Chapter Four: Another Birthday Party for Skye

The day after we got back from our vacation, we went to my mother-in-law's house in Alpine for another birthday party for Skye. Here we are swinging as we waited for family to show up. She got lots of cupcakes at this party. I thought she might try and just pick off the sprinkles like she had done with the M&Ms on her bunny cake, but she actually ate a cupcake.


Here's a not-so-good picture of Lance's family. I should have tried a different angle or something!
I think Lance had more fun blowing the bubbles than Skye did chasing them!
What she really loved was this present from her Aunt Cori.

The City of Rocks: Our Anniversary Continued

Lance and I were lucky enough to be able to go on a little vacation for our anniversary, thanks to my family who watched Skye while we were gone. We went to the City of Rocks in southern Idaho to go climbing. I'd never been there and was stunned by its beauty.

It's called City of Rocks because that's just what it is--a city of giant granite pinnacles and monoliths rising up from nowhere. It was so amazing!

Unfortunately, we were only able to get one climb in before the rain took over. We tried to wait it out, but the rain never stopped long enough for the rock to dry out.

But we did hike around a bit and saw some how amazing and beautiful nature can be.

Can you spot the face?

Amidst all the grandeur, I was still happy to see this little creature crossing the road.

After spending one night in the cold and damp weather, we took off early and ended up staying at my grandpa's house in Tremonton the next night. That Friday morning, the rain actually cleared up so we were able to do some fun climbing in Ogden Canyon. We actually got sunburned, if you can believe that! But it wasn't long before the rain came back. It was still fun to go on a vacation and Skye had a good time with my family to which I am very grateful (and grateful to them for tending her).

Chapter Three: Our Anniversary

Lance and I celebrated our fourth anniversary on June 9. To celebrate, we stayed at the Black Swan Inn (a themed suites hotel) in Pocatello. This is what it looked like from the outside. It was hard to get a good picture because it was raining, but it was a really beautiful building.
We stayed in the Tropical Paradise suite.

Here are some of the murals that we were surrounded by to make us feel like we were in a tropical paradise!

It was a beautiful room, but of course, Lance couldn't help but try climbing around on things!

We got this cool waterfall above the bathtub.

I am going to have a bathtub like this in my own home someday, not just because it is in this romantic heart shape, but because it was actually big enough for me to stretch out my long legs comfortably in!

We went out to Red Lobster for dinner, and then, as is tradition from the first night we were married, we...DUN DUN DUN...watched the NBA finals. Yep, it's true. A finals game was on the first night of our honeymoon and we had a good time watching it. So it's become our honeymoon/anniversary tradition!

Chapter Two: Skye's Birthday

Skye turned 2 on Monday, June 8, but we celebrated her birthday with my family on Sunday evening. She didn't get quite as spoiled as last year, but there was still a fair amount of presents. Oh, and I forgot to mention on my last post how good Skye was on the long drive from Phoenix to Kaysville. She slept for a record amount of time and rarely got upset any other time in the car, keeping herself occupied by playing or watching movies on the portable DVD player. Skye used to cry when she got anywhere near my brother, Nathan, but now that she knows who he is, she had fun playing train with him.
The first presents she got to open were from Na Na and Millie (Nathan and Camille).

They were these adorable finger puppets that my sister-in-law found. I'm pretty sure they were Skye's favorite present.

Opening more presents...

She got some very cute clothes from my parents and a doll that she doesn't care too much about from me and Daddy. I hope she likes dolls someday.

Oh, and here's a picture of Lance bench pressing the new hitch we got to go on our Subaru, the new hitch we got to tow our washer and drier down to Phoenix to go in our new house, the new hitch that didn't tow the washer and drier down to Phoenix to go in our new house that we are no longer buying. But that's another story.

My mom made this cute bunny cake.

Skye liked it!

Or should I say she liked the nummies (M&Ms) that were on it. She never ate a single bite of cake...

only ate the nummies! Happy Birthday, Skye!

Chapter One

Unlike myself, I haven't posted for awhile. It's because a lot of things have been happening lately that will add up to a lot of posts. We'll start with our trip up to Utah. We began our drive from Phoenix June 5. We spent that night in Page, Arizona, then spent the morning playing around at Lake Powell.
Skye had fun looking for shells.

We also found a lot of lizards.

The freezing cold water didn't stop Lance from plunging in. I got in for a short time, but the coldness of the water left me gasping for air so I got out before any pictures could be taken.

It was so beautiful there. We couldn't believe how blue the water was.

Skye was brave enough to get in up to her legs, but spent most of the time just splashing her feet in it. She had a lot of fun.

The next leg of the journey led us to Elsinore, Utah (near Richfield) to the farm of Justin and Libby Zenger, some friends of Lance's. They had a gourmet meal ready for us. The amazing lamb can be seen in the corner. We felt like we were in some nice, expensive restaurant.

The weather was a bit colder than expected, so Libby pulled out this sweatshirt that's too small for either of their two boys for Skye to wear. It was a bit big, but I thought she looked so cute in it!

After the rain stopped, we had a bonfire in their backyard. It was so hot, Lance had to shovel some coals out of it for us to roast our marshmallows over.

Skye had tons of fun looking at all of the animals on the farm and eventually even warmed up a bit to Arthur and Will (their boys). We thought it was funny that her favorite of all the animals were the chickens. We stayed there that night, then finished the journey up to Kaysville Sunday afternoon. More on that to come later!