Seafood and Wisconsin

 I took a long break from my states project but I decided that it was time to get going on the remaining states if I were to finish this project by the time we move back to Provo (I don't know if that is my goal date anymore, but it used to). The next few weeks are going to be crazy with states! This week I have dedicated to seafood. There were a lot of seafood dishes that I was nervous to try and didn't want to pay for and so I decided to make them all in the same week.

Maryland: Crab cakes and crab legs. I am mad I even made the crab cakes because they turned out terrible and the crab legs turned out fantastic. PS Crab is SUPER easy to cook and I should do it more often!

Wisconsin: NOT a seafood dish, but we had it the night of the Bees game and so I found it very fitting. If Jench taught me anything about Wisconsin its that Wisonsiners like, no LOVE their cheese so we had Cheese Brats with Cheese on top. She also told us that we must have custard but I got her email too late and so we had ice cream instead. 

South Carolina: Shrimp and grits. Ethan and I were not a fan of the grits, mainly because of the memories that they bring, well and the texture. Every night my dads stomach blew up he had grits. Now I associate grits with a blown out stomach and I just can't enjoy them.Although we were not a fan Kelsey couldn't get enough of the grits. She loved them way more than anything else!

Connecticut: Clam Pizza. This scared me so much that I actually only made a piece of the pizza with clams on it. It wasn't that bad though. Clams have the texture of bacon and with enough cheese you can eat anything right?

June 18th

We all have those days where we just sit around waiting for things to happen, those days where there is an event maybe in the morning or maybe the evening, and the days where 3 weeks worth of events all land on the one day. June 18th was one of those days when everything landed on one day and I decided to do them all.

 It got up to about 100 degrees and so I knew that if we were to do any sort of non water activities we needed to get an early start. We started off the morning by a run, missed playgroup and met some friends at the Tracy Aviary (thank you Pass of all Passes!). Kelsey actually had a really fun time at the Aviary. She may have watched the kids running around more than the birds, but even so it was a wonderful hour and half spent. We had a great time and there were misters to help with the heat, but when I took Kelsey through the misters she started crying. She seriously hates water! One sad note, I snagged my favorite shorts on a fence and now they have a pretty decent hole in them.

We got home around 1 and Kelsey went down for a nap. Here is where the wonderful mothering comes in! After about an hour of sleeping, I woke Kelsey up from her nap, gave her a sippy of milk (no lunch) and we went swimming!!! Elisa and Ralph were going to go swimming and I really wanted to try a private pool to see if Kelsey would do better with the pool and so I skipped lunch and woke her up from a nap and headed to the pool. Luckily friends and field trips make Kelsey really happy and so I got away with the no lunch thing.

So we got to the pool and Elisa had this AWESOME floating with a canopy and everything and she let Kelsey try it out and Kelsey LOVED IT!!! As we walked down the steps Kelsey started moaning but once I put her in the train floatie she couldn't stop smiling. Success! Hooray! She even cried a little getting out of the pool. 

When we got home at 3:45, I finally gave Kelsey lunch and at 4:15 I put Kelsey down for a nap. Ethan got home at 5:20,we woke up Kelsey, had a Wisconsin dinner and headed to the Bee's Game (thank you Pass of all Passes). The game started around 7 and we had a great time! It was such a pleasant evening and Kelsey had such a great time. She kept making friends all over the place. She drunk couple next to us, the crazy family behind us, the super nice family in front of us, the Grandpa next to us, and the other drunk couple in front of us. Everyone loved her, or at least they tolerated her climbing on the seats. She didn't really care about the game, but every time the bumble bee mascot would show up she would get really excited and clap her hands. Ethan and I had such a fun time at the game. We only stayed for 5 innings, but while we were there we saw 3 home runs and some awesome plays including a triple and a steal. We ran into Tanner Mills at the game too. Its always fun to see old college buddies especially after many many years. 

After a very eventful day, Kelsey crashed in the car. She was such a trooper all day and allowed us to have so much fun. We got home around 9 and Ethan watched game 6 of the Spurs/Heat playoffs (which I am told is a game for the books!) while we both enjoyed some nice ice cream. There is literally nothing summer themed that we did not do on June 18th. Side note: Kelsey slept in until 9 the next morning and took a 3 hour nap! 


I have to add these pictures. This was right after lunch and swimming. I was trying to do her hair, finished and instead of letting me pick her up, she just laid down in the sink. It was busy and tiring day for Kelsey AND the air conditioning comes out the strongest in the bathroom and so I think she just decided to take advantage. Im just glad she stayed lazy enough to let me take her picture! 

