Washington Trip

I feel so blessed that I was able to go to Washington to see my sisters brand new baby girl "Belle" and all the rest of my mom's side of the family. This is the first time that I traveled without Andy with our little Alyeska. I was a little nervous but it went fantastic. We flew southwest so we were able to pick our own seats. Both of the flights there and back weren't full so Alyeska was able to have her own seat and she was trapped by an adult stranger so she couldn't run in the aisle. She did great both ways no crying or whining for that matter. The first day we stopped at my sister Brittany's apartment to meet the new beautiful dark haired baby girl. I also got to meet my sisters boyfriend Tony for the first time. He is a great guy and great new daddy. I was able to surprise my family with me being 16 weeks pregnant at the time with Alyeska wearing a "Big Sister" shirt coming out of the airport. My mom was the only one who figured it out right away. 

The week was so busy visiting with family and doing things... I can't remember what we did each day. My grandparents house was very busy with my mom, sister Chelsea, nephew Terran, me, Alyeska, aunt Helena, and my grandparents all staying in one house. My cousin, his wife and their daughter Addison live next door so everyday was noisy but lots of fun. I think Alyeska got used to playing with her cousins all day for a week. 

My mom and aunt Helena watched ALL the babies while us younger people were able to go out and have some fun a couple of times. Once we went on my cousins parents yacht and kayaks and another night we went to have Sushi at a place with a conveyer belt.  That means they had 5 kids all under 3 years old including a newborn. It was so nice of them. I think they loved it but were so exhausted at the end of the night :)

Washington is such a great place to go in the summer because it is so green and it has so much to do when it comes to parks, lakes, restaurants, entertainment etc.. We tried to get out everyday to a park, trail or lake to let the kids play. It couldn't have been better weather. It was in the high 70s and 80s everyday with no rain. When we stayed home during the day/night we were busy playing all kinds of board games and one evening we shot a pellet gun at a puzzle head and heart gallon jug. 

I have a feeling that Washington will be a yearly visit now; especially now that my little sister lives there and my big brother and his wife are looking to move there. My grandparents want my parents to retire and live in their basement. Everyone else is trying to convince us to move there as well but as awesome as Washington is, I love Utah. Maybe our next visit will be when Brittany and Tony gets married??? That was my wonderful visit to Washington! Can't wait until next time!

First camping trip with a babe

The original plan was to go camping mid summer when it is nice and warm but the camping trip got pushed to September which was good and bad. Good because it was gorgeous and during the day... it was perfect weather in the Uintahs. I don't think we broke a sweat at all. However night time and morning was a different story. BRRRRRRR!!! It was in the 40s and it was soooo cold. Alyeska did surprisingly well. We brought the pack and play but it was so cold that there was no way I was letting her sleep in that by herself where she will not keep her blanket on. I of course had her bundled in layers and a hat, but it was so cold I would wake up hoping she didn't freeze to death. She would only get mad when I moved her around and tried to keep her swaddled with her hands tight in the blanket and putting a light blanket over her cold face. Once during the night I stuck her in the sleeping bag with me because I wasn't sure if she was warm enough. That didn't last long. I had such a good time but I never want to go camping when the night is that cold with a baby. I took off my socks in my sleeping bag thinking that will help my feet warm up. NOPE! socks back on! Nothing worse when you have to pee in the middle of the night. So cold there was not way I was going to find the pit toilets, the grass right outside the tent was going to have to do. We borrowed a air mattress which was the best thing ever except I moved so much Andy said kept getting launched up.

The rest of our trip was so layed back. No activities planned except to ride in our friends canoa which made me want a canoa of course. Perfect for families that kayaks just can't cut. It was lovely because we didn't have any toys to play with. The kids just played with sticks, and rocks and camping gear which kept them entertained. The toddlers have camping battle wombs from falling over and over again over big rocks and sticks that they seem to forget are on the ground to trip them up. Crying, happy, crying, happy. This is why we will only camp with people who have babies who are close to our kids age. Because we can just laugh together and watch out for each others kiddos.

Lesson learned: Keep camping with babies, toddlers and kiddos: it makes for wonderful memories. Go when and where it is warmer at night.

*There aren't any pictures of Andy because I didn't check my camera battery before we left home so all these pictures were taken by Andy on our other camera. 

Uintahs was a great place to camp because of the lakes, the trees and God's beauty. I loved it!!!

Ashbys you guys are great camping buddies. Thanks for making it even more special.

baby swim lessons

I had such a fun time doing baby/mama swim lessons at North Shore with Alyeska. Alyeska loves the water but I found at the end of our 8 days of going to the pool she had so much confidence in the water. Almost too much confidence. She was fearless to the point of wanting to walk our far or dive in to get a toy without mamas help. YIKES! The last day was the best because we got to do whatever we wanted the last 10 minutes which included going on the slides and under the fountains.

Some of the things we did in our lessons is blowing bubbles (which she never got), big monster swimming arms, big kicks, floating on back and belly with the use of mama and a noodle (the babies were not big fans of this part), quick dunks in the water,  and lots of games and toys were used to reinforce these skills and build confidence in baby. Overall she couldn't wait to get into the pool everyday and I can't wait to do this again next year since this was the last session of the year. Andy was able to come the last day of lessons to take pictures. He wants to get in the water with her so we will have to go as a family before it closes for the summer.