Pictures of Ethan

Ethan and I went to the mall today to get one of those invisible shields on my iPod. Ethan got some new shoes while we were there that went really well with the outfit he was wearing and he just looked so cute that I decided to go to Kiddie Kandids to get his picture taken. It had been a long time since we've done pictures and I wasn't too excited about it because these things have never gone very well in the past, but he did great. He was having fun and being very cooperative the entire time. It turned out a lot better than I expected and I'm very grateful for that. 

The Hotel Cafe Tour

My friend April told me about this awesome tour that was coming  to the Avalon in Salt Lake City. I was way stoked about this concert because Kate Havnevik was going to be there and she is one of my favorite artists right now. I ended up going with April and her two daughters, Burgandy and Senja. The girls wanted to be up front by the stage so we went up with them and ended up being there for the whole show. It was so much fun! Altogether there ended up being 6 different female artists that performed. Most of the others I hadn't heard of but they all totally rocked! Next to Kate Havnevik, my favorite was Meiko. I don't think I had heard her music before but now I totally love her. She was super cute and funny when she was on stage too. Yay for girl power!

(I only had my phone so these pictures kinda suck)

Meiko

Meiko

Thao and Lenka

Kate Havnevik

Halloween (a few weeks late)

Ethan had a ton of fun with the whole Halloween experience this year. He got to go pick out his costume and chose this dinosaur. He has been really into dinosaurs lately so it was a good pick for him. We went trick or treating around our neighborhood while we waited for dad to get home from work. Then we went to Tooele so he could show off his costume to Kevin's family. He had a great time dressing up and getting free candy! He loved dressing Meg up in her bee costume but I don't think she liked it as much as he did...

Pre-Halloween Fun

I love Halloween, it is probably my favorite holiday of the whole year. I also love this age that Ethan is at right now. This is the first year that's he's actually been into Halloween and realizing what it is and everything. 

Last Monday we went to Kevin's parents to carve pumpkins (of course I didn't get any pictures of it). I thought Ethan would be really into it and want to get in and get all messy and everything but he totally wasn't. Kevin cut off the top and handed him the pumpkin to scoop out the guts, Ethan stuck his hand in for two seconds and goes "it's too yucky". We kept on trying to get him to clean out the pumpkin with his hands but he just kept on saying "it's too yucky, it's too yucky" and wouldn't do it. Finally we gave him a big spoon to use and he was cool with that. What three year old little boy doesn't want to get messy? I'm probably to blame since I am constantly wiping his hands and mouth whenever he gets a little messy or dirty. Poor kid, I hope he doesn't inherit my OCD.

Last night we decided to make pumpkin shaped sugar cookies and watch, "It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown". He loved making the cookies and playing with the left over dough like it was play dough. 

Today I was still in the Halloween spirit so we decided to go to Cornbelly's after Kevin got off work. We had never been before and it was a lot better than I thought it would be. I thought it was just a big corn maze. Which by the way in my opinion is the worst part of the place. Granted we didn't go to the haunted corn maze, but I was pretty much bored with the whole thing after about two point five seconds of being in the maze. Of course we got lost and ended up being in there twice as long as I wanted to (which probably amounted to a total of 10 minutes but felt like an hour). The rest of it was a lot of fun though. Ethan was really excited about the dragon or monster or whatever that thing is. He was totally all about going inside it and wasn't even scared at first. He got a little scared when we went in but was actually pretty brave. He never cried or screamed or anything. Half way through he wanted me to pick him up and when we got out he even wanted to go back in! We went through a second time and when we got out that time he said "it's too scary", but he still loved it. I think his favorite part of the whole place was all of the different slides. He probably went on every slide there at least a dozen times. My favorite part was the fried peanut butter and jelly sandwich! It's pretty much just a peanut butter and jelly uncrustable deep fried and covered with powdered sugar. It's like a peanut butter and jelly doughnut! I can't believe halloween is already tomorrow and then it's all going to be over, how sad.

Making cookies

I think dad is having more fun than him in this one

The dreaded Corn Maze

This is a really bad picture but I had to

show him "conquering" the dragon

Work, Work, Work

Wow, It really has been over a month since the last post? I am so bad at this. 

Well the last 6 weeks or so have been very crazy for the Garcia family. Kevin and I have both been working almost non stop since Sep 2. Since then we have each done about 7 shows I think. We were almost always on the same shows together so that part was cool.  I really missed being able to see Ethan every day though. Most of the shows were in Salt Lake but since the hours were so crazy we usually just stayed in a hotel up there. I'm just really thankful that we have such an awesome babysitter. I know Ethan loves her cause he usually cries more when he has to leave there than when I drop him off! I hate that I have to leave him so much but it makes it a lot easier when I don't have to worry about him and I know that he's fine and having fun. I just hope that she doesn't get sick of him always being there!

Kevin and I just got back a couple of days ago from doing a show in Orlando. I know everybody thinks that's it's so great to get to travel for work and to go to all these great places, but it's really not. Most of the time we are lucky if we even get to leave the hotel. We usually stay in the same place where we are doing the show so it's mostly going back and forth from the ballroom to your hotel room. Sometimes you get lucky and there will be a clothing store or something in between the two, but that's about it. Granted, the places that we stay in are usually very nice resorts and 5 star hotels and things like. On the one hand, it's pretty cool staying in places that I would never be able to afford if I were paying for it myself but on the other hand, I really get sick of paying $50 for ONE meal. This last show however was one of the rare few where you have some time off and the client you're are working for has a cool party that you get to go hang out at. This company rented out part of Sea World one night for their party. We got to go and see the Shamu Show and ride a couple of roller coasters and have some free food and drinks. We also even had time one day to hang out by the pool for a couple of hours! That almost never happens. So all in all not too bad of a show. This is also the same company that last year rented out part of Universal Studios and had Brian Regan perform for the closing keynote and about 6 months ago at the Mirage in Vegas, had Demetri Martin do the closing Keynote. (Who is probably my favorite comedians of all time that I got to meet, hang out with, and get a picture with. That was awesome.) Needless to say, it's one of the more fun shows that we get to do.

So one of the many reasons that I never update my blog (besides that fact that I'm a huge procrastinator) is that my laptop was so old and slow and frustrating to use that I just never wanted to use it. I've known for a long time now that I needed a new laptop but couldn't really constitute buying a new one till my old one totally died, but then I realized that it's not going to die. It's just going to get slower and stupider, (I don't think that's a word) and more annoying till I just get sick of it and chuck it out a window. So to save my sanity, and maybe someone's life, I finally decided to just do it. When I was in Orlando I found out that they came out with the new MacBook Pro's so I decided that I needed to get one when I got back. So I did! I went out and bought one yesterday! I'm way excited about it but I still feel like it's not really mine. Like I just borrowed it from work and I'm going to have to give it back or something. Well, I guess it will sink in eventually. YAY! So now I have no more excuses for being a slacker. I have the time now and the new lappy so I better get on it! 

As bad as I am about blogging, I think I'm even worse at taking pictures. I NEVER have my camera with me but I always have my phone with me so pretty much any pictures that I post are from my phone and not that great of quality, sorry.

Shamu Rocks? (btw, how are there 3 Shamu's?)

One of the other perks of the job. I actually got to drive this around town.

It was really scary and really fun all at the same time.

This is the Scary Tunnel at LAX. It's just this for like a mile. 

I was glad I wasn't alone because I would have been really freaked out. 

I thought this one was pretty funny and he will probably hurt me for putting this up.

This is at one of the hotels downtown that we stayed at. 

He was so tired that I think he fell asleep mid keystroke.

Our Trip to Yellowstone

I want to give a big thank you to Kevin's parents for our trip to Yellowstone last week. We had a lot of fun and Ethan loved spending so much time with his Mamaw and Papaw! 

