Gleed Family: January 2013

Well, I have a lot of updating to do. Since I've last posted we've had Thanksgiving, had Cameron's birthday, a new niece, graduation, a cruise, Christmas, a move and a new job. I'll start at the beginning.
This year for Thanksgiving we went to my parent's house in Ovid. We had the Ward's over (my mom's sister and family) I can't remember the last time we were all there together. Well, I guess we weren't all there this time either. My sister Emily had to work and my cousin Krystal's husband was in Georgia for boot camp. We had a great time laughing and singing Christmas songs. It was fun to have Grandpa Sorenson there too. We found out my cousin Jesse's wife Melissa is pregnant with their 3rd and it's a girl! (Ward's are a very boy dominated family.)
The day after Thanksgiving was Cameron's 24th birthday. I LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE planning his birthday because it's always by Thanksgiving so I usually have like 4 days to plan for. It's so much fun. I start planning in October. I love staying at hotels so his birthday is the perfect time to plan a little vacation which involves hotels for me and cake for him. We both end up happy! This year we celebrated the first half of the day in Ovid. Cam took my niece and nephew out on the 4-wheeler while I attempted my first baking of his favorite German chocolate cake. We just took it easy that morning and later made our way down to Salt Lake where we had a candle lit dinner at the Messick restaurant. My brother-in-law Scott cooked shrimp scampi. It was wonderful. After dinner we headed to Salt Lake to see "Off White Christmas." It was a small theater where they did different comedy and improv shows. The one we went to was a spoof on the Bing Crosby White Christmas movie. At the beginning of the show they asked if anyone was celebrating anything. They asked for anniversaries, bachelorette parties, and birthdays. Cam raised his hand and they had him go to the front where the entire theater sang happy birthday to him. As a gift, they gave him two comp tickets to another show. It was so unexpected and so awesome! The show was hilarious and we loved every minute of it. After that we went to our hotel that I had previously reserved for the night. The next day we went downtown Salt Lake to walk around the new City Creek mall. Cam had never been so that's where we spent the morning and afternoon. We enjoyed a delicious lunch at the Cheesecake Factory which was a gift from his parents. After that, we went to Jamie's house where we met up with them to go to "Get Air." It was a bounce house with trampolines literally everywhere. There was a foam pit and trampolines all over. It was fun watching him show me all the awesome things he'd learned in his gymnastics class that semester. One exciting thing that did happen while we were there was Jamie and Theron got a call from their case worker saying that they had been picked by a birth mom and were to be at the hospital the following Tuesday where their new daughter would be born. We were so excited to be getting a new niece! After that, we went to Grandma and Grandpa Gleed's house to spend time with them. What a wonderful week we had!
Just like the social worker said, Jamie and Theron were able to be there Tuesday the 27th of November when little Jessica Messick was born. She was so small but so beautiful. It was a closed adoption so after the birth mother's c-section the baby was taken into a different room to be cleaned up and for Jamie and Theron to hold their new baby. She has so much black hair! The first time we met her I was shocked at how much smaller she was than the pictures made her look. She's adorable. I love her squeaks and her funny scrunched face and her tiny yawns. It was amazing to try and remember when Addie was that small. I still feel like Addie is a little baby but not when she's near Jessie. We love her and are so grateful she's joined our family.
Next, Cameron was able to graduate from BYU with his Bachelors Degree in Actuarial Science. He's worked so hard and we are so proud of him. He had a busy semester studying for exam MLC and his classes but his hard work paid off since he got a 4.0 GPA AND passed MLC with a perfect score of 10. He is so smart. He amazes me everyday with his dedication to education. I hope our kids inherit his diligent studying abilities because my attention span isn't half of what his is.
To celebrate his graduation, we went on a 4 day cruise. It was kind of tricky the week or so before we left because we had to be out of our Wymount apartment before we left. So we had to pack our bags we wanted to take on the cruise, pack stuff we'd need for after the cruise for Christmas, and pack the stuff we wouldn't need until we moved into our new apartment. We loaded up our two cars and when we were about to leave Provo, Cameron noticed that our new car, the leganza, was leaking oil. We didn't feel safe driving it so we went to have it looked at. 6 hours and hundreds of dollars later we had the important things fixed and we were headed to Grandma and Grandpa Gleeds house to stay for the night. The Sunday the 17th of December Grandma and Grandpa took us to the airport where we flew out to Long Beach California which was where our cruise was leaving from. We had a nice flight down (Addie is such a trooper on planes) and took a taxi to our hotel for the night. The next morning we had until about 1:15 until our shuttle took us from the hotel to the cruise port. We spent that time antiquing. This is one of our favorite things to do together. There was 2 different antique stores just down the street from where we were staying. We ended only going to one because the other one looked really sketchy so we didn't go.
