Cartoon #7 - Baby Name Tester

http://www.cartoonstock.com/directory/P/Pregnancy_gifts.asp

This is the last cartoon I'm doing for awhile!

Cartoon #6 - Pregnancy Hormones

http://pregnancy.baby-gaga.com/cartoons/cartoon27

This one actually happened to me. I cried during the Alberton's commercial where the lady ignored her cell phone for the first time that day to talk to her daughter at dinnertime. Greg couldn't help himself - he laughed right out loud! He got me laughing too.

Bean is a Kicker

For the last few weeks Ilene has been feeling an unusual fluttering that we suspected could be Bean moving around. Well, today I was resting my hand on her tummy and I felt a little bump. Ilene and I agree...Bean is kicking now. It's really strange. I mean, we've gone out and bought ourselves a bunch of baby stuff and all, but now it really seems real!

New Cell Phone

Because Cingular doesn't have coverage in Vernal (!) and because we moved to Vernal for Greg's new job (Naples city planner), we had to get new phones!

So yesterday Greg and I went to Alltel in the Walmart in Vernal and chose phones. Right when we got home, I got started on figuring out how to design my new phone.

The one on the right is my old Cingular phone, and the one on the left is my new Alltel (I may have went a little overboard!).

I had a blast designing and sticking the stickers on! Do you like?

Cartoon #5 - Baby Kicks

http://pregnancy.baby-gaga.com/cartoons/cartoon20

This cartoon particularly applies to me and Greg today. Greg had his hand on little Bean (my stomach) and I noticed that I was feeling a slight bumping sensation, right where Greg's hand was.

Greg felt it too, and we agree that our Bean is beginning to kick! It's slowly dawning on me that we are really going to have a baby!

Cartoon #4 - Robots

http://www.danscartoons.com/pregnancy_baby_cartoons.htm

Cartoon #3 - Diaper Service

http://www.danscartoons.com/pregnancy_baby_cartoons.htm

Cartoon #2 - Castaway Games

This cartoon I did in 2001. I'm not sure if it was my original idea. Probably not!

Cartoon #1 - Toddler Trainer

I love to draw cartoons. But I have a hard time coming up with anything funny to draw. So I searched online for ones I thought were funny, and I changed them a bit to make them my own (sort of). To see the original cartoon, I have posted the link for it. Enjoy!

http://www.danscartoons.com/pregnancy_baby_cartoons.htm

In Need of a Nickname

I started my new job yesterday (hooray!). So far, I've only run into one real problem...

My boss's name is Craig Blunt. My name is Greg Platt. So far, it's not a big deal, but pretty soon people will be coming into the office, or calling into the office, looking for me. And other people are still going to be calling and coming in for Craig. The vocalized parts of our names are identical, and so, unless people are very clear about whether they're forming a G or a C and a B or a P, the office staff is going to have a very hard time knowing which of us is being sought.

So, since I'm the new guy, it's easier for people to call me by something different than to try to learn to call Craig something. Thus, I'm in need of a new name or nickname that I can go by at work...

Please, your suggestions would be very useful!!!

Moving

Packing up is a tough job. Luckily, with the move, the city of Naples is paying for a lot of it. They offered me reasonable moving expenses up to $5000. Of course we didn't need that much, but that budget allowed us to rent a U-haul and buy some containers for all our stuff. Of course, loading all that up gave us a bunch of red boxes around the old apartment!



Our thanks go out to all of you who helped us with the move. Our moms came and helped us with cleaning the old apartment...invaluable help...I'm not nearly as good at cleaning as my mom. Ben Holling helped us load up the truck and unload it in Vernal. With Ilene pregnant, we couldn't have her doing much loading, and with the heavy boxes and heavy and awkward furniture, there was no way I could have done that myself! So that was huge.




We love our new place. As soon as we get it all unpacked and cleaned up, I'll post some photos. Here's a quick description. It's a townhouse-style condo that we're renting from a couple who live in CA. It's got two livable stories with the living room and large kitchen downstairs with a half bath (the kitchen is so nice...all our stuff doesn't even fill the cupboards...our last one was so packed full that we didn't have room for it all!). Upstairs there are two bedrooms, both fairly large. We're living in one and the other will serve as a nursery. In addition, the nursery houses two large bookcases, and a bunch of games, coats, and other miscellaneous items.

In addition to all this space, we have a full basement where we have the washer/dryer, tools, and storage space for things like seasonal items and seldom used items (plus all the containers we purchased!). I'm especially excited about the basement because it has so much space for all my little projects.

Our living room is doubling as an office, but it's big enough and arranged such that the two spaces are actually separated a bit.

Well, that's a good enough description for now. Of course, we invite you to come out and see us...we have space for you, and even a crib for those of you with children. We're only 2.5-3 hours from you in the SLC/Provo areas.

Oh, and our new address is:

100 N. 1350 West #10
Vernal, UT 84078

Yes, that's right, the 100 is first and the 1350 is second...a little strange, but it's correct.

Enough for today.

Pregnancy - May 2007

Here I am at 17 weeks. Most people can't tell I'm having a baby yet. I feel fat!

The San Diego Trip

So we just got back from a road trip to San Diego with Dono and Olya, Greg's brother and his wife. Oh, and their 3 year old, Hannah. She's so smart and cute! We were gone for 9 days.

Sea World was fun, especially with Hannah, Susan, Miguel, and their son Alejandro.

The San Diego Zoo was so huge that we couldn't see everything.

But for me, the best time I had was at Laguna Beach. Greg, Dono, and I went playing in the waves. I kept getting scared at the seaweed floating everywhere, but I just kept going back in. It was a blast!

I really enjoyed getting to know my sister Susan better. Me and Greg got to be there when Susan (she's pregnant too) and Miguel found out the gender of their baby - a girl! Check out Susan and Miguel's staircase in their house! Love it!

All in all, it was a fun trip.

Vacation Day 8 (May 3)

We packed up all our things and headed for home, today. Technically, we only came as far as Primm, but basically the vacation is over for us now. We went by Laguna Beach first and did a little shopping. I also got a few final pics of the beach there. Olya picked up some jewelry. I almost bought a shirt with a cool picture of the world. But then I saw the back...it was all about global warming...so I skipped that shirt!

In the whole time we've been down here, we've never stopped at an In-N-Out Burger, so we did that on the way out today. I still don't get it. The burger is good, but it's really not any different than a Sonic if you ask me, and the fries are bad...especially when they get cold.

Vacation Day 7 (May 2)

The beach was a lot of fun!

We all went down with Jay to Laguna beach. Ilene went about waist deep into the water, but that's about all she can handle in open water, especially in the ocean. Dono went crashing into waves a way out and got tumbled a couple of times. I went out there once but got beyond the cresting point without running into an actual wave, so I got saved from being tumbled.

In the bay we could see a humpback whale just a hundred yards or so from where we were swimming. That was pretty cool, but Ilene could not have handled swimming with it! In one of the pictures I'm posting you can see a fin that may have been a dolphin.

Vacation Day 6 (May 1)

Our intent was to go to the temple, today. Dono and Olya were going first while we took care of Hannah, and then we were supposed to switch. But they left a little late and hit traffic before they got there. And on the way back they went back to Sea World for a souvenir and then took a wrong turn and drove around Mission Bay, afterwards. Long story short, they got back too late for us to be able to go and get back in time for Susan's ultrasound.

So, after they got back, Ilene and I went to the beach for a half hour or so (it was cold cold cold!), and then we went back to Susan and Miguel's place and packed our things up. Then we went with Miguel to the doctor's office. The ultrasound revealed that their baby is a girl! That's good news cuz it's just what they were hoping for. We had a little celebratory dinner with them, and then we took off for Laguna Niguel.

Vacation Day 5 (April 30)

Zoo Day!

I haven't been in years! They've completely remodelled the zoo, with new exhibits and new animals. We went all around, up and through. We spent 9 hours in the park, and we still didn't get to everything (though most of what we didn't walk by we did see from the tour bus).

