Four days before Mace turned FOUR

We knew that  we would be in California for Mace's birthday, so we decided to celebrate a little early and give him the bike we had been so excited about. We didn't tell Mace about the party, until it was time for it to start. We let him pick out what we had for dinner, which was pancakes and fruit. We got the boys to play downstairs while I started the food and Tyler turned Mace's chair into a birthday chair. He was so excited when he came up. I seriously wish I would have been recording him when he saw his cake. He loved the bike. Tyler and I were so amazed at how quickly he picked it up. We took the training wheels off before we gave it to him. He was riding on his own before we went home for cake and ice cream. 

Cruz inherited Mace's old bike. He was observed with 'fixing' it.

They are really saying 'cheese' here!

The next day, we practiced riding again. Mace was a bit unsure, but rode anyways. Cruz was grumpy.

  

When Tyler got home from work that night, him and Mace went for a ride together. Tyler finally has a son to ride bikes with. I think that was a moment Tyler had been looking forward to for a long time.

Rockets on the Salt Flats

My sister watched our kids overnight, so we drove out to the salt flats to enjoy some rocket launches. It was awesome! We went with Brad and Liz. We stopped in Erda on the way home to get some of the best beef jerky we have ever tasted. We came back to our house and watched a movie and then had way too much fun laughing at pictures. It was really a great night!

Shellie came to Utah

Tyler's sister, Shellie, and her two kids came for a visit at the end of July/ beginning of August. We had a fun time with them while they were here. We got to swim, walk around Silver Lake, eat breakfast in the mountains and spend a lot of time visiting. We sure love spending time with them!

This is the only picture we got. All the cousins together.

Mace and Daddy Backpacking Trip

Lyndsay had a sore neck from our California trip, so she stayed home with Cruz while I took Mace backpacking.  We drove up Guardsman pass and then hiked up to the border of Park City Ski Resort.

I gave Mace our little camera and showed him how to use it.  He took over 100 pictures.  Here are some of them (Mace picked these out):

Mace actually took this picture all by himself!

He wouldn't smile for me.  He just wanted me to smile for him.

We had a beautiful view down the canyon at sunset

Mace told me before we went to bed that it was going to rain.  He was sure because, as he said, "there are clouds in the sky - that means it is going to rain!"

I argued with him and said that sometimes there are clouds and it doesn't rain.  

Around 2 or 3 in the morning it started raining.  Mace woke up when he heard the rain and excitedly told me, "See daddy, I told you it would rain!"  He was pretty proud of himself.  He kept rubbing it in when we woke up in the morning too.

You have to watch Mace like a hawk.  I climbed up one of the ski lift towers to see the view.  Mace wanted to climb up too, but I told him he could only go up 4 rungs, since he was almost 4 years old.  My dad called while Mace started climbing up. Next thing I knew Mace was almost at the top.  His feet were on the 13th rung.  After I got mad at him and got him to climb back down a little I took this picture.  He told me he thought he could climb up to the 4th from the top rung.

Can you believe this kid is scared of lightning and dogs?  I wish he would spread his fears out a little more evenly.

Swimming with Grandma and Grandpa

Las Vegas- Los Angeles- Las Vegas

Last week, we left for a fun family trip. 

First, we drove to Las Vegas and melted the entire time we were there. We hung out on the strip for a little while. For being close to 10:00 pm, it was insanely crowded and hot. We watched the Sirens of Treasure Island show, which is super cheesy, but the boys seemed to enjoy it. 

The next day, we had planned to drive to Joshua Tree National Park in California and camp there for a night. We looked up the temperatures and they we similar to Las Vegas. Knowing we wouldn't have much shade, we decided to skip it and head straight to a Los Angeles beach. We got to go to Manhattan Beach, Venice Beach, Newport Beach and two state beaches- San Onofre and Dana Point. They all had great things about them, but our favorite was Dana Point. We camped at San Onofre, right next to some great train tracks! It also rained, so we didn't get a lot of sleep, but the beach was only about 1/4 mile from where we were and the views were beautiful!

We drove back to Las Vegas on our last night and headed home early the next morning. We stayed at Sam's Town and loved it.

Cruz is getting good at being the obnoxious little brother. Ha! 

Mace didn't get much closer to the water than he is in this picture. 

Mace was 'swinging' from his spider man webs and Cruz ran down the pier yelling super man. Occasionally, he would put his arms out like he was flying.

Cruz was being Spider Man

We spent some time in Hollywood. It was a fun experience.

These stairs played music as you walked on them. We thought they were pretty fun!

While sitting on the beach and watching Tyler boogie board, a wave came up much higher than expected and drench us (we had already gotten the boys ready for bed because we were camping that night). I have never seen such sad boys. I think Mace really thought he was going to drown. We lost a few of our beach toys, too! After getting dried and cleaned up, we went for a little walk.

Can you find us in this picture?

Mace is turning into a little runner!

Back in Vegas. Life is great when you are in front of a swimming pool!

Mace was having so much fun. He kept telling Tyler to go back further in the pool because he wanted to do a big jump. At one point he told us he was going to swim to Tyler. Tyler backed up, just as Mace asked, but we both had to hurry to him after he jumped. His swimming is more like sinking. Guess we need to teach him how to swim. He surprised us when he wanted to keep jumping in the water. We were really proud of him. 

We had such a great time being together and making fun memories It was a really fun trip and we will can't wait to go back someday.