These are a few of my favorite things...

Being back home with Justin!!!!!

Boys having a fun (until they get caught).

Bunk beds and under-the-bed storage! Clayton's room is so clean and organized. I LOVE IT!!!


I got a Cricut this week! I have been lusting after one for several months and now I have one!! I have been having a lot of fun experimenting with it ever since!

Yay! We finally have a central light in our living room (and BONUS it has a fan)!! Thanks Dad!
Before:

After:

My dad has been here for the past few days. He was brave enough to fly home with me and the boys. As if that weren't enough, he spent the following five days doing little projects around my house (like the fan). We had so much fun. My next post will be all about our fun while he was here. We miss you dad!

Justin bought a fire pit while we were in Vegas. I think it's awesome! Bring on the S'mores!


Finally, what's not to love about these cute faces!

Bye bye Vegas!

We are back in Vermont! We had such a great time in Vegas visiting family, but it is so great to see Justin and be back in our own home! The trip home was interesting. My kids are amazingly well-behaved on plane trips (hooray), but they both had other issues. Clayton, for instance, gets air-sick...a lot. This was an unexpected surprise. We used all of the airsick bags available to us on all three flights (YUCK)!! Also, Noah still had a little bit of leftover stomach flu. So he had the opposite problem of Clayton (YUCK again)! Especially when you consider that there were no changing tables in the bathrooms of the planes we were on. What is up with that!!! It's like they don't think kids are going to be on board. On the way from Denver to New York I changed four yucky diapers. This is a lot anyway, but without a changing table, COME ON!!! The airline was killing me!!! Fortunately my wonderful dad flew home with us (and is staying for a couple of days). Thanks Dad! I honestly don't know how we would have survived this trip without you!!!!

Anyway, here are the last pictures of our Vegas vacation. My mom and sister took us to the Lied Discovery Museum on Tuesday! If you live in (or visit) Vegas, you need to take your kids! It was a BLAST!

Ashley and Noah making some beautiful music!

For obvious reasons, we had to take this picture!

My Hero! (I love how tiny he looks in all that gear!)

Clayton LOVES cash registers. This exhibit was perfect for him!

Ashley and Noah in a giant bubble.

Clayton behind the "bubble wall".

Noah really enjoyed this ball exhibit. He didn't exactly do the right things with those balls, but he had a great time scattering them for all the unexpecting employees!

This was a fun activity until Noah fell out of the chair (oops...we caught him though).

This wheelchair basketball exhibit was a favorite of Clayton's (isn't this a great action shot)!!

This museum is great because there are so many things that make noise. If you can hit it AND make lots of noise, it is a bonus for Clayton!


They had this fun area for for kids under 5. Clayton and Noah loved being construction workers and playing with the wheelbarrow!


Thanks for going with us Mom and Ash!

Our last night in town we had a family dinner at my Grandma and Grandpa Schmidt's house. I am so glad that they have the opportunity to get to know my kids! They are such funny people. Spending time with them is always so fun!

It was an amazing vacation. I am really glad that we got to spend so much time with family. We are so happy to be home with Justin, but we are going to miss our family and all the adventures we got to have in Vegas!

Monroe

This past weekend we went to Monroe to see Justin's dad, his sister, and her husband. It was a really fun weekend. I learned though, that I do NOT like driving for five hours with the kids all by myself (Let's just say that the phrase, "Hey! Knock that off!" was overused)!
On our way up to Monroe, the boys and I stopped in Cedar City to visit my old college roommate Mel and her cute boys. It was great to catch up and let the kids take a break from the car. After our visit, we headed up to Monroe with Missy and Jared. The boys were so exicted to see Grandpa Smith (and he was pretty excited to see them too)!
Friday night we ate at Wingers, which is one of my favorite restaraunts. YUM! It's probably a good thing that I don't normally live close to one otherwise I would never want to branch out and try new places.
Sadly, the weather didn't cooperate with our trip (it was a cold and windy weekend) so we were unable to ride the horses, but that didn't stop our fun! We spent most of Saturday inside just hanging out.
The location may have been different, but the choice of activity is always the same!

Justin's sister is 7 months pregnant and Clayton kept trying to "see" the baby (sorry about all those privacy invasions Miss)! It was hilarious! We ended up putting this basketball up his shirt so that he could look like Aunt Missy.

We did take the boys out to see the horses (for just a minute). Noah kept trying to get in with them.

The boys also had fun hanging out with Grandpa Smith.
Clayton wanted to play basketball all weekend. It was great that Grandpa had the energy to keep up with them!

Clayton also loved just sitting with Grandpa and watching TV.

The best activity of the weekend? Playing in Justin's old brown Dodge. (The dream is to one day restore it.) Enlarge the picture of Noah looking out the back, it's hilarious!!!



Sunday was a rough day. The boys were playing and all of a sudden, Noah stopped running for a second and threw up! This continued all day and all night. I was really worried about what this would mean for our trip home. Fortunately the trip home went like this:

We made a stop in LaVerkin to visit another college friend, Echo. I am so glad that I got to see so many old friends on this trip! Clayton had so much fun playing with her girls that he didn't want to leave. He wasn't to happy with me when we had to get back in the car.

All in all it was a fun and eventful weekend. Noah still feels a little yucky although fortunately the vomiting has stopped. I am a little worried about how he is going to feel on our flight home tomorrow (that's right, we head back east to see Justin tomorrow)! I am glad that we got to spend some time in Monroe. Here are a few last pics:
This was taken right before we left. You can tell that Noah feels sick.

