July 2009

July 2, 2009: Tyler Sorensen came home from his mission to Sacramento, California today. We all met at the airport around noon but his flight was slightly delayed. That meant 5 little kids were running around the waiting area with nothing to do for 30 minutes. That's okay, at least they all play well together.
It was fun to watch Tyler interact with this family. He's not a very emotional person so the hugs were brief and not a lot of talking. He was most fascinated with all the little kids around because three of them he had never met before (Jade, Boston and Tylar) and Aniston and Ethan had changed a lot in two years. He looked really good. He had gained a little weight but he could afford to do that. He was still very much in the missionary mode of things but he looked more relaxed and comfortable with himself. There was a new kind of self confidence that I didn't remember him having before the mission. I guess that is what two years of being out on your own and in leadership positions will do to a boy.
After picking Tyler up we all decided to go to lunch at Applebees. While we were there we had a huge rain storm go by that left several places in Salt Lake flooded. One of those places was in our neighborhood at the bottom of the hill. Several homes had inches of water in their basements. Branches and roof shingles were everywhere. Luckily our house is up on a hill and we didn't get much run off from our rock wall. So we were okay, but what a storm.

July 3, 2009: I have officially stopped working the 12 hour shifts at the hospital. I decided that while being pregnant, especially for the first several months, I was going to take it easy so I didn't have a repeat of my last miscarriage. So I have started working the princess shift every Tuesday and Thursday night. I work from 1800-0200. It is a great shift. I get home and to bed before 3am and that means I'm not so tired when Jade gets up around 7am. It's the best shift ever. Why I didn't do this a long time ago I don't know. I still occasionally have to charge or triage but that's managable since I don't have to do it the entire 12 hours.
However, with the holiday coming up I had to put in my share of the hours if I wanted the 24th of July and Labor Day off. So tonight I had to work the entire 12 hours. Kill me know! Plus I charged and basically fixed problems all night. It's amazing how some people just can't seem to work out their own problems by themselves. They need someone to do it for them. By 6am I was so exhausted it was all I could do to drive home.

July 4, 2009: However I didn't get to go to sleep. Instead I picked Jade and Aaron up at the house and we drove to Provo for the 4th of July parade. Austin, Erica, Paige and Cierra were already there with a spot saved since early that morning. The weather was slightly overcast which made the July heat bearable but by 10am the clouds had burned off and it was stiffling hot. That didn't seem to stop Jade any. She loved watching the parade and had a really good time.
After the parade we met at Grandma Bills house and had KFC chicken (like we do every year) with the Bills kids. I guess the Bills are down for the week as their summer vacation.
After lunch we went back to our place and I crashed until 6pm when I had to go back to work for another 12 hour shift. It was so busy that I stayed the entire 12 hours. Boy was I tired.
I guess Jade was able to do fireworks over at the Sorensen's house. She was slightly ornry the entire time because she was off her schedule a bit. So she didn't really enjoy the fireworks as much as she probably would have had she had a good nap.

July 8, 2009: Happy Birthday to Auburn! It was her 19th birthday today and we celebrated by taking her to get her hair cut. Everyone except for Jade and I seemed to have plans that day, including Auburn who had to work, so it wasn't very exciting. However, after she got her hair done, all of us girls met up and took Auburn to lunch at Costa Vida. During lunch, Auburn made some off hand comment about how she has never had a birthday cake for her birthday and that her birthday seems to always get forgotten. So to prove her wrong, I guess, we decided to surprise her at her work with a birthday cake that she could share with everyone. It worked out great because no one knew it was her birthday at work so they were slightly embarrassed for forgetting and so were super accomidating. After she got off of work we took her to Italian Village for dinner. I think it was a nice day for her and I think secretly she enjoyed the embarrassment of showing up at her work with a cake.
As a side note, Auburn has had several birthday cakes on her birthday, including several birthday parties. The rest we celebrated while on vacation. I looked at the scrapbooks and have proof.

June 9, 2009: Aaron is on a all men's softball team with his brothers. Jen is the captain. They are playing really well and should be playing on a different league, the other teams don't really stand a chance. But it's fun to watch cause they just cream them all.
With all of the brothers playing ball that means all the cousins come to the ballfield. This is fine because they have a really good time hanging out together. However, today I somehow got the "opportunity" to watch all the cousins. To keep them all together I pulled out some street chalk and we drew pictures on the sidewalk. I drew a picture of Ethan, very lifelike, and he loved it so much he wanted to show his parents. So after the game I had Ethan lie next to the drawing and had Jen and Jeremy try to tell which one was the real Ethan. They stood there for a minute acting like they were puzzled and couldn't figure it out. Finally, Ethan sneaks his hand up to his chest and whispered, "it's me...I'm the real Ethan." It was so funny, I had to take a picture.

