Rob + Stephanie

Looking back: Road to Hana

2012-01-26T22:34:00.000-08:00

At the end of last summer we went on a trip to Hawaii with Rob's parents. I posted about it, but had meant to post more - I especially wanted to post about our time on the Road to Hana. And now, in the middle of a cold winter, I'm thinking about Hawaii almost every day!

Driving the Road to Hana is one of the most popular things to do when you go to Maui. The road used to go only as far has Hana and that's how it got it's name. But the getting there is the attraction, not the city of Hana itself (although I know people who have stayed there and have enjoyed it). There is more to see after Hana, but we turned around and went back not far past it. Supposedly one reason to keep going is for the Seven Sacred Pools. Sounds cool, huh. I don't know if it is, though, because we had a baby to get back to (and, we were satisfied with what we had seen).

We left Henry back at the condo with his grandparents, so it was just a day to ourselves. It took us about six hours from the "start" to get to the point that we turned around and only about an hour and a half to get back. That's how much there is to see and do on the way! As these pictures illustrate...

Here is a look at the road from our GPS. The windiness of the road is pretty out-of-control. I can't imagine ever seeing another road with this many turns. In fact, that can detract a lot of people from going, yet for others (us included, I'd say) that is one aspect that makes the trip so cool! Rob wondered if, as the driver, he would feel like he got to see enough. At the end he said he felt like he didn't miss much.

Here is a view of the road that we just came from - can you tell from across where where we are standing how the road, cut into the hill, winds?

This picture is from the Ke'anae peninsula (there are a couple of places you can veer away from the main road to see). The shore of this peninsula is almost entirely made of these black lava rocks. That shows how "young" of an island Maui is. Weird, huh. It's hard to walk away from the scene of waves crashing onto these rocks - always wanting to see if the next wave is going to be "the big one."

A lot of homemade banana bread is sold along the Road. Eating chunks of banana bread grabbed directly from the loaf while traveling the most beautiful road in Hawaii? Count. Me. In!

This is Keanae Peninsula. I don't know if it looks like much in this pictures, but the view of this valley was quite stunning. We stood there for a while looking at the couple of churches, the farms and the houses and tried to imagine what's it like to live the way these people do.

This was the biggest waterfall we viewed - the Upper Waikani Falls, and it also happened to be the only one we got up close to. It wasn't much, but we were on the Road during a dryer season and I guess when it's at its heaviest flow it appears as one waterfall, not a few separate falls (divided by rock) as it looks here.

The next four pictures are also from the same falls. It was quite the adventure. It started with a sketchy steep descent from the road. We followed another couple down, letting them be the guinea pigs before we ventured. They offered to take our picture for us (the above picture) and us for them, but getting around the base of the waterfall was a little tricky, especially when it comes to exchanging cameras. Here is that guy and Rob slowly and carefully exchanging spots so we could take their picture (without dropping expensive cameras in the process).

Does it look easy to walk in the swirling water around the slippery rocks? Because it wasn't.

And then... downpour! Just after taking pictures and saying goodbye to the other couple the rain came! The rain came and went during our whole trip that day. Another exciting aspect of the trip. In fact, I had dreamed of traveling the Road in a jeep so we could ride with the top down. What a waste that would have been! We would have been constantly attaching and detaching the roof! We got pretty wet.

This is the last picture from the Waikani Falls. First of all, the bridge. There are countless (well, I'm sure someone has counted them) of these one-direction bridges along the Road. They are beautiful and add to the general ambiance of the location. The spot where I am standing is where we came up from the falls. It looks like a drop-off from that exact spot, but once you're beyond that it's actually an easy path. Now, just to the right of the browned "grassy" looking bush near the right edge of the picture - do you see a drop-off that looks like a black hole? That's how we got down to the falls. It was kind of nuts. Our guide book told us how to get down to the falls. That black hole was what we thought it meant. It wasn't until our way back that we realized the path we were supposed to take!

These next falls and pool were also an adventure to get to. They are at Pua'a Ka'a State Park. There were a couple more accessible swimming pools that people were swimming in, but our guidebook told us to go further for an even better pool. So we trudged through some muddy paths for a little while and crossed a high-up aquaduct until we found the pool. It was totally secluded. And that actually spooked me. I had in my mind that I wanted to swim under a waterfall but once we got there I chickened out (I tend to chicken out when it comes to water). Just Rob went in. He said it was cold and agreed that it was a little freaky.

Then Rob got out and... whoops. The key to our rental car-the key that explicitly states on the keychain that it's not supposed to get wet- was in his pocket when he jumped in. Well, it all turned out fine. It ended up still working, but it could have been really bad. I was running our plan through my head as we ran back (we ran because another downpour hit us) of how we'd have to hitch a ride all the way back down the Road with someone heading the other direction. We'd then have to somehow get back to the airport to get a new key - then back to retrieve our car. I'm so glad we didn't have that adventure.

So fun - stopping at a roadside taco stand. There's not a ton of places to eat (there's not a ton of anything - besides amazing views and adventures) along the Road, but at one point there are a handful of food stands along the way. The longest line was at this taco stand. How cute is he ordering tacos at a stand in the middle of the tropics in his swim trunks and looking all sun kissed?

Tasty tacos. I don't even remember what meat we got on them. But I do remember them being worth the small fortune we paid for them.

I love this picture of Rob eating his tacos. I think when my dad saw this picture on facebook he said something about Rob being in his element. So true.

Our last stop was Wai'anapanapa State Park. We read about a fresh water cave and Rob wanted to jump in. I wasn't going to (remember me+water?). But Rob did and he promised me I could do it. The fact that I did is testament to how much I trust my husband. He knows and is sympathetic to my fears but still thought I could do it. So - I did! Cold! But not bad (as he promised) Freaky! But not too much (as he promised).

And the best part of the whole day - and one of my favorite experiences of the entire trip - was our swim at the black sand beach. This picture really doesn't show how gorgeously aqua the water was. What made it so much fun was how warm the water was. Bath water warm. All the water we swam in in Hawaii was warm (warmer than our condo's pool even), but only after getting used to it. The water in this bay was completely warm as you stepped in. The other amazing thing was how huge the waves were! So big, and everyone just waited around for a wave to come and ride. Oh man, so much fun! Even for me, the girl who's afraid of water.

So that's the (long) summary of the best parts of our trip on the Road to Hana. It was such a magical day. One hope I had when going to Hawaii for the first time was to see lush tropical views - and that was satisfied by our experiences this day.

Here is Rob's video of our Maui trip. The Road to Hana begins at 3:00 in the video. If you watch it you'll see the lava rocks at the Keanae peninsula, us at the Waikani falls, Rob swimming in the pool (with key in pocket), Rob jumping into the fresh water cave, and me jumping over waves at the black sand beach (and more!).

A Trip to Maui from rob nyland on Vimeo.

looking back: Spring Break 2011

2012-01-12T10:02:00.000-08:00

Last year we stayed around the area for our joint Spring Break instead of going on a trip like we had for the previous two years (Las Vegas in 2009, San Francisco in 2010). In fact, Rob's family all went to Palm Springs and we didn't even go with them. I can't remember exactly - but I think it was because I was big and pregnant and also because we were starting to practice spending less money (still practicing).

Instead, we decided to spend the week somewhere in the middle between a vacation and a staycation - in Silverdale at Rob's parents' home. It turned out to be really fun. Even though we did activities like:

washing the car

and prepping baby's cloth diapers

But there were other fun activities. We invited my friend, TaVaun, and her family over for dinner. We made bbq chicken pizza, as we typically do.

Then we went to Port Townsend and Fort Worden. This was my first time at this particular fort. There are a few forts just like this, built to protect the Puget Sound during WWI and II. These forts are really neat places to visit and another thing that makes this area unique (one of my favorite places to bring visitors has always been to Fort Flagler, which is just like this fort).

One thing that is different about Fort Worden from the others is all the historic buildings that are still there. Barracks, officers quarters, blacksmith shop, etc. We couldn't exactly figure out there current uses, but we know that some are used as conference centers and you can even rent out some to stay in.

Rob took some photos around the fort. These forts usually creep me out and because we were the only ones visiting that day, the emptiness made it extra creepy. Oh, and add a drizzly day into the equation and you've got one creeped out Stephanie. It sure is beautiful, though.

(yeah, I didn't join Rob into the fort for these pictures.)

For those of you just tuning in... this is not a current picture! I must have been about 35 weeks pregnant during this trip. In this picture I am checking out the view. The artillery section of the fort is up the hill from the barracks, etc, and there are amazing views of the Puget Sound from up there. I guess there would have to be, seeing as that was the point of having the fort in that location!

I got tired and had to sit. I watched some deer for a while - you can see one not too far.

It was a great last vacation ("babymoon") before little Henry joined us a month later!

A Trip to Seaside

2012-01-04T21:13:00.000-08:00

During the holiday break, I get the extreme fortune of having 3 weeks off. Honestly, my job rules and you probably all should be for cutting funding for higher education because no one should have that much time-off (honestly, in my defense, I guess I am not paid for those 3 weeks off.) Because we had this time off, we decided to take a couple of trips. On the first week of our break, we headed off with my Mom to Seaside, OR.

Our first stop in town was a small Mexican place that my family has frequented called The Stand. One thing that we learned at The Stand is that Henry doesn't like spicy food. We gave him some rice, that was a little spicy and Henry wanted nothing to do with it. Apparently, Henry also wanted nothing to do with his shirt (or it got all wet, I can't remember).

My dad was able to get us a nice 3-bedroom Condo with this pretty amazing view:

The next morning we took the kiddo and went on a little walk:

Henry loved seeing the seagulls -- he gave the goofiest laugh whenever he saw them.

Henry spent time later looking out of the window, hoping to see some of those same seagulls flying by. No such luck.

We took a drive down to Cannon Beach and walked out on the sand. Stephanie captured this amazing shot:

We enjoyed a trip to one of our favorite lunch spots -- The Pacific Way Cafe. My mom still laments the loss of their Tuna Melt which used to be on the menu. The restaurant is very cool. Definitely feels like you are eating inside of an old house -- but with much better food than you would expect from an old house.

Henry took an evening bath:

The next day we putz around town a little bit. We hit the arcade where I got to play ski-ball (it was my birthday -- and a birthday deserves a ski-ball game) and Henry got to ride on a real train. Laid back:

And the obligatory carousel ride:

Overall it was a quick trip to Seaside, but we are wanting to go back soon. Steph mentioned to me that she had never been there during the summer -- and I guess I haven't been there during the summer in a while. Maybe we'll have to go next summer (hint hint, family!)

Our holiday.

2012-01-03T21:51:00.000-08:00

We did a lot this holiday season - I guess for Henry's sake, even though we are aware of the fact that he didn't know what was going on most of the time. Here are some pictures of what we did. Mostly they are pictures of Henry being really cute.

Our holiday activities started out in downtown Kirkland with the tree lighting. It's a big tree in a parking lot.

Next, we saw the Christmas Ship. We went to a nearby beach to watch and hear the carols being sung from the boat.

At the end of the night we discovered that Henry can't resist falling and staying asleep with his snowsuit on. He easily falls asleep in the car (if it's nap or bedtime), but to stay asleep even after the car is turned off. That never happens. Then asleep during the transfer into the house? I mean never.

And the best part... stayed asleep while Rob took him out of the car seat. Rob took advantage of this cuddle time. (he did it again - twice, I think).

Seriously dead to the world. (I think this picture is actually on a different night than the previous two).

There is a botanical garden in a nearby town that has the most amazing Christmas lights - all flowers and other garden-themed shapes. I loved it because it let Henry be right up close to the lights, closer than he gets in a car or when walking around the neighborhood even.

Henry met Santa. We hadn't planned on getting Santa pictures, and we probably won't do it again - but there was a Groupon or something and it wasn't an insane price, as it is without the coupon. The experience was pretty anticlimatic. I don't know if Henry even knew whose lap he was sitting on, actually.

Then, we saw Santa again. The same day, at our ward party. We were happy to see that Henry liked Santa, even while looking at him this time.

Some walks in our neighborhood. That snowsuit really came in handy - we haven't had any snow yet, but I didn't have to feel guilty about having my baby outdoors in the cold for all these activities.

We watched the obligatory movies. It really doesn't feel like Christmas for me until I watch White Christmas. Rob's dad likes to watch it, and the story as I understand it (which may be incorrect) is that it's one of those movies that the dad wants to watch and can occasionally convince the kids to watch with him (for my dad, it's The Third Man. b.o.r.i.n.g.). Then I came into the picture - and it's a movie I love to watch every year, as it's a favorite of everyone in my family. Maybe that's why he approved of me back when Rob and I were dating:) Rob's dad wanted to watch it Thanksgiving night, but it was too early for us to be starting the Christmas Season. So, instead, Rob and I sent an evite to his parents to watch it with us. We thought we were fun and clever. Not sure what they thought.

And this year we also watched Mr. Kruger's Christmas. This moving makes me sad. Old men make me sad. We watched other movies too - but just a small handful: Elf, Home Alone, Miracle on 34th St (both versions).

We spend Christmas Eve in Silverdale with Rob's family and we went over a day early too. That day we went to the pet store in town. Oh my goodness. I am not a pet person - but I forgot how much of an animal person I am (ie., love animals, but never want to own one). We went for Henry, but I kind of died. A room full of puppies!? What!? Henry enjoyed them, as evidenced by his "heh heh" laugh that he gives to animals and other objects he finds amusing. Well, until the puppy discovered him and jumped up. Then Henry wasn't so sure.

I just saw this picture for the first time. Another picture of Torsten and Henry - the most adorable duo (sorry I used the word "adorable" in a sentence about you, Torsten).

My favorite part of Christmas Eve was playing bingo. It was hilarious - James kept winning and the other kids were getting so frustrated with him and blamed him for cheating, and James (who was not cheating) was just as shocked as everyone else. Even funnier was Simon who couldn't seem to win, even after everyone else won 2-3 times. In the end, I was the only one who never won - but Simon, once he finally won a couple rounds, gave me his prize.

