Trip to WA: Levi's Baptism & Fireworks

My nephew, Levi, was baptized on Saturday, July 2nd.  It was the first time we were able to attend the baptism for a niece/nephew on my side of the family.  We had a brunch at Tim and Heather's with some of their friends and family members from Heather's side.  Heather was in charge of the musical number for the baptism program and asked us if we would join their family singing a medley "Teach a Child/I Love to See the Temple."  I had never heard the arrangement before but it was pretty easy to learn.  My mom accompanied us on the piano and my dad, Tim's family and my family all sang.  It was fun for our family to be a part of the program.

After the baptism, we went to an Indian Reservation to buy some fireworks to take to a family party at Heather's moms house.  It was fun to see some of Heather's family that I knew from BYU or had met at their wedding...14 years goes by fast!

We called this the launch pad.  The kids had fun with snap-its/poppers and smoke bombs before dark and then the real show began.

Ashlee holding a Roman Candle...

Letting off a Chinese Lantern...

I love pictures of people playing with sparklers. Rob experimented with different settings and shutter speeds...

Such patriotic girls...

Lots of fun for all! A big thanks to Dean and Laura Conway for hosting a fun evening!

Trevor can find these plastic animal toys at pretty much every house he goes to.

Trip to WA: Seahurst Park & Snoqualmie Falls

On Friday, Heather and her kids were going to pick up Rachel from a horse camp she had been attending all week.  It was about an hour away, and although it would have been fun to watch her little "after camp" performance, we had been in the car a little too much.  We decided to take a little day trip to Seahurst Park, which is a beach on the Puget Sound.  It was about 20 minutes away from their house.  Brynlee's initial reaction upon hearing that she would be apart from Elizabeth was not happy.  She went on and on about how boring it was going to be and how all we would see was stupid seagulls.  Her attitude quickly changed once we arrived at the beach...."I thought this was going to be so boring but this is SO AWESOME!"  Yep, just like your dad told you it would be.

We figured out that we would be there at low tide, which ended up being perfect. We walked along the beach, gathering shells and finding dead creatures, and ended up near some large rocks and tide pools.

A lady turned over a rock and found this fish in a little pool of water.  She thought she was helping it out and decided to put it back in the ocean.  The fish immediately started swimming back toward the shore.  The kids said, "Maybe those are its eggs on the rock."  Sure enough, there were tons of eggs on the underside of the rock.  The lady caught it again and put it back in the little pool and put the rock back on top.  By the time we left a couple of hours later, the rocks where we had just discovered starfish, crabs and other creatures were almost covered in water.  It was definitely the perfect time to go!




Walking back to the car, Trevor decided he was a seagull...


On the drive back to the house, we took a little detour to Snoqualmie Falls.  The park grounds near the Falls were beautiful and the Falls were amazing.  It's crazy how much water was going over and crashing below!

Trip to Washington: June 30-July 6

This summer we didn't have big travel plans.  Originally, we were going to go to Arizona at the end of July for a Kovacs family reunion with extended family on my dad's side.  After considering that not many of my siblings would be there, a 12 hour one way drive, and camping for 3 days (oh, did I mention I would be 7 months pregnant and this would be in Arizona?), we decided that we wouldn't be going.  Upon hearing that news, my sister-in-law, Heather, invited us up to Washington for my nephew's baptism which would be over the 4th of July weekend.  We thought that sounded marvelous!  We could see cousins that we don't see often and Grandma & Grandpa Kovacs would be there as well.  After figuring out that Rob would be able to take off of work, we planned the trip.

We left on June 30 and started our 14 hour trek, stopping in Boise, ID for almost 2 hours for lunch and to visit with our friends, the Bundys and then in Yakima, WA for dinner at Miner's Drive-In.  The kids did AMAZING!  We left around 7:30 a.m. and they didn't even ask to watch a movie until after we left Boise.  My favorite quote of the day came from Trevor.  We were about an hour from Tim and Heather's house and were driving through a mountain pass.  It was getting a little dark, mainly because it was raining, and there were low clouds around us.  I don't know if it was because we had been driving for so long or because the scenery was very different from the first part of the trip, but out of the blue Trevor says,"Um, mom, I think we're lost."

