(2) Sun Jul 25 2010 20:46 John Turns 30: John turned 30 this week! We celebrated by going out to Training Table by ourselves, and getting Zupas for dinner with his parents and Brook and Ember. I made coconut cupcakes. On Friday night, we did sparklers and poppers with Maggie. Saturday we went to Wheeler Farm, and then up to the cabin for a party with a lot of the Chadwicks. I really don't know anyone on the Chadwick side (John barely does) so that was kind of fun to meet some of them. We spent last night at the cabin and went hiking today. This is the first time in years that we've done our hike with no pouring rain or awful mud.

Mon Jul 19 2010 19:56 Park City Fun: This weekend we went for a quick getaway to Park City. We stayed at Uncle Justin's condo. We spent $16 swimming at the Racquet Club pool. We had to drag Maggie into the pool... and out again when we left. I took Dalton on the water slide first so she would see it wasn't scary. Dalton isn't afraid of water, or getting his face wet or anything. But I forgot until we got up there that he doesn't like slides! He was fine though, and the kids had a good time.

On Saturday we bought lift tickets at The Canyons. We took the gondola up, then the ski lift. The Canyons doesn't have the same qualms as the Park City resort about kids under 2 on the lift. We ate bread, cheese and fruit for lunch and did some hiking. We did more hiking than we intended, because apparently you can't take the lift back down.

(1) Wed Jul 14 2010 15:06 Kid Updates: Dalton: has two teeth on the bottom; pulled up in his crib for the first time yesterday (pack-n-play, with nothing to grab onto); stumbles along while pushing a stool (does that count as cruising?); is generally adorable. He eats just about anything I put in front of him, has the sweetest smile. He causes more trouble than Maggie did - tries to climb up and down the stairs, gets into everything, and he LOVES to chew on electrical cords. Eye color still TBD.

Maggie: Says "piet" for "quiet", "banquet" for "blanket", "pack" for "quack", "now" instead of "then" or "next", "last night" for anything that happened in the past ("remember I did [cute thing] last night?") and "bis a minute" (which you can hear in the video of Dalton walking behind the stool.

Fri Jul 09 2010 09:37 He's Teething!: Teething became a joke to us about the 15th time we thought Maggie was finally getting some teeth. She ended up waiting until 13 months to cut her first. But Dalton just got his first yesterday! Teething doesn't seem so bad when you aren't expecting it around every corner. Actually, I was thinking this might be more of an indicator of how much less fussy he is than Maggie was. She was always crying for no reason and we wanted to blame teething.

Fri Jul 02 2010 21:00 Busy but Slow: The answer is NO we do not have our visas and we're tired of telling everyone, so we've been escaping. We went up to the cabin last night. Yesterday we drove on a horrible dirt road up to Silver Lake and walked around it. Today we hiked Little Deer Creek Trail, then went to Cascade Springs.

Tomorrow we are heading to Dinosaur National Monument for a couple days. Last minute road trip! We were talking about how much more hiking we could do without our kids. At least we found a way to be spontaneous still.

And did I mention we have an adorable new niece?

Sat Jun 26 2010 15:19 Little Big Boy: Dalton had his early 9 month well visit on Thursday. He also got two of his 12 month immunizations early. He is 28" long (60%), 16 lb 11 oz (5%) and 44 cm head circumference (20%). Skinny and tall. Still. I had Maggie weighed as well, as I plan to use Benadryl to knock my kids out on the airplane. She is 28.6 pounds.

Today Dalton started pulling himself to standing. Just like with crawling, he suddenly started doing it and hasn't stopped since. He first did it in the shopping cart at Target, then practiced on me and on Grandma's coffee table.

Thu Jun 24 2010 19:51 Thanksgiving Point for 25 cents: I went to Tasha's today (after Dalton's doctor appointment, but before Walmart, Old Navy, and Target). We were going to walk to Thanksgiving Point, but it was so hot and the babies slept so late, we decided just to drive. We got the kids free ice cream cones, and the 25 cent ice cream cones for ourselves. Then we walked through the mini gardens to the farm. We checked out the farm from the parking lot, and walked back up to the (air-conditioned) dinosaur museum. They have several different dinosaur fossils in the lobby, including a Triceratops, one of the ones Maggie can name.

Tue Jun 22 2010 16:44 A is for Popsicle: The other day I thought I heard Maggie say, "Do you see a small opening?" Kind of an odd thing for a three year old to ask. The third time she said it, I realized it was probably from a show, and finally remembered it from Finding Nemo.

