September

At the beginning of September, we went to have dinner in the mountains in honor of my dad’s birthday. Owen was immediately filthy and loved “making smoke” with his monster trucks in the dirt.

He loved wearing a headlamp and sitting with Steph.

My dad loved to spend time in the mountains and having dinner together was a great way to remember him. It was delicious and fun!

The next day was Labor Day and we drove up to Silver Lake to enjoy the fall colors. It was beautiful and much cooler than at home! We walked all the way around the lake (quite an accomplishment for a huge pregnant lady). We took our time and explored so I could rest a lot!

I got Owen’s Halloween costume early and he was so stoked to be a cute little lion and about died with happiness when I put it on him.

I finally pulled out the paints we got him for his birthday almost a year ago! He loved it…for about 20 minutes.

Every time Danny gets together with his brothers, they do some sort of stupid competition, and this time it was toddler tossing.

I finished Leah’s room a few weeks before she arrived and I love it! It’s pretty simple, but I love the pink ceiling and the polka dots!

Owen needed boots because it was raining

I’m really glad I took this picture because I only have a few pictures of me while I was pregnant and I took this at 39 weeks, and only 1 day before Leah came!

This was the day that Leah came, and Danny stayed home from work because I was having regular contractions and we didn’t know how fast she would be here! She ended up coming much later that night, so he could have gone to work, but we had such a good day together as a family and I will always treasure that. Owen and Dan played a lot, and it was just such a good day. I will write about Leah’s birth in another post!

August

Right after we got back from Bear Lake, we decided to chop off Owen’s luscious locks! We hadn’t cut his curls for several months and even though I loved it, it was just getting too long and it didn’t look cute unless I “did” his hair, which was annoying.

When we told him, he got really worried and sad and said, “I don’t want to be bald!” It was hilarious and adorable and once we told him he would not be bald like Dad, but he would have spikey hair like Andrew, he was on board and loved it!

We went to the zoo to check out the dinosaurs and it was surprisingly really cool!

Owen really loved the lions and elephants.

But he was a little scared of some of the dinosaurs. I was laughing really hard, but he wasn’t so sure about this big t-rex! It moved and growled and he was pretty scared.

He loved the merry go round and chose the wolf to match his wolf shirt!

I just loved this adorable-ness of Dan reading to Owen and all cuddled up before bed.

These cousins are adorable and love each other A LOT. Grandpa pulled their shirts over their heads and they thought it was hilarious.

We had a family party at Grandpa Goates’ house and Mike and Jenny (Dan’s cousins) brought this amazing foam machine. It was crazier than I imagined and a huge hit with everyone, especially the adults!

Of course Dan and all his brothers ended up going in and having fun with all the kids!

We enjoyed one last day at the splash pad before it closed, even though it was still really hot! The Sandy splash pad was awesome and I’m kind of mad we didn’t discover it until the end of the season! But these cute boys had fun driving cars in the river together.

I love this cute boy and the smile we get when we tell him to smile is priceless. Every time!

He is still way into all types of vehicles and does this regularly. He calls it “making smoke” because he drives his cars in the dirt and it makes dust. Love him.

We spent a lot of nights at Jon and Danielle’s apartment swimming pool and these two were pretty stoked when Grandma and Grandpa came one night! They had to both sit on her lap together!

Bear Lake

We went to Bear Lake with my family at the end of July/beginning of August and it was a blast. My mom rented a cabin and it was perfect for all of us. We left early on Wednesday and stopped in Logan for lunch and to feed the ducks. We also had to get some Aggie ice cream!

We got our wiggles out and played for a while at first dam then headed to Garden City.

Owen immediately just wanted to drive his cars in the dirt in front of the house. He was in heaven “making smokes” (dust) and did this a lot while we were there.

On Thursday we headed to Nancy and Casey’s amazing house on the east side of the lake. They invited us to spend the day with them and we loved it so much. Their house is amazing and right on the beach and they have tons of fun toys.

Owen liked the boat but didn’t want to do the tube. I was a little depressed that I couldn’t do anything except sit in the boat, but later I did the wave runner so that was fun! And Owen fell asleep on me for over an hour and I kind of loved that too.

After a few hours of boating, we went back and ate lunch and played on the beach. Dan and I did the kayaks and Owen played in the baby pool with Andrew. Nancy has a hose with only warm water (genius) so she filled up that pool for him and he loved it.

My mom had surgery on her forehead a day or two before the trip and we all underestimated how intense it was. Her face swelled up and she looked awful. She was in a  lot of pain too and had she known, she would have done it another time!

One of the days we headed on a short little hike that ended up being great for us. Most of it was in the shady trees and Owen walked a lot of it. It was pretty and good for this pregnant mom and a 2 year old!

Owen loves aunt Stephie and uncle Andrew. He also loves cracker bears and since we don’t buy them, my mom brought some for a treat for him and he carried them everywhere. Dan just wanted to let him go wild and he ate two boxes in the 4 days we were there. Not joking.

We met up with our good friends the Wards for some ice cream one night and Owen and Kam were really happy to see each other! We see them multiple times a week, but it was especially exciting to see them at Bear Lake!

We also did a lot of swimming at the pool, but I didn’t take any pictures because I was enjoying the water myself! Owen loved swimming with Dan and Andrew and we swam every day!

On Saturday we headed to the public beach early and got a good spot. We didn’t think we would be there long, but Owen was in heaven and we stayed for about 3 hours! It was gorgeous and I would get a little hot then go in the water and feel amazing, then sit back in my chair for a while! Perfect!

Owen didn’t want to play in the water at first, but after an hour or two, we all walked out together and he was loving it!

On the way home, we went through Evanston hoping it would help with Owen not getting carsick, but he still barfed! Luckily we were well prepared and he is well trained to tell us and we got it all in the bucket and it was no biggie. We’re pros now…He is the cutest sleeping in his seat!

Bear Lake was a success and we can’t wait to go again next year!