2014

The First Snow

Posted on Thursday, November 13, 2014

The first small snowflakes fluttered down today, and with it came mixed emotions. I won't lie, when I opened the curtains and saw the trees and grass powdered in white my heart sunk a little. The next six months in Utah are not my favorite.

But then, Hudson ran over to the window and shouted "It's SNOW!!!" And in a split second my dread was gone and I could share his excitement.

"Should we go outside and see it?" I asked him with a smile.

"YAY!" I don't know how much my two year old remembered snow from last year, half his lifetime ago, but it is so fun to watch him experience something so seemingly new and different. "Oh my, oh my, oh my, OH MY!" He was running around the condo squealing and jumping. We couldn't get his coat and "snow man hat" on fast enough. (Can someone explain why he calls his blue hat his snowman hat? And why is it the only hat he will wear? All. The. Time.)

We watched him hop around and jump into the slushy snow. We drew pictures in the layer of snow covering our car. Ten minutes and we were ready to go inside and warm up. Uhg, winter, I guess if you will be here so long i will try to enjoy it.

Yellowstone

Posted on Saturday, November 8, 2014

Prepare yourself for this post. I am about to dump a bajillion pictures on you from a vacation that happened months ago. But I love these pictures and I loved this trip, so....

This summer we went on a weekend trip to Yellowstone. It was so much fun! I love Yellowstone! Since we were only there for a few days we spent most of our time driving, and driving, and driving, trying to see as much as possible. Hudson surprisingly handled this so well! Our main goal was to see a ton of wildlife and we were not disappointed.

We loved that there were bison everywhere, in our campsite on the roads, everywhere. Note below the guy getting way to close for a selfie.

Old Faithful kind of ended up being one of our least favorite attractions, it was neat, but there were so many people there. The hot springs were all so neat, poor color blind Jason couldn't see all the cool colors though. The rainbow smoke from the spring above was awesome!

Guys, we saw a bear! We were so excited because that is the one thing we wanted to see, and it was even a grizzly. It may look far away in the picture but when an animal is that massive there is no way we would want to be any closer. There were so many times we saw people getting way to close to wildlife, and this was one of those times. Nobody was hurt of course, but once we saw the bear running towards a few loud people, we were out of there real fast.

Can I just live in Yellowstone all summer? It is so gorgeous. We ended our little trip with a picnic by the lake, watching a couple lone boats with Hudson. I hope we can make this trip a yearly thing, because I feel like there is so much more to do and see there!

Halloween 2014

Posted on Friday, November 7, 2014

As a kid Halloween was always one of my favorite Holidays. When I was little I would ask my mom to tell me "spooooky" stories at bedtime, I loved Casper, I loved my older brother Ryan telling me the scary story of the old lady making soup with a...bone! Shriek!

Halloween is still one of my favorites! I love fall, pumpkins, and costumes. It is just as fun being a mom on Halloween. This year Hudson learned what Halloween really consists of, and excitedly took part in all the classic activities. All month long he told me he "wanted Halloween!' He was a cowboy, and the weeks before Halloween he would put on his little cowboy hat and ride around on his bike.

This fall has been extra amazing this year. The past few years fall has felt kind of non-existent and once October rolled around I just started dreading the cold months approaching way too fast. This year I relished every little thing about fall I love. Hudson and I went on bike rides/walks up the canyon and watched the leaves changing color. We crunched dry leaves on the sidewalk every chance we got. I tried to show him how amazing pumpkin flavored hot chocolate is, but he doesn't get that yet, why would a drink be hot?

This year our Halloween consisted of the classic Halloween church party, where I spent a ridiculous amount of time making Chicken Gnocchi soup to bring, and it one second place, which I felt pretty good about, but I'm still not sure the hours of cooking was worth having the giant pot being gone so fast. Hudson ran around stage posing for everyone in the costume parade and helped me further realize that his little two year old self is the opposite of my two year old self.

When I was about Hudson's age I was a cowgirl for Halloween and have pictures on the doorstep identical to this. So this is exactly why Hudson was a cowboy this year, I made him those little chaps and we found that brand new genuine leather vest at a thrift shop. My mom and I searched and searched for that photo and couldn't find it anywhere. So sad!

Halloween Day we brought him for the third year to the trunk-or-treat in my parents neighborhood. It is an extra fun trunk or treat with hot dogs and donuts, and he loved it. My parents and my Grandma came along, you know he is a loved little boy when he has five adults following him around.

Next up was carving a pumpkin, and trick or treating with us and Grandpa. I loved watching him trick or treat, he would stand on there doorstep after he got his candy and not know when to leave. "Happy Halloween!" He'd say, then just stand there until we helped him turn around and go.

