This weekend was so fun, we packed in a lot of activities in just two days. Friday night Kyle and I went out to dinner and a movie after we put Payton to sleep, and got to feel like "real people" for an evening :) Just kidding, but it's nice to relax at a restaurant with a glass of wine every once in a while and then mosey over to the movie theater. It was so relaxing actually that Kyle fell asleep halfway through the movie! That's when you know you're old and can't stay up late anymore :) Saturday we met up with Kyle's cousin AJ and his girlfriend Mindy and daughter Melina, who is just a month younger than Payton. It's so cool seeing how big our girls are getting! Walking and talking all over the place, and starting to interact with eachother. We ate lunch first, and then wandered around looking at what the Linn County Fair had to offer. We spent a lot of time in the "tot land" area they had set up, doing crafts and stuff. We made "dirt babies"; you put faces on these bags of dirt and then they grow grass "hair". We put glasses on our dirt baby, you can see the finished product below:
We put the girls in this little box they had filled with kernel corn. Payton was so funny, she would not put both her feet in it!
Still not a fan of the corn as you can see... lol
Helping eachother with their dirt babies :)
Giving her new baby some love!
Daddys and their girls on the carouselWe must have really tired Payton out, because she went down for a nap after we got home and we had to wake her up after 3 hours so she wouldn't sleep too late! Grandma Joy came over that night to feed Payton dinner and put her to bed so that Kyle, Sue and I could go to a wedding. We wanted to take Payton, but decided against it because we wanted to stay late and catch up with all of Kyle's old friends (translation: parent's night out!) We were also worried about her staying quiet during the ceremony, she's a pretty energetic little gal. Kyle's friend Emily was getting married, he's known her and their family since kindergarten and she is now a spanish teacher at West Albany High School, so now they'll be co-workers too!
Perfect day for a wedding!
West Albany class of 2003! :)We had a blast, it was really fun to get to know Kyle's old friends better and hear stories from back in the day. We went home pretty early though, we had a busy Sunday ahead of us!
We met Mindy, AJ and Melina again at the waterpark in Albany for some poolside fun. It was in the 80's that day, so it felt awesome!
Kid paradise!
The girls had polka dot swimsuits with tutus... super cute :)
Let's go swim!
Hmmm... this feels pretty good... 
Mom likes this picture because she thinks I look very mischevious and cute... 
FUN!
Probaby my favorite picture of the whole day :)
Mommy got in the pool with me too!We had so much fun hanging this weekend with AJ and Mindy (and of course Melina). We're making plans to take the girls to Enchanted Forest next!
The result of a long day's work :)Hard to believe my sweet daughter is inching ever closer to the 18 month mark. She amazes us everyday. Tonight we were looking through older pictures of her for a scrapbook Sue is putting together of Payton's first year, and Payton picked up a picture of herself at 6 months old, pointed to it and said "baby". She loves doing movements to songs, for example "If you're happy and you know it" and "head, shoulders, knees and toes" are a few of her favorites. If there is music playing she will dance to it though, doesn't matter what the beat is! She can point out where her nose, ears, eyes, mouth, head, and toes are, and she likes to point where yours are too! Her favorite words right now are probably "no", "help", and "hot". We taught her "hot" when she was trying to touch the oven, and now she thinks everything in the kitchen is "hot" :) She loves wrapping things around her neck (scarves, diaper wipes, whatever she can get her hands on). She has also attempted to wrap a belt and the cords to the blinds around her neck too, so we've had to be really careful about not leaving things out that she can get to. We're also getting to the point where she's "hiding" things (aka picking them up and putting them in random cabinets and cupboards). We found Tanner's X-box controller in the soup cupboard in the kitchen after wondering how in the world it could have wandered off :) She's starting to run, and loves to climb too. Hard to believe just six months ago she was getting the hang of crawling. She is really into books right now, and loves for you to read to her. She will keep on bringing them if you keep on reading them!
This weekend we are going to a family reunion, and it's also the Sweet Home Jamboree. We're not going to go to the concerts, but we will probably go hang out and say hello to everyone. Hopefully the weather continues to be as beautiful as it has been lately!
