Ba-Pop

Ba-Pop AKA Grandpa Snyder came to town!  We were lucky to have him for almost a week.  With in hours he became Julian's best friend.  Julian loved "Ba-Pop" so much that I could walk right past them sitting together on the couch and Julian wouldn't even flinch! Currently Julian is in this phase where if he even hears my voice in the other room he freaks out that I'm not holding him.  This friendship between the two of them meant a great mini-vacation for me as well.

Ashton of course loved all the extra attention that came a long with Grandpa being in town as well.  The boys wrestled, they played games, they snuggled, they both loved all the great one on one time they received from Grandpa.  

(One of my all time favorite pics! You can just feel the JOY on these boys faces.)

He took us all out to Chick-fil-a, we had the missionaries over for dinner, we went to The BRIT, Grandpa helped out our crazy, somewhat dysfunctional, primary at church, and did I mention they wrestled?  One of the highlights was our BYU party.  It was the first game of the season so we got out all of our recently acquired BYU swag and had tons of treats and snacks to go a long with it.  BYU won so that made for a great ending to our little party.  

After the game, my dad graciously took the boys the rest of the night so Jason and I could take some time alone.  We walked around Sundance Square downtown and enjoyed some Jamba Juice,  which was one of our go-to places while we were dating.  It was so nice to walk around and enjoy the night just the two of us.  

My Dad was here for a business trip in Houston, so Monday the boys and I headed down to Houston to tag-along with him.  We spent Monday night visiting with my Dad's old mission companion.  The boys loved it because they had tons and tons of toys and lots of food.  The boys also love hotels, and so do I really, we could probably never leave the hotel and still have a successful vacation.  Especially when they have a good swimming pool and free breakfast.  The boys and I went swimming in the morning while Ba-Pop was at his meetings and then we all headed out to the Houston Children's Museum.  The Museum was incredible!  It is safe to say that we all loved it.  

(I just love this little artist.)

The best friend relationship between Ba-Pop and Julian was nice, because I also got to spend some good time playing with just Ashton.  He never held still long enough to get any good pictures, too much to see and do.  He absolutely loves exploring and figuring out how things work.  I love watching his little mind put things together and seeing the excitement that comes a long with that. 

We finished the trip off with Ba-Pop spoiling the boys with Happy Meals on the drive back home.

We were so sad to say goodbye to him the next day.  

Julian walked around the house looking for him the rest of the week.  We sure are lucky to have such a great Grandpa that has to take business trips to Texas! 

Birthday Trip For Me

My Dad had a business trip planned for Texas before we even moved down here.  So I had been looking forward to figuring out a way to see him while he was in the same state as me.  Then for my birthday my Dad flew my Mom out so she could drive with me and we could all spend a few days together.  I had been looking forward to this trip, and was so excited for my boys to get to see their grandparents again.  Ashton was off the wall excited. 

I picked my mom up late Saturday night.  Sunday morning we had peach cobbler and blew out candles to celebrate both my moms birthday and mine.  Ash made Grandma play cars all morning with him.  After sacrament meeting we said goodbye to Jason and took off on our adventure. 

We met up with my Dad by Austin at his cousins house.  We took Ashton to the park so he could get some energy out and then had dinner at The Cotton Patch.  We got to the hotel in San Antonio late that night.  This was Ashtons second time at a hotel but he was so excited and thought it was awesome having a sleepover with Grandma and Grandpa. 

Monday we checked out downtown San Antonio and took the boys to the childrens museum.  Even I was super entertained there.  Ash has grown up so much in the way he plays and interacts with things.  I love watching his mind figure things out and discover new things. 

After Grandpa got done working we went swimming at the hotel.  The pool was freezing, but Ashton never wanted to get out.  He loved playing with Grandpa. That night we went and walked around the Alamo and the River Walk.