Until next year Fall, you've been real good to us and i will miss you dearly...

Hudson Turns 2

Posted on Thursday, June 12, 2014

Another belated post, because of course!

My sweet little guy has turned two! Ah! I feel like the past two years have gone by in the blink of an eye, but at the same time I can't remember life before I had Hudson in my life!
I am so grateful and blessed to be this little toddler's Mommy. He is just the best.
In honor of Hudson officially becoming a toddler, I would love to share some of my favorite things about him.

He is so friendly. The friendliest. Every new person is a friend and he can bring a smile to everyone face he meets.
His singing & dancing. He likes to strum the guitar or pound the piano and yell out and sing as loud as he can. Today the song was about, "DADDY!!!"
All the "delicious" food he "cooks" for me, all day long.
His smile & his laugh. Nothing can brighten my day like his squeels and giggles.
His prayers, they are so cute! Bless Mommy, Daddy, Bee-pas, Be happy. Amen!
His caring heart. He is always asking me "Are you okay? Okay!" Or, "Are you happy?" "Mommy happy!" For no reason at all.
His independence. Sometimes I am not sure that I love this, but most the time I love watching him try to do everything all be himself with such confidence.
His curly hair, it is mostly poofy and crazy and always adorable.

Basically, I just love him!

This year to celebrate we just wanted to keep it simple. We didn't want to bother with planning a party and just wanted to spend time with him and spoil him for a weekend.

The day before his birthday we took him to Thanksgiving Point Farm to celebrate, and he loved it. His favorite part was the pony rides. The whole time he laughed and yelled "I'm riding a horse!" "I'm going fast!" (He wasn't.) "This is fun!" It was so cute!

On his birthday we just had a nice Sunday dinner with my family and he opened presents and ate chocolate cake. His favorite presents were his toy BBQ set, and his fox back pack, he still uses them everyday.

And now the birthday boy!

Summer Bucket List

Posted on Monday, June 2, 2014

I always have a list of a million things I want to do every summer, and never really remember them. By the end of summer I am like, "oh yeah I wanted to do that! and that! and that!" And there is no time left to do it all and it is sad. So maybe if I write it all down and come back to update it as we check off each event, more things will get done? Maybe I will remember to update this little blog a little more often? So here it is...

~~Snow Cones, plenty of them.~~
Camping by Silver Lake
Tour the splash pads of Utah County
~~Scera Movie Series, to get out of the heat.~~
Trip to Southern Utah
Lake Powell
~~Make Popsicles~~
Let Hudson Play with Sidewalk Chalk
Trip to Lava
A LOT of Boating
Bike Ride up Provo Canyon with Hudson
Moonlit Sundance Lift Ride
Watch the Ski Jumpers Practice in Park City
Picnic up the Canyon
Tour Timp Cave
Zipline Tour from Tyler up the Canyon
~~Pool Days with Hudson~~
Use Our Thanksgiving Point Passes
Trip to Jackson Hole and/or Yellowstone
Seven Peaks
Search for Topaz at Topaz Mountain
Antelope Point
Swim in The Great Salt Lake
~~Take Hudson to a Parade~~
Watch fireworks with Hudson

Hopefully I will be back to add, and cross things off as the summer goes on.

St. George

Posted on Wednesday, April 9, 2014

This post is long overdue, but the pictures are so cute I had to share! Basically, I am just proud of my self for blogging, this little blog is so neglected ,whoops!

During Jason's spring break we decided to join the crowds in sunny St. George for a one night get away. We are really good at these one-night, mini road trips, it seems like that is the only kind of vacations we go on, fun and exhausting.

I love St. George. It is so amazingly different from northern Utah, I love the red rocks and the hot dry air. My color blind husband may not agree with me about the red rocks though ;)

Let me break down our trip for you; wake up early and drive to St. George, eat lunch at a really good hippie cafe which you would never guess existed in St. George, check into the hotel, take Hudson to a Park to climb on the rocks and get dirty, take Hudson to the Children's museum, swim in hot tub, sleep, wake up, hike Johnson's Arch, stuff our selves on massive amounts of food at Black Bear Diner, drive a tired and cranky toddler home in time for dinner.

We are learning more and more as parents that vacations are no longer a time for us to relax, they are a time for us to think off everything we can to entertain our toddler, which is still pretty fun.

Here is Hudson on his very first hike, he loved it! Unfortunately we forgot our baby carrier and he insisted on walking almost the whole way, it took us two hours to hike two miles, awesome.