The Hatchery...and Happy Anniversary!

As you can see, I got a little sidetracked during my blog catch-up. I wanted to experiment with the new Template Designer (which is awesome by the way), and ended up changing our whole blog...and renaming it to 'The Hatchery,' which is quite fitting considering Thursday was our 5-year anniversary...

I'll try to keep this short... Shane and I met at Liberty Square at BYU (I know...so cliche), and no matter what Shane says, he completely ignored me when we first met. Granted, he had a girlfriend at the time, but I tried my hardest just to get him to talk to me. After a couple months of Sunday game nights, Mario Kart tournaments, a break-up (for Shane), and lots of hanging out in the apartment across the hall so Shane would notice me, we ended up playing a game of mud football one rainy night in October:


After a quick team huddle, Shane wanted to make a deal: if we won I had to take him out to ice cream; if we lost he had to take us out to ice cream... I didn't see a problem either way and quickly agreed. I don't remember who won or lost actually, but after the game we set a day to meet in the Wilk for ice cream.

That week, my wonderful roommate Joleen was in Shane's apartment talking with him and Brandon, his roommate. They seemed to be beating around the bush of me and Shane (or at least the possibility of a 'Jessica and Shane'), but I was just getting out of a semi-relationship with Shane's neighbor. Somehow they all decided talking in code would be much better than just discussing everything outright, so Joleen and Brandon started a theoretical discussion about investments: Joleen had a client who was deciding between two potential investments--Thomas Water Co. (the semi-relationship was with someone whose last name was Thomas) or the Hatchery (if you don't understand how this relates to Shane, you don't know us at all...). Brandon wanted to know how much Joleen's "client" was interested in investing into each company. In the end, Joleen and Brandon communicated to each other that both Shane and I were interested in dating each other, but it took a long time...

Meanwhile, I was in class... Joleen had texted me and told me she had told Brandon how I felt about Shane. As soon as I received the text, I got a call from Shane. He told me that he couldn't meet for ice cream and he didn't think we should reschedule...and then just sat there on the phone. My heart dropped--apparently he knew how I felt and wanted nothing to do with me. After what felt like an hour on the phone (but probably only 10 seconds), he said he thought dinner and a movie that weekend was a much better option!

After that phone call, we were together pretty much nonstop... Our first date was to see The Grudge (it was Halloween weekend), our second date was to a BYU volleyball game the next night, and the rest is history...

{Picture from our second date. The sunglasses are part of Shane's costume}

I know this isn't your typical, cheesy, wedding-picture-filled anniversary post... At dinner last night, we were talking about the first day we met, which led us down memory lane for a while. It got me thinking about those times, when everything was new, exciting, and stressful (yes, stressful). It's interesting to see how far we've come from that and know that even though things have changed, we've grown closer and love each other more than ever! Here's to the next 5 years!

(Side note: When I first set up this blog I wanted to name it The Hatchery due to this story, but I thought that a name like that suggested one of the following: (1) we had lots and lots of kids or (2) we were trying to announce we were going to have a baby. Since neither was true, I decided to stick with 'Shane and Jessica'. Now that we have Dylan with us, I decided it was time for a change...)

Catching Up: June

We have lots to catch up on, so here's an overview of the month of June:

First, Shane went on a 50-mile hike with his Scouts. They went to Paria Canyon, a slot canyon in Utah/Arizona. They had a great time and wouldn't stop talking about it when they came back.

Then, Megan came into town to visit. Dylan was so excited to see her, he even posed for all of her pictures. Sadly, we had to leave for our family campout so we didn't get to see too much of her, but we're glad she came to stay with us. She took lots of pictures, which was good because I don't think I took any during this time.

Then we had the annual Hatch Family Campout, where we celebrated by 25th birthday! I had to go to Dallas for training for a week, but I got to meet up with my aunts and cousin for dinner one night and I spent a whole night with Emma and her new little Bennett.

Then, to make room for more of this:


We did this...


...and it was gone within 10 minutes!!


