Summer Vacation

To wrap up the summer we took a much needed trip to see our families.  While we were there we finalized little A's adoption, sealed her to us in the Temple, and gave her her baby blessing.

K6 let us borrow her fly baby for the trip.  It was great!  It's basically a hammock you can hang between you and the tray in front of you on the airplane.  A loved it.  She played happily in it until she fell asleep.  I highly recommend it if you have an infant and a long flight.

A had diarrhea from some baby food that she responded badly to.  Pretty much every time we would feed her she would have a big blowout.  We fed her as soon as we got on the plane and while we were taking off she pooped.  Sure enough, it was a blowout.  I changed her diaper and clothes on my lap in the middle of take off, and somehow managed to not get poop on me!  That's right, I am amazing!  She isn't usually very stinky.  Most of the time I can't smell it.  This time was VERY stinky though. The man who sat next to us commented on how cute she is, after she pooped he looked at her like "Why did I have to choose to sit by the stinky one...why!"  Poor guy.

We went to visit Allan's family first.  We had so much fun with all of them.  Allan's family is pretty loud.  Little A isn't used to having a lot of noise and usually gets pretty fussy and scared when we're in a place that is loud.  We were really worried that she would have a hard time with all the noise.  She did great though!  She seemed to love every minute of it.  It actually made me worried that we would get home and she would be fussy because it was just me and her, and she was bored, lol.

Several of Allan's family were able to make it to A's adoption finalization and to her sealing and blessing the following day.  After the blessing we had a party to celebrate.  AG was there as well as mine and Allan's families.  More on that day in another post.  We love having our families together.

Allan's parents watched little A for us so we could go on a much needed date.  We went out to eat at Iggy's and stuffed ourselves.  Then we had frozen yogurt and walked around some shops for a little while to try and un-stuff ourselves a little.  After that we played miniature golf.  We love mini-golf, but there isn't one where we live, so it was a fun treat to go and play.  We try to find as many different was to hit the ball as we can, and as many different paths to the hole as we can.  It makes for some pretty entertaining moments.  When we were done we weren't ready to go home quite yet so we stopped at a mall and did some window shopping.  We had a great time flirting and talking with each other.  It was so nice to be alone together and kindle our relationship a little.

Grandma H made this cute Strawberry Shortcake quilt for little A.  I love Strawberry Shortcake!  It's an adorable quilt, and the perfect size for A to play on. 

I love this ruffle romper.  Still one of my favorites!

 Little A absolutely loves her Grandpa.  He can make a lot of funny noises and expressions, and she got the biggest kick out of all of them.  She loved to lay like this and blow raspberries at him while he entertained her. 

Little A had a rough time sleeping while we were on our trip.  Usually we can just lay her down in her crib or bouncer, and she'll go right to sleep, but there was too much going on.  When I could tell she really needed a nap I took her into our room and lay down with her so she would go to sleep.  It was a nice way to get some time with her and a great way to read my scriptures for the day! 

Little A loved spending time with her cousins.  She thought they were hilarious!  While we were there we made a quick stop to see A1 and F's new home.  Their girls were so excited to show me their house.  It's a beautiful home.  They've done a lot of work on it already, and it's looking great!

Cousin G with Little A

After visiting with Allan's family we headed to Grandad and Grandma H's house to visit with them, K1 and B, K4 and J, and Gram.  As Allan brought in our suitcases Grandad introduced A to the dogs.  A wasn't sure what to think about them, but she didn't cry.  They more or less ignored her.  They are very good dogs.

A with Lulu Bell and Mary Jane

K4, J and little A

J is a hoot.  He has such a fun personality and is a tease.  Just like his mom, ha!  We had a lot of fun playing with him and he was really good with little A.  One of my favorite conversations with him over the trip happened when we were walking down the stairs.  He was going down the stairs on his bottom.  He said "I'm going down on my bum!"
Me: "Yep! You're doing a good job!"
J: You go on your bum too!"
Me: "No, my bum is too old."
J: "Oh.  Ya, your bum is old.  I don't have an old bum, I have a BIG bum!"

Poor Gram was sick while we were there so we weren't able to do much with her.  We had a short visit so Allan and Grandad could give her a blessing.  She got to see little A for a couple minutes.  We wish we could have spent more time with her.  We're relieved that she has recovered and is doing well.

We spent some quiet evenings with Grandad and Grandma H and went to the Zoo with K1, B, J, and J's dad C.  It was pretty hot but we had a lot of fun there.

Allan and Little A with the monkeys

K1 and B with the crane.

A vulture showing off it's wings.

Me and A with one of the cats.

The boys in their jeep. They loved this thing, especially finding the most dangerous moments to climb in and out of it.

B, me, A, and J with the lion.

The gang in the jeep. Not sure who that little girl is, she was waiting her turn very patiently.

The boys with T-Rex.  Possibly their favorite thing at the zoo.

J and B outside the bat cave showing us how stinky it was.

