Utah adventures

FAMILY: If you have pictures from the reunion you'd like to share.. let me know and we can upload them to my Picassa album so everyone can share them!

At the end of July we all ventured to Utah for Kurtis' family reunion on his mother's side, the Hansens. All her siblings were there..with many, many cousins. We had a wonderful time with everyone and lots of laughs. Let me recap some of the highlights of our trip..

-On the way there.. long story short.. we missed our connection in Denver and spent 4 glorious hours corrolling Sarah around the airport until the next flight. We were just glad to finally arrive. The best part about being there, however, was playing on the walking escalators. Sarah loved to walk the wrong way, like a tredmill. Luckily it wasn't busy and people thought it was so cute and hiliarous. I was too afraid she'd get stuck that I never got a picture.
-We spent the first 2 nights at Julie's grandparent's. They were pretty relaxing days and it was wonderful to get to see them and have Sarah see them again. I got to get some sewing projects done because my grandmother has all the right gadgets to make things 'sew' pretty! Haha
-On Saturday, July 24th, we had the brilliant idea to go to the Pioneer Day Parade in downtown Salt Lake. We met Kurtis' family there. I'll be honest and say that I wasn't impressed..thinking it would be this huge ordeal.. and it was just a normal parade. No candy or anything! And it was HOT. It was fun to get into the Pioneer spirit and see the Elders walking at the end holding up their little cameras.. so silly. But we had fun and then headed back to Logan. Lucia (our niece), became Sarah's new best friend and copied everything Sarah did. So here she is, on Kurtis' lap because Sarah is. She liked to hold her hand too!

-We don't have a lot of pictures from the reunion itself.. others have them.. but it was a crazy bunch of days! There was an adventure scavenger hunt where the older kids went on go-carts, paddle-boats, rock-climbing and other fun things while the moms stayed behind with the little ones and played games. We went to Bear Lake another day and had a BLAST water-skiing and jet-skiing. Yes, I did both at 20 weeks pregnant. I was under the supervision of Kurtis' uncle who is a doctor and said it was perfectly fine for me to do so. Oh it was so much fun! Sarah ate sand most of the time.. but eventually learned that it's not too tasty.

-There were various sessions and things to do at the temple the final day. We also got a chance to go back later in the week. It was wonderful to get to go and spend time in such a peaceful place, and be there with family.

With most of the siblings

Grandpa Tucker made a GREAT horse!

Kurtis took Sarah on the boat like this and she totally fell asleep all cozy in her life jacket

-We played lots of ping-pong, Wii, all got colds, went crazy in a house full of people.. :) had a wonderful family council meeting, and most of all just hung out and laughed. Sarah did really well with all the new people and would go to others after a few days, much to her Grandma Tucker's joy!

-Sarah and Lucia followed each other around and copied each other like crazy. I can't wait for them to get older and have their little brothers be friends too. That will be so much fun!

Thanks to Chauncey and Paola for letting us invade their home (at the time) and putting up with our messes.

June..and July some

It's sad that I'm posting monthly updates but at least I'm doing that much! We haven't really taken a lot of pictures either so I don't feel that bad. Kurtis and I both went on trips in June.. he went up the Boundary Waters with the boy scouts for their high adventure. They spent 6 days canoeing, fishing, camping, cliff jumping and other 'manly' scounting things. He enjoyed it but was glad to have it over. It was a lot of planning and babysitting hard work to take 5 teenage boys through the wilderness. He'll post his stories and more pictures soon. Here's what it looks like from the air.. just a glimpse mind you. This is thousands of acres of land, rivers and lakes.

And what they saw at sunset..

He's mentioned that he'd love for us to go up together and I think it would be really fun.. but when to do it is another question!

As he's been planning this for months.. I told him I wasn't about to hang out alone for a week so Sarah and I hopped a plane to Boston to spend the week with my sister! Sarah had a great time being carried, tickled, pushed around and played with by her 5 girl cousins. Unfortunatley, since Kurtis had our camera, my sister has all the pictures.. to be posted soon. But we had fun hanging out together, going to the Boston Children's Museum, pool parties, late night movies, Davis Farmland (kid theme park) and attempting to get used to swimming. Sarah did overcome her fear of Dottie (their dachchsund) and thought she was a great toy. And although she towered over her same-aged cousin Janelle.. she took a few beatings as Janelle has to defend herself from her sisters. Ha! We loved being out there. Thanks sis!

Our latest adventure was going to the MN Zoo with another little family. It ended up raining (curses to weather.com) but we still had a great time. Here's our little hatchling..

By the dolphins..Petting the sharks..With the turtles..

Grooming the monkey, Daddy

Looking at the sea dragons, which are so neat!

Our 4th of July was a bit quiet since it was Sunday and it rained the whole day. We bbq'ed with another couple and attempted to see fireworks from our deck.. which ended up being cancelled. But we did make ice cream in a bag, which is pretty good on a hot night!

We're gearing up for our Utah trip next week and can't wait to see Kurtis' family. We also hope to find out the sex of our baby this Friday! yay!

In December..

We're going to have an extra special Christmas present. We're expecting! Ahhh!! We're excited and feel very blessed indeed.. but I'm still nervous about having 2! They'll be 18 months apart. But eventually they'll be friends.. or enemies.. and entertain each other.. right? Anyway, December 16th is my due date. Hopefully it won't be born on Christmas as I don't really want to have to deal with that birthday dilemma forever. ha! But I'm grateful to have an extra reason to look forward to the Christmas season. yay!

I'm 1!

Our baby girl had her first birthday last week and we invited some friends over for a little party. Unfortunately.. the weather did not cooperate..much to my dismay.. but we had a great time anyway. Sarah throughouly enjoyed her cupcake and immediately wanted another one... day after day.. until they were no longer in sight. A friend had a much better camera and was gracious enough to share their pictures with us. We can't believe how quickly this year has gone by and that we now have a one-year-old who is terrorizing the house! It's amazing what she can get in to.. but she's so adorable tottering around on her little legs. She started walking around 11 months and is couldn't be happier with herself.

this little guy probably ate 5 cupcakes. he kept swiping them off the table and gobbling them down before his parents could catch him. so funny.

Some of her favorite things are:

-Walking around with a blankie, dish-towel, clothing she found in the hamper and playing peek-a-boo with them.

-singing, dancing, and talking to herself. she loves music and bobs her head whenever i turn it on!

-looking through books

-ripping and eating paper.. and anything edible, or not for that matter as seen here

-pulling hair and biting (not our favorite thing, see those teeth? yeah, deadly)

-baby dolls and stuffed animals..she loves to carry them around too and give them hugs!

-looking out the window

-climbing stairs

-getting her little fingers on the piano keys..she also loves to listen to me play

-shaking her head..she's done this for a while now. i think she likes the way it feels

-throwing toys around and chasing after them.. i think she does with with her food too so she can forage for snacks on the floor later because i don't always pick it up

-being chased

oh our little girl is such a joy to have. we love her so much! happy birthday Sarah!

our sweet neighbors made it over. this is Jan. she's our adopted grandma. Sarah loves her and is the only one she will willingly go to around here. and Jan just adores her. we're so lucky to have them next door.

Finally

I've updated my other blog of recipes. I put some of my favorites on it and will be adding more shortly. Just thought I'd shared it with you again. Check it out if you need some inspiration!

What are you making..