September 2016 - Trips to Oregon, California, and Utah

During the last week of September my work had a training in SLC that they flew me in for. I brought the kids with me and the grandmas helped babysit while I went to work. Brent and I decided that this was a great week for him to go to some campus visits for possible Ph.D. programs, so he went to Oregon and California that week. I think this was the longest we have been apart since we were married. I'm a little bit of a baby about it, but I luckily was distracted with being busy at work and I had lots of family around.

First, the Utah side:
We were looking at the airplane we were going to be boarding, and Ava was so excited that there were A's on the tail (American Airlines). She said, "look mom! A for Ava!"

 I was really nervous to fly alone with both kids, but they were both so good and we got lots of compliments on how well behaved they were. Luckily it's only a little over 2 hour flight.

 On Saturday evening I went to dinner with the Cowleys to Outback, fun times.

On Sunday the kids had colds so we only went to one hour of church with my parents. They are serving in the single's ward right now, so any noise they make is like amplified and distracting I feel like!

We went and played at the Cowleys in the afternoon and went on a walk. Ava loved being on Marcie's longboard with her:

 I miss the mountains so much! This is what my parents get to see every night.

 On Monday I started my work training which was at a hotel downtown. My firm merged with a firm called Haynie & Company and so we had all the audit departments from the 4 different offices get together (a couple in Utah and a couple from Colorado). The first day we went to Boondocks in the afternoon and did laser tag, miniature golf, etc.

 Since the kids had colds, they weren't sleeping, and then I came down with the cold! So in the evenings I was so tired, but luckily my parents helped me play with these cuties.

 On Wednesday afternoon our work took us bowling and I was proud of myself that I actually got the ball down the lane and didn't get gutter balls :)

 Ava and Coen had fun playing with Grandma Tammy's sandbox.

 Throughout the day at my work trainings we had "minute to win it" games to keep things lively. Here we are having a paper airplane contest. I really enjoyed getting to know some of my new coworkers and also getting to see my old coworkers. There are about 35 of us from the audit department and every day I left feeling grateful for my good job and awesome firm.

 My work training ended on Thursday and then I had the weekend to play! Lucky for that, because on Thursday I completely lost my voice. Ugh.

 Coen helping in Grandma's garden

 Cousin time!

 Look at the smile on this boy's face!

 He loved Natalie pushing him and I think he's going to be a car lover.

 Ava saying hi to the horse on the other side of my parent's fence.

 My parents had a wedding reception to go to and Ava insisted on going like this: an 80s leotard, an apron, and a lei. We talked her out of a scarf. She asked me, "am I perfect?"

During the week, Coen learned how to wave. Check out this adorable video:

Meanwhile, Brent flew to Oregon a day after we left for Utah. He got to Portland Sunday morning and drove to the temple. He was in love. He hasn't been there since visiting Christmas Tree plantations with his dad for Allied.

Brent's top pick for a Ph.D. program is the University of Oregon in Eugene. He loves the area because it's so green. Among other things. This is the new SOJC Media Studies building:

The mascot is Donald Duck himself, which Brent thinks is definitely a sign. "Go Ducks!"

Brent went to church in Eugene and a family in the ward invited him to dinner. He had fun talking to them that night, and then they invited him to come back the next night too! That was so nice. He had great meetings with several professors and Ph.D. students and got really excited about the prospect of moving us to Oregon.

Brent saw Kris Kristofferson at the airport in Portland going to San Francisco. I didn't know who he was, but now I do :) He's a musician and is also in movies like "A Star is Born" for those of you that don't know.

Brent got in really late to SF and had to drive to his hotel in Santa Cruz on Tuesday. The next day he met with more professors and students on the University of California Santa Cruz campus. This campus is right in the redwoods and also is gorgeous. Check it out:

Brent liked the campus and people and all, but they don't guarantee funding and it's just incredibly expensive to live in California, so not a top pick.

He did check out the beaches and other areas around Santa Cruz.

