Boston Strong

So we went to see Aline graduate and in the mean time decided to visit the city. Matt & I visited Aline 2 years ago. This time we got tour the city with my parents and my cousins, Kesa, Asinate, and her husband Mike.

Asinate & Mike

Kesa, getting friendly with the statues

My mom 

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Love Mike's pastry shop! :)

Last time we came I was pregnant and I could not partake of the delicious and unpasteurized soft cheeses. This time I indulged. 

Why yes, my mom is wearing a shower cap. Why do you ask? It was raining and she didn't want to mess up her hair. Uh...??? We told her there was a hole in it so she would finally take it off.

Here she is sporting the shower curtain. :)

@ 11 months

In Tonga where we touched the Pacific Ocean

At 11 months...

~This kid is super social. Nothing makes him happier than getting smiles from a stranger.
~He shouts loudly when he gets excited.
~Loves solid food and will eat anything. I'm not sure what he doesn't like.
~Is very unsteady on two feet
~Loves to climb on stairs, on to the couch, and on children shorter or at the same height as he is
~Has NO teeth and I'm not sure if I feel any coming in. Does anyone want to take bets on if he'll get them before 1year?
~Loves chasing anyone around the house and loves it when you play peek or boo behind the couch
~Loves babies and kids

Below is a classic example of Calvin's love for babies. The baby in this photo is 3 months. Every time this baby got close to Calvin or Calvin managed to get close to him he'd try to grab his hair or suck on this kid's foot. My son would also try to suck (kiss?) on this poor baby's face too. He was way too excited. We had to hold his hand down so he wouldn't grab this poor kid's head during the photo.

I think Calvin thought that he'd still try to get him with his mouth even though his hands couldn't get close to him.
Is this a kiss? Or just a friendly suck? (Is my child a vampire?!)

10 Months

At 10 months…

He can crawl faster than anything

He frequently pulls himself up to our coffee table and just slaps it with his hand

He prefers to climb on top of things and to be taller than his surroundings

He has lots of hair and may need a hair cut

Once we open the fridge door to get something out he drops whatever he has and tries to use the fridge drawers to climb up to the top.  He seems really fascinated with the fridge and the garage. Similar to seeing the fridge door open as soon as we open the garage door he drops whatever he is doing and crawls as fast as he can to the garage door.

He has now been to 4 states in his short little life.

Can walk but needs the assistance of a taller person and does much better when both hands are being held instead of just one.

He loves to climb stairs! This is the most terrifying of all his tricks. 

He stills has NO TEETH apparently the longer it takes for the teeth to come in the better quality the teeth are. They could have just told me that to make me feel better.

  

Aline Graduates!!

*This most may or may not contains LOADS of photos*

Headed up to Boston to see my sister Aline graduate. It was a proud moment for all of us. This girl now has her Masters in Theological Studies. Go Aline! Wahooo!!
 

My mom made Baby C this little graduation gown. The ribbon says: "My Auntie is 

smart."

 

 I'll be honest this graduation was a little unusual than most I have been to. Maybe because it's the Divinity school, but all of these guys came in singing "This Little Light of Mine" gospel style. It was entertaining and set a good mood for the event. They had a "pre-graduation" the day before as well  where they had different beliefes stand up and discuss their versions of "good bye" or "good luck". People read prayers from other faiths, psalms from other faiths, songs, poems, etc. Aline read Docterine and Convenants secions: 88: 118-124

 118 And as all have not ^afaith, seek ye diligently and ^bteach one another words of ^cwisdom; yea, seek ye out of the best ^dbooks words of wisdom; seek learning, even by study and also by faith.

 119 ^aOrganize yourselves; prepare every needful thing; and establish a ^bhouse, even a house of prayer, a house of fasting, a house of faith, a house of learning, a house of glory, a house of order, a house of God;

 120 That your ^aincomings may be in the name of the Lord; that your outgoings may be in the name of the Lord; that all your salutations may be in the name of the Lord, with ^buplifted hands unto the Most High.

