Utah trip. Best afternoon.

My main contribution on the "list of things to do in Utah" that we made before our trip (literally) was to go to a park in the canyon and lay down. I love Provo Canyon and I love laying in parks. Napping in parks is even better.

Another item on our list was to visit Bridal Veil Falls, which is in Provo Canyon. So, that's the park we chose to also lay down in. So glad I got my wish - it was the best afternoon: in the canyon, with my boys.

Me and Henry - yes, he's in there - at the Falls.

Bridal Veil Falls is often pretty crowded, as it was on this afternoon, but there were some grassy spots near the trail that felt a little more secluded. Perfect for laying.

Henry waking up from a cozy stay in the baby carrier. 

This is the Infant Insert that we put him in until he's big enough to be in the Ergo without it. We call it his taco.

After waking up he played with us for a good hour. Goodness, we are so entertained by that boy!

He loves squatting and standing.

Then... we layed.

 

Thanks, Provo Canyon.

Short video of the fun and magic of the afternoon.

Happier baby on the block

Henry is getting happier. And although he's always been a generally happy baby, we're so grateful that some things are getting even easier.

For example, he use to enjoy his evening bath only occasionally. Not on this occasion:

Now, this is usually what we see.

Thank goodness, too, because the idea of the bath is three fold 1) Daddy-time (I get so much skin-on-skin contact with Baby and this gives Rob a chance to too), 2) help calm him for bedtime, and 3) as a piece of a predictable routine for bedtime, to help him anticipate a (hopefully) long night sleep. Now that he enjoys it every evening, reason #2 is actually the case and makes ME feel a lot better.

Henry used to hate (I don't really know if he hated it. I can only guess from his reaction) getting his diaper changed. This stopped at about one month - but he still didn't like getting his clothes changed. Then at two months that stopped. Now, the changing table is one of his favorite places in the house! He's such a happy baby there! It's fun because in the morning when he's on it, he's still stretching from his (sometimes) long night sleep, which is funny to watch. It is also at a good height for us to talk and interact with him.

Naked baby.

 

So fun!

Utah trip. another part.

Henry loves staying at Lindsay's house!

Utah trip. another part.

Thanks to Esther and her amazing pool, we spent a couple days enjoying the sun. It was Henry's second time swimming - but he was about 3 weeks old his first time and slept through being held by dad in the pool, so we were excited to see how he liked it. It turns out he didn't love it and that, like all things, it depended on how tired or hungry he was. Rob takes a bath with Henry most nights as part of his bedtime routine, so he probably didn't think this was anything special!

I could not get over how cute he looked in his baseball-tee swim shirt and swim diaper

Not happy.

I'm pretty sure this was his favorite part of the day

Utah trip. part 1 (we'll see if I get to the other parts!)

We. love. Utah.
 
We both went to school there, so Utah is full of fond memories and important friends and we were so excited to go back and visit after 2 years since the last time we were there. Thanks to friends there and on the way, we know we can easily get down there and have a place to stay. To be honest, once we get there we think, "now what do we do?" But seeing friends and enjoying some sun is the best way to spend a vacation!

I'll dedicate this post to the friends we saw, since that really was the motivation to make the trip and what made it so great. We were so very excited to see our friends' babies and to show off our own! Unfortunately, we don't have pictures with everyone we visited (and ran into!) - but here's a taste...

Nyssa Farmers - who were patient with all of Henry's "burp up," as Kade called it

 The Bybees - kiddos pictured here. We want more of that food, ps.

 Drew Danburry - I just love this picture. Also Lynnette

 Jessica - she actually lives in Sundance. I didn't know people did that

 Jorgensens - splendid evening, in every way. Finally got to meet that Scandinavian Baby!

 Provo Farmers - so glad I got to see you ladies!

I can't believe it, that's all the pictures we got. How did we miss everyone else (even Linds!):
Lindsay (lots and lots of time with LJ!), Nathaniel & Angie (aka. future newlyweds), the Maddocks' (that Heaton = Q.T.), Emily (1/2 of future newlyweds), Esther & Family (even the one in her belly, we just didn't know it yet!), Liv & kids (Robby's smile killed me), Tara & girls (so fun and funny), Rachel (fun surprise!), Julian (Rob didn't make me come - they talked video-geek-talk), President & Sister Cameron (my mission pres). More?

We also just barely missed some friends - Michelle, Cindy, the Sanders. More?

So so glad all of you still live in Utah so we can see you all in one trip! Thanks so much for making the time, making the beds, and making the food!

so sleepy

We tried out the Bumbo one day - he was way too small for it, so we were surprised when he fell asleep while we had him in it - apparently it was still comfy!

I love the falling-to-sleep progression here:

faces

(end of June - almost 2 months old)

faces

(End of June; abt 1 1/2 months old)

Picnic at Greenlake

It's summer time in the Nyland home! And while that doesn't mean that the weather is great (at all), it does mean that Rob is home all day, every day! What fun. We can do things like go to Greenlake during the week, when it's not super busy. The cloudy skies also helped it not to be busy, I guess. Baby's first Greenlake trip...

around the corner

I love looking around the corner from the kitchen to find this familiar scene:

Daddy-time is the best!

Henry is 2 months

Our little boy Henry is 2 months old today. He is getting bigger and more fun all of the time. We recently put him to the test by taking him on a trip to Utah. He was a champ and he had a good time meeting some honorary Aunts and Uncles (special thanks to Farmers, Lindsay and Nathaniel for letting us crash at your place).

Here is some things we love about Henry right now:

• He has started smiling and he makes fun little noises when you play with him.
• He is still sleeping about as well as he did during the first month. Stephanie typically will get up twice during the night to feed him (did I mention that I am ever grateful for this woman? She seriously kicks all kinds of butt).
• He gets pretty fussy right around 8 or 9pm -- we usually take him for a walk around the neighborhood which does a pretty good job of calming him down.
• Me and Henry take a bath or a shower every night. Sometimes he likes it -- sometimes he is inconsolable.
• He is still super noisy when he sleeps and we've found that we have a hard time sleeping in the same room with him.
• He goes down for naps pretty easily and he does a good job of letting us know that he's tired.
• His eyes are definitely blue.

We love this boy a lot and I am so excited that I get to spend some time off this summer hanging with him.