Week 1

The trip was awesome, I'm going to post in a few different parts though.

Week one, we went to Discovery Gateway. I mentioned its quite like a musuem but its all hands on for children. And other than being quite tired, Emmaline loved it.

This is Jane and Emmaline playing at a water area. It had all these hoses and basins and other things that shot water and such. It was pretty fun.

This is Laura and Jane (you can't tell, but Laura is working on #2 so its also the baby as well).

And this, of course, is me and Emmaline. I was pleased that it turned out to be a pretty good picture of me. At least I think so. :)

Also during week 1 we let the girls play outside. Emmaline hates sitting on grass, I found out. I think its sorta prickly. But she did enjoy running around a lot more than I thought she would.

The girls cooperated more during week 1 than during week two and we got pictures of them reading and playing with blocks as well (I love the reading one, we should submit it to some poster contest or something!)

So that was Week 1 in pictures. We did go to the family reunion on Saturday. I enjoyed the first half...basically until Emmaline turned into a holy terror who didn't have a nap. It wasn't my family so I didn't feel nearly as willing to let her run around without watching her every move. No one really knew us and I didn't think they'd automatically watch her like they would their own family. Not that anyone would intentionally let her get hurt or something...you know what I mean.

It was really hot and oddly enough, being under the pavillion wasn't very cooling. The air was stagnant and so it was stuffy as well as hot. Laura and I ended up excaping to her mom's house for an hour in the afternoon so we could have some air conditioning! And Emmaline fell asleep in the car, a double bonus.

Next post, Week 2!

First day of Vacation

All in all, the trip went really well. The night before we left I didn't sleep well at all so I was really worried. But we got up on time, got into the car and drove straight to the airport with no problems. I was a little worried getting through security but other than going slowly, there weren't any problems there either. There were even a few people who offered to help put luggage on the belt and such. It was nice. Getting onto the plane was interesting. The breezeway wasn't attached to the plane so we had to go down a flight of stairs (someone was nice enough to help me there too) and out on the pavement to climb up the stairs on the plane. Definitely a different experience. The oddest thing was that my carry-on bag didn't fit in the overhead bin. Unfortunately there was already a non-ending stream of people behind me and I couldn't do anything but sit there with my huge bag on my lap. I ended up talking to a flight attendant who tried smashing my bag in the overhead bin (it still didn't go). They told me they were going to gate check it (thank goodness, I avoided the ridiculous $15 charge) but after the flight I found out that my bag actually rode with the flight attendants because they didn't have time to check it. Hmm. Anyway. The flight was great. Emmaline wouldn't sleep and she didn't want to play with the toys I brought for her but she ate a lot. There was a great lady sitting next to me that really enjoyed Emmaline. She even ended up giving Emmaline her travel pillow. I was greatful that I didn't end up having some grumpy old man who hated kids next to me. That would have been difficult. We arrived in Utah right on time and went to Discovery Gateway. Its sort of a kids museum where kids play with a ton of different things. Emmaline and Jane really enjoyed the small house and the water play area. We headed over to Subway (where I ended up spilling a glass of water because I was tired). Emmaline and I were really tired so we headed to Laura's house next. It was about an hour and a half drive and Emmaline fell asleep immediately while I enjoyed catching up with Laura and seeing Jane. Today we went to the Park for Carolyn's birthday party (my niece). I haven't seen my nieces and nephew for a few months. Carolyn has gotten taller and is talking a lot! Andrew is walking like a champ and Julia has gotten so much taller. It was so good to get hugs from them all. Now we are chillin', enjoying watching t.v., sleeping and talking. Its nice not to be running here and there and be busy all the time. This upcoming Saturday I get to go to a family reunion. Maybe I'll pretend to be related to someone. :)

Up and coming Vaca!

I get to go to Utah for a week and a half to visit my best friend whom I haven't seen in 18 months. I'm totally excited. We are double lucky because Emmaline is still free to fly (only for another 2 months) so we are taking advantage of that. While there I will also get to visit my long lost sister. I haven't seen her or her kids for about 6 months now. I'm looking forward to seeing Andrew walking, Carolyn talking better and Julia shocking me with how tall she has gotten. I get to go to a Discovery Center (a children's museum I think), a birthday party and to book club. And I'm sure I'll go shopping, go to the park, watch tons of movies, maybe put a puzzle together... and listen to Savage Garden over and over and over again. It'll be bliss for 10 days.

Birthday Blues

My birthday is on Sunday. I'm going to be turning 24 years old. I don't care that I'm having a birthday. I had one of those moments a few days ago that I said 'holy crap!' about my age, but it wasn't because I'm old. I realized how freakin young I am- and I'm married with a mortgage and a baby. Most girls my age are still bouncing around in college, doing the dating scene, and traveling the world. This year I'm only having a small family party because I'm not really in the mood to do too much celebrating. Maybe next year I'll throw a big bash for turning 25 and invite all my new friends and eat cake. Lots of cake. But this year I'm content with something small.

