On the Boardwalk

We've been home from California for over a week now. How incredibly sad is that? Almost everyday this week Andrew or I have noted something along these lines,

"At this moment one week ago we just arrived in San Diego."

"Exactly one week ago, today, we were soaking up the sun on the beach."

"If this were last week, we'd be at Sea World petting starfish right now."

It rather depressing to be back to our humdrum life, but Rachel has finally started to sleep through the night again (knock on wood), so we're glad to be back to our schedule, although we can't stop thinking about how nice it would be to live in California.

A few times when Rachel was having trouble getting settled down for bed, she'd get to go out on a walk. She went on many walks with Grandpa, and a few with Mom and Dad.

On one particular walk that we took her on, she went absolutely hysterical when we were quite a ways away from the condo. She refused to walk anymore, but she didn't want to be held either. She was kicking up quite a fuss, though, so we had no choice but to hold her against her will otherwise we would have never made it home.

We were walking rather slowly since I was the one carrying her and most of my energy was concentrated on not dropping her. She was thrashing around and trying to get down, screaming all the while.

And then a lady walked by, carrying a dog.

"It's so hard to be little," she cooed at Rachel.

Rachel stopped crying. She looked at the lady. She looked at the bundle of fur the lady was carrying. She crinkled up her face in confusion and her face stayed that way until we got to the condo.

I can only imagine what she was thinking, "That was the ugliest baby I've ever seen!"

At least it calmed her down!

We took many other walks and bike rides on the boardwalk. Technically I only went on one bike ride, but Andrew went on several.

I didn't really like the feel of beach cruisers. I'm too used to mountain bikes, I guess. The handle bars on the beach cruisers were too far apart for me to feel comfortable and I kept forgetting that you pedal backwards to break, which is a terrible thing to forget on a crowded boardwalk.

My Auntie Arlene's family rides down the boardwalk every Tuesday evening, along with some friends from their ward. They ride down to a Mexican restaurant in the "cold" months and have a BBQ on the beach in the "warm" months. We were there during a "cold" month, so on Tuesday night they invited us all to ride with them to the Mexican restaurant.

They only had one extra bike, but we had two at the condo, so Josie, Andrew and I could have all gone, but Andrew and Josie decided they didn't want to go and I knew Rachel never would have forgiven me if I had gone without her, so I also decided not to go.

The three of us non-bike-riders started walking back to the condo on the boardwalk. Bikers started passing us. Jenna first, and then Bobby asking if Jenna had passed us, and then Auntie Arlene, and then a few people I had just met but didn't really know.

And then my Uncle Michael came by. My Uncle Michael is a bit of a prankster.

He slammed on his breaks, squealing his tires and scaring me half to death. Everybody laughed when I screamed and jumped out of the way. I thought some maniac on a bike was going to run me over. I suppose there was a maniac on a bike, but he wasn't about to run me over.

Oh, California, we miss you!

Canada Day Ducks

Rachel and I spent the 1st of July, Canada Day, at BYU. My friend from High River, Courtney, invited us over to her apartment to help her make perogies in preparation for her Canada Party that evening.

The last time Courtney and I made perogies together was about 5 years ago when we were roommates at BYU. We've been in three wards together: Calgary Parkland, High River, and some odd number BYU ward. We were only roommates for 2 weeks at BYU, but we did go to church together, and found the time to make perogies once, as well as some other adventurous recipes for a couple little freshmen to try out.

We had an okay chat together while Rachel was awake--and I didn't do too much helping during that time. Rachel insisted on sitting on my lap or clinging to my leg the entire time. We dropped potatoes multiple times. Rachel kept pulling on my arms while I was trying to peel them, so they were skidding across the floor left and right. I even dropped a few into the garbage can. But don't worry, we rinsed them off and boiled them, so any ickies they picked up were gone by the time they went into the food.

Eventually I gave up trying to help, and nursed Rachel to sleep. She slept on Courtney's floor for over an hour! We had a wonderful chat together while she was asleep--and I was able to do a lot more helping!

