Those three glorious weeks spent in UT were just too much fun and way too action-packed to put into one blog, so I am going to post in segments. Since I do all of my napping when my boys are ablog--woops, I mean I blog while they are taking their naps--and since Sam only naps if I hold him (something we are trying to work on), it takes me FOREVER because I have to type with one hand.
While I wish it were true that I could catch a nap, I need to explain the previous typo: Max has finally (unfortunately) figured out that he can get out of his bed. He has always known that he can climb into it, but for some reason never ever climbed out of it. Instead, he would call out for "Mommy" or "Daddy" whenever he awakened. Well, as of last night (and I am quoting Paul here), "That cat is out of the bag." Paul heard his door open around 2 am, went rushing out to see what was going on, and saw Max's little silhouette heading toward him from the hall. Paul was able to get him back into bed, but that didn't stop him from coming back out at like 6 am. This is truly frustrating to me because Max is a kid who would normally sleep all night and not awaken until 9 or so in the morning--heaven. I fear that my days of sleeping in until after 8 are over. Boo-hoo! (I might actually have to work in a nap after all--everyone who knows me knows what a night owl I am: I can stay up until well after midnight, no problem. But, to get out of bed before 8? AAAARGHHH!). I guess with kids arising early is inevitable.
Well, since Max is such a big boy now, climbing out of bed and pooping in the potty... Wait--POOPING IN THE POTTY? Yup! I guess I will take pooping in the potty over sleeping in. We are not fully potty-trained yet (as Max peed on the floor while I was praising him for the aforementioned accomplishment), but I consider this a remarkable step in the right direction. Seriously, Max does not take pooping lightly--he rolls around on the floor holding it in (we think) before finally going in his diaper--so we are truly excited about this feat.
Well, enough potty talk...
Look at all the fun we had while in UT! As you can imagine, Max--he who worships tractors and can usually be found with one in his hand if not talking about them or begging to add yet another to his enormous collection every time we go to Target--was in tractor HEAVEN. We arrived in UT rather late and it was well into the wee hours of the morning when we finally got to Holden. So, the next day when Max woke up and looked out the window, he was elated when he saw the tractors and combines, and then the dogs and horses. He literally could not wait to go check them all out. Lucky for him, we actually got up in time to help Papa and Gramma Jill feed calves. So much excitement on our very first day!
Here are pics of Max helping Papa load hay onto the feed truck.
Hanging out with Gramma between the haystacks...
Oh those glorious UT mountains. Sure do miss them. This is Max playing near the new corrals that Jake built...
A couple of days later we headed to Kanosh to visit. As always, it was so nice to visit with Grandma Turner and see all of my relatives from Kanosh, and Max had a blast with Brady. We also had a really good time playing games with Brady and Aunt JoAnn. This is Max, Brady and Brooks petting a little goat...
Look at all of my relatives. This is actually just a small handful of the ones that currently live in Kanosh, and the room was so crowded that I couldn't get a better shot of everyone's faces. What a full house! I wonder what Max was thinking about being surrounded by so many people--all of whom love him, want to play with him, and think he is pretty darn cute! He actually thought it was pretty awesome--I think the kid could get accustomed to something like this. This was just a regular Sunday (before Easter)--just a normal, routine gathering of family. This is what I miss most about UT--being around family.
I forget exactly, but I think Grandma Turner has something like 32 great-grandchildren, with two more on the way!
This is my pretty cousin Kellee with Grandma Turner and Sam. How wonderful that Aunt Margaret and my cousin Kellee's visit (from Alabama) coincided with ours!
My dad and brothers have several horses in corrals behind our house. Max spent several mornings trying to get them to eat hay and grass out of his hands, and sometimes he and cousin Brooks helped Uncle Judd feed them. They really enjoyed feeding the "horses on the hill" because there is a smallish ditch that runs in front where they could throw rocks and create big splashes. I am pretty sure that after our visit there are no more rocks to be found anywhere but in the ditch (In fact, towards the end of our stay I was having to transport rocks up there just so the splashing could be enjoyed--it was a great time killer!).
Check out the cowboy boots and hat! Max scored some great hand-me-downs from cousin Brooks. He wore these boots everyday.
I have to admit, my first few days in UT were spent missing Paul and my house in PA. I know that is not a good thing to confess given how excited I was to come to UT, but it is true. My parents are ranchers--they are busy every single day of the year, and perhaps even more so in the spring. So, I felt like I was alone with Max and Sam for much of the time--kinda made me sad. Thankfully, my handsome and exceptionally thoughtful brother Jake let me borrow his really small car (which I was somehow able to stuff 2 huge car seats and a gigantic stroller into) and I set out to visit my friend Connie in SLC. Connie is a spectacular friend and she has a beautiful little boy named Dominic who will be 2 in May. Sadly, I didn't get any photos. I think I was a little too frazzled by then of doing all of the parenting work on my own--which is especially hard when on the road. At any rate, I didn't get any photos, but we had a great time visiting them--thank you, thank you, thank you Connie!
We ended up crashing at Tia and Tio's house the next night--and I do mean crash as this was very spontaneous (thank you, Tia, for being so wonderful and accommodating!), and then we joined Sara, Bryn, Emri and Jax on their trip to the zoo. What fun--even though it was really windy and cold! Sara was so good with Max. She basically took his and Emri's hand and oversaw their entertainment for the entire outing.
Sam had fun, all bundled up in the stroller...
Max still talks about the train ride with Emri (which I didn't get a picture of).
Well, my left arm is getting sore from holding a sleeping Sam and my right hand is feeling a little "carpel-tunnelled" from doing all the typing, so I will end here for now. This isn't even half-way thru our UT trip, though, so stay tuned!
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