Home is where your heart is

My baby is 1!! Yay!! Seriously, it's been the greatest year ever, and it ended with a phenomenal month!

It started with an awesome trip to Park City with my family for Father's Day! Unfortunately, Justin couldn't be with us cuz he was out of town but I can promise you we did lots of face-timing!!

The weekend started with a fun trip to the olympic park and the kiddos got to play on the climbing wall and the neat little ropes course that we had races on. It was fun!

The course they had was fun but hard! We tried to do them all in a row without touching the ground and some of it was easy and some made us look a little ridonculous. Sorry for the pic katie! haha.

As we were leaving the ropes course, we stopped and got to watch some people training at their facility for ski jumping! It was into this big pool that had bubbles and stuff. So neat! Ty didn't seem to want to watch tho. All he wanted to do was climb on the fence. Then we looked over and saw he had climbed up two little rungs all by himself! The little stinker is getting so adventurous.

Ty refused to go to bed that night so here he is hanging out with the fame at like 11 PM. Mommy wasn't so happy...

We had breakfast together one morning at a local restaurant and Peyton paid us a surprise visit. hahahahaha

I said before that it was Father's day and Justin couldn't be there, so Grandpa did a very good job of filling in and reading books to Ty. Apparently Ty loves massive travel magazines as much as any other book. Who knew?!

This is one grandpa whose grand babies really love him!!!!!!! He is the best dad and obviously the best grandpa there ever was.

We got a pass to the aquarium and it is Ty's favorite place! (Videos of him there in another post!) He LOVES to look at all the fish. And he points at them with his wrist instead of his finger. It's my favorite little quirk!

Ty got to go sit around his first fire! Actually I'm pretty sure we sat around the fire with him when he was super little but he doesn't remember that. I'm sure he'll remember this night forever. ;)

In all honesty, he'll prolly remember the dirt he ate that night more than the fire itself. I can not keep the mud out of this kids mouth?! I don't know what to do. Stay tuned later for some more muddy pics. Bleah!!!

Poor Ty got a burn from the fire that night. A little ember popped out of the fire and landed on his arm. It left a scar for a few weeks! :(

Our biggest and funnest adventure this month was our trip to Erie!!! OMG it was so fun.

(I promise I'm trying to come up with some more synonyms for the word fun!)

I titled this post "Home is where your heart is" because Justin's heart really is in Erie. He loves it there so much and had so much fun showing it to Ty. :)

This was the theme of the plane ride for us. Maybe fun isn't the right word to use. Actually, I'm sure Ty had LOTS of fun. He was chatting away with anyone and everyone who would give him the time of day. And he made sure the people behind him knew he was there! haha. He was actually pretty perfect. A little more wiggly than I would have liked but not so bad for everyone else. :)

This little boy loves to look out the window! Especially when there are planes to look at!

Daddy picked us up at the airport in Cleveland and Ty was SO excited to see him!! So was I. ;)

On our way home we stopped at a random exit to get some food and it happened to be in Kirkland Ohio! Yes, THE Kirland Ohio. It was so neat! We stopped and got to tour the temple and it was truely amazing.

I actually had a pretty neat experience while we were there. When we first walked into the visitors center (you have to go on the tour if you want to go inside the temple) I didn't realize that this building isn't owned by the LDS church! It wasn't until after I saw a testimonial written by Martin Harris talking about how and why he left the church and then stayed with the saints in Kirland that I realized it was still owned by the FLDS church. Everything was very different and the video they showed us before the tour of the building wasn't very spiritual at all. Very different feeling from what you get when you're watching a video produced by the LDS church about temples. Anyway, when we actually went in to the temple, I still got a very beautiful witness that this was still a sacred building and that amazing and important things truly happened here. I felt that way going through the whole building.

(I didn't take this photo, they wouldn't let us take photos inside. So thank you internet!)

We sat in the pews in front of the pulpit where Joseph Smith was when he received the sealing power and talking about some of the things that happened there. We learned that the song "The Spirit of God" was written about the experience that the saints had in the dedicatory session of that building. I was the only one there that knew the medley and lyrics to the song and I was asked to sing it. I tried but couldn't get the words out because of the spirit I felt. I'll never forget that moment.

