Thanksgiving timeline

This post is obviously a bit late but nonetheless this is how our Thanksgiving went down...

BEFORE the dinner. Happy times. Smiling. Good food awaits.

DURING the dinner. Campbell shatters plate. Food splats everywhere. One parent lets a naughty $*(#! word slip (I won't reveal who is the guilty party). Small boy begins to repeat the word.

AFTER the dinner. Shirt off. Belly let loose. Turkey coma and football.

Sick of "Ween"

I am sorry Campbell has been introduced to candy. It is ruining my life. Since Halloween he is obsessed with "ween" (candy) and asks for it all the time. He doesn't want to eat food, of course he'd rather eat "ween". I realize I am the adult, the gatekeeper that decides if he gets to eat it or not, but my current plan is to get rid of it as fast as possible so it is all gone.


It wouldn't be much of a problem if he could eat it properly but every piece of candy turns into a sticky mess. Suckers, starbursts and laffy taffys he holds in his hand, in and out of his mouth while he touches every surface of the house.

Two days ago the obsession was hilariously emphasized... still a bit off schedule d/t daylight saving time, Campbell woke up at 6 am. First words: "Ween? ween? ween?! ween??" Luckily Adam was able to pursuade him to go back to sleep.

Anyway, I no doubt realize that this is a very minor problem on the grand scale of life; however, thought I'd share our current days of sticky hands, sticky clothes, whining, momentary happiness followed by begging, and more stickiness.

Hooray!

After 2 1/2 months of waiting and waiting and waiting we found out Saturday that Adam passed the Washington State bar exam. Yay! I am very proud of him and his hard work.  He is now an attorney. An unemployed attorney. 

Campbell's 2nd Birthday

We spent Campbell's birthday weekend in Portland visiting Michael & Stephanie and Dan & Adrianne. We had a great time (minus the hideous BYU loss...).  Sunday Dan and Adrianne had us all over for a nice Sunday dinner to celebrate Adrianne and Campbell's birthday. Stephanie found a pretty decent vegan chocolate cake recipe so Campbell could have a treat. I'll post a picture of him eating 3 pieces of cake later!

When we got home Monday evening we talked to Grandma & Grandpa T on Skype. Then Campbell opened his presents.

I can now see where perhaps some kids get their greedy, "more presents for me" mentality. Campbell opened his first present and it was a yellow cement truck. He was more than content to open its packaging and begin playing with that, but no, we as parents force him to open another one. He soon learns then to "oohh" over the toy for 2 seconds then toss it aside for another one to open. Thus, a spoiled child is created.

He is fond of the city/road carpet map. I'm afraid it will become a permanent fixture on our "living room" floor. Adam says, "why bother picking it up - or any of his toys  - they will just be back on the floor tomorrow." With that logic, why do we ever make the bed?

Oh Canada! (for a day)

Luckily we were able to have some fun whilst Adam's parents were here. We went to downtown Seattle and Pikes Place Market, which is awesome good fun. I loved looking at all the cheap, beautiful flowers; fresh produce, gourmet foods, fish, crafts, etc. Alas, I did not take a picture of this venture so I will continue on...
Saturday we left early to drive to Bellingham and catch the ferry to Victoria. This ferry ride was 3 hours. Oj ve! It could have been enjoyable; however, the seas were 'an angry that day and were very rough. You could hardly walk around the cabin without swaying like a drunken sailor.

Here's Campbell playing cars with Grandpa.

Victoria on Vancouver Island is beautiful! The port area is filled with neat architecture - old buildings, hotels and modern condominiums. We went to Butchart Gardens and tip-toed among the tulips...and lilies...and roses...and every other species of plant life.

Adam took this picture in the Japanese gardens. It reminds me of his Lord of the Rings/Warhammer/trolls in space fascination.

Yum! Gelato!

Campbell had a great time. It was his first riding a boat and a bus. He reminded us of BOAT and BUS the entire day.

The boat ride home was amazing compared to the previous. Smooth sailing and a salmon buffet dinner. As we were passing the San Juan islands we even had a great show of killer whales surfacing. They were so close we could hear them breathing in or out air - whatever they do. No pics as proof. You'll have to take my word!

Thanks Grandma and Grandpa! We had a great time :)

Fitting a camel through the eye of a needle

This title aptly describes us trying to fit too much stuff into an impossible space.
I do not enjoy the moving process. It is "no es frio"/not cool.  
We arrived in Seattle on September 1st.  Adam's parents drove their truck up to help.  The truck and CR-V were stuffed beyond capacity. Honestly, I should have taken a picture. No, really. It was ridiculous. There was no crevice left for dental floss to fit through.  It took 3 days to unload and unpack things in the apartment enough so that we could see the floor clearly without boxes everywhere.
Adam's birthday was September 2nd. It was quite the under-whelming BD celebration. We spent the whole day unpacking so no one even felt like going out for dinner. Thus, Asian take-out.

By the way, the parents ended up taking quite a few boxes back to Utah. So let's count how many places our stuff is spread between: four: 3 cities and 2 states.

Cambell's got an announcement

I actually somewhat dread telling people pregnancy news in person or even over the phone. And I thought something different would be fun for my parents. I looked online for t-shirts with this pronouncement and I am too cheap to spend $25 on a child's shirt. So I made my own ghetto wife beater for Cam. He wore it and showed my parents over the Skype camera when we talked to them a while ago. So here's the news to all 4 people who check my blog, 3 who already knew the news :)

Baird wedding with bling-bling

Brandon and Marlies got married Saturday June 27th. We made a quick trip to Utah for Friday to Sunday. Friday we had a wedding dinner at Maddox. Ate too much.

