The Rockin' R

Our family reunion was held at the Rockin' R Ranch in Antimony, UT. The Rockin' R is a dude ranch and ever since the location was picked, I have been super excited about this reunion. I'm going to have to split the reunion into two posts because we had way too much fun and did way too much to try to put it in one post. So, here we go.

We left my brother's house fairly early on Monday morning to drive to the ranch. We had to arrive between 12 and 1pm and it was several hours away. We hit the road and it didn't take long for Stella to settle into the road trip routine.

Antimony, UT is a tiny town and it's pretty much in the middle of nowhere. After a few hours of driving, we arrived at the ranch. We were a little early, so we decided to head into town and check out the Antimony Mercantile store. That took about two minutes. After checking out the Merc (which was not only a mercantile store, but also a gas station and restaurant), we went back to the ranch. We had to arrive there first since my sister was with us and she had to arrive first since she was the coordinator for our family. Before long, though, the rest of the family started showing up. We had lunch at the ranch and, I must say, I was pleasantly surprised. One of the great things about staying at the dude ranch is that all of our meals were provided. I had fairly low expectations for the food since I know it can be difficult to prepare good food, buffet style, for a lot of people. However, the Rockin' R definitely exceeded my expectations in the food department. Nothing was totally spectacular, but everything was pretty good. And the fact that we didn't have to worry about making food or cleaning up after meals was fantastic.

After lunch, we had a brief orientation to the ranch and how our activities would work and then we got right down to the business of having fun. Since Stella was too small for most of the activities, Mr. Frisby and I usually had to split up the activities with one of us going and the other staying to watch Stella. The first activity was a trail ride on horseback. I went on the ride and Mr. Frisby stayed with Stella. They couldn't accommodate our entire group for most activities, so they would have sign up sheets with the number of spots available and we would just sign up for the activities until they were filled. It was fun because then we were always doing activities with different family members. The trail ride was fun and the scenery was quite pretty.

This picture is one of my favorites from the trip. My nephew was one of the first to get on his horse and get ready, so while the rest of us were saddling up, his horse got a little restless and started wandering. I snapped this pic and he just looks like a total city slicker trying to ride a horse. Makes me laugh.

That's me on the ride, also looking very city-slickerish.

The ride took us by this awesome abandoned cabin which the cows took over.

And through cool, sagebrush-covered hills. Good times.

When we got back from the trail ride, they had just started archery lessons. I didn't get any pictures of it, but I did shoot a few arrows and then headed back to the lodge to relieve Mr. Frisby of Stella duty. They were just getting the pony rides started for the little kids, so I was super excited for Stella to be able to do it. I put her up on the horse when it was her turn and she was so excited that she had trouble remembering to hold on as the horse walked around.

Stella absolutely loved the horsey rides. Here she is protesting loudly when I tried to take her off the horse at the end. She wouldn't get off and insisted on another ride. Fortunately, nobody was waiting for a turn, so she got to go again.

I think the horsey rides may have been the highlight for her. After that first ride, every time she saw a horse (which was often since we were at a dude ranch), she would scream, "Horsey! Horsey! Hop on, hop on!" It was pretty adorable.

After the horseback riding, it was time for a hayride through the sprawling town of Antimony.

Stella enjoyed it. After the hayride, we had dinner and then had the evening to do whatever we wanted. We opted to take over the lodge common room and play the Sign Game. It was a busy first day, but we were having lots of fun and the reunion was off to a great start.

The next day we were scheduled for lawn games in the morning. We played various games and hung out as a family. It was fun, but we were primarily shooting video, so no photos of the activities. The ranch did have a decent playground area with swings and a couple slides, so that was great for the little kids.

After the lawn games, they had another trail ride scheduled and more pony rides for the little kids. I ran around snapping photos of everything.

Stella made sure not to pass up another opportunity to ride the horsey.

