9 months

My sweet little baby is growing up too fast. Can you not look at the face and just feel all warm and fuzzy inside? He has the biggest and most beautiful eyes. He's almost too pretty to be a boy.

 He has become more confident in his mobility that the stairs are no longer a challenge for him. Doesn't he look so proud?

Another favorite of his is to stand at the dishwasher while I'm loading and unloading it. The whole time he grunts and giggles.

The Doctor Stats on Cy...

Weight: 18lbs 14oz - 22%
Height: 27 3/4 inches - 32%
Head Circum: 46.3cm - 78%

We love this little man! So happy he is a part of our family!

Sunday Clean Up

Here are pictures Jesse took while he was helping clean up the trees around the neighborhood that had blown over in the storm.

Bishop Hansen (back to the camera) talking to President Hanks.

 One of the many trees that fell over just up the street from us.

 Several People showed up to help.

 Look how huge this tree is. Can you see the roots pulling up the grass? Crazy!

Jesse told me the line to the dump was incredibly long. He had never seen anything like it. Then again this whole thing is one of a kind.

 With all the trees that were being brought to the dump it started to get full. So they were having people dump the trees in a near by field instead.

12-1-11

Wednesday's News reported there was a wind storm coming in the following day. I don't think any of us were prepared for what was going to happen.
Thursday morning I woke up early to go to the gym. I looked outside and couldn't believe the wind. It made me not want to go. But my friend and I  braved the storm. When we were walking into the building, we thought we were going to be blown off our feet. Inside we could hear the wind. It made us wonder if the windows were going to blow out.

On our way home we saw a HUGE Pine tree had been blown over onto the power lines. As I was driving past it I watched sparks fly onto the street and catch the tree on fire. I had never seen anything like that in person. Crazy! The whole way home I couldn't help but hope that none of our trees had fallen onto our house. Thankfully when I got there they were still standing.

Our garbage cans were half way across our yard, along with everything inside. I saw that our fence was starting to blow apart, neighbors wooden fences were blown over and the power had gone out.

Without power I wondered how that would affect my work day. Sure enough as the morning went on and the wind didn't show signs of slowing down, my clients starting calling and rescheduling for the next week. A few of them still came in for haircuts and left with wet heads.

Heidi had driven out here to watch the boys while I worked. She had been there all of 20 minutes and decided to take the boys back to her place in Cottonwood Heights. There wasn't a single breeze at her house which meant she had power. The boys and her could stay warm.

On my way to work I saw several trees on their sides. Below are pictures of 2 of them that I saw.

 After work I decided it would be best if we all spent the night at Jesse's Parents. Without power in our house it would have been a really cold night. Bless their hearts for letting us stay there.

Before going to Mike and Heidi's, I went home to get clothes and food for the next day. I also gathered all the food from the fridge, put it in a cooler and placed the cooler in the garage so everything would stay cold. I then went to Smith's Market Place to buy dry ice for the freezer. There they had their generators going so everyone was able to purchase supplies they might need for the night.

Driving from my house to the freeway was frightening. With power being out all over the city, every intersection was scary. I witnessed a car accident. People don't know or realize that when there is no power the intersection must be treated like a 4 way stop. This person T-boned this other car which spun her around. I saw a bummer go flying and tires flatten. Ah I just wanted to get out of Bountiful. Everywhere I looked it was pure chaos. I thought to myself several times 'What if this is it?'

My cell phone too wasn't working very well. A tower must have been down. I was trying to get a hold of Jesse but the call kept being dropped. It felt like one of the scary dreams I have had where I'm separated from my family and I can't find or get a hold of them.

I saw this car in a Dealership parking lot all smashed from the light post falling down onto it.

I was so relieved to get on the freeway. Thankfully it was open South of Bountiful. It was closed going North from Bountiful till about Farmington. I read that there were more than 10 Semi trucks blown over on I-15.

 Here are pictures and a Deseret News Article I pulled from the Web....

“— Hurricane-force winds wreaked havoc in northern Utah on Thursday, blowing over semitrailers, toppling trees, downing power lines, forcing the closures of more than a dozen schools and creating extensive property damage across Davis and Weber counties.

The strongest winds were reported near Centerville, where gusts of 102 mph, 100 mph and 86 mph were recorded by the National Weather Service. A 100 mph wind gust is the same as a Category 2 hurricane.

Officials say early estimates put damage in Centerville alone at $8 million.

Davis County declared a local emergency Thursday evening, requesting assistance from the state. County officials estimated infrastructure damage at more than $3.5 million.

