the end.

something happens when you grow up.
i think it starts when you get married.
and then you buy a house.
and then you have a baby.
(or whatever order it all happens...)
and then maybe you have another baby.
or sell that house and buy another house.
or maybe you do all of those things and also live in a temporary house in between while remodeling a house.

and then this thing called priorities......
well they change.
sometimes drastically.
and it's kind of out of your control a lot of the times.
but necessary.
and good.

but when this happens, some of the things that used to be a priority become less of a priority.
or not really a priority per-say, at all.

like blogging.

for some, who are great writers and use writing as a way to journal and express themselves and be artistic and creative and get out all their emotions from the day-to-day....well a lot of them keep up the blogging. and i am so glad, because i still love to read and keep up on a handful of blogs every week!

but for me?
it's just not a priority anymore.
as you can probably tell from my lack of writing in like 6 months.
and i don't think anyone will really mind.
and to be honest, since i kind of made the choice to not worry about blogging anymore a couple months ago, i feel a weight lifted.
not that i was a great blogger before (ever), but it had become a not so fun thing that i felt like i had to do to keep up on our life and our babies and if i didn't blog, it'd be like this time in life never existed or something.
which is silly.
and i am a little relieved to realize that and to be able to make the decision to be done with my blog (at least for now) and just live life and enjoy it.
and not have to worry about the not blogging thing.

so, this is goodbye, blog.
it's been just shy of 10 years since i started my first blog back before kids and houses and the husband. i think that's a pretty good run for a non-blogger like myself ;)

life lately, according to my iphone.

wow, middle of october? 
this year feels like it has just flown by.

here's a little recap of the last couple of months for us.

sacrament meeting is right during morning naptime - it's rough. a few weeks ago, jae walked around with lola and got her to sleep. yes, i took this during a prayer. i couldn't resist. jae caught me.

every day it's a new baby and/or animal, but gracie tucks her 'babies' into all the beds she can for their naptimes. it's pretty cute, that little momma.

this happy little sunshine insists on standing in her high chair ALL the time now. every time she eats. and it makes me crazy! and also really nervous! seriously, every minute or so she stands back up and i sit her back down, and we go through that about 50 times per meal. gracie never did this, gracie never climbed or stood or tried to get out of anything, so that little cushion with a belt that came with this seat? it got tossed long ago. probably bad idea.

grandpa george came to town a few weekends ago and met lola girl for the first time. he came to church with us and she just stared at him like this while he sang. it was pretty funny. 

(i swear i don't always take pictures during church...)

cousins! and the fall canyons! and snack breaks, of course.

and some sweet daddy snuggles :)

lola wants to do everything big sister does.

beautiful fall in utah

this beaut used to be parked in our driveway (below, where gracie is waving). since approximately 1985. (not joking). it finally got towed away a few weeks ago. don't ask, it's a loooong story. but just be happy for us that it's gone. yayayayay!!!!!!

seriously, that driveway hasn't seen daylight in 30+ years. it's a gall-darn miracle.

soaking up the sunny fall days before it's winter and we will be stuck inside for too many months.

gracie likes to be 'mom' and lola was way happier having sister to look at than mom.

lola's first peach experience. she doesn't have any teeth yet but she was pretty determined to get that peach and eat it. and so she did! and made a pretty awesome mess and quite the show for the rest of us watching. she is hilarious.

gracie often does my workouts with me, or at least wants her matching water bottle to drink from while she watches me workout ;)

high school football game! it was chilly and we only lasted til halftime but it was fun.

gracie's been working on her camera skills. i usually go through and look at all the ones she took and then delete most of them. but this one of her shoes in the grass made me happy, so i kept it.

she's as crazy as ever! she got herself dressed up in this, and then about two minutes later was throwing a fit because she got tangled in the slinky and couldn't get out of it. 

this is her new favorite hobby lately - almost daily you can find all these little people/animals lining our living room window. 'they need to see outside!'. she was very proud.

and now, here we are, days from gracie's birthday, and a month shy of lola's birthday, and then full swing into the holiday season. then anniversary. then more birthdays. the next few months are so busy, but i am so excited for them! these girls make life so full.

