Hiatts!: July 2016

Shmorgasblogs

I had internet! So here's some blogs:

Enjoy!

Jordan Wedding and Colorado Trip!

We have not even arrived back home yet from a very dream vacation of bliss but I am blogging about it while I have the internet! (Crazy that I can have internet in my car while driving through southern Utah but not in my own house haha)

Anyway, we went to Colorado to attend the joyous wedding of my dear lifelong friend Jordan Bloesser! We of course turned it into a trip and decided to do some Colorado camping and hiking while we were there.

I felt like the Carters; we left the family reunion at 1030 Thursday, went home and slept until 530 then drove to Elberta to watch Jamie and LaDon in their race! It was fun! I wish I could've seen more of it. But then we were right back into the car to drive to Colorado.

We made it to the base of Mt. Elbert and set up camp in a cool Rocky Mountain forest near a sweet lake where we fished/played in the dirt.

Billy caught three little ones that looked especially small considering our recent catfish adventures.

The summit of Mt. Elbert is in the background

We roasted up the fish and they were delish!

In the morning we hiked Mt. Elbert! It's 14443, the highest mountain in the Rockies and the second highest in the lower 48. Cool! But spoiler alert, we didn't make it all the way to the top.

Truman was beyond exhausted. We turned around once towards the beginning because he was just crying but when he fell asleep we went back up. Selfish parents!

It's a very hiked mountain! So many people were hiking.

It was beautiful, breathtaking, mountain goodness. We were in absolute heaven.

It was very windy and cold as we passed treeline and got closer to the top and Truman was not a fan (we weren't really prepared for cold) so we turned around before we summitted. I thought I would be sad to not make it to the top, but Truman was the happier soul for it and it was a beautiful hike going that high anyway!

The lake we fished at from a different view

We zipped over to G&G's then got ready for the wedding! It was perfect, perfect, perfect. I was so happy for Jordan and her now husband seems like a real quality guy (he better be!)

They held the ceremony outside and I was impressed at the religious feel of it. I've never been to a wedding outside of the temple so I wasn't sure what to expect but it was a beautiful ceremony.

And it was short! I guess I didn't expect that it would be long but then there was a period of snacking and exploring while they took pictures. Black Forest is beautiful!

Dinner was fun because our seating assignment fortunately put us next to some of my old Doherty XC friends, and it was very joyous to catch up! Also, Truman spilled water everywhere and smeared beans and rice all over himself so, entertainment!

After dinner they had toasts, which were tender and sincere. I have always loved Jordan's parents (there's a reason she's so good and pure) and they were clearly overwhelmed with emotion. Her dad gave a very dear and tender dad toast. It was sweet.

We were so happy to be invited and Jordan was the most beautiful, selfless and deserving bride. I am so happy for them! And it was so good to just drink up my Colorado roots with those Colorado people in that Colorado place. Such pure joy.

G&G were wonderful hosts and we loved staying in their beautiful house. We left this morning, stopped in Grand Junction for church and drank up some more beautiful Colorado scenery and just got to be together, which is my most favorite part of any ol thing.

And of course, there was much exclamations of joy and random picture snapping of the Peak. I was sad to not have really visited it, but Elbert and the drive through the Collegiates treated us well so the views of the Peak were sufficient. It is as magnificent and nostalgic as ever.

We drove to PG for dinner with the Hiatts then to SoJo for Ally's wonderful baptism. It was sweet and great as well.

I love the Carter life! Onward!

Family Reunion Joy!

THANK YOU MOM AND DAD FOR THE BEST REUNION EVER!

- It far exceeded every expectation

- There were bounteous amounts of the best foods

- The company was so enjoyable

- The house was kid/grandkid heaven

- I wish we took more pictures of everyone and everything instead of just a few of only Truman.

But here's a summary of the event you were all part of!

We camped in Monroe for the "pre-reunion" and had a blast! It was joyous to sleep without a raincover and thus wake up to see Daniel and Ram climbing in the tree with Misty above us.

We went to the parade the next day to see the Carters. I don't usually like parades, but this one was great, especially Monroe 4th Ward superheros paving the path with courage!

Then the Perezes came and we all convened for some good adventures in Highland!

Including:

Playing in the river at Dry Canyon

Splash pad and twirly toys

A major highlight--catfishing!!

What we thought was a big fish from Andy on the second night....

,,,was trumped by Summer's on the third night. Look at that guy!!! Holy fish!! I believe it was Summer's reward for enduring the only horse that wanted a backscratch on that fateful day so many years ago.

Also (see, I told you I took not enough pictures) we loved Cabela's, Battle Creek hike, Tichu, laser tag (girls win!), cookie of the day, shooting at our house and having all the peeps visit our mountain home, spending time with the most wonderful and darling nieces and nephews, seeing the world almost end but not really, staying up too late and getting up too early, ice cream, chocolate, desserts and cake, running in the mornings and so many endless other joyous moments of bonding and ebullience!! We are already praying that time will go so fast before we are all together again!

Truman's Birthday!

Truman turned one! What a ridiculously ebullient year it has been!

The other day I was sharing a popsicle with Truman and it reminded Billy that he has a string of pictures of himself eating a popsicle when he was a baby and the popsicle gets smaller and smaller until it's gone and the next picture is him bawling his eyes out. It was all too easy to recreate.

So after a year's worth of observation we finally know where Truman gets his insane desire to eat everything he sees all the time.

He is such a delight to us! To celebrate his birth he snarfed a few orange cupcakes and opened a gift or two.

We love our little Tru and count our blessed stars every day that he's here.

Happy birthday, little Truper!

Closer Look at Billy's Jobs

Billy is so great at what he does! I realized that I posted pictures of his last job and forgot to draw special attention to the sweet concrete walls that he built. So as a result I also am posting a billion more pictures of that whole yard.