What's On My Camera

I'm behind on our latest adventures, so we're going to play "What's On My Camera?" to catch up. Which is basically what happened in life in pictures, but without the story narrative in chronological order. Up first, Allie!

This pic was taken before we went on our hike up to Albion Basin a couple weeks ago. She's got her adventure pants on!

"Adventure's Out There!" Love that smile! It's showing up more and more these days.

This one was before Barbara's birthday party. This is the cake I made. It's the best angel food recipe, frosted with whipped cream and garnished with strawberries. Allie wasn't a huge fan...

...but I'm proud. And it was delicious.

Allie with G-Gma Barbara on her birthday

Allie meeting Josh for the first time

The furry kids! Because they like to party, too.

I realized right before bedtime on October 24th that it was Allie's 2 month birthday. So I wanted to snap a proportion shot so I can start comparing her size as we hit these milestones. She was still pretty much asleep and not thrilled with me.

Now she's happy in tucked in her our bed :)

Last Friday morning, we decided to take Allie to a pumpkin patch and get some pumpkins. She's super excited!

Unfortunately, she wasn't excited when she saw the pumpkin patch charged $18 for her parents to get in and the pumpkins were tiny. So instead, we drove out to a farm in South Jordan.

...but those pumpkins were also crappy. They'd been sitting on the ground too long and the moisture was rotting most of them. Allie is not amused. Also, she's hungry. So Daddy paid for the two decent pumpkins we could find while Momma fed her in the car. I love this outfit on her. I sing her a song about her jeggings that she loves, and if she knew how to laugh, she would be laughing, because she makes the facial expression for laughter. Just no sound comes out.

Here we are with Daddy and Allie on her activity mat that we got from Steph and Josh! She likes the dashboard, which has a crinkly noise like cellophane wrap. Daddy plays too!

Just so happy and easy-going!

This past Sunday, Allie and I met Uncle John for lunch at Chili's and then decided to hike up to First Waterfall in Bells Canyon in Sandy. This was the view from the rock I sat on about a quarter of the way into the hike, where John ran back down the mountain to use the restroom. It was pretty and I got to watch AirMed circle the canyon and then land in that neighborhood. Some dude fell and broke his leg on the trail and had to be lifted out. We could see the command post set up with a bunch of emergency response vehicles waiting. They looked pretty bored. We decided being S&R must be one of the most physically strenuous jobs, because you basically have to speed hike off the trail and then bring down someone without killing yourself or them. I found out later that night that it was a busy day for S&R: seven people had to be rescued across the Wasatch Front. Dummies. It was nice and warm out with a breeze that was blowing Allie's hair all around. She didn't quite know how to feel about that.

Here we are waiting for John.

And we continued on! We made it to the reservoir, but then took the wrong trail. So we never actually made it to First Waterfall, but the scenery was nice, the company even better, and it felt good to get some exercise.

I've also started recording video of Allie. Having had so many family members pass on, I'm grateful that my own family did record a bunch of things, because then they're never really gone. Pictures are one thing, but through home movies I can now show my daughter what some of my departed loved ones were really like. So here is Allie, with her first diaper change of the day. She is always very smiley at this time, because she's well rested and happy to see her parents and get fresh panties on. 

Thursday we'll have a more thorough update, it being Halloween and Allie's 2 month checkup. Can't wait to show you her costume!

Last Weekend of Maternity Leave

Today was the day I'd been dreading since Allie was born: the day I had to leave her and go back to work. The good part is Luke's home all this week, and we've worked it out where Allie will not be in daycare at all through the end of the year! Makes me feel a little better about returning to a different kind of adult responsibility.

Work was good, busy as expected. Luckily I had only 15 voice mails to come back to, and I kept up with my email all throughout my leave. Good thing, too, otherwise I'd likely have had thousands. I kinda missed listening to the voice mails, even the crazy ones. Today we had a guy call and tell us he was at fault in an accident and he didn't feel it was fair he was ticketed because with all the other trauma that goes with accidents, a ticket is salt in the wound. He rear-ended someone, no injuries, that's it. Also had a lady want us to find her husband, who had been released from prison but hadn't come home. Listening to the voice mails and reading through the emails we get at work definitely makes me feel super normal and super blessed in my life. I'm very lucky.

Since this week was our last home as a family, Luke and I took Allie up Little Cottonwood Canyon on Friday morning for some fresh air, fall colors and a little 3 mile hike to Albion Basin. This is right behind Alta Ski Resort, and the basin is part of the resort. You can see the chair lift. The trail actually starts at the end of a 2 mile dirt road that's now closed for the winter. Apparently this is also a popular snowshoe trail, which we might have to try once the snow really flies. There was some snow at the top of the canyon, which I didn't really expect or think about when I picked the hike. Made for chilly weather, but not too bad. All three of us were prepared.

