It's A Boy

It's official, we're expecting an addition to our little family this spring. May 3rd is the estimated time of arrival and we can't wait. We can stop calling him "it" now since finding out the gender but we're still a long ways away from picking his name.

Granite Chief Wilderness

Over a month ago Brady and I decided it was finally time to go on a backpacking adventure. So we headed off with our packs on a relatively short (8mile) journey into the Granite Chief Wilderness.

Before we started I made a decision to sever all ties to the real world and leave my beloved ipod in the car. This way I could listen to nature and my thoughts instead of drowning them out with music. But by the second mile I realized that walking is boring and I really missed my ipod. So for entertainment along the trail we searched for the best walking sticks we could find. Needless to say we found some pretty awesome ones.

Brady led me to believe that he had been here before and knew where we were going. Apparently he hadn't ever been this far into the wilderness and so we accidentally climbed this peak for no reason. After 8 miles of a more strenuous hike than I had anticipated I was having trouble moving my legs up this stupid mountain. Brady was kind enough to offer to take my pack, and I was too tired to let my pride get in the way.

Once we got down to the bottom we set up camp for the night.

After eating dinner and drinking some delicious mountain water I was feeling much refreshed. Camping was a lot of work but it was definitely worth it.

Life Lately

We've been home from Chicago for over two months now. The drive home went great, we drove 30 hours straight through again, though we did try to stop once. It was almost 2 a.m. and we were in North Platte, Nebraska looking for a motel. Surprisingly the cheapest we could find was $70 so we took it, but upon opening the door to our room we were assaulted with the smell of a moldy old retirement home. I also soon discovered that there were quite a few too many insect corpses lining the perimeter of the room. Since we couldn't bring ourselves to touch anything in the room we got our money back and scrapped the whole 'sleeping' plan.

Once we passed Reno and entered California we were giddy to finally be home and see those beautiful Sierra mountains.

We had to get off the freeway and suck in a little mountain air.

My parents were leaving soon for a whirlwind Europe tour with all the original Wheeler siblings and Grandpa Les so Brady and I stayed with them while I searched for an apartment.

Brady's dad Jay took us to the State Fair soon after we got back, which was a lot of fun.

They had several kiddy rides from Michael Jackson's Neverland Ranch. I was torn between being creeped out and intrigued.

This stunt show was my favorite part.

Finally we were able to move into our new place, Sunset Summit. After having been uprooted for a year and a half, we plan to be here for a while.

Its great, at last I get to live on the first floor, after 6 years and 7 different apartments with stairs. The distance from my car to my front door is about 8 steps total. I love it!

And I finally have a nice sunny patio where I can grow my own legal herbs. The basil has kind of taken over though.

One of Brady's dreams has recently come true as well, since he found a ridiculously cheap surround sound system on Craigslist. For the past 3 days or so he has been obsessively tinkering with wires and gizmos to get it all working right. Lucky for me he's really smart at fixing this sort of thing.

To test out its capabilities we needed a loud action movie which is when I discovered, to my horror, that the only one we own is 007 Die Another Day. I hope to remedy this soon by eliminating that debacle from our collection and adding to it, Iron Man or some other acceptable comic book movie. I'm open to suggestions.

Westbound Again!

Its 11 days and counting until we're on the road again. And Brady and I are counting (Brady especially). He's looking forward to classes at Sierra College and a break from the crazy life of summer sales. I'm looking forward to a fiesty job hunt.

I turned 24 a few weeks ago and so far it was the most fun day all summer. Here's what we did...

First we took the "El" train to the Shedd Aquarium (2nd largest in America). The line to get inside was over half an hour long.

We said hello to some friendly baby baluga whales

As you can imagine with a 30 minute wait just to get in, it was a little too crowded for us so we didn't linger longer than we had to, but we made sure to see everything before we left.

Speaking of crowds, we walked over to the Taste of Chicago festival, arguably the biggest Chicago event of the year. It was overpriced but we had some of the best pizza I've ever had and then tasted of some chicken and waffles (not as good as the stuff in NYC, but still pretty tastey)

Once we left that craziness we walked around watching the local "street performers." I guess that's what you could call them. Brady loved the street magicians. My most favorite was a otherwise normal looking 50 year old hispanic lady. She walked over to a spot in the sidewalk, pulling her outdated karaoke machine behind her. Then she set it up and started singing the Eurythmics song "Sweet Dreams (Are made of This)" on her karaoke machine to a crowd of no one.

We enjoyed this type of entertainment while waiting for 5 o'clock, when the art museum let cheapskates like us in for free.

I didn't expect Brady to last long in here, maybe 15 minutes. I assumed he would be complaining within 5, but much to my amazement...he likes art?

Not only art, but modern art, the out there stuff like garbage bags painted gold. One of his favorites was...Blue. He does have a discerning palette though.

This for example, we both agreed had to be some sort of joke, no way could this be art.

I, on the other hand am less original in my tastes. Pretty much, if I recognized it then I liked it. "Hey I've seen this before! It's famous! Now I'm looking at it in real life. Take my picture by it!" That's about how into art I am.

I remember this one being in some textbook in high school or something. I actually kind of like the melancholy vibe I get from it, I feel sad when I look at it but don't know why. That's the power of ART.

Somehow we spent two hours walking around the art museum and by the end our feet needed a break, so to get to Navy Pier we took a water taxi.

It was just us and the Captain.

Then we did the ferris wheel. Overpriced, as expected.

Finally, we topped off the day with dessert and a view.

This sign cracked me up.

He's Gone, he's really gone...

As of last Wednesday Chase has left us for the MTC in Provo. He'll be there for 3 weeks, then off to Toronto. For two years we won't see him except through pictures. We won't hear him except through tape recorders and possibly 4 phone calls. How do so many people do this everyday, be apart from family? It feels awful. I am proud of him though and I know he is happy to go so I can be happy for him.
Luckily I got to be home with him before he left. It may sound melodramatic but the last few days felt like a countdown to the gallows for me. One of those moments where you wish you could control time.

2 years and counting...

It's now been two years and 8 days since we were married. I though I should mark this passage of time with a rarely seen glimpse into the dark depths of my heart.

When I first saw Brady, he was inexplicably barefoot, at a young single adult activity. I'll admit it--with the hopes that no one ever reads this--I thought he was rather handsome. He was kind of hyper and said things that people were thinking but would never say out loud. But I liked that I didn't have to guess what he was thinking. I tend to over analyze people but I found that Brady was an open book and that was a relief. He wasn't calculating, he was just himself, natural. I won't lie we all know his lack of filter has created many an awkward moment and a displeased wife. But I'd like to point out just some of the goodness about Brady that I have come to know.

He loves kids, and admits that he can relate to them very well.

He'll not only watch the shows that most husbands won't watch (ie. the Bachelor) but he loves them as much as I do.

He's more patient with me than anyone else could be.

He can pick out a good purse better than I can.

He always thinks I look good, even when I know for a fact that I don't.

He has a strong faith.

He's great at fixing things.

I know he would do anything to make me happy.

So here's to 2 years of marriage, spent at 5 different addresses in 3 different states.

Don't you hate it when you have a dream that seems to linger all day? After taking Tylenol PM last night I had some very vivid dreams. In one of them my brother (who is leaving on his mission next month) had already left and I saw him at the MTC just long enough to beg him to stay for just one more week.

I know it is just a reflection of my great anxiety about him being gone for two years but its not easy to let the feeling of dread go and convince yourself it was just a stupid dream. When you wake up feeling depressed you know its going to be a long day.

Nature sucks

A few days ago I was going to make a posting about the cute swanlings that were born last week right out side of our apartment. I even have video of their second day out of the shell.

They are so adorable.

We love watching them swim around in the creek below our balcony. This is them a few days out of the shell.

I check on them periodically to make sure they're alright and no one's picking on them. So when I heard a strange bird call sometime after noon yesterday I went outside to see what it was. To my horror it was the swan song of a mother and father searching for their lost babies. For hours they swam up and down the creek looking everywhere and making the saddest sound and waiting to hear a response. I don't know what happened to those babies in the hour or so since I saw them swimming close behind their mother in the creek. All I know is that I'm done with nature.

I haven't felt much like posting though a lot has happened lately...

My brother, Tyson, got home from his mission in South Carolina. (he's the one in the middle)

The aforementioned brother and I went to an awesome concert together, my fav band, Death Cab For Cutie, performed.

I got a drastic hair cut which has kind of grown on me (no pun intended). I'm gonna skip the embarassing before and after pictures I took...

Chase, my other brother, got his mission call. I just knew he'd get his call this day. (I even have a picture of the mailman coming down the street.)

My family and I risked the dreaded "pig cold" and went to Puerto Vallarta, Mexico. We had a lovely time. We stayed in a condo at an empty resort, I could enjoy this view for the rest of my life.

 We pretty much had the pools to ourselves.

Brady took precautions against drowning on a catamaran tour. I was more worried about the swarm of jellyfish we passed through.

The boys got super burnt

We went on the longest zip line in history. It was like 2 miles of air time.

I got to ride a half dead horse on a dusty trail while wearing way too much white. Luckily I brought a towel to sit on or it would have been just my bathing suit on that nasty saddle. I do love horsies though. On the way back I snuck a way better horse and even got it to gallop. (Which was extremely uncomfortable without my feet in the stirrups).

Brady quickly made friends with the local dogs.

We got to do awesome things that we could never do in yuppie animal rights-y california; Like entering a monkey cage and feeding the squirrel monkeys by hand.

And don't worry they scanned us for disease so that we wouldn't bring the swine sniffles into the US, except that it had already spread to the US... oh well, it made us feel important.

And finally, after a 30 hour straight driving marathon, Brady and I are in Chicagoland again.

General Conference Weekend... a few weeks late

I tagged along with my family for general conference in Salt Lake a few weeks ago and just found some pictures of it on my Dad's computer.As you can see, there were some protesters but they were just the regulars. Most of them were almost more docile than I've seen in the past. Maybe they're getting bored with their own act, I know I am. They're such losers. (notice the only prop 8 sign was actually a "thanks for voting yes" sign. not a prop 8 hater in sight.)

Spring is here but we got to some skiing/boarding on that world famous Utah snow. (the snow was not great that day though, very spring-like conditions. but still fun!)