so excited to tell our waitress it was his birthday. They came and sang to him and gave us this delicious mud pie. And of course a trip to Brick Oven isn't complete without their cookies.

BBQ with cousins

My cousin Natalie just moved back from Germany and is staying in Utah for a few weeks until their next adventure. She has 3 girls the same age as my kids and JaNae came over with her 3 kids and we had a yummy BBQ. Jeff was the only husband there so he was the griller. He did a fabulous job on the chicken. While the moms were getting dinner ready the kids had a blast in Uncle Ken's backyard. He has a beautiful backyard and the kids loved finding roly poly bugs in the flower gardens. They seriously had close to a hundred. At the end of the night they let them all go back in the soil. These kids all got along great. Not everyone is in the picture but there were 9 of them. It was a fun night!

Fireworks and swimming

Friday was Pioneer Day. I have never been in Utah on that holiday and let me tell you it was quite the holiday. Jeff actually worked that day for my cousin and that night we went back to his house for the best firework show and swimming. Chris and his inlaws had tons of fireworks and my kids thought it was so cool to sit on the front lawn and watch my cousin and his brother in laws light fireworks. My kids waited all day for this and it did not disappoint. We had a BBQ with my 2 other cousins and their kids first, so by the time we were finished with fireworks it was like 10:30 but my kids were so excited to swim so we went to the backyard and went swimming/hot tubbing until midnight. My kids were so nice, I couldn't believe it was already that late.

They burned the left overs in the road and Lindsay and Caitlyn were trying to relight their sticks! They had so much fun laughing and dancing in the road.This is Caitlyn. She is my cousin Chris's daughter. She is going to kindergarten this year so her and Lindsay have fun together.

The big 3 year old

Cooper had a fun birthday in Utah. When we got back there was a card in the mail for him from his Nelson cousins. They of course know him well and it was a Thomas the Train card. He has been carrying it around all day.

I came into his room after church and he was just chilling on the floor with his toys. So funny.

Snake River Stampede

Last night we went to the rodeo. We had so much fun! The kids got free passes from the library reading program. It was of course general admission, but the arena wasn't that big so we still had good seats. Lindsay was in heaven because she thinks she is a cow girl. Cooper loved the calf roping and says he wants to have strong arms and wrestle cows! He was kind of crazy last night but as soon as everyone would clap, he would stop whatever he was doing and clap too. We lasted the whole time and the kids keep asking if we can go again.

Our favorite spot

Daisy was in charge of FHE Monday night and she planned a lesson all by herself (it was her lesson she had Sunday). She did a great job. She finished and said, "Now we are going to go to the river and throw rocks in it." So we thought it would be fun. We went to our favorite spot. It has a shaded path and every once in awhile there is an opening so you can walk down to the river. My kids think it is so fun to throw huge rocks in and make big splashes try to splash each other.Lindsay found this "rolly polly" and played with that all night instead of throwing rocks.

Cooper found the hugest rock and chucked it in the river. He won the splashing contest.

Unfortunately Jeff was standing in the wrong place. He turned around with a ticked off face cause he thought it was me. When he realized it was Cooper, we all had a good laugh.

These two decided to brave the freezing water.

Baby Steps

This might not seem that great, but we've had a break through at the Hall house. Cooper is wearing his big boy Thomas the Train underwear! He would kick and scream when we would talk about wearing them, or even try to put them on. On Sunday we came home from church and got his little potty out and brought out the underwear. He screamed while we put them on, so I said he could take them off if he sat on his potty. He said Ok!!!!!!! We turned on Little Mermaid and he sat there for like an hour. I went in to the other room and he was left all alone. I heard his voice saying he peed in the potty. And he did! We were all jumping up and down and making a huge deal! Of course he is no where near potty trained, but I felt like this was a huge step for us!

He looks so stinkin cute in underwear, I wish he would just get potty trained!

MK Nature Center

We found another cool place and the best part, free! It took us awhile to find it so we took a little detour but saw lots of cool parts of Boise. The nature center has lots of paths with flowers, gardens, trees and water. You could stand on the bridge and look in the water and see lots of fish. Cooper of course loved it.

They had these windows you could look in and see under the water at all the different stages of fish life. It was very cool.

There was a park next door so we let the kids play for awhile. We started our trip late so it was 9:00pm when we left the park and of course Cooper didn't want to leave so here he is crying and he got really annoyed when I took the camera out!