Family Getaway to Dana Point, CA - 8/24/13-9/2/13

In August, we spent a week in Dana Point, CA with my family (except my older brother).  We rented a condo that was across the street from Strand Beach.  We had a very busy week going to lots of different amusement parks and playing at the beach.

Driving to CA

We went to church on Sunday at the local ward.  It was amazing how quiet it was compared to our ward since they had far fewer children.  We spent the afternoon at the beach. 

Some nice morning bed head - enjoying the nice weather on the balcony

Cousins playing together

Nap time with Daddy

 Monday, we drove down to San Diego.  We made a stop at the Marine base on our way to pick up some discount tickets for the things we were doing the rest of the week.  We went to Scripps Aquarium and to the Mormon Battalion Museum.  We went shopping down at Seaport Village and then headed home.

Aquarium

Aquarium

Mom and Nick checking out the covered wagon

Corey was the honorary battalion member

Cousins shopping

Dad getting his back scratched by the pirate

Aquarium

Tuesday we went to Knott's Berry Farm.  We had a really fun day there and enjoyed all the rides.

The keeper of the maps

Dad and Jules

Juliet was terrified

Matching shirts! How cute!

Train ride

Beth, James, and Emmalee

Wednesday, the boys went to the base and played a game of paint ball.  They said it was brutally hot, so they didn't play any more games.  The girls stayed at the house and also went to the beach with the babies.

Thursday, we went to the San Diego Zoo.  It was even hotter that day.  It is a huge zoo!  We walked around for a while, ate some lunch, and then took the bus tour.  After that, we decided it was too hot for all of us and headed home.

She found a really colorful bird feather

Standing up on the skyride

Corey became a bird handler

Friday, we went to Sea World.  It again, was brutally hot. We stayed there until closing.  It was a fun day and we didn't really have to stand in many lines for the rides.

Dad seeing how he measures up to a polar bear

Penguins!

 

I love fishies!

Watching the dolphin show - we sprayed each other with a spray bottle to keep cool

Saturday, I think we just spent the day lounging in the house and at the beach.  Sunday, we went to church again and spent the afternoon at the beach.  We drove back home on Monday.  We played games together every night - sometimes it was fun, sometimes not so much, but that's how it goes with so many strong personalities in one place for over a week! We did have a good time on the vacation but realized we needed to just sit and relax a little more rather than wearing ourselves out with amusement parks every day.

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!

Painting!

Every morning!

Little stink bug

Cool kid

This is seriously how she rides in carts!

                                                         This happens on a daily basis :)

Independence Day

We had a fun, relaxing Independence Day this year.  We got some things done around the house and then packed up our things and headed up to Shauna's house. We BBQ'd some good grub including steak, watermelon, corn on the cob and chips.  I made an awesome American Flag cake, to which all the kids asked who's birthday it was!  Chase and I ran to a fireworks stand nearby to get some goods.  When it got close to dark, we all migrated out front and started up the show! We had a kit of a bunch of the small stuff and then we had some fun aerials also.  Juliet was afraid of some of them, but definitely did better than she did with the professional show we went to at Taylorsville Days.  The kids had a great time and so did we.  Happy birthday America! I am so grateful for the founding fathers that  had the courage, with God on their side, to create this free land.  God bless America!

We got pictures done of all the cousins in their 4th of July clothing.

Sleep Training

Someone refused to take more than a 30 minute nap today :)

After Juliet's pediatrician suggested we work on the way we get her to sleep at night, we decided to start sleep training.  It's such a hard thing to listen to your baby scream and cry for you and not respond or comfort her.  I know every parent has to go through it and all my friends and family have been telling me to do it for a while now, but it's still tough.  So after I fed her a bottle, gave her a pacifier, and laid her in her bed with her blankie, I kissed her goodnight and walked away.  She cried about 20 minutes the first night, which I know is awesome compared to what some other parents have to experience, but it was still so hard!  The second night, it was about 2 minutes or less.  The third night she fell asleep in the car on the way home from 4th of July fireworks and stayed asleep.  The 4th and 5th nights, about 2 minutes.  We were also told to just let her cry if she wakes up in the middle of the night, which she usually does every night.  Boy, I was glad to hear that! She has woken up a few nights over this past week and it has been so nice to just be able to stay in bed and go back to sleep.  She usually goes back to sleep within 5 minutes or so.  I never realized she would go back to sleep if I didn't go in there to put her pacifier back in or rock her back to sleep!  So I would say we are doing pretty good.  Hopefully it will continue to go this well because it sure is working for us!

All About Juliet

Juliet is 9 months old now, and I realized I haven't been writing down all the fun and cute things she does and the fun things about her.  So here goes!

• She weighs 18lbs 9oz (44%)
• She is 28 in. long (69%)
• She wears anywhere from 3 month to 12 month clothes.  3 month pants are way too short, but she can still wear the onesies.  She has too many clothes for her own good.
• She has 4 teeth, 2 on top, 2 on bottom.  Her 5th one cut through on bottom when she turned 9 months and there is another bump on the top where one is trying to come through.  She doesn't get fussy when new teeth cut through. She has learned how to grind them together and makes a cute face when she does it.

• She is very good about having her hair done because she has been doing it all her life.  She will leave bows in, but will pull headbands off by the evening.
• She loves to clap when something makes her happy.
• She has learned to wave and will wave to anyone that will wave to her.  It is honestly the cutest thing ever!
• She is learning to blow kisses.  When her binkie comes out, she smacks her lips to imitate a kissing noise.  At a different time, she will put her hand to her mouth over and over.   She doesn't quite put them together yet, but she will also hum when she puts her hand to her mouth because she thinks that's funny when Mom does it to her.  She went to Stake Conference with our old neighbors, The Oylers, a few weeks ago.  As Carli was walking her through the halls of the church, she would stop at the pictures of Jesus for Juliet to look at.  Each time she got to a picture, Juliet would put her hand up to her mouth over and over, as if to blow Jesus a kiss.  What a sweet little angel.
• She likes to stick her tongue out like a dog.  It's so cute and little!
• She has traveled a lot in her life already.  She has been to Arizona, California, Washington,D.C., Virginia, British Columbia, Alaska, Washington
• She is very ticklish and giggles a lot when she is tickled.
• She loves to be thrown in the air, but doesn't like to be dropped from up high.  She always kicks her legs off to the right when she is thrown.
• She likes to sit and play with her toys, but only if mom or dad is close by. Her favorite toys are rattles, followed by wipes in a close 2nd.  She will play with a wipe for a very long time. She also loves water bottles, plastic bags, and balloons (all great baby toys, right?).

• She doesn't like to hold anyone's hand - she likes to keep her independence with them.
• She spits/blows raspberries with her tongue a lot!
• She will put her forehead to your forehead and look you in the eyes when she's sleepy.  She also likes to rub/feel textures or touch your face when she's sleepy.
• She is very attached to her binkie.  It brings her a lot of comfort.
• She spit up a lot until 8 months.  She could not go anywhere without a burp cloth. Now it is just little bits every once in a while.
• She loves to eat!  She is eating 2-3 jars of baby food per day and a few 5 oz bottles.  She is not a fan of peas & green beans, but loves everything else.  She is learning to use a sippy cup.
• When she gets super excited, she tenses up her whole body.
• She likes to sit. She pretty much hates to be on her tummy, and prefers to not lay on her back also if there's toys to be played with.  She is getting close to crawling, but doesn't have much of a desire.  She is very proud when you stand her up and let her hold on to furniture.  She is always trying to do it herself, but so far she can only do it in her crib.
• When she is laying down and is happy, she will kick both feet way up in air and slam them down over and over again.
• She sleeps from about 9pm - 7am, eats a bottle, and then sleeps until 9am.  Some days, she isn't tired until 11pm or midnight.  She is a cat-napper; she will take a couple 20 minutes naps throughout the day and usually one longer 1 1/2-2 1/2 hour nap in the late afternoon.

• She is always happy to see anyone! She is a very happy baby as long as someone is around!
• She babbles the sounds "ma ma ma ma", "da da da da", and "ba ba ba ba".  When Dad opens the back door of the car to get her out, she always says "Dah-Dee?" He loves it!
• She goes to the gym with Mom several times a week and sits on her blanket and plays with toys.  She loves when people come say hi to her.  Most people are amazed at how well behaved she is and that she will just sit there and play.
• She loves to play peek-a-boo, pat-a-cake, and especially loves it when we look up to the ceiling and pop our head down and yell "baby!" at her.  She thinks it is the funniest thing!
• The first two things people notice about her is her long dark hair and her big eyes.  A lot of people tell us she should be a baby model.
• She is scared of loud noises.  During her first fireworks show, she was mesmerized by the first ones that were quiet and then got very scared and screamed when they started making noise.  Dad was able to get her to fall asleep after only a few minutes and she slept through the rest of them.

• She loves animals, but will only pet slow moving ones.
• She grabs at everything! She pulls things off shelves at the store and grabs clothing tags while we're shopping.  She always likes to hold something we are buying at the grocery store.
• She loves to swim and take baths - she is a true water baby.

• She is a very happy baby that loves to laugh and we just adore her.