On a different note, we have been staying busy. I am still volunteering and Chris is playing Rugby. In our spare time we are doing little changes to the house here and there. The most recent project is a shelving unit that Chris made for the alcove in the wall. We weren't sure what to do with the big random hole in the wall, so we had a couple of people come out for consultations for a custom built unit. Well, the prices were just slightly more than we wanted to spend on fake wood ($2500 for the cheapest one!), so we decided to take on the project ourselves. I have to say, I was skeptical. Chris had the vision and thank goodness he did! We found an old dresser at a yard sale for $10 and that is where it all started. After some wood cutting and painting it is almost finished and it looks amazing! When Chris gets back from his backpacking trip he has one more shelf to make and it will be done, then I will post pictures. The entire project cost under $100 and I think it looks better than the custom built one would have. I am very proud of Chris! It makes me more sure that we can do all these little projects on our own, next up: Sod in the backyard once the weather cools and new tile for the bathrooms and kitchen. I can't wait to be able to go out in the backyard and let Kennadi play without coming in all muddy from our dirt lot that is there right now!
Pictures of our recent adventures are below:
This one I thought was just cute, she was running around in a T Shirt and she wanted to put on these new boots my mom got for her. She was adamant so I helped her put them on and she was sooo excited, she pranced around for 30 minutes and kept looking at them and laughing. I thought it was great future blackmail!
Jazz Jubilee:We had a great time! Chris was able to come this year so we both got to take turns volunteering doing various jobs. The rain came a few times and I really enjoyed it, I miss Mammoth rain storms with all the thunder and lightening. They had to shut down the music a few times due to lightening, but it was still fun to see! Kennadi enjoyed herself and was very well behaved, I got many compliments that she was so good while we were there. Maybe it was the music and I should always have jazz on in the background? Chris talked to countless Vets who started up conversations with him about his job. We talked to men from every branch with all kinds of awesome stories, I guess being in the military is a definite conversation starter! At one point my dad made us all come up on stage for a raffle drawing, he introduced us and when he said that Chris was a Marine the whole audience broke out in cheers and clapping, it was very cool to see so many supporters in a time where the military is so controversial with the younger generations.
This is my dad at the Jubilee every year, he has a phone glued to his ear and rarely ever stops moving. He stays very busy and puts in way too many hours every year. He swears up and down this will be his final year of volunteering, at least being the manager. It has been 19 years of him saying that, but this year he is adamant. We will see! We do wish we could have spent a bit more time with him, but he does a great job and no one could run the site better.
The brothers, Kelly, Greg and Dave. Phil got there the next day and I didn't see them all together while I had my camera. Lyndi was also there but I missed her in the pictures too! Bummer:( We missed Grandma, Aunt Sharon, and Michael and Russell this year, we hope to see you all soon!
Kennadi had a blast. She was dancing and running around the whole time. She loved picking up the sawdust and eating it too. Maybe there is some nutritional value there?
Every time we let her loose she was trying to pull down the decorations.
Camping. It was a failure, I will start there. Just don't take a one year old camping, it isn't worth the hassle. An immobile infant or an older toddler, great, but not a one year old. From the second we got there Kennadi was into everything, eating dirt, chewing on sticks, tripping over everything in site... Every time we turned around she was on top on the picnic table, I guess it is at a perfect height because she gets up there very quickly. She was covered with dirt from head to toe within 10 minutes and had sap all over her hands from the sticks. We got through the afternoon and evening without any major issues other than that we never got to sit down because we had to be right behind her every step, especially once the fire got going. Once it was bedtime though, it became a joke very quickly. I took Kennadi into the tent where we had an air mattress set up and tried to lay down with her. What was I thinking, that she would just willingly go to sleep in a tent when you could hear everyone out by the fire talking? Rookie mistake. At one point she sat up, crawled quickly to the edge of the bed, and the edge gave way, she flipped around and fell between the tent and the bed. She thought it was hilarious. I did not. After 20 minutes of this I knew it wouldn't work so I decided to try to drive her around to get her to sleep. Then I pictured her waking up screaming in the middle of the night and startling the whole camp ground and none of us getting sleep. So after the drive I dropped my mom and Dylan off at the site and bee lined it for my moms nice comfy bed and a playpen at home. Thank goodness because she did wake up screaming twice that night despite being indoors and warm. Traveling with a toddler is hard enough, I should have known better than to throw another crazy adventure in there. A few nights later Keeli, Sam, Chris and I went back and camped while my mom stayed home with Kennadi.
This was when we were packing to go to Mammoth. I came out of our closet and she was in my suitcase. It took her 30 seconds to come into the room, remove a whole stack of my clothes and throw them on the floor, and climb in. It was very funny, and she was all serious, like it was her seat, why were my clothes there in the first place?
Visit from Heather and Erica. Of course I took no pictures of Heather or Erica, I am so bad about that! But this was our trip to the beach. Much like camping, it is a lot of work, but Kennadi had a blast and I will say it was a major improvement from our trip a few months back before she could walk. Of course the few cloudy days in southern California are when Heather is here, every time she comes it is like this. It was quite cold and windy, but people were swimming in bikinis, it's not even like the water is warm, it is freezing and when the sun isn't out to warm you up it's worse, crazy people!
Chasing the sea gulls was her favorite
She would have swam with them if I let her!
4th of July
These pictures are backwards, I know, but that's how they downloaded. We went to Kathy's in Victorville and swam. It was fun and very warm. On our drive home Chris and I saw fireworks all over the place the whole way home. It was really neat!
Rugby
Chris has started playing again, he is playing with the Camp Pendleton Rugby Club and he loves it. This was at a tournament in Long Beach. There have been a few others that I haven't gone to, but I will take more pictures when I do. These tournaments are looonng, this one was 7 hours and 4 short games. I think I was more exhausted after chasing Kennadi for 7 hours than Chris was playing the matches. Of course Kennadi loved the balls, she kept trying to steal other teams balls, I guess Chris's isn't good enough.
I love this picture
Some videos: I tried to get Kennadi to dance when the camera was on, but she would dance and then as soon as I hit record she stopped. So these couple of videos show very short periods of dancing to jazz. Keeli is dancing too:)
These are just a couple of funny ones. We got the Zoonooz magazine in the mail and Kennadi looked through it like this for so long, we were laughing hysterically. I finally got the camera out and she kept up the enthusiasm. The other one is of her watching her favorite video, she is so funny when she dances.
