Ode to the purple shirt

I was going to try my hand at a small poem to say goodbye to this well-loved purple shirt, but in order to save the readers from the pain I will abstain. This purple shirt is soft and in Ali's words, "comfy." It is stretchy and so it fit her for longer than it really should have. Plus it was a very versatile shirt; it was an undershirt, a t-shirt, and a layered shirt. It really went with all of her pants, so when she picked it out to wear the day after I did laundry EVERY time for about 4 monts, I was okay with that.

This is how the shirt was meant to be worn, as an undershirt for this baby doll dress.

As a t-shirt it was just as nice.


While apple-picking, just adding a vest gave it a bit more warmth.
I was thinking about adding a picture of her trying to wear the shirt now, despite its being too small, but decided to focus on the greatness of this wonderful shirt that has given us so many wonderful memories.

A growl says a thousand words

Kat loves to growl. She growls when she is happy, she growls when she wants things, but she will rarely growl for the camera. It is a dancing frog syndrome, but I finally got her to growl once for me. Now take this small growl and do it a hundred times all day long and that is what fills my days.


Here are some pics of the girls in their Easter dresses.

If you take out Nick's hands holding Kat up, you can just see how much Kat was dancing in this picture.

A week of fun

Because the exciting things that I posted about for the last couple of weeks, I felt I had nothing to talk about. Match Day, Brazil and Niagara Falls are all cool places, so I thought that pictures of this week's trip to the aquarium would be anti-climatic. Well they might be, but then I realized the reason for our trip. For the first time, Alicia slept through the night without wetting her bed. When she woke up she was pretty excited that she had accomplished this seemingly impossible feat, so I asked her where she wanted to go to celebrate.

Can't you just feel the excitement on that face? They have a touch and feel tide pool, which is one of Ali's favorite parts. This time she was even brave enough to touch the crab, but not quite brave enough to do it without my help, so I only got a picture of the starfish.


Kat just got her first 2 teeth. If you look closely you can see those little chompers!


Our little baby is growing up so fast. Now she is wearing 12 month clothes and it kind of saddens me how fast she has grown. She is getting into everything. Anyone have some kind of pill to keep them from getting mischievous?

Niagara

Since we are going back to the West Coast, we decided to take a trip up to Niagara Falls.

Being that it is the end of a very cold winter, Ice covered huge portions of the falls. The boats and the tours were all closed for the season, but we still got to walk around and see Niagara. This is the view from the US side of the falls. The mist in the farthest part of the picture is from Horseshoe section of the falls.

This is the Horseshoe Falls from the US side. It is pretty unspectacular compared to the view from Canada, but it was still amazing.

This is the view from the Canadian side. The sun was really bright, and with the sun gleaming off of the mist it was hard to get a good picture.

This is what happens when we ask a fellow tourist to take our picture. I think they left out a huge portion of what we wanted in the picture. Where are the falls? If you are touring somewhere that has significance and someone asks you to take their picture, please try to get the important background INTO the picture!

This last picture was just cute and funny. We went to the zoo after I got back from Brazil, and Ali got kind of grumpy and tired quickly, but when we came to these cut-outs she just HAD to put her head through, so Nick snapped a couple photos.

Brazil Part 2

Once we picked up my sister, we went to an island and enjoyed one more day of the beach. It was a large island that we drove to, and it was pretty beautiful.

We went out to the water and found that the water was PACKED with jellyfish. Luckily they didn't sting us, and it was fun to be able to hold one. Not sure if you can see it too well, but it is the clear blob in my hand.

One great part of Brazil was the food. There were lots of things that I had never tried or even heard of, but the beans were particularly amazing. My sister took us to some member's houses and it was hard to not stuff my face. Luckily they encouraged us to eat about 4 helpings.


My sister took us to the interior of Brazil where we saw some waterfalls. We actually convinced my mom to go into one, which is a pretty big deal.


This is all 5 of us at the bottom of one of the waterfalls.


In Recife the crossing guards dress up like clowns. I am not sure exactly why they do it, but we had to take a picture with them.

Brazil Part 1

For those who don't know, I had the opportunity to go to Brazil to pick up my sister who is serving a mission in Recife. Since Nick's mom was so wonderful to stay with the girls so Nick wouldn't have to take off, I went for 10 days! My sister, Lynette, was going to be sent home on the 18th, so two of my sisters and I decided to spend a couple of days at the beach before going to pick her up. We stayed in a small beach town called Porto de Galinhas. We just had lots of fun and got some much needed sun.

This is a picture of my two sisters and me on our way out one morning.


We rented a surf board and this is me showing off my skills. Just for Caleb's sake, I won't show the picture of Jen surfing, (she is 3 months pregnant).

Galinhas means chicken, and there were these wooden sculptures of chickens everywhere.

We went on a banana boat, which was a lot more fun than I thought it would be. We got thrown every couple of minutes, and I think I drank more salt water than is healthy for any human.


The beaches there in Brazil are just so beautiful. People there would ask me if I missed my girls, and while I admit that by the end I did, places like this just make me forget that I have any other responsibilities but to get tan and warm.

CALIFORNIA HERE I COME!!!!

I just got back from Brazil, and I had a wonderful trip. Since Nick is not prone to posts, he waited for me to tell everyone the news. We are going back to California, and I am really excited! Warmth and sun, and the beach! Why did I ever leave?