Seattle

We made it! On Wednesday night we left to drive to Seattle. Heidi and Eric drove up with us to visit Scott, Allison, Abe and Henry. I was so nervous that we were going to get half way there, and Annika would loose it. I was prepared to buy a plane ticket back to Utah if we needed to. Well thank goodness it was nothing like that. We drove through the night Wednesday night and got to Seattle Thursday morning at about 6:00. It was such a fun trip. We got there, and got to see Scott, Allison, Abe, and Henry.

We all hung out, and I am pretty sure that we all took a nap. That afternoon, we drove to Mt. Rainier, and had a picnic, and walked around. It was so pretty. On Friday we decided to go to Seattle. We went to the Seattle Aquarium, which was so much fun, I would recommend it to anyone! You walk into the aquarium and there is a huge tank, and there was a scuba diver in it. They had touching ponds were you could feel all of these different animals.
Then we walked over to a different tank and they had a huge octopus. We got to see it move around it was so cool to see it moving. They had a huge tank that was full of big fish and they were swimming around over your head, and all around you. We got to watch them feel the seals. There were just a lot of really neat things to see.

After the aquarium, we went to pikes market. It was an interesting place. There were so many people there, but it was fun to watch what everyone was doing. There was a sea food store, and they were throwing fish around. So interesting to watch. Then we went to the locks. We got to watch boats go through, it was very cool to watch the boats go through.
Then we walked over the bridge and they had a salmon ladder, and you could see the salmon jumping up the river. That was so cool to watch I loved watching the salmon jump out of the water. They were so big, it really just made me want to eat some fish. It was really neat to watch them, jumping around. On Saturday we went to the museum of glass, we got to watch them blow glass. I was so entertained watching them do this. It was so cool. Some of the things I could now believe they could do that. It really made me want to spend a lot of money and get a nice piece of art. It was very cool to see all of the things they can do with glass.

Anyway you get the idea that we stayed busy, it was so fun. It was fun to watch Annika with Abe and Henry. I am pretty sure she probably drove Henry nuts because wherever Henry went Annika was crawling after him. She loved having other kids there to play with.

It was just so fun to hang out with everyone! I hope that we can go back and visit again soon! We left Sunday afternoon and drove home. It was so much fun!Thank you Scott and Allison for letting us come stay!

County Fair

Well Last week was the county fair, my little brothers, Jordan and Austin both raised lambs this summer, so me and Annika went down to the fair last week to watch them show. They did a great job! They are great! Annika didn't like walking through the building that holds all of the sheep and the pigs. I thought it would be great, but instead she just cried. I think it was so loud it scared her, but I don't know. On Thursday night we went to the Rodeo with my family, and I had a cute little pair of Wranglers for her to wear. They were a little bit long, but they were really cute. I don't know how many more times she will wear them, because like true wranglers, she couldn't move very well. At home, she was having problems crawling and sitting up in them... But they looked cute! On Saturday my old room mates from CEU and I went out to eat. JoLynne just had a baby, and was here to visit her family from Canada, so we took advantage and went out to eat! It was alot of fun. It is funny how so much time can go past, then you get together and you can still get together, and sit and talk and have so much fun together. I had a great time. Saturday afternoon, Annika decided that she wanted to play XBOX with Brian. it was really cute to see her sitting there with him. Then Annika got a super cute dress from her aunt Allison (I guess she has two aunt Allison's... so Allison LeBaron) she wore it to church on Sunday and she looked so grown up. So I had to come home and take some pictures of her. On Sunday afternoon we went to my parents house to eat dinner, and my sister Allison, had saved one of her old tutu's and we put it on Annika. It was so cute. Annika always stands on her toes anyways, so it made her look like a little ballerina. It's a lot of fun to dress Annika up! Well that was a little picture recap of the last couple of days!

