Utah - April 2010

Utah
April 2010

Destination: Provo, UT
With: Ethan, my mom and sisters
Our mission: Move Christine into her apartment at BYU

Ethan and I started our 9-day, 4-state journey with our usual early Wednesday morning drive down to Oregon so I could go to work Wednesday and Thursday. Then, while everyone else in my parents house ran around packing stuff up, we disappeared to Target to get a few last-minute things for the trip to "Hue-tah"{as Ethan calls it}. It actually worked out really well that I had to have all of our stuff packed up before I came down on Wednesday because then we were ready to go. Here's a little run-down of our trip....

* Friday 4/23: Drive and drive and drive some more... Along the way spot UFO cloud. Obtain photographic evidence as seen below.Arrive in Bountiful in the wee, wee hours of the morning.

*Saturday 4/24: Christine and my mom head to Provo early so that Christine can do her swim test to be a lifeguard at Seven Peaks {by the way, she got the job!}. Lizzy, Ethan and I take our time getting ready and enjoy relaxing at our aunt and uncle's house. Aunt Christy breaks out some toys stashed away and Ethan is in wooden train heaven!!The tracks got more and more complicated throughout our stay, until we could eventually use every possible piece of track! Awesome. The three of us head down to Provo and {after a long, exhaustive search!} have a late lunch at Cafe Rio. [Note to self: there is nothing on the menu to even attempt to give Ethan.] Then we go check out the bookstore where Ethan has a nasty run-in with a display table right at his height... He then allows no one to even look at him, let alone touch him, but his mommy! Drive back to Bountiful. I fall asleep in my clothes after reading to Ethan and never actually get into jammies. Nice.

* Sunday 4/25: Get up early to iron shirt for church. Mom leaves for church ahead of us girls and Ethan. We leave shortly after. Drive to wrong church, park, walk in and sit down before Lizzy says, "this isn't their building." Great! Christine gets call from mom and we drive to the correct building. Make the last half of sacrament, but are just in time for an awesome talk by one of the elders in their ward {very glad that I didn't miss it}. Take Ethan to nursery even though I know he is getting sick. Listen to a great lesson in Relief Society that includes a large tub of Hot Tamales being passed around so we remember to "not be a hot head". {Love these Utah sisters!} Go back to Curtis and Christy's house to relax the rest of the afternoon/evening. Spot deer in their backyard - a thrill for us, but a major nuisance for them! Play numerous rounds of a candy matching game with Lizzy and my cousins Niki and Sarah. {Dang that chocolate bunny!} Have Hawaiian haystacks and fresh strawberries for dinner. The sisters, Ethan and I make a quick trip to Temple Square in Salt Lake City before it gets too late.I really do love to see the temple! It is just so beautiful!! Then, we even had a little time to go in the visitor's center.I love that picture of Ethan looking up at the Christus statue.

* Monday 4/26: Drive back to Provo to move Christine into her apartment. Mom takes Christine to an orientation while Lizzy and I pretty much single-handedly move in all of her boxes. We had quite the system going, seeing as Christine lives on the 3rd floor!! Lizzy and I finally get to disappear for a little while to go back to the bookstore while Ethan naps and Christine sets up her stuff. Buy Sean a shirt and the sisters matching BYU shirts. Meet up with everyone (mom, Christine, Ethan, aunt, uncle and cousins) for Brick Oven Pizza. YUM!! Mom, Ethan and I go grocery shopping for Christine while her and Lizzy go to her first FHE. Decide we will stay an extra night, book a room through Priceline for Tuesday and drive back to Bountiful. PS: Ethan is having a blast getting to spend so much time with his aunties!
* Tuesday 4/27: Drive back to Provo and stop by the mall so I can pay my Macy's bill. Get J. Dawg's for lunch. Check into hotel room while Christine is in class, then she meets us there. At one point hear the water running in the bathroom, go around the corner to see this:

According to Ethan he was "getting a drink" and then "taking a shower"! It was hilarious! He had turned the garbage can over to use as a stool and then held himself up there. That kid is all muscle! While leaving hotel room, have FREAKY run-in in the parking garage with some crazy guest because my mom was "looking at him weird". Have to take it up with hotel management. Finally are able to leave after manager walks us back out to our cars. Mom and Christine go to her apartment because my mom has homework and Lizzy, Ethan and I meet up with my sister-in-law Alysha and her new hubby, Blake. {No picture... :( Ethan was a pill.} Make late dinner run to In-N-Out. Meet back up at the hotel and are reassured by hotel staff that crazy guy has been moved to a different hotel. Yay! Run upstairs to get swimsuits on for a quick dip in the pool!Christine decided to stay in the hotel room with us that night, so Ethan got to sleep on his own little "bed"!And then here's some other random pictures from the hotel.
* Wednesday 4/28: Have tearful goodbye with Christine. Pile into the car and head back to Oregon. Lizzy and Ethan had some auntie/nephew bonding time in the backseat. She taught him how to rock out to the music Gaga-style.
And then I had to catch it on video!!


My mom pretty much refused to let me drive, so I spent much of the day reading Hunger Games {finishing just after it got dark!}. Of course, we had snow coming over the pass, so we did not roll into Springfield until early, early, early Thursday morning.

I worked Thursday and then Ethan and I finally came home Thursday night! We had been gone over a week and had been in Washington, Oregon, Idaho and Utah. We had visited family, moved Christine in and arrived home in one piece.
Mission: Accomplished!

Mother's Day - 2010

Ahhh... the month of May. My month. That's right. Since both Mother's Day and My Birthday fall during the month of May, I consider it my month. Don't worry, though... Ethan gets April for his birthday, plus Easter is 95% of the time during that month and Sean gets June for Father's Day and his birthday. It all works out, see?

Anyway, this Mother's Day started out beautifully! Sean let me sleep in and then made his super yummy waffles with a side of bacon. Mmmmm.... Plus, I was surprised with these beauties when I walked into the living room.
I heart roses!!

Accompanying those was a card from Ethan:

Also a card from Sean that played "Ain't No Woman Like The One I Got!" when opened!! and a digital keychain that I can't wait to load all my favorite pics onto!

At church, there were some wonderful talks, Sean sang a lovely duet and then the Priesthood brethren all got up to sing a song that I guess is tradition in this ward. Our Mother's Day goody bag was filled with delicious homemade chocolates. In our Primary class, we played an advanced matching game with names of mothers from the scriptures to match up with the scripture reference. Very fun!

After church, Ethan and I both napped [I was actually feeling a little sub-par] and then we had spinach/cheese ravioli with sourdough bread for dinner and relaxed the rest of the evening. This was the first Mother's Day that I got to enjoy just being at home and it was nice to not have to rush around anywhere.

I just LOVE my beautiful, blue-eyed little boy!!

And I LOVE being his momma!!
Even if we are still adjusting to seeing each other so much every day... quite the change from just a year ago. But I am still new to this mothering thing. Still learning, still growing, still making mistakes. Every new stage and development of his is new for me as a parent. I am far from perfect, but I am trying.

Speaking of near perfection, I cannot forget the two most amazing moms in my life!! I count myself very blessed to have such a loving and caring mother-in-law. Even though we live two states [and a-whole-lotta miles] apart, I still value the example she has set for being a good wife, mother and grandmother [aka Nana!]. Also, I would not be the woman, daughter, sister, wife and mother that I am today if it was not for the wonderful example of my own mother. I still look to her for guidance and motherly wisdom, not too mention her patience with my "occasionally" hyper-active little boy!

In closing, a quote:
"Mother love is the fuel that enables a normal human being to do the impossible."
Marion C. Garretty, quoted in A Little Spoonful of Chicken Soup for the Mother's Soul

Goodbye, Airplane Sheets

Yet another indication that my little boy is growing up.... Last month, when my parents came up for Ethan's birthday party, they brought along my old twin mattress set to put in Ethan's room. When we moved, we had decided not to reassemble Ethan's toddler bed because we knew the twin bed would be coming "soon" - so Ethan had been sleeping on his mattress on the floor!
Well, not anymore. Now he has a BIG big boy bed! Unfortunately, we have no "boy" sheets or "boy" comforter, so for now this is what Ethan's bed looks like:
I really loved Ethan's crib bedding, so I'm in no rush to buy a new twin comforter until I find just the right one! Either way, it's hard to believe he has outgrown his crib and toddler bed.

