Cold Wisconsin

I was very excited for our Wisconsin trip partly because it meant the escape from the heat of Texas summer. Well, my wish was granted and then some. The first weekend home, the high was around 90 degrees. Not bad. Then the next couple days were rainy and a high of 60. We were freezing to say the least. Ashton just wanted to play at parks and be outside. She doesn't quite understand what it means to be too cold to go outside.

We went to visit my grandma. Ashton enjoyed seeing Great-Grandma Ashton. Every time we see her, I wish so badly my grandfather could meet Ashton. Although he passed away when I was five, Ashton seems to remind me of him a lot and of the stories I hear about him. The same curious, inquisitive mind that always seems to be running. And I know my grandfather would have adored little Ashton. My grandma also has a cat, which Ashton loved seeing.

That same afternoon, we met up with Janet and her husband and girls. Ashton's middle name is after her so I hope Ashton continues to know who Janet is. She has a little girl a month younger than Ashton so it was fun to get together. They played at a park despite the chilly weather. They didn't really play together that much but hopefully that will change over the years. I'm hoping they become roommates at BYU so they better start getting along soon.

Friday, my mom had the day off so we explored the town. We went to a new nature center/gardens called Monk Gardens. It has a cool treehouse that Ashton enjoyed climbing. Then we had a picnic there and walked on some trails. After that, we got ice cream at the legendary Briq's and Ashton got her first ice cream cone. Typically, I just feed her ice cream from my sundae. But my mom spoiled her by getting her own. She loved it! That is probably the most ice cream Ashton has eaten at one time. That afternoon, we took my parents' dog to the dog park in town.

Ashton asks for "tar" and then dances with Grandpa.

Always willing to read one more book as long as it's with Grandma and Grandpa

"Cheese" with her baby doll.

Walking with Grandma at the gardens.

Running around at the dog park. She likes to think of herself as one of the dogs.

Agility training

Loving life on the merry go round.

The Start of Wisconsin

We made it! A few more plane rides under our belt. Ashton did great on the flights. She loved watching the planes move at the airport. As long as the DVD player was on Daniel Tiger on the first flight, she was happy. A little boy sat behind us so we shared toys and then a dog was two rows behind us. Between that and special markers, we made it to Minneapolis. The second flight was nap time and she fell asleep before take off and didn't wake up until the gate in Wausau. Wonderful!

We went out Friday night to a local music festival and saw my sister, aunts and uncles. Ashton enjoyed running outside and getting some energy out. She wasn't too impressed by Wisconsin cheese curds but I'm hoping it is because they were a little too hot. Saturday, my dad watched Ashton so we could have a girl's day with my sister, mom, cousins, and grandma. It was a blast. Ashton had fun at a local park and rode a train, visited the splash pad, and played on the playground. We went to church Sunday and it was fun to see some families. The ward continues to change a lot so I don't know too many people anymore.

Monday, we headed to the library to see the fish tank my uncle helped design. Ashton enjoyed that. That night, an old friend from high school and her parents came over for dinner. It was great to see them as my friend and I haven't seen each other in about four years. Today we spent the morning at the local art museum as they have toddler Tuesday activities. Ashton loved painting. After that, we went to get a repair done on my mom's truck and they had a pretty cool play area. Ashton keeps saying it is cold here, which it is. The high today is 68 degrees. She enjoys having a reason to wear her coat though.

I think the only bad thing so far is Ashton's wake up time seems to be bumped up to 6am as opposed to 7ish. She's pretty grumpy in the morning. Oh, and Ashton fell off the bed and hit her head. Poor kid. But she loves it here. Hooray!

We made a stop at a grocery store. They had little carts and she loved pushing it around.

Painting and Cantaloupe

I'm painting Ashton's big girl room. It's funny what you remember your mom doing while growing up. My mom always painted our rooms in themes. I had pink stripes and roses once. My brother had a Utah Jazz room. My sister had an ocean room complete with her bed on the floor. As we grew, our room design would change so I wasn't stuck with roses in high school. I loved it and now want to do it with Ashton. Since this is probably the only room I'll get to pick the design/colors, I enjoyed it. However, if you ever need some free marriage/conflict resolution therapy, I would advise you and your husband tape a diamond wall in your house. It was a lot harder and much more frustrating than I thought it would be. But the finished product is worth every moment!

With all the tape lines that rarely wanted to stay up.

Up close of the diamonds. Some touch up work is needed.

The whole wall. The other walls will be just lavender, no pattern.

 Our cantaloupe are finally ready! We're so excited. Ashton asks for it all the time, which is great since we have six in our refrigerator right now! She brought this in last night and was so proud of carrying, "a heavy cant-lope."