After lunch, Stella went down for a much needed nap. I knew she would sleep a long time. Mr. Frisby was signed up for a trail ride after lunch and there were still spaces open. My mom graciously agreed to listen for Stella in case she woke up so I could join Mr. Frisby for the ride.

Hello cow.

Stella was still asleep when we got back from the ride. After the ride, they had us scheduled for tubing down the river. Upon hearing about this activity, neither Mr. Frisby nor myself were excited about it and had planned to just skip it. However, everyone else who had gone kept coming back saying how fun it was and that we really should go. My sister said that it was a blast and told us to go that afternoon since there was still space to go and said she would watch Stella for us. We agreed and hastily got ready to go. Stella woke up, so we grabbed everything she would need and left her with my sister. I have no pictures from the tubing since we didn't have cameras with us, but it was, indeed, a blast and we were glad everyone talked us into it.

After the tubing, we had dinner and then had time to take family pics after. I don't have one of our whole group since my brother was taking them, but we did have someone snap this one of us afterward.

That night they had a local band play some music in the lodge and they had line-dancing and whatnot. It was enjoyable and afterwards we took over the common room for the Sign Game again. So far we were having a blast, but the best was yet to come! Stay tuned for part two.

Adventures in the Jell-O Belt

My family had a family reunion planned for the end of July in Utah. We typically extend any trip to Utah to see my family to include time in other parts of Utah or Idaho to see Mr. Frisby's family (and vice versa). The family reunion was set to begin on Monday, so we headed back to Utah the Friday before so we could see some of my extended family as well. We set out early in the morning to make the long trek and, of course, were appropriately dressed:

We were fortunate to have my sister traveling with us. Stella LOVES my sister and had a great time with her in the back seat. We switched off driving, of course, so I ended up in the back with Stella while my sister was driving. I wasn't nearly as entertaining as my sister, so I had to bust out one of the new toys I got for Stella for the drive. Mr. Potatohead was a HUGE hit.

After the long drive we made it to Utah in time for dinner with some of my cousins. We stayed with another of my sisters that night. The next day, Mr. Frisby headed off to go mountain biking with his brother since he wouldn't be able to see him later in the week when we had planned to see Mr. Frisby's family.

I decided to join some of my family for a hike to Stewart Falls that my sister had planned. Last time I hiked with Stella, she did pretty well and walked much of the hike herself. She liked walking this hike, too, but it was slow going since she wanted to stop and check out everything. My sister had borrowed a baby hiking carrier, so I put that on and Stella enjoyed the ride.

The hike to the falls went pretty well. I would hand snacks back to Stella and she was pretty happy. She would get out and walk periodically, giving me a nice break. Still, Stewart Falls and a lunch break was a welcome sight for all of us.

We ate lunch by the river and played around for awhile. It was about this time that Stella started to get really tired and grumpy. It was nap time for her anyway and, on top of that, she was already tired from the lack of sleep the day before (she doesn't sleep well in cars). She enjoyed playing by the water, but was irritated that I wouldn't let her walk in the water with her shoes on.

I tried to take her shoes and socks off so she could play in the water, but this proved to be a serious offense. She would not cooperate for even one picture.

After we ate lunch and played around for a little bit, I decided it was time to get the girl back so she could sleep.

I took a quick group photo of the hikers and then I rounded up the ones who rode in my car and headed back down the trail.

Within a few minutes, Stella had fallen asleep in the carrier and I got to do the return hike with 25 lbs of dead weight on my shoulders (the hiking carrier was not the best quality and not the most comfortable).

The next day my shoulders were bruised from the backpack. When we got back to the parking lot, Stella woke up and needed a drink after the hard hike back.

The hike was fun in spite of my subsequent pain and that evening we got together with some of my other cousins. The next day, Sunday, we had brunch with my brother and his family and went to church with them to avoid all the chaos at my sister's house. We also stayed with them that night and then we all headed off to the family reunion on Monday. And thus began our adventures in the Jell-O Belt. I'll stop here because the reunion deserves posts of its own.

