Hollywood, here we come! Well, kind of...

This past Sunday, my sis-in-law Julie texted us and asked if we knew we were on a commercial. We had no idea at all! A few weeks ago, we went to the Discovery Gateway for the opening of KSL Channel 5's new Media Zone exhibit. Amanda Richardson, my good friend & "twin" hooked us up, as she works for them and was in charge of coordinating lots of it. So we had a great time enjoying everything there. I haven't been to Discovery Gateway yet, but loved the Children's Museum on Beck Street growing up. But we had a great time there, and a few times it seemed as if the camera was following our family around, getting some footage we thought for the news clip that they would inevitably have on the 10 o'clock news. We watched the news that night, and didn't make that, but I guess we're on a commercial to advertise this new part of Discovery Gateway. So Julie recorded it and we watched it a couple of days ago. We are walking into the entrance of Media Zone together at the very beginning of the commercial. If you haven't been there yet and have kids, you should really go. Unfortunately, I couldn't find any links to the commercial online, but I'm posting some pictures we took there. One is of us in front of the green screen in the bottom left corner, and the TV screen on the top right corner. The next is of Dave and Emma in the Life Flight Helicopter. And the last is of Emma on the horse by the farm.

So we made it on that, and then the second TV appearance came yesterday, July 23. Every year, we attend the Handcart Days parade in Bountiful. Dave and I have both been attending for years, as both of our families are from Utah. I was sitting in the truck bed of Dave's parents truck with Tayla and Emma waiting for the parade to start when a Fox 13 camera man came up to me and asked me a few questions about the parade, why I like it, why I come, etc. Jerry (bro-in-law) was standing by me and they interviewed him too. We thought that was kind of funny. But then the camera man went down about a half a block to the rest of the Ryerse's, not stopping to talk to anyone else. This was pretty funny we thought, because we didn't tell him we were related. So he went and talked to Dan (father-in-law) and Julie, and interviewed them for some sound bytes. He came back to us and asked us if all of us were related. We just laughed and I told him that we just stand out. So we watched the 9:00 o'clock news on Fox 13, and sure enough, they showed some of the parade highlights and then showed a clip of Dan first saying that he likes the parade and it's a great family tradition. Then they showed me and Emma with Tayla running in the background (caption underneath says "Melanie Ryerse" on the top line and then "loves the parade" below). They took the part where I said I like the parade because there are big floats from large organizations, and small stake floats, and it's just a fun thing for families to do. We all cracked up when we watched it. Again, I couldn't find the video of that online, but we're putting a picture up of Emma and Tayla at the parade right after the news guy came to us.

So we've made two TV debuts in a week, which we thought was kind of funny. Do you think I need an agent? Ha ha!

Bear Lake

Each summer, our family goes to Bear Lake. This year, we camped at Rondezvous Beach on the South end of the Lake. I love the bright blue water and soft sand. We went with Grammie (Dad's mom), my parents and Aunt Christie's crew.

Monday, we went got to camp, and set it up. We had to move once, because the campers next to us were in our spot. For some reason, we always seem to end up next to crazies, and that wouldn't be the first time on this trip. They were drinking a lot and smoking right in front of their kid's faces, which made me kind of upset (cough cough). Luckilly, we were far enough away the drift of the smoke didn't get to us, and they kept their drinking mostly under control, though they'd get a little wasted late at night, but then sleep in past when we woke up. We got the tents and gear up and ate some lunch, and then we hit the beach. The water wasn't as cold as we were expecting (for Bear Lake - it is pretty chilly) and it didn't even bother Emma at all. We were more wimpy than she was. She jumped right in and was giggling in delight, she loves swimming! She kept trying to dive in. We were holding on to her each time, but she still swallowed some water, which didn't see to bother her much. She even enjoyed being on her back. We went back to camp and ate a spaghetti dinner. Then we made a fire and enjoyed some s'mores (one of the best treats ever, in my opinion). We went to bed, soon after. Our air mattress got a hole in it, and we couldn't find it. So when we first went to bed, we were very comfy, but by the time we woke up, we were basically lying on the ground. We were too tired to notice though, because Emma woke up and threw up during the middle of the night. She was fine after that and before that, though. But it was sad.

Tuesday, we woke up and talked and played games. Then we ate some lunch, and packed our stuff for Minnetonka Cave, which isn't very far at all from Bear Lake, just over the Idaho border, on the East side of the lake. This was my second time going there, it was pretty cool. We saw several pack rats, which was kind of icky, but the cave itself is a wonder! It's actually one of the largest caves in the U.S., but not many people know about it. The formations are awesome. Among my favorites, the "bacon" and these large formations in the picture above, the one in the middle looks like Jabba the Hutt to me. Grammie was having a hard time making it up and down all of the stairs, but she made it, which we were glad about. After the cave fun, we went to go get a "Famous Raspberry Shake" (doesn't every restaurant there have "the one" that is famous?). My favorite is Laketown Drive-In. We also got fries which were yummy! After that, we went back to the campsite and played more, did the fire thing again (You can tell Dave's an Eagle Scout, he's a pyro and thinks he can make the best fire around!)

