Straw House: Where has Summer gone??

I can't believe it is back to school time for kids already! I feel like we did nothing "summery" during Summer! We had been waiting all year to go camping and the only time we have gone was way back in April. I don't think we've gone hiking at all! Seriously, what have we been doing all summer?! I guess just a lot of playing around the house...

Well, for the 24th of July, we had some friends over for swimming, BBQ, and fireworks. We put on a pretty good fireworks show, if I do say so myself!! It was a fun night!

The next morning, Juliet and I hopped a plane (or two) to Southern California and met my parents, my brother Scott, and his 5 year old son Avery for a few fun-filled days at Disneyland. Chase stayed up and picked up some extra shifts at work. Such a great, hard-working husband I have. He's trying so hard to get us out of student loan debt as quickly as possible. <3

Tower of Terror

Cars Land

The effects of Splash Mountain

Not too sure about this Mickey character...

Twinners!

We spent 3 days at Disneyland and a half day at the beach. Juliet was a little afraid of the waves of the ocean when they snuck up on her - I don't blame her one bit! She loved riding around in her stroller through Disneyland. She was a little afraid and unsure of all the animatronics and loud noises on the rides she was able to go on. It will be better next time, I'm sure.

I'm 14 days in to a 30 day healthy eating plan called The Whole 30. Lots of protein, veggies, and some fruit is what it mostly consists of. (Sort of like how we should probably be eating most of our meals anyways!) It is really tough but I'm almost half way there. I have seen some results, which is encouraging. Hopefully it will continue and I can also clean up my eating long term. I have found some great recipes thanks to my neighbor that has done it previously and encouraged me to try it. Definitely looking forward to the down hill of the month!

A couple of my favorite meals - spaghetti squash and meatballs...

...coconut chicken and mango slaw

Juliet and I joined some girls from the neighborhood for a play group at this cute little pond with a beach in Pleasant Grove. We had a good time and I would definitely go back and take some of the nieces and nephews with me!

Juliet is 10 1/2 months now. She has learned to shake her head 'no'. She waves up and down now (in addition to side to side). She points at everything, including things she wants. She copies almost anything we do. She loves to put objects in and take objects out of bowls, boxes, baskets, etc. She is crawling a little faster and gets into more things now. She is making associations such as putting her shoes to her feet, phone to her ear, bows to her hair, pointing to pictures on the wall of Mom and Dad when she sees pictures of us on the computer. She is getting more determined when she wants something and has learned to scream if she doesn't get it. She still loves to stand and can now pull herself up to the standing position and does a lot of furniture walking. She absolutely LOVES walks in her stroller! She will crawl over as fast as she can while laughing if we bring out a stroller. She LOVES peek-a-boo still. She will giggle and play for as long as we can handle. She has had stranger anxiety for the past month or more - she doesn't like it when someone takes her away from Mom. She is weaning herself off her bottle. She will have one when she wakes up at 7:30am and then will drink about 1-2 oz before bed, but that's about it. She loves all sorts of food, especially when Dad gives her graham crackers or Nilla Wafers! She has 8 teeth - 4 on top, 4 on bottom. Hasn't gotten any new ones recently. We went through and cleared out all the 3-6 and 6-9 months clothes from her closet. She still fits some of them, but I would never get to the bin of 9-12 months clothes if I kept them in there. She's still a super happy baby!