Summer vacation is the best.

We were on vacation in Minnesota last week. It was glorious.

This post is long. Sorry, I am too lazy to write more than one. 

We flew in on the 4th and spent the day at Cookie's on the lake with my whole family. Everyone. Just like our childhood. It was absolutely the best. Everyone had a blast.

Audrey loved the water. More specifically she loved the water slide. Love, love, loved it! Every time she got to the bottom she yelled "AGAIN" "AGAIN!" It was sweet and awesome.

She also enjoyed jumping in off the dock, sitting on the peddle boat, riding in the kayak, riding on the jet ski, and playing in the shallow water.

She had so much fun we went back again later in the week.

Baby girl crashed and burned before the fireworks this year. They were amazing, just like they always are at the lake. She will get to see them soon.

We all enjoyed spending time with my family especially getting a chance to see all of the aunts, uncles, and cousins. It is so fun to see all those little ones together.

It is even more fun to dress the littlest two up in lederhosen. They were maybe not super thrilled, but very cute.

Other fun in Minnesota included an anniversary getaway for JT and me to Duluth. It was wonderful to get away for the night and enjoy just being together. We enjoyed walking by the lake, eating good food, and staying at a nice little bed and breakfast.

Other fun events included taking Audrey to the MN Zoo. She got to ride a camel and pet goats. She really loved the tide pool, the monkeys, and the cows. When we left the cow barn she said nooo, cows mooo. It was sweet.

And of course, we caught up with lots of friends in the area. Which was wonderful, but we didn't get to spend enough time with any of them!

It was a very successful vacation. We were extra glad we decided fly home on Friday instead of Sunday when our flight was delayed 4 hours. Getting home at midnight on Friday is a lot easier than midnight on Sunday.

An update about Audrey's development soon, I promise. She has so many words and so much attitude these days!

I still have a blog!

I'm going to go ahead and post as though it has not been forever since I have written. It is summer. I am stupid busy at work in the summer. Also, it is summer. I am outside doing fun things when I am not working. Those are my excuses. I do plan to do an 18 month update soon. However, I am late on that as well as Audrey passed the 19 month mark this weekend.

Audrey loves to play pretend these days. She likes to feed her baby and Elmo, and give them water, and have us kiss them goodnight. She also insists on sleeping with mony monster, bunny, kitty, and Elmo. Her crib is a bit crowded these days.

Her favorite pretend game though, is playing nigh night. She loves to take a book into our bedroom. She climbs up onto the bed, pulls the covers up, opens her book, and say nigh night. Then she gets down and repeats the whole process. It is pretty cute and often actually coincides with naptime or bedtime. Baby girl loves her sleep.

She also loves outside. And ever since we put some water on the deck for her to play in that is all she wants to do.

She really loved playing in these plastic bins.

 But they are a little small for doots.

So, we got her a pool and some water toys.

She loves playing in the water. The pets love the giant water dish.

Her favorite things to do are splash, kick, drink the water, and crawl around on her belly.

I am certain she is going to love going to the beach. Perhaps we will make that happen next weekend.

Cousins are the best.

Last weekend we went to Madison to see both sets of grandparents,  as well as some aunts, uncles, and cousins. We spent time with JT's sister, my sister and brother-in-law, and two of our three nephews.

We had a super fun weekend, but my camera did not end up making the trip. However, I did take pictures of the boys and Audrey when they were here for Easter. So, I will be using Easter pictures in this post. You do the best you can with what you have.

Audrey loves getting to see her grandparents and aunts and uncles. That goes without saying. But the moments that melt my heart are with her cousins. I love those little boys, and the love and warmth they have for Audrey is just amazing. With that in mind I will focus on cousin time today.

Last weekend the cousins did all sorts of hanging out. They didn't actually watch TV because Audrey watched a million hours of Elmo in the car, but they did cuddle like cuties.

JT, Jen, and I took the boys and Audrey to the zoo. It was super fun. We watched animals, Seth helped Audrey go down the big slide, Luke helped her pet the goats, Seth and Luke climbed to the top of the rocks, and everyone got a treat. The boys were happy even though we had to leave without seeing everything. Baby girl was done.

The kids played outside all weekend. Audrey chased them around the whole weekend. It was the sweetest. They played boom ball with JT and she ran around like she was playing too. When she wasn't running around she sat on the step and cheered with her whole heart. Love.

My favorite moment may have been when they were all playing in the sprinkler. Audrey was a bit cautious, but kept getting closer and closer. Seth (I think it was Seth but it just as easily could have been Luke) turned it way down so she was more comfortable, and then when she was standing over it turned it up so it got her all over! It was really funny, and she ran away (mostly) giggling.

She loves watching the big boys play and trying to keep up with them. And those boys love her. Luke dotes on her like no other and Seth is an absolute natural with little kids. JT commented on the way home that she did not test limits all weekend because she was too busy trying to keep up with the boys. It was fun and refreshing for everyone. I'm not sure she had a tantrum all weekend. Bliss.

That baby girl loves her cousins and they love her. I can't wait to have ALL of the cousins together in July!!

Family time is the best time.

This weekend we had nothing going on. Nothing. That almost never happens.

It was glorious. We did all of the fun things. Well, all of the fun things in our yard and neighborhood.

We went on a walk in the wood. However, I do not have any pictures. Mom fail. I didn't even have my phone with me.

