FIVE years of Wedded Bliss!

On August 20th Nate and I celebrated our 5th Anniversary! On one hand I can’t believe it’s already been 5 years, on the other it seems like we have always been together. Either way I can’t wait to spend the rest of forever with my very best friend! I don’t know how I got so lucky to be married to the greatest husband and dad ever…but I sure am thankful. For our anniversary we got to spend two relaxing and fantastic days, just the two of us, at my parents’ cabin! It was so wonderful to get to spend time together without the interruption of little girls and daily life. And I’m sure Kenna and Sage didn’t miss us at all…they were off to the Davis County fair with my parents, Boondocks with Nate’s parents and who knows what else with their ever-spoiling grandparents! :) Nate, I love you and can’t wait for all the adventures we have ahead! Five years down and forever left to enjoy…

The Timpanogas Killer

We got to start out our Utah vacation with an amazing backpacking trip up the backside of Mount Timpanogas! I literally thought I might die several times, but it was SO awesome!!! Just to give an idea of the pain we suffered (or should I say the feat we conquered!), the trail is 15 miles round-trip with a 4400’ elevation gain. And we were carrying 35+ lbs of overnight camping gear. What an adventure! Our tough clan included my twin sister Allison, her husband Adam, my studly twin brothers Zach and Isaac and Nate and I. The hike was breathtakingly beautiful with huge rocky cliffs, fields of wildflowers, waterfalls, glaciers and meadows. You can’t help but smile in amazement of the great outdoors (even when your legs are on fire)! We practically ran up the mountain to enjoy the beautiful sunset and set up camp before dark. (We camped in a beautiful valley next to Emerald Lake.) After our tents were up and we were all fed and in PJ’s, we squished in one tent and played a couple very humorous hours of Scum! It was so much fun to spend time with everyone just laughing and enjoying each others company. We were also joined by a heard of 9 mountain goats (7 adults and 2 babies) who literally camped out about 10 feet from us the whole night! Despite being sore and bruised the next day, it was one of the most fun hiking trips we’ve ever been on. I seriously was contemplating talking everyone in to going again the next weekend, but we all settled with the decision to make it a yearly tradition. Can’t wait for next year!

The Gang!

Our goat buddies! (Who weren't in the least bit afraid of us.)

Enjoying some early morning Hot Chocolate!

The moose I was happy to see from a distance. :)

At least I wasn't the only one whipped on the way home!

Back to Utah!

We had 1 week between work ending and school starting, so we decided to spend it with our wonderful families! Yes, it was a LONG drive, but the girls were angels. Other than one blow-out incident, the entire 26 hours round-trip went incredibly smoothly…and it was SO worth it! We were all super spoiled and had an absolute blast. We ran through sprinklers, went to a family reunion (the Evans side), spent time with my family at my parents’ cabin, went to the Dinosaur museum, celebrated Nate’s birthday, played lots of cards, went boating with the Wolfleys…and on and on! As always it went by WAY too fast, but we enjoyed every minute we had. Every time we see our families we are reminded of how blessed we are. We are surrounded by so many amazing family members who are so fun, supportive and who we and the girls absolutely love spending time with. Makenna and Sage adore their grandparents and cousins and I’m sure are bummed to be back home with only Mom for entertainment. We are already looking forward to seeing our families again!

Kenna & Dad braving the sprinkler!

Two cute Grandmas!

Jumping with the cousins at the cabin

Sage in her usual one-foot-off-the-ground pose for sitting on the grass!

Snuggled up for a 4-wheeler ride!

Yes, a cow-pie splattered up on my leg...SO gross!

Luckily we were only this squished for the end of the ride! :)

Grandpa Richard sporting his bib right along with the girls!

The Big 27 Birthday Boy!

So excited to get some cake

Oh yeah...I'm ready!

The boating girls...minus Grandma

Kenna even learned to "ski"! She'll be up on the slalom in no time!

Swimming with Daddy - these girls LOVE the water!

Future Boat Driver

Grandpa enjoying some rest. Doesn't Sage's hat look pretty on him?

Our goofy girl!

