I Love it When We're Cruisin' Together

I hate to start a blog post with "A couple of months ago..." but....A couple of months ago, Me and Mike decided that we needed to take some time to ourselves before all the craziness that is our lives took over and we end of missing our chance.

As sort of a last minute thing, we booked a cruise and headed out on a Caribbean Adventure. It was an adventure in more ways than one, for sure. Neither of us had been on a cruise before. And the one thing that gave me the most anxiety (and I mean major anxiety, so much so that I wasn't excited until we were pretty much at the port waiting to get on the boat) was that I was leaving Ben for more than one evening. But I did it and we had a wonderful time.

Our cruise stopped in Jamaica and I have always wanted to visit there, I am glad I did, but I don't think I will go back. It was kind of like I had to experience it once and I did it. One thing that I have always wanted to do was go on a zip line. Mike had been once and I was always so bummed that I wasn't there, so that is the first thing we did in Jamaica. I wish I had pics to prove that I did it, but I can't find them on my computer, so no pics of Jamaica. I am OK with it, though, cuz the next stop was my fave and I pretty much didn't care about Jamaica anymore once I saw it.

The Cayman Islands: Tortuga, Grand Cayman

The water was turquoise! I don't think I have ever seen water so clear! While we were there we had some run ins with a few different wild animals. Some things that we saw were

talking birds (and biting ants, while we were talking to the birds)

Slap-Happy sting rays. Mike was feeding some sting rays when one basically jumped up and slapped him in the face with its stinger. If you look closely, you can see the welt on his face.

And the best thing we did was play with these dolphins. We were able to swim with them. They gave us kisses and we gave them belly rubs and they performed tricks with us in the water. That was something I have always wanted to do and I am so glad that I was able to have that experience with Mike.

We are now month into our new adventure. It feels like it has been a year, but before I know it I will be saying I can't believe the time is almost over. I can't wait to see him again and until then I am holding on to the fun things we have been able to do together, and our wonderful son who keeps me on my toes. He knows his "dada" and gets excited to see him and talk to him. We are so proud of Mike and the things he does for our family.

Aerobics Class Etiquette

As of late, I have been regularly attending Zumba and Latin Jam classes at my local gym. They are great classes! They are high energy, lots of fun, and the teacher is a full on maniac! I mean seriously, if a spastic, Latin woman, with wild, long, curly hair and a rockin' bod teaching a latin-ish dance class doesn't motivate you to lose a few elbees, then I don't think anything will.

Well, apparently, I am not the only Kaysvillite that is motivated by this instructor. By the time the class starts, there are about 40 women in the average sized aerobics room, trying to get their work out on. This is where the etiquette comes in.

When you enter an aerobics room, I understand that it might be a little intimidating. Especially if you are going it alone (like me). As you walk toward any particular wall to set down your water bottle, you think to yourself "there is now way I am going to take a place in the middle of the room and you can forget about going up to the front near the teacher! So, I guess I will just stand right here!" Now, what is the problem, you ask? Well, the problem is that there are already three other women that have had the same thought as you and now there is a cluster of women all trying to workout in the same 2 ft square space.

Which leads me to my next point. Find a window people! Even if the room is crowded, odds are good that you can move over just a foot or so to avoid standing directly in front of the person behind you. She probably wants to be able to see the instructor some of the time, and maybe once or twice take a look at herself in the mirror, just to make sure that when she is doing these latin steps (salsa, anyone?) that she isn't making a fool out of herself, or at least just making a tiny fool of herself.

Next don't! Don't stand within arms length of your neighbor and then decide that even though the step requires you to move side to side, that you will just do the steps in place. If you do this, your neighbor WILL run in to you! I guarantee it! And she may or may not feel bad about it. To refer back to my previous point, stand in a window!

