It's been an ongoing thing for the past 2 months that we have been looking at redoing our kitchen counters. We've looked at sinks, granite, quartz, etc. We CANNOT find anyone to take our money and give us a quote and timeframe to do it! We had our slab picked out and everything and we never heard back from the guy. So we are still at square 1 trying to get this done.
It's been an interesting month with JJ in a lot of ways. About 3 weeks ago he started getting up in the middle of the night again. I don't know why. He's not hungry, he's not dirty or wet, and unlike other times when we get up with him he doesn't want to play. He'll go right back to sleep while you rock him but when you try and put him down he immediately wakes up and grabs on for dear life.
He also has started fighting us whenever we try and put him in a car seat or high chair. He throws himself backwards and screams.
He bites. Thankfully it's just John and I since his daycare said he hasn't bitten there.
He's finally learned to put his head back to drink from his sippy cup and just this week he's basically quit eating baby food. Cold turkey. He just won't eat it. So it's been interesting trying to find what he will eat. He still gags a lot on stuff but knock on wood no projectile vomiting in the last few weeks.
Is this all normal?
JJ does usually smile for his Uncle Nick when we get out to the car after daycare. I think Uncle Nick likes him. Sometimes he pays more attention to JJ than the road...
We got an invite over to Nathan and Erica's for dessert because Aunt Annette was here and Taylor and Jordan finally made their move also. It's always fun to get JJ and Sophie together.
We knew our team was getting torn apart at work and I was really sad about that. I haven't had a team I liked this much since my first team with Dawn 5 years ago. It's always nice when you have people you like at work to talk to and help make the day and the work better. We've all hung out a few times outside of work so hopefully we will all still hang out. Before they tore us apart we had to have a last potluck. I don't know why but I seem to get put in charge of organizing team lunches and such. That meant this time that I got sent to the store. Sure, I'll go to the store on the clock to do some shopping. I found the Lay's flavor contest chips finally and I had to decide which to buy and try. Juan and I do this every year where we have to try them all. I got the Greek Gyro that time and I rank them a 4 out of 10. I've tried them all now and I give the biscuits and gravy the top rating of an 8. Truffle fries is second with a 7 and the Reuben ties with the Gyro at a 4.
Here is another example of the fun we had as a team. For some reason we started to pick a color and we would all wear that color to work. Our color of the day was blue. I say this shirt is bluish grey. I got told that I am wrong. This became #theshirt. It trended in our group chat.
I asked John. At least he got the answer right.
August is Stephanie's birth month. We went to Zinburger for dinner to celebrate one night. I finally ordered their Ahi sandwich. It was delicious!
Part of Stephanie's birthday was a quick staycation. We stayed at The Phoenician and it was fantastic. Definitely the nicest resort that we've stayed at in the Valley. John and I were only there for 24 hours because we didn't dare inflict JJ on anyone any longer than that (and to hear how it went, we're glad we didn't stay any longer). Shar and Nick kept him and there was a bit of drama at our house that night with crying babies, smoke alarms, scorpions....
Anyways, it's a gorgeous resort. As soon as we got there we headed out to the pool. I wish I'd had at least 3 days to just lounge at the pool.
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| The bathroom was HUGE! |
We have to stay hydrated in the Arizona sun but 10 Hydroflasks for 4 people??
We had tickets to go see Whitney Cummings at Tempe Improv so unfortunately we had to get out of the pool to clean up and go to dinner. We went to the burger place on the property (I can't remember what it's called and I don't want to look it up) but it was really yummy. Then we tried Uber for the first time. That was pretty handy and saved us from having to deal with parking, etc.
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| I got a little sun...... |
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| Breakfast the next morning on the patio |
We had breakfast on the patio the next morning. It was interesting to learn that the resort uses birds or prey to keep the other 'pesky' birds away from the diners. They don't release the birds they just bring them on the patio with the handler and the other birds scatter.
