First Hair Cut

Samantha got her first haircut on Monday this week. I was debating whether she should have bangs (or fringe, as they say here), or whether we'd let it grow out. Those front pieces were just getting long enough to hang in her eyes or be clipped back. She settled the decision herself, by her successful attempts at pulling out ANYTHING and EVERYTHING I ever try to put in her hair... bows, barretts, ribbons, clips, ect. They all come out in a matter of minutes. So, she now has bangs, and we'll continue to work on leaving hair accessories in the hair. She wasn't too keen on modeling the new do, but I did get a couple of pictures just before putting her to bed Monday night...
I added a couple other cute shots from the last few weeks, just for show. Here she is trying on my Norwegian hat. She wore it around quite awhile last week.
Samatha's started doing a funny little grin when she thinks she's being especially clever and cute. She scrunches her cheeks and squints her eyes and giggles. Hard to catch on the camera, but here's the tail end of the scrunchy cheeks face...
Last night Sam bit her tongue trying to climb down from the table. It was bleeding and she was crying, so Mom fixed it all better by giving her an ice cream sandwich...

Weekend Road Trip!

Since we didn't have church meetings this weekend, and General Conference airs so late over here, Brian and I decided it would be a nice time to get away. We found a good hotel deal in Preston, near the west coast, and took a little road trip Saturday and Sunday. The place we stayed was this fabulous Marriott in an old restored house. They had a great pool and grounds so we let Samantha walk around, and we had family swim time before watching conference and putting Sam to bed (in the pack-n-play in the bathroom, ha!).

The next morning we went over to Blackpool on the coast and walked along the pier and boardwalk. Blackpool was designed as an amusement center town -- including its own Eiffel Tower, back in the early 1900s. It's since lost some of its charm and now seems to be a hangout for the uncouth youth of Britain. Brian was tempted to nickname it the white-trash capital of the country.

After that we picked some spots we wanted to visit for the afternoon, and set off for a place called Styal Mill and Quarry. It was an old cotton mill, still in operation with machines from way back when, charting the progress of the cotton industry. Brian really enjoyed all the machinery, but Samantha thought it was too loud. The part she liked best was the fact that strollers weren't allowed in the building so she basically got to "roam free" for an hour. Here she sits on a huge cotton bale, just like down in Dixie...
Our next destination was the grand finale for me. Yes, some of you Jane Austen fanatics may recognize the house in the picture below or the quote: "I don't think I've ever seen a place so happily situated. I like it very much indeed."

That's right, we went to Pemberly! For those not in-the-know, Pemberly is the fictitious estate of the celebrated Mr Darcy in Jane Austen's 'Pride and Prejudice.' Naturally, there's not a real Pemberly, but this house -- called Lyme Park -- was featured in the 5-hr A&E film version of Pride and Prejudice as Mr Darcy's home. Lovely place! Below, Samantha's dancing in front of the steps Darcy raced down when he went chasing after Elizabeth when they accidentally met at Pemberly.
Here's the front of the house, which isn't in the movie much. Sam loved that big grassy court in the front, and resisted getting back in her stroller after being free to roam about that big area! We visited the inside of the house, too, but no pictures allowed.
Here's my attempt to catch all three of us in front of the reflecting pool...
Brian's attempt was much better, don't you agree??
After our visit to Pemberly, we took a scenic bypass through the Peaks District on the way home, listening to a session of conference that we had downloaded onto the computer. (Sam screamed a lot during this portion of the trip, making us mildly concerned about our upcoming travel plans, hmmm...) We got home to listen in on the 9pm session and the end of conference. What a nice, fun weekend away!

La Alhambra, Grenada

The main reason for posting more pictures of Spain is to get to these most amazing photos of The Alahambra Palace in Grenada. We spent most of an entire day visiting this place, and found it so fascinating and beautiful. The oldest parts were built in the 9th century, and a grand palace was built in the 13th century as a home for the king and his family. It was the last stronghold of the Moorish people before the Spaniards conquered the region. The photos don't even begin to capture the intricate detail and creative architecture. Here are some highlights...
Brian is standing underneath a huge door, intricately carved in wood.
The whole palace complex had pools, fountains and streams running throughout. It all operated on a complex hydrolics system, bringing water to the entire royal family and the many servants. They've restored it as it was when the palace was in operation. None of the streams or ponds makes noise... designed to be silent, while constantly running.

