four years

Four years ago today, Blake and I sealed the deal, and today, in celebration, I thought I'd share some memories of that day, the events that led up to it, and a sprinkling of things that have happened since.


First meeting...
I moved into his BYU ward at the beginning of my first senior year. We were assigned to be in the same Family Home Evening group during the fall semester and spent those months becoming friends.

The first date...
At the end of January 2004, he asked me for our first date. It was a group date he and two of his roommates had planned. The evening consisted of dinner at a restaurant we couldn't find (we found some place else to eat), a concert on Temple Square in Salt Lake City, and doughnuts and hot chocolate at Krispy Kreme. Of the three couples experiencing first dates that evening, two of them ultimately got married.

The first kiss...
We were each other's first kiss, which made the blessed moment incredibly awkward. The week before lips actually touched, he asked me if he could kiss me, and I told him no, that I wasn't ready. I spent the week gearing myself up, and after a relaxing date the following weekend, we went for a walk around the neighborhood. We walked in circles for about an hour. I mostly talked about how I wanted to kiss him, but was nervous to; Blake patiently worked to convince me it would be fine. Finally, on the the edge of an empty Seven Peaks parking lot, I gave in. We kissed, though I wouldn't say sparks flew. In fact, I'm embarrassed to even remember how horribly ungraceful it was, and even though it technically was our first kiss, Blake is hesitant to admit that it counts.

The courtship...
I never imagined a relationship could grow and develop as smoothly as it did for Blake and I. There was never a need for one of those infamous "D.T.R." discussions; one step always just led perfectly to the next. We continued to date throughout the remainder of that first winter semester, through the summer, and into the following fall. We hardly missed a weekend date.

The engagement...
Blake asked me to marry him in October, ten months after our initial date. He took me up Provo Canyon for a picnic breakfast and a ride on the Heber Creeper. After we ate, and amid a routine National Guard grenade throwing practice, he asked me to marry him. I don't think I need to tell you that I said yes. I've shared the details of this story before, which, if you want to know more about how clueless I was that day, you can read about them here.

The wedding...
We were married six months later, on April 23, 2005 in the Manti, Utah LDS temple. The day before had been spent hectically wrapping up our time at BYU during the graduation ceremonies. By stark contrast, our wedding day was lovely and calm. We were surrounded by more family than fit inside their largest sealing room. There were no last-minute jitters; I knew my decision to spend the rest of my life and all of eternity with Blake was the right one. I felt peaceful, and very, very happy.

The reception...
We drove back to Provo after the sealing, relaxed for a short while, then went to the BYU Museum of Art for our reception. It was a lovely and simple celebration, albeit quite crowded (I think around 300 people were there). We spent the majority of our time greeting people in the reception line, and while it was an exhausting end to an exhausting day, it was nice getting to see so many old friends come show their support. Blake was polite when we cut and ate the cake (which was made by my talented friend, Melissa), and no one got any more frosting smeared on their cheeks than necessary. I was instructed that when it came time to throw my bouquet, I was to aim for my oldest cousin Audrey. I did so, but, as sometimes happens, my youngest sister caught it instead. The apologetic look Chelsea shot in Audrey's direction was classic and, happily, was captured on film.

The honeymoon...
We spent the week following our wedding day at Blake's uncle's cabin in the mountains above Alamagordo, New Mexico. It was quiet and pleasant -- until we both came down with the flu near the end of our stay. Blake experienced the worst of it but, after sleeping for nearly 24 hours straight, he woke up feeling well enough to drive through the night to our next stop in Austin, Texas, where an open house was scheduled to be hosted in his parent's home. That experience taught me that I do not like night driving.

The next four years...
We spent that first summer in Provo, but by August found ourselves in Muncie, Indiana, where Blake was beginning a master's degree program. Garrett was born in June 2007, just after Blake graduated and just before we received word of his post-grad job offer in Manhattan. Six weeks later we were residents of Brooklyn, where we've spent the last wildy adventuresome year and a half. As if in celebration of our four years of marriage, our second son will be joining us in September, turning us into a family of four.