 121 Therefore, ^acease from all your light speeches, from all ^blaughter, from all your ^clustful desires, from all your ^dpride and light-mindedness, and from all your wicked doings.

 122 Appoint among yourselves a teacher, and let ^anot all be spokesmen at once; but let one speak at a time and let all listen unto his sayings, that when all have spoken that all may be ^bedified of all, and that every man may have an equal privilege.

 123 See that ye ^alove one another; cease to be ^bcovetous; learn to impart one to another as the gospel requires.

 124 Cease to be ^aidle; cease to be ^bunclean; cease to ^cfind fault one with another; cease to ^dsleep longer than is needful; retire to thy bed early, that ye may not be weary; arise early, that your bodies and your minds may be ^einvigorated.

 So proud of my little sister!

Oprah was a key note speaker too at a different ceremony. What she said was: "Congratulations! Now that you've done this... go contribute to your community!" Inspirational. :)

Wahoo!!

Memorial Day Weekend

Just like last year...

We headed out to get our feet wet with a few canyons. I literally mean "feet wet".

The purpose of this trip was to familiarize ourselves with pot hole escape. Well, really, when I say "us", I do mean Matt. :)

We went to the San Rafael Swell and camped out not too far away from Muddy Creek. If you dont know what I'm talking about imagine some where between Moab and Zion National Park in the middle of no where. Yes, the middle of now where. We did bring a port-a-potty. 

We headed out with these two friends.

Zack and Iara

 They're pretty cool and I really mean that, but I'll spare the details for another blog post. I'm sure I could post a list and provide good examples of how awesome and adventurous they are. Anyways...

They came out with us last year and this year too. 

Matt & I would take turns doing canyons because of Baby C. We certainly couldn't take him with us! At least not yet!  On the days where Matt did a canyon I went for little hikes. 

 

I found this....

 This is called the Muddy Creek. It goes on for MILES but it doesn't flow very fast nor is it very deep. I walked along this one day for a little while. 

 

 

 I saw this "Motel 6" right alongside the Muddy Creek. It was pretty creepy looking, even in the day.

And  on another adventure I found a MINE!

 

I was really tempted to go inside but I could see the headlines. "Mother with Baby Gets Trapped into a Mine." Or worse yet there would be no headlines and just a search and rescue party. I wondered how long it would take for them to realize I had gone into this mysterious  mine. I did go in about 20 feet but as I walked in the roof was getting shorter and shorter and I was too lazy to take the baby carrier off to explore more (or terrified to continue to explore deeper into the rock). When I told Matt about it he told me that he had actually read about the mine and the first owner of the mine made millions of dollars and then sold it for millions of dollars. The second owner, however, was not so lucky and made nothing off of the mine.

For our meals we needed fire wood. Matt looks pretty hardcore trying to chop up this tough piece of wood into sticks. He chopped at it for several hits and the thing didn't seem to budge. I began to wonder if it was a legit piece of wood instead of being made of iron or something.

I hope you had a great Memorial Day too! On our way back we stopped and took a moment to place some flowers on Matt's Grandpa's grave. We're certainly grateful for the holiday and for the opportunity we have to honor those that have already gone on before us.

New Heights

Um.... EEK!

What are my options for gates?!

Nine Months & Awesome

I always think of 9 months as the turning point where a baby can now claim they have had more experience outside of the womb than inside of the womb.

At nine months our little man can...
-Crawl super duper fast
-Tries to use just about anything to stand up (couch, mini tables, legs of tall chairs, grooves in the wall, etc)
-Does not like the blender but chases after the vacuum
-Sleeps until 630am
-Comes to us for comfort
-Eats a lot of veggies but the green veggies don't seem to sit too well with him (ie: avocado, peas, beans, etc)
-Sleeps in his own room

His room looks more or less like this. :)

For a while he went through a phase where he went under the piano to the kitchen.

He sits by the patio door like a puppy wanting to go outside.

This is under our table. He likes to climb up on this but unfortunately he can't crawl off of it.