Hawaii Baby!

Okay Okay Okay, so I know it has been pretty much forever since I last wrote, but in my defense, a TON of things have happened since then, and it's taken forever to write them all!

My Grandparents had their 50th wedding anniversary. We went up to New Mexico the last weekend in June to celebrate. It was a blast seeing everyone! Everyone except one family on my dad's side was there, so it was a lot of fun.

Amy & Stacy, my sisters, came home from the reunion with us and celebrated the 4th of July here. Bart's brother and his roommate also came. It was a lot of fun. We got some fire works and set them off on our street. Addison loved it. After that Bart was gone for a weekend in Virginia for the NAEA board meeting. Then the weekend after that we headed off to California. From there we left for Hawaii with my family. It was SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO much fun!!!
We flew in on a Sunday to the Island of Kauai. The first full day we were there we just sort of hung around a chilled. Bart caught his token vacation creature. This vacation it was a crab.

That night we went to a Luau. It was a lot of fun. Some of my sisters went on stage to learn how to Hula, and Bart, my brother, and my brother in law wend up to learn how do the poi balls. It was a lot of fun. Addison loved the luau. She was memorized by all the pretty colors.
The second day we took a boat ride to the Napali Coast. It was beautiful. We had a ton of fun. There were these trampoline type things at the front of the boat that we could sit on. On the way home we were going over waves so fast it threw everyone up off the trampoline. It was a BLAST!!! And Bart had quite the hairdo after words.


Day three was Bart's birthday. Last Christmas my mom sent us a book about Kauai and told us to go through it and see if there was anything we really wanted to do. The only thing Bart really wanted to do was a hike along the Napali coast. So that's what we did for his birthday. He originally wanted to do a huge overnight hike, but he decided a smaller 8 mile hike would work. It was AWESOME! We hiked two miles along the Napali Coast to a beach, then two miles inland to a 300 foot waterfall! It was BEAUTIFUL!!! It was a hard hike though. It was really wet, so we kept slipping on mud. On our way back we ran out of water, and were VERY ready to be home. Overall it was a lot of fun though. :o)

Day four we went on a mud-buggy tour. That was a blast! We got SOOOOOOO muddy! We went to a few waterfalls, but after our 300 foot one, they weren't very impressive. :o) Somehow our tour guide managed to not get muddy though, so we snuck up on him afterwards and took care of that. :o)

Day five we got to go on a really cool adventure. We started out kayaking, then we hiked to a zip line and did that, then we went to this pool with a HUGE rope swing that you could jump off of into the water! It was a total blast! All the other excursions we had left Addison at the hotel with my mom, but this one they got to come on. I wasn't sure how Addison would like the kayaking, but after the initial dislike of her life vest, she did pretty well. I set her on my lap, and held the paddle in front of her and paddled. It was a great adventure.

My mom took Addison swimming every day. She really liked that.

Overall it was a great vacation! It has been very hard to come back to reality, but I think I've finally gotten back into the swing of things.

Bart is starting school again on Wednesday. The teachers need to be there a week before the students have to come. I'm going to miss having him at home. There are definitely some advantages to having the summers off.

Father's day, Teeth, and the Arts Festival

Well, this week was a good one. Bart & Addison both had a good father's day. We have pictures (one of which I've posted) that very clearly show only two top teeth on Father's day. On Thursday, Bart said, "Hey! She has another tooth on top!" Sure enough, now there are three on top. I had no idea she was teething either! No fussing, whining, or waking up in the middle of the night. This is way better than the first four.

I can't remember if I've mentioned this before, but Bart has also taught Addison to clap. It's so cute! He'll clap, then she'll clap. I love it!
Earlier this week I was laying down next to her and I was hitting my belly like a drum. Every time I did it, Addison started shaking her hands and opening her mouth really wide...albiet the opening her mouth really wide isn't that unusual...but when I stopped, she'd stop. When I started she'd do it again. It was so funny!This past weekend we also went to the Utah Art's Festival. It was a ton of fun, even if it was hot. I kept pouring water on Addison to try and keep her cool. At the end we went through the mister...she was NOT a big fan of that. She didn't like the water fountains at the gateway either! I was really disappointed! Now what am I going to use as an excuse to play in them?!? Sheesh.

I'm missing all the fun stuff!

Okay so Addison went from scoot to full on crawl/climb/cruse. She is pulling up on Bart, me, the couch, the pillows, and whatever else she can get her hands on. She also uses her teeth as a third arm. She'll reach up with her hands and pull herself up, then bite onto whatever it is she's trying to climb up, and reach her hands out while she's biting.


She's also doing all sorts of stuff for Bart now that he's home full time for the summer! I'm so jealous! She pulled up to her feet with him, she started clapping with him, and now she & he have this little game. Bart yells, "Ah!" Then she yells back "Ah!" I tried to get her to do it with me, but no! She'll only do it with daddy!

She also started playing peek-a-boo with him. The other day Bart was folding our laundry, and he threw a sheet on her, she pulled it off and laughed. He said it was really cute. At least he took pictures for me. :o)


The other day she was crying. She puckered her lips and put her hand up to her mouth and started...I don't know, kind of flicking her lips with her hands so she was making a funny sound. It was hilarious! She thought our reaction was funny, so now she does it all the time. :o)


Well, I'm sure I'm forgetting a lot, but for now that will be it about her. As for Bart & I, Bart's enjoying being home. He did get another job that he's pretty excited about. He's teaching art at a school for Kids who are going through hard times. It's in the evenings on Mondays and Wednesdays, so he's going to be able to keep the job when he starts school again.

