Eggcellent Easter Weekend

A few weeks before Easter I decided to go home to Denver and spend time with Jessica and her daughters who made the trip from Dallas. Travis wasn't able to come because he had just taken work off for the Moab trip. Sarah was planning to go home in May, but the weekend she was hoping to go the family was planning on coming out to Utah. So Sarah and I got together and road-tripped it with our two boys. The trip went better than expected with great weather, and Sarah and I got to have nice long road-trip chats. The long weekend was filled with fun activities for the kiddos and a great adults only dinner at Bone Fish, which I loved. It was so nice to get out with my older siblings and have a great conversation. We also spent our down time plays the trivia board game, Logos, over and over again. Great game!

Our first activity was a trip to the train museum. Jacob is totally into trains so Sarah thought it would be fun to take them there. Well, we walk into the lobby to buy our admission tickets and all the kids want to do is play with the toy train table-can't blame them; it was pretty cool. Finally we dragged them away to see the big trains. Sarah proceeds to take Jacob on the big train and he starts freaking out. Not a fan at all for the first 15 minutes. He finally did warm up to it all and we all had fun in the wind checking out the trains.

While hanging out at home, Claire was asked to her first Prom! Her boyfriend, Danny wrote on the driveway in sidewalk chalk during their lunch break. All of us older sisters took the opportunity to stick our heads outside and 'check him out'. We approved. :) The next day, Dallen was Grandpa Joe's helper- getting into tools and fixing some exercise equipment.

After going to the train museum, the great grandkids got to see all of Great Grandpa Don's train equipment and toys. Jacob played with the toy train set the whole time we were there and loved seeing Great Grandpa's model trains. Sophie played with Jillian, the kitty, when she wasn't staring down Lily who was hanging out in the backyard. There is so much to check out at their house that Avery and Dallen just had fun exploring and playing with their Aunts.

It was so nice spending some time with my good friends Trisha and Kym-me. We got our babies together and spent the evening letting them play together and feeding them dinner. It was so interesting how wonderfully different this visit was with all of us being first-time young mommies. :)

Next was Easter Sunday. We ended up taking pictures during Church since the babies were getting tired and every one's clothes getting dirty. :) These were the best ones. ha!

And last but not least was the Easter Egg Hunt in the backyard and coloring Easter Eggs. Jessica got the 'best mom award' for getting the egg under the stairs. ha! :) They all loved the hunt and it made so much more exciting then years past. :)

9 Month Professional Photo Shoot

It was a cold day for outdoor pictures, but we got a few good ones anyway. :) I didn't want to wait much longer because he was and is just growing so fast! 

Taken & Editted by 

Pieces of My Past Photography, Breezy Carter

March 8, 2012

6-9 Month Milestones

Dallen is a new man over these last few months. He has accomplished so much, and of course, we're so proud of him! :) Here's a quick summary of him since January:

-Right after learning to sit up at the end of December, he learned to pull himself up to things. Then all he wanted to do was stand. We thought he would bypass crawling and go straight to walking with all the standing he was doing. We made great use of our laundry basket weighed down with these metal ducks we have so he could stand up well. The couch just wasn't good enough yet since there wasn't a ledge to grab onto. He quickly figured out how to stand up in his crib too, so down went the mattress real quick.

-He feeds himself a bottle and nursing ended during the 7th month. He got his first cold and fever shortly after that. Poor guy. I wanted to breast feed through the winter to help with colds, but he just didn't want to nurse anymore. It was too much work to get the milk; his bottle was just so much more efficient. :)

-He LOVES steering wheels. And loves to get our hats and sunglasses when we've got them on and we're holding him.

-As an infant he was so good when we would change him. Now he HATES getting dressed and diaper changed-little stinker!

-Sleeping, well, let's just say is going OK. At one point he started to figure out how to sleep through the night, but then we went out of town or he got sick or starting teething more and now he wakes up at least once a night. He is a good night time cuddler though. We love that. :)

-CRAWLING! March 9th he finally got it down and a week later he was seriously on the move and into everything-dog food, TP, toilet water, shower, closing doors on us, eating door spring covers, getting into my home decor, and now the book shelf! I've had to put away some home decor stuff and rearrange others for our new explorer. :P

-He has also conquered going up the stairs and of course loves it. We don't have stairs in our house but we do at the back door and garage. Now he just needs to learn how to get down them...

-We took him swimming for the 2nd time; well, first time with Daddy and he LOVED it! He was smiling and giggling and laughing the whole time. He has the funniest little laugh right now too.

-He's an even bigger eater now. He feeds himself with the exception of some applesauce or yogurt or something every now and then. His favorite foods are cheese, noodles, and kiwi.

-We don't have any baby movies, but I have been collecting Disney ones and his favorite is Lion King. I think he likes the scenes with baby Simba the most. So cute!

So that's Dallen in a nut shell. He needs lots of attention and loves it when Mommy and Daddy play with him. And speaking of which, he just woke up from his morning nap-gotta run!

MOAB Family Campout

For my family's spring break, we decided to do our annual camping trip a little early in Moab! Travis and I hadn't been to Moab since right after we were married and have been looking forward to going back for awhile now. This time we were able to experience the off-roading adventures in Moab with our Ranger Crew. Yeah!

We arrived first on Friday afternoon. After camp was set up at Pack Creek Campground, we headed over to Sand Flats Recreation Area and did our first trail, Fins and Things. It was awesome! It was more rock crawling then trail riding for sure. It was gorgeous riding during sunset too. Dallen and Lily did great and we headed back to camp at dusk. Sarah, Emily, and Jacob arrived shortly after and we planned to do more riding the next day.

