Bye Bye Hair, Hello Bangs!

Violet had her first 'trim' last evening. Grandma Fynaardt had tried to convince me to cut bangs since Christmas and I refused--I just didn't have the heart to cut her fabulous blond hair, and I wasn't about to spend money to take her into a beauty shop. But, it finally got to the point where she wouldn't wear ponytails and her hair was just always in her eyes, so I took the plunge and cut her bangs last night. Violet did very well, considering she had scissors next to her eyes, and dad trying to capture the event on film. When all was said and done, she still looks cute, and I now have the tiniest lock of hair imanginable. It sure seemed like a lot more hair when I was cutting it. So, here's the before, during and after pictures:

Shaggy haired Violet

Sitting for the trimming

Dancing after it's all done!

Growing Up

Besides Violet constantly going through growth spurts, we have yet another development that shows that our baby is not really a baby anymore. The big news is that we now have a lovely pink cushy potty chair in our bathroom for our 'baby' girl. And yes, this was entirely her initiative, and yes she has done both kinds of potty on it without much difficulty. The only challenge we're finding is that we as parents aren't quite ready for the time and effort needed to do the complete potty training. But, we figure, as long as the interest is there, we'll encourage it, and then when summer comes, we'll be all ready!

Finally

So I've started this post about 10 times, only to be interrupted by Violet or the end of my prep periods. I'm going to try to make this quick and not bore you with all the mundane details of our trip, and instead just give you highlights.

We started our trip with a car trip to Chicago and an overnight stay in a hotel that gave us a place to park our car free while we were gone, along with a shuttle to the O'Hare airport. It was here that Violet gave us our first glimpse into the daredevil that she is going to be by demonstrating her ability to somersault. Yes, she has mastered the somersault, and even tries to do them off the edge of beds as demonstrated by this picture.

We had a great time at the hotel, despite here daredevil antics. We went swimming, ordered Chicago style pizza and watched some college basketball before turning in early since we had a 7 AM shuttle the next morning.

We ended up taking a taxi to the airport Sunday morning (paid for by the hotel) because the hotel's shuttle person decided not to come in to work that morning. Talk about an expensive sick day for the hotel! We had a very nice taxi driver; unfortunately because the hotel nor the taxi service did not provide a car seat, that meant we had to haul Violet's along with us the whole vacation. Fortunately, I had packed Vi and I together into one suitcase, so we did not have to worry about having an extra 'checked' bag. We also chose the right airline, American, that still allows passengers to check two items per ticket without charging extra. We got to the airport in plenty of time; O'Hare at 7AM on a Sunday morning isn't the chaotic place it normally is. We got through security without any trouble, and spent an hour and a half watching planes from our gate window. Hence the first word of Violet's description--plane. She absolutely loved the planes and is still pointing out any and every plane that travels through the greater Big Rapids airspace. I'm not sure she ever realized that she was on the plane, but she does talk about it. Here are a couple of pictures of the plane rides. Both were uneventful (although landing in Reno it was a bit bumpy) and we ended up having nice stewards and stewardesses who re-arranged seating so that we could have three seats for Violet to crawl around on.

Auntie Chandra and her boyfriend Mike picked us up in Reno, and then it was an hour and a half drive to Susanville. We got to learn the ins and out of some of the California quirks--a border check-point when we left Nevada into California, mandated headlight on driving for a stretch, and my favorite--no smoking in any public establishment or restaurant! That made it really easy to go out to eat with Violet as we didn't have to worry about it being too smoky for her. My sister lives in a 900 sq. ft one-bedroom house, which is where we were staying, so it was a little cramped for the four of us, but we managed pretty well. Violet did not seem to be affected at all by the time zone change, unlike her mother and father. That first night Ben and I forced ourselves to stay awake until 8:30pm and then we called it a night. Here's a picture of Violet finding some entertainment with Mike and a laundry basket as her mom and dad struggle to keep their eyes open:

According to the local weather officials, Monday was going to be the best weather day, so we decided to take the trip to Burney Falls. It was about an hour and a half drive from Susanville, but it was supposed to be very beautiful and have some good hiking trails around it that weren't too long. So, that's what we did. It was a beautiful day, and we timed it just right as Violet took her nap on the trip out. The hike to the falls was only about 3/4 of a mile, but there was a loop that was only 1.2 miles that would take us around the falls, so we set off figuring that between the two of us, we could carry her without too much trouble. Well, we were wrong. Not that we couldn't carry her--Violet just didn't want to be carried. She wanted to walk herself! So, Violet walked a good portion of that 1.2 miles--only being carried when it was too narrow or dangerous for here to be walking. And that was probably the longest 500ft. ever. A toddler that wants to walk is not a fun toddler to carry. She had a blast though--and that's where the rest of her description comes in. She went on a walk, saw the water go boom (waterfall) and it splashed her in the eyes. Here are a few pictures from that adventure:

Burney Falls

This is one of my favorite pictures of the entire trip. She was going to walk that trail, even if it meant leaving us behind. A little early for that kind of independence, isn't it???

