Redfish Lake 2012

This was the year we finally got the Gates Clan up to Redfish! We have been hounding all of them for years and it was all worth it! Having Levi's family AND my mom with us was so fantastic. My mom, Levi, Hadley and I went up on a Thursday morning, so we'd have most of the day to spend at the beach. For some reason, both my mom and I got carsick on the way up. I've never had that happen and luckily it hasn't happened since, but it sucked! It is a very steep, windy road and I think the heat and our tiredness (of course we didn't sleep much the night before...it's like trying to sleep before going to Disneyland) got the better of us.
We arrived around 1pm and immediately set up our spread on the beach. Hadley saw the lake and went running as fast as possible towards the water. She is a waterbug and I couldn't be happier about that. I can't wait for her to have her swimming lessons. Avery and Chris joined us shortly after that and we all spent the day laying around and playing on the beach. They got the cabin almost directly across from us, which made going back and forth easy. Hadley was great about taking her naps and going to bed without too much fuss, with the exception of one of the nights when she woke up screaming and it took us driving her around the lake to get her to calm down. Poor baby!
The next day we rented paddleboats with Chris and Avery and had fun taking those around the lake. It was super hot that day (just how I like it) and it felt great to jump in the COLD lake. One of these years I'll get Levi in the water...maybe when Hadley's taking her swim lessons he can take some too :) My mom was a saint and stayed at the cabin with napping Hadley so we could do this. Thanks again, Mom!
Brad, Julie, Seth, and Sevy joined us later that afternoon and we had such a great time with them. There was a serious fire only a few miles away and the smoke started rolling in that evening, with it being very smokey the next day. At least we had a couple of days of hot sunshine, and the smoke didn't affect our lungs the way it would in Boise, since we were so high in the mountains. On Saturday, we all rented bikes and rode around the lake, with Levi and I rocking a tandem bicycle. I can't wait to buy one of those things. I was surprised at how easy it was for us and how much trust I had in him leading the way. We can hook Hadley's bike seat onto it and the three of us can cruise all of Boise! Anyway, the bike ride was so much fun and I can't wait to do it again next year.
One of my favorite things about this trip was getting together at the end of every night and going for a walk along the beach and then grouping together at a cabin to chit chat for hours. If you haven't met the Gates, they are world class conversationalists. I have so much fun telling stories with them and I felt even more close to them after this trip.
Next year, we're going to try for a group cabin and I am so excited I can hardly stand it. Once we confirm our dates, I'm going to start a countdown of some kind. Paper chain, maybe??
I have so many pictures from the trip, but I'll just post a few here. Most of them are on my facebook page anyway. The good ones are from Avery's awesome camera. The bad ones are from mine :)

Hadley is nearly 18 months old!

