California...there we went!

Well, we're back, and I figure the best way to document the trip is to do it day by day. The reason it's taken me so long to post this will be explained on the last two days, so stay tuned!

Day 1
We left Tuesday, the 14th, and drove to Spokane and stayed the night since our plane left early-ish the next morning.

Day 2
We flew from Spokane to Portland, then from there to Oakland. Here's Craig and I on Craig's first plane ride! I wanted to take this in case he becomes a pilot one day and I can show him his first flight. He did really well--he played for the first leg of the flight and slept for the rest. I felt really sorry for another lady on the flight with a baby. She was by herself and her kid would not stop crying for most of it. She was quite a ways from us, but I could hear the faint cries. Then there was the girl traveling by herself with twin boys, about 18 months old! But I think they did okay.
Once in Oakland, we went to get our rental car that we had reserved. It's long story, but basically one thing Robert really wanted to do was rent a Charger (he loves them). One thing he never in his life wanted to own or even drive is a minivan. But through a series of unfortunate events, this is what we ended up with:
It's a Kia Sedona and I loved it! It was just so convenient to have all that room and to be able to fit my parents with us if we all wanted to go somewhere, which we did end up doing later on.
After more than two hours of struggling with the rental car situation, we drove to Sonora. We got there only about 20 minutes before my dad got home from work (we were there to surprise him for his 60th birthday). We hid in the back room while he circled the strange van outside with the Pennsylvania plates. My mom had to lure him inside finally and we jumped out! Now that I think about it, it would have been great to have a picture of his reaction. Sorry.

Day 3
I had arranged to visit my old work this day, so Craig and I spent almost two hours talking to my old coworkers and boss and friends. Everyone loved seeing this little guy. It doesn't seem I've been gone long enough to have had a baby. I was not quite 4 weeks along when we moved and we didn't know it yet. There were a lot of times on this trip that I forgot to bring the camera and I am kicking myself for it. Thursday night we met a friend and his kids in the new Copperopolis Towne Square. It's a little place with shops and restaurants that was still being built

This is me with my sister, Laura, and her baby, Laney who is 2 weeks older than Craig.This is Laney and Craig next to each other. Such cuties!!

Here's Bryan holding Craig and Kate in front. Somehow I missed getting a picture of Lily.

Day 4
Friday was my dad's first day off of his three-day weekend, so we decided to go to Yosemite! Robert and I never made it there during the time we lived in Sonora, so we were really excited to go. It was great because we got to take the van with everyone together and since my dad has a handicapped plaque, we got in free, and at $20 per vehicle these days, that was great deal. We saw El Capitan and Half Dome, of course, toured the Awahnee, and had a picnic lunch in a beautiful spot. It was a really good day. That night, back in Sonora, my parents watched Craig for us and we went to my high school's homecoming football game! That was something else we always wanted to do when we lived there but never did. We lost :( but it was fun to go and remember the good ol' days. (I can't believe this year will be 10 years since I graduated!)

Craig slept almost the entire way there and back. He was so great the whole time.

Day 5
Saturday was the big surprise party day for my dad. Not only did he not know Robert, Craig, and I her coming into town, he didn't know my mom had planned a big dinner with all his family friends. My other sister and her family was there, as well as our extended family. It was really tough keeping it a surprise. He was really suspicious and nearly sabotaged all of our plans for keeping it secret, but we somehow pulled it off. It was a lot of fun. My dad is one of those guys that you never know what to get them, so this year my siblings and I went in together and got him this digital scrapbook (email is rsleal05@gmail.com and password is "guest" then click on "storybooks" and "preview") of his life. (Thanks Grandpa and Mom for the pictures!)

Day 6
On Sunday we decided to hit two different wards. We went to our old ward in the morning then to my parents' ward in the afternoon. Again, it was fun to see old friends and show off Craig.
(By the way, Craig was as good as gold the whole time!)

Day 7
There's an old mining town that's now turned into a state park near Sonora called Columbia. We've loved going there since I was a kid and I still love to go whenever I'm home. My sister and her kids met us and my mom there. We walked the little town, went to the candy store, and played in "Rock City" (that's an area where hydraulic mining washed away all of the dirt and left the big boulders). That evening, Robert stayed home with Craig and my sister's husband watched their kids while Laura and I went out to dinner and just hung out for the evening. It's been a long time since she and I have been able to do anything like that. I only wish our other sister could've been there too.

