Utah...

We are finally getting back into the swing of things after a week in Utah! We had so much fun and I'm sorry for those of you who I didn't get to see while I was there. My parents went last minute and bought me a plane ticket to go with them, (aren't they SO nice) so Tuckers Auntie Kayla could get some time with him. ( I think that they only invited me as a babysitter) :) Anyway, we had so much fun and the time went by so fast. Since I was kind of just along for the ride, I didn't want to be too demanding in my desires to go everywhere to visit all my friends, so we spent the week hanging out in Provo with Kayla and Jason, and made a few little day trips to some fun places. Most of our outings were Tucker related. Here is our trip. (This is kind of a long one and wouldn't be offended if you just skip to the pics! :) )

The Long Flight there...

This is Tuckers new thing, he loves to look like he's mad, and when he has you convinced, he starts to change his face to a smile and then laughs like crazy, he thinks he is so funny! Now, whenever I see him make this face, I say, 'I know there's a smile in there' and he immediately starts laughing.

After a long day of travelling, both Tucker and Grandma were tuckered out!
Actually, Tucker is a great Traveller. This is his 4th airplane trip. He has two visits to Grandma and Grandpa in Alabama, a trip to New York, and now this Utah trip under his belt! He's a world traveller, just like his mommy. (well, she would like to be) :)

Some Highlights of the trip were:

1.)Being with Kayla and Jason, and seeing their CUTE CUTE CUTE little apartment. They have made it so cute and it is just perfect for the both of them. I loved seeing them together and watching them interact as newlyweds and seeing how their life has begun! I am so happy for them! (didn't take any pictures, but wish I would have)

2.) The Pool/Hot Tub, for sure. I couldn't get this little fish out of the water, we went almost every night! He is going to have so much fun this summer!

He was my man all week long!

3.) The WAY cool dinosaur museum. I have some way cute pictures of Tuck playing in the kiddie area where they let them like dig in the sand to find little toy dinosaurs, but Auntie Kayla has them. Tucker was amazed/a little scared of the gigantic ones.

4.) Tucker pooping on the tile in our hotel room after his bath!(No picture, sorry. Poop isn't the greatest thing to photograph.)

5.) Receiving beautiful flowers from my thoughtful hubby, not once, but TWICE! It was so sweet.

6.)Losing my phone in Ross. My parents went back while I was at Lunch and walked around calling it over and over again, seeing if they could hear it ring. It never did. Luckily they called us when someone had turned it in!

7.) Just hanging out in our Sweet hotel. We had two bedrooms, two bathrooms, three TV's, a Kitchen and a living room! They also served us Breakfast AND Dinner! So, just hanging out in our Hotel was fun! We also rented 'Dan in Real Life'-Great flick! Tucker also rented us an 'adult' movie. Luckily I turned it off before it actually started playing. I then had to call the front desk for them to take it off of our bill.

8.) Eating out WAY too much! But I love my food! :)

9.)Going to Lunch with my friends, Kristi and Julie!

Kristi and her little guy, Boston.

It was a nice little break for me, and Grandma and Grandpa got to take Tucker for a much needed park break!

I loved this sequence of pictures, especially the middle one! I guess Tuck isn't a slide man!





10.) The cool Aquarium.

This is Tucker looking at the sharks, you can't see the sharks, but I thought that this was a cool picture of him off the glass. While we were looking at the sharks, a little kid came up from behind me and grabbed my leg thinking that I was his mommy. It scared the heck out of me. I jumped and screamed--Everyone at the Aquarium thought that that was pretty funny!


We got to pet all sorts of cool fish, including stingrays!

He has perfected his fish lips face!

11.)Last, but certainly not least: Temple Square.

I always love Utah trips for three things: new Scriptures, new Garments, and Temple Square!

Tucker and Jason had plenty of Staring contests...

And there was plenty of kisses going around all week!


And even though I was stuck in the backseat between these two all week:

This one to my Right

And this one to my left, and my dad was stuck with 3 backseat drivers, we had a GREAT week! Thanks Grandma & Grandpa for inviting us and SPOILING us ALL week long!

We made it!

Well we finally made it to Seattle! 2 weeks late (and about $2 short) but nevertheless, we made it! :) We were so excited to see our friends, Doug and Sadie-And Emily too, of course,- But Tucker was excited to see his friend Buddy! :) This poor dog was just picked on and chased around all weekend by Tucker! Buddy was so patient and kind to him though, what a good GOG. (I personally think that it was because Tucker would share whatever he was eating with Buddy, so he endured the torture for the treats) :) We are totally going to have to get this child a dog one day. He hearts them!

We took Tucker for his first trip to the zoo... He loves animals! Unfortunately it was still a little cold outside, and Tucker was tired, he hadn't had a very good nap that morning, and apparently it was nap time for most of the animals too, a lot of them weren't out either. But we made the best of it and all in all, Tucker loved seeing the animals that WERE out. I love the look on his face in these pictures, the elephant came SO close to us when he went to eat those branches. Really cool!

