Changing Leaves in the Beautiful Uintas



Ruth Lake

A couple weekends ago, I decided to take the kiddos to Utah to visit my family (because seeing them less than monthly is pretty much unbearable). I sent Cris off to go hunting with his brothers in Oregon, packed the cars, stocked up on some candy to bribe the kids to be angels in the car (haha...fail), and hit the road.

The drive was loooonnnggg... and I can understand why Idahoans were called out as the country's worst drivers. The speed limit was recently increased to 80mph for most of the drive, but instead of people going faster they just sit in the fast lane and block those of us who read the new speed limit as "85mph." Just get out of my way!!!! So frustrating! I guess it wasn't too bad though, we made it in pretty good time.

Chloe is mostly potty trained now and almost made it the whole way without an accident, but she fell asleep less than an hour out... and ooops. Oh well I guess. She did better than I anticipated in that area, and made it the rest of the weekend accident-free!



Barbie Princess

My sweet grandma planned a family dinner and made us Navajo tacos Friday night... soooo yummy! It was nice to see everyone, and the kiddos loved the attention they got, especially Chloe :) She wore a princess dress that my mom got for her when we were in California, and she looked adorable!

Pack horse #1

Saturday morning we packed up and drove up to the cabin. It was a little chilly, but not too bad. Once everyone was ready we drove out to the Uintas. The drive was beautiful! All of the leaves were changing to wonderful shades of yellows and reds, and the contrast of colors became more and more amazing as the day went on. Adrianne and Chloe were able to sit back and enjoy watching Frozen while we drove :)

 



 

We decided to hike up to Ruth Lake, which was an easy 3/4 mile hike. I was most excited about trying out the new backpack I got off of Craig's List for Chloe. Colton packed her up to the lake, then we wandered around for awhile admiring the lake and snow-covered mountains. I packed Chloe on a trek around the lake with Adrianne, then my dad packed her back to the car. Chloe absolutely loved being carried like that. The pack was a little heavy for me and made my upper back/shoulders sore, but I think if I adjusted it right it wouldn't be so bad.

"Awkward" family photo

Me and my dad :)

On the drive back to the cabin, Chloe took a little cat nap. Considering the small amount of time she slept in naps for the weekend, she was a really happy kid. Everyone loved her, and she ate it up :) My aunt and uncle came up with their daughter Alexa, her boyfriend and his mom... after they finished their (insane/freezing) boating adventure down at the lake. Karson took Alexa and Court on a 4wheeler ride, which ended in some bruises, but they kept riding so it must not have been too bad. We all roasted marshmallows around the fire and had a great time!

Exploding ketchup bottle

Sunday we let the kids go on the 4 wheeler for a bit, then headed out to Park City. We went to the bike park so the bigger boys could ride around on the pump track while Kars and Chloe played on the playground. After we'd had enough of that, we went out for lunch at a nice little sports grill. Chloe was exhausted at that point, and it was hard to keep her entertained. She spent most of the lunch hour making "gravel angels" on the ground (since we were lucky enough to be able to sit outside). It was such a gorgeous October day...the weather was unbeatable for this time of year! When we finished eating, we headed our separate ways. The kids and I had another looonnnggg drive home. Chloe was grumpy, but we made it, and couldn't have been happier to be done driving :)



Pack horse #2

Chloe and Uncle Dalton :)

Ski and Karson



Pack horse #3

Backyard S'mores

A week or so ago Cris decided to make s'mores in the backyard. He and Karson started a nice little fire, and Chloe and I prepared the graham crackers, chocolate bars and marshmallows. I think Chloe ate about half of the chocolate before the fire was ready, and maybe a couple marshmallows, but who can get mad at such a cutie :) We made s'mores with Hershey's cookies 'n' cream bars, and some with regular ole' Hershey's chocolate... both turned out delicious! Chloe really didn't care for the messiness of the whole s'more, so she chose to continue stealing pieces of chocolate instead... too cute :)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Great SLC Yoga Festival 2014

This labor day weekend I was fortunate enough to go to the Great SLC Yoga Festival, put on by Yoga For People. Last year was my first experience with this yoga festival and I loved every minute of it! This year was just as great of an experience, and I was able to share the experience with my best friend Ashley and my mom.... amazing company :)

We did yoga with our eyes closed to focus more attention inward; we painted ourselves with glow-in-the-dark paint and did yoga in a black light room (it was like a yoga dance party!!!!); we started one class running laps and doing jumping jacks to get warm, and no one could help from laughing at the unexpectedness of it; we did Bhangra Yoga again... too fun to explain; we did a calm and relaxing Yin class, and it was nothing short of amazing; there was also walking meditation, happy heart yoga, blind folded yoga (which I took as an opportunity to just lay down and nap), and a class on back bends. I learned something to incorporate into my daily life in every class and had a really good time :)

In 3 days, we did 15 hours of yoga (if you count the class we slept through... LOL). What a great weekend! We are all trying to wait patiently for Labor Day to come again.

