1 MONTH!!!

Ashlynn turned 1 month old yesterday. Yeah, this is big time! This first month has flown by and she's been SO MUCH fun. Being first-time parents we have little to compare her to but we've been surprised how amazingly good of a baby she is. This parent thing is cake! What's all the hype about?!

Just kidding. We have had a few moments. These last couple of weeks she's had a few things that have prompted concern. The biggest one being a lingering heart murmur. But after visiting a couple doctors including a pediatric cardiologist they determined that it's a condition that will heal itself over the course of the next couple of years. Overall she really has been an amazing little girl. From those who are more experienced parents/grandparents we keep hearing that we've been completely spoiled by her. Well Shannon and I have decided that we are both completely, 100% okay with it.

Some of her newest developments: 1 - Discovery of her own voice. So far this mostly means she finally figured out how to cry (darn!). We were enjoying her not knowing about this yet. But she's just barely beginning to use her voice for other things, too. My schedule allows that a few days a week she and I get to hang out while mom sleeps in. (See, told you we were lucky). While I was reading this morning she was laying on the floor and, for the first time of which I am aware, tried to let out a few coo's! And development #2 - SMILES! We can't wait to see more and more of these. She started looking at us and smiling about a week ago. They're still kind of sparse, of course, but when she's fed and rested we're working hard for these!

So here are some pics of her first month. Shannon even caught one yesterday of her smiling! We love her!

Here She Is!

Our daughter finally made it this weekend! Ashlynn Dianne was born Friday night at 7:10 out here at Hackensack, NJ. She was a pretty big girl measuring 8lbs 6oz. and 21in. long. She's beautiful, but I know what everybody who sees her pictures is thinking; Either they gave us the wrong baby at the hospital or the mailman had something to do with this . Believe me, I'm glad Shannon and I were both there when she was born or we, too, would be doubting the competency of the nurses. And as for the latter... interrogation is still in progress. So in order to appease my mind we found baby pictures of both me and Shannon, too, in hopes that we (or any of you) could say "she's got Shannon's nose" or "she's got Sean's... hmm... well...?" Just kidding.

Anyway, we are so excited to have her. Since we got home from the hospital last night Ashlynn has continued to be her sweet content self and Shannon is gradually recovering. Nonetheless, I think Shannon would agree with me in saying that last Friday was the best day of our lives!!! Not that our wedding or certain other experiences were any less significant, but that Ashlynn's birth not only created a new love within us but reminded us of how much we love each other. That was an overwhelming experience I don't think either of us expected. We are SO, SO happy to have her! HAPPY BIRTHDAY ASHLYNN!

Beach Day

We went to the beach recently. I don't need to say much, the picture says it all. I knew she used the last of the sunscreen on me, but It would have been helpful to know that she RAN OUT of sunscreen long before the job was done! See the zig-zag down my back made by the last of the lotion? You'd think she did this on purpose! Ouch!

Here's To Summer!

So we were waiting to update our blog until we got back from a little weekend vacation that we were planning at the end of May. As you are all hopefully aware, May is long gone. But as soon as we got back from that trip we were surprised with the opportunity to go a few more places, too. So we haven't had internet for about a month. Now it's back to real life - school and all- as of last week. So here's to summer!!!:

... Massachusetts/Rhode Island

After 7 months we finally got a car again in May so we were anxious to take advantage of a car and a summer break from school to see a few parts of New England. So we found a surprisingly cheap but decent place to stay on Cape Cod, MA. And we loved it! Neither of us had ever been to Cape Cod, and we had each only been to Boston once before. We enjoyed beautiful scenery, huge empty beaches, perfect weather, and attending the Boston temple: It was so relaxing and so much fun! Oh yeah, while we were there I HAD to have a lobster dinner. There were tons of little shacks lining the roads advertising their lobster and seafood. We went to a restaurant on the harbor in Hyannis. For some reason, though, when I ordered the lobster I only had a lobster tail in mind. You know, the way most people eat it... in the west anyway. Well out here the tail is just the beginning. They serve the tail, the head, and everything in between. Oops! What I ate was good, but what I saw inside turned me away from ordering another one for a while.

Even more than Cape Cod, though, we loved the day we spent in Newport, RI on our way home! Newport is an old, beautifully maintained, and very wealthy victorian town set on really pretty, rugged coastline (that is, rugged on East Coast standards). While walking around such enormous mansions Shannon was sure we had walked into the setting of a Jane Austin book. Rhode Island is awesome! And since it's only 3hrs or so from home we'll be back!

... Backpacking in the Catskills

Before I met Shannon and her family in Utah I got to go backpacking for a couple days in the Catskill Mountains of New York (again, this is the East Coast we're talking about. The mountains were small but they were quite a relief from the city). We did about 18 miles in the 2 days, "climbed" 3 "peaks", and had a very uninvited black bear show up in our campsite that night. We had just finished dinner and had luckily hung our bags before heading to the tent for the night. It was really dark by now, and being in the woods alone on that side of these mountains we must have heard every creaking tree and falling leaf. While my friend was on edge throughout the evening, I grew used to the noises, that is, until about 20 - 30 minutes later when I heard distinct heavy foot-steps coming toward our tent. My friend and I started yelling and screaming at whatever it was and I grabbed a flashlight to search around... from within the tent, of course. While still yelling at whatever it was (at this point it could just been an overweight chipmunk) my flashlight caught the reflection of the bear's eyes, and they were a lot higher off the ground than a chipmunk! We really started yelling at that point and, gratefully, it soon ran off. Since I saw it's eyes with my flashlight I knew it was close to the tent, but it wasn't until the next morning that I realized he was REALLY close; right under the tree from which we hung our bags about 40ft from our tent! Yeah, we should have hung our bags a little farther away.

... Utah!

Here's a few pics of us and the fam in Utah. We had SO MUCH fun with them there! She actually got to spend about 3 weeks there! (Four-wheeling in Spanish Fork Canyon and playing softball with the family @ Hobble Creek)









Oh yeah. And we brought our Wii to Utah for all of us to play together. We found out that we got some good little boxers in the family. Check out our little 3 year old niece get a quick knock out. And now that we taught them all to hit, it was time to leave...