Myrtle Beach

We just returned from a fabulous vacation / family reunion at Myrtle Beach. It was a great trip, and we are thinking it may be the first real vacation since we were married almost 7 years ago. Sad huh? Anyway, it was awesome. Here are a few highlights from the trip...

We were able to get a direct flight (that's right, Peorians) from Springfield to Myrtle Beach for Thursday night. But our week-long reservations with the family were Friday to Friday, so we stayed in a so-so hotel for Thursday evening. Collin had woken up screaming early (2am) on Thursday with a raging fever, and after a quick look-over by a good friend in the ward doing his residency here, we headed to the airport with Amoxicillin, (just in case) ibuprofen, and Tylenol. We've actually decided that a fever is a great thing on an airplane: Collin slept curled up in Ry's lap the WHOLE 2-hour flight. It was awesome. He also zonked out in the double bed - shared with Daddy - without a peep, after another dose of Tylenol, of course.

To our joy, Collin awoke Friday morning only a little out of it and definitely feeling much better. We had a few hours to ourselves - before the rest of the family got in and picked us up - so we headed to IHOP for breakfast (how's that for sampling the local culture?) and putt-putt at the hotel. It was CRAZY hot and humid, but we also went and got our feet wet in in the waves. Collin was pretty hesitant this first day. Don't worry; that wore off quickly!

By that afternoon, almost everyone had arrived, and we had been rescued from our so-so hotel and whisked off to our fancy condos in North Myrtle. My parents had gotten us two side-by-side condos, one with 2 rooms and the other with 3: each with its own kitchen, living room, double master suites, jacuzzi tubs, washer & dryer, etc. They were awesome!

A typical day went something like this - Collin would wake us up, and Ryan would get his breakfast. Ryan would leave for his morning run, and I would get Collin and I down to the beach. We'd spend 2-3 hours playing in the sand and splashing in the waves. Then we'd head up to the Lazy River and float around for 30-minutes or so. Then we'd headed back to the room, between 11 and 1pm, and eat lunch and put Collin (and sometimes me) down for a nap. Sometimes we'd do things independently while he slept (paraffin wax treatment, yippee!) or together (ping pong, bocce ball, ice cream), and other times we'd relax in the room or on the balcony. When Collin woke up, we'd head to whatever evening activity was planned.

Saturday evening we had my nephew's first birthday party. My brother and his wife made this awesome ice cream cake roll with fudge on top. Delicious! Julian got some fun gifts, but Collin ended up playing with them most of the time. And my sister and mom didn't want Collin to feel left out about Julian getting all the gifts, so they got him a Thomas the Train and a recorder. He was in heaven!

Sunday evening we met our photographer at an alternate location to avoid rain, and then got poured on for about an hour. It was very disappointing, and we were all at our wit's end. Luckily, he was willing to reschedule. Before he and the rain arrived, Ryan was able to snap a couple great pics of the kids.

Monday evening we headed to an amusement park / street fair for Family Home Evening. Ryan enjoyed the bumper cars (not recommended for pregnant women, bummer) and the Flying Bobs. Collin and I enjoyed the Thomas the Train ride, and Ryan and Collin enjoyed the Carousel. After each of his rides, Collin fiercely gripped whatever he could and whined for "more." He really did enjoy the lights and music.

Tuesday evening we went out to dinner, where the more daring of the bunch enjoyed sushi and raw oysters. I got popcorn shrimp, ha ha. Collin loved it! Then we headed to play miniature golf at a dinosaur course. Collin loved the roaring and moving T-Rex.

Wednesday evening we were able to reschedule our photo shoot at a beautiful state park to the south of town. It was a long haul but totally worth the drive. It was beautiful and completely untouched by all the commercialism. I have much higher hopes from this shoot. The sunset was remarkable, and the gentle breeze was perfect. Fingers crossed we look nice in the pics. Here are a few Ry snapped.

Thursday afternoon we headed back to the airport. I was so sad our trip had come to an end. We had been looking forward to this since last Thanksgiving. Collin, in full health, was much more rambunctious in flight, and we were glad it was just a short 2-hour jaunt. Whatever are we going to do on our two four-hour flights each way to Washington!? Yuck.

