Zoo Days, Days with Friends

There is a lot in my life that is fun and blog-worthy lately, and I'm not doing a great job of keeping on top of it all. So here is a dump post of some fun things we've done over the past few weeks!

This year we have zoo passes! Yay! Brynn likes the animals, but her favorite thing is just putting her head between the stakes in all the fences. It doesn't really matter if there is an animal to look at or not. This wasn't even an exhibit. It was just a bridge.

Brynn refusing to share the water with me. 

I wanted to get a picture of her with the bear, but she didn't love the idea. 

There is an aviary in the Australia area where you can see the lorikeets. This is how Brynn feels about touching lorikeets: 

Up close and personal with one of our tiger friends. 

We also used a day on our Universal pass to go with our friends, Amanda and Declan and Aubrey and Truman! We had so much fun spending the day with them! 

Pack those babies in tight:  

Visit to the Hogwarts Castle. I am exposing her to magic early so that she will be sure to recognize her letter when it comes in a few years. It's not easy to be raised by Muggles! 

Goals and HARRY POTTER

So, I have been meaning to post about goals on here, but I also have been meaning to share pictures of our recent trip to Universal. So let's just do both at the same time, shall we? I wish I was more confident in my ability to blog more regularly...but I'm not.

Goals for 2017:

1. Have healthy habits!
Sometimes I eat too much junk. Okay, a lot of times I eat a lot of junk. After Thanksgiving, Greg and I came up with a little system to try to motivate us to be healthier. It's simple: for every 10 minutes you exercise, you get one point. For every treat you eat, you lose one point. When we save up enough points we're going to do something fun. We've come up with some totally arbitrary loopholes since then (chocolate milk does NOT count as a dessert) but overall it's working wonderfully. I want to really focus on building healthy habits this year, and I think I'm off to a good start. I've been eating better and running more often and it feels good.

It helps that Greg and I splurged and got FitBits for Christmas. Now the little man who lives on my wrist yells at me if I don't do all my hourly steps. So, you know, that's motivating.

2. Develop talents/work on hobbies
This might sound like kind of a silly one, but I'm really excited about it. I just kind of want to be a more well-rounded person who uses my time wisely. For Christmas I got a lot of quilting stuff, and I'm excited about it.

3. Be happy for people when good things happen to them
Okay, no judging here. It's hard for me to admit this but I am more accountable when I put some on my blog, so here goes. Sometimes I am not very good at celebrating with people when good things happen to them. I think partially this is rooted in the whole infertility experience, but, if I'm being honest, I think this is just a regular old character flaw for me too. School was really easy for me growing up. So was music. I expected to excel, and don't get me wrong, I always was willing to work hard too. But sometimes I think I just get weirded out when other people excel more or get something I don't have??? I know that makes me sound very, very petty. HEY, I'M WORKING ON IT, OKAY??

I just really want to get better at legitimately being happy for people when they are better than me at something or get something that I don't have. Actually I was on a quilting blog a couple weeks ago, and the lady out of the blue started talking about the concept of Abundance. This is the idea that there is plenty of success and happiness for everyone in the world. When somebody gets something--whether I have that thing or don't--it doesn't hurt me at all. Simple concept, right? Except for sometimes it's hard. So I'm working on it.

So, after all that heavy goal talk, here are some happy pictures of us in Universal last weekend. We went with some friends and had a lovely time, although it was rainy and much colder than we expected. Come on Florida, what are you trying to pull?

Weasley Wizard Wheezes in Diagon Alley 

Can you see the dragon on Gringotts?? 

The Knight Bus 

35 Books

I just decided to pop into my blog and decided it looked pretty neglected.

We spent two whole weeks in Idaho for Christmas. It was crazy fun. Maybe I'll get around to posting pictures sometime. We'll see. 

The last little while, I've been trying to articulate what goals I want to set for myself in 2017. That, of course, made me remember that I have two books I never blogged about from last year. AND I'M A PERFECTIONIST SO I'M GOING TO FINISH IT AND TELL YOU ABOUT THOSE DARN BOOKS. 

