Discoveries

Little Cougar

2012-01-20T23:24:00.001-06:00

This girl cracks me up. Julia's been really into having me spell words out for her recently. Our conversation today before our nap:

Julia: How do you spell "me"?
Me: M-E
Julia: How do you spell "you"?
Me: Y-O-U
Julia: How do you spell "BYU"?
Me: Umm, Julia that is...never mind. B-Y-U.
Julia: How do you spell "Go Cougars!"?

A fitting picture would be one with her BYU shirt on, but I don't have one handy, so here she is pretending to be a princess. She was feeling very girly with her tiara, pink glow necklace and ruffled pink shirt and asked me to take a picture of her being pretty.

A little more Christmas and New Year's Eve

2012-01-19T17:39:00.009-06:00

Since we went to the Sandberg's house the day after Christmas they just waited for us to exchange gifts.

My sister-in-law Ashley just had surgery so we all went over to their house to celebrate Christmas with her. She wasn't up to taking any pictures so we didn't take any pictures of the in-laws.

For New Year's Eve my parent's had a lot of family members over for a party at their house to celebrate New Years East Coast time so Robert and I wouldn't be up too late and could catch our flight back home the next day. We had a pinata for the little kids. I love seeing Julia's changing reactions to the pinata's throughout the years. This time, the first candy that fell out Julia picked up and put back in the pinata =).
Julia made it to about 9:20 pm and then asked to go to bed. We ended up staying past midnight anyways playing games.

The gang:

Some fun with the Wheats

2012-01-18T18:00:00.011-06:00

Just a few more random pictures of our time over Christmas with the Wheats. Above, Julia and I also went sledding together a few times (down a very small hill).

Mostly I did a lot of snowshoeing. I was really proud of myself for going for a walk every day we were there. The trend didn't last long after we left Park City though.

Robert and I enjoy a sunset. Do I even look pregnant under all those layers?

We still did a lot of snowmobiling even though the snow level was pitiful. Still, there was just enough snow that we could. We were probably one of the few people who had a white Christmas this year.Here's a couple videos of the snowmobiling. We had fun making this one of Kevin and Ellen's close call on the snowmobile.

In case you're wondering what was going on, it's made with an iphone app.

Robert has been wanting to come down this steep hill with the snowmobile every year, so finally he did it this year. This is actually video of his second time down. He got a little cocky and went faster the second time, resulting in decreased steering ability and he ended up going through a bunch of branches and scratching his nose rather than staying on the path from the first time because he couldn't turn in time.

Would you have even been able to tell something was slightly amiss if you hadn't just read it?

Temple Lights

2012-01-11T22:44:00.011-06:00

This Christmas we went to see the Christmas lights at three different temples. I already posted about Washington D.C., so here are Los Angeles and Salt Lake.

We went with Steve and Wendy and family to hear a Bell Choir performance at the Los Angeles Temple Visitor's center and then saw the lights (It was our first time hearing a Bell Choir so that was pretty neat too.)

We were only in LA for a few days and then we went to Utah. After Christmas with the Wheat family we spent a week with my family. Robert and I got to do a session in the Salt Lake Temple, and then we waited for the rest of my family to join us with Julia.

So here's me alone while we waited for my family.

Then my parents and a bunch of cousins and aunts showed up and we saw the rest of temple square together.

Then to warm up we went to the Church History Museum across from temple square and Julia had fun in the new(ish) children s discovery area.

Playing in the play kitchen.
Knocking down the prison walls?
Fishing on the boat on the way to the promised land.

Poor Julia will never be mistaken as a Mexican even though she actually is 1/4 Mexican.

Christmas Morning

2012-01-05T21:03:00.010-06:00

Looking down at the Christmas tree, stockings, presents, and lack of cookies. "I think Santa ate the cookies!"

"Santa knew I wanted a train!" (He also left some larger gifts for her at home in Arlington that she found when we got home. Santa knows big tubs of legos don't fit in suitcases, but small train sets do.)

After playing with her train a little she moved on to her stocking, and then my stocking, and grandpa's stocking, and Robert's stocking.

She took everyone's candy cane they got in their stockings and put them on the Christmas tree.

Steve and Wendy got us pillow cases and Julia was really excited to use them right away.

Everyone got kisses in their stockings. Julia wanted to eat one, but before she ate it she said she had to read a scripture first (because we used kisses in our advent calendar and we always read a scripture before we ate the candy.) So grandpa read her from Luke on his iPad.

Fun with Dad

2012-01-04T21:24:00.005-06:00

I don't even know where to start with posts about Christmas. So from Christmas afternoon, here's Robert and Julia playing around on the snowmobile and sledding. Julia loved both but only for about 5-10 minutes each.

Earlier in the week when we first got up to the cabin and we had to get ready to get on the snowmobiles I had to wake Julia up because she had fallen asleep in her car seat. I told her we were going to ride up to the cabin on the snowmobile. She wanted to know if we were going to ride the pink snowmobile. When I told her we only had the yellow snowmobiles she looked out the window and started to cry "but I'm not a boy!"

So after that we made sure she got to ride her pink snowmobile whenever she went out.

Merry Christmas!

2011-12-25T09:15:00.000-06:00

Dear Friends and Family,

Seasons Greetings! We hope this letter finds you well and that you are enjoying your Christmas!

We are still living in Arlington, VA for a few months longer. Our two years here have flown by and we will be moving back to Claremont, CA at the end of May 2012. Our remaining time in D.C. should go very fast as well as we attempt to finish our D.C. area bucket list with the help of lots of guests. Most importantly, we are expecting a new addition to our family in March! We are very excited to be welcoming a little boy to our family around March 19.

Melarie is enjoying her last few months as a stay-at-home mom to only one child. It’s been wonderful to spend so much time with just Julia, but we all feel it’s about time that Julia had a little company at home. Julia (2 ½ yrs) never ceases to amaze us with her abilities to learn new things and seems so grown up to us now.

Robert has spent this year working in the International Tax group at the PwC Washington D.C. office. It has kept him really busy, but he has enjoyed the challenging work and the technical learning. He enjoys that Julia stays up late so he can spend some time with her on most nights. Play time often involves getting Julia riled up by running around the house together, playing red light green light, or tossing her in the air. Julia has come to think of him as a human playground and continually asks "do it again, do it again" until Robert is too tired or dizzy to swing her around anymore.

We’ve loved having visitors and getting to know our nation’s capital. If you’d still like to visit us, our guest room is still not “booked” for January, so let us know soon if you’d like to come see us!

Merry Christmas!

Love,

Robert, Melarie, and Julia Wheat

Christmas Festivities

2011-12-15T20:57:00.015-06:00

This year Julia has really been into all the holiday traditions we've been introducing her to, so it was a lot of fun to try to pack as much as we could into the two December weekends we will be in DC. One tradition that we started at home everyday was reading a scripture about Christ when we take out the candy on our advent calendar. It's amazing how much she understands and remembers and has been a good reminder for us that we should be doing family scripture study.

Starting the first December weekend in DC we took Julia to see Santa Clause at our local community center. We've been trying to teach her how to smile "nicely." Mostly we just get this when we say "smile!"

She does look halfway happy in this picture.

She didn't cry when she saw Santa, but she did have to be coaxed to sit on his lap. I had told her she needed to tell Santa what she wanted for Christmas, but when the big moment came she couldn't think of anything so I had to remind her a little of what she had been asking for. Not to worry though, Julia and I wrote Santa a letter detailing what she wants, so he should know.

The next day we to the Washington DC temple to see the lights. It's impossible to get a toddler to hold still long enough to get a good picture with lights outside, so the best one we have of Julia is of her hanging out on the camel from the Nativity. They also had a really cool international creche display inside the visitor's center with nativities from all over the world and a dozen or so decorated Christmas trees.

The following weekend we went to the National Botanical Gardens to see their Christmas display. They have miniature models of many of the famous buildings in DC (Capitol, White House, Lincoln Memorial, etc) made out of plant materials.

They also had a train exhibit that Julia loved with trains circling little fairy and critter houses made from plant materials as well. The last area in the exhibit is an area with miniatures of the presidents' houses. Do you recognize the largest one in the collage? It's Monticello, the subject of my last post!

Once again we see can see how Julia's smile training is going. This one isn't too bad.

This one is a fail.

This one is great! I don't remember when Robert took it, so that means I was probably in the restroom. Maybe I distract Julia when I'm around?

There's nothing quite like an actual smile of delight. This is Julia squealing with delight at the train going around the Christmas tree at the Botanical Gardens.

After the Botanical Gardens we went over to the National Christmas tree. They also had a nice train display that Julia loved.

Robert was fascinated by the train that derailed. He wanted to see who was going to come fix it, but no one ever did.

White House and Washington Monument at dusk.

They have 50 small decorated trees as well to represent each 50 state. After seeing the trees we peeked into Santa's workshop, but he was on break so we didn't visit him. That was okay with us though, no waiting in line. We still had time on our parking meter though so we walked up to the front of the White House and I got to see my first DC protest. There was a group of 50 or so people in front of the White House protesting Obama's lack of response to the Congolese election (which I know nothing about, but apparently from the gist of the protesters the dictator was "re-elected")

Other things we've done but that I have no pictures of (and let's face it, this post has enough pictures as it is) is made a gingerbread house (which I mostly ended up putting together), gone for a drive for FHE around a nearby neighborhood to see all the Christmas lights, and gone Christmas caroling at a rehabilitation center for our ward party. I think now we're all set to get out of here and celebrate Christmas with our families!

Monticello

2011-12-03T20:12:00.008-06:00

Before I get to Monticello, this giant oak tree is from Ash-Lawn Highland, which was the home of James Monroe. Unlike Jefferson and Madison, Monroe did not die in debt, and you can tell by his house. It was a nice old house by today's standards, so it would pretty nice back then, but nothing compared with Monticello or Montpelier. So we don't even have a picture of the house because that's not what impressed us, just this big tree that would have been there when Monroe lived there.

Final post from our trip clear back in October, but I just had make sure to include Monticello, the home of Thomas Jefferson. I love how you get a sense of the personalities of the presidents when you visit their homes. Thomas Jefferson was always on the lookout for the latest and greatest so there are a lot of quirky little things about his home, like having a lot of the auxiliary buildings like the ice house and kitchen tucked halfway beneath the home so you can't see it from the front and having a dumbwaiter just for wine. His front entry room was a huge entry room full of artifacts that Lewis and Clark brought back and his house is full of French inspired items because he loved the French.

Unfortunately the day we were there it was pouring, but it did clear up a little and we were able to walk around the gardens after the tour of the inside of the house. You might recognize this view of the back of Monticello from the U.S. nickel.

Beautiful purple flowers.

And a beautiful view.Jefferson's grave.

Haircut/Belly Pic In One

2011-12-02T14:43:00.001-06:00

Got a new haircut today! And everyone says I'm finally starting to show. Me at 24 weeks.

P.S. I didn't tell Robert I was getting a haircut. Do you think he'll notice?

Montpelier and Lee Chapel

2011-11-22T14:51:00.015-06:00

Robert and I got to visit three president's homes while on our Virginia trip. Montpelier is the home of James Madison, the fourth president of the United States and father of the Constitution. Montpelier looks great on the outside but they are just starting to collect furniture and decorations for the inside, so inside it is a little sparse. (Both Jefferson and Madison died in debt, so not a lot of Madison's furniture stayed in the family. Instead it was sold to pay off the debt.) They do however do a good job of telling you the significant events that happened in each room. ("This is the room where the fourth president of the United States took his last breathe." "This is the room where the ideas for the constitution were born.")

The grounds here are beautiful. Madison spent months at Montpelier researching every form of government he could to prepare for the Constitutional Convention. At least he had a beautiful view to reflect on as he worked.

An iconic building of Montpelier is this little pagoda. It's actually an ice box, so underneath it is a giant hole they would fill with ice during the winter and then store things that needed to be kept cold during the summer.

James Madison's grave. It was cool to walk around the family graveyard and try figure out how they were related to Madison.

The next day we were down in Lexington and visited the Lee Chapel, where Robert E. Lee is buried. It is on the campus of Washington and Lee University where Lee was president after the Civil War. He had the chapel built because he felt like the students needed a place where they could come together. He attended church and college events there for a few years after it was finished and then he died. Now on the stage inside the chapel area there is a giant statue of Lee in his uniform asleep on the battlefield and in the basement of the chapel is the Lee family crypt where Lee is actually buried.

Robert E. Lee's trusty horse, Traveller, is also buried just outside the chapel.

To throw in a bit of history here, a lot of people might think it was odd to have a university named after the first president of the United States and the commander of the Confederate Army. Aren't they on opposite sides? Actually, they were both first and foremost Virginians. Washington was a major slave holder and lived in Virginia, a southern state. I'm not saying he definitively would have fought for the south if he were alive during the Civil War, but it's possible. And Lee wasn't exactly thrilled with the idea of secession, but he was loyal to his state and when Virginia seceded it was a hard decision for him to make to join with the Confederates. Also, Lee was married to Washington's step great-granddaughter (Martha's great-granddaughter) so the families are very interconnected.

Julia Films

2011-11-22T14:41:00.001-06:00

I found this video on my phone today. Can you guess where we are?

Williamsburg, Jamestown, and Yorktown

2011-11-21T20:52:00.000-06:00

This may be a little ambitious to put these three historic places into one post, but I've got so much stuff to post right now it'll have to do. So back when I still had morning sickness and never went anywhere I asked Robert if we could have a "babymoon" and go off together without Julia for a while. We tossed around a few ideas and finally settled on checking off some of our to-do list in Virginia. So last month we left Julia with Robert's Mom for five days and took off to explore Virginia.

The first place we visited was Williamsburg. Williamsburg was the capital of Virginia pre-American Revolution. It's now like a history Disneyland with lots of restored houses, working 18th century artisan shops, and actors in period clothing walking around.

My favorite house was the governor's mansion.

The front entry way and hallway is crazy with all the arms they had as decoration.

