Hustle and Bustle

Christmas snuck up on us.  I had some Christmas shopping to do and the stores around these parts didn't have what I wanted so I convinced Travis to brave the Utah County crowds and head up north.  This was no small sacrifice for my anti-crowds husband.  He used to think Logan got crowded.  I told him though that is what you get when you move out of the city, you have to go to the city because sometime internet shopping just won't do. 

I picked the worst day to go up.  I didn't look at the weather forecast until the day we were going and it was supposed to be cold, snowy, and windy.  This time the weatherman was exactly right, that is a first right? 

Our first stop was in Spanish Fork.  We found out on the way up there my parents decided to brave the weather and go to Utah County as well.  We met up with them at the new Costco.  I love that store!  Surprisingly it was not as crowded as I thought it would be, thank goodness.  

We headed up to the University Mall afterwards.  I miss malls. It was so crowded though.  Even I started to doubt it was a good idea to go to the mall.  That mall is not very equipped to have strollers I decided.  A lot of the stores were too narrow.  I ran into countless people and knocked over a few things.  Oh well.  I couldn't believe it, I mean BYU is right there, the baby factory, and they don't set up the mall better for strollers.  The kids handled the crowds pretty well though.  We found a few of our items.  

After the mall we headed up to Salt Lake to Temple Square to look at the amazing lights.  We haven't been for a few years so  I was really excited.  The kids fell asleep on the way up thank goodness!! We walked out of the parking garage to snow.  It was really nice though.  It almost felt like we were in a snow globe.  Very magical if you ask me.  Sawyer liked the lights and he loved riding on Dad's shoulders.  Jaylee didn't get to see many lights because she was covered up. We always have a competition to see if we can find someone on Temple Square that we know but to no avail this year.  We didn't find anybody.  

I am grateful that Travis braved the crowds for me and we got to go to the "BIG" city.  

Lady Luck

The end of November was an exciting time for our little family.  Travis had the opportunity to go to a conference in Las Vegas, wahoo!!! Jaylee and I accompanied Travis while Sawyer went to Grandma Jennifer's, a huge Thank You Mom. We were so excited to head down for a little vacation, well for me and the baby anyways, Travis was in class a lot. 

Monday Grandma took Sawyer and we headed down the road to Mesquite to meet up with Vanessa for dinner.  We got to see her house for the first time.  We were impressed.  We went to sushi for the first time in a very long time.  It was fun to visit with Vanessa but she had to go to work and we had to go check into our hotel, Mandalay Bay.  

Mandalay Bay has a huge convention center that the Auto CAD conference was in.  We walked forever to find the area where you checked into the conference.  

Tuesday morning Travis had to report at like 7 in the morning for breakfast but he still found time to bring me some breakfast.  Such a great husband. I had mapped out a whole day of traveling around the city to check things out.  Let's face it, I have never really been off the strip.  Vegas to me is only shiny lights and scantily clad people on billboards, I wanted to know what the appeal of living in Vegas was.  We hit up a Target, a Cafe Rio for lunch, the temple, and an Albertson's.  We drove all over didn't even get lost but I think we drove though little Mexico.  There were times when everything was in Spanish. Kind of scary.

  Tuesday evening we met up with Travis and a couple of people from his work to go to Pho.  I love Pho.  This place was so much better than the place we ate at in Provo.  I felt bad because Jaylee was a little loud but we managed.  We went over to the Bellagio afterwards to see the chocolate fountain and the Christmas display they put up.  

Wednesday morning we just chilled in the hotel room and slept in.  I haven't slept in in a very long time because of my adorable 2 year old.  I had made plans to utilize my Costco card that I just barely got.  I googled Costco and there was one not too far away and it had 4 out of 5 stars.  Score right.  Well I got lost on the way there so much for my stellar driving directions.  The Costco ended up being a business Costco and I don't have a smart phone to look up another one.  I was ticked.  It did not say that this one would not have a food area which I had counted on for lunch so I was pretty cranky because I had been lost and I was in hunger mode.  Jaylee and I made it back to the hotel and headed over to the Luxor to eat and then over to the Excaliber to their food court for a treat. 

