Saturday, June 21, 2014

May 2014 - Our last full month will all of our Stanford friends

May has been so much fun, we have soaked up as much time as possible with our wonderful friends at Stanford before everyone moves away or leaves for summer internships.

Kaitlyn loves corn on the cob and will eat 2 whole "corns" for a meal.



Kaitlyn got 2 really cool books for her birthday in March with a train and ladybug that follow the track in the book.  She was terrified for several months, but now she loves watching and pushing them on their tracks.


It wouldn't be a good month without a hike or two...


Or the beach.  The day before this picture, Kaitlyn and I were at the San Francisco Zoo and I was yelling to Kaitlyn to catch up to me.  She was eating an apple and not going very fast.  Then out of nowhere, a seagull almost landed on top of her head.  The wing connected solidly with Kaitlyn's head and scared her half to death.  It was so crazy.  Kaitlyn took quite a while to calm down after that one.

The day after, we went to the beach and didn't know if Kaitlyn would be scared of seagulls now.  Then we noticed her feeding them as they flocked toward her.


Look closely at this picture, there is a seagull eying Kaitlyn's pink croc.  About a second after I took this picture, that seagull took off with her croc in its beak.  I was not about to let that seagull have it, so I chased the seagull about 100 yards down the beach.  When it veered for the ocean, I thought it was gone, but the seagull flew back over the sand before finally dropping it.  It took me another minute to find where it dropped, but I was very happy we had her shoe back.  She has lived in these tiny pink crocs for the last year.  They are quite sentimental for me.




After the seagull incident, Kaitlyn's croc broke a few days later from where the seagull was trying to eat it.  I sewed it back together until our new crocs came in the mail.  I just couldn't get anything different than bright pink crocs.  They are part of her now and I couldn't give them up quite yet.


A beach trip to Half Moon Bay with our friends Heather, Daniel and Micah Richards.  Kaitlyn actually likes when Daniel gives her hugs.


Playing peekaboo under towels was way too fun except when they got sand in their eyes.



Escondido Village had their Family Carnival and we learned from last year to get there early and wait for the pony rides first.  Here we are waiting by the pony line. 



They had a little petting zoo that was so fun as well!



And a train ride.


She even got to tour a fire engine and they gave her a fire hat.  This carnival was a hit for sure.  The only thing she didn't do was get her face painted.


We were having such a fun day that we kept it going after nap time.  We went to Shoreline lake and rented a canoe boat for an hour.  We saw so many little goslings.  They were so cute!


Kaitlyn loves "helping so much!"


I never knew how much fun I could have as an adult doing little things like watching Kaitlyn ride a pony or taking her on a canoe.  We had an awesome day because Kaitlyn had an awesome day.


The rest of the pictures capture the essence of this year for me.  We have had such wonderful neighbors who turned into lifelong friends from a year of having fun together.  A few of the families decided to eat at the dining hall one night so we invaded the normal students' buffet and stayed until the kids started going crazy.

Left to Right: Kaitlyn Gibb, Taylan Nicholson, Anyssa Nicholson, Reese Ford, Lily Boggiano, Cormac Nicholson, Julian Boggiano, Juan Martin.


Holding hands with Taylan was pretty much the best for Kaitlyn.




The walk home from dinner was pretty entertaining for the adults.



This was another evening at home.  The kids playing together like this happened regularly and it just amazes me how well they all get along with so many different ages.  Escondido Village is a magical place and will always hold a special place in my heart.




Isaac Edwards and Seth are in this picture and not in the names mentioned above.



Our last PALS (Parents and Law Students) event of the year was at the swimming pool.  Kaitlyn took forever to warm up to the water.  She screamed and cried for a very long time.  Then she got braver and braver and by the end was this happy and cried when we had to leave.  Silly girl.



Wednesday, June 4, 2014

April 2014

I know April is 2 months ago, but hopefully I can catch up soon.  April starts out with General Conference where we listen to the prophet at home.  It's a wonderful experience.  Kaitlyn did pretty good, but we ended up having to get out the trampoline.  She was thrilled about that and and it was very distracting for us.  The next picture was when I caught her unloading all the canned food into her wagon and pulling it around.  She was being "careful!"

Easter Sunday was the next week and we didn't get ready in time to take family pictures before church, but I did get to take these of Kaitlyn in the church parking lot.  She is such a cutie!
 
 





 Here was our best remote picture after church.  Those are a lot harder to take than I thought they would be.


Easter egg hunt!  Kaitlyn figured out very fast that the eggs had chocolate and candy in them.  She kept hunting for Easter eggs and candy for several days after Easter.




Hiking at Montebello Open Space.  It was breathtaking!




Our ward needed volunteers to help out at Lehi Park which is a campground for the church.  We were more than happy to have an excuse to go camping.  It was a beautiful campground and there were very few people there.  We camped by Trudy and John Fjeldsted and they made us a wonderful breakfast of eggs and pancakes and sausage.  Kaitlyn loves camping and especially loves her little tent inside of our tent.




It turned out that they were happy to use our truck.  Jeremy and the others loaded many loads of logs.


Kaitlyn and I had fun throwing rocks into the pond and avoiding poison oak.


"Helping so much!"


I came down the stairs to see this one day.  Silly girl.



We had a fun zoo trip with Anneka and Amalia Olson.  They had so much fun running around together.



Mountain biking at Arastradero Open Space Preserve.  Kaitlyn loves going fast.


 Kaitlyn's best friends came over to play inside one day.  Taylan, Anyssa, and Cormac Nicholson are so great and Kaitlyn just loves them.



Kaitlyn is our little bookworm.  She is loving longer stories now and is growing out of some of her board books.  She loves nursery rhymes, especially Humpty Dumpty.


My friend Kelly Jaramillo is having twins soon and I had fun making these for her baby shower.  Every so often I get crafty.



Hiking at Sanborn County Park.  She loves hiking by the water.



Reading in a box.


Half Moon Bay, the split second she was wearing her hat and sunglasses.