Paisley the 18-month-old

Well, it's official, Paisley is a year and a half old.  We have been anticipating this for quite some time, as it means that she can finally attend nursery at church!  Paisley is equally excited about this, since it means lots of friends, tons of new toys, and no more walking around aimlessly with Mom or Dad in the halls in the middle of what's supposed to be nap time.  We all enjoy church a lot more these days! 

Honestly, I thought that once we got past her year mark, the changes from month to month wouldn't be so noticeable or worth documenting.  Boy was I wrong! Here are some of Paisley's latest developments:

• She's getting really good with a fork and spoon.  But fingers are still way more fun.
• Her favorite foods are chicken and rice.  And french fries.  And anything sweet, of course, but we're talking real food, right? 
• She loves the playground and is getting pretty daring when in comes to trying new things.  
• She's not shy at all when it comes to meeting new people.  
• She's become very affectionate lately.  She gives lots of kisses and hugs, and says 'love you'.  This is not limited to family members; in fact, it regularly extends to stuffed animals and dolls, friends her size, and occasionally perfect strangers whose acquaintance she's just met.  
• Since returning home to Utah, she's picked up the habit of saying "Oh my gosh" (Oh my doss).  She says it when something surprises or amazes her, and especially when she sees something pretty.  For example, this week she got new shoes.  Every time she sees them, she says "Oh my doss, so pretty, oh my doss."  She sounds so much like a little teenager, it's hilarious.  
• She's become very attached to her blanky, Pooh Bear, and other stuffed animals lately.  She doesn't want to go to sleep without them, and won't leave her crib without them in the morning.  
• She loves to pretend she's talking on the phone.  She'll pick up a phone and have a conversation that usually goes something like this:  "Hello?  Hello?  Jeff?  Grandma?  Oma?  Chloe?  Oh.  Not there.  Bye."  This can go on for some time, and all the while Paisley is pacing the floor with a serious expression on her face, pushing past people as if this is a very important conversation and she is not to be interrupted.  Jeez, where does this child pick these things up?  
• Her hair needs to be cut.  The debate is whether to grow the bangs out, or keep them long. What do you think?  For now they're just at that awkward long bangs stage. 

Cooling off at the water park.

Sportin' the Longhorns hat.

Ready for back to school.  Love the hair-do.

Digging up veggies in Grandpa's garden.

Giving kisses to the deer in Grandpa's garden.  We have to tear her away from these every time.

Training with Dad on the Mountain View track.

Getting ready for football season.

She did the twirly slide all by herself!  Her new favorite thing.

Back to Utah: Days 2 & 3

So, I didn't finish blogging about our trip for two reasons: 1. Driving through the rest of Kansas and Colorado wasn't too exciting, and 2. The usual, my lack of motivation.  But, for the sake of documenting our Austin adventure in its entirety, I'll finish.

Day 2 of our trip home was the drive from Wichita to Denver.  It was pretty uneventful, besides when we realized how sparse the gas stations are along that stretch and barely made it to the Shell with 4 miles worth of gas to go.  We stopped to eat at The Patio Cafe in a small town called Strasburg, just outside of Denver.  The food was excellent.  The minute we passed the Welcome to Colorado sign, we were met with gray cloudy skies and rain.  David was horrified.  I was refreshed after a summer of intense Austin heat.  We rolled into Denver in the evening, where felt cool for the first time in months.  So cool, in fact, that the next morning we would have to fill the tires with air due to the change in temperature.

The welcoming skies of Colorado

Day 3. The home stretch.  As much as I enjoyed the farmlands we had been driving through for the past couple of days, it definitely felt like coming home as we drove through the winding roads of the rocky mountains.  I had forgotten how majestic and serene the mountains were, and how vibrant the color green could be.  A couple hours into the drive, we stopped in Vail, Colorado for church.  Even though we were only there for just over an hour, I fell in love with Vail.  It's a peaceful, beautiful little mountain town and it made me feel like I was back in the Rockies of Canada. The ward we attended church at was small, warm, and welcoming.  Sacrament meeting was done half in English, half in Spanish, including the songs and prayers, and even the talks.  I was sad to leave Vail.

Church at Vail, Colorado

Another beautiful town in the mountains

Just as drastically as the flat, yellow Kansas turned into rainy, mountainous Colorado, our beloved green Rockies spat us out into the dry desert that is Utah.  Not that all of Utah is dry and desert-like.  But I think when they named the first city across the border 'Green River', it was as a sick joke to travelers coming in from 'Colorful Colorado'.  As we got closer to Provo, it began to sink in that our adventure was over, and real life was upon us.  We arrived at David's grandparents' house, where the whole family gathers each Sunday.  It was nice to see everyone, and especially to tell Grandpa about the visit to his hometown.

And so, here we are, back home in Utah.  But the adventures are far from over.  In fact, with the school year upon us and David's new job (more about this in later blog posts), and especially with the arrival of our new baby girl creeping up on us, it feels like we won't be awaiting many dull moments in the near future.  So, though we're back from Austin and the summer is drawing to an end, the adventures - and the blog posts - are sure to continue!