It was a wonderful trip, but we are definitely still catching up on sleep. Collin went down late most nights, and since he was on an air mattress next to our bed, he woke up and started climbing up and poking us at his usual time each morning. I didn't want to waste my vacation napping, or sleeping at all for that matter, so pregnant-me could use some shut-eye too.

It was great to be all together with my family, who hadn't been together in one place since my sister's wedding six years ago. Thanks, Mom & Dad, for a GREAT reunion.

Ryan's First Triathlon

Ryan did his first triathlon this weekend. It was called a sprint, so each of the distances were shortened from a traditional. He thought it would be a good way to ease himself into the triathlon experience. I also loved the venue - It was held at an aquatic center in a small town outside of St. Louis.

Here are Collin and Ryan wandering through the crowd before Ryan's start time.This is how Ryan wanted to be remembered for all posterity. Does that look like a weekend warrior or what? I LOVE the pasty, white chest. I think this picture also tells a good story about the skill levels of the athletes - Some guys were really into it. A guy from my parents' ward is actually doing the Iron Man in September. He got second place in his age division. But then there were many people like the man on the right of the picture - old, overweight, untrained, and competing just to finish. I was soooo proud of all them. Remember, I was the one on the sidelines.
Here's Ry in the first event - the swim. The swim was 1/4 mile and was in their Olympic-sized pool. Most triathlon swims are in open water, so that is another neat feature of this race.

Next was the biking. The bike part was 6 laps around a 2-mile loop (12 miles altogether). This is definitely Ryan's strongest event.
And the last part was the run. It was an additional 2 laps (for a total of 4 miles). He says if he were going to improve his time for another race, this is where he thinks he could gain some minutes.

His goal time was less than 1:30, and...

And his final time: 1:19:46! That placed him 54th overall (of about 500 competitors), and 13th in his age group. I say the top 10% is pretty amazing! Go Ryan!

This picture gives you an idea of Ryan's cheering squad. Because the course was lap-work, we got to see Ryan each time he came around. Collin recognized him most times, and often would say, "Dada!" It was adorable.

After the race, they fed all the athletes and their families: First course was pizza and subs (before the awards ceremony), and second course (after the awards, and unfortunately we were too full to enjoy it) was fried chicken, corn and salad. Then they opened the water park (the giant pool, toddler wading pool, and two giant water slides) to the families. It was a WONDERFUL day.

And in the Winner's Circle: Who's number one is this little guy's world?

Like Father, Like Son... Again

Remember THIS? It happened again! Last night Ryan was searching for something in the basement (maybe we should organize), and he came across a photo album with a picture of himself at 3 years old.

Collin in old-fashioned clothes!

To my credit, he definitely has a thinner nose and bigger eyes, which are certainly characteristics he got from me. And the blue eyes are from his Nana, but seriously, isn't this creepy?! (in a totally awesome way, of course)

Collin's Big News

due date - January 19th

Ultrasound back at 9 weeks, though now 13 weeks

Hooray!

One Happy Family

Saturday morning Ryan had the idea that we should go on a family bike ride. The humidity was low (unlike each day since), and there was a cool breeze. After packing a little lunch and loading our bikes on the car, we headed to the Rock Island Trail. It's only about a 5-minute drive from our house, and it is almost completely shaded by trees.

Collin had the most curious look on his face as we packed up; he knew something fun and different was going to happen, but he just couldn't figure out what. (We'd only ever left on the bikes directly from our house before this excursion.)

When we got there and put on his helmet, he perked right up and was so excited to get on Daddy's bike. We only rode about 8 very casual miles, stopping at about 6 miles for our picnic, but it was wonderful. Here's Collin running after Dad in the park where we ate lunch.

Do you ever have those moments of just feeling happy? You know the ones: When you realize that life is pretty good, and you need to stop fussing over the details? I get so caught up in nap-schedules, running errands, and planning activities that I forget to take a step back and look at my life. I am so happy.

All these other little families were also riding their bikes, and I realized that I was one of those "cute little families" riding our bikes on the trail on Saturday morning. I was one of them. Collin looked so cute and happy, and I realized that I am happy. I love my little family. One other family even stopped and asked if we'd like her to take our picture. Collin looks a little worse for the wear, but this is my little family.

