Welcome to the World Parker Reed and all the blessing that came

Clearly I use this blog on a regular basis. But at least I have it for these moments in life :D

So a quick catch up:  In the last two years, Emerly was a terrible newborn/infant. She had reflux that made her cry pretty much non stop. We held her at night and would switch off who would hold her for the next hour and a half after her feed. It was rough. Then she outgrew it (1 year later) and became a happy, spunky, sassy, strong willed toddler who we love and adore. She will be 2 next month and I just love her to pieces. She is also a bit spoiled as she has gone to Disneyland twice and the east coast twice in her short little life. Currently, she is taking tumbling and swim lessons and she LOVES them. We also visit the Curiosity Museum, the Butterfly Biosphere and the aquarium. We are trying our best to get to know our new neighbors and make friends so that we can have more play dates and so that I can be more social--i.e. help my anxiety and depression to stay at bay.

We also sold our house that we lived in for 7 years and moved to Cedar Hills. That was not necessarily the plan. We had decided we wanted to grow our family, BUT we did NOT want the baby and Emerly to share a room due to how severe her reflux was and if the next baby was like that, they would need space. So we started to house hunt in the Weber/Davis county area. We also discussed Tyler's career and how we thought he should be making more, so he started applying at tons of places and got a lot of interviews close by. Then he got an interview at Canopy, a tax company near Thanksgiving Point. Then the job offer :O we were stunned and so happy by how it was exactly what our family needed, after accepting that job, we decided to house hunt the next Saturday in the Utah county area. Here's the kicker--we had put offers in on houses in the Weber/Davis county area but not ONE came through or worked out in any way. The Saturday we looked at the house in Cedar Hills, our offer was accepted--the next Saturday we put our house for sale and it was under contract by the very next Tuesday. Blessings were pouring on our family as we were preparing to meet baby brother in February. They may not have come how we wanted them, but they came as we needed them and we are so grateful. We do miss living super close to family and friends, but I am adjusting to driving--like actually driving--to see them. Not only that, I am beyond appreciative when they come to see me. It just makes visits that much more special than living close by. Blessings.

Now onto the birth story!!! First blessing in disguise, Tyler's sisters wanted to spend the weekend with us!! We went out to dinner with them on Friday night, played games everything was normal then. Just the same ole Braxton Hicks contractions. That night I dreamt I was in labor and the hospital was filled with people whose gowns would not close in the back and I saw lots of bums. I slept great on my couch with only one wake up like normal to pee. I think its best to do Parker's birth story with telling the time of how quickly things happened.....

Saturday morning 8:15 am.
I feel a contraction that is not like my Braxton Hicks, instead its closer to my uterus like I was having period cramps. It ebbed and flowed like a contraction, and then I got another one later on during breakfast. I told Tyler and the girls I don't think we'll be going out today--these are different contractions. Lets just stay home and time them a bit, play games and I'll go shower. After I showered, I put on a diaper because I was certain that at some point today my water was going to break and when it did I didn't want to have a huge mess to clean up.
We started timing the contractions. They were roughly 8 min apart, then went to 5 min apart. But here's the thing I wasn't worried. My water had not broken yet. With Emerly, my water broke first--then I had contractions and they got worse in pain and timing and 9 hours later I had her. So I was waiting for the contractions to actually feel worse. They never got worse, the pain was about the same till we got in the van.

9:51 am
Call my parents to let them know that hey, we probably will have a baby in the next 24 hours you should start to head down here sometime. No rush, Tylers sisters are here but we're packing up for the hospital now.

9:57 am
Call my sister to let her know that she should expect another call from me when we are at the hospital since we will be headed there soon. I talk to her about how my contractions are and how my water hasn't broken. She insistently and THANKFULLY says "J if they are five minutes apart you should be at the hospital now" Another blessing. So I listen, and tell Ty, hey babe lets hurry things along and get going soon....we should have been running out the freaking door but no, I went to go do my hair.

10:26 am
I take this picture with Emerly,

 
and I'm crying because I just love her soo much and I know that today things change. Then we leave. In the van I tell Tyler, ooooohhhh I want my epidural right now that contraction was rough! I can't wait to get to the hospital to have my epidural! I notice he is speeding and say well babe lets drive us there safe, I mean granted we have the best excuse in the book right now to speed but we're fine.

10:35 am
According to our LIFE360 app, this is when we arrived at the hospital. We walked slow in the parking lot and in the hospital and Ty was walking fast. Again I tell him, I'm walking slow there's no rush. He asks if I want a wheelchair. No I'm good, lets just go.
We get to the check in door, and I pick it up "Hey I'm pretty sure I'm in labor and I would love my epidural right now please" They let us in, we go to the counter. They start asking me a few questions and I have a bit more painful contraction...so Tyler starts to answer the questions. They ask has your water broken "No" LITERALLY 3 seconds after I said that WHOOSH! My water breaks. So I say, wait no it just broke. They tell me to go to Labor room one and change. I go in, I realize Ty has my gown that I bought to look cute in pictures and go back out to get it. I grab my gown go in the bathroom and change....and then everything changes. I have no idea how I made it from the bathroom to the bed with even the gown covering my chest, but I did....hollering. Talk about a RUSH of pain.

