Jeff & Erin's Blog

Everything since the last post

2012-07-20T22:45:00.000-06:00

So this is what we have been doing since we last posted. I took Ginger skiing for the first time on Christmas eve.

We all went to get tacos after. Erin didn't ski because she was quite preggos (9 months and 1 week along).

Erin had the baby 2 days later in our bedroom. He was 8 lbs and 2oz. His name is Miles Corban Johnson

Grandma Johnson with Miles.

Ginger and her cousin Lily went skiing together.

Family photo on Miles' blessing day.

We went to Disney World in May.

This is the hotel we stayed at. They had an enclosure with lots of African animals.

I think meeting Cinderella was Ginger's favorite part of the trip.

You can't see it, but there is a rabbit in the bushes. Ginger thought he might just jump right into her arms.

We went down to St. George for the eclipse. Yes, I am taking Miles through the Crack in the Rock. He loved it

We drove up to Kanarraville for the actual eclipse.

Ring of Fire!!!

This picture illustrates how things generally are around our house these days. Ginger loves Miles, and Miles loves Ginger, but is always scared to death that she will hurt him. She tends to be like that girl on the Tiny Toons show that was on when I was a kid.

Guatemala

2011-10-16T17:42:00.011-06:00

So we finally did something internet worthy. We just got back form Guatemala a week ago. My friend and his wife work down there with the Peace Corps (the "p" and "s" are silent, fyi). So me, Erin, my friend Scott, my friend Scott's girlfriend Katy, my friend Scott's sister Maria and my friend Scott's niece Mikayla went there. We went down there and met Kyle and Liz (our Peace Corps friends) and then started our adventure. Here's some pics:

Boat ride to our first hotel, Iguana Perdida on lake Atitlan.

A waterfall on our canopy tour

Some kid selling stuff to Maria. Poor Maria. She would have bought an empty soda can if these kids asked her to.
Our volcano guide, Victor, roasting marshmallows in a hot spot on the volcano Pacaya
This is an important part of our trip. We did a lot of driving. There is not fast way to get around guatemala so we were in the car quite a bit. Notice that Kyle has an extra ear. Weird.

Cave tour by candlelight at Semuc Champey

Semuc Champey

We did lots of other stuff as well like stayed at the Earth Lodge but I didn't have any interesting pictures of that. It was a fun trip. Thanks, Kyle and Liz for showing us around.

Draper Days!!!

2011-07-25T19:02:00.007-06:00

Draper days was last Saturday, the 16th of July. For those of you who don't know what Draper Days is, I say, what you live under a rock? It's only the biggest event to hit Draper every year. We used to go every year and watch the parade but a few years ago they changed the parade route from 13th east to fort street so we quit going. This

year Ginger actually enjoyed it. Last year we put her on a pony ride and she got scared and wanted to get down. But this year she really liked it. while there we watched the miniature horse show where the horses play soccer and sit on furniture, so as you can imagine it was hilarious. Afterwards they let the kids get pictures with the horses. They said Ginger could sit on that guy in the picture above, but I was worried he might fold in half. That's Miss Rodeo Draper in the picture as if you didn't already know. There was a lot of royalty at Draper Days this year. Miss Teen Draper and her attendants were handing out information about their cause, Tourette Syndrome, and encouraging people to visit a website.

But Draper Days wasn't the same ol' stuff this year. There was a new attraction. This:

I've always wanted to walk around in a giant hamster ball, so I thought this looked pretty fun and so did Ginger. She insisted that she wanted to do it. I was certain that she would wimp out, but when her turn came, she climbed right in:

So she just floated around in it. She didn't try to walk or do anything, but she enjoyed it so it was good she did it.

After all that fun we watched fireworks at Grandma and Grandpa Johnson's house. Oh yeah, I forgot to mention that Erin and I went biking and Erin was convinced I was trying to kill her, so we all had a good laugh about that.

Loa

2011-07-18T07:30:00.005-06:00

For my parents 40th anniversary, they wanted to do something really special with all their kids. My dad used to regal all the kids with tales of his summers spent as a director of a summer camp: rafting, camping, canoeing, fishing, playing battleship with radios... Sadly, once he came out west his outdoor gear was exchanged for a suit to practice law in and he rarely got to the great outdoors that made up so much of his earlier years. So, for years he has promised us a fishing trip. And this year he delivered...at least the best you can deliver when 9 of the 22 family members are little kids.

