American Idol

So at some point every year during American Idol I find myself singing in the car or the shower and a thought occurs to me: "I should TOTALLY try out for American Idol!". I mean if Sanjaya can get as far as he did, then I'd go straight to the top. But this year, I had to plan it out because now I have a baby. And Taylor would have to take off work and come with me to California so he could watch Warren. And I wouldn't want to come in any higher than, say, 5th place. That way I wouldn't have the pressure to record multiple albulms if I didn't want to. And then I wouldn't have to go home and have the mayor of Lakewood and the whole city throw me some forced party like the top 3 contestants have to do. That would be embarrassing. And I'm not very stylish, but they do give you a clothing stipend on the show, so I'd have to really fake being cool so America would vote for me. But I'm a nice girl, so they really would vote for me. I've got people in Washington and Utah, and now Iowa. And Iowans aren't well represented on Idol, so they'd eat that up. And if I could get Warren on TV with me, that would be good too cause he's so cute. Yes, I could definitely come in 5th place on American Idol...now I just need to find out where the next auditions are and show up. Oh but wait, my teeth are a little crooked, so first I need braces again. Everyone stares at your mouth, and they'd notice. And I'm note sure I could handle not seeing my baby for all that time. And what if I get pregnant again? Like they'd vote for a prego. And then I couldn't do the summer tour after the show. And I'd have to put some money into getting to the audition and wait in line with all those freaks who try out. Oh, and one more reason I can't come in 5th on American Idol...I just heard myself sing. And it wasn't very good. Bubble bursted! I guess I'll leave it for people like Jordin.

George Costanza?

I think Warren stole George's pose...except he opted for the "no-pants" look.

Pictures from Laura and Emily

These are great pictures sent from Emily and Laura...enjoy!

This one is my favorite! Tell me why my child isn't in commercials?!?

And then we went to Utah

Cousin Tommy is a month older, but Warren's head is like double his size. Like an orange on a toothpick!

Pitstop somewhere in Wyoming. Letting baby stretch his legs.

Aunt Lolly aka Laura Hurst, momma's best buddy

With Emmory and her black baby

Uncle Todd and Aunt Jocelyn

We went to an outdoor, international food festival. It was cool, and the weather was perfect.

Auntie Em

Grandma's garden is looking so great this year. She works hard to keep it up and does a fantastic job. I love being back here.

Taylor's grandparents in their back yard

Warren with Sam and Luke


We've been busy trying to cram in as much travel as we could before Monday when Tay started work. We went to meet Jocelyn, my brother Todd's fiancé, and to see some of Taylor's family. We hung out at his grandparents for a while, ate lunch with his cousins Aaron and Katie and their 3 boys, went to our old neighborhood, ate dinner with Bonnie and Laura, hit the distribution center, had another Jamba Juice (I miss it!), went to church in our old ward, played with Cole and Riley, saw Taylor's sister, Emily...we did a lot for only 2.5 days. We really liked Jocelyn (hear that, Joce...we like you!!), and had a good time seeing everyone.

Day 1 in New York

We made a trip out to New York before Taylor started his job this summer. We went last year, so we didn't feel the need to see all the sights. We already took the double-decker tours, and saw ground zero and the statue of liberty, so we decided to just take it easy an enjoy living in the city for a week. It was a wonderful vacation, perfect weather, and a great traveler named Warren. We put the poor baby through a lot that week, though. He got his shots, we moved to Denver, we flew to NY, he got his first tooth...so he had a couple days where he wasn't feeling his normal chipper self. So it was nice that we didn't have big agendas to interrupt. We could relax and take our time so he could get better.

The first day we went on this awesome walking food tour of Greenwich Village. We strapped Warren in the snugli, and he was great. The whole tour was only like 5 blocks, but it took over 3 hours and we stopped at all these fun little restaurants and stores while a guy told us all about the history, the cool hangouts, the culture, the bajillion dollar apartments, and everything the village has to offer. It was really great. It wasn't the typical photo-op touristy thing to do, which I liked. And there was no way you could walk past all these places and know what cool things went on there. We went to a basement of a restaurant where they do poetry readings, behind another restaurant where there's an original farm house they rent out for private parties - it was cool. And then we also sampled food at like 8 different places. We got 2 kinds of pizza, cannolis, cheese and olives, cookie and cake, fried mushrooms, some procuitto ball thing, lots of stuff. I highly reccommend it if you'll be in NY. It was the funnest thing we did.

This picture is funny cause they didn't know I was taking it. Warren LOVED Tamara...almost made me jealous! He was a total flirt with lots of ladies on this trip. It was fun. Anyone who says Newyorkers are jerks never went there with a baby. Everyone was so nice, gave up their subway seat for me, stuck up conversations, it was cool.

Day 2 in NY

Today we spent most of the day in Central Park. We went to the zoo there and it was just beautiful. Anyone who thinks New York is an ugly concrete jungle hasn't seen all the parks. These people seriously cherish their park areas. All of them are gorgeous and well manicured, it's fantastic. And Central Park is phenomenal. We had a great time cruising around, people watching, and seeing the scenery. Earlier we met Julie for lunch (Taylor's friend from school...we didn't take a picture because we're lame) but we DID take a picture of Warren's biggest fan - this guy. So we're sitting down at lunch, and this guy who worked there came over and asked what his name was and told us how cute he was...ok, normal so far, right? Then he bends down to Warren's level and starts making up a song about him. Lyrics went a little something like this: "Warren...you're my friend...oh yes you are my very best friend...and I love you...little Warren...." and so forth for a good minute or something. It was definitely long. And imagine it sung in a new york jewish-gay accent. This kind of thing does not happen in Iowa.

Day 3 in NY

Doug and Taylor reunite to create the unstoppable force that is JAMAL.

We spent the whole day with Doug and Tamara. It was fun and low-key. We ate out, "chillaxed" at the park, we went shopping and the boys played XBox, and Taylor got mad at me for buying a $40 snow globe of New York. It was great to be with our friends.