FINLEY & BRAD

UP CLOSE & PERSONAL WITH THE NAPERVILLE PD

(FYI - this is a long but pretty entertaining story.)
So we recently drove to Naperville for a nice and relaxing family visit. We left Alton a little later than normal and rolled in to town at about 12:45 am. I was sleeping in the backseat at the time (to be available to entertain the wee one as needed) and I'm woken up by flashing lights as Brad is in the process of being pulled over. Now let me just state that Brad is the most conscientious driver in the known universe. He puts driving instructors to shame. Somehow grandmas pass him on a regular basis and give him the finger for driving the speed limit. So needless to say it seemed impossible that he had done something illegal while driving. I wasn't nervous about him being pulled over, and I figured it had to be some warning about a random stupid law because the cop was bored. YOU HAVE NO IDEA. Anyway. So the cop gets out and struts to our car with major tude and asks to see Brad's license and insurance. He gave him the license but we were having a hard time locating our insurance cards. While we were frantically looking the cop starts asking where we are from and why we have a Utah drivers license. Brad explains he's a student and just hasn't had time to get it changed to Illinois. The cop tells us he pulled us over because there was no registered drivers license associated with our car. He told us to keep looking for our insurance cards and he goes back to his car.

So we wait for a good 10 or 15 minutes - which is a long time when you are being pulled over. And we are thinking "oh he's going to give us a warning for not having changed our drivers licenses to Illinois." No biggie - at this point we are totally relaxed and just waiting for him to get on with it so we can get to Brad's parents house and go to bed. Then all of a sudden we see another cop car pull up and a lady police officer gets out and says Brad's name from across the parking lot. Turns out Brad knows this girl from middle school and high school. They catch up for a few minutes and then she lets us know that our licenses are considered suspended because the law in Illinois is that you apparently have 90 days to get is switched. Honestly we had no idea. In fact I'll admit that I got a speeding ticket a full year after we moved to Illinois and the police officer knowing I'd moved a year ago mentioned that I should get it switched "at some point" which I took as a friendly suggestion - not A LAW. Anyway. So this lovely female officer that just happened to be a) on duty, b) not busy with anything else, c) listening to radio chatter of the other officers, d) remembered Brad, and e) compassionate enough --- well she totally came to our rescue. Because if she hadn't that officer was in the process of arresting Brad. Yes. This police officer was going to arrest Brad and leave his wife and 3 month old baby in an empty parking lot at 1 AM for not switching his Utah drivers license to Illinois. CLASSY. I know Illinois is broke and needs our $30 but come on. Plus how bored was that cop that he was just sitting there typing in every license plate that came within his view? Now I'm all for obeying the law, but in this situation no one was truly in any danger and we were completely ignorant to the fact that we were even breaking a law to begin with.

In the end he begrudgingly let us go with a warning for having an obstructed windshield (another law we were unaware of - you can't have a GPS or any sort of oil change sticker in the front windshield). But if Brad had been a jerk in high school to our female friend on the force this would have been an entirely different story with a few more capitalizations. As we drove off I was legitimately shaking with anxiety. We were sitting there thinking we were about to get a warning when Brad was actually about to be arrested! Is there a cooler way to say I almost peed my pants? I don't know what would have happened if he'd ACTUALLY been arrested.

Brad's parents just happen to have the original copy of his birth certificate so we went the next morning and he got his drivers license switched to Illinois. It was SUPER fun. Finley spit up 3 gallons of her breakfast and I had one wipe on hand to "clean" her up. The bathroom was tiny with no changing station (THAT should be against the law) and it was the one time I didn't have a change of clothes for her. So Brad's mom and I wiped her down as best we could and she hung out in her diaper nakey as a jay bird in the Naperville DMV for a good 30 minutes. Ah memories.

So thanks goes to the Naperville Police department - you gave us a great story to tell on our blog because really you can't make this stuff up.


(The pictures of Finley are just for funsies. Turns out police frown on picture taking during an almost arrest.)

FUN WITH UNCLE KEN

This is what happens when you leave your 3 month old unattended with Brad's brother Ken.

Finley is all prepared for the frozen tundra of Russia although she seems quite surprised as to why she would be going there at all - "Whaaa??"


She was also quite miffed when we suggested she dress as Pam Anderson for Halloween... I take this look to mean "veto."


And she was also genuinely sad when we explained that when her hair grows in (we're crossing our fingers that at some point IT WILL) she will most likely be a brunette - "Okay. Fine."


And her eyes started to glaze over when I explained that Mom went to high school in Texas but isn't actually from there... see Grandpa was in the military so she's not actually from ANYWHERE. "Whatever you say mom. I'm sleepy."

