5th Anniversary Getaway

This past July was our 5th wedding anniversary! We wanted to do something special and tried scheduling an overnight trip to the beach in Texas or something, but it just didn't work out with getting Grandma in town to watch Seth. So when we bought some cheap airline tickets to Utah we decided to take advantage of the family babysitters. Destination: Logan, UT. I know I know... not exactly the most exciting anniversary destination, but it actually turned out to be perfect for us.

First up, a quiet, child-less car ride with beautiful fall colors and good tunes. We made a quick stop at Arctic Circle (fry sauce and huckleberry sundae!!!!) then...

Spent some time in the Logan Temple

We stayed in a really cute Bed & Breakfast called Seasons at the Riter Mansion. The owners were great and we loved the experience.

We ate dinner at Le Nonne, a nice Italian restaurant in an old historic home. Stephen surprised me and ordered a penne pasta with Gorgonzola cheese and pears! It was soooo delicious. I ordered ravioli filled with sweet potatoes and ricotta which was equally amazing. I read mixed reviews online about the quality of the food, but we would definitely recommend it!

When planning for the overnight trip, we decided to spend most of our fun money on Saturday's activity, so after dinner we were a little stumped about what to do with the night. There was nothing in the theaters we wanted to see badly enough to pay full-price movie fare for, so instead we decided to stock up on the snacks and buy a cheap movie from Walmart. Sad, but true: we went to Walmart for our anniversary. The movie we agreed on was Mrs. Doubtfire. I'd never seen it and it'd been a long time for Stephen. Unfortunately it's about a couple that gets divorced and STAYS divorced (hahahaha romantic, huh?), but we ignored that part and instead enjoyed Robin William's antics.

In the morning we got to enjoy the other half of the B&B: the breakfast!

It was hot chocolate, a delicious cheesy egg & ham breakfast casserole, grapes, and apples. Perfect for a chilly morning.

We spent the morning at the Farmer's Market enjoying honey caramels and fresh raspberries and then did some shopping.

We wanted to eat somewhere "local" to Logan for lunch, but we were too tempted by Costa Vida to pass it by. San Antonio may have Tex-Mex, but we have yet to find sweet pork to match Costa Vida and Cafe Rio.

Our main activity on Saturday was a 2 mile race called the Great Inflatable Race on USU's campus. We are NOT runners, but it sounded like a fun thing to do.

Changing in the car=awesome.

Stephen sporting his KIPP wristband and the great-inflatable-race bracelet.

We had some time to kill before the race started so we checked out this amazing used bookstore on Main St with literally tens of thousands of books (maybe more?). It was very entertaining.

Then, the race! It consisted of several inflatable and other obstacle course things. We had a bunch of fun obstacling and taking videos along the way. At the end there was a slip and slide with some pink jello-y stuff. Overpriced? Maybe a little, but it was fun to do something together and we laughed a lot.

Last but not least, we treated ourselves to some Aggie ice cream and headed home.

All in all it was a great weekend. The cool weather was a fantastic break from San Antonio's mugginess, the food was delicious, and most of all I enjoyed having time alone with my best friend!

Jargon

Today one of Seth's church buddies came over while his mom had a Dr.'s appointment. He and Seth had a grand old time running around, throwing balls, playing with trucks, and chattering. I like to think that my speech therapy ears can understand every toddler, but more often than not I am stumped by their crazy jargon. I imagine nursery leaders must get pretty confused by the barrage of different languages they hear every week. Seth's pronunciation is pretty clear, but there are several strange pronunciations he has held onto. I know I've written about some of them on this blog before, but there are a few new ones too.


Bee bo = Belly button. Thanks, Sandra Boynton.
Dave = Joseph Smith. What? I really don't get this one.
Do or Die! = "Doo-da day" as in "Camptown races sing this song Doo-da, Doo-da... Oh doo-da day!"
Mama Pots = President Monson. President = Pots, Monson = Mama. Flip flop the words and whala! you've got Mama Pots.
Mama Eyring = President Eyring. Logical, huh?
Monteydada = Snuggly bear blanket. Used to be snuggly monkey blanket, but we lost that one!
Noni = Moroni (I guess church words are tricky)
A dee sa pots = Silly nonsense phrase that may have once meant something, but now Seth says it just to get a laugh out of us.
Te tel = Temple.
Tee tots = Aunt Krista (it also used to mean chicken and kitty cat, but he has since developed those words).
Wefi = Nephi.
Yo yos = Yogurt.


If only we had known what "Do or die" meant when Seth repeatedly shouted it at the pool lifeguard over a period of 15 minutes. Maybe we shouldn't have egged him on with our giggles :)

Seth must miss his family because he always tries to find them when we are in public. He finally learned to say "Grandma" but is still working out the gender details. Unfortunately I don't have enough fingers to count the times he's yelled out "Grandpa!!?" to random women at the store.