Three hours later, we had finished the perogies (all but boiling and frying them) and Rachel and I left to explore BYU campus.

We went to the duck pond first, because it was close. It was actually our second time going, since we had met up with Uncle Patrick in the morning before going to Courtney's house. Rachel was happy to go back to see the ducks because she didn't think we stayed nearly long enough in the morning.


She had a blast chasing the ducks around. I think the ducks enjoyed having her chase them around. Sure, they act all flustered when people chase them, but deep down inside I think they enjoy the attention. They only run away as fast as whatever is chasing them. If they really wanted to get away they would run and hide. Instead they run fast enough so they stay just ahead of Rachel. There was an older child at the pond chasing ducks as well. They were probably about three years old so their balance was better than Rachel's and they were able to move faster. The ducks also stayed just ahead of them, as if asking to be chased more.

Rachel loved running after them! She would growl and laugh and run faster than her little legs could carry her. She would have walked right into the pond with them if I would have let her!


There was a man at the park feeding the ducks from a box of Cheerios. He would throw a few in front of himself and the ducks would flock to him and then he'd toss a few Cheerios in Rachel's direction and the ducks would flock to her. We'll have to bring some bread or something next time we go because she loved having the ducks so close. What a nice man to share his duck food with us!

Rachel also found some park benches and had a wonderful time crawling underneath them, banging her head multiple times and getting filthy dirty.

Ouch!

When it was too hot to be outside anymore we went to visit the fish tanks on the first floor of the WIDB. Rachel enjoyed looking at all the fish swimming around and we both enjoyed the break from the heat.

At 4:30 we met up with Daddy and Rachel showered him with hugs and kisses. It was so cute! We went home, ate dinner, and changed Rachel's clothes before heading back to Courtney's house for her party, which was really fun even though we couldn't stay long due to the bedtime of a certain little lady.

We were the first ones there and then Megan, a girl from Courtney's Y group, showed up. We chatted for a bit and then Uncle David showed up. Next to come in was Geoff, who worked for me in Special Collections, and his roommate. A little later Amy and Melissa Fletcher, who were also in the High River ward with us, showed up. Then some girls, who we thought we had no connection showed up, until one of them heard that we were going to Egypt, spoke Arabic, and had named our baby Rachel.

"Do you know Rachel Cannon?" she asked, "She was my roommate! You're Eric Torrie's cousin!"

And on and on and on the connections went. That is just a typical Canadian (well, at least Southern Albertan) party for you. Everyone knows everyone through someone. It was pretty funny.

Where's your poke?

Rachel has taken to poking herself in the eye. A lot. I'm not really sure what spurred it on, exactly. She has just always liked eyes.


She loves everything about eyes. She loves eyelashes. She loves that eyes can open and close. She love how pretty and shiny they are. She loves to poke them.

Ever since she was a little baby we've been telling her "play nice" and "don't poke." She's an eye-gouger. It's the first thing she goes for on toys, on animals, on other children, on pictures. If something has an eye, she'll be interested in it, so we're always telling her to not poke, regardless of whether the victim is living or non. It's all good practice for being nice since she doesn't seem to be able to separate the idea of "it's okay to poke my teddy's eyes but not my friend's" yet. We just try to not poke at all.

Her friend, Amy, has one of those dolls whose eyes close if you lay it down. Rachel will sit there holding the doll, just digging her little fingers under the eyelids. She thinks it's great. And it was kind of cute until she tried it on Rudy at church. Then it was not-so cute.

She's never really noticed her own eyes, though, although everyone else in the world seems to have.

Rachel has very pretty eyes, and I'm not the only one who thinks that. Complete strangers come up to her and tell her what pretty eyes she has. They're big. They're blue. They're always wide-open. And now they're always getting poked.

