Father's Day

Have you seen that commercial where the dad is standing outside the cell phone store with a bag full of baby stuff and he's thinking, "Man, I wish my daughter was old enough to get me a new phone for Father's Day." And then he decides to buy himself one and say it's from her. Well, that inspired Matt to do the same thing! Ha ha! So he got a new phone for Father's Day. I thought it was pretty funny.

In our very first ward, we had a little girl in our Primary class who told us on Mother's Day that she dressed up in a bear suit to give her mom her presents. Matt thought that was so great and ever since then he keeps talking about getting Emily a bear suit for birthdays and special occasions. So I made her some bear ears for her to wear while giving Daddy his Father's Day gifts.

 

They ended up looking more like Mickey Mouse ears so we took them to Disneyland with us, and she looked so cute in them.

Anyway, Happy Father's Day honey! You are the best daddy ever for our little Emmy. Thank you for all you do for her. We love you so much!

11 Months

Hi my name is Emily and I am 11 months old today! I finally like to swing at the park. I love to be outside and go for walks in my stroller and crawl on the cement but not the grass. I love to eat Cheerios and whatever cereal my dad is eating too. I love to climb the stairs and chase my grandmas' dog. I love to give kisses and I am super cute. And now I'm going to Disneyland!

Family Pics

Clear back in January, my granny wanted us to get a family picture. Try getting 40 people in the same place at the same time. Ha! All but 2 were able to be there. Can you tell which 2 were Photoshopped in later?

We decided to get a few of our little fam while we were at it. Here are my two favorites.

Too bad they are 6 months old! :)

Balloons!

Last week was Springville's Art City Days, and one of the big festivities is the Hot Air Balloon Festival. It was fantastic! We got to see about 10 hot air balloons being filled up and launched.

It was really neat to watch them fill the balloons up.

They had free balloons, donuts and hot chocolate. They also threw candy and prizes out of the balloons as they were going up into the air. Emmy was fascinated with her balloon.

She loved watching all the colors.

It was fun to see her looking at everything.

Later in the day we went to the little carnival. Emily loved it! She loved looking around at all the festivities and riding around in her pack. Maybe she will love Disneyland too!

And here she is all ready for church.

She loves to suck on those 2 middle fingers.

Tips?

We are going on vacation in a couple weeks. Hurray! We are taking Emily. Does anyone have any tips on taking an 11-month-old on vacation? We'll be driving to California, going to Disneyland for 3 days, and then San Diego for 3 days (we'll probably do the zoo and the beach there). So anything about hotels, car trips, naps, eating, babies in theme parks, etc. would be helpful.

We're going to do the drive in 2 days and stay in St. George overnight so we won't have to drive the whole thing in one day. We're staying at a place within walking distance (15-20 min) of Disneyland. And my whole family is coming so hopefully some of them can watch Em part of the time so we can go on the fun rides!

Anyway its our first vacation with a baby, so any advice would be helpful. Every other time I've been to Disneyland it's always been a "lets pack as much into one day as possible and get there when it opens and stay til it closes" type of trip. I'm sure this will be much, much different. I was hoping she would be walking by now because I KNOW she is going to want to get down and move, and letting her get down and walk would be a million times easier than letting her get down and crawl. But she is only at the point where she can walk only when holding onto the furniture. And she can only stand unsupported for a couple of seconds.

But I am super excited! And I hope Emmy at least somewhat likes it and won't be a pill the whole time. :)

Little Red Riding Hood=Best Bike Ride Ever!

This weekend I did my very first century ride at the Little Red Riding Hood bike ride. It was AWESOME! I loved it. I had originally signed up to do the 80-mile distance, but a few weeks ago I decided to switch to the 100 mile because if I was going to do 80, I might as well do 100 and cross the century off my list. I'm so glad I did. Anyway, of all the races and events I have done over the years, the Little Red Riding Hood was probably the best out of all of them. It's a women-only bike ride in Cache Valley. Anyway, the whole thing was just great.

Matt and I headed up to Logan Friday afternoon. Emily had her first overnighter without us at her grandparents' house. Thanks guys! We got there around 4, which was a little unusual for us because we are usually getting to the race location fairly late in the day and rushing to get everything done. So it was nice to get there a little early and have time to relax a little. We carbo-loaded at the Olive Garden (and we didn't even have to wait an hour for a table! We got right in!)

