Primary pioneer activity

This was the primary activity that me and my counselor put together last minute. My sweet counselor is pregnant with her 4th child. She is due in 3 days, and really wanted to do this activity before she had her baby. Poor thing, she could hardly walk.

We had the kids bring one thing that they would have wanted to talk with them in their covered wagons. It was funny to see what they would take.

Here is Peyton looking like a pioneer. I am glad I snapped this picture before he fell into the stream. Whoops! Lets just say watching him and doing a primary activity is a challenge. I saw him heading to the stream, but couldn't get there fast enough. He really just walked into it and then fell over sideways. He was covered in mud, but was still as happy as can be.

Here is Peyton and his buddy Joseph playing. Poor Joseph, he dosen't have a chance to be tall at all. Peyton already towers over him and Joseph is 4 1/2 months older.

Catching a ride in the wheel barrow.

Woah!

So Craig picked us up at the airport, and it was so cute when Peyton saw Craig. He immediately said "Daddy" and wanted to see him right away. Usually Peyton doesn't want Craig to hold him. He will usually give him a quick hug when he gets home from work, but doesn't want Craig to hold him at all. Well this time it was different. Peyton went straight to Craig and gave him literally a 5 minute hug. I should have taken a picture of it. It was really sweet. I think he really missed his daddy. We got home late Tuesday night and Wednesday I spent doing laundry and cleaning up Craig's bachelor pad. He is not the best house keeper, but to his benefit, he actually did the best job he has ever done on keeping the house clean, but it still took me all day to catch up.

I have a point to telling you all this. Well, on Thursday I was busy getting food ready for our primary pioneer activity. We were planning on having about 60 people show up and I needed to cook the hot dogs, cut up 3 watermelons, and get all the fixings! A lot of work. So I called Craig up asking if he was going to be able to help me at the activity any and I was complaining about all that I had to do, so he answered all my hot dog cooking questions,

then He said, "Are you done?"
Me: "Uh, yeah"
Craig: "I just found out that the bakery filed for bankruptcy and I am out of a job as of now."
Me: "What????"

Yeah, I know, second time in the last 2 1/2 years that Craig has lost his job. Oh, I should say that the bakery he currently was working for Gerards Bakery is based out of Colorado and also has a plant in California. We knew the bakery was falling under some hard times, so we have been trying to save money, like our tax refund and stimulus check, but it is still hard to comprehend a job loss. Plus having to sell a house that we only bought not even 2 years ago. Dang.

Well, the story doesn't end here. Craig calls me back after about an hour and says that the Mount Airy bakery (his bakery) has a buyer and that they are to continue to work the rest of their shifts, but the CO and CA bakeries had closed their doors, and that they truly were out of jobs. WOW! When we lived in Colorado and Craig got laid off from his bakery, he was going to work for the Colorado Gerards plant working night shift, just so that we didn't have to move. Then he went to the CA plant to consult for them for 2 months and we almost moved there, so that he could have a job. Then the bakery offered him the job in North Carolina. If we hadn't taken this job, then he would have been out of a job along with all those other people.

Well, Craig has new bosses and a new bakery name. Harvest Time Bakery. But so far everything else is the same. Other than the fact that he will be working long hours for the next month. We are very blessed to still have Craig's job and this really reinforces our choice to move so far away from family and friends, but I still think that we made the right choice and that we really have been guided by Heavenly Father to make the right choices for our family. I love my hubby and all of the sacrifices that he has made for me so that I can be a stay at home mom. I really do love it.

Whew! Now everyone is all caught up in our current drama.

At the airport.

I tried to get a good picture of Peyton at the airport, but of course taking a picture in front of such a huge glass window really doesn't work.



Peyton kept calling the airplanes cars.

Peyton did really well of both legs of our flight. He slept for a few minutes on both take offs and landing, and really wanted to just go wild during the flight. Luckily both flights we had nice people sitting next to us. I really hate how full the flights are now. Last year when we flew we had the entire row to ourselves. Not so lucky this time. I did manage to get the bulk head seat on the way home and that was nice. Extra leg room for me, plus at one point Peyton laid down on the floor in front of my feet. He didn't fall asleep, but he probably could have.

Alas, we survived another 2 week vacation, now back to the real world. I am so ready for a good nights sleep in my bed!

Last day of our vacation!

Peyton and Korbin having fun with the bubble maker.

Korbin started getting really jealous of the attention that Peyton was getting from anyone. It was funny. As soon as Korbin sat on Eric's lap, then Peyton wanted up and vise versa. Korbin especially hated it when Peyton gave Eric a kiss good night. He kept saying, "Hey, that's my daddy. Get your own."

At last, a lap he didn't have to fight for. This is the only picture I got of Peyton with my brother Jaren. Unfortunately I didn't get a single picture of my dad. Wonder where he was for 2 weeks? I guess he must have bolted everytime I got the camera out.

