Camping Fun!

This weekend we went camping with the Carneys, and it was one of the most fabulous camp sites I have ever been to! We stayed right next to the river, but there were almost no mosquitoes at all! We went for a beautiful hike up to some hot springs where we swam, played, and met a really creepy skinny dipper. Yikes. Also, I can never seem to get my pictures in the order that I want them, once again they are completely random.

Playing in the river with Jack.

Little Campers

I was so proud of this picture I took just before sunset. Aren't I artistic?

Playing in the water!

Reid did not want to hold my hand. He wanted me to just let him swim around in the river by himself. Sorry, Reid not today!

High fives in the bridge.

Boys on the hike!

Cute campfire picture.

Nate being a dork. Look how satisfied he is with himself. Sometimes I think he's 12.

Ben the fly fisherman!

I was also really proud of this picture. I think I should be a photographer.

Beautiful waterfall at the hot springs!

The most unflattering picture of me ever, but there had to be evidence that we were there!

Playing in the water with Jess!

Dad and Reid by the falls. I just need to document here that Jess and I were the first ones to go under the falls because the boys are wimpy about cold water. Ha.

Family hiking pic! We had such a great time!

30 Things You May or May Not Know About Nate...

In honor of Nate's 30th birthday I decided to make a lovely little list documenting 30 things you may or may not know...

30. He's not a very sweaty guy. He never gets B.O., and generally smells pretty good

29. On the other hand, he has really stinky gas, and can clear a room in seconds.

28. He's been in a lot of accidents (car motorcycle, boat etc. ) one of the worst was when he was fixing up an old motorcycle and ended up crashing it into the garage door. Ouchie.

27. Along with accidents, he has knocked himself out with a metal baseball bat.

26. He served an LDS mission in Cleveland, OH.

25. He is a Canadian citizen, and was born in Ontario.

24. He is really handy, and can make or fix almost anything (I think engineering will be a great fit for him!)

23. He is more crafty than I am, and can out-do me in almost any homemaking skill. (sad, I know)

22. He hates mayonaise or anything that looks like it: Miracle Whip, ranch dressing, cream cheese, cottage cheese, sour cream...the list goes on.

21. He ran cross country in high school, and is actually a really great distance runner when he wants to be. He ran 7 miles everyday while we were dating/engaged.

20. he has really nice feet and legs. I always say I want our girls to have his legs!

19. He is more emotional/compassionate than me. He cries way more in movies (like he cried in "Hook" the other day) I guess I am not much of a crier.

18. He is really calm in disaster situations, and never seems to lose his cool.

17. He has a real sugar addiction with all of the hallmarks of every other kind of addiction except with candy.

16. He doesn't really care for video games or computer games. Lucky me!

15. He's kind of competitive, and can be a really bad loser sometimes (sorry, Nate!).

14. He'll wear just about anything I buy for him, but he's really picky about jeans.

13. He loves kids, and wants to have WAY more than I do.

12. We weighed the same when I was 9 months pregnant.

11. He is great at math and science, and he's actually a great writer too!

10. He can't grow a beard, but he CAN grow a creepy pedophile mustache.

9. He has nice skin.

8. He has the exact same sense of humor as me, and that's hard to find.

7. He got beat up by a boat motor at scout camp.

6. He hated high school.

5. There are seven kids in his family, he is #5.

4. He is a bit of a homebody, so I have to drag him to do adventurous things, but once he's there he loves it.

3. He loves to swim, but he's terrified of deep water.

3. He never wears a watch

2. He is a perfectionist in every way.

1. He is the greatest husband and father, and I love him so much! Happy birthday Naters!

Happy 30th Birthday Nate!

Nate took Wednesday off so we could celebrate the big 3-0! It was great! I made him a big breakfast, we went to the zoo in SLC, and then our downstairs neighbor made him his very own funfetti ice cream cake! It was perfect. Then Jess watched Reid while we went and saw a movie. Thanks Jess!

Birthday breakfast

OK, so at the zoo they have this really rare albino alligator. I guess it would die in the wild from sunburn. It was so crazy!

Reid LOVED the elephants.

Jen and her amazing cake!

Giving Ben a kiss!

Giving Jack a hug

Jack was such a little beggar! He would give you these big puppy dog eyes until you fed him. It was hilarious!

Reid worn out from all of the fun.

Jess is crazy...for ice cream cake!

Reid's Birthday Video for Dad

He does this every time I turn on this CD...

5 Years!

Saturday was our 5th anniversary! I can hardly believe it! There are a few things that I need to mention here though before we move on to the pictures: 1) I am an idiot and I put the pictures in backwards again. This does not please me. 2) I am not going to be one of those people that posts a bunch of pictures from our wedding day because we got married in the dark ages before digital cameras were all that prevalent, so I would have to scan some-way too lazy for that. And frankly, I don't really feel like I need the world to see how much cuter and skinnier we were then--I don't think THAT blow to my ego is necessary at this point in my blogging career. Maybe next year. Anyhoo, we had such a great time, and here is our fun-filled weekend in reverse order:

On Saturday we hiked to the Timpanogos caves. I have wanted to do that since we moved here, and it was well-worth the trip. Here's Nate pretending that one of the stalagmites in the cave is his tooth...it didn't really turn out as he had hoped.

