Light and Affirmation: Memories

This week has been an "interesting" week as far as sleep goes. First I had a hard time adjusting to Daylight Savings Time (which shouldn't be that hard, since we fell back, but I found myself waking up really early as a result). Then, just when my schedule was starting to get a little more normal, I ate dinner too late and woke up at 3 a.m. with heartburn and couldn't fall back asleep. So I found myself with a ton of extra time on my hands and decided to digitize a few old photos from my wife's scrapbooks. It was actually kind of fun looking through old pictures and remembering how different life was when my kids were little. When I told my wife about this project, she informed me that she wants to start printing our more recent digital photos so she can scrapbook them. It seemed a little funny that I am converting print photos to a digital format at the same time she wants to digital photos to a print format :) Anyway, enjoy these pics from the year 2000 ;)

This picture was taken on New Years Eve. My mom, Gail (with Alexis on her lap) and my brother-in-law Jason are in the back row, and me, Gail's sister Amy, and my sister Caroline are in the front row. We used to have a New Year's Eve party at our house every year. It was a fun tradition, but these days it is difficult to get everyone together on New Year's for some reason (maybe we just aren't as fun as we used to be :) ) Since this was the year 2000 I remember staying up until 3 in the morning watching CNN and mostly waiting to find out if the Y2K hype was real or not. I was actually a little disappointed when pretty much nothing happened!

This is a picture of Alexis (age 2) and Aubrey (about 5 months). Aubrey is wearing a bath toy on her head. We were living in our town home in Spanish Fork when these first pictures were taken, but we moved to the house where we live now in July of that year.

Alexis hugging Aubrey. She had a "sty" on her right eye (I still don't really know what that is) that had to be surgically removed a few weeks after this photo was taken. I still remember giving her to the doctor and watching him walk down the hallway with her so they could prep her for the surgery. It broke my heart!

This is a picture of Alexis and Aubrey in our hotel room at Bryce. We went there in February 2000 (which was the last time we were there until a few weeks ago, in October 2011, when we went again). We stayed at Ruby's Inn.

Here is a pic of me swimming with Alexis. It was snowing while we were there, and since the pool area was housed in glass it looked really cool. It actually snowed so much that we had to spend an extra night at the hotel.

Me and Alexis recovering from swimming:

Here is a picture of Alexis sitting on the steps of our town home wearing my snoopy shirt. I got it when I was about 7 years old, and when I was in 2nd grade I gave my parents a picture of me wearing this shirt with a frame I made at school out of popsicle sticks. I think it's still hanging in their bedroom.

Alexis pretending to sleep:

Alexis in a Minnie Mouse costume. You would think this was Halloween, but she was always dressed up at this age. She had a "costume box" with masks and various other accessories and was always insisting that we not call her Alexis but instead call her "Minnie" or whatever she happened to be dressed as.

Alexis sitting at our "breakfast nook" in the kitchen wearing a Strawberry Shortcake doll hat on her head:

Alexis's 3rd birthday (April 2000):

Alexis, Aubrey and Gail dying Easter eggs:

Alexis looking for Easter eggs:

Alexis sleeping with her "lambie" that we got for "free" in Park City after going to the world's most high-pressure condo presentation (we didn't buy the condo, thank goodness, but they gave us a gift certificate to a store in Park City where we bought Alexis a stuffed animal). Alexis is sleeping with the southwest-style blanket I used to have on my bed when I was growing up:

Alexis and me at the 4th of July parade. She was scared of the loud sounds of the parade (and fireworks, too) so we always took a pair of headphones for her to wear.

Aubrey around the time she turned 1 (August 2000):

Alexis helping Aubrey learn to walk:

My graduation from the University of Phoenix (August 2000). I got my bachelor's degree in Business/Information Technology and had a 4.0 GPA:

Me with Alexis at my graduation (she is wearing a kitty mask on her head).

Me and Aubrey (my dad is holding her hand):

Me and my grandparents (they came to the graduation, too):

Me with balloons in my hair at my 23rd birthday party (we had dinner at TGI Fridays):

Me opening birthday gifts at my parents' house (Alexis is helping me):

Me carving pumpkins while wearing the Green Bay Packers shirt my in-laws bought for me (they live in Michigan but are in the upper peninsula only a couple of hours from Green Bay, so they are Packers fans). This picture was taken in the kitchen of the house where we now live. When we moved to this house in July of 2000, the day we moved was the day Aubrey learned to crawl. We set her down like usual and expected her to stay there, but when we turned around she had crawled out the door! Moving day was quite possibly the longest day of my life. We started around 8 a.m. and didn't finish until about 2 a.m. It was a Thursday, so we didn't have very much help, and I got so tired that my brain stopped working and we somehow got locked out of both our houses at one point. We all got sick after that (because the move was so stressful) and haven't had much desire to move since that experience.

Me wearing my Harry Potter costume to work (and Alexis given me a hug). My mom made the robe and I painted the broom and carved "firebolt" on it with a wood burning tool: