Would you like some random?

I feel like I've been bad at blogging lately, like I'm waiting for some event to blog about. But really we haven't done anything "big" since our trip. So I figured I should at least journal about the random stuff these days.

-I'll start with Ryan... He just finished his 2nd month of family medicine rotations, so he's taking the test for it on tuesday. That means he is studying all weekend, so it's not much of a "holiday" weekend for us. Oh well. Grace and I picked him up from his last day of work on friday and his preceptor (Dr. McAnallen) and the nurses couldn't say enough about Ryan. They were all so impressed, and the doctor said Ryan was the best student they'd ever had! He said Ryan will go far. :) I'm not surprised at all, and am so proud of my man. Ryan enjoyed this month immensely and loved the way this DO family practitioner uses OMT in his practice everyday. It's not so common to find a DO who actually uses his OMM skills that often.

-The last two books I read were two of my most favorite EVER. I read The Help and The Forgotten Garden. Two very different books, but both were so good for different reasons. I totally recommend them to anyone! It's funny how I go through phases... I'll be so into books for awhile and read a bunch, then I'll take a break and be really into watching Netflix movies or shows on Hulu during my spare time, or I'll get really into crafting. It's like I go through cycles. Right now I'm all about reading. If you're not on Goodreads.com already, you really should join! And add me to your friend list. It's so fun getting book recommendations through that site and they have so many ways of searching for new books that make it so easy to find something good.

-I really need a good hair trim... but my hairdresser moved away last month. I'm really dreading having to start over again and find someone to make it look right. I loathe Great Clips from bad past experiences. If anyone has any great recommendations here in Henderson, or know of a good chain business that you trust, let me know.

-Want a few GREAT recipes? I make this Cheesy Broccoli and Rice Casserole about once or twice a month because we love love love it so much. I always add rotisserie chicken (or any leftover shredded chicken) to it and it's amazing. Total comfort food. I also got the Magleby's Rolls recipe from my friend who has made them a couple times for showers and such. I'm obsessed. I made them tonight and they're impossible not to keep eating throughout the night. Dangerous. I also made my very first cheesecake last weekend, and I thought it turned out so great. It was super yummy in my opinion... and a lot easier than I ever imagined a cheesecake would be.

-I've finally realized this year (after living here 3 years) how grateful I am that our apartment doesn't get any direct sunlight on the walls or in the windows. Grace's room gets maybe a couple hours first thing in the morning, but we have it blacked out. Anyway the reason I'm grateful for it is because I've hardly had to use our AC to cool the house down during the day in these last few weeks of high temps. Even when it's 95 degrees outside, it still stays between 70 and 75 in my house without the AC on. That is such a blessing! We still turn it down to at night so it's nice and cool, but it really helps our budget not having a high power bill.

-I saw a few minutes of The Bachelorette episode tonight (it replayed for some reason) and I am really bugged by Tim, the drunk. I'll readily admit that I've never been to a "party" or around anyone who was totally wasted like that. Even watching it on TV tonight, knowing it wasn't just an actor simply acting, creeped me out. Did it bother anyone else? It's sad that people get so messed up that they're not themselves and aren't aware of life around them. It's just plain pathetic.

On that note... I hope you enjoyed my random thoughts, haha. I'll post about our "Best Dam Barbeque" outing today in Boulder City soon. :)

Off to Zion!

To celebrate our FIVE YEARS of marriage (holy cow... has it been that long?!) Ryan and I stayed 2 nights near Zion National Park. We haven't been on a vacation by ourselves since I was 6 months pregnant with Grace, so it was much needed! My parents were so wonderful to take Grace for us while they stayed in St. George for the weekend. :)

Before heading to our rented "loft" (I'll explain about that later...) in Virgin, Utah, we went to the theater to see Thor. I am happy to report that it was actually quite good. Ryan has been begging to see it, and it was definitely one that keeps your heart pounding for practically the full 2 hours. As soon as we got out we drove over to Texas Roadhouse, where we've wanted to eat for a couple years now... unfortunately they don't open until dinner. Big bummer! So we found the next best thing... Smashburger!

