Burton Visit - Part Two & Happy Birthday Baby!!!

THURSDAY of the Burton's visit in July was... Ta Da: ALASTER's FIRST BIRTHDAY!!! It's not every day in a babies life that you turn ONE! Since he happens to be born on the 24th of July we were able to take him to a parade. Someday we will lie to him and tell him they made the parade just for his special day. We did that with Jack and the Saint Patrick's day parade too. Don't judge us too harshly, my parents told me that Trafalga in Orem was DisneyLand.

ANYWAY... We started the day out at the parade. Here we are walking on our merry way:







The baby of the hour:





Proud Parents:



Jack was pretty cute at the parade. He was so happy to wave at the floats and all the people on them. He doesn't look really little to me anymore, but the way he used his little hand reminded me so much of my LITTLE Jack... and now Alaster is headed the same way as him... what is a mommy to do?







Alaster really was quite worn out from the week to that point:





Still, he perked up to dance a little to the marching bands:





That afternoon while the boys napped I made Aly's birthday cake. It was the first time I have ever attempted to do a fancy shaped cake. It was fun. Can you tell what it is supposed to be? To save my pride from hearing any wrong answers I'll just tell you. It's an alligator.





The boys idea of a good time? Hook the birthday balloon to the birthday baby. It was pretty funny actually.



Present time!











Cake was a semi-dissapointing affair. We had pizza for dinner and the boy just stuffed himself full. I tried to pace him and help him save room for cake... but you can't exactly explain these things to a one year old. By the time we got to cake he mostly just played with it. Ah well. And I have to tell you that these pictures do NOT do justice to how big of a mess he made. It was straight to the bath after cake.









We love you Mr. O'Malley. More than you know.

FRIDAY

Corey went to school in the morning while the rest of us went to Gardener Village. It was nice to go when it wasn't so busy. Cindy and I quite enjoyed ourselves looking around.

BREAK-- As I was thinking about having a nice time shopping with Cindy I thought about how on Tuesday night we had a girls night while the boys went to go see the new Batman. Then I realized I never even mentioned it in the first post! Sheesh. I honestly have never met anyone as scatterbrained as myself. I am so on top of some things, and so spacey with others.

So I just have to say that the boys (the big ones- the little ones were asleep in bed) went to go see Batman and had some nice male bonding. Meanwhile Cindy and I stayed in and watched an awesome movie called "Amazing Grace," that came out this year. If you didn't watch it you should! It was great. She and I had a really good conversation too, and I felt like I got to know her a little better which is nice since we don't have the chance to see each other as often as we all would like.

OKAY- BREAK OVER:

Here we are at G Village haveing a good time shopping and then playing at the petting zoo.







Grandpa Burton does a great job entertaining Jack so that we can shop.









We picked up Corey at home then went and had a heavenly lunch at Paradise Bakery and Cafe. While the boys napped we played a rousing couple of rounds of UNO. When the boys woke up we headed over to the Burton's hotel to swim.

Corey and I were exceedingly selfish and had fun mostly playing with each other. Alaster took a "nothin'd doin," position, and Jack was still kind of scared of water so we took him in a little, but he had a lot of fun just splashing water on the stairs. Gram and Grampa watched them most of the time. Corey and I had all kinds of competitions (if you wondered... I am a faster swimmer, but I think he won the hand stand contests... although my toes were pointed prettier than his... style points right?) It was super fun.





I did force Alaster in the pool with me for about a minute. He clung to me for dear life and I knew he was not, not, not having fun... but in typical Alaster fashion he didn't cry or anything. He just paitently endured until I let him back out.



We were starved by the time we finally made it to Chilies where Jack had "THE LAST SODA."



That night was the tearful goodbye. Jack was truly, truly sad when they left. The next morning he woke up expecting another adventure with Gram and Grampa and it was sad to have to explain to him how they had to go home which is far, far, away from here.

I am grateful for Gram and Grampa Burton and the influence they have on our family even from far away. It is obvious how much they care about us. It comes through in a miriad of ways. From their concern in phone calls of what we are going through, to carefully prepared, loving packages.

We hope you had a good time while you were here! You were so good to work around Corey's school and my work stuff. We can't wait to see you again, and hope it is sooner rather than later! :)