In My Own Little Corner…

My sweet baby Adelle turned one years old on the 22nd. She has learned how to walk about about a week ago and now that she has turned one… I want to cry. Adelle has been such a delightful baby. She is so content and always has a smile for everyone, even Keaton.  She actually adores Keaton, even with his determination to annoy and pick on her. The small percentage of times that Keaton actually plays with Adelle, he can get some big belly laughs out of her. It tugs on the heart strings.  What a fast year! It seems like we were just preparing for her baby blessing. Then all of the sudden we were preparing for her first birthday party. Happy Birthday little love. You are such a blessing to our family. We love you so much.

At Adelle’s Birthday party, we had all the cousins and my dad 😉 dress up in their Halloween costumes. Adelle’s costume is the first thing that I have ever made without my mom finishing it for me. I am very proud and I think it turned out really cute.  I wanted to make her a pretty witch, so I made her a Woodland Witch. It made my mom feel better as well because by definition, a Woodland Witch casts good spells. It was a fun and hectic party. Luckily, it was wonderful weather so the kids were able to trickle outside.  Adelle was very spoiled with lots of toys and clothes. Thanks to everyone who came to make by sweet baby’s day so much fun. Also, thanks dad for being such a good sport and being the only adult, besides myself, who had the party spirit to dress up. What a good sport.

On Adelle’s actual birthday, she came down with Croup. Jason and I had planned to take the kids to Gardner Village for the day, instead I dragged her into the doctors. Happy to report that she is doing much better and we were able to take the kids to Gardner Village today.  It was a really fun day. I love spending time with my family and of course, taking pictures of them.

Can you tell which child will hold still and smile for the camera?  I have to take advantage of it while I can.

She loved the dancing witches. That was as close as she could get.

I have been so ugh about blogging lately. Does anyone else go through this? Maybe because nothing is really going on or that I am so caught up in all the political campaign crap and the downfall of our economy. So I guess that is something. I am finding myself not really wanting to pay attention to it. Ignorance is bliss…right? Really though, who can be ignorant when everything around us is falling apart.  Anyhow, on a brighter note. We went to the cabin again a couple of weeks ago. It was a celebration to the end of the quarter for Jason. He needed a getaway. Unfortunately, we had to come home a little early so Jason could close just one more contract that had snuck up on him.  It was a wonderful weekend though. The colors were so vibrant, the weather was so cool and we enjoyed the peaceful nature. Sometimes we never want to leave.

Adelle discovered the very active squirrels at the cabin. It helps that we leave bread right in front of the door. They are actually quite entertaining.

Keaton enjoying the view.

Smiling at dad.

Being adventurous!

Adelle copies everything that Keaton does. Sometimes that’s not such a good thing. 🙂

I love that we can go years without seeing each other and be able to pick up where we left off. Isn’t that true friendship? It has been 12 years since graduation and at least 2 years since some of us got together at our reunion. It was time for a night out. Mckenzie decided one day that enough was enough and that she was tired off all the excuses of people not being able to get together. So she was the party coordinator and only she could pull this off. Mostly, because we were scared of her after she sent out the mass email yelling at us and demanding that we go out. 🙂 A yelling only Kenzie could pull off. I have never seen her actually yell. We are all so different and have such opposite lives now, but yet we are still the same wacky girls that could laugh ourselves silly, from high school. I had such a great time. We laughed about kids, husbands, boyfriends and all the dumb stuff that we used to do. I love my girls. We were missing a few and wished that they could have been there. Next time girls!

Yes, there is a guy in our picture. Spencer surprised us at the end of dinner. He was a dear friend from High School and he and Anaka have been dating on and off since our Senior Year. Would you two get married already? It was great to see him as well. Can’t wait for our next outing!

Chemenn and my dad surprised my mom for her birthday by flying Chemenn and Lincoln out for a visit. It was such a fun 8 days while they were here. I always love it when my little sister comes to visit. It makes me miss her so bad. Anyhow, for my mom’s birthday we went to the zoo with the kids then later we all got together for cake and ice cream!  Do you like how Keaton looks so happy to be there? He actually had a blast at the zoo, he was just tired of all the pictures, that’s why he isn’t smiling in the photo above.

We were in need of a girls night out, so for for a continued birthday celebration we went out to dinner the next day then went to see Mama Mia. Which by the way is the best movie ever. Even with Pierce Brosnan. His looks make up for his singing. Anyways, I don’t remember the last time we went out with the girls. It was really a fun night. We will have to do it again soon. We were missing Shannon that night though. Ethan took his family up to Washington to his in-law’s cabin, so Shannon I guess had to go with him. 🙂 Next time Shannie!

A picture of Chemenn and Jeff’s son. So stinkin cute.

HowManyOfMe.com

There are 1 or fewer people with my name in the U.S.A. How many have your name?

My cousin Jessica had this link on her blog so I thought it would be fun to do it as well. I love that there is 1 or fewer in the US with my name. There are 3,050 people with my first name in the US, with my same spelling anyway. Happy to report that there are only 1,525 Keaton’s in the USA. Adelle’s name is a little more common, which surprises me, 4,575! I thought that I was being really original with her name. Jason, on the other hand…1,009,658!

This is a little late, like all of my posts. I usually post 2 weeks after everything has happened. Jason went to Ketchikan Alaska with his Dad, brother and 2 brother-in-laws the first week in August. He left us for an entire week! Longest week of my life! I was very excited for him to be able to fish and take pictures, which are 2 of his favorite things to do, but I was sure glad when he got home safe and sound. I am a bit of a paranoid freak. I do much better knowing that my family is safely on the ground and within the same zip code. Anyhow, he had a great time. They fished, and fished and then fished some more. By the end of the week he was glad to get home. Keaton asked at least 10 times everyday about when his daddy was coming home. So needless to say, he was very happy to wake up Sunday morning and find Jason home.

Below, one of the many Bald Eagles up there. The guys were throwing their fish bait up to the eagles.

My brother-in-law caught the biggest fish. John pulled in a 65lb Halibut. Way to go John!

I really wish that we liked to eat fish, but…Jason and I don’t like it at all.  Seriously, look at that thing. Does that look appetizing?  Below is a picture of John and his fish.

Isn’t Ketchikan beautiful? Jason’s cousin Liz lives there with her husband and 3 adorable kids. Her husbands family runs 3 resorts in Ketchikan. They are who made this trip possible for the boys.

Jason and his dad.

While Jason was gone with the boys, I spent a ton of time with the kids at TGP. With Jason not walking in the door at 6 every night, I was looking for ways to eat up the day. Below: At the Museum with the neighborhood boys. Look at those trouble makers. Aren’t they cute?

My sweet Adelle

Making funny faces for the camera.

Below, At the petting farm with Kaleb. I also took the kids to the gardens with Shannon and Zach, but unfortunately I didn’t get pictures of that outing.

Every year the Strong family (Jason’s mothers side) goes to Bear Lake. It has become a trip that we look forward to every year. Lots and lots of work, but in the end, worth every bit of it. Keaton always has so much fun in the water with his cousins. This was also Adelle’s first time going and she was such a good baby. Like she always is.

We usually borrow my parents big ol’ SpringBar tent and it has always been great. This year though, we decided to rent a trailer. I figured it would make things just that much easier to not have to get in and out of a tent with a baby. It was so nice to have running water, a fridge and the best of all… Air conditioning! I was able to take a 2 1/2 hour nap with Adelle in the nice chilly trailer. One of these days we wouldn’t mind buying a trailer, but not until the gas prices go way down. It took a tank and a half to get to Bear Lake because our Pathfinder was hauling a 4600 lb trailer. So ridiculous. I won’t get started on gas prices. Ugh!

Anyhow, we had a great time at Bear Lake. The kids played so hard and were happy and over tired and I am proud to report that our children did not get sunburned. Jason and I…. were not as lucky with the sun. 🙂 I went through 3 bottles of Sunscreen. Apparently, it was all used on the kids and not on us.

Little buddies.  Keaton with his cousins Lucas and Andre at the beach. Look how skinny my kid is! I promise I feed him. I really wish my metabolism was like his. 🙂

Adelle was so happy to be in the water. The water was warm and shallow on the beach. So Adelle crawled, tasted, splashed and slept very hard later that night.

Jason was trying to get a sea shell out of her mouth.

There were a ton of water toys. This one was probably the kids favorite. Thanks Aunt Tami for supplying all of the toys!

Everybody on? Hold on tight!

Our last night at Bear Lake and soooo tired.

I love July. There are always so many gatherings and celebrations to go
to. This July seemed busier than others, perhaps it is just more work
with 2 kids.  So on the list for July we had our Cabin trip, Strawberry Days, Steel
Days, Draper Days, and Bear Lake and yes.. we did it all.

Keaton and Kaleb waiting in line for the Roller Coaster. Look at their hands. “Oh Boy, Oh Boy!”

Keaton is fearless. He is pretty experienced with rides.  Kaleb was a little nervous.

Jason carried Adelle most of the night so I could go on rides with Keaton. She wasn’t sure what to think of the crazy rides Keaton was going on.

Aunt Joelle and cousin Kaleb

Kaleb got a kick looking back at us.

So… This is really late. I am not as good as others for keeping my blog updated. We spent the 4th of July weekend up at Jason’s family cabin. It was a well deserved getaway and is one of our favorite places to go. It is surrounded by 6 acres of trees and wildlife. The cabin belongs to Jason’s Grandparents. It was built by Lynn (Jason’s Grandpa) and Mark (Jason’s Dad) 31 years ago. Jason was an infant when they started building it. I love looking at the cabin album, it goes all the way back to before the cabin was even there. Plus, the album is full of baby pictures of my hottie husband and his family and goes all the way till when I started going there. This cabin is full of memories for Jason and we are just starting to make our own memories with our children. I feel so lucky that we have a place like this that we can visit anytime.

Anyone who knows Keaton, knows how much he loves trains. We stumbled upon this park by mistake.  We had to drive into Evanston on the 4th and told Keaton we would find a park to play in. So we found a school that had it’s usual lame playground stuff. Keaton didn’t care so we stopped. What we couldn’t see from the street was that there was a great park right by the lame one. I am so glad we stopped. They had this decommissioned Train that you could get into, climb on, whatever. Keaton was so excited!