May visit to Utah!

Every year around this time we take our annual trip to Utah to visit family and friends. We choose May because the blue mountains are usually clear and we can soak up some sun while in Utah for a couple of days.
This year we brought our trailer down with us 1: Because we were going camping in Bryce and Zion's National parks 2: When you have a 13 hour drive from Washington to Utah and you leave late at night, sleeping in the car is NO FUN! With me being 17 weeks along, finding comfortable sleeping positions is hard enough as it is! We were really glad we brought the trailer to say the least.

First stop was to Mom and Dad's home for Mother's Day! We went to church that afternoon and mom hadn't told anyone because she wanted me to when we came down. It was nice seeing everyone from my original home ward again. It was also great having everyone home for dinner that night as well. Jordan's girlfriend Chelsey and Rachel's boyfriend Quaid came over too!





Next we were off to Bryce Canyon and Zion's National park. It wasn't as long of a drive as I thought it would be. (Joe drove the whole time though so what am I complaining about...) It's interesting that when you're heading down there is a distinct line where it changes from brown dirt to red rock. I had forgotten how blatant that line was!




We get there and get settled in and that night it decides to drop below freezing!! We can comfortably fit 2-3 in the trailer, but we had 5. Dad would have stayed in there too if there would have been room but he was the gentleman and slept out in the tent in the cold. In the morning we trek into Bryce and what would you know....it starts SNOWING!! Man, we left Washington to get away from the colder weather!! Joe had never been there so it was a neat experience to do as a family.







All in all the first day at the park was great! There were beautiful walking trails and grand vistas to be explored. We saw deer and prairie dogs and had alot of fun in the visitor's center too...





Joe is training to become a Junior Ranger in his spare time... or maybe a Jr. Chipmunk. Swqueakity, squeak..uuh squeaken.





The last stop of the trip was to Zion's National Park. It was much warmer there compared to Bryce. It was so warm all of the caterpillars had hatched and were crawling all over the visitor's center. To get to other places in the park you have to take a shuttle up so we went about halfway and hiked up to the Emerald Pools. It was a really nice hike and nice area.



Someone even found a Mickey Mouse shaped cactus!





On the way home we noticed a cop car stationed in the exact same spot as when we'd drove by that morning. We decided to take a closer look and noticed something was amiss.... I know sleeping on duty can't be good but to fake it entirely!! Man!



This was a fun sign Joe wanted to take a picture of before we left for home.



Last but most certainly not least we had to go see our friends while we were here! We went out and saw Iron Man 2 with them. It was a pretty awesome movie! I just wish we would have had more time to spend with everyone. Of course being preggars and all we had to eat at all of our favorite spots and had a grand last couple of days! Tepenyaki, Cafe Rio and In-and-out...nothing wrong with that!



I think this is a really sweet pic. Audrey is having fun with Katelyn and David is just looking over lovingly... Aww!



Just stuffing our face at Cafe Rio...







We miss everyone already and well be back in June or July for a baby shower!! So I'll just have to keep up with everyone's blogs until then so I can get my Utah fix!!

April is CRAZY!!! (Warning this is a long post!!)

Every year in April the Bipperts have a million things going on, no matter what year it is! This year we have something going on every weekend!! So here we go!

April 3rd: Michael Buble for Joe's B-day!

For Christmas this year I thought it would be fun to plan really far in advance and get my husband concert tickets around his birthday. Michael Buble just happened to be in town on his b-day so I had to snag those tickets!! I always forget that his birthday is so close to conference that I probably shouldn't plan anything until the weekend before or after his birthday...well too late, already had the tix!

I was able to acquire floor seats but they were 4 seats apart from each other. We got there and the seats were great!! They were in the very front of this walkway so Joe had tons of room for his feet (which he loves!) and the people that we were sitting next to didn't mind if I sat next to him and they were over one spot! Super nice!!


This is about how close we were from our floor seats. He was doing Michael Jackson's "Billie Jean" right here. He is a really funny guy by the way! He was cracking jokes about Tiger Woods, being engaged and all sorts of stuff!




About half way though the concert they rolled out this mini stage RIGHT DOWN OUR ISLE!! He came out and sang "Home" with one of his band members playing acoustic guitar. It was awesome!! Joe gave him a pat on the back as he was going down the stage past our seats... hehe






The rest of the concert was great we were able to dance in the isle because of all the room and inspired the people sitting next to us to dance as well. I hope my dear husband had a wonderful time for his birthday and I am so grateful to have him in my life.

April 10th: Vancouver, B.C. Temple Open House!

We had been planning with our friends Rich and Allisha for weeks about heading up to Vancouver for the open house of the temple. We had gone to the DMV to get enhanced driver's licenses because we both didn't have passports. The people there told us it would take about 2 weeks...so it was cutting it close! We waited day after day and they never arrived.... until the day we had to leave!! So we hurried up, packed our bags, and left to Vancouver!

I don't have alot of pictures of the first half of the trip because we forgot to charge our camera...

Of course all of the temples are beautiful and this one was no exception! The chandeliers in the main lobby were dark around the edges and all over the temple there were accents of the dogwood flower. On the door handles, engraved into the carpet, even some of the chandeliers looked like bunches of dogwood. The one in the bridal room was the most impressive!



Later that day we ventured down to Stanley Park. They have these larger than life statues just outside of the park that are modeled after the artist. Inside the park there was people dancing, painting, bike riding, and this great play area we had to go visit.



It's hard to miss this guy in the park...Spandy Andy. All he needs is a boombox and a crowd!







The last day we were there we tried to find the Olympic Torch...I mean Cauldron. We ended up in the slums of Vancouver where people wear garbage bags and viking hats (true story). Needless to say we were a little lost so Rich stopped to ask for directions. He decided to ask the man in the slums wearing the 3 piece suit and his business associate that were grabbing a briefcase out of the back of an suv. Needless to say he wasn't much help but we ended up finding it anyways...and didn't get capped in the slums.

