Welcome to Laradise

Some marketing "genius" came up with the nickname of "Laradise" for Laramie. Right... (definitely said in Dr. Evil's voice)

While it may not be a paradise, for the Reynolds Tribe, Laramie is fast becoming our home. We are completely unpacked (well, except for the pile of Ryan's clothes that we need to buy a dresser for...). Our new house is awesome. It has two levels, and TWO BATHROOMS, plus a washer and dryer. We love it. It was worth coming out here just to live in this place. I haven't taken any pictures yet, so maybe next time we will show off our new space.
We've been keeping busy here in Wyoming. Ryan doesn't work at the hospital on weekends anymore (obviously), so we have much more family time. Here's a recap of what we've been doing:
Now that we live so close to Ryan's family, it is much easier to get together with them. For Ryan's birthday, the "Other Reynolds" all came up to Laramie for a visit. We even had enough space for all of them to spend the night! Richard slept outside, but that was his choice. I did offer him a place indoors.
We have been down to Fort Collins, where we went to school. It is so different now than it was 4 years ago. Old Town has exploded. Our reason for going was to buy tap shoes for me (yeah, I tap dance now) but we also got to see some friends and eat at Pizza Casbah.
Then we took the boys to a Rockies game. The Rockies are terrible this year (oh, to relive the glory of 2007), so by the end of September none of the regular starters were in. Which meant we didn't feel bad about leaving early when our kids got out of control.

This ridiculously over-priced ice cream cone kept Sam entertained for half an inning

Look how good our seats were! Thanks for the tickets, Mo!

This picture pretty much sums up the evening

Part of Ryan's new work responsibilities includes observing early morning Seminary classes from Rawlins, Wyoming to Sidney, Nebraska. When he has to go really far away, the Church will pay for Ryan to stay in a hotel, which means mini-vacation! We went with him to Scottsbluff, NE last weekend.

Sam loved having a queen-sized bed to himself

Benjy, however, slept in his bassinet like always

Don't worry, B, you could have had to sleep like this:

Which was how I slept the last time I stayed in a hotel

At least he had a comfy nap

We had fun swimming in the pool, stuffing ourselves with free breakfast, and jumping on the beds. On the way home we stopped at a McDonalds in Cheyenne so Sammy could visit the playplace (guess what? Laradise doesn't have one).

Benjy entertained himself with the paper bag. Why do I bother buying toys?

And that's what we've been doing this month. Sorry I've been such a slacker. I promise to do better this month...

The Soap Opera Experiment

I watch a lot of TV.
Part of it comes with the territory of spending the vast majority of my day in my house, alone (or at least, bereft of company that can speak in complete sentences), and the other part is a lifelong fascination with the "dramatic arts", be it film, TV, or the stage. Here's my list of primetime viewing must-sees:
Bones
New Girl
Go On (could I BE any happier that Matthew Perry is back on TV?)
The Big Bang Theory
The Mentalist
and my British imports, Downton Abbey, Sherlock, and Doctor Who.

In the summertime, when primetime essentially shuts down and gives its time to idiotic nonsense (eg any reality TV show), I get a little fidgety. This summer, I decided to try something new: a soap opera.
I picked The Young and The Restless by accident: it happened to be on right after The Price is Right. Soap operas are often picked on for being so different from "regular TV", and I wanted to find out why.

Neil and Harmony

First off, the amount of characters (not guest stars, but actual well-developed characters) on a soap is mind-boggling. I think it took a month before I was confident that I could recognize and name every character on Y&R, and remember their connections to every other character. And because characters marry and divorce and change their names for other, weirder reasons, you just refer to them by their first names.
Time out: did you know that soap operas are so-called because the radio stations that originally broadcast them were often sponsored by companies that made soap? True story.

Nikki and Jack

Soap operas are broadcast five days a week, in contrast to primetime shows, which are only once a week. They don't take a break- no summers off. This means that the writers are on a tremendous deadline to churn out stories. I think that's probably why the dialogue is often stilted. Plus, due to the heavy serialization, a fair amount of each show is given over to exposition, which always seems clunky no matter what medium it's used in. A day in real life frequently equals one soap opera day, so the action moves pretty slowly. Instead of a complete scene between characters, scenes are often brief, ending with a dramatic pause (which in my brain usually gets filled in with dun dun DUN). The scene is resumed later in the episode.

Michael and Lauren

Soap operas are a dying breed. In fact, only 4 remain on daytime television. General Hospital is the longest running soap that is still currently on TV. It's been on since 1963. There's another insight into why the storylines on soap operas are frequently ridiculous: They've already done everything normal! Probably several times! No wonder characters are constantly backstabbing each other, "coming back to life", and becoming amnesia victims (which happens every time someone hits their head- two characters had amnesia on Y&R from June-September).
The last thing I want to touch on is Soap Opera Rapid Aging Syndrome. Babies get born a lot on soap operas. But how fun are babies? I mean, in real life they are great, but on TV? Meh. They can't get amnesia, so they must be no fun to write for. So frequently a child or teenager will get SORASed. For example, Abby on Y&R was "born" onscreen in November of 2000, which should make her 12 years old. However, the character is now 24, with a revised birthday of November, 1988. A 24-year-old Abby can get into much more interesting hijinks than a 12-year-old can. And the crazy thing is that you just have to accept it. No one takes notice when a new actor comes along to portray a character (which happens a lot during contract negotiations). In the soap opera universe, nothing has changed.

