April (complete with pictures and video.)

I can't believe it is already May. Where did April go? It just went by way to fast. Here's a little break down of what we have been up to during the month of April.

St. George

We took a trip to St. George the first part of the month. I did a post about that previously, so you should check it out if you haven't already.

Here's a picture from the Valley of Fire that didn't make it to the previous post cause it was on Tracy's camera.

And a video.

James's Room

I found some fun vinyl stickers for James's wall. I needed to fill the empty wall above his bed. Since I can't hang pictures up, because of earthquakes, I had to find a different solution. They make a great addition to his room. Now all I have left is doing his wall above his reading corner and then his room will be done (for now).

I love them.

Beach Day

We took a Saturday to distress and went to the beach. It was a beautiful day. We had a really great time, like always.

James is still a little afraid of getting his feet wet.
He loves to get near the water, but has to be held.

Digging a big hole.
Tracy took over and made it big enough for James to sit in.

James playing in his hole.

Having fun with daddy in the waves.

My first try at recording a video with Tracy's camera. It is blurry at times.

Potty Training

Potty Training attempt #1000. OK, maybe not quite the 1000th, but it sure seems like it. We've been working on it on and off since oh, I don't know... November.  At first it was just a trying to get him to understand what the potty was for not really trying to train him. But since the beginning of the year I've been really trying to train him and he would fight and scream. So I'd stop then I'd try again a few week later. Finally this week after upping the ante of prize and redoing his potty chart. He finally seem excited to use the potty. Now just to get him to recognize when he needs to go and use it on his own. So far we get about one success per day. He just doesn't go that often. I've read to pump your kids full of fluids to get them to go more often and well he just doesn't want to drink that much. Even if I give him lots of salty snacks. So I have resign to just try to let him go as usual and try to catch the times he does. I have kind of figured out his potty schedule, so maybe we'll have a potty trained kid soon.

Los Angeles

Last Saturday, we took a trip the the City of Angeles for some sight seeing and fun. Especially since we hadn't been there since we moved here. We had a great time going to the La Brea Tar Pits, Santa Monica Pier, Griffith Observatory and driving down Sunset Blvd and Hollywood Blvd. Will probably go again sometime and see more stuff.

Tar Pits

The Page Museum

A Columbian Mammoth found in the pits on display in the museum.

Predator and Prey

Walking around the Atrium

Helping walk down the steps.

Santa Monica Pier

Tracy at the top of the California Incline.

James having fun on this wooden boat while I took a picture of Tracy.

James and I at the top of the California Incline

Walking around this fun park area in Santa Monica over looking the ocean.

Sunset Blvd. Street Sign

Griffith Observatory

Hollywood Sign. Maybe next time we'll go see it.

James and I hanging out outside the observatory while Tracy was parking the car.

Looking at the solar system

Looking out at L.A.
James showing off his new Space Shuttle.
I think he was watching a helicopter that was flying by.

Now we are into May and we'll see what fun stuff we do this month.

St. George (UFOP Conference, General Conference and just plain fun)

At the beginning of the month we packed up a rental car and headed to St. George. We spent a night in Vegas for some fun at our favorite place Sam's Town, then spent 5 days in St. George.

James looking out the window at Las Vegas

Walking around Sam's Town

Of course as with most of our vacations, it wasn't much of one for Tracy. He was attending the Annual Utah Friends of Paleontology Conference. They had an opening social on Friday night, Saturday was filled with presentations (oral and posters) and a banquet in the evening with a key note speaker, and Sunday they took a field trip to see some of the surrounding geology. Tracy had a good time. Met with some new people and visited with friends. He also gave an oral presentation.

Tracy's parents decided to join us in St. George, so it was fun for James to have his grandparents to play with. My little sister Kandace, who James absolutely loves, made the drive and spent the weekend with us as well. Then it happened that the Monday we were there, my other little sister Clarissa and her boyfriend were there for a friends temple sealing and my older sister, Sharlotte, was driving through after bringing her step daughters back home to their mom. So I had lots of fun seeing some of my family.

My goal of the trip was to take James to see some of the locations of this Piano Guys video. He loves their videos and this one is probably his favorite.



Thursday when we arrived, we took James to the Dinosaur Discovery Site at Johnson's Farm. He really enjoyed the sand box.

The car that got us to St. George and barely back home.

Friday, morning we all went swimming in the hotel pool. Tracy and I took advantage of free babysitters and left James with grandparents while we went to see a movie. Of course it just happened to be the day Jurassic Park 3-D came out, so why would we not take time to see it. It was awesome! That was about all the exciting things that happened that day. Oh, and the arrival of my little sister, Kandance.

Saturday morning, Kandace, James and I played at the splash pad he is playing in front of.

We went to lunch after seeing Cafe Rio on our way to a different place for lunch, we decided to eat there. I don't have Cafe Rio nearby, so I was happy to be seeing my good friend again. However, it just wasn't as good as I remembered it being. I just have found better restaurants similar to it, so Cafe Rio and I have now parted ways. Good-bye Cafe Rio.

Tracy attended the conference. His talk went well. Unfortunately, I miss understood him and didn't realize we could have gone to it. He also went to the banquet. He of course had a great time.

Giving his talk.

At the banquet

Sunday, Tracy's parents and Kandace left. I went and watched the afternoon session of conference at our friend, Brittany's house who just happened to live in St. George. We ended up visiting more the watching conference. James had fun playing with her son, Nathan, who is almost exactly a year younger. After conference we took the boys to the park to play. Tracy joined us after his day of hiking. Then had dinner at Brittany's when her husband came home from work.

On his field trip part of the conference.

Sunday morning was the first time in a very long time that I had missed home while on vacation. But by the end of the day I was glad I got to spend part of it with my friend and that we had one more day.

Monday, Tracy went to see some site for his thesis with the curator of the Dinosaur Discovery Site at Johnson Farm. I met my sisters for lunch.

With my little sis at lunch.

My little sis and big sis and two of my nieces.

Then when Tracy was done, we hung out some more with my littler sister. After that we had dinner just the 3 of us at Ocean Buffet (from the video above). It was delicious. We showed James the Me and My Cello after dinner and asked him, "Did we just eat there?" His replied in his cute little voice, "Yeah." Now since then he pauses the video at the point you see the restaurant and says something about it. Can't quite understand what he says, but probably says something about eating there.

At the Ocean Buffet. He was pretty exhausted at this point of our vacation.

Then Tuesday we made the five hour drive back home. Stopped and explored a little in the Valley of Fire and had dinner at a In-N-Out. My first In-N-Out experience. Don't see the huge hype about it, but it was pretty good and easy to make a decision on what to eat.

Here are James' rocks. He collected these all along our trip. The top right he picked up at the Cafe Rio. The top left, I can't remember where it came from. The bottom right he picked up at the discovery Site. The bottom left he picked up from the temple grounds. (I didn't realize he had taken the rock till it was too late.)
Guess he is becoming like dad, collecting rocks.

We had a good week. Though I missed my palm trees and my home. St. George does have palm trees, but they look half dead and very sad. Of course Tracy says he misses St. George's red rocks. We need the red rocks here.

Published!

Tracy's paper that I mentioned in my previous post is now published online and soon to be published in the journal. You have to have a subscription to read it, but it is there. :)

To make it this great achievement even better he found out that a freelance science writer, Brian Switeck, blogged about his paper. The writer took the paper and wrote what the paper is about in away that everyone, especially non science, people can understand. You can read what Brian Switeck wrote here.