Spaghetti Factory

Tonight Audrey was introduced to the wonder that is the Spaghetti Factory. She was in pasta heaven. We've included some pictures to help everyone get a better feel for the evening.

Nine Months Tricks

Audrey showed us a few of her favorite tricks last night. Our current favorite is the scrunched nose:

Days 4 and 5

We had a rough night last night, waking up at 2:30am with a fever of 102.2. A little baby tylenol, childrens benedryl, and spending the rest of the night in either mom or dad's arms made it much more tolerable. Things we have learned - oatmeal baths are not only a lot of fun but make Audrey feel better for at least a little bit, childrens benedryl makes her sleepy but doesn't necessarily knock her out (not that we were even remotely considering the benefits of having her sleep for hours after we gave her some), and that Audrey is getting better and better every day at scratching her bumps. We've been busy keeping her hands occupied with many toys and have been spending the days in long-sleeved, footed pj's.

Day 4: "It can't get any worse right?"

Day 5: "Okay, it got worse."

The Diabetis

Have you seen that Wilford Brimley commercial where he talks about "the diabetis"? While diabetes is no laughing matter, that commercial is, and it always gives us a good chuckle when it comes on.

Kelly and I were in denial that Audrey was coming down with "the chickenpox" (Kelly's phrasing, which again brought us to giggles) for the last few days. Today, however, there was no denying it. I give you the last three days of our little girl, infected by yours truly:

Day 1: The "I think that's just acne" day.

Day 2: The "I hope that's just really bad acne and not chicken pox" day.

Day 3: The "Ugh, she's got chickenpox...too bad it wasn't acne" day.

4th(ish) of July

There are few people that love America more than Utahans. Kelly became aware of that fact her first year here when she was chastised for not putting her hand over her heart during the national anthem when she was at the Delta Center (the basketball arena) for an event. The event wasn't even a basketball game - it was for a motivational speaker (her work sent her).

But what takes precedence over our great nation's birthday in Utah? Nothing, unless July 4th falls on a Sunday. In that case, fireworks are on the 3rd, and parades are on the 5th. It just doesn't feel right.

Grad students typically don't follow the local "rules", and thankfully our friends held their big grill-out today, the 4th. We didn't plan ahead and lacked a cute red, white, and blue outfit for Audrey, so we settled on pink, white, and blue. The pink coming from her subtle flower accents.

Our neighbors held a big neighborhood bash yesterday, and we reconfirmed the fact that Audrey isn't a big fan of loud noises. She enjoyed the pretty sparkling fireworks, but once the "real" fireworks from Wyoming came out, we had to retreat into the sanctuary of our home. The white-noise machine muffled out the remaining noise and she slept great.

We saved Audrey's first sparkler experience for the 4th. Since she still likes to put everything she holds in her mouth, Kelly did the holding this year. She seemed to have fun!

Happy birthday, USA, and happy birthday Grandma Vicki!

Ocean Water

It took a while--a whole eight months, but Kelly finally was able to dip Audrey's feet in Ocean water. While the Puget Sound is technically not the Ocean, it is Ocean water (unless you are Laura's friend Meika who was convinced it is freshwater since there aren't any waves), so it still counts.

As anyone who has been to the Pacific knows, it is cold, even in the summer, but Audrey didn't seem to mind. She wiggled her toes in the sand and stomped around in the water, only crying when we took her out. She wanted more, more, more.

To say that Kelly was pleased is an understatement. Who knows?...maybe we have another marine scientist in the making!

Grandbabies

This was the first time that Grandma Vicki (or Nana, as Owen calls her) had both her Grandbabies in the same place at the same time. It's also the first time I have tried to capture two kids on camera without goofy faces at the same time. It's hard enough with one, but two is nearly impossible. Constraining them in swings made the task a little easier.

Owen did a great job sharing his toys with his cousin, even letting her use his big shape puzzle pieces as a pacifier. And we just heard reports that Owen is now saying "I love baby". Cuuute.

Traveling Queen

As the next few posts will detail, we took Audrey on yet another trip. This time we ended up in the Pacific Northwest for both Kelly's 10 year college reunion, and to visit my family and friends in Washington.

Unfortunately, I came down with a case of shingles before we left and I ended up canceling most of my plans to see friends who had yet to formally meet Audrey. Audrey still had a great time and met lots of new friends, starting at Lewis & Clark College.

We stayed in the "dorms" while on campus, which were much nicer apartments than when we attended. We had two great roommates--Alicia and Lee, who weren't bothered by my "scab head" (as our other friend Jason referred to me the whole weekend). We reconnected with lots of people we hadn't seen for years (10 years to be exact) and had a great time wondering around our old haunt.

Audrey was a super traveler. Sometime between when we scheduled our flight and our trip, Audrey stopped wanting to take naps in our arms, which was unfortunate since we scheduled our flight to be during one of her naps. Instead, she arrived in Portland a little cranky and crashed as soon as we got to L&C.

Even though we had a gracious offer to drive us up to Tacoma, we ended up taking Amtrak instead. We've already done a three hour car ride with Audrey, and decided that big comfy seats with the option of walking around might be a better choice.

And it was a good choice. Not because she was cranky or needed to walk around, but she loved looking out those huge windows and watching the scenery go by. Much better than the small airplane windows with nothing to see but blue and white.

To save a few hundred dollars, our flight home was later than we would have liked. It arrived at 10:30pm Mountain, but her clock said it was 11:30pm. She managed to keep her eyes open until we started our decent, then it was lights out. She stayed asleep through the flaps going out, the landing gear going down, touch down, reverse thrusters, the seat belt sign dinging, the captain talking "uuuuhhhhhh follllks, wellllllcome to (uhhh...) Salt Lake City...", getting off the plane, walking through the terminal, getting bags, being put in the car seat, and getting on the parking shuttle. Only the shuttle driver's maniac cornering finally woke her up. She just quietly opened her eyes, looked around confused, then started slowly waving at everyone in the bus. She definitely made a few more friends on the way home.

This last picture of her passed out in Kelly's arms is just the latest reminder of how big she is getting. Compare it the picture of her on our trip home in December.