More camp fun

Not much is going on in Lexington. I've had a rough week at work and Elizabeth's been sick (which means David has had a rough week at work). We're glad Jonathan's at camp, so at least one of us is having fun! And, based on the news and photos, he's having a blast. They keep them busy from sunup to sundown. So far this week, he's been on an overnight camping trip, played "messy" games (with all sorts of food like oatmeal, chocolate syrup, bananas, etc.), been in an Amazing Raft Race, and gone to all his skills - just to mention a few of the things he's been doing. I get tired just reading about it!

Here are some pics off the camp website:





Notice the "Crocs" shoes he's wearing. David and I always thought they were only for girls, but apparently they are now the latest rage for boys too. Fortunately, we were able to snag a pair for him right before he left, so he's cutting edge with his shoes and hair.

And, lo and behold, I think someone else snuck away to camp this week too:



Cousyn Robyn showed up in pictures of the latest Cherokee/Sioux get-together.

What Mommy and Daddy wear

Elizabeth's latest word (and obsession) is "bra". She knows that Mommy wears a bra, that it's under my shirt, and she knows which drawer the bras are kept in. Fortunately, she's not good with the "r" sound, so it sounds more like "ba!", so we're hoping her DMO (Daddy's Morning Out) teachers don't figure out what she's actually saying. However, given her connection to the Bridger family, I feel that knowing the word "bra" early will come in handy for her later in life...

David finds this very funny, because her obsession with him for the last several weeks has been "hat." He must have a hat on his head at all times, otherwise she'll pull him to the closet where the hats are kept (or throw one of her own at him) and madly make the "hat" sign on her head until he puts one on. When I came home tonight, I found that he had hidden all of her hats under the pillows on the couch, just to keep her from finding them and giving them to him to wear. :)

I think David and I could walk around completely naked, other than our bra and hat, and she'd think we were perfectly dressed! It's pretty funny what she picks up on - and chooses to obsess about!

Spying on Ridgecrest

David and I have given up on the hope of getting a letter from Jon from camp. Unlike *my* mother's philosophy (no care package until she received a letter - how cruel is that?), we figure he's there to enjoy himself, so we're not going to torture him by making him sit down and write to us. We even dropped his care package off with him so he won't have to wait for it! Fortunately, we get something even better every day - the camp posts pictures and news of the day on a website, so we can spy on all the fun they're having.

Looks like Jon got to participate in a camp version of "The Amazing Race" yesterday afternoon and then a game of Ultimate Frisbee last night. Here's a picture of him with a bunch of the other campers in his tribe. Can you pick him out? I'll give you a hint - if I didn't know we'd taken his cell phone before he left, I'd swear he was playing with it! As you can see, his shirt color choices have widened - he'll now wear white as well as black! And, even though you can't seem to tell that Jon actually did get a haircut last week, I'm happy to see most of the other campers look about the same. Long and shaggy is definitely the current style!

Father's Day

cdsxxccxsadcx (This is how Elizabeth types these days. Translation: Happy Father's Day to the best daddy in the whole world!)

David got a fancy hiking backpack to carry Elizabeth in for Father's Day. Elizabeth enjoyed helping him open the package, then trying it out! She fell asleep during our trial walk, so I guess it's comfortable!







We had to celebrate Father's Day a little early, because most of today was spent getting Jonathan to camp at Camp Ridgecrest. It's his third summer there, so he's an old pro at camping now. He's in Cabin 12, the Choctaw tribe, and will be there for 2 weeks, for those who want to write!

Eating by herself

Elizabeth has refused to eat anything but finger foods for a while now. This week, she decided she'd eat yogurt - if she got to hold the spoon.

We think a little bit of it actually got to her mouth!

Water baby

Ok, Amy, that title gives me a flashback to that crazy movie "Waterbabies" we used to watch as kids...you know the one where the kid stole some candlesticks, fell in the water, and it turned into a cartoon? Wow...hadn't thought about that in a while!

Elizabeth's enjoying her wading pool along with her cool pool toys from Aunt Amy.



She particularly like to play in the water coming from her hippo watering can:




She also had her first swimming lesson at the YMCA this weekend. She really liked it at first, as she loves the water and loves to splash, but she got tired at the end of it. They sang a lot of songs, which of course she liked! We think she's almost ready for Olympic Team tryouts now!








