Arizona!

Over Labor Day weekend Kenny, Logan, and I traveled down to Arizona to spend time with my brother, Ryan, who was on leave from Afghanistan, my sister, Julie, and her family (who happily hosted everyone), and my mom and stepdad. I think the temperature was a consistent 112*F which did not cool off at night. My poor sister was only 3 weeks from her due date...I can't even imagine being pregnant in that heat!

So, what do you do in such hot weather at night?

You go swimming, why of course!


My mom, me, and Julie

Julie, Ryan, and me

Just north of Pheonix there is this small tourist town, Sedona, which is just beautiful. It has mountains of red rock and there are trails you can hike, shops you can breeze through (I say "breeze" cause if you linger too long you are bound to pay double for anything you would like), etc. We didn't do any hiking due to it being so hot, but we did walk around and see the shops. We passed by the Sedona Fire Station stand so the boys all got hats and whistles and all sorts of goodies.

And, as ridiculous as I look in this picture with the sun glaring at me, I am willing to post this just to give you all an idea of the landscape. Unfortunately this is the only picture I have with the scenery (I don't know where my head was that day...maybe a slight suffering of heat stroke).

While we were there Julie took our family pictures and they turned out amazing! I will be posting them on a separate blog post right after this one.

Also, Julie, my mom, and I got to spend some time away from the kids and went to some accessory stores, Ross, and Paradise Bakery (yum!) Julie got her ears re-pierced while we were out and about too.

My parents stayed home with all the kids while Julie, Craig, Ryan, Kenny and I went to see the final Harry Potter in 3D. I must say, 3D is much better in a higher quality theater! The one here in Tooele isn't the greatest, however they are doing some remodeling and I am anxious to see how it turns out. :)

We had a great time with each other, ate some great food, and it was good to see my brother, safe, well, and kickin'. Thanks, Julie and Craig, for hosting and we are hoping the next trip won't be during the scorching months. :)

On our way home we stopped at Hoover Dam since Kenny has never been and I haven't been there since high school. It was neat to see the bridge they built and their visitors center is pretty neat.

We also drove down the Las Vegas strip since Kenny had never been. That's about all we did in Vegas. It would have been fun to do more but our time and funds were short by that point. So just a drive-by was all we did.

Anniversary

I know, I'm very behind on blogging and I am trying to catch up when I can.

Kenny and I celebrated our 6th wedding anniversary on August 6. It landed on a Saturday, which most people would be excited about because they would have the weekend to celebrate. However, with his crazy schedule, Kenny had to work that Friday, Saturday and Sunday. :( We still tried to make the best of it and had a nice dinner and dessert after he got home from work.

I made us steak and mashed potatoes and Kenny picked up sushi on his way home. It was the dragon roll--California rolls with smoked eel on top! :) And as you can see I pulled out the china for our special occasion.

And Coldstone ice cream for dessert! Delish!

I can't believe it has been six years since we were married.

Some things I remember about our wedding day:

• We both received our endowments in the Bountiful Temple the evening before
• We were sealed in the beautiful Salt Lake Temple at 7am on Saturday, August 6
• I was soooo nervous, but our Sealer was very nice and gave me some apple juice and crackers to calm my stomach before we went into the sealing room
  
• We had so much support from family and friends
• The weather was just perfect
• Our photographer used a FILM camera (*gasp*)
• Our cake was pretty much one of a kind (pic below)
• We had baklava for dessert at our reception (part of my Grandma Baum's Armenian culture)
• Kenny's sister, Crystal, caught the bouquet and Kenny's brother, Calvin, caught the garter (they were both pretty determined I think!)
• Kenny took me for a ride in a wheelbarrow (it used to be a tradition on my mom's side of the family meant to wear out the groom for the rest of the night)
• Overall, it was a perfect day!
  

Sorry the pictures are a little grainy--they didn't scan in very well.

Fort

I came home from work today (after Kenny and Logan had spent the day together) to find this fort in my basement. Kenny had used our couch, recliner, treadmill, end table, Ikea tent/tunnel combo, and several blankets to make this happen. Of course Logan loved it! Boys will be boys, I guess. :-)

Ahhh Camping

The weekend of Pioneer Day we went camping with Kenny's family (mom, dad, Calvin, Jayse, Tabitha, James and Kaylee) up Big Springs by Lava Hot Springs. It was our only camping trip this year and, as much as I love camping, I realized I don't like camping with such a young toddler!