Another important building was the Capitol Building. It was where the Virginia House of Burgesses met, whose members around the time of the Revolution included people like Thomas Jefferson and Patrick Henry. Eventually the same body of men led Virginia to be the first state to propose declaring independence at the Second Continental Congress.

Williamsburg is super close to Jamestown and Yorktown, so the area is called the Historic Triangle. The next day we did Jamestown in the morning and Yorktown in the afternoon (BTW, of you go, besides the sites run by the National Park Service there is also a Jamestown Settlement and Yorktown Victory Center that are tourist spots for live history reenactment type stuff. We just went to the NPS sites and didn't feel like we were missing out on anything since the actual history happened at the NPS sites.)

I loved Jamestown! It was so cool to see the actual site where John Smith and the rest of the Virginia Company first tried to settle in America. Part of the reason we had such a great experience at Jamestown was we took the archaeology tour given by one of the archaeologists excavating the site. The archaeologists take turns giving a one hour tour of the site once a day, and since we were there at the right time and without a toddler, it was perfect for us! The tour was great. The archaeologist had actually been there for most of the large discoveries and was really exited and knowledgeable about the work being done. It was cool to hear about how they discovered the artifacts, and then go into the visitor center and actually see the artifacts she had been describing.

It wasn't until recently that they even knew where the site of the original fort was. A lot of historians and archaeologists thought the site had probably been washed away into the sea since so much erosion had taken place along the banks from all the big boats going past on the river. For the 400th anniversary of Jamestown they decided to actually look into it and discovered

that most of the original site was still there!

This is our tour guide standing in their current dig site, the site of the original church building in the fort. This would have been the place where John Rolfe and Pocahantas were married, probably right about where the guide is standing.

Robert takes a work call as we pose in front of the John Smith statue.

This is pretty much a view of the entire fort, it wasn't all that big. You can see the graveyard right in front. They lost a lot of men in the first little while and they had to bury them all within the walls of the fort so the Indians wouldn't know how many men they were losing.

So after Jamestown we headed to the site of the Battle of Yorktown, the last major battle of the Revolutionary War. After the American's won this battle the British surrendered (although the commanding British general. General Cornwallis, had his second in command surrender for him, claiming he was sick.)

A major part of the battle was the storming of the redoubts. Redoubts were like elevated earthen forts where the British had cannons they were firing. The Americans needed to get control of the redoubts to continue moving towards the town of Yorktown and the British. Here is Robert in front of a redoubt (Redoubt #10?)

This may look like just an empty field, but this is where the Revolutionary War came to an end. This is where the British surrendered to George Washington. Well, actually, the second British General in Command tried to give the sword of surrender to the French General Rochambeau, still not acknowledging Washington and the Americans as a separate nation. Rochambeau refused and pointed towards Washington. Washington also refused the sword and pointed to his second in command, seeing it only fitting for the second in command to surrender to the second in command.

The day we were there these French "soldiers" were also there singing songs and marching around the field. I have no idea who they were or why they were there, but they were actual Frenchmen. I mean, the French did have a major role in the Battle of Yorktown (the Americans never would have won if the French Navy hadn't blocked the British Navy from sending in more troops by sea) but I don't know why these particular Frenchmen were there that day. Anyhow, they were cute and good at posing for pictures.

Whew, if you made it to the end congratulations, you must like history. It was a lot of history for us packed into two days, and we still had three more days of visiting more historical sites. To be continued...

Thanksgiving Banner Crafts

2011-11-19T11:20:00.004-06:00

We don't have many Thanksgiving decorations, but we do have a lot of beautiful leaves here. So Julia and I made two Thanksgiving banners using things we found outside to bring a little autumn spirit into our house.

Julia helped me gather leaves, twigs, pinecones, etc for the banners.

The first banner is our "Thankful For" banner. We traced some of the leaves we collected onto construction paper and cut out the leaves. Then we wrote what we are thankful for on the leaves and strung those leaves together with the real leaves.

The next banner is made out of all the other outdoor stuff and says "Give Thanks".

Halloween

2011-11-13T20:16:00.008-06:00

A little late, but I'm sure you were all thinking it was worth the wait to see this little gnome. The Halloween festivities began for us on Thursday when we went to Robert's work and went trick or treating through the offices and maze of cubicles at Robert's work, ending with pumpkin decorating and pizza at the end. Julia has seen a video of her doing this last year and was really excited to go. She was a pro at treat or treating by the end.

The next day we went to our ward Halloween party. I dressed up as a gardener, so here is the gardener and her garden gnome.

Then on Halloween we surprised ourselves by going trick or treating to quite a few houses. Like blocks of houses! I was just planning on going to a few houses, but Julia already had the hang of it and was excited to be out with the other kids, so we just kept going (it also helps that the houses are all townhouses and really close together). I counted Julia's candy afterwards and she had almost 60 pieces (but she was so cute people just kept giving her more as long as she stood in their doorway).

The post Halloween candy meltdowns were epic for Julia. I have never seen her react so strongly against me saying no as when I told her she couldn't eat anymore candy that day. Luckily we've eaten almost all of it by now so we no longer have those tantrums.

They had this little setup at our community center on Halloween night.

Another Julia Video

2011-11-12T15:39:00.003-06:00

Do your kids like to watch videos of themselves? Julia does, and this is her current favorite. This was a few weeks ago at the park. She giggles at all her antics and likes to tell me "She's going to ____ Mom! Watch! She's going to ___!" (I won't spoil it by telling you what she does at the end, although that makes it sound more exciting than it really is)

Potty Training

2011-11-11T17:24:00.002-06:00

We've been potty training Julia this week. It's been full of surprises. Like the "surprise" I found on the stairs this afternoon. Well, that and the first day wasn't so bad, the second day was pretty good, the third day was awful, and today has been a mixed bag. I thought things were suppose to start out bad and get better. Now I'm not sure what to expect. I think we are all just trying to figure this out without driving each other crazy. Julia and I are not used to being home so much and get a little stir crazy by the end if the day. Also, Julia hasn't napped all week either which makes her crazy by dinner time. Who knows what tomorrow will bring?

Ford's Theater

2011-11-07T15:05:00.006-06:00

Time for another history lesson! Actually, likely several in the next few days. This month Robert and I saw a lot of historical sites. After Kevin and Ellen left last month Julia stayed with Robert's mom for five days and Robert and I got to go off by ourselves and explore Virginia! But that's not what this post about since Robert has a lot of pictures on his phone that I need to transfer to the computer first. Our next visitors were Robert's cousin Daniel and his wife Amanda. Sadly, they managed to go their whole trip while avoiding getting into any of our pictures, so there are no pictures of them. But while they were here we went with them to Ford's Theater, one of the places still on our to-do list for the area.

So picture this: The day is April 14, 1865. The Civil War has just ended. After years of worrying about the war Lincoln finally has a relaxing day with his family and goes to the theater that evening to see a British comedy "Our American Cousin." He and his guests arrive late, but not wanting to interrupt the show he tries to sneak it. Of course it doesn't work since he is 6 ft 4 in. tall and immediately recognizable. They stop the show and sing "Hail To The Chief" and make a big deal out of it all.

Meanwhile, a very well known actor, John Wilkes Booth, had stopped by the theater earlier that day and found out that Lincoln would be attending that night's show. He arrives at the theater about an hour after Lincoln's party and goes next door to have a drink. He is familiar with the play (having even starred in it once before) and he knows exactly when he wants to pull off the assassination. Towards the end of the play there is a line that is very funny delivered by the sole actor on stage at the time. Booth thinks this is a perfect time since the noise of the gun will be muffled by the laughing and there will only be one person on stage for him to get through after he jumps from the Presidential Box onto the stage and out the back door.

He was right. At about 10:15 pm he walks right into the Presidential Box (the sole body guard had left his post) and waits for the line. He puts a small pistol right up to the back of Lincoln's head and fires. Booth briefly struggles with Major Henry Rathbone, who was also in the box, then stabs him in the arm with a hunting knife and jumps from the box onto the stage. He get's tangled up in the drapery from the box and breaks his leg as he lands. Then he reportedly yells, "Sic Semper Tyrannis" (Latin for "As Always to Tyrants"), flashes his bloody knife at the audience, and escapes out the backdoor in front of a confused audience of about 1,000 people. Booth is eventually found a few days later and is shot to death after refusing to surrender.

Lincoln never regains consciousnesses. He is taken to a boarding house across the street, The Peterson House, where he dies the next morning.

My attempt at a photo of Julia and Robert in the room where Lincoln died.

Also, I have one random picture of the 9/11 Pentagon Memorial that I took when we went with Daniel and Amanda so I'll throw it in here. The Memorial is a series of benches, one for each of the 184 people who died in the attack. The benches are organized by the year of birth of each passagenger and oriented so that when you read the name on the bench you are facing towards the Pentagon if the victim was a worker at the Pentagon, or away from the Pentagon if the victim was from the plane.

Hiking in Shenandoah

2011-11-04T12:42:00.011-06:00

Time for a little blog catch up. We had a lot of visitors last month and it was a lot of fun, but left little time for blogging. In October, three days after my dad left, Robert's Mom came, and the next day his brother Kevin and wife Ellen came down from Philly to visit as well. While they were all here we went to Shenandoah National Park to see the fall leaves.

Before we left Julia had fun jumping in the leaves at our house:

While we were there we went for a little hike. Julia got to walk with everyone else until she got tired.

Then she rode in the hiking backpack.

And when we got to the bottom of the trail at the river she got to get out again and throw leaves in the river.

2011-11-02T15:07:00.001-06:00

I found a bunch of pictures like these on my phone after I let Julia play with my phone during stake conference. Notice the face of concentration. She cracks me up with her ability to use technology at age 2.

It's a Boy!

2011-11-01T14:18:00.004-06:00

We've actually known this for a week and a half but in case you missed it...we're having a boy!

I'm a little sad for Julia because she was insistent that it was a girl and I think she would have had fun with a little sister. But surprisingly she took the news really well so I guess I shouldn't feel bad for her. She'll have fun with a little brother too and she's already stopped talking about having a baby sister and is now talking about her baby brother Micah.

Julia and Robert's mom got to go with us to the ultrasound so they were both there when we found out. The ultrasound tech asked Julia what she thought the baby was, and for once Julia had nothing to say. We had told her that the doctor was going to tell us if it was a baby brother or a baby sister, so I imagine she was thinking "well, aren't you suppose to be the one telling me what it is?" She had a good time seeing the baby moving (which he did plenty of during the ultrasound. I don't think this kid ever sleeps.) and hearing his heartbeat for about five minutes, then she was more interested in her game on the tablet.

3D pictures look a little weird, but here is our baby Micah hiding behind his hand.

Grandpa Races

2011-10-11T20:44:00.003-06:00

My dad chose to visit us this weekend so he could run in the Army Ten Miler. It as a huge race, 30,000 runners. We took the metro in to the National Air and Space Museum where the race goes down the street towards the capital and then turns around at the National Museum of American Indian and goes back to the 395 and over the river to end at the Pentagon.

So were about at the 6 mile mark. Here is my dad (in the blue) running by. Looking good! This was still in the first 1,000 runners going by. The metro unfortunately was on the other side of the street. We were figuring we could just cross the street between runners and head back to the Pentagon, but we underestimated how thick 30,000 runners are. There was no getting across the street, especially with a stroller. We had to walk down the street to go around the race.

So we missed my dad at the finish line, but here he is at the Pentagon with his finishers coin.

Grandpa Sandberg Visits Day 2

2011-10-11T15:41:00.006-06:00

On Friday we picked up my dad's running packet at the DC Armory and then headed over to the National Museum of the American Indian. This is probably my favorite museum because they occasionally do performances. Last weekend they were having the Ponca Festival and when we were there members of the Ponca Tribe from Nebraska were demonstrating the different dances they have.

I think this was Julia's first experience seeing Native American dancing and it was pretty entertaining to see her reaction to the dancing and drumming and costumes and yelling. She was afraid of one dancer who had his face painted and would hide in my lap every time he came around the circle. But she mostly thought it was cool how they dance and that they had a big drum like she has a drum.

For lunch we went to the museum's cafe where they serve Native food from North and South America. I had salmon, winter squash and wild rice salad. My dad had buffalo, winter squash, and potatoes.

Afterwards we walked across the street to the US Botanic Garden. For some reason Julia loved the First Ladies Water Fountain.

She spent 20 minutes like this, going around the fountain and laying down and looking at the water. I told her she couldn't touch the water, but she was happy just to look. I don't know why she loved it so much, she was just content to watch the water flowing and bubbling.

On the canopy walk in the Jungle room.

Watering the plants in the Children's Garden, another place we spent a lot of time at.

Pretty purple flowers.

The Julia-smile-for-the-camera smile. She loved this fountain as well.My favorite room was the Orchid room. It was gorgeous with so many flowering orchids.

Down on the Farm

2011-10-11T15:25:00.000-06:00

There are quite a few little farms in Maryland and Virginia that do corn mazes and autumn festivals, so we decided to get into the fall spirit and go to one last Saturday while my dad was still here.

Julia the scarecrow.

Julia get's pumped up for the corn maze.

Believe it or not this was actually Robert's first ever corn maze experience. I don't know how he made it though college in Utah without ever going through one. I think he had fun memorizing the way out on the map and leading us straight through (but it still took a while since the path went through the entire maze and we let Julia choose the path a few times and lead us astray). The thing that made the biggest impression on Julia is the snake we saw on the trail right as we entered the maze. She still keeps talking about it.

My dad watches as Julia goes through the mini- hay bale maze. She actually seemed to get lost despite there only being one path to the center and then having to follow the same path back out.

Robert mines for gemstones. Julia got to pick them out of the pan once Robert found them and put them in her baggie.

Robert and Julia paint a pumpkin.

And wander through the pumpkin patch with the finished product.

Saying "Hi" (literally, she says "hi" to the animals.) to the alpacas.

We ambushed the tractor driver right off his break so there was no one else waiting for the ride and Julia got it all to herself. This was one of her favorite things about the day.

And in case you're curious this was Montpelier Farms in Maryland.

