Saturday, August 25, 2012

5 Years and Counting!

Today marks our 5th Anniversary!  Marriage is awesome!  Life is great!  Couldn't be happier!!

This is probably the shortest (but still sweet) post ever.  Ha.  Right after one of the longest :)

I'm back!

Back in Florida and back to blogging.  I left for Utah 4 days after my last post (June 29) and got back last Saturday (August 18).  It was a great recharge time and we had lots of fun!  But, it was also long enough to make me miss home and get me ready to jump back in to homemaking.

I can't believe how much I have to post about!  Before I left we bought Preston a scooter for $200 from craigslist.  Brayden loves getting rides :)  We had to have something to get Preston to seminary in the morning.  His class starts at 6 am and he leaves between 5 and 5:30.  I didn't want to have to wake the kids up that early or go without a car every day.  So Preston rides his 50 cc scooter every day.  Haha.  Gotta love it! At least he finally agreed to wear the helmet!

Our trip started in Carlsbad, California.  Brayden will still talk about how he got to see trains in California and Sea World in California.  My dad would take the boys on morning walks several days to give me a nap after waking up in the night with Zander. They'd walk to a train station and see the trains come through and the boys loved it! So did my dad :)  They also loved the beach and they would both take good naps by the waves.  It was great!  A bunch of aunts and uncles were there as well, which was really fun.  Not many cousins made it this year and Brayden and Zander were the only kiddos which was a bummer.  But, it turned out great!  They both took little boogie board rides on the shore and loved it.  I might have tried to get Brayden to do a real little ride in the waves and it didn't turn out so well.  He got washed off his board and wouldn't get back on the boogie board long enough to even get a picture after that. We also spent a day and a half at Sea World.  Also a big hit.  They loved the dolphins and whales and seals.  They also enjoyed the shows.  We did end up getting Zander soaked at a show when Brayden chose the second row (which was in the splash zone) and we didn't know when the splashes were coming.  Brayden chickened out a couple minutes before they splashed and had Gramps carry him up the stairs.  Poor little Zander got it pretty good.  He was drenched!  I did have a change of clothes, thankfully. 

After California we went to Utah for a week.  That was a pretty slow week for me.  I was the Mommy that week without much help because My mom and dad had wedding responsibilities/job search to attend to.  But we did get to see the new city creek and visit Grandma and Papa Brown. Both were fun! I was supposed to visit with my old roommate too, but Brayden got sick :(  So we had to reschedule for after. . .

Lake Powell!  Another fun adventure!  Nothing like camping in the middle of a lake that feels like 100 degrees outside (and sometimes is!).  It's one of the most beautiful places in the world and always a fun trip!  Sleeping was really rough the first couple nights for the boys, but after that they adjusted quite well.  I was getting burned out at that point from being away from Preston for a month.  At least that's what I blamed my lack of patience on until it hit me that I hadn't taken time to read my scriptures for a couple of weeks.  How does that happen without me noticing? At least we're back on track with our daily routine again! But, my patience was tried at Powell this year.  I think it went alright thanks to so much help from others.  And they LOVED the water.  They could swim all day and that part was awesome.  They also loved the boat.  Zander fell right asleep every time we rode.  We let the boys go on a very mild tube ride with me and Uncle Steven and then another one with Aunt Beck.  They loved playing with their second cousins Maisie and Ruby too.  Every time Brayden would see Maisie he would tell me he wanted to go play with her.  She's a year and a half older, but they had lots of fun.  We took one day to boat out to Rainbow Bridge (one of the natural 7 wonders) and there was a park ranger there who told Brayden a story about a lizard and showed us the dinosaur footprint.  Brayden was very intrigued and still talks about that too.  The story was a fun way of pointing out that it looks like there's a huge lizard crawling over the bridge when you look closely at the rock.

After Powell we had a week before Preston came.  That week was packed with wedding plans and showers too.  I rescheduled my play date with old roommates but it didn't work out again.  Brayden ended up finding some of my tylenol from a first aid kit from Powell and ate some (or so he said) he came down the stairs (while he was supposed to be sleeping) with white powder around his mouth and 2 1/2 pills in his hands.  So, we took him to the emergency room.  The hour wait for results turned into 3 hours (gotta love the ER) so it was too late to go see my friends after the ordeal.  I'm still really bummed.  Next time I guess.  Oh, and I decided that I was tired of waking up with Zander at night, so he got to cry it out that week too.  But, HE SLEEPS THROUGH THE NIGHT NOW!!!  YAY!

When Preston got here it was great!  I was SO happy to see him!  We spent a lot of time trying to see his family and friends while he could and were still involved with some more wedding parties and the actual wedding, but we were able to see his best buddies.  And his parents too.  They got a new house and got some bunk beds that Brayden loved sleeping in!

The wedding was great! What a fun time! The boys looked super cute in little gray suits.  We didn't actually get a lot of pictures. . . it's harder with 2 kids.  And my mom was in the line, so no one really took many pictures at the wedding of us.  But, we did get a family picture the next day.  The wedding was probably the second most fun wedding I've been to.  Only second to my own. Haha.  I absolutely love Alyssa and her family!  Dan made a great choice!

After the wedding, we took 3 days to get away for a little Anniversary trip up to Lava Hot Springs.  It was fun! We camped for 2 nights and then stayed in a themed room at a bed and breakfast for our last night.  It was the first time we had ever left the boys and I'm not sure if I should be ashamed or proud that I really didn't miss them that much.  Hahaha.  I was so happy to see them and excited to be back with them, but while we were gone I just enjoyed being just Preston and I.

And our final celebration was a little birthday party for Zander.  We had a nice small group.  13 people total were there, but not all at once, so we got to see family and friends in a smaller setting.  Zander loved being sung to and thoroughly enjoyed his cupcakes.  We had a little splash pool with ball pit balls in it and that was a hit for Brayden and Zander and one of my friend's little girls.  We had filled water balloons (thanks Preston!) but forgot about them until the very end.  Brayden just wanted to throw them on the ground and watch them explode :)  Preston would chase B with them and throw them by his feet and Brayden was so funny.  He would just say "Ah!" Every time and run away.  Anyway, it was fun.

We left the next morning and came back to good ol' Florida!  I am loving being home!  I'm recharged and ready to go for the next year! Then we'll see what happens. . . if seminary works out or if we have to move ourselves back to try for seminary in Utah.  Either way, we still feel SO good and at peace and excited (and lots of good emotions) about the decision to go the seminary route.  Ah, I just love life right now. 

I sort of only have a few pictures because most of them were on my Mom's camera which I totally forgot to copy.  So, I will just do them later when I get them in the mail.  But, I'll post them!