We got going Saturday morning and did Fins and Things again but with the rest of the group this time. It was a blast! Jacob loved that the trail was marked with Stegosaurus' (he's really into dinosaurs right now). Dallen did great except for when we'd scream at the scary parts- he cries when we scream. So sad, but cute. :) After the long ride, the kiddos were ready for a break, so Sarah, Jacob, Dallen, Lily and I went back to camp for lunch and a playing-in-the-dirt break. Emily and Travis decided to try out another trail, Hell's Revenge while we rested. When they got back, the family still hadn't arrived so Travis, Emily, Dallen, Lily and I decided to go on a short hike near Potato Salad hill. It ended at a swimming hole and waterfall. It was a really pretty hike and nice to get out and move after riding most of the day. While we were gone, the family arrived: Mom, Dad, Joe, Claire, Audra, Charity, and Joy. We ate dinner and had yummy Dutch Oven Peach Cobbler and then called it a night. For the most part, Dallen did OK sleeping. He still wakes up in the night at home and did while we were camping too, but it wasn't anything too extreme. He did end up in our sleeping bag one night for most of the night because I was just too exhausted to deal with him. Overall I didn't feel too sleep deprived, so that was good. 

Sunday we made it a hiking day. We headed into arches and did the hike to Delicate Arch, one of our favorites. It's a really cool hike on a trail and then up slick rock, through sand and on a short exposed ledge. The view is awesome once you get there and kind of nerve racking with little ones too since the arch sits on the edge of a huge bowl. Travis wanted to get a good hike out of it and lead the group at a pretty fast pace. Joy was his hiking buddy and kept up with him every step of the way. So cute. The rear was brought up by Jacob and his buddy Joe who ended up carrying him half the time. Who can blame him though?-it's a long hike for such a little guy. We ate lunch at the arch and discovered that Dallen was teething and getting a fever. He just couldn't take it anymore and cried/screamed/fussed the whole way back. Travis and I booked it back to the car where the Tylenol was and he felt a little better soon after. Poor guy! :( Sunday wasn't a very good day overall for Dallen. We ended up giving him medicine most of the day. Since the hike turned out to be a little more challenging then we thought and with a few of the group needing a break, we decided to take a scenic drive through the rest of Arches and then relax at camp the rest of the day. Well, Dallen, Mom, and I relaxed at camp the rest of the day. :) Travis took the rest of the group on rides up Hell's Revenge. Our camp site was really close to the entrance to Sand Flats so it was quick getting over there and doing the fun rock crawling rides. Sunday night we chatted around the fire and enjoyed visiting with Sarah and Emily on their last night. (They had to head back to Provo for work and school) 

Monday was our bad weather day with a huge wind storm all morning long. So we headed into town to look at the shops. It was fun checking everything out and just having a nice relaxing morning. We headed back to find that the wind took out Mom and Dad's really nice canopy :( Of course something has to break while we're all together. Bummer... So the wind seemed to let up for the afternoon and we decided to head over to Sand Flats again and take Mom on her first Ranger ride. We parked at Slick Rock Bike Trail so that I could get a ride in, while Travis took the little girls, Mom and Dad on Hell's Revenge. (It was Travis' favorite ride). Mom wasn't a huge fan in the end and Joy cried a bunch too, but everyone else had a blast! In the mean time, Joe and I did 3 miles of Slick Rock. It was fun but was still a little too windy for my liking. Claire stayed back at the car with Dallen and then we switched-Joe took Claire on a shorter portion of Slick Rock while I stayed back with my bebe. Once everyone got back, Mom and Dad offered to take Dallen back to camp while Travis, me, Joe, Claire and Charity went on a ride. It was a nice break and great to be able to scream at all the scary parts and not scare Dallen-ha! We did the beginning part of Fins and Things which turned out to be the scariest ride out of them all and then we did Hell's Revenge one last time since I hadn't been on it yet. It was definitely a fun ride and one of my favorite days. :)

Tuesday we did a trail ride all afternoon called Chicken Corners. We rode from camp way out along the Colorado River up to this awesome view point. Dad rented a RZR 4 so we all could go. I'd never been to that part of Moab and it was nice seeing some new places. I got to drive the Ranger and had fun changing things up for a bit. Travis tried out the RZR4 and now has a new off-roading love and will probably be wanting one of those in the near future. Oh brother! :) We had to head back a little sooner then we would've liked to return the RZR but it gave Dad time to get out and shoot his new hand gun. Mom, Joy and Travis all went out and gave it a try while Claire and I attempted to make dutch oven dinners. They turned out great, just took a really long time. :)

Wednesday morning we all packed up and left by noon. It was a great camping trip with tons of adventures. We all decided it would be a great place to come back to and keep exploring!

St. George Visit with Grandparents

Travis had a free weekend and so we decided to head down to St. George and meet up with Grandma Linda & Grandpa David for a day of shopping and visiting. It was so good to catch up since we've all been so busy and hadn't chatted much since Christmas. We met up at ACE which happened to be next to the Bosch store which Linda loves. So we wandered through there a little bit and then had lunch at Cappriottis. Linda filled us in on Grandma Lorraine and how she's getting down to her last few weeks. She's on hospice now and just hasn't been herself as much. I kind of feel bad for not going to visit her last fall and hope she doesn't feel too much pain in her last few weeks. The rest of day we shopped for clothes for Dallen and of course went to Costco. We ended up staying until dinner time and ate together at this hole-in-the-wall Chinese place. It was a really nice day and great that we live close enough to get together for the day.