Shoes

Spring seems to have us bustling all over the place lately, but we're still sneaking in time for adventures. Jason introduced Kristin to a new trail near their house recently. It had a lovely view of the ocean at the end.

Andie has developed a serious thing for shoes lately -- both her own any anyone else's she can get her feet into. She picks out matching pairs, and she even manages to get them on the correct feet most of the time.

Most impressively, she is surprisingly good at walking in shoes she hasn't quite grown into yet.

She's even already better at walking with fins on than her dad is.

She is so proficient at walking in all sorts of shoes that she gets frustrated when it doesn't work, as was the case with Kristin's cowgirl boots.

Of course, Andie always shares her interests with her big brother Hawkeye.

Even with all her focus on shoes, Andie still finds time to work in other accessoires, like Jason's belt.

In addition to accessorizing, Andie has been doing a great job at mimicking the larger goofballs around her in other ways. When Grandma visited a couple of weeks ago, she noticed Andie kept walking around holding things against her bum, and Grandma couldn't understand why. Then, when Kristin stood up and put her cell phone in her back pocket, it became clear that Andie was just wishing for pockets of her own.

Also due to the silly adults in her life who used to bounce on giant exercise balls to pacify Andie when she was smaller, Andie seems to think that all balls are for sitting and bouncing:

We had a bittersweet trip to Grass Valley over Memorial Day weekend to visit family and attend a going away party for Uncle Andy, Aunt Ashley, and Andie's cousins. Andie especially loved hanging out with her cousins.

She was a little bummed that she wasn't the youngest baby at the going away party, but she really enjoyed the food and pushing around the lawnmower.

Finn drew a picture for Kristin of her building sandcastles on a beach by a lake all by herself, while Jason, Andie, and Hawkeye were at home. Kristin thought that sounded like a lovely vacation.

Andie enjoyed spending time watching birds with Grandma.

Jason took a stab at French braiding Taylor's hair. It was a valiant attempt. Kristin didn't fare much better, so Andie will probably be on her own once her hair grows out.

It was wonderful to spend time with everyone, and while we'll miss seeing them as frequently, we are super excited for their new adventure!

We had a fantastic evening making brick oven pizzas with our neighbors last week. Thanks to Richard's instruction, Jason's first brick oven pizza attempt turned out better than his French braiding.

Andie approved!

Andie loved playing in the purple stringed chair.

Of course, Andie's favorite part of the evening was trying on Rita's red shoes. Clearly, she already walks in heels better than her mother does.

To complement the high heel walking, Jason and Kristin are making sure to teach Andie some equally sophisticated party tricks, like propor olive eating etiquette.