Happy 25th Birthday, Ryan

Ryan just had one of *hopefully* many milestone birthdays to come! His big 2-5 on November 3rd!

The story goes that he came a few weeks early, and was a FAST delivery...so fast, that his mom didn't even have time to get any of the "good stuff" to take the pain away :) She delivered all natural, and he came at a lightening speed pace within 2 hours! They were scrambling to find his mom's doctor, who finally came running into the delivery room in her soccer shoes!

Ryan knew what he wanted for his birthday, so I wasn't able to surprise him with anything. I bought him a nice new backpack for school (he did LOTS of research for finding the PERFECT backpack, and finally decided on the Ogio Politan...after stalking other students backpacks at BYU-I for weeks!). It is such a great backpack, and honestly feels like nothing is in your bag, which helps Ryan's back out a lot! It also has a separate protected pocket for his laptop.

He also requested Beatles Rockband, so his mom and I split the cost on that (we had gotten rid of our drum set when we moved to Idaho and were trying to pack lightly!). It's been fun to play...and fun to be able to play Rockband TOGETHER again (we still had our guitar...but no other instruments).

Since I wasn't able to surprise him with gifts, I decided to just surprise him with the day. So, I decorated the garage with "Happy Birthday" streamers, and bought one of those white pens to write on car windows...writing things like,"I'm the BIG 2-5", "Happy Birthday", and "Hooray for cheaper insurance!" on his windows. I also bought the Seinfeld Scene-It game (he is a huge Seinfeld fan), wrapped it up, and set it on the hood of his car. I bought him a couple fun birthday cards, bought him some "Birthday Booty" (matched one of the cards sayings, with pirate loot) which consisted of Starburst Sour Gummies and a Mr. Goodbar (a few of his favorites). I made a yellow cake with rainbow chip frosting, and put some candles on it for him to blow out. He was definitely surprised by his car being decorated, and I think it made his day to feel like someone was thinking about him :) After school/work, we went out to dinner with his mom at Red Robin for some juicy hamburgers, where his mom "slipped" that it was his birthday to the waitress...so of course he got a birthday song, a sundae, and some balloons...he he he...

During dinner, one story came out about when Ryan was born. He came out with Jaundice, and so he had to stay under the lights, wearing these little goggles over his eyes, almost like he was sunbathing! He couldn't be discharged from the hospital until he had his first, ahem, bowel movement, which was supposedly causing the disruption in his bilirubin levels. His mom said the nurses were all pleasant towards her, until one day, his mom walks in to see Ryan and gets a scowl of a look from the nurse. Marji had no idea what the matter was, and asked if everything was ok. The nurse said Ryan finally had his bowel movement...to which Marji replied that was excellent! Ryan would get to come home now! The nurse shot back,"Yeah, that's great unless you're the one that has to clean it up! He filled up the whole bassinet with it!" HA! Apparently, Ryan was a MUCH happier baby after that day :)

After dinner, we headed over to the mall in Idaho Falls and bought Ryan a new beanie/hat for the winter! He's been wanting one of those beanies with a rim on it, like he had when he was on his mission in Illinois.

We came back home and had the cake, which turned out FABULOUS (I must admit :), and some peppermint ice cream that Ryan requested for his birthday.

It was a fun night, and I'm so happy that my little Ryan is growing up :) Helps me not look like so much of a cougar since I can now say he's in his late 20's...well, at least in his MID 20's :) And it helps that he has some grey hair that is "thinning" on top. His height helps me out too...he doesn't look like the 6 years younger that he is!

I'm proud of Ryan, and all he is accomplishing in his schooling, and what he hopes to accomplish with his life. He is a very honorable man, and is so good to me. I'm so grateful that I get to go on this journey in life with him, and I'm excited to see what is yet to come!

Happy Birthday, Buckwheat!

Vegas Vacation!

Ryan and I got to fly to Vegas the last weekend in September to go visit one of my best friends (and old roommate for 3 years, before I got married), Jen! She just had her cute baby girl a few months before that, and lucky for me, one of the cheapest flights you can get out of Idaho Falls is to Vegas, where Jen lives! PERFECT!!

