the great 208.

Oh, man.

Can we just say it is 1:25 am in the mitten.

But 11:25 in the 208.

You'd think I could sleep at 11:25/1:25, especially after flying across the country with a toddler.

You would be wrong.

So wanna see some pictures of the trip?

Yesssss.

Its an Idaho tradition to make a "To Do" list upon arrival.

Its is the simple things that make the list.

Like go to Costco.

And eat at 5 different places.

My personal list this time around looked something like this:

-stuff to get Carly's pictures taken

-get Carly's pictures taken

-Five Guys

-Jimmy Johns

-go to Temple

-see Renee

I'm happy to report, I crossed every item off my list.

And then some.

But how about we start in the 801?

We spent the weekend in Utah.

My brother lives in a Pleasantville-esque cute neighborhood.

We went to one of the 10 p-a-r-k-s they have after Shay's sealing.

[Papak pushing Carly on the swing]

[my brothers climbing whatever that thing is]

[me and my moms]

[3-of-4 T kids; we'll forgive Elder's absence]

Carly promptly attached herself to her aunt Kasee: "Kase!" she would scream, every time they parted for a few moments. Poor Carly still says "Kase" every once in a while, remembering the good times. I have to inform her that "Kase" is in Europe for 5 weeks.

[Kase and Jase get a glimpse of their picturesque future]

[aunt kasee shows carly the appropriate technique for rolling down a grass hill]

[too bad carly is afraid of grass]

[with uncle Jason]

[mopping uncle Michael's kitchen floor]

I thought it might be fun to get a picture of Shay and Carly together. There were a few problems. Shay likes to be held, rather than sat on the couch. Carly likes to run, rather than be sat on a couch. Carly likes "bebe" from a distance, but doesn't really want "bebe" reaching out to grab at her curls. Shay is 6 months old: prime reach out and grab phase. Hence, the single picture I snapped looks like this:

[loving cousins]

We spent the night in a hotel. Carly woke up outrageously early (7 am) and was still tired. My dad was on his way out, so he brought her to my bed. Oh, it was the sweetest thing. Usually when this child is awake, she is awake. But she was obviously still tired. She smiled real big at me, then laid down on my chest. I gradually felt her head growing heavier. I moved her to my side. We snuggled and slept in until 9:45. The first time since she was probably a month old we've slept side by side. I was a puddle of happiness, thanks to the snuggling and the 9:45 wake-up time.

The next day we got to see Shayla get blessed, then headed back to Idaho.

I always take like 2 pictures in Idaho.

Because you know what we do in Idaho?

Play.

Go for walks.

Shop a little.

Eat a lot.

Play some more.

Carly ran my poor parents ragged.

But it sure was a lovely 10 days.

One thing we did do out of the norm was get Carly's pictures taken. Coming up on 21 months, and we've never gotten pictures taken of her (family pics when she was three months old). I went to high school with Molly, and she takes such beautiful pictures. I was so nervous. Carly's aunt (we love you, becky) taught Carly to say "cheese" to the camera, and whenever Carly does, she squints her eyes and squishes up her face and looks like an ogre. I was dreading that every single picture Molly took would have the ogre face. Luckily, Molly was super great with Carly, even letting her do sprints up and down her hallway. I'm excited to see how the pictures turn out. Just a few non-ogres would make me happy.

[for some reason i love this picture]

On Tuesday afternoon, my dad had to go up to Idaho Falls for work so I caught a ride up and went to the temple. Can you even believe that I'm an Idaho girl who has been a temple-goer for nearly 5 years and I have never done a session at the IF temple? Crazy. But wow, is that Temple beautiful. It was also the first time I've ever gone all by myself. It was a neat experience. If you've been to IF, ask me sometime and I'll tell you why I LOVE LOVE LOVE its celestial room. I dare say its my favorite.

[Carly's incredible post-nap curls]

On Wednesday Carly and I met up with my high school friend Renee and her two cute kids. Carly and Maggie are exactly one month apart. Maggie is such a tiny thing! We have pictures of them together two other times, so I thought we'd try again. Toddlers are definitely harder than babies, especially since Carly had just had her photo shoot the day before and was wary of photographers. But it was fun to catch up with friends we don't get to see often enough.

[cute girls]

We finally got some beautiful weather the last few days there, and enjoyed some nice long walks pushing Bear and Towel around in a mini stroller.

[Carly and "dah", aka Grandma]

Is this making sense? I'm losing steam.

And there is now MMA on my TV instead of hockey.

The point is, we had a wonderful long getaway.

How can 10 days go by so fast?

But we did miss our man.

When we saw Chris at the airport today, Carly jumped out of her stroller and ran to him. He scooped her up and gave her kisses.

Reunited and it feels so good.

xoxo.