Seth also likes to find friends and famous figures. Every little boy is "Ben," every old man is "Mama Pots?" (which he says *crystal clear* leaving poor old men everywhere wondering what mamapots means), and bearded men are always "Jesus."

I know this picture has nothing to do with this post, but isn't it awesome? We had a GREAT Stake Pioneer Day celebration.

p.s. I have given up on blogging about our summer trips and visitors but you can see a great album documenting the fun on my facebook. We are really lucky this year and will be seeing most of our families again this Fall so I'll try to be better and take pictures/blog about those adventures.

Reassurance

Usually I just use this blog as a picture dump and update of family activities, but seeing as I have way too many pictures to go through from our trip to Utah it'll need to wait a bit longer.

I have really enjoyed reading this year. I don't speed through dozens of books like some people do, but I have read more books this year than any of the past few years, and I've found some gems!

My most recent read was Phoenix Rising, a fictional YA book by Karen Hesse about a nuclear accident in Vermont. The morning after the shooting in Colorado I opened up to these paragraphs:

Science class kept echoing in my mind. Today was our first full day back at school since the accident. Instead of his regular lesson plan, Mr. Sobel had talked about nuclear stuff.

I liked it better when science didn't come so close to home. When it fit neatly inside a textbook, with five questions at the end of each chapter, questions easily answered if you read the assigned pages.

I thought she did a great job at expressing what it feels like to face something you weren't expecting and don't want to face. Further down on the same page, she states very simply this major theme through the words of the main character's Grandma:

Sometimes you have to do things you'd rather not.

 Events like the awful mass shooting are unwelcome reminders that this life is full of things we'd rather not do or deal with. In difficult times, I am so thankful for the reassurance I find through words like these:

All your losses will be made up to you in the resurrection, provided you continue faithful. By the vision of the Almighty I have seen it. -Joseph Smith

And these:

Believe in God; believe that he is, and that he created all things, both in heaven and in earth; believe that he has all wisdom, and all power, both in heaven and in earth; believe that man doth not comprehend all the things which the Lord can comprehend. -Mosiah 4:9

And these:

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which according to his abundant mercy hath begotten us again unto a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. -1 Peter 1:3

1st week as Homeowners

Things have felt a little unorganized and crazy around here lately!

First, a synopsis of my sweet husband's tough week. Stephen's Grandpa passed away, so Stephen took Seth on a 24 hour trip to Utah Friday the 8th for the funeral. It was a wonderful experience and he was thankful that he was able to be there. Plus, both sets of grandparents plus others got to see Seth and enjoyed their short visit. Stephen and Seth arrived home at midnight and we moved out of our apartment at 8am. We were blessed by a lot of helpful ward members who made it possible for us to clear out and clean the apartment in time to arrive at our house at 11:30am. On Monday and Tuesday Stephen oversaw (and helped with a lot of the physical labor) having everything moved from the high school in his district to a warehouse as they will be moving into a new location this summer. One of these days happened to be the first 100 degree day in San Antonio this summer. So after a very hot day of being outside and a weekend of little sleep, we happened to be picking up a washer and dryer we bought on Craigslist. It was a long, hot process to pick up/drop off the truck and move the washer and dryer in a truck without a ramp (we did not realize the truck was ramp-less until we arrived at the woman's house). By Wednesday night, Stephen was exhausted! On Thursday he (not surprisingly) came home early from work sick with aches and a fever. This quickly morphed into a terrible stomach flu, which we now believe was food poisoning. He spent 5 days feeling terrible and is finally recovering.

Phew... that was a lot! So we haven't set up our bed yet, we have boxes everywhere, our rose bushes are dying, and a host of other things! On the bright side, a lot of simple things have worked together to make life happier: the former owner's pest control company had a mix up and gave us a free organic spray treatment outside, we got a sweet lawnmower for cheap from a ward member, having laundry machines so accessible is everything I ever dreamed it would be, the glass cook top stove is sooo easy to clean, and having your own backyard is amazing when you have a toddler.

Seth loves the new place. He likes to say "house" when he goes outside and sees the roof; although at first he thought it was a "temple" because of the chimney. Haha :) He knows that going outside often means hand-watering the grass (we have water restrictions because of the drought) and is absolutely in heaven when he gets to play in the water. While outside he frequently puts his hand in the air and says "airplane" which really sounds more like "hairpiece." We must be near a military base or something because we see and hear military aircraft all the time. When we're not in the backyard, Seth enjoys the 3 minute walk to the park and prefers to push the stroller rather than ride in it. He'd push the lawnmower too if Daddy would let him! He's very interested in faces and likes to stop us in the middle of something to point out our eyes or request to see our teeth by saying "Aaahhhh, teeth!" And blessing of all blessings, he has actually slept in until 6am several times in the past 2 weeks. His body finally realized he wasn't getting enough sleep so he's been taking 3 hour naps every afternoon, compared to the 1 1/2 hours he used to do. yay! I'll take it while it lasts.

