Solo trip

Joseph had a campout with the scouts over a weekend toward the end of July so I decided I might as well take off and go home for a visit. That was the first time I've traveled home by myself since Kilynn was born. I've been too chicken to do it for too long and I knew I needed to do it sometime. Kilynn was an angel during the trip both ways so I had nothing to worry about there. The thing I was most worried about was being sick. When I'm pregnant the need to throw up comes over me suddenly and I was scared that would happen unexpectedly as I was driving through Portland or something. Luckily, no worries there either, although again I felt bad the whole time I was there for being so "blah" due to not feeling very well. By the time Kilynn and I arrived in LaGrande on the way to my parents, she was getting a little antsy. We stopped for a quick visit to Grandma and Grandpa Waite and Kilynn had a while to stretch her legs and explore the house. During her explorations she found a teddy bear that she fell in love with. The bear was about half her size and had a big Christmas tree hat. When it was time to go Kilynn was not very excited about getting back in her carseat, so she was trying very hard to avoid me. She put up a fuss until Grandma Waite said, "Kilynn you can take the bear with you." At that Kilynn stopped, turned toward the door and walked to it holding onto the bear saying "I keep bear." We were good to go after that. She still has that bear. I was calling it "Christmas bear" but Kilynn kept saying "Scribbidy bear." I don't know if she was having trouble pronouncing "Christmas" or what but the name "Scribbidy" or rather "Scwibbidy" has stuck. Here are some pictures that I took while I was home. One day while I was there my sister Heidi and her kids came up. As we were visiting, Heidi got to looking around and noticed that all but her oldest and youngest kids were wearing green that day! R to L: Hyrum, Isaiah, Ammon, Benjamin, and Ann.

My little brother Eli and my niece Ila are up in the walnut tree. If you enlarge the picture, you can see that Eli is sitting in a net. Last year, he and some of my nieces and nephews got into crocheting. This net ended up being one of their projects. The took big crochet hooks and made long sturdy chains out of twine and then wove the chains together to form this net. Looks pretty scary to me!

Kilynn is obsessed with swings. Her cousin Isaac was so nice to push her, but he probably didn't know what he was getting into. Kilynn kept him there for quite a while and Isaac was a very obedient to her commands to keep pushing. What a good cousin!

Everyone came up on Sunday evening for a desert potluck which we had outside by the big walnut tree.

Kilynn walking off wearing Aunt Heidi's shoes

Kilynn chasing baby Chance around

Playing with her cousin Joshua

I shortened up my trip home a little by turning off at Pendleton and driving to Pilot Rock to stay the night with Aaron and Tia. It was great to spend time with them and see their new place. I wish I could be better about taking pictures when I'm home though! This is the only picture I got while at their house. Kilynn swinging with her cousin Calista.