Utah Round 3

Well since Baby Boo #2 is due right after Christmas and we won't be making it to Utah this year for it, Steve and I decided to we should probably cash in our flyer miles before Ross turned 2.  We spent a week with Steve's family and then one with mine.  
The flight over was pretty horrendous.  It was delayed while they fixed some mechanical errors, then we boarded, took a scenic of Portland before landing back at the airport due to unfixed mechanical errors, waited around another hour or so until they found another plane, boarded, went for a very bumpy flight, circled Salt Lake for about 30 minutes due to the weather, and then finally landed in time for me to throw up!  Blah!  Ross hung in there for the most part.  The second time we boarded he got his own seat and promptly fell asleep 3 hours past his usual nap time.  He was whining a bit, so I turned to grab his binky, and when I turned back he was out cold.  How do kids do that?!  I'd love to have that trick down!  
We started our stay in Utah at Heber Valley Camp where we went for the Moody reunion on Steve's side of the family.  That place is my kind of camping!  Hot showers, bathrooms, cabins.  It was really nice.  The only not nice thing was Ross not sleeping the whole night.  He woke up about every hour, but we survived and got to know some more family members the next day.  We played games, ate, and did a silent auction.  I totally fell in love with that idea.  Anyone can bring anything to put in the auction.  You pay a quarter per ticket and put your tickets in the bag next to any of the items you want.  They then do a drawing and all the money people put in goes to paying for the reunion or something related to the family - like a nice headstone for an ancestor or something.  Everyone looks forward to the silent auction at that reunion too.  I love it!  I - of course- forgot to take any pictures - I know - lame of me.
After we got back Steve went on a man-date aka "mate" with some of his friends - Joe, Matt, Ben, and Preston.  It's amazing how they are all on such different paths, but doing such great things in their lives....it makes me feel old.  Like we're supposed to know what the heck we're doing all the time.  I promise I still feel like I'm 17 and waiting to really grow up!  I took Ross over to my family where he was instantly doted over (and he got used to that really fast).
While we stayed with Steve's family we got to go to BYU's Education Week which was a real treat.  I miss taking classes - spiritual classes for that matter!  It was fun to get some refreshment in that department.  I even went to my Uncle Joe's class which was also amazing!  

We had a BBQ as well with our great friends the Dilles and Youngs.  I loved watching our babies play in the yard while we ate and chatted.  I miss them so much!  We had some great times back in our Provo ward with them.  I can't believe how our kids are growing either.  It's going way too fast!  Lame me #2 - I didn't get a picture of us all with our kids.

Addison is about 4 weeks older than Ross - he's got about 7 pounds on her.  She is adorable isn't she!

Ross trying to be manly and show Addison how it works.

Chatting up Allypop. ;)

I would love some speech bubbles in this picture. :)  Tell me what you think they're thinking.

Whenever I'm holding someone else's baby - Ross finds the need to be held right then too...funny since he ALWAYS prefers his dad - I guess he feels some competition going on or something.  Maybe we'll put this on the wedding invitation. ;)

While we stayed with the Whites, Steve got out all his old GI Joes and showed them to Ross - they played quite a bit. :)  Grandma and Grandpa White also got Ross this sweet tunnel tent set up that he loved crawling in...we might have to get one for our place.  We also had shishkabobs one night for dinner - yum!  
We snuck out too for a date with the Dilles to PF Changs which was to die for and some games afterwards.  We had such a good time with them.  I always end up leaving laughing my guts out and wishing we didn't live so far away!

The awesome cool tunnel tent.

So Steve actually loves mowing the lawn (hopefully this will still be the case when we actually have a lawn to mow) - so he helped Meghan do it.  I took Ross out to watch and he LOVED the tire swing.

Ross and the Queen Mum :)  Steve's dad made this tire swing when he was just a tiny kid - and it still is in great use! 

Generation tire swing picture. :)

Jumpin'

Ross wackin' the Aunt with a weed. :) 

Dancing to some tunes

My little boy is getting so big!

We all had shishkabobs for dinner - delish!

And for dessert!

Grandpa didn't do any sissy pushes on the tire swing - Ross was in complete heaven!

The zoo trip had to be made as well.  It was completely roasting, but we were thoroughly impressed with how much they have done with the zoo lately.  Ross did okay - he mostly wanted to go the opposite way or check out the rocks, but he had lots of aunts and uncles to entertain him and show him all the animals which was fun.

