Waterfall Canyon 2

You would think I learned my lesson about hiking waterfall canyon from last time when I thought I was going to die... but nope!

Kale got home from work and we headed out to meet friends for our hike. We went with Kale's friend from West Jordan, Jesse, and my friend Whitney and her husband and daughter. The hike was fun this time because there was light and we could actually see instead of the last time we went when it was dark before we started. It was a hard hike and I noticed that I am not as in shape as I was last time we went. I was getting pretty tired and super sweaty, but we made it to the top. I had Sophs in the Beco and love it!

Here is a picture of my friends, Whitney, Wade, and Emery! Wade made the hike look easy packing a baby; he was the leader and never had to stop for a breath like me!

Sophie did really good and hardly fussed at all! We made it to the top and hung out for a bit until it started to get dark. I took Sophie by the waterfall and it was misting us; it felt nice after the hike up!

Sophie loved getting down and scaling over the rocks and playing in the small little stream.

She was pretty sad when we had to load up and head back down. Plus it was getting close to bedtime for both babies. We made it down so much quicker than what it took to get up there! After the steep parts I turned the Beco so that Sophie was on front and we could hug and cuddle. She is so sweet, she just lays on me and snuggles right up. I think the Beco is one of my most favorite things and we use it so much! It's nice to have something comfortable enough and versatile enough for anything we need. Who wants to lug around a stroller everywhere anyway?

Great Grandpa's Pillow

My Grandpa just LOVES Sophie. He loves to see her, buys her special treats that she likes, and talks about her visits for days after! When she was smaller he was about the only 'stranger' she would let hold her. He loved it an just enjoys having her over. He fell about a year ago and was down overnight and had to be hospitalized after so now we all keep an even closer eye on him. My mom usually has the bedtime responsibility of wrapping his legs and helping him get ready and get into bed. Tonight she had to work a grave so I went over to help him. Sophie likes going over there. She usually stays by me while I wrap Grandpa's legs. Then he gets up and heads in the kitchen for a drink and a prune. For some weird reason, Sophs love prunes. She'd eat an entire bag if I'd let her. He has one and Sophie has one. He gets ready for bed and I help him with his CPAP machine. Sophie always has a look of concern so he tells her he is ok so she doesn't worry. We tuck him in, lock up, and head home. Tonight when I was getting things locked up, I came out and found Sophie laying on her favorite pillow. It has a big rooster on it. It's like a decorative pillow but she loves it. She carts it around his house. Tonight she was laying on it. It was one of the cutest things. She is such a funny girl!

Nature Center

I tried to plan fun, different things this summer. One of those was visiting the Nature Center. We went for a little toddler class: one was called music and movement earlier in the summer, and we went to one this month about Mud. It was fun for Sophie. First we looked for bugs and dug around in the dirt and sand. Then we went out where there were big pots of mud and there were pretend worms hidden and we got to get all messy and muddy looking for them. Sophie did not like the mud part. As soon as she'd touch it, she would rub her hands together to get the mud off. It was kind of funny to see the girls be much more cautious about getting dirty and the boys just dug right in and were such a mess. Sophie's favorite part was the was off the worms bucket (a big sand pail full of water - this girl loves water). She spent most of the time playing in it.

She was a good helper, she gathered all the clean worms for the teacher. After that we got cleaned up, saw some fish, a tortoise, and some birds and talked about making houses with mud, then read a few stories and made treats with pudding, oreo mud, and a candy worm! Sophie only ate the worm, ha!

A few weeks later we went for a nature walk on our own. First we visited the birds. They have an owl, hawk, and an eagle among some others. Sophie loved looking at the birds. The Owl even hooted for her and she thought that was cool! Then, she was talking "eagle" and it was actually pretty cool. She'd talk in her jibber-jabberish and the Eagle would cock his head and make noises back to her. She liked it and didn't want to leave the Eagle's cage. The day was so hot so our nature walk wasn't as fun as I hoped. I started with Sophie in the Beco but we were both so hot and miserable.

