Spokane Trip 2010

Every summer, we do our best to try to make it out to Spokane. Its nice that it is a 12-hour drive and we really enjoy our 1-on-1 time with mom and dad Monson. Rather spontaneously, three days before we left, Steve asked if it would be okay to take our trip that week. We weren't entirely sure (due to Steve's work schedule) if we really would be able to go until about 5 hours before we left.

Some of our favorite 'on the road' pictures:


Joshua built himself a little tent by pulling everying onto his lap:

On the way to Spokane, Steve and I found the road that leads to eternal life, but we decided to pursue that another day.

Being there was so nice! We got there early Friday afternoon (June 11) after spending the night at the Baker's home in Pocatello, ID. We sat and talked with mom until dad came home from work and we got lots of Monson grandparent/Joshua time. It was so fun for me to see mom and dad getting down on their hands and knees and chasing Joshua around the living room.


We also had some good park time while we were there. On Saturday, after we all did our exercise, dad mowed the lawn and we all had lunch, we went to a nearby park to play games and enjoy one another's company. We played a good lawn game. It turns out that mom, dad and Steve are all really good at it, while Joshua's Ring Wraith-like screams proved to be good cheerleading.

We visited a few other parks during our visit including Manito and Riverfront. At Manito park, we enjoyed the Japanese gardens and Duncan Gardens. We were a little disappointed that the Rose Garden wasn't quite in bloom. We were about a week too late last year and about a week too early this year! Sooner or later, we'll catch those roses at the right time!

Here is a new thing Josh has been doing:

At Riverfront Park, we got to play on the giant wagon. I love the slide at the end. I also got to feed the metal trash-eating-goat that they have to encourage people not to litter. It really was quite entertaining.

Many afternoons and evenings, we spent playing games. Dad was very excited to get to try out some of his new extension packs that he had gotten. The popular game was called Ticket to Ride Europe. Now here is my disclaimer: I seriously lost most of the games we played and I kept asking for a rematch. When I say 'seriously lost', I'm not kidding: dad and Steve smoked me every time. On our very last time playing the game, I must have just drawn the right cards, because where a player would normally complete about 4-9 routes, I was able to complete 14! I was rather proud of myself and I couldn't stop grinning all night long.

While we were there, we also got Steve's parents hooked on the show Stargate SG1. (Disclaimer: the pilot episode has some nudity in it, in case anyone decides to take me up on this recommendation. After the pilot, its very clean. We, luckily, had the edited episode that we borrowed from the Gibbons'.)

Probably the best thing we did in Spokane with Steve's parents was to celebrate Joshua's 1st birthday! I have trouble believing that he is already a year old! He brings so much happiness to us and we are just thrilled to have him as a part of our family.

So mom went out to Baskin Robbins the afternoon that we celebrated Joshua's birthday and brought home an icecream cake. After taking pictures and blowing out the candle, we set the piece down in front of him. At first he looked at it, then got a tiny bit of it between his fingers and tasted it. Upon deciding that he liked it, he went face-down into the cake and began to devour it! We couldn't have been prouder of his reaction! He continued to plant his face into the cake until he decided that the ice cream portion was much to cold to be enjoyable. He started picking up chunks of it and tossing them aside. Unfortunately, one fell on his leg and he shrieked until I got it off with a paper towel.

It was messy and SO fun!

Clean-up of the 1st birthday cake was a piece of work and I'm not sure I was able to get all of the blue frosting out of mom's high chair, but I think Josh really loved the experience!

Our birthday boy!
We had such a wonderful trip! Thanks mom and dad for letting us come and stay!

Family traits

Nufer family: who does this remind you of?

Memorial Day Weekend

So, for the 3-day weekend, we decided to have a blast and just do some exploring as we drove to a few different destinations.

Destination #1: my former roommate, Nicole Heaton, was married in the St. George temple on Saturday May 29. On Friday, we drove down to stay with my cousin Sarah Jade and her husband Brandon. They were so nice to let us stay with them in Cedar City and then on top of that, she agreed to watch Joshua even though she was 10 days away from delivering a baby. She said it was good practice. So on Saturday morning, we drove the hour to the temple and were able to go do a session while Nicole was going through for the first time.

Immediately following the session, we went into the sealing room and were able to watch as she and Mike were sealed together. I was so grateful that we were able to be there and share in her joy!

Nicole and Mike

The St George Temple
This is a picture of three of us that were really close roommates. It was so nice to see Lindsay, since the last time I saw her was just a few days before she left on her mission to California.
After we went back to Cedar City to pick up Joshua, we drove out to the reception, which was Alton. Now, you've probably never heard of Alton because it has a population of 120, and I'm not kidding. It was teeny, but it was a gorgeous drive through the canyon that goes past Cedar Breaks. We really enjoyed the drive.

The reception was very beautiful and we were happy to have been able to talk with Mike and Nicole a little more before they move to Washington. I will definitely miss her!

The drive home that night was similarly beautiful. We took more of a scenic route home that joined up with the highway a little ways further north. It was fun to explore new areas and get to know the land a little bit better.

Destination #2: The following morning, we left our apartment (after getting home at 11:30pm) at 8am to get ourselves up to Idaho. We had received an invitation from the Baker family to hear Mark Baker II's homecoming talk in their sacrament meeting. (It was an excellent talk, by the way.) We got there right on time but then had to change Josh into his Sunday clothing before getting into the meeting.

One of our primary reasons for visiting was that Julie (my cousin with whom I get along the best) is staying in Pocatello for the summer (as versus Lincoln, Nebraska) and we wanted to make sure that we got a chance to visit her. We weren't expecting her husband to be there and we were very surprised and excited that we got to spend time with both of them. After a rousing game of Risk (well, no, I don't actually play), some excellent cookie-making and lots of talking, the day was over.

On Monday morning, because we didn't want to have to entertain ourselves for several hours before people woke up (since Joshua was up anyway) we decided to visit Rexburg, ID, home of BYU-Idaho. I can't say there was much to see, but we enjoyed seeing the temple there and seeing what the campus was like.

The drive home was also a bit of an adventure. Because I had heard so much about Logan, UT and had never seen it, Steve suggested we drive home by way of this city. It was also very beautiful and worth the trip.

One of our favorite parts of our trip was that we got to see 11 LDS temple just in a 3-day trip.
Utah temples: St George, Provo, Mt Timpanogos, Draper, Oquirrh Mountain, Jordan River, Salt Lake City, Bountiful and Logan.
Idaho Temples: Idaho Falls and Rexburg.

It was so neat to see such beautiful Houses of the Lord! I know that the temple work is important and I am grateful for the chance to more fully worship our Lord in His houses.

I hope you all had a great weekend! I look forward to reading the blog posts!

Its all fun and games until someone gets stuck

Joshua is definitely developing skills, but most of them include standing up against some kind of surface and being unable to get down. Once that occurs, he yells until we come to his aid. He sure is cute while its happening though!