Arts Annual AT

Art is one of Bowens good friends from college and it just so happend that he was out here for his Annual Training. He did his training out here last year, but Mason wasn't born yet. So he got to meet him for the very first time. Oh ho sweet! While he was here we attempted to go surfing but the waves were not cooperating. So we settled on going to Taco Surf and getting fish tacos instead. Mmmmm.....

It was so good to see him and hope he comes out next year!

A trip to Utah!

My official last day managing apartments was April 30th. What was I going to do with all my "free" time? Well, my mom was generous enough to buy us plane tickets to come and visit everyone in Utah. Yay! Unfortunately Bowen couldn't take off work, but we still had a great time!

Mason and I flew into Vegas where Grandma Myrna and Uncle Matt picked us up. At home, the rest of my uncles (Steven and Patrick) , aunt (Sophia), and cousins (Sky, Alexander, Kira) were waiting for us. Mason got to meet them for the very first time (except grandma)! I also got to meet Matt's youngest, Kira, for the first time too! He has such a beautiful family! We just hung out at grandmas house that evening and had some good sloppy Joe's for dinner!

The next day we went to this cute little park/fishing pond and had a picnic. The kids were so funny to watch. After a couple hours there it started to rain. We packed quickly and headed home. There we watched old home videos of my uncles and mom when they were kids. My favorite part was when my dad and mom were going to prom. You could tell by the look on my dads face he was soooo nervous! So cute! It was getting late so put mason to bed. I could tell he was having such great time, because when he went to sleep that night he was out cold! The rest of us stayed up just catching up and chatting. It was our last night there :( I wish we could have stayed at least a couple more days.

Mason didn't quite know what to think about Sky's baby python.

Alexander aka. Wolverine/Spiderman/Batman/Darth Vader/......you name it!

Beautiful Sky and her snake

Sophia and cutie patootie, Kira

Matt and Grandma

The next morning we packed up and Matt and Grandma took us to meet my dad in Mesquite. There, we said our hello's and goodbye's, and thanks for a good time. I was pretty anxious to see my dad and I know he couldn't wait to see his grandbaby! After grabbing a Diet Dr. Pepper (I can't live without), and feeding Mason, we were on the road again! It just so happened that Chellese had a dance competition in Cedar City that morning. She had just finished right as we were pulling into Cedar. As dad and I were looking for Mom and Chellese amongst the crowd, Chellese came running up gave me a great big hug. She then turned to Mason and started talking to him. Well, she must have scared him because he just burst into tears! Just imagine a little girl running up to you with stage makeup on and sparkles from head to toe. I think it would scare me too! After that he couldn't take his eyes off her because she was so sparkly. From then on we called her Aunt Sparkle (just until she washed her makeup off and changed her clothes). We got some lunch, then back in the car and off to DELTA! As we were pulling into town my mom asked me if I thought I'd ever miss sagebrush and alfalfa fields so much. Ya know, I really did! It almost made me more homesick to be there.

We were greeted by the dogs as we pulled into the driveway. As usual, they were overly excited to see us. Shaun and C.J. came home soon after and we all just visited for the evening. They couldn't get over how big and funny Mason was. How fun!

The next day was Sunday. A day of rest...thank goodness! It was fun to go to my home ward and see everyone. We went for our usual Sunday walk and it was just so pleasant and nice.

Monday came fast! Everyone had work or school, so Mason and I just played and I got caught up on Delta News courtesy the Millard County Chronicle Progress newspaper. Later that day Chellese, Mom, Mason and I walked to the library to exchange some books. As soon as we got home it was time for family home evening. Chellese had prepared a wonderful lesson on temples. Oh I have the cutest little sister! Soon after, we headed to bed. Not before I called my loving husband to say good night and tell him I missed him (like I did every night).

Tuesday was just a peaceful day. Mason helped mom pull weeds in the garden and later that night she gave him a great summer haircut. He wasn't too thrilled about it, but looked a whole lot better after.

Gardening with grandma

I think he only ate dirt once or twice...

The haircut!

I surprised Chellese that next morning by telling her she wasn't going to school and that she was coming with me to Richfield to visit family over there. We left about 9am, stopped to get my Dr. Pepper, then proceeded on our way. I had arranged to visit Rachel (she's like a mom to me) first, then to Grandma Jills, then Grandpa Richards, Then Grandma Beckys. It was going to be a very eventful day! Rachel was working at the hospital so we stopped by there to say hello. It was soooo good to see her! After about an hour of chatting we were off to Grandma Jills. Lucky us, Uncle Parker was home too! We visited for a bit then he went to work.

