Lagoon

In the spring, Nate and I talked about getting season passes for Lagoon for our family this summer but never quite got around to doing it. Life just got busy and our evenings and Saturdays seemed to always fill up quickly with other things. I did want to go for at least one day, so we decided that the Friday before Nate left to go to Seattle for 2 weeks would be the perfect day for family fun.

The last time we went to Lagoon was when Felicity was just a couple of months old and Bridget was 3. I knew the girls would love it, and they would enjoy getting to rides lots of rides together.

Ride buddies!!

In the last car of the kiddie roller coaster together

Ready to ride the Animal Kingdom train with Mom

Because she wasn't tall enough to go on as many of the "grown up" rides as Bridget was, Felicity got to go on many of the kid rides by herself while Bridget took turns going with me or Nate on some of the bigger rides.

I enjoyed the rides where I could go with both of the girls like this tea cup ride, the carousel, and the train.

Bridget was pretty brave and went on lots of roller coasters and things with Nate.

Felicity's favorite ride - the swings

After a long, hot day, these girls couldn't resist getting a teeny bit wet in the splash pad on our way out.

I should also mention Dayton was with us all day too even though we forgot to take any pictures of him. He was a great sport about hanging out in the stroller so much.

It was a long day, but it was great to spend time as a family. I have many great memories of going to Lagoon with my family, cousins, aunts, uncles, and grandma when I was a kid and hope that our kids will have some great memories too.

Kimberly's Birthday and Ogden Temple Open House

I couldn't have asked for a better birthday this year. We spent the day together as a family, kept busy but not too busy, and made some great memories.

When we found out a few months ago that the Ogden Temple House would be taking place this month, I immediately knew that's what I wanted to do for my birthday. Nate took the day off work, and it was a Wednesday so we knew it wouldn't be insanely busy and easy to make the ticket reservation. Our neighbors and friends across the street, RaeAnn and Brian, came with us which was fun since Brian is a member of our church but not active and RaeAnn is not a member at all. It was just a walking tour, but the line moved at a pretty rapid pace  - almost too fast to really enjoy it. It is absolutely beautiful and so different from the old Ogden Temple they tore down. Afterward we took some pictures:

Notice that Felicity's dress is wet in this picture. Within a couple of minutes of coming out of the temple, she quickly ran to the fountain nearby. As soon as she saw the coins people had thrown in, she wanted to try and get them, and I was 3 seconds too late from stopping her from falling into the fountain.

In the tent outside, they offered a free picture in front of a photo background of the temple.

After the temple, we headed home for lunch, a nap for Dayton, and I ran a couple of errands by myself while Nate made my birthday cake.

That evening we tried out a restaurant that was new to us (Taggart's Grill) because of its rave reviews. It was about a half an hour drive up Weber Canyon to get there, but so worth it. The food and service were excellent and the atmosphere was beautiful. The kids enjoyed walking around the outside and enjoying the peacocks that roam around as well as the koi pond. We will definitely go there again - hopefully without kids next time.

Happy birthday to me! Nate made that beautiful and delicious carrot cake from scratch. Dayton tried with all his might to stick his hands right in it while we took a couple of pictures.

Because I love to both give and receive practical gifts, Nate got me just what I asked for - a new diaper bag and also a new pair of nice flip flops.

Yellowstone Half Marathon and June Trip

This weekend we had the opportunity to take a quick trip to Nate's parent's house so Nate could run the first ever Yellowstone Half Marathon. It also happened to be a cabin trip for my extended family, so my cousins Steve and Lori ran it too. I was a little nervous about how Nate would do and recover running at such a high elevation (about 6600 feet), but he wasn't very concerned about time. He just wanted to have fun. He and Steve ran almost all of it together until about the last mile where Nate hit the wall and told Steve to keep going. He finished just a few minutes behind Steve with a time of 2:22:12.

Here's some photos Nate took during the race. Certainly a beautiful course, although he said it was more of a trail run.

He had the girls run the last few feet of the race with him.

They all did it! And for the record, the girl on the right, is Lori's friend who ran it too.

Like I said, it was a quick trip. We got there late Thursday night and left Sunday afternoon. On Friday, the day before the race, we just hung out. The girls love spending time with Grandma and Grandpa and playing outside. They were hoping for a few RZR rides, but it still had the snow tracks on it and Grandpa couldn't find the right bolts to put the wheels back on. 

