After the AMC Kids event, we had an all too short visit with our first besties, Mav and Paige. I also got to see their super cute new guy Tuck.

We all had a great time, and the hours flew by quickly. I’m bummed I didn’t get a pic of Paige or the baby, but I hope to next time. When asked who his friends are, Britton always says “Maverick and Paige and Max.” Sometimes Paige even comes first.

There’s a pool at my mom’s place and we spent a lot of time there. There is a 2 foot section, so B could “swim” by himself, and Chez helped too. Kaia LOVES the water. On the first day I saw a girl giving her baby swimming lessons (she’s a real instructor) and so over the next few visits she gave me pointers. Kaia was always happy to put her face in the water or go onto her back. Like, so excited about it. I’ve got to get her into lessons here. And Britton liked to pretend he was swimming too.

Just don’t try getting him to do a back float or really go under.

Grandma Sheri even got to come one afternoon. Britton even got her to go in the water!

On our last day in town our other besties Max, Eden and Linda came for a swim. The boys had a blast playing together, and eating sandwiches.

Kaia and Eden had fun together too. They’re just under 2 months apart. Such cute girls! We were sad when they had to go home.

We got B’s next shooting dates, and they were just far enough away that we decided to go home, and fly back. So, the next day we headed out. The drive went pretty well. We got to stop at Angie’s again for a little fun and food. Britton wasn’t too happy when we had to leave.

Then at Shaela’s the dogs were happy to see them…and I think vice versa. Kaia wasn’t as afraid of them as before. We’ve discovered that Kaia has a thing for men. She likes them a lot better than women for sure. She’s always gone to Greg easily, but she’s been around him since she was born. Sometimes she likes Grandma, but I usually have to be nearby. At Shae’s she wasn’t too keen on going to her, but she went to Ethan right away and was just fine. Silly girl.

The next day we visited with my grandparents. GiGi and Gpapa to the kids. Grandpa indulged Britton with some ball throwing, and they played with the toys.

The little crawler came up for her close up.

Kaia with GiGi and GPapa. She went to him right away too.

Later we went to Cassie’s and played with her and Kaylee for a while. We got snow cones. I was so excited. I love them so much, but we don’t have any around here that I’ve seen. They’re very hard to find in LA too.

They are sharing a small. That’s right, each has HALF of a small. And B almost ate the whole thing. Not that I blame him. The Pina Colada was delicious. I stuck to my usual of Tiger’s Blood, Raspberry and Watermelon. Sooo yummy! Then we headed back to Cassie’s house and the kids played while I went through some of Kay’s clothes for Kaia.

She decided to help. A mighty cute baby in a box for sure.  Not so helpful though. She did continue her love of guys though. When Jeremy came home she was really excited, even though she’s seen him like once before. Apparently he was hilarious.

The next day we had a “normal” morning, then went riding in the afternoon.

Our Hayseed. He looks like a natural up on the hay.

He even took over the reigns on Star. He learned the “kiss kiss” and “woah” plus a little turning I think.

Kaia’s first ride. She had fun for a while, and did good on a trip around. But then she saw me again and it was all over. Bummer.

Then we got more snow cones near Shae’s house. They weren’t as big, but just as delicious. Grandpa Jim came to visit too. Since he didn’t have a nap, Britton fell asleep in the car on the way to dinner…he slept the whole time!

We had a nice trip this time. It was fun seeing everyone…it’s been a few months. Kaia has changed a lot, and is much more mobile, so it was a bit of a challenge keeping her out of things,

Here’s the highlights: Kansas and Oklahoma are really quite pretty with gently rolling hills and green fields. It made me wish I had grandparents with a farm to spend my summers with.

After a night in Hays, Kansas we had our first mishap. Miss Kaia rolled off the bed and hit her head on her car seat.

Yeah. Beautiful, huh?

Poor baby! This picture doesn’t even do it justice. But, it is almost gone now. Whew!

The drive wasn’t terrible. Kaia had a hard time sometimes, but we made it. In Oklahoma City we visited Becky’s Gift Shoppe, which carries our Sprout Shells, so it was fun to see.

