Handcart Days

We decided to participate in many of Bountiful's Handcart Day festivities this year.  On July 23rd we headed over to Main Street for the Handcart Days Parade.  Seth had saved us a spot on his way to work...and got one of the last ones.

Here Phin is in his first baseball hat. Now I don't have to smear sunscreen all over his head.

On July 24th our friends Jackie and Curtis met us for the Chuckwagon breakfast at Bountiful City Park.  We probably won't make the breakfast a tradition...I got just one pancake a piece of ham and a small scoop of eggs for $4.  Seth got two pancakes...but that is because he "lingered" with his plate in front of the server. After breakfast we played bocce ball before the carnival activities opened.

We enjoyed watching Macie and Madison on several of the carnival rides.

After the carnival we headed up to Kaysville and had lunch at World's Best Corn Dogs stand.  We each enjoyed a foot long corn dog with ketchup, mustard and honey...seriously why have I never thought to put honey on a corn dog...it was delish.  After lunch we caught Iron Man 3 at the dollar theater in Kaysville.

Then we headed to the hospital to meet Phin's newest cousin Eliza. She was born around 4:00 am and weighed less than 7 pounds.  She is adorable and so tiny in comparison to Phin.

While we were there Phin's Aunt Tawnya and Uncle Jami also stopped by.  It was the first time they had met Phin.

JULY 20th = 3rd Anniversary

We celebrated our third anniversary last Saturday.  Wow where has the time gone!  We decided to go on three tours to celebrate our third.  Bountiful Handcart Days is a fairly big deal in our neck of the woods so we decided to participate in some of the festivities.  Our first tour was of the Bountiful Tabernacle...which happens to be the building we attend church at.  Construction of the Bountiful Tabernacle commenced in 1857 and was completed in 1863.  Every prophet of the church with the exception of Joseph Smith has spoke from the pulpit of this building.  It is also the oldest chapel that has been in continuous use in the church.  

Our next tour was a bus tour of historic Bountiful.  We learned all about the settlement of Bountiful and drove past several historic buildings.

On the tour we found out more about our favorite photo spots.  Remember the maternity pictures below...the bricks that you see are actually the arches above the windows of the first floor.  There was once quite a dip in Main street...which may have been due to a canal or stream.  When Main Street was leveled out...they leveled it all the way past the first floor windows.

After a stop by our favorite taco cart we visited the new Public Safety Building which is located just East of the Library in downtown Salt Lake.  The architecture firm that Seth used to work for designed the building so it was fun to watch Seth explore.  We toured 911 Dispatch, the K9 unit, the SWAT area and command central.

After our tours we were pretty exhausted...so we headed to the Mandarin in Bountiful for dinner and then watched Jack the Giant Slayer on DVD.  We were also able to Skype with Seth's parents who are serving a mission in the Philippines.  Overall it was a fabulous anniversary...I can't wait to see what the next year brings.

ROUGH DAY

Last Wednesday was a bit of a rough day for Phin and for me.  Phin had the blowout of all blowouts...at first I thought he had just gotten a little poop on himself.  Then I stood up and found this.  Needless to say I had to wash my shorts, underwear and shirt. Phin has some mad pooping skills...he ended up getting more poop on me than in the diaper.  Seth said that maybe I don't have mad diapering skills.

Just a couple of hours later our little guy ended up pooping on me again.  Then later that night he was pretty fussy which is so out of the norm for Phin.  I had him on my chest and was trying to get him settled down when he threw up all over me.  Again he has some mad skills he ended up not even getting his own cloths or the blankets he was wrapped in dirty.  But the whole side of his face was covered.  It was so sad to see him lift his face up from my chest covered in curdled breast milk.  He felt much better once he had thrown up...I felt much better once we had both had a shower.

If anyone else pooped or threw up on me...we would not be friends.  But for some reason it is different with this little guy...just like everyone said it would be.  I think it is amazing that we can have kind of "crappy" moments...and then absolutely amazing moments in the same day.  Moments like when I catch him learning how to smile.

WITH SETH AWAY

Seth headed up to the High Uintas with the Varsity Scouts last Thursday and Friday.  They hiked in on Thursday and then took day packs on Friday as they attempted to hike Kings Peak...unfortunately the weather did not cooperate and they got dumped on.  They ended up turning back before reaching the summit.  They also came home Friday night instead of Saturday afternoon...which was a pleasant surprise for me and Phin.

Here is the only shot of Seth from the trip...see Phin definitely gets his ears from me.

It was my first go at having Phin all by myself for a few days.  I ended up spending quite a bit of time at my parents.  I knew how much they would love having a little extra Phin time.  On Thursday my Mom and I took Phin down to the Gallivan Center for his first Food Truck Thursday.  We got some food from a BBQ truck...it really wasn't anything to write home about.  Next time we are planning to try the Chow truck.  We did like the key lime cupcake from the So Cupcake truck.

Thursday was also 7/11...which meant free Slurpee day.  I have a feeling Phin will enjoy this "holiday" a little bit more next year.

Phin enjoyed nap time with Papa.

Phin's First Fourth

We had a wonderful Fourth of July.  We decided to celebrate a little every day during the week.  On Monday I picked up a Papa John's pizza and packed a picnic.  We headed to a local park and after dinner we started to plan a geocaching activity for Phin's blessing day.  