Now this next one, you will only find in Utah. I completely understand trying to lose weight after having a baby. I also understand the struggle of trying to find ways to work out if there is no one available to watch your child. But please, young mothers, do not, I repeat, DO NOT, bring your infant to class with in you in his/her infant carrier and just leave them along the wall next to a speaker (FYI-the music isn't lullaby worthy), with a bottle propped up on a blanket (that will end up getting kicked out of said carrier and on to the disgusting sweat and dirt covered floor) and tell yourself they will just cry it out!

Now, I know I am not the only one out there that feels the same way, so aerobics goers unite! And pass this message along! Power to the People!

And So It Goes

It's true. We are indeed back in Utah.

And while I am thrilled to be here, our journey back was quite the adventure. There are certain reasons I always tell Mike that I will NEVER drive through Donner's Pass anytime from October to April! But yet there we were, heading out of California, in March, in the middle of a, quite literally: blinding, rainstorm. And yes, when one reaches a certain elevation, rain inevitably turns to snow and we ended up right in the middle of the reason that I don't want to make said drive. And to make the trip even more awesome, soon enough, we were stopped on I-80 with snow piling up all around us. But I tried to be positive, for sure traffic was just backed up cuz of the weather and we would be on our way in no time. Here is the view from my car.

and here is our adventure in numbers:

Interstate 80

1 gigantic snowstorm

5 hours not moving on the freeway

3 diaper changes

2 bottles

1 nap

2 girls needing a bathroom

(I started to think crazy astronaut lady wasn't so crazy after all-

adult diapers-wise, not crazy stalker-wise)

2 girls needing a nap

8 inches of snow

2 audio books

1 set of tire chains

(1/2 set lost somewhere along the way)

45 car pile-up

24 hours total in the car

(split between 2 days)

After all that time, we eventually started moving (Wahoo!) and I was psyched to plow through the snow in my little car that was equipped with snow chains, only that wasn't the case. The mean men turned us around! (Boo!) We had to go back the way we came and try it again the next day. We spent the night in Sacramento and took a different route the next day. We still needed chains and at a high speed of thirty miles an hour, lets just say that we were in for a looooong day.

But as I mentioned before, we made it. At 1 am we pulled in to Kaysville.

Now here we are. I have had a blast this past month hanging out with my little man, and as this picture would suggest, he loves hanging out with me! Or, maybe he just loves being outside. Either way, we are doing it together and I am loving every minute of it.

This little man will be 9 months tomorrow. I can't believe how time flies. He is rolling everywhere and has just gotten the hang of army crawling. In fact, yesterday I was in the kitchen and he was in the family room and I suddenly heard his little hands pulling himself across the wood floor to the kitchen and as soon as he got there, he rolled over and was content to play with a nearby waterbottle at my feet. He just makes me smile.

Are you smiling, too?

The Next Chapter

Well, folks, the time has come to say goodbye (for a season) to California,

the land of

Taquerias (on every corner)

redwood forests

year round farmer's markets

and, consequently, fresh flowers and produce all year long

The 2010 World Series Champions (Giants, if you were wondering)

the beach

new friends

70 degree weather in January, and February, and March, and...well, you get the idea

on average an hour commute

asians*

paying rent

the birthplace of our son

*not a racist thing, just a silicon valley thing-if you live here, you know what I am talking about.

This last year and a half has been great and as I walked down main street Campbell the other day I started to feel a little sad. I have such wonderful memories of this place. Our lives changed forever while we lived in our tiny one bedroom apartment, and it will always be a special place to me and Mike. And as I sit here trying to figure out what to take to Utah and what to put in storage, I am happy to be returning to good old K-Town, but sad at the same time because our reason for moving back is an unfortunate one.

Mike is being deployed this summer and although he doesn't leave until June, the deployment is looming in the back of my mind (and has been for quite some time) and it is even more real to me now that we are actually making accomodations for the time that he is gone.

With that said, he doesn't leave until June, so for the next couple of months we will be able to spend time together and enjoy time with our friends and family.