Cheesin' it up with Uncle Parker

We were getting ready to make some lunch when Grandpa Dwayne called and asked if we could meet him in town for lunch. Heck yes! We packed in the car and headed back into town to get a bite to eat. Thanks for lunch Grandpa! Back at home, there were baby goats and sheep

anxiously waiting to meet Mason. He thought they were the absolute neatest thing! You know he was thinking, "Wow! These stuffed animals are AWESOME!" It was so cute to see him with them. He points at everything...but when he pointed at the baby goats they started sucking on his finger! Oh my! That was hilarious! He couldn't stop squealing he loved it so much. Goofy baby!

No need to explain this one! :)

Since we were on a time crunch we needed to get going if we going to get to visit Grandpa Richard. We said our goodbyes and again headed into town. We were able to visit with grandpa for a bit, which was really nice.

Mason was laughing at the dogs running around the house. We couldn't get him to even look up for two seconds for the picture.

Onward to Grandma Becky and Grandpa Buzzy's. But before we did, we couldn't resist stopping at the Ideal Dairy to get a watermelon slushy with vanilla icecream. You just can't go to Richfield without stopping there. Mmmmm....

Right as we pulled up, so did grandma. She had just gotten off work. Perfect timing! We chatted for a bit while Mason played with toys and got into grandmas busy drawer.

The "busy drawer" is a drawer, usually in the kitchen, that is home to all of the Tupperware, big spoons, icetrays...anything that's fun for a baby to get into!) Grandma Stef has one, and so do I! It's Mason's favorite drawer to get into in the whole house!

After a couple of hours, some more cousins (Hadleigh, Haylen, Christian, and Kaylee) came walking through the door! Awww...we missed them! Not long after that Grandpa Buzzy came home from work. By then it was dinner time so we made tacos. We visited a bit longer then headed back to Delta. What an eventful day!

On our way home from Richfield.

Since Bowen and I got married, we've had wedding gifts stored at my parents house. Now that we have a house to put them in, I spent a good portion of Thursday packing those gifts in boxes and shipping them out! I was also able to meet up with my good friend, Delaini, for some dinner later that evening.

Grandpa Kurt chasing Mason around the house.

Just a video of Mason talking to the dogs.

C.J. would beat me up if he knew I posted this picture, but he never checks my blog so he won't know...sshhhhh! If you've seen Yes Man, you'll know where this came from. I guess this is what happens at 1:00 in the morning...

Friday was my last official full day in Delta. I was sad that I didn't get to see Chasey and Lyndsay. Well she called me that morning and said they were coming down to Delta that afternoon to visit! Woohoo! Around 5ish that evening they arrived! Oh my goodness! yay! I was so excited to see them! Lynds is just glowing! I know they're very anxious to have their little Rylee arrive. We had some burgers and watermelon and just visited for a few hours.

A family picture

Mason loooooved Lyndsay. Especially when she shared her watermelon with him.

Lynds and I got on the topic of childbirth and the boys couldn't really take that. Chasey turned to C.J. and asked, "C.J, You want to go do something manly?" This is what they came up with. Go shoot the guns.

Around 10ish or so, we said our goodbyes and they headed back to Payson. Chasey had to work early the next morning. I was so glad they were willing to drive all they way to Delta to see us!

I mostly packed that night and got ready to head back to San Diego.

That next morning we headed up to Salt Lake. Dad and Shaun took us up there. I got all the bags checked, kisses and hugs goodbye, then boarded the plane. Little did I know we were flying to Reno first. That made the trip twice as long. Luckily we had the BEST flight attendants. They were sooo funny! I was sitting on the front row, so of course Mason was flirting with them. During our little layover he started to get a bit restless. So they asked if he could go meet the pilots and take a picture in the cockpit. He played with them for a good 20 minutes. When the passengers started boarding, one of the flight attendants was holding him. She was greeting everyone over the intercom and telling them, "Mason would like to welcome you as well, and thank you for flying with southwest airlines" How funny!

When we finally arrive in San Diego, we were getting ready to get off the plane. As other passengers were getting off they were saying goodbye to Mason as they exited. He thought he was so cool to have all these people looking at him.

Bowen was waiting for us as we walked out to the baggage claim. Mason was sooo happy to see his Daddy! I was excited to see him too! What a great trip! But we were ready to come home to Bowen!

