Transformers have Transformed Oliver and Silas

Ollie and Si have been quite obsessed with Transformers ever since their cousin Mason brought all his Transformers to the farm last summer. Ollie and Si played with Mason for hours on end while Mason patiently explained the finer points of each Transformers personality. A couple weeks ago, Transformers were on their mind for some reason and they asked if I would take them to the store to get some. I told them they could earn some Transformers if they wanted to. I helped them make a chart where they could color in one blank box for each job they did. They decorated their Transformer goal charts with pictures and put them on the fridge and quite suddenly went through their own transformation into the best little workers in the house. They were so excited every time I had a job for them. They put laundry in the dryer, cleaned up toys they didn't leave out, cleaned floors, cleaned walls, dusted baseboards, emptied the dishwasher, straightened all the shoes in the mud room again and again as they worked towards those Transformers. Typically, Ollie and Si have not been great helpers. They take the typical younger child role of wandering off when they were asked to do something, in hopes that no one will bother to make them come back and do what they were supposed to do (and that hope is far too often realized). Given their work history, I thought after a day or so of doing extra jobs happily, the twin would tire of the whole thing - but they didn't. Filling in those boxes on their chart was so very gratifying that their eagerness to do jobs didn't go away.

After about 2 weeks, Ollie and Si had all their boxes filled in and they were SOOOOO excited! The very next day after the charts were done (which was luckily one of our few non-visitor, non-crazy schedule days), I took them to Walmart. It was like Christmas morning when we got to the toy area and saw a whole new shipment of Transformers stacked up there! They knew exactly which Transformers they wanted but I'd warned them that you never know what they'll have at the store. But to our great joy, Oliver found Optimus Prime and Silas found Bumblebee and they were these new "gravity assisted" Transformers that are great for little kids (Ashton had insisted they'd break the regular kind of Transformers the first day they got them and would be so disappointed). The looks on their faces when they had those long-awaited and hard-earned Transformers in their hands was priceless!

We checked out and opened the packages right up and the little guys were in heaven. They haven't let their Transformers out of their sight since then (except that they can't bring them to preschool so Oliver and Silas are so cute about standing their robots on the counter in the laundry room where they can "watch" the door and "see" the twins right when they get back home.

Ah, the triumph of high achievement! Ah, the joy of seeing your kids get what they want because they earned it! And even though Ollie and Si aren't actively working towards any particular toy right now, they are still great little helpers - the Transformer chart seems to have helped them get into the habit of working and I think they like all the positive reinforcement they get - even if it's just a "great job" or "you're such a great helper" instead of a Transformer that they get for doing what they're asked to do.

When Things Get REALLY Busy....

I end up being late and stressed out a lot and I start forgetting things.

I'm feeling a bit frazzled (to say the least) after a month of visitors (4 sets of visitors who we thoroughly enjoyed - Jonah and Aja and family, then Jared's brother and family, then my parents, then some dear friends from California) and a couple simultaneous weeks of deadlines (an application for Education Week, the kids' Reflections projects, some Power of Moms stuff...) and big events (the St George Marathon that Jared ran, the Senior Games for my Dad - lots of great tennis matches to watch, the school carnival, parent teacher conferences, the book fair, a joint YM/YW activity I was in charge of, the first meeting of a new Moms' Group I started, the Reflections Open House at the school that I somehow ended up being in charge of and another fun trip to the Instacare to have Oliver's chin stitched up yet again - he thought he'd try walking along a ledge with his eyes closed and learned a lesson about how important eyes are!).

None of these things were huge or particularly stressful in and of themselves (well, a guess a couple things were) - but somehow they all converged on the same part of the calendar and I feel like I've been running my own marathon for weeks with hardly a minute to catch my breath or to plan the best way to tackle what needs to happen - so things just keep happening helter skelter. When I go days (or weeks) without time to do the little daily cleaning jobs and emails and kid stuff that I usually do, everything starts to pile up quite alarmingly and tensions run high. I'm tired of being late and being stressed out and forgetting things - and I think the kids are tired of it too!