July 10, 2009: Today was the Xango summer party at Seven Peaks. We decided to take Jade with us and then have Auburn come and pick her up later on in the day so she could go to bed. Jade seemed to really have a good time. We slathered her in sunscreen and made sure she had waterwings and a lifejacket on the entire time and then let her run wild. She loved it. She even went down several large water slides on the tubes. She would hold both of my hands really tight but once we were down she would clap her hands and act all excited to go again.
Austin was picked for their famous prize drawing. They chose 27 people dive into the wave pool and fish out a Xango ball with a letter on it. Then they handed out the prizes according to the letter they had. Austin won $300 and he was so excited. I have a fun video of the entire event.

July 11, 2009: We took Jade to an Orem Owls AA Baseball game tonight with my family. She seemed to like it for a while but eventually got bored. Grandpa Gunn took her for walks around the stadium but that didn't last very long. Finally, the only thing that seemed to keep her entertained was feeding Aaron sunflower seeds. I think Aaron ate a whole bag before the game was over. Thanks for taking one for the team Aaron.

July 12, 2009: Today was Grandpa Gunn's 53rd birthday. We had his Sunday birthday dinner with the grandparents and then took him around town on a GPS scavenger hunt. We all pooled our money together again to buy him a GPS that he has wanted for a while.

July 13, 2009: Jade has become very mommy dependant lately. I don't know why either seen as how she has been around both Aaron's and my family a lot these last few weeks. I shouldn't be complaining because she actually will say "Ma" now but she does it in a whinny voice and then wants me to pick her up. I'm the only one that she will go to right now and if I walk out the door without her she totally flips out. I hope this phase ends fast cause it's exhausting.

July 14, 2009: I guess while I was at work Jade went over to Boobi Loosli's house (our neighbors to the west of us) to play with McKay and found an orange play necklace. She put it on and wouldn't take it off. I guess Boobi let her take it home and she slept with it on.

July 15, 2009: Clair invited Aaron and I to a previewing of the new Harry Potter 6 movie down in Orem. I guess he was able to get everyone tickets and we went and had free popcorn and shirts.
Also, Jade continues to wear the necklace. She won't take it off. She loves it!

July 16, 2009: Jade is still wearing the necklace. She also likes to give high fives. She's getting really good at it. She also likes to give "bones" and does it to everyone she sees.

July 17, 2009: I found out that Jade's top and bottom molars on her left side are coming in. I hope she doesn't get sick from it, she usually runs a low grade fever and gets a runny nose for a couple of days. But hopefully she won't this time. She hasn't been acting like she is sick. I just hope it stays that way because we are on our way to California tomorrow and I would hate for her to be sick while we were there.

July 18, 2009: Jade, Aaron and I boarded a 10am Delta flight for California today. It was Jade's first time flying. We didn't have to buy her a ticket because she is under 2 yo but that also means she didn't get a seat, she would have to sit on our laps the entire way there. However, we lucked out and they put us on an isle with an empty seat and she sat next to the window or between us the entire flight. She did really well the entire time. I was so proud of her.
Once we got off the plane and to the car rental place it was way past lunch and Jade was starting to get a little fussy. Then to top everything off, we had to wait in line for 2 hours while we waited for a car to be returned. I guess because of a special weekend promotion they had overbooked the cars and so people were having to wait for the cars to be returned first before they could rent one. It really was annoying. Poor Jade had to stand out in the sun for most of those two hours without food or drink. I felt so bad but we weren't in a position to be able to get her anything. We got the car and on the road and within two minutes Jade was asleep.
We drove to the hotel and got some dinner, by then Jade was up from her nap and we fed her on our way to Disneyland. We got there about 7pm and rode on about 6-7 rides before the park closed. It seems like not many rides, but it was just right. Jade loved the park and all of the people but she didn't really understand the concept of standing in line, especially at the Dumbo ride. She really wanted to ride that ride so bad that she got a little cranky having to stand in line for twenty minutes. The other ride she really enjoyed was the Merry-go-round. She loved it and we rode it several times in a row.
We left the park at midnight and Jade was exhausted. She actually feel asleep in her stroller, which she never does...ever! On the way home we got caught in construction traffic and our hour long drive turned into two hours. I also got really nauseated while in the car and actually barfed in a chip bag we had in the car. That's the first time I've been sick with this pregancy. I get nauseated if I don't eat every two hours or if I get super tired but this is the first time I threw up. With Jade I vomited like clock work, every evening for about 8 straight weeks. It sucked but at least after barfing I would feel better. This pregnancy I just get really nauseated and nothing short of taking a nap or eating something will take it away.

