Where's Piper?

Piper is staying at G and G Larsen's house for a week and a half. On the way to drop her off, Jimi asked if I would miss her, and I said, "no".

But the second I walked into my house, I totally missed her. Dogs are so predictable, I know every move she will make, and it's weird when she's not there.

For instance, if I touch the keys, the doorknob, or give any whiff of putting on my shoes, she is panting and wagging wanting to go with me.

But now there is no one there to eat Avery's cheerios off the floor. No one is there to give me a sticky noise when I pat their head. No one is there to feed the gristle from my chicken to.

See you in a week, old friend.

Where are we going, you ask? Jimi has to train some people in the simulator in Toronto. So we are making a family vacation out of it! Canada, here we come.

Stuff, Stuff, and Stuff

Grandma Larsen has this bear in her back yard.

Avery was afraid of it for about an hour. She wouldn't touch it and shuttered when we set it near her. Eventually she warmed up to it though. See? It's nice.

on the way to St. George...

Ok, you two...I'll turn this car around right now. I will. I'll do it.

On Sunday, Avery discovered how cushy this blanket is. She kept falling back and rolling around in it.

She is wicked fast at climbing the stairs. Usually she waits at the bottom for me to come chase her, then squeals as she climbs up. It's a game we play.

This is her saying "Piper" and dancing.

And some other tid bits...

Her comfort item is hair. She loves to twirl my hair or her hair, or anyone's hair who is holding her. She has to wrap her arms around my neck to reach, so it's a win-win situation.

Over the past couple of days, we have welcomed 3 new molars to the world, and there is 1 more trying to make it's way through.

Summer Games Triathlon

This triathlon was pretty small and low key. And again, we don't have any action shots. This is an "after" picture, so that is why I look so awesome.

Throughout the course we passed each other twice again. That is easily my favorite part of the race.

My goal was to get better times than last time, which I did...barely. So did Jimi. (But how could I not with my sweet new bike? Last race I was riding a man's bike that was 4 sizes too big.)

It was totally raining during the bike portion, and near the turn around, my chain came off. When I was a kid, this was a huge ordeal which required help from dad to put it back on. There have been advances in chain technology since then, and it was a no-brainer to put back on, luckily.

This time the swim wasn't cancelled. It's a little bit different than the leisurely swim to the buoys in Tahoe that I am used to. With legs and arms thrashing all around you, it's more like a survival frenzy. But once the pack thinned out, it wasn't too bad. I was surprised how much it took out of me. Swimming is hard!

The post-race snacks get 2 out of 5 stars from me. People need to realize that the after-race-food is the main reason I do these things.

Click here to see the times.

Happy Birthday Jimi!

Snacks

I think it's so cute when Avery eats a banana

I like the sticky noise it makes when she chews

She still mostly uses her left hand for eating...

Sometimes I will give her a graham cracker (when she's not in her high chair) and she will shove it in Piper's nose, then get mad when Piper eats it.

Some day she will learn the connection and keep her grahams to herself.

P.S. here are pictures of my bad haircut after it was fixed. Not too bad, just way short. I don't have very many pictures from our trip in Mazetlan. We rarely took any pictures before Avery was born. The first 4 years of our marriage, 3 different homes, 3 different cities...hardly even documented at all. I think that was a time before digi-cams. And we only had one cell phone between the two of us.

I'm having an epiphony about how times have changed, and that was only 7 years ago.

A Family Portrait

Jimi is off somewhere in California retrieving our car from a shop in Sonora tonight. He should be home sometime around...mmmmmm...2:00 am. Avery is in bed and Piper is laid out in the living room asleep. I'm all done twiddling my thumbs, so I thought I would blog randomness for your internet surfing amusement.

It has been a year since our last family portrait, so we snapped this little baby right in our living room.

On Sunday, me and Avery were sitting next to Sarah and Audrey. Of course we had the snacks out to keep the girls happy. Suddenly Audrey's bowl full of nilla wafers and fishies went flying up in the air and rained down upon all of us. It was like something out of a cartoon. Everyone sitting around us scrambled to help get it picked up, but I think mostly they were sneaking a fishy or two.

Avery is such a scavenger. No matter who it is or what they're eating, she will slap her hands on the floor in a crawling frenzy to get to the food. Most often is when Jimi eats his breakfast on the couch while watching the news, she stands there at his knees while he gives her bites of his frosted mini wheats. Up until the other day, I was a little concerned about this behavior. But according to the scale, she is just hungry. For the first time in her little life she is in the 75%. She is used to sitting comfortably in the 100+ %.

