Johnson Family Reunion

We just went to Hurricane, Utah for the Johnson family reunion. Cade and I decided to go a few days early to spend time with his parents who now live there. We have also been in the middle of house projects and were trying to finish them and get the house cleaned up before we left town; so we didn't get started driving until about 6 pm on Monday. Then we had to stop in Cottonwood to pick up a picnic table of his parents and have some dinner. We let Conner play outside for awhile before we started up again so we didn't really get going until 8:30. Conner soon fell asleep for the remainder of the drive and we arrived at 2:30 am. Of course once we got there Conner woke up and was full of energy and it took awhile to get him calm enough to go back to sleep. I thought it was a bit ridiculous to leave so late rather than wait until the morning but it was Cade's trip and he felt guilty for postponing a few hours so that's what we did.

"Helping" dad with the yard project. Conner recently found his bumbo and frequently enjoys sitting in it now.

Cade and I were hoping to sleep in on Tuesday but there was no such luck since no one else was around when Conner woke up at his normal time. After we took our time getting ready for the day, we went to visit Cade's dad and see how the construction is coming along at the boy's home they are helping start up. Then we visited with the Ewell grandparents for awhile. By that point Conner was thankfully ready for a nap so he and I went back to the house to sleep while Cade went on a drive with his grandpa to Bumblebee Mountain where he used to hunt. They had a good time catching up and they did it just in time because the next day a fire started around there and no one was allowed up there. After dinner we took Conner to a park that has a splash pad. Its a really nice thing to have in hot cities. He didn't like it at first so we just played on the regular park things, but then he warmed up to it and had fun walking through the water. Then Cade, his dad, and Sam went to help his uncles load bales of hay onto the truck. Conner enjoyed helping Sam drive through the fields.

On Wednesday the boys watched Sam play basketball and Tina, Katie and I went shopping for old furniture for Katie to redo. We didn't have much success, but luckily Katie took a walk in the afternoon and found an old chair someone was throwing away. She brought that home and we spent the afternoon trying to figure out how to get it apart. The boys went and laid sod at the boy's home and after dinner Cade and I walked down to a little shack to get a shaved ice. It wasn't quite as good as Bahama Bucks but it came in a close second, and was cheaper so we enjoyed that.

Riding bikes with grandpa Johnson

Jeter

On Thursday Cade, Conner, and I went on a quad ride to a waterfall. The 20 minute or so ride out was getting really hot, but Conner still managed to fall asleep. Once we got to the waterfalls it took Conner awhile to get in and enjoy himself. We're noticing he does not like cold water (no surprise since we both hate it) but he had fun once he made it in.

Hesitatingly walking to the falls

At the top

Playing with one of the MANY tadpoles swimming around

In the middle of the falls; there is another one you can jump down into but I didn't get a picture of that.

On a side note, Kameron and Katie had gone to the lake that morning and Cade asked me if I would rather do that. I've always disliked the idea of swimming in lakes, it just seems too dirty/gross to me. So of course I said I didn't want to go to the lake and it turns out it was a good decision. Kameron ended up getting "swimmer's itch" which is basically a bunch of bug bites all over that is really itchy. So now I have an actual reason for not wanting to swim in lakes and will continue to decline to do so.

The actual reunion began Thursday night so we drove up to Grafton, basically its an old historic site that has a couple of small buildings (old schoolhouse, house, etc.) on it. But right next to those historic sites is the land the Johnson family leases to run cows on and it has an area good for camping. So we had dinner and visited with cousins, aunts, uncles, and grandma Johnson. It seemed a little hot for being in a stuffy tent so we decided to just sleep in the bed of the truck and the temperature was perfect. It was so nice not having to deal with a tent.

Enjoying the tire swing

"What? I get to sleep back here!!"

