Dad's Visit

The day that my mom left after watching Sawyer while we went to Havasupai, my dad called and said that he had an unexpected business trip to Phoenix coming up! Hooray! We were so excited that we got to see both of them within the same 2 weeks! He was pretty busy the first couple days he was here, but made it up to our house on Thursday night for some pizza and a little hanging out. Then Friday night I had to work which sucked but he Nathan went and picked him up and they spent the evening together. Nate had a Young Men's activity or something on Saturday so my dad babysat while I slept that morning after working! He did a great job! He took Sawyer to Costco, bought him a sweet Buzz Lightyear car, fed him breakfast and lunch, put him down for a nap...pretty much did the whole thing!! I was very impressed.

And then we went to Desert Ridge shopping center and let Sawyer play in the splashpad while we drank smoothies. That evening we got a sitter and hit up a movie, just the three of us. It was a fun weekend and so great to be able to spend some time with him! Sawyer loved him so much... and he loved his I-Pad too! :) Haha. Thanks for coming, Daddy!

Of course we neglected to take pictures the whole time. I just had a few from that night when he came over for pizza.

Havasupai

As I mentioned in my previous post, Nathan's family had been planning a trip to Havasupai for the past year or so. Well it finally happened. In mid-September we ventured out (without kids!) and embarked on our Havasupai Journey! Everyone was able to make it besides Brooke and Mark (Brooke was already 5 months pregnant at the time). We missed them! But it was such a fun experience and I am SOO glad that I went! I will admit I hesitated a bit in the weeks before because I was in the early part of my pregnancy and feeling pretty crummy everyday. I just didn't want to go hiking/camping and feel like I was going to throw up the whole time. But I decided that it would be ok (whenever I exercise during pregnancy I don't notice the nausea...so I hoped it would be the same experience). The other concern was whether or not to carry my own day pack. Nate and I, along with my doctor, decided it would be better to send my pack in with a donkey and just carry a lighter-weight day pack. I think that was a good decision. So on Wednesday night Andrea, Paul, Nathan and I made the drive up to the Hilltop. We didn't get there until after midnight. Nate's parents, Ashley, Justin, Erin, and Kasey (who had driven down from Las Vegas) had arrived just before us. We pitched a tent outside our car in the parking lot to catch a few hours of shut-eye before we began the hike. We woke up about 5:30 am and finally got on our way around 7. A little later than we had planned on but it all worked out. Before we started the hike Nate asked everyone to gather together for a group picture (nobody knew we were pregnant, yet). He said, "1, 2, 3...say, Jessica's Pregnant!"...it was great to get the picture of everyone's reaction. Unfortunately I don't have that picture yet. We only had 2 cameras on the trip to avoid carrying too much weight. I've been trying to get a hold of all of these pictures for the last month but decided, in order to not delay my blog posting any longer, I'd just go ahead and post what I had. So this is another of the group shot before starting out...(Julianne was taking the picture...she flew into Havasupai on a helicopter and rode a horse out. It worked out well because I sent my pack with her on the way down.)

So the hike is about 10-11 miles each way. The first couple miles is just switchbacks straight down (and up) the canyon wall. After that the trail was fairly level. It was so much fun just talking and hiking that morning. We got to the campground (after meeting up with Julianne at the village a couple miles before) in the early afternoon and set up camp. We pretty much just hung out and relaxed the rest of the afternoon. The next day we spent hiking around and visiting 3 different waterfalls. It was amazing. The water was incredibly clear...And the red rock everywhere was really beautiful. Everyone was pretty crazy and jumped off of one of the waterfalls. (I lucked out of that one, thanks to the pregnancy :) ) We camped out again on Friday night and then hiked back up to the hilltop on Saturday morning. Here are a few more pictures to illustrate our adventures!

The water pump at the campsite

This is the waterfall that everyone jumped off of...even the girls! The water was pretty dang cold, I will admit...but after hiking in the heat all day it felt nice.

Another one of the falls where we washed our hair the second day!

This is actually one of us hiking back out on Saturday morning.

The whole group (minus Justin who wimped out when he saw the descent to this waterfall...:) You can't blame the guy...it was pretty freaky...and if you are at all scared of heights it's brutal._

See, that was the only way to get down to Mooney Falls...can you blame Justin for skipping out? The picture doesn't even do it justice.

This last picture is from the top of Mooney Falls.

I have to tell a quick story about Mooney Falls before I end this post. We visited this waterfall at the end of the day. We had been jumping off and swimming behind other falls all day. We were all standing around looking at it when someone said that they thought there was a secret room behind this fall. Nathan got curious and started swimming out to it. Before we knew it he was no where to be seen. Kasey, who was off to the side of the falls said he could see Nathan, trying to swim out. Nobody seemed to be that worried, but as the minutes went by I knew something was wrong. I walked around to the side of the falls to see if I could see Nathan. Sure enough, I could barely see him swimming as hard as he could to try and get out...and he was barely moving! I was freaking out. Luckily, that time that I watched him he was able to get out. I literally broke down in tears when he got to me. I could tell that he was pretty shaken up, as well. After hearing Nathan's side of the story we were really counting our blessings. He described how he had barely reached the outskirts of the waterfall when the current literally sucked him in and behind it. There was no place to sit or get out of the way...so he was hanging onto a rock behind the falls. He tried a couple times to swim out, but could not escape the current. And Nathan is a very strong swimmer. He said in his mind he was so scared. He had tried with all his might to swim out to no avail. He finally said a prayer and tried one more time. As he was swimming he lifted his head, thinking that he had maybe cleared the falls, only to find that he was right under neath it getting pounded! So he took another breath and kept swimming! Until finally he felt sand beneath one of his hands and was able to pull him self up to stand. That's when I saw him coming out. He says still that it was the closest he has ever felt to dying in his life and that he was truly scared. I think he seriously suffered some post-traumatic stress from the experience and had nightmares for a couple days afterwards. The worst feeling came when we looked up "Mooney Falls" when we got home and discovered that a 31 yr old man had died there only 2.5 months before! We are so grateful that our experience ended better than his. I am so grateful to still have Nathan with me!

