Spiderman Spiritual Experience

So Oliver and Silas have had their little hearts set on being Spiderman and Superman for Halloween. I found costumes for them and they were SO excited. But then the first time Oliver put on his Spiderman costume, we found a couple holes in it plus it was a little too small so I took it back. Then, at this late date, surprise, surprise, I couldn't find another Spiderman costume and Oliver was pretty stressed out about it - in his persistent but very sweet way, he kept asking when we were going to find "my Spiderman." I knew I needed a costume by Thursday for the preschool Halloween party so I had a couple days. But when I woke up yesterday, I remembered about the Joy School Halloween party that day and felt pretty bad that I didn't have a costume for him yet. We said our morning prayers and asked Heavenly Father to help us find Oliver a Spiderman costume.

I dropped the carpool off at school and took the twins to a couple stores nearby in hopes that somehow I'd find a costume that Oliver would feel OK about in the 1/2 hour we had before Joy School started. As soon as I got inside the door of the first store, I ran into my friend Michelle and shared my plight with her when she asked what I was up to. She said she had a Spiderman costume that would probably fit Oliver and we headed over to her house to pick it up - easy as pie. Oliver was SO excited about it! When I got in the car with the costume, I said, "Oliver, remember when you were so worried about finding a costume and we said that prayer this morning to get some help finding it? Well, I think our prayer worked!" In his earnest little way, Oliver immediately said, "We better tell Heavenly Father thank you!" And we did.

What a great little testimony builder for my little three-year-olds - and for me! God is in the details. He cares about everything - even about a little boy who desperately wants to be Spiderman for Halloween!

Camping for UEA Weekend

We haven't camped in ages and the kids have been begging to go for quite some time. The twins are finally old enough to make the idea of camping with them fairly pleasant. So it was time.

We had a couple days off school for UEA last week and teamed up with another family for a fun little campout. We found this great little campground nearby - and despite the rather cold and somewhat sleepless night you pretty much need to count on with camping, we really had fun. All the kids are old enough to wander and explore a bit on their own and they LOVED climbing all over the sandstone rocks and hills right by our campsite. We hiked the gorgeous slot canyon there (it's the "dragon hike" we've been on before), hiked up to some Anasazi ruins, enjoyed a hot dog and marshmallow roast and a delicious breakfast and courtesy of our friends - and everyone got thoroughly dirty while having a wonderful time.

The boys in the light of the campfire -

our camp was right at the base of these great climbing rocks.

All the kids on the "dragon" -

weird and wonderful gnarled tree at the entrance to a gorgeous slot canyon

Here are a few of my highlights:

• seeing the kids totally entertained with nothing but rocks and sticks - watching them come up with all sorts of imaginative ideas as they explored the many little caves honeycombing the sandstone, checked out the Anasazi ruins, played in the trees and climbed up on top of a mountain of huge sandstone rocks
  
• everyone's faces in the soft light of the campfire light
• crisp cold morning air
• the looks of delight on the twins' faces as they got into the tent for the first time
• watching the kids have so much fun with their friends and while Jared and I enjoyed time with their parents
• seeing the huge yellowy moon come up over the mountain
• enjoying the vast blue sky against some spectacular red-rock scenery

Discussing strategy as they pretended to be Anasazi Indians -

this is an Anasazi grain silo built in around 600 AD.

OK, how beautiful is this place? I love that I live in the midst of this.

The gorgeous slot canyon where we went for a hike

We've got all our camping stuff organized now - so we'll have to go again soon. It's a lot of work to put things together and deal with all the dirt and discomfort involved, but I have to say the priceless memories are sure worth it!

Second Honeymoon in Playa del Carmen

What a trip we had! I spent way too much time researching and planning (Jared was in charge of the anniversary itself and I was in charge of this trip - and after he did such a great job with our anniversary I really wanted to do my part to make this trip great! And with all the great information available on the internet, it's hard to know when to say when) but everything turned out really wonderfully - all my research and hopes led to experiences better than I even imagined and we had lots of great serendipity and bonus discoveries along the way. We enjoyed beautiful scenery, ate really amazing and authentic but way cheap food, explored exciting new places, and had some great adventures. I'll let pictures do most of the talking here, but some favorite parts were:

