Undies!

 

Back in May we started potty training Maggie. She, unlike the previous times I'd tried, took to it immediately and did an amazingly great job. My parents started putting her in undies for a couple afternoons while they watched her (thank you!) and when Chad and I picked her up from a weekend away we decided to fully go for it. And she totally rocked it and she even stays dry at night. Yay Maggie!

Father's Day

For the next month or so my posts are going to be out of order. Because I was so far behind in getting organized I'm going to have some posts that are somewhat timely and others that aren't.

We had a great father's day this year with Chad. It started out by me making eggs for breakfast. I know. I miracle. After breakfast we changed into our swimsuits and took off for Wild Water Adventures, one of our local water parks. We spent a few warm hours there playing in the water and eating lunch before coming home for a nap. Well, Chad got a nap. He played hard with Maggie in the water and sun so it was totally deserved. That evening we had dinner at one of our favorite steakhouses (way too hot to BBQ at home) and settled in for the night.

I hope Chad had as good of a Father's Day as Maggie and I did. She has a super great dad and we had lots of fun with him celebrating.

And a belated happy Father's Day to my dad, who I didn't get to see on Father's Day. Fortunately we got to spend the previous weekend with him and will be with him next weekend too! 

new car

My parents bought Maggie (and Chad) a new yellow sports car. Radio-controlled, of course. Initially Maggie preferred chasing it but eventually decided driving it would be pretty fun too. I see lots of RC car days in our future. 

Easter 2012

We had a nice Easter weekend at my parents' house. It was a short overnight trip, but we got to spend time with my parents, GG and our cousin Bailey and we all enjoyed ourselves. My mom organized a little egg hunt for Maggie, GG gave her a fuzzy Easter bunny, Bailey taught Maggie how to play the slots, my dad played quite a bit with Maggie and read her Corduroy, her newest favorite book, and Chad showed how limber he is by riding Maggie's trike after she pooped out at the park.

sledding

A couple weekends ago went spent the weekend at the cabin. That Saturday the weather was beautiful. We were able to take Maggie sledding (which she loved--especially going down hills by herself...yikes!) and she helped make snowballs and a snowman. We tried to find a great new hill for sledding, but it turns out the best one is in the empty lot next to the cabin. Go figure. 

Bird Feeders

A little over a week ago my parents took Maggie to the cabin for the night. One of the things they did with her was make peanut-butter-pine-cone-birdseed bird feeders. Apparently Maggie was more interested in eating the peanut butter than actually covering the pine cones (really though, can you blame her?). They brought the feeders back to our house and Maggie, Chad and I hung them together. She was more interested in doing that and now we can watch out our window for hungry little birds.

Jingle Bells

Two weekends ago my dad sang Jingle Bells to Maggie. I'd say he sang it a total of 4 times. Here she is repeating what he sang the next day. She's a fast learner!

First Snow Day

We spent the past Saturday and Sunday with my parents at the cabin. Saturday was overcast and cool, but stayed dry. We woke up on Sunday to a snow storm with the ground and trees covered with soft white snow. After Maggie woke up we dressed her in some warm clothes and let her play in it for awhile. She tried to eat the snowflakes as they were falling, jumped in the snow, rode around in a sled with Chad, helped my dad shovel the snow layer on the front deck, and picked up more than her share of snow with her gloved hands. Unfortunately the gloves were more for style and cool weather rather than for snow because her little hands froze after about 20 minutes of playing. Hard to believe the first snow of the season (for us) has arrived before Thanksgiving. 

BBQ

The Tulare County Historical Society, an organization that my parents are heavily involved in, held their annual summer BBQ on last Sunday evening. Instead of hosting it on the museum grounds, this year we all went to a member's house for the fundraiser. She lives on a farm in the country with a huge area for tables, horses, musicians, a catering company, a dessert company (who made dutch oven peach cobbler on-site) and over 250 people. Maggie danced a bit, pet a horse, ran around, played with rocks, rode on a vintage toy horse (and subsequently smacked herself in the face with it and lightly busted her lip), met a handsome young cowboy, and looked cute in her little pink dress.

