My kind of pretty

Often when I tell people that I'm from Oregon, I get comments such as, "Ohhh, it's beautiful over there," and "I love how green and pretty Oregon is." And then I proceed to tell them that I'm actually from the other part of Oregon. The desert part.  But you know what? I still think it's pretty, and while it's not green and rhododendron-scented, I think sage brush smells great too.

Over Christmas break, my dad convinced us to go for a drive out in the desert. 

It was long. 

It was cold.

And the dirt road had pot-holes the size of  the suburban we were piled into.

(well, that may be exaggerating just a wee bit) 

But...

Nate thought he was the coolest person ever because he got to stand on top of this rock.

And Wyatt got to shoot guns with his dad and Pete

And we trekked up a frozen river to find...

A frozen waterfall.

 Which was actually pretty cool.

So it turned out alright after all. It was great fun to be in the car complaining and getting lost together. Ahem, I mean, spending time together. 

Okay, all joking aside, thanks Dad! Even Emery had a good time---she doesn't give out her full, four-toothed smiles for just anything.

When Grandma Came to Atlanta---Part III

Saturday may have been my favorite day of my mom's visit. We drove north through rolling hills and beautiful green trees to Amicalola Falls State Park. We hiked to the top of the waterfall (more like stair-stepped to the top of the waterfall---600 stairs total) and were rewarded with a gorgeous view of the Appalachian mountains. I bet this view would be even more breathtaking in a couple weeks when the trees are showing their Fall colors.

at the base of the falls

The beginning of the trek back down

smiling at Grandma

After the hike, we continued driving to Ellijay to the Georgia Apple Festival. The festival itself is held at the fairgrounds and is basically galoads of vendors sell crafty things, fried things, and all things apple (caramel apples, apple cider and apple cider donuts, apple dumplings and fritters, etc.). There were also numerous local orchards open for U-pick, selling their apples and apple goodies and providing all kinds of fun events like hayrides and pig races.

Our Ellijay stay wasn't very long, because Pete had something to do at home. We quickly stopped at Hillcrest Orchard and got some apples. We decided to save the hayrides, etc. for next year, when Emery is older and will have more fun. Then we went to the festival itself at the fairgrounds. We definitely hadn't anticipated the traffic/parking situation there. People were parking miles away and being bussed to the fairgrounds---it was pretty crazy. We almost decided to just go home, because our time was running out, but then we miraculously found a parking spot only a short distance from the fairgrounds. By the time we got into the fairgrounds, we only had about 10 minutes before we needed to head for home. We didn't get to see much, but the three of us (my mom, Pete, and I) really wanted to try some of the food, so we decided to divide and conquer and then meet back up to share our southern goodies.

picking up a few apples in the craziness at Hillcrest Orchards

All in all, by the end of out trip to the orchard and festival, we had tasted delicious apple cider, fresh apple cider donuts, caramel apple, and fried green tomatoes (oh, and a corn dog, because out of all the variety  of southern food at the festival, Pete chose to buy a corn dog. This makes me laugh).

The rest of my mom's stay with us was a little more relaxing than the first several days. After church on Sunday, we did a little Emory campus tour and Pete and I took a 2 hour nap. (That small detail is blog-post worthy, because the last time I took a nap was, well...I don't remember. Months ago though). On Monday, my mom, Emery, and I went for a walk at Lullwater Park on campus, and spent time together doing other things I don't remember. What I do remember, and what I enjoyed the most about my mom's visit were the simple things: watching her and Emery play together, chatting and doing crafts together, laughing as we watch dumb shows on netflix, and doing lots of active stuff like walking and hiking. She helped so much with dishes, meals, Emery, etc. I threatened that if she didn't stop, I wasn't going to let her go home!

Nearly everyday since she left, either Pete or I make a comment on how fun it was to have my mom here and how much we miss her! We can't wait until December when we get to visit her and the rest of our families!