April Recap

Hey, it's still May and I've got the April Recap done... not bad! [Especially since I didn't post the March Recap until May.] April was insanely busy. I looked at the calendar the other day and realized I was gone for 15 days last month! Between Seattle, Easter, Ethan's birthday, family, work and the Utah trip it's no wonder the month went by in a blur!

* Date-night-movie-of-the-month: First of all, YAY!!, we actually got a date night. It was kinda last minute, so we ended up seeing:I'd already seen it on DVD at my family's house, but Sean hadn't seen it at all, plus it was fun to get to see it on the big screen. That, and all the May blockbusters hadn't started playing yet! It was really good. Robert Downey Jr. and Jude Law were great as Holmes and Watson. Downey plays a very convincing brilliant, but borderline-crazy, hero. It was a very similar character to Tony Stark/Iron Man - just set in a totally different time period. Anyway, it's one I wouldn't mind owning.

* Taxes... Ugh. Yet again I waited until the last minute to file. [Can you blame me? Four W-2's between us from 2 different states, plus some unemployment, plus daycare, etc, etc. - it was a little more overwhelming than most years!] My dad convinced me to e-file them through Turbo Tax which made it both harder and easier at the same time. Mostly easier, but I had been doing them old, old school - by hand, with a calculator - so it was very foreign to me to enter information at random times and be able to go back and edit stuff and have the program update everything automatically. It was pretty cool to watch the state and fed amount to pay or refund totals change. And, of course, in the end we had to pay Oregon state a little - no surprise there! Seems like we always end up owing something, even though they tax the heck out of each paycheck!

* Once again, despite April's lacking in posts, I have covered many of the main events:
Easter
Ethan's Birthday
Seattle Trip
Utah trip from the end of April with Ethan, my mom and sisters is still to be covered... later this month!

* Grandma SandyShe is just one of my two fabulous grandmas... the day before Easter she competed in a 1/2 marathon and got 1st place for her age group!!

* Spring has sprung! Our first Washington spring has not disappointed. Here are a few pictures I captured around our yard:

The neighbor's apple tree.

Glad I got a picture of the blossoms while I could.... they are all gone now.

Blue belles [I think] edge one side of our backyard.

First dandelions from my little boy! He insisted on de-stemming them all!

Ethan "watering" our tomato plant by first taking a swig of water from his cup, then drooling the water down the leaves. Nice.

* Ethan's sandbox was delivered! The day after Ethan's birthday [a Saturday] my Toftdahl grandparents came up to visit and drop off the sandbox they had made for Ethan - complete with sand! Once we decided where to put it and filled it with sand, my grandparents went to go visit some friends that live close by then came back for a BBQ! It was really fun to get to spend the afternoon with them. Ethan has been loving his sandbox [on the sunny days] ever since! I can tell, because I sweep up sand almost every single day... put another tally mark on the good side of having hardwood floors because sweeping is a lot quicker than having to vacuum every other day.

They were also smart enough to get beach sand, which makes for much better building of sand castles and things. Ethan has already gotten pretty good at convincing Sean to go out and build him a volcano.
* New friends: It has been better than I anticipated getting to know the people in our new ward. I can be so shy sometimes around new people, but we've already had a few invites over for dinner, so it has been fun doing that. One of the families, the Colemans, has a daughter about a year older than Ethan. We went over for dinner one Sunday evening and all four of their kids played so well with Ethan! We also did a baby-sitting swap one day [this is how we got to see our movie in April] so Ethan got to play with Maddy twice. Several times now he has told me he is ready to go to "Sister Coleman's house!" Here's a couple pictures from when Maddy came over - this was at lunch time while they were watching Princess and the Frog.
Well, that's about it. And now that we've had our fill of April and May showers... bring on the sun!!

