Fear the Beard

As Ryan drove to work Friday morning, he was listening to ESPN radio and heard that his team, the San Francisco Giants, were playing the Reds in Cincinnati this weekend. A few hours later, we had ourselves some $4 tickets and headed down to Cincinnati right after work. We missed the first inning, which was fine because the darn game went a full THIRTEEN innings! Around the 8th inning, Ryan and I moved from our nosebleed seats down to the bottom level to stand and watch the last inning. After several more innings of just standing there watching no one get a run, we finally went and grabbed some seats that were way down in front, which worked out perfectly for when one of our favorite players, Brian Wilson ("the beard"), got put in to pitch (both teams went through every pitcher they had). Unfortunately, the Giants lost by one run at the bottom of the 13th. At least we got awesome seats for half the game, got to see Ryan's favorite team, and paid very little for the tickets... totally worth the money. The only downfall (besides the loss) was that it was in the hundreds with high humidity for the entire game! When we finally left Cincinnati at 11:45pm, it had cooled down to about 97 degrees but was still really muggy- it was worse than Arizona! I went through 8 cups of ice and 8 cups of water (resulting in about 88 bathroom trips!) Gotta keep hydrated! Anyway, we got home at about 2 am, but we had a blast! Next time we will have to go when we can see the city a little more, since neither of us has ever really been there for fun.

Some other things...

I got a bit behind on blogging and had some things I wanted to remember, so here is a hodge-podge of things I wanted to include...

My family was all out here for Aaron's burial (more on that to come- but again, I need to get pictures from Lisa/Dad). Anyway, we spent a few hours watching Ashlynn while everyone went and took care of paper-signing and burial stuff at the cemetery. We needed to get the girl outside, but it was pretty much the hottest day of my entire life, so we went to the park and I sat far away in the shade, stuck my zoom lens on the camera, and took some pics while Ash dragged Ryan around the park. She loves her Uncle Ryan and continually asks for him.

My whole family got to come down from Cleveland for an evening, and we showed them our new house and neighborhood, went out to eat, went shopping for some more baby clothes, and then came home for dessert. My parents headed back up to Cleveland and Lisa, Brandon, and Ash stayed here for a couple of nights. We got to hang out, watch movies, go swimming, etc. We had more outside plans but it was in the hundreds, plus crazy humidity, which made us happy to stay inside and enjoy the air conditioning. :)

Also, our house is really coming along! It should be done on August 18th, and we should close on the 26th. It will be fully landscaped (with grass too- thankfully!) and we get an extra tree in our yard since it's a corner yard. I'm beyond excited to get out of this apartment and away from the white-trash neighbors.

On a pregnancy note, I walked into the grocery store a couple weeks ago and the Doritos were on sale. All of a sudden I HAD to have Doritos and NOW! So I bought them and ate half the bag by myself as soon as I got home. Then the next day after work, I finished them off. Junk food has tasted completely awful this entire pregnancy and so I justified my bad eating decisions those days with the fact that I haven't been eating bad most of this pregnancy. That's allowed, right? Needless to say, I have not bought Doritos since then, because I know what would happen if I did! Just look at these nasty "Dorito-fingers." ha! That's shows some serious dedication to Dorito-eating. (I can't believe I posted this picture).

Lastly, we went to King's Island with Ryan's work yesterday. It was dang hot that day and crazy humidty (that's pretty much been the theme of weather around here the last few weeks). Although we didn't ride a single ride- well, besides the train around the park (I couldn't ride anything and Ryan didn't feel like it), we had passes for free unlimited drinks the whole day, and a free big lunch at the company pavilion for the day. We left just when the little storm was getting there. Even though we didn't ride rides, we still had a good time and it was fun to just go somewhere else for a while.

Ryan's Birthday!

We were home by July 9th and even though we had cake in Utah, we of course had to celebrate on the actual day he turned 31! We started off the morning with a big breakfast in which we splurged and even had juice and chocolate milk- a rare thing around here! After that, we went over to see our home-in-progress, which is a favorite pastime of ours these days. Then, per Ryan's request, we went and looked at some stores like Lowe's and Ace Hardware... which are actually fun stores to look through when you have a house that will need stuff from them! Following that, I stocked my purse full of Ryan's favorite treats (gummi bears, skittles, and starburst) and we went to see Transformer's in 3-D (Ryan's movie choice, of course). Surprisingly, I could actually follow who was bad and who was good during the fighting scenes... something that has not been possible for me in the first two Transformers movies. That made it a little more enjoyable than I expected. After that, Ryan was craving Chipotle, so we went over there and got some burritos. The weather was so nice and the sun was setting, so we ate outside and were the only ones out there after a bit, so we ended up sitting on their patio for quite a while just talking and relaxing! We came home and ended the night by hanging out, watching some t.v., and Ryan ate some of his favorite kind of Graeter's ice cream (black raspberry chocolate chip). Perfect end to a perfect day! Happy birthday, Ry!!

