Newport on the Levee

Saturday we took a day trip to Cincinnati, Ohio. Well actually we crossed the river into Kentucky and spent the day at a place called Newport on the Levee. It's an outdoor shopping mall that is located right on the river. It also has an aquarium which is where we spent most of the day. The shark tank was the highlight of the aquarium. It was neat to walk through a glass tunnel and see all types of sharks swimming around you. They also had a cool hands on pool where you could touch some of the sharks. Gabe loved watching all the fish!
Cincinnati was interesting. . . It's an old city and you can tell by the roads and architecture that it's pretty dated. If anyone wants to go to a Cincinnati Reds game when you come to visit we'd be up for it. We passed the stadium and it's pretty cool as it looks out over the river. I think it would be fun to go watch a game.

Life in Ohio

It's been a while since I've posted anything on here. I've got to get back in the grove of keeping this site updated. We've been in Dayton just over 3 weeks now and really are enjoying it. I just thought I would share a little bit about what life is like for us here.
HOME: We moved into a 3 bedroom, 2 1/2 bath townhouse. It has a garage and a small yard, both of which are firsts for us. The walls are cream, the carpet is a little darker cream and my tile is cream. But the big excitement comes in the bathrooms...they really got crazy there and put in white tile! Yes, it's military housing so everything is pretty blah. However, we love the space - it's bigger than anywhere we have lived so far. We hung pictures on the walls this past week and that has made it feel more like home. I also got my "graduation" gift (you know for putting John through school). New living room furniture! Our yard was a mess when we got here. So we've spent several hours outside trying to get it looking nice. It's already come a long way. Our grass is infested with weeds and is really splotchy. There are just chunks of grass growing amongst all the weeds. It's ugly. So we've put down a bunch of grass seed to help fill in the holes and it's helping. Once the new grass matures a little will hit the entire yard hard with Weed & Feed and hopefully that will get it looking nice. I think you should be able to walk on grass without your shoes on, and this is definately not barefoot grasss yet, but hopefully we're getting there. Oh, we also water our grass! What a concept. People out here don't water there grass and water is free! I know we get more rain than most of the country, but still watering has done wonders for greening up the grass. We found that really interesting... There is also quite a bit of wildlife in our yard. We love watching fire flys in the evenings, as well as the bats that come out of the trees. During the day we often see cardinals in our yard, as well as a few other really neat birds, but I don't know what they are. We also have a rock chuck that lives in the backyard and we occasionally have jack rabbits too.

CHURCH: Funny story about church... We logged onto LDS.org to find out where we met for church. The site listed a whole bunch of wards, and by looking at the map it looked like we would attend a branch in downtown Dayton since it was the closest one to our house. So John went to the branch the first Sunday we were here (yes, I was home in bed) anyway, he went downtown, hard a very hard time finding the building since it wasn't a regular LDS building...just a door on the street. He finally finds the door and it's locked! He could see people inside, but he couldn't get in. So he knocks on the door and someone lets him in and he asks why the door is locked? Oh, you know...it keeps people from coming in off the streets and stealing things... Right. Did I mention that downtown Dayton is scary? Ya, pretty much it's not a place you feel real warm and fuzzy inside when you are driving around. This branch downtown has hired a security guard to stand in the parking lot to watch over peoples cars while they are in church. Crazy, huh. Anyway, we come to find out that we don't go to the branch! Thank goodness!!! What a relief. We drive about 20 minutes out to a rather large ward in a town called Beaver Creek. It's a beautiful area, nice houses, nice people, warm fuzzies... Our ward has been so friendly and welcoming! We've had dinner with a couple of the families that live just around the corner from us, and there are two other families who we knew from Logan since they were in the ROTC with John.

WORK: John is working in the Propulsion directorate of the AFRL (Air Force Research Labratory). He will be working with scram jets once he actually starts working. Right now he is still doing in-processing and has a lot of training ahead of him. We just found out that six weeks of his training will be in Montgomery, Alabama from Novemeber 1 - December 14. He will be gone for Gabe's 1st birthday, Thanksgiving and his own birthday. I am thinking about going with him since he'll miss so much while he's gone, but I'm dreading spending six weeks cooped up in a hotel room. Anyway, work for me consists of taking care of Gabe and continuing the ongoing project of making our new house feel like home. I've also started going to a "Mommy Bootcamp" class at the gym on base. It's great being able to workout and have Gabe with me. I thought it would be kind of a push over class, but the guy teaching it is tough on us! It's been good for me to get up and go in the mornings!
Okay, this is long, so I'll wrap it up now. Love ya'll and we'll do better at keeping everyone up to date on what's going on.

We're Here!

Okay, so we are finally in Ohio. After day #1 of our trip we've had no internet access until now so we have felt very disconnected from the world. But, we're up and running now, so life is good. Here is a brief synopsis of the rest of our trip out here. After leaving Denver we travelled to Topeka and spent the night with our friends Steve and Jenn. The drive from Denver to Topeka was painful and dull! Thank goodness we had Harry Potter on CD to listen to! The only two things we saw along the road that day were a 30 foot tall replica of Vangough's Sunflowers and the Freak Farm. Yep, we visited a farm in Kansas that had a 5 and a 6 legged cow. (I'll put pictures on snapfish, you have to see it!) We finally got to Topeka and were really impressed by how pretty Topeka is. I've always pictured it as an ugly prarie city, but it was greeen and beautiful. The next day Steve and Jenn tagged along with us as we visited Kansas City, Independence, Liberty Jail, the RLDS temple, Adam-ondi-ahman, and Jamesport. After saying goodbye to them in Jamesport (an Amish community) we continued on up the road to Nauvoo. We arrived in Nauvoo after dark and were very impressed as we came around the corner to see the temple all lit up and beautiful. It's an impressive site! We spent two full days in Nauvoo and enjoyed our time there! It was definately the highlight of our trip. From Nauvoo we drove all the way into Dayton and arrived here early early Friday morning. We got a hotel room and a few hours of sleep before we met our movers at our house.
So far we have really enjoyed being here. We've had some interesting experiences already, but things are good! John has started work and has been busy doing all of the inprocessing and security measures the Air Force has for him to do. He's been assigned to an area in the AFRL (Air Force Research Labratory) however, I can never remember the name. He'll be working with engines that compress air to make them go really fast. (Speeds of Mach 3 and above). One of these days I'll remember the proper name for it. I'm doing great. I've just been working hard at home trying to get our house put together. Gabe is doing awesome as usual. He has mastered the art of crawling and is even faster and into more things than he was before. He has also started climbing up on things like his bed, our furniture, the toilet. Just this morning I walked into the bathroom to find him sucking on the toilet seat. YUCK!!! He also has one tooth now that is so cute. He is learning to feed himself little foods like cheerios and it is so fun to watch him try to use his fat little fingers to get the food into his mouth.

Traveling to Ohio - Day #1

We've finally said goodbye and are on the road! We left Orem this morning at 10AM and made it to Denver by 8PM. It was a long drive, but we enjoyed the beautiful drive through Glenwood Canyon. We stopped and had dinner in Vail and walked around the Village for a while. Gabe has been an angel in the car today and has made friends where ever we have stopped. He had the hard-core Harley Davidson bikers cooing at him at Wendy's, the chefs at a pizza bar ringing the "order up" bell to make him smile, and he even made a little friend in the pool at the hotel tonight.

Our trip to Sheridan

This past weekend we took a trip to Sheridan, Wyoming to visit my grandparents. My mom, dad and brother, Dave all came along too. Saturday, we took Gabe on his first fishing trip to my favorite place in the whole world, Piney Creek in the Big Horn Mountains. The water was high and the fishing okay. I hate to admit it, but I was outfished by both my dad and little brother. Gabe was a great sport and didn't complain all day, he must love fishing too!!! He really seems to love being outside. After fishing, we met my mom and grandparents for a picnic that evening at Story Fish Hatchery (my second favorite place in the whole world). We played games at the hotel that night and I destroyed my parents and brother at Samurai. I challenge anyone to take me down... I am the greatest! (Chuck, I'm talking to you.)

Sunday we went to church at a small branch in Ranchester. This was the smallest church building I have ever seen. Perhaps a glimpse of things to come for us. The chapel probably seated 60 people max. There were probably only 25 people in the congregation and our family was four of them! It strangely reminded me of my mission in Ukraine. After church we took a quick trip to the cemetery to visit the graves of my Grandpa Heaton, Grandma & Grandpa Bell, and my namesake John Edwin Bell. Later, Grandpa Roy took me back and showed me where Grandma Charolette's ashes were burried. We then went to lunch at Grandma Heaton's and fried the trout we caught on Saturday. It was fun to have all the grandparents join us again for lunch. Everyone was there, my Grandma Heaton, Grandma Blanche, Grandpa Roy and his son Mickey. We got some yardwork done for my Grandma Heaton and took a trip out to the Dry Farm to pickup a water tank.

Grandma Heaton came with us, it was a special trip since this is the first time she's been out there since my grandpa passed away last April. It was extremely green and I haven't seen the water that high in the resevoir since I was a little tike. There were antelope and deer everywhere, I sure love it out there! We went back to the hotel and went swimming that afternoon. It was Gabe's first time in the pool and he had a ball! We had dinner at Sanfords and Grandpa Roy joined us. It was pricey, tastey, and our waitress was horrible. We ended the day by playing games again. Yes, I killed everyone at Samurai again. I am the greatest!

Monday, we got up and went to breakfast at the traditional spot, Perkins. Grandma Heaton joined us and it was nice. Grandma Blanche didn't feel like getting dressed so she didn't come. We got checked out of the hotel, picked up my old highchair that I used to sit in at Grandma Blanche's house from Grandma Heaton's house, said our goodbye's and we were off! On the way home, we stopped at Independence Rock. We saw the names carved in the stone, a rattlesnake and I climbed to the top.

We also stopped at Martin's Cove. Went through the Visitor's Center, musuem, and took a small trek were me and Rach pulled mom and Gabe in a handcart. Couple more quick stops for diaper changes and food and we were home, late! It was an eventful, enjoyable, rockus time!

Memorial Day Weekend

What a busy weekend! The zoo, Pirates of the Caribbean, TGI Fridays, Iggy's, "Andra's" Bed & Breakfast, a birthday BBQ, family pictures, mini golfing, games, games and more games! We had a great weekend thanks to all of you who took time out of your busy lives to play with us. We love spending time with our families and sure made some great memories this weekend! Thanks!!! We sure love ya!

6 Months Old

Gabe turned 6 months old on the 19th of this month. I can't believe how the time has flown! We took him to the doctor today for his 6 month check up and immunizations. He weighed in at 16 lbs. (23rd percentile) and is 27 inches tall (75th percentile). Looks like we have a tall skinny kid on our hands. He is so full of energy and is interested in everything right now! He has perfected rolling over and rolls all over our apartment. He also scoots on his tummy and will be crawling any day now! He gets up on his hands and knees and rocks in place. It won't be long!
He continues to delight us with his shrieking and squealing and an occasional chuckle at some absurd thing we've done. John and I are constantly amazed at how much Gabe seems to learn and grow each day. We love playing with him, reading to him and showing him new things. I don't think we'll ever grow tired of watching him discover and explore the world around him. What a fascinating life this is!

We have a house!

Yeah! We have a house to move to in Dayton! We no longer have to worry about being homeless transients. We are going to be living in a 3 bedroom, 2 1/2 bath townhome. It's privatized military housing so it's not on base, but very close. We are waiting to get more information on it, but from what we've seen we're excited. You can look at a floorplan by going to this web address: http://www.wpafbhomes.com/floorplans.php. Our floorplan is letter "i" under "new construction." Having found a place to live has taken a huge weight off our shoulders, now we can just focus on actually getting moved out there.

Mother's Day

It's been great to have John finished with school and to actually be able to spend some time with him this past week. He went back to work landscaping this week, but we sure enjoyed our week off! We spent a lot of time flying the helicopter his parent's gave him for graduation and we also took a trip home for mother's day. We enjoyed spending Friday night with my sister and her family. They took us to a restaurant called Johnny Carino's that was very good. On Saturday, we went to see John's 5 year old niece, Annabelle, run her first race at the Gateway in Salt Lake. We had a Mother's Day lunch with his family at Cowboy Grub and spent a few minutes in the park flying his helicopter.
Saturday afternoon, we celebrated Mother's Day with Cheryl and Dad. We had a great BBQ in the backyard and just enjoyed each others company! Taylor brought Meg and she put up with our family once again. And of course John took a group to the high school to fly the helicopter...
Sunday we had a short visit to Nana's house and were happy to see the Bunker family for a few minutes too. Erika and Brett were happy to introduce Gabe to Cougar!
We then ran to Lewis and Amber's house in Provo to complete our Mother's Day celebrations with the Barton family! We had a great dinner there and again had a great time visiting with family!
We love ALL of our mom's and hope you all had a great Mother's Day!

John's Graduation & Commissioning

Yesterday John graduated from Utah State University with his degree in Mechanical Engineering and commissioned as a second lieutenant in the Air Force! We attended the College of Engineering graduation where he walked and received his diploma, followed by his commissioning. John's dad commissioned him, then Rose and I pinned on his new lieutenant bars. We wrapped up the day by having a big dinner at Cafe Sabor. It was an AWESOME day and we were thrilled to spend it with a lot of our family and friends! Thanks to all you who came to support us! Congratulations John! We are all so proud of you!!!

Gabe's not the baby anymore!

Lexi was born on Tuesday, May 1, 2007. 8 lbs. 7 oz. and 20" long. It was fun to go visit my new niece and Gabe's new cousin. It's hard to believe that he's not the "baby" anymore. It wasn't that long ago that he was a newborn, but after holding Lexi it made me realize how big my baby has gotten. It's amazing how fast they learn and grow! Congratulations Jenny, Philip and Big Sister Adyson!

Things are starting to move along. . .

Now that we have our orders we have applied for base housing and will be scheduling the movers the first part of next week. Things are starting to move right along and we'll try to keep you updated on what's happening. This week has been crazy for John trying to get final projects finished, presentations ready and finals studied for. Which means I haven't seen him at all. A week of no husband and 24/7 of a teething 5 month old means that I'm pretty ornery. One more week. . . That's what I have to keep telling myself. Just one more week. . .
Thursday, Gabe and I drove to Ogden one more time with Taylor for his last doctor appointment. The appointment was short and sweet and it made Tay's day when the doctor told him he could water ski and do whatever else he wanted this summer! Cheryl met us too and it was fun to have lunch all together at El Matador.
Friday night Gabe and I went with Grandma Nancy to a viewing for Colleen's sister. She passed away this week after a hard battle with cancer. It was nice to get out of the house and see my dear friends, but unfortunately the circumstances were hard on both of them. Gabe is lucky to have two Grandma's here in Logan who adore him so much!!!
As for Gabe, he is doing great as usual! He is now sleeping through the night without waking up at all! He rolls all over the place. Yesterday, he rolled over to our entertainment center and pulled John's Killer Bunny game off the shelf. He was happily chewing on the box when I found him. I guess it's time to start baby proofing our house. I had an embarassing "mom" moment this week. Well, not embarassing since I really didn't care much, but it made me laugh at how different my life is now that I'm a mom. I went to the grocery store this week and it wasn't until I was in the check out line that I looked at my outfit. Cute polo t-shirt, cute khacki shorts, and there they were on my feet. . . my green, fuzzy, and oh so comfortable slippers! Yep, I was styling! (This never would have happened before I had a baby. . .) Oh well, at least I got my grocery shopping done in comfort!
Graduation will be here before we know it. We are excited that so many of you are coming to celebrate with us! It will be great to see everyone! One more week. . . One more week. . . One more week. . .

We have orders!

John received his orders today! This means we can finally apply for housing, schedule movers, etc.

5 Months Old

Our baby turned 5 months old this week! It's amazing how fast he is growing up. He is such a joy in our live's. We love watching him learn and grow. He has brought so much love and fun into our home. He is such a happy little guy and we are so blessed to have him in our life! We couldn't ask for a better kid!
Dad, John and I were both very touched by your blog about Dining Out. We're glad you and Cheryl both had a good time! It was fun to have you guys see a little bit about what John's been doing in the ROTC. If you haven't read my Dad's blog check it out at www.jclyde.blogspot.com

April 17, 2006

So Gabe just doesn't like rice cereal. We started feeding him squash this week and he loved it. So maybe he just likes a little more flavor than just plain rice cereal. I mixed some cereal with his sweet potatoes this morning and that seemed to be okay. He is doing great rolling over and even is beginning to tolerate being on him tummy. Not too much longer and he is going to be crawling all over the place. We took him to the park this weekend and pushed him in the swings and he loved it! We could tell he thought he was such a big kid on the swings! He does the same thing when he is in his jumper. If you look at him his whole face lights up and it seems like he's saying, "Look at me! Look what I'm doing!"
My Dad, Cheryl, Jenny and Adyson all came to Logan this weekend. Saturday night my Dad and Cheryl accompanied John and I to the Air Force Dining Out. It was a fun evening and yes, John was sent to the grog! This was our first time we have left Gabe for more than just an hour or two. It was hard being away from him all evening, but nice to have a little break at the same time. On Sunday we celebrated my Dad's birthday. Taylor brought a cute date over (Megan) and he cooked us an awesome dutch oven dinner and dessert! For Dad's birthday gift we added to his scrapbook which has been an ongoing present/project. But, both Jenny and I were amazed at how much we've done for him. It was such a fun weekend! Going the park, the little zoo, watching movies and just being together! Jenny and Adyson stayed until Tuesday and we were sad to see them leave. Gabe sure loves his cousin Adyson. She is always bringing him toys, playing with him, talking to him and he loves to watch her run around. She really is a great babysitter!
John was also contacted by his sponsor from Wright-Patt this week. His name is .... Bliss. He told John about what he would be doing the first few weeks once we get to Ohio. It sounds like once we get settled in a house, John will be interviewed and placed in a job, sit through about a week of briefings, and then go to a 3 week long tech school.
We started planning our road trip to Ohio this week too. We are going through Denver, to Topeka to see Steve and Jenn Allred. We'll see several church history sites in that area like Liberty Jail, Far West, and AdamOndiOman. Then we are spending two days in Nauvoo and Carthage. Next stop Dayton! Future home sweet home!

Easter Weekend

Not too much excitement in our neck of the woods this week. Since the weather was so beautiful Gabe and I spent several days this week going on walks and spending time in the park. He has also refused to eat anymore rice cereal. He clamps his mouth shut like they say in the scriptures "tight like a dish." Meaning, NOTHING'S GETTING IN THERE! I just can't see how forcing him to eat is a good thing and he sure doesn't seem to enjoy it (I sense this because he's crying and gagging on the cereal), so I think we'll give him a break for a couple of weeks and then try again.
His new thing this week is rolling over! He has become very good at it, however, he gets very frustrated when he is on his stomach and can't get back onto his back. So he spins circles on his stomach and protests the fact that he is on his tummy. The past couple of weeks he has also become very "vocal." (That's a nice way of saying he screams like a little girl.) He has just started screaming... screaming in delight sometimes, screaming in anger other times, doesn't really matter why he just likes to scream! It's cute now, but it wears on you after a while, so I hope it is a phase he'll grow out of fairly soon. But, in the meantime we live in a very happy "shrieking shack!"
Easter weekend has been nice, but uneventful. Gabe and I spent Saturday with my good friend Angie. We went shopping for summer clothes for Gabe and had a picnic in the park. I just can't get enough of being outside whenever I want! I love not being cooped up in an office all day and being able to go outside and cure my SpringFever on beautiful days like we've been having! I'm getting super anxious for the pool to open now that the weather is nice...I'm so excited to be a pool mom!!! Today, Easter Sunday, we went to church and then John, Gabe and I had a quiet Easter afternoon at home, just the 3 of us. Strawberry shortcake for dessert was our Easter treat!

Conference Weekend

Gabe and I left Dad home this weekend to do homework and we spent a great conference weekend visiting with my family. Friday we enjoyed dinner at Grandma and Grandpa Barton's house, Saturday we had fun Easter egg hunting with the Clyde family and we had dessert after Priesthood meeting at Barton's again. It was great to have Jessica, Emma and Carly get to spend some time with Gabe. I think this was the second time they've met Gabe. He is lucky to have three little aunts who adore him so much! Sunday we had brunch at Papa's and Grammy's (a conference tradition). It was great to see Philip and Adyson on Sunday. Jenny, we sure missed you and hope you get better soon!
We had a great weekend and it was so nice to spend time with some of our family! John went flying Saturday morning with the Civil Air Patrol and had a good time even though he didn't feel good because he was sick with a cold. I guess it was a good thing that Gabe and I were gone so he could get the rest he needed to get feeling better.
Gabe and I came home Sunday afternoon and it was fun to spend the evening together as a family. John "and Gabe" had fun playing with a train set that I brought home. Gabe rolled over intentionally for the first time last night! It was great! He did it twice, then as soon as I had the video camera out, he got stage fright and wouldn't do it again. Oh well...I'm sure we'll catch it one of these times. He is growing so fast I can hardly believe it. I looked at him this morning and thought that he looked more grown up and bigger than he was yesterday! He is sleeping so well at night and is such a delight during the day! He really is such a great baby! John and I ask ourselves all the time how we got such a good kid (and such a cute one)! We truly are blessed!

We have moving dates!

This morning John was given the date he has to report to Wright-Patterson Air Force Base by. For those of you who don't know, this is just outside of Dayton, Ohio. We leave Utah on June 25 and have to be to Wright-Patt on June 29. Only 3 months and we'll be leaving. We are excited to start this new adventure, but it will sure be hard to leave all of you!

Rach's new haircut

I got a new haircut today! I was tired of spending so much time doing my hair each morning or not doing it at all, so I cut it all off. It's super short and I'm hoping it saves me lots of time!

An eventful week (for us anyway...)

Tuesday Gabe had his 4 month checkup with Dr. O'Very. He is now 14 lbs. 5 oz. and is 25 1/2 inches tall. Poor kid has been sick this week with a fever, cough and runny nose after getting his shots. Since he was so good when he got his shots I promised him I would buy him a new toy. So we got him one of those jumpers that hang in the door way. He LOVES it! He is such an active baby and he loves being able to jump as much as he wants. It is so fun watching him learn, grow and try new things.

He also started solid foods this week (if you consider rice cereal a solid) although he really doesn't like it. When I give him a spoonfull he pulls a face at me like I've just fed him something out of the garbage. However, I've heard garbage is an acquired taste, so hopefully he'll learn. Until then it sure is fun watching him spit, smear and dribble rice cereal all over!

We also took a trip to the doctor in Ogden with Taylor this week. Yahoo, no more crutches! Cheryl met us in Ogden and we had a fun lunch at The Pie before heading back to Logan. Let's meet again in a month when Taylor gets his leg brace off. Gabe and I are always up for an outing!

Our Family Blog

John and I have been talking a lot lately about what's going to be the best way to keep our family and friends up to date on what's happening in our life once we move to Ohio. So thanks to Philip and Taylor for this SUPER idea! We will do our best to keep our little family's life updated on this blog and we hope you will take the time to look at it from time to time so we don't become strangers to all of you!