People. I’m coming back to life. I just made an iMovie! Us Johannes (and Joy) folk went up to Flagstaff for the 3-day weekend and had a grand ol’ time. But to be a little serious and sentimental here .. it was more than that. It was everything. It was like time stood still. I didn’t post on social media. I just soaked in every minute I could with my boys and only took my phone out to video when I remembered or had it nearby. Or asked my Dad to run the video button! There was a lot of built up anticipation for this trip, mostly on Jace’s part to see the snow and play in it. And play in it he did! We could barely get the kid to come inside. What a joy it was to see him put on all the gear and go trekking through the snow. Building snowmen and snow forts and throwing snow balls. We went all out. And the cottage I rented didn’t disappoint. The most perfect layer of snow surrounded the cottage and even beyond the fence of the property. I guess I don’t really know who had more fun, Jace or Tacoma. They were like two peas in a pod. Walker and Callen were a little skeptical of the snow. They ventured out occasionally, and rallied at the snow park. I felt like a kid again myself, out there crunching in the snow in my borrowed snow boots. Rolling huge balls of snow into a snowman body (I forgot how much work it is!) .. packing little snowballs and hitting my son over the head with them. I even made him cry. Not a proud Mom moment, I admit. But come on!? It’s called a snowball FIGHT for a reason! I felt bad, sure. But he got over it and demanded a rematch the next day. That boy has to toughen up! Our AirBnB was located right down the road from the Deer Farm. A little place full of baby deer starving for attention and $4 cups of food. We kissed a camel, fed the deer, talked to a porcupine, and admired the llamas and wallabys. Walker even got an unexpected KISS from a reindeer, causing him to fall back on his buttocks! Aside from playing in the snow non stop, playing scrabble with my Mom, hot chocolate in the morning, watching Top Gun after the boys went to bed, we didn’t do much else. The wood burning stove was marvelous … the sleeping arrangements quite tight .. the wild Elk galloping in the fields .. the sound of the train .. pretty spot on perfect if you ask me. And then, by the end of the weekend, 2 out of the 3 boys were sick, ha. Pretty typical of a trip up north, I’d say?! We are definitely going to have to make this snow trip an annual thing with the boys. More downtime, and more slower days, please! And don’t hate me. I’m a sucker for these face in the hole pictures every where I go, lol!
Also while in Tahoe this summer, the boys were really into making bird calls. We thought they did an awesome job!! So cute and a video we definitely wanted to save from our trip. We spent a lot of time on this patio at our Airbnb and in the back yard. Pretty sure the neighbors hated us.
I did not plan ahead a lot this time around, including getting a newborn shoot set up. Thankfully the hospital had a First Day photo team out to take photos and although the price wasn’t all that ideal, it was worth getting shots of Walker’s first day with us. I’m so happy we got photos of just him, too, because his birth day is very special to us. Those first 24 hours are so precious and I’m glad we had someone there to take pictures, even if it wasn’t myself. I’m totally going to frame the one of Rob holding him, it’s so beautiful and so simple. I’m still going to try to get some shots of Jace with Walker, or even myself, but for now, these are lovely.
We’ve been talking about going to see “the dinosaurs” with Jace for almost 3 months. I had found some pictures on my Instagram feed and showed Jace and of course he immediately wanted to go. Since before Christmas we’ve been telling Jace, “yes, we’re going to go see the dinosaurs, but we have to save up enough month first .. ” Even Jace started contributing and putting change in his own piggy bank. So, as you can tell, our 
And I’m officially not letting Rob take pictures. Why he thinks he needs to zoom in, I’ll never understand. He’s definitely better at video, hahaha. Well, for the record, here are some windy shots of Jace and me:
