..friendunion 2012..

dear finn,

we just got back from our annual friendunion trip, and it was a blast! this year we rented a cabin up in heber. not too far away for most of us, but still a nice change of pace and scenery. we spent the weekend just hanging out in the cabin, eating delicious shakes from dairy keen, munching on snacks, eating delicious dutch oven food cooked by gary, riding the alpine slide, the girls went shopping, the boys went golfing and played on jet skis and you and your little friends spent lots of time "playing" together. haha it really is so fun to watch you interact with kids your own age.

..krew and you, waitin' for shakes at dairy keen..

my favorite parts of the weekend were shopping at the outlet malls in park city with the girls. it's always nice to get away and have some girl time. plus i got you and samuel some cute clothes and dad didn't even get mad. :) always a plus!

i also enjoyed the night we spent in park city with the whole gang, wearing our ridiculous matching t-shirts. the t-shirts started out as a joke, and they still kind of are, but secretly i love taking the group picture in them. plus, this year we got shirts for the babies, which makes it even better, in my opinion. anyway, we ate dinner at red banjo - best pizza in the world. and even though the service was terrible and they were out of most of the stuff we wanted to order, it was still fun to just be together with everyone. after dinner, we headed over to park city mountain resort, where you enjoyed your first ride down the alpine slide!!! at first i didn't think you'd be able to do it because it says you have to be at least two years old, but we got ya a ticket and no one asked any questions! i was a little (okay, a lot) worried about the chair lift ride up to the top of the slide. you are just so squirmy and i was worried you'd fall off but dad said he just held on tight to you and you did great! way to go. i was waiting to take your picture at the bottom of the slide...your face was hilarious. you weren't smiling, you just had this funny look on your face, but dad said he heard you "oohing" and "ahhing" on the way down, so i think you must have enjoyed it! after taking our group picture, the boys went down the coaster while jen and krew and me and you walked down to rocky mountain chocolate factory for a delicious caramel apple. mmm mmm yum! then we headed home. it was a wonderful night!

the next day you, dad and me took a scenic drive up to deer valley (through gardman's pass in heber), then took a chair lift to the top of the mountain. it was beautiful! you could see all of park city, heber and jordanelle reservoir. we then ate lunch at an overly-priced cafe, and the food was quite interesting, to say the least. dad then met up with ferrell and ben to do some jet-skiing at jordanelle, while you and i headed back to the cabin to hang out with the gang. we spent the rest of the day watching the olympics, playing games and just chillin. gary cooked us all a delicious dutch oven dinner that night...my mouth is still watering for those potatoes!!

the next morning we packed up pretty early and headed home. the cabin was so filthy dirty that me and my ocd were having a hard time enjoying myself while sitting in it. it just looked like it hadn't been cleaned in forever....there was dirt and grime and hair everywhere, and it was like that when we first arrived. then, the first night we were there i saw a mouse. ick. i didn't scream because i didn't want to wake you and and your friends up, but the girls who saw my reaction to the mouse said it was pretty hilarious...i don't even remember what i did, i just remember walking away then running to a chair and sitting there pretty much the rest of the night! despite the gross cabin though, it was a fun weekend. i'm already looking forward to friendunion 2013!

love you finners.

love,
mom

..happy birthday to mom..

dear finn,

today yours truly celebrated turning another year older, and wiser, too, i might add. ;) it was a lovely day, thanks to you, dad and grandma cindy.

you were such an amazing little dude all day. you took a great morning nap, then when you woke up we got some lunch at mcdonald's, and to my amazement you ate your entire happy meal! first time that has ever happened. we then went shopping for a few hours, and i swear to you, you didn't make one fussy peep the entire time!! you were a complete angel, so thank you. :)

later in the day grandma cindy came over to babysit you while dad and i went to dinner and to see "wicked." it was opening night at the capitol theater! it is definitely in my top two favorite musicals (that, and aida), so it was the perfect way to spend my birthday night. our dinner at ruth's chris was to die for.