We caught the shuttle with another family (who happened to be another Morman family from Ogden) and went to the ship. We got on and went straight to eat. We had fun that day exploring the ship and familiarizing ourselves with the places we'd like to hang out. Our room was great! It was a lot better than the last time I went and they even had a little crib set up for little Addie. The next day we were supposed to dock at Catalina Island but the weather was to bad so we didn't get to go. What a bummer. The next day we stopped at Ensanada, Mexico. It felt like we were the first ones off the ship because when we were walking into the city we were the only ones around. We took a little horse drawn carriage ride around the town which was a lot of fun. They dropped us off downtown where we walked the next few hours just looking at all of the great stuff. We bought Addie the cutest little dresses. One white one with blue flowers and one pink one with different colored butterflies. We got Quinn a luchador mask for his birthday and Cameron and I both got new sunglasses. While walking around, our camera batteries died so we walked into a 7-11 to buy new ones and when we walked in, there were two police officers with guns standing right there by the checkout. S.C.A.R.Y! After a quick fish taco we headed back to the boat where we spent the rest of our time. We ate, went to great shows, ate more, and tanned by the pool. The pool was FREEZING. I touched it with my finger and even that was too much. Cam was brave and jumped in but said he'd only do it once.
While on the cruise we went to some great shows. One was a Latin show where they just had great dancers dancing and singing to different Latin songs. I felt like I was at a show in Vegas! It was so fun to watch. The other show was similar except it was just like a 'dancing through the decades theme'. They had great costumes and were very entertaining. One night they had a Christmas show which was great but my favorite show one of the nights was a love and marriage show. They had a newlywed couple (who was Mormon), a couple that had been married 25 years, and a couple that had been married 52 years. It was so fun seeing how well they knew each other and what sort of crazy answers they'd give.
We went to karaoke (where Cameron sang awesomely Benny and the Jets) and there was one girl that was probably 15 that thought she was super good so she sang a lot of songs but really she was just funny to watch. We also went to two different comedy shows which were pretty funny. Overall it was a wonderful vacation. We'll definitely be going on another cruise.
After we got home from our cruise, we went up to Bear Lake for Christmas. We had a lot of fun being together. It was great having Addie be the only kid for Christmas because she let us sleep in! : ) We had fun opening gifts and going to see Grandpa Sorenson.
On the 27th we set out really early in the morning for Oregon. I was driving the Malibu with Addie and Cameron drove the Leganza. Dad had given us 2 way radios which were amazing! They were so much easier than using cell phones. The first half of the drive was really slow going until we got to Pocatello, then it cleared up a bit and we were able to make up some time we lost while going slow. There was a really bad wreck just before Twin Falls. There were about 4-5 semi trucks and about 8-9 cars that were all wrecked. They shut down the freeway and everything. Luckily for us, we were going the opposite way. When we started we were really nervous about this drive since we were still a little unsure about the Leganza and Addie doesn't have the best track record for being a great traveler in the car. We were pleasantly surprised when Addie actually slept most of the way and the Leganza worked wonderful! We made it the first night to Pendelton, Oregon. We stayed at a little hotel that was cute but freezing cold. I accidentally left my phone charger there and they said they'd mail it to me but that hasn't happened yet. Super disappointing! The next morning we ate breakfast at a cute little place then drove onto Washington. We got to our cute little apartment Friday Afternoon. The nice landlady Joanna showed us around after we signed all our papers. The next few weeks were filled with trying to find some furniture and make this house our home.
The things we love about this place is:
1. CHURCH IS LITERALLY NEXT DOOR
2. Awesome shopping center on our other side
3. close to the park-n-ride for Cameron to get to work
4. Temple about 3 miles away
5. Sidewalks for Addie and I to go running/walking on
These are just a few things that we love. Our ward (Newpart ward) is so great. They were so welcoming to our little family. I've even spoken in church already. We are really excited to do missionary work and make friends. I've joined a little "mommy-n-me" group which will help me get out and have fun activities around the area with Addie.
Cameron LOVES his job. He loves that he's busy and can work on long term projects as opposed to being an intern where it was just summer work. They are a great company and I'm excited to be apart of their company for the next 40+ years. Cameron has been going to work really early (5:30am early) to study for his next actuarial exam which is in March. He goes early so he can come home at a normal time instead of having to stay after. He's my hero. I for sure couldn't do what he does. He's my favorite. He's a great provider for our family. I sure am one lucky girl.

Our new 2000 Daewoo Leganza.

The Gleed family with little baby Jessica.

Isn't she adorably small and so cute?

Addie's first encounter with Santa. He was having a good talk with her.

Our Cruise!

Grandma Addie

Addie and her new crabby friend

Horse carriage ride through the town

We went swimming!

We went mini golfing

Now, the before and after pictures of our house: (sorry they're a little out of order and scwampus but it's late and they are the same no matter the order)