You have to admire that I'm writing this post from New Zealand, where we're visiting Scott's parents. They've been here for about a year on a mission, and wow were they excited to have some family come to see them! We Skype with them regularly, and Meredith had no problem at all recognizing them - - she calls them by name and has given them a million hugs and kisses. And she has cried when we've left their home to go back to our condo.
A word about other March happenings before I go on talking about our trip. At the beginning of the month our friends Todd and Carrie Brotherson came to Chicago for a visit. We knew them when Scott was in business school. They are wonderful people! Right now they both work at SVU - - Todd is the head of the business department and Carrie works on setting up travel for students. Anyway, we hadn't seen them for quite a few years and it was so fun to catch up! We stayed downtown with the kids (Ethan babysat while we went out to dinner). We ate at Morton's Steakhouse. You do not go there with dieting in mind. I had the best shrimp of my life, colossally sized, and lightly coated in bread crumbs with a cream sauce. Awesome!
Ethan is preparing for Philmont and went on a 7 mile hike with the scouts a couple of Saturdays ago. We're getting all his stuff gathered - - good shoes, good backback, first aid kit, etc. Also, Ethan received his Life Scout in March. He's been working hard to get those merit badges done and we're hoping to have his Eagle earned in 6 months. Once high school starts he's going to be so busy, and it will be nice to have his Eagle all done with.
Well we left on our trip on March 23rd. The boys had to miss a few days of school, but I don't think they minded all that much. Packing is getting more and more of a pain with all these people to pack for! But we've pretty much got it down to a science. Anyway we had a 4 hour flight to L.A. and then a 16 hour flight to Auckland. Both flights were delayed, but at least we didn't have to rush. The Admiral's club at LAX was amazing, with a great little play area for the kids. Good for them to work of some energy before having to sit for so many hours.
All the kids were good on the flights, and the one to NZ was quite pleasant. We flew Qantas, and even in coach it was fairly comfortable (in contrast with Iberian Air, which we flew last year. That was awful!) Anyway, we got to the airport in Auckland and it took forever to get through customs. They're very careful about anyone bringing in any outside fruit, etc. They even checked our shoes to make sure they didn't have any dirt on them. Once we were through we had a 5 hour drive to get to New Plymouth, where we're staying. We met Del and Carol and then together we went to our hotel. It's not really a hotel though, just several condos set up kind of like duplexes. Ours is very spacious, with 2 bedrooms, a kitchen, living room and dining room. The view is just unreal. Outside there is a hill going down and then a stream, and then another hill just covered with every color of green vegetation. It is, as Carol said, therapeutic. Just lovely. And very laid back - - the place is run by a couple of brothers who seem to do all the work themselves. The grounds are immaculate and gorgeous, and there are sheep here too!
I forgot to say that although our 5 hour drive was long and we were so tired and grimy, it was beautiful. This is such a green country! And we saw about a million sheep and cows and even some alpacas. It's fall here, so most of the flowers are done blooming, but there are a few left. Oleanders and hibiscus and the most amazing pampas grass I've ever seen just growing wild on the roadside. Carol and Del have really enjoyed being here.
We all had dinner at our condo, which Carol had thoughtfully prepared, and then we took much needed showers and went to bed. We have had no jet lag at all, which is amazing. We'll see if we're that lucky going back!
Saturday it rained most of the day, but we had fun anyway. After breakfast at Del and Carol's we went to a nice museum in Puke Ariki (pronounced poo-key, but Ethan and I had a good snicker about visiting the puke museum!) Anyway there were lots of interesting historical artifacts about the Maori people and then the first Europeans to come. We had lunch at an Indian place in the mall near the museum, and then we drove to a lovely park. It stopped raining long enough for us to take a nice walk and let the kids play on the playground. We met a man who had a 14-year old son with Down syndrome and had a good chat.
On Sunday we went to church, and Del spoke in sacrament meeting. He gave a great talk about the 4 cornerstones of a successful family - - prayer, scripture study, f.h.e., and temple attendance. Everyone was very friendly and we had fun visiting with another couple who had a daughter Meredith's age. After church we had a relaxing afternoon at Del and Carol's home. They have a nice back yard, and Meredith loved playing outside. She is definitely an outdoor girl!
Monday we went for a boat ride in the Tasmin Sea around some very small islands. Our captain, Captain Chaddy, is very well known in these parts. He was so sweet to Noah and let him steer the ship when it was calm. But it wasn't very calm most of the time - - it was one of the roughest boat rides I've ever been on! I'm so glad none of us got seasick! We did get soaked, however, and boy does that salt water do a number on your hair and skin! But the views were beautiful and the water was beautiful, and it was pretty exciting to be tipping all over like that. And we saw some seals on the rocks and a stingray near the shore. The captain takes care of blue penguins that get orphaned, but they've all left for the winter, unfortunately. That would have been fun to see!
Tuesday we got an earlier start, had breakfast with Carol and Del, and then drove to the base of Mount Taranake (also known as Mount Egmont). It is a dormant Volcano, and looks a lot like Mount Fuji. It's a very important part of the culture of the area, and there was a lovely visitor's center. Ethan and Scott had gotten their backpacks all ready and set off on a long hike. While they were exerting themselves with the hike, Carol and Del and I exerted ourselves watching Noah and Meredith. Not easy, because Meredith was tired and a little cranky. We were going to go to a small zoo, but it was closed. So we went for a nice walk in the park, and then set off in search of another zoo that some people told us about. It was a bit of a drive, but we found it at last. It was such a funny zoo - - very small, you could have walked it from end to end in 10 minutes. They had goats and emus (or rheas, not sure) and sheep you could feed, and there were ducks and chickens and pigeons just running around wild. Meredith and Noah just loved that. Then there were a couple of monkeys and apes, some very smelly pigs, and some beautiful white birds that said "hello." And then, of all things, 3 white royal bengal tigers! They were amazing! There were also 3 lions, sitting right up against the fence so we could get a very close looks at them. We really had a nice time.
Ethan and Scott didn't climb all the way to the top of the mountain, but they did get pretty close. I'm glad they didn't go any further, because it's very gravelly and dangerous up there. They hiked for almost 6 hours. Ethan is getting ready to start track as soon as he gets back in school, and he'll be in great shape! He and Scott have gone jogging several times here as well.
We are so so excited for Mom and Dad's mission call, especially because it's such an easy flight to go there to visit! I know you will be awesome missionaries!
We love you all!
Tuesday, March 29, 2011
Wednesday, March 2, 2011
Dear Family,
Ok, Mom, here’s the family letter, so I expect to see you on video-skype thanking me for it!
I usually end up being grateful that February is a short month. We started out with a huge blizzard (now called “the Blizzard of ’11). It was actually kind of fun - - Scott was out of town but he had helped to stock up on all the necessities, so we really had no need to go anywhere. The storm struck at night, and in the morning, wow! What a lot of snow! The wind had blown it right up against the front of our house in drifts as high as 5 feet. Obviously school was cancelled, for 2 days, actually, while people dug themselves out. I got the snow shovel and cleared a path from the front door to the driveway - - it took about an hour and a half. Ethan did some work on the driveway too, but then a snowplow guy came along and offered to do the rest of the driveway for $50. We jumped at the chance - - it would have taken us the rest of the day.
So we enjoyed our cozy time in the house together, and cabin fever only set in by late Friday. Fortunately Scott got home then and I was able to turn the kids over to him and have some much needed alone time!
The last 2 weeks of the month were marred by everyone in the house being sick with something or other. Meredith had the worst of it - - she was fussy and feverish and congested for several days so I took her to the doctor, and it turned out she had a double ear infection and one of her eardrums had ruptured! I felt so bad, I had no way of knowing her ears were involved! (This is the first time she’s had an ear infection.) She’s much better now, although still pretty moody and clingy. But she is absolutely wonderful about taking her medicine, unlike some other kids I could name!
Other than being sick, Mer-bear is doing great! She loves nothing more than to sit and read books with me, and she now knows (and constantly points out) the letter “o.” She has also learned all of her colors, and now we’re working on shapes. She’s saying quite a few words, although they’re mostly not so easy to understand. I recently bought her a couple of new shirts with butterflies and an elephant on them and she loves them! She is such a darling girl, truly the light of our lives!
Noah is doing great too. He found a long advertisement for “Shrek Live (the Musical)” on his Shrek 4 DVD and has watched it about a thousand times. That’s the new big bribe - - if he isn’t behaving we just ask if he wants to go see Shrek and he shapes up very quickly. He’s been drawing some wonderful pictures lately, many of them from Shrek, with lots of detail. It’s so fun! What a sweet little boy he is!
Onto my sweet big boy - - Ethan. Wow does he look grown up lately. He got a very nice haircut and is so handsome! I took him shopping for some clothes at Kohl’s recently, and I’m happy to say he has very nice taste - - just plain t-shirts with no writing on them, and plain button-down church shirts. He always looks very clean-cut. (I have to say, though, that he hated shopping, and I didn’t enjoy it much either - - next time he can go with Scott!)
We’re busy planning out our summer, and it is going to be crazy! Ethan has a week of scout camp, 2 weeks at Philmont (a scout camp in New Mexico) and a week of EFY. In between that all he’s somehow got to learn to type, and start gearing up for the start of both high school and seminary in the fall. Noah will have his summer day camp for 6 weeks, as well as a week-long overnight camp especially for kids with special needs. And if we can swing it he’ll do the weekend at Camp River Run in Idaho.
