trip to the zoo for eleanor's birthday

on friday john, eleanor, sara, lori, evan and i visited the zoo. it was a beautiful fall day and we really enjoyed having sara, lori & evan with us. as you can see, sara took some amazing photographs for us. thanks starla!

after about 2 hours of the he zoo we took a little break and headed up the canyon to ruth's. again, the fall weather was so nice and we enjoyed a yummy lunch outside. after lunch sara had to go take some bridals while the rest of us returned to the zoo for another half hour or so. i really like hogel zoo. it's small, clean and has plenty of shade. of course eleanor loved all the animals. i don't know what to think about this animal lover i'm raising...i really don't know where she gets it from. anyway, john bought a season pass so i'm sure there will be plenty more trips during the next 12 months....

september 20... eleanor turns one

a year... an entire year.wow, it seems so strange that our eleanor is one! she was so cute on her birthday! john took both thursday and friday off to celebrate eleanor's "birthday week". i've never been one for just "birthdays" in my opion it needs to be "birthday week". right when she woke up john and i sang happy birthday to her and she thought she was SOO cool. (i'd been singing happy birthday to her all week prepping her for her big debut). right after her birthday we jumped in the car and headed down to magleby's fresh for some breakfast, or should i say suryp (i go there just for the suryp). after breakfast we took eleanor to the photobooth to get her photos done. i'm a HUGE fan of photobooth photos and have been trying to get her to one at least once a month. i was a little disappointed in the quality, but they were still cute. i plan on taking all my kids photobooth photos on their birthdays.

after the photobooth we headed to old navy to pick up an outfit for eleanor's birthday party and to let her see that dang dog in the store. for some reason eleanor is a HUGE animal fan. john and i wonder where she got it from because we both don't care too much for animals. after old navy john had to take her to petsmart to go see the animals. i know, its kind of lame, but it made her day. we looked at every animal and ALMOST bought a bird. we are still thinking about it.

the rest of the day john and eleanor hung out together and i headed up to school. i wanted to stay home, but i had my first critique and could not miss it. i felt a little guilty not being with eleanor, but she and john and a good time playing. after school i went to the airport to pick up sara. she came into town to shoot some bridals and we were lucky to have her for eleanor's birthday party. my next post will include many great photos sara took of our trip to the zoo and eleanor's birthday party. she did an amazing job!!

oktoberfest fest

last sunday we decided to venture up to little cotton wood canyon to attend our 4th oktoberfest. correction, we didn't quite make it to #3 last year. somehow we got to the peek of big cotton wood canyon before we realized we were in the wrong canyon. (i still get a kick out of this and johns still embarrassed about it). years past we've always gone up on saturdays and found this year that sundays are much more exciting. there are a lot more people and it makes for some good people watching. of course the brauts and sauerkraut were delicious. john finally decided to try sauerkraut and actually enjoyed it. of course john and i stuck out like a sore thumb with diet pepsi in hand and a kid in a stroller....

utah state fair

utah football...

It's here, utah football season! I'm so excited for this season!! This Saturday was the Ute's first home game. Unfortunately, they lost...but we had a good time going. Before the game we met up with the Hackings at Ruth's Diner up immigration canyon. It was a perfect day for lunch up the canyon. There is defiantly a hint of fall in the air and some leaves have even started changing. Of course lunch was EXCELLENT. For anyone living or visiting Utah, Ruth's Diner is a MUST!

After lunch we headed over to the game. John and I got to our seats pretty early thanks to his handicap parking. That thing is priceless!! The game started at 4pm and it was HOT! This was Eleanor and Evan's first game and of course we didn't expect them to last the entire game. They both did really good until halftime. Eleanor was LOVING the band and all the clapping. She thought everyone was clapping for her. Of course we had to get her a snow cone and that kept her entertained for about 20 mins and then she was a little upset when it was gone. That little girl LOVES her food! Finally just before halftime Lori and I left the game and took the kids over to her sister-in-law's house. It was just too hot and the kids were starting to get a little fussy. After the 3rd quarter John and Ryan left and we all headed over to Leatherbys. John ordered something with the name Granny in it and it fed all four of us. It was supper good but really rich!

Overall we had a great night and we are looking forward to many more games...lets just hope we win a few!

my new little obsession....

i'm in love with squeaky shoes! i just got this pair for eleanor. i've since order another pair online and can't wait to get them. we are trying to help eleanor start walking and i think these shoes are the key. every time she takes a step they make a cute (right now i think its cute, i'm sure when she gets the walking thing down and she's non-stop squeaking, i won't think its so cute) little squeaking noise. right now eleanor is totally satisfied with crawling...but maybe this will work.

los dos amigos...

I swear these two little kids are the cutest! We watched Evan the other day and it was so nice having a little play mate for Eleanor. Those two follow each other all over the house and LOVE getting into everything! Its funny how opposite these two are. Evan is such an easy going kid. He NEVER cries and doesn't get upset at Eleanor when she climbs, hits or kisses on him. I tried getting a photo of Eleanor kissing Evan, but I wasn't able to catch it. Its the funniest thing! She grabs his head and pulls him into her and kisses his forehead. This makes me a little jealous...she rarely gives out kisses! I'm so happy these two are friends!!!!!

labor day weekend...

