A Train to California!

The Frontrunner commuter rail opened up this last week, and as many of you may know it was free to the public until May 1st. We decided it would be fun to go for an adventure. It was Jazz game night, but our friends either had better offers (Mutual of course) or were laying on death beds with horrible sicknesses, so we would be watching alone. I also had the inkling that it wasn't going to be a good night for the Jazz, so we decided to take the risk of missing part of the game to go for a trainride. We decided to hop on the train at our Layton stop (we should call it the Sill's stop -- its right across the street and right behind Doug and Emmy's) and cruise into downtown, go out to eat, and then come on back to hopefully catch most of the game.

Here is Sammy and I as one of the trains are pulling away from the station

Okay, let's be honest here -- the trainride wasn't all THAT exciting, once you are on, its just like taking the bus or a tram anywhere else. However, it was pretty cool to see how fast we got going, in fact we could see the freeway traffic and we were going a bit faster than them most times. Also, because of the fact that the fare was free, there were a zillion people on board, so we didn't get a seat. I would assume that would change once you have to pay some money to go for a ride! And sitting down did seem to be much more enjoyable than standing.

The Frontrunner takes you to the Salt Lake Central station which is just a couple blocks from the Gateway. I guess you could just walk it, but there is a Trax station right there that will take you to the planetarium. We rode it for free as well, not sure if that will always be the case either... Anyway, we ended up in Gateway and decided to eat at the California Pizza Kitchen. We had eaten at the Orem one and the Vegas one, and we weren't disappointed. It was great!

And yes Michelle came with us, here is finally some proof! Sorry babe, I'll try to take more of the pictures next adventure. :-)

Time to hit the road to get back home! In the evening the trains are spaced out longer (an hour between each one) so there were TONS of people waiting to get on. Luckily we got there a bit early so we were close to the front for getting on the train. Here are a few pictures of Sammy on my shoulders while we were waiting for the train to come back.

We thought that the Plumber T-shirt and the plumber baby went well together. :-)

We had a good time, though the train took a lot longer than we thought it would. It was about an hour from the Layton stop to the gateway. You can usually drive that in half the time. It did seem to be a bit bogged down by the sheer number of people that were using the trains due to the freeness of the ride, so it would be interesting to take it for a spin when there weren't so many people clogging up the time. It was fun to go for a train ride while it is still a novelty though, and it turns out the Jazz decided to not even play (beat by 26 points!! ouch) so it was time well spent!

Go Jazz!

We sure are enjoying Jazz playoff season, isn't everybody?!

This time of year just makes it so exciting with how intense each game is and how important every minute is. They haven't played super well, but good enough to win 3-1. Last year we got tickets to a playoff game and had a blast so we decided to do it again.

I've followed them fairly well this season and we've watched a number of the games, so it was so exciting to go to the game. We got some tickets through Jon's work and got a steal of a deal for some pretty good seats. Upper bowl but on the bottom. Anyway we went to game 3. It was so much fun and loud and exciting, but finally frustrating when the game slipped away.
Here's a couple pictures of us at the game.

Everyone getting ready to go

Jon, Carrie, Michelle. They gave us all T-shirts that say "One Team, one Dream"

Jon and Carrie -- what great friends

Here we are!

Let's finish them off boys, bring on the Lakers!

Go JAZZ!!

Cousins

I know, I know -- 2 posts in one day after a week of nothing, its feast or famine around here!

Sammy's little cousin Nathan came to play today. It was fun to watch Sammy, especially with his curiousity of this cute little guy. Obviously there wasn't a whole lot of interaction quite yet, but it makes me excited for the years to come when these guys are going to be all over the place together. I'm excited for this summer when Sammy will get to meet his older two cousins as well, and then two more are coming this fall from the Baum's!

So this picture reminds me of pictures with my cousins Blake or James, where one of us is crying. Yeah, Sam was in no mood for a photo shoot. In fact he wanted to pout and flail his arms everywhere! Thus in order for the picture to take place, and Nathan to remain bruiseless, restraints had to be applied! :-) I also wonder how similar this picture is to the baby pictures of Legolas the elf next to Hagrid?

Cute cousins! Note: no Nathan's were trampled under knee during this photo shoot.

Thanks for coming to Play!

No nap, thanks!

