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Henry is a good bath taker. He usually wants to get right back in the tub when I pull him out. Check out this video!

Henry plays a lot more. He sits with his toys and moves them around and jabbers away. It's fun because when I watch him I can really tell his mind is going. He's thinking his own thoughts, and playing his own games. It's so fun.
Here we are playing with his new car.

Take a bow, Mr. Freestone

On Friday, July 10th, Todd took his last bow at Comedy Sportz. He had been a "player" there for about 5 years (player meaning an actor doing improvisational comedy). It's all part of our big move and an end to a very fun chapter of his and our lives.
Before I started dating Todd I actually went to Comedy Sportz on a date with another guy, and Todd was there, doing his improv. Well, I was watching Todd, and growing rather fond of him. Little did I know he would be my husband! I loved watching him because he was always so clever and clean and quick. He never was outrageous as to steal the show, but if you paid attention to him you'd get the best laugh. Oh, and I loved his musical performances, especially his broadway and punk rock songs.
It has been great watching Todd perform at Comedy Sportz the past two years. I've laughed, cheered, groaned, almost cried, danced in my chair, and have been very perplexed sometimes.
One of my favorite performances was a song called, "She's in the bag". It doesn't make much sense now, but for part of the skit one guy was pretending to carry around this huge bag, and when asked by another guy where his girl friend was, the guy with the bag started singing, "She's in the bag . . . " and walked across stage patting a pretend bag that was the size of a giant boulder - a boulder big enough to be about 6 women. It was hilarious.
Another one of my favorite lines was said by Matt, the big funny guy with brown curly hair, one of my favorite players. He was acting like a cheerleader, and in the skit someone was trying to kill him or get rid of him somehow, and he replied in a valley-girl voice, "Save a cheerleader, save the world." I couldn't agree more.
So, at the end of the show when "Chariot's of Fire" started playing, my heart sank a little, knowing that we had finally come to the end of his last show! It was always funny and cheesy when this song played at the end of other shows, especially with their slow-motion brawl; but this time I just relished in the instrumental theme song and was so proud of my babe, who won the gold medal in my book.

Pop

One of my favorite summer activities is swimming. I could swim ALL day if I had no other responsibilities. I'd lay out periodically to rest, and then get back in the pool. I love the feeling of semi-weightlessness in the water, the heat and shine of the sun, and the Snowie or slurpee at the end of the day.

This summer we went swimming with Todd's grandpa, Pop. We had a great time.

Todd and Henry

Pop and Henry

Pop likes to hold Henry and sing, "Jesus knows all about my troubles, Jesus knows all about my troubles . . . " and the whole time he sings Henry tries to get away, but I know he really does like it . . . It's so fun to see Henry with his great-grandpas.

Me and Henry

4th of July

Happy 4th of July!

It's about a week late, but here in UT we're still celebrating! We've got Pioneer day coming up--so bring on more parades and fireworks.

One big happy family!

Henry was getting a famous head massage by his cousin. She's a pro, but he doesn't seem to appreciate it as much as everyone else does.

The train of pampering.

The serious picture.

The silly picture.
Notice Henry's face is the same in both. He doesn't quite get the difference between silly and serious yet. So funny!

Henry with his "caunt" (cousin-aunt), Brook. He loves her so much.

We had a fabulous 4th. The parade was great, especially the Creamies, the waving princesses on floats, the Timpview cheerleaders, the giant Madeline, and bumping into old friends.
We also had a treasure hunt, an amazing dinner with ribs and other yummy food, and fun time with family. Todd and I enjoyed the Stadium of Fire fireworks from the Wymount balconies once Henry went to sleep. My favorite fireworks are the weeping willow ones and the crackly-old-fashion-wedding type fireworks. They were just how I remembered them from last year and the year before, and the years before that, when I used to watch them from the roof of my house. I love the 4th of July.

Park City!

The week of the 4th we spent up at Park City. We had a blast with Todd's siblings and their families. (We missed Zac and Becky, Chris, and James and Jake, though!)

