Utah Trip: Days 3&4

This might be getting boring for some of you, but I want to remember all of it. Skip over it if you aren't interested.

On Friday, we let Sheila's mom watch Eleanor with the help of Austin and Kenzie while Grant, Dad, Sheila, and I went to the Vernal temple. Aunt Kathleen was just getting into town, and she met us there. We got to do some family names since Kathleen is so dedicated to genealogy, and the temple was just as beautiful as I remembered it from the open house and baptisms for the dead. Eleanor had a great time and didn't have any problems with us leaving her since she had her good friends, Austin and Kenzie there. For any of you who don't know, they are my little brother and sister, born to my dad and Sheila. They were so good to her and made her feel so comfortable from the start. Kenzie was like having a built in babysitter the whole time-- that's what I call a vacation!

Saturday was the day of the big party. While Grant's cold was slowly getting better and Eleanor was only coughing at night, my cold had gone into my chest and was getting worse each day. I knew it must be because of the dryness compared to Oregon, and I just needed my chest to open up so I could cough out some of the gunk that was making it so hard for me to breathe. I tried calling a doctor back here in Oregon, hoping I could just get a prescription for an inhaler so that I wouldn't have to go to some urgent care or ER and cost us a bunch of money when I already knew what I needed. Well, I didn't get my usual doctor; I spoke with some guy who had never even met me who scared me to death, telling me I could have asthma problems for the rest of my pregnancy. He said I was going to have to take an inhaled steroid as a preventative measure for the rest of my pregnancy. Then he told me to go to an urgent care center. If you know me, you know I'm not so big on taking a bunch of drugs while I'm pregnant, so the thought of needing that kind of inhaler for the rest of my pregnancy was not my ideal. I would take it if I absolutely needed it, but I knew my current breathing problems were only because of my cold and the dry climate. After that conversation, I decided I felt better already and didn't need to go to urgent care where they were possibly going to try to push a bunch of drugs on me I didn't want.

But my coughing and wheezing just weren't getting better, and by the time I gave in and decided we should go to urgent care, they were closed. I couldn't stand to cost us the money it would have required for an ER visit in a place not covered by our insurance, so I decided I would just have to suck it up. My dad started thinking of anyone and everyone he knew with asthma from whom he could maybe borrow an inhaler. The first people he tried in his ward loaned us a nebulizer and several doses of Albuterol. I had a breathing treatment before the birthday party, and it made a huge difference. I ended up having one more breathing treatment during the trip, and once I got back to Oregon, my lungs got better every day. I'm fine now and still think it would have been absurd if I had listened to that doctor.

And now, for the main event: the birthday party. My dad turned 60 this year. There was a ton of good food, and we all ate first. During dinner, my Uncle John read memories and anecdotes about my dad, written by all the family. Then, we gave him gifts. After the festivities, some of the family played tornado. Here's a little video from that:

Eleanor got to play along with help from her daddy. My sister looks like she swallowed a basketball, but, I assure you, there were only the two balls at the start (tee hee).

(A few game shots.)

And here's the birthday guy, himself. My dad is in the middle, with his brother, Will, on the left and Grandma B, Sheila's grandma, on the right. She is such a dear, sweet lady, and I have so many fun memories of her! She loves Oregon because she served a mission out here along the coast.
The kids had fun playing in the nursery. I thought it was so fun that they had these in a nursery. What a fun toy! Here, Connor was spinning along with Eleanor, but he's giving up his seat for the lady (Grace). What a gentleman!

This shows some more of the grandkids. There are 11 in total, Eleanor ranking at #10.

During dessert, Dad read some of his favorite stories aloud to the kids.

The cake had dark blue icing in some places, and it dyed everyone's mouths. There was no mistaking who came to my dad's party.

Ethan with Aunt Kathleen, enjoying some cake and ice cream. Kathleen is my dad's sister, and Ethan is #11 of the grandkids.

I had to get a picture of Hayden's blue mouth. He didn't want to smile for the camera, so I had to catch him unaware.

Ethan is such a cutie! He was happy to sit and roll the ball with a partner.

Utah Trip: Day 2

First thing Thursday morning, my dad ran out and got a job. See, he had thrown a kink in things when he quit his job a few weeks before we were to arrive. They were doing some rotten things like trying to make him switch to salary instead of hourly pay, and he wasn't going to put up with it. Sheila had already secretly arranged with his boss before he quit for him to have time off when we were in town. After he quit, it was even more difficult for Sheila to communicate with me about plans without him knowing. Plus, she had to try to stall him every time he said he thought he would go look for a job. She knew it wouldn't be as easy for her to get him time off with a brand new boss. So, as soon as there were no more secrets, he went out and got a job, effective Monday after we left.