Sunday Pictures

Finals week is allllmost over. Pete's last final is Monday and then we get the rest of the week to just all play together. We have a big list of plans. Last week was pretty good for a finals week. Emery and I entertained ourselves pretty well while Pete studied. A few of our week's events included:

-A little shopping with Emery. I found some cute PJ's and outfit for her.

-Having our friend Dan Neff over for dinner while his wifey was away in Utah. We had him over on Sunday and dinner was, well, an epic failure. A delicious dish I've made several times just didn't quite turn out right. Dan was brave enough to come to dinner on Wednesday as well, and I think the meal turned out a bit better 

-Making cupcakes! Not a big deal...but I had been craving them for two days and the finished product just really hit the spot. I've been wanting to do more baking but it's seemed kind of overwhelming with a baby (I'm usually lucky to get dinner made). This was the first time I had made cupcakes since Emery was born--I like to think of it as a "mommy milestone"--so hopefully that means bigger and better things are ahead!

-Speaking of mommy milestones, Pete and I went on a date this weekend---without Emery! The Ford family graciously offered to watch her. Though I felt bad adding to their clan of 4 kids, they said Emery did awesome the whole time and we could leave her with them anytime. Hopefully they let us return the favor in the future, we love their 3 boys and little baby girl that is Emery's age. We had a hard time leaving Emery, but I think it was good for us.

-Finishing reading aloud "The Hunger Games." Ready for book 2 just in time for Pete's week off!

-Got ready for church early enough to make it there on time and even snap a few pics beforehand. The morning light was beautiful and the forest-y area right by our apartment was so lush and green looking. Georgia is starting to grow on me I think...if I could somehow get past the bugs, the process would be much speedier :) 

Happy Sunday!

A Quick Two Weeks

Sorry for the wordless nature of my last post. 5 year old Nate (little brother) was talking to me on the phone and when he asked hopefully if there were any new pictures of Emery on the blog, I just had to throw something together real quick.

As for what we've been up to the past two weeks...

The Never-Ending Process of Setting Up Our House (we will still probably be doing this a year from now). We made great strides this week by buying and setting up Emery's crib and changing table! Finally! She definitely needed an upgrade from her mini pack 'n play. I love the crib that we chose---the style reminds me of the one my mom had for her babies. I decided to do soft white bedding because I couldn't find any that I liked. I really like the classic look of how the white contrasts with the dark crib. Emery seems to like it too as evidenced by the deeeeep sleep she's in below:

Georgia Storms. Getting caught outside in them? SO cool. Waking up at 4 am from them? NOT cool.

At 1 year old Ryker's b-day pool party, a nice Georgia rain storm rolled in. We looked like we had taken a dip in the pool by the time we got home.

 

I decided we need to go outside more when these happen--they're soo fun--like a warm shower.

Emery didn't mind the rain at all. She had water streaming down her face at one point and all she did was look around curiously. Of course, she was two hours overdue for a nap by that time, so maybe she was just in a tired daze.

Food with Friends. We've been having fun with other couples from school and the ward but have somehow been terrible at taking pictures.

Eating dinner at Dongik and Heeja's house (Pete's PT school buddy and his wife who are from Korea)

yummy, pretty rice.
(Sorry about how terrible all these pics are, I used our old, bad camera instead of our nice one)

Emery was in heaven playing with all their toys (they had lots more than she does).

Going to Craft Stores. Poor Pete (and Emery)---by the time the weekend comes around, I have a bajillion ideas of what I want to do together and what I want him to help me with. Somehow, a craft store trip seems to always make the list and he's been to craft stores for two weekends in a row now. What can I say? He's a brave man.

Reading The Hunger Games Again. I have read the books already, but out of uncontainable (I think I either just made up that word or spelled it wrong) excitement for the MOVIE coming out in 2012, I am going to read at least the first one again. I even convinced Pete to let me read it out loud to him.

Shielding ourselves from Emery's New Trick: spitting. She LOVES it. I'm not sure why baby saliva is so cute to us, but it apparently is, because we took a movie which I can't figure out how to upload right now.

