The Zoo

While my child takes her nap I thought I would share our experience this morning of taking Annabelle to the zoo for her very first time. Hopefully this post isn't too much information - Oh well if it is.....


I was super excited to get together with some friends that I hadn't seen for a while. We decided now that they weather was cooperating, why not take them to the zoo? We can walk and chat and all our kidlets would love it.


So this morning I pack our lunches, put the stroller in the car, get myself ready etc... It is now 8:45AM and my child is still sleeping! SWEET.


Mistake #1: Well I wanted to leave by 9:15 to get to the zoo by 10...but I just didn't want to wake her up. Finally she wakes up at 9AM and I feed her breakfast, change her diaper and clothes and we are out the door on time.


We get on I-15 then I-80 and Marcia calls to see if I am almost there...'Sure am! Crap I missed the exit!' Park City here we come! Marcia told me there is a small turn around.


Mistake #2: Windy roads and a small turn around, back on some windy roads and off the exit. We are almost to the Zoo.


Annabelle says 'Mamma please!' I look back and she is holding out her hands (wanting me to pick her up). I say, 'Sorry Anna we will be there in a minute."


She then proceeds to throw up the newly eaten breakfast that I didn't give her time to digest before I put her in the car and drive on some windy roads. Holy crap it is a lot of puke!


So I pull off the side of the road and into an apartment complex parking lot. I have my camera handy because I was planning on taking lots of pictures at the zoo, but I thought I would spare you the picture of her covered in throw up.



I strip her clothes off, there is no chance I can salvage the outfit for her to wear today. I did have my travel wipes with me, but it wasn't enough to clean her off, myself, AND the car seat. So after I get her all cleaned up I put her in the car so I can attempt to clean the car seat.

She is as happy as a lark knowing she has just made my day!

I am now using a spoon to get the throw up off her car seat because I am out of wipes and I have no napkins or towels in the car. Whilst spooning her breakfast onto the pavement I notice a lady on her balcony watching my every move. Did she offer help in a form of a wash cloth or wet one you say? NO!

Then I notice the sky starts looking like this.

And the down pour begins. I put the car seat back in the car, get this afghan blanket out of the back of the car and put in the car seat to make somewhat of a barrier between the residual layer of puke and Miss Anna. Luckily I could force the needed belts and buckles through the holes resulting in an emergency 'bundle me.' Call me MacGyver, if you will.

I get a phone call from my friends saying they are heading to Discovery Gateway since it was raining so hard. I debated and thought by the time I go to the store to get more wipes, new clothes and clean this whole thing up I won't have more than a 1/2 hour to spend with my friends. I really wanted to go anyway because I know Anna would love it there and I really wanted a break...especially now.

Instead we turned around, headed home to take a bath and bask in the smell of peaches and oatmeal that is now lingering in the Accord.

Cousins, Closets, Cows and Cupcakes

We started off our weekend with a bike ride down by the Jordan River on Saturday morning. Although we didn't get to go as long as we liked because the weather didn't want to cooperate, we still had a good time. Anna loved the bike trailer and the route was beautiful. We saw cows, horses and even some dear!

We stopped and gave the horses some grass...which she loved. You wouldn't be able to tell by our attire that it is the end of May.

Then on Sunday we went to my cousin Zach's farewell. He gave an excellent talk and I know he will be such an awesome missionary. It made me think of all of my friends who went on missions and all that they learned...and all the crazy things they do to keep themselves entertained. I got some weird tapes, packages filled with bizarre food and even cockroaches. But it also made me think about how much they learned about themselves and the gospel as a result. I am so grateful for the missionaries, for my husband serving a mission, the example most missionaries set and giving up 2 years of their life to serve the Lord.

On Memorial Day we headed up to my parents house for a rainy Bar-B-Que with my family, my cousins and my Auntie Nan who flew in from Cali to go to Zach's farewell . I had seen these cute little treats and decided I would make them for the party. Of course, mine weren't as precise and pretty, but it was my first time so that is to be expected.

I thought I would be festive and do them red, white, and blue. As a result they ended up looking more like ice cream than cupcakes, but they were delicious nonetheless. I did it with chocolate cake centers and mint dark chocolate bottoms and mint white chocolate for the top.

