Mt. Pleasant fun

I was going through the photos I had taken during our visit to Grandma and Grandpa's when Clayton came by. He saw photos of his cousins and exclaimed, "hey that is a picture of my friend..." naming each cousin who I had images of.

It is so wonderful that Clayton has cousins that live nearby, which he can play with and love. It really warms the heart to see these kids play so well together.

Enough of me talking about Clayton's cousins, how about a few images...

Ethan...


Jordan...


Kennedy...


Natalie...


Of course Jordan is the favorite cousin, and the closest in age!



Look at Clayton's dirty little face. You can tell someone was having fun playing in the dirt...

Jordan's third B-day

Jordan turned 3 years old! The party was a princess party, decked out with Disney princesses and all. Clayton was the only cousin from our side of the family but there were plenty of cousins from the Cowan side of the family. Of course I have already explained how Clayton is Jordan’s favorite cousin, so there is no need to explain how excited they were to see each other.

This is all about Jordan and her big day. She is such a cute little princess…

I don’t want to confuse any names so for the most part no names will be given (I don’t think I could remember them all anyway).

Everyone knows Brody...

Elliot doing the hulk...

No green man today!

Some of the kids weren't to sure about the guy with the camera.

Most were OK with the guy pointing that camera their way.
















Love the candid smiles.


The Cowan family is a good looking family. They have two new baby girls. Some parent was crazy enough to let Troy hold one of the babies...





The kids put together jewelry made of candy. The boys had a lot of fun creating necklaces and bracelets.



Later on, a piñata was brought out for the kids. This one had pull strings, no bat needed…



Clayton had a ton of friends to play with at the party!




Jordan got some fun gifts. I think she is going to love the bicycle. I wonder what Clayton will be getting for his third birthday…



Jordan had a great B-day. Who wouldn't with all the great cousins to play with!

One last bit. So where was Brody during all the festive events? Well he was off in the garden eating rocks. He has an iron stomach that one. Don’t worry more dirt made it in than out.

Happy Birthday Jordan!

Clayton visits the Hogel zoo

I am sooo far behind on the events since we moved. There are a billion things that we have done that I want to share so I will have to keep things short and sweet for a while. A couple of weeks back A month ago we visited the Hogel zoo. We met my parents, my sister and brother in law (Becky and Troy); of course they had their little ones, Clayton's favorite cousin Jordan and little Brody.

So you understand how uncrowded the zoo was... There are something like 2 million people living in the state of Utah and every single last one of them went to the zoo the weekend we did.

First thing we met for some food (at the very crowded zoo) and Brody managed to put his hand through Anji's ice cream cone. You can forget how fast those little ones hands can be (I was amused).

Jordan was excited to see all the animals!



You might ask, what was Clayton's favorite part of the zoo? Why of course the train ride!



Can you guess who was more excited for the ride???



There is little Brody with Grandma!



A few more pics of the kids...









OK the last one was not a kid.

Clayton and Grandpa...



We will visit the zoo again (when it is not so crowded). Clayton is going to miss his cousin Jordan...

But he calls me George?

My Dad told me about a talk he had with his granddaughter Jordan a while back. Jordan was telling Grandpa how much she loved her cousin Clayton (my son), and how he was her favorite cousin. The conservation went something like this…

Jordan: “I love Clayton”

Grandpa: “You love Clayton?”

Jordan: “Yes”

Grandpa: “Why do you love Clayton?”

Jordan: “He is fun to play with, he is my favorite cousin”

Of course this gives Grandpa warm fuzzies.

At this point in the conversation Jordan gets a puzzled look on her face. She looks up at Grandpa and says “but he calls me George?”. Of course she manages to say it with the innocence that only a 2.5 year old can. You can read the question in her face, unsure what to feel about being called by the wrong name, and by her favorite cousin no less. Jordan is unsure whether to be hurt, but Clayton is still her favorite cousin. I often am so amazed at these little people, so innocent and wonderful. We big people could take lessons from our little ones on how to love...



Clayton does get lazy sometimes when he calls for Jordan. Her name comes out as "George". He is being a boy and totally oblivious, unconcerned calling his cousin the wrong name (a big no-no in the book of boy-girl relationships, even if you are cousins). Caught up in the moment, toys and playing are what is most important (a boy to the core). He wouldn't give a second thought to Jordan calling him by the wrong name.



Even at that young age boys are boys and girls are girls. I hope he figures out that it is important to call girls by the right name. We might have to work on that one. It is a lesson he needs to learn before he starts dating or there might be trouble...

Getting outside again

A few weeks back we spent the weekend at Palisades, car camping style. With kids you take what you can get and Dani and Jason have those twins that are a real hand full. We broke tradition and actually arrived at the campsite early enough that we didn't have to pitch our tents in the dark. When we woke up the next morning, the tents and nearly everything else was covered in frost (it got into the mid to low 20's that night). Of course Jack didn't mind...



The twins were very cold and unhappy for a long time but they eventually warmed up. One of the twins was fighting a cold, the other was happy as a clam (think perma-grin).



Look, a bird, a plane no it is...




My balloon is flying away!



Once it warmed up it was off to the sand box to look for buried treasure.





Clayton had a blast just being with his cousins.

We tried bubbles but the only one interested was Camus.



Clayton managed to overcome his fear of slides while with Jack, Emma and Elli. It was awesome seeing the little guy work up the courage to go down the slide. Clayton is one cautious little dude.



Of course the twins aren't afraid of any slide anywhere. No fear for those girls



The kids played so hard that they completely wore themselves out. The boys (Me and Jason) took the kids for a ride to see if they would fall asleep. Clayton slept but the girls managed to tough it out (they are stubborn Grotepas girls). We had a bit of an adventure while driving to get the kids asleep. Jason decided to see how far his Sequoia could go after the digital read out said No Gas, 0 miles. I was positive that we would be pushing the Sequoia the last mile to the gas station.



It was so nice to get out and camp. We are definitely going to do this again soon!