Spring is in the Air???

It has been a year of crazy weather, as it always seems to be lately, but we do our best to roll with the punches. Though the following pics are all of Spring Excursions, they were all wet wet days. Nevertheless we had fun!

My sister works for the Parks and Rec department in charge of the Annual Easter Egg Dash, and this year Adelyn was big enough to participate. She didn't really understand what was going on at first (and may have been slightly disoriented by our mad dash from the car to make it to the real Dash before all the eggs were gone), but as she loves carrying around baskets and filling them with random things, she started getting into it pretty quickly.





Then the day got all the more exciting when she spotted the giant "buddy." For those of you who see her regularly, you know she is attached at the hip to her own stuffed bunny, so you can imagine her reaction to seeing such a giant cuddly one!



The next week my grandparents came in to town so that my grandpa and sister could celebrate the birthday that they share 70 years apart. I think it's very sweet that my grandpa will always make the effort for them to celebrate together. I didn't get the actual party, just our adventures the next day. We first went to the Flight Museum which somehow I had never been to in all my years of living here.

Then we went to the Tulip Festival up in Skagit Valley.

We really had a hard time keeping Adelyn from pulling all the flowers out of the ground!!

So pretty!!

I also love my grandpa for springing for the ever enticing smelling Kettle Korn that I am too cheap to buy!! He told me I had to help him finish it if I cared anything about his health. :) I chose to be the caring granddaughter and help of course!

We took cover from the rain at the restaurant where my sister waitresses. Adelyn is very independent already and wants to eat like the big folks. She did not want to eat the pieces of pizza that I cut up for her nicely on her plate...she grabbed a whole piece off the pan and went to town! She is a little nut and I love it!!

Obviously it took a lot out of her!

All Hail the Mighty State

For those of you less versed in state songs, we are talking Texas here. That's right! Home of the Alamo, the Dallas Cowboys, and me, for the first sixteen years of my life! Ever since we got married, Aaron and I have talked about going down to visit all the family I still have down there and last month the stars finally aligned and we made it happen!

What we weren't planning on was Adelyn and I getting sick--definitely not the best way to travel or the best time to be away from home, but we made the best of it. Here is Adelyn sporting her own Texas Longhorns.



Then we found a live one at the Historic Forth Worth Stockyards. Yes, I am much less dressed than they are, but I just needed to soak up the sun, what can I say?!



We went to the Fort Worth Zoo after that and actually caught the Lion roaring back and forth to his little lioness! It was seriously awesome. We tried to catch it on video, but got a nice picture instead.



True to character, Adelyn was not a fan of the birds once they got up close to her. I thought she might feel differently about birds than cats and dogs since she is actually bigger than they are, but I was wrong. Apparently ALL animals should be admired from a distance!



Adelyn had a hard time taking naps in my grandparents' crib, so we would often go on little drives to put her to sleep. Our first day's drive almost put Aaron to sleep too--my old elementary school, middle school, high school, childhood church building, house I was born in, etc. Well the last part was cool because that house is actually a museum now (I know you had no idea I was that important in my previous life!).

Sunday morning though, we drove up to Oklahoma so that Aaron could say that he had been there. We decided while we were there we might as well do something, so we went to Turner Falls, site of many a ward campout in my youth. We learned while there that it stands as Oklahoma's LARGEST waterfall!!! At 77 feet!!! What is Washington's you might wonder. 2584 feet!!



Yes, Texas is not really known for its physical beauty, but for the warmth and friendliness of its people. We definitely experienced that with the tremendous hospitality extended by my grandparents, aunt, uncle, cousins, and friends. Thanks everyone for helping us have such a good time and for welcoming Adelyn and Aaron into the family. Come visit us up here anytime!



This one is just for Kathryn....maybe you can see it at the Super Bowl next year!!

The Beauty of Math

My friend forwarded this to me and instead of sifting through my address book to forward it on, I thought I would post it here.

The Beauty of Mathematics

1 x 8 + 1 = 9
12 x 8 + 2 = 98
123 x 8 + 3 = 987
1234 x 8 + 4 = 9876
12345 x 8 + 5 = 98765
123456 x 8 + 6 = 987654
1234567 x 8 + 7 = 9876543
12345678 x 8 + 8 = 98765432
123456789 x 8 + 9 = 987654321

1 x 9 + 2 = 11
12 x 9 + 3 = 111
123 x 9 + 4 = 1111
1234 x 9 + 5 = 11111
12345 x 9 + 6 = 111111
123456 x 9 + 7 = 1111111
1234567 x 9 + 8 = 11111111
12345678 x 9 + 9 = 111111111
123456789 x 9 +10= 1111111111

9 x 9 + 7 = 88
98 x 9 + 6 = 888
987 x 9 + 5 = 8888
9876 x 9 + 4 = 88888
98765 x 9 + 3 = 888888
987654 x 9 + 2 = 8888888
9876543 x 9 + 1 = 88888888
98765432 x 9 + 0 = 888888888

*Brilliant, isn't it?*

And look at this symmetry:

1 x 1 = 1
11 x 11 = 121
111 x 111 = 12321
1111 x 1111 = 1234321
11111 x 11111 = 123454321
111111 x 111111 = 12345654321
1111111 x 1111111 = 1 234567654321
11111111 x 11111111 = 123456787654321
111111111 x 111111111 = 12345678987654321

Mind Boggling...

