At the end of April, once Nathan was done with school. we decided to go on a roadtrip to Washington DC. We traveled all day and all night and made it to Chicago 24 hours later. We stayed in a super sweet hotel there for two nights. We decided to spend a day wandering Chicago. First we did the Sky Deck at the Willis Tower (Sears Tower). That was so much fun. Super scary, especially when I'm terrified of heights. Even Nathan and Oliver had a hard time stepping out there. It took me quite awhile to get up enough courage to go out there. Nathan ended up having to hold my hand as we stepped out. It was freaky. After that fun little adventure we went to lunch at the BEST pizza place ever. We had Chicago style pizza and it was SOOOOOO tasty! Pizza is my favorite, so I was a happy girl. After that we went and walked around Chicago. We walked to this super sweet fountain then we walked along Lake Michigan. It was so beautiful. We had tons of fun. The next day we drove to Washington DC. We stayed with one of my friends there for about 5 days. We did all sorts of things there. We saw the White House, Washington Monument, tons of Museums (Nathan's favorite by far was the Natural History Museum.), Botanical Gardens, lots of different parks, the Jefferson Memorial, the Lincoln Memorial, Drove around to some of Nathan's old mission spots, and just walked around DC. We had tons of fun there too. It's so beautiful there. After that we drove through Shenandoah National Park. That was a really pretty drive and we would have wanted to do all sorts of hikes, but we didn't have any way to carry Oliver on those hikes and we didn't want to carry him 3-5 miles. After that we took our time driving back to Utah. We stopped in West Virginia for a night. And then we stopped in St. Louis. We had tons and tons of fun on our trip. Here are some pictures from the trip.

Oliver Chillin' in the car

Oliver playing with rocks, just like his Daddy

Storm in Missouri

Oliver running through the forest in Shenandoah National Park

Shenandoah National Park

Oliver wasted after playing all day. He loves snuggling his turtle and his new monkey we got him at the Natural History Museum.

Oliver eating his Beefy Crunch Burrito from Taco Bell. He LOVES those.

We thought this was funny.

Oliver and I

Daddy and Oliver at the Natural History Museum

Daddy showing Oliver airplanes at the Washington National Airport.

Oliver fell asleep on the Metro in DC. He was so wasted.

Oliver and I at the National Botanical Gardens.

Great Falls Park, DC

Oliver at the White House

Oliver's friend at a Walmart we stopped at.

Chicago

The best pizza EVER!

Sky Deck. Willis Tower (Sears Tower) Chicago

Oliver was scared too.

Sky Deck. Willis Tower (Sears Tower) Chicago

Oliver just chillin' in the car watching his movies.

Wyoming

Wyoming

Oliver's First Birthday

So today was Oliver's first birthday. I can't believe that it has already been a year. He is growing so fast! We celebrated by going over to Nathan's parents house for a birthday party. We had pizza for dinner. He LOVES pizza, just like his Mommy. Then we moved onto presents. He got a fun little bouncing rocking horse, Cars silverware, Cars plate and bowl, and some Toy Story pajamas from Grandma and Grandpa. He LOVES Cars and Toy Story. Those are a couple of his favorite movies. He got some Cars pajamas and Cars bibs from Uncle Bryson, Auntie Ashley, and Bella. He also got an aquarium with fish, a helicopter toy, and the movie Bolt from Mommy and Daddy. After presents, we moved onto cake. I made Oliver a Nemo cake and a little polka dot cake for him to dig into. It was so much fun celebrating with everyone. We'll be going up to Washington next week and we'll be celebrating again with my side of the family. I absolutely love having this little boy in my life. He makes me so happy and he's such a fun little guy to have around. He's such a little sweetheart. He is always snuggling me and giving me kisses, which I LOVE! He's been into licking everything lately. The first thing when I get him up in the morning is lick my arm or neck. It's so weird, but it makes me laugh. He's such a goofball. He's only taking a few step right now. He takes about 5-7 steps. Hopefully he will be walking soon. Here are some fun pictures from his birthday.


Oliver chowing down on his cake





Yummy!


"What Mom?"


He loved the flame.


The Nemo cake I made Oliver


"Yay! I'm so big!"


Opening presents with Daddy's help


"Am I supposed to eat my presents?"

More Oliver!!! :D

He's all ready to head to Hawaii


We're going to check him :)


Flirting with the camera


This was on our little walk we went on up the canyon yesterday


And again


Oliver Taco!


Oliver taco again


Hot tubbing... Oliver style

Oliver

These are the sunglasses we bought him for our trip to Hawaii in 10 days! :) I thought this picture was too cute not to post.

Camping

We took Oliver camping for the first time this past weekend for Nathan's 25th birthday. It was cold and our firewood was kind of wet, but we ended up having a fun time anyway. We finally got a little fire going and Oliver loved it. He was staring at it all night. Oliver did better camping than what I expected so that was really nice. We didn't get too many pictures, but here are a few that we got.


Oliver hiking around with his Daddy


Oliver staring at his Daddy


"I love camping!"


Oliver in his cute little bear coat. It was pretty cold.


This is Nathan looking for cool rocks