We are definitely out of shape, as we didn't make it to the actual basin, but nonetheless it was a really pretty hike. We saw some brilliantly blue birds, deer tracks, and a vulture. It was nice and quiet since it was a weekday morning, and the sun helped warm us in our upward trek. Here are the photos:

Unfortunately we were about 3 weeks late to see the area really in color, but the mouth of the canyon was absolutely ablaze in golds, reds, and orange. Allie did great, only got fussy once. That was an experience to feed her sitting on a rock in 45 degree weather with Luke as a lookout for passers by. She likes to travel in the wrap, warm and snug next to Momma. The walking puts her right to sleep, though all the way down she cooed with every step. 

Saturday was pretty lazy. That night we celebrated Great-Grandma Barbara's birthday with some pizza, salad, and I made a homemade angel food cake with whipped cream and strawberries. We stayed to watch the Utes get beat by Arizona, which was heartbreaking because we really could have won that game. It was a late night, but a fun one. Happy Birthday Grandma!

Sunday, I felt bad that I had really done not a lot on the house my entire maternity leave. It's kinda hard to do much when all Allie wants to do is hang out in your arms. And all I want to do is let her. So I spent the day cleaning, getting the house ready for me to go back to work, and pushing through the laundry while Luke watched Allie all day. I got about half of what I wanted to done and almost all the laundry finished, but the good news was today the maids came and finished the bulk of what I had left to do. Just need to get the bedroom in order this week and maintain the nice clean house. It was so great to come home from work today and find the dining room completely spotless and de-cluttered! This had been our catch-all room since we put in the new carpet months ago. I can finally see the dining room table again, and what's better, use it! I'm thinking it's puzzle time this weekend...of course a lot of that stuff went into the spare bedroom and garage, so we still have some work to do on REALLY de-cluttering. It's definitely necessary before it gets too cold out to work in the garage. Our house is so little, we really need to get rid of a lot.

Luke picked up La Frontera for dinner on Sunday night so I didn't have to make it, which is always so nice. This morning was really hard to get up and say goodbye to Allie Bear for the day. My boss told me she cried for two hours when she had to do it, so I got lots of sympathy at work. I might have to have Luke bring her by the office one afternoon this week to visit. Luke says Allie was great just him and her, had plenty of milk, and they had fun watching Netflix, talking baby talk, and snoozing.

Well, it's 3:30am, and I should definitely be asleep so I'm not a zombie in the morning, but you know how this "up to feed and pump" thing goes. Back to the grind!

Candy Corn Jammies

Thanks to Aunt Deanna for the cute jammies! They take cute pictures!

Nights Out

What a busy weekend we had! Today we pretty much all did nothing but sleep and relax to catch our breaths after all our adventures. Even Allie stayed in bed until one in the afternoon with me!

Thursday night Luke asked me on a date. He had heard of this great haunted house experience down in American Fork, The Haunted Forest. Part of the attraction is a separate field a couple miles away called Zombie Warz. They load you onto an army truck and you get to shoot actors dressed as zombies with paintballs! Great date night, huh?

So Friday night we took Allie over to Grandma DeeDee's house for the evening (who was thrilled to tend) and went out on our first night off in 7 weeks. First, we hit dinner at Italian Village in Murray. It's a greasy spoon kinda place that looks like it's still stuck in the 70s on the outside. Inside, it's definitely a good family restaurant. They're apparently known for their pizza benders. This is a small calzone. They were pretty good, but what really sold us is the family environment. Nice to know there are places we can bring an infant and not get tossed out or catch glares from other tables. In fact, they have chairs specially designed for car seats. I had the ravioli, a small salad, and a pizza bender with Canadian bacon and pineapple. I'm not gonna lie, for some reason the Canadian bacon smelled a little like the cadaver lab in college. Gross, I know, but it was still good.

The only bummer about Friday night at Italian Village (which is apparently a very popular restaurant) is the service was pretty slow. There was a half hour wait to get in, and then we were there well over an hour. So what we thought was going to be a 10pm evening turned out to be 2 hours later than that. We finally got to the Haunted Forest around 9:30 or so. I'm pretty sure we were the oldest people there who were not chaperoning middle schoolers. On the up side, middle school girls also get spooked really easily, making for lots of entertainment.

The first part of the haunted forest is a haunted house. It was a pretty good house, and even put some real fear in me. I never thought of myself as claustrophobic. Until the balloon wall room. This room was completely dark. To pass through, you have to push through what feels like two bouncy houses being inflated next to each other and crushing you between them. These are about 8 feet tall, so you're consumed. 

