Guess Who Finally Decided to Walk?!?

Well, a few weeks ago (toward the end of June), Vivvie finally decided to see what the world was like on two legs...

She was my earliest baby to crawl, and my last to walk.  Go figure!

I guess her timing is appropriate though.  Connor started walking at 13 months; Aiden started at 14 months; Cohen at 15 months; and Viv at 16 months.  So, I guess she was just keeping the pattern of later & later walkers going...

Since the photos don't really showcase her new talent all that well, here's a video of her walking as well.  Just ignore her crazy brothers screaming in the background.  It's never quiet around this house...

I love this little gal...

She is so opinionated & will only do what she wants to do.  No amount of bribery or forcing will get her to do anything.  SHE has to be the one that decides if she wants to do something or not.  Walking was no different.  Anytime we would try to get her to walk, she would instantly just fall down.  We tried bribing her with things.  We tried picking her back up every time she fell down to crawl.  Nothing worked...except her deciding on her own to walk.  Most moms dread the day that their babies start walking.  I always look forward to it.  My kids always seem so much happier once they can walk.  I think it makes them feel more secure to be by themselves for a few minutes because if they want to come find me, they finally have the ability to get up & just come find me.  It gives them more freedom & it gives Mom & Dad a little more freedom as well.  So, we're all loving the fact that Vivvie has decided to try out the world on two feet.  Way to go baby girl!  --Lindsay



June Dates

Our dates during the month of June were all really fun!  I took Connor out this month, and guess what?  We didn't go bowling!  Hallelujah!  Actually, going bowling wasn't even an option for Connor since I've personally banned him from bowling for an entire year.  So, we went miniature golfing instead.  We went to Trafalga in Orem this time.  I took all of the kiddos there over Spring Break (yes, all FOUR kiddos by myself...it wasn't pretty) and we played one of the miniature golf courses a few months ago.  Since then, Connor's been talking about wanting to go back and try the other course, so that's where we headed.  They were sooooooo busy on the night we went.  In fact, they were out of golf clubs & we had to wait for someone to finish their game in order to get some.  So, what do you do when you're standing around waiting for 20 minutes?  You take random pictures of course.  I think Connor looks like an Abercrombie model in this one (except he's actually wearing clothes)...

Can't you tell how excited he is to have his mama hugging him in public?

I'm golf ball man...

Mickey Mouse...

Who says you can't make a snowman in June?

Connor also made up a little game where he would let his golf ball roll down the bars that are supposed to hold the golf clubs (when they're not all taken) and then catch it when it got to the end.  Pretty simple game, but it kept him occupied for a few minutes...

Finally, we got some clubs and did some golfing...

After finishing our golf game, we decided to go visit Nana & Poppy.  Their house was only about five minutes away, so why not?  While we were visiting with them, Mike called and asked us to go to Home Depot & pick up some stuff that he needed for the sprinkler system.  One of the things he needed was some PVC pipe.  What he didn't mention was that Home Depot only sells it in a 15 foot length.  Connor & I looked pretty awesome carrying this baby through the store...

I'm sure we also looked awesome trying to squeeze that thing into our little Fusion too.  I was cursing myself for not bringing the Tahoe.  Luckily, PVC pipe bends.  We put the entire backseat down and stuck one end all the way from the truck up to the dashboard.  Then we bent the pipe and stuck the other end up to the front as well.  At that point, we were finally able to close the trunk.  So, this is how we drove home.  Nice, huh?

It was such a fun date!  Connor & I had a great time.  We basically laughed the entire time.

Aiden went on his date with Mike this month.  He wanted to head back to the fun center by our house.  He started on the very popular Frog Hopper...

Then moved on to the rock climbing wall...

Mike said he climbed almost every section of the wall...

He loves to rock climb, and he loves repelling down too...

After rock climbing, it was on to the outdoor rides.  Aiden couldn't wait to get back on the bumper boats...

And, man oh man, did he & Mike ever get drenched.  I thought I was soaked when I went with him, but my drenching was nothing compared to this...

After getting soaked, they decided to go freeze their butts off in the indoor glow-in-the-dark miniature golf course...

They obviously had a fun, and very soggy, date.

Cohen went on his date with me this month.  He wanted to go bowling.  He has never been bowling before (well, unless you count the time we went when he was a baby...or the time I went bowling the night before he was born when I put myself into labor a month early), and I wasn't sure if he would like it or even be able to do it since he's so little.  But, he was beyond excited about it, so off we went...

Bowling shoes are actually pretty cute when they are this little...

We got Cohen a ramp to roll the ball down the alley.  I would position it for him & then he would carry his ball up & put it on.  I offered to do carry his ball for him since it weighed close to a 1/3rd of what he weighs, but he insisted on doing it himself...

Then he'd push the ball & watch what happened...

