Treehouse Adventures

Today we went to the Treehouse Museum with some friends. It caters well to young children and Parker had a great time. We went during Toddler Time, so they sang, read stories and gave us a discount, in addition to the regular exhibits. Parker got to dress up and pretend to be a bunch of different things, including a king, U.S. president and a fireman.

He also got to play musical instruments, examine objects in a microscope, create Rock Art, create new colors by mixing clay, play with models, and a bunch of other things.

Parker especially enjoyed the trains, dinosaurs, African stuffed animals and the fishing boat.

We had a great time at the museum!

My cute boys

Looking sharp! Parker got a cute new suit to wear to church. He looks so grown up in it. He just turned 2 1/2 a couple weeks ago, but he looks like he's going on five.

It's nice that we can mix and match parts of his suit to make a bunch of cute Sunday oufits.

Parker has so much fun with his Daddy, whether it's playing games, tickling or wrestling.

Manhattan Vacation

We had a fantastic time in New York City last week. You name it, we probably got to see it. It was awesome! Parker spent the week with his grandparents, while we went with my sister Julie, her husband Scott, my Aunt Suzie and my Grandma Cannon. We had such a wonderful time. We flew to JFK on Tuesday morning and started seeing the sights by that afternoon. We started out at the Empire State Buillding and saw the whole city from above.

Here are some pictures we took of the view!

That night we also stopped by Herald Square and the Flatiron Building.

We stayed in the Salisbury hotel, which was only a few blocks from Central Park, so it was a very convenient location and a great place to stay. Other than a shuttle ride to and from the airport, we walked and took the subway everywhere we needed to go. For the most part it's a very efficient way to get around. I can't imagine how they built it all, but I'm sure glad it's there.

On Wednesday we saw Carnegie Hall, the NY Museum of Modern Art, St. Patrick's Cathedral, Radio City Music Hall, Rockefeller Center, Bryant Park, the New York Public Library, UN headquarters, Grand Central Station, Times Square and took a Circle Line Tour of the Harbor Lights. It was a busy day, but fascinating!

Here is a fun painting from the NY MOMA. In case you can't see the caption, it says, "I don't care! I'd rather sink than call Brad for help!" We thought it fitting that Brad take a picture by it. My favorite paintings were probably the Monet works, but there was a lot of interesting art.

The tour of the U.N. was very interesting. Whenever I think of the U.N., I tend to think of the Security Council, but really they focus a lot more on humanitarian aid and peace keeping strategies.

It was fun to see the locations of many movie and television shoots. We recognized scenes from movies like "Enchanted", "The Day After Tomorrow", "Night at the Museum", National Treasure" and the show "Friends", among countless others. If anyone is planning a trip to New York any time soon, I would definitely recommend the Harbor Lights Tour we took. It was a two hour cruise around Manhattan Island and the Statue of Liberty. The guide told us lots of fascinating things about the sights and we had a great view from the ship. Here are a few pictures we took from the boat. In one you can see the twin beams of light to represent the twin towers. They shine them every year on 9/11. This was actually the night before, so they were just testing them for a few minutes.

On Thursday morning we started our day walking through Central Park. We saw the Bethesda Fountain, Belvedere Castle and Clepatra's Needle, which is an Egyptian Obelisk. We all loved being in Central Park. It's amazing how you can hardly tell you're in the middle of hundreds of skycrapers and a city that has a population of over 70,000 per square mile- and that statistic more than doubles during the day. Next we went to the Metropolitan Museum of Art. The Met is gigantic. We were hurrying to see it all. I bet we walked for three miles or more just inside the museum and we still didn't see it all. After that we went across the park to the Natural History Museum. After all of the walking in the museums, we were glad to take a break. We went out to dinner at a fun restaurant with a singing wait staff.

Then we went to see the Broadway production of "Wicked". It was absolutely phenomenal!

Throughout our trip we went to some fantastic restaurants. One of our favorites was a little Italian Restaurant called Serafina. The ambiance was alright, but the food was absolutely incredible. I'm really inspired by my Aunt Suzie. She has incredible self control. Through only eating right and exercise she has lost 80 pounds and is surely going to keep at it. Despite the immense amount of walking during the days, she would get up early and go jogging. She had the discipline to order Raisin Bran when the rest of us were ordering things like this Waffling French Toast from Norma's. It was certainly delicious.

On Friday we went to Gound Zero and saw the site of the World Trade Center. We went to St. Paul's chapel, Trinity Church, Wall Street, the New York Stock Exchange, NY City Hall, the Brooklyn Bridge, Greenwich Village, Washington Park, New York University, a fashion design studio, the Manhatten LDS Temple and Lincoln Center, including Juliard School of Music and the Metropolitan Opera House.