Friday morning Cade and some cousins decided to go on what they thought was a short hike so they took the small children. Cade has a hiking pack to put Conner in. It sounded way too hot for me so I drove back to town with Grandma Johnson and Aunt Theresa and Tanya to run some errands. When I got back I found out that the hike was about twice as long as they had expected and was SUPER hot. Some people turned back but for some reason Cade decided to keep going since Conner fell asleep. Or as Cade put it, "he was either asleep or dead". I was glad to find my son still alive and glad that I had not decided to endure that adventure. Then we all went to swim in the river and cool off for awhile. The little kids liked catching baby frogs and playing in the sand. After lunch Conner really needed a nap and it was pretty hot out so I decided it was a good time to take a drive so I could go "number 2" in an actual toilet. This year they rented a porta potty but I despise using those and anytime I walk in one I just walk right out deciding that I don't need to go to the bathroom THAT bad. 

Playing in the river

From bottom to top: Jeter, Katie, Tanner, Sam, Cade, Conner

Logan taking a snooze in Natalie's lap

As expected Conner fell right asleep on the drive to the bathroom, but soon after we got back one of the horses "whinied," as Cade puts it, and Conner shot up and started imitating the noises. So then he was up and ready to ride. He LOVED riding the horses and wanted to do it over and over. When he wasn't doing that he was pushing a truck all over the place for HOURS. Basically Conner loved the trip because it involved all of his favorites: being outside, trucks, dogs and now horses. We have been working on making farm animal sounds and it was fun for him to hear the real thing and he got pretty good at his authentic horse and cow sounds.

Playing in the water trough

Playing in the sand pit

Saying hi to the cows

Riding a horse

Pushing that truck around

Riding with grandpa on the far right horse to bring in the cows

Tony taking things into his own hands and getting those cows where they need to be

We stayed up late into the night visiting with cousins and continued to do the same in the morning. Then it was over and we got home and took a nap. After getting all cleaned up again Cade and I went to the St. George temple. The sealer asked Cade when was the last time that he kissed me over the St. George alter and Cade told him he never had and that it was a sore subject. He told the sealer how his great-grandparents, grandparents, and parents had all gotten married there and that he had wanted to be the fourth generation, but instead I made us get married in Mesa. The sealer wasn't sympathetic and told him that he had gotten married in Mesa too. But now that we have kissed over the alter in the St. George temple, Cade says a lifelong dream is fulfilled. Now hopefully we can get past this bitter subject forever.

Conner giving Logan a hug

After the temple, we had dinner with the rest of Cade's immediate family and then played pickle ball. It's extremely popular in Utah and they have lots of courts for it. Then we continued on to get more shaved ice, came home, watched a movie, went to bed, got up and went to church, took family pictures, and drove home. Conner slept the first half of the way home and then was pretty happy. We stopped in Flagstaff for Cade to fix a computer at his office there. Shortly after getting on the road again Conner started getting bored so we put on a movie and he was content the rest of the time. He is such a good kid to travel with.

Jeter, Logan, Conner

It was nice to see everyone again and be able to get together at the same time now that all of Cade's immediate family is spread out in Globe, Scottsdale, Prescott Valley, Hurricane, and California.

All About Conner

The last 6 six weeks or so I've been working nearly everyday while my work filled a full time position so there hasn't been much excitement around here, and if there had been I wouldn't have had time to write about it. But our little guy has been growing so much lately so I thought I'd write about him. At his 18 month well visit Conner weighed 21.13 pounds falling into the 18th percentile and was 31 inches tall, growing into the 9th percentile for height. He has lost the little baby fat that he had and is just a skinny little guy now. When I see him in just his diaper he seems so tall and skinny to me, but clearly he's still pretty short.

 This is probably the last time I will get to see him squeeze into his little bucket :(

Working hard like his parents

Cade and I were eating dinner and I looked over and could only see the top of his head and wondered how he was so tall. He just sat there watching tv with only one wheel actually on the box. 