Fathers Day

2nd Father's day for Ethan and he say's it was a success. We ate eggs and bacon for breakfast, he got a cookie at church,  we opened gifts while Kelsey was sleeping, we played his new game Kingdoms, he read his new Disneyland Encyclopedia while eating Kisses, wore his new cuff links and shirt, he took a nap, ate dinner and dessert with the whole family at the Mannings, played soccer with Holden, and watched game 5  of the NBA finals. I normally and very anti watching sports on Sunday, but it was Fathers day and so I caved.

Ethan is a a terrific father. He makes everything so smart and so fun at the same time. He is always asking me trivia and fun facts. He always is wanting to learn by either reading or making up quizzes for himself to take complete with flashcards. He always makes everything so much more fun than it already he. It not a afraid to play no matter who is there or where we are. He would way rather play soccer with a 4 year old than sit inside and talk. And I can't tell you how may times I have hear this "Okay here's the game.." He makes up games all the time whether it is catching a ball with your knees, or counting the number of pens at the counter, Ethan is always looking for ways to make things fun. I am so grateful that I married such a loving man. He is so good to me and Kelsey. He is very service minded and will never say no to anything if it is asked of him (including Trek during our move to Provo :) I have never met anyone more positive than Ethan. I would never know if he has had a rough day at work because he comes home and smiles every day. He loves the gospel, loves to learn, and loves to play. I am so lucky that Ethan asked me to marry him. He makes me a better person every day.

Toodler stage has begun

Kelsey is awesome! She has started to really get her personality and it is so hilarious to live with. I'll admit there are crazy times (or weeks) that I just want to go back to being a teenager when all I had to worry about was what I was going to eat for breakfast, but most of the time I am happy BECAUSE of Kelsey. We are really starting to see a personaitly develop and it is getting to be hilarious.
Kelsey is Miss Independent. Rarely does she care if I am in the room with her. In fact she prefers to be left alone. Our house very baby proof, however the toilets and garbage cans are still a concern so we have to keep our ears very sharp. Kelsey's newest thing is to go into a room, is to open and shut doors. Sometimes she will shut the door and sit in front of it so we can't open it and sometimes she will shut the door all the way and then scream and pound because she can't get it open. Her most success is found when she closes it to be just a jar and then opens it again. She will do this all day if she could.
Kelsey also does not like to be "told" what to do, even when we are trying to make her life better. For example: Crying and arching her back before she goes in the stroller and carseat, kicking her feet so we cant get her shoes on, holding the wrong end of the spoon white knuckled so that we can't flip it around, going wet noodle on us any time we pick her up, etc, etc. I don't know where she gets this stubborn side because I am not at all stubborn :) Sorry Ethan.
The best part about Kelsey growing up is that she laughs and plays all the time. She loves to play! Watching her learn and discover is so much fun. She is really starting to get toys and books, and knows when we are being hilarious. She is really starting to "play" with other babies and recognize who we are as her parents. Every day when Ethan gets home, she hears the door open, says Hi, waves, and crawls as fast as she can to greet Ethan. In the mornings when she wakes up, most mornings she doesn't cry but just starts talking to herself and when we go in, she will wave and say Hi.  She also gives GIANT hugs and is starting to give kisses. There is just nothing more rewarding than getting a hug from your baby and knowing it is on purpose!
Raising Kelsey is getting to be harder and easier. It is harder because now she is starting to care about things making my control start to dwindle,  but it is easier because when she's happy she is happy and gives me so much validation and joy.

New tricks: Bye, Hi, Dad, climbing up AND down stairs, throwing EVERYTHING when she is done with it (which is driving me crazy cleaning up all the spilt milk) and using a spoon. 

SLC Chalk Festival

Saturday was a busy day for the Wing family. Ethan spent the morning helping the Malstroms move out of their Holladay house and when he got back, we joined the Wing clan to help Diana and Robert move out of the Smith's home and into their brand new house! Hooray!!! We have all been so excited for the new house to be built and finished and it has finally come. Thankfully, the weather was kind to us and only got to about 80 so moving never got too unbearable. Also, thankfully we only had to move the furniture and few things from Dan and Emily's into the truck and into the wonderfully marked new house. The movers did the rest including all the heavy furniture. It was a great way to spend the morning and afternoon being with family and helping out. After the trucks and cars were unloaded, we all spent a few hours unpacking boxes and the house started to really come together. Its weird to think that Kelsey won't even know the other house and that this Bountiful house will be where all her memories are. Exciting because the new house ROCKS!! but weird. The only flaw with the new house is that there are 3 deer that have set up camp in the back yard and they will not leave! We walked right up to them and they are not even kinda scared. It is so nuts. 

