Memorial Day swimming

Eliana’s favorite activity this Memorial Day weekend was definitely swimming. Here she is with her two cousins, Tessa and Emma, from Hurricane, Utah in my Aunt Betty’s swimming pool in St. George.


We spent the weekend hanging out with Betty, Art, Michael and Gina, and Vickey’s brother’s family, Matt, Kristy, Tessa and Emma.

We stayed at the new Marriott Courtyard in St. George, hung out at Aunt Betty’s place, went swimming there and at the hotel, Vickey and I attended the St. George Temple while Betty and the gang watched the kids, we went to the movies to see Over the Hedge (cute movie) and ate, and ate, and ate.

Did I mention how well we ate?

It was a fun extended weekend and a good chance to chill and visit with family members.

Senate to vote on marriage protection amendment June 6

For those of you activists out there, here’s a chance to show your senator what you think of defining marriage as a union between a man and a woman, husband and wife.

Click here to send an email to your senator.

Here you can read the April 23 article, “A Religious Push Against Gay Unions,” from The New York Times.

Read what the LDS Church said today about the issue.

Dominic standing on his own

Dominic is a pro at scooting around in his walker. Lately we’ve let him crawl and explore.

This month he has started pulling himself up on things ... the couch, inside the shopping cart, the bed.

Today he pulled himself up on the shelves in the pantry and began exploring. He’s a curious critter.

Rub-a-dub-dub

Although it’s usually a battle to get Eliana interested in taking a bath, once she’s in there she’s usually entertained for a while.

Here’s a photo from bath time last night.

Dominic’s new do

Today was a momentous day for our little Dominic Joseph. He received his first hair cut.

True to his genetic heritage, his hair is fine and sticks up all over (much like mine did/does).

Here’s a photo of the result of the beautician’s $10 hair cutting job.

Sleepless in Henderson

If you’re a loyal Pete’s Blog reader, you’ll know that I’ve mentioned before how Vickey and I are sleep challenged (see my March 25 post).

Last night was a particularly difficult night because Eliana was up 3 times, pounding on her door to be let out (you’ll also recall from earlier reading that we lock her in her room on nights following nights she wakes us up … nearly every night), claiming she needed to throw up, waking us and Dominic up every time. It was grueling.

Then, about an hour after the last middle-of-the-night episode, she was screaming for help because — you guessed it — she threw up in her bed.

There’s a stomach bug that’s floating around our neighborhood between a handful of houses (all the places Ellie frequents). It seems like we’ve had this bug at least three times now. In fact, our hallway carpet is still stained from Eliana’s last throw up experience when she had come to our doorway and was walking back down the hallway to her room when she threw up.

And did she stop walking when she started? Oh no. The stains continue down half of the hallway.

And why is it this always happens in the middle of the night, anyway?

Needless to say, I’m feeling like a zombie. I believe I can honestly count on two hands the number of nights I’ve slept through the night at home since Dominic was born. And if I had to lay blame on him or his sister, his sister would win by a mile.

So, if anyone has any parenting tips for getting a four year-old to sleep through the night, with the exception of needing to be up due to illness, I’m all ears.

Voting for your favorite American Idol

This is the big week for Taylor Hicks and Katharine McPhee. Who will be the next American Idol?

Does it really matter? Both of these contestants will end up with recording contracts. In fact, probably a handful of the final 12 will.

I did discover this week a new tool to help swing the vote. It’s DialIdol.com. Most people are probably already familiar with it. What can I say, I’m just a little slow.

At any rate, DialIdol.com has apparently predicted who the winner would be each week thanks to its computerized mathematic formula for computing the number of calls and busy signals for each contestant. Don’t ask me how it works, I only know that it does.

So, good luck to Taylor and Katharine. And check out DialIdol.com if you’re interested.

My vote’s for Katharine. I think Vickey’s voting for Taylor.

Father and son’s campout

This weekend our ward held its annual father and son’s campout. This year we camped at Mahogany Grove Campground, part of the Spring Mountains National Recreation Area at Mount Charleston.

My office partner, David, and his son, Mario, came along for the fun. Although Mario didn’t last too long before going to bed Friday night after throwing up. He was having a rough time. And David’s stomach was bothering him as well. They did manage to sleep through the night, certainly longer than I did, and left just after breakfast to head back down the mountain.


David and I were the first ones to stake out our tent sites around 4:45 p.m. yesterday. As usual, I took way too much stuff and was mocked for setting up the living room in my 6+ man tent. But that’s okay. Dominic and I were comfortable!


Mark came up with his son, Jared, and his physical therapy colleague, Gabriel, close to 7 p.m. Mark also brought Dominic up with him so I didn’t have to drive home from work then head back that same direction to the campsite. Thanks Mark!


