You Went Where?

We (Eryn, Brooke, and I) went to some craft stores and home decor stores yesterday with my friend Heather and her little girl Ali. I didn't spend very much, but I did get a few nice things. I did get a lot of good ideas of what to look for and how to not be totally overwhelmed when I go to places like Tai Pan Trading.

With some help, I have decided that the kitchen (and probably living room too) are going in the blue and orange accent direction. The orange was inspired by my very strong desire to blow up my picture of the Delicate Arch and display it for all to see! The blue, just looks good with orange. That and it will help to disguise the BYU football poster that will be hanging in the living room until New Years.

I'm excited to work on making our living space look a little more picture worthy and a lot less cluttered!

2 Months All Ready

Today Brooke went to the doctor for her 2 month check up. She weighs 9 lbs and 13 oz and is 22 in long! She's on the shorter thinner side of the percentiles. I think the doctor said something like 24th for weight and 38th for height. She looked good and was super happy and cute for the doctor and all of the nurses.

Eryn had fun running around checking out every inch of the office. She bounced back and forth in the waiting room between the fish tank, the movie, and the 8 or so sick kids who were there. (My least favorite part of well baby visits is that the other kids who are there are most likely SICK and will get my children sick!)

In the exam room Eryn read a book 4 times, measured everything with the tape measure for the baby, weighed about everything from the diaper bag on the baby scale, and then hid in the cupboards under the exam table. Basically, she had a blast. Until the shot nurse came in!

Eryn was having fun playing with things and she opened the door! Eryn froze and tears welled up in her eyes. The nurse was like, "Oh, honey it's ok... These aren't for you." Eryn smiled and said, "Baby Sister?" The nurse said yes and began giving Brooke her shoots. I thought Eryn might be upset by this, but she was just smiling and happy the whole time because she wasn't getting a shot and still got a sticker!

Arches National Park

There are 2 posts from our trip to Moab last Saturday They are long...have fun scrolling! It's totally worth it though.

Arches National Park was out second stop! After Canyonlands, we met up with the Maddux's who joined us. We were able to see some amazing natural wonders at almost every turn and found that Eryn is more of a trooper than we'd ever thought her to be.

Eryn's busy trying to lead the way!

She sure didn't want to be held!

Justin modeling the baby carrier with Ali inside!

Brooke was really good. Pretty quiet and was really glad she could be held all day!

Eryn wanted her picture taken by this tree. How could I say no?

The Three Gossips

Balanced Rock

Hey, there's another picture of me!

Eryn got drinks of water from everyone!

Colton and his Nanna Cathy had a nice discussion about rocks.

The kids were busy leading the way! They'd run up in front of everyone and then run back. It wore Colton out really fast!

Eryn kept kicking the sand.

They were way off the trail looking for lizards!

Justin had the baby carrier, so Mike wanted one too! It's much less threatening to your manliness when you have someone else doing it too.

Yes, looking for lizards again...

You can't see Brooke's head, but those arms and legs are attached to the rest of her! Mike pulled double duty for a little while with both of the girls.

While walking on the trail Eryn yells, "BUNNY!" I said,"Oh I don't think..." and then Mike saw him! I got this picture! Jack rabbit!

Eagle Eye Eryn spots yet another creature on our trip! Then, she chased him for awhile and it was hard to get her back on the trail and going in the right direction.

The money shot! The Delicate Arch at sunset. It's really hard to NOT get a beautiful picture of this. It is difficult to get a picture without people in it though!

Eryn was just relaxing for a little bit at the top.

A lady was nice enough to take our picture at the top

The next day Mike was reading one of the information guides that they gave us when we entered the park and he made and realized that the hike to the Delicate Arch was not the 2 mile round trip that he thought it was. It was really 3 miles round trip and it was listed as one of the more strenuous hikes in Arches with sheer cliffs and exposed slick rock. Even more rewarding to know that we went farther than we thought, through worse terrain than we'd expected, and with a 2 yr old and a baby!

Eryn walked most of the way and was really good on the way back down the hike. Everytime mike tried to help her she would always say "No, please! I do it!" But, she was good when she needed to be. There were a couple places where carrying her was NOT an option. You know, 2-3 ft wide ledge with a 200 ft drop...places like that.

Since we got up there at sunset, it started getting dark on the way down, so we went much faster! There was some standing water at the trailhead which attracted bats after sunset. They were swarming around and one of them landed on Brooke head! I had the pleasure of being the one who was carrying her in the harness at the time. Yes, I saw the mouse with wings very very well! I screamed and a bunch of people looked at me. I said very loudly (mostly so people knew I was ok) that a bat had landed on my baby! Again, I am glad that she was wearing a hat!

Canyonlands National Park

For the "Visit Your National Parks" free weekend, we decided to take a trip to view some of the beautiful things that the great state of Utah has to offer! It worked out that it was also a company trip to take a vehicle to Moab, so we were able to go all that way and not take our own car or pay for gas either. We went to the Canyonlands National Park first and then to Arches. (Since they're in separate clumps of a lot of pictures, I decided to break them up into 2 posts!)

We did a lot of walking with Eryn leading the way most of the time!



She was good at finding things along the trail. Rocks, plants, and lizards all distracted her!

This is Mesa Arch.

Eryn's best post of the day! Arch the back and scream. She wanted to go over the edge! (Grandma's would all freak out if they realized how close to the edge she came from time to time!)

Mesa Arch without people in the picture! People were climbing on it and all around it. Mike went to the edge of it and stood on it, but he had the camera, so no pictures of that.

Eryn again begging to be let go and Brooke looking like the Gorton's Fisherman (fish stick guy) with that sexy hat! I'm just glad that Grandma Crawford sent that so she had a hat. It was just too bad that the outfit that goes with it (which makes the whole thing look adorable) is still way too big.

I still found time to chase around a few very large ravens!

Canyonlands was fun and a good warm up for Arches. Where we would be doing a lot more walking and have much more excitement!

Tractors, and sheep, and... holding hands? OH MY!

Since the Utah County Fair is not terribly far away we decided it was time for a visit to the farm! I took the girls the other day with some friends from our neighborhood and Eryn had such a good time we decided to go back! The second trip we shared our fun with Heather, Ali, and Colton!

Eryn fell in love with the pink tractor!

She wasn't so enthused to share it at first...


She finally gave in, but would only let Cole barely hold the wheel!


On to the red tractor!


This time he got to drive! Really good thing 2 and 3 yr olds don't drive cars! They are so obviously paying attention to the road...

Whoa! LOOK AT THAT!

Sheep were far and away Eryn favorites! She liked feeling their wool and when she screamed at them they screamed back!

They took turns dragging each other around. Heather and I were starting to feel like chaperons and not moms.

Just taking a little break from all of the excitement.

Sheep sheering was exciting! Eryn liked watching that a lot. I told her that they were getting hair cuts, but that didn't stop her from claiming that they were, "naked sheeps!"

UDOT had a little construction safety booth that let the kids play with remote control cars, only after they had their safety gear on!

The little piggies were only a week old!

Eryn wanted to climb the fence for a better view.

The kids were adorable! They just wanted to play fight with each other.

Cole fell in love with this rabbit!

I LOVE BABY COWS!

Proof that I WAS there too! Yes, it's definitely time to go when Eryn's screaming and I look like I'm about to explode!

After a long day of running around a bunch of places and seeing a bunch of things everyone was super tired. Eryn just barely made it through dinner before she crashed in her high chair!

Thus concludes another rough day at the office for me... Tune in next time for Adventures in Moab coming soon to a blog near you!