Our Practice Photo Shoot

Last weekend we were scheduled to have a family photo session with Christie (an old friend of Robby's mom who is a photographer). During the weeks and days leading up to the appointment, I had intended to go shopping to find coordinating clothes for all of us, but we didn't get to do any shopping till the day before. We had a four hour shopping trip Friday night and in the end I was just barely pulling together a complementary ensemble of outfits. When I woke Saturday morning I wasn't completely satisfied with what we had, so I made a last ditch effort by going to Kohl's. While there I called home to asked a question about a sweater in Little Robby's room, and Big Robby found a shirt that still had the tags in Little Robby's top drawer that was perfect for Little Robby. I had forgotten about it because I had bought it a month ago and he had not worn it yet.

I was so relieved to have the clothes chosen, and I figured everything would go wonderfully. That is until... Well, as we were doing the laundry and drying a few items for the photo shoot Robby checked the dryer mid cycle and chose to clean the lint tray. When he removed the lint tray a piece of paper fell in to the lint trap hole. At first we weren't going to worry about it, but then when he turned the dryer back on it made a really bad noise. We were a little concerned at this point because some of the wet items were clothing we had to have for our photos and the time was ticking away till we had to leave. Robby tried to pull the dryer out and take off the back to see what was making the noise, but only found the piece of paper and a small bead. We hoped that was the source of the noise and decided to close the dryer back up and try again.

This time the dryer made an awful noise that was much louder than before! Frustration arose, and we decided to try in desperation to find a neighbor who would let us borrow their dryer for 15 minutes. After four phone calls I was relieved to find someone home, so I rushed over to their house with our essential clothing.

Well with all of the delays we were about 15-20 minutes behind schedule when we drove off, and unfortunately when we talked to Christie on the phone she felt that if we came the sun would be too low in the horizon by the time we got there to get good photos.

So... since we were dressed up with no where to go, we decided to go and do our own photo shoot up at the university. These pictures are from our "practice photo shoot."











In the end we were glad things worked out this way because we learned a few strategies for the real shoot (like bring candy to keep Jenna happy!)

Our Little Climber

The other day while Robby and I were talking in our bedroom we could hear Jenna composing her own "music" on the piano, or so we thought... Well, when we heard other mysterious noises we decided to go check and here's what we found!

She was apparently entertaining herself with the little figurines we have sitting on the piano. I'm sure the next time I look away she will be sitting on the top of the piano because right after I took this picture she tried to stand on the keyboard!

Our September Grand Canyon Trip

At the beginning of September we had the pleasure of taking my parents to see the Grand Canyon for their first time. We had a lovely trip. Here are some of the highlights:

Jenna's ready to drive off.

While we were setting up camp for Robby and Little Robby (my parents, Jenna and I opted for the lodge room), Jenna and Little Robby romped around the campsite. Here they are "King and Queen of the Stump!"

Gazing at the canyon. We had two beautiful days to enjoy looking at this beautiful wonder.

Jenna enjoys being with Grandma.

Oooo Grandpa, your skin is so smooth when you shave!

Our little camper!

My mom and I are sitting together on the shuttle bus that takes you to the lookout points along Hermit Road.

My little koala girl.

Here we are sitting in front of the cool fireplace at Hermit's Rest.

My parents, Little Robby, and I hiked a short distance down Bright Angel Trail to see what it looked like below the rim.

Our little cutie is ready for the Sunday church service at the Grand Canyon. It was fun going to church with the branch at the Grand Canyon. The chapel of the building they attend in has a wall of floor to vaulted ceiling windows that looks out into a the woods surrounding the canyon. There were only about 15-20 people there, and they told us that if we got bored they wouldn't be offended if we gazed out the window at the beautiful scenery.

Here we all are with my parents standing at Mather point just before we left for home. We really had a great trip!

Early Warning System

I am so glad that our toddler came with the "Early Warning System!" It sounds like this, "Uh-oh! Uh-oh! Uh-oh!" Afterwhich those sitting near best take cover because that's when unsatisfying food items are then launched from the high chair tray. Fortunately for us, the "Uh-ohs" precede the flying food, otherwise we might actually think it was an accident!

