Our fun adventure

A couple of weekends ago, we went to visit Jason's brother, Troy and his family in Idaho. Since the family reunion a couple of weeks before, Sam had been obsessed with playing with "Doe-Doe" or as we call him Joe-Joe. Sam loves playing with Joe-Joe! He's so fun! Joe-Joe loves to play with Maggie! She's so carriable. Well, actually not, and poor Maggie had a rough weekend, but the kids sure had fun with her!
On the way home Sunday night, just past the Utah border, our car started acting up. Or maybe I should say down... since it died. Luckily it was more like taking a nap than dying, but it still was causing problems. It started again just fine, but once we got into the south part of Salt Lake it started 'taking a nap' more often. We realized it would take us forever to get all the way to Springville at the rate we were going. We called Jason's parents, who live in Lehi, and asked if we could spend the night there. Sam was excited to see Gampa and Gampa. (Sorry Grandma, the M is usually overtaken by the P.) Even though it was bedtime, Sam found the news very interesting.


Our little cherry picker:

We recently discovered that Sam loves cherries! And once again remembered that he is a messy eater!

What would you do if...

Jason and I have been watching the show Heroes lately. So we're really in a superpower mindset now. The other day he asked me what are three things I would do if I could be invisible. We realized how easy it would be to be bad if you had pretty much any superpower. I wondered if I would be tempted to make wrong choices because I could 'get away with it' for now. I hope I wouldn't, and I'm guessing I'll never be given the opportunity to find out...
But what are your thoughts? What would you do if you could be invisible?

Jason's new toy

We finally did it! We bought a piano yesterday. We've been looking at pianos for some time now, and have been saving for one for even longer. Most of the time Jason has been very anti-digital because he just didn't think they had the same sound quality... then he played a newer digital and realized they've made some major improvements with them. We liked the idea of easier movement and no need for tuning. And when kids are napping, or mom is snapping (mean like a turtle) the volume can be turned down. We looked at a few acoustic ones, but Jason decided that he was converted to digital, so we found this one. The woman is moving to Hawaii this weekend, so she really needed to sell it. She came down $400 because of that. So, we feel we got a pretty good deal. (Good job Jason!) The first time I saw it was when Jason was playing it, right where you see it in the picture. Good thing I trust his judgment. He went and looked at it on Tuesday and borrowed a friend's truck and bought it on Wednesday.
It is so nice to have homemade music in our home. (Ipod, you're great, and don't take it personally, but sometimes you just don't cut it...) I love hearing Jason play, he is so talented. I'm glad he'll get the chance to pull his music out more often. His music has officially been relocated from the office's closet to our living room! Maybe now he'll remember again the song he wrote for me for our wedding and he can record it onto the piano so I can listen to it anytime I want! It's a most beautiful song, from a most beautiful person.

July thus far

Oh, the lazy days of summer... I guess Sesame Street got a little boring for him.
Maggie is getting ready for her first bath. She had no idea what was coming... let's just say, she didn't care for it.
Oh, so sweet, daddy brushing his little girl's hair. This could be good practice for him if we have a girl!

Sam's typical look at the 4th of July Parade in Provo. I thought he would enjoy it, but he just had this worried/confused look on his face almost the whole time. However, he did get excited about BYU's float, since it had a 'choo choo' on it.
After the parade we went home and ate lunch. After lunch, I told Sam it was time for his nap. Of course, he didn't think he needed a nap, so he tried to hide in the pantry. I wonder when he'll realize that just because we can't make eye contact, it doesn't mean he's invisible...
Sam and his snaps. He had a hard time throwing them hard enough to pop them, so daddy taught him the stomping method.
He had way too much fun stomping on them all. Let's just say we went through the 2 boxes we got him rather quickly. It was fun watching him though.

So far July has been a fun month, nothing too exciting, which is fine with me!

The Cook Family Reunion Results

This past weekend we had our family reunion for Jason's side that we do every other year with his parents and siblings and their kids. His sister and her husband, Holly and Scott were in charge of planning the 3 day event. On Friday morning we did an activity like Trading Spaces. Each group was given $20 to work with. Everyone was divided up and assigned to another family's house to do whatever they wanted to do with it. We could do some redecorating, cleaning, making a treat, etc. There were a total of 44 people (several being small children) and 6 homes involved. Jason's sister, brother and brother-in-law were the adults that came to our house. We were to leave a list of suggestions which they could do if they wanted but were not required to. Jason's sister, Shelly has heard me mention more than once that I would love to have a red front door. So on their way to our house, they stopped by Home Depot and bought red paint and painted the door. (They also did a great job organizing/cleaning our office and hanging our pictures that I have been dreading to find places for since we moved in four months ago.!) When we all met up again at Jason's parents house, they were a little nervous about how we would feel about their little project. All they would tell us was that they "took a risk" with something that we'd have to wait and see when we got home. I will admit I was a bit nervous, since none of the other groups were too worried about their decisions. We kept trying to guess what they did, but they wouldn't tell us. About 2 minutes before we got home, I figured it out. I was really hoping I was right and that we would drive up to the house with a red door. And we did!! Yeah! I'm pretty sure most of the family knew before us what they did, but it was a fun surprise. The whole activity was a lot of fun.

On Saturday morning we met at Canyon Glen Park and hiked up to Bridal Veil Falls. There and back was about 2 miles, so it was quite an adventure for a 2 year old that doesn't think he needs a stroller. He did ride in it on and off, but it was still a good workout for us all. Even Maggie. We decided to take her with since the whole planned day was to be outside. The kids all wanted to take turns to walk her and carry her, so we hardly even saw her during that time. After the hike and lunch... she got her first taste of ham and now her treats have no effect... but she was so exhausted, she fell asleep under a big stroller and a little niece puller her our by her legs and she didn't even stir, just stayed completely knocked out.
Speaking of knocked out... Sam was pretty exhausted too. It was about 2:00 or so when we left the park and it didn't take him long to get comfy and go to sleep. I'm surprised he even had the energy to get his arm above his shoulder like that. But it makes for a cute picture!

Friday afternoon we had games and boys/girls hour and some seminar/classes. Then on Sunday we had a nice dinner and scriptural activity. The whole weekend was really great, Scott and Holly did an excellent job planning the whole thing... I think they should be in charge every time...