The Fair 2011

The Fair was soooo much fun this year! Dave got unlimited Fair tickets for his birthday this year so we were able to go a few times! Lucy was old enough to really enjoy it! And I was not 8 months pregnant like last year so I fared better too!

We started out visiting the horses. Lucy was crushed when she found out she couldn't ride the horses there, but tried to suffice with an imaginary ride! She takes horses seriously!

Well, yeehaw! She made it look so fun...Dave and Levi wanted to join too!
We let Lucy choose one ride because we were kind of on a budget. She chose the spider swing! When she watched it go around and made her selection there was tons of kids aboard, but when she got on, she was the only kid in line! I thought that would make her sad, because it sure looked lonely, but she smiled so big and put her hands up anyway. Just having fun in her own little world, thrilled that she got to ride something!

At night the lights were really beautiful! Even though the kids were tired, nobody was about to close their eyes and miss out on any magical fair moments. Here is the kids looking up at the lights and rides! Pure amazement, huh?


Got some big smiles in there too!

Levi was getting really tired, but he only opened his eyes wider. Yup turns out we have another live wire in the family...seriously though... sleep is so overrated! Maybe one of our kids won't mind putting his head down when he is tired like Dave... I look forward to this child with very dear emotions, but for now I just enjoy the party!
Here was our view of the fair from where we parked...so beautiful, huh? Very worth the walk up the hill with the stroller, plus we saved 10 bucks!


I went back for more fun on another day and entered Levi in the diaper derby. I had high hopes since I won the diaper derby at the Del Mar Fair 26 years ago. I thought maybe it was in the genes... ...but Levi just started socializing with another cute baby, backed off the line, disqualified himself, shattered his mother's dreams, but still got the 3rd place ribbon, because only 2 babies actually came in and Levi did turn around and make it the whole way across and come in third. He is fast, but I guess we didn't train hard enough! Levi wasn't impressed with his ribbon!



On the other hand, Lucy had a magnificent time! Papa let her go on the trampoline!

I have never seen a happier 3 minutes! Pure bliss!


And then if that wasn't good enough, he topped it off with a pony ride! She has been asking to ride a horse for months now! All of Lucy's dreams came true in one magical day!

I expected to hear how thrilling the ride was, but when she got off she asked me "When do I get to run on a horse?" One step at a time there cowgirl!

What a fun time! Thank you so much for the tickets Mom and Dad! We had a blast!

Levi is 4 months and other adventures!!!

I can't believe Levi is already 4 months old!!! Crazy the way time flies... and I thought it went fast with Lucy!

He had his 4 month checkup this week and he was 17 lbs 6 oz and 25 and 1/2 inches long!!! Whoa!! He is in the 90th percentile and so are my biceps!!! (Well, at least the right one is getting big, the left one is still pretty weak!) I've just pulled out his 12 month clothes. Crazy!

He is much different than Lucy already. Last week he grabbed rice off my plate and shoved it in his mouth. Whenever we eat he smacks his lips and drools, so I started regularly feeding him solids this week ( I had let him have a bite or two of a few things before). He loved it. He smiled, he smacked, he swallowed. He seriously already eats better than Lucy did at 9 months old. She was such a pill, always gagging on everything. She would only eat if she had the spoon, so she couldn't possibly have eaten more than 5 calories per feeding. Levi even drank his Rotavirus vaccine. Lucy spit at least half of it out and freaked out! So funny! The other huge difference is Levi likes to play on the ground and practice his skills. He can push his tummy off the ground for a little bit now when he is on his tummy. Lucy would go down for a few minutes if I entertained her the whole time she was down. Levi is really very happy although he was still colicky (which doesn't seem to make sense, but he would be happy a lot and then I could tell when his tummy hurt and he was miserable).

Levi used to roll a lot between 2 and three months, but now he seems to be working on his push ups when he is on his tummy. He also kicks and paddles like crazy on his tummy. One lady at the park remarked "He looks like he is paddling for a wave" and he very well could be already working on his surf skills. He loves to look at things and grab them, his favorite being my hair. He also loves to growl like a dinosaur. He loves it when me and Lucy dance with him. His favorite activity is bath time. He starts giggling as soon as I turn the water on and he knows it's time. When he goes to sleep, I put him in the crib and he coos and sings himself to sleep ( If I get him down soon enough, if not I have to rock him in the blanket). I won't comment on his night time activities, I'll just leave you all thinking he is an easy baby!

Here is his little 4 month photo shoot I did yesterday in my parents backyard.


Levi looks like he doesn't have hair, because his hair is the same color as his head. So just to prove it (and to be funny) I put it in a little mohawk for you!

Is that both of my kids smiling at the same time? You have no idea how many pictures I took to get that!



We went hiking at the Torrey Pines State Reserve on Thursday. It was a beautiful day. We finished it collecting shells at the beach.

Two weeks of gymnastics lessons and she is a pro already!


I love living here! Winter is such a different experience!


Last, but not least we got a good family shot!

Lucy Quotes and adventures

"I'm too big"

"Roll over Mama"

"Nope" It's never just "No," it's always "Nope"

"Yup" Yes, has turned into Yup, as well.

"Where Lucy seat go?"

"Go away Mama!"

"I wuv you Mama!"

"I wuv you more!"

Here's the details:

The other morning Lucy told me "Roll over Mama." We were on the bed and she wanted me to move, so she could open the blinds. Trying to be funny I said it back "Roll over Lucy." She answered "Nope , I'm too big!" I couldn't help laughing. You're too big? Then I realized I always say that to her because she wants me to put her clothes on, and play in her little tent and jump on the bed. My answer to all of those things is "I'm too big." And these days with her using the toilet, I tell her all the time what a Big Girl she is. So I guess she thinks you don't have to do what your Mom tells you to do if you are "big, " even if it is just little big, and that that is a good excuse! The next morning I asked her if she could read me a book and she again answered "Nope, I'm too big." Silly girl!

Crazy adventure the last few days. On Friday I went to Logan with my sister Lani for a conference about teaching the arts to children, with Michael Ballam's Opera For Young Children program. Dave convinced me to go without him and Lucy, and I am so proud I did my first over nighter without her! I'm sure it was harder for me than her! Dave said she was totally happy and fine, although she did wake a few times in the night, she went right back to sleep. Yay! I am so proud of myself!

But that is not all of the adventure. We decided to move back to California (which is a long story, if you want to know comment about it and I will write a post about it, otherwise it's just a lot of details I don't know if you would care for). Part of Dave convincing me to leave (don't get me wrong, I want to move to California, but I just always thought it would be in a year or two and then all of a sudden we are leaving, and I get really emotional when it's time to leave people, especially since I just got my dream calling in the Mia Maids a few weeks ago!) was that I could write a list of things I wanted to do before we left. One of the things on the list was go to the Salt Lake Temple. (I originally went through the temple there and haven't been there since, so it's kind of sentimental). We decided to meet in Salt Lake Since it is halfway between Provo and Logan. Lani and I drove from Logan, while Dave and Lucy drove from Provo. I was so happy to Lucy and she was happy to see me after our long night apart! When I told her I had to leave again, but would come back that night, she said "Nope!" Then I said "Will you hug me" and another big fat "Nope" escaped her lips. Then she just looked hurt and pouted "Go away Mama!" I told her that made me sad and then asked if she was mad at me because I had to leave again. She answered "Uh huh." Finally I got her to hug me a few minutes before leaving for another couple hours. Lani drove Lucy home, while Dave and I attended the Temple.

Well, Lani had a date at 7:00 p.m. and we got out at 7:10 p.m.,Whooooooops! Took a little longer than we thought. Luckily her date was a little late! Anyway, I asked Lani if any of her roommates were around that could watch Lucy. One roommate could, but she had to go at 8:00, which would be cutting it close. Lani called again because Lucy went into hysterics when she tried to leave Lucy with her roommate. I told Lani to leave and then called up our good friends, babysitters, and renters, Nathan and Lindsay and asked them to go get her because Lucy loves them. They so wonderfully helped us out and all was well! Crazy, crazy Day!

After all that, when it was time for Lucy to leave Nathan and Lindsay and go to bed, she told me again "Go away Mama!" I was sad. I tried to be a big girl, but she has never not wanted me before. When I told her that what she said hurt my feelings, she did give me a big kiss, so that helped. And she has been making up for it by telling me spontaneously all day today "I wuv you Mama!" answered by me saying "I love you Lucy! I love you more" to which she responds " I wuv you more" and then we go on that way about 20 times. She wakes me up that way these days and I love it. There is nothing else in all the world like waking up to Lucy touching your cheek and saying "I wuv you Mama."

Anyway to finish the explanation of all the quotes, Lucy's car seat was locked in Lani's car last night, so we just went without it to church this morning. (Shhhhhh! Please don't call the CPS!) When Lucy got in the car and saw that her seat was missing, she exclaimed in a very bewildered voice "Where Lucy seat go?" The way she said it was really funny. It is never quite the same in writing. Anyway, that is the low down on all of Lucy's recent cute quotes and the rest of our adventures!

Arches Adventure Day 3

September 3 - Arches Adventure- Day 3

We started the beautiful morning on the swing set. You can just barely see the beautiful red rock and sunflowers in the background if you look closely.

While hiking to Landscape Arch, we encountered a huge, cool lizard. Dave was happy to see something cool, even if we didn't get to see any scorpions on our trip (that is what he was hoping for!)



Lucy hiked almost the whole mile to see Landscape Arch (she wimped out once we hit a sandy portion of the trail). This was one of my favorite arches. It is so long and skinny. Very impressive that you can find things like this in nature, somebody must have had a little fun along with all the hard work creating the world.

Here's Lucy flashing a big smile from her sacrificial diaper changing rock. It made for a nice changing table.


The entrance to the Sand Dune Arch. Lucy says "No Trespassing!"

A family pic a little bit farther into the hike

I am making this hike sound long. It was only .2 miles, but it was beautiful so I took a lot of pictures on the "long" sandy trek. Here is Dave scaling the crevice.


This was definitely Lucy's favorite Arch. Shoes off, rolling down the dune. This is the life.

The sand was sooooooo soft! We spent the most time here out of anywhere that we visited in the park. It just felt too good to sit barefoot in the shade.

Here is a picture on our way out of Lucy copying her Daddy.


Goodbye arches. We love you!


This was an amazing trip! I can't believe I have lived in Utah for so long and this was my first trip here. I had camped in Goblin Valley before, which wasn't very far away, but had never made it out here. I just had no idea it was so breathtaking. I thought we would get here and see two cool arches and then be ready to go. Instead, there were hundreds of arches, and even when there weren't arches there were extremely impressive rock structures. It's only 3 hours from P-town, so make sure you visit on your next Utah trip!

Arches Adventures- Days 1-2

Arches Adventures - Days 1-2

September 1st and 2nd

Happy Birthday Heidi! In Honor of you, we traveled South and went camping!

We decided in the afternoon on September 1st, we better go on a cool trip before Dave gets a job and may have a more complicated process to get time off.

So at 7:00 p.m. we made up our minds to leave right away. We threw everything in the car as fast as we could and were on the road by 7:30 p.m. Dave and I are just like that sometimes. Neither one of us really likes to plan very far in advance.

Since we left so late we stopped at Green River to camp. This was Lucy's first time sleeping in a tent so of course we documented it with a picture. She really loved the tent, although she didn't display that by sleeping very well in it.


Outside Arches National Park Visitor center Lucy found a friend that also had two ponies.


Our first stop along the trek, Park Avenue.

At this point, I looked at some map and thought we could hike to "Balanced Rock" from here. So we went on a hike, and luckily after only one mile we came to the road again and realized that "Balanced Rock" was miles away. I guess what they say about women reading maps might be true, at least for me. Dave hiked back and got the car for us. I was extremely impressed with Lucy, because she hiked the whole mile and absolutely refused to be carried. Even when we stopped to wait for Dave to get the car, she wanted to keep hiking.

Here are some pictures of our very awesome, short hike to the road that we drove on to get to "Balanced Rock":

Lucy going under a Lucy sized arch that we found



Dave and Lucy, with "The Three Gossips" in the Background



Here is the cool rock Lucy and I ate lunch underneath, while Dave fetched the car.

After getting in the car and driving 9 miles, we finally reached "Balanced Rock." I am sure glad we didn't try to keep hiking there!

Here is Dave and Lucy trying to blow "Balanced Rock" over

Pretty cool, huh?


And we don't look like we have been sweating out here or anything

Here is Lucy trying to balance her own rocks. These interested her much more than the random huge balanced rock above her head.


Ah, and here is the artist in me, capturing the real "Balanced Rock" with Lucy trying to balance her rock. I thought it was sweet.


Do you think Dave is strong enough to push it over?


Maybe with the help of Lucy he can. Lucy didn't understand what we were doing of course, but she really wanted to pretend to do whatever Daddy was doing too. I couldn't get her to line up perfectly, but she sure tried hard.


Here is one of the Window Arches. I thought it was pretty cool and worth a picture.


Here is the other Window Arch (I think).


Double Arches (This was one of my favorites!)



Dave asked some ladies, while video taping, "Where's the arches? Are they up here somewhere?" while we were standing underneath them. They were foreign and tried to explain to us that we were already there. We pretended to react as though we had no idea we were right underneath it. It was funny. Maybe if I get highly motivated sometime I will post the video.



Here is the view from up at the arch



Who's that hot silhouette?


It's me!


Here is the most famous "Delicate Arch"which is also on our license plate. We didn't hike to it because Lucy was asleep and it was supposedly a somewhat hard, 3 hour hike. Maybe next trip. It's not too bad of a shot, zoomed completely in with my camera.

After a long hot Day, we set up camp at Slide Rock campground in Moab. The campsites were pretty small and shabby, but they had a pool and that was all that mattered to Lucy. Even the freezing temperature didn't stop her. Here she is jumping in (one of her favorite pool pastimes).


Look at the love on those faces, even through chattering teeth.


What a perfect ending to a perfect day! We celebrated the evening by going to the grocery store and buying Green Machine Naked Juice, which we also discovered was one of Lucy's favorite things (as well as mine). The adventures aren't over yet! Stay tuned for Day 3 of our Arches Adventures tomorrow.