RAWR!

We spent a few hours at the Hogle Zoo in SLC today...it was pretty fun! Pretty crowded too, but it was still enjoyable. Joshua loved all the animals, especially the elephant, the bear, and some of the monkeys. He did some of the animal sounds he knows, too, including the elephant noise (it's kinda hard to type out what it sounds like, but suffice it to say he also moves his arm up and down like a trunk) and the "RAWR" which is for a lot of different things, like bears and lions. He also really enjoyed the turkeys that were wandering around and even walked up to the rattlesnake pen (while his daddy stayed safely a few paces away =P). There were a lot of baby animals there...I guess the zoo has been pretty busy this summer. All in all, it was a great day!

We are the worst picture takers...but here are a couple that we managed to take. Sorry none of them have actual animals in them.

Vacation in the desert...

Life has been super busy lately, so sorry about not posting in awhile! It seems like, as soon as we got back from our trip, we just got thrown into all this back-to-school stuff (literally for Cody, and for me as well since I work at BYU) and have barely had time for anything. But before I talk about any of that fun stuff, let's go over our trip!

We said goodbye to Joshua before putting him to bed on Wednesday night (Aug 19th) and then drove down to St. George, arriving around midnight. Our room was nice and quite spacious--on the third floor, vaulted ceilings, full kitchen and front room, private deck, king-size bed, the works. The "jetted tub" was kind of a disappointment (picture a regular-sized tub with four little jets...there was barely enough room for Cody, let alone the two of us), but that's okay.

Thursday, we slept in, then decided to go exploring and get some food for our stay. We ended up at the St. George Temple, first of all, and toured the visitor's center there and spoke with the missionaries, which is always fun. Of course, we forgot our camera at home so we were limited to my cell phone camera (thank heaven for those!):
After leaving the temple, we got some groceries and returned to the resort, where we ate dinner and went swimming, then finished up the night with a movie, The Dark Knight.

Friday, we slept in again (hey, we had to take advantage of not having Joshua, the human early morning wakeup call) and then ventured out to the movie theater, where we saw G.I. Joe. Decent flick, I thought. Then we brought In N Out back to the resort and lounged around. We attempted to Skype with my mom and Joshua back in Orem, but something was wrong with her camera, so we couldn't see him, but apparently he got a huge smile on his face when he saw us :) Then we watched Wall-E and went swimming before bed.

Saturday we had planned to go to Zion's, but after learning the pricetag of even a trip up Kolob Canyon, we opted for the much less pricey Snow Canyon. It was super hot and we realized just how out of shape we are and how silly we were for not bringing water with us, but it was still fun. It's a beautiful area down there!
We made it home in time to avoid the huge rainstorm that came through late that afternoon (seriously, wind blowing sheets of rain all over, chairs almost blowing off our balcony, 3-foot-wide gutters), but it calmed down enough for us to go to the temple again, where we saw the Joseph Smith movie. Such a good one. And I love this temple at night! Isn't it gorgeous?
We drove back early Sunday morning and arrived just in time to see Joshua before his naptime...it was so good to see him. We missed him tons. But it was definitely good to spend time with just the two of us--we've been married for three years now, can you believe it? Thanks, Mom, for being willing to come up and stay with Joshua. I'm sure you enjoyed it immensely...he's an adorable kid. And to my dearest Cody, I love you! Here's to another three years, and hopefully many, many more!

Yay, Mommy time!

That's what Cody always texts me when I tell him I'm on my way home from work. Well, this week it's got a new meaning--my own mom is on her way here from California! She's agreed to watch Joshua later on this week so Cody and I can get away for a few days for our anniversary (which isn't actually until the 26th, but school will have started by then...). I'm excited to see her! She came up early so Joshua can get used to her, which gives us a few days of play with her before we leave Wednesday night. It's going to be fun! =)

I tried to get Joshua to take a picture with me a few days ago. This is what came out:
I was trying to get this smile out of him:Apparently he'll give the cheesy smile when it's just him, but he'd rather furrow his brow when he's in the same picture as his mommy. Silly kid.

Make new friends, but keep the old!

We had a little reunion of sorts last night! One of my very good friends, Wendy, was in town with her husband Paul and their almost-5-month-old son, Reece, so we took advantage and had a little get-together with them and Shara and her husband Craig. Nothing fancy, just catching up and enjoying the company of good friends.

Wendy, Shara, and I were all roommates for a few years from 2001-2003, when we all left on missions for our Church (me in Brazil, Shara in Taiwan, and Wendy in Albania). When we returned in 2005, we ended up in the same apartment complex for a year...then Wendy got married in May '06, I got married that August, and then Shara tied the knot earlier this year in April. These girls are seriously awesome. I have so many good memories with both of them and they have impacted my life greatly. I'm so glad that we've kept in touch and still get together when we can. Thanks, ladies!
Joshua really seemed to enjoy "playing" with Reece. It made me excited to see him as a big brother...no, I'm not announcing anything, but we are planning on it sometime in the future. :)

Joshua, the computer nerd

We just can't keep him away from the computers for very long...he even uses the mouse correctly!Oh, and I did manage to get a picture of Joshua cozying up in bed before going to sleep, as I mentioned in my post from a couple days ago. The blanket/quilt was made by his Grandma Kari--thank you! As you can see, he loves it! =)

Sleeping preferences

Joshua has been a stomach sleeper practically since birth. It took a lot of persistence to get him to sleep on his back, and when he would nap with Cody he would always lay on his stomach. Once he learned how to roll over, I didn't worry much about it anymore. I guess I just assumed he was going to be like his mommy and be most comfortable on his stomach.

A few months ago, we put a blanket in his crib, along with the stuffed bear we gave him for Christmas, but he never really did much with them, just moved them around in the crib while he slept on his stomach. Now, though, when we put him in the crib, he lays down on his back, makes it clear that he wants the blanket put over him, gets a huge smile on his face while he pats the covers, and then reaches out for the bear, which he hugs until we leave the room. I'm not sure what he does after that, but that's now the ritual. He's very particular, it seems. And adorable. I should get a picture of him laying there like that, but he'd probably be too eager to lay hold on the camera to go to sleep--and as all the parents of young ones out there know, we want to do as little as possible that would disturb his sleep.

By the way--I made it to work five minutes early again today by taking that alternate route. Yay! And thank you, Shara, for reminding me that construction people especially need work these days, and we should be glad for the snow that tears up the roads so badly they need to repair it every summer. :)

Road Construction...ai ai ai

I have never seen so much road construction in all my life as I've seen this summer in Provo, Utah. I live in Orem but work in Provo, so I have a commute--but it's usually nothing big, just a 15-20 minute drive along surface streets.

The main road I take is University Avenue, which has a speed limit of 50 mph. Not too shabby, eh? Well, unless there's road construction. Those orange barrels have become the bane of my existence this summer. I've been trying to avoid the hassle by taking another route, giving me a speed limit of 35 mph but mostly smooth sailing. This morning, though, I thought that I should give University Avenue another try.

Big mistake. I left at the normal time, 7:35am, which puts me at arriving to my office at BYU by 7:55 or so. However, thanks to the lovely road construction along University Avenue, I didn't arrive until 8:03am, where I was greeted by my boss, who hates it when the office isn't open by 8am (I'm in charge of unlocking the door), my assistant (who is always punctual), plus three professors who needed to talk to me. Wow. It had to be this morning...

Don't get me wrong, I'm very thankful for those who keep the roads clean and in good condition, and I understand that it's virtually impossible to do it during the winter. But...well, it's just annoying, that's all, and I had to vent somehow. I guess I should just probably plan for a 25-30 minute commute for the time being, huh?