Utah Vacation, Part Un

This year’s Christmas vacation began one day earlier than planned thanks to a snowstorm on the eastern seaboard. So instead of driving up to Delaware on Thursday to catch their Friday morning flight out of Philly, Jarom and Alixa and Jenna packed up Carlotta and hit the road at about 10:30 Wednesday night so that they would have clear roads to drive on. They had some great hosts in Delaware who had beds made and cribs set up so that they could go right to sleep as soon as they got there. Thursday was spent playing games with cousins and getting ready for a very early cross country trip. Poor Jenna was woken up from her sleep at 5 in the morning so that they could catch their flight. When they got on the plane they found nobody sitting in the third seat in their row. Jarom immediately crossed his fingers and told the universe that if it would give them the empty seat it would be okay if he did not win his fantasy football league championship. It seems that the universe is a dealmaker, because even though the flight attendants seemed to keep that door open for eternity, nobody else walked on and Jenna got her own seat. She slept a little, and watched a lot of Tigger and Pooh on Jarom’s iPod, and soon enough they were landing in the Salt Lake Valley. Grandma picked them up at the airport and couldn’t have been more excited to see one of her favorite grandbabies. You might think that the first thing to be done would be to go to the house, but no. At the top of the things-to-do list was a stop at Café Rio, where Lix got her favorite, a pork salad. This was just the first of many trips to the Café, which is always a sign of a great vacation.

I guess Jenna has been paying attention when Lix gets ready every day

For the next two weeks the crew was staying with Grandma and Grandpa, who are serving as the president of the Salt Lake City mission. So the first morning was spent at the Mission Christmas devotional, where Elder Richard Hinckley, former SLC mission president, was the main speaker. When Jarom was on a mission, he remembers these sort of events as being pretty cool, but it turns out they are only fun for current missionaries, and not all that great for former missionaries with a wife and an 18-month old. Jenna was not overly impressed with any of the speakers, and spent much of the time running around the halls. After a nice lunch, Jarom went to the airport to pick up Lixi’s little sister Mikah who had just finished up her first semester at BYU Idaho. Her two brothers came up from Provo as well and a mini Hegewald reunion was held, first at Lixi’s grandparents house and then moving to the Winn home.

So many Hegewalds

This pile of junk had to be organized and distributed among the missionaries. This was just one of the tasks the Winn children were forced to do during their vacations. Below, another one of those tasks, and a very excited Jolene.

The next day was the last Sunday before Christmas, which in most LDS churches means a program consisting primarily of music. However, the ward that Grandma and Grandpa live in kicked it up a notch. They had what seemed to be a complete orchestra, with cellos, basses, violins, and assorted woodwinds to go with a massive choir and the piano and organ. The group sang songs from Handel’s Messiah, which is Alixa’s favorite. She has memories of going to that musical with her family, and she got a little teary eyed as she listened to the performance. Meanwhile, Jenna could not have been happier as she led the music from the laps of Grandma and Kristi the entire time, although her little arm surely must have been exhausted.

In addition to seeing lots of Jarom’s family, including Jolene, Rob, Kristi and her new boyfriend David, the Winn’s have lots of old college friends who have been unable to escape the vortex-like pull of the Utah Valley. The list consists mostly of Alixa’s old roomies, since Jarom neither has nor has had any friends of his own. First on the list were Dave and Laura, who were visited both pre- and post-delivery of their second baby, reminding Jarom and Alixa just how tiny those things are when they first arrive and how little they remember about how to take care of a newborn. They also got to see Joey, Laura’s pet chinchilla, a treat that Jenna enjoyed immensely.