Planned Parenthood

Seriously? Why do I seem to attract weird and totally inappropriate junk mail? Is there something about my name that just screams "let's send her a flier!"?! At our old house I received numerous [as in way more than one or two] fliers for retirement homes... what the? And then who can forget this - my sample hearing aide. And we all know the icing on the cake was from my favorite inmate. [Did you miss that one? Yeah, totally got a letter from some random guy in prison. Short version: Wrong person, wrong address and don't worry, the letter had been forwarded and he doesn't have our new address.]

Well, here's the latest. Apparently I am somehow on the Eugene/Springfield Planned Parenthood mailing list - and yet, they have our Washington address. Someone want to explain how that one happened?! But.... "When you come in for your appointment bring this card with you and we'll give you a $5 gift voucher good at Bagel Sphere, located at 810 Willamette Street in Eugene and 5768 Main Street in Springfield."

This was the front.

And this was how I filled in the blank. Well, one out of two ain't bad!! ;)

Anyway. Whatever. If they absolutely must, I guess just keep 'em coming. They're good for a laugh and then go straight into the recycling bin.

[Dang! I missed out on a free bagel opportunity.]

Hungry??

So, I'm not sure if you've figured this out, but Sean is the reader between the two of us. It's not that I don't like reading - in fact, I love it. But I have a hard time reading during the day - I can almost always think of something else I could be doing. At Christmas time I put one or two books on my list while Sean usually has 7-10 books on his list. All of that being said, have you figured out that you should listen up when I actually give a book recommendation?! I mean, it's gotta be pretty dang awesome for me to take time to read it. This book:
was pretty dang awesome! I read the bulk of it in one day - on the car ride home from Utah because my mom is super possessive of her car and only lets my dad drive. This left me free to read for hours on end. It was great! Total page turner. It's written in the first person, which bugged Sean, but I didn't have a problem with it. I finished it and immediately dove into this one:
the next in the series. It is just as good! I'm about half-way through and we don't have any plans this weekend so I'm hoping to finish it up.

Final analysis: Put these two next on your reading list!! [The third is due out this fall.]

PS: For those who have read them, I have yet to decide if I'm "Team Peeta" or "Team Gale". Maybe after I finish the second one. Thoughts??
PPS: I realize I didn't really give any information regarding the plot. It's kinda hard to explain in one or two sentences... If you really want to know, leave a comment. Otherwise, just take my word on it's awesomeness!

Strawberry Shortcake

Today I made shortcake. I have literally been meaning to do it for almost a year. All last summer I had intended on making homemade shortcake to have with fresh strawberries and real whipped cream and well, it never happened. This afternoon I finally pulled out the cookbook and made it and guess what? I didn't follow the directions exactly. I mean, not really that big of a deal - if you're not making individual shortcakes you're supposed to put the dough in a round pan. I put it in a square pan but I had to laugh as I did because it totally reminded me of the old "cutting the end off the roast" story. You know, the one where the kid is asking the mom why she always cuts the end off the roast and the mom says it's because that's the way grandma always did it and she had learned it from the great grandma. And what was the reason? She cut the roast to make it fit in her pan! Anyway, I can just hear it now...
Future child of Ethan: Dad, why do you always bake the shortcake in a square pan even though the directions say to use a round pan?
Ethan: Because that's the way Grandma Jenn {yes, they will call me Grandma Jenn because I will be that cool of a granny!} always does it.
Later....
Future child of Ethan: Grandma Jenn, why do you always bake the shortcake in a square pan even though the directions say to use a round one?
Cool Grandma Jenn: Because when I made it the square pan was clean and more handy!
Bam! End of story. Mystery solved!

So tonight we dined on mac-n-cheese from scratch, stir-fried green beans and homemade strawberry [square] shortcake!

Seattle - April 2010

Seattle
April 2010

For the first time, pretty much ever, we were able to take advantage of Sean's Spring Break! I am usually always working and the only thing that changes is that Sean is home with Ethan. Now that I am a mostly-stay-at-home mom, we decided it was high-time for a little get-away. And since we are farther north now, Seattle is only about 2 1/2 hours away. Perfect!

We knew we wanted to stay for 2 nights so it would feel like we had really got away. But where to stay??? We don't really know the area, or what hotels are available, but we knew we'd like to be close to the downtown area if possible. Well, downtown = big $$$. So what to do? Answer: Priceline! We decided to try it out and see what we could get in our price range. Now, Priceline has always scared me a little because of the whole plugging in your credit card number and being committed to whatever they find, but I was willing to give it a shot. Since we figured we had nothing to lose, we put in for a 4-star hotel in downtown Seattle for half-price. We chose the dates, entered our credit card info, held our breath and clicked "Submit". Not knowing how quickly we would get a reply, we sat and waited and... our bid for a room was accepted! And not just anywhere, we were staying at the Seattle Westin! A huge, 4-star hotel right in the heart of downtown. We checked out their website and were elated with our good luck!

I love this shot I got of the hotel name. Pretty nicely framed, I thought!

The week of Sean's Spring Break, I went in to work on Tuesday and Wednesday so we could spend Thursday, Friday and Saturday in Seattle. We had several errands to run Thursday (including picking up the Honda) and left pretty late in the afternoon. Once we got there, I ran in to check us in (the card we used was in my name). The front desk staff was very nice and when it came time for picking our room, I went with a king-size bed and then told the woman helping me to please put us on as high a floor as possible because I "have a little boy who would just love it." Ha! I think Ethan could care less! It was really Sean and I who wanted to have a room on a high floor!! :) Her response, "we have a room available on the 26th floor, will that work?" My calm, verbal response: "Yes, that will be fine. Thank you." My non-verbal, in-my-head response: "Wahoo!! 26th floor, baby!!" Our room had a wall of windows, and as you can see, we had a pretty awesome view of the big city. This was what we admired at night:And in the morning, we could see a little better what some of the surrounding high-rise buildings were.
One of the buildings was all condos and once it was light out we could see that they had a beautiful terrace for its tenants. And yes, that is the Space Needle that we had a view of. No neck-craning required!

The three of us loved our hotel room! Sean immediately went for the bed... and kindly posed for a picture!Ethan was perfectly content playing "waiter" and filling our glasses with ice from the ice bucket.
The next day was Friday and we had just two main tasks: 1. Pike Place Market on the waterfront and 2. Space Needle. We decided to start with the market. It was only about a 10-minute walk, but right across the street from our hotel we found this:Part of the marquee had fallen during the night and crushed the sidewalk below. It was quite the site! Anyway, we spent several hours wandering around, checking out the shops, eating from the local vendors and admiring all of the beautiful flowers in the market. I'd say about 1/4 of the market was filled with fresh flowers and women making one beautiful bouquet after another. I couldn't get over the bright colors and also how inexpensive the flowers were! Bouquet prices ranged from about $5 to $15. Sweet! I also couldn't get over how yummy all the fresh produce looked. Check out the bottom, middle picture in the collage below - I thought it was pretty cool to see a "real" newsstand. You just don't see that in Springtucky or even Vancouver.
Here are some other pictures of the downtown area I took that day. Sean thought it was funny that I was taking pictures of alleyways and brick buildings with fire escapes. It's not like I've never seen an alley before - but, again, Eugene alleys don't look like this and not many of our buildings have fire escapes. I just thought it was neat to see some of this stuff in real life that is so typical in TV/movies! Sorry, I'm a mid-size town girl who doesn't make it to the big, big city very often!!
We went back to our hotel for a while and then ventured out to see the Space Needle. The weather was all over the place that day! We had everything from blue skies and some sunshine to cold, but dry and windy to rain and then, my favorite, wind and rain! It stayed clear most of the walk over to the Space Needle, but just as we got there it started to rain. We already knew we would not be going to the top - $17/person just wasn't worth it to us. So we stayed at ground level and looked up and admired its tallness and took some pictures!It was pretty tricky to figure out how to angle the camera just right to get our faces and the Space Needle in the picture without having to be a mile away! It's not the most flattering angle, but I do really love the picture of Ethan and Sean in front of it. Plus, the greyness of the day did not help for lighting. Not enough light, but the flash washed out faces - a point-and-shoot photographer's nightmare!