Loa is in the middle of Utah, near Capitol Reef, past Gunnison (if you have any idea where Gunnison is). So, "what does one do in Loa?" you may be asking yourself? You go fishing, you go paddle boating, you eat good food, you sleep in a big barn, you play with little cousins/nieces/nephews you haven't seen for a long time, you go hiking, you feed baby cows, you learn the difference between dairy cows and cows raised for meat, and you may go horseback riding (only if the rancher who is taking care of you doesn't have to go up the mountain to save a bunch of cows who strayed into a place with no water).

This little lake was down the road from the barn we were staying in. We spent a morning fishing there and an afternoon doing paddle boats. Charlotte caught a fish within the first 10 minutes. Then Connor caught a second fish much later.

Cows, cows, cows. We got to give milk to the baby cows one morning. The kids all loved seeing the cows gulp down the bottles.

Tractor ride. This pic is of Ginger, Macey, and the rancher. Blake seemed to be in heaven riding on the tractor--this was part of his birthday celebration.

Fun inside the barn

It's still far away

2011-05-01T16:32:00.003-06:00

In answer to the question posed at the beginning of the previous blog post I say yes. Yes it can. Yesterday I woke up and saw about 4 inches of snow in my yard and I thought to myself, "well I guess I better go skiing." Whatever other option did I have? So my brother and I went up to Brighton and skinned up to the top of the Millicent lift (Brighton closed a few weeks ago) then we had to boot pack it up to the peak. On the way up we noticed this sign so Chris stood next to it for a picture.

That sign is usually over six feet off the snow and as you can see, it's about waist high now. Chris told me that this is a record year for snowbird with over 700 inches of snowfall.

So anyways, we went up to the peak and skied down the main chute on the front side of Millicent. It was amazing snow. It wasn't wet and heavy like to would expect the snow to be on the last day of April. I think what was best about it was that we had the mountain to ourselves and didn't have to worry about anyone else being up there. Fun day all and all

When winter comes can spring be far away?

2011-03-01T20:26:00.002-07:00

I must have heard my mom say that phrase 100 times while I grew up. And this month I have said it 100 times--I honestly am so ready for warm weather. I don't seem to get anything done when it is cold. In fact, the only thing that keeps me sane in the winter is the fact that Jeff likes the snow so much. He is like a kid on Christmas every morning when it has snowed. It is hard to complain when it makes him so happy.

Winter

2010-12-21T10:21:00.004-07:00

Our wonderful neighbors gave us some cookies that you can draw on with food markers. Don't they look delicious?!
Sledding up at Scott's cabin (we spent the night with Jeff's friends when everyone was in town for Thanksgiving). It was so fun to see all of them. We missed Liz and Kyle who are in Guatemala with Peace Corps.
Ginger's second birthday! She's loving the cake!

Building a snowman after the first snowfall

Cruise

2010-12-21T10:10:00.004-07:00

My mom and her sisters let us join them on their sister cruise. It was so much fun. Luckily Ginger did very well and didn't get sea sick once.

Barcelona at the Park Guell designed by Gaudi (famous for his Art Nouveau style)

Rome, the Colosseum
Sicily
Sicily, Greek Theatre
Sicily
Malta
Cathedral in Malta
Malta
Tunisia
Tunisia (Janie and Becky rode the camel, but Ginger was too spooked)

Baby's car

2010-12-21T10:08:00.002-07:00

Rarely have I seen such joy on Ginger's face as when she saw that they had 'baby cars' in Portugal. Actually, in Portugal, I think you can drive these cars without a license

Portugal

2010-12-21T09:56:00.004-07:00

just looking at the pictures from Portugal makes me breathe easier. It is such a beautiful place. I love the scenery, but even more, I LOVE the people. It was so wonderful to see my friends and catch up with them.

At the beach with the Cruz family near Setubal.
Ginger is holding Ema Cruz--ginger loved playing with the kids in this family!!
Catia, my mission companion, and her husband

Waiting for the bus with Rogerio--one of the nicest people ever. He was one of the only members in Cartaxo where I served for 9 months of my mission and was an amazing member missionary.
At the park in Santarem with Nanashara (a former mission companion) and her two girls.

