An Epic Day

This post is kind of a picture overload, but Alan's work place is fantastic. It is pretty much a big kid playground. We went on a self guided walking tour for over an hour and barely scratched the surface of all the neat things these buildings hold. And we barely saw half of the buildings. I forgot to bring my real camera, so these are all taken from my cell phone...

We started off the day by packing the kids into the bike trailer. Alan got to tow the kids the 3.5 miles to his work, which was a nice break for me. I just told him that it would make the next time he rode his bike to work seem so much easier.
We made a quick stop at his office to cool down (did I mention it was almost 90 degrees plus humidity?), get a drink, and let Elsie write Alan love notes on his white board.
All of the buildings have astronomical names. The whole campus is called "Epic's Intergalactic Headquarters". Alan works in "Heaven" in the second campus of (soon to be) three circular structures. We only explored the first campus. This is the tunnel leading from Heaven to Andromeda.

This is the Tree Staircase. Inside the tree is a little room with children books and carved rocking horses and such.
Alice liked the troll guarding the staircase.

Elsie preferred a wiser being to make friends with.


Each of the conference rooms are themed. Each of the themes are inspired by Wisconsin and things to do with the area. This room is called The Ice Palace.

Walking across one of the sky bridges; Elsie stopped to admire the view.

Excerpt from the tour guide: "During the design of the campus we worked with two architecture firms. One worked with Microsoft and said 'Methodology before creativity' and the other worked with Disney World and said 'Creativity before methodology.' As a result, our campus looks to some extent like a cross between an office building and a theme park."

The Waterfall conference room. Kids are allowed to go swimming in the summer months...

...we just have to watch out for sharks.



This is the Indiana Jones Tunnel.

Outside the tunnel we walked across the lawn to visit the tree house conference room. Because of the winters, this building (fort?) is only open during the warm months. Outside there are also fire pits and logs where people may hold their meetings. Once reserved, they are provided with wood and fire starting kits.The Treehouse is pattered after "the Little Rascals".




Alan left his mark on the treehouse walls...

We continued on through the subway station.

It was all too much for Alice to take in.

This is the Hanger Conference Room.

Walking outside back towards Alan's office.

This is one of Alan's favorite rooms. It wasn't on the self guided tour we went on (there are multiple tours) but we went out of the way to see it. It is a conference room by his office called The Warp Zone.



That concluded our tour. Kids were tired and ready for naps and we still had to ride our bikes home. I wish we could have explored more, but there will be plenty of other days we can do that. This place is designed down to the last soap dispenser, so we even had to stop and look in all the bathrooms to make sure we weren't missing anything. I am slightly jealous that Alan gets to work here everyday. I might just have to pack up the girls and head to Epic for them to play during the long winter months...

Before and After

Sarah got her hair cut yesterday morning. She's giving Elsie a bath right now (which is desperately needed after two fun-filled days of potty training...) and told me to post these pictures for her...

... yeah, she's pretty hot ;-)

3 Day Potty Training - Day one

Apparently, when Elsie drinks that much juice she gets diarrhea...

Four Months

Four months old today! Alice is such a little sweetheart. She has started rolling over, but that just means I have to spend my whole day rescuing her from her tummy. She loves her sister Elsie. It makes it hard to scold Elsie for laying on top of her or dragging her accross the floor by her arm/leg when Alice is giggling the whole time. She loves to laugh and growl and talk and blow bubbles. She is starting to grab at objects and loves to pull hair or steal Elsie's toys if she is playing too close. Alice loves her thumb and she just rolls on her side and puts herself to sleep whenever she is tired. She loves playing and cuddling with her taggie and burp rags. Alice loves to smile and will grin at just about everyone. We love our sweet little girl!

Taking the plunge

In more ways than one. I have an appointment tomorrow morning to get my hair cut. The stylist I'm going to comes very highly recommended, and I'm willing to go in and say "just cut it off and make it look good". I'll be sure to post before and after photos when the deed is done.

Also, I think Alan and I have finally steeled ourselves enough to commit to potty training...

Yes, I am bribing my daughter with Mickey Mouse panties and I have no shame about it. We are spending our three day weekend kicking off potty training with a three day potty boot camp of sorts. I've read a fair share of potty training methods, and we finally settled on one to try. The basic principle is to let the kid run around half naked and they won't like the feeling of it running down their legs so they'll use the potty. I have no idea if it will actually work or not. Elsie is not a fan of messy things, so my hope is that will fuel her to want to use the potty.