The rest of the month, Dylan was just a cute boy....

To my father...

{Image from http://www.thedadproject.com/}

Enough said.

For those of you who aren't my father, here's a little background... For as long as I can remember, my dad would serenade me with "Hippo birdie two ewe" in place of the standard birthday song. Even when I was away from home, I'd get the full birthday song spelled out in animals (complete with "Hippo birdie deer ewe"). So Dad, since I didn't text you a hippo birdie song, I hope this picture will suffice.

Happy birthday Daddy-o!

(Side note: I had to go all the way back to 2007 for a decent picture of us together...)

Blog slacker

Sorry folks... I've been quite a blog slacker lately. Life's been kind of crazy with lots of work travel for me and Shane in June, lots of visitors and fun travel in July, and lots of work for me. But I do have lots of posts planned. Sadly, we left our camera in San Diego this weekend (during one of our fun travels) and are waiting for it to be mailed to us...so most of the posts will have to wait as most of the related pictures are on the camera (and, really, who wants a blog post without pictures??).


So for now, just be content to know that I haven't forgotten about the blog...and here's a little sneak preview of things to come:

Funny faces

A growing boy (he's alreayd 8 months old!)
Fun at Bear Lake Family reunion Exploring new toys (a.k.a. awesome parenting) Exploring outdoors (where it's not 100+ degrees) Fun at Grammie's house

So stay tuned and don't give up on me yet...

Hatch Family Campout

This weekend marked the second annual Hatch family campout in Payson. Actually, the majority of the family is still up there camping, but our trip ended early because Shane had to work today. I didn't want to put off posting because I know myself and if I don't do it now, it won't ever get done, so here we go.

This year's campout was a month earlier than last. We weren't quite expecting the dramatic difference in weather and weren't completely prepared for the freezing cold sleeping conditions! We only brought short sleeve outfits for Dylan, with a sweatshirt and beanie just in case it was cold...which he ended up wearing the entire trip. He also had to have a blanket wrapped around his legs all day since we didn't bring him any long pants... He didn't seem to mind.


Cousin Jack came too...and it seemed between him and Dylan there was always a baby sleeping, eating, or needing to be changed, but we had plenty of willing, helping hands.


We celebrated my birthday a little early since everyone was already together. We had peach cobbler for my cake, and Shane and my parents gave me a new bike!! You can't see it very well in the picture, but it's a cream-colored beach cruiser with flowers and a very large basked on the front. Shane's parents brought their cruisers (from Christmas) up and all the kids brought their bikes too, so bike riding was how we spent a lot of our time. (Note: Dylan did NOT ride in the bike like this. We just thought he looked cute in my basket.)


Shane's dad left up the zipline from girls' camp (which was at the same campsite the week before), so we all went an took rides. Sadly, I don't have any pictures since there was only one camera present. Maybe I'll remember to add one later once I get them from Roy...

Thanks to Shane's parents, we ate some awesome meals in the 36 hours we were there: dutch oven turkey with mashed potatoes and green beans, dutch oven german pancakes, and ribs with potato salad and cantaloupe. Chance and Shane had a difference of opinions regarding the best way to organize food on a plate... (If you've never seen Shane eat mashed potatoes and gravy, it's worth inviting us over to dinner just to witness):



All in all, Dylan really seemed to enjoy camping...probably because he got to be outside all day long, which doesn't happen much at home these days thanks to the 100+ degree weather. The only problem he had was napping in the tent. I think he was a little overwhelmed by how red it was and how it moved in the wind... He wouldn't fall asleep on his own at all and would only sleep 40 minutes if he was by himself. If we slept with him, he slept better. It was difficult (yeah, right), but we managed to take some naps with him to get him the rest he needed:


I apologize for this next section, but it was a major part of our trip. Dylan had a bit of a cold when we left our house Saturday morning. I think the cold probably made it worse... By Sunday morning, every time Dylan coughed he'd finish the coughing fit with a nice big sneeze, leaving his face looking like this... It's a great way to clear out his nose!