This time I remembered my camera (no fee for parking at the zoo, so we took our car), and I got some amazing photos. I'll post a few on here, but I got a ton more. Low light made a few of them go motion blurred, but I guess that can't really be helped. Of nearly 300 photos I took at the zoo, probably 200-250 are pretty good. My favorite is the one of Ilene with the Hippo.

At the end of the day we went back to Old Town and walked around for a while. We had dinner there in a cafe called Coyote. That was fun, and once again, we returned home exhausted!

Vacation Day 4 (April 29)

Sunday. So we got up and got ready for church. Ilene and I went down to Chula Vista to church, while Dono and Olya stayed up in San Marcos. After church Ilene and I went and visited the Wyrick family, that I helped teach and baptize on my mission. (After my mission I lost contact with everyone, but I found the Wyrick's info a while back, and I was able to contact them before coming down, this time.) It was really good to see them and see how strong they've stayed in the church. Their one daughter (Natalie) got married in the San Diego Temple not too long ago. And their other daughter (Michelle), now 19, is attending institute classes with Arlene in the area. And John, it appears, is an active member of the ward choir. We got to visit with them for a while, and Arlene gave Ilene and I passes to the zoo (as an employee thereof).

After visiting in Chula Vista, Ilene and I met up with Dono and Olya and Susan and Miguel in Old Town at a site I hadn't known about before...a Mormon Battalion site up the hill from the visitors' center.

Vacation Day 3 (April 28)

Susan and Miguel have a season pass to Sea World, so we all went to Sea World together, today. It was a lot cooler than I thought it was going to be. Of course, the shows were amazing, seeing the Orcas and the Dolphins jump, splash, and perform. But there was a lot more to it than I thought there were. In addition there were several aquariums, my favorite: the sharks. The shark aquarium has a tunnel you walk through and the sharks swim all around you, and even above you. I recommend that if you go to Sea World on your vacation, plan to spend a whole day there.

One stupid move on my part: we had originally planned to all drive ourselves to Sea World, but to save on gas and parking fees, Ilene and I decided to ride with Susan and Miguel. But not taking our own car, I forgot to grab my camera out of our car. I realized it only after we had travelled a way down the road. So, I ended up having to use Ilene's camera for pics. That was fine, and I got several good shots. But, it wasn't nearly as versatile or useful as my own camera would have been.

On the way home we decided to stop at the beach for a few minutes. We didn't swim because it was too cold, but we did see several dolphins swimming just off shore.

Vacation Day 2 (April 27)

The intent was to take off early, today, so we could get to San Diego early enough to actually do something fun. Well, that didn't happen.

On the way out of the hotel we ran into Aaron and Aubrey Thornock! What a surprise that was. They were staying at Whiskey Pete's on the way back from a week-long vacation to San Diego. Weird coincidence! But they had two passes to the Zoo and Sea World that they gave us for free (they had used them on their trip). We gladly took them. That nice little find gave us the opportunity to go to Sea World, which we hadn't originally planned on doing.

On the way to San Diego, Dono and Olya diverted to Laguna Nigel to pick up 3 discounted tickets to Sea World (with two free passes, we each picked up one adult, plus Hannah's ticket).

Getting into San Marcos, Ilene and I had a chance to visit with Susan and Miguel (Ilene's sister and her husband) before Dono and Olya arrived. The group of us ordered Indian food (mmmm, my favorite!) and just spent the evening visiting.

Vacation Day 1 (April 26)

We got up early, so excited about the beginning of our vacation. I expected Dono and fam would show up on our doorstep ready to leave at 7:00. He didn't...but that's ok, we weren't quite ready, and we spent the morning packing and cleaning.

We got going about 9 a.m. We were only going as far as Las Vegas, today, so there was no real need to hurry. With two pregnant women, you bet we stopped several times on the way to Vegas. It worked out to about once per hour.

When we got to Las Vegas we took a break and walked around the strip a little bit. We went into the Luxor and the Excalibur, and went to the Excalibur's buffet. Hannah was so cute eating, I wish I had had my camera with me!

It was 9 or so before we finally left Las Vegas, headed to Primm Valley where we were really staying. So by the time we got to the hotel we were all tired!

On the way down to Vegas we stopped at the temple in St. George, and that's what the pics are from.