"That which love begins, God alone can finish." -Victor Hugo

We celebrated our anniversary by going out to Gloria's Little Italy. Delicious and much better than the pizza we had...at home...with my mom and brother for our last anniversary (we had just gotten home the day before from the hospital with Henry!)

*First appearance as husband and wife*

As I've thought about what to say in this post about Johann and I celebrating two years of marriage so many different thoughts have come to mind. Now this may seem to be an odd way to explain how I feel about the past two years of our life together, but just go with it, it'll come together, I promise:
Last semester while studying women's history, so many of the women who became leaders of different women's movements noted that they had never understood how bad things could be for women because they were some of the "lucky ones" who had husbands that allowed them the freedom they needed to grow. Margaret Fuller, a famous female transcendentalist explained ideal marriage as two people coming together to work at allowing each other to have moments of realization, epiphanies of the divine; sister Hinckley explained it simply and beautifully when she said that her husband had "given her wings to fly."
I suppose I use to think that all of these men were passive and simply allowed their wives to do what they wanted so long as it didn't interfere, kind of a Cinderella syndrome of, "Oh honey, you can go to the ball so long as you make sure the kids are fed, in bed and the dishes are done." It wasn't until we had Henry and I continued in school that I realized what kind of man it takes to "allow" women to be the lucky ones, the ones to experience epiphanies of the divine and to fly and I am so grateful to be able to say that I married that kind of man.
Not only was Johann my bulwark in getting through school with Henry, but I don't know that there was anyone more proud of my desire to stick it through even when people disparaged my choice to continue my education while having a child. There has been nothing passive about Johann's role in my ability to continue with what I so desired; the bathing, feeding, playing, supporting and loving were all tantamount to anything I can call a success in life. I hope to be able to do for him these years in grad school what he has done for me.
Central to his behavior I know has been his love for me and the view we share of what a marriage is. I hope to share so many more anniversaries together and to continue to work towards helping each other become everything our Father in Heaven has in mind. Happy anniversary my dear, sweet husband.

Does this mean I can drive now?

On May 14th of this year at 4:55pm we burst out singing 'Happy Birthday' much to poor Henry's terror. I've never seen someone so scared and confused at having the birthday song sung to them. However, by the time his party day (the following Saturday) arrived he was ready for it and there was no crying to the sounds of "happy birthday to yooooou."
We set out for California early on the 14th (a Thursday) and celebrated Henry's birthday on Saturday with the family in California. His party was "Yo Gabba Gabba" themed (they're not scary-I promise) and he soaked up all the attention throughout the day. We mostly just spent time talking, playing with Henry, watching Henry love playing with the balloons and eating all the delicious food and cake. It was a good weekend and we're glad that Henry's first birthday was spent with family.
He is such a funny little guy with his sporadically serious or goofy moods. I think the word that would best describe him is "determined;" when he knows what he wants he doesn't stop until he can do it, get it or gets in trouble (and sometimes that doesn't stop him either). After long days when I rock him before bed and look at his sweet little face, I remember just how much I love having this little baby boy in my life. Happy Birthday Henry!

Henry two days old

Morning of Henry's birthday...around 5 am...

He left his Proust at home so he had to read his shapes book instead ;-)

Got a little over zealous with the sippy cup of milk

Party day. Henry's awesome Yo Gabba Gabba onesie with his name on it

Grandma Goodwin

Abuela Simonds

loving holding the balloon

Not loving taking this picture

Giving it a try

and its a hit

Henry loves his elmo

Helping mommy put his new tonka truck together

dancing the rest of the party away on his Yo Gabba Gabba dance mat. Woot!

Mothers Day

My first "real" mothers day has come and gone and it was great. If nothing else I am just happy that this year Henry was sitting on my lap rather than my tummy. Hallelujah for that!

Happy Mothers Day!

