Blog Smog

Well here I am again ready to give another two months worth of fun in one blog post. I'm pitiful really, and terribly inconsistent in my blogging. Apparently i'm not the only one saying "Where the hell did September and October go?" Several people have made comments about Sept and Oct going by fast but seriously, I don't know what happened but suddenly they vanished into thin air, i'm so glad. So here is our lives through September and October in "Yakistan", as we like to call it. This post is long but mostly because it's pictures :)

September was birth to Olives first plane ride. I was nervous about flying with her, especially because I was doing it alone and all she wanted to do was crawl and rip through everything. Our first little trip from Yakima to SEATAC was cake, she slept the whole way in her carseat happy as a clam. From SEATAC to SLC was a different story, sorry fellow passengers for your ear drums. But at least she's cute right? Luckily we made friends with a kind Gent next to us and he held her and played with her so that helped the ride. She finally fell asleep on my lap 15 minutes before we landed, great. But we made it there in one piece with only a small amount of puke on my shirt and a small poop stain on my pants. My mom was so happy to see her, she ran up a grabbed her from me and spent the next 20 minutes telling Olive how much she missed her. Yep, i'm chopped liver now. No one can compete with Olive. We spent a fabulous week with no sleep in Mapleton playing with the Harlan's.

 Olives first plane ride, doesn't she look excited?

 We stopped by and held our new cousin Baby Brooke's. He is precious and a handsome chap! He's not pictured but our cousin Blaire is!

Olive also got to play with her 2nd cousin Eliza. Olive was a bit too rough, she kept screaming and trying to roll over on poor Eliza. It kept me amused. 

 We were able to be in town for our good friend Esme's baby blessing and had an amazing time eating food up the canyon! Nothing better than food, oh and friends!

 We were glad to see Great Grandpa Neal and Grammy!

Olive Loves Gramma Trina

Later in the week we headed up to Idaho Falls for Katee (Glen's Sister) wedding, the whole point of this madness of a trip! We stopped at the Zolmans in Brigham City on our way! Love you kids!

We arrived at about 1am. No thanks to our car top carrier that made me believe that car-planes are somewhere in the near future. It felt like we were taking off and landing over and over again. Fun, right? Glen left right after school and drove all night and met us there about 3am. We had plans for the temple to next morning. I woke up a few hours later to hear Glen puking in the bathroom. The poor man drank 4 Mountain Dews, a bag of spicy hot cheetos, sour path kids, and a pizza pocket for dinner. A man truly of my desires, however, he's not 16 anymore and can't handle it. After a few hours of that nonsense we made it to the temple and it was lovely! 

Love ya Glen, you look decent even after puking all morning!!

The next day we went to the temple and watched Katee and Mike get married for time and all eternity. It made me a bit emotional thinking about how amazing families are and how grateful I am for mine. We mostly took pictures all day and set up for the reception and then danced,  played, and ate all night!

 Olives Bennion cousins!

 All the Bennions!

 Grandma Nae Nae and her grandbabies!

 Glen and his sissy's!

 Sometimes how I feel about fussy babies.

 The Harlan's even came and celebrated! 

Our Friend McKenna went with Olive and I to Bills Berry Farm. We put on our boots and flannel and drove about 45 minute drive to the middle of nowhere...well except to Bills Berry Farm so I guess it was somewhere. We ate carmel apples, donuts, and hamburgers. We then enjoyed 5 hay bale rides (we kept forgetting things at the car). We watched fresh apple cider being pressed and then did a corn maze. The corn maze was awesome except after 45 minutes and a little sweat we started getting nervous, we ended up at the beginning again and asked the lady to steer us towards the exit, apparently the entrance and exit are the same. Wished they would've told us that before we wandered around for an extra 30 minutes. It was a perfect day to ring in Fall weather. 

We headed to Seattle to go to Point Defiance Zoo and Aquarium! It was a fun day filled with animals and very tired moms at the end! Thanks Liz for the fun day!

 Olive loved the aquarium glass!

 That's a big walrus! (that's what she sai...nevermind.)

Polar bears are huge.

We had a perfect day at The Castle Playground. Most people wouldn't blog about a dumb day at the park but when your husband is in Medical School we live for these few hours when we get him to ourselves, no school talk, just fun. 

 Olive loves to swing!

Love my Boo!

My cutest little sister came out and kept Olive and I busy! We picked her up from her friend in Portland (she came bearing gifts-Voodoo donuts!) We took her home to Yakima with us where we shopped for a few days, watched movies and TV and then headed To Olympia to see our cousin Renae. The next morning we dropped her off at the airport, it was so sad to say goodbye. I wanted to cry. Glen, Olive and I took on Seattle that day. It was nice to show Glen around a few of the places I knew :) The pier was under construction (new seawall) so Ivers is going to have to wait. We did Pikes Place, the gum wall and of course we did some shopping! Hello Seattle. Goodbye Seattle.

