Weekend Recap

We had a pretty low key weekend. On Friday, Quinn and I went shopping for a bit and she got a stuffed Pluto and was a happy girl. The rest of the night we just relaxed, I worked 3 days this week and we were all beat. Leo is getting his top 2 teeth in and has been having a hard time with that.

On Saturday it rained all day. Leo learned that he can now climb up the stairs. It is time to get out the baby gates! Dave needed to go to base for a little bit for Drug Take Back Day and the kids and I stayed home because it was so gross out. I was super bummed because we had a date night planned that consisted of a golf lesson and dinner at a new restaurant eating out on the patio surrounded by the mountains. I was so excited! However, the golf course closed due to the amount of rain and eating outside probably wouldn't have been that fun! I am hoping we can get that date rescheduled ASAP. We ended up laying around, watched the UC vs. OSC game and ate Skyline dip. We didn't even eat dinner. We went from fancy dinner date to no dinner.

 

Quinn said some pretty funny things this weekend. Her language is growing all the time and I have just noticed this week that she is telling longer stories and using a larger vocabulary. We were in the car and out of nowhere she said, "Grandma's house is too far away. I miss papaw, I want to see grandma. I want to go to the ocean (their pool.)" Then today she said, "where is your phone mommy? It's probably upstairs." Probably!! When did my baby get big enough to use the word "probably" and use it correctly! She also decided she likes to sit on the top of the couch now. Yesterday after watching Little Mermaid 2 she was sitting on top of the couch yelling "I kick my feet and swim like a mermaid."
Today we watched football (which Quinn does not like to watch. She only wants to watch football when the option is watch football or go to bed), took a family nap and then went to the aquarium. Quinn loved the aquarium as always and Leo enjoyed it this time also (Leo turned 8 months old today!!). Quinn loves seeing "Nemo, Dory and the anemones" and she loves the stingrays. It is funny because she isn't a fan of the walk through shark tunnel but loves to sit in the room with the benches where you can see the big shark tank. We went to the 4D theater to watch a movie about coral reef and Quinn hated it. She doesn't like loud noises at all. The entire film she covered her ears and said "I need to go potty (her way to try and escape any situation she does not like)." When we left the aquarium we talked about what was our favorite part and she said hers was the sharks but added that the movie was "scary."

 

When we were at the aquarium with Leo looking in the tanks it reminded me of pictures I have of Quinn. We were at the Zoo when we first moved to Utah and she was watching the seals swim. She has always loved watching things swim (seals, penguins, fish, whatever) and I think Leo will be the same. They are almost the exact same age in these pictures. I love these little people so much! 

The weekends are always too short. I'm already for next weekend which looks to be beautiful and perfect for fun fall activities. 

Weekends are good, life is good. 

Chicago Trip

During our trip to Ohio our good friends, Rohin and Rupal got married in Chicago. My mom watched the kiddos for us and we got to have our first kid-less vacation since Quinn arrived. 

Quick story about getting to our hotel. I can never use the map app on the iphone and it makes Dave so mad. He thinks it is the easiest thing ever and I always mess up when I use it. So we are in downtown Chicago and can't figure out how to get to our hotel with the GPS. So I use the map app on the phone and go underneath some roads and we end up at the Valet garage BUT I got us there!!! 

We got there on Thursday and ate Chicago style Pizza and then walked to the John Hancock tower. I freaked out before the elevator ride so we didn't go up. (Then on Friday we walked to the Sears Tower to go up and it was over an hour wait. So we were 0/2 on Chicago high rises.) 

On Friday we went on an Architectural Riverboat cruise. It was very informative and very fun (other than the dragonflies that were dive bombing our heads). We got Garrett's popcorn and went to the Art Institute before heading to the suburbs for the wedding.

On Saturday I got up at 6am to start getting dressed for the wedding. Rupal's cousin helped get me into a Saree for the wedding ceremony. The ceremony procession started in the parking lot at 7:30 in the morning. It was so much fun with dancing and music and a horse! An older Uncle decided to be our friend and kept coming over to Dave and I and telling us different parts of the ceremony and what was going on. (I guess we looked out of place.) 

The ceremony itself was beautiful and they even gave us ice cream in the middle of it! Now that is a tradition I think more people should start using during wedding ceremonies! After the ceremony was lunch and it was delicious. We had a 5 hour break after lunch until the cocktail hour. So what do you do when you are in Chicago for 5 hours without kids???  You nap.. the entire time! 

After our nap it was time to change and get ready for the cocktail hour and the reception. The food for both was amazing and the reception was so fun. There were dances and speeches and even a video from family overseas. It was a great experience and so fun to watch our friends get married. We are glad that we were able to be part of their special day! Dave and I had a great weekend without kids but I was more than anxious to get back to my parents' house and squeeze my little babes!! 

weddings are good, life is good. 