After a physically exhausting day of moving and unpacking, Ethan and I thought we would just take the rest of the afternoon easy. We got home around 5, ate and showered and were talking about lazy things to do when I saw Christine's awesome pictures on Facebook about the Chalk Festival at the Gateway. We decided that that was lazy enough and way more fun than just sitting at home so we went and it was AWESOME!!! The whole set up was really cool. Before the really pictures started they had a section were kids could color with jumbo chalk and the whole side walk was covered. It was really cute. There were also bands playing and booths set up. The event technically ended at 6 and we got there around 6:30 so we didn't really see the booths but we did get to see the pictures. I was blown away at the art that these people could do with just chalk. It would have been fun to see them drawing them. There were about 50 pictures but snapped the best ones. I am so glad that Christine always knows about fun things to do because we would have really missed out. 

These were the youth pictures which I thought were the best

She is finally happy again! HOORAY!!!

These were the adult pictures that I liked so much

Ran into Mimi and Aunt Betsy running the Lion House Booth. They are such troopers. They got there at 8 in the morning and right at 7 they got to go home! We ran into them at 6:59 luckily because by 7:01 they were outta there.

Some family fun at the remaining booths

A view from the top

Not everything's a cup Kels!

I wish I could picture ALL the things that she tries to drink from, but this pot and pencil holder are good examples of what we catch her doing all the time! She loves to drink from cups. We are still practicing with water in them because right now all the water ends up in her face, but we are getting there.

My week

This week has been one of the hardest weeks of motherhood so far. The week started out great. We went to seven peaks where Kelsey cried the whole time, but she cried less than the first time that we went. She is starting to hate water less and less. From Seven Peaks it went down hill fast.
Kelsey developed a very bad fever on Monday night Tuesday morning. We didn't really notice it affecting her mood, but she was always burning up and always woke up super sweaty. After a couple of days, eventually her fever went away but then she developed a terrible terrible rash all over her limbs, trunk, and face. I called Aaron and talked to some friends and ultimately I was told not to worry. I was not worried about anything, but Kelsey's mood started getting unbearable. On Wednesday she was a little crabby, went to bed late, and woke up early. On Thursday life was over! She cried or whinned ALL DAY LONG! She wanted to eat and then didn't want to eat. She didn't want to get dressed, but she didn't want to be naked. She didn't want to take a bath, but cried when I took her out. Everything, EVERYTHING was a battle and a HUGE deal. I thought taking her out would help calm her down, but ultimately she just ended up crying in the car the whole way to the store. Once we got to the stores, she screamed inside resulting in everyone staring at me. I as surprised at how little I cared about the stares. I just dared anyone to talk to me :) I dare them to take this little girl out of my arms and contain her any better. Those were my hostile thoughts.
On top of Kelsey causing a scene at every store, I went to the bank and counted the money wrong so that was a small hiccup, I went to pick up Kelsey's pictures but they weren't there so I had to leave with no pictures, I went to work on Ethan's fathers day gift and the machines at the store ruined what I had been working on for weeks and weeks. After an hour of trying to laminate a piece of construction paper and almost in tears, I went back to pick up Kelsey's pictures feeling really bad for my self. I was so blessed because as I was unstrapping my screaming child praying that someone, ANYONE would take her out of my life for just 5 min, I saw this women with only one leg hobbling out of her car and she had a giant smile on  her face. I wiped away the tears and then started thinking of all the things that were terrific in my life.
Despite that screaming face Kelsey and Ethan were number one on the list followed by
All my limbs, the energy and health to run, not being on oxygen, having a loving husband who works so hard, a husband who willingly goes to a boring job for us, not having to work, having sufficient for our monetary needs, having a wonderful ward who is sad to see us move, having a home to our self, and having enough food to never wonder if we will eat. By the time I got into the store, Kelsey had stopped crying, I got the pictures, I went to Sonic and got a large Cherry lime (because it was happy hour), and Kelsey fell asleep in the car! I can't say that things got better crying wise, but she fell asleep and stayed asleep for about an hour! It was such a blessing!
Friday was a little better, but not much. Something is very wrong with Kelsey and I am seriously on my last straws, but on Friday I was tremendously blessed because for the first time in a long time Kelsey slept through the night AND slept in! She didn't nap, but she woke up so happy it was almost like Thursday didn't exsist. I was also tremendously blessed because Karolyn brought the boys over to be babysat. I was not very excited to babysit because I felt so drained, but they were phenominal! Skyler was so cute and kept telling me all the funny parts in the movie but he would mess up the lines and so it was even funnier, Carson would just copy Skyler, and Trey just walked and followed Kelsey all around. She was so happy to have them here and so was I. They were so calm and were so helpful and they didn't even know it.
I don't know whats wrong, I don't know if tonight or tomorrow will be any different, but as tried and drained as I am, I had some wonderful lessons learned through out this trial. I still love Kelsey very much... I just want my baby back!