Long trip....LOTS of fun!

Well, we are finally back from our much awaited trip to Utah and Jackson Lake! It was SO much fun to be in Utah for a WHOLE week with my family before we headed up to Jackson Lake for the BEST TRIP EVER! We (the boys and I) stayed at my mom and dad's house for a whole week with my sister and her kids. IT was SO much fun to be with Court but mostly to meet my little Ruby-doo! She is the most PRECIOUS little squirter ever, and it was so much fun to snuggle her a little bit! I can't BELIEVE how fast my little Payton is growing when I put him up to littler babies. So sad. Payton was SO close to crawling the whole week before we left for Utah, but much to Cole's chagrin, he didn't start crawling until the day AFTER we got to Utah! Sorry Cole! But Payton is the cutest crawler ever! He started right up on his hands and knees, and hasn't stopped since! NOW, he is even pulling himself up to standing, and even taking a few steps if he can manage them- only while holding onto things though! AHHH!!! I need to put a rock on his head! He is getting WAY too big! Of course, this is all much to the dismay of his brother who now has to protect his toys with his LIFE if necessary! Payton is sporting a nice big bruise on his cheek because he decided that he wanted to play with Lincolns trains, and Lincoln didn't think that was the best idea in the land. Poor little guy! I'm sure it's just the first of a long line of bumps and bruises those two are going to give each other! Anyways, back to the trip! Payton started crawling, and that made for an interesting trip! He was of course into everything, but he is so cute, that we just couldn't get mad at him! :) But the week was full of alot of lounging around, and just playing! The boys and I made it up to Bear Lake where Cole's family was staying for the week of the 24th- and had a great time there too! Lincoln and Payton had a blast with their cousins. Then we went back to Bountiful and headed up to Midway for a couple of days and played there! The kids LOVED to be up there, and it sure brought back a lot of memories for me. I love it up there, and miss it tons! We used to go there all the time when we were kids! So it was fun to be up there again.
Then, after the week of fun, we headed up to Signal Mountain Lodge located on Jackson Lake, and had an amazing week of boating, eating, playing cards, and just all sorts of fun! The kids all loved it, and we had such a great time. Lincoln even got up on the surf board, and tubed a little bit! We sure missed Cole, until he was able to come up on Thursday night to spend a couple of days before we headed back on Saturday afternoon after an afternoon on the lake and in Jackson! We had the greatest time, and it is alway so sad to leave Jackson Lake. It just might be our favorite trip place of all time. Perfect weather- great for the kids because they aren't on the water all day, and we can do all sorts of other fun stuff!
We were glad to welcome Cole up to Jackson, and even more glad that he was able to drive us home! The boys and I flew into Utah, but then took the 10 hour drive back to Colorado with him. Man were Cole and I doing EVERYTHING to try and stay awake! We finally rolled into our house at 2 in the morning. We were sure tired the next day.
Now that we are home, we are just enjoying every second of the Olympics! I am the BIGGEST fan of the Olympics. I don't think that they have turned off since the opening ceremonies. That is what it is all about! GO USA! And, of course, we are back on the potty training band wagon, and BOY is Lincoln rocking the house! He is doing SO well! He didn't even have 1 accident yesterday ALL DAY!! What a rock star. Here are some pictures to reminisce about the trip! Enjoy.
Lincoln and Grandpa Dick sporting their shades on the boat...Lincoln LOVES the boat, and Grandpa Dick! He was one happy kid.
Can't bet much prettier! Oh wait, yes it can. At 9:00 in the morning when the water looks like a MIRROR and I am skiing on hit! HEAVEN!
Me and my boys at the Bar J Wranglers
Lincoln and his cousin Karden...great little buddies!
Here is the elusive Grandchild shot! Kind of tricky with 12 kids that don't really want to smile, or even look at the camera for that matter!
My grandparents have a "Surrey" bike at midway and the kids LOVED to ride in it! Here we are on one such occasion! SO MUCH FUN!
Three little squirts that are ALMOST as hard to all get to smile as the 12 in the previous picture! These are two of Court's kids Mylie Jane and Drew.
Payton wasn't such a fan of his life jacket....don't I look good! ;)

Family Pictures

So, it's a miracle! We actually got some family pictures taken! SO GREAT! We haven't EVER had pictures taken as a family since Cole and I got married FOUR YEARS AGO! Oh boy. and I call myself a scrapbooker. Heather Schafer took them again...she is so great! Here are just a few of the ones that she took- she took a WHOLE BUNCH! It's alot harder to get 2 boys (well, really 3 if you count the big boy:)) than it looks! So we took a WHOLE BUNCH, but just a few are TJ's (tear jerkers for those not in the Nelson family).













This is more what most of the pictures were like trying to take! Silly boys!

Okay, so there were more than a few that I liked! Now it's just trying to narrow them down to blow up and put on the wall! YIKES!

Happy LATE 4th of July!!

