Thanksgiving Point!!!

Lyd's and I took advantage of the last $2 Tuesday's for the month of August and went down to Thanksgiving Point. Of all the activities to choose from, we of course chose the Animal Farm because we both love animals so much.

Here's Lydia excited on the way down talking about all the animals she knows!

On the way there I got us some Einstein bagel sandwiches so when we got there we had a little picnic lunch in the back of the SUV.

It was so much fun hanging out with my little precious all afternoon!
We went on a wagon ride. Yes, the wagon was made of steel, but it was a wagon ride nonetheless!

We had lots of fun. Love you Lyd's!

Happy 3rd Birthday Larry!!! And Welcome to the World Cabot!!!

Today Larry turned the BIG 03...that's 21 in human years. So he's growing up pretty fast. He has literally added so much to our little family. We love him and his cute little personality! He makes us laugh every day and a BIG plus is that he gives Lydia hours of entertainment. Thanks Bud for playing with your little sister so I can have a break! Here's a look back at his 3 years of cuteness...

We celebrated his b-day today by having him open up his gifts this morning. And we can always count on G-ma Frandsen to send him a b-day package (he is her first grandchild after all)! She sent the cutest little card. The Boston on the cover looks just like Larry, except Larry is cuter of course:)

Here's Larry with his life like grilled chicken and here he is (on the right) 5 minutes later. He rips everything to shreds in record time.
Larry trying to eat his Peanut Woofers!

Larry's bud Toby is over for the week...they've had a lot of fun playing together and sharing Larry's b-day toys!


Then this evening, we went on a car ride so Larry could wander around Petco and pick out any toy and treat that he wanted. And what do you know, Larry went straight to the clearance section. Good boy!

I love how he rests his head on the window! Happy Birthday Weddy!

And on a different note, my second nephew (on my side) was born today at 12:48pm. So that makes a total of 4 grandchildren for my mom (that's including Larry of course). My sister-in-law Nora gave birth to healthy baby boy. Now Larry has someone to share his b-day with :)
His name is
Cabot John Frandsen

8lbs 0 oz 19 1/4 inches

Congrats David and Nora. And congrats Levi on being a big brother.

We love you and can't wait to meet you in September!

Mommy/Daughter Day and More Camping!!!

OK, before I start my post I just have to say in honor of football season starting in one week, I changed my blog to support the Utah Utes! Call me crazy but I think Jake is rubbing off on me a tiny bit :) My husband will be officially absent from my life next Thursday as he flies off to "The Big House" to watch the Utes play Michigan in the first game of the season!

Anyway, my friend Lynette made this for me and it will display itself proudly in my kitchen until around January 1st, 2009, when I get my husband back! I'm serious! I won't see him! At all! Some of you wives know what I'm talking about :)

Anyway, on to my post...Lydia and I were bored all day on Wednesday, so I thought we should do something fun together on Thursday. So we packed up a lunch and headed to the zoo for the day.
Lydia loves it more and more every year because she actually knows the animal names. Although she did get confused every now and then and called the tiger a cow and the rhino an elephant. But I have to give her credit...all she ever sees of animals are the animated pictures in her reading books. I guess it's quite different when they're real and moving around!
This gorilla put this potato sack on his head and kept it there the whole time and Lyd's kept saying, "Hot, hot". I guess she thought that he wanted shade due to the sun beating down on him...maybe so!











And Lyd's loved the train the most of all, smiling the whole ride. What cutie!
Thanks for a fun day together Lydia. I love you so much!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Then on Friday, we were off on another camping trip. This time, just our own little family. We went up into the Uintas again and stayed at the Lodgepole campground.
Here's the area...gorgeous right?!
Our campsite...


Thanks Todd and Heather for letting us barrow your tent. We bought one when we got married but our family has doubled in size since then and we couldn't fit.







I loved this HUGE tree that shaded our whole campsite.

Oh how I love that little girl :)

We had such a fun time. We did absolutely nothing...just sat around, talked and played.
One of my favorite parts about camping is the campfire. I think they are so beautiful and so mesmerizing.

And of course I only go camping for the s'mores. Here's the best one Jake has ever eaten. At least that what he said.