 Dinner in Olympia!

 Olive loves pastries just like her Dad!

 She's happy to be living in the NW.

 Love my bae.

I threw Glen a little Birthday party! Happy 27th babe! We had a good time playing games and laughing with some of our friends! +Our friends know how to do Halloween cause check some of these costumes out!

 Baseball, typical Jared.

 Jack and Jill.

 Leslie Knope and Ron Swanson.

 Cops and robbers!

Our family costumes this year were successful to say the least + it kept me busy for a few days :) Olive enjoyed our Ward Trunk-or-Treat, I think I enjoyed it even more. Jimmy Kimmel would be proud cause I truly ate all of Olives candy in one night!

 Christopher Robin, Piglet and Pooh in the Hundred Acre Wood. Glen says "Wow the Hundred Acre Wood is really just 100 acres of trees." I married a smart man friends. Yes he's going to be a doctor.

 Halloween Day we headed up to a Cabin on Clear Lake with a few families from our ward. It was so fun and cozy! We had good food and learned a new board game. We even took the canoe out the next morning with Olive, she pooped and cried so my Pocahontas dream only lived for 5 minutes. But hey, it lived.

Our creepy food man!

Bring it on November!!!

Yakima Adventures via "Worst Blogger Ever"

I really have been MIA. Missing In Action due to our adventures, exploring, and various activities in this wonderful place that I can officially call home (unpacked the last box yesterday, excuse me while I freak out with excitement!) I loathe moving...moving on before I rant.
Here is what we have done in July-August....... READY GO

White Coat Ceremony: Sat in a beautiful theatre and watched Glen receive his white coat. He looks like a real doctor now! Proud of you babe, but i'm more proud of the person who came up with the Peach Creme brûlée at the restaurant we ate at afterwards! Come to Yakima just for that people.

First Day of School- Let's be honest I wasn't that excited for this day. But Olive looks so damn cute that i'll post about it. Go Glen!!! Go Olive!!!

Our cousin Renae came to visit us! We love her. Enjoyed a good visit and dinner. (Olive occasionally is naked, please don't judge)

Hops Festival-Yakima grows basically everything, but mostly grapes for wine and hops for beer. We enjoyed a parade that had the most candy thrown than any parade I've ever been to. I knew there was a reason I go to things that Olive could care less about! Look at her face in the stroller parade pic, it was really too hot, she looks how I felt. We enjoyed the parade and funnel cake+corndog with our friend McKenna. I took Glen back later after school to show him the fresh donuts and just to walk around!

Walking the Greenbelt, Berry Picking, Splash Pad: Exactly what they sound like.

Boat Races in Kennewick: We went and watched the hydroplane boat races in Tri-cities. The day started out with a Air Show right above the river. It was a perfect day spent by the water drinking Pepsi, eating lunchables, stax, and watching the races. Those boats were seriously impressive, they are average speeds of 120mph. One of my favorite days so far.

My next favorite day is Leavenworth and apple cider tasting: We went with our friends McKenna and Kourtey to Leavenworth for the day! Such a quaint town that makes you feel like you moved to Europe. Candy shops, pastries, a little bit of hiking and shopping made for my perfect date! Afterwards we hit up an Apple Cider brewery for a tasting and of course we left with a couple bottles.

Mom Camp: 12 Moms, 40 kids, no sleep, fun hikes, good food, rattlesnake, swarming bees and laughing until I cried all made for a memorable time. Mom Camp 2014 was a success. Shout out to  the brilliant minds of Mom Camp. Olive and I had a blast + Olive made 40 friends and it was a vacation because I hardly held her those 3 days, she was a hot item to say the least.

Rimrock Lake: Took friends, fried chicken, sour patch kids, and floatation devices out to Rimrock Lake. We played in the water all day. Fun times.

Anniversary: Our amazing friends Dave and Amberlee offered to watch Olive while we went on a date for our two Anniversary. We went out to dinner and had plans to do other things but we ended up sitting in downtown Yakima and talking for an hour. It was much needed time away from the little miss Olive and reminded me why I married Glen. Happy 2 years! Thank for the laughs and always keeping me in line. XOXO

Mt. Rainier: We woke up after our Anniversary date and decided that we needed some more family time. Med School has a way of stealing every ounce of energy and leaves you feeling distant from your family if you're not careful, especially while we were still adjusting, and currently still are. So on a whim we decided church could wait until next week and jumped in the car and spent the day in Mt. Rainier National Park. Basically we drove to Switzerland for the day. It was so unbelievably beautiful, It didn't seem like real life. Come visit us and this too could be you, frolicking through the flowers in Switzerland...no really, please come visit me.

