Zion

IT's finally here! I've collected all the pictures from our once-in-a-life-time vacation. This trip was such an amazing experience. We had the chance to go just us two, Trev and myself. My mom watched McCoy for the 5 days were gone and it was such a great gift. 

Day 1: 

We arrived to a beautiful house that Traci and Dave rented out for us. It fit all 20 of us and we were excited to see the family all together again. We spent the night reminiscing and just spending time together. 

Day2: We had a great day going through Zion National Park taking mini hikes her and there and getting to explore the amazing nature. 

 This is called the Weeping Rock. Such an interesting experience and so refreshing after a heated hike. 

 Dave and Grandma Clo beat all of us every time. They cruised up every single hike. 

On the way into Zion, Trev and his brothers decided to take a more scenic route. Check out this video from the GoPro. (Link Below) 

Cruisin' through Zion National Park

The boys all jumped in the water for a cool break. Trevor took it another step and stripped all the way down to his undies. 

Here's avideo of the boys in the water. 

Cooling Off

Day 3:

This was our day to go on the hike of our lives. We had some amazing guides and they made it such an amazing day. 

This was our first repel. 110+ ft. So crazy but soooo amazing. Trev was a little more scared than I thought he would be but who wouldn't be, it was quite the drop off. We all did though and it and loved it. 

Yes, those little black spots are actual people down at the bottom...I told you it was high.

 I was the first one down. I knew that if I didn't just do it then it would get harder and harder. (Link Below)

Heidi's First Repel

 Trev went next. (Link Below)

Trev's First Repel

 There were 5 miles of hiking on terrain like this. 

 Then the water came...

(Links Below)

Getting Soaked 

 Water Fun

All in all....it was an 11 hour hike with 13 repels and we all had the time of our lives. 

Day 4:

We spent this day exploring the greatness of Bryce Canyon. 

Day 5:

We had the opportunty to spend time with Dave's mother, Clo. She got to show us her home town where she was born and raised: Kolab.We also got to shoot some of Grant's guns that he gladly brought.  And Finally we explored the Grand Canyon.  

Clo's grandfather built this house and it's now the historic focal point of the city.  

 A sewing machine from her age that we found in the attic.

 This is one of the first designed vacuums, also from the attic. 

Now it's shooting time.

 On the main road heading in and out of these canyons and little cities we passed by these police cars multiple times. After a few times of noticing that the cops inside didn't move one inch from day to day, we discovered that they were dummies and were just there to scare people into obeying the speed limit. 

 Then....the Grand Canyon. It was beautiful. To see such amazing creations and getting to enjoy it with everyone we love so much, was just so breathtaking. It was so great to enjoy God's creations. 

Now that this was the last day, we all crashed on the way home. Craig took this candid picture with his iPhone and it really does capture the moment. 

Thanks Dave and Traci for such an amazing family reunion!

This is Life

 Just watching football with Dad in my comfy seat! 

 McCoy's obsession with shoes has not changed. He still loves to wear any shoes that might be around the house...

Even if they're mommy's high-heels :) 

Check out this movie of him walking in my heels. He loves the loud noises they make. I'm thinking the fact that he's not wearing anything but his diaper and my heels that he doesn't care what anyone thinks of him. 

High-heels

McCoy has this new fascination with phones and he's getting pretty good at having conversations with himself. He's even gotten good at holding the phone with his shoulder so he can use both hands. Here's a video of him using my parent's phone and talking to himself. He's holding it with his shoulder like I was saying. 

The Telephone

My child loves his stuffed animals. He talks to them, plays with them and I guess now he organizes them. He lined all his animals up one day and I just had to get it on video. 

McCoy's Friends

Another day playing in the rain...actually, what happened was we left our front door open and McCoy slipped out and went all the way downstairs and we found him running through the puddles after it had rained. He loved every bit of it. I guess we learned out lesson...I'm just glad he didn't go into the street. He's a boy we have to keep a close eye on. 

Kara watches McCoy once a week for us and McCoy loves every bit of it. We're pretty sure Ruby does too because they pretty much get to play together all day long. They're always having so much fun. Trev took these two movies one day when he came to pick him up at the end of the day. Enjoy! (Link Below) --Ruby's counting is so cute! 

one...two...three! 

Slide Fun

Trevor also took this movie another night. Like I said, McCoy and Ruby LOVE playing together. (Link Below) 

dizzy until sick

McCoy has been pretending that his hand is a phone. He sticks it on his chick and says "Oooh" (that's what he says for "hello" when he's talking on the phone.) Trevor was doing it to make him laugh and then he started copying him. (Link Below)

phone manners 

Labor Day Timelapse from Craig Hobson on Vimeo.