Scott and I are busy planning out the summer as well. We really hope to be able to go to Idaho at the very beginning of August to see those of you who live out that way. Scott continues to travel quite a bit for work, and play tennis here at home. He’s planning a trip for us for next Christmas - - he just loves the intricacies of finding the best and cheapest flights!
I’m busy with my calling in Primary - - boy do I love those kids! It is so fun working with them and coming up with creative ways to keep them singing. A couple of Sundays ago I let them pick animals for the song “Do as I’m Doing.” The best was when one kid picked the monkey. So we all sang and scratched like monkeys. You really have to be pretty uninhibited and unembarrassed to do what I do!!
On a completely different note, I’m studying Descartes and Hume in my online classes, and I’ve written several papers. Sometimes I feel like my head can wrap itself around all the information, but I do enjoy it, and so far I am doing well. I’m so glad I’m doing this, it’s nice to be able to do something completely different once in a while.
We love you all! Have a happy March and look forward to Spring!!!
Ok, Mom, here’s the family letter, so I expect to see you on video-skype thanking me for it!
I usually end up being grateful that February is a short month. We started out with a huge blizzard (now called “the Blizzard of ’11). It was actually kind of fun - - Scott was out of town but he had helped to stock up on all the necessities, so we really had no need to go anywhere. The storm struck at night, and in the morning, wow! What a lot of snow! The wind had blown it right up against the front of our house in drifts as high as 5 feet. Obviously school was cancelled, for 2 days, actually, while people dug themselves out. I got the snow shovel and cleared a path from the front door to the driveway - - it took about an hour and a half. Ethan did some work on the driveway too, but then a snowplow guy came along and offered to do the rest of the driveway for $50. We jumped at the chance - - it would have taken us the rest of the day.
So we enjoyed our cozy time in the house together, and cabin fever only set in by late Friday. Fortunately Scott got home then and I was able to turn the kids over to him and have some much needed alone time!
The last 2 weeks of the month were marred by everyone in the house being sick with something or other. Meredith had the worst of it - - she was fussy and feverish and congested for several days so I took her to the doctor, and it turned out she had a double ear infection and one of her eardrums had ruptured! I felt so bad, I had no way of knowing her ears were involved! (This is the first time she’s had an ear infection.) She’s much better now, although still pretty moody and clingy. But she is absolutely wonderful about taking her medicine, unlike some other kids I could name!
Other than being sick, Mer-bear is doing great! She loves nothing more than to sit and read books with me, and she now knows (and constantly points out) the letter “o.” She has also learned all of her colors, and now we’re working on shapes. She’s saying quite a few words, although they’re mostly not so easy to understand. I recently bought her a couple of new shirts with butterflies and an elephant on them and she loves them! She is such a darling girl, truly the light of our lives!
Noah is doing great too. He found a long advertisement for “Shrek Live (the Musical)” on his Shrek 4 DVD and has watched it about a thousand times. That’s the new big bribe - - if he isn’t behaving we just ask if he wants to go see Shrek and he shapes up very quickly. He’s been drawing some wonderful pictures lately, many of them from Shrek, with lots of detail. It’s so fun! What a sweet little boy he is!
Onto my sweet big boy - - Ethan. Wow does he look grown up lately. He got a very nice haircut and is so handsome! I took him shopping for some clothes at Kohl’s recently, and I’m happy to say he has very nice taste - - just plain t-shirts with no writing on them, and plain button-down church shirts. He always looks very clean-cut. (I have to say, though, that he hated shopping, and I didn’t enjoy it much either - - next time he can go with Scott!)
We’re busy planning out our summer, and it is going to be crazy! Ethan has a week of scout camp, 2 weeks at Philmont (a scout camp in New Mexico) and a week of EFY. In between that all he’s somehow got to learn to type, and start gearing up for the start of both high school and seminary in the fall. Noah will have his summer day camp for 6 weeks, as well as a week-long overnight camp especially for kids with special needs. And if we can swing it he’ll do the weekend at Camp River Run in Idaho.
Scott and I are busy planning out the summer as well. We really hope to be able to go to Idaho at the very beginning of August to see those of you who live out that way. Scott continues to travel quite a bit for work, and play tennis here at home. He’s planning a trip for us for next Christmas - - he just loves the intricacies of finding the best and cheapest flights!
I’m busy with my calling in Primary - - boy do I love those kids! It is so fun working with them and coming up with creative ways to keep them singing. A couple of Sundays ago I let them pick animals for the song “Do as I’m Doing.” The best was when one kid picked the monkey. So we all sang and scratched like monkeys. You really have to be pretty uninhibited and unembarrassed to do what I do!!
On a completely different note, I’m studying Descartes and Hume in my online classes, and I’ve written several papers. Sometimes I feel like my head can wrap itself around all the information, but I do enjoy it, and so far I am doing well. I’m so glad I’m doing this, it’s nice to be able to do something completely different once in a while.
We love you all! Have a happy March and look forward to Spring!!!
Thursday, February 3, 2011
Snow!
Wow! January went by so fast! We got home from our Christmas trip and just dived right back into school and work. Keeping busy distracts us from the grim weather. We’ve just experienced the “Blizzard of ‘11” - - about 2 feet of snow with heavy winds. The snow blew right up against the front of our house and it took me over an hour just to shovel a little pathway from the front door to the driveway. The snow was 4 ft. high in areas. Luckily we have not had to go anywhere and the power has stayed on, so we’re warm and happy. The kids haven’t had school for 2 days, but they will go back tomorrow (the blizzard was followed by sub-zero temps, which is what kept them home today). Scott is out of town and was concerned about us but we’ve been fine!
Scott has been traveling extensively, 3 or 4 nights almost every week. It’s stressful, but hopefully things will ease up in a couple more months. At least he enjoys what he is doing. The travel isn’t always fun for him though; I got an email from him yesterday bemoaning the fact that he was stuck on an airplane between 2 aggressive gum chewers. His worst nightmare!
I’m taking 2 classes this semester. One of them is just one credit: introduction to liberal studies. It’s pretty easy, just information about logic and arguments and how to write a convincing paper. The other class is much more time consuming. It’s called “Ways of Knowing,” and is about the scientific method, philosophy, etc. I’ve had some very challenging assignments. So far I’m doing ok, but I definitely have felt my brain working!
Meredith is such a cutie-pie! She is talking more and more. The other day she was carrying around a big bag over her shoulder like a purse. She would bring me a domino and set it down, then say “bye,” and go back to Noah’s room for another domino. She did it for about 30 minutes, over and over. So funny! She just loves to read and be read to, and we have about a million books, so I spend a good part of my day reading. She also loves Elmo and gets very excited when we watch and Elmo video together. She’s in nursery now and loves it. She plays very well with the other kids, although she finds it difficult to stay in her seat when I come in for singing time!
I love my calling as primary chorister and I am having so much fun coming up with ways to teach new songs to the kids. It’s a great calling because I’m only busy on Sundays, and I can do the prep whenever I have time during the week. I never pictured myself as a chorister, because I’m not much of a singer, for sure! But I really am enjoying myself.
(Meredith just came in the room and bit the end off of a crayon.) She loves to draw, but for some reason she keeps biting the crayons. Colored pencils are a better bet for her.
Noah has been doing a lot of drawing himself, and his pictures have become more detailed and recognizable. He likes to draw the family, the seasons (they’ve been discussing them in school), and animals. He drew a great lion the other day. He also has a little crush on a girl at school named “Hannah W.” He talks about her all the time. He’s been wearing his Sunday suit to school fairly frequently lately, maybe to impress her?
Ethan is working hard at school, especially on his math, which has become much more challenging. He will be registering for his high school classes in February, which is scary! He’s been accepted into several honors courses, which is great, but I don’t want him to get burned out. He went to the Klondike Derby last weekend and he and his fellow scouts worked very well together. He has fun hanging out with his friend Adam on the weekends. I’m proud of what a fine young man he is becoming!
Happy winter!
Scott has been traveling extensively, 3 or 4 nights almost every week. It’s stressful, but hopefully things will ease up in a couple more months. At least he enjoys what he is doing. The travel isn’t always fun for him though; I got an email from him yesterday bemoaning the fact that he was stuck on an airplane between 2 aggressive gum chewers. His worst nightmare!
I’m taking 2 classes this semester. One of them is just one credit: introduction to liberal studies. It’s pretty easy, just information about logic and arguments and how to write a convincing paper. The other class is much more time consuming. It’s called “Ways of Knowing,” and is about the scientific method, philosophy, etc. I’ve had some very challenging assignments. So far I’m doing ok, but I definitely have felt my brain working!
Meredith is such a cutie-pie! She is talking more and more. The other day she was carrying around a big bag over her shoulder like a purse. She would bring me a domino and set it down, then say “bye,” and go back to Noah’s room for another domino. She did it for about 30 minutes, over and over. So funny! She just loves to read and be read to, and we have about a million books, so I spend a good part of my day reading. She also loves Elmo and gets very excited when we watch and Elmo video together. She’s in nursery now and loves it. She plays very well with the other kids, although she finds it difficult to stay in her seat when I come in for singing time!
I love my calling as primary chorister and I am having so much fun coming up with ways to teach new songs to the kids. It’s a great calling because I’m only busy on Sundays, and I can do the prep whenever I have time during the week. I never pictured myself as a chorister, because I’m not much of a singer, for sure! But I really am enjoying myself.
(Meredith just came in the room and bit the end off of a crayon.) She loves to draw, but for some reason she keeps biting the crayons. Colored pencils are a better bet for her.
Noah has been doing a lot of drawing himself, and his pictures have become more detailed and recognizable. He likes to draw the family, the seasons (they’ve been discussing them in school), and animals. He drew a great lion the other day. He also has a little crush on a girl at school named “Hannah W.” He talks about her all the time. He’s been wearing his Sunday suit to school fairly frequently lately, maybe to impress her?
Ethan is working hard at school, especially on his math, which has become much more challenging. He will be registering for his high school classes in February, which is scary! He’s been accepted into several honors courses, which is great, but I don’t want him to get burned out. He went to the Klondike Derby last weekend and he and his fellow scouts worked very well together. He has fun hanging out with his friend Adam on the weekends. I’m proud of what a fine young man he is becoming!
Happy winter!
Sunday, January 9, 2011
Merry Christmas
December was a crazy month for us, filled with lots of travel and family fun. We started out by celebrating Noah’s 11th birthday. Can you believe he’s that old? We’d given Noah “Toy Story 3” a little early so he could watch it on our Thanksgiving trip, and he just loved it. When we asked him what he wanted for his birthday, he said he wanted a Toy Story 3 birthday cake. Even though Noah doesn’t like cake, he knows you can’t have a birthday without it! So I bought a Cosco cake and decorated it with little TS3 figurines. I took it to pack meeting so that Noah could celebrate with his church friends, and it was a big hit! Noah also wanted a computer for his b-day, and we found a cute play laptop. It’s fun to watch him use it - - he tries so hard to look just like his dad.
The next big event was the FINDS Christmas party. I’d been involved by making the invitations, which turned out really nicely. We had a lot of people come, almost 200. Just like every year, we had a big brunch and fun door prizes. The entertainment was a lady who danced with the kids, always a surefire hit. It was hilarious to watch Noah dancing with his little friends Leah and Vanessa. Meredith danced too, and everyone said how cute she was and how much she has grown. It was a great party.
As usual, I had to have all the Christmas stuff ready a week early, because we celebrated before we left on our trip. There was no way to take our presents or even our stocking stuff to Florida, our car was just too full (more on that later). So we celebrated Christmas one week early. As I told the young sons of a friend of ours (after his mom gave me a panicked look), we asked Santa to come a week early so we could celebrate before we left on our trip. (The son said, “I didn’t know you could do that!” and I replied that it was for special occasions only and required a lot of paperwork.)
We had planned to leave by noon, but after opening our presents and stockings we were just exhausted and the kids wanted to play with their stuff. Ethan got an “air-soft gun,” which is a rifle that shoots tiny bee bees, using compressed air. His friends all have them and enjoy playing together. It was a big deal for me to finally say yes to one, but Scott and Ethan wore me down. He has to always wear the safety gear and only play in certain areas outside. Ethan actually is a great shot, he did really well in target shooting at camp last summer. So he took his gun and played for a while at a friend’s house.
Noah got a zoo, it’s by Fisher-Price, and has 26 animals, one for each letter. It’s really cute. He was pretty excited when he got it. It is so fun to watch Noah open up his presents because he’s always so overjoyed with whatever he gets, even socks.
Meredith was so fun to buy for this year! She got some cute puzzles, some stuffed animals, and an Elmo doll. She loves Elmo. The doll she got says, “I love you” when you push on his hand. She was excited about the toys and wrapping paper. She also got a “feel” book about animals with fur or scales on the pages. In the picture she is feeling the fuzz with her face. She is so cute!
I gave Scott a framed picture of him with Ethan at Machu Picchu (thanks for the photo-editing, Mom!) He got me some cute matryoshka measuring cups from Signals. And Santa got us AT&T Uverse for the house (like Tivo but better). We’re sick of our internet/cable provider, too many glitches.
So after all the gift opening and playing and packing we didn’t leave until about 7 p.m. We’d discussed renting a minivan so we’d have a little more room, but once we got the car all packed we couldn’t bear the thought of unpacking and repacking everything, so we just said, “let’s go!” And we did. Scott is amazing at powering through and we drove all the way to Louisville, Kentucky. We got in around 2 a.m. and slept well. We left around 10 the next morning and drove straight through to Orlando, arriving again at about 2 a.m. We were packed in the car like sardines, but we made it work. Noah was in the far back, surrounded by suitcases, with his toys and pens and paper. He did wonderfully well. Ethan and Meredith were in the middle seat, with snacks and the diaper bag stacked in between them (so everyone had their own little space.) Meredith was a great little traveler too, and of course Ethan had his gameboy and DVD player, so he was loving life. We had the overhead DVD going too - - way too much Barney, but it kept Mer and Noah happy.
We stayed in a 2 bedroom condo in Orlando, which was great because we had space and a kitchen and laundry facilities. That is the way to do it if you’re staying for a while! The first day we were there we didn’t do much besides recover from the long drive. The resort had a kids’ club, so I took the kids over there and hung out for quite a while. There was a climbing thing and Meredith did a great job climbing up and going down the slide. It was so fun to watch her! That night we had dinner with one of our adoption agents that we had worked with the whole way through but had never met. It was wonderful to spend time with her, and she was so happy to be with one of her "success stories." Meredith was her usual darling self and the other kids were well-behaved. We had a great time.
The next 5 days we did 5 parks. Not the way I’d recommend it, because it’s very tiring, but there was a lot we wanted to see. Disney World is Noah’s favorite place on earth, so he was in heaven. The first day we went to Animal Kingdom, which was fun for Noah and Meredith. They got to see a lot of cool animals. Animal Kingdom is usually the least busy of the parks, but it was still pretty crowded.
The next day we went to Universal Studios and met up with our friends the Worthams. Their son Adam is one of Ethan’s best friends, and the 2 of them had a great time together. I was so glad they could hang out together, because my one worry about going to Disney was that Ethan would get bored with all the little kid stuff. It was good for Adam, too, because I don’t think he would have gone on the roller coasters without Ethan to egg him on. So we all had a lot of fun together. Universal opened up a Harry Potter section of their park in June, and we were looking forward to seeing it. I have to say I think the creators grossly underestimated how many people would be interested in it - - we had to get a ticket for what time we could enter that section of the park (and it wasn’t until about 6:00). It was so crowded! There was a line to get into the section, even though we had tickets. There were lines for all the rides. And, good grief, there were lines to get into the shops! Talk about a money maker. I did stand in line with Amy Wortham and her daughter Amanda to go into one shop (Honeydukes/Zonkos). It was fun, there were some cute candies and tricks, but it wasn’t amazing. What was amazing was the price - - $8 for a chocolate bar’s worth of chocolate in the shape of a wand. I was tempted by the “U-no-poo” candies, but even I could tell they were just m&ms in a fancy jar. I did buy some butter-beer for everyone though, after a 15 minute wait, and it was quite good - - like a very rich cream soda with a marshmallow-cream head on it. I would have regretted not tasting it. I wish they’d served it hot (they only served it cold or frozen). It was pretty chilly by then. Anyway I wouldn’t recommend going to Harry Potter land unless you’re a maniac (and there were a few people there in full wizarding robes!) until it gets a little less crowded!
The next day Ethan hung out with Adam at his family’s condo and Scott and Noah and Meredith and I went to the Magic Kingdom. This was the most fun for Noah because he got to go on the Peter Pan ride, his very favorite. Noah is a great person to go to Disney with because he gets a special needs pass and can go to the front of the lines. It is very helpful, especially when the lines are over an hour long! It was really fun taking Meredith on the little kid rides like Dumbo.
We went to Disney Hollywood Studios the next day, and then Epcot Center on Christmas. It was kind of weird already having had our Christmas, but we had a fun day. We really lucked out with the weather, it was cool but not bad and it only rained on the day that we left.
We drove to South Carolina and spent the night with some friends (Scott and Michelle) who have a beach house there. We’d known them for several years, and Michelle’s mom is our attorney (she specializes in special needs trusts). They have such a cute house, all the houses in the area are painted bright pastels, like the color of sherbet. Scott and Michelle have 2 cute boys, and the younger one was so enchanted by Meredith. He was 8, and he followed her around and wanted to help her and play with her, it was so cute! They also have a dog, a really old one, who is more like a rug than a dog, and Meredith fell in love with it and climbed all over it. Amazingly patient animal!
In the morning we walked on the beach and saw 2 dolphins less than 50 yards away. It was such a fun surprise! We walked around the cute little town a little, but it was really really cold. We left around noon and drove straight through to DC.
The next day Scott took Ethan and Meredith to Charlottesville, Virginia, to visit the UVA campus, and then they went to Buena Vista, where Southern Virginia University is located. They visited some friends of ours there as well. Noah and I hung out at the hotel and slept and then had dinner with Kim and Val and their kids that night. We went over to their house and hung out - - Noah and Spencer really bonded! It was so great to see them!
The next day Val and Ellie and I went shopping together. It will be so fun when Meredith is old enough to enjoy shopping (right now she kind of hates it!) Ellie is such a cutie and I was stunned by her bravery in getting her ears pierced without even a wince. We went to some cute stores and had hot chocolate and soft pretzels. So much fun! I wish we lived closer together!!!
We stayed in a hotel downtown the next 3 nights, a really nice one with a wonderful breakfast (yes, I pigged out). On Thursday Scott went to the Holocaust museum with Ethan and Meredith and then we met Kyle and Linzi and Evy for lunch at a Lebanese place. So great to see them, and I’m excited that they’re having a girl! Ethan went back to the hotel, but Scott and Noah and Meredith and I spent the afternoon at the National Zoo and had a blast seeing the animals. I love zoos.
