Next Stop Anywhere

Our March got a lot more fun when the Thompson 5 showed up at our doorstep! I'm going to finish this blogpost in lightening speed so I get it out there before Mel. :) The Thompsons arrived Wednesday evening and left Monday around 4 (well exactly at 4 because they had a scheduled uber and Mel wasn't going to get a waiting charge...again.) 

Hosting the Thompsons really forced us to actually explore the DC area, which we haven't done much of since we moved here almost a year ago. Of course, COVID can partially be blamed for that, but not entirely. Getting out of the house for hours multiple days in a row was definitely a change from our quarantine lifestyle. To get Riley excited about our trips each day I'd tell her we were going on an adventure. Her response was to say, "Going on an adventure like Rapunzel!" One of Riley's favorite things to listen to is music from a show called Rapunzel's Tangled Adventures, (inspiring the title of this post) and I thought it was adorable that she made that connection. 

Thursday started off with Mel and I doing a GRIT workout together. GRIT is one of my least favorite workouts, but I know it's good for me because it pushes me to do more than I'd ever push myself to do alone. This specific round was extra fun because they had this move that was super weird and hard to do correctly. Mel would often ask Ty if she was doing it correctly and he would very gently say no. At the end of the workout Mel and I compared calorie counts and we found that mine was way higher. I looked at my heart rate is way higher than Mel's, so I thought maybe that was why. When I told Mel my heart rate she looked at me like she expected me to drop dead any moment. I've always had a really high heart rate when working out. Whenever I use an elliptical my heart rate is always in the maximum zone even in a casual workout. After our workout I put Riley down for an early nap and Britt, Mel, and I escaped for a sister's lunch. We tried out a really yummy greek cafe that I'd seen recommended on a facebook group I joined about good restaurants in this area. It was delicious and we had a great time chatting! Although, after seeing the sign painted on the wall and every employees shirt we realized we missed the half-off gyros on Wednesdays! Mel made us promise to come back on a Wednesday to take advantage! 

Just your typical workout break. Read a quick book and back to burpees. 

After lunch, Ben showed up (he occasionally only works a half day and it happened to fall on the perfect day). We all hopped in the car and drove to a place Mel had read about called Great Falls Parks. This place is only like 20 minutes away from us, but we'd never checked it out. It was so beautiful and now I'm really excited to go there again when it's greener. Mel was more excited by the drive to the park than the actual park I'm pretty sure. The park is near Potomac, Maryland which is where the richest of the rich live. We passed some pretty impressive houses on our way there and Mel was equally amazed and appalled that people think they need houses that big. 

Britt always says that Riley should have grown up in a little house in the prairie environment. She is such a little wild child she seems like she belongs outside. This pic felt like a good representation of that.

Another example of her wild-childness. She was absolutely soaked after discovering these puddles.

Friday was a pretty ambitious day. It was just Riley and me and the Thompsons so the kids outnumbered the adults. We started off at the Spy Museum, one of the few museums that is open right now. I'm super glad Mel suggested it because it was a super cool place! Although, I didn't really get to enjoy it because Riley decided immediately that she was done with her stroller. I was sure I'd at least get a little bit of time, but she was done with me right from the beginning. She wanted to walk on her own and any type of herding by me was met by great resistance. 

Literally the only cousin picture that was taken. :( We were so focused on family photos we didn't use any of our kids smiles for a cute pic together! When you have someone to take pictures of your family you just have to take advantage. 

This room had a sign that it was the most "instagrammed backdrop in DC"...we must have not done it right...

After a pretty exhausting few hours in the museum Riley and I made an early exit and headed to the gift shop. When I saw this puppy dog I didn't even flinch at the $15 price tag with the hope that it would make the rest of the day better. Other than having to pick it up every 5 minutes, it definitely did help. 

While we were waiting outside for the Thompsons to finish we found out why the weather report showed wind gusts.

Fully incognito. I feel for you glasses wearers. 

A few weeks before her arrival Mel sent me a picture of this exhibit, saying we needed to find it when she was here. Luckily, it was right by where I was planning for us to have lunch. I thought it was something painted on a wall, but as we got closer we could see it is a giant blanket! It's been knit by a bunch of volunteers. 

Girl power!

After a delicious lunch at Shake Shack on the Wharf we headed to the Thomas Jefferson memorial. I'd never seen this memorial because it's a bit out of the way of the National Mall, but we were near the tidal basin so we went to check it out. It was really pretty, even though it was undergoing some construction outside. The inside was beautiful, and huge as you can see with Riley as the comparison. As we were entering the memorial I saw a sign that said to be quiet and considerate in the memorial. Well, that didn't bode well. I talked to Riley about being reverent and it sort of worked until she found a puddle. I've got to talk to who ever is in charge of checking for leaks because that really ruined my chances of an obedient toddler. 

After Jefferson we were all pretty exhausted so we decided to head home. Other than a little bit of traffic we made it home okay. Then came Saturday. Oh Saturday. Saturday had a lot that we were expecting from it. See, while Mel and I were adventuring around on Friday we were getting constant updates from Britt about the cherry blossom status. The cherry blossom season is a very popular one around here. It's the most popular time to visit DC. I'm guessing...just making that up really, but people really do come from all around to see the amazing display of cherry blossoms around DC and especially around the Tidal Basin. Britt had started following an instagram account called DCcherryblossomwatch, and she was checking it religiously. Mel and fam were arriving at the very early side of the dates they could possibly blossom, but it had been a pretty early spring here and it was looking possible. On Friday Britt said she'd seen certain areas that had bloomed enough that she should be able to get a good picture, but also that the police were threatening to shut down the Tidal Basin the second they decided there were too many people gathering. (And they weren't kidding there were police everywhere!) So, there we were. Saturday morning. Britt with the goal of finding the perfect picture in a few specific spots. Mel with the goal of seeing as many sites as possible, and getting her boys to smile for the camera. Kip with the goal of not having to carry all his children back to the car. Me with the goal of making it all happen! We headed out around 9 am to try and beat the biggest rush of people and hopefully get our pictures before anything was shut down. We first stopped by the garden by the Smithsonian castle that had plenty of flowers in bloom! These trees aren't the desired cherry blossoms, but a beautiful type of Magnolia tree. We were definitely not the first there, but this place had so many beautiful trees we found a cute picture spot. At first, Britt thought we were going to wear our masks during the photos. When I was taking a picture of Britt with a mask on a woman literally watched us for a bit and told her, "Take off your mask." She then waited until Britt did and gave a nod of approval. And let me tell you...it was a good move, but here is a taste of what all the pictures that would have been.

This is the face of an ecstatic baby who just got to play with a puppy. There were dogs all over the place. Britt always says I'm so cruel for not getting this puppy loving girl a dog, but I say if she had a dog at home maybe all these other dogs she sees on outings would be less exciting and we'd lose an easy distraction! 

After the castle gardens we headed to the Washington monument. We learned later that Mel thought the Washington monument was so named for the city it was in, not the President the city is named after. 

And then the time had come...we hit...the cherry blossoms!! We thought they were beautiful and we were SO lucky that they started blooming so early! #thanksclimatecrisis Although, they apparently reached peak bloom a few days later and when we saw pictures of that ours were clearly a little wimpy, but hey we thought it was awesome and I still call it a win. The whole city was in bloom and it was so fun to walk around surrounded by beautiful views. 

I was an amazing tour guide through all of this, if I do say so myself. I seamlessly guided us to all the monuments of note and arrived us at our brunch location right on time. Did I wake up for days prior in a cold sweat? Well lets not talk about that...everything turned out according to plan! Although, I should give a shout out to Ben. The only way I could play tour guide for the group and photographer for Britt was because he was 100% on Riley duty. 

I loved seeing Riley play with her cousins. She loved having them around!

Don't worry people, we got the shot. In fact, we got two, but that hasn't been posted on insta yet so....

Another first monument for us, MLK Jr. An absolutely beautiful location for an amazing monument. You can't see, but it's surrounded by beautiful trees and the basin.

After we saw all the monuments on our list we walked 15 minutes to a hopping brunch location called Founding Farmers. It brags about it's farm to table food and has an amazing brunch menu. We had made two different reservations because a group of our size couldn't make a reservation during COVID times. So, we decided we'd do a table for 6 and a table for 3. Ben, Kip, and the kids, and the three sisters of course. :) Well when we checked in for our reservation they caught wind that we were together and they said if our whole party was here they could seat us together. I said we're here let's do this! We broke down our strollers and strode into that place like we owned it. The tables were six feet apart, but right by each other. Kip, Brady and Cal, took one table and the rest of us sat at the other. Britt and I had been eyeing the menu since the day we set the reservation. We noted that they had beignets for appetizers and we new that was a must get. They said they were recommended for 2-3, so we decided to get two orders. When we told the server that we'd like two he asked, "One for each table?" After a beat, Britt and I looked at each other and said, "No, both for this table." Riley was a big fan of the jam and caramel sauce that came with the beignets and basically only had that for lunch. We were in vacation mode, sometimes you just have to let it fly.

After our days of adventure Sunday and Monday were spent pretty much at home, but we still had a few adventures. At some point the boys were playing in Ben and my room and accidentally locked the door. The problem is we don't have a key to our door, we just never lock it. Luckily, Riley wasn't sleeping in our room at the time we noticed this or I would've been a whole lot more anxious. (We had made a make shift bed for Riley in our closet so that Calvin could sleep in her room. The first night she was so heart broken that we were just abandoning her in a new place, but she fell in love with her new set up. For days after they left she would ask for her "new crib".) As it was, Ben and I were just locked out of all of our belongings. I tried to pick the lock with a bobby-pin at first, but got nowhere. I gave Ben a target gift card from my wallet and after a few tries he unlocked the door! We may have to look into changing our door handle...especially since Riley will be able to pull this trick on us pretty soon. Until then, we have the target card sitting above our door. 

The best part of the trip for Riley was no doubt the toys Calvin brought with him. Cal has an amazing collection of Paw Patrol puppies and Riley has recently fallen in love with them. She was obsessed with the puppies. At one point I heard Calvin ask, "When will Riley give my Paw Patrol back?" Haha poor kid. She really did act like they were hers, constantly wanting to know where they were. I totally encouraged it too because it was something she would play with on her own while we had sister time. 

This piano was a favorite of Brady and Ty's. It was less of a favorite for most others in the house, but eventually we got them some headphones and we were able to have a bit of peace.

Sadly, but also happily, Britt got a job a few weeks before the Thompson's visit. So she wasn't as available as we'd have hoped, but obviously we are happy she has an awesome new job! I basically feel like getting Britt to take this job was as big of an accomplishment for myself as it was for her! I was fully on that journey with her. 

Uncle Ben is always a favorite. He plays way more fun games than I will so he likes to steal my nephew's love! 

While our house was very full for those 6 days we loved having the Thompson's visit. We loved acting like we know our city and hope they enjoyed seeing the unique sites DC has to offer. I also enjoyed showing off a bit of my cooking skills for them. 3 out of the 4 meals I made for them were liked by all the kids....so I'd say that was a pretty big win. I hope this blog post has convinced all of you to come visit, but if you need more enticing just ask them about the liege waffles I made them for dessert. :)   

I was just looking through my notes app and found a quote I'd written down from this trip I forgot about. On Saturday night the boys earned ice cream as a treat for smiling so well during the day. (I was impressed that they are willing to wait that long to get the reward. That's pretty good patience!) So Kip went out and brought back some ice cream and cones. Of course, the boys request Kip dished up their ice cream because Mel doesn't give them as big of scoops as he does. After the boys had their ice cream Mel kindly asked if anyone else wanted ice cream and Britt replied, "I don't know...I've heard you skimp." Oh Britty, always good for the one liners. 

Our Girl

Here is your video-filled blog post to catch you up on all of Riley's cute antics!

This video is a great example of the benefits of having Britt around trying to capture cute moments. :) 

Riley attended her first birthday party in February. Owen, her bff, turned two about a month after she did. She got to play with her friend, see their dog, and have a cupcake. So it was a great day!

Riley loves the dog. She always wants to give dogs kisses, but maybe she doesn't actually want them. 

Riley loves working out with her Aunt Mel. This was for a photo op, but a few weeks later she saw those blocks and started saying, "Workout with Aunt Mel!"

Riley sees her mom wrapped in a blanket a lot, so she's started copying me. Her little blanket wimple cracks me up every time I see it. 

I have a tendency to dance a little when I'm eating something that I really enjoy. I'm not sure if that has anything to do with this new habit, but Riley loves to close her eyes and dance while she snacks. It's absolutely adorable! 

Riley's love of the scripture book makes me so happy. She has learned some of different people's names and I love it. She is reading to her baby here. 

A common site on my phone. 

Riley is a musical lover all around. She dances, yes, but now she also sings! It's quiet so you may need to turn up the volume, but I just love it. 

Occasionally, my sweet little toddler still naps on me.  

Behind the scenes in Britt's life. She had to take a professional photo with a white background, but to get the good light we had to improvise. I feel like this is a pretty good representation of our life. Behind every flawless picture of Britt there is a crazy looking Emilye hiding behind a sheet. 

We bought some new utensils for Riley and they became her new favorite toy. 

Riley helping Bo get in a few squats. Whenever she does some sort of exercise move she will say which color she's doing because when I choose a workout on Les Mills website she'll voice her opinion on which color background I should choose. 

Ben often plays this game with Riley where he comes up to her and says, "Do you want me to scare you?" and will make make her jump. Riley has started to request to be the scarer and it's hilarious to see her try to mimic the game. In on of the videos you'll see her get sort of distracted by Ben. 

I just happened upon Riley singing through the ABC song the other day, I didn't realize she knew it all by herself. I caught the second rendition, but she doesn't actually get to the end. 

Their Daddy-daughter dances are going to be epic. :)

Riley is obsessed with books. There are days I read to her maybe 50 times. Maybe more. She's always liked reading, but now that we have started getting library books she loves it even more because she has a fresh batch every few weeks. Whenever I read her this Hop on Pop book she would do something when we came to the page where the dad is sad. She is a very empathetic baby, so I guess I can't be that surprised. 

I should've known better than to try and set up a surprise after nap time. She always wakes up a little out of it and needs to be cuddled for a while after the nap. So our St. Patrick's day surprise didn't go as planned.

A few other things that don't have any pictures attached to them. Riley's relationship with Alexa will always crack me up. Whenever Alexa doesn't work she gets very concerned and says she is troubled, as I've shown in previous posts. However, the other day she came to a different conclusion. When Alexa didn't respond to a command Riley said, "Alexa is old. Alexa is sick." 

When Grandma Jack came and visited she brought Riley some puzzles that Riley immediately fell in love with. There was a farm theme, an underwater theme, and a safari theme. Every time she does the safari one she does the hippo first and while putting him together says, "Cute, cute hippo in the water." Every time. And then she will request to listen to the hippo song, which is I Want a Hippopotamus for Christmas.

One of the soundtracks that Riley will request is Trolls. A few months back I showed her that a second Trolls exists, so now she will also request Trolls: World Tour. The second song on the Trolls II soundtrack is a version of Girls Just Want to Have Fun, but they change it to Trolls Just Want to Have Fun. It cracks me up every time Riley requests this song because she calls it, "Trolls Like to Play." I mean it's basically the same thing right? 

The last thing I'll note is how clever Riley has already become. The other day we were getting ready for nap time. I used to do two books at nap time, but on days that we are reading all morning I'll just read one. So I told her to pick out just one book. She goes off to the bookshelf to find her book. When she comes back she has the illustrated Book of Mormon book we'd read as kids. As she's struggling to carry the heavy book she's saying again and again, "Scriptures is one book." 

These Days

Here is another post just full of the cute little things Riley does. There are so many videos in this post because she does so many cute things. She is still madly in love with the puppy we got her for Christmas. Before any nap or bedtime she puts her puppy in his "bed" (a cardboard box) and give him his "smoothie" (a plastic bunch of grapes in a sippy cup). She also insists that puppy eats breakfast when she eats breakfast. She used to try and demand he get food at all her meals, but I've pretty much squashed those expectations so she just asks I give him a few pieces of cereal in the morning. 

In some of the videos below you'll hear silly little things she says that she's picked up from us. One thing I haven't captured on video is her use of the word actually. It's so funny, she's figured out that you use that word basically to tell someone they're wrong. If she's looking at a book and she points out a puppy and I say oh that's actually a wolf she'll respond,"Acshey puppy," with this attitude of don't tell me what I know Travis! 

And now your pictures and videos....

Our budding puzzler! She also knows the name of 20+ dinosaurs... she amazes me.

This girl loves her puppies! 

Riley loves it when Ben puts her on his shoulders. In cute toddler fashion she wanted to be just like Daddy and put her puppy on her shoulders too! 

Mom had to get in on the fun!

This is a matching puzzle game she got from Gma and Gpa Messerly. She did this all by herself!

When Riley finds my phone and takes an incriminating picture of me...

When we first taught Riley about bowing her head during prayers she really committed.

There is something so cute about a baby in a diaper checking out the snow "storm".

The perks of at home church...no one sees you being a paparazzi. 

An interview with a toddler. Just a few of the cute words she says.

Aunt Bo fulfilling her auntly duties by teaching the child to draw. 

The end of this video cracked me up...Riley's a realist. She doesn't have time for sentimentality. 

This girls laugh can brighten any room, any day.

This is one of Ben's loves that Riley wasn't super excited about.

Finding an empty bottle of his root beer? Now that was a different story.

Another interview with a toddler. I wasn't sure if she knew what the word favorite meant...I'm pretty sure she just said whatever came to her mind first. Ever since this day she'll refer to different things as her "favorites".

I FINALLY caught this funny little baby voice Riley uses some times. It's my absolute favorite. 

Whenever anything happens that upsets or confuses Riley she does this adorable scrunchy face. This day Alexa's volume was up pretty high so when we asked her to do something Riley thought she was yelling and she wasn't too happy about it. 

Can't get through a blog without a dancing video from Riley.

Welcome to the Jungle

Our house officially has a 2 year old! Riley has stepped into that infamous age of "terribleness". While this age gets a bad rap, we think Riley has never been cuter. Yes, she is getting stronger opinions, but she's also able to express that opinion more clearly. She can communicate just about anything she wants or needs at this point and it's just so fun to see that she has a little personality. As Britt will often comment she seems like such a grown up kid, until you see the diaper. She really has started loosing the little baby face and tummy and it's so sad and sweet at the same time. She has started to have that "do it by myself" toddler attitude. Just the other night Ben was trying to show her that the shorts she was trying to put on were inside out. When he reached for the shorts to fix them Riley grabbed them away saying with her whole soul, "No, no, noooooooo!" It was clearly a look into future toddler stubbornness we will get to enjoy.

For her birthday we invited over the one family that we have included in our quarantine circle her in Maryland. They have a son that is turning two in February and I get along well with his mom. We basically use each other as our only social interactions, they moved here for residency this summer as well. So, for Riley's birthday she got to open presents, have Owen come over, and eat a cupcake. There really couldn't have been anything better. She asked me if "friend Owen" was coming over every other day that week. 

In this video you'll see Owen and Riley's relationship at it's most vulnerable. Owen had unwittingly grabbed Riley's most precious possession. White. You'll see Riley attempt to handle her sweet puppy being in another child's hands, but quickly decide she can't handle it. 

Sooooo speaking of cupcakes...I'm not one who wants to spend money and time decorating the house with cute birthday decorations, but I do occasionally enjoy baking. So even though there was no theme to this birthday party I went all out on my cupcake decorating! I've decided that I'm going to make that my tradition for kids birthdays. I will decorate cupcakes based on whatever they are into at the time. If you don't remember my amazing owl cupcakes for her first birthday you can check them out here.

I chose Minnie this year because I figured I could find a pretty simple design. Riley is into a lot of things, but she definitely has been won over by that mouse and his friends. I don't understand why it is just innate in children to love those characters! Maybe the crazy high voices appeal to them, but Riley got a Minnie read-to-me book for her first birthday and she has loved that thing to pieces. It has quite the tape job holding it together at the moment. 

Grandma Jack gave her this pretty dress for her birthday. She was so cute twirling around in it! 

Normal Hugs

BIG Hugs

Our little girl LOVES the outdoors and walks so we figured a bike was in order...

Turns out it wasn't the BEST idea.

Trying to get a family pic with the birthday girl...every time the camera comes out in goes the finger.

This face cracks me up.

Calling it good.

Riley and her favorite Aunt Bo.

There are many reasons to celebrate this sweet little two year old girl. One of the reasons is that she's nice enough to be fulfilling both of her parent's dreams. Riley has recently started requesting I play her favorite primary songs to her on the piano every day. We will sit down and I will play the song until she is ready for a new one and she'll flip through the pages searching for the pictures she knows belong to her favorite songs. She hasn't reached the next level of singing the songs with me, but I'm sure we are getting close. Riley also loves to score goals with her dad. When he gets home from work and starts kicking the soccer ball around she comes running and delights in trying to make goals with him. Really? What more could we ask for??