Happy Halloween

Lily was a Lady Bug for Halloween this year, and I'm pretty sure she was the cutest one we had ever seen! This year was so much fun because Lily was actually able to go trick-or-treating. She lasted about 30 minutes, so we were able to make it up our street before she gave out. She actually sat down on the sidewalk when she was done. We had to carry her home because she was so tired.

We had our family Halloween party at the Knowlden's house, and it turned out fabulous like always. Most everyone dressed up, and we had some yummy soup and played a few games. It was fun to get together with everyone.

We even had some fun with friends for Halloween. We went to a corn maze with Jesse and Alice, Brianne and Sean, and Holly and Landon. They had these little tractor things that you could ride around, we went down this plastic slide, and went through the haunted hay ride. The corn maze was a little lame, but we still made it fun.

On Halloween night we decided to go watch a creepy movie up in the mountains. So we borrowed Brad's projector and made our screen with PVC pipe and a white sheet. We watched 28 Weeks Later, which was a super creepy zombie movie. It was an epic Halloween night!

Little Miss Attitude

Over the past few months our sweet little Lily Bug has turned into such a Diva! She has such a personality, and such an Attitude. She definitely has a mind of her own, and she does not want to be told what to do. Her new favorite word is "NO" and she says it all the time. Now that she is walking, she is extremely independent and wants to do everything herself. It has been a fun adjustment.

 I think this facial expression should some up everything I have been talking about (A Total Diva)! Don't get me wrong, we definitely love our little Diva, but she is a pill. Some of the things that have become difficult with this new attitude is eating, napping, changing her diaper, brushing her teeth, getting her dressed, and pretty much anything that she doesn't seem to think is important at the moment. Our wrestling skills are improving every day!

We sure love you Lily!!

A Day at the Zoo with Afi

Dave's work rented out the Zoo for an evening so we took Lily for the first time. She absolutely loved the Polar Bear. He would swim right up to the glass and push off into a back glide and then do it all over again. He was hilarious to watch and all the kids were going crazy. We also saw the giraffes, lions, monkeys, elephants, tigers, seals, and bears.

We waited in the long line to take a ride on the train, and Lily loved it! We went to play on the playground after the train ride and it was hard to peel Lily away from it when we were ready to leave. She had such a blast.

Don't ask me how we all fit into the egg, but we did it. It smelled pretty bad in there, but it was a cute picture! We went to see the bird show, which was actually very entertaining. They had the birds flying right over our heads and doing some pretty impressive tricks. Lily loved it and so did us adults. We had so much fun at the zoo with Afi, we might even get season passes next year. I guess we will see.

State Fair with the Nelsons

We try to go the the State Fair every year with Jesse and Alice because that is where Alice and I first met. We like to call it our Anniversary (ha ha ha). We brought Lily along with us this year and it was funny to see her reaction to some the the animals that we saw.

We watched some amazing high divers when we first got there, and then we went around to see all the different animals. We saw sheep, goats, a super cool owl, cows, bunnies and these crazy looking birds. We went shopping for some sunglasses, and were successful at finding great deals. We even found a pair for Lily! Oh how we love the State Fair.

Las Vegas with the Lily Bug

Bryce had a conference in Las Vegas for work and they were going to pay for his gas to drive there, so we had the brilliant idea to have Lily and I tag along. We had a fun time, but we will NEVER bring a 1 year old to Vegas again. Lily did not sleep at all, and she did not want to be in the stroller  so we had a really difficult time doing anything with her. We stayed in the Caesar's Palace, which was really nice. Lily and I were able to spend some time at the amazing swimming pool where she grabbed everyone's attention with her amazing dance skills. They had some stairs in the middle of the pool that she loved playing on. She would be climbing up the stairs and then start shaking her booty for everyone to see. We had people coming up to us and asking if they could see her dance because they heard it was hilarious. She was loving all the attention. We also enjoyed the aquarium at Mandalay Bay. I didn't realize how far it was to walk there from Caesar's Palace, but it took us a good hour and a half to walk there. It was really fun to see Lily with all the fish.

