WHEELER FARM

sometimes, i can't believe i'm a mom. this thought generally crosses my mind when i'm at a total "baby" or "mom" activity. like going to the pumpkin patch with three of my friends & their kids.

it was really fun though, i'm even going to say it was more fun than anytime i've gone to a pumpkin patch without a kid (i think that's only been one other time since being a kid myself, & i was actually pregnant... does it still count?). we went to wheeler farm & wandered our way through the hay maze with johnny, the 2 year old, leading the way, played in the pumpkin patch & got to pick one to go home (it started pouring & we forgot to get our pumpkins..), & checked out the goats, sheep & horses. i'm pretty confident in saying that the kids & the moms all had fun. 

cedar loved chasing johnny everywhere & trying to do anything johnny did. they were especially into running around on top of the little haystacks, chasing eachother, & johnny was adorable with cedar. he kept trying to teach him how to jump off & cedar kept getting nervous & reaching for my finger to hold while he took a step off. so it was a good effort on everyones part. 
 also, i haven't mentioned it before on here, but i've committed myself to a fall wardrobe capsule, & this is the first time since starting it that there are any photos of my outfit (thanks tayler!). so i guess this could be considered my first official capsule outfit? more on my wardrobe capsule & what it even is soon! 

LITTLE COTTONWOOD CANYON

i had mentioned earlier how last week, while austin was out of town, cedar & i went up little cottonwood with my cousin whitney & her daughter wren. we originally thought of hiking to cecret lake, but we decided that didn't sound too fun with cedar & wren after we drove up there, so instead we walked to this field to this rock. at least, that's what whitney kept saying.. "there's a rock in the middle of a field, i think it's up a little further.." haha but it was really fun & the littles loved it. 
cedar kept trying to hold wren's hand, wren kept trying to get away from cedar, whitney took a lot of pictures, & i held the rocks that cedar collected along the hike/walk. 
& once we made it to the field & the rock the view was beautiful! the whole walk was pretty, don't get me wrong, but we were at a little lookout spot over the valley that was so great, definitely worth the trek up there. 

MAMMA & BABY

last week i went completely m.i.a. on my blog even though i really had every intention of blogging. but then.... i just didn't. austin went on a camping trip so i figured i would have a lot of time to blog, but then i had too much fun with cedar to stop & really think about it. plus, going to sleep early, reading, watching way to much one tree hill.. you know, really important stuff like that!

i think cedar & i did some fun things too. we went to the park, picked & ate tomatoes from our garden, went adventuring in the mountains with whitney & wren, painting during naptimes, cuddling before bedtime & in the mornings reading books or watching frozen & prepared for our weekend getaway to park city.

i've been trying to be more "there" in my parenting with cedar. not to be there, but on my phone or computer, or behind my camera, but to truly 100% be there with him. let him have my full attention & the more i do it, the easier it is, & the more fun we have together. it's not hard to give him all of my attention, that's for sure. he is pretty adorable with all of his kisses, giggles, & babbling. i have so much fun being with him, i really think i'm the luckiest to be his mamma.

also, i feel like it's important to mention that as i write this cedar has discovered he can squish goldfish so he's breaking all of them all over the table.....

PARK CITY, UTAH

we spent this past weekend in park city with my family for one last get together before austin, cedar & i head off to spain. we stayed in a crazy cool house up in park city that was right below park city resort. i haven't really done a ton in park city besides going to friends houses & snowboarding, so it was pretty fun to explore & see what it had to offer. it was a crazy weekend with 8 kids & 8 adults, there was a lot going ong!
my mom came up with different activities for each day & we each took turns being in charge of the meals, which made the weekend really easy (we're definitely one of those families that decides they are hungry & then debates where to eat for at least 30 minutes before someone just says a random spot...ya decisions aren't are strong suit).

FRIDAY// we went to the alpine slide & took all of the kids that were old enough down (sorry cedar, sorry russy!) & ate lunch at the bottom at a little burger shack that in my opinion, is really good. just a classic burger with delicious shakes & fries. after the alpine slide we drove down to midway to swim in the crater at the homestead. i have wanted to go swimming in the crater for well over a year now so i was really excited to finally go! it definitely did not disappoint. its a huge natural hot spring underneath a giant crater dome, so cool. it was so warm & such clear/blue water. everyone loved it, minus cedar because he has a strong hate for lifejackets.. but he did alright, haha.

SATURDAY// we had planned to go into the uintas but we heard that it was supposed to rain, so we changed our plans & went to the olympic park which was so cool. i've seen it a million times driving into park city, but have never gone & i'm glad that we had the chance to go. it has so many awesome things: rope course, ziplines, alpine slide, bobsled... it was really neat. plus you can go down jumps on skis & land in water, we watched a few different people go down & do tricks which was really cool to watch. after the olympic park we had a "going away" party with some friends & family that were in town to come say bye to me, austin & cedar. it was so nice to be able to see our cousins & aunts & uncles that we don't see very often, it definitely made us feel special that they all made the effort to drive up to park city from all around utah.
we stayed up late into the night hanging out, talking & laughing with everyone & then even later with nick & shayla talking about old times, future times & celebrity crushes.. haha.. we eventually dragged ourselves to bed & we had them sleep over, which was perfect because then we made shayla be our photographer on sunday to take some family pictures! haha

SUNDAY// we had to pack up & leave the house by 11 so we woke up, cleaned up, made thinnies (our families version of crepes), made shayla take a million family photos for us (thanks!!!) & had our last meal together as a family & drove back to salt lake through guardsmans pass. if you've never driven through guardsmans, you really should while you still can, the fall colors are unreal. once we were back in salt lake we all said our goodbyes, which was really, really sad.

it was a bittersweet weekend for me. i loved having everyone together & getting to spend a few days with my family, but knowing it's because we won't all be together at the same time, in the same place, for at least a year, is pretty sad. hopefully everyone comes to visit us though, haha.

THE LeBell's

over the weekend i had the opportunity of taking my friend taryn's family photos & some newborns of their little girl stevie. 
i'm definitely not a photographer, but i thought it would be fun to take their pictures for them & they have such a pretty family, so it was pretty easy & fun, especially since their little kids are so adorable. 
we wanted to keep it simple with all the kiddos (including cedar who got to tag along), so we took the photos at their house, letting the kids play in-between pictures. i'm pretty happy with them.
look how they turned out!