Me, Reading My Gospel ABCs: A is for Apostle.
Maggie: A is for a popsapicle.
Me: Hee! Tell Aunt Rachel what A is for.
Rachel: A4? It's like regular paper, but a little longer and skinnier.
Me: Are you talking to me?

Sat Jun 19 2010 19:37 Moving Out,. Moving On: We've had a busy few days! We moved out of our house yesterday. Brook put a lock on our storage room door, Erin cleaned all the bathrooms, Ember cleaned and played with the kids, and Logan did everything I asked him to without complaining. Franco also came over and helped John and Brook fit an amazing amount of furniture under the stairs and did lots of cleaning. Thanks to everyone's help, we were out of there in the afternoon.

This morning we went to IHOP for Father's Day and went hiking. We went to Donut Falls. Then we decided to go to Silver Lake and let Maggie walk on her own. It was a warm day, but up the canyon the weather was perfect.

So, now we're officially living with John's parents. Jodi is over, in the glow of her 40th week of pregnancy. Hopefully, we will get to see a new baby before we leave! And we're hoping in a baby-coming way, not an India-delaying way.

(1) Fri Jun 11 2010 18:37 A Useful Skill for Fixing Things With: This week I found myself using my sewing skills for lots of useful things. I made a "leash" for Maggie (so no one snatches my darling child in the big city), sewed straps onto the sunhat Alyson sent for Dalton (thanks!), mended my skirt, finished my baby sling etc. All for the cost of $1.37 for a package of sew-on snaps and $6 for the sling (which saved me about $30). I love when I need something fixed and I go and fix it. I still need to make cases for our new camera and laptop.

I got a jury duty notice today. I think I have a good excuse.

(3) Tue Jun 08 2010 19:54 Messy, Scrappy, Crawly, Packy: Just an update on general things. This blog post will probably reflect the chaos in my home and life right now.

Monday was the free day at the Utah Museum of Natural History. Maggie got to go with Colette this time. I didn't have a ton of fun because Maggie was being ornery and I was being short on patience. We left because she was trying to climb into an exhibit. Also, I purposely didn't bring my camera so I wouldn't feel like I had to post pictures on my picture blog. So sorry to all you people who only look at that blog (guess they wouldn't be reading this). I have too much going on.

Today I focused on getting some sewing projects out of the way. I used up a lot of fabric scraps. I also finished going through my scrapbooking stuff and posted some stuff to sell and give away. Hopefully that stuff is out of my life soon. I have been scrapbooking like mad over the past week, trying to finish the pictures I printed so those can all be put away. I'll be done soon.

We are at that point in packing where we've pretty much packed everything not in use. Most of the house is pretty bare, except for the storage room, and, by extension, the office/craft room. Which is where we spend most of our inside time, now that it's hot. I fished a piece of felt out of Dalton's mouth today. Twice.

As for kid updates, I have two big ones: Dalton is CRAWLING. When Maggie started crawling, she scooted forward a bit, and just did that for a while. Dalton all of a sudden started crawling on Saturday, and he just took off. It is so cute to hear the pitter patter of little knees around the house.

As for Maggie: the girl can do 100 piece puzzles (or at least the one we have).

Fri Jun 04 2010 09:13: I think Dalton may have finally learned to drink from a sippy cup today. But if not, the morning wasn't a total loss: Maggie taught him how to give five.

Maggie: Aunt Jamie lives fara, fara way.

Maggie: Daddy take it into a part. (took it apart)

Busy week. Brynn got married, Maggie and I got sick, and we went to the zoo yesterday. Also: packing. And more packing. And laundry.

Mon May 31 2010 19:52 M on the Mountain: We hiked the Y this weekend. Maggie is obsessed with the letters on the mountain, so we thought this would be a fun activity. However, we got up there and she kept wanting to go see the Y! The pile of white-washed cement hardly looks Y-shaped up close, I guess. It's very big, and it's a very hard and steep hike.

Afterward we went to the Provo Cemetary to visit my parents' and grandparent's graves. We also took Grandma June to the Lehi and American Fork cemeteries on Saturday. She kept raving about how wonderful John was because he brought a cushioned folding chair for her to sit on, and fountain grass to plant, and I think it helped that she had a baby snuggled in a big warm blanket on her lap (it was windy and cold).

Sunday after church we went up to the cabin. Today was our clean-up day. Ember, Maggie, Dalton and I swept the road, and I picked up a lot of wood. John did his usual scavenger hunt for the kids. Good to know those scarecrow owls are good for something. (Sorry, I'm on the birds' side.)

Thu May 27 2010 20:37 Getting Ready: Yesterday I went to the ward playgroup. Someone asked me if I'd started packing yet and I said, "..." Visas or no visas, we are moving out of our house 3 weeks from tomorrow. So, we started packing today. John packed our books and rearranged the storage areas we'll be using. I packed our crystal and sorted through lots of stuff. We have a big DI pile, and listed some things on KSL as well.

I am also going to get rid of a lot of my scrapbooking stuff. During previous purges I've gotten rid of things I would never use. Now I will only be keeping things I will definitely use. But first I have to scrapbook the 75 pictures I got in the mail today. Heh.

(1) Tue May 25 2010 19:46 Temple Square: The kids and I met Jill at Temple Square today. Even though we've been there many times, today we did stuff we'd never done before. We went on a tour of the gardens, ate at the Lion House Pantry, and went up to the 26th floor observation deck in the Church office building. Then we peeked into the Tabernacle, saw the Christus, and went on a tour of the Conference Center. We didn't quite do everything we wanted to, but Jill offered to take the kids to the Church History/Art Museum during Brynn's sealing next week.

We had 2 inches of snow on the ground yesterday morning, but today was 70 and my arms got sunburned.

(1) Sun May 23 2010 07:43 Camp In: We went to the cabin and stayed the night with some friends. It snowed (!) but we still had a great time. Maggie fell asleep in the car on the way home. When I tried to get her out of her seat, she pushed me away and said, "No, Colette!"

She calls me "Mommy Sue" now.

John posted this on his blog, but it bears repeating:
Maggie: Who's at the door?
John: It's nobody.
Maggie: It's yes-body.

Tue May 18 2010 07:07 Big Sister: This morning Dalton woke up just after 7. Since that is too early, I usually let him babble in his crib until Maggie wakes up. A little while later I heard Maggie talking. Then I could hear her say, "We're going to Grandma Papa's cabin and I-a run! I love to go to the cabin!" over and over. Maggie doesn't usually talk to herself quite so loud and Dalton stopped fussing, so I wondered if John wasn't leaving for work until 7:30. I got up, washed my face and got dressed, then I went to get see what was up. Maggie had climbed into Dalton's crib and was telling him all about the cabin and he was quite enthralled with her description.

Fri May 14 2010 15:54 Leonard's Visit: Our short visit with Uncle Leonard has come and gone. We had a great time, Maggie especially. Leonard made delicious food for us and we did some fun activities. We drove down to Provo and met Jill at the Bean Life Science (ie. taxidermy) Museum. Then we walked over to the BYU Creamery and had ice cream. Afterward, we visited the Provo Cemetery and went to Zupas. We also went to The Living Planet Aquarium.

Maggie really enjoyed doing puzzles with Leonard. He taught her the names of the dinosaurs on her dinosaur puzzle. Also, he brought her some postcards from New York, and she wanted them on her bulletin board. Dalton enjoyed the extra attention, and especially liked being lifted in the air.

Thanks for visiting, Uncle Leonard!

Wed May 12 2010 19:12 On the Move: My little boy is growing up. He has learned to get around, at least enough to get what he wants. He can scoot on the hardwood floor by grabbing on to something and pulling himself. He can rotate himself on his stomach in all directions. He can roll. And he can pull himself to sitting from his stomach. I put up a video of him babbling (and Maggie trying to steal the spotlight) and one of him working on crawling.

Also, Leonard is visiting. Pictures of related fun coming soon.

Fri May 07 2010 10:01: A while ago I posted some pictures of Maggie, Colette, and Madeline, all wearing basically the same thing. Today I found the picture of Me, Jill, and Rachel I was reminded of. Here it is.

Mon May 03 2010 19:58 Utah Museum of Natural History: The first Monday of the month is a free day at the Utah Museum of Natural History, so I took the kids today. When we got there, Maggie insisted on seeing "ladybugs and bees". Lucky for me, they had a live insect exhibit. After that, she warmed up to the idea of digging for dinosaur bones, and we spent an hour in the hands-on dinosaur exhibit. She enjoyed digging, doing puzzles and climbing on a faux femur, which she insisted was a slide, but the horizontal position led me to believe was a bench.

