A Toddler

I came to the realization this morning as I was getting Ad ready she's not a baby anymore she is a full blown toddler.  I love this stage and I love how much fun we have together, but it's sad to see her grow up so fast. 

 Since we were unable to go to the temple on Saturday Oley and I, as usual, went on the last day of the month.  As we were there Ad had an obsession with playing on the statues.  She has been on a kick since seeing her cousins that she has an imaginary sister.  She ran up to this little statue and hugged her and said, "Mom it's my sister". 

I love that she always has a little song in her heart and wanted to play ring a round the rosies with these statues.

She has so much personality to her.  All of her teachers at school just love the things that she says and that she always has a smile on her face.

She brings so much joy to my life I don't know what I would do without this little spitfire always keeping me on my toes.

Broken Legs

Ad and I were out on the trampoline jumping last night.  As we were bouncing around I bounced her just right and she came down hard.  She started to scream a scream that I know she is hurt so I was super worried that I had hurt her bad.  When I picked her up she settled down a bit but when I went to put her back down she wouldn't bear any weight on her leg.  I took her in the house to examine the damage.  When I took her pants off one of her knees was clearly more swollen than the other.  After many phone calls I decided I should probably take her in to at least get it checked out. 

As we were driving to the doctor she was no longer crying but instead singing "we are going to the doctor, the doctor, the Doctor!"  I was a little concerned that she was not hurting  anymore so thought that this trip may be a waste. 

But since I had hurt her I wanted to make sure I didn't break anything.  When we got there she walked with a little bit of a limp but otherwise seemed fine.  I felt a little foolish even checking in, but I did anyway. 
As we were waiting her turn she was perfectly happy just looking at the books on the table and watching the TV.  After sitting there for 20 minutes and realizing she really probably was okay I decided we would leave.  The next day she was totally fine and the swelling went down almost over night.  

Sick Babies are No Fun

Whenever we go to Idaho we always seem to bring a bug back with us.  This time the bug was worse than usual.  Ad was up all night puking and into the morning.  I stayed home with our little nugget and hoped for the best.  After she got done throwing up she would look at me and say "mom I am so sorry, can I go take a bath and get the germs off".  Poor little girl.
She woke up and came into the room I was working in and asked if she could go to the doctor.

Glad that she had her "best friend" around to keep her happy.  

By the time Oley got home that night she was feeling much better.  Thank Goodness!  I hate to see the little bug so sick.

It was also the night of the Lunar Eclipse. 

We hadn't made it to the temple yet this month so we headed up on Saturday afternoon after we got the housework done.  Ad is such a big helper!

What I should have remembered and I didn't was that it was the night of the General Women's Conference and so the temple closed early.  So instead we spent the evening shopping in Bellevue.  As we were out for dinner a rather large group of people were talking about where they were going to church the next day.  Our little ray of sunshine stood up and started seeing I am a Child of God, for all to hear.
Next we stopped at Old Navy and she found all of us a pair of sunglasses that we needed to wear.  She brings so much joy into our lives. 

 

Oley and Ad were also able to find themselves some new treasures.  They were both so happy!

 Ad has been begging for Frozen shoes but I am not big into character shoes, so we found some flip flops that were on clearance and so we let her have those.  She loves them!

 

Yellowstone Bike Ride

We were all ready for the Yellowstone ride this year and had anticipated leaving right after work on Thursday.  I had to give the introduction at a conference at work and so we had to stick around for Thursday.  Although Wednesday night we noticed that there was something wrong with Lily, she had puss and blood coming out of her and so we decided we should probably take her to the vet the next day.  After I presented at work we got to go to the vet together.  She always gets nervous when she has to go somewhere without Dinky, so I let her sit on my lap - bad idea cause she ruined my skirt. 

 Vet check her over and found that her anal glands were infected and needed to be drained. So they did that and then updated her vaccines.

