Utah, Las Vegas, California, St. George
Letter from Ryan - May 8, 2000
It’s been a long time since you’ve gotten an email from me. I’m just so busy these days. I’m 22 1/2 months old! I just had to write and tell you all about the colors I’m learning. Mom and Dad are so proud. The first one I learned was YELLOW, then BLUE, then WHITE, then BLACK, then RED and last night I learned ORANGE. I still forget sometimes but I’m doing really well! I love to study my colors with Mom and dad using our colorful beach ball.
Daddy is taking a test this morning. It doesn’t really seem like finals week because Daddy has been spending lots of time with us. He thinks he is already on vacation. But he’ll have a busy week until we leave on Friday.
Momma is busy getting everything ready … finishing preschool stuff and getting Young Women stuff organized. She is in charge of combined YM/YW this Tuesday and will be glad when that’s over. Momma is getting a very big tummy. I try to sit on her lap but there’s no room. It makes me kind of mad. She says she only has 2 months left until the baby comes. I think I will like the baby but Mom and Dad think I’m spoiled and I will throw tantrums if I don’t get enough attention.
Here are a list of my favorite things …
* When Daddy gets home * Reading Stories * Bananas * ‘Darder’ Chugg * Tarzan * Balls * Watching ‘Moonas’ (movies) * Lining up all my animals * Apples * Having races … ready set GO! * Singing “Wheels on the BUS” * Playing Basketball * Going for walks * Eating * Froggy Land at the mall * Saying “This is a Momma” * Friends * Running * Buzz Lightyear * ‘Abadamps’ (elephants) * Going OUTSIDE * My Bear * Finding my shoes * Dancing to music * Singing ‘Eensy Weensy Spider’ * Being tickled * Playing with Daddy * Going nigh-night * Canned peaches * Mommy * Bare toes * Having a bath *
Have a great day.
Love Ryan
Travel to Salt Lake City
Friday we flew from Baltimore to Salt Lake. Chris finished up his last final and Ryan and I picked him up at school and Jared took us to the Baltimore airport. We ended up having different flights... due to changes in my schedule... so I flew on America West and Chris took Ryan on his flight. It made for a nice relaxing flight. I flipped through my scrapbook magazines, read my Mary Higgins Clark mystery and took a nap. I had a quick layover in Phoenix and then zipped up to Salt Lake. Del, Shelley and Lindsey were there to greet me. Grandma and Grandpa Polson came just after we found out that Chris' flight had been cancelled. We assumed he'd be on a later one so decided on dinner at a fun restaurant on the top floor of the airport. Just as we were finishing we spotted Chris and Ryan with, unfortunately, NO LUGGAGE. They rerouted the people but forgot about the luggage I guess. We got back to Sandy, visited and then went to bed. On my bed was a package from MY mom... A mother's Day present for me. She's so sweet! It was a book called "Will you still be my daughter?" and of course it made me bawl. It is a perfect present.
Golf, Shopping and Dinner
Saturday Chris and Del met Kyle and John early to go golfing. Chris had to rent clubs since his were still missing. Ryan and I got ready and went for a walk. He's really interested in colors right now so we stopped several times to point at the grass and say 'gree' and point at the sidewalk and say 'white'. He's very cute... although is very upset when I force him to hold my hand to cross the street. When we got back we went to a few scrapbook shops and got a few things and then came back to meet Ashlyn and Nikole for lunch at Applebee's. On the way home I tried to get Ryan to say 'Applebee'. He said 'AppleDEbee' and we all laughed. Everyone keeps asking him to say it because it's so cute! When Ryan went down for his nap the girls went boutiqueing and then for a surprise pedicure for Shelley for Mother's Day. Everyone got one but me. It looked very relaxing but I just couldn't cough up $35.00 plus tip... so I just watched. It was fun 'girl bonding time' though. After waiting around for Ashlyn to be finished we rushed over to Spaghetti Factory to meet everyone else for dinner. (Boy do the Johnsons' go out to eat a LOT!... I'd only been there 28 hours and this is our third meal out!) Anyway... it was delicious and we had a great time. ...STILL NO LUGGAGE...so Chris, Shelley and I ran over to the mall to buy Sunday outfits for both of us and then came back to the house to visit with everyone. I soon fell asleep on the couch. I'm not feeling well... I feel the beginning of a cold coming on. Yikes.
Church, Polsons and Ryan Showing Off
Sunday we slept in and then had French toast. At 11:00 we went to a farewell for someone in Chris' old ward. Naturally he wanted to go and visit old friends and naturally Ryan and I had to go so he could 'show us off'. The speakers were excellent and I ended up crying all my makeup off. His parent's ward started at 1:00. I know a lot of people there so it's always fun to be 'shown off' there too. Shelley just walks around with Ryan saying "This is my cute grandson" to everyone she meets. Relief Society was fantastic. Shelley read aloud the book my mom gave me for Mother's Day and I pretty much sobbed through the whole thing. Right after church we gobbled some sub sandwiches and headed over to Grandma and Grandpa Polsons. Robin and some of the Barratts were there. It was fun to visit with everyone. Ryan did a lot of good showing off. We sang songs... Wheels on the Bus, 6 Little Kitties, Eensy Weensy Spider, BofM Stories, Popcorn Popping, Once there was a Snowman, There was a Little House... etc. and he did great. Of course Grandma Polson and Shelley kept declaring how smart he was... typical grandma behavior. We headed over to Nikole & John's place to have dessert and visit and then got home late. I was able to talk to my Mom when I got home. She loved the scrapbooked Mother's Day book that I made with everyone's letters. She said she read them aloud and had Amy and Dad both crying harder than she did. I'd say it was successful.
Lost Luggage, Temple Square, Legacy Film
Monday we stopped over at Grandma and Grandpa Polsons for tunafish sandwiches... a tradition for Chris. They get such a kick out of watching Ryan. He and Grandpa swung out on the swings in the backyard and hung on the bars. Meanwhile... Chris tried AGAIN to get ahold of somebody who knew what was going on with our luggage... and miraculously they located them in the Delta terminal in Salt Lake. I was so relieved I started to cry. After visiting with G & G for awhile we headed over to the airport, picked up our luggage, got reimbursed for the money we spent and picked up a free $200 voucher for another flight. Awesome. I have clothes again. After picking up Lindsey we all headed downtown to see some of the changes around Temple Square. It was a beautiful night... sunny with a light breeze. The conference center looks very impressive... although we didn't get to see inside. At 5:45 we met Del, Nikole, John, Ashlyn and Kyle at the GARDEN and ate dinner. It was really neat up there... and delicious. At 7:15 we rushed downstairs to see the new Legacy film about CHRIST. It was absolutely amazing. A neat way to tie in the American continent during the time of Christ. And, as with everything else, Chris and I bawled. Ryan was so good during the movie... he just sat and watched. When it got to the earthquakes and tempests before the 3 days of darkness Ryan looked up at me and said, "Uh-oh!".
Jordan River Temple, BYU, Hanging out with Scott and Dan
Tuesday Chris and I went to the Jordan River Temple. I'd never been in that temple before... although that's where Chris and I went and sat outside to read each others patriarchal blessings for the first time right before we got engaged. When we got home we sat down with Shelley and went through some of Chris' old photos and some family history/genealogy stuff. I'm determined to get it all copied so we can take it home and I can organize it. I think old pictures are SO neat. That afternoon we headed down to Provo. We were both so excited to drive down there. It's been almost 2 years since we'd seen BYU. We drove by Westmore and reminisced about different places we used to go while we lived there. The bookstore and library at BYU are incredible. Boy did we get jipped. It was so fun to walk around... again we had a beautiful night. We taught Ryan to say "B" "Y" "U". Then we decided to teach him to say "This is the Y!" and he repeated that phrase a hundred times as we walked around the bookstore and campus. The poor kid has no choice... he'll be a BYU fan if he likes it or not. Then we taught him "Go BLUE!" and he says it with such enthusiasm that it makes us so proud. Hee hee. Next is the Cougar Fight Song, I guess. At 6:00 we went over to Scott and Dan's place to hang out with them. As Dan opened the door he said, "Wow, Lisa, I've never seen you pregnant before!" We talked about their summer jobs etc. and then headed out to drive by the new Provo mall, stop by at Deseret Book and then eat at Fuddruckers... while watching the second half of the Jazz game. It was cute to see Scott and Dan interact with Ryan. They kept getting him out of his car seat and carrying him everywhere. We taught him to say, "This is Da" (he doesn't say the 'n') and "This is cott". He got pretty good at it by the time we left. We had to have Hogi Yogi... vanilla chocolate chip cookie dough... the kind we always got... and then we headed back to the boys place to play foosball and ROOK. We put on Robin Hood for Ryan to watch but I was amazed at how much Dan and Scott could quote from it.
Funeral in Tremonton, Visit to Smithfield
Wednesday we woke up and got ready to go up to Tremonton for a funeral. Chris' Aunt Eileen's Father passed away. I was not too excited about going to a funeral but we were able to see a lot of Chris' relatives. I've only been to one funeral in my life... Grandpa Walton's sister or brother or something. Plus it brought up a lot of emotions for me about not getting to go to Grandpa Polley's funeral. I was there for half of it and then took restless Ryan outside to walk around. After the funeral we went up to Smithfield, where Del is from, to visit his mother, Evelyn West Johnson. We took her out for lunch and visited for awhile. Since being on this 'family history' we had a lot of questions for her. The sad thing was we couldn't get much out of her. She couldn't even remember when she got married, the month or anything? We asked her to describe Del's father and she didn't know what to say. (He's been gone since Chris was about 3) It's sad to see her like this... she just can't remember very much. When we got home we had a relaxing dinner and watched 007 Golden Eye. OH... plus Chris bought himself a new golf club for his birthday (which is still two months away!)
BBQ with Family
On Thursday afternoon we went over to G & G’s house again to look through their genealogy and pictures. We got a lot copied so I was very happy. Thursday night the Johnsons had a big BBQ for all of Del’s family. It was good to see a lot of people we hadn’t seen for a while. LeRoy and Wendy… Brent, Eileen… Jennifer, Rolf and Baby Rolf, Tricia and lots of Chris’ cousins. It was great. Plus Grandma and Grandpa Polson. I was showing my scrapbooks to Eileen and then G’ma Polson wanted to see. I went and sat between them and G’ma said, “We were just saying how lucky Chris is to have such a good wife like you”. They are both so sweet.
Shopping, Movie and Dinner with Chris’ High School Friends
Friday Ashlyn didn’t have to work so we went shopping to Fashion Place and then went to a movie… RETURN TO ME. It was really good.
Saturday night we had a big BBQ with some of Chris’ friends. Darren Burrup and his girlfriend came, Justin Burrup was there, and Chad and April Utley and their little girl September. It was fun to catch up with everyone.
Las Vegas with Grandma Polley
Early Sunday morning… about 4:00am Chris and I were on our way to LAS VEGAS. Ryan and I slept for a while and Chris and I were able to have a good conversation. It’s always fun to get into a deep conversation with him. We arrived at my Grandma’s house by about 9:30am. It was so fun to see my Grandma. I hadn’t seen her for about two years and she had never seen Ryan so that was fun. I sure have fond memories of that house. Right after we finished our wonderful Grandma Polley breakfast, Scott and his friend walked in. They were staying at Jim’s for the weekend and wanted to go to church with Grandma. It was fun to chat with him for a while. Church was good but especially tiring for Chris. When we got home all three of us took a long nap. Then we had dinner and then went over to Jim’s to visit. What an awesome house!
Las Vegas with the Christoffersons
On Monday Chris went and hit golf balls and I went shopping with Grandma and copied some of her old pictures and things. We met up at lunch time and then went swimming over at Jim’s for the afternoon, which was so nice since the temperature got as high as 108 degrees. Ryan LOVED the water. He wasn’t scared at all and wanted to do anything Daddy did… including jumping off the diving board. He liked the little boat but found that he’d rather be in the water with mom or dad. At about 5:00 Adam and Marilee came rolling in. This was Chris and Adam’s first ‘meeting’ in over two years! and Chris had never seen baby Annie. We had a lot of fun playing around with them and doing lots of talking and reminiscing. On Tuesday we played in the pool again and then headed downtown to see some of the new hotels in Las Vegas. The Bellagio was my favorite… it has a huge lake in front of it with lights and tubes that stick up and blow water out, all choreographed to a song. It was absolutely amazing. We were all enthralled… even Ryan.
