The Greatest Show on Earth!

Friday night we went to the Ringly Brother's Circus! I wasn't sure how Cailen was going to be but I figured, who doesn't love the circus?! We went to dinner before at Robintino's. I love that place, if only for their garlic bread! It was Mark, me, Cailen, my sister Heather, my brother Ryan, my cousin Max, and my mom and dad. Big group! We headed out to the circus for the preshow. First, we went to the open house where we got to check out all the animals as they waited to head inside. We saw zebras, horses, minature horses, tigers, and elephants! Cailen was getting REALLY excited. He loooves elephants apparently. Then, we headed inside for the preshow. It was down on the floor and everyone got to mingle around, get autographs on programs if they wanted to and see a couple of cool things. The clowns were putting on shows, they had a drawing for an elephant painting which we actually got to see the elephants paint(!), and they had costumes that people could dress up in! It was a lot of fun. Cailen got mesmerized by this one clown. It was fun! Then the masses headed up to their seats to get ready for the REAL show! Cailen had a blast during the open house and preshow, but he got a little tired/bored at the beginning of the show. By the middle though, he found his second wind and got mesmerized by it all! The theme of this year's circus was Zing, Zang, Zoom (or magic basically). They made an elephant disappear, they had audience members levitate their mothers, and had lots of cool displays of acrobatics, tight rope walking and ribbon...climbing (not sure what this is really called). We saw elephants dance, do the congo, and climb on each others' backs. We saw tigers roll over like kittens and hop around too! We saw dogs do all sorts of silly tricks and horses too! It was a lot of fun to experience with Cailen and I am really glad that we all went! Enjoy the pictures! There will probably be more when I get some from my parents, but pictures were hard to take during the actual show due to our simple cameras and the immense space we were in! But enjoy nonetheless! Welcome to the Greatest Show on Earth!

At Robintino's - Cailen, Max, and Ryan

Looking at the Zebras with Grandpa

Elephants!

This is Cailen standing on an elephant foot! Cailen's feet are tiny in comparison!

Family portrait at the circus!

Preshow stuff

(This is the "ribbon climbing" as I call it)

The family enjoying the circus (this was before Cailen got his second wind)

Waving good-bye to the elephants at the end of the circus

Cailen wanted more!

Aunt Heather and Cailen, they loved the circus!

Sleep Tight

I love my little boy! He is always good for a photo op. Now as many of you know, I work a little on the side helping out a family around their house. Most of the time, Mark watches Cailen while I go to work and usually Cailen takes his nap while I am away. I come home from work the other day to see the lights blazing in Cailen's room, but all is quiet. "Where is everyone and why isn't Cailen sleeping," I think. I walk into my bedroom to find Mark asleep on the bed and this:

Cailen had been playing with his pillow (which he likes to take with him out of his crib in the morning as of late) and a blanket from our room over by the shoes, one of his favorite spots to make a mess. Guess he tuckered himself out! I HAD to take a picture! What mother could pass this up! He slept over an hour like that, partially on shoes and a backpack. Silly child! Awesome picture!

More Touch a Truck Pics

I got pictures from my parents camera the other day (huge process, let me tell you) and there were a few in there from the Touch a Truck activity, seen here, that I wanted to share. I'll be going through some of the older pictures and posting some Flashback Photos because there are some really hilarious ones (high school? Always scary!). Anyway, here are the Touch a Truck pics!

Cailen and Uncle Ryan in a limo

Cailen painting a car

Uncle Ryan and Grandpa took a ride in the "bucket" as Cailen calls it! Cailen was too scared to try it, so he just watched! He thought it was pretty cool though.

They had lots of other cool things that came with the price of admission, like caricatures! Cailen did awesome at sitting still for his caricature. It doesn't look a TON like him, but it's still hilarious to have a caricature of a two year old. Silly memories!

Summer Time Moments

Thought I would just throw up a few pictures of some of the things we did this summer and funny stuff I captured. With Fall inching towards us, the heat and laziness of the summer is fast evaporating! It has been a fun few months and Cailen always makes life interesting with his antics and smiles! Hope everyone’s' summer has been just as fun!

Cailen likes to get bugs. Kill bugs I mean. Here he is "helping"me get a spider. I'd already killed it. He wanted to flush it down the toilet. It's one of his favorite things to do--flush spiders, tissues, anything really. I'm trying to keep a close eye on the flushing.

