June 2013

 Breakfast with William at UVU.   In mid-June I took Mary and Olivia back for their second year of Women's basketball camp at Utah Valley University.  Coach Nixon is amazing, and I love that the girls had an opportunity to observe her leadership, as well as learn about basketball.

William enjoyed the morning drop-offs.  

I am grateful for the ward scout leaders who were dedicated to holding frequent camp outs this summer.  The boys enjoyed a lot of hikes,  some kayaking, fishing for crawdads,  and of course, Red Vines and beef jerky.We spent time with some of our wonderful friends from the Beijing days, the Carrillo family.

We went to the Asian market and bought our old favorite snacks, like sesame crackers and White Rabbit candies, and made dumplings.  These needed improvement.

We were also blessed by a visit from our dear Beijing friends the Sevy family.  We hadn't seen them since before they left for Denmark.  It was a very happy reunion.

 In June,  Hugo the rabbit began acting a bit strange and the kids suspected that she was pregnant. On one of her outside escapes she dug this hole and prepared a nest with her fur.  Kyle observed the preparations, and carefully pulled the two babies out of the hole so we could bring the babies and mother inside.

This was about a month later.  Sadly both bunnies have passed away since then, but we enjoyed their little spirits in our home.

 The last week of June, Ben and Sam enjoyed almost a week in California at the FBLA Nationals competition.  They got to spend three days at Disneyland.

Grant and William enjoyed many June evenings running around as various Superheroes.  Sophie was Snoopy Girl, Princess Girl, or whatever-kind-of-Girl seemed appropriate at the time.

more about march

More March catch-up...

Wednesday March 23, I took Sam to high school orientation

Friday, March 25 the boys went on a Scout camp out.  They didn't mind the snow and cold.  Saturday morning the boys returned. The leaders gave us boxes of leftover steak, chicken, eggs, fruit, chips, cookies, marshmallows.

Saturday evening the weather warmed up and we decided to have a barbecue in the park.  Ben loves to build fires. Ben and Sam and I spent two hours trying to get the coals ready, owing to my lack of expertise and a strong wind.  I wouldn't trade that time for any feeling of greater competence... laughing at ourselves and our dashed hopes as our flames flared and died down again and again in the wind.  Finally we were eating our delicious steak in the dark, roasting marshmallows, assembling s'mores.  I was so grateful to see my family huddled around the barbecue with their roasting sticks.  Ben made me promise I wouldn't make him build a fire again for at least a few weeks. Good reverse therapy for the pyromaniac I guess.

Tuesday, March 26... the Pinewood Derby.

There goes Kyle's car.

Kyle's car won "most patriotic."

Wednesday March 30, I drove to the elementary school to hear Bethany sing Somewhere Over the Rainbow for her class talent show. I was so grateful that I didn't have to miss it. It happened to be scheduled during my lunch break. She sang so beautifully that I was crying, so was the school principal. I think that she looked beautiful too.

morning light

I am in love with sunlight.  Partly one of the symptoms of three years in Beijing, I guess. Sunlight is always a great relief to an insomniac, such as myself.  There are some things I would like to change about by life, but can't, things that make me wonder night after night if it wouldn't be possible to wake up and say "glad that was just a dream.." but when I realize that I haven't been sleeping at all, at least I find that  the sunlight casts out the kind of eerie surreal shadows of my reality that really start to creep me out around four in the morning, and its a new day, with places to go, and we're off.

So talk about getting creeped out. How about sleeping in a tent in the desert?  I kept hearing footsteps all night long and telling myself they were Jindo's, then at dawn I realized that Jindo had been sleeping in the tent all along.... I don't want to know what that was about.   Sam, Olivia, and Will were the first to wake up. I was sitting by Annie's front door holding Will, who was drifting back to sleep. I was contented to observe Olivia and Sam's camaraderie.  They were exploring the sagebrush with Jindo and even observed Jindo opening the tent with his teeth.  That dog's got talent! I asked Sam to take some morning pictures for me.

morning in the tent....

and back in the A-frame...

And in the camper, where Granddad slept....Sam was impressed, he thought Granddad had been sleeping in the well house.  I think that would be elder abuse.

Cocoa's butt?

and Twiggy at breakfast.

hot springs big wind

Saturday, our first day to wake to up in San Luis Valley.  I couldn't sleep past 4am (not like that never happens.)  I was happy to see light start to come through the window.

Eric made everyone french toast, then the kids went out to explore the environment. Insects were the immediate fascination. The grasshoppers were brown, like the dirt and rocks, not green.

Here's the view of Mount Blanca from Annie and Eric's kitchen door.

I thought it would be a great idea to encourage Sam and Ben to set up the tents before it got too hot. As they were finishing, Annie warned me about the afternoon wind...more on that later.

I passed out swimsuits to everyone and we got ready to go to Annie and Eric's favorite hot springs pool.

Here's the kids' hot wading pool.

And the big pool, at body temperature, with diving boards that the kids enjoyed.

Grant warmed up to this in ground slide that landed in a hot pool.

We ordered lunch at the pool. They had delicious salads and pizza.  Eric brought his homemade lemon bars for dessert.

After the pool, we went to the city park in Alamosa.
That's when the afternoon rain blew in and the high winds reminded us of our tents back at Annie and Eric's place.

I was relieved to see the big tent and all the blankets and pillows. Sam was frustrated by the wind damage, though it was nothing more than poles blown out on the ground.

Here's what we saw when we looked for Ben's blue tent.

The kids wandered around the ten acres looking for signs of the tent, but found none. We spent the evening watching the sunset, playing with bugs, and dogs. Olivia made a special friendship with Jindo the dog, whom she called "Jimbo." Eric served us his vegetable lasagna, and we were off to bed,in the remaining tent. We all fit fine,  but felt a little lonesome for the blue tent too.

tent city

Saturday July 10, not much to report for myself. Ben has the most cash so he's always willing to go shopping with me. The girls stayed home to help Grandma make bread. This is the best homemade bread. It's made with white whole wheat, which has the nutritional value of regular whole wheat but holds together better and tastes sweeter than whole wheat. She uses apples sauce instead of butter. This bread never dries out. Delicious!

I've started to feel like sleeping the day away on Saturdays, just thinking about Sunday alone.  In fact, it was a rough Sunday.  The kids seemed tired, especially Caitlin.  Followed Grant and William around during sacrament meeting, that certainly doesn't bother me anymore, just happy to be there.  But after church I really wished we'd walked.  Grant and William both melted down in the parking lot.  I couldn't move until Kyle figured out something was wrong and came in as reinforcement.  Ben and Sam had walked home themselves and Olivia was quite upset at me for not letting her walk home without them.  Caitlin was mad about her seat belt not being tight enough.  Mary wanted gum.  I think we could have walked back and forth three times in the time it took us to leave the church parking lot.  Ate every carbohydrate I could find in the kitchen when we got home, set the kids in front of Barbie and the Diamond Castle and took a nap with William and Grant.  I was grateful for that.

The day was all good when we went outside in the evening for dinner, thanks to frozen lasagna.  Our first course was Popsicles.

After dinner a spontaneous plan to build tent city developed, a contagious burst of camping in the yard excitement.