Utah: Part 2

On Sunday, we got up and went to church with Nathan.  It has been a looong time since I have been in a single's ward.  I forgot how quiet they are!  Adelyn did awesome!  Of course she did make a few noises that caught the attention of everyone around us, but nothing too crazy!  I have never seen her so quiet in her life!

She was perfect for Nathan!  He used her to get the attention of all the girls.  Jessica and I ended up walking into a class just so we wouldn't hinder his game.  It worked because when I looked back out at them, there was a swarm of girls surrounding them.  Adelyn ate up all the attention and just smiled at everyone!

Nathan took us over to Temple Square for the afternoon.  I love walking around the temple grounds and seeing all the beauty!

 Adelyn's first time to Temple Square.

 While taking this picture, some random tourists came up and started taking pictures of Adelyn.  No shame.  They walked right in between Nathan and the camera.  It was kind of strange and funny at the same time. 

 

I love this temple!  It is so beautiful!

 We also got to go on top of the conference center.  The view all around was gorgeous!  I really do love and miss the mountains!

Adelyn loves to kiss us now.  I think it is adorable even if she slobbers all over us!

 After walking around a while, we headed over to Bradford's house.  On our way, I got a message from one of my old students.  I begged Nathan (he was driving) to let me stop by and see her.  I absolutely loved that class and hope to get graduation announcements from them one day!  Kendyl taught me so much that year.  She and another student really pushed me to do my best!

She still looks exactly the same, except about a foot taller!  I sure love her!

We finally made it to Bradford's house for dinner.  I really love his family!  They just found out that Heidi is having a girl.  She will be less than a year apart from Adelyn in age.  It was fun to see Logan with Adelyn.  He will be such a great big brother!

My sweet Brooke!  If Adelyn turns out anything like her, I would be happy! 

Monday turned out to be a Georgia friend day!  I planned on spending the day with Katie and got a surprise visit from Lizzy. Katie took me out to Cafe Rio (I had to get it in as many times as possible!), showed me her new house, and hung around with me.  She is such a strong, intelligent woman!

I love this picture of them all looking at each other!

Like I said, Lizzy stopped by too!  I haven't seen her in forever!  She just happened to be in Utah visiting family the same time I was there.  I love her so much!  Some day I hope to be as well traveled and experienced as her!  She has done a little bit of everything and has been a little bit of everywhere! 

After spending the day down in Utah Valley, I headed North of Salt Lake City to see Devin and Kati.  This was Adelyn's first time meeting Lincoln and Wyatt.  She LOVED them and I think they loved her.  Lincoln kept doing all sorts of silly things, like standing on his head, to make her laugh.  It was so cute.  We also got to see Steve while we were there.  He is staying with Kati and Devin until his family finds a house and moves up.

Tuesday and our flight home came a little too quickly.  Thank you to everyone that spent time with me!  I wish I could have stayed a few more days so I could have seen more people!  I do love Utah and a part of it feels like home to me.  So many memories have been made there!

Utah

Prepare yourselves for the longest post of your life!

Last week I had the opportunity to fly out to Utah for a friend's wedding.  I was so nervous about traveling out there because Travis would not be able to come with me.  I also have heard the horror stories of babies that SCREAM on the airplane because their ears hurt.

I prepared well and got lots of advice before leaving and it was totally worth it.  I had to get up at 3:30am the day we left.  As suggested, I let Adelyn sleep in her carseat so it made an easy transition to the car so she could get a little extra sleep before being stuck on the airplane.

Here she is still in her jammies after going through security.  Everyone was so kind to help me fold up the stroller and stick it on the belt.  I didn't even get lectured about having a bottle of milk and water for her.  They just checked it and I went on my way!

After making it to our gate, I had time to change her before we had to board.  Luckily she was in a good mood even though she only got half the amount of sleep that she is used to.  Here she is waving goodbye to Dayton.  This looks like my baby pictures to me.

On every flight we sat next to very nice people.  I have found that people talk to you more when you have a baby.  I guess the baby is a conversation starter. I enjoyed talking to everyone next to us and learning more about them.  It helped ease my nerves about her getting wiggly. 

Everyone was impressed with how well she did and so was I!  I did not want her screaming so I brought milk, toys, books, pacifier, and food pouches to keep her occupied.  She ended up playing with my necklace most of the time though!  On each flight she took a short 30 minute nap instead of her normal 2 and 3 hours.

Upon landing in Salt Lake on Thursday, we met up with Nathan for lunch and a tour of his office.  Nathan loved taking Adelyn around to show off to everyone as much as she liked getting all of the attention.  She loves people!

 Unfortunately I did not get a picture, but we hung out with one of my old college friends, Amy.  Poor Amy got the tired, jetlagged, grumpy Amber and Adelyn.  I wanted to go check out the new mall in Salt Lake but changed my plans because I was exhausted!  We just hung out at her house a bit (read: I rested while she played with Adelyn) before heading down to Provo.  I do have to say that the drive to Provo was one of the scariest things I have done in a while!  I had a rental car that I was still figuring out and being extra cautious with, it started to rain, I didn't know exactly where I was going, there was construction, I had to concentrate on keeping my eyes opened because I was so tired and the drivers were crazy!!  It was so scary!

While I was in Utah, I stayed with Jessica's family.  It was so nice of them and they had the perfect setup for me!  Adelyn and I each had our own bed so she didn't get used to sleeping in bed with me.  We had a bathroom and we were off in the corner of the house where I didn't have to worry about her crying and waking someone up.

On Friday, I headed over to the BYU campus.  I got to visit one of my professors/boss/advice giver/lady I nannied for.  Ann and Ethan will be a part of my life forever!  I haven't seen Ann in 2 years and we were able to pick up where we left off like I had never left.  She is such a great friend! Once again, I forgot to get a picture.  :(

I also met up with Melanie.  She showed me around her new apartment and work office.  We even got to eat at the Canon Center.  I was really impressed with how good everything was!  I think Travis would love eating there everyday!  There were so many options and treats!  Maybe one day I will learn how to enjoy cooking.  

Then we headed down to visit Jessica at the Student Athletic Building.  She works mainly with the football team.  There were several athletes in her office when I stopped by.  They all loved Adelyn and took turns holding her.  I loved watching these huge, tough guys turn into softies when the baby came around.  They were so cute playing with her and she loved every second of it! 

 That night we went and watched those guys at the BYU game.  One of the players told me that I shouldn't take Adelyn because it was supposed to get so cold.  We weren't planning on the cold weather and didn't have many warm clothes with us.  Luckily Jessica's mom had some of Jessica's old clothes that she let Adelyn borrow.  We layered her up and headed out.  I have to say that she is the cutest BYU fan I have ever seen!

Walking down to the stadium all bundled up in her oversized clothes!  She was so happy! 

I thought we would leave the game early so that she could go to sleep, but she fell asleep in the 3rd quarter so we stayed.  She was such a champ!  No crying here!  Just one happy baby to be cheering on her cougars!  I think she is a good luck charm because they won!

This is right before she fell asleep, but I had to get a picture with her at her first game! 

We got up on Saturday and the weather was PERFECT!!  This is one of the things I miss most about Utah: blue skies and gorgeous mountains! 

 I met up with some friends from Pleasant Grove and went to the best restaurant around!  I miss Cafe Rio so much!  I am trying to convince someone to open one out here!  The mission president here is actually the owner, so maybe it will make it here sooner than we know!

Jessica showed me her new house and then we just did some shopping and hung around the rest of the day!  I am so lucky to have such amazing friends!  I am also glad that Adelyn loves them so much!

I wish this picture was clear!  Adelyn was having such a fun time up on Jessica's shoulders. 