We're lining our floors with every available towel and blanket so as to try and protect the carpet. I have a lot of activities planned to do in the kitchen and bathroom to try and keep her on linoleum as much as possible. It is an intense 3 day plan, and it could very much blow up in my face. If nothing else, I'm sure Elsie will love all the one on one attention we will be giving her, and goodness knows my kid likes to run around naked.

Making the decision

It was raining all day long yesterday. We went to the library to play, along with everyone else in our small little town. Elsie had a lot of playmates and had a wonderful morning playing and running and reading.

We still had to make a quick stop (is there such a thing as a quick stop with two kids in tow?) at the store before heading home for nap time. We headed down the first aisle and Elsie was already being a pill. Being her little independent two year old self, she didn't want to sit in the cart or help me push it. As I'm quickly scanning the shelf for what I need and comparing prices, she is already at the other end sneaking off. I stood there looking at her and I had to decide...

Am I going to be the crabby mom and constantly yell/threaten/1-2-3 her through the whole store before I finally pick her up kicking and screaming and strap her into the cart seat, or am I going to make that extra effort to be the fun mom and make games out of everything and have this be a positive shopping experience?

After a minute of contemplation, I decided to be the fun mom. We raced down the aisles together. Elsie picked up the merchandise from the shelves and put them in the cart. We looked for the things we needed and then shouted "Milk Ahoy!" or "Notebooks Ahoy!" when we found them. Elsie painstakingly placed everything on the checkout conveyor belt for me. And you know what? Elsie loved it. She had so much fun at the store. On the way home Elsie said "Elsie go home read a book and go to sleep". I was more than happy to grant her that.

I was surprised (and slightly ashamed) at how long it took to make the decision to be the cool mom. Sometimes it seems like it would be easier to be the crabby mom and just get everything done as quickly as possible, but it is way more draining and exhausting fighting every step of the way. With just a little more effort and creative thinking, we made it out of the store with smiles on our faces.

I did have to put on a little thicker skin. I got a lot of strange looks as I was sprinting down the aisles with a two year old while pushing a baby in the cart. There were certainly some grumbles as I let Elsie put every single item onto the check out stand. I just looked at them and smiled as I handed the next thing to Elsie. Sure, there is such thing as common courtesy, but there is also something to be said for letting a two year old help and explore her world.

I want to try and be the fun mom more often.

Getting better

The more I play with it, the more confident I get in styling Elsie's hair. Every morning we go to the bathroom and she plays with a little stream of water from the sink while I come up with something to do with her hair. Yes, there are still plenty of days that I just get frustrated with it and throw it up in a simple ponytail, but I'm getting a lot better and I have a few more styles in my repertoire. Elsie is getting used to standing still for me. She happily plays in the water or brushes her teeth or washes her hands until I'm done.

It's a little hard to see, but I've put Elsie's bangs in a small french braid and then pulled everything up into a ponytail. It helps keep the wispy hairs out of her face throughout the day. It holds up fairly well to ruff and tumble play and usually lasts through nap time. Poor Alice didn't have her hair done when I took this picture...
I did this next style for church on Sunday. It's a little too time consuming to do for everyday, but we have a little more time on Sunday mornings for me to play with it. This hairstyle is indestructible and lasts through pretty much everything.

I really liked today's style. It was simple, yet slightly elegant, and still very easy and quick to do. It didn't hold up quite as well as some of the other ones... Being a two year old is a rough life. Even though it wasn't as glamorous at bedtime as it was this morning, it still did its job and kept Elsie's hair out of her face all day.

Pouty Face

Rolling, Rolling, Rolling

Big Day

It was a big day today, but my videos won't upload. I'll try again tomorrow, but for now I will just leave you in suspense...

Bike ride

I know it's a really bad photo... It was taken from my phone and it was almost too bright to see the screen.

I took the girls out for a bike ride this morning. I haven't ridden a bike in almost 4 years. Adding to that a trailer with a 25 lb. kid and a 13 lb. kid means I had a really hard time. We rode to the local store, and I even took the long way to avoid a steep hill*. I still had to get off and push it up a small incline once. I had lost my momentum, and getting starting on even a slight hill with the girls in tow was too much for me. By the time we got to the store my legs felt like Jello. We picked up our few items and loaded everyone back in the trailer. We stopped at a playground for a little while so Elsie could run around, then headed back home.

Bike riding uses so many muscles that I'm not used to using. Hopefully I'll be able to get the girls out and riding around more and build them up a little. Elsie was my little cheerleader. Every time I was pushing hard to make it up a little incline or was slowing down, I would hear a little voice from behind me say "Keep going Mom! You're so strong!" over and over again.

*It's not really a steep hill by Utah standards, or even by Oregon standards. Wisconsin is generally pretty flat...

