Famous Xander

I forgot to mention that Xander made the front page of one of Utah's main newspapers, on Wed. August 25, 2010. We just happened to be at the Natural History Museum at the exact moment that one of their photographers was taking pictures for the paper. Xander didn't even notice he was being photographed. We were quite surprised when it ended up being the main picture on the front page! You can vaguely see Will in the background by Xander's shoulder too.

Super Duper Summer catch up

Xander's 6th b-day was a few weeks ago, and Will's 4th is coming up in a week, so we did lots of celebrating in UT, where we were for almost 2 months.

Xander requested a "3 level cake with dots on it and a swoop of frosting around the side." Geez- is he getting a little demanding or what?! Luckily I figured it out and put it together the right way so I didn't ruin his birthday. He loved it.

So, Blair did a rotation in Mississippi for the month of August. This is where we might end up going for residency, so halfway through the month I flew out for a weekend (took the baby- left the boys) & checked it out with him.

I'm glad it's pretty. The main entrance to the Air Force base is a block from the beach, and the back of it is the back bay of Mississippi that drains into the ocean. The pictures above are of that back bay that you drive along, and a nice little park that they have right there.

I was tickled that they have brand new on base housing where we could live if we go there. It's way nicer than most bases. They are all twin homes, and have quite a few different layouts. Lucky for us if we end up there, Hurricane Katrina damaged the old housing and all the stores and many buildings on base, so they have been reconstructing everything and it's nice and new.

For some awesome BBQ, we were recommended to "The Shed," which was just that (shack with a tin roof), in Ocean Springs. We were not disappointed, and apparently we're not the 1st people that have heard about it, because it was packed.

PS. I have never seen it rain so hard than while I was in MS. There was a tropical storm that hit, which made it even more rainy and humid. That picture down below where it looks like I might be in smoke, is really steam from the humidity during a downpour, and the tin roof was totally leaking!

The base is just 1 hour and 1/2 from New Orleans, so we decided to go check it out and stay a night. It was interesting. It was fun to ride the trolley, and see some sights, but mostly to just be with my husband and baby.

Alright, so rewind to back before Blair left to Mississippi, Xander graduated from Kindergarten and we drove to UT the next day. We went on a family vacation with my side of the family up to Wolf Creek resort, and we had a blast for a week at the resort and nearby lake.

Now are you ready for an information overload? Here come a bunch of pictures, and that's why I made collages and made them small so that I can get a bunch of stuff on here and feel like I caught up. Here are some from the family vacation:

I won't even explain any of those, so you're not here all day :) So the next pictures are from some of the museums that we visited when we were in UT. Some were during our Wolf Creek vacation, and some were after. I have a family pass with our Vegas children's museum here, and they have agreements with other museums out of state to get in for free. We took full advantage of that, and some military free discounts I found, and went to the Train Museum, Tree House Museum, Dinosaur Park Museum, Clark Planetarium, Discovery Gateway Museum, Natural History Museum, and a few of those we went to twice!

It's always great to get up to UT and see family and friends there. We were spoiled to be able to go for so long this time (and get out of that 110 degree weather down here that they call summer).

Now we're back and have been busy catching up with some of our fun friends that we have down here. Luckily it's only in the 90's on most days now, and lower temperatures are just around the corner.

So we're back in school now. Xander is a big 1st grader. This was him on his last day of kindergarten, and then 1st day of 1st grade.

You know what this sweet baby is doing lately? She is fascinated with her hands. She holds them in front of her and moves her fingers and clasps and unclasps her hands all while almost going cross-eyed watching the action. It is so cute!

Claire's Blessing