Fun on the Fourth

Independence Day was a rousing success this year. On July 3rd we went to Eagle Mountain golf course to watch the firework show. It was great! We had really good seats, too, right in front of the pond. Cameron was really nervous about the fireworks at first. Well, okay, he was terrified. But after a few minutes he calmed down and started to enjoy them, and imitated the BOOM sound, followed by the SWIIIISSSHHH of the firecrackers. It was pretty funny listening to him. The fireworks themselves were great, possibly one of the best shows I have seen in a long time.

The next day, July 4th, we took Cameron to see Wall-E. Craig and I LOVED it. I would go so far as to say it is one of Pixar's best! Cameron liked some parts, but he grew restless sitting in the theater. He is used to being able to run around and act out all the parts while watching movies. In the evening, Melanie and Mathis invited us to spend time with them and their extended family. It was Mathis's grandpa's birthday:-) We had a fun b-b-que, with fresh homemade ice cream for dessert. Yum! Cameron and Aubrey had a lot of fun chasing each other around the year. Aubrey kept tackling Cameron, and there was nothing he could do about it because he couldn't run away because his pants kept falling down! Actually, he thought it was so funny that his pants kept falling down, and would run around the yard until they did. What a nut! LOL

Later we did some of the little fireworks. They lit off a lot of smoke bombs. The sulfur triggered a major migraine that lasted a couple of days. Bleh. Cameron LOVED the snaps, those tiny paper tissues filled with gun powder that you throw on the ground to make them snap. He wanted to do them again and again! He also enjoyed the sparklers, and pretended they were magic wands (like Harry Potter, of course). All was fun and games until he put his hand in the wrong place. His sparkler had just burned out, and he tried switching it to the other hand, but grabbed it a little too high. He was pretty badly burned, with two angry blisters on his hand. I wanted to cry, too whenever I looked at him. I could tell he was in a lot of pain. The sad part is that we were RIGHT THERE! Craig was hovering over him the whole time, but it happened so fast we couldn't even stop it.

Well, aside from that one incident, it was a very nice holiday. We really enjoyed spending time together as a family, and with other family members as well. We are so busy these days that time together is a rare and valued treat:-)

Guess who's wearing Big Boy Pants?

Cameron is!!!! After what seems like AGES, he is finally starting to show some real interest in the potty. I was starting to worry it might never happen! I thought for sure I would have the only kid in college still wearing diapers, LOL. All his younger cousins are either potty training or are already potty trained.

Cameron has good incentive to use the potty now. We promised that if he used the potty all the time we would get him a special RC Mario Kart toy. He's VERY excited about it:-) Every time he puts his peepee in the potty he gets to put a marble in a jar. When the jar is all full, he gets the toy!

So far he is doing very well. He has had a few accidents, but for the most part he has been very good. He loves wearing his Big Boy Underpants, especially the ones with Elmo. We are hoping to have him fully day trained within the month. Wish us luck!

Meuller Park Canyon

Our ward recently had a B-B-Que up at Mueller Park Canyon. We have never been there before, and we were surprised by how close it was to our house - maybe about a 10-15 minute drive. It was GORGEOUS there. I would love to do some photoshoots up there. Any takers?

I took tons of photos while we were there. Some of my favorites you can see on my photo blog. But here are some cute ones of Cameron and Craig.


This is sooo Cameron! He is really big into swords. This one is just cardboard wrapped in duct tape, but I know he will be using the real things someday. He's going to be a sword master:-)

Cameron and Trains

Yesterday I met with the Utah 2Ps Photography Group. We went to Ogden Union Station, a fantastic place for a photo shoot! I had to bring Cameron along because he is crazy about trains (duh, he's a boy!). He loved it! He's never been on a train, or even really up close to them, so this was a real treat. The train as really old and rusty, but the kids didn't seem to mind. Admittedly, I am a little afraid of trains myself (too much Fried Green Tomatoes!), but this one was pretty dang cool. Here are a few of my favorites. There are LOTS more on my photo blog.

