Camping Anniversary

The weekend of the 22nd was Soren and my 3rd anniversary. We celebrated by going on the stake campout with all our friends from church. This is exactly how Soren would choose to celebrate anything and it turns out I enjoyed it too. We'll go for romance next year.

We camped at Cascade Park which is about 45 minutes north of us and owned by the church. It was a great campsite with bathrooms and a river. We took our canoe which we acquired from a ward member with us and Soren took it out on the river. Its really so fun to have one.

That day, Friday, our video camera came in the mail so we were able to take our first home videos at the campout. Here Soren is reading the manual. I am sooooo glad we decided to invest in one now. I think when I'm 50 and all my babies are gone, all I will do is watch these movies.

Easton did so well at the campout. He didn't sleep much (=me not sleeping at all), but he loved being outside and having so much to look at and see.

This is Melanie with not her kid; its Becky's little guy Jack. Her son Ronan was awesome enough to sleep all the whole evening and night. Bo and Melanie went up early and were awesome to save us a great campsite and share their food. We had a lot of fun with them and all the other ward families that shared our fire.

Soren and Easton's trick. Everyone we show gets so nervous to see it, but they are perfectly safe. Easton is so strong and balanced.

I have been trying to teach Easton to kiss, but he doesn't understand the idea of a closed mouth. Instead he tries to suck on my face. Its pretty slobbery, but who doesn't love baby slobber?

Soren was able to borrow a tent from his work to bring along. He is in love with it. Its a tent that Eddie Bauer is testing to sell. This one was tested at base camp on Everest so as you can imagine its really tough, which means Soren HAS to have one. :) Luckily we can rent them from his work.

So all in all it was a great campout. We overdosed on s'mores, talked and laughed around the fire until all hours of the morning, got no sleep and swam/canoed in the river. We had a great time and can't wait to do it again.

The Big 2-3

Yesterday was one of my favorite days of the year and yesterday's may have been the best one yet......my birthday. I had a fabulous day thanks to my amazing husband and all of my dear friends. Thank you all SOOOOOOO much.

The morning started off with a gourmet breakfast from my Martha Stewart Magazine. (A lot of my birthday actually came from there which is major bonus points!) He made me this...

It was delicious and my new favorite way to eat eggs and toast. He also made pancakes with fruit and whipped cream and a fruity oatmeal that we had on our honeymoon in Cancun. Needless to say it was enough food for lunch too!

I opened my present which was an amazing gold braided belt I have been wanting to go with my gold ballet flats. It is beautiful. I sent him off to work and started my morning.

I took Easton to a friend's while I went to work out. That was really nice and Easton slept the whole time. Yay! When we got home my visiting teacher was on my doorstep with the roses you see below and a card. It was so sweet of her.

While we were gone Soren had e-mailed me and asked how my day was going and what my plans were. Then he tipped me off that the "mailman" had delivered something early that morning. We went to the mailbox and Soren hads left an envelope in there with a new light-up quacking duck key chain taped to it. (It replaces the light-up oinking pig i used to have.) Inside the envelope was tanning passes for 4 months(!!!) and a sweet note asking me to either lunch or dinner with him later that day. It was so thoughtful on many levels including the fact that he knows how much I love the mail and love to get things in the mail (a day does not go by without me checking the mail) and that tanning will help lift my mood through the long winter months of darkness. I'm very excited to still feel the warmth of light, even if its artificial and baking me.

So I called him and picked dinner due to the fact that I had a cake to make, a shower to take and a house to clean. He let me pick the place and made reservations. I spent the day cleaning, playing with Easton, and baking a German chocolate cake. Meanwhile my other visiting teacher came over with chocolates and I got several wonderful phone calls from friends and family.

Soren got home early at like 5:45 and rushed me out the door to dinner. When we got to the restaurant there was a wait so we were able to walk around the mall to kill time. We got seated at 7:00 and Bo and Melanie Scoffield met us there. We ate at Claim Jumper which is kinda like a steakhouse/classic-comfort food place. Dinner was really fun. We then went back to our house to have cake and ice cream and put the kids to bed. As I am standing unlocking the door I hear a rustle inside the house like there is a fan on and I'm like what is that? Plus the dead bolt was locked and it never is..... I walk in the house and everyone yells "SURPRISE!!" There are like 25 people in my house, streamers everywhere and I about fall over. I was so, so, so literally surprice. I couldn't believe that I had no idea that I had a surprise party coming my way. It was awesome!

Here is my and my cake. I made everyone wait while I grabbed the camera from the diaper bag and had someone take this picture. :)
Sarah with me. She made the beautiful Martha Stewart cupcakes you will see below.
Family Birthday photo.
Melanie, Soren's co-conspirator. She did all the planning, decorations, and lying to me. :) Thanks Melanie, you really know how to keep a secret.Bo, Melanie's husband.
Soren with Quinn McNames who is also pictured below. So handsome.
Aubrey and Stella McNames. Their parents came too, but the kids were just cuter. :)

Soren and Melanie had conspired and invited all our friends over, decorated the house while we were at the mall and at dinner, and made like 3 other kinds of cake including cupcakes from my Martha Stewart catalog. :)

It was beautiful. Apparently Soren almost blew the surprise a few times at dinner, but I didn't even notice. It was a success. Everyone ate their fill of cake and chatted away. I opened presents from my parents and got a new scripture journal, a brownie-serving spatula and money to go towards a plane ticket home in a few months. Then Soren surprised me again by pulling out another present. It was new perfume and it smells heavenly. Delicious Fresh Blossom by DKNY.