thanks for making me feel so special and loved, today, and every day mr. finn. i love you  more than you'll ever know! here's to 26...let's hope it's a good year! :)

love,
mom

..15 months old..

my dear sweet finn,

you are 15 months old today, and growing more handsome and adorable all the time (not that you weren't either of those things to begin with!). it is amazing to me how old you seem. you are definitely no longer my little baby, but i'm actually okay with that. :) i love watching you grow and learn new things each and every day, and i feel more and more grateful all the time for the opportunity i've been given to stay at home with you. we sure do have lots of fun together.

this past month was a fun one, with our trip to hawaii and all. :) we've also spent lots of time with family, which we are extremely grateful for. i feel so blessed to have such a supportive, loving family. even though not everyone lives close by, it is great when we do get to see them and we definitely cherish that time spent together. the weather has been rather unbearable lately, so we haven't spent much time outside, and if we do, it is only for small periods of time. 100+ degrees is just waaaaaay too hot, if you ask me. ;)

some of my favorite things about you at this age are:

-whenever you hear an airplane, you immediately point to the sky.
-if we ask you how old you are, you hold one finger up, then start clapping because you know you're so smart. :)
-you learned how to climb up and down the ladder on your swing set and you are obsessed with doing both.
-you loooooove to play on the trampoline and you are sooooooo close to being able to jump.
-you know how to do the actions for the "wipers on the bus go swish swish swish." grandma cindy taught you that while we were doing the road to hana in maui. :)
-you learned how to go through the doggy door, and as such, you have become quite the escape artist. ;)
-your eating habits are greatly improving. you will at least try most things we attempt to feed you.
-you love stuffed animals, books, and all sorts of toys, all of which you will play with for minutes at a time. (minutes may not sound like a lot, but trust me, for you it is! ;))
-whenever you see a baby doll, your eyes light up, you run to it and immediately start to kiss its head, over and over and over again. we haven't bought you one yet (because let's be honest, boys shouldn't play with dolls haha) but it is cute to watch you.
-you are fascinated with older kids (like max and shaya). pretty sure you could follow them around all day long.
-you are a total flirt with women/girls but you love to hang with the boys.
-you have become less of a daddy's boy and more of a both-mom-and-dad-boy, which i of course love. :) dad misses being the favorite. ;)
-you have started to climb on anything you can.
-you have all your one-year-old molars and are currently teething your k9's.
-lucy is your girlfriend, and whenever you see her through the front door (the glass one) you start banging your hands against it! ha
-you are into everything. drawers, cupboards, closets, baskets. all the things you shouldn't like, but you also know where all your toys/books are and i often catch you playing with those as well.
-you still love to be in the backyard as much as possible.
-you mimic almost everything we do. if you see me brushing my hair, you'll grab the brush and do the same. same thing with lotion, q-tips and lots of other things that i can't think of right now.
-learned how to open doors, much to our dismay. ;)
-take 2 two-hour naps, one a couple hours after you wake up every morning, and one in the afternoon. it is splendid!

i'm sure there are lots more cute things you do that i am forgetting, so i'll try to add them as they come to me. suffice it so say, you are the cutest, silliest little boy ever. you keep us entertained all day long, and most of the time we are in hysterics over all the silly little things you do. one of the first things that aunt tiff noticed when she was in town was what a ham you are. you sure are one silly little boy, and we love it! you are still just as good-natured as ever, and dare i even say it, i think you may be an obedient little child. i guess only time will tell.

you had a dr.'s appointment today, and here are your stats:

weight: 22 lbs 14 oz (28th percentile)
height: 31 inches (48th percentile)
head circ: ?? (75th percentile)

dr. reese said you are healthy and normal and he loved watching how silly and cute you are. your next appointment isn't until october 12th.....crazy to think you could be a big bro by then!!! yikes!

i love you more than you'll ever know finn. thanks for making me the happiest girl in the world, each and every day. :)

love,
mom

..4th of july..

