More of Cute Collin

It's funny to see a two year old try to put together the English language. Today I was carrying Collin down the stairs and he tooted. He looked at me and said "I burped" and then thought for a minute and said "I burp a bum." I just about dropped him I was laughing so hard. But if you think about it, a toot really kind of is a burp from your bum.

Time for a new wardrobe?

Today after church I put Collin in a gray pair of sweat pants and he turned to me and said "My mommy pants on." Perhaps I should stop wearing sweats so much.

Collin is Cute!

I was reading something the other day that said the golden years of childhood are the ages from 2-5. They're not in that baby stage which can be difficult but they're not to the sassy later years (which Clara is in right now...So not looking forward to the teens.) Collin is in that really cute stage right now. Sure, he has his two year old temper tantrums. But overall is pretty agreeable. He's talking a ton now. My favorite phrase of his right now is when he says "I big helper". He likes to try and help take off his clothes or diaper, carry groceries, put his shoes away. After he's done helping he confirms that he's been a big helper. So cute. He also, while helping, likes to carry things and grunt and say "Heaby (heavy)". Any time you help him do something or get something for him he politely says thank you.

On another note, Collin loves his 92 year old great grandpa Young. When Mark and I went to Europe and Collin was 14 months old, the kids stayed at Mark's mom's house and Grandpa Young was there too. Collin and he bonded for life. Grandpa Young comes and goes and is always worried that Collin is going to forget him. He never does. He's always willing to give grandpa a hug or sit on his lap for a while. Grandpa's eyes just light up when Collin runs to him. Of course the Swedish fish grandpa hands out are a big hit too.

You didn't believe me, did you?

I tried to tell you that I had a big toe. Remember how I went hiking up Timp and my toes hurt after? Well apparently all of the friction on the big toes against the tip of my shoe caused a blister to form under my left big toe toenail. By about 5 days after the hike my toe was in so much agony that I went to the instacare and they lanced the toenail. I know, gross. Then today my toenail fell off. Attractive.

WARNING! GRAPHIC PICTURE TO FOLLOW.



Really you can hardly tell that it fell off but I assure you it is no longer there.

1st day of 2nd grade

Clara started second grade on Wednesday. She was a little worried because she did not get the teacher that her best friend got. Apparently she has the fun teacher. Clara has Miss Giles who is rumored to be not as fun. I'm okay with that. But I did get a lecture at back to school night about hand sanitizing and how the kids have to use it after recess and wipe down their desks at the end of the day. A little OCD? Maybe. But if they have the not sick class, fine by me. Clara has confessed after two days of school that Miss Giles is in fact fun. So that's good. And she's been meeting her best friend Alyssa for recess and lunch so no trauma there.
Clara in her back to school outfit, her favorite skirt made by Grandma Christine. And her new haircut and lunchbox. She chose to cut her hair short the day before school.

In front of her class. The second grade meets in the out buildings.

Clara and her friend Sierra. They were in the same class last year and again this year. They look like twins with the same hair.

Hiking Timp

Yesterday a group of us from BYU hiked to the top of Mount Timpanogas to do some filming for Homecoming Spectacular this year. It is a hard hike. We started at 6 in the morning and got to the summit about 11:30. Then we filmed for 3.5 hours and then hiked back down. We got back to the parking lot at 8:30 p.m. Long day. Today my knees hurt and my toes (dang that big, fat big toe) but other than that I feel pretty good. It was a great experience and I'm glad that I did it.

Me at the site where we were filming, just below the summit.


At the summit, almost 12,000 feet. The ledge at the top is about 6' wide.


A family of mountain goats were right next to us. This one had her baby. Just passed the saddle a little less than a mile from the summit.


The helicopter shooting. The camera is mounted on the front.



The actor playing Eugene Roberts, who we are honoring this year in Homecoming. He was the faculty member who started the annual Timp Hike for BYU.






