Vacationing!!

Sunday morning we drove to St. Louis where we spent the night with old friends from Wichita. It was fun to catch up and watch our girls play with their 3 kids. Their house is beautiful! It is just a few miles from the base, with a backyard straight from Virginia (lots of trees/wooded). They have a little family of foxes and all kinds of birds. It was just peaceful. Steffany decorates amazing and is quite the presenter when it comes to food. She will be a great squadron commander's wife. It would be great to live near them again and she could give me some lessons.

Then Monday morning we headed for Wichita to see Great Grandma and Grandpa S. We had to make it to the best burger place around for Monday night ½ price burgers (Spangles). It was YUMMY to say the least! The burger was extra delicious and we tried to make up for the french fries we had been missing. Then we played at a nearby park where Adayla loved to swing and Tally's favorite is definitely the slide.

Now back to Grandma's house, we came home where Adayla and Tally could ride the tricycle and the old red tractor. The tricycle was my dad's when he was little and the tractor was his brother's. Grandma keeps lots of stuff, but it is kind of special to see her ride the things my dad, and then I did so many years ago. I try to envision what my dad looked like while spend hours on the trike (including the times he rode it with a dress on).

Tuesday we finished trimming the trees and moved Grandma's old desk out and brought her new one in. Now we just hope she gets all her stuff moved into the new one. Adayla and Tally played with the various toys. She has one in particular a lion cookie jar that, as you open it, roars and says get your hand out of my cookie jar. Anyways Grandma got this when Adayla was just 6 months old or so and we have seen it ever since. Adayla was always a bit timid around it, but then she started to ask Grandma every time we talked to her on the phone, if she could talk to the Lion. So one of the first things Adayla looked for at their house was the lion. Tally would crawl up and play with him, not scared of him one bit. On the other hand, Adayla, was scared and would not get near him. She would say the lion is going to bite my finger or he is going to get me. One time, one of her balls landed at the base of him, and she would not get the ball for anything. It was just funny as she had spent so much time talking about the lion and even remembering his birthday and then be completely afraid!

Tuesday morning we had Cheerios for breakfast and Grandma asked Adayla if she would like some juice. Adayla doesn't turn down juice. Grandma brought her a little cup of tomato juice. She eagerly drank from the cup and immediately quit and told Grandma, “That juice is Nasty, Grandma you drink nasty juice!” I think she will be a little more hesitant when someone offers her juice.

The time spent with them was wonderful and we were again sad to leave them, but Thursday morning we were off onto the next leg of our journey. A 16 hour drive to Utah.

Tally is doing quite a few new things these days. Here are just a few: She loves to play peek-a-boo, but more so with a blanket. She puts the blanket over her head, crawls forward a bit, and then takes it off and laughs! She loves to sing songs, especially “If you are happy and you know it, clap your hands.” She is pretty shy, but loves to smile. If we are around new people, she smiles, and then immediately turns the other way and buries her head into Tim or I's shoulders. She will stand up for just a few seconds, but prefers to crawl around! While eating breakfast, she takes her soggy cereal and sticks it on top of her hair. Then she looks for us and just giggles. She is quite a little dancer, we like to sing, “Tally turn the wheel, turn the wheel Tally.” She moves her little body and gets her little hands a going. She still likes to give big hugs, but also enjoys a good head butt. Just watch out!

Well we have already been in Utah for a week, where does the time go??? We have less than 3 weeks until we fly out to China. We attended Shayla and Brigham's wedding. They make a cute couple. Adayla has been soaking up all the attention from all her aunts and uncles and cousins, meanwhile Tally couldn't hold on to Tim or I any tighter. She has been pretty overwhelmed at all this. But Sunday afternoon she came around and would get down to crawl around Grandma and Grandpa G's house. I forgot to mention her little temper, (a gene she must get from the K's ; ) We were on the way home from the temple about 3 in the afternoon and it had gotten quite warm. We stopped to wet our gizzards with a pop from McDonalds. She already knew what good stuff was inside and immediately wanted some. I shared with her and Adayla. Then I drank some while listening to her begging for more (crying with some hand motions of more please). I shared some more until I thought she had enough. She let me know she hadn't had enough! She cried and soon the drink was all finished, but she still wanted more. So I poured a bit of water into the cup, thinking I could trick her...not so! She screamed at the top of her lungs for the next 15 minutes until we got out of the car. When she makes up her mind, her mind is set! Hopefully she will turn this into a strength as she grows.