We also discovered Tuckers love for hats. Ben isn't really a hat wearer, so we just discovered this hidden love! :) Tucker wanted to wear Doug's hat all weekend! He actually doesn't like wearing them, just stealing them, and putting them on his head and taking them off, then putting them on again and taking them off again! :)

So my friend Sadie is one talented knitter; and just recently a cute little boutique in Seattle started carrying her hats and mittens. One of the highlights of our weekend, was to check them out on their opening weekend! :) Tucker is even a part of it, he is the face of 'So what baby butt' (that's her brand) His little fat face from last summer is on her tags, and business cards. We were nerds and had to take pictures of them in the boutique! I am so proud of Sadie, I've always enjoyed and loved her knitting, and I hope that everyone else will too! If anyone is interested in getting one, just let me know. If you look closely at the picture of them in the boutique, you can see a tag and that is Tuck! :)

OK, this is getting a lot longer than I had planed... Seattle was a blast, we miss you guys already, Doug & Sadie and Emily! :) I had to add this picture because I love the look on Tuckers face. Here he is with two of his favorite Aunties... Sadie and Em! They know how to spoil him and love on him. And he really does love it too! :)

Thanks for a great weekend guys!

Weekend Getaways, what???

So where has this month gone? I feel like the past few weeks have just gone by SO fast! Maybe I'm just trying to repress the memories. We've had a few failed attempts at weekend getaways that I'm trying to forget. A few weeks ago we were so excited to go to Seattle. We knew the weather was pretty bad, but we were determined! I checked the pass report on Thursday night and the pass was open, Yeah. It was just slushy because all the ice was beginning to melt. So no worries, right? Friday morning was spent packing and packing and more packing. Packing a one year old for a weekend getaway is not the easiest. Ben got off work at Noon, and we were off. We got to Ellensburg around 3:30ish and Tucker was in desperate need of a break from his carseat. So we fueled up the car, and ourselves, and we were on the road again. And to our dismay, what do we run into? But a huge sign that says "PASS CLOSED". They closed it at 3:44 pm. We had barely missed it. The freeway ahead of us was empty except for the sign and the 5 little measley cones in the middle of the freeway veering us off onto the exit. What, did you think that 5 little wimpy cones would keep us from that pass? We have an Exterra, we can handle extreme conditions. The weather was still pretty good, and we could make it. So we are the lone car on the road and as we progress the weather is getting increasingly worse and worse. I was getting a little worried, but I really wanted to make it to Seattle. So, about a 1/2 hour later, at the next exit,another sign and more cones veering us off onto the exit. Once again, we manueverd our way around. So we're off once more. As we are nearing the foot of the pass the weather started to get really bad. We were driving about 40 mph at this point and had found this state trooper with plow on his truck to follow. It was perfect. Until we got to the next exit. Finally there were two state trooper cars actually blocking the freeway not allowing us to pass. Apparently there were avalance warnings and they were getting pounded with snow over the pass and it was freezing and turning into a thick layer of ice. I was a little relieved because I was starting to get a little scared of the surrounding weather. I was not relieved to have driven for 4 hours at this point and still not have been able to get to Seattle. We were SO close. We found out that all three passes to Seattle were closed, and we were stuck. We could drive an extra 6 hours by going down to Portland and back up to Seattle, or drive the three hours home. And as much as we wanted to go to Seattle, the thought of being in the car for 6 more hours with Tucker, made me sick.

I took these pictures mainly for my in-laws who can't even really understand the concept of this much snow. :) The snow banks were literally like walls along the freeway, most of the signs along the freeway were completley covered. And this wasn't even at the worst area! It was crazy.

Notice how the weather gets progressively worse and worse. This first picture was when I thought that we could make it.

We will be attempting to get away to Seattle again this up coming weekend, so lets just hope we have better luck! Anyway, enough about our failed attempts at traveling. Other than that we have just been hangning out at home, the weather makes us not want to really leave the house. It was in the low 40's the other day and I was so excited to not have to wear my coat! I was laughing at myself when I realized I was excited about 40 degree weather! But it IS finally starting to warm up and I couldn't be happier. I can't wait to get back outside!

Who could resist?

This next picture is my favorite, it is SO typical! Poor little Tucker is continually trying to win over the heart of his friend, Jason. Much to Tuckers dismay Jason isn't what you would call a 'kid guy'. He is a nice guy, just not one to love on other peoples children. Anwyay, it is a running joke that Tucker is always trying to win his affection, becuse Tucker LOVES Jason and is always trying to get Jason to hold him and snuggle with him. I was very proud of myself when I captured perfectly on film what always happens when we're together. Luckily for Tucker Jasons daughter, Carly gives him enough lovin' to make up for it! Unfortunatley I don't have any recent pictures of them hugging and kissing, but they do it every time they are together. You should hear them in church, they like yell out for each other until they are together. Tucker just says, Car... Car... and points at her, and she says TaTa...Tata and does the same. Its pretty cute.