I was a little concerned about how a 10-month old baby would do in the mountains, but thanks in part to Vickey’s packing efforts (she helped me get ready, although I gave her a pretty detailed list of what I thought we’d need) Dominic did just fine. He’s a pretty laid back kid and seemed to really enjoy all that was going on around camp and being outdoors.


After French dip sandwiches for dinner (thank you Richard!) we sat around the campfire and had a brief program in honor of the restoration of the Aaronic Priesthood (read what Pres. Hinckley said about the event in a talk at April 1989 General Conference).

After the campfire program we broke out the marshmallows and my handy-dandy extension marshmallow roasting sticks and used up several bags of marshmallows. And that was after ice cream sandwiches and drumsticks from the ice chest, packed in dry ice. Needless to say, we ate very well last night and this morning.

Dominic enjoyed all the meals, and his bottles not so much. But there’s no question he gets nourishment. At least I’m certain he’s got a full belly after eating as much as he does.

This morning several of us — those who didn’t have to leave at 6 or 7 a.m. to get back to town for soccer games — played a few games. That’s when I broke out the camera and got most of the photos. We had fun playing the sombrero hat game (where you transfer a small ball from hat to hat without dropping it and race along a course) and having a nail hammering contest.




After breaking down camp Mark, Gabriel, Jared, Dominic and I hiked up Robber’s Roost Trail. That was fun and a bit challenging with a baby on my shoulders. I know Dominic enjoyed it though because he was kicking and twirling his hands almost the whole way up and down. Once he got buckled up after the hike it took about 30 seconds for him to fall asleep. I was jealous he got to nap while I drove home. It took about an hour and 15 minutes to make it to Henderson and the temperature went from a pleasant 70 degrees to over 100 on the Tundra’s thermostat. Yes, it’s definitely summer in Vegas!



To view all the photos I took, visit the Codella family website.

Dancing Queen

Eliana posed for another set of dance photos this week. She sure loves dressing up and posing for the camera. Her dance class is preparing for their upcoming recital and Ellie got to try on her new costume for the first time.

Dominic is going gangbusters lately. He does the army crawl like nobody’s business. He can also pull himself up to a standing position now (he’s done so in front of the couch and inside the grocery shopping cart).

He has yet to figure out how to pull himself up the stairs, but I’m sure that’s coming soon. For now, if we’re upstairs he just lies at the bottom of the stairs with his hands on the first step and cries for someone to pick him up and bring him upstairs.

We’re all struggling with sinus problems … welcome summer. But this too shall pass.

Here’s a photo of Eliana and Dominic after yesterday afternoon’s errands and photo shoot. Wouldn’t it be nice to be a kid and get to zonk out whenever you felt like it, and have naps every day? Ah, the good ‘ole days.

Enchantment of the Seas

Last weekend Vickey and I sailed across the Caribbean on the Royal Caribbean cruise line Enchantment of the Seas. Talk about a pampered trip.

For those of you who don’t know, it was an award trip from Vickey’s employer, The Pampered Chef. She earned it last year. Way to go Vick!

We spent Wednesday evening last week in Fort Lauderdale then boarded the ship Thursday morning. We were treated to an air show by the Blue Angels before we left the dock. Very cool!

Friday was Key West. Saturday was Playa del Carmen, Mexico. Sunday was at sea and we docked Monday morning.

We ate four to five meals a day, swam, laid out in the sun, bungee jumped on top of trampolines on the bow, watched a couple movies in our stateroom and played cards with some Pampered Chef friends also on board.

I also did the rock climbing wall but Vickey declined that experience. I exercised in the ship’s work out room as well.

In Key West we took the Conch Tour Train and in Mexico we toured Tulum, the ruins of an ancient Mayan city, and went snorkeling at Xel-Ha, a water park.




After checking in our baggage at the Fort Lauderdale airport Monday morning we spent a few hours exploring and shopping along famous Los Olas Boulevard.

Just after we boarded the airplane and backed away from the gate the pilot informed us we would have to wait on the runway until President Bush’s plane, Air Force One, landed and the convoy left the airport.

Needless to say, most passengers weren’t very pleased. In fact, loud booing ensued, followed by many criticisms of our Commander in Chief (must be a tough experience to garner an approval rating of about one-third of Americans).

Luckily for us we made our connection in Dallas with about 10 minutes to spare and arrived safe and sound late Monday evening in Las Vegas.

Grandma and Grandpa Snow were angels and held down the fort marvelously. Eliana and Dominic must have enjoyed their time with their grandparents. Even Tank survived our trip better than previous periods of separation.

It was a much needed, well deserved five day vacation. Thanks to Grandma and Grandpa Snow for helping us out.

And thanks to Vickey and her hard work for making it all possible!

Into the Light cast

Yesterday I received a DVD with images from the Into the Light performances. Here’s a photo of the cast and crew.


It looks like we’ll hold our cast party next weekend, followed by a trip back into the recording studio to finish up the cast recording.

Should be fun!