Kick'n it in Kodachrome

Picture provided by Erin (ain't it pretty).


Our pilgrimage to Kodachrome has been the official start to the summer for me (Adam) for 17 years now. This one started out wet. We had 2 inches of rain dump on us the first night. It was after a drenching first night that I started getting thoughts of packing up all our wet stuff and driving home. Luckily the sun did come out and the weekend ended up beautiful.


The first morning of the trip we went into Tropic to get some breakfast (cooking in the down pour didn't sound all that fun). We sat down and started looking at the menu when we noticed that Erin's Great Grandfather George Myron Bybee's picture was on the back of the menu. Erin's grandma grew up in Tropic. The Bybee name is well known. George was a cowboy that worked in Bryce Canyon as a horse back tour guide.

Tommy in his natural habitat (sort of). Our dog enjoyed every moment of the trip and tried his best to rip our arms off. Here he can be seen ripping off Erin's.

Stopping to smell the... trees??? That's right, the trees in Bryce Canyon have sap that smells like vanilla. This is also a great way to get people on the trail to give you weird looks as they pass.

We found out this trip that Kyle has a new found passion for hiking. We went on the Navajo Loop trail (1.5 miles with 1000 ft verticals) and he ran much of it.

Kyle makes a new friend at the bottom of the Navajo Loop. This one is named Dale. Chip never made an appearance. Kyle was ALL about the wild life. He spent much of his time hunting down jack rabbits and cotton-tails.

Us on Wall Street.

Noah tries his best to do a George Byron Bybee impression.

Our little hiker/poser.

All funned out. Noah falls asleep mid-chew.

Birthday Boy

This year we celebrated Noah's 2nd birthday at Kodachrome State Park. And so begins the terrible twos ( and Noah is all about the "terrible "part). That's right our sweet, patient, chunky Noah is entering into the twos. Once he was bundle of baby chug we carried around with us. Now he is a Sponge Bob buck tooth big boy, walking, talking and in love with cars.

Noah has grown so much this past year. He and his brother are the best of friends. It is rare to not see Kyle followed by Noah in our household. While they play you can often hear them singing together. Noah is our singer. He has an ability to remember songs and sing them in tune...somewhat (which we think is pretty impressive for a 2 year old). Unlike his brother, Noah lets you know what he wants and when he wants it. He has an opinion and lets you know about it. He is itching to play sports as we are constantly having to watch him at Kyle's soccer games to make sure he does not run out onto the field. His current obsession is cars...big cars especially. He will start yelling "race car" whenever he sees our cars. We have determined that race cars means he wants to get into the drivers seat and drive.

Noah spent his birthday enjoying the great outdoors. We decided to go on a hike and as soon as he heard us mention "hike" he went straight into the tent and dragged his backpack out and started saying "I wanna get in", and didn't stop until he did. Having a 30 something pound boy on our backs nearly killed Erin and I. I think that for my next birthday I am going to make someone carry me around too, it would be a good gig.

We gave Noah a tiger flashlight at Kodachrome but saved his big present until we got back. We gave him a Power Wheels Lil' Kawasaki ATV. Noah was shocked the first time he got on and hit the button that shot him forward at a blistering speed of 2 mph. Erin and I knew we found a winner when he could not contain his laughter while riding on the "bike". After a while of riding around on our driveway Noah got off, looked the bike over and said "I like that". One of the greatest moments in parenthood his getting a present that they love.

We love our big, little Noah. Maybe you have a favorite Noah moment... feel free to post a memory. Enjoy some more Noah b-day pics:

The Windy City...

... a most appropriate name for the great city of Chicago. (My hair was in a dang ponytail the entire trip.)
Adam goes to Chicago for work periodically so we decided it was high time AND a perfect opportunity for us the leave our babies behind and go exploring.
Chicago was not a place that I really had on my list of destination spots but after being there I'm not sure why. The place is ginormous, fascinating and with a river running through and Lake Michigan's shores bordering it is beautiful. I felt like country bumpkin.