Zoo Trip!

This past week we took a trip to the zoo. I won't bore you with all the animal pictures- you can go to your own zoo if you want to see them. But I will show you some great pictures of the family. At the begining of the trip we noticed a big fan that was blowing a mist. We thought it was pretty cool (haha, so punny!) and went to cool down. Emmaline though, was afraid of the fan and the air and the water. So she kept clinging to her daddy. Thats when I got this precious picture! Heading toward the butterfly house we got this cute picture. By the way, she is afraid of crowds too...thats why the cuddle. At the butterfly house there is this big cool looking beatle that is there for kids to play on. We had a friendly lady snap a family pic! The butterfly house was amazing. We have never seen so many purple and blue butterflies ever. Of course, if the butterflies came too close to Emmaline while flying, she got scared. We tried to get pictures but if we did they were only butterflies or blurry. Sorry. We went on a little nature path that was supposed to be for free butterflies and bees. Thats where we snapped this pic. Matt was awesome and held the camera out and actually got all of us! On to snack time: got a great picture of Matt and a video of me feeding Emmaline. (I kept pulling the fork away from her mouth as she went to take a bite and got her several times trying to reach for it. Too cute. But alas, the video is too long to post.) After snack time we went to see the elephants. Emmaline got the spot of honor: On the way out of the zoo we stopped for a photo op in a cave with a huge fish tank. The fish were gigantic and Emmaline was unimpressed. That was our zoo trip! Now for other pictures. This picture is of a dress that I just made for Emmaline. I saw a dress like this at a garage sale and fell in love with the style so decided to make one for myself. I thought it turned out really cute and only cost me three dollars and a few hours. This dress is so cool because as the child gets older it can actually turn into a shirt, putting pants on underneath. You can have your child wear it with a shirt under or not- totally up to you but both look really cute. So then I just wanted to compare some shots. These pictures are both of Emmaline looking at the camera from almost the same angle. One is of her about 8-10 months ago and the other is just the other day. Isn't it so weird how different she looks? But then at the same time, she looks exactly the same. Lastly: bathing suit pictures. Emmaline and her daddy went to the pool today (I had homework and a headache so I stayed home). I couldn't resist getting the cute shot of her walking out the door with that cute ring...It reminds me of something but I just can't think of what at the moment. Then one more funny picture: Emmaline is classic I tell ya.

