Playing at the Granets

The Granets

While we were in Elfrida, Kevin wanted to have Alexa experience some of the fun things he used to do growing up. So we played on the trampoline and we went to the highschool to shoot the basketball around and we also went up to the Granets (sp?)...a cluster of rocks where the Apache Indians used to live. There are holes where the Indians used to grind their corn. It's pretty cool and we had a lot of fun exploring, Alexa even liked to taste the rocks.

Walking, walking and more walking!

As we've mentioned before, Alexa started walking while we were in Arizona. She had taken a few steps here and there prior to leaving, but she really took off once she saw her cousins getting around so easily on two feet! And since we've been home, she's become so much more steady on her feet and now really prefers to just walk all the time instead of walk until she falls and then crawl the rest of the way...now she'll walk, fall and get up and walk again. It's pretty fun to see her growing and accomplishing new things. Here are a couple videos of her early attempts at walking and some cute pics too.

And she's WALKING!!

Showing off her skills!

More Walking

Playing with Ainsley

Alexa had so much fun playing with her cousin Ainsley. Ainsley has a fun bus push toy that Alexa loved to sit on while Ainsley pushed her around the house. We look forward to living closer to them in a couple years so that Alexa and Ainsley can play together all the time!!

Beep Beep

Playing in Grandma's Cupboards!

Once Alexa figured out the whole opening cupboards thing, there was no stopping her. She LOVED exploring in Grandma Mortenson's cupboards.

Traveling Fun...

Alexa was a great little traveler on our trip to Arizona for Christmas. She was such a big girl in her very own seat on the plane. She loved the armrests and kept trying to do up her own seatbelt. She also did really well in the car...and we spent a lot of time in the car!! We planned it so she'd be right ready for a nap as soon as we'd get in the car and then we'd just try and keep her entertained once she woke up. You can see she had her sleepy times, her happy times and her not so happy times. Kevin and I also enjoyed ourselves!!

Our Trip to Arizona

Our Happy Girl

Cute Christmas Cousins

What we'd give to know what Alexa is thinking in this picture!!! All dressed up! Giving loves!

Update on Christmas

Hello again....I finally have a minute to sit at the computer and decide which of the hundreds of pictures (literally - we took almost 200 pics) of our trip to Arizona that I want to post here on our blog. We had a wonderful time spending Christmas with Kevin's family in Arizona. Thank you soooo much to his parents for making it possible for us to come home...especially with their announcement that they'll be going on a mission this year and won't be around for the next couple of Christmases. It made it extra special knowing it might be awhile before we see them again! Thank you also to both Kevin's brother Duane and his family and Kevin's parents for letting us invade your homes while we were there. Alexa had a fabulous time with her cousins and exploring new surroundings. We've hit another milestone with her....she's now walking everywhere. We knew it would just take some visual encouragement from her slightly older cousins! Despite some bruised knees and bottom....she's loving her newfound independence. She still looks a little "drunk" when she walks but we think it's rather cute. We had a great time hanging out with family that we don't get to see that often and we really enjoyed being home in Elfrida where Kevin got to share some of his favorite things with Alexa...like going to the Granets (sp?). Travelling with Alexa went okay, we used curbside checkin for both our flights and it was fabulous - we can handle tipping a couple bucks if we don't have to haul our luggage or stand in long lines!!! We were even able to manage getting the extra seat on our row both ways so that Alexa had her very own seat which made the flights much more bearable. All in all, we really did have a great time and hope to see family again soon!

Christmas in Arizona!