Getting Ready

Megan has recently started to give up her morning naps, which has its pluses and minuses. One of the minuses is the luxury of getting ready by myself. Megan LOVES to be in the bathroom (mostly getting into things) and wants to be in the middle of all the action. She usually wants me to hold her while I'm getting ready so she can see what's going on. This really slows me down, only being able to use one hand while getting ready, so I came up with a solution. I put her on the counter, put her feet in the sink and turn the water on just the tiniest bit. She loves it and keeps her distracted so I can get ready. It's fun to watch her immediate what I do, trying to use the Q-tips to clean out her ears, "brushing" her teeth, brushing her hair, playing with my make-up brushes, etc. I was lucky enough to have my camera upstairs yesterday to capture some of our "new" routine.

18 Month Pictures

My sister-in-law, Stepha wanted me to show her where we had our family photos taken in April because she wanted to go there to take pictures of her little boy, Jett, who just turned three. We were finally able to go on Thursday. Megan turned 18 months last week and so I decided to bring Megan for her pictures. I also just got a new lens that I was dying to try out. Stepha brought her two girls, Sky and Brooke as well. It was quite a work-out trying to get pictures of the kids and keeping the little ones happy. We were both sweating and tired after about an hour, but I think it was really successful and am really glad we did it. Here are a few of my favorites!

Sky, Sky and Brooke, Jett, and Stepha (working hard for that perfect shot!)

Megan doing what she does best - RUNNING!

A little smirk

Big blue eyes

Driving the tractor

Trying to get away

Bubbles!!!!

Lashes

Playing with dandelions

"All through the town..."

This one is by far my favorite!

Oh Canada!

Eric won free airline tickets and free hotel from an incentive at work a few months ago and we decided that we would go to Vancouver and Victoria, British Columbia for the Labor Day week. I've never been and it was a place where there would be activities that Megan would enjoy. It was a long, but fun 8-day trip. We survived the plane rides with my laptop and Baby Einstein videos. It was a great trip, but we are glad to be home!

Vancouver has a HUGE park, called Stanley Park that has a really nice aquarium. We spent our first full day there. Megan liked the whales, fish, and chasing the geese.

We had perfect weather while in Canada and tried to do as much outside as possible to enjoy the 65 degree days. The Butchart Gardens in Victoria are gorgeous and definitely worth the price to get in.

I enjoyed eating lots of fish and chips and Megan discovered ketchup. She loved to dip fries in it and then just suck on them. It was pretty funny. Eric's always wanted to go on a whale watching tour, so we were brave and signed up for a "three hour tour". I brought lots of snacks and stickers and Megan did really well, surprisingly. We were lucky enough to see a pod of 4 orca's as well as a humpback.

Any X-Men fans out there?! Well if you've seen any of the movies, then this should look familiar. It's Xavier's School for the Gifted. This is one of the 2 castles in Victoria and is now the administration building at a university.

Megan really loves animals, especially dogs. She has to go over and see them if there is one nearby. We first met Wilson at Butchart Gardens. The dog is HUGE, but really friendly and Megan couldn't stop giggling when we was around. Well, we ran into Wilson again 3 days later at The Governor's mansion. It was too cute to see them interacting with each other and quite a coincidence that we saw him again!

These are two of my favorite pictures from the whole trip. What's a trip without a few meltdowns?! I had to take this "real life" picture, since we had many, many melt-downs. The second picture was on our last full day in Canada and Megan had just had a huge melt-down while we were trying to eat. We had to leave it was so bad. I could tell she just needed some play time. So I busted out our handy-dandy GPS that we brought with us (a total life-saver!) and found a neighborhood park. She loved it and had a fun time picking dandelions with Dad.

It's Official

It's finally official - I've been released from my calling in our ward as 2nd Counselor in Young Women's. I've known for a few weeks that it was happening and was officially released in church while we were in Canada (a post and pic's from there to follow soon). Tonight is the first week in 3 years that I'm not suppose to be at a mutual activity and it makes me sad. I will really miss my young women, and not just the Beehives either. Most of the Laurels were Beehives when I was first called and feel like ALL the girls are "my girls". I loved being able to interact with them each week and hopefully have some sort of a good influence over them. They are such strong and great young women, who have all touched my life and been an example to me. It amazes me how strong the youth of today, especially compared to me when I was their age. I wasn't a bad kid, but just rebellious enough to give my leaders something to talk about at their meetings.

I met with the woman who now has my calling this morning and handed over my binder and my YW box along with some words of guidance. I felt so overwhelmed when I was first called, but YW had become such an integral part of my life. This was my first calling since Eric and I were married and is all I really know. The member of the bishopric who released my thanked me for all my service and sacrifice over the last 3 years, and while it was a HUGE time commitment, it was so rewarding at the same time. I can tell that Sunday will be hard since it's my first Sunday back at church after being released. I hope the same girls will still come up to me after Sacrament meeting to say hi that always have. If not, I'll probably cry.
Here are a few pictures of my girls at my last activity. I was in charge and we did a service project for the city to help clean up a park. I had meant to bring my camera to take some pictures, but forgot it in the hurry to be on time. Thankfully, the girl who worked for the city and organized the project for us, brought a camera and asked if it was alright if she took some pictures of our group. I truly believe that was Heavenly Father's last little YW gift to me. I got the email with the pictures today - perfect timing!