The Gutter

The other night, Derek asked if Lily wanted to join Daxton for some sledding. Since she was still getting over a nasty cough, we decided it was probably better for her to stay inside. So we opted for some bowling instead. It'd been a while since our balls had seen the light of day (or a bowling alley), so we were both a little rusty. In fact, Lily's score almost matched ours. There were a few tiffs over whose turn it was since Lily and Daxton had a hard time understanding that they got to go twice before the other person did, and I spent a good portion of the night reminding Lily that her hand needed to stay as far away from the ball return as possible (visions of King Pin were flashing through my head). But based on the fact that we had a MAJOR melt down at the prospect of returning her awesome bowling shoes, I would say she had a good time.

There are a few things I want to point out in this picture. One is my awesome bowling ball. There's nothing better than having your ball smile at you as it rolls down the gutter not hitting a single pin...which it did a couple times that night. Remember, I said I was rusty. The second is the lovely form Erik has. I like to call it The Fountain.

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Go Aggies!

This last Saturday, we went to our first paid Aggie game. Ever. Voluntarily. I only attended a handful of football games while I was in college (two maybe). Isn't that terrible? My basketball attendance was much better. Erik, of course, attended every home game for 6 years. Every. Single. One. The joys of being in the band.

Lily seemed to have fun although I think she was rather disappointed to learn we'd be watching a football game rather than playing ourselves. But she was perfectly content to munch on Jared's popcorn and help feed baby Ayden, so I think it worked out. And since USU actually won (even though they didn't cover the spread...), it was a pretty fun time.

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Social TV

I don't know about anyone else (although I can probably guess), but I think it's great that television has become a social activity. I guess to a certain extent, it's always been that way. I mean, it's not uncommon to watch a show with someone else and some families do it quite a bit. But with shows that have developed a real following, television viewing has moved outside of people's individual homes and families: now, we have viewing parties.

This was the case last night as our group congregated for dinner and American Idol. After what seemed like a million emails to work out the details, it was finally decided we'd be having a sandwich bar and waiting for Tina to finish her run before beginning the festivities (making the rest of us look like lazy slobs because all we wanted to do was eat and watch TV :) ). American Idol is really the perfect show for such a party. You get to comment on everything that's happening and debate the results with friends. You can also laugh at the terrible performances and rag on Paula for her nonsensical, rambling critiques.

I'll be honest...I'm not a huge Idol fan. I watch it because two years ago, Erik suddenly decided he wanted to watch more than just the auditions. I'm not saying I don't enjoy it or the performers. I do have David Cook on my iPod after all. But if Erik ends up working on Idol night, I usually find something else to do. Watching it with a bunch of friends, however, makes it worth it to me...even though I will now never be able to watch Anoop without thinking of Apu:

While we didn't stay, some people also watched the latest episode of Lost. With all I've heard and the little I've seen, I decided the see what all the fuss is about. After borrowing the first season forever ago, I finlly popped in the the first episode when we got home last night. And I have to say, I'm intrigued. What is the big "animal" living in the jungle? What's with the solitary bald guy? He's important, I'm sure, but how long until I find out why. If "at least 48" people survived the crash, am I really going to have to keep track of that many story lines? Or are they going to quickly kill off several? I don't know that I can keep 48 people straight. Maybe by next season, I'll be up to speed and ready to join in the speculation...

I think what's happened is viewing parties have become the book clubs of the 21st century. Instead of taking a month to read a book and then meeting to discuss, you get a weekly chance to do it, and you get immediate reactions to what's happening, which is kind of fun. Plus, there's always the anticipation leading up to the next week...or like with American Idol, tonight when we see who's dream is over...

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What I did on my Christmas vacation

Well...Christmas and New Years are over. The last couple months have flown by for me, and the last two weeks zoomed by faster than ever before. The sad thing is, looking back, I can't even remember everything what kept me feeling like I was seemingly so busy. We had two work Christmas parties (mine was definitely the better of the two), a night of sledding on a golf course (and now Lillian refuses to walk on any amount of snow no matter how small), a marathon of painting at work, the end of boot camp (and sadly, I don't think I'm fitter than a 5th grader), loads of Christmas shopping followed by loads of Christmas wrapping, and a trip to California. I know there were more things in there, but it's all a blur.

