Meadow Hot Springs

Over the weekend we headed to Meadow Hot Springs, but this time my family came along for the fun.

Looking across Deer Creek. Right after this I took a picture of this crazy huge golden eagle that was tearing apart a dead deer. I won't post that pic though because it is blurry and the dead deer isn't the most appetizing thing to see. Reese napped with her phone.

We took a little pit stop when we got to Meadow to wait for the rest of the crew who had to take a pit stop a few miles back. Reese was happy for the break.

It was quite windy and cold out but the water felt great. Reese only lasted in her floaty for a few minutes. It kept her to far out of the water for her to stay sufficiently warm.

Aubrey and Chels - Chels was freaked out by the moss.

Mom, you're so cute!After the kids had had enough, My mom and Aubrey took the kids back to the car to get changed. Thanks guys! And the rest of us stayed behind and snorkeled and dove around. Eric has some crazy good lung capacity. Eric kept diving to the bottom, which is about 25 feet deep and would stay down and explore for a while before coming back up. I'd start getting nervous because I couldn't see him and I couldn't believe that a human being could actually hold their breath that long. I need to do some lung exercises and build some diving confidence up before I attempt going to the bottom :)

Pretty evening

We brought a grill with hotdogs and tinfoil dinners to eat after swimming. But all of us were too hungry, cold, and lazy to make them so we ended up driving to Larry's, a burger joint, just a few minutes away. All of us were pretty hungry so we broke into the snickerdoodles to hold us over on the drive to the restaurant.

I love this picture of my mom. Totally kandid and perfect. Thanks for being such a sweetheart mom.

Nathan's and Kraut

Yesterday I spent a lot of the day at my parents' house while Eric was out snowmobiling. I always love hanging out there. The cousins got to play together, which is always a party! And then.....mom and dad cooked us Nathan hotdogs with Sauerkraut. Why am I such a sucker for hotdogs/brats/or the like and sauerkraut? I ate a whole glass jar of sauerkraut almost by myself over the last week or so, and I just bought another jar that I'm guessing will be gone by the end of next week. I just love that pickeled goodness!

Camla had Alissa and Lindsee over and they decided to re-paint the playhouse out back. They came in covered in blue paint, ha ha.

Eric met up with me around six and we went to a wedding reception at an indoor botanical garden in Salt Lake. It smelt so fresh, I loved it. Reese was a good sport even though she hasn't been feeling well the last few days (I don't know if she is actually sick or getting some molars in, which I can only imagine would kill.) They had Barbacoa grill cater it and we ate the most scrumptions tacos! YUM!

Speaking of Reese being sick. She has been having a hard time at night and I get sick of walking into her room every 10 minutes to check on her (usually I let her cry it out a bit if she isn't sick, but when she is feverish and I know she just isn't feeling good, I do go in frequently and try to calm her down.) Anyway, we don't usually let her get in bed with us but the last few nights we've put her in with us around 2 or 3 am. She is hard to sleep with because she gets sideways between Eric and I and lays her head on one of us but kicks the other one in the throat. Then it is constant tossing and turning and searching for her binky. Today she had 5 1/2 hours worth of naps, and I slept 3 of them. Hopefully I'll become more pleasant quickly and my right eye will stop looking like I got punched :) Get better soon Reesey bug.

Independence

Reese loves reading her books on the rocking chair. Being pretty all the time!

And getting treats from "her cabinet".

It is crazy how such a little body is capable of doing so many things on her own and has a personality that is all hers. It is fun seeing her become more independent all the time.

I forgot to mention....

As I opened the box and saw a piano, I said to Reese, "We're going to need to buy you a piano too huh? So you can play while I do." Then out comes a piano just for Reese. My parents know kids. I shouldn't be surprised, since they are, afterall, beyond amazing parents and grandparents. Reese loves jammin' out on her keyboard. She gets the music going and starts bouncing up and down to the beat. It was hard to get a picture with her face in it because she was head banging to the music while I had the camera out.

The Luck O' The Irish

My dad found out quite a few years back that my Great Grandpa Austin is Irish. We thought he was Scottish, but after some geneology research my dad uncovered the truth. My dad was quite glad because it gave him a reason to celebrate this fun holiday even more than he used to.