Utah trip

After Vegas, we drove back to Utah with my parents and stayed there from the night of the 29th through the afternoon of July 4th. We had a lot of fun family time while we were there and were so glad we could tag this trip onto the Vegas trip. On Thursday, I went and spent the day with Lisa and kids while Ryan ran around doing things with his dad, and then we ended with a fun picnic outside at Lisa and Brandon's. (I need to get these pictures from Dad or Lisa- whoever has them!)

Friday, we spent at the Martin's house swimming, relaxing, having a BBQ, watching movies, shopping, and catching up. We also got to meet our newest little niece, Lynlee, who was so precious and only about a week old. Then, we celebrated Ryan, Craig, and Jackson's birthday with the traditional marzipan cake from Granite Bakery.

I had to include these pictures because I think the Martin's have one of the prettiest yards. Also, the weather was fabulous the whole time we were in Utah!

Saturday morning I got together with friends for breakfast at Kneaders (mmm... french toast and strawberries!), and much to my surprise, they threw me a little baby shower! It was the first baby stuff I got and made me excited for this little girlie to come! After that, I got stocked up on a ton more baby girl clothes from my s.i.l., Amy, who was getting rid of all of her baby stuff. Big thanks to all of you!!!

Terrible lighting, but I couldn't leave it out- I love these ladies! (I just realized that the pregnant lady behind me is wearing the same maternity shirt).

The rest of the day was spent swimming, hanging out, and going out to dinner at Cafe Rio for Jonathan's birthday. Of course it also included the "get thrown in the pool on your birthday" tradition... which also ends up getting many others dragged in, fully-clothed as well!

When we got Bennett out of the pool following the "throw-in," his diaper was super big since it was not a swimming one. We were all cracking up about how puffy it was, which made him really concerned and he kept trying to reassure us that "Bennett not go potty in diaper!"

Sunday, after church, we went back up to my parent's house for hanging out and a BBQ dinner. Ryan and I got spoiled with a LOT of BBQ's this trip, which we loved since we can't BBQ this summer at our apartment complex! I spent a lot of time hanging out with little Aaron-baby and I'm so glad I got to! I also had fun playing with Ashlynn, who is bursting with energy these days. We stayed a while later that night and just chatted with my parents about all sorts of things, which was fun. (Again, Lisa and/or Dad- I need some of your pictures!)

Our last day there was Monday, the fourth of July. We had a big BBQ lunch outside at the Martin's with some homemade ice cream and then headed up to the airport to go home. :(

Here's Ryan trying to win the heart of another little one by "flying" Amyah. It's obviously not working... ;)

It was so sad to leave because I was absolutely dreading coming back to our smoky apartment. Oh well. We got to see some pretty cool fireworks from the plane. Our layover was in Chicago from about 8:45-10 p.m. and it looked like the whole city was little colorful bursts of fire. It was awesome. For the first time in a long time we really weren't ready to get back home yet. But we still had such a fun trip and tried to get as much in as we could since it could be a while before we make it back to Utah.

What happens in Vegas...

Ryan attended the SHRM conference this year in Las Vegas from June 25th-29th and I tagged along to make sure someone got some use out of the nice room and pool at the hotel. :) We stayed in the Palazzo, which is the newer tower on the Venitian. I must admit, I think it is one of the nicest/classiest hotel on the strip and we loved our room that overlooked the strip and the fancy pools.

We got in on Saturday evening and then spent Sunday with Kyle and Tabitha Tibbitts and their kids, and Adam Christensen, who all live in Vegas. Then on Monday, my parents joined us and we spent the next few days touring around some of the hotels, eating good food, and swimming at the pool. On the morning of the day we headed out, we swung by the Ethel M. Chocolate factory and toured around the factory. That is the fancy part of Mars chocolate (I refer to it as the "See's Candies" of Mars). They were working on a new candy that's coming out at Christmas time and it was awesome to see how they make it, which was mostly by hand and not machine! It was such a fun trip, but it was HOT, hot, hot while we were there and we were exhausted by the end of the trip.

Little angel Aaron

After a tough three-month fight, our sweet little Aaron baby returned home to our Heavenly Father last night. He was such a trooper through all of his earthly trials and I know he is in a better place. He was blessed to have Lisa & Brandon as his parents to take care of him and Ashy-girl as his big sister to smother him with lot's of love and kisses! They are special people to have been chosen by Heavenly Father as the ones to have him. I am so grateful that families are eternal. We'll see him again.

Even though my heart aches, I feel so blessed that Aaron was able to make it through last week so that I could meet him and cuddle him and hold him and love him. Whenever I was in his presence all I wanted to do, and did do, was hold him in my arms and look down at his calm, sleeping face and smell his baby breath. The last moment I saw him, he finally flashed some big smiles my way. :) I fell in love with that little guy immediately and even though I can't physically hold him in my arms now, I am so thankful for those precious moments I got to spend with him that I can always hold in my mind and heart.

We love you, Aaron Michael Jastal!

Craig's visit

I already mentioned that Craig was here and we went to Chicago, but we did a lot after that here in Columbus. We went to German Village, Easton Town Center, Ohio State University, watched several movies, ate at Graeter's ice cream and a really good hot dog place, went through downtown and North High Street area, etc.

We were looking forward to Craig's visit for a while and had so much fun visiting with him, catching up, and doing fun things!