It's a beautiful temple and I'm so grateful for the saints that built it and continued on to build the Kingdom of God.

This was the first time we saw Ali when we finally got home! hahahaha. Ty and Paxton got along like champs. Paxton is a very large pitbull and definitely doesn't know his strength but he was so gentle with Ty! I loved watching them together.

The first day we were there we got to go to Waldemeer! It's Erie's local theme/water park and we had a blast. Ty loved the water and the train and the merry go round!

We also got to go to the Erie Zoo!! He doesn't look very happy in this pic but I promise he loved it. He couldn't help but smile and look and point with his silly wrist point. So cute to watch!

He would look at it and point and then turn around and make sure we were seeing it too!

That other cutie is Owen! He is Justin's brother's little boy and he and Ty were best friends by the end of the week!

These lynx's (omg how do you make that plural?!) were right next to the window the whole time. He couldn't help but pound the glass and want to get in and cuddle with them. ha

Omg I wish Ty was smiling cuz I LOVE this pic of our cute family!!!

Ty was passed out in the stroller by the end of this adventure. :)

We got home and he didn't even get comfy before he was totally gone in the pack n play!

I don't know if you know this, but Justin LOVES beach volleyball!!! He'd played since he was a kid and he's really good! Grandma Cathy watched Ty so I could watch him play. :)

They play down at the beach on Presque Isle on Lake Erie. His dad is on a city league team but didn't have a game that week, so they went to see if there was another team that wanted to play pick up. Luckily there was! They had a good time playing together!

Grandma and Grandpa have a firepit in their back yard and we sat out there a number of times. Fortunately no embers burnt him this time! They did get my shorts but luckily no skin! haha.

Ty mostly loved to be held by Gigi Joe! He is seriously so loved in Erie, PA!

Our first weekend there we got to go to Ohio for a family reunion of Grandma Cathy. We didn't know very many people there but we got to meet lots of people and Ty was the favorite person there!!

Doesn't he look so cute in his little outfit?!?!

One of the day's activities was to go swimming! Ty loved the little blow up pool they had set up for him. :)

That face completely melts my heart!!!!!!!!!!

They had this little lake built in the backyard that was so filled with chemicals it was creepily blue! But that didn't stop people from having fun! They had this big floaty thing that they put ty on and floated him out to the middle. He tried to jump off and drown himself but grandpa was there to save him! haha.

My handsome boys! :)

Of course the boys had to find a way to make everything a game/competition.

Bottom line, it wasn't very easy to stand on this thingy. haha

Videos don't work great on this platform but if you can watch it, that was the gist of the afternoon. A lot of shennanigans!!

See the weird color of the water? ha. Also.. see my cute baby?!?! He loved the sand. And still does. He tried to eat the whole beach!

And he tried to swim out to get to daddy. Luckily grandma was there to stop him! ha

We left early that night so we could be home to go to church the next day and Ty got to snuggle with Paxton. He's not technically allowed in the living room but what grandpa doesn't know can't hurt him! haha

See, I told you Pax was just a big teddy bear!

They fell asleep pretty quick. :)

Sunset in Erie! So beautiful!

The fourth of July was spent at the lake! Lake Chautauqua in upstate New York. Gigi Joe's sister Aunt Pat and Uncle Ralph have a little cabin up there and it's so fun to hang out! You can't do much on the lake because of the crazy seeweed that ruins all kinds of engines, and there's some kind of rocks on the bottom that are super sharp so you have to wear shoes and not touch the bottom with anything else! Eric jumped in and cut his hand pretty bad from just touching it.

The rocks didn't bother Ty tho! He just hung out and was the cutest little kid around!

We put Ty in this little floatie and he hated it for the first little while but finally got used to it and stayed in there forever!

Yay for family pics!!!

This is Genie!! She's Josh's wife and we LOVE her!!!! Seriously, she's so great. I loved spending time with her and getting to know her better!

We all had fun hanging out and Ty loved getting passed around to everyone in the water. :)

The game of the day was definitely jumping off the dock and trying to catch the little frisbee or a football or soccer ball.