(This picture was taken yesterday, on St. Patty's day so I had to add it. I was making lunch and I turned around to find that Reese had completely emptied my drawer out and had climbed on in. So funny!) We went to my parent's for a dinner of cabbage, bratwursts (rather than our typical sausages), and apple beer :) My parents gave me the coolest present for finishing school and a large box was left over for the kids (and Eric) to play in! It doesn't get better than that :)

Reese is at the age that she can play with the cousins really well, but she does a lot of things innocently that end up causing a bit of drama. Reese shut the cardboar flap and it kinda freaked Chels out. Oops.

Sporting the Apple Beer (mom, why do you seem to always disappear when I get the camera out, I'm sad I have NO pictures of you from yesterday!)

Drum roll please......here is my gift! A Keyboard Piano! YES! I've been wanting one SO bad so I can brush up on my piano skills. Thank you so much mom and dad!!! It has already gotten a TON of use (in the 7 hours it's been set up).

3*15*2010

Today it was so nice outside. Reese and I started out our morning with a nice jog with Terra, T, and Aubree. Then as noon rolled around, it got even warmer. We couldn't pass up the nice weather.

Reese held my hand and we walked down the driveway to the road, where there was a river!
Not a real river, just a stream from the run off. Reese was luckily wearing her John Deere boots, so she got to stomp through the water until her little heart was content.

She was amazed by all the streams crossing the road. She was curious as always, and made sure to dig her little hands into the mud and feel for the perfect rocks to eat (I heard her swallow one - which she usually doesn't do) so I made her spit the rest out.

Hoover tagged along for the adventure.

And Reese had to hassle her just a tad.

She crushed clumps of snow with her boot repeatedly, until they'd be all squished to the ground.

And I even got to get my picture taken with the famous little princess.

After a lot of puddle jumping, rock eating, mud squishing, and snow crushing, we headed inside to take a bath before nap time.

Reese went to bed with slightly damp hair and woke up a lioness.

Other happenings:

ERIC got accepted into the Masters of Public Administration program at the U of U. He has been taking classes in the program this semester as a non-matriculated student but found out today that he is officially IN!!! I'm so proud of him. He has worked hard for this and is so deserving. I'm so glad to finally know what is happening in our near future [even though there are MANY details to still work out]. We've been wondering where we'd end up going for his schooling and I'm glad it isn't far away. Now we can start planning the next couple years.

Eric and I got new phones (yesterday). I'm so glad to finally have a phone that works, and Eric is glad to finally be on Verizon so he has good coverage like me :) He has been on T-mobile and is ALWAYS losing calls at our house and has to talk on the phone next to a window. He found out that T-mobile doesn't even service up at our house, so how he was getting any coverage at all is somewhat of a wonder.

It is already March!

I can't believe it's already March. February went by a little too quick. No worries, I'm CRAZY excited that it is getting closer to warm weather time, but seriously, that was just too quick, that makes us all a whole month older without even thinking - oh boy. We went snowshoeing the other day around our yard to find a place for Eric's friend, Dallas', scout troop to come Winter camp. They will be here tonight, good thing we just got over a foot of snow last night - they'll be able to build snow forts until their little hearts are content. We'll see if we end up with a bunch of shivering boys in our living room tonight. Spaghetti is just a fun food isn't it? I sure wish I could stuff my face like Reese and look as cute as she does. Pretty sure it just isn't that way for adults, or now that I'm thinking about it, anyone over the age of maybe.... 10. We had an etiquette night for YM/YW (you know the one I made dessert for). Well the youth learned etiquette but then had to eat their spaghetti weird ways (like with wrong hand, with some crazy utensil or non-utensil, with hands tied to neighbor, etc) while using their etiquette. One boy had to eat with a potato masher and it was disgustingly funny. He has somewhat long hair and by the end he had it up in a tomato sauce and hamburger pieces filled bun on top of his head. His face was probably stained for the next day at school. Anyway, case in point, 15 year old with spaghetti ALL over him = not so cute, 1 year old = adorable!

Reese has ALWAYS been obsessed with wanting to type on the keyboard. I finally decided to just unplug the USB for the mouse and keyboard so she can sit up at the computer and think she is getting some work done. I'll usually work on the laptop that the monitor is connected to, so the screen looks like she is doing stuff even though I'm really controlling it. She'll sit there for quite a while content, but then I find her climbing on to the desk to reach other things that look interesting or she sees me typing on the laptop and since I'm typing on it it MUST be fun, so she climbs up to try to get it.