That's our first two months in Yakima. Life is going to be okay here after all. I really am falling in love with WA. I don't know if i'll ever leave :)

Live in the Northwest...CHECK!

We officially arrived at our new home in Yakima (gazoontight!). There is nothing worse than moving-except maybe worms in your cereal...maybe. We are pretty much done unpacking but still have a pretty empty house due to the fact that we have never bought large pieces of furniture. In Logan we must have looked really poor or something because people kept giving us couches and tables and things! It was great. I am thinking I can pull the same stunt here; cue the dirt on face and I'm bringing out the ash cloth to wear as we speak. Alas we ordered a couch this week and it is coming in the mail. I keep telling Glen to go check the mailbox to see if our couch is here yet, I think I'm really funny! We bought two hideously beautiful retro chairs from Goodwill and combined with our new couch and my good eye I'm pretty sure I can pull of this decorating thing. I'll post pictures when it's all done because as of right now all we have is the two chairs and our apartment could borderline be a meth house.
We've kept ourselves pretty busy between packing, figuring out where everything is,  and finding things to do before Glen starts school. Once the school thing happens Olive will have to be my partner in crime and she can't even walk. (NOT complaining-I'm grateful Lord she can't)

Dad and Camille came out to Yakima to help us move. They are absolute saints, but a little better looking. They helped us unpack and get settled. What those two got done in 2 days I probably get done in a year. I get a little distracted while trying to unpack, it's like everything is brand spanking new. We are so grateful for them! Oh and like 6 people from our ward showed up to help so that was super awesome. We were grateful no one sued us due to heat stroke because we moved in on the hottest day of the year- 106 degrees ladies and gentlemen. We were grateful for every ones help so that we didn't die before Glen got to even start Med School cause that would've been a big bummer.

Have you ever eaten an apple? If not what about a peach, strawberry, blackberry, raspberry, apricot, drank beer or wine, cucumber, pear etc? Well you've had a taste of Yakima. We live in wine country, don't all come visit us at once! We are surrounded by orchards, orchards and more orchards. We went and picked 18 pounds of blackberries and strawberries. It was so fun. Glen gave Olive some to try and she loved them! She loved them so much she decided to ruin everything she and her mom were wearing because she squeezed them all over! We've been eating berries ever since. I made the best berry cobbler, it only took 5 minutes to prepare, that's what made is so good! We also went and explored our local  arbitrarium- a place where trees and shrubs are cultivated (I feel so smart). They had the best rose garden! The only bad thing about it was the geese poop that decided to get all over our feet and stroller. We learned all about different trees and even explored a Japanese garden! We hit garage sales over the weekend and found some small treasures. We also went and walked the Greenbelt, it is a long trail that runs along the river here. Sunday we were super impressed by our ward as we met a lot of nice families and got 4 dinner invites for that night-I've never felt so famous before. We've explored and found the best parks nearby for me and baby Olive to go play at during the days and of course we found the best and closest shopping for me. If I'm going to survive this Med school thing there damn well be a Target and Tj Maxx nearby. (I'm happy, 10 minutes to be exact)

 BERRIES!

 Picking berries with Miss Olive

Walking along the Greenbelt

 The rose garden was amazing!

I forgot to mention Olive is crawling. I also forgot to mention I dropped her right on her head at church. It was pretty traumatic and she and I both survived so i'm convinced we can make it through anything. When she's a teenager i'm sure i'll wish I could do it again...kidding. It was really horrible and I felt terrible plus my whole relief society saw me, I shall now be known as the "baby tosser". I have been working on her nursery and finished her polka dot wall, I was happy how it turned out except the gold vinyl doesn't want to stick for some reason...i'm irritated but i'm going to figure something out.

I think we are going to like it here, that is if our car doesn't get stolen (one of the highest auto theft stats in the nation). I wasn't relieved one bit as our friends in our complex almost had theirs stolen a few months ago...I miss you Utah. We miss our families but we've survived a week and it was a blink of an eye. I have a feeling it will be a bit slower once school starts but let's pretend that it'll go fast. Cheers to 1 week down 2 years to go in Yakima!

 Our beautiful, hideous chairs 

 Olive loves her new crib!

 Polka dot wall and Olive rubbing it in my face that she can pull herself up and almost out of her crib. I'm unamused.