They speak their own language

Magical Healing Properties

That's what my old blanket has. Every time Elsie bonks or gets an owie, it needs a kiss. But for the really hard bonks and owies, it needs a kiss and the blanket. She'll sit on the couch and hold her owie under the blanket and it makes it all better.

"Elsie hurt. I need bacon. Need orange bacon on the couch. There, all better."

I was on such a roll

And then we had the great blogger outage of 2011, and I got off track. It's amazing how if I let myself miss one day how much easier it is to miss the next day. My blog posts are hardly inspired, but posting everyday helps me keep up on what's going on here and helps me journal our adventures, no matter how small they are. It also helps me feel a little more connected to family. It's a little lonely being so far away from everyone, but I know they read it even if they don't say anything. :)
I've been trying to find more things to do all day while Alan is at work. I've been trying to get Elsie to be more self-entertained with things like coloring and projects so I have a little time to myself. I've caught up on my scrapbook to were I printed out pictures last, which sadly was August of 2009. Once I sort through and print out more I'll be able to catch up. I've also been working a lot on menu planning and cooking really yummy dinners. But I still feel like there are more hours in the day then I have things to do. Yeah, there are always things like housework and laundry that need to be done, but those aren't really all that exciting. What do you do to fill the long hours? What other things can I be doing to better myself or to just have fun with? I can only read Max and Ruby so many times to Elsie before I go crazy...

Sleep problems

There is not enough sleep to go around these days. Surprisingly enough, it's not Alice that's giving us the problem. Elsie has been having a rough time sleeping, and it's taking it's toll on me and Alan. She has been having a hard time falling asleep, and so she keeps getting up and coming out of her room. Our new apartment has french door handles, so our regular child proof doorknob covers don't work. She hasn't been getting to sleep until 8:30, 9, or even 9:30 some nights. To make matters worse, she's been waking up earlier and earlier. It started out getting up at 6am, but yesterday she woke up at 4am and wouldn't go back to sleep. This morning she was up at 3:30am and it took her an hour or so to get back to bed. She might have slept in a little more this morning, but around 6am Alice (my champion sleeper) woke up crying because her little leg got caught in the crib bars. Poor kid. There was no going back to sleep after that.

Elsie is driving me nuts with this, and I don't know how to fix it. Is her nap too late in the day and so she's not tired at bed time? Is it time to give up her nap altogether? Do we just need another lock on the door so she can't come out and she'll give up and go to sleep? I still find it amazing that my 3 months old sleeps so much better than my 2 year old...

The Rest of the Story...

Sarah texted me yesterday while I was at work and said, “So, I know you’re going to hate me for asking…” I had to wait in suspense for the next text to know what I was going to hate. She asked me to write “our how we met/started dating story” without looking at her version—I cheated; I read hers.

I got home from my mission in June of 2007. Two months later I moved back down to Provo to go to BYU. I did one year at BYU before my mission and lived in the dorms. All of us that were in the dorms together left on our missions within a few months of each other and were all getting home around the same time. A bunch of us had some apartments reserved so that we could all live together at the Riv. When I went to sign my contract, the Riv had already given several of my group’s reserved rooms to other people. I—as well as several other guys—ended up having to find an apartment elsewhere. The apartment that I was supposed to be in was directly across from Sarah's apartment, but even though I had to find another place to live it all worked out in the end.

I had been in my apartment for about a week just working when several of the other dorm guys started moving in to the apartment that we were all supposed to be in. I left work early to go meet up with the other guys since we hadn't seen each other for over two years. One of the guys, Lee, had served in Spain and was showing me a really old Spanish Hymnbook that he had gotten on his mission. We walked out of the bedroom singing one of the Spanish hymns. (At this point it’s important to note that in many missions missionaries joke that the more adversity a missionary faces—getting spit on, hit with rocks, etc—and the more he tracts in the rain, the hotter his future wife will be. You get “wife points.”) Lee and I walked out and *BAM* there was Sarah and all of those days knocking in the rain and racking up wife points paid off ;-)

5 ½ weeks later we were engaged. 12 weeks after that we were married. In all it was 4 months and 1 day from the day we met that we were sealed in the Portland temple. During those 4 months the only days that we weren’t together were between Sarah driving home for Christmas and me getting there with my family to get ready or the wedding. We spent a lot of time together. We got trapped in the sprinklers trying to have a bonfire up the canyon. Sarah smacked another girl in the head with a racquetball the first time I took her to play. Her Bishop caught us kissing in Sarah’s apartment when he walked out of the building across the street and had a straight view into her kitchen; he then called her over on Sunday to ask her about me. We walked A LOT—I used to walk to the nursing home where Sarah worked to pick her up from her shift and walk her home. We often stopped at Denny’s or The Olive Garden to eat while walking back from the nursing home. Sarah got in an accident and smashed in the front of our car while she was in Oregon for Christmas. She called me while I was on the road with my family crying that she’d crashed our car and was so worried that I would be mad at her—it was a crappy car in the first place; I paid more for her ring than we ultimately were able to sell that car for (not that we didn’t appreciate the car. It was wonderful to have until we could afford something better…). We met, had our first kiss, and got engaged at the Riviera apartments. Everyone thought—and some told us—that we were crazy.

