Park City Weekend

My apologies for the weirdness of the font in this post. I can't figure out how to fix it for the life of me!!! Arrgh!

We decided to visit Park City for part of the holiday weekend. Mostly as an ‘add-on’ to the fact that Ash wanted to see a concert there on Saturday night that I wasn’t interested in going to…at all. So, instead of him making the big drive back & forth late at night we decided to stay one night (Ash went to the concert late while Helena & I watched a movie and slept) and try to relax and have some fun.

We stayed in downtown Park City, hit up the outlet mall, took Helena swimming, and ate some really good food. The weather ended up being nicer than expected…about 60 degrees…and despite the really crappy night of hotel sleeping, it was very fun to get out of Salt Lake and away from home and to-do lists for a bit.

Some pics from our stay:

The trees by our hotel while I was sitting by the pool watching Ash & Helena swim.

Helena semi-politely eating french fries at the restaurant we ate dinner at on Saturday. Funny sidenote: I'm not sure this restaurant sees 2-year-olds very often. We had to custom order her chicken strips and french fries. :) Oops!

Stopping to rest while walking around downtown Park City. Helena looks so old in this picture to me!! Her sunglasses got a lot of compliments. It looks like I'm trying to hide my bandaged hand, but I'm really not.

Springtime aspen grove in East Canyon on our way to Park City.

At the top of East Canyon looking down on the Salt Lake Valley way in the distance.

Helena attempting to jump in the pool to Ashford. Swimming lessons are definitely on the agenda for her this summer!! As soon as mommy can fit back into a swimming suit. :)

In our hotel room very excited to go swimming in her new swimming suit. Then, when we got there it took us about 15 minutes to convince her to get in the pool. Lord...

-Emily :)

For All You '30 Rock' Fans

I just have to share this website I happened upon yesterday. I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE the TV show '30 Rock' and this website is a compilation of everything Tracy Jordan said on the show this past season. As you can guess, some of the lines could have been left out, but there are some doozies in there and it's definitely entertaining.

My favorites:

• "We have to be cool to everybody. Because the future is like a Japanese game show: You have no idea what’s going on."

• "No, I’ll brush my own teeth. Now I don’t want you to have any resentments towards me. From now on, I don’t want you to do anything for me."

• "Every day. I thought having a family was going to be like the Cosby Show. ‘Oh, no, Vanessa went to a concert. Oh, no, Rudy and I are making a sandwich for 25 minutes.’ The Cosby Show was a lie. Having a family can be the worst. For example, I have a strip club story from this weekend I need to tell you, Jackie D. It is disgusting. But I can’t because I got this little D-Bag here."

• "We’re gonna name her after the place that she was conceived. It was a pretty wild night, so we’re either gonna name her, Virginia, NetJet, or Bathroom at Teeterboro Airport."

• "Oh, yeah. There’s a garbage bag in the hallway with a reef shark in it. Just put him in the tub with a reef. What’s for dinner tonight? I want pierogies."

• "Can’t do it, Lee Lem. On Valentine’s Day, Angie and I rent a room with a heart shaped hot tub and cook chili in it. Then we take it to soup kitchen and that’s when it starts to get sexy!"

• "OK, but whoever she is needs to be someone as amazing as I am. I want to see a list of names. Like when they was looking for John McCain’s running mate. Hahaha. I’m kidding, this needs to be taken seriously."

And...the quote that made me literally cry during one of the last episodes of the season where Tracy is describing his very ghetto childhood:

• "I’ve seen a blind guy bite a police horse! A puppy committed suicide after he saw our bathroom! I once bit into a burrito and there was a child’s shoe in it! I’ve seen a hooker eat a tire! A pack of wild dogs took over and successfully ran a Wendy’s! The sewer people stole my skateboard! The projects I lived in were named after Zachary Taylor, generally considered to be one of the worst presidents of all time! I once saw a baby give another baby a tattoo! They were very drunk!"

And...Here's the whole list for you super fans like me. I've got to quit reading these or the laughter is going to send me into labor. :) Let me know whose a fan too and what your favorite line is!

-Emily :)

Hand Drama

So Monday started out by it snowing extremely unusual amounts in the SLC. Evidently this is the latest in the year it has snowed measurable amounts in the valley in recorded weather history. Awesome. I love being part of history. So, the day started out bad...and ended badly too.