We saw a number of cathedrals on our vacation. Here are pictures of St. Patrick's and Trinity.

That night we went to a Yankee's Game. We lucked out to have perfect weather our whole trip, except that afternoon and evening. The game was rained out, which I guess is kind of rare. We still got to be inside the stadium before it's torn down.

On Saturday morning we did some souvenir shopping and then flew home in the afternoon and evening to Parker. We want to thank my Grandma Cannon for giving us an amazing experience in New York and for the chance we had to spend the week with her. We loved it!

Parker's "Vacation" at his grandparents

Last week we all went on vacation. Brad and I went to New York City and Parker got to sleepover at his grandparents. He stayed two nights with my parents and two nights with Brad's parents. He had great adventures with both grandparents. My sister Julie and her husband Scott went with us to New York, so their girls Heidi and Alison were staying at my parents too.

Here is a picture of Parker and Ali playing with sticks in the backyard.

Parker is pretty creative. My dad heard Parker blowing and then laughing hysterically. He had stuffed a french fry in his hamburger and then was blowing out his "candle". He even started singing happy birthday.

My parents and my sister Angie took the kids to the Utah State Fair. They had a great time petting the animals and doing "Little Hands on the Farm". They got to help out with some animals and had a great time.

Parker loved petting the animals, like the baby goat and the rabbits. He also liked to sit on the tractor.

The kids had a great time playing with their grandparents. He was having so much fun he hardly wanted to talk to his parents on the phone. At least he was excited to see us when we got home. We missed him a lot, but we're so glad that he had a great time on his "vacation" at grandma and grandpa's.

Parker had a great time at the Pratt's as well. He went out to eat at Training Table and Sizzler and had a sleepover with his cousin Isabelle.Thanks to Parker's grandparents for giving Parker a great time while Brad and I were in New York!

Most embarrassing, saddest, and happiest moments of my life

Most Embarrassing Moment:

When I was in sixth grade at Upland Terrace Elementary we had a lot of fun end-of-the-year activities. One such activity we got to go swimming at Skyline High School. I enjoyed swimming and the prospect of swimming with my friends during school time seemed like a great idea. Everything went well walking to 7th grade photo the school and swimming in the pool. Afterwards I went into the women’s locker room, rinsed off in the showers and went to change my clothes. I couldn’t find my underwear anywhere. I realized that it must have fallen out when I grabbed my towel to dry off from the shower. I went to check and sure enough, on the wet tile of the shower room, was my soggy underwear. I had decided not to claim them, when one of the other girls pointed to the wet wadded underwear and shouted, “Hey, whose panties are these?” She began asking everyone individually whose they were. I felt my face getting hot and ran to change my clothes so that she wouldn’t ask me directly. I just abandoned my wet underwear on the locker room floor and had to go without them the rest of the school day. There was nothing that would have connected me to that pair of soggy underwear, but I was mortified anyway.

Saddest Moment:

Growing up I loved to visit my grandparents -all of them. I have many fond memories of visiting my Grandma and Grandpa Ipson, my mother’s parents. Whenever we would come to visit, my grandpa would give us jelly beans and make us Kool-Aid. He usually wore those one-piece jumpsuits that remind me of a mechanic or flight suit, but he also wore Adidas soccer shoes, which were immensely popular at the time. He wore glasses and sometimes he would pull them out from his face so that his eyes filled the lenses. Whenever we would sleep over, he would stay up watching old movies with us, let us play around with the player piano, and during meals he would give us advice and bear his testimony of the gospel. He was very technologically savvy, so he had a nice computer and a good video camera. He would videotape us on special occasions and at all family functions. He had a special chair in the living room that was his chair and we loved to sit in it. Sometimes he would take us in his big white van to visit our cousins that lived on a dairy farm north of Logan. He always provided Circus Peanuts and those pink lozenge candies as snacks for the ride up. My grandparents had raspberry bushes in their backyard and whenever they were in season, we would go out and pick large bowls of them. I loved my grandpa dearly and was very close to him. When I was in high school he was diagnosed with colon cancer. His health deteriorated quickly. I remember one day during my junior year of high school, I was at my house and the phone rang. My mom answered it and just began sobbing. I knew that my grandpa had just died. I had known people who had died, but no one that had been as close to me as was my grandpa. I was not much of a crier in my growing up years, but I cried quite a bit over his death. I am so grateful that I knew and still do know that this life is not all that there is. I know that I will see my dear grandfather again after this life and that he is in a much happier place now.

