WHAT'S UP?

It's been a while. I know. So what has been up with us you ask? Actually, you probably don't really care that much but since this is like my journal, I'm gonna tell you anyways. Warning!!! This is going to be a really long post. There's a lot to catch up on. But I will bold the important parts in case you just want a quick summary.

Bauer just completed his first school year. Yes, it was 3-year-old preschool but still - it's a big step for us. They had a cute little end-of-year program where the kids sang a few songs and showed us the progress they had made throughout the year. Bauer was his usual shy self and didn't really sing much. Poor kid. I feel so bad every time I see him go into his little shell. That's my fault. Sorry Bauer. I feel your pain! He was so cute though and did such a great job. I am so proud of what a good little boy he has been. Bauer has done really well in school and has really enjoyed it.


I think the highlight of Bauer's school was the fun things he made. Probably his most favorite was when they made a pet whale. It was so cute. They took a 2 liter bottle and filled it with water and then made a whale out of a balloon to put inside. He was so proud of his little pet. It lived on his dresser for weeks. Cute little fella. Then a while later they broke and egg in half and took a little fuzzy pom-pom thing to put inside and put eyes and a beak on it and made a pet chick. Mr. Chick lived next to the whale on the dresser for a long time until I finally put them away with the rest of the work he had done throughout the year. During summer school they talked about metamorphosis and made a little caterpillar out of an egg carton using three of the little upside down egg spots (I don't know what they are called). Then during another class, they turned their caterpillars into butterflies by adding wings on the sides. He carried that little butterfly around everywhere we went.

He learned a lot from school too. Most importantly I think, he learned how to socialize, meet new people, share, and be comfortable around people other than his family. Hopefully getting him involved in school and sports at a young age will help him become more comfortable with people and help him to not be so shy. I realize that it is just part of his personality and is probably something he will always struggle with but everything we can do to possibly help is worth it, right.



We finally got to take the boat out. This stupid weather! Why can't it just be warm!? But we finally got to go out and it was awesome. I'm so excited that it is boating season. I love boating. I love the heat, I love the relaxation, I love the surfing and wakeboarding - I just love it!

We took a little weekend trip and on the way down we stopped at the greatest restaurant ever - The Timberline (did you catch the sarcasm?). We had stopped in Beaver to eat and Brian asked the locals at a gas station what was good. I guess there were a couple of salesmen in there and they told him that they traveled between 7 states and by far the best place they had eaten was the Timberline. Joke was on us! Not only did it take about an hour and a half to get our food (and no, that is NOT an exaggeration) the food was horrible. Brian ordered fish and chips and isn't really sure that there was even fish inside anywhere. I ordered pasta and it was more like a soup with a few noodles in it The sauce was so runny that it didn't even stick to the pasta, you had to just drink it. Scotty went with the burger - much better choice.

After our wonderful dining experience, we finished our journey and met up with our friends, the Kennedy's. Heather's dad happened to have a house that he had been renting out and the renters had just barely moved out and he was getting ready to move back in but for the weekend, it was vacant so we were able to stay there for free. SWEET! Granted, there was no gas hooked up so we didn't have hot water and there was absolutely nothing in the house but that wasn't a problem at all. We really didn't spend much time there anyways because we were on the lake all day and then came home, changed our clothes, went to dinner, and then by the time we got home, it was time for bed. So we brought our air mattresses and sleeping bags and were comfy as could be. And it was so nice to have a fridge and plenty of room for everyone to sleep. Thanks Heather's Dad for letting us stay!

The weather was nice and warm (for the most part) for our trip which was such a nice change. The water was still cold (at least for me) but luckily Brian and I had bought wetsuits so it wasn't a problem (Scotty - I still think you need one!). We spent long days tubing, surfing, and wakeboarding and had an absolute blast! Gosh, I love boating! The only down-side was that our ballast pump died so we weren't able to pump the water out of our port-side ballast after surfing so Brian and Scotty had to empty it by hand. But hey, that's what happens when you have a boat, right!? Something is always broken.

So all in all, our trip was awesome!

After our boating trip, we headed straight into chaos mode. At least I did. June is a busy month for us. We have Bauer's birthday, my birthday, Father's Day, and our wedding anniversary. And we usually have a trip or two as well. So as soon as we got home, I started into birthday mode. I had to get everything ready and planned for Bauer's birthday and party. Every year we have had a barbecue for Bauer's birthday party. I think this might be the last year though. Bauer is starting to want to have parties with his friends so we will probably spend our time and efforts on a friends party and just do smaller parties with our families starting next year.


