Trip Around The World

::WARNING: LONG POST::
Okay, we didn't really take a trip around the world, but with the amount of driving we did, it sure felt like it!

On the Thursday before Labor Day, Chris came home and told me that he had the ENTIRE next week off! All day Friday was spent packing, buying snacks, and doing tons of laundry, and still are destination was undecided. Should we go to Sedona? The Grand Canyon? Yellowstone? Visit Kirsten and Mike? The options were endless. We just knew we had to go somewhere. Come Saturday morning, we made the decision to visit Portland, Oregon, a place Chris has always wanted to see and a possible future relocation site for his job. We jumped in the car, and decided to head about 5 hours south of Portland first, in Medford, to visit my family for a day or two. Since the drive is about 13 hours, we split it into two days, and ending up staying in Lovelock, Nevada that first night. You'd think that with a cute name like that, we'd be staying in a nice hotel, heart-shaped bed, rose petals in the bathtub, the works. Unfortunately, that was not the case!! The nicest place we found (on our budget) was seemingly doable. After unloading for the night and letting James get his wiggles out, we were horrified to look at his bare feet. They looked like we dipped him in tar up to his ankles. I don't think those carpets had EVER been cleaned. Needless to say, we wore shoes the remainder of our stay there. That night was horrendous because James still had too much energy, and spent the first 2 hours of the night literally running from one end of his bed to the other squealing at the top of his lungs, while Chris and I were trying to sleep. We left that next morning with black feet, poor sleep, and a bad taste in our mouths about "LoveLock."

We got into Medford that next afternoon, anxious to spend time with my family! We caught them at a crazy time, however, as they are currently renovating almost the entire house! We're talking no carpet, no kitchen, dust EVERYWHERE. My mom did a fantastic job setting up a little place for us though where James could still play and be safe. We enjoyed a little BBQ that night with the fam, followed by some much needed swimming. James was FINALLY able to get his energy out and slept great that night.

The next day we took James to his first ever movie! Granted, it involved a bucket of popcorn, lemonade, a booster seat, and some rope (yup, no joke!), but he pretty much stayed in his seat and enjoyed Cars 2!! It was a success and we loved seeing Britni and the cousins. After the movie, Chris took James for a drive and to run around the park, and us girls went shopping! That night we had a Labor Day BBQ with the entire family, and went swimming again. It was great seeing James play with his cousins, and spending time with the family.

On Tuesday, Chris and I decided to leave for Newport and to stay a day at the coast before heading to Portland. While Chris had to finish some work at home, my mom and I spent that morning doing some very important bonding (by bonding I mean shopping of course). Thanks Mom! Afterwards, Chris and I packed up James and the car, and away we went to Newport! I haven't been to the ocean in years, and it was wonderful to smell that ocean air! I swear it's good for the soul.

We ate clam chowder that night, walked around the city and bought some salt water taffy, and enjoyed our beautiful room overlooking the harbor. We even had our own fireplace! It was great just relaxing, swimming with James in the pool, and doing just plain nothing as a family. It was wonderful!

We had a very lazy next morning, and eventually packed up our stuff for Portland. It was a quick 2 hour drive into the city, and we checked into our hotel after eating some delicious Red Robin for lunch. We toured downtown for a while to stretch our legs, and then returned for the night. Our hotel was beautiful, and we loved our view!

James loves playing in hotel rooms. The second we checked into any room, I had to instantly go unplug the phone (or expect some weird charges to our room, courtesy of my son), and put up all the alarm clocks and breakable objects. We learned this rule very quickly into our trip.

The next day was Thursday, and we decided to visit the Portland Zoo! James LOVED the animals, and was very quick to mimic any animal noises (elephants and lions being his favorite). I haven't been to a zoo in years, and felt like a kid to see all animals! James loved it, and instantly fell asleep when we returned to our car.


That night was a night I had been anticipating ever since we decided to go to Portland. We got to visit the Trasks's at their beautiful home in Hillsboro! We picked up Sam from work in Portland, and drove to her house for dinner. We spent the evening reminiscing, and watching Aspen, James and Denali take over the house. I could have watched Aspen and James play all night. They are so adorable together! And of course, James loves dogs and was happy to have Denali practically bathe him with his tongue all night. It was a totally spectacular night, and just reaffirmed the fact that Sam and I will always be friends! Our families mesh very well, and no matter how much time has passed, we will always pick up where we left off!



On Friday Chris decided to go visit the Fidelity offices of Portland and Tigard, to introduce himself to the managers. Chris won't be able to transfer there for awhile, if he decides to, but he wanted to make a good first impression. It went very well, and we really liked Tigard! After some quick lunch, we slowly headed home by way of Boise. We stayed there for that night (went swimming of course! We learned after lots of driving, it was a good way to expend James's energy). The next day we lazily got our things together, and drove back to good ol' Utah!

