California-Part 2

I know this is long, but this is the only place I write things so maybe just skip to the pictures? Sunday we were able to go to 2 of the wards Ryan was in. He was only in 4 and It ended up we caught part of 2 Sacrament meetings which were his 2 favorite wards so he was able to see a lot of people he knew. It was fun meeting them because I've seen pictures are heard stories about them. After church we went over to a family's house and ate lunch with them. They had a gorgeous home and yard with a pool in the backyard with a water slide. Even though it was 70 degrees we didn't suit up, but Alli wanted to so badly so she played in the shallow area they had. She loved it and they were so fun to meet! Sadly I realized we didn't get pictures, but maybe next time we go visit we will. We stopped by and visited a family he taught and baptized and then headed down to San Clemente to visit one of his mission comps who lives there. We had a little bbq and then went down to the beach right by his house and went for a walk. It would be so fun to live that close to the beach! We were going to drive part of the way back Sunday and finish Monday, but we were wanting a little more of a break so we stayed Sunday night so we could play Monday.
Monday we went to the pool at our hotel.







Then we drove and took a ferry out to Balboa Park to eat lunch on the pier with one of the guys Ryan looked up to on his mission the very most. We played on the beach, Alli played on a fun play place there, and we walked around the area-went on the carousel, saw a bunch of seals-one jumping up onto a boat- and got a frozen banana :) It was such a fun day! Then we started the awesome drive back. We stopped outside Las Vegas to eat and shopped at some outlets (Alli and I ended up with two pairs of Nikes each!). Then we drove to Mesquite where we decided we were too tired to keep driving so we stopped and got a cheap room to sleep for a couple hours and then finished the drive Tuesday morning. It was such a busy, whirlwind trip, but we still had a lot of fun! Can't wait to go back for a more relaxed trip!

California-Part 1

This was a random donkey we saw right as we were heading down. How random is that, just a van with a donkey in it???

Ryan served his mission in California and there was another expo we wanted to go to for work so the day after Alli's birthday we headed down that way. We stayed in Vegas with some family (one of my mom's cousins) Thursday night. It was fun visiting them and catching up, it's been a while since I've seen them. They have an English Bulldog (Ryan's favorite dog breed) and Alli loved playing with it! We all went down to have dinner on the strip. Sometime I want to go back down, there is so much to do down there, so many cool displays in the hotels, and amazing shopping! After we ate we drove down one street where they do movie/shows on the "ceiling".


We headed out early the next morning so we could be in Anaheim by 9:30 to get set for the expo so we went and got registered and after seeing how many vendors were there we decided that I would also go talk to people as well (awesome, I know-I was excited about all the fun stuff to take Alli and do, but it ended up being worth it). We met up with one of the suppliers for lunch at the Cheesecake Factory in downtown Anaheim and then Ryan went on a tour of the plant while Alli and I hung out at a cool little strip mall by the restaurant. It had a bunch of little waterfalls and some fun shops so we were plenty entertained!

We were walking up to the convention center and Ryan was pretty impressed with the line up of cars-this was pretty typical of the whole weekend, there were soo many incredible nice cars everywhere it seemed!

Friday night we were all exhausted after walking around and looking at the booths so we went to our hotel in Irvine (a total score, we got it online for 50.00 for hotel that is 2-300.00 per night!). Got some dinner at a Japanese place closeby and crashed at our hotel.
Saturday morning right after we started "working" Ryan called me to tell me that he'd just seen my "favorite" actor-Jim Carrey (he's probably one of my least faves actually) with his bodyguards walking through the expo. Kind of cool.

Saturday afternoon we had to take a break. We had learned our lesson with Alli on Friday-her naps need a little more priority! She did really well walking around the expo, but everyone has their limits and she reached hers (I think we all reached ours!). So we headed to the beach Saturday afternoon so she could nap when we came back and walked through the expo-it worked out much better. So we headed to Corona Del Mar-beautiful!!! When I "grow up" I want a house on that beach!





We drove past the Newport Beach temple on our way back to the convention center. They were building it while Ryan was on his mission, but he came home before it was completed so he hadn't seen it. It is a unique, but beautiful temple!

Then we went back to work to finish it all up. Ryan and I would each take a section, it was actually pretty fun-even more fun when I was working without a little helper :). My favorite little helper decided she was done after a couple more hours and she played in a VW bus converted to a play area for kids. After a bit I wanted to talk to 1-2 more companies so I took her from that, she wasn't super happy, but when the lady offered her a sample of chocolate milk she was okay. Well about half way through her sample she got bumped or something and spilled the rest all down my white capris-awesome! So we went and got the keys from Ryan and waited til he was done with his section and finishing my section since I now looked soo professional in chocolate milk splotched capris-she did a fabulous job covering me! I had another pair of pants in the car so I could change which was good because we met up with a family from Ryan's mission at Red Robin for dinner. Then we drove through some of his areas to see if people still lived in their same houses and meet people. It was so fun meeting the people he worked with and knew. He was such an excellent missionary and I'd known that all along, but hearing him talk to people and hearing what they had to say about him was really neat. Apparently he's become sort of a legend in the mission because of how he worked. I'm certainly glad it was not the other way around-I think I would have been slightly disappointed to only hear stories of how he just played the whole time etc etc. Anyway-a little tangent there, but it was cool to see him in his "element" even though it's been almost 6 years since he's been back.

More Pics From Ohio

We got a new camera before we went to California and I was just going to put up pictures from that trip when I saw these so I wanted to put them up as well. We had a lot of fun visiting and playing! Here are the pics before our camera broke:
* We are all looking a little rough on the plane, but the nice part was there were extra seats on the flight so Alli had her own seat on the way out.

Disclaimer

Just wanted to note two things:
1-I'm glad I have a friend who will call me out on my "cheesiness", but yes in fact it should show how much I love my man, he's the best! Sorry for the cheese factor of that last post, but although most posts are too verbose, hopefully not many are that cheesy!
2-Alli's birthday cake, but NOT made by me. Between our two trips with two days home in between I knew that making the time to make her a cute cake was not happening. (And let's face it no matter how much time I would have had, I HIGHLY doubt that I could have made a cake as cute as she got!) Luckily a friend's mom was more than willing to make her a cake. We gave her a couple simple princess castle cake pics and she whipped out a masterpiece! She is absolutely amazing, some of her other cakes on different themes are even more incredible, I am completely in awe of her talent AND her willingness to share it just for fun!

RYAN

Right after we started dating.

With Jakob, before we got engaged, there was quite the water fight, but it was fun to watch him enjoy it just as much as any of the kids!

A random pic, he's always up for anything-I convinced him to run the Salem Days 5k (he doesn't run more than up and down the bball court usually), but he still won his age group which is a competitive age group!

Just crazy Ryan-turning himself around on the tube boating while he was riding. It was so entertaining watching him do all sorts of "tricks."

His favorite little lady Alli, they are always so happy with each other and have so much fun!
These last couple weeks have been crazy with trips (pictures to come of California-Ryan got a new camera right before we left so we'd be able to take pictures since we couldn't fix our "old" one) and Ryan's birthday was this last weekend but we were still trying to get settled back in so I feel like his birthday was kind of lost in the shuffle of everything-that and it was on a Sunday too so we did a lot of just hanging out. But I figured since it is his birthday (and our anniversary was the beginning of the month when we were flying to Ohio) I should do a post about him. So (copying hundreds of other people) here are 27 reasons-in no particular order- why I love my Ryan!
1. He always wants to make me happy-seriously he will do anything he can/has to.
2. He loves teasing me and making me laugh and does so very frequently.
3. I can't stay mad at him because often times reason number 2 comes into play pretty quickly to cheer me back up.
4. He is so very dependable-if he tells me he will do something, it will get done (and pretty quickly too!).
5. Because when he does get sidetracked (in stores or at work) he feels so bad about taking so long.
6. He is such a good example to me of reading the scriptures. He will try to help me do better, but no matter what I do, he is very consistent with his own reading.
7. He is very optimistic and tries to help me not worry about things.
8. He LOVES shoes. He gets so excited about shoes-especially if it is a good deal-whether they are for me, Alli, or himself. This excitement increases by about ten if the shoes happen to be Nikes.
9. He makes sure our house/yard look nice. During the summer he mows the lawn about weekly just because he likes how nice it looks when it is mowed. He takes such good care of anything he "owns" whether it's a pressure washer, a car, or a lawn mower it will be clean and in great condition.
10. He is so good at figuring things out-he put our whole yard in with the plans we had made and someone came and did the trenching-and the sprinkler system works wonderfully!
11. He never gives up, when he wants something he will work and work and work until he has reached his goal.
12. He sees the positive in people, and is very forgiving!
13. He is completely honest, his integrity was one of the first things I noticed about him because I could just tell by looking at him and being around him the type of person he is, and he's never disappointed me!
14. He is so athletic-I have yet to see a sport that he won't excel in, regardless of when the last time he played or what equipment he is using, he's amazingly fast and can play any sport (baseball, basketball, football, and even golf or bowling) with the best of them.
15. He is content with simple things in life. He doesn't need much to make him happy.
16. He LOVES Alli so much and is so excited to play with her and is getting more and more patient all the time. :) He has always been so good with kids!
17. He loves when we come visit him at work and looks forward to eating lunch with us, it makes me feel special that he prefers to eat whatever I grab from home instead of going with the guys or grabbing (probably better tasting) fast food. Today he was lucky enough to have a mini frozen pizza-what a lucky guy :)
18. He wants me to tell him my thoughts and feelings.
19. He encourages me to follow my dreams, whatever they may be.
20. He is so resilient, no matter what happens to him or is said about him he brushes it off and doesn't let it hold him back.
21. He is very genuine, he doesn't like to express himself a whole lot so when he does I know he truly means it, he won't ever "just say something."
22. He reverts back to a 13 year old boy fairly often-sneaking the tv out, describing something the happened at bball- I hope he always keeps the excitement he has for so many different things whether he's up the canyon flyfishing, or searching for little critters on the beach, or learning something new. * He has the cutest sheepish face, it makes me smile!
23. I know I can trust him to always have my best interest or that of our family in whatever he is doing.
24. He doesn't hold grudges or keep score of what he's done for me and what I've done in return or vice versa or the mean things I may have said to him, he just loves me!
25. He gives the best hugs ever, when he is hugging me I feel like no matter what happens, it'll all be okay!
26. Because we are getting closer and closer to each other, often times we will say the same thing at the same time or in the car we'll start singing to the radio at the exact same time, or I can look at him and know what he is thinking or feeling without him saying anything. I feel like I can tell him anything without him judging me or looking down on me.
Last but definitely not least,
27. He is so incredibly good looking, and gets even better looking all the time!!!

Too Hilarious not to Share

So this morning as I am getting dressed, I notice Ryan suspiciously over by the tv with a baby lotion bottle by his mouth?? Weird, I ask what he is doing and he says he's distracting me. I look around and ask "from what?" I see the tv remote in his pocket, thinking it's even weirder I tell him he's not taking the tv remote to work, we don't really watch much tv. sometimes Alli will watch a movie, but that's about it. Then he points out the antennae he was also taking with him and informs me that he told the guys at work he'd bring the t.v. in to work so they could watch the games today. Yesterday (to make sure they didn't miss any of the action) they were crowded around one computer so he mentioned how "thoughtful" he was being. :) I take the remote and the antennae and tell him he can take the tv to work but not either of them. I give in because really he has THE cutest sheepish face when he's trying to work his way out of this mess. Then I inform him that since he's doing that I am going to the mall and getting some new shoes, he thinks for a second. Asks how much my shoes will be, I tell him (low balling it just a little) and he agrees. So we are both happy. I get new shoes, he gets to watch parts of games. And he is feeling guilty so he will probably get more work done because he'll feel like he has to be extra-efficient with his time. As he was leaving he kept telling me how he will get more work done because he won't have two computer screens up all day, and thanks for trusting him... Too funny, so I think when I go for lunch I am taking the camera and I'm getting a picture of this little party they're throwing for themselves today. However, I will give him credit, we don't have cable and this is really his only "thing" he's into (except probably shoes, but that typically works in my favor as well so I don't mind) so I'll give him his couple of weeks of fun (especially since his birthday is Sunday) enjoying watching some extra basketball games.

Birthday Bash

* Sorry the pictures are once again in no order, guess you get to figure out what they are of, shouldn't be too hard :)
Yesterday was such a fun day! I love birthdays in general, think having mine is great, but having a birthday for your child is the very best! Alli has been really excited for almost 2 months about getting a "bike" for her birthday because she found a picture and anytime her birthday comes up she reminds us what she's hoping for. She wore her birthday crown from Julia & Audrey pretty much all day. Ryan put one of her presents together in the morning and she loved playing with her baby in all the places it could be (the cradle, swing, and high chair). We made cupcakes in the morning (I should have taken a picture they were super cute-bright pink and white frosting-one as the base and other as either a flower, smiley face, since those are some of her favorite things, or pattern on top). We took those around to some special family members so they could wish her a happy birthday. Last night we had a little party for her and she had so much fun. All of the kids (and some adults) decorate crowns, we had pizza (since that's one of Alli's favorite foods), opened presents, and had some amazing cake. Thank you to everyone who came for making it such a great day! She was completely spoiled by her presents and loves every one of them (she got a stick horse MADE by Christie, a cute kitty stuffed animal and some darling hair clips (MADE by Erin), a zhu zhu pet, a stuffed dog in a carrier, a cut outfit, and mom and dad came through with the bike. Our camera broke last weekend so we've been using the back up which is REALLY slow on the processing so thank you to Jeremy for taking pictures for us!

2

Today is Alli's second birthday. I am so glad to have her as my daughter. She is so sweet and loving, but still so crazy and funny. She is always using new words and phrases. This morning first thing out of her mouth (after informing me that she was "awake" ) when she woke up was "Cake" "I Wanna See It" so I told her she could see it and we went out. She made the cutest, biggest gasp when she saw it, and then said it looked like a "temple." I love that she is making more and more full sentences and that she can express herself more and more. She loves to jump and dance around and play whatever musical instrument she can get her hands on. She loves to read books and she's starting to love princesses, but she still definitely loves animals! This morning she held her doll and patted her on the back telling her "It's Okay It's Okay It's Okay." I am not sure what the doll was sad about, but Alli fixed whatever it was. She just melts my heart every day. I am so thankful to be a mom because she makes me a better person and she makes me want to be a better person. She has made me love people more because not only do I appreciate the things they do more, but I see them in different roles-a mom, a dad, etc. but most importantly I see them as a Child of God who loves them and wants others to love them. And because He loves them, I can love them. I see the good qualities in Alli and it makes me see focus on the good in those I come in contact with more. I know how much a smile and a kind word can make my day whether it is from her or from someone else so I strive to do that more with anyone I come in contact with. I see how Alli genuinely loves and is genuinely happy and it makes me better. I love seeing her get so excited over things, it makes any effort soo worthwhile. I can see why Heavenly Father puts us in families because we learn and grow so much growing up in a family and then when we have our own family you learn so much more. You learn patience, love, hard work, forgiveness, and selflessness, and through these things we become truly happier as we go along. So to my little angel, who is so pure and sweet and loving, Happy Birthday! I don't know what I would ever do without you, I truly would be lost without you in my life. You bring more joy and happiness than I thought one little person could bring. You also bring many opportunities to learn patience and service and figuring out what is truly the most important in life. Thank you for your patience with me as you teach me how to be a mom, even when I get frustrated with you, you are so quick to smile and hug me and kiss me. I can't believe it was two years ago that you were born and that I held you for the first time- all red and wrinkly, truly I thought you weren't the most beautiful baby ever born, but that soon changed and I've thought that ever since. I feel like I have such a special connection with your little spirit. Daddy was so excited for you to get bigger so you could play with him, and I was too, but I loved holding you while you slept and just looking at your perfect little self. I think I have always felt like I could never get enough time with you and when I am away from you, I missed you even when you were tiny! It has been so fun watching you figure things out and be so pleased with yourself for each new accomplishment. I am so excited to see what the rest of your life will bring, and I hope you always be so obedient, so determined, so funny, so smart, so friendly, so kind, and so loving. Love, Your Mama

