Jumpin around

I just love to sit and watch the kids, this time I had my camera with me and decided to snap away.  I love watching them have fun. 

The little ones wanted in on the action as well.  Luca cracked me up because he just had to take his shirt off like the big boys before he started jumping.  :) 

Happy Birthday!!

Mia's birthday is tomorrow so I figured I better write about Udine's birthday that was a month ago first!!!  How does the time get away from me so quickly!!  Anyway, Udine's birthday was July 25th and we were all spoiled that day.  It was so much fun.  We played together as a family all day.  We got up and went to Ihop in the morning for breakfast, ran a few errands.  Went to see the movie Cars2 and then went out to eat at a pizza buffet.  We don't do those things all that often, so to do them all in one day was a real treat.  Udine didn't want a cake or anything, but I was adamant about him having candles to blow out so we put some in a popsicle.  :)  Happy Birthday!  We love you!!!

The grill cover he got :)

Reading the book Alessandro wrote for him 

Happy Birthday!! 

Enjoying the goodness 

Ohio

Back in July Alessandro and I went to Ohio.  He was participating in a deaf study (as one of the hearing kids) at Ohio University.  He started in this study when he was 1 yr old over at Utah State.  They have since moved to Ohio and it was time to do a follow up if we were willing to travel for it.  The study is to help them figure out better ways to teach deaf children and help them progress.  Anyway, I figured it was a good opportunity to go out with Alessandro on an all expense paid vacation.  :)  We had an absolute blast.  He opened up to me that weekend like he has never done before.  It was absolutely wonderful and it made me wish I could do this with each of my children.  Anyway, we flew out on a Thursday.  Most of the day was traveling, but after checking into the hotel we went out for a late dinner.  We were both exhausted so went to bed shortly after that.  Friday was a free day for us so we decided to go to the COSI (science museum).  It was absolutely amazing.  We spent 6 hours there and probably could have stayed longer, but it was closing so we had to leave.  He loved the aquatic area where we played with water.  That was his favorite part.  We also walked through a dinosaur area and got to do activities in there and his favorite part about that was a dinosaur video game he got to play.  We participated in science experiments, which were a lot of fun.  It was a great time. 
After that he got to pick where we ate for dinner and after dinner we decided to go for a walk.  I forgot to bring his toothbrush, so I was hoping we'd pass a gas station or something.  After walking and walking and walking, we finally did find one but it was probably about 2.5 miles from the hotel.  hahaha  We passed two parks and played on them and just had a great time talking and walking, laughing and walking.  It was one of my favorite parts of the trip.  We had to hurry on our way back because it was getting dark and I didn't want to be walking in the dark in an unfamiliar city.  At the hotel we hung out eating candy, watching tv and just being silly.  We were still used to Utah time so it took a while to feel sleepy. 
We had to get up early on Saturday to go to the University for the study.  We were there all day.  He had a good time there, but it was long for me.  Just sitting there waiting for him for 10 hours, but I did get to chat with some of the other moms there.  That night he picked where to eat again and then some of the other kids in the study invited him to go swimming with them so we went to the pool.  Sunday we got up early again for the study and were there until 1:00pm.  We went back to the hotel and watched the womens world cup game and then went to the airport to fly home.  That was the longest flight ever.  Or maybe it's just that they were late flights and we were exhausted so they seemed long.  We got home about 1am monday morning.

It was a wonderful trip where Alessandro got to make all the choices of where to eat, what to do, etc.  At least when we weren't at the University.  I know I will always remember this trip and I'm pretty sure he will too.  it was a special time.  To this day he still brings up our walk and things about the trip.  I'm glad we decided to go.

He was in this submarine maybe 5 seconds.  He said it smelled and couldn't handle it.  :)

These water bubbles were his absolute favorite 

Doing science experiments 

We were trying to get a picture when both of our bubbles were big, but we were not successful 

Just being silly 

Zion Subway Hike

This past weekend Udine and I went to St. George with 4 other couples and hiked the Subway in Zions.  It was amazing!!!  A lot more difficult than we had imagined, but still fun.  We started hiking at 7am and finished at 6pm.  Wow!!  I was so ready to be done and not really enjoying the last three hours of it.  My knee was killing me and I was getting exhausted.  But up until that point it was a lot of fun.  We hiked, repelled, swam, climbed rocks.  It was crazy.  In order to do that hike you definitely need somebody with you that is experienced in all of that.  Both Udine and I had to conquer some fears in order to finish this hike.  We had to repel, which we both hated because of the height.  We had to swim in ICE cold water to get through certain spots...Udine was so nervous because he's not the best swimmer, but he did great.  And the last half mile is the absolute worst.  It is all straight up the mountain!  It was a total of 9.5 miles without getting lost, and yes, we got lost a couple times.  :)  We really enjoyed the experience, but don't ask us if we'll do it again for a year or so, that way we'll be able to forget how bad it really is.  hahaha  :)

I'm going to post a bunch of pictures so I can have them in my blog book, but don't feel like you have to look at them all.  :) 

Climbing down the chimney 

Udine took some great pictures to capture the beauty around 

This picture below was taken shortly after we had to swim...I was still shivering!! 

Why it's called the subway hike...above you can see what looks like the tracks, below you can see how it looks like a subway