Hmm...I even had time for a Pampered chef show! This is the chicken broccoli braid. Very yummy.

Professional cousin photos

While in Colorado, my brother and I thought it would be cute to have professional pictures taken of Peyton and Korbin. We would have loved Zach in the pictures, but he was in Utah, darn it! Eric had wanted to get pictures taken of him and Korbin and we thought it would work out perfect. (Korbin lives with his mom in Texas and was visiting with his Dad for 6 weeks for the summer). Well, the day of the pictures, Peyton was running a fever. He was trying to get his canine teeth. Well, wouldn't ya know it, I didn't have any Tylenol in my diaper bag, because Peyton is constantly emptying out the darn thing and scattering everything everywhere. Well, he would cooperate in any of the pictures, but after I gave him a fruit snack, he seemed to calm down. Korbin was so good with him. He kept trying to make him laugh by tickling him or making funny faces. It was cute. Anyways, I didn't end up with any good shots of Peyton by himself, which actually was fine with me. Usually there are so many good shots that I can't say no to and I end up with way too many prints that I never even mail out!

This one was good of Peyton, but Korbin wasn't looking at the camera.

So, this is the one we chose. Peyton had a big yellow fruit snack in his mouth, but other than that, it is cute!

Korbin sure is a cute little boy.

Like father, like son! I just loved watching these two interact while I was visiting. Eric is such a good Daddy. It is such a shame that Korbin lives so far away.

A Day with cousins!

Peyton, Korbin and I headed to Longmont to visit with Craig's brothers family for the day. It was an extremely hot July day, so we decided to start out with going to the "castle park" as the kids lovingly call it, early in the day. It was only 10:00, but everything was already starting to get hot, so we only played at the park for about 15 minutes.

Kylee and Peyton.

Korbin wanted to st on the alligator even though it was extremely hot. Peyton really wanted to as well, but it was just too hot.

Oh well, he still had fun running and sliding around.

Korbin getting ready to go down the hot slide.

Korbin playing with moon sand.

Addie playing with the moon sand.

Kylee playing with moon sand as well.

These kids all played really well together, while Peyton was entertaining Nana.

We tried to get a nice picture, but of course Peyton couldn't cooperate!

Peyton visits with Nana and Uncle Corey

With all the family in town to see us on my mom's side of the family, it took us a while to get to visit with Craig's family, but here we are visiting with Craig's mom and his little brother Corey.





Nana and Peyton playing outside.

Corey and Peyton playing.

Bubbles!

Rocky National Park, Colorado

We had so many nice pictures taken up at Rocky National Park. This was one of my favorite places to go growing up. It was fun to share this day with my Grandma Simmons from Idaho, who turns 90 on July 19th, my Aunt Anna Jean and Uncle Ned from Idaho, my Aunt Marlene and Uncle Dee from Loveland (the ones with the lake) and of course Peyton, my mom and Korbin.

Me and Peyton overlooking the beautiful Rocky Mountains. Peyton had fun watching the ground squirrels play.

My mom and my Grandma. My aunt bought us all matching red t-shirts. I didn't get the shot with my camera though darn it. Also, we took a 4 generation photo as well, although not on my camera. I am going to have to track it down.

We found some ducks when we were just getting ready to leave. We didn't have anything to feed them, so they lost interest in us fast.

Korbin loved being so high up. He said it wasn't scary at all.

A fun collage of all our pictures.

Denver Zoo!

Everytime we head to Colorado, we always head for the Zoo. I don't know what it is about animals, but I just love them. I especially love to take children to the zoo. I just love the expressions on their faces when they get to see all the animals. Peyton especially loved seeing the fish and turtles. We also loved the new lorikeet exhibit where you buy a little cup of nector and you get to go inside the lorikeet habitat and feed the birds. Peyton and Korbin just loved it.

Sarah has to leave already.

Sarah came in for a fast weekend basically to get an updated drivers license since she got married. It was nice to see her, even if it was only for a few days. We had fun while we were with her.

Sarah and Korbin.

We tried to get a good one of Peyton, but he is just to wiggly sometimes. What can you expect of an 18 month old?

This child loves his pudding.

He is just so messy. After I took this picture, he preceded to dump the entire container on the floor. Whoops!

Lee Martinez Park, Petting Zoo

This isn't my favorite collage, but thats okay. We went to a petting zoo in Fort Collins. Peyton loved seeing all the farm animals close up. They had a water pump that he loved getting water out of. It was a fun day.

Fish Hatchery in Ft Collins

Here fishy, fishy

Sarah feeding the fish.

Peyton loved seeing the fish. I think he really wanted to hold and pet them though. He loved feeding them.

These were some really big fish here and they would splash out of the water to get the food.
Peyton kept trying to touch the fish. It was funny.