Utah: Part 2

We went to Provo for two days and had a sleep over at Joey and Emily's house. It was so cute to see Ben be so sweet to Maggie.

This is Amelia, Maggie's closest cousin on the Price side of the family. Although there wasn't much interaction yet, I can see them being the best of buddies when they get older.

We met up with our good friends in Provo, though none of them live in Provo anymore. This is Austin Allen next to Maggie. I think that Maggie has a bit of a crush because she was flashing her stomach to him.

Fun to see the old gang, though we missed the Pitchforth's and Meyer's.

Maggie's newest development is the ability to grab objects and begin to play with them. I was playing Sleeping Queens with my niece, and Maggie was grabbing the cards out of my hands. I am so thrilled right now, but this feeling will probably quickly fade when she learns to bend the cards.

We went up to Mike's family's cabin the first weekend we were in Utah with the Ware and Holmes families. We hiked up to Ruth Lake (the same lake that we took my family to). Maggie fell asleep during lunch, so I had to carry her in my arms on the way down. I have buff forearms because of it.

Tom took me to shoot my first hand gun while at the cabin. I was so ecstatic to shot a hand gun. My first shot, I almost hit the bulls eye (the closest hit of the evening). 

Maggie with her cousin Jane. All of the cousins on the Matthews side have been wonderful with Maggie, loving her and toughening her up at the same time. Jane likes to play softly with Maggie, but don't let that fool you, she has given her a body slam during the kickball game.

Mike was able to meet up with his high school best friend Jared and his family Kelsey, Cole, and CJ. Jared just finished his first year at dental school so they had a lot to share.

Another Maggie development is the desire to put objects in her mouth which in turn has led to drooling. I was so happy to have a clean daughter (rarely spit up), but I guess every baby goes through this phase.

All the girls went to North Shore pool with the kids. I have learned that when you have a newborn, their needs come first. We were there for three hours, but Maggie and I were only in the water for 40 minutes because of naps and feeding. I just brought a book and enjoyed the blue skies.

Trip to Utah Part 1

This is Mike's last summer free so we decided to get out of Lubbock and spend 6 weeks with family. First stop: Utah. It was cheaper to broke separate flights, so we ended up changing planes twice. I had heard horrible stories about babies crying during take off/landing and people being rude about it. I was a little nervous, but Maggie loved every bit of the experience. She slept a lot, and when she wasn't sleeping, she was looking all around at the new sights and people. She is very social and curious. 

Living in Lubbock has made us appreciate the little things in life, like the Brigham City Bird Refuge. You just drive around and look at birds, but we sure enjoyed it.

Maggie sure has enjoyed seeing family. She will watch the cousins, and they do a great job at singing songs to her or funny faces.

Cousin James is singing a song to Maggie in this picture.

To be truly from Brigham, you need to have hiked to the "B". We had our 4 year old nephew Cody with us to hike it. Both Cody and Maggie it great.

Summer Swimming and Eating

To enjoy the great summer weather we are having, we had a barbecue with some friends in the ward. The weather was good until Mike noticed a Haboob rolling in. At that point, we picked up everything as fast as we could and raced to the car. These types of dust storms come hard and fast.

This was the first time that Maggie showed signs of enjoying the water. She was smiling, kicking, and splashing her hands around. It really surprised us because the water was probably the coldest it has been for her.

Tummy Time

This is Maggie before I left the room.

This is Maggie when I returned a minute later. Let's just say that she already knows how to work the system.

Summer Goal

One of my summer goals is to read Maggie 200 books. I am giving myself until Labor Day to get it done. It started out with someone telling me that the Library's summer reading program is for all ages, so I went to sign up Maggie. However, they didn't ask me what my goal was (that is how Hillsboro Library did it), but all you had to do was read 25 books. Too easy. So I set my own goal. With that, Mike and I have been trying hard to read at least 2 books a day to her. At first, Maggie's eye would wander around the room, but the more we have done it, the longer she actual looks at the pictures. So feel free family to help us out this summer with reading. I really would love for her to grow up to be a reader.

Chillin' on a Sunday Afternoon

Here is our chubby cheek Maggie chillin' out on Sunday in her dress and fuzzy socks. Mike and I realized that both of our moms tend to stay in their dresses while wearing fuzzy socks. I guess "like grandma like granddaughter".

*This is our 100th post!!!! I feel like we need to do a 100 day celebration.

Camping Trip

To celebrate Mike finishing his first year of medical school, we went camping with some of the other first years to Caprock Canyon. It was really nice to get out of Lubbock and see some nature. The wind was so crazy at night. We talked to a man in the morning who was following the storm, and I guess that this huge storm split so either side of us had tornadoes, rain, and lighting while we had the crazy wind. We had great dutch oven cooking, singing, and a campfire. It was Maggie's first camping trip. She did better than we had expected, but it was definitely a different experience camping with a baby.

Caprock Canyon

The Andersons and Fishers enjoying our delicious dinner.

The McClellans with baby Bradley. 

Mike and Maggie enjoying the evening. She thoroughly loved having a lot of daddy time.