Del Mar Vacation Recap

We had a great trip to California.  Unfortunately, the camera died after the first day and the charger was hundreds of miles away...

But we did get some good pictures of our time at the beach on Coronado Island:

We also went to Knott's Berry Farm, visited Paul, Jill, Kate, and Gwen at their beautiful new home, hiked Torrey Pines, enjoyed a visit from our friends Kyle, Bekah, and Emma Paredes, and relaxed at home... a lot.

There was quite a bit of leftover ice cream in the freezer when we arrived.

There was very little leftover ice cream in the freezer when we left...

We loved our visit.  And this visit reconfirmed my feeling about vacations: They are just as much (if not more) about the people you spend time with then about the places you go.  

Spending time with friends and family, even when it's just the three of us, or even me and Grant, trumps an awesome view or killer roller coaster.  It always will.  

So we've just gotta make sure our vacations include cool people in addition to the awesome views and killer roller coasters :)

Coronado on Dwellable

Beach Day

We loved Coronado Island.  Will loved it too, despite the smushed face he is making.  It was too cold for an actual swimming beach day, but we dipped our toes in the water and enjoyed the view.

Today we are off to Knott's Berry Farm and to visit Paul, Jill, Kate and Gwen.  Will was only 6 weeks old the last time we saw them so I'm excited he'll get to play with his cousins this time.

Vacation daydreaming

We are in San Diego.  Del Mar to be exact.  It is awesome.

Will has a cold (his first) and is taking a nap.  When he gets up we're going to visit Coronado Island.

But for now, Grant is cooking Brats downstairs and I am daydreaming about moving to a foreign country and buying a 15th century home... What?

Just watched this.  The family used to go to church with Grant's parents.  I may be a little obsessed...

Nervous, but excited

I'm headed to Taiwan this summer to attend the Global daCi/WDA Dance Summit 2012.  Whoa.

And the schedule is out.  At this link, click on the Presentations at 11:15.  Bottom of the yellow box, Section 38... What?!

I officially have serious butterflies (not to mention serious work to do...)

I'm so excited!  And equally nervous! Like good ole Troy in High School Musical 4!

Reunited and it Feels So Good

We headed to Utah for the weekend.  I counted a grand total of 40+ people that we managed to visit in two days...

We saw nearly half of those people Friday night at a Provo staple, Brick Oven Pizza.  Out of the 12 members from Apartments 1810 and 2310 (plus one adopted member), 10 were able to make it to our grand reunion.  It was awesome.

These guys are awesome.  I talked a little bit about them here.  I spent three years at BYU.  The first year was with these folks, the second year spent driving to dance in Salt Lake every day, and the third year married.  So as far as friends go, they constitute the bulk of my experience.  And I couldn't have asked for a better group of friends.

It is exciting to see how our "family" is changing.  Will is the only baby so far, but we've added quite a few spouses and significant others.  I can't wait for our next reunion.  The attendance will dwindle with the years I'm afraid.  Perhaps we'll have to make the next one even more exciting... destination reunion?!

Blizzardy Blizzard

It's supposed to snow tonight and tomorrow... blizzard style...

Will & I are supposed to leave for Dallas tomorrow...

Bad combo...

So say your prayers for an uneventful trip.

And in the meantime, picture cute babies in the snow.

Cousin lovin'

We have been especially blessed lately with being able to see family a lot.  After living in Texas for two years where our closest family members were multiple states away, we are loving being in Colorado, one flight (or drive) away from nearly everyone.  

I stole these pictures from my sister-in-law Jill's blog.  During our trip to San Diego we spent a day in Long Beach, with Grant's brother and his family.

Chicago Walks

We spent a lot of our time in Chicago walking around, being touristy tourists.  Because our hotel was close to Michigan Avenue, most of our jaunts were on or around that street.  Chicago has such a nice feel (at least this area does).  It's busy and bustling, but feels safe and exciting, and even relatively clean.

Marilyn Monroe & her giant underpants...

The real reason we were in Chicago was because Grant had training for work.  Fidelity is on Michigan Avenue, also known as the Magnificent Mile.  All of the best shopping is on Michigan :)

And so is Marilyn Monroe!  

Chillin in Chicago

Will and I flew to Chicago.  By ourselves...  Because Grant and I are such cheap-o's...err... frugal... we didn't want to pay an extra $100 to get on the same flight.  Luckily, Will was great and we made it easily.  (But getting around Chicago/O'Hare with a stroller is no picnic.  We're talking multiple elevators).

We were picked up by Aunt DD, Uncle Bruce, and Gma.  The next day, DD and Gma took the train and met Will and me at the hotel. 

World Class Traveler

Last weekend we took off for a little vacation in San Diego.  It had been exactly 3 years since we visited the same place for our honeymoon.  It's amazing how much our lives have changed in those three years, especially with little Will!

Elk Day

Last year, I talked about how to sneak up on a deer.  Click here if you missed that glorious post.  

Well, last weekend during our day-trip to Rocky Mountain National Park, just outside of Estes Park, we needed no such skills.  These elk were begging to be our friends.  No sneaking necessary.

Um, yep. He's right next to us.

