Franken-Dilly

This turned out to be the best costume for our not-so-steady walker! Dylan has gotten very good at walking the last few weeks but he still has that wide stance and puts his arms out for support, this made for the perfect Frankenstein. He would even growl as he was walking to you - it was Franken fantastic!


Thanks for the fun party Annie!

Dylan won first place for his realistic portrayal of Frankenstein.

I love these boys!

Happy Birthday to ... ME!

September was an EXTRA EXCITING month for me as I welcomed the big 3-0 with open arms! Thanks to my awesome husband for throwing an incredible party! He spent countless hours getting the backyard finished in time and it was not an easy task. The pictures speak for themselves, it turned out absolutely beautiful - Thanks babe!! Thanks also to Ashlii (she cleaned up the whole place after, including doing dishes - who does that?), Kristi, Marlena, Mak and Neil for helping with the food and rolling around 30 sushi rolls. And to Jim for taking photos and Florence for helping clean up as well.

I am so lucky to have such an incredible family and loving friends.

I love this patio!

Dylan was SO TIRED after all this fun! There were so many kiddo's - thank goodness Ryan had the genius idea of paying his awesome cousin Heather and her friend Jaime to babysit.

I love this picture of Dylan playing with Reagan - Look at all that yummy food!

How many people does it take to light this bonfire?? Thanks to Ryan for providing some extra air I couldn't get them all by myself!

Again with the beautiful yard and patio - Could Mike BE having any more fun!?!

Thanks again everyone - I couldn't have asked for a better birthday party!!

What's up with Dylan?

Dylan is walking! It's so exciting - he just wants to run and play with all the other kiddos and with his cousins visiting from Latvia for three months (starting Nov. 2nd - wahoo!) he'll have plenty of time for that. He also has lots of new words, he says his name when he sees a picture of himself, he says moon and he and Ryan go see it every night before bed, mickey mouse, duck, pat-pat (from Little Einsteins), sings the "Hot Dog" song from Mickey Mouse Clubhouse and he is at that age of the never ending no, no, no... It's so funny when he says it and he can be quite serious about it too, but he does NOT like it when we tell him no, he gets very upset. I really love to see him form his own opinions and express them!

He also got his first haircut this summer. I totally documented the whole thing but didn't keep any of his hair - what was I thinking!?!


Here he is sending his balloons around the world on his birthday. Lincoln - did you get them??

He watched them for a very long time...


The one year checkup, finally 20 pounds and a full 30.5 inches - wow!


Here he is helping Grandma Thomas AKA Ya-Ya (named by first grandson Lincoln) blow out her candles.


He's not a great eater and usually I will try to feed him spoon and fork food but let him feed himself finger food. I thought maybe letting him try the spoon with mashed potatoes would work - as you can see very little made it to his stomach.

Miscellaneous Summer

That title pretty much says it all!

I don't know about the rest of you but this summer has been CR-AZY for us! I am so ready for fall, even the mayhem of the holidays will be a welcome change. My job has been the main culprit in robbing us of any free time or social life, something that will change November 2nd, and next in line is Ryan's school - most of which ends November 6th. Phew! I just want to do...NOTHING!

I posted a while back that everyone should go to the Ogden Valley Balloon festival but never updated with our own pictures. It is always fun up there, although this year it was a bit windy so the balloons were not at their peak. However, the music was OF COURSE, excellent!! Dylan had been sleeping on the way up so he has his "Don't Mess" face on in most of the pictures, especially about the bunny ears - they were so not cool to him!






Ryan's family had a reunion this summer as well. It was 2 days of family fun! The first night my brother came and cooked a delicious dutch oven dinner for everyone. This was followed by the story of Ryan's great-grandpa in theatrical form - of course! The kids performed the story put to music and narration written by Kaiser and Jill, it was incredible. We also had a luau and dinner at Ryan's aunts house one night.

Road Trip ~ Part IV

Really? I am still talking about this?? I don't mean keep dragging it out, I thought I had wrapped this up last month but we can't leave out beautiful Yosemite can we??


