Trouble

This kid is into trouble. He is a magnet for all things dangerous and disgusting.

Favorite targets:

1. Toilet. Not JUST the toilet. He is able to pull the little bolt cover off that holds down the toilet and stick it in his mouth with lightening speed.

2. Light sockets. Makenzie wasn't really into these. Jarom actually tries to stick his little fingers inside the holes about 5 times a day.

3. Trash. I know, babies love trash cans. But when you walk into the bathroom and see he's pulled someone's snotty tp out of the trash and is EATING it, it's a little upsetting.

I know what you're thinking - geez, Tara, watch your kids. You have no idea. This kid is FAST.

So I've gotten smart. He needs to be restrained. I have all kinds of restraining toys (saucer thing, bouncer that hangs in the door, crib, walker, play pen, high chair), but this one is his new favorite:



Is that bad??

Family & Friends Week

I don't know what is happening with my last post... is the font showing outrageously small for you, too? Hopefully this one will be better.

Well, the day after we got back from San Diego, Justin's Grandpa Cook had a family gathering in Cedar Fort (where he is from). If you live in Utah, it's kind of out by Eagle Mountain. His family goes way back there, and he gave us a tour of the town.

This is the school house where he went to elementary school. It's still in use. There are only 2 classrooms. He said they had grades 1-3 in one room and 4-6 in the other.







Then we saw the house his grandfather built (so Justin's great great grandfather):









This is the cemetery. Justin's grandpa told me he knew everyone in the cemetery and could tell me lots of stories about each person. I thought that was really cool. These are his parents' graves (Justin's great grandparents), Barnes Alma and Alice Southam Cook:




Then on Tuesday, my sister TIFFANY came!! We had such an awesome week with her. We did lots and lots of fun things. We did have 3 shows that week and she was a trooper, coming to the shows and helping watch the kids.

Tuesday we went to the dinosaur museum. I highly recommend it, it was really fun and interactive.





Show for our ward Relief Society on Tuesday night:





Makenzie got to read her bedtime stories with Aunt Tiffany. Check out the book. Now you know how this girl read Twilight in one day. She don't mess AROUND.



Thursday was Justin's birthday. He is 28 now. Gettin' up there=). We had a pool party at Tasha's parents' pool and our friends Ryan and Meagan got to come hang out with us for the day (they are our college buddies from Cedar City and they live in St. George now. But they're moving to Boston for dental school so we will MISS THEM!!) *note: Meagan is in fact wearing the same shirt I wore 2 days earlier - see dinosaur museum picture. We think alike like that. Not to mention I wore a yellow shirt again that day. Weird.



On Friday, Tiffany and I went to Temple Square and saw an awesome movie about Joseph Smith.



On Monday, we went to Pioneer Village. They have recreated what life was like for the Mormon pioneers in Utah. Some of the buildings are relocated originals. They have people dressed like pioneers (including kids) and you can do crafts or do things they had to do, like wash clothes by hand. They have a blacksmith shop, a carpentry shop, wagon rides (our cousin Nano drives the wagon), pony rides, an old fashioned pharmacy/store and tons more. There was so much to do, we spent most of the day there and didn't get to see everything. Sheena came with us and we had a great time. We kept laughing that Justin was there with his 3 wives.


(Makenzie's getting a ride from her boyfriend Jonah)


Fire Wagon


Sheena & Jonah


Makenzie wasn't nervous. I'll admit I was a little.


Lucy & Jarom.

Monday night we took Tiffany up the canyon to Snowbird (ski resort). It was beautiful up there.


At least we know the reflectors work on the stroller. It was kind of dark, but so beautiful.



Alright, that catches me up for a while on what we've been doing this summer! More to come soon though!

We're back!!!

esdxcWe are back from the blogging dead. Oh yeah, and we've been back from our vacation for a couple of weeks now. What's funny is that when really fun and exciting things are happening, I have no time to blog... when life is slow, I post every day. So sorry for all the silly, boring posts. Here's something really fun we actually did!

Day 1: Las Vegas. This is Makenzie's face when she saw her beloved castle:


That smile lasted long enough for me to find the camera, get it out and snap the picture.

Inside the castle:


I think she thought it would be more like the big ballroom in Cinderella inside. But the casino was a fascinating alternative.

In all her "princess" glory:


Did you know that before I had kids I HATED princess stuff? It still kind of makes me cringe at times, but when Makenzie loves it so much, it really is kind of fun.

Nothing like a plastic soldier to complete the experience:


She looks so cute in this one, though.


We finally got to San Diego. We pretty much checked in, threw on our swimsuits and drove straight to the nearest beach.


Walking out on Ocean Beach, the first beach we went to.



She was like a sand-coated sea creature for most of the week.