"Camels are old news Gramps - let's get going!"

I'm not quite sure what pose Thomas is trying to pull here - but it definitely isn't saying "ape". ;)

So Nate and Becca - my bro & sis -in-law basically became Ross's parents when they were around.  It was great! ;)  He definitely feels adored by them and they are so attentive.  I think they really made the zoo fun for him. :)

Auntie Meghan and Ross on the giant elephant.

A couple more elephants!

Snackin' and chillin'

The bears were having a friendly brawl while we were there.

The bird show at Hogle Zoo is fabulous!  Ross was really captivated by all the birds soaring over our heads - I was amazed how good he was watching. 

You have to end the trip with your head in the lion's drinking fountain mouth - it's tradition!

We stayed with my family the next week.  My baby sister Rach moved down to Snow College so I tagged along helping her settle in.  She seemed super excited to be there and it's such a cute college!  Good ol' Ephraim.  Nothing like it. :)  Lame me #3 - I again forgot to take pictures.

My parents were super kind and let Steve and I get away for a night for a post-anniversary celebration.  We went to the Anniversary Inn Bed and Breakfast which I completely recommend!  We had the Bridal Veil Falls room which was so fun and comfy.  The shower itself was a waterfall and the bed was made of trees!  They had delish complimentary chocolate chip cookies, cheesecake and sparkling cider as well.  We dined at the Blue Iguana where our waiter was Chinese, with an American name - Jake, working in a Mexican restaurant...and he was a terrible waiter!  It sparked my memory of the Dilles telling us how they loved that restaurant but always got the same bad waiter who was Chinese...and it turns out he was the same one they always get!  He has no idea he's famous! :)  The food was delish and we relaxed the rest of the night watching movies.  I was totally looking forward to sleeping in...and the next morning I looked at the clock...and it was 7:30.  Ross has us trained WAY too well.  We even fell asleep the night before at 11.  Are we old or what?!  Blah - it was still nice and relaxing though.  We went and did an endowment session at the Salt Lake Temple where we got married which was a great end to our celebration.  I absolutely love that temple!  I love that we were married there.  We even got to peek in the room we were married in...crazy how much happens in 4 years.    

Our tree bed.

Jacuzzi shower!

Opening the bubbly ;)

Dinner!  We should have gotten a picture with our terrible infamous waiter! :)

Where's Steve?!

Wow - that baby is really poking out!

There's the waterfall shower. :)

We did sealings the next night with Steve's family for some family names.  It was kind of hilarious since we were all either Brother or Sister White.  It's so nice to be with family and doing good things. :)
With all this shipping Ross off to babysitters :)  - we took him with my parents to the splash park in Spanish Fork which he loved.  The water there is way warmer than the one here in Oregon.  He lasted a lot longer - that's for sure.
So all surrounding my parent's place they are developing the land for homes.  So there are TONS of tractors which has Ross almost in a fit of excitement constantly.  He is a tractor freak!  My Grandma Staheli got him a set of tractors which he has pretty much molded into his hands and takes with him wherever he goes.  Grandpa also showed him the lawn mower which Ross pronounces "Ma-Moe" and states constantly while following Grandpa Stan around until he takes him out for a ride.  The 4-Wheeler has also been given this name.  Ross is completely content on that thing too.  I'm sure he's already bored here at home without all the fun things they have to do.  We finished up the week with me and my mom getting a pedicure (HEAVEN) and having a BBQ with my family.  My dad's BBQ gets me every time!  He's amazing at it!  We got to see my brother and sister-in-law then too which was also nice.  I just love family.  It's always good to be together. :)
     

Ross and Grams plotting to splash Grandpa :)

My dad also got Ross a little pool to play in - he liked it better when you were in there with him. :) 

He wants Grandpa to get going "Why are we not moving?" :)

The other "Ma-Moe" - lawn mower. :)

Daddy taking the boy for a ride too. :)

Look at these rough and tough boys!

So Maren and Ally came over to swim...guess who was the chicken getting in the pool? :)  Ally was having the time of her life in there!  Ross just trotted around watching. :)

Lame me #4 - I only took these two pictures of them!  I guess I just like talking and visiting too much.  It was fun to just sit and chat with Maren and watch our kids play.

