Catch up time...

So I have been horrible about blogging and I'm blaming the unreliable internet at the hotel! So catch up time...here we go...

We are no longer in Washington, we made a little trip south to sunny California and we have been here the past month and a half. We are loving it! The weather has been fabulous and I have a tan for the first time in 2 years! As I have said before, I am pretty easily entertained and little things make me happy and the combo of the hotel pool and the farmer's market across the street on Saturday mornings have me on cloud 9! I will say that I was a little taken back by how cold the water at the beach is, I'm use to lukewarm Texas water, but it was still really pretty and fun.

The first weekend of August we had to make a spur of the moment trip to Utah to go to Chris' sweet Grandma Eastman's funeral. 

It was very bitter sweet, it was fun to get to see family we just wish it was under different circumstances. The service was beautiful and there were a lot of little tender mercies that helped make her sudden passing a little easier. So thankful for the knowledge of the Gospel and that families are eternal.

One of the fun things we were able to do since it we decided to take this trip on such short notice was surprise Trayden! We surprised him and picked him up from daycare! We missed that little guy so much and we both were giddy pulling into the daycare parking lot to get him! We were even more excited because we were able to get him the day after his 4th birthday!! Can you believe it...I have a 4 year old! I was looking back at pictures from last summer and he looks so little. This past year has flown by and I just want him to stay little and at home with me forever.

 

I probably kissed that cute face a million times in the 3 days we had him! Oh and as for that Shamu baseball bat he is hugging (thanks lollie!)...he smacked quite a few hits over the fence! Chris had a perma grin on his face he was so proud!

Look who made the long journey from Texas to see us...

My little big sister! So excited to have her out here for a couple weeks and I think I have convinced her to come back to Utah with us for a little while! 

We went to Mt. Diablo and saw the Bay area from up high.

And after a picnic on the way down where we found huge pine cones...they really were massive

We found a car show across the street from our hotel...

We were kind of bummed because we got there at the end but it was fun to get to hear all the cars start and rev up as they were leaving. 

I can't believe that we only have a couple weeks left out here before we head back to reality in Utah. This summer has been an adventure! It's been so fun to get to spend so much time together, I'm sure Chris is ready for a break from me, but it is going to be weird not to be together all the time when we get back. What's going to be even weirder is having a schedule where I have to be somewhere at a certain time! I've been spoiled this summer and have had a relaxed job...okay very relaxed job! Working from my phone while I lay by the pool is about as good as it gets!

So until then, I'm going to sleep in, soak up as much sun as I can, and enjoy my one-on-one time with my hubby! 

Scuba Steve and some animals...

So we tried Tray's snorkel and goggles out at the pool and I must say it was very entertaining!

He did really well for his first time, you can see from the fog in the second picture that he was having a hard not breathing out of his nose. I have no room to talk though, I like to snorkel but I usually end up freaking out a little bit. I don't think it was quite what he was expecting it to be but it was a lot of fun to watch!

Our next adventure was the Woodland Park Zoo! Anyone who knows me knows that I love the zoo and may or may not have made my friends go with me to the Houston zoo when I was in high school. The great thing about having a kid is that you have an excuse to do a bunch things that you secretly really love...Chris has caught on and always asks me if I'm more excited than Trayden and sadly the answer is usually yes!

Life with a 3 yr old...

My life the past 2 weeks has been far from boring and I couldn't be happier! I flew and picked up 

this little guy...

from Utah 2 weeks ago and it has been NON-STOP ever since lol. Chris surprised us when he picked us up from the airport with tickets to go to this...

the Mariners vs Yankees game! Where Tray did this...

pretty much the whole game! lol It had been a long day for the little guy! So fun though!

Remember all of my crafting?...Well last week we put up a booth at Kelani's parents neighborhood garage sale and sold some of our goodies...

 These are some of the headbands that I made

We actually did really well and are looking for some other fairs to get into while we are here this summer. Kelani's little girl Lilly was our adorable model...

Tray was a good helper and our "protector" since the Dads were at work

Poor dinosaurs...I don't think they have ever been killed that many times in one day!
Luckily when the Dads did get home Tray was able to take a break from all the girly stuff and play in the lake.

Having Kelani's parents so close (and on a lake...big bonus!) has been so fun and such a blessing! Keeping Tray entertained in a hotel room has been a little tricky, our hotel does have a swimming pool but it's indoor so it's not quite as fun when you aren't in the sun, so it's been so nice to be able to go to their house pretty much every weekend and play in a yard.

