Beach-tastic!

I never thought my first trip to the beach would be unplanned and spontaneous, but it was! On Monday, the first day of Bradley's Spring break, we were twiddling our thumbs trying to come up with activities to fill our week. We tossed around local stuff and Nauvoo...but my joking proposition to go to Florida starting turning into a reality the more we crunched the numbers. We booked our hotel on Hotwire, packed our sunscreen, and at 3 am the next morning, we set off for Pensacola Beach.

I had no expectations. I thought the beach would be rocky and cold. The lack anticipation and planning really made the trip one of the best ones I've ever experienced. Flying by the seat of your pants really pays off sometimes...

Sweet & Sour

Sweet...



Sour...

Cabin Fever Made Bad Snip-Snap

I don't really know what happened during Oliver's 6th month, but the pictures I took were extra special. Enjoy...?


I like this one. It says hunter-gatherer all over it.

Hunter-gatherer down.

Ode to flash dance.

There's no unicorn, is there?

My bum's in a bowl. My bum's in a bowl. Sing it, now.

Hunter-gatherer meets hobo.

Christmas pageant goes ill.

I've got three dirty diapers hidden up there.




We really only leave the house for church. Explains a lot...

Our Holiday Adventure

Well its a brand new year and time for the first blog update of 2011! We had a great Christmas vacation this year which consisted of a lot of TRAVELING!!! We wanted to take advantage of the time we had off for the holidays to see as many people as possible and it turned out to be a great success! Our first journey was a rivoting 10 hour drive from Des Moines to Colorado Springs which is always a lot of fun! Althouth the drive wasn't that great we had a great time with the bennion family seeing movies and just having a great time! Claire especially liked dressing up Oliver with the tupperware bowls.
After a short stay in Colorado Springs we were dropped off at the Denver airport and we hopped on a plane and headed for Salt Lake City. It was Olivers first plane ride but he had a great time during take off and slept all the way there! What a great boy! Then after a 3 hour trip in a rental car we arrived in Blackfoot Idaho where the Christmas party really took off! Oliver was so excited to be with his cousin Madison!

He also loved meeting his Uncle Brandon and playing with Aunt Lacey

If there is one thing that is synonymous with Christmas at the Stokes house it is food! We ate so much we could have all popped. It was so Good! There were Cookies














And Pies












And dont forget the marinated filet mignon! Delicious!

Even Oliver enjoyed his first jar of baby food over the Christmas break! It was sweet potatoes and he loved it.

Well sure enough Christmas Eve came and we all had a visit from the pajama elfs! They brought us all some pretty snazzy pajamas Bradley even had star wars on his!

After Christmas was all said and done the partying was far from over! We went and spent two days in Utah to celebrate with the extended Stokes and Fillmore families. We had a really fun white elephant party with the Fillmores where Oli got to meet his great Grandma and Grandpa Fillmore!


Then Ellen and I stayed with Uncle Orvil and Aunt Patty which was of course a blast! Thanks Patty and Orvil for letting us crash your party! The next day we had a gourmet chinese dinner at Grandma Stokes houses and needless to say it was delicious also! After all of that parting we were just about done but we also got to stay at Grandma and Grandpa Watsons house for two days (one extra due to a winter storm) We felt so lucky that we got to see so much of our family during the same trip!

After all that fun we returned to Colorado for a day before making the exciting journey back to Des Moines! We found everything here just the way we found it and the new year is already treating us well! Thanks to everyone for such a great holiday season! And even though the sun has sent on 2010 we wish everybody the best of fortunes in the great new year of 2011!

Thanksgiving in Colorado!!

Well this is Bradley reporting in for this blog update! It is that time of year again and we had a great start to our holiday season in good old Colorado! I had a whole week off of school (including one day of skipped classes!) so we had plenty of time to party hard! We left Des Moines right at 11:30 in the morning and we actually made the journey to Colorado springs in only 10 and 1/2 hours which is a new record! Oliver was a great traveler although he did get a little grumpy every now and then! Here are some of the things we did while we were celebrating!

We had an awesome time trying to hit golf balls at the driving range!

What a Swing!

Getting ready for a great drive

We played a seriously intense game of jenga

After all of that hard work hitting golf balls and playing games we had to go and get some refreshment right? So we went to this cool ice cream place and got kids sized cones for a dollar! Yes those are KIDS sized cones! It was crazy!

Oliver just loved his first thanksgiving (although he didn't really enjoy the mashed potatoes that we force fed him!) One of his favorite parts was when he got to jump on a tampoline for the first time with mom! In his new bear suit and all!

All in all our Thanksgiving vacation was really fun and it was just too bad that it had to end so quickly! The best part was of course being with family especially so that Oliver could get to know his family better even if they are a little crazy sometimes!






















After it was all said and done I knew more than ever what I am most thankful for in my life! The two best people in the whole world! Happy Holidays everybody and a Merry Christmas!!

Baby Love

There are two things babies love: food and things that light up. Oliver started rice cereal mixed with juice, and man does he devour it! (Hence the unbreakable concentration.)



We weren't going to put up a Christmas tree this year because we won't be in town, but while Bradley was at church (I stayed home sick), I decided to surprise him and put it up anyway. Oliver has a hard time looking at all the sparkles. It looks like he just got out of a whirlpool when he stares at it too long.