Last Saturday, we went to the Grand Opening of North Park in Spanish Fork. Josh was fine with the idea until he heard there would be FREE hot dogs, then he knew the WHOLE town would be there. Oh well, we still went. We didn’t get in the mile long line for hot dogs, we mostly chased after our kids while they played on the playground. I’m so excited about this park, though. It’s way nice and close and the Splash Pad will be lots of fun….next summer.
There wasn’t a line for Smokey the Bear, can you believe it?
Ashton has been waiting all summer to be Spiderman on this web (he was dressed as Indiana Jones, though) …
After the park, we decided to head off on another adventure. We went to the Bingham Copper Mine.
Josh has always wanted to go there ever since he took a trip to Belgium where his cab driver went on and on telling him how amazing Utah is and how he really needed to go to Kennecott. SO WEIRD. He couldn’t believe that you could live an hour away from one of the most amazing places in the world and never go see it. So now we have and it was amazing, for sure!
It is UNBELIEVABLE that HUMANS have created this GIGANTIC hole!!!! HUMANS!!! This hole used to be a MOUNTAIN!!!!
It was EXTREEEEEMELY windy that day…
We decided to drive around Daybreak on our way out of the area. We happened upon this AWESOME zip line and played on it for a looong time.
Last Saturday, we decided to go on an adventure. Josh mowed the lawn then we packed up the kids and took off for a STAY-CATION. We drove through Spanish Fork Canyon down to Price where Nine Mile Canyon begins. We could not believe that we have both lived in Utah for most of our lives and neither of us had ever been to (or heard of – me) Nine Mile Canyon.
It was such a great adventure! I COMPLETELY recommend this outing if you have a whole day to spend. It really did take all day and we had to choose just a handful of stops to make. We printed out a list of GPS coordinates to enter into Josh’s iPhone (I also recommend doing that). We saw tons of wildlife (a deer, rabbits, squirrels, lizards), petroglyphs, a ghost town, old grave stones, had a picnic, hiked and explored. It was very kid-friendly, also. Most of the petroglyphs are close to the road and we just left the car running while we checked stuff out. It was such a fun day!
It has been 5 weeks and I FINALLY have a chance to blog about our new, sweet baby boy.
My due date was July 26th but I was scheduled to be induced on July 20th (no reason, my doctor just ROCKS and gives the option to be induced if it isn’t your first baby). I was praying that I would make it to the induction for two reasons:
1) I wanted to be all hooked up to an epidural before any of the contractions started…YES! I am a HUGE wimp and I am not ashamed to admit it! I felt contractions with Ashton and have NO INTEREST in experiencing NATURAL child birth…EVER!!!
2) I found out a couple weeks before that I was Group B Strep positive. This is no big deal for the mom but can cause serious problems with the baby if antibiotics aren’t administered for a certain amount of time before delivery (4 hours preferably). We live 30 minutes from the hospital and if my water broke (as it did with my other two) then we’d have to wait for someone to come over to stay with the kids and then get to the hospital and all that time could really add up. With Ashton and Emmy I was in labor for 4 hours from water breaking to delivery.
I was STRESSING OUT the week before, I tell you! I could NOT sleep at night. I would eventually fall asleep as I prayed and prayed that I would make it to the induction. I don’t know why I ever freak out about anything. Heavenly Father is ALWAYS so good to me and hears and answers all of my prayers. Everything went just perfectly. Here is how it went…
7:00 AM – Arrived at the hospital
8:00 AM – Started the antibiotics and petocin
10:00 AM – GOT MY EPIDURAL!!!! WOOOO-HOOOOO!!!! That’s right, before I felt even one contraction! I was only at 4cm at the time.
12:00 PM – The doctor came and broke my water. I was still only at 4cm. They told Josh that it would be a while probably and he had time to go eat some lunch.
12:45 PM – Josh decided to go eat
12:57 PM – I couldn’t hear the baby’s heartbeat on the monitor, so I started to move around and wiggle the monitor, trying to find it.
12:58 PM – I was getting REALLY nervous about the lack of heartbeat so I rang for the nurses at the exact time that 5 nurses came rushing into my room. They were also wondering where that heartbeat went. This REALLY freaked me out. They were saying “Where is Josh? He needs to be here. Call him!”, “Call the doctor! Tell him ‘911′!”
12:59 PM – I called Josh, he was already on his way up. The baby was on its way out and “911″ meant the doctor should stop whatever he was doing and be there.
1:00 PM – Josh was in the room and saw the doctor RUNNING across the parking lot from his office next door.
