Dixie Rock

We passed what we call Dixie Rock several times while in St. George. It's in Pioneer Park and it has Dixie painted on the side.
We promised Luke while we were in St. George we would take him for a hike and when we saw several people standing on and around this rock, we thought it would be fun.
Easy hike but a little nerve racking with a rambunctious child like Luke. He was running every where and climbing things. He was definitely in his element!

The poor dogs have been a little neglected since Grant was born so we took them along. They went on lots of walks and we took them on this hike.

Luke was exploring every nook and cranny. He run to each of these holes and say, "Look at me!"

We took the backpack so it would be easier to take Grant - no strollers here! Grant stayed awake the entire time and I think he enjoyed the scenery. He looked pretty happy!

Luke decided to climb the side of this rock. Dustin was trying to spot him while the dogs were pulling him in the opposite direction. Luke made it without falling and the dogs got to go off on their own for a minute.

The first part of the park is a lot of easy places to walk around and climb. The farther in you go, the higher it gets. Luke was not ready to get in the car for our drive back home and so he and Dustin went a little farther while Grant and I waited in the car with the dogs. A little while later they called me while they were on the top of this rock. If you look closely at the tip, you can see them waving their arms. I'm glad I stayed in the car with Grant. I would have been too worried about slipping on the rock while carrying Grant and this would have involved some climbing.
After an hour of exploring and hiking, it was finally time to go. It was after 4:00 pm and we really needed to get on the road back to Salt Lake City before it got too late. Unfortunately our car wouldn't start. Luckily we were only 10 minutes away from Karen and Don's so we called Don to come jump start our car. It started and we made it all the way to Beaver where we really needed to get gas. But after we turned off the car to fill up, it wouldn't start up again. Crap! We didn't have jumper cables. Luckily we found a guy who called his wife to come help us but after the cables we hooked up, Dustin couldn't find the keys to start the car. Aaahhh!!! Luckily I found my keys and the car started and we made it home, after 10:30 pm. What a day! Oh and Dustin's keys were under a bunch of pillows and bags in the backseat.

Chow Time at Chili's

Uncle Jay in our car

Ean and Katie (above)

Mommy waiting to be seated at Chili's (below)

Luke is becoming quite the photographer. He loves to take pictures with my camera. He's taken some interesting pictures but lately he has been taking some decent pictures of people.

Grandma BearBear and Grandpa Pop Pop made it into town for a visit and they were nice enough to take us to dinner. Chili's didn't have a big table for us and so we chose to take 3 booths instead. Grandma and Grandpa sat at one table with Ean and Katie, Luke, Dustin, Jay and I sat in another booth and Don and Karen took the third booth with Grant.

It was a great meal and boy were we stuffed after dinner. We went back to the Brandon's to talk while Grandma, Karen and Katie went to Katie's work to check out some clothes. They did a fashion show for us when they got back.

Razors and Sand Hollow

Don surprised us with the offer to take us out to ride his Razr at Sand Hollow. It was so much fun. Dustin and I went with Don, Uncle Blaine and Brian Brathewaite on Saturday morning. Don went with Uncle Blaine in his four wheeler and Brian had his dirt bike or motorcycle while Dustin drove us in Don't Razr.

Dustin drove on the way up. We followed Uncle Blaine and Brian went off on his own. We could see his tracks and see that he was doing some pretty awesome jumps. Following Uncle Blaine was a sedate drive but it was fun. When it was time to go back down, Don suggested we go off on our own - thank you Don!! It was pretty fun.

Dustin did let me drive on the way down and I don't know what happens when I get behind the wheel of fun machines but I go CRAZY!! It was like being on the wave runners. I have this maniacal laugh that could sound scary and I FLOOR IT! Oh it was so much fun. Dustin almost pee'd his pants he was so scared and I almost pee'd my pants because I was laughing so hard at him! We definitely have to do that again! Dustin recorded a couple minutes and we were all over the place.

Dustin took Luke on his own ride. Good thing he didn't get caught because all kids under the age of 12 are supposed to wear helmets but we didn't have one. They drove up to the top and then Luke of course had to get out and play in the sand for awhile.

