utah trip

We recently spent several weeks in Utah with Grandma Jurgens, playing at her house and then on a long trip with her to 4 different national parks.
Here are about a million photos from our time in Utah - mostly Maeby-centric.


Killing time in the Boise airport during a layover.





She got to play with Camber, our friends Nathan and Kristy's daughter. They got along famously whilst taking care of the cabbage patch "baby."

Having her first bite of waffle.

No matter how often we put her in the grass, she always crawls back over onto the cement. Even though her knees redden and she says "ow" in the process, holding one leg up and scraping the other along, she prefers that pavement for some reason.

She and Grandma are buds.

Opening up some early birthday presents.

She loves the toy phone but refuses to hold it up to her ear. Everything else - remote controls, stuffed animals, water bottles, etc. . . - go right to that ear as she pretends to jabber like her mama, but the phone remains in her lap at all times. Go figure.

Her she is chasing a peacock at the aviary. We intervened once they collectively closed the gap to about 3 feet.

Being laughed at by the Kookaburras.

With great-grandma Jurgens.

Feeding herself mashed potatoes

Not having it.

First night in the RV.

At Bryce Canyon - "wazzat?" she asks as she points at EVERYTHING.

Her first horse-ride.

Navigating.

Next, we stopped at the North Rim of the Grand Canyon for a couple days.

This the view from our free, spacious campsite. I'm not going to tell you where this is or how to get there, but it was probably the single greatest campsite we'll ever find in our whole lives, and it was 100% legal, free, and isolated.

Another view. I don't think you can see it in this picture, but the east rim of the Grand Canyon was visible quite a ways below us.

Two new toys from the trip - both of which are loved voraciously.

Next we went to Monument Valley. Here, Jenn is receiving a traditional Navajo coiffe.

Petroglyphs.

This butte, in the background, is rich with family history. Ask my mom about gold-thieving sometime if you're interested.

Oh, and here's where the RV got stuck in the fine desert sand.

At Newspaper Rock, near Canyonlands NP.

Hiking with papa (don't laugh at me - I'm stretching.) She wasn't too sure about the carrier - but it wasn't a huge problem because she'd fall asleep within minutes every time.

I love that she's totally working that bottle in this picture.

Mama's turn.

She climbs EVERYTHING now.

See? Already gone. Now we're at Arches.

And that's all she wrote.

editor's note: sorry if this post was terse. It took a good 2 hours just to upload all the photos, and in my rush to get done with the thing, I may have sacrificed neccesary and/or expected exposition.

Wedding Bells

Our family had the opportunity to go up to Seattle for our friend, Christine's wedding....this was Maeby's first wedding experience, thus we MUST document it! Here are some fun pictures.....

See Mae, that's where Mama & Papa were married.

Playing on the grass, around the fountain - good times :)

Jenn's dad and Grandpa would always point out the different flowers....Jeremy is doing the same for Maeby.

We got to meet/see lots of friends - we met Erica & Brad for the first time, and many others. Here is Maeby with our friend Sarah Allen. Since there were so many cameras we didn't take a ton of pictures with ours, so we'll have to wait until we get them from other people :) Maeby LOVED Sarah's necklace; she wouldn't let go.

We were really glad we got to go up for this. It was a very special occasion for our whole family.

gobble gobble gobble

When she eats, Maeby is often heard to make a noise not unlike what the offspring of a Tauntaun and a Turkey would probably sound like.

That's this:

(the non Mark Hamill one)

+ this:

It's probably my favorite noise in the whole world, and encapsulates satisfaction, weirdness, and personality all in one quick "labble gobble labble"-like sound. I've done my best to try and capture it on film; however, whenever the camera comes on, she grows reticent. Still, in the following videos she does it a little bit, which will have to suffice for now. She makes her "gobble gobble" noise very quietly (comparatively) several times in the second video. You can also check out her cool sign-language knowledge and general brilliance.

Enjoy.

maeby goes camping

Last weekend we took the hobbit on her first camping trip. We cruised down to Sunset Beach (near Coos Bay), where we enjoyed two days of rain and fog on the coast with Jenn's sister Karen and her lovely family (plus, their awesome neighbors whose last name I either don't know or can't recall.)

Here are photographs:



She spent most of her time hanging out in her stroller around the campsite. She'll stare at the fire for hours.




With cousin Sarah - whose name she tries to say but can't quite yet.

My goal this summer is to be in more pictures with my family, relinquishing camera duty temporarily so that Maeby will actually know I went on family trips with her when she looks at these photos some day.

Playing with the flashlight in the tent.

She loves the blow-up mattress, confusing it for a bounce house surface.

Sharing a moment with Katie.

Eating cheerios in the wild.

Check out this store we found in Coos Bay:

Crazy, right?

This next one is actually a fluke - Jenn accidentally had the shutter open way too long, resulting in a series of whitewashed photos that are actually quite splendid, I think.

I love that hat.

Here we are drawing snakes in the sand - something my Mom used to do with me.