Swimming in Mexico

Nate, Beckett, and I took a trip to Cancun this September. Nate's brother, Aaron, and his wife, Brooke, and the two kids, Keontay and Daysha, met us there.

I had never stayed at an all-inclusive resort before, and, for me, it was great because finding food on vacations stresses me out. Everyone is hungry, you are in unfamiliar territory, you are trying to pack in as many sites as possible, you can't find a decent place to eat. On this vacation that was never a problem. Another benefit of the buffet was that there was always something that Beckett would eat, even if the only thing he'd put in his mouth that night was french fries.

Our room overlooked the pool. We had a second floor balcony. The first floor room walked right out into the pool.
From our balcony, one afternoon, we looked out and saw Aaron and Brooke and the kids swimming away. They performed some tricks for us.

Keontay made a new friend named Sam.
Beckett loves swimming so he had a great time in Mexico. Here he is in the baby pool.
And playing on the steps in the big pool.
The boys enjoyed their strawberry and pineapple slushes.
I shared mine with Beckett.
The hotel had a beautiful courtyard with lots of fountains (yes we had to practice constant vigilance everywhere we went).
Beckett loved this fountain best. He washed a bunch of the rocks.
In our room, after a full day, Beckett read himself a book.
Here's a coatimundi strolling through the hotel grounds. We also saw an iguana near this same spot, a couple of frogs, lots of interesting birds, and a huge red crab who was lost and in the swimming pool.
The ocean was just a short walk, and the beach was gorgeous--beautiful, white sand and shallow, warm water.

Keontay snagged this pumice that was floating in the waves.
The big kids built several sand castles.
Beckett loved the ocean. He would run into the waves laughing and laughing. It was a good workout for everyone.
Every once in a while Beckett would take a welcome break from all the running and swimming to play in the sand.
After all that hard work Beckett was worn out. On the day this picture was taken Beckett fell asleep in his high chair at dinner. Certainly not a normal occurrence for him.
Every morning while we were in Mexico Beckett woke up between 5 and 6am. We weren't always too pleased with the early morning schedule (especially since breakfast didn't open until 7am), but on our last morning in Mexico we took advantage of the early wake up call and went down to the beach for the sunrise.


This little device may deserve the MVP award for the trip. We had three Super Why episodes and Beckett watched them over and over again--on the airplane, when he was ready to leave the dining hall but we were still eating, when he wanted to get out the stroller but we still had a long walk ahead of us. Hip, hip hooray the iPod Nano saves the day!
The trip was a lovely end-of-the-summer hoorah. We came back to fall and cooler temperatures.

Next time: Our day trips to the Mayan ruins.

Beckett at 14 months

Beckett is so much fun right now. Don't get me wrong he's definitely a toddler, and there are the inevitable meltdowns that occur when I won't let him play with the telephone or I take away the keys. That aside, he's becoming an inquisitive little person with a pleasant personality.

He still has a major love of books, and he reads to himself daily. He will now point at the objects in the pictures to get you to tell him what they are. For some reason he finds it especially funny when we tell him "the cat says meow." That always makes him laugh.
Beckett was about ready to climb right into this fountain. He loves water a little too well.
Jen sent Will's old Halloween costume. We fear it may not fit Beckett in a month and a half. So here are some shots of the spider. He didn't seem to mind that he was basically wearing a pillow.

Beckett loves the outdoors, and he already tackles the playground with gusto. It's hard to get a good photograph at the playground with Beckett so focused on climbing.
One of Beckett's favorite games right now is to run down the hall to his bedroom and then slam the door in your face. He laughs and laughs the whole way down the hall. Then when you knock on the door and open it, and he laughs some more. It turns out to be a pretty fun game for mom too because after a couple knocks he'll come out and give me a hug. Then he runs away to repeat the process all over again laughing and laughing.

I'm also enjoying the moments when Beckett sit with me. The other day when I was lying on the couch sick with strep throat Beckett climbed up to sit with me for half an hour while we watched a cartoon. He'll come over and pat your leg to get picked up. This is nice, but we have to be wary of the throat grab. That kid thinks it's hilarious to grab people's throats with his little hands and squeeze. It really hurts, but he just laughs at our pain.

Nate got this nice shot at the park the other day. Beckett will go down this slide all by himself.

Farming

Nate and Beckett took a drive out to the Kansas countryside. Beckett liked holding the map.
This weekend the three of us went to the farmstead. Beckett and the cow checked one another out.
B also liked ringing the cow bells in front of the milking barn.
No trip to the farm is complete without feeding the goats. They are hungry and greedy. Beckett enjoyed watching Nate dole out goat treats.

Four goats in a row.

Goats are pretty entertaining.

Water

We're heading into another week of hot, hot temperatures. In a Kansas summer the only bearable outdoor activities involve water. I came back from our trip to California fired up about spray parks. Beckett had a great time at the spray park there, and I didn't have to worry so much about him drowning or drinking the whole pool. So I set to searching for one in town, and I found there are a bunch of free spraygrounds (as they call them here) on the other side of the state line. One just happens to be in the park right near Abby's and Ava's house. So we all ventured out for an afternoon at the sprayground.

This sprayground is a bit more intense than the one in California, but Beckett plunged right in.
Ava was a bit more tentative, but once she got the hang of things I think she liked the park even more than Beckett.
The babes decided they would each carry around one of the two cups I brought along. Here they decide who gets which one and then they held on tight to their respective cup for the rest of the outing.

Below the kids play in the serious side of the sprayground. Those are some wet babies.
The other day we let Beckett play outside with the hose. At first he just played with the water.
Here Zephyr fulfills her lifelong ambition of worming her way into as many pictures as possible.
Then Beckett decided he was thirsty and started drinking from the hose.

We're so proud.

Storm Troopin

Today is Toby's birthday. Who's Toby? He's the kid I grew up with. He's also the same guy who flew across three states and show up at my place of work dressed as a storm trooper. Now I know we all have good friends, but ask yourself when was the last time any of your friends showed up dressed as a storm trooper? That's what I thought.

Beckett was as shocked to see Toby as I was. You can't see it, but he liked pounding on his armor.

Here we are at my office. Did the Empire really give thumbs ups?

Toby was actually the perfect height and build for a storm trooper. Note to Toby: Remind wife that Toby is the perfect build for an intergalactic tough guy.

Toby was one of the judges for our ward's annual Golden Tongs BBQ. Storm Trooper Toby gave out the awards.

The kids went crazy.

The IT Ops team loved Toby's outfit. Justin, here, is wearing a Star Wars t-shirt with a storm trooper on it.

Meanwhile, Scott's desk had a picture of Luke, Han, and Chewy.

Dan thought it would be fun to pick a fight. (Not a good idea.)

Later that weekend we visited the Steamboat Arabia Museum, which has the largest collection of pre-civil war artifacts in the world. Toby was thrilled since it gave him lots of ideas for constructing his dream cabin. Toby wants to do it Grizzly Adams style with no electricity.

This is what Wal*Mart looked like 150 years ago.



Lastly, we visited the Liberty Jail and Independence. Toby started the weekend as a Storm Trooper and ended it as Superman. I think he's more of the latter than the former. As a father of 2.5 who owns his own start-up and can beat anyone I know at rock climbing, cycling, and flying a helicopter, Toby really is a super man. Happy Birthday.

Brooke and Aaron's Backyard

We took a trip to see the sealing of Keontay and Daysha to Brooke and Aaron. It was a beautiful ceremony, and the kids looked like angels. We are so happy for them all.

We had some good times while we were visiting. We had dinner with the whole family twice at Val and Dorothy's. We took three trips up to Mormon Center where the Sacramento Temple is located. We went to a sprayground. But we were terrible about taking pictures. Seriously, what you will see below are all the pictures we took. We kept forgetting to bring our camera when we left the house. Thus, the title of this post. Every single picture we took during this trip was in Brooke and Aaron's backyard.

And a marvelous place it is, too.

They have a baby pool.

Beckett jumped on the tramp.

The Stephens have chickens.
Keontay pulled Daysha and Beckett in the wagon.