 We had such a great time in Utah.  I'm feeling all depressed now realizing it's going to be more than a month or two before we see them again. The last few months we've been able to some of our family at least every month.  We love Oregon and where we are, but there's nothing like family!

Mt. St. Helen's

We have just been busy busy catching up on our summer fun!  We decided to trek into Washington to see the infamous Mt. St. Helen's.  We packed our snacks and toys like we were going on a mecca thinking it was going to be an extremely long drive only to find it wasn't far away at all!  We drove about 2 hours to the first visitor's center and Ross was a hoot the entire way.  We've finally faced his car seat forward which I think he was quite happy about.  There's a lot more to see facing forward that's for sure.  
So this little video is proof that we did little to no research about Mt. St. Helen's beforehand...

Haha!  We thought the information guide we talked to said the mountain in front of us was Mt. St. Helen's.  We were quite puzzled since it was completely covered in trees, but hey - the guide should know what they're talking about!  

The fake Mt. St. Helen's! ;)

The Forestry Learning Center

They had these beautiful purple flowers all along the highway.

I love that the playground had a slide in the shape of Mt. St. Helen's

Then when we were chatting with a few other visitors they said you couldn't even see the mountain from there anyway.  So the whole trek up to the Johnston's Observatory we kept guessing which mountain we thought it was.  Now - you have to understand that it was pretty cloudy that day too with the mountains ALL being mostly covered - so we weren't complete simpletons.  When we finally got to the observatory it was pretty obvious which one was Mt. St. Helen's.  We had a great laugh the whole time.

Okay- you have to give it to us - the clouds covering it doesn't make it COMPLETELY obvious!

Ross took a nice little nap before we went into the observatory.

I was surprised to find that 57 people had died - a relatively low amount - but more than I thought.  Johnston - the volcanist geologist who died radioing in the explosion and who the observatory is named for - was killed because their predictions of St. Helen's erupting were that it would erupt from the south side even though there was a huge bulge on the northern one.  The blast after the mudslide traveled 5 1/2 miles in 40 seconds.  There was no way anyone could get away from that in time.  The force itself snapped thousands and thousands of trees right in half.  There are stumps remaining for miles around.  They had closed Mt. St. Helen's public access previous to the explosion inspite of all the pressures to reopen it.  They had interviews of people saying they wanted to be back on their property and it was ridiculous they were banning them from getting in.  Thousands of people probably would have died if they had let people in!  They had some really interesting stories from people who were there.  One couple basically had to jump from log to log down a river of gushing sludge trying to find safety.  Some loggers were severely burned and separated ways at one point.  The one who left the group had his body found later.  Two others died within three weeks after being found.  Only one of the four in that group survived.  Anyway - there's a little bit of info for you!

Checkin' out the facts

You can't see the top of the tree - but it's completely snapped off.

After the little movie we got to watch - the curtains raise so you can see St. Helen's itself!  Pretty cool.

Clearing up.

There we go.  That bulge in the middle has kept erupting a bit every few years.

All the dead tree stumps - it's like a tree cemetery.

After enjoying the gorgeous view and amazing still active volcano, (Steve found out if you pay $500 you can hike up it with a guide...he's extremely temped) we headed back down stopping at the Mile 19 restaurant for some delicious burgers and to-die-for mountain berry cobbler.  

The had some sweet bridges getting to Mt. St. Helen's...I feel like I've said Mt. St. Helen's about a billion times already.  Have I mentioned we went to Mt. St. Helen's?

Ross was jealous he didn't get a wristband...I guess they weren't worried he would sneak in.

 So while Ross napped Steve snuck up to the top to see the view before we went into the visitor's center.  The ranger up there eyed Steve suspiciously so of course - like any normal person - he stuffed his hand into his pocket limping around so they couldn't tell he didn't have a wristband.  Little sneak.

Our view at dinner. :)

Patty's Place - letting Ross run off some energy.  He kept trying to find the dog that was wondering around.  The dog didn't want anything to do with Ross unfortunately.

Who wouldn't want to be around this cute face!

On the way home we had to wait while this cool draw bridge went up for a passing ship.  I'm sure all the regulars were just annoyed they were too late to get across, but we were quite fascinated!

It was a GREAT day trip and we enjoyed every minute of it. :)