New Nicknames

FYI: as I continue to keep my blog public, I continue to feel compelled not to broadcast too much personal information, especially about my kids. However, I'm needing a change in their pseudonyms so in future posts

MC = Princess Buttercup, Princess or Buttercup

BR = The Avatar or just Avatar

The Three Days of Birthday

I don't know what I started...or in hindsight exactly why...but on Sunday (March 8th) I gave MC the choice about when to celebrate her birthday. I said we could do it Sunday night, Monday night, or Tuesday night (tonight, her real birthday...or as Jan pointed out birth anniversary). Well, what would almost any little girl choose?? NOW!! :) And I asked her if she'd feel bad if she didn't have any presents to open on her birthday because she got them all early and she informed me that she didn't NEED presents...on her birthday that is. ;)

So Sunday evening we had dinner, then had and "Ice Cream Sandwich Cake", then opened presents from

• Grandma Carol and Grandpa Don
• BR
• Grandma Paula and Grandpa Jan (who happened to be there)
• Rob and I

This is what she got:

• ipod shuffle (see exhibit A)
• 8 year old figurine/doll to add to her birthday figurine collection from Grandma Carol and Papa Don
• a little wooden jewelry box with some little glass/stone carved animals (BR came to me Sunday afternoon and started asking if he could give her some of my things for her birthday, mighty generous of him eh? ;) After rummaging around in boxes of storage we found some things he could give her...and she actually seems to like them more than some of the gifts we paid money for!! Go figure.)
• a Cinderella Polly Pocket type doll with a changeable head and lots of clothes and accessories
• itunes gift card
• an outfit (a skimp...which I just learned is one of those dresses that you wear with capri leggings underneath, capri leggings, some canvas wedge shoes...that she just loves...she really likes shoes!!)
• a lamb webkinz...she's been wanting a webkinz so we decided to indulge her :P (See Exhibit A)
• a journal with a locket to keep it shut (one day she was shopping at "Justice" with some of her money and debated between a journal that locks and a bunch of cosmetic type items...she chose the cosmetics but it was a tough choice!
• some walkie talkie cell phones (I thought she would be all over these because she's got all kinds of fake or old dead cell phones that she carries around and pretends to talk on or wants us to pretend with her...so far the people who've shown the most interest in these little pink cell phones are the menfolk in the family. See exhibit B)

Exhibit A:

*she didn't like the ear buds so she's using some old headphones she had instead.

MC can hardly be seen without her ipod these days

and can generally be expected to speak to you at a very high volume.) ;)
She's holding "lamby" her webkinz

Exhibit B:

After the presents "The Birthday Girl", as she began referring to herself, wanted first to put some music on her and listen to it, second to go online and adopt/play with her virtual lamby. Then it was bedtime.

The next day....still not her birthday....I surprised her with another gift. A trip to my sister's salon to get her hair cut/styled and her finger and toe nails done. She loved the surprise and getting all dolled up. At home she piped up at any opportunity with "the birthday girl" ;)

*MC's new outfit and hairdo

Finally today was her real birthday and we wished her a happy birthday and she didn't have to do chores (a tradition from my childhood that I loved) and she got to watch a movie and I played a game with her, but besides that....and the fact that she mentioned that she's the birthday girl at any privilege or opportunity that came up...it was a pretty uneventful birthday.

...I wonder if she liked that it was like 3 days of birthday,
or if she felt the glory of her actual birthday diminished by
the way we did it....hmmmm....I guess I'll have to ask her.

*ready for bed on the night of her actual birthday

A few perks that MC is excited about that come with being 8:

1. She's legally free from the Utah state law of car seat until 8
2. She gets to go to Activity Days (which is like Merrie Miss for those who are just figuring these things out like I am) :)
3. And most importantly, she gets to be baptized (BTW we've changed the projected date to May 2nd due to conflicting schedules for the end of March...but now it seems that May might conflict too...oh well, we try) :)

Also of note for Molly's 8th year:

• we just got her teeth checked and she continues to be cavity free!! (How jealous am I?!?! I think I need another root canal....I'm amazed at my children's and husband's teeth!! I think they're made of ROCK!)
• she's 4'1" tall
• she's 52.5 lbs
• she wears size 7 in almost everything (except her long torso takes a size 8 in shirts)

The Rest of Our Nauvoo/Chicago Story....

