Chapman

Holy Toledo! It has been a really really long time since we updated! I guess I can no longer spend my afternoons chastising those who do not update their blogs regularly enough for my entertainment. We have been terribly neglectful and we apologize profusely.
Things have been happening like CRAZY here on this side of the Blog. Since I don’t quite remember details I will give a brief account of everything I remember. On August 12th Trevor dropped me off at the Sacramento airport to see me off to Salt Lake for my family vacation. This was the first time we had EVER been apart since we got married and it was really really hard. It was funny because he stood by me the entire way and only parted once I passed through the metal machines and the security guards made him leave. We were obviously creating quite a scene because after he disappeared down the escalator (waving the “I Love You” sign the whole way down) all the other passengers gathered around me and empathetically asked if I was going to Iraq. Puzzled, I said “no”. They then asked how long I would be gone, “7 days”. I told them. They were quite shocked that a 7 day leave would produce such a show, but I guess they took it as a sign of young love—we were about to die!
I got to Salt Lake that night and Kinsi picked me up from the airport. Never have I been so afraid in a car. Apparently because her left eye is bad she has no sense of depth and asking her to stay in one lane at a time on the freeway is like asking her to blow up a hot air balloon with her nose; the task is near impossible. So I spent the next 2 hours (I know—it only takes 1 hour to get to Provo from the airport. However, Kinsi somehow got on the freeway that takes us back up to the airport. You can imagine our surprise when we think we are approaching Provo and then see the signs directing us to Airport parking.)
We arrived in Provo, thankfully unscathed, and then commenced on our journey to the train station where we were to take a scenic passenger train from Salt Lake to New Have, Connecticut; we were to board at 3:00am. We arrived at the train station all eager and anxious to begin our journey, but alas the train did not arrive until 6:00am. We spent the three extra hours at a Denny’s where Kinsi assaulted the homeless people.
We finally boarded at 6:00am and found our cabins. We had an entire passenger car to ourselves! The rooms were very comfortable and the view was spectacular! We all especially loved meal times; the food was delicious and we could have all we wanted! The train trip was super fun and relaxing. We had a grand time eating food, watching movies, playing games, watching the gorgeous scenery, and talking, while Dad and Justin had to drive for hours on end with the trailer with no sleep or food and only walky-talkies for entertainment. Yeah—it’s great to be a girl!
We arrived at Grand Central Station in New York City three days later. Jini, Kinsi, Chari, and I took a taxi to downtown New York (right next to Broadway!) and the rest of the family boarded a train to Connecticut. We commenced with living it up in New York. All of the hotels were sold out completely except for one “Best Western Luxury Suites”. It was a really really nice hotel and they had only one single occupancy room. So, I checked in as a single occupant and then the girls had to sneak up later. We had a great time with the bellman who kept our secret for a $5.00 tip. (Dad, do not worry—we do not make overbooking hotel rooms a practice, but it was either sleep on the streets or do that; we chose the lesser of two evils. We are very penitent and will never do it again.) The sleeping arrangements were really funny. The room was TINY; it barely fit a twin sized bed. So, Jini took the top blanket and slept on the floor to the right of the bed, Kinsi took the next blanket and slept on the floor at the foot of the bed, Chari slept on the bed facing up, and I slept on the bed facing down. It was a site to see but it was actually quite comfortable!
The next day Jini and Kinsi went to the Manhattan Temple, but Chari and I had forgotten our recommends and did not get to go. We spent our time in the heart of New York where we want to Time Square, Central Park, Fashion Avenue, Broadway, and all kinds of things. We even saw the Blue Man Group from Las Vegas perform. It was cool! We were later joined by Jini and Kinsi. We tried to get tickets to see “Wicked” but they were all sold out and our names were not picked in the raffle. Later that night we took a train to New Haven and rejoined the family.