So that was our Havasupai adventure. Mostly awesome...with a little scare...but overall it really was amazing! If I get a hold of any more pictures that are worth posting, I will be sure to do so. And if you read this far, thanks for reading!!! :)

Oma, the Super Nanny!!

Nathan's family has been planning a trip to Havasupai for the past year or so. We had to make reservations way ahead of time and decided that September would be a good month to do it...not smack dab in the middle of the summer but not too cold yet either. As August came around we realized we had a couple of issues to deal with. For one, I would be about 10 weeks pregnant on the hike. I wasn't so worried about the physical side of it, other than carrying a heavy pack. But I was pretty nervous that I would feel sick the entire time. I decided it was a once in a lifetime experience and I would deal with it, whatever happened. We also made the decision to let a donkey take my pack in and out of the canyon for me and I just carried a day pack instead. The second issue was what to do with Sawyer while we were gone (3 nights). I knew that I could always leave him with Brooke, but I just felt bad doing that. Brooke was 5 months pregnant at the time and already had her hands full with her other 4 kids. One day while looking online I found an amazing deal on tickets from Virginia and decided, who better than to stay with Sawyer for 3 days than my mom!!! She was pretty excited to come and I felt so relieved and comfortable having her here with him. They had a great time together and I don't think Sawyer even noticed we were gone until we got back! Here are PLENTY of pictures to show from their time together.

When my mom flew in, we stopped at my favorite grocery store, Sprouts, on our way home. Sawyer decided to start munching on a raw piece of corn. He pretty much ate the whole thing by the time we got home! (for the record, I tasted it too and I've never had a sweeter piece of raw corn in my life!)

My mom was even brave enough to go on little outings with Sawyer every day!

Nathan and I thought this one was pretty funny. "Goodbye, cruel world."

Sawyer took a nice little picture of his feet for us.

Jen and Isac stopped by one day while my mom was here. He just loves Tyler!

I think she got him a new little toy everyday too! He was pretty much in heaven.

When we got home we all went out to Westgate to watch the water show and get frozen yogurt.

And we made sure to stop by the outlets the day before she left.

Thanks again, mom, for flying out here to stay with Sawyer! He loves you so much and we were so comfortable knowing you were with him.

The Larson Family Ranch Trip

This post is way overdue. But better late than never, right?! Right. So pretty much every summer since I married Nathan we have spent a week at the Ercanbrack Ranch in Provo Canyon. This year we kind of meshed the event together with Sydney's wedding, because Nathan could not take off for more than a week. So when the wedding festivities were over (Thursday morning for me and Wednesday morning for Nathan), we headed up to the Ranch to meet the rest of the family up there. As usual, it was a blast! This was the first year that all 5 kids were married and everyone was there! Needless to say, it was a little crammed :). It's a good thing we all enjoy each other's company so much! Other than Sawyer coming down with a cold and teething while we were there, we had so much fun. Here are a few pictures of our adventures.

This was actually taken the morning that everyone went home, hence the pj's and such. A pretty classy bunch, eh? :)

One afternoon we all sat around and launched rockets...

This was Sawyer's reaction to the entertainment...actually I think this was his permanent facial expression the whole weekend...poor little guy :(

Nathan's dad brought up some huge pieces of industrial plastic to make a slip 'n' slide. I have to admit it was pretty awesome! They slid right into the pond!

This little duo enjoyed running around naked for most of the weekend. They got along pretty well this year, we'll see how it goes next year.

Sawyer totally figured out how to spray the hose. He loved it!

The first day that I went up the family had rented a boat on Deer Creek Reservoir for a few hours. Sawyer's first time out on a motor boat...being cuddled by his cousin, Marley.

He wasn't actually a huge fan of the experience. Probably cause he was just so tired. He actually fell asleep in my arms right here! That NEVER happens! Must have been the noise and motion of the boat. I was in heaven. Any chance to cuddle my little boy for longer than 2 seconds is so wonderful.

Nathan and I took him on the inter tube behind the boat. Don't worry, we were going super slow and there was no way we were falling out of that thing! He was doing fine until...

We hit a bump and he got splashed right in the face! This picture is so hilarious. And that was the end of that. (Click to enlarge--it's worth it to see his face a little closer)

There's a huge smudge on the lens right over Sawyer's face. He doesn't look so happy to be confined in that life vest.

Doing a little better with daddy...

His favorite part was just playing on land in this boat with his cousins.

Sawyer and Mar again...love this.

Justin and I decided to take Sawyer and Taryn back to the ranch for a nap. They were SOOO wiped out. I had to try so hard to keep them awake for that 20 min drive!

Sawyer is getting ready...

To be a...

And he's super excited! ;)

Taxes aren't the only thing due on April 15th next year! We are happy to announce that Baby Larson #2 will be making it's debut in about 7 months.