The next day we visited some other friends that live in DC, Dave and Andrea and their son Jacob. Jacob has autism, so his mom and I had a lot in common to talk about. They used to live out here but we hadn’t seen them for quite a while. Andrea is a doctor (general practice). It was interesting to talk to another parent of a child with special needs. Autism is so difficult, and Jacob has some tough behavioral issues. He played nicely with us, but when our time was up he was very anxious for us to go! We made plans to see Dave and Andrea again sometime, without the kids, so we can have an uninterrupted conversation.
Then we went to Kim and Val’s house for New Year’s Eve. Kimball and Kyle were working in the basement and Scott went down to lend them moral support. He felt bad that he couldn’t help out but they were grouting tile, which you have to do on your knees, and Scott can’t kneel. Also he knows nothing about grouting. Val and I and Kimball did some cooking - - Ethan helped to make a delicious chicken salad. The kids had fun playing together - - although Taylor was a little wary of Meredith and she was fascinated by him and wouldn’t leave him alone! Noah and Spencer played Wii most of the time and got along great. It was fun to watch Ellie and Evy play with Meredith too. I was amazed at Val’s cooking skills, she made Betiza (spelling?) and it was amazing. We had lots of delicious food when we finally got the men to come upstairs and join us.
Then we went to the living room and had a long, involved discussion about . . . well, bathroom issues. I don’t know why we always end up talking about poopy accidents and hemorrhoids, but somehow we do. I laughed so hard my cheeks hurt. It was so fun! Oh I hope Kim and Val and Kyle and Linzi and the kids can all come and visit us in Chicago sometime!!! The best part of the whole trip was spending time with family!
The next morning we visited Katie and Dan, who had been stuck in NYC in the snowstorm. I wish we could have visited them for longer, but we had fun talking anyway. Then we hit the road and drove straight through to home. I don’t know how Scott does it, but he sure can drive for long periods of time!!!
We will be sending out individual thank yous, but we do appreciate the wonderful Christmas gifts from you all. I wish we all could have been together over the holidays, but I’m glad we could at least be with the East coasters. We wish you all a wonderful 2011!!!!
The next big event was the FINDS Christmas party. I’d been involved by making the invitations, which turned out really nicely. We had a lot of people come, almost 200. Just like every year, we had a big brunch and fun door prizes. The entertainment was a lady who danced with the kids, always a surefire hit. It was hilarious to watch Noah dancing with his little friends Leah and Vanessa. Meredith danced too, and everyone said how cute she was and how much she has grown. It was a great party.
As usual, I had to have all the Christmas stuff ready a week early, because we celebrated before we left on our trip. There was no way to take our presents or even our stocking stuff to Florida, our car was just too full (more on that later). So we celebrated Christmas one week early. As I told the young sons of a friend of ours (after his mom gave me a panicked look), we asked Santa to come a week early so we could celebrate before we left on our trip. (The son said, “I didn’t know you could do that!” and I replied that it was for special occasions only and required a lot of paperwork.)
We had planned to leave by noon, but after opening our presents and stockings we were just exhausted and the kids wanted to play with their stuff. Ethan got an “air-soft gun,” which is a rifle that shoots tiny bee bees, using compressed air. His friends all have them and enjoy playing together. It was a big deal for me to finally say yes to one, but Scott and Ethan wore me down. He has to always wear the safety gear and only play in certain areas outside. Ethan actually is a great shot, he did really well in target shooting at camp last summer. So he took his gun and played for a while at a friend’s house.
Noah got a zoo, it’s by Fisher-Price, and has 26 animals, one for each letter. It’s really cute. He was pretty excited when he got it. It is so fun to watch Noah open up his presents because he’s always so overjoyed with whatever he gets, even socks.
Meredith was so fun to buy for this year! She got some cute puzzles, some stuffed animals, and an Elmo doll. She loves Elmo. The doll she got says, “I love you” when you push on his hand. She was excited about the toys and wrapping paper. She also got a “feel” book about animals with fur or scales on the pages. In the picture she is feeling the fuzz with her face. She is so cute!
I gave Scott a framed picture of him with Ethan at Machu Picchu (thanks for the photo-editing, Mom!) He got me some cute matryoshka measuring cups from Signals. And Santa got us AT&T Uverse for the house (like Tivo but better). We’re sick of our internet/cable provider, too many glitches.
So after all the gift opening and playing and packing we didn’t leave until about 7 p.m. We’d discussed renting a minivan so we’d have a little more room, but once we got the car all packed we couldn’t bear the thought of unpacking and repacking everything, so we just said, “let’s go!” And we did. Scott is amazing at powering through and we drove all the way to Louisville, Kentucky. We got in around 2 a.m. and slept well. We left around 10 the next morning and drove straight through to Orlando, arriving again at about 2 a.m. We were packed in the car like sardines, but we made it work. Noah was in the far back, surrounded by suitcases, with his toys and pens and paper. He did wonderfully well. Ethan and Meredith were in the middle seat, with snacks and the diaper bag stacked in between them (so everyone had their own little space.) Meredith was a great little traveler too, and of course Ethan had his gameboy and DVD player, so he was loving life. We had the overhead DVD going too - - way too much Barney, but it kept Mer and Noah happy.
We stayed in a 2 bedroom condo in Orlando, which was great because we had space and a kitchen and laundry facilities. That is the way to do it if you’re staying for a while! The first day we were there we didn’t do much besides recover from the long drive. The resort had a kids’ club, so I took the kids over there and hung out for quite a while. There was a climbing thing and Meredith did a great job climbing up and going down the slide. It was so fun to watch her! That night we had dinner with one of our adoption agents that we had worked with the whole way through but had never met. It was wonderful to spend time with her, and she was so happy to be with one of her "success stories." Meredith was her usual darling self and the other kids were well-behaved. We had a great time.
The next 5 days we did 5 parks. Not the way I’d recommend it, because it’s very tiring, but there was a lot we wanted to see. Disney World is Noah’s favorite place on earth, so he was in heaven. The first day we went to Animal Kingdom, which was fun for Noah and Meredith. They got to see a lot of cool animals. Animal Kingdom is usually the least busy of the parks, but it was still pretty crowded.
The next day we went to Universal Studios and met up with our friends the Worthams. Their son Adam is one of Ethan’s best friends, and the 2 of them had a great time together. I was so glad they could hang out together, because my one worry about going to Disney was that Ethan would get bored with all the little kid stuff. It was good for Adam, too, because I don’t think he would have gone on the roller coasters without Ethan to egg him on. So we all had a lot of fun together. Universal opened up a Harry Potter section of their park in June, and we were looking forward to seeing it. I have to say I think the creators grossly underestimated how many people would be interested in it - - we had to get a ticket for what time we could enter that section of the park (and it wasn’t until about 6:00). It was so crowded! There was a line to get into the section, even though we had tickets. There were lines for all the rides. And, good grief, there were lines to get into the shops! Talk about a money maker. I did stand in line with Amy Wortham and her daughter Amanda to go into one shop (Honeydukes/Zonkos). It was fun, there were some cute candies and tricks, but it wasn’t amazing. What was amazing was the price - - $8 for a chocolate bar’s worth of chocolate in the shape of a wand. I was tempted by the “U-no-poo” candies, but even I could tell they were just m&ms in a fancy jar. I did buy some butter-beer for everyone though, after a 15 minute wait, and it was quite good - - like a very rich cream soda with a marshmallow-cream head on it. I would have regretted not tasting it. I wish they’d served it hot (they only served it cold or frozen). It was pretty chilly by then. Anyway I wouldn’t recommend going to Harry Potter land unless you’re a maniac (and there were a few people there in full wizarding robes!) until it gets a little less crowded!
The next day Ethan hung out with Adam at his family’s condo and Scott and Noah and Meredith and I went to the Magic Kingdom. This was the most fun for Noah because he got to go on the Peter Pan ride, his very favorite. Noah is a great person to go to Disney with because he gets a special needs pass and can go to the front of the lines. It is very helpful, especially when the lines are over an hour long! It was really fun taking Meredith on the little kid rides like Dumbo.
We went to Disney Hollywood Studios the next day, and then Epcot Center on Christmas. It was kind of weird already having had our Christmas, but we had a fun day. We really lucked out with the weather, it was cool but not bad and it only rained on the day that we left.
We drove to South Carolina and spent the night with some friends (Scott and Michelle) who have a beach house there. We’d known them for several years, and Michelle’s mom is our attorney (she specializes in special needs trusts). They have such a cute house, all the houses in the area are painted bright pastels, like the color of sherbet. Scott and Michelle have 2 cute boys, and the younger one was so enchanted by Meredith. He was 8, and he followed her around and wanted to help her and play with her, it was so cute! They also have a dog, a really old one, who is more like a rug than a dog, and Meredith fell in love with it and climbed all over it. Amazingly patient animal!
In the morning we walked on the beach and saw 2 dolphins less than 50 yards away. It was such a fun surprise! We walked around the cute little town a little, but it was really really cold. We left around noon and drove straight through to DC.
The next day Scott took Ethan and Meredith to Charlottesville, Virginia, to visit the UVA campus, and then they went to Buena Vista, where Southern Virginia University is located. They visited some friends of ours there as well. Noah and I hung out at the hotel and slept and then had dinner with Kim and Val and their kids that night. We went over to their house and hung out - - Noah and Spencer really bonded! It was so great to see them!
The next day Val and Ellie and I went shopping together. It will be so fun when Meredith is old enough to enjoy shopping (right now she kind of hates it!) Ellie is such a cutie and I was stunned by her bravery in getting her ears pierced without even a wince. We went to some cute stores and had hot chocolate and soft pretzels. So much fun! I wish we lived closer together!!!