The trip started out a bit rocky with cancelled and delayed flights, a layover and turbulence to make even the most seasoned flyer's whimper. (Good thing I studied up on all those fear of flying websites. Heh.) A 5 hour ordeal turned out to be 12 hours. The funny thing was, I was ALMOST content despite it all. I had a good book, food and alone time. I was anxious to get to Adam but I also took advantage of that time to myself. I finally landed at O'Hare airport at about 12AM. I was supposed to be there at about 5:30 pm...

The first day we went to a Cubs game at Wrigley Field which, due to its historical significance was, really neat. And to top it off, the Cubbies won! We had parked a mile or two from the stadium but we were totally happy strolling the streets and observing how Chicagoans live. (We walked A LOT on this trip but in my opinion its the only way to really get the feel of a big city like Chicago.)
We got all romantic and walked along the Lake Michigan shore. It's quite a view though because you look one way and see the vast lake and in the other direction, a huge city skyline. Quite impressive.

The 2nd day we went to visit Frankie. Frank Lloyd Wright, that is and really we just visited his house. Adam has been a big fan since he visited here as a kid. I read a book about him so it was really neat to be there and see it all for myself.

My new boyfriend. I decided that it wouldn't work though. He was so upset, he fell to pieces...

"Gino's"- the place we "HAD" to go to get deep dish pizza, a Chicago classic. This place was funky. They totally encouraged graffiti. So while you can't see it, Adam put "Adam+Erin". Ahhhhh. Oh and by the way, Adam loved the pizza. I was like, eh.

Taking a much needed water break during our "Chicago Walking Tour".

On the 3rd day we got in free at the Art Institute of Chicago because they were opening a new wing. We did a lot of cheap-skate things like this. Rather than pay 40 bucks to go to the top of the Hancock building, we went a few floors beneath to the bar and got a $6 drink and enjoyed the view from there. We also took a $3 water taxi on the river rather than a $20 guided river tour. It pays to be cheap.

This is a really cool piece of contemporary art at Millennium Park. I love that you can see the skyline in its reflection in the above picture. Its even cooler when you go inside and look up.

The Chicago Tribune is a famous building because it has different rocks from all over the world- Edinburgh Castle, Great Wall of China, the Forbidden City, Mt. Everest, Notre Dame, Salt Lake Temple- my fav. :) They had significant rocks from every state.

Buckingham Fountain at Millennium Park. There is surprisingly a lot of green space in this concrete jungle.

During our meandering we ran into a line of people. Noticing that none of them looked like tourist we quickly decided we had to jump in line and see what was on the other side of the line. Turns out it was totally awesome popcorn. We asked the people in line what we should get, they suggested the carmel and cheese mix??? Well we decided to be daring and get it and it was worth it. Turns out the popcorn place is a local establishment. Just one of the exciting things we happened upon in Chicago.

We had a great time. There were a few chinks- the RAIN on the 2nd day, wind everyday, scary people to which Adam called himself "Jerry", throbbing knees, wearing a sweat shirt everyday over my new vacation clothes, etc. The good definitely out weighed all that though. It was so good, in fact, that Adam and I plan not to wait another 3 years before going on another adventure.

EASTER 2009

The boys thoroughly enjoyed decorating eggs this year and just about everything Easter. The Easter Bunny left an indoor hunt for the boys. Kyle totally "got it" but Noah just ran around picking up all the candy off of the floor, periodically popping one in his mouth. (Adam and I are debating whether to keep up the Easter Bunny charade. Stay tuned to find out what we decide for next year.) We had our traditional "Easter Bunny lunch" consisting of- no not Easter Bunnies- egg salad sandwiches made with the eggs we dyed and carrots with dip.
We went to church but Noah was suffering some kind of nastiness so I took him home after sacrament. We spent the remainder of the day doing an Easter egg hunt with Grandma and Grandpa and then finishing the night off with dinner at Nana and Papa's house. And to top it all off, the weather was beautiful.