As soon as we got there, Brynlee and Elizabeth (although 3 years apart) became attached at the hip and Gavin (2 1/2 years old) introduced himself as "Baby Gavin", to which Trevor always referred to him as and still does now when he sees pictures from the trip.

I'll divide the trip into our daily adventures...

Utah...This is the Place

On June 11th we went down to Salt Lake for the weekend.  We were going to the baby blessing of my friend's baby on Sunday so we decided to go down on Saturday to This is the Place Heritage Park.  We hadn't ever been before and we get in free with our American West Heritage Center pass so we thought it would be a good time to go.

It was similar to, though much bigger than, the AWHC.  It was set up more like a town would be back in the Pioneer days, while the AWHC has three small sites (1917 Farm, Pioneer settlement, and Mountain Man settlement). 

Here's Trevor and Brynlee walking to the visitor's center.  Trevor insisted on pushing the stroller instead of sitting in it so Brynlee was more than happy to be the rider.

They had various hands-on activities for visitors to try out.  There was laundry...

Plowing a field...

Beating a rug...

Playing games such as rolling the hoop...

A small "animal petting" area...

Pony rides...

Trevor LOVED it...can't you tell? Okay, maybe not.  He was pretty traumatized.  If I "smile" and wave will you get me off this thing!

and posing like a statue (okay, technically not part of the "official" activities)...

This is a replica of the historic Pine Valley chapel...

We didn't get pictures on the train, which was probably Trevor's favorite part.  He even got to say "All Aboard" into the microphone to let the conductor know we were ready to go!  It ended up being a really nice day weather wise and started raining just as we were heading to the car.

We got together with Rob's siblings at Cheryl's house for a BBQ and then the next morning we went to the baby blessing.  Kelly (Felt) Lahr and I have been friends since we were about 13 or 14.  Her family lived across the street from us in Sierra Vista, AZ.  It was so fun to see her, along with the rest of the Felt family...and of course, Reed Spencer Lahr, the whole reason we all got together!

Landon Turns 6!

I know...that was a month ago.  I will update and then change dates on my posts so they are more accurate.

Landon chose to go to Texas Roadhouse for his birthday dinner.  When I told him they would give him a big Texas "YEE HAW!" while he sat on a horse saddle, he was so excited.  Of course, none of the pictures show that excitement, but on the way to the restaurant he kept asking, "Do I get to yell 'yee haw' when I sit on the saddle?"  Sure do buddy!  And so will the rest of the restaurant, except I think he got a little shy once he was in the spotlight...

Funny story about dinner...Landon ordered chicken strips and the server brought out this plate a little bit earlier than ours.  It was HUGE!  I asked if she was sure that was his and she said yes.  She said ours would be out shortly.  When she brought our dinner out, she also had a basket of chicken strips and fries and said "I guess these are yours as well!"  Oops...beginners mistake (it was day 2 for her).  We left with a whole lotta food...enough to feed all the kids lunch the next day!

After dinner we had cake and ice cream at home and opened a few more presents that he hadn't already opened.  This boy is still lovin' Legos...in fact he got 5 new sets and was in heaven.  He spends most of his Sunday mornings before church and evenings after church in his room sorting through all his Legos and building things....usually accompanied with "Mom, can you help me build this one?" (translation: can you dig through this huge Rubbermaid tote and find all the pieces for me?)

Chocolate cake and chocolate ice cream for this boy.  I thought I had black gel for the soccer ball but couldn't find any (in my cupboard or at the store I went to) so light blue will have to work.  He didn't care about the color...just cared that it was chocolate.

Rabbit ears on the cake...silly boy!

Happy Birthday, Lando!