But we had a fantastic Christmas. Lillian got an art easel from Santa and is loving it. After opening presents Christmas morning, we drove to Roy and opened more with Erik's parents. Well, really...Lillian opened more. For the second year, Erik and I opted for the more adult, responsible gift of a freezer full of meat. But it's best if it just stays in the freezer. Plus, wrapping it would be a pain. Lillian, however, made quite the haul. I don't know where we're going to put most of it, but I guess we'll find some place. With a birthday in just over 2 weeks, we're going to have stuff all over the place.After lunch, Lillian and I left for the airport. Lillian had never met my grandmothers (her great grandmothers), so my mom and I made the trip to Modesto to see them. We stayed with my mom's mom and had a nice visit. On Saturday, we made the half-hour trip to Oakdale to my uncle's. My dad also came up from Arizona, so Lillian was able to spend time with the whole family. My dad's mom didn't know we were coming, so it was a fantastic surprise for her. It was so nice that Lillian was able to spend some time with family she doesn't get to see often.

But, it was also nice to be home. Since our babysitter doesn't tend kids between Christmas and New Years (and the University decided not to give us the time off like they have for the last 5 years), I took some vacation time. I had a million things planned for that time off, but not much of it panned out. I did start one of the books I got for Christmas, and I bought the new paint and painting supplies for the kitchen, but that's about all the progress I made.

On New Year's Eve, we made the trek to Springville so Lillian could open her presents from Nana and Grandpa Len. On the way back, we made a pit stop at Cabella's. Oh. My. Gosh. It was like a zoo...only you could get closer to the animals and it didn't stink. I had no idea such a place existed. But disappointingly, they didn't have snow pants for Erik. Or at all for that matter. Foremost outfitter my foot. The rest of our New Year's Eve was spent with the gang going to dinner, of course; playing games; and having a rowdy time. What can I say...we're a crazy bunch. ;)

Our final event before heading back to work was sledding out in Mendon. They have some great hills out there that are best reached by snowmobile. We left Lillian with Karina (where I probably should have stayed, too) and headed up. Watching people go down the hill on their tubes made me think about those annual combined YM/YW tubing activites. You know, where you pile four, five, six, as many people as you possibly can on a tube and see if you can all stay on. That in and of itself is great fun, but the best part was really the anticipation of getting on a tube with one of the cute YM or, even better yet, getting in a position where they had to put their arm around you so everyone fit in the tube. Yeah...good times. Was that really the wholesome activity the leaders were hoping for? At any rate, this tubing was nothing like that. I just said it made think about it. This tubing was really more of a luge. In fact, the green sled we bought for the golf course adventure sent Jared and his brother-in-law all the way to the road. That included a trip through the canal. And if we needed snowmobiles to get there, you can imagine how far they went.

I ended up just watching the fun since I'd hurt my back the night before. I figured that since I could barely bend over, I shouldn't be bouncing down a solid sheet of ice. Oh yeah...did I mention that it had rained the night before so there wasn't any nice fluffy powder to do the sledding on...

But the vacation is over. Tomorrow I have to report to work and get back to real life, I guess. But I still need to paint my kitchen. I suppose that's one way to extend it all just a bit longer...sort of...not really. Dang.

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Halloween

Yesterday, Lillian dressed up in her pirate princess costume and we went trick-or-treating at my office. She made a great haul and was happy to see everyone...once she realized they would put something in her bucket.

