trip to boise

some pictures of our trip up to boise last week.

a couple cute ones from the car ride up.

madeleine's first encounter with a balloon.

we had a bit of a photo shoot out in grammy's backyard. mostly i meant to capture her tentative reaction to the grass, but she was being so cute. i may have gone overboard. i've selected just a few of the best.

hanging out with randy's aunt, rhonda. rhonda fed madeleine ice cream and madeleine will love rhonda forever.

randy and his brother, kyle.

randy's preferred method of practice - on a steinway.

madeleine's first experience with a steinway.

randy's uncle, tim, jeanie, rhonda, me, madeleine, bob

randy catching a nap after an early morning for skiing that didn't end up happening due to whitecaps.

family portrait



the drive home.

a week back at home

here are a couple pictures from our week back in utah before heading up to idaho last week.

california: day 8

and finally, we headed home on saturday.

wake up, madeleine, it's time to go home!

california: day 7

on friday, randy found a nice little piano studio to practice in and got several hours of practicing in. i spent a quiet day around chuck and ruthanne's. in the evening, we all headed to the beach for a bonfire and wienie roast. i love the ocean, but i have to admit that it is a different experience with a baby. madeleine actually really enjoyed seeing the ocean and usually doesn't mind wind, but it was really windy and she was really tired and it was hard for her to calm down and go to sleep under those conditions.

you can't tell from this photo, but she had sand all over the inside of her port-a-crib. i tried so hard to block it all out with towels and blankets, but to no avail.

madeleine and lainey in their cribs with calli watching over them.

randy's cousin bryan, carsten, and calli.

i think madeleine had had it at this point.

california: day 6

i actually posted most of the pictures from day 6 in california when i gave you a sneak peak a few weeks ago (am i that behind?). here are a couple others:

randy took this on his iphone. this shows how spoiled madeleine was during our trip. in the early morning when she would wake up, instead of getting out of bed with her, we just put her in bed with us and she'd fall asleep soon after. we all got to sleep in that way. it's a good thing we had a king size bed.

madeleine and omi. the day was spent recovering from sea world at chuck and ruthanne's house. i read all morning and then everyone came over and swam in the evening.

california: day 5

wednesday was our sea world day. we drove about two hours to get to san diego. madeleine slept most of the way and i read "snow flower and the secret fan" (a good read, as a side note).

sea world was HOT. it was probably technically cooler than it was at disneyland, but there was hardly any shade, so it felt hotter to me. this was disappointing, seeing as we thought that it would be a lot cooler by the coast.

we saw several shows at sea world, which were really fun to watch, except that it meant sitting in direct sunlight for about 30 minutes before the show started, and then during the show. fortunately, kyle and kim had brought some umbrellas with them, which helped cut the sun before the show, but we couldn't have them up during the show. one guy offered to buy them off of them at the first show we went to. fortunately for us, they passed on the offer.

we saw a show with the killer whales, a dolphin show, a show with the seals, and a circus over the water. unfortunately, i missed the first half of the circus because i was trying to find somewhere to nurse madeleine. sea world is inferior to disneyland in that respect. despite promises by the maps that there were nursing areas, i could not find one to save my life and the sea world staff were not helpful at all. i finally ended up nursing her in a handicap stall in the bathroom which was problematic in more ways than you probably care to know.

by the end of the day, madeleine was pooped and sunburned. i had tried so hard to repeatedly apply spf 50, but apparently i missed the areas around her eyes. she was such a good sport the whole day, but when we got back to omi's house and let her roll around on the floor after being in a stroller all day, she was ecstatic.

california: day 3 revisited

here are some more disneyland pictures that i got from my mother-in-law's camera when we were in boise last week.

new tooth

madeleine's first little tooth broke through her gums today. madeleine was very nonchalant about the whole thing. in fact, i'm embarrassed to say that randy's cousin noticed the tip of the pearly white poking out before me, her own mother. whoops. 

i realize that i haven't posted in a while and i still need to finish up the pictures from our california trip. we are in boise this week though and i have been having too much fun relaxing. i will start posting again next week, including pictures from this trip. 

california: day 4

after an entire day at disneyland, we needed a day off. we spent tuesday at randy's aunt and uncle, chuck and ruthanne's house (where randy, madeleine and i stayed all week). randy left and practiced for a while at a nearby community college, but madeleine and i spent the day by the pool and reading. bob and jeanie came and joined us for some pool time as well.