By the way, you can park at any metered parking in the President's Circle, and get a pass from the museum.

After a snack-picnic on the grass, we picked John up at work (we sold his car to Jamie and now we are sharing!) and took him to the airport. A sad, but busy, 3 days till we see him again.

Fri Apr 30 2010 09:03 I'm Not Going!: Our trip to Bryce Canyon marks the occasion of Maggie figuring out this road trip tradition. We'd tried it before, with cute variations.

Dad, while driving over a bridge: I'm not go-ing!
Leonard, Susanna, and Rachel from the backseat: Oh, yes you a-re!

Me: I'm not go-ing!
Maggie: I'm not go-ing!

Me: I'm not go-ing!
Maggie: You're not go-ing!

Me: I'm not go-ing!
Maggie: You are going.

Me: I'm not go-ing!
Maggie: Oh, yes you is!

Me: I'm not go-ing!
Maggie: Oh, yes you a-re!

Thu Apr 29 2010 16:10 HVRX and Maggieisms: Last night my aunt Sharon called and invited us to go on a homeschool field trip to the Heber Valley Railroad. We had to drive up there in a snowstorm, the railroad car wasn't heated, and we had to drag a crying Maggie onto the train, but other than that it was great! Maggie loved it, and got to meet the conductor. Also, since we were in the last car, we got to watch the engine back up and hook on when we turned around. Have I mentioned lately that Maggie thinks my cousin Sarah is awesome? Also, they have puppies at their house.

Maggie mixes up her prepositions. I made her some chocolate milk the other day.
Maggie: I need a new straw for Aunt Rachel. ... Mommy, I spilled! I hold it to two hands.

When playing with her cousins, she tends to call her daddy "Uncle John."

Pretend = "for a tend" as in "Just eat it for a tend."

Impossible = "a pasta bowl", and she uses it whenever she doesn't want to do something.

Mommy: Why is there toilet paper all over the floor?
Maggie: It's Easter eggs.
Mommy: Oh, well let's go find them.
Maggie: *Pretends to look* There's one! Here's one!
Mommy: Hey, I found too little ones! Let's go put them in our basket (ie. the trash can).

(1) Sun Apr 25 2010 16:35 Bryce Canyon: We made it home last night from an awesome 4-day trip to Southern Utah. See John's rundown here.

On Wednesday we drove down in the rain/wind/hail/snow. The kids were great in the car, and Maggie was thrilled to see the red rock tunnels. A good sign. We stayed at Ruby's Inn, in the Lakeview lodge. The lake view was very nice, but considering the weather, we wish we'd stayed at the main lodge so we didn't have to brave the elements to go swimming.

After getting settled, we decided to continue as planned and hike to Mossy Cave. It is about 1 mile round trip to see the cave and the waterfall. We had all sorts of weather on the drive there, but luckily just a light snow during the actual hike. The hike was short with a few steep parts. The cave was really neat - water drips through cracks in the rock and forms ice stalactites 9 months of the year. You also cross a few bridges, which Maggie loved.

On the second day (Thursday), the weather wasn't supposed to be very good, but we learned in Yellowstone that it might not get any better, so go for it. We went into Bryce Canyon and hiked down into the amphitheater. We took the Queen's Garden trail down from Sunrise Point and the Navajo Loop trail back up to Sunset Point. We wanted to do the Wall Street, but it was closed due to rock slide. Maggie got really grumpy about halfway through the hike. We had to ascend steep switchbacks covered in several inches of clay-like mud, Maggie crying the whole way. You haven't heard crying until you've heard it amplified in a slot canyon. Dalton was a good sport and took a nap the first half, nursed for a bit (is nursing while hiking through mud in the snow weirder than the 405 incident?), and made it to the top before having his meltdown. He cried the last 1/2 mile along the rim back to the car. This was the longest hike we ended up doing, about 3 miles.

We went home for lunch and to rest, then drove back into the park to check out the visitor's center (we bought a postcard for Maggie's collection, and a Bryce Canyon puzzle that she latched onto as soon as we walked in) and see the other Bryce Amphitheater viewpoints, Inspiration Point and Bryce Point. Bryce Point was one of my favorite stops. Looking at the pictures of it, I am a little scared by how close Maggie is to the edge, but it seemed safe at the time.

