Warm weather OR BUST!!!!!!...

So this weekend Bryce went to southern utah with his friends. Since I had the camera, this blog will be entirely about what Oliver and I did. Bryce had a blast. Nuf said.

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Upon considering a weekend of the two of us at home in this BLASTED snow, we decided to use up some of our skymiles and go see Crit and Mary in SUNNY ARIZONA.

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It was everything we needed and more. Though we missed Bryce terribly. We had a BLAST!!! I was so worried about traveling with him alone. It was just such an unknown---could I handle it? --well, he was an angel baby. I think that we have ourselves a summer boy (takes after his Mom). He was SOOO happy the WHOLE time. I am not kidding. Not one fit. It was freaky.

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On to the travel-logue:

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Here is a picture of Mary's calendar where she drew Oliver and I on February 23. I loved it. Crit and Mary made us feel so at home. Oliver and I had Mary's room all to ourselves. Crit had gathered everything we needed from a crib to a high chair, etc.

Thank you, Critti.

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Here are some good photos on the hammock.

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Oliver was a fan of tha hammock, to say the least.

The other thing Oliver was a HUGE fan of was MARY. He was so enamored with her. He would just stare at her and smile so big. He has been around plenty of children in his short little life, but he was so taken with her. Here they are on the hammock together.

This is probably my favorite picture of the whole trip.

Look closely at Oliver's face.

Now look at where his hand is.

Hilarious.

We got to be a part of a very momentous occasion in Mary's life while we were there. We went with her to get her ears pierced. Here we are arriving at the mall:

It was such a "right of passage" sort of day. Critti made a huge deal of it (as she should). Mary's aunt Jil and Kimmy also came to support her. Incidentally, Jill was who took Crit to get her ears pierced years ago. She took her when she was 8, although she KNEW Crit was not supposed to get them pierced until she was 14! Great story. Jill is amazing.

Here she is with her new earings. Mary was SO brave. I could not believe it. She was totally calm and just flinched when the two women pierced her. It was so amazing to be there.

Oliver slept through the whole thing, by the way.

Here we are at Trader Joe's. I LOVE that store--wish Utah had one! We are buying goodies for our picnic in the desert.

We picnic'd in the desert by a river. It was epic.

Check out our scenery:

It felt so good to be in a skirt and sandals. I live in the wrong state.

Ug...

Here is our summer boy:

On the way back from our picnic, we stumbled across this carnival/rodeo thing. We had to go.

Mary road a ton of rides and had a blast. Oliver and I just watched and took it all in. We had a blast just people watching.

It started to get chilly as night fell. We were all getting a bit cold, so Mary found a great place to warm her hands. I love both of thier expressions:

Thank you, Crit and Mary, for such and AMAZING weekend!

We thawed out and had a magic time.