Ridgecrest, California

Wow, I guess it has been a while! We've been pretty busy this month. First it was all that hassle with moving, not moving, moving, not moving. Then we had Serra's 1st birthday. The day after her birthday we drove up to Cache Valley for some splurge shopping at all the great Utah's Own stores. Ian was a little upset because the jerkey guy wasn't there, but maybe he will be next year. Then we packed up and drove down to Ridgecrest, California to visit Serra's grandparents [Ian's parents]. It took longer than we would have liked since we had to stop halfway both there and back. But luckily I have lots of family almost exactly halfway, so we got to stay with some of them each time.

Ridgecrest was a lot of fun- Charisse [my mother-in-law] taught me how to quilt and I made a small wall-hanging quilt in a couple of days. And we played around with her embroidery machine to make some cute bibs for Serra. We also spent a lot of time watching the Olympics- crazy stuff! Ian had to work while we were there, but he was able to have fun on his breaks and in the evenings. We brought his younger brother, Gavin, down with us and they got to hang out a bit- shooting hoops, watching videos. It's really made us anxious for our Christmas break when we'll be there for over 2 weeks [and Ian won't work at all!] But with every vacation, it's nice to come home- and what was really special about coming home this time is that our house was CLEAN! We had cleaned it and set it up just in case we had a showing while we were gone [which we did, but they decided not to buy]. So we came home to a nice, fresh, clean home! Serra definitely missed home- and some of her bigger toys that we couldn't bring along. She just keeps giggling and speeding around the place excited to know where everything is and to be able to play with just about anything she can reach [because we've baby-proofed the house so much!]

Anyway, just a little side thought- I still can't believe that Serra is one year old, but when I look at newborn pictures of her I don't even recognize her- she looks totally different! And I've already forgotten what that time was like. I went to Walmart while Serra was napping [Ian works from home, so he was here "watching" her] and I saw this new mom pushing a cart with her little baby fast asleep in his carseat and when she came to the door, she saw that there was a big bump and proceeding through the door VERY slowly as to avoid waking him up. When I saw her do that, it totally took me back- I used to do that! And what's really funny is that the times I would do that would be the times that I could have picked her up out of her carseat, jiggled her, and set her back down to find her still asleep! It's now that any little noise or movement wakes her but I am much less careful. Oh well, I guess I just figured it's not worth the effort or something. But it was really funny to see this newer mother doing something I did as a newer mother and laugh [both at her and myself!] :)