Suddenly, the nurse was in the room again with Tyler asking to check my cervix. I think I said no, I know my body was fighting against her because Tyler had to help separate my legs. When they looked, Parker was already crowning. I yelled I DONT WANT TO FEEL THIS multiple times according to Tyler....and I was told too late, baby is coming. Clearly, I was not getting my epidural nor was I getting ANY pain medication--and I might have been pissed and delirious and this point.

I was not mentally, or emotionally prepared to suddenly have my water break and give birth to a baby. I wanted my epidural and to play card games and be in labor for like another hour....yeah....

*warning Poop coming out*
So during these few minutes I was pushing and I could feel my poop coming out with the baby. I was LIVID that nobody was taking care of my poop so I turned to the side to pull it out myself and basically as Tyler puts it, it looked like I was going to "Monkey throw my poop at people" And yes...yes I was going to do just that. BUT he grabbed my hand and said J, don't touch your poop. Now for anyone who knows me well knows I HATE POOP--so this is very out of character for me, but also quite amusing. I was just annoyed and pissed that there was poop next to my babies head and I could seriously feel all the freaking hemorrhoids happening around my ass.

The nurse who was helping me, told me that I needed to open my eyes and look at her. I needed to push. I think I did a total of 2 pushes and out he came. They put him on my lap, and he was purple. He started to breathe and then stopped so they took him away. During this time, Tyler held my left leg I believe the whole time, and I think I was also a bit positioned by other people while also screaming multiple times I DONT WANT TO FEEL THIS. I reminded Tyler to also take pictures....so pictures!

TIME OF BIRTH 10:46 am
Notice all that happened within 10 minutes. FREAKING MIRACLE that we were in the hospital. Seriously.

Then as they took him away, more pain came...and honestly it was slightly worse than the baby coming out. Placenta birth :P. It took four pushes to get my placenta out, and it hurt. THEN because this happened soo fast, I was hemorrhaging a bit I guess, and the on call doctor had not even arrived yet so they had to push on my stomach to get clots out. I instinctively would put my hands on theirs and said NO, please NO more. I did move my hands to the outside of the bed and then got to relax a bit. The on call doctor arrived after the party was over and I got stitched up with local anesthesia  FINALLY some pain relief right? A huge shot in the leg and WOW we just had a baby. There was no time to put a heart monitor on me, or an IV or anything....its still mind boggling to me how fast things happened and where they happened.

He came out 7 lbs 2 oz and 19 inches long. Although some paper work has it that he is 18.89 inches...so whatever.

So far he has been a freaking chill baby. He seems to have jaundice a bit though so I think that is what is part of his lethargy but if he remains chill he is the total opposite of Emerly's birth. He latches well, but doesn't eat a lot which is part of jaundice stuff, but I'm not too worried.

Emerly was weirded out by all the people in the hospital room when she first met him. Since then she has been doting on him non stop. Wants to change his diaper, wants to nurse him and nurse with him --she has tried to suck Tylers chest even, but we've explained its just babies milk. She loves him so much right now and I hope that doesn't change anytime soon. The dogs even love him. Lucy growled and snipped at Ava like she claimed Parker, but they have chilled down. So we will see how chill he remains and how lovey Emerly stays with him as the weeks go on.

His name Parker--my maiden name is Park, so he represents A LOT of my family. middle name Reed: After his dad, Tyler Reed.

I was told by all the doctors and nurses who came to see us at the hospital that if we are to have another child, I would have to be induced or the baby would be a home birth whether we wanted to have it like that or not.
On the plus side, the recovery has been AMAZING, I feel almost completely normal and its just been three days since I gave birth. Emerly's recovery was an absolute bitch and like two weeks of stinky painful hell. Granted I had other things stitched up to during that time...but I dunno, if I were to do it again there are definite pros and cons of this whole natural vs epidural. Talk to me when I'm not on post partum hormones lol.
Now here's tons of pictures of people who came to visit that night--with nice pictures done by Terra...because clearly she made it on time for the actual birth :D I'm kind of grateful that wasn't photographed. I probably was a crazy person.
Emerly also got "Dug" from Up and a Bracelet with a heart on it from her brother.

 My dad and his picture taking skills KILL me... "Focus on me" Cuts out the baby....lol

Emerly coming in the first tiem.

She told me and Bra we needed to go with her. 

Imitating his sad cry.

Its a shame I'm not looking at the camera...Good job Ty 

Cross our fingers he's not like an Emerly baby.

All pictures can be seen here

And from DAY TWO pictures Emerly REALLY loved her brother more.

And lastly, a simple side by side of my babies. Parker does have a bit of jaundice so he is darker at the moment than Emerly, but wow they are so different and yet I see similarities. 

Welcome to the World Emerly Jay

Clearly I'm an amazing blogger/journal writer. But considering I no longer have a full time paying job I think I will try to keep a little bit up to date things here. So to catch up, we also went to Germany--Berlin and Munich, and Prague. One day I will write about those days.

Last year we also visited, Disneyland, Mt. Rushmore, DC, San Antonio, and Kansas City.....

Now for the latest news :D We obviously got a little busy over the summer and on March 14th 10:12 am, out popped Emerly Jay at 6 lbs 12.5 oz and 19.5 inches long.
I want to write down her birth story so I don't forget it, but also because some tid bits before hand I find amusing.

