Monday, September 1, 2008
Rise and Shout!
Saturday was the first BYU football game of the season.
Gracie got a true cougar blue onesie to wear during the games to cheer her favorite team on!
Rob barbecued some delicious burgers for us to enjoy as we beat Northern Iowa University.
Gracie got a true cougar blue onesie to wear during the games to cheer her favorite team on!
Rob barbecued some delicious burgers for us to enjoy as we beat Northern Iowa University.Go Cougs!
Hello Mexico!
Cozumel, Mexico - August 17-24, 2008
Well, Grace has the first stamp in her passport. Rob, Grace and I spent a week in Cozumel, Mexico thanks to Wayne Leary, Rob's old Scout leader who took four of his scouts and their wives on a dive trip to Cozumel. The friends that came on the trip were Wayne Leary, John and Patricia Leary, Preston and Melissa Anderson, Tom and Crystine Carter and Rob, Gracie and me.
Photo at right shows Gracie riding the towel swan that the nice housekeeping senora made for us. She loved Grace, as did all the locals. Everywhere we went, both the men and the women fawned over her. She was a big hit. The women would say "Oh! Muy chiquitita!" in a really high voice. A few of them even asked if they could hold her. It was really interesting to contrast the cultural differences of the Mexicans who weren't afraid to touch or kiss her with an English family we met who would hardly come over to see her even when we invited them to (they had stared at her for a long time from a distance). It was really nice to feel welcome with her around - it really warmed people up immediately.
Grace did a great job on the trip. She pretty much immediately fell asleep as soon as we went outside because it was so hot and humid!
The pool area of our hotel, Hotel Cozumel. The pool was really nice. It was huge - there are lots of little areas of the pool that you can swim in that makes it feel like there aren't a ton of other people swimming with you. The day this picture was taken I think I was the only one in the pool.
Gracie and Daddy's favorite position for lounging by the pool.
Some Trip Highlights:
Four Mexicans and a Hard Rock Cafe
On our first night in Cozumel, we went to eat at the smallest Hard Rock Cafe in the world. Grace was asleep when we got there and we thought that it would be a good idea to put her down on the bench while we ate. Bad idea. She woke right up and Rob and I both had ordered two-handed food, so we couldn't hold her and eat at the same time. So we were passing her back and forth while we ate...it wasn't working so well. So when our little Mexican waitress asked if she could hold her, we let her. It was so cute to have all of the waiters and waitresses in the whole restaurant. Coming soon is the photo (Tommy took it for us on his camera).
Well, Grace has the first stamp in her passport. Rob, Grace and I spent a week in Cozumel, Mexico thanks to Wayne Leary, Rob's old Scout leader who took four of his scouts and their wives on a dive trip to Cozumel. The friends that came on the trip were Wayne Leary, John and Patricia Leary, Preston and Melissa Anderson, Tom and Crystine Carter and Rob, Gracie and me.Photo at right shows Gracie riding the towel swan that the nice housekeeping senora made for us. She loved Grace, as did all the locals. Everywhere we went, both the men and the women fawned over her. She was a big hit. The women would say "Oh! Muy chiquitita!" in a really high voice. A few of them even asked if they could hold her. It was really interesting to contrast the cultural differences of the Mexicans who weren't afraid to touch or kiss her with an English family we met who would hardly come over to see her even when we invited them to (they had stared at her for a long time from a distance). It was really nice to feel welcome with her around - it really warmed people up immediately.
Grace did a great job on the trip. She pretty much immediately fell asleep as soon as we went outside because it was so hot and humid!
The pool area of our hotel, Hotel Cozumel. The pool was really nice. It was huge - there are lots of little areas of the pool that you can swim in that makes it feel like there aren't a ton of other people swimming with you. The day this picture was taken I think I was the only one in the pool.
Gracie and Daddy's favorite position for lounging by the pool.
Some Trip Highlights:
Four Mexicans and a Hard Rock Cafe
On our first night in Cozumel, we went to eat at the smallest Hard Rock Cafe in the world. Grace was asleep when we got there and we thought that it would be a good idea to put her down on the bench while we ate. Bad idea. She woke right up and Rob and I both had ordered two-handed food, so we couldn't hold her and eat at the same time. So we were passing her back and forth while we ate...it wasn't working so well. So when our little Mexican waitress asked if she could hold her, we let her. It was so cute to have all of the waiters and waitresses in the whole restaurant. Coming soon is the photo (Tommy took it for us on his camera).
The Infamous Pirate Cruise
Wayne had heard about a steak and lobster pirate cruise that sailed every weekend. So we decided to go on Frida
y night as a fun night out for everyone (not to mention it sounded incredibly tasty). Tom and Crystine had been on a pirate cruise when they went to Mexico and they said that theirs was fun and romantic. We were all really excited to go! Well, let's just say that it was an all-you-can-drink (and let's see how drunk we can get you) cruise and it was less than romantic. Pretty much they played drinking games and were naughty the whole time. I guess we should have known we were in for an adventure when we saw the disco ball hanging on the deck. Anyway, adventure it was. All of the pirates kissed Gracie at least once. The Pirate Barracuda (on left in the photo) stole Crystine's earring, then lost it, but the Pirate Porkchop (in the middle) found it. Preston Anderson was caught off guard and got Tequila squeezed into his mouth. 
