....To Nauvoo

My parents left on Wednesday to Nauvoo to be missionaries. They will be serving for 18 months and will be missed. Luckily senior missionaries have a lot more slack and can have cell phones, only have to be in the MTC during the week, and the list can go on. They did have the weekend to do what they liked so they came over on Saturday to be with us. We made some baby blankets using my moms skills and sewing machine to help us. We also went on a hike, ate at Lonestar Taqueria, and played card games.

 Spring also sprung while they were here. 

 It takes a considerable amount of concentration to make a baby blanket. 

 Our little hike to Ghost Falls. 

Our final results. 

LA #ugw13

LA....I never thought I would visit this town but turns out it is lots of fun. Luckily we had great friends to show us around. Josh and Becca decided to leave SLC and go to Hollywood, maybe it was for their jobs, or maybe for the continually perfect weather all year round, or the car scene, or maybe because you can buy cupcakes out of ATM's, but for whatever reason we are glad to have visited. We went on a hike, ate great food, drove really fast on fun narrow windy roads, Ashley and her girlfriends had ultimate girls weekend 2013 while Josh and I had ultimate guys weekend 2013, hence the hash tag.

 Pugs not Drugs. La Random

Josh and I played some tennis at the local tennis courts. We played it cool trying to remember the way to keep score (love, zero, duece, add what) while I played in chacos. #ugw13

This car is really fun in the tight windy roads of LA. #ugw13

 Us at the top of Escondido Falls north of LA. 

 Josh and I decided to go ride to the beach from his work place and take his and Becca's bike. I switched the bike to fixed but did not tighten it enough and ended up walking, running, being pushed ect on the bike to make it back to the shop. 

 The girls went out to eat, ate lots of berries, played in the sand, got some good sun, and enjoyed chatting about the shape shifter. 

 The canal we road our bike along. 

 Little loose. Shortly after this the back tired started to lock up on me. 

 Ashley hates it when people touch her belly, except for me and obviously Becca got away with it here. Anything for a picture. 

 We also found time to visit the Griffith Observatory. Which had great views of LA and the Hollywood sign. 

Island Park....Never Disappoints.

Island Park 2013 was another spectacular festival of food, snow, more food, skis, food, eagles, snowshoeing, snacks, sun, snowmobiling, games, fires, and did I say food. Sadly Becca and Josh were not able to make it up this year :(, but Melissa and Ryan joined us for our adventures.

 We finally decided to get single snowmobiles. Well worth it. Only Jace, Sarah and I were brave enough to go and it was so much fun. I of course am the only one that flipped their snowmobile, got it stuck, and even though we traveled the same distance used 1/4 tank more gas than the rest. I would say I got my more out of my experience than the others. 

We decided to also try some cross country skiing this year up in West Yellowstone. We had lots of fun,  Lindsey made all of us almost pee our pants. Potentially some of us may have...who knows. 

 Ashley can have some pretty classy poses. Turns out that carrying a baby is tough work so her base line temp is a little on the warmer side now, so laying in the snow feels great. 

 Snowshoeing through the trees. 

Sadly no picture of the fire we built this year, next year we need to bring our own dry wood. Not as great as it could of been. 

Snow Hiking & Snow Shoeing

 We did not do too many snow activities this winter but we did get up in the mountains a few times to either avoid the inversion or try out some of the new snow. After Christmas we went with the family to Doughnut falls to do some snowshoeing. Ashley and I went to Smith  and Morehouse reservoir a few times to get out of the inversion and enjoy some sun. The snowshoeing around Christmas time was rough for Ashley. She was still feeling sick and snowshoeing did not help but before our trip to Mexico she finally started to feel better, could eat without feeling sick, and things were improving. We were able to get out after this without her feeling the need to vomit at all times.