Summer so Far!

Well, surprise, surprise....it has been awhile since I lasted posted anything on here. The main reason is because I knew there was a lot that I wanted to post which I knew would take forever to write about and upload the pictures. So I have procrastinated long enough! We have been up to a lot of fun so far this summer!

NEW YORK TRIP

We took a family trip to New York a couple of weeks ago. We went because my brother Jason served his mission in Rochester, New York. So he was our tour guide for the week! It was a lot of fun to see all of the church sites and all of the places that he lived. Connor had fun on the plane going there, he enjoyed looking out the window and also loved not being in his car seat! We flew into Buffalo, NY and stayed the night there. The next day we went to Niagara Falls which was amazing! We went on a 4 hour tour that took us to all of the awesome sites there!



My favorite part of the tour was where we got to walk up these stairs that were right next to the falls. We got really wet even though we had ponchos on, but it was so worth it!

There was this really cool part at the top of the stairs called Hurricane Deck and when you are up there you are pretty much standing right under the falls. Very refreshing!

The tour also took us on the Maid of the Mist, which was amazing too! It pretty much felt like we were in the middle of a big rain storm. I love this picture of all of us with our pants rolled up and our matching "very stylish" shoes. :)

The rest of the trip we went around to see all of the church sites. This was a lot of fun to be in the area where the Church began.

PALMYRA TEMPLE

LAKE ONTARIO

The lakes in New York look more like oceans to me. They are so big that they have waves and you cannot even see the end of them. Connor didn't care to much for the waves and the cold water, but he does love being outside so as long as we stayed away from the water he was fine!

PETER WHITMER FARM

So we were driving around looking at all of the sites and my mom sees this sign saying "Seneca Castle 2 miles" So we all decide that we want to go and see this Castle that is 2 miles down the road. Well, we go to miles and we see this sign which says, "Welcome to Seneca Castle." It turns out the Castle was actually just this small little town. Not really exciting at all. I'm sure this story is a had to be there for it to be funny, but it had been a long day and we died of laughter! I also loved that under the sign it says Slow Children because that is exactly what we were, Slow!

We went to this restaurant that is famous for their Garbage Plate. It is a plate of food mixed together. It was one of Jason's favorite restaurants. He talked about it a lot so of course we had to go. I wasn't really planning on getting one because when he described it to me I thought it sounded pretty gross and even when I saw it I didn't think it looked all that great but better than what I was thinking! So we all got one and it really actually was good!

SACRED GROVE

It was so much fun to walk around the Sacred Grove. It was so beautiful and peaceful there. I just love these pictures that we got of Connor. The one with my Mom is so cute, he is totally smiling for the camera!

We also went to the Hill Camorah Pageant, which was amazing. I totally recommend that it! We went on their rehearsal night so there wasn't a lot of people there, which was nice because we were able to get a great seat!

Our last stop on the trip was the Anchor Bar. It is the restaurant the invented the buffalo wings. The hamburgers were amazing...haha...jk...we got 60 wings for all of us to share and they were delicious! It was a great way to end the trip!

James and Connor on Fathers day!

My little boy has now been skinny dipping! A few weeks ago we were at my parents and we were sitting outside and I decided to let Connor put his feet in the pool. I tried not to get his clothes wet but he loves water so much that he wanted to get all of the way in. So I took off his clothes and let him get in with Janalee. I didn't have my swimsuit there or else I would have gotten in too. He is so funny! He was kicking his legs and splashing the water. He just had a great time. He is my little fish, ever since he was born he has always loved being in the water. We go swimming quite a bit now at grandma's. We actually went swimming yesterday :)

SAN DIEGO!

We took a weekend trip to San Diego the weekend before we went to New York. James had some business meetings he had to go to and then we had fun going to Seaport Village, driving around, and also to the beach. I only took a few pictures at the beach, which was probably the best part!

LAS VEGAS

A little over a month ago James and I went on a very quick trip to Las Vegas. We got there Saturday morning and left Sunday afternoon. The reason we went is because we were working with my cousin Kent to get us a new car and we found one that was in an auction in Las Vegas. We actually ended up getting out bid and didn't get the car but we already booked a room at the Statosphere so we still were able to go and just have fun. James had never been there before so we had fun walking around looking at all of the hotels. I think my favorite part was watching the water show at the Bellagio. I think we watched it about 4 times! We have decided that one of these days we are going to stay in the Bellagio and have a room that we can watch the water show all of the time!

On top of the Statosphere! It was a very pretty view!

Before we drove home we decided to eat at Serendipity 3. I had no idea that they have three of these restaurants, but I have always wanted to eat there ever since I saw the movie. One of these days I will go to the one in NYC, but this will do for now :) We got two small appitizers and then of course we had to get one of their famous desserts. It was huge but very delicious!!

My parents were nice and watched Connor while we went to Las Vegas. They took cute pictures of him and these two are my fav. The first is him looking at himself while my mom gave him a bath in the bathroom sink and the second one is him with a spit-up mustache, haha!

Well, I'm sorry but I have to end this post with a Connor update. This is mostly for me so I can remember the things that he does. So since this has been a very long post already you can stop reading if you would like :)

Connor will be 6 months in a couple of weeks. I cannot believe we are almost half way through his first year. He continues to grow and change all of the time. He is so much fun and we love being his parents. Even though he doesn't talk yet I still feel like we talk all of the time. He is just starting to interact a lot more and is learning to make funny noises. There was a week where he learned how to growl and he would do it all of the time. He seriously makes me laugh all of the time. Oh and when he cries it sounds like he is saying Mama! :) He isn't crawling but he sure can get around. He just roles to where he wants to be. I love watching him play on the floor. When he spots something he wants to play with he does not give up until he gets to it. I can tell he wants to crawl because he keeps pushing himself forward with his feet but he just can't get those dang knees up. Also, since he has his two bottom teeth now it hurts when he bits and yes he has bitten me a few times while I am feeding him. It's not the greatest feeling! He laughs like crazy now and pretty much every time he laughs he gets the hiccups. He has been taking longer naps for awhile now and we starting to get on a better schedule. Mornings are nice, he wakes up around 8 and then will play on the floor for about an hour, sometimes longer, then he will get a bath and play for a bit longer, then I'll feed him and he will fall asleep and usually sleep for an hour and a half. He usually takes 2 long naps during the day! It is nice because I feel like I am getting more done during the day now :) He is such an amazing baby!

He sure loves his grandpa!

Connor will not take a pacifier but will suck on pretty much anything else, including my mom's arm. He has actually given her a couple of hickies because he sucks so hard :)


Another time my parent's were watching Connor while James and I went on a date they took these funny pictures. They said they did not put his finger like that and he was sleeping that way and when they woke him up from taking the pictures he moved his finger almost up his nose. haha!