Lake Powell 2011

How could we miss the chance to go to Lake Powell this year?? It was great weather besides a little wind at times but the water was breath taking for sure. It was rising so fast that we had to move the anchors on the house boat several times while we were there. We had an awesome beach to play on and fun rocks to climb too.

Denzil wanted to hold the flag on his own. Every time he saw me trying to hang on to it he would move my hand.

This mother duck and her ducklings came by the houseboat a few times for some bread. I couldn't believe that there were 10 ducklings!

Denzil slept pretty well most nights but when it was chilly he came to sleep with us.
Cute redheads!
The water was a bit chilly for Denzil's liking but he enjoyed playing in the sand and walking in the water. We got him all the way in the water once but he wasn't very excited about it.
He liked the wave runners and the boat.
And of course the popcorn and movie night. He loved the popcorn the most but I did hear him say the that movie was "kinda silly."

There was a bonfire a couple nights and smores one of those times. Oh, and a sweet "indian" fire dance to go along with it.

When we walked up closer to this rock Denzil yelled out "Temple!" It was so cute I had to take a picture to remember it.

Lake Powell is probably my favorite vacation spot and I'm so glad we were able to make it again this year. Hopefully we'll be able to keep it up in the future!

Utah

We were lucky enough to go to Utah for nearly 3 weeks for Kris to study for his the second part of his medical testing. We had fun visiting with family and trying to see some of the places we love, like Wheeler Farm! Denzil loved seeing all the animals and being up close to them.

We made a trip to Hogle Zoo with some cousins which was lots of fun too. They had some dinosaurs set up throughout the park and Denzil is just starting to really like dinosaurs.
We made 2 trips down to Moroni to see the horses and just be in a place we like to be. Kris was able to get some horse time in and manual labor in too. Denzil loved the horses and feeding them hay. He got to ride Micah 2 times and he loved the mule too.


We visited some grave sites for Memorial Day and ran into some family we don't see very often which was nice.
Denzil and I went to the dinosaur museum at Thanksgiving Point too which was a blast!
Drove up Little Cottonwood Canyon to check out the snow pack and lets just say, there is a lot of snow up there in those mountains!
We drove up the canyon by our cabin to see how the snow was up there and we saw a little herd of elk! Too bad Denzil was sleeping. He has a very good elk call!
This is Fairview Lakes. Needless to say we couldn't drive into the cabin. Maybe they will be able to for the 4th of July.
Denzil loves his aunt Justine and uncle Eric and really just all of the family. He talks about them all the time.

Remember the lambs from our trip last May? Well, here they are now. 2 of the 6 died but 4 are getting big and may be ready to share their fatness in the late fall.
My dad just bought this side-by-side and we took it for a spin up Maple Canyon. It was a little bouncy for baby but not bad. I think it will be a fun thing to have.
Denzil was a great traveler and we had a fabulous time with our family and friends. Now back to real life and waiting for baby to arrive!

Pilot Mountain

Last Saturday was beautiful so we decided to take a little hike. We didn't actually get out there until the afternoon because we had to get our garden planted.

On the car ride up to Pilot Mountain I put Denzil's sunglasses on him (the right way) and he likes to play with them a lot. When it got quiet in the back, this is what we saw. He is sleeping if you can't tell and it was so cute!

We took a hike that started at the park office because there was no room at the top and it is one of the longer hikes in the park. It was about 6 miles round trip and Denzil did great. He loves riding in the backpack but I could tell that 6 miles is probably close to his limit. We took him out for a few minutes at the top and he wasn't too excited to be put back in but that only lasted for a minute and then he got back in the groove.
The view from the top. It was a wonderful hike and we are looking forward to more this summer.

Lazy5Ranch

So I am a member of the Disney movie club and often there are stickers that come in the stuff they send in the mail. Denzil loves stickers so we finished off the stickers by putting some on his face. He was so cute that I left them on him for a trip to Costco!

Now on to the Lazy5Ranch. A bunch of friends got together and made the trek. By having a bigger group it made the cost a lot cheaper and who doesn't like being with friends?! This is a cute little baby pig. The only thing that boggled our minds was how they could care for so many little pigs because every single one of the mama pigs looked like she was prego with her belly dragging on the ground!

We did a wagon ride through the ranch and had a bucket with pellets to feed to the animals. We fed an Emu, some llama's, a cow elk, some deer, some type of cow with a really long tongue that would open its mouth and you just drop the food in there, and some others that I don't remember right now. We also saw Zebra's which they said bite so we didn't feed them anything.
The brown one on the right is the one that we fed I think. I couldn't get a picture while we were doing it because Denzil would have been out of that wagon in a jiffy trying to pet the animals.
We also got to feed Giraffes! This one is a baby one and it wasn't too fond of Denzil's jumpy movements but I got to give it a few handfuls of that pellets.
Then there was a petting zoo after the wagon ride that Denzil loved! We would start to walk away and he'd run back to touch and see the sheep and goats one more time.
There were some birds too that he loved to look at and watch them fly in the cage and climb it too.

And of course, let's not forget the swings. He could and would sit in a swing all day if I let him. he had such a great time being with friends and playing outside and seeing animals. Then next thing I'd like to do with him is take him to the zoo. Maybe next week.

Easter camping

Since we live in the south, Good Friday was a day off for Kris. So, we decided to go camping with some of our friends. I bought this sweet Mickey Mouse (Mickemee Mouse according to Denzil) for our little guy so he could have a seat at the campfire. We had a great time just hanging out with friends and being out in the woods of Virginia.

We did our Easter baskets up there. Good thing we have friends that are so creative. Here is Denzil looking for his basket. I hid one for Kris too but I didn't take any pictures of it.

Friday the weather wasn't too great with lots of cold and periods of rain so we took a little car ride to check out a mine museum but it was closed so we went to the Settlers Museum. It was a small farm with an old school house and such. The kids had fun running around and getting a bit wet.
Since I knew it was going to rain while we were there I bought Denzil some rain boots. Too bad the store didn't think that little little kids wanted them in their size so I got some that are a little too big. Kris came up with the duct tape idea to help keep them on his feet while he ran around. It worked out great, except when Denzil needed a diaper change.
Saturday turned out to be a wonderful day. We were able to take a short hike through the woods by the campsite.
We decorated Easter eggs. A few of the kids even liked the taste of the dye...yuck!

And then it was time for the egg hunt! These are the hunters. I think they had a blast!

Denzil was a great finder and what made him the most happy was finding the eggs that were filled with his favorite...jelly beans! He popped them all in his mouth like they were going to get taken away before they would make it there. Good thing he found enough eggs to share the goods with Mom and Dad! Thanks Jackson's and Kimsey's for helping us to have a fabulous Easter this year.
This was the only picture we could get with him looking at the camera. The basket handle makes a nice mustache eh!