The next day we took Ashton on a miniature train ride, that had a tunnel and everything, then we drove to Austin which was where my dad was working that day.  We went to an outdoor mall for some window shopping and lunch and then played in the outdoor fountains.  We had to stop in Barnes and Noble so Ashton could play with more trains too (the boy really likes trains).  That night we went downtown to the Congress Avenue Bridge.  Underneath the bridge live over a million bats and at dusk they all fly out to go eat.  Its the thing to do in Austin apparently, there were tons of people everywhere all waiting for the bats to come out.  It was pretty crazy watching all of the bats flying all over the place.  We watched for about a half hour before packing up and they were still coming out when we left.  I will say though, there are hardly any bugs in Austin.

We drove back home Tuesday night, the trip went by far too quickly.  We had to take my mom back to the airport Wednesday morning.  We were all sad.  Julian and Ashton both loved all the time and attention they got from Grandma and Grandpa.  I love watching them love my boys.  While we were away I kept forgetting that I didn't still live in Utah, and that I wasn't just on a vacation with my parents.  It was so sad to remember that all this having fun and happiness with them wasn't going to last past a few days.  It's hard to explain, but it just felt good to have them around again.  Getting a nap and being able to sleep in while my mom had the boys sure helped with those good feelings too!

2013

Recap of 2013

This is hands down one of my favorite pictures from this past year. 

Live: Alpine, Utah
Drive: BMW, and a Mazda6 (yes we got a new car AGAIN, it was an early anniversary present... more to come on that later). 
Work: Blue Lemon for Jen and then not Blue Lemon for Jen. Spring mobile for Jason and IHC working as an EMT up at Snowbird.

School: BYU for Jase half the year, then GRADUATION!
Church Callings: Jason got called to the Elders Qurom Presidency and is now serving as secretary.  Jen is still on the RS Activity Committee and also taught the 7 turning 8 year olds.
Pets: One goldfish.  Ash also thinks he is either a dog or a cat 50% of the time. 
Traveled to: Hawaii for Mom and Dad, Park City trip for all of us, plus another Park City trip just for grown ups.  As well as a big family trip to Florida.
Highlights/Big Events: Traveling firsts, The Wizarding World of Harry Potter, the beach! Playdates with friends.  Graduation, completing and passing the MCAT, Med School acceptance(s).  Lots of biking.  Moving on to new adventures and being able to stay at home with Ashton all day every day.

Sent Stephanie off on her Mission.  Aunt Stephy was easily Ashton's favorite, she will be missed but Georgia is lucky to have her.

Lost Grandpa Joseph Beckstrand, who is now reunited with his love in the eternities.  He was not only a war hero and POW captured at Battle of the Bulge, but from everything I have heard he was a real world hero of a man that we are honored to be related to.  It was one of the most memorable and inspiring funerals I have ever attended.

Last Years Goals: "Play harder, laugh more, make it to the Temple, find time for each other even with our busy school/work schedules, try and drive the same cars all year long, take the MCAT, graduation, hug Ashton till he just can't take it anymore."

Well we definitely played harder, having a mobile child the whole year sure makes that more possible and fun! Ashton makes us laugh daily, sometimes I cry I laugh so hard with him.  He has the greatest laugh and cracks up any time I think somethings funny, which just makes me laugh harder.  We were able to attend the temple more, but not as often as we should/need to.  Going through the Temple with Stephanie this past year was a great experience as well as attending Alex's sealing for her wedding.  We almost made it with the same cars the whole year... so close! We can definitely cross off the MCAT and graduation and hugging Ashton.

Goals for 2014: Attend the temple more will probably always be a goal, I guess it is never wrong to want to go more.  Seek the spirit more often, church often turns into a blur with Ash, but now that he is in Nursery I'm finding more peace and light through even the littlest moments in primary.  I want to stay caught up on this blog and write more personally.  Not because I think anyone out there cares, but because I want to remember my thoughts and feelings and be able to look back on the moments that created our family.  Live in the moment.  I'm a planner, and tend to plan far in advance and forget about the now.  I want to remember the NOW, and live in the moment and cherish the days, hours, minutes, and seconds, with Ashton. 

