Rick and Bridgette explore Cabella’s in Lehi Utah

In Utah for some festivities! (Pictures of that to come.)

Helping papa prep for his run and eating brekkie on his lap.

My dear sister met the man of her dreams and after 2 years of long distance dating, a lot of sacrifice of time/travels, being apart so much, they were engaged in April!We were so happy to be able to witness their wedding in August.

The sealing took place in the Draper Utah LDS Temple.

The details were amazing and the day was so perfect!  She was the most beautiful bride and her dress was simple stunning.

She was the mind behind her entire reception/decorations/details. She made all her paper chandeliers, centerpieces, signs, decor, etc. It was breath-taking!

Congratulations to Eddie & Megan! We love you guys!

Our family visits the campus of Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah

Our visit with Grandpa Alan and Grandma Pam

Bridgette about died and went to heaven when we arrived and she heard their dog, Stix, start barking. She loved all the slobbery kisses, the playfulness and showed so much affection for Stix with logs of hugs!

Here we’re showing grandpa and grandma how Bridgette is learning to fold her arms for prayers.  It’s pretty serious business!

HA!!!

Thank you, Grandpa and Grandma, for being such gracious hosts! We love you and miss you.

Our family went camping with some members of our church at Devil’s Lake in Wisconsin. It’s a beautiful destination, and we were excited to go back and stay the night. We arrived Friday, around 6 pm, and unloaded coolers and tents. I filled the chimney with charcoal and unfolded camp chairs around the fire pit. Children gathered sticks/leaves and someone built a teepee in the pit for our fire.  The men got to work on setting up our 10 man tent for our 3 person family. Ya, don’t get any ideas, we’re not having 8 children. We’re really happy with 1! 🙂  I was in charge of dinner and prepared a dutch oven lasagna complete with Italian sausage and garlic bread. We made cherry cobbler for dessert, in the dutch oven. MMMM! Some of the children roasted hot dogs, and ears of corn were roasting on top of the dutch oven lids. We were feeding 8 adults and 8 children. Dinner wasn’t ready until close to 8, but it all turned out great. We retired to bed around 11, and after finding a comfortable position in my sleeping bag, I dozed off to sleep by 11:30 or 12:00. Ahh, I reeked of campfire and it was awesome.

At about 12:30 am, I hear Bridgette cough  and cough. I ignore her and hope she goes back to sleep. She does. Now I try to get back to sleep. It’s after 1:30 am when I hear her cough again and then I hear gagging and the sound of vomit! I quickly sat up, “Rick, she just threw up!” She’s now screaming and in tears. I dash out of bed and pull the blanket off the pack ‘n play and she sits up and reaches for me, in tears. I try to dodge the vomit, it’s everywhere. I peel off her sleepsack and lay her on our bed, taking off all her wet layers. I clean her up, all by the light of our cell phones. We snuggle her next to us. She is still hysterical. Screaming. In tears. Still coughing. I worry we’re going to wake up the entire camp with hundreds of campers near by. Nothing is pacifying her. We try snuggling her more and  I try nursing her. Nothing is calming her down. I whisk her out of the tent and into our truck, to contain the noise. I rub her back and “ssshhhhh” her. She then pukes again, all over my lap and the car. I am so sad for her upset stomach. I just broke my heart. This is the first time she’s really thrown up and I think it was the bites of hotdog that did it to her! DANG THOSE DOGS!
After she puked the second time, she calmed down and we took her back into the tent. It’s nearly 3:30 am now. She finally falls asleep next to us, but I’m not sleeping. I can’t sleep next to her. I can’t even breathe because she’s such a light sleeper, I worry if I even blink, she’ll wake up. So I am wide awake, while Rick and B snoozes. Like clockwork, Bridgette wakes around 5:15 am,  despite the fact that she didn’t get to bed until 9:30 pm. This camping trip was no exception. She was babbling and wide awake by 5:30. Needless to say, I got about 1-2 hour of sleep that night. We decide to drive the truck down to the lake and go on a walk, so we don’t wake other campers. RISE AND SHINE: 6 am walk on the beach. She fell asleep on our hike, to our surprise and to our wishes!It was a great 24 hour getaway. We love camping/hiking/being with friends!

Hot tubbing in California

During my visit in Southern California, Bridgette and I headed to my grandma’s neighbor’s house to visit an old friend.

Now grown, she had a little boy of her own. I haven’t seen her in 15 years, at least.

Her son, Guillermo, was so sweet and loving to Bridgette.

I think Bridgette was confused by all the flirting going on, but it sure made us mamas smile!

We took Bridgette to Legg Lake to see the ducks. Holy smokes, this child loves ducks.

After seeing so many ducks, she quickly caught on:

“Qu                                           aaaaa                                             ck!”

Oh! On June 26th, a day before our trip, Bridgette started walking on her own! YAY!!!

