The San Juan Islands and Cedric

I do not feel like I have posted much about little trips or things we have been doing lately, so let's delve into this San Juans trip!

I love the San Juan Islands and had been itching to go for awhile, so my sister and I decided to go there and make a trip of it for Cedric's birthday. It was fun to camp with all of our family (minus our brothers)!

We took a late ferry over to Orcas Island (9pm), but it was the most beautiful ferry ride I have ever been on, so it was worth it. It was sunset and the sky was all mauve and pink. There were also some double rainbows. It was one of those moments where one feels like all is right in the world because it was so incredibly beautiful. These pictures do not do it justice at all, and I forgot my camera, so these are just from my phone.

We spent time on Orcas Island hiking, early morning swimming, roasting marshmallows and playing on the beach. It was pretty lovely! I don't have many pictures as my phone died and we did not have cell service anyways.

 Elanor loves her Aunt Jessie.

There was this great tower at the top of Mount Constitution and Elanor had a Rapunzel moment.

Babies on the ferry ride back to the mainland.

With Nan.

We had Cedric's party at Jess and Ricky's house in Bellingham. Jess made this lovely Hummingbird cake by Jamie Oliver.

 Ced loved his cake!

I was so excited about this present! Cedric has these pajamas that have timelord type pocket watches on them and I call him a baby timelord every time he wears them. Ced often repeats words, though they are not in his everyday vocabulary. So, one of those times he repeated timelord and it was the cutest thing. So when I was trying to think of a gift for him, I had pinned a doll on my pinterest a year or more ago and went to the etsy shop where the doll was from. The doll maker will do custom dolls and they are not too expensive either, especially compared to other doll makers on etsy. So, she made this 11th Doctor doll and he turned out so adorable. I went with the 11th Doctor as his clothes would be the cutest on a doll. He also has red suspenders under his jacket. The doll shop is called Roving Ovine, if you're curious and I will probably buy from her again as these dolls are so cute and so well made!

It was a fun little trip and I am so glad we were able to go and celebrate Cedric (and Ricky, as he had a birthday too!).

The Weekly Photo(s)

Late again. I am kind of the worst at this.

Should have been posted Monday, May 23rd:

 We celebrated my mother-in-law's birthday. What a wonderful mother and grandmother she is!

Should have been posted on Monday, May 30th:

 Hiking at Beacon Rock.

For today:

We went on a one night camping trip with just Alice, as Elanor was having a sleep over with her Mema and cousins.

Its Been Awhile + Weekly Photos

Sorry I have not written in forever. Does anybody even read this anymore? We were really busy in March with the play, moving to a new house, we did not have internet for three weeks, plus some birthdays, Easter, and some small trips. We've been busy!

Well, I'm back so expect some more frequent posting!

Here are all the Weekly Photos that have added up over the last two months:

Should have been posted March 7th:

Should have been posted March 14th:

Celebrating Nan's birthday

Should have been posted March 21st:

 Peter and Tink together after a successful weekend of shows.


Should have been posted March 28th:

Easter dresses

 Should have been posted April 4th:

Alice's 1st Birthday!

Should have been posted April 11th:

(three for this week, it was busy!)

Auntie Sue, my cousin, Jean, and her daughter, Natalie, came down for a visit. We also went up to Bellingham to visit my sister and see her and Ricky's new place. And Elanor was in Disneyland over the weekend with her grandparents! Busy and fun week!

Should have been posted April 18th:

 Rock climbing!

Should have been posted April 25th:

 Hike at Coyote Wall.

The Weekly Photo(s)

Well, we are back in Utah and the play is over. The play went really well and Elanor had so much fun being in the show. She certainly loves being onstage. We had a super busy last couple weeks with dress rehearsals, shows, family and finishing up last minute stuff for the play, which is why I did not blog. So here are two Weekly Photos:

Weekly Photo, which should have been posted on March 16th:

My mom's birthday was on March 11th, and for a nice break from the play we went on a beautiful hike.

Should have been posted this Monday:

Elanor as a squirrel in the play, "Willy Wonka".

I promise there will be more posts up soon, as well as some updates on the pregnancy (I am almost 37 weeks!).

Knights and Princesses

Elanor wanted a Medieval birthday party. Mostly, she wanted a dragon at her party. She really likes dragons. Since, the theme was medieval it had to be an evil dragon, so the kids could slay it. To start off the party, each kid had a cardboard sword I had cut out and painted and then they could use jewels/sequins/glitter glue, etc. to decorate their swords. It was surprisingly successful and all the kids enjoyed it. 

Elanor's decorated sword.

A little later, we told the kids about a dragon that had stolen all the gold from the village and these brave princesses and knights needed to take back the gold for the village and in the process slay the dragon. We had a dragon piñata that we filled with gold necklaces, jeweled rings, chocolate gold coins, and another candy which was also wrapped in gold. The piñata was super fun, even if they did need some help. 

Soon after, we went back inside and all the kids took turns shooting Elanor's bow and arrow (this is what she wanted for her birthday) and then did cake. I love making cake, so it was fun to put this one together! I made a chocolate caramel cake (chocolate cake, caramel layers in between, and chocolate frosting). 

I made a small caramel lake on top, just for fun.

She loved it!

I usually upload my videos to youtube, but it was not working all that well! So, I uploaded this through blogger and hopefully it works fine. This is just a video of Elanor blowing out her candles. It is rather funny as she zones out for a bit while everyone is singing "Happy Birthday".

All in all it was a fun and successful party. Everything went smoothly and Elanor even got some great gifts. Thanks parents! (gifts are always totally optional as I feel bad having people spend extra money around Christmas time).

Elanor Turns Four

Four years seems like an incredibly long time and an incredibly short amount of time. Elanor is so talkative and funny, opinionated and smart. I did not know a thing about the little person that I gave birth to, but over these fours years I have loved getting to know both her strengths and weaknesses. She is wonderful and will continue to be so. We feel blessed to have such a lovable, beautiful, intelligent, and full of personality kid. She is certainly not boring.

Traits/passions unique to Elanor: Very social and loving, loves to learn/do school, reading/being read to is Elanor's favorite thing to do, loves babies/very nurturing, is a good hiker, loves to dance, fast runner/athletic, loves her family and friends, loves to swim/go under water, is very silly and can teach you to be silly (i.e. silly lessons),  loves to go to church, has a vivid imagination, loves to play dress up, full of funny facial expressions, loves to ride her trike, loves all food, oh and she still sucks her thumb.

I love looking back at pictures of Elanor and hopefully you do as well, because here are 20 some pictures of Elanor growing up.