Update

Its been awhile since my last update, I apologize for that, time just seems to slip away too quickly. We spent the 4th of July as a family until Alex threw his back out picking Addison up (either he's getting old or she's eating too many oatmeal cream pies!) Alex could barely walk so we got him comfy on the couch at home and then headed over to our friends pool party.

Addison and I were having so much fun that an hour into the party we convinced daddy to take some pain killers and join us. Even though he sat in the same lawn chair the whole time, he had fun and it was great to spend that time as a family. Addison swam around the whole pool again and again with her friend little friend Wrigley. She was in a floaty with leg openings so she wouldn't slip through but she loved the freedom she had! She was belly laughing the whole time trying to catch up to her friend. She got pretty darn good at kicking her little legs by the end of it!
At dusk the party guests started setting off a bunch of fireworks in the backyard and Addison for the record was NOT a fan. She was absolutely petrified and only wanted Daddy to hold her. The city of Queen Creek has a festival and fireworks show at a local farm every 4th but it is $10 a car for admission not to mention a madhouse, so luckily enough the party we went to was in great viewing distance from the show and far enough away that the "BOOMs" weren't too loud. Addison enjoyed the display but not as much as I had imagined. I thought she would have been mesmerized but she was more interested in eating her cookie :)



Swimming around with her friends

Addison and Wrigley on the baha step

Mommy and Addison...nice face!

Daddy protecting her from the fireworks...you can tell she is less than thrilled!

Lately I have been caring for my friends daughter Bryar who is just 2 months older than Addison. This morning Bryar came over at 6:30 and kept asking "Addi asleep? Addi asleep?" Since I am SO boring to hang out with, we finally went to wake Miss Addison up at 7:45 and they both lit up when they saw each other! Immediate squealing and spazing out commenced, followed by 3 more hours of the same :) They love each other so much and rarely act out when they are together, it is just so cute to watch them. I think my favorite today was when they held hands to dance or when they both found a pair of my platform shoes (and we are talking 4" platforms!) and decided to put them on and parade around the house. It was the funniest looking thing, the shoes were as big as them!

Their favorite thing is to go "wee!" on the slide

Loves her swing!


Bff's

Daredevil

Running away from me...their favorite game

Holding hands <3

Goons!

They love to give eachother hugs!

Fashionistas!

Pinetop

Addison and I have met so many wonderful mommies and babies through our playgroups and I just want to say how thankful I am for each of them, their support and love is unparalleled.
Our mommy friend Taylor and her family are renting a cabin in Pinetop (about 3 hours north of the valley) and invited us and some of our other play friends for an overnight destination meetup! We had SUCH a blast!
We drove up on Thursday morning with our friends Missy and baby Kylie, arrived in Pine at about noon and immediately took advantage of the cooler weather, playing outside and walking with the kiddos. All total there were 6 mamas and 6 kiddos, it was a circus but a very entertaining one! The kids all got along awesome, we each had our own room to get a good nights sleep and once the kiddos were down for the night us mamas brought the party out ;) We played games (if you know me you KNOW how much I LOVE games!), drank margaritas and sat by the fire and had girl talk and husband bashing...ok ok not really bashing but we got to complain about the little annoying things they all do :)
We headed back Friday afternoon and with the exception of construction that forced the road closed for about 20 minutes in the mountains, the trip went smoothly and way better than we could have expected! Thank you to Taylor for having us all up, we needed a getaway!

The awesome cabin!

Hey mom! Look at all these new toys!

Walkin in the forest<3

Trying out her climbing skills

Shootin hoops

Aw man we lost our ball! HEEEEEEELLLLLLLLLLP!

Happy Happy Girl!

Addisons newest obsession...Playdough!

Babies are asleep, mommy time!

