First Looks

I know that I'm the queen of doing things late, ie getting my wedding video 2 years later. This isn't QUITE as bad as that one, I'm only 15 months late, and I think that's a step in the right direction.
When I went to the hospital - in labor and dialated to a 5 - I was convinced they were going to check me and send me home again. I was so convinced of it that I didn't take anything with me - including a camera. The hospital had one and they took these pictures, which I hadn't seen until today.
And for the record, I don't think you should take a picture of a woman that's just given birth.

Looking at these, it's so easy to remember the amazement of having a baby and looking at her and reveling in how perfect she is, and it all seems like such a sacred miracle. This day changed the rest of my life, but I wouldn't dare take it back.

More Pictures of South Dakota

These are a couple pictures of a lake in our campground. Jay took the first one and I took the second one.

This other picture is of the Badlands, which are a lot like Bryce Canyon. South Dakota is so flat and green and beautiful, and then you get to the Bandlands that go on for miles and miles which are rocky and full of cliffs. It's so easy to understand why the first people who had to cross them gave them their name.

Our First Family Vacation

And just when you've almost decided to stop checking this blog because there's never anything new, I return! I can't believe how long it's been since I've blogged, I'm almost embarassed. I did go out of town for a week, but the time before and after that I have no excuse for.

So, for our first family vacation we went with my in-laws to South Dakota. We all drove in the same truck and stayed in the same trailer. I was dreading that part of it, but for the most part it wasn't so bad. The worst part was something I wasn't anticipating: Kameryn gets VERY carsick. That's a small problem when we're driving for almost two days straight both there and back. We got it all figured out, though, and overall we had a really good time.

Anytime I told anyone that I was going to South Dakota, the answer was almost always, "Why, do you have family there?" Come on, people. There was so much to see in South Dakota that we didn't even get to see it all, and we filled our days FULL of sightseeing. That would be one of my only regrets, that we didn't just spend time relaxing on our trip. However, we did get to see THIS:I've seen pictures of it before, but seeing it in person is so exciting and awe-inspiring. It almost seems surreal, there's so many rocky mountains (ha!) in South Dakota, and then you drive up to this one and seeing it is so impressive. As I've been downloading the pictures off of our camera I find that I have so many pictures of Mount Rushmore, and I think it's because I wanted to be sure I got it. Almost anytime I looked up at it I took another picture. I have all sorts of stories and more pictures about the trip, I think I'll be posting about it for awhile.

In the meantime, I found that I actually wasn't as bothered by the drive as I usually am. Since it's still early June almost everything was still green and without the mountains I'm almost amazed by how BIG the sky and clouds seem. Here are some pictures I took on the way out there, and if you want to get an accurate feel of this trip, you should know that we were listening to Johnny Cash about 60% of the time, and when we weren't actually listening to it, at least one of us was singing it, even with other music in.

Monday Night Fun

Chelsee has already shown off the good time we had taking pictures of Allie in her wedding dress yesterday. I was going to make a post of my own showing off the pictures I had taken, but apparently my computer just can't hack it. I moved three into my picture file, and then my computer let me know I didn't have ANY more disk space. NONE. Not only that, but it wasn't playing anymore. I tried to go into a picture and rotate it, and it didn't budge. The laptop has put it's foot down.
As for the pictures I got before the technological temper tantrum, they're some of my favorites:The last picture I got was of Kami, but I can't lie and say I took the picture. It was another one of Chelsee's brilliant moments behind the camera: We were helping Kameryn drink out of the drinking fountain, which she was having a lot of fun with, and she looked back at her dad long enough for Chelsee to snap this shot:

Sunday Fun

SHowing off the Camera, Part 2

We took these pictures about a week ago when we went to Sugarhouse Park (Again!) to feed the ducks. The weather has been so beautiful, it's nice to get out of the house, and it's hard to tell which of us has the most fun.

One lesson that we didn't convey well enough was that the bread was for the DUCKS. So Kameryn, while being held like a sack pf potatoes by Chelsee, would grab a bit of the bread we were throwing to the birds and eat it herself. We discovered how much she liked the bread the day before this, since a loaf was sitting in the car and she managed to open the bag and pull out little handfuls while we were driving. We got her out of the car that day surprised to find her covered in crumbs, and happy as a clam.

I know I've mentioned before that people have a tendancy to go out of their ways to see Kameryn. People wave to her and make faces at her, and some people will come right up and touch her feet or hands and even her face. This little girl took the cake. She came up and was touching Kameryn all over while she asked how old she was and told us how cute she was. I couldn't help but snap a few pictures as I wondered if this was, in fact, really happening.
So, this picture poste sideways and I don't know how to change it or delete it. I didn't think the blog would be complete without showing Chelsee getting slimed!

THE ZOO!

As you know, for my birthday we went to the zoo. I like the zoo every now and again, but I mainly wanted to go to see Kameryn's reactions to things. She totally made it worth it by waving to the different animals, blowing them kisses and sometimes when she would see the animals in their cages she would let out a delighted squeal! Here are the pictures, as promised: This is us first arriving. I was one of those moms who spent the first 20 minutes of our time standing in line at the gift shop getting sunscreen for Kami and me. If she ends up having skin like mine, it was worth it because we left sunburn free.

This picture sums up the whole experience really well: Kami was delighted to see the animals, and we were delighted watching her see the animals.

I've always kinda felt the same way about people taking pictures of animals at the zoo the same way I feel about people taking pictures by trees. But I swear, there's something in the water because once I got there, I was one of them, snapping away. This was the first animal Kami saw and squealed about, the Sand Cat. You'll notice they're aren't any pictures of the elephants or rhinos because they really scared her.

This is Kami waving to the monkeys.

This is one of the monkeys in question.

Some of Kami's reactions.

This is how she would blow the animals kisses, which right now looks more like "Suck on my fingers and then try and touch the glass on the cages."

I had originally thought that the monkeys would be Kameryn's favorite part of the zoo, but I was wrong. The one thing she loved more than anything else were these cats. She loved sitting on them, and cried when we finally walked away to look at more of the live animals.

This guy is a red Panda. I don't know if I've ever seen one before, and he was pretty cool.

Kameryn was so tired by the end that she could barely keep her eyes open, and she fell completely asleep as we were walking back up to the car. It was worth it, though.