California trip

Between May and June we feel like we are road-tripped out for awhile. We made the drive down to California (14hr) for a family reunion and had so much fun. For the record I will say it was worth it even with Lincoln puking in the backseat from winding down the canyon outside of Oregon coming into California. It was that fun a trip. ---By the way the first town in Cali is siskiyou, and so there's a sign that reads, "Siskiyou" right after the sign saying, "Leaving Oregon" That made us laugh.

I think the reason it was so fun was because the reunion was a blast--we rented wave runners one of the days--and the camp sight, called family camp, was so fun. There were flush toilets and little cabins that all surrounded the fire pit. We were right by Shaver lake so we spent most of the day there. After the runion Kurt's mom was sweet enough to take the kids for a night so Kurt and I could go up to Yosemite and stay the night. Kurt and I wanted to try to make it to the top of half-dome. Kurt hiked it when he was younger but I wasn't so sure I could make it to the top especially after reading about it online. Anyway, i'm proud to say we did it and it really wasn't that bad. I was tired but we made pretty good time. And the cables weren't as hard as they looked. I had seen pictures of the cables before but they were way more intimidating in person. (Click on the picture of Kurt and I together and you can see them in the background) Once you were on them though they weren' that bad. I had an almost empty water bottle on the outside pocket of my backpack and at one point it somehow came lose while I was on the cables. It bounced down and down and down until we couldn't see it anymore---that was a little creepy. It was crazy how high up we were. We figured it out and we hiked over 20 miles overall. The trail was really beautiful and there's a stream we soaked our feet in on the way back down. It made me want to try other really cool hikes.

You have to click on the pictures and see them full screen to really appreciate how pretty the hike was. And how good lookin' my husband is. . .speaking of notice his t-shirt? There were a lot of hikers at the top that noticed and asked if he could fly them back down the mountain. Cute.

may weddings

I guess I can't call myself an official blogger because I really don't post as regularly as I should on here. I've was visiting family last month for two very important and beautiful weddings. My littlest brother and sister got married. I was surprised at how unique and special each one was even when they were only 11 days apart at the same temple. And I'm not even talking about the weather (80 degrees and sunny for one and 40 with wind and rain for the other). It was one of those trips that you look forward to for months and then when it comes it becomes a whirlwind of activities and visiting and before you know it you're back home. I am just glad I took pictures because they help me remember how much fun I had with everyone. I absolutely love my family--on both sides.

Here are some pictures of the weddings:

Maya

Here is a picture of Maya saying "me" and "cheese"


I guess Maya is really tiny. We took her to the doctor for her 18 month and she is off the charts. She still weighs 18lb and YES I do feed her! She is in her highchair a lot more now though. Part of the problem is she didn't like milk before. It's only been a month now that I can give her a sippy cup of milk and she'll drink it all. So I'm sure she'll catch up soon enough. The doctor didn't seem too worried.

It's been really fun to see Maya's personality lately. The other day we were in the van just leaving the store and I said, "Ok who's ready to go home and get some lunch!" and I hear this little, "meeee" and it's Maya raising her little hand in her carseat right behind me. She has always been really easy going but lately if Lincoln's doing something she doesn't like she yells, "stop" of course it sounds more like dop. She also says cheese and makes the funniest face when I point the camera at her. When I put her in bed at night she says, "bu-bye" and blows me kisses. when I put the kids in time out on the bottom step I will often find her over there trying to tickle them or just sitting there with them. She also does long division . . .

Easter without daddy

We managed to have a really nice Easter even with a very important member of the team gone. Kurt spent the week in Texas helping build a pergola for his brother. Kurt's dad was there too and took his boys bay fishing off the coast of Texas. He didn't catch the most but he did catch the biggest fish of the day. Meanwhile I was very lucky to have really sweet friends invite us over to enjoy ham and egg hunts with them. I have decided to take on my mother's treasure hunt complete with scripture questions and eggs with jelly beans. I It was a hit this year---the reason I can tell is they have been playing "treasure hunt" with each other everyday since. It was raining outside so I kept it to just inside our house but the kids loved it. Maya was following the other two as best she could. At one point of the hunt they had to sit and watch a clip I found on LDS.org of Christ's life, death and resurrection. I then had some questions for them about the movie. It really brought the spirit of Easter to our day and I felt like it was such a success! Yeah!