While I was in the shower, Grant, Dad, and Austin took Eleanor over to a nearby neighbor's house to show her some sheep. Apparently, she got a bit overwhelmed by being surrounded by all those sheep. But they did find a friendly goat to pet.

It's evident that she was under her daddy's supervision because her hair is totally in her face. I just don't know how she can stand it.

And later, we visited Annabell again. This was a repeat occurrence throughout the trip, but don't worry, I didn't take pictures every time. Sometimes, Eleanor would ask to hold Annabell, but would back out every time we got her close because she was just too wiggly.

Later in the day, we went to Jensen to Dana and Cleo's house (some family friends who have sheep) to feed a bum lamb. It's mother had 3 babies, and could only feed 2, so this one was being bottle fed. Isn't it cute? Get ready for a bunch of pictures of Eleanor and this little bugger-- I liked them all!

Eleanor petting the lamb. She enjoyed seeing this lamb more than she had the ones in the morning since this one was separated from the others. It's sucking my thumb-- SO hungry!

Eleanor thought it was so cool to hold the bottle and feed the baby sheepy.

She also liked holding it.

After she was done with the sheep, Kenzie showed Eleanor their nice old dog. Eleanor got to brush him. This is her "cheese" face. You ask the girl to say, "cheese," and this is what you get.
This is the face you get when you ask for a big smile. Much different.

They also have quite a few peacocks that just wander around the property.

Kenzie and Eleanor. They were looking for a peacock feather Eleanor could take home, but they were having trouble finding a very pretty one.

And what's more fun than standing on a huge bale of hay in the back of a pick up?

Bedtime, and Eleanor and Kenzie are bonding over fish faces.

. . . And stories.

When we first got to Vernal, we had my dad sit on the couch and read Eleanor a few books. From that moment on, she was quite comfortable with her Grandpa Jim.

If Eleanor didn't already consider Kenzie a best friend, this certainly sealed the deal. One of Eleanor's favorite things to do is to hide with a willing participant.

Kenzie helping Eleanor see through all that hair after hiding under the blanket.

Woohoo!

Finally! My pestering actually paid off, and Haley actually started a blog! I could only be more happy if I wasn't having to wipe Eleanor's snotty nose every two minutes this morning! I am so excited to get to check in with her more often than our weekend phone calls (that as much as we try, don't happen every weekend). So, if you want to spy on one of my very bestest friends in the whole wide world, now you can. Haley, it's time for you to start catching up on all those times I've tagged you. Get blogging, tootsie!

2 and 1/2

Eleanor is growing up in leaps and bounds, and it's hard to know where to begin!

• Early in February, she finally figured out how to open doors. Before, she couldn't reach the knobs well enough to get a good grip. For a while, I said she was O.C.D.C. (Obsessive Compulsive Door Closer), because anytime a door in our house was open, she had to make sure and shut it. Maybe she just enjoyed knowing she would have to open it agian. I don't know.
• Due to springtime and her recent visit to Utah, she loves sheep.
• She loves babies, and always wants to hold her cousin, Isabel.
• Any time I ask her if she wants Mommy to have a baby like baby Isabel (or any other example I can think of), she says yes. If I ask her if she wants a baby brother or sister, she always tells me no.
• Favorite TV show: seems to be slowly shifting from Mama Mirabelle's Home Movies to Word World.
• Favorite cereal: Honeycomb. She grabbed a box off the shelf at the grocery store this month, and was so confident in her shopping abilities, that we just bought it. After she saw it get left in the cart, she chose many other items on that shopping trip. All of those items were secretly removed by Daddy while she and I moved on down the aisle. Bless her heart, she thinks she's helping.
• Her vocabulary and language skills are taking off. She's getting better with pronouns, actually says, "his" now-- most of the time correctly. She has started experimenting with "was" and "cause." They mostly get tacked onto the beginning of a sentence, but I like that she's branching out.
• She's using her imagination more and more. She'll tell me who she is at a certain moment, such as baby Lucy, "Daw-bee" (David), doggy, sheepy, Audrey, and then any time I address her, I have to call her by that name. If I say, "Okay, let's go," for example, she corrects me, and I have to say, "Okay, doggy, let's go." She also pretends to hold different things. She'll hold out her cupped hand to me and tell me she has something such as a dog, sheepy, cow, lizard. . . the list goes on and on. She usually wants me to pet it, too.

I may have to return to this post and add more later. I know there's more I wanted to record, but I'm getting too sleepy to remember.

