We're Back from Priest Lake!

*Warning* This will be a hugely long post. I'm trying to make it a trip journal, so it will be very over-descriptive and packed with pictures!
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Mon 7/19: We packed into our van and started our long road trip towards vacation. Because of work, we had to leave Justin at home. We also had to leave my sister Marissa, her fiance, Brandon, and my brother Kevin at home for work. So our trip was me, Carrie, my parents and my 15 year old brother Jake (who just got his learner's permit a month ago).
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Jake made it his personal mission on the trip to drive in as many states as possible. I think over the course of the trip he got Arizona, Utah, Idaho, Montana and Washington. Pretty good I'd say :)
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Monday we drove for 10 hours and stopped for the night in Fillmore, Utah at our Grandma Shupe's. Carrie was a little fussy the first day, but her Grandma (my mom) gave in pretty quickly and let her have her binky and her "B" pretty much anytime we were in the car.
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Tuesday 7/20: We made it into American Fork, Utah to visit my Uncle Dan's family, but they weren't even home. Luckily, they ended up coming to Priest Lake a few days late so we still got to see them (they weren't originally planning on coming). Tuesday afternoon we made it to Idaho Falls to my Aunt Leslie's house. She treated us really well with homemade cherry cobbler, homemade ice cream and a few ping pong tournaments.
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*(Also a side note, on Tuesday, we found out Justin's sister Danielle is having a baby girl!! We're so excited to have another niece in December!)
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Wednesday 7/21: We made a short little caravan with my Uncle David's family and started the official drive to Priest Lake. We made several stops along the way, mostly to eat or get treats. By this point in the trip Carrie had pretty much given up fighting being in the car. It worked out pretty well for all of us, she was relaxed, and we didn't have to hear her whine or try too hard to keep her entertained. (Although we did have several toys, puzzles and sing-a-longs of "Monkeys jumping on the bed")
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We stopped at a campground called Tarkio Wednesday night and following tradition, put pennies on the railroad track to get smushed. Luckily I laid out extra pennies (about 10) because when we went to get them the next morning, I think we only found 4. Just enough for all the little kids that were there.
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My dad and Jake in the tunnel on the way to the train tracks
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Thursday 7/22: A few more hours of driving finally brought us to Priest Lake! It's awesome! We are totally camping in the woods (pine trees, squirrels, campfires etc.), but a 3 minute walk from the campsite brings you to the beach! The lake is pretty cold, but you get used to it pretty quickly. We checked out the beach when we got there and Carrie was ready to dive right in. She loved walking along in the shallow water getting sandy and splashing. My parents rented a big trailer for us to stay in.
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Friday 7/23: (Carrie's Half-Birthday! 18 months, yeah!! Quick time-jump to a few days after getting home: Carrie's check-up. Weight: 20lbs, about the 1st percentile.... Height: 31.5 inches, 45th percentile.)Anyways, back to Friday at Priest Lake- Our first full day on the beach.
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Carrie loved to sit and play with shovels and buckets in the sand.
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She liked the water too, but lucky me, she never tried to just run in on her own. She'd get about to her shins and then she'd reach up and behind her for someone to hold her hand so she could go in a little further. I think eventually she got in up to her armpits, but she usually preferred to play right on the beach with water only on her legs.
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Cute little sandy tooshie
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Floating in the little tube was not her favorite thing.
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But this one seemed to be ok
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This one was our favorite. It had mesh in the bottom so we could still get wet, but not soaked.
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I told myself I needed to get a "base" of color before I applied sunscreen. I got many "I told you so" looks later that night. I. Got. Fried... It did eventually fade and turn a little tan, but it was really really painful for a few days.
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Jake got a little excited with the sunscreen
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Carrie and her 4th cousin London. (Yes, we figured it out... they're 4th cousins)
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The big Priest Lake "wahoo" though, isn't the camping or the lake. It's the CANDY WAGON. We literally have a wagon on the beach that is FULL of candy. All the time. My uncle Brad described the candy wagon pretty well. He said, "The only rule about the candy wagon is kids can have whatever they want, as much as they want, any time they want and adults aren't allowed to say anything about it." I amended the rule with, "If you puke, you have to wait 10 minutes before you come back for more."Carrie's mode of transportation to and from the beach was the candy wagon. Fun, fun, fun. :)
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That's a dum-dum sucker in her mouth.
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She found the perfect sized walking stick
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Saturday 7/24: I can't remember anything specific about this day, it was probably very similar to Friday. Although, since I can't think of any activities from this day, I'll throw in a little about "the parachute".
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Between my mom's siblings, their kids and a few friends, we had 37 people this year. We eat all of our meals together and take turns cooking. We gather all the picnic tables from the campsites, bring them to one site, hoist an actual parachute over the top and vio-la! Instant eating area! The gathering of tables is also a very handy place to play card or board games at night.
