Tulip Festival

Jen has been wanting to see the Tulip Festival at the Thanksgiving Point Gardens for a few weeks now (they only have this festival for three weeks in April every year). Today was the last day the festival was going on, so we were very greatful that the weather cooperated! It was a clear blue sky day...a bit chilling, only 55 degrees with a breeze so we took advantage of it. Zachary started out asleep at the begining of our trip, but soon woke up and LOVED looking around at everything. He still "gasps" when the wind hits his face...but overall he was an excellent trooper. He was fast asleep by the time we got him back in his car seat to head home. I know Dustin wasn't too "excited" to go look at tulips...but he was impressed at how beautiful the gardens were and of course drooled over the HUGE man made rock waterfall, coy fish pond (that was more like a lake) and vendors selling stuff!

The luck of DUSTIN

Okay - those of you that REALLY know Dustin know that he seems to have the best luck possible. If Dustin enters a contest, he wins it. Since we have been married he has won multiple free sodas (coke and dr. pepper), a star in space which is now proudly named "Jen Gray" and by far the best prize he has ever one was a 5 night stay in a villa on hole #1 of the Guavaberry golf resort in the Dominican Republic - the whole trip was completely paid for. So the real reason for ths post....Dustin received this letter in the mail a few days ago and he as yet AGAIN won something. This time a Dr. Pepper (which he proudly picked up at a gas station today) - they advertised 1 in 6 people win a free Dr. Pepper for this particular contest....I think they really mean to say....if your name is Dustin you automatically win, everyone else it is 1 in 6!!! Good job Dustin.....keep entering the contests for free vacations though......I could use some sun!

First day back to work

Well - today was Jen's first day back at work full time. It went better than planned. Everyone at work was really excited to see Jen back, they even had "welcome back" balloons on her desk! She was brought up to speed rather quickly on the new projects she will be working on.

Zachary on the other hand enjoyed his day with the babysitter. He gets to play with a 1 year old girl all day. He is already becoming the ladies man by talking and smiling to her - he is so interested in all the cool grown kid up things she does and can't wait to start doing them himself!

It has been a while

We've been crazy busy the past week and a half with family and Sarah's wedding....hoping to get lots of pictures and details posted in the next day or two!

Idaho Trip - Day#2

WEDDING DAY!

Today was Nick and Sarah's big day! We all made the 30 minute trek from Idaho Falls to Rexburg for the sealing. It was really windy and the skies were very grey...but not a drop of rain came down! The Rexburg temple was recently dedicated and the sealing room that was used is acutally the biggest in the entire church! I don't think there was an empty seat in that room....all the family on the Harris side and the Gray side was excited to witness this event. Sarah looked absolutely gorgeous...she actually wore the same wedding dress her sister Lisa used 8 years earlier! Here are some snapshots taken after the ceremony:

Zachary sleeping at the Temple!

Our family at the Rexburg Temple

Dustin and his baby sister Sarah

The reception was that evening back in Idaho Falls - get this at a FLOWER SHOP! This huge flower shop rents the place out for receptions! How perfect is that? The place was a good size and completely decked out in beautiful flowers that Sarah had picked out herself! It was great to see all the Gray family - especially the ones that live in Idaho that Jen has never met (uncle John, uncle Rodney). Jen also got to see Grandma Simmons home in Rigby. We have too many pictures from this trip to post on blogger - so check out our smugmug site for tons more.

Idaho trip - Day#1

We headed up to Idaho for the festivities invovled with Dustin's baby sister Sarah's wedding. This was the first real "road trip" for both Peyton and Zachary...so we were interested to see how this would go. We had so much stuff to take to Idaho (both for us and the wedding) we ended up driving both our vechiles. The 4 runner stuffed with strollers, pack-n-plays, coolers (to be used for the wedding flowers), serving platters, 17 gallons of punch for the reception and "man food" for Dustin and Craig - they were the drivers of the 4 runner. Jen and Lisa drove the Accord which had both kids in the back seat and 4 pieces of luggage in the trunk. We started the drive early Thursday morning - 1 hour into the 4 hour trip the car starts to stink - we concluded that Peyton had a dirty diaper. So we stop in Ogden at a McDonalds and let Lisa do her business with Peyton. Well, it turns out it was the WORST DIAPER BLOWOUT IN PEYTON'S HISTORY and the McDonalds didn't have a changing table and Lisa ran out of wipes trying to clean up Peyton! So 1 hour into the drive we have already changed Peyton completely. The next couple of hours went really well. Both Zachary and Peyton slept, and we made it all the way to Pocatello (3 hours into the 4 hour trek) and stopped to feed Zachary and decided that we all wanted some lunch. Then one more hour to Idaho Falls. Jen and Lisa were impressed how that road trip went - we had survied (minus one outfit).

