The Cabin - Day 2

Andrew and Julie came up with us Friday night. Ryan and Trianna came and played games Friday night, but then left to spend the night at her parent's house close by. We had fun playing games and talking all night. We had a slow morning, with most everyone sleeping in. My parents, my brother Justin and his family, and Ryan all came up late morning. We quickly packed everyone up and headed up to Josh's great-grandpa's cabin to go hiking. Here are some random pics from the hike: Jazz loved the hike. She almost fell in the water, but managed to catch herself. At the lake she found some friends. I love the picture of her and the big dog. She was so tired when we got back she slept for hours.
Brayden loves being up at the cabin. Here's the best pic I could get of the cousins.We had steaks and chicken for dinner for Josh's birthday. It really was a wonderful day. Happy Birthday Josh!!!

The Cabin - Day 1

For Josh's birthday we went up to the cabin. It was a lot of fun and beautiful weather. We went up on Friday night, the 24th. Here we are on our way up:
We took Jazz with. It's hard to see in the picture, but she looks passed out from the drive.
Although we didn't do much to celebrate the 24th of July, I did put the kids in their patriotic outfits.

Lake Powell Part 3

Here are the last couple of pictures of our trip. Here is the tube we took Brayden on to ease him into the water:

Our little family:

The Ericson siblings:

The boys:

Our group:

It took about 1 hour to get back to the marina. Brooklyn slept the whole way.

As did Brayden:

Lake Powell Part 2

Have I mentioned how awesome our trip to Lake Powell was? It really was a lot of fun. Here are some pics from our trip.

Brayden hated the water and was terrified to go near it. So we blew up the pool we brought and the kids loved it. They were the entertainment of the week. After the first day of Brayden being scared of the water, we decided to force him to like it. We eased him into it by putting him on a raft, then got him wet, then pushed him in. And it's a good thing we did! We knew he would like it once he got in, and he sure did. He didn't want to get out.Here's we are playing volleyball:

Now for the cheesy part. Josh and I went out each morning to ski. I was afraid I wouldn't get up since it's been 5 years and two babies since I've skiied. Fortunately I got right up. About five minutes into my run I couldn't help but look around at how beautiful it was and I actually started getting choked up. I remembered how much I love skiing at Lake Powell. It definitely has become a passion of mine. I quickly re-focused and enjoyed the rest of my run. Josh also got right up and enjoyed his run as well. Here's a couple of pictures of Josh and me.

Another big hit was the fish, or should I say carp. Brayden loved feeding them all week long. Kendall helped him reel in his first fish!

Lake Powell Part 1

Josh's brother's wife's family invited all the Ericsons to join them on their week with their houseboat. Originally I refused to go b/c it was too stressful to think of taking care of 2 kids with no air conditioning, water everywhere, and a lot of heat. As soon as we found out Josh's entire family was able to go, I reluctantly agreed. It's a good thing everyone convinced me it would be fun, b/c it was a blast! It was much easier than I thought it would be to take care of the kids - I even was able to keep them on their sleep schedules with a little tweaking. It's no secret that Lake Powell is my heaven on earth, so I was thrilled to have 18 babysitters on the houseboat so I could enjoy it as well.

The car ride went better than we expected, but not great. We borrowed my aunt's Excursion and left at 6am. It was going well until Spanish Fork canyon and Brayden got car sick and started throwing up all over. Steve, who was driving, got distracted and swerved too much for my comfort but was able to pull over so we could clean up. We stopped at a park soon after to breath a little then continued on our way. Here's Brooklyn as I try to keep her entertained (and yes, I turned her car seat around for the drive. It was a must!)
I'm realizing now that I didn't take any other pics of the drive or of the houseboat. Oh well. Here's Jake and Brayden while we are waiting to depart on the houseboat.

I'm sure she's thinking, "Does this life jacket make me look fat?" It was the smallest one we could find.

Since we only got 1-2 hours of sleep, Josh crashed as we found a spot to park the houseboat.

Here's Brayden driving the houseboat:

We finally made it. Brayden was pretty reluctant to go in the water, but Kay eased him into it.

He was having fun in the water until Kay started freaking out b/c a fish touched her leg. Here is the after picture:

We quickly anchored the boat, ate dinner, played games, and headed to bed pretty early. Josh and Brayden slept on top of the houseboat on mattresses with everybody. Brooklyn started the night in one of the rooms in her pack-n-play and then I moved her to the top after everyone went to bed. It was way too hot in those rooms. I had brought a little 2 man tent that Brooklyn and I slept in so I could nurse her in the morning without anyone catching a show. I didn't know if it would work, but it was perfect.

First Walk w/ Jazz

One reason that persuaded me to agree to this dog thing is that Josh said it would give him motivation to go on walks. He's not big into walks, so since I am I thought it would be a great idea. We live one street away from a little park so we took Jazz and the kids to play.

Our New Addition

Well...it happened. Josh talked me into getting a dog. Our neighbor across the street has a chocolate lab that had 5 puppies and as soon as I saw them I knew we were in trouble. We talked about it for about a month and ended up compromising quite a bit. We finally both felt good about it, however we had fallen in love with both the yellow and black labs. It took us about a week to decide which one to get, and on Friday, July 10 we brought the yellow one home with us to stay. We decided on the yellow one because she was the cuddliest and calmest of them all. She is also the smallest. We thought she would do better with the kids than the black one, which was the most aggressive. I'm still not 100% sure that I can do this, but because Josh agreed that it will be an outside dog I am going to try and hang in there until she can stay outside all the time. Here are some pics when we were trying to decide which one to get, about 2 days before we brought her home. After seeing Brayden with her, how could I not say yes?!

As for her name...that's another story. We took her to Josh's parent's house the night we got her and jokingly I mentioned the name Jazz to Josh's mom. Josh overheard and went with it. To me, Jazz is more of a boy's name so we compromised. We named her Jasmine, which for short will be Jazz. It's grown on us and we love her. What sold me on the name is how cute Brayden was when he started calling her Jasmine and Jazz. Here are a few pics from the first night.

Because we keep taking SO many pictures of Jazz, I have decided to start a blog dedicated to her. It's www.andallthatjazz3@blogspot.com. As soon as I'm caught up on our blog, I'll get hers started. This way I can print a blog book every year just of her!