For the picture below, we waited and waited for the people around this archway to move out so Brian could take one of just us (Sam's fast asleep under my coat in her stroller) and the cool engravings. Well, neither turned out very clear, so I'm not sure it was worth the wait. But let me tell ya, in person it was spectacular to see... orange trees out the window and everything.
A veiw of the city of Grenada, from one of the palace balconies.
If I look cold, it's because I was. They don't heat these old palaces from the 1300s, if you can imagine!?!? Ah, but look at the details on the wall!! Most of the palace had carvings that would have been painted like this way back when. It was gorgeous, the parts they've restored.

Sam was a very happy girl after taking a two hour nap in her stroller. She loved walking along the paths holding our hands. It was hard to take her stroller up the stairs in the towers, so with most of them we took turns going up to see the view, one of us staying on the ground with Samantha.
Views from the top...
Quite the watch tower, no?

Back to Spain... more picts

Remember back when we were moving, I said I had more pictures from our trip to Spain? Well, I still have them and I'm finally getting around to posting some of them, even though they're now VERY old news. That doesn't mean they're any less beautiful and interesting, right? So, here are some more memories from our trip to Grenada, Malaga, and Cordoba, with little commentary:

CORDOBA

Oranges in January!! I tasted an orange that I stole off a tree. It was extremely bitter... apparently they are not ripe in January, even if they are orange.

We toured a fabulous villa, set up as a family would have lived in the 1300s. It was gorgeous, with a waterfall courtyard right in the middle of the house! Brian loved this artsy shot of me reading papyrus poetry in the mirror.


RHONDA

Rhonda is a picturesque little village set at the top of a winding gorge. We drove up winding, cliffside roads for an hour to get there. Sam, of course, loved the park at the top of the overlook. The other children were so cute, helping her on the slides and taking turns with her. Rhonda has its own bullfighting arena and is said to be the bullfighting capital, who knows? Here's the bridge over the gorge, built sometime in the 1700s, I think. The picture doesn't do it justice for how deep that gorge is!
We ate at a little restaurant where the waiter took Sammie's bottle of baby food, warmed it on the stove, and brought it back in a china bowl! Posh!

MALAGA and SPANISH COUNTRYSIDE

I already showed you the gorgeous view from our hotel in Malaga, way back when. Did I mention how much Sam loved our balcony? She would step outside and yell whenever she got the chance. But she hated the beach and the water... cried the whole time we were there, both times.

This is an olive grove. They were everywhere, as we drove along. I got really curious about how they harvest olives and came home and looked it up online. They have a big machine that shakes all the olives from the trees and then they gather them off the tarps they spread on the ground to catch them. At least that's what I read. If you look close at the second shot, they're growing olives all the way up the steep hillsides!

This is Santa Clause. No joke. We saw several different Santas on the sides of people's houses, and some for sale in the stores too. I guess if you don't have lights to decorate, at least you can get a Santa. Also notice the blanket doors. We couldn't decide whether they hid the wooden doors underneath to keep the cold air out, or whether the blanket was the door??
How many of you have seen Nacho Libre? Well... Chancho?

In the meat section of the grocery store, you can buy your own smoked pig leg... hoof and all!

GRENADA

We happened into Grenada on yet another holiday weekend! They had lights and music and fireworks and a parade just at the end of the block from our hotel. We watched the parade for a few minutes... they were floating along to "Praise to the Lord the Almighty" sung by Mormon Tabernacle Choir, seriously! The Mack Wilberg rendition! It was on repeat. Sam hated the parade because of the confetti fireworks, so we didn't stay too long.

In conjuntion with the holiday, they were selling these round cakes with toys baked inside as a special treat for kids. Brian bought one, but it was very bland and we didn't eat much of it. The toy inside was soggy, if I remember right.

Just a weekly update

Not too much to report this week. Our camera batteries died and Brian's the one who normally recharges them. Well, he's been working like a .... very devoted husband and father... and only realized he was remiss in this duty when I brought it to his attention last night when he came home at midnight. Hopefully that is a tolerably suitable explanation for the lack of pictures in this little blog.

