Utah Family Reunion

The first week of July was the Utah family reunion. The first official family reunion for just Rahn, Sue, and their kids. It was really nice to be with everyone. The only downside was families share everything, including illness. We all got really sick and it was hard to recover being at someone else's home. Levi wasn't sleeping well in the pack n' play (which meant we weren't sleeping well) plus on top of having a cold he had 4 teeth come in. Poor guy!

Anyway we tried to have some fun while we were up there...

Watching a little morning TV with the cousins (and uncle)

At the water park

Lake day

Climbing the stairs

4th of July water games and fireworks

Playing the piano with grandma

We went to Salt Lake for the day but we were all feeling pretty lousy and it was so hot. We were all feeling a little blah.

When we got home we had two weeks worth of mail that you loved to play with.

I forgot to mention that on the way up we stopped at some model homes with was perfect for you. It was nice and col plus you could crawl around. 

Pismo Beach

July 30- Aug 3 we went to Pismo Beach with Rahn, Sue, Ammon, Hannah, and Ethan. It was a lot of fun but so cloudy and cold. I was so glad to escape the heat but that didn't mean I wanted to escape the summer. Every day was overcast and wet at about 55-60 degrees and the water was very cold (at least I thought so.) Monday we just settled in and then Tuesday was Hearst Castle, Wednesday was the beach, and Thursday we left. Here's some pictures of our trip.

The crew. I think their goal was to see how many steps they could take the 6 month hot and hungry pregnant lady up and down because every where I turned we were going up and down more stairs. :]

Apparently these pillars are over 2,000 years old and we got in trouble for touching them. Oops. 

3,000 year old statue

Jarom, Hannah, Ammon, Ethan

Grandma Sue trying to put sunscreen on an already wet Ethan. :]

Hannah + Uncle Jarom

A little of this, and a whole lot of that.

Wow I've big time been slacking on the blog. I remember a time when I really got into it and every day was an adventure to see what I could take pictures of and write about. Now I'm so bad and it makes me sad. Of course things have changed a little with my whole life revolving around this baby (I'm just not getting out as much and doing cool things) and I am keeping a journal about what's going on with the pregnancy but just putting some of the more important things on this blog.

So this is just a this and that post to remember some things that I've been doing.

First, back on June 29th I went to a Summer Pops Concert with Rhonda, my mom, and Lahren. It was so much fun. The band was great and they had 2 past American Idol contestants on stage to sing some songs (they were amazing.) It was Rhonda's mothers day gift to us and she had us splurge and get food there. It was a beautiful night on the water with family, food, and music. Can't get much better then that. :]

Everyone looks so good in this pic except me. I don't know what it is but I just feel like I don't look like myself. Oh well... it's the only pic I have and it needs to be documented. :]

On July 9, 10, and 11 Jarom and I went to Vegas with my parents for a little get away. It's probably the last year we'll do it (at least in Vegas) but it was a lot of fun and very relaxing. Although, Vegas was having a record heat and it was about 115 every day but it made the pool feel great. We also went and saw Avengers with my parents while we were there. We had seen it already but they hadn't and it was fun going with them and hearing them laugh. I took one picture of the view from the room. Just pitiful! But we did have a pretty good view even though you can't see it that well.

I guess another fun tidbit is we've been getting all our Ellen gifts. Our crib is in the mail and we just got our new sleep number mattress. I have to admit it wasn't really what I was expecting at all and I wasn't sure how I felt about it at first but it's growing on me and my back has felt better so it's obviously working. :]

Not so fun tidbit is Jarom and I have been really sick. :/ I caught it first and let me tell you, being sick, pregnant, and having CF is awful. I pretty much don't wake up until noon because my body is so exhausted from trying to fight off all these infections and grow a baby. I'm starting to feel better but now my awful sinus cold has transferred to my lungs and that has been really hard on me too.

Jarom has had the same thing but been a champ about still taking care of me and the baby. :] I love him!

2 things coming up that I am determined to have pictures and a great blog update of is:

1) We're going out to Pismo beach with Jaroms family the 30th-2nd.

2) I'm having my baby shower on August 11th and I'm so excited. I have an incredible sister who throws me awesome parties and I can't wait to see all the amazing things she's cooked up. I was debating if I wanted to have a baby shower so early because then I have less to look forward to as the pregnancy gets harder but... I also wanted ample time to get everything ready for the baby in case the end of my pregnancy is much harder then I expected. I can't wait!

New hire training

This past Tuesday and Wednesday we were in Utah for another training. This wives were included for this one. :]

Our flight left at 6am so we were up by 4 and on our way by 4:45. We had a lay over in Vegas and when we got there I was really hungry. I saw a Wendys and told Jarom "I'm so hungry let's get some lunch." He looked at me and said "Tayler it's 7:30 in the morning." That's when I knew it was going to be a very long day and it was. But good.

We arrived in Utah and a shuttle picked us up and took us to "The Plaza" hotel right across from Temple Square. We got checked in and then headed over to the church office building for lunch and meetings. It was raining and so I wanted to have the hotel drop us off closer to the building but Jarom wanted the adventure of walking. By the time we got to the church office building I was wet and freezing cold. My hair was soaked and somehow my hair spray soaked up the water and my hair wouldn't dry so it looked wet and greasy for 3 hours. Fun. But we got there and had lunch with 12 other couples who had just gone through a training that we'd go through after lunch. They were awesome people. It was kinda sad to meet all these amazing couples but then not see them again because we're all in different states. Actually there were about 25 couples who were hired this year. One was going to Mesa Arizona, about 6 were in Idaho with one on the border of Idaho and Organ, we were the only ones in California and the rest were all over Utah. The rest were Seminary instructors; Jarom was the only institute director.