Grandpa Sandberg Visits Day 1

2011-10-11T15:12:00.005-06:00

Well, first full day. After he flew in the day before we had dinner and then went to the park. The next day (Thursday) we took a nature walk on Teddy Roosevelt Island and then went to the Claude Moore Colonial Farm.

You may not be able to see it well, but that's a typical Julia-smile-for-the-camera silly smile.

The nature walk was a success. We saw deer (one right on the path who didn't want to move out of our way), ducks, caterpillars, squirrels, daddy long legs, and some turtles sunning themselves on a log in the river.

I don't think we have a picture of Teddy on our blog yet, so here he is. The whole island is suppose to be his memorial because he was such a fan of nature. I think he looks like a big bear in the middle of the woods.

View from the island.

Afterwards we went to the Claude Moore Colonial Farm in Mclean. I had never been there and thought it would be fun to check it out. We had a picnic lunch outside the farm before heading in. We found out that it's part of the National Park Service, but is privately run, but they still accept the National Park Pass, which we have, so it was free for us. The farm is suppose to represent what a typical farm would have looked like in 1771.

Checking out the pigs.

Saying hi to the turkeys.

Climbing the colonial fence.

It's easier with Grandpa's help.

The farm was pretty small so Julia walked most of the way, but she hitched a ride on the way back.

Sporting Events

2011-10-02T19:52:00.002-06:00

Last weekend we went to the Air Force vs. Navy game at the Naval Academy in Annapolis. Since they are both sporting events I'm also going to group in our latest baseball game in here too since it's been like a month since we went and I haven't blogged about it and don't really remember much about it anyway...

So, last month we went to a Dodgers vs Nationals game here in Washington DC.

Nationals mini-helmet (that was once full of ice-cream): check.

I'm starting to feel the crunch of getting things done here (i.e. sights visited) on the East Coast. We only have eight months until we move back to L.A., which may still sound like a lot, but we only have six months until the baby comes and I'm not counting on getting much done in the month and half we are still in DC after the baby is here (although that's baseball season and Robert insists we are travelling all over to get in more baseball games. I told him I think he may be going by himself, possibly with Julia) Plus, only five months if we want to travel to anywhere on the East Coast since you shouldn't travel the month before the baby comes. Then December is pretty much out with travelling to L.A. and Utah and our October is pretty booked. So that gives us November, January, and February to fit everything in.

Anyway, back to the game. Hmm, don't really remember much. We had great seats since Robert got the tickets from work. Julia sat through the entire game or played with the empty seats next to us. It was an overcast day, but thankfully only drizzled a little since we were bracing ourselves for sitting through a downpour. Don't remember who won, but I'll guess Dodgers because Robert was still in a good mood after the game.

Then yesterday we went to Julia's first football game. We bought the tickets months ago and it didn't even register that this was also going to be conference Saturday. So I have to admit, we did not watch conference yesterday. But we have it recorded, so hopefully we can get it all in segments this week.

We sat in the standing room only section, which is a section with no seats, just grass where you can spread out your blanket. Perfect for kids so Julia was pretty happy rolling around on the floor most of the game and clapping and cheering when everyone else did. It was also a rainy day, but it held off raining until the very last three minutes of the game. And then they went into overtime.

Julia spent overtime under my legs in a makshift tent made out of a Mickey Mouse poncho playing games on Robert's phone. The game was really exciting. Navy came back in the last minute to tie the game. Then got a touchdown in overtime, but missed their extra point because they got a penalty and had to move back 15 yards to kick the field goal. Then Air Force got a touchdown and got their extra point to win the game.

Afterwards we went down to the Naval academy visitor center (but didn't see the campus since it was pouring rain). I wanted to get Julia the sailor hat because it's so cute, but she wanted a toy bear and we weren't about to get her two things. You'd think she was spoiled or something. So she she got an other teddy bear for her growing and much loved collection. Then we got dinner at Chick and Ruths Delly and picked up some fudge at the candy store for snacking on during conference today.

P.S. I lost my dinner after writing this post and in the middle of proof reading, so excuse any typos that I may have missed. I thought I might be able to stay up and finish these posts, but I guess I was wrong. Well, I finished, but not without suffering the consequences. Honestly, I don't remember being sick still with Julia at 16 weeks, is it ever going to end?

Grandpa Sandberg Visits

2011-10-02T19:51:00.001-06:00

It's about time I finished this post since my Dad is coming back to visit us again this Wednesday and this is about the last time he visited in early September. He was doing training in PA and came down to see us over Labor Day weekend.

Some of the things we did:

Went to Manassas Battlefield and got a tour of one section of one of the battles (there were two battles fought there)

Visited the Air and Space Museum at Dulles.
Saw the newest memorial in Washington DC, the new Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial. Since the dedication was delayed due to Hurricane Irene we got to visit it before it was even dedicated. The design is centered around a quote by MLK "Out of a mountain of despair, a stone of hope. So here is my dad at the Mountain of Despair.

And you go through the mountain and see the Rock of Hope, with a giant Martin Luther King Jr. on the backside facing the Tidal Basin.

San Antonio and Austin

2011-10-02T19:29:00.002-06:00

Also in early September we took a trip out to San Antonio and Austin to visit Robert's brother and his family and go to the BYU game. On Saturday we did all the touristy stuff in San Antonio.

We remembered the Alamo (fully decked out in our BYU shirts. Go Cougars!)

Took a ride on the river at the River Walk. Here Tyler and Julia wait patiently for our turn to get on the boat.

On the boat.

Then that evening the kiddos stayed with a babysitter (probably the longest Julia has ever been with a sitter, but it was wonderful to be able to actually enjoy the game without having to keep a two year old entertained) and we drove up to Austin for the Texas vs BYU game. The stadium was huge! And our seats were in the BYU section at the very top.

It was a little hot before the sun went down so snow cones were definitely in order to keep two pregnant ladies cool. Once the sun went down we could actually enjoy the game.

It was a fun game, but the Cougars just couldn't come through on all their plays and they ended up losing by one point, 17-16. It was pretty sad. I was impressed by the Texas fans though, nobody gave us a hard time for being BYU fans and nobody was rubbing it in our faces that they won. There were even a couple people (I think one might have been a little tipsy though) who thanked us for such a great game. The rest of the weekend we just enjoyed being with family and eating good Tex-Mex and Texas BBQ.

Pregnancy Dreams

2011-09-28T12:24:00.003-06:00

I remember with Julia I had some weird pregnancy dreams, and this baby is following right along. The last couple nights I dreamt about having babies and giving birth. The first dream I dreamed that I had twins (a boy and a girl) and we went to visit my family. I decided to stay home from church with the twins, but was going crazy trying to find all Julia's church clothes all the while thinking that I needed to wake up the babies to feed them because they were still too little and fragile to go all night without a feeding.

Don't get any ideas about my dream meaning we are having twins. We actually already had an ultrasound because early on my doctor did an ultrasound at her office and thought she might have seen two heartbeats. So she sent me to a real ultrasound tech to see if I did have twins (I think the little machine in the dr. office isn't detailed enough to tell for sure. Same thing happened with Julia, the doctor did a little ultrasound, thought they saw something, and referred me to get another real ultrasound.)

It was a weird one hour from the time I had my first apt. to the time the ultrasound tech told me I just had one baby in there. Luckily they had an open appointment right away so I didn't have to wait days wondering what if. So anyway, just one baby and my due date is supposedly really accurate because early ultrasounds can tell you pretty exactly how far along you are since there is not a lot of variation in development that early on. My due date was moved nine days later from March 10 to March 19th after my ultrasound.

Now on to my second dream. I dreamed that I was going into labor so Robert and I were driving to the hospital, only I could tell we weren't going to make it before the baby came. So I told him to pull over and stop right there. We happened to have stopped at a mechanic garage, so we went inside and told the mechanic I was having a baby. Robert was trying to get me to wait longer, but I reached down and could feel the baby's head, and then it just popped out! This baby was a boy.

After that it got really detailed, the least of which was Robert having to tie off the umbilical cord with a shoelace and cut the cord. We had called 911 to tell them we were having a baby at the mechanic's (The mechanics were meanwhile standing in a corner saying "Wow, this has never happened here before.") and half an hour later a truck full of nurses arrived. Some started taking care of the baby, some attended to me, but most of them started preparing hot chocolate and eclairs for all the well wishers that we were expecting to come see us at the mechanics!

Just Some Julia Cuteness

2011-09-28T09:18:00.008-06:00

Here are some cute Julia pictures to hold you over until I find a time to publish some other posts. I started working on them last night, but was reminded by my body why I am usually in bed by 9:30 these days. It was not a pretty sight.

Julia and her bears. She loves her stuffed animals, especially all her bears.

And I was looking through our pictures yesterday and wasn't happy with any of the recent pictures of Julia by herself. So today to entertain ourselves between rain storms we went out to the backyard and had a photo shoot. Julia loves wearing dresses and bows so she was pretty excited. I took out all her dresses and she chose which one she wanted, and then she got to choose which bow she wanted to wear. When she was all dressed she said, "I'm a princess!"

Sleeping Beauty

2011-09-19T21:47:00.001-06:00

Julia has done pretty well with her transition to toddler bed, but she
does get up and wander around the room for a while at naptime before
she decides to return to bed and actually fall asleep. While we were
in Texas last week she discovered the suitcase and I would come in and
find her asleep but half dressed in some clothes she got put of the
suitcase. This naptime I found her wearing her hat and sunglasses.

2011-09-19T21:44:00.005-06:00

I can't figure out how to put all these sleeping pictures in one post via mobie since I am doing this from bed, but I figure this way is better than nothing. I've got a few other posts to catch up that will have to wait until I'm feeling better.

This is how I often find Julia's bed after a nap. She ends up either sleeping on the books or tucked into a corner of the bed. I have even found her sleeping with books on top of her.

The swimsuit on the head

2011-09-19T21:39:00.004-06:00

Julia found her swimsuit in the suitcase while she was suppose to be taking a nap. I heard her struggling to take it off and had to laugh when I came in and saw her. She was a little dismayed to see me take out my phone to take a picture of her rather than take it off right away.

Wheat Bun

2011-09-06T11:26:00.004-06:00

Robert and I have a Wheat "bun in the oven"due March 19!

Yes, I've been sick. I'm hoping that goes away in the next couple weeks.

Julia understands the concept much better than I thought she would. I guess she has had enough little friends get baby brothers and sisters that she gets it. She tells me all the time that I have her baby sister (we don't know the gender yet) in my belly. The other day she was walking around sticking her belly out and arching her back to show how big my belly was going to get.

Earthquake 5.8

2011-08-25T06:14:00.005-06:00

It was the biggest earthquake in Virginia in over 100 years, so although our earthquake experiences weren't all that exciting, I figured it was worth writing down.

I was in the kitchen cutting up a mango for Julia and Julia was about ten feet away already sitting in her high chair. I felt some shaking and thought at first, a large truck driving by, because our house shakes quite often when large trucks drive down King Street. A split second later I decided the shaking was too strong and thought, "Is something wrong with the house? It feels like an earthquake, but we don't get earthquakes here."

I put down the knife and took a few steps towards Julia when I felt the shaking really get strong. So I ran to Julia and took her out of her high chair, all the while half looking at the wall moving horizontally side to side. I stood in the middle of the room a couple seconds to decide where to go, heard something upstairs fall to the floor (it was a hairbrush), and then went and stood by the front doorway. By then I had already decided it was an earthquake, but not so strong that we had duck and cover.

The whole time Julia was asking, "What's that Mom? What's that Mom?" I think she was a little scared because I had ran and taken her out of her high chair so quickly, but since I didn't seem too upset she was more curious than scared. We watched the dining room light fixture swaying back and forth until the earthquake stopped.

Afterwards I was still half thinking maybe it was just our house because earthquakes don't happen here. I put Julia back in her high chair and looked outside when I went to get her food. I saw people from the office building across the street streaming out of the building, which helped confirm to me that it really was an earthquake. I gave Julia her food and then jumped online to the USGS website to see the stats from the earthquake.

Robert was walking down the hall at work on the way to a colleagues office to go over some things before a conference call with PwC San Francisco. He heard the ceiling making funny noises, walked into the colleague's office and said, "I think we're going to have an earthquake." Right as he said that the building started shaking and the colleague started freaking out a little saying something to the effect of, "An earthquake, what do we do?" So Robert told her to come stand in the doorway with him and they stood in the doorway and waited it out. Afterwards she wanted to know if they should cancel the conference call and Robert told her "No, the earthquake is over, everything is fine. Let's continue on with our work." The people in San Francisco just laughed.

Afterwards when I asked Julia if she felt the earthquake she said simply"yes." When I asked her what it was like she said, "It fall down. Go boom." So apparently she heard something fall.

Big Girl Bed

2011-08-19T19:45:00.004-06:00

We just left Julia like this, in her new toddler bed. Wish us luck tonight. So far so good as it's just been her normal falling asleep routine of singing songs to herself. We' ve heard "The Wheels on the Bus", "Jesus Wants Me For a Sunbeam", "If you're Happy and You Know It", and a rundown of The Letter Factory.

Assateague National Seashore

2011-08-09T11:18:00.000-06:00

Last week we went camping for three days at Assateague National Seashore in Maryland. This was our first experience camping on the beach so I was a little nervous about it. I'm not a huge beach fan, going once or twice a year is good for me, and I don't really like being wet and sandy. So spending three nights camping on the beach was definitely something a little different for me. But, I like doing new things and this camping trip was actually my suggestion.

Of course Julia was covered in sand in the first five minutes after we got there and I started having images of us never being sand free for the rest of the week. Which we weren't. Not completely, but I think I got a little more used to it. That and the cold open air showers at the end of each day did wonders to make us feel clean again. (Side note, we had read online about people who camp in the National Seashore, but drive to the state park to take showers since they have warm showers. I think that's a complete waste of time. The cold showers aren't freezing, and in the warm humid air it feels perfect.)

Our camp. It was like a giant sandbox for Julia so she kept pretty entertained. In the evenings if we weren't on the beach we pretty much lived inside the bug screen to keep the bugs off. And we all still came home with a million mosquito bites.

One of the cool things about Assateague is they have wild horses roaming the island. You see them all over while you are driving on the island. There are also signs all over warning you to lock up your food and stay away from them because they bite. So they can be a bit of a nuisance, especially in the drive in campsites where they've been known to break open tents looking for food while the people are gone. Our campsite was a walk-in site surrounded by fences to keep the horses out, so we didn't have any problems with them.

Robert got up early the first two mornings to take some sunrise pictures. He saw a group of horses walking on the beach. I got up the last morning but it was too cloudy for a sunrise, so I missed out on that, but I did get to see a herd of horses walking on the beach too.

The horses on the Virginia side of the island are more controlled than on the Maryland side. Once a year they are rounded up and cowboys swim the herd to Chincoteague Island where the foals are sold at auction. The next they they swim them back. It's called Pony Penning and it's a big deal in Chincoteague with thousands of people coming to see the event.

We drove down to Chincoteague for it, but when we got there the herd wasn't going to swim across for another two hours. They go at different times every year depending on when slack tide is. It was hot, it was crowded, there wasn't much to do besides sit and wait. Robert decided we wouldn't be able to see anything anyways, so we didn't stay for the swim. Here you can just barely see the horses all ready on the other side to swim across.

And here are Robert and Julia not looking too happy to be hot and bored. In the background is where the horses swam across later in the day. Just outside of Chincoteague they have a NASA flight facility (Wallops Flight Facility) where they launch a lot of rockets, scientific balloons, and aircraft. We stopped at their visitor center and looked around. Julia was excited to see a real astronaut (suit). It took her a minute to realize there was no one really inside the suit. And here are Robert and Julia pretending to be astronauts.

The rest of our time was spent lounging on the beach.

Julia had fun with the water. By the end she kept saying, "here comes the big one!" meaning, here comes the big wave. I had to work hard to teach her that even though the water is at your ankles one minute, the next minute a big wave can come in and the water can be up to your chest. At first she wanted to go deeper and deeper in the water but she got the wave concept eventually. Especially after one knocked her down and carried her up the beach a foot. That scared her into obeying.

Eating s'mores at sunset.
I think I still like camping in the mountains better so I probably wouldn't make this a yearly tradition, but every few years it would be fun to do again.

Things to Remember: Julia's Current Favorite Phrases

2011-08-05T13:07:00.003-06:00

"I'm so pretty." "I'm a big girl." "I'm a princess." - She randomly says these throughout the day.

"What's that?"- Getting a little tired of this one. When we read a book she says this ten times on every page until she has pointed to everything on the page.

"I did it!"- Whenever she does something on her own.

"Be right back."- As in, I'll be right back

Julia Visits the Dentist

2011-07-31T20:10:00.001-06:00

Julia had her first dental visit last week before we went camping. I had been getting her excited for it for the past week so she was really pleased to be going. We praticed before hand how to open wide and talked about what the dentist was going to do so everything would go smoothly, and it did! Julia did great opening wide but her mind would wander and we had to keep reminding her to open wide again. I think towards the end she was getting a little annoyed at having people poking around in her mouth and it looked like she might refuse to open up, but she just paused, thought about it for a minute, and then obeyed.

Afterwards she got a Tinkerbell sticker, a bouncy ball, and a dental goodie bag with a new Dora toothbrush, so she left happy. And now she has 16 beautiful clean teeth (she still needs four molars to come in) and likes to pretend she is at the dentist when we brush her teeth. She'll lay down on the floor like she is laying in the dentist chair and let me brush her teeth, which is a lot better than the struggles we used to have before the appointment.

Palmyra

2011-07-20T14:12:00.019-06:00

(In the collage: top left- Smith Family Farm and Log Home, below- Peter Whitmer home, bottom left- Palmyra temple, bottom center-E.B. Grandin printing room, bottom right- Smith cooper shop where the gold plates were hidden for a time, top right- the Sacred Grove.)

Last weekend we went up to Palmyra to see the Hill Cumorah Pageant. We got to Palmyra early and saved our seats (even though the website says your not allowed, everyone does it). Then we headed into Rochester to see Ryan and Rachel, who graciously let us stay with them for the weekend, and went out for BBQ. I was glad we got to stay the whole weekend because it gave Julia and Liam lots of time to play.

Then we got back to our seats and had a little less than an hour to wander around and see all the cast members in their costumes. Julia's new favorite phrase this week has become "What's that Mommy?" or (I like this far less) "What's that Mom?" and she used it a lot during this time. Robert's favorite moment of the night was during the pageant as I was explaining what was going on in the pageant to Julia I told her, "Look, there's Jesus!" and she repeated "There's Jesus!" then, "I want to see Jimmer!"

The next day we went back to the Hill Cumorah and climbed up to the top (it's not all that big, it is a "hill" after all). Our seats from the night before were right on the front of the second section, smack in the middle. Not too shabby.

But I'm getting a little ahead of myself. The next day the first place we went to was actually the Smith Farm. Julia had a bit of a meltdown at the Smith Farm and Sacred Grove because she wanted me and only me to carry her and I told her she needed to walk or let Dad carry her. I didn't expect her to be so upset, but then it sort of became a thing of principle to not give in to her tantrum. So here she is between the Smith Log Home and the Smith Frame House crying for me...

And here she is at the Smith Family Frame House crying and running away from Dad. I think it will be fun someday to tell Julia what she was like when we visited the place where the Restoration began. This home is actually the original home, unlike most of the other buildings that are replicas built on the spot where the originals used to be. This is the home the family lived in when Joseph and Emma brought the plates back from the Hill Cumorah.

The Smith Family Farm. In the distance you can see the Smith Family Log Home, where the Angel Moroni appeared to Joseph in the upstairs room three times. This picture is taken around where Joseph stopped and saw the Angel Moroni again after Joseph was working in the fields the next day and his father, seeing how tired he was, told him to go back home.

On the path up to and in the Sacred Grove.

After the Smith Farm we stopped by the Palmyra temple and improvised a family picture.

That's when we went back to the Hill Cumorah like I mentioned before.

Afterwards we drove into Palmyra to see E.B. Grandin's print shop where the Book of Mormon was first printed. The church has done a really good job of preserving the building and making it look just like it might have looked in the 1820's. It was bigger than I thought too. I was expecting a one room setup, but it was a three story building with a bookstore, a couple offices, a printing room, and a binding room. Plus, the church bought the building next door as well and combined the buildings, so the part that used to be next door is all information displays. After seeing all that went into making the books, not to mention all the translating that went on before, I can better appreciate how the early Saints must have been ecstatic to finally be able to read the Book of Mormon.

Julia fell asleep on the five minute drive to the printers and amazingly stayed asleep when we transferred her to the stroller, and then stayed asleep through the whole tour of the building. Not only that, afterwards we went and ate lunch at a little Chinese takeout place nearby and she stayed asleep. Then we transferred her back to the car and drove half an hour out to Waterloo (formerly Fayette), NY to the Peter Whitmer farm and she still stayed asleep! She must have been really worn out.

Do you know how Joseph knew the Whitmers? I had to ask, but when the sister missionary told me the story it did sound familiar. David Whitmer and Oliver Cowdery had met in Palmyra after David Whitmer visited for a business trip. When Oliver went down to Harmony, PA to meet Joseph for the first time he stopped at the Whitmer farm and told David Whitmer where he was going and that he would let him know if there were any truth to the stories about Joseph. Not too long afterwards Oliver wrote to David Whitmer and told him he was convinced that Joseph was telling the truth, that he really did have an ancient record he was translating, and it was God's will that Oliver be the scribe for the translation.

This is the Peter Whitmer Farm, where Joseph finished translating the Book of Mormon, the Angel Moroni showed the plates to the three witnesses, and the church was organized on April 6, 1830.

I'm so grateful we got to make this trip and see all these places. The things that happened in these places have changed our lives and the lives of millions of other people and have eternal significance. And we got to see where it all happened, that's pretty cool!

Odds and End Utah

2011-07-17T14:27:00.000-06:00

Some random events from our trip to Utah:

We visited Mike and Marybeth and had a playdate with their kids.

Went to the zoo.

We went to the parks.
We celebrated my Grandpa Ramiro's sort-of birthday. He was orphaned as a tween and didn't know when his birthday was. So when he was a little older and applying for a job they said it must be around St. Peter's day since his name is Peter. So from then on he celebrated his birthday on St. Peter's day. It was only in the past 10 years when he was applying for citizenship that they said he needed a birth certificate, so they tracked one down turns out his birthday was actually in August. But he has been celebrating in June all his life, so we still celebrate it on St. Peter's day.

Julia picked up an entourage of my little cousins.
We also checked out the Salt Lake City library. They had a book my library system in Arlington didn't have that I've been wanting to read, so Reah checked it out for me and I read it over the weekend before I had to go back to Virginia.

Park City

2011-07-16T18:52:00.000-06:00

We had a Sunday picnic with some of Robert's family up in Provo Canyon to get out of the heat. Turns out it was the hottest day of the year so far and everyone else had the same idea. We kept passing all the parks looking for an open table but they were all taken. So Mom Wheat convinced us to turn off at Vivian Park and just kept driving up and up past the park and random houses to a park I had never known existed and that many other people evidently didn't either because there was plenty of open space.

Afterwards we headed up to Park City with Dad and Mom Wheat. It was gorgeous with all the "spring" flowers finally blooming late this season. Julia loved riding around (very slowly) on the four wheeler with Grandpa. She's still a little confused on the difference between a four wheeler and a snowmobile however. Below, I went running and the only other people I saw were Julia and Grandpa going for a ride to meet me.

After we came back down to the valley we stopped by Jeremy and Sarah's house for a play date with Eli. They went crazy together, it was cute. They are moving to Pittsburg this month so maybe we'll see a little more of them this year.

Hiking the Y

2011-07-15T14:53:00.001-06:00

Julia and I joined the Wheat's (Dad, Mom, Jesse and Lauren) for the Fourth of July weekend. To start off the weekend we headed to Provo and hiked the Y, ate lunch at the Creamery on 9th, and stopped by the BYU bookstore. Ahh memories. I asked Julia if she wanted to go to BYU and she said "Yes!"

The view from the top!

It's a short hike, but pretty steep, but we all made it up eventually.

After we had taken a group picture I let Julia out of the backpack and she wanted to climb on the Y. So I followed her as she climbed from the bottom of the Y up to the upper trail near the top of the Y.

When we got to the bottom Grandpa put Julia and the backpack down and she said "I did it!" Such a trooper.

Sandberg Reunion

2011-07-14T20:41:00.000-06:00

At the end of June we had the Rex Sandberg Family reunion at the Ranch. Friday night we had the traditional campfire and hot dog roast. Below, Robert roasted hot dogs for all of us while I made sure Julia stayed out of the fire.
Julia loved playing with Kirsten and James and still asks to see them.

Here she is collecting rocks in her cowboy hat on our little hike. Everyone else was clearing out a stream from brush while Julia, her grandma and I had a little snack and then headed back for a nap.

And some more playing on the playground. We go to the park everyday at home so I guess it shouldn't surprise anyone that she kept asking to go to "the park" (the swingset) to play.

Saturday night Julia helped her grandpa out MCing the talent show. The show was short and sweet this year, but that was probably a good thing since we didn't start until 10:00 pm.

Sandberg Reunion Group Pictures

2011-07-13T19:09:00.000-06:00

My dad has a big family; he has four brothers and five sisters. Now that I am a mother I am amazed that my grandmother did all this raising a kid thing ten times. Knowing that I can have patience with just one child right? They had the Rex Sandberg Reunion in June while we were visiting in Utah. Rob and I try to make it every year because it may be the only time the whole year we'd see some of my extended family since there are just so many.

Here is a group picture of the group (although some people had already left by then) on Sunday morning in front of the Ranch house. My great grandpa Joseph Clarence Sandberg built the left section of the house and he bought the right section from his brother George for 50 cents and then moved it in pieces from where it had stood to it's current location.

Here are some interesting comparision pictures. The first one is just the left side of the house in 1940 before the additions to the house took place. The people are standing perpendicular to where our modern day group is standing. If we stood where the people in this old picture are standing we would be inside the kitchen (notice where the chimney is). And this one is about 1955 from the same angle as our picture. In the picture are my great-grandfather, great-grandmother, grandmother, a great uncle and my oldest uncle, Don.

My Dad and all his siblings (acting a little goofy).

With their spouses.
And our Robert Sandberg Family picture.

Bug Hunting

2011-07-13T19:08:00.003-06:00

My mom got Julia a little bug holding container so while we were in Utah we went bug hunting. At first it was a little slow going. When you actually want bugs it's kind of hard to find them. After a while though we managed to catch a couple potato bugs, a couple lady bugs, and a small flying insect. After we were done bug hunting we took them inside. The next day the bugs had disappeared from the container. Oops, at least they will survive a little longer than they would have done in the bug container.
Michael also had a bug container when he was little, which my mom still had, so he joined along in the bug hunt.

Knott's Berry Farm

2011-07-11T14:15:00.010-06:00

A view of Knott's Berry Farm from where we rode on the top of the Stagecoach.

Before we got to L.A. I was toying with the idea of taking Julia to an amusement park. I was sure she would love it. Whenever she is on the swings at the park she always tells me "higher, higher" and throws her hands up like she is on a roller coaster. So Wendy suggested Knott's Berry Farm since it was free for Julia and half the price of Disneyland for me. Plus I'd never been there so it would be an all new experience for both Julia and I. Below, Julia gets a bearing on the layout of the park.

Of course Julia did love it. Not only did she go on every ride she was tall enough to go on (which granted wasn't a ton, maybe 12?) but she went on her favorite rides 2-3 times. And she learned the appropriate response is to scream with delight on the fast rides. Well, maybe she would have done that anyway because she usually screams when she gets really excited. She was definitely worn out at the end of the day.

The only other person who was available to go with us that day was Woody. He gallantly became our photographer, videographer, load bearer (backpack carrier), and even a nice chair in the shade during the shade-less Peanuts Characters show (seriously, you'd think they would put a cover over the amphitheater for the show that is especially for kids and has no natural shade). Don't worry, we let him come on all the kiddy rides with us too, although sometimes he had to sit alone.

Julia's favorite ride was probably the Carousel, and her favorite animal to ride was the zebra.

Riding the train. It was hard to get her to sit still on this one since we didn't have seat-belts like the other rides and she was well aware of it.

We did manage to get a picture with Snoopy!

Here is a video of crazy Julia riding a couple rides and bouncing in the bounce house. I especially like how she throws her hands up in the air at the end of the first clip to imitate the kid in front of us. At the end of the second clip she saw the Ferris Wheel and was pointing out that she wanted to go on that one, which unfortunately we didn't because she was a couple inches too short for it still (it was a pretty open seat).

Bryce Canyon National Park

2011-07-11T10:00:00.004-06:00

The Sandberg Ranch, where we always have the Sandberg Reunion, is about 30 miles away from Bryce Canyon National Park. I have been there a lot growing up, but in our six years of marriage Robert had never been there and neither had my sister-in-law Reah. So we decided to visit Bryce Canyon on the Friday before the reunion since we got there on Thursday and had time on Friday before a lot of other family members arrived.

I have kind of taken the formations and beautiful colors for granted since I grew up seeing them, but I try to remember that the geology of the park is really breathtaking seeing it for the first time. First we drove to the very end of the park at Rainbow Point to see the farthest view- you can see out to Arizona from there (top picture in the above collage). Below are Chris, Reah, me, Julia and Robert looking back into Bryce Canyon from Rainbow Point.

Then we drove back and stopped at Natural Bridge. At each of the stops Julia kept saying that she wanted to go hiking there and would get upset when we told her, "not yet, we're going hiking at a different place". She was really excited to be going hiking.

Finally, we stopped at Sunset Point and did the 3ish mile loop that goes down into the canyon, back up to Sunrise Point and then along the rim back to Sunset Point. That's really the best way to see the park, to hike down into the canyon and be among all the formations. My dad carried Julia down the trail and Robert carried her up the trail. The trail going down is a bunch of switchbacks through a narrow canyon.

I like the two pictures right above. The one of the left I wonder what Reah and Julia were so interested in looking at, probably a squirrel. The one on the right we are at the bottom of the canyon and Julia is looking up at the tall, long tree from the first collage. There are a few of them like that at the bottom of the trail and they are pretty cool looking. I saw a picture of one of them in one of my college geology textbooks (you know, back in the day) and I said, "Hey, I know where that is!"

Here we are coming back up:

And Robert taking a break on the way up.

Family picture on the way up even though you can't really see Julia and I- we were too hot and sweaty to take off our hats.

Here's another one from Sunrise Point where you can kind of see Julia...

Jimmer

2011-07-06T21:24:00.004-06:00

Julia and I leave Utah tomorrow. It's been fun being here seeing everyone in the West we miss, but we're glad to be able to see Robert again. He went back to Virginia last Monday. This is what he has been doing with all the spare time he had without us there to keep him busy, he made a Jimmer highlight video for last season's BYU vs. SDSU game.

Bingham Copper Mine

2011-06-29T09:53:00.005-06:00

This post is a little out of order but it's the next one ready to post. I'm still prepping a couple other posts from last week that likely won't get done until we get home from Utah next week. Yesterday we went to the Bingham Copper Mine on the southwest side of the Salt Lake Valley. You've probably noticed the mountain from a distance because it looks bare and there is no peak. That's because it's a giant open pit copper mine. They like to say it is one of two man made objects visible from space.

You can pay $5 to drive up the the mine a little bit to the visitor center, take a look inside the mine and learn about the copper mining process. It's actually pretty cool to learn about and to see the giant equipment they use. The day we went it was windy! My mom was afraid Julia was going to blow away, and I took off her hat because it probably would have blown away right down in to the mine.This is the wheel from one of the dump trucks. They are massive and can carry up to 320 tons per load. The ore deposit is a low-grade deposit, so to be profitable they have to mine at large scale. And they do, the mine produces 20% of our country's copper and has produced 19 million tons of copper in it's history, more than any other copper mine. The mine. It's 2 3/4 mile across at the top and 3/4 mile deep. You can see one of the big dump trucks on the lower right side of the picture. It looks small here, but trust me, it's big.

Los Angeles

2011-06-28T23:19:00.003-06:00

We spent a couple days last week in Los Angeles. Julia had an absolute blast while we were there since it was all fun and games for her. We hung out at Robert's Uncle Steve and Aunt Wendy's house a lot which Julia loved because they had toys for her to play with. In fact when I told her we were going there she seemed to remember the last time we were there in February because she said " play with toys Wendy's house?"

We also swam in the hotel pool, went to Knoxberry Farm ( which will get it's own post eventually) and went to the Venice canals to feed the ducks. The ducks all crowded around her and the pigeons tried to eat the food right out of the bag, but Julia was her normal fearless self and loved it all.

We also went out to Claremont to meet our new renters and meet with some contractors. We will be painting the Claremont house in the near future. What color do you think we should paint it? I think the yellow is cute and pretty unique on the block, but Robert doesn't really care for the yellow so he wants to chose a new color. Either way it's getting a new coat of paint soon.

I guess I should also mention that Robert went into work on two of the days since that is why we really went to LA. So that was LA. We were only there for three nights, but I feel like we packed a lot into it. I'm begining to feel like quite the experienced traveller with all this flying across country and hotel stays. Someone on one of our flights asked me if Julia had flown before and I just laughed and said "Oh yeah." She's probably managed a flight about every five months in her two short years.

We're Off!

2011-06-18T12:27:00.010-06:00

Yay, we are heading out to the west coast early tomorrow morning! We'll be in L.A. for a couple days and then on to Utah for the Sandberg Family Reunion. But first, here's a little of what's going on this past week.

Last Saturday morning we had a training/brunch at the Primary President's house for our new callings, Nursery Leaders (for the youngest of the three nurseries). We've been nursery leaders before and loved it, but we were a little sad that we are going to be isolated from everyone else during most of church. After the meeting they asked us what we had going on the rest of the day and we said that afternoon we were going to a place where they make whiskey. And we did!

Mount Vernon (George Washington's estate) has a Gristmill and Distillery a few miles down the road from the main estate. Washington already had the gristmill when a Scottish man convinced him that making whiskey would be a profitable business. So Washington did a few test runs, determined that there really was a market for whiskey in the area, and built the distillery (but he didn't run it for very long, he died only a few years later). Whiskey was different from Washington's other profitable crops because he sold it locally and got a return on his investment quicker; he didn't have to export it and wait months for his profit.

This is the inside of the gristmill (where they ground down the corn). The mechanics of it all were pretty amazing. There was no electricity, so the giant wheel (3 stories tall) that moves the whole system is water-powered. In Washington's time the canal where the water flows into the gristmill (below) was miles long to give the water enough rise in elevation to flow. Then inside everything is connected to the big wheel like a giant clock.

Also this week, Robert is volunteering at the US Open. He can't take his phone or camera so no pictures except this one brought to you by Lexus.

But he seems to be having a lot of fun. He is on the leader board team so he updates one of the many scoreboards around the course. Every shift he is assigned to a different hole. Yesterday the hole he was at was right next to the evacuation center for the players where they have tents and buses to take the players back to the clubhouse in case of inclement weather. While he was working they called a hold on play because a big downpour was about to come through, so the players all gathered around the evacuation center for a while until the rain actually started. Then they went inside and Robert braved out the rain under an umbrella.

National Arboretum

2011-06-10T19:02:00.008-06:00

I feel like we are currently in a event lag. Nothing is happening around here, just same old daily things and things I've already blogged about. We will be going to L.A. next weekend and then Utah for a few weeks, so it feels like we are just waiting for our trip. I felt bad not posting anything this week though so here are some pictures from last Saturday.

We were going to go on a bike ride Saturday morning for the first time this year, but we couldn't find the key to the bike lock. Since the bikes were all locked together under the patio that was a problem. We looked everywhere we could think of and then decided to give it up and salvage our morning and do something else. So we ended up going to the National Arboretum (which we have already been to last fall) to see the flowers and have a picnic.

Julia's fond of her stuffed animals right now. She only brought Mickey with us on this trip. Sometimes Minnie comes as well, sometimes the pink dog comes too.

She wasn't looking in any of the pictures of her with flowers.

Julia and Robert acting silly.

And on the way home I reached into the pocket behind the driver's side chair and found the key to the bike lock! So we went on our bike ride after all that evening.

Julia Video Catchup

2011-05-31T13:43:00.009-06:00

Since we didn't do much this weekend that would make an interesting blog post (highlights were go to the temple, watch the new Pirates movie, swimming pools open! Fun, but pretty ordinary stuff.) I had Robert finally teach me the basics on the new video software we have (which is why there have not been any videos recently, I didn't know how to use the new program to format our videos into something YouTube will accept.) So here are a few videos from the past few months.

First up is from this weekend. Julia loves to sing and here are a couple of her favorites. She sings "Take Me Out to the Ballgame" and "The ABC's." The last part of the video is her playing catch with Robert because after singing "Take Me Out to the Ballgame" she wanted to play baseball.

Next is from back in April at Julia's birthday.

And finally we have clips from Julia's first golfing lesson. When Julia becomes a famous golfing pro we'll make hundreds selling this one to the media.

Shenandoah National Park

2011-05-22T19:13:00.018-06:00

Last week we took a three night camping trip to Shenandoah National Park. It was gorgeous! But we discovered that camping with a toddler is exhausting. There was so much trouble for Julia to get into-play in the ash, roll down the hill, pull down the tarp. So basically one of us had to be watching her all the time while the other person set up camp/cooked/cleaned up/packed our daypacks. It rained off and on Thursday and Friday, which I think made the park a lot less crowded that it could have been. The campground was mostly empty on Thursday night (although by Friday there were more, and Saturday it was full). Robert is so handy, he made a shelter with a tarp, poles, and rope to put over the picnic table to keep things dry and give us a place to hang out during the rain. The rain actually didn't bother us that much since it never rained on our hikes and we had plenty of blankets to keep us warm during the night.

The first full day we were there (Friday) Julia slept in until 9:00! So by the time she woke up and we had breakfast and got ready to go it was almost 11:00. We did a 3.2 mile hike to Doyles River Falls. There was one 28' waterfall and one 63' waterfall. Beautiful!

Our attempt at a family picture at the smaller falls (above) and Robert and Julia at the larger falls (below). Julia just got some sunglasses and she loves them. She likes to put them on top of her head like her Mommy.

That night we had the traditional hot dogs and s'mores for dinner. Of course Julia loved the s'more.

The next day we did the 4.7 mile South River Falls hike with an 83' waterfall. Below, Robert and Julia at the top of the waterfall.

Julia and I on our lunch break during the hike (above). When we got to the base of the waterfall the first thing I noticed was a large stick-like object floating in the water near the waterfall, except it wasn't floating the way you would expect a stick to move. It was a huge snake! We watched it from a distance for a while and it just floundered around in the same area. So we got closer and kept an eye on it the entire time we were there. It never got anywhere. Our theory was that it had just eaten a fish and couldn't swim well enough to get out from the waterfall current. Here is the snake we saw in the water (below).

At the foot of the falls (below).

On Sunday after we had packed up and before we headed home we went on a short 1 mile hike to Blackrock Summit. Julia told us she wanted to walk, so we let her walk until she got tired. She made it about a quarter of a mile.

Robert finally let me carry the backpack.

To get to the summit you had to climb a rock scramble, so Julia and I didn't go up to the very top. Robert climbed to the summit and took a 360 panorama (I know it's small, but I don't know how to make it any bigger). It was nice to get away from our regular routine for a while and even though Julia was a little crazy while we were camping she has been more happy and obedient in the past few days since we've been back than before we left. I think it was nice for her to have a change too. I'm also glad that Robert and now Julia love to hike as much as I do, we had a lot of fun.

And because we just took so many pictures I couldn't resist throwing a few more random ones in.

Orioles Game

2011-05-08T19:07:00.007-06:00

Saturday we went as a family to our first baseball game of the season. Robert has this crazy idea that he wants to visit every MLB stadium and get a souvenir baseball cap (the little ones that the ice cream comes in) from each stadium he visits. So we can now check off Camden Yards in Baltimore.

It was a beautiful day, but randomly started raining halfway through. Luckily our seats were covered by the deck above us. Julia really enjoyed it. She liked to dance to the music, clap and cheer, yell with the cheers (Charge!), and sing "Take Me Out to the Ballgame." I only took her to the kids play area for one inning after she started getting a little too rambunctious halfway through the game. After that we came back to our seats and she settled down and enjoyed the rest of the game again.

And in case you're curious, the Orioles lost to the Rays 2-8, and we now have eight little baseball caps.

Photo Booth Wheat's

2011-05-07T20:15:00.003-06:00

Actually these were taken at the top of Maryland Heights last week on our Harper's Ferry hike, but looking at them today they looked like they all were meant to be seen together, like in a photo booth print.

Julia's Crib

2011-05-05T10:35:00.003-06:00

I've mentioned a couple times how Julia likes to take things to bed with her. Last night I decided to snap a picture of what her crib looked like before she got in. She's got about seven books, two bows, a Teddy bear, a Winnie the Pooh pillow, a blanket, and sippy cup of water. If it were up to me the crib would be empty but she specifically asks for each one of these items before bed (although not all at once, it usually builds up). Sometimes I wonder where she has room to sleep...

I am standing upon the seashore

2011-05-04T15:22:00.002-06:00

I love this poem. I read it once on a wall hanging and it just stuck with me. I was thinking about it a few months ago. I looked it up and put it into a blog post to share, but never published it because it didn't seem quite appropriate to just randomly share a poem about death. Recently one of Robert's high school friends lost their little girl in an accident and we have been thinking about them and about death and eternal families. We're grateful that we know that life goes on after death, and that because of our temple covenants and if we live worthy, no matter what may happen to each of us we will be a family forever. So it seems appropriate now to share this poem and imagine the shouts of "Here she comes!" that were recently heard in heaven.

