Our Journey to Forever

Friday, July 31, 2009

Busy Day

Pictures taken July 17, 2009

We started a spontaneously busy day by heading to the park before library craft time. The boys were dressed to swim because we would be heading to DayBreak Lake afterwards.

Poor Peter got stuck wearing this dreadful looking hat. It was such a hot day and we were spending so much time outside that I wanted to try it. He seemed fine with it, but every time I look back on the pictures I feel guilty for dressing him that way!

We were glad to have Ammon's towel with us because the playground equipment was too hot to touch.

He used the towel to go down the slide.

After a while of having fun/suffering in the heat of the day, we headed in to the library. First we just hung out in the kids section and had fun.

When our cousins arrived, we joined the art/craft project that we were there for.

The kids all had a great time and took their art very seriously. (They always do.)

When that was over, we headed to the lake. It was nice to be by the cool water. Ammon had a great time and ran around with his cousins.

Peter never got wet, but had a great time on the playground and was happy when Daddy met us there after work. Then, we went home to eat dinner and go to bed.

Thursday, July 30, 2009

Family Date

Pictures taken July 16, 2009

I have found that although I love going on dates with my husband, I equally enjoy dates with the entire family. Ammon, Peter and I headed out to swimming lessons, not expecting to see Andrew until around 8:00 that evening. He surprised us by pulling up right behind us. Ammon was so proud to have Daddy watching him at his swimming lessons. It seemed like he was giddy for days that Andrew had come.

Peter had gotten on a strange schedule that day, so I decided it would be fine to keep them up late. We had dinner, and then ran some errands as a family. One of the things we did was buy the boys each some new underwear. We have had potty training items available for Peter for some time, but he has had a great aversion to having anything to do with the toilet or with underwear. Finally, one day, he started crying, "underwear Ammon, diaper Peter". He gets really stuck on what belongs to who, so I thought that if we bought them both stuff at the same time Peter could see what belonged to Ammon and what belonged to him. He was thrilled beyond belief with his very own Thomas the Tank Engine set of underwear!

By this time it was late enough to take the boys out for a special night of half-price appetizers at Applebees! What a fun family night!

The boys had a blast being there with Mommy and Daddy. We colored and ordered and colored some more.

And of course Mommy insisted on getting out the camera! Don't ask my why I have that weird pointing finger directed at Ammon - I have no idea! But I do know that we had a great time and to top the whole evening off, the boys fell asleep in the car on the way home! What a perfect night!

The Disappearance of Ammon

Pictures taken July 15, 2009

My sister and I took our children to the Riverton Library for story time. It was a princess theme so it seemed like it would be more for her girls than for my boys. Still, it was something to do out of the heat. And my boys always love a chance to play with thier cousins.

It turned out that the princess did an amazing job including princes too and I think all of the kids had a great time. The story time was really meant for children 3 and older so I took Peter and kept him in the children's area while the other children were listening to this princess who really seemed to come straight out of a Disney cartoon.

After it was all over, Ammon came running out to find me, asking for my camera. Apparently the princess was going to take pictures with the children. He was so excited that after I sent him back with my camera, I decided to follow him and make sure everything went well with getting the picture taken. Much to my dismay, he wasn't there! Katy and I began a fruitless search of the entire building. I even went out to the parking lot and glanced over at the park next to the library. Ammon was no where to be found! Now, Ammon gets "lost" all the time. He is really confident and wanders off, and I always find him - eventually. But we had 4 other kids searching through the building and we were constantly aware of where each of them were. It seemed impossible that Ammon could be missing in such a small building and that we wouldn't have found him by then. This is the first time in my life where I genuinely started to believe that someone had abducted him. Nothing else made sense to me - he had been so excited to get his picture taken I couldn't imagine him not returning to get it done. We were just about to call the police when I decided to check over at the park one last time. And, much more true to character, we learned that Ammon had just run off and was keeping himself entertained. No kidnappers involved! In all of his excitement he had run past the hallway leading back to the room where the princess was, so he just continued out the door. He was quickly distracted by the playground and was having a grand 'ol time. So, we scolded him for a moment, then ran back to get the picture!

After pictures, we stayed for the craft project that was going on that day. I was impressed that even Peter got into the cutting paper and they all had a good time.

Sunburn and a Fly

Pictures taken July 14, 2009

I have been meaning to get the kids out to the spray mark for quite a while. They loved going when we lived in AZ last year and I can't believe I hadn't gotten around to it. I recruited my sister-in-law Jennifer to come with her two children. We went to the spray park in Riverton, which has the added advantage of a playground right with it.

