16 Months Old

Chloe is now 16 months old. You hear it all the time how fast they grow, it is amazingly true. Chloe has 11 teeth that include 3 molars. She is eating well. I will cook up some food for her on the weekends to last thru the week. I will usually make some pasta, she likes the mini shells. I will also make up some rice using chicken broth instead of water. Then I will make 2 veggies. For protein I will give her turkey, chicken, ham, or a beef meat ball. Almost every meal she will also have fruit. Some foods Chloe loves are: grilled cheese sandwiches, chocolate chip waffles, American cheese, yogurt parfait, & blue berry muffins. She likes to explore her environment. She will open up draws and cupboards that do not have the safety locks on and will take everything out of them. Some times she will put them in different cupboards for me to find later. She says Mama all the time and sometimes she will even pat my chest and say it. The dog and cat are still her first priority, and is always fascinated to watch and see what they are doing. Here are some recent photos of Chloe at 16 months old.

Our Summer Vacation 2010

We set out on our summer vacation the weekend of July 4th. There are three legs to this vacation. So I will break it down into three posts Dallas Oregon, Portland Oregon, & Maui Hawaii. So grab yourself a cup of coffee and sit back and relax because this is a long vacation post. Chloe did better this time on the car ride to the airport and also the plane ride.

We arrived in Oregon Saturday evening and stayed with my In-laws for a few days in Dallas Oregon. Sunday was the 4th of July and they had a BBQ planned for the day and invited a few friends over to enjoy the day with us. Chloe liked hanging out at the house. They had an island in the kitchen that she would go around and around exploring.

Their cherry tree was full of cherries. I just loved seeing the contrast of the red cherries against the green of the tree. It was a dwarf tree so the cherries were at eye level.

We could not have asked for a better spread of food for the BBQ. There was fresh crab with cream cheese and cocktail sauce to spread on crackers. The main meal was grilled fresh wild salmon with a special mustard sauce. This salmon was to die for, it literally melted in your mouth. There was also corn on the cob and a green salad. The rolls in the photo above were brought by Cathy a dear friend of the family. The rolls were very good, and Chloe could not get enough of them. I got the recipe from Cathy and plan to make them myself for Chloe to enjoy.

For dessert there was a cake decorated like a watermelon and home baked cherry pie made from the cherries off the tree in the back yard. The entire day consisted of many things starting from scratch. Starting from the time they got up and working straight thru the day until people were leaving there was a lot of effort into the day. From cleaning the crab for the appetizer, to making fresh strawberry lemonade by squeezing all the lemons, and finishing by picking the cherries off the tree and baking a pie. I spent most of the day chasing Chloe around and trying to keep her out from under foot. Overall it was a great holiday and we were glad to spend it with family and friends.

Oregon Coast Aquarium
We went to the Oregon coast and checked out the aquarium. Chloe had a miserable time on the car ride over. She hates being locked up in her car seat. Once at the aquarium all was great and we had a good time looking around and learning about the sea creatures. We drove around the coast a little and found a good place for lunch. Chloe fell asleep for a little bit on the way home.







Chloe’s first Major Booboo
That evening Chloe got her first major Booboo on her face. I can say we were all a little emotional after it happened. Seeing your child bleeding and crying is a horrible thing. Some times at this age you can’t prevent an injury when your child is so excited and able to move around on their own, and not yet aware of the possible dangers in front of them. As a mother of course all the scenarios run thru my mind of the things I might have done to prevent the injury. Chloe seemed fine after the fact and never gave it a second thought. Luckily it was not a major injury and it is almost completely healed.

The Park & Ice Cream
The next day we walked to the local park and let Chloe play on the swings. She loved it. We packed up a picnic lunch to enjoy at the park. The walk was a lot longer than anticipated so the lunch was much appreciated.

We decided to hit Dairy Queen on the way home from the park. Chloe had her first very own ice cream cone. What a mess. She loved it.

Of course Chloe was completely spoiled by her Grandma Ce & Grandma Lauri while we visited. Not only did Chloe have a room of her own all set up with a pack-n-play to sleep in, and a bunch of toys to play with but they also got her a kiddy pool. Chloe experienced a child pool for the very first time. It took some time warming up the water for the pool. It was worth the wait and Chloe had a great time splashing her grandma and playing with toys in the pool.



Fabric Shop
There is a cute little fabric shop in Dallas, Oregon named Grandma’s Attic. My MIL & I took a little trip to the shop while I was visiting. I wish we had a little shop like this near my house.

I picked up this Charm Posies quilt pattern, Fat Eighth bundle of 8 pieces 9” x 22” fabric titled “storybook VI” in orange colors, small travel scissors with point cover, & a 40 piece 5” square cut pack of Darlene Zimmerman’s “Paper Dolls” fabric collection.

Out for Breakfast
They took us out to breakfast at a local place called Café 22 West. Chloe had the chocolate chip pancakes. We all had a great breakfast while dining outside on the patio.

We had a wonderful time visiting with Chloe’s Grandmas and look forward to doing it again. We packed up and headed for the next leg of our vacation.

