Thanksgiving in Cedar

Thanksgiving was in Cedar this year, and the weather was beautiful! A balmy 70 with minimal wind all 3 days - pure heaven. Greg was able to get a couple of Mountain biking runs in so I'd say it was a win-win for all involved.

Sof woke up Wednesday wanting to leave for Cedar STAT and had a hard time waiting all morning for Greg to get home. But, we passed the time outside in the beautiful weather!

Claire found a friend

This swaddle has worked wonders!

Sofi's fat face. She wasn't too thrilled to be on the trike.

Visiting horses

Tummy time

She's become quite the makeup artist

Ready to go. Sof's already zoned in on her movie.

Greg's side smile is strong in both kids, but it 's soooooo cute!

The traffic down was awful! People are so rude and I officially believe those reports where they say Utah drivers are the worst. Instead of slowing down and being considerate, people would just come into your lane whether there was room for them or not. Imagine 4 hours of this, and you have a not very happy Greg. Regardless, we eventually made it to Cedar in time for Sof to greet her grandparents with a huge smile!

Thanksgiving arrived warm (so warm!) and the food didn't disappoint. Greg is still confused why my family eats dinner so early, but he'll get over it. His family is the only one I know who eats so late so we have both have had to adjust. Sofi was a wreck and had a nice long nap while we ate dinner. She is so picky and can't be bribed to try anything; she would rather starve, and it's so frustrating that I hope this phase passes quickly!

Claire being snuggled by her Great Grandma Jolley

Greg's 1st ride post Thanksgiving Dinner

That night we all 4 took a Ranger ride up to the temple. It is so beautiful at night!

This is the first bath Sof has ever wanted to have with someone. I think these two girlies are finally starting to be friends. Lex may have her size-wise, but Sof is just as strong when it comes to vocalizing her opinions.

Friday, Sofi was treated to her first real movie in the theater and she did great! Apart from having to go to the bathroom, it was quite enjoyable and I'm excited for all future movie escapades we will have together. Greg stayed home with Claire.

 

She always manages to find this Dory whenever we are down there.

Greg lost sunlight fast on his 2nd round of mountain biking. Luckily he came back unscathed.

Rockin' the G's.

Saturday was departure day, but Greg was nice enough to help my mom put up her Christmas lights.

Sof finally mastered a trick. Her legs are still growing!

Saturday is also the day our sweet Baby Claire turned 2 months old, so here is her in all her cuteness!

12 lbs 1.5 oz of chubby cuteness! 22" long. She is growing like a weed!

Park City & Princesses

Greg's firm had a retreat in Park City, and when he sent us pictures of his room I decided to take the kids and crash his 1 night of freedom. Sof was pretty excited to stay in a hotel for the first time.

Checking out the view. We stayed on the 5th floor. 

I love her chub!

"'laxin' by the pool"

Not the greatest picture, but she was running so fast down the halls.

Greg won this awesome drumstick headband

Hilarious! She hated the life vest.

I can't remember if this was taken before or after we woke up, but Claire was the only one who slept good that night. 

Cute hair! And she did her makeup. Does one eyebrow look different than the other?

Cutie!

She always has her little fist up by her face. I love it!

 Sofi's cousin was having a princess party and she was so excited to dress up as a princess! She insisted on wearing this cape as well, and became known as "Super Sofi."

Getting her nails painted

and hair done

She knows she's beautiful

She has started to discover hanging toys. I love her alert little eyes!

Surviving church. Greg is thrilled for the entertainment.

Starting to smile!

Glamping

We had a fun, impromptu weekend of 'Glamping' in our new house. At about 4:11 am Saturday morning (yes I was awake), our power mysteriously went out. At first I thought it was just our house, but when I looked outside and saw it was pitch black, it was obvious it affected our whole neighborhood. The cause? A drunk driver getting off the 200 North exit of I-15 in Kaysville nailed a power pole, knocking 8 down total. It wiped out power to nearly the entire city.

Luckily we have a cute little wood burning stove in our kitchen and made good  use of it the last 36 hours. In fact, it kept the upstairs warmer than when the furnace actually works. It was a balmy 74-76. Greg was overheating, and I was in heaven.

We actually had a lot of fun not having any power. No, we didn't have a furnace or any way to cook our food, not to mention our fridge couldn't keep the food cold, but that wasn't anything a wood stove, camp chef or cooler couldn't fix. It was like camping in the comforts of our own home, thus we were Glamping.

