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Sunday, March 30, 2014

Jones/Ranson Family Pictures

We had the wonderful opportunity to take family pictures while we were in Utah. Like, real family pictures, in studio, with a real photographer! I haven't been able to do since long before Max was born and I was super excited. They all turned out so good! We went to a place called Camera Shy in American Fork, UT. The photographers were seriously so good and I couldn't believe they were able to get smiles out of Max, since he was pretty scared to be there. Here are all the ones of our little family, all of Max, and then some favorites.


Utah Spring Break

Since Bryan's school starts early and gets out super early, his spring break was in the middle of March. Winter wasn't even officially over. Bryan's parents JUST bought a house in Orem, Utah and we thought it would be nice for us to visit them a week after they moved in :). I don't think they minded it though. I've mentioned this before and honestly, though it will be hard to not have our families in the same city/state, it will most definitely be nice to have a reason to visit Utah (if we don't end up living there that is). Utah was our home for three years, the first three years of our marriage. Though we resented the state at first, it will forever remain very close to our hearts.

Anyway, we had such a wonderful little vacation! Max did THE BEST we could ever ask for. He was the perfect little traveler. It was a 12 hour drive and he only started getting antsy in the last hour, where he just got super chatty. It was cute. Also, he stayed in his own room at the new house where he had his own little toddler bed and he adjusted to it so well! He went to bed so easily starting the first night and slept 12 hours through the night, every night we were there. He also went down for his naps easily and slept 2-3 hours every day. The house is located in such a great little spot. It is only a five minute walk to the park, the library, and the church and only a five minute drive to the University Mall and other landmarks of our BYU days. I think we visited the park almost every day we were there and Max loved it so much! It was great to see him become more brave as the days went on and sliding on the super tall slide, or the enclosed slide that he started out afraid of. We were lucky enough to eat at Zupas twice, JDawgs twice, Pizza Pie Cafe twice, and Carrabas (once). I'm sure I gained at least five pounds during the one week we were there. We got to visit with our good friends, Scott and Emily Fletcher, twice who were nice enough to take us out to dinner, and Bryan's friend, Josh Albrechtsen, took us out to lunch. And of course we had lots of visits with Bryan's brother, Daniel, and his lovely family. We probably watched a movie with Bryan's parents every night we were there; his dad has a huge selection of movies. Max was absolutely obsessed with their cat, Chase. Chase hates kids so he would always run away from Max whenever he saw him, which of course led Max to chase after him every chance he got. It was so funny because Chase would swat at and hiss at Max when he got too close and eventually run away, but Max loved it. On the other hand, the Fletcher's cat was so docile. She let Max do whatever he wanted to her and she would just sit there. Oh! We also got to visit the Bassetts; the longtime friends of the Jones family. I don't know what it is, but their daughters, when they are little, they just become super attached to me! I was such good friends with their two oldest daughters when they were toddlers and now apparently I've become good friends with their youngest daughter, who is three. She, in fact, would even get jealous when I would turn my attention to my own son. So cute. Needless to say, we had a very busy, very wonderful time visiting the in-laws/grandparents.
 Just hanging out, watching TV while I packed.
 We left pretty early in the morning. Max is so cute when we have to wake him up. Once he wakes enough to notice something's going on, he slaps a smile right on his face and points out door so we can leave.
 Montana - Big Sky Country
 Having such a blast exploring the new house.

 Max had so much fun picking up a handful of bark (sticks?) at the park and throwing them at PopPop (the name we've gotten into the habit of calling "Papa" Jones).
 It was so cute to see him eating at the kids table with his cousins.
 Max loves elephants and was super excited about the giant stuffed elephant the grandparents had.
 Max didn't like Brydan nearly as much as the cat, but he did enjoy putting things on top of his head.
 He would always make me crawl into the giant inflatable ball.
 "Baby Burrito" as we like to call wrapping him up in his towel after his bath.
 This is Maddy, the Fletcher's cat.
 Such a sweet cat to Max.
 Scott and Emily Fletcher's baby. She is such a little sweetie! Max doesn't really understand babies since he's never around them. She started falling onto Max and he had NO idea what to do, so he would lean away from her and of course, the further he leaned, the more she fell onto him. He wouldn't even touch her because it was such a new experience to him. Oh, another funny story. Max likes to hold my hand and suck his thumb as a comfort thing. Well, the baby was holding my hand for balance and Max looked over at her and just snatched my hand away from her so he could hold it.
 Finally got him to smile, but he was so done with her. Lol. Oh to wonder what he will be like with a baby sibling.
 He loves to start out with a pillow at night, but ALWAYS scoots off of it by the time falls asleep and tends to end up under the covers. I used to just remove the pillow when I check on him at night, but he's been noticing that lately and will wake up and try to put anything on his bed to act as a pillow and then start whining when it doesn't work.
 When Max went down this slide on his tummy, he would FLY down and if we weren't there to catch him, he would seriously fly off the slide!
 JDAWG'S!!!!!!!!!!!!! *Please ignore the stoned look.
 They changed the front area of the Wilk so so much!
 Testing out Max's new shirt for family pictures.
 Max enjoyed the dog enough and learned that even though he is huge, he is still pretty sweet.
 Max loved to growl at PopPop like a bear or a lion.
 Major bedhead.
 Max and Chase. Oh, funny story. So Chase hates kids, yes, but we had to put Max in time out a couple times and he would (fake) cry the whole time. Chase actually came slowly right up to Max (luckily his back was turned) and then slowly walked away and starting crying himself and sounded pretty darn close to Max's cry.
 By the end of the trip Max came to love his Uncle Daniel too and pretty much jumped right into his arms. It's so weird not having a super seriously shy baby like he used to be.
 Grandma's neck pillow.
 Heading home.
 Showing off his new train that we got at the Cracker Barrel in Missoula, Montana.