A Visit to the Zoo

Cameron and I went to the zoo today with our Playgroup. The weather was PERFECT! Such a gorgeous day! Of course, everyone else wanted to be out enjoying the day as well, so it was really crowded, but not too bad. The biggest down side was when everyone wanted to see the same animal, but people kept hogging the prime spots and WOULDN'T MOVE, so that others couldn't see anything at all. C'mon people. Use your common sense. If you know the place is crowded, get in, take a couple pictures, and move out so that others can enjoy it, too. Sorry, pet peeve.

Cameron's favorite were the elephants, of course. He has liked elephants ever since we can remember. He also liked riding the train, even though it was way too short a ride, and went too fast to really see anything.

Here are some of my favorite shots of the day:-) If you want to see photos of the animals, head over to my Photo Blog.

On the train. I asked him to make a happy face:-)

Cameron really liked the playground. He lives for slides!
Cameron and his friend Ethan racing up the tower.
Scared face. Not very scary, but definitely very cute!
Wow! Look! A picture with me in it! On rare occasions I find myself in front of the camera. What a weird place to be! LOL

Miraculously NOT pregnant

I don't get it. I really don't get it.

This past cycle I was put on Clomid to help stimulate my ovaries and hopefully produce more eggs, which in turn would give us a much greater chance of getting pregnant. On cycle day 21 I went in for some bloodwork. They wanted to test my progesterone levels to see if I ovulated. I was pretty certain I had. Well, I just got the results back, and my levels were at 54.27!!!! That is RIDICULOUSLY high. A normal non-pregnant woman would be expected to have levels of around 8-10, maybe a little higher. But not THAT high. So imagine the nurse's surprise when i told her I was almost certain I am NOT pregnant. How is it even possible? Everything was perfect. PERFECT! And still no baby. I have no symptoms, and i had a negative urine test. Seriously, what is going on? One would think I would be pregnant with twins right now, but no such luck. An unsolved mystery. I hate mysteries.

Picture a family. . .

My family, that is! Yup, here we all are, in all our glory. Or something like that. When my mom graduated, the whole clan came in to help celebrate. And of course, that means a family photo shoot:-) Okay, it is no easy task to get a good sized group of people all looking and smiling in the same direction, plus focus on composition, lighting, focus, etc. Add to the fact that I had to be IN these photos, and you have one challenging task before you. But, I think I pulled it off fairly well. Here are some of the highlights. You can see more over on my photo blog.

I love to scrapbook, but I usually prefer paper scrapping. I love the feel of all the different textures. But this time I wanted to create a page that I could share with other members of my family. Digital scrapping was the way to go! This is my first ever digital LO, and I have to say I am pretty proud of it! Don't know that I will make a regular thing of it, but I have to say the clean-up time was pretty nice, LOL.

My mom, the Grad:-)

I know Mother's Day is right around the corner. So I would like to take this opportunity to tell my mom how much I love her and admire her. I love her determination, her ability to face obstacles head on, her loyalty to her family, and I love her for all of the sacrifices she has made. Possibly the biggest sacrifice she has made was her education. Her dream has always been to get a degree. But life wasn't going to make it easy for her! Still, she never gave up her dream, and only a couple of weeks ago, she received her Bachelor's degree from Brigham Young University! Way to go, MOM!

Here are some of the highlights:

All the grads in the Marriott Center. Mom is in there somewhere:-)

Our favorite organist, Brian, and his beautiful assistant, Vanna White. I mean, Alicia:-)
Valedictorian. Does anybody ever really listen to the speeches? BORING!!! Sorry, but I just can't get excited about sitting through a bunch of speeches, especially when you know something really cool is about to happen!
Okay, this wasn't so bad. These girls sang "The Prayer", one of my favorite songs. They did a beautiful job.
The Dean. Yet another speech. There were others, too. *yawn*
Alright! The Action! My mom giving a big smile as she was handed her diploma case. No, there's nothing inside it. She has to get that later.
The Happy Graduate:-)
My dad presenting my mom with a lei. She really liked it!
A montage of photos I did with her.
My very favorite. BYU's logo is Enter to Learn, Go Forth to Serve. I felt it was very fitting for this photo. I can't help but cry every time I see this. I am so proud of my mom and her huge accomplishment. Congrats, mom! You're the best!

If you feel so inclined, you can see more images from our photoshoot on my photography blog.