Red Mountain

Logan's been trying to hike more.  On Saturday morning he got up really early and climbed the Red Mountain.  I made him carry the camera because when we went several years ago, our camera battery died after only a couple pictures.  

 Logan found his dad's brand that he carved in the rock in high school.  He actually found 2 of them but posting 2 pictures seemed redundant:)

 We live in the most beautiful place in the world.  Every time I think I want to move to the mid-west (or last week I wanted to move to Lake Tahoe) I will try to remember this, haha.

Logan said he had never been up there when there were pools from the rain.  He said there were probably 6-7 pools.  These were the best apparently.  

Chapter turned 2!

I have been dying to throw a Cat in the Hat birthday party for a whole year!  And luckily, Chapter still really likes "Hat", as he calls him.  We invited some of our friends who happen to be the parents of Chapter's friends so it was a fun night for all of us.  We had "Hogogs" (hot dogs), and salads, and cake.  It was the perfect low-key, happy, stress free party.

 I have been dying to make a cake like this.  "You sank our toy ship, sank it deep in the cake."  Love it.

 Getting ready to blow out his candle.

 Sometimes, I love my backyard.  Logan and I had so much fun putting up the streamers.  I bought balloons to blow up and have them just on the grass, but they all popped.  It was so funny, everytime one would pop, Chapter would say, "GOSH!" It was so funny!

Here's the invitation.  We may have gotten a little carried away with the rhyming.

 This is Chapter opening his presents from us.  He got a small table and chairs, a wooden train, some playdough, and a hoodie.  The main gift was his fish.  His birthday fish as he calls him.  I, for some reason, cannot get a decent picture of this fish, but he's in the tank you can see on the far right of this picture, and he is a beautiful Beta named Bruce.  Happy Birthday to my little man.  He sure has made the last 2 years memorable:)

Swiss Days

This year Swiss Days was kind of a disappointment.  The parade got rained out, but that didn't stop the 3rd ward pancake breakfast that is held at our house each year.  Logan has got the pancake cooking down to a science and we were pretty amazed at how many people we could fit under our carport.

 The pictures are pretty bad from the lovely yellow glow of our porch light:)

The kids loved splashing in the pouring rain and puddles.  This is Chapter with Romney.  Wesley came a second later but I only got him in the video. These are some of Chapter's very best friends,

Chapter's got some big news!

This kid is pretty excited about the "bebe" in mommy's tummy.  Coming April 2015.

Bryce Canyon

Last week Logan had an engineering conference at Ruby's Inn at Bryce Canyon.  He and a co-worker drove up together Wednesday and Thursday and Chapter and I drove up to meet them Thursday afternoon since his class was only 2 hours on Friday morning.  We hadn't been camping all summer so we thought this was a great chance to have a mini family vacation.

 A pretty terrible family photo, I think we were getting pretty confident in our tripod family pictures since they all turned out so good at Lake Tahoe.

 I always forget how great Bryce Canyon is until I go again. We camped in the park, which we have never done before, and it was really fun.  National Park camp grounds are always so nice.  We didn't do any strenuous hikes, but we did a few that we could take the stroller on.  It was a little chilly at night, but Chap did great.  Logan cooked amazing dutch oven for us and Chapter even made a friend in the campsite across the road on the first night. I love these little weekend getaways.  We haven't been doing it nearly enough lately.  

Little 3rd Ward

I (Logan) was looking at Chapter's little people and I came across what I thought were striking resemblances to members of the Santa Clara 3rd Ward.  So much so that I was able to put together some of the married couples.  Here's what I found.

Jeana and Rich

Rand and Chris

Dustin and Chiemi

Ben and Mallory

Clark and Meredith

Lael and Jaime

Jeremy and Kim

Brian and Ann

Lacy and Levi

Bob and Sheila

Logan and Sydney 

 I think that Fisher Price must come to Santa Clara for their inspiration don't you?

What have we been up to lately?

 Helping Daddy adjust sprinklers.

 Bathing with our shoes on.

 Wearing snow boots in 100+ degree weather.

 Wearing Daddy's hat and posing like a teen heart throb.

And trying on Daddy's shoes.

We've been busy:)

Rainy Day

A couple weeks ago we had a few rainy days.  And one of them I was feeling like a good mom so we went out and played in it.  Chapter didn't like getting rained on, but he liked to play in the gutter after the rain had stopped.  Yes, I let him get completely soaked in the hot, filthy water running down the road.  There wasn't much and it only lasted maybe a half an hour but that was one happy boy.  I enjoyed myself too, the water was so hot it was almost uncomfortable and if you ignored how disgusting it was it was pretty great!

7th Anniversary

Our anniversary was back on a Sunday this year which makes it slightly less fun, but Logan came home for lunch on Friday with a dozen of the most beautiful roses I have ever seen.  That kicked off a weekend of adventure. 

On Saturday we took the Young Women rafting the Sevier River.  It was treacherous, they didn't paddle, bad things happened, but I'm sure nobody involved will ever forget it.  Sadly, I took those pictures with our point and shoot and somebody chewed the camera cord up and our card reader is being finicky and I can't get the pictures off the camera.  That night my mom watched Chapter and we were able to go out to dinner alone in Richfield.  

Sunday morning I woke up early and made pancakes.  Which if you ever asked my old roommates is a pretty big deal (I used to be terrible at it).  Nothing too exciting on this day, we didn't even make our signature alfredo dinner on our anniversary this year (we did it a couple days later).  

Happy Anniversary Logan, it's been a fun seven years!

Locks of Love

This last week I crossed another item off the old bucket list...

I told her 10 inches but the pony tails ended up measuring barely less than 12 inches.  I was actually really grossed out by the hair when I first held it but I felt pretty sad when I tucked it into a bubble mailer and sent it away.  Whether my hair is sold to offset the cost of manufacturing hairpieces or used in an actual hairpiece for a little girl, I don't mind.  I'm excited I could give and that after all these years of dreaming I was finally patient enough to grow out my hair.

Pioneer Day

As I already said, we didn't get to my mom's house until about 11:00 on the 23rd.  Luckily the parade isn't until 10:00 the next morning.  We were up bright and early and all ready and excited to go to the parade.

 Then we went to the park to eat and play games.  Chap was slightly more into the games this year (since we was awake, haha) but he still didn't really care.

 Chapter won a fish.  Sadly, it was a hot day and the fish barely even made it back to my mom's house.  Chap liked him though.

Chap got to ride on the fire truck too.
We also went to the fireworks that night but we didn't take our camera.  Chap was really good and laid on the blanket and watched the fireworks.  The first one startled him but he did great.  A small fire was started and it was funny to watch the firemen charging down the hill with hoses in the flickering lights of the fireworks.  Haha.  Maybe you had to be there:)