Preschool

So I'm going to sound like a big crybaby when I say this, but I'm going to anyway. My little boy is growing up. Isaac started preschool two weeks ago. I'm not afraid to admit it's made me a little sad thinking about how this is the start of many years of school for him. Then what? College? A mission? Who knows. I totally cried after I dropped him off that first day. Don't judge me. It was sad.

Here he is on his first day.

It's kind of a goofy smile. I couldn't get him to give me a good one.

He likes going for the most part. The last few times he's cried for a few minutes when I first drop him off, but then he's just fine. He's already learned most of the Pledge of Allegiance and several fun songs he likes to sing in the car. I think it will be good for him to be around different kids and have more structure in the day.

Yellowstone National Park

Earlier this month we made the drive to Yellowstone National Park. Just Greg, Isaac, and me went. While I love going on vacation with our families, it was fun to be together with just our little family and go at our own (read: Isaac's) pace.

We left on a Thursday afternoon and drove to Idaho Falls and spent the night there. The next morning we headed the rest of the way to West Yellowstone. We made it there about noon and after checking into our hotel, Isaac had to make sure there was a pool, we went into the park. Anyone who has been through the West Yellowstone entrance within the last, oh, eight or ten years knows that one of the first animals you're going to see is a bald eagle. There is nest right off the side of the road.



Soooo cool.


I think the animals are my favorite thing about Yellowstone. It's amazing to see them. That first day in the park we were lucky enough to see this buffalo up close. And when I say close, I mean he was less than 5 feet from the car.




I don't think you can see them in the pictures, but there were people STANDING outside their cars with this huge animal just feet away from them taking pictures. That is insanity. In fact one of the papers you are given when you first enter the park is an illustration of a guy getting flipped up in the air by a buffalo's horns. It said on it "Many visitors have been gored by buffalo". For some reason, Isaac thought that was hilarious. So, as we were watching this buffalo from our car and these crazy people are getting out and taking pictures in front of this beast, Isaac was yelling, "Many visitors have been gored by buffalo!!" I didn't even bother to tell him to be quiet. LOL.

We also saw elk and sheep.



Of course there's the other cool features that Yellowstone has. We went to see Old Faithful and while we were sitting around waiting for it to go off, Isaac decided to try his hand at photography. Here's a sample of his work:





When he was tired of waiting for Old Faithful, he decided to entertain the people around us with a chant of "Let's do this, Old Faithful!" and various dance moves. He's such a ham. When Old Faithful finally went off, we got sprayed big time.


One thing I didn't remember from past visits to Yellowstone, is the smell. It's pretty bad. Every time we would get out of the car, Isaac would say, "Ew, geyser!"



Here's my favorite thing we saw.





It's in Mammoth Hot springs. It was so pretty. it looked like someone had come in and designed it. The picture doesn't do it justice. It was made of salt and minerals, but it looked like ice in the middle of the desert.

We also pulled off the road and dipped our feet in the river. It was COLD!




The one animal we didn't see in the park was a bear. In fact, we went to buy Isaac a t-shirt and he told me he wanted one that said, "Isaac went to Yellowstone and didn't see a bear." LOL. So on the way home we stopped at Bear World in Rigby, Idaho. You drive your car through this little zoo where bears, buffalo, elk, and wolves roam around. It's pretty neat. They also have a petting zoo and a few kiddy rides.

Yellowstone has so many cool things and we had a lot of fun. Here's just some more random pictures. As if I hadn't posted enough already. ;)

If Wasn't For Pictures . . .

. . . I don't think I could tell you what we have been doing all summer. Seriously, it's a good thing I bring my camera along, and that Greg takes pictures (because I usually forget). I feel like one thing runs into another these days. So here's what we've been up to.

The first part of June we went to Hill Air Force Base and saw the air show. So cool. It's amazing what they can do with those planes.

