Erik's Track Meet & Trips to the Park

It was fun to be able to attend a couple of Erik's track meets while we were in California. Erik runs on the varsity team for his HS. Logan loved watching Erik run & yelling "Go Erik" in the bleachers. In fact, that became one of his favoriet phrases for Erik and one Sunday he decided to give Erik a little encouragement at church while Erik was passing the sacrament. As soon as Logan spotted Erik passing the sacrament he started yelling "Go Erik"!!


On your marks, get set, GO!


Logan loves to run & actually ran all the down one side of the track & then back up!

And so happy to have found Uncle Erik.

We also had many, many trips to the park while in California because the weather was pretty much ALWAYS perfect!

Nonni found these trucks while we were at Costco and of course had to get them. So as soon as we got home from Costco we had to head straight to the park with lunch to test them out! These became Logan's absolute favorite toys while in California!

Giving Roscoe kisses!

San Diego Zoo

We continued JT's spring break week by going to the San Diego Zoo... Logan now thinks California is the place we go to recieve CONSTANT entertainment.

Unfortunately San Diego zoo is not the best place for little guys. The zoo is HUGE, everything is really spread out and all the animal enclosures are up pretty high so you can't see them from a stroller. We still had a good time, but spent most of our time trying to figure out WHERE the animals were and getting in & out of strollers. We'll try again in a few years when he's older.

We've got JT looking...
It was impossible to get both these boys to look through the holes at the same time for a picture.

And now Logan...

And now Logan's in front looking at JT....

Not sure what he's doing, but apparently he's noticed that the goat has 2 ears.

"The Boy Who Stares At Goats"

Finally, success!

Disneyland (April 2010)

What better place to go two days after arriving in California...DISNEYLAND! Since JT was on Spring Break that week we all (mom, jt, megan, merz, logan and me) decided to trek out before it got too crowded with summer tourists!

Too cool... JT reminded us of a young version of "Zach Morris"!!

I can reach the peddles but now I can't see... ooops!

I'm pretty sure this is now illegal in California!!

It would not be a true Peterson outing without ice cream!!!

Nope...No Cavities!

The disneyland worker taking pictures said "I think this little guy has a future in Dentistry" as Logan immediately went to inspect Mater's teeth. We cracked up!! My mom informed him that Dad's a Prosthodonist & Mom is a hygienist...he's destined to work on teeth! :)

Ready to ride the tower of terror!

Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!

Meredith fully committed with her arms all the way up (ummm, was she a cheerleader!); I was hanging on to my sunglasses for dear life!

"L" is for Logan!

Mouthing "choo-choo" as the train pulls up!

Signing "choo-choo"... we're only slightly obsessed. Pretty much anything that moves with more than 2 sections is considered a "choo-choo" (ie, the tram we took from the parking lot to the entrance gate, the trolley that goes through Disneyland, and pretty much any ride that's on a track).

Mom & Merz

Hang everybody, we're almost there!

He's already mastered drinking out of the camelback!

I'm sure there will be many more Disneyland trips in this little guys future!

Roadtrip to California

With my little sister Megan getting married in June we decided it would just be easier (& cheaper) if Logan & I went out to California for a couple months to help instead of flying back & forth numerouse times . So the week after Easter Merzy flew out so that she could roadtrip with Logan & me all the way to California. I must say, we would not have been able to do it without her. 21 hours in the car with a 2 year old!!!!

I packed the car up with goodies, movies, music & who knows what else...I even had a map of where all the McDonald's with playplaces were along our trek!!! (their website actually has a mapping option...genius!!!)

Friday morning we woke up BEFORE the crack of dawn and left about 4am so Logan would sleep most of the 1st leg. We drove from Fort Worth to Midland, TX (about 4 hours) which Logan slept almost the entire way. We stopped at McDonalds (with a playplace) for breakfast. Then we made it all the way to Las Cruces, NM (about 5 hours) and stopped again at McDonalds. This time, Logan was awake, so we broke out our bag of goodies, or I should say Meredith did because I was driving.