Ryan and I stayed at Bally's hotel, and we had a blast getting to see Jen and her husband, Anthony, and their cute little baby girl, Emmerson.

I love seeing Jen, cause she is like the little sister I never had, and I miss her SO MUCH!

Things we did while in Vegas:

We got THE MOST delicious Frozen Hot Chocolate from Serendipity 3 (outside of Caesar's Palace). Seriously, yummy, and a must have if you are in Vegas! They cost about $9, but totally worth it! It has small, chopped ice pieces in a blend of several different kinds of chocolate, and topped off with whipped topping and chocolate shavings (it's more of a chocolate milk kind of taste with the ice bits that make it that much better). We splurged, and got some on two different days! Mmmm....

We saw Penn & Teller (Ryan loves magic, and it was a buy one get one free deal....however, he decided that we won't ever see the same show in Vegas twice, cause it was EXACTLY the same show of theirs that we saw back in April...almost word for word. Not fun when you can anticipate the whole show! Ryan used HIS money for it though, so I was ok with it :).

Got to see the inside of The Venetian for the first time. VERY nice hotel.

Had a BBQ at Jen's house! Got to play with cute Emmerson. I think she got tired of all the flashing lights from my camera :) Ryan kept getting mad at me for taking her picture so much; he was VERY protective over her...very cute. She did really good with Ryan as he held, fed, burped, and had her fall asleep on his lap. He's a dad in the making!

This is the start of the "grump-grump face" from Emmerson, after picture upon picture taken by me :)

Followed up by giving me the "bird" and a shaken fist!

But really, she's a sweet and beautiful baby!

Went to the top of the Eiffel Tower in the Paris. Watched the Bellagio water show from up there!

We had a blast, and it was a nice get-a-way weekend for us. It was SO good to see Jen and her cute family, and we appreciated how gracious they were to me and Ryan (picking us up from our hotel and driving us back and forth to their house, cooking us meals, and letting us just hang out and talk with them!). Can't wait to see them over Christmas break back in AZ, hopefully!

Jellystone Park

I was reminded by an old roommate the other day that referring others to our blog to see what we've been up to does no good when the said blog is only updated a few times a year ;) I started this particular blog entry back in the beginning of September, but never finished it because I tend to get long winded in my entries, and run out of time to finish before the hubby kicks me off of the computer so he can use it. I wish I could be like those mom's who can write just a few sentences and then post 50 pictures of their kids and be done, but I'm not. I guess writing is cathartic for me...I can get my thoughts out clearly on paper, and I'm much better at communicating there than in person! Or, I guess I just feel more safe writing on paper, than speaking my mind out loud. It's MY chance to talk about what is going on, because I rather let other people tell me all of their problems or talk about themselves when I am in person with them. I'm a very good listener. But after THIS entry, I think I just might try doing short and sweet entries to see if I can keep it more up to date on a regular basis. I'd love to turn our blog into one of those cool hard bound books that are all the rage these days among blogging moms...

Anyway, Ryan's mom invited us for a quick family trip during Labor Day Weekend to go see the Bar J Wranglers perform in Jackson Hole, WY on Saturday night (a cowboy singing group where you come and eat a big "cowboy" meal and then enjoy their singing performance). Since she knew I've been really wanting to make a trip out to Yellowstone this year, she booked us a night in a suite at a beautiful lodge right there in Jackson Hole so we could make a day trip to Yellowstone on Sunday!

(This is Ryan outside the lodge, in front of the ski lift area...and another of him near the restaurant where we had breakfast in the lodge)

WOOHOO! I've really been wanting to take advantage of the many beautiful areas that surround us here in Idaho, so I was way excited to finally get to see Yellowstone! And more importantly....see some animals!

Our first stop was at the Bar J Ranch on Saturday afternoon/evening. This is a family regular for Ryan and his mom (they've been numerous times!) and only my second time...we came out and saw them last summer before we moved out to Idaho. It's such a fun show. Before the show, Ryan and I walked around and found a little "outdoor museum"....and we had a little fun with it!

