Wake Up, September Ended

We started this month off with a bang. We spent a Saturday at Horsetooth Reservoir with all of the siblings and cousins on Ryan's side of the family. David and Ashley got a boat last summer and wanted to have a family day enjoying their new toy. We all had a great time. The kids LOVED spending time on the little stretch of beach and the girls were so cute when they rode on the tube.

Dallin took about an hour long nap in the hammock. It was so very sweet, until the wind so rudely awakened him by tipping him out. No injuries, but I sure felt bad!

Ryan got up on the surfboard! Woohoo!

All of the cousins except for Ethan, who is serving a mission right now.

And then of course I did some hair. Fun times had by all! Well, not so sure about that. I need to come up with a new motivation to get them to stop whining the whole time...

Maya has her reading tutoring in a home, and I get to keep Dallin occupied for the 45 minutes during her lesson. It's really fun. 😒 I'll tell you what, stairs must have some sort of baby drug on them because he canNOT stay away! This little piano does keep him busy for about, oh, two minutes. 

This is one of my favorites.

We spent a weekend in Grand Junction with our friends, the Techeras. We took the kids to a peach orchard to pick some peaches. 

She's a poser. (Hi, shadow!)

The peaches were huge, and so delicious once they ripened up!

This looks like a happy photo but they were actually fighting over the stupid tractor.

After the orchard we went bowling. It was the first time for all the kids. They were cute!

All the kiddos. Walter, Brianna, Dallin, Belen, and Maya. Walter is two months older than Brianna and Belen is eight days younger than Dallin (Mary and I actually had the same due date). 

Our dear friends Mary and Ulises! We have been friends for 4 years and I think this is the first photo we have ever taken together.

More hairs. 

Bare baby feet get chalked sometimes.

Ahhhhhh sibling love. 

Dallin is getting to the age that he can be included in some games. They were trying to catch the dust particles floating in the air.

Maya and Brianna are loving their new dance class. 

Hair. More of it. No caption needed.

That 'twas all for this month! ((Besides our trip to Portland which is kindly featured in a separate post all on its own.) Happy October, y'all!

We took a trip!

A couple of weeks ago we spent five days enjoying the Portland area with the company of Kent, Lalo, and Simuka (Lalo's sister). We were glad to get to visit them and see some of the sights of that area.

We left on Thursday the 20th after picking the girls up early from school. They both thought that was fun! We got to the airport and boarded our flight. The flight went pretty well. Until...oh about half way through. It is a 2 1/2 hour flight and we totally expected Dallin to fall asleep because he had only had a 40ish minute nap up until that point. He did not nap. Instead he threw his very first ever temper tantrum. On a plane of all places! Go figure. He was extremely restless and just wanted to walk around. After about 30-45 minutes of all out screaming and stomping on my lap (I laughed a little) he finally fell asleep and then the plane landed 10 minutes later. Ha! Thankfully we were able to maneuver him into a baby carrier and he slept until we got picked up by Kent.

The next day we went to the heart of Portland with Grandpa and Grandma. Everyone enjoyed the car ride into the city.

Our first stop was the infamous Voodoo Doughnuts. It's such a funky little place, and just a little less special now that there is one in Denver too, but we have only visited the location in Portland. 

Brianna picked a plain ol' cake doughnut with sprinkles, Maya got a coconut guava doughnut (it was SO good!), Grandma got the voodoo doughnut, Grandpa got blueberry, Ryan got mango flavor, and I got Oreo with peanut butter. Quite the treats! Dallin did well sharing.

After doughnuts we walked to the green park nearby. We got to see birds, pop fountains, and many homeless people. Ahhh, Portland.

A quick stop by the China Town entrance. Not much on the other side of this entrance but we did get our steps in for the day!

On the way home we stopped at a park for about 20 minutes so the kids could run around and get some energy out.

Can someone please tell me when Dallin got so old? He looks like a five year old in this picture.

The girls were goodish sports and let me do their hair most days we were there. 

On Saturday we went out just as our little family to Multnomah Falls and Vista House. The views at the Vista House were beautiful.

He's practicing his "I'm cute but sassy" look in this photo.

In this one we have the "Don't mess with me, fool."

Our little family! Not a bad bunch of people.

Maya's face....it's like....wow. Go ahead. Laugh. I did!

My three favorite little human beings on the planet!!!!

This is the building at the bottom of Multnomah. There is a restaurant inside that, according to Ryan, has the best prime rib ever. I have yet to try it, but maybe next time. 

The waterfall! In the past we have hiked all the way to the top, but due to fires a year or two ago the trail is closed about halfway up, so this was as far as we went.

The view from the bottom of the trail. The bridge was as far as we could go.

That evening Ryan and I went on a date. We went to dinner at the Swiss Hibiscus. It had a lot of great reviews on Yelp and was even featured on Diners, Drive-ins, and Dives on the Food Network. The food was pretty amazing!

And yet somewhat simple. This was toast with sauteed mushrooms, some sort of cream sauce, and a wonderfully insane amount of Emmentaler cheese. 

The sign proving Guy Fieri was there!

The next day was Sunday. We had church, took family photos on the beautiful road leading up to Kent and Lalo's house, and then had dinner with a couple of families that Lalo had invited over. It was loud and crazy but the food and company were nice.

On Monday we met up with one of Kent's friends who has a pontoon boat. We rode it along the Columbia River for a couple of hours. The kids loved it, and I think the adults enjoyed the downtime.

This picture, I'm pretty sure, is going to be one of my all time favorites in my life. These two are such good buddies.

On the boat! There's something about a baby in a life jacket that just screams cute.

I told them they looked like mattresses. Ha! We found them smaller, more comfortable ones to wear instead.

You can barely make out Mount Hood smack dab in the middle of this photo. It wasn't that hard to see in real life....

Dallin was fascinated with the boat once it was out of the water.

The next day we had a relaxing morning, went to lunch with Lalo, and then headed to the airport to come back home. The ride home was much more pleasant. Dallin slept about an hour and a half (and fell asleep with not nearly the same amount of struggle) and the girls both napped almost the whole flight. We got home about 8:45 PM, got the kids in bed, and settled back into being home. Even after just a 5 day trip getting back home is so refreshing. Sometimes I wonder why we ever want to leave. 

Oh yeah, because adventure awaits!