We went to Melanie's wedding reception that evening.  She is the whole reason that we made the trip!  We got to hang out with her on Friday and then saw her again on Saturday.  She looked so beautiful and happy!  I am so glad she found someone so perfect for her!

I think this is from Friday when it was freezing, but I just had to include it because I think it is such a cute picture!  I love this little girl so much! She was so good on this trip!  She adjusted so well to the crazy schedule I put her on and with me dragging her around everywhere!

Stay tuned for the rest of my trip!

1 Down, 14 To Go

After moving into our home, we began working to unpack everything.  After that was done, we started organizing and decorating.  We would do a little here and a little there, but nothing was ever complete.  We decided to make a goal to do one room each month.  We decided that back in July and we are just now finishing our first room, so maybe it was a little unrealistic with both of us working and a baby taking up our time!  Nonetheless, we are very excited to get it done.

The room that had the least done and most potential was Adelyn's room, so that is where we started.  When we started, all she had was a crib and nothing else.  I wish we had a before picture.  Now she has an almost complete room!

This beautiful crib was a baby gift.  I adore it!  My talented mother made the crib bumpers and crib skirt!  Adelyn has loved sleeping in her crib ever since we put up the bumpers.  She will sit and grab at the design.  I found the flower poofs at Hobby Lobby and  I made the banner using my silhouette.  Travis wants to find wood letters eventually.  The flower light is from IKEA and...drum roll please...I made the curtains!!  It is the first thing I have sewn all by myself!!  There is a chair in front of the window too.

 This bookshelf was relocated from the living room.  It was black so we painted it and put matching wrapping paper in the background.  The painting is from Hobby Lobby (I love that store!).  You can't tell in this picture, but it is glittery.  All the other odds and ends are from around the house.  Notice that the picture is of me and Jessica from college.  We will change it eventually!

 The dresser came from my grandmother's house.  I guess it is the accent piece since everything else is white.  The lamp and frame are from Hobby Lobby.  I added the ribbon to the frame to hold her bows.  That isn't even half of them!  She has a whole basket on the changing table. 

 I have always wanted to do a photo collage somewhere and this seemed like the perfect spot.  Obviously we still need to print pictures and find something to go in the bottom left corner.  The changing table is a hand-me-down that we sanded and painted.  You can't see, but Travis added another shelf in the closet for all of her clothes.  Eventually we will put up board and batten and paint the walls, but we are waiting until after our 10 month touch-up to do that. 

 

The room is totally different than I imagined when I was pregnant, but this fits her personality!  I wanted a frilly, delicate, girly room but she is spunky and needed a room to fit her.  I actually love the way it turned out!

Grand Ole Opry

Ok Ryan Homes friends, next post will be for you!  We have finally semi-finished a room that I will post about.  Just hang tight.

For now, I am going to tell you about my favorite part of our Nashville trip!  The day we got there we went to this delicious Mexican Restaurant.  Since it was slow at the time, we asked our waiter for suggestions on what to go do from an insiders view.  He talked with all the staff and the hostess brought us a list of their top 10 recommendations.  It was soooo nice of them and way more than we expected!  The hostess kept saying to go to the Opryland hotel.  We would not have gone without her recommendation and it ended up being my favorite part of our visit!

This was the biggest, most extravagant hotel I have ever been in!  I told Travis that I could get used to living in riches!  Everything was so nice and I felt like one of the elite being there!  After going through the foyer, the hotel opened up to several different areas.  This waterfall was one of the first things we saw.  It was gorgeous!

There were 5 different areas to walk through, each with a different theme.  They did all have fresh foliage in every area though.  There was also water everywhere!  You could take a boat ride through the hotel it was so big!  We just walked around admiring the scenery and going into the little shops. 

My favorite was a water fountain.  I think water is so mysterious.  It is so beautiful and powerful that is scares me at times.  As we walked up, the fountain was shooting all these different heights and formations.  I told Travis that the only thing that would make it better was if it was done to music.  Just as I finished saying that, the music started.  It was AMAZING!!  I could have watched it all day.  I loved it!  You HAVE to go and see it!  The water went at least 2 stories high at one point!  Simply amazing!

