Lovin’ Fall

 

A few weeks ago Dan and I drove up to MIrror Lake to check out the leaves and enjoy the beautiful weather. It took us a bit longer than we expected but it was beautiful! The BYU/Utah game was that night so we were rockin’ our colors. Things get a little heated around our house during football season because we’re both pretty die hard fans and always have been. Luckily the right team prevailed (again) so I have that to hold over his head all season despite my team’s struggles this far (not that his team has done much better).

We ended up walking around the whole lake.

More lake pics. We also sat on a bench and just soaked it up for a while before leaving.

This past Sunday we drove up to Logan and the leaves were AWESOME. They were in full bloom and just took my breath away! I have seen this canyon change colors many many times and it never fails to amaze me.

Clearly I’m not a photographer…but wow they were incredible.

We did several drives last year to see the leaves and loved it! We have a few more on our list for this year so hopefully we can do it before the colors change! I’m going to visit my bestie in Connecticut this week so it will have to wait! I can’t wait to see the Monsens and go check out NYC and the East Coast in the Fall!

Yellowstone for Labor Day

Dan and I love Yellowstone. He would go every weekend if we could and he constantly daydreams about having a cabin there someday. Dan’s family goes every summer and we have gone at least once every year since we’ve been married. The problem is that there are 30 of us in the family now with 14 (soon to be 16) kids! It can be a bit chaotic with all that and there is not as much flexibility as Dan would like. He loves to stop spontaneously and watch for animals and wandering around geysers is not our favorite thing!

So last year we decided to plan our own trip to Yellowstone over Labor Day and we loved it! We decided to make it an annual thing and we went again this year. Last year we stayed at a dumpy place that I hated so this year we planned waaaay ahead and I found an awesome place that turned out to be perfect! It was called The Evergreen Motel and it was GREAT. I highly recommend it. It was a perfect little place right in town with a cute cabiny feeling. It was updated and we had a small kitchen in our room so we could make lunches and eat breakfast in our room. It was spotlessly clean and had cable and WiFi. Sweet!

The best thing about this trip is that we didn’t have a set schedule. It’s just Dan and I and we did whatever we wanted and didn’t make any plans. The only plan we had was a covered wagon cookout thing. We slept in and I let Dan take the lead because there was nothing in particular that I cared to do and I knew that whatever he wanted to do would be great.

We stopped by the Firehole on our first day and it was actually open for swimming. Usually it’s closed because of high water when we come in the summer. It was really pretty and Dan couldn’t resist jumping in even though we hadn’t planned on it. Luckily he had his Salomon adventure shorts and Chacos and an extra pair of pants in the car! He was in heaven.

I pulled out a camp chair and sat on the shore and read my book, drink my diet coke and ate some cherry jelly bellies (yumma). We were both happy campers and I probably would have swam if I had clothes and a towel but maybe next time?

It started to rain after a few minutes and it was pretty awesome to see the raindrops on the river. I took cover under a huge pine tree and didn’t get a drop of water on me! It was a great spot to watch the rain and Dan in the river. He swam for a bit longer and we waited for the rain to pass then we moved on!

We did a lot of driving which is a bit hard on my pregnant back but the great thing is that we can stop any time we (or I) want to, we had lots of snacks and I took a few naps too! Unfortunately because of my pregnant bladder, I had to pop a squat a few times and I visited every nasty camping style bathroom along the way (I have severe anxiety of those things).

We visited Yellowstone Lake and the Yellowstone hotel. Two of the nights we were there, we did some wolf watching. We did it last year and loved it. The views of the valley are amazing and we just sat there for hours waiting and watching and talking to the other people there. The picture below is my favorite because I know how completely happy Dan is! I read my book and of course ate some snacks and enjoyed the beautiful views!

The weather was pretty awesome and felt like October here in Utah. It got pretty chilly by the evenings but we were prepared for it. We saw the wolves both times and it was awesome! We saw a lot of other animals too including coyotes which I’ve never seen before but no bears this time.

We also went one of the falls but it was a different view than we usually have. We decided to hike about a mile down to another lookout and we didn’t realize just how far down it actually was! The hike back up was realllly steep for this gal and we had to stop a few times to catch my breath! But it was gorgeous and a good workout for sure! And luckily it was beautiful cool weather so I really enjoyed it.

