Denver

So this last week Dan was in Boston for work.  A few days before, I'd asked my parents if we could stay at their house for a day or two while he was gone.  Instead we ended up going out to Denver with them to visit my brother and his family.  We had so much fun.  It was a seven hour drive with Atticus and my parents and the kid handled it like a champ.  He was happy and played and entertained himself and was fun.  We only made one stop for about 20 minutes in Laramie, Wyoming where I let the kid roam about with no pants.  On top of that, he only slept about 45 minutes the whole time and then we went straight to church where he was still chipper.  Anyway, my brother, Jonathan, has the best wife ever, and two of the cutest kids ever.  We had so much fun.  On Sunday Jenny (Jonathan's wife) made us a huge, delicious dinner and then we hung out laughing and the kids had cousin bath.

He was so good on the drive.  He loved the binoculars and Jonathan's giant bear.

 Our pants-less stop in Wyoming

Cousin bath!  Anna enjoyed putting bubbles on Atticus' head. 

Monday, Jonathan had to go study for his boards for med school and we went to the pool.  They have the best little pool in their neighborhood.  It has a regular pool and then a huge zero entrance pool with water spouts and squirt guns.  Atticus was in heaven.  He sat by a little water spout for hours and then every once and a while he'd crawl into the pool until buoyancy would take over and I'd have to help him back out. He also loved just floating around in the tube we borrowed from Jen, and he loved jumping off the side of the pool into the water.  It was a little breezy and so his teeth would be chattering and he still didn't want to get out of the water.  The pool wiped the kiddo out.  He was falling asleep before we even left.

The kids ran around on the blow-up bed until all the air was out.

 While Atticus had his morning nap, the kids played baseball with Grandma.  I took a million pictures and they were all just so dang cute.

 Great batting stance.

 He held the bat this way but then would wait for the ball to stop and golf it.

 I could eat her up!

 Anna pitching to Grandma.

Jonah's turn to pitch. 

 Look at that bum!

 At the pool where he camped out for the day.  Jen gave him some cups and it was like they were the greatest invention ever made.

 He was so brave and loved jumping into the pool.

 Relaxing and enjoying some lunch.

Playing with Grandpa.  This may be the closest I've ever seen my dad to getting into the pool. 

He wore himself out and could barely keep his eyes open.

So we got back and he napped while I played bubbles with Anna and Jonah.  They are so funny.  Anna is super smart and loves to think about and discuss everything.  Jonah is a wild boy and loves to copy everything his big sister does.  He copies Atticus too, crawling around and growling.  Then we went to an early dinner and Atticus had near panic attacks over the fish tank at the restaurant and then we went outside and chased bunnies.  There are apparently bunnies everywhere in Denver and Atticus would start sniffing as hard as he could (his bunny sound) and try to touch them.  Dinner was delicious, though I think Jonah enjoyed his ketchup the most.

Bubbles!

We all got dolled up to go eat.  Anna expertly "helped" me with my makeup.

 Jonah being a turd.  Although my son was more of a turd.

"Ladies." 

Jonah and Grandma 

 Chasing bunnies at the restaurant, Atticus freaking out over seeing bunnies out the window, and Jonah with his ketchup licking face.

 After we got back from the restaurant, the kids rode bikes.  Atticus thought he was the coolest.

 Off on an adventure.

 Playing on the rocks by the stream.

The next morning, Anna came down while Atticus and I were having breakfast.  Atticus woke up at 5 every morning out there...  She talked to me about her cousins (Stef's kids) whom she adores, and I blew her mind when I told her they were Atticus' cousins too.  Then the kids played for a few hours and we headed back to Utah around 11.

This fish tank may have been the greatest thing to happen to Atticus.

 Ice Cream!

I call these next three "Envy".

We went through Price on the way home so it was a longer drive, but Atticus still did amazing.  No crying at all.  And the drive was gorgeous through he mountains.  I was so tired but fought sleep just to look out the window.  I highly recommend that drive.  At least until you get to Utah and then it's pretty boring.  We stopped at this adorable little town called Glenwood Springs and watched the Amtrak train go through and got some ice cream.  Then we stopped at my sister's house in Spanish Fork to see all of her cute kids.  Stef wasn't there but the kids just swarmed Atticus and he just wanted to touch little Jersi.  And then as we left, four year old Dayton called me a droopy boobie.  I wet myself a little over that.

He slept a lot better on the drive home.

He was so fast to figure out how to open these, though he did not go for anything tasty. 

 He did enjoy his ice cream however.

He loved the Amtrak train. 

We got back to my parents' house, where we stayed the night and finally got to Skype with Dan!  Atticus was so happy.  He wouldn't stop blowing Dan kisses and kissing my phone.

Sans the pictures, this was a pretty boring post.  But we really had so much fun in Denver.  I don't see my brother, Jen, and those kids near enough.

Our Lives Lately

Playing quick catch-up on what has been going on at the Bronson house etc since Spring began.

Easter at our house was fun.  A train!  This is the best train ever p.s. 

His Easter outfit. 

 He spent the next week sorting Easter grass.

We went to see Dan's sister Sheri's art show at BYU.  This is the only picture I have of Atticus playing with his cute Uncle A.J. and daddy.  Sheri did some paintings of Sherlock Holmes, portraying his different emotions.  They were awesome!

On May 2, my Grandpa Joe passed away.  He got really sick in January and just never recovered.  My grandpa was such a sweet and hilarious man.  He married my granny when I was seven and took such good care of her and my Aunt Jenny, who has Down's Syndrome.  He was always teasing and having fun with us.  The highlight of going to a Jazz game was going to visit him.  I think one of my favorite memories was his reaction when we threw him a surprise party for his 80th birthday.  It was just such a sweet moment.  He loved Atticus.  He even "passed on his good looks and lady wooing ways" to him.  I love and miss him.  This is a picture of Dayton from the day of the funeral.  I failed to take any other pictures of that day as Atticus was such a grump the entire time.

 This is us about 3 years ago at a Jazz game.  Love him.

Girlfriend and I got our feathers put back in our hair.  (Finally)  And then I chopped off all my hair two days later.

Dan and I celebrated our fourth anniversary.  We went to The Melting Pot in Salt Lake because we are party animals.  The cheese appetizer and the dessert were amazing.  I nearly died.  The main course was meh.  We're not so great at cooking our own food apparently.  We had also just gotten new phones the day before so we were being doofy with the cameras.

We went up to the Bronson's cabin for Memorial Day.  Atticus loved 4-wheeling.  So much so that he fell asleep on one of our longer trips.

My nerdy family 

 He was not amused by Mother Nature.

 He is a little afraid of Papa Jon.  Whenever he'd wake up from his nap, Jon would go get him and he would get so nervous.  Jon wasn't helping as he would be weird and sneak in to him with creepy voices.  "I'm baaaack!".  Atticus looks all sweet and cuddly here but he was actually stiff as a board with terror.

 The Bronson's have the most perfect tree swing.  We could've spent all afternoon on it.

I quit my job.  So that's cool.  I will miss my friends and my students but I'm pretty pleased about spending all my time with this kid.  (He was helping me clean out my classroom)

We've spent lots of time at parks.  Atticus loves swing, playing in wood chips and throwing himself down slides.

 This was his first experience with sand and he found it fascinating.  He was very focused on it.

 We got to go visit one of my most favorite people, Jennifer, and her baby Laila, whom Atticus will one day marry.  They are only a week apart but they had never met as Juju lives way too far away in Phoenix.  Laila is so cute and has the best facial expressions.  She is such a big girl too.  She actually walks around and chews her food unlike a little boy I know.  They had fun and it was so good to see my friend.  I realized how much I've missed her at that visit.  The kids jumped on the tramp.  All the pictures I have with Laila in it are blurry.  Also Jenn's family has a puppy and Atticus was in a complete, almost panicked state of joy.  He let that dog jump all over him and chased him throughout the house.

 Then Juj and I went overboard taking a million pictures of them together.  Atticus was a little wired and he kept blowing kisses as well.  Laila thought he was a weirdo.

I love this one of her cute expression and little tush stuck out.  

 We are getting ready to move.  Again.  This will be the fifth house in four years.  We had no intention of moving (just like last time when they raised our rent by 20%) but a guy Dan works with has a cousin who was being transferred out of state so they wanted to rent out their new house.  They were willing to match our current rent, it's much bigger and has a yard with frogs and snakes for Atticus to catch!  And it's close to Dan's office.  So we are moving.  I am quite sick of renting.  We keep thinking we'll only be here one more year so we don't think it's smart to buy a house and then we end up here for another year.  We will be here another year and a half at least as Dan's work is paying for him to get his master's.  But after that, it's quite possible we'll get transferred out to their main office or whatever.  Anyway, the place is in Nibley which is a small farm-filled town south of Logan.  Oh and the views are gorgeous.  I'm not excited to be packing and moving again, but I think this will be good.  Atticus has loved the packing process.