Bryce Canyon

Since last weekend we saw everyone of the Marchant clan except Kim's family, we jumped at the opportunity to go to Beaver again and hang out with the Isaacson clan. Kim is Kevin's oldest sister and she has 6 adorable kids. Saturday we met them up Beaver canyon for a little fishing, horse riding, canoeing, and barbecuing. Unfortunately, Melanie came down with some horrible pains and was rushed back down the mountain to the hospital. We were all pretty worried since she's about 6 months pregnant. Everything turned out alright in the end though...she had a kidney infection and spent 2 nights in the hospital. Sunday we made our way to Bryce Canyon for a little hiking and enjoyment of our beautiful earth. We had a wonderful time hiking and the kids were all so tough. The weather was perfect and Kassidy had a great time thanks to a loaner hiking backpack (thanks Stacy!). We love being outside and hiking was loads of fun. Here's some documentation that's funner to look at than my dumb writing.

Outside Ruby's Inn we found these attractive characters.

We really wore Kassidy out with all the hiking.

Look at this view! We hiked these switchbacks down and up...it was a great workout!

The whole group, minus Grandma and Grandpa.

Memorial Day...warning, lots of pics!

We are home from our wonderful and exhausting Memorial Day weekend in Beaver. We spent four fun-filled days with the Marchant clan. Everyone made an appearance except for Kim's family (who's coming this weekend) so Karen and Bruce had a VERY full house. Kent made the comment that we hit all of their popular family vacation spots in one weekend. We went to Marysvale to the miner park Saturday morning. The plan was to hike Marysvale falls, but the weather wasn't cooperating, so we just wandered the gorgeous mountainside in the rain instead (still fun!). Then we made our way to the Big Rock Candy Mountain to buy a little rock candy and see the beautiful scenery. On the way home we hit up the Freemont Indian Museum and hiked one of the fun trails with all the kids. Sunday after church and a yummy dinner we made our way to Cove Fort for the tour. I'd never been there and really enjoyed visiting this historic place. The kids loved the barn and old pioneer toys and we had a wonderful chat with the missionary couples there. Kev, Kassidy, Kurt and Whitney and I slept in our new tent Sunday night and braved the cold weather. Monday we had a yummy breakfast at the park and then walked to the cemetary to visit Breanna's grave (Kevin's brother Kyle's first born). The cemetary was beautiful with all the flowers and Kassidy loved all the pinwheels, which she kept calling "pizzas" and trying to stop them from spinning. The kids also played in the sprinklers and some of us went to the Beaver theater to see "Night at the Museum 2" which was very cute. We got home last night just exhausted and more than happy to sleep in our own beds.

Kassidy loves her cousins. This is her and Becca playing in the sprinklers.

At Cove Fort on the wagon.

Kassidy running away during our tour.

Kassidy and her aunt Kelli smelling the lilacs.

On our hike at the Freemont Indian Museum.

Uncle Cory was so cute with Kassidy all weekend. I think he wants a little girl...

Grandma and Grandpa Marchant. Poor Grandma probably has a sore back after carrying Kassidy around all weekend. She was having a hard time sharing "her" Grandma with all the cousins.

Kass in a miners bucket and the Miner's Park in Marysvale.

It was pouring rain...

We love our family and will miss them so much!

Near the end...we think

So our binky weening is coming to an end...we think. The screaming fits are now reduced to 15 minutes of crying before falling asleep. Still not ideal, but it's better than the hour and a half of screaming that we've had this past week. I'm so grateful for my amazing husband for putting up with me and my stressed out behavior this week, he's been great. In retrospect, this week was just another bump in the road of raising a child and it doesn't seem quite so bad (so don't let me scare you Christy).

In other news, we think we've found an apartment in California. It feels good to kind of have an idea of where we'll be now and not be so stressed about moving. Now it's time to dejunk!We were hanging out in our teeny backyard and spotted some lizards hanging out on the brick wall. So we decided to catch one for Kassidy to see. They actually freaked her out and she wasn't too excited to have it that close to her (you can tell from the picture).

Days three and four

So this is not going as I would have hoped! After night two I thought, "This isn't so rough, we can do it!" Now I know why people let their kids have binkies until they're 3 years old. Kassidy tried the stall tactic last night with constant pleading to watch movies and wanting drinks and whatnot. We gave in more than we should have because it was the LOST season finale and we couldn't miss that :) We paid for it dearly though when Kass woke up at 3 am screaming for us and nothing we could do would calm her down. I spent an hour rocking her and then Kevin ended up sleeping on the couch with her the rest of the night. Needless to say we were both pretty grumpy today. Right now it's 9:15 pm and the bedtime routine has been going on since 8:00pm. We've read stories and rocked and brushed teeth and she still screamed for a solid 30 minutes before we both felt extremely rotten. We sang hymns to her which seemed to calm her down, that is until I tried singing one that the notes were way to low and my scratchy voice made Kevin burst into a fit of giggles. Good one Kev, you woke her up again. So Kevin's still trying to calm our little monster! HELP! I don't think we're going to make it through the next week if our child doesn't learn to soothe herself. The good news is that Kassidy has stopped asking for the binkies. (Sorry this is so long, but I'm still looking for good advice to help my monster go to sleep).

Day Two

First off I want to thank you all for your encouraging comments and well wishes, it's buoyed me up immensely...thanks! Day two is over because my sweet big girl is in bed for the night. I was pretty worried about today because I've been warned that the second day is usually worse. Well, I was pleasantly surprised that instead of an hour of crying and screaming, it only took about 15 minutes!! Yay! Kassidy stayed home with Dad today and I was pretty worried when I came home from work and Kevin said there was no napping while I was gone. Yikes! But I actually think that the lack of nap helped Kassidy to exhaust herself much quicker. I did have to rock her to sleep tonight, which is pretty rare for our independent girl. We've had much less asking for the binky today because I think she remembers that it's "brokie". I'm so proud of my big girl and her ability to deal with difficult situations. Hopefully we only have a day or two more before she'll put herself to sleep again without the binky.

Day one down...

So I decided it's time to get Kassidy off her binkies before her 2 year birthday. It wasn't really what I wanted to do, but the dentist said that after 2 years old their teeth start to pull forward permanently, so, here we are! Day one was yesterday and I decided to try the snip trick where you cut the tip of the binky to make it lose the suction. Kassidy tried to suck her binky after it was snipped and started bawling, "Binky brokie!" She was pretty upset, but the worst came at night when she bawled for a solid hour. Kevin and I took turns trying to soothe her, which didn't work and she finally just bawled herself to sleep. Tough night, but I'm sure tonight will be worse. I'm not sure how long this is supposed take, but we're hanging in there because I didn't save any back up binkies. Any advice mommies?

Gradumacation!!

It's official...Kevin and I are college graduates! We graduated from Southern Utah University Saturday, both with our bachelor degrees and me with a teaching certification. It was such an amazing day and we were blessed to have all our family with us. Both our parents and my grandparents came to celebrate with us. And I have to especially thank Kurt who selflessly stayed home and watched Kassidy and all my sibilings. Kurt, you're a trooper! Kevin's parents were there but for some reason we didn't get any pictures of them with our camera, but I know there were some taken on other cameras (sorry Marchants! I'll post some later). We had a wonderful day and an amazing speaker--President Monson. He just lights us every room he's in. Something he said in his address struck me and I'm going to remember it. He said, "We need to learn to love people and use things, and not love things and use people." I loved that and his whole address. Thank you to all the people who made this day possible!

Kass isn't sure why daddy's dressed so funny.

Sweet Mama

Our number one fans, Grandma and Grandpa Hicken. They had a crazy weekend rearranging their schedules and then running out right after the ceremony to drive to Heber to speak in a Stake Conference. They are so special to us and made a big sacrifice to make it to our graduation. Thanks guys!

Daddy-O. Cathy was sick but wanted to be there.

I'm so proud of you babe!

Our buddy Cade Nielson

Some of the girls from my block class and Professor Linda Marriott (back middle) who taught me to write like a teacher.

We DID it!!