The cauldron ended up being kind of a bust... there was this big blue dumpster right near it and it was all fenced off and torn up. They were remodeling it for Canada Day or something like that. The finished product looked like it was going to be pretty though!



Last stop on our trip was the Tulip Festival back in the good ol' U.S. of A. I had never been there but I'm a huge flower nut so it was a lot of fun!



Skyler met a girl while we were there. It was so cute!!




April 24th: Corinne's B-Day in the Olympic Peninsula

For my birthday this year we decided to go to the Forks, Kalalock, and La Push area to discover the beautiful outdoors. The first night we were at Kalalock which is a beautiful rv site near the ocean but it didn't have any hookups. We walked on the beach and found this awesome tree that was hanging on for dear life between these two hills. there was a small waterfall underneath it that had eroded the land that was once there.



We relocated our trailer to a site just outside of Forks that had hookups. It was still a nice site just not near the ocean.
Our next outdoor adventure took us to Rialto Beach which is just before La Push. We had read about it in a book that said there were cool tide pools around here. It was about a 3 mile walk out to where they were and it dumped rain the entire time!! By the time we got back to the truck it looked like we had gone swimming in the ocean in our clothes! We quickly headed back to the trailer and spent the rest of the evening drying off, drinking cocoa and watching "Friends" episodes. (Thanks to Rich and Allisha again for letting us borrow those!)






So that sums up most of April! Baby wise I'm doing great! The second trimester is wonderful because I"m not as tired and my hips don't bug me anymore! YEAY! May is going to bring some fun adventures too. We are going to Utah to visit my family and also go down to Zion and Bryce canyon.

Oh and we also find out what were having in May!! We wish we knew now but I guess we'll have to keep being patient...

And sea monkey makes three!!

Ok, the cats out of the bag! I'm Pregnant! I was going to wait to post this until after we went to Utah but that's like a month away!! So baby bippert is doing great, I haven't thrown up yet, and my hips are killing me! Now you're caught up... So here are the ultrasound pictures with more to come!

This was our 7 week visit. Just a pea in a pod.


This is 9 weeks.


And this was today! I'm almost 12 weeks now. Look baby is already smiling!! Can you see it!



Joe and I both are super excited for all the fun that is to come. I can't wait until I can feel kicking.. which won't be for a while.


Here's the floating baby in space that is the size of our child!

Bubbles and Birthdays and Beaches, Oh My!

So I know I've been a total slacker so here is what's been going on with the Bipperts the past couple months:

CAMA BEACH:

Patti's birthday was in January and to celebrate we went to Cama Beach. When we arrived we had to use these little hand carts to carry our things to the beach. The boys were very helpful!



In the morning we went out to the shore and there are thousands of shells! All of the white you see on the ground is broken shells underneath the chairs.



There was also a boat exhibit, horseshoes and a really cool dam where bald eagles hung out because they released fish from there.



That was about as close as we got...





Buddy's Birthday:

Our good friends invited us to their son Skyler's 1st birthday party. Joe and I went to get him a present and the first thing we saw when we walked in the store was bubbles!! This bad boy pumps out 4,000 bubbles per minute so we had to give it a test run!




Skyler looks like he's wearing one of those eye pieces they would in older times. Cherrio old chap!



I think Rich got a little "sick" of the bubbles. No pun intended.



My husband, being the big kid he is, had to play with the toys as well!




Ocean Shores:

A couple of weeks ago we went with some friends and the missionaries to Ocean Shores because one of the missionaries had never been to an ocean. Luckily it was a gorgeous day (but cold) and it didn't rain at all! We tried our hand at kite flying, moped driving and the local fare. (He also had never tried clam chowder!)








Somebody dared Elder Wheat to run out to the second to last pole, touch it, and run back. He made it out and got smacked by a six foot wave! He was soaked pretty much the rest of the trip. Hehehe




That's what we've been up to! Were still working on a time frame to come out to Utah and what our big vacation is going to be this year... We'll see!!

This Is Halloween 2009

This year for Halloween we went up to Jon and Julie's house in Federal way. After having some of Julie's famous taco soup we went outside to do some Trick or Treating with the kids! It was a little cold but we had a blast!

Joe went as a nerd and I went as Little Red Riding Hood. (I made him fix his shirt before we went outside w/ the kids)



Jessica was a cat, Evan was a dog, and mom was a Mexican man... Her full costume is seen below.






Julie went as a witch. Here is a picture of the witch and her black cat. So cute!



Bringing the cart for Matt and Evan turned out to be a really great idea. Matt was a race car driver so it made sense.





What would the night have been without giving the nerd a wedgie!!

New finds on the farm...

So a few days ago I came home from work and noticed something new in the bushes near the Japanese maple tree. I went inside and asked if anyone had put decorations in the bushes. When the answer was no I went back outside and took a closer look and this is what I found.

Joe told me he has never seen anything like this out here. It must just be the perfect conditions for mushrooms to sprout up all over the farm!



These are real by the way! I looked some of these up and the ones I found names for had a large skull and cross bones symbol next to them. Not that I really trust anything that comes out of the ground that I haven't planted there...

Playing in the Pumpkin Patch!

A few weeks ago a whole bunch of us Bipperts went out to pick pumpkins for decorating and carving this holiday season. I have never seen a pumpkin patch this big! They had acres and acres of pumpkins (It also doubled as a Christmas tree farm) and we all found some good ones to take home.



Evan found his pretty fast and had a grand ol' time playing in the dirt. So cute!



This guy doesn't look too happy for the next holiday around the corner!