At one point, an estimated 50,000 customers were without power in Utah, and Rocky Mountain Power officials warned that some residents should be prepared to be without power for up to 48 hours. As of 9 p.m., 24,000 Rocky Mountain Power customers still were without power.

In Bountiful, which has its own power company, 40 percent of homes still were without power at 9 p.m.

All Davis County schools will be closed Friday as a result of the storm. Thursday began with all schools in the district open. By the end of the day, 28 were closed because of storm-related issues. In addition, windows in 30 buses were shattered.

District officials will use Friday to assess damages and begin making repairs so schools and the full bus fleet can be operational Monday.

Extensive damage was reported throughout Davis County. South Davis Metro Fire Chief Jim Rampton said at least three house fires were caused by downed power lines. One of the homes, near 200 East and 1500 South in Bountiful, was a complete loss, he said. No one was in the house at the time of the fire.

Rampton said his crews responded to at least 10 semis that were blown over, numerous fuel spills due to the overturned vehicles and a number of natural gas line breaks caused by uprooted trees."

The winds died down around noon. From there everyone sat and waited for their power to come back on. Ours was out for about 24 hours. While I was working yesterday (Saturday) I had several clients tell me they were without power STILL! So over 48 hours for them.

Count our many blessings that we are all safe and our home is safe. It was a HUGE eye opener to the thought that we need to be better prepared. Thankfully we had a warm place to stay, but I can't imagine if the whole state was like this and we were all in the same situation.

Today church has been canceled. Every one who can is out helping clean up trees. Jesse and Ryker are out helping. I'm staying in with Cy while he naps.

It's so great the community/church can pull together and help each other out.

8 Months Old

I feel bad that I never got around to posting Cy's 6 and 7 month updates. So even though I'm a week late I'm for sure getting his 8 month in.

Jesse and I were talking and we agreed that this age has been one of the most fun. But we do tend to say that about every new stage the boys are in.

In the past week or two Cy has gone from an army crawl to a regular crawl. One day I looked over and he was up on his hands and knees crawling around. And I thought to myself...When did that happen?

 He is such a happy little boy. Always smiling (Unless he's tired or hungry, but can you blame him?). I often think that I should take on his easy going attitude and smile more. Look at life more positively. Even though he doesn't know any different, I'm going to try and be more like my little Cy.

Look at this cute face...

...doesn't it make you want to SMILE? Or just give him a BIG squeeze? My favorite is the bottom right picture. Such a big smile with his squinty eyes. Awe! I LOVE it!!!

Things I want to remember about Cy at 8 months...

-Loves to grab your face/nose
-Plays with his tongue
-Gums table foods because he still has no teeth
-Pulls himself up onto things to stand
-Wants to be doing whatever Ryker is doing
-Laughs the hardest at Ryker
-Not a big fan of Mom's homemade baby food :(
-Loves table foods
-Sleeps 12 hours a night
-Takes 2 naps a day
-Can make the 'dada' or 'daddy' sounds (Jesse's favorite)
-HATES his puffy winter coat
-Loves to pound on things.... it's like he's a bongo drummer on everything he touches

Halloween 2011

This year's theme came about when a month ago I asked Ryker what he want to be for Halloween. I never expected that a BUTTERFLY would be his choice. Being that he's THREE I saw no harm in it. From that I thought it would be super cute to make Cy a Caterpillar. Jesse and then became a bug catcher and J.R.S. Pest Control.

 I have to say that we certainly caught the cutest bugs around.

 I have to give props to Heidi for making Cy's whole costume. She's a very patient woman. She found the idea online to use a fluffy green blanket. So that's exactly when she did. GENIUS! It turned out so so cute!

Ryker's wings were done mostly by yours truly.. but I didn't have a little help. Heidi has the sewing machine or else I could take all the credit.

 Andrew was a Cowboy rounding up his little baby calf. So cute!!!!!

Happy Halloween!!!!!!!

Official Celebratoin

Sunday (the 29th) I invited both of our families over to the house to officially celebrate Jesse's birthday!

 I surprised Jesse with some new bike shorts and a little bike pouch to go under his seat. His parents gave him a free bike tune up and gift certificate to a Sushi restaurant. The rest of the family all went in on... $$$. He'll get to pick out what he wants.

 A client of mine mentioned to me the last time she was in that she was starting her own business make pumpkin and apple pies. So I bought one of each from her for the party. Don't know why I was so excited about that...maybe because I love that homemade taste and I didn't have to do it myself.

