Pictures :)

Grandaddy has been reading to Selah every night since daddy can't be here.

Even though S braved a 15 mile hike in the backpack yesterday, she still had a smile on her face for today's backpack ride.

If you look closely, you should see a praying mantis oriented vertically and facing right. We came upon this 5 inch long insect on our hike today and she was beautiful!

Selah gets in and out and in and out and in and out of the pool. She gets in just far enough to touch her toes to the water, then gets out again. It is hilarious to watch.

Exploring the shower....

Mom, give me back that bar of soap, I really wanted to eat that!

She seems a little talkative and has a "strong voice". Wonder where she gets that.

Kapalua Bay

Today: 10 mile run while my parents so graciously took turns carrying Selah on their hike, lunch in the coolest local restaurant EVER, snorkeling in Kapalua bay, and now sitting outside watching Selah crawl around and updating my blog. It's been nice day :)







Selah finally warmed up to the idea of going into the water. She has been pretty afraid of it until now.

For Daddy

Dear Daddy,
I miss you here in Hawaii, but I sure am having lots of fun. Today, I went to the beach in the morning and played in the sand while mommy and Grandpa went snorkeling. Grandma let me eat sticks and sand and I smiled at everyone around us. I got pretty tired from crawling around in the sand and rocks, so mommy decided to take me home for lunch and a nap. I ate lots of food and slept for two hours! Even after that big lunch, I woke up really hungry and kept trying to tell mommy what was wrong but she couldn't figure it out. Once she gave me food, though, I was happy again and we went and played in the pool. I showed all of the neighbors how I can crawl in and out of the pool and I let mommy swim around with her hands under my belly so I could kick. Mommy didn't make me wear my bikini top and it sure felt good. After the swimming, I wanted to go crawl around outside, so mommy took me to the lawn. I crawled and crawled and then I remembered that there were stairs at the edge of the lawn, so I headed over there as fast as I could. I bet I did stairs for about an hour. Then I took a little rest and then I did stairs again while everyone else watched the sunset and looked for whales. I was so tired after all those stairs! I ate the biggest meal I think I have ever eaten and fell asleep in about 5 minutes. Mommy thought you might want to see some pictures of me from today, so here they are. Love you!

Here I am at the top of the stairs. I stole the show and everyone thought I was so cute going up and down and up and down.

I finally let Grandaddy love on me and give me hugs and kisses. I'm still pretty afraid of other gray-haired men, though, and I cried really hard today when one talked to me.

We bought Ahi Sashimi last night and made more sushi than we could eat--and it was delicious! We made 7 rolls and had fish leftover that we blackened and ate plain. Yum. Dad had never rolled sushi before and he got really into it.



If you look closely,you can see mom and dad hiding behind the roots of this massive baobab tree. We hiked about 14 miles yesterday on the Kapalua/Mahena ridge trail and my sweet Selah never fussed in the backpack.

Beach time!

Day 3 in HI

Today was a big day in Hawaii. Sleeping, breakfast, morning nap (Selah), snorkeling, beach picnic, afternoon pool time, wine/sunset time, shrimp dinner, now blogging. Whew! I am so tired :)

S didn't realize she had a flower behind her ear, so I had dad take some photos.


Trying to make her smile for said photos...

Checking out the Hibiscus.





Playing on the beach with Grandma.


Too cute after eating sand. She loves this place. It is just awesome to let her go wild outside, there is nothing she can't get in to or eat or break, she is just free.

Today's post for Mikey

That's a smashed tomato on her forehead, not blood. She ate dinner on the lawn tonight.

We hiked up Waihee Ridge Trail this afternoon. Check out the beautiful mist in the peaks behind us.

How S spent most of the hike :)

And the rest she spent like this.

Since Mike can't be here, he asked for a blog update each day. Here you go, babe!

Selah with her new friend Fin from next door. Fin is 2 and has a baby brother on the way. She loves Selah!


Grandma loves.


Grandpa loves.


35 years together and looking good!

Hawaii time

Selah and I are in Maui with my parents! For two weeks! Arrived last night and the 7 hour plane ride with an 11 month old was only slightly heinous. We started off in Aspen, where our flight was delayed by over an hour. Selah was happy despite not getting her morning nap. The delay got us to Denver with only a few minutes to get to our next flight. I had the diaper bag ready and Selah in the Ergo before the seatbelt light was off, and it's a good thing! I ran with her head a-bobbing and made it to the flight right as they were closing the doors. I was the last person on board and didn't care that my luggage would probably stay in Denver (it did) because I was going to Hawaii! The first thing I noticed when getting to my seat (3 rows from the back and everyone else was already seated) was that the woman next to me was wearing a Hawkeyes shirt. "You're from Iowa? Nice!" I knew I had friendly row-mates, a necessity for a transoceanic flight with an infant. It turned out that she and her husband had 3 kids including a 10 month old, all home with grandma, so they were very understanding. Selah did very well considering that she had to sit on my lap for over 7 hours on that flight alone, and that we traveled for about 12. But by the end of the trip, she was D.O.N.E. and screamed while I waiting in vain for my luggage to arrive. I never know what to say to the onlookers who think a.) you really should shut your kid up, geez, there are other people around, or b.) what have you done to make your kid so pissed, or c.) want to help in some way. She's a baby. Babies cry and it's just okay. Thankfully, the kid stayed up late enough to make the 4 hour time change and was normal and happy today.