July 19, 2009: Today is Sunday and we started early by going to church. It is always fun to go to church outside of Utah and see how the church is the exact same no matter where you go. This branch was part ASL and it was interesting to watch the interpreters. The branch was small and slightly older so Jade was the youngest one there. We had several people come up to us and tell us how cute and well behaved she was. She really is, we don't really ever have lots of problems with her while in church, just as long as she has a snack, her pacifier and books she does pretty well.
After church we decided to take a drive down to Malibu and then drive the PCH until we were tired of driving. Jade took a nap most of the way down there and then once on the PCH we decided to stop off at a beach and let Jade play in the sand. We found a fun local beach outside of Malibu and hiked down to the water. It was a beautiful beach and Jade seemed to love the sand and water. We actually let her get in the water even though she didn't have a swimsuit. We just stripped her down to her diaper and she played for a good hour in the sand and waves.
The tide started to come and and we left. I unfortunately wasn't prepared for Jade to be all sandy and wet. So I had to improvise cleaning her up using wet wipes, napkins and an extra shirt we had in the trunk. It wasn't very fun, especially having to clean out all of the cracks and crevices. But we succeeded in getting her clean and decided to stop off at Duke's and have expensive but delicious fish for dinner. Duke's is right on Malibu beach and we had a great view of the ocean. The last time we were here we came with two of Aaron's coworkers Brad and Jeff and we decided that it was one of our favorite places to have fish. It is sooo good!
After dinner we drove home and Jade fell asleep in the car. However we had a great evening and ended it by going to bed early. We were exhausted!

July 20, 2009: Jade and I slept in til really late in the morning. We were exhausted after yesterday's activites. We got up and decided to head out to Venice Beach for the day and play at the beach. We got there and had lunch from a street vendor there on the boardwalk. We then headed out to the beach and spent the rest of the afternoon playing in the sand and water. Jade loved the water and didn't hesitate to go out and play in the waves. The waves weren't as big as yesterday's at Malibu and so weren't as frightening to her. I put on her waterwings, sunscreen and ginger hat and out she went.
There was a little hispanic about 6-7 years old sitting next to us that Jade decided to make friends with. She took over some of her beach toys and she and the little girl made a "sandcastle" together. It was really cute.
After a long afternoon in the sun, we headed back to the hotel to meet Aaron for dinner. We decided to go to Dodger's game that night and ended up getting really cheap seats out in left field behind their famous outfielder Manny Ramirez. We ate Dodger dogs, nachos, peanuts and cotton candy...we basically ate until we were sick, or was it plain broke? While Aaron was off getting us more junk food to eat, a homerun ball was hit out to us by Mannie. I seriously thought it was coming right for us. I was holding Jade and for a few seconds I debated what to do if the ball really came right to me. How was I going to catch it while holding Jade. Luckily, the ball bounced right behind us and up into the other section. Needless to say, Aaron wasn't very happy to hear that he had missed catching a homerun ball because he was buying peanuts.
The Dodgers ended up winning the game but we only stayed until the top the 8th inning. Jade was starting to get tired and that meant whinny. As we were walking out we realized that we had forgotten were we had parked the car. So we spent the next 20 minutes pushing the alarm button on our rental car key ring until we found the car. So a slight damper to our evening but all in all we had a really fun day,

