The great adventure of two crazy kids

My mom took Taylor for the day and Sean and I went on a day trip up Provo Canyon. It was so much fun!

The mountains are so beautiful this time of year. Bridal Veil Falls was really pretty and it was amazing to see all the ice fishermen at Deer Creek.


Our first stop was Heber City. We parked by Dairy Keen and walked up the main street in downtown Heber. We stopped at a cute little thrift shop called Second Chance. They had some great stuff for super cheap. Sean bought a vintage leather briefcase and I scored some amazing vintage children's books and novels.


Afterward we walked back down to Dairy Keen and had lunch. For those of you that haven't been there, it's a local burger joint that has some amazing food. Sean got a Train Burger with fries and I got their junior cheeseburger with onion rings. Yum-o!



After lunch we headed up to Park City. We stopped first at the outlet stores and right away Sean found a store he absolutely had to go to - The Oakley Vault. For those of you that don't know, Sean is absolutely obsessed with Oakley sunglasses, which is kind of funny since he can't wear them (at least not until he gets Lasik). Anyhoo, they actually had some great stuff there! Sean got a new hat and I bought a really awesome messenger bag that I absolutely l-o-v-e. The best part? Both the hat and bag together only set us back $25!



Sean insisted on going by Mrs. Field's next (he's got the biggest sweet tooth of anyone I know). We each got a cookie and split a milk.


Afterward we visited some more outlet shops and then headed up to Main Street in Park City. Now we went up there knowing full well that Sundance was going on, but had no idea just how crowded it would be. There were thousands of people there and absolutely nowhere to park. Rather than drive around aimlessly forever, we decided to head up to Salt Lake instead.

We drove down Parleys for the first time in a very long time and drove through Sugarhouse on our way to Gateway. We stopped by EmilieJayne, a sweet little consignment store that I used to work at. I visited for a while with my friend Rachel and we bought Sean a fantastic vintage phone for his office.


Our last stop was Gateway Mall for dinner. We went to California Pizza Kitchen because Sean had never been there. We got a garlic chicken pizza and MAN was it good! For dessert we had their chocolate banana fudge cake, which tastes just as good as it sounds. But the most amazing thing we had there was - surprisingly - their mango lemonade. It was fan-tastic!



After dinner we walked back to the car and headed home. Today really couldn't have turned out better. It's so nice to have some real quality time with my hubby. I love him so much and I'm so happy we had such a great time. I love you, babe!


(Also, let's do this more often.)

Under Da Sea

Last weekend we took Taylor to the Living Planet Aquarium up in Draper. We had so much fun (okay, maybe I enjoyed it just a little more than Tay did, but I digress). The most fascinating things to me were the jellyfish. It was so mesmerizing watching them swim around. Taylor liked the sharks, or "big fishies" as he kept saying over and over. He also liked watching the manta rays swimming in the shallow pool in the center of the aquarium. Mommy got to pet one of the rays, but Daddy wouldn't because he said he didn't want to die like the Crocodile Hunter guy did.

Here are some pics from our trip:






Afterward we went to Hires for lunch, and the best part of the meal - according to Taylor at least - was the blue Dum Dum sucker he got afterward. Think the sucker had a bit of blue dye in it?


It was a really great day and we had some great quality family time.

Am I good? I'm good.

(Name that movie!)

I'm not one to toot my own horn on a regular basis, but I need to brag. As some of you know, bargain shopping is one of my favorite hobbies as of late, sometimes to the extreme (yes, I get 5 Sunday papers a week just for the coupons). So I thought I would share my most recent purchase here on the 'ole blog as some of my other savvy shopper friends have done.

Here's what I purchased tonight:


10 boxes of Life cereal
4 boxes of Quaker instant oatmeal
8 boxes of Quaker chewy granola bars
8 Healthy Choice Cafe Steamers
3 canisters of Scrubbing Bubbles
3 bottles of Fantastik cleaner
4 bottles of Windex glass cleaner
2 cartons of Egg Beaters

And here's the math:
Purchase price before all deals and coupons: $163.85
Manufacturer coupon savings: $43.65
Hot Buy/Preferred savings: $85.98
Total amount paid: $34.22
TOTAL SAVINGS: $129.63

On top of that I got a $5.00 coupon off my next purchase.

