May

Dave says: May marked the end of another successful academic year at ASU. I've been here for 3 years and it has been great. This spring I taught a doctoral seminar on research methods and my ethics class in the newly created online EMPA program.

At the end of the semester it was time to celebrate with two of my U of A friends with a week in Moab and Fruita. This year it felt like we really had our favorite rides dialed in and the trip did not disappoint. It was probably the best technical riding I've ever done clearing all obstacles on a bunch of trails that I previously walked including the Whole Enchilada, Mag-7/Portal, Rock Stacker, Ahab, and Jacksons. Of course, we were all still humbled in Fruita by some of the enormous alt lines on trails like Free Lunch. Like last year, pretty much all we did was ride our bikes, eat tons of good food, and then repeat. The one exception this year was renting a RZR one morning for some steep driving on Fins 'n Things and Hells Revenge where we were constantly amazed at how steep these things can climb. This type of desert slickrock riding is probably my very favorite type of mountain biking.

When the biking was over, I headed over to Cedar City where Alisha and the kids had been hanging out. Skye loves Brody and Elsie and had a great time at grandma's house. We did some hiking and outdoor adventures. The aquatic center is usually a hit as well. Fortunately, Alisha and I also managed to sneak out for a bike ride on Cedar's best new trail system that goes up Cedar Mountain and is very well built.

May was finally the month where we got the babysitting thing figured out a bit more. Skye plays with a friend two mornings a week. We also found a fantastic babysitter who will come over two days a week at 5:30 am so that we can ride together. We've been doing some mountain biking and I've even been out on my road bike trying to keep up with the JetSet crew. We even hit Sedona for a quick overnight trip and had babysitting for two mornings in a row so that we got to ride together.

Skye says "no problem" to anything she doesn't want to do. Example is: "Skye, do you need to use the potty?" and she would reply "no, no problem", which really just means no.
Skye is also communicating really well and using more and more sentences. She did another two weeks of swim lessons at the end of May and is becoming quite the little fish. She likes playing dress up in the princess dresses and her favorite shows and movies right now are Tumble Leaf, Ice Age, Frozen and Coco.

Babies make the funniest faces.

 Skye was given some dress up dresses from Christine and has loved playing in them. She currently loves to wear the Anna and Ariel dress.

 Jade is growing and getting bigger.

Jade and her cousin Ben who is one month younger than she is.

We did a mini trip to Sedona where we figured out some babysitting so that we got to do two nice rides together.

3 Months

Alisha says: Jade is now three months old. She still wakes up usually two times during the night for feedings. She has strong legs and good head control. We have started putting her in the jumper, she doesn't do much jumping but she does a few little bounces with her legs. She likes to lay on her play mat and kick the little piano keys that make music. She will smile and coo a lot when you look at her and make faces.

April

Alisha says: Our big April events included Easter, Jade's Dedication and our San Diego trip. We did  few fun things around Mesa including going to Food Truck Friday in Las Sendas where we enjoy trying fun food and listening to the live music. Skye also enjoys dancing to the music. We also tried out a new indoor playplace that had a few child size instruments such as a piano, drum set and guitar that Skye enjoyed playing.

Things about Skye:
Skye says "delicious", it is so cute.
Working on potty training
She now gives really good hugs and says "I love You", it just melts my heart
She is starting to understand new concepts such as time

Jade's Baby Dress

Alisha says: My mom made a very beautiful blessing dress for Jade. She spent countless hours hand tatting all of the lace and embellishments that are on it. I think Jade looks like such an angel in it and am so thankful to my mom for this most special gift.

Pictures taken when Jade was 3 months old

San Diego

Dave says: We took a long weekend trip to San Diego for a late spring break. As usual, we brought the trailer and stayed at Campland on the Bay. The pool was a huge hit for Skye who was getting pretty good at swimming a few strokes to one of us by the end of the trip.

On Saturday we went to the San Diego Zoo. It was a hot day but we started early and the zoo wasn't too crowded when we first arrived. Skye liked the elephants and really wanted to do a bus tour. She also really liked the aggressive ducks trying to snag food during lunch. In addition to seeing all the animals she got to go on the gondola over the zoo and see a short 4D movie that she really liked.

The next day it was time to hit the beach at La Jolla Cove. Skye was scared of the waves and didn't get in the water too much. However, we did get a good walk in and saw lots of seals. In the afternoon we headed to old town. There was music and dancing and Skye had a good time joining in although this made her a little crazy and she was wild at dinner. As usual, Jade was a very good baby for everything.

SeaWorld is great on a weekday when no one is in the park. Skye got to go on all the little kid rides over and over again with no line. Her favorite was Elmo's flying fish and I probably did this with her a dozen times. We got her to sit through one show and to check out some of the aquariums.

On our final morning we went to Mission Beach. Once again, the ocean was too scary but the bay with no waves was great. We walked around a bit before heading back to pack up and head home. Overall, San Diego is a pretty great spot for young kids to hang out. It was both a fun and exhausting trip in terms of managing them.

Easter

Alisha says: Easter was a lot of fun this year. The Friday before I took the kids to Payson for the afternoon where we hung out with Christine and her kids and Tom and Anne. We went on a nice walk by the river that included finding easter eggs along the way and then spent some time at their house.

On Easter morning Skye got to go on a little egg hunt in the backyard where she found a Anna (from Frozen) doll and some butterfly wings. Jade found some books. We then attended a nice church service where Jade was dedicated. In the evening we had a nice dinner with family at the Welsh's where my parents even got to join us as they were returning back to Arizona for my dad's work. My dad was a great with Jade and helped out by holding her a lot.

Jade's Baby Dedication

Dave says: Jade's baby dedication was on Easter Sunday. She got to wear a beautiful white dress made by Alisha's mom. Reverend Andy welcomed her to the congregation and gave her a rose. Afterward, we went to lunch with our friends Hilary, Sue, and April. Sue made her a special blanket with lots of neat colors.