After walking around the hotel, we headed over to the Grand Ole Opry house. We didn't plan on going to a show so we just walked around outside a little bit. 

Adelyn was so happy the entire time!  She loves observing everything around her and there was definitely a lot to look at on this trip! She is such a happy baby!

Opry Mills is also in the area.  It is a giant shopping center.  A man that we stopped and talked to said that I needed to go there if I loved to shop.  He said they have every store that you can think of.  We will have to go next time!  Opry Land was definitely a highlight of the trip and I would tell everyone to go!

Mammoth Cave and the Parthenon

These posts have been in backwards order, but as you can see, we took a trip down to Nashville for Labor Day weekend.  In planning our trip, we wanted to make a stop halfway so that I could feed Adelyn and let her stretch out a bit.  She doesn't like being cooped up in her carseat all day.

The first stop we made was Fort Knox, Kentucky.  Travis really wanted to make this stop.  It ended up that we weren't really able to do much because everything was on base and we weren't allowed in. 

We were able to see the U.S. Gold Bullion Depository Building from the road, but that's it.  There was a perfect picture opportunity but there were signs everywhere that said no photography and they had security cameras at that spot.  We had to settle for a picture taken from the freeway instead.  This was the building that Travis wanted to see the most so we were bummed that we couldn't go in.  He knew all these random facts about it. 

We did find a museum that we could go in.  It was all about the life of General George Patton.  I am not a history buff and did not know much about him previous to our visit.  It was interesting to read about his life and role in the military.

 

After World War II, he was in an automobile crash that resulted him him dying from a blood clot 12 days later.  This car is similar to the one he was in when they were hit.  

After hanging out there a while, we headed down to Mammoth Cave.  Travis has been wanting to go here all summer.  It is the longest cave system in the entire world!  Unfortunately we were only able to do the self-guided tour because all the other ones were sold out.  It was very busy because of the holiday.  We were only able to go in a small portion of the cave, but even that was impressive!  We talked about how there could be a whole underground city!  Not only was it long, but it was high too!  The shortest part we went in was still tall enough for us to walk under.

It was in the upper 90s this day and super humid this day!  Once you got close to the cave, you could feel the cool air coming out.  In the cave it was about 54 degrees.

At the entrance of the cave.  I love that they are both smiling!

It was really difficult to take pictures in the cave.  The flash was super bright and harsh but no flash turned out blurry.  This is still part of the entrance of the cave before it opens up.  This was the shortest area and you can see the path extending behind them. 

On our way back out.

One of the first things we did in Nashville was visit Centennial park.  It was huge!  We loved hanging out under some of the trees and stretching/resting after a day of sightseeing!

At the park, there is a replica of the Parthenon.  I liked looking at all the different pieces and how they fit into the building. 

This shows you how big it is!

After one of my other posts on Nashville, my mom gave me a hard time about standing on one of the statues because Travis is the one to do things like that.  Well, this picture is for you mom! I wouldn't jump off tall steps!  Doesn't he look tiny compared to the building?!

This is a statue of the Goddess Athena.  It was so extravagant compared to the stone structures all around!

I had to add in this last picture because I think it is so cute!  Even after being stuck in her carseat or stroller all the time, Adelyn was a sweet little angel!  She was so tired after all of our adventures!

Costume Planning

With Halloween right around the corner, it is time for me to start planning Adelyn's first costume!  One of my goals is to learn how to sew, but I have not really started yet.  I have made a tutu before, so I looked up costumes that use tutus since it doesn't require sewing.  Not to mention that I love tutus and Adelyn doesn't have one yet.  I say it is about time!  Travis doesn't really have a strong opinion and I am indecisive, so I am looking to you for advice.  Which costume should I make?  We narrowed it down to our 2 favorites!

A colorful witch Or little pumpkin?