A New Chair & My Piano

Got me a new chair the other day. . . pretty stoked about that, especially since I've tried to turn EVERYTHING I possibly can into a chair - pots, toys, doll furniture, boxes . . .You name it; I've tried to sit on it!!

Finally . . . My own chair . . . well, once it is put together . . . I cannot contain my excitement!


Here Daddy, you'll need this piece!


It must be good, if he's that excited about the chair!


Yep, this'll do!


Waitress! Please bring me my sippy cup! Pronto!


Relaxing


Wait a minute . . . Where's that sippy cup? The help around here is terrible!



Now that I've got my new lounge chair to rest in, I've had more energy for piano practice. I've excelled at playing the ol' ten digit system and I'm onto playing the piano with my tush. What? You've never heard of the tush method? Well, next time you're in town I'll put on private concert for you. And for all of my blogger friends, I'll reduce your cover charge by 50%. How can you beat a sweet deal like that? Just don't ask for back stage passes, I'll need that time to lounge in my chair.

Little MusicMaker


Mozart ain't gotta thing on me!


Did you say Encore??

Check Me Out

I'm a big girl. Yep, that's right. Big.

Yum . . . Salmonberries

Finally the weather was nice enough for us to pick the salmonberries in our back yard. The good thing about all of this rain is that our berries can get very big and juicy - but it's just been too cold to get nice salmonberries this year. Oh well. The few we've gotten this far have tasted great!





PLEASE ignore the messy kitchen. It always looks this way!

Four Generations

Lil Cowgirl

My Aunt Carol has three great horses. She's had these two horses for as long as I can remember. For the first time, these gals are spending their summer 'out to pasture' rather than at my Aunt's house. Carol was so great to take us over to visit two of her horses. And as you will see, Addison really dug them.


She was cautious at first - petting the horse was about as far as she was willing to go.


But then she was ready to play with Cari!


While Addison really liked Cari, I know she LOVED my Aunt. Carol was one of her most favorite people on the trip!


She got so excited she kept clapping her sweet hands! Yeeeehaaaawww!


Giddy Up!


The original plan was just to set Addison on the horse; but Cari had her own idea. Cari decided to take Addison for a bit of a ride. She moved slow enough that Carol and I were able to stay with her; but Carol sensed when Cari was ready to move more and swooped Addison off at the perfect moment. What did Addison do? She clapped, of course!


A quick family picture in the windy hills!


Now that Addison checked out Cari, it's Cari's turn to check out Addison!


Such a good horse!


Waving bye to her horse buddy!

Sloan

On August 1st my Grandma Mary turned 89 years old! We celebrated her birthday the following Saturday with much of the family. We visited my Grandma several times but somehow this was the only visit we broke out the camera for. Unfortunately, these were the only pictures I got of Addison and her Great Grandma Mary. And as you can see in the pictures, my cousin Kennedy was not really wanting to share our Grandma and allow her to have pictures with just Addison. I actually think it's pretty cute. Kennedy is the youngest of all the cousins (by far) and she is so attached to our Grandma.


My Grandma had 5 children which resulted in 13 (yes, 13) grandchildren! From there she now has 16 great-grandchildren. Addison was number 14 - which I think is great because she was the baby that pushed the great-grandchildren into the majority.


While in Iowa I finally met Gracie. Gracie is my cousin Gretchen's little girl who I've watched grow through pictures. She is just a beautiful girl with such an open and sweet heart. If I could have, I would have taken her back to Alaska with us. Gracie fell in love with Addison and when going through our pictures from that day, Gracie is near Addison in almost every picture. I love it!



Gibson is Gracie's little brother. He's such an adorable, rolly-polly guy. Gibson weighed 24.5 pounds at his 9 month check-up; no wonder they call him Hank the Tank! This picture of Gibson and his grandma (my Aunt Candy) was too cute not to include in this posting!


Everyone was worried about Gibson pounding on Addison a bit (he's been known to be a bruiser) but Addison held her own. He grabbed and pulled on her once and she took his little hand and pushed it away. From that point on they played very well.


My Grandma has a beautiful yard. It would have been the perfect place to take some great portraits; but it was way too hot out there (over 100 degrees) so we played outside for a bit before retreating to the AC.

New Food

On our trip Addison got to try two of my favorite foods: Corn on the cob and Olive Garden.

This corn was straight from the field, to the stove and to Addison's eager tummy. She LOVED the corn!


One night in preparation for dinner my Grandma had shucked a bunch of corn and put into a pot before she was ready to begin cooking. So the pot of corn sat on the counter for a bit. Once Addison caught a glimpse of the uncooked corn she frantically signed more to me and cried when I told her she had to wait. I felt bad but also found it a bit funny.


Sean grilled rib-eye steaks for everyone during our stay. My Grandpa really wanted a picture of the steaks on the grill. I think it was because he didn't want to forget the great meal!


We ate late and it was cool enough outside that we were able to have dinner outdoors. Not too shabby for Addison's first picnic!!!


I've ate at some really nice restaurants. Ones where the waiters place every one's meals in front of the diners at the same time, where there are fancy ratings and reviews on the restaurant - but none that will compare with the good-old Olive Garden. I can't explain it but I love their bread sticks and fettuccine alfredo! Turns out Addison loved the meal too!

Going goofy waiting for our food!

Addison handled herself better than her mother, she had a great time coloring her menu while waiting for the food.

Grandma Suzy sharing her bread stick

Look at that alfredo covered face. She eats cleaner than I do!

Good bite . . .

Something you just can't do in a fancy restaurant: Group picture!

New Words

Addison's Aunt JJ & have been doing a lot of IM'ing the past few months. Here is how I told her about Addison's two new words:

Me: oh and she said two new words
JJ: yeah? what?
Me: clock and cracker
JJ: can she say mama and dada?
Me: daddy but not mommy. go figure, eh?
Me: she says clock clear as a bell- with the emphasis on the 'ck' part. when she says cracker she leaves off the er part
JJ: so she just says CRACK?
Me: she'll run around signing more and saying crack
JJ: hahahahahahahahhahahahahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

Playtime

Some of my best memories growing up are of reading books with Tudie. Hours were spent in her lap reading Amy's Doll, Dr Seuss, and about a million other books. So you can only imagine how special it was for me to watch my daughter reading with Tudie, the worlds greatest story-teller.


Addison even read a little with Papa Roy but the books were quickly put aside for the cars. I don't know how much time was spent driving those little cars on that ottoman but it kept those two quite busy! To be honest, I don't know who liked those cars more; Addison or Grandpa!!??

Iowa Dogs

Okay I know its weird to dedicate an entire posting to dogs - especially dogs that I don't own - but as a dog enthusiast I have to do it!! My Aunt Carol's dog Raini and my Grandma's dog, Rocky did so well with Addison the entire time we were there. Raini, I think, liked Addison as much as Addison liked Raini. Rocky was a bit more reserved with Addison but he did allow Addison to pet him occasionally.