Day 8

Tuesday was our last full day in Sonora. We went to the local apple ranch, called Covers (and I remembered my camera!). We went through their maze and saw the farm animals. Another favorite place of mine to visit.

There was a hay bale maze and this is us after we made it through (there's little Lily in front).The pumpkin patch.

Craig was very interested in all the animals.

There were a bunch of chickens and all but one had a significant amount of feathers missing. This one looked particularly funny to me.

Two cute little baby pygmy goats!Maybe this is their dad..boy he was smelly.This guy was a little suspicious of us. I think he (or she) needs a trim.

Day 9
We finally caught up with the only person we hadn't been able to see yet, one of my former bosses, Loretta. We were able to stop by her place Wednesday morning before going to Oakland and she made us breakfast! It was great to see her, but we're sorry we missed Dave. :( We headed down to the Bay Area and stopped by my grandpa's house. He took us out to lunch and I got this picture.Then we headed to the airport to return the van (sigh) and wait for our plane to leave. While there, I began to feel a little dizzy and out of sorts. By the time we boarded the plane, I was feeling very poorly. I ended up with Craig in the sling, sleeping on me, holding the barf bag as far away from him as possible, and literally losing my lunch. I'd pass Craig off to Robert whenever I had to go get cleaned up, but the little guy was so worn out, he wouldn't be happy without me for very long. Poor Robert.

Day 10
We made it back to Spokane and crashed in a hotel room. I was pretty weak the next morning, but we drove back the three hours to Stevensville, upon which time Robert began to feel sickly. So, that's why it has taken me so long to get anything posted. With sicknesses (Craig got a little of it, too), getting back on track with my new Primary calling, unpacking, laundry, and everything else, it's been a little crazy. Craig did get during the whole trip. He slept well at night was extremely patient with us during the days with all the things we wanted to do. What a trooper.

OnVacation

We are currently out visiting my family on vacation, so that's why I haven't posted recently. I will post pictures and more after we get on home. We'll be home Thursday, so it will be sometime after that. We are having a great time seeing everyone and Craig is getting to meet all of his cousins and extended family.

Craig and his "play station"

I bought this exersaucer/play station thing at a consignment sale last week and Craig loves it. It's a fabulous invention and can keep him busy for a good amount of time. Next thing we'll have to get is one of those jumper things.

SNOW!!!

Here's a short little video I took yesterday morning to show that we got some real snow! I'm excited for the changing of the seasons...I LOVE this time of year. We got some flurries a couple of days last week, but nothing stuck until yesterday. It didn't stay long, but it was fun to get a little. I'm excited for a REAL snow and I can put Craig in his cute snow suit and take pictures.

I was doing a little photo shoot the other day and these were some of my favorites. Some of Craig's favorite toys are kitchen utensils, so I've been giving him the little whisk and the spatula lately. It reminds me of the nickname that the girls next door have given him--they call him Remy and Little Chef (you know, from Ratatouille). I think it's cute. I wonder if they make a Remy costume for Halloween...? Anyway, another trademark of Craig is The Tongue. He'll sit and stare at people with his tongue hanging out of his mouth. People always ask me, "Does he always do that?" and "Why does he do that?" I don't know, he's a baby! He's actually not doing it as much and he only does it when we're at church or the store, or somewhere that there's lots to look at and keep his attention. It's almost as he forgets to keep it in his mouth. What a cutie.

I had Craig on my lap while I was watching a video of him and me and he just started busting up at the peek-a-boo I was doing in the video. The funniest part to me is that he didn't think it was that funny when I was doing it while I was shooting the video. He's got the cutest little belly laugh and we only hear on very rare occasions, otherwise he has a little nasal-ly giggle. I happened to have the camera sitting right there (a very rare thing as well) since I had just downloaded the other video, so I grabbed it and was able to get a few seconds of him cracking up, until he got the hick-ups. Then it wasn't so funny anymore, apparently. If I can figure out how to make the megabytes less on the other video, I will add it and you all can see what Craig thought was so funny, but I can guarantee you probably won't laugh that hard. :) I mainly took the other one to demonstrate his sitting up skills, the peek-a-boo thing was a side note. Anyway, enjoy!

P.S. Craig is 5 months old today! Crazy.

Feedback Please

I'm starting a "Favorite Quotes" list on the right. Please email me or leave a comment with yours. I'm always looking for good ones. They can be funny or inspirational. Thanks!

Just some updates

Here are two cute pictures of the little guy. I also put a video at the bottom--it's just something new for you all to watch. He hasn't done anything new yet for me to capture on camera, so this is just a cute video of him sucking on his teething ring. He can't seem to get used to a pacifier, but this works to calm him down and put him to sleep. So, the video is of our little bedtime routine, although it's not bedtime in the video. :) Craig has been pushing his bottom in the air while on his tummy and launching forward, but he hasn't gotten the hand movement thing down. He gets frustrated easily so he won't spend enough time on his tummy to get some practice in. It's funny because when I lay him down, he immediately flips over to his stomach, plays for a minute, then fusses until he gets himself flipped back over, but then promptly flips back onto his tummy. He'll figure it out one of these days.

Wanna here about MY night?

If you don't want to hear another parent of a young baby complain about not getting enough sleep, then stop here. But, if you would be interested to learn what else happened on Thursday night, then keep reading. To start with, poor little Craig has had a cold which was diagnosed as an ear infection on Thursday. We started him on antibiotics and Tylenol that night. He went to bed at about 9:30 and Robert and I didn't get to bed until about 11:00. Craig woke up at 1:00. It took about 30 minutes for me to get him to go back to sleep. He woke again around 3:00. Another 30 minutes later, he's asleep. He then woke up at 4:00 (all this time having problems with a stuffy nose and his ear bothering him, poor baby). This time I brought him into bed with us to see if he would sleep better that way, which hasn't consistently worked well for him since he was about three months old, but sometimes it does. He slept (bobbing head, kicking legs) until about 5:00, but I didn't sleep hardly at all, so I tried putting him back in his crib. Mercifully, he slept for almost two hours. However, at this time another nighttime drama began to play out. Robert wasn't sleeping well due to pains in his back, so when I put Craig in the crib, Robert decided to try the couch. I went back to bed and was beginning to drift off when I heard a strange noise on the dresser. I turned on the light to see the cat poking around. It was a little strange since she normally just sleeps on the bed or couch all night. I put her out of the bedroom and shut the door. Since Robert was out there, she would normally just sleep with him. But not this night. She waited until I was again barely drifting off before she let out a loud meow right outside the door. I ignored her. She banged the door with her paw. I continued to try to ignore her. Thinking she had lost a toy behind the dresser, I looked for it, but found nothing. I let her back in, and she continued her prowling around the room. Once again, I was just dozing off when she pounced on my pile of shoes in the closet, waking me up again. I threw her out again. She began meowing and banging again. Robert came back in at this point and left her out. After her annoying persistence, we tried letting her back in. She went immediately for the shoes, but was quiet. After a few moments passed, we heard an unusual, un-cat-like noise from the closet. Robert got the flashlight and searched among my shoes. There he found a battered, scared, tiny little mouse. Once we made the discovery, the cat ran off to sleep and to leave us to the dirty work of catching the thing. After about fifteen minutes of moving shoes and nabbing at it with a plastic bag, we caught it and Robert let it outside. Exhausted, we laid down to try and get a little rest. This was at about 6:30. By 6:45, we heard unmistakable cooing coming from the other room, which turned to fussing as I laid in bed, hoping Craig would go back to sleep. After trying to nurse him back to sleep yet again, I gave up and called it a night at 7:00. Robert got up, got ready, and went to work. So, for all of you parents out there that have spent a sleepless night with a sick baby, you can probably relate. Then again, maybe not. :)

By the way, I did finally get some rest. When Craig went down for a nap at 8:30, I went with him and we both slept until noon. Robert, however, is still trying to catch up.