Violet was also fascinated by all the rocks. We had to keep telling her to leave the rocks and sticks for the other people, otherwise we would've had half the park in the car trunk!

We travelled back slowly, stopping by some satellite field on the way back (Ben will have to tell those of you who are interested in it as we got there right at closing time, so he ran around reading all the signs) and Lassen Peak. Much of the Lassen National Volcanic Forest was still closed for the season, so we didn't get to see that. We'll have to go another time I guess.

Tuesday was spent exploring Susanville, which meant Ben and Violet sitting in a bookstore and me discovering that the shops that looked cool we actually closed. We also played a lot in the park, where Violet got her first injury of the trip--a scraped chin from falling off the end of a slide. I didn't make it to the end fast enough, but in my defense, Ben had told me she'd stop on her own at the bottom anyway.

Wednesday was our last day there, and Chandra had the day off work, so we packed a picnic lunch and planned to go hiking in some of the city foothills. We had it all planned out and then we had Violet's second and more serious injury of the trip due to this bridge:

If you look really closely, you can see there is a raised track where car wheels would go on the bridge just before you get to the square log that is the base of the walls of the bridge. We were walking along, and Violet, in her excitement to see the water, took off for the side of the bridge. She caught her toes on that track and fell head first right onto that log. I quickly scooped her up, thinking that it couldn't be that bad and started consoling her and continued walking; Ben however, took a closer look at it and saw that she was getting a huge goose egg on her forehead. I never saw it, but Chandra and Ben both said it was gigantic--so I'm thinking golf ball size, because her forehead isn't that big. We turned around and were going to go get ice, but the nearest gas station was going to be a ways away. Coincidentally, one of the local forest fire-fighter brigades was doing child rescue training that day, so they provided us with a first aid kit with an ice pack and told us to keep her awake for fear of concussion, and if the swelling didn't go down, to take her into the hospital. So, have you ever tried to put an icepack on a 18-month's old head, when all she wants to do is snuggle with her mom?!? It was not fun, but thanks to the heroic entertainment efforts of her Auntie Chandra, and her dad's funny reading of some of her books, we managed to keep the ice pack on for about a half hour, and the swelling subsided quickly. Since our options were to go on our hike or go back to a 900 sq. foot house to try to keep her awake, we opted for the hike. Violet was a trooper, and got right back into her wanting to walk frame of mind, but we carried her over bridges from that time on! We even made it to the top of the "mountain" and still had our picnic lunch. We also retrieved what I believe is the largest pine cone ever, but that got left in Auntie Chandra's house. Here are some pictures of the rest of the hike, after the bridge:

All bumps and bruises considered, it was a fantastic vacation. No offense to the grandpas and grandmas, but it was very nice to go on a vacation away. It was the first time we had been on vacation since Ben and I were married. Besides an avid love for hiking (we've been on many walks and rides since we've been back) Violet also got a new game that she calls 'nigh-nigh' where she pretends to go to bed in Ben and I's bed. We have the lovely Auntie Chandra to thank for that:

We arrived home safely with a couple of days left in our spring break, which happened to be GORGEOUS, and I have to close with this picture. It just cracks me up. I guess after being on a plane for 4 hours, even the car seat looks like a good place to relax. The little boy was there picking up his luggage as well, and they (Violet and him) were quite enthralled by each other. Make no mistake, however; Violet let it be known that that was her car seat:

I hope you enjoyed this lengthy post, and my apologies for taking so long to get it up. But, in my defense, when it's close to 80 out, you have to be outside--not stuck in front of a computer.

Planes, booms, and water

As soon as I feel like I'm back on normal time, I will fill you all in about our Spring Break trip to Susanville, CA. Here's Violet's version of the vacation, just to get your interest piqued, and I quote,

"Plane! Walk, water, boom, eye."

More to come!