For Rachel, the word "poke" and the word "eye" are completely synonymous. She reacts to words on cue, but only when she wants to. She's kind of like the 3000 pound whales at Sea World. She'll perform, but we can't really tell her to do anything. We just ask her to, very nicely, and she decides whether or not she'll do it. So, if Rachel hears the word "eye," she will only touch her eye about 30% of the time. But if she hears the word "poke," there's a 90% chance that she will touch her eyes.

She thinks "poke" means "eye."

Andrew pointed this out to me, but I didn't believe him. I mean, I know that we tell Rachel not to poke often, but surely we don't tell her that often.

And then I read her the story Ollie. It's a cute, simple story with a lot of action words and she seemed to like it a lot.

"He stands on his head," I read.

Rachel obediently reached up to touch her head.

"Gossie pokes Ollie with her bill," I read.

Rachel squinted her eyes and slowly moved her index finger up to her eye. She gave herself a good, solid, deliberate poke.


I couldn't help but burst out laughing. Andrew was right. Rachel really does think that "poke" means "eye." I said nothing about eyes, but her association with poking is so strong that she reaches for it anyway.

The next page mentions "ear" and Rachel will reach up and tug on that, too, although not quite as brutally as she pokes herself in the eye.

Perhaps this little phase will teach her that she shouldn't poke others in the eye. It just can't feel good!

Rachel Update

Phew! Now that I'm all caught up on our California trip, I have time to brag about my baby again!

She has learned several new tricks lately. The one that we're most proud of is that she folds her arms for prayers now! She's really good about folding her arms for food prayers--and anytime food is around, really. Sometimes she even reminds me that we need to bless the food when I forget. We'll be sitting down to lunch together and I'm ready to just dig in because I'm usually starving by lunchtime, but Rachel will patiently fold her arms and slightly bow her head. She often keeps her arms folded all through the food prayers. They're short enough for her.

Family prayer is another situation entirely. She'll fold her arms at the beginning but then she'll be off and making mischief before we're even done with our "thankful-fors."

She tries to be good, though, and will fold her arms on command as well. She's so cute!

Giv'n this land...

If they live...

Righteously!

She's also learned several new body parts, including her toes, feet, head, and hair. She gets hand and head mixed up. One of her favorite discoveries, though, was her belly button! She's got such a little tummy on her that she has to move it out of the way when she tries to find her belly button. She sucks in her tummy, and pulls at it with her hands until she can get her finger right in her belly button hole. If she's wearing a dress, there is a good chance that she will lift it up to show you her belly button if you ask nicely. If she's wearing something she can't lift up, she'll just squeeze her tummy.

Another one of her favorite things is stairs. She could go up and down stairs all day long. It's all she wants to do at the playground, at either Grandma's house, and anywhere else there are stairs--or anything like stairs.

Andrew made a checkerboard one summer when he was staying with Uncle Rod, who does cabinetry. We use it as a base for our block towers since building block towers on the carpet proves rather difficult. Rachel, though, prefers to use it as a stairmaster. She steps up on top and then will walk off. Then she'll turn around and step back up again only to walk back off of it. She could do this all day long! (If she wasn't so busy following me around the house, that is).


She also enjoys climbing up and down Mommy's and Daddy's legs. If we sit on the floor with our legs out, she'll climb over them and then turn around and climb over them again. Our legs are just her portable jungle gym. Today at Courtney's house, Rachel latched onto one of my legs with both her arms and her legs like a little monkey climbing a tree.

Now, if only we could teach her to let herself off the bed...she still believes she can just walk off.

Merry Un-Birthday

I was so spoiled this year and had three birthday cakes. Yum! The most recent one was shared with Patrick, who just got back from Ghana. His birthday was on the 14th and mine was on the 22nd and we were both gone for our birthdays, so my family invited us over this Sunday so that we could split a cake.


We each got three candles. Patrick's were blue and mine were pink.

To save myself from any embarrassment, like not being able to blow out the candles, Patrick and I blew our candles out at the same time. I'm pleased to announce that they all went out on the first try.

