Bienvenido a Miami!

Welcome to Miami, everyone! I know, I know, it's been basically a full month since Kyler and I went to Miami, but it takes a lot of effort to organize all my pictures! Give me a little bit of a break...

So, for those of you that don't know, this:

is why we went to Miami. Kyler's grandfather! I had never met him, and Kyler hadn't seen him in ten years. Definitely time to take a trip out to Florida. We went at this exact time because of this:

Kyler's brother and his whole family were coming out to Miami at the same time. Once we decided to join them, so did Kyler's mom and aunt (though I have no pictures to prove it, sorry).

Of course, this didn't hurt, either:

Instead of being in Utah for the first week in February, we were on Miami beach (the pictures above and below are at sunrise). So much warmer!

See the shorts and the short sleeves? Yeah, no complaints here.

This is the hotel we stayed at. It was cheap, but clean and close to the beach and grandpa's condo.

Plus, every morning, we ate the continental breakfast out on the balcony in front. So nice.

We spent most of our time at grandpa's condo, and the pool at grandpa's condo, or at the beach.

This is the view from the balcony of the condo. Not too shabby, eh?

The girls loved the pool, and we had to convince them to go to the beach, too. Here are some nice pool and beach shots:

Ivory and Lily in the pool, either not looking at us, or squinting in the sun. Oh well. They're still cute.

Bryce poolside. He liked the water, and quickly learned to splash... and that he didn't like the water quite as much when it was in his eyes.

Me, poolside, eating a kiwi! I'm at the stage of pregnancy (and life in general...) that I need to eat every couple of hours. I ate a lot of kiwi in Miami... and I loved it!

Just hanging out for a bit in the hot tube: Ivory, Bryce, me, Lily, and Rachel.

And, for good measure, a "belly" picture of me, in my swimsuit no less. This is at 15 weeks... yeah, not really much going on. Sorry.

I really like this picture of me on the beach. It's right after Kyler and I ate breakfast one morning, so my hair is still a little wet from the shower and I'm squinting... but I like it. Plus, the beach was beautiful.

We made sand castles with the girls.

When Kyler and I left the beach for the afternoon, we left Lily in charge of this set. She put a little while shell on the top of every single castle tower. Lily was a good one to leave in charge.

I made a sand angel.

Honestly, it was Lily's idea. Not quite a distinct as a snow angel, but still fun. And yes, I got sand in the pockets of my pants.

We also buried Scarlett in the sand!

Just beginning the process, Ivory and I are working on her knees at this point... though she kept wiggling them free.

The finished product! Doesn't Scarlett look cute as a disembodied head?

We also took a whole bunch of family pictures, like the of all of us up there, and like these ones.

The chitlins. Scarlett was being a bit of a brat and didn't want to join us (hence why she doesn't have a solo shot below) but oh well. Here we have Lily, Ivory, Bryce, and Scarlett.

Kyler and me.

Rachel and Kirk.

Kirk and Bryce. Bryce looks kind of funny, but Kirk looks good, and what else do you expect from a seven-month-old anyway?

Lily being silly.

Ivory in her new dress, cooperating quite well.

Kyler in a tree, because why not?

Lily cooperating slightly better later that night, showing me her creation, Mr. Quackers.

We also went around Miami and saw random things, like this:

Good to know that there is somewhere to go to wait for a bus during a hurricane.

Kyler and I ate here. We couldn't pass up a place that had Cuban and Thai, now could we?

Rachel, a very tall man, and Ivory. I think they line up rather well.

One of the last things we did was go to the zoo. How much more Miami can you get than pink flamingos?

The girls really wanted to go see this guy:

It's Diego, Dora the Explorer's cousin! They were very excited.

I wanted to go and see this guy:

Because, you know, I am in Florida!

Since we saw both, everyone was happy.

Pretty tiger.

Reminds me so much of my own cats! Except much, much bigger!

Ahhh! The snake is going to eat Ivory, Scarlett, Kyler and Lily! Oh noes!

With the snake man. He let us actually touch (pet?) the snake!

The mommy rhino and the baby rhino! Yeah, my baby had better not be that big!

Lily, Ivory and Scarlett on the fake rhino. The mean adults in the group wouldn't let them climb on top of the real rhino. Sounds like the girls are being mistreated for sure, aren't they?