California
Wednesday we said goodbye to my Grandma and then headed down to Adam and Marilee’s place in California. We stopped for dinner at In and Out Burger and then got to their place at about 8:30. They really like their new place. It is nice and big. After the kids got to bed we played games just the four of us. It’s fun to watch the kids play and be parents together but it’s REALLY fun to just be the four of us again. Marilee and I beat them at Pictionary again. The highlight of the game was laughing when Chris was trying to draw ‘bob’… as in head bobbing. It was so funny. Then, just as funny, was Adam drawing a pelican with a tiny beak. We played a couple other games and stayed up late just talking. I wish we lived closer so we could do that more often.
Disneyland
Thursday… DISNEYLAND! I was so excited as we pulled into the Disneyland parking lot. We parked in the Pinocchio lot and took a tram to the entrance. Chris said it was exciting to be with me because I was so excited. Our first stop was a picture by the Mickey Mouse flowers and then immediately off to get in line for the ‘elephant ride’ (aka... DUMBO) Just walking down Mainstreet past all the people, shops and attractions was exhilarating. Ryan and Spencer both loved the Dumbo Ride. Then we went on the big ‘horsie’ Merry-go-Round, Storybook Tour, on little boats, and then over to ‘It’s a Small World.” This was one of Ryan’s favorites! His face was animated the whole time. He pointed, waved and said HI to the little dancing dolls the whole way through. Next we went over to Toon Town to go see MICKEY MOUSE. We wandered through his house and then got to meet him and take pictures. It was SO fun! Ryan was a bit intimidated at first but at the end was giving him kisses on his nose! For lunch we grabbed some expensive pizzas and drinks and sat and watched one of the Disney Shows with Hercules, Little Mermaid, Pocahontas etc. Then we went on Pirates of the Caribbean and The Jungle Tours! ...another one of Ryan’s favorites. He loved pointing and naming all of the animals he saw. Chris and Adam took off for a little while to do some big rides and I took Ryan through some of the fun Main street shops. At about 4:30 we said goodbye to Adam, Marilee, and Spencer. They went to go drop off Spencer and come back with Nicole and Ryan. Chris and I and Ryan did a few more rides... the Pinocchio ride, the Peter Pan ride, the wild Toad ride and then Chris did Indiana Jones (and loved it) while I shopped a little more. By 6:30 we were leaving... so sad! We grabbed dinner at Taco Bell and started on our way to ST. GEORGE. We pulled in at about 1:00am.
Memorial Day Weekend in St. George
Our Memorial Day Weekend was fun. Chris enjoyed golfing with his dad and John & Kyle. I relaxed a lot and finished a good book. Ryan was almost always entertaining Shelley, Grandma & Grandpa Polson or somebody else. We went out to eat a lot which is both fun and frustrating when you have a large group of people. My favorite meals were definitely Pizza Factory and Pasta Factory. Yummy food. We also enjoyed an afternoon matinee of MISSION IMPOSSIBLE 2. It was fantastic! I also saw CENTER STAGE. Shelley insisted we take Ryan to it and that he’d be fine. Ha! I ended up doing all of the chasing and holding and entertaining… naturally. They just don’t understand. Shelley always wants Ryan to be with her. Two nights we got all of Chris’ cousins’ together and played games. Of course Chris is the motivator. I don’t know if they’d do anything without Chris starting it up or moving people along. Anyway Chris taught everyone how to play Oh Heck and GREED, and then we played Catch Phrase as well. It was a riot. We had a great time. We sure spent a lot of money. It’s also frustrating because it doesn’t seem like anyone else cares how much they spend anywhere. Chris and I are obviously known as the ‘cheap’ ones. I just think of it as being ‘careful.’ Sundays are a big pain there as well. I wish we just weren’t even there on Sundays. Chris, Ryan and I and Shelley & Del went to Sacrament meeting. We met up for a Sunday brunch, which I was upset about as well since it was so expensive. Later that day everyone played football at the park and then Chris took me to the airport in Las Vegas where I got on my red-eye flight back to Baltimore. I had to fly back to teach my Preschool class.
