Snowshoe Tahoe

Last Fall we bought a spiffy hiking backpack with Calvin. We have used it a handful of times, and we both absolutely LOVE it. We decided it was about time that we pulled it out again. Over Valentines/PResident's day weekend both Robert and I had an extra long weekend so we took advantage of our time off and snowshoed up to Incline Peak. At the peak you could see the whole of Lake Tahoe- absolutely breathtaking. It was about 6 miles round trip and Calvin did great. He even slept half the way down, and thought it was the greatest when we would run down the hill. I loved hearing his little giggles from Robert's back. 

R Mountain

On Tuesday it was 60 degrees! I could hardly believe it. It was a perfect day, so once Robert got off work we packed ourselves a nice little picnic dinner and took our baby boy on his first jaunt up a mountain. We are leaving Rexburg in a few months (tear, tear) and since Robert had never hiked up R Mountain, we figured he had to do it at least once before we left.

Oh Rexburg, we will miss you come June. But till then, we need to show this little baby Davis the beauty of Southeastern Idaho! Yes, we are going to have a busy Spring/Early Summer. 

Cross Country Skiing

This year we decided to spend New Years with just the two of us. Robert planned a big date for us, including cross country skiing in the Driggs area, Bangkok Thai and then going to see The Hobbit.

For anyone who lives in Eastern Idaho, (or who cares :) there is the Ashton-Tetonia Trail, that -believe it or not- goes from Ashton to Tetonia. It follows the old railroad trail and is a total of about 32 miles. It's perfect for cross country skiing and snowmobiling in the Winter and mountain biking in the Summer! It was beautiful, and you cross over 300 ft bridges. It is definitely on my list of top 10 things to do in Eastern Idaho/Teton Territory. And while you are at it, you can stop by Bangkok Thai....the best Thai food I've had on the west coast.
This was also the first adventure I was able to capture with my Christmas present from Robert! (Nikon D5100.....it's awesome)

A Happy Christmas

This year we went to Logan, UT to spent Christmas with Robert's family. The whole family came up from Vegas to spend Christmas with Grandma Keeley. It was fun to spend time with family, and to celebrate Christmas!

(Side note, pretty much all of these pictures were taken from Linda since I didn't take a camera. Thanks Linda, you're awesome!)

 Christmas Sunday 

(It was cold....you think I'd be used to it by now)

 Hardman Ranch 

(Logan's own Elk Refuge)

And Robert just making a Spencer roll. You know, Robert just being Robert. Winning over favorite uncle with every child, ever. 

One of my father-in-law's good friends is the HR director at Pepperidge Farms (think goldfish) in Richfield, and he was kind enough to give us a tour of the factory. On the particular day we went they happened to be whipping up some good ole' fashion Goldfish. Call me nerdy, but it was incredibly fascinating. Bonus: we got to wear fetching blue hair nets.

On Christmas Eve we had the annual tea party, or Christmas Teave (as referred to by Megan :)

Christmas Day

Later in the day we had our Christmas Nativity play. My personal favorite was Megan's wise man hat. It doesn't get much classier than that right there, folks. 

Christmas night we drove home to Rexburg, and stopped in Blackfoot to see my family and grandma. 

 ^^ That, right there, Is the ultimate 14 month old death stare ^^

He really does love me. I hope.

Friends, it truly was a very merry Christmas. I hope your Christmas' were just as full of love and happiness as mine was! There are just those moments in life when you can't believe it's actually your life. The past few weeks have been that for me. I just take a step back and think, is this really my life? Because it's pretty awesome. It doesn't get much better than this.

Labor Day in The Great Basin

Over the Labor Day weekend, Robert and I met my family down in Great Basin National Park (Nevada's only National Park) for a little camping weekend. Natalie and Mark moved back up to Rexburg so we made the drive together. 4 adults + a baby and carseat + camping gear made for a packed little Corolla, but we made the almost 8 hour drive and Emerson was actually really good and highly entertaining.

My oldest sister frequently says that Emerson's smile looks like a fluffy bunny and a vampire made a baby.

We arrived at our campground Friday night and the rest of the crew slowly rolled in. Collette and Justin were the only ones who couldn't make it; we missed them but it was fun to be with the whole family.

The weekend was spent playing a lot of games under the canopy (it rained. a lot.), hiking, dutch oven cooking, and camp fire bonding. We also celebrated Ernie's 11th birthday! I still remember the day he was born so vividly (which is surprising because Nat my dad and I drove up to Rexburg at about 3 in the morning) and I can hardly believe he has grown up so much!

I hope everyone had a very happy Labor Day!
Also- these pictures were stolen from my wonderful sister Natalie....if you couldn't tell from the large amount of pictures of her son. :)