Happy Anniversary, Blake!

I sure do love you!

polite little duck

Up until a few days ago, Garrett would say please by firmly nodding his head in much the same way Jeannie did when she granted wishes on TV back in the '60s. It was as if he was telling me, "Yes, I really, really want what you are offering really, really bad." Now, though, when I ask him to say please, he says it, and when he does it comes out sounding like a desperate "Eeeeeese!" Though I realize he's not the first kid to say please in this fashion, I'm still charmed by the toothy grin he bears when he says it. Sometimes, for good measure, he'll still even throw in the head nod.

Another thing he's recently learned to say is "quack quack" in answer to "What does the duck say?" (which I now ask him all the time because I love the way he'll drop everything and say "kack kack"). He picked this one up on our trip to Provo when he helped his Grandma Nancy feed the ducks and then, when we ran out of duck food, happily chased them around the pond. When Garrett is not busy being swept off his feet by the adorable Baby Elizabeth, he is consumed by his love for animals. He can spot a bird, dog, squirrel, or ant from a mile away, and once he does he can't take his eyes off them, nor stop chattering and making animal sounds in an effort to communicate with them. We don't see a lot of ducks waddling around Brooklyn, but I'm sure you can imagine what our duck-themed bathroom accessories can do to excite him.

And so, without further ado and introduction, let me present my polite little duck:

take me back

A good friend of mine today instated a Time Travel Tuesday segment on her blog. I thought the idea was pretty clever, what with the brilliant use of alliteration, and so here I am, copying the idea right out from under her.

Today I'd like to take you back to the year 1989. I was seven years old and had apparently just returned from a visit to see my grandparents in St. George, four hours south of my home in Provo. I was already missing my grandma "a lot" and had decided to tell her so. In the letter I mailed off to her I not only express this sentiment, I also demonstrate my budding flare for the creative with a short story. My grandma shared it with me during my visit home a few weeks ago, and I got such a good laugh out of it, I thought I'd share it with you here.



Translation:

Dear grandma,
I will miss you a lot I try to visit you I will tell you a story about a little frog who went on a visit to a friends home. I will tell it now. Once upon a time there was a man frog named Jamiy. He was very lonly at his home so he went to a friends home to have a little fun. It was getting late and the little frog Jamiy had to go home but wen the frog got home there was a ghost in his home. He ran under the cuvers and just like that he was a sleep under the cuvers.

The End

My favorite line? "I will tell it now." I really should incorporate that phrase into my daily conversations more often.

Around this same time, I was not only sending my grandparents letters/stories, I was also sending them pieces of original art. Here is a family portrait I drew up. Notice that we are posed in front of our home which, actually, is a pretty acurate rendition, if I may say so. Also notice that my "big family" is only about half the size it ultimately grew to; my younger siblings, Katie, Scott, and Chelsea, had yet to enter the picture.



I like to think that maybe my talent for writing has improved at least a little over the last 20 years. I only wish I could say the same about my artistic ability.

shopping cart

Last week, on a trip to Coscto with Emily and our two darling children, Garrett sat next to Elizabeth in the shopping cart. Both kids loved every bit of it: Elizabeth because it was her very first ride through the store like a big girl, and Garrett because he's pretty much smitten with Elizabeth. While Elizabeth was enjoying the views around her, Garrett was enjoying the views of his little girlfriend. I frequently caught him leaning over to talk to her, and periodically he'd reach over and surrepticiously hold her hand, which I thought was pretty sweet. His boldness, though, apparently shocked Elizabeth.

ocd

I'm assuming that it's not just my toddler who has a tendency to be stubborn, obstinate, and set in his new-found ways. Lately Garrett has been exhibiting some interesting preferences which sometimes appear due to his toddlerhood and other times appear to be inherited (from his father, of course). Here is a sampling of what I'm talking about:

• If he sees a door that is ajar (usually a closet door or cupboard), he must close it. This tendency most likely comes from me.
  

• If his sock starts to fall off his foot, he begs me to fix it, or, occasionally, tries to do it himself. Same goes with moments when his still-long pants come uncuffed and start to cover his foot.
  

• He can't stand having dirty hands. Several times throughout his meals (which he, of course, still mostly eats with his fingers), he'll reach his hand in the direction of a washcloth and grunt at me until I wipe him clean. This particular preference is not new; you may remember the fit he threw on his first birthday when he got cupcake frosting on his fingers. I blame this trait entirely on his father, who also is wary to the feel of unfamiliar textures.

Aside from the last example listed, none of these notions would have ever occurred to him a month ago. Now they bother him to no end. It makes him appear to be a little OCD. At any rate, it gives me a good handful of laughs to get me through my day.

20 weeks

It's definitely a boy. And isn't he cute? Gestationally speaking, of course.

the trip home, in a nutshell

Two days into our trip to Provo, Garrett started exhibiting cold symptoms. I thought he'd turn around and be fine in a day or two, but instead he just kept getting worse. Aside from the snot, phlegm, and whines, he was feverish and lethargic, he'd lost his appetite, and he became extremely clingy. The day before our scheduled flight back to Brooklyn, I took him to the doctor. The diagnosis? Bronchitis -- for the second April in a row.

His illness had the natural tendency to put a damper on things, but even so, we managed to have an enjoyable time. Here are a few of the ups and downs of our time in Provo:

Click on the links provided to see pictures and videos.

• My parents pulled out of the basement my old Dobbin the spring-loaded Wonder Horse. Garrett loved it and spent some quality moments going "giddy-yup."

• We got to meet Henry, my adorable little nephew and Garrett's only cousin. I tell you, this kid is always smiling. He was definitely a breath of fresh air when Garrett couldn't muster the strength to so much as crack even a tiny grin. And on Garrett's better days, it was fun watching them play together.

• After a tour of the house, led by Grandma Nancy, Garrett felt pretty comfortable wandering just about anywhere. His favorite spots were beneath the bunnies dangling in decoration from the dining room chandelier where he could get a prime view of them as they spun around; the basement, which was full of treasures; the toys in the guest bedroom, which seemed to always end up downstairs in the family room; and various sets of stairs, some of which he figured out how to walk down with no hands.

• Despite Garrett's illness, I was able to check off just about everything on my want-to-do list. My mom, who has more fashion sense than I do, helped me shop for a summer wardrobe for Garrett. He'll be the most stylish boy in Brooklyn once the weather gets warmer. We ate grilled cheese sandwiches, fries, and ice cream at the BYU Creamery. We made a visit to the Walter Wick (of the I Spy books fame) exhibit at the MOA, which was pretty cool. (The installation exhibit in the gallery next door was neat, too. Our favorites there were the duck sauce mural, the balloon art, and the flying packing popcorn, the last of which, unfortunately, really freaked Garrett out.) My sisters ditched school one day and we all went up to browse around the shops at Gardner Village. I was also able to take care of a few Utah Valley type errands (you know... to the BYU Bookstore, LDS Distribution Center, among other things). And I got to see my youngest two siblings perform in their school orchestra concert.

• Both before and while he was sick, Garrett got a few special adventures of his own. He got to run around the tree house playground at the mall. He joined my mom and I on a morning walk to see the ducks at the Paul Ream Wilderness park. He went for a pony ride at Gardner Village. And he got to go on a living room egg hunt.

• My grandma came up from St. George and met Garrett for the first time. It was good to see her.

• My brother, Tyler, introduced me to the awesome hilarity that is the game show Cash Cab. Have you seen it? It's pretty fun. He also introduced me to the mesmorizing effects that the HGTV, TLC, and DIY networks can have on a person.