Nate showing off his surfing skills!

The Dinosaur Museum!

All the girl cousins (minus Elizabeth)

5K Love

Our good friends recently put together a 5K run in memory of their son who passed away at 50 days old from complications of heart surgery. It was a donation-only event benefitting families at Doernbecher Children’s Hospital of children born with heart defects. There was a great turnout and it was so fun to run with many of our awesome friends! I have to say I quickly learned in how much better shape Nate is than I, but I did run the whole time! (Nate ran and pushed the girls and stopped at stations along the way to do push-ups, lunges, etc to earn stickers for Kenna, all while pushing me to go faster…what a stud!) :) The weather was great, the girls were happy (Sage fell asleep 10 minutes into the ride) and it was an awesome workout. What a fun way to spend a Saturday!

Hanging out with their buddy Elise (or in Kenna"s words "Maleese")!

Ready to run!

The Zoo & "Daddy's Work"!

We recently made a trip up to Portland as a family to go to the zoo and meet Judge Svetkey (who Nate worked with through the summer)! It would be an understatement to say that it was just fun because Makenna talked about it non-stop for days before and after the trip! We had a blast! We started out going to the “Quarter” as Kenna calls it (really the county court house). The girls and I hadn’t met the judge that Nate has been working with, so we were excited to finally put a face to all the stories we’d heard. Nate had a wonderful experience working with her. She was very accommodating and really let Nate take part in every step of the litigation process. I’m not sure why, but Makenna felt instantly at home in the courtroom! She ran up and down the steps and kept climbing in the judge’s chair. Not to mention, Judge Svetkey gave her 3 cookies…an instant best friend! We went there first and when it was time to leave, we kept saying, “Don’t you want to go to the zoo?!” She just answered, “No I want to stay at the quarter.” Like father like daughter! :) Well when we finally peeled her away from the court house, we headed off to the zoo. Oh man did we have a fun time! We ran from one animal to the next and both girls got more excited with each one. Kenna completely skipped her nap but you’d never guess it…she had about as much energy as a two year-old can have! The Oregon zoo is neat because it has a couple petting zoos within the zoo. Both Kenna and Sage got to touch a bunny, a chicken and goats. Makenna even got to brush one of the goats all by herself! I was amazed at how comfortable she was - she was in heaven! When we went in the building with the alligators, she started yelling “OH MY GOSH, OH MY GOSH!” (What a girl!) :) I think every person in that building turned and laughed at our very enthusiastic little lady! In fact I don’t think our girls were very quiet at any of the exhibits. When Sage saw the monkeys she started squealing so much I thought she might pass out! One funny little tidbit…Kenna has been quite obsessed with dinosaurs lately. Before we actually went, if you asked her what was at the zoo, she would usually say dinosaurs or elephant bones (?). Well we went at the right time because there was a dinosaur exhibit at the zoo! Only Kenna was terrified of it! She saw an animated dinosaur (that might have been the problem) and wouldn’t get within 10 feet of it. It was “too scary”! Guess they’re more fun in books! Oh I could go on and on about what a good time we had. Who knew the zoo could be such fun? It was so awesome to spend time all together doing something so fun. A perfect family day! Can’t wait to do it again!

Some of my favorite random Kenna quotes from the zoo:
That giraffe is strong and big
(very enthusiastically) There’s the daddy elephant’s butt! (where the heck did that come from?)
(repeated over and over…and over) The dinosaur isn’t real, Daddy touched him so he isn’t real.
The monkey has a mustache on his back

Nate & Kenna in the eagle's nest

Couldn't she pass for a baby bird? :)

Natural cowgirls!

Sage petting the Polar Bear...

(Okay so really it's a goat. :) But seriously, who else gets this excited about a goat?!)

Taking a nap...what a trooper!

This pictures makes me laugh because Kenna is looking at one of the dinosaurs. We're saying "check out the elephant!" and she's thinking "that one's not real either, right?!" :)

One of the few moments she let me help her brush the goat...

OH MY GOSH! (They were pretty impressive!)

About a minute and a half into the drive home!