A Visit Home

It's always so nice to come home and visit.  This time we came home to go on vacation with my family to Mexico and also so that I could meet Stef's baby Riglee!  Before I left to Mexico we had a little get together at Happy Sumo for Stef.  I wanted to celebrate Stef and Riglee but cute Stef made it very clear that I wasn't allowed to have another shower.  Instead we celebrated at her favorite restaurant and enjoyed a delicious meal! 

 Stef has now had her baby.  Riglee is adorable and luckily Stef had an easy and perfect delivery.  YAY!

I love my little bug. 

 After Mexico we came home and were greeted with such a fun group of people! First, Danielle came with Sadie and Sam!  They were on Fall Break and so they came up to visit.  Sam and Sadie were so cute with Asher.  Love those kids.

 Sam snuggling with Asher.  Does it get more precious?

 Asher had a special visit from his Mimi and Papa Mike.  They came all of the way from Arizona for a day in order to see Asher.  It was such a great day! Asher played and played and even started army crawling just for them! He took a little nap on mimi and then laughed and laughed while papa mike tickled his tummy. THANK YOU for coming.  Asher loves his mimi and papa.  Now I am kicking myself because I didn't take more pictures of their visit.  

 This picture cracks me up of the grandkids minus lulu.  Look at Asher down in the left hand corner.  He sat in a high chair for the first time while in Utah. Let's just say he thought that was pretty cool. 

 Can we say double chin?  This baby is one silly guy.  And yes, I know this picture is kind of creepy of my child.  I had to put it up to give you a giggle and his chubby chin.

 And who knows what this face is?  At least it is cute of Sadie.  He cracks me up.

   

 My dad had a Birthday! We surprised him with breakfast one morning.  You would never guess his age.  I was years off when I guessed how old he turned.  Yes, that's right.  I didn't even know the real age of my dad.  My dad has been stuck at one age for the last 6 years.  He ages VERY well.  Isn't he handsome?  Love my pops.

A picture of Gramps with Asher and Dylan.  Love visiting granny and gramps down in Spanish Fork.  Asher is their 17th great grandchild!

And of course...a story for my books.

This was my first time traveling home by myself with Asher from Turkey.  I wasn't nervous at all for the days leading up to the trip until the night before we left.  Asher started coughing and had such a bad runny nose.  I figured it was just a cold and that it would be okay to travel.  He slept horrible the night before we left and was being so fussy.  We arrived at the Izmir airport to leave and I was sick to my stomach about traveling by myself with a sick baby.  I debated back and forth if I should even go or not.  We checked his temperature and he wasn't running a fever so we left.  We took the hour flight to Istanbul and then the nightmare began.  Asher was feeling so hot! I checked his temperature and it was 101.  I turned on my Turkish cell phone to call Ryan and the phone was asking me for a pin.  I've never set a pin.  I couldn't even get to my contacts list!  I don't have Ryan's number memorized and so I couldn't even pick up a pay phone to call him.  I was trying to find wifi to use my phone from the States so that I could skype him.  No such luck! I knew Ryan was going to have a heart attack that I wasn't calling from Istanbul.  I was pretty much panicking because the flight from Istanbul to JFK isn't a short little jump across the ocean.  We're talking an 11 hour flight.  I broke down in the bathroom and when I walked out there was an answer to my prayers.  An American couple sitting on a bench.  I walked right up to them and asked if by chance if they knew how I could get a calling card or something.  Long story short, the man was a doctor.  He told me that the best thing to do would be to get on the plane and get home.  What was I going to do in Istanbul and not able to get a hold of anyone!  That's what I did. About an hour into the flight I was second guessing the choice.  Asher now had a temperature of 103 and was moaning/crying.  I could tell he was so uncomfortable and I was feeling awful. I hadn't ever seen him acting this way. I gave him some more tylenol and every 4 hours on the dot the temperature would shoot back up.  I held him the entire 11 hours.  Any time I would lay him down in his bassinet or put him in his car seat on his seat he would start to cry.  He slept maybe 30 minutes the entire time.  The flight attendants were angels.  At one point I started crying in the back of the plane when one of them asked me how he was doing.  I had tried and tried to keep it in and then when she asked what his temperature was I broke down.  I know that for many people this is no big deal.  Babies get temperatures all of the time.  I just have to say that this was Asher's very first temperature and I was all alone flying for what seemed like an eternity.  We made it to New York.  I had a million missed calls on my American phone from Ryan.  When I finally talked to him he was a nervous wreck! He thought that something had happened to us in Istanbul and was assuming the very worst.  Poor guy!  We had a 2 hour layover which then was delayed to 3 hours.  I ran into some friends and they were lifesavers.  My friend Stacy actually got Asher to sleep and they helped me board the plane with my millions of bags, stroller, car seat etc.  We got on the plane and then we pushed back from the gate only to find out that our left engine wouldn't start.  Well, after 3 1/2 hours of sitting on the plane and not being able to get off they finally fixed the engine.  A 4 hour flight turned into another 7 1/2 hour flight.  Asher was actually great on this portion.  His fever had broken after about 3 hours on the plane.  After dripping sweat for a few minutes he fell asleep and then would wake up and just flirt with every single person around him.  He was back to being himself.  It was the most amazing feeling getting off of the plane and seeing my cute brother Cody there to greet me.  He got all of my luggage, held Asher and gave me a huge hug.  I was so grateful to be with someone from my family!  Love him.  The trip should have taken 18 hours but instead took 27.  Long would be an understatement BUT we survived!  I do have to say that the trip back over was amazing.  Asher did great.  Slept in his bassinet the entire time and didn't even make a sound.  Such a good little guy.  He is getting this whole traveling routine down.  Good thing because there is a lot more to come.