Because I know you are all dying to know...

...Our bags made it last night! I have never been so happy to hear the sound of rolling suitcases coming down our front walk! The stuff we shipped early still isn't here, but at least Chase and I have clothes, Chase's bath stuff, his nice thin swaddling blankets, my hair gel, etc. This has made me much happier.

And here are just a few cute pictures of Chase, our happy little elf, who apparently loves traveling. He was so good the whole time, especially under the circumstances. He did much better than either of his parents.
Our friend Alyse made this onesie for him. I love it! Chase and Ben were kind of matching.
Like father like son.
Just in case anyone wanted to know where we were from,
if we were Mormon, etc. It was a pretty good indicator.
In fact, when we got to campus, a girl came up to me and said,
"Are you the Hugos?" (I was holding Chase)
She introduced herself and said she works in the primary.
I thought, wow-lucky guess? Just saw a girl with a baby and assumed they were in the ward.
Then I realize that Chase was wearing this shirt.
Obviously we were the family joining the ward.
(Something very similar happened to Ben and I last summer while traveling in Greece. A few missionaries saw us, got all excited and came over to talk to us. At first I thought maybe we really radiated the spirit? Then I realized Ben was wearing his BYU hat. Duh Court.)

Chase just chilling in his stroller while we filed claims for the lost baggage.
He is obviously not worried about the fact that he only has two outfits left to wear until the bags come.

Ben had Chase squealing with delight this morning.
I pulled out the camera.
This was the face I got.
Silly kid.

Once I get the house a little more organized I'll post some pictures. For now, here is the view from the window where I am sitting typing this...

This is the view from our front porch!
Now do you all want to come visit?

This morning while I was struggling to do my hair without my hair product or a brush or comb:

Courtney: AH! I don't even have my hairbrush. It's in the suitcase that didn't make it.
Ben: Do you want me to get you a fork?
Courtney: Seriously Ben?!
Ben: Hey, it worked for Ariel.

I'm so glad my husband has a thorough knowledge of Disney Princess hair styling techniques.

Getting to Dominica

Getting to Dominica was an adventure all in itself. Our best laid plans were immediately thrown out the window upon getting to the gate at Salt Lake International, our flight had been delayed 3 hours. At that point we would miss our connector from Atlanta to San Juan, with no other flights to San Juan out of Atlanta that day. We would then miss our connector from San Juan to Dominica the next day, and there is usually only one flight into Dominica a day. We spent the next few hours trying to rebook flights, going back and forth between terminals (Delta said they had us booked on an American Airlines flight, we got to American and they had no record of us, back and forth, back and forth). We finally got flights book on American Airlines that got us to Miami that night. We went to uncheck our bags from Delta and recheck with American, only to find that Delta had already lost two of our bags. (Seriously?! We hadn't even left the airport yet) We rechecked the bags available (Ben's suitcase and Chase's pack n play, my bag and Chase's have yet to be recovered, as of right now, no one knows where they are), got through security for the second time that day and headed out. We almost missed our connector in Dallas, barely made it, then through a computer glitch they wouldn't let us on the plane because they said they couldn't check us in. We finally got on the plane (we were seriously the last people on) and landed in Miami around 10. We found the Delta people who said they'd put us up in a hotel that night and got to said hotel just after midnight. End of Day 1.
Day 2: After sleeping for three hours, we got up at 4:45 to catch our flight from Miami to San Juan. When we got to the airport the lady checking us in said that Chase wasn't on their records and we couldn't take him on board unless we bought a ticket for him. We showed her our official itinerary that listed Chase as a lap rider and our original Delta tickets with him listed. She refused to accept that. I started crying. Ben stayed calm, and asked to talk to a supervisor. The supervisor was actually helpful and found that Chase was listed on our tickets and let us continue to board. We made it to San Juan and then on to Dominica without any problems! The school picked us up in Dominica, helped us file a claim for the lost bags, gave us water and drove us to the school. What a beautiful drive! This island is gorgeous! We are seriously in the middle of the rainforest and I love it! Once at the school our really nice landlord picked us up and brought us to our little cottage we are renting. I love this little house! The view from my window right now is so lush and gorgeous. She took Ben grocery shopping while I got Chase settled. Then our super nice next door neighbors had us over for dinner and loaned us some stuff to get us through until the rest of our luggage makes it. All in all, day 2 went much better than day 1.

Even though this was a very stressful voyage, there were several bright spots. I just know Heavenly Father was helping us get here safely and in one piece!

