Dallas

I haven't seen Jared since before his mission and while I was pregnant with Kort. He got home a couple months before I had Griffin so I couldn't see him for his homecoming. Now he's got two nephews he's never even met! Well, he told me a week ago that his friend's dad was flying him and his buddy to Dallas (where his friend is from) to stay for the week before they could move into their apartment before school started. Jared asked how close we were to there and I said we would take a trip down there to see him!!!!

I was trying to find hotels on Hotwire and was trying to find a good middle ground to where he'd be staying and the temple and shopping. Our friends just stayed there the other weekend and told us about Galleria Dallas - the shopping mall and The Westin Hotel connected to it. It was literally getting out of the elevator from your room and walking into the mall! So, I found the area for that hotel on Hotwire. Before you book, you're not guaranteed that specific hotel, just have a list of ones that are similar to it, same star rating, etc. Our friends paid $200 a night and if we got it on Hotwire, it would be $140 for two nights! Well, I went through the process and once you pay/book, you find out what hotel you got. We got The Westin! I was excited :) 

We left Friday morning, stopped in OKC for an appointment I had, and then made a stop at this place we saw on the Travel channel from the show Food Paradise - The Original Pie Shop -  fried pies. 

It was right off the interstate in Davis, OK. Really, they were good, but I guess I don't like them as much as I used to as a child (the fake, processed ones), but it was fun to check that off our list of food places to visit ;)

We made good time, the kids did great (thanks to our friends letting us borrow their portable DVD player for Kort), and drove to IKEA! We were in there for too long ;) We ended up getting a lot of presents for Kort's birthday and Christmas. That is such a fun store! We finally met up with Jared and went to dinner at this awesome BBQ joint. It was so crazy seeing him again! 

We caught up on life while we ate amazing ribs, pork loin, and brisket. 

We took him back to where he was staying, and ended up saying our good byes :( We didn't think we'd get to meet up the next day as he had a lot planned, so that did end up being our good bye. We'll luckily get to see him again at Christmas though. 

Our hotel was amazing!

Griffin went to sleep pretty well but Kort did not want to fall asleep, even in his own bed. It wasn't super late but he woke up a couple times so Clay got in the bed with him.

Saturday morning we found a Target to get some diapers for Griffin then headed back to the hotel. We started our shopping by Clay taking Kort to look at some dogs there for adoption while I fed Griffin.

It was a big mall with three floors and an ice skating rink in the middle - kind of reminded me of The Mall of America.

I was so pumped to check out certain stores and go on a shopping spree, but as usual, I'm too much of a bargain shopper and only ended up spending less than $50. It was still fun though. I think it was the first time I actually bought clothes from Forever 21 and Clay buying something from Brookstone. 

We ate lunch at Five Guys, where the potatoes were from Idaho Falls that day, then headed back to our room a little later to take naps.

We went shopping some more after, got a light dinner, then went swimming in the pool. I took Griffin and he seemed to like it! It was a little cold and he ended up wearing his normal shorts over his swim diaper since I didn't have trunks for him. Kort loved every minute of it and was brave again jumping off the sides. 

We got back to our room, took baths, and got ready for bed. The boys did better at falling asleep this time :) Kort ended up waking at 6:20 - ugh. Good thing Griffin slept a little longer. We went to get gas, Griffin fell asleep, so we took a drive and checked out the temple. The gates were closed so we did t get many pictures, but it kind of looked like the Boise one. Check off another temple on our adventure map :)

We had to return something at the mall, then ate lunch at Panda Express. I haven't really eaten there and never really wanted to, but I just got the noodles and orange chicken and just gobbled it up it was so yummy! We left at 1:00, the boys took a two hour nap, and we made it home 4.5 hours later! It was a fun trip to get away, seeing how we don't do that often enough, and especially see Jared after forever! 

Jordan's wedding

I now have a new sister-in-law, Brittney, whom I haven't met other than on FaceTime, but I'm so excited that my brother has found his sweetheart to marry in the temple! 

It was somewhat of a fast pace relationship and so by the time they got engaged, we didn't have enough money to fly out there for the wedding. Even if I just took the boys, I don't think I could've handled them by myself :/ so needless to say I was pretty bummed that we wouldn't be there. It would've been amazing to see a sibling married in the temple - since Janelle was married before me, obviously I couldn't go to hers. But there will be more in the future :) 

Everyone was there that night to celebrate except Brooke, who was doing a triathlon that day in Boise, and Jeremy, who actually was part of a rescue mission in the kidnapping of Hannah Anderson. He was a member of one of the Ada County metro SWAT teams that were dropped off from a helicopter in the wilderness to find her. Amazing rescue story and to realize how brave my brother is along with the team . . .

Anyway, so I facetimed Janelle and Tom while at the reception and was able to see everyone! Sounded like it was a great day!

Rolie Polie

I can't believe how fast this boy is growing up! Just yesterday he started rolling all over the family room, back to front, front to back! After I put him down for bedtime, he had been asleep for a bit when he started crying. I went in to check on him only to find him on his tummy. Crazy boy! I have unswaddled him and he's now doing fine falling asleep on his own. It only took a couple days to get used to it. Anyway, just wanted to post this milestone!

Mom and Dad's visit

Mom and Dad were able to come visit us the beginning of June. They had planned to go to Colorado Springs this summer already so I told them they should just turn it into a 2 stop trip since Denver is in the middle of us. They couldn't come for Griffin's blessing, so this worked out anyway. 

