Weekend Adventures

Date Night!

Devin and I decided to take a blast from the past and do something we haven't done since before we were married, or even engaged: Miniature Golfing.

This was the cutest course. I loved this pergola that had wisteria growing so thick that, light couldn't get though.

This was one of 3 of Devin's hole in one! Who knew he was such a pro at putting around??

I have such a precious husband. What a dream boat.

Ok, I still get people that look at pictures of me and say I don't look pregnant. Here's a good one that can put all those thoughts to rest. I'm 24 weeks- last time I was this big at about 32.

Saturday we went to Jordan Lake with a few or our friends. It was such a beautiful day in the upper 80's and the water was cool and refreshing. We relaxed on the beach and cooled off in the water.

We're so glad Cambry is a water baby. She marched right in and we had to pick her up when she got to her armpits, because she wasn't stopping on her own. We brought a little floating ring she got for her birthday and she loved kicking and splashing around in that. We wouldn't let her drink the water, but she kept dipping her hands and sucking the drips from off her hands, the little weasel.

I only made one New Years resolution: Not to get sunburned. So far so good (I'm also not getting tan since I'm always wearing 30 SPF).

Cambry's walking farther and farther on her own. She's still a little tipsy, but she doesn't seem scared to keep getting back up when she falls and keep trying.

Visitors!!

This post was done two weeks ago, but was deleted by blogger. There are more recent posts after this one. So make sure you scroll down to see all of them.

We had 2 visitors in 2 weeks! Our first visitor was my sister Jessica. This is picking her up from the airport- Right when the picture was taken, a bug flew on Jess's cheek which resulted a fantastic photo.

It was so nice outside and Salt Lake had a blizzard that morning, we decided to enjoy the outdoors and we packed up our dinner and took it out to a little pond close to home and had an evening picnic.

Devin was in the midst of finishing up his semester, so it was extra nice to have constant company from one of my favorite people. We went to this sweet farmer's market in Raleigh that had everything from knick knacks like black gnomes to Cajun flavored squeaky cheese (which is surprisingly good).

We picked up some sweet potatoes and made some sweet potato fries for the first time. We gave them a B+

Jess, Cambry, and I spent an afternoon picking Strawberries at Jean's Strawberry patch. I have been wanting to do this since I saw people doing this when I was a missionary in So Cal, but never got around to it (weird I was busy doing other things). So 8 years later, I'm checking off something on my bucket list.

Jess was really good at finding the huge prime ones while I laughed at Cambry getting so excited to touch so many new things. We didn't get as many as we thought we did, and once we ate one (seriously THE BEST berries I've ever had) we wished we had more.

We made delightful Strawberry shortcake after dinner.

One day the three of us went to the Museum of Art that has some awesome displays right now of Rodin's sculptures, African American art, and Egyptian art. I don't think I was supposed to take pictures, so this is the only one I got.

Apex Lake is around the corner from my house and has a beautiful 2 mile paved trail that goes completely around it. This was so nice to just walk and talk and catch up with each other. I think Jess got a little overwhelmed with how green it is here. The whole time she was here, she kept looking for mountains or some land mark to help her know which direction we were heading but all she could see was green!

Sunday night my best friend Steph flew into town and Monday morning the 4 of us girls went to the beach. Poor Devin had to stay home and study. It was great to have people that were used to 25 degree weather because they were so excited to be warmed by the sun.

Cambry loved my Spider man kite almost as much as she loved the water. Sidenote: Jess got that cute swim suit for Cambry from H&M (LOVE that they have one of those here) as an early birthday present.

When we got to the sand, Cambers B-lined it for the ocean and didn't want to get out.

Cambers swimming in the ocean for the first time. Jess had a little hard time stopping the recording.

It was nice to just relax in the sand, although first time on the beach with a child isn't very carefree, especially one that has as much energy as Cambers.

Cambry tuckered out before we even got out of the parking lot.

We tried out some real Southern cooking at a place called Danny's Barbecue that was excellent. I think I like vinegar based BBQ sauce more than tomato, although I don't really love any of the southern sides (baked beens, coleslaw, hush puppies, applesauce).

Love this Can Can pic of Cambers. Isn't that belly amazing?? She had such a fantastic time with Aunt Jessica and we were all sad to see her go home.

After Jess left, Steph was still in town for a few days. We got to go to the Raleigh temple and do a session together. I love this temple- it's so small and cute. It was neat to share this special place with my friend!

excuse the nasty pic of me, but I only took one and so I don't have any more options.

Happy Birthday Cambry!

Happy Birthday Cambry! Yesterday she turned 1, and we had a little party- just the 3 of us. I was planning a bigger outside party, but had a crazy couple of weeks, and crappy weather Saturday. It ended up being perfect for all of us.

After decorating these cakes, it made me want to learn how to cake decorate for real- and how people that live in humidity make frosting that doesn't melt!

