my twenty-sixth birthday

On Friday, I turned twenty-six! Besides having a cold and a little one who got a fever, it was the best day! Secretly my two birthday wishes were to have Nic home with us and to have the opportunity to go on a date. I felt so lucky because both of those wishes came true! And they weren't the only surprises he had up his sleeve either!!

In the morning we went on a long family walk together and then Nic took care of Liam while I got to take a hot shower and get completely ready by myself without a little body doing figure eights around my feet! It's the little things in life. Unbeknownst to me, Nic and Liam were putting together a little scavenger hunt for me while I was getting ready. I followed their cute clues ... the first card handed to me by Liam, the second found in a GIANT Christmas tree box with a bow on top in the garage, the third on the nightstand in the guest bedroom, until finally ending up at the kitchen table with a heavy rectangular shaped box tied with a red ribbon in front of me. I had NO CLUE what I was opening. I couldn't even guess. It wasn't until I slid the red ribbon off the box and opened the outer edge that I saw a familiar apple shaped logo. 

Nic had been working tirelessly long hours the last couple of months. There were times I was almost frustrated simply because I missed the adult interaction but at the same time so incredibly grateful for how hard he works for our family. Little did I know all of those extra hours he was putting in were actually for me. For my birthday gift. He gave me the nicest computer I've ever owned, a MacBook Pro. I found a note inside with it that said, "Happy birthday beautiful girl! May this toy help fuel all of your many, many talents. :)"

(sorry for the really grainy photo, it was getting dark outside)

We've had two laptops at home in the past. A Dell that we bought together during my last year of college and a Lenovo which is Nic's business computer. In the fall, our Dell was only a few years old and just barely outside of its warranty when it died. We looked into it, and it was going to cost well over half of what we paid for the computer originally to repair it. It was such a bummer to make that decision but we decided not to invest so much money into fixing it when we could save and spend a couple hundred more for a brand new computer. Nic has had bad experiences with HP and we weren't happy to have a 3-year-old Dell die either. Lenovo struggled to run Photoshop for me so that really only left a Mac. We talked about computers for a while, pushed around the idea and then just never committed to anything because they are a serious investment. In the meantime, Nic was sweet to allow me to occasionally use his business computer to blog when I needed to or for any other home purpose but there were days he would take it to work or days it refused to run Photoshop. A big reason for me not posting a lot for a while. I was absolutely shocked when I opened up that box and I still am as I sit here typing on it! Thank you so much handsome!!

  

After feeding Liam lunch, grandma showed up to take over so that we could go on a date!! We had lunch together at Red Robin, mmm. My mouth is watering just thinking about it. We hadn't eaten there in several years and they just opened one in our town so it was great timing. They had a crab cake sandwich that was to die for by non-coastal standards! It is definitely a smaller restaurant though and the tables were very close together so we were glad we didn't bring Liam along. He would have had his little fist stuffed in the neighbor's ketchup cup in two seconds. haha 

After lunch, Nic took me to a movie. As we approached the ticket counter part of me wondered which one he'd actually pick but most of me knew he would choose the one I'd been dying to see. Even if it is a tear jerker chick flick which he doesn't care for. Sure enough, we saw Me Before You. It was absolutely adorable and so funny! I loved it so much! But WHAT was I thinking not bringing in tissues?!! Rookie mistake.

When we got home, our sweet boy was watching a show in grandma's arms and looking really lethargic. After she left I took his temperature and felt terrible when I discovered it was 101 degrees. Poor little Liam (and if you're reading this grandma, we are so sorry we left him in your care when he wasn't feeling well, I hope you don't catch anything!). We stayed pretty low key for the rest of the evening and I wouldn't have had it any other way. In fact, my brother called me after dinner time and said, "Hey sis, so what are your big birthday plans this evening?!" And I replied with, "Oh just going for a car drive around town." haha He was like, "You're celebrating your birthday on a car drive around town. Sounds riveting." haha When you are a parent with a sick baby, you do what you gotta do for relaxed entertainment. I'm sure he'll discover that one day when he's a dad too. haha

After putting Liam to bed, we shared one of our favorite ice cream flavors from Cold Stones and watched some Friends (my favorite!) with a little test run of Photoshop on my new laptop. IT.IS.AMAZING. To me, it was the perfect day with my boys. 

Before I end this post,

I have three big goals in my twenty sixth year of life ...

1. I want to be more intentional with my time. This means focusing my time on my relationship with God and my family first. This means being adventurous with Liam and providing him opportunities to explore the world. This means spending more time reading than on my phone. 

2. I want to have a baby and see Liam become the amazing big brother that I know he will be! 

3 I want to grow and make something of one of my many hobbies. This means that I actually have to PICK one to focus on because boy is that a long list and that is something that has been really hard for me to do. And now thanks to my sweet husband, I have a tool to do just that!

Cheers to 26 years! I've never been happier!

Father's Day 2016

First of all, I think Nic's shirt is very fitting. ;) It says, "Dad. The Man. The Myth. The Legend." In my eyes, every day should be Father's Day because I can't possibly celebrate and appreciate him enough for all he does as a dad. Let me give you just two examples from Father's Day morning... Most Sunday mornings are a mad scramble to make sure we are fed, showered, clothed, and out the door on time for church around here. We help each other a lot to make that possible and this Sunday was no different despite my best efforts of not wanting him to have to lift a finger. Liam was throwing a GIANT fit and being super impatient to get out of his highchair while I cleaned him after breakfast. Without a seconds hesitation, Nic scooped our screaming and kicking tyrant of a child out of his chair to get him dressed in his church clothes even after I offered to take over. Then again later that morning when I was not fully prepared with my primary lesson and the printer jammed on me, he sweetly grabbed a snack for Liam so he was content and came to my rescue to fix the printer. On Father's Day none-the-less. Like I said, I can't say it enough how much I appreciate him as a father and a husband.

After he woke up, Liam carried his card and gift to dada in bed. He was really proud of the envelope which he adorned with a million and one animal stickers. Just how Father's Day cards should be. ;)

Sharing a bite of his favorite chocolate covered cinnamon bears with Liam for the first time and I think you can tell by the look on his face how much he LOVED it ;)  ...

Playing Liam's new favorite app that his daddy found for him, Barnyard Games! You can tap on all of the farm animals and farm things and they all make sounds and move. His favorite to mimic is the pig sound, it is adorable!

We took a gift to Grandpapa's house later in the day and he had dessert waiting. ;) Lucky Liam since he didn't eat a bite of his dinner.

And it wouldn't be a Father's Day post without a special Happy Father's Day to our dads who we love very much! They are great grandpas! 

a trip to the Pocatello zoo

As my father-in-law not so subtly pointed out at dinner the other night (haha), I've been "stingy" with posts so far this summer and he's right. I got wrapped up in the book series, I am Number Four, and haven't put it down to catch up on our life lately so we'll start with two Saturdays ago when we found ourselves  at a free family day at the zoo! 

Liam's first and only zoo experience was last summer. He was about 10 months old at the time and just learning how to walk so as you can imagine he was much more interested in looking at down at those two little feet of his trucking right along than looking up at any animals. Here we are almost an entire year later and our zoo experience was much the same as last time! Haha He was still very much interested in the ground. The only difference was that this time it wasn't to look at his feet but instead on the hunt for sticks, rocks, sand, bark, anything he could get his hands on. haha We were kind of glad it was a free family day considering we basically took a nature walk at the zoo that we could have done near our own neighborhood. But look at this cute boy with his handful of sticks! He was in heaven! 

Off roading from the path. ;)

Annnnnddd picking up bark!

There is a path that you have to hike to to see the grizzly bears and along the way we came across a sandbox that was set up for little archeologists. Liam was loving playing with the fossil excavator brush and when he got sick of that, just tossing it aside to scoop up a few big handfuls. haha

It was fun to see cactus growing in random spots. 

It was a good thing someone (Nic) was paying attention to the road because as we are walking along a snake slithers across the road! No more off roading for you Liam!