Gardening

It is a known fact that Ashton loves our garden. She loves exploring and finding yummy food to eat. We've had our garden for a year and a half now and we're slowly learning the do's and don'ts of Texas gardening. This summer, we planted okra, squash, cantaloupe, tomatoes, and pumpkin. So far, we've harvested about 15 squash, lots of okra, and lots of tomatoes. We have 15 cantaloupes growing and they should be ready to eat in the next few weeks. We thought we lost the pumpkin but it has made a wonderful comeback and will hopefully be ready to harvest in October.

Here are some pictures.

Bonus picture- Ashton's ant slaying pose

Always with Daddy's shoe. Smart girl

A few lovely cantaloupe. I love cantaloupe from the store but homegrown ones are so much better!

Our bed of cantaloupe and squash.

Ashton taking care of her pumpkin plant.

I'm always surprised with how thick the okra plants become. They look like mini trees.

We don't know what these are. They are on our blackberry bushes. Ashton likes to pick them and when she opens them, they're just a little green ball. Typically, they have a small green worm in them. They don't become the berries as they eventually fall off. Any ideas?

"Cheese" She is so proud of her garden.

And of course, she has to carry dirt all over.

Reptiles!

I took Ashton to the library yesterday for a special show. The library brought in a naturalist group to show kids alligators, snakes, and turtles. Since Ashton loves the turtle in one of her Eric Carle books, I thought she would love to pet them. I anticipated a short, 45 minute presentation with lots of touching of the animals. Well, 30 minutes in and no animals. Ashton did pretty well with her attention span and fortunately, it wasn't that crowded so she could wander around the room. Once the animals came out, she loved it. She has no fear of them, which I guess is good. She touched all the animals and loved seeing them move. I did have to keep reminding her to only touch their backs because she successfully poked most of the small alligators in the eyes. Silly girl. Here are some pictures.

This was her drawing while we waited for animals. It is a house, some clouds (the small green dots), a tree, and a swing. Oh and she drew, "Mommy" in red.

She wanted to be center of attention next to the speaker.

 

Another break involved playing with the animal puppets.

 

Ashton kept yelling at the turtles to move. She became very attached to the turtles and made sure to say "Bye-bye turtles" to each one, several times.

 

Ashton would pet the animal for about 0.004 seconds. So pictures were tricky.

July Adventures

We're already halfway through July, which means the hot summer is halfway over too! And since we'll be spending the last month of it out of state, I'm excited to only have a few more weeks to endure of 95+ degree temps and high humidity. Ashton really likes to play outside but gets all hot and sweaty. Then she stinks the rest of the day so we try to wait to go the park until after dinner.

We celebrated the Fourth of July with a yummy pancake breakfast at church. Then we had some friends over for a BBQ that night. Ashton loves having friends over and I love it too. She barely bothers me as she is so busy playing. We ditched the fireworks again this year as they are just too late at night for Ashton. Maybe next year.

The festive shirt I bought at Old Navy for two dollars the day before.

I saw this promo on a blog I read and decided to give it a try. Lo and behold, we got some chips with our picture on it. It was cool to get it in the mail.

Ashton ended up in the ER last Sunday night. We went to a neighbor's house to visit after dinner and we were walking home. A few feet outside our front door, she refused to come inside as she often does. Joseph pulled on her arm to encourage her to come in and heard a pop. She screamed for the next 45 minutes while we tried to determine if she was being a wimp about it or if she did hurt something. After a call to my mom and the doctor, we were advised to come in. Fortunately, our local hospital could handle it so we didn't have to drive to Houston at 9pm at night. They did several rounds of X-rays, which involved Ashton screaming the entire time. I felt like a terrible parent. Only after the X-rays did the doctor come in and say, "I think I know what it is." I thought he had looked at the X-rays and could see something. Nope. A tendon got displaced and needed to be snapped back in. Apparently, it is the most common injury for children under five. Who knew? Had they checked that in the first place, we could have saved the tears and the money on X-rays. Oh well. Better safe than sorry. Ashton was pretty calm unless someone touched her arm. As soon as they snapped it back, she was up and at it, running around again.

This is after the doctor fixed her arm. Before that, she couldn't hold anything or barely move it.

Glad to have my happy girl back.

 Ashton loves to wear her "Papa" and "Nana" shirt all the time. She can't wait to see them next month!

Day in Houston

Last weekend, we spent Saturday in Houston. We went to the temple and Ashton enjoyed playing around the water fountain. After the temple, we stopped at a book store, which Ashton loved as well. The main reason we went to Houston was to go to a wedding reception of one of the missionaries who taught me several years ago. It was fun to see him and meet his wife. The house was very fancy and I was nervous Ashton would knock something over. Thankfully, they had a big yard with a trampoline and a friendly cat so she behaved. And they served blueberries. If there is one food that Ashton could consume by the pound, it would be blueberries. Someone took a picture of the newlyweds and us but we forgot to take one on our phone. So just imagine me standing next to three really tall people.

Here are some nice pictures Joseph got of Ashton saying, "Cheese" at the temple though!

 Ashton has also become very sweet in giving kisses. Here's her best example.