Then last night, we headed over to the Mullahkhels' house for a great party. Erik wasn't originally going to be able to go, but he worked it so he could be there. Unfortunately, it was so last minute that costumes were scarce, and he didn't want to make an effort to come up with something. Somehow, though, he ended up winning a costume prize - Nerdiest Costume. :)

Everyone looked great. We had Homer and Marge (Greg and Shayla), Barbie and Ken (Karina and Buzzy), and Paris and Nicole (Eric and Tina). Not to mention Jared and Ashely as Almond Joy and Mounds. I'll let you figure out which was which, but remember: Almond Joy's got nuts...

There was tons of food, including three kinds of chili, a chocolate fountain, a cheese fountain, and desserts galore. We also had a donut eating contest, and I'm proud to say I took home the grand prize...a pack of mini donuts.

Thanks, guys, for a fantastic night. Next year, I promise to get Erik into a costume!

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Halloween Activities

Friday night we attended a dance concert called Thriller. While some of it tended to drag on longer than was really necessary, most of it was pretty good. There were tap-dancing skeletons, teddy-bear-loving Jasons, River (of Blood) Dance with Jason Flatley (everyone ended up dead by a machine gun-toting clown), and the Sugarplum's finale, and I do mean finale. (Which would be a great short skit, Len, for your next Nutcracker spoof.)

But I think my favorite was the Frankenstein ballet to Romeo and Juliet. I don't know how she stayed that limp with him dragging and manhandling her around like that. There was also Lorena Bobbit and her "Cuts Like a Knife" medley, which was pretty entertaining. Although, I wonder how most parents explained why it was so funny to their children who've probably never heard of her. I know the little girl in front of us was constantly asking what was so funny. Afterward, we headed out with the girls from work for some ice cream, which was delicious, and some great conversation. We'll have to do it again, ladies.

Nancy stayed with Lillian while we were out, so we had a sleepover with her, Uncle Lars, and cousin Addison so we could head to Boo at the Zoo this morning at Willow Park Zoo. I'd never been there, but it's a cute little zoo. They even have monkeys and a wallabee. They had some game stations set up for the kids, and Addison seemed to really have a great time. Lillian was kind of cranky since she got up at the butt crack of dawn, but once she had her stuffed bear prize, she had a pretty good time, too.
The best part at the zoo, really, was hearing Erik scream like a girl as an anaconda (read: little garter snake) slithered across our path. I'm surprised he stayed in the zoo at all after that...
All in all, a pretty fun weekend.

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The "Labor" of Camping

Once again, Erik's three-day weekend actually fell on a good weekend and we went camping. I've come to the decision that camping is a lot of work, especially now that we have a 19-month old in tow. So even though we had the weekend off from our normal work labors, it certainly wasn't a piece of cake.

First, Erik decided we needed a bigger tent that would accommodate Lillian's portable crib in the hopes that we could avoid the sleeping problems of last time. The tent we ended up with is great once it's set up, but ohmygosh! It was the biggest pain to get it there! Hopefully it will be easier once we've done it a few times, but we still don't understand how the bay windows work in the second bedroom. (Yes, I just said "bay windows" and "second bedroom" in reference to a tent...) After all our hard work, we got to watch Jared and Ashley put theirs up with no problems that I saw, even though it was bigger than ours. I was soooo jealous! I will admit, though, getting her to sleep was a TON easier.

Once camp was set up, I then had to deal with watching Lillian to make sure she didn't fall in either the fire or the river. By the end of the weekend, I was exhausted just from that. And to be perfectly frank, there were a couple near misses and I will be eternally grateful to everyone else who had their eyes open.

On Saturday, we all headed up to Tony Grove. Lillian fell asleep about 10 minutes before we got there, so we let her sleep a little longer as everyone else headed out in the canoes. We didn't want to just sit there while everyone else had fun, so we made the mistake of waking her up. She was fine for a while, but then the crank to beat all cranks showed up. I took her back to the truck to see if I could get her to take a nap, but she was having nothing to do with it. We decided we better get her some food, so we continued on up to Bear Lake while everyone else finished up their fishing and relaxing on the beach. Then we all headed back to camp for some dutch oven cooking.