Thursday night Dustin and all the his brothers and father decided to take Nick out for a bachelor party...what better way to be men than to play laser tag, arcade games and mini golf! Of course this was a test to see how Nick survived laser tag as both Dustin and his dad had "Expert Sharpshooter" status with their military training!

Left to right: Nick, Jaren, Eric, Craig, Glen, & Dustin

So as the boys were playing - the girls were having a bridal shower for Sarah. Lots of kitchen gadgets and lingerie were received.

Sarah - excited for the wedding the next day

So after all the festivities it was time to crash at our hotel. We knew tomorrow was going to be even busier with the wedding and reception.

Playground fun!

We hit up a playground near our house so Peyton and Zach could have some fun. We had to take advantage of the 70 degree day we had. Of course it was more of Peyton having fun...Zach seemed to sleep through all of it.


Peyton



Look at this 1 year old go!



Baby Zachary sleeping through the fun

Bronco cousins

Dustin's sister Lisa, her husband Craig and 1 year old son Peyton came to town for a visit. They are die hard Denver Bronco fans and we couldn't resist dressing up our babies in Bronco gear and snaping some pictures.

Busting a move....

Jen's friend Stephanie created one of these and we loved it....so here is the Gray clan busting a move.... (you have to click on the area below)

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Megerle visit

Rushell, Tyler and Dylan Megerle - our good friends in Austin, Texas came for a visit! These Texans battled our bitter cold weather to spend some good quality time with the Gray's. Tyler and Dylan were excited to see "snow" - we got two mini boughts of it while there were here. I loved how they showed up at our house in Texas longhorn shirts (I should have gotten a picture of that!) - apparently they made friends all along the way to Salt Lake (layover in Las Vegas)...even the Aggie fans let them know of their pride!


So what do you do with a almost 4 year old (Tyler), a 2 year old (Dylan) and a 3 month old (Zachary) when it is 40 degrees outside? Drive to Salt Lake City and enjoy the Childrens Museum! This place was pretty cool - I have never seen so many kids running around having fun. EVERYTHING was hands on interactive for the kids at this place. I was a bit releaved that Zachary just sits in his stroller or hangs out in the BJorn. Poor Rushell was running all over the place keeping up with Tyler and Dylan. Some snapshots:

Dylan doing some veggie "shopping"

Tyler riding a horse

Dylan pulling a chicken and some eggs

Jen and Zachary just hanging out

Now you might be thinking - what would a 3 month old do at a Children's Museum? Stare at all the kids of course! Zachary LOVED watching everyone. He has really started to smile and interact more with people - he tries to "talk" to the kids...it is so cute.

Also - we celebrated Rushell's birthday while she was here (it is next week)...the boys were VERY EXCITED we had cake. Having a cake in the house actually turned out be a good "bribing" tool for the kids during the rest of their stay!

Next trip Jeff needs to join the Megerle clan on the trek to Utah to see us! No excuses about having to "work"! We enjoyed having the Megerle's here and already miss them!

Second time....

He did it AGAIN! Zachary slept through the night - so that makes two nights in a row! 11:30pm until 7:30am this time! I guess this is a happy 12 week birthday present to us from Zach! I hope this keeps on happening....knocking on some wood.....

What an accomplishment!

On the 11 week, 6th night we have achieved a major accomplishment....

ZACHARY SLEPT THROUGH THE ENTIRE NIGHT!

Wahooooooooooooooo! His last bottle was finished at 10pm, he was asleep by 10:30pm and didn't make a peep until 5am. Of course Jen didn't sleep much - kept waking up and looking at the baby monitor to make sure it was on because Zach hadn't woken up yet! Now the true test....can he do it again? We sure hope so!

First stab at professional photos

Today we took Zachary to "Portrait Innovations" for his three month portraits. Jen had set up an appointment to make sure we wouldn't have to wait around for our photo shoot. Of course by the time we got to the studio Zach was tired and wanted to sleep. We did everything we could to keep him awake. Then about 50 snapshots later (about 30 minutes later) he decided he had finally had it. No more snapshots for him. We for sure thought we hadn't gotten anything worth purchasing - especially since we couldn't seem to get a smile out of him. Well, here are the results. We have posted the pictures we liked the best. The photo studio could zoom in, recenter photos and change the color as much as we wanted digitally before being printed. Yes - it only took 15 minutes to get these printed. These are the raw "un-touched" images:

Spring Shot

Probably the only picture we got with a smile

This is the new 10x13 photo on our fireplace mantle now - we had it printed in black and white and zoomed in so you don't see his diaper

These were SO ADORABLE - we couldn't decide which one we liked the best!

Our little ANGEL!!