Monster Blog

Be prepared for a long one folks!

First gas stop. We have a happy baby! Things are looking good! Hopefully it will hold for the whole trip.

We stopped at Walmart to pick up a few things in Montana where there is no sales tax and Mommy can use her 10% discount card! It never fails, I end up at Walmart on all my days off, despite my efforts to stay away, hehe.

The first swim! She was dead tired here, but she loved it! I feel bad that her suit turned out to be a little bit too small for her. We squeezed her in anyway though. She didn't seem to mind. I almost tried it on before we left, but I ignored the thought and assumed it would fit. I should have bought the 18 month size. Oh well.

Cheese! I'm such a big girl! I can stand in the pool without my floatie thingy!

Are we girly girls or what? We have matching nail polish! I know I look ghostly white, but hey, it's April. Everyone is supposed to be white at this time of year. At least in ND.

Wrinkled feet! I always had wrinkled fingers and toes after swimming growing up. Looks like I'm not the only one!

We bought a pack-n-play for Chels to sleep in on the trip. It's a good thing too. She doesn't sleep so long if she can move around and find something to play with.

We drove through Rexburg and met up with TWO of my old roommates from college. Lynsey is in the green sweater and Berkley is holding Chelsea. I'm the strange on in the middle. I need to learn to be more photogenic. Is that a skill? Is there a class I can take?

We visited Red Robin, mostly for Mommy's sake. I wish there was a Red Robin around here. Then again, I'd probably eat there way too often! I think I gained at least five pounds this week from all the yummy food we got to eat! It was a nice change for Chelsea too, who got to eat gourmet Mac and Cheese, one of her favorite dishes. It sure beats a steady stream of animal crackers, doesn't it?

We picked up a loaf of bread and fed the ducks while we waited for everyone to come to play crocket (spelling?) Chelsea loved it! I think she was saying ducks and duckies. We have a couple cute videos, but this is the only photo. She wanted to walk into the water and see them!

What a cutie!

Here is Jeff, Lois, and Reed playing crocket with the gang. What a cute little family. Reed enjoyed moving people's balls around. Sometimes it was helpful!

This picture is hilarious. Chelsea looks simply horrified, doesn't she? Well nothing bad was happening. No blood, no tears. She's just talking. Maybe looking at one of the ducks, who knows. But she was just vocalizing something and this is the expression I caught. I love it!

We visited many game stores while in Utah. We brought home a total of six new games to add to our collection. We have a ways to go before we catch up to the Stutz's, but I have no doubt that we will get there eventually. This is a funny picture because Chelsea was carrying a toy in each hand and pushing the stroller around at the same time. She fell down, of course, but she held on to the toys and pushed the stroller from her knees. What a silly girl.

Look! This kids are actually playing TOGETHER instead of just next to each other! Actually I would bet that Reed was playing with this toy and Chelsea saw it and decided she wanted to play with it. But I wasn't there. Michelle and Greg were babysitting while we did a temple session at the Provo Temple on Wednesday.

So tired! I thought vacations were supposed to be relaxing? Why am I so tired all the time? I just can't keep my eyes open...

We are watching the second premier of Forced Intelligence. Chelsea was a little noisier this time around. Though we did catch a few snuggles while watching together. :) So cute!

The happy couple 36 hours before the wedding. I hope there's not trouble already! Yikes! (hehe just kidding)

Rick served his mission in Brazil. So while in the area, we were sure to dine Brazilian at Tucanos. It was very yummy. Difficult, however, to control the amount of food intake when the food they bring by constantly looks and tastes so yummy! Even the little one enjoyed the food.

Here is the happy couple, plus a few. Poor Reed looks like he'd rather be asleep. Chelsea was fighting to get the hat off, but needed a little breather, hence the weird pose. I wanted to get a picture of her with the hat ON, so I didn't wait till everyone was really ready to snap the photo. But what a beautiful Bride, and a handsome Groom! Congratulations you two!

The hat returns! Too bad she's holding the bottle. I didn't dare take it from her because she needed to take a nap, but it was going to be awhile before she had the chance. Once she is cranky, it's difficult to make her get happy again without a nice long nap.

Watching the remainder of the photo shoot with Daddy. There was three different weddings being photographed all at the same time, just at varying distances from the temple. Interesting.

Ah, the echoing cup trick! Every kid must discover it at some point. Chelsea did very well entertaining herself in the hours between the family luncheon and the reception. I had to take her dress of and rinse it in the sink to even out all the drool spots on the front, which covered her dress from the moment she put it on. (Teeth coming in, her left tooth broke through either yesterday or today for the second time) But she liked carrying things around and pushing around the plastic totes best, as well as yelling into cups.

What the heck, I'll stick a picture of me on here. I look a little weird, but it's nearing bedtime at this point. I had eaten lots of good food and was entertained by the family at the reception. Chelsea was busy checking out my buttons (her favorite!) instead of smiling for the camera.

Here is the strawberry that Greg dipped and dipped and dipped and coated in peanuts and dipped again and dipped some more. I have no idea how many layers it ended up being, or if he even ate it in the end. But the chocolate fountain was a big hit.

My sleepy girl on the morning before our final day of travel. I picked her up from the pack-n-play and she was out cold. I shook her and jostled her a little bit. Still out cold. I finally put her on her BACK on the bed and bounced a little while Rick turned on the TV and flipped channels. How do yo NICELY wake up a kid that's so far gone? (We wanted to wake her up to change her and feed her and give her some awake time so she would sleep better and longer during the trip. And it worked-she stayed in the car all the way until Bismarck before needing a stretch and play break.) Well she gradually woke up (luckily) and entertained the other guests at the hotel during breakfast. Then we headed for home.

What a wonderful trip. We are all glad to be back home and in the swing of things, though. We were very blessed and watched over on our trip. We were safe and comfortable, awake and alert, and well fed and cared for. We had various fortunate events (aka blessings) on our trip. Some minor, others maybe not so minor. On the road between Bismarck and Minot we were flagged down by a lady frantically waving her arms at us from her vehicle. We pulled over and she turned off on a different road and kept driving. Weird. So Rick got out and checked out the car. Our back left tire was very low. So we filled it up in Washburn. Drove to Cole Harbor and checked again. It seemed fine so we kept going. It remained fine until Rick's lunch break today when he discovered that the tire was again nearly flat. Turns out we drove over a metal spike of some sort that went completely through the tire. We had to replace it. It's amazing we were able to drive on it. But the Lord looks out for us. We remain safe and happy!

Oh yeah, and Chelsea said Reed! It comes out just eed, but it's Reed nonetheless! I'll have to see if she will say it tomorrow, or if it was just for the wedding day.