Here is Henry with one of his stocking presents - reunited with Sophie the Giraffe! We lost her a few months back and weren't going to get another one, but then decided, "what the heck, it's Christmas!" Other stocking gifts he got: a cute tshirt, Fantastic Mr. Fox dvd, and a Curious George dress-up doll puzzle thing. Henry didn't open his gifts in the car seat, this was after, if you were wondering.

This is the only picture I took on Christmas Day (Rob just took video of the day - what video? This one.) How cute is this hat that he got from my mom? Of course, it only stays on him for a second before he takes it off (it's his new trick), but that one second is adorable!

And... the last celebration. The day after Christmas we get together because that's when our two other nephews, Aidan and Greyson are in town. They acted out the Nativity. This is probably most typically done on Christmas Eve, but ending Christmas with the story of the birth of Christ was perfect. Henry was a willing Baby Jesus. He loves all his big cousins, so he enjoyed just sitting in the basket and watching them.

Oh yeah, and then we went to the carousel in downtown Seattle - my favorite Christmas tradition! Here are my parents with 6/8 of their grandkids (8 grandkids because the two in bellies count as half, you see.)

And here's the video I mentioned earlier. Beautiful.

Christmas 2011 from rob nyland on Vimeo.

Henry at 8 Months

2012-01-02T19:26:00.000-08:00

In looking at our last post, it appears that we need to start blogging about things other than Henry's milestones, but these will have to do for now. I'll get Stephanie on creating other blog posts, stat.

Right now, we have a sick boy. Henry has been throwing up on and off for the past few days, and just really hasn't been his normal goofy/hungry self. It is really sad to see our boy looking so miserable sometimes, but it is also a reminder of how much we love our little guy.

Here's what's been going on in Henry's life lately:

He enjoyed the holidays and loved getting to see his family so much. In the past month we have taken a bunch of trips (I guess we need to blog about those) including a trip to Seaside, OR with Grandma Nyland and a trip to Portland with the Quigleys and Papa & Grandma Farrar. Henry was a good sport for the most part, and had some good naps in the car.
He is still an early riser. He typically goes to bed around 6:30-7. Wakes up once in the night around 4-5 and then wakes up around 6:30-7am. Steph and I are convinced that we will never be able to sleep in again.
Henry's becoming a little bit of a handful. He is always busy and always trying to get to something. Usually its the stereo system, fireplace, or Dad's ukulele. He is no longer the calm/chill baby that he once was.
He sits like a pro, but prefers to be on his stomach army crawling somewhere. He still hasn't figured out how those knees can be an asset to his transportation.
He is quite the talker these days. He often will just sit in the back seat of the car and have a little conversation with his Sophie the Giraffe. His most frequently heard phrases are "Mumumum", "Dadadada", and a strange African bushman clicking.
Last month, we talked about putting Henry in the crib for naps. We tried it for a couple weeks, but it drastically shortened his nap time (from 2 hours to 45 mins). Recently we caved in and put him back in the swing -- it's soooo nice.
Henry loves animals. When we were at Seaside, we saw some Seagulls and he gave them the goofiest laugh. So now, we try to go out of our way to find some animals for him to look at. Today we went to a dog park (without a dog) and Henry thought that they were hilarious.

Here's to you Henry. We still like you, and are glad that you are in our family. Hope you feel better soon!

Henry at 7 Months

2011-12-02T16:50:00.001-08:00

We forgot that Henry turned 7 months today until late morning - usually we're anticipating it for days (especially those months that include a well-child visit to the doctor). I realized it during Henry's first nap and then went to Rob and said, "Guess what today is?" He didn't guess, so I said, "The second of December, what happens today?" Still didn't know. "Henry is 7 months old!" I feel like not a lot has changed since six months, including his picture - I don't think he looks that different from month-to-month in his pictures since, maybe, four month old. What do you think? I'll try to come up with some new developments for Henry in this past month...

He is super talkative. Usually just at home with us, but tonight at our ward party he was talking to everyone (and stealing their hearts, I'm sure.)
I miss the days of Henry lying still while we changed his diaper or his clothes. Not anymore - he is a major wiggle bug, HAS to turn over and gets really upset when we try to stop him. Is this just a stage or will it be like this forever?
Sleep is the same as last month - still going pretty well. We got back to being able to put him down partly awake and he either doesn't cry or cries for about five minutes (feels like 20). I've gotten into a new routine for naps in that he wants to nurse for a few minutes before going down. I don't mind. I wonder if next month we'll report that he's napping in his crib. One of these days we're going to have to make the transition out of his swing for naps and I have a feeling we're not going to like it.
He met Santa today! No crying. We actually met two - one at the mall and the other at our ward party. He was oblivious for the first and curious for the second.
He is a champion sitter! He started sitting really close to the six month mark and now could sit up all day long. He is only starting to learn how to get down on his belly from a sitting position. It either makes him nervous, or he just doesn't remember how to do it most of the time.
We're in a new stage called, "My family makes me cry." The last 4 times we've seen mine and Rob's family he has screamed - including once when we were talking to them over the computer. It's silly.
Henry eats a lot (amount), or at least more than I thought a little baby would eat. He's pretty good about all the new food we give him. He loves plain yogurt but for the last couple days we are not giving him any to see if it helps with his spitting up which has been back full force. We don't think he likes spicy food. He got mad at me the couple times I've tried to give it to him.
He is scooting all over the house, well, he tries. If he were quicker he would be all over.
Nursing is not the most interesting thing anymore for him, so where I used to have him on a consistent (not strict, but consistent) eat-play-sleep schedule, I now have to be fine with him just snacking throughout the day. If I can catch him when he's just woken up, before he wants to see what's going on around him, he'll usually nurse for about 10 minutes still.
He's generally happy and laughing. Our home teacher commented that he can't picture Henry crying. It's true, he doesn't cry much. But he can be pretty squirrely with nothing making him happy when he's in a bad mood.

That's all for this month!

100 Things I'm Grateful For

2011-12-01T21:30:00.001-08:00

Thanksgiving has passed and I failed to really emphasize the gratitude part of the season. I think the night of Thanksgiving, right before we fell asleep, Rob and I talked about a few things we were grateful for, but that's it.

I listened to this message today and thought, "it's not too late to think about and share what I'm grateful for." So, here are 100 things I'm most grateful for, listed here in the format suggested at the end of the link to the message.

1. Write 10 physical abilities you are grateful for.

- the ability to provide nourishment to my little baby boy
- a capable mind
- knees that do all I require of them to do
- the ability to climb a flight of stairs or a steep hill
- a healthy body that is rarely sick
- I quickly recover from those times that I am sick
- cooking (I do it with my body)
- ability to grow a baby
- ability to give birth to a baby
- ability to (once upon a time) run in a race

2. Write 10 material possessions you are grateful for.
- an apartment that is more than we need it to be
- a computer
- two cars (even the one that makes me angry)
- baby swing
- jeggings
- artwork
- money in the bank
- wedding ring
- food
- food storage

3. Write 10 living people (or groups of people - I added that) you are grateful for.
- Jesus Christ
- my husband, who is my best friend
- my little baby boy
- all my family
- police officers
- Young Women presidency
- friends
- Julie Beck
- safe drivers
- ward family

4. Write 10 deceased people (or groups) you are grateful for.
- Joseph Smith
- Papa
- Grandpa Bill
- Abraham Lincoln
- Gordon B. Hinckley
- Georgette
- ancestors
- Rob's ancestors
- Mormon pioneers
- Founding Fathers

5. Write 10 things about nature you are grateful for.
- The view outside my window
- the colors of Fall
- Springtime, when all the world turns a bright green
- rain (yes, rain. but not snow)
- no natural disasters
- the trees because my son likes to look at them
- beauty of Hawaii
- Provo Canyon
- summer
- the Food Chain

6. Write 10 things about today you are grateful for.
- time spent serving at Deseret Industries
- my husband be willing and capable to be with the baby while I was gone
- finding a pair of socks in the dryer because my feet were freezing but a baby was asleep in my room (even though they were Rob's socks)
- spending time with Alicia at Costco
- Costco samples
- husband putting the duvet cover back on (I hate that job)
- my baby sleeping in my arms
- taking care of Xander
- the ability to buy the things we need and even things we just want
- the holiday season!

7. Write 10 places on earth you are grateful for.
- my home
- the temple
- Silverdale, our little "get-away"
- my parent's home
- Provo, Utah
- the Pacific Northwest
- my bed
- Group Health/hospital (strange, but I really am grateful for them)
- my walk-in closet
- my ward (is that a place?)

8. Write 10 modern inventions you are grateful for.
- the www.
- my phone
- my husband's phone
- pinterest
- skype
- plumbing
- baby swing
- IVF (is that an "invention?")
- cars
- blu-ray streaming

9. Write 10 ~~foods you are grateful for~~ life experiences you are grateful for.
(that was a strange category, so I changed it.)
- meeting and marrying Rob
- struggling to have a baby
- having a baby
- my mission in Pittsburgh, PA
- teaching English in Russia
- attending BYU
- attending UW
- attending Rick's College
- being a member of the 191st ward
- watching all my siblings get sealed to their spouses

10. Write 10 things about the gospel you are grateful for.
- the Atonement
- my testimony
- temple covenants
- modern revelation
- personal revelation
- a living prophet
- the scriptures
- missions
- eternal families
- repentance

Happy (belated) Thanksgiving from our family to yours!

Halloween

2011-11-21T21:21:00.000-08:00

We were excited for Henry's first Halloween but knew that, like all the holidays for his first year or so, he'll enjoy it even more when he's a little older. I've been waiting to have kids to enjoy Halloween - I've never big a big fan, but I always thought that it must be a lot more fun when you can see how much fun your kids have with it. Henry was pretty cute in his monkey costume, though, so that did make the day more fun for me. I was asked a few times what Henry was going to be and I just had to brag each time I answered that he's a monkey because we got the costume 75% off the year before, back before Rob and I told anyone we were pregnant (the first people we told were Rob's family - on Halloween. Rob and I dressed as a Baker and an oven with a bun in it, respectively.)

Grandma's porch is always decorated for the holidays with lights and other beautiful decorations. I love this picture even though Henry isn't looking and Linda is hidden because Henry is loving the decorations.

Isn't it beautiful?

Family costumes: Monkey, Monkey Tree and Jungle Explorer. Even our trunk got into the theme for our ward's Trunk-or-Treat.

Henry thought it was pretty cool that he got to be outside for a little over an hour during the Trunk-or-Treat. I'm going to try to be a little picky about my kids' costumes, one requirement is that they are warm. Henry's costume was warm fleece, it was perfect!

Henry and Grandpa

We spent Halloween night with these two witches. Leah was the Black Witch and Clara was the White Witch. Natalie, their mom, said that calling them the good and evil witch made Leah feel bad. :)

Rob's second costume of the holiday.

I like this one.

Henry's first solid food

2011-11-20T21:10:00.001-08:00

The Farm

2011-11-18T14:56:00.001-08:00

Our favorite (perhaps only) Halloween/Fall tradition is going to The Farm. It's a pumpkin patch + petting zoo + hay ride + perfect place for a photo session. We were excited for Henry's first visit to The Farm, even though he didn't really know what was going on. It meant a couple hours of being outside, which is his favorite thing to do, so he was pretty happy. This year it became more apparent how much of a yuppie activity this is - families dressing up in the requisite boots, scarves and knit hats. Carrying their children in their baby carriers or wagons, taking pictures with pumpkins. I like to think we're different from all of them because we've been going for so many years, prior to it being as busy as it has become... but maybe we're not. Here are some pictures from the day.

cider donuts

petting zoo - next year Henry will enjoy this more

my boys

We missed Natalie & Monica - only two Farrar sisters went this year

It's impossible to get two babies to look at the camera

Oh pumpkin, Henry loves you

Mmm.

Henry & Xander

faces

2011-11-18T14:54:00.001-08:00

About 6 mo old

Henry is 6 months old

2011-11-02T20:44:00.000-07:00

I just noticed that the last time we posted anything was Henry's five month post. Oops - not doing very well at this blog thing these days!

This month definitely seems more significant than other months - half a year old! I think the main reason why it feels significant is that I always figured by six months I'd have this baby thing figured out. Ha. I'm happy to report that a lot of things, most things even, are a lot easier - but we're not out of the woods yet. And now I'm starting to see the possibility that it's not ever going to be "all figured out." He's almost a new baby all the time in so many ways. Here's a picture of the kind of baby he is at six months:

We always start out these posts talking about sleep (our lives revolve around how to get him to sleep better) - he is doing really well going to sleep at night. For a little while we were putting him down awake, and these days we're putting him down pretty much asleep, which feels like a step-back. I don't even know how that happened. He sleeps until 4am-ish when he wakes for his only feeding at night. We worked hard to get him from waking up every four or three hours. Working hard = a night or two of letting him cry. All three of us hate those nights.
Henry is a nap champ! I backed off on trying to get him weened from the swing and the swaddle. He rarely cries when he's put down. We'll tackle getting rid of those things in the future. The third nap of the day only happens on occasion and depends on how the first two naps go.
The kid is mobile - he makes his way all around the living room floor. He either grips the carpet or blanket with his hands and pulls himself forward or uses his arms and ab muscles to move forward. I don't know how to describe it - but it's not really his legs at this point. It's fun to see him get everywhere and he's pretty happy when he's playing on the ground. The only problem is that he still spits up, but since he's able to leave the blanket we put him on we're using a lot of carpet cleaner these days!
Not only is he moving his whole body, but each little limb is always going. He prefers to be on his stomach, and he just kick, kick, kicks his little legs all day long. At night when he wakes up we now hear his legs kicking along with his waking cry. When he's nursing he waves his arms back and forth and he's always "scratching" with his fingers - either scratching me or whatever is near him that has an interesting texture. It is so clear that his developmental "job" at this age is to learn about the world around him!
Henry is talking all the time. A couple of weeks ago he started some CVCV or reduplicated babbling. That's speech-pathology terms for saying that he goes "ba ba ba." It's really fun to hear his voice but the first time I heard it I didn't know what baby was in the car with me - it was so strange to hear him in this way!
We started solid foods about a week and a half ago. His reaction was a little anti-climatic - not surprised, disgusted or excited. A little, "yeah, I've been wondering when you guys were going to give me some of this stuff." We started with rice cereal and he has now had zucchini, pear and carrot. With the onset of eating solids, I now have to deal with cloth diaper messes that can't just be thrown in the washing machine. Yuck.
Henry is currently battling a cold. His first time being sick, the poor baby. He's a trooper, though. After the first night of refusing to nurse and screaming, causing Dad to do a late-night Sabbath Day run to the store for medicine and to my sister's for a humidifier (we were not prepared for this), he has been happy and smiling despite the goopy eyes and stuffed nose.
I reported in the last post that Henry was out of his 3-month clothes. The next few days after that I realize that I was too early with that announcement. But now I think he really is just wearing 3-6 months. We go to his 6 mo check-up in a couple days to find out if he has "moved up" on the growth percentile charts. He was in the 6th %ile for weight and the 11th for height at 4 months. Last night during his bath we noticed that his legs actually might have some chub on them! update: After Henry's 6 month checkup - 14lbs 13oz (7th%ile), 2'11'' (3rd %ile)

We love our little baby boy. Yesterday I watched him scoot himself across the living room floor after a ball that kept rolling off just as he would reach for it. That scene, with recent scenes of him eat food that doesn't come from me, plus feeling a little sad for him with being so sick - all made me a little weepy. We're proud parents of our big six month old but do miss our tiny baby boy.

You can imagine the small bit of tears that came when viewing this latest video by Rob. It's snippets from all of the footage of our boy thus far and a document of him growing up:

Henry at 5 months

2011-10-02T14:39:00.000-07:00

It's Conference Sunday and I've been reminiscing all weekend about how, during the last Conference, Rob and I were getting the baby's room ready in anticipation of his arrival. At that time it was hard to imagine that by the time we had conference again, we'd have a 5 month old. And now here it is, six months later, and all of the sudden we have a 5 month old.

Henry is getting to be a busy little boy, which is the biggest change. He's still our sweet, happy baby boy, but not quite as docile. There have been a few other changes for our little baby boy:

Henry is able to fall asleep on his own at night pretty consistently. Nap times are not as consistent but still okay. Henry goes to sleep around 8pm and wakes up twice each night - at about 2am and 5am. We wake him up between 7-7:30am to start the day.
He has finally noticed some animals - meeting his first dog and a group of ducks in the last month, all of whom wanted to eat Henry's toes.
He learned to turn over! This is his first big movement-milestone. It makes things a little more inconvenient for his parents, but it sure is fun to watch. Henry can't seem to help turning over when he's on his back and then gets frustrated soon after. Along with the turning over seems to have come an awareness that his toys are just barely out of reach which is the source of some of that frustration.
In the last couple of days Henry is constantly sucking on his lower lip. This and some other seemingly signs of getting his first teeth have increased in the last month, but still none have appeared.
Henry still isn't eating anything other than breast milk. However, he really likes to watch Big Cousin Xander (9 months old) eat - so I wouldn't be surprised if he knows just what to do when we finally start on solids closer to 6 months.
It is so fun for us to show Henry off to friends and family because he is such a smiley boy!
Henry enjoys car rides - what a change from just a couple of months ago! We have a mirror in our car now that lets us watch him, so we are enjoying car rides more now too! He is so funny, he looks out the windows with curiosity, sucks on his Sophie giraffe or other toys, and babbles to himself.
He has managed to pee on our sheets and blankets multiple times. You'd think we learn to not leave him without a diaper on too long - but he's just too quick! Plus, it's so fun to let him play sans diaper - but we have to pay for it with a lot of laundry.
Henry is quite enamored with his daddy. This is especially apparent during our bedtime routine when it's time for him to nurse and, instead, he has to watch Rob as he's reading a book out loud or follow him with his eyes as Rob comes in and out of room. It's so cute, but most of the time I wish he'd stop smiling at his dad and get on with eating!
Henry is a skinny little guy but I think he's finally outgrowing his 0-3 and 3 month clothing. We might strictly be in 3-6 month now.

We still spend much of our time with him just amazed at how adorable he is. We feel so blessed that he's our sweet little baby boy.

4 months

3 months

2 months

1 month

Hawaiian baby

2011-09-27T10:44:00.000-07:00

Here is how Henry spent most of his time in Hawaii... he is staring at the palm trees. This kid loves to watch the trees and sky. I think that Henry was so happy in Hawaii because we spent so much time outdoors! Even many of the places we ate were outside (this is our first day in Maui, eating at the 808 Deli -yum!)

Not so much of a beach-bum baby. This picture is of the only time we took him swimming in the ocean. He was okay with it, seemed to enjoy the waves on his feet a little, but it's hard to tell. His parents just didn't like it very much - too much sand to deal with if he wasn't going to even enjoy it that much! He did swim at the condo most mornings.

He wore this hat everywhere we went. It was perfect for keeping the sun rays off his head (which we liked) and the sun shine out of his eyes (which he liked). Thanks Lismarie! He has a shirt to match (in pictures below) and the one day he wore them both he got a lot of attention.

This restaurant didn't have space for him other than on the floor. He was not happy about being put in the corner (insert quote from Dirty Dancing here).

And here is another time he wasn't happy. Henry took a lot of naps in the car, and this is right before one of those naps....

... he was made at me for laughing and taking pictures while he was crying...

... starting to be interested in the noise the camera is making...

...All better.

I just love this picture. Henry with his Maui shirt.

Henry says he wants to go back to Hawaii. We're thinking about it.

Maui Top 3

2011-09-16T22:26:00.000-07:00

Oh, Maui, you are as wonderful as everyone said you would be.

Last month Rob's parents took us on a trip to Maui with them - we were there for 10-ish days! (10-ish due to the nasty 14 hour flight delay leaving Seattle). It was a trip of a lifetime.

It was all so so wonderful. The island. The food. The beach. The sun. The adventures. The doing-nothing. The company - having grandparents adore my baby as much as I adore him... I loved that.

Here is MY Maui Top 3, in descending order.

#1 the Wailea Coastal Walk.
I had to look up the name because it's kind of hidden/unnamed (at least that I could tell). It's basically a pathway on the water - between fancy resorts and beaches. The above picture doesn't do the view from the pathway justice (can any photo do any Maui scene justice?). We walked the path two separate evenings - as the sun was setting. It just felt so... relaxing. Warm, but breezy. It was also a lot of fun to walk around the pools and in the lobby of the Grand Wailea and the Four Seasons. Super fancy. We joked about how our time-share condo wasn't much different than the hotels. In reality, I would have felt super out of place there anyway. Wailea is one of the many beautiful places on Maui - but it was one of my favorites because I think it's what I had always pictured Hawaii being like.

#2 Road to Hana
If you've been to Maui, you know what this is. It's one of the most popular tourist activities. And now I know why - it's just what I wanted to see in Hawaii: tropical views. This picture is just one of the amazing vantage points, it's looking across to another part of the road and you can see the highway "snaking" along the mountainside. Each view of the ocean, waterfalls, valleys, pools of water, or crashing waves was better than the one previous. It was also a really fun adventure. We hiked down to a couple waterfalls, swam in large aqua-colored waves, jumped into a fresh-water cave, and ate food at roadside stands. We left the baby boy with his grandparents (so they had an adventure of their own!). Later, I'll dedicate a post to the Road to Hana's Top 3.

#3 Watching the waves at Big Beach.
We were fortunate enough to experience a little of a South Swell - I don't really know what that is, just there were big waves coming from... somewhere that resulted in big surfs around the island, especially the south side where we stayed (we stayed in Kihea). Big Beach (the least interesting name on the island) usually has the biggest waves on the island anyway, so we decided to head there on our last evening to see how big they could get. Oh wow, I really got an idea of the power of the ocean. We heard the loud low crash of the waves from a couple hundred feet away as we walked down the path to the beach from the parking lot. You really had to be careful, not turn your back on the ocean. We stayed there until after the sun set (Rob took this picture of us) - it was hard to leave, we kept wanting to stay for just one more swell. When the island experiences a swell like that you are advised to either not swim in the ocean or, at least, use extreme caution. It was perfect timing for us - we were able to be in the water swimming and snorkeling for most of our stay but still got to see the wonder that the swell brought.

Honorable mention:

- walking around Lahaina - especially rounding this corner and seeing the aqua-colored water

- eating at Hali'imaile General Store (and every other place we ate, really)

- snorkeling. No pictures of that, unfortunately. Or fortunately.
- sitting around the air conditioned condo

- eating shave ice (our goal was one per day, but we missed a few days). The best was Ulalani in Lahaina - I did.not.know that shave ice could have the texture of a sorbet. So so good (the guy who gave us the shave ice said it was as big as Henry's head). And, yes, it's shave ice, not shaved ice. I didn't know that either.

- being super close to the beach. Walk out the door and cross the street-close. (here is Henry the ONE time we took him to the beach across the street. Too much sand. We went by ourselves after that.)

- Having extra someones around to hand Henry off to anytime I wanted. (this is Henry and Grandpa's favorite way to hang out)

- Hearing Henry's laugh every time he played with Grandma.

- romantic location with my honey (and with my baby and my in-laws)

It's super hard to pick any favorites. I have no complaints about our trip, it was all so great. We feel so blessed to have been able to go and so grateful for our parents for making it happen and for sharing it with us! Rob made this video of our trip (yet another great video from my talented husband). More posts to follow too!

A Trip to Maui from rob nyland on Vimeo.

Henry at 4 months

2011-09-06T09:30:00.000-07:00

Out little boy Henry just turned 4 months old. We just got back from a great trip to Hawaii with my parents (pictures from that trip should appear on the blog one of these days) and we had a blast. Henry was a trooper and allowed his parents to have a nice vacation.

We can definitely see that our little boy is growing. He is even more curious about the world these days and we know that it's just a matter of time before we need to start chasing him around. This is what has been going on in Henry's world:

Henry's sleep schedule has kind of fallen apart during this month. While he has been getting better about going down for naps, his nights have been harder. We started sleep training before we went to Hawaii and it worked for a few days, then fell apart during the end of our trip. We've started again since we got home and he is doing better. Now he's waking up twice during the night for feedings -- but we would love for him to sleep through the night.
He has discovered TV, and while we do our best to keep him from watching it, his eyes somehow always seem to drift towards it.
His blonde hair is becoming more prominent and his once receding hairline seems to be back.
He generally takes 3 naps during the day, each of which are 1-2 hours.
He likes to interact with toys and is pretty good at grabbing things.
He's finally showing interest in Xander -- Xander is still showing interest in eating and poking Henry.
He likes to suck and chew on anything -- especially his hands. He still won't take a pacifier though.
We've cut down on giving him baths every night and will typically do it 1-2 times a week.

Other than that, I am realizing that not a lot has changed since last month. We are still happy to have him around, despite the handful that he is.

Happy 4 months Henry!

4th of July + camping

2011-08-22T14:23:00.000-07:00

I've been wanting to post about our camping trip over the 4th of July but because the pictures I have are just sort of random, I've been holding off. I'm going to do it anyway, because it was lots of fun and I want to remember it.

We have been going to Kayak Point on the 4th of July for many, many years. Last year I tried to figure out just how many and it's around 20 years. That means I'm getting old. A few years we started camping at the park too, making the holiday celebrations last even longer. I have to say it's not my favorite campground. It's nice that it's so close to where we picnic on the holiday, but the tree covering is too much so that even when it was sunny down at the beach, we were chilly up at the campsites. Also, it rained on us the first night which made me angry and although I can't blame the campsite on that, it took a couple of days for all of our stuff to dry out because of all the trees. Tradition makes most things worth it, though, so we're likely to return.

The best part about this camping trip is that last year my mom's side of the family started joining us for the festivities. This year we had practically everyone with us, traveling from as far as Spokane and even Arizona! This is a big deal for our family because we don't have family reunions (I guess that's what this was) and rarely even see each other on the big holidays, despite how much we all love each other. It was great to see everyone and strengthen those relationships. It's always wonderful to see my Grandma Jackie and it was special to have Henry meet her during the camping trip.

Here are some highlights:

Leah riding her scooter between campsites.

Rob and I went on a walk in the morning down to the beach

I love his sleeping-bag head

Playing games with Mallory and Scott. It was great to get to know Scott a little during the trip, since he'll be joining our family soon - they are getting married this week! It looks sunny in this picture. It was cold, though.

My dad planned a Independence Day devotional of sorts. He would.

Henry got to spend a lot of time with cousins (2nd cousins? 1st cousins once removed?) from Arizona. Here he is with Liz.

I love this picture of Henry looking at his Great-Grandma Jackie ("GG")

That mountain man is my Uncle Mike.

Another one with Henry and GG.

Here are some taken on the 4th, down at the beach.

Mark and his girls, my nieces.

So fun that Clara has a walking stick just like Grandma's cane.

Mark and Leah.

Our friends, the McDonnels, came - it's their third year of joining in on the fun. That's why Kayak Point on the 4th has always been so great - everyone is invited and it has become a tradition for many of our friends over the years. Collin was just a tiny baby his first year, here he is looking like such a big boy!

look-alikes

2011-08-22T13:59:00.000-07:00

This is my absolute favorite picture of my two boys. From the moment Henry was born I thought he had Rob's eyebrows - and, to me, this picture totally shows it. Plus, they're just both so cute in it.

Does this baby look familiar?

It's hard to find some pictures of Henry that look just like the picture of Rob above, but I think these two are close:

I hope Henry grows up to be like his daddy in every way. For now, I love that he looks a little like him.

