Xylophone

Emily's Birthday is on June 18th. We took her to Toys R Us to find her a little Birthday present. After trying out all the toys, and having Elmo scare her, she picked out a xylophone. We bought it and brought it home putting it in the corner of the kitchen that she never goes with the rest of the Birthday stuff. Well, the little stinker discovered it the Sunday before her Birthday, and started to play with it. I guess you could say I am glad that she likes it, but no surprise for her Birthday.

Point Defiance

 

On Memorial Day we took a picnic to Point Defiance. It was such a beautiful day for a picnic. Started out a little overcast, but the sun came out at the end of the day. Grammys, Grampys and Uncle Matt came with us. We had so much fun walking around the park looking at the different gardens. It wasn't exactly the best time of year for flowers, but it was still so beautiful. Nathan had never been here before so that was really fun to see him experience one of my favorite parks for the first time.

Emily loved the beach. She really enjoyed playing in the sand. Her favorite thing was picking up all of the rocks and handing them to everyone. She especially loved to put them in her mouth. She is little miss fearless. We waded into the water and the waves didn't even frighten her. She wanted to sit down and play in it.

Little goof ball looks so little next to the Dinosaur Food leaf.

The Gang in front of a Redwood

I love how this picture turned out. We were trying to get a picture with the Redwood branches behind Emily. I love how Nathan is looking up and Emily is smiling and reaching towards him.

First time on the beach!

Check out my rock!

Toy Basket

Why do we even bother buying our children toys? Emily doesn't hardly ever play with hers. She prefers to sit on top of the toys in her toy basket.

Walking

A couple of weeks ago Emily started to walk. It is so crazy how fast she has gotten comfortable walking. In a week she went from walking along things and from object to object, to letting go and taking a few steps, all the way to walking non stop around the house. I just love watching her walk around it is so funny seeing a little person walking.

Tea Light Central

Our little Emily LOVES tea lights. I have a drawer full of them in my hall table, and she will dig through them and carry them all over the house. I find them everywhere. It is almost like her bread crumb trail. Her favorite thing is to put one in her mouth and walk around the house. I don't know what the attraction is to these candles, but now she likes to scrap the candles and eat the wax. I guess I have to put the candles up now. Her is the silly girl sneaking the candles:

Tip Toe Through the Tulips

The last Saturday in April we made the trip up to Skagit to see the tulip fields. We had such a wonderful time, and were able to spend it with the Gray family. It was such a wonderful afternoon, and boy was it nice to be back in my element of Horticulture. I haven't done much with nature and plants since having Emily, and it was really fun to be back amongst the flowers.

I had so much fun running around and take pictures of all the flowers that I have to make myself take pictures of people. I just love this picture of Nathan and Emily. Such a fun candid father daughter moment.

Family Vacation

April was a really fun month for our family. We took our first family vacation down to Utah to see our family, and to support my older brother in his graduation from BYU. Our vacation started out on a Friday night after Nathan got home from work. We grabbed a Costco hot dog and hit the road.

We made it all the way to Pendleton, OR where we ended up staying the night. I kind of felt like Mary and Joseph in the way that there was no room for us in the inn. We drove all over just trying to find a hotel. When we finally found a Super 8 they were only accepting online reservations because there was a poker tournament going on that weekend. They were sending everyone downtown to the Knights Inn. When we arrived at the Knights Inn it was this rickety old building off the main drag and the parking garage was leaking. This place was so nasty, and I about died when I saw the room. They gave us the honeymoon sweet. I don't know who in their right mind would want to stay there for their honeymoon. I don't think that place had been cleaned in a very long time. A ketchup red wall above the jacuzzi tub that looked like you might catch something if you touched it. The shower was a joke. No water pressure at all, and it kept getting hot and then cold and staying cold. Plus it smelled, and you could hear every noise in the entire hotel.

After our exciting night in Pendleton we made our way to Brigham City. We were able to spend a couple of days with Nathan's Aunt Sue and Uncle Richard. It was so much fun. Sue and I have a lot in common. She loves Anne of Green Gables, Little House, The American Girls, and crocheting. We were able to see many of the cousins while we were there, my old house that I lived in until I was 3, and the starts of the new temple.

The rest of our week was full of family time. Emily got to meet her Great Grandpa's Leale and Gray, and my Mormor. It was kind of a bummer because we didn't have a ton of time to be able to see everyone that we wanted to especially when the end of the week came.

One of my favorite parts of the week was when we were able to do a session in the Salt Lake temple. I highly recommend doing that. It was really cool being able to see a live session. That temple is so beautiful, and awe inspiring to think that everything was hand made by those early pioneers. To see their faith in every door knob, mural, staircase.

My brother Nathan's graduation was Thursday and Friday. On Thursday we attended the Carl Bloch exhibit. He is a Danish painter who has painted many pictures of the Savior's life, and many altar paintings. Here is a link about the exhibit. That afternoon we went to commencement and was able to hear Richard G. Scott speak. Friday was convocation, and we had to wait until later in the afternoon to go to his, and just so happened that his ended up being the largest college at BYU so it took forever.

Emily did really well on the trip. She didn't complain too much from being stuck in her car seat for so long, and when her schedule was so messed up she did really well even if she wasn't getting dinner until 9:30 at night. Here are a few snap shots from our trip.

Emily with Grandpa Gray

4 generation picture with Mormor

Our little family on Temple Square

The Gang at Nate's graduation. The girl in front of Matt is his girlfriend, Tiffany.

Uncle Nate and Emily