And I couldn't finish this post without some pictures of my kid. Here he is in his new shirt on my birthday.

Thanks soooo much Soren for an amazing day. I love you!

Veteran's Memorial

So last Sunday I heard about a traveling Vietnam Veteran's Memorial at a nearby park. We decided to go observe the closing ceremonies and see the replica of the wall they have in DC. It was really an inspiring and gratifying event. There were some speakers, a gun salute, and they took down the flag. They also honored all of the veterans present as well as those currently serving. Lately I have been on a war-kick in the books I have read. I recently read Flags of Our Fathers and listened to the book The War on CD. Both of them are in-depth documentaries about World War II. The books really opened my eyes to what soldiers go through as their duty and it made me so grateful for them. Thanks to their sacrifices we live in the world we do.

Soren is so proud Easton is starting to do some tricks. He started this on at exactly 3 monthes. They can keep it going for quite a while....

I had to put this picture on here because it really reminds me that Easton is his Dad's son. Recently there have been a LOT of photos that they take together where they have the exact same expression on. I LOVE IT!! Here are a few more examples..... :)

Yankee's ( well, Mariner's...) Game!

Last weekend the Yankees came into town. When Soren found out he was thrilled so we just had to go . He is one of the only people I have ever met that likes the Yankees so we went to cheer them on. Bo and Melanie Scoffield accompanied us and we had a great time. Our seats were really high, but we had an amazing view of the water, the city and the game. It was fun to have a date out on the town and do something Seattle-ish.

Easton at his first baseball game.

Bo, Melanie, and Ronan enjoying the game. Thanks for all the treats Melanie!

The field.....it made Soren really homesick to play ball. :(

My Baking Buddy

Easton helped me bake bread today. Needless to say, after starting over three times we were both exhausted.

We're Home At Last

Its been a long time since my last post, but we've been out of town again. Easton and Soren and I were gone for another 2 weeks and I think I may have finally vacationed myself out. Its been a great last month of traveling, but it is nice to be home and relax a little. Here's a little about what we've been up to.


On July 18th Easton and I flew out to Salt Lake. Seidi Bennett picked us up and we stayed at their house for the night. Easton got to meet Charlie, Seidi's little guy and we took adorable pictures of them together. It was great to see them and just catch up.

Charlie and Easton before church.

Seidi and I.

The next day we went to stay at my mom's mom's house and met my family there. My brothers were really excited to see Easton again. We stayed with them for a few days and did a lot of things together. We were able to go to the Oquirrh Mountain Temple Open House, barbeque, go ice blocking, and slip and slide.

Soren joined us on Thursday night because he stayed home to work Monday-Wednesday. He was a real trooper because he drove the car 13 hours down to us so we could have a car to get around. We then stayed at my dad's parents house for a few days and had a great time with them. One of the highlights was going boating on Utah Lake. Soren waterskiied and I even did some tubing. Its was a blast. I was also able to meet up with some of my college friends for lunch and meet Kelli Duthrie and Kristin Draper's new babies. It was so much fun to spend time with them all.

Brinley Duthrie and Easton. These two are 9 weeks apart and have been betrothed since we found out Brinley was a girl. :) This is one of my favorite pictures from the whole trip.

Dallas Draper and Easton. These two buds are a week apart almost to the minute.

Easton learned to suck on his hand while we've been gone. He also loves to snuggle his blankie. Its adorable!

My mom and I at the barbeque in the canyon.

Baby on the boat. He loved it.

Soren and Mike chillin' with the kids.

Kelli and I with Brinley and Easton.

Tuesday morning of the next week we drove down to St. George to visit Soren's side of the family. We attended a day and a half of his family reunion where Easton met his other two great-grandmas. We also took Easton swimming and had a lot of fun with him. That week we also went down to Las Vegas and stayed the night with Soren's best friend from high school Lucas Abbott and his family. Their kids were hilarious and so much fun to spend time with. We wish we would have had more time everywhere we went! The next day we were able to visit another of Soren's old friends Amber and her family and then we were back up to St. George. Easton was such a trooper with all of our driving and hauling him around. He's a really good baby and adjusted pretty well under the circumstances.

It was fun to spend time with Soren's family and friends. Soren had bought his Dad a tent so he spent time setting it up with him, bike riding and hiking. I was able to spend time with his Grandma Dorothy and learn about all the family history that she has kept and put together. His Aunt Denise also treated us to a five-star dinner where we tried new dishes like quail, risotto, italian sodas, and French cheeses. We really enjoyed it.

So after spending the week in southern Utah we drove back up to Salt Lake for one more night with Soren's brother Reagan and Mike and Kelli. I flew out the next day and Soren drove home.

Grandma Dorothy with her only great grandson Easton.

Dad and son at the pool.

Dallas and Easton again.

Poor Easton spent a lot of time in that dang carseat. Luckily we brought toys and blankie along.

So now we are back and finally starting this new part of our lives with a new job, no more tests, and just the three of us. I start back to work next week and am kinda looking forward to it. Wish us luck. :)