 After everyone went home we took some pictures with the birthday boy!!!

I just love this guy!!! Couldn't ask for more!!!!!! I hope you had a Happy Birthday Jess! We all love you so much and are SOOO lucky to have you in our lives!!!!

LOVE YOU!!!!!

Continuing on...

Early the next morning (and I mean 4:45am early), I woke up to get ready to go. Our flight was leaving at 7:30am and Jon had to be to work be 6am...so that meant we all needed to leave by 5:30am. They have just the one car so we all carpooled to drop Jon off and then from there Sarah took Ryker and I to the airport. We got there about 6:30am.

Thankfully when we checked our bags (AGAIN) that we got our seat assignments right then and there. So we knew we were on. YEAH!!!!

This is a picture of us at the baggage claim in Salt Lake City SOOOO glad that we were home! I was so proud of Ryker being so happy and good this whole trip. It made for a fun time being together. I think his happy go lucky attitude made me calm through out this whole crazy...what ever you want to call it. I'm sure if I didn't have him there I would have been much more grumpy about the whole thing.

Heidi picked us up and she drove me straight to the salon. I'm not kidding you I walked in at 11:25am. FIVE minutes to spare. My bride would have never known that I had just come right off of a plane.

I worked until about 4pm. It wasn't that long of a day of work, but for some reason it was exhausting. But no time to rest... It was Jesse's 31st birthday and I made plans to take him to dinner. My mom took the boys to her ward's Halloween Carnival while Jesse and I spent the evening together.

I surprised him...well TRIED to surprise him... by taking him to the Sushi restaurant that he used to work at in Park city. It was fun to hear him reminisce about the restaurant. He has many fond memories of living in Park City and I enjoyed hearing about it.

After dinner we were driving around town and Jesse decided he wanted to see if his buddy still lived in the house that the 2 of them lived in. Sure enough he did. So Jesse got to catch up with an old friend and his wife and daughter.

The drive home was really nice. We hadn't seen each other since I had left early Saturday morning, so we got to catch up and tell each other about our weekends without each other. Absence certainly makes the heart grow fonder!

Once we got home I had Jesse put on his birthday gift from me. He had asked for a new Utah Hoodie...but I kinda went crazy adding on the hat, t-shirt and sweat shorts. I couldn't decide just one extra thing to go with the sweatshirt.. So he got it all. He deserves it anyway!!!!



Another Long Day

(Oct 25) Tuesday afternoon Amanda dropped Ryker and I off at the Seattle airport. It was very sad. I felt like we had just got there and I wasn't ready to go home (Thanks to our adventure getting there).

We got on the flight piece of cake. I wish all the flights getting on would have been that easy. At this time I had heard from my mom that there was a BIG possibility that Ryker and I weren't going to make it on the Long Beach to Salt Lake flight. But we still had to try because if we didn't make it on then we would automatically be rolled over to the next morning flight with priority over the other standbys.

So while we were waiting at the gate in Seattle I was trying to figure out where we might stay if we got stuck in Long Beach.  :( I tried my brother in law, Tyson, but they were working late, so that option wasn't going to work out that great. So at this point I thought I would just play it by ear.

Once in the air we got to see Mount Rainer (At the time I didn't know that it was named that..but I figured it out once I got home).

I think we landed around 5 and the flight to Salt Lake was leaving at 7:30pm. By now I had confirmation that we weren't getting on that flight. I think there were about 15-20 seats available and we got bumped down on the standby list as 44 an 45. Pretty much slim to none, but in the back of my mind I kept hoping that by some miracle we could make it home that night. All we could do was just sit and wait. 

While we were at the gate I was trying to figure out where we could possibly stay the night. Tyson's wife, Tayler works for the Marriott so she was trying to get us a room. Unfortunately the closest hotel to the Long Beach Airport with available rooms was 9 miles away. We had no way of getting there and I was too tired to walk and too cheap to take a taxi. 

I called Heidi at this point because she had been stranded in Long Beach at one time and she had mentioned there was a hotel right across the street from the airport. This would be ideal. She told me that her brother in law, Greg was the one who got her the room there. She told me she'd call them and see what they could do. 

Waiting to hear back from Heidi I get a text message from Greg's daughter, Sarah saying "Rumor has it you're stuck at the airport. We're about 30 minutes away... you want to stay the night?"

"Yes Please!"

I then remembered that Sarah and Jon had moved to California only a few months ago. So it couldn't have worked out any better! I was thrilled! Not only did we have a free place to stay, but we got to see more family members.