We stayed in a hotel downtown the next 3 nights, a really nice one with a wonderful breakfast (yes, I pigged out). On Thursday Scott went to the Holocaust museum with Ethan and Meredith and then we met Kyle and Linzi and Evy for lunch at a Lebanese place. So great to see them, and I’m excited that they’re having a girl! Ethan went back to the hotel, but Scott and Noah and Meredith and I spent the afternoon at the National Zoo and had a blast seeing the animals. I love zoos.
The next day we visited some other friends that live in DC, Dave and Andrea and their son Jacob. Jacob has autism, so his mom and I had a lot in common to talk about. They used to live out here but we hadn’t seen them for quite a while. Andrea is a doctor (general practice). It was interesting to talk to another parent of a child with special needs. Autism is so difficult, and Jacob has some tough behavioral issues. He played nicely with us, but when our time was up he was very anxious for us to go! We made plans to see Dave and Andrea again sometime, without the kids, so we can have an uninterrupted conversation.
Then we went to Kim and Val’s house for New Year’s Eve. Kimball and Kyle were working in the basement and Scott went down to lend them moral support. He felt bad that he couldn’t help out but they were grouting tile, which you have to do on your knees, and Scott can’t kneel. Also he knows nothing about grouting. Val and I and Kimball did some cooking - - Ethan helped to make a delicious chicken salad. The kids had fun playing together - - although Taylor was a little wary of Meredith and she was fascinated by him and wouldn’t leave him alone! Noah and Spencer played Wii most of the time and got along great. It was fun to watch Ellie and Evy play with Meredith too. I was amazed at Val’s cooking skills, she made Betiza (spelling?) and it was amazing. We had lots of delicious food when we finally got the men to come upstairs and join us.
Then we went to the living room and had a long, involved discussion about . . . well, bathroom issues. I don’t know why we always end up talking about poopy accidents and hemorrhoids, but somehow we do. I laughed so hard my cheeks hurt. It was so fun! Oh I hope Kim and Val and Kyle and Linzi and the kids can all come and visit us in Chicago sometime!!! The best part of the whole trip was spending time with family!
The next morning we visited Katie and Dan, who had been stuck in NYC in the snowstorm. I wish we could have visited them for longer, but we had fun talking anyway. Then we hit the road and drove straight through to home. I don’t know how Scott does it, but he sure can drive for long periods of time!!!
We will be sending out individual thank yous, but we do appreciate the wonderful Christmas gifts from you all. I wish we all could have been together over the holidays, but I’m glad we could at least be with the East coasters. We wish you all a wonderful 2011!!!!
Monday, December 6, 2010
Thanksgiving Trip
Happy Holidays! This is what I like to call the crazy season. As Christmas nears I get more and more nuts. This year I’m trying to step back and just enjoy the spirit of Christmas. And if everything doesn’t get done perfectly that’s ok, right? (Mom, why did you raise me to be such a perfectionist?)
We had a fun and eventful November. The big thing was our Thanksgiving trip. It is difficult to get good, cheap flights within the US this time of year so, as usual, we went somewhere else. (It’s a good thing we didn’t try Idaho, because we probably would have been held up by the snow, always a risk out there in winter. One night in the Malad middle school is enough for me!) Anyway Scott had a trip to Spain all planned out for us. Remember how he said travel would slow down after our flight benefits ran out? Ha! He’s traveling so much for work that he has a ton of frequent flyer miles and hotel points, so we can still get around and satisfy his wanderlust.
The flight to Madrid was fine until we were landing and Meredith threw up all over Scott. It was awful, and he couldn’t take her to the bathroom because the seatbelt sign was on and we were about to touch down. Very messy and smelly. Otherwise it was ok and Noah did quite well. We had a long layover and then a flight to Malaga (only an hour) and about an hour’s drive to Marbella, where we stayed. We stayed in a 2 bedroom condo - - it was so nice to have a kitchen and laundry! It was late so we went to bed, trying to stave off jet lag. It worked pretty well, and the kids slept soundly. Meredith really did great sleeping-wise.
The next day we kind of had a lazy day recovering from the flying. It was nice to just hang out together. We’d given Noah “Toy Story 3” as an early birthday present and he watched it about a million times. He just loved it, and it was fun to see him enjoying it. Noah is very active when he watches movies, he uses his toys to act out the scenes and sings along with the music - - it’s really cute.
For dinner we went into Marbella and ate at a delicious Lebanese restaurant. Wonderful food! I’m so glad my kids are adventurous about eating! I hope Meredith grows up to be as good an eater as her brothers. After dinner we wandered around the town and looked in the shops. Marbella is right on the coast and is a very popular place with wealthy Europeans, especially those from England. The shops were very expensive, but I was still tempted by the darling baby clothes (I resisted).
In the morning we went to a little town called Ronda, which is famous because it is built around a very deep ravine. Pretty amazing views! The places we visited on this trip were a fair distance away, one to two hours, but we didn’t mind the drive. We’d rented a mini-van, and Noah had the back seat to himself, where he quietly played with his stuffed animals and drew. Meredith and Ethan had the middle seat, and Ethan’s ipod kept him happy. And Scott had his GPS, which made us both happy.
The next morning we went to the Alhambra. I’d read about it but really didn’t know what to expect. It was amazing! The tilework was beautiful. We spent a good amount of time wandering around the gardens. We got to take a tour inside, but we had to make it kind of quick because Mer got fussy. The ceilings were pretty spectacular. We also met a nice young man from England (Leeds) who took a cute picture of Noah and Meredith and later emailed it to us. We always meet such nice people when we travel!
One thing you can easily get in Spain is good pizza, pasta, and gelato, so that’s what we had for dinner. When we eat out with Noah and Meredith it is usually a pretty fast meal. We have to be able to make a quick getaway in case of an outburst. One of the things we do when we travel is take along Trivial Pursuit cards and ask questions during the meal. We make up animal questions for Noah, and he loves to answer them.
The next day was Wednesday, and we didn’t do a lot until the afternoon. We’d brought games and we had internet access. Scott and Ethan went swimming with Meredith and Noah went to the kids’ club, which gave me some time to work on my paper for my class. (I’m still working on it, it’s due December 17th.) This was the first trip where I brought along my Kindle, and it was wonderful! No heavy backpack full of paperback books! I really enjoy it for travel, although I like regular books when I’m at home. One problem with the Kindle is a lot of the books you download have typos - - one of them was entirely unreadable. Anyway in the afternoon we went to the town Mijas, which was very cute, and had a nice dinner. It was fun walking around together.
On our trip I got a little owie, Meredith bonked the back of her head into my eyebrow bone, leaving me with quite a shiner. It looks like I’ve got very vibrant green and purple eyeshadow on. And it’s still there, almost 2 weeks later! When Noah sees it he says, “yook!”
Thursday was Thanksgiving. We’ve had some unusual Thanksgivings, and this was no different. We got up early-ish and went to Gibraltar. It is a British overseas territory located on the southern end of the Iberian Peninsula at the entrance of the Mediterranean. Its isthmus connects to the north with Spain. The Rock of Gibraltar is the major landmark of the region and about 40,000 people live there. The Rock itself is pretty amazing, it is huge! It ended up being most cost effective to hire a tour guide to drive us (we didn’t take our car there, we parked it in Spain. You have to go through customs to get into Gibraltar.) Our guide was very nice and knowledgeable. We first went to some neat caves with lots of stalactites and stalagmites. Then we went to an area where we saw the famous apes of Gibraltar (they are Barbary apes). They were very friendly and we had to hold the little kids back a little. I was nervous, having been menaced by monkeys twice before, but this time they left me alone. We got some great pictures.
Next we visited another set of caves which were used during WWI and WWII. The whole area had been made into a museum, which was quite interesting. Our guide took us back to the main square where we had lunch and then spent some time shopping. Everything was very expensive, but it was fun to look! When it came time to go back we had to cross an active runway. This was Scott’s favorite part of the trip. There is only one runway at the airport there, and only a few flights a day go in and out. So a large street crosses the runway and they shut it down when a plane is landing or taking off. Pretty cool!
After a long day we were too tired to go out to eat (and I doubt the kids would have made it). The hotel had a Thanksgiving dinner special, but it was very expensive, and we’d had breakfast at the restaurant there and it wasn’t all that great. So instead we went to the grocery store and bought bread and crackers and cheese and salami and fruit and cookies and ice cream. Ultrafeast! A non-traditional but very fun Thanksgiving dinner, and we counted our blessings. We truly are so thankful for our family and for the gospel.
Our visit to Morocco was the best day. We had to drive to Terife, Spain, where there was a ferry that took us across the Strait of Gibraltar to Tangier. Morocco is part of Africa, and we were able to take pictures at the northernmost point of the continent. Our guide met us when we got off the very, a very nice man named Aziz. He also was the guide for Rick Steves, who has a travel show, and we actually saw an episode they did about Spain and Morocco and Aziz was in it! He really bonded with Noah and later sent us a couple of very sweet emails, including one to Noah for his birthday.
Ethan’s favorite place was Morocco, because the movie “The Bourne Ultimatum” had several scenes filmed there. Aziz and our driver (Mohammad) had both worked on the set of the movie, so they took us to all the spots, including a café, a place where a car bomb exploded, and the scene of a rooftop chase (Ethan and Scott actually got to go up to the rooftop!) It was very exciting for him!
