4th of July Weekend

Amelia's blessing was over the 4th of July weekend so we had lots of fun with grandparents for the holiday. On the 4th we went hiking in the canyon and had a picnic. Then we hurried home as fast as we could and threw everyone in the tub due to a poison ivy scare. That night we had fireworks and s'mores in the backyard.

 On Saturday we went to Tucson to visit the zoo before picking Grandpa Shoaf up at the airport. Neil sprung for the giraffe feeding.

 Micah is obsessed with giraffes and we watch a lot of giraffe documentaries on Youtube because of it. But he wanted nothing to do with feeding that giraffe a carrot. He plastered himself to Neil to get as far away as possible.

After picking up Grandpa we took everyone to Five Guys for lunch. My family plus four grandparents makes for a very full table! Pretty sure we ate all of the fries though!

Summer Pool Fun

We have a lovely neighborhood pool that we like to frequent. When you live in the desert, you never go outside during the summer unless you are heading to a body of water. But with Amelia coming at the beginning of the summer, I knew we wouldn't be able to get there too often. There are just too many kids to keep an eye on. So we got a kiddie pool for the backyard so the kids could go out on the days that Neil couldn't take them to the big pool.

 This is how Micah crouches when he's cold and wet (even out of the bathtub). The other kids decided to follow suit.

 Madoc is big into making bows and arrows. Anything to get to play with a pocket knife!

 Micah with his beloved monkey towel.

 My in-laws came for the baby blessing and we all went to the big pool. Here's Micah with Grandpa Crapo.

 Sadie swims so well, but ONLY with her goggles.

 Charlotte requires lots and lots of floaties. She makes me nervous because she's so tiny she can slip right out of her ring.

 Neil delights in attacking, pestering, throwing, and just generally bedeviling the kids in the pool. They shriek and complain and tattle on him but I think they really like it. He has different names for his attacks like "the narwhal" and "the orca."

 The kids got snorkel gear in their Easter baskets this year. Madoc loves his and has worn a hole in his flipper.

 Grandpa attacking Micah. He thought it was pretty funny.

 Even Amelia joined us and took a nap with Grandma.

Amelia Pictures from June

 Amelia's first bath. She wasn't a fan but now she likes them.

 Don't let the sweetness deceive you. Charlotte has been a little devil and we have had to take many precautions to protect Amelia from her. She's calmed down a bit but she'll still take out her anger on her if she's mad at me.

 I finally got a picture of Amelia and me!

Look who showed up!

 After waiting and waiting, Amelia Rose was born on Father's Day. She was 21 inches long and weighed 7 lbs. 8 oz. She slept so well that night that we were the last of the three families at the birth center to wake up and leave despite her being born first.

Coming home and meeting everyone...

 Here she is at 7 weeks.

This week (at nine weeks) we went to the doctor and she weighted 10 lbs. 1 oz. The doctor isn't very optimistic that she'll double her birth weight at four months but she's just dainty and petite. She is by far the best baby I've ever had; I tell everyone that God decided to take pity on me with the fifth one! She sleeps like a champ, so much so that on some days it feels like we hardly see her. When she does wake up she's happy and content. If I need her to wait before I feed her she doesn't mind. She can sit in her chair or lay on the floor and just look around forever. When someone comes into view (especially Mom or Dad) she just lights up. She feels no need to suck on anything, be it pacifier or fingers or anything else, and she never lingers over feedings. I absolutely love all of her long, dark hair and her dark blue eyes (I think they're not going to change). She is just the most peaceful, content baby ever!

The End of Australia

On Tuesday in Cairns we drove to Babinda Boulders. It was another lovely rain forest walk with beautiful granite rock formations in Babinda Creek. It reminded us a lot of Johnson's Shut-Ins in Missouri, only bigger, deeper, faster, and more deadly. A lot of people drown there each year when they ignore all the guard rails and signs and go into the water just to be pulled under by the current.

 There was a wide, shallow, slow moving swimming hole upstream from the boulders. We swam with a lovely woman who was a doctor on holiday. There were also a couple of men who were snorkeling up the creek and we couldn't figure out how they were doing it with the water so cold. I think this may have been the night that we got back to town early and went to see Monument Men at the movie theater. Yes, we go half way around the world to go to the movies without kids.

 On our last day in Cairns I was really ready to put the rain forest behind me and try something new. Neil agreed to try the crocodile farm and low and behold he loved it! We stayed the ENTIRE day. I was exhausted but I couldn't drag him away!

First was a boat ride around the river to see the crocs and nests. The driver told awful jokes and tempted the crocs with chicken. After that we watched a demonstration and feeding.

 Here is Neil with his chicken head which he fed to the fresh water crocs. They're really small and pretty harmless.

 This croc was born with no tail. It's a pretty common birth defect but they don't survive in the wild. We saw this on a tour of the farm.

 We went to a croc show and a snake show where Neil took a ton of pics of both. Why, I have no idea. (Because the snake below is an inland Taipan, one of the most venomous snakes in the world and I thought Bret would get a kick out of it.)

 And again with the fuzzy marsupials. I was trying to go home and kept having to stop on the path to wait for Neil because he would find yet another animal that he needed to feed or pet.

The next day we returned our car and flew home. Interestingly, security in Australia is way more lax than in the US. The Malaysian flight disappeared the day we arrived in Australia so I was worried security might be more of a problem. But we flew to Cairns and then back to Sydney without anyone ever checking our ID. At the gate to get on our flight to LA they had a special security screening for just that flight. Every time you went to get a drink or go to the bathroom you had to show your ID again to get into the US flight gate area.
And that's it! We loved it and would love to go back but we probably won't as there are so many other awesome places we want to go to. I did figure out that two weeks away while pregnant and with little ones at home was more than I wanted but by the time we go away for two weeks again they'll all be big!