Jenna has started feeding herself real people food, and Alixa continues to feed the Winn family whenever they get together

Next up was a trip down to P-town, with stops at the Hagen residence (an old bishop from the Winn’s school days) and the Carter household. The original plan was to eat dinner with Mandy and Dave and then play a rousing game of Settlers of Catan, one of Mandy’s favorites. Unfortunately, Jarom got some sort of food poisoning and instead spent the evening alternately throwing up in the Carter’s newly remodeled bathroom and laying on the couch under several blankets. Most of you know that Jarom has never been called the life of any party, but even by his notoriously low standards he considered this to be a little anti-social. So they decided that they would try again the next week when Jarom felt better. They did, and the next time they invited another of Alixa’s former roommates and her new boyfriend, and Jarom was pleasant and conversive and didn’t make a single trip to the bathroom to vomit.

Jenna spent lots of her time playing the piano...

...sending text messages...

...and eating spoons

The next big event was a trip to the BYU basketball game against UTEP. President Winn himself was in attendance, and Grandma was nice enough to stay at home and watch the kiddos. For a pregame meal the family went to Tucanos, where far too much meat was consumed and everyone left fat and happy. After the meal the girls dropped the boys off at the Marriot Center so that they could go to the BYU Bookstore to do some shopping during the first half. The aforementioned Bishop Hagen was kind enough to provide a bunch of tickets that were pretty good and conveniently located only a few rows from the honorable Judge Jordan, a good friend from Delaware who was in Utah visiting his progeny. The game was exciting, with BYU spotting UTEP to an early lead before beating the snot out of them by hitting approximately one million three pointers. The girls got there around halftime, which was plenty of college hoops for them. The twins and their significant others drove north after the game to the Winn home, where they would stay until early the next week. It made the house a little crowded and required some planning in terms of showers and meals, but it was a whole lot of fun to have so much family around. Jenna warmed up to everyone pretty quickly, and it didn’t take long until she could identify Rob, David, Kristi, and Jolene by name, although she would sometimes get a little confused when you would ask her to identify one of the twins while the other was standing nearby.

Two balding dads risking their daughter's lives. The daughters couldn't be more excited about it.

Jenna developed a small case of the sneezers, and Jarom insisted that the result of this particular one be documented

Alixa’s recently returned-missionary grandparents were hosting a little Christmas Eve party for all of the Hegewalds in the valley, so they stopped by to spend some time with the Gunthers and Omi and Opa. The highlight of the party was supposed to be a visit from Santa himself. He did show up, and I suppose for some of the partygoers he was a treat, but Jenna could not have been less pleased with his presence. From the moment he came through the door she was giving him dirty looks and it only took about 30 seconds before she broke into an all out scream. Just the thought of him being in the same room as her was too much. So Jarom took her down to the basement where they watched an episode of Curious George and waited for the bearded intruder to leave. He eventually did, but was nice to enough to leave behind a very cute little nativity set for Jenna even though she wouldn’t talk to him. Maybe next year.

Bad news, good news

Every town, has its ups and downs, and this weekend we had some of both. The rollercoaster started on Thursday when the doctor’s office finally got in touch with Alixa after several days of phone tag. It was Nurse Kitty (names have not been changed so that the responsible parties can be held accountable,) and she had some troubling news about the ultrasound that had been taken. Upon further review, she said, there was a bright spot on the baby’s heart, which is an indicator of Down syndrome. She told Alixa that this was normal for 10% of cases. Obviously, those are not good odds. For the next 5 days we spent a lot of time worrying and preparing ourselves for the probable arrival of a baby that was going to be different from what we had been hoping for. There were some tears shed, mostly by Jarom, and some research done on what having a kid with Down syndrome would really entail. Lix tried to call Dr. Kitty (not to be confused with Nurse Kitty) to get some answers to a few questions that she and Jarom had, but was unable to get in touch with her because of some days off and some night shifts that were being worked. They set up another ultrasound appointment for Tuesday afternoon, and were cautiously optimistic. The ultrasound went well, and the Tech had nothing but good things to say. The weird thing was the calm, nonchalant way that she shared the good news. It was like it was no big deal at all. Then the ultrasound doctor came in, and it was more of the same. “Everything looks good”, “perfectly normal” and “no big deal” kept being thrown around, but without any of the excitement that might accompany finding out you were in the lucky 10% of a group. So Jarom asked for some more detailed clarification about the risk probability. The ultrasound doc said that the white spot was a calcium buildup that raised the baby’s risk factor from approximately 1 in 8362 to 1 in 8000. She said it might be more worrisome if Lix were older or if there were other signs (there weren’t) but that given her age and other test results everything looked pretty normal. This was both a huge relief and very confusing to Jarom and Alixa, who then went down the hall to talk to Dr. Kitty. They voiced their confusion at the 180 that had been pulled, and then got their explanation. It turns out that about 10% of all babies develop these calcium buildups in their hearts, and that of those who have them, only a very small percentage have Down syndrome. So I guess Nurse Kitty went to the same medical school as the guy from Arrested Development.




