Last Few Days In A Nutshell

Marcus has been out of town since early Wednesday presenting his research on physical activity and its correlation with academic performance on students at UVSC in Maryland at the National Conference of Undergraduate Research. This has been the first time since we've been married that one of us has gone a trip without the other one. Of course, with him working Nightwatch, we've spent plenty of nights away from each other. Anyway, to kill all the boring time during the day Connor and I went down to Ephraim for a few days and then brought my little sister back up with us for a night.

Connor had such a blast down in Ephraim, especially with his Uncle Tommy. Tommy is a senior in high school right now but is only taking live-interactive television courses from UVSC and seminary. He ends up only being at school 2-3 hours a day. On Thursday I asked him if he would watch Connor for me while I took a shower and got ready for the day. When I was finished my heart totally melted when I saw what he was playing with Connor. They were throwing a big bouncy ball up and down the stairs to one another. Let me explain the significance of this. When Tommy was Connor's age I used to spend nearly every waking hour with him. His FAVORITE thing to do was to play the "ball game" on the stairs. I can't even begin to add up how much time of my life has been spent doing that with Tommy when he was little. I just thought it was ridiculously cute to see him doing the same thing with Connor. Later on he rigged his sleeping bag up with a rubbermaid lid and packing tape to make the ultimate stair slide to hurl Connor down. At first I was a little nervous about it, but they were safe, and Connor had a blast!





We really enjoyed visiting with my Grandma Olson, mother, and sister in Ephraim as well. Some of us went swimming together, we made a trip to Wal*Mart (Connor's favorite), and just had fun spending time together at home. Connor put himself down for a nap even the last day we were there. Tommy and I were upstairs eating lunch and watching TV together. Connor slipped out of the room and went down to the basement. This is how Tommy found him:


He had fallen asleep downstairs leaning up against the air mattress that was blown up in the media room. He slept for two hours, so I was definitely not complaining.

When we returned to Provo (with Auntie Millie with us) Connor and Abigail went on a play date to Jumpin' Jacks (a blow-up slide and bounce place) and McDonalds. We all had a good time. Next time we go I'll have to take pictures and record Connor. He has NO fear climbing up the huge slides and going down them. So cute.

That's our last few days in a nutshell. Thanks everyone who let us visit and HOORAY for getting Marcus back in a few more hours!