We would have spent some time at the cabin, but Felicity was at the tail end of a cold and Dayton was very, very sick with one. He was so sick, in fact, that he hardly slept 2 of the 3 nights we were there because he was coughing so much and very congested. Poor little guy, he spent most of Friday and Saturday just snuggling and sleeping on whoever would hold him.

It's a good thing we're coming back next month for a little longer trip and hopefully with healthy kids.

Winter Trip to West Yellowstone

Nate's parent's are currently in the middle of remodeling their entire house. The first two floors are mostly done, but they recently started the top floor and wanted a little help, so we ventured north over President's Day weekend to help with construction and so the kids could enjoy some time at Grandma and Grandpa's.

We left Saturday morning and got there by early afternoon. Dayton was pretty excited for his first trip to Grandma and Grandpa's and was an angel in the car all the way there and back.

Even though Scott and Alice were in the middle of construction when we got there, they took a little break so the kids could go play outside in the snow. One of the first orders of business was for Grandpa to create a good sled hill with the tractor. Felicity was happy to help. I should note that they've had plenty of snow this winter and had 3-4 feet in their yard and many piles of plowed snow that were even higher.

 

And here's a little video of some sledding:

 

It did snow a couple of days while we were there adding a few more inches. The girls would have loved to play in the snow more than they did, but I had to stay inside to take care of Dayton. And I didn't mind too much since the Olympics were on, and I'm a bit of an Olympic junkie.

Nate did take a few breaks to go outside with them and ended up building a little snow cave.

Bridget thought the cave was pretty cool and was sad to have to leave it when we left for home the next day.

When the sky is blue instead of stormy, it's quite picturesque. It's certainly fun to visit, but I know I couldn't handle living in a place with that much snow for months and months.

It was a quick, fun trip and fairly uneventful unless you count that Nate scared me to death on the drive home when he slammed on the breaks to avoid hitting a fox that ran across the road.

Other December Happenings

Here's the rest of our December highlights and a lot of pictures:

Over Thanksgiving we installed a mantel on our fireplace, and here it is all decorated for Christmas. I did get Dayton's stocking finished in time too!

I spent an afternoon in Bridget's classroom helping the kids make "gingerbread" houses out of graham crackers and a ton of candy. There was plenty of candy consumed as well as brought home on the finished house.

As part of the décor for our church Christmas party, they asked families to decorate tables with items representing a family Christmas tradition. I chose to display our Christmas book advent basket along with the books we had opened up to that point. This is only the second year we've done this, but we love it! There are so many cute Christmas books out there, and I have a hard time not buying a bunch more. I'll probably add one or two new ones each year just to expand our collection. This year I bought The Polar Express and The Christmas Sweater.

Last year, our kids missed out on getting to see Santa due to some unforeseen circumstances, but this year they got to see him twice. The first was at Kneader's (one of my favorite restaurants) when we got to go have breakfast for dinner with Santa. Chunky Cinnamon French Toast for dinner and see Santa? Yes, please! Felicity was excited up until it was our turn. She bolted in the other direction and started to cry a little. I scooped her up and got her to at least sit on my lap next to Santa. Dayton slept through the whole thing in his car seat.

Our second visit with Santa was at a Christmas party with Nate's extended family. Felicity actually sat on his lap this time without any difficulty. She even ran back to him after her turn was over because she wanted to give him a hug.

Bridget has always loved Santa - even as a baby and toddler.

Even Dayton got a little cuddle from Santa.

As for Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, we spent it right here at home with just the 5 of us. We've traveled for the last 2 Christmases and decided after last year and even Bridget requesting it, that we would stay home. I didn't really want to travel with a new baby anyway. We enjoyed our traditional turkey dinner on Christmas Eve.

And then the kids got to open some new pajamas that night. Bridget loved her fleece Rapunzel PJs.

Felicity was pretty excited about her new cupcake PJs.

On Christmas Day we enjoyed watching the girls open presents. Bridget moved from one gift to the next pretty quickly but wanted to play with every single one later that day. Felicity was a little slower at opening because she wanted to stop and play with each toy after she opened it.

Dayton was content to just lay on the floor and watch everyone open presents.

My dad and Bev were going to come up and spend some time with us on Christmas Day, but my dad came down with the flu.

