Catch up: March and our Utah trip

March was a great month with Kaitlyn's first birthday and our trip to Utah.  Here are some random pictures from in-between those two things.  Kaitlyn loves squatting because it's so much easier to stand up again if you don't sit down in the first place.  Plus, it gives you so much more leverage when pushing the ball through.

These two pictures were when Jeremy was letting her taste his caramel-apple pop.  She loved it!

Such a happy girl and such a good eater!  She loves zucchini, broccoli, rice, pears, yogurt, cottage cheese, and spaghetti with cheese melted on it.

March is not complete without lots of March Madness!  Kaitlyn loved watching all the games with her Daddy.

We went to Utah to spend time with family and go skiing since there are not many chances for me to go otherwise.  I went to Snowbird on Saturday and there was a storm the night before and there were about 8 inches of fresh snow.  I had a hard time skiing all the crud because I was just plain out of shape for it.  I was skiing with Daniel and Patrick and they were nice enough to wait for me.  The ski patrol were about to open Mineral Basin so we stayed with the crowd to wait.  Then someone yelled that they were opening the Road to Provo so we stampeded over that way as fast as we could.  It was a mad dash that ended very awkwardly...they weren't opening Road to Provo.  We were all stuck and tightly packed, so we couldn't go back to the other line.  We felt stupid and annoyed that we got tricked.  Then a miracle happened.  They opened both.  Daniel got his line first and I stayed on the cat track longer with Patrick till we dropped in.  It was the best powder run I have had since high school.  It was effortless and smooth.  It was thick enough powder that you didn't sink to the hard layer beneath, but light and fluffy enough that you still felt like you were floating.  It was uncut all the way down and amazing.  We got a few more awesome runs, but nothing beat that first one.  It was amazing.

On Monday, I went to Solitude with my parents and it was an absolutely beautiful day.  The snow was perfect.  Hero snow is so fun to ski on because everything feels like you are skiing your best.  Hero snow is firm and smooth, but not icy so you get good grip.  My back was super sore, but I was able to get in some awesome carves on Sunshine Bowl and the steep run up top I can't remember the name of.  I know most skiers would think I'm crazy for saying this, but having a full day of carving on hero snow is even better than the perfect powder run.  Jeremy and Shalane brought Kaityln, Alta and Ellie up and they got to go skiing too.  I took Kaitlyn up in the front-pack and did 2 runs with her.  I think the cold wind was not her favorite thing, but she liked the motions and the lift ride.  Her face got a little wind burned though, so she was done before the end of 2 runs.  Alta is a champ and skiing daredevil.  I couldn't believe how fast she went.  Ellie wanted to try the magic carpet, but they took too long and she lost her courage.  All in all, it was another wonderful day of skiing.

Kaitlyn loved playing with Alta and Ellie, and they loved her.  It was so fun watching these girls, they are going to be best friends as they get older.  We went to dinner and Kaitlyn just wanted to walk around, so Alta went with her.  Kaitlyn was so excited to have Alta follow her and she just laughed the whole time like it was the greatest thing in the world.

It was much harder than I thought it would be to get a good picture of all three girls playing together.

Kaitlyn loves Benni!  She has no fear and loved following him around and bugging him.  He was great with her and let her do whatever she wanted to him.  It probably helped that Benni got lots of her food.

Kaitlyn didn't really eat well this trip and would only eat for me even though I was skiing and Jeremy stayed with her.  She slept a ton though.  She got so exhausted and started taking 2 naps a day again. 

Kaitlyn had a hard trip and was super clingy to me.  We were lucky she had so much fun with Alta and Ellie, because she wasn't really friendly to anyone else.  We thought she was sick at one point, but it turned out that she was teething.  She got 2 molars on top.  It was pretty funny though because as soon as we got home, Kaitlyn couldn't stop grinning and was so happy to be home again.

After a few days of Kaitlyn getting back to normal, we still managed to go to the beach on a very hot day in Palo Alto.  It's too bad that the mist made the beach freezing.

Kaitlyn and Akachi at the Palo Alto children's zoo.  They loved watching the ducks.

Catch up: February and Grandparents!

We went hiking Portola Redwoods State Park in February.  It was beautiful and empty.  We came upon this salamander thing and when Jeremy finally put it down, it went right next to a banana slug.  We saw lots of banana slugs on the hike.

Kaitlyn loved when we let her out of the front-pack and she got to hike.  She needed a little help on the uphill.

Jeremy's parents came for the weekend in the middle of February and we had a blast!  Kaitlyn loved having them here.  We took them to Muir Woods and hiked around.

Kaitlyn loved oranges more than usual at lunch.

After Muir Woods, we stopped at a new lookout.  The coast line doesn't have as much sand as LA, but it is beautiful.

