Colorado

This past weekend we went to Colorado for a friend's wedding ... and just to have a little weekend getaway! We had such a great time. We have friends who live really close to where the wedding was taking place who decided to come along for the ride ... and they were sweet enough to volunteer to watch Landon during the wedding.

On Friday we went to downtown Ft. Collins. It is a beautiful town! They have a fun downtown area with restaurants, shops and a fountain. Landon was in heaven. We were with our friend Jacqueline's whole family ... and they lavished Landon with attention. Jacqueline's mom had a cat ... poor thing. She probably will never be the same again after all of Landon's attention and "affection." And Scott's parents had a water feature in their back yard. It is now full of rocks courtesy of Landon's incredible throwing skills. We were really lucky everyone was so patient and thought he is one cute kid, otherwise we might have had to find a hotel :)!
That night was the wedding. It was fun to see an old friend so happy! The wedding was very beautiful and unique. I think one of the biggest highlights for me was seeing my favorite teacher from high school there. We had a great time catching up. She is what all teachers should be made of - she is strong, inspiring and genuinely cares about her students. She immediately wanted to know everything I had been doing and remembered all kinds of things about me. Even now, all these years later, seeing her made me want to try a little harder and be just a little bit better.

Please excuse the weird lighting ... they had some really
beautiful decorations and lighting effects going on that didn't
quite translate in pictures!

The other highlight of the evening? Seeing Jeff dance. Seriously, folks, it's magical. Magical! I wish there were a way to capture the essence of it ... but I'm afraid there isn't so you're just going to have to imagine him fast-dancing instead. And pray we end up at an event where you get to see it live someday :)!

On Saturday we drove to Elizabeth - where I lived during high school. Jeff hasn't ever seen it, or really met many people who knew me growing up, so the entire weekend was really fun for him. I have always told him Elizabeth was small and quite a ways out in the country. It wasn't until Saturday that he really got that! It is still SO small! They have added a Wal-Mart and Sonic. And maybe a few little businesses here and there ... but otherwise it is still a three stoplight town. Yes, you read that correctly. Three (that is a total by the way).

I was in the last class that graduated from the original high school, which is now a middle school. There is a new, bigger high school across the street. A sign that they are now a thriving metropolis? Nope, when you see the pics below you'll understand why!

The football field I cheered at (above) and the
gymnasium where we had basketball games and
pep rallies (below)!

We also got to see my old house and neighborhood. That was so fun! We loved that house. When I was just tiny (around 3 maybe?) my dad built me the cutest playhouse. And then, being the very dedicated parents that they are, proceeded to haul it to Oklahoma and then Colorado for me. Unfortunately, it had made enough moves that Colorado was where it had to stay. But I got a picture of Landon and I in front of that too.
It was so fun to see Elizabeth. It was a great place to go to high school and it was full of a lot of really fun memories. I had a great time sharing that with Jeff and Landon.

That night we went to Pearl Street in Boulder. It's quite the place! They were having a fall festival and are known for their street performers. It was really fun - we all had a great time. Landon especially loved the band that was playing!! Random people kept getting up and dancing along. I think they define "free spirits" there!

Overall, it was a fun time. I'm so glad we went!

18 Months

Landon is 18 months old today! I feel like every time we hit a "milestone" like this I ask the same question ... where has the time gone? It just feels like it rushes right by. He has grown up so much since turning 1, I can't even believe it sometimes. I love spending time with him because he has so much personality!

A few fun things about Landon.

*LOVES trucks, tractors, trains and airplanes. And talks about them all the time!
*LOVES Elmo. He pronounces it "Melmo" and definitely thinks they are best buddies.
*Has decided he does like to walk now and is getting much braver. He lets go all the time and is very proud of his new accomplishment. Now that he is getting so independent I am really grateful he waited so long!!
*Can say more than 40 words and surprises us all the time with what he understands. We have some pretty funny conversations.
*Still a great sleeper (thank goodness!) ...
*LOVES to play in the dirt and on the playground.
*LOVES football. Seriously ... he and Jeff were throwing a big football (he doesn't like the tiny ones as much) yesterday and he was doing a great job catching and throwing. He loves to do the "rah-rah ... Go Cougars!" part of the fight song, and he will watch a game on TV. Jeff is so proud :)!
*LOVES to read. He will happily stay in his room reading books, or be playing with his toys and stop to read. I love this because it is something that we share. My favorite part of the day is right after we wake up we snuggle in his chair, covered in a blanket reading.
*His favorite foods are: grapes, strawberries, fruit snacks, yogurt, waffles, eggs, black beans, pizza and milk. And chocolate :)!

