It's Christmas!

OK, so not yet, but close enough because I don't think I'll be doing any blogging at my parents' or Nate's parents' houses.  I'm also not going to post any pictures yet because I'm too lazy to get the camera cord out plus we should be packing the camera soon to travel with us.

We did our family Christmas yesterday morning.  Nate and I had a quick compromise because it is our yearly tradition to debate on when to open gifts:  Christmas morning or Christmas Eve (at night).  I think it's best at night, I only remember opening gifts once on Christmas morning and he feels it is only proper to do it on Christmas morning.  In the past I've caved.  He lets me open the stocking on the Eve and the rest we do in the morning.  This year we aren't going to be home either of those times so I said the evening of the 23rd and he said the morning.  Thus the yearly debate.  Our compromise went something like this:

Me:  "Fine, we can open gifts on Christmas morning if we don't teach Braelyn about Santa"
Nate:  "OK, no Santa.  So we open gifts Christmas morning"
Me:  "Sounds good"

See?  That's what good compromise is like.  We also learned that opening gifts Christmas morning is way more important to Nate than Santa, which is how it should be.

We did NOT take Braelyn to get pictures with Santa.  Personally, I think that's creepy, don't want to stand in line, and it's INSANELY expensive in the first place to buy the stupid pictures!  Plus, news flash, SANTA'S NOT REAL!  I've thought the whole Santa thing was ridiculous ever since we stood in line the day after Thanksgiving behind these women who were discussing the lies they told their children about Santa. (to be fair, I've always thought Santa was kind of dumb, but now I feel it way more)  For instance:  to explain angel trees one mother told their child that parents had to send Santa money for the kids' gifts and these kids' parents had no money to send so other parents were sending money to Santa for them.  Really?  Really?  They even laughed about the lies they were telling their children.  I don't actually have a problem with lying to my child about some things, and that's not the reason I don't want to do Santa with our children.  I don't want to do Santa because I want them to know a) the stupid gifts are from REAL people, who work hard to make money to buy them and give you gifts because they love you so much; and b) that Jesus is really why we celebrate Christmas.  I think Santa overshadows Jesus a lot at Christmas time.  Our church's preschool classes even talked about Santa.  That's wrong, at least that's how I feel.

To be honest, next year I don't even really want gifts.  Maybe one from Nate.  But the rest of the money people spend on me, I want them to donate it to WorldVision and buy a goat or ducks or soccer balls for people who don't have things.  Seriously.  That's what I want to tell everyone.  Maybe that will be our new Christmas tradition.  Maybe that will be my gift from Santa.  Ha! :)

Now that I've come down from my soapbox, Braelyn was surprisingly not that into ripping the paper off the gifts.  She was way more into eating the paper.  And she actually really seemed to enjoy playing with the gifts we got her.  Nate got me a beautiful bracelet with her name beaded into it, which is awesome.  I got him a clock radio with an ipod dock and Braelyn got him a wall plaque with a saying about fathers on it.  Yay Christmas!

In just a few hours we will be getting ready to fly to Nebraska.  I'm nervous and stressed.  I'm sure it will all be fine.  And we will get to see lots of family.  Yay Christmas!

8 months and it's almost Christmas Break.

In case you were wanting an update on the sleeping situation, she's still not.  I still hope someday she will.  It's better some nights, worse on others.  It was really GREAT the night the smoke detector went off because I was seasoning our cast iron skillet in the oven (it wasn't smoking, that particular detector never requires smoke in order to go off).  Not.

