"Stay-cation" Time

Unfortunately, a big summer vacation just wasn't in the cards for us this year...ok, ok, we did go to Mexico for a week, but that was WAY back in May--it wasn't even summer yet :)
We've been itching for a little adventure, so to celebrate my birthday, we hopped in the car on Saturday and headed out west to good old San Antonio.
In our ideal world, we wanted to be on the road at 7 am...but Megan must not have gotten the memo because she was up from 12 am to 1 am and was up AGAIN at 5:45 am. So her tired, tired parents (how did we survive the newborn stage?) dragged themselves out of bed at 8. We were on our way at 8:55 am.
Starting just outside of Houston, we began to see billboards for this gas station/rest stop called "Buc-ee's". The billboards are pretty funny and definitely worked. It's about an hour from San Antonio (2 hours from Houston) so it was the perfect place to stop and let Megan stretch for a while. They sell all sorts of things, including pillows, purses, and clocks made of cow-hide. We had fun looking around at everything.

Megan chilling in the stroller at the Alamo...


We got to San Antonio at noon, just in time to learn that we needed cash to park...darn. So we parked at the mall near the Alamo, found an ATM, fed Megan some lunch, and finally headed over to the Alamo around 12:45 pm. Incidentally, if any of you are going to San Antonio, the mall is NOT the cheapest place to park unless you are planning on staying for less than 3 hours. If it's gonna be more than 3 hours, you're better off to park at one of the flat-rate lots. Most we saw were $10 for the day (cash only). Oh well, live and learn.

Dan and the six flags of Texas (Spain, France, Mexico, Texas, Confederacy, U.S.A.)


It was hot, hot, HOT but we still enjoyed walking around the Alamo site. We saw a long line out one gate so we headed to the next one (this meant that we went to all of the other buildings before ending up back in that very same long line to go into the Alamo itself). In the "long barracks" there is a free 20 min. movie that tells highlights of the battle (and is air-conditioned-yay). The Alamo building itself is not too thrilling. We got pics of the famous facade, but inside you can't take any pics and there's not much you'd want pics of anyway. The gift shop was busy and when we walked in, I realized that what I'd always remembered as the inside of the Alamo--was actually the gift shop (was I nine or was I nine?). But anyway. The story of the Alamo siege IS pretty incredible and we left full of some good Texas history spirit.

Dan and the famous facade...


Megan and I in the same spot...


We then reclined the stroller so Megan could nap, found the Hilton, and used their elevator to take us down to the Riverwalk. Megan slept pretty much the entire time we walked around. We learned that the Riverwalk is NOT made for strollers--we got to lift it up and down stairs many times, but it wasn't too terrible. It is shaded and breezy and was a really nice place to walk around. Many of the restaurants have been there for a LONG time and the whole thing feels really old-timey. We were big fans. We made a loop of the whole trail and then ate at a Mexican place near our starting point. It was pretty good, Dan liked it more than I did but we both enjoyed it. Megan woke up as our meals were served so she got some baby food too. By then it was about 5 pm and we headed back to the car.

Enjoying our walk


Some bridge (maybe if we had spent the $7.75 each for a river boat tour, I'd know)


We drove over to the San Antonio temple; unfortunately, it was closed. We still appreciated the view. It is beautiful and has some amazing stained-glass. By 6:30 p.m. we were on the road back. We stopped around 7:30 so Megan could nurse and go to sleep (which she did!). She slept the rest of the way home and we were back around 10 pm. We were exhausted but had a great day. Road trips are still one of our favorite things to do as a family. Thank goodness Megan is such a good little traveler.

08.08.08

Not only was 08.08.08 the start of the Olympics--it was also my 24th birthday! I have been looking forward to 08.08.08 for many years since 8 is my favorite number (I bet you can't guess why). Plus--08+08+08=24, my age. How cool is that. Anyway. This post is long-ish, it's more of a journal entry for me so feel free to skip to the pictures whenever you want.