They got into Colorado Springs on a Wednesday and were supposed to fly out Saturday morning into Denver then to OKC. Well, mom's ticket wasn't scanning in co springs so by the time they got it fixed they missed their flight. Again, by the time anyone could help and figure things out, they had missed that flight out of Denver to OKC. This is where things just got messed up. The day before, there were some F4 tornadoes that hit west and part of downtown OKC. All those flights got cancelled and every flight (and airline, even into Wichita and Tulsa) they tried to get on, didn't have going into OKC until Monday. Sooo, they were either stuck in Colorado Springs until one of those Monday flights, stay there until their original flight back home the next Wednesday, OR I said they should just get a rental car and drive here. It was a 9 hour drive, but would still get them here earlier than a flight. That's what they decided to do. I was so surprised that my mom agreed to it! Thankfully the airline was going to credit the flight into OKC. After a long and boring drive for them, they got in around 10:30 pm. 

Sunday we went to church, took a much needed nap, and then headed out for Clay to show them some turbines and his work. 

Monday, I took them around town and went to Walmart to grab some diapers and food for dinner. They also bought Kort a bubble lawn mower that he absolutely loves! I'm sure they enjoyed our Walmart - ha ha ha! 

Tuesday, I decided to do the Kids Bowl Free summer program and take Kort for his first time.

Surprisingly he loved it and did great! We had the bumpers up, a 7lb. ball and the ramp to help out.

It was nice to get out with my parents.

We went shopping a little bit afterwards. My dad was so excited to try out Clay's hammock, but he needed an umbrella so we found him one at Ross. He was in that thing everyday :) and it was perfect  weather for it! 

We also went to the park to fly a kite and mom took Kort to see the ducks.

Clay was able to take Wednesday off from work to help me take them back to the airport. We got them there, said our goodbyes and then headed to the mall. We got Clay some early Father's Day presents and headed home. 

It was kind of weird having my parents visit, but it was great. I only say that because it had been a year and a half that I last saw them and the last place they were able to come visit was in Tacoma for Kort's baby blessing! It was a fun time having them here and letting them play with and spoil Kort and Griffin! 

4 month stats

(The background movie, Zookeeper, is what we named Griffin after - Kevin James' character!) 

Griffin got his shots and was a champ. He fell asleep on our way back home and was happy the rest of the day after waking up. I still think he looks like a cute chunky baby, but apparently not as big as I thought. Here's his numbers:

Weight: 15 lbs 1 oz = 48%

Height: 25.5 inches = 65%

Head circumference: 42.5 cm = 52%

I really thought he was bigger than Kort at this age, but when I went back to Kort's stats, surprisingly he was up in the 70 percentiles for all. Oh well, Griffin is healthy and strong and just different than Kort. 

As of a couple days ago, Griffin has begun rolling from his back to his belly! He finally got that arm out from under him.

He's still swaddled at night and has rolled over a few times when going to bed so it looks like it's about time to just do the Pjs which took time to get Kort used to it so it should be fun. 

Boys' weekend/wedding

Clay's younger brother, Justin, was getting married the end of June. It would be a quick trip, and we didn't have the money for all of us to go, so Clay took Kort with him so I could relax with Griffin. 

They left for OKC Thursday afternoon. 

Flew to Denver around 7:00 and got into their SLC hotel around 11:00 pm. Clay was going to drive straight to Rexburg that night but glad they slept.

Kort likes to take up the whole bed.

They left Friday morning, had to stop at Smith and Edwards :), and got to town around 1:00. Kort loved his pancakes a little too much at breakfast and got syrup all over them so he got new jammies :)

Clay was put right to work as his parents just got a house built and they were moving stuff while Brandon and Barbara were there. 

Kort did his part by sitting on boxes playing on the iPod while Clay was hooking up the fridge. 

They ended up getting most of the appliances and furniture moved so they all ended up sleeping at the new house! They played the wii that night and Clay danced to some song called Rasputin and found it on YouTube when he got home to have me dance with him (Just Dance 4). It was quite the workout! 

Saturday was the wedding. Kort had been going nonstop with everyone else so by the time they drove to the wedding in Idaho Falls in the afternoon, he konked out seconds after Clay gave him his water! Never have I seen this happen! 

Hilarious! Anyway, he woke when they got there and was put to work. He was supposed to carry a sign down the aisle. He made it to the first row of chairs and started climbing on them. Then some kid grabbed his hand and brought him to Clay in the front row. 

Leland was the ring bearer as well. They had a little food before the reception and then had some fun! 

They left after the reception for SLC and took Justin and Sara with them as they were flying out the next morning too for their honeymoon. They got to sleep in the hotel around 1:00 and had to leave for the airport around 5:00 am. Luckily, Kort slept on the flight to Denver and to OKC so Clay was able to catch up on sleep as well.

 They finally made it back to me and Griffin Sunday afternoon! It was a very quiet weekend, I got a ton of things accomplished and Griffin did great, but it was so nice to have my big boys home! 

Little fishy

Some of our friends have invited us over to their community pool to go swimming. We took Kort's pool down so we jumped at the invitation. They let us borrow their extra swim floaters (whatever they're called that Kort is wearing) and right away Kort enjoyed swimming! He's not afraid of the water and can float by himself.

This second time we went, Kort was a lot more brave. He would jump (more like fall) into our arms in the pool. After he got comfortable with that he would just go all by himself! I think this is the beginning of him loving to swim! Now we just have to get Griffin in the pool!