Summer Swimming

The other day Jane enjoyed some time splashing in the sun with the neighbor boys in their cool frog (Or is it a dinosaur?) swimmin' pool. She loved it!!

Goodbye, Sweet Friend.

My dear friend Kristen found out just three weeks ago that her husband was promoted, and that they would be moving immediately. He started his new job four days later in Arkansas. We are excited about his promotion, but terribly sad about the move. Kristen one of my closest friends here, and will be deeply missed. And that is a severe understatement.

We're all in a state of mourning.

Vacation- Part 2

Our five day family reunion cruise was wonderful. What an adventure! It was great to be able to finally connect faces and personalities with the people I've been related to and heard of for two years. They were all thrilled to meet Jane and she enjoyed having 18 relatives ready to pick her up and play with her 24/7. I don't think she was put down to play alone all week.

Here's an upclose of our custom made "Family Tree" tee shirts. Each branch has a name... there's even a twig to represent Jane!

While on the cruise, Grandpa and Grandma Montgomery celebrated 48 years of marriage!

The cruise itself was amazing of course. Our ports of call were Catalina Island, and Ensenada, Mexico. Catalina was by far my favorite. We arranged for Aaron's parents to take care of Jane all day while Aaron and I went with his brothers and cousins on a snorkeling and jet skiing adventure. While we were on the water, her Papa and Nana took her on a tour of the island. She made for a very cute little tourist!

Snorkeling and jet skiing was a BLAST!!! In the morning we went snorkeling...which was a fun and unique experience for both of us, but it was COLD!! We rented wet suits as an attempt to keep warm...but it only helped a little. The weirdest thing for me, was to breathe underwater. My instincts just couldn't get around the fact that it shouldn't be possible. I would remind myself to calmly breathe through my mouth, but there's just something unnatural and freaky about it, and before I knew it, without thinking, I'd try to get a snort of air through my nose, (which was plugged) and because I couldn't get air that way, I'd automatically start hyperventilating, which of course made it all much worse. I spent most of the time in the water just concentrating on relaxing, breathing, and not thinking about being cold. Needless to say, I'm not cut out to be a diver. The fish we saw were disappointing. We mostly saw little grey fish and an occasional gold one. Yay. Oh, and lots of slimy greenish brown weeds.

Here's a snorkeling picture, of Uncle Dave and Aaron... (I did purposefully stay out of pictures while wearing goggles and other apparatus...)

Jet Skiing was SO much fun! Aaron and I shared one (and he even let me drive it some of the time!). It was terrifying.... but it was more fun than anything I've ever done. Even more thrilling than a roller coaster. For those of you who know my husband...and know how he drives his car... you can imagine that he was infinitely more....crazy.... on a jet ski. While were were flying through the air at lightning speed, the salty wind splashing our faces, I yelled out, "Oh no!! We haven't finalized our will yet!!" *Aahh* Vacation.

In Ensenda, Aaron's mom and Grandma and I did a "Taste of Mexico" tour, where we were supposedly going to learn how to cook a delicious Mexican meal. Supposedly. We made Guacamole, pre-made tomales andtostadas. I guess there isn't any need to comment, except for the fact that I already knew how to make them. But we walked away from the experience with a certificate stating that we passed the course and were now officially experts in cooking Mexican food. That's not a joke either. The chef signed it.

The tour was somewhat interesting, we learned a lot about Mexican history, we got to see the real "Black Pearl" ship from the Pirates of the Caribbean. Did you know that it is now docked in Ensenada?

Our favorite part of the cruise was the food. (big surprise) there is something very satisfying about being offered a menu with no prices because everything is already paid for (definitely not free) and we could have whatever we wanted, and however much we wanted. Aaron went on the record for having three appetizers, two entrees and two desserts in one evening. He was full. Jane loved especially loved the bread. She ate SO much bread while we were on the cruise! We broke it up into bite-size pieces and let her feed herself while we enjoyed dinner conversation.

I'm surprised how well she did sitting in a restaurant for at least an hour and a half each night. What a sweetie!

Speaking of Jane, she was a favorite on board the ship. Everywhere we went, people were making comments about her. The staff especially loved her. Our stateroom attendant (I can't remember his name) showed her particular interest. He is from Indonesia, and has a little girl who is just a month older than Jane, whose name is Neshua. Because of his job with the cruise line, he has not been able to see her for the last six months. If that's not sad enough, his wife is also on board the ship and hasn't seen her daughter for just a long! (Their baby is living with his parents in Indonesia) Everytime we would see either of them, they would always talk to Jane and tell us about their little girl. We were horrified that both of them were away from their daughter, but then we came to find out that this is somewhat normal for their culture. The grandparents take care of the grandchildren while their sons and daughters work to provide an income for the family, then when they get too old to work, they take care of their grandchildren while their children provide for them. I'm glad it's not like that in the US! I miss Jane when I've been apart from her for just a couple of hours!

She was so proud of herself- being able to stand up in her crib on the cruise...