I weighed her yesterday and she was 17 pounds, 9 oz by our scale.  She is getting longer too, which is really hard to measure.  I think she's something like 28 inches long.  All I know is I put a pair of footed pants on her today and they were just long enough where the last time she wore them, I'm pretty certain they were too long.  She needs to put some pounds on though because the waistband is still loose. :)

One more day of finals and it is Christmas break!  I am excited to not have to worry about grading and getting things done and just enjoy spending time with Braelyn and Nate.  And I can get more sleep because I can nap when she does...maybe.  I'm also SUPER excited about the three flights we're going to take with her over break to see family.  If you didn't catch that, it's sarcasm.  Not excited at all.  At. All.  I'm sure family is super excited to see her, but, yeah.  Child who isn't sleeping great in the first place + new people and new places = not a fun time.  Maybe she'll sleep better in a new place...one can only hope.  At the moment I'm feeling pessimistic and not in the Christmas spirit at all.

But, here's some of the pictures we tried to take for Christmas cards.  She refused to smile, but that's OK, she's still precious, cute, all those nice things people say about babies that they sometimes mean.

We have purchased exactly three gifts for Braelyn, all of which she knows about.  I'm sure she'll be thrilled.  I think that may be where we will stop.  It's a good number...it's how many Jesus got from the Wise Men, and I think that may be good enough for her.   She will be way more into the paper and boxes than the gifts themselves, I'm sure.

Sleep or lack thereof.

Oh blessed sleep, how we miss thee.

This has been awful.  Braelyn used to be such a good sleeper.  We could put her in her crib semi-awake, she'd roll over and be asleep at bedtime.  She'd fall right back asleep when she'd wake up during the night.  I miss those times.

Someday maybe those times will be back.  This was during Thanksgiving dinner.  If only she slept that good all the time.

I know, many of you are thinking (and telling me) to let her cry it out.  I can't do that.  It just seems wrong.  It feels wrong.  I would say that it is wrong, but I know many people do it that way, and I say more power to them that they can do that, but I can't.  I think I could see doing it that way when I know she understands things fully, like that we are going to be there for her, but she needs to sleep now.  Anyway, for now, until I go crazy, we are just going with it.  I'm trying various things.  We've also gotten interrupted by a cold (during which she actually slept better!  I'm thinking about exposing her to more germs) and every once in a while we think she's teething, but it's just teasing us, because she still hasn't gotten any teeth.

Seriously, she still hasn't gotten any teeth.  She drools, she chews, she's upset (could be sleep deprivation, I suppose) and NO teeth.  Not that I really want them, I just want to know what she's like when she's really teething.  And I'm sort of tired of everyone, me included, saying over and over again that she's teething.  That's another thing, I don't know if I should really try sleep training, because I don't know if she's teething and that's the magic thing that's causing this.

All I know is that I want to yell at her and make her sleep.  I have yelled at her, sort of.  I feel bad, but it's VERY frustrating to put her down and have her wake up 15 minutes later.  Seriously.  Every teenager or even adult who wants to have a baby should have to spend a night at our house.  [Note:  I do not regret having a child, I love her dearly, but seriously, you need to know what you are getting into]  Oh, and she cries every time Nate holds her and I'm in the house.  That got better today since he was home all day and I made them be together all day.  Perhaps the sleeping issue is separation anxiety?  UGH...I've stopped looking for reasons and just accepted it.  It'd be nice to think that there's some reason for it.  That means it could be solved and she could sleep better.  Hope springs eternal.

As part of her bedtime routine, I sing to her as she nurses before bed.  For a long time I've sung the first and last part of "Abide With Me" (perhaps that's an odd choice for a lullaby...I couldn't remember many children's songs when we had her and it's peaceful, I think).  A line in the first verse says "hope of the hopeless, oh, abide with me".  I find that line funny.  I am the hopeless.  I have prayed about this situation quite often and have told Nate that I feel that God is ignoring me because it's not getting better.  One night when I was extremely tired and super frustrated I told God that if he was really there, she should sleep longer than an hour.  She slept 1 hour and 10 minutes.  Thanks God.  You are definitely there.  You are the hope for the hopeless.  Hope springs eternal.  I hope she sleeps well tonight. 

Happy Thanksgiving

Braelyn says "Go Huskers!" while watching the Penn State game.

Happy Thanksgiving from the Hagge family!

We will be going to California for a teacher's conference this coming week and will be back in time to make a turkey and celebrate Thanksgiving (and watch Husker football!)

Here's a picture of the new talent Braelyn has:  sleeping while sitting up.  She's gotten really good at sitting up, obviously. :)  This was at Autumn's house.

Braelyn is also eating some solids.  She does actually eat them too...she eats applesauce and sweet potatoes.  She does NOT like avocado or rice cereal, though if you mix rice cereal with enough applesauce, she might eat it. :)  I want to try bananas again and then carrots and green beans.

Today the cat has decided that she really likes Braelyn's room.  She has been known to go in there and sleep in the crib (before we moved Braelyn in) and in the middle of the night she might visit when I'm in there.  But today I found her in there twice when we went in to change diapers or play.

I think she might want a diaper?  The second time she was on the rocking chair.

7 months!

I weighed Braelyn this morning and by our scale she's 17 lbs 3 oz.  I don't know how that would translate to the doctor's scale... :)  We are having massive problems sleeping at our house lately.  Braelyn has some congestion/cold stuff going on, but the sleep problems predate that.  Needless to say, I'm exhausted and I have a cold.  I did get 2.5 hours of uninterrupted sleep last night.  I'm trying a few things because apparently hoping she'll grow out of it is not working. :)  I am very much looking forward to Thanksgiving break next week, though I wish we'd be able to just stay home all week instead of going to the conference in CA and messing with her sleep more!  Yesterday she fell asleep at Autumn's while she was sitting up.  Oh well.  At least she actually got some sleep which is better than I can do.

Happy Halloween/Reformation Day!

Well, Braelyn's first Halloween was uneventful...we didn't go trick-or-treating because, well, let's face it, she wouldn't be eating the candy anyway.  The whole reason we don't give out candy to our neighborhood kids was that we were fed up with the obviously too old kids that went around, and we'd basically be doing the same thing, using the baby as an excuse to get candy! :)  We did dress her up to go to Autumn's that day.  My mom made the hat.

 We tried to take some pictures outside with the pumpkins.

 Both of them were looking at Daddy...he had a treat for Hunter.

 Howie's turn!

 Everybody's dressed up for Halloween!  Except Hunter.  Howie hates that costume. :)  That's why we put it on him.

Nate's parents also sent us a Snow White costume in which she looked very cute as a bald Snow White.  We have pictures of that too, but they are on a different memory card and I'm too lazy to go and get it. :)  Maybe I'll have to post pictures of that later.

Food update:  We've tried rice cereal, sweet potatoes, bananas, and avocado.  The most she's eaten of any of them has been sweet potato and probably only a spoonful total.  We tried putting mashed banana on her tray and just letting her try and feed herself and turns out she likes that quite a bit, even licked the tray!  It's messy though, and I don't know how much she actually ate of it.  We've also given her a slice of apple to gum and I want to try applesauce soon.  Hopefully some day she'll start actually eating a little more of things.

She can also sit up really well on her own now.  She rarely falls over and she tries to sit up from a laying down position...that doesn't work too well yet.  We went to a restaurant tonight and she could actually sit in the high chair.

Howie has really warmed up to Braelyn.  He likes to give her kisses, which we don't like so much, and he definitely doesn't mind cuddling up with her and me since it's now colder outside.  Hunter is fine, he's just annoying as ever.  He likes to sniff her and she's started kicking him when he does that, which he now thinks is a game and that she's playing with him.  He has learned not to let her get a hold of his ears!

We will hope Braelyn sleeps better tonight...last night she woke up every 40 minutes until I finally just slept in her room in the recliner.  I hope that doesn't happen tonight...not sure my neck will allow me to move tomorrow if I have to do that again!