• BEING TOGETHER: enjoying just hanging out together and experiencing new things together with no worries about kids or work or schedules - it was just so fun to try so many new things and discover fun stuff together and just relax with each other. Jared is one fabulous traveling companion - always up for everything, always excited about everything, always interested and observant, always helpful and accommodating. Wow, I married me a great guy!
• FOOD: ordering random stuff off menus we totally didn't understand in places stuffed with Mexicans and just us two "gringos" - turned out to be some of the best food ever - amazing tacos, perfectly spiced beef, wonderful salsas, amazing fresh fish prepared perfectly...mmmm...my mouth's watering remembering it all.
• MUSIC: hearing music everywhere we went - great live music on the streets, mariachi bands playing in every restaurant we passed, fun, upbeat, happy music pouring out of every home and shop and car.
• GOING CHEAP AND NATIVE: riding on a "collectivo" van out of Playa and heading for what we hoped was Akumel Bay where we'd heard there's great snorkeling (hard to tell if the driver really understood us at all...) - so fun to bump along the road in this van with a bunch of Mexicans headed to the different little towns on the highway, mariachi music blaring, wondering where we might actually end up. We did end up exactly where we wanted to be and it worked out perfectly.
• SNORKELING: spending a whole afternoon snorkeling in Akumel where we found gorgeous reef fish, so many beautiful sea turtles and a sting ray. Wow - God must have had fun creating so many wild and wonderful sea creatures and sea plants! We chased down a few turtles and Jared tried grabbing onto one for a ride but that turtle gave Jared a backwards glance that told him on no uncertain terms to back off. It was seriously like swimming in an aquarium full of tropical fish - we were right in there with them, watching them dart around in and out of the coral, floating over the reefs and getting that "Superman" feeling of soaring above it all. We really had a remarkable afternoon and were out there snorkeling for 3 hours. It poured with rain for a little while and that seemed to make all the fish congregate in the hollows of the reefs and we could see them all the better. It was so beautiful and interesting and just plain fun!

• OCEAN: Hearing the ocean, seeing the ocean, walking in that perfect white talcum powder sand, swimming in the ocean and feeling that rocking of the waves, seeing the many colors of the beautiful Caribbean.

Look at that white super-soft talcum-powder sand and beautiful water!

• JUNGLE AND RUINS: spending a day exploring the ancient jungle of the Mayans - visiting a Mayan home complete with monkeys and pigs all about, seeing crocodiles, walking through a monkey reserve and seeing amazing butterflys and monkeys and beautiful lush moss and ferns and plants and feeling the coolness in the dark of the jungle floor on a hot hot day, taking a fun zip line ride through the jungle and over a lake, rappeling down into a mysterious and beauifully cool and clear underground pond (a cenote) after exeperiencing a Mayan cenote ceremony, exploring the still-jungle-covered ruins of Coba and climbing to the top of one of the tallest Mayan pyramids in the world.

Here we are getting ready to do a zip line through the jungle and over a lagoon -
those sticks in our hands were the "brakes" they gave us -
you hold the stick against the cable and it slows you right down.

We got to rappel down into a cenote
(beautiful, mysterious, crystal clear underground lake) - what a fun adventure!

This is the tallest pyramid at Coba (and one of the tallest in the world) and
we got to climb to the top. Coba's so beautiful and really sparks the imagination
with so many ruins still partially covered with jungle -
makes you feel like you're in an Indiana Jones movie or something like that.

View over the jungle from the top of the Coba pyramid -
mounds of covered ruins all around and a few other pyramid tops sticking up.
Coba was the government center for the Mayans and it covers about 35 square miles.

We visited a Mayan home and met a cute family and their pet monkey -
so interesting to see people living in much the same way as they did 1000 years ago.
Inside a Mayan home with our new monkey friend in the rafters - see the blackened ceiling? They were cooking tortillas over an open fire in this little one-roomed house.

• GREAT HOTELS: We stayed at a great, cheap little place smack dab in the center of Playa del Carmen for the first three nights - Hotel Cielo. The guys who run it gave us wonderful recommendations of excellent and cheap places to eat and things to do. The bed wasn't exactly comfortable and the air conditioner was pretty darn loud - but the great people and location and ambiance made it totally worthwhile.

In our room at Hotel Cielo - loved the terra cotta tiles, beautiful wood work,

nice veranda, lovely handcarved one-of-a-kind furnishings.

View from the veranda at Hotel Cielo - fun to see all the vendors set up and tear down each day, great to hear the mariachi bands, fun to be right in the heart of it all.

View from the beautiful roof terrace of Hotel Cielo.
Sat up there on Sunday evening and listened to converence - such a perfect evening.

We stayed at the Magic Blue Hotel for our last night - decided to upgrade a bit for our last night and enjoyed a beautiful room with canopy bed and cool combination of thatched roof and very modern furnishings. The management sent up free tropical drinks and chocolate covered strawberries when they heard we were celebrating our anniversary - very nice!

Outside our room at the Magic Blue - beautiful pool, great balconies for every room -
and wow, just look at that handsome guy!

All in all, it was a wonderful wonderful trip. We had our overly hot and sweaty times, a little more rain than we'd hoped for, some sleep-deprivation, our share of confusion over directions and communication in Spanish - but everything worked out remarkably well and what great adventures we had! I'm more in love with my husband than ever and so grateful for this amazingly diverse and beautiful world we live in.

The Good Stuff

I find that my typical day as a mother is chock full of stuff that's just not that fun - cleaning up the same mess yet again or hearing the twins fighting in the next room yet again or getting the big kids to do their homework in the midst of whining and complaining or trying to figure out what in the world to make for dinner with the 10 minutes I have left before we have to run off to the next thing. But when I look for them, I find that my life is also chock full of really beautiful little moments. Sometimes I really have to search out the good stuff and find in wedged in somewhat precariously between a lot of stuff that's not so good - the sweet hug from Isaac while I'm frantically trying to get everyone in the car, the funny comment from one of the twins in the midst of a wild family dinner, the cute drawing from Eliza on my pillow as I head to bed after a long day. Sometimes the good stuff doesn't get fully appreciated or noticed in the midst of the hard things that keep getting thrown my way. But other times, like this morning, the good stuff comes out in abundance with no bad stuff mixed in and it's like a big shot in the arm to see me through the hard stuff that's bound to show up before long.

This morning I woke up to the sound of some quiet chinking of dishes in the kitchen, wondered what that might be briefly, saw that the red hills were all lit up beautifully, smiled and fell back asleep, curled up next to my wonderful husband who for once hadn't gotten up before me. I do love waking up next to him when it works out! Then a bit later, just as we both started waking up and realized it was past time to get up, the door to our room was flung open and there were three beaming kids holding a tray full of food for us. They'd decided to make us breakfast in bed - just because they love us. What beautiful, thoughtful kids we've got! They proudly presented us with a tray with two bowls of oatmeal (somewhat plain, dry and cold, but full of love), two pieces of toast laid out nicely with two knives and a fancy little bowl of jam and some butter as well as two glasses of milk - they thought of everything! Jared and I sat back and enjoyed some breakfast together (something we never get to do - it's usually just us getting food down the kids and maybe grabbing something for ourselves as we head out the door) while the big kids fed the twins and got ready for school. We've arrived! This is the life!

And now I'm sitting here typing in total peace after vacuuming and cleaning up the breakfast mess in total peace. The twins are at preschool and the big kids are in school and I was supposed to go visiting teaching but that fell through and I find I have this "gift" of a couple hours to get things done and be on my own and I'm savoring it and feeling so blessed.

Later on today, when the craze of homework and dinner is upon me, I'm going to remember this morning and find this happy peaceful place inside me that I'm experiencing right now and it's going to be a good day and stay a good day. I'm going to find and cherish the good little moments in the midst of the hard stuff more often and carve out time to really enjoy them and celebrate them. And I'm not going to let the hard stuff get to me so much. The hard stuff is usually just a little minute and in the grand scheme of things, it really doesn't matter much or stack up to being that important. But the good stuff - it may be short and sweet, it may be few and far between sometimes - but it matters. It matters big time.

Our Tenth Anniversary

10 years. Wow.

It was Jared's turn to plan our anniversary this year. Lucky him that he got the big one! I offered some none-too-suble hints that I'd sure love something really romantic and creative and sentimental (three things that are not his strong suits) if he could possibly manage it and wow, he sure delivered!

I really didn't know what to expect - Jared kept it all a surprise. We went up to SLC so my sweet parents could watch the kids and also because, as it turned out, SLC figured pretty heavily into Jared's plans.

The night before our actual anniversary (Sept 8th), I made Eliza's wish come true and put on my wedding dress for her and the rest of the kids. She has this bridesmaid's dress I found for her at at thrift shop and after seeing pictures of my wedding as we led up to the anniversary, she begged for us to both put on our "wedding dresses" together. So why not? It was so much fun to dress up with my little girl and she was so very excited about my big fancy dress. I couldn't exactly breathe in my dress - but thanks to the "corset" style top of the dress and Jared's help getting the laces done up the back, everything got squished in somehow and it actually sort of fit!
As Eliza and I came down the stairs in our dresses it was fun to have all the boys perk up and get into the whole thing as well. We decided to take some photos and Jared turned on some great old music like the kind we danced to at our reception so we could have a little family dance. It was so fun to share a little piece of our wedding with the kids in a more interactive way than just looking at pictures.

The next morning, our actual anniversary, we started off with a hike. Jared did a bunch of research (thanks to Google Earth) and found the exact spot where he proposed over 10 years ago. We were in such a quandry over where to go with our relationship and had just pulled off the road up Emigration Canyon near my parent's house and started hiking up a random trail. Then, after kneeling to get some help from the Lord, Jared looked up at me and shocked us both by saying, "I want to marry you!" - and quite suddenly, we were engaged! Neither of us could remember where we'd been since our minds really weren't on our location at the time. But Jared found the spot and it really is a beautiful spot and was so fun to be there again together. We knelt and offered up a prayer to thank the Lord for 10 great years and pray for guidance and support as we move forward. To top it all off, Jared somehow still had the t-shirt he was wearing the day we got engaged and he put that on for the hike. Talk about sentimental. Then we went to lunch up at the top of the Joseph Smith Building - where we had our wedding luncheon back on our wedding day. We wandered around the temple grounds and remembered all the spots where we'd taken pictures and how new and exciting everything was that day. Next, Jared helped me put on my wedding dress again for a horse-drawn carriage ride around SLC. It was so fun! Jared knew I always wished we'd left our reception in a carriage so he made it happen 10 years later! We had lots of people honking and waving and clapping and calling out "congratulations!" and I loved sitting there by my sweetheart, feeling like a bride all over again but loving the "groom" so much more deeply that I did 10 years ago.
We checked into the gorgeous Grand America Hotel and had a wonderful dinner together and Jared presented me with a really beautiful new setting for my diamond - he did such a great job picking out something I so thoroughly liked. Then we capped everything off the next morning by doing some sealings at the Salt Lake Temple and "renewing our vows" while helping those who've gone before become sealed to each other. That was one of my very favorite parts.
Here I am in our suite at Grand America. Hint: if you want a great free upgrade at a hotel, check in in your wedding dress!

What a wonderful anniversary! Jared outdid himself and I'm on cloud nine. Who would have guessed this guy could be such a romantic? I knew he had it in him - somewhere deep inside!

What a beautiful, challenging, exciting, stressful, wondeful, stretching, and enriching ten years we've shared. Wow, there have been hard times. And wow, there have been great times. And wow, there have been a lot of times where we just had to put our heads down and plow on through. Together we've made 5 children, 4 homes, several businesses, many friends and countless wonderful memories. I'm so grateful to be married to such a selfless, smart, kind, adventurous, supportive, worthy, patient, generous man. I'm so excited for all that we'll do together and become together in the years ahead!

New Pets!

OK, it's been a while and I'm anxious to do a post on the wonderful anniversary we had last week. But since the kids are dying to share information and photos of their beloved new pets, I thought I'd better start with this. A couple weeks ago now, Isaac spotted a large snake (turned out to be a gopher snake we think) in the street and Jared, Ashton and Isaac caught the thing (it wasn't easy - that snake wrapped itself around the trunk of a bush and held on really tight!). So now we've got a beautiful 4 ft long snake named Firehead who's become a beloved member of the family. He's (or she?) is very entertaining and calm and interesting and loves to ride around like a scarf on anyone who's willing to let him. So far Firehead has entertained us by shedding his skin and eating a live mouse. And last week he thoroughly delighted the kids in Ashton's class during show and tell (other than the one girl who had to go in the other room because she's mortified of snakes).
Then the next week, we went on a hike in Zion and found another new pet - a horny toad named Spike. Everyone's quite attached to him too and I have to say he's pretty cute in his funny-looking spikey way.
Reptiles are great. They are clean and almost never need their cage cleaned out. They only eat once a week or so. They make no noise. They're very interesting. They don't bite. They don't smell. If you feel you've had enough of them, you can set them free to "go back to their families who surely miss them." And so far they don't escape - keeping my fingers crossed on that one!

Remembering and Recording

These kids are growing up so fast and life gets so busy and I feel like I plow right past great moments and funny, cute things kids say or do way too often in the midst of carpooling and getting dinner and getting kids to bed. So I'm trying to capture more of the great stuff the kids come up with - anyone got great ideas for doing this? My mind gets so cluttered up with logistics and worries and the basic processes of doing the daily stuff that I find I can remember that someone did or said something really funny that day - but I can't remember the specifics. I can't record it when it happens that often - but I guess I could try harder to do that when possible... Anyway, as an attempt to do better with this capturing of moments, here are a few things I remember from this last week:

• Silas was looking for Ashton the other day, walking around the house calling "Ashton! Ashton!" When that didn't work, he tried "Ashton! Ashton Idaho!" Ashton thought that was hilarious and so did I. Guess he's heard us talking about Ashton, ID quite a bit this summer.
  
• On the way back from the pool the other day, Oliver said "Mommy, what's going on with you? Why did you weave Ashton and Isaac?" So funny when the twins pick up on these little ways of saying different things. I explained that the boys were riding their bikes back from the pool and Ollie was much relieved. He's always concerned about anyone getting left anywhere - he's quite alarmed when I leave Jared at church for a meeting or if Jared leaves me at church for the same reason. And he's very concerned about being left when we go somewhere. He's inevitably the last kid in the house getting his shoes on and he always calls out to me quite urgently, "Mommy, don't weave me!" I assure him I'd never leave him and he hurries as fast as he can. I don't think I've ever accidentally left him - or anyone else for that matter - not sure why he's so worried about it!
• After capping off a big day of hiking with the Greenshow in Cedar City, we ate a late dinner at Bajio. As we were finishing up our food, Liza looked out the window and was surprised by how dark it was. "Wow, Mommy, it's dark now and when we came in here, it was pitch light!"
• Ashton tells me a dumb joke every chance he gets. His current favorite: "What's the coldest animal? Mice - because if you take off the M they're ice." Great one, huh?
  