Then we went for a walk by the temple and around the Utah State campus.

We found this funny sign! Ha!

It was just gorgeous! We also went to the hot tub for awhile to relax and got to bed at a decent time.

We stayed at the (not-so) Quality Inn in Logan, and Matt did this to the door to keep the noise/light out since the door was really weird.

Saturday morning we got up and drove up to Lewiston (about 15 miles north of Logan) where the race started. I knew it was a good omen when I saw a horse racing track near the start line! The theme for the ride this year was a 1950s rock-n-roll theme, so they had this lovely old classic car at the start line.

The Big Bad Wolf was there along with some people dressed up in 1950s attire. There were also ladies wearing tutus, capes, flowers and streamers on their helmets, and other festive things. The volunteers were wearing bow ties or these 1950s bowling shirts.

Here I am getting ready to start the race. It was pretty cold for the first hour or so, but the rest of the day was perfect!

The start line. We were escorted out of town by motorcycle cops.

And we're off!

The race went all through Cache Valley and a little bit up into southeast Idaho. Matt brought his bike too and went for a ride around Logan while I was doing the first half of the race. He found me somewhere around Logan (Mile 30).

They had rest stops every 15 miles or so that were stocked with fruit, energy bars, peanut butter sandwiches, water, gatorade, granola bars, clif shot blocks, fruit snacks, trail mix. It was fantastic. They also had porta-pottys, sunscreen, maps, chafing cream, etc. at the rest stops. Plus, there were support vehicles driving around the course to see if any of the riders needed anything. It honestly was the best-supported event I have ever participated in. I didn't even have to wait in line to get my snacks.

They had lunch at Mile 58. Matt met me at this rest stop and had lunch with me. Here I am eating my lunch!

The course was absolutely BEAUTIFUL! I loved it. It was really fairly flat and went through some pretty farmlands, by a lake and not to mention the mountains on both sides of the valley. Seriously it was gorgeous.

Some of the people who lived on the farms would come out and cheer for us. There was also very little traffic, which was really nice. And the roads were clean and smooth. It was fantastic!

Here I am coming into the finish line. Honestly it wasn't as hard as I thought it would be. I felt better after this one than I did at the last one where I only did 60 miles.

I did it! I was so proud of myself.

One Hundred Miles.

At the finish line they had a live 1950s rock-n-roll band, snacks, and a cute little ice cream parlor where you could make your own ice cream sundaes.

Here I am about to have my first treat in 35 days!

Anyway, it was just fantastic and I loved it. I definitely want to do this one again. It was just so well-organized and supported and beautiful and fun! Here are some stats...

100 Miles
8 total hours (including all the rest stops)
6:50 of actual riding time
3614 calories burned
15 mph average speed
24 mph max speed
4 potty breaks
3 goats and 1 donkey seen on the side of the road
11 ladies who commented on how cute my jersey was :)
1.5 gallons of gatorade/water consumed
2 great parents for watching Emily
1 awesome honey for coming with me and following me around
0 flat tires
1 lost reflector
and 1 very sore bum

P.S. Even though it was really nice to have a little weekend away without Emmy, we missed her and were so excited to see her when we got back. And she was so excited to see us too! It was pretty cute. But I think she had a good time at her grandparents' house.

No-Treat May

My no treat thing went pretty well. I went from May 1-June 4 without having any treats--no cookies, candy, ice cream, soda, brownies, cake, etc. That's 35 days! I did have a mint julep for the Kentucky Derby party, but I allowed myself that exception from the beginning. And that is really just minty lemonade with ginger ale.

Anyway,  it was easier than I thought it would be. There were really only a few times that I REALLY wanted a treat. Like when my aunt Tracey made cinnamon twists or when Allison gave Matt a huge batch of freshly made chocolate chip cookies. But other than that it really wasn't too bad. Most of the time I discovered that I really didn't want it anyway. Especially as the month wore on. And it felt good to be a little more healthy. I am going to try and keep it up with the exception of birthdays and holidays and stuff like that. I really don't need treats as much as I was having them. And I lost 7 pounds. What I don't get though is that even though I am pretty much back to my pre-pregnancy weight, some of my pants/shorts still don't fit. Boo.

On another note, Emily has learned to open drawers and take everything out of them. Yipee!