This year he chose a pirate theme for his party. I couldn't for the life of me figure out why he chose pirates because he hasn't played with pirate stuff or watched pirate movies or anything. But he had his heart set on it. We even went to the party store and I showed him all of the different, fun themes he could do (because it was harder to find pirate themed stuff than you would think) and he really liked a bunch of the themes but at the end of the day, what he really wanted was a pirate party. So pirates it was! I finally asked him where he got the idea for it. He told me it was because Great (that's what he calls my Grandma Bliss) has a pirate ship at her house. Just a little figurine decoration thing - about a foot long. But apparently Bauer loves it. So because of that - he wanted a pirate party. Kids! The other thing he insisted on was having pirate swords for the kids. Sorry to the girls but hey, it's his party and he'll cry if he wants to! But we did give them some treats and glow-in-the-dark bracelets and a skull and crossbones sweatband (which Paislee absolutely loved and wouldn't take off - even for church). That girl cracks me up!

The day after the party was Bauer's actual birthday. I felt bad because we had to wake him up to go to church but it was actually a really good morning. I usually do have to wake him up to get ready for church and I wait until the last possible minute so he can get as much sleep as possible but then I swear I spend the rest of the morning yelling at him to hurry so we're not late. I didn't want it to be like that for his birthday so I decided that I wasn't going to yell or rush and if we were late for church - oh well. I woke him up a little earlier than I normally would have so he would have time to wake up before he had to get in the shower. I went in and woke him up and just kind of held him in my arms while he woke up. It was so sweet and I got some good snuggles out of it. He was excited too because while he was asleep, Grandma Lorna and Suzzi brought him a bouquet of balloons and put them in his room and one of them was a huge Shrek head that sang when you pushed on it. So seeing those made him smile. Just as he was getting up, Brian got home from his meeting and got to cuddle a little bit before getting ready. We took our time getting ready and I didn't yell or push him to hurry once. It was such a nice, relaxing morning. I probably should do that more often. Anyways, we did have to rush a little bit at the end but we made it on time for church.

Bauer took a little treat for his class and they sang happy birthday to him in sharing time which was fun for him. Brian and I got to go see it because coincidentally, Bauer also did the scripture that day. We had been on our boating trip the weekend before so we weren't at church and we didn't find out about him needing to do the scripture until a day and a half before. Bad timing since we had so much going on but luckily it was a short scripture and he was able to memorize it. I went up to help him say it in case he needed a prompt and as soon as he got up to the microphone you could see him go into his little shell and he grabbed onto me. But he got up there and did his scripture and did a wonderful job.

After church he got to open his presents from Brian and me. He didn't get much this year which I kind of felt bad about but then at the same time, I think we go overboard most of the time. And, he got a swingset. Let's be honest - we were going to buy a swingset anyways. So we figured we might as well just do that for his birthday. He was pretty excited about that. They didn't have any in stock though so we have to wait a few weeks before it comes in so we just showed him our neighbor's swingset, which is identical to what we got, and told him that he would get that soon. He was excited about it. I think he will really like it. The first thing he said was "will we have to put it together?" It's so funny that that's what he thinks of. He's a little thinker.

Usually we make Bauer take a nap after church but because it was his birthday, we didn't make him. It was HIS day and he could do whatever he wanted. So instead of napping, we played with all of his presents. That night, we went over to Rae's house for a BBQ to celebrate Collin's and Tommy's birthdays. It was tons of fun and Bauer didn't have a problem at all with not getting all the attention on his birthday. After the BBQ we came home and played outside with Bauer's presents some more. It was such a nice, relaxing day and we had so much fun playing with Bauer and letting him be the boss. I even let him wear whatever he wanted. He thought it was pretty funny that he could wear flip-flops that didn't match his outfit. Then the next day I told him to go put his black flip-flops on. He came back in holding his blue flip-flops and said "Mom, did you forget that I can wear whatever I want" in his little nanner-nanner voice. I said "it's not your birthday anymore." "Aaawwww!" he said. It was pretty funny.

The next day we had another birthday party for Bauer. Brian's aunt likes to have a swim party for him and Marki, who is Brian's cousin's little girl that has a birthday 2 days after Bauer. The weather wasn't ideal but that didn't keep the kids (and adults) from having a blast in the pool. We had a BBQ as well and we brought the birthday cake. We took Bauer with us to pick it out and asked him what he would want for his cake to share. We told him that he needed to pick something that would be good for a girl too. So we gave him ideas like a swim theme or just birthday balloons or something but he insisted that half of the cake be a girl theme and half be a boy theme. Luckily Wal-Mart had a cake that was perfect. It was half beach and half water and had Minnie Mouse laying out on the beach and Mickey Mouse surfing in the water. Who'da thunk! Perfect! Unfortunately I didn't get any pictures of that party. We were running late so I didn't have time to get my nice camera and my point-and-shoot didn't have a memory card in it. LAME!