Our Utah Trip

And our last trip in August... to Utah for Uncle Forrest's Graduation and Little Eli's baby blessing.

We begin with my boys' hike up Y Mountain with Aunt Summer (she's taking the picture.) Little Robby did end up with a mishap on the downward hike. Apparently, Dad said that the first one down the mountain would get ice cream, so Little Robby took of just about running down the mountain. A little ways down he tripped and fell, scrapping his knees pretty badly. But I will say that he sure had fun showing his scabbed knees off at school the next week.

Here we all are following Forrest's graduation! (In case you don't know everyone, left to right, Summer, Connie (Robby's Mom), Abbie holding Eli, Forrest, Tommy, Little Robby, Robby with Jenna on his shoulders, and me.)

Jenna's pretty particular about who she will allow to hold her. Grandma passes specs.

On Saturday we drove up to Great-grandma's farm in Northern Utah. Jenna had a great time roaming the farm.

Photo-op on the bales of hay!

Here we all are with Great-grandma! We really love to come and visit her.

On Sunday we attended Baby Eli's blessing. What a sweet face!

Here we all are after the blessing. (Left to Right, Kaci, Tom, Tommy, Bob (Robby's Dad), Connie, Summer, Forrest, Abbie, Eli, Little Robby, Jenna, Robby, and me)

After church we went to visit our other Great-grandma in her new apartment. Here Jenna is giving Great-grandma a kiss.

Little Robby really loves visiting Great-grandma!

And lastly, Great-grandma sits proudly holding her newest great-grand baby, Eli.

Our Boston Trip

This was the second half of a very fun trip to the Northeast. After I stayed with my sister for a week I got a ride from Tom's Mom Sheryle out to Boston. When we arrived Sheryle took us out to eat at a restaurant named The Barking Crab.

This picture was taken at the restaurant by Sheryle. Here we are posing with Aunt Kaci and "Tio" Tom. ("Tio" is Spanish for "uncle." Tom has learned to speak Spanish and he decided he likes the sound of Tio Tom best.)

After our lunch Little Robby, Jenna, and I went to the New England Aquarium. After we spent a few hours in the aquarium we checked out one of the IMAX films playing in the Aquarium's theater with Aunt Kaci. It was a 3-D film. Jenna was only entertained for about half of the movie (probably because without 3-D glasses it was blurry to her). The other half I spent walking with her and trying to watch the movie from various angles which doesn't work to well with a 3-D film!

Little Robby is ready to go to school! While we were in Boston, we saw these painted cows all over the city. Each one is different. I realized on our second day there that everytime we saw a cow Jenna would say, "Mooo!"

Here is Little Robby riding the T (Boston's subway). Just like in New York, Jenna really liked "talking" to the people we saw on the T.

Poor Chap got sick the second day we were in Boston. When we arrived at Harvard for our tour given by Tom, we discovered he had a fever. In this picture he is taking some medicine that I bought at the CVS store across the street.

In the morning of the next day, Jenna had a grand time trying on Kaci's "Be You" shirt. I was surprised that she got her head in the head hole the first try.

The day that Little Robby was kind of sick he wanted to go to the little park down the street to play. Jenna really needed to get out of the apartment, so we went. She really liked the swing!

It's a good thing that Little Robby won't get his driver's license for a few years. Can you imagine seeing this crazy driver on the road? Fortunately this car was fixed to the ground at the Boston Children's Museum.

Jenna is ready to climb the rock wall at the Children's Museum! She says, "I put my hat on all by myself!"


In the evening of the last day we decided to splurge and go on a Boston Duck Tour with Aunt Kaci. It was really fun, and Robby said it was his favorite part of the whole trip. On these Duck Tours you ride in a WW II amphibious assault vehicle and the drivers give you a tour of Boston's historical landmarks and then drive you into the Charles River. It is kind of unique. Although, Kaci said some of his explanations of Boston's history were a little skewed.

Late in the evening of our last day in Boston, we had to make one more stop by the Public Gardens. Here we made a visit to the little statues commemorating the Caldecott Book Make Way for Ducklings. We had to stop because we bought this book in Boston as one of our souvenirs.