As it turned out, spray parks work better in 120 degree temperatures. The water is much more inviting, and no amount of wind makes it too cold to be wet.

Still, they had a good time on the playground. After a while we decided to abandon our activity and just headed back to Jennifer's house. To our surprise, they were much more eager to play in her pool than they had been to run through the water at the spray park.

I took some pictures of the boys together. I kept trying to get Ammon to look at me. I couldn't tell, through my camera lens, what it was that was holding his attention. Turned out he had a fly planted on his finger. Gross!

I got several pictures with that fly sitting there. Michael wasn't sure whether he should be interested or disgusted...

Ultimately they had a fun time in the water. I also learned the power of sunblock that day. When we had first gotten into the car that morning, I reached back and put the sunscreen on Ammon's stomache. He wasn't wearing a shirt, and that's what I could reach. I guess I forgot to finish the job. He ended up with a fantastic tan/burn all over his shoulders and back. The "tan line" was literally the uneven strokes of my hand prints up near the top of his chest. I felt horrible!

Luckily the burn never seemed to hurt Ammon too much. There was some mild peeling a couple days later, but nothing major. It was a fun day!

Wednesday, July 29, 2009

Fresh From the Garden

Pictures taken July 12, 2009

The peas in the garden turned out to be a brilliant success this year. In fact, they all grew so well that in the end we had to pick them in a frantic frenzy before they stopped tasting good. We like them when they are a medium size - they stay sweeter that way.

Ammon and Peter both had a good time out with Grandma picking the peas. I think it was fun for them to see a garden in action.

I was actually inside making dinner while these guys were out here picking away, so I don't know much about how things went for them. I am grateful for Andy, who was willing to go out and take pictures for me. These boys are just so cute!

TriathalonTraining

Pictures taken July 11, 2009

The boys and I discovered that it is fun to have Andrew training for his first triatholon. It means family swim time at the pool! We all went over to the South Jordan Recreation Center for some swimming which also gave Andy a chance to swim a few laps. Peter was adorable and enjoyed spending most of his time in the kiddie pool area.

Ammon had fun adventuring off everywhere. My favorite moment was when he was in the kiddie pool with me and we practiced kicking the way he had learned in his swimming lessons. He quickly corrected my form and told me that I needed to keep my legs straight and my toes pointed. We also had fun going around the lazy river.

It was fun to have an afternoon of family time. The boys and I love the times that Andy is available to join in on our daily adventures.

Ice Age and Swimming

Pictures taken July 09, 2009

From our free McDonald's trip, we learned that the happy meal toys were from Ice Age 3. We had just recorded Ice Age 2 on TV so my sister and I got together and decided to give the kids an Ice Age day. We went to McDonald's where they all got toys.

All of the kids were able to get the exact toy they wanted, which completely shocked Katy and me. After eating and playing, we went back to my place and the kids had fun watching the movie and playing with thier new toys.

By the time the movie was over, we needed to head out to swimming lessons. Peter and Isaiah watched their older siblings splash and have fun in the pool. I always expected Peter to want to jump in after Ammon, but he was happy to dress the part and observe from the sidelines.

Another activity they did during lessons was take turns walking over to the deeper end to jump into the water from there.

Ammon wasn't supposed to plug his nose and some of the time he was really good about not using his hands. But at one point I think he got some water up his nostrils, because he went through a little phase of not wanting to go in without his nose plugged.

Once they were in the water they needed to turn back around towards the side where they came in, and stretch out their arms to swim and reach their way back out.

I liked knowing that feeling confident about getting out of the pool themselves was one of the first things they learned how to do.

Monday, July 27, 2009

Life-Sized Chess

Pictures taken July 07, 2009

I was running errands with the boys the other morning and we decided to stop by a McDonald's for a treat. We got there while they were still serving breakfast - something we never do. After waiting for a while to order, I had my card ready to pay with when I stepped up to the cash register. I was told that they were only taking cash for the time being.

I didn't have cash to pay with, but figured that we would just play in their play area. To my surprise, they told me that my order would be on them. I hadn't ordered yet, so I felt kind of strange just creating an order knowing that it would be free. I ended up just getting the breakfast kid meals for the boys.

The play area was lots of fun - Ammon especially loved the large chess game. He kept wanting me to play chess with him. I told him that we need to go back and we'll bring Daddy next time.

Swimming Lessons

Pictures taken July 06, 2009

Ammon had an absolute blast in his swim lessons this summer. It was a two week session and he totally loved it! They started with blowing bubbles in the water to get the kids used to putting their faces in. Ammon had learned this from cousins who had been in lessons previous years, so he was pretty comfortable with that right off the bat. They also had the kids turn around on the step and work on their kicks.

