November 19th, our 5 year Anniversary!!!

November 19th, 2004

We were sitting a couple of rows behind these clowns.

So five years ago on November 19th, I became the luckiest guy around when April said Yes to have (put up with...) me for Eternity. I am truly grateful for her love and support these past five years.

For our anniversary this year, April wanted to plan it all out. She arranged for us to stay up at Wolf Creek up in Ogden Canyon for two nights (thanks Elena). On the 19th, we went to dinner overlooking the SLC Temple and then went to the Temple and then we drove up to Eden. The next day we just watched movies and lounged until we drove up Brigham City and ate at Maddox Ranch House (best filet mignons in the west). Then we went up to the Utah St. vs. #6 Boise St. game. (She was a little embarrassed/worried because I was chanting "Overrated" and "Mountain West's 4th place team" to Boise St. when we were surrounded by orange clad fans. It made if fun that I had no stake in the game and I could annoy the Boise fans).

It was a good weekend to have to ourselves. I am a lucky guy to have such a wonderful wife and mother to my daughters. (Yes, we were both very excited to get home to see them after it was all said and done).

Thanks April for the best 5 years of my life.

Mommy and Morgan's trip to see Grandma Rowe!!!

April, Morgan, Grandma Rowe and McKylin at Penn State's Beaver Stadium in State College, Pennsylvania.

Mac, April and Ryan Seacrest...

The Nittany Lions!

The Buckeyes!

The legendary Joe Paterno.

Aunt Holly interviewing Terrelle Pryor after the game.

Grandma and April with the Joe Pa statue.

Back in Pittsburgh.

April ran into Kyle Korver at the Airport.

So a couple of weeks ago, April and Morgan went out to visit Grandma Rowe in Pittsburgh with Aunt Holly and McKylin. April was very excited to see her mom, even though it would be the longest she had ever been away from Camryn. Holly was doing the Ohio St. v. Penn St. game and April and McKylin got sideline passes. Babies aren't allowed on the field, so Grandma had Morgan up in the stands. April loved the trip, even though Morgan wouldn't sleep on the plane or at Grandma's. April loved her time with Grandma, Mac and Holly.

Our little Wild Thing...

Ever since Camryn was very little, she has loved "Where the Wild Things Are." Morgan is warming up to it, but Camryn has always loved reading that book, for her it ranks up there with "Go Dog Go" and "Mr. Brown Can Moo." We aren't sure when she first started saying the Wild Things phrase, but she has done it for a while.

Here she is with her Aunt Amanda telling her about all the things the Wild Things do. She is a smart little wild thing.

Speaking of "Where The Wild Things Are," April and I went to see the movie when it first came out. We both grew up loving the book (in fact I still have my very well worn copy from when I was just a little guy). It would be hard to say that we "liked" the movie although we did, it wasn't what we were expecting at all. It was very real... at least the emotions of each wild thing. We loved it, and yet... it left us wishing it would have done more. It was hard not to get wrapped up in the feelings of the Wild Things, so I guess it was well done. Not a kids movie, but a light hearted and heavy hearted movie.

A little cow and a pig for Halloween...

For Halloween this year, Camryn was a cute little cow and Morgan was a cute little pig (I guess "Morgie Moo" maybe should have been the cow, but...). The girls and April were cute and April was patient with me as I went to the U of U blackout game Halloween night. Camryn and Morgan loved trick-or-treating. In fact Morgan got so into knocking on the doors that she fell when one of the doors opened because she was knocking so hard!

Morgan is a walker now!!!

So this video is from September (it was too big to upload to blogger, so I had to go through youtube unfortunately), Morgan has decided to walk, she doesn't do it all the time yet, but more and more each day. She is a cutie. Camryn, in case you couldn't tell, is quite the singer... well she loves singing anyway. The girls are so sweet together and love to hug each other and cuddle together (even though Camryn's attempts to help/love Morgan end up like they did in the video sometimes). They are cute together.

The Alpine Loop at its finest...

It is hard to say which of the seasons is best for the Alpine Loop, there is something to be said about springtime when the mountain comes back to life or about the ferns growing under all the quaking aspens in the summer, but the mountain seems to explode in the fall. It was fun to drive it and have Camryn get excited about the colors she could see.

A quick drive along the Burr Trail...

Quite the Cottonwood.

Steve Leavitt looking for Lichens.

Strike Valley and the Waterpocket Fold

Part of the beauty of the Burr Trail.

So my friend Steve Leavitt and I decided to make a quick run down to Capitol Reef a couple of weeks ago. We took the Burr Trail just outside Boulder and drove across the Strike Valley and the Waterpocket Fold. It was a beautiful drive that I highly recommend. The rabbit brush was a spectacular yellow and we had the place to ourselves. We hiked a couple of slot canyons. It was quick, dusty and good. A classic Steve Leavitt trip.

Morgan's 1st Birthday!!!

Apparently, Mommy was still reveling in Saturday's upset.

Ashlyn, Cam diddle and Morgie Moo!!!

