Spring Break 2014 - Gobblin Valley

My parents were watching my nephews for the weekend (it's dance season and the boys are boycotting) so we came up with an escape plan.  At first they were all going to stay up here...then we switched to the dessert...then we were watching the weather to decide...very last minute we decided on Gobblin Valley and then very very last minute I decided to get a hotel in Moab and very very very last minute my mom said to get one for them too.  I think we got the 2 last hotel rooms there.

I think we made the best decision.  

How have I not introduced my children to this place sooner??

We couldn't totally let the big kids roam because the littles would follow so I promised Miriam we would go back when Soren was older.  We will bring walkie talkies and they can play hide and seek and explore to their hearts content.

Of course it was windy by lunchtime.  I think all my memories of springtime playing in the dessert include a little sand in my sandwich. Spring winds and sunburned cheeks...good times.

Then on to Moab for swimming and pizza....

Finish it

So, my mom is not the kind to pick a "word of the year" and have it stamped into a necklace.  This is no critique on those who are or who aren't the type to do this...although I haven't done it either I love the idea of it all.  My mom just doesn't fit in this camp. So I was so surprised when my she said to me one day "I have chosen two words for this year FINISH IT! I am so sick of half done projects around here!" So I teased her about having that stamped in silver dangling with a pearl.  Then my dad pipped up and said "I think FINISH SHIT would be more motivating".  Which is so my dad, I have never heard him cuss in anger or pain but he is not above adding it for humors sake.  I so love him for that.

I still think I should have the second phrase stamped in silver with a pearl for my mom.  After all, she is the one who taught me that a job isn't done until the tools are put away and the room is cleaned. Really guys, all my bad habits are no fault of bad parenting.

So here is a post about trying to FINISH IT!!

Painting trim....purposely took a picture of a non-perfect part. 3 areas done, 4 areas to go.

Bub's kindergarten word wall. He is reading like a boss these days, his goal is to memorize all 107 of the first words.  

Trying to bring back family reading time.  The boys and I read Charolette's Web for the 3rd time since Soren was too young last time around (and it's one of my top 10 favorite books).

Now as a whole family we are reading Island of the Blue Dolphins. 10 chapters away from finishing it.

Started this project 3 years ago.  BAM! FINISHED!

Miriam is one weekend away from finishing her embroidery project. 

Darin made a bike rack for the garage...working on another one.

He is also riding to work pretty consistently rain, wind, or shine.

Bub always has an on-going piece of artwork.  He won't let me clean them up until they are finished which takes awhile, holy moly look at the detail!

Saint Patricius Celebration

I am getting worse and worse with the whole picture taking thing.  We spent the whole weekend with cousins and grandparents and have zero pictures to show for it! 

The sum total of the weekend is that I am lucky to have the in-laws I do.  My kids are lucky to have the aunts and uncles, cousins, and especially grandparents they have.  Both of our families are great about giving space and respectful distance to their adult children but man alive they show up when they are needed. 

But like I said, no photo documentation....

We did take pictures of the Centerville Elementary Shamrock Shuffle on Saturday.  This is good and bad. We have documentation of non-make up sweaty exercise Elisa and none of showered and ready Elisa but the kids are cute regardless and I am getting better with honesty and vulnerability.

Miriam, her friend Nicole and I ran/walked the 5K

Miriam took 2nd for the girls in her grade.

Bub Soren and Darin (unofficially) ran the 1K.

Both Soren and Bub took 2nd for the boys in their grade/age group.

The Leprechaun found our house Sunday evening!

Gold coins and chaos as usual.

I improvised the rest of the celebration...threw together a green lunch for Miriam and remembered about a craft I saw on Pinterest for the boys.  Luckily Grandma Ray keeps us stocked with holiday books so the boys read about Saint Patricius and the snakes as well as Fin M'Coul.

No Irish dinner this year but there was kale in the Zuppa Tuscana. 

Thats green.

2013

We made it through 2013!
  One of our busiest summers yet! It's hard to believe it all got done, but somehow it did...and what didn't doesn't seem to matter anymore.  Between packing, loading boxes to our storage unit...and then loading boxes to our home,  paper work, negotiations, hundreds of phone calls, moving furniture, trips to the DI, cleaning, cleaning, CLEANING, painting,  lawn care, and a zillion trips to Home Depot the kids somehow still made it to swimming lessons.  Miriam got to piano, summer ballet, and sewing class.  Bub got to do Itty Bitty Ball for one last summer.  We still made it to playgroup most weeks, we went swimming, we played with cousins, went to the park and made it to reunions.

