The Best Husband in the World

For the last two years our Anniversary has been pretty interesting. First of all, two years ago I was pregnant with Oakley. We were living in the basement of our house while we were tearing out and redoing our kitchen so it was double crazy around our place. Well, on the day of our Anniversary I told Wes he needed to be home around 4:00 because I had a surprise. So, he came home and he had no clue what was going on. He and his coworkers could not figure out why I would surprise him with something, until I handed him a present that I got him. He had totally spaced our anniversary. His excuse was that he was thinking all about the baby because it was exactly a month until my due date. Our anniversary is the 27th of August and Oakley was due on the 27th of September. (I'll give him that). Anyway I took him to dinner and we had a nice night.

Last year he just completely spaced it and had no excuse. So this year I told him, since he blew the last two years, he had to plan something for us and it better be good.

Well, he delivered.

He didn't tell me where we were going. It was all a surprise. We got my sister, Katy, to watch Oakley over night and he took me up to Park City to the Silver King Hotel.

It was pretty awesome. Here are some pictures of our room.

The absolute best thing was that there was a full size hot tub in the room. It was soooooo cool! I think we spent half the time in the hot tub. It felt so good. If only the hot tub in our back yard worked. Let's not get into that.

As we were leaving for dinner we saw a fire across the street from our hotel. I'm glad it was on that side of the street and not ours.

Wes took me to Ruth's Chris Steakhouse for dinner. It was the best steaks we've ever had. It was delicious. Too bad we can only afford to go there once every 10 years.

The next day we went to the Park City Mountain Resort and rode on some of their rides.

Here we are heading up the lift for the Alpine Slide, and Wes ready to go down the slide.

They have this new ride called the Coaster that's way awesome. You sit on these little tobogan things and get buckled in. Then It pulls you up the mountain like a roller coaster. At the top it lets you go and you do have breaks, but there's no way you can fall off, so you just cruise down and around. It's pretty amazing.

(Left) Here's the start of the coaster. It pulls you across that bridge and then straight up the mountain to the left. (right) This is at the bottom of the huge hill that it pulls you up.

This is at the top of the hill.

I didn't get a picture of the actual coaster part cause I didn't want to drop my camera. It was pretty fast.

Afterwards we walked up and down Main street in Park City. We found this little restaurant that had a deck outside, so we ate lunch there. It was nice.

All in all I had a great time, and Wes made up for the past two years. He's a wonderful husband and a great father, and I'm so glad we decided to get married 8 years ago. Thanks Wes for a wonderful 8 years. I love you!

My new ride

When Wes and I were first married we had to buy two cars, cause neither of us had one of our. We found two junkers, one for $450 and his cousin sold us his for $800. My car was a Ford Escort hatchback that felt like you were riding in a cardboard box, and Wes' was a Ford Taurus that was a little better, but still beat up. Looking back on it, I'm surprised that mine lasted as long as it did. Needless to say these two cars didn't last very long. Mine made it a year, and then wouldn't start for me, so we decided to invest in a reliable car. We bought a Nissan Altima, (pictured below, sort of) which turned out to be a great car. There were a few problems here and there, but nothing that major.

I loved having a little car that could fit into any parking place and that got great gas mileage.

Well, a few months ago Wes' parents offered to let us buy their Nissan Pathfinder that they hadn't been using for a few years. I had been thinking that I needed a bigger car, especially if we were going to have any more kids. The Altima was barely big enough to hold a family of 3. So Wes' parents fixed up the Pathfinder and got it running and we bought it from them for a great price. We even gave them our Altima so his little brother who just got his license could have something to drive around.

Here's the new ride.

We've loved it so far. I can actually fit more then just Oakley's stroller in the trunk, and I don't have to bend over to buckle him in. It's fun to drive too. I think we'll keep it for a while.

Called to serve in the . . .

We've been bugging my parents to go on a mission forever. Both of them have been retired for a few years and they've been waiting for . . . I don't what, but they finally sent their papers in a few months ago. Last week they got their call in the mail so they invited a whole bunch of family over to be at their house when they opened it. Only four of their seven kids could be there, so three of us called the others on our cell phones and had them on speaker phone so they could hear where my parents were going.