So since the trail was really nice I let her walk and she loved it. She'd stomp on things, pick leaves up, and brush past the trees and bushes as we went past. We saw a few birds and a big marshy pond. It was fun in the shade, but near the end of the trail we were in the direct sunlight and it was so hot! Poor Sophie was flushed and super grumpy - I blame the heat!

I just love my Sophie so much! She is so much fun and I love to do new things and see her reactions to thing we take for granted. We saw a deer and she thought it was so cool! It paused for a long time to look at us then jumped off and she was super excited. Having a daughter is the best thing in the world! I just love that girl!

Hogle Zoo

Today we went to the zoo! Part of the deal with our Dinosaur Park Pass was discounted admission to the Zoo this summer, which was rad, for a Zoorassic theme. We took Sophie's cousins, Alexa and Eva. What a fun day! We brought the wagon but Sophie wanted nothing to do with it so I carried her in the Beco and the neices rode in the wagon. It was SOOO hot but we still had a lot of fun. We were there about two hours.

They had dinosaurs throughout the zoo. This dinosaur happened to be a spitting dinosaur that would spray water and move and roar at us. It took all three of you by surprise!

We stopped by the elephants. There was a baby elephant that was so adorable. They were all eating hay so it was fun to see how high they could stretch. Next we went to the tiger area. Sophie found a puddle so that was the highlight of her trip I think, ha! Next up was the giraffes. I was surprised at how well it went because I think this was the first animal that Sophie actually focused on and watched. Sophie has a hard time transitioning to the next thing. So usually when we leave something, she has a little tantrum/breakdown and doesn't realize that the next thing we do will be fun too. It is hard sometimes and I wish I could reason with her better.

Next up was the primate building, which was her favorite place. There was a gorilla in one room and he was hilarious. Sophie loved him. It was cool because she could get right up close to the glass and that was the only thing separating you from him. He was really active and doing a lot of silly things - like flinging poop and sticks, swinging from his toys, and walking all around. It definitely kept Sophie's attention. Kale stayed with Sophie while I took the nieces to see the other primates in the building. Sophie would check out other animals but always wander back to her gorilla friend. She was smiling and waving at him, and she'd say "HI" in a really funny Sophie voice. Kale said once the gorilla kind of snuck up just under the window and then popped up really fast at her and she got startled and jumped backwards. The gorilla thought it was pretty funny that he caught you off guard. That didn't stop her though, and she was right up at the window again.

Outside the primate building there was a huge dinosaur and Sophie immediately ran up to it to hitch a ride. She stayed sitting on him for quite a while. When we finally had to take her off it was quite the hysteria, such drama...

We went to another building with smaller monkeys and even though Sophie didn't bond with them as much, she enjoyed watching them. We found these cute wooden horses and sat everyone on them and Sophie loved it. She kept patting and petting the horse's mane. She stayed on that thing for quite a while! The cousins got bored so we saw some other animals while Kale and Sophs stayed behind to keep riding the horse.

It was just as hard pulling you from this horse as it was from the dinosaur. We went to the last spot with bats an gophers and stuff. Then, there was a huge playground with slides and a teeter-toter. Everyone had a lot of fun there. Sophie was going down the slides all by herself which she thought was pretty cool. She figured out to fan her legs out on the side of the slides to keep a slow pace. On the way out of the zoo we stopped by the water ball and Sophie just plopped down and loved it. She loves water so much! After the zoo we met up with Kale's side of the family at the Spaghetti factory and had dinner. Sophie doesn't like pasta, or the bread they have there, so it's always hard to keep her quiet and happy. We usually give her a cup full of ice and she practices stirring and spooning the ice. Another go-to thing is to bring in the iPad and play her favorite TV shows. That always works and boy are we glad! After dinner, we headed home. It was such a fun day to play at the zoo, I hope we can go again soon.