One of my goals this year was to do more yoga, so I decided to use all of that yoga to kick off my personal 30 day yoga challenge. So wish me luck, and here we go :)

Yoga henna :)

So happy after Atma's Happy Heart Yoga and meditation :-D

Bhangra yoga with Atma... so much fun!!!

Ready for "glow-ga"



"Glow-ga" dance yoga party... that's my bright glowing orange shirt :)



It's a Fiesta!!!

This year for Chloe's birthday I decided to do a Fiesta theme. I have to say that this was the most fun I have ever had planning a party, and I think it was the best 2-year-old's birthday party ever :) When Cris and I went to Mexico we picked up a couple hand stitched Mexican dresses for Chloe (neither of which she wore for the party, but oh well), which was my inspiration for having a Fiesta. I did lots of Pinterest searching and found tons of fun ideas. I also found super cute decorations at Target while I was in Utah.

I wrapped mustache Duck Tape around some
 little bottles of bubbles for party favors... cute!

We had a taco bar, a delicious fiesta corn dip, fiesta stuffed mini peppers, fruit salad, chips with salsa and guacamole, and cactus cupcakes. The food was delicious and everyone loved it. The dish for the fiesta corn dip pretty much got licked clean, so I would definitely recommend that recipe! We also served margaritas and cervezas for the adults, and orange soda for the kiddos (which Chloe and McKinley ended up using to fill up the baby pool...silly girls). The company was great, the kids were entertained by the pool and trampoline, and it was just a good time.

I found this idea in a Family Circle magazine... the petals are mini marshmallows cut in half diagonally and dipped in sprinkles

My cake decorating skills were all used up on the cupcakes LOL

Mustache stir sticks... Chloe loved these!

This bowl was so fun! It had a button that played La Cucaracha, then closed a lid over the salsa. Chloe kept eating the salsa-- even though it was too hot for her-- just to hear the music, and would jump back every time it opened or closed LOL

The chili pepper piñata was a blast for the kids!

I thought it would be cute to fill the piñata with candy from the Hispanic foods aisle at Winco... but the kids weren't very impressed 

It was all I could do to get Chloe to open up her presents, but she loves all of them!

Little buddies piggin' out on candy

Granny made this cute balloon tower... adorable!

Mustache party!!!

William was up way past bedtime, but still being a total trooper :)

California Adventures :)

Karson's first flight

Last year Karson, my mom and I went to California to visit my uncle Nolan and his family for Memorial Day. We had such a great time that we decided to go again this year. Instead of driving for a day, we took a shot at flying with Allegiant Air from the Provo Airport. Our morning started out with our flight to LA being delayed for 4 HOURS!!! Of course they let you know an hour at a time that the flight is delayed, and keep pushing it back and pushing it back until you start wondering when they're going to decide that the flight has just been cancelled all together. Thankfully that wasn't the case, and we were at a tiny airport so we were able to go walk along the river and go to lunch while waiting.

When we got to California, Nolan, Kristen, Aiden and Regan picked us up from the airport and we went to dinner at Dave and Buster's. The kids had a blast playing on all of the different video games, When we got to Nolan's place, Karson and Regan played in the pool for awhile. Karson had so much fun swimming!

On Friday we loaded into the van and went to a cute little farm where we picked fresh strawberries and blueberries...
D-E-L-I-C-I-O-U-S! Then we grabbed lunch at Sprouts, and had a picnic at the beach. When we got to Zuma Beach, it was overcast and a little chilly with no blue sky in sight. Eventually the clouds all burned off and it turned into a beautiful day at the ocean. We were even lucky enough to spot some dolphins!

Saturday we hit up a HUGE thrift store and found a handful of treasures. Then we went to a cute little soda shop inside a pharmacy and enjoyed some ice cream... yum! We found some more treasures at Target and went back to the house to play by the pool. I experienced Indian food for the first time and I can't say that I was disappointed. The food was amazing! We played a silly game called Quelf with the kids then went to bed.

The next day we had to go home... and Karson was finally being nice to me (he had a terrible attitude toward me the whole trip until right before we headed to the airport!). Our flight home was much better. We got a fast pass through security and our flight was on time. I went to Target and found some perfect decorations for Chloe's fiesta and then we had a BBQ with my grandparents and Adrianne. It was a nice relaxing evening. Then we headed home on Monday.