HELP NEEDED

Does anyone have any delicious dinner recipes that they have doubled (or tripled) and then divided up to freeze for later use? Unlike some I don't loooove cooking but like most I do love food. So far I've had success with freezing batches of enchiladas, chili, and stuffed pasta shells. I love having the option of home cooked meals ready to go but I'm short on delicious ideas. I know there are countless resources out there but I hate to make a triple batch of something that isn't great tasting.

Any help?

LEGEN - WAIT FOR IT - DARY

Do you guys watch How I Met Your Mother? It's slightly irreverent, a la Friends, but Brad and I love it. Great characters and even greater one liners. It's one of those shows that is slightly under the radar but they seem to enjoy that in a humble "we do our own thing" kind of a way. Plus a lot of the female wardrobe comes from Anthro so it's always nice to see what's in style since I feel perpetually out of the loop in that department.

Come to think of it - I think I've already blogged about how much I like this show. Oh well - there's only so much to talk about.

Anyway, what brought this on is this hilarious quote from one of the main characters Barney. Please enjoy his words of wisdom:


PS. Does anyone watch Castle? Brad and I watched the first two season a few weeks ago and we are totally sold. I thought I disliked the female lead on that show but it turns out I don't.

UTAH WEEK TWO

Our second week in Utah (third week of vacation) we spent staying at my mom's house in Lehi, which was a great location because we were still close to Brad's two brothers. We spent the majority of the time running around Utah valley trying to fit in all the people we wanted to see and the places we wanted to eat. Of course a few trips to Cafe Rio were in order but we also hit up Burger Supreme and J Dawg's.

We took Finley to her first movie: Eclipse. She did really well and slept the entire time. Of course she squawked a few times so we ended up sitting with her near the exit in case one of us needed to make a quick getaway. We are those overly sensitive parents who don't want to be the reason other people hate going to the movie theater. Finley also got to wear her "Team Jacob" onesie. She hasn't read the 4th book so she doesn't know that being on a team is pointless, but I didn't want to destroy her dreams. Plus Jacob is slightly more age appropriate than Edward.

My friend Kristin went out of town almost the same time we got back from East Canyon (and I totally missed seeing her sister Jenny!) so we only got to spend one evening with her. LAME! But it was good to see her and her husband Adam (he's also my friend... I just read that back and it sounded weird not mentioning that) for a few hours. They got to meet Finley and we chatted about life. Wherein we all realized that we are actual adults now because at one point we started talking about how to save money on your electric bill. So strange.


We took Finley to walk around BYU campus and Brad walked through his old stomping grounds at the CB. We also strolled through the bookstore and a word to the wise - don't buy your baby BYU gear there, it's highway robbery! We ended up getting something at Target for half the price - even if it was slightly less cute.


We also showed off Finley at my mom's office. I had never been so it was nice to see where my mom spends most of her life.


One day we went up to Salt Lake to have lunch at Stoneground. We had the best bruschetta I've ever tasted in my life and their pizza was extremely tasty too. The atmosphere was a little too hipster to bring a baby... but we were there during the day so I don't think it mattered as much. Even so I would recommend it to anyone - delicious.


And as I said before we were close enough to spend some more time with Chris and Angie while we were in Utah. We went to Miss Averman's 1st birthday party and Finley met her first dog, Maggie. And I hate to admit it but we had a Bachelorette viewing party complete with Cafe Rio takeout and ice cream. Good times.


(Check out Finley's unfortunate hairline! Short of buzzing it all off there's isn't much we can do.)

We also met up with some of our Timp Gateway buddies - Matt and Ellie. We were all in the same ward when Brad and I met. They knew us before Brad and I even started dating... and now here we are married with a baby. Things can change drastically in five years!

And that ends our extremely long roundup of our trip across the country. Finley was a trooper and did really well on the 21 hour drives. I don't know if we'll be able to drive next summer when she is 1+ since she is getting crankier even now about her carseat. Anyway, we had a fun time seeing everyone and everything. And it reinforced our desire to make our way out west after dental school is over.

GOODNESS GRACIOUS

Finley has hijacked this blog. Apologies. Seriously though... look at those cheekies! I just can't say no to her pleading that I post more and more pictures of her. The nagging wears me out and I have no choice. Man! She's so vain.

She is officially three months old now. And even though I constantly get comments that she looks so tiny for her age, she is actually at the 50th percentile for weight and the 75th percentile for length. I guess it's as one woman put it - she has tiny features. Um, yeah. She's a baby, of course she has tiny features. This is the look both Finley and I gave her when she said that.

She can now hold her head up like a champ although she still manages to headbutt me at least once a day.

And as she's getting a little bigger her triple chin is starting to go away - so sad! We are down to just the double.


I don't know how aware she is of her hands, but when they manage to connect with her mouth she usually prefers sucking on them to her pacifier. Not our favorite.

And I saved the best update for last, she slept 8 hours last night for the first time - beating her old record by an hour. Of course once we got to hour 6 I was up checking on her every 15 minutes to make sure she was still breathing. So that elusive full night of sleep is still out there.

