Mommy Son Vacation

Rylan and I took our very first mommy and son vacation to visit family and friends in California and Utah. Of course we would have had even more fun on our trip if Matt went, but he decided that it would be best for him to stay home since he would be really busy with the business. So Ry guy and I flew into SLO for 5 days and then my dad drove us 9 hours to St. George, Utah where my brother Steve and his family lives. Rylan has been to California once before but he was really too young to enjoy much of the outdoorsy stuff that I wanted to do with him. He was the perfect age to take him this time. Now that he walks, talks a little, and can understand a lot of what we say he just loved this vacation. We went on lots of walks and bike rides, played at the beaches (the sand was Rylan's favorite), went to Avila barn and fed the animals, saw my niece Hannah perform as the "Umpa Loopma" in the Willy Wonka play, got Rylan's ceramic handprints done, and ate some yummy fresh produce and wholesome foods. Rylan saw lots of animals and learned about them and the sounds they make. I just love, love, love when he makes his animal sounds! Here are some pictures from California.

My dad wanted to get Rylan's handprints done for us. I had my handprints done when I was 1 year old, so the owners wanted a picture of this second generation imprinting.

Rylan's first encounter with the beach sand and water. He ran all the way down to the water and fell flat on his stomach into the water. He didn't cry but I think he was in shock at how icy cold the water was. From then on he would run towards the water and as it came close to him he'd turn around and run the opposite direction saying "no, no" under his breath.

The sand was much warmer than the water. Rylan would lie down on his belly and take in a nice mouthful of sand, hence the sand mustache. The sand was definitely his favorite...

And seeing horses on the beach was his next favorite. He loves animals so he was just ecstatic when he saw these large animals pass so close by him. He pointed and screamed "neigh, neigh!" at the horses in this picture.

Grandma and Grandpa with Rylan at the Avila Barn. Rylan obviously wanted no part of the picture taking. All he wanted to do was feed some animals.

Grandpa and Rylan watching the Tsunami come into Shell Beach after the Japan earthquake.

Some of the tasty food that we enjoyed on this vacation. Man how I wish we had more vegan restaurants in Texas. Isn't that spring roll just pretty? It was even more fun to eat!

All the California cousins

Rylan and cousin Brooke sharing a kiss. They are the closest cousins in age at just 4 months apart.

It was nice to break up the trip by going to a new place. The drive to St. George wasn't so fun with a busy 18 month old who really doesn't like to be contained for more than a few minutes at a time. But with that considered, he actually did fare pretty well on the drive. Steve and Christina and their three kids are so much fun. This was their first time meeting Rylan and they just loved and adored him. It was great to see. Of course, Steve and Christina some fun activities planned for our visit. We went on a bike ride through Snow Canyon, off road Geo Cashing, took a 3 hour each way back road trip to the Grand Canyon, and of course ate at Cafe Rio twice. Yum! Rylan and I had such a great time in both California and St. George. Can't wait for our next visit.

Geo Cashing/treasure hunting with Steve and Grandpa.

Bike ride through Snow Canyon. And yes those really are bright orange mountains and sand.

Hundred year old school house out in the middle of nowhere.

Ride to Grand Canyon in the open Jeeps. We went through some pretty spectacular terrain to get there. None of the roads were paved and we saw only a couple people on our 6 hour round trip journey through the dessert and mountains. This was an amazing trip. Check out how dirty everyone is in those pics!

A Winter Vacation

It's not often that Matt and I go on cold weather vacations. We usually gravitate towards the warm, tropical, beachy places. So I was really excited when we decided to mix things up a little and take a winter vacation to the snow. Our destination? Cedar City, Utah. Matt's grandparents and uncle live in Cedar and there are plenty of fun activities to do nearby. Matt called all of his family and encouraged everyone to join us. We had a total of 14 people, many who came from all over the country to enjoy this 5 day vacation with us. It was so nice to see his family again and enjoy some adult time to ourselves. We went skiing and snowboarding, ice fishing (which was a first for me), and snowmobiling. I also traveled to St. George to visit my brother and his family.

This was only my second time skiing and I have to admit that I wasn't very good and it was pretty frightening. I'd say that I was scared more often than I was comfortable up there. There were a couple moments when I literally thought I might die. I hit some icy spots and just had to ride it out (going way too fast for my comfort) until I could stop at the bottom. Matt followed me down one time and said that I was "flying down the mountain!" It was a blast though and luckily there were no major injuries. Another thing worth noticing in these pictures is Carl's (Matt's dad) ski outfit. We called him "Carla" during the entire trip because of his 80's inspired ski pants and jacket. Sweetness!

My favorite activity was definitely the ice fishing. We caught a total of 9 fish. It was just amazing that we could stand on a frozen lake, drill through the 18 inches of ice and see all the way down to the bottom where our bate and fish were. The ice literally glowed like kryptonite. It was amazing!

