Baja 2012

We made it back safely from another trip to baja. Going down to baja has always been a "touchy" subject. It was when it was just Jon and I going down there, before the cartels and all that bad stuff, and it is even more so now that we have our greatest loves in tow. I've told many people this since I have been home, so many that I feel like I am repeating myself now, but going down there (it is the most uncanny thing) - I am blown away at how safe I feel. With that said, here are about a thousand pictures that say "This, right here, this is why we go to baja." To bask in the light of God's unbelievable beauty. To see pure joy exude from my two year old. To watch as my newborn is captivated by darkness and fire. Our time down there can not be duplicated in any other environment. It is special and precious in a way that can not be put into words. And I pray that we will be able to share that experience with our beautiful family for many years to come.

Classic Baja dog

Eden waking up on the first morning

Sunrise

Bathroom Accommodations

Dr Play

Yesterday while Eden was "napping" she found a bag full of hand-me-downs in her closet that I had yet to sort (given to us before Christmas). I assumed they were clothes that were 2-3 sizes too big so I was taking my time in getting to them. Turns out it was a bag filled with goodies. When I went in her room to check on her she was surrounded by play dr equipment and was quite busy taking care of all of her dollies. When I asked her where all the stuff came from she said "I don't know, must be from Santa". Anyway, she is obsessed with her Dr toys, and loves using Zion as her patient. He is a very good sport, and she is actually very gentle, I have some cute video that I hope to upload at some point.

I love how intent her expression is in this picture.

Cunningham Visit

The Cunninghams came for a visit over the weekend and we all had so much fun. I wish I had taken more pictures or just gotten better pictures...it always feels like I am taking tons of pictures, then when it is all said and done I feel like I didn't take any. These are the best of what I got.

Playdates and Firetrucks

We had a playmate with Makai and Finn yesterday. Eden was so excited to spend time with Makai that she misbehaved all morning. But we had a blast! I am bummed I did not get any great pics of the two of them, or of Finn and Zion but I got a few that were alright. Before we went to Makai's we stopped by to say hi to dad at the fire station, which is normally a big hit, but Eden was so excited to see Makai she didn't even want to get out of the car. Once we coaxed her out of the car though she had fun riding in the truck and hanging out with the guys.

They would've walked the whole way home like this if we let them.

Every time we try to take pics of the two babies, it turns into a baby mosh pit. This time I couldn't get one good shot of everyone looking.

Birthday Weekend

For my birthday Jon and I left the kids with Grampy & Grammy on Sat and we went climbing out at Joshua tree. We got 4 pitches in. One single pitch and one multi-pitch climb. Both of the climbs were super easy but it felt so amazing to be out there and to be moving our bodies like that again. Incredibly enough, it was my first time really climbing since I broke my ankle, and it did not give me any trouble at all! It was such a special and beautiful day, the ground was covered in snow. We have been out at Joshua tree at least 100 times and this was only our second time being out there in the snow - it was pretty special!

The next day was my actual birthday and we had such a nice family day with church, breakfast, and the farmers market. Then Jon's mom watched the kids in the evening so that we could go on a date. I was very spoiled this year and am very thankful...

Easton loves baby Zion. He would have held him all night if he could have, it was so sweet..

Grampy with his snuggle bug

If you look closely you can see 3 groups of climbers on the rock. This was the multi-pitch climb we did.

Getting ready to walk down to breakfast

Kawaii 2011

I wanted to post some pics of our trip to Kawaii back in November just for memories sake. It is just so nice to be able to look back on the blog and see the kids grow so I wanted to make sure we had some documentation of that trip on here.

The trip was about 3 wks long, Zion was 2 going on 3 months old on that trip, and we were just coming out of our rough spell with him which was such an answer to prayer. During that trip he was cooing and interacting so much, seemingly trying to explain to us just how much better he felt. Eden grew a lot on this trip as well. There were two older boys with us ages 11 & 13 and they played and played with Eden as if she was their sister. I have never seen anything like it. By the time we came home, Eden was speaking in full sentences and has been ever since.

It was hard to be there with a 2 month old, mainly because it was hard to protect him from the rain and the sun while at the beach all day, and by the time we came home I was more than ready. But already I am more than ready to go back. It is funny, I never had a strong desire to visit Hawaii, but once you go it sort of gets in your blood and I often find myself day dreaming about our days on the sand and in the sun and rain, and our afternoons of eating snow cones in town. Counting the days till we can return....

This was Eden's third trip on an airplane, she was super excited!

Zion getting ready for his first airplane ride

Zi sleeping in the sun tent

Zi's first dip in the ocean!

It is raining super hard in this pic. Zion, Kerry and I are huddled under a beach umbrella waiting for it to pass while Eden and Jon were playing in the water.

Best pineapple ever! (sp?)

An endangered monk seal - this little guy crawled right up to us while we were camped out on the beach. We ended up having to move all of our stuff so that they could put a "do not enter" perimeter around him.

One of Eden's first waves actually standing up.

Back to Blogging!

For Valentines day/my birthday, Jon got me a new computer. It is very exciting since we have been without one since mid November. I have so much to post and to blog about - so much I want to catch up on...the last 3.5 mo of Zions life to start with, not to mention our trip to Kawaii and Baja and everything in between. For now, I will just start with today. Today, both kids had swim class. Below is a little video of Eden swimming. I am so incredibly proud of her and how well she is doing in her swim class. This video is pretty awful and un-edited but it shows her swimming, and I know Jon will appreciate watching it while at work tonight. We have some video of Zion too. He is pretty funny in the water. He just acts like it is any other element, nothing different, like it doesn't matter to him whether he is in or out of the water. So silly. It is a very special time for he and I, our only one on one time and I try to appreciate every second of it. We will post some video of him swimming at another time.