I know this blog is completely jumbled and almost incoherent in its order and organization. I'm not going to lie, that really bothers me. I like things organized and easy to understand. However, this blog is serving as my brain and my brain this summer has been in neurotic seizing mode trying to get everything done. So I will catch up on the blog, then go back and organize it to my heart's content.
Somewhere in my jumble of flash drives and computers and hard drives I have pictures from between Las Vegas and Twin Lakes. This time included packing and moving, as well as Alex leaving for Fresno. After Alex left Olivia and I were staying at my parents', and we had quite an exciting and stressful month leading up to Twin Lakes. Eventually I will find them and post what I can remember. For now, we start with Twin Lakes.
To start the craziness of taking a baby to Twin Lakes by myself, Olivia and I had some transportation hiccups. I was uncomfortable driving by myself with her because I knew that I would end up stopping every half hour for something, and wasn't sure that I could actually pull it off. Also, my mom was in Utah and unable to come, and my dad had work things come up, so I was the only person from my family going from Oregon. That said, I can't say Thank you enough to my Grandma and Grandpa, who offered Olivia and I space in their truck on the way up to the lake. I was looking at flying, trying to get a ride the last two hours, and the trouble of getting enough stuff for a month into our checked luggage...it was a mess. Thank you G&G!!
Here is Olivia, wiped out on the drive...
After half the drive on Friday (7/22), we drove the rest of the way Saturday morning, with a stop for lunch at Edna's. After eating, we got ice cream cones on the way out, and I thought it was quite fitting for Olivia to get her first cone from Edna's :). Needless to say, she enjoyed it :)
That's all the pictures I took on Saturday. We had a busy after noon of unpacking and organizing, getting ourselves set up for a week of fun and relaxing :). I'm not going to lie, this year was a little weird with a lot of people missing, and Saturday was even more so because our cabin was practically empty.
On Sunday before church Olivia got to meet her (2nd) cousin Jesse. What a cutie! I hadn't met him yet either, and he was so much fun! He helped to teach Olivia to use her voice :), as he's not scared to share his opinions about this world with those around him.
I had a hard adjustment without Alex this summer. It was just me and Olivia all the time, and that's exhausting no matter how cute and fun the baby is! It was such a relief to me to have others around for Olivia to play with, and all of her cousins were excited to play with her too, which made for a lot of fun. Here is Caleb and Olivia practicing her walking skills!
Olivia absolutely LOVED the cabin at Twin Lakes. I think it was partly the freedom of having so much space and so many opportunities for mess making, but she also enjoyed all the new things she saw. One of these new discoveries was the ceiling fan. Alex's parents have a couple fans in their house, and Olivia loves them too, but she was enamored with this one. All Sunday morning and afternoon she would just sit and watch it, which is a major accomplishment. Olivia doesn't just sit for anything; she is always moving and exploring. Anyway, here is Olivia staring at the fan instead of eating :)
At church Sunday morning, everyone does introductions of their family. In recent years, the baton has passed from the grandparent generation to the parent generation, mostly because the number of grandchildren has increased exponentially :). Since the Dale Romrell family (which I am part of) went first this year, and my mom is the "wisest" of her siblings, she was up first. Unfortunately for me, neither my mom nor dad was present this year. Also, we were missing Amber & family (to arrive Sunday afternoon), Bryan and family (had a 3 day old baby), Emily, Tasha (to arrive with Amber)& Ben, and Jenaye. This left me to introduce all 18 members of my family. I felt a lot of pressure, but was told I did my mom proud in remembering all names, spouses, and reasons that they were mising.
Sunday afternoon is the only day that the entire family eats dinner together. We always have a blast, and it's a great start to the week (and a good way to pass a LONG afternoon of no water play...). Amber & fam also arrived during dinner, with Tasha in tow, so it had added "fun-ness" for me this year.
Here's another picture of some great cousins! Lily and Mica were amazing help during dinner and throughout the week with Olivia and all the babies. Here they are holding Olivia and Teag so Amber and I can act like kids and play (or maybe scarf down some dinner...I can't remember :) ).
However, Mica and Lily rarely smile, and I really wanted to get a picture of them helping. I called in some reinforcements to get smiles .... In fact, this next picture is Tasha, Tim, and Zach doing their best smile-getting moves :) They did get the smiles, they were just from all the grownups and Mica and Lily, not from the babies that they were trying to please.
And the Last picture from Sunday afternoon is olivia enjoying her first piece of watermelon. She did enjoy it, and so did the white sweater I was wearing. Overall a fun day, and totally exhausting. At this point I was getting used to being tired, but each day Olivia got more mobile and I missed Alex more and more.