Yellowstone Trip

The weekend before we went to Arches we went to Yellowstone with some friends. We rented a cabin at Henry's Lake and it was beautiful. My friend Ashlee and I drove the kids up on Friday and the guys met us and our other friends at the cabin after work. Well Ashlee and I had some great conversation and ended up missing one of our turns. We took over an hour detour and ended up driving through an area that was under a Tornado Warning... with 5 children in the car. It was a little stressful but everybody made it to the cabin safely! 

We had fun letting the kids run around and hang out on Friday. It rained so we couldn't do a bonfire but we still had fun. The plan was to get up on Saturday and head into Yellowstone. Everybody else went to Yellowstone except for Leo and I. Dave had been sick with a stomach bug earlier in the week and I ended up getting it Saturday morning! So I didn't get any pictures of the trip really but Dave got some that I was able to use. I am 0/2 in Yellowstone (last summer when we went I had such bad morning sickness with Leo that I didn't get to enjoy it very much and this time I didn't even make it to the park.) It is safe to say that I think I am done with visiting Yellowstone, it just isn't meant to be for me! 

Quinn and Dave had fun and she kept telling me about the "big buffalo that was by the car." 

Leo and I got a lot of cuddle time at the cabin while the rest of the group had fun exploring. 

The view from the cabin was great and I wish the weather had been a little warmer and I wasn't sick so I could have enjoyed it more. 

On the way home we stopped at Bear World again and had a great time. Quinn said the bears were "so cute." She loved riding the rides and feeding the animals. 

We had a great weekend with even better friends. It was fun to relax and enjoy good company. And we got to see this beauty on the way home. 

Air Force family is good, Life is good 

Family Moab Trip

Over Labor Day weekend we continued our vacation marathon (more about the other vacations in a later post) and went down to Arches to meet the Jar-no/Jar-Not family for a long weekend. We had a great time, like always. It was filled with adventure and a lot of laughs. (I will pre-warn that there are a lot of pictures and there will probably be another post of just vacation pictures after I get them from Han.)
The drive down was pretty easy (only 4 hours for us) because our kids are road trip warriors. I don't know if we just got lucky or if we have conditioned them to riding in the car but they make road trips so easy for us! We went down on Friday and had a relaxing evening hanging out with Juju, Han and baby Braxton, as Quinn calls her. The dads had fun with the little girls in the backyard of our rental. I LOVE LOVE LOVE Arches. I think we will make another trip down before we leave Utah. I love at night when the rocks turn dark against the night sky and the stars are so bright.

We found an old itinerary in the rental house we were staying in that was in an excel spreadsheet and had the activities for the vacation broken down into time, activity and even miles to travel. We had a lot of fun this trip talking about how we were not following our itinerary. For example, on Saturday we didn't leave the house to go sight seeing until about 1:30ish.... that was not part of the itinerary! 

However, when we finally made it out of the house and into the windows section of arches it was beautiful. We didn't make it there last time we visited because we were too tired to get out of the car! Quinn decided she still hated the backpack carrier and we used it for Braxton instead. Quinn rode in the stroller Han pushed to the top. She didn't like that her daddy was carrying Braxton though. It is funny how she gets so jealous if he gives his attention to someone else.

She thought this seat was a princess chair and proceeded to scream the entire way back to the car because she wanted her "princess chair." And as I mentioned she was in a mood that day and was not interested in a family picture. (Han photoshopped a nice picture of the lovely gate attendant into our picture to block out some random walkers.) 

Juju was a little nervous here because across the way was a group of photographers trying to climb up a rock ledge. A little old lady kept trying to get to the top and lets just say she was not the most athletic. Luckily everybody made it safely to the ledge. 

Jen and her family arrived on Saturday afternoon and we had a full house. We headed out on Saturday evening to watch the sunset from windows but due to not following the itinerary we didn't make it and had to settle for this beautiful spot. Han and the kids ventured into an illegal area and got some pictures while the rest of us waited by the car (that is why Leo is not pictured with his cousins). Quinn loves Marcel and Reese and it was fun to watch her get to play with during the trip. I can't believe how much they have grown since Dave and I have been together. It is crazy to think that when we started dating Reese was only 4!

On Sunday we decided to do the hike to Delicate Arch. It is listed as strenuous and we got there at the hottest point of the day (itinerary fail). It was pretty comical. We forced Quinn into a backpack carrier and she screamed bloody murder. She was eventually okay if I carried the backpack... up the steepest part of the trail. I didn't last long so Ryan came to my rescue and carried her up the mountain. We did the hike with 6 adults, 2 toddlers, 5 kids and an infant... and a lot of crap! BUT we made it to the top and the only causality was Han's umbrella.
We were able to get a family picture close to Delicate Arch and it turned out pretty good considering Quinn is a bear to try and get pictures of lately!

 

Han decided to climb to the top of this rock to get some good photos. 

We had a relaxing evening on Sunday with grilling out and hanging out on the back patio. It was great to see family and get to spend time together. We always have fun together and I am looking forward to seeing them all again for Thanksgiving. 

Quinn loved riding on the back of the bike. 

 Family photo with the whole gang! 

Family trips are good, life is good