Happy Memorial Day!

We have been staying busy and having fun with our visits to the parks, beaches and a trip to the zoo. We were able to see a lot of the animals but didn't come close to seeing them all. We are planning on making frequent visits, now that we are members. The beaches have been busy this week with all the Memorial Day vacationers. We were able to go walk the beaches on the warmer days and we are still making frequent visits to the park where LC loves to swing. Here are some photos for your viewing pleasure.

 Letyon and I soaking up the sun at Coronado Beach. 

 LC at Spreckels park swinging on her baby swing

 The three of us at the zoo visiting the Elephant rehabilitation center. 

 Mom and Leyton at the Polar Bear exhibit. (You can see the bear in the background on top of the hill)

 Dad and Leyton viewing the sleeping Panda Bear. The Panda sleeps 14-18 hrs per day. Lucky!

 Daddy's girl

 The Flamingos at the SD Zoo

 LC and dad played a trick on Panda and caught her in the laundry basket

 Panda and dad played a trick on LC and caught her in the laundry basket. hehe

 Beautiful SD on Memorial Day

Mom completed her Crossfit workout today, which was called the "Memorial Day Murph". (LT Murphy was a United States Navy SEAL posthumously awarded the United States military's highest decoration, the Medal of Honor, for his actions in 2005 during the War in Afghanistan. He was the first person to be awarded the medal for actions in Afghanistan; and the first member of the U.S. Navy to receive the award since theVietnam War.) The workout was Run 1-Mile, 100 pull ups, 200 push ups, 300 squats, and run 1 more mile. Mom finished it in about 45 min. Good job Mom!

 Mom knocking out some push ups. 

1 of 300 air squats. 

7 Months Old!

These past 7 months have flown by.  Leyton is funnier, sweeter, sassier and bigger every day.  Thanks to Gramma and Grandpa Campoamor, she is now FINALLY eating like a big girl and pounding the sippy cup.  Her diet now consists of: breast milk, carrots, pears, peas, apples, bananas, and a small bit of avocado.  Next up is sweet potato, which I predict will be a hit.

Leyton's favorite new toy is her Leap Frog Activity table.  She loves hitting the buttons and watching the lights.  And it is doing wonder's for Mommy's Spanish!  I also know all of her favorite bedtime books by heart -makes it easier to read them to her while she is chewing on them.  Did you know that in the colored pages of "Good Night Moon" -the moon rises higher, the clock changes time, and the young mouse moves around in the room?  If you read it nearly every night for 7 months you would.

Also Thanks to Gramma and Grandpa for the sweet hats

Meet our new babysitter.  Leyton is a big fan of Sasha.  She oohs and ahh's everything Sasha enters the room.  And Sasha is very sweet with her, even when Leyton tries to 'pet' her (i.e. pull on her fur).

Leyton is sleeping better these days as well.  She goes down at 8pm and then she will sleep to 6 on most mornings.  Monday thru Friday I wake her up at 5:30, so I can go workout, and she goes right back to sleep, so that Daddy doesn't have to get up until I get home a little after 7 (not fair!)

Here are some pictures we snapped after church on Sunday (Note to Nana: this sweater fit her perfectly beginning at 6 months old.  We get compliments on it often.  Thanks!)  And thanks for Poppy and BB for the beautiful dress!

She isn't talking yet, but she babbles a lot.  We are working on 'Mommy' and 'Daddy.'  And Ryan and I are learning one or two new sign language 'words' every day.  Besides chatting, she is also MUCH more fussy these past few days.  I think it may be her tummy adjusting to the solid foods.  After diaper changes (where she screams her head off, what's up with that?), she seems to settle down.  Not a fan of the new fussy kid and really hoping it is just a 'phase'.

She can be a bit of a diva

She also has some great new facial expressions.  My favorite is rolling her eyes.  It never fails to crack me up.  Unfortunately, I don't think I'll get that one on camera.

Still grabbing for and chewing on everything she sees.  She really likes stings on jackets and hoodies and gets very angry if you take them away.