Mission Reunion, and more

To all NCRM missionaries: In case you didn't know, there will be a Pres. Welch reunion on Oct. 3rd from 7-9 pm in Pleasant View, UT. If you want directions, let me know. Also, if you want Sis. Welch's email, I have that too. In other news, check out the picture below to see a former missionary we all know an love (the girl at the bottom). I was flipping through the September issue of Babytalk magazine and did a double take. I confirmed it with the source herself, and it IS her! I thought it was interesting and kind of cool. :)

This is hilarious

I know I forwarded this to some of you, but for the rest of you, I thought I'd post it. I only put on my favorites. These sentences actually appeared in church bulletins or were announced
in church services:

The sermon this morning: 'Jesus Walks on the Water.'
The sermon tonight: 'Searching for Jesus.'
----------------------------------------------------------

Ladies, don't forget the rummage sale.
It's a chance to get rid of those things not worth keeping
around the house.
Bring your husbands.
------------------------------------------------- ---------


The peacemaking meeting scheduled for today has been
canceled due to a conflict.
----------------------------------------------------------

Don't let worry kill you off - let the Church help.

----------------------------------------------------------

The Rector will preach his farewell message after which
the choir will sing: 'Break Forth Into Joy.'
---- --- --- ------------------------------------------------

At the evening service tonight, the sermon topic will be
'What Is Hell?' Come early and listen to our choir practice.
(I've been in some choirs like that.)
----------------------------------------------------------

Please place your donation in the envelope along with
the deceased person you want remembered.
----------------------------------------------------------

The ladies of the Church have cast off clothing of every
kind. They may be seen in the basement on Friday
afternoon.
-----------------------------------------------------

This evening at 7 PM there will be hymn singing in
the park across from the Church. Bring a blanket
and come prepared to sin.
-------------------------------------------------

Ladies Bible Study will be held Thursday morning
at 10 AM. All ladies are invited to lunch in the
Fellowship Hall after the B.S. is done.
-----------------------------------------------------

Low Self Esteem Support Group will meet Thursday
at 7 PM. Please use the back door.
-------------------------- --------------------------

The eighth-graders will be presenting Shakespeare's
Hamlet in the Church basement Friday at 7 PM.
The congregation is invited to attend this tragedy.
----------------------------------------------------

Weight Watchers will meet at 7 PM at the First
Presbyterian Church. Please use large double door
at the side entrance.
----------------------------------------------------

I've been tagged

Alright, alright, I'll do it. Here's a Did You Know tag, for those of you who didn't know. :) (Thanks Mel...)

Did you know that...

My favorite color is sometimes red, sometimes blue.
My favorite dessert is Robert's chocolate dipped cannolis with berry sauce.
My favorite Sunday CD is Women of Destiny and My Servant Joseph.
My favorite anytime CD right now is a mix I did of Enya, Peter Breinholt, and some other favorites. I flip between that and John Denver.
My favorite show is House and The Office.
My favorite place to be is out with Robert and Craig on Robert's days off (especially after payday:)
My favorite time of day is the mornings and going for walks.
My favorite holiday is Christmas.
My least favorite thing to do is balance the checkbook.
My least favorite thing to wear is maternity clothes when I'm not pregnant.
My least favorite place to be is anywhere with Craig during nap time and he's not getting his nap. He handles is well, but I find myself constantly worrying how the rest of the day and that night will go.
My secret obsession right now is watching The View :)
I miss my job in CA, but only because of the people. I love being home with Craig, plus I could never find a job with such an awesome setup as I had there anyway.
I have been terrible at keeping in touch with people from my mission, but blogs are bringing us back...I love it!
I have not seen my family in a long time and I want to show off my baby!
I find joy in making my baby laugh and smile and watching him with his daddy.
I will be sad when I have to stop nursing...my favorite quote that I read in a Parents magazine is "No one ever told me how much nursing would hurt in the beginning, and how much it would hurt when it had to end." It makes me savor all the time I have nursing Craig now.
I look forward to the day when we have our own home.
I love my little family and look forward to it growing.

I tag Anna, Lani, Melissa, Angie, Heidi, Bonnie, and Tammy!

