More Big Timber Lodge Fun!

Here is Will doing what he did the whole time we were at the lake. This little beach was right out our front door, but there was a much nicer little sandy beach just down a little ways. It didn't seem to matter where we were, Will thoroughly enjoyed the water, and I enjoyed relaxing while he played with his cousins! Saturday morning - they were all a little timid at first, but about 20 seconds after this picture, they were all pretty much soaked and loving the water. The only downside to all this water fun were the bugs!!!
The sunset looking out our cabin windows. It was so pretty, I think I could live there every summer, all summer long and never get sick of it!

Big Timber Lodge

At first, Will was very camera shy, and wasn't so sure he wanted to be friends with Uncle Wes, but after about 5 minutes, that changed. Will was Uncle Wes's bud, constantly saying things like "can I go with Uncle Wes?" "Where's uncle Wes?" "Uncle Wes you want to come?" "Uncle Wes, what one do you want to be (talking about playing fish with him)" Uncle Wes was so nice to let him see all his fishing gear, poles, spinners, sinkers, and nets. Will REALLY had fun with Uncle Wes and is still talking about him, and playing with the fake fish, littly tiny squid, and leech that Uncle Wes let him bring home. Thanks Uncle Wes! I think they are looking at a bird or something?
Will and Daddy on the paddle boat at our cabin!
Our cabin had a great little sandy beach just a few steps from our cabin, plus kayaks, paddle boats, and all sorts of fun toys for kids. It was so pretty, and Will had so much fun playing in the water! I brought 3 changes of clothes for him and he soaked all three, and completely dirtied his swimsuit..... he had a great time!

The Headwaters

Will spent the ENTIRE time in Itasca throwing sticks, rocks, sand, and pretty much anything else he could get his hands on into the water. He did this for about 30-45 minutes while we were at the headwaters. Being the 4th of July, it was a bit busy, but we still got to enjoy the headwaters and the lake. Caleb and Ivie jumped right in and were swimming around!
An action shot, of Will throwing rocks.
A family picture, where it all began!
Waving from across the Mississippi!

Itasca!

Our trip to Itasca was great! A few minor stresses along the way... listening to our car make awful noises the whole (4 hours) drive up there, and realizing I only brought one swim diaper, and listening to the same 4 songs over and over to appease Will. Okay, the last two really weren't stressful, but at the time, it was really anxiety provoking. The weather was beautiful, not too hot, just perfect. And the bugs were in full force! I've never swatted at bugs so much in my life.... I thought people were joking about the bug population, and Scott and I laughed hysterically at our travel size bug spray. Yes, we had to stop at a gas station and buy the big bottle! COUSINS! I think this was Will's favorite part of the trip, he LOVES playing with his cousins. I have never seen him play so well with kids other than when it is cousins, there is just something about family. I'm so glad he has Caleb for an older boy cousin to show him the ropes. Caleb and Ivie are so patient with Will and like to include him in what they are doing.
The map of the Mississippi river route.... from MN all the way to the Gulf of Mexico! Pretty amazing!
I know I don't look happy in this picture, but I didn't know Scott was taking it, I was really excited about this sign. This picture is dedicated to my chocolate loving - especially fudge - MOM! I wanted to buy her some and send it all the way to Uruguay, but never had the chance. Maybe that will entice her to come back to MN and try some fudge from the headwaters!
OH - and HAPPY FOURTH OF JULY TO EVERYONE! I love living in such a beautiful country, where we can enjoy the freedoms we enjoy, and the opportunities we have been given. We really are blessed to be living in America!

When it rains, it pours....

