Happy Weekend!

We have grass for the FIRST time ever.

Grass courtesy of: Brother Isaacson tilling, my mom picking out all the rocks and Mike seeding, watering and mowing.

Hurray for grass and hurray weekends!

Sherwood Reunion

Photo Credit to Travis Hoban

Last month we had the pleasure of spending a long weekend in Utah with the Sherwoods (meaning: Mom & Dad, siblings and their families). It was the first time we had all been together in one place at the same time since before Jake's mission. This could be considered quite the feat now that we live in 5 different states!

Sherwood vacations are always relaxing; allowing for lots of cousin playtime, fun game nights and at least one manly hike/photography adventure. This reunion proved the rule and was great for quality togetherness time.

We stayed up near the Powder Mountain Ski Resort which allowed for a real 'get away' feeling. The cousins played and played. One afternoon they went for a hike up the old ski runs and two other afternoons we drove into Huntsville to play at the perfect little city park.

This is my nephew Isaac

Grandma and Papa Zeke took full advantage of having their 6 grandkids around and seemed to be endlessly playing, coloring or going outside for a walk together. Asa perfected his "Papa" and is now enthralled by the moon and often points out the moon, exclaiming "MOON! MOON!" whenever it is visible.

One thing that really got the ball rolling for me for this reunion was the opportunity meet my newest little nephew, Tanner. Since he lives on the other side of the country I was excited to finally be able to snuggle him! He is right between my boys in age - so I imagine in a few years they'll be the rascals that we'll be needing to keep an eye on! Not to mention the older 2 boy cousins that will be leading the way.

Look at those cheeks!

It was a fantastic weekend and we were sad to go home. If you don't believe me just take a look at my kids the moment we got outside at the Phoenix airport:

Yeah, there were tears shed, a 2 hour flight delay and a dead car battery to deal with at 1 am - but that's not why Annabelle is passed out in a wheelchair while Asa bawled. We really just wanted to stay in Utah forever :)

P.S. Mike and Sam's photography can be perused in the October archives of the Photo Blog: here

The TRIPLE Crown

The Triple Crown is a family holiday in which we celebrate my mom, mine and Annabelle's birthdays. We all three share the same birthday.

This year my parents and younger brother Jake came down for a long weekend. We were lucky enough to have a little bit of a cool down from the summer heat that still exists in mid October here - so we enjoyed a day at the zoo, a pumpkin patch and the morning at the park.

As far as pumpkin patches this far south go . . . the pumpkins don't grow there, but they make sure that there are still plenty of attractions. We raced around on the pedal carts, went on a 'who done it' mystery search in the corn maze, rode a barrel cart train and on and on.

Asa was too little to reach the pedals but he was happy to sit on Grandma's lap and let her do all the work of racing around!

Annabelle got a bike for her birthday this year and so that of course called for an outing to the park to try it out. With my brother Jake in town that meant long boarding . . .

. . . which brought me back to my more carefree days, so I got to take a cruise for my birthday as well! Luckily being 6 months pregnant didn't affect my center of gravity too much :D

(here is my Dad, Jake and Asa relaxing in the shade at the park)

Annabelle was also surprised by a quilt my mom had sewn for her - between that and a pillow pet she was actually pretty excited about going to bed!

We enjoyed a birthday lunch at Abuelo's - my favorite mexican restaurant and of course ate our traditional cheesecake. Yum!

Thanks for coming down!