6 month stats

We had Braelyn's 6 month well-check and shots on Monday.  I need to remember to schedule them for Fridays from now on since she had a fever again after the shots.  Luckily we have an arrangement with another part time teacher where Nate watches her during his prep and she can take Braelyn during my second block of teaching if we can't take the kids to Autumn, so that worked out for me this time!  Next time I will be smarter.  It was a bit of a rough night Monday night and then a rough day on Tuesday with her fever and what I'm fairly certain is the tip of a tooth just starting to come up.

At 6 months the doctor says she is 15lbs 9 oz.  I say that she's at least 16 lbs.  I think they made an error or it's because it was in the afternoon and I always weigh her in the morning.  Anyway, "officially" 15lbs 9oz, which is the 36th percentile.  She's 26 inches, which is the 50th percentile and her head circumference is 41cm, which is like the 20th percentile (not surprising).  Her doctor said that she's not worried about the numbers, as long as she continues to grow.  It strikes me as odd that the only measurement in metric units is the head circumference.   Probably the only person to think that is a math teacher.  Why not the height in centimeters too?  Or the weight (mass) in kilograms?  Or the head circumference in inches?  The mysteries of our health system...

Anyway, I have to take her back in a few weeks for her 2nd flu shot.  Apparently babies need to have a booster of sorts.  I still need to get mine too!

She is trying valiantly to sit up from laying on her back, but so far she can only get her head off the ground.  She has gotten very proficient at rolling over, and now she often sleeps on her stomach since she can roll onto it. 

Food!

We have started attempting to feed Braelyn food.  We found that she will not eat rice cereal, which I thought was a necessary thing...supplements iron, supposed to be the first food, etc.  Apparently you don't have to start with that, which is good because I'm guessing if we waited for her to actually eat rice cereal, she would never actually eat food.  While she was here, my mom made and froze some baby food from yams and carrots, so we tried yams.  While not gobbling them down or anything, she has actually eaten some of it instead of spitting it all out like she did with the rice cereal.  I think next week we'll try avocado.  Here's some pictures of her first encounter with the sweet potatoes.  She actually grabbed the spoon from me to put it in her mouth.  I don't think she actually ate much this time, but the next time she did.

The above picture is hilarious, I think.  I think the flash startles her sometimes.  The one below is her really forlorn look...like "Mommy, quit taking pictures!"

In the last few days she's also starting pushing herself up on her hands and sitting up much better.  She can actually hold herself up with her arms for a little bit when she falls forward.  I tried to catch her sitting up, so here's the best I could do...she was propping herself up really well and then started leaning over here.

 This one was a good one!

 She can actually sit up well for a few seconds.  Her problem is that she likes to move her legs so much, but she can't if she wants to stay balanced to sit up!  She sits up really well when she has something behind her to lean on if she goes too far backwards.  That sounds dumb, but she can totally sit up on her own, not leaning on anything, if she has that safety net behind her.

During tummy time she can push herself up on her hands, but she hasn't gotten to the point of being up on all fours yet.  She has finally figured out how to move herself around a little on her belly...she can go in a circle, but not forward or backwards yet. 

She loves to giggle at the dogs and me.  She thinks it's especially funny when I bounce the bed next to her when she's laying down.  She also sings a little, or does high pitched sighs.  She sounds a little bit like Dory in Finding Nemo when she tries to talk whale or whatever, only she's higher pitched.

6 months old!

Over the past month or so since I posted, we've had a few events to catch up on...

Braelyn's 6 month check up will be October 24th, so I don't know her measurements, but I believe she's about 16 pounds.  I'll update that when I know "for sure". :)

Autumn was gone for about 2 weeks as her brother had an accident and passed away.  Braelyn stayed with our friend Evelyn for most of that time and did well, though she wouldn't eat from Evelyn.  Usually she was fine with that though, so we were definitely blessed to have a great back-up babysitter!

