Our Beautiful Lily

                On April 5^th 2012 I posted about my awesome sister-in-law who is an amazing photographer.  Do you all remember that?  Well, the weekend after our move, we went down to Thatcher to visit all our family down there, and she took newborn pictures of Lily.  We had a marvelous time, and Lily met her Nana and Papa, Aunts and 3 cousins for the first time.   

                 They are STUNNING!!  I love them Jamie- I love them!  You can find Jamie’s website and everything at: http://www.jamieallenphotography.com/. 

The Ultimate Move

                May 15^th was a little crazy for the Smith family.  Lily had a doctor’s appointment at 9 AM because it was the earliest that we could get her PKU test done.  So we didn’t manage the early to bed but we did rise early.  Lily weighed 9 pounds 1 ounce and measured 21 inches long.  Our pediatrician was a little worried about Lily’s jaundice levels, so he sent us to the lab to have blood work done to measure her bilirubin levels.  Thankfully they weren’t too high, but our poor baby had to have both heels pricked.

                We were scheduled to pick up our truck at 10 AM and we barely made it there in time.  As we were pulling in the very last 10’ truck was pulling out.  So we had to be upgraded to a 16’ truck, but we were ok with that- it meant less Tetris for us.  Some of our wonderful ward family came and helped us pack everything into the truck and finish up the last of the cleaning.  I couldn’t thank them enough.  Around 4 PM our land-lady came and checked us out and we returned all our keys.  We were ready to hit the road!

                Starving as we were, we decided to grab some Taco Bell before we left Provo.  At 4:50 PM we started our drive out of Provo and into our new lives down in Arizona.  Our first Lily feeding stop was at 6:30 PM.  I was impressed that we made it that far before we had to stop. 

He is absorbed in Kung Fu Panda

Me, eating Taco Bell and Lily, eating me.

The Smith caravan.

That was just what she needed.

 But she only made it like 15 minutes before we were pulling over again.  Thankfully we stopped at a totally awesome Maverick that had a playground!  So we took advantage of the opportunity to allow Samuel to run out some bottled up energy while I fed Lily.  Samuel loved it so much he didn't have time for pictures!  Soon we were back in the car: Samuel watching The Incredibles and Lily fast asleep.  

                Our next gas stop was around 10 PM in St. George, UT.  I was grateful for the pause in our driving because it was a break from this …

 

                Samuel continued to enjoy his movie and Lily kept right on sleeping while we filled both tanks.  AJ bought us both some munchies to keep us awake because we were in separate vehicles.  (I hope to never have to do that again.)  After St. George was the long stretch to Vegas.  We were finally pulling into Vegas around midnight and passing the Strip around 12:30 AM.  AJ and I were both getting a little bit tired and a lot exhausted.  You could definitely tell by our driving, so we pulled over at a casino/ hotel on the other side of Vegas to decide what to do.

Watchin' The Incredibles

Sleepy girl

Pulling into Vegas

Passing the Strip

It is hard to stay awake when this is your only view.

                I fed Lily while AJ ran into the casino to ask about prices for rooms.  $40 bucks was more than we could afford to spend on a hotel room.  Plus, if we pushed through, the kids could just keep sleeping, which meant less stops.  AJ and I both drank some Spark- that gave us a spring in our step and we were on the road again!  A couple hours later, around 4 AM Utah time and 3 AM Arizona time, we had to pull over again because Lily insisted that she was starving.  We were only 163 miles from Phoenix!!

The sun rose at 5:30 AM, we are talking Arizona time now; how I had missed the stunning Arizona sunrises!

                Of course, the closer we got to our destination the more congested the traffic became.  But that is to be expected from Phoenix traffic at 6:20 in the morning.  Oh, and there was an accident too, so everyone had to slow down to 5 mph so they could get an eye full- I hate that.

So close and yet so far.

Why are we stopped?!

               We arrived at our apartment complex at 6:50 AM on May 16^th … BUT little did we know that we couldn’t get into our apartment until after 9 AM!  Both of us had been awake for over 24 hours.  I was SO upset and might have turned into a grouch after that- my poor husband.  We had no choice but to sit around in front of the apartment complex for 2 hours before we could get in.  But get in we did … eventually, and it has been WONDERFUL!

Me being a grouch- it was hot, ok.

They were kind enough to reserve a parking spot for us though.

Lily didn't mind the wait.

               I am proud to say that we successfully moved our little family down to Arizona, all by ourselves.  AJ and I feel old now that we have made a move like that without the help of our parents.

We went to Africa!

FYI: It is NOT $9 per ticket.

                AJ and I had been meaning to take Samuel to the zoo before we moved away from Utah because all the zoos in Arizona are WAY too expensive.  But we kept putting off going to the zoo because Lily kept putting off coming.  Needless to say, I did NOT want to be walking around the Hogle Zoo and go into labor; then have an hour long drive back to the birthing center.  So we put off going to the zoo until last minute and we almost didn’t go at all.  May 14th, the day before we packed everything into the moving truck and started our 12 hour drive, we finally made it to the Hogle Zoo.  And we all had a blast!

Lots of elephants!

So excited.

                First thing’s first, we had to stop and see the elephants, because Samuel has a thing for elephants.  We were so curious what Samuel’s reaction was going to be when he saw actual elephants that were ALIVE.  But let’s be honest, he had no idea how cool that is.  To him an elephant is an elephant.  Although, I was impressed that he recognized them and identified them as elephants the second he saw them.  I had to record the moment Samuel saw the elephants for the first time so I could share it with you.

              Chickens?  Chickens?!  Dude, seriously, there are elephants right there in front of your face and you get distracted by chickens?  You are so silly.  By the way, I LOVE it when Samuel says elephant- he just says it so darn cute!  I wish I sounded cute when I said elephant.

Riding the big elephant statue/ fountain!

                It was a really hot day so we took every chance we could to check out the exhibits that were indoors.  And while we were in the building with all of the reptiles we came across this awesome iguana.  Of course he was doing what most zoo animals do … nothing.  But we wanted Samuel to see it anyway because it was a large lizard that he couldn’t miss.  Samuel had to stand up in the stroller in order to see it and the instant Samuel’s little head popped into view the iguana opened its mouth wide and started to bob its head up and down then side to side.  AJ and I were a little shocked and scrambled to get the camera out, but by the time we did the iguana was done dancing.  It was still funny though.

We saw LOTS of different types of monkeys, like gorillas and sloths.

 

Are sloths even monkeys?

It is SO close.

Why are monkeys adorable?

Awwww...

Eeeek!  Never-mind.

See what I mean?  Adorable!!

The last time Samuel was at this water fountain I was drinking for him.

Do you see Samuel?

"I can't quite get it."

 To Samuel the wolves were obviously just “doggies”.  So he had to bark at them.

Bark, bark, bark!!

Turtles are another animal that Samuel really loves; so he was extremely excited to see the GIANT turtles at the zoo.

Look Mom, turtles!!

Holy turtle!  This thing is huge.

 

The giraffes were a big hit with Samuel, and of course, he makes “giraffe” sound like the cutest word in the world.  And the Rhinos were just more elephants to Samuel.  Isn't that funny?  Kids crack me up.

               Lily was completely chill the entire time- she was either fast asleep in my arms or relaxing in the stroller.  We took one feeding/ diaper changing break, but that was it.  Isn’t she just so sweet?!  And Samuel is just so funny!  I love my family.

She looks so tiny!

Can you see the water bottle line on his lip?

I love my little family!