Finn turned 2!

I can’t believe Finn turned two. These two years have flown by in some ways, and really have been so delightful. He is such a ham, tender-hearted, kind of a scaredy-pants, loves to make us laugh, a sleeping champ, has an awesome Dino rawr, and loves his “BEE-va” almost more than he loves his “mom” and “daddy.”

We threw him a little party at the park with his cousins and neighbors. The evening had great weather and the kids just played their hearts out on the playground.

When I said, “Happy Birthday, Finn,” to him that morning, he replied, “No! Happy Birthday, DINOSAUR!” He also wore his dinosaur hat all day long. But don’t let that fool you, he may act tough, but when I took him to the farm for his birthday that afternoon, every animal scared him, even the chickens and baby goats.

Finn is now down to 95th percentile for his height and weight, coming down from 97th last year. We did cold turkey no bottles (or binky) right after his birthday, so he will probably be thinning out a lot this year! I love my lil chunky hunk!

Hiking Timp

Holy cow. It’s been a long time since I’ve blogged. I have so many posts I need to catch up on! I use this blog solely as my journal now, so feel free to move right along.

In September, my friend Holly and I talked about potentially hiking Timp. We found another friend to join us so we’d be safe and quickly planned it. We were going to go later in the week but then moved it forward because of weather issues. Thank goodness we did it when we did because it snowed up there the next day!

We left around 12:30 am. Thankfully I took a little nap before we left, I think it really helped me that day. We started around 1:15 am or so and were the only ones up there that night so far except for two other girls. We all had head lamps and I brought a bright flashlight. Packing for the hike was so funny because I packed sunglasses, a tank top, but also a winter hat, gloves, and my puffer coat. We were expecting cold weather up at the top but then hot weather on our hike down in the morning.

We got to the saddle about an hour and a half before sunrise so we chilled up at the top for a bit, had a little snack, then climbed to the top making it to the summit just a few minutes before sunrise. It was one of the most epic experiences of my life seeing the sunrise from nearly 12k feet on the top of a mountain. It was difficult… it’s 7 miles! Plus, dealing with the altitude and scaling the top in the dark was scary, but once I was up there, it was all worth it!

On the way down, we met a man who does the hike several times a week, sometimes twice in one day. He’s in his 70s and pretty much a rockstar. We also saw some women who ran the whole thing. So, I no longer think I’m in shape anymore compared to those ladies haha!

Doing it at night was really neat because the whole hike back was almost like a different hike since we could finally see everything. The views were absolutely beautiful, the weather was PERFECT, and the company was even better. We laughed SO much and told so many stories. It was a great hike, and if it didn’t take so long, I’d do it every couple of weeks! Thanks, Holly for leading us!

 

Wrapping Up August

Lots of HIGH Fitness classes.

Crazy hair, dirty feet, popsicle stains… summer nights in a nutshell.

Kindergarten Open House

I was pretty worried I wouldn’t be able to get Finn out of that seat. We love having the museum so close!

POOL DAYZ 4 EVR

Having Daddy at the pool is the bomb dot com.

Getting a little boogie board action

Adobe Outdoor Movie Night

Twinsies with Gramps

Eva got a bunk bed!

Handsome boy at church

My pretty girl in her Sunday best

Hit up Natalie’s class… she was awesome!

New haircut for a big boy!

First Day of Kindergarten

I’m not sure how it happened, but I have a Kindergartener now! She was a little nervous that first week, but now she loves it! She loves riding the bus, going to gym class, doing the monkey bars, giving Ms. J hugand meeting new friends.

The first day that she brought homework home, she was so excited, she told her friends she couldn’t hang out because she had to do her homework AS SOON as she got home from school, and not a minute later. She loves learning and is my social butterfly!

Uintas Adventure Day

Adventure Day in the Uintas was oh.so.amazing. It’s crazy though that there’s already a foot of snow up there!

We met my friend Erin and her kids at the base of the canyon, we we hopped in her car and just drove way into the Uintas letting the wind take us where we should go , in a matter of speaking. We didn’t really have a plan, we just knew we wanted to get up in the mountains and explore! And explore, we did! What a great memory of a day!

2017 Eclipse

Okay, the eclipse was awesome. That was just a great day. The excitement in the air was almost tangible. We went to the eclipse viewing party at Ashton Gardens which was a beautiful setting to experience something so incredible. Surrounded by friends and sharing the event with my kids made it even better.

Back to School Cousin Party

TJ’s parents threw a little Back to School cousin party one Saturday in August. They all played in the backyard for hours and then celebrated the start of a new year with a fun, special package from Grandma and Grandpa. It’s unbelievable how our families have all grown and that our oldest kids are now in Kindergarten!

MTC Tour

We may have looked like a circus with three adults and six kids, five of which are two or under, but we all got to tour the new MTC buildings-where the missionaries for our church are trained before they head out all over the world. The Spirit I felt there even with my noisy kids was unbelievable. I was reminded of the simple truths our gospel is built on… there is a God, He knows us, He loves us, and He’s aware of our efforts. He’s rooting for us… and as a mother to young children, that is something I need to always remember.
After the tour, we went to BYU’s campus and stopped by the office where we three worked and became bffs years ago!

It’s been ten years since I started BYU and it’s always so much fun showing one of my favorite places to these kiddos of mine!

Outings with Friends

One of my good friends from our time in Jersey was in town in August and we met up (kid-free) for dinner in SLC one evening. I honestly had not laughed that hard in a long time. It was fun reminiscing and hearing about everything going on back in the ol’ JC2! Move to Utah, JH!

We also went out with some friends in our ward one Saturday for a round of Top Golf. It definitely wasn’t my best game, but still a blast, nonetheless.

And here we are with all our neighborhood buddies at the farm. We didn’t even pose the kids for this photo… they just all were hanging out on the fence and I felt like they looked like the Buttercream Gang.