Somehow no one could throw a catch-able pass to Justin! He jumped in the lake prolly 50 times and only caught it once or twice!! He got frustrated but never gave up!!

Pretty sure Ty fell asleep in his floatie. haha

Hi Jordan!!! She's Justin's cousin. :) We love you!

**Heart eyes!!**

This is the view from the back of the cabin. Passed those houses is the lake, so we're not right on the lake but only a 1 minute walk to it. They have a double lot and lots of grass for fun games!

The best one was called Frizz-beer. You have the pole that sticks into the ground and has a little flat piece at the top for a bottle. So you throw the frisbee and try to knock the bottle off the stick. The other team has to catch both the frisbee and the bottle if it's knocked off and you win points if the other team doesn't catch it.

The other fun game is called Stump. You basically barely put a nail into a round stump and then take a hammer and flip it in your hand. then however you catch it you have to then try to hit another person's nail. The person with their nail still up the longest wins. Does that make any sense?

All that matters is that I was terrible at it but I still beat Justin! haha. :)

Toward the evening we went on a nice boat ride on the lake and I got an awesome selfie with Eric! :)

Owen got to drive the boat! I can't wait to Ty gets to do that!

I love this pic! Thanks Genie!!!

The whole group!!! The bottom row from left to right is Uncle Ralph, Grandpa Greg, Grandma Cathy, Genie, Owen and Josh. The next row from left to right is Justin, Ty, Me, Eric, Jordan and Ali. Then in the way back is Gigi Joe and Gigi Hank.

WE LOVE OUR ERIE FAMILY!!!!!!!

Most everyone left after that last pic was taken but we stayed to watch the fireworks on the other side of the lake. We made a big bonfire right next to the doc and got to watch the whole thing!

Ty was SOOOO tired!!!! As were the rest of us but we stayed awake for the coolest show ever!

There's a super neat tradition that everyone brings lanterns to their property so all the way around the lake you can see them. There are hundreds of them!! It's a neat tradition!

I didn't get a very good pic of the fireworks. The show was truly amazing!!

And Ty was mesmerized the whole time!!!

The fireworks clan!!

Not sure what this is other than a cute pic of baby and daddy. I heart them!

Grandpa had a wheelbarrow in the back yard and Ty would ask to go outside and play with it. Whenever I couldn't find him, the first place I looked was outside!!

**more heart eyes!!!!!**

Grandpa had a little mini mountain of dirt for the kids to play on. OMG I loved this!!!!

More dirt for Ty Ty!!!

Like I said, Paxton and Ty were best friends!!!

Ty and Owen became best friends during the trip too! Owen had to learn how to share a little but by the end of the trip he was a champ. :)

They played in the little pool in gradnpa's back yard a ton!!

Mommy discovered snapchat on this trip. hahahaha

More dirt = happy baby. :D

Ty's favorite toy the whole trip. Why do we buy them fancy toys?!

The gate in grandpa's kitchen. It wasn't really strong enough to keep him in. haha

More sand!!! YAY! I don't remember what day it was but we got to go to the beach on presque isle again and this time get in the water and play!!!

My little bear crawler. He was SO close to walking on this trip but decided not to. :(

I'm pretty sure he fell down and just stayed there. Don't worry, there was sand EVERYWHERE. It took a couple days for it to be fully out of his ear.

Sand toys are the best! They make it easier to get more sand in your mouth at once.

Ty's goin for the water!!!

And grandpa is there for the rescue!

Ty was a great walker when he had someone's hand to hold but not so much by himself. Still bear walking! Which wasn't so great trying to go into the water. haha

Look at that little bum! **heart**

I got a lot of "favorite" pictures on this trip. This one is definitely toward the top of the list!

Sand castles are so fun!!!

That HUMUNGOUS bug flew into my hair while I was making snacks for Ty's birthday Party! It scared the bejeebees out of me!!!!! Seriously. Not cool.

I'm not gonna share the pics from his party here cuz I'm gonna write another post for his first birthday with pics from both parties. But you should know we had one and it was awesome. He got a bunch of really fun toys from our family and we had a great time hanging out. :)