Utah Trip

Tim had the week off for spring break, and since I'm not working much anymore, we planned another trip to Utah to visit family. We didn't take as many pictures as I would have liked, but here are a few.

Ty was pretty good on the drive. He watched a few movies on the dvd player. I love the picture below because he is so tired watching his movie but he's holding an apple and a slice of pepperoni!
Temple Square was our first stop. Ty is starting to recognize temples, so we thought it'd be fun for him to see a "Big Temple." We also walked around the new City Creek Mall and, most importantly, rode the Trax train in the free zone. Ty loved it!
On day two, I contacted my old roommate Megan to get Ty and Will together for a play date. Ty is less than one month older than Will, though Will looks about one year older than Ty. We met at Wheeler Farm, an actual working farm (and it's free!) Of course, the boys were most interested in the tractors.
That night, we went to Tim's cousin Gemma's play Mulan. She did great and came back to Grandma and Grandpa's. Ty was so excited he wouldn't hold still.

 

Above: Ty also liked the goats; Below: Megan and Will

Watching Bunnies. Ty really liked to "hop" like them!

Ty and Gemma

We traveled up north to see Grandparents and Marge and Todd. We all went out for lunch and dragged Tim's Grandma B with us. Ty took care of the driving.

Ty spent the next day with Gma and Gpa Larsen. We went to the mall and rode the train, the carousel, and played on the quarter rides. I feel bad that I didn't get any pictures of the grandparents or the fun we had :( We also went to the Olive Garden with Tim's Utah relatives.

On Friday, we headed down to Santaquin and played with TJ's kids. Jonas and Kate had school, so Hailey and Ty got some quality time together. What cute kids!

Kristen got the bounce house out and even though Ty would NOT go inside, he LOVED being thrown into the little step on the front of it. Look at that smile!

We spent Friday night with my Dad and his new wife, Sheila. Her daughter Chanel and family came over, so Ty had more cousin craziness.

We went on a hike up American Fork Canyon on Saturday morning with this beautiful view (below) then stopped at a new market for some a-maz-ing waffles. Mine had strawberries, salted caramel, and whipped cream.

All the Lotz kids and Ty:

It just so happened that my niece Kate was getting baptized on Saturday, so it worked out perfectly for our trip. We went to her baptism and hung out at TJ and Kristen's. Ben and Kaitlyn even came up.  The baptism was beautiful.

 We woke up early on Sunday morning and drove as far as we could while Ty slept and then stopped in a small town in Wyoming so he could get out and use up some energy. Tim and I tend to travel a lot and I have to say family trips are my favorite. What a great week!

Story Teller

For your viewing pleasure...

Planes, Trains, and Automobiles...Really

  A few weeks ago, Tim took Ty to the Denver Toy Train Show (I wasn't there, so there are no pictures). It was there that they learned there was a Transportation Museum in Denver. We planned our trip and looked forward to it all week! Ty enjoyed seeing all of the cars and trains, but he especially liked the ones that 1. He could climb in, or 2. Looked like they were from Disney's Cars. This train is "Big Boy" one of the world's largest steam engines.

 Ty took the wheel of this Model T, I liked the old carriages.

 

  Ty's preferred method of transportation is "Ty Car," but I can convince him to ride in his stroller if I call it his "bike." He took a good stroll the other day and even cheesed some smiles. (Thanks for my St. Patrick's Day shirt, Grandma!)

I can't help but post this sweet picture of these cuties. Ty was "helping" Tim make ice cream malts.

Winter Retreat

Remember how on the last post I mentioned how COLD it was? Luckily, I found a steal of a deal for tickets to Phoenix! Ty still flies free and I am free from a work schedule, so we booked a last minute trip to Phoenix to visit Mindy's family. I didn't take too many pictures, but Ty had a blast with his cousins. It helped that the temperature was 70's and 80's while we were there. We spent at least half of our days outside.

 Will and Makayla were good adopted siblings for Ty.

I call the picture below Ty and Katherine's "portrait." Kash is just about 3 months older than Ty.

We were there for Valentine's Day, so we decorated cookies and made heart shaped pancakes.

 

 Gilbert Temple open house:

(liked the temple, hated the 2 hour wait)

Ty made it such a great trip by being a good sleeper and being good on the planes. The picture below was us riding the train in the Denver Airport. It's kind of fuzzy, but I love it because Ty was so excited to ride the "gugga." We had such a great time with family in Phoenix. Thanks Mindy and Thomas for letting us come!!!

 

Busy Boy

I have been TERRIBLE at blogging lately. I thought I'd be better once I quit my job to spend more time with Ty, but I'm so much worse because I always think I'll have time to do it later. Anyway, as I mentioned, I quit my job (yay!) and Ty and I have had a lot more time for adventures! Here are a few of them...

We went to the zoo on an abnormally warm day in January. Ty was very thrilled with all of the ...vehicles...???

The fish tank at the library is always a fun attraction when we need to get out of the house.

 Ty got Tim tickets to the CU vs Utah Basketball game for Christmas. It was Ty's first game and he did pretty good. He loves "hoop ball."

 

The other day I took Ty up to his room to play and stepped out for about 30 seconds. When I got back I found him cuddled up to his space heater (notice his right hand). He sure takes after his mamma!