Now there's a meal that is no easy feat. Sure, once you get everything in the ovens, you can just let it do it's thing. But first you have to prep everything and get some good briquettes going. And once you're done eating, you can't just clean the ovens like normal - it has to be done in just the right way so you keep the season. In the end, it was fantastic (except that the cake didn't come out nearly as well as it did over the 4th), but is it really worth all the work? I'd probably have to say yes.

Lillian slept on the way home from the lake, but she wasn't the happiest baby even after the nap. She ended up going to bed kind of early, but it was nice to be able to just sit with the adults and not be worried that she was going to dive head first into the pit. But Laddie, on the other hand, had a bee in his bonnet and whined almost the entire night!

After two nights, we got up this morning and tore everything down. The tent sure came down a lot easier than it went up, but of course, it doesn't fit back in the bag. I finally figured out how to fold our old one so it fit perfectly every time, so I'm hoping I can get there with this one. I may just need to set it up in front of our house and try a few different ways. It turned out the food we'd saved for breakfast was ruined when all the ice in the cooler melted and made soggy hashbrowns that crushed the eggs, so after everything was cleaned up, we went to Angie's for a proper breakfast (with a still cranky baby who wanted my breakfast more than her own). Honestly, sometimes I'm surprised our friends will still go out to eat with us and our unruly kid. It's probably a good thing she's cute most of the time.

But now that we're home, I can look back and say it was a fun trip. We had great friends to go with, and it wouldn't be the same if everything went entirely as it was supposed to. I have to say, though, that I'm glad I still have tomorrow off. I need a vacation from my vacation!

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Welcome, Baby Isaac

Our friends Buzzy and Karina had their baby on Monday, and he is such a cutie! Holding him was so weird. He was about a pound and a half more than Lillian when she was born, but I don't remember her ever being so little! Check out their blog to see some more pictures, but here he is:










Lillian was very interested in seeing the baby and tried to smoosh him a couple times, but she was pretty good about it. She was more interested in making Carson mad (sorry, guys). On a side note, while we were visiting, Lillian finally decided Jared was a nice enough guy and she let him pick her up. I snapped a picture in case she changes her mind again...

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A Night Out

Last night, Erik went paintballing with the guys and I went to Mama Mia with the girls. (Lillian got to stay with Buzzy and Carson.) It's been a while since I've been able to go out sans husband and baby, and it was kind of nice.

We had a pretty big group of girls, and we had a good time. Although, I do think it's kind of interesting that we called it a girls' night out. I mean, we went out, but we ended up sitting in a dark theater for a couple hours and then pretty much went our separate ways after the movie. Next time we'll have to go out for a treat before hand or something.

Now on to the movie. I LOVED it! But then how can you pass up a movie where Colin Firth ends up, yet again, in a wet shirt? He's not quite the Mr. Darcy he was 10 years ago, but he's still one of my favorites. :) And Julie Waters...what a ham! I love anything she's in. She's great as the odd balls like in Mama Mia and Harry Potter, but she does great in perfectly normal roles like Calendar Girls, too. But I think the best part had to be the disco dancing right before the credits. What's crazy is I think people actually wore stuff like that. What will they think about our fashion in 30 years?

Speaking of Harry Potter (you remember that brief mention earlier, right?)...The teaser trailer for Half Blood Prince was released on Tuesday, so now I'm counting the days until November 21 (112 if you're wondering). I know I'm a nerd; I've come to accept it...