And of course, Trying to Get Enough Sleep. I honestly feel like I'll be doing this for the rest of my life.
Sigh.
Oh well.

Hopefully I do blog posts a little more often this week, thus preventing scatter-brained, random posts like this. We'll see :)

Wonderful Weekend

 After enduring a week of 5 big midterms, we treated ourselves to an amazing weekend of fun and just simply spending time together. It was wonderful!

View from the pool on Friday evening. Pete loves sun rays and insisted on taking a picture.

Pete got home from school on Friday after finishing his last midterm and the first thing we did was head for the pool! I've never been a big swimming/water person. Pete, on the other hand, absolutely loves swimming. This, combined with the heat and humidity here, is making me love the pool more and more. Nothing is more refreshing than jumping in some cool water after a long, hot day. We'll see if Emery takes after me or her dad more in this regard. Right now, she's pretty neutral; doesn't seem to love the water, but tolerates it fine.

We're looking at the sun rays or something :)

Emery loved these little shooting fountains. She kept reaching out curiously trying to "grab" them.

After swimming, we loaded into the car and headed out to dinner and to explore the area a little bit. We ended up at "Stevi B's" pizza buffet and it was delicious! The area we found ourselves in actually had somewhat of a view. By that, I mean you could see a big chunk of beautiful sky in the distance. While it's green and gorgeous down here in Georgia, sometimes I feel like I live in a jungle and it can be a bit claustrophobic. Walking or running down sidewalks, I sometimes get this  feeling that the leafy tree branches and ivy-engorged trunks are going to reach out and eat me.

pretty sky :)

After pizza, we stopped at Michael's craft store so I could grab some supplies for a craft day I'm having on Monday with my friend, Marie Neff (thank you Utah for celebrating Pioneer Day! Marie works for a company in Utah, so she gets the whole day off).

We went to bed fairly early on Friday and not only did Emery only wake up twice during the night, she slept for an extra hour after her morning feed. We ended up sleeping 'til 8:30 am, and when you're used to starting each day at 5 or 6 am (after waking up at least three times in the night), 8:30 feels like noon.
It was Beee---utiful!

Saturday morning we made homemade waffles and ate them with vanilla yogurt and fresh strawberries. Delish. Then we packed up baby and gear and headed out for more exploring. First, we checked out a couple parks in the area, then parked on Emory campus and did yet another walk-stroller-rollerblading extraordinaire---this time at Lullwater Park. What a beautiful place! Owned by the school and open only to university students, faculty, and alumni, the park had tons of trails--both smooth paved and dirt. The little lake was beautiful and next time we shall bring some bread to feed the cute ducks that made a beeline for us once they saw us cruising by. We felt we had stepped outside of the city and into the woods. It was warm, the air smelled pungent and pine-ey, and the breeze felt great as we walk/strolled/rollerbladed along the winding path.

strolling and rolling

oops...bad camera angle as far as getting Ems in the picture

can you see the ducks heading straight for us? 

funny face :)

After our park adventure, we packed our tired, sweaty selves back in the car and got yummy frozen yogurt at TCBY. We came home, jumped in the pool, and then did some cleaning/organizing/hanging pictures up at home. Getting our house put together does wonders for making me feel at home and comfortable here in Georgia. Pete did a little bit of homework and then for dinner we barbecued some hot dogs and ate them with veggies, cherries (from Washington! That I found at the farmers market here), and ice cold strawberry lemonade. Mmmm. We finished up the night staying up much too late watching Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (the first half of course...we're a little behind in the HP series). This was the first movie we have finished in one sitting since Emery was born---I count this as a milestone as the last movie I watched took me a week to finish.

Now it is Sunday and I'm tired (as always) but in heaven, enjoying the last day of this weekend that we got to spend lots of time together as a family. Emery did so well on all our little adventures the past couple days and it was so fun to take her places and show her the outdoors. I feel I've had enough warmth on my skin, wind in my hair, and enough joy to make it through another week.