mmmmmm Turkey!

I'm thankful for my FAMILY



This Thanksgiving was a week packed full of food, birthday parties, food, baby blessing, food, game playing, food, & just some good ole hanging out with family family family!
Thanks for the good times, we love you ALL!

SNOW

Baby Powder + 2 year old = winter wonderland



It's normal to find ALL Sam's toys & books out when we first go in his room in the morning, but today he decided to frost it all.



My dad called and said it snowed in Utah last night. I said,"Hey it snowed here too!"

SCARY daddy

Taylor = Zombie Sam = Pirate Aubree = Banshee


Halloween was so much fun this year! We started off with a party at the cousins with hay rides, smore making, and around the house trick-or-treating.







Then, Sam had a blast trick-or-treating with the cousins!

a Hitchin'

We got to go to a beautiful wedding at the Newport temple! Taylor's brother, Matt, married a beautiful Marie, and it was a perfect day!

2

Even though we had soo much fun celebrating Sams 2nd Birthday, I am still sad because I don't have a little baby boy anymore. He's a toddler!

This sweet, silly, crazy, handsome boy has seriously brought so much joy into my life, I just hope he has enjoyed the past two years as much as I have!


Happy Birthday!

Sam

"The most wasted of all days is one without laughter." - ee cummings

Since school started and Taylor is soo busy teaching, I have been hanging out with this little hooligan a lot. He really livens things up with all the things he does to crack me up.

We went to an outdoor movie and every time I tried to get a picture Sam would either turn his head or pull a face! haha I wonder where he got that from?

also, the movie was despicable me, and when he shrank the moon, Sam yelled out for everyone to hear, "UhOh! Fall! Moon!"

I don't know what he was doing in this one, but everytime I see it I can't stop laughing.

One day Sam did this acrobatic stunt over and over purely for my entertainment. He would climb up and do that pike thing on the couch arm then give me a smile before he jumped for an enthusiastic landing.

Kern

We got to ride some white water on the Kern river, and it was a Blast! We even got to bring Sam with us.... no, not down the river, he just got to hang out at the campground, and I'm pretty sure he loved swimming in the river too.

It's Summer!

It had been pretty much soo hot outside so I was reluctant to take Sam for a walk yesterday, but soon after we left we ran into sprinklers! Sam started yelling 1-2-3 go go go! and how how could I resist. So we were soaked by the end cause we went through so many sprinklers, and it felt great! Thank goodness for the need to water grass!

Sam is growing up way too fast! He started talking a ton more, he grew so tall, and he is even trying to swim without his floaties!
Sam loves having daddy around for the summer
and playing with cousins... Ashlyn took Sam & Jaxon for a walk.
They were a little freaked out by her method of pushing though. We found them upside down on the grass cause Ashlyn said they were taking a break.
Then, we went to the beach!
yeah we bought that chair for 89 cents
A cool cave

So Sam thinks he is old enough to dress himself now... yes, that is a shirt around his waist.

Bear Lake

We got to go to Bear Lake and see a bunch of cousins and play play play! we love riding in Pheobe(Grandy's painted bug) then go for 4-wheeler rides. vroom vroom!
Boating
Even though the water was freezing Sam jumped right off the boat to swim with daddy.
I love how my hair is standing straight up!
Since the water was so high there was pretty much no beach left so we cleared some rock and pulled some weeds so we would have a place to play.
Taylor wake boarding

Sam loved the wave cutter, even though he was pretty squished
Rick on his air chair
the loft
I love my cousins!
Driving the boat with Grandpa Rick or, "Grock."
The 4th of July was a pretty overcast and cold day, but we still went for a boat ride...
and a 4-wheeler ride
We drove back to my parents house that night and I was a little bumbed cause I thought I would miss all the fireworks, but we actually had the best seat in the house in our car driving down the freeway. We saw firework show after show all the way back.

Happy Birthday Taylor!

So on his actual birthday we went out for dinner at the bombay house and had quite the Indian experience.
Then we had this most delicious ice cream pie!

Yellowstone

We ventured up to Island Park, Idaho where we spent the night at my brother's in-laws, the Skenendors, and Sam LOVED their dog, Harley.
We got to do some four wheeling there too.
After my dad got his mounted fish in Idaho we headed over to Yellowstone.
We saw lots of cool waterfalls...
some small gysers...
and some big ones like Old Faithful.
There we buffalo everywhere, or horsies as Sam would say.
hot pools
Marshmallows

this gyser is actually way bigger than all the rest, but it isn't faithful and goes off between five years and a month.
The Grand Canyon of Yellowstone
With all the high water the falls were pretty powerful & we got to look right over this one.


That waterfall from a distance
The top of the other falls in that canyon.
Looking out at Yellowstone Lake
more hot springs & mud pots.




Grand Prismatic Spring: It was like a steam room!


Sam reading on our long drive to Bear Lake. What a good kid!