Meet the Team

Since we are now loyal Real Salt Lake season ticket holders we got to go to Meet the Team Night! I didn't know how it was going to work since it was my first time. The players are all divided up so the "hot" sigs are all at different tables. They all had times they would be at their tables and times they would be in the club with the club seats. So you had to come up with a pretty good strategy if you wanted to get the majors before they shut the place down. Also, there are rules. One item signed per ticket (so David and I could do two sigs because Kyla doesn't actually hold a ticket), and no pictures with the players because it takes too long. Blow. But I totally would be pissed waiting for other people so I understand.

We started with Beckerman because we're smart.

 

 He was so great. He 'got Kyla's toes' and she wouldn't even smile at him. I however was so star struck I did nothing but smile at him. "Good work Beckerman!!" nope, just stared and smiled and tried to get Kyla to smile. He was definitely my favorite of the night.

Next was Rimando.

He was quieter then I expected. I always see him yelling his brains out at the players with his hands flying around but he must have been star struck with me because he just smiled. I don't think he said a word.

Those were the only players I seriously cared about but of course we waited for several more. Espindola had a funny sense of humor. They were selling Beckerman bobble heads that didn't look anything like Beckerman and as Espindola walked past the poster he said, "Kyle?" haha we laughed. Kyla blew a ton of kisses to Luis Gil so apparently I should pay more attention to him. Johnson was so friendly and asked me if my arms were dying from holding Kyla. They were so we totally had a bonding moment! Love him.

Kyla was super cuddly when we first got there because she didn't take a good nap yesterday and was feeling all cute and tired. That quickly turned into meltdown city. We hand fed her ravioli in the line for Rimando and I learned that carrying her around the whole time was the stupidest thing I ever thought I could do. Who's going to teach my kid to walk? It was still a fun time.

The Itsy Bitsy Spider

went up the water spout.

down came the rain and washed the spider out.

out came the sun and dried up all the rain,

and the itsy bitsy spider went up the spout again.

Allison Gray

Well its official. Introducing Mr. and Mrs. Ben Gray

The wedding is over! We drove down Friday 8/10 for the wedding dinner. Delicious Cafe Kelly (Rio) and a roast of the happy couple later we attempted to go to bed so waking up early would be a happy thing. Well Kyla had other plans. She was up for 2 hours in the middle of the night so we went to bed around 3 and got up around 7. We got ready and headed out with Wendy and Terry to drive to Manti. The sealing was beautiful and I got all teary eyed because this girl, who for all intensive purposes has been my little sister since I was 16 and she was 12, was suddenly a beautiful young lady and changing absolutely everything by getting married. Not that it's a bad thing but everything is now different. Ben hugged me in the sealing room and promised me he'd take the best care of her. We took pictures at the temple for a long time and then drove back to the cabin. Kyla was forced to take a nap whether she wanted to or not and David and I were more then happy to take one ourselves before the reception. We woke up a little after we had planned on leaving so we threw everything together and David probably drove 60mph down the canyon while I fed Kyla in the back seat. We arrived right before the reception started so we were just fine. We laughed and mingled the whole reception. We got Allie back for helping with our car at our wedding by decorating the crap outta her car. Then we went back inside for the bouquet and garter toss. Funny story. Ben tossed the garter and Allie's cousin Jake and his friend were both pretty amped on catching this bad boy. As they wrestled a little bit for it Jake's friend ending up backing into the table with the cake. Jake flipped over the table like a freaking ninja and along with Ted's daughter Josie caught the cake before it hit the ground. Just a couple big hand dents but could have been so much worse. Haha Funniest part of the night. Well....it might be tied with when Ben and Allie saw their car. Either way I had such a fun time.

Yes, that's baby powder.

Hahahahaha this picture is so amazing. So Jessica and I were joking about our shirts all weekend long. We said we looked like we were going to a 70's prom. So this is Jacob and Jessica's prom picture. Haha I love it so much.

Ben and Allie,
Congratulations! I'm so excited for you little lovebirds. Remember my advice to always make each other better. Ben, you better take care of my Allie but you better stand up to her too. Push her to be a better person. Allie, don't walk all over Ben. Be nice to him because its hard being married to a diabetic. (ask David any day of the week) Have conversations when you're both in sound minds (not tired, blood sugar high, or hungry) and remember that the best part is getting over the fight so work towards that instead of keeping the argument going. Its not who is right but what is right. Always remember why you got married and enjoy it. Laugh all the time and have fun date nights. Life is stressful but keep the fun in your marriage. Come and babysit your niece all the time ;] and have fun date nights with me and David. Love you both!

Star Gazing

There was a meteor shower while we were down in Orangeville for Allie's wedding. After the reception Stu, Kateka, David, and I went out next to the cabin and watched for shooting stars. I've seen maybe a couple shooting stars in my life but nothing compared to what I saw that night! We saw upwards of 30 shooting stars.They left huge streaks behind them because of how bright they were and even sometimes showed up with different colors like red or green. David took pictures (not being able to catch any shooting stars of course...) while Stu, Kateka, and I cuddled on a sleeping bag in the dirt. It wasn't comfortable at all. We laughed and talked and oooooo'd and aaaaaaah'd and I had such a good time. Eventually David joined us on the sleeping bag and all spooning together we watched the stars shoot across the sky. Even if he didn't catch any shooting stars David got some crazy good pictures of the night sky. No lights at the cabin make for AMAZING Milky Way shots. It was such a fun way for the night to end.

