We drove down to Phoenix and Tucson for 2 weeks to visit family and friends and stopped off at the Dam on the way down to stretch our legs a little.
Claire did not like the wind, so she was a little concerned when we took this picture of her on the bridge.
Change Anything, the company that I have been working with and consulting for has recently released their first iPhone app called You're On! The app is quickly growing in popularity and last week was #2 in Health and Fitness apps in the iTunes App Store!
If you have a iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch I recommend that you download and check out this free app (it's free and no ads!). The app helps you keep good habits by sharing and completing challenges with friends. If you do download the app, add me as a friend using my email address csullivan at changeanything.com.
If you don't have an Apple device don't worry, the android version is coming soon and I'll let you know when it is released!
We spent the day hiking around St. George today. The weather was perfect (around 65 degrees). First we went on a 3.5 mile hike to see some ancient Native American petrogyphs along the Santa Clara river. Claire pretty much ran the entire time. She is such a runner. See the pics below.
Can you spot two animals in the rock formations here?
After hiking we went to the historic St. George Tabernacle where we took this out of focus picture at the rostrum.
Then on to the St. George Temple grounds.
Claire's Birthday is tomorrow and we had her birthday party tonight. She loves princesses, so we had a princess party with a couple of her little friends.
Quinn being cute as usual...as a side note, he's almost 9 months now and is crawling and starting to pull up. He is such a wiggly happy little guy.
The birthday girl and her princess cake
I thought of the idea, but then Casey wanted to execute it. He did a great job!
We decorated princess crowns.
The little princesses.
We colored princess pictures.
Played pin the crown on the princess.
And opened presents. It was a fun night.
Claire is such a fun girl. Its great to hear the amusing things that come out of her mouth. I love to see her little personality develop. She loves kids and running around. She can walk or run for literally a mile or two. She never wants to be carried or ride in the stroller. She is starting to have such a good memory. Lately she has been telling me things that she remembers that happened like six months ago. She is so happy and kind and very obedient, even though she has her two-year-old moments. We love having her in our family!
On August 7th we were headed north on I-15 to go to a birthday party for one of Suzy's friend's daughter. We were getting ready to exit the freeway on 72nd South when about 1/2 mile before the exit the car in the lane next to us began to merge into our lane. To make a long story short, our front passenger tire blew out when we had to move onto the shoulder to avoid hitting the car that changed lanes into us and we wound up hitting the cement barrier quite hard, bouncing back out into traffic where we miraculously avoid colliding with anyone else and drifted to a stop back on the shoulder.
Our poor Avalon took quite a bit of damage during the accident. Fortunately, though we all were ok. Very, very shook up, but okay.
Here are images of the poor thing afterwards...
The Avalon was determined to be totaled. So we were prematurely thrust into the market for a new car to replace a car which we dearly loved. As a quick side note, we have nothing but good to say about how our insurance company (Geico) has helped and treated us through the process. By the Friday after the accident we had a check in our hands for the car and the replacement car seats.
So for the past month we've been looking at replacement cars. We have loved our Avalon for the past 2 years, but knew that we would eventually replace it with a 7 or 8 seat vehicle. So we started our search for that type of vehicle. We test drove:
All of these had their positives and negatives, but none seemed like a good fit, plus we were not sure we wanted to get a car loan, even a small one. About 3 weeks ago we test drove an Acura MDX and liked it a lot. It had a ride more similar to the Avalon, had a lot of desirable options, and fit our needs. So for the past 3 weeks we have driven all over Utah looking at different MDXs for sale. Eventually we found the one. It was the right exterior and interior color, had the right options, and most importantly for a good price. We bought our "new" 2005 MDX on Monday, and so far we like it... a lot. Here she is...
