yellowstone family reunion part 1

 Jason's family had a family reunion in Yellowstone.

 Got in on Saturday afternoon. Here is where we stayed in Island Park- Legacy Lodge.  We got a great room on the second floor, with an attached bathroom.  But fortunate for us, the bathroom door was difficult to open- otherwise it would have taken hours longer for Claire to fall asleep at night. (Yep, she fights sleep, just like her mom who only napped for 20 minutes even as a baby.)  We also had a tall dresser that we would put in front of the walk in closet, to keep her out of there and hopefully go to sleep instead of getting into stuff.  One night that we tried to go to bed, before Claire was asleep at 10pm because we had to wake early the next day.  She thought this was grand and stayed up to midnight, just to show us how much she loved our company.  Thanks goodness she didn't wake up Trevor!  But even with the little sleep, she was great- not many tantrums- which is amazing and awesome for her! She only had one huge tantrum- during the family pictures, of course...lol- you'll see that in the next post.


Each night we played "minute to win it" games.  The first night's game was keeping the balloon up in the air as long as possible.

 Sunday- We went for a short hike to Mesa Falls.  It was beautiful, but really hot- so we didn't stay loing.

 Claire and Matthew were practically attached at the hip the whole trip.  If ever we wanted Claire to do something, like sit down for dinner, we would just ask Matthew to and Claire would then stop playing and come to eat dinner. lol- silly girl

Look at that cute lil boy, checking out dad while he takes our pic

 Monday-Yellowstone Park
On our way to the park, I saw these grass fields that looked to be sprayed with yellow- they actually were daises

I love how the landscape is so varied here

 Gotta love these kids

Old Faithful- yes it was faithful, only off by a few minutes :)

 We went for a walk around Old Faithful- and found these little treasures- wow, so breathtakingly blue

Looking up in the lodge at Old Faithful

The two amazing babies who endured all our travels very well :)- hard to tell that our chubby (good eating) boy is actually younger than his cute cousin, Alyson.  I sure do love his chubbs, just warms my heart- that he is growing so well, all from me.  Yep its a lotta work to breastfeed, but look at the rewards!

 An island that is under water in the river... maybe it was a lake... can't remember

 Dragon Mouth Spring- it really did sound like a dragon- and smelled like one too (if dragons were real :))

 The game tonight was to keep the blocks on their head.  Claire and Matthew thought the point was to knock it off their head...lol

 Claire found her sanctuary in a closet of sleeping bags

 Tuesday- Out little fam went on a hike to Mystic Falls

 Jewel geyser along the way

 All over Yellowstone, there are trees that are fallen while others stand... I guess the ground is pretty hot

 It was a nice, short hike- perfect for kids

 Can you believe that it was there was a short downpour of rain, right before this?  It felt nice after our hike.

Then we waked around black sand basin for a little

 Trying to fling jellybeans the farthest

baby blessing

Baby blessings are different than baby christenings. In our church we believe that infants are born innocent and without sin so we don't sprinkle water on them. In baby blessings their baby's name is stated (and recorded in church records) and they are given blessings to help them as they grow up. Jason gave Trevor a beautiful blessing.

Here is the outfit I made Trevor. It was my first time doing pin-tucks (3 pin-tucks on each side, under vest), but I think they turned out well. (Oh yes, and thanks for the comments and emails with photography tips in my previous post- using a boppy really helped!) I also found some good tips here. If you know of any other good photography tutorials, please share!



There are buttons in the back, but its hard to button them with just one person... That is why the collar looks funny. But I love these pics though, fists tight, toes pointed... this is how he looks when he lets out a cute, happy squeal.

Since we live in the same ward as his cousin Alyson, who was born 3 weeks earlier, they actually had their baby blessings on the same Sunday. And we had a yummy waffle bar brunch afterwards.







And here are some pics of the two babies:
(they were actually holding hands for a brief second, before this pic was taken... too cute)

grandparents visit

Trevor sure loves grandma's kisses


(blurry but cute)


Trevor loving the attention from Uncle Eric and Grandpa


Trevor doing some stretching


Claire loves Olson! He was a good distraction from little Trevor getting so much attention.

stadium of fire + swimming

This year, Jason's work, Qualtrics, sponsored the Stadium of Fire and bought tickets for all the employees and their family. We got to sit in air-conditioned box seats. This was great because it was really hot outside, and it was nice to nurse Trevor in a cool place, and nice to keep Claire contained in a room. When we checked out our seats outside, Claire loved running up and down the benches... and it was tiring to keep track of her.




I fed Trevor at 6pm and then he slept till 9pm (when I woke him up). I was so amazed that he didn't wake up, even when David Archuleta was belting it out.


My favorite part of the show was, right before the big firework show, they had the stadium of fire dancers (young girls, probably age 4- 18) were dancing with want looked like glow in the dark batons, to the song "firework" while some fireworks went off at certain keywords in the song like "firework" and "boom". Sounds cheesy, but it was cool.
Here is a video someone took of it:

(I have to say, the dancing looked much cooler from our seats... the glow in dark batons made a flag design)



For the fourth of July we went swimming.


Trevor enjoyed it, yet it was really tiring :)

two cuties

I can't believe how grown up looking my little girl is... they grow up too fast! She loves 'taking a smile', as she calls it, but these pics are actually not cheesy, eye squinting grins



Claire was finally not sick! And she asked to hold baby Trevor, he is almost 2 months old in these pics... Here she is singing rockabye baby... Claire loves to sing!

Here she is sushing him, as she sees mom do alot, lol

Trevor is such a smiley baby! With Claire, I remembering having to work real hard to get her to smile...but when I smile and this little guy smiles too! ( As long as he isn't hungry or tired =D)

(right) This little cutie at 2 months. So maybe its because this little guy is well acquainted with pain, with all his gas issues, but his 2 month shots didn't phase him at all. Yes he cried when they poked him, but then I nursed him, he fell asleep, and he never seemed bothered by it at all. With Claire I remembering it being a rough couple days afterward. But with Trevor, even after he woke up from his nap, he had lots of big smiles for me! As Jason said about his shots, "He took it like a man"

Claire loves "taking a smile" with Trevor! And as you can tell, she loves her baby brother!


Tummy Time for Trevor, Claire and Tiger

Now time to kick those legs



We love our little cuties!