November 2010

On Wednesday, November 17, 2010 my brother David passed away along with his flight instructor in a plane crash. He was attending UVU's flight program for his commercial pilot's license. I am not ready to post/blog about it. I just wanted this to be here for the record since this is my family journal.

Fall 2010

***This post was started in October and is just now being posted***

Ok I know I've been the worst blogger ever, but time is something I don't have a lot of these days!

Let's start at the beginning--end of September and the start of fall (did I mention fall is my absolute FAVorite season?) I love the changing leaves, brisk air, and sweaters.

Bailey and I started school! It was so hard for me to see my sweet little Bailey start preschool. Technically her preschool (on campus) is ages 3-4, but they let Bailey start at 2 1/2 since she was potty trained and well on her way to learning letters and numbers. She LOVES it--she has always loved structured activities that we've done together in the past year, such as gymnastics, music makers, playgroups etc. But it was so hard for ME to let her go...not being there beside her every minute and doing fun things TOGETHER! So you could definitely say that it was harder for Chris and I for her to start school than Bailey:) Her teacher's name is Miss Patty with the helper teachers: miss Jenna and miss Jeannie.

(pictured below: she loves to "match" our hair. She also loves to ride her pink bike to school beside my bike since we're right on campus and her preschool is right on campus as well!)





Bailey and Daddy on her first day of school.

I love school as well. I got my Associate's back in 2008 at BYU-I, but this was my first official quarter here at UC Davis. I'm pursuing a BA in Music Performance with piano as my primary instrument. I hope to later get my teaching certification and teach Elementary school music as well as continue teaching private piano lessons from home (Chris promises me my own studio one day--a long time away:) I had 16 credits this fall quarter and it kicked my butt, but I enjoyed my classes so much--especially since they are mostly music classes.

Chris is plugging away with his research and published his first article in a journal called "Human Molecular Genetics". He is already well on his way to finishing his second publication this month or the next. Here is a link to his article:

http://hmg.oxfordjournals.org/content/20/1/64.full

Grandma Elyce Whitney

My dear sweet Grandma Whitney passed away this past weekend. I had a post last year that had mentioned my Grandpa Whitney passing away and I got to be there with him when he passed. During that weekend I was able to spend lots of time with Grandma and even spend a couple nights sleeping next to her when Grandpa had just passed. She was such a sweet woman and I will always remember her from the times when they lived in Lone Pine, California and we would go to visit every year. They had lived there in the small town and raised there family (and my dad) there. Their property had a creek and small orchard and garden, grapevines, tree forts and rope swings. It was truly a child's paradise. Grandma canned the best peaches, apricots and pears from their trees. She was a master baker and was always in he kitchen baking us yummy things to eat while we played. She was always whistling out her kitchen window to the birds and could imitate so many of their calls and they would sing back to her. She was also always loving and wanted everyone to be happy. In recent years she has struggled with dementia and her arthritis was so bad that she had to be on pain meds most of the time. This past year (after Grandpa passed) she has lived with my Uncle Kim and Aunt Vicky and they have spoiled her and taken great care of her:) All of us will miss her so much, but I know she is in a better place and with the man of her dreams. I'm grateful to know this and to know that there is life after death and that we can be with our loved ones forever and I will be able to see her again.

these are recent pictures taken of her at Uncle Kim's and a picture of Bailey and I with a piano music box that she gave me during one of my last visits while they lived in Lone Pine. I remember I always used to play with it when we visited and I treasure it and the melody it plays. She was a wonderful pianist:)

Summer Fun

I have been terrible about blogging:( I need to be extra good too, because I started working on printing all my posts into a blog book for a family journal--which I'm so excited to have!

It has been a pretty chill summer. Although for Chris, he had some major stress up until mid August. He had his qualifying exams before a panel of research professors where he had to give an oral presentation of his research and they asked him questions. If you pass your oral exam and presentation then they let you continue in their PhD program and your research, if they don't approve then they give you a Master's Degree and send you on your way (in other words, you couldn't cut it out to do a PhD and therefore are thrown out) I wasn't worried about Chris at all, but of course he was super stressed out about it and I didn't see him for a few months while he studied and prepared. But he did pass and is now a bit more relaxed for the summer, although he just submitted his first first-author paper to a journal and is anxiously waiting to hear back. I'm so proud of him and all that he is accomplishing! He truly loves what he's doing and it makes me so happy for him:)

Bailey and I have been chilling together since I didn't take any classes or anything. I'm anxiously awaiting the quarter to start end of Sept. though! I have a bunch of placement exams for theory and keyboard competence classes as well as try-outs for a private piano teacher and the performance track. I'm really excited, but nervous! I've been taking from a local teacher here in Davis who is wonderful and has been whipping me back into shape for the try-outs:)