A Satirical Essay

On video games When I was a child, younger than 5, I think, my mom received as a Christmas present the very first Nintendo. The game I remember her playing was Mario Brothers and she really knew how to play it well. I would clamber for my turn on the video game, fighting my older sister and my younger brother for control of this miraculous piece of technology. When I got the ultimate gift of a turn at playing, I would make little Mario run and run and run until I ran into the first mushroom and died. Then my sister or brother would get a turn. They would go three or four levels or more before dying and I got another turn to run and run and run and jump on the mushroom. But then came the first pipe and then another mushroom, which I promptly ran into. My little thumbs couldn’t understand what I wanted them to do and soon enough, I lost complete interest in the gaming world. I turned instead to books. Ah, what a subject. While my brother and sister sat in front of the television screen with the blue light flashing on their dear little faces and their eyes burning while they tried to finally rescue Princess Peach, I began my solitary life of reading. I filled my head with so many fantasies that I began to think I was a strong princess without need of a prince charming. I began to believe that I could discover buried treasure like the pirates and I could talk to dragons, learn magic and ultimately, fly. My readings took me deeper and deeper into the dangerous world of make believe. Meanwhile, my brother became adept at video games, moving on to bigger and better worlds to conquer. Soon he moved on to computer games, hand held games and even purchased his own X-box. His pursuit of the gaming world brought friends to our house, company to compete with, boys who he could discuss strategy with and more games to play. My books brought me solitude as I walked to the library with my heavy backpack, dumping it out in the drop box and refilling it for my walk home. My trips to school and home from school were done with my nose in a book, almost a different one every day. Reading caused me to complete my school work faster and faster each day so I could have even more time to read both in class and at home. At night, my brother would fall asleep dreaming of the next adventure that his video games could bring him and I would stay awake with my eyes itching, head hurting, reading and reading and reading. Although I finished my novels at a quick pace, I got less sleep than a growing girl needed and my brother began to excel in classes where I merely stayed where I was at- surely because he was sleeping and I was not. As an adult, I have come to learn of the admirable qualities of video games that I wish I had known when I was younger. I may have continued to practice as my brother did and gained the unbelievable benefits as he did. My sister played with controllers that required thumbs to push buttons and as she did so, she was strengthening the muscles that she will inevitably be using later in life to text message her myriads of friends. This is obviously true for all other video struck youngsters. Staring into a screen daily for hours on end, playing challenging, mind bending and entertaining games ultimately prepared my sibling’s eyes for the eventual job of staring at a computer screen every day during college and the rest of a chosen career. Another benefit of the video games is that ultimately, everyone who plays video games on a regular basis has better hand-eye coordination. It’s been proven. This hand-eye coordination will be beneficial in future life as my sister, brother and all their friends become surgeons and show their excelled ability in removing arthritis from the fingers of other video game players. The benefits of video games are many but I do need to mention on very important thing. Prolonged exposure to video games deadens one’s ability to feel apathy for people in pain. That’s been proven too. And violence present in many games has been suggested to contribute to the increase in violence in the real world. But you shouldn’t worry about that too much. Since everyone is playing video games or becoming doctors to fix people who play video games, wars that are started by video-game-players will be fought by men with excellent hand-eye coordination. This will be beneficial because less bullets will be used, therefore cutting the cost of military supplies by nearly half. I remember playing “Operation” as a child. There was a silly looking man on a table who had a red light bulb as a nose. We would each take turns drawing cards that would tell us which body part to remove. If we were able to remove the body part without touching the tweezers onto the metal rim, we would earn money. I was horrible at this game, probably because I read rather than exercising my thumbs. My brother and sister though, would not only swiftly and deftly remove the body parts without ringing the bell but would also earn much more money and thereby win the game. Likewise, the doctors employed by the military during war have been raised on video games and are and excellently skilled in the art of ‘operation’. Because of their video games, they will have less men dying on the table (partly because of the deadly accuracy of the shooters and partly because of their ability to swiftly remove debris). This will benefit the country because fewer doctors will be needed in war and it will further decrease the cost of war. The money saved directly because of video games will be put to very good use. After the government has seen the unimaginable benefits of the citizens of this country playing video games, they will make video games free, enabling avid gamers to quit working and enjoy a life of leisure. I’m sure my brother would enjoy that immensely. Now, I have seen the error and follies of my youth. I’m a committed woman. I am changing my life, one video game at a time. Playing video games in adulthood hasn’t come nearly as easily as it would have if I had stuck to it as a child but I, like adults who try to learn a foreign language, am going to become proficient at playing video games. Its for my own health and safety and if I am lucky, one day I can save lives because I played video games.

Beach Fun

Matt and I went with my mom and brothers to Nauvoo Illinois two weeks ago. There is a section called "Pioneer Passtimes" that has a bunch of games that pioneers used to play. There were a bunch of clothes that kids and adults could dress up in (isn't mom beautiful?), games such as the teddy bear on a rope (you can see it in the background) and there was even an entire log house built for kids to play in.

Mom dressed up as a pioneer woman...the color is so good on her!

Spencer decided to try his hand at carrying the water pails. He seemed to think it was easy- wonder what he'd think if there was actually water in there!

Emmaline enjoyed this area more than anyone else. She dressed up (somehow I didn't get a picture, just a video that after 2.5 hours of trying to download I deleted instead. Sorry.), played in the log cabin and rode the horse and sheep. She has never had more fun at a playground.

This is a picture that I loved (I know, another book picture!). She was pulling each book off the shelf and flipping through a few pages then tossing it aside until she had gone through a lot of books. And I couldn't help but take pictures. (If you notice, she doesn't have any pants. She is going through a pants strike lately. And since she knows how to take them off herself, its pretty much a waste of time to chase her around putting them back on).

And this picture...This is a dress that I wore when I was two. I think I got pictures taken in that dress as well. Emmaline looks so much like me and so different at the same time but I think its pretty cool that she is wearing one of my dresses.

This is my garden. I would love to have garden boxes or beds or something but in the condo we have limited capabilities. These planters are really common in our complex and you have probably seen them around before. Traditionally they are for tomatoes but the box also mentioned several other veggies that you can plant in them. So we have one tomatoe plant in each and its sharing with either a bell pepper or a zucchini plant. I don't remember which plant is which so when they finally start bearing fruit we'll be nice and surprised.

We've also taken advantage of the movies lately. Last week we saw Kung Fu Panda (way way better than I thought it would be) and Tale of Desperaux. Emmaline was great for both, only getting really fidgety toward the end where, obviously, she was loosing interest. Thats not to say she watched the movies. In fact, she probably watched no more than 10 minutes of the entire thing but lap-hopped most of the time.

This week I was meaning to take Emmaline to the some story time at the Library but I forgot to call and sign her up. So we'll be hanging at home most of the week. I don't think we are going to see any movies- Stuart Little 3 is playing and I am not really interested in seeing it. Its supposed to be in the 90s every day this week and today the humidity is around 75% so we probably won't be going out much. I'll have to be creative to keep her occupied all week.