• I had an amazing moment with Isaac the other night. After having him read me a few pages in his reading book as usual, he actually BEGGED to read another page - then another - then another. Something somehow has clicked with this boy and he's really taken off on reading!
• Jared got called to be Ashton's Cub Scout Den Leader and I loved seeing the cute smile on Ashton's face when he found out.
• Isaac totally notices nature - he's always pointing out something really cool that I wouldn't have noticed without his help - different shapes of leaves, beautiful flowers (he always picks me one to put behind my ear - what a sweetheart!). And he's SO into babies - human babies, baby animals, baby lizards (he caught one the other day and is so into it), baby mice (we saw one on our hike the other day and Isaac kept raving about how cute it was). He's got a serious following of babies at church who get so excited to see him since he always notices them and is so sweet to them. Elsie freaks out with glee whenever she sees him and runs up and jumps into his arms.
  
• Ollie and Si always have so much to tell me about preschool each time. It's so fun to hear the details they choose to share. They're always telling me what their teacher Ms Bowen said and singing me the song they sang and telling me the story they read - and correcting each other when someone gets anything wrong.
  
• We've been learning the first verse of a hymn that goes with our FHE lesson for the week - and with something the kids need to work on. If they can pass off the hymn perfectly at the end of the week, they get a point. Ana and Olivia have been learning the songs too since we sing them as I drive the carpool to school most mornings! It's been a fun way to start and end our days with uplifting songs and the kids are learning a bit about music and the gospel. Anyway, last week's song was "Put your Shoulder to the Wheel" (we had some serious shirkers around here so we really needed that one - and they really got into singing it while doing their jobs) and when Isaac was passing it off, he had us all laughing pretty hard when he sang "Put your elbow to the wheel" instead of shoulder - Ashton did a great rendition of what it would look like to try to push something along with your elbow and everyone was laughing. Then when Eliza was passing it off, she sang "we all have work, let no one jerk" (instead of shirk) and that set everyone off trying to push something along with their elbows while jerking around. Then Ashton sang his version with "we all have work, don't be a jerk, put your shoulder to the wheel." It's so fun to see what is so darn funny to these kids.
• Current conversation between Ollie and Si (writting this as it's happening). Ollie's sitting at the kids' computer and Si comes in. Si: Honey, it's time for you to go - the clock says. it's time for you to go with me and do a trick because it's a rainy day and then I'll feel better, OK? Get your hat on, OK? Ollie: OK, I'll get my sheriff hat on and go riding horses (puts on his cowboy hat and vest). Now look on the map - it says go on this left and go on the other sign then turn around and then we gonna go to that one - let's go, brudder (brother). Si: Now I want to go to number five da, da, da, da, tada! It's time for me to weave. Now lets go this way to da da da! Ollie: No, let's go this way - I can't belive it's right here! Si: Yeah! And I'm the king now! Ollie: Oh, yeah. Si: Now brudder, don't go. Brodder, I need the map! I'm right here and I need you! Ollie: meow! meow! I'm a kitty and I'm a dead kitty - you be the daddy to wake me up, OK? Si: You're just sleeping meow meow. I'll wake you up. Think the twins are ready to write their first screenplay? The transitions are a little jerky but there's some good raw stuff in there, huh?
  

That's all that comes to mind right now. Maybe isn't as funny or meaningful in the telling as it was in the experiencing - but hey, I've got to capture what I can - and I'll get better at remembering the best stuff.

