rock solid family fun

last weekend we had a little family adventure! we headed down to moab to enjoy some of the amazingness that utah has to offer.

we were able to meet up with mike, val, and their girls too.

which of course made cole happy. having eryn to buddy around with was a treat.

and to add to his enjoyment...he got to share it all with his nana kathy (justin's mom) who is here visiting.

justin was his usual awesome daddy self, as he strapped on the baby carrier for the entire adventure.

he doesn't seem to mind to much, does he?

neither does ali.

I mean how beautiful is this?

and how cute are they?

we even braved a bit of a hike...although just a warning for those with small children, delicate arch, not such a delicate hike. cole was great and then, hunger, exhaustion, and general toddler-ness set in. but it was fun while it lasted!

justin was just as excited to have nana kathy around as cole was. she met us on our way back down from the hike and they were too tender not to snap a sly picture of.

and then there was ali...think that hike tuckered her out or what?

don't worry, she woke up soon enough to enjoy the ride home.

all in all it was a really fun trip. it just made us realize how much beauty we have so close to us here...

and how fun it is to share that beauty with your family and good friends.

girls just wanna have fun

some of the cutest girls in the world just happen to be my friends. a few weekends ago lindsey came into town and we took full advantage of her time here! we went up to sugar house (kid free I might add) and explored cute shops, some way out of our price range (which is the safest kind of shopping), and some cute vintage shops which held intoxicated men, but cute finds!
(refer to lindsey's blog for the full Zack attack account.)
and it was topped off by an awesome lunch stop, great find wendy!

then a few days later we got together for a partial craft night reunion, aka eat lots of yummy food and talk a ton. good thing our guys get a long or it would have made for a long night for them! luckily a good time was had by all, including...

future bff's.

interesting picture, I know, but you take what you can get with 3 little ones up way past their bed time.

ali was apparently quite comfortable with good friends and good food...we all were. the only hard part about reunions is realizing just how much you miss special people!

she thinks my tractor's sexy

the county fair was a great way to spend an unseasonably cool summer day.

and they just so happened to have some adorable photo opps!

we went with val, eryn, and baby brooke. which meant great pictures courtesy of val, and free entertainment courtesy of the fair and the hilarious toddlers.

yep, that's right, he's man enough for a pink tractor...

then it was onto the barn yard fun.

and young love. between a boy and his...

bunny.

cole fell in love with this furry little one.

then came the manly activity of driving remote control cars.

followed up by suckers and shelter from the rain.

it was a pretty fun trip, and FREE always makes things even more enjoyable!

thanks for inviting us val!

Enterprise Rent-A-Kid

Enterprise Rent-A-Kid

oh, you weren't aware they had changed their product line?

this is what comes of daddy's who work long hours and have kids who can't wait that long to see them because they are so wonderful!

DON'T HURT MY SISTER!

ali had her one year check up at the doctor on tuesday, and it brought with it a few surprises. first of all she is in the 30th percentile for weight (19lbs) and is a bit shy of her front-facing-car-seat-weight. I was a little surprised to find out that she weighs now, what cole weighed at 6 months! further evidence to me that cole is huge. so for now it's a continued stay in the rear facing car seat. I am sure she is fine with that, she get's to face cole and she adores her big brother. and after this doctors visit it was clear that he adores her right back.

the scene played out like this: "hey do you mind if we give ali her shots before the doctor comes in?" we knew that this would no doubt make for a disastrous appointment, but really it takes like 2 minutes for her to check everything so we went with it. what we had not anticipated was that cole would be the one to have the breakdown. as the two nurses came in and laid her down and got bandaides out cole knew something was not right. then he saw the dreaded needles and nevously demanded "hey, what are you doing to her?" then he saw the needle stick and and yelled "stop that!" and then he heard ali's sobs...
"DON'T HURT MY SISTER!"
and then it was over, they left to the peaceful hallway and justin and I were left with a traumatized big brother who started bawling and saying over and over "they hurt my sister. they hurt her. they hurt ali." thankfully justin had been able to come to the appointment so I was not dealing with two traumatized children at once on my own! so we tried explaining that they were actually giving her medicine to make her all better. with huge tears rolling down his pitiful cheeks he looked up at us..."they are going to make her all better? they hurt her." I have to admit immunizations don't make much sense in 3 year old terms. we were eventually able to collect ourselves and leave, but cole continued to have his melt down and I eventually tried getting a hold of any grandma, grandpa, nana, or papa I could find since that seemed to be the only thing he had any desire to do other than worry about his baby ali. eventually I got through to justins mom and heard the first words out of cole's mouth to her "they hurt my sister". breakdowns are stressful, but I have to admit this was a tender one and justin and I kept looking at each other like awe, this is breaking my heart it's so sweet. He LOVES her for sure. and I think it's safe to say, that while they will undoubtedly have their moments of drama, ali will always have a protective older brother waiting to take on anyone who tries to hurt her.

"ali"gator turns the big o-n-e

ali officially became a one year old on August 8th.

yesterday we had a party for her... cake, ice cream, and an excuse to get together with wonderful friends. that picture above is what happens when one of your friends happens to be a professional photographer, who just happens to have brought her trusty camera along. (thanks again val.) I am sure you will easily separate which pictures were my handy work, and which were hers!

as for the cake...

I wanted to make an alligator for obvious reasons, but had no idea how to do that...enter my friend becca who gave me this amazing idea. so I set about making lindsey's oreo cupcakes, and collected all the neccesary items including frosting tips from becca. I had everything ready to go and attempted my first row of "scales"... crap this was going to be a disaster. enter justin, "can I try?", one row later and he officially became the cupcake frosting guru. thank goodness he stepped in, the frosting makes the cake.

then it was time for ali to be ambushed by song and completely uninterested in her candle.

dad helped out a bit with the candle...and then it was onto cake consumption.

at first she was a perfect dainty lady...

then she realized, wait this stuff is good,

really good

then she thought she would get herself some more...

or...

maybe just lather herself in green gooey goodness.

it was a great first birthday by any standard.
ali loved it, and all the people there.

happy first ali, we love you!

for family far far away

here is the oh so tender song...



and here is ali post cake...

(pay no attention to the conversation in the background...apparently cole was listening to the grown-up conversation in the living room a little to closely and heard adam say something about an idiot...why do they always hear the one word you'd rather not have them scream at the top of their lungs to people? and then you hear wendy trying to undo the damage...haha)