Then we visited Mark’s long-time friend Ryan. It’s the first time I’ve met him, and it was great to visit with him and his girlfriend Lori.

It was fun just talking and getting to know them. Plus, I learned an awesome new salsa recipe that I’m excited to try out this weekend.

We mostly just hung out in the pool and visited with Mark’s sister Lori and our nephew John on Thursday. Britton liked the raft. We had dinner at his dad’s house. There was lots of room for B to run and roll around and he had a great time.

Being chased by Grandpa

Grandpa, Mark, Britton, Bulbin

Then, Britton decided to take some pictures of his own.

On Friday, we went to the World Aquarium. It’s a really cool place with a lot of different animals, not just sea life. there are a lot of monkeys, as well as a jaguar and

He likes to “read” everything these days.

Mommy monkey carrying her baby on its back.

Crocodile

Pretty Tamarin

I added this just for Mark. These are bats.

We have no idea what this is, but it has a shell like a turtle, but this soft, lizardy like head. And it’s smiling

Brit liked the Manatee.

Super cool octopus

Mark and I with the fish.

We really wish we knew what this bird was. It looks like a prehistoric pelican of some sort.

I never knew that flamingos ate kind of upside down. The top beak goes down on the ground and they gobble backwards.

Later that night we ate at a BBQ place called Rudy’s with everyone (except Lori, she had a trip to pack for). Then we went to my aunt Melissa’s house.  Britton instantly went for Henry’s trains and wanted to play with nothing else. Even though it was like 10 at night.

The next morning we just visited and went to the playground. Later that afternoon we went to Paul’s wedding. It was a very nice, small affair.

Britton loved playing with his cousins. Tommy played with him and taught him Spanish, etc.

Jenna and Laura

Britton with Julia doing “Guppy Face”

Aw, loving Grandma

After the wedding we went back to Melissa’s and went swimming. Kaia was really excited about it.

Really, she loves the water and “swimming”

She also had fun with her cousin Cooper. They’re about 2 1/2 weeks apart, so it was fun seeing the differences between them.

I’m a little bummed I didn’t get pictures with the rest of the family. London and Henry are really cute, and Kaia really loved the attention from Londie.

Sunday was fun, with an extra long sacrament meeting and restless kids (yay). Then we had dinner with Doug and Laura and Jenna, Kira and Tommy. Britton got more play time with his big cousins and had so much fun. We were sad when we had to pack up and get on the road.

We told Britton we were going to Kansas. Guess what we heard the whole night?

We stopped at my good friend Angie’s house. She used to live in Cedar City, so we’d stop on our drive. She’s now in Sandy, so it was fun to see her new place (though, they’re moving back now, so yay!)

Lexie and Britton are about 5 months apart.

This one is a bit blurry, but I had to include one of Angie and me, so here ya go. Thanks Chez for taking the picture.

The kids with their GiGi, my grandma. They love playing at her house. She still has lots of toys that I played with when I was little. And visiting is always fun.

At cousin Kaylee’s house. She had lots of fun holding Kaia. She’s a good little helper. It was good to see my cousin Cassie and her husband too.

Yes, all this was in one day. Needless to say, as soon as we got in the car Britton and Kaia were completely out. It was fun though. I love seeing friends, but even with jam-packed days, I still didn’t see many people. I need a longer trip.

I saw my good friend Charlene too, and her new baby Andrea who is so sweet, and we had a great visit. I can’t find pictures from it though, so if I didn’t get one, sorry Char! I love you too!

We celebrated Britton’s birthday with my sister and Dad, so he became Cowboy Brit.

In the gear

Ride ‘em cowboy!

He’s like a pro!

Kai Kai and Aunt Shaela.

We had a really good time. Thanks for taking the day off to spend with us Shae. Hope to see you soon!

Right afterward we headed up to Steamboat Springs, a cute ski/outdoor town a few hours away. We rented an SUV because my car was in Cali, and to hold our stuff (Mark’s snowboard) and in case there was snow. It turned out to be a good idea. There was snow on our way in and would’ve been a little scary in either of our cars.

The next day was the birthday. He was excited to open his presents.

He kept asking for/talking about a magnifying glass (he saw them on Sid the Science Kid) so he was thrilled to get one of his own.

