We're counting down days until Baby Girl turns 2. It's a week away. I can't believe how fast time has gone. It has been so fun for me to see her transform from a baby to a little girl. Each new phase is so fun and cute. What amazes me is Baby Girl's vocabulary and ability to communicate. It is so nice to have her tell me what she wants, or what's wrong, or what she's looking at. It sure beats the ineffective guessing game we used to do. Everyday she says more words that I didn't realize she knew. When she drops something, or when something spills, she let's out a "Dang It!" or "Crap". Ooops. I guess those are better than the alternatives. The other day, we were putting our hands in the sprinklers outside and Baby Girl got soaking wet and she yelled out "Dang It!". Then she thought it was funny, so she repeated it about 417 times. Lovely. When did she get so big?

This was a silly picture that Baby Girl told me to take. Whenever she does something that she thinks is cute, she says "Camera. Picture" Then she smiles a cheesy smile. It was a pretty cute picture.

Messy - M-E-S-S-Y - Messy. Baby Girl is a little obsessed about messes. She likes to have things clean. She likes to put her toys away, before she starts playing with new toys. When I leave something on the counter, she tells me to put it back. Today she came and asked me for a rag so she could clean up some juice that spilled on the floor. At the beginning of the summer, she would have a massive melt down because there was dirt on her feet. Can we say OCD? So, with all of that, I love times when Baby Girl is completely filthy from head to toe, and loves it.

My favorite moments from days:

1. Baby Girl came up to me and gave me a hug and said "I Lub Du" without any prompting from me.
2. Sitting outside in the shade with friends, and BG on my lap singing "diamond, diamond, diamond, diamond" (her version of "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star")
3. BG and I were lazy today - we stayed in our pajamas until lunchtime! 
4. BG requesting to listen to Primary Music, then hearing her sing along to 'Ollo the Office' (Follow the Prophet) and "Long to Church" (I Belong to the Church)

Life is good, what can I say?

This week I spent the week with my Uncle Bill and Aunt Leslee who live in one of the most spectacular places in the world, Page, Arizona. I haven't been able to get down and see their new home (if you count 5 years as new) and the last time I visited, which was way too long ago, they lived in Phoenix and I still liked Transformers. Saturday my uncle and I went fishing between the Glen Canyon Dam and Lee's Ferry, a stretch of about 14 miles of crystal clear river and coral beaches. Sunday Morning my aunt and I took a short hike to Horseshoe bend, an overlook at the top of the canyon where the previous day my uncle and I were fishing.

We started Saturday's fishing by launching the boat at Lee's Ferry and going up river a few miles. Just below where we launched, the much smaller Paria River emptied into the Colorado and actually made it two-toned because of its red muddy water -- it looked like an alien pollutant was being introduced into the river. The previous week the Paria river flash flooded peaking at around 4000 cusecs (cubic feet per second) when entering the Colorado at Lee's Ferry, normally this river only flows at about 30-50 cusecs.

As far as fishing goes, it wasn't that great. I didn't catch anything and at about 10am the weather took a turn for the worst which, for a relatively inexperience fly fisherman like me, made it nearly impossible to fish; however, the fishing to me was only secondary compared to the amazing scenery and access we were able to gain in the canyon. Red sandstone cliffs rose straight up 1,100 feet on each side. Near the river, in the few places plants could take root, lush green vegetation flourished, it was simply awesome. The boat ride home was cold and wet, it was raining with wind blowing against us and I've never been happier to see shelter just to get out of the weather. As we came home up the "cut" we could see the cloud filled canyon which looked like a giant gash in the earth seething with hot vapor.

By Sunday the weather cleared out and it turned out to be a beautiful day. My Aunt took me on a short hike to a place called Horseshoe Overlook, which was a vista of a bend in the canyon shaped like a horseshoe. The soft morning light gave the view a little something special. Previous to our visit a man had gotten too close to the edge of this overlook and accidentally fell to his death, apparently he hit a ledge 600 feet down and didn't make it to the bottom. Ebenezer Bryce, a man which a nearby national park is named after, once said that this area was "one hell of a place to loose a cow" -- seems like this also applies to people.

It was a great time, and in the evenings I got to hear about the many adventurous river trips my Aunt and Uncle had taken throughout the world while eating world-class dinner -- my Uncle and Aunt are amazing cooks. It was truly a wonderful relaxing time and I enjoyed my time there very much. Hopefully we can make it down there again soon

I recently realized that summer is quickly coming to an end. And what have we done? Hmmm, good question. We haven't posted a blog for a couple of weeks. I would like to think that we've been so busy doing fun things that we haven't had time. Closer to the truth is, we haven't done anything too exciting to blog about. Honest truth: we recently got Netflix and are too lazy to blog. So, I need to document some of the fun things we are doing this summer - so in the bleak winter months with minimal sunlight, I can say that we actually appreciated our summer while it was here.

Our new hobby is biking. Morgan is biking 2-3 times a week with Scouts and friends. Baby Girl and I go on bike rides in the morning. And occasionally we make it for family bike rides along the river trail. It's fun, we're hoping that we can count it as a form of exercise.

Swimming is one of our favorite past times. We had friends over to go swimming in our pool for the 24th of July. This is a picture of Baby Girl at that gathering. She didn't like being sprayed with the water. She likes getting wet, but on her terms. We've also been taking a Parent/Tot swimming class. This is so fun and BG loves it! It's more fun this year than it was last year! BG is a champ at kicking her legs. And she loves jumping off the side into the pool. She loves swimming time! 

Our most commonly eaten meal is grilled hamburgers. I think that's what happens when you buy a 10 pound box of hamburger patties. It's been great because we've had several (planned and impromptu) barbeques. We start up our grill and cook up hamburgers for a crowd!  My favorite part is if Morgan is grilling, then I don't have to cook dinner! 

Overall, we are loving the warm weather. We LOVE having a yard (with grass!) This is the first summer in our house that we can actually enjoy our back yard. Our garden is growing. We've already harvested 3 zucchini! And more to come!

Here's a rather long video of Baby Girl showing off her vocabulary. This is proof that she really can say a TON of words, even though she won't say them when other people are around to hear her. She gets shy and won't say them around new people. Enjoy!

Here's our future Aggie! We're teaching her young to cheer for USU Aggies!

On Saturday, we had a Play Day with some of our friends! Michelle and I are friends from high school. Luckily, our husbands also became friends and have similar interests. So, we try to get together. It's a little harder now that we don't live in the same city, but it's not that far of a drive. We went to the zoo for a couple of hours in the afternoon. Just a few words of advice, don't go to the zoo in the afternoon in July. It was entirely too hot. We were all melting! It was fun though. Michelle has 3 boys (4, 2, 8 months) and Baby Girl enjoyed watching the boys. She likes to watch kids play, and doesn't play too closely with them! After the zoo, we had dinner together. We had delicious meatball subs. Then Dan and Morgan went fishing, while Baby Girl and I hung out with Michelle and her boys. I think Baby Girl liked being one of the boys. She loved playing with their cars. Michelle threw her boys in the bathtub, and Baby Girl wanted a bath too! It was pretty funny, so we gave her a bath. It was her first bath with a buddy. We didn't bring any pajamas with us, so Baby Girl borrowed some Transformer pajamas. She loved them. What a silly girl! On Sunday, after church, I was getting her out of her dress, and she wanted to wear her 'boy' clothes. So, she wore Transformer Pajamas all day Sunday too. We had a great time, and Baby Girl still talks about the boys that she played with. She can say all three of their names. We had a great time!

