These are a few of her favorite things...

So, now that we live somewhere that has an actual paved road, I love taking Sara and Chief for walks. It is probably my favorite part of the day. I told Ryan the other day I don't know who loves it more- me, Sara or Chief. We are all just in seventh heaven when we're out for a walk and look forward to it every day. Then you should already know how much Sara loves her baths. Unfortunately we don't have a bath here, but I got a pretty good size baby bath for one of my baby showers that she loves to sit up and splash in when I'm bathing here. But I have to say her absolute favorite is the hot tub! It's funny 'cause she has always loved her baths hot and if was just luk warm she wouldn't really dig it. So Ryan and I being first time parents were always so worried 'cause it'd feel like the bath was really hot but she just loved it! So, we knew she'd love my parent's hot tub because it's just like one big hot bath, and she does. She is too funny though 'cause she thinks she's such a big timer in there she's like too cool to smile at you. Last night she got in and was going crazy splashing the water, she was absolutely drenched by the time she got out. It was really cute. Another one of Sara's favorite things... her Dad. Or, as she likes to say- Da Da. Yep, Da Da was her first word and she just adores him. She loves talking to him on the phone. When he calls me at home, he always says "Let me talk to Sara" I put the phone up to her ear and as soon as she hears his voice she gets the biggest smile on her face. I love it! Of course, she wouldn't smile as soon as I got out the camera, but she loves talking to Da Da on the phone. You should see her when Ryan gets home from work. She gets so excited. She's usually sitting in her bumbo or saucer and she just starts kicking her legs and waving her arms making cute excited noises when she sees him. Ryan always changes out of his work clothes when he comes home and if he goes to change before he picks her up, she starts to cry. So he usually picks her up and says hi before he goes to change. When he does this she grabs his face and just gives him the slobberiest kiss. I tried to snap a pic of it the other day, but- of course, as soon as she saw the camera she was staring at me while Ry was giving her a kiss. Too cute!Beside Da Da- Sara absolutely loves Chief. Ha ha! She really does! She laughs at him a lot and gets a big smile on her face whenever she sees him. Sometimes when she's being fussy for no reason I call Chief over and make him lay by her because she'll be instantly happy. As you can see- she really does love him. And I'm pretty sure he loves her too.So, those are just a few of Sara's favorite things. She sure does have a lot of them, like her saucer, Super Why, her car seat, music, medicine, her crib... I just thought I'd show you a few. I really can't believe how lucky we are to be blessed with such a good baby girl. She really is the light of our lives and we love her more than anything!

To go PRIVATE or not to go PRIVATE?

...that is the question. But I can't decide if I have better reasons not to go private than to go private. Here they are:

Why I Think We Should

• Many of our family and friends have gone private. (don't really know their reason for going private, but know it must have been a good one)
• We know of a few people who look at our blog who we'd rather not.
• We now have a daughter we need to protect.
• We have one follower of our blog and neither of us know who it is. (they look nice and all, but I just thought it was funny that they started following our blog without ever leaving us comment or letting us know who they are)
• We have received a couple comments from people we don't know.

Why I Think We Should Not

• Many of our family and friends have gone private and I always forget to check their blog because it doesn't show that it's been updated.
• It will be harder for friends to find my blog. (Some old friends that have found my blog still knew me as Tori Christensen, if it's private all they will see is "The Goodrich Life" and won't know it's mine.)
• We have a lot of family that like to look at our blog that don't have a blogger account or would even know how to sign in. (Like my parents and Grandma, and I know a lot of Ryan's side like to look at it too)
• The only story I've heard why people go private is the one about the guy at the park. (I guess it wasn't scary enough for me. I don't even think that happened in Utah, did it?)
• I'm pretty cautious about what I post on our blog now that we live here. (and will continue to be)
• Another reason we've never gone private is because we were living in Bear Lake, and I think there had only been one major crime in the last 100 years.
• I also don't like to be a worry wart and think bad things will happen. I like to think positive and think of good things instead of bad. (I'm sure I'm going to get a list of whole lotta bad that's happened though- right?)