Another New Video

On Wednesday this week I put Craig on the floor on his back and went to put a movie in the DVD player. When I turned back around, he was on his front!! He was looking a bit surprised, too. :) We flipped him back over, I got the camera, and this is him doing it the second time. It's takes him a minute, but he does it. I put the video at the bottom in place of the one of him turning front to back. He is also doing the tripod sit thing and can hold it for a pretty good amount of time. He's recently discovered his new favorite toy--his feet. I love it when he grabs them and rolls around on his back on the ground. He is such a sweet, happy baby. He loves to talk and make noise and play "Super Baby." (That's where we hold him up above our heads and he bends his legs up, arches his back, spreads his arms, and smiles so big he can't keep his eyes open. :)) Anyway, I could go on, but I'll let you watch the video.

New Pictures

Here is a picture of me as a baby and a close up of Craig for everyone to compare and see if you think he looks like me. I need one of Robert at Craig's age to really compare well, but we're still trying to get one. Nothing much is new here. Life is going as usual. Craig is working on trying to go to sleep without being nursed. Tonight Robert and I are going out to dinner with his boss and the owner of the Springs and we're leaving Craig home. I'm sure he and the babysitter will be fine, but it will be our first time out without him. He's usually pretty easy, though. Let's keep out fingers crossed!

New videos

I put some new videos at the bottom, so be sure to check them out. One is a good one of Craig--I finally got him on video smiling and sort of laughing. Being cute, mostly. I also took a video of a hailstorm we had here last week. It was random and totally a surprise for us. The hail was the size of melon balls (like the ones you cut out of a melon with a scoop). It was pretty neat. Also be sure to check out the new pictures I posted on the side.

Updates...sort of

I finally updated some things on the blog, as you can tell. In case you didn't notice, I changed the video of Craig at the bottom of the page. I also took off some old pictures and put on some new ones. He's changed so much in just a few months. Last Wednesday he was 12 weeks old. We made it through the fourth trimester! To celebrate I made some cookies that looked like watermelon slices. If you want the recipe, let me know (just colored sugar cookie dough, chocolate chips for seeds, and green sugar for rind...pretty cute). He also went to the doctor on Thursday for his first immunizations. :( It was a rough day for the little guy. He weighed in at 17 lbs., 24 in. He's in the 95th percentile for height and weight, but the 50th for his head, which is unusual for an Olson offspring, but which I was grateful for during the delivery. :) Robert's been pretty busy with work. They've had a lot of events lately. Things are picking up for me, too. Our Relief Society is doing a program this summer for the Young women. They let the Young Women choose from a list of skills (music, cake decorating, scrapbooking, etc.) that they would like to learn over the summer, then they teamed them up with sisters in the ward that specialize in those things. Then at Enrichment next month the girls will present what they've been working on. I've been helping four girls with music and singing. It's been a lot of fun. I'll try to remember to record their performance and post it. They are doing really well. So, I've been busy with that. I don't think there's much else going on. We had the same big hale storm here that Scott and Lani had in South Dakota. I took some pictures and a video of it and will get them downloaded soon. Well, gotta go!

Summertime!

I have been wanting to take post pictures of the scenery around our home and down our road a little and I finally got to it. There were some beautiful flowers during the short spring that we had and a few have lingered through the summer. I try to go for walks a few times a week and pick some new flowers. The very first bouquet I picked during the spring is the one pictured below. I love how the mountains are close, but sad that I can't really go on too many hikes yet. I have to wait until Craig is old enough to sit in a backpack carrier. He's beginning to prefer sitting up when being held than to lay back. He's cooing a lot and is his happiest, most smiling, most talkative self first thing in the morning. Sometimes I wake up to him squirming slightly next to me and when I look down, he's staring at me wide-eyed and smiling as if to say, "You're finally awake!" He's also showing signs of becoming somewhat clingy. When he's perfectly happy, he's happy with anyone, but if he's the slightest bit tired, hot, or gassy, he wants Mommy, or sometimes Daddy will do. :) It's cute, but sometimes a little difficult to deal with. I'm sure he'll grow out of it, though. For now, we are enjoying his cuddliness and watching him grow and learn.

This is just for fun. I saw it on someone else's blog.