One of the buildings that the California Gothic home in "Psycho" was based on. Alfred Hitchcock had a weekend home in Scotts Valley, just out of Santa Cruz and thought the architecture was creepy.

Sea lions! On the Santa Cruz Boardwalk, where "The Lost Boys" and "Harold and Maude" were filmed.

On Thursday afternoon Brent drove up Highway 1 to San Francisco to check out some sites. Of course, he looked up lots of places where movies were filmed too.

This church is where Maude meets Harold in the movie "Harold and Maude" and offers him licorice at a funeral. (He shows this movie every semester in his Film and Culture class for Ageism, so he's seen it dozens of times). He also went to Redwood City where Maude steals the tree and the Chasen Mansion.

On Thursday night Brent drove over to Oakland, where his hotel was. Apparently the hotel was only a mile down the road from the temple, but it was a sketchy neighborhood! He woke up super early Friday morning and saw the sunrise at the Oakland temple.

Next he went to the Pixar studios. You can't go in, but getting this close was still exciting.

Then Brent drove across the Bay Bridge to San Francisco.

Lombard Street with Coit Tower in the distance (where he went earlier).

Alamo Park- where "Full House" and "Mrs. Doubtfire" were filmed. The famous painted ladies are there.

A cemetery in the old Mission Delores Church (Oldest building in SF). The is the location in Alfred Hitchcock's "Vertigo" that Scottie follows Madeline and sees Carlotta Valdes' grave. After he went to SF City Hall and Castro Street to see The Castro and Harvey Milk's Camera Shop.

He walked across half of the bridge, but ran out of time. He also went to Sutro Park and the ruins of the Sutra Baths on the furthest north west tip of SF. It was a swimming resort similar to the Great Saltaire on the Great Salt Lake.

Brent has been excited to go to the Walt Disney Family Museum, which is operated by Walt's daughter's Diane's family who live in San Francisco.

Here are some of the oscars that Walt won over his career. The special "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs" is my favorite.

This is one of the original multi-plane cameras that gave the illusion of three dimension to animated films, starting with "The Old Mill" (1935), but was really developed for "Snow White". It means a lot to film people.

Happy boy.

Then Brent caught his flight that night and got into SLC late (thanks Marcie for picking him up!) We were pretty dang excited to see each other :)

September 2016 - Ava's First Day of Preschool & More

September brought the much anticipated first day of preschool for Ava! She has been talking about it since we signed her up last Spring.

But first, here is a picture of Coen having his breakfast outside with Ava because she really wanted a picnic on a Sunday morning.

 I ordered a planner and a 5 year journal for fun from Amazon and I've been loving both! The 5 year journal is perfect for me right now because you just write a couple lines every day. So the page for September 1, for example has 5 year's worth of entries. I'll be able to look back and see where Coen learned to clap, stands by himself but won't take steps, etc.

Coen is such a happy boy and so fun to have in our home. Here's a video of him giggling at dinner:

 Ava on her first day... Pondering "whoa I have a lot of school ahead of me!" Actually she was sleepy because she woke up early from the excitement.

 She was hardly eating her breakfast and when I told her to take a bite, she told me, "my tummy is jumpy!"

Brent and I both took Ava on her first day, although Brent takes every day now since it's on his way to school, or I'm home working and he's watching Coen. Her school is at a Methodist church and she goes Mon-Thurs from 9am to 2 pm. Her teacher is Ms. Carress and she absolutely loves it! We also love it and are so happy with what a good school it is.

 On Tuesday and Wednesdays I'm home alone with Coen and it's nice to have alone time with him! This is my view all day long as I try to clean the kitchen or anything.

  Ava gets these reports every day about what she learned, what her mood was, how much of her lunch she ate, etc.

After Ava's first day we went swimming. Check out Coen's grin. Haha.