Cailen has decided he is old enough to wear deodorant. He sees me put it on and begs me to let him wear it too. I tried pretending to put it on him, but he knows the top comes off. Then I tried to put it on under his arms with his jammies still on. But he knows it goes on the SKIN. So we had to take his pjs off somewhat in order to accomplish the task. He was very happy as you can see.

Yes, I continue to try to garden, despite last years silly attempt. But look at my awesome cherry tomatoes! We get tons of these babies and Cailen likes to help me pick them. He is still learning...

Cailen discovered a love for those bouncy house things. He got to jump in this one all by himself! The other kids were preoccupied with eating...not my Cailen. He wanted to PLAY!

Bike rides, how much more summery can you get! We borrowed one of those bike strollers from my sister-in-law and hit the pavement with Cailen in tow. It was pretty fun! He really liked it! We are going to have to get one eventually because bike rides are an awesome family activity! Also, I need to get my butt in shape because those seats really hurt! It has been WAY too long since I rode a bike!

I think I've mentioned before how Mark's grandma gave everyone season passes to Lagoon. Well, AWESOME gift grandma! It was so fun this summer because we could go for just a few hours if we wanted. Once, I even went for ONE hour! It was perfect. Plus, everyone else in Mark's family had them so we always had people to go with! Cailen loves Lagoon and repeatedly asks to go there. It's hard now because it is only open on the weekends now that summer is over and so we don't really go much anymore. We need to go back soon! It's so fun!

Carousel

Running through the water fountain. He'd do this everytime we go and get soaked!

New love : Bumper cars! He managed to ride this THREE times and only got bumped a little, like once I think. Granted, he just went around in circles...but still fun!

Cailen's bff, Cousin Becca riding the cars with him, his FAVORITE ride!

Riding the boat ride (Tidal Wave I think) with Becca and Aunt Wendy. You might not be able to see it too well, but he's got his hands up, enjoying the ride!

Hilarious video of the bumper cars... in a circle everytime!

We also went to Discovery Gateway this summer with Aunt Heather. We had a coupon so I didn't have to pay for Cailen which was awsome. I don't think I would EVER come without getting some sort of deal on the price because it is $8.50 PER PERSON. No age gets in free because they have a little section for the 3 and under crowd (it was kinda lame, Cailen didn't stay long). He had fun and wanted to stay longer. He loved the balls and the water station. There were some other cool things too, but I think he is a little young to enjoy all of it. We might come again next year, but not again for a little while.

Oh Summer, I'm sad to see you go. But I am excited for the Fall with the cool weather, the changing of leaves and the holidays just around the corner! If only the snow would stay on the mountains...

Goblin Valley

Goblin Valley! For Labor Day weekend, we went to Goblin Valley with Mark's family. I have never been, and obviously neither had Cailen, so it was a fun new adventure! It was pretty awesome, I have to say! There were tons of places to climb and we had a pretty cool camping spot that had pictographs on the rocks above us! Here are some pictures (umm, apologizes ahead of time for the millions of pictures!) showing the FUN time we had! If you haven't been, I highly suggest it!

Southern Utah Red Rocks

The rock that Cailen first said was an elephant and then decided a dinosaur. I'm with him on the dinosaur idea.

While climbing, we found some pretty cool caves!

Cailen with his cousins Braxton and Kaden

Look at that view! We hiked up pretty high, with Cailen none the less! He is a great climber! He LOVED it!

The next day we went on a hike through Wildhorse Canyon. The two little ones kinda held us back, but pretty soon they were holding their own!

Mark is a monkey. It's where Cailen gets it from!

These kiddos are two peas in a pod! Cailen follows Becca everywhere!

Cailen with cousins Becca, Noah and Landen

Here is where the canyon started to get really cool and narrow!

The whole time Cailen was so tired, I was surprised he did as good as he did. Any time that we stopped moving, however, he would plop himself down and play with dirt and rocks. EVERY time!

Cailen hiking with Grandpa Jerry's cowboy hat!

Our last day, we visited Goblin Valley one more time. Here is a view of all the rocks. At the far end is where we climbed up high to get to all the caves and stuff. Very cool trip.

All in all, an awesome way to spend Labor Day. We're thinking of making it a yearly thing. You're welcome to join us!