About a month ago Ryan asked me what I would have said when I was younger that my dream life would be. That's when I remembered: This is it! I wanted to be a stay-at-home mom. I wanted to go to the park and play with my child. I wanted to send my cute hubby off to work each morning and greet him with a warm meal each evening. I wanted a mini-van (just kidding, but you know what I mean!).

And how can I not be happy when I have these two boys to give me hugs and kisses? I don't know how many of you are living your "dream life," but when the poop is oozing out of the side of the diaper leaving Hobby Lobby (last week) or the baby decides to wake up cranky more than an hour early (Saturday morning), try to take a step back and remember the big picture. I know our bike ride on Saturday refocused my efforts as a mom. Yep, this is what I wanted!

18-month-old Collin

Weight: 24 lbs 6 oz (30%)
Height: 33" (71%)
Head Circumference: 47 cm (28%)

Collin won't let me take his picture anymore. He always comes racing at me to take the camera away. So here are two that I managed to get that I think show quite a bit of his personality.

1 - Collin loves to get dressed up, especially when Daddy puts gel in his hair. He gets tons of compliments at Church, the store, the doctor's office, and story times about his blond hair and blue eyes. His hair gets all curly now in the humidity, and it is hard for me not to constantly kiss those little, pink cheeks.

He also loves his sippies. His drink of choice is definitely orange juice, but he loves his whole milk and apple juice too. If he can get a hold of more than one, all the more joy!

2 - I took this picture at my parents' house. We'd had homemade fried chicken for dinner, and Collin was obsessed with gnawing the bone to death. Despite his skinniness, he is quite the little eater, and he has to have what we are having. No more specially-catered meals for him!And even though I know it is bad, I can't help but laugh when he puts his feet on the table. I always tell him no and take them down, but he seems to think he's a monkey: if he is barefoot, he uses his feet to hold his cup, grip his cars and trains, catch a ball, etc. I'm hoping I have a little soccer player on my hands. Oh, and when he's done eating, he always wants to help wipe the table and his hands... and his feet. Buddy, you toes aren't for eating!

And unfortunately, that is exactly how many cute pictures I have of my toddler this past month. Silly, rowdy boy.

Horribly Hilly Hundreds

We went to Madison a few weekends ago for Ryan to participate in the Horribly Hilly Hundreds bike ride. He found out only 2 weeks earlier that a friend of his knew a friend who'd dropped out, so even though he was able to register in his place, he wasn't able to train as much as he would have liked. His longest bike ride in his life - previous to this ride - was 60 miles. And his longest bike ride in preparation for this ride was only 35 miles.

And how many miles did my Ryan ride???? He rode 110 Horribly Hilly miles through the back-country of Wisconsin. It took him about 10 1/2 hours. That's right: On a bike seat, pedaling and pedaling for more than ten hours! What a champ!

I am so proud of him. The guys he rode with had all done the race before, and they said this year seemed harder because of all the wind. Luckily, the night before the ride, a storm came through and dropped the humidity a bit, but it was still 81 degrees and the humidity certainly wasn't gone altogether.

Silly me didn't take my camera so I have very little to document his feat. Here's a picture of Collin the night before we left town trying on some of Ry's gear.

And all the other pictures were done by the official photographer, thus the "proof" slathered across each one. Sorry.

Congrats, Ry! You are amazing!

Odie

We have a new member of our family.

Welcome, Odie!

With all the work that our 4Runner needed (brakes, tires, alignment, detailing), we decided to just trade it in and get what we've known we wanted for some time. It is a green 2007 Honda Odyssey.

And so as strange as it may seem, I am now a stay-at-home mom WITH a mini-van all before the tender age of 29. Yikes, never thought I'd be at this point just ten years ago at my high school graduation.

If you need a good laugh today, search You Tube for "Swagger Wagon." It made me laugh so hard I cried. Good times.

We love our new van. Collin loves that the door opens on its own, and he climbs right in. Sometimes he wants to play in there instead of with his own toys when we go out to the garage. Of course he loves all the buttons to push on the dash.

We drove to Madison last weekend (the subject of my next post), and it was super comfortable. I loved being able to easily climb in the back to help Collin with his dinner and/or take a nap, and then easily slide right back up to the front. The trunk space is great (I was a little worried about that sacrifice with the loss of the Runner), and the third row was nice when we took friends to the park last weekend.