"I am standing upon the seashore. A ship at my side spreads her white sails to the morning breeze and starts for the blue ocean. She is an object of beauty and strength. I stand and watch her until at length she hangs like a speck of white cloud just where the sea and sky come to mingle with each other. Then someone at my side says: "There! She's gone!"

Gone where? Gone from my sight, that is all. She is just as large in mast and hull and spar as she was when she left my side, and just as able to bear her load of living weight to the place of destination. Her diminished size is in me, not is her; and just at the moment when someone at my side says: "There! She's gone!" there are other eyes watching her coming and other voices ready to take up the glad shout, "Here she comes!" And such is dying.

Harper's Ferry

2011-05-02T12:59:00.012-06:00

Last Saturday we finally got out again and did some more sightseeing. Yay! It feels to me like it's been a while since we've done any sightseeing on a Saturday because of Easter, church activities, and Julia being sick. So last Saturday we took a day trip to Harper's Ferry, WV, site of the U.S. Armory during the Civil War.

Since it's where guns were made and stored and was on the railroad both the North and the South wanted control of the town and it changed hands eight times during the Civil War. You might also remember from your US History classes that even before the war, in 1859, an abolitionist named John Brown had a plan to start a slave uprising and attacked the armory in an attempt to get guns for the slave uprising. Unfortunately for Brown no slaves rebelled and he was caught by U.S. Marines, accused of murder, treason, and inciting a slave rebellion, and ultimately hanged for the later. But the event did get the nation talking LP b about the issue of slavery and acted as a catalyst for the Civil War.

We decided to do a difficult 2 mile hike to the lookout on Maryland Heights (from the top of the cliff face in the picture below) and then see how Julia was doing since this was the first time this season for her in the hiking backpack.

View of Harper's Ferry from Maryland Heights- about two miles into our hike. Julia did great! I guess she is over wanting to walk everywhere and now enjoys getting carried around on Dad's back and enjoying the scenery. We decided to do the complete 6.5 mile Maryland Heights hike.

View from the top of Maryland Heights at the site of a stone fort built by Union forces in 1862. Julia says "I'm ready for a nap." Probably a little more than halfway through our 6.5 mile hike.

Julia get's a break inside the stone fort.

We finished our hike in about three and a half hours, completely exhausted. At least we weren't doing this hike (The Appalachian Trial goes through Harper's Ferry). In case you can't see, it says Main 1,165 miles, Georgia 1,013 miles.

After the hike we stopped by John Brown's "Fort," which was really a firehouse that he had retreated to after his attack on the armory. The next day a detachment of U.S. Marines attacked the fort and captured Brown and his men. This is a drawing from Harper's Weekly depicting the attack (they used a wooden fire ladder to knock down the front doors), and below is what the fort looks like today.

Julia inside the fort. She listened intently to the man explaining about the building for about two minutes, but he just kept going on and on, so she got up and started running around.

After that we saw where the armory had once been and saw a couple old buildings, then went home. I was sad we didn't get to see more of the town because it looked really cute and there was a lot more historical stops in the town. However, I wasn't the one who hiked 6.5 miles with a 30 pound pack, nor was I the one who had gotten three hours less sleep than normal that day (Julia skipped her nap and she usually takes a good 2.5-3 hour nap), so my suggestion to look around more was vetoed in favor of going home and going to bed.

We had to stand on the shuttle bus ride back to the car and Julia wanted to hold onto the rail like everyone else was. When I talked to her about her day later that night before she went to bed the things she said she remembered about the day were that we saw two trains, we listened for the water and the birds, (I had stopped and told her while we were hiking "Listen, Julia. Can you hear the water? Can you hear the birds? ) and that she had to "hold on" on the bus. It's always interesting to hear what she remembers about the day because the things I think should make the biggest impression aren't necessarily the things that she talks about.

Let the bow making begin

2011-04-29T12:45:00.008-06:00

This funny little smile is because she is watching The Little Mermaid. It's how I got her to sit still long enough to take a picture

Julia really loves her hairbows, maybe a little too much. She likes to take them out of her hair and play with them, she loves to put multiple (like 5-10) bows in her hair at a time and admire herself in the mirror, and she even likes to take a handful to bed with her.

It's all very sweet and girly, but the problem is she is losing them like crazy. I find them all over the place but I'm afraid I just can't keep up with finding them as fast as she loses them. So I've reached the point (that many mothers of girls reach, I'm sure) where I've decided I need to start making them myself.

I got a pack of fifty alligator clips thinking that was probably way too many, found a website with instructions on how to make hairbows, and got out all the odds and ends ribbon and scrapbooking supplies I had that might look like a cute bow. Three days into this and I've already used half my alligator clips, and yet, it doesn't even feel like we have that many yet. Here's what you may see Julia sporting around from now on (if she will leave them in):

Ring Around the Rosy

2011-04-27T07:06:00.001-06:00

I just saw this video that Robert's brother took at Christmas. It's cute and all I have to do is post the link, no work for me! Enjoy.

Happy Easter

2011-04-25T12:22:00.010-06:00

A little about our Easter this year...

Saturday our ward had a giant Easter Egg hunt at the church. Julia filled up her little basket and her eggs kept falling out, but she just kept putting more in (notice the purple egg falling out of her basket above).

Julia and I open her eggs and take all the candy out.

Later we got together with friends and had a smaller easter egg hunt at the park. Again, Julia filled up her basket. Maybe she needs a bigger one next year...

Sunday morning Julia got some goodies in her basket and we all dyed eggs before church.

After church we tried to get some pictures of her in her dress with some flowers by our house. Unfortunately Julia sat on the flowers and broke the stem, cutting off half the plant. We took them inside to hide the evidence and she dragged them around the house the rest of the day.

Julia's Birthday

2011-04-15T12:47:00.012-06:00

I think Julia had a good birthday. In the morning we were getting ready for her little birthday party and she could tell something special was going on because she was going crazy running around the house as I blew up balloons and and hung the birthday banner.

After her nap Robert came home early from work and a few of her little friends came over for a party. We had to have a piñata since Julia loves watching the home videos of her 1st birthday and last Christmas when she hit the piñatas. She was a little less enthusiastic about it than I was expecting, but she still give it a few good whacks and then wanted to try again after the other kids had a turn (at Christmas she wouldn't even put down the stick after I told her to stop) . All the little kids took turns hitting the piñata and then I took a few good whacks at it and broke it, much to their surprise/dismay.

Julia's first swings at the piñata.

Her reaction when I broke it, kind of a "whoa, what just happened here?"

They got it over it pretty quickly and we helped them pick up their piñata loot: finger puppets, stickers, fruit snacks and animal cookies.

Afterwards we sang Happy Birthday and ate cake and ice cream. Julia has known and looked forward to this tradition for weeks since Robert's birthday at the end of March. I thought she was pretty funny during the singing because she just sat there solemnly and looked around at all of us. I could just see her thinking, "this is it, the time has finally come when they are singing to me." After I helped her blow out the candle and everyone had cake we just let the kids just run around and play hyped up on sugar.

In the evening Julia got to talk to a lot of family and open up presents family members had sent her.

Happy Birthday Julia!

2011-04-12T04:00:00.000-06:00

Julia is two today! Where did our baby go?

Julia the day she was born (above) and at age 1 (below)

Some things about Julia at age two:

She is always jabbering about something. Usually I understand what she says which is really nice because she rarely has any tantrums anymore because I don't know what she wants (but she does have the I-want-what-I-can't-have tantrums). Sometimes when she's in a silly mood she likes to jabber in her own language and laugh about it. She can also count to ten, knows her basic colors, and is starting to get a good handle on her shapes.

She is already a book worm. We usually read a few books before she takes a nap and goes to bed. When I tell her it's time to clean up and and get in bed she frantically picks books that she wants and stuffs them between the bars into her crib before I can put them back on her bookshelf. Then she will "read" them in bed before or after sleeping. I often find her during the day "reading" a book by herself out loud. She does a good job remembering what the storyline is about and repeating the words she remembers.
She likes to sing and dance. Some of her favorite songs to sing are "Five Little Monkeys," "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star," "The ABC Song," "Row Row Row Your Boat," "Follow the Prophet," and "The Itsy Bitsy Spider."

She's pretty self-confident and social. She enjoys nursery and doesn't mind being left with a babysitter. She plays well by herself but is also always happy to see another kid. Last time we went to the doctor's office she stood right next to the doctor, put her hand on the doctor's arm and watched the doctor type on the computer.

She is very active. Even when she is sick she is always running around. Sometimes it honestly looks like she is running laps around the living room. She has also recently decided it's fun to run away from Mom and down the hallways at places like the portrait studio and doctor's office.

We love our little imp and are excited to see her grow and learn as a two year old.

Dora and the Nebulizer

2011-03-31T11:22:00.005-06:00

Dora and the Nebulizer, hmm sounds like it could be an episode title..

I think Julia is officially addicted to Dora the Explorer. Let me explain how this happened. She has steadily begun to like Dora for a while. I don't even know where she first learned about Dora, but one day she saw a Dora book at the library and she just had to check out it (meaning, she was really excited and wouldn't put it down.) We have since checked that same book out two other times after she has seen it at the library and glued herself to it.

The big Dora addiction however came a few weeks ago after I took Julia to the doctor. She had been sick, then started to get better, then got worse. When I took her in they said there was probably not much we could do for her, but since she was also wheezing they would try to see if she would respond to a nebulizer treatment right there in the doctor's office. She did, the wheezing got a lot better. So now Julia has to use the nebulizer three times a day until she has not coughed for 24 hours.

At first it was a bit of a struggle. I would hold her on my lap and she liked to hold the face mask up to her face for a couple minutes, then she would get tired of the face mask and try to take it off and run away. So then for the next 10-20 minutes I would have to hold her in my lap and force the mask on, pause for a couple minutes to take a break, and continue until she finished breathing in the medicine.

Cough's take forever to go away completely. She doesn't cough much during the day anymore, but does cough at night, so we are still plugging away with the nebulizer. Thank goodness we figured out a better strategy. After a couple days I realized Julia did just fine sitting by herself, holding her own face mask, and watching Dora the Explorer. So now when I tell Julia it's time to take her medicine she actually gets excited and says "watch Dora!" because she gets to just sit in the rocking chair and watch Dora for the next ten minutes. She knows all the Dora songs (I think I can hear them in my sleep too), knows the characters, and can do the little happy "we did it! we did it!" dance they always do at the end.

Cherry Blossoms

2011-03-26T20:36:00.007-06:00

We went to see the cherry blossoms today on the Tidal Basin and actually saw some blossoms! It was quite beautiful, one of those things everyone should see once. It's also probably the busiest 40 degree week Washington will have all year. The sun was shining, the people were out, but it was cold!It's so hard to get a good picture with a toddler.

This is Julia's "silly face."

Iwo Jima Memorial

2011-03-20T20:40:00.007-06:00

Robert recently got a new phone and has been playing around with the GPS feature and GPS apps in anticipation of the awesome camping and hiking we are going to do this summer. So to test out a GPS app (test how it did measuring our elevation, average speed and location) yesterday evening Robert, Julia, and I drove down to the Tidal Basin to walk around and get an early peek at the Cherry Blossoms. Unfortunately there were just a few trees in bloom, most of the cherry trees looked just about ready to start blooming. So we decided to walk across the bridge instead and check out the Iwo Jima Memorial.

When we got to the hill by the memorial with a great view of the city we saw a whole bunch of people out with their nice camera's and tripods getting ready to take pictures. And more just kept coming and coming.

At first we were a little confused why there were so many people out. Sure it was a great view of the city, but why so many people on this particular night? Then we remember last night was a Perigee Moon and the moon was going to be 14% bigger and 30% brighter than regular full moons. That made us almost want to stick around another forty-five minutes to see it. Almost.

Picture this view with a giant full moon rising behind it. I'm sure it was very cool, but we hadn't eaten dinner yet and we were entertaining a two year-old.

Instead we saw what we had come to see. The Iwo Jima Memorial honors U.S. Marine troops killed defending the country since 1775.

The obligatory Julia picture.

We finally did get a glimpse of the moon after we got back to our car and were driving away. Here's the picture we snapped of the moon. This one is a lot cooler.

Antietam

2011-03-17T13:33:00.019-06:00

Last weekend we drove up to Antietam, the site of a Civil War battle that was the deadliest one day battle in American history. What started as a Confederate push into Maryland by General Lee in 1862 culminated into a 12 hour battle on September 17, 1862 where 23,000 soldiers were killed, wounded, or went missing.

This is a picture taken on the battlefield in the days after the battle by Alexander Gardner. It was the first time during the war that dead bodies were photographed and the people in the North who saw the pictures in the newspapers said they felt like the dead had been placed at their front doors.

The building in this picture is the Dunker Church. It was destroyed by wind in the early 1900's, but has since been rebuilt. It's not an active church anymore and is pretty bare inside (we got to go in), but interestingly enough, the day we visited the battlefield a wedding took place inside. I guess if you are a really big history buff...

It was a beautiful day when we visited and we were glad to be able to take a couple hikes around the battlefield and enjoy the weather and appreciate the history. Whenever I used to think of a battlefield for some reason I'd image a big field where you could see everything that took place right there. I've now come to realize how silly that is. These battles took place over miles of countryside, farms and sometimes even in the small towns. Visiting all these years later it's hard to image this peaceful place was witness to so much destruction.

The above picture collage pictures are taken from a lookout tower on the battlefield. It was built well after the battle but provided a great view for looking at all the areas of the battlefield.

Below is Robert and Julia in the visitor's center, checking out a drum and Julia wearing a Union military hat.