So, I'll try to capture some highlights of the week, in bullet format for y'all:

• A very funny youtube video, for those who haven't already seen it. This one goes out to all you Moms with minivans, called "Mom My Ride": http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HEFE3B0Rje0
• I made some very good tomato soup from scratch this week, full of peppers, onion, celery, garlic, and just enough olive oil to taste. I garnished it with fresh cilantro and sour cream (they call it soured cream over here, just emphasizing that the cream is actually soured, I suppose.)
• I also made some really nice curried carrot soup that exploded in the blender all over my kitchen, just hours after I had scrubbed all the floors on my hands and knees! Lucky for me, there was enough left after the explosion to take to the family who was having a new baby this week.
• Book club this month was successful -- that is if you call four people sitting around talking about "Jane Eyre" successful. I do! Especially since a very thoughtful friend watched Sam so I didn't have to bring her along.
• We have reservations at a hotel near the Lake District for tomorrow night, so we can enjoy a relaxing G.C. weekend, watching the sessions (which air at 5 and 9 pm here) from a cosy hotel room, taking in some walks and drives in the country and some swims in the pool in our spare time. yay!
• One week from right now, we'll be in the air somewhere over the Medditerranean Sea (and who knows how to spell that Mediterrrrranneenana word, anyway?) descending to Cairo in just over an hour!
• Brian said he'd be home by midnight tonight, which means I should see him in just 20 minutes! Very exciting, I assure you!

That wraps up the highlights of my week. If I posted highlights from Samantha's perspective, we might get some of the following:

• This week I learned that if I push my highchair toward Mom or bring her the tray and my bib, she will feed me. Mom seems to respond better to this approach than to my constant reaches toward food items on the counter that she pushes out of my view as soon as I reach for them.
• Mom let me walk all the way home from the park around the corner, except for that one part when we were almost home and I refused to hold her hand and she picked me up even though I was screaming for her to let me down again. At least she didn't put me back in the stroller.
• I've successfully persuaded Mom and Dad to keep EVERYTHING off the kitchen table. I kept climbing up to give them hints that there was too much stuff on that table, and they finally obliged. It looks so much cleaner now with nothing on it, thank goodness.
• I learned that Mom does NOT want my help when she's changing my diaper. Rude.
• The washing machine is the best place to hide toys and things. If I'm lucky, Mom won't notice, and she'll wash my toy items -- like the AA batteries she washed this week for me.
• It's probably better not to wave goodbye to Daddy, because almost every time I do, it seems like he doesn't come back for a verrrry long time.
• When Mom is in the shower, I can do WHATEVER I WANT... that includes eating half a box of raisins (like today), tearing apart a bookshelf (like yesterday), and rifling through the mail (like earlier this week). I'm glad she allows me these three minutes of free time to explore my surroundings.
• I'm going for a record in the afternoon nap department. Wednesday it was from 1pm to 5pm. Maybe next week I'll try for four and a half hours?

Well, folks, as you can tell, we're doing well over here. Hope everyone else is doing fine, too.

One Year and Counting...

Samantha had her one year developmental check up with the doctor yesterday. I know, we're a bit late on this one. What, with our move, our trip home for Christmas, our trip to Spain, etc, it was hard to book an appointment. Then it took three times going down there to get the right appointment at the right time with the right doctor. (They messed up the first two times, not me.)

Soooo... our girl is growing up, just as we suspected! At 15 months and 1 week, she weighed in at 21 pounds and nearly 1 ounce. According to The Charts (I'm so curious to know exactly WHO designed The Charts and how?!), she's right below the 50% mark, which means she's completely average in her weight. Her height -- 32.6 inches -- is at 98%, meaning we've got a very TALL girl on our hands! No wonder she's already climbing every chance she gets... she can finally see over the furniture. (Aside: Sam hated being measured and weighed! She cried and kicked almost as hard as when she got her shots last month. She must have remembered the shots, since it was the same doctor and room, poor girl!)

Since we don't have a lot of new pictures to share right now, I thought I'd include a little group of photos from her first year and three months... enjoy!