We did a covered wagon dinner cookout one night and it was fun. It’s probably not something we will do again and it was a bit overpriced, but we still enjoyed it. We rode these covered wagon things for a few miles and they had dinner for us. A guy was singing up front and the atmosphere was really fun.

Unfortunately it started to rain and hail just as we were getting ready to go. We were fine and loaded up the wagons but in the 40 minutes it took to get back to our cars, the storm got out of control! There was tons of thunder and lighting and it was a complete downpour. We were covered on top but we sat in the back row so our backs and bums got drenched and it was freezing! We also had to go through the middle of a herd of bison which was a little bit scary but exciting.

Check out Dan’s sick camo hat that he wore non stop…I think he wishes he were a redneck. The pic below was clearly before the rain started.

The view from the front seat of the car.

We came across a bunch of bison in the middle of the road and we were the first car to come up to them! I was kind of freaked out because a few of them were just staring at us in our car and they were honestly as big as our car! We waited for about 10-15 minutes then finally were able to barely creep around them!

We stopped for lunch at Mammoth and there were tons of elk on the lawn of one of the houses. There was one huge buck and we watched them for a while and talked to the ranger about them.

 

We had so much fun this year in Yellowstone. We really love it there and it went by too fast! We can’t wait to come back next year with our new babe and hopefully he loves it there as much as we do!

Quilt help

 

So I would really REALLY love a beautiful quilt for the babe but there is no part of me that knows how to sew (or ever wants to learn). Maybe some day I will want to learn, but for now, I just don’t have the desire at all.

I still really want a quilt so I wanted to see if anyone has any suggestions of people who make quilts that I could pay for their time. I just want to get an idea of a price to see if it’s reasonable to do. Here are a few pictures that I found online that I like. I’m really not super picky about a complicated design, I just want to pick the fabric and I don’t want it tied. I really love the quilted look.

If anyone has any recommendations or suggestions about the best way to go about this, please let me know! I did ask at the fabric/quilt shop in Ogden (has the cutest fabric ever) about this and they gave me a very general idea of a quote so I do have something to go off of but I wanted to ask about it here too!

Shark Week and Girlfriends

Shelley came for a surprise visit and I was so happy to see her and her cute kids! She ended up staying for a few weeks and I got to see her several times. Shell and Bre came over to hang out one night and we had a good time. I say this every time we get together but I love these gals. They are like my older sisters that I never had. They have done everything before me so they give me their advice and I always trust it completely. Now that I’m pregnant, they are my go-to gals for information! They both have two kids and are pro moms. Their kids are so well behaved, smart and just great in general, so I know I will be bugging them lot over the next few months (and years to be honest) about pregnancy, giving birth, taking care of a newborn and raising children! I can’t wait to go visit Shell in Connecticut in a month!

Dan is obsessed/terrified with sharks and last week was Shark Week on Discovery Channel. We have been looking forward to this for a while and Dan invited his brothers and parents over to celebrate and watch the premier! Dan is so creative and hilarious and he decided to make red jello with gummi sharks and army guys in it.

We had to go on quite the adventure to find the gummi sharks (Winco doesn’t have them anymore!!) but it looked awesome! Dan put the army guys in the shark’s mouths and cut some of the guys in pieces so it looked like a bloodbath. Gory but so funny.

We had swedish fish, gummi sharks and goldfish for snacks.

Dan with his wonderful creation. Notice his sweet shirt as well. “Live every week like it’s shark week”. We got him some art with that quote from Etsy and he has it in his office. I made him the shirt a few months ago with my Silhouette Cameo and he loves it. I used iron on vinyl and it worked really well. A few pieces started to peel off after several washes but we just re-ironed it and it has worked great.

Because of Dan’s love/fear of sharks, we have already purchased 2 shark outfits for the babe. We haven’t bought many clothes yet, but we already have 2 shark shirts! These are pretty adorable and our babe will be as obsessed with sharks as Dan is!

Here is a picture of the bump at 23 weeks. I’m excited because I’m finally looking like I’m actually pregnant instead of just chunky. I can still wear most of my clothes, but I bought some maternity jeans last week and I love them. I also bought some leggings and I’m sure I’ll be wearing a lot of leggings with long shirts and sweaters.