Logan's sweet ride!


I wrapped EVERYTHING (snacks, toys) for Logan & he thought that was the greatest thing in the world. When it was time for a snack, it was time for a "present"...thanks to Marni for the GREAT tip!!!

He didn't really care what was inside, he just wanted to open presents!

Doing the "Hokey Pokey" outside of El Paso! Merzy was going nuts entertaining Logan with all sorts of pre-school tunes in the front seat...his favorite was the "Hokey Pokey" (which he now asks for pretty much everytime we get in the car). I'm sure we entertained countless truckers on our way out!!!

Merzy & I got up in the play place with Logan to get our wiggles out as well...that & Logan pretty much insisted that Merzy play with him at ALL times!

McD's

There was even a train outside the McDonald's in Las Cruces...JACKPOT!

After Las Cruces, it was back in the car. We flipped on a movie & Logan dozed off for a nap pretty much until we got to Tuscon, AZ (4 hours).

Logan wanted all his covers on him!

We stayed the night in Tucson to get a good nights rest. Next day, we headed out and made it to Phoenix & stopped by the mall where Merzy used to live so we could get lunch and let Logan play. Again, we were incredibly lucky, the mall had a mini train running through which the kids could ride. So after lunch, a train ride & some good play time we hopped back in the car for Logan's nap. We then made it all the way to Riverside until Logan woke up again & didn't stop until we got home (6 hours later).

Opening more presents (I actually just wrapped a bunch of toys we already had)!

Logan was awsome the entire trip (mostly thanks to Merzy for her awsome entertaining skills). I definitely think we'll be doing more roadtrips with him from now on!!

We then spent the next 3 months in California with family...more posts to come!

Fort Worth Zoo with Nonni

I am MONTHS behind on my posts...I'm sure it's gonna take me a week or two until I'm totally caught up...I have soooooo many picutres to post.

Nonni came to town in March just after we moved to our 2nd apartment in Fort Worth so she could watch Logan for us while Brent & I headed to Austin for some business meetings. It's been so nice to have my mom come to town to help out as we travel back & forth between Austin trying to get everthing set up for our business. A 2 year old is not always a lot of fun to drive 3 hours down to austin, sit in meetings & then drive back!

We did manage to get to the zoo before Brent & I took off though.

Nonni & Logan at the zoo.


Mommy & Logan looking at the zebras (i think)


waiting for the train...Logan's absolute favorite thing to do at the zoo. In fact, he now thinks that ALL zoos have trains and happens to be VERY disappointed if we go to a zoo that does not have a train!

Chillin' after a long day at the zoo (with a fresh war bruise on his nose from his face plant on the the truck ramp when we moved).

Rigby Advanced Dental (Austin, Texas)...coming soon!

First things first...
We've been incredibly busy the last few months because we've finally decided to jump in with both feet & start our own business in Austin, Texas. Rigby Advanced Dental will hopefully be opening mid-late September!

Ever since we moved to Texas last year we've been hoping to somehow make it to Austin, but the right job opportunity was just never there. So we tried San Antonio, then moved up to Fort Worth a few months later. But after a few months in Fort Worth we decided that Austin was still the place for us & the only way we were going to make it there was to do our own thing...So here we are. We're planning to make yet ANOTHER move at the end of August when Brent is done working in Fort Worth. We'll try to get settled in a few weeks before the practice opens.

At the moment, we're just waiting on our permits from the city so we can start construction. As soon as those are through construction should only take about 8 weeks...but, I'm not holding my breath. Hopefully it will go quickly, but we've all heard crazy construction stories.

Stay posted for more pictures as things progress.

After an exhaustive search of Austin, we found a great location just west of Austin in a city called Bee Cave. Our office will be in the Hill Country Galleria wich is a "lifestyle center" that opened about 5 years ago. We are just so excited about this area; it's enough outside of the city to not be too crowded, but close enough. Brent is really looking forward to utlizing his skills as a Prosthodontist in an area that really needs him. It's also minutes away from Lake Travis (Brent's hoping for a boat in the future!). The area is very hilly with lots of oak trees (hence, "Hill Country). We're hoping to find a place to live in either Bee Cave or Lakeway.