July 21, 2009: All of us got up early, Aaron to work and Jade and I off to play. I decided to take us to the Fashion District in downtown LA and go shopping. Cindy Gunn told us about this great shoe dive that sold cute $6 shoes. So I decided that we would stop there first. After an hour of complete chaos, I walked out of there with 6 pairs of shoes for less than $40. What a great store. After buying shoes I loaded Jade in the stroller and we walked down the street to the district and shopped for the next 3 hours. We only stopped off at McDonald's to grab some lunch and then it was more shopping. I don't think I really bought anything except for a watch and cute black church shoes for Jade. Other than that we just window shopped. But it sure was fun. Jade did really well especially because it was so hot outside. We could have continued to shop but Jade was starting to look a little pink and I thought I better get her out of the heat. So we headed back to pick up Aaron and go to the airport. On the way I bought a Arby's smoothie and Jade seriously drank about half of it. The poor thing was just hot and thirsty.
That night we boarded a flight for home. Jade loved runny up and down the ramp while waiting to load our plane. She was a little cranky during the flight only because it was past her bedtime and she was tired. You would think she would just fall asleep but no. Too much to see and do. So instead she feed Aaron peanuts the entire way home. It kept her occupied and quiet and for that we were grateful.
It was a great trip and it was fun to take Jade with us. There were lots of first for her and it was fun to document those firsts. I know she won't remember any of it but it was fun for Aaron and I to experience. Jade really is a great little girl and a lot of fun to be with.

July 22, 2009: Today I washed clothes and got ready to leave again. This time we are off to Beaver for the 24th of July festivities. We decided to spend the night at my parent's house so that we didn't have to get up so early in the morning to head out to Yuba. As tradition has it, every 24th of July we always go to the parade and either play at Yuba Lake for a day on our way down to Beaver or on our way back home. This time, the way the weekend worked out we decided to go to Yuba first and then head down to Beaver. So we needed to get up, loaded and on the road pretty early so we could get on the lake as soon as possible.
So back to getting ready...we decided to to spend the night and so after packing our car we headed down to Orem. It was around midnight and we were both exhausted from a long day working and getting ready, plus we were still recouping from our trip to California. Aaron tried to get on the freeway at 7200 South but it was closed. So we drove down State Street to 90000 South only to find out that that freeway entrance was closed. We were headed down to 106000 South when Aaron came to a yellow light. He was trying to decide which road to take and didn't realize that a cop was sitting at the opposite intersection and caught Aaron running a red light. Off course, he pulled us over. Luckily, Aaron was so distraught that he pleaded for mercy and the police officer gave us only a warning. I think it helped that Aaron told him why he had run the red light and asked the police officer if he knew of a freeway entrance that was open so we could get to Orem. The police officer took a long time to get back to us but finally said that the 123000 South was the only one open. That they had closed the entire cooridor up and down the Salt Lake Valley and only one entrance was open. The officer took pity on us and let us go with a warning. Man we were so thankful. That's the last thing we needed, a ticket on our insurance and a huge fine to pay.
Needless to say we finally got to my parent's around 1:30am and were dead tired. But to make it worse my dad decided to load Aaron's truck that night. So poor Aaron went out with my dad and loaded the truck for another hour. He was so tired and ornry by the time he got to bed. Poor dude!

July 23, 2009: Woke up early this morning and headed off to Yuba Lake. The weather was perfect but the water was super low. That surprised us especially with as much rain as we got this spring. But the water level was the lowest we have ever seen it. We parked in our usual spot and set up camp. Auburn and Jamison went with us along with Austin and Erica. So there were a lot of us on the beach. We basically played all day and rotated using the jet skies. Jade did really well. She loved playing with her sand toys on the edge of the water. She didn't really get super wet but would make sure her feet were touching the water at all times. She also was able to take a nap in the truck, which was nice for all of us. We left the lake pretty late which meant hamburgers at Wendy's for dinner on our way up Beaver Canyon. My mom was able to book a cabin up Beaver Canyon for the weekend. It was a nice place to stay however it was a long drive up the canyon, especially for as late and as tired as we were coming from Yuba Lake. On the way up the canyon we ran into lots of wild life, including a large elk that was standing at the edge of the road. It actually was a little scary to see him standing there as big as he was. He could have taken out our truck if he decided to run across the road. We finally got to our cabin though after having to drive 5 mph so as not to hit all the wildlife. We got in after midnight and then had to unload the cars and set up all the beds. I think we all finally collapsed into bed around 2:30am. Whoa, what a long day!

