That one time when I was rear ended twice in 5 minutes

Earlier today I was driving home from a playground with friends. I was at a stoplight when the car in front of me did not notice that the light turned green, so they didn't start going for a second. The person behind me saw the green light and started moving, rear-ending me. It wasn't too hard… it mostly just scared me. Things like this are 100 times more frightening with your baby in the car. I pulled over to the side of the road, with her following suite and parking about 20 feet behind me. She had 2 kids in the car and was extremely apologetic. I felt bad for her and understood how that could have happened. I was very nice, but took her information because there was a tiny scratch on the car. I wasn't totally sure that I was going to even call on it because she was so sorry and the scratch was pretty small. I got back in my car and turned around to buckle Cal in. I had him halfway buckled when my phone buzzed, so I turned to face forward in my driver's seat so that I could check it. Just then, the lady started to leave. Since she parked 20 feet behind me she was able to get going kind of fast before rear-ending me AGAIN! This one was significantly harder. I hit my face on the steering wheel and Cal immediately started screaming. I was extremely freaked out… Calvin was not even all the way buckled yet! I got out of my car and started yelling at her. It was the first time of my life ever yelling at anyone, and I am not super proud of it. I think it must have been the mama bear in me or something. My rage turned into tears and I apologized for being unkind to her. She basically dismissed it, sort of apologized, stated that I already had her info, then drove away. 

Turns out that she gave me mostly wrong information… I am not sure if she did that on purpose or not. It was a good thing that I wrote down her license plate number.

Moral of this story- I am thankful for my safety and, more importantly, my little baby's safety. Instead of doing the 100 things I should have been doing during his nap when we got home I just watched him sleep. And I don't regret it one bit.

Farewell, Alex

We headed to Sandy last weekend to say goodbye to Alex before he left on his mission and to hear his farewell talk. Sadly, we could only be there for 1 day... but we had fun while we were there. Cal does so great on road trips and doesn't seem to mind being in the car. Alex did fantastic on his talk and it was fun to see all of the people that were there to support him. He is going to be quite the missionary. Watching him say goodbye to Cal was heartbreaking... he is Cal's favorite and 2 years is a long time. I think it was the first time that I have seen Alex cry. Albania is lucky to have him!

29

Dallin turned 29 this week! 

Dallin's parents and grandparents came up the night before to take our family to dinner for his birthday and bring him some gifts. It was so nice of them to drive all the way up here just for dinner! 

The day of Dal's birthday Calvin and I met up with him for lunch at a pizza place. After work we went shooting with the Taylors out in the desert. I have never really shot guns before and am not particularly interested in them. Dal offered, so I decided to give it a try. I shot once, then turned around to talk to Dal. He immediately started freaking out- I didn't even think, but turning around caused me to point the gun right at him, which is a big no-no. I was kind of scarred for the rest of the week that I pointed a gun at my husband on his birthday... he was pretty nice about it though. Later that night we met up with a bunch of friends at the bowling alley and had an awesome time. Besides the seeing-his-life-flash-before-his-eyes thing, I think that he had a great birthday :)

At dinner with Dal's parents

Opening his gifts from me

Lunch with the birthday boy

Shooting

Birthday bowling

A brother weekend

Last weekend Alex, Max, & Steph came down to Las Vegas to spend a couple of days for Max's birthday and we had a great time! They got here too late on Friday to really do anything, so we just played games and chatted. On Saturday we met Christian at Red Rock and did the Calico Tanks hike, which was beautiful! Dallin had to study, so he stayed home with Cal. Dallin and I did that hike last month, and it is one of my favorites. That night we went to the seafood restaurant Hot & Juicy. It was my first time there... and probably my last. Dal loved it, but it was not my favorite. The food comes by the pound it big plastic bags... with eyes and antennas. You are not given utensils, so you have to pry the heads off with your hands. A little much for me, but we had fun. On Sunday we went to church, then made dinner while Max & Dal watched the 49ers lose, much to Dal's dismay. The Taylors and Christian joined us for dinner that night, as well as a birthday cake for Max. It was a fun weekend, and it was nice to spend time with Alex before he leaves on his mission next week!

