camping in Santa Cruz

 We went camping with 4 other families in Santa Cruz.  What a fun place to take Dieter on his first camp out.  He had so much fun.  He loved everything about it.  The dirt (that covered him from head to toe within the first 15 minutes of being at the camp site), the sleeping in the tent, the fire, and showers (he usually gets baths at home and obviously the camp site didn't have baths...but he thought the showers were pretty cool.  He decided to try it once at home and found out it was more fun to shower at the campsite.  We're back to baths!)

 The second day of camping we spent time at the beach.  Luckily I remembered to bring Dieters sand bucket and tools along.  He spent the whole day building sand castles and promptly tearing them down.  I thought for sure I was going to be chasing him out of the water all day.  One that particular day the water interested him for only about 10 minutes.  

Dieter became very sleepy and the sound of the waves put him right to sleep. 

 We spent the evening at the Santa Cruz boardwalk.  On Monday and Tuesdays in the summer every ride is only $1 (compared to $6 for some of the  more popular rides).  It must have been Mormon night on the night we went.  I saw BYU t-shirts and hats all over the place.  I think the $1 rides bring out the Mormons!  We didn't get to go on too many rides since Dieter is just a toddler.  The above picture is our friends (next door neighbors).  Mother and daughter are in the top right gondola. 

 There were some rides that Dieter was able to go on.  This little whale ride required him to be in there all by himself.  I wasn't sure how he was going to do, but he loved it.  

The carousel is always a favorite.  Dieter went on this a couple of times with me and Wes alternating.

toot, toot

 Amy gave me the task of helping with decorations and to come up with something fun and creative for the sign in table.  So I'm going to toot my own horn and tell you what I came up with.  I was in the shower one day and the idea hit me.  I was going to make a page a day calendar for the couple and people could sign in by giving them advice, a quote, or just by signing their name. 

 I made up the calendar pages and I put fun, quirky National holidays on each of the days (It's rather unfortunate that September 2 is National Beheading Day).  I think the guests had fun with it and gave them some good advice.  

The final product!  Amy and Justin will have a year of advice and quotes and good memories from their special day.  

after the ceremony

 Two more of my beautiful nieces!  

 My brother Terry

 Playing cars at the temple. 

 Nap time.  Ornery little boy! 

 Cutting the cake

 They were so nice to each other!

 Such a happy couple!

Amy and Justin's Wedding Day

 Amy was up bright and early on her wedding day, getting all prettied up.  She was so, so happy it was absolutely fun to be around her on her wedding day.  

 This is the last picture before they became husband and wife.  Off to the Draper Temple they went to get hitched!  The ceremony was so beautiful and I feel extremely blessed to have been there to celebrate with them.  

 Okay, not the last picture.  Amy always needs a goofy picture for good measure!

 Mr. and Mrs. !

 Amy and Tiffany (one of my favorite pictures of the day)

Sisters!

wedding party

Another party and another fun night!  The wedding party was a Justin's parent's home.  I am just now realizing that I didn't take many pictures of the couple.  I guess we were having too much fun dancing and singing! 

More fun at the photo booth.  Me, Tiffany, Cousin Michael and Jeff.  Good times had by all!

 Amy and Justin's cake topper.   A family friend of the Canova's made this for them.  It is cute and captures some of the things they like most. 

 Dieter quickly found a friend in one of Justin's nephews.  He loves to hug and kiss people.  I'm not so sure the little boy was as thrilled as Dieter.  But what a cute moment to capture on camera!

 Oh how I love these two!  I still think of them as little kids.  They are all grown up.  Lizzie has her driver's license and Megan is not far behind.  

 The wedding party was casual, so they didn't wear their wedding day apparel.  They did display it though for those that were wondering what she would be wearing the next day.  

 Dieter was showing Lizzie how to eat popcorn properly.  

 Dieter would tease Lizzie by acting like he was going to feed her popcorn.  Right before it got to her mouth he would turn his hand around and stuff it right in to his mouth.  He got a good laugh at himself about it.  

Dieter found a water feature.  This is where he hung out for the majority of the night.  Consequently, he was soaking wet by the time I dragged him back to the hotel.  

everything else

 It's amazing what one year will do in a child's development.  Last year Dieter and I spend a couple of weeks in Utah while my mom had chemo treatments.  Dieter could not yet walk.  He had to sit a booster chair while I fed him.  This year, the cute little rascal could sit at the table all by himself and slurp milk from his cereal bowl.  By the way, I just love his bed head!

 Dieter loved the play room.  I loved that he was playing with some of my old toys.

 Dieter and Tanner playing football.  I'm glad that he got to spend time with his cousins.

 Dieter woke up one morning and went directly to the cupboard asking for potato chips for breakfast.  This, mind you, was just a couple of days after he woke up in the middle of the night puking all over the bed and me.  Needless to say, he did not have potato chips for breakfast.  

 One afternoon, Dieter and walked down to the burger joint to get my favorite things served there-Picadillys and Oreo Milkshake.  Dieter enjoyed the race car game. 

 Dieter has really been into making silly faces.  We had a fun time doing some silly selfies.

Story Trek

One afternoon while at my mom and dad's house there was a loud knock at the front door.  I rushed to get it since Dieter was taking his afternoon nap and I did not want him to wake.  I opened the door to a camera crew and a microphone in my face.  They asked if I had heard of Story Trek on BYUtv (which I had not) and if they could interview me to hear my story.  I agreed.  They sat up their equipment in my parent's living room and they interviewed me.  My story is super boring, but it was a fun experience.  My story will air some time in October.   

Around Beaver Town

 A block away from my parent's house is a stream.  When I was kid I felt like it was the biggest stream in the world.  I called it the big ditch and spent many summer days playing in the water.  Dieter loved it too.  Uncle Terry and Aunt Tiffany helped him ford the stream.  

 We went on a little ride and found ourselves at the Kerksiek's farm.  Dieter sat on all the available farm equipment as well as saw some cows, pigs, and a peacock.  

Morris Family Reunion

 Another party at my parent's house!  The Morris family reunion.  All the descendants of my mom's grandparents.  There ended up being about 250 in my parent's backyard.  To entertain the kiddos, they rented a huge bouncy house.  It spanned the entire backyard.  Dieter thought it was totally awesome.  He and his cousins got to be the first to play on it.    Dieter insisted on going down the slide without my help.  

 Caleb was so good to Dieter and helped him up the slide most of the day.

 When the bouncy slide got boring Dieter went to the dirt to play with the trucks. 

 My mom's cousin's wife made this family tree.  We counted it up and there are 477 descendants on this family tree.  I feel so lucky to have known my Great Grandmother.  She was such an amazing woman.  I'm lucky to know a lot of these people listed on this family tree too.  

 Some of the people at the reunion.  Later on in the evening we did karaoke (I even sang a song!).   We watched a movie in the cottage.  At the end of the night Dieter was exhausted.  He was partied out and we were only just getting started with the parties. 

What a little boy-digging in the dirt and playing with cars.