weekend with the red rocks.

Friday morning we left all our responsibilities behind and escaped to Moab for the weekend. This was the first trip with just our little family of 3 and we were definitely looking forward to it. We timed the 3 hour drive down around the time of Henry’s nap and thankfully it worked out great because he slept the whole way down, which was a little vacation in and of itself : ) and we were definitely grateful for it. We got to Moab in the early afternoon and found a place along the river to eat our lunch. Henry had just woken up and was full of energy. We sort of knew going down  that it would be impossible to keep him clean so we embraced the dirt and let him crawl around. It took less than 2 seconds for him to start shoving rocks in his mouth. We thought it was pretty funny, and he thought us telling him “no” was funny. It was pretty cute but here’s hoping he figures out what no means soon. Our first hike was 3 miles round trip out to Corona Arch. It was beautiful and for the most part we had the place all to ourselves.

The day ended with dinner at Pasta Jays, a rather disappointing Jazz game and a sleeping babe that ended up spending the night in bed with us.

Saturday we hiked to Delicate Arch. It was such a fun hike, a little tough at times, I’m just glad Mckay was the one carrying Henry. I had never hiked to Delicate Arch so I didn’t know what to expect, it was fun hiking up the steep face of sandstone and along the rock walls. You get to the top, go around a corner and get the most amazing view of the arch. It was so much fun and we met a lot of interesting people while hanging out at the top.

Henry fell asleep the last few minutes of the hike back to the car so thought it would be a good time to take a drive so he could sleep in the car. We drove out to Dead Horse Point National Park (who in the world thought up that name? depressing.) We took turns walking out to the lookouts so one of us could stay in the car with Henry. The views were amazing.

We left the park taking the Gemini Bridges trail out for a little off-roading fun. Amazingly Henry slept through the whole drive. The road took us out into the middle of no where and some of the sites were incredible.

Henry was awake by the time we got back into Moab. We grabbed some dinner, browsed through some of the shops, and shared a scoop of Huckleberry ice cream.

Sunday morning we decided to keep things easy. We drove back into Arches and drove out to the Windows. We walked around North and South Window and Turret Arch before heading home.

 

we had fun. little family trips like this make me so happy. can’t wait for the next one.

highlights from the past few weeks

it’s been awhile since I’ve written an update. things have been busy over here but I simply haven’t gotten in the mood to blog till now. and this update, is mostly just that, just little bits from our last couple of weeks for record.

~This is a big one. Mckay completed his qualifying exams-9 hours of testing over a three day period, over a weekend which was the worst-this was a big deal because these tests basically decide whether you get your masters or not. Mckay not only passed, but had a high pass, which means if he wanted to continue at byu and get his doctorate degree he could. we’re hoping to be lucky enough to get into another school out of state for that one but it is such blessing to know we could stay if we needed to. so proud of Mckay for how hard he’s been working.

~highlight #2. The babe is officially weaned. I started thinking about weaning him around his birthday but what hesitant for a few reasons, but mostly because he wasn’t drinking normal milk, in fact he hates it. but after talking with his doctor and a couple days where we were out and didn’t have a chance to nurse at lunch we sort of just started cutting back feedings. I was mostly worried about not feeding him before bed. we’re spoiled and have gotten used to him getting 12 hours of sleep but we finally just tried it and he did great. I have so many emotions about this one. I am so excited mainly because this makes travelling a whole lot easier and nursing a big, squirmy and strong 1 year was getting to be a little awkward and frustrating. but wholly hormones. I was not expecting to be so moody when I stopped nursing but it made me sad and a little emotional. actually a lot emotional. thankfully that only lasted a couple of days and now we can all move on with our lives :) but oh, our babe is growing up and a little too fast for my liking. He is sooo close to walking but he just cant give up crawling, he knows he can get around faster.

~ Henry and I have been enjoying lots of walks while the weathers been warm, sometimes all over campus, sometimes to get an Awful Waffle, sometimes to feed the ducks. I love it and so does Hen.

~We’ve been really watching what we eat, no diets around here, just lots of healthier choices. We’re trying out the vegetarian life this week, and let me just say, black bean burgers are weird, and not the prettiest of burgers but topped with lettuce, salsa and guacamole and it’s actually just okay : ) We’re trying to lose a little weight before our trip to New York next month (hooray, except that’s where we’ll probably gain it all back) so I started doing Jillian Michaels 30 day shred. This was sort of a joke but I love her from the Biggest Loser and let me tell you after the 20 minute workout i. want. to. die. she doesn’t mess around. and I love that I can feel myself getting stronger, when I’m not almost too sore to even sit down.