 

 

We survived the 1st week of 2014

We had a rough start to 2014 at our house. I was really excited to get back to Vegas with our little family. Cal was so sick the first week or so in January. It was miserable for both of us... most definitely my hardest mama week so far. He had the flu and it was hard for me to watch him be so sad. After about 5 or 6 days he looked like he felt mostly better (besides his cough), but he was so grumpy and crying all of the time. It was hard for me because I didn't know what to do for him. I learned that neither of us do very well cooped up in the house all of the time... we were going crazy. 

Luckily he seems to be all better now! His appetite and smile are back! Hurray for my happy baby. Also, this past week he learned what a bear says & what a lizard says and it is the cutest thing ever. He also finds the leash several times a day and chases Hobbes around, trying to put it on him. Dallin has been looking into mine and Cal's ears lately trying to practice using his otoscope. Cal took it from his hand the other night, and kept trying to look into my ear with it. It was cracking us up.

Besides being sick and playing with otoscopes, we have had a fun couple of weeks hanging out with our friends here. We bought a pack n' play recently. Since Cal is a champion sleeper, we can just take it to the house that we are hanging out at that night, and Cal will go right to sleep (with his trusted stuffed tiger, of course). We also spent an evening at the container park on Fremont Street with the Taylors and had a ball. Oh, and Cal is starting to practice his walking skills a liiiittle bit more, but only a little.

Hopie, making Cal feel better

Container Park

He loves these blocks that Justin made for him

Best January weather

Walking skills in action

Pine Valley New Year's

We spent New Year's this year at the Hafen Hideout in Pine Valley with a bunch of our friends. We had been excited for a while because Jordan, Tomoe, and Hana were in town from Japan! It was so fun to see them! 

Cal started feeling hot as soon as we got up there in the afternoon, and was pretty grumpy until he went to sleep around 8. I felt bad for him, and I was bummed because most of Dallin's friends haven't really met Cal since we usually hang out with them late at night. We had a ton of fun ringing in the New Year with games, pool, poker, and sparkling cider. 

We went to bed around 3, and Cal woke up right then (really unlike him... he is usually the World's greatest sleeper). After having him cry on and off for an hour, we decided to just drive home because we weren't sleeping and I felt bad for preventing the other 20 people that were there from sleeping as well. So we made the drive back to St. George at like 4:15 in the morning!

An adventurous start to 2014.

reunited

The whole New Year's crew

Christmas in St. George!

We were in St. George this year and spent Christmas with the Mitchells. Cal still doesn't really know what is going on, but it was super fun that he was old enough to get excited about presents. It is nice because we are on the same holiday schedule as most of Dal's siblings, so everyone was there except for the Hunters. A bunch of Dal's cousins came over for a yummy dinner on Christmas Eve. We ate and played the quarter game. After they left we read the Christmas story and opened sibling gifts. Christmas morning, as usual at the Mitchells, we were up at 5 in the morning. I thought that Cal would be grumpy that early, but he did really well. We got him a tool set, which he really liked. We were kind of bummed about the basketball hoop that we got him because we got it for him with the assumption that he would walk by Christmas. Because he doesn't walk yet, we figured it would be a couple of months before we could use it. For sure the highlight of my day was Cal taking his FIRST STEPS ON CHRISTMAS!! It was magical. Dallin stood him up with a basketball and he took 2 steps and dunked it. He did it several more times after that and it was awesome. The rest of the day we hung out, ate delicious food, and spent time with family… a very successful Christmas.

Christmas Eve

Christmas morning

Christmas Day with Grandpa Gib

We spent a whole week in St. George! The day after Christmas we all went hiking at Snow Canyon and then to a park afterwards. Winter in southern Utah is lovely hiking weather!

One of the days we hiked the Angel's landing hike in Zion's with Dennis, Lisa, Lauren & Tyler. We switched off carrying the pack because Cal is getting heavy with that pack, especially up the switchbacks. It was a beautiful hike! Cal did great, he even fell asleep on the way down… hiking must have worn him out.

The rest of the week we spent bowling, eating out, and trying to get Cal to walk. This week he would mostly only walk if he was shooting his basketball. It was so darn cute. We also had a 'Mitchell Family Olympics' with teams of couples. Dallin's parents bought prizes for the winners and it ended up being really fun, especially because those brothers are so competitive. Cal had a lot of fun with Ellie and Kaden.