Jorman Xavier

So I Googled "Jorman " today and found that the name means exalted of the Lord, which Ryan had already told me. Then I Googled "Jorman Xavier" and found that he is not alone, there are many of them out there and they all seem to be Spanish speaking. I thought that was very interesting if not even a little apropos.

Family Vacation Part 3

delicate arch is in the background

Once again we packed the car up the night before and took off very early in the morning. Our destination: Moab. It was an equally long day as our first day had been, but we were prepaired and it wasn't so bad. We pulled in in time for dinner. The next morning we were off to Arches National Park. We wanted to keep it fun for the boys, so we only did some of the shorter hikes with them. They had fun climbing and playing, and trying to decide what the rock formations looked like. After lunch we headed home and got there by bedtime. It was a full trip, especially with a baby, but it was very fun and we all enjoyed it immensaly.

Family Vacation Part 2

Me and Jory with Kristen and Chase

Daddy and Jory

Everyone who was there

Christina, me, Nikki

Gabe's 6th birthday

Waiting for the fireworks

Our family on the 4th

The next day we headed down to the Phoenix area to Grandma and Grandpa's other house in Paradise Valley. We spent the next several days visiting with family, swimming, checking out the children's museum, celebrating a birthday and heading to a water park. I even got to sneak in a quick visit with some friends who I grew up with, Nikki and Christina Hosford. (I guess Nikki is a Peterson now, but she'll always be a Hosford to me). We celebrated the 4th of July with swimming, BBQ, and fireworks. Sunday was Jory's big day. He was joined by his newest cousin, Chase, and they were both blessed. It was a wonderful day for a blessing, and a beautiful little meeting we had for the two babies. Jory turned 4 months old on his blessing day.

Family Vacation Part 1

At the Hotel

Visiting the Dam

Grand Canyon

Grand Canyon

Jory's trip through the Grand Canyon

Explorer Renton

Checking out the view

We got the car packed the night before and piled into the car by 5:30 AM. There is something exciting about a road trip, but we also wanted to take as much advantage of Jory's sleeping time as we could. We drove from SLC to Flagstaff the first day. It would normally take about 8 hours, but it took us 12 1/2 hours because we were traveling with a 3 month old. The boys watched movies and colored. Jory slept and figured out how to grab at the toys that we hung from the handle of his baby carrier, and I read Twilight to Ryan. Yes, I know I swore I would never read those books... but when Ryan got interested in what all the hype was about and said that he would probably read them, I broke down and decided I couldn't miss Ryan reading a silly romance novel. But, what happened is that we got sucked into the story even while we laugh about the sap together. Anyway, we saw some great scenery and had a pretty uneventful trip, wich felt more than we could ask from a 3 month old who hates car seats! The next morning we met Grandma Ali and Grandpa Sam and took the boys to the Grand Canyon. We had a lot of fun climbing and checking out the sights. We spent that night in Sedona where the boys did even more exploring around Grandma and Grandpa's house.

Fun in June

Eli, Jory, and Renton

"Father and Sons" comp out in our library

Oquirre Mountain Temple

Eli in the downpour

Renton playing transformers

June was a beautiful month. We had so much rain that I was joking that we had gone on vacation to Seattle and hadn't realized it. It did wonders for my garden. The boys loved playing in the rain and we would watch the lightning from our front porch. It was very fun. Likewise, we had a lot of inside time and the boys played transformers together while made Jory's blessing outfit. The father and son camp out was a little too wet and lightningy for the boys, so they came home and camped in our library. They stayed up late and still had lots of fun. We also went to the Oquirre Mountain Temple open house with the boys. It will be our temple once it is dedicated.