Better late than never!

...I suppose. Here are some more of our trip highlights. I need to get these posted so I can move on to our fun happenings of late! We had a great time with Lani, Shera, and Emily at the Newport Aquarium. I love the sea otters - could seriously sit and watch them all day.
Sadie Beth's favorite was playing on the animal statues!

We loved our time at the beach. We had a couple really nice beach days and a couple really cool and foggy ones too!

It took her a little while, but she got used to the whole "play in the sand routine after a little while.

Each time we went to the beach, Sadie Beth and David played this great little game where she would "run away" from him only to turn back after a few seconds to run right into her Daddy's arms. He would swoosh her up in the air and she would just squeal! (that is if she didn't trip running back to him, as often was the case). My clumsy girl....

We loved making friends with all sorts of doggies on the beach. Randomly Sadie Beth would just take off running from us and we would have no idea why until we would see the dog she was chasing. Luckily she can't get very far very fast.

Not like your typical Florida beaches - low 60s and windy on this day!

Somebody loves her Daddy!

This was a much nicer beach day.

And Sadie Beth decided to make the most of it...

...rolling around in the sand!Not loving the picture, but I felt like I should post it.

My little movie star - Sadie Beth thought she was hot stuff in her sunglasses.

When we got back from the beach, it was 105 degrees in Oregon! HOT! And I thought we would get away from the heat by leaving Louisville.

We had a nice visit with Sadie Beth's Great Grandma Balzer.

What a special time for Sadie Beth - she loved hearing Grandma B. play.

Even though it had been a year since visited last, Sadie Beth and Grandma B. hit it off immediately! There are lots of fun things to do at Grandma B's house.

One of Sadie Beth's new activities since our trip has been taking her keys all around and "unlocking" doors. She will "unlock" a door and say, "Bye guys Sadie Beth!" and then turn around and say "I'm back!"

On our last full day in Oregon, David and I had the delightful opportunity to have a "date day." It was probably the longest I've ever been away from Sadie Beth, and boy did we have a great time. We spent the morning at the beach, enjoyed a luxurious lunch at our favorite beachside restaurant - The Wayfarer, and roamed Canon Beach tourist shops. We even spent some time resting on a special bench in the middle of the town. It was a spot we spent several hours at just talking and dreaming about our future when we were engaged. And it was perfect because the weather was identical to that special day 4 years ago - 4 years, two moves, several jobs, and 2 babies later! Boy God is so good to us. After leaving Canon Beach we drove back to Hillsboro and went to one of David's favorite "growing up spots" - the nickel arcade! David claims it was much cooler when he used to go back in the day - I guess I'll believe him. We were definitely the oldest people there, and I was certainly the only married, pregnant lady on the premises. We were certainly out of place, but it was fun - skee ball, air hockey, etc. After that we stopped back at home for a little bit to regroup, see our sweet girl and then went back out again to see the new Harry Potter movie. What a wonderful day! It was such a blessing to us to spend that kind of time together - thanks Deanne for taking care of Sadie Beth!

As always our time in Oregon seemed to fly by! It's crazy to think that next summer, if we get to go, we'll be a family of 4! That will be a much more interesting (read:scary) plane ride.

Oregon, part 1

Finally on to a blog about our summer trip to Oregon! We had a great time with family and it was so wonderful having David off work for 2 weeks. It was really neat to see how much closer he and Sadie Beth grew during that time. Sadie Beth has always loved her Daddy, but I think having such a good stretch of every day being a "Daddy-day" was really fun for her. Here we are after a LONG morning of traveling at the Portland airport. Whoever designed this airport is either a genius or has kids, one of the two - behind us is an indoor playground....just what the worn out mommy ordered after keeping a busy toddler in her lap for 6 hours of flight. :)

Side story about our flight - Sadie Beth does as well as could possibly be expected of her. However, by the takeoff of our second flight she was obviously very tired and we forgot to get Bunnybear out of the bag for the takeoff. Then came the turbulance that kept the seatbelt sign on for an extra 30+ minutes. Well, after Sadie Beth had been "that crying kid" for 20+ minutes I decided heck with it, I'm getting the bear. I got her bunny bear and she fell almost immediately asleep. I could hear everyone around us breathe huge sighes of relief. Who could blame them? Then about 15 minutes later, I kid you not, the socially awkward man in his mid-late twenties who had been playing video games then entire time in the window seat of our aisle said to David, "I need to use the restroom." Literally, my friends, I heard people sitting nearby gasp in dismay - personally, I wanted to tell him to hold it, but obviously that would not have been appropriate. So I try to stand up as gracefully as possible for a 6 month pregnant woman holding a sleeping toddler but we were out of luck - Sadie Beth's little eyes popped right open and away to Oregon we flew with sleep no more. Sheesh. That's all I have to say about that.
She was quite the trooper and stayed about this cheerful the rest of the day even with not nearly enough sleep and being very overwhelmed with new places, faces, and things. This was close to bedtime and she was quite excited about her new "pridacess" potty seat that Deanne had picked up for her.

Sadie Beth never lacked for attention while we were visiting family...not once...are you surprised? :)

She really liked playing in the pool Grandma had gotten for the back yard. Deanne had been thoughtful enough let it sit for a day or two to warm up some water for her. Sadie Beth got in it the first time and said, "please cold." And the first day we decided to just let her play sans swimwear. She didn't mind.

Blueberries for Sal! This became a favorite book of Sadie Beth's very quickly and asked Grandpa to read it probably a dozen times a day. Especially fun for her was when she would get her own pail with some blueberries to snack on while Dan read.

We enjoyed visiting at Laurel Community Church and seeing some old friends. However, by the end of the morning, the jet lag caught up with Sadie Beth and she decided she was DONE.

Fun with Great Grandpa....note the state of "not lacking for attention" continues. :)

Sadie Beth had a very important phone call with Aunt Darla. She marched around the house holding the speaker phone while talking with her. Pretty funny.

We had fun at this same park last year. It was crazy to look back at my blogs from last years trip and see how much she's changed since being at this park the last time.

Stopping to smell the hydrangeas.... Each time she would sniff she would say, "mmm...Preettty"

Family picture! If only David remembered to take off his sunglasses. Again, see last years blog!

Family time! Sadie Beth had so much fun playing with her cousins - Lani, Shera, and Emily. Lani and Shera quickly became her new best friends and she had so much fun with Emily. Sadie Beth kept pointing to her and saying, "Baby" - never mind the fact that Emily is twice Sadie Beth's age.

In the house we stayed in on the beach, there was a pickle ball court in the backyard. I'd never even heard of pickleball, but it was quite fun.

Imagine ping-pong on a tennis court with a bigger ball. I just had to remind myself that diving for the ball while 6 months pregnant was in fact, unnecessary.

We had lots of fun on the beach. We went out 4 or 5 times while we were there. A few of the days were really cool - foggy and low 60s, but then we had a few days creep up into the 70s which made for some great beach weather.

Sadie Beth took it upon herself to hose off after returning from the beach. She thought she was big.

Every morning/nap time Sadie Beth would wake up (in her closet) and say, "Lani! Shera! Please Lani-Shera!" I had it easy during our time at the beach.

One of the better pictures of the 3 (4) of us.

And just to commemorate the fact that there were, indeed, four of us at the beach. Most of the pictures of me during this week make me gasp in horror. Here's a decent one...(I suppose).Sadie Beth was an "active" observer for many of the pickleball games...(read: she was prone to run out in the court to "help daddy" at any given moment in time).

Four generations....

Sadie Beth wasn't quite sure what to think about the kitty at Great Grandma and Grandpa's house. It took a minute, but she warmed up. :)

There's a first time for everything! Here, it was ketchup. I'd kindof been avoiding ketchup, because, well, Sadie Beth didn't know it existed and was quite content living life without it and the messes that I imagined would accompany such condiments. But I decided to open up this big new world on our trip and surprisingly she does great with it! Occasionally, she does think its fun to drop blueberries in the ketchup...such is life. :)

And my girl is getting quite adept with using a spoon, for which I'm thankful. I was worried about going to her 2 year old well-checkup and the pediatrician asking about it and feeling the need to make all sorts of excuses. She still much prefers a fork, but is getting there!

More to come soon, hopefully....

Catching up - "before vacation"

I've got some catching up to do, I know. We have been busy lately - especially getting back into the swing of things since our WONDEFUL trip to Oregon. That 3 hour time change is a killer - for toddlers and their pregnant Mama's. Hopefully I can get caught up over the next couple of days because I have lots of fun things that are happening now that I don't want to forget.
So, our conversations these days frequently revolve around babies. Most of that isn't done started by David and I, but Sadie Beth is just fascinated right now. She's quite the little mommy herself. My good friend Jenn had a baby in June and Sadie Beth is learning the ropes through Baby Callie. Good practice for November.
We had a rough time at church for awhile. Sadie Beth was NOT loving the nursery and would scream the entire walk out of church and then cry "OTHER CHAIR!!!" and "Mommy HOLD you" then entire ride home. Wasn't the best of situations, though it seems to have gotten better. Now she says, "No crying at church!" and "Happy at church!" It reminds me of the line from A League of Their Own where Tom Hanks says, "There's no crying in baseball!" I think it helps that she is getting to know some of the kids at church and also that life has been fairly normal at home lately...it was crazy there for awhile. So anways, here we are sitting in the "Other chair" (as Sadie Beth calls it, meaning "not the rocking chair upstairs but the other one") and we are snuggling with the Big Bird Train.

Before each meal, Sadie Beth will often remind us that we need to "Prate" (pray). Lately, it's gone something like this, "Dear God, cheese, turkey, strawberries, crackers, Green Cup, Cookie Monster Cup, AMEN!" She forgets the "thank you for...."

We've had fun with friends this summer. Here is a fun picture of Kendra (4 mos younger) and Sadie Beth. I'm quite surprised that Sadie Beth isn't panicking over the fact that Kendra has confiscated her beloved Cookie Monster Cup. We take our Sesame Street Cups very seriously in the Balzer household. At most times throughout the day, Sadie Beth can be found carrying 2 cups....one to drink out of and one of her Sesame Street Cups....because the Sesame Street Cups are pretty worthless when it comes to drinking. Don't waste your money.

Speaking of things we take seriously in the Balzer family, Sesame Street is at the top of the list. I don't let her watch much television, but Sesame Street is pretty much a daily thing at our house. She LOVES it, gets into it, talks about what she sees on it, and has what you would think are close, personal friendships with each of the characters on the show.

Her all-time favorite episode is one that starts off with Baby-Bear having a baby sitter. David and I have it essentially memorized. And please take note that we most often watch "Street" very well prepared - (above) Elmo tucked underarm / (below) Cookie Monster and Ernie resting very nearby. Usually there is a "snack-cup" involved as well.

We were getting ready to leave for one of my OB appointments on this particular day. Sadie Beth was SUPER excited about going to see "Nana Helen." We packed this bag full of toys and books and then I went into the kitchen. When I came back into the living room I found that she had dragged it across the living room and was trying to open the door, saying "Nana Helen's house."

And finally, speaking of Nana Helen...doesn't she look cute in this dress that Helen got her? She calls it her "pretty flower dress." Next up.....OREGON!!!!