Aliviah Grace

We bought Aliviah her first sled today. The first time down, she said, “That was fun.” Haha, but her face said otherwise. It took a little convincing to get her to go down again. But after a little snowball fight with Daddy, she had a blast! Andrew tried snowboarding and fell. Too bad I didn’t catch that on film! After lunch, we might go have some more fun in the snow.

Fun Pictures!

My favorite season is fall. I love the colors, the crisp air, the smell of leaves. One of my fondest memories is making a huge pile of leaves with the brothers and jumping in! I’m so happy Aliviah got to try out her own jumps this year. Enjoy the pics

Finally put the fishing pictures up. Lots of good ones! There’s pics of Aliviah’s room, too. As soon as the rest of the house is actually cleaned well enough, I”ll post more pictures.

I am not embarrassed to say that we are spoiled. It has been rough the last couple weeks without the Internet. Even Andrew was surprised by how much we rely on this simple technology. It’s more than checking the scores or seeing what the weather is going to be like. We pay all our bills online, Andrew gets all his military info through his email, but most of all we keep up with family when phones don’t cut it. So, my faithful readers, WE ARE BACK! And I know what you have been waiting for. Duh duh dum! (That was a drum roll if you didn’t get it. Yep, even in type I have no rhythm.) Pictures of the truck are here!

More of this beauty in the photo gallery.Aliviah’s favorite part? That you need a step to get up in it. Oh, how my heart swells!

We’ve seen quite a bit of Colorado in the weeks that we’ve been here. Today we went to the Cave of Winds. It was pretty cool. Aliviah got scared a little when it got dark but she was a trooper. There were some tight spots to squeeze through and low hanging stalactites. We came through with some good pictures and a toy bat (creatively named”Batty” by Aliviah). Also in the gallery are some pictures of Aliviah and her new boyfriends, Nicky and Chaim.

We’ve made it to Colorado and are so far in love. The weather is great, the sites are gorgeous, and we’ve got a great house waiting for us. We’ve been doing a little sight seeing and have found some pretty cool places. Yesterday we went to the zoo. The chipmunks run around free and fearless. The best thing we saw was a mountain lion trying to catch a little Alvin. That poor chipmunk escaped right at the last minute! Today we packed a lunch and headed to the Garden of the Gods.  They are amazing red rock formations. It was all fun and games until a very close lightning and thunder clap scared Aliviah half to death. Then the massive downpour started. We had to walk half a mile to the truck with Aliviah screaming the whole way. After we made it safe and sound, we headed to Wal-Mart for an umbrella. The day was still young and the rain had let up by the time we had decided between the Dora or Spongebob umbrella. (An obnoxious Spongebob won out by the way). Our GPS then got us very lost up a very high mountian with no guardrails. After the truck stopped overheating and I opened my eyes, we made our way to Seven Falls. Unlike the Mohican trail to that waterfall, this was a REAL waterfall, not just a trickle. It’s called Seven Falls….because there’s seven waterfalls. I know, National Parks with their crazy names! You had the option to walk up a hundred steps to the observation deck or take the Mountain Elevator. Bet you can’t guess what we did. From the observation deck, Andrew noticed another set of steps that led up beside the falls. This set was 224 steps. That’s metal steps, with no backing, straight up the side of a mountain. Andrew threw Aliviah up on his shoulders and we started our trek. I made it 10 steps, looked down, and had a mini panic attack. Andrew and Aliviah made it all the way to the top! With Aliviah on Andrew’s shoulders! He said the way down was a tad more difficult, not being able to see the stairs and all. Now we’re winding down a great day with some good tv and even better pizza. What fun should we get into tomorrow?

There’s a ton of pictures in the gallery. I’m not sure why they are out of order but I’ll try to fix it.

We had such a good time in Ohio. We just hated to leave! There’s lots of pictures to check out!

http://picasaweb.google.com/adlybitum/JuneOhioVisit#

Wow, it’s been a while since I’ve updated the site. May has definitely been a busy month. Aliviah had her big birthday…which she started out by throwing up a few times. She said she didn’t want to celebrate her birthday. Well, until she found out she had presents:) Even still, she wasn’t into her cake or any other festivities. That’s okay because we stretched her birthday celebration over the whole week : ) That’s the way to do it! She was spoiled, as usual, with TONS of gifts. (Thank you, everyone!) We took a trip to San Diego with huge milestones. She went to the beach (granted, she wouldn’t touch the sand) and she got into a pool! For Aliviah, that’s amazing! We went to the zoo and the Wild Animal Park. They’ve taken over 1,800 acres to recreate an environment that is as close to Africa as they can get. They have open plains that you can take a tram around to see animals living free. (Interesting fact we learned: They have to keep the zebras blocked off from the other animals because they are aggressive. They try to kill the other animals. Who knew zebras were so territorial?) I’d have to say she had a pretty good birthday. Next year, she’s definitely getting a 4-wheeler.

We’re 4wheeler watcher for one of Andrew’s friends. When Aliviah saw it she just loved it! Guess we’re going to have to go off-roading

Aliviah’s “tough” look

Over the weekend we took a family outing to DISNEYLAND (a place filled with so much magic and excitement, it should always be wrote in CAPS). Thanks once again to the military we saved about $300 on tickets. On the way down we stopped at the Discovery Science Museum. Our friends always joke how we are like kids ourselves, watching Pixar movies for us more than Aliviah. We really enjoy the zoo and museums. Hopefully we pass that love to Aliviah. It’s amazing watching her find a new thing; how she will work till she figures it out. Her favorite thing at the Science Museum?

The drinking fountain. And the dinosaurs. She asks Andrew all their names and if they eat meat or leaves.

To be two again and to find everything around you new and amazing. She loves hotel rooms and road trips. We couldn’t ask for a better little traveler. For the first time she got to sleep in her own big person bed and she had enough room for all her “friends” that have to travel with us. G.I Joe took the trip with us. Definitely an Army kid.

She could barely contain her excitement on the way to DISNEYLAND. She kept asking if we could get out of the car yet. Then we got to ride a train! We saw little kids! And a castle! There was a carousel! The very first ride we took was the Pinocchio ride. It was dark and scary and terrified her! It set the mood for the rest of the day. She refused to ride anything else. If we went to wait in line, even for another train ride, she would start crying and beg to be put back in her stroller. We finally convinced her to take the Winnie the Pooh ride. She loves Pooh! It’ll be fun, we promise! It started out fine….then got dark! She started screaming and the ride got creepier. Come on! Can’t they make one ride kid friendly? The day got a little better when she got to see Goofy’s house, which had a little playground. She got to see Mickey and Minnie and Donald Duck. She got a new Pooh toy and the required Mickey ears. All in all, it was a pretty good day. Even if a little tiring.

We had a three day pass so the next day we went to the other park. It’s called California Adventure Park. It’s an amusement park like Cedar Point. Aliviah got to see a Mickey Mouse Clubhouse show, which she enjoyed A LOT. She became hysterical when we tried to take her on the caterpillar tram ride, remembering Pinocchio. We ate way too much ice cream, saw once in a lifetime sites, and walked away smiling.