My September 11th story

I know that this date has become the "What were you doing when Kennedy was shot story" of our generation, where everyone commiserates about what happened to them on this day seven years ago, but a lot happened that day for my family too.
I was in Philly at the time, taking my older brother Britt to the airport as he was leaving for his mission that day. As luck would have it, he was leaving very early that day and we, my whole family and I, were there to see him off. My little sister Skye, was very young at the time and she was playing in the little play area right next to my brothers' gate (remember when you could actually see someone come and leave while you were outside the gate door?). Mom says for everyone to say goodbye to britt, and so Skye comes running over, but trips, falls and busts her head on some plastic part of the apparatus and gives herself a HUGE cut on the head, which of course bled everywhere. My mom, torn between helping Skye and seeing Britt leave, tells my other brother Perry to get some napkins from the nearby Burger King for her head.
Skye was being helped by the medical staff there at the airport, until they told us she needed to go to the hospital. So, there we are, happily driving to the hospital until Britts' then girlfriend, now wife, calls frantically asking if we had listened to the news and if Britt was on that plane.
We flipped on the news and found out what was happening in New York. Tragic as it was, Britts' plane would not have gone north to go to Salt Lake. Insert sigh of relief here.
So Mom decides to drop off Devin and Perry at school as there is nothing else they can do. But when we are dropping Perry off, we hear about the plane downed near Pittsburgh, and Mom looses it. We want to make sure it wasn't Britt, but he was leaving on his mission, so he had no cell phone (plus, this was back in the day when everyone did not have cell phones-usually one per family-I know scary right?).
So my Mom, dealing with Skye in the hospital and now thinking Britts' plane could have been downed, calls the airline-which I am sure was fielding about a million calls at that point. According to them, Britt was somewhere in the Midwest, St Louis I think. And as we are finalizing things with Skye, Britt calls from PHL airport. The story with him was that apparently the first plane hit the tower and word got to nearby PHL just before his plane took off and they grounded all planes. However, they also closed off the city as we were close to NYC. So, no one was getting in or out. So, how to get to him? Well, my Mom called a close friend in our ward and she bullied her way into Philly to get him. But then the next hurdle...as he has no cell phone...how to know where he is? And this lady also had to small children keep in mind. So she paged him, over and over again until Britt, who was never a great listener (haha) finally heard her and they came home.
As you can imagine, much crying, hugging and all around good stuff at our home, until we all realized...how was Britt to get to the MTC? They grounded all flights for a long time, and with Britt being set apart...being at home was slightly excruciating. So, Britt takes a Greyhound bus from PA to SLC, arriving at the MTC so nasty and stinky that even the uber-sweet MTC receptionist tells him where he can get some fresh clothes and for heavens' sake a shower.
So what did we all learn from this ordeal? Everyone needs a cell phone, don't let your kids play in those hazardous airport playgrounds (which they really don't have anymore so all you moms out there can rest easy), and always always answer pages in the airport.
So that is what I was doing that day, not the saddest thing to happen that day by far, but stressful nonetheless. But those who know our family well would expect no less! But as we all look back seven years ago, we can all be thankful for our families, our friends and for all those who helped save people by performing selfless acts of the best kinds of service there is. And I hope that the people who thought doing such a task would weaken our country, and our resolve have seen that they were sadly mistaken. As everyone remembers seven years ago's Sept 11th, we think of pain, sadness, loss, but also unification. God Bless the USA!!!

An anniversary and a vacation

We just came back from vacation to Bear Lake Utah, where we used our Garmin for the first time, thanks Papa! It was a great drive and Ada slept the whole time. It kind of reminded us of our trip from PA to Idaho last year around this time, until we reminded ourselves that indeed there was a baby in the backseat! It was great at Bear Lake. It was a bit colder than Rexburg as we were so close to the water, which by the way, was incredibly blue for a lake. Another great commodity for the area are their raspberries.
I was a bit skeptical as I thought, raspberries are raspberries, but I was mistaken! We went out to eat on Wednesday to the Bear Lake Trapper Steak House, and there were stuffed bears and other outdoorsy trapping acoutrements everywhere. So what did we have at the steak house?...why seafood of course! And according to the reigning seafood expert we so happened to have with us, (aka my loving husband Josh) it was really good! That was my first time having crab legs and I loved them -and I am assuming that Ada didn't mind either as when she ate later she had no qualms.
Ada also had her very first time in a pool and there were a bunch of rowdy- and somewhat trashy- kids and adults jumping in and splashing her. So while she wasn't screaming bloody murder, she didn't seem to like it that much. But we were not giving up! I lived a lot of my life around water-mainly beaches in FL-so Ada was not going to harbor a fear of water on my watch! So we tried again early the next morning and we were met with much more success (please see additional videos). As we left, we decided to sample the famous raspberry shakes they advertised at every shop in town, which was a lot! And they were sooooo good! We were so glad to get away, even for a few days to enjoy our second year anniversary and to have Ada with us!

Josh and Ada, admiring the scenery
It has been getting a lot colder here already! Here is Ada in her new lightweight bear jacket.

the view from our patio
our hotel
Master of the grill!
New bathing suit and swim cloth diaper! The diaper worked great!

Bye Bear Lake!

Very Excited

Not much went on this past week, but soon that will change! For our Two Year Anniversary (yes applaud, cry, be happy, etc.) we are all going down to Bear Lake Utah from Tuesday to Friday. We will take Ada swimming, have a vacation and get some great pictures and videos, so we are all very excited. However, this past week, Ada has been caught (however relatively unsuccessfully as it was rather jury rigged) rolling herself off of her daddys' back, went to the park and looked adorable, and decided to smash her face with her headrest from her play gym!

Heads Up!

Well, well, well! Look who's growing up so quickly (at least so it seems to me). This week, she is becoming a pro at holding her head up, and every once in a while, (when she is so frustrated) she will manage to roll herself over, but so far we have not been able to catch this new feat on camera.

Smiling for the camera. Our little girl is most often all smiles!
At the park, really holding her head up.
She loves taking long naps in the morning with Daddy!

A Blessing

Our little Ada Jennie was blessed by her daddy on August 10th. She was, of course, beautiful in her white dress. We also had special visitors this past week: Grammie McLaughlin, Aunt Sarah and Cousin Abby. Here are some pictures of the festivities!

Ada in her blessing dress
Daddy/daughter photo while yawning
Aunt Sarah with cousin Abby
Our Family
more yawning...enough pictures already!

Lounging around

This week we have tried to get out more during the earlier parts of the day while Daddy is sleeping. So we go to the park down the street, and sometimes meet up with Aunt Devin. We seem to go to the park around my naptime for some reason...

Here is a picture of me taking a nap in Mommys' lap
Playing in the play gym where I get my tummy time
Here is me sleeping in the park in my stroller.

I love to be outside!

1 Month Old

This past Friday, our little baby girl was not so little. She is now 9 lbs 13 oz and 24 inches long! She is now a month old, and whereas it is not her first birthday or anything, you have to celebrate the little things!

Here she is cuddled up on her Daddys' chest. She loves her Daddy!

Sleeping in the boppy and Mom and Dad get a second to spend together.
Here she is with the new bows Grammy sent to her. Not sure I like these kind of bows, but Daddy says I look adorable no matter what I wear!