These pictures are kind of funny. Lily kept picking up leaves and giving them to the rest of us to carry, so all the girls have leaves in their hands. The little monkeys must've thought the leaves were food.

They came over to the window, trying to get at the leaves! Lily, Ivory and Scarlett thought it was so fun! Well, so did the rest of us, except Bryce. He was taking a nap.

Ivory and the elephant. They are her favorite animal.

A very slow, very large, tortoise that Kyler took a picture of.

The girls weren't being so good at posing in front of the giraffe.

At least, not in a group.

Lily did much better when her uncle Kyler took her picture without everyone else getting in the way.

On top of the water buffalo. The girls begged me to join them, so I did. What can I say? I'm a sucker who likes to see cute pictures of herself.

And, last but not least,

Kyler in an elephant behind.

That's all, folks! That's it for the Miami pictures! We had a ton of fun and enjoyed the family, sun, and warmth... though we all got sick after Kyler and I left. Such is life.

How do I love thee?

This is my favorite garbage can ever.
Shall I extol its virtues to you?

1. It is located indoors, away from the snow, rain, wind, and cold.
2. It is a full-sized garbage can, not a tiny half one, so you don't need to crouch down to aim properly.
3. It has its opening at the top, not at the sides. Again, this makes it so much easier to aim.
4. It is emptied every night, so when I get to it, at 6:30 AM, there is nearly nothing in it, making it clean and not stinky.
5. It is available when I need it most.
   

The reason I'm extolling the virtues of a garbage can? It is one of my new favorite friends. I heart morning sickness.

Actually, I have been feeling better lately, but I still felt this garbage can deserved its moment in the spotlight.

I love watermelon!

My mother always told me that if I swallowed watermelon seeds, I would grow a watermelon in my stomach. Well, Mom, you were right: I officially am growing a Little Melon, estimated time of arrival July 28th.

Here comes the sun!

We are going to be leaving for Miami in just a couple of days, and I'm excited. I get to meet Kyler's grandfather (Kyler hasn't even seen him in 10 years), I get to see Kyler's mom, brother, sister-in-law, 3 cute nieces and 1 little nephew...
But partially, I'm excited because the lowest of the low temperatures that are on the forecast for Miami are a good 15-20 degrees warmer than the highest of the highs for here in Utah. Oh, warmth and sun, capris, flip flops, and sunscreen! I've missed you!
Now, come this summer, I'll be wanting the sun to go away. But right now... yay Miami!

To sleep, perchance to dream. Aye, there's the rub!

I've been having some strange dreams lately. Some have been humorous, other disturbing. And, since I'm sure you're all curious, following is a nice sampling:

Dream 1:
I was kind of using wood slats in a staircase (apparently in my parents' house) as monkey bars, but then my father's fingers got caught, so he pulled out all the slats while I was still hanging there, and then my mother was mad that my father was destroying the staircase and I was wondering how I'd get to my bedroom and go to bed (since apparently I sleep upstairs). I was kind of freaking out about being able to go to bed, actually, and my mom was freaking out about him pulling out slats, so I feel kind of bad for dream Dad. In Kyler's words, he was getting it on both ends. Definitely not fair.

Dream 2:
I was miscarrying. I guess I went into labor and gave birth to an incredibly premature/stillborn baby, so all it was were little bits of bone and tissue on the floor. I (in the dream) was kind of freaking out, and I decided, somehow, that it would be better if I put the baby back in. So, I picked up the bone and tissue pieces and tried to put them back into my uterus, but when I stood up, they just fell out.
When I woke up, I was really, really unnerved. The dream messed with my head and emotions for a while afterward, and I made Kyler come and hold me. He didn’t complain about it and just sat next to me and let me cling and freak out all I wanted.
This, by the way, is not my way of announcing anything other than the fact that my subconscious is psychotic.

Dream 3:
I was being chased by a psychotic guy, and one of my co-workers (a phlebotomist named Adrianne) was helping me escape on the psycho guy's John Deer tractor. We had a problem, though, in the fact that deer (real ones, with antlers) kept trying to hit us. One of the deer actually did run into us, and we totaled the tractor. So Adrianne went home, trying to distract the psycho guy, and I quietly, quietly, quietly went hiding into the shadows. Psycho guy did follow Adrianne, and he was using some kind of suped-up mega powerful vacuum cleaner to try and attack her, but she stabbed it with a knife and the vacuum burst into flame and Psycho guy got freaked out and left. And then Adrianne called me and told me it was okay, I could stop running/hiding and come home.

