Coen Mocking His Old Dad's 40th Birthday

Coen was more than happy to mock my 40th birthday and consume all of the "40 sucks" suckers. His expression in this picture is classic.

August 2009 Pictures

Our summer (primarily working for Jayd) vacation extended into August as we piled up more miles "driving all over creation" (as my mom would say). We were able to spend a couple of fun days in Las Vegas at the Luxor with Tauni's brother Drew and cousin Jason (aka "J-Mo"). It was awesome to hang out with them as we rarely get to see them seeing as they live in Alberta Canada and we live in Texas. Here's Drew with Coen and Ella:

From Las Vegas, we continued north to Utah and spent a few fun days with our friends Max and Sally Brown and their two young kids. They have a gorgeous new house in Fruit Heights and we were able to crash their "basement" (more like a well-furnished 2 bedroom/2 bath apartment!). We spent a good day together out at Bridal Veil Falls.

From there, we headed south to South Jordan and spent a few nights with our ex-Texan great friends the Stahelis. While there, we were able to attend the open house of the new Oquirrh Mountain Utah Temple which is about one mile from their house and is gorgeous.
Coen loved being reunited with his old buddy Parker Staheli who he used to hang out with in Texas before they moved.

Kayla joined us in Utah after her semester finished at BYU Idaho. Then, after Utah, we headed back to California where Coen was able to spend pretty much everyday with his cousins. He's pictured above with Vanessa and Savanna, his two female cousins on the McFerson side. As you can see, he loved these girls.

With my sister Jennifer's help, we were able to find a new place to swim pretty much everyday, which Tauni and Kayla were freaks for. You can see Kayla above trying to imitate Jayd's legendary "Dead Man's Fall".

After another week, we said goodbye to Jayd's family in California and started the trek home to Texas. Fortunately, Tauni had arranged a nice one week stopover in Las Vegas, where we took advantage of extremely "recession-friendly" lodging. Jayd's brother Jeffrey and his family joined us in Las Vegas, which was awesome. Coen hung out with his cousins Ian, Hyde, and Leif, non-stop for a week and loved it. Here are the hooligans, pictured below at The Mirage's Shark exhibit.

All told, Las Vegas was nice and relaxing as Jayd was finally able to take some time off work instead of burning the candle at both ends. As you can see below, Ella enjoyed her rest and relaxation!

Tons of other pictures here.

July 2009 Pictures

This summer we took a six-week trip (the blessing and curse of the "Home Office Job") from Texas to California to Las Vegas to Utah to California to Las Vegas and back home to Texas. Needless to say, we put a ton of miles on the car but fortunately never had any car trouble at all. I've posted far more pictures at our Picasa site, but here are a few to give you a sense of the journey.

We spent a fun afternoon/night at a resort in Scottsdale Arizona as part of the drive to California to visit Jayd's family. The summertime deals of $50 for a killer room are hard to resist. The kids (no surprise) loved the swimming pool.

Coen loved the Long Beach Aquarium.

We went to the circus in Anaheim, CA, with all of the McFerson-side cousins.

Coen loved hanging out with all of his cousins. Vanessa (next to him above) stole my little man's heart.

Above you can see Coen hanging out with his cousins Leif, Hyde, and Ian. Most of his friends in Texas seem to be girls, so Coen loved hanging out with these three little boys.

Finally, here is a shot from the first-ever McFerson family photo shoot. As you can see, the clan is expanding.