My turn

2010-12-21T09:40:00.005-07:00

This is Erin. I suppose it is my turn to post something since I've been holding all the good pictures of our trip hostage :)

Interlaken, Switzerland

Appenzell, Switzerland

Ginger is watching as Jeff's plane takes him back to America (Ginger and I went to Portugal and then to Barcelona and the Mediterranean).
Jeff is eating delicious fondue in Interlaken
On a drive up to Grindelwald, Switzerland
Luzern, Switzerland
Neuschwanstein Castle near Fussen, Germany

The title of the blog is also apt because lately Ginger's been saying it is "baby's turn" to do everything. She is quite independent and likes to try and do things on her own. She often says it is "baby's turn" to buckle her seat belt, but after a minute if we ask her if she needs help, she will concede and let us help her. She is also insistent to have her fair share of turns saying prayers these days. It is so adorable because her prayers usually consist of "Fodder...tankyou...food...Christ. Amen". But occasionally she will throw in a random thought like "puppy" or "baby Jesus".

Switzerland and Bavaria

2010-10-14T19:56:00.015-06:00

We went to Switzerland and Bavaria for vacation. I had to come home to work and Erin and Ginger stayed to have fun. They're still there actually (Europe, I mean). They are on a Mediterranean Cruise with Erin's mom and a couple of her aunts. Here's some of the pictures I took. We flew to Zurich then rented a car and drove to Bavaria to see Neuschwanstein. After that we drove back to Switzerland and stopped in Lucern. Then Interlaken, then Gevena, then I flew home while Erin and Ginger flew to Portugal to visit friends. Erin stayed in Portugal for about five days then went to Barcelona for the Cruise which is where she is now. Anyways, here are some of my pictures:

JFK airport

Hohenschwangau Castle

Erin thought it would be fun for Ginger to dress like a princess while went to the castles. Funny enough, she wasn't the only little girl dressed like one.

Neuschwanstein

Erin and Ginger pose with a duck in Lucern

Ginger and me next to a really old bridge in Lucern

The Eiger

Bern (now with Bears!)

Gevena

The world's largest fountain in Gevena

Picture Button

2010-10-12T21:10:00.006-06:00

For those who have a blog on blogspot, you'll know that to put a picture in the blog, you just click on the picture icon in the tool bar. Well a few months ago I tried to post pictures of our new house, but the icon was no longer there. So I gave up and never posted any pictures. I finally decided that I would figure out a way to post pictures without the icon, but now as I am writing this I see the icon has returned. It really did disappear, I promise. Why would I make that up? I don't appreciate your tone and what it implies. Anyways, here's some house pictures:

This is what it looks like when you stand in front of it

The deck

And here's an old picture of Ginger with her hand on Erin's leg

Hernia Surgery!!!

2010-07-10T13:03:00.003-06:00

So I just had surgery for a hernia I've had for about 5 years, and I'm trying to stay positive, thus all the exclamation points. But why would you wait 5 years to fix this? you may be wondering. Well, it's because I got a bad diagnosis from an ER doctor. When I noticed the hernia about 5 years ago I thought, 'dang, another hernia.' I had already had a hernia is a different place. This hernia was different though because it would hurt sometimes. One day it hurt really bad so I looked on the internet to figure out why a hernia would be painful. I result I kept coming up with was that is was probably strangulated. If that was the case, then the hernia could kill me, so erin and I went to the ER. I had to wait about an hour to talk to a doctor when I got there. When I did, I told him that I had a hernia and that I was worried it was strangulated because it hurt so bad. the doctor agreed it was a hernia and then said he would be back. A new doctor came and I and told him the same thing, he then got another doctor to figure out what to do. They were planning to pop it back in, but then another doctor said," that's not a strangulated hernia because it doesn't hurt enough. It's probably a cyst. Get it checked out by a specialist." then they kicked me to the curb (after I had been there about 5 hours).
So I kind of forgot about it until it started hurting real bad a couple of months ago and erin convinced me to do something about it. I saw a general practitioner and he told me it was a hernia. So I went to see a surgeon who confirmed it and I just got surgery on thrusday. So that's a long answer as to why I waited 5 years to do anything about it.
One thing I learned is that you should take your pain killers even if you don't think you need to. It's not fun when the pain comes back to get you. I was thinking I would post some before and after pics, but I decided against it because I figure you can already find something like that on the internet elsewhere, and this is not one of those websites.
I'll try and post some pics of our new house as soon as I am physically able to move again.