Today I was late for:

• family scripture study by 10 minutes (we were up late talking with our guests and I was so wound up I couldn't sleep well last night and getting up is always hard for me...)
  
• school by 2 minutes (we're always SO close but those last few minutes always get away from us!)
  
• preschool by 5 minutes
• volunteering in Isaac's class by 8 minutes (and then the teacher didn't really need me today and that was pretty frustrating - I don't think she could really have any idea how precious my time felt today with the million things I've had going on!)
  
• Eliza's Parent-Teacher conference by 5 minutes
• Ashton's Parent-Teacher conference by 20 minutes (because the teacher was running late - this one wasn't my fault)
• Isaac's Parent-Teacher conference by 20 minutes (because of Ashton's conference starting late)
• Isaac's soccer practice by only 3 minutes even though we'd had to leave the school so late with the late conferences (we skipped going home to get Isaac's clothes changed and would have been right on time but drove 10 minutes out of my way to pick up a child who didn't turn out to be home - I'm sure they tried to call but...)

Today I forgot:

• to remind Eliza to wear her glasses and to put cream on Eliza's scar.
  
• to say goodbye to our houseguests as I ran out the door to take the kids to school - I just took off and realized after I went into the school to volunteer that I never said goodbye and I wouldn't be seeing them again. But I called them and said goodbye and it was OK.
• to call a neighbor I'd told about our ward park day tell her we'd changed to a different park - she went to the wrong park and I felt so bad!
  
• to check on the Joy School CDs the twins' teacher ordered a long time ago and still hasn't received.
• that it's NEXT WEEK that we're heading up to Idaho for Jared's niece's wedding so I can't do an FHE with some friends that I thought would work or bring the twins to a neighbor's birthday party that I'd promised we'd attend. Had to make some apologies when I realized my mistake. I've got so many dates in my head that I keep doing stuff like this lately!
  
• to put together a flier for the neighborhood party that I helped to plan and that is now just over a week away
• to feed Isaac dinner before scouts - so the poor hungry guy didn't get dinner until like 8pm. When he came in from scouts complaining of a stomach ache (he's been complaining of stomach aches a lot lately), I finally put it together that his tummy aches are probably hunger pains since they do seem to coincide with when he should be hungry - should have figured that one out a while ago!
  
• to carefully count the kids as I left the park where Isaac's soccer practice was. I loaded up 7 kids but I was supposed to have 8. After getting Isaac's friends home and dropping off Isaac at scouts, I dished up dinner and had one too many bowls of soup. I'd left Eliza at the park! I frantically called Jared and he hurried to get her. Knowing her tendancy towards the dramatic, I was so worried she'd be freaking out and worried whether she remembered her phone number and worried that she'd be so hurt that I'd left her or that she could be kidnapped or something. Jared found her sitting on a bench, calmly waiting for someone to come back and get her. She said she was getting a bit worried and a bit hungry but she said a prayer and she knew we'd be back soon. What a good girl! What a bad mom!
  

My life is generally pretty busy and crazy but in contrast to the last few weeks, my "regular" life is feeling quite manageable and pleasant! I've resolved to plan things out better and say "no" more. And to pray more. I get so busy I don't pray and that really messes things up.

This weekend I've got houseguests again but it's a whole different deal this time. Jared's taking the kids up to my parents' place at Kolob and I get to hang out with some great women who help with The Power of Moms and relax and enjoy some time together as we do some Power of Mom planning in a kid-free house. So I'll get some perspective and recharge and life will feel much better in a couple of days. Then Jared and I will take the kids off on a road trip for their cousin Mikalla's wedding and it will be nice (and stressful in different ways, of course) to get away for a while.

Mommy Dates

My parents worked in a little one-on-one "mommy date" or "daddy date" with me and my siblings when we were growing as often as possible. Sometimes they'd plan something special, but often they'd just grab one of us when they were heading out on an errand and turn it into a "date" by asking good questions in the car and really listening to us - plus they'd buy us a treat. An errand became a date if it included the treat of our choice and a chance to have mom or dad's undivided attention for a little bit. With eight siblings, these dates were such important opportunities to us as kids. And I'm realizing that with five kids, these sorts of "dates" are really vital to me as a mom.

Last week was pretty much insane. Here's the list of all the things I had to do or be prepared for on Thursday, October 1st:

• The kids' Reflections projects were due so they needed help with finishing up their paintings, films and write-ups about their projects
• I needed to help sort projects as they came in and help with the whole Reflections program at the school (since the person who was going to do it had to drop out and since I happened to know a fair amount about Reflections since my sister-in-law Aja did it for years)
• My proposal for Education Week was due (it looks like Power of Moms may be helping put together a new "Motherhood Track" as part of Education Week at BYUI). Polished it up and got it sent in after finishing the Reflections stuff at the school.
  
• It's our tradition to make pumpkin cookies on October 1st to celebrate the beginning of fall. The kids were so excited about this so we crammed it in between everything else and I got like 5 phone calls that I shouldn't have answered plus several people came to the door while I tried to do this special fun thing with my kids - my hoped for "oasis" of an hour or so totally devoted to fun with the kids in the midst of so many other things that day didn't quite work out.
  
• I was in charge of a joint YM/YW photo scavenger hunt for our ward that night at 7pm - and I was trying to have the girls assigned to this activity really step up and do a lot of it so it took a lot more effort than just planning it myself. It wasn't the greatest activity but it worked out OK I hear (I had to leave early)
  
• I held my first "Learning Circle" (mothers' group) pilot here at my house - it was SUCH a great group - but such hard timing! After I got the youth and leaders sent off on the scavenger hunt, I hurried back to get things set up for these women to arrive.
  
• Jared's brother and family arrived that evening so the guest room needed to be ready, the house needed to be half-decent for them and for the moms' group that was coming, and the kids needed to be ready to go with their cousins and dad to a play at Tuachan that night.

I should have said no to a few different things in hindsight - but when I said yes to all this, I didn't quite put together that the epicenter of everything would be on the same day! It all worked out in the end but the stress on me and the lack of mothering all week that resulted wasn't that great. Some weeks will always be crazy and it's hard to say no to things when the answer is "yes" to the key questions of: "Is this something I uniquely need to do?" "Could I do this at a better time?" "If I say 'no' will it really matter that much to others?"

But anyway, this week I'm trying to make up for last week and so far it's working great. I've read with the twins each day, I've sat by the kids to get homework done and I had a great "mommy date" with Isaac yesterday. My parents are in town and their schedule with the Senior Olympics worked out so that they could be here with the twins at lunch time and I could go grab Isaac out of school and take him out to lunch. I let him pick the place and and let him order whatever he wanted (doesn't happen much when you've got so many kids to feed and a pretty tight budget). I asked him about his favorite things about school and he told me all about the running program he's participating in at recess (he's been running a mile and a half or more on the track every day to earn punches for this fitness rewards program they have - didn't even know about that!). He told me about a kid that's really mean in his class. He told me his friend was bragging that he had some stocks that are worth lots of money and when I reminded him he as some stock that his Grandpa Loosli gave him, he asked all about how stocks work and we had a great conversation about that. We talked about how he needs to eat more because he's grown so tall lately and he asked lots of questions about nutrition. We just chatted and had a great time together - he went off on whatever and I just listened and followed along for the most part. There are usually so many other people around, interrupting and needing something, and Isaac's usually the guy who just goes with the flow and doesn't demand attention. So it was heavenly to focus completely on this great boy of mine.

I took him back to school and before walking him into his classroom, I remembered something my Dad used to do, grabbed Isaac's hand and told him one thing I especially loved about him for each finger on his hand, folded his hand together to keep all those special talents and abilities in there so he could hold them and feel good about them all day, then gave him a big hug and sent him back into his classroom. He was glowing. I was glowing. He felt like a wonderful son. I felt like a wonderful mom. The whole "date" took about 45 minutes. I need to do this more often!

I do "mommy dates" on and off here and there but I'm committed now to doing one mommy date a week - so every 5 weeks, each kid will get one. It's not much - but on the other hand - it's so much and it's so meaningful. Life is busy but if I can cram Education Week applications and Reflections contests into my life, I can certainly fit mommy dates with my precious kids into my weeks!

I'll keep you updated on how I do!

He Did It!

Jared ran the St George marathon. And he didn't die. In fact, he did better that a whole lot of people who actually trained big time for the marathon. He ran 26.2 miles in 4 hours and 22 minutes and that's pretty darn good. I was a little worried about him since he didn't exactly follow a traditional marathon training regimen. He's been really busy with work lately and we've had lots of visitors so he hasn't had all that much time to train. For about a year now, he's run a three mile loop with some pretty rough terrain a couple times a week. He stepped that up with longer runs over the past month or so, getting up to about 10 miles a few times. And then it was time to run the marathon.

I knew he'd do it. I knew he'd finish that thing because Jared is one tough guy and he can make himself do just about anything physically. But I was just a touch concerned that he might mentally make himself go beyond what he physically could do. Luckily, I was wrong and his physical and mental body worked great together and he finished strong. I'm so proud of him! He ran a mile and walked a minute at each mile marker and said 'it worked out great - just like running lots of 1-mile races!" TWENTY SIX one mile races. That's a lot.

Jared's walking a little like Frankenstein and feels like he's lost all padding in his feet but in a few days, he'll be good as new. What a guy! I'm so impressed. And I think Jared was pleasantly surprised things went as well as they did.

While we watched for Jared at the 23 mile mark, the kids gave high fives to hundreds of runners and loved yelling out "Good job!" and "You're doing great!" at people who looked like they could really use a little encouragement at that point. I have to say it was pretty darn inspiring seeing so many people of all ages, shapes and sizes plugging away after 23 miles. Our favorite runners were a woman in a while outfit with a wedding veil on her head, a girl in a supergirl uniform, a guy who had to be in his 80's, and an amazing guy pushing a friend or brother in a wheelchair (serious tear-jerker there).
Jared quite suddenly showed up before we were really looking for him so we didn't get a photo - darn. The kids and I jumped in and ran with him for a while and it so much fun! We didn't make it that far before Oliver ran out of steam and it was time to hop in the car and try to beat Jared to the finish line. We didn't quite beat him - BAD traffic and parking - but we found him soon after he finished and it was so great to congratulate him and his brother Joel (who'd JUST missed his qualifying time of 3 hours 30 minutes for the Boston Marathon by 25 seconds - so so sad! But WOW - he ran that thing fast!).

It was so great to have Joel and his family with us for a few days before the marathon. Their 4 girls showered attention on our kids and the twins and Eliza were particularly enamored with them. We saw a Tuachan play, had a pretty cold but fun BBQ down at the pool and introduced them to our new favorite game - New World - a Carcassone game. They left Saturday and my parents showed up today. This is visitor season for us!

Scripture Study Breakthrough

I've been reading the scriptures in a way that really works for me and I wanted to share it.

I've always loved the scriptures – but I've often struggled to find methods of scripture study that really work for me. I've gone through periods where I've delved into the scriptures by topic, times where I've read different standard works from beginning to end and phases where I've just opened the scriptures and read whatever caught my eye. I've “feasted” on the scriptures at times (like when I was a missionary and had dedicated scripture study time each morning or when I used to ride the train to work and had a ½ hour to read during the commute) and I've “snacked” on the scriptures other times in my life (like when I had 5 preschoolers including two newborns and could barely keep my eyes open to read a verse or two every few days). But until lately, I never really hit on anything that consistently made me look forward to scripture reading.