(Ryan's growling face to the bear)

(OOOO...scary bear...and scared Pam!)

(Ryan getting held up)

(Taking a quick break for a dance)

(Giving the bear a little TLC, due to all the persecution he was facing)

(Ryan at the Bar J Wranglers, waiting for the horse wagon to come pick us up for a ride around the Outdoor Museum we just walked through ourselves :)

The next morning (Sunday) we woke up and headed up through the Grand Teton National Park on our way up to Yellowstone. At one point, there were tons of cars stopped, so we decided to stop and see what was going on, and found this....

A moose and her baby! How awesome! This was by far, the highlight of my trip. We just stood there watching them for about 10 minutes. I guess they had been in this pond for over an hour while people kept stopping to watch them. Very cool.

"Moose, you say? What moose?"

We drove past this....The Grand Tetons...on our way up to Yellowstone...

...and saw all the highlights of the west side of Yellowstone....

We lucked out and walked up to Old Faithful about 5 minutes before she went off! No waiting for us...it goes off about every hour.

I was hoping (more like wishful thinking) that I would see a bear in Yellowstone, but all we really saw were the staple Bison :) They were still really cool to watch though. Massive beasts...

And just as I was complaining to Ryan that you always see these pictures of Bison stopping traffic at Yellowstone, but we hadn't seen any yet, and I thought that was just a fluke thing that photographers happened to see every once in a while...we pulled up to a back up of cars. At first, we were all assuming it was because of the section of road that they had closed for construction. As we slowly crawled by, we were pleasantly surprised (or not so pleasantly, as was the case for Marji...my mother-in-law...who was driving...) with this huge guy just cruising down the road by himself in the WRONG LANE (going head-on TOWARDS traffic). Boy, was I glad we just had to drive past him instead of stare at him coming face on to our vehicle!

As Marji was panicking as we had to drive past him, she tells me she is NOT stopping for pictures :) And as her driver side window went up as we got closer to him, mine went down a crack to try to get a close up on him...and I just caught the "tail" end :)

Yellowstone was absolutely beautiful, and I can't wait to go back again sometime next year, and hopefully see more of the park! My family needs to come visit me so we can go together...hint, hint...

On the way back to Rexburg, we went through the small town of Island Park. Ryan's Grandpa Price helped found this city when Marji was young. They were one of the first families to build a cabin and live there, and then Marji's dad was a realtor for the area. On top of that, just a short ways from their house, her dad built THIS store/gas station:

Marji worked in this store (along with her siblings) when she was young, but it had been so long since she had been here, that she couldn't remember the exact location...but she COULD remember that it was an A-Frame building. So we would stop at all of these gas stations along the way that had an A-Frame to see if it was the old store her dad owned. She kept running inside and saying if she went inside, she would know whether or not it was THE store. I wondered what she was looking for, and FINALLY, after one stop, she came out and said it was the right one! We went inside, and she pointed to these, and said THIS is how she knew it was the right store:

Her dad had put those looping ropes up in the store. It was so neat to see the ropes, and associate it with Ryan's Grandpa. He passed away when Ryan was young, so I never met him, but have heard wonderful (and funny) stories about him. I had always wanted to have my own Grandpa, and hoped that my husband would have one to share with me (mine both died before I was born and one immediately after I was born). While I never got to have my Grandpa, it's been fun to learn about Ryan's, and was even more fun to see things that he actually touched and created himself. Marji was so nostalgic in this store...it was fun for her to reminisce about the old days in there with her family. I was excited for her.

We also got to go drive past her old house/cabin behind the store. I unfortunately didn't get any pictures of the house, but she told us of some fun stories, like the time a bear had wandered up to their cabin, her dad tried to scare it away I think by hitting his nose with a piece of wood or something, and instead, the bear got angry and decided to come up the steps at him! Luckily, his gun wasn't too far away, so he shot the bear dead right on the steps! Yikes...

The short weekend trip was a blast, and I can't wait to go again next year! Crossing my fingers I'll see a bear catching fish next time ;)