Here is a video of Ava swimming:

 I heard that Ava had failed getting qualified for speech therapy the previous spring but they told me I could bring her in to try again. I was determined, so we went in again. Brent and I half-joked (not in front of Ava of course!) about the words we should have Ava say to the therapist and then she would for sure qualify. "Try to work Cinderella into your conversation" Brent said. Haha, because Ava says it "Sah-yah-yah." Of course it doesn't work like that and they have a flip chart they go through so they can hear all kids pronounce the same words. Ava still didn't qualify in terms of being below the 7th percentile, but the therapist told me she was going to override that since she couldn't understand much of what Ava said while Ava was just free talking to her. Ava will have a therapist come one day a week to her preschool and then we will do homework at home.

To "celebrate" qualifying for speech therapy we went to Chick-Fil-A

 My cuties in their Sunday best- Ava wearing the flower girl dress from our wedding!
A random funny thing Ava said this week was when she was jabbering on and on about "Margaret." I was trying to follow what she was saying and asked, "Margaret, like from Princess Sofia?" She responded "No, Daniel Tiger. You lose."

 For YW we had an international night and I asked a Brazilian lady to help me present on Brazil. I went to her house the week before the presentation and she taught me how to make brigadieros (chocolate balls) and pao de quiejo (cheese bread). Both, so yummy!

 Coen is already a busy bee, getting into stuff.

 Keeping it real on the blog so you all don't think it's just fun and games here :) We were invaded by ants! Yuck. I had to clean and clean and then go outside and find their mound and put poison on that.

 While Ava is at school, Coen and I basically smile at each other the whole time. Haha, he's such a momma's boy and I just can't get enough of him.

Here's a video of Ava dancing in her room- she's just so funny.

In this video Coen is saying "no no" at the dvds. I'm kind of thinking that he thinks shaking our head no no is just something we do before we touch the movies.

 We went to play group at the park and this new family in our ward is from Nigeria. Their baby girl is just gorgeous.

 Coen is a hard age to be at the park because he's too small to play on the toys and he really just wants to eat the dirt. But he did love the swings!

A video of Coen laughing on the swings

Brent invited the primary boys from his class over for pizza and to play games outside. It was a little frustrating because a few boys forgot or wouldn't RSVP, so only two boys came. The two that came had a blast though. Ava was excited to show the boys her Princess Aurora costume, and I'm sure they were thrilled too.

 Snuggles on a Saturday morning in bed.

 I took Ava to see her first baptism because I mainly wanted her to feel the spirit and see one in real life. I think she liked being there although she told me as they were getting dressed, "I don't want to get baptized!"

 Beautiful summer days still in September! That is our crazy backyard behind Ava.

 Coen has been doing "ET finger," which is where he sticks out his pointer finger to everything. Brent decided to show the kids ET and snapped this picture. Proud dad.

I was working while they were watching the movie and all of a sudden Ava burst into my office, on the brink of crying, and said "Mom! ET DYING!!!!" I yelled to Brent to turn off the movie because it was too scary for Ava but then she sheepishly said she wanted to keep watching. I guess she was OK in the end, but here is a picture I took when she was telling me about how worried she was about ET.

 My little Brazilian buddy dressed up for my presentation on Brazil and Brent came to the church with me to help our Brazilian friend decorate the heck out of the room :)

Ava says prayers on her own now, and she kind of takes them as the opportunity to be able to speak uninterrupted for however long she wants and whatever she wants. Sometimes it's so sweet, sometimes it's hilarious, and sometimes we can't understand her and we just want to eat.  So we will whisper to her to coach her along, "in the name..." and she'll say "no, no! I'm not done."

I tried to sneak a video of her praying one day because she was saying the funniest things, but she decided to end it right when I started videoing. I believe she says in this "and Jungle Book my favorite. Ament." She still adds a "t" to the end of Amen and I admit I'm going to be sad when she stops doing that.

Any time Coen hears music, he bops up and down Ava was singing and Coen started dancing to her music. 

Toward the end of September I went to Utah for a work training (and brought the kids) and Brent went to check out some universities for possible phd programs. That will be another post!