Sweet Selah in her new sun hat.

Nudie beach time. She loved the sand but wasn't too sure about the water (a little cold and she's not used to the waves).

Mom and I trying to get her lifevest/swimsuit thing on.

Chilling out at the condo this morning. Dad took me on a nice walk early today to show me the scene of his rescue two days ago. He was out snorkeling and came upon a young couple that had been caught in a current without fins. They were in the process of getting sucked out to sea and the man had essentially rolled over and given up. The guy weighed over 200 pounds and dad managed to drag him back to shore and then went back for his wife.

Race Day

Mike, Selah, and I all raced this morning at America's Uphill, a 3267' climb over 2.5 miles from the bottom of Aspen Mountain to the top. With a 7am start, we woke up at 4:30 to make the drive. Caffeine is a beautiful thing. Mike ran a very respectable 52:42, taking 14th place in a very competitive field. I carried Selah in the Ergo and made the ascent in 1:14, good enough for 29th woman and 5th in my age group. It was so steep that I did not run a single step. The winner, Ricky Gates, ran an impressive course record in 40:26 and was apparently the only person to run the entire race. I decided to race last night and wasn't even sure they would let me with a baby on my back. Since Selah and I leave for Maui tomorrow morning, I wanted to be nice and sore for the day of sitting on the airplane. When I asked this morning if I could race with her, they shrugged their shoulders and said, "I guess so", so I went for it! Selah was bouncing, squealing, and laughing in my ears at the start, excited about all of the people and action. But the early morning caught up to her fast and she decided to take a snooze for the second half of the race. Fun day! Too bad I forgot to bring the Iphone for pictures!

I ended up having a pretty good week of training. Last week was absolutely crazy busy at work and I ran a total of about 8 miles the entire week. It left me feeling a bit stiff and slow at the beginning of this week, but I feel back to normal now. I am terrible about keeping a training log, but here is what I think I did:

Sunday: 20 miles with El and Ashley (they pushed the pace and it was HARD!)
Monday: rest
Tuesday: 7.5 miles, felt pretty slo
Wednesday: 6.5 miles in the morning easy, 7.5 miles fast in the evening
Thursday: hiked Red Mountain with Sari (who is 36 weeks pregnant AND was carrying her 2 1/2 year old)
Friday: 7 miles with El, felt fast, 10 mile bike ride with Mike and Selah
Saturday: Race, America's Uphill

for a total of about 56 miles, right on track for where I should be with my upcoming racing schedule. My weakness? I have yet to do a situp since having Selah and my core is still very floppy. The problem is that I DESPISE doing core work... I might just deal with floppy abs.

Bananas

Selah loves bananas. Yesterday we went out on a beautiful bike ride and went to the grocery store on the way home. When we got home and opened up the Chariot I discovered that Selah had taken one of the bananas purchased at the store, bitten into it and started eating it. It was pretty funny. Joy and I have both noticed how Selah loves to eat the peel as much as she likes to eat the actual banana.

Selah Swinging

I built a swing for Selah at the end of last fall and just recently Selah has begun to be able to use it. I helped by shoveling some snow out of the yard to help speed up the melting. Here's Selah, enjoying her swing:

Selah playing with blocks

She loves the Mega Blocks that we got for her:

Taking pictures of the girl is like trying to get dog treats out in front of a labrador. She crawls FAST and wants whatever is in my hands RIGHT NOW. Therefore, most of my picture progressions look like this:






In an effort to get a shot of her new bikini (we're getting ready for HAWAII!!), I distracted her with the phone and took a picture of her from behind:

Getting started early.

My Afternoon with Daddy

by Selah

I am so lucky to have a daddy that works part-time. Every day we get to play, play, play when he gets home from work. Typically daddy gets home around noon and we eat lunch and play before my afternoon nap. Today, daddy got home late because he was getting the car worked on so mommy put me down for my afternoon nap. She loves it when I fall asleep in her arms.

While I was sleeping daddy was working hard on our van. He's been working about an hour every day this week on figuring out why the battery wouldn't charge and installing a battery isolator so we can better run lights and charge stuff like laptops and phones in the van. I love our van and can't wait for our next road trip. It's been a long time since I've slept in it but mommy and daddy keep trying to make plans for a desert trip. I hope we do that soon. Daddy said he would have been done a lot sooner with the project but these stupid GM vans are crammed together and the electrical is way too complicated. Luckily he knows how to read the instructions but I still see him scratching his head a lot.