Henry's birth story

2011-08-11T15:14:00.000-07:00

“Labor” started around 2am on Monday morning. I woke up in bed with bad menstrual-like cramps and thought to myself that they were probably actual contractions, just like I was hoping I would have soon, and then I fell back asleep. I was a few days overdue, and despite knowing that the due date is just an estimate and should be treated as such, I had been feeling impatient for his arrival for a few days. I think it was because we had hoped for so long that he wouldn’t be early and come during Monica’s wedding, that once her wedding was past, I already felt past-due. Even though I wasn’t.

Anyway, those contractions that started around 2am came infrequently enough that I was able to sleep between them. The pain was mainly in the hips and back and I just sort of shifted and rolled my hips and was fine. Around 5am I wasn’t able to sleep in between them – now I realize that it’s because they were getting more frequent, at the time I thought I was just too awake to go back to sleep so I went out to sleep on the couch thinking that would help. At that point the contractions became more painful and as time passed my two thoughts were, “If I can just make it to 7am, Rob will be awake and I’ll start timing these.” And, “finally, I’m having contractions!” The couple of hours until 7am lasted a really long time! I didn’t sleep, but I tried – tried sleeping on the couch, on the floor, and while sitting on a balance ball.

Rob woke up at 7am and I asked him to help me time the contractions. They were pretty unbearable and I was disappointed in myself that I admitted to Rob, “Okay, I’m ready for an epidural.” It was surprising to me that I couldn’t find any relief during the pain despite attempting different positions and comfort measures. How naïve of me. The only thing that helped was putting my arms around Rob’s shoulders (in “slow dance” position, as Rob likes to refer to it) during the contractions – it helped that I could totally lean on him and not have to support myself at all. Timing the contractions just confused me. I was anticipating five minutes apart or more and because they were coming so fast I thought they were longer contractions with breaks in the middle. Plus, the pain was pretty much restricted to the lower back and hips and I thought it would eventually “wrap around” to the abdomen. That’s what the book said would happen! So, I was basically holding off going to the hospital because I thought “true” early labor was still on its way. Rob had been on his laptop all morning trying to figure out how to get out of teaching his classes for the day. I thought it was preemptive and told him that I thought he should teach his first class, and then by noon when class was over, I’d be further along and ready to go to the hospital. Rob convinced me to call the hospital and I ended up playing phone-tag with my midwife. Finally, the receptionist called back and said the midwife said to just come in. They knew nothing about how long or how frequent my contractions were when they told me to come. I was still a little doubtful until I finally concluded, “there’s no way this is anything but labor.”

I was really nervous about the car ride to the hospital – but luckily it was all kind of a blur. Rob parked in the garage and I did not think it was going to be possible for me to get out of the car, walk from the car to the elevator, and then walk from the elevator to the check-in desk. They were just coming so fast! Waiting at the check-in was really hard, but it probably was only a minute or two before they brought me into the labor and delivery triage room. Every single step was so hard and when the nurse asked me to go into the bathroom to change into a hospital gown, I stopped mid-way and started crying. I guess I was just really overwhelmed. This seemed to make the nurse nervous because I heard her go to the phone and urgently request the midwife again.

There was another couple in the triage room, separated by curtains from my section of the room, and I heard a doctor telling them that they should go home and come back later because he thought she still had some time until the baby was coming. I think it was at that point I realized that I was very much in labor, because there was no way anyone would think to tell me to go back home in the state I was in!

When the midwife finally joined us in the triage room (I really don’t know how long we waited for her – probably 15 minutes. I was very much out of it, not very aware of what was happening around me, especially of time passing by). She checked me and found that I was 5 cm. dilated and 100% effaced. I was shocked and felt a little sheepish for not thinking I was even in early labor and thinking that Rob should have left me to teach his class. They were shocked too – at least they made it sound like I was pretty far a long for having just arrived. I had been waiting for early labor to start, when really, I had just slept through it!

They had me walk to the labor and delivery room where they shortly found out that I was now 7 cm. dilated. I felt like the contractions were 30 seconds long and 30 seconds apart, but they told me they were 1 minute long and 2 minutes apart (1 minute b/w each contraction). I was very much unable to think beyond the contractions. I thought about how I had learned that during a later labor stage all your concentration is on the contractions, and at this point I was conscientious that that’s what was happening. People around me kept asking me questions about how I was feeling and what I needed but I couldn’t really answer them. At one point the nurse was rubbing my back during a contraction and I really thought it helped, but I couldn’t even tell her that. The contractions didn’t feel like they lasted very long and once one began I knew I could get through it, but it became so tiring just knowing that soon after that one, another would be on it’s way. I continued to prefer to hold onto Rob to get through each one.

I was told that the anesthesiologist was just about to go into a scheduled c-section, so we knew it would maybe be a while until he would be available to administer an epidural. I think it ended up being about an hour, but luckily it felt like half that time. I had been nervous prior to this about the pain of receiving an epidural, but it turned out to not be bad at all. I also was worried about having a contraction during the epidural and not being able to remain still like you’re supposed to, but the doctor said that even though it was likely that I would have one, it would be okay. Somehow that eased my concern. Everyone had Rob sit in front of me so I could concentrate on him rather than on the needle or the contraction.

It was amazing how much changed after the epidural. I was myself again! I had planned on getting an epidural all along for many reasons – I really had no interest in having the baby “natural.” I had heard some women say that because they got an epidural they were able to enjoy the birth, which is so true for me. I felt one or two more contractions, then that was it. Rob’s mom soon arrived to the hospital, she brought Henry a really cute stuffed zebra which was fun to receive just before he was born. My mom came soon after that and it was nice to have them both there, and nice that I could actually enjoy their company, which I wouldn’t have if I was still feeling the contractions.

I had tested positive for Group B Strep which meant they wanted to give the baby antibiotics before he was born. The medicine was going to take four hours to administer so the nurse told me they were wanting to hold off the birth until 1:15 at the earliest. I was totally fine with that since so far everything had been moving faster than I imagined it would – I didn’t feel ready to have the baby yet anyway!

I should say something about the midwives and the nurse – everyone was so great. The midwife on call was Peggy Kimmel who I had met just one or two times prior to this. She was working with a student intern that day – Rebekah. We found out later that this was Rebekah’s first birth, so it was neat that Henry was her first, knowing she’d never forget it! The nurse’s name was Linda. They were all very attentive – the nurse stayed with us 100% of the time (except when she took her lunch) and the midwives (Peggy and her intern) were there a lot more than we thought they would be. They were there from the time they met me in the triage room until after I received the epidural. In fact, the baby’s heart rate dropped a little right after I got the medicine, so the nurse called the anesthesiologist and the midwives back into the room and they all stayed until the heart rate stabilized. I felt really confident in the care of these three ladies and was really grateful for the calm feeling they helped maintain during the entire experience.

At some point I started feeling pressure in my lower abdomen and the monitor showed that the pain was during the peaks, which were the contractions. I mentioned it to the nurse and dealt with it for a while because it wasn’t as bad as the pain had been before. It started to get worse and so the anesthesiologist returned to increase the amount of medication (I don’t really know what he did). It didn’t make a difference and because the pain was increasing the midwife had me push to see if it eased the pain, which it did. They still didn’t want the baby to come until after the baby received the antibiotics and it was getting really close and they figured that I would be pushing for a while anyway, so they had me push as much as I could since that eased the pain. Well, the pushing turned out to be pretty effective and it became obvious that this baby was coming pretty fast! It actually was great – I had been nervous about the pushing part of labor because that had been the difficult part for my sister (whose baby’s birth I had witnessed just four months prior). It felt like a blessing for it to turn out this way, for the pushing to actually act as a pain reliever as well as what got the baby out! I only pushed for 30-40 minutes, until 12:56… 19 minutes before the medicine would’ve gotten to him! It ended up being fine, no big deal that he didn’t get the meds. The pushing was only hard the last few pushes, and it wasn’t painful when he crowned like I expected it to be. Rob was great during the pushing – he stayed up by me encouraging me to push, reminding me that we were going to meet the baby soon. He was asked if he wanted to feel the baby and watch closer. He declined :)

So, the moment he was born… it was so crazy! I just couldn’t believe that it was happening – that I was having a baby, that he was finally coming and that it was finally time to meet him. The nurse and midwives knew that we weren’t set on a name and during the pushing the nurse asked if the name choice depended on if he had hair, because he did. That was really fun to hear. It’s funny being the one who is pushing because everyone else in the room gets really excited and you have no idea what’s really happening. With almost every push they make it sound like that’s the one that will get him out – and they are genuinely excited! Then, all the sudden, whoosh! Out he comes and they put him on my chest. I couldn’t get over how tiny he felt! Rob cried, but I don’t think I really did. I actually wish I felt more present at that very moment, I wish I could have taken a moment to look at Rob right then and have that moment take a little longer. It was so amazing to have the baby on my chest, he was whimpering for a long time and he felt so warm. I will always remember that feeling of him laying on me with the blanket on top of him and rubbing his back and his little tiny bum, and him with his arms up near my neck. Even though I didn’t quite feel like his mommy yet at that moment I loved that he seemed so comfortable there as if he knew who I was.

He was 7 lbs 1 ounce (.6 of an ounce, actually) and 19 inches long. Not long after he came I heard Rob telling my mom and his about some of our name choices – Henry or Wade. Rob turned to me and said that he thought the name is Henry. I think we both knew that would end up being his name but it helped that Rob was so sure about it. We didn’t settle on Lewis as a middle name for another 20 minutes or so. We had many names throughout the pregnancy, we weren't going to decide until after he was born. Of all the many names, Henry had been on the list the longest. Wade was the other name we liked that day, although it had only been on our list for a short time. Arthur was the other option for a middle name.

And that’s the story of how our little Henry Lewis came to us on May 2, 2011. I loved the birth, just as I hoped I would. I don’t feel like it could have gone much better. I’m so glad my mom and Rob’s mom could be there and experience Henry’s first minutes of life. I’m so grateful that Rob was my support – what an experience to share together! We love our little boy!

Birth video, by Rob

Welcome, Henry from rob nyland on Vimeo.

Some Firsts

2011-08-07T21:38:00.000-07:00

A couple of weeks ago we decided to take the ferry home from Silverdale (where Rob's parents live - it's across the water from Seattle) instead of drive home like we usually do. It was a really nice day and I wanted cute pictures of Henry's first ferry ride!

And then he slept the whole time.

Oh well.

Here's a cute one of us instead.

Beautiful.

We had checked the weather report on a Sunday which forecasted sunny skies for the following day. Perfect for a hike - Henry's first! The forecast ended up being a sham, and when the payoff for a hike that is uphill the whole way is supposed to be a view at the top, it can be a little disappointing when it's completely foggy. But, as always, still fun, and I still felt good after the hard work.

Here's the view. At the top is a launch for paragliding. The place is called "Poo Poo Point." Really. And yes, Henry took the name literally. No pictures of that, though.

Me, feeding the baby. It was rainy and cold. It sounds like I'm complaining, but it wasn't bad.

Rob and The Boy.

I don't know what this is for.

Henry, asleep on the way down. It's such hard work being carried four miles in a baby carrier.

The last "First"...

Mommy's first hickey.

Henry at 3 months

2011-08-02T17:33:00.000-07:00

Today our little Henry turns 3 months. It's been a fun summer around the Nyland house, and I am grateful to have a job that allows me to take some time off to spend time with my new son.

Henry is at his most fun right now. He is so curious about the world and loves to constantly be looking around. His legs and arms are super busy and it is fun to have him lay on his mat and practice his flaps and kicks. Here are some things that are going on with Henry right now:

His nights are about the same as they were before. He usually goes down around 10 and will wake up 1-2 times during the night (Although he has thrown us a couple of curveballs: He slept through the night once last week, and last night he woke up 4 times! -- not okay, son!)
He is not spitting up as much as he used to, but we still make people sign a waiver when they want to hold him (we are not responsible for dry cleaning costs)
He is still using a swaddle to help him sleep (without it, his hands would keep him up all day), but lately he has figured out that the swaddle means that we want him to go down for a nap. Most of the time he doesn't go easily -- I think it's the toughest thing that we are facing right now.
We are still taking showers and baths every night -- I think he still only tolerates it.
He has a little play gym that he can lay on and look up. He loves to grab on the rings that hang down and look at himself in the funhouse mirror.
When he is not distracted by something else, he will follow us with his head (albeit on a 1-second delay) as we move around the room.
His hair is coming back (although receding on the sides now), we are still not sure if it is blonde.
He is a strong boy -- he loves to stand and sit with my help
He has a big smile, and loves making funny little noises. I have also recently discovered that he is ticklish and every now and then I can elicit an nice big screaming laugh from him (it may be mean, but it is so cute)

I guess we could go on and on. But the main thing is that this boy is our life now, and we love him. Happy 3 months Henry!

For comparison, here is month one and month two.

August menu

2011-08-02T13:28:00.000-07:00

I just posted about July's menu - and since I have August's menu ready, I thought I'd go ahead and do that one too! Of course, it's tentative - there's usually a couple meals I never end up getting to (especially this month since we're going to Hawaii for 10 days!!)- but what do you care?! A lot of these recipes will be new for me, or yet to be located (anyone have a good slow-cooker carnitas recipe?). So, sorry about that.

I should say one more thing: I'm a Weight Watcher. However, not a very good one as far as dinners are concerned. I try to choose meals with healthy ingredients in general. I'm also always cutting down on the amount of cheese and oil in the recipe and swapping other ingredients. I figured out the "points plus" for a couple of my favorite meals from last month (pad thai and honey-lime enchiladas) and, oh boy! Next time I make those I'll either have to plan the rest of my points around them, make them healthier, or just eat a smaller serving!).

grilled fish with panzanella (recipe from Our Best Bits cookbook - I thought all the recipes in the book were also on the website, but I guess not because I can't find this one)
taco salad
lettuce wraps
coconut chicken fingers and coconut rice
vegie burgers (we've made a couple of the options on this site - the black bean and the barley) & asian cabbage slaw
grilled stuffed zucchini with black bean & corn cous cous
carnitas tortas
carnitas tacos
thai peanut noodle salad
fried egg sandwiches
red lentil dahl with Trader Joes naan
lasagna rolls (from the freezer!)
vermacelli noodles

*My goal for the month was to create a menu without much oven time - with the weather heating up (a little).

