Trip to Utah: Cam's Farewell, Halloween and Evan's Blessing

We had a very fun and eventful 10 day trip to Utah recently.  We introduced Evan to all our extended family members and close friends, attended my brother Cam's farewell, experienced Evan's first Halloween and also had his blessing.  Brody went to Cancun for 6 of those days for a work conference, so he missed out on some of the events, but I'm really glad that everything aligned so well so that I didn't have to be alone while Brody was gone AND that I could be there for Cam's farewell.

The Blessing
We did the blessing at my parents house with an intimate group of just our immediate families.  It was perfect.

Evan with his namesake - Brody's dad

Halloween
Evan was Charlie Brown for Halloween and I had fun putting his costume together.  We walked around the neighborhood with Brody's sister, her husband and the kids while they went trick-or-treating.  It was a really nice night.

The Farewell and saying goodbye to Cam
Cam did a great job on his talk and I loved catching up with my girl cousins and other extended relatives!

It was really hard saying goodbye to Cam.  I'm going to miss this brother of mine.

He left for the Mexico City MTC 2 days after we left, so this picture was taken the day we headed back to CO.
He was standing down a step to be the same height as me.

Other events

Evan was sure excited to be in Utah!

Brody and I were able to get out one night for a date.  We had a great time hanging out just the two of us!

4 generations: Evan, me, my dad and my grandma

Cam tried to get in as much Evan time as possible since he will be a completely different kid when he gets back.  Regardless of what it looks like in this picture, Cam does really like Evan.

Pretty sunset

We discovered that Evan quite likes Zumba class.  When I took him to Pilates he was pretty fussy through the whole thing, but when I took him to Zumba (twice), he was great the whole time!  It was probably the loud, upbeat music and the visual of a bunch of arms and legs flying all over the place (which is what I assume dance moves look like to a baby).

Went to the pumpkin walk.  These were some of my favorites.

Everyone loved hanging out with Evan as much as possible, even when he was sleeping. #creepygrandma

My cute cousin Syd came the day before Cam's farewell to hang out for a bit.  Her little boy Shep and Evan are just a few weeks apart, so I think they'll be good friends someday :)

Went on a beautiful hike to the wind caves with my mom, dad, Jessica and Cam.

Me and Cam Cam being silly.  I loved hanging out with him a lot before he left for 2 years.

Just Evan

Brody's whole family comes to visit

A couple weekends ago, Brody's entire family came out to Fort Collins for the CSU vs. USU football game.  They have never ALL been out to see us at the same time, so we had a blast!

Evan loved meeting his cousins Dylan, Devyn and Drew, but especially Drew since he's only 3 months older than Evan.  I think they will be good friends :)

We enjoyed going out to eat a couple times, going to the park, hanging out at our house and swimming at their hotel.

I couldn't have asked for better sisters-in-law!

Evan didn't hate his first time swimming but I don't think he loved it either.  The water may have been a little on the cold side..

It was a great weekend and I sure do love Brody's family!

Evan's Newborn Pictures

I had 2 friends from my ward offer to do Evan's newborn photos as a gift, so I have the pictures they took, plus a few that I attempted to do myself.  Enjoy!

Mine

He was making lots of faces when I was taking his pictures, so here's what I had to work with...

Friend #1

Friend #2

Just for fun, I zoomed in real close on one of the pictures, and I love it because he looks like a doll!