Vacation Time-the Long Version

By now you should know that this is my only journal so you get the play by play of our fabulous trip to Ohio. This last week we got to go to OHIO and visit my brother and his wife and their two adorable little girls. Alli has so much fun playing with Audrey and Julia, and I loved hanging out with Bryan and Annie (and the girls of course too) so it was a win/win all around. Unfortunately we have had camera issues lately-our last trip, up to Idaho for Tyler's baby blessing, was sadly without a camera in our rush to get on the road to see them! and this trip our camera quit working on Friday so the pictures taken before then are unavailable til I transfer the memory card and load them from the other camera and the pictures after our camera broke are courtesy of Annie (so glad she was willing to take extra pics and share them!). I will add more pictures later, but for now this is what we have and we are leaving again in a couple days so I wanted to put these up now. Thursday we went down to a cool market place (North Market) in downtown Columbus. It's an indoor marketplace with all sorts of different ethnic restaurants that are all super freshly made. Ryan got sushi, I got delicious pasta, and Annie got a belgian waffle creation. It all looked amazing. Ryan and I finished it off with some amazing ice cream (Annie was not joking when she said it is the best ice cream ever). It's Jeni's ice cream (you may have seen it on Food Network it's that good) and they have some of the most random flavors, but they are so delicious. We got Gravel Road (salty carmel with roasted almonds), Roxbury Road, and Lemon Yogurt after trying at least 10 different samples. Unfortunately we were a little slow trying, deciding, and eating our ice cream= 25.00 parking ticket that expired no more than 3 minutes before. We drove around downtown, and hung out at Bryan and Annie's house. It is such a fun area, lots of unique different styles of architecture and an eclectic mix of older buildings, newer remodels, and some sophisticated new stuff. Thursday night while Annie was gone, Bryan and the girls and us went for some more ice cream at a place close to their house (Ryan and I don't claim to eat healthy) after which Ryan won a little blue stuff monkey that Alli exclaimed "I Love it" she has picked up some fun, cute new sayings! Friday Ryan's work stuff started so we went and walked around the expo/zoo. It was crazy packed. Longer lines for an entrance than I've EVER seen. The most interesting collection of people/"animals" ever. We saw more too tanned bodies and too much of people's bodies, but had a fun time meeting some of Ryan's customers. In the afternoon Annie and I took the girls to the mall and played on the cool play place there (they have cool planet figures that are THE coolest material and the floor is padded around it so even if they fall or bonk on the figure it doesn't hurt, but the figures are still solid, I've never seen it anywhere else!). There was a carousel ride so of course they had to ride that (a couple times, cause Alli couldn't get enough of it) and they had a super cool toy store with a lot of my favorite brands of kids games and toys. Embarrassing moment-walking out of the mall I could NOT find our rental car anywhere. I had gone out the wrong door with Annie so I walked around there for a couple minutes before I realized so we walked to the other section of that store's parking lot, but I still could not find the car- I knew I was in the right area though because I walked in and made sure that was the correct exit of Macy's. Finally I found it after starting to wonder if our car got stolen :) and wandering the parking lot holding Alli for a good ten minutes-yep I'm a dork! Then after that I was going to go back downtown, but Annie kindly volunteered to watch Alli if I wanted to go back to their house first and go down after she taught a piano lesson so somehow after I missed the exit to get on the other freeway and turned around to get back on so I could get on the right freeway I got on a random side "frontage" road and ended up in farming country 8 miles west of the correct HIlliard (where they live) on the right freeway. The odd thing is that I went off the freeway on the East side, never crossed over it and ended up west??? Don't know how that happened! So there you have it-for the most part I think I can figure out where I'm going (and I ended up getting there), but sometimes I'm not too fast! Friday night Ryan and I went down to an "after party" hosted by one of his biggest customers. We both had our first experience in a bar-pretty exciting I tell ya! I am completely fine "missing out" on that lifestyle. So lame-o: getting checked out by creep o semi-drunk guys etc. etc. Luckily we had VIP passes so we had a private room with an open bar :) that Ryan and I fully took advantage of by each have probably 3 bottles of water and a glass of juice. It was fun dancing though! Bryan (and mostly Annie) were so nice to listen for Alli (that was the hope) in reality Annie ended up being "fortunate" enough to have a baby who wanted to be held so she got to hold Alli from 12-1:30 when Alli would finally lay back down! Saturday was great. Ryan was hoping he wouldn't be at the expo for too long, but he ended up being there a while. We ate at a great sandwich place by a really nice mall with an excellent play place. This time it was the figures were animals, but the same cool material, and there was a treehouse with a slide. Except for the 8-9 year old boys running around telling (or pushing with their feet) the cute little girls they couldn't play on things, it was a lot of fun! Saturday night there was a ward party and then Ryan went to a fight that one of his customers sponsored so they had excellent seats and yet again another after party. Ryan liked the fight, except for there was a lot of blood, and the crowd was bad in that they booed when people weren't getting their faces smashed in. I didn't love that he left for a stupid fight, but had a fun time watching "Mercy" with my brother (he's pretty amazing, I'm sure every guy who is a doctor wants to spend a Saturday night watching a medical tv show with their little sister) and hanging out eating more delicious ice cream Annie brought home for us (same amazing Jeni's ice cream). Sunday was a lot of fun. We went on a walk, went to church, and after dinner they threw Alli a "surprise" party. It was great-balloons, brownies and ice cream, presents including a BIRTHDAY hat and WAND and a littlest pet shop figure. Alli was soo happy with everything-thanks so much for doing that Annie! We played UNO (4 1/2 year old little Julia is quite the player-she won all by herself) and hung out. Monday it was so sad to say bye. We went to this cool pet store and looked at lots of animals and played with a super cool English Bulldog (sad part is she was selling for 3400.00) and a super hyper Fox Terrier. After we had lunch she totally crashed and slept on the way to the airport, through check in, while we waited for the plane, and woke up from a 2 hour nap as we sat down and took off. Go figure! She was a champ though through that 4 hour flight. Then we found a play place during our layover and she slept the entire 1 1/2 flight after that and all through the night after and she was even better on the flights out so we were really lucky with that! Alli had so much fun playing with the girls. It's gotta be boring here at home with only mom! Guess they'll just have to come visit soon!! And so to console ourselves (seriously we miss you guys lots and lots it was great playing!) we'll head out for a couple days so now we are just busy trying to get all ready again! Thanks for the fun visit!