The Carsons visit the Carsons

Tyler's parents were in town for Veteran's Day weekend. It was a lot of fun having them here. They came mostly to spend time with Andrew (and his parents, of course) and to help with finishing the basement. 

Andrew likes clapping. He will clap for himself when he does something he feels is impressive and is pretty good about clapping and laughing when we clap for him too.

Andrew unfortunately didn't warm up to his Grandma and Granddad very much. He had fun playing with them, but didn't like when they held him. We plan on Skyping with them more often so Andrew gets used to their faces and voices.

He was usually OK when his mommy or daddy was holding him though...

as you can see by this picture.

Andrew wanted to show Grandma and Granddad what a big boy he was, so he wanted to sit in the big boy chairs instead of his high chair. 

Grandma feeding Andrew some ice cream.

Daddy pick me up and hold me!

 Andrew is tall enough now to reach things in the kitchen drawers. He likes playing with the whisk especially. 

He pulls out utensils and throws them on the ground until he finds the one that is the perfect toy for that day.

He also loves "helping" load and unload the dishwasher. He recently decided just standing next to the dishwasher wasn't enough. He has to be standing on the dishwasher for optimal access to the dishes. 

He recently discovered he could climb on top of the coffee table. He climbs up, lays down, we laugh, then he climbs down. This is him showing off for Granddad!

We went to Tyler's work during one day off to look at the helicopters.

Andrew and Granddad in the crew chief's window.

Copilot Andrew helping daddy fly!

He had fun pressing buttons and moving the stick around.

Grandma, Rachel, and Andrew in front of the helicopter. 

The aircraft inside the hangar are mostly there because they need repairs and it's no fun having to work on them in the hot sun, cold snow, and have to walk a long way any time you need replacement parts. Tyler's unit doesn't have Apaches, so it's not too common to see one of them inside the hangar. 

One of Andrew's favorite parts about visiting daddy's work was sitting in the twirly chair! (Also a nice baby bump pic of mommy)

Andrew showing Granddad how to drive.

Grandma needed a chauffeur too!

Andrew is definitely starting to become a big boy, with his own likes and dislikes. He is intrigued by trailer hitches and motorcycles (not pictured)

He also likes brooms, and can often be seen walking around the house carrying a dust pan. 

 

We took a short drive to visit the Brooks family on Monday night. They are family friends who we have known since Germany. They had some toys for Andrew to play with and he thought the toy parking garage was a perfect place to sit down!

We were glad Grandma and Granddad Carson could come visit! We wish they could have stayed longer but we look forward to seeing them again when our next baby is born. 

(We should have used the tripod to get a picture of all of us together)

Halloween 2014

We've been having a great time here in Colorful Colorado. We took part in lots of fun fall/Halloween activities this month. We starting things off by visiting a pumpkin patch/petting zoo. Just like at Thanksgiving Point, Andrew took a little while to warm up to the animals.

He was scared of anything bigger than him.

He liked the little bunny.

He eventually walked up to the sheep too. It wasn't bigger than him when it was sitting down.

Andrew and Daddy in front of the pig pen!

The first thing he really seemed to enjoy was sitting on this bale of hay. It had a plastic bull head in it, then a dog came up to Andrew and he liked petting it.

Andrew is king of the hill!

Making it to the top.

During the hay ride he stood up in the front of the wagon looking around the entire time.

Frolicking through the pumpkins.

Here's a good one!

They had a camel at the farm too. Luckily it didn't spit at us!

We took some Halloween pictures before we started carving the pumpkin.

Andrew wasn't too sure about the pumpkin guts.

But he liked playing with a spoon and the top part of the pumpkin.

The pumpkin gets a face.

Andrew pointing out where the nose should go.

Mommy and Andrew with the finished product!

We had two trunk or treats this year, the first one was at the church. Andrew was a dinosaur and Daddy was a cave man! It was neither historically nor proportionally accurate, but they sure were cute together!

Andrew liked seeing other kids dressed up too.

Mommy pumpkin and baby dinosaur!

The work trunk of treat was fun too. We wore the same costumes, got candy, and played some games.

Andrew carrying the cave man's dinosaur bone club. Maybe little dinosaur Andrew realized the bone was from a bigger dinosaur? 

We had lots of fun dressing up for Halloween, carving pumpkins, and visiting a farm!

We tried going trick or treating Halloween night, but Andrew did not enjoy that.  One scary clown mask scared him, but we managed to visit a few of our neighbors' houses before Andrew was Halloween-ed out.  We passed out candy at our house until the candy supply ran out, but Andrew went to bed at 7 and missed most of it. 

Utah Trip

The first weekend in October, we had a mini Judd family reunion in Utah.  It was also General Conference and the first time we had been back to visit BYU since Rachel graduated!  It was a quick trip, but we packed in a lot of fun stuff.  Here is the quick break down of the weekend.  (There are a lot of pictures, but we think you all enjoy them so... sorry, not sorry!)