So long Yoda; unfortunately, you are not being missed. Welcome to the family, Odie. We look forward to many years and many road trips.

In Desperate Need of An Update

Lindsey

Running

I've been "training" for a 5K the past two months. I basically haven't run since middle school track (and I was pathetic even back then), and it has been a learning experience. I can now run the full 3.1 miles on the treadmill in the basement, and I've done it a few times outside with hills, wind, hard pavement, onlookers. I am also super, SUPER slow. I want to go faster, but these legs of mine just become dead-weights. About three weeks ago, I twisted my knee and despite painkillers and taking an entire week off it stills hurts. We'll be running Memorial Day in my parents' ward, and I just hope to not get the "pity-cheer" at the end. I fear I'll have to walk most of it because of this silly knee. Sigh.

St Louis

I headed to St Louis the last week of April to see my youngest brother. He was home for one week between finishing his 2nd year at BYU and heading to Uganda for a summer internship. It was so fun to see him, and he even kept Collin twice while I went to my mom's new gym. He is now in Uganda (hopefully safe and sound).

I'm also headed to St Louis all next week. Ryan has to go to Madison Wednesday and Thursday of next week, and then he has an overnight scout training Friday night and all day Saturday. I figured there wasn't much reason to return to be home alone for the week, so I guess I'll just stay when he comes back Memorial Day afternoon.

Story Times

I'm kinda obsessed with finding story-times around town to take Collin too. My favorites, by far, are anything taught by Mrs. Melissa at the Dunlap library. Unfortunately, except for the once per month Saturday morning Book Babies class, she has canceled her drop-in Wednesday morning classes until September. Instead, I have found that the Lakeview library hosts a story time every other Monday morning through the summer, except for August. I've also attended Barnes & Noble's and Borders' story times, but I recommend neither. We've also attended story times at Peoria Heights library (now on hold for the summer) and the Butcher Block (only once and it was awful!). I like to think one day Collin will like books as much as I do.

Some perks of Story Times:

1- Free!

2- Scheduled activity to get out of the house each morning

3- New (non-LDS!) friends

New Calling

I've been called to teach the 7-year olds in Primary. That means I've been released from teaching Seminary. I've cried more than a few times, but I won't miss the early hour. Unfortunately, I'll terribly miss teaching every day and having an activity that reminds me of life before children. I'll also miss my teenagers. What good kids.

Ryan

Running

Ryan's been running for more than a year now. Last Spring he ran his first 5K in my parents' ward on Memorial Day. Two weekends ago he ran his first real organized race for Caterpillar. He got a new personal best time of 23 minutes. He sees himself doing a marathon one day, which I would never dream of. You go, babe! He's promised to run with me (aka SLOW) on Monday though. What a champ.

Seminary

Ryan also got released from Seminary-teaching. He isn't nearly as sad, seeing as he's only gotten to know the kids the last 5 months. We threw an end-of-the-year bbq last weekend for the Seminary kids. We bought a bunch of backyard games and roasted marshmallows. It was great.

He's been called to be the assistant varsity scout master. I already am starting to see how much time he'll be away from home: one Friday night and Saturday morning every month plus every Wednesday night.

Mother's Day Gift

Ryan made me the best Mother's Day gift of all-time. If you remember THIS (for my birthday last year) you'll know he likes to put a lot of time and effort into gifts. Believe it or not, he topped the movie! He made me an alphabet book in rhymes about about all the activities Collin and I do together. We are now in the process of getting it published. It is adorable, and Collin loves it too.

Tree Line

When we were house-hunting, we made a Wish List for our "perfect house." Two things we placed on the list were that it be a newer-build and have mature trees on the lot. Our realtor literally laughed at us. By some miracle, we found this house (only 5 years old) with this tree line out back.

We love that we don't look into anyone else's kitchen (or bedroom!) window. So the Tree Line has become quite the project. Our end-goal is to thin the trees out and plant grass among them, effectively visually connecting our little lot with the giant cultivated lawn behind us.

We have found that our wonderful mature trees are in fact hedgerow trees with 1/2 inch brutal thorns throughout. They also grow right next to each other in clusters. I'm sure it is VERY effective at keeping the cattle in the correct spot, but not such a plus when wanting to put a swingset among them.

