Lately...

Our little baby bird :) A beautiful Sunday picnic at the temple. 

Jenna gets aggressive if you hold back fruit or bread from her. She didn't start eating food until 10 months old, but once she started, it didn't take long to realize what she had been missing out on.

Jenna loves hearing Sam play the ukulele. When he is it work she will stand under the shelf where we keep the ukulele, pointing at it, trying to talk me into taking it down for her. 

Jenna loves being around other kids. Here she saw some behind the rocks in a water cave, and was squealing over and over again, trying to get their attention.

One year old

 Our little girl turned one. That is so crazy to me, to think a whole year has gone by.  Yet at the same time, it is just as crazy to think that she has only been with us for one year.  Life has never been so good as it is with little Jenna! We love her so much.

She loves: playing on the playground, cuddling in bed in the morning, mangoes and raspberries, swimming in the ocean, sticking her fingers in our mouth, going up and down stairs, playing in the bath tub, being outside, her pacifier, bread, looking in the mirror, being chased, reading books, dogs and birds, eating sand, visiting Dad at work, and helping Mom cook. 

Nana and Papa came to visit for her birthday. We started out early with raspberries for breakfast (her favorite) and presents. She got stacking toys and clothes from Nana and Papa, skirts and a dancing CD from Grandma and Grandpa, a stuffed whale and dolphin from Aunt Ashley, the cutest dress ever from Aunt Brooke, and hand puppets from Mom and Dad. 

Then we spent the afternoon doing what Jenna loves most - swimming in the ocean. It rained almost all day, but as long as we were in the water we weren't too cold.    

We had Impossible's Pizza for dinner and Jenna went to town on the crusts. If Sam even tried to touch her crust she would freak. 

We ended the night with birthday cake. Jenna was so cute when we sang to her. She looked around from person to person, and when she realized we were all singing to her she got the biggest grin on the face. I was certain she would love eating cake for the first time, but even when Sam tried putting it right in her mouth she wanted nothing to do with it. She just played in the frosting for a bit and then she was done.

What a wonderful year it has been! We love you, Jenna.  

Jenna loves swimming...

... almost as much as she loves eating sand. It worried me the first time she shoved a handful in, but she's being eating sand in large amounts for about 6 months now and is doing just fine.

Utah!

One of the best parts of the whole trip was getting to stop in Utah on the way over for a few days. We spent 2 days in Ogden with our sweet friends that we have missed so much. It was a blast, and so good to see everyone again. 

We met up with Dave and Melissa and Rachel and Richard at Cafe Rio, and then headed to the park to meet up with everyone else for some BBQ. There was a fun splash pad and playground for all the kids. It was neat to see everyone with their little kids, because for the first few years there wasn't a single one of us who were parents. We had such a good time catching up and it felt as if we had never left. Thanks to Rachel and Peggy for organizing it all.

We spent the night at Rachel and Richard's new house. We stayed up late talking and eating ice cream, and could have hung out all night if we weren't so jet lagged. The next morning and went to church the next day with Dave and Melissa. Dave and Sam have really matured over the past couple of years. They spent sacrament meeting drawing dragons with laser eyes and helicopters bombing each other. They would pass the paper back and forth, making attacks on each others' drawings. 

Sunday afternoon we had a picnic at Dave and Melissa's house. Their backyard is a dream. Jenna loved the swing, and we loved getting more talking and laughing in with our best friends.

Sunday afternoon we drove down to Provo and spent two days with Sam's parents and Matt and Jill's family. Matt and Jill's kids are so sweet and say the funniest things. We had such a good time getting to see them and had fun swimming, bowling, and playing miniature golf.  

Lauterbrunnen and Gimmelwald (Final Swiss post!)

We started out the day taking the train the Lauterbrunnen, the little town with waterfalls in every direction. 

Sheep scattered the hillside - picture perfect :)

In addition to the waterfalls, the town is charming. Wooden homes speckled across the hillside and red flowers everywhere.

After walking around town for a bit we hiked up behind one of the biggest waterfalls. 

After lunch we headed up to the resort town of Murren, where the view was amazing. 

We then hiked an hour down to a little town called Gimmelwald. I head read a lot about this town and it intrigued me. The town only has about 400 residents and they are almost all related. The town is on a very, very steep hillside, that they somehow farm alfalfa on during the summer months. 

We stopped at a little family-run (of course, everyone was family here) restaurant for an apple torte, one of the best desserts we've ever had.

What a view - right against the mountains. I loved this little town.

...and ended the day having fun on an AWESOME slide before heading back home via cable car and train. This slide was the best - you went super fast and it shot you out at the end.