Independence Day 2017

Our plan this year was to spend Independence Day at my grandparents cabin. But on June 17 some dummy using a weed torch in dry conditions started a massive fire :(. As of the end of June neared it still was less than 20% contained, even with firefighters working around the clock, so we pretty much wrote off plans to go and, as the fire got closer to Mammoth Creek, wondered if we'd even have a cabin to go to at all! :(

Luckily the fire never got too close and I even had some family go up there a few days before the 4th, but we ended up rescheduling anyway. The fire ended up burning around 70,000 acres! So sad.

This is the church we go to in Panguitch.

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So with our regular plans cancelled we enjoyed a low key weekend and then decided to spend Monday and Tuesday with Gm and Gp Bailey. Sunday night we headed down to Highland to spend the night.

 Nolan slept in our room and Branson in the next room over. Poor Nolan woke up a little confused the next morning. He got up and ran towards the door until I called his name from the bed. He looked a little startled, turned around, and gave us a relieved smile as if to say, "oh, there you are!" It was pretty sweet.

Nolan excited to wake up at Gm and Gp's house!

He loves this big ball!

Monday morning Justin, Doug, and I went golfing at Cedar Hills. It was sure nice and made me want to golf more! Gee, do you think we're Cougar fans??

Nolan helping grandma water the plants.

Later that day we drove south to check out the Provo Rec Center and it did not disappoint! First of all, it was cheap (only $4 per person), it had a ton of stuff to do (both a huge indoor pool area AND an outdoor pool area) and, most exciting to me, Nolan really conquered some of his fears! (Although you wouldn't know they were fears by the way he acted).

Backstory: Nolan doesn't really like tube slides -- not at the park and definitely not at the pool. There is a small, straight tube slide at the Holladay Rec Center where we have swim class that he's gone down a few times, but usually because we've kind of forced him or gone with him. And he hasn't even gone down that one in months!

So when I took Nolan to the kiddy area of the Provo Rec Center and watched him walk up the stairs I had absolutely not thought that he would go down the slides at.all. I figured he'd walk up, check it out, then walk back down. Nope! He walked up the stairs, right up to the blue tube slide, and slid down without the slightest hesitation! I seriously still don't get it. Not only was this slide new, it was very dark inside, you couldn't see the end of the slide, and there was a lot of rushing water (kind of deep too). I ran over to the other side of the play structure so I could catch him at the bottom, totally convinced that he wouldn't want to do it again. But when I grabbed him from the water he was all smiles and said, "I want to go down again!!" I told him I was so proud of him (I probably said that 100 times that day) and excitedly pointed out the other slides to him. You couldn't wipe the smile off his face! It made me so so happy ☺

He alternated between the blue slide and the green slide and the red slide for the next hour at least and loved every single minute of it.

Now, if it wasn't exciting enough that Nolan was having so much fun going down the tube slides at the kiddy area, I was floored when Justin asked him if he wanted to go down the BIG slides outside, and he did! They went down the orange one ☺

I was worried about so many things (I'm a mom, I know) - would Justin be able to keep his head out of the water at the bottom? Would he be nervous going up the big stairs? The dark tube?

No need to worry mama! Justin said Nolan was smiling the whole time they were in line on the stairs and kept asking him if they could go up one more step.

It's kind of annoying, but they made him take off his goggles which was probably the only thing he didn't like, but not too bad. He liked it!

Branson was excited when it was finally his turn to get in the water. He LOVED splashing around!!

Anyway, I'm just so excited for Nolan. That day changed so much for him! He's so much better at holding his breath under water or when water comes up in his face, he's no longer scared of tube slides (he's done down the Holladay one about a million times now), and he loves his swimming goggles (we got him prescription ones).

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Photoshoot with Branson ::swoon::

By the way, as soon as I gave Branson this football, Nolan came up and snatched it away #bigbrotherproblems.

Getting in some extra sleep and snuggles with daddy.

On Tuesday we went to the park. I was holding Nolan's hand and said to him, "I'm so happy to be your mom." To which he replied, "I'm happy you're my mom." Awwwww ♥ It's hard sometimes, but I love these boys more than they will ever know!!

Summer Fun - Part 1 (June)

Back to swimming lessons! It took a bit of time to catch up to where we were before, plus he mostly just wants to play instead of do the lesson, but we can usually convince him to do the exercises before going to the kiddie pool.

Still keeping up the McD after swimming tradition

They're extra sweet when they're sleeping ♥

The cutest little fake Birkenstocks - on the cutest little feet - you've ever seen! 

I love it when Nolan includes Branson in his play time. Although you'll notice he's safe from B grabbing any of the toys which makes it easier for him to be nice ☺

 

 Typical

Justin introduced Nolan to one of his favorite Chip and Dale clips, "Applecore." Nolan loved it and watched it lots of times.

Showing it to Gm Bailey

This summer Nolan especially loves going for walks in the cemetery when the sprinklers are on!

 

If you can't tell, there's a Nolan in there. For a couple of weeks we'd always find him asleep in his bed like this. Not sure what he was doing haha, but I'd always pull the covers back to find the poor kid drenched in sweat. Silly kid!

He even wants to be in charge of the remotes at Sara and Lis house. Here is is keeping Lis' hand away hahaha.

 Nolan was not happy that Branson was touching the book. Oey.

Jeanni likes to keep the 'hawk' alive

Family History Dept. Summer Party

This week was the annual Family History Dept. Summer Party at Murray Park. We have swimming on Thursday nights at 6:30 so we thought we'd just show up, eat dinner, then leave for swimming. Well, we let Nolan try out the bouncy houses and mazes and he was having so much fun that we decided to stay. Actually, we gave him the choice and he wanted to stay and play (although by the time we left he also wanted to go to swimming haha). We just figured we don't get to do things like this very often, it's only once a year, and he was having so much fun! So worth it to blow off swimming for one week.

His favorite was definitely this bouncy obstacle course and he did so well!

Good climber! (who knew?!)

Right after I took this picture he decided he would rather just go back down the way he came instead of going down the slide haha. But the next time he went down the slide and never looked back!

In the bouncy castle! He kept trying to throw the ball out.

Cute Branson was feeling a little left out so we let him bounce on the outside and he loved it!! (as you can see by the super big smile on his face!)

I love this one ♥

(I work closely with the two guys in the background, Dale on the left, Jeff on the right. It's super weird seeing coworkers not in shirts and ties haha)

He climbed about 3/4 of the way up this one and then started coming down, so Justin went up with him. 

Here comes daddy!

Waiting in line to get his face painted. He saw kids with their faces painted like animals and said he wanted to be a fox. However, by the time it was our turn and a stranger got their hands close to his face he changed his mind ☺

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(Proof that Nolan is not always torturing Branson ☺)

Justin had Branson giggling SO hard while we watched Nolan at the playground.