Last year we removed the barbed wire fence and all the low-lying branches. This year we have gathered all the branches, cut down a few of the trees (thanks for a friend and his chainsaw), pulled 5 lawn bags of weeds, placed a temporary fire-ring in the midst, and laid some logs out for seats. It has a long way to come, but we are thrilled with our progress so far.

Gardening

Ryan is also working on building a new Bunny Guard for our garden. It is looking awesome, and hopefully it'll get done soon. We got our garden in the week before Mother's Day for Family Home Evening: green beans, soybeans, red peppers, onions, roma tomatoes, and some herbs. We're keeping it simple this year!

The pots have our tomato and herbs in them, and the garden is behind Collin. Yes, it is raining when this picture was snapped. He didn't want to come inside when it started raining, so I let him stay out and get all muddy. Then, of course, I plopped him in the bathtub.

Great Finds

Garage Sales

Ryan is becoming a great garage sale-r (in the absence of garbage). We've started attending garage sales on Saturday mornings. Ry drops Collin and I and the stroller off and we walk half the neighborhood while he drives and scouts out the rest. Then we call each other on the cell phones, discuss our finds, and return together to make purchases. We've gotten a new play gym with splash down pool and infant bike seat. Nice!

Garbage

We were out biking (using our new bike seat) last Monday night (Tuesday's trash day!), and we happened upon a plastic turtle sandbox (needs some cleaning and certainly has been well loved, but it'll work) and a new stainless grill (snazzy huh?). Not bad for free!

I snapped this picture to show what a great helper Collin is. He is obsessed with doing everything Daddy does, and he needs the tools too. I think it is so cute, though Ryan is starting to understand now why I can't ever get anything done.

Classifieds

I may have expressed my dismay with Peoria's Craig's List in the past, but we've found a new jackpot. Caterpillar has a site for listing items for sale that's only accessible to Cat employees. We've found that the quality is better, and the prices are pretty good too. In fact, this week we scored a bike trailer. We've been hunting for one since the summer before Collin was born, so we are thrilled with our "new" purchase. I take Collin out in it every morning. He seems to enjoy it.

We also scored this little plastic car. More than anything else, Collin likes to get in and get back out. He also likes to turn the steering wheel. I love watching him in it. He looks so grown up!

Collin

Running

Collin has indeed figured out that walking can be as fast as crawling. Though he gave up crawling entirely a few months ago, he was still teetering and quite a slow walker... until recently! Now he's running all over the place, and keeping his mother on her toes!

Cleaning

Collin LOVES to pick up. He picks up dirty clothes and puts them in the laundry baskets; he picks up his books and puts them in the bin; he puts his blocks in their bucket, and his balls in their bag; he even tries to hang up the dish rag when he pulls it down. I love it! I kid that he is better at picking up after himself than his father; unfortunately it isn't an exaggeration! The best part of it all is that I never ask him to do these things: he just sees something out of place, says "uh-oh" and puts it away. Tell me this will last forever!!!

He especially likes to walk around with the broom. I'm hoping he figures out how to use it real soon.

Shyness

Collin has been very shy since birth. Whenever we went to new places, he'd get real quiet and cling to my arm. Especially in really loud places, like the RiverPlex Preschool Splash, he'd take 30-45 minutes just to warm up to the people and the noises. It was horribly annoying, especially when I had to pay an entrance fee, that he'd just begin to realize that where ever we were could be fun, when the activity would be over and it was time to cleanup.

Fast forward to this month: Collin is sometimes the first person to get to the box of toys after the story time is over. The other day he rushed into the gymnasium at Motor Mites before I'd even paid for us and signed the disclosure. Ryan volunteered in the nursery for Mother's Day (we still have one month until Collin can go), and Collin pretty much ignored him the whole time. I've spent many hours worrying I wouldn't be able to leave him in there with the chaos, and then he grew up right before my eyes! Bring it on.

Talking

Collin jabbers a lot; in fact, he is pretty much always babbling about something. He says tons and tons of words too though, and he understands just about everything we say to him. I don't know when he picked up on all this stuff, but he certainly has. He loves animals and their sounds, and he likes being able to now tell us what he wants. What a smarty pants!