Salt Lake and More

This week was a lot of fun because Olivia got to go to Salt Lake City for the first time! John had a business meeting in Salt Lake, so we went down for a day and I took Olivia to Temple Square for the first time!

Here's Olivia and Daddy in Salt Lake.

There was some sort of kids carnival that we walked through, but it wasn't too interesting.


On our way to Temple Square!


I love this side of the temple.


After John went to his meeting, Olivia and I stayed on Temple Square and looked around some more.


John had Thursday off this week so we went on one of our favorite little hikes right outside of Rexburg. This was the first time that I had ever done the hike during the day. The view from the top is really pretty, especially at night.



Olivia was in her stroller most of the time until the end where it was no longer paved. I had her in a baby carrier the rest of the way up. She loves to drool, so that big wet spot in the middle of my shirt is her big drool puddle.



Today, after church, we went to the Nature Park here in Rexburg. Olivia was asleep most of the time, but it was fun!



And for the family picture:

Sleepless in Seattle

John went to Seattle this week for some investment training while Olivia and I stayed in Rexburg. He landed Wednesday morning and had all day to explore Seattle. Thursday and Friday he had his training, then came back on Saturday. Here are some pictures of his trip. Unfortunately he isn't in any of them, but I promise he took them.






This week was a really busy week for me with school work. I thought I could get a lot of work done, but being a single parent for 3 days was harder than I thought! Thanks to Olivia's nanny that stayed late, I was able to get homework done.

By the way, how many 3-month-old do you know can sport the pig tails?

Olivia and the Hot Springs

On Saturday after John got off work, we all went to the Green Canyon Hot Springs just a half hour drive outside of Rexburg. Olivia got a cute swim suit from a good friend of mine and we had to try it out. I really want to take a swimming class with Olivia sometime, but the only place to swim in Rexburg is at the college. In August, a new swimming pool is going to open up. Until then, we'll go to the hot springs.

Getting Olivia ready to go. I went to the store to get swimming diapers, but these were the smallest ones they had. Olivia is almost 12 pounds, but these diapers were for 16 pound babies. I bought them anyway.


At the hot springs, they had a swimming pool that was 96 degrees where Olivia swam and a hot springs what was 115. Here we are in the pool. It looks cleaner in this picture than it really is.


Olivia loved being in the water and smiled the entire time, but right when I took her out into the locker room she was screaming her head off. We were in the locker room for nearly 20 minutes. I calmed her down enough to put her diaper on, then went out to feed her. Here's John as we are waiting for our friends. Olivia is in the car seat with just her diaper on.


We are going to go again sometime this summer. We have two more buy one get one free passes, so we'll go again.

Road Trip Home

Olivia did a really good job in the car. On the way there, she slept the entire way. We left at six at night, so she slept the entire way, but on the way back we left a six in the morning. After sleeping through the night, she slept most of the way in the car, but she was awake for a while. We made four unexpected stops so she could get out and stretch, but it turned out to be fun. John and I decided that whenever we go on road trips during the day, we will get out and do stuff on the trip while we're driving. Here are just a few pictures of our drive home adventures.

This is the canyon when driving through Twin Falls. There is a bridge to parachute off and a trail down to the bottom and along the river. Since Twin Falls is less than a 3 hour drive away from where we live, we might go there and actually hike along the river. Here's the nature view and the been-in-the-car-ten-hours family picture.



And one more thing that only the McAdam family will laugh about:

Muir Woods and Muir Beach

On Thursday, my parents rented a 15 passenger van and we went to Muir Woods and Muir beach. We had a lot of fun and the kids loved it too! The weather was perfect and it was so much fun to see the beach again and smell the ocean.

First we ate lunch at a place called Dipsea's Cafe. Here's just one picture of us eating there. I sat across from Bryce and he kept me entertained the entire time.


Our first stop was Muir woods. We didn't walk through the entire main part of the National Park, but we made it a little more than half-way through. The walking kids got a little tired, so we turned around early. It was still a lot of fun to see nearly undisturbed nature and it smelled so fresh.


My model sister-in-law.


Zoom in on this tree and you can see where each ring represents a major event in history.


Just a family picture.


Bryce trying to climb a redwood.


Brandon was in the stroller, but he like walking next to it instead.


My sister-in-law, me, and my sister with the kids minus Bryce.


Grandma playing peek-a-boo with Brandon.


I can never take pictures seriously but look at the background! It was so beautiful.

Brandon loved playing on the beach and digging in the sand! His brother was out climbing the rocks with his grandpa and uncles.


Right before we wanted to leave, John really wanted to climb the top of a mini-mountain. Since we were about to leave, there was a 10 minute climbing time limit. Since I'm still trying to hike at the "McAdam Family Pace", I decided to stay and clean up, but John went. We all thought it would take him 30 minutes to get to the top and back down. Little did we know. Even I had doubts. He made it all the way up and back down in 13 minutes. Possibly 14 minutes, but 13 sounds better. Here are pictures from his view from the top and my view from the beach.



Amanda and her kids on the beach! Bryce was so much fun to play with. He loved chasing the waves, then running away before he got wet. Then, when he finally got wet, he loved the waves hitting him. He said that his feet never got wet because he was wearing water-proof shoes with socks on. He was soaked.



And the entire time, this is what the babies were doing:

Smith Family Gathering

I'm sure some of you may be sick of my constant stream of pictures of my child, but here's more! These are just a few pictures of some kids chilling around the house. My brother has way more pictures because I got camera lazy towards the end of our trip. It may have been a good things because I am really bad at narrowing down pictures. I can't even delete blurry pictures if my kid is in it.


Olivia meeting her cousin, just one month older, for the first time. He is the cutest baby boy under one year old! (and Mackenzie's little boy too) Olivia just woke up from sleeping all the way from Idaho. She slept the entire way and slept again through the night. She takes after her mother.


Grandpa with two little babies!


I'm not a fan of seeing other people put pictures of their kids when they are taking a bath, but now that I'm a mom, I see why they do that.


Sleeping baby. Not only did I post this because I think Olivia is adorable when she is asleep, but I had to tell everyone a story. Olivia sleeps in her own room now. She slept in that portable crib in our room, but it barely fit. It's easy to put up just like the advertisement said, but it is a pain to take back down. When we got back from CA, we just decided to put Olivia in her own room in her real crib. Everyone told me that when you put your kid in their own room, don't expect to sleep the first night at all. It must have all been a lie because Olivia slept through the night like she usually does.


Olivia checking out Grandpa's garden.


Bryce is the oldest cousin and the smartest and tallest four-year-old I've ever met. He loved Olivia and would help me watch her all the times. He constantly talked to her and made her smile by giving her kisses!


Just a question for my sister: Man, is Brandon's head bigger than Bryce's?

Don't worry. There's more.

Olivia Meets the McAdam Family

John's parents were in China when we went to California, so we were unable to see them, but we did see other members of John's family. Olivia met her other Great Grandparents and his two brothers Jared and Jacob. His grandparents live in Sacramento, but we went to Santa Rosa for the siblings reunion.



Nanna


PaPa


Jared


John LOVES raspberries. Can you tell?




John's grandparents and brother Jared.


Olivia meets Uncle Jacob.


Of course, we had to go to In and Out. This was the first trip.


Jacob has three painted signs around Santa Rosa. We went to all of them and took a picture. Here's just one.


Lonely on the couch.