Road Trip

This weekend Ammon had both Friday and Monday off, so we took advantage and went to visit our brothers in Rexburg. Our brothers happen to be friends as well, which when visiting is extremely convenient. I love killing two birds with one stone. We had a wonderful time with Jared, his wife Jo, Lance, and his fiance Robin. It was so nice to have other people to play with Kent, even when we were sitting right there, so that Ammon and I could have some time to rest without having to entertain him. Jared and Jo even babysat so that Ammon and I could make it to the temple. I have to say that the Rexburg Temple is one of the prettiest I have seen. Here are some pictures of our adventures to the "legit" bowling alley in Rexburg, Teton Lanes.

Aunt Robin and Kent

Gotta love Aunts and Uncles

Big smiles from Kent and Lance

"Thanks for the banana Aunt Jo, bowling makes me hungry."

Since in Utah life has been entertaining...

Kent has grown leaps and bounds. Ammon has mercilessly been trying to get Kent to crawl, baiting him with Gerber Puffs. What Ammon calls crawling I would more call throwing a tantrum that results in small movements of the body in a forward direction. Needless to say he does make it across the room at least once a night through the tears. Kent loves to be where ever Mom is, whether it is doing the dishes or doing my hair and makeup. I try to do these things during his morning nap, but sometimes when that nap is cut short he ends up "helping". Here is what I mean...

He feels the need to put everything that is on the counter in the sink, which is why some of the stuff is out of his reach. Here he is chewing on a CLEAN Q-tip, prior to this picture he was "singing" to the boy in the mirror.

The other night as I was doing dishes I put him on the window sill to watch me do dishes. His feet could barely touch the water. But then he realized he could move, and into the sink he went. I had his pants off so they wouldn't get wet, but had no idea the shirt needed to come off and that I needed to put on a swim diaper.

Don't worry, I did not wash anymore dishes in this water after he entered...

...partly because of germs and partly because Huggies really are absorbent and I barely had any water left.

I have struggled a bit with this whole being home all day thing, and commend the efforts of the moms that can do it, however, I find myself needing to get out of the house once a day. Typically this is to go shopping, much to our budget's dismay, but I have also found a walk and playing with Kent in the sand table to be refreshing. On Tuesdays we even get to go to a place called My Gym for mommy and me gym classes, which I love because there are other mommies there for me to talk to. Now for your continued viewing pleasure, a few more pics...

Taking pictures of Kent is what I resorted to while taking Ammon's grandpa house shopping. He recently broke his hip so he moved rather slow. It took us three hours to tour 3 houses. Kent was really good considering.

The sand table the adorable 3 year old upstairs is so nice to share with Kent.

Tired after a night of crawling.

And lastly, my best friend ran the Ogden Marathon last weekend and we went to watch her cross the finish line. I did not actually end up seeing her cross because I had bent down to meet Kent's needs, but I did see her about 10 feet past the finish line. Regardless, she did great! Way to go Cole!

A hike to the "M" topped off with a little Steph's

Ammon had this Friday off and we took advantage of the cooler weather to hike to the "M" in Morgan, Utah. I have a soft place in my heart for Morgan. Not only did it provide us with a set of fun neighbors in Pullman, but it is also home of my first dream job teaching 6th grade at the middle school. Ammon and I first attempted the steep climb to the "M" when we lived there right after we were married. It was a little warmer than usual and we were not in shape. Needless to say, we made it maybe halfway and turned around. So, when I suggested the hike as today's events, Ammon was a little unsure - especially since one of us would be carrying an extra 20 lbs on our back (Kent plus the weight of the pack). But, I wanted to do the hike before it got too warm, and I figured that even if we didn't make it we would still get to treat ourselves to a Tangee at Steph's after. To make a long story short: we made it to the top, the view was beautiful, we barely made it to the car before it started raining, and Kent had his first taste of Steph's. Enjoy the pictures of our day.

Kent and Dad

Mom and Kent

Us at the top with the view, that pole to our right had some shirts and underwear attached to it. I am sure it is some kind of tradition.

A sleepy boy on the way down.

Steph's

Per Jess's request...

So this post is extremely similar to the one prior, but I thought I would at least provide a theme...Kent's playmates. Right now I could kill for a playmate for Kent, because as he sits next to me he is screaming his head off. Perhaps he is vying for my undivided attention, or perhaps it is because he cut both of his naps short today (really short). I will go with the second reasoning and consider putting him back to bed within the next hour.

Kent and Cade tickle the ivories.

Their first of many baths together.

The swing will suffice when Cade is not around.

Easter photo shoot that didn't yield many print worthy pictures.

And last but not least, Kent's new cousin Keaton, who surely will be picked on by numerous times before his first birthday. He thought he was a pretty cool new toy last week.

A little of this, a little of that

Ammon, Kent, and I are wrapping up our final weeks in Pullman before we make our summer move to Utah. We are planning on driving down the 7th of May and will return home the 1st week of August. We will miss our family on the Palouse but are excited to see our friends and family in Utah. Here are a few pictures taken over the last month...

Just hanging out in the sun on a deck that is in desperate need of painting.

I can never resist putting these two in the play pen together.

Getting into Grandma Udy's ribbon drawer.

In my cute suit Grandma Mills gave me for Easter.

Good Luck Charmers!

I think these pictures are pretty self explanatory, although the reason there is two is because we couldn't get both the boys to smile at the camera in the same picture.

On the road again...

This week is WSU's spring break and our little family decided to take advantage of all of Ammon's free time by taking a trip to the Seattle area. We left on Friday afternoon and turned our 5 hour trip into a 7 hour trip... let me explain. A little outside of Colfax (15 miles or so away) I noticed some splatter on my side of the windshield and the passenger door window. I thought nothing of it and figured it would wash off with the slight rain we were driving through. When it didn't, I mentioned the splatter to Ammon. We figured a car must have kicked something up from the road. When we stopped in Ellensburg at a gas station to get some warm water for Kent's bottle (oh the joys of traveling with kids!) I had Ammon wash the windows after I touched the stuff and found it kind of oily. We were splatter free, for all of 3 minutes. We rethought our diagnosis and figured it was coming from the car and would get it checked out in Seattle on Saturday. We continued listening to our book on CD when Ammon looked at the temperature gauge and got concerned. Our temperature gauge was rising quickly. We pulled to the side of the freeway, only 10 miles east of North Bend for Ammon to pop the hood and take a look. Sure enough, our radiator was cracked. What to do? What to do? We decided to let the car cool and take another shot at the road only to go 20 yards before we were overheating again. Have I mentioned how I have been wanting a new car...? So after 45 minutes on the phone with insurance, a towing company, my friend Sarah (her house in Everett was our destination) and the classiest repair shop in North Bend we had a plan of action. We had to wait on the freeway for an hour to come get picked up by the tow truck and be towed into North Bend, where my friend and her fiance would pick us up, only to return us the next day to get our car. Kent was pretty good considering it was 30 some degrees outside, no heat in the car, the car wasn't moving, and he had to be strapped into his car seat for safety purposes. The rest of the trip was a success. We were able to spend some time at the aquarium, swimming at a hotel, and at the zoo in Tacoma. Now for your viewing pleasure...Oh and did I mention I want a new car?

Here is Kent pretending he is a jelly fish.

Kent could stare at the fish all day.

Happy as can be at the aquarium.

Auntie Sarah showing him the river otters.

"Look, Mom caught a fish!"

"And Dad is feeding me to the shark."

We even snagged a box of Samoas at a gas station from a girl scout.

Wondering why on earth he has to sit on this bouncy spider web...

or pretend he is a hermit crab.