Yellowstone Trip

(by Aubree)

We have been trying to figure out where to go on vacation this year. Our choices are limited with Clara because she's still too young to leave with anyone, and she's not old enough to really enjoy what's going on. So we figured we would try to stay fairly close to home, and that's why we decided to go to Wyoming.

We left last Wednesday night and stayed at Jeff's parents' house so we could get an hour out of the way. Thursday we left for Alpine Junction where we met up with Jeff's brother Ben and his family who were camping out just outside of Alpine Junction.

We enjoyed some beautiful views

We thought this was really pretty with the fall colored trees and the snow frosted Pine Trees.

As you can imagine, it was extremely cold. And yes, that's Clara. We had three different people call her a boy because of her blueish/purple jacket. It has hearts on it for heavens sakes! :) Plus I didn't put any bows in her hair the whole time either.

Ben took us on a ride in his ranger. On the ride my eye started to tear up and all of the sudden it went blurry. I later realized that my tears had frozen onto my contact!

We didn't last very long, so we went in their camper and played games while the kids (Wes, Clara, and Kelsey) watched a movie. Wes and Clara didn't last very long at all.

That night we stayed in Alpine Junction. We stayed in a little cabin that a hotel there rents out. It ended up working out really well. We really enjoyed our stay there.

On Friday we headed out for Yellowstone. It ended up being a LOT longer drive than we realized, and Clara let us hear all about it both ways.

Old Faithful

While we were waiting for the geyser to go off, we saw the most unusual animal that I bet none of you have ever seen!
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A pink bear!

On the way back, we stopped at West Thumb Geyser Basin to see the thermal pools.

While we were there, we saw a group of elk. There were probably about 20 in the group.

On our way out of the parking lot, there were a bunch of people that were stopped taking pictures, and we figured it was just a bunch of females that we had seen earlier. But when we pulled past the cars, we saw this bull elk that was right next to our car! So we pulled forward and took a picture. It must have been an old elk because it walked like it had arthritis and look at his antlers! They're huge!

A pretty waterfall on the way back.

We're kind of lucky that it took so long to get there, because on our way back the sun was settling and it was the perfect time to take pictures of the Grand Tetons and other beautiful mountains.

This one was actually taken on our way up.

It was a beautiful sunset that night.

Saturday was our last day and we spent it in Jackson Hole. We met up with Ben and his family again. We first went to Ripley's Believe It or Not Museum. Then we went to lunch at Jeff's favorite BBQ place, Bubba's. And we finished off looking around at the many shops.

We had to take a picture in front of one of the famous antler archways.

We ended our trip by spending the night with my parents in Grace, and then had lunch at Jeff's parents house. It was a great trip!

Labor Day at The Treehouse

(by Aubree)

Yesterday my friend Lena was going to The Treehouse, a children's museum in Ogden, and she invited me to tag along. It was sooo much fun! They had a pirate theme, so I dressed Clara up like a pirate the best I could with what we had, and enjoyed "Pirate Day."

If you've never been to the Treehouse, they have tons of little stations that kids can learn from, like a medical station, music station, Renaissance station, barn, etc. They also had a little workshop show on how to be more like a pirate. It was pretty cute.

I apologize that there's so many pictures, but I just thought there were too many cute ones and I couldn't leave them out!

My little pirate!

Clara dressed up in Renaissance attire.

This is Lena's daughter Gwen playing with the giant chess pieces.

Lena and me.

Clara at the doll station.

I love this one! Clara had so much fun playing with Gwen.

Those are some big chompers!

There was a lower table for babies, and she had a lot of fun there.

Lena's other daughter Elsie and Clara on the fire engine.

Such a cute little cow girl.

Clara in the tepee playing with the drums.

Clara and Gwen playing on the drums.

Elsie got chosen to go up on stage for the pirate show. She was so excited!

Vern (Lena's husband) and Elsie

Clara was worn out, so it was time to head home...

But first we had to get a picture with the cow for daddy.

Little Home Improvements Make a Big Difference!

(by Aubree)

If you've ever watched home improvement shows on HGTV, you always hear them talk about the importance of window treatments. When we moved into our house two years ago, almost all of the windows had blinds, but no window treatments. I was a little intimidated about picking out window treatments, so I kind of put it off. But I finally decided it was time, and I talked Jeff into helping me pick out and hang some window treatments. It's true what they say . . . window treatments make a big difference. Here's some before and after pictures.

We have a sliding glass door that leads from our kitchen out to our deck. It had some vertical blinds that were ugly and broken. We finally got to tear them down and put up some curtains.

Before

After

For Clara's room, I found some cute flowery valances for her two windows.

Before (window #1)

After (window #1)

Before (window #2)

After (window #2)

After (both windows)

Our bedroom is fairly dark, with a dark accent wall and dark wood furniture, so I wanted something light for the window treatments. I thought these white sheer curtains would be perfect.

Before

After

Eight Months Old!

(By Aubree)

Clara is Eight months old today! It's going so fast, and we just love our little Clara Bear more and more every day! She has such a cute personality, and it's been so much fun watching her change and learn new things.

Here's what Clara is up to now:

-She started crawling about 3 weeks ago, but has done straight crawling (no army crawling) for about a week or more.
-She pulls herself onto anything she possibly can. Her favorite thing right now is to pull herself up on the couch or a chair and stand up.
-She has 2 teeth on the bottom front.
-She says dadada and we have decided that is her first word.
-She has said mama, but only a couple of times.
-She makes this sound like she's hissing, but with more of a k sound. She doesn't do it as often as she used to though.
-She isn't stranger shy anymore. She got over that pretty quickly, thank goodness.
-She loves to flirt with the people sitting behind us at church. We try to move her so she can't see the people behind us, but she will worm her way back up to look at them.
-She can crawl up stairs.
-When she wakes up, from naps or in the morning, she will be standing up in her crib looking at the doorway, just waiting for someone to come get her.
-She eats pretty much anything, but recently she is getting a little bit more picky. She will still eat anything, but just not the whole thing if she doesn't fancy it.
-She likes to blow raspberries on my cheeks and arms.
-She LOVES when Jeff gets home and when he comes in the house he will say hi for a minute, and then go change his clothes, and she will throw a fit when he leaves the room.
-She's probably the happiest she has ever been and I think it's because she can get around on her own.
-She has stood up without holding onto anything for a few seconds at a time. I think she will be walking as soon as she possibly can!
-It seems like she can understand some things that we say or at least she's trying to understand.

Here's all of the things she likes to pull herself onto! (i.e. anything!)

The big girl crawling!

My parents came to visit yesterday and she had so much fun playing with them!

This is her waiting for me to come get her after her nap.

She gets into everything! I gave her this ribbon to play with and it was sealed, the next thing I know the seal is off, and half of the ribbon is unwound!