Eric, Gabe and I took a walk through the beautiful Beacon Hill Park. The rocky hill, that I assume the park is named for, was so intriguing. It reminded my of pictures I've seen of Scotland. That is Eric standing across a small ravine on some of the craggy, moss-covered rock.
The rest of the park was equally beautiful. We saw peacocks and blue herons, as well as lots and lots of ducks!
Gabe showing me his treasured find of a beautiful duck feather... ick! :)
The view from our balcony was awesome!
The master bath aka Nyah's bedroom! I had to add my favorite... the awesome tub (complete with even a bath bomb)! 
I never thought I was a big modern decor fan but this hotel may have converted me! Everything was really cool. We got a 2 bedroom suite since we had so many people but we wanted to be together. It was perfect. 
Gabe would have spent the entire time at the pool if he were the one calling the shots! He would ask what the plans were for the day and then the bargaining would begin... he would try and rearrange the schedule so swimming came first, middle and last! Haha! It was really cute. He can really argue his case too! He gives a little then pushes hard. :)
Love Gabe's expression in this picture! He is fascinated with it too and asked me over and over why he was making that face. :) He calls it his "crumply" smile now!
Gabe wasn't the only one that loved the pool... Nyah was wild with excitement at the sight of a huge "bathtub" for her to splash in! She is going to be our little fish! **in case you're wondering what on earth is wrong with Nyah's nose... she fell and scraped it. Poor baby had a bloody nose and swollen lip. It was awful. I felt terrible. When it happened and Eric saw the blood I thought he was going to pass out! It was not funny at all - in fact I was almost in tears - but looking back it's a little funny to remember his reaction. When he saw the trickle of blood from her nose, he was like "oh my gosh, oh my gosh!" and started backing up with this look of pure horror on his face! I have to admit it was very distressing to see our sweet baby bleeding. She was a trooper though and recovered quickly.
The day after we returned from Whistler we left for Vancouver Island with the kids and Eric's parents. Eric took the whole week off and we were going to make the best of it! :) From start to finish it took us 6 hours to get there but it was broken up with 2 beautiful ferry rides and 2 short drives. My favorite was the 90 minute ferry from Port Angeles to Victoria. The view of the Olympic mountains was spectacular and it felt good to be out in the fresh ocean breeze with the sun shining. Gabe and Nyah both loved it too! 
The kids had so much having their grandparents on the trip too. It was fun for all of us to have that time together!
Gabe was fascinated with the bell and would very gently wring it. :)
Eric and I went on a ski trip, just the two of us. It was blissful. Not that we don't enjoy being with our children, it's just a good thing to be able to take off once in a while and just focus on each other. Combine that with skiing and you have one heck of a trip! :) We fell in love with Whistler... the drive there was spectacular and the town delightful but it's the skiing that really knocked our socks off. Wow! The snow was incredible and the terrain was amazing. I couldn't stop taking pictures! The huge trees were enchanting with their heavy mantles of snow - especially the ones that had the moss dripping off underneath! The views were breathtaking. It felt incredible to be up in the mountains again. Blackcomb and Whistler are enormous ski resorts - just a massive amount of terrain. Often we would find ourselves completely alone on a run, which was a pretty cool feeling. It snowed lightly the first day and at one point in the day, at the very top of the mountain, the light was so flat you could hardly tell where you were going. That coupled with some mist and you literally felt like you were in the middle of nowhere... alone... with white under, over, and around you - everything looking the same with no definitive edges. It was eerie but pretty cool!
In the evenings we would go hot tubbing, go to dinner, hit a movie, whatever we felt like! It was awesome! What a great trip!
Meeting Eric for lunch one day (I wimped out skiing... I could barely walk!) We sat outside and ate at the base of the mountain!
The views on the drive there. There was a time when you are driving next to the ocean and huge wooded islands are rising up out of the water close to the coast... wow.
Thank you so much, Cheryl and Don, for flying out to watch our babies so we could do this trip! Knowing that Gabe and Nyah were with people that love them made our trip that much more relaxing and fun.
I cannot believe my little girl is a year old! It feels like yesterday that we were bringing home this sweet little newborn. I was so excited to welcome her into our family, to finally meet and get to know her. This past year has been wonderful as we have witnessed her precious personality unfold. I love how affectionate she is. Her frequent, soft little hugs and kisses melt my heart. I love how spunky and dramatic she is too - she makes me laugh every day! Happy Birthday Nyah Leigh!
We have always called Nyah our little bug so I made her a butterfly cake! I also had fun creating a banner for her that has 12 pendants, one for each month of her first year. On each pendant is a picture of her at that age. I love seeing how much she has changed this year! Once I print a birthday picture to finish the banner, I will take pictures of it and post it here! (Thanks for the great idea Brianne!) 
She likes it!! :)
Grandma and Grandpa R. were here for Nyah's b-day - it was so fun to have family here to share this special day! 
Time for presents! Gabe was so cute with his little sister - he was so excited for her and loved showing her how her new presents worked! 
Can you see Nyah's tongue sticking out?! I love that face - she is so funny! 
I love this one too because it captures her with her dainty little pointer finger pushing on the car horn. Haha! She loves to use that finger to push things. Often when she is nursing, her hand will grope around my face until she finds my nose... out comes the pointer finger and starts pushing away!
Finally, a guy in the house that appreciates ambiance!! :) Let me explain... Gabe was rummaging through my cupboards while I was making dinner the other day. He came up with some Thanksgiving candlestick holders and red candles which he enthusiastically assembled and placed on the dinner table. All by himself, I might add. (I have to admit at this point that it was really hard for me not to try and persuade him to use different holders, or at least matching candles, but I restrained myself and went with the flow!!) He made sure we lit them and then all during dinner exclaimed how pretty they were and pointed them out to Daddy several times! I thought that last part was extremely funny as Eric has absolutely no notion of ambiance. And ironically we had just had the conversation a few days earlier where I told him how my mom loved to set a beautiful table and how we would usually eat with lit candles at dinner time all growing up. (Having said that, I have to laugh at how funny my dinner table looks that night. The least of which is Gabe's choice of candles... um, nice bottles of olive oil and balsamic vinegar in the foreground -haha!) Anyway, it was too precious of a moment for me not to record. Gabe is such a cute little boy! I love my little buddy!!
I'm not sure I should be calling it "sledding". After all it was only a couple inches of snow over a nice icy street. (Well, nice as long as you're not driving on it!) Eric and Gabe had a perfect spot to finally get some use out of our Utah sleds! 
I'm getting these up a bit late but better late than never, I say. We had a fun Valentine's Day this year with pink heart-pancakes for breakfast and a heart shaped pizza for dinner! Of course we all left valentines on the porch for each other too. Gabe had a blast doing it! It was so fun to see his excitement when he would open the door and find one and when he would do his own little doorbell ditching! :) We also got two amazingly fun valentine's packages!! One from each set of grandparents. Gabe was delighted! I love this family of mine so much... it's wonderful having a day dedicated to expressing how much we cherish each other.
