Summer Recap

Well, I've been totally neglecting our blog... and I'm only doing it now out of sheer guilt. I haven't even been consistently taking pictures of what has been going on this summer. I'm such a loaf. Anyway, here is my recap:

In July, we went to Siesta Key Beach, which just happened to be the perfect beach for Kaitlyn. The parking lot was close to the beach and the first 10 yards of gulf only came up to your calf. She could easily make her way in and out of the water without needing someone hovering over her. There was also a clean public restroom nearby and a reasonably priced snack bar.

Just the girls went: Aunt Bekah, Katie, Aunt Bethany, Nana and myself.

We started to work on potty training. We've given up for the time being, but she knows what is supposed to happen. Obviously, she's been paying attention to others and their pottying habits.

Bekah turned 12 this summer and we all went with her on her first Temple Trip with the Youth.

Later in July, I turned 26 and Bethany made me a really scrumptious chocolate cake. It was so rich!

Kaitlyn, being the observant 2 year old that she is, decided she really likes dipping. It doesn't matter what is being dipped or what it is being dipped into, she wants to dip. "Dip, dip" she says. Oreos and milk are an obvious favorite.

Kaitlyn also started flipping herself over the edge of her crib to get out, so we went ahead and got rid of the retracting gate and now she has a "big girl bed." She isn't consistently staying in bed when we put her down, but she is getting there.

My mom took me on a trip out to Utah with her to go to Temple Square and Education Week. It was a blast and I highly recommend it to anyone who has ever thought about it!

We stayed in Helaman Halls and hiked it up and down campus all week. Needless to say, I was quite out of breath most of the time. By the end of the week, I ended up just spending my day in the Marriott Center listening to Brad Wilcox, Susan Easton Black, David A. Christensen and John Bytheway. Then, I would meander out to the rest of campus in the evening and go to another class or two.

Temple Square was gorgeous! Their plant beds were exploding with blooms! I'd never seen anything like it.

We went to a live session and got to see all of the Brides and wedding parties. There were 50 weddings go on the Friday we went to the Temple. Crazy.

Saturday we went to Welfare Square and DI to see the tour. They have really yummy cheese and chocolate milk samples at the end of the tour. On our way to the Lion House for lunch, we passed a park downtown that was having a Farmer's Market.



Our favorite tent was Pierre's Country Bakery. I could have camped out and ate there all day. Of course, I would have spent a fortune. Mom and I split a strawberry and blueberry tart that was $6. It was melt in your mouth delicious. Everything under their tent made your mouth water just looking at it.

When I got back, a couple days later Aunt Ashley and Cousin Gwen came for a visit. Grammie & Poppa Crosby had rented a beach house on Anna Maria Island and we went for a visit. Too bad my camera wouldn't stop fogging up on the beach.

Then, over Labor Day weekend, we went and rented a townhouse in Haines City at the Regal Palms Resort and Spa. It was nice to get away, relax and hit the Labor Day sales at the outlets. They had a fun pool with a slide, lazy river and zero entry section for the kiddies. We mainly ate and lazed around.

However, Ellen's birthday is coming up, so made sure we celebrated with some yummy cheesecake!
Happy Birthday Ellen!

Well, that was our summer.
Now I'm counting down until the last day of September when I can decorate for Halloween! Muwahahah!

Birthday Buddies

Both Jake and my Mom share the same birthday... July 15th.
Jake's parents were totally awesome and made us all a steak dinner!
Afterward, we had German Chocolate Cheesecake for my Mom and Pig Lickin' Cake for Jake.

Happy 2nd Birthday Stinkerbelle!

Saturday, July 11th, 2009 marked Kaitlyn's 2nd Birthday!
We started off the morning with waffle cake... that she was completely underwhelmed by and preferred her usually bowl of dry cereal.



She spent the morning at Grammie & Poppa Crosby's where she got her favorite gift of the day... a Cozy Coupe!

Before starting the swimming party at Nana's we dug into some pizza with fresh fruits and vegetables. I believe this event was the final nail in the coffin for that poor white shirt.

