30 Before 30 // Midway Ice Castles

#8) Visit the Ice Castles in Midway.

It's been too long since I checked another item off my 30 Before 30 bucket list (let's blame the pandemic, shall we?) but I've finally managed to do one! Earlier this week, we packed up the snow gear and headed through Provo Canyon to the eastern side of the Wasatch Mountains to visit the Ice Castles in Midway. I first heard about them a whole decade ago as a freshman in college (dang) so it took me a while, but I finally made it over there!

- It was rather cold, but very pretty.

- Autumn didn't like walking in the snow, so Doug's arms got quite the workout from carrying her around most of the time.

- The older kids loved going down the big ice slide.

- It's beautiful to see the ice light up in a rainbow of colors as evening falls.

- We just so happened to go on the coldest day of the week (high temperature in the 20s... oops) but we managed to stay pretty warm, although Autumn's hands and feet got chilly.

^^I pulled this photo from a Pinterest board and could not find original photographer.

Doug's eyelashes started accumulating frost!

The castle glows as it gets dark outside!

We rounded off our family night by popping over to Heber City to eat at the highly recommended "Dairy Keen" fast food joint. Thick milkshakes. Good social distancing measures. (The booths have tall dividers added to them for extra precaution. We got a booth in a corner of the back room of the restaurant, and it felt like we were by ourselves.) The kids loved watching the little train that travels around the restaurant on a track placed up high near the ceiling. Surprisingly, nobody fell asleep on the ride home... but that may have been due to a combination of sugar from the milkshakes, and the swelling music of John Williams from the Harry Potter soundtrack that Nicole insisted on listening to. Am I proud of her music choice? Yes. Yes, I am. Am I proud that she sings along to the various themes? Also yes. We're on book 3 in the series, currently. She claims to love Harry Potter more than anyone. Hmm.

Hooray for bucket list items and family time! And for getting away from home for a bit during a pandemic!

30 Before 30 // Ice Skating!

#11) Take the kids ice skating.

This happened three weeks ago now (whoops) but we went to Peaks Ice Arena to give the kids their first experience on the ice! I hadn't planned on fulfilling this particular bucket list item for another year or two (once the kids got a bit older) but...we went to watch Doug's hockey game on June 20th and Nicole had been begging to go ice skating ever since. On the last day of June, we gave it a go!

Austin wasn't big enough to fit in the smallest skates yet, so he walked around on the ice in his shoes for a bit while the rest of us skated. Nicole was very wobbly, as was expected, but once she got her hands on a walker she didn't want us to help her at all. "I can do it myself!" she proclaimed. We didn't last long, but even skating for a short time is tiring work when you're not accustomed to it! Doug could skate circles around all of us all day, haha. Oh, those hockey players.

Nicole asked to go skating again the very next day, and has asked several more times since then, so we'll definitely have to give this another whirl. Perhaps in half a year once Austin's feet are big enough for those little skates.

^^^Ice arena lighting makes my hair look so yellow! Haha...

My "30 Before 30" bucket list can be found here.

Cornbelly's 2017

Happy October, everyone! The very best month!

^^^Still image from a video... hence, the blurriness :D

Nicole had a blast at Cornbelly's this year. Her favorite part was going through the corn maze, hands down! We did the shorter version of the full maze and let Nicole (mostly) lead us through it... and she LOVED it. Such a little wanderer. We also did the kid maze, which she found her own way through in less than 10 minutes. Austin just chilled up on Doug's shoulders most of the time. So cute.

Other favorites for Nicole included the giant slide (pictured above) and Cornbelly mountain, which is a big platform with 4 different slides going off it. Basically, she loves slides. She also was surprisingly excited about the ropes course and bravely walked along all the wiggly bridges and thin platforms. She drew the line at walking through The Creature with me, though. The attraction isn't haunted during the day (which means you can walk through it without having to pay the extra $$) but it's still dark and noisy, not to mention it's probably unsettling to see your mom walk into the mouth of a giant, inflated monster. Haha! Someday she'll go through scary attractions with me!

She also couldn't keep her hands off all the pumpkins because, as I've mentioned before, she's obsessed with pumpkins these days. We ended the evening with apple cider & pumpkin spice donuts, and neither of the kids had a past-bedtime meltdown, so I'd call the whole thing a success.

Now pardon me while I go obsess over all the leaves changing colors in our neighborhood. (Yay!!!! I looooove fall!!!!)

An Evening at Cornbelly's

Going to Cornbelly's was a "must" on my fall bucket list this year, especially since Nicole's old enough to enjoy parts of it. I wanted to make absolutely certain that we got to go before the baby arrives, so we went as early in the season as we could manage... aka, yesterday! The perk of going during this first week: no lines for anything. So nice.

