May recap

Well bummer!  These pictures loaded all out of order.  With so many I am not going to try to rearrange them.  

Here is a little bit of what we were up to in May after school let out!

Our family of four + Nana and Ducca went to California to visit my grandma, aunt, uncle and cousins and to go to Disneyland.  My dad worked there once upon a time and it is a special place to our family!  

During our California visit, Nana and Ducca agreed to keep the kids for a day so that Adrian and I could have a date day in L.A.  We had such a good time being together and eating all the things.

  

We rode the train in and so we walked quite a bit and also uber ride shared around the city.

It as fun to explore different neighborhoods and areas.  

We revisited a favorite taco shop, Guisados, that we had discovered on a previous trip.  It did not disappoint!

We enjoyed Little Corona Beach for the first time!  

Earlier in the month we enjoyed a lovely morning at a friend's house.  I tried out a new technique as I hope to grow our ability to be active transportation participants.  We drove part of the way, parked about a ten minute walk away from our friends' house and nature walked the rest.  It was really nice and we even found a gorgeous - already hatched out of - robin's egg on the sidewalk!  I truly thought it was Easter candy at first!  Such a vibrant color! 

I am enjoying so much learning more about God's creation through nature!  

Over Mother's Day weekend we made a trip down to New Mexico to visit Adrian's great grandma, aunt, uncle and cousins.  We had such a good visit with all of them!!  We had such a good time that I managed not to take any people pictures but I did snap some pics of our dinner spot on the way down.

We had a couple of places in mind that were closed for various reasons that day/time so we ended up at Pat's Place and I really, really enjoyed it! 

These two cuties at "the train park" in Santa Fe.  Adrian remembers visiting this park as a child and we had a good time there with our kids!

We have determined that we really enjoy driving small roads whenever possible while traveling.  It is just so much more enjoyable for us than interstate, more to see, slower pace, less traffic, more chill . . . 

On the way home from New Mexico we got a GREAT back road perk!  We were just driving along when we came across real cowboys doing a cattle round up of a few mamas and babies who'd gotten loose.  It was so exciting to watch them with their lassos!

Also in May, Cora began riding on a regular seat on our four seater bike and pedaling!!!  

She and David are on a tandem trailbehind bike so they have to coordinate and work together to pedal at the same pace.  We are super proud of how they have worked on communicating and working together on this!  

Cora pretending to sleep on Nana's lap on the plane ride to California.  

 Salt and Straw ice cream on our L.A. date day

curiously exploring and taking in all of the wonders of God's creation we got to see in L.A. as we enjoyed long walks and talking

another shot from Guisado's

walking into Disneyland

spying our first character on Main Street 

swinging in Tarzan's treehouse!

Looking through photo albums at Grandmother's house I found baby pictures of myself that I don't remember ever seeing before!  That was really special, especially now that I am a mom.  

 on the way home from California we had a layover in Salt Lake City and we got to see cousins and Uncle Edmund and Aunt Ceci and they brought us tacos!!!

on May 31st we celebrated both of my parents' birthdays (May 30th and June 1st) with a family trip to the snowcone stand!

oops, this one's sideways, family fun at home

one of the last true naptimes . . . 

We bought new chopsticks and there were PINK ones in the package!

mud play in the backyard!  David has dug a very impressive hole!  We even called the utility company out to mark gaslines and such so we could make sure it was safe!  

a few more pics from Little Corona Beach in California

second cousin bonding

Roasting marshmallows with Gammy on her new firepit on the back patio!

We are so thankful to have our grandmas, the kids' great-grandmas!  We got to visit my other grandma, Sweetie in June!

Kelly

lemon picking this morning

We woke up this morning in Southern California.  My grandma has a lemon tree in her backyard that was one of my granddaddy's prides and joys.  

This morning we got to pick lemons to bring home and enjoy for summer!  

I am thankful for a very fun vacation and visit with family!  Now we are off to sleep in our own beds.  Home is nice too!  

Happy Half-Birthday Sweet Cora!!!

Cora, you are a joy!  We are enjoying you so, so much!  

You have shown a big interest in toys this month.  You really like to be engaged and have something to play with.  You tolerate being on your tummy but you still don't roll over very much although you can roll both ways.  I mostly find you on your tummy when you wake up!  

Helping Daddy with his work!

You love your Daddy and give him lots of smiles especially when he makes kissing noises at you from across the room.  When you're eating you will sometimes just stop and look across the room at him and wait for him to look up and notice you looking at him.  You definitely like your Daddy's attention.  

You started snuggling more this month too and we both *love* it so, so much!!

Brother likes to turn this musical mat on for you and you like mashing around on it to make sounds.  It is one of the ways you tolerate tummy time the longest.

We squeezed the most we could out of summer and picnicked some more.  You are showing soo much interest in "big people" food!!  Not long, my sweet one!  

I asked your brother what should be the first food we feed you when you get to eat food with us and he thought a minute and said, "tic tacs!!" very enthusiastically!

You're wearing brother's jammies here from when he was a baby.  I just couldn't resist seeing you in these polka dots too and they are soo soft!  

You rarely lay down anymore. You like to sit up and play.  You are such a big girl!!

You got to go on two trips this month.  The first was to NYC with Mama and Daddy to celebrate our fifth anniversary.  Here you are enjoying the big bed in our nice hotel room.  You slept in the crib at night and I don't think you enjoyed that *quite* as much as nighttimes were kind of rough being off our schedule and not in your own bed.  We were very thankful they gave us a corner room away from all the other rooms so we didn't have to worry so much about your crying.  

In the daytime though you were such a trooper.  We went all over and you were just a joy!   

You enjoyed snuggling in the ergo

and sitting on park benches

and getting ahold of Mama's empty water cup! 

I love seeing you in these pretty vintage dresses and you wore the pearls to church that Aunt Terry gave you!  

You have started to really love chewing on socks and washcloths and things or your dress or sleeves if you can get them to your mouth.  It is really cute and funny the faces you make.  You have also learned to "pat, pat, pat" with your left arm usually and your elbow straight and you will beat with that hand on your tray and chew and snarl ferociously!!  It is soo funny!!

You wore your first tights and your cute dress from Great-Granny all the way from England!

Your second trip was to California to visit our family there.  We went while Daddy was out of town for work and Ducca took us with him.  He is a great sport to travel with our craziness!

"Gammy" fixed up a pretty crib for you and you got to wear your swimsuit for the first time!  I couldn't get over how cute you look in it!!

You enjoyed the beach and so did brother and Ducca and Mama!

You enjoyed digging in the sand.  

and being held by Gammy

At Gammy's house you got lots of good swing time with Ducca and Mama and Aunt Carol.  

Back home and you are chewing on EVERYTHING you can get your hands on!

I have already found paper, napkin and sand in your diaper.  :)  

Pretty, pretty girl on your six month birthday!!

We love you soo much!  You are a light in our lives and so much fun to be around.  You continue to delight us every day!  We are so thankful to have you, Cora girl!

And then it was time for a little half birthday celebration.  We are starting solids with you the same as we did with brother, doing Baby-led Weaning and skipping the purees and starting with table food.  

The table is set.  

Your food is ready.  Grilled chicken, breadsick, roast carrot, steamed broccoli and raw carrot.  

We thought you would like it but we were all completely delighted when you *dove* in and didn't stop grabbing things and taking them to your mouth and gnawing on them (and even getting some down the hatch as evidenced by your diaper the next day!) for a good half hour or more.  

We love you so much, Cora Baby!  

Happy Six Months!!

Mama