What we do when James goes to Mexico

Last weekend James was off in Mexico for a work trip.

Which meant Owen and I were home alone with nothing to do.

So we came up with some stuff..

After dropping off James at the airport shuttle at 5:30 am we decided to get ready and head to Cracker Barrel for breakfast.

 Owen loves his whipped cream!

Later we decided to make some edible oatmeal play dough..

 Emphasis on the edible because the first thing this boy did was take a big bite!

 And then he made a "snowman"

We also took a trip to the bowling alley..

Where Owen found out that air blows out of this thing and thought it was amazing!

 

 And although he used this thing to push the ball and had bumpers up..

 I only managed to beat him by two points.. I'm that good.

Next was the zoo!

We lived really close to the zoo in Tennessee and had a membership so we could go all the time, so its been a little rough since the move being farther away. We love the zoo!

 Turns out the Jacksonville Zoo has an awesome train!

 His first faces looked like this..

Then I told him it was about to start moving..

And I got this! He was pretty excited :)

The penguins were also a success.

They had a little dome you could get up under to see them up close.

The goats were one of his favorite things in Nashville, so we were happy to see them here too!

 

Then with carousel rides and alligators to climb on, what more could we ask for?

Feeding giraffes!

This was my favorite part and it was so fun to watch Owen's reactions!

 They would get right up close and take the leaves right from your hand!

 Luckily the nice woman working there was willing to use my phone and get pictures for us :)

After four days away from home James finally came back!

Bringing Owen a lovely surprise that he wanted to wear for days :)

 

 

Halloween/moving

The end of October was a super crazy time for us!

We were getting ready for Halloween and also getting ready to move to Florida on Nov. 2!

Our festivities began with our ward trunk or treat party where Owen learned he got candy anytime he said trick or treat and he LOVED it!

Next was actual Halloween where we had some traditions to continue.

The pizza on the floor tradition started when years ago my family got the keys to our new house on Halloween but we had no furniture so we had to sit on the floor and eat.

This year we were forced to follow tradition since we had already packed all our belongings onto a moving truck and had no table..

We also continued our homemade root beer tradition which really amazed Owen :)

 Next was trick or treating!

Which consisted of going to like four houses because it was pretty freezing!

The sweetest part of the night was when a boy from the neighborhood came up to say hi to Owen. He told him that he used to love Elmo and gave Owen a big handful of his own candy which made Owen pretty happy :)

So happy he wanted to eat all of his candy in one sitting...

After Halloween it was time to move!

Luckily we had wonderful elders quorums in Tennessee and in Florida who helped us pack our truck and unload it which made our lives SO much easier.

Since James was driving the truck the whole way, my amazing mom flew out to Tennessee to help me drive the car with Owen all the way to Florida and get us totally set up in our new house.

There's no way we would have made it without her!

We were sad to have to say goodbye, but hopefully she will be able to come back soon!

So far we have loved living in Florida..








And being ten minutes from the beach isn't too bad either :)

Third trip of the year

For the third time this year, Owen and I got on a plane by ourselves to take a trip.

                                                         

This one started in the Nashville airport where we then flew to Seattle.

Where we then went on a road trip with my family to Utah.

 There we got to see great grandma's dogs again..

Eat at Cafe Rio..

And of course go bowling at BYU :)

The reason for the Utah road trip was to see one of my oldest friends at her wedding which I of course neglected to get a picture at because I'm that awesome :(

Once we made it back to Seattle we had lots of adventures!

We made it to the aquarium..

And even got to ride a whale!

 We were lucky we got him to do anything else at this aquarium..

Because he LOVED these cutouts! All he wanted to do was stand behind these and take pictures.

Then we made it to the zoo.

Owen loves the zoo and had fun with cousin Dakota.

He also had fun feeding the penguins!

He took these fish..

Grabbed them..

And threw them to the penguins! So brave!

My Aunt Cynthia got all these pictures including these adorable ones of Owen.

This boy just melts my heart!

We had some fun times at the park..

With Brandon..

And Jared..

And grandma..

 And grandpa.

 We also got to play with Uncle Brandon at work at the YMCA.

The discovery museum is always a hit!

He loves the water..

The balls..

And trains with grandma :)

Before Natalie left on her mission to Georgia, we got the whole family to Washington to try to get some family pictures.

 While Owen managed to look this cute on his own..

 This is basically all we could get of him when it came time for the real ones.

 At the end of the trip he had finally worn himself out and was ready to go home!

And even though this was our last free lap child trip for Owen before he turned two, there were empty seats on the flight so he got to thoroughly enjoy sitting in his very own airplane seat on the ride home :)