Children's Museum

On Friday we went to the children's museum with some friends from the ward, and even though Harrison was still a little young to enjoy everything we had a really good time.  

The giant calculator and ATM were a huge hit

He has great fine motor skills already, putting all the rods into the holes.....

.....And putting them in his mouth too

Had fun riding in the car with friends

 

 My favorite part was the mini grocery store. He got his shopping cart and pushed it around while putting things in his basket

Of course he had to have his sheep in the basket too!

 And some items ended up on the floor instead of the basket

Gotta have the ice cream!

And checkout time

Well I thought it was about time to give another update. Nothing much has happened lately, but here are a few pictures. Porter is in course 5 out of 6, which means we have 6 weeks left in San Antonio and we are excited to see our families again.

Getting ready to go to church

Playing with some water at the ward playgroup

Still Alice

My mom asked all of our family to read the book Still Alice by Lisa Genova since she was diagnosed with early on-set Alzheimer's Disease at age 50 and it's taken me up until now (3 years) to actually read it because I figured it was going to be a really hard book to read.....and no surprise, it was. I pretty much cried through the whole thing and I can't say I came away with "aha" moments but I do think it gave me a little insight into maybe how my mom is feeling living with this disease. But if our family has learned anything from this disease it's how to be supportive of my mom, and I believe we are, 110%. Yes I get angry sometimes and wonder why, but then so does she and the rest of our family, and honestly who doesn't think that with whatever they're going through. I will say that my mom is the most positive person I know and even though she's living with Alzheimer's I still think she's holding our family together through her optimism. And of course my dad who takes care of her. This disease is heartbreaking but it's comforting to know she is loved unconditionally by my dad.

On a lighter note, we went to the horse races on Friday night and it was so fun! Both Porter and I had never been before and I felt like we were in a scaled down version of Seabiscuit or Secretariat. We learned how to bet on horse racing.....and how to lose. They had a small petting zoo and Harrison loved it. It was so fun to watch him with the animals.

And some more fun pictures of the weekend.

 Harrison loves to look at books

 Bird central outside our door

 Exploring at the pool

 Such a cute sleeper!!

 He loves the shower.....he cries whenever it's time to get out

My boys, my white husband and my super tanned boy!

Feeding the ducks

Restless

I'm sure every new mom goes through this at some point or another, but I am definitely feeling restless and unproductive. Porter will come home and show me his dentures and what he's been working on, and the results of his hard work and success are clearly visible. Whereas I feel my results and success are not as visible. I know I'm making a difference for Harrison and nothing is as important as taking care of him but results are definitely long term and I can't exactly show my results as I could've done when I was working. It's definitely an adjustment that I'm still working on.
So since I can't show my results by working I've taken up running. I wanted something that was just for me that I could work on, and it wasn't my first choice (I don't love running) but I felt like I didn't have many options down here. I've come to enjoy it now though, I've been running since the beginning of May and I can see some results, and I love the way I feel when I'm done, clearheaded and refreshed. Plus the gym overlooks the swimming pool at our complex and I love to people watch. I'm nowhere near running a marathon or even a half marathon but I hope with my progression I can get there someday.

Shots and such

Last Friday I took Harrison in to get his 12 month vaccinations. I was a little discouraged in the beginning because with the military they made it so difficult to find out who was his pediatrician. But once we got it figured out it was great. Everything is taken care of and everything is covered. So even when they suggested that they do some lab work to make sure he didn't have any lead poisoning it was all completely covered. There may be some downsides to being in the military but the medical benefits are definitely not one of them. But Harrison was a trooper, he got four shots and blood drawn. It was a rough 10 minutes but when it was all over he was ready to play again.

The other day when I went to the grocery store I had barely stepped inside when a man stopped me to tell me that Harrison was the cutest baby he'd ever seen. It's like this a lot when I go to the grocery store, I can barely get down an aisle before someone stops me to comment on Harrison or to stop and talk to him because he's smiling and laughing with them. So we decided to enter him into the cute kids contest. This is the photo we submitted. I know it's along shot but they have really good prizes for winners. It cost us $20 to enter but then we got a free 11x14 photo canvas of our choosing.
As much fun as San Antonio is both Porter and I are ready to get to DC. Porter's ready to be done with school and have a normal work day without having to get up at 4:30am and I'm ready to have a home again. I know it sounds materialistic but I'm ready to have my things again. A kitchen that includes more than $1 plastic plates and cups from Wal-Mart and our tv and a couch!! I'm sure it'll be like Christmas seeing all of our stuff again, they've been in storage since January.

First blog

After seeing all the fun blogs out there that my friends have I thought I'd try it out, that and I've got plenty of time on my hands these days. Tracee and Cassi I'm hoping my blogs can look as cute as your's someday :)
Yesterday we celebrated Harrison's 1st birthday, can't believe how fast time goes. He loved opening his presents and playing with his new toys. The cake was a bit of a mystery to him, the frosting definitely threw him for a loop. He didn't know whether to eat it or just throw it everywhere.

 


San Antonio has been great so far, and Porter has been doing so well in his classes and on all of his tests. When Porter graduates from his schooling here (dental lab technician) at the beginning of October we'll head back to Utah for a few weeks to see our families and then head out east to Washington DC where we'll be stationed for a few years. We're really excited to go to DC and we hope it's a fun enough place for lots of people to come visit us!

Harrison and I just got back from Canada spending a couple of weeks at our summer cottage on Lake Huron. We had a lot of fun but it was a lot of work. Harrison loves the beach and he loves the water, and unfortunately he loved the sand. Playing with it, eating it, throwing it, etc. Anywhere sand could go, it went.

When we got back from Canada we went down to Corpus Christi (southern Texas on the Gulf) to spend a couple of days at the beach down there with Porter over the long July 4th weekend. We ate at Pier 99 and I wanted to get the oysters because in Key West I really liked them, either my taste buds changed or they were too big to like, they were huge!!! Too much oyster for my taste, which probably means I don't like them anymore.
Something weird has been happening to me when I travel, I get a toothache. Does this happen to anyone else? I went into the dentist the last time it happened, when I drove from Salt Lake to San Antonio, because I was sure it was a cavity, but the dentist sent me home saying he had no idea why my tooth was hurting because it was perfectly healthy. And now it's happened again when I've just come home from Canada. It hurts for about a week, but it really hurts, I have to take ibuprofen for the pain and then it just gets better.

Well I guess that's all I have for right now.