The big wedding day was nice - since the ceremony was at the Timpanogos Temple we stopped to see Mikenze and Megan and new baby Peter, and visited with the Wagstaffs.

The reception was at The Grand America. Gee, I thought my wedding was nice at the Joseph Smith Building but this was high class! The buffet was a full course meal with fancy-shmancy foods and desserts.

Here is a picture of the current Baird clan. It is a miracle this picture turned out decent. In subsequent pics, Cambell is running out of the frame then he is in the next few pictures screaming and crying.

Marlies is lucky to have good family friends that are very very very wealthy. When she came out of the temple she had on a diamond necklace that looked like each stone was nearly 1 karat! I'm sure they have jeweler-connections and "borrowed" it like the celebs but I bet that necklace was worth $40,000-100,000. I'm just speculating since I was too polite to ask (imagine me, too polite:)

The high/low-light was Cambell. He was running all around the courtyard with all the fountains and water pools. All the kids were obsessed with walking the water perimeter. It was only a matter of time until someone fell in. Cambell being the youngest, yep it was him. We felt very white trash at such a nice place.

Before the incident After the incident

Adventures and Relaxation in Maui

Adam and I left the boy, Cambell, with Grandma and Grandpa Baird and flew away. This was the view from our condo.

Thanks to a good guidebook, my parents and sisters, and seasoned-Maui-bum Nicole, we had enough advice for 6 trips! But every one's recommendations were appreciated.

Highlights: Feast by the Sea - we got these tickets for free somehow. Normally they are $60 a piece so that was great. It was similar to a luau - fire dancing, hula hips, etc.

How do dry LDS people seem to gravitate to each other anywhere you are?! We just happened to sit next to a BYU honeymooning couple. Here's a pic of us at sunset. This couple took a picture of us with their fancy camera. It's amazing how an expensive camera can make you look better. Hopefully they will remember to send us a copy. (PS this is from our unattractive camera).

We snorkeled several times and saw a turtle and big schools of fish. I find it so relaxing. Except the second time my mask was ill-fitted and was too tight yet leaked on one side. That sucked.

The Road to Hana was beautiful, just breath-taking. You see so many waterfalls, after the 12th one, "do we have to stop and see ANOTHER one?" Adam was way disappointed because after a 1/2 day drive suddenly the road was closed due to a bridge collapse. We were so close to the Seven Sacred Pools but there is basically that one way to get there, so out of luck, had to turn around and go home without the sacred pools healing our bodies.
We had fun in a lava tube on the way to Hana. Part of the stalactite ceiling looks like melted chocolate. This is what I learned. Maybe you remember this from 9th grade geology but I didn't. How to remember the difference: Stalagmite - "G" for ground. Stalactite - "C" for ceiling.I had fun in Lahaina shopping. Adam endured the tourist shops. We ate lots of good food. And had a great time with a magic show.

In the end, yes I was burned in various spots of my body. I tried to be good about sunscreen but I am just a white piece of cheap wonder bread that crisps in the sun.

He finished! How come this isn't the end, then?...

Adam's graduation ceremony was Saturday May 16th.

Graduation commencement exercises are probably not on any one's favorite "to do" list, but I was entertained and enlightened. Congratulations, husband.

We are moving!

Finally.... after many months of not knowing where we will be next year...We are moving to Seattle!

Adam will finish law school and applied to tax LLM (latin for masters of law) schools. He applied to U of Florida, Georgetown, and U of Washington. All of them had pros and cons. Well, maybe it's good the decision was kind of made for us by default, otherwise we would have had a hard time deciding. Anyway, he got accepted to the UW program and was wait-listed at the other two. Georgetown would be cool to be by my sister Stacie, but very very very very very expensive. As opposed to UW, which is just very very expensive. Student loans into eternity, (sigh.)

Adam's taking the Washington bar this summer and staying within the state has its advantages. So we are excited. I will miss my house here in Spokane and my job, but oh well. Big city and rain - here we come (in August)!

Drunk bar fight

Is it just me or does Cambell look a little "out of it" - and do you see his black eye?!!!

Love it or hate it?!

So I am torn about this whole blog thing. I am very infrequent because I don't have much to brag, whoops, I mean "blog" about. I do enjoy looking at a few other people's blogs, but I know mine is checked maybe once during a cycle of the earth around the sun by maybe, two people (shout out to Megan and Sarah).

Because I am an inactive blogger plus (and I'd like to not admit it) I don't have that many friends that blog, my blog link list looks like I am a sad, sad nobody. When I check other people's blogs, they have a list of 20-50 blog friends. To take a quote from a prolific movie, ahead of its time, Dumb and Dumber, "you are one pathetic loser!"

Anyway, (wipe away tears) now for something completely unrelated.... Here's my son with a mullet.

Merry Christmas

Christmas was great this year. Since my parents are in Malaysia we spent a few days at the Wagstaffs. Drew was so good with Cambell - he played with him and would grab a Kleenex to wipe his runny nose. Cambell was excited about the push mower they gave him.

Present at the Baird's this year were parents, Angela and Co.; Brandon and girlfriend?!

Here's Cambell with his new christmas jammies and his puppet alligator/crocodile/dragon that

was a favorite with the kids.

Too much snow!

Spokane has had WAY too much snow this December. Our original flight to Utah on December 18th was cancelled d/t snow. I have never been literally snowed in! We could not leave our neighborhood. Luckily we made it to Utah a few days later. We came back to Spokane on the 30th and it has snowed everyday since.