Little Italy

On Friday we took a little jaunt over to Old Town and wandered around for a bit. They had some neat little shops, but I think all the employees (or volunteers--I'm not sure which) were having a bit of a lazy day. None of them were really into their parts. Apparently they'd never heard the saying "What-e'er thou art act well thy part."

It was interesting, but after awhile we all got hot, hungry, and tired and decided to head to Little Italy for lunch, taking Jacob, James, Emily, and Sarah with us.

Don't be fooled by the name. Little Italy looks just like the rest of San Diego. There are some cute Italian restaurants there. You just have to know where to look for them.

We looked for them in the wrong place. We headed down India street because it looked like a busy street that would have some good food choices on it. Unfortunately we wound up by the Mexican consulate building and all we could find were sushi bars, Mexican restaurants, and other non-Italian establishments.

When we were about to give up hope and turn around, we saw a little Italian souvenir shop with a windsock greeting us with "Ciao!" We went inside to admit defeat and ask for directions.

"May I help you?" asked the shopkeeper.

"Uh, yeah," said Andrew, embarrassed. The rest of us were slightly embarrassed as well so we were hanging out behind Andrew, near the door, trying to pretend that we hadn't just walked in with him, "Are there any good Italian restaurants around here?"

The shopkeeper looked at him and raised her eyebrows, "You do know you're in Little Italy, right?"

"Yes..." said Andrew, more embarrassed than he was before.

She paused to give him a condescending look, "Well, in that case, I usually recommend Buon Appetito."

She told us that Indian street was right, we were just walking the wrong way. So we turned around and went the other way. It would have saved us a lot of embarrassment had we just decided to do that before we got to her store.

At any rate, we found a decently-priced and authentic-looking restaurant called Filippi's. We were seated in a quiet area in the back of the restaurant and handed menus. I had Rachel on my lap when I opened up my menu and to our surprise there was a little Rachel inside our menu smiling back out at us.


Rachel was essentially nonplussed, but Andrew and I found it humorous.

The food was really quite good, and very authentic tasting. My ravioli even had nutmeg in it, and the lasagne was divine. Everyone was impressed with their pizza, except for James. He doesn't recommend the sausage pizza. Of course, he's the only one who managed to finish his pizza, so it couldn't have been all that bad.

It was a fun little trip, and the ambiance of the restaurant was refreshingly European. We saw salted fish, squid-ink stained pasta, and bocce courts in Amici Park (that we originally thought were unfinished flower beds). Real Italy is much better than Little Italy, but I suppose if you're stuck on the other side of the world, Little Italy will do.

La Jolla seals

Friday was our last full day in California. Rachel had trouble sleeping the last few nights and always ended up in bed with us. I suppose she just figured that since her bed was right next to our bed that she should just get in with us. No point in sleeping in your own bed when mom and dad's is right there, right?

So whenever she woke up in the middle of the night she'd come over by my face and reach her little hand over the side of the pack'n'play and try to hit me. Sometimes she'd swing her favorite blankey out so that it was already in our bed.

It was easier just to bring her in bed with us than try to convince her that the crib was the place to be and we haven't had any problems with her now that we're home. Actually, come to think of it, she's started to come into our bed in the morning and fall back asleep with us. She loves to cuddle with me when she's awake, but when she's asleep she tends to gravitate towards Daddy.


We woke up and got ready to go pretty early in the morning so that we could get a nice parking spot at La Jolla to see the seals at Children's Pool Beach. Once Rachel realized there were seals on the beach she was so excited! She pointed and grunted and tried to climb down the pier to get to them. She loves animals!

What seals? I don't see any seals.

Still don't see 'em...

Ooh! Ooh! I see them now!

How close can I get?

Let me at 'em! Let me at 'em!

It was a short excursion, but well worth it. It's always fun to see Rachel get so excited about things...of course, you can't tell she's excited from the pictures because the minute she saw the seals she got too excited to remember to smile at the camera (or even look at the camera for that matter).