She also went to the park this weekend and learned that if you eat sand, it turns to mud. Yuck! She got to "swim" in her pool after that, just to clean herself off! She now also knows the word "Park" and keeps bringing us her shoes, then asking us to take her to the park once she gets them on, since Mommy made the mistake of telling her, "We can't go to the park until you put your shoes on." Since when was she supposed to start listening to me?

Mommy confessions

I'm a member of an internet forum of approximately 150 moms that all had babies around May 2005. It's been a great resource for us this past year. Most important of all, it's taught us that every baby is different and learns at their own pace, and it's averted a lot of anxious times wondering if our baby is "normal", because anytime one of us is experiencing something, there's somebody else who's going through the same thing.

We recently did a thread of "mommy confessions" to make us all feel better for not being Mommy of the Year. I thought it would be prudent for me to come out in the open with the rest of you as well, so this will be a new regular part of our blog.

My "mommy confessions" of the week:

- I sent Elizabeth to church one day with her shirt on backwards....guess who didn't get much sleep the night before?

- Last week while we were on vacation, I resorted to "hiding" food in conspicuous places on the hotel room floor, so Elizabeth would "find" it and actually eat it, even though I'd seen how dirty Elizabeth's legs got when she was crawling on the floor earlier.

- When Elizabeth spits food out of her mouth and I can't find a place to throw it away, I occasionally will eat it myself.

- Elizabeth has gotten very whiny when she's in her high chair lately, so tonight, David went to play tennis, and I was desperate to eat in peace, so I gave her some chocolate pudding to play with while I ate. She was having so much fun, I kept giving her more. Before I knew it, she looked like this:



Guess who got an early bath tonight? (But at least I got to finish my dinner!)

Cruising!

Elizabeth started cruising the furniture tonight. What got her feet moving? Trying to reach her brother, of course!



Other things she's learned to do lately:

- She can put her coins in the slot on top of her piggy bank all by herself.

- She can get her nesting cups in the proper order, one inside each other.

- She's learned a bunch of new sounds, that if you know what she's saying you can interpret as the words "moon", "berries", "mommy", "daddy", and "brother".

- She's made up and learned several new signs, including "swing", "eat", "milk" and "hat", and she gets quite upset if she knows you understand her and don't give her what she wants (I'm not sure where she gets that from...).

Phoenix zoo

Here are some pictures from our trip to the Phoenix zoo last Friday.

While waiting in the shade to ride the train, Elizabeth got to practice her new obsession - pressing buttons!



Here everyone is on the train:



Elizabeth squealing in delight at the petting zoo:



Ride 'em, cowboy!

Our family vacation in Arizona

We had a wonderful time on our vacation this week. Last Saturday, we loaded up the kids and a truck full of luggage (why does one baby require twice the amount of luggage as a normal person?) and headed to the airport. Our flights went smoothly, other than the fact that I confirmed that I definitely had an ear infection on top of strep throat (OUCH!). Fortunately, that finally cleared up after several days of antibiotics. Elizabeth was a trooper on the flights - she spent most of the time flirting with anyone and everyone that she saw. Once we arrived in Phoenix, we checked into our rental mini-van (something we were very grateful to have all week) and headed north toward Sedona. The drive was so beautiful through the desert and mountains!

We spent Saturday night in Sedona, then on Sunday we drove through Oak Creek Canyon, stopping at Slide Rock. The water there was a nippy 60 degrees, so David was the only one brave enough to actually try the slide. But, the scenery made it worth the stop.

Here is a picture of the mountains surrounding Slide Rock:



And the slide itself:



David sliding in the cold water:



While the rest of us sat in the shade and watched:



Jonathan even got to do some rock climbing while we were there:



After that, we continued northward to Sunset Crater Volcano, where we got to view the volcano, and even hiked along the solidified lava flow. That was really cool!

Here's a picture of some of the lava:



And an oh-so-rare picture of the whole family:



Then, we ended the day by driving to the Grand Canyon, which we got to look at from the Desert View observation tower before finally checking into our room (we stayed at the park) and grabbing some dinner.