Now that I have that off my chest, I am looking forward and getting excited to spend my time with Ben, and not in an office. Yes that is right, I am not going to work when I return to Utah. I have been looking forward to this day since I found out I pregnant! Who knows if I will end up going back to work one day, but for now I am going to welcome all the fun adventures that await me and Ben.

And so, without further ado, here's to Utah,

the land of

LDS churches (on every corner)

CAFE RIO

the salt lake bees

the UTES

the cougs

old friends

red rock (brewery and land formations)

sunday dinner with family

the dear old brown and gold

4 seasons

the famous 4th of july parade and fireworks

mormons

the birthplace of our family

To those new friends we made while living here, you will be missed. Make sure to call when you visit family in the Beehive state. And keep those blogs updated (and I vow to be better at updating mine)!

L-O-V-E

As Valentine's Day approaches, I thought I would take the time to share with you some things in my life that I love (and that might surprise you).

Just some of my personal faves!

I love glasses, drinking, not eye. Just the look of them. I love all different varieties. Fancy and simple. Classy and cheesy. Clear, green, yellow, blue. etc. I can't wait until I can put glass front cabinets in my kitchen and load them up with glasses! I love shopping for glasses and giving them as gifts! Every time we have moved, my glasses are the first to be unpacked, and I actually love pulling warm glasses out of the dishwasher and putting them back in the cabinet.
Now-the strange thing about this obsession (as if the obsession itself isn't strange enough) is that I don't really like drinking out of glass glasses. I prefer to drink out of plastic cups.

Photo Courtesy of House Beautiful
I love the smell of greenhouses. I would always jump at the chance to go flower shopping with my mom. I love the way it feels inside a green house. The dampness in the air and the smell. I just can't get over the smell. Sometimes when I get to work in the morning and get out of my car, it smells like a greenhouse. I love that!

On the topic of smells, I love the way my son's breath smells. I can't describe it with words, I just do. At first I thought it was just a newborn thing, so I drank it in thinking that one day it would go away, but so far it hasn't (and I know it will, so I continue to drink it in). I could write an entire blog on how good Ben smells, and maybe one day I will, but there is just something about the purity of a baby that smells so good!

I love organizing. A good sized closet makes me weak in the knees. Unfortunately the last couple years have left me with limited closet space and I find myself dreaming of The Container Store, and the wonderful things I could do if I were let loose in there. Right now, as we are facing yet another round of packing things up and moving them to storage, or to my parents house, I am giddy because I will just have to go out and buy some more clear bins to put things in. They just stack so nicely and I can see what is in them.

I love this little office nook. Living in small apartments makes me crave organized space-and I know, those of you that have been to my home are probably wondering who is actually writing this, but I swear, it's me! And one day, I will have a space like this in my house.

Photo Courtesy of Woman's Day

Now, this is very odd, but I love my sense of smell. As I was thinking about all the things I love in my life, a lot of them had to do with scent. For example, I have already listed two, but I love libraries and library books because of the way they smell. I love Mike's cologne. And I love that a certain scent can bring back a river of memories, and I LOVE memories! :) So there you have it folks. I will spare you a picture of a large nose, but before I sign off, I want to list the obvious things that I love, just cuz!

reality TV
diet Coke
family
pickles, popscicles, and potato chips
sunflower Seeds
a good chick flick
flip-flops
driving with the windows down
pedicures

the rain

a good book

good food

when I try a new recipe and it actually tastes good

if you want to know more about the things I love, refer to this

And last, but not least, I love, love, love Mike and Ben! I love spending time with them and look so forward to the weekend, just to run errands together. I love the time that we have had in California and although I find myself incredibly home sick for the familiar things we left behind, I wouldn't trade our time here for anything in the world.

and one last thing I love-I love singing this song to Ben at night. I wouldn't consider it a lullaby, but he seems to enjoy it-I think...