We spent the few days after Shay's wedding with some of the S's, Cindy, and Vanessa (Shay's BFF who had flown in from Wichita to be with us). Adayla partied like a crazy staying up until nearly midnight and sleeping until 10 AM. She even had a sleepover with all them while Tim and I stayed with his parents. We spent our last night with Chelsie and Bryan on Monday. We said goodbye to them that night and then I took them to the airport early Tuesday morning. We hope they will come visit us, either way we will be gone for 2 years, it will go by fast, but it is a long time. Chelsie had many a waterworks (as lovingly called by Bryan) going on. She hugged and hugged Adayla, I explained to Adayla that she was sad because we wouldn't see her for a long time. She very sweetly told Chelsie, “ I am going to miss you Chelsie.” Of course, even more tears followed.

Adayla funnies:
She calls the Rameumpton the Grammyumpton.
She call the Rodeo, a Brodeo (from Josie's “friend” Brodie)
She has been saying she has seen Swiper the Fox, from Dora. As she has played with Grammy and Gramps train tracks, she will grab a piece of the track and then yell, “Swiper NO swiping!”
Today, while at Denise's, Adayla needed to go pee-pee. Since she was outside, she decided to just go in the grass, as we had taught her on our roadtrip. She came inside looking for a pair of clean panties, since her aim wasn't so good. (We thought it would be a good idea to prepare her for China, just in case, a bathroom wasn't readily available.)

We had dinner with Tim's family Monday. We had some wonderful food (leftover enchiladas from Shay's wedding!) Adayla was happy to spend time with her other cousins. Wednesday we went shopping while Grammy and Gramps went to a play in Salt Lake. Tim found a few pairs of shoes to take to China and I was able to buy some towels for our bathrooms in China. There are 4 black bathrooms in our new apartment.

Today we spent the morning with Grandma and Grandpa G along with lunch at the M's. Adayla is at the age where she loves having friends to play with. She played dress up with Megan and followed the rest of the girls around all morning. Tally kinda of clung to my side as it was a new place again for her. Then we went to Denise's house to play with Julie and the rest of the kids. Again Adayla loved playing and following her and being one of the big kids. We just can't believe she is big enough, that is is part of the reason why we have this journal, I want to remember every minute of it. (Really not all of it, as she is Ms. Independent and listens only when she wants to, but I hopefully will learn in the future that that is part of the fun!) Tally again stuck by Tim and my side until she warmed up a bit, but she was still all smiles for them. The Abbott's each played an excerpt of a recent piano recital. They had all improved since I last heard them play. That is definitely one of our goals....getting each kid to play the piano, it is a skill they will never regret. We then joined up with them this evening where we enjoyed a beautiful May evening in Utah. The girls played on the swing set (or the park as Adayla calls it). Tally crawled around the backyard and even stood for about 10 seconds. She tried to take a step then fell. It is was relaxing watching the cousins all hang out.

Side note: My little sweet Tally like I said is very shy, she will only wave at you if she recognizes you. She proved this tonight. As we were leaving Denise's a few extra boys came it, I said tell the all goodbye, she immediately put her head in my shoulder. We took a few steps back and so did Denise, I then told Tally to tell Denise goodbye. She immediately waved and smiled. Little Adayla would say to anyone that was around. We would go into Walmart and she would wave at everyone, trying to get their attention until they waved back. As she grew, she would wave and say, “Hello!” in her sweet high pitched voice.

Today we visited Grandma K in Bountiful and the Salt Lake Zoo on our way back. Grandma was in a good mood and happy to see her family. Adayla sang some songs for her and Grandma gave her a balloon that was given to her for Mother's Day. Adayla was concerned about her balloon the rest of the night. We then went to the Hogle Zoo where we saw all sorts of animals. The girls loved it, of course. Tally took a good nap and missed most of it, but woke up in time for some ice cream. And just like that the day is done and it is time for bed.