Roller coasters

After our long day at the beach on Thursday we visited Belmont Park to ride the Giant Dipper, which is one of the first wooden roller coasters in America.

I was a little nervous about going on this roller coaster because I found the Desperado at Buffalo Bill's was absolutely terrifying. I could hardly move after the ride was over--my knuckles were white from gripping the handle bars. Andrew almost had to pry me out of the seat.

I haven't had many other opportunities to ride roller coasters, having never really been to an amusement park before. I rode the roller coaster at Disney's California Adventure, but that was back in high school. I think I remember enjoying it...but it was quite a few years ago.

Other than that I've just been on the dinky rides at Legoland and Disneyland. And as much as Jenna may disagree, Pirates of the Caribean doesn't really count as a roller coaster, even with the little "whoosh" in the middle.

So, having very little else to compare roller coasters to, I had no choice but to assume that all roller coasters were as terrifying and life-threatening as the Desperado.

But this is not so! The Giant Dipper was actually pretty fun. It went fast, it gave my stomach butterflies multiple times, and it had plenty of twists and turns. But I didn't feel like I was freefalling to my death. This is a roller coaster I'd ride again.

New feature

Our frequent commentors should have noticed a new way of commenting. Before, when you clicked on the comment link, a new tab or window would open up, making it difficult to see the post that you wanted to comment on.

Now when you click on the comment link you're taken to an inline comment form at the bottom of the post. This should make commenting a lot more convenient since you won't have to switch back and forth between tabs or windows. Just scroll up a little to see the post!

It's still an experimental feature of Blogger in Draft and has some issues in some browsers. Let us know if you run into any problems and I'll take a look at it (or tell Blogger to).

Happy commenting!

8 hour beach day

Thursday morning we headed out to the beach to build the sandcastle of all sandcastles. The boys (Jacob, James, and Andrew) were on outer-wall duty. Their job, essentially, was to keep the ocean away from the city. They built some excellent drainage systems and even used their own bodies as breakers at times.

Jacob builds the outerwall

Rachel destroys the outerwall

Our battle against destruction had two fronts: the ocean and Rachel. Rachel is almost as powerful as the ocean when it comes to destroying things, but not quite.

I want to stomp on something!

Keeping the ocean at bay

The girls (Sarah, Emily, and I) were in charge of the inner wall and the castle. I helped with that a little, although much of my time was spent keeping Rachel from destroying the castle.

Emily and Sarah decorate the castle walls

Emily and I mostly scavenged for shells to decorate the castle with after the wall was built.

Emily lends a hand with the outer wall

Reid just got his MPA, so he was the overseer of the project. He also did a fair share of Rachel-duty.

Rachel and Grandpa

The castle ended up being quite grand, with a swimming pool, a seaweed garden, and seashell walkways. Several people came to admire it.

Our castle

The interior

Eventually the tide came in too far and we lost our castle to a watery grave. By this time, my family had shown up at the beach, so our attention was diverted to 5 more children, boogie boarding, and paddle ball.


Paddle ball is like 4 squares, only we played with 6 squares. We drew our court in the wet sand at high tide, hoping that the ocean would leave us be. Unfortunately for us, the waves kept coming up and wiping away our court lines. We had to redraw them every few minutes so that we could continue our game. I don't know why the ocean was out to get us so badly! It didn't seem to be coming up that far anywhere else on the beach!


All the little kiddies got a little cold. Kali fell asleep in Mindy's arms all wrapped up in a towel, and Rachel couldn't get enough of Grandma!

Mindy and Kali

It's warm on Grandma's lap!

I'll have to get some pictures from Jenna. I didn't take many pictures of the family because I was too busy boogie boarding, making Kitty (aka Savannah) into a mermaid, and playing paddle ball to get behind the lens much.

Jenna, Alexia, Savannah, Auntie Arlene, and the back of Vance's head

Josie went home with Mindy to spend the night, and everyone else left, too. It's always so hard to say goodbye to family, but we had a great time hanging out at the beach with them all!