This entry will serve as the monthly family letter as well, so if there are repeats, get over it.
As the second to last day of February came to an end I was preparing the house and the family for Sunday. A call from Mom alerted me to the news that Julie’s water had broken at Fazoli’s in Logan and birth was imminent. As we started to make plans for a hasty departure, we learned that Utah was getting dumped on and driving through the night would be unwise. We were able to make arrangements with the Andersons in Vegas to go as far and spend the remainder of the night there. So within a few hours that is where we were headed. I was so tired when we pulled in at 2:30, but SerraV having spent a few hours snoozing on the way had other ideas. She was very interested in the frolicking cats and wanted to play. At around 4am I gave up trying to contain her and I think eventually she fell asleep.
We had been planning this trip for months and knew that if Julie called at night, chances were we would miss being there immediately after the birth, which we did. We got the call as we cruised I-15. Olivia was born a little after 10am on Leap Day and we made it there around 5pm. It was quite obvious that Utah had recieved some weather and we missed it barely. There were several feet still on the ground in Logan.
The next 2 weeks we spent in Logan, mostly. Mom stayed with Julie the first week and then headed to Provo to be with Grandpa. Not wanting to change everything for SerraV again, we stayed in Logan with SerraA. She was on spring break and busy with homework, and Doug was in Cancun. We had a great time hanging out and being in Logan for that time. The first week was quite chilly, but the second week boasted temps in the 50′s which all but melted all the piles of snow within days. It was Serra’s first experience with snow “a-no” and she was not overly impressed.
SerraV finally got the concept that there was someone else with the same name. Anytime SerraA went somewhere she would say “ah wehwah” which translates to “where’s Serra.” Being in a new place with a different routine was a little upsetting to her and she missed her Daddy terribly. She substituted grandma and SerraA and was very possessive of them and didn’t like to be without them. There was even a little bit of jealousy when Grandma especially had the baby. We were able to talk to Brian at least once a day most days and I think he was quite lonely.
SerraV was in baby heaven though and when we would turn onto the Kirby’s street, she would exclaim. “BABEE!” We spent a few hours everyday baby gazing. She was constantly bringing blankets and making sure the pacifier was in just right. Julie and Jared were very patient with her. It is amazing the changes a baby goes through the first few weeks of life. She went back and forth on who she looked like. We are anxious to see what she looks like in July, when we plan on being up again.
Some of the things we did included:
-Doug’s freestyle pinewood derby race before he left for Mexico. He attached CO2 cartridges onto the back. His didn’t win and actually didn’t perform as well as he would have liked or as some of the others. The car with the rocket attached made it down the track in 1 second. I don’t think they learned those tricks in cub scouts.
-Several dinners out with SerraA. We had all sorts of coupons and gift certificates and we made good use of them. One included the 1st prize certificate to Wingers from the photo contest in which SerraA entered one of my pictures of SerraV.
– A day in Bearlake with Grandma Arnell. She fed us, of course, and we just enjoyed the day catching up and looking at photo albums. We were able to determine that I got my eyes from Grandma’s mother, and I passed them along to SerraV.
-A picnic with Auntie’s Julie and Serra, and Olivia at first dam. It was pretty nice outside and although the ducks were over fed and the geese were dangerous, it was nice to be out side.
– A walk through Willow Park zoo there were dozens of turtles sunning themselves and lot’s of birds, both beautiful and ugly, the healthiest coyotes I have ever seen, turkeys, bobcats, and more birds. No monkeys this time.
-Jessica Browers baptism in Highland. We had an enjoyable afternoon with many of the brower contingency. Cousin Morgan with her little backpack gave me the idea to make SerraV start packing her own stuff. As of her 2 year birthday coming up, that will be a reality.
-Kevin Menzie’s missionary report. He did very well. We spent the afternoon at Shayla’s and had some nice chats with the family that was able to attend. It was nice to see everyone.
-Mom stayed with Grandpa and SerraV and I went to Brian’s grandparents for the night before leaving Utah. They had invited Amy Jo (Brian’s sister) and Brennen (cousin) over for dinner. They are always so accommodating to us and we had a very nice time with them. We spent the evening telling stories about Brian. He had no way of refuting some of the tales that way.
-On our way back home we spent the night in Vegas with the Andersons. SerraV got to see her cousins, and Aunts and Uncle, Grandparents, and a few wienie dogs. She loved Aunt Adrianes shoes and clomped around in them for quite a while.
We were gone for 2 1/2 weeks and missed Brian so badly in hurt. It was good to get home.
Brian has been super busy with two classes this semester and is starting to feel burn out. We weren’t able to do anything on our 6th anniversary because he had class that night, so this past weekend he declared he wasn’t going to study or do anything school related. We could have him all to ourselves What a treat! We went to the Ventura Mission on Saturday and learned a little about it’s history. They use it as a Catholic church and school today and it was very interesting. SerraV was only interested in the water fountain outside. We spent the afternoon doing a little “Yard” work. For those of you that have seen our yard there is certainly not much to do, but we managed a few pots of flowers and veggies. The tomatoes and peppers look great. Brian also fixed a few things that needed attention around the house. Always nice to get those things done. I was able to do the digital scrapbooking for the the pictures from December through now, which ended up being 21 pages. It is amazing how quickly I can get it done on the computer with a digital camera and some snazzy software, and someone else to keep SV occupied and out of the way for a few hours. We went to a restraunt in Camarillo for dinner. Chinese was on the menu and we enjoyed ourselves very much.
This next month brings an end to Brian’s spring semester, SerraV’s 2nd birthday, Olivia and Kathryn Diane’s baby blessings on Easter, and SPRING. We are looking forward to it all and reports of the things we will miss.
I thought you all might like to see how some of the pages turned out. This way you can see some of the pictures too.