These days our mornings go like this: Around 6:30 Avery starts chirping in her crib. I stumble in there and am greeted by her arm flapping around, "waving". I give her a hug and kiss, and she continues flapping her arm waiting for daddy to sit up in bed and wave back from across the hall. Every morning.

We had such a blast at the St. George Triathlon, we decided to sign up for the Utah Summer Games Triathlon (sprint of course...we are really only in it for the free shirts). That was the motivation for getting new totally awesome street bikes. Jimi's is a little more hard core than mine, but his birthday is in a week, so what the heck.

I love my bike and am getting the hang of her. It's a nice way to mix up the exercise routine, and it's a fun hobby that we get to do together.

Waiting for our bikes to be shipped to JT's Bike Shop was torture. We were like kids at Christmas. Literally we both lost sleep thinking about our new bikes. They were supposed to get here the day before we left for Yosemite, and we were maybe going to take them with us. But they didn't get here in time, so we had to wait all the way until we got home to get them. Yeeek!

And they pretty much are our Christmas presents for this year, just a couple months early. Which is better anyway, now we can focus all energy on making sure Santa spoils Avery.

(PS if you are in the market for new bikes, JT's is the best! No pushy salesmen.)

Sometimes Piper sneaks her way into spooning on the couch, head on the head rest, under the covers.

And just for the heck of it, here is documentation of my worst haircut ever (not done by Tiffany, of course) done about 3 years ago. It looks like she slapped a bowl on my head and gave it a shave, but no...this masterpeice took 2 hours!

Happy Birthday Avery!

One year ago, Avery popped her little head out of my kangaroo pouch (via c-section of course).

She used to get so worked up about things. But she has gotten used to the idea of life out here in the harsh, cruel world.

Now next to nothing bothers her. She is the happiest, most easy going baby. She loves being out and about. The only thing that she hates is getting her clothes changed and applesauce.

Life is so much more fun with Avery in our family.

grocery shopping

putting on chapstick

tongue clicking

Christmas

camping

filling the dishwasher while she simultaneously empties the silverware onto the floor

mornings

cartoons

making dinner

being followed around while I vacuum

bath time

birthdays

Her birthday party was so much fun. It was the perfect day (sans being locked out of my house for a couple of hours after church...although lunch and air conditioning at the Weedman's was quite lovely).

I didn't want it to end. I kept the poor eye-rubbing child up past her bedtime just to prolong the day. sigh.

I bought some dollar store decorations and had them all put up the night before. Of course when Piper came down in the morning to go outside, I had to coax her through the scary gauntlet of pink flowers and hangely-do's.

She totally went for it when presented with her own cupcake. She is definitely a double-fister when it comes to eating.

Today at her 1 year well check, she weighed 22 pounds. She hasn't gained an inch since her last check. So keep shoveling it in, Avery!

Jamie and Andy gave her a super cute dress, which she tossed over her head.

She got a book (you're 1 now, time to start learning them ABC's),

and puzzle/blocks. Trust me, she liked it. This sneer is not disdain for lame presents. I promise she woke up and played with them all day today.

But the biggest and best surprise of the day is she just up and walked. Squack on her birthday, in the middle of her party she up and walked. It was so cool. I love her!

Notice how she shrugs off help from Jamie? She was so proud of herself and didn't want/need any help from us, thank you very much.

Then we headed down to the park to play around.

I should have known she was not going to stay dry. I eventually took of her cute party dress and let her play for real. I don't know why that cold water doesn't bother her. I can barely put a toe in it.

The three of them are probably discussing how good dinner was.

I found a Rachel Ray recipe of Mack and Cheese Florentine and Chicken Meatballs that you simply must try. It's a hit with the adults as well as a self feeding finger food 1 year old. Spinach and all.

I think she knew today was her birthday because she was a little bit more sassy and independent than usual.

Jamie's belly.

We tried to get an angle that really showed the volume and mass going on in there.

That's Jimi's birthday present in the background.

More on that later.

When I said it was the perfect day, I meant it. Even the sky produced a rainbow, especially for the birthday girl.

Then we walked laps around the water rainbow until she was good and dry.

Avery's the best.

I mean it.

I love her so dang much.