1 . YOUR ROCK STAR NAME: (first pet & current car) Randie Mustang

2. GANGSTA NAME: (fave ice cream flavor, favorite cookie) Mint Chip Chocolate Chip

3. YOUR "FLY Guy/Girl" NAME: (first initial of first name, first three letters of last name) Slea

4. YOUR DETECTIVE NAME: (favorite color, favorite animal) Red Horse

5. YOUR SOAP OPERA NAME: (middle name, city where you were born) Lee Paradise

6. YOUR STAR WARS NAME: (the first 3 letters of your last name, first 2letters of your first) Leash (ha ha ha :))

7.SUPERHERO NAME: ("The" + 2nd favorite color, favorite drink) The Blue Orange

8. NASCAR NAME: (the first names of your grandfathers) Oscar Cuthbert

9.WITNESS PROTECTION NAME: (mother's & father's middle names ) Ann Christopher

10. TV WEATHER ANCHOR NAME: (Your 6th grade teacher's last name, a major city that starts with the same letter) Greibel Glendale

11. SPY NAME: (your favorite season/holiday, flower) Autumn Cala Lilly

12. CARTOON NAME: (favorite fruit, article of clothing you're wearing right now+"ie") Strawberry Sockie

13. HIPPY NAME: (What you ate for breakfast, your favorite tree) Muffin Birch

14. YOUR ROCKSTAR TOUR NAME: ("The" + Your fave hobby/craft, fave weather element + "Tour") The Crochet Storm Tour

15. YOUR CELEBRITY COUPLE NAME: (half of your name, half your significant other's name, mixed together in whichever order sounds best.) Roberry (or Sherbert) ha ha ha :)

Craig and I spent the weekend in downtown Stevensville. I met a friend of mine who lives in town and has a couple little boys. We watched a parade for the Western Heritage Days festival and went to some other events. That night Robert and I went to the concert...Huey Lewis was there (see pictures). On Wednesday Craig and I went on a hike with another lady in the ward. It would have been pretty easy, but with the 14 pound baby strapped to my front, it was a little challenging. But we made it and it was beautiful. I think Craig liked the fresh air and scenery. I wanted to take some pictures, but I didn't feel like packing the camera up there, too. The baby was enough. :) Robert is almost done with the tiling job he's doing. When he gets it finished and everything gets landscaped, I will take some pictures of The Springs and post them. I also want to take some pictures of the scenery around here. Hopefully I can get that done soon. Well, gotta run.

Nothing new...

There isn't much to add...life is going pretty much the same as usual. Robert has been working a lot. He finished painting the basement of the The Springs (the reception center where he works as chef, if you didn't know) then they borrowed a super-powered carpet cleaner from a contractor they know and he cleaned all of the carpets. It was a tough job, but that's done, too. Now Jason (his boss) has him tiling an outside staircase when the weather is good, like today. He's getting a lot of experience in many forms of construction, but not too much chef work. :) There's usually about one event per month or so where he gets to cook. We are grateful for the job and that the owner is willing to keep Robert on and utilize his other skills and his willingness (and ability) to quickly learn whatever they need him to do. He is also working on a proposal to build a catering trailer. There's a huge need and market for that around here. If that gets approved, he will have that big project to oversee. I spend my days nursing Craig, swaddling and rocking him to keep him calm when he's not nursing, getting some housework done when (or if) he naps, and taking him on walks or errands during the day. We often walk down to visit Robert at work. Today Craig and I went into town for the Western Heritage Days festival. There wasn't much to so see today...tomorrow is the parade and more exciting stuff. The weather cleared up for the festival. It's been cold and rainy for over a week now. We even had snow advisories a couple of nights and woke up one morning to snow flurries! Nothing stuck here, but Butte and other cities got a few inches this week. I wish I would have taken a picture. I need to get used to pulling my camera out more. This time of year is so beautiful. The next time we go for a walk, I will take some pictures and post them. Well, I need to go get the dishes done while Craig is still sleeping. He's beginning to smile a lot, so I'll try to get a picture on here of that soon. I have a couple videos I want to put on (one from our camera and one from youtube) but I can't figure out how to do it. If anyone reading this knows, please help. :) Take care.