My last day of work was March 8th, and I feel like it was just yesterday. I was barely dilated to a one and 70% effaced. The weekend of maternity leave was slow but tiring. I tried to be more social, which is always difficult for me to want to leave the house...went bowling with friends :) got a pedicure with my mom. Went to Emerly's cousins blessing, and a game/bbq with friends on Sunday. Monday night I was kind of annoyed with everyone's questions/statements of "when is she coming? Oh your not going to be induced till the 28th? Wow you look like your going to pop, good luck with that! Did not think you would make it this far"
 So I decided not to worry about when she came, instead of being anxious about it I thought to myself hey....its ok, The longer she is in there the better, and be freaking grateful about it to, just be patient. But then I also thought...the longer she is in there the higher chance of still birth. Yeah, my mind is great. When Tyler came home on Monday night I told him, I want to slowly introduce her to things that might induce labor--like pineapple and spicy foods but I was ok with whenever she wanted to show up and I would try to be less anxious about it.
Tyler agreed with me, (he always tries to make me happy you will find) and we got a family size (COUPON) pineapple pepperoni pizza for dinner. We only ate one piece each, but I figured I'd have leftovers all week to eat at lunch and help her come along. That night I was jokingly telling Ty, I hope that she doesn't come in the middle of the night or my water breaks on our bed. That would suck. I also hope she doesn't come tonight since I haven't showered for ever--to be fair, I was going to shower that day, but I played with my dogs instead and was too tired to care afterwards. Figured, eh I'll shower tomorrow.

Basically, with me finally relaxing about her coming....made her come :D. I did not however sleep in our bed that night as I had been choking on mucus *yummy* the previous nights so I decided to sleep in our recliner. I woke up right before  1 am with a dream that I was peeing...but I wasn't peeing, but I was wet. Since I usually wake up in the middle of the night anyways to pee, I just thought damn...missed that wake up call. So I hobbled into the bathroom (which adjoins our bedroom) and as soon as I got on the toilet WHOOSH!!! I opened the door, and said Ty....my water just broke. He groggily replies "Are you joking?" I stood up a bit and another WHOOSH of water came down...and he sat straight up. To be fair, I kind of had teased him before on two separate occasions that my water broke....
So after the majority of it emptied into the toilet, I thought well I haven't felt any contractions that are different from braxton hicks...and I know you don't want to go to the hospital till they are close together, but...when your water breaks, do you go immediately?? So we googled, and called the on call doctor--your baby will be here in 24 hours its up to you when you come said google. The on call doctor, never called back....

I texted my mom and my sister (who did the birth story pictures you see throughout and below) and immediately my sister texts back I'M AWAKE! I call her, she was binge watching TV... I told her I was going to take a shower really quick instead of going to the hospital right away cause I was rank. She decided to come and meet us at our house. My sweet hilarious sister....sigh. Anyways, got showered--braided my hair, put a bit of make up on, pooped :) and Terra was there trying to usher us to go to the hospital. I said...no lets eat some breakfast really quick. This whole time the puppies were extremely worried about me and would not leave my side. Which I found interesting as they were SUPER CLINGY on Monday. Ava especially is not a clingy dog, but Monday and that night, she did not want to leave my side. Made me cry.

After we ate, made sure we had everything we decided might as well go to the hospital, baby is coming in 24 hours even if we hadn't heard back from the on call doctor. At this point I could feel the contractions--which were NOT like the braxton hicks ones I had been having for the past ten weeks. They were like period pains times 10 at that point.

We check in the hospital at 2:30 am. I had decided I wanted to try to see how long I could go without an epidural because I was scared shitless of an epidural. Too many people gave me their horror stories of what went wrong with theirs, and the needle....and my anxiety....yeah..people suck I have decided. Do not listen to them!! By 3:15 I was crying through the contractions that were only 7 minutes apart telling Tyler and Terra I can't do this...I'm scared, I don't want to do this..

So I agreed to get the epidural. With the nurse telling me what was going on, Tyler holding my hands and Terra at my side I got the epidural. Not going to lie, I think I was most anxious for that part and I really wanted to take a anti anxiety pill just for that. I was crying, but trying to remain still so I didn't get a horror story. Once that epidural kicked in--I was like, wait...what?? This is AMAZING. I can tell I'm having a contraction but like its CAKE! Not only that, it put me in a better mood--which may or may not have ruined things a little.

So the nurse put my catheter in, and as she was preparing to do that she had to clean that area...which with the epidural apparently tickled A LOT. I was laughing hysterically. Then we started to play cards to watch the time go by and I heard this really gross fart, looked at Terra and was like was that you?? She said no, that was you. Yeah...did not feel a thing. That got me worried a bit, like if I didn't feel that how the heck am I going to know when to push?

At 7:08 I was dilated to 5.5. The nurse told us I was progressing well and should have her in the afternoon. Then the nurse came back an hour later...and I was at a 9. Progression sped up like WOAH. They then said ok, we're going to let you drop or something for an hour and and then push for an hour and see how that turns out.

So about here I thought the anxiety would be massively taking over me, but no, I was chill as a cucumber. It was seriously the best. That epidural had me on such a high--zombie legged out, but happy.

When they told me to start pushing I tried, but honestly didn't feel anything. The nurse wanted to see Emerly's head a bit before she called in the doctor. Then the next thing I know the doctor is there, there are like 3 other people there and I'm being told to just push. Ty is holding one leg up, the nurse the other I think...and Terra is taking pictures while holding my head. The whole time I'm concentrating on pushing but not actually knowing if I am pushing....it was the weirdest sensation. I kind of wish I felt that way when I'm constipated lol..but that...that shit I feel come out :D. So when they put Emerly on my lap, I was still pushing...I didn't feel her come out at all.

And there she was on my lap, as soft as could be. Now before this I didn't know if I wanted skin to skin because ewe baby covered in bodily fluids, will be sticky--and lumpy etc. Nope, she was seriously so freaking soft. I immediately noticed her cone head and pig button nose. Then I was just kind of in a drug stupor of looking at her like this just came out of me?

In that drug stupor, my doctor noticed I had a septum in my vagina that apparently should not be there and could cause complications in the next pregnancy. She said she could fit 2 fingers through this extra bit of skin and asked if it would be okay if she cut it out and sewed me up. I said yes. Seriously, I don't know if I should have...but too late for that. That cut is a bitch. I did tear, only 1 1/2 degrees so she had to stitch me up there to...but in recovery when I asked Ty, man my left side hurts like hell is that where I tore? He said, no, thats where they cut you afterwards and there was a ton of blood.

Back to Emerly. She is here. We love her, and the following is the rest of the birth story in pictures. I want to follow up on this post with a post of what I've learned, how our first week was, and the baby blues.

I love her so much.

By the way, her name comes from family members. On Tyler's side Emerson is passed down through the boys--we love that name, and feminized it. Jay is after my grandpa, me, and quite a few others.

These are just a few of the pictures my sister took. If you would like to see all the pictures, let me know and I'll share the link :)

Europe Trip---Paris

At this rate it might take me a year to write about our lil 2 week trip, and by that time I'm sure some details/fun thoughts would have been forgotten. Oh well, such is life.

So as we arrived in Paris, it took us awhile to find where we were staying. Mainly our fault, we didn't read the emails our host sent to us before and so we of course became the annoying guests who kept texting him "Where are the keys?" "What is the gate code?" At least he was nice and understanding. When we walked into our Airbnb place we were a bit....taken back. It looked just like it did in the pictures, just MUCH MUCH smaller. One other thing we found out about this apartment, the loft bed was easily the WORST bed in history, so we pulled up the sofa cushions and put them on the bed. Also the bathroom was sooooo tiny, that Tyler had to squeeze into the shower door sideways to get into the shower. Not really an apartment made for tall Americans, I fit in fine :D.
I had one anxiety attack during our stay in Paris, and I think part of that was because we felt so cramped in the living space. So I was grateful for Tyler and his patience...as always.

Ok PARIS.
The first day we were there and dropped off our stuff, we looked at the metro to see what was close and decided to go to Notre Dame before it closed. It was soo beautiful, the stained glass windows are so big and colorful--no picture does it justice. It was also free to go into, which we really like :D We walked around and followed our noses to a cafe area. I had some chicken curry with rice that tasted like cinnamon and a bit of desert--y, not like a dinner at all--it was soo good. Tyler had pasta. Our hostess was kind of annoyed with us because we were eating her food so fast, but 1--it was good 2--we were freaking hungry. After that we went to the Arch De. Triumph, as it wasn't on our list of things we had to see...but we wanted to try to fit it in. We at first thought we could walk to it....HAHAHAHAHAHA...however, by doing this we walked along the bridge full of love locks. Then we took the metro after we realized how much further we had to walk. We got in line to get passes to the top of the Arch, and we are soo happy we did since we didn't get ones for the Eiffel. Also the view is fantastic! We were up there at about 10pm so the lights on the Eiffel were on, they didn't sparkle though which they do on the hour...and these girls would not let us take a picture because they were waiting for it to sparkle. Just the start of the annoying people Tyler did not like in Paris.

Day Two
VERSIALLES. If I ever went back to France again--mainly the Paris region, it would only be to go to Versialles again. It is beautiful. We left fairly early, but the line to get INTO Versailles was still WICKED long. I actually cannot comprehend why it is so long....they should take a few notes from Disneyland on how to get people inside. It wrapped around I think 8 times total...and then once you were inside the gate (you get your ticket before you wait in line btw) its free and easy. It really was mind boggling why it took an hour to get inside.
Well the first time we walked in the inside area, then the outside gardens. We walked around the ENTIRE garden area - besides the Marie Antionette section, didn't care to buy tickets for that-- and did not understand why the fountains were not on, so we asked someone they said "Oh the fountains do not come on till 3:30-5:30" where it is not stated on the brochure anywhere----I could be mistaken, but I didn't see it. So we got lunch. The MOST AMAZING food OH MY GOSH. The gravy on Tylers food tasted like Thanksgiving gravy got a 10+boost of melt in my mouth and stay there. I ate every drop of that gravy with our bread rolls. So after lunch we decided to go to the BIG fountain and wait for it to turn on. 3:40.....it still isn't on. 3:50--still not on, I go ask someone why is this fountain not on yet? "Oh the Neptune fountain? That only turns on from 5:20-5:30"  (Do you see why Tyler is annoyed with the French yet? No offense to any french people I know...this was just his experience) So we walk around again, to all the other fountains and come back to Neptunes fountain at 5:10, we find a spot and the fountains only go on from 5:22-5:30, we timed them.
I think though that we made a really cool fountain video...but I also think I'm awesome anyways :D
After that Versailles closes up basically, so we left and decided to get off at the Eiffel Tower since it was on our way back. The line to just get to the first two levels to get tickets...was ONE HOUR long. No thank you. So advice-buy tickets WAY IN ADVANCE ONLINE. We still enjoyed strolling around the park and I THINK that was the night we decided to eat super fancy. (See told you, memories are jumbled now that I'm writing it months later)
Anyways, we had some really good food and sat next to a spoiled brat of a 10 year old and her grandma who was taking her for a 10 day trip to paris for her 10th birthday. She bought her granddaughter a $50 plate of food, and the girl ate just the fries. They were funny to talk to, see the other side of the extremely rich and have nothing better to do with life. Talking to Tyler we think we ate fish...and it was good, but that the restaurant was always out of something we were trying to order the first time.