Around our house, at least for Cole, the 4th of July is one of the favorite times of the year! I have so many fond memories of the 4th, particularly going up to Midway (where my Grandfather has a cabin) and doing all sorts of fun stuff! There were always the Nelson family Olympics, the watermelon eating contests, the relay races, decorating anything available (including our bodies) and having a SWEET parade around the driveway, and then of course there were the wonderful fireworks at night off of Memorial Hill, and also our own fantastic fireworks. Mostly trying to beat all of my cousins around the driveway, or to see who could go the furthest on one sparkler! Oh, so many memories. But the one that I am the most fond of that I was commenting on to Cole was seeing my beloved Grandmother throw taffy off of the balcony. My sweet Grandmother passed away a few years ago, and things have just not been the same without her. She was the LIVING SPIRIT of the 4th of July. She LOVED it, and it would make us all so excited to see her step out onto that balcony to throw the taffy to the people that she loved. I guess this year, my Grandfather got up onto the balcony and took over the tradition and threw some candy off the top. I am so sad to have missed that wonderful occasion, but I know that it was a wonderful thing.
For the 4th in Denver, we had a great time! In the morning, we woke up and walked over to our neighborhood party. We were a little bit late because Payton was taking his nap so we missed the parade, but we made it in time to see and get into the firetruck that was there! Our good friend Chad from our ward is a local fireman and he was actually the one running the truck! So it was WAY fun to see him, and to be able to have him show us around. They even opened up the FIREHOSE that is up on top of the truck! Oh, talk about cool! You wouldn't believe how much water can come out of those things in such a short amount of time! On the highest pressure setting (or however you manage that:)) 1000 gallons can come out in a MINUTE! So we were all soaked! It was great fun. Then we came home and took some GREAT 4th of July naps then that night, we went with some GREAT friends of ours to the Colorado Rapids game. The Rapids are the professional soccer team here in Denver, and it was SO much fun! The game didn't start until 7:30 so the boys were troopers the whole game! It was so much fun. The Rapids totally wasted the New York team, and it was great to watch. The fireworks started at 10:00 p.m., so our boys had about had it, but they were still being really good! The firework show was about 1/2 hour long, and the boys made it for about 10 or 15 minutes. Then they were both zonked. But it was a fabulous day, and we sure reflected alot on those men and women that have fought and are still fighting for our country's freedom. We are so grateful to live in such a wonderful country.

Sitting in the passenger seat of the firetruck! COOL!!
Lincoln has a bit of a hard time doing the thumbs up thing, and Payton MIGHT be in a daze!
At the park during the party. Everyone was either laughing or chastising us for putting a sticker on Paytons head. I think he's cute!
As we got home from walking back from the park. Sleepy boys!

Happy kids at the soccer game! One of very few smiles from the big brother.Right by where we were sitting at the game! Right after this the Rapids scored a sweet goal!
Here's us and the Wesslers right before the big firework show! We had a great time. Thanks guys for letting us join you!

4 years down!!!

Well, i have been a slacker, and haven't even written that it was my anniversary! I have now been married for 4 years! How about that! It sure doesn't seem that long, but we have sure done alot during those 4 years. Our actual anniversary was on the 16th of June, but we were traveling back to Denver that day, and had purple puke, barf and blowouts to deal with that day, so we couldn't even really celebrate! oh well...we know we love each other right? anyways, these past 4 years have been absolutely amazing, and I love my wonderful husband more than anything. He is the most loving, kind, generous, hard working dude ever, and I love him so much! He definitely makes me want to be a better person, and I would have to say that I married up for sure, because you don't get much better than Cole! He is a terrific father (preferred by his boys to their mother) and is SO much fun to watch with his boys! Even though we are a little bit older with creakier joints and quite a few pounds heavier (teehee :) what can I say, I must be a good cook!) we love each other more than life and wouldn't trade each other for anything. So Happy Versary Cole...I love you so much!

Like mother like son!!

I don't know if many of you know, but mashed potatoes just happen to be one of my favorite foods of all time, so it only seems natural that I would want to give them to my kids when they come of age! Well, the coming of age has happened for Payton, and we gave him his first taste of this blessed food just the other night! Here is the outcome!

The finished product!!! He LOVES those potatoes!

Payton is SUCH a ham! He LOVES the camera, and as soon as I pick it up to take pictures of him, he assumes the position, and we get a stellar shot! He LOVES his excersaucer so we snapped a few shots of him doin what he does best...charming everyone! He also knows that he is relatively safe from his brother while in there so he has a great time!

Sneaky big brother!!!