It was an exciting 4 months. It’s been an exciting 3 ½ years. It’ll be exciting to see what the future has in store.

And now you know the rest of the story.

Of course

The one time I actually have a blog post set to publish the next day, blogger crashes. Luckily, Alan saved his version of our story in a word document, so if it doesn't show up with my lost posts, at least we have a back up.

I'll give blogger til the end of the day and if it isn't back by then, I'll re-post everything.

How did we get here?

Alan and I were sitting around talking last night and something sparked that question. It was one of those moments where we looked around and said "do we really have two kids and live in Wisconsin? How did that happen?"

Alan and I met at the end of August right before school started in 2007. I was a Sunday School teacher in my singles' ward at the time, and so I already had a pretty good feel of the new guys moving into the apartment complex. I had picked out a promising apartment, and proceeded to make friends with them. I was over at their apartment visiting when I heard a rich, deep, voice coming out of one of the back rooms. Out walks a tall, dark haired, really cute guy singing church hymns in spanish with one of the other guys. He didn't live in my apartment complex, but he had been roommates with a lot of the guys in my ward before they all left on their missions.

I think my first thought was "whoa, a cute guy who is not afraid to sing. I need to met him". We chatted for a little bit before I had to get back to doing other things. Later that night a group of us got together to talk and play games. Alan tagged along with his friends. I remember sitting on an end table talking and laughing with everyone and trying not to be too obvious that I kept looking at Alan.

Over the next few days he was conveniently always hanging out with his old roommates, until he finally gave up that pretense and just came over to be with me. We went to a trampoline/gymnastics center, had a bonfire up in the canyon, hiked up Bridal Veil Falls, had a barbecue, and went to a BYU football game. We watched a movie where he ALMOST put his arm around me, and then another one where he actually did. We were in Salt Lake watching the Joseph Smith movie in the visitors center the first time he held my hand. The next day, after playing racquetball, he kissed me for the first time outside in the courtyard in front of my apartment.

The next few weeks were such a blur. We were together everyday, talking, laughing, playing, studying, and just enjoying one anothers company. I remember coming home from a football game thinking "I could marry this guy", then thinking I was crazy because it had only been such a short time. He must have been thinking the same thing, because a few nights later he asked me, "if I were to ask you to marry me, would you say yes?"

Alan wanted to take me ring shopping in his hometown. I remember him telling his mom on the phone why we were coming up for the day and hearing her response on the other end. "Are you serious?" I think we both knew how crazy we looked, but it didn't matter any more. I had dated enough guys to know what I wanted and what I needed, and I had never been more sure about anything. I remember trying to explain it (very badly) to a couple of my worried siblings who didn't think I knew what I was getting into.

It was a rainy day the day Alan proposed. It was conference weekend, and we were supposed to catch a bus early in the morning to go up to West Jordan to be with Alan's family and then later met my parents in Salt Lake (they were coming to Utah to met Alan). Somehow, I had forgotten to set my alarm. I woke up to the sound of Alan knocking at my door. Then frantic, I rushed around trying to get ready in time to catch the bus. When I was finally ready to go out the door, Alan started dragging his feet. We walked towards the bus station and he was still stalling the whole time. Finally he stopped me and said it was alright if we were a little late. Then, after saying some nice things about me, in the raining parking lot of my apartment complex, he got down on one knee and asked me to marry him.

So, I guess that's how we ended up in Wisconsin with two kids. At least, that's how it happened from my point of view...

Sick...

Ugh, I hate these days. Sore throat, sore ears, running nose, cough, the works. We watched a lot of Mickey Mouse Clubhouse today, and I even put on Tangled as the day wore on. Hopefully tomorrow will be better.

In other news, it has suddenly become summer here. 80ish degrees all week long. The girls wore shorts and t-shirts today. I moved a chair and Elsie's little table out on our balcony, so when Elsie got tired of laying on the couch with me I could sit outside and read a book while she colored and played.
Oh, and this was my Mother's Day dinner. Fantastic.