Seriously, though, it was great to focus a little bit more on reading. Maybe that seems like a silly goal, but it was important to me. When I see people that I admire, it always strikes me how involved they are. They have talents, skills, hobbies, passions. They take time to make things, improve themselves, learn things, serve people. I want to use my time on this earth wisely. I am NEVER going to look back and wish I watched more TV, or spent more time scrolling through social media. So while there are times to read and there are times to do other things, I'm glad I read this year. It was good. One step on the road to becoming an accomplished, involved person. It feels good. 

So, here are the last two books I read in December of 2016: 

Do you remember Ken Jennings? He's that guy who had a crazy long streak on Jeopardy back when I was in junior high or whatever. Yeah, I didn't remember him either. But guess what? He's hysterical. Extremely clever humor and I love that stuff. Back in 2015 I read Maphead, which was really a very entertaining book. It was nonfiction that was hilarious, interesting, light, and super informative all at the same time. So I was excited to read Brainiac, which was actually written before Maphead. It was all about trivia and the rise/fall of trivia in culture, and also sort of a memoir about his Jeopardy experience. I hate to say this, but it just isn't as good as Maphead. The sections about Jeopardy are interesting. What can I say? I like memoirs of any sort. The sections on trivia got boring for me after awhile. 

This book ^ was one of the best books I read all year. I would highly recommend it. It is a memoir from an African American man about his mother, who was white, and not only white, but raised as an Orthodox Jew. She left home and an extremely rough family situation and married a black man in the 1940s, a time when interracial marriage was still illegal in many states. When James asked his mother why she was white and he was black, she said she was only "light-skinned." When he asked her what color God was, she said "God is the color of water." There is something kind of beautiful about that. Water transcends color. Anyway, it was a great read, very sweet, very powerful, very eye-opening. 

So I just scrolled back to look at a little recap of all my book posts. Last year I read 35 books, plus a few more for my personal gospel study. Did a little research just due to curiosity...the mean number of books people read in some kind of study or something is about 20. Some well-readish people say they read 30-40, or around 50. Other fancy pantsy people read more. 35 seems kind of like a low number to me, but hey. I was reading. It was awesome. I found myself excited to write about the books I was reading and more optimistic about the fact that if I went to the library to get a book I had wanted to read for awhile, it would actually get read before I ran out of Renewals. I started lots of books I didn't finish, but that's okay I think. (Here's a secret: Sometime certain books are not worth finishing.) 

So hopefully I get around to blogging about my goals for 2017 soon. I like having the blog as accountability, so everyone has to read my boring inspiring self-improvement posts and LIKE IT. 

So Refreshing

Can you guess what Brynn is about to do here? 

Yeah, that's right. She's drinking the rainwater that has collected at the bottom of the slide. 

We try to head down to the little park in the complex as often as we can. Brynn likes the slide and climbing to the top by herself. She also likes eating bark chips, licking the various equipment, and, apparently, getting a little drink in this convenient reservoir. The good news is that this is Florida, and we don't have any shortage of rainwater reservoirs for little girls to play in/drink. 

Mostly I think she does it because I tell her no and she thinks it's funny. But seriously, look how happy she is. 

Don't worry, she gets nice and wet when she does it. 

Yesterday we left the park and headed for home after my many attempts to keep her from doing this seemed totally in vain. I put her down on the sidewalk and she promptly turned right around and ran back to the park.

How I love this naughty girl. 

Turkey Day Recap

Well, Thanksgiving has come and gone, and we had a great time! This year I am grateful that we are able to find ways to spend time with family. No matter where we live, we always make this a priority and I'm grateful we are able to have that. 

Greg's sister Megan flew in early in the week and went to Harry Potter world with Greg. Brynn and I were supposed to go, but Brynn had a cold she couldn't kick and I ended up taking her to the pediatrician for an ear infection that day. I missed hanging out with Greg and Megan--who we love and adore--but it was okay. Brynn is doing much better now! Although apparently she is allergic to amoxicillin. 

The next day we all drove to a cabin in West Virginia to meet up with two of Greg's brothers and their families. We had a fun time doing dinner together! 

The cooks! 

The spread! 

Thanks to my sister in law Calise, we all tie dyed (sp??) t shirts together. I discovered I am not very good at it. 

Little Brynn with cousin Patrick, her new best friend. 

Stephanie and Morgan put together a Minute to Win it competition. This is Greg trying to keep his balloons up in the air. We didn't get a picture of it, but I want everyone on the world wide web to know that I was one of only two people to put an oreo on my forehead and then get it in my mouth and eat it without using my hands. I feel like it's an important skill I didn't even know I had. 

