Children's Museum

We have had so much fun this past few weeks with Grammy and cousins visiting. We did lots of activities but our favorite was going to the children's museum. We had so much fun we had to take Doug back that night.

Playing in the helicopter

Climbing the wall
Riding a horse
Building with Grammy
Recording studio
Copying the big kids!
Playing the Xylophone

Cooking dinner
James pushed this car around backwards for the first 30 minutes we were there!
In the Helicopter
Picking onions

Making Brownines

Last Monday I decided to make brownies. James was running around and wanting to see what I was doing so I pulled a chair over to the counter so he could stand on it and watch what I was doing. It was going really well until I realized that I had seen the ingredients wrong and instead of putting in 1/4 cup water I had put in 3/4 cup water. James grabbed the spoon and spatula sitting next to the bowl and started stirring. It was pretty cute. Then he decided to eat it! I think we both had a lot of fun making these Brownies!

A Week in Colorado

We have had a really fun/busy week in Colorado. I have so many pictures and videos that it is hard to choose what to put on.

Doug had fun playing/inventing games with his brothers. These include:

Knee Football

Crutch Races

Home run Derby

Rockband (James really enjoyed this also)

Other activities included: Water skiing, Miniature Golf, Hide n' Seek, and a Mario Kart Tournament.

James enjoyed:

Playing with his Uncles

and Cousins

Rockband

Swimming

and The Splash Park

He also loved just being outside all the time, going to McDonald's for lunch with Grandpa, and playing at this really cool park in the mountains. I thought this was the coolest playground I have ever seen so I took a ton of pictures of it. James loved the bridge the most.

And I guess it seems that I enjoyed taking pictures! It was a really fun trip and I love going to Colorado.

The Rocking Horse

It's finally done! Over a month ago we decided that James needed a rocking horse. Anyone who has seen him in his highchair would agree. So we bought this pattern and got to work. It was a lot more work then we were thinking it would be, mostly because it was the first time and the pattern wasn't exactly as good as Doug liked. So we made some improvements (the mane and tail are our own design), started over once and it looks awesome! Doug is already making plans for the next horse, which will be a lot better (according to him). Just as we suspected, James loves it.

He is not that good at rocking in it yet, but he tries!

The Camera is Fixed!

We finally got our camera back, hopefully in perfect working condition. So to celebrate I took this cute video of James today to post before we run off to Colorado. I was talking to a friend in the front room and we could hear James laughing and laughing in the kitchen. I found James doing this. I think he was trying to stand up and thought it was so funny when he kept falling down. Then I noticed he was watching the whole thing in the dishwasher! What a cute kid I have!

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Topping it Off!

Today they topped off the Draper Temple by setting the Angel Moroni. It was supposed to be a big secret because they didn't want hundreds and thousands of people showing up to watch. The word did get out and there was a pretty good crowd. When we drove up they had it laying in the trailer. I couldn't believe how big it was!

We dropped off Doug and went to play at the park while they were getting things ready. When we came back they had him hooked up to the crane and dangling off the ground. We got to go stand in front of it and take pictures. James didn't really care about any of it.

When they were finally ready another crane lifted two guys up to the top while the other crane lifted the statue. Then they lowered the pole you see through the steeple to secure it.

That's it. James didn't really want to watch and was choosing this time to throw a major tantrum so I didn't get to see them lower him onto the steeple but it was still really cool to watch the rest of it.

Something I never realized or really thought about. Angel Moroni faces East, but not the trumpet it's his chest. I guess I just always thought it was the trumpet that faced east.

Doug's comments: There are actually 2 parts that had to be put up. First was the steeple. It slid down around a steel tube that is part of the structural steel. Then the statue which is from the ball up was put up. There is a post that comes out the bottom of the ball that slides into the steel tube. There are 4 notches we had cut in the steel tube and 4 plates on the post that fit into these notches to keep it positioned the right way.

There are also 2 cables that run from the statue through the steel tube. One of these is a stainless steel cable that will be anchored to the structure of the building. The other is copper and will be tied into our lightning protection system. If you look at that last picture you see something sticking out of the head. There was a bolt in that location to hoist the statue then once it was in position it was take and that lightning rod was screwed in.

The statue itself is fiberglass molded onto a steel frame. The fiberglass is then covered with gold leaf and then sprayed with a clear coat lacquer to protect the gold from pollution. The entire statue is about 350 pounds.

The 4th of July and No Camera!

We sent our camera in to Canon to get fixed, so for the next few weeks we have no camera! But because of all the family that is visiting we can still get some cute pictures, but no videos. My mom got here on Tuesday, my Dad on Wednesday, and Jordyn and Blake came on Thursday. We had to drive up and get Jordyn because she came over with the Christensens. So James got to meet James. He just wanted to go play though.

Chad and Shannon came down for the Fourth and we went to Grandmothers and Grandads. James actually sat on the couch between Jordyn and Shannon. I didn't think it was possible for him to just sit somewhere!

We had a picnic type dinner in the backyard and James was too busy to eat anything he just wanted Grandad to come and take him to the rocks.

"Come on Grandad!"

"Can we go up there?"

We also played some lawn games. James loves to play croquet and always tries to get the balls and mallets. He has his game face on!

"Which color should I be?"

James also liked playing with his cousin Lexi and swinging with Grammy. It didn't last too long!

When Grammy wasn't swinging with the babies she was keeping James from crawling in the street. He was so mad at her!