My child has hit the 'terrible twos'. She still has 2 more months until she's 2, but the full out tantrums are here. My only saving grace at this point, is that she seems to save her open defiance for when we are in the privacy of our own home. She's a quiet, sweet, obedient child when other people are here. I understand that it's a part of growing up. She's pushing her boundaries and experimenting with consequences ... I know, I know, I know. The most frequent battle we fight is changing her diaper and getting her dressed. She tells me when she's poopy and soggy. She holds my hand to go into her room to get changed. When I grab a clean diaper, she runs away from me and refuses to sit still for me to change her. She hates getting dressed. Yesterday, she had a massive melt down screaming at the top of her lungs: "nakey! nakey! nakey!" So, as long as I got her diaper on, she roamed around the house 'nakey'. So, with all of that, I've decided to embrace this and turn this power struggle into a potty training process. What am I thinking? I have no idea. So, after reading several articles about Potty Training, I've chosen a method that seems to fit our Baby Girl. Some specialists say, that letting the children run around 'nakey' from the waste down helps them with going potty. So, starting today, until she's trained or I give up, we will be spending the rest of the summer outside. Baby Girl will be partially or completely 'nakey'. The power struggles of changing her diaper will be limited to nap/bedtime.

We'll see if she's actually ready to be potty trained. According to the articles, she shows several signs of being ready. She has yet to pee on her potty though. However, she has peed on our lawn 4 times. We spent 3 hours outside this morning, and Baby Girl was loving her 'nakey' time. She ran freely. Luckily, we have a nice, secluded back yard with lots of shade and sunscreen to protect her precious cheeks! Wish me luck, I think I will need every ounce!

Our holiday weekend seemed to pass so quickly. For the last month, I would ask Morgan what we were going to do for the 4^th. Hmm. No decisions or even ideas. Then it was here, and we still didn’t have any plans. But that doesn't mean we didn't enjoy every moment of our holiday weekend. We seemed to do a lot, but only took pictures of one event.

Friday: Morgan worked, but Baby Girl and I had a Pool Party and Barbeque. We invited our Play Group friends. We had 4 kiddie pools and ate hot dogs. We had ten adults and 15 children under the age of 5. It was super crazy, but fun.

Saturday: Morgan went mountain biking with the Scouts. It's part of getting in shape for his huge bike ride next month. It's becoming one of his favorite new hobbies. I think it's great, and he loved it. Our city had a little festival in the park, so we went to see the booths. We quickly discovered that it was entirely too hot and way too many people to actually see the booths.

Sunday: We did our usual church thing that day. Our friends had a neighborhood barbeque that evening that we went to. It was fun to get together and eat great food. This is where Baby Girl was introduced to Sparklers. Morgan was holding BG, while she held the sparkler. I kept waiting for Morgan's hair to catch on fire. She kept waving her hand all around. We kept telling her to not touch it because it was hot, and I think it made her nervous. After her first Sparkler burned out, she wouldn't hold another one. She wanted me to hold it, not her.

Monday: We started our day entirely too early. We woke BG up early to go see the Hot Air Balloons that were in town for the city's festival. We were so sure that she would LOVE it. We rode our bikes to the field, and her eyes lit up when she saw all of the balloons. We got out and walked around all of the balloons as they were filling up, and she got a little scared. She had to be held. She acted tired, and didn't seem too interested in them. She was captivated by the pig balloon though. There was a bank that had a piggy bank, and she still talks about how huge it was. My favorite was the Coca Cola balloon, it was shaped like an old fashioned Coke bottle. There were probably 20 balloons that all filled up and took off. It was awesome. When they were in the air, we decided to head back home. Baby Girl did NOT want to go. She threw a massive fit. I think she enjoyed watching the balloons from a safer distance, and not when we were so close to them. On our way home, we stopped at a neighborhood breakfast. We have a really friendly neighborhood! Morgan went on another bike ride with a couple of his buddies, and BG and I came home to take a nap. BG slept for almost 3 hours. Monday evening, we had a couple of people over for a barbeque. It was fun to have people over.

We had a great, relaxing weekend with lots of food. But that's what having a holiday is about, right?