Price Canyon Recreation... something something

2010-06-20T21:32:00.007-06:00

What's up fans? I'm sorry to keep you all waiting for news from the Johnson family, but things have been so crazy. And by crazy I mean a regular amount of busy as opposed to the leisurely schedule I am accustomed to as a stay at home dad.
This weekend we went camping at the price canyon something something. It was really fun. We were invited by my pledge brother, Rylan Hayes. He planned the trip and invited a whole lot of people, including Josh Sato a.k.a domo arigato, Mr. Josh Sato, a.k.a. Joshua Prime, leader of the Sato-bots.
There was something like 15 people who went. We didn't know many of them, but it turned out okay because everyone was nice. I felt pretty old even though I'm not older than any of them, especially Sato. I felt that way because while most the people on the trip brought a significant other, I brought a baby too. Everyone rode down to the camp site in the "Dream Catcher," an RV that Rylan and Max bought together. Everyone except us. We drove down separate because we had Ginger. We got to the camp ground earlier than the dream catcher and set up our tent. Ginger had fallen asleep and we tried to move her to the tent without waking her but with poor results. The dream catcher showed up shortly after we did. I found a can of gas that someone had left at the camp and started a very impressive camp fire. We stayed up late (late for me anyways) talking and instructing Sato in the correct methods of making a smore. He surprised us all with his curiously effective smore making procedure.
The next day we had to come home while the dream catcher stayed to have fun. We had to come home to get the keys to our new house. It's pretty exciting to finally get the keys and start moving in. I'll put pictures of it up someday. Anyways, here's some pictures of the camping trip.

Campfire time!

Sato teaching Ginger the ways of the ninja

Family portrait

new job, new house

2010-05-08T15:22:00.003-06:00

Hey everybuddy. I've been really busy lately because I got a job. I am working for a company called Nammo Composite Solutions. There we mostly make composite tubing for a variety of applications. They are really busy and I was surprised how busy I've stayed these past two weeks.
Erin and I also are under contract to buy a house. I am excited about it and Erin is way scared. I joke. Erin has often second guessed whether or not we should buy this house, so I have to remind her that it's a great house and it's in a great location and we like it. The house is around 10th east and 4555 south. So in short, we have been staying quite busy.
Ginger is doing well. She stays busy pulling everything out while I put it away. She is 18 months on the 14th of this month. I think that is next Friday, but I am not near a calender so I'm not sure.
In other news I went biking today. I started at home (5th east and south temple), rode up through the aves, up to city creek, and up the dirt trail on the right side of the little pond there. I had seen the trail often, but today was the first time I tried it. First I was surprised how steep it was, or how out of shape I am. I stopped a lot. I got passed a lot. I hate getting passed. I would usually think bad thoughts about those passing me. I would get passed and think, "I started in downtown. That guy probably drove up to the mouth of city creek. I'm so hard." Telling myself this made me feel less embarrassed about how much I was getting passed. That worked okay until some guy ran passed me. Luckily, shortly after that there was a downhill section and I got to pass him (yes! Take that, runner guy!). I stopped a while later and he passed me again. Luckily though he stopped at one point to rest then turn around (I win in the end, run-man).
As you can see, riding uphill makes me kind of cranky, and I should probably stop caring if I get passed.
Anyways, that's all for us.

nap

2010-04-21T08:50:00.002-06:00

Ginger was very tired yesterday. She slept like this for over an hour.

Easter

2010-04-12T10:52:00.006-06:00

Happy Easter everybuddy! Here's pictures of Ginger's Easter egg hunt. At first she didn't understand why we wanted her to pick up an egg sitting on the ground, but by the third egg, she no longer needed coaxing.