Weber River

My cousin has been here for about a year visiting while her husband was working overseas. It has been fun to be with her since she has always lived back East since she was married. Today she was heading back, so we wanted to hang out before she left. We had dinner at Jeremiah's, Sophie's favorite restaurant. She eats like a truckdriver there! She was grumpy though, phew! Next we went to the Ogden Parkway and went for a little walk. On the way back we stopped by a small little pool by the river. There was a log separating it from the really strong current so it was really mellow. It was sure freezing though, wow! I could barely keep my feet in so I didn't even understand how it wasn't bothering her feet.

It started with Sophs just standing/wading in it, put pretty soon she was practically submerged! She made me nervous when she went out to the log and tried to climb over! I was so fearful of how rapid and fast the river was going! Finally when we had to go, Sophie had a tantrum/meltdown (of course).

We dropped my cousin off at her car and headed home for a nap. It was fun and we will definitely miss having Melissa and Aaron around.

That night we went to a viewing for one of my neighbors growing up, Shawn Barnes. It was so sad, I was teary and emotional about it all. Sophie did so well, she sat so reverently while we were waiting, so that was good. I feel so sad for the family and his ten day old baby. It made me really appreciate what I have and how grateful I am for my family.

Bootcamp

Here are a few more pictures from the recent Albion Basin adventure. These are not the professional's pictures, they are just some we took after. I love my baby girl!

Here is a picture from our hike, look how pretty it is up there!

Bootcamp ended for me on Friday August 6. In the four weeks of the bootcamp I was able to lose a total of 10lbs, and 14 inches overall; the most significant were: 3 inches in my chest, 4 in my waist, 2 in my hips. It was really great and I have missed the intense workouts since I stopped, believe it or not! I wish I had the money to do it more often. I have survived two weddings so now will be able to focus more on working out. I have continued to do well with staying under my calorie budget, but working out has not gone so well. I have done little things, but not the intense workouts I was doing and not every day. It's kind of a bummer, but I've lost about 3 more pounds since I stopped bootcamp, so I hope it continues to go down. I love the app: myfitnesspal and log all my food intake and workouts there to keep track. It is so helpful.

I am so sad the summer is almost over! Time has flown by and there is still so much I would love to do. This fall Kale will be working full time, plus picking up a few shifts at his on-call job. I will be working 3/4 full time. We are thinking about putting Sophie into a day of daycare to help acclimate her to others. She's got some pretty good stranger-danger anxiety. It's just that much more of an expense so we are trying to decide what to do. She still can't be left alone in nursery or she screams, ha! That girl is strong-willed... wonder where she got that from :)

Drive-In

Today after Kale got home, we went to the drive-in. It was a lot of fun. We ordered and then got Sophie out of her carseat and she hung out in front with us. She had so much fun pressing buttons and turning the volume up and down. Our food came and it was DELICIOUS! Sophie loves fries, and ate my entire order! I was glad - less calories I have to burn off :)

We ordered a shake but Sophie doesn't really like ice cream (weirdo!). Kale and I shared it. It was delicious. Being calorie conscious makes me appreciate meals like this more often! Yum!

Violet

My Pal Violet was one of the best things we've gotten for Sophie. She loves that thing and packs it around everywhere. You can personalize it so it says Sophie's name, plays songs that we choose, personalize it for favorite color, food, animal. It's a lot of fun. When Sophie was younger we relied on the lullaby feature so much, it was very calming for her. Sophie also has a purple blanket that is her favorite. Unfortunately they don't make that same style anymore. I have bought VERY similar ones but she always goes to the purple ones (we have two). She is funny about them, and drags them everywhere. I sure love this girl!

