4th of July Balloon Fest

Oh how I love the 4th of July balloon fest! I look forward to it every year, Tommy on the other hand does not, but he's a good sport and goes along. However this year was different from any other because there was a Darth Vader balloon. We were pretty excited about the idea of seeing a hot air balloon that looked like Darth Vader, but much to our surprise the balloon came with Darth Vader himself and his Imperial Guard and Clone Troopers!!! That's a little slice of heaven for boys that love Star Wars. The pictures below speak for themselves! It was so much more fun this year and I'm so glad we got up at 5 in the blessed am to go see a few hot air balloons.The boys with Darth Vader

The Imperial Guard

The Clone Troopers were there to make sure no one touched the balloon, they would just pace back and forth. They were very nice to stop and take pictures. Tyson loved this one, he kept going back and giving him high 5.

Hangin' out watching the balloons go up

Pretty awesome balloon if you ask me

I just thought this was a cool picture.

Visiting Grandma

Back the beginning of June my Grandma had knee replacement surgery. So whenever we went down to Provo we'd stop by and say hi. Tyson loved going by and eating treats with Grandma! Her surgery went really well and her recovery has been great. I'm so grateful! We sure love Grandma and love that she lives so close to us.

Happy Birthday Noah!

I can't believe it's been 9 years since Noah was born, seriously where has the time gone. I love all three of my boys so much, but there's something special about your first born. It's all so new and exciting and you have no idea what to expect and you don't realize how much your life changes the moment they come into the world. I'm so thankful that Heavenly Father trusted me and Tommy with Noah. He has such a special spirit.
When I was pregnant with Noah I got preeclampsia so they had to induce me early and he was very stubborn and didn't want to come early. But at 11:17pm on June 27th the entire labor and delivery floor knew that Noah Thomas had made his arrival. We still laugh about how loud he cried... our family could hear him all the way down the hall in the waiting area. And for the next 10 months he decided to exercise his right to cry when ever and however he wanted... a.k.a. very loud and all the time. There were nights I would be rocking him back to sleep wondering if I would ever sleep through a night again. I'm happy to say 9 years later I have gotten plenty of sleep. There was something magical that happened to Noah at 10 months when he moved to TX for the summer, he turned into a totally different baby. We arrived in TX and he slept through the night and stopped crying. Since then he has been such a joy in our lives (not that he wasn't a joy the first 10 months...).
Noah takes after his Dad in the brains department. He is so smart and needs to be challenged or he get bored very easily. And he takes after me when it comes to being cautious and thinking through ALL options before making a decision (sorry Noah, it's genetic I swear). But it makes for one great kid! We told Noah last year that we'd decided to only do friend birthday parties every other year (on the even numbers) so this year he wouldn't be getting a party.... lucky for him I'm a sucker and I love parties. I just couldn't say no when he asked if he could have a Nerf Gun party. Tommy set a budget for us and we started planning. It was fun to watch Noah have to pick and chose what he wanted to stay within the budget he had, I think it was a great lesson and I had a lot of fun working with him on it. His Birthday started out with breakfast and presents...Yes the mother of all mother Nerf Guns. This is one serious Nerf Gun!

At 11:30 we had his birthday party. Everyone was asked to bring their own Nerf guns if they had one. Roma was nice enough to help me make pouches to hold the bullets we had for them. I don't have any pictures of them handy, but they turned out so good. The boys had to do a scavenger hunt to find the pouches with their bullets then we played some games. Then it of course turned into all out war. A little bit of pizza and I'd say it was a great party!

It was hot enough we decided to through some water balloons out on the tramp too.

Noah with all his birthday loot. And Cooper being a goof ball. Noah got a ton of cool stuff that's for sure.

Then at 5:30 we had the family come over for dinner. Noah chose Fried Rice for dinner, took me by surprise a little bit, but it was really good and he was happy about it. Emily and her kids were in town too, so that was fun to have them there. I love watching how excited all the other kids get about opening presents.

Noah with his money from Grandma and Grandpa Great. He used some of it to buy a really cool gun that has bullets that light up when you shoot them!
It was a long day, but so much fun to watch Noah get excited about everything. I love that kid so much and am so grateful that I get to call him mine. Happy Birthday Noah!

Little things that mean a lot...

Grandma Wakefield brought over these beautiful rose from her garden for us. I love how every time I looked at them it put a smile on my face. Plus they smelled so yummy! I love summer time and all the beautiful flowers and trees.

Only a mother could love this kid

Some times you have a night where you're almost done cleaning up dinner and your little one decides that he wants seconds. Once he has his second plate of spaghetti it magically turns into arts and crafts time. Evidently painting one's face with spaghetti sauce is his favorite thing. And then he was so proud of himself all I could do is laugh and take a picture.

Driving Home

I talked Tommy into breaking up the drive on the way home. It's so much more enjoyable for everyone to be able to stop and see a few things and not feel so rushed... and listen to screaming children (Cooper and Tyson) for that long. I was so excited to stop at Multnomah Falls in Oregon. Ever since I was a kid I've always wanted to stop here and what a better time than right now with all the water. We only planned for the short hike to the bridge, but the boys wanted to go further and ended up making it all the way to the top... over 5 miles round trip. Tyson even ran at least a mile up hill! The hike was beautiful and the view from the top was incredible. I'm so glad we stopped.The Falls

At the top

I loved this picture of part of the river.