I literally left the store patting my own back. Some people might think it's a little silly, but I figure with the economy in the state that it's in, it's the least I can do to pitch in and make our money stretch a bit farther.

[End of horn tooting.]

I know, I know...

I haven't posted a single thing about how our holidays went last month. The problem is that there is so much to cover and I don't have any pictures because they were all taken by family members and I haven't asked them for copies yet.

But just as a quick recap, our Christmas and New Years were fantastic. Honestly the best part about it was not having to worry about Sean's health through the holidays like we did last year. It was amazing to be able to really celebrate without constantly thinking about my husband being diagnosed with cancer just weeks before. It was also nice that Taylor was older and could appreciate Christmas so much more. He loved opening presents and visiting with family. It was fun to see and experience the magic of Christmas through my son. Sean and I literally could not sleep Christmas eve because we were so excited to see Taylor's face when he came into the living room and saw all the presents Santa brought.

This was probably one of the best holiday seasons of my life, and I look forward to many more with my amazing husband and sweet boy. We hope that all of our loved ones had great holidays as well, and we wish you all a healthy and prosperous new year!

Let it snow!

I know a lot of people would disagree with me, but I LOVE snow! As I mentioned in my last post, I had a hard time the beginning of this month getting into the Christmas season without snow. There's just something magical about this white stuff and makes me feel all warm and fuzzy inside (at least when I'm watching it fall from the warm comfort of my house).

Anyhoo, today Taylor was obsessed with sitting on the sofa and watching the "no" outside. He kept begging to go outside, and even after opening the front door and letting him see how freezing cold it was, he still insisted he wanted to go out and play. SO, we both got all bundled up and trecked out into the white stuff. We walked about half way around the building when Taylor decided he was done. I tried to keep him entertained by making snowballs and stomping my feet on the sidewalk, but it was shortlived and we headed inside after being out for 10 whole minutes. Oh well... it was fun, Taylor isn't begging to go outside anymore, and I got some stinkin' cute pictures!




I can't wait until we get some packing snow and we can make a big snowman together. I hope everyone else is enjoying this gorgeous winter weather!

Catching Up

I know, I know - I haven't been posting very much lately, the public demands pictures of Taylor, blah blah blah. Give me a break people, it's the busiest time of year! I have a lot to do! It's cold outside! I'm lazy!

Okay, enough excuses. Here's my attempt to catch up on what's been going on in the Nichols household over the past month.

The day after Thanksgiving I broke out all the Christmas decorations and went to town. I got a great deal on a pre-lit tree at Walmart so we don't have to use our puny little tree we've been using since we were married. Taylor was absolutely amazed when we pulled it out of the box, and there was plenty of "ooh-ing" and "aah-ing" when we plugged it in. Whenever we have visitors, he is quick to point out our "pitty tee."



Another thing that Tay has really been into the last couple of weeks is drawing. His very favorite thing to do is draw on the white board when Mommy or Daddy is kind and patient enough to let him use the dry erase markers. He loves his creations almost as much as he loves erasing them when he's done.



I've been pretty bummed about the lack of snow this month, as was pleasantly surprised when a blizzard hit last weekend. Taylor loved looking out the window at the "no" falling, although it took us quite a long time to convince him it wasn't rain.


My online business - Tweedle Dee Vintage - has done very well this past week and I had a 5-day streak of sales that has really motivated me to keep going and buy more inventory. It's been a really fun side project, and I'm hoping sales will continue and my hard work will pay off.


Sean and I are really excited for Christmas this year. Although it's Taylor's second Christmas it really feels like his first because he'll be able to appreciate it so much more. We've had so much fun shopping for our little man (and each other too!) and I'm so excited to see Tay open his presents. It's also nice to have a holiday season that isn't overshadowed by health concerns; it was this time last year that Sean was diagnosed with cancer and it really ruined any Christmas spirit we had.

We are both so thankful to Heavenly Father this year for our health and for our beautiful son. I am so blessed to have such an amazing man in my life who takes such good care of me and is such an amazing father to our baby boy.


We want to wish all of our family members and friends a very Merry Christmas and a happy and prosperous New Year! We love you!!!

Cookie-faced

I was taking pictures yesterday and Tay wanted to get in on the action. He was on a crazy sugar high from a few too many chocolate chip cookies (most of which ended up ground into my carpet rather than in his belly) and he was hammin' it up like crazy.

I give you my nutty child: