Our Vacation Adventure

I have so much to update! I have tons of pictures to post too. I will not be able to do it all in one day so, keep checking!

As you could read from my more recent post before this, we were having a bit of difficulty getting to Portland. Why? Because there was fog on the east coast (I know, we can fly to the moon - but not through fog?) and winter storms all over the west coast. We stayed over night on the 19th in Charlotte, NC. On the 20th (Sat) we flew to Tampa Bay, Florida. Our plane was late arriving in Phoenix, Arizona which made us miss our connection to Portland by fifteen minutes. This was 7pm Mountain time. We stayed in the airport trying to find a flight to Oregon the next day. Everything was so booked that they couldn't confirm us on anything until Tuesday. We still had the option to standby on flights. So we took standbys to Seattle and Portland. Then they told us our luggage was in baggage claim. Well, we couldn't find it. After standing in line until 11pm we found out our baggage actually was already in Portland-- through another airline. We found a shuttle to our hotel and talked the shuttle driver into driving Brian to a 24 hour Walgreen's to get more diapers, wipes, formula, bottle liners, baby food, deodorant, toothpaste and toothbrushes after he was done shuttling people. Well, that wasn't until 2:30am. We had to be at the airport by 6:30 am or so.

We spent the whole next day running from terminal to terminal, gate to gate trying to catch any plane going to Seattle or Portland. We even bought two $300 Southwest tickets an hour before it took off in hopes of it not being cancelled (it was cancelled right before we were to board). We even miraculously got confirmed seats on a Portland flight that was eventually cancelled. Finally the last flights to Portland and Seattle for the day were cancelled around 6pm.We got in line again to see what we could do. They couldn't get us on a confirmed flight until Christmas evening. I had had enough. We told them to get us to the closest airport other than Seattle (having almost worst weather than Portland) and Boise, ID (because I-84 was horrible). That ended up being Monday the 22nd at 8:40am to San Fransisco. We took it.

When we got to our hotel we got online (hallelujah for free WiFi) and rented a car. That night we took our first showers. Our clothes were so dirty that we decided to wash them. However, our hotel room didn't have a bathtub. After I was done showering I stayed in the shower while Brian gave me our clothes. I washed them with a bar of baby soap we had picked up in the airport pharmacy. It took so long! Brandon needed a bath too, but he really hates showers, so I used our itty bitty sink. His bottom barely fit. Brandon had a great time looking at himself in the big mirror.
Next we had to dry our clothes. Luckily our room an armoire with hangers (next to the heater), a blow drier, iron and ironing board. All the essentials to get your clothes dry. We hung up our outer clothes and proceeded to blow dry our... inner clothes. We couldn't get them dry enough because the blow drier kept over heating. So we decided to iron them which steams out the rest of the moisture. It worked pretty well. While we were blow drying Brandon fell asleep to the noise (he was so exhausted).Our plane was not even quite half booked - so we had no one sitting next to us in the third seat and Brandon slept the whole way! The weather in San Fransisco was beautiful. We ended up getting a little candy red Chevy Cobalt. We drove through the city and stopped to get chains for the mountain passes. Mom and Dad (Lloyd) agreed to meet us in Medford, OR (a little more than half way for us) because the roads between Salem and Portland were getting bad. We made it to Medford around 6pm and got there the same time Mom and Dad did (they should have been two hours ahead of us, that tells you how bad the roads were). We returned our car and headed off to Portland. We arrived at my parents house around midnight.

We ended up taking 4 planes (about 8 hours worth of flying) and driving a little over 13 hours in a course of 4 days to get to my parents house for Christmas. In the mean while, I read Twilight (the first one of the series) and got hooked. I read the second one (New Moon) the first two days at my parents house. I was not allowed to read any more because they wanted me to actually socialize with them.

We have learned that we can now do anything. Traveling with a very active 10 month old boy is crazy by itself. Doing 4 days of it (without the right preparation) was absolutely INSANE. We had been hesitant in the past to do the 3 hour drive to the Columbia Temple with Brandon (and three hours back), but now we know we can do it easily! I suppose it has been a blessing in disguise. I will post more about our trip later.....TO BE CONTINUED!(This is how Brandon napped everyday)

Stuck in NC

I just thought I'd let ya'll know that we are stuck in Charlotte, North Carolina. We flew from Florence (SC) to here (50minutes) and missed our flight because the airlines SUCK. Too long of a story, but now hopefully we'll be in Oregon tomorrow night around 11pm.

