Carson's 4 in St. George!

We survived another busy season which meant we were due for our annual St. George getaway. We had the trip all planned and on the calendar for months, but somehow it wasn't until the week before we left that I realized Eli would be in school that week.

SCHOOL!

I'm clearly not used to the commitment of Kindergarten as I had completely forgotten we can't just get up and go somewhere quite like we used to. My heart sank when I realized we may have to ditch our tradition in the name of Eli's education. 

At the realization, I gasped, looked at Jeff and said, "Eli has SCHOOL!" and then waited for the realization to also hit him. 

The problem with SCHOOL for us right now is that it's a whopping 2 hours every day, so it's a little hard for me to take seriously. So yeah, every once in a while we'll permit Eli to miss 7 straight days for a Disneyland vacation, but other than that, he's been there every day this year. We figured another 3 absences wouldn't hurt... (with a little tinge of guilt.)

Throughout our trip, I did come to terms with the fact that this will probably be the last time we can skip town mid April for our post busy season tradition, so we sure lived it up while we were there!

Starting with Carson's 4th Birthday!

Carson insisted he get to open his presents first thing birthday morning. 

He got some Alpha Bots...

Some sand toys, some dot paint, and Iron Man and Spiderman costumes. 

They spent the rest of the morning bopping around the house under their new identities. 

In the afternoon, we went to the Children's Museum. The boys loved the submarine part. I'm glad there wasn't a real person under that equipment, because Carson determined whether or not he was real by punching him. Multiple times. In the groin. 

The boys oddly loved the dress-up-and-perform-karaoke room. I wouldn't consider any of them big performers, so it was fun to see them break out of their norm a little bit to take the stage and put on a little show. 

Eli and Carson found it hilarious to plop different hats on Lincoln and then spastically run around the room laughing at each silly hat. 

Lincoln's favorite room was the play kitchen. 

We finished up at the museum and then came trouble. I had a cake to decorate. Have you ever decorated a cake on vacation? It's not easy, folks. 

I will acknowledge that this is one of my weaker cake designs, but considering I wasn't at my house in my cake decorating element, I'll call it a success. And Carson seemed to think it was awesome so who cares if the eyes are chunky?!

This is how Lincoln liked to spend his time in St. George. 

'

Climbing out of his crib at my every attempt to give him a nap. And then innocently looking up at me like this to reiterate that he has no intention of napping. 

Eli spent his free time taking full advantage of Carson's new birthday presents. 

And Carson loved to get Grandma and Grandpa's toy cars at to race them around the house. 

In the evening, we went on a walk to see the swans. Eli had been there with Grandma before, but Jeff and I had never been, so he scoped out the map to show us the way. 

Jeff was shuffling through the garage before we left finding a stroller for Lincoln. Jeff pulled out a stroller and popped it open. Carson ran over and made himself comfortable in the newly discovered stroller and said, "But where's Lincoln going to sit?"

That's just it, Cars. He was going to sit right there. 

Since it was Carson's birthday, we let it slide and gave him the royal treatment, which left Jeff and Lincoln strolling through the neighborhood like this:

As we approached the swans, one of them immediately and fiercely began swimming straight for us. It got right up to the fence and started biting at the fence and making it very clear it wanted us no where close to the pond. We circled around the pond and that swan stalked us with ruffled feathers the entire time.

When we got to the other side of the pond, I saw a sign that said, "Please do not feed or annoy the swans." It became very clear that was a swan that was easy to annoy, so we slowly backed away and left the crabby swan alone.

We had a great first day celebrating Carson in St. George! Carson is such a sweet boy. He is easy going, hilarious, and a great big brother and little brother to both of his siblings. The thing I love about Carson is his sense of humor. He understands jokes and sarcasm and is funny to joke around with. 

And Carson is so smart! He loves watching Eli do his homework which has helped him learn all his letters and numbers, the letter sounds, and he's even started sounding out and spelling words. He intently watches everything Eli does and soaks it up, eager to catch up to all the things Eli's doing. 

Carson loves to EAT! He's always the first to get to the table for dinner and the last to leave. If there's any mention of food, Carson comes running. He still loves helping me in the kitchen and is still pretty adventurous in the foods he'll try. It's fun to have a kid who enjoys my cooking!

Carson is my boy who will speak his mind. He's the one that will ask a pregnant woman (or not pregnant woman) if she's pregnant. He's the one who will loudly ask about something he finds weird. He's the one who will shamelessly invite himself over to other people's houses. He calls it like it is.

We love our Carson boy and are so glad he's in our family.