As I talked to my friend April one day, the topic of scripture study came up. She talked about the scriptures with an excitement and animation that I hadn't seen before. Her deep love for the scriptures shown threw as she talked about how much she uses them to really guide her life. As I listened to April, I realized my relationship with the scriptures wasn't nearly as deep and meaningful as I'd like it to be. I asked her a little more about HOW she read the scriptures – realizing that my methods were pretty stale and that I needed to freshen things up a bit. April explained that she liked to read the scriptures looking for specific inspiration and answers the Lord wanted to give her that day. She said she was currently reading the Book of Mormon specifically looking for ways she could be a better mother. At first, her idea seemed a little weird to me. Other than that scripture about the mothers of the Stripling Warriors, were there any scriptures in the whole Book of Mormon about motherhood? April explained that she'd found that there's advice and answers for just about anything in the scriptures if you read them prayerfully and with an open mind.

We've all been told we should “liken the scriptures” unto ourselves, that we should seek out personal revelation through the words of God in the scriptures. But do we really search the scriptures for personal answers? As we deal with the daily dilemas of our lives, do we look in the “instruction book” of the scriptures as often as we should? When we do read the scriptures, do we just sort of plow on through, filling our daily quota of a number of minutes or a number of pages? Or do we earnestly look for the personalized messages the Lord wants to convey to us that day?

My little talk with April left me with a desire to truly fall in love with the scriptures. It caused me to shift my paradigm of scripture study and to strive to really use the scriptures as a conduit for the Lord's personal messages to me. I found that if I would kneel and pray before reading the scriptures, asking the Lord to tell me what He wanted to tell me that day as I read the scriptures, I was able to find a message from Him every day – yes EVERY DAY. I found that by reading until I got my message from the Lord for the day rather than reading a certain number of minutes or pages made my reading much less routine and much more meaningful. I also found that if I WROTE DOWN the little nudges and promptings I received in a little book that I keep with my scriptures, it helped to solidify what I was receiving.

Since adopting this new method of scriptures reading – pray, read until I find something, write it down – I feel so much more open to inspiration. Sometimes I find big answers to things that are on my mind as I read the scriptures. Sometimes I find simple reminders of things I know but haven't been conscientious about lately. Sometimes I find a pat on the back. Sometimes a find a great story that will help me explain something important to my children. Often I get a message that helps me see how I can be a better friend, sister, daughter or wife. And surprise, surprise, very often, I find messages about how to mother my children. The scriptures are actually full of advice and help for mothers - as well as advice that is tailored to every role we need help with in our lives!

You just never know...

...when my dear brother Jonah will show up. I came home from PTA last Thursday night and found this in my garage:

Jonah stopped by to "borrow our garage" so he could change the axle on his grease car. Most people stop at changing tires but Jo can go ahead and change all sorts of serious things in cars - most of which I've never even heard of. Jared and Isaac pitched in on the project and quickly found out that that car should be called a grease car whether it uses old vegetable oil for fuel or not - seriously dirty stuff! I wish you could see better in this photo how totally and completely BLACK these guys were.

Jo and Aja and kids have been with us for a few days now and we're drinking them in before they head up to Washington State to live there for a while. We miss having these guys as our neighbors and we're glad they won't be going quite as far as New Zealand for the next phase of their adventures!

The Narrows

I've always wanted to do the Narrows in Zion National Park and I finally got my wish. Saturday before last, we decided spur-of-the-moment to to head up to Zion after Isaac's soccer game. We did one of our favorite easy hikes at the Temple of Shinawava and when we got to the end of the paved trail on a hot hot day, that cool cool water of the Virgin River looked very enticing and we decided to head on up the river and into the Narrows.

Everyone happened to be wearing old-ish shoes that could get wet and and ruined if need be and we were all up for an adventure. I read on a website that the Narrows hike is like walking on slimy bowling balls - and that proved to be a pretty accurate description. But once we found some cast-off walking sticks and got used to the challenging footing, we all did pretty well. The kids were pretty excited about the novelty of hiking in water (at least until their teeth were chattering uncontrollably - that's some COLD water) and we all loved the unique beauty of the river-carved and beautifully-colored walls of rock that surrounded us. Mostly the water was only up to our knees but there was one spot where it got up to my waist and the twins got to do a little swimming.