Pregnancy update: I started feeling some movements before the trip (around 14 weeks), though it was often difficult to distinguish from gas bubbles most of the time. Now, the movements are getting much more defined and easier to recognize. I still have to be relaxing to feel it, though. We sure had a lot of movement this evening after Grant got home! Maybe he/she could hear Grant and Eleanor talking over dinner. We have an appointment tomorrow, so we'll get to hear that blessed little heartbeat again. Last time, Eleanor said, "I hear my baby sumping!" We also took her to the first appointment when they gave me an ultrasound. Her comments were "I see Mommy's baby on TB!" and "Mommy have goop on her tummy."

Utah trip: Day 1

Sheila called me way back at the beginning of January to ask me to fly down to Utah for my dad's 60th birthday party. She said she didn't think she could pull off a surprise party, so he knew about the party, but she hoped my arrival could be a surprise to him. On a night in January when we booked our plane tickets, Grant asked Eleanor if she wanted to ride on a plane with Mommy and Daddy. Of course, she said yes and headed for the door, wondering why we weren't close behind her, getting our shoes on. It took some explaining to help her understand it wouldn't happen for another month and a half, and she was rather disappointed-- good one, Grant.

So, on March 12th, our journey began. We got a ride to the airport from Kelli. Eleanor loved riding in "Rissa's" car. Larissa was only with us long enough to get dropped off at her grandma's, but that seemed to satisfy Eleanor anyway. We rode the ferry across the river to get to I-5, which was really new for Eleanor. We told her what was going to happen, and once the car was on the ferry, she kept telling us she wanted to get on the boat. Apparently, it just isn't a boat ride if you have to stay in the car!

This was actually the very first time Grant and I had been on a plane together, because in the past, we've taken the road trip to save money. We let Eleanor wear her own little backpack at the airport, and she did really well with all the security measures. Her main setback was when we checked her carseat. She did not want us to hand it over to some strange man. That was her carseat, and she told us all about it! We assured her that it was going on the same plane as we were, and we would get it back when we got off.

Eleanor loved watching all the planes fly by with her daddy. They watched as our plane pulled up, and she even got to see them load her carseat onto the plane.

Ready for a nice, safe flight (even though we flew Southwest).

This wasn't Eleanor's first flight. I flew to Salt Lake with her once when she was about 13 months old, so this time was a little different for her. She did really well. We were able to get the front row where there is plenty of leg room (and toddler roaming room). The only time she had a problem was after she had been on her feet most of the flight, and the captain turned on the seatbelt sign for landing. She was less than enthused about being buckled in again after roaming free all that time. Grant tried holding her on his lap, but the stewardess said that since she was two, she had to be in her own seat. She helped us out by giving us a deck of cards, though. That seemed to cheer Eleanor, and she and I counted them until we were landed. We had all gotten a cold before the trip (great timing), so my ears were so plugged I could barely hear a thing. Luckily, the cold was a fairly mild one for Eleanor; it hit Grant and me the hardest.

After all that, it was time to get into a car for the 3 and 1/2 hour drive to Vernal. I had hoped Eleanor would nap almost the whole way, leaving her pleasant and happy when she would reach Grandpa, Austin and Kenzie. Apparently, she had other plans, and she played and talked for a good part of the trip. It was a good chance for her to interact with Grandma Sheila, because I was tired and eventually stopped playing with Eleanor. She did eventually fall asleep and got about an hour nap. She woke up when we got to town and switched vehicles. Sheila had told Dad she was just riding to Salt Lake with her Aunt Beverly, so she and her mom and Beverly came to pick us up. Then, we had to get into Sheila's van that was parked at Beverly's to drive the rest of the way home.

Eleanor loved seeing all the livestock as we drove through town. We would point out either window and show her cows, horses, or sheep, often with babies. She loved it. She would tell us she wanted to see more animals whenever we ran out of things to show her.

The secrecy was all worth it. We got there, and Austin told Dad that Sheila was back and needed some help. He walked out of the house to find me, Grant, and Eleanor holding a sign saying, "Happy Birthday." He was so surprised and happy!

Kenzie showed Eleanor the new baby goat, Annabell, only a week old. Eleanor loved seeing all their animals. Outside, they have chickens, ducks, dogs, goats, and a horse. In the house, they have chinchillas and lizards (both in cages).

Annabell was hilarious when they put her on the ground. She'd run and jump, and her bottom looked as if it was trying to flip sideways while she was in the air.

This is Fern, Kenzie's horse (one of three, but the only one residing on their property). Eleanor liked petting the horse, too. She also liked watching Fern out the kitchen window and saying, "Horsie. Eeeeee!"