Our Super Family-Oriented Weekend

Through no great forethought, Josh and I ended up having a really family-friendly Saturday complete with lots of time spent bonding with our children. It was pretty fantastic, even though it sort of happened organically.

It started the night before, when I began a fun little book while lying in bed. The book got more fun and I couldn't put it down until I'd read it all, which happened at 4:30 the next morning. Then I collapsed into bed and woke up to my alarm at 7:45 because it was the Young Women's turn to clean the chapel and we'd agreed to meet there at the unholy eight o'clock hour. Somewhat dizzy and very sleepy, I stumbled into the bathroom to brush my teeth and pull my hair back, then I drove to the church and helped them clean for an hour. It wasn't so bad. My mom used to work as a janitor for the Church, so she'd employ all of her children to clean the buildings with her after school. I have come to really love the time spent in quiet reflection or humming songs while I vacuum long hallways and empty trashes.

Then I drove home and showered, played with the kids while Josh showered, got the kids dressed, and we all drove to the zoo. There were like 14 other people in the zoo. The parking lot was eerily empty. It was 38 degrees outside, which isn't freezing but it's uncomfortable enough that I guess not many people want to wander around outside in it. I get that. I wish I'd brought gloves, but other than that, it was a fun time. We rode the carousel and enjoyed all the animals that were unusually alert and awake, like the snakes and armadillos and tortoises in the reptile house, and the snow leopard and Amur leopard and wolves and elephants and grizzly bears. Some animals prefer the cold, it seems. Or the mornings? Whatever the reason, they were really fun to watch.

After the zoo, we went to the British Market because I had a gift certificate from work. We bought some treats and drinks from the market side and a vegetable curry pasty and cheese and onion pie from the bakery side. The kids were really only interested in their weird circular chips, but we had a lovely lunch there. 

Then we hurried home to put James down for a nap. We spent an hour or so vacuuming, doing dishes and laundry, and generally tidying up the house before I just couldn't take it anymore. I took an hour nap to try to make up for my lost night of sleep. Josh got started on an amazing dinner. When I woke, I had to go back downtown to get my hair done, and by the time I came back home that evening, Josh's parents had arrived for dinner. We'd invited them earlier in the week when we realized that we never have them over for dinner (but we always go to their house for dinner). We were a little embarrassed at the realization.

Josh made a veritable feast of nations. He made vichyssoise soup with sliced sourdough bread as a starter, then rotkohl with apple and vinegar and weiner schnitzel for the entree. We also had honeydew melon and Josh's parents brought a broccoli side dish with stuffing and sliced almonds mixed in. Everything was delicious! Then we had banoffee pie for dessert. We left the table stuffed and very contented.

The soup is French, the rotkohl is German, the schnitzel is Austrian (apparently weiner mean "from Vienna" and that kind of schnitzel is prepared differently than the kind you'd see in Germany), the sourdough is American, and the dessert is British. We didn't mean to make it so multinational but it ended up being very tasty.

Then Josh's parents played hide-and-go-seek with Scarlet and James for about an hour. The kids love it more than anything and Josh's parents love their grandkids more than anything, so everyone was happy. They left when it was time for James to go to bed. It ended up being a very enjoyable day with our family.

On Sundays, we've decided to carry on a tradition I had with my family. Growing up, we'd make popcorn enough to feed the entire family and we'd watch the Disney's original movie on television. That was a tradition born of necessity because popcorn is an affordable meal for a family of 14. For Josh and myself, we decided to adopt the quality family time aspect of the tradition. We don't watch t.v. on Sundays, but on Sunday evenings, we make an exception and put on a Disney movie for the kids, pop some popcorn (microwave this time because we're pretty lazy, and also it's just a supplement to dinner because we definitely make dinner on Sundays), and we spend the last two hours before bedtime on the couch, cuddled up with each other in the semi-darkness, enjoying our sweet little family. It's a fantastic way to spend the last hours of weekend before the next week unfolds.

Burn It With Fire

I had a bit of a rough day. All week I've been struggling with inexplicable insomnia, which has made work VERY difficult since it's hard to concentrate on words when you're only getting 2-4 hours of sleep. Last night I could tell I was developing a cold and although exhausted, I couldn't make my body go to sleep. After lying in bed for four hours, I gave up and stayed up the rest of the night reading a really sad book on cancer until I collapsed in exhaustion around 6:00 a.m.  I slept a couple hours and signed into work late and tried not to drool on my laptop.

