Manila Pond

There is a pond not to far from our house. I have never been there before today, I can't believe it. It was so much fun. We met my friend Sierra there today for a play date. The kids had a blast playing in the water. I will go there more often now that I know about it! When we walked up Alyssa said,
It's like a beach." I guess it is as close to a beach as we can get in Utah!

Camping

We decided to give camping a try. I have only been camping twice in my whole life, the last time was 15 years ago. I love the mountains and thought it might be a fun adventure. We decided to do it for one night for our first time with the girls. I was nervous and almost backed out many times. Even after we set up the tent I thought maybe we should go home. We went to Payson Lake. I had been there 15 years ago with my gymnastic team camping. It wasn't too far away either. We rented a tent and sleeping bag from REI. After work on Friday we got ready and left. Alyssa was really excited (as she is for ALL new things). She LOVES to have  fires too, she always asks if we can "have a fire pit". So we had a fire, made smores and enjoyed each other that night. That was fun. I love how many stars you can see being a little bit away from the city. Then we went to bed. I put Kate in her car seat bundled with blankets, hat and gloves. She seemed cozy. Alyssa had her own sleeping bag and Russ and I were on an air mattress. (I would not go with out an air mattress, my back hurts at night anyway and I can't imagine laying on the dirt!) I was comfortable in my sleeping bag. It was in the 40's, so COLD. About 1 am Alyssa woke up crying. She had peed in her sleeping bag!! So we stripped her down, changed her clothes and she cuddled up in my 1 man sleeping bag. I was so uncomfortable. I barely slept. About 5 am Kate woke up. I gave Alyssa to Russ and cuddled with Kate until about 7 am. Then we got up and Russ made breakfast. Alyssa was so cold she had to sit in the car with the heat blasting. Finally the sun came out and it was a very nice temperature. We went on a little hike around Payson Lake. It was really pretty. We were going to go on another hike but we were all tired and Kate was hungry. Overall it was fine, I think next time I would prepare more for things like bring pull ups for Alyssa, more fire wood etc. I also would not go again with a baby who was on a bottle. I was constantly worried about getting warm water. If I had been nursing it would have been easier. I think we will go again next summer, Kate will be 1 and that would be easier as well. Alyssa loved it minus being cold. When we woke up in the tent she said "Mom can we stay here for 1 week".

Alyssa needed many "breaks"

She found the perfect walking stick

Kate napping on our hike

Alyssa carrying the cambleback

Silver Lake

Last weekend we decided to go up to Silver Lake. I have never been there before but had heard about it from my cousin and grandma. It was a nice place to go. It is a huge lake in the mountains, it has a board walk around it. Alyssa like looking for squirels and climbing up rocks. I love the mountains, it is so peaceful up there.

6 months

Kate is now 6 month old. I love this age. It is also crazy that she has been around for 1/2 a year! Kate is still a fun, easy going baby. She is almost rolling from her back to her tummy, she can do it but doesn't get her arm out from under her yet. She can sit for a few seconds before falling over. She loves to reach everything, including my food. She especially reaches for my Diet Dr. Pepper, weird but funny. She recently has started solid foods. She is still learning to eat from a spoon. She gagged when I gave her carrots, Alyssa thinks this is hilarious. She is a tiny little girl. She weighed 13.2 lbs (8%) and was 23.1 inches (0%). This is concerning to me and her Dr. He asked me all these questions about how tall people were in my family and compared her height to Alyssa's. We had a long conversation about it. The problem is that she started normal height 70% and dramatically declined at 4 months and even more at 6 months. For example Alyssa was 23 inches at 2 months.  The only thing we can do right now is watch and weight (so hard!). He hopes that she will just go through a growth spurt and catch up. It is stressful to me because I know too much! I also have a program at work called Up to date. I can look up any medical topic and find the most up to date information. So of course I looked up an infant not growing taller and found all these reasons it could happen. So I worry about it but can do nothing about it and I just hope she grows. I am going to start measuring her on her month birthdays and track the progress. Her next check up is at 9 months. She is very cute with Alyssa. She watches everything she does, smiles and laughs at her.

First time in a swing

Soccer

Our city has a TOTs soccer program. It is for kids 3 and 4. I decide to sign Alyssa up. She loves playing soccer with Noelle and loved to go to her games and watch. She would ask if she could be on a soccer team. Today was her first game. They are short and sweet. She did great and had a lot of fun. She is short for her age and there are some kids that are 4, so she looks tiny. She was able to get the ball a few times. It was our turn to bring the treat for the game, she thought that was pretty fun too.

Her shirt is way to big!

Surfing and dolphins

My mom took Alyssa on a pedi cab ride.

One day we went to Dana Point to go on a dolphin and whale safari. It was a lot of fun. We saw hundreds of dolphins. It was so cute because there were a ton of baby dolphins, the captain said that the babies were about a day old (because they still had their fetal folds). They were tiny.  Alysa thought it was awesome to see all the dolphins. We didn't get to see any whales though.

Kate slept most of the boat ride.

 

After the boat trip we headed to Dahoney beach. This is a popular surfing spot. The waves are much more gentle than Huntington, so a good beginner spot. It has been a few years since I have been surfing. The first time I went out I didn't catch any waves but the second time I caught the first one I went for. Russ was able to catch a wave too. There were a ton of surfers and they were nice. One guy kept giving me tips.  My Grandpa Sanders use to surf here a lot so it made me think of him.

Me and Noelle

Me and Russ

I swear the waves were bigger than they look in the pictures.

 

California

We go to Newport beach almost every year. I love it there. This year it was abnormally hot. Normally it is 75 on the beach, 80 on a good day. It was 90 everyday. We actually got so hot one day we left the beach early. It was nice to have it hot, that way the water felt refreshing rather than freezing. We tried a different beach everyday. It was fun to go to new beaches.
First we made the hour drive to Santa Monica, to check out the pier and then the beach. We saw Kiefer Sutherland (Jack Bauer from 24) Russ and I have seen every episode of 24. We were excited to see him, he was filming a movie. Adam wanted to get a picture with him but I was too chicken to ask.

On the ferris wheel

We had fun on the pier. We rode the Ferris wheel and Alyssa went on a few rides. Alyssa kept asking how we were going to get down off the ferris wheel (when we were at the top.) It was a beautiful view.

Alyssa played her first carnival game. She actually did pretty well. Russ won but we told her she did and she got to choose a bear.

I am going to do more than one post on Cali so that it doesn't get too long or picture overloaded.