B-Square Museum

In June, we spent a good amount of time in Scott's home town of Kirtland, New Mexico. It's about 20 minutes outside Farmington, near the Four Corners area. After a few weeks we were running out of things to do, not to mention money too. Well if you ever find yourself in Kirtland and need to get the kids out of the house without spending any money, the Tom Bolack "B-Square" Museum of Fish & Wildlife is the place to go.

It reminded me a lot of the Bean Museum on BYU campus, except everything in this museum was actually caught by Mr. Tom Bolack himself,a former governor of New Mexico. He definitely had some serious free time and money to have traveled around the world and gather all those creatures. I've never seen so many animals on display in one place. It was especially enjoyable for Shelby to see such a wide variety of animals that she could actually touch without worrying if they'll scare or take a bite out of her. We also definitely appreciated the extra bonus of avoiding the stench that usually comes with the sightseeing of the "live" critters at the zoo.

Thanks Grandma and Papa Wells! It was great to get out and see more of Kirtland and spend some extra quality time with you :)

Click on pic for a closer look

A Scary Thought

While we were visiting Scott's parents in June, we got a glimpse into the future of Shelby at 16...

Shelby's 1st test drive w/ daddy

So much sass, already!

If that isn't a mischevious face, I don't know what is. I love this little girl!

Some things to ponder...

Elevated Expectations « By Common Consent, a Mormon Blog

WHY GIVING MATTERS By Arthur C. Brooks

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HAPPY BIRTHDAY AMERICA!!!

Our trip back to the good ole US of A

Towards the end of May, we were fortunate enough to be able to fly home to Utah and New Mexico and visit both sides of our families for a month. We flew into Utah for a few days and then were driven down to New Mexico for 3 weeks to attend a few festivities, Scott's 10 year high school reunion, the annual Wells family reunion(just the other siblings, their families and Scott's parents) and just some good ole quality time with Mama and Papa Wells.

First on the agenda was Scott's 10yr class reunion. There is much to be written about Scott's class reunion, but I'll leave that to Scott to post the exciting details on his blog. Thanks to Scott's parents who watched Shelby, we had a lovely night on the town in Durango, Colorado where part of his reunion was held. Durango is Colorado's "Park City" for those of you who don't know anything about it. It was really nice to walk around historic downtown and window shop completely childless, although half the stores we ended up going into were children's stores. I guess I just couldn't get her completely out of my mind. Even so, it was so great to go somewhere new and just enjoy spending time together.

Thanks again Mama and Papa Wells!

Scott thought this hotel was pretty cool, its over 100years old

This was on the side of the hotel

The rest of the days prior to the family reunion were spent at Scott's parents house. Shelby just had a ball with her grandparents getting to know them and enjoying all the animals in and around the house, including the 50 stuffed bears and bunnies. She absolutely adored the kittys, cows, roosters, horses, and even the obnoxious donkey. She had a lot of "firsts" while we were there. She had her first time...

• eating a popsicle, marshmellow, hotdog, and sucker



• jumping on a tramp



• riding on a tire swing



• feeding a cow, horse, donkey



• holding a kitten



• gardening



• cooking(little tykes kitchen)



• running in the sprinkler



• riding in a go-kart



• seeing a HUGE toad(almost the size of a softball, not kidding!)

I think that is most of them, although I'm sure there are some that I'm forgetting. Needless to say we all had a wonderful time with Mama and Papa Wells. It was really nice to get away from the hussle and bussle of life and just relax in the country. There is definitely something calming about that place. We are so grateful to them for taking care of us for so long! (Thank you for everything!!) The next item on the agenda was the family reunion, which I'll have to save for another post.

Until next time...enjoy these photos from just hanging out around the house. (Remember to click on it for a closer look)

A Confession

Shelby last year at 6 months

It's no secret that I am way behind on this bloggin' thing. I'd much rather spend my free time reading everyone else's than trying to come up with my own. I'm somewhat of a perfectionist and control freak and don't like just posting without editing or writing something but in the end I just let it take WAY too much time. It's time to just start posting pictures and videos without any explanation. I dunno if I can really do that but if I'm gonna catch everyone up on what we've been up to since May 1st then I'll have to just do it, no regrets. Sometimes I really hate bloggin' but I know there are a few people out there who want to see Shelby grow so I must press on. I hope you are happy...you know who you are! ;) A post will follow shortly, so stay tuned...

Progress

A few months ago feeding Shelby was my most dreaded time of the day because it had become a huge battle. She would be so hungry, but absolutely refused to let me spoon feed her. She had just begun the stage of wanting to do everything herself, but not quite having the skill or patience to do it. One night after what seemed like an eternity of going back and forth and having yogurt hitting everything but Shelby's mouth, I'd had enough! I gave up. I pulled her high chair as far from any walls as possible, removed the rug from underneath her, handed her the spoon, and walked away, upstairs. Needless to say, we were both feeling pretty frusterated by this point. If she really wanted to eat she would have to figure it out on her own or finally realize she couldn't do it and give in. (Ha-that'll teach her!)

As I made my way back down to check on her, instead of crying, there was silence. For a split second my thoughts turned to worry and guilt...what if she had choked and I hadn't been there to help her?! I'll admit probably not the smartest thing to leave her alone while eating, but I quickly rationalized and thought she couldn't possibly have choked on yogurt. I know Shelby well enough by now and usually her silence only means one thing...she's up to something naughty! I turned the corner and found this,

Shelby just squealed with delight at the mess she had made,

as if she was so proud of her creation.

Such a goofy girl!

Even though she had made a huge mess which is not fully captured in these photos,I couldn't help but laugh with her. After this incident, I realized it'd probably be awhile before she was ready to spoon feed herself...at least yogurt anyway.

Fast forward a month or so later and I'm happy to report Shelby is doing much better! Here's the proof,

(notice the bib is gone now--that's our new battle, getting her to keep it on!)

She may have learned to use her spoon better, but she's still just as goofy!

That's my girl :)