After we came back in and dried off, we had cookie cake and Katiecakes!

Kaitlyn couldn't wait for the birthday song to get a taste of some sugary goodness.

Although, she did like everyone singing to her.

She blew out one candle and Poppa Crosby blew out the other.

Surprisingly, Katie preferred the Katiecakes to the cookie cake. She made sure to lick all of the icing off of the cookie, but she ate the cupcake in its entirety.

Swimming Lessons

For Katie's upcoming birthday, Nana got her swimming lessons! For those of you who follow our blog more closely, I'm sure you've realized Kaitlyn's obsession with water. So, swimming lessons were a necessary evil this summer because we now live 20 yards from a pool that Kaitlyn wants to be in 24/7.

The first day was a little rough. She didn't start out crying, but an older girl next to her (Katie was the youngest in the class) did start out crying and Kaitlyn came to the conclusion that the older girl must have known something she didn't. So, she too, cried for the most part the first day. That is until they started using diving rings.

Kaitlyn became known as the "Ring Master" because she always wanted to hold as many rings as possible. Later in the week, she had to be the one gathering them and throwing them in the pool while waiting for her turn in the water. In the picture below, she is pointing out all of the rings waiting for her on the stairs.

Here, Kaitlyn is lording over them while waiting for her turn.

Here she is kicking and using her "big spoons" to get to the wall. (That little boy sitting on the wall cried every day, all day!)

And, here she is still keeping watch over her rings on the steps. She was so funny about it.

Happy Belated Birthday America!

It's true, I took a little long to post these. That is probably because I took over one hundred pictures on the Fourth of July. (This was mainly because everything was happening so far away I was having a hard time focusing my camera.)

For the Fourth, we bummed some space and AC off of our dear family friend Judi Groom. She was kind enough to let the Crosby Clan, sans Poppa Crosby, invade her condo for the day on Anna Maria Island.

The day before, Katie and I spent the afternoon at the J.W. Marriott Resort in Orlando with my family. (I highly recommend it!) We ended up spending somewhere around 4 hours in the pool/lazy-river there. Kaitlyn loves water, see previous post with her wading in our toilet. However, she hates getting anything resembling dirt on her feet and shoes. So, we got her ready for the beach and gave a wager that she'd only last 15-20 minutes. I was very, very wrong.

Apparently Kaitlyn's loathing of dirty feet is over shadowed by her love/need of having a job. The sand provided that job: fill bucket, dump bucket out, fill bucket, dump bucket out, fill bucket, dump bucket out, and on, and on, and on.

She did eventually realize that sand was sticking to her and it caused a moment of panic...

that was diffused by her Grammie burying her foot in the sand and saying, "So, what?"

Uncle Johnny, who is visiting from California, got in on working in the sand. Kaitlyn was amazed at the use of his hands.

Then it was time to go back out in the water, which temperature was much like a bathtub. On our previous excursion into the Gulf (which was uncharacteristically rough for a day without a hurricane warning) Katie had decided she'd rather be held and jump over the waves, than ride in an inner-tube.

Kaitlyn also became fascinated with Grammie's floppy straw hat.

There was a lot of seaweed in the water. The gulls kept hovering over it, eating all of the little fishes that were feasting off of it. Kaitlyn felt the need to "gift" the seaweed to people.

By the time we made it back from our second excursion into the Gulf, Uncle Johnny had half buried himself in the beach.

We then went to go rinse off and play in the pool. Too bad, the shower was hard to find and everyone had used the pool to rinse off. Yucky. Not to mention, the pool was warmer than the Gulf water. But that didn't diminish Katie's need to jump off the wall into the water over and over again.

All in all, it was ridiculously good weather for July in Florida. Jake was ready to camp out on the beach that night. This was probably due to all of the cloud cover that gave us a very pathetic excuse for a sunset.



But it didn't stop us from enjoying our evening. Kaitlyn was still fascinated with the water and was grabbing at every hand available to her to keep her down by the shore.

Shortly after the light disappeared, fireworks slowly but surely started making their appearance. Sitting on the beach is really the best way to enjoy such a bright and joyful display. We loved it!