Fresh Air, Beautiful Scenery, & Various Woodland Creatures....

Malea's first camping trip!
Granite Flats Campground, American Fork Canyon

One of my favorite pictures of all time!

Malea showing off the tent

Mmmmm......tin foil dinners.....

Beautiful scenery!

Warming up next to the fire

Mommy's first time cooking on a gas stove.....not too shabby!

Malea loves her daddy!

Mommy & Malea :)

The first night was a little rough due to what will forever be known as "The Raccoon Incident".....a raccoon came in to our camp in the middle of the night and tried to get in to one of our coolers, and scared us all awake. Malea wouldn't go back to sleep until about 6:00 am, so needless to say, naps were in order!

Malea relaxin' with some Cheez-its

Malea and Daddy going on a little hike

After Malea went to bed, Keith & I played a mean game of Uno & enjoyed some s'mores

We had a great time camping, and can't wait to go again next year!!

We Love Summer

We have had such a fun summer so far! I'm not ready for it to be over yet!! Here are some highlights of what we've done so far:

To start out the summer, we took a trip to Washington to visit Keith's family. We spent a day in Seattle, and it was so much fun!

We spent lots of time going to the park, and just getting out of the house. Malea loves to be outdoors, so we tried to spend as much time outside as possible!

This year for the 4th of July, we started out the day by going to the parade. We had lots of fun! Then we had a BBQ with Keith's family (they were in town for a family reunion that was taking place the week after). We were planning on going to the fireworks, but we were all so pooped we just ended up going home and going to bed! Oh well, maybe next year!

My pretty girl!

My 4th of July cake.....yum yum!!

The week after the 4th of July, we had a really fun family reunion with Keith's side of the family (his mom's side - the Asay's). There were lots of fun activities each day, and we had a great time catching up with everyone! One of our favorite activities of the week was going boating down at Yuba Lake. We rented wave runners and Keith's parents brought down their boat. What a blast!

We have spent LOTS of time this summer in the pool and basically doing anything involving water. Malea has practically lived in her swimming suit this summer!

One night we decided to take a drive through the Alpine Loop. I've lived here my whole life and never done it! It was so beautiful, and it inspired us to go camping next week!

Malea was going crazy being cooped up in the car while there was so much to see outside of the car, so we got out and let her run around a little bit.

For the 24th of July, my Dad had a BBQ and fireworks at his house. Malea had so much fun playing with her cousins! This was Malea's first encounter with fireworks, and she did surprisingly well. She usually gets spooked by stuff like that, but she really enjoyed it!

More fun to come! We are going camping this weekend, and then there is the annual family swimming party on the 8th of August. I'm not ready for summer to be over!

Mommy's Little Helper

So Malea has hit a phase where she wants to do whatever Mommy & Daddy do. She has become our little "helper." She watches what we do, and then tries to imitate us. It is SO cute! She helps us with the laundry, dishes, and sweeping. I hope that she continues to be this helpful!

My Crafty Projects

Here are some crafty projects I've finished in the last few months. I got a Cri-cut for Christmas from my dad (best gift EVER!!) and I've had so much fun with it. Here is my first major project, a 2009 calendar with pictures from 2008. It took me a long time to finish it, but I had a lot of fun, and I will be able to keep the pages in my scrapbook once the year is over.

This is my first attempt at using vinyl lettering.....I am still trying to get the hang of it (it is a little crooked, but it wasn't too bad for a first try). I am working on a frame right now that will have "U.S.A." on it with vinyl lettering. I will post a pic once I'm done.

Here are a couple of frames that I made for baby shower gifts. I got invited to a double-baby shower for two of my friends from high school and both of them are having boys. One of the girls is decorating the baby's room in a beach/surfer theme, and the other girl is doing a sports theme. I hope they like them!

My new favorite thing to do lately is decorate gift bags. I feel like it gives it a personal touch, and it is a lot of fun to do!

