Happy Thanksgiving to all!

This has been a very fun fall and I’ll hit on a couple highlights.  First, our friends the Lamoreaux’s were nice enough to let us borrow their bikes and bike trailer so we could take Austin on his first bike ride and he seemed to enjoy it!

Then came along Halloween and although I am not creative (I was a nerd for the umpteenth time) Melissa cleverly decided to dress Austin up as Charlie Brown and he was great!

And here he is with his beautiful mother…

In November, we attended a big fall party and Austin was able to take his first train ride.

They also had some inflatable toys and so Austin got to play around in the inflatable castle.

I’ve noticed that there haven’t been too many pictures of Melissa and I together so I thought I’d include one.  This is a picture of us trying to figure out this whole parenting thing – as usual, I’m being the smart husband by listening to my wise wife!! :)

We went on a hike just before Thanksgiving in Catalina State Park and had a great time!

Over Thanksgiving we were lucky to have 2 of Melissa’s brothers, Matt and Trent (with his wife Amy) come down to Tucson.  During their time, we went to Peppersauce Cave with Matt and had a great time spelunking.

Austin went a little way in but then he wasn’t too sure about the whole ‘caving’ idea – we’ll try again when he’s a little older but this time we just took turns going through with Matt.

I love my wife – over 5 months pregnant and she was still so excited and eager to crawl through the cave – she’s a trooper!

Here’s Matt leading the way!

And me trying to fit through one of the tighter spots – I hadn’t been spelunking for years and it was so fun!

Afterwards, we were dirty but worth it – thanks for the adventure Matt!

For Thanksgiving, there is a Dyer tradition where they make candy Turkeys and so Melissa, Trent, and Matt made sure we made time for Turkey-making. 

You can tell how focused they were on making the perfect turkeys!

Here’s a few of the finished products.

We had Thanksgiving with the Corning’s and it was wonderful.  They even had a deep-fried Turkey which was new to me.  It was quite the process but it tasted great!  Here it is ready to be deep-fried!

We were in charge of a fruit salad and Matt went above and beyond…

  Impressive carving!

It was also fun for Austin to have time with more of his relatives – he loved the extra attention.

Lastly, before Matt left, he and Melissa hiked Pusch Peak and had a fun time together.

It was fun to have visitors because it made us get out and see things we hadn’t seen.  Thanks for visiting us Matt, Trent, and Amy and you are welcome anytime  - we had a great Thanksgiving and are so grateful for all that we have!

Happy 1st Birthday Austin

So our little man is already one.  The past year has flown by but he has been such a joy in our lives and we can’t get over how great he is!  He’s growing up so fast and is now into Everything (for proof, see the following picture!)

Unfortunately, Austin’s parents didn’t make his birthday anything huge (some excuse about how they didn’t think he’d notice :) ).  However, Austin has some wonderful grandparents and relatives who are nicer than his parents and so he did have some gifts and he loved his new toys and books.  Here are a few pictures.

  

However, we did try to make his day special by giving him a couple treats.  We’ve tried to be good about not giving him too many sweets (Melissa’s done much better than I) so we figured his birthday was a good excuse for ice cream and chocolate.  We chose this because these were two sweets which I had previously smuggled to Austin and he seemed to enjoy. 

So excited….

YYYUUUUUMMMMM……..

He loved it!

 

Later, a family in our ward invited us to their home to celebrate their son’s 1st Birthday.  Mitchell is only a few days younger than Austin and so they made it a joint party.  They even made him is own cake – Austin loved the attention and it was really fun.

Well, Happy Birthday Austin!!! We love you and you make our family so much better!!!!

August 2009!!

Sorry again about the delay in getting caught up – anyway, our summer ‘break’ ended with a fun month in August, highlighted by camping, some BIG news (see below), our 2nd anniversary (Melissa’s still being patient with me :) ) and by our week in Utah for our Mauler Family Reunion.  To get caught up, I will keep the writing short and post several pictures.

 

Here are Melissa and Austin at our campout on Mt. Lemmon with a bunch of friends – it is fun to have mountains close!

 

Landon in Dad’s kayak at Salem Pond.  After over 30 years since Dad made the kayak, it still floats and was fun to have.

 

While in Utah, we saw both our families and used the opportunity to tell them some exciting news.  Here’s the reaction from the Dyers.

As you may have guessed it, we are excited to announce that we are expecting.  Melissa is due around the end of March and we are excited for our new little arrival.