Some b-day memories...
20 years ago: I turned 4. I don't have specific memories of that birthday, I think we were at "the Ranch" (my mom's parents place near St. George). One of the most fun things to do as a 4-year-old there was to ride the tire swing on Grandfather's lap. There were wood planks nailed to this tall, tall tree and it was so scary to climb. I would go first, grandfather would come behind holding the swing and at the top, he'd pull me onto his lap on the swing and then we'd FLY! It would have been scary but I always felt so safe being with Grandfather.

10 years ago: My 14th birthday was the first year (other than the year I was born) that I was in Houston on my actual birthday. My dad took me, Kira, Jenn, Kat, and Kate out to Lake Houston for a day of kneeboarding and tubing. It was SO fun. I was VERY excited about being able to go to my first stake dance and to start high school.

5 years ago: I turned 19. We were in Olympia Nat'l Park camping. I was up all night throwing up, it was terrible. I got to head back to Seattle with Baba. By the afternoon, I was feeling better and Baba took me to a delicious Greek restaurant. I loved having her all to myself for a little while before the rest of the campers returned. We went to Torero's the NEXT night. Torero's is a yummy Mexican place that I've had many a birthday dinner at (and I have the Polaroids in the ridiculously large sombrero to prove it). I didn't know it at the time but I was a few weeks away from going to a ward ice cream social and meeting a guy whose nametag said "Karl" that I would later marry.

1 year ago: I turned 23. Again, we were in Washington. We started the day at Baba's house and then headed out to Orcas Island for some camping with the extended fam (my cousins and my dad's siblings). I was 28 weeks pregnant, feeling good and enjoying the time off work.

08.08.08: It was a nice birthday. Not the most exciting, but not the most boring either. And it involved yummy cake and a lovely little party (thanks Carrie for hostessing and Shad, Amy, and kids and Kat, Glen, and Kaden and Lisa (Carrie's friend) for coming). It's fun to have friends like Kat that have been at my b-days from year 1 to the present.
I'm pretty happy to be 24. I like even numbers better than odd, so I'm more excited to be 24 than I was to be 23. Plus according to that song, "nobody likes you when you're 23", so woo hoo for 24.

Mmmm. White chocolate raspberry cake. Thank you Karen for teaching me to make delicious things to eat. I made it for myself, but I didn't mind too much. Plus it gave me outright possession of the leftovers.


Blowing out the candle with my helpers. The "8" is for 08.08.08; we couldn't find 24 candles at my mom's.


Zach, Hailey, Megan, Kaden, and Kat


Carrie and Lisa and the delicious food

What happened to July? Or 2007?

Wow. It's already a week into August? Megan is going to be 1 in a mere 11 weeks? She's getting big. I know she's not "big" weight-wise compared to some kiddos (ahem, Alonzo and Sydney to name a few :) ) but she seems more grown up. She's a pretty independent little lady, she'll play by herself if she has enough things to explore. Her new favorite things to do are walk around the coffee table while hitting the glass and yelling to herself, rip apart magazines, and climb as high as she can (thankfully, it's not very high at this point). She's sweet and snuggly, especially first thing in the morning and right before bed. She loves anytime she gets to spend in water, especially bath time in the big tub where she can crawl all around. Last night we went to feed ducks at the park by our house (the tropical storm's last clouds were keeping the temperatures to a breezy 90) and near the duck pond is a big splash area. First we went over just so Megan could watch the water falling, but pretty soon she was squirming off my lap and crawling as fast as she could to the fountains. So I stripped her down to a onesie and let her get a little more wet...not as wet as she wanted since I didn't want to soak myself. She did NOT want to leave. She's become a lot more opinionated and is starting to complain if you take away a toy (or dangerous object) that she is interested in. And she's becoming a bit of a drama queen. She whips out that shrill cry for every little stumble, but we know when she's really hurt because if she's not, she immediately stops when she gets attention. Anyway. Enjoy the end of summer!

The view of Edouard's wrath from our balcony...it was a lot of hype for not much show. But we are grateful it wasn't worse and we needed the rain!


Megan's sweet smile!


By the way, I cut my hair about a week and a half ago (approx. 6 inches). I am loving it shorter. So much easier...and cooler!