Provo Farmers Market and Cabelas

A few weekends ago the weather took a beautiful turn and we set out for the farmers market here in Provo. Johann wasn't too excited about going at first, but the lure of the possibility of good food for lunch helped get him there. We walked through the narrow path in between the separate booths, saw lots of little crafts and baked goods etc. Towards the end of the path we came across the booths cooking food and we got a burrito and Navajo taco to share. They were both really delicious and I dare say they will serve as strong incentives to get Johann to go back again some weekend.
Henry spent most of his time running around on the wide open grass and pushing the stroller along. I hope he still thinks pushing the stroller is awesome when another sibling comes along!
Afterwards we thought about going to Thanksgiving point but Henry was getting a little tired (okay-so we were too) so we decided to go see this giant animal mountain and aquarium everyone talks about at Cabelas. I'm not a big fan of hunting and sticking animal heads on walls (one, it freaks me out, two it makes me feel bad) but the little exhibits they had were pretty intense. Henry had big eyes the whole time and was pointing and babbling. When we got to the part with the bears he was squirming and trying his hardest to get to those bears...maybe he wanted to pet them? Crazy kid. Then we saw the aquarium which in my opinion was better than the "aquarium" we saw earlier and it was FREE. =)

Annnd we're all caught up

High-five to whoever can name the movie this is referencing...I know, easy, but Henry looked so cute!

Aquarium? (more catch up)

The weekend after graduation we wanted to go on a family outing while Grammy was still around. First we planned to go to Hogle Zoo but the weather had other plans. We finally decided on the Aquarium in Sandy and drove out there Saturday morning. We pulled up and all agreed they had turned an old Albertsons into this now "Aquarium." Johann and I peeked inside to see if we thought it'd be worth it but we couldn't see much anyway and thought, what the hey, we're already here anyway.
Once we got inside we realized how packed it was. I think my frequent moan that there is "nothing to do in Utah" is given some merit by the fact that people are going to this "Aquarium" in droves. Maybe I'm making it out to be worse than it is, but it definitely isn't that great and really only good for 5-10 year olds, if even that. Anyhow, we enjoyed it as best we could, Henry liked looking as some of the fish (the bigger ones scared him until he realized there was glass between him and the fish) and we saw some neat water creatures. But if it hasn't already been made apparent to you, I would not recommend going to the grocery store aquarium. = )

The touch pool

Seeing the sharks with Grammy

Some pretty fish

The concerned look Henry wore on his face until he realized the fish couldn't get him.

Catching up (yup...a frequent title for posts on this blog)

Mid-April was pretty hectic time for me in school (final papers, projects, and, well, finals!) so it was nice when I learned Johann would have a week off of work during the madness. Having him home gave me more time for studying than ever before and also provided some nice family time. Of course the weather was beautiful for most of the week because I needed to be inside studying but at one point it was just too nice so we took Henry to the park and I brought my book (yeah, brought, but thats about all I did with that book while we were there).


Henry doesn't do too terribly much at the park yet. Mostly he just likes being outside , walking around and poking things with his index finger. The funniest part is that he has a very serious look on his face the whole time we're outside. Park time is not fun time. It's serious study time. Apparently.


At the end of Johann's week off and the end of my reading days we went with our friends Lev and Elena to Sundance. Johann and I had never gone and it was one of the places we wanted to see prior to leaving Utah. It was still a little chilly and the lifts were still closed so we meandered around and as always, Henry loved being outside.
Not too far into the area there was a "nature center" so we decided to see what was inside. We found all kinds of weird stuff made out of some kind of playdoh-ey substance and random animal bones (ick...bones creep me out). Well, the seven year old in all of us kicked in and everyone had to take a picture with one of the nature center paraphernalia:

Johann's raccoon print

Lena's creepy little unidentified animal skull

Lev's moose print

They peer pressured me into holding the moose (or elk?) skull. I wouldn't touch it with my hands though.

*Speaking of moose, one of the fellows who worked there came in as we were looking at everything and rattled off some facts to us, among them a fact that has made me fear the woods. Apparently moose can run up to 30mph in TOTAL SILENCE. You will never know what has hit you. Eeek!*

Back to the nature center:

Here the boys regressed from 7 to 4 as Johann offers Lev some clay "poop" on some random bone "platter"

And of course, Johann had to have Henry hold the fake poo.


Stopping for a family picture.
A good day.