The weather was supposed to be better on Friday, but it wasn't. Good thing we did our big hike on Thursday! It snowed and was cold, but worse, it was windy. We drove to the end of the park to do the 1 mile Bristlecone Loop. We bundled up and got out of the car and finally found the trail, buried under the snow. We weren't about to trudge through the snow at the canyon edge in our sneakers, so we just checked out the Rainbow viewpoints and got back in the car. We did the rest of the viewpoints on the way back by taking turns, and getting Maggie out about every other one. Dalton only got out once, when he was already out of his seat to eat. That was at the Natural Bridge, which was my favorite one. By the time we got home, the weather had us down. We went swimming with Maggie while Dalton had a nap. We were at the pool over an hour, and Dalton eventually woke up and got to swim for the first time.

After swimming, we decided to go for a drive. We checked out Bryce Lodge (not much to see, though Maggie enjoyed playing the drums in the gift shop), then drove East on Highway 12. We ended up in the Middle of Nowhere, aka Kodachrome Basin State Park (yes, named after Kodak, if you're wondering). The Lonely Planet guidebook we were using (thanks, Rach) made it sound like there wasn't much to see unless you did long hikes, but luckily it was wrong. We took a drive on a dirt road to see Chimney Rock (not worth it, there's one almost the same on the Nature Trail) and the Shakespeare Arch. The hike to Shakespeare Arch is short - about 10 minutes. It's a lot of up and down over little gullies and hills. The arch was pretty cool, but the view from the top of the plateau was the best.

The other trail we did in Kodachrome was the 1/2 mile Nature Trail. You can see lots of different rock formations on this trail - the tall sentinels, hoodoos, holes in the rock, you pass over a little stream. There are also informative signs about plants and animals that are nearby. John took Maggie around the trail, which is paved and wheelchair accessible, while I fed Dalton, then we went again. Maggie walked the whole way both times.

Since we arrived at the park around 5:30, we didn't have much time, but I wanted to do the Angel's Landing hike. It looks like it's about a mile, and climbs up to a plateau/sand fin with a great view.

Saturday, we checked out and headed to Red Canyon. Bryce had disappointed us (we'd also planned on doing a hike in Fairyland, which was closed due to snow). Red Canyon is part of Dixie National Forest, and it was on Highway 12 right on our way home. We did two of the hikes suggested in our guidebook - the Pink Ledges trail and the Arches trail. Maggie did most of the 1 mile Pink Ledges trail on her own. It winds around the canyon behind the Visitor's Center, with views of the valley, pink ledges, totems, hoodoos, etc. We also had an interpretive pamphlet that went along with the numbers on the trail. The Visitor's Center had some fun exhibits, including a table full of rocks for Maggie to play with.

The Arches trail is a few miles from the Visitor's Center, off a gravel road and is about 3/4 mile. It is pretty steep in parts. You see 15 small arches along the way. Saturday was such a nice day, we were finally able to have our picnic lunch as planned.

After we left Red Canyon Dalton cried himself to sleep and slept almost the entire way home. We decided to cruise on Highway 89 for a while instead of heading back to the Interstate. We stopped at Big Rock Candy Mountain (much more lame than I remember) and Cove Fort along the way. Maggie enjoyed climbing up the stairs at the fort.

Some of my favorite moments of the trip were listening to Maggie talking to herself in the backseat. She played with two of her My Little Ponies, telling them about Bryce Canyon and hiking etc. John and I would share a smile every time we heard her. Maggie girl loves hiking and had a great trip overall. She called our hotel room a cabin, and started saying, "I could not, would not" instead of "Never!"

(1) Tue Apr 13 2010 14:56 Sweet Boy at 6 Months: Naturally, I can't believe Dalton is already 6 months old. He is getting so big! And yet so small. He weighed in at just 14 pounds, 13 ounces, down to the 10%, but was up to 75% in height at 27". Tall and skinny, who'd have thought.

Dalton sits up very well, loves to chew on books, and thinks his big sister is hilarious. He is a happy-go-lucky boy, and perfectly content to sit and play with toys. He has a big smile that he shows off to anyone who gives him one, but he saves his biggest smiles for when Daddy gets home from work.

Dalton sleeps about 10 hours at night. Yay! He nurses 5 times a day, and eats one meal of baby food. He likes baby food, lean towards it and grabs the spoon, but hasn't figured out the opening his mouth part yet.

And his eyes change color every day. A sort of blue-hazely-green.