Playing with the camera!

We had a pretty good weekend! Just busy... but don't ask me what I did. That whole pregnant=forgetful thing is 100% true for me. I lost my watch this week and then found it after I washed the whites... IN the washer. Honestly. I feel like my brain is slipping away the closer I get to the due date. Oh well! Other than that I feel great, just big! I swear I'll get a belly picture up soon.
I've been trying to find moments when William is distracted so I can take his picture without him trying to attack the camera. Here are some of my favorites. Though I still generally have no clue what I am doing, I'm having fun.

This picture looked good on the little screen... but if you'll notice, his left elbow and arm are in focus while his head is blurry! Oh well. He's my sweet piano loving child. He doesn't even (always) just sit and BANG. He likes to pick out notes to try to copy Mommy. He's been very into copying lately... My favorite was trying to copy Daddy putting pomade in his hair.
To kill time in evenings and to beat the heat (and water the lawn... look how multi-tasking we are!) I turn on the hose and let William have at it. He thinks it's hysterical when the water hits him in the face and especially when it hits Mommy in the face.
Pointing at the camera.
Looking at the airplane.My attempts at being artistic... I just set the camera to the automatic macro feature for this one. It's off-centered... but in my defense I was dodging a toddler with a hose.

In the summer time when the weather is hot...

On Wednesday morning William and I arrived back home completing our 2 week trip to Utah/California. It was fabulous to visit friends and family but the actual traveling and 2/3-hour time change was rough.
William is growing up so fast and learning new things every minute. His vocabulary is impressive (to his parents, at least), including "bbbboo" (shoe), "wada" (water), "ni-ni" (used to say 'goodnight' and for his blanket)... those are just some of my favorites.
Alright.. so the good stuff. Here pictures from our trip:

Seeking relief from that last nasty 12-month molar that's cutting.

William LOVES shoes. These slippers are too small and the jacket is obviously huge but he insisted on wearing them both.
A bit before we took off on our vacation we had our last dinner with some of our favorite people, the Johnsons. They've just moved from the area and I can't tell you how sad I am or how much William will miss his best friend William.
Hanging out on Grandma's front porch. I know my head is cut off, but it was too cute of W to skip over.
My sister's dog, Timber, all decked out to watch the 4th of July parade. Probably the best dog I've ever met.
Watching the parade with Grandma (who has bribed him with a dumdum that is hidden in his fists).

I love this picture! W had so much fun playing in the kid toys at Grandma Julie's house.
Grandpa Ralph getting involved in the 4th festivities. What you can't see are his awesome argyle socks!
Nathaniel is such a great activity leader. He headed up a group of family to hike up to Timpanogos Cave. (There's a little belly shot of me. I promise we'll get a 'good' one soon.)
The "heart" of Timpanogos cave.

Hancock family minus Jared & co.
My nephew monster... I mean Preston. You can't help but love him.
Aren't we sweet?
Trevor & Natalie had us over to their house for dinner and I mentioned that I'd never seen N chop veggies. He had me take this picture so now I've seen it and so have all of you.

After our trip to Utah N flew back home for work (noble man!) and W and I took off to Cali for some more fun. This is a sweet picture of Poppy (my dad) and W up in the redwoods at my dads' house.
This picture of W playing in a little stream was taken moments before he decided to climb IN the stream to try to get into the little pond. yuck!

W's favorite toy. What a big helper!

And... now we're home. I'm trying like crazy to get W back onto east coast time, but I tell ya what. It's a challenge. I hear him chatting in his crib right now. Gotta go!

Family Adventures

Well- it's a bit refreshing to know that our adventures didn't run out when we left Europe. This past Wednesday evening we packed up the car and took off en route for the outer banks of North Carolina. Here are some pictures (a bit out of order.. but oh well) of our trip as taken with my killer new camera! Please note that basically all I can do with the blessed thing right now is point and shoot. Our relationship (mine and the camera) is a work in progress.

The freedom of being 14 months old. Of course... we did end up with a poop on the beach, but what's an adventure with a toddler without a poop story?

Nathaniel and I may be biased, but we sure think he's the most gorgeous child ever.

A little back note: Abby (pictured above) is Nathaniel's youngest sister who has come to brave the month of June with us. On Saturday morning Nathaniel spoiled us with an aerial tour of the island and area where we were staying! We were nervous when we climbed into the tiny 4-seater plane, but it was amazing how secure and safe we felt throughout the entire flight. Here are some of my favorite shots from the air.

See our shadow? We also saw a little group of sting rays and jelly fish but weren't able to get pictures of them.
Cape Lookout lighthouse. Later that day we returned by ferry to the lighthouse and basked in the sun for 4 hours! (I'll put up pictures of that later). William is the only one who didn't get a sunburn.


On our way down to the OBX we stopped at a little children's museum. William was WELL past naptime, but was still a champ for pictures. What a poser.
Okay... fed up a bit with being a model.

On Friday we went to the Aquarium. It's apparently the biggest in NC, but compared the the Monterey Bay aquarium... it was lacking. Here is W pointing out the fish to his daddy.
Love it!

We're back!

Hi friends. It's been a while. We had some technical difficulties for a while there. I'm not sure what we'd do without our ever talented and generous friends the Mitchels!

Looking back through the pictures from the month it's amazing to see how busy we've been. It all goes by so quickly!

I'd forgotten how long William's hair had been! This picture was taken shortly after he took a tumble down the entire flight of stairs. Tough little monster. He actually barely cried. I think it might have freaked out me and Nathaniel more than him!

Sporting some new converse!

William's best friend, William, came over to play while his sister made her grand entrance. The two boys are so fun to watch when they're together!

Like his parents, William has taken to fudgesicles. Don't worry. They're Healthy Choice.

Prepping for summer W got some new swim duds and a frog pool for the back yard. It's a hit.

Thank goodness for Aunt Charity, who helped save mommy's sanity while Daddy was out of town for a bit.
Okay... look close. William carefully hunted and captured this caterpillar. He proudly showed me his prize with his fingers pinched tightly on the poor caterpillar's middle. I was so grossed out, but had run to get the camera. W had lost interest in his now non-mobile pet and had dropped it by the time I came back. Boys.


Another boy toy. Charity, William and I up and drove down to Southern Virginia on a quick day trip to visit my brother who was there before he took off on a submarine! This fun race car simulator was outside the Commissary.

My bro took us on a tour of the submarine! Oh my gosh. It's soooo cramped. This picture doesn't even do his "bed" justice on how itty bitty his living space is.

W was pretty terrified while we were in there. He had an iron grip on my shoulder most of the time. Towards the end of the little tour he started reaching for various knobs and valves in the hallways. Time for the end of the tour!

"Hmm. What's a 'lemon'?"
"Yuck! I think I'll stick with fudgesicles!" -see below
That's my boy! Yes! So... in order to clean up his sticky hands, I decided to fill up the frog pool...
which quickly became a whole body affair. So. Off came the soggy clothes...
Voila! Shoes were left on to protect from the stinkin' gravel "patio" which is now GONE.

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In more news! To the devoted (and possibly just bored) viewers... Today we found out that William is not only going to be a big brother, but he is going to be a big brother to a LITTLE BROTHER. We're so excited!
Profile shot of our very handsome second son.