2 Years!!

Nate and I celebrated our 2-year anniversary this past weekend - the 2 years seem to have gone by fast, but at the same time it seems like forever ago that I was single and living in Palo Alto. I'll save you the sappy stuff (but maybe share it with Nate), but just for the record, we are still happily married :)

To celebrate, we went down to St. George for the weekend. We stayed with Nate's grandparents, along with my brother Dave and his roommates. It was a great weekend. On Saturday morning we went golfing with Dave & Co. It was really fun, even though I stink. On the first hole I swung probably at least 5 times before I made contact with the ball, and everyone was just sitting there watching me. It looked like it was going to be a LONG morning. Fortunately it got better after that (not by much, but I at least made contact). On one hole, you had to hit it from the tee over a little pond thing to the green, and I almost didn't even try because I didn't think there was any way it wouldn't land in the water. After I hit it, the ball went way to the right and bounced off a pipe that went across the water (about 10 feet above), and landed on the other side of the pond - just barely, about a foot away from the water. It was pretty impressive :) We lounged around that afternoon and swam, slept, and had a BBQ. Here's Bennett's first time "swimming" (we just put his feet in the water).

We went out to dinner Saturday night to celebrate our anniversary - we went to a yummy Thai restaurant, then went to Nielsen's Frozen Custard. We had actually gone there (in Bountiful) the night we first talked about getting married, so it's not only delicious, but has some historical significance too (maybe not historical, but sentimental?). Sunday was pretty low-key. We went to church with Gma and Gpa, and just relaxed and had dinner after. Nate and Dave and I (and Bennett) went for a walk down by the river, and Bennett got pretty excited at the wind gusts on the way back.

On Monday we went through Zion National Park on our way home. I had been there once with my family a long time ago, so it was nice to see it again. We'll have to go back when Bennett's a little older and we can see a little more - we weren't brave enough to fight the crowds and take Bennett on hikes, so we just drove through and stopped at several little pull-out places. We took some back roads from there to Cedar Breaks, which is a "National Monument" that looks kind of like a mini Bryce Canyon. It was really pretty too, and driving along all the back roads was nice because we drove through some small towns and saw lots of green meadows, etc.

Here are some more pictures of our adventures (including what Bennett did while we were sightseeing):

Then.....and now

Bennett Update

Some of the fun things Bennett has been doing lately (he's now 3 months old - he's growing so fast!):

* learning to use his hands - he can sometimes grab onto his toys if we put them close to him.

* drooling. a lot.

* smiling more and more, and sometimes smiling at strangers

* I hesitate to say this, but at the risk of making other moms jealous...still sleeping through the night. Hooray! I can take no credit for this - I'm not sure why I got so lucky.

* laughing - we sometimes have to make pretty dorky / cheesy noises to get him to do it, but it is so fun when he does! For the first few months, it seems like the only emotion they can express is anger/sadness/tiredness, etc. by crying, so it's nice when he can smile and laugh so we know he's actually happy :) We caught a little bit on video - I'm posting it at the bottom mostly for my parents and siblings who don't get to see him very often. But anyone is welcome to watch :)

gripping onto his toy...swinging at the hanging toys on the play mat Aunt Jessica let us borrow...and this is how he fell asleep this afternoon - holding onto the elephant's ear.

Bees & BBQ

Bennett got to go to his first professional sporting event this weekend when we went to the Bees game on Friday night. We were in a suite with some people from Nate's work and one of the companies they contract with, which made it much more baby-friendly. I was able to take Bennett inside to change his diaper and help him get to sleep - much easier than being in the uncomfortable stadium seats the whole time. Plus, we got free food :) The picture is of Nate and Bennett on our way in - I took the picture before we got his cute hat on though. The game was as entertaining as it can be when you don't know any of the players or really follow the team - the Bees lost by one, and the last batter went to 3 and 2 before striking out.

Saturday was a fairly low-key day for us. We spent most of the morning cleaning, then went to Laura & Jonathan's new house for a yummy bbq dinner - Laura was my old roommate, and their baby Grace was born about a month after Bennett. We had fun comparing new parent stories and seeing the babies together. It took just a couple tries to get a picture with both babies looking at the camera.

Enjoying Spring

The weather has been nice here during the week lately, but the weekends have often been rainy or snowy the past couple months. This past weekend was one of the first ones with great weather, and we got to enjoy some of it. On Saturday, we went to the park for a picnic lunch. It's amazing how much better a simple turkey & cheese sandwich tastes when it's eaten at a picnic :) The weather was perfect for just laying (lying? that's one grammar rule I seem to have never been able to learn...) on the blanket and enjoying the sun. We tried to take a picture of us, but the sun was really bright in our eyes so we couldn't keep them open. I'm not sure why I wasn't smart enough to take it from a different angle, but here's the best one we got.

We went up to Bountiful after that because Nate was meeting with some clients interested in buying a home. Bennett and I hung out in the car while he met with them, then we went up to the Bountiful temple - I want to print a picture of the temple to hang in our house, so we figured spring was a good time to try. The temple grounds were gorgeous!! Tons of beautiful tulips, trees blossoming, etc. I think I'm still going to try and go again to get some more pictures - it was a little cloudy and I'm hoping for a blue sky day. But it was fun to walk around and see how pretty the grounds were.

Hopefully the weather is nice this weekend like they say it will be - I wish it would stay like this all summer! It's probably the Oregonian in me, but I just love this time of year when the grass is green, the hills are green, the trees have leaves again...it's always a little sad when it all starts to turn brown again.

Saturday night, we met up with Nate's parents and brother, sister-in-law, and nieces for dinner at the Mandarin in Bountiful. I hadn't ever been there but had heard people rave about how good the food was, so I was excited to try it. It was delicious! We sat at a big round table with a big round lazy susan in the middle, which makes family style Chinese more fun :)

Happy Mother's Day!

This is a little late, but happy mother's day to all the moms! Nate and I were both talking about how great our moms were/are, and what great examples of motherhood they have been. I was fortunate to be spoiled on my first mother's day by:

* Pretty orange and red tulips, and a delicious breakfast of croissants and hot chocolate, AND waffles with strawberries and whipped cream on top. Yum.* Getting to hear Nate speak in sacrament meeting about what an awesome mom I am. Just kidding. But he did speak in sacrament meeting and talked about motherhood and, as he likes to point out, I did get teary-eyed.
* A great dinner at Nate's parents' house, made by his dad and sister.* Getting to spend the day with this cute little guy:

* Having Nate around to change dirty diapers :)