Once we were with the family we took a tour of Justin’s new school—Yale Law—and relished in the beauty. It was SOOOOOO beautiful! He is going to have so much fun studying in those beautiful buildings! We then went to Boston where we toured the Harvard Campus and Dad tried to convince the boys that this was what they wanted to attain in life. The boys were too interested munching on their popcorn and looking at dead bugs to really pay too much attention to their destiny. We also toured the USS Constitution at the beginning of the Freedom Walk. It was super super cool. They had HUMUNGOUS battleships in the harbor and it was really interesting to see first hand accounts of the battles and war memorabilia. We also had fantastic sandwiches from a shop where mom almost converted the owner. Gooooooo mom! Every member a missionary!
The next day I flew back to San Francisco where Trevor met me. It was SOOOOOOOOOOO great to see one another after a whole week of absence! We just basked in being together for at least 3 hours and mused about the fact that just one year (minus 1 week) ago we had been in this exact airport on our honeymoon flying off to Norway. It was quite poetic. We then hopped in the car and arrived in Sacramento to be joined by the waiting Chapman family! All but dad had driven out to visit us for the week. We had a great time! And they were so sweet—they had a welcome home banner, a fabulous dinner, gifts for Jace, and a beautiful bouquet of flowers waiting for me. What a homecoming! We had a really great time that week filled with days at the pool, shopping, and makeovers! It was SO much fun! One day we even went to San Francisco and did the tour there. We toured Fisherman’s Warf, Ghirardelli Square, saw the Sea Lions, had caricatures drawn, and even made a stop at the Golden Gate Bridge. Azure was beside herself to be in San Francisco for, apparently, this is the place that Raven in “That’s So Raven” lives. She had her eyes wide open the whole time looking for the star.
We saw the Chapman’s off on the 28th (the day after our anniversary! One year!). It was quite a tear stricken event because they were leaving Brooke behind for Trevor and I to drop off at BYU-I. It was a very sad event but not to worry—mom and dad will be back in just 6 weeks for the arrival of Jace!
We left the airport and arrived home to pack pack pack! We were SOOOOOOOOO thankful that Brooke stayed behind because we don’t know how we would have packed without her help! I am pretty much useless with my blossoming belly and weight limits, so Brooke and Trevor took the lead and packed all the heavy stuff in. Without Brooke it would have been a NIGHTMARE (Trevor would testify that it was a nightmare regardless, but I thought it went rather well). We began our journey at 10:00pm on the way to the American Fork shop where we would stay the night. We had SOOOOO much stuff that there was no way that we could keep the seats up, so Trevor had to devise a way to seat Brooke. He packed so that there was a large space in the very back of the car which Brooke could comfortably sit in on the trip, and that I could lay in when my back got too bad. It was really big and spacious and looked very inviting until we found that we had forgotten to pack a bunch of pictures and mirrors. So, we had to stack those back there, which reduced the space by almost half. It was no longer spacious and luxurious, but the addition of the mirror did lend the appearance of space—Trevor is so clever! Anyway, so we began our departure. Brooke slept in the back and anytime we needed to talk to her we had to call her on her cell phone—she was only 4 feet behind us, but we had packed so dense and tight that her space was virtually soundproof—we couldn’t hear her, she couldn’t hear us. After a couple hours I switched Brooke because my back was hurting. It was very very comfortable back there with the thick sleeping bag and pillow. I fell asleep within minutes and woke up a couple hours later. Brooke and I again switched places and she slept until morning.
We arrived in Salt Lake at about 11:30am. We stopped at a rest station and all of a sudden heard yells of panic from the back, “Get me out, Trevor!!! Get me out!! I am so hot!!!!” Brooke was freaking out, having a panic attack, to get out of the space. We ran back there and opened the tailgate and out tumbled a sweaty overheated Brooke. Her hair was all matted to her face with sweat, her face was bright red, and she had a look of utter confusion on her face—we think she was mildly suffering from heat stroke. Apparently at night the little space was comfortable and cozy but when the sun came out it turned into a raging sauna. The sleeping bag retained heat, and the giant mirror reflected the sunlight. So, whatever sunlight might have missed Brooke was steadfastly caught by the mirror and reflected onto her. The sleeping bag dutifully absorbed all possible heat and then retained it for the occupant. The resulting effect was a portable oven where we were slow cooking Brooke. I know you all must be horrified, but it was actually quite funny—ask her! As I read over the description I must say it could classify as child abuse. However, ask Brooke—it was kind of neat! The other SOOOOO funny thing was the dialogue between Brooke and Trevor at the rest stop. We were all laughing about it for the next 3 hours.