Our office space is behind the 2 trees on the left.


Different angle of our office space.

The office is actually going to be above the "Victoria Secret" (but on the back side)...the construction crew wasn't complaining about this at all since they'll be having to do some work through the store!! :)

The center isn't just an outdoor shopping mall, but it has city hall, the library and a large ampitheater!

Stay posted for more pictures as things progress.

Pictures from the cold Fort Worth Winter!

I'm finally getting around to posting some pictures. These are obviously from months ago!! Our freezing winter in Fort Worth!

(The snowman has a tie on in case you were curious)!

Logan doing "O-H" already! Go Buckeyes!!!

Very Long Update (Jan-April)

I've been meaning to post an update of our new year (especially now that it's APRIL), but I just haven't been very motivated lately. So, here's a quick rundown of the last few months...minus pictures (our camera, along with our desktop decided to break!).

It's actually been surprisingly cold in Fort Worth this winter (go figure...we had the hottest summer in San Antonio while we were there & now the coldest winter in Fort Worth). We actually got to experience a foot of snow here!!! Logan was in heaven! We ran to target to get him some snow/rain boots so he could run around in the snow & they were completely cleaned out. Brent did manage to find a pair of little girl "fuggs" (faux uggs) that were only slightly too small...but they kept his feet dry for a few hours in the snow; & they were only $4! Dad and Logan had a blast building a ginormous snow man & 2 little neighbor girls were incredibly impressed, saying that they were the best snow man builders they've ever seen! :) We managed to show them how to "roll" the snow to make the snowman...they were very impressed.

So with all the cold weather Logan & I have tried to keep ourselves busy indoors at the Children's museum, mall play place, McDonald's (which Logan now fondly calls "donalds" whenever we go by a fast food place) & the gym (you'd think I would've been able to drop some pounds by now-I guess it doesn't help that we go to mcd about as much as the gym!)...all while Dad continues to work away drilling teeth...when he's got some patients! It's been awsome having brent home on wednesdays though. It's a nice midweek break for Brent & Logan loves having him at home. Every morning he wakes up asking for "daddy" and when I tell him he's at work, he quickly replies: "teeth". He can actually even identify the building Brent works in (looks like a big white barn) & when we go by Logan says "daddy, work, teeth"!

Logan is now FINALLY getting his last molars in too. He's had all his other baby teeth for over a year, but these stubborn molars have just taken their sweet time. Logan started drooling a lot again & being more fussy than a normal 2 year old & we discovered a little molar breaking through. Logan's great at being a little patient while mom & dad explore his "choppers" as he calls them (Brent taught him that one).

Our last big event in the last 4 months, was yes, ANOTHER MOVE! We've been living in NE Fort Worth since september. Brent's been driving over 30 minutes to get to work & we've been dealing with insane traffic & just too many people. We moved there because it was the closest place we could find that was a sister property of the apts we were in while in San Antonio. This way, we were able to just "transfer" our lease in San Antonio instead of having to pay $5,000 to break the lease. But, it was definitely not our 1st choice, so when our lease was up there, instead of paying an extra $600/month to extend our lease (INSANE), we decided we'd move to NW Fort Worth to be close to Brent's job (he's now 5 minutes away) and get away from the crowds. It definitely feels like we live in the country now. We really close to the lake now too, which has been great. I automatically feel less stressed just knowing there's a body of water nearby.