Anyway, today was hard because my cold was in full force and I kept randomly crying at facebook posts or getting suddenly, inordinately angry at petty grievances. I was just really really tired and really really sick. It was a relief when Josh came home so I could escape to take a steamy shower and nurse my cold a bit. After my shower, I dressed and started blow-drying my hair and then a blur of black shot past my forearm and I screamed and brushed whatever it was onto the bathroom floor.

It was a spider. A HUGE BLACK SPIDER. Josh happened to be walking by the hallway when I screamed and jumped out of the bathroom, and when he poked his head in, he saw the spider and immediately stomped it to death. I stood clutching my heart and visibly shaking. Josh just looked at me a moment. Then he said, "I love you very much, but now we must set you on fire."

I couldn't agree more.

Is it tomorrow yet?

2016 in Review

It's that time again (and with barely one day left in January--geez, I'm really pushing it this year): a year-end review of 2016! Complete with pictures and reminiscence and retrospective. Here we go!

So for me, last year feels a bit like a black hole in one sense. I think of it like a lost year somehow. I had a bunch of goals but I ended up not accomplishing very much. Just living my life (and raising kids and working and reading books and all the other things that one does when one is living life) doesn't feel like enough for me. I want to be doing incredible things and planning trips and exploring opportunities and building myself into a better version of myself. Because of this constant desire of mine and my lack of follow-through this past year, I feel like I wasted the opportunity of an entire year to develop into a better, more accomplished person. Naturally, I don't regret last year--it was a great year for me and my family. But I do feel as though I could have been better during it, and so I'm taking that lesson into 2017 with me and making sure I don't waste the time given to me.

In another sense, 2016 was a fantastic year! There were a lot of naysayers on social media complaining about how horrid 2016 was, and before that concept became a popular sentiment, I hadn't considered 2016 to be any different from any other year in my life. Good things, bad things, great things, terrible things, and mediocre things all happened in a hodge-podge melting pot of experience and adventure. It was what it was. If I had to assess it off the cuff, I'd say 2016 was fantastic. Wonderful things happened and I loved my life last year. So on to the pictures!

January was quiet. We didn't do anything particularly interesting or special. This is a picture of James getting into the toilet paper in our apartment bathroom, because it was particularly interesting and special to him to do so.

In February we had our semi-annual tooth cleaning appointments at the dentist. Scarlet was scheduled to be cleaned, but she sobbed the entire time, even when I sat in the chair with her and held her, so she ended up getting nothing done. She did score a new toothbrush, so it wasn't a total waste. At the end the month, we took her to Disneyland for her birthday (but I've already blogged about that, so...) just before she turned three years old. It was a great family vacation.

March was pretty fun. I drove the kids down to Las Vegas and spent a week working remotely so my kids could spend time playing with their cousins. We went to a splash pad on one of the days and I was reminded how perfectly suited Las Vegas weather is to splash pads. Even in March, it was boiling hot outside. Scarlet kept playing dress up and James wanted to copy her, so he was thrilled when I put a tutu on him. It cracked me up so much that I kept him in it for hours. Josh hates that he wasn't there to stop me, but I still smile when I see the pictures. That boy is a fashionista!

Us in our St. Patrick's day garb

Look how pleased he is!

Although less pleased to be in the water.

Scarlet, however, loves the water.

The kids had frequent movie parties with popcorn. It was a dream trip for them all.

In April we had a lovely Easter egg hunt at Josh's parents' house. Scarlet and her cousin Hazel scoured the ample yard and overflowed their buckets. When the weather turned nicer, we started taking the kids to the zoo more often. During the bird show, Scarlet was invited to dance on the stage with all the other willing children. At first she was swept up in the thrill of being allowed to leave her seat, but once she realized she was not accompanied by her parents, the enjoyment quickly vanished.

Then May arrived. For Memorial Day Weekend, we went up to Josh's grandmother's farm in Wyoming. She has this gorgeous working sheep farm with tons of animals and breathtaking views. Josh seemed to gather inner strength from being out in the fresh air so close to the Grand Tetons. I, however, caught a vicious allergy attack/summer cold and spent the weekend congested and miserable. It was pretty though.

We also went to this working farm north of Salt Lake, where they have a spring baby animals fair of sorts. We took Scarlet and James and Rachel brought Hazel, and the kids (and mothers) went wild for the baby animals. Scarlet got to ride a horse too, which was adorable.

Fearless

Notice how she goes straight for the goat's butt. Nice.

'Tis a baby chick

As the weather warmed, Josh and I tried to incorporate a few Saturday morning hikes into our summer. It was a lot harder with two kids, but we still managed to squeeze a few in.

June is James's birthday. We made him a James-sized smash cake (I had not heard of this fun little tradition when Scarlet turned one, so this was my first one!) and James spent a good ten minutes grinning and licking off the frosting one finger-full at a time. Then we encouraged him to really dig deep, and it got a whole lot messier and cuter!