Morocco is a very interesting country. It is a mixture of many cultures and religions. Officially it is an Islamic country, but Aziz pointed out a Catholic church and a Jewish synagogue before we came to our first mosque. The official language is Arabic, second is French (there is a lot of French influence there, and the street signs are in both Arabic and French). The third most common language is Spanish, and the fourth is English. The people there were all very friendly, and they were entranced by Meredith and her blond hair. One little girl came right up to her and kissed her on the cheek! And people were very friendly to Noah as well.
Aziz drove us through some of the wealthy areas, past where the king of Morocco has a palace (the capital is Rabat, which is where the main palace is.) For many years Tangier didn’t have a great reputation, but over the past 10 years, since the king came into power, it has undergone great changes, a big clean-up and more new construction than I’ve ever seen anywhere. There is a lot to recommend it as a tourist destination, including beautiful preserved land and pristine beaches.
On the side of the road was a “camel stand” for tourists - - you paid a few euros and got to ride a camel. There were 3 big ones and a baby (cute!) So of course we stopped, and Scott and Meredith, Noah and I, and Ethan all rode the 3 big camels. We got some great pictures and it was very fun. Afterwards Aziz said he’d take us to the best restrooms in Tangier to freshen up. Turns out he knew the owner of a gorgeous small hotel, and we got to go in and use the facilities (which were as lovely as promised.) Aziz seemed to know just about everybody; he was a wonderful guide. Ethan was happy because it was the same hotel where Matt Damon stayed during the filming of the Bourne movie.
We visited some very interesting ancient caves next. They are called the Hercules caves, and the outermost part was formed naturally. But the inner rooms were made by early people carving out huge flat circular stones to grind grains. You could see where some partially carved out stones were. It was fascinating.
We had lunch at a very typical Moroccan restaurant - - the most delicious couscous with a topping of vegetables and raisins, of all things. They were boiled and very sweet and tasty. We also had chicken and lamb kabobs. Then to work off our feast we walked around the downtown, including a neat outdoor market (there were plucked, headless chickens hanging up, causing Noah to ask, “What happened?”) Really cool displays of many different types of olives. The climate there is very temperate and they can grow all kinds of fruits and veggies.
Our last stop was a rug shop. It was kind of a hard sell, but we enjoyed it anyway. Meredith just roamed around on the carpets, while we learned about the different types and styles. Scott was a great haggler and we bought a small rug for a very good price, a nice souvenir of our trip that is now in the music room. We really enjoyed ourselves, especially Noah, who pretended he was selling rugs too. We were sorry to say goodbye, it was such a fun day!
We were so lucky, weatherwise, on this trip. Almost every day rain was forecast, but we didn’t get rained on at all. On the day we went to Morocco it rained as we were driving to Terife, then stopped the whole time we were out. About 5 minutes after we got back into our car to go back to the hotel it started pouring. It did rain all day the next day, but we’d planned on having a lazy day and just hanging out at the hotel anyway, so it was fine.
So our Saturday was a lazy day and then the next day we flew home. Our flights were uneventful - - but here’s a tip: never fly Iberian airlines. The food was inedible and the service was poor. Both Meredith and Noah behaved themselves, although Mer only slept about 30 minutes on the 9-hour flight. Wow, were we beat when we got home! Now we’re on reverse jet lag, where we fall asleep early and wake up at 4 or 5:00. I get so much done in the mornings, but I’m pretty useless after about 7:00 p.m. We’re finally unpacked and getting into the swing of the holiday season. We wish you all joy as you prepare for Christmas. Remember the reason we celebrate this holiday!
We had a fun and eventful November. The big thing was our Thanksgiving trip. It is difficult to get good, cheap flights within the US this time of year so, as usual, we went somewhere else. (It’s a good thing we didn’t try Idaho, because we probably would have been held up by the snow, always a risk out there in winter. One night in the Malad middle school is enough for me!) Anyway Scott had a trip to Spain all planned out for us. Remember how he said travel would slow down after our flight benefits ran out? Ha! He’s traveling so much for work that he has a ton of frequent flyer miles and hotel points, so we can still get around and satisfy his wanderlust.
The flight to Madrid was fine until we were landing and Meredith threw up all over Scott. It was awful, and he couldn’t take her to the bathroom because the seatbelt sign was on and we were about to touch down. Very messy and smelly. Otherwise it was ok and Noah did quite well. We had a long layover and then a flight to Malaga (only an hour) and about an hour’s drive to Marbella, where we stayed. We stayed in a 2 bedroom condo - - it was so nice to have a kitchen and laundry! It was late so we went to bed, trying to stave off jet lag. It worked pretty well, and the kids slept soundly. Meredith really did great sleeping-wise.
The next day we kind of had a lazy day recovering from the flying. It was nice to just hang out together. We’d given Noah “Toy Story 3” as an early birthday present and he watched it about a million times. He just loved it, and it was fun to see him enjoying it. Noah is very active when he watches movies, he uses his toys to act out the scenes and sings along with the music - - it’s really cute.
For dinner we went into Marbella and ate at a delicious Lebanese restaurant. Wonderful food! I’m so glad my kids are adventurous about eating! I hope Meredith grows up to be as good an eater as her brothers. After dinner we wandered around the town and looked in the shops. Marbella is right on the coast and is a very popular place with wealthy Europeans, especially those from England. The shops were very expensive, but I was still tempted by the darling baby clothes (I resisted).
In the morning we went to a little town called Ronda, which is famous because it is built around a very deep ravine. Pretty amazing views! The places we visited on this trip were a fair distance away, one to two hours, but we didn’t mind the drive. We’d rented a mini-van, and Noah had the back seat to himself, where he quietly played with his stuffed animals and drew. Meredith and Ethan had the middle seat, and Ethan’s ipod kept him happy. And Scott had his GPS, which made us both happy.
The next morning we went to the Alhambra. I’d read about it but really didn’t know what to expect. It was amazing! The tilework was beautiful. We spent a good amount of time wandering around the gardens. We got to take a tour inside, but we had to make it kind of quick because Mer got fussy. The ceilings were pretty spectacular. We also met a nice young man from England (Leeds) who took a cute picture of Noah and Meredith and later emailed it to us. We always meet such nice people when we travel!
One thing you can easily get in Spain is good pizza, pasta, and gelato, so that’s what we had for dinner. When we eat out with Noah and Meredith it is usually a pretty fast meal. We have to be able to make a quick getaway in case of an outburst. One of the things we do when we travel is take along Trivial Pursuit cards and ask questions during the meal. We make up animal questions for Noah, and he loves to answer them.
The next day was Wednesday, and we didn’t do a lot until the afternoon. We’d brought games and we had internet access. Scott and Ethan went swimming with Meredith and Noah went to the kids’ club, which gave me some time to work on my paper for my class. (I’m still working on it, it’s due December 17th.) This was the first trip where I brought along my Kindle, and it was wonderful! No heavy backpack full of paperback books! I really enjoy it for travel, although I like regular books when I’m at home. One problem with the Kindle is a lot of the books you download have typos - - one of them was entirely unreadable. Anyway in the afternoon we went to the town Mijas, which was very cute, and had a nice dinner. It was fun walking around together.
On our trip I got a little owie, Meredith bonked the back of her head into my eyebrow bone, leaving me with quite a shiner. It looks like I’ve got very vibrant green and purple eyeshadow on. And it’s still there, almost 2 weeks later! When Noah sees it he says, “yook!”
Thursday was Thanksgiving. We’ve had some unusual Thanksgivings, and this was no different. We got up early-ish and went to Gibraltar. It is a British overseas territory located on the southern end of the Iberian Peninsula at the entrance of the Mediterranean. Its isthmus connects to the north with Spain. The Rock of Gibraltar is the major landmark of the region and about 40,000 people live there. The Rock itself is pretty amazing, it is huge! It ended up being most cost effective to hire a tour guide to drive us (we didn’t take our car there, we parked it in Spain. You have to go through customs to get into Gibraltar.) Our guide was very nice and knowledgeable. We first went to some neat caves with lots of stalactites and stalagmites. Then we went to an area where we saw the famous apes of Gibraltar (they are Barbary apes). They were very friendly and we had to hold the little kids back a little. I was nervous, having been menaced by monkeys twice before, but this time they left me alone. We got some great pictures.
Next we visited another set of caves which were used during WWI and WWII. The whole area had been made into a museum, which was quite interesting. Our guide took us back to the main square where we had lunch and then spent some time shopping. Everything was very expensive, but it was fun to look! When it came time to go back we had to cross an active runway. This was Scott’s favorite part of the trip. There is only one runway at the airport there, and only a few flights a day go in and out. So a large street crosses the runway and they shut it down when a plane is landing or taking off. Pretty cool!
After a long day we were too tired to go out to eat (and I doubt the kids would have made it). The hotel had a Thanksgiving dinner special, but it was very expensive, and we’d had breakfast at the restaurant there and it wasn’t all that great. So instead we went to the grocery store and bought bread and crackers and cheese and salami and fruit and cookies and ice cream. Ultrafeast! A non-traditional but very fun Thanksgiving dinner, and we counted our blessings. We truly are so thankful for our family and for the gospel.
Our visit to Morocco was the best day. We had to drive to Terife, Spain, where there was a ferry that took us across the Strait of Gibraltar to Tangier. Morocco is part of Africa, and we were able to take pictures at the northernmost point of the continent. Our guide met us when we got off the very, a very nice man named Aziz. He also was the guide for Rick Steves, who has a travel show, and we actually saw an episode they did about Spain and Morocco and Aziz was in it! He really bonded with Noah and later sent us a couple of very sweet emails, including one to Noah for his birthday.
Ethan’s favorite place was Morocco, because the movie “The Bourne Ultimatum” had several scenes filmed there. Aziz and our driver (Mohammad) had both worked on the set of the movie, so they took us to all the spots, including a café, a place where a car bomb exploded, and the scene of a rooftop chase (Ethan and Scott actually got to go up to the rooftop!) It was very exciting for him!
Morocco is a very interesting country. It is a mixture of many cultures and religions. Officially it is an Islamic country, but Aziz pointed out a Catholic church and a Jewish synagogue before we came to our first mosque. The official language is Arabic, second is French (there is a lot of French influence there, and the street signs are in both Arabic and French). The third most common language is Spanish, and the fourth is English. The people there were all very friendly, and they were entranced by Meredith and her blond hair. One little girl came right up to her and kissed her on the cheek! And people were very friendly to Noah as well.
Aziz drove us through some of the wealthy areas, past where the king of Morocco has a palace (the capital is Rabat, which is where the main palace is.) For many years Tangier didn’t have a great reputation, but over the past 10 years, since the king came into power, it has undergone great changes, a big clean-up and more new construction than I’ve ever seen anywhere. There is a lot to recommend it as a tourist destination, including beautiful preserved land and pristine beaches.
On the side of the road was a “camel stand” for tourists - - you paid a few euros and got to ride a camel. There were 3 big ones and a baby (cute!) So of course we stopped, and Scott and Meredith, Noah and I, and Ethan all rode the 3 big camels. We got some great pictures and it was very fun. Afterwards Aziz said he’d take us to the best restrooms in Tangier to freshen up. Turns out he knew the owner of a gorgeous small hotel, and we got to go in and use the facilities (which were as lovely as promised.) Aziz seemed to know just about everybody; he was a wonderful guide. Ethan was happy because it was the same hotel where Matt Damon stayed during the filming of the Bourne movie.
We visited some very interesting ancient caves next. They are called the Hercules caves, and the outermost part was formed naturally. But the inner rooms were made by early people carving out huge flat circular stones to grind grains. You could see where some partially carved out stones were. It was fascinating.
We had lunch at a very typical Moroccan restaurant - - the most delicious couscous with a topping of vegetables and raisins, of all things. They were boiled and very sweet and tasty. We also had chicken and lamb kabobs. Then to work off our feast we walked around the downtown, including a neat outdoor market (there were plucked, headless chickens hanging up, causing Noah to ask, “What happened?”) Really cool displays of many different types of olives. The climate there is very temperate and they can grow all kinds of fruits and veggies.
Our last stop was a rug shop. It was kind of a hard sell, but we enjoyed it anyway. Meredith just roamed around on the carpets, while we learned about the different types and styles. Scott was a great haggler and we bought a small rug for a very good price, a nice souvenir of our trip that is now in the music room. We really enjoyed ourselves, especially Noah, who pretended he was selling rugs too. We were sorry to say goodbye, it was such a fun day!
We were so lucky, weatherwise, on this trip. Almost every day rain was forecast, but we didn’t get rained on at all. On the day we went to Morocco it rained as we were driving to Terife, then stopped the whole time we were out. About 5 minutes after we got back into our car to go back to the hotel it started pouring. It did rain all day the next day, but we’d planned on having a lazy day and just hanging out at the hotel anyway, so it was fine.
So our Saturday was a lazy day and then the next day we flew home. Our flights were uneventful - - but here’s a tip: never fly Iberian airlines. The food was inedible and the service was poor. Both Meredith and Noah behaved themselves, although Mer only slept about 30 minutes on the 9-hour flight. Wow, were we beat when we got home! Now we’re on reverse jet lag, where we fall asleep early and wake up at 4 or 5:00. I get so much done in the mornings, but I’m pretty useless after about 7:00 p.m. We’re finally unpacked and getting into the swing of the holiday season. We wish you all joy as you prepare for Christmas. Remember the reason we celebrate this holiday!
Sunday, October 31, 2010
Thank Goodness it's nearly November
Parts of October were great, but the last 3 weeks have been pretty incredibly stressful. The first 10 days Scott and Ethan went to Peru. Yeah, I know. Amazing! Really they did have a fantastic time as you can see from the pictures. I was a little bit jealous, but I also had fun because Omi came out to visit me! She brought out lots and lots of fabric and put together some really cute quilt kits for the hume room. I had projects too. I was recently called as the new primary chorister and Omi helped me (actually she did most of it)make a really fun poster of a thumbs up/thumbs down (for when the kids are singing well, or not so well.) I made a couple of other posters too. We got a babysitter a couple of times and went shopping sans kids, which was a real treat. Amazing how many stores you can visit when you aren't dragging the kids around. But the most fun we had was with the kids. Noah was thrilled to see his Omi, even though it kind of upset the even tenor of his way. Noah likes his little routines, and I think he associated Omi coming with Scott and Ethan going, because a couple of times he told her to pack her suitcase. Maybe he thought that would bring his dad home sooner. But he really did enjoy having her visit and they had some nice talks. The one who really bonded with Omi for the first time was Meredith. They hadn't been able to spend much time together prior to this and I don't think I'm wrong in saying that Omi totally fell in love. Meredith is such a friendly little sweetheart and she gave Omi lots of hugs and loves. She is at the most fun age, learning new words, toddling around, and being so interested in everything and everyone. Her first word was hi, and she says it to everyone, including people in stores, parking lots, she just loves the world. She loves the animal kingdom too, especially dogs. Our neighbors have a very large dalmation and Mer has become very fond of it. She says "dog" and "woof woof" a lot. She also has expressed a preference for "Clifford" on PBS. I kind of hate Clifford but I let her watch it anyway, she loves the dog so much.
This morning before church I was in the primary room and Meredith pointed to the big picture of Jesus and said, "Jesus" just as clearly as could be. She did it several times, and later pointed to another picture and said it again. She also folds her arms for prayer, she just started doing that on her own. So cute! She gives high fives and fist bumps (the scouts taught her that) and everyone loves her. Ian and Brandon, the sons of my friend Darla (who babysits for me on Mondays) just adore her and want to play with her all the time. She is the joy of my life! And boy did Omi and I have some great fun shopping for clothes for her and looking at fancy little girl dresses. I recently bought a toddler bed and cute owl bedding from Target but we don't have the bed put together yet. So many things on the to-do list.
A little more about my new calling - - I love it! I was sad to say goodbye to the young women after 3 years, they are wonderful and we have had some great times together. But being the primary chorister is a lot of fun! I was kind of thrown into the deep end because the annual program was just 3 weeks after I got called (and one of those weeks was conference!) But the kids sang beautifully. Oh and Noah did such an amazing job with his part. I wrote it out for him, "Jesus said, 'if you love me, keep my commandments'" and we practiced it over and over. But you never know with Noah if he's going to do something silly. Well not this time - - he got up and said every word perfectly and clearly. He did as well as any other kid there. I was bursting with pride, and I guess he was too, because on his way back to his seat he raised up both his arms and said, "yeah!" What a doll! He works so hard and it is beautiful to see his progress. Omi mentioned to me how much clearer his speech has become.
Well Scott and Ethan got back on Monday, October 11th, but Scott had to leave again the very next day. He has been gone every week for at least 3 days. It is not easy being a single parent. The worst was week before last. Noah was sick, throwing up, all Sunday night. Ethan and I both got sick Monday night, and Scott left Tuesday morning. This was a yucky flu, lots of barfing (Ethan set the record with 27 upchucks) and terrible body aches. We were miserable, but I was better by Wednesday night. Ethan was not. He came into my room that night just doubled over in pain. He had been so stoic during his illness that I knew he was really sick. I was scared and grabbed the other kids and raced to the hospital. My wonderful friend Darla met me there and took Noah and Mer back to her house to spend the night. Ethan and I spent 5 hours in the emergency room. Fortunately his pain subsided somewhat. I was worried that his appendix had ruptured or something. He was dehydrated from so much vomiting so they gave him a lot of IV fluids, then he had to drink this yucky contrast stuff and have a cat scan. His appendix was fine but there was fluid around his liver and his liver enzymes were elevated. I had to take him to the dr. the next day, but he was quite a bit better by then. I think it was mostly caused by dehydration and not eating. Poor kid! He's fine now, but still hasn't gained back all the weight he lost. Sadly, I have.
Another busy thing we had was houseguest for a few days, our dear friends the Felsteds were moving to North Carolina. They're stuff had already shipped so we invited them to stay with us and we had a going away party for them. They have 3 kids, and their youngest, Henry, is just a few weeks older than Meredith. It was fun to watch them together. The party was a big his and we had about 40 people here and lots of good food. It went on a little longer than we'd planned, but once things get going they're hard to stop (ha ha). Mostly it was just difficult to round up all the kids! We're going to miss the Felsteds, they are really fun people.
We had 2 other parties this month - - 2 Saturdays ago was our annual Down syndrome Halloween party. I was in charge of some of it, and as in the past couple of years we had it at the church. This was the best party we've had yet, a big turnout (60 people) and lots of fun. Noah had a great time with his "girlfriends" Leah and Vanessa. He dressed up as a cowboy, and wore the awesome hat Scott brought back for him from Peru. Last night was our ward party, and it was packed with people. They had a chili and cornbread cookoff - - yummy, as well as cake and pumpkin decorating contests. The pumpkin winner had carved his so it looked like it was barfing out its own seeds and guts. Disgusting, but so hilarious! Meredith looked absolutely adorable in a little zebra costume and won 2nd place in the girls' age 0 to 6 category. She and Noah had fun trick-or-treating tonight at our neighbors' houses. I love the cute little kids who come to our door, but I hate the teenagers who don't even bother to dress up, they just show up and demand candy. I'd say no, but I don't want my house to get egged. Sometimes they're a little scary.
