evan, lindsay, nina, elena and esther

a blog about a family with members who's names include Elena, Esther, Evan, Lindsay and Nina (in alphabetic order).

Sunday, September 27, 2009

 

New Video Blog!

Okay, folks!

I have this fancy new cellular device that happens to take great photos and pretty dern good video. We have a ton of videos to upload that were sort of spur the moment captures of Nina and other good stuff.



The video blog is actually its own blog, so check it out! I just added the following video to that blog and more will come soon.


Wednesday, September 23, 2009

 

babies

For you Nina followers out there. And Daphne fans too!

Check it out

Kirsten is such a good blogger. And such a good mom! And babysitter! Daphne is one lucky chick. And nic too (not a chick, just lucky)

Lately Nina has been:

crawling
cruising
forming sounds that include more of an 'r' sound as of today
saying banana - it started today too, I think!
saying mama and dada - i think! (it's really hard to be sure)
growing wild hair and what I think is a widows peak. One of the hairs nearly reaches her eye
looking at me just to smile at me
smiling hugely when i blow my nose
going on walks to campus to visit Evan with me while we still can before winter
holding onto you like a monkey when you pick her up
learning to cuddle, which is new
responding when i say no (like to eating grass or other nonedibles)
going to sleep so fast and easy
SO CUTE AND SQUISHY

Tuesday, September 22, 2009

 

Our last day of summer...



Was Wednesday the 9th, the day before Evan started his fall semester. We went hiking in the tetons. (happy fall officially, btw the way! Love fall!! Wish it lasted longer here). We realized something we should have realized long ago - the drive to the tetons from here is SHORTER than the drive from Kenmore to Tacoma, which we used to do at least weekly!! So why haven't we been coming here more, we ask ourselves. This is a beautiful place:



We began with a two or three mile attention span. But we just kept going! The hike included a one mile ascent called Devil's Staircase that led vertically until we reached a hanging valley. SO beautiful.



I went ahead while Evan was packing Nina in and hid, surprise shot.



Nina ended up sleeping for about an hour in her hiking 'chariot' so it worked out great with her naps. I kept thinking of the Emperor's New Groove - the chariot thing that the dude carried the wild lady in. And the way he'd prance around with ease. That was like carrying Nina in this pack, such a crazy sweet little baby lady.



Crystal clear, ice cold water. And amazing baby abs.



Once she tasted this pear she wouldn't give it back!

Monday, September 14, 2009

 

Were there ever cuter feet in all the land?



Of everything amazing we saw the day we went to yellowstone, these feet were my favorite sight all day.

Years ago, Grandpa and Grandma Johnson bought a time share condo type thing in Island Park to start a family reunion the second week of every August. Some of my earliest memories are at the family reunion at Island Park. Like when I ran straight into the sliding glass door (i must have been 4 years old), and doing snipe hunts, rafting down the river, and seeing amazing lightning storms, and of course the family tradition of playing dirty dog (a canasta card game). Since we now live only about 40 minutes from there in Rexburg, we're able to go up for the weekend and then whatever other days we can dodge work we'll go up for special events. This year included a trip to Yellowstone, an amazing canoe ride, rope swinging into a freezing cold river, foosball, and lots of food and card games.

Here we showcase our adventures in Yellowstone, Evan and Nina's first trip ever! It was 'free fee' day so we didn't have to pay! What made it even more exciting was that President Obama and his family were all there that day visiting! My cousins aren't his biggest fans (to say the least) and there were 3 miles of cars backed up at Old Faithful to see him (I think people were less interested in the geyser than in him) when we arrived, so we opted to see buffalo and other sites instead. It was a fun trip! Even when I got pulled over for speeding without my license. The cop tricked me into thinking I'd get a ticket and then graciously let me go without one, I was so grateful.






How easy it would be pre national parks and warning signs, to be the guy wandering upon this nice little pond who hadn’t been told that it is hot enough to melt your skin and cook you. Yellowstone is dotted with tons and tons of these hot spring pools, most boiling and steaming and obviously hot. This is one of the less conspicuously HOT lakes. Burning hot! This is kind of like nina the other day who crawled straight over to the oven while a cheesecake was baking inside, and rested her sweet wee little hands on the door. Luckily she was protected by the oven’s door but she wouldn’t have known the difference if the door had been open! She doesn’t know what hot is yet for heavens sakes! For some reason this idea blew me away.





Listen closely. Dr Seuss would have a heyday with this. It was so amazing!!!!! It looks deceivingly normal, like the site of a mud fight. Tis not so. This is a… oh confounded, we don’t know! We mostly just know that mud FLOPS out of a certain spot near the middle of the action, flailing through the air like a wobbly pancake, and splats. The mindboggling part about it is that this thing goes and goes and goes and it never stops, not day or night, or any time. So this is not any ordinary mud hole. This is an ever-changing crusty hill of once (and still) boiling mud.



Next attraction - his sister mud hole – this was also amazing but the previous one held us in a trance for much longer. This one SERIOUSLY looked like white/gray paint, boiling. Right on the ground in front of our eyes. Mother nature. She is amazing.




Another cool thing.











Another Dr. Seuss moment (there were a lot). This one was manmade. Your eyes are not deceiving you. This is actually a school bus with not just a fence and back patio, but also an entire Volkswagen BUS welded onto its top for greater travelling comfort. And then painted orange and blue. Evan and I were proud to see Washington license plates.






What would yellowstone be without a huge meadow full of hundreds of living and breathing buffalo? It was a sight. Here's a couple of them.

I'm glad that we made it to yellowstone! A wish granted. Last summer, a few days before our anniversary Evan hinted at our surprise anniversary plans with a stone painted yellow (clever no?). I was pregnant and ill and it ended up snowing on June 2nd, the day we planned to go. So now we finally made it! And better yet, Nina was there with us this time.

Archives

January 2007   April 2007   June 2007   July 2007   August 2007   September 2007   October 2007   November 2007   January 2008   February 2008   March 2008   April 2008   May 2008   June 2008   July 2008   August 2008   September 2008   October 2008   November 2008   December 2008   January 2009   February 2009   March 2009   April 2009   May 2009   June 2009   July 2009   August 2009   September 2009   October 2009   November 2009   December 2009   January 2010   February 2010   March 2010   April 2010   May 2010   June 2010   July 2010   August 2010   September 2010   October 2010   November 2010   December 2010   January 2011   March 2011   May 2011   June 2011   July 2011   August 2011  

This page is powered by Blogger. Isn't yours?

Subscribe to Posts [Atom]