I got home from work and started making dinner while Helena watched Wow Wow Wubbzy (the current fave). I was very excited about dinner...one of my new favorite recipes from The Pioneer Woman -- Chicken Fried Steak with Gravy. Yummy yummy gravy.

Anyway, things are going well...and I go to pour the grease from the pan into a measuring cup over the sink to start making the gravy. A small bit splashes onto my finger and my reflexes kick in and I drop the entire pan of searing hot grease all over my hand.

As one can imagine, what immediately ensues next is a combination of screaming, cussing and crying. I immediately run my hand under cold water while attempting to stay relatively calm. Which I did a bad job of doing. Helena's wondering what the hell is going on. Ash is still at work and I figure I need to go to the ER most likely. The pain is pretty bad and not getting better. So, I call Ash's cell phone. First try, no answer. So I dial again...seriously...he answers to me bawling that I burnt my hand and that he needs to get home STAT. Poor guy, I about gave him a heart attack. I hate it when you receive or have to make phone calls like that.

So, I'm still crying and freaking out and I have my hand in a bowl of cold water now waiting for Ash to get home. Helena comes up and asks me what's wrong. I tell her I hurt my hand really bad. She says "Can I have dinner now mommy?". OK....I manage to get her set up with the potatoes and chicken fried steak sans gravy that was cooked. She eats, keeps watching TV, completely unsympathetic to what is going on. At one point she tells me, "Mom, my teachers say you shouldn't cry." Sure. Right. Eat your dinner, kid.

Ash gets home and we get everyone and everything together to go to the ER. We get there, I walk up to the check in and the nurse is all "Labor & Delivery? You can go upstairs." I'm like..."Well...no...I'm here for my burnt hand. See?? Thanks." I'm going to try my best not to have the baby in the middle of all this.

Anyway, we are at the hospital for about 45 minutes before I see a doctor and they tell me that since my hand and fingers are burned that they will treat me here but that I need to go to the Burn Center at the University of Utah the next day to make sure I will still be able to use my hand, etc. if I end up having major scarring. And, they'll peel off my dead skin and blisters while I'm there. Great. Completely freaked out now. They wrap up my hand with super duper expensive burn cream and gauze and now it hurts worse than it did before. Here's me very excited about the situation, and obviously looking my very 9 months pregnant best:


So, we go home, the pain meds finally kick in, thank god, and I go to sleep wielding my giant golf club, q-tip hand.

Yesterday we head up to the burn center at the University and while we're checking in Ash tells the lady that I hurt my hand making him a "hand sandwich". Great. Keep 'em coming, Ash. She thinks this is mildly funny. We get up to see the doctor and good news...after taking the bandages off, my hands do not have any super duper bad blisters or skin peeling! My hand is not nearly as bad as they thought it might be the night before. Relieved, we leave the hospital with no gauze on my hand and no follow up appointments to make. Today, I'm doing well and my hand hardly hurts at all. I can't believe how painful it was when I did it and how little it hurts today. Either I'm a giant wuss (possible) or I have super skin!

Ash tells me in the car on the way home after the 2nd doctor visit..."You know, honey, when you make me country fried steak, you don't actually have to fry your hillbilly hand as part of the recipe". Good, I'm glad you're joking. Let's just all be glad that I don't have a scary, scarred claw hand after all of this. I have a feeling taking care of a newborn would be a challenge if I only have one hand to use.

Moral of the story: fried foods are really bad for you and if you do spill grease on yourself, put your injured part in cold (not iced) water for inordinate amounts of time and things will turn out better than expected. The doctors all said I did a really good job of this. Oh, and we need to work on Helena's empathy skills.

-Emily :)

Best Birthday Ever!

I turned thirty last week. I know, some of you can't believe I'm already this old. Others have been taunting me for weeks. It actually didn't feel too bad. But as I've mentioned recently, I'm still going to type in 29 on the treadmill at the gym.

I decided a few weeks ago to take Thursday and Friday off of that birthday week. Because working on your birthday doesn't ever make your birthday better. :) My actual birthday morning started with some McGriddles from McDonald's with Helena and then off to my scheduled spa morning. My massage was fantastic and the facial and pedicure weren't bad either. I left feeling awesome and totally relaxed. Then I downed an entire pizza at California Pizza Kitchen by myself (low point...lol). After that I did some solo shopping and then headed home, took a nap and went to pick up Helena from school. All in all, a great day.