He has started talking a lot more. There's probably only 10-15 words that he really says but he imitates new words everyday. Since we only tend to hear those words once or twice I don't count them in his vocabulary. His first and still one of his favorite words was "uh-oh". He also frequently says "ease" (for please), daddy, mama, "ba" (ball), book, bubbles, truck, and doggy (which sounds just like daddy and you just have to know which one he is talking about). For a long time he said "eye" (hi) but then he started saying "hewo" (hello) instead. It drove me crazy when he was always saying hi and bubbles but NEVER bye bye when he had all the sounds, but he finally got that word down too. Months ago he defiantly said "no" to me twice but then dropped that and hasn't said it again. Now he always says uh-uh (or however you spell the negative of that) and we have to interpret when he really means yes or uh-huh. The other day he put his first two words together "daddy bye bye". And the most impressive speech thing he has done was at dinner the other night when I told him to fold his arms to pray he said "dear heavenly father":) Of course it wasn't very clear, I'm mean none of those words are even in his vocabulary but he used completely the correct intonation and syllables at just the right moment and we didn't even say it first. Can you tell what my profession is by my high interest in his speech? And I have to give a shout out to Richelle and her wise words to Cade and getting him on board with getting rid of the bottle. Conner is now bottle free. However we are still struggling to get liquids into this kid who has very little interest in drinking. If anyone has any suggestions I'm all ears, he only drinks about one sippy cup an entire day.

 Enjoying a little shaving cream fun

And now enjoying a little whipped cream. I must think he is extra cute in this shirt since I seem to only take pictures of him when he wears it.

Conner's molluscum contagiosum is almost gone. He just has a few papules left on his arms but his back is finally all clear. As it was going away though it turned into molluscum dermatitis, basically really bad excema. He scratches at it alot and after finding his back all bloody after a nap one day we got some prescription creams to get rid of it. Weeks later it is looking much better but he is still having flare ups and scratching at times.

He still loves climbing, but thankfully he has also gotten more obedient and usually only climbs on things he can handle. He can climb up and flop into a playpen but thankfully he hasn't figured out how to get into or out of his crib yet. He loves playing with other kids and the other day after I told him his friend was coming over he stood at the window whining until she arrived. He also LOVES dogs and being outside. He also is getting assertive about what he wears. He has this one pair of striped socks and whenever he sees them he MUST wear them. He won't let anything else go on his feet. So we have to hide them in the dirty clothes so that he doesn't notice them until they're clean again. Sometimes he also insists on putting on a certain pair of pajama pants, even if its on top of the pants he's already wearing.

Enjoying his time at the Fathers and Sons campout

Loving on Elsa, the Van Dyks dog. We stayed the weekend at their house and every time Conner woke up in the morning or from a nap he looked all over for her and gave her hugs. 

Nursery is going well. He never has any problems and we even went to a different ward one Sunday and they said he was great. We usually have to sit with him for about 3 minutes and then sneak out. I don't think he would need us to stay at all except that his nursery starts with all the kids doing puzzles quietly in the beginning and Conner is not interested in puzzles so its a little hard to get him excited to be in there right away. We started using Love and Logic with Conner, its a certain parenting/disciplining style. Its been working really well and everyone who babysits him tells me how great he is. I had to smile tonight when my friend told me this story: Some young women were watching our kids, plus some others, while we were in a class and she heard her kid screaming. So she left to go get him and the young women started telling her how great Conner was being! She said she didn't know why they had to rub it in. I thought it was pretty funny. But I probably just cursed myself and now he'll be a rotten monster.  

 We took some family pictures but Conner was a beast and would not cooperate at all. It really sucked, so we didn't get too many pictures. I really like this one for some reason, but it isn't too flattering to Cade.

Conner has become such a snuggler. I LOVE it. He gives hugs and kisses all the time.

This is the ONLY real family picture we got and it isn't great. You can see the frustration all over my face.

We just love our little guy and all the new things he is doing, but we're both sad that he is growing so fast.

Softball Injury

Cade has joined a softball team in our town with a bunch of guys from our ward. He's lucky he was allowed on the team because they are a bit hardcore and essentially hold try outs. In my opinion the whole thing was dumb because its all the guys who have been on the team for years plus Cade and one other person who tried out. But they needed two more people anyway so why bother with try outs? Anyway, he was excited to make the cut.

