Saturday Adventure

Last Saturday was a perfect day. The sun was shining and it was warm. Finally some decent weather! We just couldn't let the day go to waste, so we went on an adventure. We packed some snacks and headed out to the train station. We took the train to the end station up north. The trip lasted about 45 minutes and Emma loved it. This is only the second time she's been on this train. When we arrived we walked a few blocks to a children's museum. It was awesome watching Emma explore and learn and experience. Considering everything they had there, I think it's funny that one of her favorite things was trying to drop little parachuters onto a target (which I didn't actually get a picture of - I don't know why).

Just in case you are wondering why Emma is such a freak, I'll tell you that that is not her bottom half on the left. =)

The light coming in the window while they played Chess was horrible for pictures.

When we were done at the museum we walked a couple blocks to an ice cream parlor. It was very refreshing! And yes, that's vanilla bean ice cream Emma's eating. It's her favorite. Not that I'm complaining. It's one of my favorites too, plus it doesn't carry the same staining potential that other ice creams do.

When we were done with our ice cream we walked back to the train station to catch the next train home. It was an all day adventure, but was so much fun.

Colorado

We went to Colorado at the end of April / beginning of May for my nephew's baptism. Emma and I went a little earlier than we needed to just so we could have a longer visit. Eric flew over a few days later and then drove home with us after the weekend. We had a fun time.

Emma got to play with her cousins a lot while we were there, and we got to meet her newest cousin Kinley. As I said, we went for Ethan's baptism, but it worked out perfectly for Kinley to be blessed while we were there too, and it was really nice to be there for it. It was mostly a relaxing week just spending time together with everyone, staying up way too late talking into the middle of the night, and one night laughing harder with everyone than I ever have before. Here are a few pictures from our week.

The day of the baptism - my little poser

Eric holding Kinley (I stole this one from my sister-in-law's facebook. Hee hee, thanks Steph). He has a funny look on his face though, I'm not sure why.

Celebrating Ethan's birthday

A very windy day at the park

Emma played chess with 2 of her uncles. Here she's playing Ian.

This is Lucy. She thinks Eric is her mate, and is always so excited to see him when he visits.

Emma loves seeing all the birds at Melissa's house.

This one and the next one I LOVE. They were taken by my sister-in-law's sister. This was after the baptism, and Emma was perfectly content to pose for her.

Emma's Carpool

Mondays are my day to drive Emma's carpool to preschool. It consists of Emma and two other kids - Luke and Grace. They are so funny to listen to. Usually we pick up Grace first. You should just hear what she and Emma say to each other. Here's an example of a recent conversation:

Grace: (while holding her hands out) My mom painted my nails - They're all sparkly.

Emma: Oooh pretty. (Holds her hands out too now) My mom painted my nails too, but it's almost gone. Do you like my shoes? (lifting feet up for better viewing)

Grace: Yeah, those are nice.

Etc. You get the idea. This is the sort of thing they talk about. Nails, shoes, hair accessories, Disneyland, etc. Sometimes they'll sing along with the music. Their favorite is Kelly Clarkson's My Life Would Suck Without You. But mostly they just enjoy their girl talk before Luke gets in the car. And I can't stop smiling.

Yesterday Grace stayed home so it was just Emma and Luke in the car. Emma was wearing some tall boots (which she and I both LOVE and I wish I had for me). Maybe she missed Grace, I don't know, but she turned to Luke and asked him if he liked her boots. He looked at them for a minute, and then very matter-of-factly answered, "No".

Silence. For just a moment. I think Emma was in a state of shock. She asks people all the time if they like different things she's wearing (preschool teachers, primary leaders, my family, her friends, strangers - everybody) and no one ever says no. This is a topic of high priority for her right now. When Luke answered no I think Emma's world might have shattered a little (okay, that might be a slight exaggeration, but you get my point). She had no response to that.

I finally interjected my thoughts so they'd both feel okay about what happened (well, mostly so Emma would feel okay - I don't think Luke cared). I told Emma that boys don't have to like girls boots, but that I sure like her boots. Everyone can like different things.

This had the desired affect, and Emma agreed. She seemed to bounce back to her normal self, and I'm sure her teachers were all asked that day about her boots.

What am I going to do with her? =) Other than just love her like crazy!

April Fools Trick

Emma LOVES playing tricks on Eric. And I suppose I don't really discourage this behavior. Wanting to do something but also wanting to keep it simple I decided to re-make some oreos. We scraped the cream out of the middle of some oreos and replaced it with toothpaste. (My pictures don't want to work right now, but they looked real!)

Emma was very excited. Eric knew we would be doing something, but didn't know what. Just before he got home from work I told Emma "Don't say anything to Daddy about the cookies or the trick so he'll be surprised when he eats them." So what did Emma do? Right when Eric walked in she went up to him and said, "I'm not going to say anything about the trick." Hmmm. Maybe I wasn't clear enough? A little later she got the cookies and gave them to Eric. He knew by her behavior that this was the trick, but didn't know exactly what to expect. Being a good sport he took a big bite. Emma was practically rolling on the floor laughing. Almost an hour later she started laughing about it again. I think I might be in trouble when she gets older.