Summer Fun

I haven't written a post in a long time!  I need to get in the habit of writing once every couple weeks so it's not so overwhelming.  Sadie is now 8 months old!  Crazy.  In just four months, she's going to be a 1-year-old.  What the heck!?  She is the sweetest, most smiley baby I know.  We love her so much and we are so glad she's a part of our family.  She gave us a scare a few weeks ago when she consistently was losing weight.  She lost 1 pound, 11 ounces in just three months.  I got a very small glimpse of what it feels like to have an unhealthy baby and it was so scary.  We have since started to supplement her with formula which is helping.  She is gaining weight and doing well.  She even takes a bottle now, which is pretty amazing.  I wish we had introduced a bottle to her earlier!  It makes it possible for Brady and me to go out for long periods of time together.  I'm so grateful Brady was able to give Sadie a blessing of healing and me a blessing of comfort.  I've never been so worried in my life.  But she is thriving and gaining and I'm sure she'll be a chubby baby again soon enough :)


Living in Utah is going well.  We are making friends and loving our neighborhood.  We live in Sugar House, and it's the best.  We have the Sugar House park nearby (just a half mile away), as well as shopping centers, etc just around the corner.  I like to go on runs around the park and one side has the best view as you can see below.  I'm starting to love those mountain views as much as Brady.

The people here are nice and it's just the right combination of established families and couples who are just starting out.  We really love our ward too.  There are some really great and sweet people that we're getting to know.  We recently moved out of our basement apartment to a real house!  Well... the upstairs of a real house at least ;)  We absolutely love it.  It's so nice having natural light come into our home.  It's clean and fresh and we couldn't ask for a better situation.

Brady made our first table!  We've always eaten dinner at our coffee table in the past, but not anymore!  I sanded and stained the table, so I helped too ;)

Sadie loves our new home and the fall season!

I'm going to try to sum up our summer.  It might be difficult, because we did a ton!  We went on countless hikes and adventures.  It was a great summer!  I'm excited for next year when Sadie is running around with us instead of being strapped to to us in the front pack!  We went on hikes every 2-3 weeks and it was my favorite thing this summer.  I love being outside and seeing the different landscapes Utah has to offer.  Getting to the mountains from our house is only a 20 minute drive and we don't take that for granted!  I feel more at home in the mountains with all the pine trees and the green all around.  I love it!  Below are some random pics from different hikes we've done near SLC.

This was our first major hike to a waterfall.  It was pretty steep and long, but so beautiful!

You can barely see the waterfall in the background :)

This was a hike to Donut Falls. Kind of a disappointing hike because you can't go right up to the falls :(

Ensign Peak.  We've done this hike probably 5 times this summer because it's quick and easy with a great view of the city and the mountains!

We hiked to Twin Lakes at the beginning of the summer and it was pretty cold.  I nursed Sadie at the top and I felt like a bad mom for having her out in the cold!  But it was super fun and Karissa came with us :)

In July, we decided to go camping near Cedar City, Utah at a place called Cedar Breaks.  It was beautiful and super fun.  It was Sadie's first camping trip at 4 months old.  She did pretty well throughout the trip, except for nighttime.  I thought I was prepared because I brought her extra warm clothes and a little baby sleeping bag, but it got freezing cold that night.  I remember reaching out to her in the middle of the night and her hands were frozen.  I was worried about her so I brought her into my sleeping bag with me.  I slept for maybe an hour total the entire night.  I kept her warm, but by being so close to her she wanted to nurse every 5 seconds it seemed!  We all woke up pretty grumpy in the morning ;)  It was fun, though, to have a little family vacation and to experience the outdoors.

Before this trip, I had never seen this type of landscape.  The red cliffs were beautiful!  Totally different than what I'm used to in WA :)

She looks like a doll inside our big tent!

Mmmm s'mores...

At the end of July, Sadie and I were able to fly to our homeland (Washington) to stay with my family for 8 days.

I saw my friend Jaclyn and her daughter Reese.  We miss hanging with them in Seattle!  We went to Kidd Valley for a burger and milkshake.  Mmmm so good.  We visited with Bess as well for dinner at Varlamos,  She's one of my friends I made while I was a nanny.  The boys we watched were good friends with each other so it gave us a good excuse to hang out.  She always makes me feel good because she thinks Sadie is adorable and that always makes a mom happy :)

I was also able to see some of my friends from high school as well.  Megan, Hayley, and Kelli went with us to a Mariners game.  We barely watched the game, because we were having fun just talking and catching up with each other.  Sadie was a champ at the game and slept in her car seat through all the loud cheers.  She got a little certificate for her "First Mariner's Game" with her name on it.  Pretty cute idea :)

Megs and Sadie

Reese and Jac

So much fun with my pals!

I got to see the twins I used to nanny.  Hailey and Sofia were in love with Sadie and thought she was pretty cute.  I still text with the girls every couple weeks.  I love staying in touch with them.  Wish we could hang out with them more often.  Sadie would love to play with them :)

Hailey and Sadie

Sofia and Sadie

Brady was going to stay in Utah and work, but he ended up surprising us and driving through the night halfway through our trip to be with us!  It was a pretty sweet surprise.  I missed him a lot and he clearly couldn't handle being away from Sadie and I for that long.  ;)

When we would FaceTime with Brady, Sadie just wanted to eat the phone.  So we got some pretty good close-ups of her face 

We went roller skating the night he got to WA and hung out with all the super ghetto people of Oly.  Nah, it's always fun to do the Hokie Pokie in skates!

