Fall Festivities

Today we went for a bike ride/run and I spent some time outside raking leaves - so gorgeous! We went to the church on a windy day last week and got to play in all of the leaves w/ Landon. 

This weekend we had Jordan's dad, Winslow, visiting and he helped Jordan put up a new fence in our backyard to keep Landon in. (He helped Jordan put in the posts the last time he was here a few months ago, and somehow the rest of the fence still hadn't happened -- but now

 it's up! :) So now Landon can run around without escaping while we are working or playing back there - Hooray!

Last week we went to "Pumpkin Land" at the garden nursery in Orem -- it was just great for Landon. They have lots of animals to look at, a pumpkin patch and mini-corn maze, a "light alley" w/ lots of non-scary Halloween decorations, big blow up toys, etc. It was great -- very home-made, but very fun and perfect for a 2-year-old to run around.  

Since that was such a success, we thought it would be fun to go up to Thanksgiving Point's "Barnyard Boo" which sounded like it should be similar but w/ also some games and activities to play. Unfortunately, after we bought all of our tickets and went in, Landon only wanted to run around in the grass and climb on the retaining walls. Hmmm. So, we spent about an hour trying to get him to do some of the activities, then gave up and went across the street to Cabella's where he had a great time seeing the animals and feeding the fish. :) (Landon was on here just about long enough to take the picture before he decided he wasn't such a fan of pony rides. :)

I just love this beautiful, beautiful Fall weather!

Happy Anniversary!

Just wanted to say...

...how much I love this little boy.

Farewell Fall!

Yesterday I kept thinking about how much I love this beautiful Fall weather -- today we had snow!  Hopefully we'll have some warmer days ahead before winter really comes but oh what a lovely time it has been.  With Jordan working from home, he's been able to use his lunch break time to go out for a bike ride or run or walk most days and it's been just such fun. We took a drive up the canyon a few days ago (thanks to our earlier discovery of my video-ipod for Landon and good old Tigger and Pooh, this was a thinkable adventure!) and it was beautiful.  Having the river trail right here is great too because the leaves are turning here and it makes for such a lovely ride. So, hooray for Fall and hopefully we'll have a little more!

This pumpkin started growing from a vine hanging on our bushes and we were sure it would soon fall to the ground -- not so -- this is one tough vine and one tough bush!

Shangri-la Chinese Acrobats

Last weekend Jordan and I went to a show for this group - the Shangri-la Chinese Acrobats. Nathan had gotten tickets but then couldn't go at the last minute so he offered to watch Landon while we had a fun date night. These guys were amazing! It was a combination of ballet, gymnastics, martial arts, juggling, balancing, and just some really cool tricks! :) Some of the contortionist stuff was kind of hard to watch -- peoples bodies just aren't made to bend in those ways! But overall it was a really fun show and amazing to see how much work had gone into developing their talents.

Nathan, in the meantime was completing his own major feat -- putting Landon to bed. We got home about 9:45 and Landon had finally gone to sleep about 15 minutes before (after an hour and a half of creative efforts...) "Thanks for coming in quietly" Nathan said. :) Lucky Landon convinced Uncle Nathan that he'd go to bed if he could just have his duckies -- 

For the Grandmas and Grandpas

Here's some of our latest Landon videos. :)

Playing the Piano

Hello Spider - Nice to Meet You

Running!

And lots of other Happy Things

Fixing up our downstairs bathroom, General Conference weekend, teaching piano lessons (just 4 students now which is a lot easier to manage!), a quick visit from April, the beautiful Fall weather these past several weeks, bike rides and walks and trips to the park, getting things more organized around the house, Landon talking up a storm -- suddenly he is just talking in sentences and telling us all about his world! :), going back to water aerobics, having Jordan home during the days - it's great to have him around, and it also gives me some more free time while Landon is napping to get those tiny errands done that are so much easier alone!, feeling this little baby girl now just moving all around, my latest project of clearing out all of my junk drawers... 

I guess that's all for now. :)

Catch up Time! :)

I've been putting off posting anything because I was getting behind in my list of things I wanted to write about... but finally decided today I've just got to do it! :)

Our week in New York turned out to be just great. We stayed in a great little apartment in Hoboken, New Jersey - right on the water across from Manhatten. It was the perfect spot for me and Landon - there was a walking trail along the water right behind the apartment and lots of close-by parks that were always busy with other moms and toddlers. It really was such a fun week of Mommy and Landon time -- hanging out in the apartment playing with toys or just exploring, going for lots of walks to see the water or go shopping or just to walk around, playing at the park every day, going to the library... just such fun time! In the evenings after Jordan's work and on the weekend we all got to play together too and see some of the fun New York sites and such. We visited the Apple store (guess who that stop was for! :), had dinner at the Little Italy festival going on right by Jordan's work, went to the big toy store in Times Square and visited Central Park.  Jordan had a lot of fun getting to meet everybody at work and was sad to leave after the week was up (although, he was grateful to be done with subways!)The view from our balcony
Central Park -- this was one of my favorite places that we visited last time we came to New York - such an amazing little (well, not so little!) oasis in the middle of this big bustling city!
The Central Park Zoo -- lots of kid friendly things to climb in and play on that Landon just loved. 

One of our many trips to the park