2014 Summer Trip Story: Part I - TX to UT

Well, this story starts a little over a month ago, Allison and I packed up our kiddos, jumped in her car and hit the road on our way north! We hit the road a little harder than expected when at 5 a.m., 45 min outside of San Antonio, we got a flat tire... Needless to say with both of us pregnant and 3 excited kids in the car, it was an exciting tire change. (Cam was a champ and drove out to make sure our tire change was tight and the spare got put up correctly... He also helped change a tire for a couple of old ladies who had also gotten a flat about a mile before us. He originally thought we were them and pulled up behind them flashing his lights etc... must have been exciting for them :) Well, back on the road we had kids too excited to sleep, so it was an early morning for everyone. From there things went well and we got the tire changed at Costco and to our motel for the night.

Waiting for the tire change at Costco with Rees and Isla

Addy had only gotten two 30 min naps as we traveled, so the last hour was rough for everyone, but we made it and got some good sleep that night. The next day was easy, we made it to Springville and our Utah fun commenced!

Gigi had decided that she needed to add a slide to her stairwell, just in time for Jamie's family to come into town, so I jumped in with her and Amie graciously watched Addy while we picked up the slide. Since it was a 12' slide and we were in a little car, it was an exciting ride... the guys at the store got some good eyebrow lifts in when they saw the car we were using to transport the slide. :) But it worked great!

And we made it home without even losing the red bandana! So the slide went into the house and the wild fun commenced! Amie and Addy were the first ones down, then Gigi. (I'll have to get the videos for those...) Everyone who came had to go down at least once! However, the Peterson girls ruled the slide and were all over it. It was the favorite place to be. 

Unfortunately our time in Springville was pretty limited, but we had a fun time! One day we went to the splashpad...

It was pretty cold because of the wind, but everyone got pretty wet...

Addy figured out squirt guns just enough to know what to squeeze for the trigger, unfortunately, she could only figure out how to do it so it squirted her in the face, so she'd do it, flinch as it splashed her, then repeat. :)

These two just followed each other around, playing copycat with everything. :)

Addy also figured out how to put on a 'hat' ...It's great protection from the sun,
but not so good for noses if you actually walked around in it... :)

When Gigi got done with her shopping, she came and played for a while...

...then it was time to say goodbye to the splash pad, and go get some food!

Being in Springville was great because Addy could go outside and play on the deck or on the grass without dying of heat stroke! We didn't have to watch out for ants or worry about poky grass, so we spent a lot of time wandering around outside, chasing Jack & Jill, and just enjoying the cool UT weather!

Terrie did an amazing Rudy's BarBQue Suday dinner that had all of the fixings... Creamed corn, coleslaw, biscuit, Rudy's BarBQue sauce, etc. and of course everyone showed up to enjoy it!

 After a yummy dinner like that, the natural thing to do is to go take a nap... if you fit on the bed... :)

then, go hit up the park to burn off some of that energy...

She loves to hang on things, it's just a gamble, because you never know when she's going to let go! Catching her requires the utmost focus and quick reflexes because there are no warnings! :)

There I was briefly introduced to Spikeball... Kind of like volleyball, but not. I am interested to try it for more than the 3 minutes I played before Addy found my leg with a stinky diaper, but it has potential as a very fun game!

The only sad part about it being Sunday was that on Monday Addy and I got picked up by my mom and had to say goodbye to our Critchfield family...

Reading a few books with Amie while waiting for Grandma to come drive us off!

But that opens up a whole new chapter in our 2014 Summer Trip Story... which will be continued...

Beach to Bay Weekend

This weekend, was the Beach to Bay Relay Marathon! The race took us, the runners, from the Gulf of Mexico beach to the Corpus Cristi bay. But to get there we had to first get down to Corpus Cristi... So after way too long packing, I picked Cam up from his work and we headed down to the coast. We got there around 6, so we played in the beach for a while. Addy had fun chasing the seagulls, throwing shells, and running out into the waves. After a while getting out wasn't as fun because the wind had picked up and was blowing sand everywhere... That was the forecast that we were in for a bit of a long night...

Since I wanted to save some money, I figured that we'd use our state park pass and camp on the beach at Mustang Island State Park, so after playing in the sand and water, we decided it was time to set up our tent and get dinner and Addy to bed. So, we set up our tent... which was a little difficult due to the height of the tent and the flimsiness of the supporting rods and of course the wind. :) So Cameron drove our car up right in front of it, stuffed some big wads of seaweed under the other side of the car, to stop wind underneath, and rigged a tarp to help the wind go over the tent. Man, I wish I could have paused the wind even for a minute to just get a picture, cause it was a pretty awesome set up, but alas, I did not subject myself or my camera to that kind of abuse...