And she also waves!  Or that is what we are calling it.  She will hold up her hand and open and close her fist, so that it looks like she is waving.  So we are trying to get her to do it when we say 'hello' and 'bye-bye'.  It is VERY cute.

Panda also likes her new home.  Plenty of sunny sills and comfy chairs to nap in.

Finally her 7 month photos!

These were all taken within a couple of minutes.  Notice the attitude changes.

This is what she really wanted - to chew on the sign.

Yumm.. paper

Also introducing my new "Mommy Cut".  I had to do bangs, because I lost a ton of hair after giving birth, especially up front.  So I had to go with bangs and then I chopped the rest shorter just for fun.  Still long enough to pull back in a ponytail though :-)

It's not all rainbows and sunshine, but overall, hands down the best 7 months of my life.
Mommy and Daddy love you Leyton!!

My New Playmate

Daddy is finally home, and I have someone new to play with!Woah, woah... 

whew.. nice recovery

Daddy reads my bedtime stories to me (and Mommy gets ready for bed).

He plays with my toys

Give me that back, Daddy

Silly Daddy!

Overall, though, I am certainly happy to have him home!

Home Sweet Home... for good this time

After 10 months of being gone on deployment, I am finally home. The drive from the east coast to the west coast went well. After leaving DC, we drove to Norfolk so that I could check out from the commands there. All of that went smoothly and we were on the road by noon on Monday, headed to Brookneal, VA. We shared a lovely dinner with Shannon's side of the family and it was nice to see everyone. We went to bed and it was up early the next morning to start the journey west with the parents and the animals. The first day we drove 8 hours to KY to my grandparents place to visit with them and to allow the parents some time to tie up some loose ends with their newly purchased house in KY. After a few days in KY, it was off to Millington, TN for me to check out. Everything went relatively smooth and I was out of there by 5pm on Thursday. We drove a few more that hours that night and decided to overnight in Little Rock, AR. The next day, we drove all the way to Tucumcari, NM and overnighted there. The next day we drove over 1,000 miles and made it all the way to Coronado, arriving at 10pm. LC was already in bed so I had to wait until the next morning to see her while awake. When she saw me for the first time her eyes got really big.... like "deer in the headlights" big. She looked at me like that for about 1.5 min. Then for the next few minutes after that, she really didnt know what to think of this new guy who is now in her room starring at her. We got reacquainted and havent looked back since. We have been having a good time inbetween the growing honey-do list that Shannon presented me with upon arrival. I tried to tell her that im on vacation now, especially after working for the past 10 months straight... but she didnt agree. We have been going on walks and trying to finish getting unpacked. The house is really nice and we are still quite pleased with our choice to rent in Coronado. We have been enjoying everything together and look forward to the future. It is so good to be home!

Before we left DC, we visited Arlington Cemetery. It always is an amazing and humbling visit.

USMC Memorial in DC

This was at a Mom 'n Pop seafood restaurant in Va Beach. Dad and I crushed 1 dozen oysters on the half shell.

In TX, we stopped at the famous Big Texan Steakhouse. They had a nice doggy corral where Sasha was able to stretch her legs.

Big Texan Steakhouse

This restaurant is famous for their 72 ounce steak. If someone is able to crush the steak and all the fixings in one hour, they didnt have to pay the bill ($75). We were lucky enough to witness two gentlemen attempt the challenge and the dude on the left was able to complete it. The amount of food was amazing... the steak was literally 3 inches thick and the size of a platter.

At a rest stop in Arizona.

The AZ Desert

This is what I came home too. What a treat! True to all the stories, as soon as you pull out a camera, she starts to cheese. What a funny kid. This is the pretty dress that BB and Poppy gave her.... so pretty!

She is now ready to visit Pete, Whitney, and Susannah in France!

Gramma C has the magic touch with feeding baby's their food. She seems to enjoy the fruits over the vegetables and the cereals. Shannon and I cannot be in the room when she eats because all we do is laugh at the crazy kid. She spits and sticks her tongue out while she eats and it is really funny.

Gramma feeding LC her pears. Delicious! So far it seems her favorites are pears and bananas.