newport beach.

when travis asked me what i wanted for my birthday this year, i told him, "the beach."
so when his family invited us to stay with them in their newport beach timeshare, we were like H TO THE YES. luckily the timing fell on my 26th birthday.

i had a photo shoot monday night, and because we are crazy, we decided to drive the 4 hours to st. george that night, and then finish with 8-ish hours on the road the next day.

as always, things never go as planned. we were going to stay at my grandparents' house in st. george, but their friends had misunderstood where to leave the keys (my grandparents live in IF most of the year.) so when we got to their house at 2:30 in the AM and searched for the keys in the pouring rain with a screaming bebe, ish got a little crazy.  we checked into a hotel and remy was pretty confused about why we were sleeping in a scary strange place. finally at 4 AM, we drove to walmart to buy benadryl to drug our boy to sleep. (good thinking trav!)

then next morning found us a bit less than bright eyed and bushy tailed, but we pushed forward. stopped in vegas for lunch and found a random place in the back of a casino that made AMAZING gnocchi.

 remy did pretty well during the drive. we had tons of books and toys to entertain him. he slept a lot of it. we may have bribed him with suckers as well.

remy loved vegas. so many things to look at and people to say hi to. even j. depp!

travis get extremely hangry and i was dead set to eat somewhere good in vegas, not just a chain fast food place. i may have made us walk for a good 40 minutes to find somewhere to eat. travis may have gotten fed up with my pickiness. "only a charles." he kept muttering. 

after the rest of the 9 hour drive, we were SO READY to get out of the car. we drove straight to the beach. i may have started yelling a lot when the ocean came into view. we spent 15 minutes trying to find parking, and i was getting a little too excited for travis, like standing up in the car and screaming, "LOOK REMY THE BEACH LOOK THE OCEAN!" so travis dropped us off and went to find parking. 

i don't know how to explain the way i feel about the ocean. seeing it feels like coming home, every time. like greeting an old friend, your best friend. being there with remy, seeing his excitement, may have brought me to tears. 

 after watching the sun set, we headed to steve and cheryl's amazing condo and enjoyed a long night's rest. the next morning was my birthday! and we headed to the beach! i didn't get many pictures this day, probably because we were far too busy exploring the beach, finding sea creatures to poke, playing in the water, and building sandcastles. remington is absolutely a beach baby. the ocean was "wooooooahhhhh!" and he loved to wiggle through the sand.

( thanks for the picture whitney!)

that night we ate dinner at a delicious italian place on balboa island and i was spoiled with a ridiculously pricey plate of pasta and fresh shrimp and some kind of buttery creamy cheesy tomatoey sauce. 

i told the waiter, "guess what, it's my birthday!" and he said, "oh that's nice." 

i was a little let down, because i actually like being serenaded by the staff and given a free dessert. 

then travis told him again, and the waiter apologized up and down. "people always come try to scam us with that." apology was accepted, because they brought me a huge cannoli with candles and sang their hearts out. BEST BE SINGING TO ME ON MY BIRTHDAY WAITER. 

the next couple days were a blur of beautiful beaches, incredible food, and hanging with the family. 

nothing i love more than the view from windows including the pacific.

the whole group of us.

it all passed too quick, as dreamy vacations tend to do. 

remington was fantastic. sleeping well in his pack and play, eating well, adapting to the messing with his schedule. travis and i enjoyed seeing each other every day for a whole week! 

remy and i flew home saturday morning and travis drove 9 hours to richfield to go bow hunting with his dad and brothers. (we saved $100 on our flight with trav's military discount!) 

remy did really well on the plane. trav's mom, julie, was with us and the guy who was supposed to have the window seat had a thing for one of the women on our flight and she happened to have an empty seat next to her, which he gladly snapped up. so we had the whole row to ourselves! 

thank goodness for sex appeal, right? 

goodbye newport beach! hope to see you again next year. 

(thank you a million steve and cheryl for sharing your condo with us!) 

xo. 

good morning, remington.

overnighter on the south fork and island park family reunion.

i'm falling behind in our summer adventures.
in july we headed up to idaho for the annual charles family reunion.
travis had to work the 4th of july, so i went on an overnighter fishing trip on the south fork with my dad and brother reed. (oma watched remy.)

 my dad has been inviting me to go on this overnighter for about 10 years. i've always said no for several reasons. i don't enjoy pooping in the woods and i don't really love camping somewhere without any running water bathrooms. also i don't really love to fish and two 12 hours days of fly fishing in a boat just isn't my cuppa.  but ever since my pregnancy when i promised myself i'd appreciate life as a healthy able bodied person and take whatever opportunities came my way, i've been saying yes to more things.

the trip ended up being a really great time!

i was able to read without the interruptions of a toddler and i got through the first two divergent books, which were addictive. also, sunbathing. i tried rowing for about... 5 minutes. yeah that didn't work out with my shrimpy arms.

 ridiculously gorgeous scenery.

here's where we set up camp for the night. we got a pretty little stream that filtered off of the main river. also some people were camped on the other side of our little island and they were having a grand old party. they shot off some huge fireworks, so we got our 4th of july show.

i pooped in the woods, multiple times.
it wasn't that traumatic.

my dad, the master fisherman teaching me the ways. he and reed caught around 30 fish. i caught three.
also my dad spoke in a hillbilly accent and called himself "hank" almost the entire trip.
if you know my dad, you know that this is sort of surprising.


i was definitely ready to get off the boat after our second 12 hour day.
travis met up with us the next morning in idaho falls and we headed up to island park for the reunion.

we rented a paddle board and also a canoe that travis and i capsized multiple times. one of the times, remy was with us, so he experienced his first snake river baptism. (he had a life jacket on and didn't even get his head wet.)

that night we drove in to west yellowstone for pizza with the whole family and to see a play at the local playhouse, the playmill. highly recommend going to a show if you are up that direction!

my parents generously gave up their tickets to us and watched the babe.

the next day we went boating on island park reservoir. remy took a little while to warm up to the idea.

we had a really great time. i'd been worried that remy wouldn't sleep well in the cabin full of loud people who aren't used to being quiet for a baby, but he did so well, which made the trip enjoyable for us too. the weather was beautiful and sunny, we got to see travis every day for a whole week, (!) and it was fun seeing family who live far away. (and i just realized i didn't get any pictures with them...)

hope you are having a good summer too!

xo.