6 Years Today...

I just wanted to sneak this post in today because we were married 6 years ago today. This is one of the first time's we did something really great to celebrate in years. Last night, we went out to dinner without kids at a great restaurant in Hollywood called the Geisha House. It was a fun and classy place, yet hip, with EXCELLENT food. It is Japanese American style, so we had things like sushi rolls with cream cheese and jalapenos, lobster and steak, or lamb chops with a teriyaki type glaze. It was so yummy and really fun. My friend Claire watched the kids, so I didn't have to worry about Amelia the whole time. Philip told me the reservation was at 6:45 and of course we were running late and I was rushing and panicking. Then after we dropped the kids off and got back in the car, he told me that the reservation was really for 7, but he knew I would be running late. It worked. We walked in at the desk at 7 and were at our table at 7:02. Nice move, Bagley. I thoroughly enjoyed myself and we stuffed ourselves to the brim.
Now here is a quick recap of our story for those who don't know, or like hearing these kinds of things. Met Philip August 2000 because my close friend in college was Tyler, who also was Philip's close friend from high school. First time I met him he seemed so awkward and I wasn;t too interested, but my roomies thought he was hot. I died his hair red the next time I saw him. The 3 of us spent a TON of time together until sometime in the fall of 2001, I started to like him as more than a friend and kept dropping hints to see if it was mutual. On January 15th, 2002 we kissed and I knew deep down he was the one I wanted to marry, but kept it to myself so he wouldn't freak out. Then in August of 2002, I moved to Minnesota to do an internship. He was afraid I wouldn't come back unless I was spoken for, so he proposed to me with a wire ring at his parents cabin just a few hours before I left. We drove to the nearest town and bought a ring and then I moved. We were supposed to get married in May, but a month or so after I was gone, Philip told me he wanted to move the date up. I resisted, mainly because I wanted a spring wedding, but after he met all my ridiculous demands I thought he never would meet, I realized how serious he was, so I agreed and we were married on January 25 2003.
Here is a montage of pics of us from when we first met in 2000 to a few months ago. Love that my hair is basically the same, just my weight fluctuates!!! And I love Philip's crazy fluffy mountain man hair when he grows it out.

California does not recognize the "California Roll"

This is the video from the ticket I got for running a stop sign. Here's kind of what the conversation was like when Phil opened a $100 ticket.
P: What!! I got a ticket?? (looking at a form with pics of our car and plates)
V: For what? Running a red light, speeding....?
P:Running a stop sign where we hiked on Thanksgiving.
V: (looking at pictures on ticket) How is that proof? It's just a picture of you past a stop sign. They could have taken that right after you stopped.
P: There's a video online (we watch the following video)


V: Oh.... Welp, I guess that's proof.
P: Seriously, do you see ANY brake lights.

The funny thing is, I would have suspected a ticket for going 15 in a 10 mile zone, not a stop sign because this is what I was thinking as I was driving over some speed bumps, "this is a private road, so they can't really do anything. These are all just suggestions"
Guess I was wrong.

Flu Cravings

Amelia just got over the flu and she keeps requesting funny things to eat. She saw this picture and is insistent that I have cookies somewhere in this house that I am keeping from her. Suprisingly, I don't, but this picture does make me want to have some cookies, truffles and Nog (dairy free and egg free "egg nog" for our little dairy/egg girl). Some of her other requests, meat sticks, salsa, hummus, and sushi (she's never eaten it but sees us eating it) I guess she needs some flavor in her diet now she's feeling better.

Our New Year

We were still recovering from our drive, so New Year's eve Philip got a couple movies from the library and a bag of "junk food" (organic chips, rice paper sushi, a mini pizza and eggnog ice cream) We watched one movie and went to bed at 9:30 or so. The next day we went to the beach nice and early. It was a little cool, but fun. Amelia loved chasing the frisbee and Ben stayed all wrapped up in his seat. We enjoyed a nice burger from the Habit (mmmm) and lots of napping.

