Vacation


We headed off to Washington to visit my family a couple of weeks ago.  What a great time we had.  When we first arrived my sister Rachel and her family were at my parents' house.  We spent the first part of the week with them and my parents.  After a long evening of flying and an almost missed flight, it sure felt good to get to the house and relax the next day with family.  The girls did really well on the flight, but we were pretty tired the next day with the time change and all. 

Our vacation was filled with fun activities.  I got a couple good days of volleyball with my dad and sister and some old friends.  We had a few good games of pickleball with my dad.  Hector went on several man activities and got in touch with his inner redneck.  He went camping, kayaking, shooting guns with Dan, and he had a couple man nights at the movies.  I am glad that all the brother-in-laws get along so well.  I must say that all my siblings did an excellent job in picking their spouses.  Natalia had fun playing with her cousins.  She is totally frienemies with Adele.  They are the same age and they could be so cute together and then the next minute they are fighting over something.  It was kind of funny to watch and I know they will just be friends as they get a little older.  My sister Leah showed up towards the end of the week so Naomi got to join in on the little girl fun too.  Sienna was supper happy the whole time.  She is such a smiler and everyone had fun making faces at her and trying to get her to laugh.  We went to the beach a few times and the kids had fun throwing rocks into the water.  I enjoyed sitting around and talking with my mom and sisters.

Adele and Natalia (Frienemies)



Hector and my Dad playing pickleball

 Another great thing about going to my parents' is being able to visit my grandparents.  They are such lovely people and I am grateful that they live close by.   My grandma let the girls pick a quilt that she had made.  Natalia loves her quilt.  We went up Monday night and had Family Home Evening with them and roasted mashmellows.


 Great Grandma Beck, Titus, Heather, and Sienna




Natalia and Grandpa




Great Grandma Beck and Sienna




Great Grandma, Sienna, Me, and Natalia with the quilts that great Grandma made them




Grandma and Sienna




Spencer, Garret, and Natalia





Hector and my Dad

 Because my parents still live in the same place that I grew up, I also get a chance to catch up with a few old friends while I am in town.  I do not keep in touch with many people from high school, but I always enjoy catching up with my friend Kathleen.  We went to church together since we were babies.  It was fun to have a ladies night with her and Rachel and Heather.  We ordered four desserts and then rotated them after each bite or two.  It was so yummy and tons of fun. 

Me and Kathleen



Rachel, Kathleen, Me, and Heather





Spencer, Garret, Adele, and Natalia



And then there is The Ritz.  I am not a fast food fan, but I love The Ritz.  It is this little local fast food joint in Shelton and it is owned by the nicest guy.  We love to get the milkshakes when we visit.  The guy was so nice when we stopped by the last night we were there to get a shake.  He had already closed, but opened it back up for us because we really needed the shake (it did close at 7:45 which was a little surprising for me, but apparently normal in the small towns).  Natalia was quite the fan of the milkshakes.


Natalia and My Milkshake


 After Grandpa Camp ended (more on that in another post)  Hector went camping with Dan, Tyler, Garret and Spencer.  It sounds like they had a great time and Hector enjoyed the great views.


Garret, Spencer, and Tyler




Hector at Dear Park

 Like all good vacations, it had to come to an end.  Natalia was ready for it to end a day and half before we came home.  She is a good little toddler, but she had a difficult time living up to that standard at the end of the vacation. I think it was a combination of being a little sick, not having enough sleep and being away from her own home and schedule.  Thankfully she is back to her old self now. The day after we got home she slept from 7pm to 10am the next morning.  That is right; 15 hours of sleep, plus she took her normal two hour nap a few hours later.  I guess she was sleep deprived.   I love the picture of Hector with the front carrier.  Honestly, I think it is hot.  Maybe not the same standard of hot that I had when I was 16, but now I see it is a reflection of the great dad that he is and that is hot.  He sports the front carrier whenever we are traveling on the plane and in the airport. 

Hector, Sienna, and Natalia at the airport



Pepperoni Baby (best video ever)

Rolling

Sienna has been rolling this week.  She rolls from her back to her belly.  She does not really like to be on her belly, so she gets a little frustrated after she finishes her roll because she does not yet know how to roll from her belly to back.  She is so cute these days.  She has really grown up lately.  She loves to hold onto toys now and she loves it when Natalia plays with her. 

Independence Day

We ended up having a wonderful Independence Day.  We had planned to go to North Carolina for the weekend but when that fell through we did not make any other plans.  Thankfully my friend Nadia called me the night before and invited us over.  We had such a good time.  We barbecued with our friends in the afternoon.  The kids had a fun time playing and then we stayed late for Fireworks.  This was Natalia's first experience with Fireworks. Last year we were on an airplane flying home from my parents so we missed all the festivities.  Natalia was not sure what to think of the fireworks.  They started with relatively small ones and Natalia seemed to have fun watching those.  There were lots of kids sitting the curb and Natalia was on the edge of her seat the whole time.  I thought the noise might bother her (she is still afraid of the blender) but it did not seem too.    Our friends' neighbors spent some serious cash on fireworks and we got to enjoy  their spoils.  The firework show was better than most of the city firework shows I have seen.  Natalia was super tired since she was up over two hours past her bedtime, but she was still cute watching the fireworks.  She was a little glazed over while watching, but occasionally I would hear, "wow", "neat", or "boom, boom" come from her as she looked up into the sky. 