We got a little lost on the drive to Virgin, but it turned out ok after we stopped to ask for directions. I'm pleased to report that my husband was in fact ok with asking for directions. hehe. :) When we found the right place we thought to ourselves "Wow! That's a big house we're staying in!" We pull into the gravel driveway and drive toward the back, and then realize... "Oh... we're staying above the garage..." haha We were initially pretty shocked that the "loft suite" I read about on the website was in fact above this couples' garage, in back of their large house. There is a pool, but it's attached to their house. It was... a little weird at first. I kept thinking back to the website and the description of the place, and really, these people never mentioned that you're staying across the driveway from their house, and above THEIR garage. Next time I'll know what questions to ask, right? :)

After that initial shock, we moved our stuff in and realized that it wasn't so bad. The loft had a small kitchen, a bathroom, a TV and DVD player, and plenty of living space, just like they advertised. The bed was not to so great, seeing as it was a murphy bed. But oh well! Oh and the couple renting out the place didn't bug us, at least, which was something we worried about after seeing the place. The view looking out our door was SO BEAUTIFUL, and only a glimpse into what we'd see in Zion NP.

We went swimming that afternoon in their pool and were eaten alive by the biting gnats. (I'm still nursing some bites on my face, neck and arms) That evening, we drove into Springdale, which is the entrance to Zions. There are tons of little cafes, art galleries, shops, and neat looking homes. We each got a sandwich from Orange Star cafe and oh my goodness were they good!

Isn't this house awesome? Like a doll house.

On saturday, we slept in until 9 (awww, yes, blessed sleep) and headed to Zion National Park. We parked on the main road, took the Springdale shuttle to the Zion Visitor Center, and then took the Zion shuttle up to our trail head.

While we drove up the canyon on the shuttle, we learned a bunch of neat things about the park. Like they had a nasty flood this last winter and it washed out some of the main road. We also learned about the "Court of the Patriarchs", with the different peaks named Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and another one named after Moroni. I thought that was pretty neat!

The road that takes you up to the Lodge and a bunch of the trail heads is one that you can't drive in your own car unless you're staying at the lodge. They did it that way so there's hardly any traffic at all, other than the shuttles, and it makes your experience as a visitor so much less stressful. The park has done a great job with their new transportation system!

We decided to do the Emerald Pools hike, which is actually 3 in 1, depending on how far you want to go. The Lower Pool is the easiest part to get to, and then it hooks up to the Middle and Upper trails. The Middle was closed, which we were bummed about, but the Lower and Upper trails ended up being just right! It took 2 hours or so and we saw both the pools (plus their waterfalls), lots of critters...

... and enjoyed the amazing scenery.

As we hiked, we could hear someone playing some kind of pipe instrument somewhere and it was so beautiful. I wished we had run into whoever it was! It sounded Native American.

Lower Emerald Pool & waterfall

Upper Emerald Pool & waterfall - tons of people were playing and swimming in the water even though there were signs everywhere saying not to.

After we finished the hike, we got back on the shuttle and went to Weeping Rock. I have to admit I remembered more weeping last time I was there (7 years ago). Maybe I'm remembering wrong, but it was still so beautiful! This is what you look out and see from Weeping Rock and it honestly looks fake because of how incredible it is.

We finished our day of hikes by taking shuttles back to our car in Springdale, and then driving up to the Mt. Carmel tunnel. It boggles my mind that this amazing tunnel was built through the mountain back in the 1920s! The view out of the windows and back out into Zion National Park (pictured)
Dinner time! We ordered a BBQ chicken pizza from the Zion Pizza & Noodle Company, which was an old LDS church building turned into restaurant.

Beautiful view!!

At the end of the day, we headed back to our room, played a few card games, and watched the sun go down while we roasted marshmallows/s'mores on the fire pit. It was a perfect day!

