Merry Christmas!

Christmas 2013 was a little unconventional, but I get the feeling unconventional is becoming our thing for now. Over the past couple of years my family has discovered that the flights are way cheaper at the beginning of December than at the end. So everyone flew in to Utah the first week of December to celebrate Christmas. Sean and I had resigned ourselves to the fact that we wouldn't be able to make it this year. Then my parents magically managed to rustled up a couple of points to fly Lincoln and I to join the party! Yay! (Sean, sadly, had to work and missed out on this adventure.)

Lincoln did great on his first plane ride. At the time, he was only 6 weeks old, so he slept the entire time. The flight was about 5 hours long, and he was most beloved by all the passengers and flight attendants. The passengers at the back of the plane loved holding him while I went to the bathroom. They were disappointed when I went back there for the second time during the flight and found out I was only there to change his diaper. I did have to deal with a couple of blowouts on the plane rides, and I didn't have Sean to get me through the airports, so now I consider myself a flying-with-a-baby expert. It was a crowning achievement for me. It was a little odd to take off in 85 degree weather and land in 12 degree weather, and Lincoln did NOT like the walk to the car once we got to Utah. My mom had to meet me in the airport with a coat, since we did not bring any winter clothes to Florida.

While we were there, we got to meet a lot of people from both of my parents' sides of the family. Lincoln was a little too worked up to spend much time with the Walkers, but he was well-behaved during the Stanley Christmas party. We tried to get him excited about Christmas, but with the jet-lag I'm afraid he kind of missed the spirit of the whole thing. As a result most of the cute Christmas pictures I tried to take of him ended up like these.

Most excitingly, Lincoln got to meet his Aunts and Uncles, and his cousins Sam, Austin, and Eli! By far my favorite picture is this one of Lincoln and Eli taking a nap on Great Grandma Stanley's bed.

Lincoln also got to meet 3 out of his four Great Grandmas (We're looking at you, Grandma Johns, you missed the party.) Unfortunately, I forgot to get a picture of Lincoln with Great Grandma Stanley, but I'll be happy to edit this post later as soon as someone sends me one, because I know there were cameras out. I do, however, have pictures of Lincoln with Great Grandma Walker...

And Great Grandma White

It was so nice to get these pictures, particularly of Grandma White, who is battling cancer. We weren't sure she would ever get to meet Lincoln, but she just happened to be visiting Utah at the same time Lincoln and I were there (And remember, we weren't originally supposed to be in Utah anyway). Small Christmas miracle.

Fast forward to ACTUAL Christmas. Sean and I knew we would be spending Christmas alone, so instead of getting presents, we decided to take a road trip down to the Florida keys. Back in the warm weather and on his normal schedule again, Lincoln was in good spirits by Christmas day.

On Christmas Eve night and Christmas day, Sean and I stayed in a small Islamorada motel called Postcard Inn. The room was nothing to celebrate, in fact the carpet was soaking wet on one side and there was most definitely smelly dog pee on our comforter (It was a pet friendly inn). But we didn't book this place for the room, we booked it for the view.

This was the pool area, which overlooks the ocean.

In addition to the pool, there was a small beach. And yes, we bought Mickey Santa hats at Disney World before we left. Discounts, people. Be jealous.

 On Christmas morning, Sean gave me a great present by taking Lincoln out to watch the sunrise while I slept in. He got some pretty adorable selfies while he was out, but I just really like the ones of Lincoln cuddling in his Santa hat.

We spent Christmas day lying by the ocean and driving through the keys. For those who aren't familiar, the Florida Keys are just small skinny islands that someone decided to connect with about a trillion bridges. It takes a couple of hours to drive from Miami to the end (Key West), and Sean and I drove most of the way, enjoying the long bridges and great ocean views. It was also the most stress-free activity we could think of, since Lincoln slept the whole time.

Chrismas night, we stayed at a Courtyard Marriot in Key Largo. We weren't expecting a view, but when we got there they realized they booked us a room with two queens instead of a king. So they upgraded us to a top floor room with a single queen, since all of the King size rooms were booked. When we got to the room, we realized we got the best deal ever! If someone asked to you stand outside the hotel and pick the room you thought would have the best view, you would have pointed to ours. We had a large balcony overlooking this:

You can't tell from the photo, but you could also see the ocean just beyond the treeline.

Sunrise

 Because our room was so awesome, we just hung out there all morning. When we finally left, we went to see some large tarpon at Robbies (you have the option of feeding them, but we didn't want to pay money) It was so cool to see them up close, because some of them are easily six feet long.

There were also some pelicans hanging out.

 Before heading home, we had one last dinner at an Island grill in Islamorada. They told us they had beach seating, and when we asked them where, they led us down this shady looking pathway over the water around the side of the building. Watch in horror as my husband precariously navigates this narrow dock with our newborn.

The view was worth it though.

As was the food.

If you aren't grossed out by raw tuna, I'll have you know this was divine.

So, that was Christmas for us. As many of you know Sean just accepted a full-time job offer with Disney and we will be staying in Florida awhile. I'll miss the snow, but I don't think I'll mind a few more Christmases on the beach.

Thanksgiving!

Warning: This may after some time begin to feel like a Christmas post, due to the fact that Thanksgiving is completely overlooked in popular culture, Disney has been celebrating Christmas since the day after Halloween, and I am writing this post on December 29th. Apologies for the procrastination. The Christmas post will be coming shortly.

Sean and I were under the sad impression that we would be spending the Holidays alone together this year. We were surprised and grateful to enjoy a visit from Ashley on Thanksgiving! We were happy to show her around Florida and introduce her to Lincoln. Thanksgiving itself was a little unique, but I'll get to that.

Ashley arrived late Wednesday night, and the next day was Thanksgiving. Tragically, our Thanksgiving was not very well documented. First we caught a showing of "Catching Fire," which was Lincoln's first and last movie for awhile. He did really well, but I was uptight the entire time. Great movie though. For Dinner, (Lunch, really.) We ended up going to Animal Kingdom Lodge to eat at an African Buffet called "Boma's." It was a little unconventional for Thanksgiving, but it was SO good! At least we got a picture of Sean and Ashley in front of the awesome Christmas tree they have there.

On Friday, Ashley and Sean took an air-boat ride (Since we deemed this an unacceptable activity for a newborn, Lincoln and I stayed home). After the ride, they got to hold live alligators. We've had opportunities to hold them before, but never did it. This was particularly exciting because the gator's mouths weren't even bound shut like they normally are. Yikes!

Ashley must have been inspired by this trip, because she expressed interest in eating Gator. So we took her to the most hole-in-the-wall hillbilly joint we could find. The menu consisted of just about anything that lives in fresh or salt-water, deep fried. We just ordered everything that looked interesting. Since we are in the swampy south, we also deemed it necessary that we try frog legs.

ew.

Ok so it didn't taste that bad, but there were gross veins and stuff in there that made it unappetizing for me. Gator still tastes pretty good.

The next day we took both Ashley and Lincoln on their first trips to Disney World! It was so cute to see them in their matching "First Visit" pins.

We spent all day at Animal Kingdom and Disney's Hollywood Studios.

The Safari

It's pretty rare for the Lions to be out on the Safari. They sleep most of the day. So it was a huge deal that Sean and Ashley got these pictures.

LOVE this roar!

In line for the Bug's Life "It's tough to be a bug" show

This is what Christmas (Ahem Thanksgiving) looks like at Hollywood Studios.

Oh, and the lights dance.

Favorite Souvenir find

The "Drive-in movie" themed restaurant we ate at in Hollywood studios

The next day Ashley attended church with us, then went home. Thanks for an awesome Thanksgiving Ashley! In gratitude I will reward you with the most precious picture ever.

Lincoln McKay

FINALLY!!

Our little boy is here! Prepare to be assaulted with pictures of our newborn.

But, as with any story, I have to start at the beginning. As a first time mom, pregnancy was not everything I expected. First of all, I was under the impression that as a body-conscious athlete, I would exercise the entire time, eat well, and only gain weight in my stomach. Intense morning sickness, a cross-country move, and sugar cravings completely foiled that plan. Sean and I started taking weekly pictures to track my progress, but when it became clear that I was slowly turning into a humpback whale, this activity stopped. I did permit my mom to take a final belly pic the day before Lincoln was born, so if you want progress, here are my first and last pregnancy pics.

delicate, naive, barely pregnant flower

Small Planet

So you can understand that I was ready to get this baby out of here. Which brings me to my second unmet expectation, that my baby would arrive some time before or on my due date. There is no way this kid was going to keep me waiting any longer than that. But he DID. 

On 10/14/2013 my mom arrived in Florida, and I decided I was going to go into labor. Nature completely ignored my will. Instead, my mom was forced to sit on the couch for an entire week and watch my belly, while trying to keep me from spiraling into depression because of my lingering condition. I'm not going to bore you with the details of my birth story, but I was at the end of my rope by the 18th. Crying every morning, etc. etc. I finally went crazy and ended up going to the hospital to have a non-stress test performed. The moment I arrived, I decided I wasn't leaving without a baby. One vigorous 2 hour walk around the hospital and a determined, sympathetic triage nurse finally put me into labor.

You will never see another person THIS happy to be admitted to the hospital.

and 8 hours later...

Lincoln McKay Johns

Born 10/19/2013

7 lb 8 oz

19 inches long

My dad arrived in Florida that day, so Lincoln got immediate grandparent affection in the hospital. 

His first night was a little difficult, only because he wanted to be held and would cry if he was set down in the bassinet. Fortunately, as new parents, we were happy to cuddle him all night.

We are fortunate to have a very calm baby. He sleeps and eats like a champ, and stays on a consistent schedule. He loves to cuddle...

And he'll pretty much tolerate anything we make him do for the sake of a cute picture.

Thanks, Jyssica, for the bear!

After a week, My parents were out, and Sean's parents took over. We are so grateful for all the help we've received from both of our parents. 

3 generations of Johns men

HALLOWEEN!!

We've been looking forward to Halloween since the moment we found out our baby was due in October. It was not quite what we anticipated, since he was too young to take out, and we didn't get any trick-or-treaters. But we dressed him up anyway.

Yes, I did make this costume with a hat loom. It's possibly the most creative thing I'll ever do.

Now Lincoln is almost three weeks old, and we have managed to capture a couple of firsts on camera.

First car-seat Pic (A Stephanie Walker Tradition)

First tummy time

First tantrum

First day at church

First sink bath

First censored photo.

Not being pregnant rocks!! I can use my abs again, I'm losing weight, my appetite is normal, and I get to look at THIS all day!

We love him! Thanks for your support everyone!