Wednesday, we packed our stuff up, and then hit the beach for a day of fun in the sun. It started out great. We swam, played in the sand, walked along the beach, found little shells, chased the seagulls, took naps on the sand. But then in the afternoon, our neighbors on the beach had a little too much booze to go around, and the extended family got in a big fight over basically nothing. Two women started a catfight/fist-fight, we think it was a mother/daughter (the fat lady in the blue dress, and the skinny drunk blonde is how Dave describes them when telling the story). Everyone was yelling obscenities like I've never heard in my life. I felt like I needed to wash my ears out with soap after hearing that! The kids were acting like nothing was wrong, which was sad, because you know they're used to it. That broke my heart. So then the men got into a large punching brawl. One guy got in his car and tried to run over one of the guys, who jumped on his car and tried to fight back through the window. It was crazy! Dave called the Rich County cops right when the ladies started throwing punches, but they said they were busy, and didn't show up until a half an hour later, which is when we left. It was really sad, there's nothing I hate more than contention, and especially domestic abuse. It makes me way sad. They weren't super close to us on the beach, there was quite a big space between us, but we could still hear it all, and how can you ignore that? So that was a bummer end to our fun summer trip.

But overall, it was great, and camping and water and family are some of my favorite summer things, and Bear Lake is one of my favorite places.

Snakes and Snails and Puppy Dog Tails

We found out that we are going to have a BOY! Hooray! We would have been happy to have either, but it's great to have at least one of each. I had an inkling that it would be a boy, based on the way I felt, compared to my pregnancy with Emma. So I was right, and lots of others thought it was going to be a boy as well.

Daddy, Mommy & Emma went to the appointment at Ogden Regional last Thursday. We had an interesting experience, as the hospitals are experimenting with something new, and we got to be the guinea pigs. They call it tele-natal medicine. We had a x-ray tech in our room taking the ultrasound pictures, but instead of the doctor being in the room discussing the images, we had a doctor from Salt Lake via a webcam. She appeared on half of a large screen TV in our room, while the ultrasound pictures were on the other side. It was kind of cool.

The baby was moving around tons, he is a mover! They couldn't even get any good pictures for a while. The tech kept joking that when he was done exercising or jogging, she could get her job done. Everything looked great, and the tech and doctor both said that it was definitely, without a doubt, a boy. He is "well-endowed" as Dave said. Of course, I couldn't really make out the part that they were pointing to that indicated that. But most of the time, I can't tell what anything is. Good thing they explain it well, and label it on the pictures. The doctor said he will be a little stubborn boy, but he is absolutely perfect. To that, I said "he'll be exactly like his father, then." Which is true. Dave is stubborn, but perfect! The doctor said she would give him 100% if the ultra-sound was a test, he passed with flying colors. So we're blessed he looks good and healthy. I thought the cutest thing was that he opened his mouth really wide and was sticking his fingers in his mouth. It was funny.

So we'll have a son, and Emma will have a brother, on or about December 5. The measurements also pointed to that due date. So we're excited for you, little boy, and can't wait until then to really see you!

Hooray for the Red, White & Blue!

There's nothing better than Independence Day. We've had the opportunity to celebrate it a few ways the past few weeks...


In June, the traveling Vietnam Memorial Wall came to Ogden, and we went to go see it. It was a neat experience. As soon as we got near the wall and displays, we could feel the sacredness of the ground we were walking on. Though I've never known anyone personally who has died while in uniform, I almost felt a connection to those soldiers & their families who have sacrificed so much for people like me, who they have never even known. I feel so grateful for their service, not only those who died in Vietnam, but all of those soldiers who have fought for our freedoms since America's infancy, and those who continue to defend what we believe by serving in Afghanistan, Iraq, and other places. God bless the troops!

Of course one of the best things about the month of July is the fireworks! We love them! We went to Eaglewood fireworks on July 3, and sat with the Ryerse and Stoddard families. The festivities began by going to Spanky's in Bountiful for sandwiches, then homeade Reese's Ice Cream, staking out a spot on the green, and waiting. Emma loved them! "Oooooh!" "Woa!" "Yeah!" "Fireworks" she would say. The finale at Eaglewood made her go crazy! She stuck out her tongue and was hooting and hollering. Everyone around us was laughing pretty hard. We've been to 5 firework shows so far this year, and look forward to even more.
On July 4, we drove up to Huntsville for their parade with the Stoddard crew. It's a fun, small town parade. Lots of tractors, Marlin K. Jensen of the 70, and horses stole the show. One of the great things about the summer and holidays is being able to be with family. We had a picnic with the Stoddard/Richens family in Ogden. Dave, Suz, Alex, Kyle and Morgan Stoddard from Spokane, WA were down, so it was great to see them. But it was hot! The nice thing about having families that live near each other is that we get two Thanksgivings, two Christmases...we can usually work it out. We had a smashing BBQ at the Ryerse home that evening, and went to Davis High fireworks. That has got to be my favorite firework show. The fireworks are in sync with music that is playing, and it's always awesome. Last year, they did the song "Don't Worry Be Happy" and smiley face fireworks went off right when the lyrics said "be happy". This year, they did an Indiana Jones one that I particularly liked, along with the traditional patriotic songs. I'm kind of a sap, but I began tearing up a few times when some of these songs about our country played. Luckilly, no one saw! It's amazing how many great opportunities and freedoms we have by living here. This is a blessed land, and I am so overwhelmingly grateful for all we have!