Away we went.  By this time it was time for Oley to be getting off of work and I had an incredibly bad headache.  So as he finished getting the rest of our stuff packed I went upstairs to try to sleep the headache off before getting in the car.  My head was still pounding but Oley had everything packed including the bikes on the back of the car.  So we rounded up Ad and Dinky and I went to go find Lily - no one had seen her for a while.  When I found her she was having an allergic reaction very similar to the one she had in Spokane.  Her whole snout was swelling and she wasn't doing well.  I told Oley to take her back to the vet as quickly as he could and all Ad and I could do was worry at home.  Last time this had happened we lived very close to our vet and it was a good thing because by the time I had gotten her their her heart rate had tanked and she was not doing well.  They had told me the last time if this happens again it will go a lot faster. 
Long story short Oley was able to get her there in time and the vet that saw her earlier that day was able to get her some meds.  They had to stay at the vet for an hour to make sure that it was going to work and then we were told we needed to watch her closely for the rest of the night.  

 Once she got home and was comfortable she went right to sleep. 

So we had to postpone leaving for Yellowstone until the next morning.   Our drive was definitely long - the first half of the drive this was the company I got as I drove.  Funny how Oley always wants it to be my turn to drive when the baby is finally ready for a nap ;). 

 It was a Long Drive!  We had to stop to rearrange the bikes on the side of the road and Ad was glad to take a break. 

By the time we were 15 miles from our end point Dinky got sick needed to throw up.  Lily was whining.  And Ad was crying.  Oley  doesn't do well when things are a little out of control and so the whole car was in a disarray.  When we finally got to Island Park we were all very glad to be out of the car. 
The next day was the bike ride and it was FREEZING.  It had frosted the night before and it was still really really cold.

 Doug, Robyn, and I opted to ride from the beginning of the route and Oley and Mom had Matt drop them off at the top of the big hill.  The first 10 miles of the ride were miserable.  It was so cold I felt like my fingers and toes were going to break off. 

Once the fog finally burned off it was the perfect weather for riding a bike.

There was tons of wildlife this year.  Not that there isn't every year but it seemed like there was a lot more this year.  As Doug and I were waiting for Robyn at the top of the big hill I turned around to look at Doug and there was a huge buffalo walking towards us. 

We were able to catch up to mom and finish the first half of the ride with her.

The majority of the group decided that they were not going to ride back out but Oley and I opted to so I rode with Marilee's in-laws.  Oley left a little bit earlier than us but we caught him at the half way point on the way back.

I love when we are able to work out together!  We ended up finishing off the rest of the ride together from there. 

Doug and Shelbie met us back in West so that we could take Ad back in to see some of the animals and Old Faithful.

 We got there right as the geyser was going off so we weren't able to make it very close.  Next year we will take her when it will mean a little bit more to her. 

The next day we headed back home.  We were all ready for a break when we hit about Coeur D'Alene and so we stopped at the park that we used to ride our bikes through.  When we lived in Spokane we didn't have kids so we didn't realize how awesome this park was.  Ad had a great time stretching her legs out a bit. 

 By the time we made it home we were ready to be done.

After Work

Since Ad's day care is onsite at work it means she gets to spend a whole lot more time with me doing work things.  This past week our cath lab manager was leaving and so we were throwing her a good bye party.  Ad was so excited that she got to go to the party with me.   When I told her it was time to go she was so sad so my co-workers were sure to send her with some cake to brighten her night.  She was in heaven!

The Fair

I love where I work and I especially love the benefits that they provide their employees.  Every year we are given tickets to the Puyallup Fair as well we money for food and rides.  This year since Ad was a little bit older we rode some of the rides. 
At the Idaho Fairs you are allowed to touch all the animals, but here in Washington you are only allowed to touch the animals in the petting barn.  It's kind of odd, but Ad was okay with it!

She loved all the fair food.  She even got to try cotton candy for the first time.

But her favorite part of the fair was the carousel.  It was the only ride that she was tall enough to ride on so she rode once with me and once with Oley. 

NIght Lights

Ever since we moved into this new house Ad has insisted that we keep the bathroom light on so that she has some light in her bedroom at night.  The only problem with that is that our bedroom is angled just right that the light comes in and bothers us all night.  So we told her if she went pee in the potty she could get a night light for her bedroom.  She was ecstatic to plug it in and keep it in her room.