Our Cutie Girl

Little Samantha is such a joy to us! I just wish we didn't live so far from friends and family, so you all could get to know her and enjoy her sweetness like we do. Today is an important day for Sammie. Other than it being Randi's birthday, it's also the day Sam officially cut her first tooth! We could sorta tell it was coming up yesterday, but today we could feel it and even hear it, when I put a metal spoon in her mouth.

In addition to the new tooth, today is also big because Sam stood all by herself for the first time (other than really quick fall-over times). She was up for more than five seconds, just hanging out in the middle of the living room floor. Yay Sammie!


Sammie's other new big thing lately is that she can climb the stairs!! She goes up, up, up all by herself (whether or not Mom is in position to help her if she gets in trouble... scary!). She looks like such a big girl, climbing the stairs.


She also loves her bath! Our new bath routine is that I get the water started, then let her stand up next to the tub watching it fill, while I get her clothes off. She gets so excited, and tries to climb over the edge to get in faster. Tell me if anyone is offended by nudie Sammie picts. I just think they're so funny and cute.

Visiting a dear friend

Samantha and I took a little road trip up north last week, to visit one of my mission companions, Mary Walker. She lives in charming West Yorkshire, in some of the most beautiful countryside I've seen. Rolling hills, green grass, sheep, and stone fences the order of the day. I loved best all the little stone cottages and medieval churches in each valley.



Mary gave us a wonderful driving tour of the area, including a lovely lunch at her one of her favorite inns, and a scenic walk by a lake. Samantha got to do a little dip in the lake, even though it wasn't the warmest day. She didn't seem to mind the cold and would have gone diving in head first if I hadn't been holding on tightly.

Sammie had her first ride in a real swing, with some steadying by Mary. She loved it! At first she was a little hesitant, but then she really got excited about it.

Sammie really enjoyed being at Mary's house. She loved all the new things to play with, and was especially impressed with her stroller. I took this shot just before she realized she was stuck and started hollering.

Out and About in Cambridge

A couple of weeks ago, a group of us took a little train ride to Cambridge for the day to see the city. It was a fun day out on the town -- four friends, three and a half (or more) kids, and a gorgeous sunny day.


Cambridge has several old-school colleges and universities that are pretty prestigious. We took some pictures of some of the old buildings and walked along their charming little cobbled streets, shopping for souvenirs and market goods.



The best part was a boat ride that we took down the river. Our guide told us all about the history of the colleges and the buildings we were seeing. We really enjoyed watching Samantha... she REALLY enjoyed the ride! She spent most of her time hanging over the edge, dangling her hands in the water. Unfortunately, I didn't get any great pictures of her in action, but imagine me holding on to her for dear life while she tried escaping over the side! Cutie.


Her namesake (heehee), Samantha Jr. -- as we sometimes call her -- was giving lots of good smiles on the way home, but I didn't catch one on the camera.

More lovely Austria pictures

Okay, so this post was supposed to immediately follow our "Where's Sammie" post from Austria. I just thought it'd be of interest to some of you to know we DID take pictures that didn't include our baby. Actually, the city is so gorgeous, and we really enjoyed looking around...


Here (below) are some shots of the royal opera house. We took a nice long tour where they told us all the architectural details. Umm... I don't remember them. But it was a really beautiful building.


All dressed up to go to the show! Unfortunately they didn't have a baby costume for Sammie to try on. But hey, Brian and I were in style, eh?

Here's Brian and Samantha backstage at the operahouse. It was one of the biggest stages in the opera world, or something like that. They were getting ready for a big production that night, which was fun to see all the equipment.

The highlight of our trip was probably our visit to Schonbrunn Palace. It was MASSIVE! We took a tour of the inside. Apparently Mozart gave a concert to the queen in one of the rooms of the palace when he was only six. That was a fascinating tidbit.


Just to give an idea how big the whole palace and grounds are... In this picture (below) I'm standing right in front of the back side of the palace, facing the grounds. The facade you see waaaay back in the background is the bottom end of the garden. We took the following picture from the top of that facade!

Looks like a postcard, doesn't it?

And here's the LDS Chapel in Vienna. We really liked the layout of the building. They had a ward in English that we attended. Because Samantha was dressed in that little Austrian dress, they thought we were Austrians -- new members.

I was impatient when Brian was taking this shot. He kept waiting for other tourists to clear out so he could get a shot with JUST the statue. I have to admit, it turned out pretty nicely. And, come to find out it's a statue of someone famous, like Hayden or Beethoven or someone. (Nice, how I'm so hazy on the finer details of things, eh?)

Another oddity... This house is famous for its funky architecture and bright, wild colors. It's hard to tell from the photo, but nearly all the windows are different shapes and sizes, and it looks like the floors must change levels throughout the building from room to room. It's called something like the WunderHasser. (I really did know the name, when we first came home.)

That's all for now, folks. It was a fun trip and we really enjoyed the break away from normal life and details.

Back on track

It's been awhile. Please forgive. Our phone line was down for nearly a WEEK!! (Which also meant our internet connection was gone.) I guess it's been hard to get back into the swing... amazing how I feel like I just CAN'T LIVE without internet, most of the time. Then one week without proves me wrong, to the point I hardly even log on to check email. How weird.

Anyway, I hope to get some more pictures up soon, and a good update, to boot. We've been out and about, so we might have some fun stuff worth sharing. Stay tuned for more from the Bishops in London...