Warning: long post ahead! We thought we'd just catch up in one fell swoop. Sorry for the lengthy delay!
Olivia is born for the summer. She is relishing being outside and running around like a crazy person.
A picnic and a hike up Payson canyon. Olivia spent half of the hike insisting she wanted to 'Down drink!' or in other words, to climb into the lake.
Spring trip to St. George before it got too hot. Olivia realized she loved being buried in the sand.
We've loved being outside this summer.
It can be something as simple as playing at the park or feeding the ducks. (She didn't need help with either, by the way.)
It's been fun hanging out with friends (especially if there are cookies involved).
We've spent a lot of time out in the mountains hiking this summer. Olivia loves riding in her backpack, and will sometimes request rides in it on instead of in her stroller on our evening walks. We hiked into a high alpine lake in American Fork Canyon. Bob went for a chilly dip in the lake, and Olivia was very very upset that she wasn't allowed to go swimming. (Pictured below) She spent the first mile back yelling "Oh no! DRINK!!!"
A short hike around the open space behind our house.
We went on our first camping trip as a family! It was so much fun and the kids both got soooo dirty. We will definitely be doing it again soon.
Olivia liked riding around on Aunt Anna's ATV, but she always loves riding in Dada's rickshaw.
Olivia is obsessed with animals, so we take regular visits to the zoo and the aquarium. Her favorite are the monkeys and lemurs, they are always so silly!
Olivia is a regular fish. She loves the water and requests frequent trips to the 'Drink Pool.' If she's extra lucky, she'll get to go on a 'Drink Slide!' on which she giggles the whole time. Then she passes out on the drive home, all tuckered out from the sun and from playing too hard.
We set up our little pool in the backyard and splashed around in it. Dada wanted to come play, but he was dressed like an alien!
At the beginning of the summer, we redid our yard. For a couple of weeks, the kids spent a lot of their time staring at the windows at the guys shoveling and especially the digger machines pushing around the dirt. Hopefully the landscapers didn't mind our voyeurism! Now, we have a great kid friendly yard and the best part is our giant sandbox!
Fun snack times: making cookies and eating the dough, and eating sprinkles for dessert at a fancy Mother's Day Brunch.
Olivia still adores watching television, especially Yo Gabba Gabba. But she has a new favorite as well, the Madagascar movies. She names most of the animals, and she laughs at appropriate places (and inappropriate places, like when the baby lion is stolen by poachers). Recently, she went to Madagascar 3 on a daddy-daughter date with Bob and she sat still for the whole movie - which is quite the feat for wiggly Olivia!
Olivia loves animals. She adores harassing all dogs and cats (Hi Meow!) and even Nana and Bubba's chickens are fair game.
Olivia remains crazy about food. She reached up on her tippy toes and grabbed this block of cheese. She ran into the other room and took a big bite out the cheese before being discovered.
Other weird food items Olivia has enjoyed? Raw corn on the cob. She ate some, but didn't love it like Henry did. Sushi. She loved it until she hit the seaweed which disturbed her.
Olivia and Henry remain the best of friends. They babble and have little conversations together and we catch 20% of the words, but they seem to understand each other. Olivia calls him "Henny" and Henry calls her "Ah," they are adorable to each other. Unless they are fighting over something which happens quite a lot of the time.
Olivia is getting so big. She has started to show interest in the bathroom, and tells us when she goes number 2: Mama - Poopoo! Though she tends to over report and there are a lot of false alarms.
She has started to get over her extreme stranger fear. Here she is trying on a neighbor's sunglasses and then checking out her picture. She is such a sweetheart to people, it's nice to see her finally warming up.
We leave you with the pictures we took for the kids' passports. We're going to the Caribbean next month and evidentially, we are taking these two tiny thugs with us. Don't these look like mug shots? And what is up with Olivia's fist.
With love from Olivia and her family.
