A Really Great Weekend

I can't believe Tate was once so small and sleepy

*More pictures from the photoshoot are at the end, so feel free to skip over my ramblings to see them...
This weekend was really fun!  Friday night we went to our ward party.  It was great.  It was a service party with different "service stations."  So one station was frosting cookies to give to someone, another was writing letters to your spouse, and one was quilting.  There were a few other ones.  Josh and I spent most of our time learning to index.  I did some indexing when I was in high school, but Josh has never been able to because there has always been something wrong with his login.  So he got his first real taste of indexing, and now we can do it at home!  Our ward is really awesome.  We have some really good friends in the ward.  Stacy and Andrew (who live above us-I played soccer with Stacy at BYU) are in our ward.  They love love Tate!  So they held him the whole time at the party, which was nice for Josh and I.  Someone was going around taking pictures and Stacy/Andrew had Tate for most of the time, so in almost all the pictures it looks like they are his parents.  We have already designated them as his godparents, so it works.

Saturday night we dropped Tate off at Josh's aunt Heather's house.  And Josh's aunt Kristin was there too.  It was so nice to be able to go out with Josh.  We went to the Mount Timpanogos Temple.  It was great because I was able to do temple work for three of my ancestors.  My mom found their names and let me do their work.  I really felt something special when I was there.  Before we went I felt really strongly that we should go to the temple so I could take their names and do some of their temple work.  And in the temple I really felt like I was doing the right thing and I felt connected to those women.  I felt a lot of love for them.  The temple is amazing, because I have never met these women and they were born in the 1700s and 1800s, but the temple brought us together.  I also thought about how I wouldn't be where I am without them.  So I also felt a lot of gratitude for them and for making it possible for me to be alive!  What the prophets and apostles have said about the importance of family history work is so true.

After we went to the temple we went to paradise bakery and got dinner.  It was delicious.  Josh and I are weird, because we like to talk about what makes businesses successful, or how we think businesses could be better.  So we spent most of our time comparing paradise to zupas (a similar restaurant) and how their menu styles bring in different types of people.  We love both of those places.

As we were driving up Heather's street to get Tate, we saw they were outside.  We drove by their house to turn around at the end of the cul de sac.  As we drove by we saw Heather holding Tate and he was crying.  We automatically assumed the worst, that Tate had been crying the entire time.  When Tate is fussy, being outside really helps.  There he was crying, so we thought they had had to resort to going outside to calm him down.  Well, turns out he had been great the whole time, but right when we drove by Tate hit his face against Heather's collar bone, which was why he was crying.  It was perfect timing.  We are so grateful Heather wanted to watch him, because we had a great time together!

Another reason why this weekend was so great is Tate only woke up once last night!  He woke up at 1:30 and didn't wake up until 7:15.  I woke up at 6:30, but I got a good solid 5 hours straight.  That's one of the longest stretches I've gotten in a long time.  Way to go Tate!

To top it all off, tonight we went to Josh's parents house and had dinner with Heather and her family, Kristin, and Grandma and Grandpa Clark.  It was really fun.  Heather made these awesome taquitos.  Grandma and Grandpa Clark made amazing salsa (I love good salsa).  Kristin made these super delicious peanut butter oatmeal bars that I am really excited to make (they only have honey, PB, and oats). And we brought Tate!  It was fun to see everyone.  Jessica, Josh's cousin was there too, and she got to hold Tate a lot.  Tate was great.  I had a really fun time.  I am so bummed I didn't take any pictures! In August, Josh's mom's side is having a family reunion, so tonight got me super pumped for that!

Tate and I are going to Georgia on Wednesday.  We are really excited!  And when we get home Josh's family will be home from Europe, which we are also really excited about!  We have missed them.  But Josh's sister Carlie posts pictures on Facebook, so whenever she posts new ones, we sit and go through them all together.  When we found out we were going to have a baby, we drove up to Josh's family's house to tell them.  At that point we were probably going to go on this Europe trip.  But when we told Josh's parents I was pregnant, one of the first things Doug said was "what about Europe!"  And that's when we found out we probably weren't going to Europe anymore.  We are excited to have them back.

On Friday I stopped by Jen's office to pick up something from Coach.  Jen is the head coach at BYU (soccer), Coach is her assistant coach, and Aleisha is another assistant coach.  It was fun to see them.  Their season is coming up in a week and I have seen the girls practicing on their own, getting ready for preseason double days to start.  It makes me really miss soccer.  I loved preseason.  It's just playing soccer for hours and hours everyday.  It was really, really hard, but I loved it.  I love playing soccer and I miss playing super competitive soccer everyday.  But to be honest, I would rather be where I am now.

Tate was done taking pictures

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Finally!

So for the past few days, actually right when we got home from Seattle, Tate started to get up on his knees and toes (in a push up position).  It's been really fun to watch.  I have been waiting to get a video of him doing it.  And today I finally got it!  He doesn't do it until the end, but I like the beginning part because he spent a long time scratching the grass with his fingers.  I think it's funny.

Here are some more pictures from the past few days...

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Happy Pioneer Day

At the beach in Seattle.  Tate put his feet in the ocean for the first time!  As you can see, he's very proud.

It's been a while since I last posted anything.  I have been holding off writing about the rest of our trip in Seattle until I get the pictures from Megan.  All I can say is that it was so fun and we miss being with our friends!  We were sad to leave, but I think it was the perfect amount of time for Tate.  The day after we got home he crashed and caught up on lost sleep.  I think he missed everyone too.  Our friends are so great.  They wanted to hold him all day and they played with him nonstop.  So, once again, it was boring for him with just me around during the day.

Sad news.  Yesterday, I went to the shed to get my jogging stroller and it was gone.  The thief also took  Stacy's bag of BYU balls.  What I don't understand is that there are three nice bikes and a TV in there, and they decided to take the stroller and balls.  I am pretty bummed.  The jogging stroller was so liberating.  I filed a report to the police and I felt pretty official.  He asked me for all the details and he told me he would come later in the day to look for clues.  I'm interested to know what he found as clues.  I guess this means Josh and I will have to start saving for a new one.  Here's a picture in honor of the stroller, Tate's first ride...

Today we celebrated Pioneer Day!  First we slept in until 7:20.  Tate appreciated the few extra winks.

He eventually perked up and enjoyed playing with Josh and I in our bed.  Josh tied a blanket around his neck to make it into a cape.

Tate and I went to the park while Josh worked on some things in the morning.  I was planning on reading my scriptures there, but when we got there the park was full of people and booths and wild animals.  Well, there was a small petting zoo.  So instead of reading, Tate and I walked around and looked at everything.  Later in the day we went back to the park.  The pioneer party was gone.  We laid out a blanket for Tate and juggled a soccer ball back and forth.  Tate was amazed with Josh's juggling skills...He watched him for a long time.

Then we went to the old pioneer town they have set up in the park.  Josh liked the blacksmith's shop.  Tate and Josh were really feeling the pioneer spirit.

I joined in and we caught a few smiles from Tate before we left.

This is a business card left in the blacksmith store.  Josh's friend Ryan always wanted to be a blacksmith, until he heard they didn't exist anymore.  Turns out Shane Hall is keeping the art alive!  Good news for Ryan, he probably needs an apprentice.

And this is a picture out of a magazine Josh found when we were in Seattle.  He thought it was so funny, he took a picture.  I thought I'd share it with the world.

This is a video from the park with the water fountain in Seattle.  Tate was so funny.  He had just woken up and was really, really confused.  

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Sleepless in Seattle?

We are on vacation!  We are in Seattle.  This is our first trip with Tate - going somewhere other than my parents' house.  We are with three other couples.  I played soccer with the girls and our husbands have learned to be each other's friends.  We get together frequently and now one of the couples is moving at the end of the summer, so we decided to do one last hoo-rah together.  We are staying at our friends' grandma's house.  It is lovely.  They live in a nice gated community and have a beautiful home.  The neighborhood is so pretty.  Supposedly some pretty famous people live here.  Like Bill Gate's partner at Microsoft or something like that.  I didn't really recognize the names people were saying, but they sounded important.  There are tons of trees and as you drive on the road, you really can't see the houses because they are tucked away.  Grandma Jean, Megan's grandma, is so awesome!  She is the ultimate hostess and is so fun.  She totally fits in with all of us.  Her house has lots of laminated quotes all over the house and pictures of past family parties and things like that.  It is so fun.  It has been fantastic weather too!  Supposedly, it is amazing weather for Seattle, because the sun has been shining though the clouds. But there is still a nice, cool breeze throughout the day.



