Long time with no update. I keep trying to get Cheri to take over. I will still upload pics and she will blog - but no go.
Here are some more pictures including Almary's first piano recital, various Christmas presents and fun from Christmas with the cousins down south, and a trip to the zoo at Phoenix.
Almary and Bryce field trips, and Halloween costumes
Almary experiences scuba diving and playing with cousins at a park
That is all for now.
I had the opportunity to go to Seattle for a seminar and the family came along for some fun. Cheri and the kids went to beaches, the zoo, air force museum, and other fun things and then I was able join them in the evenings. We stayed a few extra days of vacation on the end of the seminar. Seattle is a very beautiful area. It barely rained a couple of times and the rest was great weather in the 70's (°F).
Cheri and I just got back from a West Caribbean Cruise. We had a lot of fun. We left for Miami on a 2 layover flight which turned into a 3 layover flight because of bad weather in Tampa, Fl. The flight was significantly cheaper than no layovers. On Friday, we went on an Everglades tour and held and saw alligators. Then went to the Key Largo and to a scuba museum. We didn't go to the beach because of bad weather. Weather on the cruise was great though. We scuba dived on Cozumel and then Grand Cayman. Both islands had great diving. The cruise ship towered over low lying cayman.
On Jamaica we hiked Dunn River Falls and went on a Jamaican bobsled ride (very similar to Park City Alpine slide except on rails so we didn't use brakes).
We enjoyed the food on the Carnival Liberty but didn't experience real hunger for the whole cruise. It was fun to order anything and everything on the menu though from steaks, sushi, escargot, fish, chicken, noodles, desserts, and fruit.
We stayed in an interior cabin on the 7th floor (floors ranged from sea level (deck 0) to deck 14 (mini golf and overlooks). I would recommend interior cabin because of the little amount of time we stayed in the cabin (basically just to sleep).
We celebrated Ty's bday on our way up to a friend's cabin to go snowmobiling. All Tyler knew was there a frosting and a candle to blow out.
We all had fun up in Island Park snowmobiling and chatting with friends. The kids got to drive the snowmobiles (with some parental help) and they loved it. Thanks Dan/Reiko!
We had a fun time with family up in Idaho. It was cold but so was Utah which makes it much better. Of course we roasted in Grandpa's house but it was still loads of fun. It is always so much fun to watch the kids on Christmas.
We had a lot of fun at Scott/Pams in Phoenix. Thanks so much for putting up with us. Here are some pics of the excitement. As you can tell from the cousin sleeping area, they had loads of fun.
Also added to this trip pics are Ryan's wrestling tournament. He placed second in the newbie division and had lots of fun.
We had a lot of fun in Southern California. We were very worried about sickness since Bryce had the flu 4 days before we left. Ryan got a tired at the beach and both Almary and Ryan were both tired and slept the afternoon on Wednesday but still did half a day at Legoland. We went to Seaworld, LegoLand, and Disneyland. We had loads of fun. Cheri can add more details and pictures are seen below.
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I have decided that I shouldn't have to do the writing. I only enjoy sharing pictures which tell much more than words.
Camping under a pavilion with the scouts
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Several events this week. First, Tyler finally ended up with tubes in the ears, even though after the surgery the doctors said there was no fluid in the ears. Both inspections before said there was. All went well though and Tyler was awake with the nurse by the time we got in to see him. Thanks to Julie for watching the kids while Cheri and I attended to the Ty guy. The kids and dad also went to a Flash game again with Julie and cousins. Thanks again to Julie for helping out.
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We bought a city recreation pass this year and we are trying to make it worth buying. We have been to the pool several times and the kids love it. I brought a dive camera this time so we had some fun taking pictures. It is fun to take a video of the diving board process from top side to underwater.
click on video to play
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Cheri and I just got back from Cancun with her parents. Thanks to my parents for watching the kids and thanks to Cheri's parents for letting us go with them.
We went did two dives just on the reef outside of Playa del Carmen. We debated on going to Cozumel but a salesman convinced us the diving was better closer because of less diving traffic. The photographer said he prefers this reef too because of more animals. He did say the water is clearer at Cozumel. We still want to do dive Cozumel.
We also visited two ruin sites at Coba and Chichen-Itza. It was fun to climb the 120 foot tall temple at Coba but the ruins were much closer together and there were a lot more at Chichen-itza.