The Birds...our own horror story

Here's a story to share. It is kind of slow at the beginning, but like many good books, read to the end for the "punch line" of the story, and you won't regret it! So about a week ago, I woke up and started the day out as usual. But something was different. There were weird noises coming from our fireplace. It sounded almost as if someone was dropping something down. I looked up, and couldn't see anything. This went on for a few hours and I just tried to ignore it. Emma and I had a doctor's appointment and errands to run, so we left and forgot about it. When we got back home, immediately I noticed our white sliding blinds were going crazy in every which direction like strong wind was blowing in our house. Oh great, our house is haunted now, I thought to myself. Holding Emma tightly, I went up to get a closer look and saw a black thing on the ground between the blinds and sliding glass door. Eek! It just had to be a rat, so I started screaming a bit and jumped on the couch to get out of its way. But then it started flying...it wasn't a rat after all (phew) it was a black bird! It flew right over us, and so we ran in our bedroom and closed the door. I put Emma on the bed and went to close all of the bedroom doors. I would go back out, but then it would start flapping its wings again and swoop somewhere new, perching on different things in our house. I tried to open the back door that it was by most of the time, but the blind panels all have to be facing the same way for it to open and they were all messed up from the bird flying in them. So I would run over, fix a few of the blinds, then it would fly back over by me, and I'd run back into the room. All of this time, my heart was racing, and I was trying to stay calm, but it wasn't working so well. I was on the phone with Dave and he thought it was quite amusing. At least somebody did. I opened the front door and tried to coax it out that way. "Out this way, birdie" I would say, to have Emma say "come on birdie" right after me. But it just seemed to laugh at us, as it would fly around again. It perched itself on many things. Emma and I came out of hiding to check on it again, to see if by chance it had flown out yet. It flew across the room, and landed on the head of a statue we have of Christ. Right then (the best part of the story), Emma said "That's Jesus, birdie!" It was the comic relief I needed to take care of the problem once and for all. To make a long story short, and I've probably already made it longer than it needed to be, we finally got the bird out the back door, after untangling all of the blinds. Luckily, we didn't have any bird poop, but we did have some gray marks leftover where the bird ran right into a few times. It was a poor, confused birdie, and I don't know if he was more scared of us, or if we were more scared of it! For the last week, Emma has been looking up any fireplaces she sees and calling "birdie!" So fast forward to a few days later, we were over at Grandma's playing in the backyard. I wasn't there at the time, but Emma and Grandma were having a great time swinging, going down the slide, playing in the grass. My mom looked away to check a bush she had just planted, when she heard Emma screaming like she's never heard before! She thought the worst had happened, Emma fell or was bitten or stung. So she ran to her, and right then a bird flew away. I guess it got too close for comfort for Emma, and she wigged out. Poor Emma, I think she'll be afraid of birds for the rest of her life now.

We've done it! Our first post!

After a bit of prodding and/or encouragement from some family and friends, we decided to finally join in the information age and become bloggers. Wahoo...or should I say Yahoo!? But before I begin anything new, I usually like to research it. According to Wikipedia, which we all know is the most "reliable" source of information out there, a blog is defined as "a website, usually maintained by an individual, with regular entries of commentary, descriptions of events, descriptions of events, or other material such as graphics or video." Some interesting facts I found out about blogs:

• As of December 2007, there were over 112 million blogs found by the search engine Technorati. Wow! We're the little fish in a large pond.
• The word "blog" is an abridgment of web log. Betcha didn't know that... or maybe I just don't know a lot about this blogging business yet.
• There are several types of blogs, including (but not limited to) personal blogs, corporate blogs, by media type (artlog, vlog, etc.), by device blogs, or genre blog. Ours will mostly be a personal blog, but it might get random.
  
• The most linked-to blog belongs to a Chinese actress named Xu Jinglei. Her page has received more than 50 million hits! There will probably be 2 hits on our little blog...we shall see.
• Scientists have proven that there are therapeutic benefits from writing about personal experiences. Some research shows it can improve memory and sleep, boost immune cell activity, has helped AIDS patients, and helps patients recover quicker after surgery. What health benefits have you seen from keeping a blog?

Thanks to Wikipedia for the information (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/blog). So now you feel like you've been through Blogging 101, you might need to help us, you seasoned veterans. We're just getting started with this, and the blogging world is a big one. Welcome one, welcome all to the Ryerse Blog! We will try our best not to let you down! I, the wife and mother of the Ryerse family, Melanie, will be doing most of the posting and updating for our blog, but my Dave will be a contributing author once in a while. Until next time...