Well, just let me know what you guys think. I just know whenever I hear of another blogger going private I'm like "Oh no, now I'm going to have to sign in every time and remember to check all these!" Then I forget who has gone private and who hasn't.

i love it when we're cruising together

Well, I can officially say this is the first vacation I have ever actually looked forward to coming home from. I know that's kind of sad to say- but it's even more sad being away from the light of your life for seven days! I barely slept the last night on the cruise because I was so excited that I was going to see Sara the next day! But the cruise really was an absolute blast! We really did have so much fun- as you can see from the pics...We left Saturday around 4:00 and were at sea for the first couple days where we laid out, ate, had formal night, ate, laid out some more, ate, and had ice cream. Our first stop was Puerto Vallarta or "Porta Vularta" as Ryan likes to call it. We asked the crew members what there was to do here and they said they recommended just hanging out at the beach, which is exactly what we did. I also went para sailing, but while I was flying 500 feet above Ryan's head and over the ocean there were some other vacationers telling Ryan some para sailing horror stories they had witnessed first hand. So, Ryan passed on that. But I had a heck of a time! I've been para sailing two other times and have never been as high as I was in Puerto Vallarta. I could see the tops of every building and all of Puerto Vallarta. I loved every minute! Our next stop was Mazatlan where we took an open taxi to the Golden Zone which was supposed to be a nice place to go shopping and to the beach. So, we did a little shopping and hung out on the beach some more there. While we got bombarded buy Mexicans saying "A bracelet for you miss?" "Very cheap, almost free!" "A shirt for you sir?" "Almost free!" After that we were headed back North to Cabo San Lucas. This was one of our favorite stops- brought back some scary memories for me though. Last time I cruised here my brothers Ty, Tanner and I almost got left! We actually saw our cruise ship sailing away... So here we thought it'd be fun to rent a jet ski to take out on the ocean. Jet skiing on the ocean is a little different than in a lake. First of all- when the water would splash on us we got a mouthful of salt, but the best part was the waves. You have to find a boat if you ever want waves in a lake, but the ocean was just filled with them. Ryan drove the first half and let me take charge the second half of our ride. I think I made him a little nervous- ever time I'd start to gun it over a wave I'd hear a "Tor... Tori!" from the back. Later he told me how out of control I was and how he didn't know he had such a crazy wife. It was a lot of fun though. After our fun ride we finished up with some more bargain shopping. We made sure we each got ourselves something from each stop as well as something for our little sweetie. Then we had another full day at sea on the way back. They had some good entertainment and even better food! We were ordering at least 4, sometimes 5 course meals the whole week! Some of which included escargot, frog legs, clams, king crab legs, lobster, shrimp, steak etc. Life was great!So, that was our week long cruise! It really was so much fun, but kind of hard leaving a six month old baby behind. She actually got sick- poor thing. But they got her on some medicine and she's been doing great ever since. It was nice to get to spend some alone time with Ryan though- great way to spend Valentines week.

West Yellowstone

(I made a slide show but can't get it to work, just click the "view images" to see the pics)

So as most of you know, my parent's Christmas gift to us was a snowmobiling trip to West Yellowstone. We left last Thursday and got home Sunday, it was a blast! My parents, and all my siblings and their spouses went- we were only missing one brother-in-law Mike. Then the three babies, Sara, Gwenivere and Alyvia came too! It really was so much fun- the first day everyone went out but me and Tawnya, we stayed home and watched the 3 girls which was quite an experience. I don't know how people do it with twins or triplets! I know I've always said it'd be so fun to have twins but man would it be a lot of work. You should have seen us trying to go grocery shopping with 3 babies in their carseats. It is going to be so much fun when they're all a little older, they'll have so much fun together. So, since we stayed home with the girls the first day, my Mom and Whitney stayed home with them the second day while Tawn and I went out. It really was so much fun- I think everyone got stuck at least once but it was still a blast! We're hoping we'll make it a family tradition so we can go every other year. It really was so much fun!