Typically, weather permitting, Isla and I try to spend my lunch hour outside playing and eating a picnic lunch.

Isla LOVES being outside.  We recently discovered that she can now open the door all by herself.  Coincidentally all of our doors stay locked ALL the time now. 


She loves puddles.  Mud.  Rolling in snow.  Eating snow.  Riding the longboard down the driveway over, and over, and over (ugh).  Riding her bike. Rocks.  Bubbles. Jumping off high things.  And running from people.

The Problem with Facebook...

is I have found it makes me a lazy blogger.  

Mostly I feel bad because its so quick and easy to post pics on FB.  Then when I want to blog about it, I figure anyone interested in my blog has already seen the pics and doesn't want to read the lame stories behind the pics.

So for all of you who saw these pics on FB and now see a repeat here - First of all THANK YOU for caring!  haha.  Second, sorry.  :)

As most of you may know, this winter has been BRUTAL cold.  

Cold as in: vehicles won't start. 

Cold as in: the furnace can't keep up - resulting in $200+ heating bills

Cold as in: negative temps have become normal and this morning's 3 degrees actually felt like a relief

Cold as in: Aaron actually called in sick last week - sick of the cold weather

Cold as in: You don't even want to eat food because, well I dunno, just because it's too cold

Ohhh and the wind.  Ugh the wind.  Last week before wind chill, the temp was -23.  

But I love it. So weird. It reminds me of growing up in Woodland and feeding the horses in the mornings.  When you breathe in and your nostrils stick together. Chopping 12 inch thick ice for the animals.  The horses breath steaming so thick it makes a haze of fog.  Yes, it is wonderful this cold!  And it reminds me of all the little things to be grateful for like snuggling, down comforters, fires, soup, and hot showers.

Unfortunately despite the unusually COLD temps the snow has been less-than-epic.  Snowmobilingng has been kept to a minimum so far - hopefully to change soon.  Skiing has been hit and miss.  We have enjoyed some great skiing with friends.  Then Aaron and I enjoyed a powder day together ALONE (something rare for us lately!) which was amazing.  It took me back to the winter Aaron and I met when every weekend (and several weekdays) while dating was spent either at Snowbird or Park City, usually accompanied by Aaron's BF Casey.  And finally, to take advantage of the winter, we have been out snowshoeing a bunch. It's fun because we can actually take Isla.  And she LOVES it.

When we aren't outside we are working on the basement.  STILL.  Holy cow this is taking forever.  But we are doing it all in our down time.  And by down time I mean one-hour increments when Isla has gone to bed before we kill over from exhaustion.  So 9:00 - 10:00 pm, about 3 days a week.  But progress is being made.  We are just finishing the trimwork then it's one last touch-up coat of paint on the trim and carpet.  I have some pretty cool pics of the process but when the whole thing is finished I will do a whole post solely dedicated to THE BASEMENT (read that with a deep, echoing voice as in the Sunday Football announcement voice).  

Now when I went to blog I opened up my pics and realized we have hardly taken ANY pics lately.  I remember when Isla was a baby I seriously think I took about 20 pics A DAY.  Stupid.  But now I am lucky if I have 20 pics for the whole month.  I need to get better. 

In the meantime, here are a few.

Late night snow shoeing in Big Cottonwood Canyon.

The Pantone boys and their endless entertainment.

 Last month we started teaching Isla to ski.  I think Aaron was slightly disappointed only because he had this grand vision of her just taking off and ripping down the hill with him frantically chasing after her.  I had to remind him that our 17 month old daughter barely learned to WALK two months ago... so expectations should be kept pretty low.  But it was so fun.  We laughed and laughed and she would ski 10 feet and tip over and we would all laugh some more.  Overall, that was the true measurement of success - that we all had smiles and left wanting more.  :)

New Do

As much as mullets fit in around Heber... we decided that it just wasn't the look for Isla anymore.

Isla's first hair cut... 

 

  

 

 

How Do You Choose Just One?

I have to pick one of these to hang on the wall.  I don't know how I am going to decide. (feel free to cast your vote) These are Isla's slightly belated 1-year-old photos by our good friend and awesome photographer Jess.  She is amazing.  (www.inbleu.com). 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I'm on a Boat...

It's true, Aaron and I come from VERY different backgrounds.  When we started dating few people thought this would ever work out.  Aaron was a free spirit - skater, studying fashion design/marketing, fresh back from working in New York, cashed his checks and lived until the cash in his pocket ran out, and the ultimate ski bum.  I, on the other hand, was the uptight scholarly girl with savings and investment accounts at age 20, wrangler-wearing "redneck" cowgirl, avid hunter with animal heads lining my college apartment room walls, and entirely too dedicated to my job and education.

But there is something we have always had in common... fishing.  (Okay, there are a few more, but we will just consider fishing right now for dramatics and in order to tie into the bulk of this post.)  Aaron used to love fly fishing ANY river with his dad, and my family always made ANY type of fishing a priority.  Most family vacations were usually planned around some sort of fishing excursion. 

These are some of our favorite memories as children.  And we want the same for Isla.  Plus, let's face it, many activities are limited with a 1-year-old.  So this year we tried to do as much fishing as we could.  We don't get many pictures of fly fishing because I am not allowed to carry a camera since I fall into the river frequently, and Aaron is carrying a baby on his back while flyfishing so his hands are usually full.  But on occasion, we are able to convince my parents into taking us out on the lake in their boat.  It's seriously our little piece of heaven.  Ahhhhhhh.

The first time out we caught NOTHING.  Not even a BITE.  So the next time we went out we didn't have many expectations.  But we did come prepared this time with a bag full of magazines, gourmet food, and a great music lineup.  And of course it was because of this that we couldn't STOP catching the fish.  Literally, all day long there was at least one fish on at any time.  Up to all four of us having fish on the line at one point.  It was crazy.  I think the total count ended up being over 60 fish caught that day.

We are so fortunate that my parents are willing to share their boat with us.  I am grateful for the relationship we have with my parents, which is more like we are all best friends rather than parents/children.  We always have such a great time, fishing or whatever adventure we happen to be up to.
 

 

 Aaron's fish.

The sweet thing about Aaron is he still gets excited, no matter how big or small the fish is.

 Most of the time our fishing day turns into some sort of competition.  The Bishops are all about competition.  Usually it's girls against boys.  Judging by our smiles, the girls are winning.

 

 Papa is teaching Isla how to fish.  She absolutely loves him and wants to do everything he does.

 Good thing the boat has autopilot.

 Getting bigger.

 The captain.

 Isla reeling in.

 Isla's first fish.

 She would play in this bucket of water all day.

Happy Halloween

from our sweet ladybug and the wolf-pig.