Wednesday night we met up with Travis' cousin Bryson and Sara and their adorable little girl for dinner.  They live in a pretty nice area of Henderson.  We ate at the Cheesecake factory, yum.  Their menu is entirely too large though, I have the toughest time choosing what to eat. We got some pumpkin cheesecake to take with us.  We went back to their house and visited for a while afterwards, it was fun to catch up with them.  We haven't seen them for a really long time. 

Thursday Vanessa came and met me to go shopping.  I was so excited to have a shopping partner that could talk. We went to the outlet mall on the northend of the strip.  That place had all my favorite stores.  I had a hard time not spending all the money on myself.  I did end up with some amazing boots though. We were both hungry afterwards so we grabbed a bit and headed to the otherside of town to finish up our shopping list.  I really liked it out there.  I think it was the northwest area.  We had to head back to be able to meet Travis for dinner with his company. We ate at the Rainforest Cafe.  It was good but Jaylee was being pretty loud.  

After dinner Vanessa decided to stay and hit up Serendipity with us down by the Caesar's Palace.  We walked down the Strip to get a little exercise and it was actually really warm out.  It did not disappoint.  We got some Frozen Hot Chocolate and a Black and White Sundae.  Oh my goodness.  If that place were not so expensive and far away I would visit every day. I would also weigh 500 lbs. It was fun to hang out with Vanessa all day.  I never get to see her and we always have a great time together.  

Friday morning we had to wake up really early to be back to Monroe in time to meet my mom so she could make it to the temple.  I really wanted to eat at the Black Bear dinner for their amazing breakfast too.  It was so worth waking up at the crack of dawn to eat their pancakes and that is saying something because I don't really like pancakes. We were so excited to see our little Sawyer the Warrior but when he got home he told us he wanted to go to Poppa's house.  Sad.  He eventually warmed up to us.  He had a great time golfing and shopping with grandma all week.  He asks to go back all the time.  Thanks so much for all that made this amazing week happen. 

Happy Girl at the temple

After the Rainforest Cafe

The Black and White Sundae

The Frozen Hot Chocolate

Done and Done

We hit up the Bellagio again with Vanessa to see the completed Christmas display 

Pumpkins Demise

Since it was after Thanksgiving we decided we should finally get rid of our rapidly decaying pumpkins that were still decorating our porch.  We couldn't just get rid of the pumpkins in the garbage can , NOPE, we had to have a little target practice. We loaded everything up and headed to the hills.  I was a little worried because the pumpkins were really old and sometimes they seem to melt from the inside out and spew nastiness all over.  

We set the pumpkins at lots of different distances and took fire.  Travis took the shotgun to one that I threw up for him. He is pretty talented because I threw it awful but he still hit it.  I took aim at my first one and hit it right in the middle- Dead Eye, that is what they call me. Sawyer wanted in on the action so Travis helped him shoot a pumpkin too.  Travis had me shoot one with a 3in double buck shot.  He told me it would kick but ....... DANG I was not expecting that.  I almost dropped the gun.  It was a fun night out with the family though. 

Aggie Blue

Way back in the summer Travis bought tickets to the USU v. Texas game that happened to be the first weekend of Nov.  I thought he was nuts thinking we would take our two kids to a football game in Cache Valley in Nov.  Last year on that weekend it snowed, I know this because I ran the First Dam Run and I froze my tail end off.  This year the weather has been crazy so we decided to brave the 60 degree weather and go to the game. We were just making a fast trip because we really should have been putting our house in order but the Aggie's have been so great this year we didn't want to miss the opportunity to see them play again.  

We drove up on Friday after work and made a brief stop at the new Scheel's Store.  I was all excited to ride the Feris Wheel but Sawyer wasn't tall enough and I didn't want to ride alone.  Bummer, maybe in a few months.  We grabbed some dinner and made our way to Travis' cousins Kiffen's.  He is a great host, always willing to do whatever we need. We stayed up pretty late that night catching up with Kiffen and Krista stopped by.

Saturday morning we headed to Kneader's to get their All-You-Can-Eat French Toast.  Krista came with us to share in the goodness.  I don't know why they have all-you-can-eat because after the first plate you are so full there isn't much room for another plate.  I miss Kneader's, who I am kidding, I miss Logan. We had to go get ready for the game after breakfast because we needed to get some good seats and I still had errands to run since we were in the "big" city. 

