Ty Time

I haven't posted pics of Ty in quite a while, so I thought I'd repent. This post has made me realize how much I'm failing to capture this whirlwind summer. I don't have tons, just enough to see how much our little guy's growing...and he is!

I found this and just had to get it...we can't wait to get Ty his first tool belt! :)

We've found lately, especially since he's started to giggle, that our little frankfurter is ticklish! Grandma Julie is the best at finding his funny spots.
"Whoa, dude, are you seriously interrupting me during play time? Come on."

"No, seriously. Can't you see I'm a little busy?"

"That's just not cool, man. Let's just talk about this for a sec."

WARNING: THE FOLLOWING IS A DIZZYINGLY LONG POST BUT WITH SEVERAL EXCITING TWISTS AND TURNS. KEEP YOUR HANDS AND ARMS INSIDE THE RIDE AT ALL TIMES...HERE WE GO!!



The last few weeks have really been appeasing to my OCD...Obsessive Culinary Disorder. :)
Prior to having Ty, I never really just sat down to watch TV. Nursing however has given me several 30 minute bouts throughout the day to do so. During the morning I started watching Good Things Utah, the local television program produced by ABC 4. Every day on the show they have a cooking segment featuring restaurant or other business chefs. During a particular time of wanting to get out do something out of the sometimes mundane norm, I thought to myself, " I wonder if they ever have joe-shmoe average viewers come on and do the cooking segment?" After a little thought I decided, what the hey, and emailed the executive producer and asked that very question. I quickly received a response saying that it was kind of rare but once and a while they did have viewers on the show. They also suggested I send them a recipe if I wished. I responded with one of my little family's staple dinner recipes, a cilantro lime chicken recipe I created after craving Cafe Rio flavors one day. Three weeks went by and after figuring that it wasn't a recipe or person they were interested in featuring, I forgot about it... that was until I got an email from Reagan, one of the hosts on the show, inviting me to come in two weeks and do the cooking segment. :)
I had a blast preparing for the show (I think Ryan may have gotten sick of the same dinner about 4 times in two weeks, however :) ) I was all ready to go when, the day before, I received a letter in the mail. At the same time I sent Good Things Utah my recipe for their consideration, my brother-in-law Matt suggested I send it to the Signature Cache Valley Cheese contest. While I thought I would be out to lunch at the thought of anything coming of that one, I decided to go ahead and enter.
The letter I received in the mail was a notification that I had won the first prize, along with four other people, in the contest and was now invited to a cook-off on August 21st against the others to compete for the grand prize! I couldn't believe it. I started reading the fine print just knowing that there was something I misunderstood. While I came to realize that I had indeed won, I also read something that made my stomach drop. Come to find out, should I accept the cash prize and the cook-off invitation, Cache Valley Cheese would now own all of the rights/privileges to my recipe with one of the stipulations being that it could not be published anywhere else.
What was I going to do?! I couldn't very well cancel a live TV show 24 hrs before but at the same time, being a young married couple with a child, $1000 cash prize with the chance of winning $5000 would certainly be more than helpful. I thought to myself, "oh, what are the chances that the judges of the contest would watch the show...I'm sure I'd be fine." While that's probably true, I could answer truthfully the temple question that asks if we are honest in all of our dealings with our fellow man. Soooooo, I put my thinking cap on and ultimately decided to do the show but alter it enough so that it could be deemed a different recipe and still be called cilantro lime chicken (the show had been advertising it as such for a few days so that was pretty critical.) Since I had to give the computer gurus time to post the altered recipe on ABC's website, I had all of 30 minutes to completely change things up and give them exact ingredient amounts/methods. So with a big prayer in my heart and a leap of faith, I gave em the recipe and spent the rest of the day trying to prepare to show thousands of TV viewers how to cook a meal I had only prepared in my head. :) Thankfully, my prayers were most certainly answered and everything turned out great. I truly had a blast and have been invited to come back again for a round two.

Here's the link to the video if ya have a hankering to watch the segment. Just click on the picture.


http://www.abc4.com/content/about_4/gtu/recipes/story/Cilantro-Lime-Chicken-Rice-Bowl/MqST_5xF9kGGuRSRdfqQag.cspx

San Francisco

As part of a yearly time-share thinga-mabob, Ryan's family invited us on a vacation to San Francisco. I'd never been outside that airport and since it would be over our 2nd anniversary, we thought it'd be a great excuse to get away for a week. To be honest, with the thought of leaving our 3-month-old, as well as subsequent days of crying spouts and thoughts of the most assured psychological harm I would be causing my son, (Obsessive worrying comes with the mantel of motherhood, right? :) ) I almost didn't go and even looked at plane tickets half way through the trip. But with enough reassurance from my loving husband and Grandma and Grandpa Herd who would tend our little son, I decided to go (stay :)) and try and have some fun...and we did!

