Happy to you Digger! 2 Years

Wild Man Mason turned 2!! When he saw his cake he busted out singing "Happy to you Digger!" (see video at bottom) Our "dumps-twuck" and digger obsessed boy sure keeps us on our toes and always laughing. His white curls and big blue eyes make him appear so sweet and innocent but watch out, he loves to stir up some trouble. His latest trick is chest bumping and pushing down other kids to show his dominance. And he still loves a good bite - love bites, angry bites, excited bites. Christian and mommy are usually the victims of our vampire boy.

He's quite the daddy's boy as well, throwing tantrums if he wants daddy to do something and mommy does it (get him out of bed, pour his juice). We're talking kicking and screaming on the floor for a good 20 minutes. Fun times. He loves to sing - "shake your boo boo" is his latest rendition, screaming it at the top of his lungs, and any little tune he makes up. I love his little raspy voice and how he pronounces everything, I don't want him to grow up (okay maybe the tantrums could end).

To celebrate the BiG #2 we had a wet 'n wild birthday bash in the backyard with 40+ people. It was wild indeed! Big bouncy waterslide, waterguns, Elmo pinata, popcorn machine and screaming kids everywhere. After opening his second present, a new rake and shovel, he headed straight to the sand box to play. He was done with presents. Who needs more than that when you're 2? The head of the busted Elmo pinata was also a hit - Mason used it as a puppet to attack people (including poor Uncle Johnny right in the pants). Mr. Personality Mason!


Bug hunting, toothless cousins

Birthday boy just wanted to play with his presents...

Attack of the Elmo head!

Hit play on video of Mason's singing to his cake, too cute.

Summatime Fun

Bowling, canyon drives, rock throwing, scooter rides, swimming like fish, theme parties = summatime fun for our family!

Don't panic, just around the neighborhood.

Mr. Mason's Motorcycle, or "Raw-kycle" as he calls it.

Oh what a pair, all decked out in our best Hawaiian gear for our friend's fun Luau party. Brought back many great Maui Memories...

Beating the heat (or beating each other?) with a little bowling at Fat Cats

Daddy's Boys throwing rocks up Little Cottonwood Canyon, nice and cool.

Lessons at Lagoon

We are THAT family with the dorky matching shirts at Lagoon each year. Actually, it's quite fun seeing all the other matching shirts of our big extended family scattered around the park and having people comment about our fun group. Troy's Grandma Hammond has the annual tradition of taking the entire extended family to Lagoon (we're talking 200 people).

I'm always grossed out by the nasty smells of Lagoon-a-Beach but I bared through it while the boys loved splashing and sliding in the kiddie section with their cousins. We all piled onto 1 tube for a couple trips around the jam-packed lazy river. What's not to love about a water park in 100 degree heat?! (Besides the crowds of "interesting" people and poo smells). There really is some GREAT people watching at Lagoon.

And the lessons we teach our kids: while trying to get a good picture of Mason in the airplanes, I yell "shoot mommy, shoot mommy" (with the play gun on the ride that is). I quickly realized what I was teaching my son. Not good!
Lesson #2: Daddy buys them both light-up swords and as they start whacking each other, he yells "don't hit" and "be soft" - hmmm, exactly what boys are trained to do with swords - not hit and be soft - yeah right Daddy.

The result after yelling "shoot mommy" to my child. Who says that??

My baby is SO BIG sliding all by himself.

Game time for Daddy and Boys, Christian knocked 'em all down on his first throw.

This boy LOVES his food!

Thanks for the fun, fun Lagoon day Great-Grandma!

Here you see Troy disciplining the boys for "hitting" their swords, what else do we do with swords?

Swim Time

For the love of a cupcake...mmm red velvet.

That's right, even Sammy the Dog took a ride down the slide!

Mason shoots down the slide

Hit play to watch the boys slide!

Fireworks Fourth Fun

We loved having an extended 4th of July weekend - what's not to love with 4 full days of celebrating! Can we schedule more holidays like that?
Nonstop fireworks, BBQs, swimming and family fun! We're doing our best to enjoy every minute of summer.


The "lighters" Troy and Andrew

All the cousins

Evergreen Parade - the kids made a stash on candy and yes, Troy was THAT parent out in the street hoarding candy for his kids (and himself).

Daddy's Boy chugging down a root beer or "apple juice" as he was calling it.

BRUZER

That's right, the Z gives it more oomph. Accident-prone, football player in training, wild man, bad parents - whatever you want to call the situation, it is what it is. Mr. Mason seems to have a new injury every week and here is the latest (let's not forget the 2 times he slammed his fingers in doors last month and the multiple black eyes and tooth loss from the months before). You may wonder why I so publicly discuss his injuries?? I post this to make you all feel better about your own children's accidents (or lack thereof).

In an attempt to wipe his hands after eating at Training Table, Mason took off running, tripped on the stair (those dang crocs are like rubber door stoppers) and catapulted 4 feet, head first into a metal chair leg. The goose egg (alien on his forehead) immediately shot out 3 inches with a white and purple tip. We were freaking out and our poor baby was miserable!

Poor baby!!

Hey, at least he was all smiles in the end, and so was mom after a good report from the doc at Instacare. Here's to no broken bones, no stitches and no concussions! (knock on wood)

And here's to the REAL reason we were celebrating. Happy 1st Birthday to our darling nephew/cousin Alec!! We love you Big Boy!