Utah

I hate playing catch up-but when I look back I would hate to not see our first visit to see baby Ruby! So right after our fun Disneyland trip with my Dad (which was thoroughly documented in a previous post) Dad and I drove our CRV to Utah in what we called "The great Anderson Car Exchange". You see, Old Dieter, our old Honda Accord that Katy has been driving, finally died.  Poor Dieter, he will be missed. Well, when contemplating a new car, my parents were generous enough to consider the needs of all of their daughters and do a gigantic car exchange that would solve everyone's needs. I had the CRV, which we loved, but knew that I couldn't fit three car seats in the back seat. BEcca had old Chester (which I got at 17 and has been driven by the girls since I went to college), but he isn't going to last forever and my Momma had her van. So Mom got a brand new van (lucky dog!) gave me her Toyota Sienna (I made out like a bandit), we gave Becca the CRV (she made out like a bandit too) and Katy got Chester (katy didn't make out as good:(. Anyway, that is the background on the great exchange. Dad and I had a fun drive. I was only 10 weeks at this point, so I was still feeling pretty nasty and tired every day-but Dad took good care of me. I think we drove circles around Cedar City because I couldn't imagine eating any fast food except and Arby's roast beef sandwich. He found me one too:) Anyway, we were very anxious to get to Springville where Becca and Ruby were waiting for us. Ruby is the most beautiful child (besides my own I guess:) I have ever seen. She looks so much like Becca to me. She has beautiful rosy cheeks, adorable little eyes-she is perfect. My favorite thing was burping her. There is nothing better then burping a baby because you get to snuggle up close, she was happy and content after eating and I always managed to get a good hearty burp out of her! Lucy ADORES Ruby.  She had been sick about a week before we left for Utah and still had a little cough so we had three rules. 1. No touching or kissing Ruby's face 2. Always sanitize before touching her anywhere 3. If you need to cough, cover your mouth in your elbow and run away. She was pretty good at rule #1. Super good at rule #2 (Daddy has taught her well) and #3 was hysterical. You'd see her thinking then all of the sudden she would be sprinting down the hallway as far as she could get from Ruby before coughing a tiny bit. So cute.

We had expected to have a low key trip. Just stay at home and stare at the baby. In the end we plopped that baby in her car seat and drove around Utah to visit lots of family, shop and eat. Unfortunately Becca and I were both totally worn out most of the time as a result, but we had a lot of fun too. One outing that was important to us was going to Cornbelly's -a big pumpkin patch/play area. It is now officially a tradition to go there because we had such a fun time going with Lucy last year on one of our relief week trips to UT. We had a great time and it was the only place I took any pictures.

That week I experienced a Utah miracle. I only threw up once and hardly felt sick at all. I was hungry and actually ate. It was bizarre after feeling like death for so long. The cherry on top was I was able to eat at Bajio, my absolute favorite place in the world, many many times and hold it all down! What I wouldn't do for a good enchilada right now...
 Ruby after her very first real bath

 Lucy throwing rocks in the water on a beautiful path by Bec's house.

A night out in Springville celebrating Becca's birthday.

Danny was able to fly up for the weekend for the Lindsay Aline concert in SLC. I hardly saw him, but it was so much fun to meet up in the city and see the show. Lindsay was amazing and it was in a terrific venue. Danny did get down to Springville to meet Ruby one night-don't they both look exhausted?!

Anyway, we were there a whole week, but it still managed to fly by incredibly fast. We did the car exchange and drove little Chester home to Irvine. Dad, who must have been feeling crazy and missing my momma, dropped me off in Irvine and then continued driving home-that is like a 15 hour drive-poor guy.  We had so much fun. Now I anxiously await Becca coming for Christmas to see Ruby again-amazing how fast these little babies get big!
PS: yes, seeing Ruby made me super excited that I'm having a baby
PPS: Yes, seeing and remembering the amount of work one baby takes made me absolutely terrified to have two babies at once.