We eventually got Addy's pack-n-play up, it helped support the wind-blown side of the tent, and her to bed. Surprisingly she went down without much of a fight, so Cam and I huddled in the car and ate our tinfoil dinners out of the blowing sand. Then it was bed time... Needless to say, we had an exciting sleep that night accompanied by the flapping of our rain cover, with light dustings of sand all over throughout the night. :) Addy woke up 3-ish times and I was up about 5 times... Cam however did not sleep well, so we were all a little zombie-ed when we had to get up at 5 to pack up our tent and get to my hand-off site.

I did the second leg of the race... which was perfect, cause the first runner (Lupe Chatter) ran all along the beach against the wind... which I did for about 100 ft, but then turned and had it to my back all the way to the third runner (Valerie Carleton). I did 4.67 miles and felt good enough to step up a little at the 4 mile mark, so it was a good run! Valerie passed the baton to Becca Bird, then to Bridgette Lowery, then Kara Martin took us home. We completed the race at 4 hours 13 min with a 9:39 average mile! (Subtract out a few extra minutes at the hand offs trying to find people and we made good time!)

Team Will Run For Chocolate!!

Since it was the Beach to Bay Relay Marathon, it was only fitting that we got a picture on the beach....

and one jumping... We did miss Lupe Chatter in the team picts.

Addy and Cam played on the beach while I waited at the finish line for Kara and the rest of the girls...

but were my loyal supporters the rest of the time.

More beach fun...

So despite the crazy wind and sand, it was a fun time on the beach.

P.S. Last exciting news for this weekend... Today was Addy's first day in nursery! She did so well and was a 'good girl' said all the nursery workers... I think it was hardest on Cam because he didn't have any 'entertainment' during the later two hours of church! ;) J/K, but it was interesting to actually pay attention to the lesson and think that Addy was in her own classes doing her own little thing. :) Fun stuff.

P.P.S. Lessons Learned:
-Don't get a tall and spacious tent because it doesn't withstand storms very well...
-And even just a little sand that gets in with every little gust of wind builds up to a bunch of sand over the course of a windy night. :)

Handyman Side Project!

So, Cameron had a scrap piece of metal just hanging around that hadn't worked out for what he'd originally planned.... (If that makes sense...) So, I told him I was going to do a Honey-Do List for him... and surprisingly he agreed... but only if it was cute and it stayed in order of importance/order of needing to be done first. So I readily agreed! Luckily, I have Sarah Wilcox as a friend who was very willing to show me her amazing machine (a Silhouette) and use it to help me cut out the lettering I wanted to use for the project! Add in some cute stickers from Michaels and this is the (almost) final product!

I just need to add in some paper and magnets to hold the actual list of projects to be done and get magnets on the back so it'll hang on our filing cabinet! Fun stuff!

The Daring Deeds of My Little Missy...

Since this is my first time to try to link a video on this blog... We'll see how it goes! :) Addy has always been a little bit of a risk taker/thrill seeker, but here are some videos to show how she's been doing lately...

Yes, that is Cameron's table saw... but the blade was down and he was enjoying watching her do it as much as she was enjoying doing the jumping!... :) Little stinker. That was all fun until yesterday, when the following started happening!

I swear, Adelaide is going to give me a heart attack! Even when she bonked her head once, she still jumped right back up and climbed back up on the stool... the little thrill seeker! Oh well, you live and learn right... at least that's what Cam tells me and I have to keep telling myself so I don't get too worried. :)

Project Update!

So, Cameron's little rocking chair project is complete and Addy is in love! :) Cam refinished and then routed her name out on the back. She pulls it around with her all over the house and reads books, plays with toys, and just rocks in it.

As for how my garden grows... it's doing great! :) Well, except for my little spinach plants... a mean ol' caterpillar came and ate them down to nothing. So he got tossed over the edge of the balcony to go eat someone elses' plants! :)

So we've been getting, and eating strawberries!

They are a little small, but not bad for a balcony garden!
(If look closely, you can see where my littlest strawberry lover stole a bite... :)

Since it has taken sooo long for me to get this posted, I'm going to have two updated photos... One about a month old and one from now! Let's start with the beans and eggplants!

The beans sort of sprang up and got huge all at once... and the eggplants surprised me.
I wasn't sure they were coming up at all.