POV update

2010-03-28T09:37:00.005-06:00

So I was able to get out and use my new toy yesterday. One big problem I discovered is that when I put the camera in the harness, the wheel on top of the camera that changes the camera from video to still shots will turn, so I have a lot of 1 second videos where I start the video, put the camera in the harness, and that will turn the wheel and stop the video. I was able to get two videos though. On is skiing and one is biking. The skiing takes place on the back side of Brighton, and the biking is the rhythm section at the I street jumps.
After I watched the videos, I realized I had a runny nose, so I sniff a lot in the videos. I apologize for the excessive sniffing. I can see that I need to take tissues with me when I bike and ski. The videos are a little shaky, so if you get nauseous easily, don't watch cuz I don't want puke all over my blog.

If you thought that last one was too shaky, well this one is worse.

So as you can see from the second video, I need to change the camera angle for biking because no one wants to stare at the handle bars.

POV camera

2010-03-26T15:59:00.003-06:00

I've started biking more since I am unemployed. And often while I'm riding I think to myself, "Why isn't someone chronicling my awesome biking skills with a camera?" I can't figure this out, but I've come to the conclusion that if no one wants to film me, I'll just have to do it myself. That's why I need a POV camera (Point Of View). The problem I can't buy one cuz I don't have a jorb (ironic how it all ties together). So I've had to make my own.
This is what I have come up with:

It's three straps I bought at recreation outlet, and a piece of cardboard. I wear it like a baby bjorn. It looks pretty dumb, but I think it works well. Judge for yourself:

Now I will regularly update you on my amazing biking.

DDR

2010-03-26T15:48:00.002-06:00

Erin and Ginger have devoted a corner of our apartment to DDR. This is how they start the morning on any given day.

St. Patrick's Day Update

2010-03-17T13:35:00.003-06:00

It's a St. Patrick's Day miracle! Erin recently went to the store and bought Ginger some yogurt. So This is what Ginger ate most of yesterday:

When baby eats something with this much blue food coloring in it, guess what color it is when baby is done with it? That's right, shamrock green.

St. Patrick's Day

2010-03-17T12:26:00.004-06:00

We went to Discovery Gateway in the morning as a family because admission is free today. It was pretty packed when we got there (at 10:00) and it was really packed when we were leaving. Ginger it was okay. Everything there was meant for kids a little bit older than her. So most of the displays are about 5 inches too high for her. The display she liked most was the car.

While the car was her favorite display there, the most interesting thing for Ginger was when she saw a bird outside by the helicopter.
On the way home we stopped at the taco stand on the corner of Abravenel Hall. Of all the taco stands that I have frequented in the Salt Lake area, I think these are the best. I would highly recommend stopping here for tacos.

playing

2010-03-11T10:20:00.003-07:00

Ginger has started feeding her toys and other inanimate objects that look like animals. She offers them food and drinks from her sippy cup.

You can't tell but she's giving her dog a piece of banana.

This is our neighbor's ceramic cat.

St. George Bike Trip

2010-03-08T11:04:00.004-07:00

This past weekend I went on a bike trip without the girls. The trip was organized by a guy who grew up in across the street from my family in Draper. It was a was interesting group because it was a 16 people in total and not many knew each other before the trip. We all came together because someone invited a friend, who then invited another friend.
We arrived in St. George Thursday night. We stayed at a condo in the Green Valley area. The first day (Friday) we rode the Barrel trail, and the Bear Claw Poppy trail twice.

Barrel trail and Bear Claw Poppy trailhead

Saturday we rode Gooseberry Mesa. Gooseberry is an interesting place because it's covered in a network of different trails. I don't know for sure where we went. I do know we did the Hidden Canyon and the North Rim out to the point where we stopped for lunch.

After lunch, the car that I was riding with decided we needed to head straight back to the car and head home. two of the guys in the car live in Idaho and they wanted to get back at a decent hour. the rest of the group rode on the south rim. It was funny when we took the jeep trail back to the car because it only took us about 20-30 minutes. It took us about 3 hours to get to the point. That may not be surprising to anyone who is familiar with Gooseberry Mesa. We took our time and often tried different climbs over and over.
Anyways, I got home Saturday night around 9pm. I had been feeling a little sick most of the day but started to feel really sick when I got home.