Summer 2010--Cody turned 2!

I can't believe my baby is 2! Cody's birthday was Aug 22. He woke up to balloons in his room (a family tradition), and he didn't really understand what was going on but he liked all the attention. Grandma and Grandpa Matthews came down from Brigham City, and Michael and Katie came for presents and ice cream.
Cody is my wild child--he is into EVERYTHING, constantly moving, the kid who will empty every cupboard in the kitchen in less than 30 seconds, loves to wrestle with his dad and brother, loves throwing the ball and anything with wheels. As crazy as he is at home, he is very shy when he is around people he doesn't know. Nursery has been a nightmare. Cody and I do a mom-and-me gym class and a swimming class, and he doesn't want anything to do with the teachers in those classes. But get him at home around people he knows well, and he's quite a character. He loves to torment Talia, and will use any opportunity to kick, hit, pinch, or pull her hair. He has the best hair--naturally curly all over--and the best laugh. He is the first one to run to Chris when he comes home, and he misses having all the kids around now that they are in school. We do love our "coder-dude"!

He had to have a truck cake--of course!

Playing with his new car, shark, and flashlight

Chris was responsible for getting a ride-on for him, so of course he got this monster-sized four wheeler! Cody LOVES thing, and always wants to ride it. Thank goodness the batteries run low easily! He rode it around the house on his birthday, and you can see from his face how much he loved it.

Summer 2010--We hiked to Timp Cave

The kids and I joined a few friends and hiked to Timp Cave one morning in August. They don't allow child backpacks in the cave and Cody was, of course, scared of the dark, so I had to hold him the entire way through the cave--needless to say, my arms needed a rest once we got out! The kids had never been to Timp Cave before, and so it was fun for them to see it. The park ranger guiding the tour was great, and geared her presentation toward the kids, so they learned a lot. Afterwards we ate lunch at the cafe at the visitors center. I also realized what a great place American Fork canyon is--and it's practically in our backyard! I took the kids up two days later to an evening ranger chat, and they liked that, too. We'll definitely be using this canyon more from now on!

Robbie and the "heart" of the cave

On the way up--we went with the Pratts and the Browns

Yes, I hauled Cody the whole way up on my back--the trail is not very long, but it's awfully steep!

Summer 2010--Talia takes ballet

Talia has taken a combo jazz/ballet class at a local dance studio for a year and a half, but she was always saying that she wanted to take "real ballet". So this summer I enrolled her in a 6 week ballet class at a formal ballet studio in Lindon. At the end of the six weeks, they had a small recital. Here are some pics:

At all the other recitals I have been to, we were never allowed to take video or photography during the performance. So I was surprised and not prepared when they told us before the recital that we could take all the pics and video we wanted to. My camera was almost out of batteries and wouldn't let me take much video, so this is all I got. Talia is the second one in line when they start to run in on the right.

Interestingly enough, after taking the class Talia has NO desire to take any more ballet. She told me she doesn't need to take ballet anymore--she already knows it!

Summer 2010--We went to Disneyland!

While we were in California, we took a break from beach lounging and spent a day at Disneyland. We went with the Walkers, and had a LONG but fun day. We were at Disneyland the same day that the baseball All Stars game was played in Anaheim, and when we got to Disneyland we found out there was an All Star parade through Disneyland that morning. The boys (and men) were ecstatic to see some of their favorite ball players riding in convertibles down Main St in Disneyland. We got to Disneyland at 8:30 am and didn't leave until midnight, and we covered almost the entire park that day! By the end of the day, the kids were practically asleep on their feet.

The Shippens and Walkers arrive!

This is us just after we got into Disneyland. Notice how energetic we all look--a pic taken as we left would have looked a lot different!

Pluto was the first character we saw




Notice how Cody is trying to get away from Sarah and run from the scary mouse--he didn't warm up to any of the characters at all!

Ahh--It's a Small World is always a favorite

The kids, plus Cade and Olivia Walker, in Toon Town

Can we leave them there and go to lunch?

My girls had absolutely no interest in watching the All Stars parade. They feel they've been subjected to a lifetime of torture by being dragged to all Robbie's games this year. So while everyone else watched the parade, we went to see the princesses. We got to see different ones this time, which was really fun.

