Last Trip of the Summer

We took one more trip out to Utah before the summer ended and Sam started school.
This is not the best picture, but it was so cute how Sam wanted to help Grandpa Stromberg with their dog Sadie and they were just having a nice little conversation outside before bed time.
Sam was determined that I took a picture of the COOL Batman Motorcycle toy grandma Stromberg bought for him.

Sam with his favorite Baby Cousin Mia, that he loves to "pet."

Some of my family went out for yogurt at Farr's Fresh and of course these three little boys could not stop being silly and loved every minute of each others company.

When Luke, Liam, Tristan and Sam got together this time the main play time was spent as "Super Heros."

Mom, Suzie and I ran an errand to Walmart and you can see that Sam and Tristan were all tuckered out from their hard playing. I was actually able to lift Sam's car seat right out of the car and straight into the cart, they slept the whole time!

A few events happened while I was in Utah this time that made me very glad to be there.

Stephanie Foulk, one of my very first young women from New Jersey was married and had her reception in Utah so I was able to attend that. It was like a reunion from Jersey there. Besides the Foulk Family we saw the Schonemans, Feuz and Nortons. I miss that ward and all the families a ton. Such great people.

Side note: Stephanie's mother-in-law is in the same ward as my brother-in-law's parent's in Illinois. My mom and dad took a trip out their with my sister and brother-in-law and met Stephanie's future mother-in-law, having no idea who she was and that she would see her soon in Utah at her son's wedding. CRAZY!

Uncle Tom giving Sam a bike ride, he LOVED it!

We took my parents to my Mom's favorite place to eat, Sizzler and here are some of the kiddos that drive her batty but they ADORE her!
The Willes Reunion. Ever since I was little they have held this reunion and for the last 13 years of marriage I have not been able to attend one. This time it worked out for me to be there at the same time it was held. Here are the last two of my grandmother's siblings left. I have to admit I got a little emotional seeing them. Here is a little saying that was made up to remember all her siblings names in order:

"Douglas" heard the "Echo" of the "Bell" just a "Hellen" through the "Castle" after "Dean" and "Paul."

Dean is on the right and Paul on left.

My mom with Aunt Sharon at the Willes Reunion.

I love my mom's family. They were so awesome to drive down from SLC to join my family for a birthday celebration.

An Unexpected Visit

Dan's brother Jeff was put in as a 1st counselor in the bishopric for his ward (our church). So their parents decided to make an unexpected visit for the occasion.
Sam really put Grandpa Stromberg to work during their stay. Every morning we found Sam downstairs with grandpa joining him on the floor playing board games, Sam's rules! We know Sam enjoyed it but not sure about grandpa's knees.

SAM

So I was doing a little window shopping on the Melissa & Doug website and clicked on their blog, and low and behold I found Sam's twin! I had to see if my eyes were properly working and to check with Danno. I copied the picture off the website and showed him. His reply was, "I've never seen that toy before." Fooled him, did I fool you? Of course when you see them together you can see the subtle differences, but when we saw it alone it was kind of crazy how similar they were.

Happy Fourth 2010

It was fun to have family with us to celebrate Independence Day. Dan's brother Jeff and family joined us at our house after church for a 4Th of July BBQ.
After dinner, Sam's amazing cousins took him outside to introduce him to snap pops. Later that night we drove over to Jeff's house and hiked up a hill near there where we had an amazing view of many of South Orange County's fire work displays.

Happy Father's Day to Our Super Hero Daddy!

Danno has been an amazing father and husband and we were glad to celebrate this day for him and our fathers. I am so proud and grateful for Dan for all the crazy things he has endured this past year as a provider for Sam and I, changing jobs, moving across the nation and then practically remodeling our new house. He has been through a lot to make our lives happy and we love him for all he has done for us. Here he is pleasantly surprised by the new mt. biking shirt I gave him.

Utah June 2010

A summer trip to Utah for Sam and me.
Below are Sam and some of his cousins, who can cause a lot of craziness and laughter.
Tristan

Liam

Luke

Our first stop was a much needed one as I had never met my niece Mia. We stopped in Springville at my sister's house and I got my satisfaction from holding this cutie.

Sam was more than anxious to see his cousins and get right into the playing. Wolverine!

It never fails, Sam always seems to play matchy-match with one of his cousins and he thinks it's pretty cool to look like Luke!

My brother Joel and Tom and I went with my mom and our kids to the Million Dollar Park.

Sam and Tristan had a lot of outdoor fun! It was really cute because they would stand within inches of each other so they could get the bullets on each other's vests and they thought they were doing the game just right!

Buddies! Never know what these two little critters are up to!!

Sam and Luke have an almost brotherly like relationship. Sam looks up to Luke at whatever he does. Luke tries to help out Sam. They love to play with each other but they also have their brother-like fights too. It's pretty special.

Oh how he LOVES them! Sam's face shows it all. Sam's relationship with his cousins is pretty special. His little personality shines when he's with these guys.

Sam and this little sweetie have a special bond with each other as well because they share a similar name. Samantha is just a few weeks older than Samuel and they have a great time together.

My little Sis. Ash, had a great idea of inviting all her cute nephews and niece to the Provo Pool for some much needed water fun and they LOVED it! They each had fun in their own way whether it was going down the water slide or just sticking right where they were bouncing in the water.

This is how Sam will always remember his Grandma Bean: M&Ms! When the grand kids come to grandma's house they know they will always find m&ms in this cup in her room.

Sam gets lots of loving when we go to Utah. Grandma and Grandpa Stromberg do a great job of loving and spoiling this kid. When we arrived for our visit to Grandma & Grandpa Stromberg's house, grandma had some fun new toys to spoil little Sam with. Laser and water guns and lots of yummy food!

One of Sam's favorite toys to play with there is Dan's old school Sesame Street Little People.

We had lots of fun playing at their house, and we even visited the new fire station up the street, fed ducks at Sugar House Park, had a water fight with grandpa and rode on a carousel.

Sam actually had two visits to a fire station. The second time was with his cousins. My brother-in-law Billy has a relative that is a fire fighter for Orem. He invited us to come and have our own special tour of his station. Lots of fun for the kids. They toured the house, the ambulance, and the fire fighters even hooked up a hose outside and turned it on for them to have the ULTIMATE water fun!

Christian was the lucky one to try on THE desired outfit.

Sam and I were able to be in Utah for Liam's 5th "Transformer" birthday and boy did Sam think that was cool. He is really into the whole super hero thing, be it Transformers, Superman, Batman, Spiderman or as many of the pictures show, fire fighters!

The birthday game of Transformer, Transformer send ? right over!

We had a great time filled with lots of playing, fighting, crying, eating, pretending, laughing, loving and visiting!