What a treat!

Marie and Frank are great friends of Bowens. They came all the way out to San Diego from Florida for vacation and were so sweet to come by and see us! I'd met them before, but it was nice to get to know them even better. They also met Mason for the first time as well. We chatted for a bit and then they took us out to dinner a Joe's Crabshack. We had a wonderful time enjoying eachothers company, a great view of the ocean, and our food! :) Thanks for spending your precious vacation time with us!

This was Easter

In between buying our house and moving, the Easter Bunny had to do some last minute shopping. This was Mason's very first Easter and the Easter Bunny went with a Sesame Street theme and beach toys. As usual, he brought golf things and jerky for Bowen. Oh how nice! Now, for some reason the Easter Bunny doesn't bring me an Easter basket. So, Bowen said he'd share his candy with me. What a sweetheart! :)

OK...finally!

Alright, Alright. I'm finally updating the blog! Soooo much has happened in the past 2 months, it's almost overwhelming to write about. So, I'm going to start posting from way back in April and hopefully post every couple of days until I'm caught up.

For spring break we were graced with the presence of my wonderful in laws!!! Coach and Melinda spent a whole week with us! I was so happy that they chose sacrifice their precious time off from work to fly all the way out here just to sleep in a crowded apartment (because we hadn't got the house yet) and on the floor (again dad, sooo sorry). We knew they would be kind of tired from flying and the time change so wejust took it easy the first day they were here.

Beautiful La Jolla Cove

We definitely stayed pretty busy the rest of the time! One of the cool things we always do when visitors come is go to La Jolla Cove. It is very beautiful there and we were so fortunate to live just 2 blocks away. It was pup season for the seals so there were little baby ones all over the beach and playing in the water. Bowen makes fun of me whenever I see "baby" animals because I always say their "Mason size". ha ha!

See the babies?

Afterwards we went to the park right around the corner. Mason LOOOOOVES to swing and is still getting used to the rest of the park toys. We had fun laughing at him and cheering him on as discovered all of the exciting toys.

Bowen did have to work a couple of the days they were here, but that didn't stop us from seeing some attractions. One afternoon we met him downtown for lunch at a little Mexican restaurant. I had eaten there before and wasn't too excited about going there again. But, it was a whole lot better than I remembered. Afterwards we went and toured the ginormous aircraft carrier, The Midway. It was pretty awesome. I honestly don't know how sailors live on ships. I couldn't do it I'd be so claustrophobic! Some of the guys that were working there used to sail on that ship. It was neat to hear their stories they told about when they were sailing.

Oh ya---so here's a funny little story.

Placed throughout the ship there are mannequins that show different jobs that were done to make the ship run smoothly. Well, we were walking by the mail room when I happened to glance at the "fake" mailman. All of a sudden HE MOVED!!!!!! "Hello", was all he said. OH MY GOODNESS! I am not one that gets startled very easily, but that freaked me out! I let out a scream and hit the counter and shouted "You can't do that!!!" It's a good thing he was behind the glass, because I probably would've smacked him! I think i scared everyone near by as well. Needless to say, we all got a good laugh out of it. Good job fake mailman guy!

Mom and Coach on top of the Midway

Another day we spent up at the base. The girls went shopping and the boys went golfing. Perfect. I think Coach is hooked on the golf thing...minus the injury he sustained. I hope his arm gets better soon!

FOUR!!!

When you come to San Diego you have to spend at least one day at the beach. Not only did we do that, but Coach decided he wanted to go surfing for his first time. Oh how exciting! He's such a natural athlete I wasn't worried a bit. Plus, Bowen is a great teacher so that was a plus!

Getting ready to hang ten!

Yep, that's coach catching a wave!!! Woot woot!

All done and tuckered out.

Pro surfer!

Like I said, we kept really busy. On another evening we ventured out to east county to go to the shooting range. How fun! I didn't do very well at all, but of course Dad was amazing and hardly missed a one :)

The boys and their guns.

One of our newest toys and super conveniences was a baby backpack. Mason was super excited!

Although we weren't in our house yet, they wanted to help us get the things we needed to make our house a home. Thank you, thank you, thank you for everything!!! I cannot tell you how much we appreciated all that you've given us! We had such a great time and were very touched you that you came to visit! Come back soon!

FWD:

Mason found his nose. Look at what fun things you can do with it!

Masons art.

Mason loves to color and it keeps him busy and quiet. So it's perfect for church. Ta da!