Phin is starting to smile more and more...mostly when he is just between being asleep and awake.  I tried to capture a picture of his cute smile...but the one below just doesn't do it justice.  It melts my heart to see him smile...but my absolute favorite thing is when he giggles/belly laughs.

We started to think of some family traditions for the Fourth...#1 is a hike.  We headed up to Donut Falls.  I had never hiked it before.  Seth was a little shocked I had never made the journey having lived in Utah for almost my entire life.  (Confession...I still haven't hiked the "Y" and I lived in Provo for four years.)  It was a gentle hike and the perfect first hike for Phin...and the perfect first post-pregnancy hike for me.

 Seth and Phin stayed down at the base and I scaled the rocks up the actual Falls.

After our hike we stopped by JB and Mary's to see their new garage and to visit their boys.  I think Phin may be catching up to James in weight.  Please disregard Phin's yucky looking hair...I was afraid his head would get sunburned and rubbed sunscreen all over in his hair.

Family tradition #2...which unfortunately I didn't take pictures of...a trip to our favorite Snow Cone Shack and to then to our favorite taco cart.

Family tradition #3...Fireworks.  We went to the Bees game with my parents and enjoyed some great fireworks after.  Phin was a little startled when the first fireworks went off but then started to enjoy them a little bit more.  The game was stellar as well...at the bottom of the 9th the Bees were behind by 1...the bases were loaded and then our player hit a grand slam to bring everyone home.

The next night we took Phin to his first movie.  We hit up the drive-in movies for double feature of Despicable Me 2 and Man of Steel.  Seth created a little love seat for us with our camping chairs, pillows and a down comforter...it was quite the perfect setup.  We talked about how this may be the way that we do all movies in the future.

1 MONTH

Phin turned 1 month old earlier this week.  It is hard to believe how quickly our little guy is growing up.  At his two week check up he was still at his hospital discharge weight of 7 pounds 11 ounces....then three days later he had gained 8 ounces and was up to 8 pounds 3 ounces.  A week after that he was up to 9 pounds 2 ounces.  He has to be close to 10 pounds currently.  He is now wearing size 1 diapers.  He has had a few blowouts and sometimes is able to pee without getting his diaper wet...that takes some serious skills.  He has been wearing newborn clothes but will quickly be in 0-3 month clothes.  He is starting to smile and at times he will giggle...usually when he is asleep.  He continues to be a great sleeper and has slept for about five hour stretches at night.  We have quite a few nicknames for him...BIG GULP...you should hear this kid eat...he seriously gets down to business and you can hear him gulping.  LITTLE GREMLIN...he makes all sorts of funny grunting sounds.  BELLAGIO...this kid can put on quite a fountain show.  THUMPER...Phin does this funny thing with his leg occasionally that reminds us of Thumper from Bambi.

The first time my brother Jeff met Phin he commented on Phin's "Spock" ear.  The pediatrician noticed Phin's ear as well and referred us to an Ear Nose and Throat (ENT) doctor for a possible EarWell.

I looked up an EarWell on line and here are some of the images I found.

The ENT shaves the area behind the ear and then places several plastic pieces to reshape the ear.  I was really torn once I saw the pictures.  The EarWell would have to be on for 4-6 weeks and I wasn't convinced anything was really wrong with Phin's ear.  I was torn as to whether we should pursue an EarWell or not.  I couldn't help but look in the mirror and see some similarities between Phin's ear and my ears.

 

I ended up going to the ENT and he said exactly what I needed to hear..."if he was my kid, I wouldn't do anything about it."  So Phin will continue to have his distinctive ear shape...I know it is at least one trait he has inherited from me.   I suppose another one of his nicknames will be SPOCK.

Miracle Pageant

We took Phin on his first family vacation this past weekend.  We headed down to Manti for the Mormon Miracle Pageant.  Seth works with the youth in our ward and this was one of the activities for their youth conference.  We were both in awe of the Manti temple.  We drove into Manti just as the sun was setting and the temple was stunning.

We skipped camping with the youth and spent the night with Seth's sister in Ephraim.  Audrey and Bret moved to Ephraim just a few months ago so we got to check out their new place.  Saturday morning Seth headed to a few activities with the youth.  Audrey and I attempted to catch some garage sales...but they were all quite disappointing.  After lunch we picked up Seth and headed down to Gunnison to check out Bret's parent's farm.  He gave us an excellent tour on the four-wheelers.  We saw cows, pheasants, horses, geese and gophers.

After our tour of the ranch we headed out on a real adventure.  We headed up one of the local canyons and hit a four-wheeling trail.  Let me just say...I think I lost my adventurous spirit when Phin was born.  About 80% of the ride I was petrified that Seth and I would be injured...the other 20% I was giggling with delight.  

The trail was beautiful and quite dusty.

At the end of the trail we met Bret's parent's for a cookout.  Audrey had our little Phin safe and sound.  We enjoyed a delicious dinner of dutch oven Navajo tacos.  Once we cleaned up dinner everyone hopped back on the four-wheelers...I skipped the four-wheeler ride back down the canyon and rode in the back of the truck with my Phin.

Thank you Bret and Audrey for a wonderful weekend.  It is one that will not be forgotten.