~It snowed enough to justify finally stuffing henry into the snowsuit we bought him months ago. It was a snug fit and he looked his cutest. but he wasn’t really loving the snow. He sat around for a minute, touched it once, shoved his face in it and decided he was done.

~We celebrated Leap Day and Mckay’s rattail got a little fancy with a thin yellow ribbon in honor of Leap Day Williams (30 rock reference). kind of gross right?

~ Last week Henry was extra fussy (maybe due to weaning, or his recent phase of waking up at 5 am, or his little cough) and not quite himself so on the really cold days we decided to have a snow day. A day where we hung around in our pajamas, house chores were neglected and we just played, Hen had a long warm bubble bath, ate soup, cuddled and watched movies, it was a nice day. I also took that opportunity to make the mantle a little more festive for St Patricks day.

(idea found on pinterest)

I also made our house smell so cozy with a delicious little mix I found on pinterest. I filled my smallest pot 2/3 of the way full with water, added a sliced lemon, 2 teaspoons of vanilla and a couple shakes of dried rosemary. I let this simmer on low all day. The “recipe” online called for fresh rosemary but I used what I had on hand and it worked great. I’ve made this two other times since then, it’s so easy and really makes your house smell amazing.

~We’ve been busy and tiiiiiiired around here so we’ve decided to escape for a few days and head south for the weekend. We’re taking a little family trip down to Moab and WE ARE EXCITED! I actually think this is our first trip with just us three. should be fun.

Lastly, I’ve been really wanting to cut Henry’s hair, not a lot, just trim and even it out a little bit because it is getting so long. The only thing stopping me is obviously Mckay’s major disapproval and those sweet little curls in the back. I’ve heard mixed opinions from others. anyone else have a vote?

saturday we had a party

 we celebrated Henry’s first birthday over the weekend and oh did we have fun! the day started off with some Birthday french toast and the babes very own package that came in the mail, all the way from auntie in New York.

 

 Months ago I daydreamed of throwing the cutest little themed birthday boy party, pirates, robots, monsters, whatever. but when it came right down to it, I didn’t want to go “theme” crazy with something that wasn’t distinctly Henry. I’m hoping next year he will have more defined likes or obsessions but for right now he really just seems to love everything. so I decided to forgo a theme this year and just focus on things being all about henry, fun and colorful. and despite my poor planning and having the party right in the middle of Henry’s nap time he seemed to enjoy it.

the food. we decided to serve kid’s food and had peanut butter and jelly or honey sandwiches, without the crusts of course. my mom made homemade macaroni and cheese, lysa brought a delicious salad and because henry loves yogurt we had a yogurt bar complete with toppings of mixed berries, chocolate chips and granola.

the food was simple and tasted great, Henry loved it all. after we ate it was time to sing Happy Birthday and celebrate with a little birthday cupcake which Henry ate quite daintily. we were expecting much more of a mess.

we were so grateful for our family that came to celebrate Henry’s big day with us. one of my favorite things about the weekend was having all of my family together. I am so happy that Chris, JJ and Marty were able to come down. We really missed Chris, Mairin and Bryce but were so glad when Mairin joined us via Skype to open presents.

so sad I didn’t get a picture of my mom and grandma.

We are saving for a trip this spring and so I challenged myself to make as many of the decorations with craft materials we already had and spend as little as I could. It was so fun for me to have some craft projects to work on.

details. with a lot of help from pinterest I made a few things, a felt celebration garland by DANA, not the best picture. this was one of the easiest things to make ever, just cut circles of felt in different colors and sizes, feed them through the sewing machine one after the other. this took me maybe an hour.

photo wall. I made numbered tags with my cricut and developed two pictures for each month. I hung them using twine and clothespins. this was probably one of my favorite things, I just might leave it up for a few more days.

another tutorial I got off of Pinterest. This birthday hat was also easy and quick.

I had to join in the trend of water bottle labels, also found this on Pinterest.

Vanilla Buttermilk Cupcakes from Martha Stewart

at the last minute I decided to hang these “H’s” that I had from when I was decorating Henry’s room. I simply covered them with patterned paper and hung them lopsided with twine.

it was such a fun and quite perfect day celebrating our wonderful boy. he has been such a blessing to our family and we are so grateful to be his parents. we can’t believe we now have a one year old.