Viva Las Vegas!

Katie and I started up a new tradition last year. The weekend after her birthday, we like to go on a vacation together. Since school is out by then and we’re usually burned out, and it’s not smack in the middle of the summer yet, it is a great time to go. Since my birthday is in March, it’s kind of like a birthday present to both of us. So, this year we decided on a quick getaway to Las Vegas. Julia is an angel and volunteered to watch Chase so we could have some alone time for a couple of days. Now, many people asked us why we picked Las Vegas, seeing as we don't gamble, or drink. First of all, we didn’t want to go too far, because we didn’t want to be away from Chase for too long. Second of all, (and in reply) we'd like to thank everyone who throws away their money at casinos in Las Vegas- it is because of you that we are able to stay at nice hotels for cheap, and that we are able to eat at amazing buffets for cheap, so thanks once again, and keep up the good work!

Upon arrival in Las Vegas, there were a few things that caught my attention, the first was the fact that Katie and I were the youngest couple in all of Las Vegas; in fact we later learned that Las Vegas is the #1 location in the world for rest homes to take field trips to. Along with this, all of the steak houses in Las Vegas offer denture adhesive along with their meals. Second of all, between the number of casinos based on classic European architecture and the number of ACTUAL Europeans in Las Vegas, I feel as though I visited Venice, Rome, Paris, Monte Carlo and so on. The same could be said for Asia via Las Imperial Palace :) Katie enjoyed picking Europeans out of a crowd before they opened their mouths, and then confirming she was correct when they started speaking Dutch or German or something. It is one of her favorite games. We actually played the same game with Mormons and looked for the eternal smile…

Now for the trip details, we arrived on Sunday afternoon/evening, so we didn't really get started until the next morning. Our hotel room was really nice and we crashed for about 12 hours. On Monday we got up early, took a long walk down the strip, and checked out several of the hotels including The Monte Carlo (where we stayed), Bellagio, Cesears Palace, Excalibur, Luxor, New York New York and finally Mandalay Bay. While at Mandalay Bay we took a few minutes to check out their Shark Reef (my pick obviously) which was really cool. They actually have a million-gallon tank there! We then returned to our hotel, and spent the remainder of the afternoon at the pool. Katie read most of the time, while I played in the water :) I love the lazy river!

In the afternoon as things started to cool down, we went for a walk again, this time going to the Venetian and Mirage. During our course of 2.5 days in Las Vegas we had the chance to eat at three different buffets; Monte Carlos' lunch/dinner buffet, which was pretty good other than our waiter spoke at about 25 db (which is really really quiet for those of you who don't know) making him nearly impossible to hear, along with this he didn't ever quite figure out how to refill our drinks. We had breakfast at the Bellagio buffet, which was really good! I would recommend this one to all Vegas visitors, and finally the Mirage buffet which was my favorite, awesome prime rib, king crab legs, and sushi... and on top of that, the waiter actually refilled our drinks! On our way back to our hotel on Monday night we got to the Bellagio right as the fountain/light show started, and that was really cool to watch. It was all choreographed to Frank Sinatra's ‘Lady Luck’ and we loved it.

Other highlights of our trip would include the Coke factory (I liked that more than Katie I'm sure), M&M World, In-N-Out, Gelato (Katie is addicted) and Dunkin' Doughnuts. The story with Dunkin’ Donuts is this… When Katie was pregnant with Chase she got this crazy craving for Pink Frosted donuts from Dunkin’ Donuts. I offered to get her some Krispy Kreme pink frosted donuts but she HATES Krispy Kreme. She actually got on the internet and searched for the closest Dunkin Donuts, which was in either Las Vegas, or Denver. She considered getting in the car and driving to one of those two places but it was the middle of the winter and snowing and I wouldn’t let her go. So THEN, she wrote an email to the president of Dunkin Donuts chewing him out for not having any franchises within 100 miles of our house. It was so hilarious. So while in Las Vegas, we had to go to Dunkin Donuts. Unfortunately, Katie was no longer craving them…

By the time we got home Katie was missing Chase pretty bad, and we hoped he would be missing us too and consequently give us big hugs when we got home. But we walked in the door and he didn’t seem to even realize we were ever gone! He was having way too much fun with his Grammy to even notice us. We brought him a stuffed Stingray from the Shark Reef and he loved it- put it right in his mouth.

Ps: if it sounds like all we did in Las Vegas was eat, it’s true! But we figured out we also walked about 10 miles a day, so it balances out! Also we got home and I am still well on my way to beating Mark. Overall we had a great trip and can’t wait till next year! (Julia- are you available on the 24th? Haha)



*Edited by Katie
Dear Tim, I notice you conveniently left out the fact that you let some nice old Asian man walk into the women’s restroom…

Graduation & Birthday

Wow, we had quite the weekend last week. I finished up another semester, Katie’s family came to visit, and Katie graduated and turned 22! On Thursday night we headed up to SLC where we met up with Lynn, Julia, Lauren and Dan, and had a great dinner at The Roof in honor of our graduate! We got there right as the sun was setting, and had a great evening together. Dan ate a plate of olives and a huge slice of chocolate mint cake.

On Friday we all got up really early, since the School of Education holds their graduation at 8:00 AM. Elder Perry presided over Katie’s graduation, and told the graduates that they had picked the most important major there is, which was pretty cool. As a quick side note, I just need to say how proud I am of Katie for graduating. I'm not sure how many of you know this, but Katie was in school all the way up until 1 week before her due date. In addition to this, from about 7 months to 8 1/2 months she was working full time in a 5th grade classroom. When Chase was born, Katie still had 9 credits to go, so she signed up for four online classes, and finished her work from home while taking care of Chase. I'm not really sure how she did it since I can't get anything done with Chase around, but miraculously Katie was able to do it! She also got straight A’s and actually studied for all her finals. Yup, she's pretty amazing, what else can I say.