These were way cooler in person. I could go on and on about the caves, but I won't. I'll just tell you that the tour was like an hour of squeezing through tight spaces and learning about the history and legends that go along with the cave. Our tour guide was hilarious too. We really loved it, and I highly recommend it to anyone in the Utah area. They say you can bring kids, but you have to carry them inside the cave for the entire tour. That so would not fly with our little Dr. Moopers, so we had our wonderful downstairs neighbor, Jen watch him for us.

This is a really neat formation inside the cave called "cave bacon" There was also "cave popcorn" and "cave something else that I forget"


This is one of the views from our hike. The hike was fabulous. It was 1.5 miles up, we gained over a thousand feet of elevation in just that short distance!



Back to the caves again. They were very adamant about not touching the formations because they are alive, and the oils from our skin and clothes kills them.

I got really hungry though.

A fab. self-portrait because Nate and I feel stupid asking people to take our picture for us.

Finally we got up the courage to ask someone because we can never seem to squeeze both of our fat faces in the same picture at the same time. Go figure.

Being dorky in a beautiful archway along the hike.

Two dorks in a pod!

The Friday before we went on the same hike my Dad and I went on in May. So fun!

We are masters of the self portrait!

Here we are at the top-- all sweaty and gross!

Sadly, our hike came to a tragic conclusion. Reid (being the daredevil that he is) "over-leaned" while we were resting on a bridge and landed head first onto some rocks. Needless to say, he was very unhappy, and I had a panic-attack. We're all OK now though.


After our cave experience (see above photos) we went and saw "Get Smart" and let me tell you, I haven't laughed so hard in a movie for a really long time. I highly recommend it!

So here we are after five years of marriage. I would tell the story of how we met and all that, but I kind of think those stories can be a little annoying and a lot boring, so I will give you the very abridged version: We met in Bellingham. I wasn't interested at all. He took me to a scary movie. Still not interested. He took me go-carting and wowed me with his driving skills. We have been together ever since! I love my fabulous husband, and I look forward to many more years together!

More Wonderful Time with the Fam

Horray, horray! Nate's sister Corrine and her two boys Allen and Carter came for a whole week! We had such a great time. Also, our niece Amber (16) came along as well, and let me tell you this girl is a mini-mommy. She helped us all out with our kids so much. I don't think we would have survived all three kiddos without her! We took about a million pictures, but here are just a few:

This little guy was probably the highlight of the visit. I got to see my newest nephew, Carter! I was so happy because we won't be back out to Washington until Christmas, and by then he will be 9 months old! A completely different baby, right? He has got to be the happiest baby I have EVER seen (but I'm not biased) he is so sweet and cute I can hardly stand it! I really, really loved spending time with him.

So we went to Temple Square one day, and it was the best. This picture isn't awesome, but it has a hilarious story behind it. We went to see this statue, and they have the little voice-over where Jesus speaks, and I was sitting next to Allen (3) and he said "is that Jesus' voice?" and I told him it was. Then (when it was totally quiet) he shouted "hey, Jesus?" like he had a question. I quieted him and then later asked him what he was going to ask Jesus and he said (to Jesus again) "Hey Jesus, I don't want to do this right now, and I want you to get me a boat." It was the cutest thing ever.

There is this awesome water park a few minutes from our house, and we took the kids a couple of times. Reid and Allen had soooo much fun. Reid is a maniac! Like I had mentioned earlier, we took Reid to swimming lessons, so he has been practicing going under water, which is good. Unfortunately though, he is REALLY brave now. The water comes up to his waist at this pool, and he starts to run and then dives into the water, and waits on the bottom of the pool for me to pick him up. It's so scary because I can't take my eyes off of him for a second! He has so much fun though I just can help but take him.

I love this picture! This is just after our pool excursion. Corrine, (being the blackmailing kind of gal that she is) took a picture of me and Amber walking into the pool with one cheek hanging out as well. It was actually pretty funny. When we showed Nate these pictures he thought we should post them on our blogs as the "Baywatch Rejects" with the Baywatch theme song playing in the background. Very funny, but sorry Nate and Corrine, my backside will not be making its internet debut, but Reid's will!

This is my "don't you dare take a picture of me with my hair like this" picture. I was literally uttering death threats as she snapped this one, but I decided to post it anyway because if we can't laugh at ourselves what do we have left? Pictures that Corrine can post on HER blog and use to make fun of me. That's what's left. So, alas I have beat her to it, and that is my goal.

Uncle Nate playing with Mr. Carter!

Allen and Reid playing together. They were so cute! Gotta love them cousins!

Nate and Reid in the pool. Reid is clearly ready for me to stop taking pictures and let dad take him into the water.

Having a snack. What a belly!

Allen going through the waterfall

Reid just Lrrrrrves the waterfall!

We went to the aquarium one day which was really fun. This is Reid and Allen driving the "boat"


They had this tide pool where fish and stingrays would literally come up out of the water for you to pet them. Reid and I both LOVED it.

Cute little boys!

bath time!

Me, Corrine and Allen at the conference center. This is a really unflattering picture of me, but it's the only one I have of Corrine, (that's not a blackmail picture) so I had to post it.

Allen, me, and Amburger Helper (that's what Nate called her when she was little) =)

Reid and Allen pretending the toilet paper rolls were a train. So cute!

Reid loves his cousin Amber!

I love this picture because I think Nate and Reid have the exact same look on their face. I think they are ready for me to stop taking so many pictures. Sorry guys!

So, we had tons of fun with the fam. It made me really sad that we don't get to see them more often. I feel like all of Reid's younger cousins are growing up without him! We are so happy though that Corrine made the sacrifice to come and see us! We were so sad to see them go!