Lincoln's Birthday

We had such a fun time celebrating Lincoln turning four. I can't believe he's that old already. Although when I look at him I am occasionally struck by how much taller he looks or how his face has lost some of the cheekyness and he looks older.
Lincoln is so much fun to do things for because he gets so excited over everything. When he saw the cake I made he said "Oh yes! It's just what I wanted!" We had a party with some of his friends at McDonalds. Then later we had a family party with just us. Natalie gave him her old bike with a big bow on it and a dinosaur. That morning he got a couple e-cards that he enjoyed a lot! He really likes watching the e-cards over and over again so I took some pictures of him laughing while he's watching them play.
We sure love him!

Our Spelling Bee Champion!

Natalie came home from school with a list of words a while back. She wanted to be in the all Kindergarten spelling bee at her school. Well, she never wanted to study much until the week of the event - so every night last week we practiced with her until she didn't want to do it anymore. The night of the event arrived and we got there to see that she was the very first name on the list so she had to go first. She stepped up to the microphone and spelled her first word correctly "m-e". She didn't even seem very nervous even though there were about 200 people there. The second round she got "hug", then "milk", then "off", and then came the one that did her in - "away". By this time there were only three kids left so she had to have a spell-off for fourth place. She got the word "knot" as in I have a knot in my shoelace (pretty tricky for someone kindergarten). She stepped up to the microphone and confidently said "k-n-o-t". I think the crowd was a little surprised because people let out a little cheer when she got it right. The other boy got "want" and spelled it wrong so Natalie is the alternate for the district spelling bee (which will be in May while we're in Utah). We were so proud of her for being so brave and being able to get up and actually think in front of all those people. We're pretty sure she was the crowd favorite because she looked so cute up there - but we're biased so you can judge for yourself! Great job Natalie!

Lincoln

We were in the car yesterday going to UW campus to pick up Kurt driving through the U district where there are always a LOT of people everywhere. Lincoln is in the back seat pointing out whatever he sees.
Lincoln-"Look mom there's a bus"
Mom-"yep there's a bus"
Lincoln "Look mom there's someone riding a bike!"
Mom-"yeah, lots of people ride bikes around here."
Lincoln "Look mom there's a giant dinosaur and he's trying to eat all those people! They are running away very fast!"
mom-"oh really?"
Lincoln-"just kidding there isn't a dinasaur. But there is a lot of people."

Lincoln loves to have control of things. He gets a little weird when he feels like things are not working like he wants. One morning a while back he woke up sometime around 6:30 and came into my room. I told him to come get in bed with me. After a few seconds I started to doze back off but then hear this slapping sound. Lincoln is smacking himself in the face. I ask him why he's hitting himself and he says, "My eyes won't stay open!" I tell him that it's because he woke up too early and he needs to go back to sleep. He proceeds to slap his face and his head jams back and bangs me in the lip. So then I say, "Lincoln! You just hurt mommy! Please stop hitting yourself" He continues but now he is out of bed doing a sort-of break dance move only he's really smacking and kicking at himself.
Seriously? Completely absurd.

Ok my last Lincoln story--I am the Primary chorister so I am constantly saying, "Ok I am going to call on whoever is most reverent." So the other day Lincoln wanted to take a page of stickers to the daycare at the gym. He said he wanted to pass them out. After we checked in and right as he's walking through the gate he says loudly raising them up above his head, "I have stickers for whoever is good today." Then later that week we had homemade rolls--the kids favorite--and we were telling L he could only have another roll if he ate some of his other food first. He reached and grabbed one anyway. Dad started coming over to him so he quickly raised the roll up high and announced, "This is for whoever is the most reverent" Kurt had already grabbed it so he says, "Dad was the most reverent!" really quickly. He cracks us up.