Day THREE
The LOUVRE. I love museums. Love them Love them Love them. So first I will go over annoyances of this museum--This one is not free, its expensive and the audio guide that you download and buy on your iPhone does not contain all the audio portions unless you want to buy more portions, or buy the nintendo 3ds audio portion. The descriptions to ALL the artifacts/paintings are only in French. SERIOUSLY, one of the biggest museums of all time only in French writing. It opens too late and closes too early for you to ever see everything in one day. We did pretty good, all but two halls in one wing. We must be really bad tourists, because we didn't really find good food around the Louvre. Worst food days of the trip. Now to the good parts-- Beautiful artwork in the museum, seriously some of the biggest and most detailed paintings I've ever seen. They had similar artifacts to the British Museum as well. Some of the rooms were soo decorated it was like the whole room was precious. We really loved it, but were saddened we missed out on two hallways. They started to physically usher us out of the hallway we were in at 5:30 even though the Louvre doesn't close till 6. I was super annoyed with this. I was like but I have 30 more minutes!!! I could have seen everything had they not ushered me.

Next morning we were headed out to Berlin, our host got us a driver to take us to the airport, which was great since apparently the taxi's were boycotting that day and the metros would have been over ran.

Overall thoughts of Paris: We like the food the most, Tyler was annoyed by a lot of people---those especially who would talk to him in French, he would try to communicate with hand signals (he's a he man) and they would still just talk to him in French even though they understood his English, or they would ignore him and talk to customers who would then translate for him. I found Paris to be really really dirty feeling. I did not feel clean at all, and I showered every day--that also contributed to the anxiety attack I had. I think if we ever return to France, it will not be to Paris--or I would be there alone with Terra--and we will research more of where we want to stay even though our place was ok, it was wayy tooo small.

Europe Trip---Cardiff

           So we took a bus to Cardiff from London, which wasn't soo bad. I was actually surprised how BUSY the bus station was. It was INSANE. There was barely any room for people to sit, and it was a pretty big complex. They had buses going everywhere across the UK. I thought it was really cool, especially how cheap it was to for us only 10 pounds...which is roughly 15 dollars. Anyways, we get on the bus expecting it to be super packed due to how many people are going, and it wasn't at all. So I took up a row and tried to go to sleep. Note for anyone riding in a moving vehicle---make sure the seat belt buckle fasteners are tucked away, otherwise you WILL wake up with a huge pain in the back that will not go away for like a week.
      The view was great on the bus, all green rolling hills. Totally opposite of the hustle and bustle of London. When we got to Cardiff, the bus had two stops...which was silly as they were literally a block away from each other. Tara was right across the street to greet us which was awesome!! We then stopped at a market store (I refuse to call them grocery stores as they are the size of my house packed) and grabbed a sandwich in a box to eat. They were surprisingly better than I thought they would be, but I saw a lot of people eat them--very light but filling once you got to the second half.
     Tara then took us to Cardiff Castle and we went in the tunnels in the walls that they used for World War II bunkers during the air raids. I thought it was wicked cool. The Castle of course was beautiful and I sat down on a chair that you were not supposed to sit in. Oops. Tourist?? :D We left our luggage in their storage area for lawn equipment basically, and it was totally fine :). We then met up with stinker Kevin who got to see DR. WHO FILMING---seriously annoyed that I missed it by like 30 minutes or so I bet. Oh well, but seriously jelly.
     We then got the rental car...and they made me drive....on the wrong side of the road, on the wrong side of the car through like 7 round abouts that go the wrong direction. It was like my worst nightmare. We got to their house and dropped off our stuff and walked down to have some AMAZING Curry. The only food I didn't take a picture of. It was DELISH. We then hiked up to the "observatory"---it gets quotation marks, because when I hear this word I think telescope, It was the top of a hill with a cool art feature. However along the way we saw a toad, a hut made out of trees, and a hill turned into the shape of a horse. It was awesome.