When I woke up from my nap my daddy was there waiting for me. I always smile when my daddy walks in after my nap and picks me up. I love seeing his face after a good, long nap. He had the car all packed up and ready to go. Once a week daddy goes to school in the afternoon to help kids with schoolwork and he often brings me along. I used to be really shy with the big high school kids but now I love to explore around the school. I can climb up and down the big stairs and I love crawling fast through the hallways and looking at the lockers. When the kids get out of class, daddy makes sure they don't step on me because they sure are tall. I can barely see their faces way up there!

Today daddy shut the door to his classroom because I kept leaving to go through the hallways. He put a sign on the door that said, "Please Come In. Door closed so the baby won't escape!" A lot of the high school kids like to come in and play with me. I don't know if they always get much work done but they love taking turns holding me and playing with me and I like to show off for them. Daddy says I "ham it up" for the kids by showing them how daddy and I play - he throws me in the air, bounces me on his knee like a horse and plays hide-and-seek.

After school we went to the community college for daddy's high school climbing club. Daddy has a bunch of kids that climb every week and they really like it. I like going because I get to "run" around a big gym and climb up and down on the climbing pads. I also like to eat the chalk the climbers use on their hands. Today I took one girl's chalk bag and dug my hand in deep, pulling the chalk out. Then, I put it in my mouth by the handful. Why? Because that's what babies do. Then, daddy tried to clean up all the chalk and he closed the chalk bag so I couldn't get anymore out. That's okay because I just licked it off the floor.

Daddy usually feeds me a snack and today I ate a whole banana and then some of daddy's Clif bar. I was hungry! Daddy brings toys for me but I mostly like to climb on the wall, reach in between the mats and touch the velcro with my fingertips and eat chalk. Oh, did I mention that already? Well, I really like to eat it. I also like to dump out people's chalk bags when they leave them unattended. It's kind of a funny joke but don't tell daddy - I like to pretend I'm just an innocent baby.

After climbing we went home. Mommy was at the hospital with a sick kid from her work so daddy and I got to play some more. I got a neat present the other day - a big bag of Mega Blocks. I like chewing on them, dumping them out and taking apart whatever daddy puts together. My other favorite thing to do right now is to chew on my books. I like to take whole bites out of them and eat it. I don't know why I like it, it's just something babies do I guess.

Daddy made me dinner but before dinner he tried to wash my face. I hate washing my face! Daddy said I looked like a coal miner because my face was all black with dirt from the climbing wall. I don't know what a coal miner is but I don't understand what the big deal is. I mean, God made dirt, so dirt can't hurt, right? For dinner I ate green beans with oatmeal, apple sauce and cheese. One of my latest things is to try to grab the spoon from daddy or mommy when it's full of food and then suddenly release it, spraying food all over the place. I don't really mean to do it but it just happens. I mean, can't a kid just use her own spoon?

After dinner daddy gave me a bath. I love playing with my rubber duckies, boats and a wind-up frog that swims in the tub. I don't like it when daddy tries to wash my face. Did I mention already that I don't like having my face washed? Well, I don't like it! Daddy does a good job of washing me and he likes to play games to trick me into letting him rinse me off. Just when I think he's playing boats with me he fills it up with water and dumps it over my head. Geez, the nerve of that guy! First, he insists on putting soap on me and then he tries to take if off. I tell you what, I just don't understand these adults sometimes.

One of my favorite things is when daddy takes me out of the bath and bundles me up in a fresh towel. It's one of the few times I ever sit still and cuddle with my dad. Daddy always warms up my room with the space heater before my bath is over so when he takes me in my room he lets me crawl around naked and finish drying off. I love being naked and being goofy! Then, he puts lotion all over. He says he wants me to have sweet, baby-soft skin. Then, it's into my pajamas. Tonight he put me in my dinosaur pajamas. Do you know what sound a dinosaur makes? I do: "Roar!" He he, I like that.

Daddy always lets me burn off some energy for bed so we play with toys, crawl around and be goofy. I love giggling. It's one of my new favorite things. Eventually, even I start to get tired so I let daddy read me some books. I love turning the pages and I'm very good at making sure we don't miss any pages. Daddy reads really fast, which is good, because I like turning the pages fast. After a while, I get tired of reading and daddy gives me a bottle. He dims the lights and rocks me while I drink. Daddy loves cuddling up with me in the chair and I love falling asleep in his arms. Sometimes he puts me to bed awake but he often likes to rock me all the way asleep and to keep rocking me for many, many minutes. Mommy told me he catches daddy just sitting there rocking me as I sleep, touching my cheeks, looking at me and feeling my hair. I like it that my daddy loves me so much, it's a pretty sweet thing.

Well, that was my afternoon with my dad. It was a pretty typical afternoon but maybe I'll tell you about other things we do later. Just the other day my daddy cleaned out and filled up the sandbox in the yard so I've been having a great time playing in the sun, feeling the sand in my hands and of course, eating it! Well, more on that later!