Overall it was an enjoyable day.  I quit like Independence Day.  It reminds me of how blessed I am to live in this country.  Is our Government perfect? No.  Do I always agree with how my tax dollars are spent? No.  Are there flaws in the system? Yes.  But even with the imperfections of this country, it is still a great place to live.   I have so few worries when it comes to my safety.  I enjoy so many freedoms that so many of my brothers and sisters throughout the world do not get to enjoy.  I am able to choose the course of my life and enjoy the rewards of my hard work and choices.  I love this county and I am happy to celebrate her independence.  It is okay to love this country and it is healthy to take pride in being an American.  We can celebrate being American and still see the imperfections in our country.  Hopefully the love for our country will help to fuel the desire to work to improve these imperfections.  To sum it up, the Forth of July is just another reminder of how blessed my life is.



Natalia stepping on the Pop-Its




More Pop-It crunching



Natalia planting the American Flag; she is so serious

Hector and Natalia getting ready to watch the Fireworks



Natalia watching the small fireworks on the edge of her seat






Natalia and her friend Zara



Mom and Natalia watching Fireworks




Natalia and her Daddy watching the big Fireworks




Natalia can still furrow those brows like no other




Natalia thoroughly confused because she is now up over two hours past her bedtime



The Clubhouse

Natalia and I built a clubhouse this morning with a blanket and the couch.  Natalia thought is was so much fun.  We read stories and sang songs in the clubhouse.  She was very territorial of her clubhouse though.  Hector tried to peek his head in and Natalia promptly kicked him out.  I asked her if daddy could come in the clubhouse and she said no.  I asked if Sienna could come in, she also said no.  I asked if mommy could play in the club house and she promptly said, "yep".  When I asked if Talia could play, she also said "yep".  I guess Sienna and Hector will have to make their own clubhouse. 

Nursery

Natalia loves the Nursery at church now.  It took her a couple of months to really like it, but now she cannot wait to go.  She calls it church, so during sacrament meeting she asks if she can, "go to church."  If we stop to chat with someone while we are walking her to the nursery, she gets very impatient and starts tugging our arm.  On the way home we have fun asking her what she did in the nursery?  Now I am starting to hear her sing little songs around the house that I know she learned on Sundays.  The Sun Beam song is still her favorite.  I am pretty sure she thinks she is singing about beans though.  She really likes beans. 

Fun in the Sun

Sienna's first shoulder ride

We have really been enjoying these past couple of weeks.  The weather has been so nice, Hector has been home during the day and school is out!  We finally put sand in the sand box for Natalia; she loves it.  She has two shovels and she always wants someone to shovel (or "shubble" as she says it) with her.  I love all the cute ways she pronounces things. 

We have also Barbecued with friends the past two weekends.  They have both been last minute get togethers, but so much fun.  The kids play in the pool and the slip'n'slide and the adults chat and eat food.  It doesn't hurt that we top the night off with custard.   It is so much fun watching Natalia play with the other kids.  She has gotten so much more independent and confident lately. 

The fun in the sun does not stop there.  Natalia and her friend Madison played in the back yard all afternoon one day this week and another day we went to "Pirates Cove"  with friends.  Natalia loved the water slide.  I wish that I could have gotten a picture of her on the slide. (Camera, baby, toddler and water just didn't seem to mix). There was a small water slide in the kiddie pool.  Natalia could do it all by her self.  She would side down, walk to the edge of the pool and climb out, then she would climb the stairs and slide down again.  Most kids were in the big pool so she had the slide mostly to herself and I bet she slide down over fifty times.  Hector and I just sat in the pool holding Sienna and watched.  Sienna also loves the pool.  This is great because we have been going to our community pool quite a bit lately.  It is so nice having Hector home during the day.  I was really worried to take two girls to the pool by myself, but with two adults it is easy and more fun. 

Sienna has been so much fun lately.  She is really into smiling these days.  She gets this great big cheesy grin whenever we smile at her.  She is really happy most of the time.  She still loves to be held, but she is starting to play more.  She likes to pick things up now and she likes to put those things in her mouth.  One of the funniest things about her right now is that she has the stinkiest head.  It smells like foot.  It smells fine right after a bath, but by about an hour later, back to a foot smell...and not a freshly washed foot either. 

Hector and I even got a date in this weekend because my friend Jodee came to babysit the girls!



Natalia and her friends playing (drinking) on the slip'n'slide (Natalie, Sam, Cooper, Natalia, Madison)





Natalia pretending that the side of the pool is a horse




The girls playing baseball...we are still working on taking turns




The girls riding bikes




Evidence that Natalia still needs naps and that today was well past nap time