Holly's Visit and Zion Park

Last weekend my dear friend from Wellesley, Holly Hamilton Bleakley, was here with her husband and 5 kids. They live in England (Tim's in the Royal Air Force - he's British - and Holly's still doing some research at Cambridge University where she did her PhD) so I haven't seen them since right after their 3rd child was born and Jared and I were in England for a visit. So we had a lot to catch up on! We spent a fun day in Zion enjoying the scenery and spashing around in the river and then had a nice evening down at the pool. I loved talking with Holly and remembering all the great times we've had together over the years. I wish we'd had even more time - her perspective on things is always so interesting to me and I never tire of talking with her. The kids all really enjoyed each other. It's so fun to get to know good friends' children and such a nice bonus when they get along well with our children. It's so interesting to see a friend's different traits reflected in their children - in how they look, how they act. Holly and Tim have some great kids and my kids were SO sad that they couldn't stay longer. Our kids can now speak with British accents quite authentically when they feel like it (which was quite a bit this last week). I have to say, there's nothing as cute as a child talking with a British accent.
The second week of school went well for the most part - only one call from Ashton's teacher and one from Isaac's! What's up with the boys this year and their behavior!? Isaac apparently thought the bell rang at the end of this assembly they were having and decided to grab his backpack and go out to wait for the carpool - meanwhile his teacher was paging him and totally worried about him. They finally found him out front - he didn't seem to notice that no one else was out there so school quite obviously hadn't let out yet! Odd - but hopefully not something that would ever happen again! Then Ashton's teacher called to say that after being Mr. Smart Awesome Kid the first week, he had a really bad day and wouldn't do the writing assigment he was supposed to do and was complaining that he couldn't hear anything she was telling him to do. He doesn't love writing - but he's never openly defied a teacher or come up with an odd excuse like not being able to hear. His teacher called because she naturally wanted to know if he did indeed have hearing problems. Luckily that excuse was promptly blown out of the water by the fact that there happened to be hearing tests the next day at school and Ashton's ears are functioning just great. So I had some serious talks with the boys and the last few days of the week went great. Random stuff - but all's well that ends well.

Eliza LOVES school and is full of information about what she did after school each day. I volunteered in her class on Thursday and she was so cute and eager and it was fun to see her making new friends and happily doing all her assignments. The twins LOVE preschool and are so excited to present me with a little green strip of paper when I pick them up each time - the green paper means they had no behavior problems that day.

We've got parent teacher conferences this week so it will be good to get to know all the kids' teachers a bit better and learn more about the curriculum for the year. I got Isaac some new reading workbooks and that seems to be helping a lot plus he's reading a fun mystery book at his level called "Nate the Great" and for the first time in his life, he's pretty excited about reading something so he can see what happens next.

We started Joy School last week with the twins and I think we've got a great group - great moms, very cute kids, 3 boys and 2 girls. We're just doing it on Wednesdays so it's nice and easy. So the twins have something to look forward to three mornings a week which is great. I'm trying to get a pool day/park day set up as well for all the nursery kids in the ward and their moms as well - we all do better around here when we get out and about most every day.

The First Day of School

Last Tuesday we dropped off all five kids at school. WOW! ALL FIVE! They were all so cute and excited. Ashton, Isaac and Eliza are all at Dixie Downs Elementary where they are part of a dual immersion Spanish/English program and Oliver and Silas are at "Busy Bees Preschool" - this cute 2-morning-a-week preschool I found right near the big kids' school. After getting the kids happily settled in their classes, I walked out of there feeling like a new woman. For the first time in 8 1/2 years I'm going to have two mornings a week with no little kids! I'm so excited to go the grocery store and run errands one morning all by myself and spend the other morning volunteering in the kids' classrooms at the school without having to beg any babysitting favors. Life is good!

That first day of school totally wore me out, though. Here's how it went:

• 6:30 - got up and worked out, showered and got ready (my new resolution is to work out in the mornings - I've tried to make it work to exercise at other times of day but I've finally come to term with getting up early and getting ready for the day early and getting it done - this is a BIG thing for me to actually do it and so far so good!)
• 7:45 - scriptures (Jared reads to big kids while I keep the twins quiet with eating their breakfast nearby so I can hear too)
• 8:00 - breakfast and making sack lunches for school kids, dishes, getting hair done, etc.
  
• 8:40 - leave for school
• 8:50 - drop off big kids
• 9:00 - drop off twins
• 9:15 - back to the school to talk with teachers and principal and make a banner for Back to School Night
• 10:30 - help train parents to help with kindergarten recess
• 11:00 - dash to grocery store for a couple necessities
• 11:30 - pick up twins from preschool
• 11:40 - help Eliza's teacher line up kids' in alphabetic order for lunch and help the kids learn the lunch routine (while trying to keep Ollie and Si from disturbing things too much), walk kids' to lunch room, help make sure all kids eat something somewhat healthy before excusing them to go to play (while trying to keep Ollie and Si sitting at the table eating the lunch I brought for them - they loved it!)
• 12:15 - try to get the kindergarten scragglers to finish their lunch (some of them are SLOW and it's hard to get them to eat ANYTHING!)
• 12:30 - supervise lunch recess (and try to keep Ollie and Si in sight and out of trouble), help a few crying kids who missed their moms, help solve the problem of a huge pack of kids all trying to get on the slide at the same time and find that Ollie and Si are helping cause the bottleneck
• 12:50 - run to the UPS store to drop things off
• 1:15 - pick up Eliza (kindergarten gets out early for the first couple weeks then she'll get out with the big kids)
  