They are called to serve in the Adalaide, Australia mission, and they leave on the 27th of December. We were more excited about the date then the place. They'll be here for Christmas! They were 90% sure they were going to Australia though because they know the mission president serving there and he was probably going to request them but it was still fun to know for sure.

I'm sure their 22 grandkids are going to miss them a bunch, but we are excited for them to travel and teach in the mission field. I've already told Wes that we have to start saving so we can go visit them. He's down with that.

Congrats Mom and Dad!

Rexburg

Last week Oakley and I traveled up to Rexburg to my sister's house. Her and her husband, my dad and my brother were going to hiking the Grand Teton and my mom was watching the kids, so she invited Oak and I to tag along, and we did. Oakley had so much fun with his cousins Morgan, Emma, and Erik, or "Ek" as Oakley called him. His favorite thing to do was jump on their tramp in the back yard. He could have done that for hours, and he threw a fit every time he had to get off. He got pretty good at it, and never fell off once.

We also went to this fun park that had a carousel and a splash park.

Cousin Emma at the splash park. As soon as she got wet she was freezing cold, even though it was way nice and sunny outside.

For about a half hour Oakley just played this little game where he'd run to one of the little water fountain things (left) and splash it. Then he'd run about 15 feet to the wall of the bathrooms and hit the vent that was on the side (right). He is such a silly kid to watch.

Cousin Morgan showing us how to go down the slides, and then her and Eric getting warm on the hot cement.

Boy did he get thirsty.

Cute picture of the cousins. Then Oakley had to join them. Still cute though.
We also went to McDonalds one day. What kid doesn't enjoy that? Oakley loves play-places, at least the ones that he's able to climb all over at. Some of them are too tricky to climb, but this one was great.

Then we went to a place called "The Craze" which has lazer tag and miniature golf and arcade games. Oakley was a bit too young for it, but he still had a good time. For some reason he likes laying on the hole on the green. He did this at East Canyon too. He found one hole that he could climb up and put his ball in and it would shoot out the bottom. He basically just stayed at that hole the whole time we were golfing.

My sister had this little bike that was perfect for Oakley. We haven't invested in a tricycle yet, but this little thing was so easy for Oakley to just push along with his feet. He loved it, until he had to go uphill, and he wasn't quite strong enough to make it go. Cousin Eric helped him on those parts. Erik waited for a turn, which he never got, cause Oakley loved it so much.

Fun bubbles

Another park with a carriage thing.

They have this great Nature Park in Rexburg with fun trails to walk on and a big pond with ducks. So one day we took the kids and some bread and fed the ducks. I was surprised how close they would come to us.

Oakley loved chasing them. Poor ducks. We had a great time. Oakley and his cousins were all sad that we had to leave. I'm sure we'll go back again though.

Oakley at bat

This video reminds me of one that you'd see on "America's Funniest Videos", except nobody gets hit you know where. It is Oakley's first time swinging the bat. Good thing grandpa was there to help, and grandma was there to pitch. Now it's his new favortie thing to do outside. He even chases the ball after he hits it so we don't have to. Turn up your volume too so you can hear what he says. It's pretty funny.

Wheeler Farm

I don't remember what day it was, but some time in July Oakley and I went with our friends to Wheeler Farm. It is just down the street from our house, but it was the first time that I had ever taken him. He loved looking at all the animals and running around in the dirt. He especially loved the little treehouse thing they have there. He climbed in there and ran around screaming with his little friend Trinity.

Here they are sitting on the steps to the treehouse.
Oakley loves to "bawlk" at the chickens
Neither of them would feed the horses themselves, but they liked watching this other little girl do it.

These pigs were cute. The one was playing with the hose.

We liked the bunnies too, but one of them looked like it was stuck. Hopefully someone helped him cause we couldn't. As you can tell, Oakley isn't in many of these pictures. He just liked running around mostly, hence not many pictures of him.

The cutest part was the two of them riding on one of the tractors. Trinity was showing Oakley how to do it. She is older then him by a year, if you can't tell. But Oakley said "I'm the man. Let me drive." :)

So they switched spots. Aren't they cute. I can see them growing old together.

All in all, it was fun, but hot. I'm sure we'll go back often, especially cause it is free and so close. We'd love to go anytime with whoever, so just let us know.