UTAH!!!!

Phew! Back to normal life after 2 weeks in Utah! Cate and I drove up to Utah on the 13th, a mere 2 days after Karen's wedding. Deidra rode with us on the drive up, making the trip MUCH more enjoyable and easier. Cate and I bounced around between Provo, Salt Lake and Logan until Nate arrived on the 21st for Thanksgiving. We spent Thanksgiving in Provo with our siblings who live in Utah. It was a great holiday and a great two weeks - so glad we went, even if it was a complete whirlwind barely leaving me standing! Here are a BUNCH of pictures... it was hard narrowing it down to this long list - so many!!!

The Thanksgiving crew, lined up by how the siblings are linked... Caius-siblings-Cuyler-married- Jess-siblings-Nate-married-Me-siblings-Anne-siblings-Christian-married-Cori-siblings-Brittany - fun to have us all connected and all friends!

Cuyler holds the matching PJ girls...

We went with Megan and Charlie Rich to the new children's museum at the Gateway - it was awesome and the kids could have spent days in there - highly recommend it to all the Utahns out there. Cate and Charlie driving together...

Cate LOVED the grocery store they had set up - as you can see, she cleared the shelves! She carried that full basket around all by herself too!

Abby loves her spaghettios...

Great Grandma and Grandpa Blomquist had a blast with Cate... and Cate was IN LOVE with Grandpa. She was grumpy, though, for picture time... so no good picture of her with them. She did love them, however. :)

Here are the 3 Blomquist GREAT Grandchildren together for the first time! Emma, Cate and Will

Those Eyes! This is Cate in the "rafters" at the Logan Tabernacle, which we had all to ourselves. Thanks to Anne for a great tour of Logan! Should I post pictures of her roommates' decorating style? Hmmmm.... anne might kill me if I do, but it's tempting...

We got a quick chance to see the Findlay twins while we were there... Again, Cate is grumpy for the pictures. Posing for pictures is NOT her thing these days. The twins, however, were ready!

Christian is currently helping run a Salsa Club (www.salsachocolate.com) in Provo - I went with Cora, Christian and Deidra to check it out while I was there... the place was packed - they're doing a great job. This shot captures just how AWESOME Cora and I are on the Salsa Dancing Floor. We exude salsa.

Nate and I went bowling with the Findlays... Liz and I are just enjoying some cigs and beers here...

Tell me, who has the better form?

Always ready to push the envelope on style, Cate and Abby enjoy a little Nemo... when abby took her shirt off, cate wanted hers off immediately. But please leave the shoes on. Abby, aka Fancy Feet.

Again, fashion trendsetter...

Dennis & Karen's Wedding

Here are a few shots from the wedding! Yea for Karen and Dennis!

Here are Mr. & Mrs. Behrman JUST MARRIED! This is in the limo right after the ceremony :)

It was awesome being a bridesmaid for Karen - got to be with her for a lot of the day - so fun! Karen's Matron of Honor, Kristen, is in the center.

Here are nate and I with half of our table - Loretta, John and Barbara Baker. We sat with the book club girls - it was such a great night!

Livin' the life...

Cate loves luxury... this lucky girl got to stay at another 5 star hotel! First the St. Regis Monarch in September, now the Four Seasons Biltmore in Santa Barbara. Cate and I took a little roadtrip up to Santa Barbara last week for 2 days to hang out with our friends the Coverts... Markus was speaking at a conference and had a room as part of the deal, so Sarah and I partied with Cate and Peter. It was loads of fun!

This past weekend was Karen and Dennis's wedding... it was GREAT FUN being a bridesmaid for Karen and the wedding was beautiful. Will have to post a nice picture from that soon as well...