I was bummed to discover that Nicole did not like the corn cob beach AT. ALL. and wanted to climb back out the moment I put her in. I had visions of getting some cute pictures of her rolling around in a giant pit of corn kernels... yeah. Not this year, Ashley.

I decided to try taking video clips for this trip instead of pictures... and I discovered that I'm horrible at getting variety (not to mention the evening lighting was horrible for filming without better equipment) BUT the little video I included should give you an idea of what Nicole enjoyed most on this outing: riding in the various tractor-pulled rides (hence why most of the video is so shaky), exploring, going down giant slides with Doug, and climbing on all the play structures. In fact, those things are what we did the whole time, aside from when we watched the pig races. The cow train was her favorite ride, although she liked seeing the jack-o-lanterns lit up all along the grain train trail (we saved that one for the end when it was dark).

This will be a fun place to bring our kids back to every year. The older they get, the more fun they'll have with all the activities! Especially with things like the corn maze and the haunted areas. I wish I could've gone in those, but Nicole would have died and had nightmares for life. Haha!

Yay for fall and Halloween!

How We "3 Day Weekend"

In my youth, Memorial Day weekend meant boating on Millerton Lake and having a BBQ swim party at my grandparent's house with homemade ice cream and brownies. Nowadays, I don't have access to a private pool or a boat, but we're searching for our own traditions! I need to figure out a good way to incorporate the meaning of the holiday into our shenanigans. When I was 12, my grandfather (a veteran) was interviewed about Memorial Day, and then the reporter asked me - the eldest grandchild - what Memorial Day meant to me... and I replied "Well, it means no school!" (because school lasts nearly halfway into June in California).

Womp womp womp. I want my kids to be a little more aware than that, ya know?

Our weekend included:

- Backyard picnics (hello, corn on the cob and grilled pineapple!!!!! Official summer food!)

- Yard work
- Disney movies
-Visiting the "Provo Beach" for carousel rides (which Nicole did not enjoy, sadly) and Dole Whips (they taste just like the ones at Disneyland!)
- The splash pad
- A Saturday of steak fajitas for breakfast and waffles for dinner
- A fresh summer haircut for me
- And when Mom leaves to get her haircut, apparently it's prime time for Dad and daughter to make a home video. Doug was so excited to show me when I got home haha. I included it at the bottom of the post for family who aren't on social media :)

Oh, and we celebrated 4 years of marriage a few days ago. We kept it low-key this year: Greek food and going to the movies. However, it was the first time I've been to the movie theater since before Nicole was born, I'm pretty sure... so it was a bit of a treat! And I ate waaaaay too much popcorn!

^^^She's just not sure about those horses... and the ride hadn't even started yet!

^^^Daddy helping her leap over ALL the things!!!

 ^^^Had to get a shot of those chubby thighs! They're slowly getting less chubby :(

^^^She almost never lets me hold her hand... but she'll hold Daddy's hand aaaaaall the time.

^^^Really though, you guys. Those legs.......

And we finally found some sandals that don't squish the life out of her chubby feet! Thanks for all the suggestions, you guys. Saltwaters were the most immediately accessible, so that's what we went with.

And lastly, the home video. Doug is very proud of it, you guys. I love this silly, silly family of mine! I can't wait to throw another baby in the mix! Why is pregnancy so loooong?!?!?!

Zoo Trip

This was our first time going to the Hogle Zoo in SLC! Doug was even able to tag along with us for the day. The last time Nicole went to a zoo was a year ago in Fresno, so this was a fresh experience for her. She waved at a lot of animals today, and her favorites ended up being the ducks and geese swimming in the elephant enclosure. Go figure... the animals who weren't actually part of the zoo ;) She sat there clapping her hands and making duck noises, and then she'd run away down the sidewalk and draw many comments about her chubby legs and cute smile along the way.

She's a charmer, that one.

 ^^^Pushing things = one of her favorite pastimes. Also, see what I mean by chubby legs?! :D

 ^^^Exhibit A: Nicole's favorite animals from our trip today. That girl...

 ^^^Exhibit B: This pretty kitty was MY favorite. Most of the big cats were napping/hiding today, but this one was restlessly pacing his cage.

Only downer of the trip: Nicole fell asleep during the last 10-15 minutes of the drive home, and then refused to finish her nap. She usually gets a 2 hour nap (3 hours yesterday! And 4 hours the day before! Growth spurt!) so I'm not surprised that she's extremely cranky this evening. I'm listening to her screech her head off upstairs right now while Doug tries to force her into her pajamas. Cranky. Absolutely cranky. Being a toddler is so hard, you guys. ;)