Oh she is a busy one. She seriously is into everything and is constantly running - not walking - throughout the house (or wherever we are). I'll pick her up and her heart is always beating SO fast! At least she is faithful at getting her cardio in everyday :)

Eric is a good daddy. Reese is lucky to have him - as am I. It is funny how I knew I wanted to marry him but every single day things come out that really make me grateful that I didn't pass him up. He always amazes me with more and more characteristics that are just so perfect for me. Good thing I trusted my feelings back in September 2007 when I said yes to a perfect proposal, because I learn every day why I was supposed to marry him. He really has everything I had ever thought I wanted and tons that I didn't know that I wanted but am SO glad I now have.

Reese thinks it's cool when daddy lets her work with him.

So yeah, we got SO much snow last night. I honestly out loud said, "Holy Cow, you've got to be kidding me" this morning when Reese and I opened the blinds when we woke up. I guess it is good since we still need more precipitation this year to meet water needs, but man am I ready for it all to melt and be sunny and HOT!

Last night in bed I was trying to convince Eric that I need to live somewhere like Phoenix or Vegas, because I want to be outside all day long. He was telling me that I wouldn't like it because there are a few months there that you can't be outside all day (just like here), but because of extreme heat not extreme cold. I told him, "whatever, I love when it is that hot." Then I realized it was "Late Winter Nakita" talking and it was really late at night (loopy Nakita). But believe you me, I could live somewhere warmer. I like the cold - but only for a month tops.

Eric had a LOT of snowblowing to do this morning. He had been out their two hours when a guy in our ward who plows drives for his job came and finished up for Eric. SO nice.

But don't worry, his kindness won't be in vain (not that it would be anyway). He will be benefiting from the baking I did today.

There is a family in our ward for whose kids I've made a tradition of making a big cookie for their birthday. Well I've gotten very far behind. So there are BRINKLEY cookies for the 1 year old who turned 1 in September (yep I'm that far behind. The baseball is for the boy who had his birthday in October, and the big cake is for the 14 year old girl who had her birthday two days ago. The little cake is for a lady in our ward who has a birthday on Sunday and the Thank You cookies will go to nice Wes who plowed our driveway.

I PASSED!!

I've never been so nervous for a test in my life. Usually I have really no stress going into a test, but seeing as the test I had to take today cost a lot of money to take and determined whether I could start getting paid for my personal training, a lot was weighing on my mind. I almost threw up that's how scared I was - not like me at all! Anyway, I passed. So now I am a Certified Personal Trainer through the National Academy of Sports Medicine. Hallelujah! So excited to make this my career, I seriously LOVE training people!

Date Weekend

Last weekend was fantastic. It is always nice to do things out of the ordinary and get some uninterrupted time with Eric. On Friday evening we decided to take a little road trip to Meadow (near Fillmore) and go check out some hot pots down there. We left Reese with my parents so it was just the two of us left to talk for hours (my favorite part about road trips) while we traveled back and forth and as we hung out in the hot pots with like 50 scouts :)

We were going to take Reese but then decided against it since we didn't know what temperature the hot pots would be. We now know that next time Reese will be coming with us. It is bathtub temperature so you can stay in for hours. It is also unique in that there are parts that are probably 15 feet deep. Eric borrowed a scout's goggles and dove down to the bottom and collected rocks for the scout (per the scout's request).

It was such an enjoyable time. Scouts are, of course, very interesting to listen to and watch belly flop into the pots. And as always, I loved being with my sweetheart. He is the coolest person to be around, and luckily I get to spend lots of time with him.

We got back to my parents house around midnight and decided to sleepover at their house. Then on Saturday morning we left Reese again to go snowmobiling (believe me, we don't leave her much, but mom offered to watch her so I could go out with Eric, so we took her up on the offer.)

Again, pure bliss! Not because Reese wasn't there, but because I got to finally go out snowmobiling with Eric and enjoy one of our passions together. Helmet Face!

We got back to my parents' house at noon and hung out. Then we took Reese to the BYU basketball game with us, where BYU sadly lost! Boo:(

Eric, I love your spontaneity and am so happy for our friendship! You're a very cool husband!