I kept telling myself, “Ok little B, we’re going on a trip and it would be really nice if you could start walking on your own before we go!” and sure enough, she took off!

It was a hot day at the lake, but she loved all the ducks! Feeding them too!

We flew to California for some visits with family. Stop one: Great Grandma’s house!

Great grandma did not disappoint! She had this awesome retro booster seat…

(Again, she loves avocado/guacamole!)

…which also turns into a rocker…which can also recline…which can also be attached to a stroller! I was impressed!  Mainly impressed that she still had this seat around. It must be 40-50+ years old!

Speaking of old, check out this little potty!Awesome, no!?

Play-date with the Bickmans in Provo Utah

Rick had the privilege of working the day after Thanksgiving, so we drove the 100 miles back home, only to turn around 36 hours later and return to Kenosha for the weekend!

This is Rick’s brother, Kevin. He is single, available, a law student and lives in Tucson, AZ.

We play many games when we visit! (Since there isn’t much snow on the ground, yet!)

I love Christmas Bingo!!!

From Kenosha, we traveled long and far to visit our friends in Cincy.

A much-needed pit stop after hours of driving.

(I am ga-ga over this pic of baby B…she has such an admiration for her papa!)

This little B did great the entire trip!  She really is a good baby. She has a pretty calm personality.

I would say she is very mellow, observant, easy going, and generally warms up to strangers after a few warm smiles from them.

We arrived after 5 hours of driving.  Ben and Annie were our neighbors in Vermont and we’ve missed them so much!

They were such perfect hosts because we felt right at home.  It is such a great feeling to be a guest in someone’s home, yet feel like you can open the fridge and drink from the milk carton. (Just kidding Annie, we never did that!)

Rick studied ALL DAY, EVERY DAY we were there, while Annie and I spent time doing this:

and this:

and spending 90% of our indoor time in the kitchen cooking lasagna, enchiladas, chicken pot pie, chicken and broccoli with pasta, chocolate bran muffins, not to mention Ben’s birthday cake!

Is that little Shiloh not the cutest thing EVER!?  (After Bridgette, of course!)

The ladies in the house:

It was such a lovely visit and I look forward to the next time!

I can’t tell you any thing about Cincinnati, except that our friends live there.

We never made it downtown, but I’m OK with that. The point was to visit with friends and see their new baby boy! (He’s a handsome little guy!)

Bridgette had such a blast!

Thank you again, Ben and Annie!

Until next time!

Wow, it’s been almost 2 months since my last post!

The break from blogging is always great and we’ve been one busy family lately!

We traveled to Kenosha, WI to spend Thanksgiving Day with my sister-in-law and her family.

Uncle Rick likes to talk science with our nephew, Benton. Bridgette just cheers them on!

(They’re looking at Benton’s blood under his little microscope. Eww.)

My sweet sister-in-law, Cara, prepared a traditional Thanksgiving meal and it was delicious!

Her husband comes home from Afghanistan soon, and we are so excited for her and her children.  He’s been gone 8 or so months!

She’s learned the game of football so she could teach her boys to be boys, she’s had to clear a clogged pipe with a 30 ft snake, she’s had to deal with appliances breaking, etc. Not to mention: shovel snow, mow the yard, rake billions of leaves, make meals, carpool the children everywhere, keep her children from killing each other, and keep the house spick ‘n span because it’s on the market. How this woman does it all, is a mystery, but we sure LOVE HER and support her best we can.

Uncle Kevin and Uncle Rick playing a round of checkers

Bridgette enjoyed her helping of Turkey dinner. It was her first go at a piece of meat. She gnawed, but mainly enjoyed the vegetables.

And Miss Mia put together a slide show of the day’s events, so her dad wouldn’t miss out on a thing!

It was a perfect day!

It poured rain while we explored Navy Pier in Chicago.

We spent most our time indoors while on the pier.  But so did everyone else!

It was so busy inside as everyone took cover.

Unfortunately, these are the only shots we got.

However, it did clear up by the time we made it to the Field Museum!

It was a gorgeous afternoon, but too bad we were inside the museum for 3  hours, while the sun was shining.

The Museum was incredible!

“No dinosaur in the world compares to SUE—the largest, most complete, and best
preserved Tyrannosaurus rex ever discovered!”

It was quite a sight!We had a great time. I love Chicago!

The Cubs were playing the St.Louis Cardinals on August 19th. We had tickets for the game with Rick’s two sisters and their families.

Game time: 1:35. I pick Rick up from work at 11:05 and we head to Chicago.

It’s 120 miles from our house to Wrigley Field.

Long story short, we made it in time for the 7th-ining stretch around 3:00.

WAHOO!!!

(Gotta love Chicago traffic!  Let it be known, we will never live in a big city.

Nothing irritates Rick more than traffic.  That’s fine with me.  I’d love a home in the country with lots of land!)

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