This summer with my baby girl was absolutely fabulous! We got to go to the pool a lot, we played in the sun, we ate lots of ice cream and we enjoyed the long days of Boise, with her bedtime getting later and later with the sun taking it's time to set. We also had our amazing trip to Redfish Lake (which I'll write about in my next post) and I'm already making big plans for next summer and can't wait! It's not that I hate fall and winter...wait, yes I do. I do hate fall and winter, but I understand that they are here to make me appreciate spring and summer even more. The countdown is on!
At nearly 18 months old, here are some Hadley factoids:
• She is talking more and more, and while she doesn't have a huge vocabulary yet, she has a few favorite words. One of those words is, "Beeya," which she says for everything. It's sometimes drawn out like "Beeeee-yah" and sometimes shortened like, "B'yah" but it's always cute.
She says, "Puss puss Did-ee" for "kitty." We always make the "pssshhh" sound when calling for the cat, so I think she's taken that on as well as saying the actual word, "kitty." Super cute stuff. She has many other words that she says, but mostly still makes cute sounds and singing noises. I love her so much!
• She is obsessed with phone chargers, or anything plugged in, for that matter. We have an abundance of USB cords in the house (phones, nook, laptop, etc.) and she will find the all and hide them in various places. Recently she's discovered that Louie the cat will chase the cords, so she swings them around trying to entice him to follow her. We have found cords everywhere, from in the trash can to in the toilet. She has even hid my mom's remote controls in the litter box. Gross!
• She loves dogs, especially Grandma Julie's dog Millie. Millie can keep her entertained for hours and we love being able to leave her at Papa Brad's with him, Grandma JuJu and Millie keeping her entertained while we go out. We've seen not one, but TWO(!) movies in the past six weeks. Pretty exciting stuff for us!
• After initially being slightly worried that she didn't walk until after she turned one, I now see why everyone was telling me to enjoy her non-walking days. When she started walking at fourteen months old, I didn't realize how strong she was and how quick she'd keep me on my toes. She doesn't just walk now, she RUNS everywhere! I love chasing her and scooping her up in my arms. She's always laughing and trying to get away.
• She loves music and loves to dance and sway her arms all around. It started with hand motions while we sang children's songs to her and now she just flat-out dances any chance she gets. She loves all kinds of music, especially mariachi music!
• She loves Yo Gabba Gabba. Every time she sees DJ Lance's bright orange fuzzy turban (just go with it...) on the tv she starts dancing and smiling. The songs are catchy and it's super short, so you're not stuck watching some drawn-out kids show for your whole day.
• She now shakes her head when she's being naughty and definitely likes to laugh at me when she's being daring. She'll start shaking our end table and when I come over to get her she'll start laughing, shake the table harder, and shake her head when I start saying, "No no." She's a wild one!
• She loves water of all kinds. She ran straight for the lake when we were on vacation and has no fear of pools.
• Though I've tried from the very start, she's actually picky with foods. Even though I'm picky, I've tried to give her more exciting foods than what I would normally like, but she prefers only a select few things. I'm not too worried about it, as I know the older she gets the more I'll be able to have her try.
• She HATES being in her stroller. I don't know what to do, since I can't always put her in the backpack and she takes off running if I let her walk on her own. Maybe those leash things aren't such a bad idea...
These last 18 months have been such a blast and I'm so happy to watch my little princess get bigger and bigger. We love you so much, Hadders!

Those LEGS!

At the zoo...sans stroller, of course.

Trying on new pants.

Big girl in the bathroom!
PS I hate that I take most of my pics with my cell, but at least Instagram makes everything look better, right?

Home Improvement 2012

This last month Levi and I were able to refinance our house at a lower interest rate (yes, we bought in 2007, yes we drastically overpaid, and yes, we'll be stuck in this house until we're old and gray...) but we decided to make the best of it and use some of the money we'll now be saving and update a few things around the house.
First up was the fence. I've been wanting to expand our backyard by moving up the fence to be flush with the front of the house, instead of the back. This would make all that side yard next to our house part of the backyard, giving Hadley about twice the space to play. Zane was sweet enough to come help dig post holes (in fact, he was so amazing I didn't get a picture of him while he was here because he was here at 6:00am and they were done by 8:00am!) Levi got a great deal on wider fence posts at home depot and put up the entire thing himself. Hadley helped supervise and got into lots of dirt and other dangerous things while he completed it. We now have an amazing backyard and I think our front yard looks even better! Thanks, Levi!

Before

This will have to serve as the "after" shot, since I have yet to take a pic of the completed project. Trust me when I say that it looks good and I am so blessed to have a handy husband.
Next up was the living room. We've never been decorator types and we've always just collected whatever was affordable and easy to deal with. Now that we have a toddler, our current "look" wasn't cutting it, with toys strewn everywhere and our super heavy, super cheap bookshelves threatening to topple over.
Here's a heinous "before" picture (don't JUDGE ME!)

We needed something to make the area look lighter and also contain storage. Enter: Ikea. I sent Levi down to Utah on a Friday after work, where he spent the night at Laurie's house and got up early to grab stuff at Ikea in Draper and make it home at a decent hour. Again, I marvel at Levi's dedication to our family. Even though he was only at Laurie's for a minute, he managed to eat some Utah donuts and visit with this cutie:

I don't know how, but my little Elantra managed to fit a giant bookcase, a handful of storage baskets, and other bric-a-brac, without exploding.

