Utah Trip part 3: Salt Lake

Before heading all the way home after Midway, we wanted to stick around in Salt Lake for another week. There were still lots of people to see, things to do, errands to run, and we reeeeally didn't want to rush back to the 3 digit temps of Vegas so soon.

Ryan and I dropped our rings off at Shane Company to get them re-plated (or whatever the term is). We try to do this once or twice a year, and they always come back so shiny and perfect!

On wednesday night we walked around the State Fair with my sister, her husband, and their 3 kids. The two girls had a good time side-by-side in their strollers...

I saw this mama pig and felt like I could relate, even in the smallest way. It made me smile.

Ah, I think I might cry when Ryan has to go back to work next week.

Pig racing!

Are we the only ones that hadn't heard of "Gilgal Garden" until this year??! If you haven't, you really should visit next time you're in Salt Lake! It's like a hidden treasure you would never know was on 8th East and 5th South. A sculptor (Thomas B. Child, Jr), who was also the bishop of the Salt Lake 10th Ward for 19 years, created this garden with his statues and sculptures. They all have deep spiritual meaning and you can read about each one. It may look weird at first, but really, it's pretty neat, and the little garden/park has a special spirit there.

The Joseph Smith Sphinx - It represents Child's belief that it's only by faith that we can discover the answers to life's great questions.

Behind us is Child's self-portrait surrounded by old tools of his trade he loved so much. That's why he created this particular piece. The thing I love about this one is what he wrote about it: "I know it is egotistical, but in my travels, which include Europe, I have never seen a better looking or more interesting coat." haha :)

This one was probably my favorite. It's called the "Testimony of Job". He took the words of Job (where Job says he has the desire to have his words "graven with an iron pen and lead in the rock forever") and Child actually DOES IT! Right there, in that rock. Child said he wanted to grant Job's wish. It is so incredibly cool, and I felt the strength of Job's testimony as I read the words written there.

Throughout the week we ate out way too much, but thoroughly enjoyed it. :) Citrus Grill, Tony Burger, Cowboy Grub, Wendy's frosties, Coldstone, mmmmm. Man did we eat well! Thank you everyone who took us out for birthday meals or had us over for dinner!

On friday night we planned to put Grace to bed at my parents' house and go hang out with Kyle & Katelyn (the newlywed bro and sis-in-law). We ended up having an hour to kill before they got home, so we sort of drove around aimlessly until we ended up at Donner Park. WOW does that place bring back high school memories. We played on the swings and ran around a bit... feeling like we were "young", silly kids just dating again... it was so much fun! The view of the valley is beautiful up there too. :) We finally went over to K&K's apt which is where we used to live as newlyweds too. Aww, cinder block walls. How I don't miss thee. And yet... I kinda do. We had A TOTAL BLAST hanging out with them for the night and playing games. I wish we lived closer so we could laugh that hard together every weekend!
And then... it was time to head home. But we were ready, after 20 days of being away. It was a wonderful trip, and we did everything we wanted to (except the Alpine Slide - next time!). We enjoyed spending lots of time with family, and lots of time on our own just being together - although I wish we hadn't all gotten sick and lost that time. Anyway, I feel like Grace is starting to recognize extended family members now and that makes me smile.

I just wanted to include this last pic... On our drive home, there was a big fire near Beaver and it was putting off a huge amount of smoke! We could see it for miles and miles before getting south enough to see where it was coming from. The sky was completely clear until the massive billowing smoke comes into view, and I was surprised at how orange it was.

Salt Lake, I already miss you and your beautiful fall weather. To our moms and dads, thank you again so much letting us crash at your houses, eat your food, make child messes, and fill your garbages with lots and lots of poopy diapers. Love you guys! :)

Utah Trip part 2: more Midway

Our week in Midway was the first time all of the grandkids were all together because the families live in 3 different states. We had such a great time! Plus, as I said before, it was absolutely beautiful up there. Everyday the trees on the hills around us turned more and more red, orange, and yellow. Even though the three of us were sick half of the time, we were still able to do lots of fun things with everyone.

The view from the driveway looking into the hills. The day we left the colors were even more impressive than in this photo.

Besides juggling multiple children's naps/moods and changing a gazillion diapers, here are the things we did together: watched movies, played card games, rode the Heber Creeper, cooked yummy things together, girls night out getting Gelato in Park City, went out to lunch (Granny's), played pool, played PS3, watched youtube videos, went on walks, Ryan went on bike rides, the girls read Mockingjay, we played at the playground, drove around Heber valley looking at the huge houses, star gazed, stayed up late, saw Cascade Springs, hung out inside, made bracelets, swam at Marriott's MountainSide resort, Ryan fixed aches and pains with his OMT skills, and of course we took lots of pictures.

Such a good grandpa!

