Snowbird Surprise

The first weekend of August, our Lehi friend group (consisting of 4 couples & 4 babies) planned a surprised getaway for our hubbies and babies to The Lodge at Snowbird. We stayed 2 nights and all shared a 2-bedroom condo with a loft. Jake didn't know any of our trip details and received instructions from me the day we were leaving to pack for an overnight adventure...I even made him close his eyes in the car while I was driving to keep things a secret (we could've been driving to St. George for all he knew!), but because he's smart, he could tell what direction we were traveling and suspected something local. Wah-wah, fail. I finally allowed him to look around once we were up the canyon heading to the Lodge. And the canyon was beautiful! Once we pulled in the parking lot and saw our friends pull up next to us, he figured out our weekend plans included friends...hence why I told him there would be no sexy time this weekend when he inquired. Haha!! Yay, for sneaky hubby surprise!

View from our car as we drove up the canyon

We unloaded our bags (shattering 2 bottles of Martinelli's in the parking lot that were to be used in our friend toast that night...the bellhop thought we had lost money on our fancy wine) and got settled in our top-floor condo. Jett got to take a peek at the view from our balcony, while I joked that Jake was doing the Michael Jackson baby-dangling stunt. Jett's pack-n-play in our room even had quite the view. We were able to spot deer and moose easily on the mountain side, as well as a lively pack of raccoons at night causing a ruckus at the pool below us. That may or may not have been influenced by us throwing bites of pizookie to them from our balcony...which caused several other residents to go out on their balconies and start snapping pics like it was a National Geographic. Anyway, after getting settled in, we all headed down to the pool.

Poolside looking up at all the condo balconies. Ours was the big glass window balcony on the top floor above where Jake is walking.

Friend group in the pool. Shumways with baby Claire, Otos with baby Winston, Hackings with not-so-baby Wesley, and Jake with Jett. I, of course, am not in any pictures since I'm always the one taking them! When looking back, I'm sure Jett will wonder where I was his first year of life.

 

My little Jett loves the pool! He's been enjoying many summer swims the past few months. The view from the pool was beautiful! He was even being brave by sitting on the edge of the pool and jumping (scooting his booty) off into Jake's arms. It was so cute to watch. Yup, there's a video.
On our second day at Snowbird, we did some of the activities available such as the Alpine Slide, the Mountain Flyer and Aerial Tram up to the top of the mountain. I didn't get any pictures in since it was a busy day, but I did manage to snap a pic of Jett at the top of Snowbird after we took the tram up and got a second one of him and his buddy Wesley. So...adorable! 

Snowbird Aerial Tram...ok, ok, I found this online.

Jett thinking "It sure is bright outside."

That evening we played several rounds of a fun card game and enjoyed our homemade pizookies (cookie pizza) and ice cream. They were beyond fantastic! Before we knew it, morning came and it was time to pack up and head back home. It was a pretty fun weekend and we were glad to have a little getaway, even if we weren't far from home. It was fun surprising Jake. We sure enjoy our Lehi friends and watching our kiddos grow up together and interact.

Turtle Power

When Jett was coming up to 9 months old, he decided that one of his favorite things was standing...because that's exciting? He had already mastered crawling by about 7 months and then figured out how to pull himself up from the floor to a standing position while holding on to something or someone. So, this was next on his list was just "chilling." He enjoyed just standing up holding on our coffee table, sides of the couch, dining table chairs, etc. and on top of that, he loved knocking all of his toys off the table that we'd display in front of him while he was just standing to keep him entertained. One day I decided to put one of our kitchen stools down on the floor for him to stand up with, and randomly he started pushing it and walking! It was so adorable. This then transitioned into using a laundry basket to push around for a week or so until finally, grandma to the rescue! My mom went and bought Jett this adorable green turtle walker for him to push around. He LOVES it! This was his first attempt at trying out his new present during our visit to their house. Now at our home, Jett pushes his turtle all over our living room until he bumps into a wall or couch to stop him. He is surprisingly fast, and gets the biggest smile on his face! Next, we just need to master turning. My little Jett should be walking soon enough!

♥

Jett's Photo Book

I'm finally a good mother because I finished Jett's baby book of his newborn pictures we took way back when. (How has 9 months passed?!) I loved how our profesh Camera Shy pictures turned out and wanted to put them in a photo book to display instead of just the few I printed to frame at home. I need to show these babies off!...the photos, not multiple babies. Plus, my sweet Jett's first birthday is getting ridiculously close, and I'd really like having his baby book displayed somewhere for his party for people to swoon over because he is the cutest baby. I created his book with my usual beloved Shutterfly, and I think it turned out pretty cute and not super baby-ish with typical zoo animals and alphabet letters stuck on every page. Mine is proof that baby books can be cute, modern, and colorful without a stork or elephant on it.

So take a peek! It's short and sweet.