Christmas

We made it to Phil's parent's house just in time for Santa to drop down the chimney and see the kids. (I'll try and post a pic when I find one) Amelia wasn't scared at all, much to my surprise. She had a good time opening every present and eating candy. We got to spend some time with some of our old friends. I got to go shopping with Annie and no kids. The kids and I walked around temple square with Jared. Philip saw Body Worlds, without throwing up!! (It's an art/science? exhibit where they use real bodies to show how we are made) We got to see a lot of family and we headed home. We stopped in St George to see my 2 best friends from high school. The kids made it all 12 hours in the car with no real melt downs or vomiting incidents and thanks to the Prius, we made this whole trip on about the cost of 1 one-way plane ticket from LA to SLC. Here is the picture collage highlight. (click on it for close ups)

Fun while we were there

We managed to have a great time at the cabin. Ben loved being toasty by the fire. Amelia braved the temps of the sun room to play the piano. We had a delicious pre-Christmas turkey dinner with all the fixings and Phil and Amelia even made a snowman. Much to everyone's fears, we headed out before the next storm rolled in.

Over the hill and through the woods........

DISCLAIMER: Sorry to all those who have heard this already, but it's too great to not post on the blog with the pics.

We had a fun adventure to the cabin for Christmas. We made it through half of Cedar Mountain with no problem until we hit Kane county who apparently is against plowing. Here's the difference.

Yep, the first picture is what it looks like plowed, so you can imagine the scariness of the not plowed parts. Philip was white knuckled the whole way. When we finally got to the cabin, the road was completely covered, so there was no way we were going on it. It was dusk and snowing, so Philip decided to run to the cabin, open it up, turn on the heat and water heater and head back with skis, snow attire and a sled to haul our stuff. I geared the kids up and consolidated the bare necessities into 1 bag.(THANK YOU Annie and Anneli for lending us snow clothes because they would have froze without it)
When Phil got back it was completely dark and the snow was really coming down. Ben started a fever somewhere outside of Vegas and was not doing so well, so we were really worried how we were going to get him to the cabin without making it worse. Luckily Phil brought a huge jacket so he carried Ben in the Baby Bjorn and zipped him inside his coat.
I loaded up the sled with our necessities, carried Amelia on my shoulders and pulled the sled. It was slow going. I was trying to manage walking in 18 inches of snow with no light or snow boots while pulling a sled and carrying Amelia, who was screaming because she had snow on her mittens and was scared because "it's dark in here". To say the least, I was holding Phil up, who had skis, a light and my sick baby, so I told him just to take Ben to the cabin and then come back for us. I attempted to stay in his tracks, but it was so dark, it was hard to find them some times. I kept going thanks to Amelia's little words of encouragement like, "don't fall mommy" and "mommy's so strong". I thought, if pioneers could do this wearing dresses, puling handcarts and having no warm cabin in sight, I could do this. We managed to get two thirds of the way when I heard Phil calling out to us. Amelia kept yelling back, "hey dad. What you doing". We met up and I was happy to hear Ben was able to stay asleep the whole way and was now happily sleeping in the warm cabin. I was so glad Phil was there to pull the sled the last part, because getting up to the driveway is the hardest and the driveway has the deepest snow. Phil decided he wanted to make 1 more trek to the car that night for Amelia's medicine and a few other things we were worried about leaving in the freezing car all night. (soda bottles that freeze and explode everywhere!!, expensive electronics, Amelia's baby and blankies) And I think he was so hopped up on adrenaline, he needed to do it one last time. It sounded fun until he hit that dreaded driveway again, and thought, "I've made a terrible mistake", but he made it. All in all, it was a crazy idea, but it all worked out. No huge problems, just a lot of sore muscles and wet clothes. For the rest of our visit, it was a fun adventure to trek to the car (in daylight, with snow clothes and skis or snow shoes) and see what we had done. Our last day, they plowed the road so even Amelia walked out. It seemed so cowardly. These are pics of us leaving but you get the idea of us coming.