One of the days we spent riding the rides--the Alpine slides, coaster and trampoline. It was awesome! One time, though, while I was riding down the coaster with my niece, Annabelle, a bug flew into my eye and it hurt really bad. I couldn't rub it out! So I kind of slowed down trying to make my eye feel better and another coaster came up behind me with girls yelling, "Go faster, go faster!" So with one eye we made it down the mountain. When I got to the bottom I had Todd get the bug out, but come to find out, the big bit/stung me! My eye became blood-shot, itchy and watery. It was horrible. Luckily the next day the reaction had stopped and I was ready for more fun.

Neice, Annabelle, on the trampoline

Here we are in our Park City shirts

We went to the Park City Farmer's Market and bought delicious bread. My favorite booth was "Boys Toys". A bunch of boys sat there making pet rocks for $1 and ties made out of neon pink and green tape. It was awesome.

Swimming at the hotel

We also went to the Oquirrh Mountain temple open house. It was amazing. I love LDS temples! they are so beautiful!! Oh, and after the tour we bumped into one of Todd's middle school teachers at the cookie reception. (Thanks to Todd's connection we got a few more cookies than the normal alottment. Thanks Miss. Goldstein!)

We also went fishing and caught a dozen or so trout and ate a fish feast. It was delicious. We also went swimming, played games, and watched Wipe Out and So You Think You Can Dance. I love family vacations!

This is Henry chilling with his cousin, Cole. Henry LOVES his cousins, as you can tell.

Pushing

I keep saying that Henry would have made a GREAT pioneer. He loves to push and pull things, things that have wheels. All day long. He'd much rather push than ride. He's so funny! In the video you can see Nathan hug Henry and Caty like 4 times.

Henry is 1 year old!!

On June 24th Henry turned 1. This past year as been amazing! It is quite a thing to see a tiny baby grow into such a handsome almost-toddler. We had such a great time celebrating Henry's birthday.Todd made up a Henry Jeopardy game for everyone to play. He had 4 sections: science and technology, the arts, nicknames and variations, and history. Each section had 4 questions in it and all of the questions were connected to some sort of Henry. It was so clever! We made three cakes, but the most important cake was the O Henry cake. It had the same ingredients as the O Henry candy bar: chocolate, fudge, peanuts, and caramel. Yum!
We also had a cake walk with the music, "Dance with Me, Henry" by Etta James; a blow-up jumpy thing (whatever it's called) and a game of ladder ball.
It was a lot of fun. Most of the time Henry just wanted to push toys around.
So that's what we did.

The tricky part of the day was that our carpets were getting replaced. I had no access to our kitchen or bathroom, and Henry didn't have a crib to nap in, but we made it through the day thanks to our moms! Thank you to everyone for coming, for the gifts, and for making Henry's big day so fun!!

Squaw Peak

It was Margo's birthday a few weeks ago and for her birthday we hiked Squaw Peak. I remember the first time I hiked it was over two years ago, and I was in good shape. It was spectacular. We started in the evening and so when we got to the top the moon and stars were shining and we could see all of the lights in Utah Valley and the glow of lights from Salt Lake Valley. I loved it.

Todd and I were dating or engaged at the time so I wanted to impress him by keeping up with the group, breathing easy, and offering to carry the backpack. The group was Todd's brother and his wife, Todd's sister and her husband, and Todd's Dad: all in very good shape, so we were no slow-pokes. I'd have to say that I did a pretty good job keeping up.

This time was quite amazing, too. I loved the sunshine, the sounds of nature, the fresh air, the company, the meadow full of beautiful yellow flowers, the one random apple tree along the path and of course the hiking treats and lunch. Todd's Dad prepared the most delicious lunch and packed it all up the mountain! He even packed a birthday tiara and birthday hats. It was the prime hike.

This is all of us in the meadow of yellow flowers. It was an amazing sight--much more beautiful than these pictures give it credit.

(Lisel and Chris)(Todd and I)

(Steven and Margo)

(Here we are with the birthday girl at the top!)

However, two years and one birth later I'm in . . . a different shape and the post-hike experience was a much more painful one than I remembered. Todd and I were in a bit of a hurry to get down the mountain so we practically ran the whole way down. My knees ached for 5 days, my quads were sore for about 3 days, and hoofing it up our 3 flights of stairs was quite the sight. I felt like an old lady!! But now that I feel normal again I'm almost tempted to do it over again--kind of like having a baby. All in all, it was GREAT!

(Tip: If you hike to Squaw Peak, watch out for the caterpillar colonies. They're all over the place! Yuck!!)