The Twilight Tour

As I mentioned in my last post, times have been a bit on the crazy side these days. Since that leaves me clueless as to the best place to start catchup, I'll just start right in the middle with Aaron's family's visit. We of course had a great time with them and hope they did too...despite being tossed around to three different places to rest their head on their six night stay. It was all for the sake of adventure though, so no one can complain!

Our big adventure this time was the Olympic Peninsula, inspiration for the recent cult phenomenon, "Twilight." This is a craze that personally I don't understand...I read the first two books, pulling out my own hair every step of the way. No offense to those who like it, but I guess I was just never that kind of girl. It does make for a good adventure though, so off we went.

Our first stop en route to the famed Forks was Ocean Shores, which is the nearest beach to where we live. I figure it's always good to give those land locked Idahoans a chance to stare off into the never-ending waves.



We turned our trek northward for the Quinault Rain Forest. This is supposedly the world's largest Blue Spruce. Looks pretty big to me!



The Quinault Rain Forest surrounds Lake Quinault, which is really beautiful...



...and a great place to skip rocks...or try to throw them really far and hit the random poles sticking up out of the water.

We stayed the night out at Kalaloch in a very small cabin overlooking the ocean. The smaller the cabin, the better the chance for family bonding, right guys? Just off the beach are the "Kalaloch Rocks" that provided great opportunity for "daring the ocean" as Aaron's dad put it. We would run out to the rocks as the tide went out, then have to wait while it came back in and went back out again to return safely to shore.

Don't be jealous, but it was awesome. (This is the beach just south of La Push, for all you Twilighters out there...you CAN be jealous).

The weather had been on our side on the first day of travels, but the second day we weren't quite so lucky. We had the Hoh Rainforest and the booming metropolis of Forks on the agenda for the morning and didn't let the weather stop us. Considering the rain forest gets about 150 inches a year of rain (compared to Seattle's 40 and Idaho's 7), we knew we had a pretty good chance of getting soaked.

Somehow I didn't get any pictures of Forks itself, but since most of the movies are filmed down in St. Helens Oregon and up in Vancouver Canada, I think the actual town may have been a bit of a letdown for Aaron's sisters. Maybe we'll just have to save those for next trip!

Anyone interested in booking their own Olympia Peninsula tour, call me anytime, I seriously love playing Tour Guide.

Maybe I'll even take a picture of your backside to share with posterity.

Lost

So it has been exactly a MONTH now since I posted anything. So much for that two posts a month plan. Just thought I would post a quick note so my long distance fans, I mean readers, would know that we are still indeed alive up here, just a little distracted by life to post about it.

We have been in and out of town and are about to head out of town again to go visit the family in Texas!!!!! Aaron's family came into town for Makaiah's baby dedication and we had such a good visit.

In less exciting news of our busy-ness, my sister Jenn was in the hospital, then had to have surgery. My dad was in the hospital, then had to have surgery. Please pray for their "miraculous recovery" as my dad put it. I know the Lord loves us and has a plan for each of us.

Now, can we all promise to take care of ourselves and each other?!?! See you guys in a couple weeks (maybe:).

A New Baby Cousin!

Hillary & Dan's baby is finally here! Mikaiah Grace Donohoue was born Feb 14th and weighed 8 lbs 9 oz. That is almost as much as Adelyn did, if you can believe that. Poor Hillary--who I am pretty sure is about half my size! She was definitely a trooper and somehow was still smiling when she told us about her trauma...must certainly be all those new mommy endorphins!

Here is Aaron, the proud "blood uncle" as he called it. We have one niece on my side, but as he pointed out, it is definitely different when it is your own little sister having the baby.



We were sad to be down in Sunriver during the birth (those pics to come soon), but glad that we live so close that we could easily go up for a visit. Adelyn wasn't quite sure what to make of such a tiny little baby, but she warmed up to her fast enough. While we were there she tried to pet her a couple of times, kiss her, poke her in the mouth, slap her head, and use her face as support when trying not to trip....so hopefully that's not any indication of future relations between them!

Congratulations though Dan & Hillary! She is certainly a special baby to be born to you...and to be born on Valentine's Day AND the Chinese New Year. We are two for two for Holiday grandbabies, which gives Aaron and I something to shoot for for baby number two.

In closing, I just had to share the most awesome recent picture of baby number one. One night I was picking out the inside of some french-type crusty bread for Adelyn to eat with her noodles, but she kept reaching for the crust instead. So I decided to just give it to her to see what she would do with it.

When I turned back around, this is what I saw. And she sat there just like that gumming that crust until it dissolved in her mouth. Oh she is precious.

I wonder if she got the idea flipping through photo albums....

Made for Walking

Jay & Susan and clan, this is for you! I know I promised it weeks ago and I dropped the ball. She started taking a few steps here and there around her birthday, but now she is doing the real deal!! This video is from a couple of weeks ago and it is crazy to see how much better she already is at getting around. The last couple of days I haven't seen her crawl at all, which just means I have to be that much faster myself!!!

I know, I know she is getting so big and we can't believe it!!!