Utah-Fall Style

We had an awesome trip to utah a week ago but a one week trip was too short! The best part for the boys was hanging out all day with their cousins. Jack was in "play and play" heaven. (Every morning when he wakes up I ask him what he wants to do today and he says, "Just play and play all day.") Here are all the utah cousins all on one slide at once! We hung out with Becca up the canyon. I love hanging out with Becca up the Canyon, it brought back many fun memories. We hit arches on the way home and camped for a night. It was so FUN!! We were able to hike to quite a few of the arches.
I love these boys!

A nice man from new zealand offered to take our pic. 80% of all the tourists there were from other countries. Those Europeans know how to vacation. They come here for a month or two at a time and visit all the national parks.

Here are the boys on the Harley of the guy who camped next to us. He is on a month long bike ride around the country. How do these people get the time away to vacation for so long?

I see you!

I'm a lucky girl

Vacation is awesome...

You may not think of Little Rock Ar when planning a vacation, and frankly neither would we, but we are loving it none the less. It is fun to be back in the Big Rock (as our boys affectionately call it) where Quinn and I have spent some considerable time in the last 5 years.

Weve gone to our favorite Pizza place, our fav frozen custard shop, worked out at the old gym, gone to our former ward and basically driven around town repeating, "Oh, remember when we (fill in the blank) here?" and "Thats where we did such-and-such." We're reliving the glory days like an old married couple .

We hiked to the top of Pinnacle peak today, the highest point in Arkansas. The first time we did it Jack was in my tummy, the next time Jack was on Quinn's shoulders and Chase was in my tummy; this time Jack hiked himself, Chase was on Quinn's shoulders and ? was in my tummy. It is so fulfilling to hike an entire mountain in less than an hour :)

I am in full vacation mode, I have done absolutely no cleaning and very little child care chores (those have all fallen to Quinn as he had been out of town for 3 weeks so it's his turn). Just lots of swimming, eating free hotel food, reading and just having a blast with my husband and kids.
Oh, the best part? We still have 7 more days of this ahhhhhh......

By the way, JK I'm not pregnant....just wanted to see if you were paying attention. Ha, ha

The swimmer boys

We spent a long weekend in the pool at my in-laws house.

My boys are becoming quite the swimmers.

Here is my little "Noodle Cowboy" He was so cute peddaling his way around the pool on his "sea horse."Jump!

That is a belly-flop waiting to happen!
But then he pulls out of it at the last second:
Geronimo!

This is Jack's "Crazy Jumps"
This is why i love my camera, look at that face!

A big BIG thank you to Grandpa Nixon. He wins the award for long-suffering with our fish named jack. Example: He spent 4 hours in the pool with him on Monday!

(And jack still complained about getting out)

This monster came walking past me...

during naptime. Very quietly...just tip-toeing along on its way to the toy room. I looked up from my scriptures and supressed a laugh as I watched for a minute until it banged into the corner.

"Hey, what do you think you're doing Mr.?"

"If you thought I was a pillow, you wouldn't put me back down for naps." Came the muffled reply.

He has got a point there.

Although I wasn't fooled, he got major points for creativity and did not have to go back in his room for naps. I love my 4 year old! He just gets funnier and funnier.

Speaking of funny. Chase is our ham.

I love having a few hours alone with my little pal while Jack is gone to preschool.

He is my little helper, here he is helping with the bathroom cleaning and growling at me while pretending to be a lion. He's a multi tasker.

In other news. Quinn is gone. He left for Little Rock, Ak yesterday. The boys like to call it "BIG Rock", what is it with men and everything having to be big?

I sure miss that Capt of mine. It is not as much fun without him. It is cleaner around the house though. Military boots, back packs, lunch boxes, camel baks or wallet lying around. Gotta look at the bright side right?

We are going to visit him in Little/Big Rock for 9 days over Labor Day, so excited!! The kids are pumped about swimming in the hotel pool/hot tub (they asked repeatedly if there was in fact a hot tub), having waffles for breakfast every day and sharing a room. Flying sure costs alot now. Last time I flew the three of us to Little Rock Jack, not quite 2, sat on my lap and Chase was in my tummy, we all shared a single seat! Now it will take three tickets but it sure will be nice not having to carry anyone around.

I leave you with a pic of the last time we were in the Big L.R.

The best vacation ever!

Our cruise was better than we could have even imagined! As first time cruisers we weren't sure if there would be things we wouldn't like about it, i.ee sea sickness, the food, the entertainment etc. We were pleasantly surprised. The food was gourmet, the service was impecible (we felt like kings!) and Alaska was amazing!

Smiling down on Seattle from atop the space needle.

Experiencing Pike place market.

It has been on my list of things to see for a long long time.


Formal eveing on the ship. It is fun to get dressed up again, mostly just to see Quinn in his Tux uniform, theres something about a man in uniform. He got lots of comments from people about his uniform. Unfortunately this pic doesn't show his 8 medals... 8 medals!

Me on the zip line, what a view of Alsaka!

Quinn crossing one of the sky bridges.

One of the views from our helicoptor ride.

The glacier we landed on and walked on, awesome!

Can you tell the helicoptor is ON a glacier, how cool!

The most amazing thing to me about the glaciers, next to their size, was how BLUE they are! The water was like none I had ever seen.

Our train ride to the top of White Pass Summit.

Then we got on bikes and biked down from the summit, 3000 feet!

I was pretty proud to get this shot while biking.

A different Glacier, a different mode of transportation, canoes!

I saw alot of this.

The view out our state room window. Mountains, tirquoise water and tiny ice bergs!

Me in the climbing competition.

The mens and womens climbing contest gold medalists, yeah, we rock.

I won't describe our competition, it takes away from the glory.

We got to check this place off of Laura's to-do list.

These gardens are pretty amazing, even their trash cans are perfectly planted and groomed.

The Craigderoch Castle

Now the cruise is over but one thing remains...the pounds we put on eating the amazing food!

Crusin'...

Alaska here we come!

Were going to do this:

And this:


And even a little of this:

8 Adventure filled days away from the kids.
8 Days to focus all my attention on my Capt and having fun.
I can't wait!!

San Diego

We had a fabulous trip to San Diego. We love Sea World, we loved the weather, we loved the boats, we loved staying in the hotel, we loved eating out, we loved the BEACH!

"What is this strange substance inbetween my toes?"

Chase loved the ocean until the attack of the giant seaweed.

It was hilarious, he is such a drama king.

The weather was cool and cloudy, such a relief from the AZ sun!

All cozied up in a towel, so sweet!
My dreamy hunk!

(Notice he is actually floating on air)I thoroughly enjoyed just hanging out with my boys on the beach, we went all 3 days!Chase being Chase on our boat tour of the day, what a ham!
A family pic with everyone in it, yeah!


The other ham in our family.

The USS MIDWAY

Another fam pic, not as great...
All the airplanes were Heaven for all 3 boys in the family.

And another fam pic, we did good!