Ryan, Debi, and Toren Cragun's Blog

While in Utah my family had photos taken:

"most" of the family

front row, left to right: Morgan Cragun, Amanda Cragun, McKenzie Cragun, Kennedy Cragun, Ethan Chard, Brent Cragun, Sydney Cragun, Eugenie Cragun, Toren Cragun, Connor Cragun, Brock Cragun, Karlie Rupe, Pyper Cragun

back row, left to right: Jessica Cragun (with child), Josh Cragun, Mario Chard, Wendy Chard, Trey Cragun (on the train), Jake Cragun, Corbin Rupe, Carson Rupe, Don Rupe, Tammy Rupe, Mike Cragun, Kristen Cragun, Carter Rupe (on train), Colleen Cragun, Danny Cragun, Debi Cragun, Ryan Cragun

The photos were taken at Union Station in Ogden (thus the train in the background).  There are 30 people in this photo; that’s most of my immediate family.  But there are still 11 (or 12, depending on who you count) people missing (Kevin and Katie Flaherty and their three boys – Tommy, David, and Brent; Mark and Hillari Cragun and their three children -  Miyu, Montana, and Niyah; Troy and his former wife, Angie).  The current total is 41, soon to be 42 with my brother’s child due in November.

We also had individual family photos done:

I like this last one.  Apparently it was one of the photographer’s favorites…

We paid $11.00 per ticket (food at the venue cost more) for our seats at the Rays game.  Without knowing it when we bought the tickets, the game on the 11th included free admission to a Smashmouth concert afterward (you may know Smashmouth from one of their hit singles, like All Star).  Since Steve and I are cheap, we decided to stay after the Rays’ game to see the free Smashmouth concert.  It took them a while to get everything set up, but once the concert finally started, um, we realized why Smashmouth is playing cheap gigs after Rays’ games.  The “music” was really loud, all sounded the same, and was not very good.  To boot, they should have spent more time setting up because you couldn’t hear the vocals at all, just loud electric guitars.  It was so loud and powerful my seat was vibrating.  Within seconds, the exodus began.  All the Rays fans who really came just for the game but decided to see what Smashmouth was all about started to leave.  I tried to capture the remarkable exodus with my cellphone’s crappy video camera:

All those wispy shapes you see walking to the right are people leaving. If you look closely, there are only people walking to the right, up the stairs toward the exits. It was actually quite amazing to see so many people leave within minutes of the band starting to play. Steve and I stuck it out for about 15 minutes then, deaf and numb from the blare and vibration, we became one of those wispy ghosts and floated out of Tropicana Field.

the band is to the left; the viewscreen is to the right

Here’s a photo of the venue. The concert was general admission and they let people onto the field. We moved down to one of the lower sections to see the concert.

Toren’s latest visitor flew in on Friday, his Uncle Steve (one of Debi’s brothers).  He had the joy of waking up to Toren through the night, but has had several chances to hold him and feed him:

Toren and Uncle Steve

Toren being fed by Uncle Steve

taking a nap together

Last night, Steve and I went to the Rays game.  They were ahead until the 7th inning, when they collapsed – they went through 4 pitchers in one inning and the A’s scored 4 runs on 2 home runs.  I had never been to an MLB game.  It was fun to see, both for the people watching (generally my favorite part) but also to see how they try to entertain the fans during the game (Rays Girls, terrible dance acts, three “1st” pitches [technically impossible, of course], etc.).  Stay tuned for a follow-up post about the after-game concert tomorrow!

Debi’s Mom, Rosemary (a.k.a. Grandmary; her dad, Gary, is “Grandgary” to the grandkids), flew in yesterday.  She’s visiting for about a week (I’ll take some photos while she’s here, but haven’t yet).  I just have to note that her knowledge of babies has already proven invaluable.  While I’ve been posting mostly cute pictures of Toren, the last few days he’s been very fussy – not colicky fussy, but fussy.  We suspected gas (we have a very gassy baby), but we weren’t sure and thought maybe he is just hungry (FYI – he’s now 9lbs 2oz per a pediatrician visit yesterday).  Feeding him seemed to help with the fussing, but he was spending all day at the breast that way.  Within an hour or so of arriving, Rosemary pointed out the difference between his hunger cry (arching his back, clenching his fists, kicking his legs, and tearing at his eyes) and his gas cry (pretty much just lays there and cries) and then proceeded to show us that just comforting when he is gassy will eventually get him to calm down.  We’re still working out the details, but it seems to be working.

Toren had his first visit from family on the 13th when his uncle, Brent Robbins, overnighted in Tampa. We went out to Clearwater for dinner and Brent was kind enough to take a photo of our little family – the first with all three of us.

It’s not the greatest photo (not Brent’s fault), but the best he took. In the others Debi and I look like we’re about ready to die – our hair is all wild and crazy and we look tired.

Here’s Brent with Toren:

Toren may not have been too happy to be at the beach, but Brent looks good.  He also looks like he’s had a bit more rest than we have, though he’s probably just better at hiding it since he does have a very active 2 year-old.