Well, after a wonderful 2 and a 1/2 day vacation at a beautiful lake, we are now enjoying an extra night of vacation waiting for our broken down car. Yep, we got all the way here, it started doing funny things and sounding worse and worse, the closer we got to our destination. Of course, it is a holiday weekend, so nothing is open, and our car won't get fixed until Monday. Until then, we are going to enjoy wandering the streets of a very small town, and hopefully making the best of our interesting situation. Our little cabin and trip to Itasca was beautiful, and Will had a blast! He LOVED spending time with his cousins and Uncle Wes became his favorite Uncle ever, after showing him all his fishing gear over and over and over. The kids loved the lake and spent ALL day Saturday playing in it. Pictures to come!!... if we ever make it home! :) Wish us luck!... I'd really like to call up the mechanics that looked at our car the day before we left and assured, and reassured us that it was driveable and we had nothing to worry about coming on our trip.... don't you think they should pay for our repairs? Especially since we probably made the problem worse by driving 4 hours away from home! Uggggh.

Our little angel....

Here we are, mother and son.... isn't that a sweet little face he has? He's saying "CHEEESE!" Well, you might think he looks innocent, but inside that cute little face of his is a two year old! I never believed anybody when they used say "terrible twos" I thought it was all their fault for not being good parents. Ha! Looks whose laughing now - not me!

Will turned two the end of April, and we've had an interesting past few months. The inner 2 year old has emerged, and it isn't pretty. I'm sure it's not my parenting style, I've read all the books, done all the research, so basicall, I'm a perfect mother... ha! Again, look whose laughing - not me! Every day I ask myself... where did we go wrong? Have we not given him enough choices, is he getting enough positive attention, and positive reinforcement? Is he sleep deprived? Are we spoiling him too much? Does he need to run outside and burn off more energy? Should I just forget it when he throws a monsterous fit everytime we leave the house because he doesn't want to put on his shoes.... who cares about shoes, and why is it such a big deal if he doesn't wear any (because people look at you funny in the store if your child has a dirty face and is shoeless... not good)?

Or, how about the other day when I told him it was time for lunch and and suddenly he collapsed on the floor, tears raging, and screaming hysterically. What does that mean? And who cries over lunch? I'm always thrilled at meal times... I think those are MY own issues though. OR, even better, any sort of hint at the word bed or naptime.... don't even go there. So, where has my angel gone? I know he's trapped up inside that adorable body somewhere, I can't wait until he comes back..... and I must say, the two's are not ALL bad. We have our wonderful, inspiring, loving moments too, thank goodness, or else I don't think I could muster my way through the next 18 years. My apologies go out to all mothers of 2 year olds.... actually just to ALL mothers. And my apologies for all the people Will has glared at and said "NO!" so defiantly when I tell him to say "Hi!" or "Bye!" - we're working on manners..... :)
I'm almost done rambling, I promise... but let me leave you with this little diddy. As I enjoyed some time after church today, it got very quiet. I was upstairs changing my clothes and thought to myself... "it is WAY too quiet for anything good to be happening downstairs." So I called to Will: "What are you doing Will?" and I got a scary reply "I'm just getting something in your purse!" So, of course I finished changing, grabbed my camera, walked downstairs, and found my whole purse dumped out, lotion open, other feminine things open, and starburst wrappers scattered about, and WILL with his mouth full of starbursts. I don't know how many he ate, the wrappers were too small to tell. He just smiled at me so innocently and said "Cheeeeese!"
This is after some clean-up - and Will did a great job of putting things back where he found them. He even took all the wrappers to the garbage without me asking him. See? There's the little boy I know!

Who are you looking at? Me? Oh I couldn't ever be doing anything mischievious or sneaky, I'm way too innocent for anything like that! This starburst in my hands? I don't know where it came from, didn't you give it to me, since I ate all my lunch? Oh you didn't, oh well. It sure is tasty!

Singing Like Uncle TY

Will's really cool Unlce Tyler is in a band. We've watched his clip on YouTube a hundred times. In the car one day, Will said "Sing One Day Mom!" and I said "what?" and he said "sing One Day like Uncle Ty on the computer!" Since then, we've heard him singing it a couple times, it is way cute. He's also been saying things like:

"Sing Sun Bean song, mom!"

"Don't wipe my cry off!" (translation: don't wipe my tears off, I'm 2 years old, everything is bringing me to tears, and I don't need you wiping my face all the time, it bugs me!)

"I like you mom!" and a lot of times, he doesn't just like me he likes things like my neck, my eyes, my back, my hair, my cheeks.... etc.

The other day I kept telling Will he couldn't do something and he just kept asking me in a little louder voice each time, and emphasizing "PLEEEEAASSE" so much that one time he almost lost his breath. Then finally he started saying "Can I sit down mom?, Can I touch this marker mom?, Can I look at this picture, mom?" I think I had said "no" so many times he was a little unsure at what he COULD do!

The Farm

One of the highlights of going to Aunt Krista's is that she lives right by Thanksgiving Point. So, we always go there to visit the farm. Last year, Will got to ride a horse, this year, we took a wagon ride, fed some goats, and got to almost pet the donkey. I think the highlight of the trip to the farm was Will getting to hold his ticket and give it to the "nice cowboy" on the wagon ride. A couple days after going to the farm, my brother and sister in-law came over to have a bbq with us. Will was not having a good day and was really grumpy. It didn't help that Uncle Andy was egging him on, but I didn't really think much of it. Then when we got home to mpls, Wil was looking at my family picture and said "There's JENN!!" (my sister in-law). I guess you never really know what kids are "picking-up" when they are being grumpy. He also said "I have 2 Krista's, I have Krista and Matt and Kayla (my sister and her kids) and Christa and Emmett and Jude (our friends here in mpls)." The wagon ride. It was a great day to be at the farm, nice and sunny, but not too hot. It was VERY windy though, so you'll have to excuse the lovely middle parted bangs of mine. That wasn't done on purpose!

We are the dinosaurs....

Will's wildest dreams came true while in Utah. As we were driving to my sisters, we passed the dinosaur museum, it is just off the freeway, so you can easily see this dinosaur and Will started screaming "DINOSAURS!! Mom! Maybe we should go see'em at the Mall of a America!!!" It was pretty funny. I think he was relating the shark aquarium at MOA with these huge dinosaurs on the building. The next day, my sister and I headed to the dinosaur park. It was great. Although, Will was not so fond of the Shark exhibit, to my surprise, he freaked out. He was terrified, and being the truly sympathetic mother that I am, I made him stay there long enough to get pictures, I thought it was cute. I'm not so nice, am I!? It was very funny though.

Can you see us?

The kidds checking out some trilobites or something
You can barely see that we are standing in front of a brachiosaurus

Hopefully you can also barely see that Will is making a big stink about taking a picture....

Playing the matching game with the dinosaurs
The museum had a great little sand and water place

with all sorts of pre-historic mammals to play with

Here we go: the shark encounter! This is Will after we turned the corner and he saw the gigantic shark head as big as a car, with it's jaws wide-open, ready to swallow something...

Then, he finally gets the nerve to open his eyes, and guess what? We haven't moved, we are still standing right in front of the gaping shark teeth. So, of course, he reverts back to screaming with his eyes closed, and this time, he put his hand over his eyes, hoping that that would help... every few seconds he would peeeek out of his little hand and then throw his head back and start wailing all over again. It really was pretty hilarious -

See? There is absolutely nothing to be afraid of Will! Okay, if I was only 3 feet tall, I'd be just as freaked out.

If want the full effect, click on the picture and check out Will's face, it is so cute yet so sad, and then look at my face...

I'm laughing - THAT is sad!

Happy Birthday to ME!!

Even though my birthday was the day that Scott left Utah to come back to Mpls for work, it still was a great day. I got to spend it with my bud Will, and my sister and her family! We had a great day. We drove Scott to the airport and then my sister and I hung out, went out to dinner at Pizza Factory and had a really yummy cheesecake cake - my favorite. My sister is always so nice to think of me on my birthday and knows how much I love to eat! :) Since summer is such a crazy time, I've spent many birthdays at her house and she always makes it special. This is the second year in a row that I've spent my birthday with her. I'm so blessed to have amazing sisters who are not only family, but who are some of my best friends, and people that I admire and look up to in so many ways!

While in Utah, Will expressed his 2 year old side more often than I prefer, so most pictures are of him frowning

Oh well, this is us at Pizza Factory! THE CAKE - YUM!!
My sis and her family!
Will really liked the cake, he liked it as much I did!

Good Times - Family Reunion

Scott and I were lucky enough to get to plan the Mortensen Family Reunion this year. We decided to play it low key since we had all just had a wedding. In Ashlie's words - our reunion was "official hanging out" since we had all been hanging already for four days. It was great. We kicked off our reunion with a family crossword puzzle, which the girls dominated by the way, and the kids got to spend a fun night in the tent watching a movie and having a slumber party with Grandma and Grandpa. The next day, we a had a yummy breakfast, packed a picnic and went for a hike. It was a little rainy and chilly, but we still had a great time on the hike. We really miss the mountains!!! After our hike and picnic, we headed back home to have a bocce tournament.... Glenn and I BARELY lost to Wes and Martha! It's okay though, we thought we'd be nice and let them win. Then we had a really yummy BBQ rib dinner, and the kids tye died t-shirts.

The boys working hard on the crossword - nice try boys!

The girls - the WINNERS

Our hike up Logan canyon - we were headed to see some waterfalls -

don't worry our hike was a true dirt trail hike A family picture
Another family picture with almost all of us - notice the 2 cute little baby bundles?

They were so cute and cozy in their wraps!
Our beautiful Sadie picking flowers
Wes wanted to do something really manly, so he tried to shoot magpies with a BB gun - go Wes!

Fishing with Grandpa

Grandpa and the boys went fishing at a private pond in College Ward.

Here's Caleb with the catch of the day!Grandpa, Will, and Dad showing off their fishing skills
Scott, showing off his fishing skills....

just kidding! Sorry for the gory picture, but no family

outing would be complete if Scott didn't hurt himself! Poor guy.

He had to go to Glenns office and have it "surgically" removed!

If you can't tell by the picture, Scott hooked himself - OUCH

Will and Grandpa - Will woke up early one morning about 6:30am and said

"Let's go outside!" - Scott and I said, "wait for Papa to take you..." about 1/2 hour later he

knocked on Papa's door and yelled as loud as he could "Papa! I want to go outside with you!"

It was pretty cute, he was in toddler heaven while at the Mortensen's!

Fun at the Mortensen's

Like I said earlier, our trip to Utah was full of fun things! This was one of our first nights in Utah. Will loved playing in the sand at Grandma's, especially with his cousins. His specialty was "chocolate milk" made by getting endless buckets of water from the water tap nearby, and adding bucketful after bucketful of sand. Then stirring and stirring and stirring, and getting it all over himself. He sure was proud of it though!

Here's Will with all his cousins:

(L to R) Ivie, Ellie, Sadie, Caleb, Molly, and Will

Sitting in the hole that daddy dug for himWe had a few s'mores roasts while in Utah, Will thought they were great!

Notice, his marshmallow is not on a roaster, it is on a stick, and he truly

thought he was roasting it - bless his little heart for not getting so close to the fire!

Usually he ended up just eating them straight out of the bag.

Our Trip to Utah

Well, the time has come to play "catch up" - I know you have all anxiously been waiting to read something new on my blog. However, our internet is dumb and I can't get my pictures off my desktop so I'm using our laptop. So, you'll just have to wait to see some wonderful pictures of our trip to Utah.

I'll tell you this, it was great! Will really warmed up to Gma and Gpa Mortensen, and absolutely LOVED playing in their backyard. It is a toddler's paradise! Liz's wedding was beautiful and a very special experience, our family reunion, and Scott's class reunion went great. We had a lot of fun activities and everything went very smoothly. My birthday and our stay at my sister Krista's house was also wonderful. Will loved having cousins to play with, going to the Dinosaur Museum, the Thanksgiving Point Farm, and playing in the yard with Matt.

Now we are back, home sweet home. The weather is beautiful here, I love it. Not too hot yet, and the humidity isn't bad at all. I've only turned our AC on once. The evenings are really nice, and cool. We've taken Will swimming to the outdoor pool, gone on walks, played at the playground, and of course gone on a couple huge grocery shopping trips. We are happy to be at home and having some summer fun! Pictures soon!!