Braelyn has rolled over from front to back several times now, so she is a little more mobile.  She is trying to sit up, but has a hard time controlling her body enough to not fall forward.  She won't prop herself up on her hands to sit up.  She's getting much better at tummy time and can pull her knees up under her but won't push herself up on her hands very often, so it may still be a while before she crawls.

You might not be able to tell from these pictures, but apparently cat toys make great baby toys...especially the scratching post...

We think she may be teething.  Lots of drool, a few sleepless nights and some good sleep after given some tylenol makes me think yes.  Looking in her mouth and seeing absolutely no signs of teeth makes me think no.  I have no idea what is going on.  She hasn't been sleeping well lately, but I think that may be settling down now, if last night was any indication.

My parents came down for a few days this week.  They spent about 2 and a half days with Braelyn and she is definitely spoiled with all the holding Grandma and Grandpa gave her!  She wasn't too sure about Grandpa at first, but after they took a few naps together, she warmed up to him quickly.

We had 6 month pictures today.  That went OK, definitely not as good as 3 months, but I have a feeling that she was fairly tired and wasn't feeling too good this morning, so they turned out well considering that.  We were a little frustrated with the photographer because she wanted Braelyn to sit up by herself and she can't really do that yet, so I think it would have been a lot better if she would have used some sort of prop to hold her upright.  Oh well, I'm sure at 9 months we won't have to deal with that issue...it'll be something else then! :)

We are going to attempt to travel this Christmas.  We want her great-grandparents to see her soon as you never know what the future holds, so we are flying to Nebraska.  We've never been to Nashville to see Nate's parents since they moved there, so we are then going to fly there.  Braelyn should be a well-seasoned traveler after that trip.  We may never do it again, but we will attempt it this year.  I'm very nervous about flying with her...though I've heard cough syrup knocks them out... :)

Thought this was cute...

Here is another, probably better, video of Braelyn giggling.  The amazing thing is that she's super tired at this point because she missed her afternoon nap.  We had to go to school so I could help a student and she could say goodbye to Daddy before he left for Arizona with the soccer team.  She doesn't nap in different places well and then when we got home, of course she didn't want to fall asleep.  So here she is now, an hour before bedtime...

asleep in the swing, face on the little tray.  Oh well.  She's done this before where she naps really close to bedtime because she didn't nap in the afternoon and it doesn't affect her sleeping well when I do put her to bed, so that's good.

5 months 2 days early

Braelyn will be 5 months in two days!  By my measurements, she hasn't really gained any length, though maybe a 1/2 an inch.  However, she is packing on the pounds (OK, not really).  She's now 14.8 pounds (14lbs, about 13 oz) by our scale, at four months she was 13lbs 6 oz.  We go back to the doctor next month for more shots.

In the last day or so, her tolerance for the dreaded tummy time has increased.  She can go 10-15 minutes or longer at times without crying.  I've even gotten a smile out of her while she's on her tummy.

As you can see, Hunter enjoys joining her on the ground.  Actually he mostly enjoys sniffing her.

Braelyn has started sucking her thumb pretty regularly.  She's never been super partial to the pacifier, so that's not really a surprise.  I think she looks kind of pathetic when she sucks her thumb, but it's pretty cute too.

I love how she's holding her hand, like she has to hold it in her mouth to get it to stay there.

Today I found the best toy for her!  She's starting sticking pretty much everything in her mouth and grabbing everything, including taking my glasses off my face when I wear them and trying to put my hair in her mouth.  I suspect she's starting teething, but I haven't felt or seen any signs of a tooth coming in.  Anyway, this morning while I was brushing my teeth she kept trying to grab my toothbrush, so I gave her a new one we had lying on the counter.  She loves biting on the rubber part of the handle and biting the brush.

It may not be the safest toy (I don't know??), but it's never too early to have good oral hygiene habits.  I'm sure our dentist would be proud.

Finally, I captured a cute moment with Daddy.

