~Weekend Getaway~

This past weekend we got out of town for a little, much-needed vacation. We headed up to Flagstaff on Friday afternoon to stay the night before heading to the Grand Canyon on Saturday. My parents were flying in from Canada to meet us there for the adventure. So as soon as Kevin got off work on Friday, we loaded up and headed out of town. We got up to Flagstaff at dinnertime and so we popped into a hometown burger joint, Bun Huggers, that was recommended by a good friend. It did not disappoint. And even if we hadn't been told about it, we probably would have gone just for the name!! :-) After dinner, we checked into our hotel and then went for a swim. This was Barrett's first real time going for a swim, with his cute little swim trunks, not just a dip of the toes! He didn't really seem to care one way or the other. The girls just wanted to swim in the "mommy/daddy pool" (aka the hot tub), which they weren't allowed to!

After the swim, and quick baths, we headed down to the firepit they had in the courtyard of the hotel. The girls thought it was pretty cool to sit by the fire, but they REALLY thought it was cool when a complete stranger came up and said she had all the fixins for s'mores!! Yummo....it was so kind of her to share with all of us. The girls absolutely loved it....we probably should have waited to give them tubs until after the sticky treat, but oh well!

My parents arrived at the hotel after all the kids were asleep so they were all excited to see each other first thing on Saturday morning. My mom brought Barrett this adorable hat! As you can see, he enjoyed gettin' down with his bad self right away!! :-)

And then it was on to THE GRAND CANYON!!! I had never been there. Kevin went once when he was ten. If you have never been, and have only seen pictures....you just have to go and experience it in person. It. Is. Amazing! For reals. It is so HUGE and magnificent and breathtaking and beautiful and....I could go on and on. And it is definitely not something you can experience in just one day. That's all the time we had AND we had 3 small children, so I feel like we experienced it the best we could given our circumstances...but I definitely want to go back some day when our kids are a bit older (once we don't have to pack diapers bags but before they're teenagers and think it's too boring!!) so we can enjoy it a bit more. Seriously, if you have the opportunity, go. see. the Grand Canyon!

The rest of the quick visit from my parents, the kids just enjoyed having Gramma and Papa around! We went went to church, played in the rain, wore silly hats, went shopping, played at the mall play area, had lunch at the mall and went out for dinner. We crammed alot into our weekend but we sure had fun doing it!

Thanks Mom and Dad for a fun visit! The kids miss you tons and tons!

::Miss Sassy Pants::

Otherwise known as Payton...but more commonly called "Stinker Jae" at this present juncture in her life! She is sassy through and through these days. We hope this phase passes soon...but it's not likely, I'm sure! She IS, after all, a girl...and we have yet to hit her teenage years. Definitely something to look forward to!! ;-) Oh. Boy.

--Transformation--

It's finally time for Barrett to move out of our room and into his own room. So Alexa's old room needed to go from THIS:

To THIS:

And finally, to THIS:

Out went the Princess (peptobismol) Pink, and in came the Arizona Navy Blue. One of the hygienists that works with Kevin had this huge stencil for the Arizona block 'A' so we spent hours and hours and even more hours on our own 'A' for Barrett's room. We're quite happy with how it turned out. And a special thanks to both my mom and Kevin's mom for the beautiful UofA themed quilts they made for our sweet boy!

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So there ya have it - Barrett's Wildcat Nursery!

(we still have a couple projects in the works for his room, so stay tuned!!)

*Lovin' on Baby*

We do a lot of this these days! The girls love to hold their baby brother, they love to give him toys and are always willing to share their own loveys and stuffed animals with him. I sure hope they always continue to love and adore each other!

..::A Visit From Our Pieps::..

The Piepgrass Family (aka the "Pieps") came to visit us for the past few weeks. This is my sister, Jenn's family. It had been 2 1/2 years since we last saw them and we were soooooo excited for their visit. They drove all the way from the Great White North and we're so thankful that they did. They got here just in time to spend the 4th of July with us! And what a star-spangled good time we had!! :-)

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I made my traditional cake, Jenn made a red, white and blue punch and I made teriyaki burgers for the 2nd year in a row. I think we'll make that a tradition as well. We also had Kevin's brother, Duane, and his family over again this year too....lots of family = lots of fun!! We loved it!

Let's see...I have now known my brother-in-law, Steve, for over 17 years...and I think, at least when we're in the same vicinity anyways, there hasn't been a time when I have developed a roll of film (I know, I know...totally dating myself), or downloaded pictures from my camera, only to find a most glorious up-close, mug-shot-esque picture of Stevie P.! And this time was NO different!! I had a little fun playing around with it a bit on picnik.com! Thanks Steve for making my picture developing/downloading over the years a surprising experience!

While the Pieps were here...fun times were had by all. We spent a LOT of time at the pool! It was so nice to have the extra help so my kids could actually enjoy going to the pool this summer! I've been feeling a little bit overwhelmed with how I was going to get this done with THREE kiddos. Alexa, Max & Norah also took swimming lessons from a girl we know at church and they loved it, they all made big improvements!