Rodriguez Family

David served in the Riverside, California mission. One of his areas was Moreno Valley which is where he met the Rodriguez family. He says he felt the spirit in their home right away despite them not being members. He taught Cynthia, (the mom) Natasha, and Audrea (the 2 oldest girls) the gospel lessons.  Hector (the dad) was not amped on the missionaries or the LDS church for that matter and it came to a point where Cynthia had to follow her husband and stop taking the lessons from David. David's companion gave up and told David that he needed to move on but David continued to visit the Rodriguez home to try to talk with them more. They wouldn't talk with him anymore but for some reason he couldn't move on from this amazing family. One day he felt prompted to visit their home and caught Cynthia outside in the driveway. He cornered her for lack of a better description and talked with her for an hour. He doesn't remember anything that he said during that conversation because the spirit did the talking. He does remember making the promise that if Cynthia came to church on Sunday, Hector would come with her. He remembers stressing so much about that promise because Hector was pretty clear on not being interested in this at all for himself or his family. On Sunday David saw the Rodriguez family walking in with Hector bringing up the rear. Hector told me he remembers seeing David and his companion playing around with some youth from the ward and thinking, "oh they're not so uptight." This began the change. Hector's car was having some problems so David, his companion, and a member of the Rodriguez's ward Brother Barnes came over to help him with it. Hector was so impressed that in their suits and ties they were willing to help this man that had never been welcoming to them. They went to the auto parts store and the guy working behind the counter was giving David and his companion dirty looks and staring them down as if he was unhappy they were in his store. Hector noticed and stepped in front of the workers glare and said, "hey, they're with me." Haha It had made Hector so mad that this man was judging them so he stood up for them and the worker totally backed off. Long story short they took the lessons, got baptized and sealed as a family, and then they came to our sealing when David and I got married. They are such an amazing family and inspire me everytime we see each other. David puts it best when he says,"the students have become the teachers." David and I have very strong testimonies in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints but life gets the best of us sometimes and sleeping in becomes pretty tempting on Sundays. Cynthia said to me, "you don't want the devil in the bed next to you do you?" haha. No I don't. With them its so simple. You believe in the church and you do everything you need to. Including going to church when you're tired or whatever your vice may be. Their lives completely center around Christ, as it should, and I leave feeling closer to the Lord just from being around them.

Crocs

Interesting fact about Liz #487. I can't take any adult in Crocs seriously. I think they are so silly. I have had several conversations with my coworkers about Crocs because I work in the medical field and some people wear them. Whatever, if they want to rock them out I can't stop them but I also can't stop judging them. Oh well, their choice. Kids in Crocs is a whole different story. At work we've tried to decide what the cut off age is that Crocs are still ok and cute...we've yet to really settle on one but we're thinking about 7yrs old. When Grandpa Scott and Grandma Sumi were here for Allie's wedding they bought Kyla some cute swag including some Crocs. At first I thought, I'm a total hypocrite, and then I remembered that my child is WAY under 7 yrs old and can freaking rock these Crocs out no problem. She loves them and the second we put them on her she has to be holding and touching them. I know I'm slightly biased cause she's my adorable kid but I kinda die over the cuteness I think these baby Crocs hold. Judge for yourselves....

Kylaisms

Favorite things the little miss is doing:

-Getting food off her bottom lip with her teeth

-Rubbing her hands on my feet when I get out of the shower cause they're wet

-Thinking everything is a telephone and putting it up to her ear. Any toy, any phone you're willing to give her, even her hand if she has nothing else. Anytime I say "hello" her hand goes right up.

-Anytime I say "pretty" her hand jumps straight to her hair. She loves to 'comb' her hair while she watches me get ready so I always say 'oh that's pretty,  pretty girl'. Today at Chick-fil-a she would touch every chicken nugget piece to her hair before eating it. David and I were trying so hard not to laugh but it was so funny. I couldn't even look at her without laughing so I just ignored it after trying to tell her not to do that didn't work.

-Saying something that sounds like "tickletickletickle" all fast in her high pitched tone. David and I can't imitate it at all and she does it all the time. Her new jabbering. She cracks me up.

-'Loves' her toys. Gives them hugs and kisses. Mostly the soft ones like her 'love bug' or elephant but even her bath time frog got loves the other day.

-She gives kisses sometimes but only if she really feels like it. She was giving me kisses today at the mall but she would stick her tongue out everytime I would get close. Haha even if I could get her to keep it in the mouth was wide open.

-Playing games constantly. She's an entertainer for sure. She'll scrunch her eyes at you and if you do it back then she does it again. She loves doing that with Grandpa right now who is more then happy to oblige. Same with tilting her head to the side. All the time when I'm feeding her she'll look at me sideways and wait for me to tilt my head to the same side. Then she'll tilt the other way.

Every new stage she gets to is my new favorite. She's hilarious and pure entertainment most of the time. I never want to forget these little 'Kylaisms' cause they pass too quickly.