After lunch we went to the meeting to have Jarom learn more about the laptop they were giving him and met with HR to finalize everything. I was exhausted! Plus I had worn heals and we were walking everywhere so my feet hurt like mad and I wore a dress that was to short and I was so consciences of it all day. I threw it away when we got home. But after the meeting with Bro. Valenga (who was our HR rep that day) we went up a few stories and saw Rahn. It was nice to just set in the office and relax for a little bit. Then we walked back over to the hotel, changed, and had dinner with the rest of Jaroms family.

This is the view from our room. It was so beautiful looking at the conference center and capital building all lit up.

The next day we got a ride over to the Joseph Smith Memorial Building where we had some morning meetings, then lunch, and then an afternoon conference with Chad Webb the CES administrator. He's at the top. He meets every 2 weeks with the church education board (Pres. Monson, Pres. Eyring, Pres. Utchdorf, Elder Nelson, Elder Ballard, Elder Oaks, Elder Snow, Sister Dalton, and Sister Beck) to discuss everything. He talked to us for about an hour and a half and it was amazing! When we left there we were even more excited about what we were doing and what our future has in store for us.

BUT before I close I have to tell you about lunch. I can have such a fascination with food. Haha I'm pretty sure it runs in my family. Anyway lunch was AMAZING!! I had to take some pics and talk about it briefly. :]

First was this salad. Spinach, strawberries, bacon, candied nuts, and red bell pepper with a strawberry vinaigrette dressing. I know those foods may sound weird together but it was delicious.

Second: Chicken Teriyaki. The teriyaki sauce was to die for. It was thicker then most teriyaki sauces because it had some honey in it. They also served rice and perfectly steamed veggies. Bell peppers (my fav), carrots, broccoli, onions (which were perfectly flavored and didn't overpower the rest of the food at all or leave you with stinky onion breath) and snow peas (which were good but I'm not to big on those). There was also some fruit but I though it was more of a garnish and didn't think it tasted good since it was warm from the plate.

Last Course: Dessert. It wasn't fudge but it wasn't a brownie either. It was like a combo and it was chocolate with a mint topping, vanilla ice cream, and a strawberry. Everything was amazing!!!!

What I learned from my lunch... the church likes us to have healthy delicious satisfying meals. After that I really wanted to be a better cook and make healthy dinners for Jarom and I. Plus the portion sizes weren't that big but extremely filling!

It was a great 2 days!

(If you're reading this and there are no pics I thought they would be posted soon but as you'll see in a few posts I washed Jaroms iPhone before he downloaded everything. :[ But I don't want to go back and re-write the whole thing.)

The Narrows

The narrows were amazing! We loved hiking them and I would recommend it to anyone. We left Utah Sunday July 18th, hiked the 19th and came home the 20th.

These were some of the hiking shoes and socks we got.

All of us!! :]

The rest are just random pictures of us hiking.

Vacation 2 -Utah

So after Vegas we went up to Utah while my parents and Dallen went back to Cali. We left Friday the 9th and got to Utah that evening. The next day Sue-mom was helping run the American Fork parade so we helped. I don't have any pics but it was a lot of fun. Jarom and I were some of the people in charge and telling people where to go. Then that night they were having a carnaval and we went and gave people tickets, talked with family, and I got my face painted with Rachelle. :]

Sunday was church and it didn't start until 1! I used to think that it would be to late but it was perfect. I loved it. Just sleep in and take your time getting ready. It's not like I have anything else to do later. :]

The rest of the week was just hanging out with fam and relaxing. I didn't get to much sleep up there and Jarom had some homework so we had a couple days of just hanging out at the house.

Monday night we went to Stewart falls by Mt. Timpanogos and had a picnic and hiked!!

Wednesday was pretty low key and Tuesday and Thursday we went to Salt Lake City.

Tues:

~We took a tour of the conference center. The roof was amazing. They have this black wall and had a worker sand blast people on it. It was suppose to symbolize all different types of people and being able to see our ancestors. I think... haha anyway when you take a picture by it it's suppose to look like you're part of it. Cool. Then we mainly just walked around Temple Square and saw the new Deseret Book store.

Thur:

~We saw Rahn's office. It was beautiful.

Then we had lunch and went to the cemetery where all the official members of the church are buried. One of Jaroms ancestors is buried there and we found a Tenney which is my moms maiden name but I don't know if I'm related to them. :]

Some of the men we saw: Gordon B. Hinckley (above) John Taylor, Heber J Grant, David O McKay, Wilford Woodruff, Joseph Fielding Smith, Joseph F. Smith, and a tribute to Hyrum Smith.

Then we drove up to Bountiful to see Grandma Rasmina who it the cutest, sweetest, funniest Grandma!! She likes to knit but she's losing her eye sight and so she does a lot of it from feel. Sue was telling her that what she was doing was amazing and she kind of paused and then said "well I'm good at it." Haha she cracks me up!! I love her!!!!!

After we visited Grandma we came back, picked up Rahn, had dinner at the Lion House, and then went and saw the Mormon Tabernacle Choir perform. When we went to the conference center on Tuesday we found out that the Mormon Tabernacle Choir was doing a dress rehearsal for the 100 year concert there... at the conference center. So when we came on Thursday we went to see it and it was so much fun!! I loved it. They did some amazing songs and we were in the front row of the second section (which was the closest you could get) right in the middle.

Friday was another low key day but I went to go get pedicures with Erin and Rachelle. Fun!

Then we went to the narrows. Post that in a couple days! :]