He did so great!  He got a couple spares & even a strike!!  And, as you can see by the scores, he beat the socks off his mama...

He loved bowling & says he can't wait to go again!

So, those were our June dates.  Our July dates are already underway, so I'll update you about those soon.  Oh, who am I kidding?  I'm sure it will be the middle of August before you get an update on those!  --Lindsay

Our Dad

For Fathers Day, I had the kids fill out questionnaires like they made for me on Mothers Day.  (Yes, I'm just getting around to posting about Fathers Day.  I'm just *slightly* behind on blogging.)  The questionnaires ended up being as cute & funny as the ones they had made for me.  So without further delay, here's everything you ever wanted to know about Mike...from our kids' point of view:

All About My Dad

by Connor Storrs

My Dad's favorite food is Pizza

My Dad's favorite hobby is Playing with me & Josh  (that's one of Connor's best friends)

If my Dad had an afternoon all to himself, he would Sleep

If my Dad could go anywhere on vacation, he would go to Disney World

My Dad looks the most handsome when he Mows the lawn

My Dad is happy when We play together

My Dad is 36-years-old

My Dad's best friend is Me

My Dad's job is Working at Control 4 (that's actually the name of our home automation system, not Mike's actual company.  But, I guess Mike does spend a lot of time working on our Control 4 system too.)

My Dad's favorite thing about me is I'm a great artist like him

Something my Dad does to help me is He plays with me

My favorite thing about my Dad is He is awesome!

All About My Dad

by Aiden Storrs

My Dad's favorite food is Ham & Cheese

My Dad's favorite hobby is Wrestling

If my Dad had an afternoon all to himself, he would Sleep

If my Dad could go anywhere on vacation, he would go to Disneyland

My Dad looks the most handsome when he is cooking

My Dad is happy when None of us are fighting

My Dad is 35-years-old

My Dad's best friend is Nana (that's my mom)

My Dad's job is He works at a rocket place (well, he used to)

My Dad's favorite thing about me is That I'm really nice...but kind of mean (got to love his honesty)

Something my Dad does to help me is He cooks lunch

My favorite thing about my dad is He bought iPads for us

All About My Dad

by Cohen Storrs

My Dad's favorite food is Chicken Nuggets

My Dad's favorite hobby is Taking a nap

If my Dad had an afternoon all to himself, he would Go to church

If my Dad could go anywhere on vacation, he would go to Disneyland  (can you tell we had just gotten back from Disneyland when we filled these questionnaires out?)

My Dad looks the most handsome when he is at Disneyland

My Dad is happy when He's working

My Dad is 4-years-old

My Dad's best friend is Grandpa

My Dad's job is He works on the computer

My Dad's favorite thing about me is That we watch movies together

Something my Dad does to help me is He helps me clean my bedroom

My favorite thing about my Dad is That he has iPads

So there you go!  Mike, according to our kiddos.  Happy (belated) Fathers Day to the best dad & husband around!!!  --Lindsay

All I Want For Christmas...

Looks who's turning into a toothless wonder...

Aiden lost his other front tooth a couple of weeks ago & we are loving the big gap in his smile.  Why is it that kids are so cute without teeth, but adults are not?

This was Aiden's 4th tooth to fall out.  He's getting quite rich at the Tooth Fairy's expense!  Now we're just waiting for those big awkward permanent teeth to come in & make a mess of everything.  --Lindsay

Take Me Out to the Ballgame

Connor has been playing baseball for the past few months, since April actually.  And, not pretend baseball anymore--this was real baseball...with real rules...and real pitchers...and real points...and real playoffs...and a real tryout and draft to be placed on a team.  Yep, we were in the big leagues apparently.   Connor was drafted onto the Nationals team this year, and our lives have revolved around baseball games & practices since then...

He had some great coaches!  His head coach used to be a pitcher for BYU back in the day.  His coach was also a lefty, like Connor (well, actually Connor is ambidextrous, but prefers his left slightly), so he was able to really give Connor some good pointers and Connor was able to learn a lot throughout the season.  Here's a few pictures I took at a couple of the games.  Here's Connor up to bat...

Connor throwing in a ball from left field...

Another batting picture.  Just thought it looked cool with the sun behind him...

Connor playing 3rd base...

Batting again.  I could never get my timing down on these pictures.  I was always too early or too late.  This was the only shot I got the entire season of him mid-swing, and unfortunately it was a miss...

Their team made it to the 4th round of the playoffs a few weeks ago and then lost, bringing their season to an end.

I'm pretty sure this will be Connor's last season of baseball.  Like I mentioned earlier, he's getting to the point where everything is very competitive.  Connor is progressing as a player, but not as much as many of the other boys that are still playing at this level.  After several of the games, Connor left pretty discouraged because he felt like he was hurting his team more than helping them.  It wasn't fun for him anymore because there was so much stress associated with it.