Anyway, here is Tuck getting denied....

I don't know who could resist those fish lips... I sure can't! :)

Snow, Snow, Snow...

Well, the snow is still here, and this time around Tucker is ready...

We were beginning to feel a little swamped by all of our snow, since ours was like the only driveway on the block that hadn't been shoveled...

And what to our wondering eyes do appear? But four beautiful Laurel girls, the snow they do not fear...

They shoveled our driveway and they even made us into a little snow family. I think that they were enjoying themselves a little too much for it to be counted as service!

Yeah!...Free at Last!

Tucker was glad not to have to go back out in that cold cold mess...


Here he is hiding from me under our desk. Is he not the cutest thing ever?!

A Death and A Birth...

A Death...

It didn't really hit me until today that President Hinckley had died. I heard on Sunday and honestly, my first thought was 'yeah, he is finally with his wife, he's so happy!' Is that bad? And since Sunday I have read various articles, seen video montages of his life etc... and it has finally sunken in that President Hinckley is gone. I still feel more happiness than sorrow, only because I know that a new prophet will be called and he will also be someone to lead us and guide us, but I will definitley miss President Hinckley, and his sense of humor and his down to earthness. But as the cycle of life always continues, the same exact day, there was some Great news in the Pyper family.

For those of you who don't watch or listen to Glenn Beck, he is a Political Commentator who was converted to the church a few years ago. We really like him in our household, and I thought that this was touching.

http://www.glennbeck.com/content/articles/article/200/5127/

A Birth...

Everett Aaron Albritton was born! Yeah!

We are so happy for the Albritton Family! He's a cutie, and I can't believe all of that dark hair! I'm sure Lukas and Teddy will be great older brothers, and Terra will have her hands full with 3 little boys!!! We can't wait to meet the little one and are excited about this new addition to our family!

Life is amazing to me. I remember when Tucker was first born, I was amazed at how this little creature could even be a human, and his own little individual! And now that he has so much personality, I can't even imagine life without him. It is so precious!

Cats and Dogs...

Well, we are in the midst of a Winter storm here, and there are apparently more coming. Bens school has even been cancelled! I had never heard of a University having a snow day, but I'm not complaining! It has been snowing for three days straight and I'm beginning to think that it will never end. Another storm is coming through on Thursday and Saturday, so we will be getting dumped on even more. Ben and his good friend Jason have spent countless hours shoveling snow for people in our ward over the past few days, and somehow our driveway has been overlooked. We have at least a foot of snow over about 3 inches of ice in our driveway right now, and its still coming down hard! This time of year I always ask myself,

WHY THE HECK DO WE LIVE IN SPOKANE???

I have had this vision of taking Tucker out for his first romp in the snow and how much fun it would be and how he would love it and we would frolic in the snow for a little while, and when done come inside to some nice big mugs of hot chocolate. Why can't my life be a fairy tale??? :) Tucker didn't enjoy his first outing in the snow as much as I had imagined. We have spent a few days now on our couch looking out our big picture window at all the snow falling and he loves to do that, so I thought surely, he would love to play in it. He seems to love to get into everything else these days. As you can see from the pictures below, our romp in the snow was short lived as Tucker didn't even make it past the bottom step of our porch. He had to figure things out before he would attempt to 'play' in it. After a few minutes, he did what he does with most things these days, he put a little in his mouth. What is a winter without eating a little snow, right? And after tasting the goodness (maybe he got a bad piece since that does happen from time to time) he was ready to go back inside to where it was nice and warm!

He did however to manage to lose one of his gloves in the 3.5 minutes we were out there. I'm hoping to find it when the snow melts.

I just spoke to my mother in law, who lives in Alabama. They actually got snow down there this year. She said it was just enough to skim the yards, maybe an inch or so. The last time they got snow was in 1993, and it is famously known as the blizzard of '93 and Ben had told me that just three days after the now melted, people were already walking around Montgomery with shirts that said, 'I survived the blizzard of '93'. My mother in law has already started calling this the blizzard of '08. Maybe I'll get a shirt.

One of our favorite things to do this winter has been to take some late night dips in the hot tub. We didn't even realize what we were missing out by not having a hot tub until we bought this house. We love it. It has been especially fun this winter, with all the snow. We usually go out pretty late, after Tucks in bed and we finally have a minute or two to relax. The other night we went out and it was so cool. It was beautiful. The snow had just stopped falling. Everything was quiet and still, and it was just beautiful. Everything was lit up from the snow, and for a second I forgot about how bitter cold and dirty the snow was and just soaked up the beauty of it. I tried to capture it on film, but obviously wasn't sucsessful at capturing the beauty of it! :) Sorry, you'll have to use your imagination.