I’ve been feeling pretty good, just a little more tired than usual, but no more sickies like the beginning thank goodness! I just get winded super fast and have to rest. I have also had really bad back pain nearly the whole pregnancy. I have done a few things that help but there is not a ton I can do.

I have been working out but not nearly as much as before I was pregnant. I try to do an “official” workout 3 times a week and Dan and I will also go on walks as well. I hate the heat but when it cools down we will start doing bike rides again too. My weight gain has been steady but right in the normal range. It has been hard because I lost so much weight before getting pregnant and I was so strict and now I need to eat more and it can be hard to see the scale go up instead of down! But my body is taking care of this babe so I try not to stress and not eat a lot of junk or treats and have healthy snacks. I am still tracking most of my calories and my weight on Livestrong.com. Check out the chart of my weight since January! Yikes. It does make me happy that at 5 1/2 months pregnant, I’m still below my maximum weight from back in January.

I have been feeling him move a TON lately and it’s awesome. Dan still hasn’t been able to feel him because he stops moving when Dan tries to feel! But he goes crazy most of the day and it’s the weirdest/coolest feeling ever. I can’t wait for Dan to feel him too! We haven’t talked a ton about names, but we have about 5 names that we both agree on right now. I will share them eventually but we are still working on it and we aren’t going to decide for sure until we see him. I know people say all babies look the same but my baby will look different to me and I feel like I need to see him before I know for sure what his name is!

Updates around the house

Garden update: it’s out of control. Everything has done amazing except for the red onions. They grew really tall but they are tiny so that was a bummer. But just look at the madness.

We have harvested the following: spinach, lettuce, cilantro. parsley, basil, cucumbers, carrots, green beans, peas, green onions, zucchini, tomatoes, and maybe more…can’t remember. It’s amazing that all this came from some tiny seeds I planted a few months ago! I love it and I’ve learned a ton about what to do differently and change for next year.

This all came out of one quick harvest the other night. Basil, green beans, zucchini, tomatoes, carrots and cucumber. It’s crazy! I have made a lot of delicious and relatively healthy zucchini bread and we love it. Luckily I only planted one zucchini plant because that has been insane.

A few things for next year:

• plant more: peas, peppers
• trellis the peas
• trellis the cucumber
• probably won’t plant: carrots
• plant 1 cherry tomato plant
• plant less: spinach, cilantro, parsley, lettuce
• fertilize everything, especially onions, cucumber
• give tomatoes their own box with support
• give zucchini its own box

Our backyard flower beds look awesome and I love the bright flowers. They have just exploded and gotten huge. We will still add more perennials to our backyard in the fall but I love the color we have had so far.

A few weeks ago I got the hankering to repaint our half bath on the main level. I had painted it the orange color over a year ago but it was just too much for me in that small room. And it clashed with the counters and cabinet.

So I painted it the same gray we have in our master bedroom and I also painted the cabinet white and added hardware. It looks a million times better now and it was almost free (just bought the hardware)! I may add something where the vinyl was but I’m not sure yet.

I also want to get a different rug, but overall, it feels much calmer and brighter and doesn’t clash as much with the counter and floors.

Nursery progress! I am dying over how much I already love this room. Dan has been a beast and done a ton of work and it looks amazing so far.

Remember when it used to look like this? Keep in mind those are fairy stickers and one wall was sickly green. And that orange rug won’t stay there.

Now it seems so much bigger and brighter and I LOVE IT! We still have tons of work to do but I wanted to update with some progress. We still have to caulk a ton and I will paint the board and batten bright white to match the walls. Hopefully we can build a window seat too! The color looks really blue in here but it has a greenish grayish tone to it as well and is really pretty. We also painted the bathroom across from the nursery the same bluish color and it looks a lot different in there too.

I bought this crib on KSL ages ago because it was the one I wanted for cheap! I still love it. The top of the board and batten has a shelf so I can put artwork on it (not above the crib obviously).

There is a ton more to do in here and I am excited to figure out what type of rug to do, artwork, a dresser, glider, lighting, etc. Of course I have tons of ideas and plans so hopefully it all works out and looks as great as it does in my head!