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Sunday 7/25: On Sundays, we don't go to the beach, or out on the boats. After breakfast we had "church". We combined with my great-uncle Thad's family (about the same number of people) under the parachute for our meeting. It usually only lasts about 30 minutes; sing a song, say a prayer, have a speaker (this year is was my cousin Jared who had recently returned from a mission to Russia), and close.
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In past years, we usually would have a water fight in camp after church. (Kind of defeats the purpose of not going to the beach, I know) We decided that nobody really likes it and it's usually only the kids about ages 7-11 and my great-aunt Jean (age 80) who participate, so we decided to for-go it.This year, we had a different fun activity for the afternoon. We drove to a cedar grove and went on a hike.
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My mom caught a picture of me being so tired, my belly was totally pooching out...
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I don't know how long the actual trail was, but it felt like 10 miles (I'm sure it was probably only like 2). By the top of the trail, Carrie was hungry and tired... Poor thing. Good thing Grandpa (my dad) was there to carry her most of the way.
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At the top of our trail we got to a tree that took 6 adults stretched fingertip to fingertip to wrap around its trunk. (You can only see 4 people in my picture, but you get the idea, HUGE!)
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At the bottom of the trail, we were dipping our feet in a nice cool creek when a deer walked by, not even 20 feet away. Sorry my picture's a little blurry, but I wasn't expecting it :)
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Monday and Tuesday were pretty much the same stuff, hanging out at the beach, exploring the campsite (with Carrie wearing her new monkey backpack *[leash]*) Luckily, she loved to wear it around and feel independent all the while actually being very much safer than she would have been without it.
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"I'm wearing the monkey! Let's go outside!"
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My cousin Cody jumping off the pole of the dock (a small rite-of-passage thing for the 5-6-7 year olds)
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Dirty dirty dirty feet!!
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Getting her nightly bath in the teeny tiny trailer bathtub
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Wednesday 7/28: We got to go on a little kid joyride on the boat. One of my cousins took us and some of the little kids out on the lake and made sure to go over plenty of waves and make lots of little turns to make the kids giggle. I'm not quite sure what Carrie thought of it. She wasn't laughing, but she definitely wasn't crying. I think she was probably thinking "What is going on? It's really windy. Where are we?"
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Thursday 7/29: The last day at Priest Lake is always sad. We clean out the candy wagon, take down the parachute and wish we could stay longer. Carrie and I were definitely excited to be heading back home to Justin. I really wish he could have gone.
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Super-trendy city girl, all cleaned up and ready to go home
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Friday 7/30: One big long driving day (11 hours) from Priest Lake all the way to Idaho Falls. Really, the only good thing was stopping in Dillon, Idaho at the Dairy Queen (tradition..., you have to)
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Saturday 7/31: We hung out at my Grandparents' and Uncle Brian & Aunt Janet's house most of the morning. My parents wanted to get their laundry done before they got home because the school year starts here this week (my mom's a teacher). We left right after lunch and made it to Fillmore, Utah for dinner.
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Our plan was to drive to Kanab, and stop at a hotel for the night. When we got to Kanab around 9:30, we tried several hotels only to find out that there were absolutely NO vacancies. In the whole town. 13 hotels, motels, lodges, inns etc... Nothing. (By now, Carrie had decided that quietly suffering the drive wasn't enough anymore. Most of the day was spent with constant whimper-whines and about a 3 second attention span for any toy/book/song distraction. Although, Anastasia on DVD did seem to work for a little while)
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So we kept driving. Another hour later we were in Page, Arizona. 15 hotels etc... Nothing... It looked like we were going to have to keep going further. One very helpful hotel desk clerk was calling around town for my dad so we wouldn't have to stop and check everywhere, and hallelujah!- One hotel in town had just a couple of rooms left. We got one! Goodnight!!
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Sunday 8/1: We pulled into my parents house about 2:30 in the afternoon and unloaded their stuff. Carrie was definitely NOT excited to get back in the car to go the 45 more minutes to our house. It was heaven to get home though! Justin had just gotten back from church and was ready and anxiously waiting to greet us! After a round of hugs and kisses, he unloaded everything out of the van for me and made us frozen waffles for dinner. :)
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Justin also had a suprise waiting for me when I got home. He not only had vacuumed the whole house (which was greatly appreciated), but even more so,... He got rid of ALL the weeds in the backyard! This may not sound very amazing to some people, but the weeds were literally as tall as the fence in some places! And they were SUPER prickly. So, thanks babe :)
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I'm insanely proud of myself because by Monday at 1:00pm, I had done four loads of laundry, folded them and put them away, unpacked ALL our things from the trip, dusted the house, Carrie was down for a nap, a homemade frozen lasagna (yeah freezer meals!) was thawing on the counter for dinner, and I got to sit on the couch with a chocolate snack pack and watch a Tivo'd episode of Project Runway that Justin had saved for me. :)
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Now that it's taken me 3 full days to write this post, I think I'll take a break. We had tons of fun, but we're glad to be home.