He’s LOVING this present. It’s a PBS Kids game that teaches skills in a fun way with characters from the shows. I’m pretty picky about video games and this one is really good. It explains it’s curriculum areas, what the kids learn from each game and how it expands their knowledge. He’s doing really well with it too.

Then it was off to “Ski”

All bundled up and ready to go.

On his little skis…had trouble with balance, so  it was pretty slow going. He just went on big snow drifts and little hills, not the chair lift. There was no way Mark could do it being on a snowboard. And, he was too young for anything other than all day childcare with a 1 hour lesson for $229! No happening. Maybe next year. Though, I was getting a little sad and wished I could ski, but Kaia wouldn’t do so well with that.

Anyway, he had lots of fun “skiing”  and told us it was his favorite part of the day.

After lunch he was EXHAUSTED! We went back to the condo and he took a nice, long nap. Later, he showed off his other favorite present:

His backpack! He’s been talking about one forever. He picked this one out and loves to roll it around.

The rest of our trip was fun. We went to the mineral hot springs in town (AKA, the local pool) and it was great. Kaia just lay there kicking and smiling. I thought she fell asleep on my shoulder for a minute. I think she’ll be my swimmer.

It was great to get away and spend time with just our family with nothing else to do but focus on each other. We haven’t had that in a while. The town was really cute, and we’d love to go back and explore more. I look forward to next year when I can ski. It’s been way too long.

Back in May I scored a great deal on our hotel at the Golden Nugget. The north end of the strip doesn’t get as much attention, but this place was really nice and had a great pool–complete with shark tank in the middle and tube slide running through it.

Anyway, the trade show ended up not being what we had hoped or planned for. I did find some bedding for Kaia, scored some adorable Squeakers shoes for a great price, and we got a few orders, but that was about all.

Here’s our booth though…

So, we packed up and enjoyed the rest of our week doing this:

Chillin'

Reading

Drinking Coke

Trying on M&Ms hats

And SLEEPING!

Seriously. Our room got so dark with the curtains drawn it we wouldn’t know if it was 2:30 am or 2:30 pm.

Britton insisted on sleeping with me all week. He NEVER does that. He just rolls around and tosses and turns whenever we try it. He usually has to be in his own bed. Maybe he was traumatized from me being gone all day Monday, ’cause he was clingy all week too.

Our last night in town we went to a brand new restaurant–like, opening night–Max Brenner.

It’s a chocolate restaurant. Not everything has chocolate on it, or in it, but some things do. And especially their desserts! Oh my. We shared dinner so we’d have room for all the things we wanted to try.

One of the rare moments that Britton cooperated…until dessert came.

Our dessert spread

Dip your own ice cream, chocolate apple streusel with caramel sauce, Smores Sundae and Chocolate pizza with marshmallows. It was SOOOOOO good. We will definitely have to go back and try more of the chocolate deliciousness.

So, despite it not turning out like we planned, it was actually a very nice week. But, I was ready to get out of there and on the road to our new life.

We went to see Inception–great movie. Though, I don’t know that it was entirely necessary to pay $17 for IMAX. Mark would disagree. We drove A LOT, had ice cream at Bonnie Braes, slept in, found a place to live (will take pics and get those up someday), visited the Temple grounds and generally enjoyed getting to know the area.

Since we’re super awesome, we didn’t take pictures except this:

and this:

The sunsets here are gorgeous!

On my way back to LA the clouds were awesome. I had to get some of them too.

We started off well…haha. It took us 40 minutes to get on the freeway, then another hour to get to Santa Clarita (normally it should take less than and hour from our house) so, we were not nearly as far along our drive as we’d planned by the time Britton woke up from his nap.

Then I chose poorly for dinner. We stopped at a little town (little did we know there was a bigger one 5 miles further) and we ate at a Mexican place that looked really authentic, with half of its menu in Spanish. Those places are usually delicious. Well, not so much.

Stopped off for the night in Sacramento. Not so nice of a Holiday Inn. And we thought we were going to have to backtrack 10 miles in the morning.

Thankfully, the rest of the trip went well. The mountains are gorgeous, with lots of waterfalls and still a bit of snow. It made me miss Utah a bit.

