Trip to Canada - Part 1

We headed out, finally, on June 28 in the early evening.  We switched vehicles about three days before our scheduled departure so we had to get the new suburban outfitted with a dvd player and a radio, you know, essential traveling equipment (our pioneer ancestors would be so proud), we had to register it and get it inspected on top of getting us all packed and ready for a three week long trip.  (now I have the Gilligan's Island theme running thru my head...)

 Needless to say, there were some minor bugs remaining in the new ride for our first leg of the journey up to Katie's house in Spanish Fork, Utah.  But they were minor and the new car operated beautifully.  We were grateful.  We arrived very early in the morning (about 3:30) at Kate's and our excellent host and hostess had everything ready for us.  Unfortunately, at that time of day I am terrible at following directions so I jumped in the first bed I saw, the bottom bunk of the twin sized bunk beds Kate and Kent set up (it was Kent's bunk bed when he was a kid and they are lovely), and Ryan climbed in after me so we spent that first "night" cuddled in a twin size bed.  It was heaven to finally be able to sleep in the arms of my beloved.  However, when our hosts woke up and went in search of their guests they found the lovely double bed they arranged for Ryan and I empty and wondered if we were even there at all, then they opened the other door and found all seven of us piled in the one room littered all over the place.  They laughed at Ryan and I curled like kittens in the tiny bed and we quickly moved to the more spacious bed next door.  They were just lucky to not find us asleep on their driveway...

 Later that day Katie and Ryan (while I slept) took the beasties to this lovely squirty park nearby.  They had a great time and were happy to play in the sunshine of Utah without boiling as we do at home.  It really did take me a couple of days in Utah to feel like it was safe to go outside.  Arizona summertime has conditioned me to fear non air conditioned spaces.  I am easing back into the sun, I may never fully recover but, baby steps...

 Katie took all of these lovely photos you see in today's post.  She has caught her mother's disease of knowing how to handle a camera.  I'm glad I am surrounded by that kind of person.  I like the one above of Jeffy being hit in the back by a spray.  His feet are totally off the ground!  The kids had such a good time in Utah.  Earlier there was a picture of Peter and Afton hand in hand.  Those two love each other.  Peter was excited to, "Go to Utah and stay in Afton's room and sleep next to Afton!"  They managed to do that a couple of nights.  I think Pete has gotten over the bitter disappointment he suffered at Chris and Heather's wedding last December when Afton refused to dance with him.  Alas, forbidden love.

 We stayed there for almost a week.  Ryan commuted to work at the branch office they have there in West Salt Lake, it was an hour drive away but better than taking days off.  It worked quite nicely. 

 The day after we arrived we went up to Salt Lake to tour the lovely places up there and meet Ryan when he was finished with work.  We toured the Conference Center and it was so beautiful and huge!!  The kids were impressed, none of us had been there before and it was exciting to be in the place we watched on TV every Conference weekend.  We loved the art and going up on the roof, that was nifty.  Ryan caught up to our tour group up on the roof as we were finishing the tour, we were excited to see him.

 Then we walked over to Temple Square, Jeff was all prepared and excited to get to do baptisms in the Salt Lake Temple but it was closed so that they could renovate the A/C system.  Sad.  Oh well, he had more opportunities as you will eventually see...

 We ate lunch then the men (Ryan, Kent, and Justin) went to go play sand volleyball with some guys from Justin and Kent's work (they came home filthy).  While Kate and I took the kids to the North Visitor's Center.  The kids were troopers after a long day of sight seeing.  My favorite parts were walking up the circular ramp towards the room with the Christus (above) and Afton running past saying, "Jesus is up there!"  I may have gotten a bit misty both then and now writing about it. 

 And here, Peter and I were sitting on a bench looking at the statue and talking about Jesus.  It was a lovely moment.  I may have shed some tears then too.

 The next day was Sunday and we attended Kate and Kent's ward.  Kate taught Gospel Doc and did a great job, she has also inherited teaching talents besides photographic skills.  The class participated really well and Kate made some lovely points. 

 After church we took the kids on a little hike to this pretty waterfall.  It was so nice to be out in the woods where it was cool and take a little walk.  Jeffy climbed up to the top and posed dramatically.

On the way back down he did an impressive trip and scramble to catch himself, this photo was taken just after he managed to not plummet to his doom.  I was kinda terrified.  It was steeper than it looks. 

Well, that is all for now.  Stay tuned for the end of our Utah trip and the beginning of our Canada adventure.  Currently we are in Okotoks (just south of Calgary) at Ryan's grandparent's house, we returned from a three day southern Alberta tour last night and today we plan to head to Edmonton for a few days to see more family and have too much fun.  But I'm getting ahead of myself...

Here's what the girls did

Our TV is broken.