Grandma and MissMay. Doesn't she look like a different baby with a hat on? ... Too bad she threw up all over that outfit while we ate lunch at Whole Foods. :( What a fun memory.

Layla's smooshy face.

I couldn't get enough photos of these two cousins playing together. I just love how close in age they are!

Girl's night in PC. I got cantaloupe gelato. Yum!!

Playing at the park.

Action shot of Josh.

The men at the park. Attractive pose, huh.

Ryan and Grace rode on the Heber Creeper with everybody while I stayed home sick with the flu. :( But Ryan said it was one of the highlights of the trip being able to have daddy-daughter time ... and of course dressing up in his cowboy boots and shirt are always a plus.

View from the train - Deer Creek Reservoir.

The couples split up cooking meals each day. Cooking with my sisters and my mom is one of my all-time favorite things. There is always so much to learn from these wonderful women!

My parents requested a photo of the 5 kids in Utah stuff and bought them all matching outfits. I LOVE this photo!

Utah Trip part 1: Swiss Days & Birthday

What a perfect month this has been!! Ryan and Grace and I have been able to be together this entire month of September (it's not even over yet!!) and we decided to spend a good chunk of it in Utah. September is my favorite month because it's my birth-month (let's be honest - everybody loves their birth-month, right?) and because it means it's time for FALL. It also was the month that Ryan and I went on our first date and became "exclusive" 5 years ago (Sept 9th was our first date, and our first kiss was a couple weeks later). Being able to spend a few weeks here in Salt Lake and the Heber valley has been such a blessing to us and has been the perfect vacation. I couldn't have asked for anything more!

The Goates family was able to meet together in a rented town home (we should really be calling it a mansion) in Midway. We had such a great time being together, playing games, staying up late, finally getting all 5 grandkids together for the first time, changing a billion diapers together, cooking and baking lots of yummy things, exploring the Heber valley, and watching the fall colors emerge on the hills and mountains. It was BEAUTIFUL up there and such wonderful weather (maybe even a tad bit too warm for my liking). I was really looking forward to sweatshirt&jeans weather and I was in heaven on the few days it was cool enough for those. (lots of pictures to come)

Swiss Days was going on the weekend we got there and we had a great time walking through the different vendors and eating a yummy meal of "ham and swiss" sandwiches and "swiss chicken" sandwiches. You can make anything sound swiss if you put that word in the description and a piece of swiss cheese on something, such as "Swiss Tacos" (aka Navajo Tacos). It was fun to walk through the vendors selling all the Mormon-mom-crafts that everyone is obsessed with these days. I'm pretty sure that's what half of the vendors were. I love Utah! haha Speaking of Utah... there was one vendor there selling "hoUse divYded" stuff. Wall hangings and blankets and such that were half Utah and half BYU. I wanted to buy everything because it was so perfect for our house! But I'm still on the lookout for a license plate cover that has both teams/colors on it. Oh well.

Cousin Owen from Ohio. What a cutie he is!

Ben, Amanda, and Owen walked around with us at Swiss Days.

For my 23rd birthday, I was able to have everybody in my family up in Midway except for my little bro, Thomas, who is serving his mission. We missed him. :( But I had a wonderful day, with great food, and a great time with everybody. We also celebrated my birthday with the Turner family the next weekend and it was great to get together with the whole Turner side as well! They made me feel so special with a crossword puzzle made up of words about me. Thanks everybody for 2 great b-day celebrations. It was the best birthday I've had in years!

Having Ryan/daddy to ourselves is always the best. :) Especially when he's there to help bathe or change diapers.

My sister Lindsey made this amazingly yummy chocolate and strawberry cake!! (Mmmm... ganosh)

My sis-in-law Amanda and I have birthdays a week apart so we were able to celebrate together!

A 4-generation photo. Where did my tan-skinned baby come from?

Goates Family, Sept 2010, minus Thomas

The Turner girls - aren't they so cute together?

Having FHE in Ryan's parents' backyard.

Yay for chocolate birthday cakes! I'm a lucky girl.

Stay tuned... lots more to come!

Stomach flu, ear infection, a tooth, OH MY!

Lounging around with the "i don't feel good" look on her face. :(

Before I get to the MASSIVE post about our fun Salt Lake & Midway vacation (because it will take awhile to get it all in!), I wanted to write a bit about our experience with illnesses the last couple of weeks. It has been a doozy! (this is more for my own journaling purposes so don't feel pressured to read it all)

Last week, Grace threw up while we were eating lunch at Whole Foods in Park City. She's never thrown up like that before and I have to admit that I was pretty traumatized afterwards. Poor girl, though! She was feeling so yucky. I had noticed for an hour or so before she threw up that she was acting so strange. I mentioned it out loud a few times and it still baffled me as to why she was acting so funny (lethargic, rubbing her face a lot, whining like she was miserable, pushing everything away, throwing her head back like she was stretching or uncomfortable). That evening, after letting Grace's tummy rest for several hours, I tried nursing her again because she was acting hungry. She immediately threw up again right after, and again a couple times the next day.