SUCH A FUN weekend! Ryan and I needed this time alone and away from everything so badly. Who doesn't, right? My favorite parts were (in no particular order):

1. Sleeping in!

2. Not hearing "MOM!" all day long.

3. Not getting frustrated or upset about anything.

4. The amazing smell of Utah. It just smells so sweet, fresh, and floral... where Nevada smells like... hot garbage. haha You know me and my sensitive nose. I couldn't get enough of it!

5. Time to reconnect with Ryan and actually have some FUN without any cares or responsibilities! Too bad it couldn't last longer. ;)

18 Months Stats and Info

Whew, I have a lot to catch up on. I'm a week behind on posting Grace's 18 month information, so here it is finally!

weight: 24.4 lbs - 50th percentile

I forgot to bring home her height and head circ. from her well-check, but the doctor said she is 50th percentile for both height and weight, and her head is just a little above that. Grace has hit all of her milestones at this point, and is even a little ahead in some areas. I can hardly believe how far she's come when only 17 months ago I was told that she may have developmental issues and need extra help from the State programs available for kids who had a rough start at life. We feel so blessed that she as smart, independent, quick, and eager to learn as she is.

Her ability to run and her developing imagination are her newest skills, as far as big milestones. Grace's new favorite game is to pretend to eat or drink something from her hand, and to offer us whatever she's imagining is there. I didn't know an 18 month old could do that! She also likes to pretend to feed her baby dolls. I think the next toy set we'll be getting her is a little tea set or kitchen set... :)

(First lady bug experience with Dad to show her)

This last month has been a pretty rough one with Grace. For the most part she was honestly pushing every one of my buttons and wasn't anywhere close to her happy-self. She was sick a couple of times this month, which adds to her bad moods, but she has never been put in time-out so often until this last month. Sometimes she would cry and cry and cry, and nothing I could do or give her made her happy. She fell asleep on my shoulder one time after I finally just held her for about 30 seconds... and literally, she fell asleep just like that. Sometimes I've had to put her in her crib and let her have her binkie for a few minutes just so she could calm down and stop crying. It was pretty ridiculous. I was worried that we were doomed from here on out to have a horribly unhappy, dramatic child forever. But, lo and behold, a tooth breaks through and she's pretty much back to her old self now. Thank GOODNESS! Now she has four on the top front, four on the bottom front, and 4 molars.

Grace has the craziest body-clock. JUST like her daddy. She will sleep 11 hours (almost to the minute) most nights, and she'll sleep 1.5 hours in the afternoon. Honestly, it's incredible how predictable she is. One thing I like about her sleeping routine is that when I say it's time for a nap she gets very excited. I never have to fight her. I'm sure it's partly because her crib is the only place she gets her binkie, but I also know she's usually so tired by that point that she's very happy to lay down. Sometimes for her naps, she's already half asleep by the time I tuck her blanket around her.

A couple weeks ago I was showering and she was watching a show in the other room. All of a sudden I hear "Boo" and she's standing there, poking her head into the shower. She freaked me out pretty good! Silly girl.

Unfortunately, Grace's new favorite word is "no". She'll furrow her brow, shake her head, and say "noooo" with her lips puckered out. Her other most used word is "MOM!" but it doesn't mean "mom"... it means "I want!", or "Help!" And she yells it too. We have to keep reminding her, over and over, and she needs to say "Help, please" or "More, please". I hope she gets it sometime soon. Grace loves to play with her friends but she's just starting the "mine" phase, depending on who she is playing with. If her friend says it a lot around her then she starts to do it too. Ugh. I hate that word coming out of her mouth. I'm going to try my hardest not to tolerate it, but I have to figure out a good way to teach her not to say it. Any tips on that would be appreciated!

Grace went to her first day of nursery 2 sundays ago! Everyone who saw her in there, or who works in the nursery, told me she did great the whole time. No tears and no issues. :) I hope she continues to be a good girl in there! I certainly don't want MY kid to be the difficult one, haha. Nobody wants that. But I must say it's such a blessing to finally be at this stage, so that I don't have to line up a "babysitter" during 2nd and 3rd hour of church anymore. On the days that I play in primary, and Ryan teaches, it leaves us with nobody to watch her except nice friends who help out at church. (A HUUUUUGE thanks goes to Lisa Casey who has been our go-to babysitter during those hours for the last year or so. We could not have done it without you!!)

One of Grace's absolute favorite things in the world right now is to watch Tangled (picture above is of her zoned-out but content expression while watching Tangled). She calls it "boo-dee", meaning "movie", and asks me pretty much everyday to turn it on. I don't let her everyday, but she certainly watches it a lot! It's the only movie that she will sit and watch the whole thing through without budging or looking away from the screen. My favorite part is to watch Grace during the scene where Flynn Rider goes into the tower and Rapunzel hits him on the head the first time, then shrieks and hides. Grace giggles at that part EVERY TIME and I love it. :)

She also likes to color with crayons (mostly she likes to play with the crayons themselves), draw with her magnetic writing board, build things with blocks, push her toy strollers around, and run around while we chase her. I'm hoping she'll love being at the pool once again, when the water heats up. She only lasts about 30-45 minutes before she wants to be totally out of the water. I'm hoping she'll enjoy the pool a ton more throughout the summer. 'Cause really... what else is there to do?!

I wish I had a picture of what my parents call "the exorcist look" which Grace likes to do sometimes. Out of the blue, Grace will put her head down, then look up at you with just her eyes, but she'll move her eyes slowly to your face so it takes a few seconds until she is actually looking at you. Creeeeepy! She also likes to do her silly smile, with her squinty eyes and big smile. I love that one.

We went to lunch to celebrate Mother's Day 2012, Grace's 18 month birthday, and our 5 Year Anniversary. Isn't she such a cutie! What would I do without her?!

Photos - 18 Months

Today our baby turned 18 months old. Ryan and I celebrated by taking her to Lake Las Vegas to capture all of her silliness, smiles, and energy. On our way back we passed by the hospital where she was born all those months ago. We are blessed to have such a beautiful, healthy, smart toddler on our hands. I will post about her 18 month stats and such later this week, but for now here are several of the photos from tonight.

This one (below) makes me laugh because it's such a goofy little pose and look on her face.

We love you, sweetheart!

The rest of our trip...

Between monday and thursday I didn't take many pictures. They were pretty relaxing days during which I was able to get some things checked off my "to-do-in-salt-lake-before-leaving" list. Such as buying new garments, seeing Water for Elephants with my friend Jamie VanOrden, visiting my cousin Allie and her daughter Mia, helping my sister in law with her kids while her son had surgery, and hanging around with both sets of parents. I took Grace to Sugarhouse Park on one of the only really nice, sunny days and we had a great time! I was able to stay a few nights with the Turners and then the other nights with my parents and it was nice to be able to split up the time. Thank you for being such great hosts, despite Grace being a bad sleeper.

"Mama" Goates always has fun songs to sing and Grace loves to do the actions with her.
On thursday night, my sister and her husband and kids made it all the way from Wisconsin in two days! Impressive! We were happy to see them after a long 7 months since the last time. Grace was so cute walking around giving hugs to everyone. Jack was so cute hugging her back!
Grace and Layla are one month apart but they don't really know each other. They warmed up to each other after a few days, but that first night Layla wanted nothing to do with her or with me. It was hilarious to watch Grace follow her around the kitchen trying to hug her while Layla wouldn't allow it.
The next day Grace was upset because Layla had a snack and she didn't. These two are just funny together - such different personalities. I hope they'll be good friends one day!!
I took Grace to the park across the street from my parents' house and had her doing belly laughs. :)
Grace enjoyed some cuddle time with Aunt Lindsey.
Grace finally had a chance and a safe place to learn to climb stairs (mostly going DOWN the correct way). Since we live in an apartment we never had a chance to really teach her the right way where she could practice over and over. That probably sounds silly to some of you less-nervous parents, but she really would just try and walk off the step like she was a big kid and would fall. Now she gets it though!
I've been wanting to check out Discovery Gateway for awhile, so my mom and I took Grace there on saturday. Grace had a pretty good time and was totally busy with one thing or another the entire time. But I must say I was not impressed. It was way too expensive (especially to charge the adults who just stand there and watch) and there were way too many mean kids and none of the other parents would step in and help teach them that it was wrong. None of the kids we are ever around are that rude. It was ridiculous, and poor Grace was most often the littlest, so she was pushed around more.