As soon as the parties were over, we went back into vacation mode. We headed out that weekend for Lake Powell with Brian's family. Oh man! I love Lake Powell! We weren't able to leave until after work so we got down to Page pretty late but that didn't matter because we couldn't take the houseboat out until the next morning. So we parked in the houseboat yard and loaded all of our stuff onto the boat and slept there and then just headed out to the water early the next morning. Brian's parents bought into a time share so we get to go every-other year on this same week. Woot woot!

We had such a blast! We found a great beach to park in that was back in Navajo canyon. It was so pretty in the canyon and the beach was perfect! It was a long, smooth, perfect beach. We spent a lot of time on the beach too, for a couple of reasons: the kids loved it, and the strong winds kept us from spending too much time in the power boats.

Bauer was cracking us up! He would want to go play on the beach and in the water so he would get his swimsuit and life jacket on and go out and then would be out there for a couple of minutes and then decide that he was either bored or cold so he would come back in and ask to change. So we would put him in dry clothes and he would be inside for a few minutes and then he would decide that he wanted to go out again so he would have to put a swimming suit back on. But of course he didn't want to wear the one he had been wearing because it was cold and wet so he would get a new one out. Then he would come in and decide that he wanted to wear his pajamas so he would change again. I swear, that kid changed his clothes at least a dozen times a day. Luckily Lorna, Heidi, Suzzi, Nicole, and Marti were always willing and happy to help him with anything and everything he wanted, including a million outfit changes per day.

We had two really nice days where we were able to go out and wakeboard and surf which is my favorite, and Bauer even tried wakeboarding. Gayle and Lorna bought him a wakeboard for his birthday and he was really excited about it but then when it came down to actually trying it, he wasn't really sure he wanted to. He kept telling us that he wasn't old enough to. He would try when he got older. Then one day Marki decided that she wanted to try on Bauer's board. So Jared got in the water with her and would hold onto the rope and drag behind and help her stand up and keep her board straight so she could ride. It was so cute to see her trying and I think that everyone yelling and cheering for her made Bauer kind of want to try. We told him that he could as soon as Marki was done but then by the time she was ready to stop, he changed his mind again and we couldn't convince him to try. The next day Marki tried again and did an awesome job. We tried again to get Bauer to try and he wouldn't but we finally convinced him to just put his board on in the water and get comfortable with it. So he got in with Jared and felt what it was like and Jared showed him how to stand up. Then he told us to throw him a rope so Bauer could see what that felt like. Bauer didn't want us to but finally warmed up to it so we threw the rope in and he grabbed on. Then Jared convinced him to let Brian drive a little bit so he could see what it felt like to hold on while the boat was going. I was amazed that he let us. So Jared did the same for him that he had done for Marki and Bauer actually tried it. I think he had fun but wasn't so sure about the fall. He only tried a couple of times but we were just happy that he tried. Hopefully he will get more and more comfortable and eventually will love it.

That night we had a ranger drive up and warn us that there were strong winds coming with gusts up to 50mph and that we should make sure that we were secured properly. If you haven't stayed in Lake Powell, you might not know how scary winds can be. Even though you have a houseboat (or power boat for that matter) anchored in, a big gust of wind can pull your anchors out or break your ropes and push your boat pretty far, or, heaven forbid, sink it. It's a pretty scary thing. So we anchored in really tight and braved the storm. Luckily we were up against a large canyon wall so the wind didn't hit us quite as badly as it probably would have but we swayed pretty far a few times. Throughout the night and the whole next day, the winds didn't stop. But luckily we had a lot of people that knew what they were doing that kept us safe so we were still able to enjoy the day.

When the winds finally calmed that night we decided to take a quick surfing run before the sun went down since it was our last night and we had to have the houseboat back by 9:30 the next morning. So we headed out to the boat and unhooked the anchors and then the boat wouldn't start. It wouldn't even turn over. So we spent the rest of the night (until 2:30 the next morning) trying to figure out what was wrong. It turns out, there was a hose that had pushed on the wires going to the starter and had completely torn the wire off. Luckily we had Jared there that was able to find and fix it. Thank goodness for Jared! He did a lot to help with our boat throughout the trip from fixing the starter to tying up anchors, to repairing a hole. Thanks Jake! I hear the first two years of a boat's life are pretty tough for maintenance. I'm starting to see that. But it's still totally worth it!

Brian and I celebrated our 7th wedding anniversary on the 14th. I can't believe it has been 7 years already. It is crazy how quickly time goes by. This year we were in Lake Powell for our anniversary so we celebrated by doing some wakeboarding and surfing. I don't want to get all mushy but I do want Brian to know that I love him more than anything in the world and I am so lucky to have him. I love you Bri!

Then 6 days later we got to celebrate another day together: Father's Day and my birthday. It was kind of hard because I wanted to make Brian's Father's Day special but at the same time, he wanted to make my birthday special. But it was such a great day and Brian was so sweet. Thanks for sharing your day with me Bri. I sure love you.