Summer

A Whole Month With My Sister
My sis Gabe was in town with her kids Lottie and Nathan for the entire month of September. We spent Labor Day weekend in Sun Valley with my parents at their condo. It seems my mom has retired from cooking and my dad is now the household chef and everything is gourmet. Sour dough waffles made on a swivel iron for extra light and fluffy yet crispy waffles for breakfast. And dinner consists of chicken marsala, filet mignon with port wine sauce and mushrooms, and homemade pasta sauce. My dad is an amazing cook!

The rest of the visit with my sister was completely non-stop!! Every second we were hitting up or picking up lunch while taking the kids to the park or swimming. We saw a few movies, ate a lot of cupcakes at Sweet Tooth Fairy, burgers at In N Out, and frozen yogurt at Red Mango. We also had a fun dinner party at my Grandmother's house with our cousin's Kinzee and Mike and their crew. It was such a fun night with them and her yard and garden is always a great setting for a party.

I'm so glad Gabe was able to come out for such a long visit, I miss her so much!! I love my sis, she is the best! I hope my brother in law Matt comes out with her next time!

We took the kids on the paddle boats and they loved it!! Here is Gabey and Lottie.


Noah bear and me.

The view from our boat.

After the boats we headed to the pocket park for a little picnic and the kids played in the fountains.

And me too.Drying off after a fun afternoon of playing.

We had a picnic at this little plaza across from Atkinson's Market and the kids were on the stage singing and dancing. It was hilarious and they were so loud belting out whatever song that came to mind. Noah was really into Neon Tiger by The Killers and kept singing that one.

After lunch we went on a walk down the bike path to the tressel.

Grams took us fishing and Noah and Lottie both caught their first fish. Noah had been obsessed with fishing and was dying to test his skills at Penny Lake. Grams cooked them for breakfast the next morning and Noah ate the whole thing- I was so impressed!

These two kids were best friends and played so well together. Lottie is really into Thomas as is Noah and they put together some great tracks for their trains.

Summer

California
Noah and I flew down to Cali for a week in May to spend time with friends and family then Rob joined us later for a long weekend. We stayed at my bestie Melissa's house and had a blast/relaxing time hanging out! Here are a few highlights of the fun times.

• Watching lots of good stored up tv- seriously total highlight!
• Noah learning to swim without floaties!
• Lots of long walks with Melissa and Noah peeing in the bushes
• Checking out the Tour of California. Rob saw Patrick Dempsey. I was shopping at Anthro at the time, dang it!!
• Steak dinner at Flemming's...mmm!!!
• Santa Barbara Zoo
• Wii, Wii, and more Wii
• Delicious dinners with our Cali family
• Underwood Farm with Noah
• Taking a stash of foods from Trader Joe's home with me!!

Summer

Noah's 4th Birthday

I can't believe my baby is FOUR years old!!

Summer

BYU Hawaii Reunion Weekend
My friend Cherice from BYU-H planned a little reunion at her Grandparents beach house in July. I wasn't planning on going because I was just in Cali two months prior and not many people were able to come out for it...but at last minute I decided to book a flight down. It was an awesome little getaway!! Super fun to catch up with my old friends and reminisce all our crazy shenanigans at BYU-H. Seriously we had some crazy fun times!!

Us having dinner on the pier. Cherice (I lived with Cherice in Cali one summer and that is when I met Rob), Melissa (Melissa has continued to be my very bestest friend in the whole world, we always dream of living by each other someday), moi, and Justin (or Fox as we called him then becuase he looked like Michael J Fox- especially when he had hair :))

Cherice, Melissa (preggers), and moi. Having a little boat ride through the harbor.

Fox, Me, Melissa, Cherice, and Sully (making a face).

After the reunion Melissa and I checked in at the Four Seasons in Westlake Village for some serious R&R.

It was honestly so fun and relaxing. No kids. No husbands. I loved our bathroom...I want my master bath to look and feel peaceful like this one.

We walked over to Wolfgang Pucks across the street for dinner then lounged in the room watching on demand movies. The next morning we hit up their famous Sunday brunch and stuffed ourselves. It was so amazing and I had a serious food baby for like 3 days. Then we hit the pool and got some sun. It was a perfect ending to my girls' weekend trip. And now that I am reminded of how awesome it was I think I need to plan another girls weekend sometime soon.



At the pool.
A few days after I got home I met up with Ginny, another one of my best friends from BYU-H who was in town from Florida but unable to make it to Cali for the reunion. Gin and I hitch-hiked everyday after class to Turtle Bay to layout. We scheduled our classes to end by 10 and 12- I mean, come on, we were in Hawaii! We had some amazing times!

Spring

St. George

We started a tradition a few years ago to hit up St. George in the spring to thaw off winter and get us ready for summer. Our trips down are always so much fun. I just love the red rock and palm trees, it is such a nice change of scenery, especially when I am sick to death of winter and ready for the heat. It's nice to go for a run, hit up the pool and play all day, then go out to dinner. Super relaxing and fun- even if the kid in the back seat wanted to go home all the way from pre-school to Cedar City!

2010 Year In Review

It has been over a year since I have blogged. If I said I have been a blog slacker that would be a complete understatement. I figured I might as well do a quick recap of the year...some of which I remember, some I don't, and most of which I didn't even mention. Some things that stick out that weren't blogged about include:

• Summer concerts- I love them!! We went to 311 in July and to Jack Johnson on our anniversary in August. JJ was probably the BEST concert we had ever been to. We were in 'the pit' and the acoustics were amazing!!!
• Noah insisting on wearing a pirate costume to bed and to pre-school the following day.
• 4th of July BBQ Bash at our house- so much fun!!
• Going to lunch with my mom and Nan at Normandy Cafe. It was fun to spend a little time with her since she passed away in August. She was such an amazing lady!!
• Going a full month with my car BROKEN. I still don't know how we survived!!!
• Lot's of fun times with our little family at the movies, Boondocks, the waterpark, and Pirate Island.
• Recovering from surgery and feeling good enough to fully enjoy catching up on DVRed shows and to have a legitimate excuse to avoid everything housewifey or parental.
• Laughing every night for a month because Noah insisted on wearing a sleeping hat, aka underwear on his head.
• Going to brunch with my Grandmother then perusing The Gateway and watching Noah run in the fountains.
• Crashing Rob's work trip in Vegas so I could tag along to chic dinners and O at the Bellagio. While he was working I was busy working on my tan and shopping.
• Traveling a ton for work the first few months of the year. I don't even remember what I did Jan-March at home!
• Don't be grossed out- in May I started washing my hair only twice a week and I swear by it! (For those of you nay sayers the less frequently you wash your hair the less oil will be produced, and the more you wash it the more oil, see?)
• Getting a Clarisonic for washing my face- love this thing!!
• Being completely embarrassed watching Noah play soccer- this kid was having full on melt downs on the field...luckily things got better!
• Noah learning to swim without floaties!!
• Noah getting himself dressed and making himself breakfast in the mornings.