Tyson and Sariah come to Visit

In July, Tyson and Sariah came to stay with us for a couple weeks. My mom flew out with them, but had to go home after a few days. They stayed by themselves for about 10 days, then my dad flew out to take them home. We had a lot of fun while they were here. Patrick really enjoyed having them around to play, and still asks about them regularly.

I forgot to take pictures of a lot of things, but I do have a few pictures of our trip to the zoo and the fireworks on the 4th of July. Here are some of the other things we did while they were here:

• Played at the park
• Went on walks
• Went swimming at Pirate's Cove
• Had Patrick's birthday party
• Went to Cars 2 and Red Robin for Patrick's birthday
• Visited the Nature and Science Museum and saw the Pirates exhibit
• Played hide-and-seek and had root beer floats for FHE

We hope Tyson and Sariah can come out every summer and visit us. I know Patrick would be very excited for them to come out again!

Patrick's Birthday Party

We had a small party for Patrick's birthday. I didn't want to go all out, but I like Patrick to feel like he has a special day. He was excited to wake up to balloons all over the house. We opened a few presents in the morning. He definitely know how to open presents know. He needed very little help this year.

He is really in to puzzles right now, so he got an alphabet/animals/train puzzle from Grandma Cook. It is 10 ft long after to put it all together.

We got him a set of stacking blocks with the alphabet on them.

He built it all up and then had a blast knocking it over.

He also got a toy set that has letter boards that you fill in the letters to make the word. He is really obsessed with letters right now and is constantly sounding out words, so I knew he would enjoy this toy.

My favorite is when he finds all the letters for "hen" then sounds it out perfectly, "h-e-n," and says, "chicken."

This play tent was his big present from us. It was also the main entertainment for his party. We invited two of his friends to come over and play. We made pizza for everybody and then enjoyed cupcakes.

These cupcakes were really fun to make. I like to make something special for birthdays, so I did an animal theme this year. I make monkey, lion, and elephant cupcakes, and then chocolate-dipped oreos. I got the idea for the cupcakes from a cupcake book I have. I didn't think up the idea all on my own! Reed was really helpful and took the kids to the park so I could have some uninterrupted time to put them together.

Patrick really enjoyed his birthday cupcakes. He talked about them for days. He still mostly just ate the frosting, but he had a good time! When we sang to him, he laughed and covered his face, but loved blowing out the candles, and requested more candles for his other cupcakes.

I think Patrick had a very fun day for his birthday. He played hard and loved all of his presents. I think next year his will be really excited and understand when we start talking about his birthday.

4th of July

Our holiday was really relaxing this year. We had a small get together with some friends in the afternoon and then went to see the fireworks. Reed made some excellent smoked pork, and I made coleslaw and fruit pizza.

This year we stayed in Aurora to watch the fireworks, and we were glad we did. It was really easy to find a place to sit, and the show was great. Patrick really loved the fireworks, but couldn't sit still after a few minutes. Of course it took a long time to get out of the parking lot when we were done, but that is just part of the holiday.

The finale of the fireworks show was the biggest I have ever seen. It wasn't long, but they shot off hundreds of fireworks at the same time! It was the loudest flash and bang I have ever seen at a fireworks show.

Another Haight!

We announced it on Facebook, so I better set the record straight on our blog as well.

We are going to have another baby! Baby Haight is due around December 29. We are very excited to finally be having another one. Patrick is still pretty clueless, but as my belly grows bigger, he should figure out what's going on. We will find out sometime in August if we are having a boy or girl.

PJs

I got tired of not having enough pajamas for Patrick, so I dusted off my sewing machine and whipped up a pair of pjs for him. I really enjoy when I make time to sew. It makes me feel really accomplished. Hopefully when things settle down at the end of the summer, I can get back to some of my projects.

Girl's Camp

I was able to go to girl's camp this year with our ward's YW. I hadn't been to camp in eight years, so I was very excited to go with the girls. I am the Beehive/Mia Maid Advisor, but we were short on leaders, so I eagerly volunteered to go. I loved girl's camp growing up, and I wanted to help the girls in our ward to also have a wonderful experience.

We went as a stake, but each ward had its own camp site. The area that we camped at was just above Bailey, and it was a really beautiful area. The weather was perfect for camping--not too hot, and not too cold. We only had six girls go, which is a much smaller group than I am used to, but we had a great time together. The skits were fun, the smores were AWESOME, and the devotional were fantastic. We built huge fires, had a wonderful testimony meeting, and learned a lot about each other.

I love girls camp, and if I can, I will go every year forever. The camping is fun, the spiritual environment is one of a kind, and it recharges me spirtually.

Easter 2011

Easter this year was pretty fun, even if we didn't do a lot. I just wasn't in the mood this year to plan a whole lot of activities, so we dyed eggs with Patrick at our house, and then he had a small egg hunt at Grandma Haight's house, and that was it. Maybe next year I will get an Easter basket together for him.

Patrick enjoyed dying the eggs and putting stickers all over them. I also bought a few big plastic eggs to hide around the house. I put a few M&Ms in them and hid them in the living room. Even though they were big, he had a really hard time finding them at first. After that he thought it was the best game.