I'm experimenting with ways to store and organize recipes I find online. I definitely use recipes I find online all the time (as evidenced by this and the previous post). I don't want to always be printing out recipes to store. Instead, I just put the laptop on the counter and work from there. I tried Pinterest for about a month and although it's a cool idea, it won't serve all my needs. Right now I'm testing out Evernote. At school we use OneNote, which would be perfect, but I don't have a copy at home and can't use my school account at home because I have a Mac here. Evernote seems to be the closest to it (plus, it's free).

July's menu

2011-08-02T12:59:00.000-07:00

My menu planning is very simple. I don't like to assign meals to specific days because I want to be able to be more flexible than that. For many reasons. Last month's main reason I needed flexibility was because of the poor weather - just didn't feel like making the grilled meal when it was raining outside (yep, it rained all throughout July, with very few exceptions).

So, instead, I make a list of meals and just cross them off as I make them. This allows me to still grocery shop for the month and avoid major what-are-we-going-to-eat-tonight dilemmas. Another thing I started this month was to put an * next to the meals that had produce that would soon go bad, and I ate those meals first.

One last feature of my menus - I only plan about 14-16 meals. With family dinners, date nights, church functions, etc., we don't eat at home every night of the week. Other nights I just pull something out of the pantry rather than have a predetermined meal from the list.

Okay - here are the meals from last month with links to the recipes for those that have them. I recommend all the recipes, unless I note otherwise (I mainly use two cooking blogs - Jamie Cooks It Up, introduced to me by Kendra and Mel's Kitchen Cafe, introduced to me by Alicia. My mother-in-law just gave me the Our Best Bites cookbook, so next month's menu has a ton from their site).

Sloppy Joes with corn on the cob
stir-fry noodles with chicken and steamed buns
pad thai
chicken and grape tomato skewers and cous cous with summer squash
Pulled pork sandwiches (didn't love this version - the peppers were way too spicy. And we like spice)
Sweet & sour turkey meatballs with brown rice (I used this sauce with this cooking method)
Thai pizza (using about 4 different peanut sauces, not sure what we were doing wrong. Finally this one turned out. Thanks, Veeda!)
grilled sausages with grilled potatoes and corn on the cob (didn't love the potatoes, we might try slicing them thinner next time. I like the idea of them.)
spicy ramen
grilled fish with grilled red potatoes
red coconut curry noodles
Fake-me-out Cafe Rio salads
Sausage and spinach pasta (Costco carries a chicken sausage that is really good!)
margherita pizza
honey-lime chicken enchiladas (my new fav)

Utah trip. Best afternoon.

2011-07-23T08:25:00.000-07:00

My main contribution on the "list of things to do in Utah" that we made before our trip (literally) was to go to a park in the canyon and lay down. I love Provo Canyon and I love laying in parks. Napping in parks is even better.

Another item on our list was to visit Bridal Veil Falls, which is in Provo Canyon. So, that's the park we chose to also lay down in. So glad I got my wish - it was the best afternoon: in the canyon, with my boys.

Me and Henry - yes, he's in there - at the Falls.

Bridal Veil Falls is often pretty crowded, as it was on this afternoon, but there were some grassy spots near the trail that felt a little more secluded. Perfect for laying.

Henry waking up from a cozy stay in the baby carrier.

This is the Infant Insert that we put him in until he's big enough to be in the Ergo without it. We call it his taco.

After waking up he played with us for a good hour. Goodness, we are so entertained by that boy!

He loves squatting and standing.

Then... we layed.

Thanks, Provo Canyon.

Short video of the fun and magic of the afternoon.

Happier baby on the block

2011-07-22T22:00:00.000-07:00

Henry is getting happier. And although he's always been a generally happy baby, we're so grateful that some things are getting even easier.

For example, he use to enjoy his evening bath only occasionally. Not on this occasion:

Now, this is usually what we see.

Thank goodness, too, because the idea of the bath is three fold 1) Daddy-time (I get so much skin-on-skin contact with Baby and this gives Rob a chance to too), 2) help calm him for bedtime, and 3) as a piece of a predictable routine for bedtime, to help him anticipate a (hopefully) long night sleep. Now that he enjoys it every evening, reason #2 is actually the case and makes ME feel a lot better.

Henry used to hate (I don't really know if he hated it. I can only guess from his reaction) getting his diaper changed. This stopped at about one month - but he still didn't like getting his clothes changed. Then at two months that stopped. Now, the changing table is one of his favorite places in the house! He's such a happy baby there! It's fun because in the morning when he's on it, he's still stretching from his (sometimes) long night sleep, which is funny to watch. It is also at a good height for us to talk and interact with him.

Naked baby.

So fun!

Utah trip. another part.

2011-07-22T15:00:00.000-07:00

Henry loves staying at Lindsay's house!

Utah trip. another part.

2011-07-22T08:53:00.000-07:00

Thanks to Esther and her amazing pool, we spent a couple days enjoying the sun. It was Henry's second time swimming - but he was about 3 weeks old his first time and slept through being held by dad in the pool, so we were excited to see how he liked it. It turns out he didn't love it and that, like all things, it depended on how tired or hungry he was. Rob takes a bath with Henry most nights as part of his bedtime routine, so he probably didn't think this was anything special!

I could not get over how cute he looked in his baseball-tee swim shirt and swim diaper

Not happy.

I'm pretty sure this was his favorite part of the day

Utah trip. part 1 (we'll see if I get to the other parts!)

2011-07-21T12:00:00.000-07:00

We. love. Utah.

We both went to school there, so Utah is full of fond memories and important friends and we were so excited to go back and visit after 2 years since the last time we were there. Thanks to friends there and on the way, we know we can easily get down there and have a place to stay. To be honest, once we get there we think, "now what do we do?" But seeing friends and enjoying some sun is the best way to spend a vacation!

I'll dedicate this post to the friends we saw, since that really was the motivation to make the trip and what made it so great. We were so very excited to see our friends' babies and to show off our own! Unfortunately, we don't have pictures with everyone we visited (and ran into!) - but here's a taste...

Nyssa Farmers - who were patient with all of Henry's "burp up," as Kade called it

The Bybees - kiddos pictured here. We want more of that food, ps.

Drew Danburry - I just love this picture. Also Lynnette

Jessica - she actually lives in Sundance. I didn't know people did that

Jorgensens - splendid evening, in every way. Finally got to meet that Scandinavian Baby!

Provo Farmers - so glad I got to see you ladies!

I can't believe it, that's all the pictures we got. How did we miss everyone else (even Linds!):
Lindsay (lots and lots of time with LJ!), Nathaniel & Angie (aka. future newlyweds), the Maddocks' (that Heaton = Q.T.), Emily (1/2 of future newlyweds), Esther & Family (even the one in her belly, we just didn't know it yet!), Liv & kids (Robby's smile killed me), Tara & girls (so fun and funny), Rachel (fun surprise!), Julian (Rob didn't make me come - they talked video-geek-talk), President & Sister Cameron (my mission pres). More?

We also just barely missed some friends - Michelle, Cindy, the Sanders. More?

So so glad all of you still live in Utah so we can see you all in one trip! Thanks so much for making the time, making the beds, and making the food!

so sleepy

2011-07-20T21:22:00.000-07:00

We tried out the Bumbo one day - he was way too small for it, so we were surprised when he fell asleep while we had him in it - apparently it was still comfy!

I love the falling-to-sleep progression here:

faces

2011-07-19T21:20:00.000-07:00

(end of June - almost 2 months old)

faces

2011-07-18T21:19:00.000-07:00

(End of June; abt 1 1/2 months old)

Picnic at Greenlake

2011-07-18T21:13:00.000-07:00

It's summer time in the Nyland home! And while that doesn't mean that the weather is great (at all), it does mean that Rob is home all day, every day! What fun. We can do things like go to Greenlake during the week, when it's not super busy. The cloudy skies also helped it not to be busy, I guess. Baby's first Greenlake trip...

around the corner

2011-07-18T21:05:00.000-07:00

I love looking around the corner from the kitchen to find this familiar scene:

Daddy-time is the best!

Henry is 2 months

2011-07-02T08:00:00.000-07:00

Our little boy Henry is 2 months old today. He is getting bigger and more fun all of the time. We recently put him to the test by taking him on a trip to Utah. He was a champ and he had a good time meeting some honorary Aunts and Uncles (special thanks to Farmers, Lindsay and Nathaniel for letting us crash at your place).

Here is some things we love about Henry right now:

He has started smiling and he makes fun little noises when you play with him.
He is still sleeping about as well as he did during the first month. Stephanie typically will get up twice during the night to feed him (did I mention that I am ever grateful for this woman? She seriously kicks all kinds of butt).
He gets pretty fussy right around 8 or 9pm -- we usually take him for a walk around the neighborhood which does a pretty good job of calming him down.
Me and Henry take a bath or a shower every night. Sometimes he likes it -- sometimes he is inconsolable.
He is still super noisy when he sleeps and we've found that we have a hard time sleeping in the same room with him.
He goes down for naps pretty easily and he does a good job of letting us know that he's tired.
His eyes are definitely blue.

We love this boy a lot and I am so excited that I get to spend some time off this summer hanging with him.

head to toes

2011-06-23T21:00:00.000-07:00

(Around 6/1; Abt. 1 month old)

Henry at 1 month

2011-06-02T20:40:00.000-07:00

Can you believe that our little Henry is 1 month old? Neither can I. Right now Steph and I are so happy that he is in our life. We still have our hiccups -- he's still spitting up a lot, and can be pretty fussy, but his big eyes and sweet face let us know that it has all been worth it.

He has been doing pretty well with sleeping. On a typical night he will sleep one 5-hour shift and another 3-hour shift. He usually hates being messed with -- so he puts up a good fight when I try to change his dirty diapers and/or change his clothes.

Having a baby grow up is a weird thing. A lot of the time I am excited for when I will be able to interact a little bit more with him, but then I remember that he will no longer be as small as he is right now. I guess I should just enjoy the moments that I have with him right now -- that is something that I constantly need to remind myself to do.

Happy 1-month birthday Henry!! We are so happy that you are a Nyland.

First Two Weeks

2011-05-24T11:08:00.000-07:00

Henry had a pretty awesome first two weeks of life. Here are some of the things he did:

He was born (May 2).

He starred in a film made by his dad.

He had his first bath.

He took lots of naps on his parents.

He received lots of kisses.

He helped dad model his Jedi outfit.

He visited the Fremont Troll.

He took a trip to Grandpa and Grandma Nyland's house.

He became a DJ (get it - it looks like he's spinning the turn table on his onesie).

He attended Super-Cute Sunday.

And he celebrated his 2-weeks with a burrito his size.

And he slept through most of it...

good parenting

2011-05-24T11:05:00.001-07:00

Henry, don't make these faces in public:

Sweetheart

2011-05-24T10:42:00.000-07:00

Our little Henry is such a sweetie...

Except when he's not...

questions

2011-05-06T04:23:00.000-07:00

Will you get better at sleeping?

Will breast feeding ever stop hurting?

If I had put you down in the bassinet for the past hour, would you have stayed asleep?

When will thinking about how much I love you not make me cry?

Can I really handle cloth diapering?

Do you prefer to be swaddled or not swaddled?

How concerned should I be about how much I hear you digesting?

What can I do about how much my back hurts?

Will you continue to have your dad's eyes?

Where did you get those sweet lips that I love so much?

How are we going to handle feedings tomorrow in the middle of our appointments?

How did I get such a wonderful husband?

Why do I worry so much? You've only been alive 3 days.

Why do I only now feel pain "down there?"

How will I do this when your dad goes back to work?

Am I enjoying you enough?

Why do I feel so sad when you cry?

Is your voice getting hoarse?

Why did you do so well with the swing yesterday but not today?

Do you miss being in my belly?

Will I actually be willing to ask for help from my kind friends and family?

When can I stop dreading 9pm?

How long until your dad and I can sleep in bed at the same time again?

What will you look like next week? Next month?

Should I be cleaning the pump accessories better?

Are you warm enough?

When will I get used to calling you Henry?

I'm looking at you now and you are so beautiful. How did you get so beautiful?

Our baby boy

2011-05-05T21:05:00.000-07:00

Henry has arrived and we've been enjoying him for three whole days now! Rob played his two roles of Coach and Videographer well - here's the big day (Kendra, this is for you especially!):

33 Weeks

2011-03-16T21:44:00.001-07:00

Inspired by Whitney's progress post, we decided that we'd better put our own on. Here is Steph 33 weeks in. We are doing great! Baby is moving around a ton, especially when watching The Social Network (That's my boy!). We don't have a name for him yet, or at least one that we are telling anyone.

There's my girl and my boy:

We started our birthing class on Monday and I didn't pass out! (Even when we watched the video of the baby coming out). The baby showers have now started and we have been getting some really wonderful gifts. One of our favorites was this knit owl, which was made by one of the other SLPs in Steph's school district.

Can't wait for this dude to come out so we can hang out and eat pizza!

Disneyland

2011-03-06T14:51:00.000-08:00

Steph and I would definitely spoiled when it comes to going to Disneyland. My entire family went last year to celebrate this life of my Grandma, who frequently took us there when we were younger, and this past President's Day, we were able to go again. It was definitely a different experience with Stephanie being pregnant and all (she couldn't go on most of the bigger thrill rides), but we still had a good time being with our family.