Day TWO of Cardiff.
      After Tara cooked us a lovely breakfast we headed off to look at ruins. After ten minutes of me being extremely tense driving, Kevin took over THANK GOODNESS. We saw easily 5 or 6 different ruins/castles and at each one Kevin gave us the history of what was going on. It was like having a live audio guide....that you wanted to punch at times :D JK. maybe. :D I loved the castle that was at the beach, it was soo nice to see ocean and sand. I love the beach, this beach was full of jellyfish!! We thought they were dead till I posted them online and our French friend said DONT TOUCH THEM, they are still alive, they will go back later...oops. We only touched the mantle not the tentacles though. There was a naked child swimming in the ocean though....surrounds by these huge jellies, and her mom, that was interesting. There was no way I'd swim in that.
      We also figured out how to have fun with the pano feature on my iphone which made pictures even better :) We seemed to drive short distances to each ruin that by the time we decided to head back, it was such a long drive back I was very confused distance wise of how far we actually went.
    OOO Lunch was at another amazing castle, Tyler had a great soup with a cheese block in it and I had beef with mashed potatoes on top. It was sooo yummy and hearty.
     There were two finished castles that closed before/when we got to them so we could only go on the outside which was a bummer, because one seemed wicked close to their house. Oh well, don't know what you miss if you don't see it right? Still the outsides were beautiful. You can even have weddings at these places. AMAZING.
      They did get us lost on only one trail....so I think total that day we hiked like 56 floors. Tara made us dinner that night and we just chilled the rest of the night.

Day Three Cardiff.
     THE REASON WE CAME--(no offense Tara and Kevin) DR WHO EXPERIENCE!!!!!!!!!!!! It was AWESOME!!!!! So it is not a typical museum thing. You get your experience thing and they take you through various scenes of the Dr. Who life while on a big screen the Doctor sis giving you instructions, you have to run from Daleks not blink at Weeping Angels. It was great fun. Then it exits you out into the artifact museum of tons of costumes from the current season and some old classics. There are soo many things there I just LOVED IT. That then exits you out into the gift shop--which I spent quite a bit of money in, and wished they had more things to spend money on....lol. I got sonic screw drivers for some grand kids, notebooks for others. Ty and I got two tee shirts, I got a dalek for our puppies--which they don't care for, and a few other things for me. We then went to the water tower that was used in Torchwood all the time and Ianto's shrine.
     By the time all of that was over we wanted food and saw another Gourment Kitchen Burger, this time we ordered different milkshakes....stick to their chocolate :)
      On the train from dinner, we ran into a crazy bonkers Welsh man. He first stopped us at the station and told us we were idiots for talking about chocolate and had no sense in life but that he meant no offense and wanted to keep hearing us talk because he liked our accents I think?? Then he got in an argument with Kevin on the train about a castle...which of course Kevin took on...and another much nicer drunk next to us was telling us that Kevin was right and that guy was bonkers and he had too much to drink and didn't make it to the game but was hoping he could make it home. Oh yes, there was a huge game going on between Cardiff and Belgium for soccer and the whole main town square was full of fans getting drunk, singing, chanting. It was loud and crazy and I wanted a scarf to fit in :D .

Day FOUR--heading to Paris
      So the only thing I'm going to mention here is that we were basically treated like we were terrorists at the Cardiff airport.  Its a podunct airport, and I think they were bored to be honest. They had me unpack three of our bags to grab things out that they considered to be liquid and needed to be a in a clear bag. Like my chapstick, my 1 oz bottle of eyeliner, my mascara....etc. Then they proceeded to tell us only ONE CLEAR BAG PER PERSON...so we had to cram everything in our tiny two bags. They were wicked annoying---and then when we tried to order food from a restaurant there they only did part of the menu, but of course that was not mentioned on the menu.


            Overall thoughts: Cardiff is pretty country, sooooo freaking green it almost makes you sick. A lot of people drink there, and I'm surprised there are not more car accidents with how people drive. Its freakin scary driving in the tiny roads where only one car should fit. Our hosts/friends were awesome, even though Kevin needed to be hit more than he was. Tara is the bomb. And YEAH for them having a washer/dryer---we didnt pack enough clothes for Ty to stay clean...oops. We bought him more at Dr. Who. I LOVED DR WHO and the ruins. It was a good mixture of fun and history in this short time.

Our European Extravaganza--London

      It's been awhile since I've written, but generally it's because I don't care to. Now I have something awesome to write and remember about. Our European Extravaganza!! I will go in order and address what we did, saw, how we felt about things etc. All pictures will be loaded on facebook--its become a scrapbook website for me. (Once I figure out how to do that from the iPhone)

     Our flight plan was from SLC--> Seattle with a 3 hour layover, then to Iceland--> London, with a 55 minute layover. BTW, did not know this when you book, but if you fly through Iceland you can increase your stop over time to a week with no extra charge. Also the Iceland airport bathrooms were easily some of the cleanest, coolest bathrooms on our whole trip of public bathrooms. OOO I found a picture of them online. So those things that are hanging out to the side of the faucet---the hand dryer!! Every bathroom "stall" is completely private with its own toilet and sink, and its all automated which makes you feel really clean--plus enough room to put the baggage to the side and not cram in a wee lil stall.

    Besides that we had no idea that the sun does NOT set on your flight from Seattle to Iceland as its so close to the Arctic Circle--so we were wicked tired when we landed in London. We tried to sleep, but it was a bit hard when the cute kids in front of us kept opening their windows and exclaiming... "It's still there!" They were amused by the sun not going down.