Here she is putting the plastic balls in the holes. That was one of her very favorite areas to play in.
The water was too high for Grace to reach and she was super wet when I finally pulled her to another area.

These magnets were cool! Oh and Grace found those little white ping pong balls (that she is holding in her hand) and wouldn't let go of them for at least 20 minutes.

Overall I would say don't take your kids there unless you have a coupon and/or have a birthday party there or something that's with a group of your own buddies.
Afterwards, my parents took Grace and I to lunch at Five Guys. Mmmm! Grace had a great time dipping her own french fries in the fry sauce.
And she clapped for herself after each successful dip and bite. :)
My not-so-"little" sister-in-law is 18, about to graduate from Skyline High School, and was getting ready for her senior prom on saturday night. I went over to help her get ready and take pictures of her and her date. Katelyn (another sis in law) came too. It was fun to have a little girl time while Tori primped!
Tori looked so beautiful in her pink dress, and her hair all curled. They made a very cute couple for prom and I'm so glad she had a good time! :)
My mom made some super yummy chicken fajitas for dinner that night and I think I ate my weight in guacamole. Jason and Jacey stopped in for dinner too! It was great to all be together (minus our missionary and our Ohio contingent who we all missed).
Swinging with Grandpa Goates and Josh. I could tell she liked the feeling of swinging like a "big girl".
On monday morning, we headed to Kangaroo Zoo in North Salt Lake with Lindsey, her kids, and my mom. And oh man was it fun! Grace is at the age where she thinks she's bigger and more coordinated than she really is. So to put her in a world of blow-up toys where I could just sit on the side and watch without worry was priceless. It also helped that there were only a couple other kids there and they weren't mean to our kids.
Snack break! Grace, Layla, Jack, Josh. (we missed you, Owen!)
Grandma's turn to do something fun! She enjoyed some time in the massage chairs.
I may have had way too much fun myself. This super tall slide was one Grace couldn't have climbed up and gone down by herself, so I helped out. :) I think I went on that thing 10 times. SO MUCH fun! I also went through some of the obstacle courses and got a really great work out.
Grace FINALLY fought her way up the little ladder and down the slide, all by herself. It was quite an accomplishment for her - I was a proud mama. :) I wish I'd gotten a picture of her the first few tries where she just screamed and cried out of frustration while all I could do was laugh (and feel bad) from the side. She had to figure it out by herself though and she did great!
We were very well fed! Thanks, Turners, for having us over for dinner and taking care of us!
Grace loves her "mama" Turner! And oh how I love that silly smile.
Having a grand old time with Grandma Goates the night before we left. I think they were singing another song together. So cute!
We had a great time in Salt Lake! The ride home was another story, but we made it in pretty good time, surprisingly. Thank you, mom & dad, and Bob & Stacy, and Lindsey & Dan for such a fun visit! We made some great memories and did everything we wanted to do while we were there. I'm grateful to have been able to visit lots of other family members and friends too, and that they made the time to see us. We're so grateful to live only a somewhat "short" drive away from people and places that we love. Who knows what that trip home will be like after next summer when we move to residency and beyond. For now, we're trying to take advantage and make sure to have plenty of visits while we can manage it so easily.