Family Traditions: Old & New

Art City Days has been a tradition of my family since I was a kid. We have gone to the parade and carnival for as long as I can remember. I also remember watching the fireworks from my Grandma "M's" front lawn. A new tradition that we have decided to do every year is the Art City Days 5K. I didn't even know that they did a 5K until this year, but apparently they have been doing it for years. This is a picture of me with my mom and my friend Laura Butler, who also did the 5K that day. It was so fun!

This is us coming to the finish line. We had a good time, and Malea did so well. All I can say is, I am so out of shape! I ran maybe 1 of the 3 miles, and I thought I was going to puke! Pathetic, I know. Well, I guess you have to start somewhere. I am going to start training for the next one!

All of us at the Art City Days parade. We brought umbrellas thinking it might rain, and then we ended up needing the umbrellas for shade! I am so glad that the weather was nice. For the last couple of years, the older grandkids spend the night at my mom's the night before the parade, and then they wake up in the morning and go to the parade. Maybe a few more years and Malea can sleep over!

Malea hanging out on her pink chair. She loves this chair, and if anyone else tries to sit on it she throws a fit! Yeah, she has hit the stage of not wanting to share (so fun!). I think she really enjoyed the parade, and she got to eat lots of treats (thanks to Grandma Vicki!). This is Malea's second year of Art City Days. She seemed to have fun, but mostly walked around the whole time looking for dogs to pet. :)



Grandma Vicki with baby Sienna. She is growing up so fast! What a cutie. Its weird to think that Malea was about the same age when she went to the parade last year! How time flies!





All the grand kids watching the parade and enjoying the bounteous amounts of candy they are getting!

After the parade, we went back to my mom's house to have a birthday party for my nephew Corben. Happy 5th Birthday Corben! Unfortunately, Malea decided to take a 3 1/2 hour nap and slept right through the entire birthday party! Here's Malea with Grandma Vicki, and her cousins Hunter and Sienna. Us girls got to stick together!

Of course Art City Days wouldn't be complete without heading down to the carnival. This is a picture of Malea and I on a ride (we're the second car from the right). Malea had fun the first couple of times around, but apparently wasn't loving it after that (I couldn't see her face.....I was just worried about holding on to her!).

We had a great time at Art City Days this year! See you in 2010!

Washington Trip

Over Memorial Day weekend we took a trip to the tri-cities to visit Keith's family. It was really fun! We also went to Seattle for a day and then spent the night at his Aunt Susan & Uncle Dave's house in Maple Valley (about 45 minutes from Seattle). We were able to visit some friends of Keith's who live in Seattle and go to U-Dub (University of WA). It has been so long since we have seen them.....in fact, one of the friends has 2 kids that we have never even seen yet! It was a really fun trip. We spent 6 days there, and were still rushing to do everything we wanted to do and see everyone we wanted to see.

Malea had so much fun playing with her cousin Corbin! They played really well together, even though Corbin is 3 and Malea is 1. She just thought he was the coolest!

Sporting the sunglasses on the way to the cabin.


Up at the cabin in Goldendale, there are wind turbins on the property just above Keith's parents property. We decided to take a little hike to check out the turbins. The view was awesome!


Malea & me on Memorial Day.....we had a really fun family BBQ at Keith's Grandma & Grandpa's house.


On our way to Seattle, we stopped to see the Seattle temple. It is so beautiful! The grounds were amazing. There were so many beautiful flowers.


Cool picture of the Space Needle on the Seattle skyline


Checking out the water front.



After spending a few hours on the water front, we decided to drive up to check out the Space Needle. However, Malea fell asleep after about 30 seconds in the car, so we decided to take pictures of it from the road. She was such a trooper!

Before.....

After.....


Hi Space Needle!

Having dinner with Keith's friends Ben & Brandon Wilson and their wives/families in the U-District. It was so much fun! We haven't seen them for a long time.


To view all of the pictures from our Washington trip, see my facebook profile. If you are not a facebook user, you can copy & paste this link to view the album:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=95910&id=531687030&l=f1c8feb299