We took our bikes and a couple 4-wheelers and rode up a couple of different trails and it was so beautiful. I used to go camping there a lot back in high school and now I remember why I loved it up there--no, mom and dad, I did not like working on our property up there, I liked the 4-wheeling. Just wanted to get that straight. ;-)

We were able to relax, eat good food, make s'mores and watch Logan and our niece, Kaylee, have fun playing in the dirt.

One, hot afternoon, we found a good spot in the creek where we could do a little swimming. Don't be fooled by how much the guys were playing in the water--it was FREEZING! But we all had a lot of fun nonetheless.

Most of the pictures I have posted were taken by Kenny's dad because I forgot our camera. Gaylen likes to take scenic pictures and he does good work. He has entered some of his photographs into fairs and won ribbons. Here are a few of his scenery shots:

And this is Kaylee, our niece, and I thought that this picture was too precious not to post:

Logan at 16 months (July 19)

On one of Kenny's weekends off in July we headed into Salt Lake City and spent most of the day at the Gateway Mall. We went through a lot of the stores, ate at Tucanos (very delicious), and let Logan play in the fountains. He had a BLAST! I can't take credit for all the great shots taken of Logan. There was an amateur photographer there that Kenny noticed and gave the guy his email to send us any pics that he might get of Logan. I think they turned out great!

A few things about Logan at this point:

• He is walking/running very well
• He loves to dance (any music you put on he will start bouncing or spinning in circles)
  
• He loves waffles and pancakes
  
• He has four teeth on top and three teeth on bottom
• His laugh can melt anyone's heart
• He is starting to know which foods he really likes and dislikes
• He is starting to understand what we tell him
• He still loves the water and taking baths
  

Independence Day

Unfortunately, Kenny had to work the night shift all of the Fourth of July weekend, but when he got home from work the morning of the 4th, he decided to stay up and spend the day with us instead of going to bed. We went to the Veteran's Park and had breakfast. Then we found a spot to watch the parade. Logan loved it, especially when the bands came by. He would try to get closer and then he would dance to the music! They had vendors, live music, a mini carnival, and food at the park, so we went and looked around until it was Logan's nap time. That evening we lit a few of the fireworks I had bought and Logan was only slightly interested in them. I'm sure next year he will be more involved with them. :)

A Visit From My Sister

I know, I'm still way behind on my blogging, but I am trying to catch up.

Friday, June 24
My sister, Julie, and her family drove up from Phoenix late Thursday night (June 23), so on Friday we tried to make a day of it and see what Tooele had to offer.

There is the Benson Grist Mill close by so we stopped in there to take a tour. It was neat to learn how they used to grind wheat into flour and process it. We were also able to see little one-room houses the people back then would live in. I can't even imagine living in a one-room house, even with just Logan, Kenny and I.

Inside the mill

My nephews flying off the deck of the mill into their dad's arms. Fearless boys...

After the Grist Mill we went to the Deseret Peak Complex where they have a swimming park, a motocross track, the Miller Sports Park, a couple museums (which were, unfortunately closed by the time we got there) and rodeo grounds. There wasn't much going on that day, so we thought it would be neat to let my nephews and Logan watch some of the motocross going on. Little did we know that my brother-in-law, Craig, has a secret motocross passion and he was more enthralled than the boys were!

After enough of watching motocross, we grabbed a bite to eat and headed out to Stansbury Island ("great hiking and biking and wildlife") which seemed like a neat place to go and, maybe, get into the water of the Great Salt Lake!
This is what I had pictured:

However, after what seemed like forever of driving through this:
and this:
we arrived at the end of the road to find...pretty much nothing. We got out and walked to the water's edge and found a pair of shoes, no owner of the shoes (suspicious), and swarms of gnats. Between the uninviting beach and the flesh-eating gnats we decided that a dip in the lake was no longer in our agenda. So we loaded up and all the way home we were picking gnats out of our hair, noses, ears, etc. Very disappointing.


Saturday, June 25On Saturday we were able to get cheap tickets into Raging Waters through my brother-in-law's sister. We went with my sister and brother-in-law's family and had a great time. Logan had a lot of fun, even though the water was still a bit chilly for his liking. He especially liked the tidal wave pool.

We had fun spending time with Julie and her family that weekend and were able to spend another day with them as they were heading back to Phoenix after a couple of weeks in Idaho.