I ended up staying with Leslie and her family for a couple nights.  We went back to Seattle with Leslie, Desmond and Colin.  We had to go to Red Mill because it was closed when I was in Seattle on my own.  I have to get my fix, because those burgers are delicious and one of a kind!  I think I ended up having burgers at least 3 times during my stay in WA.  Oops :)  We also went  to Pike Place market.  We love to people watch there and to check out all the goods including Brady's new favorite spot, "The Map Store". We miss being so close, because it's always a fun adventure to go downtown and walk around!  Oh, and while at a store at Pike Place, some Asian girls asked to get a picture with Sadie in it.  So Brady awkwardly held Sadie while they all posed together.  It was pretty hilarious.  White babies with lots of hair are a rare commodity I guess ;)

The cutest cousins around!

Us Washington girls have to stick together ;)

Sadie's first time at the gum wall... maybe next year, she'll add some bubble gum to it :)

We went to Discovery Park and hung out on the beaches of the Puget Sound.  It was gray and misty and I loved it!  It was an awesome break from our burning hot Utah summer.

Red Mill burger... mmmmm

We went to Ocean Shores on the coast and it was a blast.  It's always fun to walk on the sand, smell the ocean, and see the beautiful waves.  We played soccer with my nephews, Beren and Asher... pretty sure my team won.  Go figure ;)  

Such a poser

Sand was everywhere on her... I don't think she enjoyed the beach as much as the rest of us :)

We had a picnic on our last day in WA with the Coppins and my parents.  It's hard being so far away from my family. They don't get to see Sadie grow and learn new things... I think that's been the toughest part for me, but I'm getting used to it and it makes me appreciate and love the time I do get to have with my family even more.

                                       

On our drive back to Utah, we found the coolest rest stop with a beautiful little river.  Sadie was a gem on the ride home.  She hardly cried at all.

The day after we got back to UT, we went to Brooke's mission farewell.  We miss her a ton and look forward each week to reading her emails.  She is such a strong missionary and she is changing lives!

The next few pics are a bit random, but we watched a small section of the Tour of Utah.  It was super cool to see the speed of those pro bikers!  Sadie liked it too :)

We went to the Sounders vs. Real game.. Seattle lost :(  But it was still fun to cheer on our home team!  Brady was embarrassed each time I cheered for the Sounders ;)

Sadie and her sweet cousin Monique :)

Jared flew into SLC to drive with us to California.  He was only with us for a couple days, but we loved having him.  We hiked Ensign Peak at night which made for the perfect temperature.  It was a sweet adventure to hike in the dark too!  I thought Sadie would fall asleep, but she was mesmerized by our headlamps and loved every second of our hike.

"Party! It's past my bedtme!"

The flash was so bright! 

We drove to Sacramento, California to witness the sealing of Corinne and Nate to their three adopted kids: Dennis, Brenden and Viviann.  It was such a sweet experience to see their family sealed together for time and all eternity.  We love them so much and are so happy that they're apart of our eternal family!  It's like they've always been apart of the Plank Clan, they fit right in.  

Grandma Lee was able to hang out with us as well, so she got to meet Sadie.  We got a cool 4 generation picture with Grandma Lee, my mom, me, and Sadie.  We used to see Grandma every year when we visited California in the summertime.  We don't get to see her as often anymore unfortunately. 

One of the few moments when Sadie snuggled with me :)

The Higham Family sealed in the Sacramento Temple!

I can see where Sadie got her beauty :)

We headed to Lake Almanor after the sealing to stay at Tish's resort.  This is one of my favorite vacation spots.  We basically have the whole lake to ourselves for a week.  We have full access to the speed and pontoon boats, sea-doos, paddle boards, etc.  It's the best!  Plus a lot of my siblings come too so it's a mini family reunion.  I sharpened up my wake boarding skills, so now I can do a half inch jump off the waves! ;)  I love just hanging with my parents and siblings while playing card games or just talking.  I'm excited for Sadie to enjoy it a bit more the next time we go.  She'll probably be big enough to go on a tube. I bet she'll love it.  

I went on the tubes for a while one day with Colin, Bart, Corinne and Brady and I was laughing so hard. Bart kept splashing Corinne and I and trying to tip us over.  At one point, Bart and I were on a tube and Corinne was alone on the other.  She picked up some major speed on a  turn and kicked our tube in just the right spot to totally flip us over.  Needless to say, we were pretty impressed with her leg strength!  By the end of the day, my muscles were aching from gripping the straps so tightly!

We had peanut butter and nutella sandwiches all week.  Brady kindly made Colin one when we went out on the boat one day and the first thing he says after taking one bite, "you skimped out on the nutella, huh?"  Ungrateful child ;)

When Brady crashes, he gets major water up his nose which then causes a sinus infection.  He wanted to avoid that so he taped his nose plug to his face. He looked pretty classy.

Beren!

Boating is so tiring

The last night we were at Almanor, Brady decided to swim in the lake at night.  He wanted to be cool, I think ;).  Colin and I accompanied him to the shore and watched his craziness.  We had some good laughs that night as we went back and relaxed in the hot tub with Emily too.  Dad even made us root beer floats!  I think that's the first time my dad has ever served us food ;)

Best buddies

I still laugh every time I see this pic

Our first summer together in Utah was a success!