From the summit. Basically I could take both these pictures from one spot. Above, looking down on Utah lake and Utah County. Below looking back down the other side at Emerald Lake. The snow running down into it is the glacier.

Where has the summer gone? aka The longest post ever. aka Picture overload

Sorry if some of you get this twice. Apparently if you push the enter key after typing your title, it publishes the post. Who knew?

Anyway, we've had the busiest of Julys. And it's not over yet. It started with us waking up really early on July 2nd to go see the balloon launch. Provo does this every year but we've never gone. You have to wake the kids up at 6:00 to be down to the field by 6:30. We obviously went on the wrong day because they didn't launch the balloons because it was too "windy". It wasn't blowing at all on the ground. But I guess there were some ominous looking clouds in the distance that were blowing our way so they couldn't launch. But the kids had fun watching the balloons blow up.
Notice how tired Collin looks.


Ezra and Clara.

The whole gang.


Mark's brother John and Ema were in town for a couple of weeks. It's always fun having them here and we pack the time with fun outings. This year we went to This is the Place monument. It was a fun place with lots of pioneer activities, but it rained so hard while we were there. We were all sopping.

Collin getting a "shave". This is right before he had a meltdown because the guy touched him.

Clara was hesitant at first but after everybody else did it, of course she had to try.


Collin on the train. Notice the lovely smile. This is how he smiles these days, usually in the middle of saying cheese. But it doesn't turn into a smile, he just keeps the grimace.


We also went to the 4th parade. Always a good time.

Mark holding Collin and our newest nephew Elias.




We also went to the Oquirrh Mountain temple open house while John and Ema were here. It is very pretty but took us a while to get through because it was so busy. We took Mark's mom and 92 year old grandpa. Collin loves him. We pushed Grandpa Young in the wheelchair because it would be too long for him to walk. Collin walked next to him a lot of the time and would reach over and hold his hand. Then he'd go look at something and come back: "Bumpa, hand" he'd demand. It was so cute.

The grandkids and Maralee and Grandpa Young. Notice Collin is not in the picture. He is off to the side having a meltdown. It was a long day.


I told you this was long. We also made a trip to my parents in Idaho Falls. We always enjoy visiting there and as always enjoyed a trip to the Tautphus Park zoo and playland. Collin and Clara love spending time with grandparents. Clara didn't want to leave.

Collin and Grandpa Jon in the petting zoo.

Clara and Anna pretending to be birds in the bird nest.






We've also been enjoying our garden. Some things are doing well and others are not. Our beans are ones that are doing well. At the nursery this year I just grabbed a packet of green beans. The beans looked nice and green on the front but when I got them home to plant them, I noticed that they were called Purple Queens. They grow in purple and then turn to green when you cook them. It's like magic. Clara thinks they are neat.

This is what they look like when you pick them. They are this dark purple color. And they turn into this:




Over the last several years, I have enjoyed getting together with my old roommates from BYU, Becky, Kristie, and Karen, for a fun game of cards. We all lived in or around SLC so we'd get together every other month or so, but then Becky moved to Boise. So we all took a trip up to see her for a weekend. Kristie brought all 5 of her kids, and Becky has 4, and I brought Clara. It was a crazy weekend with lots of swimming and card playing. Of course my camera died after only a few pictures so I'll post more when I get them from others. Suprisingly it was farely low key for having 10 kids in the house.

7 of the 10. Curtis, Spencer, Savannah, Clara, Sarah, Sarah, and Katherine.

And finally, today we celebrated pioneer day but going to the pioneer festivities here in Provo.

The day wouldn't be complete without face painting and rock suckers.

Thanks to my parents for providing Clara's pioneer outfit. This is the only skirt they had left. We used to have tons of pioneer dress up clothes. Clara was very disappointed that they didn't keep the aprons and dresses. We also used to have a covered wagon topper that would go on a wagon and we could put our dolls in and parade them around. She was extremely disappointed when she found out they didn't have that either.