During the last practice before their first game Cade was being an outfielder. He went to catch a low flying fly ball and as he went to "trap" the ball it came in and smashed his finger. (For those of you who are as unfamiliar with sports vernacular as I am, "trapping" is apparently when you catch a ball with both your glove and free hand, to trap it in the glove.) So he jammed his finger really good and his his nail got ripped back. Its kind of funny that he purposely clipped his fingernails before the practice just so something like that wouldn't happen, but it did anyway. Luckily, he was smart and took his ring off immediatly because it soon swelled up really bad.

Somebody on the team was prepared with some bandages. They wrapped up his finger and he continued playing for another half hour or so. He said it just immediately went numb and didn't start hurting until after he came home. As you can see blood was squirting everywhere and he had it all over his arm, his clothes and even some on the outside of the car. Funny story about that: I was at the paint store later that day and notice a painter parked next to me and then leave later. When I got to my car I saw this red paint on the car and was so annoyed at this painter. I scraped it off with my finger and licked my finger a few times to really "wash" it off. Then I get home and tell Cade about it and he informs me that was his blood I was licking. Yummy.

Its just starting to swell up at this time.

Here you can see how his nail if halfway off and his finger is more swollen. We didn't get any really good pictures of the swelling but it was about twice its normal size. And it kept bleeding and oozing for about 4 days.

Mr. and Mrs. Entrekin

Ashley and Blake got married over Easter weekend in the Mt. Timpanogos temple. Its a shame they picked that weekend because then Cade and I missed the annual Lake Mead trip, but such is life and we were all able to carry on :)

 
Its getting more difficult to fly with Conner. He no longer falls asleep on the plane even if he is very tired and of course he hates sitting there and wants to climb all over everything. It wasn't too bad on the flight there because we intentionally booked seats behind the Jensens and Conner got to climb back and forth, but the way home was a bit of a challenge.  The Jensens and R.J. and Jen flew home together Saturday night, but we flew home Sunday morning so there wasn't anyone for Conner to climb to.

We arrived Friday, the day before the wedding, and it was super cold. And I was so mad at myself for not even thinking about bringing my nice coat for the wedding. I hardly ever have a reason to wear it and here was the most perfect reason and I didn't even bring it. But thankfully the next day was great weather and I didn't even need a jacket so I was no longer mad at myself. We had a nice dinner with family and close friends on Friday night. Thankfully for Cade and I, grandpa and grandma sat with us and they helped take turns entertaining Conner and that was no easy task. He had no desire to sit and eat peacefully with us. Sarah pointed out to me later that every time she looked over at our table someone was missing because they were off with Conner.

Saturday morning a few of us went and got the clubhouse decorated for the reception. Luckily Ashley kept things fairly low key so there wasn't a ton of set up involved. As we were all loading up in the cars to head over to the temple Cade informed me that he left his recommend at the hotel. Typical. I wasn't going to risk missing the wedding so I went with Carol Ann. Luckily Conner fell asleep on his drive over and Emma was so kind and sat in the car with him and just waited for us  to come out. I was beginning to think Cade wouldn't make it in time, but he did, with about 5 minutes to spare. And surprisingly he wasn't the last to arrive.

After the ceremony we decided to take advantage of the beautiful scenery and take a few pictures. Is it just me or does anyone else feel like Utah gets some of the prettiest temples?

At the reception they had a crepe bar with lots of delicious toppings. It was really good, I was bummed I only had time to eat 2. I really wanted more, but its difficult to eat such things while dealing with a 16 month old in a crowded place. Luckily, I got a stash of goods from the candy table for later. I had a good time visiting with family that live in Utah, and California, and Oregon that I don't get to see very often.

I've always known Conner had my lips, but I didn't realize we had the same goofy smile until I saw this picture.

A few weeks later the newlyweds had an open house in Mesa. This one was more fun because I knew almost everyone and got to visit with old friends from the ward and catch up with my prettiest cousins (who in fact are the inspiration for this post and the next 3 that I promised them :) We're also still enjoying our cheese cakes.

Conner had such a great time hanging out with his cousins after the festivities. He happily stayed up until 10:30, but he was not so happy during church the next morning.