Mim had her first trip out of state a few weeks ago- we went to Idaho for Mike's cousin's daughter's baptism. It was up in Downey, ID, about a 2.5 hour drive. Except for the traffic we encountered up around Ogden, which made it a little over 3 hours.
On the way up, when there were still smiles (she did pretty well, actually- the last hour got a little iffy, but it was naptime, after all).
This was at Mark and Kerry's after the baptism (they have a ranch, which I think is super cool).
We stopped at a Wendy's on the way home and Mim got her first fast food. She loved it, maybe a little too much. Seriuosly, she LOVED french fries. It was cute- she loved dipping them in ketchup, too.
Don't worry, I'm already working on her future dress up collection.
My mom's side of the family had their annual reunion the first weekend of July. It was just a few days, culminating in an evening at the Scera pool (we've rented the entire facility for a few hours for 3 years now) and fireworks and dessert after (or so I heard, Mim had to go home and go to bed and we missed the last bit). There was a breakfast on Friday morning, where I took a few pictures, then forgot about my camera for the rest of the day. Thus I don't have any pictures of Mim at the pool (my mom does, though).
Mim and Grandma, hanging out after breakfast.
Mim and Grandpa, doing the same thing, except Mim is more distracted.
That little squish loved the pool. We haven't been this summer, but soon after we got there she was running right into the water. They also had a little kid slide into the shallow end that she could have gone down all day (which is also the case with slides that are on land), plus she had a little floaty tube so she could just hang out. Unfortunately, it was a little windy, so she got cold and had to get out of the pool, but my dad was ready and willing to sit and cuddle with her for the hour we had left (which is about 3 times as long as the longest snuggle I have ever gotten from her).
It was great to see all the cousins on that side- we don't get together much now that we're all older and have so much of our own stuff going on.
Yesterday and the day before were Mike's mom's family's reunion. We had a dinner at Kati's house on Friday (I forgot the camera, which I especially regretted when Grace took Mim down the slide on their swing set a few times and when Maren gave Mim a spontaneous hug), and then met for the band breakfast and the parade Saturday morning. I remembered my camera for that:
That's how Mim feels about parades. I don't think the fact that she went to bed really late the night before and had to be woken up that morning helped.
It wasn't all bad, though. Look at those two cuties.
We only stayed until we saw the AF band.
We did get a quick family picture, first. (Yeah, I ran the Steel Days 5k. My first race since the half marathon I did a few months after Mike and I were first married...yikes.)
After Mim's nap we went to Mom and Dad J's for dutch oven dinner (yum) and family pictures (taken by the wonderful Amber D, who took our family pictures last fall). Mom and Dad J have 9 grandkids, and when all of them are throwing tantrums and/or crying while they're supposed to be smiling for pictures, it felt like about a million. Mim was getting into her overtired laughing-and-then-crying-for-no-reason stage, but we managed to get some smiles in the pictures with just her and Mike and I. About the larger family photos, especially the ones with all of Nanny and Grandad's posterity, I am not so sure. It was a huge relief when it was over, but I'm glad we'll have all those photos.
Here are Danger's kittens. From top left and going clockwise, they are Sweetie Cake, Cookie Pie, Turk, and JD. I'm sticking this on here so Mike can show his work friend who wants to have one.
Mim figured out a few things recently, like how to get (mostly) undressed:
This is what she was wearing a few weeks ago when I went to get her in the morning. Naked on the bottom, and her head out of her shirt.
She also learned how to get up on chairs and the couch all by herself.
She also learned how to climb into the kitchen drawers.
And how to cheese it (she's not in pain, I promise).
And finally, how to hold her phone between her shoulder and her ear when she talks and needs to be hands free.
She's learned a lot of other things, too. Like where her nose is and where my nose is. She's also been saying "tickle" for awhile, but I don't think I've written about it. It used to just be feet she'd tickle, but lately she's taken to tickling any object, like her dinner bowl, various toys, and sometimes the cat. She also signs please for pretty much anything she needs. In retrospect, it probably would have made more sense to teach her other signs first, and then teach her to add please, but ahwell. I mostly taught her because it's so cute. She communicates pretty well with pointing, so I don't worry about it.
Mike went and got mulch yesterday while I was putting Mim to bed, and then we both applied it. I'm so excited- not only does it look good, but I WON'T HAVE TO WEED IT!! Except for a tiny bit around the rose bases.
The rock border isn't finished, but I knew that would be a work in progress- we'll add on every time we go on a rock hunting trip.
Mim had a big day on Thursday- she learned to undress herself (when I went to get her in the morning she was completely naked on the bottom, and her little t-shirt was mostly off- she had gotten it over her head, but her sleeves were still on) and she learned to get up onto the couch and the kitchen chairs. Neither is a really convenient thing for her to learn (at least for me) but it was pretty funny. And now she gets up on the rocking chair in her room and looks through her books, which is cute. I have any cute pictures of that, yet, but I do have this:
Mike's tilling up the field, so that's yard progress, but that's not what I'm excited about. This is:
That's the rose bed. And the brown line down the middle is the trunk line of my newly installed drip irrigation system! I did it so I wouldn't have to spend a million hours a week weeding all that dead space in between the roses. And also to conserve water, I suppose. First, I weeded it like crazy, then I put down the weed blocker landscaping fabric, then I put in the drip system, and now the only thing left to do is put down mulch over it all, because it's pretty ugly as is. Plus, I've learned how to do a drip system, which is something I want to implement in our vegetable garden.
These are also worth an exclamation point. Peonies are my very favorite flower. I've also come to love these:
I've never been an iris fan, but they've grown (haha!) on me this year. Especially these almost black ones. So cool.
One last reason to smile:
Studious baby. She didn't even look up while I was taking pictures. That book she's holding is an abbreviated Nephi story that her Great Aunt Ann (who is also a great Aunt Ann) gave her for her birthday. It's adorable- all the illustrations in the book are pictures of real-life kids. Laman and Lemuel always look grumpy or are fussing.
She woke up from her nap on Tuesday and was playing quietly, so I finished up some stuff before I went in to get her. This is how she was. Her leg was very stuck, but she wasn't being sad about it at all. I had to use lotion to slide that chubby leg out- the mark was still there when Mike got home an hour or two later. At one point, I was worried I was going to have to cut the crib slats. And yes, she does have a crib bumper; it's just not as effective as it once was because she squishes it down now.
So, that's what we're up to. Hopefully have more yard progress to report soon!
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