I dropped the guys off at the game and I did a little shopping for a craft I want to do.  I miss Hobby Lobby.  I love that store so many great ideas and great projects. Jaylee came with me and we ran into an old friend from Beaver, Steph Brown.  

Jaylee and I were a little late to the game because she demanded food.  Ya gotta do what the baby tells ya right?  Travis got us some great seats next to his cousin's Kyle, Charelle, Rachelle, and Toby.  It was so warm that day we hardly needed jackets.  I took Sawyer to go get a treat to calm his restlessness and hunger and where do you think he ran to first, the Snow Cone Place.  I think he was the only kid that was eating a snow cone.  It was warm but it wasn't summer for heaven sakes.  He had his mind made up though.  

During the game Sawyer entertained us by trying to make friends with a boy sitting across the aisle from us.  He went and sat by the boy but the boy looked at him like he was a crazy person.  The boy moved and Sawyer tried to follow him.  Poor Sawyer all he wanted was a friend.  We were also entertained by people going up and down the steps.  Right by us one of the steps was slightly higher than the other stairs.  I think about 90% of the people going up the stairs tripped on it.  Fortunately, nobody fell.  USU you need to do something about that.  

After the game we ran into a bunch of people from our Ward up there.  It was fun to catch up even if it wasn't for very long.  We were supposed to go meet up with our old neighbors after the game but Travis' aunt and uncle were in town and were leaving that night so we had to go see them for a bit.  We haven't seen this Neil and JoDene for a long time so it was good to catch up.  We missed seeing the Rowley's though, I was pretty bummed, so was Sawyer he wanted to see Brayden. 

We met up with Krista again to go to Aggie Ice Cream.  What is a visit to Cache Valley without it?  We even bought a stand of Caramel Cashew, my favorite.  I was really excited about that at the time but now my pants and I are not very happy about that decision. 

On Sunday we woke up and headed back home.  We were going to leave on Saturday night but we were both so exhausted that I know I wouldn't even make it out of the valley before I was asleep. We wanted to go to our new ward since everybody was so excited we moved into it.  We had a great weekend even if it wasn't very long. 

Snow White

We finally had our first snow storm of the season not too long ago- sometime in early Nov.  I was really worried we wouldn't see snow this year since we are still averaging 60 degree weather and it is December.  So crazy.  

We really enjoyed our little snow day.  Fortunately for us it was a weekend and we were able to have Travis home with us. Sawyer was especially thankful because this Mamma doesn't like to be cold and neither does the baby.  We just let Sawyer roam in the yard for a bit but all he really wanted to do was eat snow.  

We decided for dinner we would make some tin foil dinners and cook them outside in the fire pit.  Sawyer started helping Travis but then got so tired he just fell right asleep.  Baby J and I went and kept Travis company while the food cooked.  Unfortunately, we got caught up in the fire and we burned our dinners. 

Trick Or Treat

This Halloween was a bit hectic for this little family.  We moved on Tuesday night with the help of our new Ward, thank goodness.  I felt bad asking our old Ward to help us considering they helped us move our extremely heavy furniture not five months ago.  We got all of our stuff to the new place which was great considering most of the small stuff was already there- we moved slowly since it was just across a very small town.  The people who came to help cracked me up though, apparently they don't move often.  They were carrying big stuff like our dressed with the drawers in.  Are you nuts?  Did I mention most of these men were in their 40's or 50'S.  I was waiting for someone to have a heart attack, I am not saying they are out of shape but really they were lifting really heavy stuff.  

On Wednesday my dear sweet mother helped me clean our old place.  I really need to pay my debt to her for helping me clean two apartments from top to bottom in the last 5 months.  This apartment wasn't hard to clean though because we had only lived there a short time.  We got done cleaning and locked everything up for the new tenants just in time to get a little of the house put away before Travis came home from work.  

