A Family Getaway

On Memorial Day we had a fun family getaway to Park City, which was a welcome respite after a couple of crazy weeks of work for Sam. Monday evening we took Cate in the pool, then hung out in our room eating pizza and watching TV (I know it seems totally un-American, but we don't watch TV at home. A whole evening of The Food Network and trash like The Bachelorette felt like a real indulgence!) It was perfectly blissful until … the 2AM family meltdown.

Cate had taken an extraordinarily long nap Monday morning, which was no big deal until we were all up and exhausted at 2 AM. We were all a little crazy, and two out of three of us were crying. A different two out of three of us were considering packing up and going home. We ended up staying and three out of three of us slept in until almost 10. On Tuesday morning when we woke up Sam jumped out of bed and addressed Cate and me, both still in bed: “Family,” he said, “I think we’ve regrouped after a good night’s rest! Good job, Family! Now let’s go have a fun day!” And we did: Off to Utah Olympic Park for the morning (Aerial ski jumping! Luge! Bobsled! Making of the medals video!) and lunch (and dessert by Sam's former boss, Raymond) at the new Montage Resort.

Bliss indeed.

Here are my two favorites in the pool (before the family meltdown):

Here we are all together at Utah Olympic Park (after the family meltdown):

You'll have to just imagine the family meltdown part, which included (among other things) brief but wanton disobedience to the government warnings regarding modifications to Cate's Pack-n-Play.

Here is Cate enjoying her first luxury hotel experience at the Montage Tuesday afternoon:

I think she's a natural on the chaise.

She Sits!

Cate is getting bigger and more fun every day! Her personality is coming alive and she—she, who for so long wouldn’t smile outside of our house—has become the biggest ham. She will smile, laugh for, and generally charm anyone who will look her direction. It turns out she might not be so much of an introvert after all.

On more than one occasion recently Sam has gotten her laughing so hard she can’t catch her breath, and she cannot contain her laughter and giggles when she is sitting in either of our laps listening to us talk to her or each other.

She has mastered so many new things lately … the most exciting of which is … sitting up! For a few days I wasn’t sure whether what she was doing officially counted as sitting up, but on June 3 it was official. She is a sitter-upper. She has not figured out how to get herself from a sitting to lying position on her own, so much like when she gets on her tummy and refuses to roll on to her back, she simply squawks, cries, or moans until her people (that’s Sam and me) come do the hard part for her. I know, I know, if I didn’t roll her over she would eventually figure it out for herself. But honestly, who suffers during that process? All of us. And I’ve never met a grown up who squeals to be rolled over from her tummy to her back or to get from sitting to lying down. So whatever, we do it for her.

Here she is with some toys on the first day I would officially count as a sitting up independently day: