July really is the HOTTEST month of the year

My goal is to get this blog up to date by the end of November.  I am not far off.  July, August, September, and October were only slightly slower (not really, but in comparison to May and June, it has felt like a vacation).

To begin July, I should mention that we made the official move to St George over the 4th of July weekend.  My grandma has been kind enough to let us live in her basement while Eric is job-hunting and until we can find something more permanent.  At the exact same time that we made the move, I made the official transition to a new position at work that took me from a management responsibility to a more development-related position for the same company, which, most-importantly, allowed me to move to St George and work out of the office here.  There was A LOT happening at the same time. With Paige's baptism at the end of June and having to vacate my mom and ourselves from my moms house (where we were bunking for 2 months) the same weekend, we were frazzled to say the least. Finally getting here kind of felt like a relief.

So now, three quarters of our belongings are in a storage unit in St George (still) and the other quarter is split between my sister's basement in Eagle Mountain and here in my Grandma's basement.  It's kind of crazy and we definitely DO feel packed in like sardines at times, but overall, we know we are supposed to be here. The pace of life and outdoor centered community is just what we needed. Transition is always hard, but we will survive.

With my new position at work, I have had to be willing to travel back to the South Jordan office in order to train and integrate with my new team so I spent half of July in South Jordan while Eric and the kids were in St George.  There was a lot of traveling, a lot of back and forth, a lot of new stuff to learn and new things to get used to, not only at work but with life in general.  We love it here in Southern Utah.  Its a new kind of beautiful that I have learned to really appreciate.  The weather here is pretty HOT and unbearable for a couple months in the summer and I miss my family and friends like crazy...but overall, I would trade 6 months of cold and darkness for a couple hot months in a second and my people are a simple 4 hour drive away.  So that's where we are.  Also, GRANDMA HAS A POOL!!!

Here is July in pictures.

Whitney and Ashton invited us to spend the day with the Parry Clan in Heber on the 4th of July.

On one of my stays I met up with all the siblings for a Texas Roadhouse dinner.  This actually was supposed to be a "Girls Night" but my brother got wind and he decided to come in place of his wife.  It was a nice surprise.

The Tooth Fairy went broke in July.  Cam managed to lose 2 teeth, one day apart. Ew!

Delaney came to visit us one day and gave Braiden a tattoo.  Uh, well, sorta.

My sweet nieces Abby and Baylee both have July birthdays (along with their mom) so we were able to go back up to go to their awesome birthday party, complete with pinata and blow up water slide.

Swimming, Swimming and more swimming.  Gotta keep cool in that July heat.

July's favorite randoms...

...and lots of selfies.

I love these guys.

Since August 19th cont'd...Special Braiden and mom trip

One of my funnest childhood memories was the time that my Dad woke me up early one morning and said "Wake up, we are going to Disneyland!" and we did. It was so fun to be surprised that way. We also lived in California, 30 minutes from Disneyland so it was much easier to do that. Well, if you haven't figured it out, we are big Disneyland fans. Maybe because Eric and I we both born and raised in California and Disneyland was a huge part of both of our childhood memories. So anyway...I decided that since I had a 4 day weekend for Labor Day I really wanted to surprise Braiden with a mom and me trip to Disneyland. So I did! It wasn't easy keeping the secret but it all worked out and we had so much fun.

The week before we actually spent in St. George with my grandma helping her get over a bit of an illness she was experiencing. My company has an office down in St George so I went down, with Braiden, and stayed with her. Braiden stayed at the house with my Grandma during the day while I was gone and helped her get food and took the dog out. He was such a good helper. You can bet by the time I got home around 2pm he was begging me to take him to do something. He went swimming everyday. He now thinks he is Michael Phelps.

On the way to California we made our obligatory stop in Las Vegas but I am becoming less and less enchanted with Sin City. Braiden really wanted to stop at the M&M Store so we did. This quick little "jaunt" turned into a 3 hour ordeal. Ick! Las Vegas on Labor Day weekend. Stay Away.

We finally made it to my Dad's house on Friday evening and went out to dinner with the whole familia. It was fun and I finally got to meet Sam, my little 8 month old brother. Those of you who don't know the mechanics of my family, hang on...

Me and my dad, I am the oldest.Braiden playing with Dads guitar. He looks so natural with that, doesn't he? Thank you Rock Band...These are my two brothers from another mother. My little Latin brothers Sam and Lee.
Here we go...Left to right: Lee, Braiden, Paul, Norma (dad's wife), Sam, Mary, Me, Julie, Dad.Not so little Sam WatsonI love this, I had to take a picture of it. This is a perfect lesson in not counting your chickens before they hatch. My step mom, long ago, bought this teddy bear hanging with all the kids names on them. Little did she know that there would eventually be 6 more kids in the Watson family. So Ben improvised and drew the 4 then my dad added the last two after Lee and Sam came. I love that its still on the the wall. I hope he leaves it there for a long time.
So I learned after this trip that its really important to spend time with each of your individual kids. I think Braiden was really hungry for some mom attention. In the craziness that comes with being a full time employee and a mom with very young kids it gets easy to look over the important things just so i can get through every day. Braiden and I had a really good time and he loved the one on one attention. I kind of did too. I didn't realize how much I didn't know about my son. Looking forward to the next one, Bud!!