Mt. Timp Summit Trail

Hello again! Aren't I getting good at blogging?  

So here are those pictures from the Mt. Timp summit trail. We didn't get super far up, because I'm a wheezy pregnant woman and this trail was waaaay steeper than Stewart Falls. But we got a little ways up and found another waterfall. According to a nice man and his wife that we met on the trail, we were still a couple hours from the first alpine meadow. It would have been nice to get up there, but that's not exactly the kind of hike we were I was up for. So we went a little bit past the second tier of the waterfall before we turned around. And I don't really have any pictures before the first tier of the waterfall because I was focusing on not dying along the trail. So these start at the waterfall, go up a little ways, and then everything after the falls is heading back down the mountain. 

First tier

I love the way Emmett's craning to look at the top :)

 

It was sooo cold by the falls. The temperature difference between being on the trail in the sun vs. up next to the cliffs in the shade was crazy. 

Second tier

Cool tree

Super close to the trailhead now

Note the mondo scrape on Emmett's forehead. He had a tussle with the parking lot before we headed up. And if he looks a little wild it's because he was soooo tired by the time we got back down. 

So there you go. It was a fun hike. We're hoping to get a few more in before it gets too cold, but it's already chilly down here in the valley, so we'll see.

Have a great Sunday!

Rowley's Red Barn

On Saturday, we went with a couple friends from our ward to the pumpkin patch at Rowley's Red Barn! It was so much fun. It's in south Santaquin, and if you're anywhere around here, I highly recommend making the trip before winter settles in. You can take a hayride around their orchards and to the pumpkin patch, where you pick your own pumpkins, play on huge slides that you ride down on burlap sacks, go though a fruit crate maze, and play around on an old farm truck and tractor. Obviously it's kind of designed with kids in mind, and we had a blast. You pick up a tractor and head back from there, and back at the red barn, you can buy homemade ice cream and all sorts of other farm fresh goodies, plus their produce is available to buy right there on the farm. Oh my word, their apples are amazing. And so is the pumpkin butter. Chad summed up our feelings pretty well when he said, "I don't want to be the kind of people who come to these places once a year to take pictures." Meaning, we want a (small) farm so bad it hurts.

Anyway, awesome planner-aheader that I am, I forgot our camera in the car when we left on the hayride, and the ride was $5 a person round-trip, so I wasn't about to head back for the thing. Happily, our friends took pictures of us and sent them in an email. In a word: lifesaver!! That was really nice. So here are some pictures from our trip to the pumpkin patch.

These pictures were hilarious to take because Aaron (husband of family we went with) was in the background doing this crazy dance to try to make Emmett smile. Emmett never cracked, but we did.

Kid-wise, not a super successful picture. Haha!

I love this one.

Emmett baaaarely smiled on these slides; he had a poker face all the way down just about every time, but he loved it. He kept running back every time we went off to do something else. 

I think Emmett and I agreed: WE NEED ONE.

It was hard to leave. Basically, it kind of added a new intensity to our determination to get here (or somewhere like it) one day.

Have a great day! 

long time no blog

Sorry I haven't been around in a while. Does anyone else feel like time is flying by?? It's starting to feel like winter here already, and I am definitely not ready. I'm ready for a nice long fall, but I dunno if we'll actually get that this year. Anyway, quick list of updates:

-Chad's working on grad school applications; hopefully we'll be out of here by next fall!

-Emmett is getting huge and more adorable and more fun everyday. The same one step back, two steps forward thing still applies to him right now I think; he went on another wouldn't-eat-anything-but-graham-crackers kick, and now a couple weeks later, he's eating a much wider range of solids than he would before he went on the food strike. He even had mac n' cheese today! That's m'boy :)

-We're convinced Emmett is going to be a pro soccer player one day. He walks around and kicks his ball all over the living room, and he's surprisingly coordinated. He doesn't ever have to stop before he kicks, he just goes and seems to know exactly the right time to pop his little foot out. It's pretty cool. And today he figured out that if he dumps his toy crate over, it makes a killer stool to a bunch of things Mom always keeps him from playing with. Yay...

-And the big announcement (not to family, but anyone else who might keep up with us): baby #2 is due April 12! Obviously we're pretty excited, although it doesn't always feel real just yet, even though I'll be 16 weeks on Friday. I've been feeling the baby move lately, so that's helped with the reality factor. Fours times over the past week or so I felt a little flick in the same spot, always when I'm sitting down :) This one is going so much faster than when I was pregnant with Emmett. That's made it a little crazy, especially as my tummy starts to pop. I guess it's like watching a pot of water boil; I'm just not watching this one as closely as the first one. 

-We hiked a little ways up Mt. Timp a couple weeks ago, so I'll put up pictures from that in the next post. We all know how I am with pictures on this blog. 

Speaking of, here are some catch-up/sorry-for-not-blogging-lately pictures (Mom):

(These go through September and October)

wrestling with the yoga mat

don't think he was waving on purpose, but it's cute anyway :)

with a Star Wars toy stuck on his back

sometimes when he thinks there's a flash coming, he makes the squinchy face :)

The first time Chad let him go, Emmett just hung there! The kid is crazy strong!

Squinchy face again. I love this one.

Wearing mom's sweatshirt. He wasn't happy when we had to take it off.

And that's it for now. I'll be back soon with pictures from the hike.

Have a great day!