I know that it was just a few days ago that I posted, but we have had some pretty funny things happen around here! We have been pretty sick, Lincoln and I, so we all have been staying pretty close to home, so one night, we were playing outside in the backyard and Payton was being SO sweet, so we started to film him...then a sneaky little STINKER snuck up behind him and SABOTAGED him! You will have to watch to get the full gist of it...I CAN'T believe we got it on camera! So enjoy! (I couldn't stop laughing, and we were trying to discipline Lincoln a little bit, so the movie is kind of long...you can stop it after just a few seconds if you want to! Plus, both Cole and I are feeling REALLY bad that we put Lincoln into timeout at the end, so just disregard that! We really are good parents most of the time:) )

The reason that we were outside is because we were taking pictures of the bench that Cole's Grandpa Meyer made for him! Grandpa Meyer is amazing at wood working, and has made all of Cole's brothers and sisters these cute little benches and he made all the pieces for Cole for Christmas, but we couldn't get the bench home assembled, so Cole has put it all together and stained it and it is SO awesome! It is such a fun thing to have to remember Grandpa by, and we will cherish it forever! So here are some pictures of at least Payton on the bench! Lincoln wouldn't really cooperate, so there are just some silly ones of him!

Lincoln looks HUGE here! I can't believe how BIG he is getting!

There and Back Again...

A Smith's tale...by Mindy Baggins (er...Smith!) (this is a LONG one...happy reading!)

So, we have been to Utah and back again! It is always SO much fun to go home! We had a great time! I am sure you are wondering about the Lord of the Rings reference...well, that is what we listened to via audio cd on the way there, and on the way back! There was NO way we were going to finish the whole thing because it was 16 CD's long! WOAH! But we sure gave it a go!

Anyways...we had a GREAT time in Utah! We had a fun time on the car rides too! On the way out, we decided to take a little bit more time so we stopped and visited a few places! In Steamboat Springs, it was the opening day for the tram so we were able to ride it for pretty cheap, and the boys thought that was AWESOME!!! We had such a fun time!

SO that broke the trip up first, then a couple of hours later, we were able to stop in good old Vernal Utah and visit some friends that just moved there from here! The wonderful Labrums met us at the Dinosaur Museum there in town and we perused the dinosaurs for a couple of hours! Lincoln thought that was the BOMB! Payton was just glad to get out of the car for a couple of hours! All in all, they did a GREAT job in the car on the way home! It was quite a pleasant experience!
In the tram looking down onto Steamboat Springs...the boys really loved this!

Could he BE any cuter! What a ham!
With the T-Rex. His favorite part about this was that it was OUTSIDE! Cool!

We had fun while we were in Utah too! We stayed at my parents house for the first couple of days. We had a great time just hanging out, and helping them get ready for their big trip! We even got to go to the Treehouse Museum up in Ogden-which was WAY cool!
A BIT tired at the treehouse museum. Thank heavens for the Bjorn!
He played on this stuffed horse the majority of the time!

Then I sent them all off to Europe (lucky ducks) with a singing tour for my mom and her choir, and it was off to Richmond for the rest of the trip! We had so much fun playing on the farm, and Lincoln had another dream weekend with all the farm equipment and such! He went on tractor rides, four wheeler rides, and even a HORSE RIDE! That's right...he got on a horse and took that baby for a ride with his daddy! IT is so funny, because Cole's parents have a little stuffed ride on horse in their basement, and Lincoln has been TERRIFIED of it ever since they got it! He still won't even touch anything but the tail on the cute little thing! But he sure took a ride on a real horse! Explain THAT to me! Cleve and Maxine also have a new little puppy named Jax, and MAN are him and Lincoln two peas in a pod! They just followed each other around the whole week! It was so cute. So we had a great time in both places.
Cleve and Maxines backyard! Wouldn't THAT be nice!
I LOVE this picture of the boys and their "Grandpa Smiff" Thanks Cleve and Maxine for letting us stay!
This is the CUTEST picture of Lincoln with Cole on the horse! Lincoln was in HEAVEN and just wanted to keep on riding!

The ride home was less than pleasant, as they always are. Lincoln had him a sippy of Grape Juice when we were in the car right when we left, and started complaining about having a stummyache (cute...that is how he says it!) for a while, and then he started to cough a little bit, and I knew we were in trouble! So I stuck my hands back there in a little cup, and told Cole to pull over as fast as he could! Well, we were too late! PURPLE PUKE EVERYWHERE! Oh man, I haven't seen him projectile throw up that much in a LONG time! So about 45 minutes into our 9 hour drive, we pulled over for about a half an hour and cleaned up puke! Pretty undesireable. But Lincoln felt much better after that, so the ride went smoothly for a while! So then the kids were getting pretty restless and crying and screaming and stuff, so we stopped for lunch/dinner and I went to get Payton out of his carseat, and he was pretty much COVERED in poo! He is the blowout KING lately! What can you do! So we cleaned him up, then headed for home! But by then Payton had HAD it! So he cried for about the last 2 hours of the drive, but then we FINALLY pulled into the mile high city, and were glad to be home! It was a rough drive home, but we are SO glad that we went! We had a GREAT time with both of our families, and wouldn't trade them for anything!

Ruby Dantzel

Here is an update of the little squirt! She is SO cute!Is that not the cutest face or WHAT!!!
Mylie Jane is SO excited to have her baby sister here!
Drew is a little aprehensive about the whole thing, so he usually keeps his distance. What a stud!
Can you believe how BIG my sisters little family is! They are SO cute, and Court looks like a SUPERMODEL! Wootie-woo!