This was Camber's little cake that she loved. She has very rarely been exposed to sugar, and thought this cake to herself was a dream come true. I tried to make flowers, butterflies, and a sunshine, but it began to ooze a little bit more than desired.

her first sugar high

pictures above show why an instant bath was necessary.

Like most kids, Cambry thought the boxes, clothing tags, and wrapping paper were the most exciting part. After she began to read her books and play with her toys, she began to see birthdays rock.

Thanks Grandma Beck for the fun foam farm book (sweet alliteration) and seriously cute clothes.

Thanks Grandma Cathy for the toys, book, and shorts. She's been playing with and kicking that ball around all day. Every time she pulls out the animal book, she squeals with delight.

Cambry's 12 month stats:

Height: 30.5" 90th percentile, Weight: 22lbs 11 oz 75th percentile, Head: 47 cm 90-95th percenitle.

nicknames: Cambers, "C", Little Sister, Lamb Chop, Little Foot, Lil Lady

New discoveries:

• She's taking several steps at a time by herself, but isn't confident completely by herself. She loves guiding us around holding one of our hand. She's figured out that shoes mean it's time to go outside and is putting up less and less of a fight to get them on her cute feet. She just found out about puddles, and can't seem to get enough of them.
• She is experimenting immensely with gravity. Every morning I go into her bedroom to find her throwing all of her stuffed animals overboard her crib. She likes to drop things while in the stroller, high chair, at church in the bench behind us, etc. The only thing she holds onto are the keys, because I don't give the dropped items back to her, and she really wants to play with those.
• Along with waving and clapping, she can now give high fives and point.
• She loves belly buttons- her own and others. She's also found sticking her finger up people's noses while they're holding her is quite fun and gets a great reaction.

Little things we love about her:

• She never falls asleep in the same position. I go check on her and try to figure out how in the world she got like that, and how she could possibly sleep soundly in such an uncomfortable position.
• She loves being chased, or chasing. She constantly squeals or screams with excitement. She doesn't quite know what to do once she's been caught or catches, but all the anticipation makes her so happy.
• When people say "hi" to her, she'll a)wave, b)smile and giggle, and/or c) say "hey" back. She's really learned how to get people to give her positive attention, and she is an attention hog in public.
• She hasn't learned to throw big temper tantrums yet.
• She loves being tickled.
• She loves ripping paper. Although we joke about all the things she's ruined, all hymn books and most library books are still in tact. She's only managed to rip the title page out of pride and prejudice. We have old magazines for her that keep her busy off and on every day.
• Her hair is a great indicator of just how humid it is. When it's extra humid, she gets tight little curls in the back. On the rare occasions there isn't much moisture in the air, she has a very straight mullet. Those occasions make us seriously consider taking her in for her first hair cut. But then the curls come back and they're so dang cute, we can't bring ourselves to do it.

We are so blessed to have Cambry in our family!

Charlotte

While my sister Jessica came to visit, we drove to Charlotte for the weekend for a much needed visit to Uncle Lindsey and Aunt Lil and cousin Bethany. We planned to get dinner along the way, but there isn't much between Raleigh and Charlotte. When we saw this little Country Kitchen, we B-lined it for the door.It was so cute- in the middle of the sticks, with waitresses with the cutest, thickest Southern accents I've yet to hear out here.

Cambry won over the entire diner, employees and guests alike with her little wave and sheep laugh that inspired the nickname "lamb chops" from Jess (she did her sheep laugh to her off and on the ENTIRE 3 hour drive- much better than screaming!).

We were starving, and ordered a few pancakes, eggs, bacon... We didn't realize the hot cakes would be bigger than our faces! 13 inch diameter!!

Devin was so so sure he wanted 3 chocolate raspberry pancakes, but the waitress talked him down to 2 (Tah-ew is how it's pronounced over there). Devin knew he would need more, until she brought them out and all of our jaws dropped. We sat there for about 30 minutes longer, because Devin was so determined to finish both of his. Champion at last! Those of us that weren't pregnant were full until the next afternoon.

We had a good night hanging out and catching up. After going to bed late, we slept well in beds designated for missionaries and headed over to the flea market. We picked out ridiculous ear rings for each other, since most of what you find at a flea market is ridiculous. Aunt Lil was a good sport and wore them all day, and made it clear to us, she'd never wear them again.

Across the street from the flea market was a strawberry patch. Since Jess and I were still craving fresh strawberries, we went for round 2. Cambry was a good sport about the triple team sunscreen application.

We went a little overboard, and picked almost 9 pounds. Besides eating them fresh, over the next 10 hours we had strawberries and ice cream, strawberry smoothies, strawberries in the salad, and sliced strawberries floating in all beverages.

The Thomas' hadn't had their egg roll yet, so the rest of us were given a second chance to get past the first round. We dyed and decorated eggs (while eating strawberries). This is lambchop's egg.

Despite second chances, the Thomas family schooled us!

Uncle Linds said- "That is the cutest shirt Cambry has on. That color reminds me of circus peanuts." Oh we have missed them, and are grateful for them letting us visit.