Delight in the simple things: October 2009

Sunday, October 25, 2009

One of my favorite things...

yup, every time she pulls that pouty face my heart does somersaults. Oh, how I love that face. What caused it in this specific picture? A bird (aka Dave) stole her baby (blue care bear) while we were hiking in Moab a couple of weeks ago. As soon as the "bird" released her baby and it fell from the sky she quickly stuffed it down her shirt and spent the remainder of the hike guarding it with her life. Every five steps or so she would stop for no reason, put a hand out and yell, "NOOO bur, NOOO, STOP!!!". It was almost as cute as her pouty face.

Friday, October 23, 2009

Fall Splendor

I love Fall. I love the cooler temperatures. I love the crispy, colorful leaves. I love the pumpkin and spice candles. I love it all.

This year, though, I've been so busy with photo shoots that I feel I haven't had as much time to just sit back and bask in the Fall splendor. Don't get me wrong, I'm up in the mountains quite a bit (as you can probably imagine) but I get so wrapped up in getting the perfect shot(s) that I forget to look around at the beautiful scenery and just take it all in. Luckily, for our Sunday drive we headed up Farmington canyon.

We let the girls out to run and explore.

It was so refreshing to listen to their giggles and snap away as they played.

Now, you wouldn't know by these pictures but on this particular drive, between the two of them, they had four bouts of...I hate to say the word...and two bouts of puking. Yeah, the flu bug decided to hit them...hard. Haha, just goes to show, life is never perfect but it can always be enjoyable. Which brings me to another point. Lately, I have really been reflecting on how blessed I am. I'm almost overwhelmed by all of our blessings. Life is good. Not perfect. But very, very good.

One last thing, a picture I snapped on this particular outing was featured on Pioneer Woman's Photography site!!! You can check it out here. I'm quite excited.

Monday, October 5, 2009

Yellowstone Bike Tour

A couple of weekends ago we hit Yellowstone, with my parents, for the bike tour.

My mom was sweet enough to to keep the girls entertained while my dad, Dave and I biked the 65 mile trek from West Yellowstone out to old Faithful and back. Can I just say, GORGEOUS ride. Yellowstone is a whole other experience by bike. Everyone needs to do it before they die...it was that great. Some lessons learned from the trip?

Dave has inherited the horrible, painful, Miller sense of Humor. We passed a game crossing sign and he immediately said, "Hey look, there goes Monopoly" and then laughed. Ugh.
The early hours are the best...gorgeous lighting, lots of animals.

Grandma will do ANYTHING for the grand kids, even sleep in a child-sized, pop-up, Dora the Explorer tent because a certain 4 yr. old doesn't want to sleep alone.
The IMAX experience is so worth the money.
Always feed Emma. Emma got in trouble on the car ride up there and after she calmed down and we had our "Do you know why you got in trouble" talk, she said, "Do you want to hear my story? Well what happened is I get kind of wiggly and noisy and....MEAN when I'm hungry."
When on a long bike ride remember to drink, even when you are not thirsty, 1/2 a water bottle is not enough for 65 miles.
Ice cream tastes best when eaten on the knotty porch.

Emma's sensitive nose + Yellowstone's fragrant smells=HilARiOus!
Despite the "quiet zone" signs, Ali will scream loudly when coming nose to nose with a wolf.

That about sums it up. How about one last picture of my adorable explorers?

Awe.

Let's play catch-up, shall we?

See this cute girl?

She turned two...like a month ago. Life has been SO crazy lately with work, school and adventures I haven't had a chance to blog about it. Bad mommy. Anyway, we started out little Als birthday with the traditional birthday table and balloons. I wish you could have seen her that morning wandering around the house with her bed-head and sparkly eyes carrying ALL of her balloons and saying, "burfbay, my burfbay!!". It was priceless. That afternoon we headed to the Gateway for a birthday playdate.

I decided against a traditional party this year because really, it's a lot of work and money and at this age, I feel, more for the parents than the kids. I wanted something more low-key and fun for Ali. Thus, the cupcake playdate.

There were grandparents, friends and cousins, cupcakes galore (cherry chocolate and cookies and cream),

presents,

and a whole lot of fun.

Really, it was a blast. After the playdate we took the girls to build-a-bear for Ali's present. Gma took pity on Emma and let her pick out Sara, her new bunny. I could do a whole post on the build-a-bear adventure, but I won't ;).

Check out their faces, needless to say, they slept very well on the way home. I can't even stress it enough, such a FUN day. Ahhh I love birthdays.