We had a few days left before our return flight to SLC so this is what we did:

Friday we hit a water park. It was just the right thing to beat the heat!! BR wanted to invite his new-found friend/cousin: Spencer but they weren't able to make it. We had lots of fun anyway!! :)

On Saturday we tried to take the train into Chicago but alas it was going to eat up our whole day just waiting/riding/walking/returning from the train. We opted for driving and that helped but there were still drawbacks: traffic/propaganda/fog (so we couldn't see the great views of Chicago, ie the Sears Tower). Overall it worked for our good because we were able to go see the Museum of Science and Industry. That place was so cool and so huge that we all want to go back to Chicago just to go see it again!!! We wished we'd had about 2 days to spend there!! (Besides the rest of things to do/see in Chicago!)

The view we missed

*Photograph by J Crocker

Some of the highlights were:

• A scale model of the city of Chicago
• A live glass blowing/making exhibit
• A real German U-boat captured by the U.S. during WWII (Much to the disappointment of all, we didn't get to go inside because the tickets were sold out for the day!!!) :/
• A periscope from a real sub that we could look out of and see what was going on above us (outside the building)
• A submarine driving simulator that MC and BR got to take a turn driving. It was quite amusing to watch them and unfortunately their "mission failed" (they crashed). So that's another reason to go back. They want to try again. :)
• The kid's zone (which we had to race through because it was time to leave). :/

That evening we enjoyed dinner and socializing at the home of another of GM's cousins and her husband. We had a great evening there and the kids were quite dejected when it was time to leave.

Sunday morning we caught our airplane home and all were glad to be home.

*None quite so glad as BR because his grandparents had surprised him by moving out of his room the night before.

Nauvoo Family Reunion Last Day

(last day of the reunion that is)

On Thursday morning everybody who was going to see Carthage Jail had a rendezvous in the parking lot before heading out. On our way GM and I decided to stop at the temple one last time for some pictures.

In Carthage we had the tour with everybody,

posed for a group picture, had lunch and talked and played with cousins for a bit.

*Thanks Julie for the pics!!

After Carthage GM and I had a hankering for Ice Cream, it might have been due to the fact that there was a DQ just across the street. We couldn't help but stop.

With our treats in hand it was time to hit the road and head to Chicago for part 2 of our vacation. It was another long drive back, but thankfully this time it was not in the middle of the night. We stopped at a rest stop about halfway there...some of us were ready for more than a pit stop.

After playing for a while we saw a familiar car stop. It was Uncle Gary and Aunt Tina!! What are the odds?!?! :) They gave us directions to their house but once again we let Tiggy lead us astray and we took the long way. :P

That evening we spent with Uncle Gary, Aunt Tina, Amy and her kids, and Jason. It was a fun relaxing evening and we actually got time to spend talking, reminiscing and getting to know each other better. :P

Nauvoo Day 2

On Wednesday morning Uncle Gary had a tour guide arranged to tell us some great stories and history of Nauvoo and the people who first lived there. The kids colored and played a bit while the adults all listened to the stories. After that some people went to see the Joseph Smith movie but we decided to go explore Nauvoo. The kids had gone on a carriage ride with Ruth the day before and seen some things they wanted to go back and check out.

First stop was the Jonathan Browning Gunsmith home/shop

The kids' choice? Nope. (Can you tell by BR's expression?) :)

However, it was an obvious must see for GM. ;)

Checkin' out the guns

MC and her Daddy pretending to make a rifle barrel

After the Gunsmith we went to a few more little homes (We got to see a few of the homes with and PAWS and her honey). Then, at last, we made it to the place that the kids were dying to see: The Nauvoo children's game workshop. They had all sorts of games and toys that were used by the children of Nauvoo.

The bear climb

The Stilts

The Top/Spinny Things

Some we got and some not so much,
but almost all took some figurin'. :P

As we were finishing at the Pioneer games we realized lunch had started so we ran to meet everyone for lunch but found they'd already eaten and were listening to the tour guide agian so we listened and ate and then went to the old Nauvoo Burial Grounds with everybody.
It was a very beautiful, hallowed place.

