Moving to Utah!

I just thought that I would tell everyone that Eric and I are moving to Utah to live with Mom and Dad! We are planning on being there until Eric goes to boot camp at the end of August. We are so excited to see everyone and to be able to spend more time with the Downwards! Estimated day of arrival: July 2nd!

This & That

We just got back from our vacation to Lake Powell and thought I would share a few stories. We got there Wednesday afternoon and it was quite windy and looked like rain. But so far the rain hadn't started. By that evening we were stuck inside the houseboat in what you could call torrential rain. However, it only felt like that inside the houseboat because we happened to be parked right underneath a waterfall! I've been to Lake Powell in heavy rainstorms before but we've always been lucky enough to have the waterfalls several feet from our boat. It was a long night for everyone. By the next afternoon, the waterfall finally stopped (even though the rain had stopped that morning). We had a few beautiful days after that. Mike got to enjoy some skiing and wakeboarding and had the best 2 crashes of the trip. I missed the second one but I heard he did some awesome twists (horizontal to the water?) when doing the slolom (sp?) ski. The first one wasn't so much a crash but pretty cool still. He was trying to get up on the slolom ski and somehow both he and the ski were pulled under water and then his ski came shooting up and out like a torpedo while he stayed under for a few more seconds. My dad has been pulling skiiers for pretty much his whole life and he said he's NEVER seen anything like that before. It was kind of funny.

Ryan had a blast on the trip. His two favortie activities (besides playing with cousins) were fishing and fishing. j/k They were fishing and throwing rocks in the water. We went to the doctor the morning we left and luckily he did not have to wear his special glove for the trip! (see shutterfly pictures) His hand had healed enough that we didn't have to really worry about it and it is looking better everyday. What a relief! He also enjoyed a couple of rides on the banana boat, except he fell asleep the first time so I guess he didn't really enjoy that one. :-)

I am pretty sure he is going to have a lot of fun with his Flinders cousins this summer and we are looking forward to that. It's been fun to see him with older and younger cousins. He really liked Dustin when he was here and tried to share his fishy crackers with him.

Oh yes, one more thing. We won't have our official ultrasound until next week, but the doctor thinks it's an 85% chance we are having a girl. I'm still surprised and getting used to the idea (since I was expecting a boy) but both Mike and I saw the same thing the doctor was looking at and it surely didn't look like a boy!

Independence Day?

Diane had a great idea to maybe see if we can get the whole family together around July 4th. If this is the plan, (Eric and I are making calls to family tonight to see what you all think!) then we will leave IL on July 1st (Tuesday), and hope to spend the rest of the week in UT and leave Sunday night (July 6th) to head back home. Any other thoughts?

Downward Grandbaby #8

I'm sure everyone knows this but I will make it official by announcing it here. We are going to have baby #2 around November 1st! I have to admit I've had a hard time being excited about this for various reasons (even though it was planned), but that is changing. My belly is getting bigger and that makes it feel more real. Plus, that means I'll be able to feel the baby move soon and I'm excited about that. And we saw an ultrasound this morning at the doctor's office and got to see the guy/girl. It actually looks like a baby now! Yeah! I should be far enough along next month to be able to see whether it's a boy or girl. I think it's going to be a boy. Not 100% positive but I will be surprised if it's a girl. I really don't think Ryan understands the situation, but I think he will be a good big brother when he gets used to the new body in the house.

Congrats on the new job Meagan! It sounds like something you are going to enjoy. That's great.

Meagan Has a New Job :)

Yep, it's all in the title of this post! After not working for a while, it's finally time to start working again! I had my first job today, and it was a ton of fun! I am a personal assistant to someone in my ward, who is a person that I have known for like my whole life. It's 19 hours per week, and it's great, because I really enjoy spending time with my friend! Yay me!

Family Reunion?

Hi Everyone,
I was just thinking that it would be nice to see if we can get everyone together sometime this summer. I think Jon will still be in Iraq, but I know that Mary and her gang are planning on being in UT sometime this summer, and with most of the Downwards living in UT, it makes sense to have the get-together there. What do you guys think? We are planning on Eric going to boot camp at the end of August, so, before he is there, we are going to be in UT. I think it would be awesome to have everyone get together again this summer! Let's make some plans!

Meagan

Getting the Blog Started

Hi Family! This is just the first post to say hi! I hope that this works, especially with our family spread so far apart! Anyway, I will post more later, but if anyone needs help getting on the blog, let me know, and I will help!

Love, Meg