Well hopefully someone made it this far in the post. I wanted to document some of this transition period for us.

Seth, helping me make pancakes one morning.

The joy of a simple stick in the backyard

Seth recently became a carnivore. Before he wouldn't touch meat and now he loves it.

Giving Dad a hug while he was sick. Okay, Seth was really watching a movie, but it looked cute!

Seth loves to watch the "One in a Million" videos on the Primary website.  You can tell Stephen had the chills because he was wearing flannel pants in June IN Texas!

Washer and Dryer from Craiglist!! They are in the garage, but Stephen last night Stephen put down a big rug so it doesn't feel sooo.... garage-y.

MMMM SUMMER FOOD! 

My first attempt at making guacamole was a success!  I used this recipe and really liked it.

There's a farmer's market two blocks over from our house every Wednesday.  I bought this tomato there and it was delicious!

Also bought this cantaloupe at the farmer's market. So sweet and yummy. 

The watermelon was my best buy. Since no one else in the house likes watermelon I  ate the whole thing by myself over the course of several days.

As much as I like fruits and vegetables, I love good treats. I made this Brownie Mosaic Cheesecake (recipe and pic from Mel's Kitchen Cafe) for a belated Father's Day celebration. Mel is also responsible for the amazing Caramel Apple Cheesecake Stephen made for me a few months back. This woman has some good cheesecake recipes!

Life's little joys

Through the eyes of a toddler

Saying "boos" (balloon) nonstop at the grocery store until mom buys you one and then playing with it for the next 2 days

Saying "mmmm!" after licking nutella off the bread dad gave you

Asking for cookies (in this case, ritz crackers with pb) and then proudly marching around the house with the cookie in hand for 5 minutes without taking a bite

Bouncing and shaking your hands with joy when you surprisingly hear your favorite song, "Shake your sillies out," playing over the speakers at gymnastics free time

Seeing your "Bapa"s and a host of other family members on Google+ hangouts

Scarfing down an orange after mom convinces you to eat it by saying "WOW, that's a big boy orange" (and it is big, compared to the baby clementines you've been eating)

"Driving" the car any chance you get, and trying to lean into the front seat every time mom puts you in the car

Seeing a temple in real life after you've been admiring the "toe toe" on the wall for the past 2 months

Riding a toy truck with one of your buddies

Playing hide and go seek with another one of your buddies and enjoying a good lunch together (only one booster seat... guess who got to stand up at the table?)

Loving the first day of church nursery and not missing mom and dad AT ALL. Who wouldn't be happy playing for 2 hours instead of being pinned down and "sshhh"ed?

Thinking it's hilarious to wear mom and dad's t-shirts around the house

This is Seth saying "cheese"

Meeting mom's cousins who play with you and give you their undivided attention... and necklaces :)

Brushing pigs and goats at the zoo

Riding the "choo choo" at the zoo

Chilling on the balcony, eating cookies

That (not-so) occasional moment when mom gives in and lets you watch a "show" ("shows? shows? shows? shows?... etc."). Watching it in your book basket 2 feet away from the TV is awesome too.

Climbing in daddy's side of the bed and being so proud when you pull the covers up on your legs

Kissing your doggie every morning

Finding the picture of Jesus (& Joseph Smith on the other side) in the front of the Book of Mormon and ripping it out. Then asking "help?" everyday when you open the book and can't find Jesus!

Through the eyes of his mommy

It is nice to look at the few pictures I managed to take this past month and realize how much fun Seth has been having. 

Our challenge during May has been having Seth wake up at 5:00 or 5:30 am almost every day. After trying to adjust bedtime and having him wake up at the same time, we let him cry in his crib every morning for a week and a half. He never fell back asleep and he continued to wake up early. We have now resorted to turning his light on at 5:30 and letting him read books, drink water, and play with his dog in his crib until we get out of bed at 6:00. Stephen and I are still tired, but a lot happier to not listen to a crying toddler for 30-60 minutes every morning. This past week I think his body started to realize how tired it was and he took several 3 hour naps, so at least I got to rest in the afternoons!

Note to moms (or anyone who is tired!): This scripture has helped me a lot.

Despite this challenge, I still love my little Seth. I've been trying to spend more time singing, dancing, playing ball, coloring, and going outside with my buddy. I'm glad to be his mom to observe and guide him in such a fun stage of his life! And the adventure wouldn't be complete without my best friend (and husband of nearly 5 years!!) by my side.