We also went to a park called Xcaret. It had several underground rivers to swim, several performances, snorkeling, and animals. The butterfly and orchid displays were very cool.
Anyway we had lots of fun.
One thing to celebrate this week. Tyler actually ate the cream of broccoli soup tonight. He has become quite picky on vegetables. He eats the meats, potatoes, and breads but he spits out anything good for him.
We met a past room mate and friend Kristi at the Children's discovery museum at the Gateway. It was pricey but we did stay 5 hours. We hadn't been to this museum since Tyler's surgery last year.
All the older kids are in gymnastics. The kids love it.
Cheri has happy news that her parking ticket was dismissed this week in court. Wahoo! She was extremely nervous and had never been in court before. The prosecuting attorney dismissed it, if Cheri would never do it again.:)
Cheri and I are actually starting to text. It has been pretty fun.
Self photography moments
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We had a fun weekend last week with grandpa and grandma Burnside. We always get to spend extra time with Eric and Julie and kids too which is a good bonus also. Not much else to report on but just add a few cute pictures of the kids. Thanks to Julie for helping us go to a Utah Flash game on Friday night. It was fun and the kids liked getting their faces painted by Almary. Ryan and Almary went out on the floor with cousins Andrew and Alex to dance. The first picture is of Tyler at Eric and Julie's. He knows who rules the roost in our house. My (Mark's mom's mom) grandma, Lenna Jacobson, was in a Church news article about service. Click here to see the article.
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Our youngest is one year old. We are so proud of Tyler and how far he has come. He set a new goal for 2009 to have no surgeries this year. It could quickly become a yearly goal for him, not that he can control it though. He thoroughly enjoyed his birthday cup cake and quickly licked off the frosting first and foremost. He still didn't have down blowing out the candle. He figured he could grab it. Later we went to the Kangaroo Zoo, a blow up slide play place. It was so much fun to celebrate with our cousins, aunts, uncles and grandparents. We even got to see both grandparents for Tyler's birthday. It was wonderful to be with family.
Since Cheri's parents were in town for the long weekend, we played and went sledding down the huge hill next the freeway at the point of the mountain. It was a lot of fun, as well as, touring the Draper temple open house. It was such a great experience to be there as a family. It was beautiful and so neat to encourage the children at a young age to go to the temple.
We love having family to play with and spend time together.
After a long time with no posts - two posts - see below for Tyler update news.
We had a fun Christmas Eve with family here in Utah and then a Christmas at home. The kids loved their toys. Friday after Christmas we started our joyous journey to Phoenix. Traveling with kids is not the most fun we have had. Tyler usually says he is done during short trips around Utah. We did stay in a hotel to break up the trip into two five hour segments but bad roads on the highways to Page, AZ slowed us up. We were all very happy to get to Scott and Pam's (Thanks for everything!). We had a great time in the warm weather and having fun with family. On New Year's Day we left with Grandpa, Grandma, and Scotters to go to Vegas. It was very fun relaxing and swimming in the pool. We enjoyed the room we had in the hotel but missed the family that couldn't make it. The kids were very spoiled. Tyler had his own room next to ours. Almary had fun staying in a room with Grandma and Grandpa, and the older boys stayed in a room with Uncle Scott. Bryce did mention tonight after we got back when we were talking about the trip and laying by him that Uncle Scott forgot to lay by him too at the hotel. We thought that was pretty sweet. So next time Scott will have to lay by Bryce for minute when he goes to bed.
I didn't do much picture taking with my bigger camera but here are a couple shots with the cell phone.
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| Tyler getting ready for a bite of grandma's ice cream |
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| Tyler celebrating Katie's B-day |
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| Katie's hair celebrating her b-day (on the trampoline) |
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| Ryan and Bryce playing as Bryce calls it "Mario cars" |
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| Bellagio water show and Eiffel Tower |
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| Crossing the cankles and saying are we done yet? |
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| Kick stand for the jowels (He succumbs moments later to the mass and sleep) |
Vacation makes it hard to stop to update the blog. Tyler had an echo-cardiogram and EKG up at Primary Children's Hospital Friday December 19, 2008. The wait was extra long at Primary's versus the office at Orem. The results were good again. He valve pre and post pressure difference was about the same as last time which is good news with his growth.
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