Update

I have no pictures but I wanted to let everyone know what the update is with McCoy. He still has bumps but they're different and fewer. It's been about 4 weeks now and the original bumps turned into "hand, foot, and mouth disease." The doctor wasn't sure if that's what it was the whole time but he got a fever a few days after and new bumps started to appear. He's doing much better now and we couldn't be happier. Last week Trevor and I went on our family reunion and left McCoy with my mom (pictures to come on the trip.) He had some rough days but loved being at my parent's house. He's been the happiest he's been in the last 6 months since we've been home. He's been so pleasant and the child I always thought he was. The last little while has been hard but now he's doing so much better and the teeth are in (which added to the problems.) 

McCoy is 20 months old now and he's saying so many words. Last week at my parents he learned a lot about how his mouth moves and repeats so many words now. He's surprising Trevor and me every day and we can't believe how much he's learning every day. We're hoping this will help with his frustrations and tantrums but knowing how the terrible twos are, we may not catch a break before they're here :). Next up....getting rid of the binky...haha, we'll see how this goes:)  

he's got the "bumps"

So about a week ago we found some weird bumps on McCoy's feet. They looked like spider bites. They didn't go away unfortunately. We live on the 3rd floor of our apartment building and never once have I ever seen a spider in our apartment (thank heavens) and once he started to get so many we knew for sure it couldn't be that. And in fact, they got worse. By a couple days ago he had more than 20 on each foot and about 15 on his face. We took him to the doctors because we new there was no way he could be getting that many spider bites. He hasn't really been itching or irritating from them-which is really good- but we wanted to find out what in the world was all over our son's body.

When we took him in, there was nothing the doctor could do. He said it was a viral rash and it is contagious. We've been quarantined to our home for the last couple days. It's been nice though. I called into work and told him I wouldn't be coming in because no one could watch McCoy and since he was contagious I didn't want anyone else to watch him. We've bonded quite a bit and he's been such a good boy the last couple days. 


Despite his rash, I feel like he's been happier the last couple days than he has been in a while. I don't mean to gloat about myself but I honestly feel like he just needed his mom for a few days.  Now that Trevor and I are both working (I'll post on Trev's new job in moments to come) McCoy hasn't gotten much family time. I've actually been a mom and I can't wait until that's all I am. I love my job but I love being a mother even more and seeing how much McCoy needs me the last couple days makes me want it even more.

Here are some picture I took last night. They're a lot more now and much more swollen but hopefully that means it's getting better--we'll see.

Look at the hugmongus bump on his top left side of his forehead. Poor kid. 

The other night we stopped to get some Wendy's. We couldn't help but to take a picture of how cute McCoy was eating his hamburger, fries and sprite. If you notice, he's still hanging on to that binky. Are we splendid parents? Teaching our kids great habits from the start--fast food and binkies.  We got a movie of him enjoying his frosty for desert. Check it out (Link Below). 

Frosty Lovin'

 McCoy has always had a found love for cars. In fact, that's the word he says more than any other. He goes to sleep with them now. Usaully kids like to go to sleep with stuffed animals because they're soft and cuddly, but McCoy chooses cars. Silly boy.

Speaking of being cuddly, McCoy has always loved having his arms tickled and scratched. Trevor is the king of scratching backs and arms and McCoy loves it every time he does it. Here's a picture of McCoy when he's enjoying my arm scratching. (Link Below) 

I'll scratch yours, if you scratch mine...kind of.

 A couple days ago, I decided to make Banana Cookies. They're an old recepie from the family and I grew up on them. We make them when we didn't eat our bananas in time. McCoy loved the dough...of course, who wouldn't...and he had a blast making them with me. I wanted to stick him up on the counter while I was making it but all he wanted to do was stick his little hands in the Kitchen Aid. We all know how that would turn out, so I put him in his high chair and let him lick the rubber scraper and the mixing blade.

 Soon I gave him the whole bowl and he was making really funny faces in it. So cute!

Here's a video of him and his faces he was making. (Link Below)

Funny Faces

McCoy wasn't sure about them at first, as you can tell. But once he tasted them he ate four of them right there. 

Yumm...

This recipe is from my family and I grew up with these cookies. There's not too much sugar in them and I think because there's bananas in them, I feel like they're healthy so we like to eat them for breakfast:) Here's the recipe in case any of you want to try them out. We love them. 

banana drop cookies

1/4 C shortening (you can use butter or margerine but they'll turn out a little flat...they'll still taste good but a little flat) 

1 C white sugar

2 eggs

2 tsp lemon zest or juice

1 1/2 C mashed bananas

2 C sifted flour

1 tsp baking soda

1 tsp salt

1 C chopped nuts of your choice (I don't like nuts so I don't put these in. My mother would have a heart attack if she knew I excluded these since she says these are the best part:)) 

Preheat oven to 350. Cream together shortening and sugar until light and fluffy. Add eggs and lemon. Combine flour, salt and baking soda in a separate bowel. Alternate flour mixture and bananas when adding to sugar mixture and  mix until combined. Fold in nuts until combined. Drop by spoon onto greased baking sheet and bake for 13-15 minutes. (yield: 2 dozen) 

When they're out of the oven, remove from baking sheet and place on damp paper towel on cooling rack. After cooled. Store them in an enclosed container or plastic zipper bag.