The kids didn't do their summer workbooks very consistently, we didn't do summer chores very often, they watched more Netflix than they ever have before.  We ate out so much more than ever in their young lives! At the time it caused me so much guilt, looking back it doesn't seem to matter all that much. I am just happy we made it through.

This was the year our friends (Bub's best friend) moved into our new basement for 4 months.

And we are STILL good friends, proving that I would make an awesome sister wife provided each have our own husbands (we even shared a kitchen)!

This was the year Bub started kindergarten which caused both of us so much anxiety but has been a piece of cake. The year that Miriam and Bub started walking home from school together everyday.  They are such slowpokes and I LOVE IT!  I love watching them walk up the sidewalk together, talking and laughing. 

This was the year I read almost every book suggested for book club, and loved them all.  The year I was the "story time lady" at a local bookstore (which sadly has now closed).  The year Darin and I became professional painters and I stopped baking.  We hardly ever have homemade cookies anymore, I just don't have the self control for it.  Hopefully when I become more balanced as a person and stop using food as an emotional crutch we can introduce baking back into our family. 

Sometimes everyone has to suffer...

This was the year Darin biked 18 miles to or from work when the weather permitted. 

The year he did more home repairs/improvements in a short amount of time than he would have preferred. The year he got a couple of promotions at work but he hates when I talk about stuff like that. 

He is kind of a stud muffin.

KID UPDATED

Byron doesn't share much with us, but I live for the moments when I get a glimpse at his life.

Like....I found a friendship note from a kid in his class named Henry saying he was happy they were friends....how cute is that?  Bub just shrugged his shoulders and said "oh yeah Henry is cool". Like when he told us he plays "save the tortuga" at recess with Kaden, Henry, Kalea, and Dominic (who Byron is very concerned about on class party days because he is diabetic and shouldn't have sugar). Like when he draws pictures of tigers under waterfalls, or fish with super powers, or imagines he is a jaguar with snake DNA, or pretends he is snowboarding on a half pipe...these little peaks into his mind make me so happy. But I have to be SO CAREFUL with my reactions because if he gets embarrassed at all he will shut down. You got to play it cool with this kid.

Miriam's internal clock wakes her up before 6:00 am most mornings.  She is delighted when she wakes before 5:55 am so she can sit in her bed and wait for the clock to flip to that special time, she also loves 4:56 pm. She doesn't care much about clothing or shoes, but loves the quirky earrings at Clairs (like sharks biting your earlobe).  She is a reader which makes me super happy, she has started suggesting books to me. I think she would make a great quirky independent character in a book series. She tried skiing this year and LOVED it.  I admire the confidence she has to try new things, and her ability to laugh at herself....most of the time. Our big push with Miriam to have her slow down...to be content with the moment...to calm down.  I might start making her do yoga everyday sheeesh!

Soren is a trip.  One of my neighbors asked if we rent him out for entertainment...which describes his funny enthusiastic way of living.  He is constantly surprising people with his vocabulary and memory.  I am amazed at how well he gets jokes and riddles...and how he remembers them, I sure never do! He describes his life in terms of  tv "episodes" like "remember that episode when I was at Grandma's?". He likes doing whatever Byron and Miriam are doing or using my exercise equipment to hone his ninja skills. His volumes are loud and louder, but we are working on inside speaking...and being patient and gracious about gifts...and other 3 year old things.

Love these little anxiety inducers of mine!!

I am glad 2013 happened...but I am also grateful it's over.

Sleeping Beauty

Aunt Julia bought Miriam a ticket to Ballet West's Sleeping Beauty for her birthday. 

She had offered tickets to her whole studio because they are using the music and storyline in their ballet recital this year.  It was so cute to see the little girls eyes light up when their heard the music from their dances.  Julia is the cutest dance teacher ever! She has ruined dance studios for me...the only ones that compare are so stinkin expensive!!

The music, the costumes, the dancing...it was wonderful.

We met up with Jared and Wyler for some Cheesecake Factory afterwards.

We had to wait for over and hour to get in but Miriam and Tatum needed lots of time together so it worked out nicely.