As with most major life events from here on out, the trip needed to be documented. So without further ado, here are some highlights from our trip:

more pregnant

2011-02-12T19:10:00.000-08:00

Here I am at, I think, 27 weeks. I'm 30 weeks now - less than 3 months to go. By the way, my midwife group is now using April 28th as my estimated due date, instead of May 1st (it moved up after my 20 wk ultrasound). 3 days doesn't make all much difference, but I guess I should start considering that date since it's the one I'll be early/on-time/late against.

I chose this picture because my legs look skinny - but I promise that not all the weight gain is restricted to my belly, nor can it all be blamed on a growing baby (the sweets, large portions, and too many carbs share that blame). A lot of days I'm glad that I can show my belly in all it's glory, since it's always been my "trouble" spot that I tried to hide.

When I first got pregnant I tried reading a handful of pregnancy books, but it seemed like the majority of the content was dedicated to complaining about or explaining the hormonal changes. And I didn't have any. I know, I'm lucky, and I also know my luck might not carry through future pregnancies. There are a few, though, that I've only recently experienced or recently identified as, "yeah, I guess I have had pregnancy symptoms." For some reason I feel compelled to record them here, most of them have just appeared in the last couple of months:

- allergies. Thank goodness this only lasted a few months, ending a few months ago. My midwife group confirmed that, yes, my insane allergy symptoms were probably due to my pregnancy. It was miserable, but left me pretty amazed at the allergens my body had been fighting all along, before it got too busy growing a baby.
- bloody noses. When I read about this symptom I assumed it meant a "running" bloody nose, but instead I just always have dried blood in my nose, and bloody tissue when I blow my nose. Sorry, that's gross.
- heart burn. Mild, though, and not recently. I've tried to cut down on drinking caffeinated soda so maybe that helped, but it's not like I drank much before so I don't know.
- Braxton-Hicks contractions. I wish someone would have told me sooner that these feel like menstrual cramps, then I would have understood what was happening and been less concerned early on. And I did feel them early on, earlier than what most women I've talked to experienced. They've ranged from mild (since about month 4) to a couple of times when they were pretty intense.
- a growing bosom. And I didn't need that.
- fatigue. I doubt there's anyone that doesn't feel ultra tired at different points in the pregnancy. The fatigue has definitely returned in my third trimester. I'm not someone who easily takes a nap, so the fact that I have intense longings to lay down and sleep means that I'm crazy-tired. Also, I get more tired after working out, when pre-pregnancy working out invigorated me.
- edema in the feet and ankles. this is recent, just in the last couple of weeks. I'm nervous to see how far it's going to go. It doesn't seem to be indicating pre-eclampsia.
- curly hair. Actually, I don't know if that's due to the pregnancy. I've heard it's common for hair to go curly or straight, but I guess it's just as likely that my curlier hair these days is due to a recent haircut:)

My favorite thing is feeling the baby move. Who doesn't love this? It really is fun to be reminded of his existence all throughout the day. He's recently begun kicking me in places that hurt - I pretend it's my kidney but I have no idea. Last night, for the first time, I felt one of his body parts on a part of my belly - not a kick, but a body part just sitting there near the surface. It freaked me out because I didn't know if it was a foot, an elbow, his head, or what and so I felt weird about pressing down on it, so I turned on my side so he'd change positions.

Anyway, that's my pregnancy to-date. It's been fun. We're anxious for his arrival but trying to, instead, relish in this time we have with just the two of us.

A Baby Story

2011-01-12T21:39:00.000-08:00

No, not our baby. He is still on his way. But on New Years Eve at 3 in the morning our brother, James came banging on our door. Alicia, Stephanie's sister, water had broke, but the baby was supposed to be one-month away. We went to their house to stay with the boys and in the morning we went to the hospital and began the wait.

I had agreed to document the process a while ago, but I was unprepared in many ways. Unprepared for the waiting, the anticipation, and then the joy that accompanies the birth of a new little one. I tried to capture all of these things in the video. Now, after it all, I am not sure if I am more prepared than I was before -- but at least I have a better idea of what is coming.

pregnant belly

2011-01-08T11:15:00.000-08:00

Here you go, the first picture of my baby belly - at 23 weeks. It has a boy inside.

I was only willing to take this picture because the 3-layer combination of maternity jeans, shirt and sweater round out my upper-pre-pregnancy bump with the lower-actual-baby bump. Feel free to leave a comment and tell me I'm not bigger than I should be with 4 months still to go, because most days I feel like I am!

Christmas in the Northwest

2011-01-02T20:06:00.000-08:00

the obligatory picture

2010-12-18T23:25:00.000-08:00

Wait for it...

Happy Thanksgiving from the Farmers and Farrars*

*and company

Lately

2010-12-18T23:08:00.001-08:00

It really has been a while since blogging. Here is what has happened lately (ie., the only pictures we really have since the last time we blogged. Not true, there are some others and maybe you'll see them sometime).

I sew now. Or, I did during the Thanksgiving weekend. Here I am, holding up the burp cloth that I stitched around, which is the only sewing required. I am saying, "Everyone! Everyone! Look what I made!" Monica and Julene are clapping for me, they are so proud.

Rob with a couple of his nieces. He loves that Clara (left) can stand him now.

This year's tree. It was too cold when we picked it out and we ended up with a less-than-perfect tree because I just wanted to be done with it. (Linda - that big present on the right is for you!)

Rob's Christmas present from himself. We called it a present for the baby (by the way, we're having a baby) because he's wanted one for the nursery. We own just a handful of records - Sesame Street, MoTab Christmas, and Snow White

Rob turned 31. So old! He's so handsome. That's something that hasn't changed since I last blogged.

Too Much (actually, just right)

2010-11-03T18:02:00.000-07:00

Last Saturday was, maybe, the best Saturday ever.

It started out with our 2nd 5k - the Pumpkin Push. What a fun race! I was a little nervous about it because we hadn't run 3.2 miles in a few weeks, and with our first 5k we were running that distance 2-3 times each week. But it was totally fine. It helped that we had a lot of people in costume to look at as we ran by (or, as they ran by us, which is a more true statement). It was funny to start out the race, I told Rob that it looked more like we were running from a natural disaster or something. Most of us didn't look like we planned on running that morning - families, people dressed up, and there were just so many of us!

Alicia and my mom were there too, and we saw a couple of friends along the race, which made it that much more fun!

Photos below: a before/after of the four of us - can you tell how wet we got?, an official race photo of Rob - what form! My bandanna is dorky, I know this. It kept my ears warm.

The rest of the afternoon was lazy. And long. See what I mean by a perfect Saturday? Some of what we did:
- watched the week's episode of The Office while eating lunch
- a long grocery shopping trip (including Costco!)
- cleaned the house (lazily)
- watched Friday Night Lights - the first episode of the season!
- hung out a little at the Quigley's
- some other stuff I guess I forgot. I just know I told Rob around 3pm, "I love lazy Saturdays like today," totally forgetting that I had run a race that morning!

That night we went to Vietnamese in the International District and a concert. We go to Vietnamese and concerts relatively often, but these were extra special. Usually we go to Vietnamese to get inexpensive pho or bahn mi. But this place was fancier (fancy to us isn't saying much, but it was a little less hole-in-the-wall than our usual). We ordered something I've never had before and it was just so cozy and warm when outside was dark and wet. Wonderful.

The concert was so super fantastic! Sufjan Stevens - my first time seeing him. I didn't know much of his music, but what I do know I have always loved. A little Rob and Stephanie history - when we first became friends, Rob put a Sufjan album on in my car and asked if I liked his music. I had never heard of him. I later found out it was a "test" of sorts, seeing what my music taste/knowledge was before he decided how he felt about me. Good thing he gave me another chance! I won't write much about the concert, just that 1) he put on an amazing show (new, crazy stuff - listen to one below, great graphics, and a long encore with the favorites), 2) I got to SIT the entire time! and 3) it ended by ELEVEN! I was very happy.

A Day at the Farm

2010-10-22T15:45:00.000-07:00

I just love those arches!

2010-10-10T09:56:00.000-07:00

Rob is sitting with his guitar and a hymn book, which means he is trying to start Family Home Evening. Well, he'll just have to wait while I snap a couple pictures of my favorite views in our apartment...

Will and Emily

2010-09-16T16:56:00.000-07:00

A couple of weeks ago I had the chance to film the wedding our friends Will and Emily. It was one of the only rainy days in Seattle this summer -- which doesn't always bode well for an outdoor wedding, but the ceremony was great anyway, and I was lucky enough to capture it in digital form.

Here is a shorter edit of their wedding with some nice melodramatic music from Jens Lekman.

Consequently, I am also looking for more wedding clients to fill up my weekends. If you know of anyone who is getting married, feel free to send them my way: robnyland (at) gmail.com

The Tallest Man on the whole Earth

2010-09-10T15:43:00.000-07:00

Despite feeling a little ill for the past couple of days, Steph and I ventured out with her sister Monica to see a group called The Tallest Man on Earth. Now that we have hit the 30's, concerts rarely seem like a good idea, but we are glad to have gone to this one.

The Tallest Man is not tall, and he's not American either -- He's from Sweden, where most good music in this world comes from. His music sounds really folky. I've heard that he sounds like Bob Dylan, but I never really listened to Bob Dylan growing up, so I will take others' word for it.

Look at him being so cool:

One of the worst parts about going to concerts is other people. I had this group of total idiots behind me, drinking PBR and jumping up and down. The Tallest Man had to tell them twice to stop being idiots. One of the dudes handed me his email and asked me to send him pictures. Since the guy was a jerk, I'll let him google it.

Oh, and here is a video that I took during the concert. This is a great song called "Love is All":

Science Center

2010-09-10T09:20:00.000-07:00

A few weeks ago we had plans to go to the Evergreen State Fair in Monroe. However, it was raining pretty heavily that day, so our plans were dashed. Luckily, Alicia called up and told us that she was going to the Science Center and that she had some extra tickets -- Extra Tickets? Of course we'll go!

The main exhibit was the Circus. That explains these awesome pictures:
Engaging in a strong man exercise:

It was the first trip to the Science Center for Marin and Collin, who tagged along with us. So we had to make a stop in the butterfly thunderdome.

And look how brave Collin is, I mean he is full on touching that cockroach! Too bad the cockroach handler looks very sad about what has been going on in his life.

Thanks Alicia for letting us tag along and saving us from a boring rainy day!

Lime Kiln

2010-09-10T09:01:00.000-07:00

A few weeks ago we had our Ward Campout. While the campout was really fun, I didn't take any pictures of it. I did, however, take some pictures of the hike that we took the next day.

On the Saturday after the hike we headed up past Granite Falls to the Lime Kiln Trail. The trail follows an old railroad grade and then ends up at a big kiln where they used to cook up limestone or something.

I really love old artifacty type things, and considering that the area used to be the site of an old mining town, there was a lot of random old knick knacks strewn throughout the woods.

Overall, it was a pretty cool hike and a nice one to end the summer season with. Oh, and thanks to the Van Leeuwens for coming along with us!

tastes like summer

2010-08-30T21:11:00.001-07:00

Last week it was still summer (yes, the weather has already turned in Seattle) and we had our first bbq meal. Thanks to the J.R.s, we now have a (free!) bbq on our porch!

Turkey burgers with spinach and feta (really straight forward, but here's the recipe), topped with grilled onions + other fixings, grilled corn on the cob and a fresh green salad. It was way too much food, so we made sure not to fill our bellies with too much salad.

The only other thing we've made on the grill so far is naan, which is probably the food that grill will see the most of, and why Rob thought he really needed a bbq.

Rattlesnake Ledge

2010-08-22T20:03:00.000-07:00

On Wednesday, Steph and I went on a hike that I had been hearing good things about: Rattlesnake Ledge. It is pretty close to Little Si and Twin Falls, two hikes that we did last summer. The hike is pretty short, but it has a nice steady climb, and some pretty impressive views.

From the bottom:

From the top:

After the hike we went to Isadora's, which is a little cafe in Snoqualmie that one of my students made a video about. After seeing the Tuna Melt in his video, I knew that I wanted to try one.

It took a little while to get our food. So the waiting room sign was appropriate.

The tuna melt was worth the trip. A good amount of dill and some nuts. MMM.

Portland!!

2010-08-22T19:24:00.000-07:00

This last week Steph and I celebrated our 2nd anniversary. Since we felt the end of our summer fast approaching and didn't want to quite give it up, we decided that we would get out of town one last time. We used some credits that we got from a trip that we booked on Hotwire, and got a hotel in Portland.

After arriving in Portland, we hopped on the light rail in search for some food. We were hoping to eat off of one of the many food carts that they have downtown, but unfortunately most of them were closed at that time of night. We did however, run across an Indian festival that was happening in town:

There was lots of cheap food. We decided on Pakora and a Mango Lassi. A good choice:

After we just walked around downtown. Portland is big, but it never feels busy.

The next morning we headed across the river to take a trip on the aerial tram. The aerial tram has a cool view, but unfortunately just goes up to the hospital. Once you get up, you pretty much have no choice but to come immediately back down.

After the aerial tram, we took a trip to Bunk Sandwiches, which we saw featured on Diners, Drive-ins, and Dives. The shop was pretty small, but had a really cool vibe. And we loved the Cuban Sandwich that we had -- mostly because of the Beaver's Hot Sweet Mustard that we dipped it in.

I forgot to mention that we visited Portland on the hottest day of the year. To avoid the 95 degree heat of 1 in the afternoon, we went to the Avalon theater to see a cheap screening of the Karate Kid.

I have been talking trash about the new Karate Kid for a while -- mostly because it represents a lot of what is evil about Hollywood these days. But you know what? That movie is really good. Easily one of the best times that I've had at the movies this year.

The best part of the trip was that I got to spend a fun day with my wife. Here she is:

She is the coolest girl that I know, and a person that I have been privileged to spend the last two years with. They have been full of adventures, and I can wait to see what the rest of our time together will bring.

finishing off the Burke-Gilman

2010-08-19T13:46:00.000-07:00

Did you (out-of-towners) know that Seattle has a really great bike trail? We've ridden it on various occasions, and decided to finish off the last third of it last week by riding from Gasworks park to Golden Gardens Beach.