Also in June we went to Idaho to a Baldwin family reunion. It was fun to see so many of Greg's family even if it did rain on us for most of the day. They had fun games for the little (and not so little) ones. Greg's dad did all the food and it was really good. He works wonders with a dutch oven.

Here's Isaac trying to win the marshmallow eating contest. I think he stuffed three of those big marshmallows in his mouth.

A water balloon fight broke out as well. You can tell by the look on his face that he was right in the thick of it.

For the Fourth of July we went to my uncle Preston's house for a barbecue/family reunion. He lives on a farm so Isaac HAD to go find the tractor.

We also went to a parade with my sister, Melanie, her husband, Dan, and Dan's family. Dan's family is so good to Isaac. Dan has three sisters and Isaac thinks they are super cool. So the day of the parade Isaac picked flowers for all the girls. How cute is that!

A few weeks ago we went fishing. We were there for about 4 1/2 hours and caught ONE fish. Oh well, I got to work on my tan a little.

And don't mind Isaac's swollen eye. He got a mosquito bite the night before and it swelled (?) up really big. I did end up taking him to the doctor and come to find out he is more allergic to mosquitos than most people. Want a closer look at that eye? Here you go.

Pretty gross, eh? It actually got worse than that before it got better. Poor kid.

And of course summer for us means boating. And so not to bore you with details from our almost weekly boating trips I'll leave you with some of our better boating pictures.

Self Portrait

Isaac drew this picture of himself

Don't you see the similarities?

Changes

Wow. It has been so long since I updated my blog about what's been going on in our lives. Let's just say there has been A LOT.

The first and most major thing was that around the first part of March Greg was laid off from his job. I know so many other people are going through this right now. That has got to be one of the worst phone calls you can get from your husband. I can't even imagine how hard it was for Greg to call me and tell me what was going on. Yikes. As most of you know, he worked at a company that sold moulding and other wood products wholesale. With the building industry the way it is right now, no one in that line of work is doing very well. Greg had survived a few rounds of layoffs, but I guess it was just his turn this time. With this job, they had provided him a car, cell phone, and our insurance was through them. So now we were out of all of these things. We were able to borrow a car from my parents (thanks Mom & Dad!) and that was a life saver. With me working and Greg out there trying to find a new job, I don't know how we could have done it with only one car.

After a month of job hunting and over 25 interviews, and 4 job offers, Greg went to work for a company that sold products to teach people how to invest in the stock market. I know, total turn around from his last job, right? He learned a lot, but it wasn't right for him. So after a month there he went to work where he is now at a staffing company. He is doing outside sales which is what he was doing before with the moulding/wood products. Such a better fit. He really likes it, and is doing well at it. He's been there for three weeks now.

During this whole time, we were looking for a new car. I have decided that if forced into it, I HATE car shopping. We didn't know what we wanted, weren't really sure how much we wanted to spend, and couldn't agree on anything. Uggh! We had looked at getting another car . . . and looked . . . and looked. Then last week, Greg's sister, Heidi, said that her friend who worked for the LDS church motor pool just happened to have this Chevrolet Trailblazer the church was selling. I guess they sell their cars all the time. Anyway, it was in our price range (we'd decided on a price by this point) and so we thought we'd check it out. It was perfect. And it was a great deal! Even better! So we snatched that thing up. I'll have to post a picture of it later. I feel like such a soccer mom driving it though. Oh well. I like it.

So, on to some pictures.

I missed an Easter post while I was in my blogging funk. Isaac thought the Easter Bunny was soooo cool. He couldn't believe that he actually left eggs in our house! He also got a book and a movie and a pair of flip flops in his basket.

Here we all are dressed up for church. I realize that we are a little matchy-matchy. We really didn't plan it that way. Isaac is the only one that got new clothes for Easter.