Below is the Burnside Bridge, one of the more recognizable landmarks from the battlefield, as seen at the time of the battle and the day we visited. It was named after the general that commanded the Union troops at the bridge, General Burnside (with conveniently distinctive side-burns). His troops were successful in seizing control of the bridge after fighting the Confederate troops for around three hours. The bridge was vital to get Union troops across the river to where the rest of the battle was taking place. The Confederate troops who were holding the bridge actually did a good job holding them off for that long because they were far outnumbered. Since the Confederate troops had the high ground and bunkers to fire from they were able to hold off the Union troops long enough for more Confederate troops to arrive from Harper's Ferry as reinforcements.

We downloaded a couple podcasts that you are suppose to listen to as you walk around some of the hiking loops in the battlefield, so we hiked a loop around Burnside Bridge and then another one nearby called the Final Attack. I'm glad I found the website with the podcasts before we went because it really added to the experience to hear so much detail about the battle as we were there, and it was free!

The bottom left picture is of the Antietam National Cemetery, the last stop of our trip. It was dedicated five years after the battle. All the Union troops buried in various places around the battlefield were dis-interred and laid to rest in this cemetery (Confederate troops were re-interred in three other cemeteries around the area).

The battle ultimately had no clear winner that day. The next day no fighting continued as both sides took care of their wounded and buried their dead. Then the Confederate troops withdrew and retreated back to Virginia, so the Union claimed victory since they had succeeded in stopping General Lee's push into Maryland. President Lincoln then took the opportunity to issue the Emancipation Proclamation.

Juliaisms- This learning stuff is hard work

2011-02-24T12:14:00.006-06:00

Robert says I need to start writing down Juliaisms, funny things that Julia says, now that she is talking more. Since she is always jabbering about something I'm sure there will be plenty of these to come as she figures things out in the world. Today's simple Juliaisms are about Julia learning her numbers and letters.

Before we left for our LA/Utah trip last week I was reading Julia a book about the alphabet and animals. I was trying to point out the letters for her, saying "D, like duck. Duh-duh-duh-duck." After we came back from our trip we read the same book again and Julia impressed me by pointed to the duck and going "duh-duh-duh-duck!" Then she went on to the E, "duh-duh-duh-elephant!"

This morning while Julia was finishing up breakfast she was holding two grapes. I asked "How many grapes do you have Julia?" She held up the first one, "one." Then she held up the second one, "two". Then she held up the first one again, "three." Then the second one again, "four," and so on up to eight. Apparently two grapes actually count as having eight grapes if you count it the Julia way.

Back to Utah

2011-02-22T15:02:00.006-06:00

After we went to LA we stopped by Utah for three days.

The cabin was weird without all the other siblings but Robert had the best snowmobile and all the IBC cream soda to himself so I guess he was happy.

We went to the Discovery Gateway children's museum with some of my family. Julia was throughly entertained. We actually had to pull her away kicking and screaming to leave.

You put balls in the tubes and they go up instead of down!

Julia went crazy in the mini-grocery store. That cart was full a few minutes latter. Good thing Julia had a crew of parents and cousins to help put all the things away for her when she was done.

The whole reason we thought to even try stopping by Utah, Robert's cousin got married. Congratulations Cameron and Ariana!

Los Angeles

2011-02-22T14:29:00.016-06:00

Last week we went back to Los Angeles for the first time since we moved to Virginia. Robert needs to go back every six months or so to check in with his home office, and Julia and I get to come along too! I was so excited to walk outside without my jacket and enjoy some beautiful Southern California weather.

The week went by really fast. Some of the things we did while we were there:

Visited the Santa Monica Airport. Julia loves to point out planes to us. She can spot them better than I can in the sky.

We stopped by the beach and ran away from the water.

Stopped by the canals in Venice to see the ducks.

Wendy took us to the Noah Ark's exhibit at the Skirball Cultural Center. It was like a giant indoor playground to the theme of Noah's Ark. All the animals were made out of refurbished materials and were really cool looking. Julia had fun running around and I kept busy chasing after her.

We Love Jenny Auction

2011-02-13T09:27:00.005-06:00

Last November our wonderful Relief Society president was diagnosed with leukemia. To help cover some of her expenses some friends have put together an online auction via the "We Love Jenny Auction" blog. The auction will be held tomorrow, February 14, 2011 starting at 9am EST and end on February 15th at 10pm EST. So far there are 74 different items (including a lot of homemade items-think cute things you would find Etsy) that you can bid on by posting comments on the blog during the auction.

A little info about Jenny from the blog:

"Relief Society president, marathoner, Italian speaker, historian, quilter, bibliophile... she does it all! Most impressive, however, is her ability to love and serve others consistently and completely, no matter how full her plate is.

Jenny was diagnosed with leukemia in November, so her current full-time job is beating cancer. With two months of chemo under her belt and two more years of it ahead, it's proving to be an expensive ordeal. We are excited to use this auction to help her make a dent in her medical bills and housing expenses. Plus, it's bound to be fun for all those participating!"

Click on the button below to check it out and come back tomorrow to bid on your favorites. =)

Postal Museum

2011-02-10T21:19:00.011-06:00

Last week weekend we went to the Smithsonian Postal Museum. We were actually able to see the entire museum with Julia, crazy. I guess the small size had something to do with it.

The building was cool. It was the old Washington D.C. post office.

This is the packaging the Hope Diamond was sent to the Smithsonian in. The man who donated it, Harry Winston, sent it in 1958 to the Smithsonian via the U.S. Postal System.

Tried out some old and new forms of transportation that the mail takes to get to us.

The Potty

2011-02-10T20:47:00.004-06:00

In other news, Julia has been showing interest in the big potty and asking to sit on it. While I'm not quite ready to potty train her yet, I figured it wouldn't hurt to get her her own potty to sit on so I wouldn't have to spend the five minutes a day holding her up on the big potty so she doesn't fall in. So last week Julia and I went to Target and picked out a nice little potty for Julia. We got home, opened it up and set it up in our bathroom. I showed Julia how to put the lid up, pull down her pants and sit on the potty.

I don't know what I expected, but nothing happened in the 30 seconds she was willing to sit there. We got her dressed again and while we were still in the bathroom she pooped in her diaper. Remember the purpose here was just to let her sit on the potty, not to actually teach potty training. But I figured, "well, we're in here, with a poopy diaper, might as well show her what the potty is really for." So I took the diaper off and dumped the poop in her little potty and told her "Stinkies go in the potty." I could just see the gears working in her mind, "ohh, that's what happens." Unfortunately, at this point I got distracted by something, don't remember what exactly, but I'm sure was very important.

A minute later Julia says "Mommy's phone potty." Immediately I had a bad feeling. Sure enough, Julia had taken my iphone and dumped it smack dab in the middle of all the poop in her little potty. Ewww! Now I am doubly sure I am not ready for potty training.

P.S. I in no way blame Julia for this. I should have done better at explaining that only "stinkies" and pee go in the potty, and not everything you can get your hands on. We have since had that conversation and I haven't found anything else in the potty.

P.P.S Robert won't touch my phone now.

Wendy and Woody Visit (but not Buzz)

2011-01-19T14:40:00.012-06:00

Last week Robert's Aunt Wendy and Cousin Woody came to visit us. Every time I would tell Julia they were coming to visit she would ask "and Buzz?" Luckily she wasn't too disappointed that Buzz didn't come as well. Wendy and Woody had both been to D.C. before so we got to accompany them to some of the less visited places in the D.C. area.

Saturday we went to the Newseum (ie. News Museum) in D.C. It is a a private museum so it costs money. For you future D.C. visitors I would say there are plenty of cool things that are free to see in D.C. so if you're not here for very long go ahead and skip this one. But, if you have some spare time, there are really cool things here. They have an exhibit with a section of the Berlin wall, an exhibit with the antennae from one of the World Trade Center Towers, newspaper front pages from some of the biggest events in history, and a really nice view of the Capitol building (and more).

On President's Day we drove out to Gettysburg, the site of the 1863 Battle of Gettysburg. We learned a lot about the battle. I was amazed at just how much detail historians know about the battle; they know every major move made during the three days of battle down to the minute. It was really cool to hear about it as we were seeing right where it all look place.

We also finally made it out to the other Air and Space Museum located about 40 minutes outside of D.C. by Dulles Airport. This is where they keep all the planes and space artifacts that don't fit into the museum in D.C. Some of the cool things there are the Enola Gay(dropped the atomic bomb on Hiroshima, its the large silver plane in the picture with Wendy, Julia and I), a SR-71 Blackbird (the fastest jet in the world), and the Space Shuttle Enterprise.

Christmas 2010

2011-01-11T20:12:00.016-06:00

We spent our Christmas vacation in Utah this year and had a great time.

On Christmas Eve we had a big family party with my mom's family. We had dinner, sang Christmas carols, had a pinata, danced, and played basketball. Julia loved the pinata. After her turn was over I had to pick her up so she wouldn't run in the way of the people hitting the pinata. I would let her down in between turns and she would take her little spoon and run up to the pinata and hit it again. We spent Christmas Day at my parent's house relaxing and happy to have all my family together for Christmas.

After Christmas we had my Grandpa Sandberg's funeral. He has not been in good health for a long time, so his passing was not a surprise. In fact, I think I was almost more happy for him to out of pain and back in heaven with my grandma than sad. We will miss him, but he lived a long fulfilling life and it was time for him to go back to our Heavenly Father.

He was a Korean War Veteran so we had a military funeral for him. All his sons and grandsons in the military wore their military dress uniforms, his coffin was draped with an American flag, a bugler played Taps, and the Panguitch Honor Guard gave a gun salute.

It was snowing during the entire graveside service.

After the funeral and luncheon we had a white-knuckle drive back home in a giant snow storm and then the next day headed up to Park City to be with Robert's family. We had opened our presents in Arlington before we left, so by the time Christmas came around Julia felt like a pro. She wanted to help everyone else open their late Christmas presents at the cabin.
Julia and Tyler are so cute together. I'm glad she has a cousin her age to play around with. Everything one of them did, they both had to do. We took them out in the snow a couple times and neither of them were crazy about it but they were at least calm when they sat together in the sled.
We had a Wheat family Olympics, but only ended up having two events, Memory (the game) and Ultimate Sledding (meaning slide down the hill and race back up). Robert and I won both the events, so I guess we are the Gold Medal winners! The second event kicked our butts. This is me collapsing at the finish line, which I think everyone did at the end. It was a big hill and the air was just so thin we could all hardly breathe.
Robert had fun carving a couch out of the five feet of snow on the back porch, but first he had to shovel off all the rest of the snow on the porch.
And of course we had fun snowmobiling and snowshoeing. This is Robert going through some fresh powder (which he had to do a lot of to make us a trail all the way into the cabin).

I ♥ NYC

2011-01-10T16:06:00.003-06:00

Well, not so much actually. I thought it was gloomy, crowded, and dirty. But we did go there over Thanksgiving so I am going to blog about it even though it's been a month and a half. And, for the record, I thought it was pretty cool to see all the sights. I just would probably never go back and definitely would never want to live there.

Here's some of what we did.

Statue of Liberty. The one thing I really wanted to see in New York, it's such an American icon. We went up to the base and got to see the inside of the old lady and the spiral staircase going up to the crown. Even Julia was impressed by looking up.

Ice skating at Rockerfeller Center. None of us were very good at it, but we took a couple rounds around the rink. In the picture is Robert in the front and Jen and Tyler just coming around the corner.
Robert and I went to a taping of the the David Letterman show. Before the show we went over to the Hello Cafe (the owner is occasionally featured on the show) to get a bite to eat. Before the show they tell you to just laugh at all the jokes, even if you don't think its funny. I have to admit, I did a lot of fake laughing because the show wasn't all that funny. But it was very interesting. The only guest was Staff Sgt. Sal Giunta, the man who won the Congressional Medal of Honor. He seemed like a very nice, regular guy.

Here's a clip from the show.

Philadelphia

2011-01-09T23:01:00.007-06:00

Over Thanksgiving we headed up to Philly before taking a bus up to New York. We forgot to take our camera so we don't have a lot of pictures, just what was on Robert's phone. This time in Philly we saw Independence Hall, where the Declaration of Independence was signed, and the Liberty Bell. Julia and I and Dave and Tyler sat out the presentation in Independence Hall and blew bubbles in the hallway instead.

Afterwards we went out to Valley Forge again.

Supreme Court Building

2011-01-09T06:43:00.002-06:00

I'm finally getting the rest of our Thanksgiving pictures together. This one made me laugh.

And these ones were just pretty. Robert took these ones of the Supreme Court building while I went to Costco with his mom and the babies to get our food for Thanksgiving.

Merry Christmas!

2010-12-25T05:00:00.001-06:00

December 2010

Dear Friends and Family,

Seasons Greetings! We hope you are doing well and thought we would write a quick update to let you know how we are doing.

In June we moved from our home in Claremont, CA to Arlington, VA where we will be for the next two years while Robert is doing a rotation in the National Tax Practice at PwC. We’re feeling settled in here and love our neighborhood in Arlington and the beautiful greenery and fall colors throughout the area.

Robert has transitioned to his new office in Washington DC. He enjoys working closely with the technical experts of his firm and learning daily. The shorter commute and better work / life balance in the office has allowed him to spend more time watching his daughter grow up. He particularly likes the D.C. area and the countless places to visit with his family.

Melarie has her hands full at home running after Julia, literally. Melarie has started running almost everyday while Julia sits like a princess in her jogging stroller and watches the dog walkers. Melarie likes that it gets her out of the house and into shape and Julia likes stopping at the park afterwards. During the winter months when its too cold to run with Julia she hopes to take advantage of the free admission to the many museums in D.C. Melarie’s church calling helping to plan the monthly Relief Society enrichment meetings has also helped her make friends with a lot of the sisters in the ward.

Julia (19 months) has entered toddler hood with gusto. She definitely has a mind of her own and is sweet and well behaved, as long as no one gets in her way. Then, watch out! She really is a lovable little girl and enjoys giving hugs- to mom and dad, to her dolls, to random kids at the park, and even to the bonze statue of a turtle at the latest museum we visited.

We love visitors and have a guest bed in our basement available, so just let us know when you’d like to come for a visit! Have a very Merry Christmas.

