Special Visits

Yep, still going strong on posts about Utah.

One of the parts I was most looking forward to during our trip to Utah was the visit we were going to have with family and friends...

Like when Zach's uncles and aunts and great grandparents and other family members would finally get to meet him for the first time.  Kinda different than meeting a newborn in the hospital.

And the visits with our good friends.  Like when we had a BBQ with Parker's best friend from High School and his family.  When we visited for Christmas, Winnie was still pretty new.  Now she's walking!  Babies don't stay small for very long, thats for sure.  Also still absolutely bizarre to see these boys being daddys.  It doesn't seem like very long ago Parker and I were just starting to date and Parker was trying to get his best friend to sign off on me... he made me talk to Drew on the phone and tried to send a picture of me.  That weekend we watched Oceans Eleven with just Drew because his (at the time) fiance was still up at Utah State for school.  But now we have children.  And one of my said children loves ribs. (She also couldn't be bothered to sit down to eat that night.)  Drew cooked us an epic dinner.  Seriously, so delicious.  Thanks Wojos!

And this other good buddy.  We love to see Andy and Jen.  And look!  They are parents now, too!  Soooo crazy!  Bentley was born a couple weeks before Zach.  Maybe one week before?  It will be fun watching these boys grow up so close in age.

As we all know, I'm beyond obsessed with my niece (soon to be nieces!!) and nephews.  So I loved every second we got to visit with them.  Ruby really, really loves her cousins.  Since we've been home, she loves to talk to them on FaceTime way more than she did before.

It felt like so many people we love had babies after Zachary was born, but before we made it to Utah.  Which means we were able to meet their sweet little ones.  And I loved taking baby comparison pictures because I know it wont be long until they all pretty much look the same age.

Anyway, this is the oh, so beautiful and oh, so girly Indie.  Seriously so dainty and delicate.  She's the kind of newborn who just melts right into you and I love her.  I think Zach sorta liked her, too.  Thanks for letting us visit Maddie and Adam!

Also, this tiny chunk.  Sweet baby True was born almost a month after Zachary.  And he is so sweet and also a major snuggler.  Bonus for us, Summer and Ruby got to play as well!  And for the first time, they actually played pretty much together instead of just doing their own thing.  They also very obviously both have the "big sister" thing down.

Summer was being such a little poser!  Such a cutie!  And a potty trained cutie!!  Jealoussss!

I really loved being able to meet this handsome guy.  Brayden is the sweet boy of my beautiful cousin Rebecca and her husband Dallin.  Zach was having a bit of a rough night (though these eyes are totally a Zach-ism) but we still loved getting together.

Ruby was thrilled to see "two!" babies.

We had another fun little get together with another of Parker's good friends and his family- the cute Johansen family.  They have two little boys spaced exactly the same as Ruby and Zachary just a few months older.  I'm pretty sure Ruby was entirely smitten by John.  If she wasn't, I was for her!

We sat them down to take pictures at the end and Jessica asked John if she could give Ruby a hug... they happily obliged and then without any prompting, turned in for this perfect head tilted smooch!  Seriously if there was ever a perfect "first kiss" this was it. That's when Ruby knew it was love.

She was pretty sure she was going to run away with John after that.  But Ruby's daddy is still her first love and he wasn't about to let that happen just yet.

 I also really loved getting together with my best friend from High School, Sara and her sweet kids.  Winnie and Ruby also finally started playing with each other- which is sort of a big deal!  We especially loved dancing to Frozen, doing somersaults, and eating apples.  Graham is the cutest boy ever.  For real.  You look at him and he just grins ear to ear.  And I can't believe he is as big as he is.  When you only visit Utah a couple times a year, it doesn't take long for time to pass.  He was three months old and now, magically he is one!

Ruby had just gotten her fingers squished in a door so she
wasn't super happy, but aren't these kids so darling?

Winnie was being the sweetest sister.  Look at her just holding Graham's little hand.  Such a sweetheart.

Grandparents are pretty wonderful, too.  Loved our special visit with Parker's grammy and grandpa.  They are amazing.  And our kids were incredibly well behaved too so Parker and I were really able to talk.  What a blessing for us.

Then there was this special visit with my Grandpa.  I loved being able to visit with him and hear about his life when he was in my stage of life-- living out of state and having little ones.  Life is pretty amazing.

Last of the pictures, I met up again with Rebecca and her baby Brayden because our other cousin, Amanda, and her son Caden were able to join us.  I posted this on instagram, but on our Naylor side six girl cousins- one who just started second grade and Rebecca and Amanda both have sisters on missions.  Then there are the three of us.  And we all just had baby boys within five weeks of each other.  I so wish I could have been in Utah and pregant with these girls, but I feel very lucky to have met their sweet boys.  They are both such beautiful and loving moms.

Lucky for us, Amanda's husband was also there so he was taking pictures like nobody's business.  Maybe even more than I take... maybe.  So I had tons to choose from!

 I love that you can look at a picture and see the age differences.  I love Brayden's newborn stretches. And Zach's busy kicks.  And Caden's little grin.  I love that Zach and Caden found each other's hands.  I hope that even though these boys are second cousins, they will still be able to get together occassionally to have lots of fun and cause a little mischief.

There were other dear friends we were able to visit that I didn't take pictures with.  Like my beautiful childhood friend Jessica who was nine months pregnant and literally had her baby boy, Raiff, three days after I saw her.  And my sweet friends Laura and Nicole and Lynette who were so sweet to take the time out of their busy lives to come see us.  And to meet our baby.

We feel pretty blessed and love all the visits we had.  There were a handful that we didn't get to this time around, but we sure look forward to seeing them at Christmas time!