Monday, March 31, 2008

Gavin's Baptism

Our cute little nephew, Gavin, got baptized on Saturday so we got to spend the day visiting with them. Brynlee had a blast with her cousins and especially loved that she got to play outside most the day. She also enjoyed seeing her cousin Brynn. Brynlee thinks that they have a special bond (I think because their names are so similar) and shows it by following Brynn's every move. Not sure how Brynn (who is six) feels about her little two-year-old shadow, but Brynlee sure loves her.

Monday, March 24, 2008

A Not So Happy, Happy Birthday

It was Brynlee's 2nd birthday on Saturday! We had planned a fun day filled with Easter Egg Hunts, the movies, presents, ice cream and a weekend trip down to my sister Jessica's where all the family was going to be. Brynlee was so excited to get to see her cousins. However, when she woke up on Saturday she was way sick and was in no mood for partying.


We had been promising her that she could go to an Easter Egg Hunt and she was excited (even though I am not sure she really knew what it was). So although she was sick we stopped by the park for a quick hunt. We got there at 10:45, 15 minutes early. We waited until 11:00 for the hunt and at 11:04 it was over and Brynlee walked away empty handed. It was like the day after Thanksgiving sales on steroids. Parents where yelling and shoving for their child to get as many eggs as fast as they could. Come on people...these are 1-3 year olds and we aren't fighting for 100 dollar bills or a year supply of diapers...these are hard boiled eggs that are probably going to end up in the garbage anyways. I officially ruled out the community hunts for next year. I think I will spend my $1.25 and buy my own eggs for her to find.

After the unsuccessful Easter egg hunt we headed to the doctors office. It turns out she had Croup! Needless to say we cancelled our plans and spent the rest of the weekend trying to comfort a sick birthday girl.

Thursday, March 20, 2008

Brynlee Got Tagged

Brynlee got tagged by her cousins Maddie and Livvie so here are 5 things about her.
  1. Brylee is a surprisingly shy little girl. If somebody she doesn't know talks to her she won't look at them or say anything back. When she was a baby she wouldn't let anybody but her mom and dad hold her. She's gotten a lot better, but still is very shy around strangers or even family she hasn't seen in a long time.
  2. Brynlee LOVES outside. Even in the middle of the winter she would insist that we take her outside to play. Since we are very lucky, and live 10 steps from the golf course we have a beautiful walking trail right outside our door. Bryn loves to walk around the trail, pick the berries, roll down the hills and see the ducks in the pond.
  3. Bryn is a daddy's girl. She loves her dad so much! Her favorite part of the day is when her dad gets home from work to play with her. She's got the best dad it the world!
  4. I hate to admit it, but Brynlee is obsessed with Barney and Baby Bop (and that's all I am saying about that).
  5. Brynlee's favorite pastime is the tire swing in our back yard. Even in the middle of the winter she would dump out the snow, put a dishtowel on the seat and want to swing in it. She is so proud that she can get in and out of the swing all by "meself" now.

Brynlee tags her cousins Gavin, Brynn and Alec.

Wednesday, March 19, 2008

Happy Birthday Dad!