The first real swimming they did was the Superman Glide. They just reached out their arms like Superman and floated through the water.

The teacher worked with each child one at a time and had an assistant who also took a turn with each child.

At the end of the lesson, they had 10 minutes of free time and were allowed to play in the pool with whatever toys they chose.

Peter was diligent about coming to every lesson and watching his big brother. He made sure to dress the part and always came ready to swim - with just his shorts on.

Fireworks - 4th of July 2009

We had such a full day that we decided to bail out on our plans to go watch city fireworks, and we set up in the front yard to watch fireworks in the street instead.

We saw a lovely sunset as we set up our chairs and when it was dark we started the sparklers.

Ammon seemed a bit uncertain about taking his first sparkler. He's done them in years past, but it still takes a leap of faith for a child to willingly stick out their hand and grab a stick of shooting flames...

Once he got over that initial concern, he had a blast!

Peter also loved the fireworks and kept asking for more. It seemed that they ran through them too fast for Andrew to keep up.

Pretty soon, our neighbors put on a great firework show that they let us watch with them.

The boys did a few more sparklers while they watched the flowers going off in the street.

After the sparklers were done the real fireworks started! The kids had fun watching the rockets and other fun things.

Overall, it was a fun night. We were glad that my sister and her family came over to spend the time with us.

Next year we hope to go to an actual show, but for this year, hanging out at home was the perfect end to a really fun day.

Family Proclamation

The First Presidency and Council of the Twelve Apostles of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints

We, the First Presidency and the Council of the Twelve Apostles of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, solemnly proclaim that marriage between a man and a woman is ordained of God and that the family is central to the Creator's plan for the eternal destiny of His children.All human beings—male and female—are created in the image of God. Each is a beloved spirit son or daughter of heavenly parents, and, as such, each has a divine nature and destiny. Gender is an essential characteristic of individual premortal, mortal, and eternal identity and purpose.In the premortal realm, spirit sons and daughters knew and worshiped God as their Eternal Father and accepted His plan by which His children could obtain a physical body and gain earthly experience to progress toward perfection and ultimately realize his or her divine destiny as an heir of eternal life. The divine plan of happiness enables family relationships to be perpetuated beyond the grave. Sacred ordinances and covenants available in holy temples make it possible for individuals to return to the presence of God and for families to be united eternally.The first commandment that God gave to Adam and Eve pertained to their potential for parenthood as husband and wife. We declare that God's commandment for His children to multiply and replenish the earth remains in force. We further declare that God has commanded that the sacred powers of procreation are to be employed only between man and woman, lawfully wedded as husband and wife.We declare the means by which mortal life is created to be divinely appointed. We affirm the sanctity of life and of its importance in God's eternal plan.Husband and wife have a solemn responsibility to love and care for each other and for their children. "Children are an heritage of the Lord" (Psalms 127:3). Parents have a sacred duty to rear their children in love and righteousness, to provide for their physical and spiritual needs, to teach them to love and serve one another, to observe the commandments of God and to be law-abiding citizens wherever they live. Husbands and wives—mothers and fathers—will be held accountable before God for the discharge of these obligations.The family is ordained of God. Marriage between man and woman is essential to His eternal plan. Children are entitled to birth within the bonds of matrimony, and to be reared by a father and a mother who honor marital vows with complete fidelity. Happiness in family life is most likely to be achieved when founded upon the teachings of the Lord Jesus Christ. Successful marriages and families are established and maintained on principles of faith, prayer, repentance, forgiveness, respect, love, compassion, work, and wholesome recreational activities. By divine design, fathers are to preside over their families in love and righteousness and are responsible to provide the necessities of life and protection for their families. Mothers are primarily responsible for the nurture of their children. In these sacred responsibilities, fathers and mothers are obligated to help one another as equal partners. Disability, death, or other circumstances may necessitate individual adaptation. Extended families should lend support when needed.We warn that individuals who violate covenants of chastity, who abuse spouse or offspring, or who fail to fulfill family responsibilities will one day stand accountable before God. Further, we warn that the disintegration of the family will bring upon individuals, communities, and nations the calamities foretold by ancient and modern prophets.We call upon responsible citizens and officers of government everywhere to promote those measures designed to maintain and strengthen the family as the fundamental unit of society.

This proclamation was read by President Gordon B. Hinckley as part of his message at the General Relief Society Meeting held September 23, 1995, in Salt Lake City, Utah.