dear finn,

we had a relaxed, but fun, 4th of july this year. to kick things off, last night we went to the north salt lake firework show. neither dad or i had ever been to this one, but some friends invited us to go so we decided to give it a shot. it was a spectacular show, and you absolutely LOVED the fireworks!!! we made sure to bring your earmuffs since we know you don't like loud noises. so you just sat in your stroller with your earmuffs on, and stared up at the pretty lights in the sky the whole entire time! it was so cute. by the end you wanted to take the earmuffs off and the loud bangs didn't even scare you. maybe you're not afraid anymore??! well, the show was good, the drive home, however, was not. it took us 10 minutes to get to the show, 45 minutes to get home, thanks to traffic. :( luckily you slept the whole time, so that was good. :)

this morning we went to breakfast with grandma cindy and some of the osborne family down at mimi's restaurant in sandy. it has been a bit of a tradition over the years for us to go to breakfast on the 4th. we haven't done it the past couple years though, so i was glad when someone mentioned going. you were super silly and cute, and had fun flirting with julie, isabelle and olivia. :) 

we took it easy this afternoon and pretty much just slept and got things done around the house. we had a bbq tonight with nanny goat, aunt wendy and shaya. it was fun to spend time with them since they live so far away! we enjoyed a delicious baby-back rib dinner, cooked by yours truly. :) after eating we spent the rest of the night playing in the backyard, on the swing set and trampoline. you had so much fun with your cousin shaya, it was cute for us to see you two playing together. :)

we were going to go to another firework show tonight, however you, me and dad were all exhausted from being up late the night before so we decided to just hit the sack early. 

happy birthday america!! 

love,

mom

..road to hana..

dear finn,

when we told people we were going to maui, the one thing that almost everyone told us to do was the "road to hana." i really didn't have any idea what it was, other than a scenic drive, but because so many people raved about it, we decided we better give it a go. we were a little nervous, because it supposedly takes all day, and we didn't know how well you'd do sitting in the car all day, but you were a total champ and made the drive very enjoyable for us all. :)

i didn't take very good notes of the different places we stopped along the way, so this won't be a very informative post. all i can say, is that the drive was the most lush, green and beautiful drives i have ever taken! it compares only to the amalfi coast in italy, but even then you can't compare because they are totally different. basically we were driving on a cliff on the north coast of maui. it sprinkled on and off the whole drive (which i'm assuming is always the case, otherwise how would it stay so green?!), but the mist was actually really nice. there are tons of different stops you can make along the way...hikes you can take, beaches to visit, waterfalls to see, etc etc. we didn't do all of them because it was a hassle to take you in and out of your carseat and we were also pressed for time (we had to make it back to catch our flight home that night). but we did stop at the "must see's," and let me tell you, they didn't' disappoint!

i'd have to say my favorite stop was the black sand beach. i had never seen one before, and it was gorgeous! the sand was totally different than white sand...it didn't feel as nice and didn't come off your toes as easily, but i still really loved it. there was this cool little cave that you had fun exploring in, and a beautiful arch that everyone was taking pictures of. it probably had a name, but like i mentioned, i'm bad with the details. ;)

another one of my favorite stops was the wailua waterfall. this is one of the most famous waterfalls in the world...it appears in lots of magazines and apparently lots of photographers come from all over the world to snap photos of it. it was huge, and obviously gorgeous!

i was bummed that we didn't make it to the red sand beach or the seven sacred pools. the cd we used as our guide said not to stop at the red sand beach unless you are very physically fit and capable because the hike to it is grueling. well, since we didn't have a hiking backpack to put you in, and since i'm pregnant, we decided to skip it. hopefully we'll get to go back another time. the seven sacred pools are at the very end, and take at least a couple hours to hike to, and we just didn't have enough time. so we definitely need to go back and do the road to hana again some day!!!

you didn't start to get fussy until the very end, you good little boy! and by that point, we were all sick of sitting in the car for 6 hours, so who could blame ya for wanting to get out of the car and run around a little? ;) despite the long time sitting, i am glad we did the drive, because it was definitely one of the highlights of my trip.

love,
mom