living on the lake

lake powell is a big tradition in curtis' family but we thought it was out of the question this year. out of the blue and last second, his aunt and uncle invited us to stay on the house boat with them for 4 days...how do you say no to that!? curtis was working days that week so we headed to page tuesday after he got work. we met up with everyone else and spent the night on the boat at the dock. the next morning we got up, had orientation, then off we went! after some searching we found the most perfect beach to anchor...it was in a little cove to protect us from wind and the shade hit us at about 1 p.m. preventing us from getting too hot in the afternoon. at night, the 4 couples got rooms and all the kiddies slept under the stars on the upper deck. it ended up raining most of the nights we were there so most of the kiddies ended up on the floor of the living room.

this is mason and james driving the house boat. the beach! mason loved it!

curtis' younger brother, casey, recently bought this sea doo and everyone had a blast on it. mason went for a ride with his grandpa and probably would have enjoyed it more if he didn't have to wear a life jacket while doing so. he HATED his life jacket!!

tubing! so scary but oh so fun!

one day we had to go into the marina to get some gas for the sea doo and on our way we found this little place to do some cliff jumping. all the boys climbed up and me and kylee stayed behind to man the boat.

our last full day at the lake a group of us went to rainbow bridge. it was beautiful! there was a ranger there who was really nice and she showed us a dinosaur print left in the sandstone nearby.

on the way home from rainbow bridge we went into this super narrow canyon to see how far we could go. it was a tight squeeze but we got pretty dang far up there! after that we stopped at dangling rope marina for gas and ice cream! on the way back to the house boat we got stuck in a storm which was a little scary! everyone was huddle on the floor with towels wrapped around them trying to stay warm. no worries though! we all made it back in one piece!

walking on water ;)

the two youngest boys!

the little girls made these mud balls and lined them up on the edge of the house boat....i thought it was cute :)

we are going to miss our army boy! we were so glad he just happened to be on leave when we went to the lake! i don't think curtis would have had much fun without him.

thank goodness there was a fence all the way around the boat!

our perfect beach!

cody up on the top level...we even had a hot tub up there!

the boys had fun jumping off the back of the boat and going down the slide.

with 24 people on the boat, things got a little chaotic at times but we had an absolute blast!! we are so grateful that we were able to go and to curtis' family for inviting us. we hope to go again many times in the future!

summertime = reunion time

the andrus reunion is held every year up beaver canyon and this year we actually got to stay up there for a couple nights! we were a little nervous because mason hasn't stayed in a tent before (we usually go to the cabin and last time we camped we stayed in a trailer) and i was certain we were going to be up all night. luckily i was wrong! he did awesome! not only did he sleep like a champ, he took the whole trip like it was a piece of cake! it is so funny how social he is considering who his parents are...we like to keep to ourselves :) mason on the other hand will walk up and start chatting to anyone and everyone willing to pay attention. one of his favorite buddies in the sullivan family is curtis' cousin, coben. coben probably never says more than 5 words total when we are around him but when he starts playing with mason he totally opens up! i loved watching the two of them play together. all the other kids love mason too and it's comforting to know that he has such an outgoing personality to handle everyone treating him like a life size doll :)

so i may be biased but is he not the cutest thing ever!?

in between doing absolutely nothing, we did have time to squeeze in a couple activities. i made some super cute necklaces at the ladies craft, curtis went golfing in beaver with the boys, and there were a couple rounds of horseshoes thrown in there too. along with good food and good company, it was a perfect weekend!

baseball games, birthdays and zoos

this past week we went to colorado to visit curtis' family. it just so happened that his older brother chris and his family were going out that same week so it was fun to have the whole family (minus casey) together. the friday that we were there we went to a colorado rockies game. we were in the 23rd row and had a perfect view! the game was great too and yes, the rockies won! while the adults were at the game, the two toddlers stayed home and curtis' cousin aubri baby sat them. i was kind of worried because A. mason usually gets babysat by my mom. only a handful of times has someone else watched him. B. when mason and talia gang up there is no telling what will happen. luckily talia played by herself and mason just clung to aubri the whole time with minimal crying! she said they were good for her and mason even went to bed at a reasonable time! phew! what a relief to know that your child can handle tough situations!

my awesome mother-in-law had a birthday on saturday and she loved having all her grand kids there to celebrate with her. they helped her unwrap her presents and enjoyed eating cake and ice cream later that night.

our last full day in colorado, we went to the denver zoo. we have never taken mason anywhere like this before so it was interesting to see how he reacted. it wasn't has good as i hoped...mason was running on no nap and he couldn't have cared less about animals. oh well. it was still fun and maybe it will be better when we go back next time!

these two are nothing but trouble when they get together!

this monkey was picking his nose :)

he really does love his aunt carolyn....just not when he hasn't had a nap.

i love talia!

the whole gang!

independence day

since the 4th of july fell on a sunday and we live in utah, cedar city celebrated on monday, july 5th instead. curtis worked sunday night and worked again monday night so while he was home getting sleep, i toted mason around as a single mom (thus the reason we dont have many pictures....it was either keep mason from running off, or take pictures.) monday morning we went the parade with some of our friends. mason LOVED the fire trucks and the baseball teams with water. i had to use every muscle in my body to keep that kid out of the road!

after the parade we headed down to the main street park for activities. we were only able to hang out for a while and eat lunch because the babies needed naps and i think the parents were pretty worn out too. later that afternoon mason and i went to my parents house for a bbq. mason ran through the sprinklers with my family's dog and played in the pool while we waited for dinner cook. around 8 that night we headed out towards the airport with more friends to let the kids play at a little park and watch fireworks. by then mason was completely exhausted. he really likes fireworks but i think he was just too tired to really care at that point!
that night when i went to bed my whole body ached! i thought that if other moms can do things by themselves with 3 kids i could sure do it with 1 but i was so wrong! it sure was a fun day but physically and mentally draining at the same time and poor mason probably hated me for dragging him along with me. maybe some day in our life curtis wont have to work on the 4th and we can have a normal holiday!