We left late last Monday and got to the cabin where we were staying in Island Park, ID at about 10pm. After spending some time chatting and playing in the hot tub, we went to bed so we could get up early to go to the park. On Tuesday we went to Yellowstone and saw Old Faithful, the Paint Pots and the Grand Canyon. We were pretty disappointed when we left though because we didn't see any wildlife. Ethan really wanted to see the Buffalo (also, a giraffe and an elephant but I told him that probably wasn't going to happen). It was ok though because he pretty much fell asleep right after we left Old Faithful and wouldn't have seen anything anyway. 

Wednesday, Kevin and I, his brothers Jared and Luke and our nephew Thomas all went river rafting for the day. (Ethan was too young to go so we left him with Kevin's parents to enjoy the day with them.) We got up at 6am and drove about an hour and a half away to the place where we would be rafting on the Gallatin River. We had so much fun. I was so excited to go, I haven't been river rafting since I was about 12 years old. The water was pretty low I guess and we ended up getting stuck a couple of times on some rocks. No one fell out or tipped over though so all in all it was a pretty good trip.

Thursday we went to the park again to do the upper loop and see the Mammoth Hot Springs. We finally saw some wildlife that day! We saw a herd of elk on the way in and then later there was a huge elk right next to the road. It was so cool seeing one that big so close to us. Then a little while later we passed a herd of about a hundred bison, with a couple even crossing the road right in front of us! There was one that I swore was going to ram the car. I was so scared. I think we got that one on video and you can probably hear me freaking out in the back ground. I'll try to add that one later.

Friday was the day we went home. One of our friends from work had told us about Bear World by Rexburg, ID and told me we had to take Ethan there. Since it was already closed the day we drove up, we decided to take him on the way home. He had so much fun there, he loved it! He was pointing out all the bears before we even saw them and he had his little Fisher Price camera out and would yell "stop the car, stop the car!" so he could take a picture. It was so cute. He got to go to the petting zoo after and ride all the little kid rides. He was having so much he didn't want to leave. He starting screaming and crying when we left. Other than that part it was a lot of fun. It is definitely worth going if you ever get a chance. It was a long day driving home but it was totally worth the trip. I can't wait till we can go again!

The Grand canyon

Mamaw and Papaw

Ethan and His cousin Thomas chillin in the hot tub

This isn't a very good picture but this elk was huge

The Bison that scared the bigeezes out of me

Mammoth Hot Springs

I love these outfits

Taking a break from paddling for some lunch

Ethan riding his "horsie"

At Old Faithful

He wasn't too happy about dad holding him

Tibble Fork Fun

Ok, what did I say? It's been almost 2 months since the last post. Not that I haven't had anything to blog about, we've actually been pretty busy this summer, it's just that I suck when it comes to writing about it. Also, I'm not very good at taking pictures and have been waiting for my slacker sister to give me all the one's that she has but, like previously stated, she is a slacker. 

Well last Saturday Kevin was working all day so Ethan and I decided to get out of the heat and head up to American Fork Canyon. It's only about a 30 min drive from our house but it's usually about 20 degrees cooler than where we live. When we got there we headed straight up to Tibble Fork Reservoir to go play in the water. It was really crowded, I think because of the Pioneer Day week end, and there were a lot of people up there fishing. Ethan kept on saying "mommy, I want to go fishing". Since I am not big on fishing myself, I guess we will have to get dad to take him (hint, hint dad). We were only there for about an hour when it starting raining like crazy so we decided to head out. Ethan fell asleep as soon as I started the car and it was so pretty up there with the rain that I ended up just driving around for a couple of hours looking at the scenery. I managed to get a few pictures on my phone before it started raining.

He got some of the lake water in his mouth

The shoes didn't last long

He loved picking up the rocks and seeing how far he could throw them in the water

This one's a little big...