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This weekend we attended the Mendon Pioneer Day fireworks. It's nice knowing people who grew up in the Valley since you find out about all the small town festivities that you would never know about otherwise. So thanks, Ashley! We got a great seat very close to the firing point. In fact, it was easier to watch them lying down than sitting up - otherwise, your neck would get all sore. I'm actually surprised we didn't end up with ash all over us. Lillian sure kept us busy running away. She's started to realize we don't want her to go too far, and she pushes her limits as far as she can. In the end, she wanted to sit with anyone but me since I wouldn't let her go as far as she wanted to. Plus, everyone had great treats. She had more candy in that one evening than I think she's ever had. (Thanks again to Ashley! :-D) We thought for sure we wouldn't get her to bed. But she was zonked before we even hit the highway back to Logan. She was babbling away in the backseat, and then suddenly, it was silent...she just stopped mid-babble. She didn't even have the energy for one last Cheerio:Sunday was another big day since it was her first time attending nursery at church. Erik and I walked her to the room and put her name tag on, and she never looked back - sort of. I walked out to go to Sunday school and she didn't even notice. Erik left a couple minutes later, and I guess when she looked around and realized we were both gone, she cried for a few minutes. But by the time I picked her up 2 hours later, she seemed to be having a great time. I thought the dress she wore was adorable, so I wanted to show everyone.

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Independence Day Festivities

On Wednesday, we went to the Hyrum fireworks with some friends. Lillian had fun playing with Carson and running around like crazy. It was the perfect night for fireworks: not too hot and the sky was clear. Even the traffic getting home wasn't too much of a headache. Lillian wanted to sit in my lap once the fireworks started; I think she didn't know what to make of them. But after a couple minutes, she was watching them with fascination. And then she was off to do something else. She didn't have time to waste watching some bright lights in the sky when there was so much running around to do.

Erik's three-day weekend for July actually fell on the weekend of the 4th, so we decided we better take advantage of it and go camping. We invited ourselves up to his parents' camping spot at La Platta recreation area and made ourselves at home. Once Lillian checked everything out while we held her, she was having a great time picking up rocks and dirt and checking out the bugs. Laddie got pretty stressed out over all the critters he couldn't chase but wore himself out so well by the end of each day that he slept like a log.

Our first night in the tent didn't start out so well. Lillian was obviously tired, but the experience of being in the tent was so exciting that she just wanted to crawl all over us rather than lay down and go to sleep. We finally got her to fall asleep with us and then transfered her to her own spot (a pink camo sleeping bag) where she slept until about dawn (when she crawled in with Erik). The second night was a lot smoother since I got her to sleep before we even got in the tent.

We were in charge of dinner for Saturday night, so we did dutch oven chicken, potatoes, and corn bread. After dinner, we also did pineapple upside down cake, a must have if you're dutch-ovening. Everything turned out great, and I think everyone was impressed with Erik's cooking skills. He did a fabulous job!

We don't know when we'll get the chance again, but we love camping and were so glad we got to go at least once this year.

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Bear Lake

Last weekend, we went to Bear Lake with a big group of friends. We had a great time with lots of food and even homemade root beer, which got stuck in the spout for a while due to dry ice (thanks to Eric and Tina for getting it pourable!). The water was still pretty cold, but I don't know that Bear Lake ever warms up too much.

Erik played some Frisbee in the lake, and Lillian and I hung out on a berm with Karina and Carson. She walked in at one point but decided she'd rather play with the sand/mud. It was a lot of fun until she started eating her mud pie. Then I decided we'd had enough.

All in all, a gorgeous day to go the lake and have some fun!

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Snowmobiling

So I finally let Erik talk me into a snowmobiling trip. Erik's mom watched Lillian for the day while we went with Jared, Ashley, and Buzzy. I'm the first to admit that I'm the biggest whimp when it comes to motor sports, so I felt like I was holding everyone back the whole time. Buzzy claims he was glad I was slow since then he didn't feel the pressure to go faster, but I think he was just being nice. ;)

Despite the cold and getting separated from the group at one point, I had a good time. But I never need to go more than once a year...

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Lillian turns 1!

Lillian turned 1 on January 19. We had a fabulous party for her with lots of family and friends. She ended up having an ear infection, but I think she had a pretty good time anyway. Especially when she got her own cake to demolish.

At her one-year check-up, she only weighed 15 lbs, so she's still a small fry, but the doctor didn't seem concerned. She did start crawling right after Christmas, so that was great. At the same time, she FINALLY got her bottom two teeth!

It's been quite the year, but totally worth it. I just can't believe how fast it went!! And this year is already half way over...

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