Bailey has had a ballet class this summer and loved it! It was so cute to see her dancing on her tip-toes and flinging the ribbons around while she danced. She is so much fun and I have LOVED having this special time with just me and her. She is expecially excited to start preschool this fall when I go back full-time. She will have preschool each morning and I pick her up after lunch. We have visited a few times and she absolutely loves all the activites and social atmosphere. She tells everyone about how she gets to go to preschool in Sept while mommy is in school and she gets a "Dora lunchbox". :)

We have done a lot of camping this summer. These pictures are from our fourth camping trip we've taken. We met Chris' family up outside of Redding at the base of Mt. Shasta and had a blast camping for 4 days and 3 nights. The campground was beautiful with waterfalls and hiking trails in walking distance, very private campgrounds that were heavily wooded, and no bathrooms (but they a running water spicket at least) It was a wonderful trip!

Anniversary Getaway to Santa Cruz

Chris and I have been married 5 years July 14th! We went on a getaway to Santa Cruz and Chris' mom and sister Brittany came down to stay with Bailey for the weekend. They had fun going to FairyTale Land, swimming, out to eat, parks, and playing in the garden:) Meanwhile...Chris and I spent 2 days and a night...

cruising the boardwalk (and riding on all the fun rides:)...






playing on the beaches...





having a romantic dinner at a five star oceanfront restaurant...




surfing...



going to the aquarium...






and having the time of our lives.

HAPPY 5 YEARS, my love! I look forward to the eternity we have to spend together:)

Camping Trip

We went camping a few weeks back at Cache Creek with some families in the ward. It was lots of fun--Bailey sure had a blast playing with all the kids. It was a really nice weekend in terms of weather--not too hot or too cold. We roasted hotdogs and smores, sang around the campfire, chatted into the night and then swam all the next day in the creek.

Chris and Topher "man-ning" the grill:)

It was a fun group activity, but the campsite was pretty much for the "soft" camper type--bathrooms, running water faucet, grill, enclosed firepit, etc. but it was still lots of fun and I have to admit that camping with a toddler those things were really nice and convenient:) We'll do the real camping later this summer:) lol

Eatin' hotdogs and s'mores

Bailey pretty much ran around like this most of the time...



A yummy group breakfast of breakfast burritos!

Bailey doin her morning business outside the tent:) We brought her little potty so that if she had to go during the night or something, we could take her right outside the tent:)

The "Mom circle" (a.k.a. those who didn't want to get wet) at the creek

Bailey and Dad trying out the water


Chris and Casey doing all their dives and flips off the rocks

I'm not a huge fan of cold water and so the girls drug me in (I put up a pretty good fight though!)

They got me in jeans and all:) I'll get you back Jolynn! lol


Bailey spit-shooting her marshmallow in the marshmallow spitting contest! (It's quite an art to spit it a decent distance) lol

After we left the campsite the next day, we all ate at a burger shack on the way home


Topher, Meredith, Bronson and Chris:)

Bailey & Ava=B.F.F.

So we live in married student housing on campus and their are a lot of people with young kids--especially in our ward. And since our building is right next to the park, Bailey has lots of little friends to play with. Over the past year she has started top become good friends with Ava Weeks--who lives in the building right across the park from us. They have moved from "playing together" side by side to literally playing together. :) They follow each other around everywhere, and every time Bailey sees Ava at the park from our back door, she has to go out too and vice-versa. They have gotten to be such close best friends and they do everything together! This blog post is a tribute to their friendship since the Weeks are moving out into the real world and have finished their PhD. next month.

These first few pictures are from at the beginning of the year when Bailey wasn't quite two yet and Ava had just turned two.




And here are pictures from the past couple months when they've gotten especially close:)

Strawberry Picking at on of the local organic, u-pick farms. We went with Bonnie and her kids (Ava of course) and some other moms/kids in the complex. This particular farm lets you eat while you pick, so the girls were covered in them with red all over their faces! :)




We made two of these with all our strawberries!


Playing at the park in our complex. They always get dressed up in their princess outfits at one of our houses and then walk around the park in their dress and heels:)



These girls play so well together. As soon as Bailey sees Ava playing outside she wants to go out too and they follow each other around everywhere and do everything together...the swings, play in the sand, ride bikes etc.


Nail Salon--these girls are way girlie...when you give them a popsicle, they ask for pink, they clack clack around the park with their princess heels, and they are ALWAYS asking to paint their nails together. We've got the kind of "little girl" nail polish that easily peels off...because I wouldn't let them do it themselves otherwise! :)





I'm surprised at how well these girls actually paint their nails. They are so careful and even wipe off the excess polish on the bottle before they apply it to their nails. They lay their hands down flat and very carefully apply it--It's funny to watch :)

Showing off their color :)


We went on a big multi-family camping trip last weekend...I'll blog about it with pictures this week!