Dream 4:
I convinced Flame (my cat that we got when I was in first grade) to leave my house and walk across the street and go into the neighbor's house by feeding her ranch flavored Sunchips. I wonder if these even exist, but Kyler says they have to, because there's ranch flavored everything. For those of you who knew Flame, you'd probably agree that this is the most realistic of these dreams.

Yeah, let's end these on the happy, or at least humorous, note. And dream on, my beloved blogger fans.

...and a Happy New Year

Merry Christmas, everyone. Okay, so it's a little late, but who would actually post about Christmas early and/or on time? You have to enjoy it while you can, right?

Kyler and I stayed in Utah, all alone, which meant we had to get a Christmas tree. Once all the presents were put under the tree, it looked very festive. See?
It almost felt like we were home. Almost, but not quite. Helping it to almost feel like home were these:
My great-grandmother's cinnamon ring roll. Yum, yum, yum. Who doesn't like pictures of food that you can't eat? Here's another one!We made four different 8-inch pizzas. As you can see, we have a dessert pizza, breakfast pizza, pesto pizza, and regular, tasty pepperoni pizza. We decided that this may or may not be a new tradition for Christmas night dinner. At least if we aren't going to either of our homes.


After Christmas, we were lucky enough to have Kyler's sister and her family come to visit us. They stayed a couple of days, and it was a ton of fun.
Brooklyn had to be pulled away from our computer and World of Warcraft, but we made her take a step away from time to time.
One of the places we took everyone was the Bean Museum. The girls liked it, but were completely insane and running around everywhere. Difficult to take good pictures, so here are the two we've got:
Brooklyn and Paige with the nativity the museum had set up. I'm not entirely sure these girls are very good at taking pictures, so we stopped posing them and just went with it.See, this one is much better of Katelyn and Paige.

After the Museum, we went bowling. We got to use bumpers, and I love them. It helps me not stink so bad.
Paige also got to use one of those metal ball lead things, and Kristina helped her with it.Good job, Paige!
Brooklyn didn't use it, she just used the bumpers like the rest of use adults.
And Katelyn... well...She just wandered around attempting to get into trouble. Good thing we had 4 adults around to watch her.

And the results are in!Look who got second place: that's right, ME! Oh yeah, I broke 100, and it was awesome.

We also basically convinced Russ to get a Wii Fit (my Christmas present!) because of this:
Look at Paige, sitting so still! She loved the Meditating Game, which has her sit as still as she can for as long as she can. Paige was actually pretty good.

So, that was basically Christmas. New Year's was fun, too: we didn't want to go outside because it was cold so instead we watched the original Star Wars Trilogy in a marathon. We're geeks.

Also, I haven't been to work in the last few days because I have some sort of "acute illness." It's not strep throat, but it's something making my throat unhappy. Oh well, such is life. I'll probably go to work tomorrow. Probably.

Tasty, tasty fudge money

This last Saturday was a fun day. It started with chocolate chip pancakes for breakfast, had the temple in the middle, and ended with Kyler's work Christmas party.
The party had amazing food, salmon and roast beast and chicken, the best green beans ever, very tasty dessert, and fun entertainment. The best part was probably when they gave every employee a sealed box that contained fudge and an unknown amount of cash, in denominations between $20 and $200. They had the employees pass the fudge money right and left and all around until you didn't know where the box you were originally given is anymore. Once the head honcho people gave the word, everyone opened their box. Kyler found... a crisp Benjamin! Apparently, they gave everyone the same amount of cash, so all the passing was silly and pointless and fun.

I want my work to throw a company party. I want my work to give me a $100 bill. Actually, no. I just want to actually get a raise. Cost of living raise, a raise for having worked here nearly two years, a raise of any kind over my starting wage... I want a raise from my company.

When the dream becomes reality

The other day, I had a dream...

Dream World:
All the details are a bit fuzzy now, but I had seen all my friends and family members, everyone I loved, brutally killed right before me (think Hunger Games), and it was all my fault. They had been killed to show me a lesson or something. So, I'm kneeling on the ground, weeping at the sight of their lifeless bodies. Sobbing and sobbing until I can't even breathe anymore and I start to gasp for breath in between each heave.