Look at that happy one-year-old.

My sister and her family stopped by to visit us during the summer on their month-long tour of southwestern national parks. We all took a tour of the Conference Center downtown and shared dinner together.

Josh's work also hosted a potluck picnic at a park (alliteration!). James loved the playground and it ended up being a really enjoyable evening.

Then came July. For several months earlier in the year, Josh and I researched houses and built up our savings to purchase a house. While we were still in the research stage, we took another trip down to Las Vegas for the fourth of July. This is one of my favorite holidays, first because it's America's birthday and my country rocks, and second because it's *such* a fun way to spend a summer afternoon: fireworks, barbecue, balmy weather, and family and friends. I tend to idealize summer and the Fourth is the quintessential summer event. Josh never let us light fireworks in our apartment parking lot because he thought it was bad manners to risk scorching other people's cars (I still think they would have thought it worth it to watch a little patriotism light up the lot). Because of that, we never really did much for the holiday until this past year, when I insisted we go celebrate with my kin. My parents know how to do it right. We had a lovely barbecue and everyone brought their children to watch a fun backyard fireworks show. Josh seemed to come to life with excitement around the fireworks. He kept insisting that he enjoyed how much the older boys enjoyed lighting them (he was overseeing the operation), but it was obvious that he got a kick out of lighting a bunch of explosives too. He is such a boy hidden beneath those folds of intellectualism and maturity and responsibility and duty. I love that boy.

Look how excited Josh is. He pretended not to care that much but it was easy to catch his happiness when he wasn't looking.

In fact, most of the kids loved watching the fireworks.

Scarlet did NOT enjoy them. They scared her so much that she refused to watch them unless protected by the French doors with the other scared babies.

The boys kept a hose on hand and a big bucket of water and sprayed down the board that held the fireworks after each rocket. It's important to practice fire safety during such a dry activity during such a dry month inside such a dry state.

James was content to watch them from any angle.

At the end of the month, Josh and I closed on our house (wait, I blogged about that too!) and we started the arduous process of moving in.

James helped, of course.

Actually, it wasn't very hard at all. We moved five minutes away from our apartment, only needed to rent a moving truck for half a day, had an entire month to clean the house and update things before gradually moving things in a piece at a time, and had very difficulties transitioning from apartment to house. It was such an easy experience. I feel very blessed that we were able to have such a positive transition. The real stress and exhaustion came from the month after we closed, when we were still living in our apartment but we were spending every evening working on finishing the floors and installing door stops and ceiling fans and remodeling the kitchen and washing windows and cutting and installing window blinds, and any number of things that go along with buying an older home. It all feels idyllic now, but at the time, it was just exhausting. We flew one of my sisters in for the month of August so she could babysit our kids in the evenings while we spent hours at the new house getting it up to snuff. That is probably why the actual move was so easy.

At the end of August, Josh's brother got married! It was in the Provo City Center temple, which is inexplicably beautiful. I loved attending their special sealing, and I loved walking the grounds of the temple after they came out!

And then we were moved into our new house and fall was fast approaching. Before we had even imagined purchasing a house, I had planned a quiet little anniversary trip to St. George and Cedar City. After we bought the house, the trip was still planned, so we went. We saw a very funny play in Cedar City and then drove down to St. George and stayed in a fun hotel and went swimming and hiking and eating out at fun, fancy restaurants. We saw two Tuacahn plays (Hunchback of Notre Dame was amazing! It left me in tears and utterly emotionally spent. Of course I bought the soundtrack). Josh and I really enjoyed some alone time after spending an exhausting month working on the house. The kids spent a couple of nights with their grandparents in Kaysville and Josh and I spent a lot of time watching fun shows on the t.v. in our room in the middle of the afternoon or reading the book Quiet aloud to one another (very interesting book, btw). I look back on that vacation with absolute joy. It was a perfect sixth anniversary trip.

Look how fancy those soups are!

This was us at the fancy restaurant.

Waiting for my fancy soup at the fancy restaurant. It was housed in an art gallery with a southwestern Indian motif. Very Arizona-y.

Hiking

Still hiking

Still more hiking

Yummy dinner

This was the set for Tarzan. It was good but it didn't even compare to Hunchback. 

I paid top dollar to ensure we got the best possible seats for this show. 

It was so close, Josh could touch the stage. That's his foot.

Waiting for hunchback!!!

