Adventures in Pennsylvania

After surviving the drive to PA, Willow has enjoyed spending time with Gramma and Grampa! This kid is not lacking on attention, hugs, nor kisses!

Willow got ahold of Gramma's glasses and looked quite cute!

Willow has enjoyed the plethora of new toys to play with during our time with both sets of grandparents.

Willow is quite advanced - she drew and colored in this heart by herself (sarcasm). Now she just needs to help out her dada who is trying to make a heart.

We had a potluck to celebrate Gramma and Grampa's 40th wedding anniversary. Willow especially enjoyed playing with Trent (9 mo.) and trying to keep up with Brody (4 yrs).

Hug-o-war!

And our favorite game: Peek-a-boo!

Photoshoots

While we were in CO we had a friend from high school take pictures of Willow. Here are some of our favorites!

While in Pennsylvania, we had a family friend take pictures of Willow and the Seth Family. Here are our favorites:

Adventures in Colorado

We made it to Nana and Grandpa's safe and sound. Now, let the fun begin!

Nana and Grandpa found this "Infinite Bubbles" machine, that obviously blows out an infinite number of bubbles. It's bubble heaven!!

"Ahhh...this is the life!"

Alli will be replaced for the week with Charlie. Thankfully he's also patient with Willow.

Helping Grandpa make pancakes for breakfast (at 4:30am MST...you know, when you're up you're up!)

"Please stop raining so I can go check out that super cool whale pool!"

Since it's been raining all day, we've been entertaining ourselves indoors. Willow enjoyed pushing this cart around the house but had difficulty steering so Nana helped out. Nana's going to sleep well this week!

Trying out the piano that I grew up playing on!

"This is fun!!"

One of Willow's new toys is a basketball hoop that she thought was the greatest thing ever. Her celebration dance was pretty cute!

Gotta go shirtless for the juicy watermelon (take note of the juice to her waistline)

Um...I think Willow went this way...

The perfect Willow-size chair!

One of Willow's favorite activities has been to have Nana, Grandpa or me push her around the living room in this laundry basket. She doesn't seem to quite understand when we're winded after one lap around the living room.

Mama got to sneak away with a friend from high school for a while. Angie and I played golf together in high school so we decided going to the driving range was safer than playing a round since neither of us had played for 8+ years! After a pretty comical time at the range, we decided that putt-putt might be more appropriate for us!

We drove across the beautiful Colorado National Monument then cooled off with some Coldstone icecream. Good times.

More pool time:

Miss Independent likes trying the spoon solo.

If only her tongue was a LITTLE bit longer...

Willow loving on her Nana:

Dada sent 18 beautiful roses to CO for our 5th anniversary! Mama and Willow were BOTH charmed =)

While Willow and I were in Colorado, dada worked on this mess:

using this monster lift:

What a beautiful Colorado sunset!!!

Bag o' tricks

Willow and Mommy will be flying to CO tomorrow to see Nana and Grandpa. This will be Willow's second airplane adventure (her first was when she was 3 months old...and an adventure it was!!). I thought we'd get in a flight to CO before we start having to pay for her seat (yikes!), which means that Willow will be in my lap...for the whole flight...with no one for backup... You could say that I'm "slightly" nervous about how it will go considering the girl doesn't sit still for 5 minutes and I need her to be content in my lap for two 2 1/2 hr flights (3 flights coming back). Needless to say, this mommy needs a bag o' tricks...

Voila! Yes, I'd like it to be 4 times this size, but it's all I can imagine fitting under the seat in front of me, knowing that getting in and out of the overhead compartment is not realistic. Some of my goodies include: new books (especially lift-the-flap books, two with magnetic parts), magnadoodle, animal flashcards, fun balls, Mardi Gras beads (thanks Aunt Kim!), multiple forms of food and sugar, two varieties of pacifiers (in case, by the grace of God, Willow finds a pacifier enjoyable for the takeoff and landing), and an emergency portable DVD player (again, thanks Aunt Kim!). Right now it doesn't seem like an extensive enough list, but I also had to squeeze in diapers, wipes, an extra set of clothes, and her sippy cup. Here's hoping our bag actually fits under the seat! I'd appreciate your prayers for our flights! For a content little one. Patience for me, Willow, and those seated around us. Safety for our flights. On-schedule flights with smooth layovers. Confidence that I can actually do this! Thanks!!