1:06 PM – I pushed a few times and the baby was out. The doctor let Josh announce that we had A BOY! It was so much fun to have a surprise baby. We were SURE the whole pregnancy that we were having another girl. I was sooo happy and shocked that it was a boy.
Our new baby boy with his incredible dad
See? Do you see how spoiled I am??? The day could not have been more perfect and our baby boy arrived perfectly healthy. We are so blessed and I cannot even express my gratitude and love for my Heavenly Father. Later that day, my mom brought Ashton and Emmy to meet their new brother (who still didn’t have a name). They were so sweet with him from the very beginning, as you can see, and continue to be the best big brother and sister ever…
That afternoon was filled with many visitors who were ready to love this new little guy…
I LOOOOVE the 4th of July!!!!! And I ABSOLUTELY LOOOOVED that the 4th of July was on Sunday this year and that all the festivities were spread out over four days!!! Here’s a brief report of the fun we had:
We started the weekend off on Friday with something new for us that I am hoping will become another part of our traditions. We went to the Utah Symphony’s Patriotic Celebration at the Sundance outdoor amphitheater. Cari and I had a long list of patriotic songs we wanted to hear so we were probably impossible to please, but it was still very good.
Spencer, Cari, Rob, Krissy, Josh, Jenn
Cari wasn’t expecting to hike down a mountain in the dark when she chose her shoes
The next morning we woke up early to watch the hot air balloon launch.
We went to church on Sunday where I cried, once again, as we sang all the verses to “The Star Spangled Banner”. I bet most of the United States doesn’t even KNOW there are more verses. And, if you ask me, this is THE MOST important and meaningful verse, ESPECIALLY NOW!!!!!
O! thus be it ever, when freemen shall stand
Between their loved home and the war’s desolation!
Blest with victory and peace, may the heav’n rescued land
Praise the Power that hath made and preserved us a nation.
Then conquer we must, when our cause it is just,
And this be our motto: “In God is our trust.”
And the star-spangled banner in triumph shall wave
O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave
After church we went to Josh’s parents’ for another BBQ. We brought huge marshmallows to roast and Josh made Dutch Oven Peach Cobbler…and Josh’s mom made my favorite chocolate pudding dessert…oh man, I ate way too much! Then the kids went wild with sparklers.
Ashton is a VERY patient boy
The next morning we went to the Freedom Festival Parade. (Thank you Nate, Steph, Fia, Sheri and EVERYONE for letting us reap the rewards of your long day and night of place-saving)
This last weekend we took a quick trip to Crested Butte, Colorado to visit my sister Angie and attend her son, Anders’ baptism. Angie is the only Stewart sibling not living in Utah…Angie, you rebel! I don’t know how she lives so far away from CIVILIZATION…though it is gorgeous and peaceful.
Ashton and Emmy had so much fun with Angie’s kids. The first day, we hung out at Angie’s, talked, laughed and had a birthday party for Anders (and Angie…They have the same birthday but Ang, of course, allows Anders have all the attention). She made a ONCE-IN-A-LIFETIME cake which is just totally ANGIE and CREATIVE. It was Angie’s 33rd birthday and if you flip the first three over and you get an 8 (Ander’s 8th birthday)! GENIUS.
The Birthday Kids
Grandpa and Emmy eating cake
Emmy getting kisses from Grammy
Ashton was playing Star Wars with Anders the WHOLE time.
At the hotel. Emmy is too big to sleep in the portable crib these days! Crazy! She was excited to sleep in the big bed. Ashton was more excited to sleep in a sleeping bag on the floor which is where he ended up.
The next day we met everyone at a vacation house Shawn rented for the fam. The kids had a blast. There was a cool little loft to play in…
Lots of places for the adults to talk, but the staircase was quite comfy
Ang and Shawn (and Cari) made breakfast for all of us
SOME of the kids eating
Aaaand the adult session of breakfast
I wondered why all the kids were so quiet and we were enjoying such peace…They were all in the living room watching Mufasa get trampled by wildebeests (and apparently that IS how you spell wildebeest…weird). They were all in shock..I wanted to put that scene on repeat for a few hours.
Josh actually missed out on all of the morning festivities. We left him at the hotel working on his talk for the next day. We picked him up and had a little picnic on the church lawn while we waited for everyone to get there. Isn’t Josh cute???
Anders’ baptism was fabulous. I am always excited for Ashton to witness such events. He came away from the font and said “Mom, that was AWESOME!” At the pool this week, he showed me how to baptize him. Cute.
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It was EXTREEEEEMELY windy that day…
