East Canyon

Fall drives are one of my favorite seasonal activities. A fall drive is also one of the few times I will tear myself away from a book or my iPod in the car.

Yesterday, my family took a fall drive up East Canyon. The leaves were not at their prime, but it may very well go down as one of my favorite drives.  We saw huge groups of motorcyclists. We also saw a group of Mustang drivers (that's part of their line of cars in the picture above).

We saw this funny sign. You've got to love Utah and its rural ways.

This, my friends, is a herd of sheep that must have gotten loose from their rancher. We came around a curve as the front of the herd came on the main road from a cutoff. It was amazing to see. Brayden was asleep at this point and that made me so sad. They followed the main road for a bit, then crossed the road and went down into the trees.

It was such a beautiful day and a wonderful start to my favorite month. "I'm so glad I live in a world where there are Octobers." L.M. Montgomery, Anne of Green Gables



California- Huntington Beach

Originally, I had wanted to go to the Santa Monica beach and pier. It was too far away, and we had to wait for Andy's training to be over. Andy did some searching online and found out that Huntington Beach was actually pretty close to where we were staying. It doesn't have a pier like Santa Monica, but it was still fun. Brayden pulled the same trick that he did at Disneyland and wasn't happy at first. It was my fault because I took him straight to the water and it was colder than I thought it would be. He cheered up though once he dried off.

Good with the bad- Here's proof of his beach sadness.

And proof that he started to cheer up as he dried off.



Here's proof Andy was on this trip too.

I prefer mountains to the beach, but I admit sunsets at the beach are pretty awesome.

California- Disneyland

Side note: I just realized I never posted about the rest of my California trip! I'll keep these up at the current date for a couple days then move them to May where they belong!

Disneyland- I know Brayden won't remember his first trip to Disneyland. It's probably better that way since Adam wasn't with us. I had so much fun though. I'll admit to a bit of a rough start since Brayden was very cranky while we were in line for our first ride (Finding Nemo). In fact, I nursed him while in the submarine, mostly just to keep him from crying and bothering everyone else. After that, it was better. We went on a good mix of rides everyone could go on and rides only the adults and Jackson got to go on. Adam's brother John who lives in Southern California went with us. I felt a little guilty getting to see Adam's brother when Adam had not seen him since Christmas, but I didn't feel guilty for long. Jackson loved having him around, and it helped to have an equal adult-to-child ratio. Here's some photographic evidence of our trip to Disneyland:

 

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2/14- Brayden sure had fun outside today. And he gave me a taste of the laundry I'll have to endure over the next 17 years.

2/15- We had our Valentine's Day date today and went to see No Strings Attached. It was fun, just your typical rom-com. When we got home, however, the day got interesting. Adam called into Domino's to see what days they wanted him to work since he had the next three days off from Walmart. They said they didn't need him, so we decided to go down to St. George and left two hours later!

2/16- I love the Bellagio. We always go there because I love the see the gardens. I love the glass flowers in the lobby too.

2/17- Nicki took this picture of Jackson, Brayden and Sophie all playing in the sand. I love it.

2/18- I'll be honest here. Technically I'm cheating because this was taken the other day while we were getting gas to head to Vegas for the day. We didn't really take any today because we just hung out and the girls went shopping at the outlets. But we'll just pretend I took it today. I'm so glad my mom came with us, and Brayden sure liked having company in the backseat with all the driving we were doing.

2/19- I snapped this on our way out of town.

2/20- Brayden got sick the last day of the vacation, and then he passed it along to me, and to my sister's family. Since I wasn't feeling so good, I pulled out a toy I was saving for his birthday and gave it to him today. I know it looks a little like he's cringing, but I can assure you he's not.

2/21- Oh man, this picture honestly melts my heart. I love this grin.

2/22- No explanation needed.

2/23- Brayden's first tweet! He got ahold of my iPod while Twitter was open and I was busy.

2/24- Brayden has been enjoying playing with empty toilet paper rolls. I decided to experiment and take a picture through one.

2/25- Oh, how I love my boys! So, so much.

2/26- We took Brayden and Jackson to the Safe Kids Fair and B.A.C.A. was there. This is Brayden's first fake tattoo. Aww!

2/27- This is James Franco hosting the Oscars. I loved the opening video and Franco and Anne Hathway as hosts. I'm a sucker for awards shows, especially now that I'm on Twitter (it's pretty funny to read what people are writing as the show is happening).

Ketchup

Yes, I have been sorely lacking on the blog front. I've been in a bit of a funk lately, but I think I'm past it. I stole the title from my friend Stephanie's blog because I thought it was cute (just to let you know I wasn't creative enough to think of it myself).

-We went to the ranch two more times in September- once on our own (some of Adam's family came up for a day) and once with my family. These are from the first time. I'll post pictures of my family's weekend later when I get them.





-I read Jane Eyre for the second time, the first being in high school. As before, I loved it. I've met so many women lately who don't enjoy books like the romantic classics of the Bronte sisters or Jane Austen. I'm sure glad I do.

-I'm finally getting started on a scrapbook for Brayden. I had forgotten how messy scrapbooking is! I'm not as good at it as I used to be, nor do I have the money to spend as much as I used to, but I hope he enjoys having something.

-I'm in a small book club and we read Mockingjay. Out of the four of us I probably liked it the most. One of the women really didn't like it. I know some of you have read the first two... so what did you think?

-I was totally a domestic goddess today (if you don't count cleaning anyways). I canned peaches and made peach jam (thanks to Karen for showing me how earlier this week). I also made zucchini bread, chocolate zucchini cake, and froze grated zucchini. Still to do: figure out what to do with all the tomatoes my dad gave me (I want to make tomato sauce but don't have a sieve) and make peach muffins or cobbler with the peaches I had left.

zoo

Gilgal Garden

We went to the Gilgal Garden today. Have you been there? This place is so unique. It is Utah's only identified "visionary art environment." We've been here before, but we were in the area and decided to see it again. I love all the quotes engraved into the stones. The Joseph Smith Sphinx is very interesting, to say the least.








I really liked this last one. It's a sculpture inspired by the scripture in Malachi about turning the hearts of the fathers to the children and the hearts of the children to the fathers. The white heart represents the dead while the red heart represents the living.

Summer 2010 plans

Meeting our newest family member in June (Nicole and Andrew's baby)
Celebrating Brayden's first birthday in July
Gilgal Garden
Swimming (our condo pool finally opens tomorrow)
International Peace Gardens
Wheeler Farm (including the County Library's Summer Reading Kickoff Party there)
Get a membership to Hogle Zoo
Going down slides and swinging at the park
Try to go camping up at the ranch
Take Brayden on the baby rides at Liberty Park and/or Lagoon
Silver Lake (attempt hiking with Brayden)
See the penguins at the Living Planet Aquarium
Concert in the Park at the Brigham Young Park downtown
Millcreek Movie Nights

I'm so excited for summer!

Discovery Gateway

We went to the Discovery Gateway Museum today with Nicki and Jackson. It was a lot of fun. I had gone with a friend just two months ago or so, but even in that short amount of time, Brayden was able to do a lot more. It's so fun to see him interact with Jackson and just play. As usual, I couldn't keep myself to just a few pictures. My boy's just too cute!

Dino Museum- picture overload

I joined my parents, sister and nephew on a trip to the dinosaur museum at Thanksgiving Point yesterday and had a lot of fun (minus when Jack hit his head). Here are way too many pictures:









Sadly, Brayden really did not like the sand. He went to start crawling and the texture just freaked him out. I was hoping to go on a vacation to the beach so I hope he grows out of that soon.