B: Trevor, I am SOOOO hot—can I ride in the front with you and Caci?
T: Absolutely not! If we got in an accident you would go right through the windshield! It is much too dangerous! You need to stay back in your seat!
B: But it is SO hot! I am being baked to death!
T: You have to stay back there. Wait—maybe I can pull all the stuff backwards so that you can be sitting right behind me and Caci. Then you can be right there with us and have a lot of air circulation.
B: Yeah!!! That would be great!!! Thanks so much, Trevor!!

**Trevor then went to he car and inspected it. Seeing it would be too much of a hassle, he came back.

T: Actually Brooke, I don’t think it is going to work. It will be way too much work to move everything.

**All the hope and glimmer washed from Brooke’s face.

B: OK. Well, can we at least put the sleeping bag away? It, like, is emitting its own sonic waves of heat.
T: Absolutely not! It is so comfortable! It makes it great back there!

**He then proceeds to fluff it up to make it really inviting.

T: See? Nice and comfy—get in.
B: OK, but first can I brush my teeth? I feel so gross—I am about to die from my grimy teeth.
T: Absolutely not! We will be there in an hour—you can wait until then.
B: OK. Well, can you open up the hatch so I can get in?
T: Absolutely not! Just climb in the window! Here ya go!

**Trevor lifts up the window so she can pull herself up and climb back in to her oven.

I could not a low this kind of unaccommodating behavior (Trevor had no idea he was being so unaccommodating) so Brooke was allowed to find her toothbrush, brush her teeth, and we put the sleeping bag away to reduce the heat. Trevor even devised a way to keep the back window open so she could have circulation. The whole dialogue was SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO funny. When Brooke was brushing her teeth I told Trevor the dialogue and we were both crying with laughter. Older brothers are just insensitive sometimes!
We got to the American Fork shop a little later that day. We took showers and unpacked the stuff on top of the car and then headed to Provo to see Jini and Kinsi and switch cars with them (theirs gets 30MPG—ours gets 15MPG). We had dinner at Kinsi’s, went out for ice cream, and then went back to the shop exhausted. All three of us slept in the sleeping bag together since we had no other blankets. That sleeping bag has come in so handy, Jonas! Thanks so much!
We got up at 7:00am the next morning and took off to Rexburg, Idaho to move Brooke into her new freshman apartment. We unpacked her and took her to the store and got her all ready for school. When we got there, there were two girls already moved in but neither were there. We wanted to put her with the cutest one who she would have the most fun with, so we were looking at the girls’ stuff. One we deduced was totally gothic so we moved her into the other room by default. However, after we had almost completely moved her into that room we took a look at the girl’s clothes to see her style and we found at the Brooke was rooming with an Amazon Warrior! She was a size 14. Brooke was a little terrified and quickly went into the gothic girl’s room to see what the other side of the room held—we found the queen of the Amazon’s with a size 16! Little 5’ 1” size 6 Brooke was terrified.
We were later joined by the roommates. Her size 14 roommate was indeed a giant, but nice nonetheless. Then the size 16 girl came in and she was no Amazon—she was probably 5’2” but a size 16 nonetheless. Brooke quickly deduced that this was not going to be the gathering hole for the boys and was greatly dejected. However, we later found out that her 3rd roommate is a petite blond, so hopefully that has worked out. We haven’t been updated yet.
After playing with Brooke at BYU-I, Trevor and I took off around 10:00pm to Provo to pick up Kinsi and then to head on to St. George to play with the family for a couple days before school started. It was another long drive and we arrived in St. George around 4:00am. The next 3 days were filled, of course, with competitions between Trevor and Davy for title of the “Alpha Male”. They had trampoline basketball tournaments, go-kart races, Risk and Monopoly competitions, and so forth. I think Trevor creamed Davy in all of them. Dad was trying to battle it out, too, but he quickly saw he better stand out of the whirlwind when he was asphyxiated after just 5 laps on the Go-Kart track and had to be pulled out for the medical team to look at. That belly that many might think holds secret powers to the universe is not really as powerful as it has been made out to be.
Monday morning we again headed back up to Provo to move into Wymount! Mom and Dad so graciously accompanied us and made the move SOOOOOOOOOOOOO much easier. We were SOOOO grateful. Dad brought the trailer and we were able to unload the Rodeo and then fill up the trailer in just one trip from our storage shed. We were so so sosos soosos grateful that they helped. It would have been horrendous without their help.
We are now moved into Wymount Terrace and we think we are going to LOVE it! All of our neighbors are so nice and it is just a great environment. Trevor and I both love our classes. Kinsi and Trevor are taking two classes together—Anthropology 101 and Philosophy 201—so they get to see each other for at least 6 hours per week. That will be a lot of fun! We are really excited for the upcoming months and for our BABY! Just 6 weeks away! Woo-hoo! Now that we are all caught up I will stay on top of things and keep updated. Whew—I am writing this in Microsoft Word and it is 5 pages long. Wow.