Myrtle Beach Ward Christmas Party

This last saturday our ward had a Christmas party. This is Brandon and Uncle Victor.

Brandon and Brian
Brandon and I were sitting at the table by the Smith's and the Blanton's.

After those pictures my camera died and I forgot extra batteries. Uncle Victor took some of Brandon and Santa. Brandon didn't cry at all he just looked up at him like, "Hmmmm interesting"

Brandon's first Christmas, YAY!

Bathtime

Brandon feed himself dinner...as you can see. He was soo messy it required a bath.

He was being so cute during his bath we took some pictures and video:

He loves that ducky :)

Daddy was making faces at him!

Christmas Letter

Dear Family and Friends,

This year we are upgrading to an Internet Christmas letter! I think this is more environmentally and economically friendly. Brian is still teaching Spanish at St. James High School. He has coached Cross Country two years now, and he coached Boys Tennis last year (he might do it this year too). He is training, yet again, for the Myrtle Beach Marathon on February 14th, 2009. He is getting faster and stronger (it's so exciting)! He is currently the Elder's Quorum President and he is going to school online for his Masters in Education Administration. After Brandon was born I quit my job at the bank to stay at home. I am studying Medical Transcription from home, so that I can work from home. I am the Primary Secretary and I sing in the ward's "prelude choir". We are crazy busy all the time, and we know it won't be letting up any time soon! Brandon is now 9 1/2 months old and learning to pull himself up on things. He is babbling all the time, and learning to feed himself the majority of the time. He love sweet potatoes and any kind of fruit.

Let’s start from the beginning of the year. I was 8 months pregnant and we had just moved into our new house. We were trying to get ready for all the new things that a new baby would bring. My due date was March 4th. My mother and sister had tickets to come the day before my due date I believe. The second week in February Brian ran the Myrtle Beach Marathon (his first marathon- I’ll talk about that more later). Of course I had to be there even though I was 38 weeks pregnant. That resulted in me walking a few miles trying to find the best spots to see him and take video and pictures. We had joked about having a “marathon” baby. Little did we know how close we were...Brandon was born exactly a week later. I worked up until the very last moment (I was working as a teller at a bank). I was having contractions Friday the 22nd, but I decided I would rather be at work around people (and closer to the hospital), than at home alone. I tried to help customers between contractions. All my coworkers thought I was crazy, but being there kept my mind off of things. I did leave work an hour early because my contractions were 5 minutes apart and I called Brian to come straight home. To make an even longer story somewhat shorter, my water broke at home Saturday morning the 23rd at 7am, we ran to the hospital because my contractions suddenly turned to 2 minutes apart. I got an epidural and had Brandon at 11:15am. He was 6 pounds 11 ounces and 19 inches long.

Going back to the week before Brandon was born, Brian ran his first Marathon February 16th! I was going to have him write about it, but he is just so busy! The Myrtle Beach Marathon starts at 6:00am, which means in February it's dark out. We got there probably about an hour early to warm up and find a parking spot. For those who don't know, a marathon is 26.2 miles, and not only do people run it, they also bike and walk it. They line everybody up according to what you will be doing. Bikers first, runners, then walkers. I stood a couple hundred yards into the race in hopes of getting Brian on video. It didn't happen, there were waaay too many people. I ran, well really, speed walked back to where we were parked because that was when I was going to get to see him again. I think he had run 2 or 3 miles at that point. I went back to the car, ate breakfast and watched a movie, and hung out with a lady and her boys from our ward (her husband was running the half marathon). Brian had told me what his goal time was, so I made sure that I was at the finish line at that point. Well, he didn't make his goal time, but I was there to see him finish. His time was 3 hours 44 minutes 45 seconds. He is not particularly proud of his time, but I am! I think it is amazing people even do this, that they can even finish! His finished #365 out of 1,686 people. Good job honey :)

On March 30th Brian, along with his father Tom, brother Victor and good friend Tyson, blessed Brandon. My parents we not able to come because my mom ended up needing her gallbladder out. This is a picture of Brandon in his blessing outfit:

This is a picture of us when Brandon was 2 months old.

By the time Brandon was 3 months old we had already taken him to 2 baseball games (Go Pelicans!) He loved it!

The family, and Brandon is almost 4 months at this point

This was Father's Day! Brian got a tie with Brandon's pictures all over it (since it was his first official Father's Day).

Brandon loves the water, and we played in the ocean and the pools in our neighborhood a lot during the summer. This is Brandon and I enjoying the wonderful water!

In July we took our first family portraits. Brandon was 5 months old. They turned out pretty cute. I should also mention that we took these when my parents flew back with Makenzie and Allie to visit. We took pictures with them too, but I think I have plenty of photos on here already.

For Brian's birthday we threw him a surprise birthday party (he had never had a surprise one before). We told him we were going to go watch a Red Sox game over at Vic and Tiffany's. He completely fell for it. This is picture was at the party:

This picture was at 6 months. What a cutie!

At almost 7 months Brandon decided he wanted to feed himself. It didn't turn out so well, but he had fun trying!

I play the piano to Brandon at least once a day. I love music and I want him to learn to love it at well. I decided to put him in front of the key board one day to see what he would do. He knew exactly what to do and (obviously) had so much fun! He now is starting to "bob" or "dance" a little when we sing or play music. I can't wait to start teaching him piano.

In October we weened Brandon from nursing and onto the bottle. This enabled us to be able to go out on a real date for the first time since Brandon was born. The picture is a little blurry, but this was taken on our date.

For Halloween Brandon was a horse and Brian and I were farmers. He loved being in his costume and I had absolutely no problems with him tugging or pulling on it. We went to the ward trunk or treat and had so much fun.

This is all of us together:

This year has been very exciting. We are learning so much, especially about parenting. I found this funny little blurb today:

You aren't really a parent if ...

• You think "Ferberize" is something done to your dry cleaning. • You've never drunk apple juice from a sippy cup. • You finish an entire conversation without forgetting what you were talking about. • You suspect "Onesie" might be the latest indie band. • Your purse doesn't contain at least one nipple, rattle, or package of wipes.

Hahaha! We are so grateful for our friends and family who love us and support us. We are so grateful to be members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. We are grateful to be learning and growing everyday. We hope that you continue to watch what we are up to through this site as we will be updating it at least weekly (sometimes daily)! We hope you have a very Merry Christmas (Feliz Navidad) and a Happy New Year (y Prospero Año).

Cross Country Team Pictures

Brian asked me to take the cross country team pictures during their banquet last night. The lighting was horrible. Recessed "spot" lighting over tables. It was impossible to find a place where they could all be with equal lighting on all faces. Not as good as I would have liked but with a little editing...they're okay.

The Boys Team

The Girls Team (Brian is the head coach)

This is the both teams.

Christmas time is Coming!

I love putting up Christmas decorations and doing all that jazz. This year was even more exciting for me because it's Brandon's first year. I know he doesn't really understand it, but I know he enjoys the music, lights and all the other shinny things. I decided to do a slide show to save time with uploading pictures. There are pictures of us putting up the Christmas tree and ornaments(which we bought last year after Christmas for a steal!) Plus it was pre-lit (can you hear the angels singing?) I have very fond memories of Dad trying to untangle the lights and put it on the "stupid...freakin...I'm not doing this next year" tree. I put the lights up on our old tree last year (yes 7.5 months pregnant) and vowed to get a pre-lit one on sale. I also have pictures of Brandon testing out the new tree. He loves the lights, but not so sure about those poky needles.

If it doesn't work try this link to go to it instead (http://s509.photobucket.com/albums/s332/kandraconary/?action=view¤t=9ea8e063.pbw)

The Smallest Wave in the World

The waves are soo horrible right now. However, on Tuesday that didn't stop us from going out to the beach and given it a try anyways. I mainly wanted to go to try out my new camera, and Brandon was really wiggly from being inside all day long. Note: I was holding Brandon on my hip during all of these photos and video, therefore was shooting one handed! And they still turned out great!

The colors were really beautiful!


The moon even started coming out and I was able to get several good pictures. This is one:

Myrtle Beach and it's pier.

This picture proves how the ocean practically looked like a lake.

And the coolest part? Brian caught the smallest wave we have ever seen. And I got it on tape :)

Shake Shake Shake!

In my attempt to help Brandon learn music and rhythm (I think also the fact of telling him "no" and shaking my head) has helped Brandon learn to "dance". He'll only do it when there is music. It's so cute. Try not to look at me in the video, I look horrible. But Brandon is adorable :)

THE MOM!!!

Quite possibly the BEST song I've ever heard in my entire life.

Crazy Baby

I needed to post Brandon's most recent activity. Climbing on things.

This video is Brandon and Simon (vic and tiffany's dog).