My 4.0 Student

Well Brian just got his grades for summer semester, and you could say he is a genius, because he got a 4.0 in college. What a smart guy I am married too. He is such a hard worker, he worked full-time, and was going to school, and still managed great grades. He would go to work, then come home, eat dinner, then start working on his homework, then go to bed around 12 or 1... some nights it was more like 3. At the end of the semester their assignment was to optimize the program that they had wrote for the last assignment. The teacher was going to base everyone's grades off of the person who got theirs running the fastest. In the comments on Brian's last assignment the teacher wrote, "you had the best results of everyone in the class. No surprise!" What a great compliment from his teacher. Anyways... Brian is so smart, and he works so hard. I just wanted to brag him up to you for a minute!

Bear Lake Fun

This weekend my family got to go stay in a condo at Beat Lake. It was so much fun. On Saturday afternoon, we rented a boat, When we got there I didn't know if I wanted to take Annika out on the boat, but they had a baby life jacket, so we decided to take her out with us. The life jacket pushed Annika's cheeks together, and she looked so cute in it. I don't think that she could even move her head. We were out on the boat for 4 hours and Annika was out there with us the whole time. She is such a good baby, She never seems to care and just let's us drag her around wherever we go. Brian, Jordan, Austin, Allison and My dad all rode on the tube, (not at the same time) but it was a lot of fun to watch them! My mom and dad, Allison, and I all went water skiing. I kinda forgot at first how to get up, but I figured it out and it was tons of fun. When we were done with the boat, we were all worn out.After we got out of the boat, we let Annika sit in the lake. She really liked it. She would put her hands in the water and come out with fists full of sand. She did try and eat it, I am sure it was delicious. It was a long time in the water, but it was fun. The next day we woke up and wanted to just sit around, but we went miniature golfing, and then, we played a very competitive game of family Volleyball. It was a fun weekend, but we are very tired and sore today.

Crawling and Bye Bye

I have been meaning to post this for over a week, so finally here it is. Annika is crawling, and has gotten faster than you see in the video.

The other day, Annika woke up, in my opinion too early, to I took her out into the living room and laid down to get some more sleep. I thought I was pretty smart, I set myself up for sleep strategically trapping her into the living room. If she was going to get out of the living room she would have to crawl over me, I would for sure feel her, and then wake up. (pretty smart right?) Well the next thing I know, I was awakened by a noise, I looked around and she was gone. I jumped up, and Brian had got up and got in the shower, and Annika had crawled to the Bathroom and was hitting the bathroom door! She is definitely making her way around the apartment. One more story if you want to stop reading you can... but she likes to pull herself up to different things. I was sitting on the floor with her and she was pulling herself up to the bookshelf. I looked away and was talking to Brian, I looked back and she was off the ground climbing up the book shelf. (granted the bottom shelf is only 4 inches off the floor but still!) I have a feeling we are in for a treat now that she can move. What a crazy girl! Annika can also now wave bye. It is pretty cute to see. I just thought I would share these fun things with you!

Milestones

(Annika loves her popsicles, that is what she has all over!)

Well it is official, Annika can crawl. She has been crawling around for the last couple of days, and today she has just started taking off! It is a lot of fun to watch her move around and see the things that she stops to look at. She has also started pulling herself up to anything that she can. She regularly pulls herself up to the couches, and the other day she pulled herself up to the T.V. She just thinks that she can stand. The downfall.. is that she isn't quite ready to stand up so she falls down, and my poor baby has marks all over her head. I guess that is just a regular part of them, learning how to move. ( If you can see the mark right between her eyes, in the picture that is still a misquito bite!)The next milestone... Last night we moved her mattress down in her crib. She has gotten so she pulls herself up and is standing there when she wakes up and wants me to come and get her. I got worried about this because all she would have to do is lean over and she would fall out of her crib. So now she is sleeping a little lower. It is just hard to believe how fast she is growing. She just turned 7 months old and it is crazy that time can fly that fast. But at the same time it is crazy that she has only been in our lives for 7 months because it seems like she has always been here!
The next milestone... isn't really about Annika, but I officially quit my job last week so I am now officially a stay at home mom! I am so excited about it. I really liked my job, but I am excited for the chance to be home and see Annika learn new things.