I'm sure all of you parents have experienced this at one time or another. Sammy recently has decided that naps are not cool. There is so much to investigate and so many places to go, that really who has time for sleep?! So he has to cry himself to sleep. We've found him in some crazy positions.

Obviously he isn't asleep here, quite the opposite. This is one of his ways to battle the sleep monster -- pull yourself up in the crib so that it is impossible for the dreaded sleep monster to get you!

A common result of car rides is the classic dead Sammy look

This is our all-time favorite. One option to fight the sleep monster is to sit up. but of course when that sleep monster comes at you full steam, what do you do? Collapse right in half. Now that's a nice relaxing nap! We usually have to let him cry to sleep, and then rescue him from whatever unfortunate position he finds himself in. I think this photo also shows he is a Plumber's grandson!

Sweet Dreams!

From 10 to 13 in 6

28 years ago R. Pond family began with 2.

Over 8 years they brought 5 daughters into the world making their family 7 in all.

5 years ago, the family of 7 grew to 9.

10 months ago, this family of 9 grew to 10.

And in the next 6 months R. Pond family is growing again!

In August, 10 will become 11.

Congrats Jen and Cody, Sammy's pretty excited to have another Uncle!

And in October, 11 will become 13.

Yes, 13.

Thus, these faces...

And these thrilled faces!

Congrats K & B! Sammy's pretty excited to have some Pond (Baum) cousins!

Unfortunate

We interrupt your regularly scheduled program of scrumptious sweet sam pics to bring you this:


I thought it was hilarious.


While fixing dinner the other day I was watching food network (one of my current obsessions). When everything was ready and set out, I paused the TV in order to pray. What unfortunate - yet hilarious - timing!


It reminded me of this face:

Jasmine says to the camel, "Hello doctor. How are you?"

And it reminded me of a time in highschool when my friend Emily said, "Go make that face in the mirror and see if you ever want to make it again."

I'm sure this lady, bless her heart, hadn't ever seen this face in a mirror.

Maybe you won't find it as funny as I did - if not, sorry. More cute pics of Sammy coming soon.

The freedom of Mobility!

So sweet little Sammy has realized that his new mobility has created some wonderful freedom and now some favorite past times. These new past times include:

• Chasing Simba (we've noticed that Sammy has a couple small scratches on his hands...

• Going into his bathroom to retrieve the rubber duckies. Unfortunately there are other fun things to play with in the bathroom which don't seem nearly as sanitary as yellow rubber duckies, so poor Samuel often realizes that this realm is behind a closed door. :-(
  

• Raiding the magazine rack. What is more fun than a piece of crinkleable paper? A whole bunch of crinkleable papers bound together, that you can rip apart and have a wonderful time!

• Playing with the radio. I love his excitement whenever he comes into the room and realizes he has found the radio. He does his little excited, "Ah hah!" over and over again.

• Getting stranded. Apparently the whole "what comes up must come down" is currently in his mind as, "What comes up will stay up only long enough to be picked up by a parent, and if this doesn't happen, panic!"

Sammy at the magazine rack. People talk about they know there's trouble when it is suddenly quiet. That's Sammy to a tee. Wait a second he isn't chuckling and crawling around, what did he get into?

I was able to catch him before any damage was done. The hymn book was there to save the day. Usually he starts by just crinkling what he can before he takes them out and commences the true destruction.Why Sammy thinks the radio is so cool: buttons galore, some of which even open things, an antenna to pull on and twist around, some little levers that turn on the sound, some knobs that change the volume, and some knobs that change what noise comes out. It is even big enough to stand up on and will handle some good old fashioned beating.

So today I sat Sammy down next to the radio while I went to take a shower. A couple minutes into my shower I hear a sudden blaring of loud noise -- Super Sam managed to turn on the radio. I waited for him to start screaming from being startled, but nothing happened. I'm sure he ducked for cover, and I would have loved to see his face, but apparently he realized it was harmless. Well a couple minutes later, the volume went up and down, and then the channels started changing. He even at one point switched it from radio to CD and we got a little bit of a conference talk. Everytime something different happened I started laughing and asking myself why I was still in the shower and not getting this on camera. Needless to say he was done performing by the time I was ready for him to.

I was able to get a clip of his excitement as he crawls towards something he recognizes. Notice the rubber ducky. Yep, recently pilfered from the tub! I guess there is a size limit, so I had to break it up into the journey and the destination.

After all this, nap-time is a wonderful past-time too!