Bring on the Fall! :)

Danger: Super long post in attempt to catch up. May lead to potential boredom. Sorry!

I'm so ready for fall! For all intents and purposes, summer is over but the heat just won't leave. I'm sure after a couple of weeks of snow I'll be looking back fondly at this heat and sunshine, but right now I just want to wear jackets and hoodies and take nice cool midday walks. Summer was a blast though. Logan returned to full health just in time for the Stoker Reunion and luckily we haven't had any other need for the nebulizer since. We had quite a drive both to and from the reunion with our cousins Brittany and Neal, lasting nearly 15 hours one way and including a screaming baby, a toll booth "evasion" ticket (in my grandma's car... :| ) and a terrible diaper blowout in the middle of nowhere. We survived though and it was worth it to spend the time with family.

A couple of weeks later we made it to the Channer Reunion down near Zions in Southern Utah. Eric couldn't take a whole week off school so Logan and I went down early with Eric's parents and Eric followed a few days later. It was a lot of fun, but I was really happy when Eric showed up. I don't know how people survive as single parents because it was rough being one for only a few days and I had Eric's family helping out! It was good though. We sang songs, listened to uncle Lane tell bear stories, played games, celebrated Adam's birthday, made crafts, shot off tennis ball cannons, etc. Sadly Logan had another first at the reunion: his first sunburn. We bought a hat and sunscreen for him, but I left them in the tent the first day because it was overcast. Stupid me. His poor little cheeks and nose got quite the burn but luckily he didn't act like it hurt too bad. I now have him wear his hat whenever we're going to spend much time outside and he looks super adorable in it. Here's a picture of him wearing it at the reunion while he sat in his Grandpa Channer's truck.

On the last full day Eric and I spent hours riding a four wheeler and hiking to a beautiful point on the mountain with Logan strapped to our backs in a baby backpack. The weather was beautiful and we saw quite a few deer and other wildlife. At the end of the reunion it was hard to say goodbye to Eric's family not knowing if it'd be a year before we saw them again. Luckily we'll see them in December because Mike recently got engaged and he'll be getting married on December 31st. The girl he's engaged to seems really great so we're super excited for him. :)

In an attempt to relax after the reunions, we took Logan to the Creamery on 9th for his first time. I love that place, but I felt so bad because Logan couldn't eat any solids yet and he was seriously eying our food.

A week or so later my mom brought Garrett to EFY at BYU and was a total life saver as she helped us finish moving out of our apartment (Thank you Brittany and Neal for helping us move out the big stuff!) and also cleaned. Moving is so hard with a baby but mom's make it so much easier! :) To let Eric focus on finals and finish his research paper for a professor, Logan and I went back to Washington with Mom and Garrett and Eric came up a week later. Another long car trip and one more massive diaper blowout in the middle of nowhere later, we made it to Washington. Here's Garrett holding Logan while we cleaned up...
We got to pretty much spend the month of August in Washington with my family and it was wonderful. I even got to play volleyball there once or twice! While in Washington, Logan started eating solids. We thought we'd be able to feed him solids at four months and even bought a high chair, but the pediatrician recommended we wait till six months, and boy was Logan ready by then. He started with rice cereal and veggies, and recently tried some fruit and he's doing so well. I thought I'd be chewed by his doctor for not feeding him MORE solids, but it looks like he's right on track. When he first ate solids, he managed to remain pretty clean actually, but not any more. Here's the difference between the first and second time.
We took Logan swimming for the first time at the Channer reunion, but he fell asleep pretty quick in a floaty tube so I'm not sure if it counts. We decided to try again in Washington at the same kiddie pool I played in as a little kid and he did a bit better. It was pretty funny actually because the pool's not real big and only a foot or so deep and people looked at us a little funny when Eric, my two youngest (but much bigger) brothers and I walked in to the pool with only one little kid. I don't think Logan really knew what to think of the cold water, but the other little kids at the pool were pretty excited to be around a baby. Afterwards we drove to a different park by the river to go swimming. I'm pretty terrible at swimming, and it'd been a really long time since I'd actually swam in the river, but Eric and my brothers pressured me into it and I ended up thoroughly enjoying it. It felt SO good and I discovered that there are actually tiny clams all over the floor of the river. I spent most of my life living near the Columbia River and I never even knew they were there. Here are some pictures of our outing. :)
During our month in Washington we also took a weekend trip to Portland, Oregon with our family and it was great. We stopped at the Bonneville fish hatchery on the way and looked at some massive sturgeon, salmon, and trout. Here's Grandpa Stoker looking at the trout with Logan.
While my Mom was in Utah I introduced her to her first Ikea store and consequently we had to take my dad and my brothers to one in Portland to share the love and show them how amazing they are. Here's Logan cuddling with Grandma Stoker and a soft blanket at the store.
We've now moved to Highland, Utah where we're living in the basement of my cousins Trevor and Tori's house. We've only been here for a few weeks but it's been such a blessing. With graduate tuition this year and diapers to buy, they've really helped us out and we're having a blast living with them. They've got four kids, ages 8, 6, nearly 2 and 10 months and it's Logan's chance to experience having older siblings for a while. He's going to have to get tough and learn to hold his own but he seems to really like the company.

Logan's getting to be a pretty big kid. At his doctor’s appointment yesterday, he was in the 92nd percentile for height and the 70th percentile for weight. He's also sitting up real well but hasn't started crawling yet. Now that he can roll over whenever he wants, he won't stay on his stomach and wants to be sitting or standing up instead. I hope he starts crawling soon so he can then work on walking, because snow will be that much more bearable if Logan can play in it.

Fall, please come soon! Besides the fabulous weather, fall brings the holiday seasons and we're super excited for them all. We actually listened to Christmas music the other night and we've already had Logan try on his Halloween costume. Does that make us a little anxious? ;)

Getting ready to pounce on his prey...

So there's 3+ months of our lives. I'll try to never have that long of a break between posts again, so hopefully you'll hear more about our Channer adventures soon!