Ashlyn's First Christmas

Saying Ashlyn had her first Christmas is kind of mis-leading.  Ashlyn really had her first...five Christmases!

Jones' Christmas.
Christmas with Papa and Gigi.
Christmas with Daddy and Mommy on Christmas morning.
Christmas with Mimi and Pappy.
Christmas with the Whitakers (meaning the Littles).

Ashlyn at 6 months

Happy Half-Birthday, Little One!

You don't look so much like a baby anymore.

(It's probably your long hair that goes nicely in a ponytail on top of your head like a little whale spout.)

Mommy and Daddy have even given up calling you "Baby" anymore.  Now we call you "Little One".

You're 16# and 26 3/4 inches tall!

A is for AdventureGirl (in Yosemite)

It looks like adventure seems to follow Ashlyn around.

It SNOWED in Yosemite.

Rewind to the first day.

Thursday afternoon we dropped Cole and Kensi off with Pappy and Mimi and drove to the valley to see Ashlyn's cousins.

Bekah playing with Ashlyn! 

Friday morning we got up and headed up and over 41 into the valley.  And stopped at the Valley View for Ashlyn's first time in Yosemite Valley (she was in the national park for our backpacking trip we took in August).

Flying with Daddy!  Wheee!

We had to take the stereotypical valley view pictures because it was
Ashlyn's first time in the valley!

Ashlyn's First Halloween

Tim and I are not big Halloween people.

I mean, Ashlyn barely made it to the pumpkin patch.

We went Tuesday, and met Mimi and Pappy to pick up our doggies, who had been at Mimi and Pappy's while we were at Yosemite (blog post coming soon!)

Ashlyn's first Avocado Festival!

Our weekend down in Carpinteria for the Avocado Festival started out with Taco Grande on Friday night.

Ashlyn is (obviously) all about burritos.

She dove into Tim's burrito more than last time.  We actually had to take some tortilla and carne asada out of her hand (we let her eat the guac).  

Saturday morning was sunny and very warm.  If the Miller's had been able to come, we were planning on having smore's in my Dad's firepit, so there were chairs outside around it.  Ashlyn was so proud of herself for sitting in her very own chair.

Ashlyn at 5 Months

So I think things are going to start going reallllllllll fast.

Oh yeah, and just chillin in my own chair

Translate:  I wish I could blog more but I can't.

Because soon I'm going to be chasing around a very mobile little girl!

For those of you who know our house, there is no possible way to block off, say, the living room, so we could contain Ashlyn.  Or the dining room.  Or the kitchen.  The front of the house isn't exactly a great room, but it's also got larger doorway areas than a doggy gate can fit.

Enter child-proofing my whole house.  (Yes, I suppose we could block her off in the back of the house, but really what's the point in that?  The idea is for her to be safe while I'm doing things like cooking making baby food and doing laundry).  Thankfully, it won't be until she walks that we're outside every day and everyday becomes "pick up dog poop day".

Ashlyn's First Labor Day Camping

When I was pregnant last year, we thought Labor Day camping at Shaver Lake would be Ashlyn's first camping trip.  Then we had this crazy idea to take her backpacking last month.

So this was actually her second time sleeping in a tent.  AND, thankfully, it went much better!  (Meaning, she could breathe the whole time.  Ha).

Tim's Delta 4 Heavy rocket launched Wednesday, so he got Thursday off, so we drove to Daniel and Maria's not as early as we would like, but didn't get there at like 11pm as we are in a habit of doing.

Friday morning Ashlyn got to play with her cousins!  James and Bekah told us it was time to do Zumba, and so even Ashlyn participated (with the help of Daddy)!

Zumba time!

Friday evening we drove up to Camp Edison and paid our due to get in.  We knew exactly how much it was going to cost, thanks to Dan Helms and The Manual.  

That evening was filled with doggy time at the beach, setting up tents, eating delicious taco soup prepared by Esther; hearing how The Taco Van broke down and now Cary and Kathy with Samuel, Samantha, and Freddy were now coming in two cars; teasing Katie for arriving waaaaay after "dusk", and figuring out that the pac n' play does not fit in our new tent (thank you, Tim, for being so tall).

A Girl and her Dogs

While I was pregnant, we joked that this baby was the third child.  Cole, Kensi, Baby.  

My 3 babies cuddling while Ashlyn was still in tummy

We also called "it" the "Mancub".  

Ashlyn sitting with Kensi

Ashlyn sitting with Cole

Ashlyn at 4 Months

4 months.  That's a third of a year.  That's weird.

It's not weird that Ashlyn is bigger or growing or 4 months old.  It's that 4 months is a third of a year. And in October when she's 6 months, we'll go to Yosemite and she'll pick out her first pumpkin.  Then it'll be December and she'll pick out her first Christmas tree.  And then it'll be Valentine's Day, and Easter and her first egg hunt.  And then her birthday, where she'll eat chocolate cake and get it all over herself.  Or maybe we'll give her vanilla cake so we don't have to give her a bath..."doggies! Lick!"..."oh yes, Mommy, that's what we're best at!"

But right now, she's 4 months old.  And little.  And cute.  And smiley.  And still in 3 month old clothes.  

.....aaaaaand this month she chose her baseball team!

Ashlyn's First Backpacking Trip

This past weekend we did something most people would call crazy:  we took a 3.5month old backpacking.

And we thought
it was awesome!
(except the part where she decided to get congested the second night and was up screaming because she couldn't breathe, or the part where we all came home with colds, but, whatever).  

It was awesome.  She loved it.

I got the idea to take a baby backpacking from the Hungry Runner Girl blog, she took her daughter at about 7months and wore her in a front pack.  Tim had been all sad we would not get to go backpacking together this summer (due to breastfeeding...or last summer due to me being pregnant).  I showed him the blog post on backpacking with a baby, and he started to plan.

For Christmas I had gotten him a subscription of Backpacker magazine (which he loves) and so he started finding different trips we could take.  They were short and did not have much elevation gain.  After our 9mile hike in Tahoe, the potential length of the trip became a little longer knowing Ashlyn could handle it and we could carry her.

The trip Tim ended up choosing was to Chain Lakes in Yosemite National Park (starting in the Sierra National Forest...out a 15mile long dirt road.  Ha).  It was a 5 mile hike in to the middle lake, where we would spend two nights, and the second day we would do a day hike up to the upper lake.  The trail started at about 8,000ft in elevation and the middle lake was at 9,200ft*.