Cades Cove Camping

After our Juice Plus conference, we enjoyed a week of visiting family and friends before Damein met up with us to go camping the follow weekend for our annual Cades Cove camping trip. This was an especially special trip because I have been going to CC with my family for years now and have always dreamed of getting to bring my little one along and this was the first year I could do that! It is such a unique opportunity to spend time with family, away from modern distractions, enjoying one another's company. Camping to me is about conversations, food, and creation. I love getting out in the fresh air, away from distractions so I can hear myself think and enjoy talking with others. Food is always a highlight. Pancake breakfasts, sandwhich lunches, chili, and fire roasted baked potatoes. YUM! And of course, being immersed in creation is always refreshing and perspective giving for me.
I love my grandfather's, Grandan, passion for camping. He is 93 and still going strong with the camping trips, always wishing we were there another day. He and Grandmother have set the pace in the camping tradition, taking my dad, aunt, and uncle all around the U.S. camping in different states when they were growing up.
Livy was a trooper. Everyone bragged on what a great camper she was, and it's true! We enjoyed hiking and driving around the cove, an 11 mile loop through a historic area in the park where horses, deer, bears, owls, and other wildlife are often spotted. Livy enjoyed doing her little girly scream back and forth with her cousin Lucas who she is crazy about. It is funny to see how he can bring out a part of her no one else can!

Thanks Grandmother and Grandan for a great trip and a wonderful tradition. Our entire family was in attendance this year. Something that hasn't happened in probably over a decade!

Inspiring Healthy Living Around the World

Livy and I went on our longest excursion ever without Damein recently when we had a nice long visit in TN. We spent our first weekend at the International Juice Plus conference in Nashville. Livy did awesome, taking nice long naps in the ergo during the main sessions while I took notes, and we had a great time with our team learning about ways our company is expanding our ability to inspire healthy living around the world. I love getting to see people from all over the world and hear how they are educating people on the importance of eating more fruits and veggies, as we are in over 20 countries now. It is such a blessing to be associated with a company with such high integrity and vision for such a worthy cause.
It was held at the Opryland Hotel, so Mom, Livy and I enjoyed some evening walks to see the lights and water features, which Livy loved!
Here are some pics from my 8th conference, and Livy's 2nd! There are also pics of: Livy with a new friend we met on the airplane with whom she enjoyed playing, as well as a pic with her 'lunchbox' which she did not want to let go of the entire time we were there! You will also see a pic of Livy with her great, great aunt Bet, who we ran into as soon as we walked off our airplane! Small world, right?! Made me feel immediately like I was at home!

Pear Picking

In October, Livy and I joined some other moms from our church for a trip up into the mountains to Julian, for apple picking! However, it happened to rain a lot that day (very unusual to rain much here), so the apple orchards were closed, but we did get to pick pears! It was actually very cold, so I had to dig out my coat and gloves! Crazy, right?! And poor Livy didn't have any winter type clothes yet, but had one pants outfit with a jacket Mema had previously given her, thankfully! We bundled up and had a great time! The scenery on the way there was unbelievable, so I included some of those pics also! You will also see a cute pic of Katelyn waving from her stroller, which is one of Livy's best friends from church. Kade, a sweet boy from our church adores Livy and you can see him entertaining her at a restaurant we ate lunch at after picking pears.
Julian is a historic town with a picturesque main street, lined with mom and pop shops that make homemade apple pies, apple cider, and other yummy homemade jams and treats. It was fun getting to peruse the shops and drink some warm apple cider with good friends on a cold day!
I haven't done anything special with my pears yet, since I went out of town shortly after this trip. We have been snacking on them (they are in the fridge of course), and I am hoping to make a pear tart or something yummy with them soon!

Family Day in Point Loma

Damein and I enjoyed celebrating 5 awesome years together on September 9th. It is a beautiful thing to be able to reflect on the goodness of God in our lives in the last 5 years. So much has happened! It's funny to think that when Damein and I married, I was fully convinced that is who God intended for me to be with; however, we still had a lot of getting to know each other to do! (and we still do :)
Here we are, 5 years later, in our 4th home, our 2nd state, completed our Masters, enjoying our first little baby, and more in love than ever :) I'm so thankful God knows me better than I know myself and saw fit to put me with such a wonderful man, perfect for me! I loved the tidepools at Point Loma so much, that I took Damein during our anniversary weekend. We went in the late afternoon during low tide and hiked around the cliffs a bit, spending time on some rocks that provided a breathtaking view of the ocean.
We spent some time just taking it all in. It is truly life-giving to be able to experience moments when you can allow the vastness and beauty of God's creation to wash over you. One of my favorite scenes in creation are mountains jutting into the ocean, and Point Loma reflects this beautifully. As we peered out from the rocks, all you could see for miles and miles was ocean and sky, as the breeze literally filled our lungs with fresh ocean air. It was truly surreal. We spent some time talking about God's goodness and his absolute bigness...then took some family pics together before heading out to eat at one of our favorite restaurants :)

New Words

Lots of new words popping up around our household lately! Livy has perfected her 'dadada' into a clear 'Daddy' and for the first time has said 'Mama'! She looks directly at us when she refers to us and clearly loves the fact that she is communicating with us! We've known pretty much from the beginning that she is a very verbal child. Always singing, making noises, and now formulating words! A few of her other consistent words right now are hi and bye, as I have mentioned on other posts. She also says 'boo' when playing peek a boo and has also said 'book'. She surprises us every day with new words!

Potty Time

Ok, so I know many of you are wondering why in the world our 9 month old is on her potty. Well....Livy has been going to the 'potty' since she was about 8 weeks old. If you are into formal terms, it is called Elimination Communication (EC)...but they've been doing this kinda thing in other countries forever! (We have to come up for a technical term for it in the U.S.) In short, it is believing that your child communicates when they need to go potty, in the same way they also communicate they are hungry, tired, etc... So, as the parent, we learned what Livy's signals were when she needed to go to the potty. It does take time and commitment on the front end, but I guess I figured I would either spend the time later (when potty training) or now. So, we decided to teach her from the beginning to go on the potty.
We have enjoyed changing only a handful of dirty diapers in the last 7 months! :)
Here are some cute pics of Livy using her potty now that she is big enough to sit on it by herself :)

Mema Visits!

My mom was in town for a week the first of September, and we had a super fun time. Livy enjoyed lots of playtime with her Mema, and they became great buds! Livy thinks Mema is so interesting, especially her laugh she is so well known for...Livy usually starts laughing too! It is clear at this point that Mema and Livy's relationship is built on having fun. Livy loves when Mema mocks all of her funny noises, laughs, and REALLY loves when she does things that make Mema laugh. (You could tell she always tried to do more of whatever made Mema laugh!)
Mom got to see some of Livy's firsts, like the first time she climbed up a step on her own, and actually got to teach Livy how to make a lip smooching sound, which they loved doing together!
We ate at our favorite breakfast joint together, Richard Walkers, spent a day in Point Loma (which are all the scenic pics you see above of the tidepools there), and we ate at a completely vegan 'fast food' restaurant called Evolution. It was crazy awesome...you see a pic of my mushroom swiss burger here on gluten free bread. Vegan is with no animal products and everything was completely vegan, including the yummy ice cream which I think they made from coconut milk. The burgers were a house-made black bean burger and sooo good. Sweet potato fries on the side! YUM!
We had an awesome time, Livy was sad to see her playmate go :(