Clean Air Rally: Success

Photo by Tim Wagner

This afternoon Meg, Ruby, Astrid and I went to the capitol to rally for clean air for Utah (Arthur took a run during his lunch break and met us up there). It was pretty packed and a fun experience.

"Just laugh, babe."

These were the words he {Arthur} spoke when I finally woke up and called him at 4:30 in the morning.
Arthur and I share a car. It's a little inconvenient sometimes, but we feel like we're doing our part to reduce carbon emissions and we get to spend more travelling time together (plus we're poor). All this sharing of one car had really been working out nicely until a couple of weeks ago.
The day of the worst day of my life, started like any other day we keep the car. We took Arthur to work in the morning and ran our errands during the day. Arthur was going to be working super late (maybe 1am) but said that he would ride TRAX home and we could pick him up there. We'd never had to pick him up that late, but when we'd gone at 10pm, it was rather easy to pack up sleeping Astrid and pick him up. So I figured it would be no big deal.
Astrid and I go to bed and I swear, I had the phone on vibrate (which usually wakes me up). At 4:30 a.m. I jolt out of bed and obviously freak out. I look at my phone...10 missed calls (plus voicemails). You've got to be kidding me. I call Arthur and he is walking down State Street--he's made it to 2100 South from downtown and he's waiting for a cab. And instead of saying anything mean to me as I sob and tell him I can never forgive myself, he tells me to laugh.
This story defines him very well, and especially the kind of husband he is. Could I be any luckier?

Sick right now

These pictures are before our poor girl got sick. It makes me happy to look at these (and a little sad as I see her try and be as happy as she is in these).

She's been sick for a week and today is the first day that I've seen any real improvement.

got used to not blogging

LEX IS HOME!!

We don't have a sled, so I pulled Astrid around in a laundry basket.

She loved it.

She is becoming so maternal...

We pierced Astrid's ears...finally she is a Mexi-can.
Arthur made us this dry erase board table for Christmas (we still have to paint it). Maybe now we can confine Astrid's wandering hand...

Happy 1st Birthday Astrid!

Today at 2:58 p.m. Astrid will be 1 year old!!!
I can't believe how quickly this last year has passed. It really is no fun (fine, it has been a ton of fun) to have your baby grow up so quickly.

Speaking of new babies, my sister my brother and sister in law had their baby on the 10th, Ruby Elizabeth VanWagenen:

On a final note, Lex, gets home from his mission tomorrow. In fact, he has a layover at the Salt Lake airport. Astrid and I are going to surprise him there and then fly to Colorado Springs with him. I'm giddy excited!

California Thanksgiving

For Thanksgiving we (Drew, Marisa, Arthur, Astrid and I) decided to go to Pasadena to spend it with our fun sister, Sarah. We had a yummy restaurant Thanksgiving dinner and lots of good Trader Joes in between. Astrid got to see her California cousins (not nearly long enough) who she has only met a handful of times in her life.

Lamely, we didn't take any pictures except for our day trip to Ventura to visit the Florences. Astrid had almost as much fun on the beach as she did at the hot springs, if not more. Every time we picked her up to go inside (after more than hour of crawling and playing) she screamed and tried to squirm out of our arms. Nothing makes me happier than seeing my baby own a beach or hot pot.

(notice the blurry lens from the hotsprings...I finally cleaned it a few pictures in)

I love this picture.

Diamond Fork Hot Springs

Arthur had been wanting to go to the hotsprings for forever, so on Friday we decided that Saturday would be the perfect weather for hotspring going. Arthur's parents and our friends, the Milnes, came up with us too.

We drove up Spanish Fork Canyon and had a fun 50 minute hike up to where the hot springs are located. This was by far one of the most fun things we've done with Astrid. She LOVED the hot springs. She literally played for about an hour in the water without so much as a whimper. We should have known as much, since she really has a love for water.

Can't wait to do it again.