Memorial Day 2013

That is an amazingly clever title, is it not? It is full of mystery and intrigue. If you hadn't cracked the code yet, this entry will be mostly about our Memorial Day weekend...your mind is blown right?

My typical Memorial Day normally involves as much laziness as possible, which doesn't really separate it from any other weekend other than having an extra day. The TV is normally turned to sports all day while I readily try to avoid working in the yard. If any real activity gets planned it is against my will.

This year, my brother-in-law and his family visited from Colorado. Uh oh.....plans. I knew my dream of an entirely plan-free weekend were blown. Having now completed the weekend I can safely say that I had a blast.

Here is our schedule and then the pictures/commentary.

Friday - Zoo/Dinner
Saturday - Park City
Sunday - Sunday Breakfast / Family Dinner BBQ
Monday - Cunningham Breakfast

Zoo

The visit got off to a rocky start when we decided to eat before entering and a passing little girl puked all over the sidewalk next to us. That vomit induced a change in plans and we decided to eat inside. Once we entered the zoo, we discovered a lack of animals. Not kidding. We walked for 10 minutes before we saw anything other than a wandering chicken.
 

There isn't much interesting to add to this....Seth sitting on a fake elephant in a fake zoo.

We immediately claimed this space as Rasmuss Town. We celebrated this colony with Oreos and sandwiches.

Even Sloane knows she looks ridiculous. Luckily her facial expression saves the day.

The Seal show was actually pretty cool. Our kids were the ones who ignored the "Don't stand in front of the glass" rule. Deal with it.

I know the zoo is under construction but couldn't they at least pretend to care that we are spending our money to enter? The newly complete bear areas are great, but that was the highlight. We spend more time walking past closed exhibits than we spent waiting on Lisa to find a bathroom (always a ton). The trip was a bit of a bust but it was still cool to get out of the house and let Seth observe animals that act worse than he does.

Park City

This was the real part of the weekend that I was dreading. I knew Park City would have a ton of people and long lines. Both were true but we had a really good time. We decided to let Seth ride the Alpine Slide, which meant we had to let him take the ski lift up the mountain. Just thinking about it is making my heart race. I am the most over protective parent you will ever meet. The entire ride up the mountain (without Emily, who had to stay with Sloane at the bottom) I was gripping Seth's leg hard enough to probably leave a bruise. Instead of enjoying the sites, I could only imagine him jumping off the lift while chasing a butterfly.

Seth didn't seem to mind waiting in line, as long as Daddy was there to drag his sorry butt to the slide from the lift.

 

 

Shhhhhhh! There is a wild Lisa attempting a photo, we don't want to spook her.

Going down the Alpine Slide was one of the best memories I have with Seth to date. He absolutely loved it. Once he realized that I wasn't going to let him control the brake, we shot down that mountain with Seth trying to match my cowboy "yeeeeeeeehaaaaaa". He was laughing and smiling the entire way down. I am so grateful my wife suggested this activity.

Then it was Emily's turn to go down the slide. Naturally Seth didn't want to wait in line again so I took him on some kiddie rides to kill time. In all we got roughly 5 minutes out of them, probably not worth $3 a ride.

Looking at my 18 attempts at a photo, you would think this think was going much faster. 13 of my photos look identical, which his head perfectly blocked from the shot. 4 more don't even contain him. This is the winner.....go me.

He actually rode this twice, once with each of us. You would think for the price they charged they could afford to paint the ride every year...guess my expectations are too high.

 Finally Emily came down the mountain. She was actually about 15 minutes before I expected so she caught me a bit off guard. The pictures are not very exciting but short of having a bear chasing her I think they are the best I could do.

It's Emily! Or a stranger! Or a leaf on the camera lens!

Getting closer! Not sure why the stop sign is pointed towards me, apparently they think people waiting at the bottom have a strong impulse to rush the exit area.

She is officially in the red zone. Funnily enough this mirrors her stopping at a red light...about 10 feet short of where she is meant to actually stop. Be careful, don't want to get too close to the line!

Sunday Breakfast and Dinner BBQ

Oops, no pictures. Trust me, they both happened. Emily made a fantastic breakfast casserole she had never tried before (which is par for her. She perfects a recipe and then decides to never actually cook it again) and we got a chance to relax and talk for a few hours.

Later that day, 25 people turned up at my in-laws for a BBQ. I knew the names of at least 15ish of them.. I made it an entire 70 minutes before turning on the basketball game. Emily's cousin looked like he could hug me for turning the game on but being 15 or 16, he is scared of human contact. It was actually a great chance to get to know him (um, blanking on his name but he likes the Bulls/hates the Heat). So maybe it was closer to 14 people whose name I knew.

Memorial Day Breakfast

Again, no pictures. Every Memorial Day/Labor Day my dad cooks breakfast either at home or in the canyon for all of us. It is a really fun tradition that saves us having to cook. I actually threw a softball around with my sister, which was fun minus that fact that she is 5'1" so I overthrew her 10 times. Even Seth got excited about throwing so we bought him his first glove on the way home.

All and all, a really fun weekend. I can't promise I will still wish for a jammed pack holiday weekend but I definitely enjoyed this one.

Trying to establish a habit of posting pictures with captions or stories

It has become blatantly obvious to me that I have left most of the family record keeping up to Emily. While she is much more organized than myself, it is hardly fair. To attempt to remedy that, I will really really really try to do a small update every few weeks with pictures/captions/short stories. So all 2 of you reading this can sit back and enjoy the growing pains.

Cunningham Family Road Trip

It took an entire bag of cotton candy to bribe Seth to sit still for this picture. Amazingly that bad disappeared without a trace a short time later....

During the weekend of May 3rd, we took a quick road trip down to the southern part of Utah. During this excursion, we learned a few things:

1) Sloane is the best baby ever. During the 10 or so hours of driving, she didnt make a peep AND she didnt have any smelly diapers. Champ.

2) Roadtrips that time well with naptime are amazing. We were able to time both our departure and our return journey with Seth's nap so he slept for half the driving. A sleeping Seth equals a well-behaved Seth.

3) Potty Training while on a roadtrip isn't that bad...as long as you aren't afraid of touching every side of the wall in a gas station bathroom stall....and the toilet....and the floor....and the walls again. Everytime I took Seth to go potty I felt like my entire body was being rubbed against a urinal cake.

4) The only limit to the amount of times you can sing along with the Pitch Perfect CD is placed by either your spouse or child. I know I sound good so I guess I don't really need their approval.

 

More Potty Training

 



I really don't have an explanation for this.

 

I don't know how he didn't pee on his own face.


For the past 3/4 weeks we have been diligently trying to get Seth to use the Potty. It has been increasingly successful even though he still struggles to communicate the need to poop PRIOR to soiling his undies. I have finally mostly given up trying to save his "heavily used" undies because I figure a dollar is worth me not dry heaving.

 

Emily Sleeping

 

My entry couldn't possibly be complete without some pictures of Emily sleeping. She absolutely hates that I post these pictures but I can't help it.

 

Looks like Em doesnt just steal the sheets from me...





 

Sloane is patiently waiting for mom to wake up.

 

Emily isn't quite sleeping but apparently she makes a fantastic pillow. Hopefully Sloane comes up for air once in awhile since it looks like she is trying to wedge her heads in between the natural headrests.