Morgie Moo just turned one year old. We sure love her and the little personality she is developing. She is cute, especially when Camryn and her play together and get so excited being with each other. We had two parties for her, one down in St. George with her Marcroft cousins and then at home with the Rowe and Felix relatives all coming to celebrate.

Trying to get the summer into three weeks...

Here is a load of pictures to recap the busy last couple of weeks of summer. With daddy being gone all summer, we tried to make up for it in the last few weeks. We went to the Bountiful parade with Aunt Amanda, Uncle Daniel, McKylin, Mommy's friend Maura with her two kids Amara and Shareef.
Camryn is growing up, now she is in a toddler bed, although I think she spends more time sleeping on the floor by her door...
We were able to catch the last day of the Oquirrh Temple Open House, which was great because we had been mistakenly told that we couldn't take kids to the Draper Temple open house and we were very excited to take the girls. They loved it and Camryn has talked about wanting to go to the Temple ever since.
Our sister-in-law Sara told us about the Salt Lake Connect Pass, which enabled us to go to all these great places in Salt Lake for $20.00 each adult. The catch was, you had only 2 consecutive days to do it. We got to go to great places like the Hogle Zoo, Red Butte Gardens, The Museum of Natural History, Discovery Gateway's Children's Museum, Tracy Aviary, Thanksgiving Point Dinosaur Museum, This is the Place Heritage Park and even included a meal at the Lion House. It was great and it was really fun to watch the girls enjoy each place and see their eyes as they discovered new things. It was exhausting, but really fun. It was also neat to take the girls to their Great Great Great Great Grandpa Heber C. Kimball's home at This is the Place, where I got to show them how he lived and also the work on the house that Nate and I did when it was being built. Well this has been a long post, but I am sure Grandma Rowe and Aunt Jen will love it.

Mommy and Maura at the Bountiful Parade.

Camryn doing the "U" sign!

Camryn's big girl bed!

Oquirrh Mountain Temple Open House.

Camryn and Morgan riding ponies at This Is The Place Heritage Park.

Heber C Kimball Home.

Utah Museum of Natural History

Discovery Gateway's Children's Museum.

Camryn loved the energetic little snow leopard.

Tiger!

Camryn at Red Butte Gardens

Mommy and Morgie Moo!!!

Eagles at the Tracy Aviary.

Thanksgiving Point Dinosaur Museum.

Trying to get a summer into three weeks... camping!

Great Basin National Park

Mikey and Camryn hiking at about 10,000 ft. elevation at Great Basin National Park.
Daddy and Camryn hugging a 3200 year old Bristlecone Pine.
Morgan's first camping trip at Strawberry Lake.

Morgan and Mommy at Capitol Reef.

As part of making up for Dad being gone over half the summer, we went camping three times in the last couple weeks of summer. First we went to Strawberry Lake, it was Morgan's first campout and between her crying, Camryn's not being tired and the white trash loud music drinking party close to us, it made for a long night.

We then went to Capitol Reef. Morgan and Camryn loved seeing the deer in the campground. When it got dark, the stars put on a show as we all laid on a blanket watching the shooting stars before going to bed. It could have been a rough night too, had Aunt Amanda not brought her Ipod, so that Camryn could listen to Moon River and had daddy not taken Morgan on a little drive to put her to sleep.

The last camping trip was just Daddy, Camryn and Mikey Persson. We went to Great Basin National Park. We didn't get in until late and there was a huge wind storm that made it impossible to set up the tent, so the three of us squeezed into the back of Forester. The next morning we took a beautiful drive and hiked a really cool trail up in the Wheeler Peak area that put Camryn hiking above 10,000 feet for the first time. We wandered through an ancient Bristlecone forest and Camryn felt obligated to hug, touch or ride almost everyone of them. It is a beautiful area.

The 4th, an old tree and lots of fish...

Getting ready for bed.

Camryn and cousin Peter.


Mommy, Camryn and cousin Mariah trying to pet the Rays.

Daddy and Morgan.

Peter, Camryn and Mariah looking at an Anoconda.

The Jardine Juniper

My Patriotic Girls!

Well another week has gone by with Daddy up in Logan. Last weekend was the 4th of July and the girls all showed their Patriotism all day long. During the week Daddy rode his bike (and barely made it) the 1850 foot vertical climb to the Jardine Juniper up Logan Canyon (the trail is better suited to hiking, it is only 5.4 miles up, but very rocky and a constant climb). The tree is over 1500 years old (although the sign up there says older than 3200 years, the core sample said 1500, either way it is an old tree). Saturday, we took Camryn and Morgan, along with Grandma, Aunt Rachel, Aunt Kim and cousins Mariah and Peter to The Living Planet Aquarium. It was fun to see Camryn and Morgan so excited about the sea life. It was also cute to see Mariah and Peter lift Camryn and point things out to her. It was a cousing filled week for the girls as April and the girls spent the week in St. George with Kynner and Rob's family and Holly and McKylin. Daddy only has one more week up at Utah State, which is good because it is killing him every time Camryn says "When daddy goes to school, Camryn is sad, Camryn cries." Daddy definitely owes his girls some time...