Don't worry about the boys, Darin surprised them with a trip to the Lego Movie with ice cream afterwards. 

We are Chocolate lovers!

We played hookey last Thursday! 

Miriam's grade got to go the the Canyons to try out skiing (she is in love) but they had to divide her grade and class in half and go on two different days.  You can't teach that much with half the class gone.  So I took the opportunity to make it up to the kids for leaving them home while Darin and I went to the members only event. They didn't get to do the chocolate tasting but I did buy them a truffle.

It's a fun exhibit. 

We ran through the dinosaur section as well.

We had time for a quick trip to the Backyard section before eating lunch and heading back.

Byron didn't want to miss school because they were making their "hug jugs" for the next day.

Love Fest 2014

This is how the table looked from Sunday the 9th till the day of LOVE. 

We watched the Olympics while Byron and Soren made robots out of mini candy bars and Miriam made mice out of Hersey Kisses.

We carried on the "Secret Valentine" tradition

My favorite quote was from Soren: "Mom, know why I am helping you make your bed? Because I am your secret valentine, but Dad told me not to tell you"

Cute anonymous notes, with my favorite below.

I will let you guess who it was from.

(some of the words were finished in crayon..possibly not enough alphabet stickers at his school)

Miriam's class valentine party had a Queen of Hearts/Mad Hatter tea party theme. I was in charge of the game Spoons (face cards and teaspoons...get it??) and made checkerboard tea sandwiches, which I felt pretty dang generous about.  I realized my contribution was a drop in the bucket compared to what the mom in charge did!! 

The whole room was decorated (although, I have to be honest, in a classroom some of the impact is lost) with face card banners, and big balloon lanterns.  They had huge playing cards to play croquet with, made origami hearts, painted roses red with balloons and chopsticks (? didn't get to see that game in action) and of course spoons.

The kids were so cute to dress up, and SCORE got to use that Halloween costume again!

Byron's party was in the afternoon...much more low key.

I was in charge of suck the marshmallow with a straw game.

(can you spot Soren with Byron?? He thinks he is a kindergartner)

They did some other minute to win it type games, made heart necklaces and filled their  "hug jug's" with valentines.

We came home and read through all the valentines, which is my favorite part of the day!!

We finished out the day with home made pizza and the Olympics because...

 WE LOVE THE OLYMPICS!! 

Seriously loving all the dreaming going on around here.

Donut Pajama Party

Miriam loves planning and anticipating an event as much....if not more than the actual event so part of her gift is that I let her do lots of the work!

She had a piano recital in the afternoon so we wanted to do the party in the morning. Miriam loves donuts and she also loves pajamas so the theme was pretty easy.  

We both came up with a vision, but she put together the cards.

Her favorite babysitter, and later two friends helped her make lots of flowers to decorate with.

{this is a photo from the next day}

Her friends also helped her make these cute confetti cups
We were going to have the traditional number of balloons representing the birthday-persons age but it turns out a dozen balloons is cheaper than 10 so she got a bonus.

The cute party guests!

We made lipgloss in donut shape....

We had her favorite babysitter....Sarah come help the girls make polymer clay donut charms. 

{one of Miriam's favorite Christmas gifts had been a clay charm book}

Then we played spoons! And tried to play the name game when I realized that the party was suppose to be over and parents would be {and were} coming! I way underestimated the timing on this one.  We could have easily gone another hour...and a few of the girls did stay that long!

Which is why there are no pictures of the cute food! We were in a rush!

We had chocolate milk, fruit and got her donuts from Beyond Glaze so they were darling...all different fun flavors.  We cut them all in half so the girls could try a couple of different ones. I don't love donuts but these....I don't have much self control when it comes to these.

This party was actually just a continuation of partying from the day before.  Mark left to go back to Korea earlier that morning so we had a good-bye party the night before at Little America hotel.  Swimming, pizza party, fall into bed exhausted, wake up to the donut party, and then my parents came just as her party guests were leaving for the piano recital!  

Miriam had a newly unwrapped headband, fresh nail polish that smelled like toasted marshmallows and new music necklace to wear for her piano recital which made things exciting....she performed really well.   My parents took us all the Kneaders afterwards so she ended her perfect day with a chocolate dome.

No wonder there was some heavy let down the next day.