Big Boy Bed

       Last Thursday I finally decided it was time for Ethan to move out of his crib and into a “big boy” bed. Next week Jake and I are going with his students to California for a band/choir festival and a trip to Magic Mountain. Needless to say, I don’t think there is much for Ethan to do at Six Flags and 10-12 hours on a bus with him wouldn’t be very fun. Therefor he is going to be staying with Jake’s parents for four days. Since they don’t have a crib, and he is too long for the portable cribs (besides being able to just jump out of them), I figured I would try to get him used to sleeping in a regular bed. The first night he was awake every hour and out of his bed almost every time. I would go in to get him and he would just be sitting on the floor or standing by his bed crying. The next night (Friday) he still woke up a lot, but didn’t get out of bed most of the time. Saturday night he only woke up twice and I only had to go in to his room the second time. Then Sunday, and Monday he slept through the entire night without waking up or getting out of bed. Yea! I am actually very surprised that it was so easy. I thought he would be in and out of bed a lot now that he has freedom but I guess he just knows that when we put him in bed, it’s time for sleep. Although he does get up a little earlier now which I don’t particularly like, I kind of enjoyed my quiet time between Jake leaving for school and Ethan waking up, but oh well I’ll live!

Cathedral Gorge

In the areas surrounding Panaca here in Lincoln County there are at least 5 state parks. They are all easily within about an hours drive. Jake and I, being the lazy and tired homebodies that we are, haven’t done much sight seeing since we have lived here.  We have gone camping and fishing at the two state parks that have lakes. In fact the Lester family had a reunion at Echo Canyon state park a few years ago. That being said, we haven’t done a lot of sight seeing outside of those few occasions.  About a year ago (I think) Emily was down visiting and was hanging out with some of the friends she has made here. One day she came home late in the afternoon covered in mud. She told us she had been out at Cathedral Gorge and that it was so cool! I couldn’t believe that she had been there before us considering we lived about a mile away for more than two years. Anyway, a few months later, Jake’s parents and grandmas were visiting and decided they wanted to go out and see it.  We didn’t have a lot of time but we did get to wander around a little. Then last weekend my parent my parents and Emily came down and brought Ashton (my nephew). Sunday morning we went out to Cathedral Gorge and spent a lot of time roaming the caves and climbing the “mountains” of dirt. It is pretty cool out there and we took some pictures so I decided to share them.

Here is Ashton and Ethan stopping for a minute so we could take their picture. It was all we could do to get them to sit still when they just wanted to keep climbing.  

This is me and my mom posing in one of the first caves you come upon. It was pretty hot outside but once you get inside those caves it is cold!

Here is Ethan and Jake sitting by a cool rock (mud?) formation. You can’t see Ethan’s face very well but he definitely would have preferred to be running around.

   

You can’t tell from this picture but we are actually pretty high up considering right behind us is the top of the mountain. The boys loved climbing up so high. Ashton was much more careful (and a little nervous I think) than Ethan, who is totally fearless, and probably a little too young still, to realize that it would definitely hurt if he fell.

     

This last one is me and Emily still on top of the mountain waiting for everyone else to climb down 

We had a lot of fun, and Jake and I are hoping to go back once the house is done and spend the whole day exploring. Maybe take Ethan out for the morning and then get a babysitter for the afternoon when he starts to get tired and ornery!   

Easter!

So we spent the first part of spring break working on the house and then took a much needed vacation to visit our families. First we went to my parents house where we spent some time relaxing. Thursday night everybody came up for a big dinner of BBQ turkey (yuck), and all the other big family meal type foods. My grandma and aunt brought my favorite jello which I look forward to every time we have a big get together. Usually it is black cherry jello with raspberries, but this time they didn’t have any so they used strawberries instead, and guess what? Just as delicious! Friday night we went out to dinner, then back home to color eggs. Here are some pics…

    

Saturday morning after breakfast we got all the candy eggs ready and hid all the treats in the backyard. Ethan had so much fun. He kept wanting to pick up all the eggs whether they had his name on them or not. More pictures…

         

I don’t think there was one picture where they were all looking at the same camera, or even in the direction of the cameras but what do you expect when there are four people taking their pictures and they have a basket full of treats in front of them. Oh well! 

After the Green family egg hunt we had some Fat Jack’s Roy’s pizza (so yummy) then headed over to Delta. When we got to Delta they were coloring eggs so we jumped in on the fun. Then all the kids headed out for the egg hunt. Luckily Ethan had slept for the entire car ride over so he was ready to go again. Pics of the hunt…

 

Once the hunt was over we all settled in for the egg crack the etended family egg crack was a little small this year, but still fun (and of course very intense) for all. Ethan beat Katelyn but then lost to Ashlyn. Jake beat me and looked like he could go all the way by beating Stephanie, but lost out to Aunt Frog, who was the eventual winner.

         

After the extended family crack off, Jake’s family had one of our own. Ethan again won over his first round opponent of Quinton, then Ashlyn, then Grandma,but lost to Mekel (who came in second over all) . This time I beat Jake (yea!) but lost to Sheri (cheater!) who became the winner in the end.

  

From the look on his face, I think Ethan would have rather been playing in the dirt.

All in all, I’d have to say we had a pretty good Easter, and Ethan had so much fun playing with all his cousins. For us it was nice to get away from construction for a few days and just relax.