Probably because of the amazing packing skills of this guy...

Next up: putting the damn thing together. This was not without swearing and without injury.

I dropped one of the heavy shelf boxes on me and it scraped along my shin, taking my skin and all of my swear words with it.

Almost done... We actually had a good time putting it together, watching a funny movie while doing it to keep our spirits up!

Now that the shelf was up, I needed something in the corner. We had this ten dollar Ikea chair in Hadley's room that we never actually used. We bought a cheap pillow from Hobby Lobby, along with some fun frames, and voila a little nook is completed.

Here is the completed bookshelf and nook area. I'm very happy with it, though it is still maybe a little too crowded and I need a couple of better storage boxes down below, but it will be just fine for now. I need to back off on buying more books, unless I'm willing to throw out more (which I did when we put this up, giving up about 100 books, none of which I will actually miss.)

I also moved our scrapbook paper/Mod Podge "Gates" letters to the fireplace mantle, but I am still trying to figure out how to make them look less flat. I guess they're okay for now :)

And finally, we found this great fabric at Ikea that we thought would look nice framed. The hard part was picking which part of the scene to frame. So fun!

Well, we are done with decorating and home improvement, at least for a little while. I will mark this one in the books as a success!

July 2012 Utah Trip

We took a FABULOUS trip to Utah last month and had a hard time leaving (in fact I stayed an extra two days, just to get fill of everything.) We left on a Wednesday night, after Levi got off work, and rolled into Orem about 12:30am. Hadley was great, watching Toy Story 2 on the way down and sleeping the rest of the time. Laurie and Justin are always gracious hosts and let us sleep in the twins room again, with Hadley in her pack-and-play crib.
On Thursday we all drove up to Lagoon, meeting with Scott and Stephanie and their girls. It was an amazing day there, and was also brutally hot. I still don't think I've stopped sweating since we were there. Honestly, I could visualize myself sitting in a tub of ice, just to cool down a little bit. Hadley stayed behind with the twins and my Mom and it was such a blast to not have to worry about her and just enjoy ourselves there. Even Levi went on a few rides (big accomplishment for him, although I still couldn't get him to go on Wicked. Next time for sure!)
On Friday, Levi, Bonnie and I went to City Creek mall and had a blast window shopping. Again, Hadley stayed behind and I forgot how enjoyable going to the mall could be without a toddler. Not that I didn't miss her, it's just nice to have some adult time every now and again :) That night we had a fun BBQ at Scott's house and Hadley had fun running around with all her girl cousins.
That Saturday we had the big Allen reunion and had such a great time seeing all the cousins and aunts and uncles. My grandpa looked so cute, sitting there with dozens and dozens of grandchildren and great grandchildren playing around him. It sure made all of us miss my Grandma; she sure loved a reunion!
Levi left on Sunday with Eliza in my car and I decided to stay with my mom until Tuesday. This allowed me to take some of the kids back to Lagoon and use our bounce-back passes. It was a much cooler day and we had a great time until the rainstorm of the century hit. I've never seen bigger rain drops in my life! We were drenched in about one minute flat and had to run to get our stuff and get to the car. It was a fun ending to a fun day.
This trip was one of the best I've had in years! Leaving was one of the hardest things I've done and I still find myself aching to move down there. We'll see what the future holds!
Here are some fun pics from the trip:

Hadley on the way down. She was set: Toy Story in the portable DVD player and a Rapunzel doll on hand. Nice.

Rachel getting ready for their photo shoot at Lagoon.

Waiting for Rattlesnake Rapids. That water felt so good!

Hadley falling asleep on Aunt Laurie.

The "twins" :)

Ah, teenagers! Eliza Kate and Carlie Paige

Hadley got lots of cuddletime in with her cousins!

Reason number 412 I miss living in Utah County: Dunford Donuts.

Reason number 413 I miss living in Utah County: Seeing people walk around with 100 ounce soda refills.

We visited Justin's parents house and Hadley had an amazing time watching the animals, throwing rocks, etc.

Check out that view! Man, I miss the mountains.

Just throwin' rocks like the rest of the big kids!