On Monday, we got up and had breakfast at the historic El Tovar hotel, in a dining room that overlooked the Canyon. My mom had recommended the restaurant, after seeing a Rachel Ray show on it. It was definitely a great place to go! Then, we walked around a bit, before Elizabeth and I headed back to the room for a nap and some playtime, while David and Jon actually hiked into the Canyon for several hours. Then, we all joined back up to take the shuttle bus down the Hermit's Rest drive, stopping at several overlooks to see different views of the Canyon, which were all quite spectacular.

Here's one of the great pictures David took of the Grand Canyon. Even though they're all beautiful, they still can't do justice to the amazing vastness and beauty of the Canyon!



Jonathan enjoyed sitting on the edge - but not too close - and looking out over the Canyon:



Here are David and Jonathan on their Canyon hike:



After that exciting day, we decided that our Grand Canyon experience was complete, so we ended up checking out of the hotel a day early on Tuesday and driving eastward to Meteor Crater, which believe it or not, is a huge crater (~2-1/2 miles around, 4000 feet across, 550 feet deep) formed by a meteor. All sarcasm aside, it was really neat to see. David and Jonathan even almost got blown into the crater when a duststorm with 60mph gusts blew in while they were overlooking the rim. Fortunately, Elizabeth and I were safe inside at that time, getting a break from the very hot sun.

Here is Jon braving the gusty winds - seriously, it was very windy - they even stopped letting people access the crater rim soon after this. On a related note, Jon also has finally admitted that he needs a haircut (woohoo!!!!):



Here's a picture of David with the kids at the Meteor Crater:



We ended the day by driving to Camp Verde, Arizona, where we went swimming for a bit at the hotel before dinner.

On Wednesday, we got up and went to Montezuma Castle, which is actually not related to Montezuma at all (an error made by explorers that first discovered the ruins), but instead is the ruins of a cliff village built by the Sinagua Indian tribe.



Then, we headed to Montezuma's Well, which is a beautiful sinkhole with a very scenic hike around the natural well/springs.



Another picture of David with the kids while hiking at the Well:



Finally, we drove to Phoenix, where we checked into our resort at Pointe South Mountain.

We planned the week pretty well, because by the time we got to Phoenix, we had been able to see a lot of different things/places and we had really enjoyed the beautiful scenery, but we were all exhausted. So, Thursday was spent as a nice day for R&R. We spent most of the day at the water park and pools at the resort. That's the only way to beat the Phoenix heat! Everyone's right, in that the "dry heat" is definitely better than the humidity we're used to. But, let's face it, 109 degrees is still pretty hot!







Today (Friday), we braved the heat to visit the Phoenix Zoo for a little while. Elizabeth got a kick out of all the animals, birds, and fish that she got to see. However, it was so hot that most of the animals were hiding and we couldn't stand the heat for very long ourselves. So, back to the hotel we went for more time at the pool and water park before heading back to the room to pack for our trip home tomorrow.

The only thing we wish we could have done to improve upon the vacation would have been to convince Elizabeth that it really is alright to sleep in a bed that's not her own. She did sleep fairly well on Tuesday and Thursday nights, when we got much-needed visits from the Sleep Fairy, but most of the time she did not sleep well at all, which meant David and I did not sleep much either. Oh, well! At least we had a lot of fun things to do to keep us awake during the days!!!

We head back to Kentucky tomorrow (Saturday). Then, Jonathan has one more week at home before he heads to camp for 2 weeks, then on to Alabama for the rest of the summer. Elizabeth is definitely going to miss her big brother (and, of course, David and I are going to miss him too!)!!!

Going on vacation

We leave Saturday morning for a weeklong family vacation. Woo hoo! We'll fly into Phoenix on Saturday, then drive to Sedona. On Sunday, we'll bum around Sedona, then head to the Grand Canyon. We're staying on-site at the Canyon for 3 nights, so we'll have plenty of time to explore. Then, we're headed back to Phoenix (again by way of Sedona) for 3 more nights at a resort that has a waterpark on-site. Should be fun!!!

On a not-fun note, I was diagnosed with strep throat this afternoon. Hopefully the antibiotics will kick in before we leave! I'm someone who usually never gets sick, and it seems like I've been non-stop sick all this year. I think we've definitely proven that babies bring all the germs home with them!