Krysta Martinez: May 2013

Tuesday, May 21, 2013

Camping Capers

A few years ago, I began a tradition of getting my family together to go camping annually. My mom, Uncle Mark, and my brothers and sister all get together, pitch a village of tents and have a good time. Last year we didn't get to go since Vivian and I both had newborn babies, so we were excited to take our little ones camping for the first time this year. We usually camp at the beach, the past two times being at a campground in Henry Cowell Redwood State Park near Santa Cruz. This year I really wanted to go back to one of our favorite spots, Montana de Oro State Park (where I have camped all my life) but unfortunately I waited too long to make our reservation and the campground was full. After desperately searching for a seaside campground to no avail, Brent suggested camping at the Wishon Point campground at Bass Lake in the Sierra Nevada Forest. I figured if I already didn't get to go to my campground of choice, I might as well go with what someone else wanted to do. I'm glad we agreed to go to Bass Lake. It was our first time camping there and we had a great time. The weather was perfect in the mid 80s, it only takes just over an hour to get there, the campground was quiet, our double campsite was large enough to accommodate our group of 10 adults and 4 cars and was fairly secluded. It was also just a short walk to the lake and you could even see a sliver of the lake through the dense trees and brush.

As I mentioned previously, Liana doesn't like to nap anywhere besides her crib and she will reluctantly nap in the car seat. I was hoping that she would take a good nap in the car on the drive there, but after she had only been asleep about 30 minutes, I had to put on the brakes pretty hard for a light that turned red on the highway and it woke her up. She spent the rest of the day pretty grumpy and tired. My mom finally got her to fall asleep at about 9:30 by walking her in the pitch dark. She said any light she saw would keep her awake so she even had to stay out of the moonlight. Then she slept solid as a rock all night in her crib in the tent. Keira is a seasoned camper and had a great time hiking around, putting sticks in the fire, tossing the Frisbee with Grandma, and swimming in the lake with Daddy.

My mom and I prepared our foil pack or "hobo" dinners for the first night. We used her yummy chicken, broccoli, carrot, cheesy casserole recipe of deliciousness, wrapped in foil and cooked on briquettes in the fire ring for about 20 minutes on each side. It came out very good, except for the couple of foil packs that didn't get sprayed with nonstick cooking spray before we put the food in. For breakfast, we just warmed up some Costco muffins and pastries on the fire. At lunch time, Brent and Vivian rented us a patio boat on the lake and we barbecued hamburgers on the gas grill. It was a fun experience trying to cook on a moving boat. Every time a ski boat went by, moments later the waves would hit our boat and rock it back and forth. Everyone had a good time on the boat, snacking, eating burgers, and riding around the lake. Once again, Liana, who only likes to nap in her crib, was pretty grumpy on the boat because she was so tired and toward the end, we laid her on the seat in the boat and she finally fell asleep for maybe 30 minutes. Crazy girl. I guess I can't blame her though. I'm not the type to fall asleep anywhere besides my bed either.

At the very end of our boat ride, we saw an eagle fly across the sky and land in the very top of a tall pine tree. We could see it's nest and at least one more eagle in the nest. I don't think any of us had seen an eagle in the wild before. That was a very cool ending to a very fun trip. We may be adding Bass Lake to our list of regular camping spots.

Vivian, Braden, and Brent

Arthur setting up the tent.

Me and my sleepy Liana.

Grandma and Sister

Playing card games.

Our foil dinner.

Grandma and Sister eating dinner.

Breakfast by the fire.

Me and my perpetually sleepy girl on the boat.

Uncle Mark and his dog Neesaa on the boat.

Arthur burning the corn on the cob.

Daddy and Keira taking a very brief swim in the cold lake.

We never did get a picture with all four of us.

Patrick and Lauren

Captain Brenty

The Eagle

Monday, May 13, 2013

Baby Goodness

Liana just turned one year old! As exciting as it is to watch a baby grow and learn at this age, I am SO sad that she won't be a baby anymore before I know it. I love Liana so much exactly how she is now and I try to bask in her baby glory every day. I cherish her sticky baby fingers and toes, her sweet chubby cheeks, her baby cuddles, fuzzy head, baby smell, every dimple on her chubby little body- knowing she won't be a baby much longer. It is so amazing how much a baby grows and changes in their first year. Even more amazing is how at first, they are this new little stranger in your arms and by the end of one year, you know them SO well. Liana is full of baby goodness from her toes to her nose and has filled our home with joy and love from the moment she was born. She has grown right before our eyes... and deep in our hearts.

Liana's First Year

Liana has 7 teeth now. She got her teeth in such a random order and looks rather snaggle toothy, but she finally got one of her front teeth and the other one will probably poke through tomorrow. She has three visible teeth on bottom and the fourth just came through a few days ago.

Random Teeth :)

She loves to chase the vacuum around, just like Keira did at her age. When I vacuum I have to stick her in her jumperoo or else I am forced to vacuum in an erratic pattern to evade her.

Car Wash Cuties

She has always been ok with bath time, but she is all business. Wash and get out. So she really surprised me one day at my mom's house we decided to put our feet in the pool and she was kicking and splashing and laughing trying with all her baby might to jump right in. I thought maybe after having so much fun in the pool, she would decide to have more fun in the bath, but she was right back to business as usual the next day.

At the movies watching Croods - the girls were SO good!

Liana has always been very mellow and fairly straight faced. She has a very particular and random sense of humor. One day, she held her bottle up to her ear like a phone and giggled to herself, because she knew she was being particularly silly.

She dances every time she hears a song play on tv. She doesn't do wild dance moves like Keira used to, just two basic moves. With her feet completely planted, she sways her buns back and forth and sometimes she bends her knees to bounce up and down a little but she never moves her feet or arms. She also hums- trying to sing songs.

Liana, just like Keira, won't sleep anywhere but her crib or the car seat. If she falls asleep in the car, she will not stay asleep during the transition to the stroller or to her crib. She and Keira are exactly alike in that regard. Neither one would fall asleep in our arms either.

She has added thank you, duck, cat, hello, and bye to her vocabulary.

Going to Dr. Jones' Office

At her one year checkup she weighed 22 lb 8 oz (50th percentile) and is 29 1/4 inches tall (50th percentile). She's my little teapot- short and stout. :) He also said she has the biggest head around... Yeah, runs in the family. Good thing it's a cute big head.

For Sister's birthday, I decided to have a Wizard of Oz theme. That was the first movie that I noticed her paying significant attention to. It seemed to amuse her. So I found this adorable Wizard of Oz digital scrapbook kit that made the theme very age appropriate for a one year old and I designed some super cute invitations and decorated our house in cornflower blue gingham, red satin bows, cute quotes from the movie, and changed the characters on my My Little Pony birthday banner to Dorothy, the wicked witch, and Toto. I even had a "Bell Out of Order Please Knock" sign on the front door. Everything was very cute and festive, complete with rainbow streamers and a rainbow cake.

She had a tooth come in the day before her party and the day after, so she had been very grumpy and tired in the evenings and had required an evening nap for several days leading up to her birthday. As I feared, she also became very tired and grumpy about an hour into her party. She looked SO TIRED and it was pretty hard to keep her focused on opening her presents, but she made it through the party and had a good time. Keira did an awesome job keeping up with big sister responsibilities like helping her open presents and blowing out her candle. :)