We think that a cruise is the epitome of vacation. No work, no cooking, no cleaning...nothing. You don't even have to make your bed! For a week there are shows in the evening, lazy poolside reading during the day, delicious meals, shore excursions, and gorgeous scenery! We were pampered by very attentive and cheerful staff and got to sleep whenever we wanted. What bliss!

Here's another group picture, taken on "Formal Night"

And here's the Montgomery four generation pictures:

After our delightful family cruise we docked back in California, spent the night in a plush hotel and then made the long journey back to Kentucky. Our vacation was amazing, and now I'm invigorated and rested. For the last week I've been back in the "real world" with a fresh perspective, loving the home, husband and baby that are mine to nurture and care for, and reveling in the goodness of the Lord!

Vacation - Part 1

We just arrived home from nearly three weeks of vacation. Is it possible to feel both exhausted and refreshed at the same time? The traveling part was exhausting, but the time off of work and away from the hum-drum of the daily routine was exhilarating.

Here's Jane waiting in the airport:

She was a trooper! She is definitely a well traveled 8 Month old!

The first leg of our journey was spent in Pampa, a small nook of a town in North Texas where my Mom’s side of the family lives. We were there for about 5 days, enjoying spending time with my grandparents, mom, sisters, cousins, aunt, nephew and my new baby niece. Isn't she just precious??

They live in an underground house my grandpa built before I was born which is affectionately called, “The Bunker.” It was fun to take pictures of Jane in the same corner cabinet that I used to play in as a toddler. How time changes things!

We loved the lazy days full of conversation, homemade ice cream, exploring old memory spots, going on long walks, shooting guns, swinging, and staying up late watching movies. It was great to play with my three year old nephew, Elijah who has a tender way of bringing back the “kid” in everyone. An unexpected dose of excitement was added to our trip in the form of an accident involving this irresistibly sweet boy and his Grandma. They were riding on a heavy duty tricycle together down the slopey driveway that leads to my grandparents home, when my mom realized too late that they were going too fast. She jumped off, hoping to save Elijah from an even worse fate, but she couldn’t find her feet and crashed face-first onto the concrete pavement. Elijah raced on and ran into the house, fell off the trike and bonked his head. Other than a bruise on his head, he was just fine. My poor mom, on the other hand, took the brunt of the accident. Her glasses shattered and gave her an ugly gash on her forehead. Her nose looked so bad that we thought it was broken, and her elbows and knees were bruised and bloody. Thankfully, my Grandpa is a doctor (and used to be the head manager of an ER) and had the necessary supplies to give her stitches at home. Mother lay on the kitchen table and “Daddypearl” stitched her up right there! (Shocking… I know, but this is certainly not the first time he’s stitched up family members on the kitchen table… the stories are numerous!)

The hardest part for my mom was the inability to see without her glasses. She wanted to play with her grand kids and be able to see what was going on, and instead ended up in a fuzzy blurr for the rest of her time in Pampa.

When Elijah asked what was wrong with his grandma, I told him, “We think she might have broken her nose.” His response: “Does she have to get another one?”

Here’s the classic four generation picture, of Jane, me, my mom and my mom’s mom…

And here's a picture of me and my two beautiful sisters...

After our visit in Pampa, Aaron and Jane and I made the long ten hour road trip down to San Antonio with Mother and my younger sister Lori. You just don’t realize how long ten hours in the car really is, until you actually do it. The road trip would have been okay, except that the air conditioner broke when we were just about half way there. Let me remind you that we were driving in Texas. It was only around 100 degrees… so we felt a little melty, but we survived to tell the story.

Our week long stay in San Antonio was a delightful blurr of visiting family and catching up with old friends. We ate at Aaron’s family owned Thai restaurant, enjoyed real Texas steak with his Grandad and drug Jane all over town to visit with loved ones. She did pretty well all things considered, but towards the end of each day she got a progressively more fussy and clingy. While we were in our hometown, we left Jane with my mom overnight so that Aaron and I could have some "alone-time." It was the first time we'd ever left her overnight. She and her Grandma did great and we had a wonderful time! (Though I must confess that we did miss her and were very happy to return to her!) We decided that we definitely need to make a habit of getting away regularly.

As if a week and a half wasn't a long enough vacation, after we said our goodbyes in San Antonio we got on a plane and flew to California where we joined Aaron's parents and his dad's side of the family to set sail on a five day Montgomery family reunion cruise!

TO BE CONTINUED....

Jane can sign!

We just arrived home from nearly three weeks of vacation (hence the reason I haven't blogged in so long). I'm working on writing all about it, but for now, I'm just going to share this video. We taught Jane how to ask for more food by using sign language. Of course she adapted it to the "Jane version" but we understand the communication and all of us agree that it is much better than crying for what she wants!

Now it has become her universal sign for "I want something." She does this if she wants more food, wants a toy, wants a drink, wants you to do something again, wants to be picked up etc. It's just like magic!

(and yes, it was marshmallows I was giving her in the video. It was her after dinner treat. I know, I know, I'm SUCH a bad Mama)