Jedi Jane

Jane is going to a Star Wars birthday party today, and this is the outfit she's going to wear.  What?  Didn't all Jedi wear colorful striped pants?  Maybe we will try to find her black pants before we go.  Anyway, I made this outfit, which I am really proud of =).  The cape took me a few hours (and we will re-use the pattern in red for Halloween), and the shirt... basically it's sewn like a pillowcase with holes cut in for a head and arms.  It took me all of five minutes.  But hey - the Jedi are all about humility, right?  Well... maybe not that Anakin.

Trip to rural New York

*Written March 7, 2012*

In early September 2011, we took a trip to rural New York for the wedding of Michael's brother, Nile, and his bride Rebekah.  They got married in the Palmyra, New York temple.

I will do a brief mention here that we missed our flight going out.  The ensuing day was stressful but things like that tend to put the rest of our lives in perspective.  Due to a hurricane on the east coast, there weren't any flights to 8 or so of the nearest airports to our destination, except, by some miracle, Cleveland, Ohio, where my friend Amy Jo lives.  She picked us up and drove us three hours to Buffalo, NY, (not to mention the three hours for her to get back home).  She wins the friend of the year award for 2011.

Jane was an amazing trooper the whole day, despite not ever getting a nap and having our overall travel time extended by 6 or 7 hours.  She is always a peach.

Okay.  Now let us never speak of that day again.

The next day was Nile's wedding day.  They had asked me to be their photographer, and the Palmyra area is so lush and green, it was all lovely.  Here are a few of my favorite photos from the day:

It's always fun to hang out with Michael's family, especially since we have so few chances to all get together.

At the end of the day there was a really nice dinner at an Italian restaurant.

Like any wedding day, we were pooped at the end of it. =)  Even Jane, despite what she may look like here:

Over the next couple of days, we visited some sites around Palmyra.  We started with the Sacred Grove, visited the first place the Book of Mormon was printed, and Hill Cumorah.  It was all very interesting and, of course, gorgeously green and lush.  I took some Sacred Grove pictures with my nice camera, but Jane had her finger up her nose the whole time, so we will settle for my iPod pictures:

Mike and Jane on Cumorah

Jane and her cousin Abby

We also visited Niagara Falls, which was really fun and something I've wanted to do for awhile.  We didn't go to the "Canada" side which is supposed to be better, but it was still pretty cool.

After all that, Mike, Jane, and I went to nearby Toronto, Canada for a couple of days.  Michael has always wanted to go there and so we decided to take advantage of being so close to it.

Jane emptying my wallet in our hotel room

The first night we were there, we decided to go to the CN Tower.  It's the tallest free-standing structure in the Western Hemisphere.

By the time we got up the elevator, the sun had long gone down, so we had some pretty spectacular views:

 They have this glass floor that you can walk onto and freak yourself out when you look down and just see a drop for so many stories.  It gave me vertigo.  It took some coaxing to get Michael out onto the floor, but he did it.  Not sure if he looked down, though. =)

This makes my stomach queasy.

 Just before we left we went to the outdoor observation area with Jane.  It was a bit too windy!

 The next morning we went to the Royal Ontario Museum, which was just a block or two from our hotel.  They had an interesting water exhibit, but we didn't get to see much else because we got a bit lost and then it was time for Jane's nap.

The museum is the building across the street

 After Jane's nap we took the ferry to an island right off of Toronto where they have huge parks and an amusement park and all sorts of crazy fun.  I even got funnel cake.

The next day we flew home.  This flight was harder on Jane (if you can believe it), but due to amazing luck, there was an empty seat in our row so Jane got her own seat!

Of course, sometimes Mommy is the best seat anyway.

Laundry Mayhem

Yesterday was "frantic laundry day" as Michael and I kept the washer and dryer going from about 8 in the morning to 1am, with a 2-hour break for Jane's nap somewhere in there.  Not only are we preparing for an upcoming trip, but I decided that all of the sheets on the bed, the duvet cover, and the down comforter needed to be washed, too.  I'm only sad that I didn't have time to do the pillows.  But, on the bright side, I don't think there's an unwashed cloth in the entire house now, aside from what I wore to bed last night.  It was odd, too, how we'd keep running loads of clothes and I'd think we were done, and then I'd open up the diaper bag and see three things in there that needed to be washed, along with Jane's crib sheets, and that smelly blanket that had been laying on the floor of our room - and suddenly -BAM- there's another load to do.

One happy side effect was being able to get our room cleaner than usual.  Michael and I organized our bedside tables, and he even tackled the "corner of death" aka the corner of our room where Michael strips off his socks before bed and throws them (it's 5 feet away from the hampers... why, WHY?) until they accumulate into a large pile of socks and discarded clothes and dust and probably small animals.  And I just let it sit there because I think, maybe he will pick them up at some point?  Anyway, we cleaned out the corner of death and got the floor all clean (and visible) and we had nice clean sheets on the bed and all was wonderful.

Until it was time for bed and I walked over to give Michael a kiss and I saw two socks, discarded, on the floor in the corner!  And I turned slowly to Michael and said, "What are theses socks...  on the flooooooorrrrchhhhhhhugggghhhh"  The sentence really devolved into these over-dramatic gurgling gargling sounds.   Michael just looked at me for a minute and then said, "Are you the gate keeper?"

Alright.  You gotta give props for a well-placed Ghostbusters reference.  Nice one, Michael.  You're off the hook... this time.

June family trip to Heber

My family had a vacation back in June and I should probably mention it now that it's the end of August.  We all got together at a cabin in Heber and it was a lot of fun.  I didn't take a lot of pictures, except for one day when my sister had all sorts of water games planned.  Here's a recap:

First, Jane in all her cuteness. Oh, the ruffles!

Some kind of relay.  Look at them go!

I think they were filling buckets with cups that had holes in the bottom.

And they had to hold the cups over their heads!

The classic over-under water balloon handoff.

Pop the water balloons with anything but your hands and feet.

The phrase "Kissing Cousins" comes to mind.

 

Jane even got a little pool time in.

While the kids tossed water balloons... farther and farther.

Where'd she get that water balloon?

Oh and we had a can-knocking-over game.

And a ring toss.

And a ball toss.

Basically just lots and lots of fun.  I didn't take any other pictures on the trip, except for this one: Jane and her cousin Ian hanging out in the kids' corner, eating lunch.  Cute little companions.