Back to Utah - Day 1, Kansas

As we planned our trip home, we were super excited to drive through Kansas and visit a little place called Humboldt, where David's grandpa grew up.  One of my favorite things about visiting with Grandpa is hearing about growing up on the farm, but I never imagined I would be able to visit Kansas and see it for myself.

On the way up to Kansas, we went through Norman. Oklahoma and stopped for a few minutes at the Oklahoma Sooners Football Stadium, of all places.  As we pulled in, David joked that maybe we would run into Landry Jones (I had no idea who this was, but assumed correctly that it was a Sooners football player).  Well, we got out of the car to walk around a bit, and lo and behold, the football team filed down the sidewalk into the stadium, right before our eyes.  That was a treat for my football-loving husband.

 A few hours later, we rolled into Hometown Country, Kansas.  David joked that it must be called that because the only reason people ever go there is because it's their home town.  The more we got acquainted with Chanute and Humboldt, the more I agreed with him.  I loved it!

We had no idea how to get a hold of Grandpa's family who still lived in Humboldt, as no one had any contact information.  So, we pulled into a gas station, found their name in the local phone directory (yes, those still exist), and rolled down the country dirt roads to the farm.  Google maps led us to a small bridge rather than a house, so we had to call the house to get directions.  The directions they gave were things like "Pass the cemetery on the left, cross the blacktop, and pass two telephone poles and there we are".  Well, apparently telephone poles are different from regular electric poles, and we ended up driving around for about half an hour before the got in their truck and came to meet us.  

It was great to see Uncle Willy, Grandpa's brother, and his niece and nephew who own his brother's old farm.  Paisley especially loved the farm.  She had so much fun there that by the end I felt like a terrible mother taking her  away from it, like I was taking her out of her true element to a bland and barren city.  She marveled at the real cows and horses, hugged and kissed the dogs, chased the cats, oinked at the pigs, lifted the feed buckets (or tried to), collected the rocks, climbed the tractors, explored the little playground, and ran from one wonder to the next taking in everything she could.  She screamed when we had to get back in the car again.  

Paisley had fun playing with Uncle Willy.

  

When David was small, he and his cousins took pictures on this very same tractor.  

Watch out, Paisley will mow you over! 

Uncle Willy, Christy, Rick, Paisley, and my lesson to stand up straight for pictures.

This is the farm where Grandpa lived while he went to high school.  Unfortunately this one has since been sold, so we could only get pictures from afar.  

After eating at the Benchwarmer's Bar & Grill, we headed to Wichita, where we spent the night.

Back to Utah - First Stop, Dallas

Much to David's devastation, August 9th marked the day we left our Austin home and embarked on our trip back to Utah.  But we had one big, important stop to make first: Becca's house in Dallas.

After a whole summer of no Becca, I was in serious need of some good quality Becca time.  So we planned to take the long route home, stopping for a day in Dallas, and then continuing up through Oklahoma City, Kansas, and finally Colorado before hitting Utah.  It was so much fun to see Becca and meet her amazing family.  They totally spoiled us!  We hit the water park for Paisley, then enjoyed amazing ribs smoked in the back yard by Becca's brother Chris, and Becca even gave me an amazing pedicure and foot massage.  Let me tell you, fewer things are more enjoyed by a pregnant woman!  Paisley had a blast playing with Becca and her family.  I think if she could she would adopt Becca's dad as a grandpa.  They got along great!

Paisley playing with Auntie Becca at the water park.

I'm just realizing now that we had such a good time there that we forgot to take a lot of pictures.  On the way out, though, we did stop by the Allen High School football stadium.  Becca and her sister told us about this $60 million high school stadium, so naturally we had to stop there on our way out at sunrise and grab a picture.  It holds 18,000 people and somehow, it is only the 5th largest high school stadium in Texas.  Nonetheless, Here she is.

Florida, San Antonio & The Offer

As mentioned in a previous post, David went to Florida for a convention to wrap up his internship.  For these 4 days, he was forced to stay in the Disney World Resort, eat their delicious food, and play on their rides.  Here are some pictures of him, hard at work.

The view from his hotel.

Oh yah, they did have to attend some meetings as well.  These were actually what David couldn't stop talking about when he came home, because the speakers were really interesting and inspiring.  The chairman and CEO of Ernst & Young, Jim Turley the owner and CEO of Skull Candy, Rick Alden, and some performers including M.C. Supernatural, The poor guy, he had a rough week.

Meanwhile, while David was in Florida, I was back home taking care of our newly broken car window and other results of our car break-in.  We got it all cleaned up just in time to go back to San Antonio for a day and meet up with my friend Breanne.  I love spending time with her.  We spent the morning visiting the different missions in San Antonio, including the Alamo.  It was really fascinating to see what these Catholic friars and missionaries built, how it affected the native Americans and others in the area, and they part it played in making Texas what it is today.

A lot of the Catholic churches built in the missions have been restored and are still used today.

The Offer

The Monday after his return from Florida was David's final day of interning.  He went in in the morning as usual, met with the partners, and received a full-time offer to return to Austin and work with the company next fall.  So, that's what we're doing!!  David is excited to start his career with EY, but I think he's even more excited to live in Austin.  In fact, he was not very happy about having to leave Austin for the next year to finish up school.  Here we go, nonetheless, back to Utah for another year of adventures.