I've been trying to harness my inner creative momma skills and come up with things to do in our hotel room and I must say I totally envy you fun, can come up with something from anything moms! I'm still working on it! I do have to brag a little bit, I can make a pretty mean fort...

We watched Pocahontas and he pretended we were in a tee-pee like the Indians! Seriously, don't you just want to kiss that sweet face all over? Oh and if you were wondering, that is Armadilly the armadillo Lollie and Pops (aka my parents) got Tray for Christmas which pretty much doesn't leave his side. Anything to try to make him a Texan! lol

And my other go to activity when all else fails is making a treat...

and whats easier than no-bake cookies?!

So in a nutshell that has been our lives the past 2 weeks! Today Tray ran errands with me and since he was good he was able to pick a prize and he picked spider man goggles and a snorkel so I should have some fun pictures to post! lol

P.S.- can someone please make time slow down, this 6 week trip is going by WAY too fast!!

The Great Outdoors...

I cannot tell you how excited I was when everyone in the office decided to go on a hike to some ice caves...why you ask? That meant I would get out of this hotel room! lol It has actually been super nice here the past couple days but I don't really get to enjoy it because I'm in the hotel room processing paperwork. So any opportunity to get out and go somewhere I'm game! Chris thinks it's kind of sad how excited I get to go to Wal-Mart...the simple joys! 

So we drove about an hour to Granite Falls to hike to the ice caves, big bummer when we came across a "Road Closed" sign about 10 miles away from the parking lot to start the hike. That didn't stop us from having a good time though! It was gorgeous!

 Chris doing some "stretches"...

 Josh and Brad doing "crazy Tarzan type stuff" I didn't want to bust their bubble by commenting on the evidence on their rears suggesting they may need a little more practice...

 The Light's in front of a beautiful river we came across

It was so fun to be outside and get to see a little more of Washington. The highlight of the little trip for me was convincing the boys to stop at a little mom-n-pop produce stand we passed on the way up the mountain. The boys were nice enough to stop and I was so excited! I don't know why I get so excited over these little things but it made my day! Everything was so fresh and SO much cheaper than the grocery store! Chris teased that all he needs to give me is produce stands/farmers markets and crafts and I'm happy...he's catching on!

P.S.- We bought plane tickets to go get Trayden May 29th and we get him for 6 weeks!!!! Beyond excited...

Crafting...

So the first few days of not having to: work, wake up to an alarm, be anywhere by a certain time, or really just do anything at all was fabulous! However, I started to feel like a big waste of space after the first week. So what did I decide to do to make me feel somewhat productive?.....CRAFT! Chris just laughs at how excited I get when I make something and he doesn't really understand why I think its so fun, but he did walk by me the other day and tell me that he thought that, "that would look good there"...I think he secretly is starting to catch the crafting bug. We didn't have room to bring my sewing machine so my crafts have been limited to whatever I can hand sew. So here is what I've been crafting...

And many, many, many flowers for head bands and pins. Chris at first asked me if I needed to tell him something considering the sudden interest in baby onesies lol, but I reassured him that we were not producing a baby to go into these onesies anytime soon.  

Between working and being a mother to the most energetic 3 1/2 yr old I've ever met, I really haven't had time to be crafty and make stuff so it's been absolutely wonderful to have the time to fill the craft void in my life! 

I've come up with some other patterns so if they turn out somewhat presentable I will post them since I know y'all are dying to see more of my creations!

Tulips and Doors...

So I have a new obsession with Tulips/flowers in general! We went to the Skagit Valley Tulip Festival yesterday and it is the culprit for my new obsession! Fields and fields of Tulips and Daffodils!!!

These pictures definitely do not do it justice! I love going to small towns and getting to experience the little fun things they put on. I have to confess that we did not actually get to go into the fields, I could not convince Chris that walking through a field of flowers was worthy of our fun money lol, so we walked around the outside of the fields and drove the Tulip Route and saw all the fields! He was nice enough to slow down long enough for me to take pictures out of the car window! I kind of agree with him on the money part, it was beautiful but I don't think it would have been that much better getting to walk down rows of flowers! Bless his heart, he is a good sport!

Now onto Doors...

Since all the guys are not out here yet that will be in Chris' office, I have not had much to do office manager wise so I have been hitting the streets and knocking doors with Chris. Definitely better than sitting in the hotel room by myself! It has been an interesting experience. Usually people are pretty nice cause there is a lady with Chris....but not everyone! It's usually old men and women that are grumpy and a little rude. The first time we knocked on a man's door that fit into this category, I actually got my feelings hurt a little bit! I didn't tell Chris cause he would have called me a wuss! It doesn't phase him anymore, between being in this industry for 7 years and his mission you learn to not take it personal! The one thing I love about going out with him is that we have been able to meet some very nice people that make you forget about the grump that just slammed the door in your face. We placed an alarm in a couple's home that would have talked our ear off all night if we would have brought our jammies and a pillow! I now know an extensive amount of knowledge about rockhounding...for those of you that are not familiar with this activity it is digging for volcanic rocks and minerals. They were so cute! In their late 60's and just loved telling us stories. He had run 10 marathons and wanted to run a hundred but after he died, yes literally died, on the table after his 10th one, his heart doctor advised that he should call it good! It makes you wonder what type of old person you will be. Chris asked me what type I thought he would be, I said the type that puts on WAY too much after shave and pinches the butts of all the younger ladies that walk by! lol He laughed and then said, "ya, you're probably right!".

Everett, WA

We made it! I swear Chris and I feel like we have been living in our car lately! We calculated that in the past month we have driven 2,500 miles (that doesn't include the 1,600 that my mom and I drove to get to Texas!)! I love road trips and really don't mind being crammed in a car, Chris on the other had gets antsy and a little bit of cabin fever. He did really well though! 

We spent 2 days in Utah after we got back from Texas before we headed off on our next adventure. We spent the night in Oakley, ID with Chris' grandparents and we had a lot of fun. We stayed up way too late playing cards and subsequently laughed hysterically at things that really weren't very funny! The next morning we picked up Chris' cousin and headed on to Washington. The drive was half as long as the one to Texas but for some reason it felt twice as long. It was gorgeous though and that helped! I really could live in a travel trailer and just go from state to state. Chris on the other hand...not so much! He said he would just fly and meet me there!

My Washington findings so far:

1. It smells like a huge evergreen wallflower from Bath&Body!

2. The people here LOVE their coffee! A lady behind us in the check out line at Wal-Mart told us as she was sipping on her coffee that she doesn't wake up til 10 am and definitely has not had enough coffee this morning to be awake yet....it was 3:30 PM!! lol

3. There are an abnormal amount of redheads in the ward here.

4. It reminds me a ton of Alaska...the plants and trees and the houses.

5. There is absolutely no rhyme or reason to the road layouts!

6. It really does rain as much Grey's Anatomy makes it seem.

7. I have a strange urge to watch Twilight movies all the time! (and secretly want to go to Forks!)

We are having a lot of fun seeing this state so far. We went to a fabulous Thai restaurant when we first got here where the spring rolls were...

the size of my head!!

I was full by the time our curry came! But don't think that kept me from eating it! lol

We also indulged Chris' new obsession, bow hunting, by going to a local gun range where they had an out door bow target course.

There were 2 courses with around 20 targets and you hiked, yes hiked, a trail up and down a mountain and shot the targets at various distances. Chris was in heaven so it was fun to share that with him. It was also a good motivator to get me back in shape cause that course kicked my trash! Needless to say, I started running the next day!

We have found a few local things that we are excited to do while we are here and one is the Tulip Festival which I think we are going to try to go to this weekend!

Deep in the heart of Texas...

Well our fantasy month is over.  We had so much fun and were so sad to leave but I guess a month away from reality is longer than most get so I shouldn't complain! Texas has a big part of my heart, which made it so fun to show Chris and Trayden my old stomping grounds and why Texas really is the biggest and best place on earth! lol Here are a few highlights of our trip...

It was real rough traveling conditions for Tray as you can tell! Thank you portable DVD player you saved my life! 

 

Every time I turned around Tray had caught something!

We went to Galveston, the deer lease, and Sea World in San Antonio.

We went bowfishing, road tubes and wakeboarded, and went to the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo and saw Zac Brown Band.

All in all it was a BLAST! My mom and I were teasing as soon as we crossed over the Texas boarder that we had a month to brain wash Chris and Trayden to make them think/want to be Texans...I must say I think we did a good job!

  Tray was wearing boots with shorts and singing "Deep in the heart of Texas" with an impressive Texan twang! I've never been so proud! The only negative, and it's a big one, about the trip is that we had so much fun that it made it next to impossible to leave! I don't know how many times Tray told Chris and I on the drive back to Utah that he was sad cause he just wanted to stay in Texas. lol It really was a priceless trip with a lot of firsts that we will never forget!!

 Until next time I'll be dreaming about Texas sunsets, snowcones at the lake, and blue bell ice cream!