He says he wants to try soccer again this fall (which makes his soccer-playing daddy very happy since Connor hasn't ever shown much interest in soccer until now), and then he wants to focus on his wrestling after that.  But, I'm sure we'll still have plenty of baseball in our lives.  Aiden's T-ball season is going on right now--in fact it started like two days after Connor's season finished up--plus Cohen will be starting T-ball next year--because I'm going to fib a little about his age by a month so that they let him play.  Shhhh, don't tell.  --Lindsay

Disneyland 2012 (Part 3)

DAY 7

I feel like I should say, "And on the 7th day they rested" or something like that.  However, we did anything *but* rest on our 7th day of vacation.  We headed back to Disneyland--excited to *not* be sharing the park with a gazillion yearly pass holders.  And, it was awesome!  The lines were sooooooooooo much shorter than they had been the last day we were there.  We were able to get so much more done.  First, we hit up Tower of Terror.  This was another ride that Connor swore he would never go on again.  He was pretty young the first time he went--only three-years-old--and we haven't been able to talk him into going since.  It's not the drop that scares him.  In fact, he loved the drop the first time we took him when he was younger.  It's the "scary story" you watch that freaks him out pretty good.  Well, we were finally (begrudgingly) able to get him on Tower of Terror not once, but twice.  Unfortunately, he's still not much of a fan.  Here's Mike, Poppy, Aiden & Connor on the ride.  They are in the front row on the left...

And here's the second wave of people to go--Aiden, Poppy, Nana, Connor & me.  Again on the front row...

As many of you know, Disneyland just opened up a whole new area in California Adventure called Cars Land.  It is basically a replica of Radiator Springs from the movie "Cars."  Well, unfortunately for us, Cars Land opened up just one week *after* our vacation.  While we were there, they were allowing "special people" to get a sneak peek of Cars Land.  Unfortunately, we weren't "special" enough to get in.  This was about as good a sneak peek as we could get.  Oh well.  Guess we'll have to wait for our next Disneyland vacation to experience it...

Next we were off to Grizzly River Run to get wet.  Nana took a page from my book & bought a poncho to wear in order to minimize the damage to hair & makeup...

Those that didn't have ponchos, like Poppy, Connor, Aiden & Mike got soaked.  I love this picture of Mike getting drenched...

After getting soaked to the bone, it seemed appropriate to go "under the sea" on the Little Mermaid ride...

And we had to stop & watch the Phineas & Ferb Beach Party Celebration.  We're big Phineas & Ferb fans in this house...

After that, Viv was in desperate need of a nap & Aiden was wanting to go back to the hotel to do some swimming.  Connor & Cohen, on the other hand, were begging to stay at the park.  So, we decided to split up.  Nana & Poppy took Aiden & Viv back to the hotel, and Mike & I stayed at the park with Connor & Cohen.  Both of the boys had really wanted to try out the Wilderness Explorer Camp that is supposed to resemble a camp that Russell from the movie "Up" would attend.  When we first got there, one of the camp leaders asked Connor & Cohen if they would like to participate in a rubber duckie race.  The kids got to pick a rubber duck & race it down the stream against five or six other kids...

Once all the ducks had been dropped into the water & were floating downstream, the kids would run down to a bridge that was the finish line & hope their duck crossed it first.  They had a great time & participated several times each...

After that, the kids got a Wilderness Explorer packet that included six challenges for each of them to pass off.  The challenges included a zipline, rock climbing, puzzle solving, etc.  Once they had passed off all six challenges, they were able to go to a "graduation ceremony" where they were dubbed official Wilderness Explorers & then got to have their picture taken with Russell.  They both loved it...

After that, we decided to head back over to Disneyland.  Right inside the main gate, we found Cruella DeVille...

I must explain this picture.  Cruella was hilarious!  She talked to the boys for quite a few minutes since there weren't many people waiting to have their picture taken with her.  The problem was that when Cohen told her his name, she thought he said Owen.  So, she kept calling him Owen & Cohen got totally confused.  I'm sure he was thinking, "Who the crap is this Owen person she keeps referring to?"  Anyway, she wanted the boys to pose like dogs in their picture with her.  You can tell Cohen doesn't know what to think.  This crazy lady kept calling him Owen & was telling him to act like a dog.  It was pretty funny.

Once Connor & "Owen" escaped from Cruella DeVille, we headed into Fantasyland to take a spin on the teacups...

The four of us got that tea cup spinning so fast!!  It was awesome!  None of us could walk in a straight line for a good 30 seconds after we got off...

Then we tried to pull the sword out of the stone...

But didn't have any luck.  After that, we got a call that Nana, Poppy, Aiden & Vivvie were on their way back.  Once they got there, we went on a few more Fantasyland rides.  While we were waiting in line for the Peter Pan ride, Connor decided to amuse himself with the camera.  Here's some of the funny little shots he got of everyone...