Albion Basin

About once a year Kale's mom hauls the family up to Albion Basin for family pictures. We were running late because Kale had to work. We weren't sure we would even make it for the pictures, but we did. It's quite the drive... Albion is the dead end past Snowbird and Alta. Sophie is such a beautiful girl. I can't believe how big she looks, how long her hair is, and how beautiful her smile is! I just love having her in our family. Girls are pretty fun to dress up. I am pretty simple, so I love a pair of cute jeans, sneakers, and a bright shirt on her!

She didn't stay clean long. She was having so much fun walking around and the trail was so dusty. She likes to go up and down things, so the inclines were perfect, and there was a little bridge she loved stepping on and off of.

The ones from the actual photographer will take a month or two apparently, but I took a few snap shots after. We got some good ones with Sophie actually looking at the camera and smiling, I am excited to see the pictures! After the pictures I wanted to hike to Secret (Cecret) Lake. Kale said they used to do that hike a lot when he was little and he remembers it vividly. I thought it would be fun to try the hike. Kale's family is about as active as a family of sloths but we did talk his parents into coming.

The bugs were bad and Sophie was grumpy, so we turned around after only about 15 minutes. On the way back we let her dip her feet in the stream, which she didn't really like - which makes us know she is grumpy because she always loves water.

Near the end I let Sophie hiked the rest of the way down and she loved it!

We made it to the car, changed a diaper and headed down for dinner at Outback. We relied on the iPad to keep Sophie happy throughout dinner. She likes to play with the silverware in cups. She loves fries and ate quite a few of those. We barely made it through dinner before a meltdown! Luckily I had Sophie's blanket and bottle ready for the ride home. We kept the iPad playing and Sophie made it home and to bed!

Braids

Sophie does this cute but kind of fake smile, it's really cute. I actually love it! After our baths we usually sit up on the counter to brush our teeth and comb our hair. She loves to play in the sink. I usually turn the water to a trickle and she dips her own toothbrush or splashes with her feet. I love that her hair is so long and enjoy trying out new hair styles. I am not as talented as some, but enjoy trying braids and putting her hair into pony-tails and stuff. Etsy is my favorite place for felt hair clips, it's fun to get ones that match her outfits perfectly!

She also likes to get a drink after brushing her teeth. The faucet in her bathroom is perfect for that.

Ky and Preston's Wedding

What a busy month! My sister got married yesterday and my brother is getting married Thursday.

Today was a hard day (see last paragraph).

Luckily I have this sweet baby to bless and brighten my life.

Preston and Kylie (my sis) got married yesterday! It was beautiful. They were married in the Logan temple. I met at my Mom's house so I could ride up there with my family. (this is the last place I remember having my phone).

I was able to attend their ceremony (thanks Kale for staying home with the baby) and take pictures after. We had over an hour to kill before lunch so it was a lot of fun to experiment and snap a ton of photos (over 1100). Here are a few. I apologize, there are so many I just randomly picked some that the thumbnails looked good - I don't have the time or energy to look at make sure everyone's eyes are open and the pictures look good, ha! My sister looked so beautiful and the day was wonderful! It was so nice to attend the ceremony and made me love my husband so much ( or at least remind me of how much I love him). Preston is such a great guy with a great family; I am so happy for my sister!

I just love my Dad. He is the best. Words cannot express what a great guy he is!

After the pictures we ate lunch at Maddox. It was delicious! We went home and were able to visit with some family and friends, and then finish setting up for the Reception. It was really hot so we all had to go home and freshen up. The time really got away from us and we were scrambling to set up the food and weren't able to get many pictures before people started lining up to see Ky and Preston. I didn't stand in the line because I was busy following my sweet Sophie around. She loved it. My cute little Grandpa made it over and we got a pictures of my Mom's side of the family.

It was all fun and games until Sophie found the treat table! I kept envisioning her pulling the table cloth and having three chocolate fountains come crashing down. Luckily she found a little friend in Preston's second cousin. She was about a year and a half older than Sophie, but Sophs thought it was fun to hand out with her and spent the next hour following her around the reception.

