Ethington Family Vacation 2008

Well now that we have a child Matt has declared we must start having family vacations every year. So last Saturday we packed up our little civic and set out on our first annual Ethington family vacation.

The first night we went to the Bar-J Wranglers dinner and show in Jackson Hole. I was really impressed with how well those cowboys could sing and play music! Here's a picture of us in the dinner hall before the show.

We spent that night in a "KOA Kamping Kabin" because we didn't want to pay the high price of a motel in Jackson Hole...and because Matt is in love with KOAs. Here is our little cabin.

The next day we tried to go to church in Jackson but when we got to the building there was a sign saying they were having stake conference in some other town, that's why we're in our church clothes for this next picture.

We walked around Jackson for awhile and then drove to West Yellowstone and spent the afternoon reading and playing with Spencer in our motel. We spent the rest of the week seeing Yellowstone. I had never been to Yellowstone before, it is amazing!

On Monday we rented a little boat for an hour and went out on Yellowstone Lake. Matt rowed the boat and I sat and enjoyed the scenery. Spencer liked it at first but then I think he got mad because the life-jacket was a little too snug around his cheeks!

After the lake we decided to let Spencer take his afternoon nap in the car while we drove around and looked for wildlife. We saw a lot of bison!

On Tuesday we looked at a lot of geysers and hot pots. We bought Spencer a little hat to keep his face out of the sun and Matt carried him around in our baby bjorn.

We went to the Old Faithful Lodge and watched Old Faithful frome the outside balcony, I thought it was awesome!

On Wednesday we hiked down Uncle Tom's trail to see the Lower Falls. We had to go down 328 steps, it was worth it, but on the trip back up I realized I am definitely out of shape!

Here is a picture of Spencer in our motel, I just think it's cute.

On Thursday morning we went to a museum in West Yellowstone (sorry, I'm sure you'll all be dissapointed, but we didn't take any pictures). Spencer was a little cranky that day so we decided we'd let him take a long afternoon nap in the car while we drove up to the Northeast part of Yellowstone, it is gorgeous up there! We stayed in the car so we didn't take any pictures. That night we got Chinese takeout in honor of the olympics in Beijing. Every night when we came back to our Motel we would get takeout from some restaurant and then sit and watch the olympics all night.

On Friday we drove home, we stopped by Cara and Mitch's in Logan and had dinner with them and Jaren and Blake. Jaren and Blake are up in Logan to go to school at Utah State now. Here's some pictures of the boys playing football. My niece Marin joined right in and had a blast!

Sorry this post is so massive, but there you have it, the first ever annual Ethington family vacation!

P.S. You may have noticed that Matt's face gets scruffier as the week goes on; he thinks when he's on vacation shaving isn't needed.

Rice Cereal

Well as you can see, our child is practically wasting away to nothing. Just look how hollow those cheeks are getting! So we decided we better fatten him up a little with some rice cereal. I think this is the beginning of a beautiful relationship Spencer is going to have with food, he loved it! He didn't really know what to think at first but then after awhile he liked it so much he would cry if I stopped giving him spoonfulls. Here are a few pictures and videos of the big event...


Getting Ready for the feast!

The Past Few Weeks...

Well the past couple weeks have been a lot of fun! The most exciting thing that happened was on July 24th my little brother, Jaren, came home from his mission in Sau Paulo, Brazil! Here are some pictures from the airport...

Jaren and my mom

Marin, Cara, Blake, Jaren, me, and Spencer

Jaren, me, and Spencer


Blake took us skim-boarding the day after Jaren got home. Here are a few highlights...





This is just a picture of Spencer doing tummy-time at my mom's house that I thought was cute.

Yesterday was Spencer's baby blessing. Our family and some friends came to Washington Terrace for the blessing. After the blessing we had a lunch at our house, it was so much fun to have everyone here!


Spencer's blessing outfit (minus the jacket)



Here is one with the jacket, he kind of looks like Elvis to me. There was a cute little white tie that went with the suit but I couldn't put it on because his top button wouldn't button up, his neck was just too fat!

















Here are some more pictures with friends and family...

It was a great day, it was so fun to have so many people there who love Spencer!