On a completely unrelated note....Anna loves to get into our closet, throw all my shoes off the shoe rack and then sit on it with her blanky and giggle to herself while she continues to pick up new shoes and throw them as far as she can. What a crazy child.

Random Tidbits

My favorite show (after 'The Office' of course) starts tonight. 'So You Think You Can Dance' is one of the reasons I look forward to summer and one of the few 'vote in' reality shows that I watch and participate in. I am stoked to see what this season brings....crazies and all.

Speaking of 'The Office'... Andy has now left a bitter taste in my mouth. I literally screamed when he got on stage to propose and ruined Pam & Jim's perfect moment. Grrrr. I could have been more upset if I wasn't laughing the entire episode at the whole 'Kevin being slow' plot - that's just good television.

I had no idea that 'my kind' had fought the odds of civilization/survival of the fittest to be the number 1 minority on the planet. Yep! I am awesome. You can read about it here.

And what would a post be without recent photos of Annabelle being all sorts of random and crazy?!

We tried piggies again, now that she has more hair. You can still barely see them, but I will take what I can get.

I had to bribe her with toothbrushes to try and get her to stay still for one second to get a picture.

Ogden Marathon

Yesterday my family ran the Ogden Marathon as a relay team - 'The Fantastic Five' - get it? Haha. We probably did about as well as the movie, but we had fun doing it!

John and I had to get up around 4AM (that was the not the fun part) so we could get to Ogden, park, and be on the shuttle by 5AM. I ran the first leg of the race that started by Causey and it was freezing! They had small bonfires that did little to warm my body. By the time 7AM rolled around I was so ready to start the race.

My leg was 7 miles and ran into the Huntsville, where I tagged my bro-in-law John. The run started off slow because the roads were literally packed and I could not get passed some people who should have started in the 8, 9, or 10 minute pace section. So my first mile was probably my worst, but once I found some open space and a girl who was about the same pace as me, we talked and the run went by pretty fast. It took by 55 minutes and 40 seconds - not my best, but not too bad.

The kidlets waiting for us to finish the race.

John then ran 6 miles to Eden park and tagged my cousin Eric, who then ran 6.1 miles around Pineview, into Ogden Canyon and tagged my Dad at The Oaks restaurant. My dad ran 5 miles through the rest of the canyon and tagged Brandon at Ogden's Dinosaur Park. John and I met up with Brandon earlier and waited for my dad and ran the last 3.1 miles with Brandon to the finish line.

Eric actually ended up running the rest of the race and met up with us right before we crossed the finish line. This is us running the last few blocks to finish the race.

Shortly after we finished my dad came across the finish line. After he tagged Brandon he realized he didn't have a way to get to the finish line so he just ran the rest of the way too.


A picture of 'The Fantastic 5' We ended up finishing in 3 hours and 52 minutes and finished 42nd out of 148 teams, although we weren't trying to get a certain time. Between all of us we ended up running 43 miles! It was such a beautiful day and the course was amazing. I didn't feel too shabby after running 10 miles either, so I think I might have to sign myself up for the half marathon next time.

My favorite cheerleader. She was so pooped by the end of the day she fell asleep after being in the car 4 minutes.

Did I mention I turned my heart rate monitor on when we started the race and stopped it at noon and it said I had burned 2,252 calories so far that day? Knowing this information proved to be disastrous for my will power the rest of the day.

Much Props

I am giving props to my husband on giving me a GREAT Mother's Day. He hurried out of bed in the morning when we heard Anna talking so that I could sleep in. Although there is no way anyone could sleep (besides Ross) when Anna is awake - she is loud. But he still fed her breakfast, gave her a bath and changed all her stinky diapers that day. That would have been enough, but he also gave me these and gave me a note saying I needed to go here for a surprise. I love that instead of getting a card, I got a blog post :) Right up my alley - whatever that saying is supposed to mean. If you visit, you must read the comments he left because that, to me, is the best part - I love Ross Random :) 'Annabelle' also pre-ordered a copy of 'Breaking Dawn' (the 4th book in the Twilight series) How thoughtful huh? I was super spoiled and I am so grateful for my little family - I am so blessed.