We met up with Justin's little (well, younger) brother Devin the next day (he's selling pest control in San Diego this summer). They surfed for most of the day at Del Mar and Solana beaches.


All revved up and ready to go.


Meanwhile Kenzi and I were hard at work making some mean sand castles.


There weren't really any seashells, but we did find some cool rocks. Really, I'm not kidding. Some were green, some red, some black and all really smooth. Kenzi favored this gray, big one. When we left the beach, she insisted on taking it home. I didn't realize until later that it was the same rock in this picture. It was her favorite souvenir from the trip.


Back from his first round of surfing. Feeling a little defeated.


But look! He did it! He started getting the hang of it. I managed to catch him at the end of catching a wave with our Kodak Easy Share. You have no idea how hard that was. He did great, but our camera is.. you know, a Kodak Easy Share.

Okay, okay. On to Sea World. They have a buy one day get one free deal right now so we went during the daytime the first day and went to Sea World Summer Nights (or whatever they call it) the next evening. That was so fun. I really loved Sea World at night. The shows were just full of energy and the Sea Otter/Sea Lion show was hilarious. They made fun of all the other shows at Sea World and I was laughing so hard I thought I was at a comedy club or something (even though I've never been to a comedy club... hmmm).


This was Makenzie's expression during most of the shows. She liked it but was just silent the whole time. This picture is actually from the "Pets Rule" show. The show opens with all these dogs running up onto the stage while they play "Who Let the Dogs Out" really loud. I could tell from her expression she didn't think they were supposed to be running free like that. She had kind of an "uh oh" face. It was fun to watch her see something totally new.


The big moment. SHAMU. As soon as we booked our trip, Justin got online and started showing Makenzie videos of Shamu online. He wanted to make sure she knew who he was so she would be really psyched to see him in real life. She was talking about him for weeks before our trip, but when we finally got to the 3 p.m. Shamu show, she was so ready for a nap she could hardly stay awake. We had to keep saying "(big gasp)Look Makenzie! Wow! He's jumping!" She would look for a second and then nestle up on one of our shoulders to sleep. That's life, I guess.

Last, but definitely not least, we went to San Diego Zoo's Wild Animal Park. This is kind of a funny word, but it was lovely. We absolutely fell in love with the place. It started as a sort of holding place for the San Diego Zoo, but now it is this beautiful park with hundreds of acres of free roaming space for the animals. We went on a train ride through what felt like Africa. It was so peaceful and beautiful.


I know you can't tell in the picture, but behind us are lots of wild animals, just roaming the park.



There's Kenzi, just hangin out with some lion cubs. She was just about as tired as they were.


On our little safari.

I wish I could add more pictures, but a girl has to get some sleep sometime. If you want to see more, come over to our house and we'll trap you in our basement and show you the slides for a few hours! Ask my sister, Tiffany - she's been there. Speaking of Tiffany, more on her soon. She was here all last week and we did lots of fun stuff.

4th of July

Okay, I need a break from all the packing and cleaning... and I couldn't wait to share all the pictures from our fun 4th of July!

We started off at Justin's parent's ward annual 4th of July breakfast, but the food was too good to think about pictures. We're talking dutch oven goodness... mmmm.



Then we hit the West Jordan parade.


Jarom really liked the motorcycles. Almost as much as Justin.


Then we were off to a pool party at the Bevan's (Tasha's parents).


They played this game forever! Justin's sore.


To top off the day, we went to Murray Park with Shannon and Ian to see the fireworks. Makenzie had a great time with Weston (way to go with the flag waving, buddy!).


Shannon told them to hold hands on the way to the playground and they couldn't get enough of it. They held hands everywhere they went. Pretty cute.


Jarom was intrigued by the fireworks for the first few minutes.


Makenzie liked them, too. She and Weston both asked "Again? Again?" when it was over.

VACATION

New pics of all our summer fun are on their way, but not before we go to SAN DIEGO for vacation! We are so excited. We leave Monday, get back Friday night.

We're leaving poor Jarom home with Grandma and we're taking Makenzie to:

FIRST - The Excalibur Hotel in Vegas - you know, the one that looks like a castle. Makenzie has told everyone she has seen in the last couple of the weeks "I going to castle." We're bringing a princess dress that someone gave us so she can get the full effect.

THEN- We're off to San Diego to go to Sea World and the BEACH. I can't wait to live in a swimsuit all next week.

So when I get back, I'll have lots of fun pictures of everything we've been doing the last couple of weeks and our vacation, too!

Matagi Look-alike Meter

Usually, when people are trying to figure out who our kids look like, their first impression is: Kenz looks like Justin, Jarom looks like Tara.

THEN, as they look closer, a lot of people will say that Jarom looks like Justin, too, just whiter.

So here you have it. Pure science has declared that both of them look like me! Hahaha.

MyHeritage: Look-alike Meter - Family search - Family web page