San Diego

Look at me, totally catching up on my blog posts! Back in June we went to San Diego for a couple of days for my brother's wedding reception. The wedding reception was Friday, so we decided to drive down Wednesday afternoon and hit up the San Diego Zoo on Thursday. The drive was long and made me even more excited (not really) for our upcoming drive to Utah. I got a couple of new things to keep Stella busy in the car.

A new puzzle which she figured out really fast but still liked a lot:

And, at the brilliant suggestion of good friend LJ, a glow stick for when it got dark. A simple toy, but Stella LOVED it.

After many hours in the car, we arrived very late at the home of good friend Amy, where we would be staying during our time in SD. Stella was exhausted and not in good humor. She was won over, though, by the dog statue that belongs to Amy's roommate. Stella fell in love with it and would greet it every morning, give it hugs and kisses, and say goodnight to it every night. She still talks about it when she sees pictures of it.

Stella was super tired from the long journey the day before and slept in pretty late on Thursday. When she finally woke up, we quickly got ready and headed to the zoo. My parents and my oldest sister and her husband met us there for some good times. The zoo was a huge hit with Stella.

At first she was calling all of the animals "doggy", but then she figured out they were all different and loved seeing all the different animals there. I think her favorites were the monkeys and the lion.

She also like the flamingos because they were fighting over food so that made things exciting.

At the giraffes, Mr. Frisby decided to ruin the picture by not wearing sunglasses like the rest of us.

I liked the koalas and was envious of their sleeping skills (yes, he's asleep).

The zoo is big so we made good use of the different apparatuses they had for moving us around. The escalator:

The skytram:

And the buses. I did not get any pictures of us on the buses, but they were, perhaps, the most exciting aspect of the zoo for Stella. Surrounded by exotic animals that she had never before seen in real life, Stella would pay them no attention and scream, "bus" at the top of her lungs whenever one drove by. Which was often. And riding on them? Well, let me tell you, that was just a treat.

The zoo was lots of fun, but it is big and, after a long day, we were tired. We left the zoo and got dinner with all of my family that was in SD and then called it a day.

Friday afternoon was the wedding reception. It was great. Here's the happy couple:

It was on a Navy base, so Stella was enthralled with all the ships and planes that would periodically go by. When we left the reception, we found this seagull just hanging out on our car. He didn't leave until we actually opened one of the doors.

After the wedding reception, we headed to Old Town San Diego to walk around there and check out the Mormon Battalion Visitors' Center. We found a shop that sells all kinds of root beer. I mean ALL KINDS! And the girls working there were able to help us pick a good root beer based on what we were looking for in it. It was great. Stella had her first taste of root beer and did not like it. Don't worry - she's since come around to the tastiness of a good root beer. We also paused for a picture. Here I am with my mom, sisters, and nieces that were there for the wedding festivities.

After Old Town, we got dinner in Little Italy and then headed to Extraordinary Desserts for some tasty treats. As usual, it did not disappoint. We got several desserts so we could split them and try them all.

The next day we headed home, but decided to stop and see the Mission in San Diego on our way out of town. Mr. Frisby and I have a goal to visit all of the California Missions and last time we were in San Diego, we ran out of time and didn't get to see it. So, we stopped off and, as luck would have it, they were having a wedding there. That meant that we could only briefly go into the church and had to stay at the back, but they also didn't make us pay to see it. Win, win. Win. We were perfectly happy exploring the surrounding grounds and Stella wouldn't have stayed quiet in the church anyway.

On our way home we stopped at V.G. Donuts in Cardiff at the suggestion of my sister's sister-in-law. We picked up a few donuts to get us through the long drive home. It was a bit of a detour off the main highway, but well worth it. Those donuts were tasty!

And thus concludes our San Diego travelogue. We packed quite a bit into two and a quarter days and had a great time. Until next time So Cal!

