Afton's 1st

It was May 22nd.
So I'm a bad mom!
But she'll never know...
Right?
{cross fingers}
Afton is such a light in our lives!
A"pistol" our "little firecracker" and "spitfire"
I fear for Porter's safety when she is old enough to walk...
now he can at least run away from the little piranha

She held her own with her strawberry frosting covered blueberry muffin...
er "Birthday Cake."
Hey, step off!
We're living in a hotel...
in Deutschland...
and there's no Target...
or Walmart...
and I have no oven or stove...
and I'm a bad mom

(Watch out, Afton, he's a sneaky one)
I love that she's the most stubborn baby I know.
It's a battle of the wills...ALWAYS

I love the way she looks for Porter in the morning...as soon as she's up she crawls over to his door and yells for him to come out...
or until she wakes him up.

I love that she knows when WE think she's funny and she'll laugh at herself even more
(and look at those baby-blues!)

I love the faces she makes!
And this trait she gets from Moi

Happy Birthday Baby Girl!
I love you!

Playing with her Favorite (only) new toy

*Oh yeah, and our camera battery died.
Our charger wasn't compatible with the European adapter...
so these were taken with my iPhone...
poor kid won't have video OR good quality pictures.
Enjoy the video we DO have :)

Thanks But No Thanks

So yesterday I hollered out (to nobody in particular)
that I needed something of the "feminine" nature...
and urgently.
Luke volunteered.
Pshyeah, like there was any other option.
(Haven't made any of those coveted German errand-runner-nugget-friends yet.)

So Luke had to run across the street from our hotel (in Germany) to a convenience store.
First he had to look the German word up just in case.
(Guess that wasn't in his vocab lists at school.)
Lucky for him it was still "Tampon!"
{FEW!}
I was just glad there was no way he could forget the word during his little trek across the street and
{gasp}
Have to regress to gestures!

On his way out the door he started getting cold feet so I reassured him that if any ladies were in the store, they would DEF have his back.
And they'd be wishin' their man would do that for them.

But I didn't know what dudes do when they see other dudes pokin' around that aisle and bringing that sort of thing up to the register.
So I just gave him a pat on the back and said,
"Go get 'em Tiger! Grrr."

I answered my phone a few minutes later,
only to hear a man that sounded like he was in the library.

It was Luke.

"When I got here there was nobody in the store. But all of a sudden a huge group of people walked in...and nobody's leaving..."

I told him to buy a few other random things and hide the "special box" among the items.
But after a few exchanges back and forth he interrupted and said,
"Oh, no one's up there! I'm goin'."
So I told him I was rooting for him and I'd see him when he got back.
"Not so fast,"
he said,
"we're in this thing together."

Next thing I heard was him hanging his head
as he handed the clerk the box of specials
and saying

"Just this."

Hmmm....rather small box for 16

Yup.
They're small alright.
What is it?
A bullet?
A suppository?
No. It's got a wrapper.
It must be candy.
If it's what it's supposed to be,
that's just ... wrong.
Oh!
Duh!
Those silly Germans.
But why would you need a box of 16 nose-plugs?

Unless...

YOU'RE MARRIED!
Totally ingenious!

*I love my hubs for going on that little adventure for me!

Thanks, hubs!

Stage Two

Pull up a comfy seat, grab a snack,
and while you're at it, could you grab me somth from Trader Joe's?
K, thx.
Pref. something not so good for me...
like their yummylicious bag of kettlecorn will do just fine.
Thx.

So I had this brilliant idea
(which really was brilliant until mother nature and beast of nature, aka: Luke, interfered. ) that we should take a leisurely road trip through the Lake Tahoe area on our way to SLC. You know, before all of this trans-Atlantic moving mumbojumbo happened.

Well, I don't know what I was smokin' when I packed us, but it wasn't the smart pipe!
It snowed going into Tahoe...IN Tahoe...and coming out of Tahoe.
So much for those sun hats and swimsuits I packed!