Grandparents Day

Sunday was Grandparents Day. Chad's station was co-sponsoring an event at the zoo that day so we decided to take my parents for the morning. It was a sprinkly, humid morning but we all had a nice time regardless. We fit in the bird show, made the rounds at the booth area, had lunch, and saw most of the animals at the zoo. Additionally Maggie fed a giraffe, skinned her knees (both knees, twice), gave money to a raven, and acted all cool like a pirate.

Boating

As I said last week, we rented a boat on Labor Day weekend. Maggie wasn't digging it for the first hour and we all wondered how long we were going to actually enjoy our time on the lake. After lunch, however, and after we took off her life jacket, her mood changed and she enjoyed herself. She also loved playing in the water so we made sure she got time to do that. The rest of, and the majority of, the afternoon on the boat was great.

Cabin

For Labor Day weekend we went to the cabin. It was nice to be back in the mountains for three nights--but this time with a kitchen, bed and shower. Ahhh. We relaxed, played darts, Scrabble, went to the swing, watched a movie and walked through a craft fair. On Sunday we rented a pontoon boat and spent the afternoon on Shaver Lake. More about the lake on the next post. Overall, a fun weekend. Hard to believe summer is almost over...

Wild Water Adventures

This month my mom, Maggie and I went to Wild Water Adventures twice. My dad came with us once. All summer my friends have been taking their kids there and I wasn't convinced it was an age-appropriate place to take Maggie. In high school (when it was called Clovis Lakes) I went a number of times and then Chad and I hit it up once pre-Maggie. I didn't remember it being particularly toddler-friendly. Wrong! The park has a huge section of water slides and play areas for the toddler and younger kid set, complete with a shallow 1-foot deep pool. Lots of squirty, bubbly, wet entertainment for the kids. To say that Maggie has a blast there is an understatement--I think right now it's her favorite place to be. Too bad her mom didn't realize this earlier in the summer...

Yosemite, part 2

While Chad was hiking to/from Half Dome, the rest of us explored Yosemite Valley. I took a billion photos of waterfalls and I'm not going to bore you with those, so here are a few of the people shots. It was a fun trip and we all had a great time.

Thrills

One morning in Park City we went to a recreation area called Park City Mountain Resort. There they have a carousel (which Maggie LOVED) and a couple things the rest of us loved: the Alpine Slide and the Alpine Coaster. If you ever find yourself in Park City in the summer: Go. On. Both. Rides. They were a blast! The Alpine Slide is like a water-slide without water and much much faster. The Alpine Coaster is a single-car, single-passenger coaster that goes 30 mph through the trees down the mountain. Oh my, so fun. Why can't we have something that awesome in California? Seriously.

Olympic Park

We spent a bit of time at the Olympic Park near our condo in Park City. It was cool seeing some of the locations where the 2002 Winter Olympic events were held, including the luge, bobsledding and ski jumping. While we were there we watched students practice from a ski jumping camp. Instead of snow, however, they skied down a wet ramp into a pool of water. Scary, but no one ever screamed. I would have. Anyway, time was on our side that afternoon because we were also able to see a group speed around a bobsled course. Super neat.

Park City

About two weeks ago we flew to Park City, Utah for a vacation. We stayed in a condo in The Canyons and found that there is a lot of summertime stuff to do in the area. We made an attempt to fit a fair amount in and I'd say we did a good job of doing just that. The weather was great so that helped motivate us to get out and see the sights.

Church Party

Last weekend my parents' church (and my childhood church) celebrated its 50th anniversary. To honor the milestone the church held a carnival last Saturday with games, bounce houses, food and music. We had fun and Maggie did too.

In related news, this past year my dad has been busy researching the history, conducting member interviews, and writing the facts down in a book to give the church members for the big anniversary. My mom had a big hand in the book too--she designed the layout, typed the manuscript, and performed the final editing before sending it to print. It's a comprehensive, special book and members and leaders of the church are lucky to have such a well-documented published history.

Swimming

We didn't swim in Hawaii as much as we'd hoped, but we did find time for a little swimming every day.

Waimea Canyon

Last Thursday we took a side trip to Waimea Canyon. It's on the east side of Kauai and really beautiful. There's a waterfall if you look closely on the left side of the group photos, but it looks tiny because the canyon is so big.

(Our Hawaii photos are going to be out of chronological order but I'm not going to worry about it.)