Wednesday, August 5, 2009

Summer Adventure!!

Ryan, Jane and I had the wonderful opportunity to go on a much needed vacation!! Every year, Ryan's family gathers in Island Park for family time and fun. It has been so fun to go every year. This year, however, we decided to put our unique twist on the annual trip. We did so, by first driving to Wyoming and staying in Teton Village!! I had never been there. It was so beautiful. Here is Jane sitting on a real horse saddle/chair at a one of a kind McDonald's in Wyoming. She ran to every saddle and sat in each one over and over again!! Boy, did she love them...then again she had been in the car for nearly 4 hours.
Here is Ryan sitting in the lobby of our Hotel Restaraunt where we got a yummy breakfast!! This hotel had a whole Swedish theme going- it was so cute!
Here I am in front of our adorable hotel. I like this distance for me in photos... you somehow can't tell I look like a prego walrus!! No such luck in some of the pictures to come :( ....
Like this one for instance...I am six months prego here and lookin it...Yuck!!! Here are Ryan, Jane (in the backpack) and I at the very top of a mountain overlooking the Tetons. I am not sure the elevation but it was very high and so beautiful!! No, we didn't hike...We look a 12 minute tram ride to the top- a much preferred mode of transportation when reaching the top of a mountain...
Little Jane was so cute looking out over the very distant Teton Village!!!
Here's one of me minus the belly. I love the little guy inside though!!
Next, we drove to Jenny Lake. We took a boat ride across the lake to hike to a beautiful waterfall!! Jane was a little scared at first, but loved the breezy boat ride in the end!!
And here is the beautiful waterfall. It was a little bit of a hike- but so worth it!! Props to me for making the hike with a bowling ball in my tummy and props to Ry for doing it with a nearly two year old Jane on his back!! Perhaps that is why we both look a little ragged... what a great day it was, though!!
Next, we drove to Islad Park to meet up with Ryan's sweet family!! Here we are at Mesa Falls! Another first for me- and so beautiful!!
Every year we go into Yellowstone and never got bored of it :) Here are Jane and I throwing rocks into the river!! Ahh kids...so easily entertained!!
We saw many beautiful hot pots and geysers. Here are a few pictures of just two of the many places we stopped. Yellowstone is such an amazing place!!
So another year at Island Park has come and gone, but we are looking forward to many more!! Ryan was so sweet and patient with his pregnant wife and Ryan's sweet family was as accomodating as ever!! Thanks so much to the Dick family for a wonderful trip with such wonderful memories!!

Friday, July 3, 2009

We are having a...

For those of you who don't know (I am terrible at keeping people updated), we have another wonderful addition coming to our family!!! We will be welcoming a new baby boy on Nov. 11th and we could not be more excited!! Jane is so much fun and we love having a little family, and I cannot think of a better addition to our family than a little boy!! We are so happy and can't wait!!

Thursday, June 25, 2009

Thanksgiving Point Gardens

Ryan, Jane and I went to the Thanksgiving Point gardens last week and had a blast!! they were so beautiful. We also discovered this adorable little children's garden. We had so much fun there. It was one of the best family outings ever!! Here are mama and Jane in the maze!
Jane loved exploring the maze and trying to find daddy, who kept running and hiding from us!!
The bear cave was so cute with tunnels and passageways in and out of it. It was scary! Jane had to have a hand on me at all times- but she is adventurous and had to give it a try.
Here are Jane and Ryan at the entrance to the bear cave. This bear growls...Here is Jane in the little light house. It was just her size and she loved trying to lock me out...
Jane really enjoyed the fish tank. Ryan fed them fish food and Jane tried to feed them the rocks she had been collecting along the way... they didn't go for that.
Here, we were able to let Jane build. It was just so cute and fun. Ryan, loved building towers just about as much as Jane did and was almost as good!! :)
There was a little stage with this xylophone near by. Jane loves playing it...she was pretty good!! Once again, Ryan joined in on the fun and had a little jam session of his own!!

Ryan and I tried to get a good picture in front of the waterfall, but it was just too bright. No worries, I know this isn't the best picture- but it was just a beautiful setting and I couldn't resist putting this picture in. Just ignore us and look at the background :)
Here is the largest man made waterfall in the world!! It was so beautiful!
At the very end of the day, we let Jane play around in the cutest little fountain. It was a replica of Noah's Ark. Jane loved running and splashing around in the water. By the end, she was pretty soaked but she had a blast.
Here is just a cute picture of Jane after daddy put every clip we own in her hair...because she wanted it done!! She stared at herself in the mirror, smiling and laughing, for a good long time after it was all done. She is so much fun :)

Wednesday, June 24, 2009

Last day of little gym :(






Jane has so enjoyed The Little Gym but all good things must come to an end. Hopefully, we will be able to do it again someday soon. She is so talented. She knows the routine of the day perfectly- she knows when its free time, ball time and bubble time and definitely vocalizes it. She loves when they do the parachute and she is able to slide down it. She is great at sharing with the other kids. And is willing to try the knew tricks...most of the time. Jane definitely has a will of her own though. If she is not into the group activity, she will make it known!! All in all, I'd say Jane learned alot from The Little Gym and had tons of fun!!