Our trip went by in a blur! Thankfully, James slept like a champ in the car and took great naps (I just wish I could say the same for his nighttime sleep!!). Between his naps and his dvd player, he was a happy boy on all the drives!! This led to a happy mom and dad. It was a great trip, even with the tons of driving, and we are so grateful for wonderful family and friends!

Tubes

Plagiocephaly: misshapen head and helmet for 11 months.
Cataract: surgery, eye patch, and glasses.

I'm extremely grateful there isn't anything life threatening or chronic in this list, but really? I delivered James 2 weeks early, and perhaps he needed to cook that extra 2 weeks to smooth out some rough edges because now I can add one more thing to the list.

Tubes: ear infections, fluid in ear canal, and major delay in language development.

That's right! James is getting tubes October 5th! He has had TONS of ear infections since he's been born, and has had an ear full fluid for at least 4 months straight. I wasn't that concerned until our pediatrician started asking questions about his language development. Since James doesn't say a single recognizable word yet, and he's almost 2, she is sure his ear problems are muffling his hearing, therefore causing a big delay during this critical time of speech development. James talks ALL day long, but it's complete gibberish. She recommended us to an ENT at Primary Children's Hospital, and he thinks James has had some hearing loss due to his frequency of ear infections. So, tubes it is! Hopefully this will help prevent extra fluid in his ears and decrease the amount of ear infections, and help him start hearing better. Getting tubes is a super easy and routine surgery, and isn't something I'm that concerned about. Everyone in my family had them at least once! I'm just so excited to get this ball rolling, and hopefully see some improvement! Another plus, he won't be having any oral antibiotics for his ears for at least a year. He has had so many antibiotics over the last 2 years due to his ears, that I was getting a tad worried.

Here's to hoping things go smoothly!

August 2011

In the attempt to continue my "Blog Catch up Mission", we did have some exciting events that took place in August.

We played outside A LOT. You know it's a good day when you and your kid are both covered in sidewalk chalk. *Notice the blue drool on his chin, and the similarly colored chalk in his hand?

James also discovered a love of "shicks" and "ros" (sticks and rocks). He can be at the most exciting playground, equipped with slides, and stairs, and rope ladders, and he just hunts for sticks and rocks the entire time. I can always tell when he finds a new stick because he yells "WHOA!" (This below picture is perfect! I caught him with a stick in one hand, a rock in the other, while he was actually saying "whoa!")


We also went to a BBQ held by Fidelity. James LOVED the bouncy slides, but wasn't the biggest fan of the bouncy castles. That might have been because his mean mommy wouldn't stop bouncing him. He did love having his daddy take him on the slides though!



By far the most EXCITING event....was the visit of Pat and Lindsay Koelling! One of our favorite couples, hands down. We have known each other for years, and lived next door to each other back in those care-free days before we all "grew up." This picture might look familiar to some people!

They currently live in New York, and came down to UT for Lindsay to visit her family. We were lucky enough to spend a day with them. We ate A TON and followed them around like lost puppies. We were just so excited to see them, we didn't care what we were doing! Before they left, Lindsay was kind enough to do a quick DeBeikes family photo shoot.






We just LOVE them!!

Getting Caught up!

Wow I feel like the world's biggest blog slacker! I have tons of events I've meant to blog about since JULY! And here it is the middle of September. I'm embarrassed. To make this easier on myself, I'll just begin with the main events of this past July, and then work from there.

After Chris's family left after the 4th of July, we got glasses for James! It is a HUGE struggle keeping them on. The only times they are on for sure are during those two hours he has his eye patch and arm bands on. The rest of the day, he'll keep them on if we are doing something exciting, like playing outside. Otherwise, they are off faster than you can say "breakable". He is such a cutie with them on, and I love how they turn into sunglasses outside. One of these days he'll like them. I'm sure he hates the bifocal on his right lens. When the cataract was removed, it took away the part of the eye lens that naturally refocuses on things near and far. The bifocal now does that for him, but I'm sure it's obnoxious.


In July we had a few outings to Thanksgiving Point to tour the gardens. We found a little hidden garden that made me feel like I was in Fablehaven!


After the gardens, we broke down and let James enjoy an ice cream sundae....

Later that week, we also went to our favorite self-serve yogurt place, Yogurt Bliss. I LOVE how you put on whatever you want and only pay by the ounce. This way, I can get gummy bears and kit kat with a dash of cake batter yogurt. :)



This is the condensed version of July. As you can see, James likes to wear us all out, which leaves the ends of our days looking something like this...