Moving, of course, as always for us, was eventful. When we moved from San Antonio, the elevator broke down the day before we moved out (we were on the 2nd floor) & Logan got a double ear infection. This time, Logan caught strep which presented as a full body rash. I thought he was allergic to something & we got him to the dr's to get it checked out & immediately the nurse was like "nope-definitely strep" & sure enough she was right. Then on Saturday, as we're getting ready to move, after a beautiful 75degree week in Fort Worth, it's 35degrees sleeting & snowing!!!!! And, unfortunately we weren't able to get much help, other than our little 2 year old who LOVED running up and down the ramp of the truck! Because it was sooooo cold (and I packed away ALL our winter stuff into storage) Brent showed Logan how to put his hands into his sweatshirt pockets...which Logan loved. He refused to take them out; but, as he was running up the now slippery grated truck ramp, he face planted!! Fortunately, it was just a bloody lip & scrapes on the nose...but teeth were fine.

So now that we're somewhate settled into our new apartment I'm gearing up for a 3 day road trip with Logan out to California! Brent and I figured since we're now in a very squishy 1 bedroom + den apartment that it would be nice for Logan & I to spend some time in California to help out with Megan's wedding plans. I was going to be flying out there 3-4 times in the next few months with Logan, so we thought it would be cheaper for us to just drive out there and STAY! So, my saint of a sister Merzy, is flying out next week to assist me on the trip! 21 hours in the car & 4 states with a 2 1/2 year old should be a lot of fun!!!!! Anyone have ANY suggestions????!!!!!! We're going to desperately miss Brent for the next 2 1/2-3 months; but I'll make a trip or 2 back & brent's will hopefully make it out for a weekend or 2. But Nonni & Papa & all the aunts & uncles in cali just can't wait to have Logan in town for a while (I can't wait for all the great babysitters)!!!

Hopefully, I'll post some pictures later, once I figure out how to get them off my phone & new ones once we get a new camera.

Grandpa Peterson

I wanted to post my grandfather's obituary. He was such a wonderful person, and some of my fondest memories of him were interviewing him for a school project when I was in middle school and hearing him tell me his World War II stories. And of course, all the trips to disneyland, crazy rides in the van up to the cabin in Wrightwood and all the candy. He will be missed. I was so glad that Logan and I were ablet to attend the funeral with the rest of my family; it was such a special experience and so nice to see all of the extended family.

Clifford Peterson 1923 ~ 2009 Clifford J. Peterson passed away on December 9, 2009 at home at the age of 86. Clifford was born January 18, 1923, in Salt Lake City, Utah to Margaret Ann and Abraham (Thomas) Peterson. He graduated from Malad High School in Idaho and worked as a grocery store manager prior to joining the United States Army Air Force where he served as a gunner on a B17 Bomber during World War II. He was the sole survivor of a crew flying missions over France and Germany on the "Scooterini," which was shot down during one of their many missions. When the War ended, Clifford moved to California where he met and married Lunetta June Polk on December 20, 1947. Following graduation from Compton College he earned his law degree from Southwestern School of Law in Los Angeles and enjoyed a successful law practice in Torrance, California for more than thirty years. He was a devoted member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and served in many positions, including Bishop of the Wrightwood, California Ward. His most important interest was his family, and he loved to be with them. He attended every basketball, football, track, and softball game, as well as any other activity of his children, and in fact rarely missed their practices! As an avid sports fan he regularly took his children to see the Dodgers, Lakers, and college sports teams. He was very popular in the neighborhood for piling all of the children in the back of his station-wagon for the Dodger games. When grandchildren came he piled them into his van for regular trips to Chuck-E-Cheese and Disneyland. He is survived by his wife of 62 years, Lunetta, six children, Pam Waldron (Gary), David (Cynthia), Richard (Patti), Janice Johnson (Craig), Tina Cobabe (Rick), Karen Rowe (Greg), 28 grandchildren and 21 great grandchildren. His was preceded in death by parents and nine siblings. Funeral services will be held Sat., December 19, 2009 at 11:00 a.m. with a viewing Friday, December 18, 6:00-8:00 p.m. and Saturday, December 19, 2009 from 10:00-10:45 a.m., at Russon Mortuary, 295 N. Main St., Bountiful, UT 84010. Interment will follow the funeral service at Bountiful Memorial Park. A Memorial Service will be held January 2, 2010 at the Torrance Stake Center, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 22605 Kent Ave., Torrance, California.