Finally Fall!!!

Fall is my favorite season- I LOOOOOOOVE going up the mountain when the leaves change colors and driving and hiking around. The leaves are just starting to change here, but we decided to take a trip up the mountain to see them anyway. Next week we're having some family photos taken up there, and it should be even more beautiful then!

We usually drive up to the big "C" on Cedar Mountain because there are alot of bushes that turn bright red and orange- I'm not sure what they are, but they're so pretty. Plus its fun to go to the lookout over Cedar City. We tried to take a family picture with the camera on the car, but it didn't really turn out too great :) Oh well....

In this one you can kind of see the leaves changing on the mountain- there's still alot of green, but orange, yellow, and a little bit of red is starting to show up.


After the "C" we drove up to Cedar Breaks. There are alot of Aspens up there (my favorite trees!) so we wanted to see how they're doing with the color change. Still alot of green there too, but there are a couple of areas where all the trees are completely gold! So beautiful! While we were driving around we found a pretty little creek so we got out to take some pictures and let Sadie play for a little bit. I tried to keep her out of the water for as long as possible, because the water was FREEZING, but she eventually got in it anyway. Of course, we have a ton of pictures of her throwing rocks in the water, but since I've had a few posts with water-rock-throwing pictures, I thought I'd exclude most of them from this one ;)

This first picture reminds me of Sasquatch emerging from the woods, LOL :) Its not a great photo, it just made me laugh

This one would have been soooooo cute if we could have gotten her to take her eyes off the water ...

The one we took away from the creek turned out a little better :)

In this one she's standing on a rock that's in the creek. She kept picking up smaller rocks out of the water and throwing them back in, which is why I'm holding onto her arm- I didn't want throwing herself in the creek too! I think this picture turned out really cool though- it looks like we've got some kind of ethereal glow!


On the other side of the road the creek was a little more shallow and she actually made it into the water on that side- it was inevitable! So we just let her play for a while, then headed home.

Weekend with Grandma, part II

To finish off Brian's mom's visit, we took a little walk up the Canyon Park trail (its a beautiful walk, for those of you who haven't done it, I highly recommend it!) and then a little family photo shoot at the park. Some of them turned out pretty cute I think :)
Sadie and Grandma!


Three generations of McNeel's


And one with just the girls. We didn't manage to get one with all of us in it, which would have been nice, but I still think these turned out pretty cute :)

Weekend with Grandma!

Brian's mom came down from Salt Lake this weekend to spend some time with us- well, probably more to spend some time with Sadie :) We had alot of fun, and Saturday afternoon we decided to take her up the mountain to Navajo Lake- which I guess is our favorite mountain hangout since we always end up there. So we relaxed out in nature while Sadie (as usual) played in the lake.


Sadie of course went straight for the water and started throwing rocks, which is a pretty standard activity for her.


This time, she also got a kick out of playing with my shoe when it floated off my foot.



So we made a little boat with it for her giraffe :)


And after a while, we decided she needed to lose the pants- I don't know why I don't carry her swimsuit on me all the time. She always ends up soaked!

I title this photo "Happy Mom- Carefree Baby"


And last, but certainly not least, Brian and Sadie showing his mom which lures are sure-fire winners! Like father, like daughter :)


So Brian's mom got to see some of our beautiful nature, and we got to have a fun and relaxing day at one of our favorite spots!

Maiden Voyage!

Brian recently bought a raft-type boat to replace his poor old Seahawk that gave out on him earlier this summer. He was so sad when it finally died, but now that he has a new boat he has been sooooooooo excited to get Sadie and I out on it, especially since we never actually joined him on any of his Seahawk fishing excursions. Not that I don't like getting out on the lake, but his Seahawk didn't have any seats-we would have been stuck in the wet bottom of his little boat, and that never really appealed to me. But his new boat has some nice seats, more space, and I figured we'd be alot more comfortable and have alot more fun in this one. :) So here are some pictures of our little boating trip up at Navajo Lake.

While Brian set everything up, Sadie played in the water




And finally, on the boat!


Sadie's favorite part was splashing in the water, of course! :)



Putting along....


And finally, back on shore and in some dry clothes!



All in all, a really fun day! Oh, and just a little side note. Brian just got his wisdom teeth out the day before- I couldn't believe he actually wanted to go boating! But he did, and we had alot of fun!