Walking!

Here's some pictures and footage of our little girl walking. The other night, she took 27 steps from her room to Cole's and only stopped because she made it to his bed and sat down to play. I think she's officially a walker - such a bittersweet milestone.

Yellowstone

Last week, we went to Yellowstone (or Ye-yo-stone as Cole calls it) with my family. It was a last-minute trip, so Floyd was only able to be there for the weekend. I am including TONS of pictures (remember, I take too many), so here it goes.


We went to the Bar-T 5 Chuckwagon Dinner - Cole was a grump, but Annie loved it.


Annie was perched like this the entire wagon ride - watching the horse behind us.


Not the greatest pic, but here we all are at Hidden Falls. Cole stopped to see every bug and rock and branch on the way up. Hoping to speed him up, Floyd challenged him to a race on the way down. He ran the entire way down, screaming at his cousins because he wanted to win. It was charming.


Annie in the pack.


While mom chased Cole down the mountain, Dad enjoyed a leisurely pace that put Annie right to sleep.


My kids, once again, turned into fish anytime we were remotely near the near-freezing water.


Moose Falls, beautiful, but mosquito-ridden so we had an abbreviated stay.


Cole wishing to get off the rock and into the churning water. Mom said no.


Annie with a mouthful of sand/rock.


Me and my sibs.


Grandpa and the babies - Annie and Landon.


Aunt Karlee and the girls enjoying an ice cream at Old Faithful.


Uncle Jake with Annie.

Other random trip moments:

1) My mom, Cole, and I were walking on a trail. Cole ran ahead to catch up with Grandpa. At one point, another trail joined up with ours and a group of motorcycle riders in their motorcycling attire (bandanas and leather) passed in front of Cole. He abruptly stopped and just stood there. When my mom and I caught him, with wide-eyes and a little excitement he said to me, "Mom, did you see that herd of pirates?" I'm not sure if he was excited or scared, but it was funny.

2) My dad was holding Annie on a boat ride across Jenny Lake. She was holding some tourist information paper and it blew out of her hands into the lake. She looked down at it, then looked at Gramps and said, "uh-oh." Looks like my job teaching environmental friendliness is finished!

3) Cole chose a pack of forest animals as a souvenir. One morning, he was sorting them according to whether or not they were nocturnal. As he did so, he said to my mom, "Grandma, Annie is nocturnal." Indeed.

I was so grateful that Karlee and Jake were on this trip - they were so good to chase after kids and hold kids and whatever else we needed. Thanks so much you guys! And thanks to Grandma and Grandpa for another fun trip. We had a great time.

Annie's Birthday

I'm quite slow getting these pictures posted. We had a lot of fun on Annie's birthday. Grandma Rose and Aunt Kelli and her kids came over for cupcakes in the afternoon. It was a good warm up for cake and presents with Daddy in the evening. She was very spoiled and has enjoyed playing with and not sharing all her new toys.


Cole was very "helpful" all day long.


This was her second try blowing out a candle - the first time she didn't do anything. This time she opened her mouth.



This was a new stroller for her baby dolls. Easily her favorite present.


She immediately put the doll in it and started pushing it around.


See what a proud mommy she is?


I love this picture of her snuggling the doll - she is very tender with them.


She's such a quick learner, on this try with the candle she actually blew.


Anyone want a bite?

Happy Birthday Annie!

It has been a great year with our little Petunia. She is so much fun and we love having her in our family. Here's a little about Annie:

-Annie is a little peacemaker - she always notices when someone's upset and tries to cheer them up (which usually works since she's so cute).
-Annie loves holding dolls. We realized our sweet angel does have a bit of Mommy's temper when Daddy tried to take away a doll one time.
-Annie also loves purses, or anything she can put over her shoulder like a purse - the first-aid kit, swimming suits, phone cords, backpacks...she'll pack them around all day.
-Annie hates having her diaper changed or getting her clothes on. She seriously wails every time.
-Annie can say the following words: mom, dad, brother, ball, duck, dog, uh-oh, and that. We love her little voice.
-Annie loves to be outside and cries by the door like a puppy until you take her out.
-Annie is quite shy and buries her head on my shoulder whenever someone says hi to her. I think it is so sweet when she does that.

 

Island Park Trip

We spent the holiday weekend at my in-law's cabin in Island Park. It was a little cooler there and we had a great time. Here are a couple of things we learned on this trip:

1) Katie takes too many pictures.
2) Our children should have been born as fish. They have absolutely no fear of the water and loved playing in both the river and the lake. Cole even drove us around on the wave runner.
3) Cole has sweet blood. Everyone got a bunch of mosquito bites, but nobody got as many as Cole. Nobody else got as swollen as Cole from their bites either.
4) Floyd loves fishing. Okay, so we already knew that one.
5) Golfing with women's clubs is actually easier than just borrowing your brother's. I did much better golfing than I have before and I think it's because I rented women's clubs. It was really fun, I want to go again soon.

Here are some (just some, I really do take too many pictures) of the pictures from our weekend.

Make a Smilebox scrapbook

Make a Smilebox scrapbook

Lagoon

We spent last Monday at Lagoon with my family. Not really my favorite place due to motion sickness, but we always have a good time. Cole was pretty excited and had a great time doing all the kid rides. It's sad that soon he will have outgrown some of them. Annie was excited, but she didn't really understand the concept of sit still while the ride is going, so she didn't go on many rides.




My personal favorite, Rattlesnake Rapids, was closed, so we had to settle for a cool-down on the new ride, OdySea. FYI - one of my big pet peeves is business (or amusement park rides) with misspelled names. You know, like Klassy Kars or Curl Up and Dye. So stupid. I'm also not in love with creatively spelled children's names. But the ride was fun and cooled me down.

Cole opted for a more intense cooling down. He was a kamikaze fountain runner. There were all these kids about 8-12 and then Cole running around like a crazy man. He's pretty fearless about water.



Annie also needed a little cooling down since we left her sippy cup in the car. Floyd bought a Lagoon bottle and filled it up with blue shaved ice. She never really took to bottles so I didn't think she would have much of it. Turns out, it was the formula and not the bottle that she didn't care for.