Daniel and Phyllis

Does she look old enough to be his mother? They are only 14 years apart in age...

Now that primetime TV is back to normal, I'm saying goodbye to my soap. It's comforting to know that it will be there next summer if I get bored again, with all the same characters (just in different relationships). Meanwhile...  

New Family Photos

We had our family photos taken one last time in SLC before we left. The great Amanda Penton kindly obliged by meeting us at Wheeler Farms one morning and steering us around the charming farmyard. We are so excited to finally have some photos of our family of FOUR! Here are some of our favorites:

Yes, this "b" got chewed on

For some reason, we didn't have a letter K... so I got the chair for my solo photo

Little Man

Just like Sammy did, baby Benjy has a lot of nicknames. Here's his list:
Nicknames for Benjamin Wood Reynolds

Benjy
Ben
Bunjy
Bunj
Benny
Benny Boy
Benny and the Jets
Baby Ben
Mr. Kicks
Benjy Beluga
Little Whale
Benjy W (pronounced "Wuh")
Baby Brudder
Bonji (that's Sam's)
Little the Precious
Ickle Precious

He even has a whale shirt!

Paper Mountain

The upstairs portion of our house is 90% unpacked. The downstairs is more like 60%. 83.7% of all statistics are made up on the spot.
Like I said in the last post, we had professionals pack up all our things. Professionals, apparently, use copious amounts of paper to pack all boxes. And in the Ryan Reynolds Method of Unpacking (TM), you don't clear debris away after carefully unpacking each box. You just shove it all in one place until your wife flips out and makes you take it down to the garage.
Sometimes the pile gets so out of control that there is nothing to do but take pictures.

Hmm, what is this?

Claustrophia levels are high

Very high

Moving

Moving is laaaaaame.
Ryan and I have been married for 4 years now, and our home in Wyoming is the 5th place we've lived together in that short amount of time. Our first move was from Colorado to Utah, and we packed and moved ourselves out there. For this interstate move, the Church paid for everything, included having the moving company put things into boxes for us. It was amazing, but Ryan and I kind of felt like slackers just hanging around our house watching them work. Sammy went nuts when he saw the moving truck and all the boxes. He was so excited! We had to keep the boys out of the way so the packers could work uninterrupted, which took some creativity.

Benjy took a nap in the garage

The next day, the giant moving truck came to load all the things that the packers... packed. Sam once again was thrilled. 

No, that entire truck was not just for us. We used less than half of it.

So by mid-day Tuesday our house was empty of everything not traveling in our car. 

Ryan and I slept on an air mattress; Sam slept on the floor. Benjy was the only one who had his regular bed.

Wednesday we cleaned the apartment so Del wouldn't have as much to do before the Andersons moved in.

Hard working huss!

Early Thursday morning, we left! Farewell, Utah! You were good to us. 

The "six hour" drive to Laramie took MUCH longer than it needed to, thanks to Benjy and Sammy's combined efforts. But we finally made it, and celebrated our move by eating at Pizza Hut... like, inside Pizza Hut, the way we did as kids. Definitely going to be a family favorite of ours.

Don't cross the streams!

And Now for Something Completely Different

As you all probably know, Ryan was hired by our church to teach Seminary last fall. (to learn more about Seminary, click the link.) As an employee of Seminaries and Institutes, Ryan has a few career paths he could head down. In Utah and a few other places, he would have the option of teaching Seminary full-time. Outside of Utah, he could coordinate volunteer Seminary teachers and teach at an Institute (for college-level students). To do that, however, you must have a Master's degree and several years experience teaching Seminary. While we were visiting Ryan's family in Colorado, a position opened up at the Institute at the University of Wyoming, in Laramie. We joked around about it, and Ryan applied, even though he doesn't have a Master's or even a full year of experience teaching.
Friday night we got a phone call asking us to take the position.
We were absolutely dumbfounded. On paper, Ryan wasn't at all qualified for the position. We were told, however, that the people responsible for making the hiring decision had felt very strongly that Ryan was the person who needed to be out there, even over other applicants with Master's degrees and experience. We feel very honored and blessed that they have so much confidence and trust in Ryan. He really does try his absolute best as a teacher, always thinking about his students and how he can help them. We took the weekend to think and pray about it, and we made sure to attend the temple to feel that greater clarity of mind. Even though Laramie is not the "ideal location" for us (no offense, Wyoming), the job is exactly what Ryan wants to be doing, and an opportunity like this probably won't come along again for several years.
By this time next month, we'll be in Wyoming! Ryan's work is paying for him to go out and find a place for us to live, they are paying for our move (including the moving company packing for us), and they are even giving us a little bonus to cover unforeseen expenses. It's all happening very quickly. The boys and I are going out to New Mexico for 10 days to visit my family, so we have very little time left in Salt Lake. I've got a long list of things I want to do before we leave!
Look out, Laramie. The Reynolds Tribe is coming to town.