I also want to give props to the Utah Jazz for winning the game Sunday. It made my Mother's Day extra special. I am hoping they win tonight because if they do, I know they will win it all and they will be the team that has come back from 2-0 two years in a row. Keep your fingers crossed.

Now to clear the confusion my last post created...I am not pregnant. I was mentioning I don't want to become pregnant because I still remember what it is like to not sleep for the last 3 months of your pregnancy or for the first year after your done being pregnant. I still remember what it was for me to look pregnant - I think prego bellies are cute, but mine was not - I had 2 months to go in the above picture and I am HUGE! Don't get me wrong - it was all worth it to get Annabelle and it will happen...eventually. I am hoping my body will release that hormone that is supposed to make you forget all the 'not so fun' stuff. But I am starting to think my body doesn't produce that hormone....

Motherhood

Sometimes I wonder what the crap I got myself into when I became a mom! For instance, I have come to conclude my child is the slowest teether in the world. I first saw one of her molars peeking through her gums in February and it still hasn't broken all the way through. Is this normal? I can see most of her tooth, but just the last little 'point' needs to break through. Mind you she is getting 3 other molars too. Some days she is absolutely miserable, especially when she is eating. She will clench her fists, hold her breath out of frustration until she lets out a scream. It breaks my heart cause there is not much I can do.

She has been clingy too - which if you know my child - is out of the ordinary. She will stand at my feet and say "ease, ease, ease" until I pick her up. Well I was making dinner the other night and could not pick her up. I could tell her teeth were bothering her because she clenched her fists, shoved them in her mouth and started to cry. Obviously this did not help because next thing - she grabs my thigh and bit down so hard! I wanted to screamed - oh wait, I did! It hurt so bad. I had jeans on and she still managed to leave teeth marks and a bruise!

I could have been so upset, but about 2 minutes later I sneezed and she said 'Ess you Momma!" and my heart melted.

Sometimes I read other blogs or see people at church with their 4 children and I think 'How in the world do they do it? WHY do they do it?" But I know that everyone has good days and bad - I just need to convince myself that being 8 months pregnant again and not sleeping at night for a few months is worth it. (Here is where your convincing comes into play)

So here are to all the mom's out there. You amaze me! Here is to my mom on this Mother's Day. I truly appreciate all she has done for me now more than ever. She is always offering to help me when I need it, talk to me about my struggles - assure me they are normal and willingly watches Annabelle whenever I ask. She is the first to offer up help - to take a quilt or a treat to those who need it. I don't know how she raised 4 kids - with us turning out reasonably normal ;) She is a completely selfless and a great example to me. Happy Mothers Day!

Annabelle Funnies

Chelsie told me I was slacking at posting, but nothing too exciting going on here - we have stayed busy by going to Ogden every weekend to celebrate the gazillion birthdays in our families during April and May. Seriously, is there something about June and July that make people want to make babies? Ross is either at work or working on the car - we have now officially put about as much money into the Accord as it is worth. Yippee! He also likes to style Annabelle's hair all crazy with gel after I have just given her a bath and washed her hair - grrrr.


Annabelle is such a crazy little girl. She is getting more personality each day. She is probably getting louder each day too - but that is to be expected. She is also doing much better at eating so called 'table foods.' Although she still hasn't figured out that she can't swallow when her mouth is completely full - what a weirdo.
At least 5 times a day she asks for a 'nana.' We have always called her 'Anna Banana' - maybe we have been secretly slipping her subliminal messages.

She also wants to spend every waking moment outside. She runs outside to our neighbors house and barks at their door (cause they have a dog) and then beelines it to the rocks where she would be content for the next 3 hours.


We will usually walk to the mail box after about 20 minutes of playing with the rocks - but she has to have one rock in her hand at all times and she will trade it in for better rocks she finds along the way.

And throwing the rocks is her favorite past time.

I have also mentioned how she likes to climb into everything and get into my swim bag? She thinks she is so funny!

