The Phelps Family

Happy Birthday, Drew!

2011-12-27T08:11:00.000-08:00

I can't believe my baby is 2! I know it's so cliche, but the time has gone by way too fast! Since we celebrated Drew's half birthday in June, yesterday we just did cake and ice cream. Drew's favorite things in the world are balls, specifically basketballs. I made him a basketball cupcake cake. It kind of looks like a flower, but he's 2 so he didn't mind. :)

We're so grateful for Drew's amazing birthparents! Without them, we wouldn't be so blessed to have our sweet Drew. We love them so much!

Happy Birthday, Drew! We love you!!

A Move and A Vacation

2011-12-12T12:43:00.000-08:00

We've had a busy couple of months! After 4 1/2 wonderful years in Eugene, we decided to move our family back to Utah! Dan was able to transfer with work so he's now working in the Salt Lake valley. We're currently staying with my parents in Eagle Mountain until we buy a home. Although first we have to decide where we want to live. We're having so much fun being so close to family again!

We do miss Eugene like crazy though. Especially our friends. We've made the BEST friends there and hopefully we'll be able to stay friends with them forever. Luckily, with Drew's birthparents in Oregon, we'll be visiting so we'll get to see all of them!

Our good friends, the Checketts, moved from Eugene to Santa Barbara, California a few months ago and we've been so anxious to visit! We finally got the chance last week! We had SO much fun!! (Beware, there are a lot of pictures :)

We flew on JetBlue, which was awesome because they have tv's so that kept Drew occupied pretty much the whole time.

Michelle and I were so excited for Drew and Amelia to get back together and they didn't disappoint! Amelia screamed and screamed in delight and Drew just watched her (like always) with a big smile. They ran right into the house to play and picked up right where they left off! I really wish we had recorded that... :)

Our first night in Santa Barbara, we went downtown, had dinner, and walked around. Drew and Amelia still love ice cream!
Cute best friends!

We were able to be there for Michelle's birthday - Happy Birthday Michelle!! Drew loved the candles and ice cream. :)

Their park is literally on the beach. How cool is that??!! Yeah, I think I could hang out there a few times a week.

I miss you, Michelle!!

I love how much Drew and Amelia love each other!

Handsome Dan :)

Drew loves throwing things. And he throws everything. So he especially loved throwing rocks and sticks in the water. I love his little wind-up. :)

My cute boys!

Beautiful! I think I could live there....

By the way, William is the sweetest baby ever! He is so good and calm and happy! Love him!!

We went to the Santa Barbara zoo and loved it! The weather was beautiful and it wasn't crowded or too big.

Hanging out with the penguins.

Trying to swim with the penguins.

They had this really cool hill for the kids (and Dan) to slide down on cardboard. They had a blast!

So cute!

We were so sad to say good-bye to the Checketts! We hope we get to see them again soon. Thanks again, Checketts family, for letting us visit!!

We decided to take a day to go to Disneyland before we came home and I'm so glad we did! I wasn't sure how much Drew would like it, but he loved it!He loved the carousel! He wanted to go on it over and over. :)

He wanted to go on Dumbo and loved watching the water and playing with the lever that made them go up and down.

We went on the Winnie the Pooh ride and happened to see these characters at the exit. Drew said he wanted to go see them so we got in the short line. I wasn't sure what he'd do, but he totally surprised us and ran right up to Tigger and gave him a huge hug! It was so sweet. He gave him a high five and even jumped for him! It was such a great moment and the highlight of the day. :)

He also loved Pooh. I loved all the festive decor around Disneyland.

Meeting Mickey didn't go quite as well. It was during his nap time (which we skipped that day..) and we had to wait about 15 minutes so he actually got pretty mad but we were able to get this decent picture.

Drew loved the train that goes around Disneyland. He was especially excited about the bell. :)

Love all the lights!

We had so much fun on our trip! It's always nice to get home and back to normal. Except that Drew got a fever the day after we got home (I'm sure it has nothing to do with being out in the cold our last night there and not getting much sleep those last two days.....), and now that he's feeling better, he slipped and fell in the kitchen this morning. Now poor Drew has a fat lip and he must have hit his nose because he keeps pointing to it, whining, and saying "nose." Poor kid!

Sweet Moment

2011-10-16T23:45:00.000-07:00

I had a sweet moment at church today.

It was the primary program - which I love. The last song that was sung was Families Can Be Together Forever - the congregation sang with the primary. I was sitting by Dan and Drew was playing around on the bench on the other side of me. Right when the song started, Drew snuggled right up to me as we started singing. It was such a perfect moment. My eyes filled with tears and I could barely make it through the rest of the verse.

It was so wonderful to think again about how blessed I am to have my forever family. I love reflecting on the day Dan and I took Drew to the temple to be sealed to us for eternity.

I'm so grateful for sweet moments like these!

Hiking Mount Pisgah

2011-10-02T20:43:00.000-07:00

A week ago, Dan, Drew, and I hiked Mount Pisgah. We'd been told it's an easy hike. Well, let me just say that I'm not an avid hiker. The hiking I do is basically just walking, sometimes uphill a little. :) Mount Pisgah is definitely not just walking. It's all uphill. And hard. (For me, anyway.)

Poor Dan. I'm such a whiner. At one point, I said, "Can I please lay down and die?" :)

But, the view at the top was beautiful! Drew was a perfect angel. He was happy as can be in the carrier and had so much fun running around at the top.

On the way down, we took our time and ate the most delicious blackberries. They were so good! Totally made the hike worth it.

Day of Service

2011-09-22T08:08:00.000-07:00

Our stake did a day of service a week and a half ago. Our ward split up and went to three different parks to do some sprucing up. We were assigned to clean up and paint the outside of some restrooms. Drew was totally into it. He really wanted to help! The first thing we did was clean off the outside walls. Once the painting started, we took turns playing with him on the playground, far away from the painting going on. :)

It was really a neat experience and a lot of fun! Ever since that day, whenever Drew finds the brush and dustpan, he "cleans" off our walls, just like that day at the park. What a helpful boy!

Our Little Vacation

2011-09-18T17:28:00.000-07:00

(I had this post all written a couple of weeks ago. I clicked publish, nothing happened. I clicked save, nothing happened. I lost the whole post. I've been mad at Blogger ever since, which is why it's taken me a while to post this.)

A few weeks ago, Dan, Drew and I took a little vacation out to the coast and to see the Redwoods. It was so much fun! And the best part is that while it was in the high 80's at home (with no a/c, mind you), we were in 65 degree weather.

Since Dan goes out to Coos Bay (which is on the coast) overnight every other week for work, we figured we'd take advantage of the hotel room and start our vacation then. We were in Coos Bay on Wednesday night, then on Thursday we drove to Bandon and went to the West Coast Game Park. The have free roaming animals, as well as caged animals. We thought Drew would love it.

He got to pet a baby leopard, which was seriously so cute!

Here, he's petting a baby goat.

Then he noticed that all the monkeys had fun things in their cages, like balls and playsets with slides. He was not happy about not being allowed to play with them.

Here, he's sad that we wouldn't let him in the cage with the emu. We lasted 30 minutes. :)

Thursday evening, we drove down to Gold Beach. I love Gold Beach. The beaches there are beautiful. Our hotel was right on the beach and we got some fun play time in.

Friday was spent exploring the Redwoods. Drew absolutely loved this tree that he got to play in. He was covered in dirt by the time he was done. :)

We went to the Trees of Mystery. Paul Bunyon and Babe were huge! There was a man in Paul that was talking to everyone, and he was so funny!

The Redwoods are gorgeous! So tall and majestic! I'm so glad we hiked around the Trees of Mystery.

This tree is called the Family Tree because of all the little trees growing off the big, main tree. This tree was my favorite. Every time I see a family tree, I think of an adoption family tree, where the birth family are the roots of the tree, and I feel so unbelievably grateful and humbled. (See, adoption is always on my mind. :)

Dan loves this picture because Drew is "high-fiving" the tree.

We got to take a sky ride thing up to the top of a mountain and Drew loved it.

My boys. :)

Coming home to an 80 degree house is no fun and definitely called for sprinkler time at 9:00 at night! Drew was sopping wet, but had oh so much fun!

Fun Times in Utah!

2011-08-12T14:15:00.000-07:00

Drew and I took a quick trip to Utah to visit family this last week. We had so much fun! We were able to go to my sister-in-law, TaNeil's, baby shower. I was especially excited to go because it's the last shower for our family!

My brother-in-law, Todd, has been to Isreal six (I think) times in the last few years or so and put an amazing presentation together, complete with beautiful pictures and historical information. It was so interesting and so well put together! I was so happy to be able to there. Thanks, Todd!

We had such fun hanging out with family, celebrating cousin Jacob's birthday, mastering the stairs (Hooray Drew!!), playing with cousins, and keeping ourselves busy, busy, busy!

My sister, Jodi, hosted a cousin splash party at her house and was so nice to plan it around when Drew and I were there. It was so fun! Drew had the best time! He loves water so he was in heaven. I didn't take any pictures while we were out there, but

luckily my sister, Steph, took these at the party.

Hoop Dreams and Ice Cream

2011-07-22T21:27:00.000-07:00

Since Drew's birthday is the day after Christmas, we decided that this year, we'd halfway celebrate his half birthday. We gave him presents at the end of June and on his actual birthday, we'll have cake.

I really like how it turned out.

Drew loves balls. I mean, L-O-V-E-S them. Particularly basketballs and baseballs. He's an easy-going kid. Not a whole lot bothers him. But if you try to take his ball, he'll clutch it and run.

So for his half birthday, we got him a basketball hoop, a couple of basketballs, a t-ball set, and a couple other toys he plays with occasionally. :)

He's been in heaven ever since. He didn't even hesitate when he saw his gifts. He ran right over and played. (By the way, we were so lucky to have my sister, Jodi, and her kids visiting so we got to have a mini party for his half birthday! It was SO fun!)

He's dreamin' a little bit bigger these days. One day he'll get there.

Drew's two other favorite things are Amelia, his very best friend, and ice cream. Last night, he was able to have both and, boy, was he happy!

New Family Photos

2011-07-13T23:20:00.000-07:00

I know, I know. I'm a terrible blogger. I'll work on it. I promise.

We've been busy lately. We moved into a house, we've had lots of fun family visit us, we're spending lots of time outside enjoying the mild summer weather, and Drew is growing up right before our eyes.

He's 18 months old. He's running, talking (a little), babbling (a lot), playing, shooting baskets, hitting baseballs, playing in the dirt, and learning about his independance.

We're having oh so much fun!

We had Brenley take Drew's 18 month photos (as well as a few family photos) last week. They turned out wonderful again. She's brilliant.

Here are a few of my favorites.

Thanks, Brenley!! You're the best!!

Drew's Day

2011-03-27T20:52:00.000-07:00

Today has been a very special day for our family.

One year ago today, we were blessed to take Drew to the temple and be sealed to him.

I still remember that day so vividly - I hope I never forget any part of it.

I wrote about that day here.

We have been so blessed to have him in our family - he has taught us so much.

I love adoption. I love having these fun anniversaries to celebrate.

I love my forever family!

Drew's One Year Photos

2011-01-04T11:54:00.000-08:00

We are so lucky to have such a great friend that happens to be an amazing photographer. We've had Brenley take all of Drew's pictures and she was so kind as to take his 1 year pictures this last weekend. I know I posted a lot, but I just couldn't narrow it down more than this. They're all amazing!

Thank you, Brenley!

One Year!

2010-12-26T21:21:00.000-08:00

My baby turned 1 today! Actually, in about an hour, he'll officially turn 1. One year ago, I witnessed the miracle of my baby coming into this world. It's something I'll never forget. Thank you so much, Johnny and Kaitlyn! Our year has been full of fun, learning, adventures and excitement. We couldn't be happier to have Drew in our famliy. We love you, Drew! Happy Birthday!

Merry Christmas!

2010-12-25T21:16:00.000-08:00

Dan and I have been looking forward to today for a long time. I love that Drew is old enough (he turns 1 tomorrow!) to open presents and play with them for his first Christmas! I was giddy last night just thinking about him coming out of his room in the morning to his presents. And he didn't disappoint! He loves play kitchens, so we decided to get him a manly BBQ grill (I was the most excited for this gift), which he loves. He had a busy, busy day playing with new toys, running around, and hanging out with my brother and his family, who is out here visiting. I love that we get to have some family around for Christmas!!

I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas!

Am I Ready For This?

2010-11-17T20:33:00.000-08:00

Bring it.

Halloween in Utah...Kinda

2010-11-11T20:55:00.001-08:00

We decided to take a last minute trip to Utah a couple of weeks ago. We didn't decide until the day before because Drew had been sick, but he got better quickly so we drove out. Drew did so well on the drive. In Dan's words, "he was a champ!"

We drove out on Saturday (which is the day Utah celebrated Halloween) but got there much later than we planned. So we ended up dressing him up on Sunday for about 5 minutes so everyone could see his costume. I "made" a Mickey Mouse costume because he loves Mickey Mouse Clubhouse. :)

He had so much fun playing in Grandma's cupboards! Luckily there's one upstairs designated for toys.
Gavin is quite possibly the happiest baby I have ever seen! He loves people and will smile at anyone. He's thrilled when anyone's around that he can play with.

Steph was so nice to include Drew in her and Dallin's reading time. Even though Drew doesn't look like it in this picture, he loved it!

Drew LOVES dogs. He was beside himself at Steph's house playing with Abby. He followed her around and around their kitchen island, under the kitchen table, pretty much everywhere. :)

I haven't been great at taking pictures when I go to Utah lately. I used to take a million and this time I barely even pulled my camera out. At least I was able to get some fun moments!

Story Time

2010-10-07T19:06:00.001-07:00

Drew has recently developed a love for this book. We've read it about ten times today, which is fine with me because I love it too! (Don't mind my voice...I sound kinda dumb.)

One Year Ago

2010-09-22T11:03:00.000-07:00

One year ago, I had some family out to visit for a football game.

One year ago today, my mom and I went shopping.

One year ago today, while in TJMaxx, Dan and I got a call from Brent, our caseworker with LDSFS.

One year ago today, I had tears streaming down my face in the middle of the store as Brent told us that there was a couple that was considering us to adopt their baby.

One year ago today, Dan and I learned about Johnny and Kaitlyn.

One year ago today, our lives changed forever.

I saw the number on my cell phone and knew it was Brent.

I was in the middle of showing my mom a coat I wanted.

Brent said Dan was on the line too and I knew instantly that it was good news.

I remember everything so precisely.

I remember Brent's voice so clearly.

He told us about Johnny and Kaitlyn - about how there was a baby on the way, due December 24, 2009.

I remember wishing December was the next day.

I remember going into the changing room with my mom and crying as I told her.

I remember her saying "this is it."

My mom grabbed a pack of onesies to celebrate - yellow and green because we didn't know if it was a boy or girl.

I remember rushing out of TJMaxx so Dan and I could email Johnny and Kaitlyn.

And so started the whirlwind.

A whirlwind I relive in my mind all. the. time.

A whirlwind that I LOVED every second of.

This year has FLOWN by.

I love adoption.

I love Johnny and Kaitlyn.

I love that I can't even think about all of this without crying happy tears.

I can't believe Dan and I are so lucky to have Drew.

He is spunky,

he is happy,

he is smart,

he is our forever family.

Busy Day

2010-09-13T21:49:00.000-07:00

Drew had a busy, busy day today.

He worked on his look.

He rearranged the bar stools.

He feng shuied the diapers.

He recycled an old magazine.

He read some books.
He pulled himself all the way up to his feet for the first time.

And he still managed to have fun with Daddy at the end of the day...

Isn't he the sweetest boy?

Male Bonding

2010-08-28T19:35:00.001-07:00

Today was Fan Day at the Oregon Ducks' indoor training facility and I decided to take The Little Man with me for some good ol' male bonding. I didn't think it would be too crowded, but it felt like the whole town showed up. There were long lines for everything both inside and outside the building. That's okay, we love our Ducks!

Meeting The Duck. The Little Man was fascinated with him.

They gave The Little Man a duck of his own. He loves this thing!

We also got to meet head football coach Chip Kelly. He was kind enough to pose in a picture with us, but I had some stranger take it and it didn't turn out that good. Oh well. Then, The Little Man got the attention of some girls...

The ONLY reason he looks upset is because he thought there would be more cheerleaders to pose with him.

In summary: Drew high-fived the head coach and flirted with cheerleaders. It was a proud day for me.

Surprise Visit to Utah

2010-08-28T13:05:00.000-07:00

Since Dan had to go out of town for 4 days, Drew and I decided to surprise my family in Utah. I love surprises. I'm not so sure Drew does. :) I thought it would be funny to put Drew on my parent's porch in his carseat by himself. So I did that and had my sister, Steph, call my mom and ask her to come outside to help her with some stuff. So my poor mother opens the door, sees Drew, screams out of excitement (which I knew she would do because she usually does), and poor little Drew just cried and cried (which I knew he would - am I horrible for wanting the surprise at everyone's expense??). Drew recovered quickly and absolutely loves my mom. :) I had Steph record the surprise:

We were able to see one of my best friends, Angie, and her mom and sister, which was so fun!
Someone in my family cough*mom*cough took my phone and took random pictures. (I love my family!)
Gavin, Drew, and Ranen are 4 months apart. Drew was born in December, Ranen in February, and Gavin in April. So I thought it'd be fun to get a picture of them together. Gavin and Ranen cooperated. Drew just tried grabbing the other babies (poor Gavin's bracing himself), tried standing up when my mom tried holding his hands down (sorry, Mom), and tried scooting away.

We finally got a decent one with Gavin and Drew smiling. I'm not sure Ranen was thrilled about the whole idea. :)
My dad took our family to Incredible Pizza, which was so fun. Drew got to ride in this car that goes around on a track and he loved playing with the steering wheel.

Thanks, everyone, for a wonderful visit!

Separate Ways (Worlds Apart)

2010-08-21T22:03:00.000-07:00

This past weekend, I went on the young men's Super Adventure to the southern Oregon coast while Ang and Drew headed for the mountains of Utah. Hence, the name of this blog post (which is also the name of a Journey song. You know the one with the chorus that goes, "Someday, love will find you..."). Yep, that one. I'm so DAN clever.
Anyway, I joined up with them for some camping, kayaking, football on the beach, and other male bonding stuff. It was a blast!
We were so close to the Redwoods in California. I have never seen them before and we didn't have permission to take the youth out of state, so we couldn't do that for an activity. So what did I do? I left them suckas behind and went anyway. I got up early Saturday morning (while everyone else was still fast asleep) and took another adult leader with me and headed for Cali. Even though we were down in the Redwoods for roughly an hour, I'm still amazed by what I was able to see. You can't really appreciate how old and majestic these trees are until you see them in person. I recommend every one to go see these lions of the tree family. I can't wait to take my family back down there and share the experience with them!
Anyway, here are some pics (taken with the camera on my BlackBerry) from my excursion.

This tree is so huge! And it's not even the biggest one.

Me standing alongside a fallen tree. I swear I didn't do it.

Mr. Ordway and I had a fun time.

I wonder if Chuck Norris had a hand in knocking this one down.

This tree is ready for it's close up.

The Smith River located in Jedediah Smith Redwood State Park. The tall, dark and handsome trees on the right are Redwoods.

These things are so tall! In other words, not only are they big, but they are BIG.

As we were all headed back to Eugene, we stopped at a "secret beach" that Gavin showed us along Hwy 101. For some reason, this beach reminded me of The Goonies. Maybe it was the rocks, the beach, the youth running around, or the fact that it was filmed in Oregon.

"Goonies never say die!" (and neither do Redwood trees)

He's Mobile!

2010-08-03T11:34:00.000-07:00

Drew's mobile! He's been rolling over for a few months now, but he's finally figured out how to get places by rolling over and over. He's fast too! As soon as we lay him down, he'll flip over and get goin'. Guess it's time to baby proof!

He loves the XBox. I'm not surprised. Knowing his Daddy and birthfather, that one's a given. :) He rolls up to the entertainment center and plays with it. Luckily he hasn't figured out how to push the buttons.

But he has figured out how to do this:

Which means it's time to get locks for the doors. We don't want any smashed fingers! (Sorry, Amelia!!) But him being mobile also means this:

Poor boy! This picture makes me so sad. I'm sure there will be more of this when he starts crawling, pulling himself up and trying to walk in the months to come. Sigh.

Trip to Florence...Oregon

2010-07-12T21:33:00.001-07:00

'Sup my bloggas? It's been a while. Glad to be back. ...Okay, now on to the fun stuff.
Since we've been having some hot weather lately, the Mrs., the little man and I decided to head to the coast and cool off. Yep, Drew had a say in the decision making process. Here's the equation he came up with:

95 degree weather + no air conditioning = trip to the coast

I'm telling you, he's a freakin' genius. I think the Baby Einstein videos are rubbing off on him.
We headed straight west to Florence and went to the beach at the awesome Heceta Head Lighthouse. It was 60 degrees and cloudy on the beach and we had to wear our light jackets. How many places can you get weather like that in the summer? We loved it!
Afterward, we walked around old town and got ice cream at BJ's. If you remember the movie "Big" with Tom Hanks, you'll remember the teenage version of his character makes the life-changing wish at a Zoltar machine. I'm happy to say that BJ's has such a fortune telling machine. Did I make a wish at it? No way. I saw what it did to Josh Baskin.
Here are some pics from our fun trip:

Our family.

Nothin' but love for the little man.

This picture has a deeper meaning, I'm sure.

Playing in the sand for the first time. He loved it!

At old town in Florence.

KJ at the Zoltar machine. Be careful what you wish for.

Drew has a way with the ladies.

Owen has a way with the sand.

This will make a good blackmail picture when he's older.

The Latest

2010-07-04T22:19:00.000-07:00

We've been pretty busy the last little while. Drew's getting so big and learning so many new things - it's been so much fun! We got Drew's 6 month pictures taken by Brenley and she was kind enough to snap a few family pictures as well. They turned out AMAZING!!

We started Drew on baby food when he turned 6 months. He's been doing really well and L O V E S it!!

With one exception. He HATES peas! We've only tried them twice so we'll give it a few more tries. He'll take two bites and then refuse to eat anything else after that except a bottle. :)

We had a fun 4th of July (well, 3rd of July). The boys were festive in their holiday gear.

We met with Johnny and Kaitlyn to celebrate Birthfather's Day (a little late because we were out of town) and Johnny's birthday. It was fun to see them again! I love this picture of Johnny holding Drew.

We had a BBQ that night with some friends and did some small fireworks, which Drew really liked. He'd wave his arms around and stare at them. :)

I love our little family! We're having the best time!!

Birthfather's Day

2010-06-19T19:38:00.001-07:00

Last month we celebrated Birthmother's Day. I'm still not sure if there's really such a thing as Birthfather's Day, but in our house there is! The day before Father's Day is now officially Birthfather's Day.

Isn't this the sweetest picture of Johnny with Drew? Makes me cry.

Happy Birthfather's Day, Johnny! Thank you for all you've done for us. We're so grateful for you and we love you!

Happenings

2010-06-12T10:02:00.001-07:00

I've been terrible at blogging lately. I don't have a ton of free time and that time usually goes to other things. So here's what we've been up to lately.

Drew has started rice cereal. He L O V E S it! He's been ready for awhile, but I waited until he was 5 months. He now has cereal twice a day and makes the biggest mess! It's one of my favorite things. He loves drinking out of cups, which also usually makes a mess, but it's the funniest thing!

We took Drew to the park and put him on the swings for the first time. He loved it at first and then got bored. :)

I went to get Drew up in the morning and he was laying like this in his crib. He moves all over when he's sleeping. He'll usually make at least one full circle every night. It's fun to see where he is whenever I check on him. One morning, he woke up like this and I had to laugh because I may or may not have slept like this (sideways, taking up most of the bed) growing up. I think my sister, Steph, would have a few things to say about it...

We finally got Drew a saucer (I don't know what they're really called now). I'd been anxious because I knew he'd love it, which he does. His favorite thing is the bird - he spends most of his time in there trying to eat it. He gets frustrated because it spins so sometimes it's hard for him to grab it.

This was on Memorial Day. Shortly after this picture, I took the shirt off because it's still a little too big - hopefully it'll fit for the 4th of July! Drew is so happy, so good-natured, so content. We're having so much fun with him!!

Just Because

2010-06-01T08:20:00.001-07:00

Happy Birthmother's Day!

2010-05-08T23:09:00.000-07:00

I found out a few days ago from this website that I visit often that today is Birthmother's Day! I didn't know there was even such a thing. I was already planning on celebrating Kaitlyn on Mother's Day, but I LOVE that there's a Birthmother's Day! (We'll celebrate her tomorrow too!) Birthmothers (and birthfathers) definately deserve their own day.

Johnny and Kaitlyn were so awesome and arranged their schedules to meet up with us today so we could give Kaitlyn a little gift and spend time with them. Oh how I love those two!

I LOVE this picture of Kaitlyn and Drew! So sweet! Thank you, Johnny and Kaitlyn, for EVERYTHING!! We love you and are so grateful for you both! I wonder if there's an official Birthfather's Day...if not, I'm starting one!

Happy Drew

2010-04-16T11:31:00.001-07:00

I'm so blessed. I get to wake up to this every morning:

And this is how he wakes up from most every nap too. :)

Drew's Blessing

2010-04-14T15:25:00.001-07:00

We were able to bless Drew this last Sunday! We had some family come out for it. It was such a fun weekend and a special special Sunday. Dan gave Drew a beautiful blessing!

Drew in his blessing outfit - thanks, Mom!

Drew's church outfit

A very happy boy to just be able to play on the ground

Thank you to our family and friends that made this such a great weekend!!

Who Needs Naps?

2010-03-22T11:41:00.000-07:00

Yesterday, Drew took two 30 minute naps. Sundays are hard. We left church early in the hopes that he would take a good nap. On Saturday he didn't nap well because we went to a baseball game, so he was really in need of a good nap. After trying for an hour, he still wouldn't go to sleep. So I finally got him out of his crib and was able to get him to fall asleep on my lap in the recliner. He slept for 5 minutes. I was feeling exhausted. I looked down into his face and saw this:

He's too sweet for his own good. :) Have I mentioned how much I LOVE being a mom??

St. Patrick's Day

2010-03-17T10:13:00.000-07:00

We're a little festive for St. Patrick's Day today!

This was right before his nap - he's pretty tired :)

LOVE Trader Joe's for having Shamrocks!

I copied this from my friend Kristin.

To Tide You Over

2010-03-10T20:01:00.000-08:00

I know, I know, I need to be better at blogging. I've taken some pictures of Drew lately, but I just don't have it in me tonight to put them on the computer and post them. So until then...

I took this picture yesterday with my phone (I really need to keep my camera handy...) and I just keep looking at it over and over because he's just so happy and so sweet! He's growing up so fast. Oh how I just adore my little man!

All Smiles

2010-02-24T14:09:00.000-08:00

I've been horrible at blogging. Thanks, Brenley, for getting on my case. :) Drew will be TWO months old on Friday!! I can't belive how big he's getting. I wish time would slow down. He's changing SO fast! His hair's starting to grow back in. He lost most of it from the top - not the back or sides. So cute! He is so much fun. He's so happy and smiley! It's pretty easy to get him to smile, which I absolutely LOVE. He doesn't love to snuggle as much as he used to, unless he's tired - but not too tired, then it just makes him mad, any type of consoling does. :) He now prefers to sit on my lap and lean into my arm looking at everything around him.

My hardest thing is that he's decided catnapping is more fun than taking good, long, productive naps. We're working on that. Right now, he's starting to stir after being asleep for 3 1/2 hours. This morning, he slept for 30 minutes. No wonder he's so tired. I'm trying to teach him to take good naps by letting him fuss. I H A T E it. I'm horrible at letting him fuss. Anytime he makes any noise, I check on him to see if he's okay or if he just wants to get up and hang out. :) But I'm learning. We'll get there.

I still absolutely LOVE being a mom! It's so much better and so much more fun than I ever thought it would be. I love that my life revolves around him and Dan. And I love that we're our little family. It makes me so happy.

Here are some pictures we've taken the last couple of weeks. A couple are from my phone - it was closer than the camera. :)

Sad Day

2010-02-05T19:51:00.000-08:00

Yesterday was a sad day for me. My brother, Rob, and his cute family, Kristi, Aaron, and Bryan, moved back to Utah from Oregon. It was SO much fun having them so close! Dan and I got to know their boys really well, which was awesome. We spent a lot of fun time with their family and we're so sad to see them go. BUT I'm so so excited for them! Rob will be doing a job that he'll LOVE and he'll get to work days, which is so great. We'll miss them so much, but I know they'll do so well. Utah is so lucky!! We love you guys!!

First Bath

2010-01-24T14:38:00.000-08:00

Last Tuesday, Dan and I gave Drew his first real bath! It was so much fun!! Drew did really well. At first he didn't seem to care for it too much, but then got in the groove of things and seemed to like it. By the end though, he was done. :) He loves to have his hair washed and brushed. In fact, when we were just doing sponge baths, I think he could tell when it was time to do it because he'd always get so calm but he'd have this excited mood about him. One of my very favorite things is to wash and brush his hair because he loves it so much.

Today I gave him a bath and when I started brushing his hair after, he made an "ahhhh" noise. It was so sweet!! Here are some pictures of his first bath from last week.

And the finished product with his hair all nice and neat. :)

In your face!

2010-01-19T19:45:00.001-08:00

I love this picture of the little man. He looks angry, but he was just getting excitement out of staring at the couch.

Now I Get It

2010-01-19T17:34:00.000-08:00

Before Ang and I became parents, I wondered why most people with children always blogged about their kids and nothing else. After being a dad for almost four weeks, I'm beginning to see why. From my experience thus far, my son has joyfully consumed our lives. Everything he does is of interest to us. We'd rather watch him lay around and do nothing than watch TV. His existence alone makes the rest of the world seem less exciting.

I've come to learn that my child makes me feel life is more worthwhile simply because he is in it.

Alright, enough of the mushy stuff. Here are some pictures of our little man.

Just chillin'.

The little man was happy last night (but he looks like he's being controlled like one of those marionette puppets in this picture).

Drew sure loves to cuddle close to his mommy.

...and he doesn't mind sleeping on daddy, either.

Busy, Busy, Busy

2010-01-10T21:04:00.000-08:00

I haven't been good at blogging lately...I know there are things I need to blog about. But being a mom is BUSY! But I'm absolutely loving every single second of it!! Until I can find the time, hopefully this picture of Drew will suffice. :)

Snuggler

2010-01-03T11:21:00.000-08:00

One thing that I absolutely LOVE about Drew is that he is such a snuggler! He loves to snuggle into my chest and just look around or look at me. He looks so intently like he's trying to figure everything out or trying to tell me something. I took this picture with my phone so the quality is really bad, but wouldn't you just love to have this sweet face looking up at you??

Announcement....

2009-12-27T23:38:00.000-08:00

On our other blog. :) www.ourpathtoadoption.blogspot.com!

Flu Shots

2009-12-14T22:08:00.000-08:00

Angie and I have been busy the last few weeks, which is always a good time. We've mainly been caught up in preparations for the baby we are excited to adopt in a few weeks. The process has been going very well and you can keep up with that on our other blog: http://www.ourpathtoadoption.blogspot.com/.

As part of the preparations, we went to an urgent care facility to get our H1N1 vaccines. We feel this is a good thing to do since we are going to be parents soon. Anyway, I had a dork moment that I don't mind sharing. As I was sitting in the chair ready to receive my shot in the shoulder, I couldn't help but think of that song called "Hearts on Fire" in Rocky IV when the training montage is going on and Ivan Drago receives his steroid injection. I was tempted to stand up from out of my chair, raise my arms in the air and yell, "Dragooooo!" like Rocky does when he climbs to the top of that mountain. Does anybody else know what I'm talking about or am I a bigger dork than I thought?

I must mention that Ang was braver at this than I thought. I came out wimpering a little and she was rock solid. If anyone asks, I'll say it was the other way around.

Anyway, here's the YouTube clip in case you forgot: www.youtube.com/watch?v=yPbLzu83Ato&NR=1&feature=fvwp

The injection is at 1:57 and the part where he yells, "Dragooooo!" is at the end of the clip. I think this clip is dubbed in either Spanish or Japanese. I'm leaning toward Spanish.

Intervention

2009-11-23T19:48:00.000-08:00

On Friday night, some girls and I went to New Moon. A few of the husbands and kids came over to our place to hang out with Dan while we were gone. Big mistake. We came home to this:

Yep. They held an intervention. They even wrote letters to each of us and read them out loud. Apparently just because we wish they were sparkly, or because we call them Mr. Ab-tastic, or because we read and reread the books and watch the movies over and over, they think we're obsessed. Whatever. Here we are listening to the men try to convey their heartbreak over it (I look like such a dork - what am I doing??):

Here's Dan getting some support while reading my letter:

Dan even found a shirt that I made and tried to hide from him. The front says "Edward sucks..." and the back says "...on my neck."

. . .

Actually, none of the obsession is true. We do like the books and movies, but only a normal amount. This was one of the funniest things I've ever seen. Watching them trying to be so serious about the whole thing was classic. Oh, and as a side note, I didn't make that shirt - Dan did, but it's awesome. I so love all these people - they are so great! It's because of them (and R&K) and all of our friends here that I love living here so much! And aren't I so lucky to be married to someone that would be so cool to put this together?? We have so much fun!!

Utah

2009-11-23T18:53:00.000-08:00

I was able to go to Utah a couple of weeks ago. I had so much fun! It had been a little while since I had been there - okay, only since July, but who's keeping track? Anyway, it was my neice, Rachel's, birthday so I actually didn't tell her I was coming at all and surprised her. Jodi's family picked me up from the airport on her birthday and kept her totally oblivious the whole ride. She didn't even realize they were at the airport until they opened the door and I was standing there. Oh how I love surprises! I took a video of it of course. :)

Yes, at the end, Tysen says "Hi Jenny!" It took a few days of me reminding him that my name is Ang and not Jenny, but he's got it now. It was such a fun week - Disney On Ice: Princess Classics (I LOVE Disney On Ice - sometimes I forget how much), Jump On It! (this really cool place filled with tons of trampolines all connected to each other), November Potluck (for celebrating the November birthdays), lots of family time, time to see friends, and much more that I can't think of right now. Anyway, I took a lot of pictures (I can't help it - I have too many cute people in my life that I love), so I had to put them in a slideshow again. Enjoy!

Gameday

2009-11-03T21:08:00.000-08:00

I had an awesome Halloween and it didn't have anything to do with costumes, candy or those scary Scooby-Doo shows but it had everything to do with college football.

ESPN's weekly TV show College Gameday came to Eugene for a live broadcast (because of the Oregon-USC game) and a co-worker and I were lucky enough to score a pair of VIP passes through our employer. These passes enabled us to hang out "backstage" and do such things as watch the broadcast from behind the cameras, meet The Duck (as seen in the pic above), eat whatever food we wanted, wander around, get on the Gameday bus, and most importantly, go on the set and meet the Gameday crew. I had such a great time! It was fun to do all of this and experience the energy of the crowd that gathered for the 7 a.m. broadcast. There were so many creative and wacky signs that people were waving in the audience. It was thrilling to be a part of it.

The crowd was rowdy even before sunrise

The Gameday crew doing their thing

On the Gameday set with Desmond, Kirk, and some random guy

Later that evening, I was fortunate to attend the Oregon-USC game. I had a feeling it was going to be a good game, but I was wrong. It was a freakin' awesome game! The Ducks destroyed the Trojans 47-20! To put some perspective into this, it was the worse loss USC has had this decade. Being the Ducks fan that I am, it was the best regular season college football game I've ever been to.

This Halloween was one of the best experiences of my life (so far). What a day!

Good times at Autzen Stadium! (I love this pic)

I need to mention that Angie was such a great wife to wake up at 5:30 a.m., make breakfast for my co-worker and I, then drop us off at the stadium for College Gameday (as well as pick us up). All of this she volunteered to do without me asking. Thank you so much, Ang! I love you!

Autumn

2009-10-17T22:20:00.000-07:00

I absolutely LOVE this time of year! I love autumn. I love the colors. We have the most amazing colors in Oregon! And I love the smell! Yesterday, Dan and I were driving with the windows down out by the coast, and I could smell the trees and they smelled SO good. I love the decorations, the hoodies, the hot chocolate, the pumpkins, everything!

Dan and me on a hayride to a pumpkin patch

At a park that we love to walk through

I love this

See what I mean about the colors?

I must admit, these last three pictures were from a couple of years ago. I haven't been as good at taking pictures this fall. I wish everyone could see Oregon in the fall!

Thoughtful Dan

2009-10-06T21:49:00.000-07:00

Tonight when Dan got home from work, he called me on the phone to ask if I could help him carry his work backpack in since he doesn't have his cane anymore (that's a whole new post...) and needed help carrying it. I thought that sounded a little strange, but I went to help him and sitting in the trunk of his car was this!!!

I was so excited!! He got it for me as a "thank you" for helping him out the last few months while he's been recovering. Which really hasn't been a big deal to me - he would've done the same for me, plus some. But let's not tell him that...I'm just excited that he got this for me!

A few weeks ago, I went to my friend Michelle's house and we made baby blankets...okay, she made a baby blanket. My job was to take one piece of fabric and sew the edges in a straight line. Hers turned out beautiful. Mine...well, mine is a piece of fabric with crooked lines on it. But I love the blankets I made. :) And ever since then, I've been dying to get a sewing machine so I could learn to do all these cool things with it!! So we went to the store and I bought some stuff. We'll see how it all turns out.

Ducks games

2009-10-01T18:04:00.000-07:00

Last Saturday, I was fortunate enough to score a pair of tickets to the Oregon-Cal game right before kickoff! I love going to Ducks games, so my excitement level of getting tickets to this game was comparable to that a little kid getting a puppy for Christmas.
I was going to take Ang with me, but it worked out better for me to take my home boy Blake, instead. The seats were in the student section and we got there a few minutes late, so it was obvious that we would have to stand the whole time (if we were lucky enough to find the space). I have progressed enough in my physical therapy to where I can now walk with a cane (and feel much older in the process), but I still can't stand longer than 15 minutes at a time. Thanks to Blake's smooth skills, we were able to convince security to let us sit in the "patio" at the top of the student section, which is reserved for people with disabilities. We had plenty of space, actual seats to sit in, and no one blocking our view in front of us. Perfect seats!
{Blake and I in our "box" seats}

Possibly one of the most exciting football games I've ever attended. The Ducks destroyed #6 Cal by a score of 42-3! Go Ducks!
{The Ducks in action}

{The Duck was crowd surfing all the way up the stands}

I got quite the sunburn from being at this game. Oh well, it was worth it!

Family Visit

2009-09-29T19:29:00.001-07:00

We were lucky enough to have some of my family visit recently. They came up for the Oregon-Utah game. They all had a great time at the game (okay...maybe not the Utah fans - which is everyone but Dan) and my mom and I had so much fun watching all the kids! It was a little crazy, but they're just so dang cute and funny that we had a great time. And then we rewarded ourselves with dinner and a movie. :) The rest of the trip was full of relaxing, shopping, and just having a good time being together. I'm so blessed to have such a great family!!

{These kids sure do love their grandma!}
{Isn't Annalee adorable??}

{The boys loved watching Cars!}

{Tanner is so sweet!}

{I just adore Aaron}

{Looks like someone found some stickers...}

Beatlemania (sorta)!

2009-09-15T21:08:00.001-07:00

Last week, Angie and I bought the new Beatles Rockband game. I obviously know who the Beatles are and have heard some of their songs, but I was never a fan. After playing this game the first night, I'm a fan now! I didn't realize how good their music was. I'm addicted to this game and can't play anything else. I find myself waking up in the morning and sneaking over to the XBox to play a song or two before I start my day. I usually do this while Ang is getting ready because I don't want her to think I'm obsessed with this game. I guess the secret's out now. :)
Anyway, I give this game a giant thumbs up! Here are pictures of other people who give their stamp of approval:

'nuff said.

Doughnuts!

2009-09-08T21:39:00.000-07:00

In honor of Labor Day, Angie and I decided to celebrate by making other people work. We drove up to Portland with the main goal to shop for some baby stuff. After picking up some baby items, we decided to check out this doughnut place in downtown called VooDoo Doughnut that was featured on the Travel Channel TV show "Man v Food" (which has become one of my favorite shows to watch).
They have some strange concoctions as you may tell from the picture below.
(yes, some of these doughnuts have Cap'n Crunchberries, Froot Loops, and M&M's on them)
The only thing I wanted to try was the maple bar with bacon on top of it. I know it sounds like an odd combination, but lets get one thing straight: bacon is awesome. Bacon will make anything taste better. And since I don't like maple bars, I thought I'd put my theory to the test.
And guess what? I loved it! There's something about the fusion of the doughnut, maple topping and bacon on the tastebuds that reminds me of pancakes and bacon for breakfast. Ang took a few bites of it and she agrees. Our second favorite was the glazed doughnut with chocolate frosting, rice crispies, and a drizzling of peanut butter. We don't typically eat doughnuts, but these were definitely worth it. They were even worth waiting in line for, which spilled out onto the sidewalk (even at 3:00 in the afternoon).
Good times...

...but not for this guy.

Adieu, boot

2009-08-31T20:42:00.000-07:00

I realize I've done a crappy job of updating this blog, especially since my ATV accident. It's not like I have much else to do other than sit around waiting for time to heal this thing. So to update you, here's a timeline of what has gone down:
July 15th: being a little too awesome for my own good, I wreck Todd's ATV and my right ankle. Receive a splint and percocet (yippie!) to heal myself with.
July 25th: Happy birthday, me.
July 29th: Ditch the splint and get a boot. Stitches come out. Wounds on ankle still make me want to throw up when I look at them. Also, I've noticed that my right calf muscle has shrunk quite a bit. Crazy how small it can get after a couple of weeks of not using it.
August 4th: Current boot is painful to wear because ankle is still the size of a cantaloupe. Get prescription for cooler, storm trooper-looking boot instead (see picture at the top of this post).
August 20th-ish: I challenge Tegan, the 10 month-old girl that Angie tends sometimes, to a race to see who can start walking first (without help). I win.
August 26th: Start physical therapy. The phys. therapist I go to is very strict, but is proven to get results. Tells me to, among other things, stop walking on my own. The race with Tegan resumes.
August 31st: The phys. therapist tells me to get rid of the stinkin' boot. I happily oblige. Also gives me more painful exercises to do. Hooray.

Me happy to be doing physical therapy. You can't tell the size difference in my calves in this pic, so don't even dare to compare. Come see fo' yo'self, homies.

Oh, and the ankle has reduced in size from cantaloupe to grapefruit. You may be able to get a better look with this closeup.

Notice how I can barely fit my foot in my right shoe (btw, I got new shoes because the old ones got messed up in the accident. Hooray for new kicks!).
Still a ways to go, as I'm told it may be another couple of months before I can get the ankle/foot back to being somewhat normal. And with all of the daily exercises included in my rehab, it will take another six months for my right calf muscle to match the size of the left. Can you believe that? Its crazy how it only takes two weeks for the strength to go away, but requires half a year to gain it back. And that, in a nutshell, is how I'm recovering.
I shouldn't be whining. I'm thankful that the wreck wasn't much worse. I'm grateful I got a concussion instead of permanent brain damage. I'm also grateful that I broke my ankle in a way that didn't require surgery. Most of all, I'm grateful for an amazing wife who has stood by me and taken care of me through all of this. I know it's not easy on her to have to tend to my every need, but she does it without even complaining. She continues to be an excellent example of what true love and dedication are all about. Thanks, hot stuff!

Utah in July

2009-08-11T14:00:00.000-07:00

I know I'm posting about this way late, but we've been a little crazy working out life with a broken ankle. :) We had so much fun in Utah last month. We were planning on only staying a week, but ended up staying just over two weeks. We had a busy time in Utah the first week and after Dan's accident, ended up mainly just hanging out at my sister, Steph's, house.

We went boating at Yuba Lake and had a great time! I really wanted to learn to wakeboard and had never done it so I tried and it didn't go over very well...I only got in the water once to try it and only tried getting up three times, so considering that, I think I did pretty well. My hardest thing was that I kept flipping over onto my stomach and those wakeboards are freakin' heavy!! I had the hardest time flipping it around. My brother, Jon, had to swim out a couple time and do it for me...Eventually I was able to do it and everyone cheered, so I was fine not being able to get all the way up. Dan learned how to knee board and we all had a turn on "The Animal" or accoring to Rachel, "The Pencil".

We had a great time 4 wheeling. Since I already talked about this in pretty good detail, I'll skip it in this post, except for a couple more pictures. :)

My youngest brother, Jamie, and his fiance, TaNeil, got married in the Draper temple. It was such a great day! The temple is beautiful, her family is so great, and Dan made it through the whole day on his crutches fabulously, and we all had so much fun! I absolutely adore TaNeil and am so excited to have her as a new part of our family.

We were out there for the 24th of July, which was really fun since we of course don't celebrate that here in Oregon. We had a party at Steph's house, complete with a BBQ, fireworks and "boxes" that my mom made. The "boxes" were going to be handcarts, but as my mom was sticking the graham crackers together with the hot sugar, she burned her fingers. So they ended up being "boxes" but I loved them! I thought they were so cute!

We had such a great time with friends and family! We ended up driving up to Boise to stay for the night on Dan's birthday. We wanted to split the drive to two days so Dan wouldn't have to sit in the car for that long straight. We stayed with our friends, Bryce and Lindy (thanks again!!), and had so much fun with them. I felt bad that Dan had to be travelling on his birthday, but he ended up getting 4 (I think) birthday cakes, so I think that more than made up for it. :)

We came home to a really fun surprise! My cute sister-in-law, Kristi, and her boys came to our house while we were gone and put up decorations for Dan's birthday! There were streamers EVERYWHERE and balloons and crows and medals and everything! It was awesome!!

I took a ton of pictures....I tried to condense, but I still ended up with quite a few on here. Surprise, surprise. They're out of order, but I've spent so much time putting them on the computer that I don't really want to take more time to fix it. :) All in all, it was such a great trip, but we're happy being back in our own home and back to regular (kind of...) life!

4 Wheeling

2009-07-16T13:24:00.000-07:00

Dan and I have been in Utah this week and have had tons of fun...up until yesterday at about noon. We went 4 wheeling with Todd, Steph, and Dallin and Dan ended up rolling (we think - no one saw it) his 4 wheeler. Yesterday was a scary day for us, but he's doing much better today. I wrote in pretty good detail what happened and posted it on my family forum, so I'm just copying and pasting it on here. I was tired and kind of out of it when I wrote it, so I hope it makes sense. :)

We were finished 4wheeling and Todd and Dan decided to go back out for a couple minutes. Todd came back by himself and we waited for a few minutes waiting for Dan. When he never came back (after about 5 mins), Todd went looking for him. About 5 minutes later, they both came driving back on their own 4wheelers really slowly. Todd pulled ahead of Dan and told us that he wrecked and was hurt. I pulled off his goggles and helmet, but it didn't look like anything was too bad, but he said his ankle hurt. It looked really bad and some tissue (I think that's what it was) was sticking out of it. So Todd poured water over it and wrapped his shirt around it. We got him into the front seat of the truck laying down while Todd got the 4wheelers back on the trailer (so fast, I don't know how he did it...). I tried to keep Dan talking but he kept talking in circles - asking the same questions, and not remembering anything that was going on. He couldn't remember the 4th of July, my birthday, our anniversary, etc. This was the point when I really started freaking out. Although, he knew his birthday, name, etc. (This point reminded me of 10 Second Tom (or whatever) from 50 First Dates where there was a conversation going on and then he'd start over with the same questions.)

Dan still doesn't remember what exactly happened. He remembers taking a turn a little too fast, fishtailing, thinking "oh crap", falling, and then nothing else until being in the truck and that's still a little hazy. We're thinking he fell off and the 4wheeler rolled because it's banged up pretty good.

Todd gave him a blessing (THANK GOODNESS he thought of doing that) and we started down the mountain with no phone service. After 5 or 10 mins, we finally got coverage and Todd called 911 and had an ambulance meet us at a gas station in Stockton. They took him into the hospital and ran tests. By this time, he was finally remembering things - not everything, but enough that I was able to calm down quite a bit. He has a fractured ankle (he also has a hole in his ankle that they had to stitch up, probably from the break pedal that sticks out), and bruised rib or liver or something around there, but his CT scan came back normal, so his head and neck are fine considering he had a concussion. He's scraped up pretty good and has some road rash or whatever that's called. But he'll be fine. He's got some bandages on and a splint on his leg (we need to go to another dr next week to get a cast put on) and he's in quite a bit of pain, but he'll be just fine in no time.

We had a great time 4 wheeling - in fact, Dan keeps saying how much fun he had. My mom and sister took some pictures while we were at the hospital, but I won't post those because some of them are pretty gross. :)

Dan lookin' pretty cool driving through a creek.

Dan at the top of the mountain.

My mom thinks we look like astronauts in this picture.

Us practicing our synchronized 4 wheeling.

Dan driving back after his accident - he doesn't remember this at all.

Dan getting cleaned off and stitched up.

Poor Dan all bandaged up.

We'll post more pictures and more about our trip after we get home, which we're actually not sure when that will be now. :) We may end up staying out here longer and going to a doctor here. We're not sure yet.

Get better soon, Dan!

St. Louis and Silver Falls

2009-07-04T17:08:00.000-07:00

About a month ago, Angie and I went back to St. Louis to visit my family. We were only there for the weekend, so we had a lot to do in a short amount of time. We spent some quality time with my family, Ang and I went to a Cardinals game (of course), ate at our favorite places, and saw some old friends.
It was good to see my niece. She looks exactly like her mom! I had the priviledge of blessing her at church. I can't wait until I get to do the same thing for my own child! I also enjoyed the time spent with my family. My sister and her spouse flew in from San Francisco, so all of us were gathered together as a family for the first time.

As some of you may know, my stepmom was involved in a serious automobile accident last September and when I last saw her (later that month), she was laid up in a hospital bed full of machines and tubes hooked up to her. I'm happy to say that she is doing a lot better now! I knew she had made great strides since then (such as re-learning how to walk, speak, etc.) but it was good to visit with her and see the progress for myself. If you met her today, you couldn't even tell that she was hit by a semi-truck on the freeway. Amazing.

We didn't take many pictures on this trip, but here are some of the highlights (I took some random pictures with my phone and uploaded them to Facebook, so you can catch them there under the "Mobile Uploads" folder):

Angie and I chillin' at Busch Stadium (aka-my Graceland)

They even have fireworks, too! (at least when the Cards hit a home run)

Ordering out of the back window at the White Castle drive thru...because that's how we roll when we're in St. Louis!

Me doing my best impression of Buddy the elf on the escalator.

Me and my niece. See, she's already looking up to me (well, up at me, at least)!

How about this: Judas Priest and Whitesnake performing at the FAMILY Arena? Really?

And speaking of trips from a month ago, Ang and I went with our friends Blake and Kristin to Silver Falls State Park at the end of May and had a great time! We chose to do the five mile hike around the park and we saw a total of seven waterfalls. It was amazing to see all of these beautiful waterfalls and their plush, green surroundings. Blake was told by one of the park rangers that he should be fine to walk the trail with a stroller (instead of using that baby backpack thing they have). After helping Blake carry the stroller up and down many steps on some winding paths, I came to the conclusion that the park ranger must not have any children. Anyway, we had a memorable time and went on a beautiful day!

Us at one of the falls.

One of the falls.

Come to think of it, couldn't this post have been broken up into two? Yes, it could've. Just consider it a "packaged deal" of rewards for you, the reader, in response for the lack of postings lately.

Oh, and one more thing...

IN YOUR FACE!

Happy Birthday Angie!

2009-06-28T08:58:00.000-07:00

Today is a special day in this household because my awesome wife is celebrating her birthday! Angie is beyond great. She makes my life worthwhile and I wouldn't be the man I am without her by my side. Thanks for sharing your life with me, Ang! Happy birthday! I love you!

5 Years and Still Goin' Strong

2009-06-03T10:32:00.000-07:00

Today marks 5 years that Dan and I have been married! I still can't believe it's been that long - it's flown by! We've had so much fun and have really grown strong together. I couldn't have asked for a better husband for me. He knows just how to handle all of my craziness. He loves me for who I am and I'm so grateful for him!! I was just going to post a few pictures of us, but as I got looking, I liked too many to just do a few...surprise, surprise. :) Thanks for all you do, Dan! I love you!!

Utah...Again

2009-05-24T20:38:00.000-07:00

I went to Utah...again. It's a good thing I'm married to such a cool man. He's so awesome to let me go to Utah this often. I went with my brother, Rob, his wife, Kristi, and their two boys. I was actually going to cancel this trip since I went in March and will be going again in July for my youngest brother, Jamie's, wedding. But I really wanted to be a part of the wedding process and his fiance, TaNeil, was having a shower with my family that weekend, so...I just shortened my trip instead. I had so much fun - as I always do with my family. There was so much going on - it really was a great weekend to go. Although, I must say it is nice to be home and relax after having two really fun back-to-back trips in one week.

{Will and Kyanna at Will's soccer game}

{TaNeil's Shower}

{Tanner at the potluck}

{Rachel and Tysen}

{Singing Happy Birthday to all the May Birthdays}

{Still Singing...}

{Celebrating Mother's Day a week late}

{Rachel and Dallin playing outside}

Looks like I've been slacking on the pictures - normally when I go anywhere, it seems like I take a million pictures, but not this time. Guess I better step up my game.

Seattle Trippin'

2009-05-14T22:04:00.000-07:00

Earlier this week, Ang and I ventured northward to Seattle with our friends Tom and Tara and their daughter, Jessie. Tom recently finished law school and decided that Seattle was the magical place for him to unwind. We stayed in a hotel downtown and were able to explore most of the city on foot. We went to the Space Needle, the Experience Music Project, Pike Place, Westlake Center, the aquarium, and went on a bay cruise.
My favorite place was the Experience Music Project, which features (among a variety of artifacts) some original guitars played (and smashed and burned on stage) by Jimi Hendrix, Nirvana's demo tapes and instruments, and a pretty nifty collage of guitars. They even had a hands-on music area where you could play all sorts of instruments, have jam sessions in music studios, and even rock the turntables! Here are some pics from the trip.

We had a most triumphant time! (yes, that was a Bill & Ted reference)

Hancey's Visit

2009-04-20T16:08:00.000-07:00

My sister, Jodi, and her kids Braden(11, almost 12), Rachel (6), and Tysen (16 months) came to visit us a couple weeks ago and we had so much fun! I was so sad to see them leave. It was Braden's first time in Oregon, so we had fun showing him around. John wasn't going to come, but decided on Sunday morning to fly out later that morning, so he told Dan and I and we had to keep it a secret until later that afternoon when he showed up. I told Braden and Rachel to go outside (Jodi and Tysen were napping - I tried to do a video of Jodi's reaction but it was too dark in the room and she was whispering so Tysen wouldn't wake up) and I was just pointing the camera at them without saying anything so I could get their reaction. Braden kept looking at me like I was nuts and Rachel just looks like she's happy to have a camera pointed at her.

We went to the coast (which was cold and rainy, but still fun) and to the aquarium with Rob, Kristi, and the boys. We had Easter Dinner at our place and it wasn't until I was in the middle of cooking that I realized I had never hosted a major holiday dinner for more than Dan and I. After I panicked a little bit, I got over it and we had a great time! John was supposed to go home early Monday morning, but we all talked him into staying until Tuesday morning. Yea, us!! Jodi and I went baby shopping!!! I posted about this on our adoption blog, but I'll talk about it again here because it was just that much fun! We didn't get a ton of stuff, just enough to get going. It was so much fun once I calmed down and accepted that, yes, this stuff is for US. :)

Here are some of the pictures I took while they were here.

We had such a great time with them!! Thanks for coming so that we could have so much fun with you guys!!

Touring the Facilities

2009-04-14T22:06:00.000-07:00

Last Saturday my nephew and I took a tour of the Oregon Ducks' world-class training facilities. One of the guys on the team is in our ward and he was kind enough to arrange a private tour at the last minute (thanks, Will!). Since the founders of Nike went to this school, they have put millions and millions of dollars into this program, so they can afford to have all of the high-tech training equipment (and over a dozen 60+ inch flat screen TVs). Did you know that Nike makes contact lenses for both day (black lenses) and night (red lenses) vision?
Anyway, I didn't really take pictures in the training rooms, but I did in the indoor field and while in Duck Mecca, aka Autzen Stadium. It was fun to run around on the fields. Did you know that when you slide on that new, grass-like turf that it doesn't even stain your jeans? Not that I dove into the end zone while racing my nephew or anything...
Here are some pics (in addition to the rad one up top). Enjoy!

Braden chillin' on the field.

Walking through the team tunnel.

Braden and Ducks D-lineman Will Tukuafu

He's stormin' the field and tearing down the goal post!

The end zone...yep.

He's a zippy little sucker...

...and he sprints like a gazelle!

This is my favorite picture of them all. We came, we saw, we conquered.

Back to Utah

2009-04-06T09:38:00.000-07:00

I took a last minute trip to Utah a couple weeks ago to get my hair done. I feel so dumb telling people that, so let me explain myself. :) For our adoption, we need to put a profile together complete with pictures and we've been told how huge of a deal the pictures are, which makes sense to me now. I hadn't had my hair done since September and I love, love, love how my cousin, Jen, does it. So I made the trek to Utah to have her cut and color my hair. I figured if we're spending so much money on this adoption, why not spend a little more to get my hair done so I'll be completely happy with the pictures. Plus, this way, I'd have someone do it that I know will do a great job - she's been doing my hair for the last 6 or 7 years and has ALWAYS done such a good job. She's amazing. I know I have a picture somewhere of her doing my hair, but after searching everywhere, I can't find it - she'd probably kill me though if I put it on here. :) Thanks again, Jen!!

So I ended up making a longer trip out of it and spending some time with my family and some friends. It was such a fun trip!! But I did miss Dan a lot. It's always nice to get home. :) I didn't take as many pictures as I usually do, but here are a few I did take.

Checkin' in

2009-03-29T22:51:00.000-07:00

It has been a long time since we have posted on this blog and even longer since I, Daniel Jedediah Phelps, have authored one. I've been out of the blogging spirit the past couple of months and I have since repented of this iniquity. Now get off my back! jk

I had an awesome post planned out that required me to take some pictures. But Angie is out of town and took the camera with her, so that post will be postponed. Zing! (Honestly, there was no pun intended when I originally typed that. I guess I'm just that clever.) Here are some awesome pictures to hold you over until the next post (which I promise will not take another month to do). Enjoy!

...and one more for the ladies:

You're welcome.

Big Decision

2009-02-25T21:13:00.000-08:00

After a lot of thought and prayer, Dan and I have decided we are going to adopt! We are so excited about this new adventure we're about to go on. We're in the very beginning stages of the process, but we wanted our friends and family to be able to read about our journey. Some may wonder why we have made this decision. Let me give a brief history: We've been married 4 1/2 years and have been trying to have a baby for about the last 4 years. We've been to multiple doctors and haven't found anything wrong. It's been a long, frustrating, and very hard road for us as we've been anxious to start a family. We still have other options, albeit, more expensive options, but this is the right choice for us right now and we couldn't be more excited! I've decided to start a new blog so I can keep track of our journey - thoughts, feelings, dates, etc. It will be a private blog, so if you'd like to join us, please let us know and we'll send you an invite! Thank you all so much for supporting us in this exciting time in our lives! We love you all!

Disneyland

2009-02-17T13:37:00.001-08:00

Last week Dan and I went to Disneyland with my entire family to celebrate my dad's 60th birthday that's next month. Growing up, my dad loved going to Disneyland with us, so we figured it would be a fun present for him to be able to go with all his kids and grandkids. We had so much fun! We'd been planning this trip since last July-ish so that everyone would be able to get time off of work and make arrangements. It was so fun to have every single person in the family there. It's been a long time since we've all been able to go on a vacation together. We had a birthday cake for my dad on Sunday night after we all got to California and then went to Disneyland on Monday and Tuesday. It wasn't very crowded either day, which made lines really nice - although it rained on Monday. Dan and I figured we'd stay a couple of extra days since we were already down there. So on Wednesday, we went to Knott's Berry Farm (which was totally empty) - mainly for me since I love roller coasters. :) On Thursday, we took it easy and drove out to the coast. We went to Newport Beach and Laguna Beach. As a result, we would both love to live in Newport. Too bad it's so expensive! Here are some pictures I took. Since we split up at the park a lot, I don't have pictures of everyone unfortunately.

Trader Joe's

2009-02-01T20:05:00.000-08:00

The Mrs. and I have lived in Oregon for over a year now and we are starting to embrace organic food. We live around a lot of hippies and they freakin' love organic stuff. They even have their own organic grocery stores around here. From our experience, organic grocery stores=overpriced goods. Then Angie started shopping at Trader Joe's and raving about how great it was. I've been reluctant to go there because it's a store for two types of people: 1) hippies and 2) yuppies who think they're hippies. Well, I went and became a convert.

Everything there is about the same price as Albertson's, and some of the weird stuff there is actually pretty good. The pita chips (with cinnamon and sugar) and pumpkin butter are excellent, as well as the produce. I can't wait to try some of the other random they have. Does that make us hippies?

Surprise Visit

2009-01-05T13:33:00.000-08:00

Last Monday, Dan and I (with the help of my sister, Jodi) decided it would be fun to drive down to Utah and surprise my family. So, on Tuesday afternoon, we hopped in the car and stayed in Boise that night at our friend's house. We got to my parent's house in Eagle Mountain Wednesday afternoon and here's their reaction:

We had so much fun out there! We were able to see everyone and got to go to the New Year's party my mom had put together. I had been so bummed that I wouldn't be able to go. She has the best parties! We got to go to movies and just hang out. Jodi and John even treated us to a night at Inn on the Creek in Midway. I love Miday! It was so much fun! The only bad thing on our trip was that I got rear-ended (we were all fine), but the cop didn't give the other guy a ticket. Don't get me started on that one... We drove home all day yesterday and had pretty good weather with the exception of a couple of areas. Here are some pictures from our trip, as always. Thanks everyone for such a fun trip!!

Fun Visit with Steph and Dallin

2008-12-16T10:45:00.000-08:00

We've been blessed with such an awesome family that comes to visit often and last week, Steph and Dallin came out and stayed with us! It was their first time to Oregon and I hope we left them with a good impression. :) We had so much fun with them!! We did so many fun things. We went to the Children's Museum in Portland, went to the park, saw some Christmas lights, went to Rob and Kristi's, went swimming, and got some GOOD hot chocolate, which I am now addicted to. :) We tried to give them some local flavor by taking them to a couple good restaurants, which they ended up loving. :) We're sad they're gone now, but we were so happy to have them here!! Thanks for the pictures, Steph!

To Send or Not To Send?

2008-12-12T11:13:00.000-08:00

I need opinions. Should we send Christmas cards this year? Since we don't have any kids, I really don't want to mail around a picture of just Dan and me. :) But I don't think just a card with a few words and our signatures would be terribly exciting. What do you guys do or have you done before kids??

More of Eugene

2008-12-08T21:52:00.000-08:00

So Dan and I decided we're staying in Eugene for at least 9 more months. It was time to renew our lease on our apartment so we had a decision to make. Well, I HATE moving and have done so much in the last 4 years :) that I really didn't want to move if we were staying in Eugene. That is, unless it was going to be a permanent move into a house or something. However, we aren't sure we want to settle down here. Hence, the 9 month lease. I'm still loving living here and exploring. And I'm definately not missing the snow - except on Christmas. I always love snow on Christmas. And I can't wait until our annual 4 inch snow storm that closes down the town. We do love the diversity and weirdness Eugene brings to our (well, mainly my) sheltered lives. We're very happy with Eugene and are excited for the upcoming months here!

Tagged Again :)

2008-11-07T22:44:00.000-08:00

My friend, Kristin, tagged me. I have to answer with one word answers.

1. Where is your cell phone? Counter
2. Where is your significant other? Floor
3. Your hair color? Brown
4. Your mother? Fun!!
5. Your father? Supportive
6. Your favorite thing? Family
7. Your dream last night? Weird
8. Your dream/goal? Happy
9. The room you're in? Bedroom
10. Your hobby? Reading
11. Your fear? Losing
12. Where do you want to be in 6 years? Settled
13. Where were you last night? Scouts
14. What you're not? Loud
15. Something on your wish list? Kids
16. Where you grew up? Utah
17. The last thing you did? Shower
18. What are you wearing? Sweats
19. Your TV? Music
20. Your pet? None
21. Your computer? Gateway
22. Your mood? Happy
23. Missing someone? Family
24. Your car? Small
25. Something you're not wearing? Socks
26. Favorite store? American Eagle
27. Your summer? Hot
28. Love someone? Yes
29. Your favorite color? Pink
30. When is the last time you laughed? Tonight
31. Last time you cried? Weeks

I need to tag 4 people and they are: Valeri, Wendy, Deanne, Heather

8 THINGS

2008-11-07T22:29:00.000-08:00

Betsy tagged me...!
8 Things...

8 TV shows I like to watch
1. Friends
2. The Hills
3. Real Housewives
4. The Office
5. The Pick Up Artist
6. What I Like About You
7. Gilmore Girls
8. Greek

8 Things that happened yesterday
1. Worried about Dan driving in the snow
2. Had lunch with my friend Lori
3. Went shopping with Lori
4. Picked up my scout shirt (thanks Kristin!!)
5. Went grocery shopping
6. Mailed Jon's DVD back to him
7. Went to the News Station with the scouts
8. Talked to my mom on the phone :)

8 Favorite Places to Eat
1. Olive Garden
2. Cheesecake Factory
3. Chili's
4. Firehouse Pizzeria
5. Cafe Yumm
6. McMenamins
7. Cafe Lucky Noodle
8. Hires Big H

8 Things I'm Looking Forward To
1. Steph coming to visit!!
2. Thanksgiving
3. Christmas
4. Seeing Top Gun in the theater next week!
5. Rock Band 2
6. Guitar Hero World Tour
7. Disneyland in February
8. Going to the temple

8 Things on my Wish List
1. Kids
2. Deciding where we want to settle down
3. My family to be happy and healthy
4. To like to run
5. New car for Dan
6. To know what I'm doing with scouts
7. Play the piano
8. Buy a house eventually

8 people I Tag
1. Steph
2. Kelly
3. Michelle
4. Katie
5. Karen
6. Annie
7. Jessica
8. Hope

Halloween

2008-11-01T11:14:00.000-07:00

Yesterday was Halloween and although Angie and I had no idea what we were going dress up as until that afternoon, it turned out to be a fun night! Although my Plan A (Maverick from Top Gun) and Plan B (Derek Zoolander) fell through, I ended throwing together an awesome white trash/80s rocker ensamble. Ang was ready to give up on dressing up altogether until we found some random policeman items from a couple of stores (combined with clothes she already had). She was the hottest cop I've ever seen!

After attending the ward halloween party, we had some friends come over to our place and we ended up A) rocking out by playing Rock Band and B) chose to be festive by watching "The Others". Good times!

Bryce, Steve, Jake and my hot self rocking out to "Vasoline"

Angie, Lindy, Blake and Kristin entertaining the crowd with "Are You Gonna Be My Girl"

Kristin, Lindy, Bryce and Steve entertaining us with Weezer's "Say It Ain't So"

If you take a closer look at Blake, it doesn't look like he's enjoying it too much...

...just kidding. You're the man, Blake!

Retro Movie Night II

2008-11-01T10:29:00.000-07:00

The same movie theater that brought us The Karate Kid for their Retro Movie Night gave us the priviledge of showing Back to the Future. Angie and I had to be there. Our friends, Jake and Annie, decided to share this awesome experience with us.

Have you recently watched one of your favorite movies from the 80s and thought to yourself, "I can't believe I actually liked this when I was a kid?" Luckily, I didn't even think that about this one. Back to the Future is one of those movies that has surprisingly aged well. The four of us left the movie wondering why Hollywood can't seem make movies like that anymore.

Although I didn't like Back to the Future II, I think it would be worth watching again because they travel to 2010, which is less than two years away. It would be funny to see what they thought this time would be like 23 years ago (you know, with flying cars and nuclear microwaves and what-not).

Once again, can you believe this movie is over 20 years old? I clearly remember my mom taking me to see this in the theater. Man, I think I have to come to grips with being 30.

Oh, and along with pictures, I found this news brief from The Onion and found it hilarious (yes, it's relevant):

http://www.theonion.com/content/news_briefs/chuck_berry_remembers_call

Silver Falls

2008-10-26T16:05:00.000-07:00

Last week, my mom came into town to visit. We had so so much fun!! I always love when my mom comes to visit. :) We went with my brother and his family to Silver Falls - which I've been wanting to do for a long time. It's a state park that has 10 waterfalls that you can hike to (about 7 miles). Since we had the little kids, we only hiked to the first waterfall. It was absoltely beautiful! It was really cool because the trail went back behind the waterfall, so you could watch it from the back. A man offered to take a picture of all of us, but when he did, he didn't tell us he was taking it, so it looks pretty bad. None of us were looking or smiling at the same time - otherwise I would've put a picture on here of Rob and his family. Dan was sad that he didn't get to go because he was working, but I'm sure we'll make it back there soon. And hopefully, we'll hike to all 10 falls! We'll see how long I last...

Apple Pie

2008-10-22T19:56:00.000-07:00

The other night I decided to follow my mom's recipe and make an apple pie. I'd never made anything like this before, so I was nervous at how it would turn out. Well, it turned out amazing!

Before I go on, I know what some of you are thinking: "Wow Angie, way to go!" or "Angie, you're such a good cook! Now I see why your husband's getting fat." Well, let me stop you right there. Ang didn't make this delicious apple pie. I did! That's right, Danny J Phelps made this. I'm man enough to be domesticated. How you like me now, suckas?

NOTE: before posting this, I decided to remove some other sentences from this post, such as "Holla at yo' boy!" and "Mad props to my mom and my pops!" That's what I get for listening to the Notorious B.I.G. while typing this up.

Retro Movie Night

2008-10-16T21:10:00.000-07:00

One of the movie theaters in town has been doing a retro movie night about once a week and last night they were showing yet another timeless classic, The Karate Kid. I feel a special kinship with this movie, mainly because everyone started calling me "Daniel-san" when this movie came out (I thought it was cool that we had the same name).
Can you believe this movie is over 20 years old? I remember when this movie came out! How old am I? Anyway, it was fun to see in the theater, mainly because of the crowd's reaction to certain scenes (from the cheesy soundtrack to the climactic ending). I'm excited to go back to retro movie night and catch some other classics from my childhood. In the meantime, I'll keep telling myself the following:

-Wax on, wax off
-Sweep the leg
-You're the best...around!

Utah Visit

2008-10-06T16:49:00.000-07:00

I was able to go to Utah to visit family and friends for two and a half weeks. I had such a good time! It was such a busy trip, but I was able to see a lot of people and do a lot of fun stuff. I went for such a long time because my cousin and good friend, Jenny, got married so I wanted to be there for the shower and a little bit of the planning. It was such a gorgeous wedding and I'm so happy I was able to be there for it. I also got to go to William's tee ball games, Braden's football games, and Rachel's soccer game. Those were so fun to watch! I had a girl's night with my mom, sisters, and sisters-in-law and we had sooo much fun that night! We went to the sing-along (we didn't realize that when we bought the tickets...) version of Mamma Mia! I had so much fun trying to sing along to the songs, even though I didn't know most of them. It ended being better than if we didn't have the huge words on the screen. :) I made another slide show and actually cut out A LOT of pictures from my trip - there are only about 40 in the slide show. I take way too many pictures. :) I did have such a fun trip, but really missed Dan and when I got home, he had hung crepe paper and written cute notes on a bunch of balloons. He is such a sweet husband!

Portland Zoo

2008-09-15T16:14:00.000-07:00

Last week, I went with Rob, Kristi, Aaron, and Bryan to the Portland Zoo. I hadn't been there before and was excited to go, especially because on the second Tuesday of the month, it only costs $2! It was so fun, the weather was nice, and it wasn't too crowded. We had to wait in line to see the new baby elephant and by the time we got up there, it was asleep. So not worth it. But there was an awesome poster that showed how elephants are born that made me laugh pretty hard. So, all in all, it was totally worth it! They have these cool Lorikeets (that are so pretty) that you can feed juice to, so we did that for awhile. They fly right up to your cup and drink out of your hand. It was pretty cool. We went to the Portland temple afterwards to go to the Distribution Center and saw the fountain and flowers, so that was really fun. I can't believe I have to drive two hours to get to a temple here - I was so spoiled growing up in Utah with so many temples so close! Thanks for inviting me, Rob and Kristi! I had so much fun!!

Labor Day Weekend

2008-09-08T22:05:00.000-07:00

I know it's been a while since the last post, so D$ is steppin in. Brace yourself to be blogged away, king sucka mc's and queen supremes.
Our friends Angie and Josh came from Utah for a visit. This was their anniversary trip, in which we were stoked they wanted to come out and see us for that. We had a lot of fun! We went to the Japanese Garden in Portland, saw some sights on the coast, went on a jetboat excursion and partied like rockstars (well, the type of rockstars that go to bed before midnight). Anyway, we've posted some pictures that should do the explaining of what a kick-butt time we had.

Why does it take guests coming in from out of town to get us to go out and finally see some sights around here?

Lane County Fair

2008-08-18T14:07:00.000-07:00

This last Saturday, Dan and I went with Rob, Kristi, Aaron and Bryan to the Lane County Fair here in Eugene. I had been excited for this for awhile. It was pretty fun, but it was SO HOT!! It was in the upper 90's, which is really hot for Eugene. We still stayed for a couple of hours - they had pretty good rides, good food, and pretty good shows. They had this huge monster truck that they were giving rides on. It looked pretty cool, but it was five bucks for a ride! Rip off!

Rob and Kristi went on a ride and then Dan and I went on a different (and in my opinion better and more thrilling) ride. They were four bucks so we decided one was good enough.

Aaron LOVES Cotton Candy! I had no idea, but when I bought some and we got him to eat it, he kept coming back for more. It was actually handy though because if he wouldn't walk where we wanted him to walk, I would bribe him with the Cotton Candy. :) I'm such a bad influence...

They had pig races that we watched for a little while. The little pigs were so cute! I decided I'd have a baby pig as a pet someday. :)

Dan took off to get us an Elephant Ear to snack on and while he was gone, he ran into Smokey the Bear and got his picture taken with him. I had no idea he did this, but I love that he did. I think I'm rubbing off on him - this is something I'd do. :)

They had a guy named Dizzy Hips that does a hula hooping show that I was SO excited about! Where else can you see a guy that specializes in hula hooping?? So we went to his show and I was actually a little disappointed. He spent way too much time telling stupid jokes instead of doing tricks. Although I must say, when he did do his tricks, they were pretty impressive. So I'm happy we went - I doubt I'll get another chance to see something like that. :)

Here's a cute picture of Rob and family. :) I'm glad they came with us - they made it so fun!

Long time, no blog

2008-08-15T16:18:00.000-07:00

It has been a while since we last posted on our blog. The last time Angie posted, I had just turned 30. Argh! Fact is, I don't feel old at all. To those of you who are dreading this milestone, don't sweat it. I feel the same as I did when I was in my 20's (see, you can say stuff like that when you're my age).

Anyway, Ang and I got a little culture in our lives during the past three weeks (and no, the fact that we were so bored and saw two movies at the theater a couple of Saturday's ago doesn't count). We attended a Scandinavian Festival last Saturday out in Junction City. It was entertaining for about an hour. The best part of the festival was the food. We had Swedish pancakes and a Finnish funnel cake (which was strikingly similar to a normal funnel cake). I also had a Swedish meatball-filled pastry that was surprisingly awesome! I'd definitely go back next year, but mainly for the food.

We visited our friends David and Kathy who just moved from Eugene to Medford recently and hung out with them down there. Ang, Kathy and her kids went to Ashland to see the sights and walk around the shops. It's a fun town to go visit for a weekend. I met up with them for lunch at a place called Louie's. They have some awesome garlic feta fries!

We also went out to the Oregon Sand Dunes and took a couple of dune buggy rides with a work associate of mine. We got up to 85 mph in those things! We even rode out to the ocean. It was both fun and adventurous for us.

Oh, and we went up along the McKenzie River and made a campfire and had s'mores with our Cub Scouts. We also visited a fish hatchery area up there, as well. Good times!

Those have been the highlights of our past three weeks. And keep in mind that we took none of these pictures.

The picutres came from the Scandinavian Festival's website. Check out the awesome music at the beginning!

http://www.scandinavianfestival.com/

Nakemiin!

Happy Birthday Dan!!

2008-07-25T12:45:00.000-07:00

Today is my cute Dan's 30th birthday! I really feel blessed to have him as my husband and best friend. He is so sweet, fun and entertains my crazy ideas - even me making him think of fun things to do for his birthday week. :) I felt bad he had to go to Medford from Monday to Wednesday this week, so he didn't get to do anything fun those days. We have so much fun together no matter what we're doing. He has made our move to Oregon so much easier than it would've been and I'm really grateful for him. I know this picture doesn't show his face very well, but I know he loves the pictures of him and his sister at the World Series a couple of years ago, so I had to put this one up. Happy Birthday, Dan! I hope you have a fun day! I love you!

Seattle

2008-07-21T14:52:00.000-07:00

Dan and I went to Seattle on Friday and Saturday for a mini-vacation with our friends Dan and Lori and their kids. It was tons of fun, but we were so worn out since we hadn't totally recovered from our trip to San Diego - not that I'm complaining. :) We ate lunch at the Rainforest Cafe (cool setting, but the food was NOT good), walked around the Space Needle (we didn't go up it - too expensive!), went on a roller coaster that I thought would for sure crumble to the ground, went to a Mariners game, and went to Pike's Place. I had never been up there, so it was fun to see. We had really nice weather and it was fun to be with friends. I'll post another slide show since I apparently think our pictures are too awesome to leave out. :)

Road Trippin' to San Diego!

2008-07-17T20:23:00.000-07:00

Last week, Angie and I drove to San Diego for vacation. We met up with one of Angie's sisters and her family down there. This was my first time to San Diego and I absolutely loved it! San Diego and the surrounding area is amazing and I would recommend it to anyone, except people who suck. They can go to L.A.
Anyway, there's so much I could ramble on about regarding our trip, but I'll spare you and give the highlights:
-We pulled off to get gas in a northern California town called Weed. I think Snoop Dogg is the mayor here.
-California was pretty smokey from all of the wildfires in the state. At one point in northern Cal, the smoke was very thick and brown. I swear this state looks like a giant fart outside, especially from outer space.
-Pulled off the freeway to get gas and ended up in a dirty part of Oakland. Good times!
-We stopped in San Francisco to stay the night and visit my sister. We ate at a kick-butt restaurant called Luna Park. They even let you make your own s'mores.
-Sea World was a blast! I wasn't too excited to go at first, but I ended up having a great time. Shamu and Co. put on a great show.
-We hit up Legoland and were amazed by all of the creations they had made out of Legos there.
-Stopped by the San Diego temple and walked around the grounds. This temple is highly visible off of I-5 and is a very beautiful and peaceful to walk around.
-Ang and I took a long walk on the beach at Mission Beach. We saw dolphins swimming out in the ocean! Very random and pretty cool.
-Went to Carlsbad beach to play in the ocean. Great times!
-After swimming in the ocean, we changed in the car (didn't even shower to get the salt water off of us)and headed straight to Petco Park for a San Diego Padres game. I love going to major league ball parks! One of my favorite things to do in life.
-We paid $4.77 per gallon for gas! Ugh!
-In-N-Out Burger. This is a must if you're traveling to California.

Unfortunately, we didn't run into Ron Burgundy or anyone else from the Channel 4 News Team. Oh well, maybe next time.
We have pictures, too. Enjoy the slide show!

Birthday Week

2008-07-01T08:37:00.000-07:00

So I absolutely LOVE birthdays. I totally make a big deal about them (well, mine and Dan's). I love doing birthday weeks where we do something fun every day for the entire week. Unfortunately we were both sick for a few days out of the week, so some of our "fun" things were pretty tame. On Sunday, we invited Rob, Kristi, Aaron, and Bryan over for dinner to kick off my birthday week. They're so cute and they brought brownies and cut ANG into them. It was awesome. Monday, we got Rock Band for the Wii! Dan had to go to Coos Bay for work from Monday to Wednesday so I went with him. We had so much fun! Tuesday, we ate at my favorite restaurant there, Benetti's and then went to Sunset Bay and walked along the beach. The water was actually warm enough to walk in, so I was ecstatic! Then we went to this ocean lookout point and just watched the waves for awhile. I love being on the coast! Wednesday we were both not feeling great, so I think we just made cookies that night. Thursday was another yucky day so I think we just got take out for dinner. Friday, I had a girl's night with a bunch of girls from my ward (we do it once a month to celebrate birthdays) at my house, which was so fun. But at the end, there were just a few girls left, someone came to my door (at around 11:20 - we were a little confused...). It was Jodi, John, and Tysen!! They had come to surprise me for my birthday!!! I was SO excited! I couldn't believe it!! I screamed a little and I think I kept saying 'are you serious??' It was so fun to get to know Tysen better. He's so dang cute. He is so easy to take pictures of because he's so smiley all the time! He loves watching John sing on Rock Band. He would just stare at him! He was so fun! So they stayed for the weekend and we had tons of fun!! It was HOT HOT HOT in Eugene, so Saturday we went to the coast and it was so much nicer. We went to Depoe Bay and to the beach. Sunday, we went to the rose garden and saw some fun things unique to Eugene, like a Sailbus. It was a VW bus with a boat welded to the top. Gotta love Oregon. :) I had so much fun this week!! I love my birthday! Thanks everyone for making it such a fun week!!!

Happy Birthday Ang!

2008-06-30T22:15:00.001-07:00

Although this post is a couple of days late, I would still like to take this chance to wish my awesome wife a happy birthday! (don't worry, I wished her a happy birthday a few times on her actual birthday)
I've had to do quite a bit of traveling for work lately and I keep finding myself dreading to go because I don't want to be away from my best friend. Angie is a fantastic wife and I'm very fortunate to be married to her. She makes me happy and also makes me a better person.
Thanks for being a kick-butt wife, Ang! I love you!
(btw, a picture would be right here, but I'm posting this from my laptop. A picture will be posted here soon. Stay tuned.)

Brett and Kelly's Visit

2008-06-22T14:45:00.000-07:00

This past week, Brett, Kelly, Will, and Kyanna came to visit and we had so much fun! We're so glad they came! We did a lot of fun stuff. We went to the coast (of course!), had fun dinners, had a graduation (way to go, Brett!), went to parks (and watched geese literally chase a couple people (who had come to feed them) down the pathway), had FHE and played A LOT of Wii. William LOVED playing Mario Kart. :) I just have to mention a couple funny things Will did that had me and Rob about dying from laughing. We were eating dinner and we looked over at Will and he had his mouth WIDE open and just sat there for a second and then finally let out a tiny burp and then sat there smiling hugely. Then, later that evening, still at dinner, he was trying to get Kelly's attention but she was in the middle of a conversation with someone else so wasn't answering right away. He kept calling her name and then finally resorted to yelling "Earth to Mommy! Earth to Mommy!" repeatedly. Finally one last yell of "EARTH! TO! MOM!" about sent Rob and me over the edge. Fun times! Brett ended up not driving all the way to his graduation, so we decided to have a ceremony for him. We dressed him up in the old graduation gear we could find and put on a whole thing for him. He was such a good sport. We're very proud of him and we're so happy they all came to visit! We had a blast!

I Was Born in the Wrong Decade!

2008-06-12T17:10:00.000-07:00

You Belong in 1958

You're fun loving, romantic, and more than a little innocent. See you at the drive in!

What Year Do You Belong In?

Update Finally!

2008-06-04T09:27:00.000-07:00

We haven't updated our blog because we're fairly boring people and haven't had a ton to post. But I finally thought of some things to put on here. We had a fun Memorial Day weekend. We went to Newport on Saturday and met up with some friends and hung out at a house they rented for the weekend. They were right by the beach, so we were able to walk down and play in the sand for a little bit while the sun was out. We also drove down the coast for a little bit and stopped to see some tide pools that had actually been covered up by the time we got there. It was still beautiful though. We've been so spoiled living so close to the coast, it'll be hard if we move away.

Yesterday was mine and Dan's 4th anniversary! I can't believe it's been 4 years already, it's gone by so fast and has been so much fun! We didn't do a whole lot for it - Dan's been working a ton of extra hours and he even had to work all day Sunday so he's been exhausted. We went to dinner (a little late) at Ambrosia, which we've been wanting to try for awhile, and it was pretty good. Then we just came home and hung out and went to bed early. We're party animals! Dan brought me home 2 dozen roses, which are so beautiful! I was so excited! For our presents to each other, we preordered Rock Band for the Wii. It comes out later this month, and we're so excited! I just have to take a second and mention how much I appreciate Dan. He works so hard so that we can live a nice life and I'm so grateful for that! He's so much fun and we've had a great 4 years! Thanks, Dan! I love you!

Happy Birthday Mom! (part 2)

2008-05-12T23:15:00.000-07:00

(Please excuse the dorky look on my face)

I would like to wish my mom a happy birthday! Not only is she an amazing woman, but an excellent mother who loves each of her three children with all of her heart. She is my hero and the woman who has had the biggest influence on who I am today. I love you mom! I miss you, too!

Newport Aquarium

2008-05-09T17:14:00.000-07:00

On Tuesday, we went with Jon, Megan, and Colin to the coast. We went to the aquarium for part of the day. It was really fun and better than we were expecting. We had been hoping for sunshine, but it was cloudy and a little cold, but we still managed to have fun. We're so glad they came to visit and are now sad that they're gone. Hopefully they'll come back to visit soon!!

Create Your Own

Happy Birthday Mom!

2008-05-06T19:28:00.000-07:00

Today is my mom's birthday so I just had to give a quick shout out to her. She is so much fun and is truly one of my best friends. She is so thoughtful of everyone and I'm trying so hard to live up to her legacy. It's so hard being so far away from her, but I feel so lucky to get to see her fairly often. I hope you've had a fabulous birthday, Mom!! We love you!!

Family

2008-05-05T18:13:00.000-07:00

This last week has been so fun with my parents and Jon, Megan, and Colin coming to visit. We went to Bryan's blessing yesterday, so I took a bunch of pictures so everyone can see how big he's gotten. Then we had a birthday dinner for my mom since her birthday's tomorrow and she's driving home today. We're sad we won't be with her on her birthday, but we had a fun party!! Here are a few pictures I put together. :)

Guitar Hero III

2008-05-01T22:51:00.000-07:00

About a month ago, Ang and I got Guitar Hero III for the Nintendo Wii. We didn't realize how much it would consume our lives (mainly mine). We find ourselves staying up late every night for the sake of rock n roll.

Me jumping off our couch while playing, "Rock n Roll All Nite" by KISS

Not only have we become video game rockers, but we now have something in common with teenage kids everywhere (and cool adults, too).

My top six songs to play on this game (in no particular order) are: Suck My Kiss (Red Hot Chili Peppers), One (Metallica), Cult of Personality (Living Colour), Cliffs of Dover (Eric Johnson), Paint It Black (Rolling Stones), Through the Fire and Flames (Dragonforce).

Angie can play, too. Check our her awesome score!

Tulip Festival

2008-04-28T09:49:00.002-07:00

On Saturday, Dan and I went to the Tulip Festival in Woodburn with Rob, Kristi, Aaron, and Bryan. We had so much fun with them! We were glad they went with us because we probably would've been pretty bored by ourselves. It's more of a place to go with kids. But the flowers were beautiful and it was a gorgeous day! I took a lot of pictures so I put some of them into a slideshow again. :)

Black Butte Ranch

2008-04-14T12:56:00.000-07:00

This last weekend, Dan and I went with our friends Dan and Lori and their kids to Black Butte Ranch. They had a cabin for a weekend, so they invited us. It was absolutely beautiful there. We had so much fun biking (on the coolest bikes ever), hiking (well...walking), golfing, feeding fish, and just hanging out.

2008-04-09T08:34:00.000-07:00

Dan and I just got back from visiting family and friends in Utah for a week. We had so much fun! I took a couple of videos with my phone so the quality isn't that great. This first video is of Rachel doing her "karate" moves for Dan and me.

We went to Hires for dinner, and apparently Jacob LOVES fry sauce. He was soaking his fries in it and when he ran out of fries, he dipped his hand in it. This video is of him dipping his dum-dum in it. Kids are so entertaining!

Flashback: Rome

2008-03-29T18:39:00.000-07:00

Here is the final installment of the "flashbacks." Enjoy.
(btw, this entry is longer ...because it's Rome)

Wednesday, March 14

-We wake up around 1:30 a.m this morning to head off to Rome! We're gonna see some sights, eat Italian food, watch out for the pickpocketers and do as the Romans do! As Jesse Spano (from Saved by the Bell...as if I had to explain) would say, "I"m so excited! I'm so excited! I'm so...scared!"

-At 2:30 a.m., we start driving to the Frankfurt Hahn airport with our helpful guide, Susan (that's the name of the voice we have programmed on the GPS). Except Susan doesn't know that one of the roads we need to drive on is now closed, and she keeps saying, "turn around whenever possible." Oh, Susan. If you only knew the 411. Thanks to some help from the Man Upstairs, we find our way.

-We fly Ryanair, which has hard seats and the chairs don't even recline. Also, you have to pay for any snack or beverage you get. This is only the tip of the iceberg with this company. I'm just glad the pilot was sober enough to land the plane without crashing it.

-Our cab fare from the airport to the hotel was 60 euro ($75 U.S.)! What a rip! Even though these cabs are expensive, i'm still greatful we cancelled our car rental. The people out here drive crazy! These streets are so crowded! Cars pack in three-wide on one-lane entry ramp onto the freeway, they share lanes side-by-side, people are driving on the shoulders like their normal lanes, people are cutting each other off constantly and our cab driver is weaving in and out of traffic like a madman! The driving out here is something you have to see to believe. Utah drivers are great compared to these Roman-folk.

-I GOT PICKPOCKETED! I think it happened on the bus, which is overcrowded with people all up in your personal space. I didn't even notice until a few minutes after we got to the Metro station. Wanna know what they took? A little bag of nuts n' berries out of my jacket pocket. They scored big on that pull (I didn't even bring my wallet. I kept the money in my front pocket, which I've been constantly keeping my hand over).

-We get to the Metro station to buy our all-day pass (four euro each). Ther's an outdoor bar in this station, which is a bit odd. They have a sign up saying to beware of pickpockets. This sign must is their substitute for law enforcement.

-Our subway finally pulls up and we can't believe how dirty this thing is. You know how you watch movies taking place in New York City and the subway trains are all old and full of graffiti? Well, they must come here to Rome to film those scenes (fyi-I've been on NYC subways before and they are nothing like that).

-We got off at the Colosseo (Colosieum) stop and right when we walk out of the station, bam! There it is. I can't believe I'm actually in front of it! There's history all around us. We see a street vendor and end up buying gelatto from him and for a couple of minutes, we're in heaven.

-Almost all the historic sights are in walking distance. Next to the Colosieum are Ceasar's temple, the remains of the old town center and Capitol Hill. The Pantheon, Trevi Fountain, Camp di Fiori and Spanish Steps aren't too far away, neither.

-After a while, I stop acting so paranoid about our belongings and start to soak it all in. It's an awe-filled walk, stirring up thoughts of what it would've been like to live here in its heyday. As we start walking the streets to the Pantheon, we stop at this Italian place on the corner and order pizza (which they make rectangular and serve slices in long rectangles and fold in half). I start eating it and I'm in heaven for a good 10 minutes. This is the best pizza ever! And its just ham! I could eat this for breakfast, lunch and dinner and I'll still want the same thing tomorrow. Good times, good times.

-The Pantheon was worth seeing, as well as the Trevi Fountain. As we are getting lost looking for the Spanish Steps, I hear someone yell my name. It's my buddy Greg! He and his ladyfriend finished their Mediterreanean Cruise and decided to stay longer and see Rome. What are the chances?

-While I'm getting us lost, we walk down alley ways full of Italian men, with their suits, hair slicked back, sunglasses on, smoking and speaking Italian. I think they're mafia. Something's going down in this alleyway, and it's gonna be big. We walk past those streets and 15 minutes later, gun shots are fired and tires are squealing (just kidding. They were just businessmen taking smoke breaks, but that's the stereotype that popped in my head. Thanks, Hollywood).-Rome is very crowded. It's full of tourists, small cars, ancient sites, dirt, mopeds, graffiti, the Pope and pickpockets who steal small bags of nuts n' berries (among other things).

-Street vendors here: what the crap? They are everywhere and some are quite pushy. For instance, when we were at the Spanish Steps (waste of time. All you see are tourists sitting on them and no steps) people would forcibly give Ang and Valeri roses and then look at me demanding money. What's up with that? I wanted to punch them all in their faces (not Ang and Valeri, but the vendors).

-We hop on the Metro, last a few stops and get off. Valeri says animals shouldn't even be subject to riding on these trains and we should just take a taxi. The ladies decide they dont want to put up with Rome anymore and want to go home tonight. I think I've seen enough of Rome, so I agree. Looking all around this city, its really old and dirty. It reminds me of when Ang and I drove around Mexico City, except we ain't got no Mexicans here.

-We got to the hotel and can't cancel the reservation, but Valeri isn't too concerned about that. We're determined to get out of here. We can't get a hold of anyone from Ryanair to change our flight, so we take another taxi to the airport.

-The airport and our struggles with Ryanair for about seven hours deserve its own entry, which Ang has already taken care of (in our family forum).

-In summary, Rome wasn't built in one day. But that's all the time I'd take to visit it. And now that I've seen it, I don't care to go back (but I would go back to Italy and see a different town, though).

-Also, we took a ton of pictures here. It was great to see all of these sights in real life.

Ang and Dan at the Trevi Fountain. Apparently, you have to turn around and toss a coin over your shoulder into the fountain. They say it's because you'll make it back to Rome if you do. I think it's just a lame excuse for the locals to take more of your money.

This is the place with incredible pizza.

Ang and Valeri walking down one of the many alleyways in Rome. It was actually pretty cool walking down these.

The inside of the Pantheon. I really enjoyed this place, although it didn't have a ton to offer. Oh, and sorry the picture sucks. Can you tell that I took it? (oh, I=Dan)

Ang and Mama Stoddart eating gelato right by the Colosieum. Contrary to her facial expression, Ang and I really enjoyed it (she's just making an angry face on purpose).

Flashback: Switzerland

2008-03-27T21:58:00.000-07:00

I'm posting this entry from our trip to Switzerland because I can. BTW, our trip to Rome will be the last one of these we post. I promise. Thanks for putting up with this.
That is all.

Saturday, March 10

-Today, we embark for Switzerland. I've been wanting to go to Switzerland for a long time, so we'll see if their rivers really are flowing with milk chocolate and if their homes are made of swiss cheese.

-In order to get to the Swiss land, we must pass through France. It has some nice countryside, too bad everyone wants to blow it up. Oh, and there's a toll road. In other words, we have to pay the French to get out of their country. This is great.

-As we cross the Swiss border, we are directed to go to a station to pay for a pass so we can drive around in their country. What is going on out here? Why are countries making us pay for the "priviledge" to drive there? Doesn't this sound a little desparate to you? Now's the time to take back the streets! We aren't gonna put up with this crap any more! Actually, we end up paying the toll.

-As Kent and I approached the station, we ask the guard behind to counter for one pass. This guy doesn't speak a lick of English, so we're loving life right now. The guard thinks we need to buy two passes, even though we keep waving our index fingers indicating one. We're going back and forth with this guy for at least five minutes before he finally gets a clue. Kent says we should've waved "the other finger" on the way out.

-Wow, Switzerland is beautiful! Around every corner, the view looks like a scene from a postcard. (Also, there are a lot of tunnels at first. I think Will would like this)

-Unlike the Frankfurt temple, this one is visible form the highway, but confusing to get to. We can't get it to pull up on the GPS, but we end up finding our way there eventually. Unfortunately, we end up being a little late to do any sort of temple work (last sessions at this temple are at noon on Saturday). But they let us hang out in the foyer a little past the lobby.

-They sell Mountain Dew in the LDS bookstore out here! Dr. Pepper, too! Yes, brothers and sisters, the church is true in Switzerland! There they sat in their carbonated caffinated goodness on the shelf with other American goods.

-We end up going into old town part of Bern, which is basically a main street full of buildings that are about 500 years old. These buildings are now shops, restaurants and apartments. It's pretty cool, except everything is expensive! The people weren't too friendly, neither. They don't even take euro money here, they still use the franc for their currency. So if you wanna check this place out, get some francs (they are a little weaker than the U.S. dollar).

-Question: would you be interested in paying 19.00 francs (about $17 U.S.) for a burger and fries at McDonalds? The people of Switzerland think you would.

-On our way out of Switzerland, we stop in Straussbourg, France to eat...Italian food! Everyone liked their meal except me. But that's what I get for trying something new.

-Once we finally cross into Germany (thank goodness, too!) I'm driving on the autobahn and everyone else in the car is asleep. You know what that means...ZOOM! ZOOM! Well, we're in a little hatchback and there's four of us in it, so I only top out at 160...kilometers. I don't even think that's 100 mph. I even had the gas peddle to the floor for a solid minute. Oh well. It was fun trying, though.

Dan failing to push 100 mph on the freeway.

A street in Bern with shops. Yep.

(btw, the shops are hidden under all of those archways, I promise).

Ang and Mama Stoddart doing what they do best...being white girls!