Swing set Project

So last fall Ryan started talking about a swing set for Nyah. In the beginning he was thinking he would just make one for her from "scratch" instead of buying one of the kits to try and save some money. Then this spring when we started to think more about it, I suggested a kit. I could envision our summer turning into one big swing set project rather than having time to do anything fun. So he agreed and we got a super deal on a swing set at Toys R Us. Little did I know that even with a kit, it would be a big project. In retrospect, I think if we didn't have a kit, it would have been a multi-year project. :)

So this first picture is of all the wood once we opened the boxes in the garage. The first big project was to sort out all the wood so you could even identify which "part number" everything actually was. I know we started this project over a month ago. We worked on it many evenings. Then on the fourth of July weekend we got serious about it and spent basically all of Friday and Saturday on it. On Friday night I even talked Ryan into building the bay windows inside the house once it was too dark to work on it outside. Here are some pictures to show progress that weekend.







Then we were gone the next weekend so we finally finished up this weekend. We are both relieved to have it done and Nyah is thrilled to have her swing set. She loves it. She told Ryan "thanks for my swing set" and I think that and seeing her excitement made it all worth it. :)

Last is a picture of the finished product as well as one of her having some fun using it. Yay!

Father's Day

I am so very grateful for the amazing fathers in my life and I love them so much! First of all, my Dad. Anybody who knows him knows how amazing he is. He has always been an example to me of dedication and commitment. If he says he is going to do something, he does it 100%. I remember even as a child if I committed to a team or an activity, I was always expected to follow through. I think this is a great lesson and hopefully one we can pass on to Nyah. He is also a great example of faith. I admire his dedication in his church callings as well. He truly magnifies his callings, no matter what they are. He has always shown total respect and love for my mom as well. He is always telling us how beautiful she is. Thanks Dad for all you have done for me over the years.

Ryan is an amazing dad. Just this last weekend Nyah and I drove to Boise and then Ryan flew in that night and met us. So Nyah had seen Ryan that morning before we left but when we picked Ryan up from the airport that night, you would have thought Nyah hadn’t seen him for weeks. It was so cute. She loves her daddy so much. I tease Ryan that she has him all figured out, but I love to see how much he adores her and can’t resist her cute little smile with the plea of, “just one?” Watching Ryan and Nyah play together is the best. Since Ryan and I both work, he ends up helping a lot with Nyah and around the house. I appreciate his willingness to jump in and help. Thanks Ryan.

Ryan got a grill for Father’s Day. This is his first grill of his own. His last one he “acquired” from his mom’s house (and actually built when he was a kid). The first is a picture of Nyah helping Ryan put his new grill together. Then I thought it would be fun to post pictures of Ryan with the old grill and then the new one. I'm still reminding Ryan that he is supposed to be getting rid of the old one - he's kind of attached. :) On a side note, there is a benefit to Ryan having a grill he wants to use - him cooking dinner and no dishes! Yay!

Ragnar Relay Weekend

We had the Ragnar Relay June 19 and 20th. We drove to Idaho on Wednesday so we had a little bit of extra time before the relay. Thursday evening we celebrated Mom's birthday and Father's Day since they were Saturday and Sunday and we didn't know how celebrations would go with the relay.

The relay was 188 miles from Logan to Park City. This is the second year we've done it. Our van consisted of Ryan, Cindy Austin, Tom Mortimer, myself, Lisa, and Cory Briscoe with Dad as our driver. The other van was Andrea, her dad - DuWayne, her sister - Kelsey, John Bilquist, Josh Hill, and Jordan. It's sad that we don't get to see the people in the other van very often so it was fun that it got mixed up a bit this year from last year.

The training can get a little demanding at times but the actual event is a lot of fun. We started Friday at 11:30 and ended 31 1/2 hours later. At the end of the race it was pouring rain and poor Lisa and Cory (the last two runners) definitely had some tough runs in the rain and it was cold by then as well. I didn't envy them a bit. You will see from my picture that I was grateful to be done after I had completed each of my legs. I also need to thank Mom, Shari, and Aaron who took care of Nyah so Ryan and I could both run. Thanks! I "borrowed" the pictures below from an amazing journal Cindy and Andrea put together. I think Shari has more pictures so I might end up editing this post and adding those as well. :)

This is Nyah...

So here are some typical pictures of Nyah these days. The first one is her doing "thumbs up". The picture is obviously blurry but I can't get her to hold still these days! She did this for Ryan lots last weekend because Ryan made his weight goal for his new life insurance policy. Congrats to Ryan! I never realized what a trick it is for kids to make their fingers do what they want them to do. :) It's cute. Anyway, she also does "two" and says "peace out". I love it.



The next is just her with a cute smile and you will also notice the stickers on my new oven. We have stickers in all sorts of interesting places. She absolutely loves stickers (and it's amazing what I can get her to do for a sticker)!

The last one is her playing the piano naked. She's done better the last week or so but for a while she didn't ever want to wear a diaper or a pull-up. She has been using the potty quite a bit and I figure we'll focus on it after this next weekend and the Ragnar relay.

So this last week at church she informed me during sacrament meeting that she needed to go potty so I took her out and sure enough, she did it (Ryan thinks it's amazing she can go every 30 minutes). Anyway, we're walking back into the chapel and she's still about 10 or 15 feet from Ryan when she says (not in a reverent church whisper but with a loud voice and lots of enthusiasm) "Daddy, I go potty!" Nice - in sacrament meeting. I'm sure we are quite the distraction at church these days...

We also bought Nyah a new swing set and until Ryan gets it built, this will have to do:

Hopefully we'll be able to start building this weekend. :) She keeps telling us how she wants her swing set and the days of hoping she will forget about things are long gone.

The Zoo at Last

It had been over 7 months since we had been to the zoo so we finally went again yesterday. We had told Nyah on Friday we would go to the zoo on Saturday so the first thing she said that morning was "zoo, go see animals". She loved it. We saw elephants, bears, monkeys, and she still liked the peacock just like the last time we went to the zoo. This time though the peacock opened up all its feathers. The elephant was also getting a drink out of a fire hose which was funny to see. We bought an annual pass to the zoo so we can go anytime. (Thanks Papa and Kaki) I've already decided there are distinct advantages because yesterday we could just leave without seeing everything since we can go back whenever we want to. :)

Plus here is a picture of her really enjoying a chocolate chip cookie from Paradise Bakery that she did not want to share with me. If any of you have tried them, you know why she didn't want to. :) I don't know where she got her love for chocolate chip cookies? It must not be me - let's blame Grandpa. :)

We were thinking about going camping this weekend but decided not to with the "sketchy" weather forecast. Camping in a tent in the rain just doesn't sound like that much fun to me. As we've watched the weather this weekend, we are glad we didn't go. We'll have to try that out another weekend.

Here are a couple of pictures of Nyah in a new dress today. Since I was sending her to nursery in a white dress, I figured I should get some pictures this morning in case the dress was never the same again. However, I'm happy to report it's still in great shape (good job to her nursery leaders) and the pictures weren't necessary before going to chuch today.

And last of all, this shows you what an adventure tub time is these days. She loves to color with her tub markers.