We flew out on Wednesday morning.  Tate did a good job on the plane.  He even fell asleep.  It was funny to watch people-grown men included- smile at Tate as we walked past them to find our seats in the back of the plane.  The flight attendants loved him too.  Our first day at Seattle we got settled in and went to Green Lake and went paddle boarding.  It was fun.  Tate did great...just kidding, he didn't go paddle boarding.  He stayed on the shore.  We watched Sleepless in Seattle our first night.  I fell asleep, but I liked what I saw.


Yesterday was a fun day.  We had lunch at a park in Seattle, close to the space needle.  There was a big pit with a huge water fountain thing that would shoot water super high in the air.  Tate woke up from his nap while we were there, so he was pretty confused when he first woke up.

We went on a Duck Tour.  It's a tour of the city, but the vehicle can also go in the water and becomes a boat.  They were actually made during WWII for invasions, and now they use them for these tours.  They are called Duck Tours, because the vehicles are called DUKWs.  It's an acronym that describes the vehicles.  It was fun to see Seattle.  I really really like it.  When we were out on the water, we saw the house in Sleepless in Seattle.  There are a lot of little houses out in the lake.

We went up the Space Needle and looked around the city.  That was cool.  I really liked seeing Mt. Rainier off in the distance.  Seattle is a beautiful city.

Then we went to the EMP, which is a museum of music, movies, and kind of pop culture stuff.  It had costumes from Lord of the Rings, Harry Potter, Superman, etc.  And the music section had guitars from famous people and costumes they wore on stage.  It was fun.  I like museums, and this one was great because it was interactive.  In the music sections, it had stations where you could play guitars and drums and keyboards and an interactive touch screen would teach you techniques and stuff.

Tate did really well all day.  By the time we got to the car, he was pooped.  But he made it home and was able to sleep really well.  Our first night here Tate did not sleep well.  He was up a lot in the night and was awake for good around 4:30 in the morning.  That made us a little nervous about the rest of the trip.  We were afraid we were going to be sleepless in Seattle, but it looks like its going to all work out.

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A Mix

Last week I popped a rib out of place.  I've done it before when I played at BYU.  We were doing push ups during practice and my rib popped out of place (kind of pathetic I know).  It was pretty painful.  And for a day or two everything I did hurt.  The trainers tried to pop it back into place, but it didn't work. Finally, I was in a religion class and I sneezed and the force of my sneeze popped it back into place.  I wanted to shout hallelujah...which considering my location could've been somewhat appropriate.  But this time, my sneezes have not relieved me of my pain.  I went to BYU to have my old trainer look at it, she said that's what it was and then she readjusted my hips and popped my back and my rib back into place. That hurt a lot! And it felt better for a little, but now a muscle on my other side really hurts and it's hard to hold Tate.  And it doesn't help that he is getting bigger and bigger every day.  So I might go back to Carolyn and have her work her magic. Or I might just keep complaining about it to Josh.

Tate and I went to the park today. It was very nice outside in the morning. He sat up by himself, kind of.  He had to lean forward to steady himself, but he was able to keep himself up without my help for a while.  So that's exciting.  

I find that I repeat the same stories over and over again to people when I talk about Tate.  So if I've already written about this, oh well!  Tate is starting to become semi-mobile.  Today we were at Doug and Sharon's house.  I would put him down and a minute later, he would have his head stuck underneath one of their chairs, or he would be slowly making his way to the hamster's cage (don't worry Kenzie, the hamster is okay).  He does this thing where he gets his legs moving, but he doesn't quite know how to move his arms.  So as he gets his legs moving, his head slowly gets smashed into the ground and his bum gets higher into the air.  Surprisingly, his technique is (somewhat) effective.  

Here's a mix of pictures of Tate over the past few days...

(Tate started to fall over right when I took the picture)

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