I know this guy!!!

Sometime last month I went to the mailbox to gather up the mail and as I was walking down the sidewalk I noticed our friend and neighbor Jason Thompson and his beautiful daughter Lorena on the cover! I wanted to start jumping up and down cheering, but then something caught in my throat because it was such a tender picture of a father and daughter praying. It's kind of cool when somebody you know becomes famous by making the Ensign Cover. Jason will always be remembered because he was the very first neighbor that we met. Over 3 years ago in September of 2005, Jon and I's bid for this house out in Salt Lake city had been accepted. We were very excited for our new adventure moving out of Happy Valley (Pleasant Grove in Utah County). No offense, we did love Happy Valley, more commonly called Utah County! Jon and I had (a key) that unlocked our soon to be house, even though it wasn't official. Jon and I were very impatient because the lower 2 levels of the house were completely unfinished. Only the upper 2 levels were carpeted and finished. We had tons of work ahead of us, and we wanted to begin the work ASAP. So this one night we went to Home Depot and spent about $1,000 on 12 & 8 foot slabs of sheetrock and 4x4's. The nice dudes at home depot loaded them into our trailer for us, and we were on our way to Salt Lake City to unload! For those of you who know me, I am not a careful/dainty/wimpy pregnant chick. And I was 1 month away from delivery at this time. Jon and I pulled the trailer/truck into the back yard (which was comletely unfenced at this time) so it was even with the back patio and sliding glass doors. We were going to carry all the sheet rock and wood into the house, actually right into one of the rooms that was unfinished (which would later turn out to be our family room). Even though I was pregnant and big bellied, it didn't stop me from helping Jon carry the big, long 12 foot walls of sheetrock into the house. They were kinda heavy, but I didn't strain. By this time, it was completely dark outside. Then all of a sudden, we heard this voice running toward us telling us that this is all wrong, that a pregnant lady shouldn't be carrying sheetrock into a house. It was Jason T., our new neighbor that we kind of shared a back yard with. He was also the Elder's Quorum President (Jon would later become his predecessor). He was so kind and was nice enough to help Jon unload all the heavy stuff, and he later helped Jon with the actual sheet rock/wall and ceiling building. He is the coolest and nicest guy you will ever meet, and his wife is too. She is from Columbia and is one amazing Zumba instructor and woman. I was so greatful to know that once we moved in, that we had amazing back yard neighbors. I will forever be greatful for Jason and Jessica's friendship and for their great examples to me.

Bye Bye Curls

Sometime after about 1.5 years old I realized that Gage's hair was growing in curly! I was so excited to think that my son inherited my naturally curly hair. So we took advantage of it and let it grow and grow and grow!




Gage's curls were beautiful & unique. They inspired my favorite nickname for him "The Curly Haired", I even used his curly hair as excuses to Jon why Gage deserved preferential treatment,and how the curls have me wrapped around their little finger. etc. It used to be all about the curls baby.




The curls were a widely talked about thing around our house. I even put his curls in ponytails on occasion.




I became kind of obsessed with the curls and would throw tantrums and fits whenever Jon joked about cutting his hair! He joked with Gage's babysitter that he'd pay her to buzz his hair while babysitting him, etc. I loved all the compliments Gage would get on a daily basis from total strangers about his wonderful hair. I know the compliments totally went to his head, sometimes his head got so big, I had to wheel him out of places in a wheelbarrow. I was in love with the curls. We occasionally took Gage in for "trims", but still kept his hair long. Then we went to California, and I was excited for Gage to be in his "surfer hair" element. Only when we got to California, he was no longer unique, all the little boys we saw at the beach had long hair! lol. Well to make this long story sad and short, Gage got called a "girl" so many times by strangers while in California. Some people are such idiots seriously people. Gage had swim trunks on (duh), not a swimsuit, don't ya think some people would realize that and know he was a boy? lol. Gage's hair was so long and unruly while in California.





So when we got home, I agreed that I'd get it trimmed. So we took him to the cutest kiddo hair salon ever called Cookie Cutters out in Bountiful. Gage chose this cool firetruck to drive and pedal while getting his hair cut. And he chose to watch a Thomas Train Movie on the DVD player during the experience as well. Jon was kind of begging me to agree to cut it short... and assured me that "the curls would grow back". So stupid dumb me (Mommy/tif) went along with it and told her to buzz the sides down with a #2, and trim up the top! You should have seen all the hair that ended up on the floor, holy crap! All of a sudden this grown up little boy emerged from underneath all that hair. And we saw Gage's signature "head dent". He has the cutest little divit in his forehead that shows up when he makes certain faces. We had totally forgot it was there because hair had covered his forehead for way too long. The stylist made his hair into the cutest faux hawk when she was through, and I had a brand new little boy!






