a little bit of halloween

Halloween isn't my favorite holiday, but it's definitely more fun with a little munchkin running around. Gorilla Gray and I went trick-or-treating around my aunt's work. Then we came home, put out more decorations and handed out candy. Well, I handed out candy. Gray "sneakily" took it out of the bowl and made his own pile on the ottoman. He was really ticked off every time I gave it to kids at the door. When Nick got home from work and the temple we had mac & cheese and "sea serpent" hot dogs. So festive ;)

up the canyon

Apparently we were in denial about it not being summer anymore. So for FHE we headed up the canyon with our bestest friends and roasted hotdogs and marshmallows and starbursts. The kids were happy to rub dirt all over themselves and run around. Well, Gray wasn't so into the dirt, but he made up for it in cheeto crumbs and maniacal faces. 

mornings

I love mornings with this boy. Most mornings are spent a little chaotically... trying to get things ready to go for the day, hurrying out the door for work, or photo shoots, or something. I love the mornings we can just wake up together, play, eat some breakfast and be in our pajamas. I can't wait to be a stay-at-home mom. I never thought I would want that, but now nothing sounds better to me.

Mornings are the best. Gray sleeps from 8 to 8, then is awake for two hours while we play and eat breakfast and read books. And then he takes a nap for another hour or two. But he's such a happy morning baby. And he loves to wander over to his toy chest and pick out a toy... usually just one. And then he sits down and plays with it and studies it.

I'm embracing this peaceful schedule while I can, before we throw another baby into the mix and start all over again. :)

payson grotto

I need to blog more... obviously. I am loving that it's summer. When we're not working or trying to catch up on sleep, we're outside. A lot. Which has been wonderful. In two weeks we're ditching Gray (anxiety attack...) and going to Zion National Park for the entire week. I'm a little nervous about leaving Gray, but I am SO excited to get away from everything and just go be outside all week. We're going to do some huge, awesome hikes and canyoneering. I'm thrilled!

In the meantime, I thought I'd share some hikes we've done around here. We've been trying to explore new places and find fun trails. I'm trying to find somewhere cool to go hiking with Nick for his birthday in a couple of days. That's what we do on birthdays/anniversaries/any free time... we hike. Very romantic ;)

A couple of weeks ago we strolled "hiked" up to Payson Grotto with my brothers. This is a fun little spot, and not much of a hike at all. Super easy. It'll be nice to take Gray there when he's older. It's less than a mile, and has a fun, shallow pool of water with a beautiful waterfall. We did climb up a steep path that led above the waterfall. It probably went further, but we had to get back for dinner. We'll have to go back and explore it again, it's really pretty.

A couple of things to note, it is a VERY crowded trail, since it's such an easy walk. Probably best to go on a weekday.

Also, if you climb above the waterfall, be careful :) There are lots of loose rocks. Jake slipped at one point, and almost nailed some lady and her teeny dog with a rock. She was not pleased!

Gorgeous little spot, though :)

These boys are so funny... Jake LOVES being outside and exploring with us, while Nick is so "meh" about anything outdoors-related. At least he lets us "drag" him along!

On top of the falls.

be happy

sometimes things get stressful... money, time, work... and i have to remind myself to be more happy. a lot of times nick and i say to each other "tell me five things that made you happy today." it helps a lot :) today was one of those days... so i thought i'd make a list WHILE blogging. i'm really cool like that.

one: this kid, every time. i love getting smiles from him. he's not constantly smiling, so sometimes i have to do really strange things to get a grin, but it's always worth it.

two: friends. i haven't been great at making friends in our ward. i'm friendly, and people are friendly back, i just haven't really clicked with anyone. but i've made a couple of really good friends lately, and it was nice to just go be a girl for a little while tonight :)

three: baking. cooking. all of it. it doesn't always turn out great (the guacamole i made tonight), but sometimes it's amazing (the white chocolate snickerdoodles i've been munching on all day). it de-stresses me.

four: this guy. always. i don't care what we're going through. as long as i have him by my side, i'm okay. he's my best friend.

five: this weather!! i love gray, cloudy, rainy weather more than any other weather. and the fact that it's been fairly warm? perfect!

book review: the kite runner

okay, needless to say, i have not been blogging every day. i have definitely still been taking daily photos (over five months now!), but i am not a good blogger. so i'm going to keep doing photos every day, but not stress about posting them. i will try to post more often, though.

i've tried to make more time for reading lately. i used to read a different book every week, but that slowed down with work, a baby, r.s. presidency, a house, etc. i'm getting better, though, and i've already read nine books so far this year.

the one i just finished tonight was the kite runner, by khaled hosseini. he was also the author of a thousand splendid suns.

i won't give an incredibly in depth review... however, i strongly recommend both books. they are incredibly sad, and tragic, which normally i hate. i like happy stories, with happy endings, and happy people. i cried my way through both of these books. but they are beautifully, beautifully written. i don't know of a better way to describe it. hosseini is an incredible storyteller and i was so immersed in the characters and their lives. and despite being sad, they both do end hopefully.

anyway, like i said, not an incredibly detailed book review. but they are both wonderfully written and you will be better for having read them.

and, thank goodness, they are stand-alone books. none of this every-story-must-be-written-in-a-three-book-series nonsense. or thirteen movies. or whatever.

has anyone else read these? what did you think? and has anyone seen the kite runner movie? i am planning on watching it within the next week or two, hopefully they did a good job with it.

21 march 2013

the entire time we were out there, gray was getting tooth number eight. so he did not sleep well at all. but we all managed to get some sleep and on thursday morning we all ate some breakfast, packed up, and hit the road.

food is probably one of our very favorite things, and portland is known for having some pretty good food carts. so with the help of a fabulous portland food blogger who actually e-mailed me with some suggestions (thank you, amy!!), we went and found a pod. we were kind of in a hurry, so we just hit up the first place we could find, but it was still so good! nick got a lamb gyro (i had to teach him how to pronounce gyro, first ;)) and loved it! normally i play it safe and go for burgers... there was even a mac and cheese cart i really wanted to try. but i decided to go outside my comfort zone and try a shredded pork pot pie with yam (?), caramelized onions and red pepper flakes... um, SO good! there were a million more places i wanted to try, so we will definitely be going and scouting out more pods/carts every time we go back.

next we had to try voodoo doughnut. we decided to go during lunch-time to avoid crowds, and it totally worked. we were both kind of skeptical... figured they were mostly just hype. but they were surprisingly good! i don't think i would wait in a huge line for any doughnut, but i was willing to wait a couple of minutes for these ones.

after that, gray was starting to get tired, but we still wanted to play. so we went to the omsi (oregon museum of science and industry). along with food, we love museums of all sorts, and this is nick's favorite kind. we went to the planetarium (which gray loved), an imax (which he slept through) and then made our way through the mythbusters exhibit where we threw playing cards as fast as we could, successfully pulled the tablecloth out from under dishes & found out i balance MUCH better than nick. :) whew! long sentence...

after we were done playing tourist, we headed over to tillamook to stay with auntie ev, auntie ann and grammy and thank them all profusely for the van! they spoiled us rotten with incredible clam chowder, apple pie and comfy beds. they are amazing :)