Snow Day

San Antonio experienced its first snow day in seven years. The snowfall came during the night. Something about waking up to a still, white covered backyard is totally serene. It only snowed a quarter of an inch and man oh man did it create a frenzy. School was cancelled and many people didn't drive until the snow started to melt around noon. By 9am our street was filled with kids and parents as they sled down the street on blow up inter tubes, yoga mats, cardboard boxes, laundry baskets and literally anything that they could find. We took Rylan out to play in the snow for the first time and he absolutely loved it! It was a fun day to relax and be together as a family.

15 Months

Rylan had his 15 month check up and shots on December 20th. He was 30.5 inches tall, 60th %, and 23 lbs, 40th %. He is starting to look a lot less like a chubby little baby and more like a toddler now that he is off formula and walking all over the place.

A Jolly Christmas

I have to say that this was the best Christmas ever. We were surrounded by family, friends, good food, and the Spirit of Christ as we celebrated his birth. Matt's family came over on Christmas Eve and we enjoyed a yummy ham dinner and desserts, a Christmas story, games, and a movie in our new theatre room (which was Matt and I's very grande Christmas gift to each other). His parents and little brother spent the night and it was really nice to wake up with a house full of people. Rylan and I were the first ones up on Christmas morning, so we got breakfast ready. My mom would always prepare a large spread of foods for breakfast and that's a tradition that I want to carry on. We had breakfast casserole, almond ring, sliced oranges and grapefruit, cinnamon rolls, and cinnamon toast with jam and Dutch/Gouda cheese (sounds like an odd combo but it's seriously the best!). I figured that this would be the last Christmas that we could eat breakfast before presents so I took full advantage. Presents came next. Rylan liked this part. We would tear a piece of wrapping paper so a small part of the gift underneath was exposed and he would eagerly try to play with the toy through the small hole of the paper. It was pretty funny. He got lots of toys from both grandparents and had fun playing with them all day long. The rest of the day consisted of leftover food and relaxing. It was a perfect Christmas. Here are some pictures from throughout the month as we celebrated this holiday season.

Rylan did not like the real life Santa this year. The only Santa he liked were the blow up ones on people's lawns. In fact he absolutely loved those kind of Santas, but the real thing was scary.

Yay the Christmas tree is up!

Me and some church friends volunteering at the Toys for Tots fun run. I want to do this every year.

My good friend Emily and I like to walk through McCallister park together. We decided to take some pics of Rylan since the leaves were so beautiful.

Our not so glamorous family photo on Christmas morning.

Rylan got a little frustrated with this toy. He wanted to stop the balls from popping up so he'd just stick his hand down the popper and take the balls out himself.

Dreams Coming True

Matt's childhood dream was to have a movie room in his house someday. Well he's worked really hard and has finally earned his movie room. When we saw our house for the first time, the layout was exactly what we were looking for. Everything was all on one floor with the exception of a large open space upstairs. We both envisioned this to be the perfect space for a movie room. We love the transformation from boring and blah to cozy and chic. There were a couple roadblocks that slowed us down on this project, but nothing we couldn't handle. Like when our non-returnable couch didn't fit through the doorway and Matt had to cut a hole in the wall and when I spent an hour trying to disassemble the non-returnable table so I could get it to fit in my car. We did learn our lesson to measure before we purchase next time. My dad was here the week that we put this room together and he was a huge help. He practically painted the entire room and built me some really nice shelves. We love this space and can't wait to share it with friends and family. I think we will be spending lots of time up here!

Before

After

The hole that Matt cut so we could fit the couch through the doorway

The shelves my dad made

In the Swing of Things

I had my concerns about being a stay at home mother and getting bored, missing my job, losing all contact with adults, not feeling like I can spend money since I don't make any of it myself, etc. To my greatest relief none of those concerns are really concerns any more. Work hasn't even crossed my mind (although I do miss my friends from work, I don't miss the work itself one tiny bit!). In fact, there are so many things that I can actually enjoy now that I'm not working that I've made a list of some stay at home mommy perks:

• Unlimited amounts of time with Rylan and seeing him reach new milestones before someone else sees it first (specifically day care workers).
• Not waking up to the sound of an annoying alarm clock.
• Sleeping in. I still get up around 7:30am, but that's sleeping in as far as I'm concerned.
• Working out at my leisure.
• Having friends and family visit on a weekday without worrying about whether I have the vacation time to use.
• Hanging out with friends during the day.
• Actually getting to see and be in the sun and get some much needed Vitamin D
• Taking naps
• No more Mondays!
• I can finally do all the home projects that I didn't have time for before
• There's time to study and prepare my church lessons during the week (I still left this week's lesson to the last minute though).
• Chores can be completed during the day so I can enjoy the evenings and weekends with Matt and Rylan
• Cooking is fun again. We eat a hot homemade dinner together most nights of the week. Yay!