January, 2013

I know I say it a lot when I don't keep up on my posts, but time has flown by since the end of the year.  It feels like I blinked and we are already in the middle of February.  To catch up, I thought I would just share a few things we have been doing the past month.  

For my Dad's Christmas present, we bought two tickets to a UCLA basketball game.  They just renovated Pauley Pavilion so I knew he would love to see what they did.  The biggest changes are apparent from the outside.  Inside, they kept the same feeling, just with modern touches.  Here is a look at the Pavilion from the parking lot over-looking the football practice field.

My dad and I took a stroll around the outside before the game.  Here is a statue of the great John Wooden, and my Dad taking a picture of it.

Close to the court, there is a new gym facility for the students and staff that is amazing.  Just inside the entrance there is the "Pyramid of Success" that Wooden made famous.  

A view of the court from our seats as UCLA runs onto the court.

This cute little baby with giant head phone ear protection.

UCLA won 68 to 60 against Stanford.  After the game, we went for a stroll around some of the campus.  I absolutely love this campus.  The look of the entire campus is so collegiate and beautiful.  Here are my Dad and I with Royce Hall over my Dad's shoulder.

The same view, without us in the way.

The last pic from this day is a view of my Dad's old Fraternity House.  He always loves stopping by to see how it looks.  It has been fixed up a lot since the last time we saw it.  It looks much nicer then it used to.

We have spent a couple of our weekends at my parents house.  There is so much going on so it is nice to be able to relax every once in awhile.  Kalea is a pro at relaxing.  She is out cold on Gramma's lap with their cat Charlie snuggled up next to her.

With how crazy the past year was for us, we enjoy every minute we have together just hanging out at home.  It seems like free weekends are very rare, so we relax together when ever we can.  Kalea loves playing at home.  We finally bought some storage for all of her books and toys.  It has made it so much easier for her to play with all of her toys in turn.  One of her favorite things to do is to "ride" her new tricycle.  We push her around and chase the cats down the hall.  She is definitely a thrill seeker.  She usually has a big smile on her face and laughs as she gets pushed around.  Of course by the time I get the camera, she gives me the look you see below.

In  January we also spent a bit of time cleaning up all of our Christmas decorations.  Kalea loved the lights from the tree.

We also enjoyed building Kalea's first blanket fort one evening.  It turned into quite a fortress for Kalea and she loved it.

Here she is under the fort on her very own chair.

Another view from inside the fort.

This last month Kalea has started to pull herself up really easily.  She is getting better and better at it.  In fact, this evening she started to use the couch to cruze a little.  

Kalea loves to read.  We decided to read her bedtime story in her blanket fort on this night just for fun.  We love this story we found around Father's Day "Daddies Do It Different!"  Notice the feet crossed at the ankles.  She almost always has them like this.

One evening at my parents house, Kalea got to share an evening snack with her Grampa.  He had his popcorn and she had some puffs.  Of course, she is eyeing up his popcorn.

There wasn't too much that went on in January, we just spent some quality time together and got caught up on life.  I hope you enjoyed the update!