Stolen Memories

Yes. We are alive. Currently living in a hotel during the week and St. George on the weekends. Some might find this life to be glamorous and luxurious. Throw two kids into the mix, however, and you have a recipe for losing your mind at least three times a day. The problem is not any one individual kid. The problem is that there are TWO of them. If we leave the hotel for adventures out and about, Brady has the worst day ever. He is a very scheduled baby and needs his morning nap or he gets SUPER cranky- like scream your head off for the whole 20 minutes we are in line at Chipotle cranky. If we cater to Brady's nap schedule, Ryan and I have the most boring day of our lives and want to kill each other before the day is over (i.e. Monday). So it is a balancing act between the two kids' needs- which leaves no time for my own needs. Wait, I have needs? I can't think of what they are at the moment. Like I said- losing. my. mind.

Anyway, rewind to last Friday night. We closed the door to our Vegas home for the last time. Ever. Worn out and tired, we drove to St. George and went to sleep. We woke up at 4:30am to the news that our car was broken into. Awesome. Some snot nosed idiot St. Geroge teenagers broke into our car (the door was left unlocked- stupid! stupid! stupid!) They took our GPS- just grabbed it off the windshield, left the mount and the charger. Like I said, idiots. The contents of my diaper bag were strewn across the driveway. Apparently they had no need for wipes, baby toys, diapers and sparkly pink nail polish... I could care less about the GPS. They have come way down in price and ours had outdated maps anyway. Good excuse to get a new one. Dandy.

It wasn't until I went back to bed that I realized my camera had been in the diaper bag! Ahhhck! I NEVER leave my camera in the diaper bag. It is ALWAYS in my purse- except for that one time when Ryan was playing with it in the car and it ran out of batteries and I had to put it somewhere but the car was packed so full of stuff that I couldn't get to my purse so I put it in the side pocket of the diaper bag. Oh yea- that one time was 7 hours earlier and those snot nosed idiot St. George teenagers stole it! Curses! The saddest part is I hadn't uploaded my pictures for weeks because I had been busy with my move. I had some really cute pictures on there. Some really good blog posts planned out. Some really fun memories that I didn't want to forget. The last memories of our time in Vegas. It makes my stomach hurt just typing it.

Just so I don't forget the pictures I had- I want to document them. (I'm sure there are some that I am leaving out. What a waste. They may never be viewed again. The IDIOT teenagers left the camera charger too.)

*I had pictures of Ryan and Brady playing in the condo pool. It was Brady's first time on his own in the pool. He was crawling around in the shallow end wearing his dorky bright yellow sun hat with the flap that comes down over his ears and neck. I even had a video of him crawling and pulling up to a standing position on the pole. He was so proud of himself and gave the camera the cutest squeal of delight and the biggest, most genuine smile. Curse you stupid teenagers for stealing those pictures.

*I had a picture of Brady getting stuck trying to crawl under a folding chair. He was stuck with half his body over the bar under the chair and his little bum in the air. I ran for my camera as fast as I could to get the shot because he was freaking out, but it was too cute of a moment to not catch on camera. Curse you stupid teenagers for stealing that picture.

*I had pictures of my newest little most adorable nephew and my brother and sister in law. The pictures that I remember most from that night were of little J and Brady sitting together on the couch. There was one where they were just staring at each other. It was one of those shots where you just know you will get it printed and framed and keep it forever. Curse you stupid teenagers for stealing those pictures.

*I had a picture of Roxy on the first night we spent in Orem with all our stuff in the house. She had been freaking out for weeks leading up to the move. Following me everywhere around the house as I packed things. Not wanting to be left behind. On the day of the move she was very antsy in the Orem house. Always on the move to check where everyone was and what was going on. It wasn't until that evening once our front room was all set up and every one else had left that she finally relaxed. She was resting her head on Zach's shoes and looked oh so cute. Curse you teenagers!

*Pictures of our last week in our Vegas house. I have already forgotten many of them. But I know I had some of the night we ate spaghetti on boxes in the empty dining room on the tile floor. I had a picture of Ryan's sweet set up in the living room with the portable DVD player on a box and his toddler cot and pillows in front with popcorn. He was such a trooper living in an empty house for a week. I wish I had that picture to prove it. Stupid teenagers.

*I had what I thought was the best shot of Ryan I have ever taken to date. We were having a funky day and were in need of a little fun. Back story: Ryan had left his "King" car at a playground about a month earlier and I thought it was gone forever. The "King" isn't in the new Cars movie and I couldn't find it ANYWHERE. That is until one night Zach and I were in Ross and found a three pack of cars shoved between two dog beds. It had the King! I had to buy it. I wasn't sure when I would actually give it to Ryan but figured with the upcoming move and flight to VA the perfect opportunity would come up eventually. Enter our funky day. Ryan out of the blue suggested that we go to the park to look for his King car. I decided that, yes. that was exactly what we would do. I slipped the new King into my purse and we were on our way. When we got to the park I planted the new King on the bridge for Ryan to find. It worked. You have never seen a happier kid. He jumped up and down and screamed with delight when he found the car. I snapped a couple pictures and you could see the pure joy in his face. It was one of the only times I have caught a genuine. unstaged, non-cheesy smile from Ryan on camera. And I will tell you- he has one handsome smile. It was another one of those "I'm so going to frame this picture" pictures. Curse you stupid teenagers. I will never have that moment back.

*Right before we left our house in Vegas I went around and took pictures. I took pictures of the kitchen we worked so hard on upgrading. And the backyard I put hours of work into trimming the bushes, cutting low branches off the tree and mowing the yard so it would look perfect for our renters. I took the pictures halfway in case we needed to list it while we are gone and halfway just for memory's sake. I took one of the exterior right before jumping into the car to head to St. George and on to our next adventure. 7 hours later- those pictures were gone forever. Stupid, stupid teenagers.

It is so frustrating that these pictures that meant so much to me will mean nothing to the person/people that have them now. The least they could have done was leave the memory card. Jerks.

So until further notice, no pictures on the blog for a while. I will still try to update- I don't want to forget the fun things we are doing just because I can't take pictures. This week we have already had some picture-worthy moments- we built a fort in our hotel room, went to the Bellagio one last time and rode the tram and watched the fountains, we went swimming in the hotel pool, we went to the park one last time with Ryan's buddy, Jake, we went to Town Square and played at the park and just today we went to Sunset park and walked around the pond and threw rocks into the water. Not to mention the moment yesterday that I so wanted to get on video of Ryan and Brady laughing together when they were supposed to be napping in the same room. Ryan was preforming and Brady had pulled himself up on the pack n' play for a better view. Ryan would throw something in the air and say, "Wooooo!" and Brady would let out a huge, baby belly laugh. Over and over again. Seriously, so. cute.

By the end of this post I know you are all left asking, "But Brooke! Is your haircut still fabulous?"

...Yes. Yes it is. If you consider micro-pigtails on unwashed hair fabulous. At least I don't have to worry about any photographic evidence! I will say it one more time:

Losing. my. mind.