UTAH WEEK ONE

Our first week in Utah was spent up at the East Canyon Resort with my sisters Shelley and Alex, my brother Michael and his oldest son Iain, my Aunt Pete, and my mom. We ate some great food, went swimming, and enjoyed the dry mountain air. Have I mentioned before on this blog that I hate humidity? There were also a few rather intense nights of game playing. We might have had to retire Qwirkle after the first day because we were all a little competitive (although when we played the following week I won 3 times in a row - booyah!). I even convinced Brad to somewhat enjoy playing one of my family's favorites, mahjong.

You can tell that we got kind of lax on taking pictures because as the trip progressed I took less and less. But we did get some good ones of everyone loving the Finners. She must have been very relaxed on this vacation because she was sleeping in almost every picture.

Finley never actually got in the pool at East Canyon but she did enjoyed some bathing suit naptime everyday while I read. She also got to wear her new sun hat that Brad brought back from Spain.

My nephew Iain loves to get thrown around in the pool. I'm pretty sure Brad and Michael spent the majority of the time getting him airborn. We just had to keep tightening his trunks to avoid any indecent exposure.

Here's my brother holding Finley dreading the days when he'll have to start the newborn process all over again with his own next baby. I don't blame him, I think having two energetic sons would be a handful.

One of the days we took a shopping trip to Park City and ate some lunch. I think my family has been going to Park City on a regular basis for the last 20 years so Finley needed to be initiated properly. With all the pictures of her asleep it seems she was really impressed.

At lunch Brad had some issues and decided to embarass himself. Actually I think the water pitcher was nocked over and he was the lucky recipient of most of the runoff. Finley's carseat was a nice disguise as we left, othewise Brad might still be at that restaurant. Sidenote - they had beer with Mormon themed names, they were trying to be clever but the whole idea was kind of unfunny to me.

We tried to introduce Finley to our love for hiking and camping. But since I'm hyper sensitive as a new mom I was worried about her getting sunburned, so our hike only lasted about 15 minutes. As you can tell from this picture I might have gone overboard on covering her up. But her face is classic. When she's in deep sleep like this her mouth hangs open like a baby bird, it's hilarious.

We all live in different states across the country so it's hard for us to get together in the same place at the same time but I'm glad we did. We had a great time and hopefully we can make it a regular thing.

CARN FAMILY REUNION 2010

Here is the first of three posts from our vacation... first stop the Carn Family Reunion 2010. Before heading out to Starved Rock, IL all 35 us (!!!) convened at the Carn house in Naperville. Not all of us stayed at the Carn's house those first few nights but pretty close - it was a tight fit. Brad and I were the last to arrive just in time to bless Finley and her cousin Logan. It was a special moment to have so much family around and to see Brad bless our first child. Kind of unreal and I'm grateful I had a room full of people to take copious notes - I wouldn't have remembered anything!

The next morning we drove caravan style to Starved Rock, Illinois with LOTS of people and even more food. We stayed in two 18 person condo/cabins that worked out great. We had plenty of room for cooking and playing cards and eating.

One day we had a bottle rocket competition. I'm no sure who won... but everyone had a great time designing and setting them off. Luckily no one or thing got injured in the process because those babies could really fly.

Finley, the youngest current grandchild, shares her birthday with Carson, the oldest grandchild.

Brad and I met just a few weeks after Scott was born. In fact within the first few months of us dating we started babysitting him and his big sister Lauren. We used to call Scott the little burrito - which carried over into Finley's prenatal nickname. It blows my mind to see him so grown up, I can't believe Brad and I have known each other that long!

Here is Finley and her cousin Logan. They are almost exactly two months apart, I can't wait until they are older and can start playing together.

Here is Avery (or as I like to call her Miss Averman) - she just turned one and we got to see her start walking on our trip to Utah.


One of the great things about Starved Rock is the indoor water park. We had unlimited access which we all thoroughly took advantage of. Up to that point Finley had a bad relationship with water - baths were not a fun time - but I always want her to be comfortable around water so she had her first "swim". Which means I held her in the water while she cried for a few minutes but as soon as she could cuddle up to one of us she went right to sleep. It made the lazy river very enjoyable.



We also played a few games: Family Feud, a Talent Show, and Bingo and they all turned out really fun. There were defiantly some classic moments... let me just say that our eight year old nephew Spencer singing and dancing to Eye Of The Tiger was AMAZING. Whenever Brad and I need a chuckle we just watch his dance intro - that is SO being played at his wedding reception.

And here are the masters of the show: Ross and Diane. Thanks again! We were so happy everyone got to meet Finley and we had a great time. We can't wait for the Carn Reunion 2011 - watch out Alpine Utah there's a boat load of Carn's heading your way!