Going On Vacation

Carrie and I are leaving tomorrow morning for a 2 week vacation with my family to Northern Idaho for a family reunion- a week of camping and playing in the lake. I'm sorry to say that because of work, Justin can't come with us. We'll all miss each other a ton! I hope I haven't forgotten to pack anything because there is ZERO room to spare!

I can't promise anything about keeping up posts while I'm gone (because I'm pretty sure there's no such thing as wi-fi at our campsite at the lake). I do promise, however, to take tons of pictures and drown you with a huge post when we get back the beginning of August!

Dizzy Dancing Queen

On Sunday evening while Justin was out Home Teaching, Carrie and I busted out a Freddie Prinze Jr. Chick Flick. When the credits started, Carrie immediately started dancing to the song like crazy. I really wanted to record it, but I didn't want to startle her or jinx it by getting up to get the camera. So I settled for just watching it and enjoying her. As soon as the song/credits ended, she started to whimper and ask "Gin?, Gin?" So I rewound it and jumped up to get the camera. Sorry the video is a little dark, but it's still fun to watch. And in case you can't see, she's wearing her usual accessories, sunglasses and bracelets.
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AGGGHHH!!! Nevermind! I've spent a day and a half trying to upload this video and it's NOT working. I'm sorry....
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Anyways, speaking of bracelets, Carrie got a package in the mail a few days ago from Justin's mom, "Nana". It had a beautiful turquoise bracelet and sparkly pink shoes in it. She loves them both!
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A few days ago around dinner time (actually, dinner was in the oven), Carrie was apparently just too hungry and couldn't wait. She went to the pantry and got out some cheesy-pasta-mix things, opened a cupboard (yes, the ones with babylocks), pulled out a bowl and tried to pour the package into it to "make dinner". Luckily for me, she doesn't know how to open the packages... That could have been a powdered cheese disaster! I love how much she imitates. :)
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Wednesday morning, I had an OB appointment for my regular 14 week checkup. As I was telling Justin about it later I said, "Man, this kid is STUBBORN! It took the MA a full minute to find the heartbeat!" (Remember last time I said they found it right away, but only for a second before the baby moved and we had to "find" it again?)
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Anyways, I told him, "Either this baby is a stubborn boy, because its personality is opposite of Carrie's, or it's a girl and it knows it's going to be the little sister and already has second child syndrome". Justin was thoughtful and much nicer about it. His theory, "It's not stubborn, it's just shy..." :)
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I guess we'll find out soon either way whether it's stubborn or shy or both, because my ultrasound is scheduled for August 11th! We're so excited! Especially to see a real "picture" of the baby since my first ultrasound was so early that the baby literally looked like a dot. It's crazy, but somehow time is going by pretty quickly!

