Pilgrimage to Mecca. Part One.

After Wyatt's birthday, we headed up to Utah to see some family and get caught up on our Vitamin D requirements. On the drive up, we broke up the drive and stayed overnight in Squaw Valley at Lake Tahoe. It was absolutely beautiful there. We are planning a longer trip soon.

We then stayed with my sister Heather and her family for a week. My parents were there the same time, so it was nice to all be together. The first night, we went to Provo Canyon for a picnic. Micah HATED the grass, and insisted Grandpa hold him the entire time. The other kids are practicing their hill rolling. This is an action shot. No, really:

I couldn't believe Wyatt was being so brave and climbing up this rock wall by himself! In his flips!
At the top. I guess he really wanted to be like his big kid cousins, Hinckley and Halle.

Later that week, we went to American Fork Canyon for a hot dogs (or hock dogs, as Wyatt calls them) and marshmallows cooked in the campfire. I had to get all paparazzi for this picture. If Wyatt sees me with a camera, he either refuses to look at me or he starts scowling and glaring. I don't get it. He is such a happy, smiley kid, but you would never know it by looking at pictures. Anyway, I like that he is smiling here.

And the ever adorable Micah. Haven't posted too many pictures of him lately. Here he is hanging out in the backpack. He really likes it in there.

Other things we did that I didn't get pictures of...we went swimming at the Lehi Legacy Center. The boys were not fans of the pool. We spent a day at Temple Square and the Conference Center. We also got to see some friends and family while there. It was so nice to spend time with several old roommates, my cousin Kathryn, and Jake's brother Tyson and his wife Taylor. It really made me miss living in Utah!

Wyatt Turns Three!

Wyatt's third birthday was June 20. He has grown so much in the last year. He is all legs now! I'm not feeling super verbose, so my thoughts are kind of disjointed. But here are a few of the things that Wyatt has been up to in the last year:

He loves to sing! At any given moment, he can usually be heard singing, both real and made up songs. He has also been singing songs he hears on the radio, and particularly loves the Black Eyed Peas song, "I Gotta Feeling."

He still loves cars and trains and airplanes and helicopters (holla-hoppers) and motorcycles and boats.

He loves to play with his friends and to boss around Micah and Lucy. He had a hard time adjusting to the birth of his baby brother, but in the last few months, Wyatt has been asking to play with Micah and even climbs in Micah's crib now to hang out (I have mixed feelings about this).

Life is one big game of pretend, mostly animals, but also monsters and ghosts.

Wyatt loves nursery, and when I ask him what he learned about, he always tells me "trains!" So I prompt him, "did you learn about Jesus/families/prayer?" to which he says "and trains!"

Wyatt loves to go to the beach and make tracks and roads in the sand for his trains and cars. He will go on the tidepools for about 30 seconds and then start in on the construction work.

Wyatt is still my sweet little happy head, always asking for snuggles and hugs. Wyatt makes parenting easy, and I am so thankful to have him in our family!

We love you Wyatt!!!

Rare Sunny Day

Back in early June, the temperature hit 70 degrees, and the sun was shining, so we walked down to the beach.

Grandparents Visit - May

My parents came to visit over Memorial Day weekend. We spent the weekend eating seafood, went to the beach and the tide-pools, and hung out in the city. We took the kids to the Maritime Museum, which has some old boats that you can tour. Its a lot cooler than it sounds. Wyatt loved it, and so did I. We had beautiful weather, lots of sunshine. After two months of foggy, cloudy, cold weather, its hard to remember that it can be sunny here!

Enjoying clam chowder, sourdough bread, calamari, and crab something or other. Grandpa is drawing happy spiders, Grandma is making "What About Bob" type food-enjoyment noises. "Mmmm. MMMMMM. Are these clams hand-shucked?":

And later, enjoying Ghirardelli ice cream. Wyatt opening wide:

On the boats at the Maritime Museum:

Fisherman's Wharf:

On the way to the tidepools, my dad posing by one of the tsunami signs that he finds really funny:

Food! Glorious Food! Or in other words...I'm pregnant.

I have been a crap blogger lately. Sorry. I am pregnant, and that's my excuse for, well, everything. A lot of fun things have happened around here, and maybe I'll get around to blogging about all of that later. But for now, I have more important matters to discuss. Like food. And how delicious it is. And how no matter how much I eat, I just cannot seem to get enough. I'm thinking about making Bug's Life into a food blog, since that's really the only thing I care about these days.

The weird thing about pregnancy, at least during the first trimester, is that I feel completely nauseated and ravenous at the same time. The last few months the nausea has been winning, and I have been spending most of my time hanging around the toilet. This has been my sickest pregnancy, but I think we have turned the corner in that department. I am feeling much better these days. As my first trimester is coming to a close, the nausea is waning, and the ravenous feeling is taking over. Taking over my life.

