There and Back Again!!!

Well, we made it back to Branson. I'm finding that even though I was ready to leave Utah, now that I'm back in Missouri I'm ready to go BACK to Utah. Why is that? Anyway, that's for another time and another blog. Here is what we've been doing for the past week. I apologize for this being a bit long. I will try to not be TOO boring.

Before leaving, we had a play-date with Avarie and Elizabeth. Miss and love you girls SO much. Dani, I really hope to see you next time. Sorry we missed out this time around.

Traveling with a baby isn't the funnest thing in the world. We decided to make frequent stops to HOPEFULLY keep Kashton happy. Our first stop was Grand Junction where we found a park. We ate lunch and Kashton swung on the swing for the FIRST time and LOVED it.

He loved playing on the playground.

Next stop was Glenwood Springs, Colorado. We decided to stop at the Hot Springs and go for a little swim. I HIGHLY recommend this to anyone that happens to be driving to Denver. Stop and swim in the natural hot springs, it was so relaxing and much needed. Kashton LOVED the warm water. It was his first "swimming" experience. Notice the snow behind me??

We stopped in Denver to visit Cameron's best friend Eric. We ended up staying for a few days which turned out to be awesome.

At a play ground with "Uncle" Eric and Cameron!!!

We went to Boulder, Colorado and we went up into the mountains and got these great pictures. Yes, it was FREEZING, but so worth it.

With Eric and his wife Sariah (BTW, Eric is the reason why I have all these photos. He's letting us use his old digital camera since we don't have one. So I nice shout-out to Eric is appropriate right now)

Cameron is peeking over the edge. It dropped straight down. Very scary!!!

That night we received FREE tickets to the Billy Joel Concert. Much thanks and another SHOUT-OUT to Zach for his AMAZING cake-decorating skills. If it wasn't for his talent, we wouldn't have been able to go to the concert.

Now, I'm not much of a Billy Joel fan, but it was a pretty great concert. He sang us some songs, cause he's the Piano Man.

Funny story of the night! We didn't have time to eat dinner before the concert so we decided to just grab an Arby's sandwich at the event. So, we paid $6 PER Arby Melt and then I couldn't help but laugh when I bit into it. All the cheese was on one side and all the meat was on the other. I think the Gelato was WAY more worth it than the Arby Melt.

By the way, Thanks to Eric's parents for babysitting. Kashton LOVED you.

The next day in Denver, we went to visit our good friends at the Das Meyer Bakery Chalet where Kashton was weighed on the scale. 19 pounds. It made me miss my own upbringing in Dad's bakery. Thanks for the yummy treats Meyer family.

Cameron decided to do something useful for once. He donned an apron and made a few cakes. Some of them were a little bit crooked. :)

And the last exciting thing we did was go and see the Off-Broadway show of "The Last Five Years." I also highly recommend this. The music is BEAUTIFUL!!! Jason Robert Brown is brilliant!!!
The rest of the trip to Branson was uneventful. Kashton was surprisingly amazing during the drive ( Many Thanks and ANOTHER shout-out to Baby Einstein) Here we are, safe and sound. Ready for another fun filled year of complete nothingness in the good ol' town of Branson, Mo. Don't I sound so thrilled?

What Happens In Vegas....

...doesn't always have to stay in Vegas. Which is why I'm going to tell you about our two days there. This is one of my beautiful husband's headshots. We decided that we would take a last minute trip to Vegas so that Cameron could audition for The Phantom of the Opera. We were only there for about 24 hours but here are some highlights.

Cameron did an AWESOME audition and felt really good about it.
(He has the most BEAUTIFUL voice, I wish you all could hear him sing)

We took Kashton to FAO Schwartz where he saw a HUGE Trojan horse and rode a Hippogryph from Harry Potter.

Posed with 6 feet tall dragons and tamed the wild, pink dog.

First time on a SLIDE, he discovered just how much fun they can really be (once he got over the initial fear of it). He was sad when we walked away from the slide.

He rode the escalator all by his self.

Another first...First time on a trampoline was just TOO much fun. Especially with Daddy's help with the bouncing.

We also couldn't pass up the opportunity to play the famous Piano.

At the end of our Ceaser's Palace adventure, he was just plum-tuckered-out.

Cameron and I found this little booth that was selling something called Gelato. It looked BEAUTIFUL and oh, so tasty. So, we thought we'd have us a little treat. We both got small cups. Cam's contained mango and raspberry while mine contained chocolate and strawberry. Oh it was good....however...

...we learned a valuable lesson here. This was no Coldstone or Maggie Moos. We didn't bother to even look at the prices considering...well...it was ice cream...how expensive can ice cream be, right???????