THURSDAY: We left early from Colorado Springs Airport.  We had to go in and wake sweet Andrew up to leave.  

Here are the mountains between Colorado and Utah!

We had to wait in the airport for a few hours for Rachel's parents and Sam to arrive and Andrew luckily took a nap in his stroller.

He was curious as ever and liked the pay phones in the airport.

We got him a new, big boy car seat a few days before the trip. He likes facing forward allowing him to see what's going on and stretch out his legs!

 Andrew is shy but once he has some time to warm up to people, he is very loving.  He loves Grandma and Grandpa Judd! 

Andrew was exploring our hotel room.

 Kisses from Grandma and Grandpa!!

That night we went to eat at the Food Truck Roundup.  Rachel has always wanted to eat from a food truck and it was everything she had hoped for and more! 

 FRIDAY: In the morning we visited BYU campus and bookstore.  Here we are at Tyler's proposal spot! 

We ran into Rachel's former roommate's mom right after this picture. She was sitting on the bench you can just see the corner of on the left of this picture. How random!

We invited all of our old friends who still lived in Provo to visit and catch up. We had a good turn out.

Zac Strickland grew up with the Judds and also happened to work with Tyler at Heritage Halls.

We had a great time seeing old roommates and re-connecting with friends.  One of Rachel's mission companions even drove down from Salt Lake to visit us.  We love our friends!  

SATURDAY: We listened to Conference in the morning and went to the park between sessions.

We forgot to mention that getting Andrew to sleep was the worst part of the vacation.  He must have been nervous about the new environment, but the first night he screamed for hours before falling asleep.  The longer we were there, the better he was about napping and bedtime. 

 Andrew took notes during Conference!

We ate at Cafe Rio while we were there. Andrew enjoyed some of the leftovers.

We had a picnic lunch at Timpanogas park.

Andrew liked the nice soft grass.

Sam was like "everyone hold hands!" but only he and Bennett did, so they ended up looking... awkward. 

The bell tower and Y, as seen from the passenger seat of our 2014 fully loaded Suburban with ~60 miles on it.

The Beam museum was recently renovated and we wanted to see it while we were there. 

The exhibits were AMAZING.

As they would say on Swamp People, "Choot 'em!"

We wish we could have stayed longer, but Andrew napped so long we didn't get there until 10 minutes before they closed.

From the Bean Museum we took a short walk through our old stomping grounds, Heritage Halls to get some ice cream at the Creamery. 

Andrew loves ice cream.

Really, he LOVES ice cream. 

SUNDAY: Rachel's family attended the Sunday morning session of Conference while we stayed back with Andrew. It was his nap time and children that young aren't allowed in the Conference Center anyway. 

We met back up with everyone as the session got out and took lots of pictures at Temple Square.  

Family photo in front of the Temple

Artsy, from-the-ground-up-toddler-perspective shot.

Andrew was clingy to mommy and daddy due to being in a new place crowded with lots of people. 

Like I said, he only wanted to be held by mommy or daddy. 

That's better!

Rachel's parents went to drop off Bennett's Fiance before heading to visit the family friends we would spend the night with. The Carsons stayed and went to the visitors center while that was going on.

It was surprisingly not that crowded when we were there.

We stopped to visit the Nixons, family friends of the Judds at their house in Bountiful. We stopped at the Temple there before heading up to the other family friends, the Actons, where we would spend the night.

Why would they put big trees between the sign for the temple, and the actual temple?

Andrew and Grandpa Judd paying close attention to the Prophet speaking.

And goofing off during Elder Bednar's talk. He's just an Apostle right? No big deal.

MONDAY: The Judds left early in the morning, but our flight didn't leave until that night. 

We spent the day at Thanksgiving point, and made one last trip to Provo before heading to the airport. We went to see the animals first. Andrew was a little wary of the strange creatures at first, but he warmed up to them. 

Andrew walking with Mommy

For some reason he was obsessed with trying to open this door. It was just a small shed with rabbits in cages, and from where we took the picture was a wide open double door, but he was intent on opening this door and was more interested in it than the rabbits. 

Here he is meeting Mr Ed. (Just kidding, this horse couldn't talk.)

He was a little standoffish of this large horse. 

He probably didn't put together that the animals we were seeing were in a lot of his books, but it was fun none the less. 

Nailed it.

Andrew loved playing in the sand.

Andrew LOVED playing in the sand and water.

He was so cute toddling around everywhere exploring the cool fossils. 

There were a number of hands on exhibits.

And some that were just out of reach of a little guy.

As you will see in a later post, Andrew ended up being a dinosaur for Halloween. This turned out to be a little bit of foreshadowing for him. 

It looks like he is having fun in this picture, but in reality we were dragging him away kicking and screaming because he had so much fun there.

We made it back to the airport with no problems, but while we were waiting to board the plane Andrew randomly threw up everywhere. We used up all of our wipes trying to clean him and the floor up, but he did alright the rest of the trip home. We had a great time visiting Utah again and seeing family and friends!