The steak and lobster was delicious. Most of the time we were trying to make small talk to distract ourselves so we wouldn't pay attention to the raunchiness going on on the deck. After dinner, however, the pirates turned on a strobe light and fought with swords blazing. It was so cool! There were sparks flying off their swords as they fought feet (and sometimes inches) away from the passengers. I was grateful that there was no drinking on the job for the pirates.
We did experience an amazing sunset on the cruise.
Wayne had heard about a steak and lobster pirate cruise that sailed every weekend. So we decided to go on Frida
y night as a fun night out for everyone (not to mention it sounded incredibly tasty). Tom and Crystine had been on a pirate cruise when they went to Mexico and they said that theirs was fun and romantic. We were all really excited to go! Well, let's just say that it was an all-you-can-drink (and let's see how drunk we can get you) cruise and it was less than romantic. Pretty much they played drinking games and were naughty the whole time. I guess we should have known we were in for an adventure when we saw the disco ball hanging on the deck. Anyway, adventure it was. All of the pirates kissed Gracie at least once. The Pirate Barracuda (on left in the photo) stole Crystine's earring, then lost it, but the Pirate Porkchop (in the middle) found it. Preston Anderson was caught off guard and got Tequila squeezed into his mouth. 
The steak and lobster was delicious. Most of the time we were trying to make small talk to distract ourselves so we wouldn't pay attention to the raunchiness going on on the deck. After dinner, however, the pirates turned on a strobe light and fought with swords blazing. It was so cool! There were sparks flying off their swords as they fought feet (and sometimes inches) away from the passengers. I was grateful that there was no drinking on the job for the pirates.
We did experience an amazing sunset on the cruise.
- Rob getting to dive morning and evening on a few days
- Seeing sharks, eels and barracudas on dives
- Swimming with the dolphins
- Visiting the Mayan ruins at Tulum
- Xel-Ha - an awesome natural river and sea inlet that you can float or snorkel down
- Shopping. This probably depends on who you ask :)
- Collecting wristbands...everything we did required us to have a wristband
- Eating delicious food (even if it did make us sick...)
- Karaoke at our hotel. Preston, Melissa and Amanda all sang along with the drunkards in attendance.
Thursday, August 7, 2008
Firsts
Oh stop it...you're making me blush with all this attention!
Oh so cute in her ducky dress for church!
Baby blessing. We blessed Grace at Grandma and Grandpa Gwilliam's house on Tuesday, July 30th. She looked so pretty in her dress. Once again, she missed most of the action because she was so soundly asleep.
First parade. At one week old, Grace attended her first parade. It was the Bountiful City 24th of July parade. It was really, really hot this evening, but the parade was fun. Grace slept through the whole thing which was especially amazing since the fire trucks blew their horns at Uncle Mitch right in front of where we were sitting. It scared the begeebees out of everyone, but Grace slept soundly through the exictement.
First bath. Amanda was really nervous to bathe Gracie, but thanks to Rob it sent swimmingly. Gracie was so good and seemed to enjoy her first bath.
Welcome home! Amanda left for the hospital from our apartment in Provo and stayed in the hospital for a few days and came home to the Salt Lake apartment. It was a crazy weekend! Thanks to all of the family and friends that made the move possible! We could not have done it without you all!
First car trip. We were all very excited to go home finally. We had to wait until Saturday evening to get to go home since Grace needed some antibiotics (that's why she had the IV line in her head in the photos). Not to worry though - the medicine was preventative since Amanda had a fever during labor. But Grace was fine and so was Amanda, we're very grateful.
Friday, July 18, 2008
Pictures of Grace
Grace Annette Carter was born July 17, 2008 at 7:11 a.m. She weighs 8 lbs. 5 oz. and measures in at 20.5 inches.
Wednesday, July 16, 2008
Baby Grace
Grace is on her way. For updates and photos please see the carepage we've created:
http://www.carepages.com/ServeCarePage?cpn=GraceCarter&ipc=binviteemailtemplate
http://www.carepages.com/
Thursday, July 10, 2008
Lots of Changes
There are lots of changes happening in our little family recently.
First, Rob got a full-time job with the Church. He has been hired as the Associate Program Manager of the Talent Management and Capability Division of the Human Resources Department. We are really excited and he is getting tons of great experience!
Second, baby Grace was due July 6. Notice I'm using the past tense. That date was last Sunday, it is now Thursday...day 4 overdue. We're getting incredibly anxious to meet our little bundle of joy, but she's not going to come until she wants apparently. As you can see, my belly just keeps on growing!
Third, because of Rob's position in downtown Salt Lake, we will be moving to Salt Lake next weekend right after the baby is born. It will be quite the adventure! We just got an apartment in the Avenues in downtown. We feel very blessed to have found an apartment so close to Rob's work that we could afford. It will be great for Rob to cut down his commute time from 3 hours a day to 10 minutes! We'll update later with photos and highlights of the apartment...it's older and has some awesome features! :)
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