As part of our northern route detour we decided to drive through Yosemite. We lucked out and it was a free day in the park BUT it was also incredibly crowded! We only got out a couple of times and pretty much just set our sights on making it through the park in a reasonable time. Hence most of the pictures taken from the car... Regardless it was gorgeous and the valley itself is breathtaking. We will have to return and spend some time hiking and exploring a bit.


Last but not least --->

What do you get for $50 a night in Fresno? A hotel left untouched since the 1970's, blond Lily Tomlin at the front desk and all! I am not exaggerating when I say I was more than a little afraid for our lives. We arrived after midnight and after driving for most of the day so I was exhausted, perhaps that contributed to my seemingly realistic fears? The front desk was gated in because it was after hours, there was a big bell on the front desk (which Dylan quickly learned to work and LOVED), we had to fill out a paper with our car and license plate, they took an imprint of our credit card, there was no elevator and the pictures of the room speak for themselves. Seriously this place was GENUINE old school, loud TV in the neighbors room 'til 3AM and all. I feel like my words can't do it justice, the pictures may not either...



Now - How about $50 in Reno? Honestly? THE BEST service I have ever had and an amazing upgrade! When we checked in the woman at the front desk was taking forever and had to go talk to her manager and I was concerned there was some issue, however she returned to tell us that because we booked last minute we were put overlooking the pool where there is an all night "adult" party on the weekends. She convinced her manager that our little family with a baby didn't need to be kept up all night and that they should upgrade us to the other side of the hotel - Ryan wasn't sure this was a good trade ;-). So we went to our 14th floor room and all the way to the end of the all and didn't see our room, then we realized the double doors at the end of the hall went to our entryway where there were two suites. As you can see by the following picture this was the COMPLETE opposite of our previous night. I seriously LOVE that front desk lady! We had the most relaxing night and took a nice swim in the morning to tire out Dylan before the long drive home. Oh - more on their service - I forgot part of our baby monitor and called when we got home so they shipped it to us at their expense and we had it two days later. AWE-SOME.



When in Reno http://www.grandsierraresort.com/

**THE END**
at last!

Road Trip ~ Part III

I know you all thought we were done with this but it's really just beginning!

After work was over Thursday afternoon I finally got to enjoy some of the fun too. We decided to try something new and drive home the "northern" route. What exactly does that mean?? 2300 miles is what that means!! We left Friday morning and took our time driving up the coast toward Solvang, an adorable little Danish town a few hours South-West of Fresno. We drove on PCH for awhile but the traffic was making Ryan a little crazy, seriously not the most patient driver! Here is a great clip of Dylan's first windows-down experience as we drove ever so slowing through Malibu.

Dylan's progression of silliness....

We also stopped at the visitors center for the Channel Islands in Ventura. We didn't really have time to do any excursions and enjoy the islands so we just spent some time at the beach to release some energy. Dylan started getting pretty brave with the water but overall thought it was just too cold!

He is telling that water to back off - and then he decides to go get it! Look at that face!!

I love that we are making the same face in this one.

Finally feeling the water, he approves!

After a few more hours in the car we were finally in Solvang. It is so pretty there! I really love it! Here is Dylan being a very serious Danish soldier and he and I are pretty convincing little Danish people with this cutout, oh wait no, he isn't even in a head spot! haha so funny... Being true to a European town we were unable to really eat here, it was between lunch and dinner but luckily we barely caught a little bakery that was still open and stocked up before hitting the road again. Oh and did I mention we passed an ostrich farm!? Coolest looking thing - I wish I had taken pictures!

We followed the coast for quite a while and ate in Pismo Beach, I am determined to go back here it was one of my favorite spots on the trip! We headed inland through the rolling hills and vineyards, so beautiful! We even drove through "James Dean Memorial Junction" -- touching.

I can't even tell you how much I loved this drive, it was so peaceful and serene. **sigh**