California Part 2

After our time with the Graff Family we headed down to San Diego with our good friends from AZ the Gunnells.  We shared a condo and mostly just enjoyed time away from home.  The husbands enjoyed golfing one day, each of us took a date night, and the kids played great together. The Gunnells have twins that are a couple months younger than Austin.  The first day we went to Seaport Village and walked around and did some window shopping in their cute shops.

 Sitting on the Ben and Jerry's cow.

 Austin kept pointing out to us the boats and the bridge

Austin was mesmerized by a kite shop that we walked past that had tons of spinning kites out front. Of course the truck and the airplane were his favorites.

Another day we went to the beach! It was a little chilly and windy but totally worth it.  This was Austin's first reaction to the beach:

Austin was intrigued by the water at first but then once it hit his feet he wanted nothing to do with it.

But I was definitely ok with that. The kids had so much playing in the endless amount of sand.

 Austin didn't mind being buried until he realized he couldn't get out by himself! 

Austin really wanted to help Daddy play Frisbee.

Needless to say, there was sand everywhere!  And it was completely impossible to change a diaper on the beach and not have sand involved.  It took lots of scrubbing at bathtime to finally get all the sand out of Austin's hair.

So much fun. Gotta love the beach.

The last day in San Diego we went to Sea World. We had a blast. We spent the morning in the kiddie area riding rides, and letting Austin run and play.

Then we went back to the condo and took naps! In the afternoon we tried to hit as many shows as we could.  I think Austin liked the sea lion show the best. He sat there the whole time, staring at the sea lions, eating popcorn, and laughing when everyone else around him laughed.

 This is Austin at the dolphin show.

Overall, San Diego was a fabulous and much needed trip and we were so glad the Gunnells could join us.

California Part 1

So I am way behind in updates!  Matthew has finished his first year of Podiatry School! Woo Hoo!  I am very proud of the hard work he has done and it is so great to have a year under our belts now.  We have lived here in AZ now for over a year and we really love it here.  We have met some awesome friends and love all the support we have out here. We had a two week break, which was so fabulous, and then he started summer term this week. No summer break for us so we really crammed so much into the 2 weeks that we had. It will take a few posts to get everything in.

First off, the Graff family gathered in California to spend some good quality time together. We stayed in a really fun resort and Austin loved seeing everyone.  We spent most of our time at the pool, and playing together.

 Floating down the lazy river

 Playing in the kiddie pool with cousin Aaron

 Enjoying time together!

 I think this picture is funny because it looks like Austin in naked! But he is really is wearing his speedo!

 Austin couldn't get enough of being thrown back and forth between daddy and Pa.  He was laughing so hard!

Aubrey and Aaron!  Austin loved time with his cousin.

Austin has really been talking a lot lately and is learning new words every day. We taught him all the Graff family names and he did so good trying to say everyone's names. It was really cute!   

Phoenix Zoo

A couple weeks ago we went to the Phoenix Zoo with some friends.  It was nice to go when it wasn't so miserably hot yet.  It was our first time there and we had such a good time. I think Austin's favorite animals were the flamingos, pelicans and snakes.This was Austin's reaction to the elephants:

 I think they were a lot bigger than pictures of elephants he has seen in books!

While we were there, I ran into my friend Megan!  We were in the same major at BYU and had several classes together.  We live just far enough away that we hadn't gotten together since I moved to AZ so it was so fun to see her.  We both have boys named Austin!

The two other boys that came with us also had blond hair making them look like triplets! These little boys were so cute together.  They would hold hands, copy each other and laugh together.

So yes, I realize I actually have no pictures of the animals we saw, but we really did go to the Zoo!

Easter Pictures

My very talented friend took some Easter pictures of Austin in all his Sunday cuteness.   I wanted Austin to have something new to wear on Easter so I made him a little bow tie with matching suspenders. 

 Of course Dad had to have a matching bow tie!

I love how they turned out! Thanks Jessy!

Suture-Off

In Matthew's podiatry program they have had an ongoing competition on who can do the most and best looking sutures (stitches).  This has been great practice for when he will have to stitch up patients after surgery.  The 8 remaining competitors went into the finale where they were suited up, gloved and looked really like doctors!  They even put vasaline  all over their gloves to simulate real surgery.  Here is Matthew all ready to go. 

 They stitched on pieces of felt and were judged on technique, spacing, and how many suters they could do in a 3 minute time period.  They competed two at a time and soon went down to 4 people remaining, 2 people remaining and guess who won the whole competition? Yes, Matthew won 1st place!  Woo hoo!  I was a very proud wife.  This is while he was stitching for the win.

  Austin was a champ the whole time but he didn't recognize Daddy with all his gear on.

Here is Matthew with his stitches on the clipboard and his prize, an Ipod touch!

My husband is a suture champ!

Easter

We had a fun Easter this year. We went to a few easter egg hunts in the community and Austin got the hang of it pretty fast. (We had practiced a few times at home first.) His favorite thing to do was to open the eggs, dump the contents in the basket, and then throw the now useless egg back in the grass.

 Austin loved to jump in the bounce house but he clung to the wall the whole time to prevent getting trampled by other kids.

Easter morning we made Resurrection Rolls.   When you open them they are empty just like how the tomb of Christ was found on the morning of the third day.  I think this is a cute way of teaching the reason why we celebrate Easter and the resurrection of our Savior. 

(Picture and recipe taken from The Sisters' Cafe)

I plan on making this a tradition every year for Easter morning!

  Austin wore a very cute Easter outfit to church but pictures are still coming. 

When Daddy's in Charge...

...you get to 

wrestle,

sit on the counter while making pancakes,

 stay in pajamas all day long,

play video games,

 and wear cool sunglasses.

 No wonder Austin loves his Daddy so much.

Train Park

A few days ago, we got together with some families from Matthew's school and went to the Scottsdale Train Park. We planned a picnic dinner and enjoyed the beautiful weather. Austin is really into trains right now and loved to see and point to all the "choo choos."  It was such a cool park with a huge playground,a carousel and train to ride, and lots of grassy areas to run and play.  We all had a blast.  

Riding the Carousel. No need to tell you if he liked it!

Riding the Train

 The best attempt at a family picture. It was taken after our train ride. Austin wasn't too thrilled about having to get off the train.

And the park.

We will for sure be coming back!

What a Sport

We are teaching self confidence at a very young age:

Poor little guy has to put up with whatever Mommy dresses him up in. There is only so much you can do with boys!  We have been loving the pool lately and spent this afternoon with some friends. Even though there were lots of kids and toys to play with, Austin chose to spend most of the time away from everyone on a beach chair:

He did finally warm up to getting in the water:

Just look at that cute smile! He's a keeper, speedo and all.

Videos

Here is what Austin gets to do when he is sick:

We just can't seem to kick the sicknesses going around. Mostly he has this horrendous cough. Hopefully this sickness will pass quicker than the last time.

I wanted to post some videos of some non-sick times we have had.  Austin is really starting to talk and it's so cute.  He also just loves to babble too.  These videos are kinda long and not super exciting but of course I think they are adorable!

First Swim of the Year