We've Got Some News!

I honestly haven't felt much like blogging lately, sorry about that. But I do have an okay excuse for it...

Halloween 2013

Our ward had a Halloween party a couple weeks ago, with games and a trunk-or-treat. Jaxon won the award for the scariest costume. I guess a lot of people are scared of clowns!

On Halloween night, instead of going trick or treating, we invited some friends from our ward over for dinner and then just sat and talked afterwards while our kids played. It was very relaxing. :)

Fall in the Mountains

We've had some fun adventures this fall. Last week, we rode the Sundance ski-lift with my family and enjoyed the beautiful colors from up high.

This weekend, Travis took a day off work and we drove to Heber to relax. We rode the Heber Creeper and got to pick some free pumpkins afterwards. 

Then we checked into our hotel (which I got a killer deal on) and spent some time at the pool. The next day we drove to nearby Cascade Springs and enjoyed a fun walk around the springs. 

Before heading back to Provo, we just HAD to stop for lunch at the "train place". Travis and I love this hamburger joint, and since discovering all the ceiling fans there, Jaxon now loves it too.

I'm so glad we've taken these opportunities to get out in the crisp, mountain air. It's definitely one of the perks of living in Utah.

Pumpkinland 2013

Earlier this month, Natasha and I took our boys on their annual trip to Pumpkinland. Every year gets better as the boys grow and are able to do more.

Finally old enough for inflatables! :)

Front Runner- very fast, and very close!

September Recap

My blogs have become a bit more few and far between due to online classes, my calling, and an active toddler. I don't mind that much 'cause it means when I do blog it's just about the main things that've happened, not little things. Although sometimes those little things are fun, too. Right now I am purposely putting off a research paper to update you on the happenings in our family. So, ha!
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The coming of fall means it's time to can grape juice! Last week my friend and I went to my parent's house to pick grapes. They don't juice them anymore, so we figured we'd take advantage of those lonely grapes who, without us, would serve no purpose. :) Our boys were good sports while we picked for a couple hours. My friend was very gracious to let me borrow her juicer after she was finished juicing her grapes (one of the many things on my list to get once we own a bigger house).

I loved how the whole house smelled like grape juice as they were being juiced. It reminded me of my childhood. I love the rich purple color, and the taste is 100x's better than any grape juice you get at the store. I went back later that week and picked more so I could make more juice. :)

This summer I've canned grape juice, peaches, and peach-raspberry jam

This month, our ward decided to have one big fiesta to celebrate multiple countries' Constitution Days and invited local folk dancers to dance for us. My young women were also awesome and danced a traditional dance for the audience. They were so beautiful, I was beaming with pride. Jaxon had a lot of fun watching the folk dances.

We are so excited for fall to get into full swing! I've got so many ideas of things I want our family to do to celebrate this beautiful time of year!

Berry Picking

We went berry picking last week at McBride's Briar Patch with some friends. There were a few blackberries, but tons of raspberries! They were so sweet, delicious, and a great deal! I'm tempted to go back for some more blackberries when they fully ripen.

Jaxon got the hang of picking berries from the bushes pretty quickly, but he insisted on giving his berries to his friend. He liked eating them straight off the bush, too. :)

Sneaking berries into Bennett's bucket

We used some of our berries for a delicious smoothie later on. :)

Jaxon Turns Two

We now have a two-year old toddler in the house! To celebrate Jaxon's birthday last weekend, we went camping up Hobble Creek Canyon Friday night. Jaxon loved exploring and his first taste of s'mores. :)

Unfortunately, he didn't sleep very well (who does camping, right?) so he was a bit cranky the next day- his birthday. What a way to begin the "terrible twos"! But we made the most of his special day by going to Tucanos for lunch where he ate to his heart's content. It was the first time I'd actually seen him refuse food because he was full! Usually he's a bottomless pit. Afterwards, we walked over to the toy store where he ran around and played with all the toys he wanted.

An afternoon thunderstorm started up so we played outside in the puddles and watched the fans go round and round in the air conditioners. Did I mention Jaxon has an obsession with fans?

Then it was cake, ice cream, presents, and bed time! We certainly love our growing boy. :)

5 Year Anniversary

We celebrated our 5 year anniversary yesterday! When Travis came home from work yesterday, he knocked and when I opened the door he was holding flowers and chocolate covered pretzels (one of my most favorite treats ever!). He also just happened to be wearing one of these:

It definitely threw me for a loop and I couldn't help but laugh. He's just cute like that.

We dropped Jaxon off at my sister's (thanks, Caitlyn and Jon!) and had a yummy dinner at P.F. Changs. Then we went to see the play Guys and Dolls at the Hale Center Theater. It was a great performance. After the play, we got some Cold Stone and watched some aerial fireworks that were being lit from a nearby parking lot. I guess that's one advantage of having your anniversary close to Pioneer Day. We pretended the fireworks were being lit in our honor. :)

Travis is my best friend and I'm so glad I can talk to him about anything and that he's patient with my moments of craziness, like when I burst into song or dance spontaneously. He just goes with the flow. I love you, Husband!

Lake Powell

The Andersons had another fantastic family reunion last week. It was Kami and Brad's turn to organize it this year and they chose Lake Powell as the destination.We rented a houseboat but camped on the shore. The weather was very hot, but we kept cool by staying in the water.

See our kayaks on the top?

Jaxon was a trooper. As a toddler who always wants to be on the move, it took him a couple days to get used to just being in the water all day. He was much happier opening and closing the sliding doors on the houseboat and climbing stairs. Naps were also a little tough since it was too hot to sleep anywhere but outside in the shade and breeze or he'd wake up very sweaty and dehydrated. Eventually, I had to hold him for his naps out on the shaded deck. I didn't mind. It's been a while since I've been able to hold him like that. :)

We had fun swimming, fishing, boating, tubing, and water skiing!