 

On Sunday, we toured Stanford campus.  We sure love it here.

Ron and Susan were way too generous and bought us a grill (and steaks to test it out with).  Kaitlyn loved helping put it together.  Many delicious foods have already come off that grill.  Mmm.

Ron read to and showed Kaitlyn videos of her cousins, Mykelle and Hailey.  Can a girl ask for anything better than that?

Ok, so swinging in the blanket is better than books and videos...

We loved having Ron and Susan here and hope we can see them again soon!

Kaitlyn went on her first mountain bike ride and did awesome the first 2 miles to the viewpoint.  The 2 miles back were not quite as fun because they were uphill and jerky.  We have gone on more bike rides with her and as long as there is not too much uphill at one time, she loves it.  She sings the whole time so her voice makes funny noises over the bumps.

Here are random pictures from my phone.

Kaitlyn has so much fun playing with her friends in our playground every day.  This is Akachi, our next door neighbor.

Pushing things has been one of Kaitlyn's favorite things to do since she learned to walk.  She's loved it for several months so far.

We love playing in the sand!

One Year Old!

Kaitlyn turned one on March 8 and it has sure made me think about this past year and how time flies.  I can't hardly believe we have had Kaitlyn with us for a whole year.  We love her so much and are so proud of all that she does.  At her one year check up, she weighed 18 lbs and 5.75 oz (29th percentile).  She was 28 inches tall (13th percentile), and her head circumference was 47.7 cm (99th percentile).  She is walking great and trying to run, crawling up stairs, and jumping when we say to jump.  She is a very focused little girl and is always busy.

 A few weeks before Kaitlyn's birthday, Ron and Susan Gibb visited us and we had a great time.  They brought presents and Kaitlyn got to remember unwrapping things from Christmas.  She loved it.  The best thing was when she opened a present from her Great Grandparents, she unwrapped a box and I opened the box for her and it was books.  She was so excited she was shaking.  I hope I never forget her face!  Sadly, we don't have a picture of it.  I will do a different post about their trip to visit later.  

For Kaitlyn's actual birthday, we were all recovered from the stomach flu which started with Kaitlyn, then me, then Jeremy.  That was a fun week for sure.  I had grand plans for some duck cupcakes I had seen, but didn't have the energy, so I settled for yellow frosting on cupcakes.  

Earlier on her birthday I took her to a fun toy store and let her play there while I picked out a puzzle and car.  She found a bath duck toy that she never let go of the whole time we were there so I had to get that too.  She also got to play outside which is her favorite thing to do every day, and we got her a balloon.  Then we opened presents which was so fun and she got stuck on each present and we would have to take them away so she could focus on the next one.  Grandma and Grandpa Brower sent some great presents for her too.  She loves Noah's Ark so much.  

 After opening presents, we lit a candle on her cupcake and tried to get her to blow it out.  That didn't happen so we moved on and gave her the cupcake.  She dipped her finger into the frosting and thought it was the most disgusting thing ever.  Wow she hated it!  Then she flipped the cupcake upside down and ate a little of the cupcake but not much.  After that failed experience, I was glad I didn't make the fancy duck cupcakes.  Later, I think Kaitlyn realized we wanted her to like the cupcake, so she started to pretend to eat the cupcake but not let anything into her mouth.

I have a video of this but it won't load onto this post with all the pictures so look underneath it. 

Here are two of Kaitlyn's friends she plays with all the time, Abdalla and Akachi. Her other friend Sam wasn't here.

Dad reading Kaitlyn a story and her usual drool.  I asked the Dr. if she would ever stop drooling and she said it could be a while longer until Kaitlyn realizes it is not socially acceptable to drool. Hopefully she isn't drooling by Kindergarten.

 

A day after Kaitlyn's birthday was someone else's and they had a bounce house for the whole courtyard.  Kaitlyn loved it when there weren't too many other kids inside with her.

Kaitlyn's first cupcake

I couldn't get this to load on the post about Kaitlyn's birthday, so I loaded it by itself.

Kaitlyn's first word

Kaitlyn's first words are probably mom and dad, but I'm still not sure she knows she is saying anything or if she is just babbling.  Mom seems to have a meaning like, "something is wrong and needs to be fixed because this is terrible."  Dad sounds like a fun word, of course. The first word besides these things was "Ducky!"  She sleeps with a blanket/stuffed animal we call Ducky.  She said it while waving her ducky around.  We noticed she was trying to say it when I hid ducky from her and she said duh a few times.  Then a few days later we realized she was saying ducky!  Luckily we got it on video because the day after the video she got the stomach flu and forgot she knew how to say ducky.  Sorry she's a naked baby, you just never know when she'll start talking..