In July, we visited Adam's family in Soledad, CA (near Salinas) for the annual summer get-together. We had a lot of fun, and Lily especially enjoyed the time with Nana, Papa, and her cousin Amelia. Then we returned in August to welcome Travis (Adam's youngest brother) home from his LDS mission to Maceio, Brazil.
One month later in September, I took Lily to Utah for our annual summer visit, and especially so I could meet my dad's (then) fiancee, Elizabeth. We had a wonderful time, and Lily was ever so excited to return for in October for my dad's wedding, which was marvelous. But I have to say, a major trip every month since July has almost made we swear off traveling! Am I the only person who goes crazy when I come home to no clean clothes and no food in the fridge and piles of bills to pay and boatloads of other random things to catch up on? I always feel like I have to do a week's worth of household tasks in one day, and it makes me nuts! But probably after a few months of being stuck here in the Oregon winter gloom, I will be desperately wishing to go visit somewhere.
Here are some pictures of our adventures this summer, playing with friends, traveling, and adventures playing with friends while traveling. Actually, they are mostly pictures of Lily doing those things, but she's the cutest one anyway.
Lily really likes helping around the house, especially "washing" dishes. Although not always effective in cleaning the dishes themselves, it is a very effective means for cleaning the chair and the floor and Lily, or at least getting them soaking wet so mom has to clean them afterwards.
Family photos!
This is a picture of Adam's family, for the first time in its entirety since the little girls were born.
Welcome home uncle Travis!
Lily was almost as excited about riding the bus at the airport as she was about visiting relatives.
This is Lily and her current "best friend", Molly, whose family is in our ward and lives a few doors down. They play together on almost a daily basis, and Lily practically goes into withdrawals if she doesn't see Molly for more than 24 hours. Their favorite recreation is to sit in Molly's doll cribs. Too bad Lily doesn't like her own crib this much ...
They also think it's fun to "study" Adam's textbooks in bed.
(Just wait til you get to college girls! The studying will never end.)
We seized our last opportunity to go camping this summer and took a trip to Cascadia at the beginning of September. The swimming hole would have been fabulous if it were 15 degrees warmer outside, but Lily still had lots of fun.
This is Lily anticipating a BYU football party. She is such a little Cougar fan! She can sing the end of the fight song and frequently runs around saying "Go cougars!" We also apparently have so much BYU apparel that Lily thinks any print on a piece of clothing says "b-i-u".
This is Lily watching a BYU football game. Don't ask me why, but she seems to actually enjoy it! She sometimes turns on the TV herself and gets excited if a football game is playing, and her attention span for something she cannot possibly comprehend is surprisingly long. She also talks about football. One day, the first thing she said upon waking up at 6 am was "watch fip-ball game!". And a few nights ago, as I was putting her to bed, she told me she wanted to play football with Jesus. At least we're teaching her about all the most important things in life!
This is Lily helping strain berries to make jam at my grandma's house in Mackay, Idaho. Lily really loves her Great Grandma Evelyne, or "deet ef-lint" as she calls her.
Lily was enthralled by feeding the ducks at Salem pond,
and had a marvelous impromptu princess party with my friend Amberly's girls,
Katelyn and Lizzie, during our trip to Utah.
Amberly also introduced Lily to her favorite pastime in the entire world (yes, even above playing in doll cribs and watching football): riding horses! The ponies at Thanksgiving Point have become a requisite tradition which we repeat every time we go to Utah. Lily talks about this on almost a daily basis.
In between all our trips out of state, my dear friend and former roommate, Candice, came to visit us with her son Bennett. Lily and Bennett are only two months apart in age, but have never met until now! They had a wonderful time together. We made Halloween cookies,
went on walks in the park,
read books together, and had an all-around great time! Lily's favorite part? Wearing Bennett's fire engine pajamas to bed. She really wants a pair.
We also visited the pumpkin patch!
Lily picked out her very own pumpkin, which we severed from the vine and prepared to purchase.
Then Lily found a "cute little pumpkin", which she wouldn't let go of, so we finally gave in and cut it from its vine as well.
We have had a wonderful summer and fall season! We have enjoyed visiting everyone, in spite of the little bits of stress, and will miss everybody for the next 9 months! But they will be productive: I play to stay home and cook up this bun in the oven!