Last Week

 Jeffey went to scout camp last week and had "the best time ever!".  I'm pretty sure he would be happy if he could live at scout camp always.  Ryan went up for the last four days and he had a pretty good time as well.  Jeff got a lot of merit badges done and partially done.  We are working on finishing the rest up.  He is a happy scout.

 Tessa had her tenth birthday last week while the menfolk were away.  So we did girly things.  We went shopping and did our nails and put flowers in our hair.  It was pretty estrogen-y around here.  The girls all got a new "Aunt Jessi" shirt.  They tried them on and decided they were just what Aunt Jessica wears and she came over shortly after we came home to agree that they were, in fact, acceptable to her.

Leah and Tessa spent a lot of time on their looks last week and a couple of times that I suggested they go swimming they said they didn't want to because it would get their hair wet.  It was a sad time for me to see that they are turning in to grown up girls.  I guess it had to happen eventually though.

 Tessa's birthday cake was interesting, it was yummy and it looked funny.  We made fondant to cover it up and make it look better and stuck some truffles and a dyed musical note and called it good.  She likes music.  It tasted yummy though :)

We had the whole gang over for dinner and swimming and cake and it was good times.  I love having a big loving family close by us to celebrate happy times with.

We also got to enjoy my sister, Amanda's birthday, the day before Tessa's.  When Tessa was born Amanda was at the hospital looking forward to having a niece born on her birthday but when midnight rolled around and no niece was produced, Mandy went home and Tessa claimed her own birthday at 1am.  They are still friends even though they started out a bit rocky.

Amanda, Whitny, Linz, Jujo, Mom and I went to a Diamondbacks game and ate at Friday's grill there.  It was way too fun.  We didn't so much pay attention to the baseball, but we laughed a lot and had a great time together.  They are fun ladies. 

Also, this happened: This is Titus, Chris and Heather's mastiff. He is a good doggie and he comes over sometimes to play. Peter loves him and Titus thinks Pete is pretty nice also.

Alana's Baptism

Yesterday morning we were getting ready to be at the baptism early for pictures so we had to hustle a bit.  I made Alana a plate of waffles and she mixed up a big cup of chocolate milk.  As soon as she got finished stirring it she somehow managed to spill every bit of it all over the island, down the cupboards, into the cupboards and then it rained down onto the tile.  She just stood there staring at it for a while, and so did I, actually.  I steered her to the other side of the island and told her that I would clean it up and that she could make herself another cup of chocolate milk. 

 As I was on my hands and knees trying to mop up all the sticky mess I thought about our Savior.  There wasn't any way Alana was going to be able to clean up all that by herself, she would have missed something sticky and we would quickly have a stinky ant infested kitchen.  But I knew where to look to find the hidden puddles and drips and the splashed up nasties.  Just as she wasn't capable (thru no fault of her own) of cleaning up her mess.  We aren't capable of cleaning up after ourselves a lot of the time and we need someone to help us out.

I talked to Alana about it a little, I told her that I wasn't mad that she spilled the milk, it was an accident and I was glad that I was there to help her.  Jesus loves us so much that he doesn't mind cleaning up after us as well when we truly feel sorry for our mistakes and we turn to him. 

I am thankful to be a Mom (even as Peter is currently in his time-out chair shouting for freedom with such a loud voice my hair is curling).  I'm thankful I get to learn these lessons and try to teach a slice of them to our lovely babies. 

I'm also thankful for my ever loving sister Whitny who took such beautiful pictures of our little girl.  Thanks Whit. 

Learning Curve

Lately Jeff has been all interested in helping with the cooking because of scout stuff so when we came home from church I gave him a cake mix and told him to follow the directions on the back of the box.  We needed to make cupcakes for my sister's birthday party this afternoon.  I went off to change Peter's clothes and put things away.  When I got back a couple of minutes later I looked in the bowl and it did not look like a cake mix:
Me: How much water did it say to put in?
Jeff: 1/2 cup.
Me: How much did you put in?
Jeff: 1/2 cup. 
(I thought to myself, this is a test.  Right now I am being tested.)
Me: Can you show me?
Jeff: See, right here on the measuring cup, it says 1/2.
Me: Yes, it does say 1/2.  Can you see at the top there it says quarts?  You added 1/2 of a quart to the mix instead of 1/2 of a cup.
Jeff: Huh?
Me: See right here at the top of this glass measuring bowl, there are the different measurements; quarts, milliliters, cups and ounces.  You have to look at the part with the cups if you want to measure 1/2 of a cup.
Jeff: Well it said 1/2.  I was almost right.
Me:  You added about four times more water than it needed and we used the last three eggs we had.  What do you think we can do?
Jeff: Can we use the strainer?
Me: That sounds like a good idea, but I don't think it will work like we want it to.
Jeff: Add another mix?
Me: Well, we would probably have to add three more cake mixes and another nine eggs to catch up to the water and I don't think we need 72 cupcakes for the party, not to mention the fact that we have zero eggs left.
Jeff: Can we call Grampa and get more eggs?
Me: You can try it.
He tried to call Grampa who was at church, then Aunt Jessica who was visiting teaching and didn't answer, then Uncle Mitch who didn't answer either.  Jess texted and asked what was up.  I asked if we could borrow some eggs, she said to go on over and get some from Mitch.  So we did.  On the way there I called my Mom to see if she had any ideas on what to do with the batter.  She suggested adding some things to it and making pancakes.  So we got the eggs, had a conversation about how essential it is to pay attention when you are following a recipe, mixed up another cake mix, got cupcakes baking and then we fixed the other batter into pancakes and I got to cook flat pancakes for 45 minutes. 
Jeffey loved the new pancake recipe, he says it is a million times better than our normal pancakes and I didn't even strangle him at all!  I am going to make him wash the dishes.