So this is fresh from today. There's a jungle huh...
bottom left corner is an eggplant, the rest are beans
except for a volunteer 4 o'clock flower that came up on its own!

Then onto the tomatoes and green onions...

The monster tomato on the left is from the store,
I planted it the same time I planted seeds for the rest of the plants,
which gave it a very nice head start...
(green onions in the top left corner and bottom right corner of the pic...
and cherry tomatoes on the top right)

So yeah, things are just bigger here...
we've even got some pretty good sized tomatoes on the older plant!

And that leads us to the pepper plants! Another surprise sprouting!

There are hot peppers in the top of the pic, then multicolored sweet bell peppers on the bottom of the pic.

They're growing pretty well...
They've just got some bugs on the bottom of the leaves that I need to get rid of...

These were my first sprouters and faithful 'til the bitter end little sprouts... Cabbage, spinach, and lettuce...

The little green things on the bottom right, just above here...
are lettuce... but I must not have thinned them correctly cause they dried out and died...
the couple of spinach plants on the bottom-ish left got eaten by that nasty little catterpillar,
so all I've got from my original seedlings are my three little cabbage plants over by the white tubing.

I just noticed the holes in the cabbage leaves! Yikes!
And I transplanted some eggplants to keep the cabbage company,
since my lettuce and spinach died...

Since the tomatoes go so crazy and get sooo big, I decided to just have two per bucket... but I had more sprouts, so after giving some to friends, I stuck one in a bucket and we'll see how it does!

And that's how my garden grows! :)

Easter Weekend Fun!

This Easter, Cameron and I had some extra excitement! 4 bundles of energy worth! :) Jamie, Cameron's sister, is running the Boston Marathon today, so Cameron and I have hosted their 4 girls while they've been gone. I'll tell you what, going from one little girl to 5 energetic girls, is quite a leap. But they have been very good and Addy has enjoyed the energy in the house! Here are a few picts of the fun we've enjoyed over the weekend!

We had Cam home for a lot of the time, and he made the time at the pool a blast! :)

 

 

 

 

 

The 3 girl crazy train! Azzy was with me, already up the stairs :)

Saturday morning, I got to participate in a Color Vibe 5K, thanks to Kara Martin! The girls had a great time having a color throwing contest with Cam waiting for Kara, Kelsey and I to finish the race!

Aren't we a very colorful, studly group! :)

 

Here are the end results!

Adelaide

Azure

Haven

Eden

& Ocean!

What a group! :)

The most exciting part was that just after doing the Color Vibe race, we headed to an Easter Egg hunt... and we were all just as colorful as the Easter eggs! (Azzy didn't want a picture taken...)

We ended up with lots of eggs and even more sugar at the end with a free ice cream bar from Freddy's!

Post this fun, we emptied Easter eggs!

This had to be done on the pool float... so as to best make things exciting :)

Even with all the candy, Easter eggs, Bun-bun's visit, and pool fun, we did remember the true reason for Easter... the Resurrection of Jesus Christ. We had a little scripture/object lesson about it that was housed in our Easter Tree... framed by the girls' Easter baskets! :)

What a fun weekend! We'll see how our new week ends up cause I'm still 'mom' until late Wed. night... except now I'll be in Austin and without Cam's help! :) A big dog-pile full of love to Jamie and hope she does well!

Spring has Sprung!!! At least here in TX!

March 22nd, Cameron was busy sanding a little rocking chair for Addy, so I started on a project of my own... Our Garden!

I re-fertilized my little garden boxes, loosened the soil, and gave up on my little greenhouse set that nothing had sprouted in.

My failed 'greenhouse' became Addy's play area. :)

I first planted my transplanted tomato, then started in on the seeds... I put in bean, eggplant, tomato, onion, pepper, lettuce, cabbage, and spinach seeds! Feeling good, I watered everything and waited for the little seeds to sprout.

After a week, I hadn't see any sprouts... but on my birthday, I headed out to water the strawberries and in the very last garden box I found lettuce, spinach and cabbage sprouted and growing!

Cabbage

Spinach

Lettuce

It was a birthday miracle!!! Soon I searched the other boxes and found little green sprouts in the other boxes!

Tiny, green onion sprouts that are barely visible

The two hopeful tomatoes that popped their leaves up!

So my hopes for the garden are started. I'll have to update because since I started this post, my little garden has grown a lot! Plus, I have a new hanging pot with snapdragons...

Cameron doorbell-ditched them for me during lunch on my birthday! :) I love these fun flowers!

and my front porch is colorfully happy!

Add in a cute Addy 'smelling' the flowers and it can't get much more fun! :)