We spent a lot of time just hangin' out. After 2 1/2 years, it was just nice to be together. It's easier in this day and age to feel like you stay in touch a lot more, what with Facebook, email, Skype, etc. etc....but it's still nice to be able to visit in person! And my girls absolutely loved and adored their cousins! They had so much fun with them and were always wanting to do what they were doing!

We even got a much needed date night out of it since we had FREE babysitters staying with us!! It was perfect! So we took Jenn and Steve to The Gaslight Theatre. As you know from previous posts, we absolutely LOVE Gaslight and any opportunity we get to go, we take it! This particular show did NOT disappoint and we're so glad Jenn and Steve enjoyed it too!

Ever since we moved into this house, I've been wanting, needing, dreaming about...shelves in my garage! And guess what...while my super-talented BIL was here, he made that dream come true. Kevin and I were both flabbergasted by his engineering mind...he literally went into the garage and took 3 or 4 measurements, then took about 10 minutes and had it all drawn up, amounts of wood, tools needed, everything! So off Kevin and Steve went to buy materials and then spent a couple afternoons working on our project. When all was said and done, they had about 6 inches of scrap wood left over. WOW! And thank you sooooooo sooooooooo much. I absolutely, WE absolutely love the extra storage space in our garage!!

Then we absolutely had to take the Pieps for amazing Mexican food at Mi Nidito's in South Tucson. It's pretty much our go-to place when out-of-town visitors come!

And last, but certainly not least, we all ventured to the Desert Museum. It's a fun place to take my family especially, since the desert is not something the average Canadian gets to experience on a regular basis!

We crammed a lot into the 2 1/2 weeks our Pieps were here, but we sure had fun! We look forward to their visit again next year!! :-) Thanks so much you guys for making the LOOOOONG drive down to see us!

Say It Ain't So...

We have another thumb-sucker on our hands! Who needs a binky when the thumb is permanently attached???

..::Barrett: 3 Months::..

Bubba is 3 MONTHS old!!

We love our little man more than anything! He started giggling this past month and "talking". He's so alert and gives us the biggest smiles. He discovered his hands and they apparently are the most tasty treat for him these days as he constantly is trying to fit his entire fists into his mouth!! He loves to be held and there were definitely lots of extra willing people the past few weeks to hold him! He was in heaven! We are so blessed to have little bubba man in our family!

~Let Freedom Ring~

Love,

The Mortensons

OH CANADA...

**Side note: I still have more to update from the month of June,

but thought I'd get this cute picture up on the actual day!**

:: Fun In The Sun ::

Our good friends, the Gardeas, are moving this weekend. :-( So we've been getting together as much as possible this week before we don't see them as often. They're only moving 2 hours away, but we're SURE going to miss them. When you find a good friend, that you get along with sooooo well, and then you have kids that are the same ages and get along also...well, it just bites when that good friend has to move. Anyways, we had a GREAT time at the splash park today with said good friends. I'm bummed that I didn't get any pictures of all the kids together though. Pictures or not, just know, Gardea Family, that we will miss you bunches and bunches and bunches!!

..::Barrett: Two Months::..

Wowza...you've beefed up just a bit my little man!!

Two Month Stats:

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Height: 24 1/4" (98th percentile)

Weight: 15 lbs (98th percentile)

Head: 42 cm (off the charts!)

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So this is what has gone down this past month:

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*May 23rd - smiled for the first time

*May 27th - went to first UofA sporting event (baseball game)

*June 5th - Blessing Day

*June 17th - 2 Month check up, got shots (you were so brave)

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We just all love and adore Barrett soooooo much! He's such a good, happy baby. He has his fussy times in the evening, but other than that, he cries when he needs something, hungry, diaper change, sleep. We are so grateful he's a part of our family.

~Smiles~

Look who's smiling and "talking"!!! I am LOVING this new stage!

::Mortenson Family Party::

This past weekend was supposed to be the Mortenson Family Camp Out...however, due to all the forest fires in the State, the camp out got cancelled. But everyone still wanted to get together. So we all ventured up to Phoenix and went bowling. I think everyone had a great time!

Marial even got a strike!!!!

Payton wanted NOTHING to do with the camera...silly girl!

All of the Mortenson grandkids together at one time....quite a goodlookin' bunch, don't ya think?!! :-)

After bowling, we all went over to Darron & Ann's house for lunch, then most of us parted ways for an afternoon siesta, and then back to Darron & Ann's for swimming and dinner. Fun times had by all!!!

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Look at these cute cousins: Hadley & Payton.

And Mr. Barrett just sat idly by, watching everything, just takin' it all in.

And to top off the fun-filled day, the kids got to crack open a pinata!!!

I'm so grateful for the family I married into. Thanks Mortensons for a great day. It's sure fun to spend time with family!