 I also happened to be in Las Vegas for my birthday and our Super Family Fun Day weekend, which was a huge smash hit of fun and family reunion-ing. In our family, all of the birthdays that fall in the same month are celebrated on Fast Sunday. I'm in line with my fellow Septemberians while we sing Happy Birthday at the top of our lungs.

Then Josh and I were right back at it, working on the kitchen remodel as the cabinets started arriving, and negotiating with the electrician and the plumber. We spent a lot of long nights keeping the plumber company as he worked on our kitchen during the late night hours after his regular work. He is a good friend and a very good plumber, and he did amazing work for us. I feel a lot of gratitude for how the issues that came up after we bought the house were resolved. We've been blessed ten times over since we bought this place. And I'm still desperately in love with it.

Before we stocked the new cabinets with pots and pans, the kids loved playing in there. 

Josh did a lot of tree trimming that first month.

Scarlet liked to sit back and watch.

Whenever I couldn't find James in the backyard, I'd know he was over in the farthest corner on the side of the house, digging in the dirt.

This is to show how tiny he was compared to that corner of the yard. It was so easy to miss him sometimes when I searched for him.

As the season turned to fall, I discovered new responsibilities as a homeowner: raking up the leaves in our front and back yards. We had to buy big black garbage bags and a rake. It was so strange to own yard equipment. Scarlet really enjoyed mimicking her father while he worked.

We had a ward trunk or treat at our new ward and I got to meet our new ward members as I took Scarlet around the parking lot. Scarlet was Rapunzel and James was a pumpkin. They were so stinking cute. I love Halloween three thousand times more as a holiday now that I have children. I was hoping to get more people at our door, but Josh was relieved that we didn't. He enjoyed watching a Halloween movie with me that night after the kids went to bed and didn't like being interrupted too many times to pass out candy.

The cousins all dressed up for Boo and the Zoo. It was a great experience!

It's hard to tell in this picture, but Josh is dressed up as Clark Kent. You can make out his Superman uniform underneath his unbuttoned shirt.

They played in their costumes a lot that month. Gotta get your money's worth!

One last hike before the weather completely turned and it grew too cold to go up in the mountains.

My sister and her family moved up to Utah in September, which was a surreal experience for me. Buying a house and moving my own family didn't seem like that big of a deal, but having one of my family members actually leave Las Vegas and join me in Utah, no less, was nothing short of a miracle. We helped them move in, and they have become our best friends. We love having the cousins play together and the only thing that could make their move any more awesome would be if other siblings would follow suit and join us up here. 

For Thanksgiving, we opted to stay local and shared a meal with my sister and her family. Richard smoked an absolutely gorgeous bird and we divvied up the remaining appetizers and sides. It was a delicious and enjoyable holiday. Allyse and I even sneaked away before dessert to check out Best Buy for their black Friday sale. We've never been black Friday shopping (and on Thursday, no less!) and it turned to be not much of a big deal. We didn't see anything that seemed worth buying and we left after half an hour. Now I know that there's nothing to buy, I won't ever feel tempted to leave again.

Adult table

Cuter table

Beautiful, beautiful bird

And then there was Christmas. How to describe one's first Christmas in one's first home? Imagine the magic of Christmas and then add to that the magic of Christmas with small children. Then triple said magic with the magic of owning a beautiful home and you have a trifecta of enchantment. It was so much fun to hang stockings on an actual fireplace and to place presents underneath a tree in one's own living room. We had my sister from Pennsylvania staying with us for Christmas, so she took a few pictures of our family opening presents on Christmas morning. Actually, it was the following Tuesday, because we spent Christmas in Las Vegas, where a huge crowd of siblings, in-laws, and four billion nieces and nephews ran amok in my parents' increasingly shrinking house. I love big, loud Christmas with all the family. It was a great holiday.

Upon her first  coming out of her room.

Just before we went to bed, after wrapping that ridiculous playhouse/tunnel.

Grandma and Grandpa bought Scarlet and James a great big ball pit to play with since they can't play outside during the winter months.

That's how I feel all the time.

Upon discovering her new playhouse.

Present time!

Christmas Eve buffet line

Upon James discovering his own playhouse.

James received a blow-up light saber.

James officially loves the princess castle more than Scarlet. He also plays with it more than Scarlet.

No Christmas is complete without umbrellas.

When I reflect back on the year, I can see so easily how wonderful and beautiful and exciting and eventful it was. Maybe I didn't accomplish everything I'd intended to do last year, but I had amazing memories with my family. I loved so much of last year and I'm still enjoying the blessings I received then.You can see why it's hard for me to relate to those who claim 2016 was a rough year. A lot of celebrities died, sure, and the politics were an absolute zoo, but in my small world of family and love, life was beautiful. Here's to another beautiful year in 2017.