There we were tasting this yummy new stuff called Gelato. Cam whipped out his debit card and the cute little man behind the counter said in his cute Phillipino accent (no, I'm not a genius when it comes to figuring accents. His name tag just so happened to read that he was from the Phillipeans) :

"$27.50"

WHATT!!!!!!

Not wanting to cause any kind of scene, Cameron calmly handed over his debit card while giving me the most bizarre look. Needless to say, we tried to enjoy those little cups the best that we could considering they were almost the most expensive thing we bought in Vegas.

Moral of the Story: STAY AWAY FROM THE GELATO (or read the prices before purchasing...you choose!!)

We spent Valentines Day in Vegas, so we decided to treat ourselves to one of our FAVORITE foods....sushi. Kashton got his first taste of jasmine rice and Miso soup. He LOVED the soup and tofu. He kept flapping his arms at us until we gave him more.

We also met up with two of our good friends that we went to college with. Rob Moffat and Jeff McLean, who are both in Spamalot. We were able to sit in and watch a rehearsal of the show and then went to dinner with them. I'm so mad at myself for not getting a picture with them. I was so busy enjoying their company, I didn't even think of the camera. Anyway, it was SO fun to see them. Thanks for dinner Jeffy, love you so much!!!

And Lastly.... what is Sin City without a little SIN????

The rest of our Valentines Day was spent driving 6-7 hours back to Salt Lake while listening to a cranky baby who hates being strapped down for long periods of time in his car seat. When we got home, Cam was so exhausted he fell asleep on the couch. Happy Valentines!!!!

I LOVE VEGAS!!!!

TWILIGHT

I look at this picture and Oh, how I long to be 18 and in love with a Vampire. Twisted thoughts??

I'm having a hard time getting past my "Cedric Diggory" memories and trying to replace them with thoughts of Edward...

I haven't really been excited to see any movies lately, but I'm afraid that December is not going to get here soon enough for me. I've become OBSESSED!!!! Will December ever get here???

MY NEW FEATURE!!

Just wanted to tell you about the new feature I added to my page. If you notice off to the left I have something entitled "Inspirations." As of lately I have found that my mind has wandered to many different things. Some good, some not so good. So I added this not only for myself but maybe for any of you that are in need of a little "inspiration" throughout the day or week. This is to help me to either stay grounded, or just simply to make me feel better. Maybe it's a thought I wish I could say to someone, or it's a thought that simply needs to be said to myself. Hopefully they can inspire us all at one time or another.

My Adorable Son!!

Well, here we are still in Utah and we'll be here for another three weeks. As most of you know, we live and work in Branson, Missouri. During this time of year, Branson goes into the "off-season" and the entire city closes down. Because it's a tourist town, this is just not the time of year to visit Branson. It's honestly a ghost town and I want to get away from it so bad. So, Cameron and I usually come back to Utah to spend time with family, but we usually don't stay this long. The reason why we're still here is because Cameron works for a photography company that takes him away on the weekends. He'll continue to work here in Utah until his job starts up again in March.

So, you wonder why I'm telling you all of this??? Well, because Cameron works for this photographer he has access to these AMAZING (and VERY expensive) cameras. So, we took some really cute shots of Kashton. We didn't really get technical with lighting and other aspects of photography. I just wanted some shots of Kashton at 9 months old. So, we just changed his clothes a couple of times and took a few shots. Hope you enjoy them. I think they're DARLING!!!

Sitting on Grandpa Duane's old tractor.

He looks like Mr. Smee from Peter Pan!! Ignore the un-made bed. :) We took these first thing in the morning. I was just so excited about the cute pictures. Who cares about the un-made bed...right???? My mom already teased me about this. But we're even. I tease here all the time about her crazy FLORAL sheets.

FINALLY!!!! CHRISTMAS IN FEBRUARY!!!!

I'm sure I'm the last person on the planet to STILL be posting pictures of Christmas. Because I'm a dork (and, again, the last person on the planet that only owns a point-and-shoot camera) I finally got my film developed. When I went to pick-up my pictures from good ol' WALMART, the photo disk that I ordered with my prints was completely messed up. So I had to take a little trip BACK to Walmart to have them re-do my disk. So here are pictures of Kashton on his FIRST Christmas.

Sitting in the fresh snowfall at Temple Square. It was a GORGEOUS snowy night.

Kashton received his FIRST present from Santa. Some comfy Christmas PJs. Here are all the cousins together at their Christmas party.

It was so much fun watching him discover the lights and ornaments and the wonder in his precious little eyes.

His first Christmas morning. He was a little spoiled. :)



Eating the ribbons was far more interesting than anything that he opened. Even though we tried to show him his new toys, he still went back to the ribbons.

He loved his silly little stocking with the teddy bear on it. Of course, he could care less what was inside, he just loved to eat it.