April 6, 2010

Tuesday, April 6 2010, was a glorious day. After months of hoping and waiting my sweetheart and I were able to be sealed for time and all eternity. It was a beautiful day and a momentous occasion.

We received the news mid March and wanted to be sealed as quickly as we could. We didn't see the point in waiting. April 6th is a significant day to us so we had to work hard to get things coordinated in a short amount of time.

It was a small party. We primarily only invited parents and a few key family members. I know that many that desire this blessing are still waiting. I feel very grateful to be sealed to the love of my life.

The Sweet Imaginations of a Child

First of all, I haven't blogged in ages. I have a good excuse... really... I could totally go into it now but I would prefer to blog about something else first. So all two of you that read my blog will have to wait until later to read all the reasons I haven't been blogging that I have already told you in person. Sounds exciting, doesn't it. Well, it's something to look forward to isn't it.

So, I took the Monday after Easter off. The family had a special event planned and we we going to have a lot of fun activities on that Monday and Tuesday. Unfortunately, Earl had to go to work for a few hours that Monday morning. Also, unfortunately, the kids had made a huge fort in the basement, stayed up way too late and then woke up way too early. Well, I was having none of this "get out of bed and get going" attitude so I intentionally lingered in bed.

It's amazing what you can overhear when you are awake, the children think you are asleep and they have been up for a few hours letting their imagination run away with them.

Here's what I overhear...

"I saw an ear and two glowing yellow eyes!"

"I know, I saw it too. There's totally a monster in the furnace room."

"I'm going in!"

"No, wait. We need to prepare. We need weapons."

This was going on and on. They were rallying the troops and doing their reconnaissance. Chloe even has a "Monster Spotters" book that talks about all the different types of monsters there are, where they live and what they look like (loch ness, big foot, etc..). They were scanning the book to find the Monster that lived in our furnace room. It was awesome. They were totally psyching each other out and keyed up like you wouldn't believe.

So, that's what I heard. The best part is what I saw when I finally emerged from my bedroom...

Parenting 101

It was time for a talk. Matt always talks about wanting to be a Kyle Korver and play in the NBA. Well, he's on Ben's team right now as a helper, learning how to run offense and defense but not getting play time. He started skipping out on practice. Earl and I thought it would be good to discuss how we have to work for the things that we want and that sometimes the pay off doesn't come until much later.

So, being the sensitive man that my husband is, he begins with something like the following. "Son, no matter what you decide to be when you grow up, I will love you. Whether you play for the NBA or you're a garbage man, I am going to be proud of you."

Well, Matthew was brought to tears. It had never occurred to him that he might possibly end up a garbage man and the thought was apparently more than he was prepared to hear at tender age of 8. Earl quickly changed the subject.

I suppose we'll have to have the "work... pay off... we get out what we put in" talk later.

Best Day Ever!

“Today was the best day ever!” or so I was told by our five-year old. It was one of those moments when a person remembers why they wanted to become a parent, on purpose, more than once. The day was fairly normal I suppose. But perhaps that is what was so wonderful about it. Normal isn’t exactly part of the routine around here. It is so nice to spend an entire day together under one roof behaving like and almost feeling like a ‘nuclear family’ or ‘non-step family’ or whatever the PC term is these days.

Our day was pretty simple really. We all drug ourselves out of bed to make it to church by 9:00. (We joke about being cursed because we have had two years in a row of 9:00 church.)

After church, Benjamin and Matthew played football. They are the only two people I have ever heard of that actually enjoy playing one on one tackle football for hours at a time. For all I know they invented the concept of one on one tackle football. They play it so often that we have designated special football clothes so there other clothing is not torn to shreds. Jacob crossed the street to entertain himself in the park, Chloe read and sought partners for Battleship.

We then had a wonderful time taking family photos. At Chloe’s insistence we even included our little ungroomed but beloved dog, Lulu, in some of the shots.

Afterward, the kids finally got to dig, carve and slice into their beloved pumpkins. They have been talking for days about how carving pumpkins is one of the grandest activities a person can participate in. As you can see the pumpkins turned out great. Ya know, we might be a step family full of various and sundry personalities and expectations but every once in a while a normal day occurs and it is correctly deemed “the best day ever!”

Temple Square on Sunday

Last Sunday, we went to temple square. Earl and I had gone during the week for our date. We saw the movie about Joseph Smith and were both moved by it. Earl really wanted to take the children. We packed some "emergency" food and loaded up the van.