While we were there our tour guide happened to meet a lady who's a decendant of King Follate and writing a book of his history. It was about to be published so he asked her to tell us some of his stories. Then we listened to other stories by the tour guide. It was a very touching experience and GM and I left with an even greater reverence for the sacrifices of the early saints.

We all split up after this and my little family went to the Community of Christ side of Nauvoo to see the Prophet's burial site and the old brick store. It was very interesting to go to their side of things. We didn't stick around to hear any of their thoughts or testimonies though. :P

GM then took the kids swimming at the hotel while I browsed the shops in town.

We ate dinner at the park with everyone and then our kids asked to have permission to go hang out with Steve and MM's gang. We didn't want to mooch baby-sitting out of them but they assured us it was ok so we got a free date night out of it. Woohoo. :)

We went to the shops for some souveneirs, got ice cream and took pics of the temple at sunset.

A Weekend of Firsts

This past General Conference weekend was quite monumental in the lives of my children.

First of all GM's parents sent some tickets to go to 2 sessions of General Conference in the Conference Center. We had 2 tickets per session so we decided to give BR first choice of going to either or both of the sessions since he's never been to conference. He was excited and wanted to go to both! (Saturday afternoon and Sunday morning).


So I took BR to the Saturday afternoon session. We drove there instead of taking the TRAX train because we also had a free parking pass. During the drive BR was counting down the minutes, literally until we were supposed to be in our seats!! Every minute he would recite to me how much time we had left and tell me his assessment of whether we'd make it there on time or not. He is SO his father's son! :) We made it there on time but getting to our seats was another story. It's mass chaos there!!!

BR was very excited to be there and had to check out everything!!! He stood up when everyone stood for the prophet's entrance but he couldn't see anything (being shorter than all the adults around us) and so he was very confused about why we were all standing so quietly until I explained to him afterward. He was also confused that the choir wasn't in their usual highly coordinated attire until, upon closer inspection, we realized that it wasn't the Tabernacle Choir at all but a choir of children; to which BR responded, "no fair!" I guess he thought that would be so cool to be in a children's choir at conference...mostly, for some reason, I think it was the chance to sit in those chairs. :)

Then he wanted to know what the strings hanging down were, if the big screens are projections or just really large TV screens, why there's a red light on the cameras that turns on and off intermittently, where all of the cameras are situated, whether they are remote controlled or just robotic cameras, and where the control station was. He had a fun time except that sitting still for 2 hours got a bit tiresome to him so he started replaying a funny mini-cartoon about aliens in his mind to which he couldn't help giggling uncontrollably (until I started threatening him). :P

In the rain at Conference

After Conference we were going to meet GM and MC downtown (they would be arriving on TRAX) at which point GM would leave MC with us and then he'd head to the Priesthood Session while we left on TRAX and he'd go back home in the car. It was a great plan except that I was in such a hurry when we parked that I had no clue what level we parked on in the parking garage!!! (I really can't use being in a rush as an excuse however because...it's a pretty common occurrence) :) I started to panic when I realized that I couldn't tell GM exactly where to find the car :/ until I asked BR if he knew what level we parked on. Of course my ever observant son saved me again!! (He's so his father's son!!!)

BR and I got to walk around Temple Square for a while after conference while we were waiting for GM to come with MC. We went to the visitor's center and explored that for a while, walked around outside (BR saw a protester with a sign as we were walking and the guy was shouting something to which BR whispered to me, "I think he's drunk") and went to a Deseret Book fair for a little while and bought a brownie to share. Around 5 we met up with the others and took TRAX out of SLC. We went to a "girls' night" party at my parents' house during priesthood with my mom, sisters and their kids (girls' night plus kids that is). The guys arrived later and we stayed partying and chatting till about midnight. (At which point we decided that trying to make it to the morning session of conference wasn't going to happen.)

Instead we sat at home an enjoyed conference all together. We sat up on our bed with our journals and watched conference while MC sat between us with her journal. She alternated between laying on my lap, drawing pictures in her journal and trying to copy what I was writing in my journal. At one point she said, "MOM, you're going way too fast!" :)


After conference the three of us were still lounging on our bed (BR was off playing legos most of the time) :) and MC pointed out her loose tooth. I convinced her to let me push on it and it was so loose that I popped it out. She had a shocked/surprised/alarmed face for two seconds and then she got all excited that she'd lost a tooth. After taking care of that tooth she hopped back up on our bed and proceeded to point out another loose tooth. This time her daddy convinced her to let him fiddle with it. He proceeded to snap a few roots on that tooth and so it was just barely hanging on but MC was alarmed enough that she didn't want him to finish. He told her that he was going to get floss to pop it out with because he didn't want her to choke on it while eating and that she had to pull it herself before he came back with the floss if she didn't want him to pull it. She did it just in the nick of time!! :) She was ecstatic! :) 2 teeth in one day!!! She showed us another loose tooth after that but wouldn't let us near it. :P

After conference I was stir-crazy and convinced my family to walk down to the lake with me. GM decided it would be a good time to also work on MC's bike riding skills so we brought her bike with us. She rode for several little segments on her own!! She could do it but she just doesn't trust herself or the bike yet, especially stopping. Instead of stopping with her brakes she just jumps off!!!! We were terrible parents and bribed bravery out of her by promising ice cream for dessert. :) Somehow she suddenly got a lot more brave though. :P

When we got back from our walk/bike ride/bribing spree MC started talking about that other loose tooth. Her terrible parents used bribery again and got her to let us pop the last tooth out!! :P So all in all MC lost 3 teeth in one day!! I told her it was a record. :) She's still quite proud of her puzzle mouth. *There are 4 holes in her smile, but only 3 are recent

Family Night 28 July 2008

For family night we decided to try our hands at kayaking again. This time we went a little more prepared: We brought towels (to sit on in the car), we wore swimsuits, GM didn't wear any of his "gear" that can rust or get in the way :P, and all who didn't wear sandals last time did this time. We also brought workout gloves in hopes we wouldn't get blisters this time (GM and I). It worked for GM, for me I got a tiny blister anyway and my hands turned orange from the orange dye in my leather work-out gloves. :P "No vale la pena!"











After kayaking we went to a nearby park for the kids to play for a while. Then we went to the pool for a quick swim and then returned home for family night treat.

Happy 4th of July Camping Trip: The last day

On our last morning, we had a simple breakfast, a leisurely clean-up and pack-up the following morning, but we were by no means ready to head home...well most of us that is (GM is usually ready to head home from trips a bit sooner than the rest of us, he's more of a home-body). The majority prevailed and we went out for one more adventure.









After some debate about what our last adventure would be, we went looking for one last hike. We wanted a cool, shady one. And we wanted one that stayed near water again. We found the perfect one. It followed along a small river and some of its tributaries however pretty soon it wanted to lead us up and away from the water but we wanted none of that; especially MC and I who both had on shoes that were optimal for getting wet. MC started meandering out into a tributary and with BR close behind hopping from rock to rock. (He had on pants and hiking shoes.)




GM preferred to stay on the trail most of the time, with a few little adventurings out among the wetlands. Pretty soon we made it over to the main part of the river. MC and BR wanted to experience sitting down in the river (since I'd been regaling them with stories of my days as a camp counselor and how we'd take our girls "bum-sliding" in the river).









However, after getting into the river, they didn't want to get out. We hiked back along the shallow tributary for a while, but it eventually dumped itself into the river at which point we had to make a decision. I could hardly resist BR and MC's enthusiasm for the adventure of traversing the river and soon we were making our way through the mossy rocks. We went under branches, around boulders, and through eddies for quite a ways with GM following along the trail. At one point we crossed to the other side, got out and forged a path through the forest until we found another place we could re-enter the river and finish our journey. We finally exited just before the trail ended at the parking lot, with BR and MC declaring it the “funnest hike ever!!”





(GM just shook his head and laughed at us...holding up a blanket for us to have a little privacy while we stripped out of our soggy clothes).

At last, all dry and happy, we grabbed some snacks from the back of the car and relinquished our vacation.