Snow Canyon

We took a trip to snow canyon this past weekend. It was a lot of fun and now Jackson is asking for "red mountians" for his birthday....hmmm, I'll have to think about how that wish can be fulfilled!

Zoey and Jackson just had a blast, and we loved hearing comments like these throughout the trip:

"I have loved these mountains all my life!" Zoey
"Those are the mountians I love, those are the mountains I have been looking for!" Jackson, upon seeing the "red mountians" for the first time.
"I am a rocker climber!" Zoey
"It's morning! I hear birds outside, it's morning!!" Jackson at cerca 5am
"I want a smarshmellow" Zoey
"Mom, I peeded!" Zoey- after which she drug her pants arund her ancles through pee-mud to show me. yuk!

We were so busy having fun that we were all worn out and ready to get home. Nothing feels better than a good nights rest in your own bed, especially after camping! I can't remember when the last time I slept so well!

Here are some pictures of our fun:

We had so much fun, that I frequently forgot my camera, so these are just a few shots I did manage to get. But jackson went rock climbing in a full body harness and he loved it! They also went caving, to the sand dunes, hiking and scrambling. They were never bored! 

Eli's 7 month update

Well, almost 7 months. He's a week short of it officially, but he has had two major accomplishments this month. As a proud parent, I'm excited to share all things that make our life so fun at this stage...as small as they may seem to anyone else!

Crawling and sitting alone!! I love how simple things like a spoon can be so motivating....

 oops....missed the mouth!




 Oh..there it is.

Way to go Eli! I'm still wondering where your top teeth are?!? Anyway, these were taken first thing in the morning, so the light isn't very good and the house is not picked up...but oh well!

Just for fun, here is a video!

Lake Las Vegas

We had an awesome family vacation at Lake Las Vegas last week. It was so overdue! 

if you asked Jackson, he would say his favorite thing we did was ride a boat. Zoey would say the 

poo-wa (pool). For me, it was seeing the kids so excited over all the little things. I think we could have stayed longer. The kids didn't want to go home, and Zoey woke up this morning determined to wear her swimsuit (yes, even with snow on the ground). She settled for walking around the house with her floatie instead :)

So, a lot of pictures, and not a lot of writing. Just know that we are tanner than when we left! The weather was in the 80's and 90's and we LOVED every minute. It was nice to have a fun place to go that wasn't too far away, and the resort was really family friendly. All we needed was right there on site. We didn't have to go to the strip once. 

We took an excursion to see hoover dam and the new bridge. It was really impressive. 

 We did a lot of swimming. The kids didn't want to do much else! The resort had 2 pools, water slide, and a white-sand beach, sports court, minature golf, bike riding, boat rental, etc.. This was the view outside our room:

happy family = happy mom!

The kids looking up at a tall palm tree

This was where the kids liked to start their day...the white sand beach. Zoey thought it was snow :)

It was a perfect place to get hot before jumping into the pool. The lake is swimmable, but it was still a little cold for the kids. I'm sure it would be perfect later in the year. The pool was just the right temperature for us. Even Eli took his first swim..it took him a bit to get use to it, but he did end up really liking it.  

A lot of swimming led to a lot of this:  

We wore them out! 

 We stopped in St. George for lunch on the temple grounds and for a break on way home and in between sessions. It was a great vacation. Can we do it again?!?! I can't wait for warm weather!

Eli is 6 months!

I love this photo because in my mind I can hear the sound coming from his mouth and it makes me happy! If you look (really) close, you can see budding teeth coming through!

This month has been a month of big "firsts" for Eli. I will try to record a few:

1) first big illness (RSV) followed by his
2) first trip back to the hospital!
3) first tooth... followed by his second, third and fourth (all on the bottom row!)
4) first taste of avocado, mango, salmon, broccoli, prunes, (and sadly to admit...ice cream). He loves them all! A little non-traditional baby food items, but he just begs for solids of any sort, and sometimes this is all I have to give him when a hunger craving hits.
5) first family vacation...lake Las Vegas.
6) first time to meet Elmo and Judy, he loves them too!
7) first crawl! yup, he has the crawling thing down (backwards, but hey....he will soon get the forward thing. I can see he is very close)!

He is a great little boy and we love his skinny booty to pieces!