Sadly, those are pretty much all the pictures I have from the trip. Last year, I took quite a few and got some of everyone. This year, I was a bit preoccupied with keeping Dylan clean, fed, rested, and happy. Shane summed it up best while we were cleaning up our tent: "Camping with babies is a lot of work!" We had a great time, though, and can't wait until next year...when we'll be chasing Dylan everywhere instead of carrying him!

Dylan's Favorite Toy

Every morning, Dylan gets very excited when he sees this:

Can't tell what it is? Let me help you out a bit...


I'm not sure why, but this is currently his favorite "toy" in the whole house (aside from the remote controls and cell phones that he only gets to play with on rare occasions). Every time I take a drink, he starts flapping his arms and reaching for the cup. Even though he can only see the bottom, he knows that if he grabs it and keeps rotating it, he'll end up at his favorite part: the straw cap...



He doesn't seem to get bored of the cup. I eventually end up taking it away so that we can play together! I used to work on getting the right amount of fluid each day by drinking while he was eating, but I can't do that anymore...as soon as he sees the cup, he's not interested in eating until it disappears!

6 months!

Can you believe our little Dylan is 6 months old?? Well he is...as of Wednesday. I meant to post on his actual 6-month birthday, but his doctor's appointment wasn't until Thursday and Shane's been out of town so life's been a bit hectic. Enough with the excuses, here's a picture of our 6-month-old man:

He had his 6-month check-up and we got new growth stats:

Height: 26.5 inches (50th percentile)
Weight: 20 lbs 2 oz (90th percentile)
Head: 44 cm (50th percentile)

It's crazy to think our boy has grown 6 inches (and gained almost 13 pounds) since he was born. Here are a few other updates on Dylan's life:

- He learned to roll over! He can roll from his stomach to his back...and does so quite frequently. Let's just say tummy time is very short lived these days (I've included a video below if you'd like to watch the magic).

- He's working on sitting up. He recognizes when he's falling off balance and tries to fix it, but most times he still ends up falling over, but that's an improvement from the days where he'd just fold in half rather than hold himself up.

- He's back on solid foods. We waited a few weeks to get all the rice cereal out of his system and started him back on just fruits and veggies for now. So far he's loved everything we've given him...and he always acts like he wants more.

- He sleeps through the night (for real this time). In the past he's given us spurts of all-night sleep, but he's now very consistent. He goes to bed around 7 or 7:30 and sleeps until at least 5:30.

- He's learned to fall asleep on his own at bedtime and for naps, and he takes three longer naps (1-3 hours) instead of six 40-minute catnaps (thank goodness).

- He knows how to control his hands, which means he grabs at anything and everything he sees. This includes the pigtails of a little girl at day care, the lip of Shane's parents' dog (luckily she just sat there nicely until Shane's mom rescued her), and anything electronic. One of his favorite things to grab are his feet.

- We think he's working on some teeth. He has four little marks showing on the his bottom gums but nothing has broken through yet. Instead we've been graced with low-grade fevers, lots of drool, and an occasionally fussy baby.

- He's so much more alert now. I can see him studying things...the way I eat my cereal, a fan on low speed, his own hand and fingers. It's amazing to see his little brain processing what he's seeing.

- Dylan LOVES water...well, warm water. He gets excited whenever he hears water running, and especially if he can see the water is running into the bathtub. He loves to try and grab the water as I pour it onto him in the bath. He didn't love his first swimming experience, however... The water was a little too cold still so he only lasted about 30 seconds. He did enjoy watching his cousins swim though. We'll try again when the pool is a little warmer.

- He loves his stuffed alligator. He really likes to chew on it's mouth (which makes it nice and crusty) and he squeals with delight when we make the alligator fly and dance over his head.

- He LOVES to dance, especially if he's up on Shane's shoulders. Once you get him moving he grins, laughs, and squeals.

Well, I think that's enough about the boy for now... But first, here are some updated pictures and a video:

{Click for larger}