After all is said and done, I guess it was a good experience because Jarom and Lix found out that this baby is still healthy, but also learned that they will still love him even if he isn’t perfect.

Doing her best seductive pose

Sometimes it is hard to find a place to put your cup when you finish drinking

On a lighter note, Alixa had an embarrassing moment yesterday. She was babysitting Kenna so that Nate and Kenz could go out for their anniversary, and while she was over at their house she heard a knock on the door. As she typically does, she assumed that it was someone trying to break in and kill her, but was also polite enough to knock. She called Jarom and explained the situation in her best library voice, but he simply laughed at her and told her to go look through the peephole to see who it was. He even offered to stay on the line so that he could call the police in case of an attack. However, she refused to go near the door, using the classic 2-year-old reasoning of “If I don’t look at him, he will disappear.” Jarom continued trying to convince her to at least go to the door and look outside. After about 5 minutes of making the intruder stand out in the below-freezing temperature, Jarom remembered that she had told her visiting teachers to visit her at Kenzie’s house that evening, and she went and let them in. It is amazing how strongly paranoia governs some people’s lives. Merry Christmas nice ladies who came to share a kind message with me, hope you didn’t get frostbite.

This table had been set up for guests, but Jenna thought it would be fun to rearrange it so everyone had to eat backwards

As promised

12 Days til Christmas

The past few weeks have been a nice break from vacations and strange schedules. November included a lot of going places and a lot of nights being awake, so it has been sort of pleasant for everyone to just go to work, come home, hang out, sleep in their bed, and rest up for Christmas.

Jenna visited her dad at work and rounded up all of the stuffed animals from the entire department

Alixa is still trying to sell all the stuff she made for her big craft fair a month ago, so she and Jarom drove to a little place called West Point about 1 hour from here to hawk her wares at a little town Christmas show. It was fun, and they sold a few things, but the towns main reason for being is that there is a paper mill there. Any of you who have lived near or driven by a paper mill know that they are famous for two things: making paper products and making you want to rip your own nose off so that you don’t have to smell it anymore. The fair was inside the local firehouse, and as long as the doors were closed it was okay because there were some baked goods for sale there that dominated the odorscape. But every time they had to step outside it took all their effort to not gag.

Why don't more people buy her stuff? You can here.

Back at the ranch, the big recent development is that Jenna has finally thrown in the towel and decided that it is okay for her to drink milk out of a sippy cup instead of a bottle. This has been a battle that has been going on since Lix stopped giving her bottles in early November, at which point Jenna essentially stopped drinking milk. She likes milk, and she likes sippy cups, but she apparently did not like them together. But she has now relented, and is back on the wagon, happily drinking her chocolate milk while she watches her show (usually Curious George or Handy Manny.)



As any child ages there are certain photos that all parents are required to take of them. Naked bathtub pics, kissing brothers/sisters/cousins/some other kid pics, trying to put on mom’s shoes pics, etc… We finally took care of a pretty big one this week, the “Look Ma, I unrolled all of the toilet paper!” pic. Next up, crying on Santa’s lap and getting into mom’s makeup. Stay tuned for those.



Jenna’s favorite treat these days are M&Ms, which she calls niminiminiminims, although the length of the word varies from long to interminable. She knows where her mom keeps them on the kitchen counter, and will stand below them and point at the desired snack and say their name until you come and get her one.



