Chocolate

Tomorrow is my last day of work before I'm on vacation! Woohoo!!! My last official vacation was last year Labor Day. Way too long ago! We are so excited for camping, Ashlyn is becoming a champion camper. This will be her third camping trip this year already. I can't wait to sit by a campfire, make a smores and catch up with all of my family!

This last weekend we gave Ashlyn her very piece of chocolate. Yeah, I know, deprived child! Jered was eating a Hershey's bar that was left over from our camping trip a couple of weekends ago and she wanted a bite....

Taking my first bite. I don't really like to try new things......

but this one turned out pretty good!

Ummmm, chocolate is yummy

Chocolate=Happy

Mmmmmmmm

More please????

Mama wouldn't give me any more chocolate. I did this for a good five minutes and neither her or Daddy would give me any more. No matter how loud I got, and I can get LOUD!!!

Honeyman here we come :o) Camping news and pictures coming up next week......Happy 4th of July and Happy birthday to my Grandpa in Canada. We love you!!!

Camping, family and more camping.....

We had an awesome camping last weekend! I had Friday off so we woke up, had breakfast, packed the car and left. We were at Breitenbush by 2pm and had our stuff unpacked, the tent set up and were relaxing by the fire. Aahhh, so relaxing! It was two and a half days of relaxing.Ashlyn got to play in the dirt with Nolan, I've never seen her so dirty. She fell down quite a bit, cried a lot and had a blast! Jered did a little fishing, was totally unsuccessful. Laurie and I stayed in camp with the two kids when the guys fished. It was nice to have girl/mom talk. We cooked over the campfire, had smores every night, drank beers and wine. Another successful Kacalek family camp out at Breitenbush. Three years running, its become an annual camp out.

It was nice to have a three day weekend, but it was back to work Monday. I love working 10's and this week I had Thurs off. Kari is down at Glady and Floyd's housesitting while they're in North Dakota for a wedding. We hadn't seen Kari and Grace since Easter so it was so good to see them.Grace has changed so much, she's aware and curious and loves looking around. Ashlyn didn't know quite what to make of her though. Ashlyn had a blast running around the property looking at all the flowers, yard ornaments, swinging on the swing, climbing the stairs of the deck and whatever else she could get into. It was a great afternoon made even better because Aunt Jody, her husband Dave and cousin Jillian joined us for dinner.

This weekend we're just relaxing, watched USA lose in the world cup this morning. Doing a little yard work and mostly getting ready to go camping next week. I get off at 3pm on Wed, Jered will have the Envoy packed and ready to go when Ashlyn and I get home from work and we'll take off. Hopefully we'll be at Honeyman by 7:30-8:00pm! We're camping Wed to Mon and have been checking the weather reports daily. I'm keeping my fingers crossed for a nice, sunny 4th of July camping trip. The sunny, warm ones are few and far between but that doesn't stop us from having a great time every year.

Here are few pictures from the last week.....

 Just got out of the bath tub, my favorite part of the night! Daddy always lets me play peek-a-boo with Mama with the towel.

Playing with Paul's hat. Paul is Uncle Jim's friend that came camping with us.

Lounging, drinking my milk

Sitting on Daddy's lap, watching the fire

Giving my sister a hug

Walking in the grass

it's a lot different than just walking on the pavement. I didn't really like how it tickled my legs.

It was really fun at Great-Grandma's house checking out all the flowers and yard decorations. I had a great time looking at EVERY thing!

Daddy took me on the tree swing and I LOVED it!

Cheese!!!

I can do the stairs all by myself. I don't need your help unless its MY idea

Yes I really am this cool

So its not exactly tomorrow....better late than never!

I love being outside! and I love this red chair.

I could carry this chair everywhere when were camping.

Timothy Lake-beautiful!!!

Daddy went fishing in the kayak, he caught lots of fish but he threw them all back.

I was steering the stoller at the zoo!

Riding the pony ;o)

Giving Great-Grandma hi fives!!

Coloring pictures at my favorite table at Great-Grandma's house

Sitting at the table like a big girl at my Great Grandma K's. I wasn't  supposed to be chewing on these keys :o)

No more OT, camping and zoo animals....

I'm all done with OT!! Yay! Last night was my last shift. I worked my regular shift then went back at 11pm until 7am this morning. I got home and went straight to bed. Jered was up with Ashlyn, keeping her entertained so I could sleep.

When I finally crawled out of bed about 1pm we got ready and took Ashlyn to the zoo. Her very first trip to the zoo! She was amazed by the animals, she looked and looked. She waved HI! Hi! and then Bye Bye! when we would leave the exhibit. So cute. We rented a zoo stroller and it had a little steering wheel on it so she could "steer". Lots of fun!

Last weekend we went camping at Timothy Lake in Mt Hood. Ashlyn had a blast being outside for two days straight. We had beautiful weather on Saturday! The sun was shining, the sky was blue, we could see Mt Hood over the lake. Lots of fun! We were sure happy we had Mom and Eddie's camper trailer when it started raining Saturday night. It was pretty wet packing up Sunday morning but at least we didn't have a wet tent to roll up. 

Ashlyn has been growing and changing almost daily it seems. She is such a little person these days with her very own personality. She is very independent and likes to do things for herself. She doesn't want to hold hands when we go for walks, but this one is non-negotiable. She's thrown a few fits over this one but its either hold hands or no walk. Her vocabulary is expanding all the time. She can say quite a few words and has signs for most of them as well. She says Mama, Mommy, Daddy (one of her favorites to yell as loud as she can), hello, hi, bye, milk, more, wa-wa (water), peez (please), ball, all done, uh oh, no, night night, down, up, Grandpa, Grandma, Grammy (these ones we still have to prompt her with), eio (this means she wants you to sing Old McDonald), row-row (this one is for Row Your Boat), puppies, Tor-Tor for Tori, nothing yet for Sinder. She copies any and everything you say or do She still loves to be outside and got as dirty as I've ever seen her this last weekend camping. She sat right down in the dirt to play. At first she didn't like it on her hands but she soon got over it. She really wanted to play in the lake, but it was a little cold for swimming. She still loves listening to music, singing songs and dancing. She loves her puppies and gives them hugs all the time. Unless they run away from her, which they do a lot. She missed them a lot last weekend, they stayed with Grammy and Grandpa when we camped. She gave them big hugs as soon as they got home! One of her favorite things to do is to pull of her books out of her bookcase and the dvd's too. So now we're teaching her how to put things back.She loves books, she'll bring you a book and so up, more or peez to get you to read it to her.

She'll officially be a Duckling on July 19th! In the Duckling classroom they get to go outside a lot more, they take them on walking field trips through the hospital and if the weathers nice to a nearby park. They let them draw and paint and do lots of messy projects. Her teacher Robyn already warned me not to send her in her best clothes. They try to have all the kids on the same schedule and my lunch hour falls during nap time so I won't be visiting her anymore at lunch. She has to sleep on a cot which is going to be a transition for her. She's still in her crib at home and we plan to keep her in it for a while longer. She's been visiting the Ducks off and on for a while and she loves it. She never cries when they take her down there like a lot of the kids do. When we I pick her up from her Dragonfly class she wants to go down the hallway towards the Duck class instead of out to the garage. Robyn tells me she holds her own with the kids that are a little older than her too. She'll just keep growing and learning and all we can do is enjoy every minute of it!

I'll have zoo and camping pictures tomorrow.