We enjoy so many things at the visitors center. This time we really enjoyed the grounds. We wandered through temple square and around the front of the temple. We talked about the temple and it's importance and we told stories of some of the people that built the temple. We had a great time taking pictures too.

We ended our outing with the Joseph Smith movie. It was so inspiring to learn about the first modern day prophet. It always gives us such great things to discuss as a family afterward. Each member of the family shared their favorite part and we discussed it.



We got back late and our crock pot dinner was over cooked and not that great, but we managed to eat enough to keep us from feeling too hungry.

It was a very lovely Sabbath!

Hiking Timp... What were we thinking?

My dear sweet husband has wanted to hike Mt. Timpanogos since I've known him. Not the paved trail up to the cave... The back side of Timp. He has wanted to take the two older boys for awhile. He didn't make it up last summer and was determined to make it this summer. He invited me to go and he really wanted me to go with him so I acquiesced.

Earl was probably the most physically prepared but had not really made this a focus. I was not prepared at all. But, we gathered up our gear and headed out. We got a late start but the weather was perfect. It was July 11th and the weather was overcast with occasional sprinkles. I was grateful it wasn't full sun.

It was too early in the season for this hike. We had to traverse a lot of snow. I had some great, water proof hiking boots on but the boys were in sneakers. They were slipping and sliding all over the place.


I think I had fun the first 10 miles. We were enjoying the scenery, the fresh air and the small wild life. We met other hikers, scout groups and runners and it was fun.


When we got closer to the saddle, the snow was really bad. The trail literally disappeared under the snow pack. It was very physically grueling to ascend this particular stretch of the mountain. It is very steep right before the saddle and there are usually a series of switch backs. They were buried. We had to find our own way across. To make matters worse, in some areas the snow ended with a drop off. Our boys had been sliding all over the place. I was worried and tired and my body was just about done. But we pushed on. We all made it to the saddle. It was beautiful and sunny and I promptly sat down to take a much needed rest.

Earl and Ben decided to go for the peak. Matt and I hung at the saddle, resting and visiting with other hikers. While they were gone a storm started to roll in. It was dark and very rainy and you could see the lightning coming in from the south. I started to worry. We had a long hike back and we needed to get off the mountain. I got anxious for the boys to return. They seemed to take forever.

On their way back, a mountain goat jumped across the trail about 10 feet in front of them. It was a pretty awesome sight. The beauty of it, however, was lost on me. I was convinced we would be caught in a terrible storm if we didn't leave now. I was primarily worried about climbing down the snow pack in rain. It didn't sound fun or safe.

As soon as Earl and Ben made it back to the saddle, we started heading for home. I didn't even get one picture of us at the saddle together. On a very cool note, Ben was the first 9 year old to hike to the peak this season.

The hike back was long. My knee started hurting, the boys were completely out of juice and we all felt bruised and beaten by the time we made it back. I was wasted and hungry.

Even though it was late, we were all tired and decided to go to dinner. We asked Beth and Jacob to join us and we went to Los Hermanos. We were all so tired, I thought I was going to fall asleep at the table. We had a good time and we were all ready for bed by the time we got home.

My summer’s are just jam packed. I simply don’t know where the time goes. This one has been no exception.

We had a family reunion at my house July 4^th weekend. Several weeks of yard and house prep went into it. Fortunately, few of the cousins could come and the numbers were light. While it would have been great to see them, there would have been space, bathroom and shower issues if everyone had made it. Turns out the number was just right.

Most of my family was there. Unfortunately, Kyle’s family couldn’t make it. But, Tyler and April were there and Kevin, Wendy and the kids were there. My parents and Marion were major participants of course. And, my aunt Carol and cousin Angie stopped by for dinner on Friday and uncle Keith and Doreen showed up for the festivities on Saturday.

Friday we had a blast. We went boating. The kids loved it. Despite many efforts, some of them would not vacate the boat. The result was mega sunburns. But, they had a great time. We got some great pics of the kids (big and little) on the tube. They loved it. My baby brother did the driving from 8:30 AM to 5:30 PM. He was a trooper and totally wasted when all was said and done.

Saturday morning we did the traditional breakfast. Then we took off to shoot clay pigeons with the shotgun and targets with a BB gun. The kids had a good time. They were taught some rules about gun safety and they all made sure to stay behind the firing line.

One of the highlights was finding Lizzy. A little desert lizard we happened upon. We had fun with her for awhile and when it was time to come home we released her into the wild.

After the “firing range” we were all hot and sticky. We broke out the slip and slide and water balloons. Crazy! The kids had a blast making a splash.

By the time the weekend was over, we were exhausted. We had played ourselves out.