I really do love Ryan...it was just really cold on the bay at night! :)

Ryan at UC Berkley. When I flew in later that day, I told him ironically what happened on the plane. The girl sitting next to me said I looked like I went to Berkley. Hmm, little did she know that I'm a regular listener of Rush Limba!

Six Flags: Even though the wait was an hour long, this ride was worth it!

Chinatown! This place is huge; we didn't even see half of it. But I did walk out with a sweet pot sticker press that my sweety bought me. :)

"Can I take your picha?"

Sea Lions at Pier 39. These guys' whole day consists of sleeping on the pier and literally fighting for the best spots. It was comical to watch these 800 lb blubbers push each other around and off into the water.

The famous Boudin Sourdough Bakery. They had this big window where you could watch the masters at work...I was in heaven!

Ghirardelli Square...Oh my goodness is all I can say. :)

Ry luvs long walks on the beach :)

One of the funnest things we did on our trip was to rent a tandem bike and peddle the Golden Gate Bridge and it's surrounding areas. Here we are with Alcatraz in the background.

ALCATRAZ! This was definitely a highlight of the trip. The tour was given by actual wardens and inmates of this once maximum-security prison.

JELLY BELLY FACTORY! I was seriously like a kid in a candy store. (I kinda was in a candy store now that I think about it :)) And for all of you kids, young and old who are fans of Harry Potter's Berty Botts every flavor beans: they've expanded their repertoire of vomit, grass, and dirt to flavors like rotten egg & skunk spray (and yes, I tried them both! blaaah!)


This artistic piece of "Aaaanold" (sorry about the glare) is made with 100% Jelly Belly's...crazy the time people have on their hands.

We took a day trip to the redwoods and WOW, HUUUUGGE! Yes, that's a single tree behind us. We were both looking at the top of the tree when the photo was shot but because of the lighting it looks like our own little sacred grove experience or something. (sorry, that was probably a little 'sacrilege') :)

Just to give you a sense at how big the redwoods are...this one was taken from inside the tree. There was a hole in the trunk large enough for us to crawl in. We were standing up straight and accompanied by five of Ryan's cousins as well.

Not only are they tall but these things are oooold as well. Ryan and I were joking around and figured that the timing works out, give or take, that Moroni could have planted some of these redwoods.

Our condo was actually located an hour north of San Francisco, in the middle of wine country. On our last day we decided to take a tour of the Korbel winery. (Don't worry, we had white grape juice normally reserved for the kids during the wine tasting portion of the tour. :))

Ryan's mom (on the left) and aunt Lyn acting a bit tipsy at the wine tasting :) I would be too if I just spent $800 on a bottle of sparkling champagne!

Ty AKA Dude, Little Stud, Little Man Child, Mister, Son, etc!

For all of you Brian Regan fans out there, this one's for you. "You were so kind enough to feed me and I don't know how to thank you other than...pinky fling!...thank you, thank you from the bottom of my heart...from the depths of my soul! yadda, yadda, yadda" :)

Oh to be like a baby and have the ability to sleep anywhere!

I swear this kid has terrets syndrome (sp?)...his arms are always moving! :)

"Mister" started smiling a couple of weeks ago. He seems to currently reserve them only for his mom, dad, Grandma Herd and uncle Ryan, though! :)

Little Man Child is also starting to focus on things more consistently...time for mom to start setting good examples because he'll be a sponge from now on.

Ty with his favorite Uncle Ry, who, by the way, is a better little mother than is real one!

Snugglin' with mom :)

Just chillin'....again with waiving arms! :)

Dude with his Grandma Herd...and looking pretty cool if I do say so myself! :)

So we're definitely on he verge of creating a little chunk. He currently eats 4-5 oz every three hours and if I give him more in between feedings, he'll take it!!

Calming down after the dreaded bath time :)

Sooo, I've realized that being a Herd automatically dictates that you have the "nickname gene." It's almost impossible to call someone by their first name and almost more impossible to have just one nickname. Ty, aka Little Man Child, aka Little Stud, aka, Dude, aka, Mister, aka Son...those are just our most common titles for our baby boy who is now 10 weeks old! Honestly, he'll be learning to ride a bike tomorrow!

Spring Has Sprung!

Ok, maybe it's now closer to summer than spring, especially since we live in Utah and two seasons are more the norm than four. Nonetheless...

Ty and I were out for our daily walk (it's all the exercise I have the energy for these days :)) and I couldn't help, at seeing all of the beautiful foilage, but feel a little "Polyanna-ish" and started playing "the glad game" for spring, flowers, sunshine, etc. Here are just a few pics from our walk. Maybe they'll help put a little spring in your step as well! :)