• We spent some time one evening driving around the neighborhood I grew up in (my parents moved when I got married to a new house up on the hill about a half mile from the old one). It was fun checking out all of the changes that have been made in the years since I've lived away from Provo. Most of the changes were of a positive nature, but there was one that was absolutely devastating to look at. My old primary school, Grandview Elementary, was torn down about a year ago. A few portions of the building were kept for various purposes, but the bulk of it -- the best parts of it -- are gone and now grassed over. I knew it had come down. My sisters even brought me a brick from the rubble last summer when they came to visit me. But I didn't realize how awful it would be to actually see it not there. I couldn't even take a picture, it was too sad.

• One of the more trying moments experienced during this trip was the cousin photo shoot at Target. My mom bought Garrett and Henry adorable matching outfits at the OshKosh store on a trip we all took to the Park City outlets (and where I myself found a great deal on an adorable raincoat). The scheduled session kept getting pushed back, due in part to Garrett not feeling so hot, and when our spot finally came up the morning we left, it ended up being an experience this mother would rather forget. Let's just say there were many tears and no ordered pictures (of Garrett...Henry was still his adorable, smiley self). Later that afternoon we staged our own photo shoot on the living room couch, but it was equally unsuccessful. Someday we'll get cute photos of these boys together.
  

• Because Garrett wasn't feeling well, I didn't get to see as many Provo friends as I'd have liked to. (Maybe next time, guys?) I did, however, get to spend a couple evenings with Blake's BYU siblings, which was nice. Our friends, Kristi and Lance, were also in town for a visit with their daughter, Elisabeth, and it was fun to see them. Oh, and I did run into my old friend, Mary, and her brood in the waiting room at the doctor's office. The encounter couldn't really count for much of a visit, but it was fun to see her just the same.

• Also, Garrett and I both missed Blake immensely. He wasn't able to join us because of his busy work schedule, but we wished that he could have come -- especially when Garrett became super clingy and wouldn't let anyone but me so much as look at him.

• Happily, though, the antibiotics and nebulizer treatments prescribed for him have been doing their jobs well, and Garrett is almost completely back to his normal self. He behaved surprisingly well on our red-eye flight home, sleeping just about the entire way. I still think it's a shame that my family couldn't enjoy much of his sweet personality while we were with them, but there will be other visits.
  

Above all, it was wonderful getting to spend time with my family. I had some great excursions and conversations with my mom, some nice talks with my dad, and a lot of casual and enjoyable lounging with my siblings. It was a good time to visit: in two weeks, Tyler, Amanda, and Henry head to Colorado for his new job, and a few weeks after that, Riley will be heading to Wisconsin for an internship. From here on out, it's going to be more challenging to get my whole family together, but I will always enjoy it when we do.

hoppy easter

The Easter Bunny stopped at our house last night. This pleased Garrett immensely.

After examining his loot, we got dressed and headed to church. There we listened to Blake speak in Sacrament Meeting on Christ's resurrection, while later, in Primary, I gave a Sharing Time lesson on gaining a testimony of Jesus Christ to a wiggly bunch of children hyped up on sugar. (That was an experience I hope not to have to repeat until Halloween.)

While dinner cooked late this afternoon, we arranged for a living room egg hunt for Garrett to make up for the neighborhood park hunt we didn't attend yesterday because of the rain. It took him a little while to warm up to the idea.


He eventually did, though -- once he found the egg with the M&Ms inside. He loves him some M&Ms.

It's been a pleasant Easter weekend, with good reminders of both the fun behind and the real reason for the holiday. And now, if you'll excuse me, there's some chocolate in the kitchen with my name written all over it.

(My vacation post is in the works, with all the gory and glorious details of our time in Provo. It will be published soon.)

provo sampler

Garrett and I are back from an eventful visit to see my family in Provo. Here is a photo sampler of a few of our adventures to hold you over until I have time to dive in deeper.

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