And it wasn't just one or two elk.  There was a whole bushel of them.  A bushel and a peck. 

Mr. Shedder here was feeling a little protective of his territory.  Whoa.  

They were honestly beautiful.  (Not that I wasn't also picturing what one of these might look like on my plate... or in the smoker... oh man.)

But they were just so darn friendly I couldn't maintain the hunter's daughter mentality for very long.

A few hours later we headed back this way again and the elk were still all there.  

This picture shows how close they were to the road and to people.  No stranger danger there.  

The Last Getaway

Four weeks. 

28 days.

Less than one month of un-parenthooded-ness.  

We ran away for our last getaway before life changes forever (hooray for that!).

Estes Park was our destination:

Teva Mountain Games

Because we were apart for Grant's big birthday #26, I got him a present that we could enjoy together!  We packed up the cooler:

And took off last Friday evening:

Mountains. are. the. best.

And I couldn't resist taking one of these lovely side-mirror self-portraits.  

We headed up to Vail for the Teva Mountain Games!  We just stayed one night; long enough to collect oodles of free stuff, watch a couple incredible adventure sports, and of course, catch enough UV rays to turn me into a lobster... Worth it.

Among the events we watched were: 

Bouldering. These ladies had some serious skills. They had five minutes to figure out how to get to the top of their "puzzle." That one in the middle is basically doing the splits... on a wall.. holding on to pebbles sticking out of the wall...

Rock climbing seems like it would be fun and challenging.  My main concern would be my total weeny hands.  I can't even do the monkey bars.  It kills.  Something about lack of callouses. (Just call me princess hands...)

The next event we witnessed was the Kayak Freestyle.  It was awesome.  They created a "feature" in the middle of the river where kayakers had 1 minute to rack up as many points as they could doing tricks like flips and spins and such.  

This guy was kind of a "feature hog" during the warm-up sessions.  But he was really fun to watch so we didn't mind.  

We've developed a new language since listening to the silly announcers at the games.  Mostly, we have learned to say, "He totally killed it," after every mildly impressive trick, lap, or attempt.  That girl in her kayak there at the bottom... yeah she was totally killin' it out there.  Totally.

The last event we checked out I think was called the Freeride Dual.  Basically these bikers had to cross a crazy looking course in the fastest time.  I was a bit pooped by this time so I sat on the curb behind the big crowd while Grant got closer and took some great pictures.

There were lots of people.  And tons of dogs.  We had a few free bags of Eukanuba that we had to pawn off on various dog-owners.  

These guys were pretty crazy.  Bouldering: sounds fun.  Kayaking: sounds frightening but fun.  Crazy biker-event-stuff: I'll stay behind the camera... Forever.  I never was good on wheels anyway.

Next up: Grant makes his first attempt at professional adventure sports.  He may or may not have died... Stay tuned.

A Short Flight Away

Things are picking up at school and at the studio: My culminating presentation for my Master's degree is next week and it's competition season at the studio.  Since the next month or so will be so busy, I bought a ticket to Denver to spend some time with Grant before the long haul.

While I was there, we headed out for one of our favorite activities, hiking!  This time we hiked around Castlewood Canyon State Park:

It was a beautiful spring day in Colorado: the sun was shining and since we started in the morning we were out before it got too hot.

Leslie came along with us.  We are excited to both be in Denver, close to the Tanners.  And they are excited that we'll be bringing their first grandson with us! (Although he'll still be a fetus at that point...)

We followed the perfect little trail along these falls; nothing too steep or crazy for me and the ever-growing Baby T.  

Grant got a feel for the water and ruled swimming out for the day:

Cold, ya think Grantie?

I wore this lovely ensemble which included Ron's jacket.  I always dismiss hiking fashion until I look back and realize how dorky I look in pictures.  Some things will never change...

We made it up to the ruins of this old dam.  As Grantie would say, "We went on a dam hike."  There is the rest of my lovely fashion statement.  

It was a great weekend and I feel like I'm toughening up emotionally.  I'm not one to get super homesick when I'm away from family.  But if I get to see my family for a while and then have to leave... that's another story.  I'm horrible with goodbyes.  Maybe because this was the third goodbye I had to say to Grant in the last month, or maybe because the hormones were on a lull that day, this goodbye was much easier than the last two.  

Now to plan our next rendezvous... 

Horse Affairs

While I was in Boise I got the best surprise ever!  Grant came to visit!  We had been apart for two weeks (with only eight or nine left... blech), so it was great to spend a few days together.  While Grant was there we headed out to meet the two newest members of the Peterson family:

Oh, no, it's not my mom & Grant...

Hollywood:

And Cougar:

We even got to ride Hollywood around.  Baby T wasn't up for an adventurous ride so Hollywood just walked around the arena for me.  

I am a total expert now...

Cougar has a bit more of a spunky personality.  Spunky meaning he forced my dad to bail into a barbed wire fence... so we just took pictures and didn't ride Cougar.

Grant got some lessons from Grandpa Mike and got to ride Hollywood as well.

Here's Dad showing off his speedy skills:

Then my mom, Taylor, & I took off and left Grantie & my dad for a little ride in the foothills.

Soon, Baby T can have his first ride on Hollywood too... heh heh.