happy birthday to the one i love!

ketchup faces

like her grandma jones, brooklin loves ketchup!

and no, grandma jones doesn't usually end up with ketchup all over her face like brooklin does. we're working on brooklin's table etiquette. i think it's a little over her head right now. :)

meet graycie

we adopted graycie (formerly known as angel) from the whatcom humane society on tuesday. we had been thinking about getting a kitty for a while, but i was afraid to just go ahead and do it. i never had a pet growing up so i had no idea what to expect. whereas scott had tons of pets, several of them being cats. the thing that finally made me ready was seeing how much brooklin loved the cat at kristine and alex's place. she was so cute and really loved chasing after him and petting him. just the mention of "kitty" and she just giggles. i'm a sucker, i know. ;)

so, we set out to find the perfect kitty, and we definitely found her. she wasn't either of the ones that scott and i went looking for, but once we got a chance to play with her we knew we had to get her. graycie is almost 3 months old and she is very playful, but very well mannered. she rarely brings out her claws when playing with us, which puts me at ease knowing she's not very likely to scratch brooklin. she is house trained which is great because i was afraid i'd have to scrub poop/pee out of my carpet for the first little while. she has the cutest little chirping purr, which is instantaneous when you touch her, or even get near her for that matter. she loves to cuddle!


this is what she's doing as i blog. :)

if anyone wants a sweet little kitty, she has three siblings at the baker creek facility in the iron gate business park, who are looking for homes. she has a sister that looks almost identical except her tail is bent (totally cute). we're so excited to have graycie, and for all of you who are wondering if i got a kitten to substitute for having another baby, the answer is no.

and no, i'm not pregnant. :)

provo and slc

after leaving snowbird we headed to provo to stay with kristine and alex booth for a few days. they are house sitting for a couple who are out on a mission for the church. this house was huge and had an amazing view. brooklin definitely made friends with the kitty that was living there too, and she found the piano downstairs and played us a little tune, or two or three or four. we had a great time visiting with our friends and can't wait for them to move back to bellingham.





bonnie came down from pocatello to hang out with us for a day. we got to visit one of our favorite yw leaders and she made us a yummy lunch. we hit the mall and got a treat, which brooklin hogged and wouldn't share. then we went to visit scott's grandpa and his very sweet wife. brooklin and lucy got to play in the toy closet there that scott and his siblings and cousins used to play in. it was really cute. then we met up with my cousin randi and aunt lawayne and we had dinner at tgi fridays.




the next day we went to lunch at fudruckers. yum! i seriously had the best burger ever, and we discovered that brooklin loves fry sauce. then we went to visit scott's aunt ruth at her flower shop and she was quite surprised to see us. brooklin just wanted to get into all of the flowers. :) that night we had dinner with another one of scott's aunts, anne and her two kids.

after dinner we hit the road and drove all night to get home. what a long night! brooklin slept 2/3 of the way, but i was really hoping to get some sleep, and that definitely didn't happen. i was very impressed with myself, though. i actually took 1/3 of the driving (both ways), and i did pretty dang good considering i had to drive through the mountains of oregon and there was a ton of construction and i was driving in the wee hours of the night and into the morning (on very little sleep) in the rain. not bad for someone who never takes the freeway. but next time we're definitely splitting the trip up into two days! :)

snowbird

last weekend we decided to make a trip to utah since most of scott's extended family was getting together at snowbird (which is up in the mountains above the salt lake valley). i had vowed that i would never make that long road trip again, but i caved since none of scott's relatives had met brooklin yet and we hadn't seen them in a few years. we decided we'd leave at night around brooklin's bedtime so that she would hopefully sleep the whole way. well, after delaying the trip 24 hours because of a puking baby (that came out of nowhere!), we got on the road. we almost made it there with no problems. right after we stopped to get gas we had to stop again at a little podunk town because brooklin had completely filled her diaper with you know what. then, when we were headed up the mountains, about 6 miles away, she barfed all over her and her carseat. what a mess. i think it was a combo of her still being a little sick and getting carsick from the winding road. so, as soon as we got to snowbird brooklin hopped in the bathtub.


it took her a few more days to fully recover and get back to her normal self, but for the most part she was a pretty good girl. she slept well and played well. what more can you ask for when on vacation with a toddler?

we had a lot of fun visiting with family, swimming in the pool(heated of course), playing games and eating yummy food. the weather didn't quite cooperate so we spent a lot of time indoors, which if you know brooklin, you know she's not a fan of being cooped up inside all day. luckily we had a veranda for her to play on and get some fresh air.







i wish i had taken more pictures. i can't believe we didn't take any of the family. we weren't much into taking pictures i guess. oops. :) we did manage to get some cute ones of brookie though.

pool party

it was so warm yesterday so jackson (and his mom) invited us over for a pool party. jackson got a little wading pool and some fun beach toys to play with. the kids had a ball and were able to stay cool through the heat of the afternoon. i was wishing they would have moved over and made some room for me in there. :)














my little poser!




after a fun day playing in the water she definitely crashed. i totally remember when i was a kid, and i'd come in from playing in the little pool that we had, i always felt like a nap too. come to think of it, i'm still that way. something about the heat and playing so hard in the water. once you get all dried off you just feel like resting your eyes a little.

i'm so greatful for the beautiful weather we've been blessed with and i hope there's more to come. i could definitely get used to this!