Oregon Coast 2013

We visited the Oregon Coast again this year, but this time it was for a Hammond Family reunion/vacation. We also visited the areas in Northern Cali where Calder lived when he was a kid. There was a lot of driving but man was it beautiful! I loved having Avery with us (this time not in-utero.) She was so fascinated and interested in the ocean, the sand, the trees, rocks, shells, and her cousins. 

Exploring Tide Pools:

 

I knitted my first hat!

   

   

   

   

Delicious Sand...  It was impossible to keep the stuff out of Avery's mouth...

   

Daddy's Girl!  They have so much fun together. <3 br="">

   

   

The mist and haze was awesome.

   

Family Slack-Line comp.

   

Christmas is forever.

   

Again, the mist was sooooo cool!

   

   

   

   

   

   

Studly Mark sporting a vintage mink coat:

   

I can't get enough of this cutie.

 

Todd's Marathon

Todd ran the Utah Valley Marathon in June.  (Did I already blog about this?)

He improved his race time by 8 minutes but still didn't quite make Boston-qualifying time.  I think he is pretty amazing anyway!

Beautiful backdrop!

  

   

Way to go Brett!  

Number 1 fan:

   

 

31 Things

Here are some more things on my list:
13. Kayak down a river
14. Learn to install hard wood floors
15. Mountain bike a marathon distance
16. Learn to make a pie crust that doesn't taste like concrete
17. Use apples from my yard to cook with
18. Actually truly FINISH this darn house we've been working on
19. Compete in another bike race
20. Do the Dirty Dash
21. Backpack somewhere with Avery


 Here is the original list:
1. Take swim lessons
2. Learn to ski
3. Ski back country (I've always been afraid of this!)
4. Hike Lone Peak
5. Hike Twin Peaks
6. Do a duathalon
7. Take a cooking class
8. Buy my dream home
9. Fix up my dream home because I'll probably have to buy a less expensive scummy house and make it my own
10. Visit my sister in Vernal every couple months 11. Take Avery to the beach 12. Take Avery desert camping

River Rafting

We river rafted with Avery along the Green River under the Flaming Gorge Dam. 

Avery slept through the class 3 rapids, which are really not very rapid for those of you who aren't familiar with the class system.  She was awake for most of the rafting though. 

She enjoyed being outside and hanging out with Ruby, but hated her life jacket which kinda squeezed her like she was a giant marshmallow.  Honestly Avery kinda is like a giant marshmallow. :)

Camping was rough and I ended up sleeping in the car with her at 2 a.m. so she wouldn't wake up other campers.  But it was still a great trip.

It was so nice to get outside!!  I can't wait for our next camping trip!

 

   

 

2013 Staycation

This year the Pinnell family had a staycation in SLC.  We went to Lagoon (Grandma and Gramps stayed home with all the babies-- thank you!!!!!!) went fishing/swimming at Pineview Reservoir, rented a bounce-house for Grandma's yard, had a slip-n-slide that Nat and I pulled and flung the kids across with the hose, and did a lot of indoor projects.  It was so fun, and Avery loved being with her cousins. 

I didn't take many phone-photos but there are a few.  I didn't get photos of Gramps, Beth, Moya, Alee, or Asher.
Grandma with crying kids, an inevitable part of every family vacation, lol:


It's hard to tell by the photo, but Jamie was "woooo-hooo"ing like a little kid.  I think he had as much fun as his kids did on this one. :)







The little boys loved this ride.


Griff, my waterslide and rollercoaster partner staring into the sun:


The cool brave older cousins (not including Asher.)


Avery the chunky monkey.  She loved the lake!

Avery is 8.something months

Avery is so much fun at this age.  She says, "Mama" all the time and "Dada" sometimes.  She gives hi-fives and claps her hands.  Today I asked her to say Banana and she said, "Ba-mama."  It was probably a fluke, kids don't usually talk this early.  Or maybe she is just brilliant. :)

She stands and can take steps if she's holding on to something, but hasn't figured out crawling yet.  She'll sometimes push herself across the room backwards attempting to crawl and get frustrated.  She'll eat a banana like an adult- just chomp big bites right off the fruit.  And she still loves putting things in her mouth and snuggling up to her stuffed animal Unicorn.

Every night she's lip-to-lip with Unicorn.

Pupils still different sizes.

Remodel Update

We've been living in chaos at the new house for several weeks now but are getting close to finishing the remodel.

On top of living without a kitchen or floors and living out of boxes, with construction workers in and out most days, we realized we were probably exposed to asbestos.  That was not fun.

I took a sample of linoleum-glue to a lab where it tested positive for asbestos.  It was from the linoleum we'd just spent hours chipping away at and ripping out.  So we bought some special cleaning equipment, took Avery to a sitter, and spent 12 hours with hepa-masks on vacuuming and wiping down everything in our house.  EVERYTHING.  I mean every pencil, piece of paper, tool, wall, ceiling, everything.  And now I feel mostly safe to live here.  We are hiring an environmental consultant to do an air test and confirm that the problem is taken care of.  But man, what a headache.

Anyhow, we are really excited about our progress!  here are a couple photos of the kitchen:

Original:

Wall out (we had to leave a pillar for that vent):

Drywall and lights in:

Tile floor, and cabinets ready for install: