What a Week!

This has been a rough week for the Anderson family! We found out earlier in the week that Brian's grandmother was not doing well and was ready to pass. On Wednesday we were going to head down to Murrieta to say Goodbye, but Grandma Bev died peacefully with her family around her that afternoon. *This is a picture of Grandma Bev and her boys!*

So we were going to head down the next morning. On Thursday we got up and as we are getting ready to pack for our trip, Max took a "swan dive" off the changing table (about 4 feet high)! He started crying right away and as parents we just concerned for his neck and anything else he hit. That's when the blood started pouring down his face!

*WARNING* The next portion of this blog is graphic**

So we start running around getting a cold compress, finding the phone to call the Dr. and as I put the compress on his head, I realize it is just a flap of skin, and I can see his skull! At this point we head to the ER. Our little champ was done crying by the time that we got in the car, and was his usual happy self while we waited 3 hours! There was no concussion, and he had to get 7 stitches. He was pretty mad about being strapped down, and I think as parents we did worse than him watching them stitch it up. But it is just above his hairline and there will hardly be any scar!

As for the rest of the weekend... Our delay put us in traffic, and wild weather conditions. We hit LOTS of rain, and missed the tornado going through the area. However we arrived safely, and enjoyed being with our family at this time of remembrance of how great our Grandma Bev was!

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Flashback FRIDAY

I have seen Flashback Friday's on a few blogs and thought it was a cute Idea, but I have not scanned any of our old photos yet. So here is an outline of how we came to be...

* Dec. 22 1999 - Brian comes home from his mission in Bolivia (Alyssa is hanging out at Institute enjoying her first year at VC.
* Jan. 21 2000 - Official first date to the San Diego Temple (after meeting at Institute)
* Aug. 25 2000 - FINALLY got engaged at the San Diego Temple (I had known for months that I was going to marry him!
* Dec. 22 2000 - Sealed for Time and All Eternity in the Los Angeles Temple
* Dec 2000-Dec 2001 - Worked and went to school while living in Oxnard
* Dec. 2001 - Accepted to Fresno State University...moved to Fresno
* Jan. 2002 - Dec. 2003 - Lived in Fresno, went to school full time, Brian worked at the newspaper, Alyssa became a Juvenile Correctional Officer ( new calling in life )
* Dec. 2003 - GRADUATION! Brian received a BS in Computer Science and a Minor in Math, Alyssa Received a BA in Psychology with an emphasis in Forensic Psychology
* Mar. 2004 - Moved back to Ventura...didn't work out the the housing market ( still no kids)
* Aug. 2004 - Moved to Utah
* Dec. 2004 - Brian started working his first "real" computer job at Huggermugger, Alyssa got a job as a Juvenile Probation Officer
* Feb. 2005 - Bought our first house in Sandy, Utah
* March 2005 - Pippin joins our family!
* April 2005 - Doctors told us that we could not have kids
* Nov. 2005 - Brian changed jobs to Northop Grumman, Approved for adoption, just waiting for someone to choose us
* Jan. 2006 - Getting ready for a week in Ventura and a 7 day cruise...found out we were pregnant the day before we leave
* Apr. 2006 - Sold our house, moved to Studio City, CA for Brian's new job with One City
* Sep. 28, 2006 - IT'S A MIRACLE! Eli Max Anderson arrives!
* May 2007 - Move to Ventura to be with family, Brian commutes to Glendale.
* Sep. 2007 - Brian Gets a job working for Thomson in Santa Barbara ( better commute and takes the bus) Max turns a year old
* May 2008 - Just enjoying every day we have with all of life's little adventures!
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Last Cancun Post...it's a long one!

When we were planning our trip the one thing we knew we wanted to do was to go out to the ancient temple ruins of Chichen Itza. So after we got there, there was always people trying to sell you something and the packages to go out to different places were very expensive. Plus we didn't want to go out with a tour group, we wanted to explore on our own. But we did end up going with a group on Sat out to a ruin site called Tulum. This was an incredibly beautiful spot since the temple was built right on the coast.

Apparently this was a much smaller temple site, but it was the incredible wall built all around with different sub structure within the walls that related to the temple. Many of the structures were specifically for astrological purposes.

So we wnt on this tour on Sat. Sunday we took off to just lounge around. Monday we had our babysitter so we went snorkeling and pout on the waverunners, Tuesay we took a boat out to an Island called Isla Mujeres which is right off the coast of Cancun. It was a beautiful little Island. We took a golf cart to drive around and see the light house on the island and also to go and see a turtle farm. And then spent some time sleeping in a hammock.

After Isla Mujeres we had only one day left in Cancun and still had not seen Chichen Itza. At first we did not mind since we got to see Tulum, which is also a lot closer (about 45mins away). But On Tuesday we thought, "What the heck, lets just get the tour to Chichen Itza." But most places were sold out, or really trying to rip you off! So Wed. morning we decided to go into Downtown and see how much a bus ride out there was. We were in luck, it was half the price and no tour, it was also leaving in 10 min. ( it was a 3 hr bus ride!) It was SO worth it though. I don't think I have ever seen anything so incredible. We were sad though, because apparently you used to be able to climb the steps of the temple (there are 91 steps on each side at about a 45 degree angle!) But they don't allow that any more due to the disruption to the site. Also Chichen Itza was built in that spot due to two very large, natural sink holes on the western and eastern corners of the land.

Here we are in front of the area called "A Thousand Columns" I don't know if there were a thousand but, they were very well preserved and we also got a small video of it up in our You Tube Bar!

And so this concludes our trip to Cancun. We have a million more pictures, but tried to select the ones that give you a little more of a story to our trip! We had a wonderful time and look forward to doing it again!

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A Day With a Babysitter

So when we were headed down to Cancun, we found out a couple (Misa and Melanie) in our church used to live in Cancun, so we made sure to get all of the inside scoop! Misa's mom still lives in Cancun so we offered to bring a care package to his mom since we are going down there anyways . So when we met with his mom she offered to babysit Max for us so we could go out and do something for the day...so we of course took her up of that. So we spent a day snorkeling in a reef and then took a waverunner out in the lagoon. We loved our "Family Vacation" but it was definitely nice to have a little time to ourselves and Max had a great time hanging out with Evangelina!

So here is a giant lobster we saw while snorkeling! YUM!

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Creatures of Cancun

There was a lot of wildlife in Cancun! Some domesticated and others out in the wild. The Iguana above and the peacock were actually at the hotel. But we saw lots of wild iguanas all through Cancun.

Here is a very large wild one hanging out of the wall. They are actually pretty fast so we could never get a very close picture with one!

And then here is Coco! A wonderful tourist trap that you could pay money to take pictures with a Chimp, and we were suckered in...but a very cute picture! Now you may notice that someone is missing from the picture here...this was the day we got a babysitter :-) More on those adventures to come....

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CANCUN #1

Ok, so here is the first on the Cancun blogs! We had such a great time going on a family vacation. I was very nervous about the 6 1/2 hour plane ride there, but Max did great. We had lots of snacks, new toys and a DVD player (thanks Grandma Jeannie!)After getting all checked into the hotel the first thing we did was hit the pool and beach. I couldn't believe that the beaches actually look like they do in pictures you see. Since we went with a "family resort" we knew that we were not going to be in the fanciest hotel, but we definitely had the best beach!This was Max' new face, we don't know if he is trying to be a fish or Zoolander, but we thought it was funny. At our pool there was a walkway going through it which was a perfect spot for Max to hang out and actually start to like the water!This is the beautiful beach out in front of our hotel. Also every night two "pirate" ships would sail out for a dinner cruise and then a pirate fight out in the ocean. Max loved to watch the big ship sail by.Our hotel was also part of a chain of two other hotels in the area, so we could also go to those hotels and have lunch and swim in the pool and hang out on the beach. The beach over there was not as tranquil and Max was not so sure that he like the waves crashing over him!So these are our pictures of lounging around Mexico. We also had a few adventures that will be coming soon....
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Disney Therapy

Blog # 2 of the April Recap! The week of April 13th... as we stated before this is where our month didn't go so well and we miscarried our baby after 9 weeks. Brian was in Chicago this week for work, leaving Max and I to try and figure out how to get through the week. Since we have passes we decided to go to Disneyland! We spent three days there and had a good time. It was a great distraction from our loss and a wonderful opportunity to bond with the amazing miracle son that we do have! Our cousin Laura and baby Abby came to Disneyland one day so I didn't have to just talk to myself in line all the time :-) It was great to spend the day with them and then have dinner at her house...yummy enchiladas Laura!!!! Then after we were done with Disneyland we went and picked Brian up at the airport on our way home. We weren't home long before we had to get busy again and plan for our trip to Cancun...(we will be posting soon!)

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Easter

Well like I said April was a crazy month so here is the first of the catch up blogs! We had a fun Easter this year, which started with a visit to Grandpa and Grandma Bell and also our cousin Mike and Laura and their little girl Abby. We then had a great egg hunt at our cousin Christal's house. Max started to get the hang of finding the eggs. We also got a great picture with Max and also his friends and cousins that are just a few months apart! After we had our cousin Christal take some great Easter pics of Max with some baby ducks. We can't wait until next year when we can decorate eggs with Max.

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April Recap

I haven't posted a blog in awhile and rather than have one REALLY long blog, I thought I would give a little summary of the month and then break it up into all the fun and exciting stories. Unfortunately we had a rough start to the month as we miscarried our baby just after 9 weeks. We had an especially hard time since Brian had to be in Chicago for work that week. So Max and I thought " Where can you go to take your mind off things?" DISNEYLAND of course! So while Brian was in Chicago, Max and I were at Disneyland, we even got to see our cousin Laura and her baby Abby! After we both got back from our trips it was time to start packing again, as we prepared to spend 8 days in Cancun! We got all of our international affairs in order and off we went. We spent time lounging at the beach, snorkeling, going to Tulum and Chichen Itza and taking a boat out to Isla Mujeres. And of course our adventures with a 19 month old and flying! We are glad to be back and ready to blog all about it!

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