Sof had a ball helping light the fire and playing outside while we made our meals on the camp chef. She was awesome and has already requested we go back to "Bryce Canyon." Funny how she remembers  that place, but it was a pretty awesome camping trip.

As long as we kept the doors open at night, we all slept pretty comfortably.

We noticed quite a few of our neighbors had generators. I found out that the previous bishop counseled the ward to get generators hooked up to their houses if they had the means to do so. Those people who followed the counsel of the bishop were sitting pretty through the power outage. And, because it only affected Kaysville, and we live so close to the Fruit Heights border, our neighbors 5 houses up and through the block had power. Oh well, I bet they didn't have as much fun as us this weekend.

We were asked to speak in church this weekend, so while we all napped, Greg went to his dad's to finish his talk, leaving us 3 girls home to nap. It was glorious.

Naps with this girl are the best!

Sof loved the lanterns and flashlights

To pass the time, Greg and I played a roaring game of Phase 10 Saturday night. It was actually a lot of fun. I was exhausted enough to let Greg win :).

Power was restored this morning (Sunday) at around 10:00 am, which means our ward who meets at 1:00 pm was the only ward to hold church today. Greg and I were asked to speak, and were told by many people that they enjoyed our talks. And, Sof was thrilled to be able to sit next to her Grandpa Spjute during sacrament meeting. It also means that it was Claire's first time to church. She slept the whole time, it was marvelous.

I learned at church that a lot of people weren't as comfortable as we had been. Greg overheard an older lady at church say that when she woke up this morning, her house was 57 degrees. Yikes!

Greg is Sofi's best friend. When he was up on the stand today, she was so sad thinking he was going to stay there. I love their sweet little relationship.

Super cute in this dress! It's the same one Sofi wore to her first day of church. 

Cedar Temple Open House

We escaped to Cedar this weekend to go through the much-anticipated Cedar City Temple. It was beautiful!

We left Thursday afternoon after Greg got home from work, and I am proud to say that Claire, my little angel babe, slept in her car seat the entire time. I was so happy that we didn't have to relive the nightmare of Sofi screaming the entire time when she was 3 weeks old for her first trip to Cedar. Horizons are looking much brighter, as far as road trips are concerned.

Thursday happened to be my nephew's birthday, so we crashed his party in Minersville to go celebrate with him. Greg was thrilled to take a detour through Beaver county :).

It's rare that all of us sisters can be gathered together for a birthday party, but it sure was fun.

The theme was "Paw Patrol" and Sof had a ball running around with this mask on. 

He's a good sport.

My other sister was staying at my parent's house too, so Sof was lucky enough to sleep in a queen sized bed all by herself, and it was no surprise that she loved it. She slept like a champ during naps and through the night. She's pretty much the best.

We didn't have tickets to the temple, but were lucky enough to go Friday morning without having to wait. We were told the temple was designed after the history of the area, so we could expect to see the Columbine flower (a prominent flower grown on Cedar Mountain), berries (from the local trees), and feathers (for the Paiute tribe) as the main design features. It was so fun to see the personal touches added throughout the Cedar Temple, and know that my ancestors made it possible for Cedar to one day have a temple. I come from good stock.

Walking to the temple!

Giving Jesus a high five.

It was super windy that day!

We were told by 2 sources in Northern Utah that our car needed its tie rods replaced, so we planned on having my Dad's buddy fix it for us for much cheaper. Turns out the tie rods didn't need to be replaced, so we saved some money there. Oh well. We also needed new rotors, so Greg learned a new skill from my Dad on how to tear 10 year old rusty rotors off a car. Oh boy.

The rotor changing cheerleaders.

Greg was thrilled when my Dad told him to bring down his work clothes to help him move his equipment on the mountain. The plan was to leave Saturday to come back home, but they got home late enough I decided we would stay one more night. Turns out that was a good decision, because my Grandpa Thorley stopped by, and he was able to meet Claire.

We made it back in record time Sunday to be able to spend a couple of hours home before Greg took his drugs and went to bed (he's not feeling too hot. I can hear him breathing like a dragon in the other room). But, I'm glad he went with me because it was well worth it to see Cedar's Temple. What a blessing it will be for my hometown. 

Home again. My 2 cute girls!