Goodbye Old Car...HELLO NEW CAR!!!

We decided we needed to get a new car since both our cars are 10 years old. So we heard about the "Cash for Clunkers" deal and decided to give it a whirl. So we traded in Brandon's Blazer and got 4,500.00 towards our NEW car!! Not too SHABBY!! Here's our finally day with Bran's Blazer:

Goodbye Blazer we'll miss you!! We had some good times!
Hello New Car!!! Here's our new car. We went and did a lot of test driving and getting mad at dealerships for being too pushy (one in particular). Hint: it's a Nissan dealer on Riverdale Road, their Honda dealership across and up the street isn't much better, we went to the Honda dealer twice to try the Accord and noone ever even came out to see us. At the unnamed Nissan dealer it felt like I was buying a used car at "Bob Schmuck's autorama"... So (off of the soap box now), we had it narrowed down between the Mazda 6 and the Nissan Altima. But the Nissan won over Bran's little heart (Despite our prior experiences) and we got this beauty from Christopher Nissan (Jerry Seiner) in Bountiful who were AMAZING and we recommend whole-heartedly:

We were so excited!! Bran's been taking care of it like its his baby! It has a lot of cool features. It's almost totally keyless. You just have to have "the key" on your person as you walk up to it and you can open the door!! or start the car!! So no more diggin' for my keys in my purse while carrying groceries and holding Vaughn's silly little paws!! Plus, it wont let you lock your keys in your car!! If the "key" is in the car when its locked it will just beep at you and unlock the car! NICE!! We probably looked silly to the dealership when we had to turn the car on and off a few times by pushing the button and giggling every time.. We don't get out much..

Bran and his baby!! Isn't he just the cutest!

Pioneer Day!

On the 24th of July we started the day out by going to the parade on Ogden. We sat by Matt's family who came down the day before to save seats. Thanks Guys! Here's Vaughn sitting in his chair waiting for the parade to come. Finally the parade started to come. It was funny to tell Vaughn to wave to the people he would wave with his hand out big and wave his arm around real hard.. It was sooo cute!

Here he is waving to the missionaries in the parade!

Vaughn and Papa!

Here are a few of Vaughns favorites from the parade. He thought these guys on the unicycle were funny.

He LOVED the tractors!!

And the "Doggie"!

He also really liked all the cars and the firetrucks!!

C'aunt Jen gave him this fan to play with and he had to lightsaber fight her with it then fan/hit her with it. (translation for C'aunt incase you don't know.. it is a cross between cousin and aunt.)

Heres part of our group that day. Theres Cant Jen, C'aunt Shiree, Alex, Shiree's sister and Vaughn.

Here's my cousins Rachel and Tyler.

Cute little Teagan and her Aunt Melinda!

Chad my cousin and his wife Tonya.

Dad and cousin Kyle

Vaughn liked all the horses we saw as we walked to and from the parade. So we stopped and took a picture by one.

After the parade we went to my Aunt Kelleys house for some lunch and fun!

Cousin in law Matt:

Cousin Stacy and Tyler:

Dad:

My cute boys!! Bran had to work that day (from home) so he went to lunch with us down at my Aunts house.

Cousin Christie:

Cousin Amy:

My cute Gandparents:

What a cute girl! Doesn't it make you want to have another one, Bran?!!!

After that we came home and took a nap we were tired! Whew! What a day!

Misery.. I mean Missouri trip!

WEDNESDAY: We went to Missouri to see my sister and fam. They moved there for Tj's job. This was Vaughns first flying trip so I took a ton of pictures so get ready here we go! Here we are on the shuttle from our car to the airport: Vaughn was excited to ride in a car not in his car seat!

Here we are at the airport waiting to check in. As were standing there Vaughn starts saying "stairs, stairs!" I looked around to try and figure out what he was talking about when I noticed the escalator. He thought that was pretty cool!

Here we are waiting for our plane to come in.

This is when Vaughn saw our plane pull up to our tunnel he was sooo excited he kept saying "My turn, my turn!!" and trying to get us all to run onto the plane. I had to explain to him we had to wait for the other people to get off the plane before we could get on it.

Now he's trying to take his stuff and get on the plane. It was so cute he was just so excited!!

Finally we get to get on the plane!! Vaughn was so excited and he had to do up the seat belt all by himself.

My mom and Stacy on the plane!

Me and Vaughn:

Me and Vaughns too excited and has to keep looking out the window!

The whole flight I was trying to get Vaughn to eat his hamburger and he wouldn't. So then right after we land he decided he was hunger and tears open his hamburger right as were trying to exit the plane. So here he is slowly exiting the plane eating his berger and slowing up everyone behind him! He is so silly!

When we landed in Denver we found oyut our next flight was cancelled :( so we found the next flight out which was at 8 o'clock that night and it was only 3 o'clock right then!! What to do for the next 5 hours!! First we walked up and down the concorse to put Vaughn to sleep which worked then we just sat around and rested while he napped for about and hour or so.

Then when Vaughn woke up we decided to ride the train back and forth to waste some time. Vaughn really liked that! And me and Stacy had lots of fun too!!

The train is kind of jerky so it was hard to take a real good picture but thats ok.