This is my favorite picture from our zoo trip.  The bat cave was VERY stinky and the boys got a big kick out of going in and plugging their noses.  They made sure that everyone went inside so they could tell them how stinky it was, lol!

Little A and Allan going down the Giraffe slide.

Allan took Little A for her first slide.  She was tired and hot so we got no response whatsoever.  Her facial expression didn't even change.  I think she would have loved it if she had been more alert.

A and I with the gophers.

The gophers are always a favorite.  There is a tunnel you can crawl through (or walk through if your a small child) and poke your head out.  The boys loved running through and poking their heads out of all the holes they could.

A and I sitting on a tiger.

B and J riding a lizard.

B and J in the dinasour eggs.  B popped up and said "I hatched!"  J was just thrilled to get his feet wet.

Me, J, B, and K1 in a nest.

Little A on Allan's shoulders after her nap.

We also walked through the butterfly exhibit while Allan stayed outside with everyone's things.  I forgot to grab the camera before I went in so I don't have pictures.  A slept in my arms through the whole thing.  I love butterflies and really enjoyed seeing so many at once.  Some of them were huge.  If you stood very still they would land on you.  B tried so hard several times to stand still so one would land on him and was so upset when the time was up and no butterflies had landed on him.  Just as we got in line to go out the door a brave little butterfly landed on his back.  He was SO thrilled!  Two very large blue butterflies landed on A's arm.  At first she didn't notice, but then they started moving and it must have tickled her because she suddenly started shaking her arm back and forth to get them off (she was still asleep).  Thankfully no butterflies were hurt. :)

Next we made a trip to visit with little A's birth mom and her family.  We always love seeing them.  They are so much fun and remind me so much of my family.  I love watching them with little A.  It is obvious how much they love and adore her.

For the last leg of our trip we headed to Nana and Pops to visit with them K3, K5, K6 and her family, and have a baby shower/family reunion.  We hadn't had a reunion since my Grandma passed away a couple of years ago, so it was really good to see everyone.  My sisters put on the shower for us.  They did a Cabbage Patch theme because I love Cabbage Patch dolls.  It turned out so cute!  They used green tissue paper to tuck around cabbage patch dolls in baskets to look like a cabbage patch and Nana and Pops tucked in some money.  I don't have pictures yet, but I'll post them soon.  Everyone was very generous with their gifts, and A got so many cute things.  So many that we thought we would have to mail them home. Thankfully, our extra suitcase and our talent for stuffing things in worked out, and we were able to fit everything in our luggage and keep it underweight.

Aunt A and cousin J couldn't make it to the shower so they made a special stop to see Little A.  I was so glad we got to visit for a little while.  These two ladies are so talented and so generous.  They are always making something to gift to someone.

Aunt K came to the shower as well.  I don't get to see her too often so it was great to have a visit from her.  She brought little A the beanie and booties in the picture.  They are SO cute!  A is going to be very styling in the winter time!  She also brought that adorable dress for P.

There was a craft fair going on the same weekend and K3 had a lady crochet a Cabbage Patch beanie for little A.  It's hilarious and adorable and I can't wait until it gets cold here so she can wear it!  After the lady made it she set it in her display until K3 could come pick it up.  So many people liked it that she took special orders for them and ended up selling a lot!

Nana, K3, and K6 had a booth at the craft fair.  They did really well there.  K3 sold all of the furniture she refurbished and Nana and K6 sold a lot of their things as well.  I have some very talented family members and wish that we lived closer so they could help me with my house. ;)

We also went on a walk with K3, K4, and J and had our traditional late night Canasta tournament ... at which I beat everyone, ha!  Allan came in second!

A had her first sickness while we were there.  The night before we left A woke up in the middle of the night screaming because she couldn't breathe through her nose.  We tried using the nose syringe but there was so much it just kept coming and coming and only made her cry harder which then made her have more snot.  Poor girl.  Allan went to the gas station (the only thing that is open in the middle of the night) to see if we could get some decongestant for her only to find out that you can't give infants decongestant.  So we went to the ER.  Nana and Pops literally live two houses down from the hospital which was very convenient.

The doctor diagnosed her with allergies.   The pollen there has been VERY high this year and pretty much everyone has had problems.  He gave us some saline solution to put up her nose and told us to have her sleep propped up.  Both things helped a lot, and she was able to sleep through the rest of the night.  We had to continue this for about four days after we got home and then she was fine.  She only had problems at night, otherwise she was fine. 

We had an uneventful travel home which was nice.  A did have another blowout but we were in the airport on a layover so it was fine.  Much easier to take care of than mid-take off.  We enjoyed the long ride home.  It gave us time to talk and catch up after being with family for a couple of weeks.  A was thrilled to be back home.  She slept in the car most of the time.  When she woke up and saw her room she immediately started giggling and squealing.  She kept looking at Allan and I with wide happy eyes, then looking around, looking back at us and squealing with delight.  We had to agree with her, it was really good to be home.