St. George (from Ben's perspective)

We had to check out a couple of the parks in the area. Our realtor told us there isn't a house in the area that doesn't have some kind of park within 2 miles. The biggest park in St. George is Hidden Valley Park (just down the road from our house). It has what they call a splash-pad. I'm sure Benjamin is going to love it on those hot St. George days.

There's also a park on Bluff Street (near John's work) that is just Benjamin's size. It has a smaller slide and toddler swings. He got very mad at us when we had to leave to go to an appt.

Please look at the Map in the Links section to the left for a customized map of St. George.

Our New House

We spent the weekend in St. George checking out the area and finding a place to live. We found a perfect 3 bedroom 2 bathroom house in a cute little neighborhood. There's a community pool that we'll be able to take Benjamin to. There's a fully fenced backyard, although the dogs will have to get used to the fact that there's no grass. I'm excited about the Corian countertops in the kitchen and the separate garden tub & shower in the master bedroom. We'll also have a 2-car garage to store all of our extra junk, so the 3rd bedroom will be a fully-functioning bedroom instead of just storage. We'll be able to offer a queen-sized bed to all visiting guests. We are officially declaring ourselves National Park Headquarters for SouthWestern Utah and Northern Arizona. We'll be touring as much as we can handle and would love to take any visitors anywhere they want to go. Below is a picture of the outside of the house (no, it does not come with police protection--that was the last resident). I'll send inside pictures after we move in. I was an idiot and left my camera in the car when we saw the house on Saturday.

Our Genius

Over the last few days Benjamin has pointed out and correctly identified the numbers 6 & 7 and the letters S & D.

It's Official

John is to report to work in St. George on May 1st. April is going to be very busy for us as we prepare for the move. We are going down there to look for a place to live the first weekend of the month. They've also told him they're giving him the last week of the month off so he can get moved.

Taking after Mommy

This should have been posted a couple weeks ago, but thanks to a DVD Amanda burned for him, Benjamin is now obsessed with Mickey Mouse Clubhouse. He rarely wants to watch anything else. He knows each character and now has stuffed versions of each. He finally calls Mickey by his full name instead of "Ickey". The rest are Coofy (Goofy), Donald, DZ (Daisy), Minnie, and Pooto (Pluto).

Some Tidbits

Sorry in advance for the bad phoenetics:

--Chris' name has graduated from "Kiss" to "Cwis" or even "Chris"

--Amanda's name has gone from "Na" to "Mada"; although it took me a couple weeks to figure out that's what he was talking about

--For several weeks now Mom has been known as "G'ma" instead of just "MaMa" (and he's convinced every phone call is Grandma and Grandpa and I'm a real meanie if I don't let him talk to them)

--Bananas are no longer "Na's" they are now "Manyas"

--Several times yesterday, he acutally thanked me for giving him something that he had asked for. He says "Kee Kyu" or "Kyu Much" (not sure where he learned to say "Thank You Much")

Easter Bunny

I just have to share pics of Benjamin in his Easter outfit. Of course he was hesitant to pose for more than half a second, but we did get a few keepers. I'll put the rest on Flickr. (the duck he's holding is the new one the Easter Bunny brought. It has Easter eggs on its chest)