The next day we stopped in Twin Falls again. I was so bummed we didn't really get to see the waterfall on our way in. The crazy wind blowing water on us was a blast, but I really wanted to see the falls. I was so happy it was a beautiful day with only a light breeze. There were quiet a few trails around there too that I had no idea existed. It was great to get out of the car and move around.

Double Rainbow

Me and my boys. You'll notice there is a ton of water coming off the falls.

It's really hard to get a good picture of Cooper. He loves to make goofball faces. I really liked this one.

Yep Tyson likes to make the goofball faces too.

Noah and Cooper started wrestling, so of coarse Tyson had to go jump on top of them. It was a great way to get them tired for the rest of the drive home

A Family Get Together

Some of my Aunts and Uncles live in Oregon/Washington and organized a nice get together for us. We don't get to see each other as often as I would like, so I was very grateful we had an opportunity to see some of my family. My cousin Phil made some delicious chicken on the grill and there was a ton of yummy food. Ya can't have a family get together without good food! I forgot to get my camera out until the end, so I don't have a ton of pictures.Tyson having a blast riding around on his borrowed 'bike'

Phil, Sara, Finn, Uncle Dave, Aunt Dawn, and Tommy

My cousin's little boy Finn... Isn't he adorable?! I love his huge eyes.

Aunt Cheri and Cooper

Day 5 - 7 of our trip

Tommy and I decided as long as we were headed to Washington we may as well go a little further and spend some time on the beach. I mentioned our plans to Jodi and said we'd love to have them come if their boys weren't in school... she made the right decision and pulled the boys out of school and Dave got work off so they could join us on the Oregon coast.

We had a rental house just a block and a half away from the beach in Manzanita. It was a great central location so we spent a day in Tillamook and a day in Cannon beach. It was so much more fun to have them along. They boys absolutely loved hanging out with their cousins and they had a blast on the beach together. Plus the beach house had a huge room upstairs with beds for each of them, it was a little slice of paradise for little boys.

Even though it was cold and windy (typical Oregon Coast weather) it didn't stop us from having fun. I just felt blessed that we only got sprinkled on twice. We have a ton of pictures, so I'm posting some and I have a slide show attached with more of them. The first thing Abe did when we got to the beach was drop down and started making a 'sand angel'. He learned quickly it works better in the snow.

Tommy and Noah flying a kite

The Octopus Tree. Such a cool tree, I was amazed by it.

Tyson and Tommy flying a kite. That smile is priceless!

Noah and Abe... it makes me cold just looking at them

Cooper getting buried in the sand

Speechless - I love the Oregon Coast

Abe and Noah

Tyson, Noah, and Cooper warming up while we packed things up

Day 4 of our trip

We decided to go see a waterfall in Washington (sorry I can't remember the name). We had a great time just taking a stroll and enjoying the beautiful state of Washington. Paul and Roma came out the Sunday before Abe's baptism and left the Monday after, so we only overlapped for 2 days. It was really nice to be able to go and do something all together.Group shot - Tyson slept almost the entire time.Yes, Tommy is the hottest, but you can see where he gets his good looks from!

Paul and Roma

Just chillin'. The boys love their Grandpa so much and I love having these pictures!

Slideshow of our trip.

I have so many fun pictures from our trip I decided to put together a slide show. And these are only a few of my favorite... We took a lot of pictures.

Washington & Oregon Coast

Day 1- 3 of our vacation

We decided this year to go to our nephew's baptism and turn it into a family vacation. Tommy had to work, so me and the boys took 2 days to drive to Washington and Tommy just flew directly in to Seattle.
Breaking the drive up into two days was really nice and we were able to make a few stops along the way. The first was Twin Falls, with it being a high water year there was a ton of water coming down the falls. There was also a nice wind that would swirl the mist around and then blow it into us... it was like a torrential rain pour. Noah and I couldn't stop giggling, and Cooper was not happy about it at all.The boys getting drench.

The falls... check out all that water

The kids after Abe's baptism. I love going to baptisms, there's always such a neat spirit and the boys get so excited about it. Abe is such a good kid and I'm so glad we could celebrate with him.

Can't let a sunny day in Washington go to waste! The boys were having more fun jumping off things then playing on them.

Happy 2nd B-day Tyson

Tyson's 2nd birthday was spent driving in a car to Washington to visit cousins. Luckily we did a little party for him and Kiara before we left. Kiara's B-day is only 3 days before Tyson's so it worked out nicely. We made Asian food because it's Kiara's favorite and dirt cake because I thought it was Tyson's favorite... but he wouldn't touch it to save his life. At least the rest of us got to enjoy it. It was a great evening with family.

I can't imagine life without my little Tyson. He is such a happy little boy that has a way of putting on smile on anyone's face. He loves to play with Noah and Cooper, and he thinks he's just as big as them when he joins in the wrestling match or jumps on the trampoline with them. I can't believe out little boy is already 2 years old time flies by so fast, I really wish I could slow things down and enjoy him more before he's all grown up.

Signing our beautiful happy birthday song

Opening presents

His new phone. He is obsessed with phones. My mom got this for him so he'd have his own for our long drive to WA

Kiara opening her presents

His actual B-day in the hotel room opening his 'backpack of presents' which consisted of a new T-shirt, games to play on the drive, and a bucket and shovel for the beach.