New Heights

Megan is now declaring her independence in a new way...she is cruising! She will pull herself up, and carefully take little wobbly side steps around the coffee table/piano bench/kitchen chairs/whatever else she can find. It's fun to watch her discover new things, but I'm looking forward to when she is a little more stable...she tries to smack her head on corners too much for the moment. However, she's avoided any major bruises thus far.
She continues to grow...weighing in at 16 lbs, 11 oz and 26.25 inches long as of yesterday at her 9 month appointment. Even though she is on the small side for her age, we can't believe how big our little girl is getting.

Here's a little taste. Sorry for the shaky camera-work :)

What a happy messy face...she loves to feed herself

Play Time

We're still enjoying the summer (despite the HEAT). There's this place near us called Miller Outdoor Theater that stages free shows all summer long. Last week, the show was called "When You Wish" and was a montage of Disney songs. It was put on by TUTS (theater under the stars) the same place that does a lot of Broadway shows, so the singing and dancing were great. And it was fun to hear so many songs that we knew so well! It started at sunset and actually was quite pleasant outside. We set up a blanket on the hill facing the stage and had a good time. Megan had so much fun watching all the people around us and listening to the music that she didn't fall asleep until 9:30! Her usual bedtime is 7:30 or 8.
Anyway. Other than that, we've been swimming, testing out the ice cream maker Dan got for Father's day, swimming, playing with friends, swimming, and trying to get out and see some local sights when we can.

Kaden (the son of my friend Kat) playing after we went swimming! Yay, he can walk!


Megan tries hard to keep up.


He may be able to walk, but she's going to take that toy from him (how do they learn grabbing this early?!?)


Ah haha! Megan wins!


Megan playing on the air mattress with Uncle Tyler--the video doesn't do it justice, she was giggling for like a full 20 minutes before it.

New York, New York

So after 11 fun-filled weeks of my entire family being within 30 minutes of each other (the first time all five of us kids have lived in the same city since Jamie left for BYU in the fall of 1994!), our little honeymoon of family time is over :(. Jamie and Trent and their 4 kids left yesterday for New York (Connecticut really) by way of Utah.

My mom hosted a goodbye party for them on Monday night. We all took turns over the weekend with their kids to give my Mom some breaks while Jamie and Trent cleaned their Houston house and supervised the movers. Sunday night, my little brother came to stay with us--I loved it because I got to take a shower without my little Megan rushing me AND I went to the grocery store without her as well! Thanks Uncle Tyler!

I got to have my sweet nieces Julianne, Catherine, and Madelyn come swim at my place with Megan and I on Monday afternoon. It was a little nerve-wracking for me since I had to have one arm around Megan and one hand on Madelyn the whole time. But, no one drowned (or nearly drowned) and it was even pretty fun. Thankfully, Julianne and Catherine are not only fantastic swimmers, they can also touch in the entire pool at my apartment complex. Then, Julianne came to sleep over after the goodbye party. Again, I got to take a worry-free shower. Julianne was so sweet to her little cousin Megan.

My nieces testing out the water (which has reached that point where it only feels refreshing for about 5 minutes...then you feel hot both in AND out of the water)


After swimming (can you tell it was a challenge to get all 4 girls looking at the camera at the same time?)



Julianne and Megan...more than one person (including myself) think that Megan looks a lot like Julianne did when she was a baby...do you think Megan looks like Julianne now?


Megan's newest trick--kneeling! She now crawls (not scoots--crawls) all over the place. Whenever I go to get her out of the crib, she is kneeling in there waiting for me and holding onto the bars. She looks like a little prisoner, it's so cute.

FYI

In case you noticed that my link list has shrunk greatly, it's true! I transferred all of the non-private blogs from my link list to google reader--it's a MUCH more efficient way to blog-stalk.

8 months old

It seems so hard to believe, but it's true--in fact...Megan is 8 months and 1 week old! We had a great 4th of July weekend; it was so fun to have 3 days in a row with Dan at home. On the 4th we went to a breakfast and flag raising at the church. It was a building-wide activity so my older brother and his family were there as well as my parents and little brother. In the afternoon we swam and swam and in the evening we went out to my oldest sister's house for dinner and fireworks. We swam at my parent's house again on Saturday and played games. Megan dove in a pool for the first time! (Grandpa was watching her-- he was standing in the pool and letting her crawl on the ledge between the hot tub and the main pool when woops!--she attempted to crawl on water and immediately learned that she was not able to do so.) Sunday was relaxing and after church we went to celebrate my mom's birthday with my siblings at my parent's house. Here are some of Megan's recent pictures...enjoy!