bear lake 2016

bear lake has always been a favorite place for me. i spent many summer days up there as a kid, staying at our neighbors cabin or going on day trips up there with my family and grandparents. it's a beautiful place, and i knew it was somewhere i wanted to go with jae and take our own little family often someday. we've gone a few times since being married, but last summer i decided it definitely needed to become a yearly trip for us.

this year, i booked a couple nights of camping at the KOA up there in garden city. it's a great spot, and although we're pretty amateur when it comes to camping, it was a good time and i'm so glad we got away for a few days.

we happened to end up being there the same week my sister and her family were there for their annual family bear lake trip (although they rent a cabin or condo rather than camp - smart! ;)). so we got to spend a beach day with them, and i know it was way better of a beach day for gracie than it would've been if it had just been jae and me playing with her. she sure does love those cousins of hers!

we got there on a sunday afternoon, and decided after we were sweating just setting up our camp, we'd go for a quick swim before dinner. so we did that and i ended up driving lola around in the car for a big to get a little nap in while jae and gracie stayed longer at the pool. we grabbed some dinner at merlin's (shakes!!!!!!) and finally got the girls in bed around 9pm. it was cool and quiet - not too many tent campers there with us, which was really nice.

monday was our big beach day. the girls were up early (no surprise!) so we went on an early morning drive and lola got some extra napping time in. then breakfast at the conestoga ranch (glamping central of bear lake!). way overpriced, but good. we headed to the north beach and spent the whole day there, building in the sand and frisbee in the lake and pb&j's and too many peanut butter m&m's. jk. you can't have too many pb m&m's. i wish i had gotten pictures of lola in the water. she loved it! so completely opposite of her sister - the second i set her down in the shallow water, she splashed and picked up sand and splashed more and tried to eat the sand (did eat the sand..). it was so fun to watch her enjoy it. we applied and re-applied sunscreen about 457 times, although jae and i still managed to get sunburned. but the girls didn't, so i guess count that as a success. then we got some quick showers and ate some mexican at cafe sabor. the food was good, but the girls were kind of done. so it wasn't the most relaxing dinner. then back to camp for bedtime.

the girls did not sleep so well the second night. lola doesn't sleep well any night, whether in a tent or her crib at home, so that wasn't really a surprise. it was pretty chilly at night too, getting down to the 40's. we'll be sure to get some better camping gear (and an air mattress please!) for the next go-round.

tuesday we ate some cereal at camp and spent most the morning packing up. we stopped by the beach on the way out and got one last run through the water and sand and packed up some whiny, sleepy girls in the car for the drive home.

it was quick but it was good.
until next year, bear lake.
(maybe glamping style..?)

in no particular order.......

gracie took this one ;)

since the first day we got there, there was a fire burning just over the mountain from us. we could see the smoke die down and build up every day, and we had ash falling around us and our campsite most the time. on the drive home, we finally could see the actual fire. kind of crazy to be so close to it!

the zoo!

i had been really wanting to take gracie to the zoo. we hadn't been since last fall and the weather this week has been awesome. we wanted to go last week, but the cold plague hit us all and it just wasn't happening. so we talked grandma and auntie kennedy into going with us, and we made a day of it. it was so fun! PERFECT weather. mid 70's and sunny and just awesome. didn't get too many pictures of actual animals, but there were a few babies we got to see and that makes it even better. definitely going back a few more times this summer. it's so fun to have a toddler to do these fun things with.

obligatory lion drinking fountain picture. i mean, how old is that thing by now?

this is the best pic i got of the girls together ha! gracie chomping on her cookie & refusing to smile. and lola just needed a good nap.

not the greatest pictures, but the two bears were just rough-housing with each other in the water, putting on a show. it was awesome.

click on this one to see it bigger. she was smiling, which is great! but she was also looking over at her aunt kennedy rather than the camera haha. typical!

and now looking in the right direction, but still not at the camera. this girl!

turns out she's a popcorn fiend. who knew?! once grandma bought her the popcorn, she honestly couldn't have cared less about the animals and just wanted to sit in the stroller and eat popcorn.

these are too funny, i had to post all of them. gracie!! this is how it is trying to get any sort of decent picture with them ;) (also, grandma bought her a bubble gun and she traded the bag of popcorn in for that and wouldn't put it down. still won't.)

the train!