What's new with us?

It's been a long time since I've updated the bloggie, mostly because Kevin got a new computer and now I can't access the network. All of our pictures are on the computer I can no longer access, so when Kevin was gone one night last week I went and stole a bunch of them so I could update. So here's some news...

I forgot to post that I was released as Relief Society President when James came home. Kevin was finally released as Executive Secretary when the ward boundaries were realigned in June, but was quickly called the next week to be the Elder's Quorum President. I am very impressed with the job he is doing with this calling - he is diligent about presidency meetings and visits, and I know he spends much time pondering the age-old question, "What can I do to help the Elders?" James is faithfully fulfilling his calling as the Ward Darling Baby. :)

As you all know, blogging is one of those things I have to squeeze in to James's naptime, so I'm going to keep updating bit-by-bit over the next few days. I think I am up to our summer vacations now, so I will start with our trip to Utah in June.

In June we took a roadtrip up to Utah to visit family and friends and introduce James to everybody. The trip there was a little perilous - we narrowly escaped getting pulled over by a cop for escaping >100 degree heat, car with no air conditioning, and poopy-diapered baby with a heatrash. If you ever want the details, just ask! Anyway, we stayed with our beloved friends Mike and Shelby, whose own bouncing baby boy is a mere four days younger than James. Here is a picture of James with his bff, Andrew. Don't you just want to eat them up?

While in Utah, we visited Kevin's niece (James's cousin) Lara and her hubby Lion. Here is a picture of the three of them in Lara and Lion's apartment in Provo.

We also visited Kevin's aunt Sharon and uncle Lynn and their family. Here is a picture of their whole family with James, and one more of James with Uncle Lynn that Kevin and I love.

Finally, we visited Kevin's sister Trish's grave. We brought her some flowers and also a bookmark that some of her loving high school friends had prepared in her memory. Here is a picture of Kevin and James at her grave.

I will post a slideshow above this post with more pictures from our Utah trip. It was a good trip, and James was a wonderful boy, as he always is. We love doing things with him; he just makes like more fun!

We went to the aquarium!

In May Kevin had the brilliant idea to take James to the Aquarium of the Pacific (a.k.a. the Long Beach Aquarium). We found out they had a good deal on annual passes, so we bought passes for James's first year of life, and it turns out it was a great buy. On the first day it was just the three of us and James loved watching the fishies. I think the lights reflecting through the water and bouncing off the fish scales was mesmerizing to him. We would hold him up in front of the glass and he was perfectly content to just watch the movement and flashing lights through the water. He also liked the sharks and the sea lions, which were big and stark in contrast with all of the blue water. Most of the aquarium pictures in the slideshow below are from that first visit.

The next week Kevin's nephew Ryan and his wife Denice were in town from Wisconsin, so we all went back up to Long Beach and went on a whale-watching cruise. We didn't see any whales, but we saw lots of dolphins and sea lions. A few minutes into the cruise James got a faceful of sea-wind and didn't like that, so I took him downstairs, fed him, bundled him up, and he slept through the rest of the cruise! It's a good thing he was free! After the cruise we went back into the aquarium for another visit, and James loved it again. A couple of aquarium pictures in the slideshow below are from this visit, and the boat pictures are also from this visit.

We also found out that Cindy's sister Jeanine and her family had annual passes to the aquarium, so this week Cindy and James met Jeanine's family up in Long Beach and spent the day together at the aquarium. On this visit James seemed more interested in people-watching as all he had to do was catch the eye of any of his cousin and then he was instantly the center of attention. Everybody just loves this little guy! :)