I don't want to forget a single minute of him ... he just makes our lives complete. My little sister loves photography (and is pretty darn talented!) and was nice enough to take Landon's 18 month pictures. We love all of them ... but here are a few of our faves.
We love you so much Landon!! Happy 18 Months!

Numb

When Landon woke up from his nap he started digging through his nightstand drawer. Underneath the books he found his Oragel tooth gel. We haven't used it in a while but he remembered that it goes in his mouth. He acted like he wanted some so I put some on one side and put a bit more on my finger for the other side.

Well, after one side he remembered "oh yeah, I don't like that" and promptly refused the other part. I was stuck ... boy on lap, who is still digging for the perfect book, and no where to wipe the goo.

So what do I do? Yup. I smeared it on my own gums ... I figured I couldn't remember what it was like so why not?

Now, I feel as though I just finished at the dentist. I can't feel anything! I swear my tongue might be twice its normal size and I think the stuff is spreading through my mouth like a strangely mutating virus. And to top it all off I have suspicions that I might be drooling.

It was an interesting post-nap story time to say the least given my current situation. And all I kept thinking was "and they let babies use this stuff?!" (Although I should have probably been thinking "what was I thinking!!")

"PANE!"

Landon has entered the little boy phase of being obsessed with everything that moves ... particularly trains and planes (or "choo-choos" and "panes" as he calls them). It's pretty darn cute. I heard they were going to do an event at the Spanish Fork Airport, (I know, you didn't know it existed either...) so we had to check it out.

It was a huge hit! They did a pancake breakfast, helicopter rides and had a lot of planes on display. They also had people who fly remote controlled airplanes flying their planes. These people spend some serious time building these things ... it was impressive.

It was so much fun! Landon couldn't get enough (nor could he say pane and copter (for helicopter) enough.). I hope I never forget how he says panes in a sing-song-y voice and copter in a low manly voice. It cracks me up!

I was really impressed by how cool the little planes were (although I don't know who in their right mind would get in one) and what the remote controlled planes could do. If you like that kind of thing, I highly recommend you check it out next year!

Movie Date

Friday afternoon this guy and I went on a movie date to see Winnie the Pooh ...
Landon LOVED the movie theater experience :)! I told him we were going to see Tigger (his favorite character) and he kept talking about it the whole way there. He thought the lobby was fantastic (please keep in mind we were at the Spanish Fork theater ...) and the snacks just as cool. He loved the previews. Every time one finished he put his hands out like "where did it go?" and then he clapped when people on screen clapped. He lasted through about half the movie before he needed to get up and explore a bit (this was easy since we were the only 2 people in the theater).

We actually made it through the whole movie, even though I could tell he was getting antsy a few times. He was so excited to walk out to the lobby again and we had to keep walking around it so he could check everything out. I made the mistake of trying to leave too soon, only to be met with a protest and pointing back toward the creepy, under-the-sea mural on the wall. There were fished to be looked at and he was not going to leave without doing so.

A super cool bench in the lobby

It was so cute and really fun to take him. I love these types of adventures with my little man.

Embarrassing Confession

I have an embarrassing confession for you all. Once upon a time when I was a young, innocent teenager I had the HUGEST crush on Jonathan Taylor Thomas (aka JTT for those of you who are about my age :)!). We're talking posters in the room, fan letters, obsessively watching his show/movies kind of crush. Basically, it was love. Or so I thought :)! Luckily I moved on ... but then today I saw this on people.com and had to share.
Apparently the cast of Home Improvement reunited ... he's the second from the left. Ah ... memories!

(PS ... keep reading if you haven't read about our Labor Day ... this was just a quick follow-up post!)

Labor Day Weekend Shenanigans

We decided to play it low key this Labor Day weekend ... and had a great time doing it! Here's a little play-by-play since I'm sure you're just dying to see what we did :)!

We kicked off the weekend with a big pancake breakfast. Don't you love those? My newest obsession is chocolate chip pancakes. Oh. My. Gosh. Heaven. Try them ... you won't be disappointed, I promise. I mean, really, is there any better way to start your day than with chocolate. Didn't think so.

Landon on the other hand decided his needed peanut butter with his ... lots and lots of peanut butter.
We did a little BYU game watching. Landon repeats "football" over and over again - he gets so excited. He also insists on holding his own remote ... and if you ask him to sing the fight song he does the cheer part and ends with his arms in the air grinning. It kills me it's so cute! I'm seeing lots of football in my future ... or in Jeff and Landon's future while I shop :)!