As always, we played Settlers of Catan. Can you tell how much I love this game? This is my "My In Laws Are Too Hardcore For Me But I Love Them Anyway" Face. 

I Bought Brynn Some Boy Shoes

And it was on purpose, I might add.

I've had the hardest time finding shoes for her lately. She has gone through a crazy growth spurt and nothing fits. We just had her 15 month appointment yesterday, so I can say with confidence that she is now 31 inches tall and 22 lbs. She is not even in the shorty percentile anymore. 

Anyway, last weekend we lost one of the last non-church shoes that fit her in Orlando. She can't wear her too-small jellies all winter, even though I really, really love her jelly shoes. 

So I've been looking and looking, but it's been hard to find tennis shoes that weren't crazy expensive and/or impossible to get on her feet. I've been coming up blank. WHY IS IT SO HARD TO BUY KIDS' SHOES?!?!?!? AM I THE ONLY ONE WHO FEELS THIS WAY?!?!? 

Anyway, today I headed to Target with my little coupon I got in the mail determined to find something. I finally found a pair of brown mary janes that I thought could work, but oh yeah, we are going to West Virginia for Thanksgiving and Idaho Falls for Christmas and I think snow and mary janes don't mix so well. What do I buy for her, boots? Boots that I will never be able to get on her feet? I paced in the toddler shoe aisle for seriously what felt like hours. And then....

....I turned around. And saw the boy shoes. 

They were cheaper. They had her size. They were not mary janes. And, refreshingly, they were not obnoxious shades of silvery sparkles or hot pink glitter or My Little Pony purple. Seriously, why do we insist on dressing our little girls in such garish colors? It drives me insane. The boy shoes were a lot cuter in my opinion. People always say girls clothes are cuter, but I'm not so sure. 

I put the little navy blue shoes on her feet just to try them. She took off and ran around the store. She didn't care that they were in the boys' section. So I decided I didn't care either. And I bought them. 

I'm trying to decide if this is a manifestation of deeper things. My parents never signed me up for T ball or soccer, but I sure am going to sign her up. Go play sports! Or go be a ballerina if you want! Be a tom boy, be a girlie girl, I don't care! Just be confident and kind and things will work out. Be confident enough to wear boy shoes when you want and princess dresses the rest of the time, whatever. There are more important things to worry about. 

So...wandering around the store, I thought about all this stuff. Are these things I'm trying to teach her? Is this the best way to teach her? Should I feel bad about not dressing her in hot pink all the time? 

And then I thought, Meh. They're just practical shoes. I'm a practical girl. At least, when I'm not overanalyzing everything, then I'm practical. 

Anyway, she's so dang stinkin' cute, I think everyone would recognize my darling baby no matter what she was wearing. 

So there's all of my musings on gender roles and teaching confidence and whatever. And you thought this was just going to be a post about shoes. 

I Can't Think of Any More Titles About Books

I've got two very different selections for you today, friends. 

This was a cute memoir-type story from the country Queen. I actually don't know that much about Ree Drummond except for I like her recipe for chocolate pudding dessert. It's a quick, cute read, really sweet and funny.

The Light Between Oceans was a really powerful book. It was really hard to read for me at times. But, then again, reading about infertility and pregnancy loss can sometimes also be cathartic for me. It's about a lighthouse keeper and his wife who live alone on an island. They desperately want a baby, and one day a baby girl washes up to shore in a rowboat. The book explores love, despair, joy, making mistakes, and, most painfully, fixing mistakes. It's also sort of about trying to understand mistakes in the first place. I took a writing class at BYU, and one of the biggest things I remember my professor saying is that you have to torture your characters. What she meant is, the more complex the problems, the more complex the characters. Their decisions become more meaningful. I have never seen that technique so painfully illustrated as in this book. It is beautiful and just so sad at the same time. The ending was the only possible ending that made sense, but it was also heart-breaking. For all the beauty, this book leaves you feeling kind of empty. I'm not sure that's a bad thing. Life is like that, right? Beauty and difficulty have to coexist. Anyway, I would definitely recommend this one. Just make sure you are ready for something a little bit heavy. The book will wear on you, but it will be worth it.