Weekend in Vegas

Getting there is half the FUN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

My sister-in-law Emily had brought along a dvd player for her daughter Lilly so
needless to say Ethan wanted to watch whatever she was watching. It wasn't enough that they were sharing Emily's lap, they wanted to hold hands too.









Ready for dinner Emily's husband Jessie suggested a great Japanese restaurant in a nearby hotel/casino. The food was great and Ethan had fun with the chopsticks.

Having had enough of sitting still, Ethan and I wandered down the hall where we found Rachel and Crew checking this fun little fountain.




Ethan has this thing with water so he especially enjoyed this part of dinner.















An early start to a long day.
The 10K started at 7:30 and it was about a half hour outside of Vegas so we were all up and out the door shortly after six. Ethan and I rode with Grandma Belinda and Grandpa Frank. Belinda drove while Frank and Ethan caught a few extra winks.





Ethan and I shortly before the race began. It was a little chilly where we were but nothing like its been back home. Trent wasn't able to go with us this trip due to work and we sure missed him. Check out the guy in the background... he's either just putting his shirt on, trying to keep his head warm, or just being silly.



After the race Crew entertained himself by playing around in the dirt and Ethan took to playing with the rocks to the side of the paved road.











In the past we've gone to get a bite to eat before heading back to the hotel but this time we went back to the hotel to get cleaned up first. This made it nice because we weren't having to rush to make it out by check out time, we had a little over an hour to shower, pack up, and relax a bit before piling back in the car. Ethan appreciated it as well as he was able to play in the tub while I got ready just an arm's length away.

Once checked out we made our way up to the Hoover Dam. As we passed through Boulder City we stopped at a little pizza place for lunch. Craigo's is better. There at the pizza place Ethan was content to sit at the Mz. Pac-Man game.... and I was content to let him feel so entertained.

The family.

This is how excited Ethan is to be at the Hoover Dam.

Part of the dam tour (hehehe), diagram of the dam's water generator's flow and such. Sorry. probably should have made this picture a wee bit bigger.

My wonderful family- inside the dam during the tour.

I remember driving over the Hoover Dam once when I was much younger but this trip gave me a completely different perspective. This structure is absolutely incredible! especially when you consider it was built in the 1930's during the great depression.

Ethan with Grandma Belinda.


Sunday morning we made our way to American Fork to attend the blessing of our newest niece, Roxy Robinson. Baby blessings are such a sweet and beautiful experience, espeically when you have the opportunity to attend those of family members.

After the blessing Ethan was less happy with my lack of toys to play with during Sacrament Meeting so I took him outside to walk around for a bit. We walked over to this fence and as we got close we were able to see that there were a few horses on the other side. Ethan loves horses so he was totally content to stand by the fence and peak through at them.

Tony and Cheri's darling baby girl, Jasmine Aubrey.



My sister-in-law Emily holding the lady of the day, Miss Roxy Robinson.

Nakie Time!

First diaper change of the day and Ethan snuck away before I could strap a clean one on him. So I just let him enjoy being naked for a bit. As I would got to take a picture of him he'd lean in really close to the camera. The second shot he just started laughing. Dang cute kid.

Wonder of Wonders Miracle of Miracles

Yesterday I call my Dad to see how his day is going and he tells me that he has a surprise from me when he gets home (for those of you who may not know we live in an apartment about 10 yards behind my parents' house).
"Is it a pony?"
"Nope. No pony."
"Is it money?"
"Nope."
"Well what is it?"
"It's a surprise. You'll just have to wait and see."


So my day goes on and I totally forget about the surprise. A few hours later my Dad comes over. He calls Ethan over to him and says, "Here Ethan, gives this to Mommy." Ethan then turns around and what does he have in his hand?






Our long lost CAMERA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I seriously started to cry.
My Dad gets a call yesterday from a woman by the name of Georgia Ricks who had volunteered a lot of time at the Temple Open House. Since the open house they've had three unclaimed cameras. They haven't wanted to go through the pictures for fear of invading someone's privacy but evidently decided it was time to try and determine who their owners were.
So Georgia call my Dad (I went to school with her son) and says, "Nyle have you lost a camera recently?" "No but I know someone who has." "Well there's a picture of you by a Christmas tree on one of the cameras that we found at the Open House."
So my wonderful Father picks up the camera, flips through the pictures only to find multiple pictures of his one and only grand-baby and decides it is indeed my camera.

Woo-Hoo!!!!!!!!!!!

Here are a few of the pictures that would have been lost forever had Sister Ricks not called my Dad.


Aunt Marguerite's Baptism
December 30, 2007


Christmas Morning 2007

Prepare to be Amazed

This is seriously one of our favorite videos.
Enjoy.

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=1491516901670441597

(sorry but you'll have to cut and paste cause i'm still pretty blogger retarded but i promise you it worth the extra couple of clicks.)

Pictures, pictures, pictures!

It's about time I gave a bit of an update and isn't everyone oh so glad that I have a plethora of pictures to go along with it? Here goes.


Every now and again I'll ask Trent to help get Ethan ready for bed and this was the result a couple of weeks ago. Ethan was more than content to leave his shirt only about half way on.

So content was he that he proceeded to play in his room and read a few books before allowing me to pull his shirt down past his head and finally let me put him to bed. I suppose I could have let him sleep like that but... you know.

Ethan loves to draw, color, and paint. A while back my mom and I found this great Crayola hand paints that fit right in the palm of his hands. I haven't brought them out for him to play enough so a couple of Sundays ago I let him paint for awhile and he was so content. It's so much fun to watch him

I don't know about you other mothers but I love the butt in the air sleeping position it just makes me smile.
Thursday night I left to go to Utah for a couple of days it was only Ethan's second road trip so needless to say a rest stop was a must. This was at a McDonald's play place in Tremonton.

This is my Grandma Fullmer she lived not far from us when I was growing up then moved to Utah when I was about 12 or so. When I left for my mission she and I wrote to each other every week and I came to know my Grandmother better than I ever had. I love her dearly and am eternally grateful for every opportunity that I have to spend even the shortest moment with her.

On March 30th my Uncle Randy (my dad's brother-in-law) unexpectedly passed away and his funeral was in Salt Lake last Friday. The service was wonderful and it was so great to see the loving arms of support that were opened to my Aunt. Funerals are always so bitter-sweet, you lose a loved one and as a result it brings the family together for a day, some of whom you may not have seen for a very long time.

One of those relatives that I haven't seen in a very long time is my cousin Shaun. The last time that I saw Shaun was when he rolled into town on his Harley Davidson along side my cousin Allen when my older brother Nathen returned home from his mission in 2000. It was really great to see so much family.

After the funeral from brother Jacob, who had come down from Logan, and I were able to spend the rest of the day together. We headed over to GateWay Mall and walked around talking for a few hours. Whenever Jacob has been able to come up here for a visit it's always been short and sweet so Friday was a pretty special treat for me, a whole day with my little brother and a chance for him to spend extra time with his nephew.
Ethan and me watching the fountain in the courtyard at GateWay dance to music.
This semester my brother has been a little bit more of a starving student that Trent and I so it was fun to get a couple of treats while we were there at GateWay. First we stepped in out of the blustery day for a hot chocolate and some caramel apple cider at Starbuck's and then on our way out we stopped by the Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory, Jacob got a chocolate covered banana, I got an apple pie caramel apple, and we let Ethan choose a chocolate sucker. Funny thing about the sucker.... Ethan totally started gnawing away at it but as soon as he had eaten all of the colorful hair he was no longer interested. Funny kid.
As we were leaving the mall this kid was singing/playing his guitar so we let Ethan wander (within close vecinity and under very watchful eye) in that area and listened to this guy play for a bit. I had a couple bucks so I let Ethan drop it in his guitar case.
Jacob had a mission reunion in Provo Friday night so Ethan and I went with him for a little while and then Jacob came with me to one of my mission buddies house for a visit with a few of the sisters that I served with. Julia (gal that I served with) and her husband Tim have a cat and it was super cute to watch Ethan with it. Here he's giving her a love. Ahhhhhh.

Another great part of the weekend was being able to drive down and back with my friend Shauna. Shauna and I were going to go on walk together Thursday morning. She later called and asked if I were going to Utah for a mission reunion. No reunion but a funeral. So it worked out nicely for both of us, Shauna was able to go to her reunion Friday night and I didn't have to drive down to the funeral by myself. Hooray for last minute road trips!!!!!
We left Thursday night about 6:30 and got back Saturday afternoon about 1:30. I was kind of tired.