Happy Birthday Tori

Today our baby turned three years old. Hard to believe that she is there already, although the evidence is all around us that she just isn't a baby anymore (in fact, she gets really annoyed when she hears people call her 'baby' or 'little girl,' because she's a 'BIG girl.' Whatever.).

Lucky for all of us, this was also the day the Johnsons were in town, before dropping of Nick at the Missionary Training Center. So we headed up Provo Canyon to see Bridalveil Falls, Squaw Peak, and amazing fall colors.

Tori loved walking around in the cool water at the base of the waterfall.

Of course, the boys insisted on continuing to climb and climb, no matter how dangerous.

I kept getting mesmerized by the colors and views and snapped a few (dozen) scenery shots. This one of the Provo river looking up the canyon.
And this one on the way up to Squaw Peak.
The boys hamming it up at Squaw Peak--hanging on for dear life.
And of course, anything the brothers do, Tori has to 'do too.' Apparently she thought an open mouth was the key to this shot.
More scenery on the way back down the mountain.
When we got home we ate dinner, then got ready for the party. Liz had been meticulously preparing over the past two days to put together a 'princess cake.' Her idea was to make one that looked like a castle, and although it didn't turn out quite like Liz had imagined, Tori was definitely pleased with the result.
She was very pleased with the result.
I thought it turned out pretty well too.
She was mesmerized by the cake for a little while, and then we all had to help her blow the candles out.
After the party, while I was sitting on the couch, I noticed that we had inadvertently created a 'Hidden Mickey' (for you Disney fans).
Tori was stoked on her princess gear--decked out with the tiara, Snow White phone, shoes, etc. I was trying to ignore the flash forward I was having to a 16-year-old diva thinking she was an actual princess.
These can't really be my baby's feet, can they?
Then Joey and I started playing around with the camera.
And playing some more (and there are many more pictures that I will blackmail him with when he's a teenager).
It was a great day and night. Tori had a good birthday and we had the good fortune of spending time with the Johnsons. She got a Sleeping Beauty from the Johnsons that she insisted on sleeping with tonight, stroking her hair and talking to her, telling Liz that 'Sleeping Beauty doesn't sleep with her crown, but she wants the blankets on her legs.' We love our Tori.

As a bonus, here are a few pictures from a recent consulting trip I made to eastern Idaho. Here is the relatively new LDS temple in Rexburg, with a quarter moon.
And of course, when you're in Idaho, you might just run across an X-wing fighter that someone built, complete with hubcaps as ornaments.
Going east from Rexburg, dropping down into the Teton Valley to the cities of Tetonia, Driggs and Victor, as the Tetons come into full view.
Also, when you're in Idaho, you might come across a giant container of recently harvested (digged?) potatoes with a sign that says "FrEE SpuDS TEKE EM ALI" (to be fair, they probably just ran out of room on the last "L").
And indeed, many people were there, crawling all over the spuds, 'teking em all.'
And on the way out of town, back toward Utah, one last look at the Tetons in the rear-view, where objects may be closer than they appear...

Long-needed update

So we may have been a little delinquent (okay, a lot delinquent) in the updating of our blog lately. Many things have been happening and the last few months have been a bit of a whirlwind. Perhaps we can fill in the gaps in the coming weeks, but the basics are:

- Joe left his job in Indianapolis at the end of July.
- Put our house on the market, and it sold in four days.
- Moved to Provo over Labor Day weekend.

We are now based in Provo, UT and are enjoying it a lot. We miss our friends back in Indianapolis very much, but are happy to be near family for once in our lives. We love being close to BYU, except for when they play Florida State.

Here are some pictures of the last few weeks:

Tori has enjoyed every chance she gets to hold baby Jonathan (cousin).

And spending time with her other cousin Gwen.

And playing with her other cousin Tasman's lip gloss and hats.

We celebrated Liz and Gwen's birthdays (they both turn on the 20th of September).

Then today, we grabbed the boys from school and struck off up Provo Canyon. The mountains around Heber/Midway are already covered with red leaves--something we've really missed ever since we lived in Washington DC.


And we kept going until we got to Strawberry Reservoir, so we could see the kokanee (a fresh-water salmon species) running up the Strawberry river.

They were literally everywhere we looked.

We drove around to the reservoir and threw a line in the water to see if we could catch anything. I didn't think we'd catch much since it was about 4pm, so we were surprised when Joey reeled in a pretty fat rainbow. His smile is weird because he's nervous about (a) either dropping the fish on the rocks for the third time, or (b) the blood running down his arm. Luckily, the fish was released without (too much) injury. Next time we'll be ready with a cooler so we can have a fish fry.