22 Months

We have been super busy and I'm getting behind on my blogging. Let's hope I can catch up soon. We just got back from a family reunion/vacation in Utah and Idaho. We had a great time and I will be posting about it soon. While on our trip, Stella hit 22 months and I wanted to do her post before anything else because, at this point, she'll soon be hitting 23 months. This last month has been really fun with her. She's talking lots more and communicating a lot more, so it's fun to be able to understand better what she wants and what she's thinking. She's a funny little girl.

She started counting this month. She would count to two at first and was very good at it. Then, one day she just started counting to ten. She would usually skip a number or two. For awhile it was three and then she got three down and would skip eight. Now she's stopped counting to ten, but counts to five without skipping any numbers. I feel like this means she's pretty smart.

She's also learned to say her whole name. I don't know if she knows it's her name or even what a name is, but she says it nonetheless. She also started saying "do it" when she wanted to do something, but it came out sounding more like, "doodle it". It was super cute and awesome. Unfortunately, it was fleeting because now she just says, "do it" like everyone else.

Let's talk about Stella's eating because I have a lot of pictures of that this month so it must have been a big deal for her. She's a pretty good little eater. Sometimes we really have to work to get her to try things, but we usually can persuade her and she likes most things we give her. She also doesn't really spit things out if she doesn't like something. She just eats what's in her mouth and won't eat anymore. Of her own volition, she tried a kumquat. We have a kumquat tree that is loaded with kumquats all year round. The ground is littered with ones that are ripe and have fallen off (because we seldom pick kumquats since, in my opinion, they're kind of a useless fruit. If you have any good ideas of what to do with them, please let me know). Stella picked one up and tried to take a bite of it. I grabbed it and told her she couldn't eat the ones on the ground but that I would pick one for her. So, I picked one and gave it to her and she took a huge bite.

She finished the whole kumquat, but wouldn't eat anymore and hasn't tried to get anymore since. I don't think she liked it. She did like our trip to 7-11 on 7-11 day for our free slurpees. We'll do that again next year.

She's pretty good at feeding herself, but gets impatient with the fork and spoon. If she's having finger foods, she usually gives up on them after a little while and just picks things up.

If it's not a finger food, she does her best and then I step in and feed her the rest when she's tired of doing it herself. Like with this yogurt. But, she does pretty good and doesn't spill much. It's kind of exciting.

See that hat she has on in the yogurt picture? I bought that for her in preparation for our family reunion at a dude ranch. I couldn't resist when I saw it and she totally loves it. She wears it often and not always in appropriate situations. But, even if the situation doesn't call for a cowboy hat, she still pulls it off and it's cute.

She really likes swimming now. After her swimming lessons were over, she would practice all the stuff she learned in the bathtub. And she would even make some of her bath toys do the swim moves she learned. And she got pretty brave in the pool, too. And, she mastered the art of relaxing after getting out of the pool.

She's into glasses. She gets sunglasses and what they're for. If we're driving and the sun is shining on her, she yells, "Bright! Glasses!" and keeps yelling it until we pass her her sunglasses. Like her cowboy hat, she doesn't always wear them in appropriate situations.

But, like her cowboy hat, she always pulls it off and looks cute anyway.

Stella seems to be getting into music more this month. She's started copying the chorister at church sometimes and she's started trying to sing a little. She has a book called The More We Get Together which is just the words to that song and when we read her the book, we sing it. Well, we noticed recently that when she saw the book, she would say, "more gether, happy gether" in a sing-song voice. It's pretty adorable. She's also learning the songs they sing in nursery at church, so I'm hoping she'll soon try to sing along.

Speaking of nursery, me sneaking out a few minutes before it was over did not go over well. She's still a momma's girl through and through.

She's developed a new habit when she doesn't want to do something. She says, "night-night" and lays down. So, if I tell her we need to go change her diaper, she frantically says, "night-night" and lays down to try to avoid it. I'm not sure where she picked that up or how she thinks it's going to solve her problem, but it's funny.

Stella definitely keeps us on our toes and is a bundle of energy. We love watching her learn and discover new things and just enjoy life. It's exhausting, but fun!