miscellaneous july...

Getting ready for bath time...such a cute little bum bum!

Not a whole lot has been going on lately. Jordan has been working a lot, so Clara and I have been keeping each other company. So this is just a random post of recent pictures :)

Clara got to play with her uncle Jesse when we had him and Holly over for a BBQ one night. It was while the weather was still amazingly cool. That is her new favorite fussy face she makes, and she goes "eeewww" while she does it...it's pretty funny.

Now that my sister and bro-in-law have moved into their beautiful new house just down the road from us, she stops by more often to visit. Clara is already getting to play with her cousin Ella...just kidding, she really is just extremely fascinated with bellybuttons.

Clara also loooves music. Anytime there is music playing she dances and now she just started clapping her hands to a beat. I think she is going to like playing a musical instrument. Here is her first lesson from Jeannine ;)

We also got to stop by and visit Clara's new little friend...the adorable Lauren Paige Withey. We are so excited that other close friends of ours have a baby now! It's crazy how teeny tiny they are when they are newborns, I can't believe Clara used to be that small, she feels like a giant to me now, and so grown up!

I'm pretty much ready for July to be over now. Things should slow down for Jordan in August and we have a couple fun trips planned. We will be going to San Luis Obispo for my good friend Terra's wedding, and we are going on a family sailing trip. I am so excited for all those things, and then before I know it, Clara will be turning 1!

4th of July!

We hung up our new flag...my only Del Mar Fair purchase...and I love it!

Jordan had to work this year on the 4th of July, so after church Clara and I went down to visit him and have dinner at the station. She enjoyed all the bright shinning equipment and spending time with daddy.

Clara's favorite things to do...point her finger and stick out her tongue.

After dinner we headed back to Ramona to watch fireworks at the high school with my family and my mom-in-law Debbie, who wanted to see Clara's reaction to her first Independence day fireworks. She was really sleepy by that point and just kind of stared at them wide eyed.

It was a fun first 4th of July with Clara, hopefully next year Jordan will be home for the festivities!

Clara also turned 10 months old on Saturday, July 3rd. She is still crawling all over the place, however, she doesn't seem to be very interested in walking. She pulls herself up on things and will stand for a while, but she seems a little wobbly when she tries to take steps. She can get places a lot faster by crawling anyways!

The Fair

We went to the San Diego County Fair yesterday with our friends Matt & Jeannine and had so much fun!! We bought the ticket packages at Costco which came with four tickets, parking, drinks, and 50 ride tickets. There is so much to do at the fair! We were there for about 6 hours just wandering around the booths, eating junk food, riding some rides (which I hadn't done since probably junior high), and saw the Lonestar concert. Clara loved all the excitement and people, and she even had a scary animal encounter!

Just arriving...

Gotta do the photo booth...
Clara trying to befriend a turkey....it gobbled right in her face....
...and she was very hurt and offended!
We tried our hand at the Lottery...
Clara helping Jeannine with the scratchers.
Riding some rides...


Taking a break for some quick pictures...
Catching some of the concert...

It's funny how even though the fair is the same every year, you still have so much you want to look at, and it's still so much fun. Clara had fun her first time there and we will definitely have to keep taking her back!

I'm not sad...

...to see it go.
I'm not too happy about this either...

Camping & Padres Game

We went camping up in Mount Laguna for one night last week. Jordan had gone mountain biking up there earlier and decided he wanted to take us back for our first little family camping trip. It was surprisingly cold for being the middle of June, especially at night. But it was so beautiful that it was worth braving the weather. Clara slept great in the tent, and we want to keep this up so she stays used to it. While we were up there, we did plenty of hiking, roasted marshmallows, relaxed, and had some yummy camp food. We even stopped in Julian on our way back for a late lunch.

I've always wanted to frolic through a meadow ;)

We also went to a Padre Game for my brother's birthday. This was Clara's first baseball game as well. It was a pretty long day. We had a firefighter chili cook-off at the Embarcadero to benefit Muscular Dystrophy earlier in the day, then we walked over to the stadium. I think Clara enjoyed the crowds and excitement, and the Padres creamed the Seattle Mariners with a score of 7-1! It was a great game!

If it seems like we have been doing a lot lately, it's because we have...Jordan is going back to work this week...sigh. For as much as I griped and groaned in the beginning of his leg injury, it really has been a wonderful time having him home. He has been home for most of Clara's life, and I know he is going to miss her on those long shifts. But I think we are all ready to get back to normal, we have been spoiled for way too long!

Disneyland!

We went to Disneyland yesterday with our friends Matt & Jeannine. It was Clara's first time in the Magical Kingdom, and she did great. She refused to take a nap most of the day, but she was in a great mood, despite being tired. It was funny because just as Fantasmic was starting, which is the loudest, brightest, most exciting show ever, she fell fast asleep sitting on my lap...funny girl.

We used the rider-switch program, which allows two people to ride, while the other two stay with a baby, and then they switch without having to wait in line. Between that and the fast passes we were zooming from ride to ride. By the end of the day the "magical-ness" had sucked us in and we got season passes!!!

Nine Months!

Clara is nine months old today. At her check up she weighed 17.5 lbs, and is 26.25" long. She is definitely on the petite side, just under the 50% mark. Thankfully she still manages to have some chub...which I love. Taking the pictures with the signs are getting harder and harder. Especially now that she is crawling!!! She won't sit still anymore, she keeps wanting to crawl and get the sign, or anything else that looks interesting to her. She isn't a sophisticated crawler yet, it's more of an army crawl, but she can be pretty fast. She gets up on all fours and rocks, just before she crawls, so I know she will be full on crawling very soon. We recently had to lower her crib because she is starting to pull herself up on things. It's so cute when she stands in her crib and she looks like such a big girl!

She is growing up so fast, and saying, "dadadada" all the time. She has started pointing at things and her absolute favorite thing to do is empty things. Such as my diaper bag, her toy basket, and especially airplane seat pockets. The changes are coming faster and faster and it is so much fun to watch her grow up!