Audrey had a blast. We let her blaze the trail, which means we mostly walked back and forth on the same part of the trail but she had so much fun. By the end she had figured out the roots so well she was running everywhere. So fun.

Not only do we have awesome woods right across the street, we have an awesome yard. By awesome I mean big and fun for kids to explore. I do not mean awesome in a landscape architecture sense. In that regard we fail quite miserably. But we like our yard of weeds and big trees.

The yard, the woods, the potential outdoor fun is exactly why we bought this house. Of course there have been issues and expenses and all the normal, annoying things that happen when you own a home. BUT weekends like this are exactly what we pictured when we chose this home. Walks in the woods and fun days playing in the huge yard with kiddos.

I do have pictures from our day in the yard.

Audrey practiced her golf skills. Dad practiced hitting pine cones and dandelions.

She did some gardening.

She worked on her burpees. She was quite a bit faster today. Progress.

She flew high.

And she kicked a ball around for quite awhile. I don't have any pictures of that. I was too busy running around kicking the ball with her. A child after my own heart.

Mom of the year over here.

In honor of Mother's Day I am going to share a stellar mommy moment I had today.

A little background...

In general, we try to let Audrey discover and do things at her own pace. For example, at playgrounds we typically let her figure out how to climb up and go down the slide. Usually she makes her way up and it takes many tries before she actually goes down the slide. She goes to the top, sits down, says no, scoots away, comes back, says no, scoots away etc. until she works up the courage to go down. Usually, this plan works pretty well, and let's be honest it is easy for us. A bit nerve wracking at times, but easy.

Today we went on a hike and then let Audrey play on the playground. However, this playground was not little kid friendly. Pretty much every playground says for kids 5-12, but usually she finds things to do, and there are stairs and it works out pretty well. This one really meant the 5-12 thing. There was no way to get onto the play structure without climbing up metal bar ladders. Yeah, not so much. Though she did try really hard and got a few steps up. Good work baby girl!

In the end we helped her so she could go down the slide if she chose. She hemmed and hawed and finally decided to go down while I was at the car getting the camera. Did I mention it was a metal slide? Most parks have plastic slides, this was a classic metal slide. I am getting to the point I swear.

I got back as she was running back to the playgorund squealing after a fun slide trip. So, JT helped her up and she came over to go down the slide. I was at the bottom because I wanted to take pictures.

Which I did.

Including this one.

Whoops, metals slides are fast. And there was no landing strip. And it was pretty far off the ground.

This all adds up to a parenting moment of the year. At least I captured it on camera.

She was fine she just landed on her butt and was scared, but I felt like a bit of an ass.

Here I am standing at the bottom of the slide taking pictures as my child sails off onto the ground. Yep, that was me.

In my defense, we do not normally catch her at the bottom of the slide she does it on her own, and I did not know JT caught her the first time. Lesson learned, metal slides are fast catching your child may be a good plan.

Happy Mother's Day, I hope you were a better mother than me today!

Progress is successful communication.

Today I asked Audrey if she wanted eggs or ravioli for dinner. To clarify, she got a choice because we had no leftovers and I was not on the ball enough to have our dinner done when she needed to eat. Anyway, she said eggs. She ANSWERED a question in a way that MADE SENSE. And then...

She chowed down on her eggs. We communicated like real people. She also put a bucket on her head when JT told her to. That indicates understanding on direction and body parts, right? Such progress!

Seriously though, she is getting a lot of words and is getting pretty good at context. Her favorites are hi, bye, and thank you. I love it when she says thank you so much. I need to get a video.

Also, this zebra shirt is the absolute cutest, as is her ponytail.

Audder Loves Otters

Anyone who knows my mother will not be surprised that I have some super odd nicknames for Audrey and our pets. I think it is genetic. When I was growing up my mom's favorite name for me was Tina Maria. My name is Kristin Mary. You will have to ask her about the evolution of that name. My mother has wonderful terms of endearment for all of my siblings as well. I am going to be kind and keep them to myself, mine is actually one of the less absurd of the bunch.

Typically I come up with weirdo names and JT makes fun of me. I always say whatever, just wait in a few weeks you will be using it too. He says no way and pretty much every time he does indeed end up using my wonderful, creative nickname.

I have many for Audrey. We have called her doots since she was a little baby, that one was mutually created. However, it has evolved. I began calling her dooterpuss at some point, that is where JT is right now. I also call her Audder (pronounced like otter with ds instead of ts), Audderific, and several other variations, but Audder is pretty common right now.

The point of this naming history is that Audder loved watching the otters at the zoo. How perfect.

To be honest it was one of the only things she enjoyed at the zoo that had to do with animals. She loves animals, but all she really wanted to do at the zoo was walk over all of the different surfaces. Sidewalk, grass, dirt, stone, wood, she wanted to walk, run, and climb on everything she came across. The animals were a distant second to the glorious obstacles and textures to be found at the zoo. I'm sure she will appreciate the animals more in the months and years to come but she is not there yet.

However, on our way out we stopped at the otter habitat again because the otters are the cutest. She suddenly loved them. The tank has bubbles in front and she loved watching the bubbles. She loved watching the otters swim by and she really loved climbing up onto the benches.

Otters were Audders favorite at the zoo.

You can expect lots of posts about outside in the coming months because little lady loves to be outside. Loves. It. I could not be happier.