Voyage to the Homeland

I will keep this brief, in words, that is. The husband, the little one, and I headed eastbound at the beginning of July. We vacationed together in beautiful Idaho and Utah for a week before Nate had to head back to Cali for Scout Camp. Evan and I thought it was a perfect opportunity to extend our trip!! We all stayed very busy spending time with family, catching up with friends and introducing babies, and taking care of lots of appointments and checkups. Here are a select few ;) photos of our adventures. (You better take a seat)


The three (so far) Fuller grand-boys: Sam, Evan, and Ben
I got to go shopping in Logan with all of sisters-in law. I absolutely LOVED it!!! Evan, on the other hand, has never shopped so much in his life. The poor guy fell asleep on my face.

Evan's first (of many) fireworks experience. He wasn't scared at all, which really surprised me. He was more fascinated.

We went to our favorite camp spot, Willow Flats, with the Fuller's. Beautiful scenery, great camping food, and very special memories.

Evan was so excited for his first hike!

Completely amazed by the water. "Dad, why don't we have this stuff at our house?!"

We could not soak in our surroundings enough. Breathtaking.

You follow this river up to Willow Springs, where the water originates straight from the mountain, and of course, you have to take a drink. There is no greater tasting water anywhere, I'm sure of it. Here is where the river begins to flow from the earth.

At these springs, so happens to be where Nate and I kissed for the first time. (Aww...)

And where he proposed about a year and half later! (Double aww...) I know, my husband can be romantic when he wants to be. :) This is the rock that Nate knelt on as he asked me to marry him. The rock that I stood on is currently sitting in our kitchen, because he gave it to me last year for our anniversary. (Go ahead, keep awwing...)

The delicious water of the mountain. Mmmm...what I wouldn't give for some ice cold fresh mountain water right now.

Maren was a terrific model.

Heading back down our beloved mountain.

Those Fuller boys sure do love their great outdoors.

One happy little Fuller boy.

Grandpa Dan was often caught giving Evan crawling lessons.

We enjoyed the backyard pool at Grandma Susan's house, and the ridiculously perfect weather!

Evan now LOVES to splash, thanks to this pool. In the tub, in the air, wherever.

We also took him to his first public pool. It was a bit much for him, I think. He basically just lounged, trying to take it all in. Maybe he was just really relaxed!

Aunt Stacey trekked up from Holladay as often as she could to play with us.

Evan and Grandma Susan always seemed to match. They are just meant to be spending time together. :)

Evan discovered how to give kisses, and was constantly giving kisses to the babies in Grandma's night night book.

He was introduced to a ball! I can't believe this hadn't happened yet. But as you can see, he LOVES it! Go figure. We now play lots and lots of roll the ball.

Evan met many new friends, but this pic is my favorite. This is my dear friend Karlee's little girl, Aliya. She is about 4 months younger than Evan. She is such a sweet, tiny little thing! Evan looks like a 4 year old next to her! I have already betrothed them.

Here is what Evan does when you try to make him have tummy time these days. It's like he just immediately gives up. It cracks me up.

This is his, "Won't someone just play with me?" face.

My mom gave him his first balloon and he was totally fascinated by it. I love watching him explore new things!

My sister likes to play photoshoot. You can see what Evan thought of that.

He got better. :)

He is thrilled to be outside and in the grass.

He is too funny.

I requested as my going away/birthday meal that my dad grill hamburgers. Now, these are not just any old hamburger. These particular ones for me were his own concoction of Cajun style hamburger smothered in Bleu Cheese. Oh. My.

I was also able to talk my mom into getting me the Red Velvet Cream Cheese cake from Costco. (There are benefits to living away from home. And havign a way cute grandbaby) Yum yum!

We spent one last lazy afternoon in the pool, of course. The kid is going to be a fish now, I'm certain of it.

He could not get enough of the grass. If we were outside he had to touching it. Sorry, kid. We don't have that in the desert, either. :)

This is his new snort face. It is the funniest thing I have ever seen, and he does it ALL of the time now. I just love him!

Evan met a dog for the first time at my grandparents; they were dog-sitting. It was really funny to watch him react and try to explore the pup.

I just kind of let Evan at him, and luckily, Tico didn't seem to mind him.

Evan and I were home for a little over 24 hours when Nate got the call that his Grandmother in Ephraim, UT had passed away. I barely had enough time to unpack, do laundry, and clean the house after Nate had been living by himself for 2 weeks, before we got right back in the car and headed to Utah again.

Evan was SUCH a trooper traveling. He spent over 32 hours in the car in less than a week. He did better than I did! Lucky for him (and us) there was a whole lot of this:

The funeral was scheduled for Saturday, so we took off early Friday morning (on my birthday) to get to Nate's brother's house in Pleasant Grove as soon as we could. Needless to say, 10 1/2 hours in the car doesn't really allow for much celebrating, but we did get to have lunch at FIVE GUYS in St George. Best. present. ever. :) This was our favorite place to eat when we lived back east, and it came to Utah just as we moved to California, where there are none.

Saturday's funeral was a joyous celebration of life. We are so greatful we were able to attend, and share memories of Grandma Green. We don't have any pictures of that day, but it was filled with family and it was beautiful.

Before we knew it, the very next day in fact, we were in the car again headed back to Cali. It such a fast and long trip, all at the same time. The best part of our drive home was stopping in Barstow for dinner. We stopped at the first food joint we found, and turns out, it was awesome! We are pretty sure it used to be a bank. The food came down this magical contraption!!!!! We could not stop laughing, and I even have video of it if any of you need proof.

What a fabulous month July was. Among all of the good times and memories we made, our baby seems to have grown into such a little boy! He has SO much personality and we are having so much fun with him. Note: he now sleeps on his side, which makes me think he looks like an adult. (tear)