I totally was so excited about it for the first 3 days. Then I realized I had made a fatal mistake and error and feared for the worst - what if the curls were gone forever???? Noooooooooooooo, what if his hair grew back straight? Nooooooooooooooo! We shall soon see, his hair has grown a little longer since the big haircut day and I might detect a wave, but only time will tell. If his hair is never curly again, then I will never forgive myself. At least I have the memories and tons of pictures of the curls. Gotta love curly haired little boys, they will always be my favorite! It also doesn't help when different neighbor friends tell me how much they miss the curls and how their kids liked his hair better curly (sniff sniff) :( So for the time being, my fingers are crossed that the curls will grow back. I have heard other horror stories about other boys who had curly hair up until puberty, and that made the hair suddenly grow straight, etc. But the majority of horror stories go something like this (and these stories are about boys & GIRLS)... "yeah, well so and so had the most beautiful curly hair/ringlets when they were little, but then we cut it, and it never grew back curly!" So I really don't know why I just blogged about Gage's curls, but they were a huge part of our family life and we all miss them. lol. lol. lol. And I am crying a little too at the loss. Bye Bye curls. So I just now fell off the chair laughing. :)

San Diego County Vacation

We spent July 12-19 2009 in Ramona California (in San Diego County). We stayed at the San Diego Country Estates. I had no idea what to expect. The drive out to California was wonderful with the 2 boys. We woke them up at 4:00 AM, gave them some dramamine and we were set! They slept the first 5- 6 hours. It was very "interesting" to say the least after we got off the main interstate and onto the road that took us out to Ramona. The road went forever into the middle of nowhere, it weaved and climbed through the mountains. Then after about 15 miles, we arrived in Ramona. It is a smaller, quaint city that really has a "small town country feeling". The 2 bedroom condo we stayed in was amazing.



There were 2 huge master bedrooms, and high vaulted ceilings, and each bedroom had it's own private balcony. The boys were in heaven. The walk out to the main clubhouse/pool/exercise room was kinda cool, you had to walk around the maze of 15+ tennis courts. The boys loved this walk because we'd usually see lizards that they'd try and catch running around the ground cover. We spent at least 2-3 hours/day out at the pool, Ramona was sooooooo HOT.





I had to maintain my 5.5 mile run every other day and fell in love with the state of the art exercise room they had in the clubhouse. I enjoyed running on the treadmill as I watched these amazing little kids at tennis camp practice. We visited Mission Beach, which was a crappy beach. It was so overcrowded and there were huge piles of nasty/stinky fly infested seaweed everywhere. We also took a trip to Old Town San Diego where we decided to tour one of the most haunted houses in America, the Whaley House. It's actually a historical landmark. We did not see any ghosts but I did catch a strange looking "orb" around Gage in this picture. The ghost of Mr. Whaley has been sighted numerous times standing at the top of the staircase, where Gage is sitting (creepy huh).





Then we walked around Old Town San Diego for like 30 minutes because the boys hated it and were so ready to go to the beach. We decided to eat at an Old Town Mexican Restaurant, but the one we chose to eat at was just sub-par food. But we loved the ambiance.



We also spent a day at the World Famous San Diego Zoo. It was such a wonderful/amazing experience. The first time any of us had every been there - so new to all. We loved all the various walking paths off the main roads through the zoo. We definately got our exercise in that day. The boys really liked all the open-air aviaries throughout the zoo. The animals were amazing and very active. I just cannot rave enough about this zoo. Kinda makes me greatful we have an ok zoo here locally in Salt Lake. I will definately visit San Diego Zoo again someday.


So were were walking out of the zoo and noticed a sign and arrow stating the "Balboa Train Ride" was this way. So of course we had to go check it out because we had a curly haired train loving freak with us. It was Gage's dream come true. For only $2, you could ride on this cute little train around this little park. Gage was in his element. I let both Gage and Brock go 2 times. If I would have let him, Gage would have rode it over and over for the next 10 hours. I was the meanest mom when I made them leave with me. Here is some video footage of the boys on the train.



We went to Legoland too. For those of you who have never been, this is not a place for kids who love thrill rides. Brock just began liking roller coasters in the Spring of 2008, and really thought the rides were very juvenile! However, Gage LOVED all the rides, they were really geared towards the younger ones. The rides were very cute though. I was the proudest mother in the world when we went on the "scariest" ride there, the Dragon roller coaster and Gage cheered during the whole ride and even lifted his arms above his head. A lil guy after my own heart! The thing Jon and I loved most is looking at the many Lego Structures - especially the Las Vegas Strip (way cool). This was our first time visiting Legoland as well. Don't think we'll be going back there again, but we did enjoy it and the new experiences.





We unknowingly saved the best for last. The original plan for our last full day (Saturday)was to just chill and relax at the condo and let the boys swim all day. At the last minute, we decided to wake up at 5 AM and travel to Coronado Island at the suggestion of a friend from highschool. He told me to go to Coronado Beach just behind Hotel Del Coronado and go to the tide pool. WOW! It was amazing. There were 100's of crabs of differing sizes from the size of 1/2 my pinky finger nail to the size of Jon's fist. There were also tiny sea anenomies and star fish. It was so much fun to climb among the boulders and look at the crabs. I also loved this beach because there were so many unbroken sand dollars that we collected. The boys were entertained for hours. The US Open Sand Castle Building costest was also on Coronado Island at Imperial Beach, so we went to that beach as well. Not much going on there, only 1 team had started "sculpting" their sand masterpiece. The beaches at Coronado Island were nothing short of amazing, the sand at both beaches was golden. What I mean by that, is there were gold flecks all throughout the sand that made it beautiful. I wish I would have kept a small jar of sand.





It was a wonderful vacation. I cannot wait to go back and stay another week in Ramona and go back to Coronado Island. I am so glad that we are members of a pretty decent vacation club and can stay there for a great deal. Many fun memories made that will last a lifetime.




Luv, tif