I always got flung off on corners.

We also got into colored teams and had some fun activities like sand castle building and relay races.

My favorite part of any reunion, though, is being able to catch up with everyone and see what's going on in their lives, and for Jaxon to spend some time with his cousins.

We look forward to our next reunion in 2015 with much anticipation!

This Toddler...

Jaxon is quite the toddler. First, the milestone: he is now in a big boy bed. :) My sister-in-law, Kami (who has also saved us HUNDREDS of dollars by giving us all her boys' clothes...) gave us a small children's bed frame her husband built for their kids. It's so nice, and Jaxon loves the freedom of just getting up and walking out of his room every morning instead of having to call us to get him.

Question: What do you do with a toddler who loves to see how things work and take them apart? Jaxon's number one "toy" are fans. Any fan or object that moves around in a circle. Ceiling fans, boxed fans, pinwheels, wheels in general, etc. You give him a car and he'll just turn it over and run his fingers across the wheels, or push it against the table and lift it up so he can watch the wheels spin.

Mamita gave him one of those helicopter toys where you pull the string and a propeller lifts off and flies into the air, usually landing on some rooftop. He took apart the hand-held part, and whenever I'd try to put it back together he'd just take it apart again. So we just have the propeller and he loves to spin it around on the floor. Sometimes he'll spin it on the table and then lower himself to eye level so he can actually see it balance as it spins.

He loves to play with a little bedroom fan we have. He'll just turn the switch on and off and watch the propellers start, then stop, and start and stop. It will keep him entertained for at least an hour. We even got him his own hand-held fan (with foam propellers) and he ran the batteries dead within a day. This kid is crazy about fans, and it's been like this for over a year now.

Would you say we possibly have another future mechanical engineer in the family?

A Full Plate

We have been busy, to say the least! I'll take some time away from homework right now and put it towards updating our family blog instead.

Travis has now been working for a month and we are so grateful to finally get some income. :) He is loving it and is excited for all the leadership opportunities he's been given in spearheading some challenging projects.  He loves working with his team and they really appreciate him. He also stays on top of his calling as executive secretary and has been a great help to me since I received my new calling. He even took Jaxon to our ward's Father and Sons Camp-Out!

Despite looking grumpy and sleepy in this photo, he did very well!

This semester I'm taking another online class that has taken up a lot of my time. It ends in a couple of weeks, but there's no break for me, since I start a new class the day after it finishes! A couple weeks ago, I was released from my calling as R.S. teacher (after teaching twice, ha, ha...must not have been that good...) but I was instead called as Young Woman's President. I asked the bishop, "En serio?" Needless to say, that has also kept me plenty busy. I'm excited for the opportunity to get to know these "mujeres jovenes" and work with my amazing counselors. I'll also get to go to Youth Conference and a couple days of Girl's Camp this summer. It should be lots of fun! I'm also still serving as choir pianist.

Jaxon is as adorable as ever. I'm so grateful I can spend my days with him and do fun things together. We've been spending a lot of our days outside in our little inflatable pool (best $6.00 ever spent), 7-Peaks, the new splash pad, running through the sprinklers, taking long walks to the library, or tending our little garden. I put Jaxon in charge of watering the plants, he loves it.

We also make an effort to spend time as a family. We now have two kayaks, and the extra room has been much easier for both of us (Jaxon still rides with Travis most of the time). On Monday we paddled out into Utah Lake. The wind was really kicking up the waves and Jaxon loved bouncing along in the kayak. It was fun! I wish I could've taken pictures, but it's too risky to bring a camera in a kayak. I'll have to invest in a waterproof one. Our endurance is getting better, but we still need to work on our form.

Sigh...back to homework. :(

Three Days in California

We took a short but very sweet trip to California this week. On Monday we left early in the morning and got to Mamita's (my grandma) house that early afternoon. We're so grateful to be able to stay with Mamita whenever we go to Southern California. We spent the rest of the day visiting her and my great-aunt who had just flown in from Mexico City. Needless to say, we spoke a lot of Spanish during our stay!

Tuesday morning, after a good night's rest, we met the rest of my family at Disneyland. This was Jaxon's first time at Disneyland, and he loved it. He thought the rides were interesting, but his favorite thing was watching the parade and pointing out any stairs and ceiling fans (his obsession).

This was pretty much his expression on every ride

Tarzan's Treehouse was his favorite because of all the stairs!

While Jaxon was watching the parade with his cousins and grandparents, Travis and I took advantage of the short lines and went on the Matterhorn. It was very thrilling, until the ride got stuck. We had to wait until the crew members came up and rescued us. We thought we were going to die when the bobsled behind us came zipping around the corner- but fortunately it was on the second track next to us. Scary! But we did get a special FastPass to any ride in the park, and we walked through the Matterhorn on our way down! They told us not to take any pictures, but you didn't miss much. It pretty much looked like a warehouse with boxes, pipes, dripping water, etc.

On Wednesday, we spent the morning making guacamole with Mamita and tia- two guacamole experts. Travis and I have been wanting Mamita to teach us how to make her guacamole, so this was our chance. I don't even like guacamole, but this was fantastic. Too bad we can't just go pick our own avocados from a tree in our backyard like Mamita can...

Jaxon was happy to eat the guacamole with a spoon

That afternoon, we went to the beach. This was also Jaxon's first time seeing the ocean. He loved it! He would giggle every time the waves washed over him.

We left early the next day, but we definitely made the most of our little trip!