November 2014

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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.



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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!

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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...