Julyt 24, 2009: We had to get up early again today to make the 9am parade on time. We sat across the street from the church in the sun but lucked out because most of the morning the sun was covered with clouds. It burned off though towards the end which made it get pretty hot, but it was bearable. Jade learned how to grab the candy that was tossed out into the street and she actually became really good at it.
After the parade we went over to the park and ran in the foot races. Unfortunately we missed the footraces for Jade's age. We think she would have done pretty well. But everyone else was able to race. I even raced, which I shouldn't have because I looked like a galloping fat cow. But afterwards I also got really sick. I don't know if it was the sun, running or the combination of both but once we got in the truck I started to dry heave. Poor Erica was in the back seat and I think she almost dry heaved with me.
After the foot races we met up the the rest of the Gunn clan and had a pot luck lunch at the ballpark. Then afterwards we took Grandpa Gunn up the canyon to our cabin to hang out for a while. Everyone took a nap including Grandpa, we were so exhausted from the heat.
After our naps we headed back down the canyon for mexican dinner at Can Cun and then over to the ballpark to watch the fireworks. Jade really liked that.
As we were headed back up the canyon, I was super tired to the point of being silly and I kept saying stupid things that I really couldn't control. For instance I said that the truck in front of us was driving weird and that he was being a "turkey face". Everyone thought that was funny. Also I was trying to say how much I liked the fireworks this year because I thought they were really different from last year and instead I said "those fireworks weren't just bright, they were REALLY bright." I guess the way I said it made me sound really crazy. They were all laughing at me. I blame it on exhaustion because I quickly fell asleep up the canyon.

July 25, 2009: Today we went to Minersville to try jetskiing at a different location. Let me sum up the experience...it sucked! The day dawned with rain on the horizon however it didn't really rain until later in the day. By the time we got to the lake it was close to lunch time. When Aaron and I took out the jetskis we ran into some thick weeds and got stuck. Trying to unstick ourselves took us a good hour. By the time we got back, lunch was over, I had a roaring headache and it was getting ready to rain. People took some other runs on the jetskies but because the lake was so small and low that really we couldn't venture out that far or do anything with them. So we all just kind of hung around camp. Finally, the rain started and we had to pack up and go home. We were only on the lake for a couple of hours and those hours weren't the best. We all voted not to come back ever again. My vote was the loudest I think.
That night the funniest thing happened. We were all hanging out on the deck around the propane campfire we had brought with us when a bat flew into the cabin. To make a long story short we found out that dad screams like a girl, that he is super afraid of bats, that bats actually fly better in the dark than with the lights on and that "bats go for the hair". We luckily have it all on film for posterity to see. I'm glad to say that my brave husband was very calm and caught the bat for us all. I don't know what we would have done without him because Dad and Austin were puddles of estrogen.

July 26, 2009: Today was Sunday and Dad was super ornry. But that is pretty usual for him on a trip. We aren't quite sure why, although we have our own opinions on the matter, but it seems like everytime we go on a trip were the last day is usually a Sunday, he is ornry. Well today was no exception, except for that he was SUPER ornry so much so that he was hard to be around. On our way down the canyon for the last time we stopped at the edge of the road and threw rocks in the river. Jade loved that idea. She would take huge handfulls of gravel and toss it in over and over again. She never tired of it and we were there for a good half an hour.
Also on the way down the canyon we were using walkie talkies to communicate between cars and mom gets on and says "look over your shoulder at that beautiful view." Now you need to understand that immediately to our right was just mountain wall but to our left there was a steep cliff that overlooked the valley. The view was really spectacular but Austin in all of his glory responds back, "which shoulder?" My mom realized that she was being made fun of but replies back in an annoyed voice, "your left." to which Austin responded, "oh, yeah, that is a pretty view." It was the funniest thing I had heard in a long time. I think I laughed the entire way down the canyon and I'm still chuckling even while I write this. It's so funny that I think I will make a mental note to tell this at my mother's funeral. I'll add it to one of the many funny tales I have up my sleeve to tell.
Also on the way home we stopped off at a hot springs that Meredith Gunn told us about. It's just off the freeway in Meadow, Utah. It took us a while to find it only because we didn't go far enough down the road but once we did we were amazed at how clean and warm it really was. It's located on someone's private property but they have opened it up to the public as long as it is kept clean and no nudity. Jade wanted to get in really bad so I stripped her down to her diaper and let her sit at the edge. She stayed playing there until we were all ready to go. Then on the way back, I didn't have an extra diaper with me, only one in the car. So she had to waddle back with this ten pound diaper hanging below her knees. I ended up taking off the diaper and letting her walk back to the car in the buff. She was so enthralled with the idea of being completely naked that she kept stopping to inspect her private areas. I think that was the first time her privates had ever felt the sun or wind on them. She though it was awesome. We ended up renaming the hot springs Waddle Springs after Jade. It was a great way to end a very fun trip.