She is getting better at playing with other kids too, as opposed to just playing along side them. Last week we went to our friends house to watch the Jazz game and she had a such a blast playing with Bostyn. She even gave her a hug! Which is totally lame because she never gives us hugs.

You know what else is totally lame? Today we were at Good Earth getting Anna's yogurt (it's the only place I can find a big thing of yogurt made with whole milk) and she wanted to hold it while I was looking at some other stuff - okay. Then she hucked it at the floor and it spilled everywhere. Yeah! My first 'grocery store mess due to my child' exprience. I found a staffer and told them what happened and took them to the spill and Anna started yelling "NO! NO! NO!" at the top of her lungs like 30 times - priceless.

An Ode to Dixie High...errr State

It will be 5 years ago this Saturday that I graduated from good ol' Dixie State College (sad that this is the only pic I could find of me graduating) - the thought of it makes me feel old. It doesn't seem like that long ago that I moved away from home for the first time and had a lot of first experiences. Bear with me as I reminisce about the 2 years of my life in my favorite place in the world - St. George.I had roommates who acted like mom's, didn't shower, were completely ditsy, but Lindsey was the craziest roommate of them all - pink hair and loud mouthed - if you can make me feel uncomfortable - that says something. The manager at Raintree said they have never had so many problems with one tenant. We went through 4 roommates because no one would get along with her besides me and Shasta - we just thought she was entertaining.

Some of my other roommates my first year - the boy wasn't ;) I felt so grown up to have my 'own place' and boys would come over - granted we had strict BYU housing rules - but it was so cool nonetheless.

Everyone has their first 'campus crush' - come on, I know I talked to Sara and Cassi about theirs. Mine was "English Boy"

The great thing about living in the warm climate - friends would come visit - shout out to Marcia, Sara, Cassi and KariAnn. And I know everyone says Dixie is a 'party school' but it really wasn't - we were always trying to find things to do. Everything closed and the streets were dead at 8PM. The only 'late night' eatery was Denny's. So to entertain ourselves we went to Vegas...a lot!

We all went trick-or-treating! Free candy? Count me in!

We went to Acapulco, Mexico for Spring Break. Were we went snorkeling

and para sailing - it was a blast!

I got attacked at FHE playing sand volleyball. These pants were DARK denim beforehand and I had sand in my hair for days!

My 19th birthday party that my roomies threw...



involved a pinata!

That broke the tree - so we ducked taped it back together - No worries




cause we still got candy!




I blew all my money on going to concerts. This is Incubus - my fave band at the time - and this pic was taken with a 'one time use' camera, which explains the horrible picture - but we were so close!


Dinner before the concert- I went with some boys that were a year younger than me so I brought Chelsie along to possibly introduce them (wink, wink) but she embarrassed herself - she can tell the story :) And yes my hair is in dreads - that was my 'standard' concert do.



I bought my first car. I still have it and it desperately needs a paint job - but we can't give up the 40 mpg.

I moved into a house with 7 girls (what was I thinking?) my second year. I could tell some interesting stories about some of these girls, but your sake, I won't. We had a blast carving pumpkins







Going trick-or-treating again. Sad to say that 2002 was my last year. We dressed up like gangster girls. We were just trying to put something together with what we already had, but really?! Because of this, I will never be upset with teenagers that knock on my door at Halloween. They get candy - as long as they dress up!

traveling 'up north' as everyone called it to go to a BYU football game. Our sweet Japanese roommate had never seen a game (why we didn't just take her to a DSC game is beyond me)

and playing with the freezer our roommate won in a drawing at Harmons. We had nowhere to put it besides our gargantuous kitchen. So we would pretend we were bobsledding in it or frogs on a log and in this picture I am a vampire coming out of the coffin and my roommate is killing me with the 'wooden stake.' Did I mention there wasn't a lot to do at night?

And although I had a great time during those 2 years I was so ready to leave when I graduated. I am grateful for their small class sizes and that I was able to get a transfer scholarship to USU because of Dixie, but I was so grateful to attend an institution where people were a little more concerned with their education.

Here's to you Dixie for some interesting times, roommates and my acquired inability to tolerate cold weather.

That was a long post - is anyone even still reading?! Sorry!