LONDON

       So we get to London, use the directions our airbnb host gave us to get to the right end of the city where we were staying at. We find some food...and seriously was not happy with it. Thought it would be cool to order an avocado chocolate and apple spinach "smoothie" with two sandwiches. (I "" smoothie, as it is really juice...and we will learn through our trip that all European "smoothies" are juice with ice) They did not get either of our sandwiches right, and when I went to fix mine they apparently didn't have anymore of it and so I ate cake that was the same price. Also, they did not give us our smoothies till we went back up ten minutes later asking them for it...in which they replied Oh those were yours?? We gave those away, guess we will make some new ones. Yeah...service in, whi Europe...doesn't exist.

     Our London flat was just a few buildings away, and Ty was wonderful to get the key for us that was a half a mile away. The flat was nice, simple--but had no air conditioning and just a wee little fan. Since we were only there at night, it worked for us. We stayed in the Shoreditch area of London, very hipster vibe to it. After we cleaned up our faces we decided to mosey about the town. We ran into this awesome market. Tons of food from everywhere, tons of trinkets etc. We didn't have a lot of cash on us at the time and decided to go back the next day. Bad decision---it was only going on Sunday nights, so we missed buying anything. Anyways, we took the underground--which in London is SUPER easy to navigate through, and they have a great card system---to explore downtown London. We went to see the Tower Bridge, and as we were walking to it IT WAS OPENING and CLOSING for a cruise ship. That is a sign of good luck :) We also went into some cool church---plenty of those in Europe. Decided to walk to the Globe Theatre and see if we could get any tickets to any show, but alas we did not plan ahead (as you will notice a few times in this trip) and they were sold out till the day we left. We also tried to go to the Tower of London, but it was closed--no worries we made it there again in two days. 

        We then walked around the area some more till our stomachs said FEED ME SEYMOUR (guess that movie) and stopped at a place called "Gourmet Kitchen Burger" It was fantastic! It reminded me of Red Robin, we had their truffle cheese fries--always get things with the word truffle in it, their chocolate milkshake was to die for and cheeseburgers, I added pineapple on mine. Delish. We then went home exhausted and ready for the next day. 

DAY TWO: We left semi early in the morning to make it to the British Museum, which has been one of those "you must go here in your lifetime" places for me. Before we got there, we tried to find breakfast. Once again we found a place serving "smoothies" the girl grabbed it from the fridge below her and shook it and put it on the counter---needless to say, we walked away. We did find another place that did smoothies and pastries, but at least they made their "smoothie" fresh, so it was decent enough, 

    We entered the British Museum from the back side, since we actually got lost trying to find it. Worked out ok for us. Spent six hours in there going from room to room and floor to floor. I loved it. I think Ty likes looking at the artifacts to, he doesn't complain and is willing to do crazy fun poses in front of the objects/statues/paintings with me. We also ate lunch there which cost an arm and a leg. We had Salmon that was encased in deep fried breading, and a chicken pot pie. Even though they don't serve breakfast they serve hearty lunches. While we were eating lunch an alarm went off and it said "A fire alarm has been activated in a different part of the museum, please stay where you are" The employees rolled their eyes like it happens every day. 

     Things we LOVED about the British Museum: It is actually possible to finish in one day, the artifacts have different languages describing them. The crowds were not too crazy, except by the Rosetta Stone. People were wicked nice there, and would offer to take your picture. There are Hands on tables at almost every section, and we were lucky enough to play with a lot of the tables--just have to have an employee there, who gives you more history of the objects. OOO and big plus ITS FREE.

     Things we didn't like: The lack of really cool things in the gift shop--hehe, the audio guide was also very opinionated. It would say things like "this could have been a basket or a crown on her head if we imagine it" It was silly, but British for sure. 

   We then decided to go to the Harry Potter 9 and 3/4 quarters area which is NOT in King's Cross Station where they filmed it. Its in the underground station that is across the street from King's Cross Train Station, so we took pictures at both places. There was a funny bird cage in between them with a swing in it to, we had a bit of fun there. By that time, we decided we needed to get food---and the places we sat at at King's Cross were only serving alcohol. That was something we did not like about London, the kitchen would be closed..but the bar was open. Or the kitchen would be closed for 45 minutes if you wanted to wait. Luckily the place right next to our loft opened their kitchen to make us truffle mac and cheese. Again, truffle cheese...AMAZING. 

     Day Three: We decided to go see the Changing of the Guards at Buckingham Palace. There was 3 or 4 people in front of us, when this shorter Indian woman decided to lean her entire body on mine as if to push me forward. Honestly, I haven't had someone that close to me in a public place since I was a teenager at a concert trying to get to the front row in a mass of sweaty bodies. I swiped my hand across my back and bum two times, and she still kept laying on my practically. On the third time, I turned around and said "Don't touch me!" She looked me annoyed, and moved to the guy next to us, who was more freaked out than I was. She moved on...but we saw her later that day at the Tower of London, lol. Anyways, changing of the guards----was kind of lame--we left a bit of the way through it and took pictures around, then decided to go to the Tower of London.