And this last weekend being Memorial Day weekend, we were super busy. We had a lot of fun. On Saturday we went with my family and took my parent's four wheelers and motorcycles out to for a spin. Isaac had a blast! At one point, however, Isaac and I were on one of the four wheelers that shifts automatically. Like, you just hit the gas and it will go as fast as it can go. I slowed down to turn around to see where Greg was, and apparently Isaac didn't think we were going fast enough. He hit the throttle with his thumb, and off we went bouncing across the desert at full speed. I freaked out and yelled at him to let go of the gas. He thought it was funny and was laughing! I almost wet myself. He did let go, and we did eventually stop just before running into another group's camping spot.

On Monday, we went with my family again, but this time we took my parent's boat out. We went to Willard Bay. I finally got to use my Mother's Day present. A new wet suit. I was proud of myself that I got up on my first try.

Here's Greg. He's obviously much better than I am.

The water is still too cold for Isaac to get in, but he'll beg any of the guys in the boat to dip his feet in the water for just a second. When it gets warmer, he'll do some tubing.

Isaac's favorite thing to do lately is to go outside and play baseball. I would love to find a team for him to play on around here, but he's too young this year.

No, I did not pose him for that picture.

20 Questions

I have been putting off posting anything on here, because I knew it would have to be a huge post. We've had a lot going on around our house. But, I'm going to have to come back and do that. Instead, I'm going to respond to a tag I got on Facebook about being a Mom. Thanks Tonya! I thought it would be good to keep some record of this rather than have it be deleted by Facebook someday. So here goes:


1. How old were you when your first child was born? 26

2. What month and year was your youngest child born? October 2005

3. How did you feel when you first found out you were pregnant? It didn't seem real for the longest time. Oh, and I was really sick for the first few months.

4. Who did you tell first? Greg. Then our parents.

5. How many pounds did you gain during your first pregnancy? 50! What a fatty. Though I had a condition that made me retain tons of water. I was a balloon with opposable thumbs.

6. What did you crave while you were pregnant? Mexican food. I ate at Rubios A LOT. Is that technically Mexican food?

7. Did you find out the gender of your first child? Why or why not? Uh, YES. I couldn't stand not knowing.

8. Did you have any complications during your pregnancy? I ended up with pre eclampsia and high blood pressure. It was bad enough that I was induced 4 weeks early.

9. How much did your first child weigh? 6 lbs 14 oz. Pretty big for being early!

10. Was your first child early, late, or on time? Early. See #8, above.

11. What is the most difficult challenge or health issue that any of your children have faced? We've been pretty lucky. The hardest thing we've had to deal with was reflux. Isaac was over that by 10 months old.

12. What's your favorite part of being a mom? I love watching Isaac's personality develop. He amazes me with how quickly he figures things out, and makes me laugh every day.

13. Do you think it's easier to be a mom or a dad? I don't think one is easier than the other. They both have different challenges.

14. What is the best piece of advice you could give to someone who is about to have their first child? Chill out! lol. Relax and enjoy your kid.

15. Did you always think you'd have kids? Yep.

16. What's been the biggest surprise about motherhood? The overwhelming urge I have to protect him.

17. Are there things you miss about life before kids? That's easy. More free time. But now, if I have some, I wander around aimlessly.

18. How many children do you have? Just one.

19. Do you plan to have any more children? Yeah, probably.

20. Who's the mom that you admire most? My own mom. She is the most giving and unselfish person I know.

Popadoodle

What is a popadoodle you ask? It’s anything you want it to be.

Isaac made up the word a couple of months ago and it’s stuck. Here’s a few examples of how he uses it:

As a cuss word. Example: "What the popadoodle are you doing?"

A name for his stuffed animal. Example: "This is Popadoodle Dog."

Apparently you can eat it. Example: "I want a popadoodle sandwich for lunch."

We just now asked him what it what a popadoodle was, and he says it’s a car that’s driving.

So, if you ever find yourself in search of just the right word, use popadoodle. Just remember to thank Isaac next time you see him.