My sweet cousin, Heather and my parents with Sophs:

I love my family!

I wasn't even the one getting married but still thought it was all kind of stressful and was relieved when it was over ;) Kale took Sophie home at the end of the reception and got her in bed. The night wasn't over: we had to clean, do dishes, put away tables, pick up trash, haul several loads of food and decorations/supplies home, and take the presents to my Mom's. We all watched Preston and Ky open their gifts which was fun. We looked through some pictures and finished unloading all the cars. I was physically and emotionally exhausted and after looking for my phone for a while and not finding it in the mess of stuff, I just came home and crashed.

About 845 I woke up with a sick feeling in my stomach and it hit me that I was supposed to work today. I had totally forgotten that, and felt horrible. That is such an un-reliable thing to do and I really let my coworkers down. I have not been able to get over it today, and just can't believe it happened. We dont' have a home phone, just our cell phones, and my work didn't have my husband's phone number. My phone is also my alarm/clock so I had no idea. Usually I look over my calendar but the past few days have just been a whirlwind. I feel really bad, it's considered a no-call no-show which is a big deal. They had the shift covered and I begged to come in but the charge nurse said she would rather just keep the staff they brought in special to cover and they only had two patients with 1 going home. I have stressed and mulled over it all day and feel HORRIBLE. I know it is done and I can't change it, but it doesn't make me feel any better right now, and I am hoping I can find peace with what happened.

Grandma's Toy Room

I think I've mentioned before that since my siblings have gotten married and moved out, my mom has several 'free' rooms. She turned one room into Sophie's Playroom! Sophie loves it. The minute we walk into Grandma's house, she beelines for her room and will stay in there for hours. We have several cool train sets, lots of books, dolls, movies, and toys! Every once in a while Sophie will wander out to check out the rest of what's going on in the house, then head back to her little room. It is so cute!

Chees-ey Fingers

Oh man, I love my Sophs. This girl loves doritos, pizza, and dried blueberries. I'm pretty sure those are her current favorite foods. She is getting so big and looks more grown up each day I get her out of her bed! She is saying so many more words, it surprises me sometimes! She is so tall, and long and lean. She loves swimming, the bath tub, and watching TV, ha! She loves her Mama and still has some major stranger anxiety! She is starting the tantrum/hitting phase. At home it's easy, I just ignore it, but out and about it's a bit embarrassing. I think that's half the reason we've just stayed home lately. After assaulting several children at various activities lately, I have become intolerant of her un-predictable-ness and would rather just deal with it at home. She is such a sweet girl though, and I love her smile and her kisses and cuddling! She is so smart and I see the wheels going a million miles an hour in her head. Her hair is still so long, and getting so thick. It's getting lighter too. Her eyes are still so blue, and I see lots of variations in them. I can't believe she'll be two soon, it blows me away to think that time has gone by so fast. I love her so much, and want to enjoy her for several more years before we add another little one to our family. I can't imagine having two, phew, it makes me tired just thinking about it.

I had so much energy at the beginning of the summer and were trying to go out and do something fun 3-4 times a week. Know we're back to our winter routine: watching a lot of TV (horrible, I know). Life has felt very very busy lately. Hopefully after my sibling's two upcoming weddings my life will be easier. I'm not even getting married and feel super stressed. My sister gets married Saturday and my brother on the 11th, they both take out their endowments Thursday, I have two major doctor appointments, and we are moving my brother in his condo and my Aunt in my old FW house. My house is currently a mess. I feel slightly burnt out from bootcamp; this is my last week so I'm trying to make it count and plan on going twice a day. I have lost 6 lbs so far since I started and feel a lot better. I hope I can keep it up after this session is over. I plan on doing it again in a few months around the holidays to stay in shape. I am still calorie counting and trying to eat healthy choices and lots of proteins.

The summer has gone by so fast, it's very sad. There are so many things I still want to do as a family. Oh well, maybe next summer!