    Even though the Tower of London is expensive, we really enjoyed it. We jumped on a tour guide at the start of the gate as it was free to join, and our tour guide was hilarious. We went through the museums with the crown jewels--cant take pictures there (or a lot of places in Europe) and the armory which was really cool. We thought that it was kind of ridiculous how much gold they have made into silly items. Overall we really enjoyed our time there, and would recommend it to anyone--it is over priced, but still worth a go. We had fish and chips for lunch outside of it, and the portions were soo big we ended up handing our leftovers to these funny teenage boys from the midwest that I was sneaking fries to. He was like mom I'm soo hungry, those fish and chips look so good. They were a funny family and we talked to them for a bit.
     After the Tower of London we went to go see Big Ben, the Parliament building and Westminster Abbey. Right when you walk out of the underground Big Ben is RIGHT in front of you, and is super impressive. It was such a beautiful building, I couldn't stop looking at it. Then we went to Westminster, and the tours were all out....BUT their services were going on, in which you can go to for free...just no pictures, so OF COURSE we went to service. We're religious, and we can appreciate other religions. It was interesting since I'd say 98% of the congregation were tourists, but their choir and priests were not. The choir was kind of amazing for only 6 or 8 people. We then crossed the bridge and tried to go to the London Dungeon or aquarium--but closed, and the line for the London Eye was wicked long. So we walked through the park till our noses smelt something delicious. We ate at Archdukes. AMAZING!!!! We had 4 non alcoholic cocktails, I had chicken and fries--it was ok, tasted like a fancy chicken finger and Ty totally won at this dinner, it was like rice, with spinach sauce, and marinara in a deep fried roll...I don't even know--it was gooood. I had a brownie for dessert that tasted more like a truffle, and Ty had ice cream. We then went home, feeling that we ended London on a great note. 

Overall thoughts on London---Its kind of dirty, wish that the food places would open earlier, and the kitchens would stay open late. Loved how easy transit was. EVERYONE is practically running in London till you hit a tourist spot, everyone seems to be in a such a hurry. We would go back there again. Did not like that the pound is practically double a dollar...makes it very expensive when you think your actually getting a deal, then you look at your bank account...lol. 

Tyler and Jen blogging together....second time

Jen: Tyler I hate this new blog layout....im soo confused.

Tyler: Its just like a google doc

Jen: Hmmph.

Tyler: (inappropriate comment for bloggers to read)

Jen: ok lets get back to this blog. We need to write maybe one every two months. New Goal ok?

Tyler: Im beyond goals, i don't need any goals

Jen: Why are you being difficult?

Tyler: I'm 25 I do what I want.

Jen: I love you...moving on...ok so we biked 9.7 miles today :)

Tyler: It was a ten mile bike ride

Jen: Dont round up, it was 9.7

Tyler: We also had mashed potatoes

Jen: Are we always going to tell them what we had for dinner, if so you forgot that they were garlic mashed potatoes, and we had stuffing along with chocolate milk. Very carby.

Tyler: Way too many details.

Jen: Ok, well i'm done with the blog, anything you want to say?

Tyler: I clipped my fingernails

Jen: Worst blogger ever. Sorry everyone, I thought tonight would be more amusing. Till the next month we decided to "blog together"

From Tyler

Tyler says that if "we" have a blog, he needs to contribute, so here I am now being his personal secretary writing.

Tyler: I would like to start by saying I am thoroughly disappointed in my secretary because our blog does not have a subtitle "blogging together to stay together"

Jen: Stupid.

Tyler: I would appreciate it if I was not interrupted by my secretary.

Jen: ....

Tyler: We had mac and cheese for dinner today. Also Chinese teacher gone!

Jen: No one knows we had a Chinese teacher at our house

Tyler: I know. Also, we had a Chinese teacher for the last three months.

Jen: Continue.

Tyler: Thats all for today.

Jen: I can't believe you wasted the updating of our blog once every few months for those short sentences...so now I will take over.

Ok we had a CRAZY chinese teacher at our house the past three months because we apparently like to rescue things in need...and she was in need...so she was in the basement of our house, and basically we shared the kitchen and bathroom. THings were o....k....but I wanted to talk to her about some issues that had arisen before her husband came over, which resulted in a text msg from her "I don't like the talk, I want to move out, give me a few days to find a new host family" I never got to talk to her, and she moved out on sunday....and we have been very happy about it actually. Now hosting foreigners isn't always bad, my mum has a wonderful girl from Germany at her house right now...so yeah.
Lets see other things that have happened since the last post...We have a wonderful house in Roy, right off the border of Clinton so I get confused still with street names. I'm full time at my job, I love my job. I have paid about 200+ in teacher fees to renew licenses get licenses, background etc this month and am really annoyed by it. lol. Tyler will hopefully be done with school this summer but won't walk till december because they dont do the walk thing in the summer...don't know if he'll do the walk thing because of that.
We're searching for a Bichpoo puppy, its a mix between a bichon friese and a poodle. We really wanted a poodle mix cause poodles are smart and hypoallergenic, and im slightly allergic...but didn't want a poodle...and we like that mix. Hopefully the puppy will be with our family in June.
Lets see...what else....um...I really enjoy the bike trail by our house, just wish the weather was nicer. Ok I think thats good for our blog every once in awhile. Hope you all enjoyed hearing from tyler, lol.