Celebrate and Chickens

Hola. I'm catching up. Again. My bad. Again.

A couple weeks ago, Lish and I headed up north to spend some time with the family. Alisia was turning --, so we went up to celebrate with her. And celebrate we did! We had a fabulous dinner at none other than Chunk Chuck-A-Rama. I know you're jealous. It actually was pretty fun and the food was good, so bravo C-A-R, bravo. Courtney, Alex, Kyle and Chelsea all came down from Logan. Ashley, McLane and Mason, and Dallas were all in attendance. It was a par-tay. Good times. I'm so glad we got to go up and spend that weekend with everybody.

 (Kyle had this on his back from the time he walked in the door, through the whole dinner, and into the festivities that night. 

We had to finally tell him, after about 4 hours, that it was there. We're funny.)

Lish had to come back home for work, but I ended up staying a few more days and headed up to Bountiful to spend some time with my mom. She only had to work one day that week, which was lovely! While she was working, I went into Salt Lake and visited City Creek with my dad. It is pretty amazing what they've done with that space. I wonder how those shops will do, because I will never buy anything from a high majority of them. Though I will from the Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory. And the Cheesecake Factory. I love food.

Anywho, it was great to spend that time with my mom. My aunt and uncle came into town, so I got some good time in with my aunt as well. (My uncle was at a convention most of the time I was there.) I love spending time up there and visiting with my mom. She's a pretty amazing lady.

 Watch Yale feeding the chickens here and here.

Some of you may be wondering how Yale and I got back home since we only have one car. Well, I found out that one of my friends from high school wanted to come down with her hubs, so I was able to hitch a ride with them and I'm so grateful they let us ride along! They spent a night with us, which was really nice. It was fun to catch up with her and get to know her husband a little bit since I hadn't met him before.

Sometimes I Run

It's official: I have signed up for the St. George Marathon on October 6th. I'm excited to accomplish this goal, but not so excited for training. Especially since the training months are over the hottest months of the year. But whatever. You can just remind me that I knew what I was getting myself into.

A couple Saturdays ago I went running with a friend. When we met up, she asked where I wanted to run, and I said, "I kind of want to run to Arizona." She said, "That's funny. I do, too!" So we did. It was longer than I expected it to be, and there was a cycling race on the road we were running down. I suppose it was motivating to be running with so many people passing us. As we were running, one of the race photographers took our picture:

Yes, we look lovely. It was a fun run and it's great to have this little reminder of it.

Easter Happiness

Happy Easter readers! Don't you love this holiday? Me too. Not only is it fun now that we have a little one to find hidden eggs, but I love getting to celebrate the resurrection of our Savior. As I logged into Facebook today, it was hard not to notice all the testimonies that my friends and family had written. And they were beautiful. Some of them quoted hymns, some quoted prophets and apostles (read a great article about Easter here), and some were just their own words. I loved reading through them and seeing what an impact this holiday has on so many people. While I don't feel especially comfortable sharing my own testimony on the blog-o-sphere, I wanted to share some words from one of my favorite hymns, I Know that my Redeemer Lives:

He lives! All glory to his name!

He lives! My Savior still the same.

Oh, sweet the joy this sentence gives:

"I know that my Redeemer lives!"

Beautiful. I couldn't have said it better myself.

Lish and I had fun getting Yale's Easter basket together last night. We did one last year, but this year we actually got to put stuff in the eggs. Last year I just gave him empty eggs because I knew he would like trying to put them in his mouth. Apparently not much changed, because he did that again this year, but he did get to eat the goodies inside. (Rather than putting candy in each egg, we put in Goldfish crackers and yogurt bites. He gobbled them up! We had a few with jelly beans too, because he is his father's son.) It was fun to "hide" them and help him find them. Can't wait to do it again next year!

We're heading over to my aunt's house for dinner and we decided it would be fun to make Easter baskets for each other. Here is a peek at their baskets. Can't wait to see what surprises are in ours!

Fat Lip

Yale has had owies before. Plenty of them actually. He's quite the accident prone little boy. (Did I really just call him a little boy?) I didn't not expect that. I was just hoping it'd hold off for a few more years. Silly hopes. I should have known as soon as he starting walking that he'd sprout into that role quickly. Actually, I should have known before he was even walking. He's had bumps and bruises many a time.

But this one was different. This was one bad. And it makes me sad. Not preventing it makes me mad. But he has since acted glad. (There's a little Dr. Suess for ya. You're welcome.) 

We were over at some friends' house last night and he was playing with one of their toys. Of course he tried climbing on it, because that's how you can tell if a toy is really good or not, and he fell right into the wall. His darn teeth totally cut open his lip and he was bleeding more than he's ever bled before. He was brave though and calmed down within 5 minutes and doesn't seem bothered by it today, but I snapped some pictures so you could all feel sad with me.

I know. Sad. But doesn't he look adorable in his new stripped green shirt? I love summer clothes!

And also, I know what you're thinking, and yes. He is getting another haircut tomorrow morning.

Thirty, Flirty and Thriving

That should probably be my title when I turn 30. But I am not quite there yet. Lish is though. Just made it on Monday. Maybe his title should have been "The Dirty Thirty," because he's a boy. And boys are dirty. I guess since he's 30 though, he's a man. On the outside. Still a boy on the inside. I think that's how most men are. Agreed? Yeah.

We had a wonderful celebration to mark this end and beginning of a decade. We kind of celebrated all weekend. Karen and Scott came down for the weekend on Thursday. With them, they brought this little beauty:

I know. Be jealous. Be very jealous. Lish has wanted a tank like this for a long time. And he thought he'd never get one this big. He said, "I know it's cheesy, but it's like a dream come true." It was so fun to see his face when he found out what we had gotten him. And then to see his face when he saw the fish. And again when it was all set up. And then again when he was arranging and rearranging the decorations and plants. And then finally after we went out and bought lights for it. And of course throughout the rest of the weekend. Even yesterday, as we were pulling not the garage after going to the gym, he said, "Whitney, I really love my fish tank." That makes me happy.

Not only did he get the fish tank, but he also got the basketball that he's been wanting for about 6 years. He's kept asking for it, but I'd always get him something else. When my dad asked what they could get him for his birthday, my first response was, "Brown dress shoes. His are old." But then I thought, that's what I want him to have, not necessarily what he wants to have. So I changed my answer. The first thing he did when he got that ball was write his name on it. He hasn't used it yet, but he will tomorrow night, and I'm sure he can't wait!

Along with all the gift spoiling, Lish had some amazing food this weekend. We went to our favorite Thai restaurant for his birthday with Karen and Scott, then on Sunday I made these little devils. And of course we had cake, but this year we did a little variation and had cake pops. Yum! Lish is loved.

If Wishes were Fishes...

. . . Then Lish's came true! There's a lot to catch up on (I know, go figure), but for now, just enjoy this, because we definitely are:

Happy birthday weekend Lish! I love that you were so excited about this gift. It was like watching a kid in a candy shop.

Yale's 1st Camping Trip

It's Spring break this week (Yay Spring Breeeaaaaakkkkk!!), so a few months ago we decided it would be fun to try camping with Yale. We reserved a campsite in Zion's for a couple of nights. We were a bit ambitious. It's March. Which means it's still winter. Which means it gets cold at night. We were aware of the fact that it would be cold in the middle of the night, so in anticipation for the coldness, we bought a tent/camping heater. It was stupid. Didn't help a lick. Yale woke up around 1am crying, so I went to put his shut-it plug pacifier in and he grabbed me around my neck and wouldn't let go. He was shivering because he was so cold. Poor little guy. I stuck him in my sleeping bag with me, which was great for him. He fell right back asleep and stayed asleep for the rest of the night. I didn't go back to sleep.  At least not for a couple hours. And when I did start dozing off, I would get an arm in my face. Or at one point a leg.

Because of the fact that neither Lish nor I slept well, we cut our trip a little short and came back before we'd have to sleep there again. We were still able to go on four hikes and the weather during the day was lovely. I also got to carry Yale in the backpack and see what all the fuss was about. And I was fussy. My shoulders and back hurt. I'm glad it was a shorter hike. For realsies.

We got an annual pass to get into Zion's, so if anyone wants to join us, please do! This offer expires at the end of March 2013. (Or December 21, 2012.)