Jay and Karen were nice enough to bring Luke and Grant later so I could nurse Grant. While Grant was eating is when Dustin and Luke went on their ride.

Jay and Karen forgot Luke's jacket so he borrowed Don's jacket. He had his own sun glasses though.

Temple Lights

The day after Thanksgiving, the St. George Temple has a turning on the lights devotional. We didn't make it for the beginning but we did make it to see the lights. They are pretty nice just not as many as Salt Lake City. It was nice to walk around the temple in a light jacket and see the lights. Luke of course was in heaven and was exploring every where. Good thing we had an extra four sets of eyes to watch out for him.

Dustin holding Grant, Poppy holding Luke, Joe with Grammy and Jay sitting in front of him.

Add caption

Luke didn't want to be in our family picture. Oh well!

The Boys!

Luke loves manger scenes and he spent a little time looking at this life sized display. You can see the outline of his head in front of one of the animals.

Thanksgiving Day

 For Thanksgiving, we went to visit the Brandon's in St. George. We had such a great day. We left Wednesday afternoon, the boys picked me up from work and we were on our way. It took a lot of stops though. We had to make stops for everyone to take a potty break and then breaks fro Grant to eat and diaper changes. It took over 5 hours!

Karen cooked a turkey and we had all the usual fixin's - dinner was so good. Around our table we had Uncle Jay, Uncle Joe, Luke, Ean, Jacob, Katie, Tyson, Aunt Karen, Uncle Don, Grammy, Poppy, Dustin and me. Jacob is someone from the Singles Ward  and is also from Snowflake, Arizona. Tyson is Jay's roommate and from Rexburg, Idaho. They both had to work/had rotations this weekend and weren't able to travel home so they had dinner with us.
Dinner really was delicious and the pie afterwards was to die for, I really had too much. After we finished pie we went to the living room and vegged. I fell asleep and took a nap It was so nice to nap.

Grant isn't quite old enough to sit at the table yet so he laid on a blanket on the ground behind us.

He Likes It!

Grant has turned 6 months old which means we get to start feeding him solid food. So I bought a big butternut squash and puree'd it for him.
I was thinking he might not care for it but just because I don't think it smells very good, doesn't mean he won't like it. In fact, he LOVED it! Usually we are trying to coax him just to open his mouth but not with the squash.

The look after the first bite

He just couldn't seem to get enough he liked it so much!

He kept trying to grab the spoon and shove it into his mouth.

YAY!! He likes real food!

Sharing a Room

Getting Luke to go to bed is a CHALLENGE! It usually takes about an hour to get him down and the reason is because he does not like to be alone. He'll get into bed but he wants someone to sit with him. Dustin will go in and sit with him but I'm usually taking care of Grant or dishes or a million other things.
So in an effort to get him to go to bed on his own, we moved Grant's cradle into the middle of the room. Since Luke is in the crib/toddler bed, Grant will have to stay in the cradle a little while longer  until we figure something else out.

Of course, when I peeked my head in a few minutes later, Luke had in hands in the crib. He really loves his brother.

Count Your many Blessings

This week for Family Home Evening we had a Thankful Family Night. We sang Count Your Many Blessings and talked about what it means to be thankful/grateful. Then we talked about what we are thankful for.

Here is a picture of our Blessing Box. Each night after we read, we think of what we are thankful for, write it down on a piece of paper and put it in this box. The plan is to open the box on Thanksgiving and read what we are thankful for.

Happy Birthday Grammy!

Today we celebrated Grammy's birthday. We invited her over for dinner and had Chicken Cordon Bleu and Baked Alaska for dessert. It was all very yummy!

We didn't put any candles on the cake but we did sing to her. Then we gave her a nice scarf for her present. We really love our Grammy.

Beanbag Words

For Family Home Evening we read a story from the Friend called Beanbag Words. I was a story about a girl who learned how she can do her part in strengthening her family. In her sharing time they played a game with a bean bag. Every time you catch a bean bag, you give a compliment to someone. 

After we finished reading the story, we played the game too. Luke had some really great compliments for mom and dad. I think he really liked throwing the bean bag too.