I had a Monday off work and decided to have a me morning. I went and got a massage and a pedicure. Unfortunately I had a full afternoon planned and cut it pretty close on time. The freezer meals I made in January were gone so I replenished them. It's a lot of work but I so enjoy having the easy meals to grab when I don't have time or better ideas.
Then on the 14th it was Bug's 11 month mark! I can't believe it's been almost a year already. I look back at his baby pictures and feel like I'm looking at a different person. He certainly has a lot of personality and overall is so good for us.
John had to go to Cabella's and since he says all the time that we need to go on longer drives with JJ we headed out to Glendale. It's true that most of JJ's car rides are about 20 minutes long so we wanted to do something longer and try and get him used to it. As usual he did really great. I did feel bad for him being cooped up in his seat for so long and then making him sit in a stroller or cart so I just let him go in Cabella's. He had a blast crawling all over the place and he was FILTHY! We knew he was tired and it was time to eat so we went to Firehouse and grabbed a quick sandwich and fed him some food so that on the way home he could do this:
This was good practice for our vacation! JJ's school was closed for a week because Laura's daughter had a baby and she needed to go spend some time with her new granddaughter. Since I didn't want to be stuck in Arizona in August for a week with an 11 month old we took off to Idaho for the week and Stephanie and Bart came with us. We were pretty nervous about the plane flight after the trip to Ogden but the timing worked out a lot better than last time and we were better prepared. We had a few minutes of fussing and crying and then he fell asleep for a lot of the flight. One of the other passengers told us we did a really good job putting him to sleep. I guess that makes me happy but it makes me wonder if he hadn't done well what would they have said?
For example, John, Nick, Shar, JJ, and I all went to Lolo's for dinner one night. Nick and I were there first and waited about 30 minutes for Shar and John. JJ was happy and having a great time but he was squealing and being loud. A table of old people kept looking around and saying 'what kid is making all that noise'. Well.....I got angry and finally turned around and pointed at JJ and said 'it's him right here and he's not crying so what do you want me to do about it'. Not sure what Nick thought of this, but oh well. The table on the other side of us was a younger family and she turned around and told me 'he can make as much noise as he wants'. It was just a frustrating situation for me.
But back to the trip! So we got into Idaho Falls and went over to John's sister's house for lunch. We got to see basically his whole side of the family and grab some lunch before heading out.
We stopped to feed the fish outside Ashton and then stopped at upper and lower Mesa Falls. It was so nice to be in the cooler weather and we got a little rain feeding the fish. JJ was able to take a little nap in the car for part of the ride. For the most part he stayed pretty happy because he loves being outside. He did get upset when he kept getting put back in his car seat but overall he did really great.
I had to go stock up on a few jammies for him because it's so warm down here he sleeps in just a onesie but it was only going to be in the 30s in Island Park so he got some footy jammies. I was pretty nervous about a lot of things on this trip; the flight, the car ride, and sleeping. Well we can't get everything we want. It was a rough night; pretty much every night. I tried to keep JJ on his Arizona schedule. Since they are only an hour ahead I just shifted his times an hour. It was just rough being in a different bed, colder climate, etc. and he was up ALOT. Side note: I had taken him to the doctor the Wednesday before we left because I was afraid of him having an ear infection and that being part of why he kept waking up, but the doctor said he was fine. Then I worried about him getting an ear infection while we were there with the temperature and altitude change, but I guess he's ok.
We went for a drive to Johnny Sack cabin and on the way around we saw a momma deer and her baby.
When we got back we decided to go for a ride on the 4 wheelers. We left JJ with Grandma and headed out. It's been a while since I rode a quad but it's so so fun. We went on a good ride; about 2 hours and when we came back JJ was asleep on the floor so we couldn't all come trooping through so we went back out for another hour or so. I think everyone had fun and thanks to John's sister Teri for letting us use her machines.
We started the line for the shower and since I had a little boy asking for me I ran in first. As we were all pretty much cleaned up and getting ready for dinner Jim came out and said there was a moose out back. As you can see from the picture it was right out their back door. That wood pile is their wood pile. I had to get a selfie with the moose.
