Blog-A-Thon

I have been terrible about keeping things up to date on here, so I've decided to try and give an update of what we've been doing for the past several months.  Here are some highlights of our last 5 months in pictures:

March:

We started venturing outside more, SO ready for Spring!!

We started seeing signs of life in the yard, I started to feel like I had survived the dark winter months again:

Months of planting, watering, and adjusting the grow lights gave us quite the collection of flowers and veggies growing inside ready to go into the ground: 

We had Easter, and Sofia wasn't entirely sure what was going on, but she certainly enjoyed her Easter basket:

Yum, candy!  If she could only get the egg open...

April

Discovered the joys of glow stick necklaces and bracelets:

 

Visited Washington DC on a work trip:

SO excited about the elephant at the Natural History Museum!

Talking all about that elephant

One of her favorite sites-the ducks.

Photobomb!

Another favorite site- The lion outside our hotel's door.

May:

This was a busy month, with a birthday to celebrate!

Beautiful Spring blossoms: 

A trip to the Baby Animal Birthday Party at Thanksgiving Point: 

First pony ride-we weren't sure how this would go, I thought she'd be scared, but she absolutely loved it!

 

We finally caught this on camera-this was her favorite facial expression for a few weeks:

A birthday trip to the zoo, since it was an elephant themed party: 

Watching the seals swim by

The carousel ride that didn't actually happen-she was terrified! I thought she'd be thrilled after handling a pony ride so well!

And a birthday party, of course!

June:

We enjoyed being outside in the warm weather, and Sofia loves her 'Wimming cool' as she calls it:

We took a trip to Wyoming:

Red Canyon on South Pass-so beautiful

The backyard visitor at my parent's house

Watching Finding Nemo with Grandpa and the cousins

July:

Found the camera during church that I forgot to take out of the diaper bag: 

Decided to just go ahead and put on her favorite PJ's (the 'elephant jammies') over the top of the ones she was already wearing.  She hasn't quite mastered this yet: 

 

Cheeser.

August:

Took a trip to California, which is covered in my last post :)

Kept up our annual tradition of watching the Perseid meteor shower.  Used our camera and tripod to get some cool night sky pics: 

 

Time elapse photo of the night sky showing the rotation of the earth:

The bright corner is from the light pollution from the city.  I see a trip to the middle of nowhere in our future to try and get one without that problem :)

Tried out a ponytail, it looks darn cute!  Too bad it doesn't stay in longer than about 1/2 an hour:

Sofia started climbing out of her crib, so we converted it to a toddler bed.  Now she plays more than sleeps, but eventually gets exhausted enough that she will finally give in:

And since she is so dang tired, she often wakes up on the 'wrong side of the bed' from her afternoon naps (when she takes one):

But she takes care to make sure all of the toys that she insists on being in her bed with her are able to get some rest, even if she doesn't.

And most of the time, she's a sweet, funny, entertaining kid:

And-- you made it through my blog-a-thon!  That is definitely not everything we've done over the last several months, but hopefully you've enjoyed the highlights.

California Trip!

I'm most definitely behind on what we have been up to!  I haven't decided if I want to take on the challenge of getting caught up on everything we've done since February, but I can certainly start with what we've done in August!

I've been hoping to get to California to visit my grandparents, Eric and Hayley, and other extended family for a couple of years now.  We had started to think about going last year, but then I had gallbladder surgery instead (not a fair trade in my mind-surgery just plain old hurts!) So, I was thrilled to get to go this year, attend the blessing of our new niece Eleanore, and visit with family.  We had so much fun!  It was so nice to see my Grandma and my Grandpa!  It has unfortunately been years since I've seen them, so it was great to get to spend some time with each of them.  We also loved seeing Eric and Hayley, meeting their new baby girl, and finally seeing their house that they have put so much work into. We owe a huge thanks to everyone who hosted and fed and entertained us!

On to a few photos from the trip:



 My Grandma has a clock in her kitchen that, on the hour, plays songs, has lights, and the clock face comes apart to show the bells inside.  She had to run into the kitchen to watch it, anytime she heard it ringing. My Grandpa also has a very similar clock, so it of course was just as fun to watch there too.

Mesmerized by the clock...

Just hanging out with Dad in the backyard- she loved hanging from this tree, she kept asking to do it again. Silly monkey.

Sitting with Grandpa as it got dark in the backyard.

Headed to the water-again.

The water was so cold-but she still wanted to be in it.

Crazy curls!

It started to get chilly with the breeze coming off of the water and the sun going down. But having your very own Sofia sized chair helps to make everything better. That and the campfire.

Beautiful beach sunset