Family in town

I know I still need to put up our pictures from Disneyland...but stuff keeps happening. It is super hard to keep our blog up to date! So the Disneyland pictures are on hold for a short moment!!

I returned home from SLC on Thursday October 9th, Rostya flew into town on Friday the 9th, and Simon and Wika came in on the 10th!! WE LOVE HAVING VISITORS!! Wika was coming back from a work clinic in Manchester, and was flying through Amsterdam. Simon was coming in from Prague and made a stop in Amsterdam as well. So they were able to meet up for lunch there. Wika tried to see if his work could get them on the same flight from Amsterdam to Vancouver...but no go!! Unfortunately with the holiday weekend flights were too expensive. So Wika flew from Manchester to Amsterdam to Seattle to Vancouver-crazy I know!! Simon flew into Vancouver around 4:00pm, Wika was to fly in around 5:00pm; so they were just going to wait there for him. HOWEVER, his flight was delayed from Seattle to Vancouver and he didn't arrive until almost 7pm!! So I decided to head out to the airport as well, so that Grandma and Grandpa could play with Emma!! It ended up being quite the night in the Vancouver Airport!! Grandma and Grandpa Gordon-Smith-you are troopers!! Thank you for your patience...we love you!!





here is Grandpa playing with Emma...just trying to stay entertained!!



Finally home...


On Sunday we decided to go for a nice walk, though chilly, it was very relaxing! I think we got some pretty nice pictures of our area and of the family. Oh, and Emma finally got to meet her Uncle Henry for the very first time!!

All of us...minus Henry (someone has to take the picture)


Emma all bundled up


minus Rostya this time


the gorgeous view from where we live!! It's just so quiet and peaceful...


Time to use the camera timer so we can all be in a photo together!!

Vegas BABY!!

On our way to LA we stopped in Vegas for a night to split up the long drive with the little one! Emma LOVED it. She loved the lights the sounds and the little cards they hand out for free ;) (just kidding) We got in late, around 8 or so, and really wanted to walk the strip a bit. We thought she would fall asleep, but not with those bright lights. She didn't go to sleep til around 11:30, and I thought for sure she would sleep well...WRONG she woke up at 4AM and then again around 6:30. I think she was punishing me, however she slept for almost the whole rest of the drive to LA. So I will only complain a little bit.

Her first Casino experience




Bellagio dancing water show


Blury, but a kinda cool photo


Family photo op, on the Vegas strip

Couch Potato

We are gonna have to be careful with this habit, but for now...I can get stuff done while she watches!! :) (yes, we are watching Ellen-Ryan was the guest)

September 11th

So it's been exactly one month since we went to the healing fields, so today seems more appropriate for this post! In Sandy Utah every year on the 11th of September they place flags, one for every person lost in the terrorist attacks in 2001. This year they decided to put up 1776 flags, for the year when the Declaration of Independence was signed. It really was such a humbling experience to see these flags. I can still vividly remember where I was on 9/11/2001-as I am sure most of you can. My heart still goes out to those who lost loved ones. I can't believe it's been 7 years, time really does fly by.

I love Canada, I love living here; but I am very proud of who I am and where I came from! I love the USA!

4 month old in a full on pony tail!!

Unfotunately a few days after the zoo Emma and I came down with colds!! So NOT fun. It's hard enough to take care of the little one while she is sick, but even harder since I had to join her in the misery!! We ended up taking Emma to the doctor, just in case it was an ear infection...thank heavens it wasn't. So we just took it easy. It's a bummer I couldn't give her anything, and I was a bit hesitant to take anything myself because of nursing...so we just had to let nature take it's course! My sweet sisters and mom would come over and help with Emma so I could get a little nap in or just have a break; it was the best present ever!

However, now to get to the title of this post, after giving Emma a bath one morning I decided to try and put her hair in a pony tail. Just because we are sick doesn't mean we can't look beautiful!! Here is what it looke like:






I had to take it out shortly after...it really only stayed while the hair was wet. Because she has such fine hair, once it dried it would just fall right out. It was Super fun to do though, and gave us something to do while we just sat around at home!!

ZOO AMINALS!

The next day I got a call from my brother Brian. He had the day off and was wanting to take his family to the zoo and was wondering if Emma and I wanted to join them!?!? Well, OF COURSE! So they came and picked us up and off we went. We had such a great time looking at the Monkeys, Bears, Tigers, Alligators and Giraffes and so much more! I hadn't been to the Utah Hogle Zoo in a long time, and I have to say that I am VERY impressed!! They have really cleaned that place up! We had a lot of fun with Brian, Julia, Kenner and Kameron! Here are a few pictures!

Kenner and the Albino Alligator



Emma Kameron and I at the Elephants



Emma on the big Elephant



Kenner on the Merry-Go-Round



The Giraffes



A little too close, if you know what I mean!?!?



On the choo choo train!!

Okay, so I am A LOT a bit behind

SO much has happened since my last post A MONTH AGO!! Holy Toledo, do we have a lot to share. I will slowly add everything that has been going on.

So after the U of U game (way back when) I went home that night and tried and take off my tattoo. IT WOULDN'T COME OFF!! I went into a huge panic, because I had put one on Emma as well and was freaking out-how was I going to get hers off?!?! So I did exactly what the instructions tell you NOT to do. I scrubbed, and scrubbed!! OOPS-this is what it did.






So I learned that night "how NOT to remove a tattoo." The next morning, Sunday, I went to get Emma ready for church. I grabbed your everyday scotch tape (as per the instructions) and started to remove Emma's tattoo. IT TOTALLY WORKED!! She went to church looking as beautiful as ever, I went to church with a bright red burn on my cheek. What can I say, we live and we LEARN!!


Later that Sunday night we had the good ole Bartlett Family dinner. This was the last family dinner before we all headed out to Disneyland!!! My mom had gotten all the grand kids blankets, but the only way they could receive them was by answering a Disney question correctly. No worries, Emma totally got hers right!! Here she is with her Strawberry Shortcake blanket (I know it isn't Disney, but it's super cute)



After blankets each family had to sing a Disney song, if done my mom would bring a "treat" - ya it was the wonderful Mickey Mouse/Minnie Mouse shirts for the family to wear while in Disneyland. (you will see them a bit later when I post our Disney trip). Emma and I sang "The Bear Necessities" without Wika :( he was in Australia at the time. If you ask him, I am sure he was OK missing out on that! NOW, I know what some of you are thinking...matching shirts-how NERDY!! Yes, it is; however walking around Disney with my family of 26; it was a WHOLE lot easier to keep us, and the kids, all together!! So I actually didn't mind it AT ALL!! Thanks mom!! (oh and we only wore them ONE day...silly people thinking we wore them everyday!!)

All in all, it was nice to be able to go to a family dinner for once!!