Jarom continues to have bad luck with glass. His leg has scarred up nicely so he decided it was time for a new wound. So last night he smashed a glass in the sink and sliced up his finger. It was bleeding like crazy but didn’t seem to be too deep or long, so he just cleaned up the blood and picked up all the broken glass bits and threw a bunch of bandaids on it and went to bed. Today he is waving the white flag of surrender by going to Walmart to get some plastic cups before he loses an arm or something.

A Series of Jenna's Hats

Jenna's favorite Christmas present, a new reading chair

Fancy or Bruce?

A few weeks ago the Winn’s Thanksgiving plans involved staying in the nice, warm Richmond area and having Alixa’s parents drive down from Cleveland to hang out for a few days. Jarom was scheduled to be working the night shift at the hospital until the end of the month, so they were unable to go anywhere. But things went remarkably well at the most recent go-live (that doesn’t make sense to most of you, and it’s okay. It’s boring work stuff.) so Jarom was able to work from home Thanksgiving week. And he can work from home equally effective in Richmond or Cleveland, so they packed up Carlotta and drove to the bitter cold of Northeast Ohio. PJ and Mars were thrilled to have the company and Jenna was super excited to have a giant new house to explore.

Practicing her headstands

The week was pretty laid back, consisting of some game playing and assorted activities and lots of time sitting around relaxing. Jarom and Lix got Mimi to babysit a few times while they went out for a nice dinner together or braved the 38 degree weather to play a round of golf. The whole crew went bowling one night, and Jarom brought his A-game, topping his personal best with a round of 184. Jenna also enjoyed rolling the ball down the lane, although she had to be restrained after she pushed it or she would run after the ball in an effort to catch it.



Another highlight of the trip was the many hours that were spent in the car. Most of that time was filled by a single children’s music album by Raffi. One of those songs is about growing up, and there is a line in it about how the kid can finally reach the faucet today. We are starting to have a lot of those types of moments with Jenna. At the bowling alley there was a step to go from the carpeted level to the wooden bowling surface, and for most of the night Jenna would approach that step and crawl up it using her hands and knees. But after they had been there for awhile, Lix and Jarom were sitting there talking and Jenna approached the step. Jarom reached his hand out to assist his daughter in stepping up, but she ignored him and simply stepped up and kept moving like it was no big deal. Jarom and Lix shared a look that said “Well, I guess she’s a big kid now.”

Look how well she can drink out of a big girl cup!

Maybe not that well

As with all their vacations, this one seemed to end too soon. PJ did her best to fill Carlotta with food and other stuff that we may need, and Alixa did her best Nancy impression and cried like a faucet as they pulled out of the driveway. It really is nice that Jenna gets to see so much of her grandparents, and they love to see her as well. Jenna still asks where Mimi is sometimes, and Jarom and Lix would love to have Opa around again to bear the lion’s share of the “reading with Jenna” burden (I know that makes them sound like horrible parents, but after you’ve read a book 22 times in a row you need a break!)



Back in the warmer climate of Southern Virginia everyone had to go back to work. It had been over a month since Jarom went into his office, having spent all of his time recently on site at the hospital. And Lix had only worked sporadically as Kenna’s babysitter. But they will get back into the swing of things for a few weeks until Christmas throws them off once again.



The other interesting tidbit from this week was the ultrasound appointment this morning where they found out the sex of the new baby. Alixa has been not so secretly telling people that she really wants another girl, and wouldn’t you know it, she is not going to get one. When the ultrasound tech told us it was a boy Lix died a little inside, but she is recovering well and is getting more and more excited about it by the minute. She is still unreasonably terrified of being peed upon, and is not nearly satisfied with her stable of boy names, but she has accepted the fact that she will be having a son and is coming to terms with it. We are all very excited about this new development and especially happy that he seems to be perfectly healthy and normal. We have been seriously so blessed this year and hope that all of you have been too.