• Although some of the luggage didn't make it, all three Hugos did!
• When we were trying to rebook flights in Salt Lake Ben left me with all the carry-on luggage (2 suitcases, 2 personal bags and the stroller) and Chase and went to figure things out. I could see him further down the concourse trying to talk to the Delta representative on the hotline phones and our travel agent on his cell. I knew he needed help, but there was no one I could get me, Chase and all our stuff down there. Then a professor from BYU's college of nursing sat down by me! I introduced myself, she said she remembered me and was kind enough to watch all our stuff while I went to help Ben. Without both of us there on the phones I don't think we could have gotten rebooked in time. I was so grateful to see a friendly face!
• Chase was an ANGEL! He did so great on all the flights and all the craziness in between. My sweet little baby would smile and smile at me every time I started to lose it. I was already pretty teary from saying goodbye to my Mom and Dad that morning, then all the craziness of the flights not working out made me tear up several times. Chaser was such a sweetie and looked at me like, "Don't be sad Mom! You still have me!" (That is actually what Ben narrated for Chase.)
• Ben- he stayed calm and collected the whole time. I'm grateful for his level head in these situations. I'm sure things worked out better for us because Ben always stayed calm with the people we were working with, which I think made them more apt to help us (that, and the cute baby we were toting around)
• Awesome new neighbors! I've been corresponding with our new next door neighbor Michelle for a few weeks now. She was so incredibly helpful last night in helping get us settled!

This experience was another testament to my uncle Ron's theory of successful traveling: LOW EXPECTATIONS!

One year

April 26, 2010: I came home from a job interview for a nursing job (which I got, yay!) and took a pregnancy test. This was the day I found out my little Chase was on his way. I was on cloud nine. I felt so happy and I just couldn't stop smiling all day. It was the start of the most beautiful adventure of my life.

April 26, 2011: I've spent the day packing. We are leaving for Dominica tomorrow morning. I hate saying goodbye to the people I love. I'm so glad I get to go on this adventure with Ben and Chase, the two people I love more than anything in the world. I'm just really dreading saying goodbye to my mom and dad in the morning. I'm trying to focus on the positive though. This is the start of another wonderful adventure.

Easter

I love Easter. I love what the holiday represents, the love of our Savior, his triumph over death, hope of life after death and being reunited with loved ones. I love that Easter comes in the spring time, when the world is waking up from the death of winter. Today was a beautiful, (although I little chilly) Easter Sunday. We took a family picture before church by this beautiful tree in my parent's front yard. I'm so grateful for our Savior's Atonement so that I can be with my little family forever.The parts of church that I heard were wonderful. Mr. Fussy wasn't too cooperative and I spent the majority of the block walking around the halls with him, hoping his crying wasn't too audible to those in meetings. I guess that's life with a 3 month old.

My parents decided a while back that we are now too old for the Easter bunny, but they get us these delicious eggs every year. They were gone by 2:00.

Even though he doesn't know what's going on yet, I put together this Easter basket for Chase.
I showed it to him and I think he couldn't have cared less.
But I thought it was cute.
I put together a baby book for him, bought him a little toy and my mom got his that darling blue outfit (debuted later in this post when Easter outfit #1 got covered in spit up).

Chase with Grammy and Grandpa before church

After church we all took some time to relax.
Chase watched sports with my dad and Will.
I love this picture. I told them all to look at me and smile.
Only Chase disobeyed. Apparently the sports they were watching were just way too interesting.
(I have to say sports, because I thought it was football. Ben reminded me that football is over)

And Ben and I laughed at this picture of Chase.

Then Chase crashed watching HGTV with Ben.

After Church we had a fabulous Easter dinner, prime rib, cream peas and potatoes, homemade rolls, salad and strawberry shortcake. My mom is an amazing cook. Our friends the Caldwells came up for Easter dinner with us so we could see them one more time before we both move away. We took advantage of having extra hands around and had Mike take a picture of the family.

Mike said, "Now a funny one."
Apparently my dad and Will missed that part.
Or rebelled against it. You pick.

We are going to miss the Caldwells so much!

I had to say good-bye this weekend to Will and Heidi.
It was awful. I hate saying good-bye. I'm going to miss them SO MUCH!

Chase was also not a fan of saying good-bye to Heidi.

He finally settled down. My mom helped me put him to bed.
I love this picture of them reading together.

Minus the hard good-byes, it was a fabulous Easter!

Farewell Tour

Chase and I got out of the house today and saw some people we will be missing in the Caribbean. Our first stop was my Grandma Smith's house. Chase was cute and smiley for about ten minutes, and then we was super fussy...
So we headed out for our next stop- lunch at Zupas with some of my best friends from our married ward in Provo- Meghan Caldwell and Ashley Virgin. Meghan and Ashley both have babies around Chase's age, so we were three girls with three babies, three carseats, and three diaper bags. We were kind of like a traveling circus. We even got a few comments from other customers about how 'cute' we were. It was a little crazy, there was almost always a baby crying (which was almost always my baby- with all the running around he didn't get a good nap, and lets face it, he's kind of a fussy baby). I loved getting to see Meghan and Ashley, I love them both and I'm going to miss them so much after we move.