Happiest Moments:

I have had at least three moments in my life that stand out to me as happiest. At the time they were the happiest, but then a later moment would surpass the joy. Here they are in chronological order.

Happiest Moment #1:

I was very lucky to serve a mission to some of the most wonderful people in the world. I served in the Bolivia Santa Cruz Mission. I loved the people there and the other missionaries who served there. While I was there I had several wonderful experiences, but one that really stands out in my mind was with the Castro family in Trinidad, Bolivia. José and Guadalupe had nine children, despite their relatively young years (they were both 31). When we met them, they had just moved to the area and were living on the school house floor while classes were out for the winter vacation. The Castros were a nearly destitute family. Brother Castro had a job as a brick maker, but his meager income could not feed his large family. Despite their poverty, they were golden investigators. The parents loved to read from the Book of Mormon and read it aloud to their children. They accepted each precept we taught and applied it into their lives. They began to attend church, even though it was quite a walk, especially with so many young children. They lived the Word of Wisdom and tried to dress modestly. I was especially touched as we taught them the principle of Tithing. José, Guadalupe & 8 of thier 9 children

The Castro family was so poor that they had to take turns going hungry almost every day. We taught them about tithing and promised them the Lord knew of their struggles and that He would bless them if they would obey. Brother and Sister Castro did not know how they were going to have enough to eat, but they did know that they wanted to show God that they loved and trusted him. The next Sunday, Brother Castro went to church with the tithing in his pocket knowing that he would have to ask a few of his children to take a turn not eating that day. I can only imagine the amount of faith that would take, knowing that you will probably have to come home and not be able to feed your young children. The Castro family had a great amount of faith and they paid their tithing. On their way home from church another member offered them some food. The following day his boss came by with some back pay that he didn't even know was owed to him. They were still very poor, but Brother Castro said that since that day they paid their first payment of tithing, never again have they had to go to bed with nothing to eat. They had a lot of faith, but it was definitely rewarded. This family was soon baptized and later they were sealed together in the Cochabamba Temple.

I had gained a testimony of tithing prior to this, but I had never had to make such a sacrifice to pay it as this family made. I know that God blessed them for their faith. It made me so happy to be there serving the Lord as a missionary so that I could witness such faith. I knew that I was exactly where the Lord wanted me to be and doing what He would have me do- a very happy feeling. Happiest Moment #2: When Brad and I started dating, I was 25 years old. I consider that to be kind of an average age to marry. Many of my friends married much younger and many of my friends are not yet married. I am glad that not everyone is on the same time line. I am so grateful for the experiences I had being single through nearly all of my undergraduate college experience. I met so many wonderful people and also had a lot of fun.

Anyway, back to Brad. Finding the right person to marry is definitely worth the wait. In random order, here are a few things that I love about Bradley: *He is considerate of others. He tries to ensure that everyone is included and having a good time. *He is a very hard worker. When he was in school he studied well and now that he is working, he always does his best at work. *He is excellent with children.Before we were married I saw him interact with cousins and now Parker just adores him. *He has a strong testimony and is dedicated to serving the Lord. He always strives to have the Spirit with him. (I’m sure that he will be really embarrassed when he reads this section of the blog.)

Brad proposed in early March and we were married on June 22, 2004 in the Salt Lake LDS Temple. It was one of the most joyful moments of my life to be kneeling across the altar looking into the deep blue eyes of someone that I had grown to love so deeply. There was so much to look forward to and so far things have only gotten better. I love Brad more than when I married him. He is so good to me and is such a wonderful father to Parker. Marrying my sweetheart was definitely a very happy moment.

Happiest Moment #3:

That brings my latest happiest moment. Brad and I were so excited for the birth of our first baby. We looked forward to it (as most parents do) as something that would be miraculous. Nothing, however, can prepare you for what it is like to really be a parent. The actual delivery process is hardly a comfortable experience to put it lightly, but seeing that little baby is so amazing there aren’t words to describe it. When you look into your little baby’s face and see someone who is partly you, partly the person you most love, and partly their own little personality, it is absolutely incredible. There are literally no words that can fully express the joy I felt holding that little boy. Parker has brought more joy to my life than I ever imagined. Parenting is certainly not easy, but I love it. Every time he runs to hug me or says something funny, I am reminded of the joy of parenthood. When Brad and I welcomed Parker into our lives was definitely the happiest moment of my life so far. We are thrilled to be having another baby in a few short months.