Bryce's manager invited Lily and I to join them at some pretty fancy restaurants. We went to the Top of the World at the Stratosphere. That was really fun because the floor slowly turns in a circle so your view of the strip is constantly changing. It made me a little bit sick, but it was still a really fun experience. Lily struggled because the food was pretty fancy, and she was super tired so we ended up leaving earlier than Bryce and his co-workers. Lily fell asleep on the drive to our hotel, so I had to carry her from the parking lot all the way up to our room in heels. I was super tired! They also took us to a fancy steak and seafood restaurant at the Caesar's Palace, and I actually enjoyed some steak, which is rare because I hate steak.

We stopped at McDonalds for some food on our drive home and got some shots of our Lily bug and her love for Ketchup. It was an exhausting, but fun trip to Vegas with our child. And we will never ever do it again!!

Havasupai

We went on our epic adventure to Havasupai in August with Jesse and Alice, Landon and Holly, and ourselves. It was a difficult, but extremely rewarding trip!

Havasupai is at the base of the Grand Canyon, and it took us about 15 hours to drive there. Bryce and I headed out at about 9:00 in the morning to pick up the others, and we didn't arrive at the trail head until midnight. We all got our gear on and were headed out on the long journey.

 It was an extremely hard hike into the reservation. It was mostly downhill, but it was about 11 miles and we were all so tired from the drive. We made it to the reservation to check in when the sun started coming up. Then, after we checked in, we had another 2 or 3 miles to the campground. Once we got to the campground we all set up our tents and slept for as long as we could, but it got too hot to sleep too long. We got camp all set up and then spent the rest of the day relaxing in the water. Havasu Falls was right by our campground so it was a really nice place to hang out and swim.

There were a bunch of small pools you could hang out in, and a few small waterfalls you could jump off. The boys enjoyed climbing up the wall at the base of Havasu Falls and jumping off. It was a little too intense for us girls, but it was fun to watch. That was where we bathed and hung out most of the time. We even played a little game of Bocce Ball with some gords that we found by the campground. Landon and Holly were the winners of the tournament, but it was so much fun.

We hiked down to Mooney Falls and Beaver Falls the second day we were there. The hike to Mooney was pretty short and easy, but we had to climb through a tunnel and down a really sketchy slope with chains to hold on too. It was quite a process, but Mooney Falls was incredible to see. It was a huge waterfall with gorgeous blue water at the bottom. It was one of my favorites that we saw.

Once we got down to Mooney and relaxed for a bit, we headed to Beaver Falls. It was about 3 miles hiking through a river to get there. We had a lot of fun in the water, and we even found some cute little critters along the way. We found one pool that was deep enough to jump into and had fun there. Once we got to Beaver Falls there was a huge group of people jumping off this massive cliff. The boys were brave enough to jump it, and even Holly did it. Alice and I were not stupid enough to try it out. We had a little lunch and then started on the hike back to camp.

The hike back to camp was a little more difficult because we didn't want to walk upstream. We had to wind through the trees and through the water in order to get back. It was really fun to find ourselves in the middle of a field of grapes. It was massive, and we just walked through a trail. We got some fun pictures of us going through it.

 The next day we decided to use our blow up tubes and float down the river. It was really scary at parts where we had to climb down, rather than ride the rapids on our tubes. Landon popped his tube a few times, but was able to patch it up and keep going. We came across a really cool waterfall that you could jump right off the top of. It was the funnest jump we had done so far.

The last day we just hung out at Havasu Falls and the boys went to explore and old mine. It was pretty scary, so I am glad the girls stayed behind. They came back with fun pictures and even a few treasures that they found along the way. 

The animals there were pretty sad looking, but very nice. There were a bunch of wild dogs that would just wander around the campgrounds. They didn't want to be touched, they just wanted to hang out with us. We had some unfortunate luck with the squirrels. They chewed holes in the Nelson's tent and also the Michael's tent. I don't know how Bryce and I lucked out, but they didn't touch ours. The boys got their vengeance by killing the critter and leaving it behind. We also came across an awesome looking snake and even a few taranchulas.

The hike out was a lot easier for us for some reason. I think it was because we were well rested and we headed out right as the sun was going down. We made it to the car in half the time it took us to get there. It was the most difficult hike I have ever done, but we had such a great time it was worth it. We stopped at Denny's and had an amazing breakfast at like 2 in the morning. It was Fantastic! The trip was a success, and we will never forget the amazing adventure at Havasupai.