Our three babes
Chase, Ethan Caldwell and Kynlee Virgin
And yes, they do all have the exact same carseat.
What could be more adorable?

Ashley and Kynlee
Meghan and Ethan
Chase(fussy, of course) and Me

After our fun afternoon at lunch, my favorite sister came home from college! She is so sweet with Chase and I am so glad that I get to spend the weekend with her before we leave next week.

I love Easter. It's one of my favorite holidays. I'm really excited for the rest of the weekend!

Family Pictures

We had family pictures taken last week before our big move. Kourtney Adams, a friend from Jr. High and High School, has started a photography business. She was doing mini-sessions for an awesome price that I just couldn't pass up. Ben was a good sport about doing pictures and Chase at least didn't cry during the photoshoot. Even though he wasn't super smiley, Kourt was still able to get some cute pictures of him. I love the way they turned out! Thanks Kourt!

My little sweetie

Here are some pictures I took of my little sweetie this last week.

I love this little boy more than anything.

His little smile is my favorite.

We just did his four month doctor's appointment, about two weeks early because of our move.
His perfectly healthy. He loves doctor appointments, I think he feels like the star of the show.
He smiles at the doctor the whole time while he's checking him out.
The only thing is...our kid is tiny. Seriously, he's now up (seriously, up) to the 5th percentile in weight. He's on the 25th percentile in height and head circumference.
I don't know where we got him.
Ben and I are not small people.
At least he's healthy. The doctor assures me he's still normal.

This is a classic Chase face. He looks so surprised/confused. It makes me laugh every time.

10 lbs 8 oz
23.5 inches of pure cuteness

Kate's Art

My old roommate Kate Hanks (now Kate Allen) is a fabulous artist. She is really creative and I love her style. She painted us a gorgeous painting for our wedding that we absolutely love. She recently opened an etsy shop CinnamonInk where she sells these adorable children's prints. She made this cute airplane print for Chase's nursery.

Here is another sampling of her darling work:

When I have a baby girl I'm going to buy this one for her room.

Anyway, I love her art and I think it's awesome that she opened her own business.

Our Awesome Weekend in Provo

This weekend we took a break from our normal life to spend a weekend in Provo with some of our favorite people! I had a baby shower for my friend Caitlin from nursing school on Saturday. It was so fun to see my nursing friends and cute Caitlin with her big round belly- can't wait to see pictures of that sweet baby Cole! After the shower we headed to our old neighborhood and spent some time with the Bennetts!
We have sure missed our friends since we moved to Kaysville. We love the Bennetts and were so glad to get to spend some time with them! Chad and Alyse are so good with Chase! He loved them.

Chase pretty much decided we were done there- he melted down. So we gracefully excused ourselves and got the babe a little calmed down. Then we headed over to Caldwells for the rest of the weekend. Ben made pizza, which was fabulous, Meghan and I talked and talked, Ben and Mike chilled together, Ethan investigated Chase, and Chase sat around still completely oblivious to Ethan. So far Chase much prefers adults. Oh well, I assume that will end as he gets older.

We put the babies to bed and did something really grown up- watched the latest Disney movie Tangled. I actually loved the movie. We enjoyed our little slumber party and went to bed way too late for people who have to get up in the middle of the night to feed babies. We have to enjoy these people while we are still living in the same state!

All the boys in the morning

Ethan is so cute with Chase. He kept wanting to touch his head.

On Sunday we got to go back to our old married ward in Provo, that we haven't attended in over a year due to our calling in the singles ward. It has changed so much, we hardly knew anyone there! The highlight of church was seeing our friend James Daley walk into sacrament meeting with his wife Shawna. James has been serving our country in Afghanistan since last June. He's just back for two weeks of leave, then he goes back for another few months. It made my day to see him there.
Chase held it together through church (he had been pretty fussy all weekend). He slept in Ben's arms through the whole meeting. After church we went to Russell and Ashley's sweet baby girl's blessing. Their sweet two year old Brookie sang I am a Child of God (probably the sweetest thing ever) and little Kynlee looked beautiful. I told Chase he should snatch her up, she's beautiful and I'm sure she'll be smart, sweet and funny when she grows up, and he'd have awesome in-laws. Chase, however, went back to being fussy and Ben had to take him outside.
At that point we called it a wrap for the weekend and headed back to Kaysville. My parents sure were happy to see Chase again. We took him to the doctor Monday to check out why he'd been so fussy all weekend. Ear infection. Lovely. The little guy is on antibiotics (which he loves, laps it up like candy) and after just a few days of the antibiotics he's already a different baby.

We were so glad to see all our friends this weekend! We love you all so much! Thanks for putting up with our fussy baby!