Now, normally this wouldn't be an issue for me. Except they didn't space out visitors well. So about the middle of this part of the haunted house, we got log jammed. I'm stuck. No one in front of us is moving, and the walls are enveloping me. I realize this is all in your head, but I was losing it. Any longer stuck in that room and I would have been the crazy lady taking out her keys to deflate the attraction while screaming and running people over to get out. 

The only thing that really kept me sane was pushing the walls as far from my head as possible and looking up, because I could see the ceiling and air. You can't see who is in front of you, so that made it doubly terrifying, because if you try to run, thinking they've moved out of the room, you may only get a foot and then be stuck again. I got out of there and was weak in the knees and genuinely scared.

Following the psycho house, we waited for about 45 minutes to get into the haunted forest. While we waited, we took these pics:

I'm pretty sure that is the skinniest I will ever be :) 

Once we finally got into the forest, it was probably the best (staged) haunted experience I've ever been to. It was at least an hour to get through it. Every time we'd get through a section and back out into the woods, I was sure we were done. But it just kept going. I'm not easily spooked by haunted houses. You know people are there in the shadows, and frankly they're pretty cheesy. But I actually got spooked a few times. It would have been legitimately scary through this forest had it just been the two of us. We tended to run between the group before and after us because whenever we did end up too far from another group, it was creepy. 

After we finally got out of the forest, we headed over to Zombie Warz. By now, it was after 11pm, but this was a good thing: no line for the truck. I'm still trying to figure out where they got these army trucks. Here's the preview for the experience:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=wD2SBafdpQ0

It's a pretty quick ride, but it was a nice night. I've never shot a paintball gun before, so this was a new experience. These were mounted to the truck. I don't think I was terrible though. I'm pretty sure I pulled off a head shot on a zombie :) It was really fun, and I got that thrill of when you try something awesome for the first time. I think sometime in the future, I'll be heading to a paintball range for real, even at the risk of terrible pain of being shot and the resulting bruises. 

We finally got home after midnight. Little girl was fast asleep and we had a good report from Grandma. Which was good, because Allie was staying in while we went out Saturday night as well!

Saturday started out for me and Allie early. About 9:30 we left a sleeping Luke to go to Touch A Truck. This is an event hosted by the Junior League of Salt Lake City every year. We partner with a bunch of agencies and companies throughout the valley to bring big trucks and charge for kids and families to climb and explore them all. It's a good fundraiser for us and a great event for kids of all ages. As PR director for the League, I strapped Allie to me to take photos and handle any media that showed up to cover the event. Here are a few of the trucks that were there:

I even got to sit in the fire truck! (After I took Allie home and came back.)

After that, there wasn't much time to get myself and Allie ready for Sally's surprise 40th birthday party. Emily had been planning this for weeks, and flew in from New York City to surprise her sister with about 30 close friends and family at Tavernacle, one of the dueling piano bars in town. We took Allie down to Dave & Celeste's house to get her settled with Megan and Madison, who would be tending for the night, along with Dave & Celeste's kids, Sam & Lucas. 

We got to the bar about a half hour before Sally, who was under the impression Chris was taking her for a date night to the Jazz game. Apparently he kept the surprise by telling her he wanted to park clear out by the bar because he didn't want to pay the exorbitant parking fees by the arena. Sally apparently called him cheap the whole way in. Her surprise was great! She had no idea. We spent the rest of the night belting out tunes to the piano, watching about 6 21st birthday parties get up on the pianos to dance and be humiliated and having a great time. This is Sally, stone-cold sober:

We left early with Dave & Celeste, as of course parents have to be in early. Sadly, this was just as they started playing Sweet Caroline, my Grandma's song. 

And, of course, our easy-going baby was a perfect angel again for her tenders:

But again, we were all home well after midnight. Thus the nice, relaxing, snoozy Sunday. It was the perfect day for it, too, nice and cold and drizzly out. I think tonight is the night I turn on the furnace, as we're down into the 30s at night. Little girls don't so much like a cold house. She and I had a nice warm bath tonight. She sure loves floating around in the water and kicking her feet. I'm thinking we might have a swimmer on our hands! She loved to kick off my stomach and float on her back while I held her. Big smiles in the bathtub! 

Luke goes back to work tomorrow for just a day, and then he starts paternity leave Tuesday! Good news for us girls! We're excited to have him home with us. Unfortunately, that means just a week left for me at home with my baby. That's not so happy news, and something may have to be done about that :) 

In the mean time, while the house is asleep, it's time to make up for the busy weekend and catch up on some cleaning. Night!