Trick-or-treating these days is kind of a joke.  When we were kids do you not remember running from house to house actually working for your candy?  Now with all of this trunk-or-treating kids get all the candy they need with one spin around the parking lot.  Oh how times have changed.  We got the kids ready and headed out to a few houses.  Jaylee was a great little kitten.  She did amazing, it was our little dragon that was difficult.  Sawyer didn't want to wear his costume at first, even though he loved wearing it around the house prior to Halloween.  To make matters worse, the first house we went to Sawyer tripped on the stairs and split his lip.  Poor thing.  It kind of put a damper on things for him.  Halloween is just not his holiday, last year hand-foot-mouth disease and this year a split lip.  Maybe next year will be better for him. 

All tuckered out

The blood from Sawyer's split lip, when Travis wears this shirt Sawyer asks where his owie is. 

The Opening Day

The Deer Hunt....need I say more?  This year I had the tag for the deer.  I decided last time I went hunting and passed up some bucks because "they were too small" that I would shoot anything that came along with antlers otherwise the hunt could go on for days.  

We were hunting in Circleville this year because, 1. it was my dear sweet Grandma's birthday opening day, and 2. that is where my babysitters were- love ya Aunt Nessa and Aunt Krista.  Plus, I love that we get to come home and eat and then go back out because nothing is very far away.  We headed down Friday night to go check the trail cams and get situated with everything.  My sisters brought Mariah's kids over to Grandma's to help celebrate and their parents were either hunting or working.  We ate some amazing homemade chicken noodle soup before the craziness of putting kids to bed started.  I kid you not we started getting kids ready for bed at 7:45 and finished putting kids to bed at 11:30, thank you very much Jaylee- she was the night owl.  We were all packing into Grandma's with three pack and plays for the babies and Sawyer who would wonder aimlessly if not confined.  The night started out swell until Jaylee woke up to be fed and I was oblivious to her.  Vanessa actually woke up and thought it was Hannah but to her relief it was my baby.  I fed Jaylee but then Hannah woke up about 15 min later which Vanessa didn't hear so then Sawyer woke up.  It was a bit of a three ringed circus for a little bit trying to get helping hands because I was the only one awake and I already had a baby.  We made it through the night though....barely.  

We came home and Sawyer was all ready to go hunting with his camo pants and his hunter orange, but he settled for a horse ride.

The opening morning Travis, Grandpa, Spencer and I headed out to the hunting grounds.  This is the worst part of hunting if you ask me.  We hiked to the top of hill in the pitch black in the freezing cold and sat there until the sun came up.  Fortunately, it was only half of an hour but still I was frozen.  Once the lights came on though all hell broke lose.  There were a lot of shots and all for a little forked horn.  When the sun came up too we were able to see all of the other out of town hunters in our spot, so frustrating.  Travis had been seeing a nice 4 point in our spot for weeks and the morning of the hunt he didn't show himself so we moved on before we got shot because people were every where.  

For lunch we all met up and headed down to Hoover's for Grandma's birthday luncheon.  We had quite the crew.  My mom and Dan met us there, along with Colby and Andie who were hunting on the Dutton.  Andie didn't have deer yet either, we were having a bit of a competition.  After lunch we headed back to the Grandparents to get ready to head out again.  Travis and I headed to the other end of the valley that requires more hiking to get to the areas so there goes all the lazy hunters.  We headed through the junipers and pinyons to find my buck. I kept getting distracted by all the pine nuts still in the trees.  I love those things.  My hunter/gatherer instincts kicked in and I started filling my pockets with pine nuts.  Hey if I didn't bring home meat we could have nuts. Finally just before dark we got this little one.  We thought me may have lost him in the sage brush but I found him.  Yep, it was like a needle in a haystack but we found him.  

We got him home and Travis finished cleaning him for me. I can not do raw meat after having kids. The smell and texture gets me all morning sick again.  It was a family affair out in the barn.  We were all excited that I got a deer until we started getting texts from Andie and Colby.  She won!!! She got a really nice 4 point.  If only I was that lucky.  Maybe next time. We finished the evening off with cake and ice cream.  Thanks for being born Grandma! 

Sunday morning we all headed to church, Saturday night went a lot more smoothly.  After church Grandma cooked a great roast and potato dinner.  We rested a bit and then headed back to Monroe.  Thanks for all the help and good times. 

Aunt Krista with the Mighty Hunter

Such a great Husband

Hunters in the making

Notice Zach Morris in the background

Just wants to be one of the big kids

Our nursery