If there was any animal that Liam definitely loved it was the grizzly bears. One was sitting in the distance and the second Liam ran and put his face up against the glass, the bear crossed the entire enclosure and came right up to the window to say hello! Liam LOVED it and was smiling and giggling! 

Another favorite part that brought about a fit of giggles, him and daddy shuffling their feet together and kicking up dust and rocks. haha True boy stuff!

The swans were my favorite. ;)

Right before we left, we took Liam down the slide. He is getting so good at going down all by himself!

Bear Lake

This was our view this weekend ...

Pretty much heaven!!! With 90 degree days on the forecast, there was no greater place to spend the weekend than at Bear Lake! We are so lucky that Nic's family has a cabin there right on the water where we can stay. The cabin is the one right in the middle with the American flag ...

We ate lunch in the car on the way there so that we could play in the water as soon as we got there. The tide was out a ways and we had to trudge through some pretty grimy water to get out to the small sliver of sand that was holding the water back. We found a couple pairs of water socks and worked our way out there. As the water waded up to our ankles, then calves, we started to see giant fish that had been trapped in the shallow water. That part freaked me out, even worse on the walk back later that day when the sun had dipped behind the mountain and you could no longer see through the water anymore! haha Can you find the fish ... ??

Liam took a ride on a turtle! :) Don't worry, Nic never let go of the turtle the whole time so he was completely safe.

Leave it to our little daredevil to LOVE going fast! ;)

The shoreline was COVERED in tiny seashells! 

Of course, the shovels even made it to Bear Lake too! haha

I couldn't believe the kind of detail these tiny shells had, they were so beautiful.

When I was little, my mom would play this game with me where she'd hold me by the arms and say while spinning slowly at first in a circle, then faster and faster until she stopped completely, "motorboat motorboat go so slow, motorboat motorboat go so fast, motorboat motorboat ran out of gas!" Liam loved it just as much as I used to.

Liam boycotted nap time as long as possible (do you blame him?) and didn't go down until 2:45 or so when he usually is down by 1:00. During nap time, Nic and I enjoyed this view together and had so much fun watching these pelicans fly to the water. I'm not sure I've ever seen a pelican in person before so it was really fun for me to watch!

Besides taking in the view, we also soaked up the sun in a couple of lounge chairs reading our books. His, a work book that didn't last long before he took a little snooze and me, I am Number Four. Have you read it? It is SO different than the movie so far but really good. I am discovering that they left out so many details in the movie like they usually do.

We went to a local place called LaBeau's for dinner. I always bring a few of Liam's favorite foods with me because I never know what he will or won't eat when we go out. In this case, I was glad I did too because he turned down both the corn dog and the tater tots. But I put this bowl of raspberries in front of him that I brought and they were dominated within seconds. So was that white shirt he was wearing. You win some, you lose some. Never seen him happier though!

After he was done with his dinner, he got his very own cup with their famous raspberry shake inside. I think saying he LOVED it is an understatement. He spent the rest of the time we were eating chasing seagulls around and only stopping to dip his spoon in that cup once more and take a big old bite with half of it dripping off the spoon down his shirt. haha

The restaurant beside LaBeau's had their entire fence made out of water skis which you can see behind us. It was so awesome!

I'll give you one guess what we did after dinner ... yep! Straight back to the beach to play!

This shovel was bigger than he was but that didn't stop him from wielding it around everywhere. All boy over here!

We all had a pretty rough night sleep while we were there between Liam waking up every couple of hours, the bedroom being a sauna, and incredibly loud music playing outside so we decided to leave pretty early the next morning and get home to rest before Nic went back to work. We had the sketchiest drive home though! We saw 6 dead animal carcasses, most of which were smelly skunks. We slammed on the breaks for 4 dear crossing the road and a raccoon that started circling around the car like it wanted to attack! haha AND we drove through this crazy fog that literally caused steam or some form of condensation to cover our entire windshield. We couldn't see at all for about 30 seconds. SO weird! So like a said, a little bit of a sketchy trip home but we made it and it was so fun to take Liam on his first of what will hopefully be many trips to Bear Lake! Maybe even one or two more times later this summer with family!

p.s. past trips to Bear Lake here, here, and here.