First Temple Trip

 The big event this week was Westin's first temple trip!

We went on Saturday with Quinn's family, and their friends Levi and Wendy also came, plus some supportive leaders and bishopric members. I just loved being in the temple with Westin's amazing support crew and it was special to be there for his first baptism experience.

We hiked on Saturday at Lory State Park, which we for some reason have done every winter but never in the summer :) It's just a good little winter hike I guess. 

Friday night we had the Beattys, Behunins, and Baileys over for greek food and the Indiana game, and I made Pastel de Nata for the first time. It turned out pretty darn close to what we ate in Portugal! I did puzzles with the young women while the football game was on and I just felt content. I guess I've grown to love football but it's for different reasons than Westin -- I just love when we get together with friends way more during that season and have fun together. Also we are just loving this Indiana run SO much. Championship here we come!

Filling in that new blank wall!
Hanging this mirror was so tricky because our vanity mirrors are built into the wall on the other side.
I drilled into the wall for 2 seconds to hang this mirror before remembering that and I just shudder to think about drilling through the mirror on the other side...would've been such a pain.
So I waited for Michael to get home and we hung this together, luckily it was juuuust big enough to mount on either side of the mirror on the other side if I scooted it over just an inch from where I was.

These don't look like much, 
but we made Pastel de Nata! 
A Portuguese dessert that we ate every day last April.
I wanted to make them before Emma Bailey left on her mission. 
The Baileys, Beattys, and Behunins came to watch the Indiana game this weekend so we sent them home with some for Emma.

Luckily these cute Young Women came over during the football game too,
so we had some puzzle time! They finished a 500-piece and made some good progress on a 1,000.

Westin's first temple trip on Saturday!
So happy he gets to do all these milestones with his bestie, Quinn.

We loved being there with him that day.
He had a few other friends come as well, 
and it was just a good crew to be with in the best place we could be.

Sweet of our bishop to come support them that day.

Hiking in Lory State Park.
Michael really wanted to see a mountain lion.
There have been lots of sightings reported here lately,
but, our crew is just too loud to ever have such luck :)

1,000 puzzle pieces of donuts! This was fun to finish.

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year!

I love a fresh start. I can't believe it's 2025. I still feel like we just moved here sometimes.

We said goodbye to my parents on Monday. It's hard for me to even recall what else happened this week... so many games of Cover Your Assets and Spot It, Westin went to Wendy's a few times to work on the movie they're making (apparently it's a horror film and I'm anxiously awaiting the premier), we spent New Year's Eve at the Baileys house but only Westin and I stayed until midnight, we went on a cold winter walk, we started 10:30 church, and we watched some football. This week felt like a nice kind of empty. I was thinking about how over the last few years I've often felt anxious when we had no plans because I felt like we always had to get the boys out every day or people melted down or went crazy. But they're just able to go with the flow more now, whether that's days of outings or days of chilling at home. I love that.

My only goals for 2025 are one new habit (no social media until I've studied my scriptures that day) and a project (catch up on our yearbooks and home videos). There is probably a long list of other things I should be focusing on, but that's where I'm at right now.

Here's to a brand new year!

I have really decluttered our Christmas decorations, and when I put them all together like this I feel like we don't have that many. But then it fills up almost a whole closet! I guess because the outdoor lights and the Christmas tree isn't here (it's still up until I catch up on yearbooks)... but still. It doesn't make sense to me. 

After gloomily putting away Christmas right after we sent my parents off,
I felt like I just related to Luna's Rudolph toy that I found like this.
Poor Rudolph. Didn't even last a day.

Operation teach Westin to KonMari.
I have cleaned out his desk every few months while he's at school,
but it slowly has become more and more out of control and I'm done doing this without him.
So we pulled everything out. Everything into like piles. Thought about what should be stored somewhere else, and what should be kept in the desk area. Rearranged the books. Went through all papers.
It feels SO MUCH BETTER and I feel like that's the BEST feeling,
so I keep asking him if he just loves it so much.
He does... but I don't know that everyone gets a high from a KonMari'd space in the same way.
I just can't believe how much I actively battle clutter coming into our house and keeping spaces in somewhat organized with these four little guys.

Speaking of KonMari...
Getting rid of Asher's too-small clothes always leaves me sad!
I just had so many cute little boys wear these shirts at such a cute stage!

Asher and I watched our German Pancakes puff up together for the entirety of the 20 minutes they cooked.
This is Christmas break.

New Year's at the Baileys.

I just love these ladies.

Westin has been so excited to stay up until midnight with Quinn.

Spot It addict. Westin is sweet to play with him.

Camden is such a goofball.
His prayers are my favorite thing to listen to right now.
He thinks about people so much.

Road Magnets have been a Christmas gift hit.
They build with magnets so much.

Poor Asher... a fine of 9 million and 2 years in prison, for crashing cars.
It's brutal in the backyard.