Megan at one of Uncle Tyler's swim meets


Rolling her eyes at Grandpa after he let her try on some goggles


Some people have said that Megan's ears stick out a little...I just don't see it :)


These are today--this outfit is from Dan's mom and I have been so excited for Megan to wear it since I saw it!


I love the jeans. They are so cute!

Pat-a-cake...

Random Cuteness:



Little foot sticking out of the blankie covering her carseat last night:


Clapping!

Doo Rag

We inherited this cute dress from my sister Jamie. And it came complete with a doo rag. Yes, yes...we are raising Megan to be a biker-dudette.


And check out the army crawler! (*note that this was last week...she is like 4 times as fast now)

Giggles

Hurray for Megan! She passed her hearing test today in both ears!! Woo Hoo! It is so nice to have reassurance that all is well with her hearing. No routine follow-up needed. And her ear tubes look good, they are in place and there is no fluid behind her ear drums anymore.

Here are some cute giggles from last night!

Family Pics

We had family pics with my whole family last Saturday (as well as a birthday party for my nieces Julianne and Hailey and my brother Shad).
It was a fun, crazy, humid, and ultimately successful affair. Once a family involves more than 2 people, family pictures are pretty insane but so worth it!

Amber's Whole Family

Come on in!

Welcome to our new place! We are loving having real walls and a little more square footage...not to mention the amazing appliances (wahser+dryer+dishwasher=heaven)!!!
Here are a few pics. But it is MUCH better in person, so you should all come visit.

Yup, this is the right place! Just knock on the door...we might let you in. But not too loud in case Megan is asleep.


Here is our very decorative entryway...it's a family shrine! Yay for family pictures.


On the right is the hallway--look closely and you might see Megan in one of the doorways.


The double doors in the hallway lead to one of my favorite places in the apartment...the laundry nook! I smile every time I start a load and don't lug it up or down three flights of stairs.


And the bathroom. Yes, that is granite. Yes, it is about a million times bigger than the counterspace at Wymount. And even though you can't really tell--that is one BIG tub (behind the shower curtain, not on top of the toilet). It is wonderful!


Our room. The valence is the same but I got new drapes. How do you feel about the brown and the red?


Another view. That is a walk in closet--another aspect we really enjoy.


And one more. Anyone who remembers my parents' room from like 1974 to 2005 will remember those dressers and that mirror. We're glad they live on in our room.


Megan's room! I love love LOVE her drapes. Again, same valence, new drapes. They block ZERO light but they are so cute.


The other half of Megan's room. Poor kid...she used to have the "excess furniture room" and now it's just "the place where we keep the buffet with the china in it and the desk and printer".


Ok, back down the hall. This is the living/dining room. I initially had mixed feelings about the coffee table but it's grown on me. I like it now.


Yay the piano! And the little look-through to the kitchen. I really love that feature.


And the kitchen. Small. But still so much better than Wymount! I really like the granite in here too.


Well...thanks for coming! Don't let the door hitcha on the way out.


Wow this is a long post...just wait til we move into a house. Maybe then we won't post any pictures and you will all really have to come visit.

A Quick Post

Megan is napping and I have a few minutes to post her newest talents! She is now a speedy (well...speediER) scooter and is adding some consonants to her babble vocabulary. This week she starting saying something between "babababa" and "mamamama" (much to my delight...and Dan's since now he always says--Honey-Megan is calling you!). I have started taking pictures of the apartment and hope to post an apartment tour this week. My other goal for today is to organize the kitchen and put down the shelf liners my mom got me. And I'd like to have the kitchen put back together by 4 so we can have dinner at some point tonight :) We'll see how it goes!

I didn't get either talent in this one, but it's still cute. She was trying really hard to read that Harry Potter book there.


Here is "mamama"


And last but not least...scooting AND "mama"