This is going to be our last post from Vegas. As sad as we are to leave, we can't wait to get back home and see Justin. I still have a few pics to post from our trip so hopefully I will be able to post them soon. It's been a great trip! We are definitely going to miss everyone here!

Hairdos and Hopscotch

Lately I have been experimenting with the boys hairdos. I have wanted to give them new styles for quite a while now and this is what I came up with:
For Clayton I decided I wanted to start spiking it. This is right before he got a haircut. I like it, but it doesn't really stay spiked for too long (even after I got it cut). Any suggestions for keeping it spiked?

This is after his haircut. It's kind of dark, sorry.

For Noah I decided that I want to grow his hair out (don't worry Justin, not too long) and let it be curly. I've been just putting a tiny bit of mousse in it and I LOVE it! I love my curly-haired blue-eyed boy! This isn't the best picture of his hair (it looks so cute in the back), but I think you can get the idea.

Clayton has also been playing a lot of hopscotch lately. He randomly decided that he wants to start playing. I think he saw it on TV. He is so good at it! He throws his rock and then as he hops he counts, "1, 1, 1, 2, 1, 2, 1!" He told me yesterday, "Mom, I have to practice my hopscotch before Grandpa gets home!" It cracked me up. But he did practice...a lot.


Even Noah got in on the action!

This is just a random cute shot of Noah trying to get into the dog run (he is always trying to get into trouble).

There you have it. This is what we've been doing this week. Let me know what you think of the boys new do's. I have always avoided "fixing" their hair, so this is new for me.

Today we leave to head up to Monroe to visit Grandpa Smith and Aunt Missy and Uncle Jared! It should be a fun weekend!

Funnel Cakes, Carnival Rides, and Animals!

This could only mean one thing, we went to the Logandale Fair! It was so much fun. Since pictures speak a thousand words, I am going to let my pictures do most of the talking (you may have to click to enlarge some of them to really see what's going on).
**This is a really LONG entry. Sorry. However, it is mostly pictures. Enjoy!**
Typically, the fairgrounds are only 45 minutes outside of Vegas. However, on Saturday it took us 2 and a half hours to get to the fair! Fortunately we had snacks and water but still, it wasn't a great way to start the day.

The first thing we saw when we got to the fair were the pony rides. Clayton was so excited to ride one! He kept saying, "Yee-Haw! Giddy-up Cowboy"!

After the pony ride, we went to see the animals. There were so many displays! Clayton liked feeling the different types of "feed" and petting the animals. They also had a dirt station where kids could dig around. Both boys really enjoyed that!



Once we were all "animaled" out, we went to take a train ride that gave you a small "tour" of the fair. The train came and went twice before we finally got on it. Each time it left without us, Clayton was heartbroken! I felt so bad for him. When we finally did get on, however, he was so happy! The conductor of the train LOVED Clayton's enthusiasm and kept making him a focus while we were on the tour!
Check out how excited he looks!

This is the only picture I have of the boys and I at the fair - when you are the mom you have to be behind the camera!

Finally, it was time for a lunch break. We feasted on all kinds of fair food! We ate chicken on a stick, crepes stuffed with all kinds of things, gyros, Texas Twister drinks, homemade rootbeer, and (best of all) Funnel Cakes! While we were eating, Noah kept wandering off. This kid was making me so nervous! At one point he decided that this cart was the happiest place at the fair! We had such a hard time dragging him away!

After a delicious lunch, we headed out to see:

The Racing Pigs!
It was so fun! Clayton was chosen to be the cheerleader for his section. Sadly, his pig came in second place. They had four pigs that raced around the track. The little kids loved it!

Here is our slow, fat pig!

They also had a pig that dove into the water and swam a lap. Clayton thought this was hilarious! This is the swimming pig after it had done its lap.

Noah was so tired by this time that he crashed. Poor kid. Fortunately, the stroller we had had a bench seat. **Note to self (and other moms): white t-shirts + fair = NOT A GOOD COMBINATION!

Finally, it was time for RIDES! All the rides that Clayton (and Noah) went on were the same. Some kind of vehicle that went around in a circle. The craziest one was this motorcycle ride (because it went around AND up and down).
This pic is funny because of the kid riding behind Clayton. He was cracking us up! (It's really funny if it isn't your kid.)

Here are some more pictures of the rides the boys went on. As you can see, Clayton was in Heaven! Noah was very indifferent to the rides at first, but once he understood what was happening, he started to get into it!

This picture of Noah cracks me up. He's so stinkin' cute!

He quickly figured out that this was fun (with help from Clayton) and ended up having a great time!

When we ran out of tickets we realized that it was after 7:00! We decided to call it a day and head home for baths (which were EXTREMELY needed) and bed. Here are just a few last shots that we took as we were leaving the fair:
Here is a pic of the members of my fam that went with us to the fair.

Me and my sisters. This is probably the last time we will all be together for a while. Sad. It was so good to be able to spend this time with them!

Finally, this picture makes me smile. On the way back to the truck, Clayton was so tired that he could hardly walk straight! My mom offered to give him a piggy back ride and, as you can see, it made them both very happy!

It was such a (long) fun day! I am so grateful that I have a family who wanted to give my kids this awesome experience! They are so amazing! I love you! Thank you!