Yesterday it was super warm, so we went to the park. Vidalia had a blast. She is thinking parks are funner and funner all the time. She giggled with each movement of the swing and tried super hard to climb up the slide (to no avail). She thought everything we showed her was the funnest thing that ever existed. It makes me super excited for when the weather is all the way better. I think we'll go to the park everyday then. (Especially after we move, since our new complex has a park. Not that the current park is very far away at all.) One of the cutest things she did at the park was wave at all the other kids. She would be in the middle of a giggle on the swing and stop to wave at the kids in the sand and say, "Ai! Ai! Ai!" Which means hi. She just doesn't seem to have an h sound in her vocabulary. The other kids didn't seem to notice she was talking to them, but that didn't stop her or bother her at all. Oh and she's officially up to 16 steps now. She's been trying to walk more and more and more lately. I won't be surprised if we have a walker on our hands in the next couple of weeks.
We bought a couple cases of cans form the store last week. Vidalia was so pleased. It was like it was her birthday all over again, maybe better. I will not ask myself why I even buy her toys because a) I didn't buy her any and b) she does like the toys she has too.
This tattoo is one of those things that kept and kept and kept hanging around our house. I can't figure out why things do that sometimes. Especially when I could have sworn I already threw them away...about 20 times. One day Vidalia wouldn't leave it alone, so I put it on her. This was over a week ago. I thought it would disappear in a few baths. It currently shows no signs of ever disappearing. I promise, fake.
P.S. It promotes ethanol. I like ethanol. I think it's a good place to start for cleaner, better fuel.
Over Martin Luther King Jr. Day weekend we were able to go and see and play with the Armstrongs in Missouri. We had so much fun and it was so good to just see family. I tried to post all these pictures (there are tons) chronologically. So, here's how it went down. On Saturday we drove about 3.5, maybe 4 hours to Kansas City. We were planning on meeting up for lunch, but left a little late and so instead met at the Toy & Miniature Museum. It was pretty cool. It had lots of miniature things. I don't know what everyone's favorites were, but mine was the miniature instruments and Vidalia's was the room full of Barbies. (We spent most of our time in that room trying to convince her we had thoroughly seen it. She's so in love with dolls lately.) And I may be wrong, but I think Nita loved the museum most of anyone. We ran a few quick errands in Kansas City and then headed to Independence.
We stopped at the LDSVisitor's center across the street from the Community of Christ Temple, the seashell temple if that helps. It wasn't as big looking from the outside as I was expecting, but it was still a cool building. We had wanted to tour the inside, but it was closed. We went on a tour and I was able to find out that one of my old roommates was currently serving at the Libery Jail Visitor's Center about 15 minutes away. I noted it and we headed on our way the last 2 hours to Andy and Nita's house.
We played with kids and played games with adults and just enjoyed the fact that we were with family. It made we wish we were closer than we are, but as it is, we're glad we are as close as we are.
Sunday we went to church (Ryan, Vidalia, and I attended Junior Primary with Andy, James, and Finn). It was fun.
On Monday, I forgot to take the camera with us on our outside adventure. It started with a little nature walk (James and Finn on bikes, Mae and V in strollers). We walked by a pond. It was frozen. Naturally it became an obsessive throw rocks and try to break the ice thing. So fun. I wish I had had my camera. Before we headed back to their house, we went to see Andy's office. Oh and I forgot to mention it was a remarkably warm day. We wore short sleeves. No jackets. Worth noting: In a video below I have the boys tell me what we did, since I forgot the camera and couldn't take pictures. In part of it I tried to be like Andy and I said, "At your dad's works we saw pi- pi- pi-..." in which case one of them, I think Finn, finishes my word by saying, "ducks!" (We didn't see ducks there, we saw pillars. Ends up they don't know that word.)
On the way home on Monday, we decided to stop at the Liberty Jail. My old roommate was on exchanges and thus not there. It was fun. Also note worthy: The last part of the tour they play a story of sorts. It starts kind of dark and then ends on a really happy joyful note. When it started, Vidalia got really nervous and scared and was wanting to sit on my lap. By the end, she was on the floor dancing, bouncing, and cheering like crazy. It seemed she knew exactly what was going on. It was adorable!
By the time we returned home, it had turned from a very nice day to a very much colder day. They were forecasting snow in Lincoln. We got home. Unpacked everything. Got Vidalia to bed. And then sometime between then and us going to bed, it did snow. Nice of it to wait for us.
Note: Some videos are really dark. I have no idea why.
As you may know, I've been starting to teach Vidalia to play the violin. Since she's so little, our lessons last about 30 seconds and practicing has never lasted more than 5 minutes at a time. She is learning on her foam violin. I'm amazed at how fast she is making progress. We've really only been working on what a violin is and how to hold it (kind of). It's fun for both of us though. Since she's been doing so good, I occasionally let her hold her real violin. I've been impressed with how nice she is to it. I hope she keeps loving it for her whole life!