Look at that frost!
Technically called hoar frost. Michael really enjoyed telling me that throughout our hike.

The fences looked like barbed wire but it was just frost!

Happy little winter guy.
I feel like I haven't seen this coat since this hike...
oh my goodness, managing gear. It's a thing!

First Half of Fall Break

 From visitors to fall break!

On Monday morning the Boones left, and we had pizza Monday with the Miners that night and played night games in the backyard together. They left on Tuesday morning, and my parents watched the kids while we had parent teacher conferences that afternoon. They left Wednesday morning, and Michael worked that day so that we could take off Thursday morning for our fall break trip through Southern Colorado.

We left Thursday morning and grabbed breakfast at Buc-ee's, then made the trek to Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park. Such beautiful views! The drop offs were crazy and I was feeling grateful we did not go here with an 18-month old. We stayed in a house nearby that night, then drove to Telluride the next morning. It snowed on us, which we didn't really expect! We knew there was a chance, but it felt too hard to picture that after our 70-degree days in Fort Collins. We still had fun on the gondola ride and getting hot chocolate. We tried to visit a ghost town but the road was too snowy. We drove down to Four Corners while Asher took a nap, and hit four states at once. Then we had some Mexican food in Cortez and stayed in a Yurt that night. I really loved listening to the rain on the Yurt tarps and trying to stay awake for the BYU football game with Michael -- couldn't quite do it, and woke up to some fun highlights to watch. This season!

The next day we did Mesa Verde and the boys were champs on the hikes, especially little Asher on all those ladders. We tried three different kinds of fry bread after our tour through the cliff dwellings. One of them blew straight onto Westin's face when we went outside into the wind, which was unfortunately one that had honey all over it. This is why we're still a baby wipe family even though we've graduated from the baby stage. Haha we still ate the fry bread and he was laughing about it.

We stayed in Durango that night and had some pretty terrible Thai food and a pretty fun playground stop. The boys loved the treehouse at the Airbnb but I really don't like when it feels like you're living in someone else's very lived in spot -- I missed the Yurt!

We made it to Pagosa Hot Springs and attempted the hot springs even though it was stormy. We did have to get out a few times in the beginning when lightning would strike, but after a little while we had some good clear skies and loved dipping in all the different pools -- and even the freezing river running next to them! The boys had a lot of fun here and it really exceeded our expectations.

We're extending fall break, so a couple more days of fun still ahead!

Everyone wanted a wheelchair ride when Grandma was all done with it.
Lots of circles around our driveway :)

Let it be known that Ali held Kitty.

We finished the hardest puzzle we've ever done! So much orange and black.
I am gluing and framing this for a Halloween decoration,
my heart can't take it apart.

Filling up the swing set with cousins!

Made a haunted house!
Camden has been asking and asking to make a gingerbread house with Grandma and Grandpa,
so we went the haunted house route since it's October. He was just very attached to this idea!

He loves this semi truck that Michael had when he was a little boy.
He adds magnets to it and turns it into all sorts of vehicles.

My dad snapped a picture of me reading to my boys.
I love that all four of them want to stop and read a book with me,
or play with trains with each other, or whatever other little boy thing.
They just have a lot of fun together right now and I know their ages are at a special spot for that.

Magnet road!

First stop for fall break trip: Buc-ee's for breakfast burritos. What a funny place that is.

Our dog sitters threw Luna a birthday party.
Is this not the cutest thing?
She's two!

The boys brought their very loved stuffies from our Steamboat trip visitor center stop at State Forest State Park. I love how much they love those four stuffies.

Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park
What a view! I was actually pretty nervous with kids here, those drop offs...
But they had fun even with my stress!

Painted Wall

Cruising from lookout to lookout, lots of in and out

Asher hahaha

Always happy when we have a deer sighting!

The boys love playing at different Airbnbs.
This was our first backyard and they ran and ran together the morning we were leaving while Michael and I packed up the car.

Snow in Telluride!

This first snow of the season in a little mountain town felt pretty magical.
But we were not very prepared for that!

Apple Cider (if you're Michael) and hot chocolate (if you're everyone else!) to warm up in Telluride. They had fun little Gondola car tables to eat in.

We had planned on exploring Alta Ghost Town but the snow made that road a little too exciting. We ended up having to turn around.

Asher fell asleep on the rocky snowy ghost town road and slept almost to Four Corners.

Four states at once! If Asher was more ok with pictures right now we would have put a boy in each state :)

Stayed in a Yurt one night! The boys loved sleeping in the loft area all together.

Camden loves a good picture pose lately :)

Asher conquered all the Mesa Verde ladders all on his own!

Exploring our Durango backyard before hitting the road

A drizzly day at the hot springs!

Vacation nights are tired nights. 
These little guys are so sweet. Camden and Asher prefer to share a room when we travel even if there's space to not have to. They're so cute.