These moments are a little rare in Braelyn's life at the moment because Nate's soccer schedule STINKS.  Since the new field isn't done, they practice from 6-8 and he has so much to do for school he just stays at school until practice.  This week he got home yesterday at 7:30 (they had a game), he won't get home until after her bedtime tonight, tomorrow they have a game, Thursday through Saturday he won't be home at all since they have a tournament in Arizona. :(  Hopefully once the field is done he can be home sooner on non-game days!  It's only a month and a half more, thank goodness.  That is, unless they make playoffs.  His team is little and young this year, but they have the potential to win some games if they could put in the effort.

School's Started!

This marks week three of Braelyn going to our sitter!

This was our nemesis until...

I started bringing my dirty shirts to Autumn's (our sitter).  Turns out she needed Mommy's smell to eat comfortably, I guess.  Who knew?  And don't go saying we should have started her on a bottle all summer.  We did.  She just didn't want to eat for someone new, I guess.  Now I just give Autumn my dirty laundry!  HA!

Now our nemesis is...TUMMY TIME!

Apparently nothing could be more torture than being on her tummy, except of course, being hungry. I just tell her that she needs to learn to roll over front to back because then she wouldn't have to be on her tummy. She doesn't get it.

Braelyn's doing really well at the sitter and seems to be doing OK with our new schedule. I am doing OK with the new schedule. I'm starting to get to know my classes (the new-school-year-honeymoon is quickly ending). My only problem is that I don't quite feel like I'm able to adequately help my students since my help hours are limited. That contributes to the feeling that I'm going to be neither effective as a teacher nor effective as a mom, though I know God working through me will make me be effective at both.

Hunter, on the other hand, is really getting on my nerves...here's what he did the other day.

This is the second bib he's ruined. Anyone want the dog in the red shirt? (just kidding...though it wouldn't take much convincing to get rid of him) He also keeps trying to steal her toys. Unfortunately baby toys are an awful lot like many dog toys, so I can understand that to an extent.

Howie has been relatively good, except the other day he was laying close to her on the floor and she started kicking him. He started growling. At least he didn't go in for the kill right away, he gave some warning.

This one has been fine, actually pretty much completely out of sight.
Anyway, since Husker football season is upon us, I'll leave you with a few pictures of Braelyn showing her spirit...

She likes Bo as much as Mommy does! :)  Go Big Red!

4 Month Stats

We had Braelyn's four month appointment yesterday (Friday, 4/12).  She got her shots and just had a checkup.  She's 13 lbs, 6 oz, which is pretty much right on the 50th percentile.  She's 24.25 inches long which is also around the 50th percentile.  Her head circumference (I don't get this one...why is it important?) is in the 25th percentile.  So she's average in basically everything.  Nate took her to the doctor and apparently the pain from the shots pale in comparison to being hungry, if the intensity of her cries is a measure of that.  She did have a fever last night and all day today, so it's been a little rough for her.  We did a lot of sitting around with a washcloth on her head.

We did also take her to Harry Potter today.   We are crazy, and I shouldn't have agreed to it since she had a fever, but it is definitely cooler in the movie theater then in our house, so I suppose I could justify it that way...  She did well.  I had to take her out a few times since she was crying, but every time as soon as I got up, she was fine.  I think she was just tired of sitting there, which I can understand.  It was a long movie. :)  So, today she saw her first movie...haha.

Laughing

I think I may have captured Braelyn laughing.  Sorry the video is sideways mostly...I keep forgetting that you can't (or if you can, I don't know how) flip video like you do pictures if you take them sideways.  And this was taken of a mirror reflection in case you are wondering.  She likes to laugh at her reflection.

The End of Summer

Summer is coming to a close...we have one more week before back-to-school meetings start at Faith.  And during that week Nate and I have computer training for school :(.  At least we get paid extra to do it!

Anyway, we went a little crazy because it always seems like there's locals' deals at some hotel or another to have a fun getaway.  We got a coupon for the Resort at Mount Charleston, so we spent two days there.  It was amazing being in the mountains, a full 20 degrees cooler than Vegas at least!

