Long time no blog

Well, if I still even have anybody checking my blog, bless you! It's been over a month, which might as well be a year in blogging time. No news is definitely good news for us, we've just been enjoying summer way too much, and plus I usually like to blog after Cole is in bed, and lately Tyler and I have been pretty busy doing yardwork and things around the house that it's kind of taken priority. But no worries, you will be caught up after I am done here!


I have been looking forward to this summer break, to spend all day every day with Cole, and it has exceeded my expectations. There is nothing in the world I'd rather be doing than raising my little boy or being with my husband. They are just so much fun! I spend my whole day laughing with Cole, then look forward to hanging out with my sweet hubby when he gets home from work. Life is great.


So, here's something we did recently as a family, we went to the Oquirrh Mountain Temple Open House. Although a very hot day, we loved getting to see the beautiful new temple and we even bumped into our friend Emily and her cute little baby Bella. If you haven't gone, make reservations and go! Open house ends Aug. 1.
So now the rest of these are in order, starting with back in June after Cole's birthday. Cole loves pretzels. They keep him occupied for many minutes.

I love kissing that nose!

We are so grateful for our season passes to Lagoon, and we've been going whenever we can. Cole can ride the carousel and the train, although he hates it when the animals go up and down on the carousel. It's a little scary.

Doing okay now...just don't start the ride!

We were able to meet up with our Oregon family in Reno for the rodeo, it was so much fun! We stopped by Cabela's and Cole loved this little chair that was just his size.

Also loved seeing the huge fish.

Here we are with Grandma Lisa at the rodeo! Unfortunately, he was a little wiggly this night and we didn't get to stay in the stands for very long.

Waving to the horseys.

We drove up to Virginia City on Father's Day, it's this great little town that used to be the center of everything back in the old west/saloon days. It still has all the old shops and charm. So fun to walk around.

Cole didn't want to get off the horse!

We drove home at night while Cole was sleeping, and the next day he was so excited to wake up to more birthday presents that we had brought back from our Oregon family! He loves his new motorbike and loves to get on, push the button, get off, and repeat. This is him helping Tyler open the gift from Nana and Grandpa.

Yay, a box! His Great-Grandpa Petersen built this for him, just like he used to for his grandkids. Tyler has an exact copy (except it says Tyler of course) at the foot of our bed in our bedroom. So it's really meaningful to us!
Okay, here we are! Going to try the carousel again!

Oh no it's moving up and down, save me! This really cracks me up because he so brave at many other things, I don't know what it is about this ride that bugs him :) Much better. A stationary swan.

Grandma, Tegan, and her friend Bailey came with us to Lagoon one day. At least he loves the train rides!

Just a great picture. You can even see his 2 bottom teeth! He also has his top left one, working on his top right (hence all the drool).

So I've been really into getting Cole into these art projects and letting him experiment with things. This was his first time using paint! I invited over some neighbor kids, put down some butcher paper, put tempera paint in pie tins with brushes and let them have at it! They ended up taking off their shoes and sticking their feet in and walking around on the paper. I loved it! I love big messy art things. Cole did too :)

Tyler is the Scoutmaster for our ward, and he was trying out his new cot before packing for his week-long scout camp. Cole decided that looked like fun.

While Tyler was on his week-long trip, I went home to spend the time with my family in Neola. We had the best week. Here's Cole sitting on Sundance before the Kid's Rodeo on July 3rd. He loved that horn.

Tegan was in the Grand Entry, and she did a great job! She looks so cute up there on her big horse.

Tyler, dad, and I ran in the Neola 4th of July half-marathon. After the first 4 miles, it was all downhill so we were all pretty excited about our finishing times! Tyler took off and finished a half hour before dad and I. I loved running it with dad though, the time went by pretty fast. After the race, they had a parade.

There were some loud fire trucks in the parade.

Cole got to ride on Sundance with Christine after the parade. He loved it!

That night, we went up to the cabin for dinner. It's so beautiful up there, this river goes right by it. We loved throwing rocks in.

Grandpa helping Cole throw rocks.

Love this.

Family.

Tyler had to take off later that night to get back in time for Scout camp. It was sad to say bye for a whole week, but I was glad I got to hang out at home. Here he is getting his bike ready to go!

Cole loved playing on Grandma's slide.

And he REALLY loved riding the four-wheeler! I didn't mind taking him for rides at all.

We also got to spend some time with our sweet Grandma Bliss. Cole and her really get a kick out of each other, it's so fun seeing them interact!

I love this lady.

Another rodeo - we went to Vernal's Dinosaur Round-Up and had a blast! Cole kind of knew about the rodeo thing now I think because he sat through the entire 2 hour thing! He loved seeing the horses and bulls, and there was a little boy his size that sat behind us that he would play with a little too. What a cute little cowboy!

Watching all the fun with Tegan and her friend Makensie.

This is what cracked me up, he wanted to sit by himself on the bleachers in front of me next to Uncle Parker. He would just sit and watch! He's never been into that before. Such a big boy now!

This was the little boy behind us that he became quite good friends with. Cole was just chillin, leaning back on the bleachers, when he came over and gave him this big kiss! Cute.

After getting back home from my wonderful week with my family, Cole and I hit up another parade, this one in our downtown Farmington. They hold it the weekend between the 4th and 24th, and it was a really great parade. Cole was really into it. He kicked me out of the chair! He loved sitting up there and seeing the entries go by.

This is after playing the mud, I mean helping mommy water the flowers.

He's getting better at feeding himself with a spoon, it's just too hard to not ditch the spoon and play in it with my hands! We have too much fun at mealtime I think.

We had our good friends the Binghams over last week, Trina has 4 adorable kids and we had a great time getting messy on the deck. This is Alex, her youngest, sitting with Cole on the chair. They got along great! Here's my birthday cake! I had a terrific birthday thanks to my hubby. He let me take a long nap after church, then made me yummy steak dinner and cake. It was low-key and relaxing, exactly what I love.

My presents! A killer rocking chair from Oregon (thanks so much!), a gorgeous gardenia bush, and a sweet card from TP. Love it all!

Just wanted to throw these in, they were from a bath last week. Too cute to pass up!

Thanks for reminiscing this past month with me :)