2014 is a big year for us.  We are headed to Texas for the start of Med School.  A new chapter in our lives.  We are also welcoming baby number 2. 

 Little Brother is due April 26th!  

Fun. Florida. Family.

Before sending Steph off on her mission we squeezed in one last BIG family va-kay.  Kayli was missed since she was nannying in Europe but Grandma Liedtke took her spot instead. :)

I'd never been to Florida before and was very excited for the trip and of course got completely obsessed with planning it.  Anything you needed to know, I knew.  Especially when it came to Universal Studios, I had our rides mapped out perfectly.  We went Saturday to Saturday and I really feel like we accomplished everything!  We got to stay with my Grandma's brother which was a perfect location, a quick 10-15 minute drive to the parks so we could swing home for naps easily with Ashton.

-Saturday was all traveling, it took a family of 10 travelers 4 different flights all with different arrivals to get there.  Lots of driving to and from the airport for my Dad, who got there first, to pick us all up.

-Sunday we went to church, saw the temple, had a great lunch with new cousins that we got to meet for the first time, relaxed, and explored the Disney Boardwalk.  Disney World wasn't on our list of things to do, but we got a little taste in driving through the park and walking the boardwalk shops.

Ashton especially liked exploring the Rainforest Cafe, don't worry Dude it's on my list of places to take you to eat someday.

-Monday we drove out to the Kennedy Space Center, this was way cooler than I thought it would be.  This was an Eric and Jason pick, everyone else was just along for the ride but I think at the end of it we all agreed it was really cool.  Something I wouldn't mind going back to when Ashton is older and actually lets me look at things.  

After Kennedy we went to a wildlife preserve and drove/walked around.  We saw two alligators which absolutely terrify me.  Seeing them in the wild was really cool but that is one major reason why I will never live in Florida and have had several nightmares since.  We drove out to Cocoa Beach and the boys, I mean men, went in for an evening dip.  We had originally planned to stop by a different beach, but the road we were going to take to get there was closed, we found out that night that there had been a shark attack at that beach.  So glad we didn't end up there.

-Tuesday was Universal Day! This was our big day for the trip, the one thing we all decided on doing: Harry Potter World.  Like I said before I researched this place front and back.  We timed everything just right and hardly ever waited in line for anything.  My favorite ride was probably the Amazing Spider Man.  Harry Potter did not disappoint, and we had many many rounds of butter beer.  Ashton would have been happiest had we stayed in Seuss Land the whole time.  I thought he would be afraid of all the big roller coasters because of the loud noises, but he was more upset over the fact that he couldn't go on them.  His favorite ride was the Cat in the Hat which we rode numerous times.

  -Wednesday we rented some boats and got taken out on a manatee tour.  I've always loved manatee's for whatever reason and was so excited to be able to see them in the wild.  It wasn't the right season for them but we still got to see and snorkel with a few different ones including a mom and calf.  We also got to touch one of them, they liked Jayden the most.  Again Ashton just really wanted to get in on the action.  The boat it self was a lot of fun too and they took us by this little island that had monkeys on it, Ashton especially loved that.

The guy in the very back with his hands up was one of our crazy tour guides.

-Thursday was another top of my list day... SeaWorld.  I had been dreaming about taking Ash to SeaWorld since before he was born.  I've always loved Sea World and thought it was just magical.  This was definitely more exciting for Ashton too since there was more to look at and places to run around.  We rode the Manta roller coaster, the only reason I'm documenting this is because I think it was one of the coolest rides I have ever been on.  More of an experience than a ride, like you were really flying.  We were only able to make it to one of the shows, which I was super sad about since I LOVE all the shows.  But did I mention that it rained at some point in the day, every single day, in Florida?  The rain storm hit in the afternoon on this day and they had to cancel the shows because of the lightening.  We waited until the park closed seeing if the rain would stop so they would do the big main Shamu show but it never did.  By the time we decided to make a run for it to our car the lightening was hitting so close that both Stephanie and I's hair was standing straight up.

