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.

Pictures....

Hey can I see that camera??

Mama and Daddy took me out to breakfast, I'm just waiting for my eggs!

Daddy needed my help fixing the squeak on the rocker.

He let me play with his wrenches.

I love my sister Sinder, she gives me lots of kisses and doesn't care when I crawl all over her.

Daddy brought this chair down from the attic the other day and its my new favorite spot! Mama and Daddy bought this chair for my cousin Bailey a long time ago when they still lived in California. They got it at costco and when they got home they realized there were two chairs in the box so they've been carrying it around for 6 or 7 years, just for me!!

I painted this butterfly they other day at school. Isn't it pretty??

I know its been a while since my last update. I'm still working one double a week, and I'm getting pretty tired of it. There is light at the end of the overtime tunnel though! I'm working a 12 hour shift Memorial day, then my usual 16 hour shift on Tues, then I'm working a grave yard shift on June 7 and that's all. There isn't any more overtime in my near future!

Actually I've got some days off for camping coming up. We have three camping trips already planned. Our annual 4th of July camping with the Ballards in Florence of course. We're planning five nights and we're both really looking forward to it. Its always a good time! It'll be a whole new world for Ashlyn. I'm a little nervous about the camp fire and I know Grammy will be a nervous wreck the whole week we're there. But with all the people that will be around I'm sure Ashlyn will be fine. I'm hoping to take our bikes, still trying to figure out how we'll get them down there.I'm keeping my fingers crossed for nice weather so we can take Ashlyn to the lake and hopefully do at least one day at the beach. I can remember like maybe two or three sunny, non-windy days at the Oregon coast in my life time. I'm anticipating lots of sandy diapers!

Our first camping of the season begins next weekend. We're cheating a little bit though; we're borrowing the camp trailer from Mom and Eddie. We're going up to Timothy Lake near Mt Hood and they've been getting a lot of snow lately. Then the weekend of June 19th we're going camping with Jered's aunt, uncle and cousins. This will be our third year camping with them and its always a lot of fun. Usually we go up around Breitenbush River but this year we're thinking about Odell Lake. I don't think any decisions have been made yet. I've also got a few days off  towards the end of July that we're hoping to go camping again too.I'm off Mondays in July and I traded with a girl at work that has Fridays off in July. This way we both get a four day weekend. Pretty genius, I know! Ashlyn should be a camping pro by the end of the summer.

Jered got laid off a couple of weeks ago. He's had one interview and applied for a couple of jobs. We're keeping our fingers crossed that something good will come up. He officially has his own survey business with his friend Justin. If you know anyone that needs a survey done, send them to Shamrock Surveying LLC.  :o)  I have to be honest and say that its been great having Jered home for the last couple of weeks. He did a TON of work in the yard last week. We had a bbq for my student at work last weekend and the yard looked amazing. If we ever get some nice weather, he'll be able to stain the deck and then it'll look like a brand new house. Last night I came home to a clean house! He took Ashlyn down to Woodburn on Thurs to see her great grandparents and he was able to help his Grandpa with their deck. If it weren't for the that whole lack of paycheck thing, I'd love to have a house husband on a more permanent basis! In two weeks he was able to do work around the house that would've taken us numerous weekends to get done.

For now we're keeping Ashlyn in her daycare. Its good for her and she enjoys it. She's excited in the mornings when I drop her off, which makes it so much easier for me. Usually on Mondays when she's been off for two days she hardly cares that I'm leaving, its hard to get a goodbye hug. She loves playing with her friends there and she loves her teachers. We had a parent teacher conference the other day and she's doing awesome of course. Smartest kid they've ever seen! Genius levels of course!! She'll be moving up to the next class soon. I heard on Friday that it'll probably be around July 19th. Not sure yet if she'll be a Bunny or a Duckling. I'm hoping for Duckling, Go Ducks!! Plus her teachers from when she was a Ladybug are now the Duckling teachers. She visited the Duckling class on Friday and when I went to pick her up she was not ready to go home. She wanted to show me all the new stuff she was getting to play with. I'm sure she'll be fine when its time to transition. It'll be hard on Mom though, I won't see her at lunch anymore once she moves up. My lunch falls right at her nap time in the new class. We all have to grow up though, even Mom.

A few pictures to tide you over for a while......

I'm doing my chores.....helping Mama swiffer the floors.

I loved the snow! I really loved running around in it, but it was real cold in my hands.

I liked watching the dogs jump around in the snow too, they were funny!

I was real tired yesterday. I passed out about 5pm and didn't wake up until this morning.

Mama said I'm a little tornado because I twist and turn and kick my feet  when I sleep.