So, I call Ash on my way home and ask what time he's going to be home, what's the plan for dinner (because I'm not cooking!), etc. He says he'll be at the house at 5:20. Wow, that's a very specific answer for someone who usually says 'eventually' or 'once I get all my work done'. We have this exact conversation every afternoon. OK, I think, he's being nice to me on my birthday by giving me an exact time. I like exact times.

So, Helena and I settle in and watch some cartoons on the couch while we're waiting on him and sure enough, he shows up right at 5:20. A birthday miracle! I look down the hall and see Ash and then immediately hear more people coming in behind him from the garage. Um....weird. People don't come over to my house...ever! ;) Then I see Aimee's face...then I start to cry (as I'm about to now as I'm recounting this...lord, stupid pregnancy)...a lot...then I hear even more people behind her and before I know it I've practically thrown Helena off the couch to get to them (Aimee, Erin, Tracee and my mom!) to give out teary birthday hugs. I scared the crap out of Helena...she was crying sad tears because I was crying and weird people were in our house and her mom had just thrown her on the ground.

Anyway, Ashford's really the best. Flew everyone in for my birthday for the weekend and I had no idea. I think that's the sweetest thing anyone has ever done for me. I love you honey! He said keeping the secret from me for 2 months was one of the hardest things he's ever had to do. And I did think he was acting weird when I was making numerous plans for my birthday weekend that he was less than enthused about!

More photos, stories to come! Thanks to everyone for the birthday wishes last week! You all made a really pregnant lady who couldn't get drunk on her 30th birthday really, really happy.

And thanks to my mom for taking time off work to come, Aimee for taking time off her brand new job to come, too, and to Erin and Tracee for leaving their little ones behind for the first times to visit little old me. You guys are the best. I hope you had fun even though I made you go out to eat like 85 times in three days and you had to sleep in our 2-star-ish basement. ;) Even though we don't get to see each other all that often anymore, it's good to pick up right where we left off when we do. Love you guys!

-Emily :)

Bacon Brawl

This is a video I shot on my iphone a couple of weekends ago right after Helena and Ash had been literally having a fight over bacon at breakfast. The last piece fell on the floor, and they both lunged to grab it for themselves. Helena won. I'm a sausage gal, myself, so I don't fully relate. :) Highlights include Helena rubbing in her bacon 'win' by chanting "I eat it...uh huh..."

Emily :)

Aloha from Snowy Utah!

Sorry for the hiatus from the blog, folks. I just wrapped up our spring fund drive at work on the 23rd, so my free time is a little more abundant now than it has been the past month or so. I'll tell ya, working 60 hours a week as an 8 month pregnant lady is no walk in the park.

Other than working we are pretty boring around here, really. Just doing some nesting and nagging Ash to get the basement finished up so when people start visiting after the baby comes they actually have a comfortable place to sleep where they don't have to stare at piles of 10 year old computer equipment, hunting gear or Ash's office stuff from three jobs ago. We're getting there... It's a shame we had to move to Utah so quickly, because we never went through everything we should have before that big event. And we're paying for it now. :)

It's also been snowing a lot here lately. Like, I think it's snowed FOUR times this week. I've quit looking out the window because it's just depressing. If it snows on my birthday next week, I'm going to reschedule it!

I'm almost done with the nursery, so pics of that will be coming soon along with another much-requested belly pic. I know you can't wait!

-Emily :)

Easter -- A Little Late

Sharing some cute pics and a video of Helena at Easter. Being the heathens that we are, we just laid low, hunted some eggs after the morning's snow had melted, and had a really good steak dinner at home. Oh, and there may have been a shopping trip to IKEA. It was deserted; it was awesome.

Helena kissing her very cherished bunny.

It was too cold to just wear the tank top dress. She asked me if it was a swimsuit.

Attempting to smile for the camera.

Cheese!

Dying eggs with mommy.

Waiting patiently for the eggs to soak.

Hunting eggs was way more fun this year. She really got into hiding them for us to find inside the house. One time she put all but about 2 of them all in the same place right on top of the ottoman. It was hilarious. Here's part of our outside hunt -- hope everyone had a Happy Easter too!