Then we rode the moving sidewalk Vaughn also thaought this was very fun!! Man all the fun a 2 year old can have in and airport who would have thought!!

Then it was time for dinner and almost time to get on our next flight. Here we are eating dinner.

Me and Vaughn lightsabering with our straws. Vaughn like to lightsaber with EVERYTHING!

We have just a few more min till our planes here. Vaughn was enjoying looking out the window at ALL the planes. He couldn't get enough of them!

We FINALLY get to Missouri at like 11 o'clock. Then we had to get our bags and walk a hundreded miles to Sara's truck cause she had a hard time in the parking lot. Oh well what do you do. Then we had a 2 hour drive to the base. When we got there we had to get a visitors pass. Yep so at 2 in the moring we had to go in sign some forms and yep get our picture taken. SCARRY!! It was funny to the guy didn't give you any warning he just said " stand there" then "ok your done" WHAT I wasn't ready!! Oh well I was ready for bed!!


THURSDAY:

We all slept in and were pretty lazy all morning. When we finally got dressed we went down to the park. We all had way to much fun there! Here's Stacy having some fun!

Tai rocking away having fun!

Now her mom's turn: She's really getting out of control on it:

WHOA!!

AHHH OHHH!! This can't be good:)

AND she's down!!!

Here I am trying to fit into the car: I think I fit pretty good!

Ok not really. Oh well.

Well Vaughn fits perfectly!

Stacy was having way to much fun on all the equiptment!

Vaughn and Tai were so excited to see each other again that they followed each other around every where! It was pretty darn cute!

It was starting to get really hot down at the park and Vaughns poor little cheeks were bright red!! So my mom poured some water on his head to try and cool him off.

They have a little pond at the park so we went down to check it out.

They had lots of fun finding rocks to throw into the pond.

Then Tai found a sea shell she named Shelly. She played with Shelly all afternoon! It was so cute.

Then we headed back towards the park again to play for a little bit longer.

Then we headed back home to cool off. We aren't use to the humidity there.

Here we are cooling off with some otter pops!

After Vaughns nap we went outside to play in the pool. Heres Tai playing with their ne dog.

Tai and Vaughn playing pretty nice with each other in the pool.

Sara's head looks a little different then the last time I saw her.

Us girls relaxing on the swing watching the kids playing.

Vaughn just being cute playing in the water.

I don't know why my niece is pouring water on her when there is a pool full of water behind her.

Tai got in trouble with her mother and she wasn't very happy about it.

My sister set up this little table for Vaughn and Tai to eat at. Vaughn just LOVED it. He thought that was just the greatest thing ever!

Vaughn found this mitt in Tai's room and he had to wear it around the house all night long. Even when we were just sitting around watching tv.

FRIDAY:

We woke up early and took Stacy to meet some of her friend out there. She was going to hang out with them for the weekend. On our way back we picked up this mirror. For a going away present this lady in her ward in Utah gave her this vinal lettering and we thought it would look good on a mirror. Not to shabby looking eh?

That day was pretty rainy so we mostly hung out inside. That night we played some fun games. One of the games we played was pop belly or as we called it pop the pig! Vaughn had so much fun playing this game that I had to get it for him so we could play it at home. The point of the game is to NOT pop the pig but Vaughn mostly loved to pop the pig. He thinks its funny.

Vaughn had to do it himself most the game so the game took longer then it needed too. Oh well we had nothing else to do and he had fun.

SATURDAY:

Saturday was a nice busy day. We woke up. Hung out outside while the kids played around in the car and on the scooters.

Tai doing grandma's hair. She's putting pretty flowers in it.

Once we were all sick of the heat again we headed back in for another cool treat. This time ice cream bars!

Then we all went to cool off at the pool. They pool was pretty fun. they had a little pool for little tikes:

And a big pool for BIG tikes:

Vaughn love's to jump into to the pool. Ready,Set, GO.....

Then I try and get him to kich and blow bubbles back to the side and we repeat it all over again!

We tried putting a life jacket on Vaughn. He did not like this..

So we went back to the baby pool to play for a bit. Aunt Sara had these cool goggles for the kids to wear they look so cute in them:

SUNDAY:

Sunday didn't go so well. Vaughn was not a happy boy and so then neither was his mother. We got to stand in the hall all thru sacrement cause someone wouldn't be quiet. This did not make me happy. But he did go to nursery really good no problems there so then mom could relax and regain some sanity. Then after church me and Sara went and pick Stacy back up from her friends. That night we played more games. Well mostly Me Sara and Stacy stayed up all night playing A game! We had sooo much fun and we were getting sooo silly!! It was the best night!


MONDAY:

Our last day out there. We went around the base and looked at all the planes they had there.

Here we all are driving around looking at the planes.

After we got back from looking at all the planes it was time to pack up and head to the airport. On our way out we had to take our picture by this sign Stacy thought this city sounded so cool.

Here we are at the airport again..

Vaughn fell asleep on the plane ride home. He looks so cute curled up on the seat.

Shuttle ride back to our car at 1 in the morning. Man good thing Vaughn is still asleep.

Finally we make it home. Safe and sound! Man what a trip!! We had such a good time. Thanks for letting us come and stay with you Sara, Tj and Tai! We had a great time!!