When I was a kid my Mom would buy food from the Schwan's truck regularly. My favorite of course was orange push-ems pops. The other day when Nate and I walked by a Schwan's truck I told him about how Schwans reminded me of the house in Springville and how I missed push-ems pops. Later that day Nate and Trey came home from a walk and surprised me with a whole case! He is such a sweety, and they are even better then I remember!

Family Vacation part 4

After a week at the parks and the beach we drove north an hour and stayed 4 more days with some friends. Nate is still in contact with his best friend from when he was growing up in San Diego. They were very very kind to take us in for the weekend.

The first day there was all about Apples. We drove way out into the "country" to an orchard where you can pick your own apples. Then we drove over to a former mining town called Julian to shop. It was really really cute. Now the town is mostly made up of B&B's, antique shops and bakery's. We had lunch, apple pie and apple cider. Delicious.

The next day we went to the fair ground in LA for some sports show and then made our way over to the swap meet. The hightlight of the day was buying a really cool wooden sign that we had carved to say "TheBroadbents est. 2003" on it with a fire helmet and 2 axes on it.

Last day. Nate went to a Chargers game with his friend. This is actually the main reason we chose to come to San Diego. Chargers won, it was the perfect ending to a long trip.

The next morning when I got up to feed Smith at 3 am Trey woke up too and wouldn't go back to bed. So we decide to leave a little early and head home. We were on the road by 5am. It couldn't have worked out better. The boys were great in the car and slept most of the way. We only had to stopped in Vegas and St George and made excellent time getting home. The bad news, while we were in St. George Nate shifted a few things to make room in the car to change a diaper. When we got home we realized the cool Broadbents sign had been left on the roof of the car, and didn't make it home. :( but other wise it was a great trip.

Family Vacation part 3 - parks

We spent 2 days at SeaWorld, one at the Zoo and one at the Wild Animal Park. SeaWorld was my favorite by far! Lots to see and a great area for kids where we could just let Trey run wild.
Trey loved to watch the shows. The Shamu show was the best one. I'm just so amazed that they are able to train these enormous animal so well.

We got there in the morning just as it was opening and they were taking the flamingos for a walk. I guess they do it everyday to give them some exercises. It was neat. You could get really really close to them before they would move away.

This is part of the "Bay of Play" they had for little kids. Trey had a blast.

His favorite ride was the display for scooter rentals. It didn't move, Trey just likes anything he can steer.
Here we are looking at the dolphins. Right after this it was feeding time and we got to pet the dolphins when they came up to be fed by other people. We were to cheap to buy our own fish.
Cool fish!
More cool fish, and trey signing "more" after he finished a snack. Love baby sign!

At the Zoo and Wild Animal Park Trey's favorite animals were the cockroaches. Can you believe it. Of all the cool animals and fishes it was always the cockroaches that he got the most excited over. Yuck.
More roaches.
The Zoo's were pretty cool. But maybe a little much for a two year old. To much to see not enough to do. Plus a lot of the coolest animals were not out the day we went. (Apes, Tigers, Polar Bears) Occasionally we would run into a statue of the animals and let Trey climb all over it.
He also liked to chase the birds every chance he got.

Family Vacation part 2 - Beach

After Trey woke up from his afternoon naps we would head down to the beach for an hour or two. The first time we tried this Trey woke up at 5:30. Then we put on sunscreen and then we ate a little and just generally took our time. We were only about 15 minutes from the beach but by the time we got there it was 7 o'clock. We learned when we arrived that the sun set around 7 o'clock right now in California.
We just drove 12 hours and spent a night in Mesquite to get to the beach! We were not going to let a lack of daylight keeps us from having a good time. The sunscreen we had just applied was unnecessary, and so were the swim suits. Trey would NOT let Nate or I near the water. Everytime we got close he would cry and pull us back to safety. Very cute! Eventually he warmed up to the water, but the first day no one got wet above the ankles.

He just loved playing in the sand. The beach is just one enormous sandbox afterall.