A Good Weekend...

Camryn helping set up the tent.

My little binky holding camper!

The next morning after it rained all night.

Daddy's new tent April got him!

Our little Monkey!!!

Morgan and Camryn were excited about the train ride.

Camryn Turtle!

So Camryn has been missing her Dad. So the two of us went camping last weekend to try out the new tent April got me. It poured on us all night, but luckily, Camryn loves camping. When we got home, we got cleaned up and went to the zoo, with the Davidsons. Camryn love the giraffes, monkeys and elephants. Morgan just liked grunting at the animals...I think there was definitely some communication going on there. Finally, if April ever needed to replace me for a family picture, I think we found our guy in the previous pictures... at least Camryn was mesmerized by him. All in all, a great weekend with April and my girls...

Morgie-moo crawling, you go girl!

Happy Birthday Camryn!

It's 11pm and I'm posting...and tired:) Miss you babe!!
Camryn's gift from the bowling alley

First time bowling!

Aunt Jen, Aunt Rach & Gma Felix

Aunt Holly & our tea party

YUM!!

Happy Birthday to me!

Wow, has it really been two years?? We sure love you baby girl! And miss you Daddy:(

Catching Up...

Tackle Daddy!!

Peek-a-boo!

Bitter-beer face???

G-pa Rowe's grave

Sunbathin'

Whoa sisters!!!

Now that Daddy's busy with school work, Mommy's going to take over the blog duties...we'll see how that works out. Don't expect too many! Here are just some pictures from the last month or so, Memorial Day, Daddy's Birthday, and just random shots. Enjoy!

April's Ward Talent Show Dance

Look at my little dancer!!!

Spring Break

So for Spring Break we decided to visit Grandma Rowe in Pittsburgh, PA on her mission for April's Birthday (yes that is 30, by the way, love you Apes). It was Camryn and Morgan's first flight. They did really well, Camryn was very excited to fly. We got in Saturday afternoon. Sunday, we went to Church for Easter. It was a nice, small ward. Monday we toured Pittsburgh, going on the Duquesne Incline and to the Children's Museum (where they had a cool Mr. Rogers set up). We also had Permanti's Pittsburgh sandwiches for lunch (not that good, I don't like coleslaw). On Tuesday, we drove to Washington DC, by way of Shenandoah National Park. It was foggy and we couldn't see much, but it was still very pretty. While in DC, it poured one day and was beautiful the next. We visited the National Museum of Natural History and the Art Museum. That night April and I went to the DC Temple, I have only seen it in the day time before... it was amazing at night. The next day we walked the National Mall, seeing the Abraham Lincoln Memorial and the other memorials. We then went to the Holocaust Museum... it is really sad what we can lower ourselves to as humans...

We then went back to Pittsburgh and on Friday we drove up to Kirtland. We stopped at Cuyahoga Valley National Park. When we saw the Cuyahoga River, Camryn asked me if it was the "moon river wider than a mile?" I said no, then she asked "can we cross it in style?" My little girl loves Moon River. Cuyahoga (and Shenandoah) were beautiful, even though spring hasn't completely come around... I imagine both are spectacular in their summer green and their fall colors. Now I can sing along to REM's Cuyahoga and know that "this is where we walked... take a picture here, take a souvenir... Cuyahoga...

Kirtland was really nice. Camryn was not in the mood for another musuem like tour at the Kirtland Temple, so she and I stayed out in the entry as to not disturb the tour (I have already toured it a few years back, so I was ok with my impatient little diddle). The Church has built a lot since I was there six years ago and the sites have a great spirit about them. It was really neat to be there. Also, there was this bronze Christ sculptures exhibit that was really neat...

A great trip all in all.

Spring, news and a little cow...

It was nice to have spring a couple of weeks ago...

So just a couple of updates: I just found out that I was accepted into Utah State's administrative program. I will take 18 credit hours this summer (which means, I will probably have to move up to Logan for 6 weeks this summer and visit April and the girls on the weekends (yeah, it makes me a little sick to think about it), but it will be good to get the bulk of my class work done that quickly.

My 9th grade girls basketball season ended. I was actually quite suprised at how much I enjoyed being the assistant coach. I really enjoyed helping the girls learn the sport, but more importantly gain self confidence and self esteem. It was neat to see them grow.

Last week was Student Led Conferences at my school (it is a better version of parent teacher conferences that involves the student). So, after getting home just in time to put the girls to bed Tuesday night, the next morning Camryn woke up before I left (she never wakes that early) and started calling for daddy. Well, I couldn't resist... but she would cry everytime I tried to put her back in her crib or hand her off to April. After a while of me holding her, she finally said "How bout mommy go to work and daddy stay here... yeah mommy go to work, daddy here." How do you leave a little girl who has decided to change your career?

Camryn and Morgan are getting cuter... the video is my little Camryn cow... she definitely makes one cute little cow.

Beautiful Morgan Lily and Camryn Lynn!!!

Just a few pictures of our cute little girls and the family.

Morgan's Five Month Birthday