• 1:30 - go visit Jared at work so the twins and Liza can tell him all about their exciting first days, find out about a dance class for Liza from one of Jared's co-workers who teaches it
  
• 2:30 - go to the auto parts store to find some stuff to glue the weather strip around the windshield back in (it's been flapping around forever), get the filthy car washed
• 3:30 - pick up the big kids at school, get them snacks, hear all about their days
• 4:30 - take Eliza to dance class, bring Ollie who won't let go of my leg, leave Ashton and Isaac with Si, get there and find out that the tap class just filled up, try to figure out another class (since Liza's been begging to do tap ever since I took her to a friend's recital last May), find a jazz class that's not full, sneak into the tap class to get Liza out for jazz, find out that the teacher thinks she can squeeze her into the tap class, have Eliza melt down because she doesn't have tap shoes like everyone else (I didn't want to buy them until I knew whether she was even taking tap!), have a nice lady offer her daughter's old tap shoes, go out in the parking lot where it's 110 degrees and try on tap shoes that don't end up fitting while Liza cries for no apparent reason and I try to be extra nice to the nice lady to make up for Liza - the shoes don't fit and Liza's even more sad. "I thought dance was going to be SO special and now I don't even have any shoes!!!" Have a big talk on the way home about being a lot more grateful and listening to what I explain and being more patient...
• 6:00 - get home, make special first day of school dinner, get a phone call from Isaac's teacher saying he almost broke something in the classroom that day after she'd asked him not to touch it several times - Isaac can't leave things alone sometimes! The teacher also told me that Isaac had worked hard and done a lot of great stuff that day and it was good to establish a relationship with her and have a good talk with Isaac - he was really sorry and has been great ever since - just first day jitters mostly, I hope.
  
• get a bunch of tired, tired kids in bed and then fall into bed myself!
  

The first day of school takes a lot out of everyone! But it was a great day and things are settling into a nice routine and all the little bugs are getting worked out and I love being involved in the kids' school and seeing them in action there and knowing their teachers as much as possible and helping their little friends get as much out of school as possible. And being out and about with taking the kids different places helps me get more errands done since I"m already in the car. It's all good.
The twins were so totally excited to get into their new class that it was all I could do to coax a kiss and a "goodbye" out of them. They were not about to look away from their playdough for this picture. When I went to pick them up on their first day it was the cutest thing to see them running towards my car in tandem, shoulder to shoulder, yelling "Mommy!" with huge smiles on their faces and cute hats they'd made in craft time on their heads. They tried their best to tell me all about their day. I think it's going to be so great for them to have their own special thing they do independent of me or the other kids. I'm also doing a one-morning-a-week Joy School with the twins and some of their cute little friends - so that will be fun as well.

Eliza has been counting down the days until she starts school for years so she was pleased as punch to really go. Her homeroom teacher is her Spanish teacher and she was so excited that she already knew the colors in Spanish and a few other Spanish words thanks to her preschool that incorporated some Spanish. Liza's definitely getting the multicultural experience we wanted for her - I peeked into her classroom on the first day and saw that she and one other little girl are the only kids without black hair in her class - she sure stands out with that white hair! She told me her teacher speaks kind of different when she speaks in English and I told her that's because her teacher is from another country and English is not the language she grew up speaking. She asked me which country her teacher was from and I said I wasn't sure. She said "Well, I'm not sure either, but I'm pretty sure it's a country that speaks Spanish." Right on, Liza!

Isaac was so excited to see all his friends again. It was great to see other little kids light up when they saw Isaac come towards them. His teachers seem good and I think this will be a good year for him. We've been working so hard on his reading and while he still struggles, he's getting it more and more.

Ashton's teacher bonded with him right away when she heard that he's doing the rope swing at Bloomington Lake - she was just there last summer as well. Both of his teachers seem great and he's really excited the the whole 3rd grade is in the outdoor portable classrooms this year. The portables seem awfully grown up and exciting.

On another note, Ashton just saw that I was doing my blog and informed me that he's started his own blog and it's called "Ideas, ideas, ideas" - he opened up and showed it to me. He said he's probably not really going to use his blog much for a while since he needs to learn to type first. I told him that probably makes sense. Then he asked "So are Google and Yahoo close to each other - like are they friends?" I explained they sort of both go after the same customers so they're competitors. He said, "Well, I think Google will win - I saw an article about it and I like Google best." This kid is pretty technologically savvy.

Oh, we've got some great kids! This is going to be a wonderful year.