After we put Lyd's to bed, Jake and I stayed up and talked for hours. We had a really good time and of course some great conversation.
Then we decided to go to bed. After about an hour of lying in the tent in our cozy sleeping bags on the HARD ground I heard something...a crunching noise, right outside our tent.
Earlier that day larry's dog food spilled all over the ground and I picked up most of it but some pieces were left behind.
Well, some creature in the middle of the night decided to snack on it. It was a loud crunching noise too...all I'm saying is that it wasn't some chipmunk or squirrel. I want to say it was a big bear (that would be a great story, right?) but I couldn't hear it moving, only crunching away on what I'm sure is delicious Science Diet "Sensitive Stomach" dog food! It was too dark to look outside to see what creature was lurking before us so I can only assume it was a raccoon or something of that nature! But I will admit, I was scared for a moment or two!

In the morn, we just hung out and let Lyd's play around in the woods. And then there was our wannabe hunting dog trying to track down a little chipmunk that was taunting him :)

After we had been up for a while, a deer wandered on through our campsite. It was fun to see some wildlife on our trip. I bet you anything you won't be able to find it in this picture. But I promise you it's there if you look real hard!

Too much excitement for this little one. She slept the whole way home!

Thanks honey for a fun time. I LOVE camping and I hope we make a habit of it :)

Our Sweet Lydia!!!

I thought it was about time I did a post on my most favorite little girl! I'm sure I take for granted all the cute things she does so I thought I'd remind myself be writing them down. I'm not doing this because it's her b-day or because of anything special going on right now...I'm doing it just because! So here are a few of my (and Jake, of course) favorite things that I love about you Lydia:
* I love how much you love Munny the Bunny.

* I love your cute smile; I think it's perfect.
* I love how you put your hand in your mouth every time you laugh. You've done it since the day you started laughing and you still do it to this day :)

* I love your blonde, curly hair.

* I love your adorable laugh, the cute one and the devilish one.

* I love how much you love Larry!

* I love that you love to pray and remind me if I forgot.

* I love that you love animals just like your mommy!

* I love how you love to read books, but when I start reading, you always interrupt me by saying all the words you know from the pictures, so we never actually read the book.

* I love how you always delay going to bed as I'm shutting the door by talking to me because you know I can't leave you when you're telling me a cute little story.

* I love how you love to check yourself out in the mirror. You like to tell yourself stories too :)

* I love how you yell "Daddy" throughout the house when you can't see him and even when he responds to your calls, you still yell his name over and over as if you didn't hear him.

* I love the silly positions you put yourself in :)

* I love that you love music and love to dance.

* I love that you love to say the word "cock" (I have no idea). You think it's the funniest thing in the world. And when we laugh at you for saying it, you have the most satisfying look on your face. Your goal was to make us laugh and you did it :) Jake and I will be laughing at something totally irrelevant to you but you'll want in on the action. So out of nowhere you say "cock" because you want to be funny, so we all laugh together! It's the best!

We love you Lyd's and we couldn't ask for a better daughter to raise. Everyone says you are such a sweet little girl and they're right. We love you and are so blessed to have you in our lives!

Camping!!!

This weekend, our friends' invited us to spend a couple days with them at their cabin in the Uintas. The cabin is about 25 minutes south of Evanston, WY, so it was nice to get out of town for a few days (even though it was only about an hour away)! This was Lydia's first time camping so it was fun to see her out there in the woods playing around. Even though I grew up in KS, I spent my summers in Utah and some of the best memories I have as a kid were those spent camping in the mountains with my dad and siblings. I was a lucky little gal...I got the best of both worlds :) So I hope Jake and I will keep this up and take advantage of those beautiful mountains and get Lydia out there so she can make memories of her own.

Anyway, here's Larry on the way up. It's too bad he had to be caged up most of the time due to his knee surgery. He would've loved roaming around on his own smelling every tree he encountered!

So here is the ADORABLE cabin. It was so tiny and cute...I loved it. The firepit is in the back.
Here's Jake in the loft making one of his weird girly faces...
The Johnsen's
The Stewart's

Little Ti Ti and Lyd's. As soon as I said cheese, Lydia leaned in close to Teah so they'd both be in the picture!

I love the mountains because you just sit back and relax and do absolutely nothing!

We went for a walk...

Roasted hot dogs and made s'mores...

Enjoyed the beautiful trees and wildlife.

It really was breathtaking up there. I couldn't believe how incredibly BRIGHT and full the moon was. It was so bright you couldn't really see any stars. I've never seen it like that before. It was amazing!

I forgot how much I love the mountains and I can't wait to get back out there, but next time we're going to do the whole tent thing. I've actully never stayed in a cabin before so I'm used to just having a tent. So it will be fun to do it the old fashioned way :)

Thanks Danny and Katie. We love the Great Outdoors and appreciated the invite!