Gasworks Park

en route at the Ballard Locks with our amazing sandwich from Paseo

Golden Gardens Beach

Three cheers for summer bike rides!

Mt. Rainier

2010-08-19T12:46:00.000-07:00

Check this beauty out!

Rob and I drove to Mt. Rainier last week to go on a hike. The picture above is one of a only a few that we have where you can actually see the mountain. The fog rolled in shortly after, so we could only assume the mountain was still there as we hiked at it's base.

There are SO many hikes in the National Park (I somehow didn't know this prior to the trip). We chose the Skyline Loop (at Paradise) which is a really popular hike, but because it was my first time hiking around the mountain we wanted the best views (a description of the hike says, "The Skyline Trail above Paradise takes you quickly to nearly 7,000 feet-about as high as you can get in a short hike from the car anywhere in Washington state. The loop trip is spectacular on clear days, with views to the Rainier summit above, wildflowers all around and a view south as far as Mount Hood below.").

It is a little strange to hike on a busy trail, I felt like I was in the middle of a pilgrimage at times, climbing stairs in a line with other hikers. But it really was beautiful and obvious why it's so popular.

The hike turned out to be a little more than we bargained for, just because there was a lot of snow on the trail. Something about me and hiking: going down steep trails freaks me out - I see visions of myself sliding or stumbling to the depths below - but during this hike I learned a new fear: hiking in snow (especially when it's combined with a downward slope).

For example: (yep, we did this)

I survived, there were actually only about five stretches of snow and Rob held my hand (literally - I'm a wuss, I tell you!) through the stretch that was the scariest...

...this one. Just kidding.

Us on the trail Skyline Loop (wherever you see fog, just picture a 14,411 foot mountain):

The bathroom on the trail was cool. I pretended we were actually climbing the mtn and this was basecamp.

We had to take the trail slow because of all the people and the snow. It was taking longer than we had time for, so we saved a mile by cutting through the trail via the Golden Gate Trail, which is still 1.5 miles long (we had come 2.5 miles already).

I don't know what the second half of the loop looked like, but the Golden Gate trail was so so beautiful:

What a great hike! Hopefully we'll spend more time at the National Park in the future!

Camping in Chelan

2010-08-11T21:55:00.000-07:00

Our road trip was a couple of months ago and we still haven't posted about everything we did. Rob put up some nice posts from a couple stops, so I thought I'd share about Lake Chelan. Our last stop in our 4-stop trip.

We thought about going to the lake, finding a hike, or some other outdoor adventure. But, we had had enough of that during the previous days on our trip and decided, instead, to hit up the water park! It didn't have a wave pool or, my absolute favorite thing in the whole entire world, a lazy river, but it had some really fun slides that entertained us for a few hours.

After setting up camp (again) we went into town to see Toy Story 3 here:

and we sat here: (edge of the balcony)

and my handsome husband is right here:

Chelan is a cute cute town. We didn't see much of it, but I do recommend visiting. We camped at the State Park which was okay. Our spot was not private at all, which can be a bummer (because it doesn't feel like camping and can be a little awkward), but there are plenty of private sites that I'm sure you have to call way ahead for. It was another warm night (the previous night, in Oroville, had been warm too, but both nights in Manning were very cold), in fact we woke up to a very warm tent. The sun was right on us and it was a frantic, desperate, couple moments of trying to breathe the outside air. I had decided to start changing before it hit me fully and I wouldn't let Rob open the tent door. He had to stick his mouth up to a crack in the tent window to breathe in some outside air. I thought it was funny, and very classic of camping.

The only picture we have of this campsite:
Rob playing around with the camera (something about F Stop mumbo jumbo)

R.I.P roadtrip beard

2010-08-11T21:15:00.000-07:00

I was digging it, but now it's gone.

Zion's Camp

2010-07-27T10:39:00.000-07:00

This past weekend we saw that it was going to be beautiful weather up here in Seattle, because of this, we decided it would be a good time to take our nieces and nephews camping at Zion's camp in Belfair. Zion's camp is the church property that I spent a lot of time at as a youngster, but I haven't been back to in 10 or so years. They have done a lot of updates and its a really fun place to camp.

Here is a video of us enjoying our time there:

Canada Camping

2010-07-23T07:45:00.001-07:00

So now back to that trip that we took at the beginning of the month. After we left Vancouver, we made our way East for our first night of camping in BC. On the way we stopped off in Hope, BC, which we soon found out was a shooting location for a few movies. How do I look as an action star?

While in Hope, we heard from the tourist center guy about some railroad tunnels nearby. I am a sucker for old railroad tunnels, especially long and dark ones. The Othello Tunnels did not disappoint.

After we left Hope, we drove another couple hours on the Crowsnest Highway. Our final destination for the next couple of nights was Manning Provincial Park. Here is our campsite:

Our campsite was near lightning lake. At the head of the lake was this really cool bridge.
The next morning we took a hike around the lake. The views were pretty spectacular.
Near the recreation area of the lake we saw a ton of ground squirrels. Here is Stephanie in her attempt to make friends with the little guys.
Later in the evening we went across the highway from our campsite to check out a lookout that we had seen on the park map. The view was pretty awesome to say the least.
Stephanie points out the lake that our campsite was next to:
One of the cooler/funnier things about camping at Manning was the programs that the rangers put on. We saw one on the schedule that we needed to check out: A deal or no deal spoof called "Real or Not Real". It was pretty funny for about 10 minutes, then we ditched out.
We opted to instead play Phase 10 back at camp while drinking hot chocolate. Excellent choice.

Overall, our time in Manning was great. It was a little chilly considering that we were higher up in the mountains, but the scenery was quite remarkable.

Summer Hikes (so far)

2010-07-22T11:50:00.000-07:00

We had a slow start with a bunch of stuff happening this summer, but in the past couple of weeks Steph and I have made a concerted effort to catch up on our summer hike quota.

Last week, we ventured up Highway 2 to hit Bridle Veil Falls. The hike was a slow and steady climb, with a bunch of stairs. Bridle Veil Falls is on the trail to Lake Serene, but we had read that the trail to Lake Serene was pretty brutal, so we decided to stick with the easier hike. The hike had a nice payoff in the end however:

On Wednesday, we left early in the morning and drove up past Granite Falls to hit a hike on the Mountain loop highway: Heather Lake. Steph wanted to revisit the hike after doing it as a 2nd year at girls camp. She told me that at the time she thought the end of the hike was one of the prettiest places that she had ever seen -- she wasn't lying:

Once you get up to the lake, there is a nice half-mile loop around the lake.

Here is my swatting stick to combat all of the spider webs.
This photo is by Steph who is well on her way to becoming a renowned nature photographer.

Hopefully we'll get a few more hikes in before the summer ends. Let us know if you want to tag along!

Molson, WA

2010-07-21T20:57:00.000-07:00

Remember forever ago when we went on that trip to Canada? While we have neglected to post about the last few days of our trip, I wanted to take a moment to share one of the coolest places that we visited: Molson, WA. While settling up for the night in Oroville, WA, we saw a map which listed Molson as a nearby ghost town. We took the 20 minute drive and found a small town of a population of about 50. In the entrance to the town was the ghost town, with several old abandoned buildings that tourists could walk through. But what was even cooler was that the old high school had been turned into a really awesome museum.

Now the museum wasn't really cool because of what was inside it, but more because it was an old high school with many of the classrooms left in tact. It made me nostalgic for a time that I had never been in.

4th of July Weekend

2010-07-12T16:56:00.000-07:00

This 4th of July weekend we spent time up at Kayak Point. This is something that the Farrars have been doing for over 20 years. The added bonus this year was that we got to see much of Stephanie's extended family who was also camping up their as well as friends from our ward who joined us for the 3rd of July food and festivities.

Here are some scenes from that day. Enjoy!

random food thoughts

2010-07-08T12:39:00.000-07:00

I couldn't think of a single thing I wanted to eat for lunch, it's too hot. So, cereal it is. I miss my cereal-eating days. Mainly because I miss my Provo-days. I miss the boxes of cereal that lined the top of our refrigerator and I miss eating cereal in the living room for, what seemed like, 60% of my meals. I guess that's the same time that my other meals consisted of Costa Vida, Smoke House, and JDawgs. Geez, that was some good eating.

I'm not one of those people who forget to eat. Are you kidding me? The only exception to this is when I'm shopping. I don't forget to eat then, though, I just don't need to because I'm busy fulfilling my other vice.

I always eat breakfast. Some people have to try to get in the habit of eating breakfast because it's (supposedly) healthier. I, on the other hand, wake up each morning excited for three more meals.

Organic, whole foods do not concern me. However, I really should stop buying and eating fat-free american cheese slices. Occasionally I'll bring fixings with me to work and just make my sandwich at work. My cheese embarrasses me, I think I've even shielded my cheese from the rest of the break room as I peel away the plastic sleeve from the limp, pale cheese slice.

gelato nation

2010-07-05T10:22:00.000-07:00

One last Vancouver-food post. We stopped at La Casa Gelato on our way out of town, spent 20 minutes trying to decide on flavors (we shared a mint-brownie/nutella). It's expensive, but you've got to see the place!

(Rob showed me how to use Picasa collage, so you'll be seeing more of these... like, a lot more)

Vancouver: Day 2

2010-06-25T07:43:00.002-07:00

The day started out with a workout, although it was a little longer than we first anticipated because we kept seeing places we wanted to go - the beach, the bridge.6.4 kilometers later (4 mi), we had followed the following route:

Later (much later), we got ready and headed to Granville Island for the public market. We had heard that it rivals Seattle's Pike Place Market so we were excited to check it out.

We found mangosteen! It has a history of being banned in the US. After a little internet researching I found that the ban was actually lifted in 2007, so I don't know why I've never seen it in the US.

Mmm. It looks and feels like it's alive, but tastes less scary. Rob, who has eaten mangosteen in Thailand, said that it wasn't as good as the ones he'd had - but I thought it was really delicious.

Monica, this is for you. Remember the dragon fruit we saw at H-Mart? Here's what it looks like on the inside. Has anyone ever had this? It looks like it would be like kiwi fruit.

We also went over to the kid's market, which is a building full of toy stores. Note to my future parent-self: never take my children here.

Granville Island is very small, but it was still worth it to explore it via bike. It really was a neat place, very beautiful.

Then we went to Costco. Rob was planning on getting poutine: french fries covered in cheese curds and french gravy. After a few samples inside he decided against it. The healthy choice, obviously, but he might live to regret it. We love checking out different Costcos, by the way.

In the late afternoon we rode bikes from the hotel down onto the Seawall, a great bike trail that pretty much circles the entire Vancouver West Side. By the time we got to Canada Place, however, my bike was making an awful squeaking/rattling sound when I peddled. We figured it was probably okay, but we ditched the bikes anyway to walk to Gastown, Chinatown, and the Library.

Gastown's steam-powered clock. We waited 5 minutes to hear the chimes that go off at quarter after the hour. 4 short chimes, then it was done.

At a Chinese Garden in Chinatown. This koi was as big as my arm - from my shoulder to my hand, it also had a funny "crook" shape to it's body. It stayed here at this spot for five minutes and Rob wouldn't let me gently toss a small rock at it to see if it would move.

Our route for the late afternoon: (bike update: WD-40. Sounds like new)

It was such a nice evening that we decided to keep on going on the seawall on our bikes. There were so so many people out on bikes, walking, on the beach, and rollerblading. With all the people, it didn't feel too crazy. In Seattle the most popular public places are also a hassle, with parking, etc. We think that because Vancouver is so urban and has so many great paths, people just walk to the beach.

giant bikes

Beautiful evening in Vancouver. This was taken around 9:30 in the evening, when we were riding back to the hotel via the same route on the Seawall. If you could ignore the darkening skies, you'd think it was 1 in the afternoon - still a ton of people out at the beach and riding bikes.

That's it for Vancouver. That's also it for the blog updates of our trip - 4 days of camping and no internet!

Vancouver is delicious

2010-06-24T23:59:00.000-07:00

I suppose we're like most people - that one of the best things about being on vacation is eating good food. Here's the food we've eaten in Vancouver, and please know that we order one meal and share it!

First, we ate at House of Dosas. We've actually only had a dosa once before this, they're not at every Indian restaurant, but we loved it that first time so when we saw there was an entire house of the stuff, it landed itself right at the top of our itinerary. This dosa was a Chef's Special: potato, masala, and other goodness.
Japadog - a Vancouver must. They now have an actual storefront on the east end of Robson, but food is about 7x better from a cart.
We had the Okonomi (fried cabbage and Bonito flake - flakes of dried fish). Made even better with sweet chili sauce, honey mustard and wasabi mayo.This is still the same day (I feel a little ashamed, but remember the hours of walking and riding bikes??). We ate at Steamrollers, it was probably 9pm. Just about every restaurant was crowded even this late. This town is a-live! I recommend the veggie deluxe, although we got chicken.
Second day: Lunch at Donair King. According to Yelp, this is the best donair place in the city. Check out this link for the difference b/w a donair/doner and a gyro (there isn't one). Except, this place grills the wraps. Smart/delicious!
Dinner was lots and lots of sushi rolls. Just check out that price:
We also ordered (cheap) gyoza, which was uncalled for. One of the 3 rolls that comes in the deal is a tempura-yam roll. If all 22 of the rolls had been this variety, we would have been a-okay. The other rolls were California and tuna, also good. But, oh, that sweet potato!
That was it - and we're probably leaving early tomorrow. We're a little sad about that - we'll have to miss out on eating more cheap+fantastic food.