So let's talk about food. Specifically, BLT's. With avocado. Wow. Their goodness is just beyond words. I don't want to tell you how many BLT's I've eaten in the last few days. Let's just say this: I've had more BLTs in the last week than I have in the 5 years prior. Bacon sandwich!! Yum. And potato salad! I don't even really like potato salad (mayonnaise skeeves me out), but I had it for breakfast this morning. What? There were eggs in it. That makes it a great breakfast food. Oooh, and pickles. It's such a cliche, but I think I ate an entire jar last week.

Jake told me last night that he is on a diet. "Why??" I asked. "Because I always gain weight when you are pregnant," he replied. "All the usual healthy eating goes out the window, and you eat like..." I could see he couldn't think of a good comparison so I helped him out, "A trucker." "Yes. You eat like a trucker." Jake is both repulsed and fascinated by my pregnancy appetite. As am I. I really don't understand how it happens. Science says you need an extra 300 calories a day to support a healthy pregnancy. I feel like I eat an extra 3000. I never feel full. I usually stop eating when the food is gone or I start thinking "Erin, time to call it quits. This is more than any one person should ever eat. So let's stop. Stop. No seriously. Put the food down! STOP!"

All I think about is food. I'm thinking about what I just ate, what I am going to eat next, WHEN I am going to eat next, how I am going to get around having to cook what I am going to eat next (I HATE cooking when I am pregnant. It makes me sick. Go figure.), as well as all the other things I could be eating, or have eaten in the past, or things that I like to eat. It grosses me out how much I think about food.

The other thing is that I crave food that you couldn't pay me to eat if I wasn't pregnant. In my non-pregnant life, I don't really like meat, other than seafood. Now? I dream about meatball subs and bacon cheeseburgers. Fast food? Never touch the stuff. Yet I've had McDonalds three times in the last two weeks. And I think I had Taco Bell bean burritos twice a week through the entire first trimester. Oh, and the aforementioned BLTs and potato salad.

And no, there is no good reason why I don't gain 100 pounds during my pregnancies. Its a medical marvel. I just gain a normal amount of weight. It really amazes me. Our bodies are going to do what they want to do. This being my third pregnancy, I'm just enjoying the food, and not worrying about the weight gain. No sense stressing and panicking about it.

So there you go. That's why I haven't been blogging. I've been too busy. Between the planning, the eating, and the watching of Man vs. Food marathons (Adam Richman is going to be my next husband. I love a man who loves food...that's how I picked my first husband.), I just don't have time for much else. Now if you'll excuse me, I hear some Krispy Kremes calling my name...

Vanity Fare

I need some opinions. Or maybe inspiration. Or motivation. As you know, I'm easily bored with my hair. I've been growing it out for some time, and now I am SICK. OF. IT. Plus, it is just taking wa-haaaaaay to long to style...so I want to cut it off. But not too short. I absolutely have to be able to pull most of it into a ponytail. So what should I do? I'm thinking long bob. Thoughts?

I love this Gywneth look (yes, I realize that our hairs have nothing in common, just like our lives, but these are the lines along which I am thinking):

What do you think? Any other ideas? Comments please! Gracias in advance!

BIIIIIIIIG Basin

We headed down to see the redwoods at Big Basin State Park. It was only an hour and a half drive, but it was super windy (like curvy, not blowing wind). We had to pull over for THIS car-sick girl, but mostly I felt horrible for poor little Wyatt. It turns out he got the Hart/Sonners (which side can claim credit for this?) car-sick gene. I passed all my best genes on to him. It was pretty pathetic. He had no idea what was wrong, he just kept whimpering quietly, "No! I don't like it Mama! No...!" I felt horrible. I had so many flashbacks of driving in our Volkswagen Vanagon in the mountains, feeling the puke rising up in my throat, knowing the end was nowhere near. I also have memories of getting puked on by my brother, because he didn't stick his head out the window far enough, but that's another post, another day. But actually, I do have one thing to say: Mom and Dad, would it have killed you to pull over so your kid could puke?? It seems a little insensitive that your response to "Mom, I'm gonna throw up!!" was, "OK, just stick your head out the window..." I also remember being embarrassed whenever we would get out of the car, because the sides were always covered in barf. That's how we would ride. Anyway, I vow here and now to PULL OVER when my kids tell me they are sick, and not tell them to barf out the window. But moving on....

So we all got sick, but we made it. We ate our "picnic," and then got to walk around and see the tall trees. Wyatt was in heaven. He jumped out of the stroller, ran around, climbing in and out of trees looking for monsters, hitting things with sticks, throwing pinecones...it was little boy heaven.

But all good things must come to an end. We drugged the boy with some dramamine, put Erin in the driver's seat, and drove home.

I love that the "Mother of the Forest" is the biggest tree in the park. Not the Father.

Wyatt was excited to climb on this "big stick."

Inside a tree, a little house for Wyatt.

Wyatt looked everywhere for monsters. He didn't find any, just a lot of spiders and cobwebs. Yuck.

On a mossy log...

Wyatt has had these sunglasses for over a year and never showed any interest in them. But he put them on that morning before we left, and didn't take them off for hours. He was "cool." Yes, along with the car-sick gene, I also gave him my "cool" gene. Anyway, he liked standing on this post because it made him tall.

We had a great trip!