We hiked.  Up a mountain.  I had a 13 some pound baby attached to me.

It was NOT fun!  I was dying.  Braelyn didn't mind though...

Well, it was worth it when we got to the top.  And when we came down Nate had the baby attached to him.

 Our first hike was 3 miles round trip to a sort-of waterfall.  

Then we hiked another trail that was about 1/2 a mile round trip and was supposed to be easier.  Yeah.  Supposed to be easier.  It wasn't.  And there was nothing as rewarding as a waterfall at the end of this one, just rocks!

After and inbetween hiking we just drove the scenic highways around the mountains, which was neat.  It was actually a really fun couple of days.

Snow or water??  We couldn't decide.

We then went to Red Rock Station Casino because we got a free night stay online.  I love staying at Red Rock.  This is the second time we've been there and it is amazing.  I don't know if it is the lovely pool or the beautiful room, or the TV above the huge tub, or the phone by the toilet, but it is my favorite place to stay.

Braelyn even found that one of the pools was warm enough to swim in!  We were excited she wasn't crying and actually let us swim with her!

After all our hotel stays, I think Braelyn is ready to be home.  I am still dreading meetings and school starting again, but there's not a whole lot to do about it!  She's started grabbing toys and bringing them to her mouth.  She has rolled over back to front, but can't quite get her arm out from underneath her, so I don't know if it truly counts as rolling over yet! :)

A crying day

It was a trying day today with Braelyn.  It seemed like lots of tears and not many smiles.  So, I need to remind myself of better times:

This was her three month photo.  I think it's the cutest thing I've seen, though I could be biased.  Yes, I took screen shots of the online photos from the website.  I feel bad.  Sorta.  (That's probably a bad example for my child...)

Tomorrow we head up to Mount Charleston for a few days to cool off before school meetings start.  I'm not ready for that!  Oh well...I know God will have it all work out for the best.

Our First Family Vacation

The weekend of July 22-24 we decided to go to the Grand Canyon.  Nate has never been, and his family went while they were here for Braelyn's baptism, so we decided we could make the three-ish hour drive to Arizona and see it.  The drive went all right for Braelyn, she's a decent traveler, it's just hard when she's hungry and there's nowhere to stop!  We stayed the night in a hotel in Williams, AZ.  Here we are before we ventured to the canyon:

We made the approximately 1 hour drive from Williams and arrived at the Grand Canyon around 9:30.

Here we are in our first hat of the day, ready to go hiking!

We hiked the Rim Trail for about 2.5 miles pushing her in the stroller.  She was great, Braelyn liked looking at people and sleeping while we hiked.  The yellow hat didn't work too well at keeping out the sun, so we switched hats.  It was really sunny there, but not too horribly hot and there was a nice breeze most of the day.  We managed to keep Braelyn out of the sun most of the time with the help of her hats and the shade on the stroller.

All the people at the canyon loved this hat!

Some very nice people offered to take a family picture of us.

After we hiked for a while we took the shuttles to some shops and a place to eat our picnic lunch.  We then took a shuttle to some lookout spots you can only hike or take a shuttle to (the trails weren't paved so no stroller)

We finally made it back to the hotel at about 9pm.  It was a long day for everyone!

You might notice there were a few places I forgot sunscreen.  You might also notice that Braelyn is wearing a different outfit...the first one got a little messy.

We heard a lot of different languages at the Grand Canyon and everyone was very nice.  Someone gave up their seat on almost every shuttle for Braelyn and me.  On Sunday we walked around downtown Williams and then left to go home.  We were blessed to have a great baby to travel with!

Before we went to the Grand Canyon we stayed the night at Sunset Station (for free!!).  Here are some pictures from that:

Ready to go swimming!  Except she didn't care for the temperature of the water...

We went bowling too!