Vancouver: Roadtrip begins

2010-06-24T22:45:00.000-07:00

Our summer has begun! Rob and I have pretty awesome summer schedules, working very part-time. But even before that we have some time off and just like last year, we decided to go on a roadtrip! We settled on Vancouver for 2 nights (that's where we are now), Manning Provincial Park for 2 nights, Osoyoos Park for one night, Chelan for one night, then home. After Vancouver we'll be camping each night. Here's the route pictured:

Fun, eh? We began planning a few months ago and we are pretty stoked about it. Deciding the route, committing to 4 nights of camping by ourselves, and then packing for the trip has all been very grown-up-feeling. Helping my parents pack for a long camping trip was always fun for me (unpacking is another story), but there's so much involved! We're keeping it pretty simple and I've pretty much realized that the only difference b/w camping for 2 nights, which we've done, and 4 nights is just the amount of food.

This trip feels a bit like 2 trips in one. I packed a Vancouver bag (cute clothes for the big city) and a camping bag (for when I won't care what I look like)! We're about to be done with the first leg of our trip and it has been great so far. See, I'll show you....

Rob's obligatory roadtrip hat. The great thing about this roadtrip is that there is only 2-3 hours of driving between each leg of the trip. Brilliant.

Switching to metric is a little strange. It just adds to the overall strange feeling I've had here in Vancouver - in that I know we're in another country, but there are only a handful of things that show that (metric system, Canadian $, road signs, not being able to watch Top Chef on Hulu... but that's about it). Oh, and I keep telling Rob to use up our coins - they're like fake money to me.

The first things we did once getting into town was head to Stanley Park. It was just so nice outside that we had to take the opportunity to ride our bikes on the Seawall, which was the number one thing we wanted to do. My main recommendation for visiting Vancouver: bring or rent bikes! The Seawall at the park is amazing, and Vancouver is just a great cycling city.

Some shots of us at Stanley Park. It took just an hour to ride the 5.5 miles (stopping multiple times to take in the view and check out other parts of the park included).

We wanted to ride the Miniature Train at the park, but didn't end up doing it. Here's how bummed Rob was when I wouldn't even let him wait around until the train passed by us (the thing was S-L-O-W).
Stanley Park also has a awesome looking outdoor pool. It was so very unfortunate that we didn't have our swim gear with us when we discovered the pool at Second Beach. If you're visiting Vancouver in the future, don't make the same mistake we did.

After Stanley Park we dropped off our car at the hotel (west-end-ish of Robson) and started walking. Then we kept walking. We saw a lot of Vancouver on our walk and learned a few things: Robson is busy, Granville has an H&M, Davie has cheap food, Clothes are more expensive here, Sears is fancy, the streets are still crawling with people at 10pm, and Starbucks are everywhere.

Vancouver is a great urban town and I really like the size and amount of "busy." As most great big cities there are also many impressive nature spaces. Here is a community garden on Davies. I loved it.
I love this picture of Rob, too. What a great travel buddy, a few things about Rob as a travel buddy: he has amazing sense of direction (I know this, and still I try to disagree about where things are or how to get somewhere... he's right, but I hold onto the hope that one of these days I'll be the one who's right), he loves the hunt for cheap and good food - that post coming later, he will rub my feet after hours of walking, and he will wait around for me while I'm browsing (never buying) through a store he has no interest in.

Memorial Day Weekend

2010-06-06T10:20:00.001-07:00

Originally we had planned to go camping with our friends Memorial Day weekend. The weather, however, had other plans as it continued to rain all weekend long. On Sunday, we decided to give up on the camping plans and we took a trip to visit my family in Silverdale with our friends The McDonnels. We had a blast over there, and I thoroughly enjoyed the time that I got to spend with our family and friends. Here is some video footage I took on our trip. Enjoy!

one happy guy

2010-05-31T00:31:00.001-07:00

Before flying to Phoenix for James and Erin's wedding, Rob and I stopped to eat at the Aussie Pie Company. Rob knew that James, who served a mission in Australia like Rob did, would love (understatement) a meat pie. He was right.

Happy James

It was James' first meat pie since his mission, and (apparently) it tastes entirely authentic. We didn't know if we'd be able to bring the pie onto the plane, so Rob was prepared to pull a Liz Lemon at security.

While James ate his pie I ate a steak burrito from Filibertos. It was 11:30pm.

(one happy girl)

my phobia

2010-05-31T00:20:00.001-07:00

I have a fear of being chased. I doubt there are people out there that like being chased, but anything akin to being chased freaks me out. Like this...

Rob and I went to North Creek County Park one beautiful Sunday afternoon. They have a boardwalk through the marshes with sections that get flooded as you walk over it - you can see in the two pictures how the water is covering more of the boardwalk as I continue to walk. So you have to walk really fast or up on the ledges because the water chases you, and if you're not careful the water will get you.

Freaked. Me. Out.

Clara's Torture

2010-05-29T11:20:00.000-07:00

Some things I have been doing lately

2010-05-19T16:09:00.001-07:00

So lately, I have had a pretty crazy desire to make movies. I have always felt a little bit like a hypocrite because I teach others how to make films, but I don't do a lot of it myself. Recently however, I went to my friend James' wedding in Arizona and decided to shoot it with a digital SLR from work. Since then I have caught the bug and am looking for more projects to complete. So if you know of anything, send them my way while the fire is hot (I don't know if that is the metaphor that I am looking for).

Here is James and Erin's wedding:

Here is an experiment with stop motion animation that I did at my niece Leah's b-day party:

Florida Farrars

2010-04-24T21:37:00.000-07:00

My brother and his wife are trying to adopt and have just completed the process/profile for LDS Family Services. We want as many people as possible to know of their search and of what amazing parents they would be - so please take a look at their beautiful message, pictures, etc. on their profile page. Share their information via word of mouth, blog, etc. whenever you feel inspired....

We are praying that the baby who is meant to be in their family finds its way there soon.

We are also praying it takes after Lisa.

San Francisco (Part Three)

2010-04-05T12:12:00.000-07:00

On Wednesday morning, Steph and I tried to wake up early for free admission into the Tea Gardens at Golden Gate Park. The gardens are free until 10am on M,W, F. With Scott's help, we got to the garden's at about 9:45.

I think this Buddha is in a Photoshop book that I have:

The gardens also had this insane bridge. Only I was brave enough to scale it:

But I also had to be brave for the descent:
The rest of the day our plan was to get more use out of our double-decker bus tour. Our first stop on the bus tour was Chinatown. I had been to Chinatown a few times before, but I never knew what to be excited about. I mostly saw a bunch of $1.88 t-shirts, and a load of tourists. In our guidebook we read that most tourists hang out on Grant street, while the locals shop on Stockton.

Here is Grant:

We stopped by the fortune cookie factory and grabbed a bag full of fortune cookies. We had to resist the urge to buy a bag full of "Adult" fortunes.

After the cookie factory, we went to Stockton street in search of some grub. I always have a hard time in international districts. I want to stay away from tourists traps, but I usually can't understand the menu at the places that locals frequent.

We did however, see a line coming out of this place. We thought it best to check it out:

I couldn't understand the menu, so I just pointed, payed 50 cents and ended up with this deliciousness:

My greatest regret of the trip is that I didn't go back and get 5 more of them.

After Chinatown, we hopped back on the bus. While waiting at a stop at Fisherman's wharf I spotted a pier with an interesting sign "Musee Mecanique". We got off the bus and decided to check it out.

The Musee was pretty cool. Essentially a collection of old, strange, penny arcade machines. Some favorites:

I won't post the video of me getting beat by the arm wrestling machine on the "Fly Weight" setting. But I did get to see 3D photos of the San Francisco fire and earthquake.

Our next stop was the Ferry Building which was really cool -- Essentially an old building which was converted to a mall full of fancy foods.

Next we stopped at Civic Center and took a tour of city hall:

After it started raining really hard. We had a few hours until we went to Betsy and Steve's for dinner, so we found refuge in Lee's Sandwiches. Which had a boat-load of Bahn Mi.

So many choices!

After our sandwich, it was still raining. So we found refuge in the Public Library with some smelly and even belligerent homeless people.

After the library, we caught the train over to Betsy and Steve's in the inner sunset. Steve is my new hero because he makes awesome pizza and he is really funny. We are sad that we didn't get to hang out with them more. The evening was fun, as we got to eat pizza and 2 dozen cookies, and catch up.

Another great day - other San Francisco fun will follow shortly.

San Francisco (Part Two)

2010-04-03T16:04:00.000-07:00

On Monday of our trip, Scott and Whitney decided to get all touristy with us and follow us into the city. One of the parts about San Francisco that I love is the amazing public transportation. I really feel like it is relatively easy to get from anywhere to anywhere in a small amount of time. In Seattle, we just have token forms of transportation, like the Monorail. Which is really good if you want to travel from a crappy mall to the space needle. If you want to get from our house to anything interesting in Seattle be prepared to take an 8-hour bus ride.

Anyway, here is us on the L train:
Our object in going into the city was to ride a super-touristy double-decker open top bus. As luck would have it -- it was raining:

The open top was really popular:

To warm up, we had some food at Boudin at Fisherman's wharf, which was pretty good:

After, we walked over to Ghiradelli Square. Which I imagined to be something akin to Willy Wonka's Chocolate Factory...Wrong. Really beautiful space, but where is all of the chocolate?

The next day, we traveled with Scott into the Mission to grab some burritos at El Farolito's. I am intimidated by the amount of Mexican food that's in the Mission. So luckily, Yelp was around to help us out.

Scott and I had the Super Burritos. Scott of course had to put Tapatio on his (Scott buys Tapatio in mass quantities. I would often come back to my apartment at BYU to find him eating Totino's Pizza's with Tapatio on top).

Here is my Carne Asada (minus Tapatio plus Horchata):

Steph had a Torta, which was unlike any Torta that we have had. It was grilled, like a Panini:

Overall, I would say that the food was really good. Once again Yelp, you rule!

After eating, we checked out some things that were happening in the mission. One place that I wanted to check out was Dave Egger's Pirate Supply Store at 826 Valencia:

The store was a front for a Teen Writing workshop. There were a lot of cool posters and books, and I even got to see Dave Egger's himself hanging around. Overall, I think the project is really cool and would love to do something very similar with media.

Oh, and do you see that big wooden box on the ceiling. While standing underneath it, one of the workers triggered the booby trap and it dropped Mop Tops on me. Those pirate tricksters!

On our way home, I was still feeling adventurous after all of that pirating. We drove up to the top of Twin Peaks and hiked around:

Twin Peaks has a beautiful 360-degree view of the city.

When we returned home, Stephanie was feeling the pirate urge so she decided to turn Jones into a gypsy/pirate baby:

Still more...

San Francisco (Part 1)

2010-04-03T09:18:00.000-07:00

This past week, Steph and I had the privilege of visiting San Francisco for our spring break. While I have been several times throughout the years, it was Steph's first visit and I was really excited for her to see the city. I was also excited because I have several good friends who live there, who I haven't seen for a long time.

We left on Saturday morning and flew into Oakland. From Oakland, we took BART into the city.

Whitney picked us up at the airport where I got to meet this guy for the first time:

Jones is just plain awesome. I really fell in love with this kid over the week -- he is really fun, and not a total chump like his dad.

After eating some great pizza at a pizza place on Noriega, Scott took Steph and I took a bus to Haight street. The Haight is the stoner section of San Francisco as evidenced by this house, which once belonged to the Grateful Dead:

Almost everything on the street smells like pot, and strange architectural features like legs hanging out windows are completely normal:

One of my favorite places on the street was this little shop, Loved to Death, that sells taxidermied animals:

I was going to buy a buck head to mount on the wall, but decided that it wouldn't fit into our carry on baggage.

The next day we went to church with Scott and Whitney. Scott's ward is chucked full of other San Francisco friends including Tim and Betsy & Steve. Sunday was one of the only nice days weather wise. Considering this, Steph and I took a walk down to the beach after church. Scott & Whitney's place is just a few blocks from the beach.

Later in the evening, we had a little Indian/Thai potluck with Tim and his brother. After Dinner, we ditched Jones with the roommates and took a drive up the coast to the Marin Headlands.

Tim was dressed appropriately for San Francisco as he looked a bit like a beat poet:

The headlands have an amazing view of the city and the Golden Gate Bridge:

The Boys:
The Girls:

At the top of the Headlands were some cool WWII bunkers. Tim decided to jump into one -- little did he know that the bunker would point out his Man Freckles.

More to come...

while in Southern California

2010-03-21T15:59:00.000-07:00

Recently, I've had a few friends move to Southern California. And while I was sad that we didn't get to see all of them on our trip (sorry Emilys), we were lucky enough to travel to San Diego to visit Jenn and Kris. Jenn is one of my best friends from BYU and the sister of Mike, my old roommate.

Jenn has two awesome and beautiful kids, Sam and Lucy. The whole time that we hung out with them, we were really in awe of their parenting style and how they make parenting seem like no big deal -- even though we know that they are such great parents. You know, like letting your kid sit on your lap and watch Bob the Builder.

Here is Kris with Lucy. I like Kris so much. I remember being so happy when I found out that Jenn started dating Kris -- they are such a great fit for one another. And Kris is a Jorgensen, and all Jorgensens are cool...Jenn wasn't cool before, but now she is.

Jenn made us this awesome Italian Wedding Soup with meatballs that she had made the night before. We ate a lot of good things on our trip, but this was probably the best meal that we had.

Here is Steph playing with Sam. This is probably before Sam started throwing things off the balcony. She let him...because Jorgensens are that cool.

Thanks Jenn and Kris for letting us hang out with your family!

Character breakfast at Disneyland

2010-03-21T15:44:00.000-07:00

One of the most memorial things we did during our Disneyland trip was eat breakfast at the Plaza Inn. It was great, because instead of standing in line to get a picture with a Disney character they came around to our table while we ate. Minnie was the biggest star there:

This guy from Pinocchio creeped me out - because people dressed up tend to, and because he was a little too friendly. Rob's playing along, trying to rescue me. You can see the character pushing Rob away, what you can't see is how tightly he's hugging me!