rachel surprised

aunt rachel made a surprise visit to utah for papa john's birthday. we took a lot more pictures and did a lot more than usual.

for instance, rachel takes pictures of simon sitting in his car seat.

(july 12, 2010)

she also took all the pictures from the most recent "simon poses" post. those weren't even all the pictures.

she managed to get a picture of simon and papa john, although we don't have pictures of rachel and papa john, or even a birthday surprise picture of papa john. that's ok though, simon loves his "baba on".

(july 14, 2010)
there's a nice little aquarium in sandy. i was a little embarrassed to take rachel since she took us to the baltimore aquarium. it really doesn't compare. i hope to post pictures of the brooklyn aquarium soon. we have to go first though. the following pictures are proof of both doing a lot and taking a lot of pictures. really, this is just a fraction of the pictures.




simon really just wasn't that interested in the frog. we had to coerce him into staying on it just to take pictures.


these lobsters were just about as big as simon.


we tried petting the manta rays. whenever they came up and splashed on the side of the pool simon would get scared.


just the same as any other time we went to the aquarium, simon spent most of the time watching the penguins.


(july 16, 2010)
i personally don't like mcdonad's large straws. but they fit over simon's straw cup quite well. he had a good time with this one.


simon discovered his pockets.


this mcdonald's playland really is the best. it is great for all ages of kids. but this time, simon decided to just sit inside the cubby and look cute for rachel. which is why there are about 20 photos in this series. i picked my favorite two.


(july 16, 2010)
since i was hosting guests, i had to plan things to do for about 10 days. i really am not a fan of hiking. but i had been on the stuart falls trail before, and it wasn't that bad. mind you, it was getting dark the one other time i went, so we turned around early. i never found out how long the trail really was. at least it wasn't a difficult hike, unless you have a 2 year old boy with you, that decides about 15 minutes into a 2 hour hike that he doesn't want to walk anymore. also, i don't think this hike is supposed to take 2 hours. warning, if you have a toddler with you it WILL take that long.

at the end was a pretty decent waterfall (is that what's supposed to make hikes worth it? the view at the end?). sadly i don't have good pictures of the fall. but i have pictures to prove we made it to the end.



(july 17, 2010)
we ran into some other hikers that said the trail from the other end was only 20 minutes long. clearly, they didn't have a toddler with them, because it still took over 90 minutes to make our way out...carrying simon the entire way, who had to pee, but didn't have a diaper on and wouldn't go in the woods. that was an incredibly exhausting day.

more pictures of simon that i probably wouldn't have taken myself ;) (in all fairness, rachel didn't know simon would be moving to the same city that she lives in)


our last outing together was to the bean life science museum at byu.

(july 20, 2010)
we were so happy to have rachel and papa john stay with us for so long. we took a good rest after they left. and then grandma and granpa barnes came a few weeks later...