A Day in the Life

There is really no good reason to mash two vacations together as closely as we did, especially with kids. This is why there are so few pictures from this trip. 2 adults + 2 little kids = no one to hold the camera. But Zac had a recruiting activity in Utah last Thursday, so we left the houseboat a little early and all flew up to visit some family and friends for the Labor Day weekend. We had about 16 hours between getting home from the houseboat on Wednesday and leaving for Utah on Thursday. We unpacked and repacked, slept a little, and were off the Utah on Thursday morning. After a 2 hour flight where both kids slept little but were pretty well-behaved, we drove the hour down to Provo, stopping to see Cami at work, Nicole so I could borrow her pack-n-play, and Juli to see her dorm and have some dinner on her Dining Plus:)

After dropping Zac at his recruiting activity, I drove down to Salem, where we were staying with Zac’s grandma. The kids were so exhausted, and Nolan screamed the whole 30 minutes drive, but we got there safely, and got everyone in bed about 2 hours late. Zac’s grandma commented, “Wow do your kids usually go to bed that easily?” Ha! No way, but when they are as tired as they were, they both fell asleep immediately. This was a tender mercy for me, because I was stressing over how the sleeping arrangements were going to work out. And sometimes when baby (or toddler) is overtired, they have a harder time calming down. But luckily it was easy, especially since Zac wasn’t there to help me.

The next day we went to BYU’s Bean Museum, where Addie loved seeing all sorts of animals and pointing out all the ones she knew, and giving them names. Then off to Zub’s for lunch (yum!), and back to Grandma’s to spend the rest of the afternoon/evening.

Saturday we had a playdate! We went to Rock Canyon Park with some friends and family and just played on the playground and talked. I’m sorry if you weren’t able to come or didn’t know about it. I literally sent out the email on our way to the airport, so if I missed you, I’m so sorry! I did very little planning ahead on this trip. Later on we hit Cafe Rio for lunch (of course), Cami and Juli came to visit us at grandma’s, and then Kami and Matt came down later that evening. Thank you for all making the trek down to Salem to see us!! We loved seeing you and wish we could have been there longer!

Sunday we spent some time at Salem Pond, feeding the ducks and playing on the playground. Addie LOVED Salem pond. The weather was gorgeous, so we spent a lot of time outdoors on Sunday. After a big fun family dinner that night, we were exhausted and had to get packed and ready to leave at 5:45am the next morning for our flight. I told you, we are crazy!!

It was a whirlwind trip, where 3/4 of us got colds, but we are home now, and are getting back on our schedules and trying to catch up on our sleep. Next up…..a new school year. We are starting a co-op preschool with Addie next week, where I will be helping with the teaching.

We just got back from a trip to Utah last week for Zac’s grandma’s 80th birthday party, where we met a lot of his cousins/aunts/uncles etc. His family is unlike mine, in that my cousins and I all grew up very close, almost like siblings that have different parents. He has about 7 cousins that we see regularly and spend time with, and the others live far away or are just not in constant contact with each other. So it was nice to meet the ones I haven’t met and introduce them to our family. Adelyn met so many people that I think she went into over stimulation mode while we were there. Yesterday (the first full day we were home), she took 3 naps totaling over 7.5 hours of sleep during the day. Not that I minded, I was wiped out too!

Adelyn did great on her first flight! She had no trouble with take off or landing (probably because we were jamming the pacifier in her mouth the whole time), and just played and slept for the rest of the time. On the way home I was alone with her (Zac flew home early) and lucky me, she slept the whole way! My arm was dead from holding her in the same position for 2 hours, but I was glad I didn’t have to feed her with a strange man sitting next to me.

first flight

airplane ride with mom

What's out the window?

We stayed with Nicole and Mark (Thanks guys!) and Trevor, who were so much fun to play with. I think Trevor will be the best big brother, once he gets over the fear of his mommy holding another baby…They took us to Sweet Tooth and Quilted Bear, to look for headbands for Adelyn. We made FABulous organic cheeseburgers (not fully organic, just the cow) with Kami and Matt and Tara, and loved every minute of it! Other food establishments that we made time to visit while in Utah were:

Cafe Rio - Of course

Maglebys - for French Toast

Carls Jr

zubs

After Zac went home, Adelyn and I stayed with Cami B, who took off work to entertain us! She took us shopping and took us to Denise’s to make flowers and bows for all the little girl babies in the family. Seriously, I fell in love. I know everyone around here has baby boys, but if anyone is interested in making bows with me, please let me know! It is great fun! We also went to Ty’s blessing, where Adelyn met some of her new cousins, and they had great fun together.

Addie and Aimee

Four babies

Thanks to all of you who played with us while we were in Utah! We are happy to be home, but we miss all of you and wish we could see you more often!

Wiped out

So today, I had this crazy thought. Although I grew up in Dallas, and have lived here for 20 years, I have no idea what to expect in after this weekend. I graduated High School in 2002. Since then I have not spent a fall in Dallas. I have spent them in Utah and Minnesota but I have not been in Dallas after September in a long time. As a result, I am excited to see what it is like once October and November come. I was talking about this with Andrea today and she said that she has been away from Texas for as many years as she has lived here.
Being a student is a strange time in life. It will be nice to get a little more normalcy in our lives, at least enough to know what the seasons should feel like.

Andrea and I went Snowboarding last night at Brighton Ski Resort. It was the first time either of us had ever been night skiing. I had heard from friends that it was awesome and once I went night skiing I would look for every opportunity to go again. They were totally right. It was amazing!

It was a great time for us to get some more snowboarding time in before we move back to Texas. It was great because by the end of the night I felt like I was able to get all the way down the hill without falling, or snowplowing the whole time.

Yesterday the ski resort got 26″ of snow so there was a significant amount of powder. It was snowing the entire time we were on the hill. By the time we got to the summit we were snowmen, simply covered in snow. It was very fun to carve through the thick powder and most of the time I couldn’t see the top of my board because there was so much snow on it. I was afraid that I would cause an avalanche because every time I cut really hard against the mountain a huge wave of powder would fly out from beneath my board and go tumbling down the mountain. There were a few times however that we got into trouble. Once Andrea and I got stopped on a big flat part and even though we were still strapped to our boards we had sunk into the snow up to our knees. Then I unstrapped from my board and sunk into the snow up to my groin. I am a pretty tall guy, but that is a lot of snow.

Overall it was awesome and we will definitely be back soon.

Yesterday Zac and I celebrated Chinese New Year by exploring the various Chinese buffets of the Provo-Orem-Pleasant Grove area. We actually spotted quite a few, and chose the one with the most cars in the parking lot. It was pretty good actually! They had a Mongolian Stirfry section (that’s where you pick out raw veggies and meat, and they cook it in front of you), which we tried and liked. I discovered that my new love of green peppers has opened my eyes to so many more food possibilities. We now put green peppers on almost everything. Salads, pizzas, any Mexican dish, and now Chinese food! We even branched out and got some sprouts, which weren’t bad. I guess my taste buds are maturing. Still hate mushrooms though.

Lately I’ve been restless. We are looking forward to a move and a new job, but not until April. I’ve been looking forward to it, and I’m growing impatient. I love my job and the place we live here, but it is hard not to look forward and plan for the future. On the other hand, I am trying to soak up every ounce of what Provo has to offer before we leave, because I know that somewhere down the line, I will miss it. Not the constant barrage of snowstorms and the use of multiple ice scrapers on our cars, but the activities, events and people that make this place special to me.

By the way, I’m thinking of cutting my hair short. And maybe going darker. I’m just not a long hair person, I’ve decided. Well, we’ll see how brave I am.