While we were waiting (we sure did ALOT of waiting on this trip) I went to the Just Ask Desk and had them roll us over to the morning flight. Then I had to call my client who I had down at 10am the next morning, to tell her that I needed to reschedule her. Thankfully she was understanding to the situation.  

The one client that I was most concerned about was a bride. She was scheduled at 11:30am and the morning flight was scheduled to land at 10:49am. So all should be well. I only had to move ONE client. Not too bad.

Once Sarah and Jon picked Ryker and I up, we all went to Norm's for dinner. Ryker and I were starving. It hit the spot.We chatted awhile, then headed to their apartment where Sarah had a bed already put together for us. She is so dear! 

I can't thank Jon and Sarah for the generosity. Kindest people I know. They certainly earned some brownie points in heaven. :)

A Monday I will never forget

Monday morning Manda, Jon, Ryker and I went to the Seattle Aquarium. We thought this would be the most fun for Ryker. And it gave us the chance to bring out the kid in ourselves.  And what made it extra cool was that The Aquarium was right on the coast. Seeing the ocean on blue skied day in Seattle is sure to warm your heart.

Everything in the aquarium was the same marine life that they find right on the Seattle Coast. It was fun to see all the different kinds of fish that were in that area.

In the touch tank there were so many star fish. Along with some of the most colorful sea urchins I have ever seen. While we were there Manda pointed out to me a star fish that was moving. It was one of those kind that have more than 5 arms. I had never seen a star fish move from one place to another. We all know they do, and we have all seen it on TV in fast motion, but we got to see it in real life. I was surprised how quickly it was getting around. I guess those extra legs really do the trick.

The Jellyfish tank/tube thingy was pretty cool. Colorful lights were inside changing colors. It made to Jellyfish to appear the same color as the light. It was kinda interesting. Ryker's favorite color was of course green. I tried to get a picture of him by it while it was green...but it turned to blue.

While we were there I couldn't help but chuckle at Ryker. It was like watching a kid in a candy shop. He was running from one thing to the next. Shouting to me with utter excitement about everything that he saw. 'Mom, look at this...Mom, look at that.' As a mother you can't help but take a moment to sit back and soak in the excitement you see on your child's face.  I just loved it!

There were two Giant Pacific Octopus on exhibit. Both female. One named 'Noodles' and the other 'May.' I openly admit this was my favorite part of the aquarium....

...and this is why. At noon we got the opportunity to watch the Octopus be feed fish fillets. The four of us were just STARING the whole time in just AWE over this creature. So fascinating! She turned a really deep red color when she became interested in the food. Just pure AWESOMENESS!!!

I took a video of the first food she took off the stick, then took these pictures of the next one. It was just ABSOLUTELY one of the neatest things I have had the opportunity to watch. She slowly brought her arms up as she grabbed the fish from the stick and brought it to her beak which is under all her arms.

They were telling us that the Giant Pacific Octopus can measure as big as 30 feet from tip to tip, spread out. May here was about 15 feet wide.

Can you not help but look at these cool pictures? Or am I the only one that thinks this is not the neatest thing? Maybe it's because I was there in person. These pictures are great...but it was FAR better in person.

They tried feeding Noodles, but she wasn't interested in the fish on a stick. It made us that much happier that we got to see May cooperated.

After staring in awe for over an hour at the Octopus we set out for Lunch. We found an Old Spaghetti Factory close by. It's an all time favorite of mine and Amanda's. Both of our husbands can't figure out why we like it so much. Haha. But whatever it is... We sure do love it.

Once we had full bellies we went for a little stroll along the coast. Oh it was just BEAUTIFUL!!! I couldn't believe how I lucked out with blue skies (It was time for some good luck, so thank goodness).

Jon was Ryker's buddy on this trip. Everything Jon did...Ryker would do.  Them boys gotta stick together right?

I loved this view where the water and the city were close together. 

Such a cute little man. I look over at him and he was just posing. I don't think I have taken enough pictures of him (wink wink).

The park along the coast was very pleasant and beautiful. So many different fall colors. Love it!

Along with the leaves falling came the twigs. Which of course Ryker started to collect...

...he carried them just about the whole rest of the way. Every person we passed made some sort of comment about his twigs. Some said he could start a fire, others mentioned he had quite the load. But Ryker made sure to let me know that they weren't sticks... they were his SWORDS!  It's either that... or a gun... such a boy!

And if we hadn't done enough...we went back to the Aquarium for another hour or so. We wanted to get our money's worth and see the rest of the Aquarium that we had missed. 

