To My Beautiful Bride

Happy 7th Anniversary Heidi!!! I can't believe it has been that long already. Time definitely flies when you're having fun. Thank you for being my best friend and for bringing constant happiness into my life. You're even more beautiful now than when we first met (yes, even with the cute prego belly!). Tomorrow will be a bit different of an anniversary in that we won't be together but I'm sure I'll still go all out and get some fast food to celebrate! :)

I love you and can't wait to see you in a couple of days!

Love,

Your T.W. (inside joke that most of you readers won't recognize ... don't worry about it!)

The "other" Graduate

Anna was playing with my jewelry the other day she came to me and said, "I graduated." (Just like her Daddy and Auntie.) I love her imagination and all she is learning everyday!

Our Lizard Friends

These little guys are all over the place. They scare me when they rustle in the bushes as I walk by, but we love watching them on the walls. Anna even has me tell her stories about the "girl lizard and the boy lizard racing on the walls" before bed. I tried to catch them on video, but couldn't get them... did you know they do push ups? Between that and running all day they put us to shame!

Good Ole' Stanislaus County Fair

We ventured out Saturday afternoon to the fair grounds in Turlock, CA. It was over 100 degrees, but we survived. He had a great time petting animals, seeing baby ducks just out of their eggs, watching the Budweiser Clydesdale's in their parade, going on the carousel (Anna's favorite), eating junky food, listening to a country band, going through a mock rain forest and seeing a show about the cutest monkey in the world as well as Zeus the Boa constrictor. We stayed up late and waited with a crowd to see "KC and the Sunshine Band" rock it out at 60 years old to "Shake Shake Shake... Shake your booty" among others. It was a fun night! Anna was a bit nervous to pet the animals.

I don't know why this didn't flip, this was the lead horse in the parade before he was all hooked up.

This was actually at Michael Jackson's "Never land Ranch." We didn't ride on it due to Anna not being tall enough, but it was cool to see!

We brought our smaller camera and it's shutter is a LOT slower than our Nikon. Here is the best shot on the carousel. Let's just say it was a good thing that horse stopped a little lower to the floor.

Checking out the snakes... not my favorite

In front of the Macaws

Seeing a real Scorpion. Dave touched it, Anna and I opted out, but Anna was interested in looking.

the little sister

We are excited to still be a family of girlie, pink GIRLS! I think Anna understands the concept of a little sister and is excited!

Here's to one more girl to help us have tea parties, play with princesses, babies, and barbies!

The Silly Face

I have been thinking so much lately how grateful I am to be a Mom and have such an amazingly cute little girl. I think she is the cutest thing ever (what mom doesn't adore their own child?) I think (almost) everything she does is funny or cute. I wish I could video her life all day. I LOVE spending time with her everyday and I feel so happy right now to be home with her. Not that I haven't had quality time with her the past two years, but when I worked (with her there with me) it was different. I am grateful for the time I was able to work and for the experiences that gave both Anna and I, but it also taught me to be grateful to have time at home. I love getting to spend many moments watching her learn, express her emotions and teaching her. It is truly an incredible thing to see your own child grow.

Many times throughout the day I laugh because of my phrases she repeats as well as new funny things she comes up with. Her most recent funny quirk is the silly face. She started this face from watching her cousins on Skype. At first she only did it when we were skyping then the day we ended work she thought it would be funny to start doing it for the camera! Now, after two months of it we have pictures of her doing her silly face at almost every event we have been too! It is hilarious. Instead of being embarrassed or making her stop I decided to embrace it. She is only 2 once and it is a classic moment in her life.

So I give you . . . the events of the last two months via the Silly Face!
Saying goodbye to our fun friends (the kids I nannied in Ann Arbor) Fiona and Eilidh.
At the Henry Ford Village just outside the house Henry Ford grew up in.

Riding in an old Model T for the first time.

The family outside an old Train shop

Saying goodbye to our home in Ann Arbor, the morning Anna left with Grandma on a plane; and moving day for Dave and I.

Saying goodbye to friends in SLC.

Making it more known that she was silly

Giving Great - Grandma hugs for the first time since Christmas. The best part . . .
She taught my 93 year old Grandma to do it as well... if that isn't hilarious I don't know what is!!

Getting Ready for Kjersti, my youngest sister's, Graduation.

After her second SLC ER visit. It seems we probably should visit SLC because each time we end up in the ER or with something else scary. During last summer while living there she sucked on cleaner and we had to call poison control. Over the Christmas holiday she has a seizure and we rushed up to Primary Children's Medical Center. This time she fell backward on the chair and hut her nose (as you can see if the photo), it swelled up and bled within moments so we went to the Heber City ER. Where we met a Dr. jeans, cowboy boots and a belt buckle and were told to just watch it. Geez! Most recently, our visit to Yosemite brought it's fair share of the silly face. including this moment in front of Yosemite Falls.

There are others, I am sure, perhaps on other people's cameras. Lucky them. I love this silly girl.

A step back through time

... In April we visited the Henry Ford Museum and the Rouge Factory with Dave's Dad, Paul. It was awesome! I still haven't blogged, but wanted to take a moment to go back in time (quite literally) and post some of the collection.

THE ROUGE FACTORY did not allow cameras, but it was cool to walk through. This is Ford's plant where they make all the Ford Autos. We were able to walk through and see how a car is made from start to finish. Sounds boring, not so much. Ford and his company are very innovative, even down to putting a garden on the roof which extends the roof's useful life and also insulates the building. Everything is VERY planned out.

When they make the body of the car it is all painted together at the beginning, then each piece systematically is sent off in its own direction on different conveyer belts, eventually after all the nuts and bolts are in (you watch the workers put them in on the large conveyer belts) all the original pieces of the SAME car are put back together. It is pretty amazing.

THE HENRY FORD MUSEUM:

Ford is a collector (I will post another time of the BUILDINGS - yes buildings he has collected). He loved to buy things of historical value and replace them to their proper or original state. I don't know how all this collection came about but here are some highlights.

"THE ONE THAT STARTED IT ALL"

Henry Ford's first horseless carriage (the "Quadricycle") that helped design the later Model T.

The Car that Kennedy was shot in. We also saw the car Reagan was shot in.

There were many old "planes, trains, and automobiles" through out the museum, this one caught our eye as we were going to be moving soon!

Not so old, but quite the collector

The Bicycle that Tom Thumb Rode.

Dave's Grandpa worked as an attorney for Union Pacific Railroad, so this photo of Paul is in honor of his father

This Train was HUGE!!!! Anna was enthralled as I think we all were. The cool thing is we were able to go up inside of it.

Anna decided to be conductor... while also taking a moment to stink up the place. Ha!

The Bus where Rosa Parks made her stand against racism.

And what is supposedly the seat that she sat in (though it looks different in the actual photo of her so we were a little confused.)

There was a big selection dedicated to slavery and the history of segregation. Though I have heard many stories, read books on it, studied history, it was still amazing to me to actually SEE firsthand some of the things that were used. I cannot imagine what the society was like to live in at that time. The section on slavery and some of the torture devices, the historical newspaper clippings, and the "For Sale" (of colored people) signs were just baffling. Such a sad time in history, among many others.

The chair that Lincoln was shot in. We thought we would have seen this a year ago when we went to the actual Theater! Had to go to two different states to see the whole package.

"Hot Dog Bed" Anna loved playing in this thing. It was so funny.

The actual weiner-mobile. I can't get the song out of my head now that I have made this post. Hope you all don't have the same reaction. Anna was so excited to see the Hot Dog car, we actually headed there first!