It's Great to be Eight!

Ethan turned eight on July 30, 2012.  It is so weird that I have an 8-year-old!  Where did the time go?  

Ever since I took Ethan to a Spy Kids movie at Movies 8 last year, he has been obsessed with everything Spy.  All year long during school at recess he would recruit fellow spies.  Whenever his teacher asked him to draw something, it always had to do with spies.  He is so into spies that if you tell him he is "imagining" or "pretending" he tells you, "No!  I really am a spy!"  So of course the theme for his party was Spy Kids.  This was the first time he had a party where he invited friends from school.  I did some online research on different spy parties and we came up with a plan.  

When they first got here I had badges with their picture on it, (scanned from the yearbook).  They cut them out, glued them together, and wrote their name on it.  After they had their badges they got disguise glasses and a mustache to wear and Bryan took their picture.  I still need to get those pictures from him, so I will have to upload those later.  The next activities were to "train" them to be spies.  First, they had to "diffuse a bomb".  I had Bryan blow up a bunch of small balloons and just one balloon had red confetti inside of it.  I dumped them out of a bag and they were all supposed to stomp on them and whoever found the red confetti balloon won; only the balloons were tough and wouldn't pop with the weight of the kids, so Bryan ended up stepping on most of them.  Ethan and his friend got a pin and were popping them and I think Jonah found the confetti balloon.  

The next task was to complete an obstacle course.  We had red string wrapped around the trees, which was supposed to be lasers beams that they had to climb over and under and not touch.  Then they had to football run through some rings, jump 10 times on the small trampoline, jump jack over to the bricks, walk across the bricks like a tight rope, and then squirt down a plastic cup with a Nerf water gun. 

While they were busy doing that I had Bryan go in and hide the presents on dryer.  I found a good scavenger hunt online.  When we came in I gave them another prize to put in their party bags and then exclaimed, "Someone's taken all the presents!"  There was a clue where the presents were supposed to be.  To make it more spy we did code ciphering.  It was written backwards.  It was a little hard for them to read, so I ended up reading most of them.  Some of the kids, especially Austin, were so upset the presents were gone and thought someone had really stolen them!  They ran around and found all the clues and we found the presents, phew!  They found out it was Bryan who took them and interrogated him :)  Ethan then opened his gifts and we had cake and ice cream.  It was a lot of fun, but I was exhausted after!  This pregnancy has been a lot harder on me than the others.....well in different ways.  I was sicker with the other two, but this time I am just tired all the time!  Here are some pictures from his birthday....
Ethan's friend Austin
Liam
Cousin Layla
Dylan
Cami
Gabriel
Jamison
Jonah
Budget Spy Kids cake....printed off a picture and set it on toothpicks so that it was a little raised up.
Bryan and I gave Ethan a bike.  He's outgrown his and gave it to Austin.
Certified Spy Kids

Here are all the spies in their disguises!

The day before his birthday we had dinner at Bryan's parents and had a little family celebration for Ethan.  My mother-in-law is seriously like Martha Stewart, but better.




 We are so lucky to have Ethan in our family.  He is a very caring, sweet boy.  He is fun and has a great imagination.  He is also good at helping me clean things up!  We love you Ethan!
    
                     

Colorado Trip

My Dad and Mom had planned a trip to Colorado to see Kyle (my sister's son), get baptized.  They said I could come with them and I thought it would be a good time to go, because once I have this baby I don't think I'll be going anywhere for a while and I had never been to Colorado or seen my sister's house.  So Ethan, Austin, and I piled in the back and headed to Colorado on the 12th.  I forgot I get a little car sick when I'm pregnant and I'm not the one driving, and the air conditioning kept going out, but besides the driving there and back it was a great time!  :)  They live in a community that has a pool so we we went over to the pool a couple of times.  
Mom, Austin, Ethan, and Vanessa
Kyle and Ethan, (they are just over a month apart)
Joshua and Kyle.  Joshua is my cousin Jenny's son.  They came down for the baptism from Colorado Springs.
Taking my "no exercise" advice from the doctor very seriously! :)
A little bit of wii
Kyle has a collection of koala bears...here are a few!  I would get up early to work, and not much later Kyle would come down and wait for everyone to wake up.  
Baptism day.  Kyle with his parents, Gina and Darren
Kyle and his sister, Vanessa.
Grandpa and Grandma Newman with Kyle
Ethan, Austin, and I with Kyle
Ethan, Joshua, Kyle, Austin, Vanessa, and Lena
My parents with Kyle
Jenny and Corey with Kyle
His baptism was very nice.  My mom gave a great talk on the Holy Ghost.  Kyle had another kid in his ward getting baptized, so that kid's grandpa gave a nice talk as well, and then Gina had me play the piano.  Afterward we all went back to Gina's house and had a yummy BBQ and went swimming.  Gina gave me these adorable baby girl clothes!!! It makes me very excited to dress her. :)

Gina's house.....well the part that fit in the picture :)
On Monday we decided to go up to Estes Park and check it out.  This first picture you can't really see them, but there are a ton of chipmunks running around.  They come right up to you and aren't even afraid.  They would even eat out of your hand!

We went to the Stanley Hotel.  It is a historic hotel, but also the hotel where they filmed a lot of the movie, 'Dumb and Dumber'.
Can you see the elk?  They actually had elk just wandering around the front of the hotel......no fence between....
Original elevator still in use
Eating at a local pizza joint.

It was a fun relaxing trip!  Thanks Gina and Darren for letting us come and stay with you!  We drove home Tuesday the 17th.  We took a few pictures when we stopped in Vail, Colorado.
 








"Memory is a child walking along a seashore. You never can tell what small pebble it will pick up and store away among its treasured things." ~Pierce Harris
 
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