THEN...we walked over the Pikes Place Market. It was the end of the day so most of the stands were closed or closing. Mostly all that was left were the flower stands. They had the prettiest flowers. AND you could buy a bouquet for only $5. I told Manda if I lived there I would be done there every week getting flowers for my house. Since I didn't think a bouquet of flowers wouldn't live through the travel home, I bought some for Manda to have in her apartment.

We left downtown right as the sun was starting to set. Just a beautiful way to end a perfect day. It made it for the crazy long day the night before. If only it could have lasted longer.

The start of a Long Day

Yesterday morning Ryker and I headed to the airport to fly to Seattle to visit Manda and Jon. We were flying on JetBlue from Salt Lake to Long Beach, and from Long Beach to Seattle. The Long Beach flight left at 6:30am and SUPPOSED to land at 7:21am. Then the plan WAS to hurry over to the flight to Seattle that left at 8:00am and land at 10:40am. Then we could have a whole day with Jon and Amanda.

As we were loading the plane in Salt Lake the cockpit was open and the pilot saw Ryker come aboard. The pilot told Ryker to go in and check out the instruments. I thought it was so nice of the pilot to offer. How many kids get that opportunity? Me being his mom I got to go in as well and take pictures. The whole time I was looking at everything I was very glad that the pilot knew what all those buttons and knobs were for because to me it looked like a whole lot of craziness. Ryker thought that was pretty awesome to sit in the pilot seat.

 I loved that it was just Ryker alone. It is very rare that we get to spend that much time together.

As we were coming into Long Beach the pilot came over the intercom telling the passengers that there was alot of fog (see picture below) and they were going to circle around until it cleared up. At this point it was a little after 7am and I was starting to feel worried if we were going to make our connecting flight to Seattle which started to board at 7:30. The flight attendant knew that I had a tight layover and she came and told me that we SHOULD be ok and that we SHOULD land in time.

The fog cleared up just a little bit for the pilot to attempt to land the plane... but as he got down into the fog and right as we were about to land, he would pull up at the last minute because the visibility level dropped again... He did this THREE times over a TWO hour period. Ryker mentioned to me that the plane was making him feel sick. Can you blame him? We just kept circling over the city until we unfortunately ran out of fuel and had to be redirected to ONTARIO to fuel back up. Once that happened we then flew BACK to Long Beach and landed around 10am. 

Obviously we missed our connecting flight. The biggest bummer was that the next flight to Seattle wasn't until 6:15pm. That's EIGHT hours we had to kill in Long Beach. UGH!

I guess I shouldn't complain because I got to spend the whole day with my little man. But when you are stuck in a city that you are unfamiliar with and no way around it's kind of discouraging. We hung out at the airport for a bit while my phone was charging. Then waited another hour at the bus stop. We caught a ride down to the mall where we walked around and had lunch. 

After that we made our way back to the bus stop. By this point Ryker was feeling really tired and didn't want to walk anymore. I carried him part of the way, but trying to carry him and my purse and his backpack was just too much for me to handle all at once. He was so happy to make it to the bus stop where he could sit and rest. 

We made it back to the airport with an hour before boarding. I thought to myself 'I can handle 1 hour since I just killed 7.' Ryker and I played games that he would make up..like pushing all his crayons into a bucket...or tossing a game piece (he found in his backpack) back and forth. He made friends with a lady that was sitting next to us in the waiting area.

We boarded the plane and we were on our way. FINALLY!!! I was so anxious to get there and see my sista.

Ryker fell asleep about an hour into the flight. Which I was glad because then I could get a little bit of rest. But he was out like a light even when we landed. I had to wake him up so we could walk off the plane. Oh I felt so bad. I was feeling so exhausted and I can only imagine how he felt. He could hardly walk and he just kept asking if I would carry him. So I did. All the way to the baggage claim.

Our baggage took forever to come. There was a baggage jam.. who has ever heard of a baggage jam? (Not our day). 

When we finally got everything we headed out to the curb to be picked up by Manda. OH JOY!!!! We had arrived! (10 HOURS later than planned).

I was so impressed at how well Ryker handled the long and tiring day. He really only had one meltdown and that was due to being hungry and tired. I had several people tell me how polite and sweet he was. He's such a good boy!!!

 Today we went to the Mercer Island Ward. Everyone there is so sweet! They totally remembered me when I was here in January! What great memories!

As we were leaving I just was so taken back at all the beautiful trees. Fall is just GORGEOUS here!

We are staying until Tuesday... so more still to come! Stay tuned!!!