St George

Last week Jordan had a work conference and the boys and I were lucky enough to go with him.  We went down Tuesday night and came home Friday night.  Our first night was a nightmare the boys refused to go to bed.  Traveling with kids is so hard.  We left at 5:30 hoping they'd fall asleep on the way home but of course they didn't and we had to take them for another ride that night and they didn't go to sleep until around 11.

The boys slept in a little but they were still a little tired the next day.  Jordan went to work all day so I had the boys all day by myself.  We started our day at Snow Canyon.  The boys love the sand dune and then we went on a little hike on the Butterfly trail.  We didn't make it very far but the boys were really sweet and had fun playing together.

Link was starting to get tired so we went for a little drive and the stinker would not go to sleep.  Since no one was going to take a nap we went to the splash pad at Time Square.  The boys loved it. It wasn't actually that warm so the boys got a little cold but they had still had a lot of fun. 

Link randomly found this little girl and sat by her and started talking to her

As part of the conference Jordan got to go golfing so he was gone a little late.  He didn't get back to the hotel until around 7.  It was such a long day but we had a lot of fun.  The boys were tired and refused to take a naps.  We went to the St George temple to kill a little time.  The boys were really cute and had a lot of fun,

The boys were so tired by the time Jordan got back but I had promised them we could go swimming.  It was freezing but Jackson had so much fun.  He found a friend in the pool and they played together.  After swimming we went for a ride to get the boys to sleep and the little stinkers didn't go to sleep until late again. 

The next day was kind of awful.  Link was so tired from not sleeping the past 2 nights that he was just grumpy and didn't have fun.  I tried to take the boys to have fun but it wasn't even worth it.  We went to Pioneer Park first thing in the morning. We rode the carousel at town square and then I finally got Link to sleep so we just hung out in the hotel for most of the day.  

After his nap Link was still tired but so much happier.  When Jordan got back we went hiking at Snow Canyon on the Hidden Pinyon trail.  The boys were both so tired and really grumpy so it was a really long hike.  

 
The poor boys were so tired they went to bed at a decent time.  The next day was the last day of Jordan's conference and only had a half day.  The boys and I packed and then went to a really fun park Cottonwood Cove park.  My boys loved it!  The park was so fun I would love to play there as an adult there were some really fun things there.  Jackson still asks me to go back to that park.

When Jordan was finally done with his conference we took the boys to the temple again.  The boys really love the temple.  

On our way home we decided to go to Zion.  Jacks really liked riding the shuttle into Zion. We hiked the Emerald Pools trail, the boys were really tired but they did awesome.  It was actually a pretty hard hike for such little guys but they did great.  Jacks made it the whole way up and most of the way back without being carried.  It rained on us a little but it wasn't that bad. Link was so tired he fell asleep half way down the trail with me carrying him.  We had a lot of fun on this trip but it was also so much work.  Taking kids anywhere for more than one night is so hard.  Their sleep schedules were so off they were kind of miserable.  I think I'm done with vacations for a little while after this.  

Proud Mommy Moment

Jackson goes to Preschool right now we love it.  He has really good teachers that spend a lot of time with him.  He does some really cute little projects.  A couple months ago he wrote and illustrated his own story.  I love his little story.  It's the first thing that's he's done by himself and I'm so proud of him.  I had to post this because it will eventually get thrown away on accident and I don't want to lose it.  I love the picture because it is a huge improvement from a few months ago.  Drawing and coloring has never been Jackson's thing.  I can't get him to do it.  He's really struggled with learning to hold a pencil and with writing.  I really like the picture because there is no way he could have done that before starting preschool.  
Jacks really likes Preschool but it's really hard for him too.  He told me he really likes preschool just not the learning parts.  The poor kid really struggles to focus and learn things sometimes.  He's doing great and he's still really young I've seen a huge improvement in his attention span and maturity since starting school.  His fine motor skills have improved.  He still really struggles with the basics.  It doesn't seem like he's learned  a lot of letters and he still can't count past 3.  He struggles with colors sometimes.  I think he knows more that he lets on though and just doubts what he knows.  He get embarrassed if he gets something wrong so a lot of times he just says I don't know instead of answering a question.  He's getting better though and gets smarter every day.

Easter 2015

The boys are at really fun ages right not.  They get so excited for holidays.  Jacks really understands holiday traditions like the Easter Bunny now.  Easter landed on conference weekend this year and I love when that happens.  We tried to teach the boys the true meaning of Easter.  For family night every week for a few weeks we talked Easter.  I didn't really think they understood or got anything out of it but we tried. One night while I was work Jordan was watching the boy and Link saw the Ensign with a picture of Jesus and he said "Jesus come back alive."  I was really amazed that Link remembered that and understood.  I always direct things towards Jacks thinking that Link is to little to understand.  He usually just runs around like a crazy man.  He must be getting a little more out of it than we realize.  

The day before Easter my family had their conference party with my extended family.  Not many people were able to come this year but it was still a lot of fun.  Jordan went to the priesthood session with his dad and brothers it was just me and the boys.

My mom did an Easter egg hunt for my boys and my cousins kids.  They were so spoiled they got lots of candy and a little Transformer.  They loved it; Jacks and Link both got really into it this year.  All the kids were are to little to read so instead of writing their name on the eggs they printed their pictures and stuck them on the eggs. The boys had so much fun at the party. Jacks really loves my cousins kids.    

On Easter the Easter Bunny brought the boys a big Optimus Prime with a trailer. The boys opened their Easter stuff then we went to Jordan's parents house for breakfast with his family.  We went home in time for Conference.  We watched conference with the boys then went to my parent's house for dinner. Mike came down and it was a lot fun. 

The boys colored Easter eggs a couple times this year. My mom bought them little kits that had Transformers stickers and TMNT stickers so they loved it.  Jacks colored some eggs in Preschool so he was a pro and knew exactly what to do.  He made a little bit of a mess but he really liked it.  Link mostly just put stickers on.

I attempted to take some pictures of the boys with plastic Easter eggs. They hate pictures right now and never smile for my camera.  If they are even looking at the camera I count it as a win. Here are a few of my miserable attempts.

We had a really good Easter this year.  As the boys get older things become more and more fun. 

Jordan's family waited to do their Easter party until his sister and her kids came here.  The boys had so much fun.  We had a fun little Easter egg hunt in their backyard.  The boys always have a lot of fun with their cousins.  They got lots of candy and some cute little prizes.  Their favorite was silly string!   

All the cousins

All the cousins

Silly string

Silly string

Run through the hay field

Capitol Reef

Last week we went to Capitol Reef with the boys.  I really like Capitol Reef it's a really cheap vacation, it's never busy, and it's absolutely beautiful.  The boys usually like going places but they kind of had a hard time on this trip.  It's about 3 hours from our house in the middle of nowhere. It's a really beautiful place there are tons of really cool rock formations and different colors.  There are red, purple, white, black, and bright yellow rock all in the same place so it's really cool.

The boys are obsessed with Transformers right now.  We bought them some Transformers for Easter and I seriously couldn't wait to give them to them because I knew they'd love them.  The morning of our trip we told the boys the Easter Bunny came early so they could have their toys for their trip. Jacks got Bumblebee and Link got Optimus Prime and they seriously loved them.  They played with them the whole way down and took them on every hike.  

We got to Torrey to early to check into our hotel so we went straight to Capitol Reef.  We had a picnic in a little picnic area in the park.  The boys were more interested in playing and running around after sitting in the car for 3 hours.

 After we ate we drove the Scenic Drive a little way to the Grand Wash and hiked the Grand Wash to the narrows.  It was kind of a long hike and the boys were kind of tired so we ended up carrying them a lot.  The Grand Wash was really fun there were a lot of cool rock formations and places for the boys to climb.  Jacks is just like Jordan he loves to climb!  He tried to climb everything and said "I'm a climber boy" The boys carried their Transformers the whole hike and played with them in the dirt. 

After the Grand Wash the boys were so tired so we drove around a little bit so Link could take a little nap then we hiked the Hickman Bridge.  It's probably my favorite hike at Capitol Reef. It's actually kind of a  hard hike and the boys were so tired but they did great. We had to carry Link the whole time but Jacks did great. The boys favorite part was the river. The boys love throwing rocks in water so they sat there for a long time and threw rock in the water.    

Hickman Bridge

The boys had a really hard time sleeping that night.  They were so warn out from hiking all day.  We hiked a long way and they did so good.  I was proud of my little guys.  We had to take them for a long ride and they didn't go to sleep until after 10. 

The next day the boys were so tired.  We tried to hike the Fremont River Trail. We made it to the first view point but the boys were so tired we didn't make it the whole trail. We went to the Goosenecks View Point then just went home because the boys were so tired and miserable.  We didn't know it at the time but Link was really sick.  He's had a fever for the last few days. Jacks was so tired from the night before that he just slept most he way home.

Jacks showing his muscles at the Gooseneck View Point

Chimney Rock