Friendship Park

This is the park closest to our house.  We go a few days a week at least. Usually it's just Gracie and I, but on Sunday's we like to go together.  It's just a regular park, not as fancy as the other ones I posted about, but it's only a 5 minute walk from our apartment, and Gracie LOVES the swing! Here are more pictures for you all to enjoy!

Riverfront Park

Riverfront Park is one of our favorite places to go! We love parks, and we especially love that there are lots of options for us here in Spokane! Riverfront Park was built from what we understand for the world fair that came here back in the 80's.  It has a little splash park area that is super fancy, lots of running and bike trails, a beautiful 100  year old carousel, and a great view of the falls.  I love Idaho, but the "Idaho Falls" are pathetic compared to the Spokane Falls! Anyway, we went to have lunch with Bryant last week and since he was done for the day we decided to have a picnic at Riverfront Park.  It's only a few blocks away from where Bry goes to school. Here are just a few shots of this park.  

Manito Park

Spokane has TONS of parks.  Every time you turn another corner it seems there is a new park, which we love....especially since the weather has finally turned summery! Manito Park is a little different than just a regular park.  It has a special duck pond, a Japanese flower garden, a rose garden, a lilac garden, walking paths, etc, etc.  I guess it was donated to the city back in like 1904 or something like that with the condition that it would ALWAYS be a public park.  Having worked for the city in Rexburg, I can only imagine how much this particular park costs to maintain each year with the different flowers and maintenance.  We went up for a couple hours a few days ago to check it out.  We only got to see a few things, and a lot of the flowers aren't in bloom yet, but we LOVED it! We determined that we could easily spend an entire day there.  Best of all, it's FREE! Here are just a few pictures that I took.  We only took a few because it was getting late for Gracie and we decided we are definitely going back as soon as Bryant finishes finals next week!

This is the Duncan Garden.  It's not in bloom yet, but 

by the picture you can see it's going to be really beautiful!

Bryant and Gracie in the Lilac garden.  The Lilacs

are almost done for the season.  The bush they are 

standing by actually has White lilacs.  They were 

beautiful!

Peek-a-boo

Gracie LOVES to play peek a boo.  She has gotten quite good at it the past few months! Anyway, I took this video of her playing peek a boo with her daddy a few weeks ago, I just have been lazy about updating the blog the past few weeks! It's so cute though, I hope you enjoy watching it as much as I do!                                          

Mother's Day

Yesterday was Mother's Day. It was my 1st mother's day actually being a mommy.  I know I've said this several times on my posts, but Bryant really is busy 99% of the time with school and tests and practicals and papers and groups and homework and stress and the list goes on.  I guess it's to be expected with a Doctorate program.  So, with that said, I was really not expecting much for Mother's Day, and not because Bryant doesn't have great intentions or that he doesn't do sweet things for me, but I know how busy he is, and I was not expecting Mother's Day to be on his list.  Boy did I underestimate him! It wasn't just Mother's DAY it was like Mother's WEEKEND for me!

On Saturday they had a Relief Society enrichment activity with different classes and stuff.  I wasn't planning to go because if I had to take Gracie I would have gotten nothing out of it (kind of like church these days!) I didn't want to ask Bryant to watch her because he had a huge final paper due on Monday and I figured he would need to be on campus getting that done.  However, he got wind of this activity and so he stayed up super late on Friday night working on his paper and got it all finished so he could watch Gracie with no stress and so I could go to the activity without feeling like I had to rush back.  Needless to say, I enjoyed the much needed break and the classes I took were very inspiring and enjoyable! 

Then, Saturday night we went to Spamalot! Thanks Mom and Dad by the way! I got to go on a real date with my husband.  I think that was the longest date we have been on without Gracie since she was born.  Thanks Heather for watching her for us! It was so fun.  I LOVE going to the theatre, and Spamalot was just a really fun, light hearted play that was very enjoyable.  Plus John O'Hurley played in it!

So then on Sunday, Gracie woke up at the 6:30..ugh.  I got up and got her out of her crib and the next thing I know Bryant (who is like a Zombie for a good 30 minutes in the morning) got out of bed and told me he was planning to get up with her so I could SLEEP IN! Seriously, you could not buy a better present than that! At 9:00 I woke up to....BREAKFAST IN BED!  Bryant then proceeded to do all the dishes from breakfast. He also took Gracie during all 3 hours of church.  Then for dinner, he made BBQ pork chops and mashed potatoes.  

What a great guy! How did I get so lucky? He truly made some sacrifices for me this past weekend and it made me feel so special. Thanks Bryant for such a great weekend!  

Gracie's second word...."Dada"

Gracie said "Dada" for the first time the other day.  It was so so cute.  We had just gotten out of bed (actually, I was out of bed against my will, but I have no choice when Gracie decides it's time to start the day) and she was in her usual place....taking all the dvd's off the bookshelf.  Bryant was getting ready to leave for school and went into the kitchen, which is around the corner from the bookshelf.  Gracie couldn't see him so she tried to look around the corner and very distinctively said "Dada." It just melted Bryant's heart of course.  She said it about three times that morning looking right at him when she said it! And now "Dada" is her favorite word.  When anyone tells her to say Mama now she says Dada instead.  Which is fine.  I mean, I'm home all day with her and we talk about Daddy not about Mommy so I guess it makes sense! 

She is also starting to really look like Bryant I think.  Here are a few pictures of them together.  Let me know if you see the resemblance too!

                      

Gracie is VERY good at taking all the DVD's off the shelf! This picture is so funny because she is "stuck" and needed help escaping from the pile she made!

                           

I was trying to get Gracie to smile and moved the camera so it cut her off a bit, but the           picture is so cute I had to post it! 

                           
                            Is it just me, or do they look a lot alike? 

Professional Pictures

We got professional pictures of Gracie taken when we were visiting Grandma and Grandpa in California last month.  They turned out pretty cute.  I was really disappointed with the photo session, so I was glad they came out as good as they did! Here are some pics for you all to enjoy!

You may ask when you look at the pictures, if she bonked her nose.  She did not bonk her nose, she has a hemangioma, which is basically blood vessels that have not absorbed properly into the skin.  It came about 2 weeks after she was born and has gotten bigger over the last few months.  I took her to see a dermatologist and I also took her to see a plastic surgeon.  I mean, she is so cute but the hemangioma is right in the middle of her face and that is the first thing most people see.  They both assured me that it is NOT dangerous and that it most likely will go away on it's own by the time she is 2 or 3 years old.  If it doesn't however, there are a few options available that will help it shrink.  So, try to look past it so you can see how very cute she really is! 

                     

A picture with Grandma and Grandpa. Gracie just fell in love with them!

               

Pretty girl!

       

               Crawling! And look at that smile!

                   
      Rosy cheeks
             
                                                                      

What a sweetheart!