Top 40 reason's I love my dad:
  1. He took us camping a lot when we were little.
  2. He still goes camping with us now that we are older.
  3. He loves my mom.
  4. He let us play in the cottonseed.
  5. He made it through the teenage years of 4 girls!
  6. He's patient.
  7. But he still knows when to be stern.
  8. He took us on a trip to Canada.
  9. He would always come to all of our sporting, academic and other events even when he was really busy.
  10. He coached our softball teams.
  11. He always sets a good example.
  12. He loves his granddaughters.
  13. He hardly ever complained that he owned a farm/dairy, but was given 5 girls and only 1 boy.
  14. Although we mostly got in the way, he still let us help him work when we were little.
  15. He understood when we were older and no longer wanted to help on the dairy.
  16. He was our 4-H leader.
  17. He would help us train our dairy heifers...with the tractor. :)
  18. He would give us "fair money" every year for the Twin Falls Fair.
  19. He loves whoppers, popcorn and root beer.
  20. He hates chocolate.
  21. He would take us sledding behind the 4-wheeler.
  22. He wouldn't get mad when we would get up at 2:30 in the morning Christmas morning.
  23. He's honest.
  24. He's very hardworking.
  25. He would let the young men have "rodeo's" on his dairy heifers.
  26. He has always been very dedicated to his family.
  27. He knows how to have a good time.
  28. He likes old western movies.
  29. He plays cards with us.
  30. He stocks our freezer with meat every year for Christmas.
  31. He gives his granddaughters WAY to much candy...and they love him for it.
  32. One of Brynlee's first words was Grandpa.
  33. He might be 50, but he still works like he is 20.
  34. He can't spell.
  35. But he is really good at math.
  36. He's very supportive.
  37. He appreciates his son-in-laws.
  38. He has smaller feet than most his kids.
  39. He has a good voice.
  40. He is the best dad EVER!!!
Love ya dad! Happy Birthday!

Top 5 reasons I love my Grandpa:
  1. He comes to visit me.
  2. He gives me candy.
  3. He plays with me.
  4. He tickles me.
  5. He loves me.

Friday, March 14, 2008

A "Weeeeeee", a "When and Why", and a "What!?!"

The "Weeeeee" Spence and I took Brynlee to "Outer Limits Fun Zone" yesterday. She had a blast. "Outer Limits" is a new place in our town that has black light miniature golf, laser tag, a ton of token arcade games, and a children's play zone. Bryn is to small for the token games and stuff, but she loves the play zone; and Spence and I love the homemade french fries so it is works out well for all of us. The When and Why In the course of Brynlee playing on the toys she spotted the quarter candy machines. She came running over to me with both arms stretched forward and her hands open wide saying "moneyies peazs, moneyies peazs." It made me wonder when she learned to ask for money and why she had to learn it so early in life? Bummer!!

The What!?! Spencer was playing with Brynlee on the toys when a boy that looked about 8-10 yrs old came over to him and said, "Hey man, I got a date with your wife next week!" WHAT, are you kidding me? I thought boys that age where supposed to be pulling little girls pigtails and playing girl cooties at recess. Definitely not telling a married man that he had a date with his wife....uhhhggg!

Wednesday, March 12, 2008

San Francisco - Part II

On day four Katie, Brynlee and I met Spence for lunch at a fun little hamburger joint then we hung out at Pier 49 and Fisherman's Wharf until Spence was done with his training. That night we all went to Ripley's Believe it or Not and then ate dinner at Boudin's Bakery at the Wharf. Which is delicious by the way. Brynlee's favorite part of the trip was all the candy stores. She LOVED the Salt Water Taffy. We would buy her a handful before we would go on any tour or museum to keep her busy. Her other favorite part of the trip was chasing the "ducks" (the pigeons).
Brynlee by some heads on market street. She took a good look at them and then said, "Ehh, gross!"




Me and Bryn at the cool fountain. We managed to walk around the entire thing with just soaking one foot.

On day five we went to the Wax Museum, a place that had a zillion old quarter machines, Ghirardelli Square, the beach and then Bubba Gumps Shrimp Co for dinner.

Brynlee at Ghirardelli Square. Yes, that is a naked half-lady half-mermaid statue behind her.
Pictures at the Beach. I took Brynlee's shoes off thinking she would like to run in the sand. Boy, was I wrong. She was scared to death of the sand and wouldn't let me put her down until I put her shoes back on.
Spencer at Bubba Gump's. You have to admit he looks a little bit like Forest, Forest Gump!On day six we toured Alcatraz, which I highly recommend. It was my favorite part of the trip. The first time Spence and I went to San Fran we just took a boat tour around the island, but didn't tour the island itself. If you get a chance to go to San Fran take the island tour. It was way interesting!
This was my favorite picture of the entire trip. There were some ladies that where seductively hugging a lamppost at Ghiradelli Square getting their picture taken. Brynlee stood there and watched them for a minute. Then Kate told her to go stand by the tree so she could take her picture....and this is what she did.