We finally made it to Utah after our looooong road trip.
Which, actually, wouldn't have been so butt-crampingly irritating, except
Luke decided...in the midst of driving our CIVIC through a BLIZZARD...
to push through PAST our 2nd night's reservation in some town I can't even remember, but that's not the point! It was a bed...with closets for the sleeping kids.
Wait. What?
But like I was sayin'.
Those closets would have been nice around
11P.M.
OR 12 A.M.
OR 1A.M.
OR even 2 A.M.
I usually put my kids down around 6P.M. ...
But I'm just sayin'

Utah was therapeutic.
No boarding, but none the less, therapeutic!
The Dinosaur Exhibit down at Thanksgiving Point was AWESOME!
And for only $10 all day
It'll be our new tradition!

All I have to say is:
"I would POOPMYPANTS if I found myself in the same ocean as this thing!!"

What? Where!

Still there?

German Shepard vs. the hose:


WHAT the!?!

Ahhhh, so much more appealing!

Ultimate Frisbee:
Meet Me:


Meet my brother,
Gorilla Man:


Hello, not good idea!
Sweety, I know you're a seal and all...
but Gorilla Man?

I can't watch.


SuhwEEt!


Good thing you wore your
awesomely-fantastic-hardcore-ultimate-frisbee-desert-boots from Iraq!



And just in case you were wondering if we had mistakenly left this little nugget
somewhere along the way,
you were wrong.
She was Grandma's sidekick the entire time.
Thanks to J, Becky, Mom, and Chip, for putting us up!

Stage One

Grandpa came to help while the movers packed us up and we stayed far far away from the chaos in a SUHwEEt hotel :)
Thnx Dad!Fun at Pebble Beach

"Okay, I'm weddy!"

Our first leg of the journey...
I wish I could say I put them up to this!

Ah man! Do I really look like a peacock?
Why yes. Yes you do.

About the only thing we saw worth taking notes between Reno and SLC.

A tribute:

Ah ha! There you are! I knew I smelled you over here.

Classic

So Don't ask how it started, because it was completely platonic.
I swear.
AnywAyz... Luke and I got into a wee wrestling match at the casa tonight.
My nose itched...in a BAD, gimme-a-gummybear-or-I'll-punch-you-I'm-on-a-diet-sorta way.
Luke had me pinned on the floor so I couldn't even reach my hand to my face.
I cried out to Porter, "Porter! Come scratch my nose. PLEASE PLEASE!"
To which he responded, "Not tonight, Mom. Not tonight."

Hiatus

.....That's what WE'RE on!
Stay tuned until we get settled in Europe.

Yup! That's right. Don't be hatin'.
'Cause I love you!

After an all-day museum trip

But ....I.......
NEED..............
to................
daaaaaaance....




*Luke thought he's introduce Porter to R&B...great keep-awake-strategy honey!
*You gotta watch reeeel close

Happy Easter!

(After 3 hours at church, we have zombies for children.)
(Oh, and I swear Afton has ears...she was just tryin' out her "Aunt Jemima" look")

Lake Tahoe vs. Yosemite

Lake Tahoe:

Yosemite:

HAS ANYONE BEEN TO EITHER???
Please help us decide!
We have the option to go to (for sure) one of these spots...
If we're lucky, both.
If you've been to either and can suggest anything like:
what part of the lake
where to stay
what not to do
where not to stay....
or where would be best with two kidaroos at this time of year
Please help me plan our trip!

I'll repay you by thinking happy thoughts of you being with us on our magical journey!

A Night to Remember!

We went out to dinner with our friends Shaunjustin and CarrieJon.
(Cooinsidental names, I know!)
Poor Carriejon...I didn't want to tell him.

We went to this quaint restaurant built into a mountainish hill.
The food was taste-y but a wee bit inflated on the price.
(Sorry Nepenthe.)

We laughed so much it hurt.
Or......maybe that was just me.


Nope.

B-u-u-u-u-u-u-u-u-u-u-t
SRSLY.
Why am I the ONLY one looking off into the distance imagining myself weightless, swimming with tiny little seahorses?
I dunno
Thanks everyone, for the memorable night!