June Trip to Utah: Part 1

We spent a couple weeks in Utah, and going through all the pictures is overwhelming, so I'm going to keep the details short and break it up into 3 or 4 posts over the next few days.

The reason for the trip was for our Bear Lake trip with friends, but we had a few days before and then some unexpected days after as well. Garrett's trip was even longer than the rest of ours because his Grammy was in California and then he flew home with her a couple days before Paul and I drove out with the baby. We drove out on Thursday June 14th, after Paul got off work. He drove the first hour or so, then I took over and he and Lulu slept. My plan was to drive for a couple hours and then switch so I could sleep, but the silence of Lulu sleeping peacefully kept me going because I knew she'd wake up if we stopped. I had to stop for gas but it was quiet and quick enough that she wasn't too disturbed, and I drove the whole way! We got in around 4AM Friday morning.

Saturday was spend at the downtown farmers market and crafting while all the men went fishing.Garrett loved the musicians. Addie loved people watching. Grammy loved playing with the babies. And my sis-in-law, Samira and I loved the food and the handmade baby stuff.Sunday was Father's day. We had dinner with the family and Auntie, Uncle Jon, Aunt Barb, and Grandma and Grandpa Garrett. This was the first time that our whole (Greenhalgh) family was together since Taylor got married last October, just a few weeks before Addie was born.After dinner, we went to my sis-in-law Laura's parent's house in Centerville for Volleyball and dessert.Grammy and Grandpa bought a bike trailer and Garrett tried it out. It was a hit!

the fearless toddler

I'm amazed at Garrett's speed and balance in this video of his first time on a trampoline. Until the very end. You'll want to watch until the very end.

Father's Day

Thank you, Paul, for being the husband you are to me...and for loving our sweet kids the way you do.We love you.

A Birthday Bash

We went to the 1st birthday party of my friend's little boy on saturday. It was a lot of fun. Made me long for a yard that I can send Garrett to play in and only let him in the house at meal time. Just kidding. But I'm sure he'd be fine with that. He'd probably be more fine just not eating, and staying outside all day.

It was a 'woodsie/outdoorsie theme and the activities, decorations, and food were all great. Garrett was in heaven. Running, splashing, fetch with their dog, toys, bubbles, coloring, etc. etc. etc. He slept the whole way home.

Katy (the birthday boy's mom) grew up with the White's. Paul was best friends with her brother. And the parents home schooled their kids together and I've become friends with the whole family. Paul was at work, so he didn't come with me. But my mom had just flown in that morning, so she came, and my mother in law was there, too.

photo dump and a recipe you'll thank me for

I love my days with these two. Lulu is so laid back as long as she can see what's going on and has something to chew on. Garrett is so busy all the time, taking Lulu's toys and taking the plants for walks.
I love this picture of Garrett. He HAS to sleep with the tiger pillow and the alligator. I usually lay him on the pillow and put the alligator at his side, but on this night he was so tired that I just laid him on the pillow. The alligator was at the foot of his crib and I didn't grab it because I knew he's be asleep so quick. But when I checked on him before I went to bed, he'd somehow found his alligator in the dark and snuggled up.We're finally feeding Lulu rice cereal. Just at dinner time for now and so far, it's going so well. So much easier than Garrett was. I'm giving most of the credit to the Munchkin Easy Squeezy Spoon. It's awesome. Cuts down so much on mess and drips. And I think she's sleeping longer because she's staying full longer. So far since starting, she's sleeping 9-10 hours. Daddy's little girl.And now the recipe. I've been trying simple, fast, and minimal-ingredient recipes to find an easy one to use for a pinterest party. I've decided on two. One sweet and one salty. I'll share the other one later, but for now, dessert first! You can find the recipe at chef-in-training.com.

Or right here:

1 pack microwave popcorn, popped
1/2 cup butter
1 cup brown sugar
2 tbs light corn syrup or honey
1/2 tsb vanilla
12 large marshmallows

Instructions

1. Pop popcorn until done, remove any unpopped kernels.
   
2. Melt butter in a medium saucepan over low heat.
   
3. Add brown sugar, corn syrup, vanilla and marshmallows.
   
4. Turn heat to medium and stir until marshmallows are melted and mixture is smooth.
   
5. Pour over popcorn and stir in until popcorn is evenly coated.
   
6. Store in an airtight container.

*My notes*

I've made it twice and both times popped 2 bags of popcorn because Garrett loves popcorn and he snacks on it to keep busy while I cook. Both times I've used at least 1.5 bags of the popcorn and I think it would be way too gooey with only one bag. I've never tried it with honey so I don't know which one is better. I wish there was an amount of time you're suppose to heat the mixture because I feel like if I cook it on high and quick it won't have enough time to get the good carmely flavor, but if I cook it too slow it'll get too hard once mixed and cooled. Both times it's been the best right after it's made, warm and gooey. After it cools it gets hard. Fortunately a few seconds in the microwave softens it back up. If I ever get it to stay soft, I'll update with what I did. But it's so yummy! But I'd serve it shorty after making it.

Garrett loves it too.
He's got the idea, table push-ups while snacking to cancel out the calories.