Love,

Robert, Melarie, and Julia Wheat

Utah Fun

2010-12-21T15:25:00.022-06:00

We've been having a lot of fun in Utah visiting my family. They all adore having Julia around since she is the only grandchild, so she has been getting pretty spoiled with all the attention. You might say she gets treated like a princess. That's okay with me though, it makes my job a lot easier.

Some of the fun things we've done:

Saturday night we started the evening off by going out to dinner at a Filipino restaurant in Salt Lake. Then we went to temple square to see the lights, and then the boys took Julia home and all the girls went to the Mormon Tabernacle Choir Christmas Concert. Sunday we had a lot of family over and Julia stayed up late playing with (second) cousins.Then on Monday we went to the Christmas Carol Sing-A-Long at the Energy Solutions Arena with a live orchestra and performances by Jon Schmidt. My family has gone for the past three years, but this was our first time going. Here is the row Robert and I were sitting on. It is entirely made up of my family members- uncle, cousins, aunt, more cousins, siblings, and finally another aunt and a teeny tiny Julia standing on a lap at the very end with a Santa Clause hat. We had fun and Julia loves to sing so she had a lot of fun too.
This was one of the songs Jon Schmidt played (but not actually last night's performance obviously). At the sing-a-long Jon Schmidt talked about how surprised he was that this video got over a million hits, so of course I had to look it up when I got home.

Finally, we woke up to a bunch of snow this morning and decided this snow looked inviting enough to go through the trouble of bundling up enough to go play in the snow. Julia hated being bundled up so much and she could hardly walk at first. She kept whining while trying to walk through the snow. I guess she got used to it though because after a while she loosened up and starting jumping into the snow and throwing snow up into the air. We played outside for close to two hours this morning and went back out again this afternoon after Julia's nap. Julia was introduced to the wonders of snowmen, snowballs, and even a snow slide that her uncles made for her.Checking out the snowman we built. She wanted to give him a hug. Then when she did give the snowman a hug she buried her face into him and realized that he actually tasted pretty good. She kept going back to him and trying to eat him.
This is a video of the first run down the snow slide. We later expanded it and the snow melting a little naturally made it more slippery and smooth, so it turned out to be pretty fast.

I figured out Julia gets more out of it if she goes down with me, so here are Julia and I going down the the snow slide together.
Unfortunately we found out my Grandpa Sandberg passed away on Sunday. He has been in constant pain for a while though and has not had a very high quality of life from being so sick. He has also really been missing my grandma who passed away last year. So although we will all miss him a lot, we know that he is happier where he is now. My grandpa's last gift to my Dad was in the timing of my Grandpa's death. He died just in time for my Dad to come home from Iraq for Christmas. My dad gets to leave Iraq for 15 days (including travel time) to come to the funeral. He has already left Iraq and is probably in Kuwait someplace now. We are hoping he makes it to Utah by the 23rd or 24th. It really is a Christmas miracle. The funeral will be next Wednesday in Panguitch, UT.

It's Christmas Time!

2010-12-07T16:27:00.001-06:00

Julia got to see Santa at our neighborhood Christmas party on Saturday. Last year Julia was too young to know what was going on and she really didn't care who was holding her. This year she didn't want to go to Santa at first, but he offered her a candy cane she decided he could hold her, but she was still a little unsure about the whole thing.

A Bryant Park Santa

2010-12-05T22:40:00.004-06:00

While we were in New York we went to Bryant Park and Microsoft was doing free Santa pictures to showcase a new photo editing program they have that makes it easy to get the "perfect picture." They took three pictures of us, then they showed us how to replace people's faces who weren't looking or had their eyes closed in one for the best face in another. We were pretty much the best group for the product because someone was doing something wrong in every picture, but we still got our perfect picture (Tyler never looked at the camera- at least we can see the side of his face right?)

You can see the rest of the photos here

U.S. Capital Building

2010-12-05T21:18:00.010-06:00

We had a great time over Thanksgiving with Robert's family. Starting the Saturday before Thanksgiving we went to Philadelphia, New York City, and then came back to Washington D.C. for Thanksgiving and more sightseeing. We saw a lot of cool things and since I'm not really in a rush to post about them all at once, I'll probably just do a few different posts over the next week.

One of the places we saw in D.C. was the U.S. Capital. We got tickets from our Congressional Representative in Claremont and one of his interns showed us around.As long as Julia gets to hang out like she wants she does well sightseeing. It's when we force her to move along and go places she's not interested in that things get hairy.
Tyler and Kevin standing in the crypt room. There is no one really buried there, but it is where the designers of the capital wanted to bury George Washington (he's buried at Mount Vernon).

The fresco on the ceiling in the Rotunda, The Apotheosis of Washington, depicting Washington becoming a god surrounded by Liberty, Victory, and the thirteen maidens representing the thirteen colonies.

A life size model of the statue on top of the capital, the Statue of Freedom. It was really cool to see the inside of the capital. We went inside the House Chambers and kind of felt like I had been there before since it's such a recognizable room.

National Arboretum

2010-11-15T07:40:00.012-06:00

Looking at our past posts I think it's safe to say that over the next two years anyone who reads our blog should have a good idea of what they want to see in D.C. area from reading about our experiences. So, your welcome future D.C. visitors. We're doing all the research for you. =)

Saturday we visited the National Arboretum in Washington D.C. We figured it was a good time to visit a place dedicated to trees when all the leaves are changing color. I think we will have to go back in the spring when all the flowers are in bloom as well. Also, the place is quite large (446 acres) and with Julia wanting to walk most of the time we didn't get to see it all.

The National Capitol Columns, they were the columns on the front of the Capitol building until the 1950s when the Capitol Building was expanded. They were installed at the Arboretum in the 1980s.

Bonsai trees, so cute and mini.

Julia giving hugs.

National Grove of State Trees.

They are suppose to have the state tree of every state, but some states have a substitute tree that will actually grow in this climate. Here is me with Utah's Blue Spruce and Robert with Idaho's Western White Pine.

Correcting a Missed Bloggertunity

2010-11-01T20:41:00.001-06:00

Over the summer we went on an great bike ride, but unfortunately forgot to take our camera or phones (which incidentally led to us getting a little lost and making it such a great long bike ride). Saturday we went for another nice long ride, not in the same area (this time along the Mount Vernon trail through Alexandria) but we did remember the camera. So this is what the last post would have looked like...

Julia hanging out in the trailer. It was a little cool so we had the rain cover on to keep the wind off her.
Stopping for a break.
Julia and I with the Potomac in the background (and the teeny tiny capital bldg.)

Happy Halloween!

2010-10-31T20:12:00.006-06:00

Julia and I were pirates for Halloween, Arrr! (Robert refused to dress up) On Thursday we went to Robert's work and went trick-or-treating around his office. At first Julia was a bit confused, but she got the hang of things after a couple desks- Take one colorful candy from the bucket at the desk and put it in my pumpkin bucket. What a fun game! Little does she know that the colorful candy is actually edible and yummy (we'll save that lesson for another day). Robert and I can still keep her entertained for hours by letting her take candy out of the big bowl at our house and putting it in her bucket and then back into the bowl.
She thought it all was such a big adventure. The office was like a giant maze to her as we maneuvered through the cubicles and at the end there was a pizza party and pumpkin decorating.
Right after the work party we went to our ward Halloween party. We got stuck in traffic getting out of D.C. (wow, just, wow. It took us half an hour to go four blocks) so we got there for just the trunk-or-treating. I also convinced Julia to put on her pirate hat for the trunk-or-treat.

I had thrown all the Halloween decorations from home that we didn't put up this year into the back of our car and told Robert to put them up. He managed to put something together in the ten minutes before the kids came streaming out of the church and we ended up getting third place in the decorating contest. (This is him taking it all down afterwards)

It's Finally Here!

2010-10-27T18:53:00.003-06:00

Ever since we moved here everyone has been telling us the summers here are hot and muggy, but the fall is beautiful. We've had a few trees change colors, but this week I've noticed a big change. Most of the trees have finally changed colors, and it is beautiful. I love that wherever you go here there are a million trees everywhere.

American Indian Museum

2010-10-22T12:17:00.006-06:00

Last weekend Robert's brother Kevin and his wife Ellen came down for a visit. On Saturday they watched Julia while Robert and I went to the temple and then we went into D.C. Robert and I went to check out the National Museum of the American Indian. This may be my favorite Smithsonian because it's all about the indigenous cultures of North and South America (with an emphasis on Native American tribes in the U.S.), and they do special performances! We will definitely be going back for some of the other events they have and to try out the native food at the cafe. The day we went they were doing a celebration of Bolivian music and dance. Julia had fun dancing along. Her new word for the weekend was "dance" and now when she hears music playing she will say "dance" and dance along.

Frying Pan Farm

2010-10-20T12:48:00.003-06:00

Today our ward's playgroup went out to visit Frying Pan Farm. Julia loved it of course. The first thing she saw when we got there were a bunch of cows and she got really excited and started mooing because it's the first time she has seen a cow since she learned the cow says moo (she also thinks the cow says baa and the sheep says moo and baa).

I had a hard time convincing her to leave the cows and move on to see the sheep. Then I had a hard time convincing her to leave the sheep to see the pigs, and so on. It was just a small farm for kids but we stayed for two hours while Julia got acquainted with all the farm animals.

And While We Were On the Farm...

2010-10-20T12:44:00.002-06:00

this is what Robert was doing. He was in NYC for the day for a business meeting. What a difference from what we did today!

Julia's Fashion Sense

2010-10-18T11:39:00.001-06:00

Uh-oh, bare midriffs are a no-no Julia. We should pull your shirt down to cover your tummy.
Oh wait, we can't because you're sporting the new upside down onsie look. It's like a cowl neck onies.
Julia's quickly becoming the epitome of a squirmy toddler and getting her dressed in the morning has become quite a challenge. This morning in my haste to get the onsie on I failed to notice it was on upside down until her daddy managed to catch her.

My Dad and OIF

2010-09-26T20:00:00.012-06:00

Bonus Points for anyone who knows what OIF stands for.

My was dad deployed to Iraq for a year right after Robert and I were married, and he is now back there again for another year. Last time he was in Baghdad, this time he is in Mosul. Last time he was talking to Iraqis to gather intel and opinions and this year he is in charge of a few teams who are doing the same thing.

Here are a few pictures that he sent along with what he said about them.

North Central Iraq. Northwest of Mosul. This is what most of the terrain away from the river looks like at this time of year. Not much there. If you look real close towards the top you can see what looks like a strip of green just on the horizon. That's where the Tigris River is.

Kuwait, early in the morning before it really starts to get hot

Inside of a Black Hawk.

A view of the Tigris River north of Mosul.

Julia 18 mo...

2010-09-24T18:59:00.007-06:00

Julia trying to get up after climbing into her old baby bouncer and leaving out a leg.

... at 17 months and 9 days. So we're a little early, but she never did get her 15 mo. checkup in with the move and all. Here's her 17 mo. stats:

Height- 31 in. (43%)
Weight- 22.15 lbs (37%)
Head Circ- 18.5 (70%)

vs. her 12 mo. stats:
Height- 28.5 in (25 %)
Weight- 21.4 lbs (52 %)
Head Circ.- 18 in. (65 %)

So she's gotten a little taller, gained a tiny bit of weight, and still has a larger than average head. She eats plenty though, so I think her lack of weight gain is just from being so active. Like the picture above. She's average size when comparing height to weight, so she is just naturally petite as well. Up next for her, trying out nursery this Sunday!

Just Some Random Videos

2010-09-21T15:06:00.002-06:00

Just some random videos of Julia playing around.

Mount Vernon Market Place and Fair

2010-09-19T18:13:00.008-06:00

Last weekend Mount Vernon was having a Market Place and Fair with vendors, shows, and free boat rides on the Potomac. Above, Julia and I on Washington's farm.

On the boat ride. Mount Vernon is far out in the distance above my head or closeup on the bottom left.
Robert talking to one of the soldiers. They had a lot of historical figures walking around and all the vendors were dressed up in colonial dress. The show that was going on while we were there was a fire eater and sword swallower and it grossed me out! It was one of those things where I didn't want to watch but I couldn't turn away.

Ducks!

2010-09-15T11:59:00.010-06:00

Julia has become quite the jabbermouth in the past few weeks, with real words! Okay, so she only says one word sentences (that usually end in an exclamation point ie Ducks!), but I still feel like she talks a lot. She knows about twenty words to varying degrees of correct pronunciation, including (basically, all the ones I can think of off the top of my head):

shoes
socks
ball
swing
doggy
car
squirrel
mama
dada
no
uh-oh
hugs
hello
bye
water
ducks
up

Her new favorite word is "ducks!" We have a lot of pictures of ducks and duck figurines in our house and one day she was really interested in them, so I taught her how to say ducks. She really likes the s on the end, so it's never duck, always ducks.

This is a video of me trying to get her to say to some words. All she really says is ducks, doggy (very quietly), and shoes and socks. It's kind of hard to pick them out with all her other chatter though.

Photo and video editing at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Earlier this week we went out in search of real ducks.

It's hard to get a good picture while trying to keep Julia from walking into the water.

We found them almost immediately at Teddy Roosevelt Island, then went for a nature walk around the island and found some more. She got the connection right away that they were ducks, but after a minute or so she didn't really care about them anymore. I was was more entertained watching the ducks with the bread I brought to feed them than Julia was.
Julia and a tiny caterpillar near the bottom of the picture. She wanted to poke it with a stick.

Happy Monday!

2010-09-13T18:34:00.004-06:00

Just a quick post on what Julia and I did this typical Monday morning. Buying the jogging attachment to Julia's bike carriage was one of the best purchases of the summer. I usually go jogging every weekday morning with Julia and it's been a great way to start our day. We both love getting some fresh air first thing in the morning. I love getting back into shape and Julia loves that we stop at the playground afterward.

Wishing it will feel like fall soon

2010-09-08T13:51:00.002-06:00

Over the past month, I have been responsible for about 1,000 of the following video's 1.6 million views. Now that the season has finally started, all I can hope for now is that the weather will soon cool and feel like fall. Until then just sit back and enjoy the video.