Our neighbors gave Ty this mini piano. He loves to rock out. In this clip, he is playing and singing "Hot Dog" from Mickey Mouse Clubhouse.

 
And last, but not least, our busy boy. We invested $15 into a train table from craigslist. Ty loves his "gugga" (train), "guk" (trucks), and "etta" (airplanes). The top left is of him coloring his valentine to his Aunt Aubrey. Top right is after he had fun with stickers.
 I couldn't resist posting this beautiful picture. In Colorado, we are used to the snow melting within a few days, but since the weather was SO COLD a few weeks ago, it created a beautiful scene.

Yummy!

This silly boy takes after his mom in taste buds. He loves olives! He even puts them on his fingers before he puts them in his mouth.

Crusin' into 2014

 On Monday, December 30, 2013, Tim's grandparents took the Gordon Larsen family to Orlando and started our 4 day cruise to the Bahamas...all 34 of us! Grandpa got us a private bus for our shuttle from the hotel the boat. The drive let Ty sit in his seat and Ty was in heaven. Our boat was named Enchantment of the Seas. This is our room, notice the monkey our room attendant folded out of towels for us one night. Our first morning was spent at Carnival's private island.  I LOVE the sun, especially on Dec 31st.

 

View from the boat the first morning:

 

 

 Ty did not like the water...or the sand. He pretty much didn't like our first stop.

...until we found this awesome beach wheelchair. Talk about service!  Grandma and Grandpa enjoyed the sun and scenery.

 The morning started out nice, but the wind picked up. Tim took the grandparents and Ty back early, but I stayed back for lunch on the island, then it started raining and the wind didn't stop. We had to be tendered to the ship by smaller boats, but the wind was so much worse than predicted that the small boats couldn't leave. We ended up waiting in line to get back to the boats for two hours. When they said it was safe enough, the small boat left with the group before us, and we all watch on edge as it tipped and sloshed in the waves making its way back to the boat. It can't be a good sign when even the workers were going out to see if it would make it. With concern, we got on the tender and headed back to the ship. My niece Mackenzie, who was sitting next to me, looked up at her dad and asked with all seriousness (a few times) "Are we going to die?" The first few waves were okay, but some water got in and was covering the floor. At the next wave I heard a scream and looked up to see a wall of water coming toward me. I pulled the towel over my head as it soaked me and everyone around me. Though wet, we made it back to the boat and were set in place by two other empty tenders pulled up next to us to hold us in place while people exited. The pictures below were of us waiting to exit. We all had big smiles because we were so happy to be alive. These pictures were taken before we got off the boat. Aubrey and I were the last two to leave (besides other workers). Just as I was stepping onto the ship, a huge wave hit us and knocked the ramp off it's mark. We were ordered to go sit back down as they backed the tender up and replaced the ramp. They then called for us to hurry as fast as we could off the boat. Men were lined up on both sides of us making a walls and they held our arms as they guided us into the ship. It was pretty crazy. Once we were back on the boat, Tim and Ty were waiting for us. They had heard others' crazy stories and were worried about us. Our cousins were on an earlier tender that was waiting for an hour in the middle of the water trying to wait for good enough conditions to dock at the ship and let people off. At one point they heard the captain shout to open another door. When the ship said no, they heard him yell, "It's now or never!" I'm really glad we are all safe.
The tender:

  We lived to see 2014! Happy New Year!  This was our formal night and I'm so bummed I didn't get any real pictures of me and Tim. We had to take turns with Ty and I opted to put him to bed, so I didn't get much celebrating in. At least we had a delicious dinner and Ty got to decorate cupcakes for dessert! Tim and Brian watched football on the big screen by the pool on New Years Eve.

 

 

New Years Day 2014: Nassau, Bahamas

 Apparently, New Years Day is the biggest holiday in Nassau. They held a parade that lasted from 2am-10am and all of the shops were closed until 1pm. We opted to walk to the closest (but not nicest) beach. Ty even warmed up to the idea of a beach with water and sand.  Ty loves his aunt "Alta" (he kept calling Aubrey the name of the dog we watched over Christmas).  More beaches. We got lots of pina coladas at the shacks pictured.  Scott brought croquet. Ty and Matthew liked to collect all of the mallets, so everyone playing had to share theirs. On the way back to the boat, Ty was too tired to be held, so he opted for a ride in Grandpa's wheel chair.

 

My Boys

 I love this picture! Tim, Ty, Shelby, and Nick

 Ty Gordon and his namesake

 

 

 Cute cousins Harper and Eva had fun together!

Activities on the boat included swimming, rock climbing and a bungee thing.

 Above is Tim's cousin Taylor. He and Brian didn't love the bungee jumping, so I didn't try it, but I did do the rock climbing! I think Taylor started once I was half way up and he made it to the top at the same time as me (notice the bottom middle picture). Oh well.

Our last night party had Ty and Shelby up dancing.
Ben and Diann put a game of Family Feud together that created a few laughs. 

The whole clan

We all had flights the afternoon we got back, but they were almost all delayed. Don't worry, our 34 person family set up camp in the airport and kept busy. I love the top left pictures when the girls were playing with Nathan's hair.

And we finally made it back. Ty had a fun-filled week, but was glad to have some time to relax once back home. We had a great time in the sun and sand, eating lots of good food, and mostly being with family. Thanks for the cruise, Grandma and Grandpa Larsen!