10 Months

Ada turned 10 months old on June 26th. I know I have said it before, but I can't believe how quickly time has gone by. She is becoming more of a toddler than a baby. It is fun to see her learn new things every day. We love her so much. 

Ada officially signs 'All Done'. For awhile she has done it, but we weren't sure if she understood what she was doing. Now she will tell you if she is finished with her food. Or she will do it non stop if you are trying to change her diaper and Aubrey is 2 feet away playing with toys. 

I am pretty sure she says 'Hi'. Also Mama and Dada. 

Still takes 2 naps and sleeps all night. Usually about 7:30 to 7 or 7:30. 

Won't go to bed at night without Aubrey in the room. I used to be able to put Ada down and then get Aubrey ready, but lately when I do this, Ada just screams the whole time until I get Aubrey in her bed. 

Loves all our neighbor friends. Especially Marlee, which hopefully makes up for Aubrey not liking Marlee last year. Ada loves Marlee because whenever we see each other, Marlee gets so excited and screams, "Ada!" in this high pitched voice and immediately gives her a hug. If I just bring Aubrey out because Ada is taking a nap, Marlee will ask me every few minutes where Ada is.

Ada wants to walk so bad. She became a crawler while in St. George, but now she wants to be on the move constantly. This means that I give in and let her crawl on the sidewalk outside. Which means her knees sometimes get so scratched that they almost bleed. But she doesn't care as long as she can be part of the action. 

Still our little smiler. And so content. But she has had some off days. 

Starting to follow me around the house and cry if I don't pick her up. 

Loves bread. And her baby purees. And corn. And fruit. But other 'big people' food she doesn't really like yet.

Has never liked peaches. Crazy girl. 

I could talk about Ada all day. We will save that for her 1 year old post in 2 short months!

Green Pond & Trail Running

Cameron suggested that we go hiking with the girls today, and we had a blast. We went up towards Snow Basin Ski Resort and hiked to Green Pond. We have heard a lot about Green Pond, and always see signs, but we had never been. We hiked about 1 mile from the parking area to the pond. It was the most enjoyable hike we have ever been on with kids. Aubrey only rode on Cameron's shoulders for a few minutes. The rest of the time she hiked, and she actually hiked fairly quickly. She loved trail running, and picking up rocks to throw in the streams that we passed by. 

 

Ada was all smiles. On the way up I told Cameron that I always feel guilty for the baby because we strap her into her carseat, then strap her into the carrier, and she doesn't really get a chance to move. But once we started hiking I had to laugh and admit that she was probably having the most fun out of all of us. She kicked her legs and swung her arms and babbled. And smiled. She loves watching Aubrey and will whine or start crying if we went ahead and she didn't have a good view.
 

Daddy and Aubrey. 

 

Trail running. We didn't give her the idea, she just took off. And she was pretty amazing. She did great until about half way back to the car, and she took a spill. Cameron carried her for a minute, and when we got to another hill, she wanted to get down and run. I was proud of her for not being afraid to try again. 

 

At the pond! We packed a lunch and they had a picnic table to sit at. We loved being the only ones there.

 

We found a Mama duck and her ducklings. Aubrey and Cameron walked all the way around the pond. 

 

I was impressed with this family picture. Both girls smiling as the camera took the picture. 

Running, running, running.

South Ogden Days 5K & Kids K

This year was the 5th year that our family has participated in the South Ogden Days 5K. This year we decided to sign Aubrey up for the kids K. We wanted to include her because we always drag her to races. She was so excited all day and even when we got to the park, but once we lined up to start she started crying. I think all the people scared her. We made it probably 200 meters before we decided to just let her run back. Once all the people were gone, she ran like a pro. 

 

You will have to get your zoom out to see her screaming face!

 

Finishing with Daddy. 

 

Trying to show off her race finisher medal behind her number. 

I don't want to push my kids into running, but I do want to include them when I can. Hopefully they can find a love for it on their own, or develop talents and hobbies that they love. 

 

We had a blast this year running the 5K. Todd and Jordan ran with us as well. It was Jordan's first race ever. We were so excited for him to place 2nd in his age group. I think he will run with us again. 

 

Cameron placed 2nd overall in a competitive men's race running 17:40ish and I held out to win the girls race by about 15 seconds in 20:20. It was so fun to be back racing again. My last race (not pregnant) was October 2010. I enjoyed seeing that all those days pushing the stroller has started getting me back into shape. And it made me realize that my competitive spirit never goes away. 

Silly Aubrey

Aubrey has heard me tell a few people about the time she asked me if I was Aunt Lauren. So she has started to think it is funny. So tonight as she was eating dinner she asked, "Are you Aunt Lauren?" At first I told her, "No, of course not." But then a few minutes later she asked again. 

So, being the mean Mommy that I am, I said, "Yes. Mommy went to stay with Brynlee and Emily and I got to come here and stay with you. Isn't that fun?"

At first she just laughed. Then she asked again a few minutes later and I gave her a similar response. I noticed the look on her face as she began to be worried that maybe this was true. She started doing her nervous gestures and said, "No, you're Mommy."

I was mean and played around with her until she got pretty concerned.  Then we laughed it off and went on with dinner. 

Hopefully I didn't scar her for life, but it is funny to think that I can still pull practical jokes like that even on my kids.

More Harvey Cousins!

We spent a lot of time at Bryan and Kathy's house these past two weeks. It was fun to relax, act like we were on vacation as well, and it was so fun for Aubrey to have playmates. 

 

James, Matt, Hannah, and Aubrey eating lunch with Grandma.

The kids love Grandma's slip and slide. Ada even got to give it a try. 

 

Love my girls!

 

The raspberries and strawberries are here! Every time we visited I would take the girls out and we would pick raspberries. Aubrey ate them as fast as I could pick them. 

A few more pictures from St. George. Grandma reading the kids stories. 

 

One afternoon Todd was laying outside in the grass and told Aubrey he was tired. Aubrey then ran inside. I think they supposed she had moved on to another activity, but a few minutes later she walked out with her pillow, star toy and Froofies. She then had to take a second trip to get the blanket. 

 

Aubrey got to play duck, duck, goose for the first time, and Grandma had a fun M&M game that the kids loved. 

 

Sunday evening we had a fun game of piggy back chase. You can tell by the kids faces that they loved it. 

 

Hannah and Ada. Hannah is going to be such a good big sister!

 

Our group in the pool.

Yankee Doodle Repel

Todd's good friend Leo took a group of us repelling while in St. George. He is a tour guide in the area and has a lot of equipment. I have to admit that Cameron basically had to drag me to come along. I love hiking, but I had it in my mind that we were going to be standing around for hours in the 100+ degree weather watching people go down one by one. It was a blast and I am excited to do it again. 

The hike we went on, called Yankee Doodle, had 2 repels. I think the first was approximately a 30 foot drop, and the second was 130ish if I remember right. Both were at the beginning of the hike and then we had numerous climb down areas. It was so fun to see the red rock and slot canyons- a huge difference from the trees and mountains in Montana. 

The boys. We always love when Taylor and his family come up from Texas, and I know that Cameron especially loves having his brother around. Maybe someday we will live closer!

 

The first repel, the 30 ft drop. 

 

Kathy, Kristi, Bryan, and Kate stayed with all the kids, and we really enjoyed the few hours away. We were spoiled so much on this trip by getting to get up early and run as well as sneak away a few times. 

 

The whole group. L to R: Taylor, Lesley, Cameron, Jordan, Leigh, Todd and Leo

 

The second repel was a blast. It was a lot longer than the first, and you even had to leap in the middle of it to get to another wall. 

 

This picture looks like I am squeezing through a little crack in the wall. Pretty cool. 

 

Jumping down from rock to rock. There was a certain technique that you used to move your legs back and forth that made it a lot easier to feel safe. 

 

Love the slot canyons. I wish I could watch a flash flood storm through the canyon. But only from above. 

 

My first repel! The pics got a little out of order, but this was the first time down. 

 

Cameron heading down. 

 

Another picture of the group minus the guide, Leo. 

We could choose to take a 1.5-2 hours hike through the heat to get out, or climb straight up for 10 minutes. It was over 100 degrees. We climbed up and it was the perfect way to end the hike. 

 

A view from below of the big repel. 

 

We have so many amazing pictures from this hike. Over 300 once we combined all the cameras. So it was hard to choose just a few for the blog.