-Friday was our last day, we headed back out to Cocoa Beach and rented surf boards, boogie boards, and a beach cruiser.  Which is incredibly fun by the way.  Who knew riding a bike on the beach could be so awesome!  Jayden and I were both pretty spooked with sharks, and some of the boys saw a sting ray in the water.  But we all survived.  We had some pretty good waves and we all felt pretty cool out on surfboards, even though I'm pretty sure we all looked awkward.  Ashton was not thrilled about the beach at first, the sand was to weird for him I think.  However, with a little help from Dad he ended up loving it.  Again he just got upset that he couldn't participate in everything, and kept wanting to go way out into the ocean.

-Saturday we were all off on different flights again headed home.  

The entire trip was so much fun.  Not relaxing one bit, but a ton of fun none the less.  Traveling with Ashton was a lot harder than I ever expected it to be.  Throwing the kid off schedule and putting him in new environments constantly definitely took a toll on the poor kid.  I think he did great considering how much was going on around him.  He got his binky a heck of a lot more than we ever allow at home and that was definitely a life saver.  In talking with my Mom on the trip I now understood why my Dad would take us older kids out on trips while my Mom stayed home with the youngest ones.  It's just exhausting!  I don't regret going on the trip one bit though and I am so glad we got to spend some good quality time withe everyone before Stephanie leaves and our family continues to change and grow up.  I'm grateful that my Dad has always encouraged us to go on big family outings like these and to keep creating such fun memories.  I'm also glad that even though we're married my Dad still allows us to tag along too.

Ashton really was a superstar traveller. Both our flights to and from Florida had horrible layovers and we were traveling for 10+ hours each way.  He was so excited about the plane ride, we'd been talking and hyping it up for a long time before we left.  The first flight out of SLC he literally ran onto the plane he was so excited. I had to throw my ticket to Jason to run after him.  Now every time he sees a plane he talks about his plane ride and how he went "up, up, up" "down, down, down".

Merry Valiversary

Last February Jason attended an INS (International Neuropsychological Society) Conference in Canada.  I was bummed he was leaving me with a little two and half month old, and that he was going to be gone over Valentine's Day, but I wasn't that jealous that he was going to Canada.  

This year however the conference was in Hawaii, so we took full advantage and decided to combine Christmas+Valentine's+Anniversary for a nice vacation for just us two.  It was much needed and came at the perfect time.  We spent four days just the two of us.  We didn't event turn the TV on once while we were there, which really meant a lot to me.   

Day One was mostly traveling.  We stayed at the Hilton Waikoloa Village, on Hawaii Island, which is where the Conference was being held.  This place was amazing.  It is so big that it has a tram and boats that takes you from one end to the other.  We still walked most everywhere I wanted to enjoy the sunshine as much as possible.  It is located right on the ocean and the views were incredible, no matter which way you looked. 

It was also filled with so many different kinds of birds and other natural wildlife. 

We spent most the day exploring everything and then met up with Jason's friend, and mentor, Brock for dinner. 

Day Two was the day Jason was presenting at the conference so while he got all dressed up and headed out to be smart,

 I dressed down and spent the morning reading and relaxing here.  I read a whole book and half this trip.  Can't remember the last time I was able to have enough time to myself to just read like that.  

Jason joined me that afternoon for some pool time and snorkeling . The resort has a big ocean fed lagoon in the middle of it.  I had heard that you can often see sea turtles in the lagoon and was determined that we would see one.  We ended up seeing so many, this was the first time I had ever seen one in the wild, another thing checked off my bucket list. 

 Since the lagoon is directly connected to the ocean there were all sorts of incredible fish that I had never seen snorkeling before.  That night we found an empty hot tub and just relaxed together.

Day Three I made Jason take me to breakfast at Lagoon Spoon.  They have the most genius breakfast menu.  You pick two cereals and two toppings, and milk.  I went with Cookie Crisp, Frosted Flakes, Gumi Bears, and Skittles, don't worry I used Skim Milk.  Jason had granola and fruit (still love you and your healthy cereal choices)

We spent the morning whale watching from our breakfast table.  That afternoon we went with some of Jason's friends and drove to Hapuna Beach and went boogie boarding and played in the ocean.  That night we met up with more people and drove up Mauna Kea, to go star gazing.   

Day Four we spent breakfast whale watching again.  It was migration season for humpback whales and we couldn't even keep count of how many we saw.  

We went snorkeling one more time and this time we got up close and personal with the sea turtles.  I thought one was going to kiss me it came so close, instead it ate a leaf right in front of my face.  We realized they would eat the leaves right out of our hands.  

Jason said he thought this was the best part of the trip.  

We hit up the water slide and hot tub and swam through the different waterfalls that run into the pools before we had to go pack up.  We had to check out of the hotel at noon but didn't need to leave for the airport until 5:30 so we left our bags and took a trolly to some shops to get Ashton a present.  We had some time to kill when we got back so we sat and watched the dolphins.  Oh ya did I mention the resort had dolphins?  This was another daily thing for me.  I could watch them forever.  

There was a mom with a five month old baby, this made me miss Ashton the most watching how the little baby just followed the mommy around the whole time.  Our flight home was delayed and miserable.  While the trip was too short and over too quickly I was sure excited to see my little Ashton baby.  Thanks Grandma and Grandpa Beckstrand for taking such great care of him for us. 

2012 according to Instagram

2012 couldn't have been much better.  

We saw so many changes and experienced so many firsts with our little man.  

Every day was a new adventure.  

Since this blog has turned more into a journal/scrapbook than anything else and most of my memories are on Instagram now, these are the photos that I just don't want to forget.

Like smiles.

The best baby eyes ever,

and baby toes.

We went to a few BYU games.

(9 months)

Worked on our muscles

so we could show them off at Seven Peaks.

(7 months)

Had the best cuddles. 

Helped Dad with homework projects

and helped Aislinn, Alex, Annalise, and Mom at work LOTS.

We played with puppies

(9 months)

and a few more of Ashton's favorite things.

Ashton loves snuggling all things soft but he loves driving and playing in cars even more.

Getting to eat solids was a pretty exciting thing this past year,

(7 months)

anything end everything from straight onions to spaghetti, to raspberries, to donuts, he loved it all.

We walked for a cure with CureSearch again, go team Super Skyler!

(10 months)

Got a new car seat

(7.5 months)

and learned about computers, teeth brushing, cooking, and some light reading.  

Adventured with Mom to California

(5.5 months)

and to Idaho for a family reunion.

Had an amazing Baby Blessing.

(3 Months)

The best Halloween

(11 months)

and a perfect Birthday.

Recap of 2012
Live: Alpine, Utah
Drive: BMW, and a Prius (yes we got a new car, and yes I miss the Maxima, and yes we now drive a Prius, check out our gas mileage and you won't make fun of us).
Work: Blue Lemon for Jen
School: BYU for Jase
Church Callings: 12 year old Sunday School teachers and RS Activity Committee
Travelled to: Canada for Jason, California for Ashton and Mom, Idaho a few times for all, Las Vegas for Jen and Jason, and St. George for all.
Highlights: Baby firsts, swimming, baby laughs, Band of Horses, the zoo, Real games, playing, crawling, walking, all things Ashton.
Goals for 2013: Play harder, laugh more, make it to the Temple, find time for each other even with our busy school/work schedules, try and drive the same cars all year long, take the MCAT, graduation, hug Ashton till he just can't take it anymore.

My favorite Insta pictures of 2012 that haven't made it onto other posts:

 (5 months)

 (3.5 months)

( 9.5 months)

(4 months)

(11 months)

(4.5 months)

Oh the many faces of Ashton Jay