The Kicker

In reference to the post title... I felt the baby kick for the first time last night! With Carrie I didn't feel it until 15 1/2 weeks and this time around I felt it at only 13 1/2 weeks. Apparently that can happen though because I started out significantly skinnier this time. I almost feel like starting to take belly pics, but I can't make myself do it yet. I feel like if I "give in" and admit that I'm starting to show, I'll start to grow even faster!
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Anyways, the little flutter baby kick feeling happened while we were on our way home from a Temple date night. Yesterday was our ward temple night so we got my mom to babysit for free, went to cheap mexican food for dinner and after a couple of TUMS, enjoyed going to the temple together. We ran into one of my friends from high school and her husband while we were there and were able to go out for ice cream with them afterward. All in all, a fun, happy date night.
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Of course, a Carrie update, because really, what's a post without mentioning her?... Some new things she's started saying lately are:
"Peesss" for please (while she's signing it),
"Wa-wa" for water,
"Luh Oo" for "Love You", and
"Bess Oo" for bless you, when anyone sneezes.
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This last one is especially cute to us because we didn't teach it to her. She just picked it up on her own. She is consistently signing "more", "please", "food/snack" and is working on learning to sign and say "help".
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She's an awesome cleaner-upper, which of course makes me very happy! She likes to help clean up her toys before naps/bed, and her current favorite activity is pulling a few DVDs at a time out of the shelf and putting them back. I think it's actually really good for her hand-eye coordination and dexterity, trying to fit the last couple in when there's not much room left, so for now, I'm trying to ignore the "mess" of DVDs on the floor.
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She thinks she's such a big girl in fact, she's decided that baby locks on the kitchen cupboards are not meant for her anymore... That's right, my 18 month old can open the baby locks... Really?!... I haven't had a major disaster yet, but I'm just waiting for it.
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Every day I see less baby and more little girl. I think she'll be a great big sister and helper by the time the new baby comes. She's already started to include hugs and kisses for the baby (my tummy) after family prayer each night.
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I gave her a haircut/trim a couple of days ago and the new style is adorable! Pixie bangs and a flipped-out bob. She sits to let me use a curling iron and loves to put bows and clips in it. I know this isn't the best picture, but it was all I could get.
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Today Justin decided to try to save more money on his car by fixing some stuff himself again. His car has been overheating lately so he changed the thermostat and flushed the radiator. It would have been done really quickly except for the fact that he apparently has super-strength and while tightening the radiator drain cap by hand, overdid it. We couldn't get it back off to drain the flush. Even though I knew it would probably be pointless, I offered to give it a try.
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After several minutes of no success on my part, our mechanic neighbor happened to be walking by our house to the mailbox. He stopped and took a look. He said it was so tight, he was afraid if he tried loosening it, it would break and we'd be stuck having to buy a whole new radiator... NO thanks... He pointed out an alternate option which then took me and Justin combined, about an hour to actually accomplish. But it got done!!! And we got MESSY!
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This last picture has two purposes, first, Carrie wore that fuzzy green hat around the house forever! It was cute, but weird. Secondly, she's discovered dum-dum suckers and loves them! It took her of few minutes of "training" with me to learn how to eat them, but she thinks they're awesome! And the best part is she really doesn't get sticky, she keeps it in her mouth!
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No Night Owls Around Here!