   

Click here to view this photo book larger

Baby Jett

♥

9 Months

My sweetheart turned 9 months old on June 13th!...A particularly great day because it's Friday the 13th and Jett was born on a Friday the 13th, something I sure love since I'm such a scary movie fanatic. Brief timeline of achievements:

• Crawls everywhere! Started to "army crawl" around 7 mo. and was fully crawling by 8 mo. He loves exploring everything.
• Loves just standing while holding on to the couch, coffee table, our knees, etc.
• Climbs up the stairs like they're Mount Everest and it's his lifelong goal. Baby gate coming soon.
• Still choking a bit on actual solid foods we try to feed him - learning how to swallow bits of food must be hard!
• Says "dada" over and over and makes clicking noises and spitty fart noises by sticking his tongue out, which he finds very amusing...spit particles flying around, not so amusing.
• Recognizes objects a lot better like the animals in his fuzzy touching animal book and Mickey Mouse on TV. He loves Mickey!
• Sleeps on his side now but still moves all around in his crib, usually getting tangled up in his blankets.
• 4 teeth on top, 2 bottom
• Understanding "no"
• Likes to wrestle with the enormous stuffed Shamu I bought him at SeaWorld last summer.

Busy Bee at the Bees Game

We finally managed to make it to a Salt Lake Bees baseball game this season on Friday night! Last year was too hectic with back-to-back vacations and being super preggers, so I was excited to get out this year. We sat on the grass on our blanket and Jett was great! He's so crawly and mobile now that I thought he'd try escaping several times and end up rolling down our grassy hill, but he stayed on our awesome leopard blanket and was satisfied with his array of toys we brought and his usual activity of crawling all over us. We think he maybe didn't like the grass...too prickly? Worked for us! He was also entertained with our junk food we of course are obligated to buy at a sporting event, so that was a game itself of batting his chubber hands away from my corn dog and caramel funnel cake. Mmm! One thing at the game he definitely enjoyed was the little kiddie train that goes back and forth along the back of the field. It grabbed his attention everytime and he'd get a big, happy smile and watch the train until it was out of sight...meanwhile, mom and dad were making choo-choo sound effects for him to really enhance the experience. So much to see at the Bees game and take in! By the time the 9th inning came along, my little Buddy Roo was exhausted and fell asleep in Jake's arms. A successful first baseball outing.

Anyway, don't ask me if the Bees won or not, because let's face it, I probably really only watched 15 minutes of the game...I'm just grateful a home run ball didn't come flying at us.

Zoo!

We had our first zoo adventure with Jett! It was so fun! I picked the perfect day with perfect weather and had my parents and brother tag along with us. Hogle Zoo had just completed their new African Savanna exhibit that I was anxious to see. Off we went!

Jett looked adorable in his hat and Utes shirt! What a little stud. He was such a happy camper! He just sat calmly in his stroller while we went from one exhibit to the next, occasionally getting taken out to hold him up to see animals or get a piggyback ride from grandpa. 

Jett was able to focus on the zoo animals much better than our outing to the aquarium. It was so fun watching his eyes wander around until he finally spotted whatever animal we were pointing to, then his focus would be locked on them in a gaze. Too cute! He got to be strollered up close to several animals. The gorillas were huge and I thought he'd be a little intimidated by their size, but he tried touching the glass when one came right by him and sat down. The big apes creep me out but sure looked soft. 

One of my favorite exhibits is the river otters. How adorable are they?! Jett liked watching them swim by. Otters have always been a fave of mine and apparently now his because they are the same size. The pic we took of him with the otter statue is probably the cutest picture in history. Look at him standing up on his own! Sweet Jetty Jettson.

I was a little sad for him when he couldn't see some of the bigger animals because they weren't moving...that's the only way an animal would get his attention. This means the rhinos were a no-go and sadly, even the elephants. They were just standing on their little island shoveling grass in their mouths...not enough movement to catch Jett's attention. All of the big cats were also sleeping and didn't move, so they were a loss (but not to the rest of us!): the lions, tiger, snow leopard, and regular leopard...all snoozing. I will give credit though to the linx that came out of his den to pose, look around and then do kitty stretches, but Jett was more interested in grabbing the rope fence surrounding the linx and didn't look up. 

Jett's favorite animal at the zoo were the meerkats. It was the cutest moment ever! I was able to move his stroller straight up to the glass windows. Jett instantly caught sight of them scampering around and let out squeals of delight! He'd then lean forward in his stroller to touch the glass and try to touch them. We spent a good amount of time watching them interact...me mostly getting all giddy about Jett and his preciousness.

I couldn't resist having Jett go on the carousel. I had spotted a cute penguin for him to sit on but it got snagged before we got to it. We ended up on a tiger cub instead that was just as cute. I thought Jett would instantly enjoy holding on to the pole and having something to grab, but he didn't know quite what to do and just kind of went with the flow, not sure what was going on and why he was bobbing up and down. It was precious! Unfortunately, we didn't get great pics of the event because our tiger cub was on the inside of the carousel. Next time.

Our last stop at the zoo was the Zoosafari train. Jett didn't really look around much at the animals we passed but seemed to enjoy the steady ride...and then bench in front of us...and my necklace. I decided it would be a good time to attempt a family pic on the train, so there we have it. Me and my two boys. Love! ♥ Oh, and for the record, Jake wasn't making a kissy face, he was saying "ooh" to Jett to look at the camera. They both ended up with Zoolander faces. 

It was such a fun day and experience with my sweet boy. He did so good for being out over 3 hours (in the sun) with so much going on and much to see. He was one tired boy afterwards and fell right asleep in when we made it back to our car as the zoo was closing. If I had this much fun seeing his zoo experience, I can only imagine what Disneyland with him will be like one day!

Tonight!

This is going down in Wendover!!