We couldn’t check in yet when we got there, so we looked around the town. It’s a lot bigger than I’d thought it would be. A little over 75,000.

Britton found a fun play-place.

Nice bench

Climbing

Made it!

Yay water!

We got settled, had dinner and went swimming. Brit loved it! Those lessons are paying off.

The next morning we went up the Gondola (or helicopter as Britton calls it) at Heavenly.

Our route.

Very excited.

The Lake from the observation deck. Sooooo beautiful!

Though, at the top it was cold and snowy. All that was missing were skis. Unfortunately, snow and crocs don’t really mix.

Then we headed for a drive around the lake. We heard it was a good idea. It was. This is Emerald Bay. Apparently Kodak says it’s the 2nd most photographed place in the US after the Grand Canyon.

It was really greenish and lovely.

Monday we planned a hike, and a visit to Tallac. It’s one of the first luxury summer homes on the lake. The homes are large and beautiful. Britton had fun with a couple of favorite past times.

Running Away

Attack of the Giant Pinecone

So, the directions to our hike were a little confusing, so we decided to go on a different one. But, we didn’t really follow those directions either. We were supposed to end up along the opposite side of the lake, but we drove around and saw all the cabins along the right side of the picture and had our picnic lunch here instead.

Fallen Leaf Lake

Lounging

Sadly, it started to sprinkle a little as we left. Isn’t it a rule Memorial Day is supposed to be nice and sunny?

I really want to go back and get in some bike riding and more exploring. Maybe in a couple of years. It made me miss the mountains though, and I’m determined we’re going to get out more. (Not that I was a big hiker/out door girl before LA, but for some reason I feel like I want to be now.)

Like–distance is measured in miles there, and no one thinks twice about driving 10-15 miles to  get somewhere because it’ll take 10 minutes. Here, distance is measured in time and going 5 miles can be an afternoon trip.

There, seeing a tractor drive down the road is probably a common occurrence in some parts. Here, seeing one would cause accidents and it would promptly be run off the road.

This is what we had driving behind us one day. So awesome.

In Utah now Britton also gets the opportunity to try out life as a non-city boy. My dad likes motorcycles and rode around with us all over the mountains when we were little. He picked one up for a friend and had Brit test it out.

This was before it was on. I figured it would terrify him since loud noises tend to do that.

This is him riding it laughing his head off.

When it was time to be done he cried and kept asking for the “cycle” Oh no!

Just as I’m thinking he’d be a stinkin’ cute cowboy…

HATED it! When she started to move he bawled. Sorry Shae!

Guess it’s a good thing he’s a city boy.

We had a lot of fun visiting with friends. We spent one day with my friend Charlene and her cute kids. Didn’t get a pic till the end…

Saw cousin Kaylee…they had fun running around and eating lunch at Cafe Rio.

Brit also got to spend a lot of time with Great Papa and Great Mama (we’re testing it out for my grandparents.) and Grandpa. He got to show off for them and make them think he’s pretty cute. We ate dinner at Mandarin (the best Chinese restaurant) with Ethan and Shaela too.

Saturday we went to the zoo. Check out pics here: EthanandShaela.com

On our way up there I got to meet up with my awesome friend Melissa.

By my fantastic luck her girls had a dance competition in SLC, so they were down from the far northern part of the state. Yay!

Britton had fun with Aunt Shaela’s dogs…the 3 little ones anyway. He wasn’t a huge fan of Addison the Great Dane. By the end he was saying “Addison, no no!”

The trip home was the best part though…

Britton threw up 4 times. Maverick threw up 2 times (about doubling the total for his life) and poor Paige had to clean up a lot of it. With Britton I pulled over as soon as I could and changed him…but still. Then I tried with Mav but it made me about puke. We were going to stop in Las Vegas for the night, but decided to keep going since they’d likely sleep the rest of the way.

Good thing the rest of the trip went so well!

Christmas Eve pajamas, with train slippers

Playing "train" with aunt Sara

Enjoying the gift of music

Being a human present...or bow catcher

Seeing slides and a castle made all of ice

Seeing this!

And this...a life-sized Nativity of ICE!