 

We had a great time at the Mauler Family Reunion.  We had some competitive volleyball games, Mauler Olympics, a talent show, and so much fun.  After it was over, we stuck around for a couple days and Austin was able to have his first mowing experience – he really enjoyed the tractor and we hope he enjoys it when he’s a teenager as well.

 

  For our anniversary, we got a babysitter, had dinner, went rock climbing, had ice cream at the park where I proposed, and had a great night.  It was so fun to climb, and although Melissa is expecting, she did great!!!!

 

   We went to some hot springs near Payson and had a good hike as well.

 

Our other big news is that Austin is really starting to get this walking thing down – he is all over the place and loves the freedom from being more mobile!!!

Overall, the month of August was great and now another school year begins (my 20th school year for those counting)!!!

July

Well, we love getting outside and although it was warm this summer, we did find a couple opportunities to explore.

First, we did some hiking on the backside of Mt. Lemmon. It was really fun until Landon got curious. He decided he wanted to run up this little hillside to see what was beyond it. As he did, he began running up the hill, only to immediately stop, yell, jump back, and come running back down the hill. Melissa found this humorous until Landon cautiously went back up the hill with the camera to get proof he wasn't scared by nothing. Turns out, as Landon was climbing the hill, he almost put his hand right on top of....

Yep, Landon doesn't mind bullsnakes but he almost grabbed this 4-5 ft. rattlesnake and that's why he acted how he did -- we're just glad the snake didn't try to bite -- Landon's hand was only a few inches from it before he saw the snake.

We also went camping on Mt. Lemmon one night by Rose Canyon Lake and had a great time.

Melissa also got to go back to Provo for a Mission reunion where she was able to see Pres. Antunes and many of her mission friends (I would write something in Portuguese but I don't know any!).

That about sums up July -- can you believe we're only a couple months behind!! We'll keep catching up so thanks for hanging in there!

Where did the summer go? (Part 4)

All right -- let's see if I can finish our summer trip.

One of the things the guys love to do when we get together is play golf and we were able to get a round in -- our scores aren't quite good enough for the PGA tour but we have a great time.

Now for one of the main events of this trip. In February, I was thinking about doing a triathlon and asked all the guys if they wanted to join in. While I didn't expect any to be interested, David and Dad said they'd join in. So, from February until June, we all trained for the Provo Tri and on June 20th, it was race day. It was a really fun experience and even more fun because the three of us did it together. It was our first time swimming in wetsuits, David and Dad's first triathlon, and we all survived. Now, enjoy some pics (and don't laugh)!!!

Here we are in our wetsuits just before the race!


Here we are doing our last minute race strategy meeting -- it went something like this, "Where do we swim? Well, I hope we all survive. Dad, don't kill yourself. Landon, why did you make Dad and David do this? (That was Mom). All right, let's do it!!!" And then the race began and it was a blast!

Here are the three Mauler Triathletes!!!!!Hopefully this will become a tradition -- triathlons are so fun because you only compete against yourself and it is great motivation to exercise and train. I had a great time and it was so fun to have David and Dad do it as well -- they are now TRIATHLETES!

This was the last big event of our trip and then we headed back to Arizona -- it was such a great trip and so fun to see so many friends and family!

Where did the summer go? (Part 3)

All right, here we go with part 3 -- I only have a few minutes before my next meeting so we'll see how far I get.

We did get to attend the Oquirrh Mountain Temple open house which was really enjoyable and it was fun to be in the temple with Austin.

As mentioned earlier (maybe) we played a lot of volleyball and badminton -- here's Grammie and Papa schooling all of us!!

Here's Austin with Papa -- they had a lot of fun together.

Well, I have to run but hey, at least you got a few more pictures. And the next post should be really fun -- just to get you excited for it!

Where did the summer go? (Part 2)

All right, so after our fun week in Colorado, we drove over to Utah to visit the Maulers and Tracys in the Payson area.

We know they love to have us over -- here is a picture of Austin and I trying to help Kassie wake up (she must love having her brother and nephew around -- we are a great alarm clock)

We had a lot of fun in Utah. One day we went on a hike to some nearby waterfalls and it was really pretty (we loved the summer weather in Utah!!)

Austin loved the trip as well and he received tons of extra attention (here from Grammie)

We also got to see some of Melissa's relatives while we were in Utah --Austin loved seeing some of his aunts and uncles and cousins -- here Austin is giving some advice to his younger cousin Jayden.

All right -- I have to go work on some research -- I'll keep trying to get caught up slowly! :)