Busy Busy Family Weekend!

This weekend was full of love and family and happiness.  

And it was busy. 

(The night before was Jessica's shower at our house... so tack this on after that!)

Friday was Brookley and Nick's wedding day! 

Complete with a beautiful Temple Sealing.

One of the best bouquets I've ever seen. 

A luncheon with tacos and cupcakes.  Who could ask for anything more. 

About a third of the grand babies pictured here.

Father/ Son competition already begins. 

A reception decked out to the T.  To the T.  Don't know what that means.

Didn't get enough pictures.

But here's Henry sweetin' on Gma Dorathy before the party. 

That night Henry got passed around so much that I missed him and by 8:30 I stopped letting people hold him.  He and I just sat at our table and snuggled cheek to cheek.  Literally. 

Then Henry went to bed extremely too late for the second night in a row. 

Saturday morning started off sweet and simple.  And then we raced off to Ben's 3rd birthday party.

He was Daniel Tiger. 

The best part was when he went to get his costume on after swimming and there was this big announcement and he ran out and everyone cheered for Daniel Tiger. 

Henry swam in the cold water! 

And then had enough. 

Okay- we then took a quick visit over to Fat Cats (what is this place.) to see a ton of Hunter's friends from high school because their 10 year reunion was also this day.  We didn't go to that.  But we did see good friends at the bowling lanes at Fat Cats. (What IS this place.)

I ditched Henry and Hunter for a couple hours to watch the General Women's Meeting.  

I got some gems of knowledge that night that literally (used twice now in this post) have already and will change my life forever.  Perspective.  Perspective.  

Then raced home for the second party at our house this week.  

Sarah hosted a surprised 30th birthday party for her husband Benson (Hunter's brother) at our house since they moved up to Lakeside.  

One of the funniest times I’ve ever had with the Garners.  We did a lip synching competition. In which I decided to participate right at the end of the performances (singing party in the USA).  And then I got voted to the finals! Haha.  I won the competition with “RESPECT by Aretha Franklin”.  Totally worth it because I won a Gecko Grill gift card!! 

Meanwhile- Henry is awake.  And he didn’t eat at 8pm when he woke up from his evening nap.  I felt sooooooo bad later when I realized I forgot to feed him! By 11pm I took him to our room and he sucked on for dear life! He was so hungry but was being so amazing at the party! He fell asleep eating and even tho he had a huge poop and swam that day- we took him right to bed without a bath.  He ended up screaming out and crying every 2-4 hours the whole night! 

This has never happened with him. 

We didn’t have to get up but he was super restless and thus we were too. 

Henry participated by jumping to "Henry the VIII" by Herman's Hermits. 

Sunday morning after we woke up, I sneaked Henry into our bed to feed him before church.  He fell asleep in bed and it was darling.  I took a picture.  He never sleeps in bed with us so it was extra cute to see him all tiny wrapped in our big bed. 

Sunday night we got back in business with Henry and he slept like a champ all night.  

But that weekend! Man. Full to the max! 

Family Date Night

Our dates include baby Henry now.  And we love it.  

Occasionally we go out on our own but we love when Henry tags along.  

We all get ready and usually go eat at Gecko Grill. 

 And a visit to the Sweet Tooth Fairy.  

We're simple. 

Henry did not want to leave his gym mat to get ready. 

I wear lipstick.  Hunter. a button up shirt.  And Henry wears an ironed (yes, ironed) romper. 

And then he spits up all over it and gets to wear another one! 

Henry is getting ready for grown-up food, I think.  

And he managed to rake some beans into his cute little hand.

Hunter's beard.  <3  

Two of my favorite people.  (Well and my favorite's arms.)

THE CHOCOLATE CHIP COOKIE DELUXE, PEOPLE. 

Back to the Beach 2015

This is the year Marty McFly went into the future.  

This is also the year we went to the beach twice in one month. 

Thanks to Darling Carli, we were invited for another long week at the beach house.  

This time was quite a bit more relaxed- probably because we were like "we got this".  

And Henry was a month older.

And we had a bigger room.

And we packed waaaaay less stuff.  

We also rented a boat for the first time AND had a bonfire on the beach for the first time.

Thanks Carli and the Porters for the relaxing memories. 

Mother Nature's Son

We spent the weekend up in Lakeside-Pinetop, AZ or as we like to call it Lake-Top.  Hunter has had a brother living up there with his family for about five years and just this month Benson and Sarah moved up as well.  It's pretty sad.  The only ONLY good part about family moving away is getting to go visit them.  I'm especially sad because sweet baby Whit (three weeks younger than Henry) is now hours away for play dates.  But we'll still make them happen.

This was our favorite trip up to the White Mountains!  We spent Saturday at Fools Hollow Lake.  Wow.  Super gorgeous.  And perfect weather.  Sarah and I kept commenting to each other about how perfect the weather was! Right when Hunter and I got on the lake (me on the paddle board-first time ever! and Hunter on a Kayak) there was a warm overcast and tiny drops of rain were lightly falling on the water.  It was so perfect.  Nature was welcoming me to adventure.

I've been thinking with a baby now and looking forward to more children and thinking of them as older children- that nature is good for families.   Family trips should be more outdoorsy for young children- and then we'll visit all those cities again when our babies get older.  So I'm figuring out how to get my self ready for hikes, camping, road trips, national parks- all the outdoors stuff.   And it's hard because I naturally don't like this rugged stuff.

But- This day at the lake helped me get pretty excited about it all.

And Henry just fits in great.

Started the day with on a nature walk with these two:

Hunter exploring: 

My face:

The girls down the road looking at the "pink polar bear".  Abby has a fabulous imagination.  

Also Henry and Whit were napping inside with Sarah.  

The boys both woke up and took a look at each other:

Henry's not so sure who this baby is. 

Abby was so helpful helping them bond. ;-) 

Driving out to the lake:

 Please understand how proud I am that I stood on the paddle board my first time out.  I did fall twice.  But that water was so cool and worth it.  

My man:

Henry sleeps:

Heidi, Ben and Whit:

Our little Nature Boy:

The ladies:

Oh so good: