take a hike

We took a trip down to the hills on Saturday and went hiking for a couple of hours. My husband and I are going on vacation out to Yellowstone and the Grand Tetons in a few weeks and he's trying to get us into shape for hiking. I know I should....but I drag my feet because I hate that burning feeling in my legs that hiking uphill brings. (I'm still feeling it in my calves this morning!)

Anyway, Daddy carried our happy hiker on his back again and off we went.She loved it. She especially loved getting down to the bottom of the gorge and getting out of the backpack and running around. She did a nose dive, which is why we're sitting on this log (I was comforting her and then cleaning her up), but she recovered just fine and was ready for the trip back up. Here are some of the things we saw.

This is supposed to be a waterfall but there was only a tiny little drip....can you tell we're in a drought?

This last one is looking out of a hole in the cave.

celebrations

Last Sunday was not only Father's Day, but also my parents' 40th wedding anniversary. My brothers and I had a book made for them with pictures and memories from family and friends. We celebrated by cooking out at our house, except my youngest brother and his wife couldn't be here, since they live in NYC and had just returned from their honeymoon. We missed them, but we had a fun celebration. It was the first time my oldest brother and his family could visit since coming back from their year-long sabbatical in North Carolina. We're all glad to have them back (and I think they're all glad to be back, though I think they enjoyed their adventurous year, too!).

Happy Father's Day, Daddy!

Happy Father's Day, Dad (my Dad)!

Happy Anniversary, Mom and Dad!

These pictures we took tonight. As I was playing with her hair I realized that I could probably put some pigtails in, so I tried. She isn't too excited about sitting still....EVER...so they're crooked, but not too terrible for our first attempt. Maybe when she's older and can sit still for a few more seconds at a time we'll do it for going out in public!

she wore an itsy, bitsy, teeny, weeny....

...white polka dotted swim suit! Sorry, not a yellow polka dot bikini, but close enough!

I know it's been a long time since I've written, but we were out of town with Daddy for his business trip, the next day she had a doctor's appointment, which ended up in having to go get a bunch of bloodwork done, which took all afternoon, and the next two days I was down with a cold, and now here it is Father's Day and my parents' 40th wedding anniversary, so it's been a busy week!

But anyway, back to the polka dotted swim suit....she got to go for her first swim in the pool at the hotel, which she loved.

She also got to go to the beach. It wasn't a great beach--very rocky and little sand to play in, but she still enjoyed it. The water was cold, so she only went in up to her ankles, but she enjoyed having the waves come up on her legs.

The trip went fairly well. The hotel was nice and was right on the lake. It was relaxing and we had beautiful weather.

Our room had a balcony/patio so when she napped we could go sit out there and look at the lake and not have to stay in the dark room with her (though one time I did go to sleep when she did at 7:30 pm!! Daddy went out with a friend from work who was there, too and took pictures of the sunset while his friend fished.)

One night she woke up several times, which means we woke up several times. She was inconsolable, which means I had to take her out of the room so Daddy (and those in the rooms around us) could sleep. We went down to the big lobby where there was a gas fireplace that she LOVED--everytime we went out into the hallway she started running toward the lobby saying, "hot, hot, hot," talking about the fire she knew was down there. So at 2 AM she and I were in the lobby in our pajamas rocking in a rocking chair by the gas fireplace in the middle of June. Then she got down and started boogying to the Muzak being pumped through the speakers. The security guy behind the desk just looked at me and gave me a sympathetic smile (I'm sure I was a sight in my PJs, half asleep, standing by with my wide awake, happy, dancing toddler).

The doctor's appointment didn't go well. It was a weight check to see how much weight she'd gained in the last two months. She only gained 2 ounces. She's not even 18 pounds yet at 14 months old. So the pediatrician sent us to have bloodwork done. She said she wanted to start ruling things out. Thankfully there's a children's hospital "close to home" clinic near the doctor's office, so the people there are used to taking blood from little ones. But she was still screaming bloody murder and I had to hold her down or the needle would come out. And they took a TON of blood and that needle was in her forever. My poor little girl. She has a huge, ugly bruise on the inside of her arm now.

The bloodwork came back fine except for a thyroid study. Apparently her thyroid works fine, but the pituitary gland in the brain isn't sending the right signal to the thyroid to tell it to send out the growth hormone. So she's not growing like she should. So now we have to go to an endocrinologist. The doctor said it will probably take awhile to get in, so it may be awhile before I know anything. I'll keep you all posted.

another walk in the woods

On Saturday morning we decided to take another walk. Once again we strapped her on Daddy's back and took off. She was pretty quiet this time, just looking all around, but before too long I looked back and realized she was asleep! It wasn't her naptime, but she can't tell time, so she must've thought it was time. It was so funny to watch her head bobbing up and down and side to side, with every step that Daddy took. She slept for probably the last 20 minutes of the walk. Then we went into the nature center, just because we hadn't been there in awhile and wanted to see what was there. She was asleep when we walked in, but she woke up before too long--maybe because Daddy stopped walking. So we got her out and she got to look at the fish in the fishtank, a turtle, a toad, lots of stuffed birds, and some huge pinecones. Mostly she enjoyed going up to the other little girl in the nature center and touching her. She enjoys touching other kids. Like I've said before, she's very social.

Saturday afternoon we drove down to my cousin's graduation party in the southern part of the state. It was the longest 2 hour car ride we've ever taken, I think. She wouldn't nap, like we thought she would, and screamed instead. The ride back was a bit better, but not much. What was the difference between this trip and the last trip up to my brother's wedding? I'll never know.

Next week we're going on a business trip with Daddy! We're going up to the lake and staying at a lodge there while Daddy does his work during the days. We'll get to hang out at the pool--I hope she likes it--and on the beach. Hopefully she won't eat all of the sand on the beach and others can enjoy playing on it, too, but I wouldn't put it past her! I'm nervous about her sleeping, but hoping she'll do as well as she did on our last hotel stay. We shall see!