Alyssa tries to ride anything like a horse. She will walk up to the cat and say Ney and try to sit on it. Today Noelle let her ride the dog. The dog did not like it but Alyssa sure did!

This is Alyssa throwing a fit. She is yelling No to Noelle.

Still not to happy

Okay she is happy now. Oh the mood swings of a 1 year old.

This is Russ at this Dex conference at the Marriott

Things have been pretty busy around here (for Russ at least). Alyssa and I are just enjoying our days. Playing outside as much as possible, running, playing with blocks and crayons, working.  But poor Russ is overloaded. He has a tendency to never say No. He accepts so many tasks. He is studying hard core for the GMAT which he is taking next Wed. He is really thinking he will retake it in Dec to improve his score and chances of getting in.  He is working on application essays. School full time.Working part time as the Director of Marketing of the Entrepreneur institute at UVU. Dex(student marketing organization) Utah State President. Father, husband, etc. He has no spare time and we don't get to see him as much as we would like. Hopefully it will all be worth it (goal getting in to MBA school).   Anyway MBA school is consuming out lives right now. I can't wait for the day he gets accepted and we can breath for a minute (that is until he starts MBA school fingers crossed).

Hee Haw Farms

Saturday my mom and I took Alyssa to Hee Haw farms.  It is a cute family owned farm that they open up for halloween time. They have a corn maze, pony rides, a little tractor train, animals and more fun activities. We were rushed for time so we are going to go back. But Alyssa had so much fun. She was so brave. She walked right up to the goats and sheep and tried to feed them straw. No fear. We also went on a big slide ( that even made my stomach drop) and she wanted more more more.

A goat eating straw from Alyssa.

The sheep were hiding their heads in the corner but Alyssa loved them!

Its hard to see us but this slide went fast, we had to sit on burlap sacks. Alyssa would grab a sack and start walking up the hill asking for more. Brave girl!

Pony ride

Moving on up

Alyssa finally out grew her infant car seat. She is only 21 lbs and her infant car seat held up to 22 lbs. She is 18 months and I thought it was time to be a big girl. She loves her new car seat. She always wants to "go go go". There is a cup holder which she thinks it so cool. She looks so old in her new car seat. It was about time though.

Today my mom, alyssa and I went and hiked to 1st falls on the way up Timpanogos.   Alyssa didn't like to be in the backpack carrier so she walked and was held most of the time. The leaves were very pretty.

Happy 1/2 Birthday!

Eating Lunch

Alyssa is 18 months today. 1 1/2!!! I can't believe it. I feel like she has exploded since she turned one until now. She is not a baby anymore. Look at her, she is a toddler! =(
She is saying so many words I can't even name them all and saying more every day. Her favorites being Moo (actually she loves all animal sounds), No, Bubu(bubbles) and Go.
She loves hide and seek and laughs so hard and asks for more, more, more. She loves it when her daddy tickles her. She loves her friend Emma and is always said when she has to leave her house. (they are her babysitters, which makes me sad, but at least she likes it there)
Here are a few things we have done recently...

Riding a pony at Thanksgiving point. She loves it and kept saying Ney Ney all day!

Blowing bubbles in her new Fiji dress. A gift from Noelle, so cute!!

Splash Pad

Holding hands with her best friend

Today I took Alyssa to the Splash Pad. It is a public park that has a man made waterfall that flows into a river that the kids play in. It also has a spray up fountain.  We went with Alyssa's BBF Emma and her mom. It was a lot of fun. It was fun to do something after work with Alyssa. Especially because we had a rough weekend. Alyssa was sick with a high fever all weekend. It was stressful on me because she has never had that high of a fever and she didn't have any other symptoms so I didn't know what was making her so sick. This morning I was so happy that she didn't wake up in the middle of the night with a fever. Today she was fever free. I never thought I would be so happy to see the number 98!  Anyway she was feeling good enough to go to the park, yea!

Na'ili'ili Haele falls i.e 4 waterfalls

Trekking through the bamboo forest

This was absolutley my favorite thing we did in Maui. On the other post I talked about how we tried to find this hike but were unsuccessful. This time we tried to follow the directions to a tee. We also looked up satilite image to help us and googled info. Well we entered the bamboo about 200 feet down from the last place we entered. This made all the difference. It was a trail that lead directly to a stream. The first waterfall was pretty dry, only a trickle so we kept going through the bamboo forest, over the river and rocks to the second waterfall. A perfect hawaiian waterfall. There was even a "naturalist" who decided to take her top off and bathe in the sun.

2nd falls

third falls

Alyssa playing at 3rd falls with the locals =)

The next fall was tricker to get to. We had to scale a 12 foot rock face with a 1 year old. There was a rope to hold on to, so we passed her up as we climbed up. The third fall was actually the coolest. A huge pool. We meet some locals playing in the water and they let Alyssa play on their float.
Then my mom watched Alyssa and Russ and I went to the 4th falls. This required us to climb up a latter then bolder hop up a stream. Then swim about 150 feet up a stream to a tiny waterfall that we had to climb up, the across more boulders which lead to the 4th falls. It is the highest of all the falls. It was a small flow but in pictures when the flow is large it is amazing. We also found a geo-cache. we just signed the book and didn't take anything. On the way back down we had to cliff jump off the waterfalls into the lake below to get back down. It was so fun! We don't have pictures of the 4th falls because of the swimming aspect. Of course while Mom and Dad were hiking Alyssa decided to pop. I did bring an extra diaper but no wipes. So I used a large left as a wipe and that was that. It made it a complete experience. Alyssa did very well on the hike and loved playing in the water. She kept wanting to get back in.

2nd falls

1/2 Marathon

I did a half marathon yesterday. Russ was suppose to do it with me, but because of his GMAT studying he didn't have time to finish training. My goal was to run it in under 2 hrs. I did the Provo Trail half. It is a very pretty run. I was doing really good and felt really good until about mile 10. I was right no track to make my goal. Then the fatigue really started to set in. It was then all mental. I kept telling my self keep going I will make my goal. I did not walk the whole run and I crossed the finish line at 1:59.54. I was so happy, I did it. This is almost 20 minutes faster than my last 1/2 marathon 4 years ago. Yesterday I was very sore, but today I am twice as sore. I can barely walk. It is not as bad as when I ran a marathon ( that pain was indescribable). Every time I go down the stairs I say ouch, and now Alyssa is copying me and saying that too. Overall I am happy I did it and VERY happy I accomplished my goal.