San Francisco - The Intermission

Before I continue gabbing about our trip to San Fran I have to admit that I know that this is way more than any of you care to hear about our trip. The truth is, well....I'm selfish. The posts about our trip are about 3% about you and the remaining 97% about me, Me, ME!!

Here's the truth....I am really bad at scrapbooking. I guess that's not entirely true 'cause I actually think that I could be a pretty good scrapbooker...the truth is that I just don't ever do it. To be honest with you Spence and I have been married for just about 5 years now. Our cherished wedding pictures are still sitting in the shoe box that my wedding shoes came in. Don't worry, they are nicely organized and placed in one of four totes that hold the rest of our picture, keepsakes and other things that are important to us. Sad, I know! But for me to get started on scrapbooking one of the following things have got to happen:

1) I need to get a job that pays me to do my scrapbooking.
2) Spence needs to get a job where he can take Bryn to work with him. That way I can scrapbook uninterrupted for a few hours a day. I'm not saying that people that scrapbook have uninterrupted time, cause I know that is not true. However, they do have more talent than I do.
3) I would have to get a job where the paycheck would be dedicated entirely for my purchasing of the cute little scissors, paper, decals and stuff that scrapbooking requires.
4) I would have to get a job where the paycheck would be dedicated to paying someone else to do my scrapbooking for me.

Until one of those things happen I will probably continue in my sad ways. I do intend to put all the pictures of our trip in an old fashion photo album. You know the kind with the little plastic envelopes specifically designed to put an uncut, undecorated picture. I then plan on printing out the long winded, somewhat boring synopsis of our trip and putting it in the album with the pictures. So, like I said the outline of what we did is more for me than you. So, as a reader feel free to briefly glace at the pictures or read until your bored and skip the rest.

Monday, March 10, 2008

San Francisco – Part 1

Question: What do you do when you can’t take another day of Idaho’s winter weather?
Answer: Pack your bags, hop on the airplane and go where it is warmer…San Francisco!

And that is exactly what we did! Spence actually went down for a Perl Training (for those of you not familiar with geeky computer stuff….that’s a scripting language that he uses to write code at his work). And Brynlee, my little sis' Katie, and I tagged along for a little get-a-way. Here is a glimpse at what we got to do:
The view outside our hotel window! Beautiful, wish you were here.

The first day Katie, Brynlee and I spent a good portion of the day trying to figure out public transit. We had a rental car, but Spence would take it to his training in the morning so we got really good at the Bart and the Muni bus system. After a few wrong buses and a short visit to the "projects" we finally found our way to the San Francisco Zoo. Notice the peacock in the last picture just roaming freely mocking the other animals in their cages.






















The next day we spent the morning walking around the beautiful walking trail outside our hotel. We thought that the trail made a full circle and were determined to walk the entire thing, however about 1 1/2 hours into it we came to a sign along the trail that informed us that the walking path extended 400 miles. Needless to say, we turned around and called it close enough. We went to the Aquarium of the Bay that night and ate at the Hard Rock Cafe.

Brynlee found her shadow and kept saying..."It's me, it's me"




















See that gross snake like fishy thing that Kate is pointing at? That is the same thing that Brynlee is kissing in the next picture. GROSS!!

















Spencer holding the fish at Aquarium of the Bay!
Touching the shark! Actually, I was a big wienie and to scared so I am pretending to touch the shark for the picture. But Spence, who is much braver, touched the shark, the starfish, the sea urchin and a sting ray.





Kate and me at Hard Rock Cafe.



Spence and me outside Hard Rock Cafe! This was one of our favorite places to eat on the trip just because they had the music turned up so loud that we didn't have to worry as much about Brynlee's disruptive behavior. She was way good on the airplane and for the rest of the trip, but something about restaurants made her act out. I think it's cause you just have to sit for a hour or so....it's hard to keep Spence busy for that long, let alone our two year old.

Part two of our trip still to come!
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