We took the monorail back to the mall that was close to our hotel and I'm pretty sure it was the highlight of Ethan's trip! I mean, look at this face, is that not one happy little boy?! He didn't stay that happy, though, when the ride was over before he would've liked. Anyway, we perused the mall for a little while and then decided it was time to get something for dinner. We thought Hard Rock Cafe would be fun and started walking there. A couple of wrong turns and a downpour later, we got there.... Of course, that was after seeing the guy on the corner puking his guts out at 7:30pm. That's a little early to be so hammered, don't you think buddy?! Unfortunately we found that it was NOT the atmosphere we were hoping for! For some reason, I had it in my head that it would be similar to a Red Robin, just not quite so overly bright and cheery. Boy was I wrong! That place was dark, loud and packed - plus the wait was a good 45 minutes! So even though we were already tired and soaked (Ethan had fallen asleep in the stroller tucked under the blanket we had covering him) we headed back out into the cold to make our way to the waterfront for some fresh seafood [for Sean]. We had checked into a place online and Sean had already mentioned a couple times that he would like to get some seafood while we were here. Well. We knew that getting to the waterfront was going to be tricky since you have to cross under a major freeway to get there... what we got, was a nightmare!! I'm pretty sure we took the longest route possible to get to where we thought we could cross. All we had to do was take an elevator down to the street level. Guess which elevator wasn't working. Yeah. Ours. Guess how high up we were. Yeah. 6 flights. Guess how we got down. Yeah. Carried our sleeping toddler in his stroller down 12 half flights of stairs!!! Oh joy of joys. After that, we only had to cross the street and walk a short distance to the restaurant - our destination was the Crab Pot. Well, the night does not end there! We walked up and thought, "this doesn't look right." But the sign for the restaurant was right there and the cooks/cashier were all wearing Crab Pot shirts so we ordered our food (Sean got fish [halibut]-n-chips and I settled for a burger). Not too exciting. We sat under a heat lamp (we were still "outside", just under their open-air shelter) and were still confused. The place we had looked at online had a large menu and looked to be a fairly big place. Sean went to check it out... turns out the Crab Pot has both a sit-down restaurant and a walk-up grill on the boardwalk. Guess where we ended up. Yeah. Not in the restaurant!! Oh well. I was too tired to care! We ate our food and Sean and I agreed a cab ride back to the hotel would be the best bet. Even though we weren't really that far away, it was still raining and windy and I'd have to say that was probably the best $10 we spent on the trip!! Besides, Sean had never been in a real taxi, my feet were sore and Ethan loved sitting between us in the back, not having to be in his carseat. It was win-win for everyone.

Now. After all of that, you'd think we'd get back to our hotel and practically fall into bed, right? Nope! Not us! We hurried and changed into our swim suits and headed down to the pool/jacuzzi for the last 1/2 hour it was open. Oh, it felt so good to warm up in the jacuzzi. :) Once we got back up to our room, Ethan got a warm bath and then I had to snap some pictures of his post-bath cuteness!!After a good night's rest [oh yeah, I forget to mention that Sean had thoroughly convinced Ethan of the coolness of sleeping in the "couch bed" which meant we got the king-size bed to ourselves!] we packed up our stuff and took a few pictures of the room before turning in our keys.
We made one last trip down to Pike Place Market before we headed home. We had to get one of those fresh flower bouquets and wanted to get it as close to leaving as possible. We also had one last piroshky (a russian pastry made savory or sweet - the beef and cheese was so, so good) and some frozen yogurt.Ethan loved going to the fish market end and even got to hold a fish this time! The guy was so nice about it. We watched as he let several bigger kids hold a fish and we asked Ethan if he wanted to. Of course! So Sean took him up there and the guy picked out a smaller fish for Ethan to hold. See that big smile? He loved it!! I took a picture and then looked around and realized there were about 4 other cameras also snapping pictures of my little boy, his big smile and the fish! Apparently I'm not the only one who thinks he is adorable!

Oh, and I almost forgot! Remember our "celebrity sighting" in Disneyland December '08?? Well I seem to have a knack for spotting Food Network chefs because I spied Chris Cosentino from Chefs vs. City! Sean didn't believe it was him, so when we got home I tracked down his website and sent a quick email to see if he'd confirm it - which he did. :)

Alright, hopefully if you made it through reading all this, you actually found our trip, the pictures or maybe even my writing remotely interesting! We had a blast and plan on going back again this year.