Family Fun Day #3

We had our 3rd family fun day on Wednesday. We decided to head to the circle at orange and just walk around through the antique stores and the town, and then have lunch at Garrett's favorite Ruby's, the one at the train station.We wandered a little bit. We met this guy. He asked us for directions and after we told him how to get where he wanted to go the conversation went like this:

Him: I'm hurtin'.
Me: What?
Him: I'm hurting.
Me: Why? What's wrong?
(He kind of tips his head down, and by the look of his lips tightening, I could tell he was starting to cry. He had sunglasses on, so I couldn't see his eyes.)
Him: I was in the Marines and I've buried a lot of friends.
Me: I'm so sorry...are you still in the Marines?
Him: No, I'm out now, but you never really get out.
Me: Thank you for your service.
Him: I'm riding cross country now for all my buddies.
Me: That's pretty amazing.
Him: You keep loving and taking care of your beautiful babies.
Me: I will. Thank you. Good luck.
Him: God bless.

It was really random. Paul said he was a little caught of guard because of how forward he was by just telling us he was hurting. But he also said that my response of "What?" and "Why? What's wrong?" was so immediate and frank that he just let me take it from there. I like talking to strangers, and I love hearing peoples stories. I'm always so curious when I'm people watching and I see people crying or yelling or laughing, but I can't tell what the situation is, I always want to talk to them or try and get close enough to figure it out on my own. Just a couple days ago I pretended like I was looking for my keys in my purse for a really long time near the exit at Target because there was a lady on the phone having a yelling match with her credit card company about why her card wouldn't work and I just wanted to listen.

Anyway, here's the marine, leaving us for his next stop.We walked around some more. I bought some overpriced cupcake liners at my favorite party store. And on our way back to the car, I told Paul I wanted to run into a cute little baby boutique that I can never afford anything at. Turns out they are going out of business and everything was on super sale. I got 12 clothing items, 2 dozen hangers, 6 sleepers, a pair of shoes, that little toy station thing, and the table that the bag is on, all for 40 bucks!After lunch, Garrett ran around outside the train station, and both kids slept all the way home. Perfect.And after Lulu's nap, she tried out her new toy. So far its been well worth the $12 investment.

playing catch-up.

Paul and I went to a fund raiser for...something...I guess I don't know what we funded, but it was fun. Dancing With The Whittier Stars. One of his fellow Lion's was one of the stars, so we bought the tickets from him and then paid more money to cast our votes for him to win, (he didn't win) but just between you and me, there was a guy dancing who owns a bike shop here in town who I thought did amazingly well, so he may have gotten a few bucks worth of votes from me.We hung out with the family on Memorial Day. Auntie Annie made the kids 'Thing 1' and 'Thing 2' outfits. They are so cute. In the bottom left corner, Garrett is doing his newest "party trick". That's what he does now when you say, "Garrett, where's your chest hair?"I can't get enough of this little ray of sunshine.We went to the park to have a barbecue tonight. We invited Paul's family to join us.And then the things I didn't take pictures of...

Paul wanted me to have a kid-free Saturday yesterday. So my mother in law took me to downtown LA to do some shopping. It's crazy! A 25 minute drive and I felt like I was in a different country. But I got some great fabric, ricrac and beads for super cheap. I'll show you what I make...when I get to it.

Phil's best friend and his family are in town from Seattle for the friend's mother's memorial service. The kids and I went to it, and even though I didn't know the woman, I really enjoyed the service. I like funerals. Is that weird? I guess I married the right guy. (For anyone new or confused, my husband is a funeral director.)

I was talking to the friends wife that night about raising children. We were talking about how the little challenges that come and go in the process seem so overwhelming and never ending when you're going through it, but then when you look back it seems like no big deal, and very short-lived. I needed that conversation that day because I'm smack dab in the middle of one. Garrett thinks that sometime between the hours of 3AM and 5AM is a fantastic time to be wide awake and ready to play. And if I disagree with him, which I always do, then he thinks it's a fantastic time to scream and throw his blankets and pillow out of his crib, and scream some more. One night it was bad enough that he and I ended up in the guest room together, which is where I learned one of his tricks while he was awake and I was faking like I was asleep. Have I told you that I cut the feet out of his sleepers and put them on him backwards so he can't unzip them and strip down? Yeah, I do. But somehow his diapers were still coming off and sliding down into his sleeper and then he'd pee all over. I was about 2 bedding changes away from writing a letter to huggies and then I caught him in the act. My wild child is now pulling his arm out of his sleeve and reaching down into his sleeper to undo his diaper! He did it while I was laying right next to him! So if you're wondering if there is a roll of packing tape in his room now, and if I wrap tape around the waist of his diaper every night, the answer is yes.

I got tired just writing that. So let me end on a better note. My brother, Taylor, who moved to Alaska a couple of years ago and got married last October is moving to St. George, Utah. He and his wife started their 6 day drive yesterday, each driving their own vehicles. Sounds boring. They planned to tow hers but there was a miscommunication at u-haul, and their reserved tow thing wasn't available. Anyway, the better note, my sister in law is pregnant. I'm finally going to be an aunt! My niece or nephew is due mid-November, just a couple days after my Lulu's 1st birthday.