Our lil' Cougar

Sawyer has been growling a lot lately. Go BYU Cougars :)

Rag Doll

The Melling family (Sara's in-laws) had their annual reunion at a cabin on Cedar Mountain this past week. They are always so generous to invite us to join in on their party. I was terrible and didn't take one picture this year. I did steal this great video that Misty recorded of Sara on the zip-line though.

We call it the 'Rag Doll'

She was not injured, in fact there was only one injury per day on the zip-line...not too shabby.

Definitely a fantastic week!

Camping with Chrissy

Last weekend I got to catch up with another friend that I met while going to college in Hawaii, Chrissy! They have a little 14-month-old boy, James. Sawyer and I got to play with him while they hiked the Subway down in Zion NP. James did absolutely fantastic...I was so impressed how well he did for being left with 'strangers'. Although George and I met him in Florida for a few minutes when he was just 2-months-old, he didn't seem to remember that.

Sawyer trying to soak up as much as James was willing to teach him :) It's funny because Sawyer is about the same size as James, but almost 6 months younger.

Aly, Chrissy, and I were all buds out in Hawaii.

And Aly happened to be passing through Cedar on her way to California, so our three boys got to play together for a little bit! Can you tell who goes with who?

Here is my only other photo that I have with just the three of us. We had so much fun together, haha. I think this one was taken in some cave that we'd climbed to on a mountain on Oahu. College in Hawaii. Really good decision :)

Here is the canyoneering crew after hustling for 5 hours and 9 miles. We met them on the last stretch of the Subway in Zion. Once we had the permit (which is hard to get - I've tried to hike the Subway twice and it hasn't worked out) I was SOO tempted to ditch Sawyer and join them for the hike. My mom even volunteered to watch James and Sawyer. But with a 5 hour hike and an hour drive on each end, I figured that wouldn't be fair to Sawyer. I decided once he's weened it will be my celebration hike. Amazing George had delicious dutch oven beans and potatoes ready when the hikers finished. I LOVE that he has gotten into dutch oven cooking. It's so yummy and it reminds me of our fun wedding picnic too!

Doesn't matter how late this little one goes to sleep, he's always bright and chipper early in the morning. Like 5:30 early...eek!

This was our first time camping with Sawyer. We had good intermittent sleep. He actually did really well, but I think we'll make a few adjustments for next time (extra mat and pillows to try and keep him more stationary). Sawyer loved waking up next to papa and mama, and had lots of fun crawling all over us too. We'll definitely be going again soon.

It was dark by the time we went to set up camp...so we just set up in a pullout along Kolob Terrace Road. The views ended up being beautiful when we woke up.

Chrissy, James, and Randy practicing camping as a family for their bike tour in France.

Sawyer apparently snuck a few pebbles past us...evidence found in his diaper the next day.

Our amazing camp chef, George. Thank you so much for keeping all of us well fed. And thanks Sara and Joe for the yukon and grill!

The whole crew doing a short hike Saturday morning up to Emerald Pools and the Grotto. The babies were promptly rocked to sleep in their carriers.

So fun to spend some time with Chrissy...it's always an adventure when we hang out, I love it!

Fire Road Cycling

George volunteers for the search and rescue in Iron County. It's been a slow year, which I guess is a good thing. Occasionally they are asked to help out with community activities. Cedar City hosted its very first Fire Road Cycling event which included 25k, 60k, and 100k routes. George was in charge of the last station which was at the top of a loooong hill. He handed out drinks and snacks to all the hard core riders.

Grandma, Sawyer and I walked down to main street to watch the bicyclists start their ride.

Since it was the first year there were only about 100 entrants.

We decided to take a drive up the mountain and picnic with George after his station duties were over. It was a glorious day!

The views we had to deal with...gorgeous!

These meadows were everywhere blanketed in purple and gold flowers.

Perfect way to spend a Saturday.

SLC road trip

Sawyer and I took our first 'road trip' by ourselves up to Salt Lake City. Does it count as a road trip if it's only a 3.5 hour drive? Aly hadn't had the chance to meet Sawyer yet and Elaine was going to be in town from Texas, so I decided to brave it. Sawyer was angelic, of course...you would think I'd know by now :) He really did great on the drive up and slept most of the way. And he did pretty good sleeping in new places, but the problem was I'd stay up way too late visiting with my friends that his normal wake up time (5:3o am) came waaaay too early.

We stayed a couple days at Elaine's parent's. They live up a beautiful canyon and her mom has the most amazing garden and flowers. It was wonderful to catch up with Elaine and her family and to breathe in the fresh mountain air. Plus we got to visit Receli and Anisa. I forgot to get my camera out there tho. Anisa just had a baby boy, Jonny on June 3. He is SO precious and it was so fun to meet him. I'd already forgotten how tiny newborns are, so cute!!

Flake and Sawyer :)

Adorable baby Jonny 6 lbs 9 oz. I snagged a pic that Anisa had emailed me :)

We then headed to North Salt Lake to spend the night at Aly's house. Her boy, Ben, turns 3 next month! Sawyer was in love with him and wanted to walk just like him and play with him. I'm not sure the feeling was mutual, but Ben was a good sport sharing all his toys with Sawyer.

And we even got them to pose for a picture (almost)!

I hope these two have a chance to be buds growing up.

Strolling around the farmer's market in Bountiful.

It was so relaxing to visit with Aly. I love how we can pick right up where we left off (which is usually way longer than either one of us would like). She always has such great advice for me. And it was so easy to stay at her house since she's already set up for a baby boy.

On my drive back south I got to stop and eat sushi with Shena. It was a fun quick little stop. To help break up the drive. Speaking of the drive, our civic doesn't have cruise control and now my right knee is killing me from keeping it in the same position for hours. I must be getting old or something.

Although I'm terrible at keeping in touch, I feel so blessed to have such amazing girlfriends in my life! It was a fabulous trip and wonderful to catch up.