Happy belated 4th of July everyone! Our weekend was sure fun-filled, especially because Justin had a 3 day weekend! On Saturday afternoon, we went to my parents' house for swimming and a bbq. I contributed yummy red-white-n-blue strawberries. (I TOTALLY stole the idea from a friend. She had a picture on her blog from memorial day, thanks Marci!) They're dipped in white chocolate and blue sugar sprinkles. Yummy!
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Me, Carrie, Marissa and Alex playing ring-around-the-rosy in the pool. When we "all fall down" I try to dunk Carrie a little. She's getting more and more used to it. If you listen carefully, Carrie asks "Again?!" almost before she can breath!
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That night we went to the Diamondbacks Baseball game. (We got to leave Carrie at home, hallelujah! She would have been one tired little girl! Thanks for babysitting Tanner!) We got to ride the light rail train there, which was exciting to me because I've only ever been on it one other time. We had pretty good seats for $20 each and even though the Dodgers SLAUGHTERED the D-backs 14-1, we still had fun. When the D-backs scored the solo home run in the bottom of the 9th, everyone in the stadium was screaming! Even the dodgers fans ;) They opened the roof after the game and we watched fireworks. By the time we got back to my parents', picked up Carrie and drove back to our own house, it was 1am... We are definitely not made for the night life around here. On Sunday morning we slept in until 10:45, even Carrie!
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All of us at the ballgame: Top- Brandon, Marissa, Kevin, Jake, Chris. Bottom- Dad, Rebecca, Justin, Mom
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Sunday night we watched fireworks from the balcony on the front of our house. My parents and siblings showed up right in time for the show. They stayed and played games, and ate cookies and popcorn until midnight. We all slept in on Monday too :)
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Monday was an extra treat because we had Justin home with us. We went to Ross and did part of our mini shopping spree we have allowed ourselves out of our '1st time homebuyers tax credit' money. It was great! Justin got 3 new pairs of slacks, 2 shirts and a belt for $80, and I got 4 new shirts and 1 pair of capris for $40. Don't worry, we didn't leave Carrie out. She got some polka-dot froggy pajamas that were on clearance.
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Now we're settling back into normal plain-old boring routine. And I love it. I need a little break before the next round of excitement!

A New Way to Color

Carrie loves her crayons. The coloring book, not so much. Lucky for me (knock on wood) she hasn't colored on the walls yet. A few days ago, I decided to sit her in her high chair to color. I figured, that way, she can't run off to the other room while I'm busy and make a disaster of anything. Well, the coloring book stayed open for about 2 seconds... after that she was having a ball coloring all over her high chair!
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I highly recommend this method! It wiped off with just a wet washcloth. I was fully prepared to bust out the magic eraser and/or ajax, but there was no need :) Actually, as I'm typing right now, she's having fun coloring her high chair tray.
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I'm not sure where she learned this little trick, but she often carries little toys around by holding them between her chin and her chest... whatever...
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This is after we came inside from a ride in the car. I was putting groceries away in the fridge and Carrie decided it would be a good place to sit and relax. "Ahh, nice and cool!"
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A couple of days ago, I was feeling a little yucky as I went to start dinner so I pulled a stool over to the stove so I could sit while I stirred. Carrie immediately pushed the other stool over next to me and begged to get up. She sat there for almost 10 minutes "helping" me make dinner.
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Last night Justin and I got a date night (thanks for babysitting, mom). We went to see "Eclipse". We were sure the theater was going to be full, after all, it was only its second day out. We bought our tickets online a couple of days before and showed up at the theater just shy of an hour before the showing time. The movie was good, but holy moly, what a waste of time coming so early. The movie started at 4:05pm. We were the only people in the theater until 3:55... And even then, there only ended up being about 20-25 people in the theater. We did have perfect seats though :) Then to top off the evening, we went to Texas Roadhouse. Yummmmm... Talking about it now is reminding me that I have leftovers in the fridge. Good thing it's getting close to lunch time.
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Unfortunately, I don't have any pictures to document our date. Months ago, we had joked about making T-shirts for when we went to see Eclipse. Usually, Twilight fans are divided into "Team Edward" and "Team Jacob". Justin said he wanted his shirt to say "Team Alice", because she's his favorite. So then I decided I wanted to make a shirt that said "Team Mike" because nobody gives the poor kid a break! I'm not really "Team Mike" because let's face it, the human ending up with a human... boring. Anyways, the point is, we totally forgot about it until we were already sitting in the theater.