More Ethan Adventures

Well, we've got some more pictures and videos that fit best under the title of Ethan Adventures--they didn't really happen at the same time or place, but they are pretty much all Ethan-based. These pictures are first chronologically, a few weeks ago in Utah, in the Bean Museum:

Ethan wasn't too intimidated by this scary looking lion.

This Kodiak bear is from Alaska somewhere. Check out Ethan's bear pose.

 

Ethan fell asleep on me, and I was so tired that I fell asleep too. Notice his little foot sticking out. Sorry it's so dark.

Ok, I boiled down some of the more recent adventures into a montage video thing. For those who have asked, I use a video editing program called iMovie that came on my MacBook laptop--I am very pleased with my laptop and all the nifty programs that came on it.

Some explanations for the video: the jumpy short second one is highlighting Ethan's toy wheel in his mouth--alike so-- 

it makes him look like a boxer with a mouthpiece in.

Also, Ethan got his hands on a duck caller (or was it a coyote caller?) and learned how to make a lot of noise. In Jackson, Ethan is having fun playing with his new friend Ashlyn. She's the red head who competes with Ethan for toys and attention--thank goodness! She's the closest thing he's going to get to an older sibling, and as you can see from the video, she doesn't always let Ethan have his grabby way. Some of the most recent videos are here in Rexburg, but we'll wait to tell you about this trip until the next blog entry (which should be tomorrow).

This post was brought to you by Richard

Adventures in Utah

So we're still here in Utah, dreading the thought of not having any internet access for the summer. Actually, I just remembered--The library in Jackson has free wireless, so we would just go there . . . but still! Anyway, we're still making the most of the internet while we're here. Instead of describing the fun we've been having, I'll just let these fun videos speak for us. Because if you're like me you go straight to the movies anyway. Enjoy!

Adventures in Utah--Abbreviated Montage(I have a bigger one!):

Ethan's Aversion to Plants and Animals:

This post was brought to you by Richard

Movin' on

Sorry it's been a while since we last added to our blog.  Life has been crazy!  The end of the semester came and went and surprisingly we survived!  Besides Richard having more credits than usual (16) and most of those English classes with big papers and portfolios, we had to move out of our apartment by midnight on Friday, the day after school ended.  By the way, in case you didn't know, Richard did not graduate this semester after all. We found a few more credits he still has to take, so we are planning to go back to school next fall.  It's actually probably for the best.  Still, he wasn't really able to help me until Thursday after school, and moving in one day, or even two, is not possible.  Luckily they were able to give us an extension until Saturday at 4 (so generous of them) and we still didn't make it.  The difficulty was that we were moving into a fully furnished apartment, and thus we had to decide what would go with us and what would go into storage.  Also we had to do most everything with just a little Nissan Sentra.  We were extremely grateful for all the help we received from Richard's family. Ian and Richard were able to move all our furniture over to the storage unit using their dad's truck, while Sarah, Betty,  and Richard's parents took turns babysitting Ethan.  Poor little Ethan had the croup the whole time, no less.  On Friday, Richard and Shauna each took a load of stuff over to Jackson, and still there was more stuff left than we could fit into one car load with Ethan and I in there, so we had to leave a bunch of stuff at the Samuelson's  residence to get later.  What a headache. Saturday was a race against the clock.  We finished moving everything out and worked on cleaning the place.  I had no idea how long it was going to take.  Thankfully, my friend Jana came over and offered to help us clean.  She was a godsend.  We couldn't have done it without her, and I don't know how to thank her enough for her kind service.  

After a quick dinner from Richard's mom, we were on our way.   Poor little Ethan had a hard time up and over the pass with the pressure in his ears.  I felt so bad, and there was nothing I could do.  It was a nightmare.  We arrived in Jackson just as it was getting dark and worked on emptying the car.   We just piled stuff everywhere and crashed.

So, if you didn't know the situation, we are living in a two bedroom condo in Jackson Hole, WY.  It is normally a very expensive place to live, the condo goes for $1,800 a month normally.  The catch is that we are sharing it with another couple, Ron and Julie Anderson and their little girl Ashlyn, who is a few months older than Ethan.  TCWP is committed to providing housing for their workers, but since Richard and Ron also have families they are just subsidizing the rent for us.  TCWP pays $900 and we each pay $450 a month.  Not bad eh?  Ron and Julie are really nice, easy-going people who actually used to be in Scott's BYU-I married student ward when he was bishop.   I think it will be interesting, but fun as well.  It'll be nice to have company when the guys are away at work.

It took us two days to move in, and then we were off to Utah for a little break from the frozen North and to visit my family before Richard starts work.  Luckily Ethan was feeling a little better, and the trip went relatively well.  Of course, it snowed on us the whole way down.  In fact, I think we brought it with us.  There were a few times we outran the storm, but then we'd stop for food or gas and it would catch up with us.  We made it to Utah, which had just enjoyed 70 degree weather on Sunday, and as soon as we got here it was in the 30s again and snowing.  We just can't escape it.  On the brighter side, today is looking better and tomorrow should be warmer. 

The sad news is that we may not have internet in Jackson.  We're trying to make the most of having access here.  Richard was able to check his grades here, and we are pleased to announce another successful semester.  He got a 3.944 for this semester. All A's with just one A-. I'm so proud of him!  He worked so hard this semester I let him buy a laptop.  He's made good use of it in school, and he's also had a lot of fun with it including playing with video editing stuff.  He put together this record of our weekend, as well as a video montage of Ethan's first 9 months.  You may recognize a lot of the video clips since I already put a lot of them on here, but oh well.  Here they are.

Moving and traveling:

Ethan montage:

Tag Richard

So I finally have more free time because school is over and I don't start work for another few days, so I figured I might as well answer these tag questions (I don't think I'm going to tag anyone in return though--I'm a rebel!). I'm also doing it now because I suspect that Laura will be doing some blog posts soon and I don't want to be on the very top for long. HaHa HA!

WHERE I WAS TEN YEARS AGO: Uh oh. I reveal my youth . . . maybe I should have waited a year to fill this out so I could say I was a Freshman in high school like Laura (but I was in junior high). Let's see. I was in orchestra, I was taking Latin from Brother Merrill, and I was probably playing more video games than is healthy.

THINGS ON MY TO DO LIST TODAY: In my English 495 class (from Brother Ward) we were assigned to read Crime and Punishment, but I didn't quite finish it because I was so busy. So I think I'll do that today. That's about it--we've moved into our apartment in Jackson and we're currently visiting Laura's family in Utah, so there's not a lot that I need to do.

THINGS TO DO IF I WERE A BILLIONAIRE: Firstly, consult Laura's list of things she'd do, and that's exactly what I would do too. But more specifically, I think I'd go on a learning spree, with themed years: the first year we'd move to certain countries around the world, staying long enough to learn the language pretty well, learn the history of that part of the world, and see the sights. Nothing fancy, just living with cool people from the country (a country in Central America first, then Italy maybe, then Sweden, Norway, and Poland, etc.). The next year I'd hire experts to come teach me their trade in our house in our wildlife reserve (a master tennis player, carpenter, oil painter, blacksmith, etc.). I don't know after that. I probably would go back to school and do what I'm already planning on doing. Maybe I just have a lack of imagination.

3 BAD HABITS: 

1) I have trouble being consistently clean. I go in cycles of cleanliness--pretty clean, then super dirty. 

2) I don't keep in contact with friends very well--it's nothing intentional, I just am really bad at making time to talk to my friends from high school. 

3) I am in a habit of eating something sugary after nearly every meal. At least dinner, and lunch most of the time.

5 PLACES I'VE LIVED: 

Rexburg Idaho

Orem Utah (for a week or two to help my Grandma and earn money so that I could go on the Mormon American Travel Studies tour with my dad--1999?) 

Sweden (Malmo, Kunsbacka, Stenungsund, Nynashamn, and Linkoping)

Jackson Wyoming 

and . . . that's all. 

5 JOBS I'VE HAD: 

Construction: 

Road Repair

Driving a Steam Roller

Building a Potato Cellar

Spraying noxious weeds in Jackson,WY for 3 summers

Reading Center for 7 semesters

SOMETHING PEOPLE DON'T KNOW ABOUT ME: 

I enjoy online geography quizzes. I am especially proud of my Africa quiz progress. I got above 95% in the "cartographer" difficulty on this web site: http://sheppardsoftware.com/African_Geography.htm. 

Okay, that should do it. 

Ethan Walks!

So, this just kind of came as a surprise to us both.  Last night we tried having him walk between us just for fun, but he wasn't willing to let go of either of us. Tonight though, he just decided to start standing on his own while I played with him on the bed, so we tried practicing walking between us, and all of a sudden, he let go and took a few steps!  We ran and got the camera and captured some of his first and finest moments of walking.

In case you were wondering, Ethan is 9 months and 6 days old.