Waking up Christmas morning to Britton's presents

Having to play with a toy before it's all unwrapped

Holiday Lights

The DC Temple bathed in fog

These are just some of the great joys we had this Christmas…and we look forward to keeping the Spirit of Christmas with us throughout this year!

The plan: Leave early Monday morning, catch the 7:15 bus to NYC, get there by noon. Have the whole day, and leave at 10 the next morning.

The reality: Metro train had a problem. Took twice as long to get to bus stop as planned. Missed bus. Had to wait till 9:15. Barely made it on that one because of no shows. Later in the day=more traffic getting into city. We arrived at 2:45. We were really hungry, but didn’t want to drag our little suitcase all around, so we headed to the hotel. Should’ve walked the whole way. Would’ve been faster than the metro. Finally arrive, check in and all is well.

Head down to The Hog Pit, a BBQ place recommended by the fabulous Missy and Ari. They were right. It was FANTASTIC! I like pork and bbq, but it’s not like my favorite thing in the world. This was the best I have EVER had. I had the pork sliders and Mark had brisket. So delicious. I was full too, so a lot bummed we’d already made reservations for dinner back at the hotel.

That glowing thing in the background is their “Hog Pit” Sign.

True Texas bar decor as well. Since it was 4 pm, we were the only people in there. That felt a little weird. But, it was nice too. Thanks for the suggestion ladies!

When we looked on a map to figure out where to go next we realized this place was only a few blocks from the bus stop! Ah man, we’d have saved a lot of time and hunger if we’d just headed straight there.

We headed north toward Macy’s and Times Square. Stopped here:

We got Britton M&Ms in all the colors they had, and some mini ones as well. He loved them, as expected. Then we stopped here:

Can you guess? It’s Macy’s. They had the ground floor decorated very nicely. We were in there for a long time…and eventually made it all the way to the 8th floor. Yeah. It’s that big. A little ridiculous. Outside it was so cold, and I had forgotten my scarf and gloves at home, so I really considered actually buying a scarf or hat there. For those that know me, I don’t really do either, so to consider paying $35-40 for one it must have been really bad.

We also made a stop at the Hershey’s store and stocked up on good stuff. Well, I stocked up on their Cinnamon Chips. I can’t find them in LA, and there is the BEST cookie recipe on the back.

We turned east and ended up at Rockefeller Center.

I realize this is blurry. Maybe I really should give in and let Mark order the new Canon Powershot. Oh well…

Just across the square they had angels and trumpets, which looked through to Bloomingdales and their Snowflake Show…seriously, they danced to music.

More food: A stop at Magnolia Bakery for a slice of Pumpkin Cake, and we were off back south to make our dinner reservation.

Asia de Cuba. It’s basically what it sounds like, Asian style food with Cuban influence. It was a lot nicer/fancier than we were expecting. Especially being from LA when you can walk in almost anywhere in jeans and a casual shirt and be fine. The food was actually really good, and there was a lot of it. But, it was a bit pricey for my taste. Especially when I wasn’t really hungry at all after lunch. I was quite pained as we paid the bill, but it was a nice experience.

By that time we were pretty tired. I wanted to badly to see a movie since we hadn’t been to a theatre for months, but our hotel was calling. We stayed at the Grand Hyatt next to Grand Central Station. It was probably the most comfy bed ever. Especially compared to the last hotel we stayed at (Days Inn Barstow, we still hold a grudge.) I loved their pillows and their comforter. The morning came much too quickly. Luckily, we can buy it if we want through their “home collection.” Not sure yet if I want to spend $65 for a pillow though.

The next day I realized that the outfit I was wearing was twice as warm as the one from the day before! Blast! On our ride home we made another discovery–almost all of the money we spent in NYC was on food of some sort…lunch, M&M store, Hershey’s store, Magnolia, Asia de Cuba…I mean seriously, it was a little ridiculous. But, it was all pretty good. The Magnolia cake? You could pass it up. The cupcakes in there didn’t look super yummy either. I think it’s a cute little bakery that got famous, and is now a MUST SEE.

Anyway, we had a great time and I’m excited I finally got to see NYC at Christmastime…now maybe for Thanksgiving.