Wednesday, June 10, 2009

Summer Fun!!

Thanks to Ryan's sweet sister, Angie, we were able to go on a fun bike ride as a family. She is letting us barrow her bike as well as her pull behind bike trailer that Jane so much enjoyed.
Here is Jane in her little carriage- She loved it!!
We stopped when we noticed some horses. Jane loves animals and has recently started saying horse. She loved feeding them.
We also went to the Tracy Aviary, which was alot of fun!!! Jane got to see so many new, beautiful birds that she has never seen before. She was pretty fearless and we would have to often stop her from walking right up to the birds and giving them a big kiss.

There were so many wonderful exotic birds!!
Mama was there too!!
Of course, she was completely enthralled with the ducks- her current favorite animal!!
The next week, we went up to the historic Wheeler Farms. Here is Jane sleeping on the way up! Lately, any time she is in the car she has to be wearing her new stylish sunglasses that Grammy bought for her!! She is so adorable.
There was a cute little tree house on the farm that Jane and daddy had fun climbing into.
Oh, how Jane adored the geese...
She loved them so much that she would chase them giving them air kisses all the way!! They were not so amused...
Jane was so excited to pet all the farm animals.
We even went on a wagon ride around the farm. It was pretty shaky, but fun nonetheless!!

This past weekend, we were able to go the air show at the Hill Air Force base. Since anything Air Force is going to be such a major part of our future, we decided it would be fun to go see the base and all the amazing planes and jets. Here I am in the largest plane in the World!! It was so huge!!
Here is a picture of Ryan and Jane standing just outside the monstrosity.
The actual air show was absolutely amazing. I know it is small, but here are three fighter jets zooming past, dog fight style. It was a nice shot of them flying past the tail of the huge plane on the ground (I think it was called the C-15).
Here is an older style plane, most likely seen in past wars. This was my favorite- it was so beautiful. Jane loved the planes so much. Every time, we ask her what a plane says she makes the loud swooshing noise the jets would make when they zoomed past. So cute!!
Just today, Jane and I were able to go to a teddy bear picnic at the Orem library with some friends. It was themed as the emerald city and there were such fun story tellers!! So cute!! Thanks Mellisa and London for inviting us!!:)
Jane loved the man with the puppets. The girl puppet was named "Paige Turner"...get it!! So fun!!
Jane was especially enamored with this giant teddy bear. She would not leave him alone- Always holding his hand and giving him hugs!!! It was so cute and so much fun!!

This is turning out to be a great summer- with much more fun to come!!!

Friday, May 15, 2009

Beware of Ryan, Mary and Jane Dick...


If you are planning on moving and would like help...we would love to help you...but I would recommend that you not let us anywhere near any priceless family heirlooms, expensive items, lamps, collectors items, etc. etc. In fact, perhaps you should not let us near your home at moving time at all...

An unprecedented string of unfortunate happenings caused by the Dick family, has made me realize that disaster simply follows us. In the past few years, my mother has moved several times. And we, being very supportive, have been there helping every step of the way. The first time we helped move, the sound of us girls talking to my mother about her priceless family heirloom lamp was shattered (literally) by Ryan breaking the very lamp being spoken of into hundreds of pieces while trying to pack and move it... (If you would like a more detailed version of this story- I did blog about it, so go back and find "7 Years Bad Luck").

As unfortunate as that experience was, time heals all wounds and my mom eventually forgot about her family heirloom, lamp that Ryan so ungracefully broke. The time quickly came again when my mother needed to move. Once again, the Dick's diligently showed up to help move. This time, however, Ryan stayed home to watch Jane. We thought perhaps this would prevent anymore mishaps from occurring. However, I was proven devastatingly wrong when while unpacking my mothers collector salt and pepper shakers from all over Europe, I managed to unknowingly cause the glass shelf I was placing the shakers on the slip and fall...and shatter...shattering many of her beautiful, one of a kind, salt and pepper shakers. Of coarse, I was devastated and felt horrible. We managed to somehow laugh about the situation which made me feel a little better.

Once again the lost priceless items broken by a member of the Dick clan were forgotten and time moved forward. None of us were too surprised when my mother needed our help to move, yet again. This move, Ryan and I stayed home as long as possible until most of the expensive, priceless, or "one of a kind" items were moved and then we came to help unpack. This perhaps was the key to preventing any further disasters. Surprisingly enough, the move went smoothly.

A few days later Christina, Jane and I went to visit my mom for Mother's Day. It was a nice visit. Jane was entertaining herself wonderfully in the other room, and us girls were reminiscing about all the moves and all the hilarious mishaps. When all of the sudden we heard a crash in the next room. I ran in to see what happened, and there was poor Jane stunned looking down at a small lamp she had knocked over and broken. Upon further inspection we realized that the lamp was another one of my great grandmother's lamps that had been passed down to my mom. The Dicks had struck again, and this time it was the youngest one, who looked so innocent...

So, as it turns out, no matter the age, the Dick's are just disasters waiting to happen. My poor mother can attest to this :)