Yellowstone

It's been sort of a while since we have updated the blog and a lot has happened. Let's see if i can remember it all.

First there was Mother's Day. That was fun. Kevin got me flowers, which he has finally learned is something that I liked. While Kevin and I dated he never gave me flowers because he thought that it was a waste of money to buy something that was just going to die a few days later. It's taken me this long to convince him that it's something that I like and it's important for our marriage.

Then Kevin's mom was gone for a week. His grandpa who lives in Japan (we call him Gigi) wanted to come and visit us, since he's never seen either of his great-grandchildren here. He's 85 and doesn't like or know how to fly on his own, so Kevin's mom flies over there, picks him up, flies back, he stays about a week, then she takes him back home.

It's really a treat for Kevin's family when he comes, since they never get to see him, though he doesn't speak any English and Kevin and his siblings don't really speak a whole lot of Japanese, so the language barrier is kind of tough on Kevin's mom, who acts as translator the whole time. By the end of his trip, you can tell that she's tired of it. Each time Gigi comes, Kevin's parents usually like to take him somewhere, so this time around they decided it would be nice to take a quick trip up to Yellowstone with all of us. So, we booked a couple of hotels rooms and everyone arranged their schedule so that we could all go.

Our caravan

Two days before we were going to go, Kevin started to have a really terrible toothache. He called his dentist, but found out that they no longer accept our insurance, so I had to find another dentist that could squeeze him in sometime the next day. At his appointment we find out that he has a bacterial infection in his root canal and has to have it re-treated by an endodontist. All the while the pain in his tooth is getting worse, especially because the dentist had to poke around in there to find out what was wrong. So, we get an anti-biotic for the infection, a referral slip for the endodontist and a, "the best thing for the pain is ibuprofen." The next morning (after a long night of Kevin moaning in pain) Kevin gets out of bed and his cheek where his sore tooth is is swollen. It looked like he had a golf ball in his cheek. And he was mega-sore. And we were leaving to go out of town. Great.

Look how swollen his cheek is! Poor thing!

We started driving on Wednesday and from our house to West Yellowstone (that's where our hotel was) is about a 6 hour drive, but since we had 2 babies, a pregnant lady (Kevin's sister, not me) and an old man, we had to make several stops on the way so it took more like 7 hours. About half-way there, Abi started running a fever and puked all over the place. She felt better afterward, but as time went on, her fever got worse and she started acting like she didn't feel good again. So, now I had a sick baby and a swollen husband in pain. Double great.

Sick Abi.

We got to the hotel and began to settle in. We got the cars all unpacked and started thinking of someplace to go for dinner, since we were all pretty hungry... except me. I was feeling kind of dizzy and a little chilled. I could feel a fever coming on. I didn't sleep at all that night and neither did Kevin because he was in pain again. Could things get any worse? Maybe. The next day Kevin's car got a flat tire, but that wasn't too bad. We were already at the hotel and he has a full-sized spare for his car.

Sick Mommy.

Now despite everything bad that did happen, we had a blast. We spent all of that Thursday and Friday driving around Yellowstone snapping pictures and taking in the sights. It's a very beautiful place. One of the best things (for me, at least) is all the animals that you get to see up close there.

Bison are everywhere on the roads holding up traffic. A lot of times they just stand there and you just have to wait for them to move.

There were also lots of babies when we went.

This elk was jogging up the road and as soon as he passed our car, he ran right in front of Jon's (my bro-in-law).

Bighorn sheep (female)

Raven (was as big as a cat)

We actually did see bears, which was cool because I've never seen one in the wild before. This one was kind of far away, but I'm pretty sure it's a grizzly.

We saw Old Faithful (of course) and some of the other more famous sights there, but most of it is just driving around. On the way home, we drove down through the Grand Tetons and Jackson Hole, which, we decided, we would have to come back to one day on a separate vacation. We got home late Friday night, well, more like really early Saturday morning. Gigi really enjoyed the trip, but said next time he would fly up.

Our family in front of Old Faithful

Abi with Gigi at Old Faithful lodge

Abi always feels good enough for soda pop

Mammoth hot springs

Abi was feeling better this day.

Like I said, we had a really great time and we would like to go back one day when our family gets a little older.

May Already

I can't believe that May is here again, not that the weather isn't Spring-like or anything like that. I guess I have just lost track of where the year has gone. Things are rolling along here smoothly. We are all trying to keep busy, which can be all too easy. We are still working on finishing the basement at our house (well, Kevin's parents' house) and we are currently at the painting/flooring stage. This means that we are nearing completion. Now that's exciting news! We don't really have a time line of when things will be done, but I am hoping we will be completely finished in the next month or two.

Abi just had her 12 month doctor visit where we learned that she's right where she needs to be and that she's healthy (also great news). The doctor said she could eat pretty much everything that we do and that we don't have to buy any more formula or baby food. Yay! She hates baby food anyway, so the transition won't be very drastic. Abi has also started to walk on her own. She'll only take a few steps, but it counts and every day she gets better at it.

Kevin is wrapping up his year with the charter school and it will be his last. He decided to go back to school, so he can pursue a different career path. He will really miss all of the students he has got to know over the past couple of years there.

As for me, I'm still teaching water aerobic classes once a week and being a mom the rest of the time. I am still working on my weight loss goal and the numbers I see when I step on the scale don't seem to reflect how I am feeling. I feel stronger and more energetic and a pair of pants I had to really struggle to get into (c'mon girls, you know what I'm talking about) went on, freshly washed, with minimal effort. And yet, the numbers don't change, or don't change that much. Currently, I am 2 pounds lighter than I was that week, but I've bounced back in the past, so we'll see where it goes. The important thing is that I feel good, right?

We are all excited for summer.

Abi got a bike trailer that goes on the back of Kevin's bike for her birthday and she likes to ride around in it so we can't wait for warmer weather to go on more bike rides.

She is also big enough to appreciate things like the zoo, so we are planning to do that. Also, she loves to swim. Her favorite place to be is in the bathtub splashing around and playing with toys. Sometimes when she's cranky (because she's bored and getting into stuff she shouldn't i.e. the dog bowl, the toilet, etc.) I just put her in the bathtub and let her swim. We have this super-cute video of her in the tub splashing so much it got the the whole bathroom wet, but decided not to post it due to it's high level of baby nudity, but we've also got some pictures that are probably pretty safe.

This one is my favorite