New York City

Derek and I have our 5th Anniversary coming up in November. We are celebrating with a trip to New York City and our plane departs next week. We have a pretty good idea of which major sites to see (Empire State Building, Statue of Liberty, Broadway shows, Rockefeller Center, etc.) We also have some fabulous food recommendations from LJ. I'm looking for any bits of advice that you are aware of. For instance, there is apparently a red booth somewhere that you can bid for cheap Broadway tickets. There is also a webcam where you can show up and have your picture online - if you are there at the "right" time then it will be archived. Do you know of a great place to eat that we just CANNOT miss? Should we avoid a certain place at a certain time of day? Any good info would be appreciated. Your deadline is Thursay, September 20th. GO!

Airport Fiasco

Katie and I flew out to Jodie's house in Indiana last week for a girls weekend. The plan was for Mom, Gina, and Jana to fly into Indianapolis Saturday early morning (1:00am). I was to meet them in the airport as my flight was scheduled to come in at 12:30am. Unfortunately, there was some mechanical problems with my plane and we ended up being 9 hours delayed. Yes, I was stuck in the John Wayne Airport for 9 hours with my 18 month old. Luckily she is pretty mellow because I really didn't bring anything to entertain her. We walked a while and she enjoyed standing up on the armrests of the chairs and then jumping off (over and over again). I'm glad I brought some lunch for her because all the airline offered us were those little cracker snack packs that you can buy on the plane. Pitiful. They did offer a travel voucher and told us that we would be put up in a hotel in Chicago before catching our connecting flight the next morning.

We were scheduled to leave at 1:23pm and finally taxied away from the gate at 9:30pm. Katie managed to sleep fitfully on the plane but I didn't get a wink of sleep. We arrived at 3:15am in Chicago and were told that the O'Hare Hilton (right on the premises) was not available to us since it was a holiday weekend. United was willing to give us hotel vouchers for a hotel 30 minutes away but wouldn't pay for the shuttle to get us there. Unfortunately, our flight from Chicago to Indianapolis was leaving at 7:30am so we only had 4 hours total to find Katie's carseat, get to a hotel, check-in, sleep for an hour, try and drag myself out of bed, get to the aiport in time to check-in, go through security, and make the flight on time. Fat chance. SO... Katie and I got to kill 4 hours of time during the most exhausting part of the night. She had already had a nap so she was wide-eyed and bushy tailed. I was just bushed.

I was disappointed that we weren't even offered meal vouchers since they weren't able to accomodate us in any way with the hotel. I will definitely be writing a letter to United Airlines. I'm not excited to use their travel voucher anytime soon.

(On a positive note: Our returning flights were ahead of schedule and we landed 30 minutes earlier than expected.)

Look at This Beautiful Baby

Here is our new niece Wendy. She's a pretty one - but then again, you can see for yourself.

Unexpected Words From Ryan

Out of the blue -
"Mom, when I came out of your tummy in the hospital, did shepherds come?"

At the grocery store I was buying a granola bar for him and he wanted to put it on the conveyer belt.
"Mom, if you don't let me put those up there it will make me in great danger."

Ryan was running over to a friends house without asking.
Derek: "Ryan, if you go across the street to William's house we will NOT go to the Lagoon."
Ryan: "Dad, when you say that to me I am astonished."

Another random few,
"Dad, I know beans about babies because I'm really big."

"Why did Heavenly Father and Jesus make fire engines?"

Flipping through a blank "Post-It" note pad with Derek and pretending to read it to him like a book.
"This is the lake. This is the grass. This is the Lagoon. Did we already look at this page?"

All Grown Up

A good friend just recently emailed me this picture. Those of you who grew up with me - if you saw this boy on the street, would you recognize him? I sure wouldn't have had the slightest clue. He used to get excited to see me - now I'm not so sure he would even CARE to see me. :)

I Need Some Creative Options.....

There are a few ongoing battles in my home that I seriously feel like I am constantly losing. If you could offer any small creative discipline strategy I would truly appreciate it.

#1. Ryan is getting into the refrigerator constantly without asking. It is very difficult for me to give up my control on this matter - I don't want him to be able to snack whenever he wants to on whatever he fancies. He often will sneak food and hide under the kitchen table with it.

#2. We only eat in the kitchen. Ryan is constantly testing my boundaries on this one and will take food out of the kitchen at every chance he can get. If my back is turned, if I walk out of the kitchen, if I am in the bathroom, etc. He will hide with it or take it in the living room where he is watching a movie or something.

#3. Going outside without telling me. I am not talking about our back porch, I'm talking about going out into the park by himself.

The only think that I ask is that you do not suggest "time-out" this is obviously not working for us. I am looking for a creative consequence. HELP!!

Deep Sea Fishing

Drex took us deep sea fishing when Derek's family came to visit us in Cali. It was just Drex, Denton, Joanne, Derek and I who went. Here's a quick photo journal of our fun.

Dad is helping me figure out how to secure the hook with a proper knot. I was a little unsure since I didn't know how big these fish were going to get.

We used little sardines and squid for bait. Dad's was already baited up with squid and he was trying to snip off the excess line with his teeth. Fishy...

Dad got the award for first fish. He might've even caught the second fish - I can't remember now.

We both caught a Sand bass.

Derek joined us with a Sculpin or California Scorpion fish. He had to keep it hanging out over the boat waiting for the guys to come and get it off of his line since their spines are highly venomous and cause a very painful wound.


Derek's wasn't quite large enough to keep but if it were they'd just clip off the spines first.

Here's Denton with his catch.

You're going to need me to zoom in on Denton's fish for you - also a Scorpion fish.We also got to watch them cleaning a bunch of squid that they had caught earlier in the day. It was pretty interesting.

We had a bit of sea life following us around. There was a little seal who would swim along with us as we'd move from place to place. He was nice for entertainment while we were fishing, but was likely one reason why we didn't catch more.

When we got back to the dock this sea lion was hanging around waiting for us to throw him some fish or something. He was disappointed.

An interesting looking pelican.

The sea gulls were very cool to watch. They'd keep right with us as we were zooming along in the boat and were quick to dive for the scraps that were thrown in the water during fish cleaning.

We had a great time. It's definitely something I want to do again - next time I'm going to be the one to catch a big fatty.

Final stats:

Dad - 3

Jenny - 2

Derek - 1

Denton - 2

(We think he may have caught the same fish twice.)

(Correct me if I'm wrong guys - it's been a few weeks so my memory might be slightly off)

First catch of the day - Dad

Most - Dad

Biggest - tie between Dad and Jenny

(not sure why the format changed there at the end - whatever)

I Have No Room to Talk

I know all of you Arizonians will laugh me to scorn, but you know it's hot outside when you come home, think to yourself, "Did I leave the air conditioning on?" and then notice it's 84 degrees in your house.

Go ahead, start laughing at me. I'm not complaining about the weather - it was just an amusing occurence to me.

Cheerleading Practice in the Bayles Home

Sorry about the poor quality and lighting - at least you get the point.

It's Likely That No One Cares to Know

Katie's 18 month well check-up stats:

Weight: 19 lbs <5%

Height: 30" 15%

Head - oh who ever remembers that one anyway? It was 90%

Falling a little more below the curve in weight - her doctor would like to see her again in 3 months rather than 6 months. She eats a ton - not sure why she isn't packing away the weight, but if it falls even more then she'll have a blood test or something done then. I can't say that I'm terribly concerned since her development is normal.

Do you all realize that she's 18 months old and is still in rear facing carseat range? Sheesh!