Addison and her newest boyfriend Drew

Mommy baby <3

Kitchen play with Kylie

Camping in Flagstaff

We took a leap of faith this past weekend and decided to go tent camping as a family. We took Addison camping last September but stayed in a cabin so we were a little spoiled! We were planning to do the cabin thing again but decided to try something different. We went and bought a family size tent, camping pots and pans, lantern, chairs and other fun stuff. Alex already had a lot of gear collected over the years from his days as a Boy Scout and Eagle Scout...I know I'm laughing too.
We got up early Saturday morning and were on the road by 10am. Packing up all our stuff and making our last minute stops brought back great memories of family vacations we took as a kid. We arrived in Flagstaff around 1pm, checked in and set up camp. Alex is amazingly handy and organized so it only took us about an hour until we were relaxing in our camp chairs! There was a playground on the grounds and within clear view of our site so every other second Addison was asking "slide? slide? wee? wee?" We spent the rest of Saturday checking out the grounds and planning the weekends activities. We laid Addison down around 7, in about 10 layers of clothes as it was, dare I say it, FREEZING! The huge wind gusts did not help the situation either. Alex and I didnt really think to bring any sort of padding or air mattress with us so we slept on the ground the first night, WHAT A MISTAKE THAT WAS!

Big mistake to give my little monster licorice on the way up...not only was she messy but she was SO hyper!

KOA Kamping!

The park with dolly

Watching daddy set up shop!

The Grieger family palace!

Addison thought it was great fun running from one end of the tent to the other!


Daddy taking a break from setting up camp

Loved the cherub fountain!

What a goof! She now wears her sunglasses on her head just like mommy!

Just the girls, hanging out!
Addison woke us up bright and early at 5:30am, darn early sunrise! Her little hands were like icicles so we all snuggled under the blankets for a while trying to warm up. Finally Addison and I loaded into the truck, blasted the heat and watched an episode of Elmo until we thawed out. It was about 40 when we woke up but quickly climbed to a more comfortable 60 or so once the sun was in full effect. We made a big breakfast and then headed out onto the trails in the woods behind the grounds, it reminded me so much of the midwest, I kept forgetting that we were still in fact in Arizona. After our trail walk we decided to check out downtown Flagstaff. SO our kind of place! We visited the Sunday morning farmers market which had some really neat stuff, walked around and looked in the various shops around town and then had a nice lunch at a little pizzeria. By this time it was only 11:30 but we felt like we had been up for days. Between sleeping on the ground and Addison's early morning wake up, we were ready to crash but still had much more to check out. There is an indoor aquaplex about 3 miles from the campground and we thought it would be a great way for Addison to burn off some energy and for all of us to warm up a little bit. The aquaplex had a zero depth pool, lazy river, hot tub and water slides, it was really a pretty neat place. Unfortunately Addison had an Academy Award winning meltdown after about an hour so we packed up and went back to camp. We spent the rest of the day relaxing, playing at the playground and doing some more walking and exploring. Oh and I also made Alex run to the nearest Walmart and pick us up an air mattress.

Exploring

Hiking!

"When you see only the dark know the light will soon return" A beautiful mural painted on the wall on a shop in Flag

Big girl swing

Addison and baby going "wee! wee!" on the swings

Big slide...I made daddy take her down this time as the time before, Addison and I went flying off the end!

Playing with her daddy

Nature walk

Addison checking out the tepees on site

I'm getting sleepy mama!


Monday morning we all "slept in" until about 6:30 and let me tell you the air mattress was SO worth it! We had a leisurely morning of coffee drinking and eating and then packed up camp to head back to Phoenix. Alex had seen that Snowbowl (the ski resort in Flag) has a summer chairlift ride to the top of the mountain and he wanted to check it out. I was a tad bit (A LOT) nervous about taking Addison on the chairlift as she is a squirmy worm and doesnt really listen to anything we say...ever. We finally decided that it would be a shame not to experience it so we headed to the mountain. We were the first ones up to the top of Mount Humphreys after a 30 minute ride and Addison actually did a great job on the chairlift, she was fascinated looking around at all the trees and rock and even SNOW that was still on the ground! We explored the paths at the top of the mountain, took pictures and even let Addison play in a pile of snow! We made it back down safely and headed home after a fun and memorable weekend. We will definitely be heading up to Flag sometime again soon!

Morning time!

Mount Humphreys!

Chairlift ride up, Addison was not happy about having her picture taken

Two peas in a pod

What is this stuff mom??

Even Dashy made it to the top with us <3

Family picture

Hi Daddy!

Too close to the edge

Poser

And DONE...such a tired girl on the way home!