Real World:
I wake up terrified, partially because I haven't shaken the feeling of the dream yet, and partially because the reason I woke up is that, like in the dream, I'm gasping for breath. Kyler wakes up, too, and asks if I'm okay. After a few seconds, I calm down enough to kind of mumble something that assures him I'm still breathing. I don't remember this part, but Kyler informed me that not only am I gasping, but tears are also streaming down my face.

Needless to say, it took a while for me to fully break out of that dream and back into reality. And it still kind of freaks me out.

Interestingly, my sobs and gasps also made it into Kyler's dreams before he woke up: he dreamed he was watching a woman die and gasp for breath. How sinister our dreams were that night.

The Wonderful World of...

DISNEY!

So, we went to Disneyland. And, uh, whatever it's called, California-land or something. And, we have proof, in picture form. Lots of proof, but I'm trying to only put ones I like and/or have some emotional value to them.

I was walking down the street, from our hotel to Disneyland one morning, when I looked down and saw this:
Walt Disney's Star! I had to take a picture, because I'm a dork.

We also had to get our picture next to all the classics.Like outside the train station next to the giant floral Mickey.

And, since it's Halloween time...
In front of the giant Mickey Pumpkin.

Kyler graciously allowed me to take a picture with Cap'n Jack Sparrow.Not quite as attractive when two dimensional, let me tell you.

We went on this cool riverboat:Isn't it pretty?

There is also this AWESOME pirate/Tom Sawyer island that doesn't have "rides" or whatever, but you can just run around and climb up tree houses (see below)
Or walk on really cool bridges
Or get a little chummy with a skull or two.Really, did anyone expect me to do any different?
Seriously, the island was so cool. Definitely the place to hang out when your children are tired of waiting in lines for all the rides... which we actually didn't do too much. It was kind of overcast and threatening to rain in the morning of both days, so fewer people at the park! Woohoo!

I got eaten by a whale...


And we saw Darth Vader!
The little kid "Jedis" in the crowd got to fight him with their "lightsabers." Hilarious.

We also, how random is this, ran into Steph, Kyler's former girlfriend, so we hung out with her for part of the afternoon.She got a higher score than Kyler! Good job, Steph!

My favorite thing in Disneyland ended up being Big Thunder Railroad or whatever it's called... but not necessarily for the reasons you think.
It is a really fun ride, but on the second morning, while Kyler and I were riding it.......it suddenly stopped! (These pictures were taken after it stopped. In the first, the nice lady a little in front of us told us to look scared.)Long story short, on a different "train," barely out of the station, someone had stood up, so they stopped the ride. They couldn't just start it back up, though, for whatever (probably legal) reason, so they came out, let us out, and we got to walk around in the ride to get out!It was way cool, and let see what was behind the scenes a little, and let us take pictures that never would have worked before.

Also, Kyler likes Mr. Toad.And his wild ride.


And Dad, this one is for you...
Everytime I see a cannon anywhere, I think of you!

Lego Woody at the Lego Store


And now, onto California Adventure place!We thought the little kids playing on the letters was a nice touch.


Note: this is not the REAL Golden Gate Bridge. Sorry to anyone who thought it was.


There is a really cool "ride" that has airplane pictures all over the walls of the line area, including this one:Recognize it? It's the Spruce Goose! The airplane ride also reminded me of Cliffy because they showed this huge Navy ship with jets on it... and helicopters! One of them was flying, and I told Kyler, "my brother's flying that one!" Kyler said, "Yes, I'm sure he is." I think he was just humoring me.


Kyler and the Walking Stick.
Quite the resemblance, eh?

Our favorite ride in California was the Grizzly Bear Run or whatever. See the grizzly bear?
It's a ride that takes you through white water rapids. Little man-made ones, but still way fun. Kyler and I got SOAKED. Well, here and at Splash Mountain, too. My bag was literally dripping. Good thing our camera case protected the camera. We did ruin a few maps of the parks and had to get new ones, though.

The last thing we did was go to World of Colors, this water/light (and a little fire!) show.
Very pretty.

That is all.
Well, we did return home, Kyler got sick (from BlizzCon or Disneyland, whichever) and then got me sick.
The end.