Game day excitement ... he can't even contain himself!

It was pretty intense (in other words ... we were loosing!)

Saturday we also played in the park and then Jeff and I went out for our anniversary. Funny story: We went out for a "fancy" dinner in Hawaii, so we decided to go low-key. A few friends tried Spark in Provo a while back and raved about how good it is and the fun atmosphere. I thought it would be fun to try something different. Oh my gosh ... there was literally NO ONE else in the restaurant with us (with the exception of our waitresses' boyfriend ... which she kept kissing). It was so awkward. So, so awkward. And really not the fun atmosphere we were shooting for. So we got up and left. And went to PF Chang's instead. It was amazing :)! We didn't get a picture that night ... but here is one we snapped the next day (gotta remember to take these for future anniversary posts!)
We went to a cousin's baby blessing on Sunday. After the blessing and before the dinner we had some time so we drove up the canyon for a bit. Do you ever drive up Provo Canyon (or really any canyon around here) and realize how beautiful Utah really is? Sometimes it just takes my breath away. We're pretty lucky.

While we were up the canyon Landon decided to throw some rocks into the stream. I'm surprised there are rocks left on that particular little stretch of beach :)! He LOVED it and just kept throwing them as fast as we could pile them up for him. After every throw he cheered and clapped for himself. You know, if self esteem is based off of rock throwing I think he'll be a-okay in life :)! If only it were that simple right?Back at the dinner there was a really cool climbing toy. We looked over and saw this:
I was thinking, "oh cute, he thinks he can climb up that" ... only to look over and see this a couple of seconds later:
So he knew he could climb it apparently. Um, when did that happen?! (Not him climbing it in that moment, but just my little baby getting so big and fearless?!)

Then Jeff caught the triumphant crawl to the other side.
He takes his climbing very seriously apparently. Or maybe he is just sick of parents who take so many pictures. It could go either way, really.

We finished off the weekend with some Dutch Oven in the park with friends. He was so excited to climb and play with Jeff. I told him to say "cheese" and he did ... he just didn't look at me when he did :)!
Sometimes low-key weekends are the best. How did you spend yours?

6 Years ... in Pictures

September 2, 2005
Salt Lake City, Utah
Fall 2006
Chicago, Illinois
(in the subway on our way
to our first Cubs game)
Fall 2007
Near our home

Spring 2008
Glenwood Springs, Colorado

Spring 2009
Ireland
Summer 2010
Midway, Utah
(our first night away since Landon's arrival!)
Summer 2011
Oahu, Hawaii

I love you babe! It's been a great journey so far ... here's to lots more love and adventures!!

Thoughts and Questions

**I was chatting with Landon this morning. I told him I want to have his picture taken for his 18-month "birthday," then I proceeded to ask him what he thought he should wear. In all seriousness he looked at me and said "Melmo" (translation: Elmo). Ooookaaaayy... well, honey, thanks for weighing in. I think I'll decide, but I do appreciate your input.

**Speaking of clothes ... I bought a bright blue dress to wear to a friend's wedding. It's a beautiful, vibrant blue. What color of shoes should I wear? A lady at a shoe store told me to "absolutely not wear black" and suggested a few things instead (bronze, grey, etc.) I'm pretty open. BUT I own a pair of black high heels that I haven't ever had a reason to wear (I bought them when I was 9 months pregnant ... need I say more?). They are amazing. Seriously ... slingbacks, peep toes, studded ... that type of amazing. And I think they would look great. What do you think?

**Tomorrow we will have been married for 6 years! SIX! Makes me happy.

**A couple of weeks ago a friend bought me a book to say thank you for something. I think a book is one of the most charming gifts to get. On my nightstand I have a book from my mom (Jane Eyre ... one of the most beautiful books ever written), from my mother-in-law (Created for Greater Things by Jeffrey R. Holland, a fabulous book of quotes) and one from a dear friend (The Blue Day Book ... so cute). If you ever have a hankering to buy me a present a book is a great way to go :)!

**For some reason this year I am already thinking about Halloween costumes, Christmas gifts and all the prep that goes into the holidays. It's good to think ahead ... but really ... I need to just enjoy these last few days of summer!

**What kinds of things are you doing over the long weekend? Planned for this fall? Now that Landon is bigger we are always looking for fun things to do.