We had a busy day planned for Wednesday. JJ was going to stay with his grandma and grandpa while we were going to drive through Yellowstone and down to Jackson for the night. We didn't take him because let's face it, he wouldn't have liked all the driving and in and out of his car seat.
We got a decent start on the day and decided to knock Old Faithful out first. That may have been a mistake. We thought it went off every 20-40 minutes but it is every 90 minutes. Well, we had just missed it while we were parking so we ended up sitting around for awhile. That put us late starting to see the thermal pools and such. We had wanted to get to Jackson about 4 to have time to relax a little and wander around and then go to dinner but we were several hours behind that.
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| We did this just to see how many other people would follow suit. Didn't take long and a whole bunch of people were laying down to take pictures of they don't know what. |
We did the loop that goes up to Canyon Village and down the lake shoreline. I don't remember being to Yellowstone Lake before and it was really pretty. Unfortunately, we didn't see really any animals except buffalo.
We didn't get a very good view of the Tetons because of the smoke from all the fires. It was even worse when we went back over them to Pocatello on Thursday.
We got all checked in at Snowking Resort and headed down to wander a bit before dinner. We took this picture and later I realized that it is or was (within a week) 14 years exactly to when we were in Jackson last and when we got engaged. Back then we had gone horseback riding at Snowking and got engaged after that. I found it neat that we were there again at the same time as that event in our lives.
Because we were late in general we didn't get into eat until 830 so we basically wandered a few shops, ate, and went to bed. I, however, was wide awake by 530 the next morning (can't enjoy one flipping day to sleep in) and laid in bed trying to figure out how I could get my clothes so I could go to the gym. I finally went about 7 or so and ran on the treadmill to try and get rid of some excess energy and get rid of the antsy feelings.
Not a bad morning view!
After a quick (not) breakfast we were on our way home. We got to Pocatello and went and picked up JJ real fast. He was one worn out, tired little boy. We got up to my mom's house and I can't remember what we did, but finally we left JJ with my mom and ran to show Stephanie and Bart the town and grab a bite to eat.
That night my mom had planned a delicious dinner for family and friends. It was gorgeous weather to sit outside and relax. It was so nice to see everyone who came up and I wish there were 15 of me to have more time to spend with everyone.
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| Love my adopted little sister and her cutie pie daughter! |
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| This guy was having so much fun on the nice grass and seeing the fish |
I love being able to see my grandparents (and I was upset when I realized I'd forgotten to take a picture of Grandma Connie and Grandpa Len). I am truly blessed to still have all my grandparents here with us and I treasure each time I get to be with them. It was fun to have JJ be around them too.
We were all sitting around and I told my grandparents that I wanted to tell them each a memory I had of them all. I told Grandma Connie that I remember staying with her once when I was little and her taking me to her aerobics class and I remember all these ladies in their spandex gear and just being weirded out by the whole thing. I told Len that I remember all the times going fishing in his boat and when he'd tell me to get him a red one (a beer) and worm. That was my job to dig the worms out.
I told Grandma about a time at Posse park watching some volleyball and I had said something to her that she was telling me to move or get up and do something or she was going to carry me to do it. I had to have been a teenager at this time and when she tried to carry me we were all laughing and she said she was going to have an accident which of course just made us all laugh harder. Grandma didn't believe that this had ever happened but my mom heard the story and vouched for me.
Then I told Grandpa that of course I remember all the Christmas' at their house and him doing Ba-gump on the living room floor, in his robe, with his hair standing out.
Just one of the many memories I have of each of my grandparents.
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| I love him in jammies. So dang cute! |
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| JJ got to try and learn stairs at Grandmas. We don't have stairs here. Not sure he quite mastered it in 24 hours. |
We went to lunch at Buddy's. Jaden helped carry Bug in and he helped watch him when we got back to the house too. He can be a great nephew when he wants to be. Unfortunately Buddy's didn't live up to the hype for everyone. We got to visit with Nathan though before heading home.
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| Watching the rain |