Portland, Oregon

Wednesday the 7th was our Anniversary, so we drove up to Portland, Oregon to stay 2 nights before heading to Hawaii. We stayed at the Hotel DeLuxe. The hotel is a contemporary tribute to the golden era of Hollywood filmmaking. This hotel was great and I would definitely stay there again. Our room had a separate living room that could be closed off from the bedroom. This was perfect; we just set up Chloe’s pack-n-play (which the hotel provided) in the living room for her naps and bedtime. That evening we drove to Seasons & Regions Seafood grill for our anniversary dinner. It was wonderful. Chloe enjoyed her grilled cheese sandwich off the kids menu, While Chris and I both ordered cocktails and seafood for dinner.

Knit & Purl
The next day Chris and I were up early and the 3 of us walked to a Starbucks for breakfast. After breakfast we walked to a shop that I wanted to go to while in Portland, the Knit & Purl yarn shop.

Thank goodness they had a seating area for Chris and Chloe to hang out while I took some time looking around. It has been awhile since I have been in a real yarn shop. I loved it.

I held myself back from getting too much, keeping with my goal for using up what I already have in my stash of yarn at home and keeping my pile to a more manageable level. I got the Sublime pattern book #630 & 2 skeins of Shi Bui sock yarn in color Blossom.

The 3 of us went back to the hotel. Chris met up with a good friend of his from dental school to spend the day with and I met up with my best friend Alicia whom works in a building a few blocks from our hotel. We were able to get together during her lunch break. So Alicia, Chloe and I walked to Hot Lips pizza for a little lunch and some girl talk. This was Alicia’s first time seeing Chloe. It was so great to see her and to catch up on our lives. While we were walking back after lunch the road was all blocked off due to the vice president giving a speech in a nearby building. They would not let Alicia back in her building so it gave us a little more time together.

After dropping Alicia off Chloe and I wondered around popping into the little shops here and there. Our hotel was in a great location with plenty of places to get to within walking distance. Plus there is a Max & trolley system all around us to take you even further out if you wanted. I think the only thing I did not get to do that I would have liked was go to the Chinese Garden located in Portland’s China town. I will put it on the list for next time.

Chloe and I were pooped after our afternoon of walking and we went back to the hotel for a nap. Once Chris got back from spending the day with his friend we went out to dinner, and then packed our bags to be ready for our flight the next day to Hawaii.

Maui, Hawaii

On the 9th we got on the plane from Portland Oregon and headed to Maui, Hawaii for the last leg of our vacation. This was a very long flight. We finally reached our destination and got a rental car to drive to the West side of the island. We were staying in the town of Ka’anapali, at the Ka’anapali Beach Hotel. This is a couple miles from town of Lahaina.


The hotel had a walk way that went along the beach and connected our hotel and all the other hotels, restaurants and shopping place in the area. This was super cool and convenient since we had the stroller.

Our hotel room came with a full size crib. It would have been nice to have a separate seating room to put the crib in but I guess you can’t have everything. This made it difficult for everyone sleeping and getting to sleep and staying to sleep. At any given moment she would stand up and look at us in our bed and say "HI". It was kind of funny. It is not easy trying to ignore her so she will go to sleep, while she is doing her best to entertain you.

Eventually she would fall asleep and we would try our best not to wake her.

Our beach was nice and we were able to rent an umbrella for the day with 2 lawn chairs. We would position Chloe in front of the chairs under the cover of the umbrella with a towel and some toys.

It was fun to see her this time playing in the sand with her pail and shovel. I also took her down to the water’s edge and let the waves come in on her legs. She would giggle and we had a good time. We both ended up with ton of sand in our swim suit bottoms.

Lahaina
We drove to Lahaina and their downtown area walking along the beach and checking out the shops. We stopped at Ululani’s Hawaiian Shave Ice. This is rated the best shave ice in Hawaii. There was a long line but well worth the wait. Oh man this stuff is sooo good! I had the Lahaina flavor combination: pineapple, coconut, banana even Chloe could not get enough of this stuff. Hawaiian shave ice is permanently on my list of must do any time I am in Hawaii. While we were in line Chris spotted a guy back behind the counter that looked familiar and told me to look at him. It looked like a guy we use to know named Dave that we worked with at a restaurant back in Oregon during our college days. Sure enough Dave spotted me and asked me what my name was. We were all smiles at our chance encounter. Dave & his wife are owners of the shop and have a few more shave ice shops in different locations. How cool is that.

Maui Ocean Center
We took Chloe to the Ocean center. This was set up really cool with lots of large tanks filled with fish and the glass was low enough for Chloe to stand next to and watch all the critters.







Along the walk way by our hotel we spotted this carved palm tree. It looks like the palm tree was broken off so they carved it into art. That was a great idea.Here are some random photo taken while in Hawaii.



















Our time in Maui we just took it easy and let the day decide for us what we would do. The vacation was a great escape and with all the time away, made us appreciate home. Hope you enjoyed my trip report.