Talia and Sarah with Tiana (from the Princess and the Frog)

Sarah with Ariel

Talia and Belle

Sarah loves getting her picture taken!

We LOVE the teacups! The kids love going with Chris because he can get the teacup spinning soooo fast.

Cody giggled hysterically every time we went on this ride. He hated the rides that were inside in the dark (and there are a lot of them at Disneyland!) but this was outside and he LOVED being spun until he could barely sit up

The teacups again! Notice the sweat dripping off my face--my biggest complaint about Disney in the summer is not the crowds but the heat. It seemed like it was 125 degrees all day long, and there was nowhere to go to escape it. At least it was cool in the Pirates ride!

Sarah and I on Thunder Mountain railroad. I wish I had a picture of Talia on this ride. She was tall enough to go on everything except Indiana Jones, and she LOVES the big rides. I loved going on them with her--it makes it so much more fun when you experience things for the first time with your kids. Tally held up her hands the entire time on Space Mountain and begged to go again on Splash Mountain (too bad the wait was 90 min and we didn't have any more fast passes!). She loved this ride, too. I love that my girls are total daredevils with the rides!

Hmmm.... I can't tell if Rob liked this ride

The Shippens--sweating away at Disneyland!

Brady, Robbie, and Cade with Goofy

Roger Rabbit--one of the rides Cody hated. Add to that list Peter Pan, Alice in Wonderland, Pirates, the Haunted House, Winnie the Pooh, and a few others I can't remember now. His favorites were the outside rides--Dumbo, the carousel, the teacups, the space ships, etc.

We left Disneyland exhausted. We had left the beach house at 6:30 that morning, and didn't get out of Disney until midnight. We stopped for a late-night hamburger at In N Out, and then drove home, getting back to the beach house at 2:00 am. Good thing we had another 3 days to relax at the beach cuz we sure needed it! Despite the heat and exhaustion, I still have to say that Disneyland is one of my favorite places. I am one of those people who really thinks the place has a magical feel, and I'm glad my kids love it as much as I do (I wish I could say the same for my husband).

Summer 2010--We went to the beach!

Okay--I've posted about a zillion pics from the beach, but how could I not when it was such an amazing vacation?! We stayed for a week in Carlsbad, Calif with the Carpenters, Walkers, and Wrights. It was SO relaxing, and we had a blast. We spent almost every day lounging on the beach, enjoying each other's company. There were daily late-afternoon frisbee football games, and some spent most of the week in the water (not me!). Because I took most of the pics, I'm not in hardly any of them, but there are some great ones of the kids.

Rob, Brady, Colton, Cade, ?

Talia is taking lessons from Sarah on how to....

pose perfectly for pictures!

My girls!!

Cody loves flavored drinks of any kind, and was in 7th heaven because he got Capri Suns and Slurpees all week long!

Chris took all the girls one night for a slurpee run

Olivia, Sophie, Josie, Talia posing next to "the hole" with Cody

The boys starting to play frisbee football

Chris is going to take those glasses off and get ready to kick some frisbee butt!

Cody--this kid goes non-stop, and had an absolute riot climbing in and out of the holes that the older boys dug.

Talia, Olivia, Sarah

By the end of the week, even the big kids were worn out!

Cody took a daily nap on the beach. Thanks to Aunt Jen Jen for singing him to sleep every afternoon! Jen was really my personal nanny for the week--as long as she was around, I didn't need to worry about where Cody was, cuz he was usually with his Jen-Jen! We both miss her now that she doesn't live in Utah anymore!

More of a tuckered-out Cody

Josie, Talia, Robbie

Robbie loves this picture because you can see the ball in mid-air

Talia and Josie looking for sand crabs

Colton, Rob, Cade playing a game of paddle ball

Robbie and Cade

Isn't he adorable? The humidity curled his hair perfectly, and he looked like a little shaggy-haired surfer dude all week.

Our family

Is it just me, or does anyone else think they have almost identical faces?

Hanging out on the beach

The girls goofing around

Colton, Brady, and Rob looking "too cool" for the camera!

Sarah and Kaden--these two are little BFF's despite the gender and age difference. They played for hours together in the water, and Sarah was SO BORED when Kaden would take a nap in the afternoon.