Later that night, we stayed for the fireworks.  Disney always does the best fireworks shows--they just keep going & going.  Glad my kids got their fair share of fireworks there.  There won't be many 4th of July fireworks shows going on here since the entire state of Utah is on fire right now...

After that, we took four sleepy kiddos back to the hotel & crashed.

DAY 8

On our 8th day, we headed back to Disneyland again to hit up the few rides we hadn't done yet.  Here's the boys waiting in line for Autotopia, in their Disney shirts...

Here's Nana & her driver, Connor...

And me with my driver, Aiden...

Let's just say that the boys are already following in their dad's (driving) footsteps.  CRAZY!!!

We did some other rides in Tomorrowland that we hadn't been on yet & hit up a few of the favorites for a second (or third or fourth) time.  Then we decided to take a swimming break back at the hotel.  On our way out of the park, we ran into Donald Duck...

As you can tell, Cohen was being a little grump.  I don't know what his deal was, but he kept saying that he hated Donald Duck because he was mean & that he didn't want his picture with him.  So, we finally let him go & took a picture with the two big boys who liked Donald Duck...

As soon as we got away from Donald, Cohen went back to being his happy self...

A few days after we got home, I asked Cohen who his favorite character was that he met & guess what his answer was?  Yep--Donald Duck.  Talk about a change of heart!

After some swimming & relaxing (which I obviously didn't take any pictures of), we headed back to California Adventure.  We still hadn't been on the Mickey Ferris Wheel & Cohen had been dying to go on it, so we went that direction.  Connor & Aiden wanted to go in one of the carts that swings as you go around, but Nana & Poppy didn't really want to go in a swinging cart, so they took the little kids in a stationary cart...

While Mike & I took Connor & Aiden in a swinging cart...

After that, we went on a few other rides & then found seats to watch World of Color.  This was the first time we had seen World of Color.  It was under construction the last time we were there.  I didn't know what to expect, and I must say that I was pleasantly surprised.  I thought it would just be a light & water show.  Okay fine, it was a light & water show.  There was lots of this...

But they also showed clips of different movies projected on the water too which was very cool...

At times, I found myself forgetting that I was looking at a wall of water.  It looked like you were just looking at a huge movie screen.  It was very cool.  If you haven't seen it yet, it is a must!

DAY 9

It was finally time to head home.  The plan was to drive to St. George on this day, but we still had one day left on our Disneyland passes (we bought a six day pass), so we decided to head into the park that morning before taking off to Utah.  We hit up a few favorites like Space Mountain, the Buzz Lightyear Ride, Star Tours, Big Thunder Railroad & Splash Mountain for one last hurrah...

Then it was time to bid Disneyland & SoCal goodbye.  We were so sad to go.  Yes, it was a long vacation, but I think we could have spent another couple of days there & been just fine with it.  Isn't that always how vacation goes?  Always just a few days too short.

So, we got in the car & started the long drive to St. George.  This drive should take about 7 hours if the traffic isn't too bad.  It was a Friday afternoon, so we knew we might hit a little bit of traffic since tons of LAers head to Vegas on the weekends, but we totally underestimated the amount of traffic that there would be.  It was literally a traffic jam from LA to Vegas--the whole way!  I'm not even kidding you!!!  I wish I had taken a picture to prove it.  It was very weird to be stuck in a traffic jam in the middle of death valley.  Cars were overheating all over the place.

We kept noticing that tons of the other cars had the letters EDC written all over them.  After a quick google search, we realized that EDC stood for Electric Daisy Carnival which is a huge concert/party/dress-up-like-a-hooker thing that happens at the speedway in Vegas once a year.  300,000 people attend it every year...and we were stuck on the road with every single one of them.  It was awful.  We crawled & crawled & crawled.  When we finally made it to Vegas, every single one of the cars (except us & my parents) got off at the Speedway exit...every single car except ours!!!  After that, it was open roads to St. George.  We finally pulled into our hotel at 10:30 at night.  What should have taken us seven hours, ended up taking us 10 hours.  We ordered some Brick Oven pizza & ate it in our hotel room, then hit the sack.  I've never been so ready to go to bed in all my life!

DAY 10

On our 10th & final day, we drove from St. George back home.  There aren't any pictures from this day because I think at this point, we were all just ready to get back to normal life.  Funny how the day before we were all sad at the thought of going home, but by today that's the only place we wanted to be.  I guess sitting in a traffic jam for 10 hours will do that to you.  There really is no place like home--that's for sure.

So, there you go!  There are some of the highlights of our Disneyland 2012 trip.  Since it's obviously becoming a tradition to do this once every three years (we went in 2006, 2009 & now in 2012), we'll apparently be back in 2015, if the fates allow.  Until then, so long Disneyland!  Thanks so much for all the great memories!