Tuesday, August 26, 2008

Owen Meets Layla


This is Layla, Owen's new cousin. She came quite unexpectedly, but we're happy to have her. We took a trip down to Salt Lake City over the weekend to pay her a visit and welcome her to the world. It was hard to tell if Owen was excited or not to meet his new cousin, but we suspect that he was.

We figured that it won't be long before these two little babies are chasing each other around, getting into mischief and having a lot of fun.


But we had a lot of fun this weekend. We ate chinese food, we slpet over at Auntie Collette and Ryan's apartment. We had breakfast and Grampa and Grandma Higham's that was cooked on Grandma's new oven. We went bowling and visited Aunt Beanie and Uncle Leo and just generally had a great old time. Owen is always up for a good time and we really had one.
And then Sunday Grampa and Grandma Nash stayed the night and watched Owen while Mommy and Dad went to work and school.
Now we're just looking forward to another weekend at Bear Lake and some more fun times.

Monday, August 11, 2008

Eventful Times: Owen goes to Bear Lake


It's been an eventful two weeks for Owen as of late. It all started last weekend when his Mommy took him to Salt Lake for the weekend. Dad had to stay home and work.


After that trip, we barely rested before we were headed off to Bear Lake for our annual Raspberry Days bash. This was Owen's first time at Bear Lake, and he really enjoyed himself.


At this point, he is a little grateful that we'll be staying home this weekend for some well deserved rest.




Here is a picture of Owen with his cousin Ryan. Owen got to spend the whole weekend with his Grampa and Grandma Higham. It was Mommy's birthday and her sisters took her out for a night on the town.






Mommy found out real quick that she can't "party it up" like she used to. She was home and with Owen by 9:30 that night.





The next day they all had a big party for Mommy and all the family came by for Mommy's birthday but we all know they came just to see Owen. The kid can't help it that he is the life of the party and center of attention where ever he goes.





Here is a picture of Owen with his Aunt Beanie. Uncle Leo and Aunt Beanie were almost as excited as Mommy and Dad to welcome Owen into the world. So we have to be sure to give them a visit every time we drive down to Salt Lake.





On Sunday morning, Owen got to hang out with everyone and participate in a Higham family tradition: SHOPPING! And not just your run-of-the-mill-drop-by-store-shopping. Nope, in this family of all women, one kid and one long-suffering man shopping is an all day extravaganza. To them everyday is the day after Thanksgiving. Owen takes it all just like his old man: pretty patient at first, but after a while, enough is enough. At least Dad can manage to talk his way out of these trips, now he just has to figure out a way to spare his son the agony of shopping.










No trip to Salt Lake would be complete without a stop at Dad's favorite eating spot: Hooters! While Owen couldn't enjoy the hot wings, Dad still got to because Mommy took home a whole mess of wings that Dad ate that night. Owen really had a lot of fun hanging out with everyone down in Salt Lake. Even Grampa and Grandma Nash and Olivia and Hunter stopped by on Saturday to visit Owen. They were on their way to Sprinkler World. And even though Hunter still hasn't gotten over the fact he had to watch Transformers instead of The Mummy on the big screen the last weekend in Tooele, he and Ryan still played together really well.
In fact, here is picture of Ryan dressed up as Power Ranger and posing for the camera. He may be getting a little jealous of all the attention Owen gets now. With everyone ooing and awing over Owen adn calling him "Chubba-Bubba" Ryan asked everyone, "Can you call me Chubba-Bubba, too?" It takes a little getting used to a new guy coming around and stealing the thunder. But Ryan sure does love his little cousin Owen.



Well, we finally made it to Bear Lake this year. Because of the high price of gas, we had to leave the motor home behind. We loaded up the car (believe me it was loaded down. We couldn't have fit another thing in that car) and headed for the cabin in Laketown. Grampa and Grandma Nak own a cabin in Laketown which boasts four bedrooms. So there was plenty of room for all of us.


Owen seemed to enjoy the beach quite a bit. He didn't mind the sunscreen too much and he didn't complain about getting in the water. Though Mommy and Dad felt it may have been a little too cold for him this year. He was even pretty easy going about walking through the craft fair (at least more easy going than Dad, but then again everyone is more easy going about it than Dad is; Reread the shopping excerpt from above).




We got settled on the beach. We put up the tent even without Trevor's help this time. We played some Mexican Horseshoes, tossed around a big beach ball (after all of the effort Dad put in to blowing that thing up, it was going to be played with, no matter what), and just generally relaxed and had a good time.

The water was warm, albeit with a few minutes of adjusting to it. There were a few storms, we seemed to time it perfectly and missed them. And the old mattresses in the cabin may not have been the most comfortable and the walls are paper thin whcih contributed to a huge amount of lost sleep for everyone. But those are the experiences that make the best stories. We all were laughing about it the next day. Taking into account the good and bad, we wouldn't trade any of it. Mommy and Dad todl the story of their sleeping arrangement to everyone's delight. Mommy was sleeping practically in the wall on the one side of the bed, with Dad virtually hanging off the edge on the other side while Owen slept in the middle arms and legs fully sprawled out enjoying the massive amount of room the seemingly small double bed afforded him. The only one more comfy was Lily, who despite having sheets, blankets and pillows thrown on top of her, snored almost as loud as Dad throughout the night.








Here we are enjoyiong the beach and playing with the beach ball. Even though Maggie had to talk on her cell phone while we were trying to play. We all had a great time. Owen especially enjoyed it. Even though sand seemed to get everywhere. So when we got back to the cabin form the beach Saturday night, we gave Owen a bath in Grandma Nak's old kitchen sink.

Owen really loves bath time, and this was really something special for him. He has all but out grown the baby tub we have for him at home. So it was fun to be in a tub that he could fit in. Plus it was nice to get all of that sand washed off.

And now we can rest for a few weeks, and then we're going back to Bear Lake to stay at Grampa and Grandma Nash's condo over Labor Day Weekend. Now that Owen is an experienced beach bum, beach life should be second nature to him.