This is the second day at the beach. We actually made it there before dark and stayed a lot longer. We eventually got Trey to play in the water, just not to deep. This was a actually a happy surprise to us. Usually anytime we get near a pool or lake Trey tries to drown himself. So it was nice not to have to drag him out of deep water every 5 minutes.

His other favorite beach activities were destroying other peoples sand castle and pushing Smith in the stroller. These are the only pictures I have of Smith the entire trip, and really it's just his stroller. I kind of feel bad about it, but he was so well behaved on the trip that I rarely had to take him out of the stroller, except to nurse him and change his diaper. He was awesome! I just wish we had spent more time at the beach. It was beautiful.

Family Vacation part 1 - Getting there

We decided to take full advantage of my maternity leave and take a little family trip. Our first choice was a cruise out of LA, but turns out you have to be at least 6 months old. Our back up plan San Diego beach and the parks.

We thought 12 hours in a car might be to much for the kids to handle, so we left Sunday after church and drove to Mesquite for the night. We got there a little be for midnight. It was terrible! The room was smelly, the beds were hard as rocks and the sheets felt like sand paper. And then there was Trey. He had already fallen asleep in the car. Our hope was to just carry him in and toss him on a bed and let him sleep there till morning. It looked like it might work too! But by the time Nate and I were settled enough to go to bed, Trey woke up from his nap and was ready to go! For the next 2 hours he jumped from bed to bed, pressed every button he could find and refused to settle down. As a last resort we laid some blankets on the floor of the closet (big closet, about the size of a crib), put Trey in and closed the door. He cried for 5 minutes until we started to feel bad and let him out. Then he bounced around the room for another hour. Around 3 am when we had given up he pulled the sheet off the bed, walked over to the closet, laid down and was asleep in seconds.

In the morning we drove the rest of the way. We had planned on stay 8 more days in California, but after the first night with Trey I wasn't sure I was going to make it. Fortunately the suite we booked in San Diego was better then we expected. It had a kitchen and two separate bedrooms, so we didn't have to lock Trey in the closet. Makes all the difference.

2 Hours!

Smith is finally getting into a semi-predictable routine. Yesterday and today I have been able to coordinate Trey's nap with Smith's nap and get 2 whole hours to myself. Bliss!

I'm the best Mom ever!

Video

Ever since we brought the baby home my hands have been full and Trey has been watching more TV then usual. Much more then I would like him to. I was worried that he is not getting enough exercise until he started to act out what he sees on the screen. This is a video of him watching an action sequences from The Incredibles. Who says TV contributes to childhood obesity? You just got watch the right stuff.

Blessing

Today we blessed Smith. We wanted to do it while Nate's parents were still here. We were also able to have a few friends and some other family come as well.

I couldn't resist taking one of those 4 generation pictures while I had the chance. Above we have Nate's Dad Nathan, Grandpa Smith Broadbent ( the one we named the baby after) My Nate and of course baby Smith. That's one of the draw backs of using family names. It can get a little confusing at family gatherings.
Great Grandma Katie and Grandma Jackie with baby Smith

Look at that! I got all three bothers here! This is tricky to do cause even though we all live in Utah, at leaset for another month or two, we are not usally all in the same place. And of course, because I was the one with the camera, I didn't make it in to any of the picutres.
My good buddies Steph and Jeremy holding the baby. So glad they made it!

These are a few of the guys that Nate gets to work with each week. Handsome bunch. I thought the balloons, sport and skateboarding cakes were cool, but not appropriate for a baby blessing. The stork was probably the best choice.
Smith and cousin Logan now age 4 weeks and 7 weeks. Logan is starting to caught up

Thanks again to everyone that came and share the day with us. We enjoyed having everyone here to celebrate.

Special Delivery

This morning I got a call from Scott. Apparently he had bought some snakes as a "congrats on starting school" gift to himself. Unfortunately there was a mix up with the shipping/billing address and they were sent to Utah and not Indiana. Scott was VERY concerned about their well being and I agreed to camp out in front of his in-laws house until the FebEx guy arrived. I admit that i was kind of excited to see what he got. This is what I found, 6 baby boas in a variety of colors. Very Fun.
I only kept them for a couple hours before I mailed them off again. I was tempted to keep one as payment for all my trouble.