CONGRATULATIONS KATIE!!!

Friday also happened to be Katie's birthday, so after graduation, the party began! After taking naps, to catch up from the early morning, we headed up to SLC for dinner at Zinn Bistro. If you are not aware of the reputation Zinn Bistro has, you might want to check this out: http://utah.citysearch.com/review/35829139 . We stumbled upon this a few weeks ago and had been dying to try this place, not only because the food was supposed to be amazing, but because of all the funny/rude things that we heard about happening there. We were intrigued.

Here is an excerpt from our favorite review: “We tried to order soups ala carte, offering to pay full entree price it. We were told by the owner that our name had been put on a list and we could never return to the restaurant again”.

We were pretty excited to see what this place was like. The food was good, not great, but good, and we didn't have anything too exciting happen with the owners/servers, only two small incidents. First, Katie and Julia tried to share a dish to which the server coldly replied, "I have to have one order per person," so they ordered separately. After ordering, they brought out a basket of bread, which was by far the best part of the meal. As the server was leaving, Lynn asked if there was anything we should know about the bread (since there were like 7 different types), to which she responded, "They're delicious" and walked away.

After dinner we went to Build-A-Bear because Katie has been begging me to take her there forever. She built a BYU bear and I built a scuba monkey. It was a lot of fun, I wouldn't be surprised if that becomes a new family birthday tradition :) Although I have to say, Dan, Lauren, and I had most fun trying the bear accessories on Chase. I think Katie was torn over whether to laugh or come to her child’s defense, but we got some great pictures, and Chase didn’t seem to mind at all.

After dinner we returned home for an awesome ice cream cake from Cold Stone and presents. We were all exhausted and Katie and I still had to pack for Las Vegas! It was a great couple days and we all had a lot of fun together.



-Tim

A Day at the Park

This weekend we took Chase to the park for the first time because it is finally starting to warm up! We laid out a blanket and just enjoyed the beautiful weather. We also took Chase on the swings for the first time. Here are some pictures.

(See Tim's blog for further details on a man we met there by the name of Peter File...)

He's walking :)
Chase's first swing ride
Superbaby!
Me & Chase
The reason I'm getting a mom haircut
The two of us
Me & baby!

Photographic Evidence

If that's not a tooth coming in, I would like to know what it is.

Jim & Pam

For those of you who watch The Office...

Last night was our engagement anniversary, so if you watched the new episode last night- you can understand that we felt the Jim & Pam engagement announcement was just for us :) I almost cried when Jim pulled out the ring box. Never have Tim and I loved fictional characters so much...

Forever Families

We got some sad news the other night. In what can only be attributed to divine inspiration and intervention, Tim felt he needed to call up some neighbors of ours from our old ward. We hadn't talked to them in months, it was 11 o'clock at night, I was already in bed, and Tim had just put Chase down for the night and was on his way. Calling anyone was the last thing on his mind, but he did it, and it was immediately obvious that they needed the call.

We were shocked to find out that they were due with a little girl two weeks ago. Last weekend, the night before they were scheduled to be induced, and very suddenly, the little girl passed away and was stillborn. The parents expressed an obvious sentiment of heartbreak and sadness, but also expressed an attitude of hope, understanding, and gratitude. They related how this experience has only strengthened their faith and desire to be with their little one someday. What an amazing couple. They named their little girl "Talitha Cumi", which means "little girl arise". It is from the New Testament story where Jesus raises Jarius' daughter from the dead. It was also the name of their ancestor who was baptized by Joseph Smith. I thought the name was so appropriate, and so beautiful. We expressed our sympathy and support to them and the husband thanked Tim for an inspired call when he just needed someone to talk to.

Both a little heartsick from the news, we went to bed. Filled with grief and sadness for our friends, we felt incomplete just the two of us, and Tim went and got Chase and brought him to our room so we could all be together as a family. We both just sat in the dark and watched him as he slept. Neither of us said anything but I felt an overwhelming sense of love and gratitude for our baby and the blessing it is to raise him and have him in our home. I finally understand the overwhelming, inexpressible, encompassing, unselfish love that a mother has for her child. I finally understand the completeness of a family unit consisting not just of two people who love eachother, but including children TO love, especially when they cannot love you back. We found comfort in our little family and strengthened through this experience.

Although I am still upset and saddened for our friends, I feel grateful and hopeful in knowing that life does not end at death, and especially in knowing that families are eternal, and that these friends will meet their daughter someday. I am also amazed at how intimately God knows of and provides for our emotional, mental, and spiritual needs and am increasingly aware of how he places specific people in your life for specific and purposeful reasons, events, and seasons. Overall, I feel so grateful today for everything that is good, true, and right in my life, and particularly for knowledge of God's plan and his hand in our lives. Sometimes I forget to appreciate the things that go right, and only focus on the things that go wrong. How blessed our family is for all that we have and are.

Funny story

I forgot! Something really funny happened during Sacrament on Sunday. A little boy named Hyrum was sitting in front of us. Hyrum is about one. Hyrum was a little restless and kept walking around and playing on the ground by us. About halfway through the meeting, he squeezed through the chairs and came and stood right next to Chase's carrier which was on the floor. He was pointing at him and saying something. I thought he was saying "baby". So I was like "Yeah, its a baby! Do you see the baby?" He kept saying the word and all of a sudden he grabbed Chases binky out of his mouth and tried to put it in his mouth. His mom about died! I was laughing so hard, and I grabbed it before he got it in his mouth. His mom passed a binky back and then he was happy. But apparently he thought that Chase had his binky. And now I know that he was not interested in the baby at all, but rather his binky. Chase was a little bewildered.