Ollie and Si at Bear Lake

We're home! Our month away was full of travel (Bear Lake, Salt Lake, Jackson Hole, Ashton, ID) and literally hundreds of people (extended family members galore - 40 plus with Jared's parents, siblings and their kids, 32 with mine not to mention dozens of our cousins and aunts and uncles and all the long-lost friends at high school reunions for both me and Jared). We really had a great time being in different places and reconnecting with so many loved ones. It's great to get away from the regular routine long enough that you really welcome it when it's time to get back into it. And it's great to be with so many other people for so long that your own family of seven hardly seems like a crowd anymore! I tell you, my five kids seem so quiet and easy after being with anywhere from 12 - 20 kids for most of the summer.

School starts next Tuesday so we've been busily getting backpacks and finding a few things to augment in the kids' hammered summer wardrobes and getting a month of dust cleaned out of the house and getting food back in the house and going through mail and returning phone calls and all that.

Anyway, here's a quick rundown of the main events and highlights of the last month - and if you want more and better pictures, click on Shawni or Saydi's blogs on the right:

• Ashton, ID for the 4th of July (the kids got to ride in the little parade and we all loved the great small-town celebration they do there - watermellon eating contest, gunny sack races, all sorts of fun stuff) and Jared's high school reunion (with a graduating class of 40 or so, it was a really nice little reunion and so fun to meet his friends). The kids loved riding on tractors and playing with cousins and it was great to be with a few of Jared's siblings and his parents for a few days.

Four-wheeler rides are always a big hit at the Farm (with cousin Mason)
Checking out Grandpa's cows with cousins
Feeding the horses with cousins
Tractor rides with Cousin Mark - always a favorite!

• SLC for my high school reunion (a much bigger event and so fun to catch up with everone - I didn't initially really want to go but a friend talked me into it and it really was good - everyone seemed so much the same in good ways and so much more mature in great ways).

With good high school friends - Jill, Toni and Laurel

• Bear Lake for a couple weeks with my sisters and their kids (while Jared braved the heat and a lot of hard work in St George). Between us we had 12 kids, most of them under 8 so it was quite a houseful! We had good friends and cousins coming in and out for overnighters here and there and loved catching up with them and having different kids added to the mix. On our "normal" days (without extra visitors) my sisters and I did reading and crafts with the kids in the mornings then had a wonderful time relaxing and talking down on the beach each afternoon while the kids played. I loved being with my dear sisters - cooking great meals together, getting reaquainted with each other's kids, talking about kids and worries and joys and so many things, enjoying the amazing colors of the lake and the spectacular sunsets... There's nothing like being with my sisters!

Favorite thing with Grandfather - riding in the tractor scoop up and down, up and down

Other favorite thing with Grandfather - horse rides

• Isaac's Birthday (july 19th) - Celebrated with almost all his Eyre cousins plus most of his Carver second cousins - cake, ice cream, lots of cute homemade cards from lots of cousins, good times riding around on the Carver's nice boat and just hanging out. Isaac's pretty easy to please!

• My family reunion at Bear Lake - Jared and I were in charge of organizing meals and doing the agenda and the annual CD of everyone's favorite songs - quite an ordeal - glad it won't be our turn again for a long, long time! Great to be together.
  
• My annual mom and sisters' get-away -we went to Jackson Hole with no kids and had a wonderful time talking and eating great food and hiking in Teton National Park! Click here for great photos and details - Shawni's entry on MFME. I need to get those photos from you, Shas!
  
• My birthday - Jared and I rode our bikes around Bear Lake - something I've always wanted to do - 52 miles of gorgeous scenery and rolling hills - really a great ride. We had a yummy lunch at the 1/2 way mark in Garden City, good talks, raspberry shakes, good times. Finished off the day with a tasty birthday dinner and a "cookie cake." Great day. Good kick-off for my resolve to really get in good shape this year!
  
• Jared's mom's family reunion in Ashton, Idaho - great to see or meet lots of Jared's cousins and aunts and uncles - good people, good times at the Loosli cabin, more jeep rides with Grandpa and great times with different cousins.

Ollie and Si having a great time at the Loosli Cabin in Ashton

We drove home all day on the 3rd of August and wow, no bed has ever felt as good as mine did that night! I was starting to feel a little crazy from sleep-deprivation by the end there thanks to all the late nights and early mornings and lots of middle-of-the-night interruptions from bugs and heat and kicking kids for bed partners and babies crying. I'm SO grateful my kids don't wake me up at night anymore and I have so much extra empathy now for my sister whose sweet little girl has serious problems with waking up and crying in the night and early in the morning. I'm also SO grateful to have kids at such great ages right now. They were all so happy at Bear Lake - just exploring and playing with cousins with very little supervision or direction or care-giving required from me. The kids would all play in the sand and wonderfully warm, clear, shallow waters for hours on end each day. There's nothing like sand and water for little kids.
I actually had a chance to read a book and a half while at Bear Lake as well as have lots of great conversations with lots of great people. This is a whole new era for me and so far, I'm liking it fine!