Cate and I took another roadtrip yesterday and drove all the way from San Diego to Provo, Utah! Deidra helped us out and made the trip lots of fun. We made it safely and are hanging out with ABBY... a dream come true for Cate. I'm sure we'll take many pictures in the next two weeks and will post more fun news. Funny thing on the ride up - Deidra and I were trying to get Cate to rock out to Bon Jovi's "Livin' on a Prayer" - she has the headbanging down pat, but in addition whenever the chorus comes on (livin on a prayer!!), Cate folds her arms and headbangs at the same time... it's HILARIOUS. will have to YouTube the video for everyone.

more to come from cold Utah!

a few cute pics...

cate just looked so cute walking around outside with debbie's stroller and wearing her halloween costume


we went to "Islands" restaurant on saturday... cate was VERY FOCUSED on her coloring... dad offered some help.


look at that hair! debbie is shocked at how big it is! mom poofed up cate's hair last night, and the picture doesn't quite capture just how poofy it was...

Halloween Report

Here are some fun Halloween pictures!

Cate gets her empty trick-or-treat bag (compliments of grandma maynard) ready to be filled!


cate and sage sat in this chair together for quite a while, sage reading to cate... it was very cute... sage was a beutiful butterfly with all the right moves!


cate with her buddy hannah (here a cute goldfish)... whenever she sees hannah, or hannah's mom for that matter, she throws her arms in the air and yells "HANNAH!" - she just can't get enough hannah!


cate post-trick-or-treating... all the candy on the table is what cate collected... she was GIDDY with excitement as we let her eat a few pieces... it was very cute.


that shady character in the glasses won't look at the camera... what's he hiding? dad took cate out trik-or-treating - they were a good pair!

Busy Week!

This week has been very busy! Last Saturday we took Cate to a pumpkin patch in Ramona. She was kind of grumpy the whole time, but she did have fun - loved the horse, lambs, chickens, and the display of gourds. she would have played with the gourds all day if we let her. she also had lots of fun feeding leaves to the lambs. it was so cute! and she even pet the horse!

Nate and I had work this week and on top of that I helped throw my friend Karen's bridal shower (I'll be in her wedding party 2 weeks from today!). Cate and I also had some fun lunches with friends (Kristin, Shellie, Rebecca) and 2 halloween parties! Too much fun! Here is a picture from karen's shower, l to r: me, dennis (the groom), jen (the co-party-thrower), karen (the bride) and dorina (mother of the bride). also, have to put a picture of the flourless chocolate cake I made for the shower!



one last picture... cate and dad were playing the other night - here they are with cate at the wheel. :) dad looks a little nervous about her driving skills...

Rose Crayon!

Here is Cate in her halloween costume, a (Cate) Rose Crayon. :)

We are ending our .mac account in December, so the cate website will disappear then (http://homepage.mac.com/maynardclan). We will post pictures on here from now on and video on "YouTube." I'll also try to journal funny moments on here in case you're interested! :)

Grandma comes to town!
Here's Cate last week when Grandma Wallin was in town. We went to a Mexican restaurant in Old Town and I took too many pictures of Cate - but she was being so cute! So, what's the latest? Cate is funny as ever. The other night I was trying to get a kiss out of her but she didn't want to. Nate leaned over and said, "If you giver her a kiss, she'll leave you alone" - Cate immediately turned, gave me a kiss then waved and said "BYE!" that message came through loud and clear!

We also went to a sidewalk art festival when my mom was here. There were some not so cool drawings, but some really cool ones too! Here is a sample, as well as Cate planning her drawing for next year... if this 3 year old can do something, surely I can!



Cate has had a busy week PLAYING... she loves playgrounds now and is making lots of friends. I'm pretty busy right now with work and getting ready for Karen's wedding. Nate is being a good dad and husband on top of working really hard at the lab. He even let me go away saturday night to Palm Springs for Karen's pre-wedding celebration... I got a flat tire on the way and he had to come switch cars with me. He's too good to me, eh? So, that's all the news that's fit to print, at least for now.

My first blogging experience

So, despite the fact that Cate has her own website and we have a family website, I just couldn't resist setting this up after looking at my friends Margo's blog. It was really fun to read, so I thought, what the heck? Let's do it! (did I just say what the heck?)

I don't have much to report at this time except that Cate is getting over a bad cold that Nate and I are now having fun experiencing first hand. Other than that we are great. Cate & I went to the Wild Animal Park with the Stratfords yesterday, where Cate was more interested in Pete, Anna and Ben than the animals. As long as she's entertained that's fine with me.

more later... :)