Vacation Week 2

This last week, we got to visit with my mom (Daniel is writing even though the author says Elissa) and a bunch of people from my family as well.  It was really good for Ella to get a chance to see everyone.  We kept busy trying to get in as much visiting with my family and friends there and the time went by in a hurry.  I'll mention a few of the things that stand out (though I'm not going to mention everything fun we did because that would take too long).

All the family in the area came over to my mom's house for dinner (and to visit) on Sunday.  It was pretty crazy how many people were there but it was fun to see them all.

We played several rounds of Settlers of Catan with my mom, and even invented an alternate version where apparently the robber is a cow that just moves around and grazes in random places (or gives your settlements dirty looks).  I'm not quite sure how that one happened.

Ella loved the back yard.  She was wary at first, but then she realized that the roller coaster was safe and fun, and she even decided to become a pirate (ok, I'm probably embellishing here, but you can see how she's breathing in the salty air, right?).

I got to show off VirtualBench (the super-secret product that I may or may not have remembered to tell people about on this blog), which was fun.

I think we had way too much chocolate and too much tasty food (but I think Elissa would assure me that we couldn't possibly do those things).

All in all, it was an awesome trip, and I wish it wasn't so hard to get out to Utah more often.

Vacation Week 1

We went to visit family on vacation. The flight there went pretty well. We had a whole three seat row to ourselves and Ella did pretty well on the plane. We did have a one member of our party go MIA in security. We will miss you Monkey.

Daniel was busy doing recruiting the first weekend, so Ella and I went up to Idaho! I got a haircut because there was no one to stop me :P (Actually my mom set up an appointment for me.) I must have been combing my hair more than usual because Ella decided to brush her hair too.

We saw cousins, and Great Grandma Call while we were up visiting as well as Grandma and Grandpa

These faces are what sitting in the car too much feels like, according to Ella. (After the plane ride, was three hours to Idaho, and at least an hour in the car every other day in Idaho and four hours back to Utah). But, we had lots of fun seeing everyone and having fun adventures.

Ella's Spot

Ella has decided that she has a spot in the play room. I find her here all the time! She loves to color here, or just stand and giggle with her toys. It is kind of like a standing desk. Even though it is just a file cabinet and a safe box for standing, she loves to play here.

We need to make her a real Ella sized desk up there or something. Hopefully she'll adjust to a new spot when we get around to it.

Ella's Adventures

Ella has had some fun adventures the last couple of months:

Water fight with myself:
Your toddler finds a spray bottle...

Using a fork
If it is too hard, just put the food on the end of the fork with your fingers.

Eating an orange
Somethings are too good to wait!

Honking my nose
If Mom and Dad's noses make noises so should mine!

Pushing laundry basket
Beep Beep! Coming through!

Shoe sandwich
Anything can be a sandwich if you try hard enough

"Cooking"
Mmm. Banana Soup!

New Backsplash

When we bought our house, we didn't make many major design changes. We kept the paint colors etc. The previous owners had put up antique style ads as stickers for a backsplash in kitchen. Instead of falling more in love with them, we got more and more annoyed.

Daniel didn't want to put up tiles because someday we'll probably replace the laminate, and you don't want a weird gap back there when you're done!

After lots of asking he agreed to try a beadboard backsplash. We decided to use my parents' expertise to figure out how to install it. We used a big sheet of beadboard panel from Home Depot, and painted it with high gloss paint.  Ella even helped a little.

We think it turned out looking good. It turned out to be a good solution.

Grandpa and Grandma Visit

Grandma and Grandpa Call came for a visit. We had lots of fun playing around the house. We read books, played with toys, and helped Grandpa work on his computer.

We went to the thinkery (children's museum) one morning, we and had lots of fun there.

Nightstands

For those of you who don't know, I love browsing pinterest for ideas for cool projects. I'd been itching to try gel stain on something for a long time, and Daniel, wisely, didn't want to ruin something that was perfectly good.

Fortunately, I got a great deal on a pair of IKEA nightstands, and we desperately needed to nightstands. At $5 a piece, Daniel agreed that it was worth the risk to jazz them up!

We gel stained the top, (several coats),painted,

 and added some molding and pulls.

They turned out pretty great!