See Silas swimming?

Superboy!

Liza's one tough little hiker - didn't complain once, even when she
almost got swept away when she tried to cross at a deep, fast part of the river.

See how narrow it gets? Nothing like those beautiful red walls stretching up
and making the sky small up above! See Oliver and Liza getting a cold at this point?
Nothing a few jumping jacks can't fix - Jared had them doing aerobics
to warm them up and they got lots of encouraging comments from hikers passing by.
It's so cool to look up and see those rocks almost coming together

What a fun day!

Wow, that's a gorgeous place! We only went a couple miles up into the Narrows so we'll have to do the whole 16 miles one of these days. But not for a while. Oliver told me about 20 times during the last shivering part of the hike, "next time, wets stay on the path and not walk in this cold water anymore, ok?" All the kids are such good hikers and it's so fun to have them all big enough that we can enjoy some great adventures with them!

As we were leaving the park after our hike, the lighting was gorgeous - everything really came to life and took on extra beauty in that evening light. Here's my favorite shot at the end of the day:

NYC for Tal and Anita's Wedding

What a trip we had! My brother Tal married the fabulous Anita this last Tuesday in the Manhattan Temple in New York City (the place where they met and where so many of their friends are - plus it was the half-way point between SLC where my parents are and Switzerland where Anita's family lives).

The travel distance and nature of the wedding festivities led to everyone leaving their kids at home and we could all barely contain our excitement at being able to enjoy an adults-only weekend of fun in the Big Apple - a city we all love dearly (many of us have lived there - starting with my dad who served his mission there - and all of us have spent significant time there over the years).

Here are the highlights of the trip:

• We wandered through endlessly interesting (and wonderfully distinct) neighborhoods where the architecture and people-watching and street entertainment was better than what you get at most fine museums and shows.
• We ate fabulous food in picturesque spots - from beautiful fancy restaurants to lip-smacking bagel or falafel joints.
• We rode subways and buses and walked and walked and walked - always so much to see and experience even when in transit.
• We saw what is now one of my all-time favorite Broadway shows - In the Heights - and enjoyed the excitement of Times Square at midnight.
• We went running in Central Park
• We checked out some of my favorite art at the Met.
• Jared, Saydi's husband Jeff and my brother Jonah "geeked out" over all the cool airplanes and equipment on an old aircraft carrier made into a museum - the USS Intrepid.
• We had a fancy brunch with Jared's sister Michelle who was in town with some friends and got to meet up with one of Jared's best friends from his MIT fraternity and his family.
• We celebrated with just Anita's family the night before the wedding - lovely dinner in a garden near the place Tal's been living for the last while - really enjoyed getting to know her wonderful parents and siblings.
• We talked and laughed together until late at night at the great accommodations my brother Noah and his wife Kristi (who live in the city) set up for us (a whole brownstone belonging to some of their friends who were out of town).

My photographer siblings have way more - and way better - photos than I do - but here are some of the highlights of our wanderings around NYC from my little point-and-shoot:

After seeing "In the Heights"

Times Square - all four sisters reunited!

It's been so long since we've all been here together.

Jackson Pollock at the Met - had to take this for the kids -

we studied his work in our little art class
The roof of the Metropolitan Museum of Art - cool organic sculpture, city skyline, and Saydi

Washington Square in Greenwich Village - art, music, great food, interesting people all around
on the USS Intrepid

taking the bus to the wedding

By far the biggest and best part of the trip was Tal and Anita's wedding day (which was also me and Jared's 11th wedding anniversary). We enjoyed a truly perfect wedding day with Tal and Anita complete with the sweet solemnity of their temple ceremony, photos in Central Park with ideal weather and lovely backdrops, and a classy ring ceremony and reception. Anita looked truly gorgeous in a wedding gown that seemed to be made for her and with Tal's height (and good looks) and Anita's beauty along with an enterage of photographers (I've got a lot of siblings whose "third arm" is their fancy big black camera), we ended up with a lot of tourists wondering out loud who this famous couple was.