Work is going well for me, but I'm jealous that Bart gets to stay home all day. I feel like I'm missing all the fun stuff! Oh well, c'est la vie.

On Thursday, we got to go to a Real game with Bart's Brother and his wife. It was fun, but a total heart breaker! The refs made a bad call that cost us a goal...and ultimately the game. The coaches were so mad they got red-carded. It was pretty crazy!


Well, that's all for now. TTFN.

5k, Moab, and an agile little Baby

Man! I can't believe it's already June! And the middle of June at that!

In my defense, I started a draft last week, and then we got so busy I never got around to posting it. Right now I'm babysitting at a friend's house, and Addison is happily playing with some blocks, so I am going to post even though I don't have any pictures. First of all, here's my draft from last week.

So Bart, Addison, and I ran a 5k on Saturday...well, Addison more sat in the stroller as I ran, but still, she was part of it. :o) We did relatively well. Bart came in 9th place in his division (although he pointed out that there were like 50 people tied for 9th place). :o) I cam in 5th place! I was pretty proud of myself. I knew they gave little plaques to the first 5 people, so I had a secret goal of coming in at least 5th, but when I got there and saw how many people there were, I changed my secret goal to run the entire time...which I also did. It was a lot of fun. Afterward they had a raffle. I won a self-inflating camping mat, and a big water jug. We all had a lot of fun. We've decided we're going to have to do it every year. :o)

Addison has figured out how to crawl, alternating her hands and feet, and she's learned to sit up on her own! She is quite the handful!

Okay, that's as far as I got on my draft. Now for this week's stuff.

We went to Moab this weekend. It was a ton of fun. We took Amy with us, and we, and Bart's family all went on the river on Saturday while Addison's Great Grandma babysat her. The river was a blast! It was also fun having Amy with us on her Birthday. I was hoping to catch a little sun on my legs, but nope, they're as white as ever. I'm going to have to do some sun bathing before we go to Hawaii.

Addison is starting to pull up on things. She's been climbing on me forever, but yesterday Bart said she grabbed onto his arm and pulled herself into a standing position. Also, if we stand her up on the couch, she'll inch around a bit before she falls.

In the mornings I usually put her down for a nap and then get ready. This morning she was still crying when I was done getting ready which is very unusual. When I went into her bedroom, she had pulled herself up on the side of her crib and was on her knees. I think she was crying because she couldn't figure out how to get back down. I guess it's time to lower the crib.

Well, I will try and post some pictures when I get back home....if I remember. Until then, Au revoir.

Africa, Memorial Day, and the Baby Slug

Okay, so this weekend was a ton of fun. I took Friday off and had a 4 day weekend. On Friday we went up to watch Mountain View's soccer team play in the state tournament. They lost, but it was a close game. Addison wasn't very happy the entire time. Both times we've taken her to sporting events, she's been fussier than she has ever been before!!! I think it's just bad timing on our parts. We always go when she should be napping, and at the soccer game, we put her in this little front carrier, and when Bart was strapping it up, it caught her arm and pinched it, so she started off very unhappy. Oh well, maybe next time will be better.

Afterward we went to Barnes & Noble to get Bart a new book to read. While we were there we got a call from my family. My brother had gotten his mission call. Bart & I had been speculating about where he might go all week. The only thing that we could agree on was that he wouldn't be going to Africa. Yeah. He's going to The Nairobi Kenya Mission.

When he read the call, I totally thought he was joking. Bart & I are going to Nairobi for our African Safari next summer!!! SOOOOO crazy!!!

For memorial day Charles, Heather, and Same came up and spent the night. We went hiking up Diamond Fork Canyon on Memorial day. We wanted to go to fifth water hot springs, but we couldn't find any parking, so we went up a trail a little further up the canyon.


It was the first time we had taken Addison hiking with us. It was a lot of fun. At first Addison...and probably mom more so...weren't very happy because we kept going off the trail, and while Dad had Addison on his back he kept trying to go through bushes and branches that would hit her in the face! I finally made Bart give her to me to carry on my back and I think everyone was a lot more happy. Bart could go explore with his brothers, Addison didn't get anymore branches in her face, and I didn't have to stress about the branches in Addison's face. ;o)

Overall it was a lot of fun. I was disappointed that we didn't get to go to the hot springs, but we can do that some other time.

Addison has become an expert scooter. She can get to anywhere she wants to. She's starting to get the hang of crawling too, although you can tell it takes her a lot more concentration, so she gets impatient a lot of times, and just goes back to scooting.

It was really funny though...usually when she wakes up from her morning nap, she'll play in her crib for a while. Well earlier this week I heard her playing in her crib, just as happy as could be. All of the sudden she started whining a lot. I went upstairs to see what was wrong. She had some feety pajamas on and somehow had managed to get both legs into one of the legs on her pajamas. It was so funny! She looked like this little slug! I wanted to run and grab the camera to take a picture, but I couldn't stand the "Mom! Help me! Something's wrong!" look she was giving me, so I picked her up and fixed her pajamas. It was pretty stinking funny though.

Well, that's all for now! Until next time! Au revoir.