I love you, a bushel and a peck!
A bushel and a peck, and a hug around the neck!
A hug around the neck, and a barrel and a heap
A barrel and a heap, and I'm talkin' in my sleep.
About you.
About you!
About you!
My heart is leapin'!
I'm having trouble sleepin'!
'Cause I love you, a bushel and a peck
You bet your pretty neck I do!

Food and Water

We decided it was time to throw Ben into the deep end of the pool. Literally. Well, deep for him anyway. Mike and I always thought we wanted to start our kids off in the water early to help them be comfortable in the water. And, apparently it is never too soon to start. So, a couple of weeks ago we headed to the pool and Ben had his very first swim lesson. He loved it! He was giggling and looked so comfortable in the pool. The pool was heated to 92 degrees, so I am pretty sure I would be comfortable too, but to Ben this was just one big bath tub. He was so cute the whole time. He had his little ankles crossed the entire 30 minutes!

Also, recently we started Ben on solid foods. We gave him some rice cereal first and he did really good with that, so after a week or so, we decided to give him carrots (and other various orange foods). I think he likes them.

Rice Cereal
I had no idea it takes practice to not get food all over your child's face. He is actually a clean eater, the person doing the feeding (moi) is an entirely different story.

Carrots! Yummo!

I can't believe how fast this little guy is growing! He is still in the 90th percentile in height, which totally baffles me. I guess he has Papa Ray to thank for that. And although he looks chubby, he is still only in the 40th percentile in weight.

He is so much fun these days.
He grabs our faces and gives kisses, he has learned how to scoot, but he only on his back. He arches his back and pushes off with his feet and he actually moves pretty quick and covers a good amount of space when he is moving.

And he has shown interest in the outlets. I had no idea we would need to baby-proof so soon, but they seem to be all he is interested in and he will scoot himself as close to them as he possibly can and then stretch his little arms as far as they can go, trying to touch it. A man sitting next to me on the plane the other day said "Oh, just let him touch it. I promise you that is all the baby-proofing you will need to do. That shock will ensure that he won't touch it again."
Um, thanks, kind sir, but I don't think I will be taking that route. Oddly enough, Mike agreed with him (I don't think he was serious, or was he...). Looks like I might be on my own. Go ahead, outlets, make my day!

Anywho, it has been six months and I don't remember what life was like before Ben. He has changed our lives so much, and for that, we are extremely grateful!

A little side note, the other day we handed him a pickle spear, and he looked at us like we were two crazy, grinning goons expecting him to like this strange thing. But, being that he is a great kid, he humored us and sucked on it until we took it away after a few minutes. If I have any say, he will learn to love dill pickles!

A Great New Year to You!

To ring in the New Year, we decided to jump in the car and head to Morro Bay, a little beach town about 3 hours south of San Jose. It was so much fun, and yes, just as you see in the pictures, it was stormy and cold, but it just added to the adventure.

We got there on Saturday and the rain was pouring and the wind was blowing and it was so cold, but we were going to enjoy our time, dang it! So out we went. We met some friends and headed to the beach. We made it to a saltwater taffy stand, about 100 feet from the car, and took shelter there while enjoying some delicious taffy and scalding hot chocolate (I just got feeling and taste back in my tongue yesterday).

We decided to fore-go the beach and head back to our rooms for dinner.

When our cell phones couldn't get reception and our TV had a hard time getting a signal, and the wind was literally howling at the windows, I started to feel like I was in a really bad slasher movie. You know, one of those movies where you find yourself yelling at the stupid damsel! "Don't go out there!" or "Don't open the door!" or "He's right behind you!"
You get the gist.

Look at that face!

I am actually grateful for the storm. We were able to stay inside, order pizza and just enjoy each others company. We played a rousing game of phase 10 followed by good conversation with a huge bag of candy on the bed and the baby asleep in the closet. Don't worry, it was a roomy closet (kind of) and it was dark and it was just while we played our game and then we put him down in his bed.

Come on, we aren't those people. Or are we?

Anyway, we wish you all a merry new year.