Labor Day weekend was a little slow for us. John and Eleanor got that horrible stomach bug that's been making its way around. Friday John took off work, and even though he and Eleanor weren't feeling so hot..we took a little drive up the canyon to Cascade Springs. John and I went there about 6 years ago and I remembered it being so pretty. A few years ago a there was a fire and so now its not quite as pretty, but it was still fun. Eleanor enjoyed taking a little dip in the water and watching all the butterflies.

Saturday we headed up to Park City to watch the Women's International Ski Jumping Festival at the Olympic Park. We were a little disappointed that they ended up canceling the competition because of the wind. Before they canceled it we were able to watch a few jumps and listen to Bryon Friedman and his band. We've been to competitions before, but this was the first time we actually got to sit on the landing of the jumps. Of course Eleanor was more interested in crawling on the landing then watching the jumping. Overall, we had a pretty good time even if the competition was canceled. I think just being there made both John and I pretty anxious for the slopes to open this season!

the month of august...

Is August really over? I can't believe how fast it has flown by! I know I am quite behind of my blog. I promised myself I would do a quick catch up post this weekend. So, get ready for a pretty lengthy post...sorry.

August 11th: Salem Days with John's family & Eleanor's trip #2 to the ER

Brooke, Jessica, Jordan, Eleanor and Amanda
John and Eleanor feeding the ducks. Eleanor kept calling the ducks "dugs".

Eleanor's second trip to the ER. During the week she started feeling bad and wouldn't eat or drink much and anything she did, she would throw up. On Saturday night she had thrown up so much and was so out of it that we called the DR. and he had us take her to the ER. They did some blood test and it showed she had a virus and was dehydrated. They had to give her an IV (the hardest thing to watch!!) and pump her full of fluids. Poor little girl was not to thrilled about her IV! (Notice my nice outfit. She had thrown up all over me and luckily John had a change of clothes in the car. )

August 12-20: Surprise trip to Arizona with Tiffany and Addie

Early Sunday morning, and I mean EARLY, Tiffany, Addie, Eleanor and myself heading out for Arizona. Tiffany's brother, Riley, was going home from his mission and I hadn't been to to AZ for a few months. I had only told Amy that was I was coming, and surprisingly she only told Sara and Niki (for which she had good reasons). The trip down was so much fun. I was a little worried about traveling with the girls and about Eleanor being sick, but they did GREAT! Addie didn't make a beep the entire trip and Eleanor cried for about 15 mins just outside of Flag.

I wish I had a photo of my parents when they saw Eleanor. I put Eleanor in her car seat right in front of the door, hid behind the pillar and rang the doorbell. My dad was first to answer and he was so cute when he saw her. Total shock! Next, they told my mom that someone was at the door for her. When she saw Eleanor her words were, "That baby looks like Ella". Ha ha, it was so funny.

Friday night John and Paul drove down and we didn't tell my parents John was coming, so on Saturday morning they got another surprise. My little vacation in AZ was so much fun. I only wish I could have stayed longer!!

Eleanor with Jake, my mom's new dog. ELeanor LOVES dogs so much so that her first word was "dugie"

Dinner with the Beecrofts at Sauces. It was so much fun catching up and reminiscing about the good 'ol Chile days.

Eleanor discovering butter. Its not too clear in this photo, but Eleanor found the little cubes of butter and ate the entire thing. She was not happy when I took it away from her. All the girls in the family went to Stephanie Meyer's Eclipse signing. It was so much fun! I loved hanging out with all the girls! I wish I lived closer so I could get together with them more often!!Eleanor and Ty playing. They both wanted to play with this toy and this seemed the only way to keep both happy. Ty is so cute with Eleanor. He came over one day with a teddy bear and balloons for Eleanor. He is so dang cute!!

August 2oth: Back to School!!

I decided to go back to school to finish up my photography degree. When I first started college 10 years ago I majored in photography. After I finished at Ricks I decided to switch to Marketing. Once I finished my marketing degree I transferred to the U to finish my photography degree. I completed one year and then moved home for the summer. Elise and I got jobs at UOP and I ended up staying and working. I then moved back to Utah, got married and wasn't able to finish my degree. Well, I've decided its about time I finish this degree. I LOVE photography and I am so HAPPY to be back in school. There is just something so great about being on campus and going to school. I'm taking 4 classes this semester, two next and then one in the summer. Thanks to Tiffany and Jay for watching Eleanor while I'm in school. I COULD not do it without them!

August 24th: American Fork Canyon with the Hackings

We all wanted to get one last camp trip in this summer, but we decided it would be much easier if we just went up the canyon for the evening. We made tinfoil dinners and our all time favorite peach cobbler. We always have a good time with the Hackings and its nice because Evan and Eleanor are quite the buddies.