Twofer

I had a great weekend.  Saturday was our 14 year anniversary (aww!) and Sunday was Mother's Day so it was pretty awesome.  On Friday Ryan took me on a date to see the Avengers and go to lunch and I had such a good time.  That movie was really good, I love that Joss Whedon guy, he has skills.  My Ryan is such a great date, he makes me very happy.  I'm glad he let me catch him. 

Saturday was a busy day we had a butterfly birthday party to attend for an adorable little girl in the ward who is a friend of Peter's, Ryan handled that while the girls and I went to a stake activity days Mother/Daughter luncheon.  All three of my girls qualify for activity days now, Alana turns 8 this month so they invite her to come to the activities.  She chose a great month to come, earlier this month we did mother/daughter hair styles for an activity and there is another activity on Wednesday.  She is really getting her money's worth.  I think it is crazy that I have three girls in activity days.  Yikes!  So the Saturday luncheon, we invited my grandmother, Phyllis, to come with us and she graciously accepted.  She is always fun to have around.  They had a little program and then the lunch.  It was very fun and sweet to have all my girls and my beautiful Grandma with me. 

My babies got up at their normal time Sunday and worked and worked in the kitchen to bring me breakfast in bed.  Jefferson was a capable leader, he had a vision of how it was to go and he carried it out.  Unfortunately his sisters snarled his plans a bit so there was a kerfuffle, but breakfast was delivered safely by 6:30am.  They bring me breakfast and I share it with all of them, it's a fun tradition, all my little baby birds lined up for a bite of pancakes or banana bread.  We made it to church on time.  Alana has had a sore throat and a slight temp so she was pretty sure she wanted to stay home but I strong armed her into coming and she survived.  She did end up coming to Relief Society with me and sitting with her sweet gymnastics teacher, Mrs. Katie.  Hopefully that will help her grow up with the impression that RS is a happy fun place and she will be excited to go there for reals in ten years.

After church we went out to Chandler to have dinner with my Mom and sisters.  Whit had a photo backdrop set up and we all raided her closet so we could look cuter and she took pictures.  Or rather, Tyler took pictures.  He was entertained by our silliness and we were entertained by him and his brothers hanging things over the back of the backdrop into the pictures while we weren't looking.  Good times.  It was brave of Whit and Nathan to have us over since it was the very same day as their 15th anniversary!  Nathan is a good sport, who wouldn't want a bunch of weird giggly "grown" women in his closet trying on his wife's clothes and letting their kids run wild in his house on his anniversary?  It was a fun party and some of the pictures were okay.  I like all of our reactions as we see the pics, "Oh my hair! My double chins! My belly!"  Why do we have to get old?  But I love my sisters.  I love my Mom, she is a great lady and I am grateful for her example. 

So, to all the ladies out there, I hope you had a great Mother's Day weekend and that you felt loved!

All About My Ryan

When I picked up Zeke from school today he got in the suburban and said, "Why is this car all broken in here?"  I said, "Uncle Ryan took it apart to fix the rear air conditioning, when the part comes he will put it in and put everything back together and it will work!  Isn't that wonderful?  He can fix anything." 
Zeke, "Oh really, anything?"
 Me, "Yep, anything." 
Zeke, "What about brick walls?" 
Me, "Yep." (sure, why not). 
Zeke, "What about metal?"
Me, "Yep." (as long as Mitch came over with his welding stuff probably).
Zeke, "What about a car with no roof, no windows and no seats?"
Me, "For sure, he's done that lots of times."
Pete, "Dad has fixing powers!"
Me, "Dad has super fixing powers!"
Zeke, "If he had super fixing powers he wouldn't need tools."
Pete, "Dad has lots of tools."
Me, "Dad uses tools and his big muscles and his super smart brain to fix things."
Pete, "My dad can lift the banana chair!"
Zeke, "Can your Dad lift that candy store over there?"
Pete, "No."
Zeke, "I could lift a chair."
Pete, "You and my Dad are strong."

Little boys are adorable and Daddies are wonderful.