At this lovely restaurant in Brooklyn, Tal and Anita treated us to a beautiful evening including a great mixture of scripture readings, music, poetry, amazing food, laughs over photos of them growing up, and heart-felt toasts from such a diversity of friends and relatives. It was wonderful to be with loved ones and to get to know Anita better through her wonderful family and her devoted friends. I'm so grateful to have Anita as a new sister!

How many wedding photos at the temple have taxis and buses in them? Truly unique.

Walking from the Temple to Central Park
All the Eyres - even without all the grandkids, we're still a pretty big group!

If you want to see some of the great photos caught by some of the more professional photographers at the wedding, here are Eva's photos (Eva's our Bulgarian "sister" - I just had to bring her back from my mission with me - and an amazing photographer). I'll link to Shawni, Saydi and Josh's stuff when they post theirs. With 4 professional photographers who know and love them, I think Tal and Anita will have the most beautifully documented wedding ever!

It was so nice to have such a beautiful anniversary day all planned out for us so we could just go along and enjoy. We got to relive our own wedding through Tal and Anita's. Here we are, enjoying their day while remembering our own 11 years ago:

Lest this post come off as entirely and unrealistically exuberant, I do have to say that we had some serious logistical issues that caused more stress than we care to dwell on - messed up flights causing waiting time when we could least afford it, a cab driver who mysteriously couldn't find the airport until we found directions for him, a wonderful babysitter whose sister is dying of cancer and took a turn for the worse while we were gone causing a little scrambling for babysitting to cover the end of the trip, so many things turning out to be so expensive, the usual issues in trying to coordinate schedules with 20 other people who you really want to be with but who have a variety of different things they really want to do...But it really was a wonderful trip and I wish I could go back and do it all over again!

One Last Day at Bear Lake

Jonah and Aja's daughter Ana got baptized right on her birthday (August 29th) in Bear Lake and while that 7-hour drive was daunting, we just had to be there to enjoy this wonderful event and and say goodbye to Bear Lake for the year. There's nothing like a baptism in the lake - the calm beauty of the early morning lake colors, the Spirit that comes of being right in nature. We were so glad we made the trip.


Wrapped in the "comforter" that Ana's grandma gave her to help her understand the Holy Ghost

Here's our last Bear Lake sunset for the year

A big bonus of the trip was spending Sunday afternoon with some dear friends from Boston and enjoying great connections between adults and kids alike. The Ransoms and Topphams are such wonderful people and there's nothing like finding whole families of people that "click" so nicely with our whole family. We'll plan another get-together soon. Who would have ever guessed all those years ago in Boston when we knew these people as single people, then as young married couples, that we'd all somehow converge in Alpine Utah some day with 14 kids between us!

My New Haircut

So I got my hair cut - a lot - I had the hairdresser chop off maybe 8 inches or more and I sat there in that chair surrounded by hair and felt very pleased about the whole thing. Then I went and picked up the twins at preschool and was excited to see their reaction. They didn't notice - not right at first - and not ever! Even after I said "Hey guys, do you notice anything different about me?" and pointed at my hair, they just looked at me with puzzled expressions on their faces. Oh well! The big kids all noticed right when they walked in the door after school and Eliza was pleased as punch that she and I now have the same length of hair so we took this picture together (I need to take another one with her because I've mostly been styling it curly and Eliza thinks we're "totally twins" when my hair's curly now).

It has been heavenly to be able to take short showers and only have to spend about 30 seconds brushing out my hair after a shower. It has been so nice to run a little curling potion (or whatever this stuff is called) through my hair and let it dry and have it dry pretty nice most of the time. Why didn't I do this years ago?