September 20th is My Favorite Day!

Happy 26Th Birthday to Chris!

I will be the first to admit I am a little late on birthdays. Chris' was on September 20Th. He turned 26. I feel like I am married to an old man now. Nothing against the age I just still feel like he should still be 22 like when we first met.

We went mini golfing for his b-day. It was really fun. We had the course all to ourselves.

Here is our biggest cheerleader!

Kate was such a good girl. She loved holding the golf balls. (And eating them)

Not to steal Chris' thunder, but I hit the sweetest hole-in-one. It had to jump over the bridge and then it bounced off the back wall and went right in. I was totally shocked. Of course Chris was my biggest fan. He was impressed with my skills.

This is our random pic of Kate in a Chili's to-go bag. We went to our friends new apartment to visit and we order Chili's for dinner. When the food came all Kate wanted to do was play in the bag, so we stuck her in it. It only lasted about a minute but it was really cute how much she liked it. Thanks Silas and A.J.!

Annapolis

This pic some sweet, random lady took of us. We thought she was taking it of the Capitol, too, but this will do.


Last week for Chis' day off we took a trip to Annapolis. It was so good to be by the ocean. It wasn't really the ocean but to us it looked like it to us anyway. It was really a bay area. Annapolis had that small town feeling even though it is really large. It reminded me a lot of St. George when we were walking around the historic district. It was incredibly humid the day we went though. The only draw back to being by the ocean/bay.




This is a look down Main Street. If you look in the middle you can see some spire looking things, those are boats. Yup! Main Street runs right to the bay. Chris is standing to the left in the cross walk.



This is another pic of all the cute shops that line Main Street. There are a ton of good stores to shop in.

This the Maryland state Capitol. It was surprising that this was it. I was expecting the huge white building similar to Utah's. It took Chris and I a minute to realize this was now our State Capitol now-weird.

Kate and Dad! It looked like rain so we all put on pants. It wasn't the smartest idea. With the humidity it was so HOT!

This is just a random picture of Kate is her swing. Yes that is my almost one year old who is enjoying her swing. Too bad she didn't when she was a baby. She looks gigantic to me in it. She likes to sit in it and play with all the little baby toys on it. That's my big girl!

On a Picnic with Grandma & Grandpa

Kate got a fauxhawk. I was so proud to see how much her hair has grown. Even more surprising than the length is the new curls that she is sporting. Yup! That is right. She is getting curly hair. I didn't see that coming. She looks so cute when we do it curly now. I'll post a pic of it soon.

Kate and Grandma!

On a picnic with Grandma and Grandpa. This is the park that Chris and I used to live right next to in St. George. When we were there we had many regrets that we didn't go there more.

Kate lovin' on her Grandpa West!

This is Kate's "pirate face" as it has been called. I don't know why but she just started doing it. She got this from her friend Savannah.

Swimming & Walking

Swimming with Megan.


Heidi and Megan. They were so fun to swim with. They have so much energy. I am not sure how Kami keeps up.


Kate loves swimming. She floated all around the pool in this floaty all by herself. We were close by but she was pretty independent.

This is James. AHHH! He is so cute. He is two months younger than Kate.

Kate with Grandma's magnets. Everything right now belongs in her mouth.

I have had these pictures for awhile. Okay I have had them forever and just haven't posted them. She has been working on walking for awhile and it is so fun to watch her move. Before she would push her walker from wall-to-wall and then just wait for us to turn her around and then keep going. Back and forth, Back and forth. Now she has learned to to turn it all by herself. I don't know how she figured it out she just got up and started doing it one day. It is so neat. I can see her mind working and she is trying to figure how to get around things and get unstuck from things around her. It is really neat to witness. My girl is getting big!

Last week Chris' sister, Julie, and her husband, Zach, came out to visit. We had such a great time with them. They were troopers, too. It was incredibly hot and humid. I thought St. George was bad, but this gave us a run for our money. Kate was so good through it all too. Kate loved getting to spend time with Julie and Zach, they are gonna be great parents someday. (wink-wink!) Chris and I got to go to the D.C. temple because they babysat for us. It was so beautiful. We didn't take pics though but we will sometime. Thanks for coming out you guys. I will post more of our pictures soon, but this is all I could get done for now. We just had so much fun it is taking me awhile to document it all.




This is Chris and I with some of our closest relatives. Chris really liked the cavemen for some reason. They always remind us of the Geico commercials.




We walked around and saw all the stuffed animals (for lack of a better word). It was like going to the zoo. Except none of them moved they just stared at us. Kate loved it!

This is Kate looking at lion. It wasn't alive. It looked like it was growling. When we put her in front of it she kept going "ooh". You can see she is doing it right now.

That is a huge elephant behind them. It is front and center

when you walk into the Natural History Museum. It was pretty intimidating. It makes you feel really small.

This is Zach in front of Mount Vernon where George Washington lived. He had such an amazing house. When he first inherited it is was tiny. I think they said now it has 21 rooms in it. Washington's tomb was neat to see, too. He was a very humble man. In the exhibit emphasized a lot about how George Washington could have become the next King after he won the war, but instead he gave the power back to congress and went back to Mount Vernon, where he hadn't been for a long time. I had heard that but never really thought about it. It is weird to think if he hadn't done that we could be under monarch rule right now. He was a good man.

Kate and I went to Mount Vernon with Zach and Julie. I was a hot day there. This is President Washington and his wife, Martha and their two grandchildren that lived with them. That is me standing in front of President Washington. They digitally recreated him to look as closely like him as they could. It was pretty neat to get to see how he looked. They showed him throughout the exhibit as he got older.

Kate was really tired. She did so good though. It was tough being out all day in the heat and humidity all day.

This is the Washington Monument at sunrise. However, I did not take this picture. I owe this to Zach and Julie who got up at 4:30 and went down with Chris to D.C. Kate and I were still in bed. This is my favorite picture. It looks so peaceful and quiet.

Out and About

Chris and I went to Six Flags with a couple of friends two weeks ago. We had so much fun, it was Roller Coasters galor. Chris and I tried on all these weird hats. Kate thought they were pretty funny. Then we went there, again, yesterday and took some cute pictures of Kate swimming. After we went into this show and they made us leave our stroller outside. We thought we took everything in with us and also thought they guy standing there would be watching our stroller. Well he didn't and we came out of the show and all our stuff was pulled out of our bags. Our digital camera was stolen. I was so bumped out. I am mostly just sad about all the pictures I lost. At least we have these cute ones still.

Things that Kate Likes....

Kate loves to hide from us. Her favorite place to crawl is behind our chair and then she gets into all sorts of things. No matter how many times a day we pull her out from behind it she always go back there for some alone time and mischeif.

Kate favorite toy is a plastic Easter egg. It is also a big hit in church with all the other babies. Chris and I have sworn off buying any toys for awhile because her favorite toys are a $.99 pack of Easter eggs and empty 2 liter bottle of pop.

She really likes to play in the water. She likes showers, baths and especially swimming.

Kate really likes to wear shoes. She mostly likes to admire them on her feet or she also enjoys chewing on them. She hasn't learned to walk just yet, so they aren't being used to their full potential, yet.