All in all we had a great time in both New York and Boston. I want Donnette, Josh, and Noah, and Kaci and Tom to all know that they made our trip wonderful! I must admit though, that I was glad to be home Friday night because the trip back was quite long and a little stressful too. I'll summarize it this way, a four hour drive from Boston to the New York airport, a 1 and 1/2 hour flight delay, 10 minutes to catch my connecting plane in another terminal in Atlanta (during which time I had to meet up with Robby who had the keys to our car!), a flight back to Arizona landing at 10:30pm, and a drive home after collecting our baggage. By that point it was midnight Arizona time, but it felt like 3am New York time to us! Phew! But I am sure glad I went!

Our New York Trip

Well, we've done a lot of traveling in the last month! The kids and I have been to New York and Boston, Dad has gone to Atlanta, Georgia, and all of us have gone to Utah and the Grand Canyon. Can you tell we like to travel?! We're into September now, and I figure I had better catch up with this blogging or else I will never catch up! So here we begin with our trip to New York. First I will say we had a blast!

Our trip began with an overnight flight to Atlanta, Georgia. The plane took off at 11pm Arizona time, and landed at 5:30am Georgia time (2:30am Arizona time). I thought Jenna would sleep on the plane, or at least I hoped she would sleep on the plane! Let's just say she got about one hour of sleep tossing and turning in my lap, and I got about 15 five-minute naps. Chap slept for about an hour too. We then had a 3 1/2 hour lay-over in Georgia, during which time Jenna was wide awake! She loved toddling through the terminal, and "talking" to everyone who would listen. Our next flight took off at 9am and landed in New York at 11:30am. Did she sleep you wonder? What do you think? No way! This whole adventure was just too exciting to miss! Fortunately, Little Robby was able to sleep most of the second flight. I must say though, that because I was so tired I was a little jealous watching Robby sleeping peacefully next to me. The one thing that saved me on the second flight was that three of the people seated near me loved Jenna and played with her just about the whole flight. Once in New York I had to get a 20 minute taxi ride to my sister's place. It wasn't until about 5 to 10 minutes in the ride that Jenna finally crashed. Once we arrived I managed to get her to lay down and sleep for several hours with me. We both felt a lot better after that. On the whole she was a very good traveler. We really only had about two moments where she cried, and both were very short. Thankfully.

Enough of my story, lets get on to some of the photos.

Here we have Little Robby clowning around with his cousin Noah. They really had fun being goofy together!

Two days after we got there my sister took us on a train into the city. We then stayed a night at the hotel in Manhattan where her husband, Josh, works. Here we have Jenna posing in the cubby in the TV stand.

One of Josh's friends brought some balloons for the kids while we were at the hotel. Jenna was really amazed by the floating orange ball.

Right next to the hotel is a really cute old-fashioned soda shop that we stopped in for ice cream. Yum!

That night we went over to Times Square to take the kids to Toys 'R Us. Here we are standing just outside the store.

One of the highlights of the trip for Little Robby was getting to go to the top of the Empire State Building! Here we are standing on the 86th floor. We also went to the 102nd floor. I hope he will always have fond memories of doing this with me. I know I sure will!

Later on that same day we walked through Central Park. Along the way both of the boys picked flowers for Donnette and me. Here Robby is working on his bouquet.

Here I am with his bouquet. What a sweet little gentleman I have!

During our trip Jenna was very clingy to me, but she also discovered that she really likes to hug on brother too. Sometimes she would get a little over zealous, and refuse to release him from her grasp. What a little sweetie!

Over the weekend my parents flew up to visit too. They just couldn't resist the opportunity to see all of their grandbabies in one place. That Saturday we traveled back into the city and saw the Statue of Liberty. Here Little Robby took our picture at the base of the statue.

One of the things that happened several times on the trip that I really enjoyed was watching and listening to Jenna "talk" to the people on the subway. Oftentimes if someone just looked at her she would smile, wave, and say, "Hi!" But other times she would go out of her way to get someone's attention by leaning over as far as she could and babbling to them till they looked her way. It was fun seeing other people smile just because she was looking at them. I think she is going to have no problems making friends throughout her life!