And to finish off the month...New Year's Eve! Our kids don't care about staying up yet, and part of that is probably because we haven't really explained that part of it to them because we don't want to encourage it yet. Heck, Nate and I rarely stay up until midnight either. To make it a fun evening, we've made fondue for dinner and dessert our New Year's Eve tradition. We had a great time and probably ate too much.

Definitely a great end to a wonderful year!

Dayton's Birth

As I expected, my due date with this pregnancy came and went. I must admit I was pretty grumpy about it too because I was so ready to be done with pregnancy and hold my baby boy. As I sat in church on my due date (10/13/13), I seriously felt like I was going to be pregnant forever - no contractions at all up to this point, and I was 3-4 cm dilated and 70% effaced at my appointment just 4 days before. If I had known what was going to happen that night, I certainly would have made an effort to go to bed much, much earlier.

At 2:30 am, I woke up needing to go to the bathroom but soon realized it was much more than that. I crawled back in bed not sure if I was having real contractions or not. They were different than what I had with Felicity. With her, I would feel my whole abdomen get tight and then relax. These felt more like cramps and were really low in my belly. Nate was sleeping away while I timed them, but after just a few I was sure they were the real thing because I got the "baby shakes" really bad just like I did with Felicity. I'm honestly surprised I didn't shake Nate awake as I laid there for 45 minutes timing and shaking. It wasn't until my 3rd trip to the bathroom during that time that he woke up. Then he timed them with me for quite a while. They were really irregular, short, and not very intense at first, but soon they started getting stronger, lasting almost a minute, and became more regular. I hate having to wake someone in the middle of the night to come stay with our kids, so I held out as long as I could and finally started getting dressed and throwing last minute things into my bag about 5 am. We called my Aunt Jennine at 5:30 and she was there a little before 6 am. At that point my contractions were only 2-3 minutes apart, and I just kept praying my water wouldn't break or I'd be in trouble.

I look terrible in this picture, but it's just before we left to go to the hospital, so I was living on 3 hours of sleep and in pain.

We got admitted to the hospital quickly, but the bad news was that they were really busy and it was also shift change time for the nurses at 7 am. I got gowned up and walked and walked around my room waiting for a nurse. Finally a nurse came in, and I told her I really needed to get my IV so I could get an epidural. She checked me (I was 6 cm and 100% effaced), so they very quickly got me my IV and got the anesthetist in there. I didn't know that once you hit 7-8 cm, your epidural might not work. Luckily, I got mine just in time and ended up being very, very numb. My doctor came and broke my water about 7:40 am, and about an hour later, he was ready to come. Thankfully, I was so numb, I didn't feel the need to push because we had to wait about another 20 minutes for a nurse to help her with the delivery.

I pushed through 3 contractions (about 7 minutes I think), and he was here!

When he came out, I asked my doctor what she thought about his weight because I was expecting him to be about 8.5 lbs., but she said he was well over 9 lbs.!

I was shocked when they told me he was 9 lbs. 12 oz. and 22.5 inches long! I can't believe he was that huge! No wonder I'd been so uncomfortable the past month. Soon after, Nate asked me if I was ready to commit to the name we'd been thinking about, and I was. So we named him Dayton Scott. Dayton is just a name we both liked, and Scott is after Nate's dad.

After I got moved over to postpartum, we let Jennine know she could bring the girls to meet him anytime. They were both so excited and each wanted to be the first to hold him.

We had a few other visitors during the time I was there. Jennine got her turn to hold him after the girls, and Megan came to visit after work that night. My friends Corey and Desaray and their 2 girls also came that afternoon, but I forgot to get a picture. The second day, my dad and Bev came to visit too.

Some of our visitors

Our first photo as a family of five

My stay at the hospital was really nice. I had wonderful nurses in labor and delivery as well as postpartum. I also got to spend a lot of alone time with Dayton since Nate had to spend more time at home with the girls this time. There was lots and lots of snuggling going on. Love it!

One of the other things I was REALLY looking forward to was the spa services they offer for free with the cosmetology students from the Applied Technology College. This program wasn't around when I had Bridget, and they were on Spring Break when I had Felicity so I was hoping I wouldn't be disappointed again this time around. Luckily, I got my pedicure!

Dayton Scott

Born October 14, 2013

9:04 am

9 lbs. 12 oz.

22.5 inches long

Look at those cheeks! They've certainly been getting a lot of kisses. We are so thrilled to have this little boy join our family and grateful he's healthy and all went smoothly with his arrival.