She would cry and cry, trying to tell us that she was legitimately hungry, but I wasn't sure of what to do! Breast feed her and risk upsetting her tummy more, causing her to be sick longer? Or just keep trying the pedialite and rice cereal? I had no idea. Grace was also coughing, sneezing, and had a stuffy/runny nose, but no fever.

By the second day of not breastfeeding Grace, I was really stressing out about my milk supply at that point. I was afraid that quitting cold turkey like that for a few days was going to cause it to just go away. :( On top of a sick baby who wouldn't eat normal, and being stressed about having to put Grace on formula all of a sudden, Ryan ended up getting sick with the same stomach flu symptoms. And all of this while we were staying in a house with our whole family and trying to keep others from getting sick! What a mess, and such a bummer when we had to miss out on fun things and ruin family plans.

We finally decided to take Grace to a clinic in Park City. The nurse practitioner said that Grace was dealing with the same ear infection that she had already dealt with a couple of weeks ago, but needed a stronger antibiotic to finally kick it in the butt. The NP blamed the stomach flu symptoms on the fact that Grace was probably just choking on her clogged sinuses and had a sensitive gag reflex. We filled the new prescription (NV Medicaid doesn't pay for a single cent of doctor or pharmacy bills outside of NV... ouch) and went on our way. It turned out that the NP was wrong wrong wrong. Why didn't she tell us that there was already a virus going around, and had hit Utah really strong: Norovirus.

By thursday/friday, Grace's stomach was feeling better, and so was Ryan, but guess whose turn it was... MINE. I was miserably sick to my stomach, so weak, and really achey and sore all over no matter what position I was in. At this point, Grace was ready to be nursing on a normal schedule again but I didn't seem to be producing enough, if anything at all! I was devastated. I wasn't ready to quit nursing yet, and it didn't make any sense... since it would mean putting Grace on formula for a month or two and then switching to milk. It was just be confusing for her, expensive for us, and a pain in the butt. Plus I was just feeling jipped that I had to be forced to wean her like that - just because of the stomach flu.

After all that stress and worry, I was finally able to start nursing Grace a little here and there even though I was coming out of my own stomach flu and a bit of dehydration. I was definitely counting my blessings, and still am! I'm grateful it worked out alright in the end. (side note: we did try giving Grace a bottle with formula at one point and she absolutely refused it)

So after all of that, we're all healthy... Grace is on her last day of the second round of antibiotics for the same ear infection, which has done a number on her GI system. Yuck. Poor thing! IF that all wasn't enough, after Grace screamed bloody murder the last few weeks "for no reason" (or so we thought) her first tooth decides to grace us with its' presence. 10 months old, and finally a tooth to show for it. No wonder she's been so miserable!!

This trip to Utah has been quite the experience with sicknesses, antibiotics, tylenol, diaper blow-outs and rashes, screaming fits to the point of Grace almost losing her voice, you name it! It will get a bit easier once the antibiotics are done and when we can get back home and back to a good sleeping schedule. But boy am I grateful for an E.X.T.R.E.M.E.L.Y. wonderful husband through all of it, and a very caring and helpful family & parents who helped wherever they could fill a need. Thank you! Love you!

09/09/2010 ... Ten Months Old

Another month passes and I still can't believe Grace is getting so big so fast! Ten months old. Wow! Just two more and she's a whole year, and I won't have my baby anymore. :( I don't know how I feel about that.

New things about Gracie:

-FIRST TOOTH, finally!

-weighs 19lbs

-waves "Hi"

-signs "all done" with her hands up in the air (usually just her right hand though)

-eats just about anything I put in front of her (except green baby food still)

-table foods she loves: cheese, puffs, tortillas, frozen yogurt (when we give her a tiny taste), nectarines, very soft pears, watermelon, pizza crust

-had her first stomach flu last week. :(

-had her second & third ear infection within the last month... but it turned out to be the same ear infection that never went away.

-more often than not these days she is perfectly content to sit on our laps and just lounge

-shows affection by giving kisses and/or head butts

-prefers to play with toys while kneeling and sitting on her feel, and then bounces up and down like that when she's excited or happy

-does "high five"

-babbles all day long: "baba", "dah" or "dada", "yah", etc, and she mimicks other babies when they make sounds near her

-yells at us if we take too long to give her the next bite of her meal... someday she'll actually learn the sign for "more" or wait patiently

-pulls herself up to standing and balances for 5-10 seconds on her own

**walking is in the very near future.

She looks GREAT in her new UofU outfit!

LOVE YOU, BABY GIRL!