Thanksgiving in Utah, pt. 1

 As if doing a 5K on Thanksgiving morning isn't enough, Clark insisted on doing his ab workout the night before. Brady joined in with him and so did Azucena!

The next morning, at the unholy hour of before-the-sun-rose, everyone got their things together and Uncle Steve showed up and we set off for our 5K adventure!

Our family even got a picture with the Thanksgiving turkey!

 I love Tyler and Jessica for all the reasons shown in this one picture. ALL OF THEM! :)

 Friday night, we got to go to the Lionhouse Pantry for dinner (which was super delicious!) and walk around Temple Square. We even ran into the Kermanns from our Wymount ward! This is the first tradition that has been a repeat for Adelaide--I can't believe she's almost one year old! If it hadn't been, like, zero degrees we would've stayed longer but, as it was, the girls were completely chilled even after a half hour of walking around. Also, I love Clark's iPhone picture of our family; Azucena's face is classic. :D

Side note: while I love how downtown Salt Lake is evolving and growing, this picture makes me sad: you used to be able to stand at the northwest corner of Temple Square (or even that end of the Conference Center) and get a beautiful shot of the temple spires in the night sky. Now it almost looks like the temple is marketing Zions Bank. :(

November 22

 

 Exactly on his 18th birthday, Edgar was able to take out his endowments in the Denver temple. Clark was kind enough to fly me to Denver for the day (seriously, a day) and, despite the ridiculous weather and delays and crappy non-existent customer service, it was a great trip. Above are Dad, Mom, Edgar, Nathan (thanks for your face, you dork), and Taylor, his soon-to-be. :D

Afterward, Dad took us to a Vietnamese sandwich place which was ridiculously DELICIOUS and man, do I want to go there again five times this week! MMMM! Edgar also commented on how Adelaide looks just like the Buddha statue they had in their shop (she doesn't) but I couldn't help taking a picture of them together. Can't wait to see everyone again at Christmas!

A Week in November

 So this week we had some decently warm (and non-windy) weather! This meant that, for the first time, I was able to take the girls to the school playground that is literally in our backyard. (We also have an animal hospital in our backyard, but that story is for another day.) Azucena LOVED it. She constantly asks to go play on the slide. I love how adventurous she is! Also, the little sneak knows how to climb anything in front of her, be it a crib, bookshelf, or jungle gym. Yikes.

Wednesday was pretty icky, though. I woke up feeling absolutely TERRIBLE. I couldn't even sit up I was feeling so ridiculously dizzy and nauseous. I tried to encourage the girls to hang out on the bed and read stories (kind of--I'd just recite bits I knew rather than read pages and bring on more nausea) but that turned out to be a pretty terrible idea once they discovered the journals and alarm clock that sit on our headboard. After a couple of hours of toughing it out (and asking for advice on Facebook) I finally lay down to nurse Adelaide for her morning nap and fell asleep, too. 45 minutes later, I woke up and discovered that Azucena had done this to herself:

 Thankfully, everything she used was washable (thank heavens we hid the Sharpies!) but MAN was she a mess! The instant her toes hit the bath water it turned a dark purple and the more of her that came in contact with the water, the worse it got. Thankfully I was feeling MUCH better and was able to scrub her down. However, it turns out she'd gotten into one more thing while I was sleeping, and Adelaide took advantage of my being distracted in the bathroom to satisfy her sweet tooth:

Last Oregon Post

The last full day of Oregon, we visited the "Devil's Punchbowl" as a gigantic family (we were only missing Grandma Earley!). There is some darn beautiful scenery on the Oregon coastline!

 The crew (minus me (taking the picture) and Grandma Earley (resting at the beach house)).

 Devil's Punchbowl. Sadly, I'm too short to have really gotten any good shots. As it was, I had to hold my camera an arm's length above my head and just shoot blind.

 Mmm, waves splashing on rocks. :)

 Awww, the Earley boys!

 Adelaide decided to randomly take a nap right when we pulled up to the park/hike. Silly girl.

 Azucena refused to look at the camera because she, too, was getting ready to sleep (as evidenced by the next picture).

 Well, two out of four smiling for the camera isn't bad, right?

Man, I miss sunsets without mountains!

More Oregon (June)

If I could paint, I'd want to capture these clouds, this ocean, and these sunsets.

These are the houses we stayed in. I love the bay windows!