I'm not crazy about Halloween as a holiday, but I do love that it's Mom's birthday and we all wish her a very happy one!
This morning before church I was in the primary room and Meredith pointed to the big picture of Jesus and said, "Jesus" just as clearly as could be. She did it several times, and later pointed to another picture and said it again. She also folds her arms for prayer, she just started doing that on her own. So cute! She gives high fives and fist bumps (the scouts taught her that) and everyone loves her. Ian and Brandon, the sons of my friend Darla (who babysits for me on Mondays) just adore her and want to play with her all the time. She is the joy of my life! And boy did Omi and I have some great fun shopping for clothes for her and looking at fancy little girl dresses. I recently bought a toddler bed and cute owl bedding from Target but we don't have the bed put together yet. So many things on the to-do list.
A little more about my new calling - - I love it! I was sad to say goodbye to the young women after 3 years, they are wonderful and we have had some great times together. But being the primary chorister is a lot of fun! I was kind of thrown into the deep end because the annual program was just 3 weeks after I got called (and one of those weeks was conference!) But the kids sang beautifully. Oh and Noah did such an amazing job with his part. I wrote it out for him, "Jesus said, 'if you love me, keep my commandments'" and we practiced it over and over. But you never know with Noah if he's going to do something silly. Well not this time - - he got up and said every word perfectly and clearly. He did as well as any other kid there. I was bursting with pride, and I guess he was too, because on his way back to his seat he raised up both his arms and said, "yeah!" What a doll! He works so hard and it is beautiful to see his progress. Omi mentioned to me how much clearer his speech has become.
Well Scott and Ethan got back on Monday, October 11th, but Scott had to leave again the very next day. He has been gone every week for at least 3 days. It is not easy being a single parent. The worst was week before last. Noah was sick, throwing up, all Sunday night. Ethan and I both got sick Monday night, and Scott left Tuesday morning. This was a yucky flu, lots of barfing (Ethan set the record with 27 upchucks) and terrible body aches. We were miserable, but I was better by Wednesday night. Ethan was not. He came into my room that night just doubled over in pain. He had been so stoic during his illness that I knew he was really sick. I was scared and grabbed the other kids and raced to the hospital. My wonderful friend Darla met me there and took Noah and Mer back to her house to spend the night. Ethan and I spent 5 hours in the emergency room. Fortunately his pain subsided somewhat. I was worried that his appendix had ruptured or something. He was dehydrated from so much vomiting so they gave him a lot of IV fluids, then he had to drink this yucky contrast stuff and have a cat scan. His appendix was fine but there was fluid around his liver and his liver enzymes were elevated. I had to take him to the dr. the next day, but he was quite a bit better by then. I think it was mostly caused by dehydration and not eating. Poor kid! He's fine now, but still hasn't gained back all the weight he lost. Sadly, I have.
Another busy thing we had was houseguest for a few days, our dear friends the Felsteds were moving to North Carolina. They're stuff had already shipped so we invited them to stay with us and we had a going away party for them. They have 3 kids, and their youngest, Henry, is just a few weeks older than Meredith. It was fun to watch them together. The party was a big his and we had about 40 people here and lots of good food. It went on a little longer than we'd planned, but once things get going they're hard to stop (ha ha). Mostly it was just difficult to round up all the kids! We're going to miss the Felsteds, they are really fun people.
We had 2 other parties this month - - 2 Saturdays ago was our annual Down syndrome Halloween party. I was in charge of some of it, and as in the past couple of years we had it at the church. This was the best party we've had yet, a big turnout (60 people) and lots of fun. Noah had a great time with his "girlfriends" Leah and Vanessa. He dressed up as a cowboy, and wore the awesome hat Scott brought back for him from Peru. Last night was our ward party, and it was packed with people. They had a chili and cornbread cookoff - - yummy, as well as cake and pumpkin decorating contests. The pumpkin winner had carved his so it looked like it was barfing out its own seeds and guts. Disgusting, but so hilarious! Meredith looked absolutely adorable in a little zebra costume and won 2nd place in the girls' age 0 to 6 category. She and Noah had fun trick-or-treating tonight at our neighbors' houses. I love the cute little kids who come to our door, but I hate the teenagers who don't even bother to dress up, they just show up and demand candy. I'd say no, but I don't want my house to get egged. Sometimes they're a little scary.
I'm not crazy about Halloween as a holiday, but I do love that it's Mom's birthday and we all wish her a very happy one!
Saturday, October 23, 2010
It's Autumn Time!
I am so glad it's finally Fall! This was a long hot summer and I'm grateful for the cool, crisp weather. September was really a beautiful month. The kids got settled back into school and are enjoying their new classes. Ethan is doing well in his last year of middle school. He decided to do cross-country this year, since a couple of his buddies were doing it. It was not easy, he had practice almost every day after school and one to two meets per week. But he did great! I was so proud of him sticking to it. He turned out to be a great runner, continually bettering his times for the two-mile. He especially was good at pouring on the steam during the last 50 or so yards. He enjoyed it so much that he plans to do track in the Spring. Yay Ethan! Ethan is also working hard on merit badges for scouts, and continues to learn about World War II in his free time.
Noah is also loving school. He had to miss a few days in the middle of the month to go to the hospital for a "colon cleanse." It's even worse than it sounds. He had to have a naso-gastric tube (through his nose and into his stomach). He was fed gallons of solution through the tube until his entire digestive tract was empty. It took 3 days. Noah was really tough. He pulled out the tube onece, but after we stuck it back in he realized we meant business and after that he wouldn't let anyone touch it. Even though he felt sick at times he was a great patient. Thank goodness for his DVD player and Barney and Elmo DVDs.
Noah continues to study hard and his speech has become quite clear. He loves to write numbers and letters and draw pictures. It's pretty unusual for him not to have a pen and paper in hand.
Meredith is such a little doll! She is walking very well now and can go up and down the stairs. Her first word was, "hi," which is typical of her extremely friendly nature. She can also say "Mama" and "Daddy" and "nose." She loves books and has finally stopped chewing on them and started looking at the pages! She is such a sweetheart and we are all just crazy about her. She smiles constantly and likes to give high fives and fist bumps (the scouts taught her that.) She also, on her own, folds her arms for prayer. It's so cute!
Scott is traveling a lot for work, 2 or 3 days every week, usually. When home he loves to take Noah and Meredith to the gym so he can play tennis. We've also gone out to eat with friends a few times, which is always fun.
I am enjoying my graduate class (Information Literacy) more than I thought I would. I have learned so much and it's great to feel like I'm putting my brain to work. I am learning about researching, especially academic journals, and I've started work on a 20 page paper about the benefits of signing to individuals with Down syndrome (my choice of topic, obviously.) I also recently was called to be the primary chorister and have been busy getting ready for the primary program. And the Down syndrome group keeps me occupied with various activities and the bi-monthly newsletter.
It was great to take a break from all that stuff and go out to Utah for Kyle and Linzi's sealing! How wonderful to see them after so long, and it was great to see Linzi's family again (they're so much fun!) I stayed with Beebs and she and Heidi and I stayed up late talking and laughing like crazy. We also enjoyed an all-girl shopping spree that lasted most of Friday. Fun! Beebs is always such a great host and it was great to hang out with family. I was pretty bummed when I had to leave, but glad to see Scott and the kids again. Wow do I wish we lived closer together sometimes!
Love and miss you all so much!
Ali
Noah is also loving school. He had to miss a few days in the middle of the month to go to the hospital for a "colon cleanse." It's even worse than it sounds. He had to have a naso-gastric tube (through his nose and into his stomach). He was fed gallons of solution through the tube until his entire digestive tract was empty. It took 3 days. Noah was really tough. He pulled out the tube onece, but after we stuck it back in he realized we meant business and after that he wouldn't let anyone touch it. Even though he felt sick at times he was a great patient. Thank goodness for his DVD player and Barney and Elmo DVDs.
Noah continues to study hard and his speech has become quite clear. He loves to write numbers and letters and draw pictures. It's pretty unusual for him not to have a pen and paper in hand.
Meredith is such a little doll! She is walking very well now and can go up and down the stairs. Her first word was, "hi," which is typical of her extremely friendly nature. She can also say "Mama" and "Daddy" and "nose." She loves books and has finally stopped chewing on them and started looking at the pages! She is such a sweetheart and we are all just crazy about her. She smiles constantly and likes to give high fives and fist bumps (the scouts taught her that.) She also, on her own, folds her arms for prayer. It's so cute!
Scott is traveling a lot for work, 2 or 3 days every week, usually. When home he loves to take Noah and Meredith to the gym so he can play tennis. We've also gone out to eat with friends a few times, which is always fun.
I am enjoying my graduate class (Information Literacy) more than I thought I would. I have learned so much and it's great to feel like I'm putting my brain to work. I am learning about researching, especially academic journals, and I've started work on a 20 page paper about the benefits of signing to individuals with Down syndrome (my choice of topic, obviously.) I also recently was called to be the primary chorister and have been busy getting ready for the primary program. And the Down syndrome group keeps me occupied with various activities and the bi-monthly newsletter.
It was great to take a break from all that stuff and go out to Utah for Kyle and Linzi's sealing! How wonderful to see them after so long, and it was great to see Linzi's family again (they're so much fun!) I stayed with Beebs and she and Heidi and I stayed up late talking and laughing like crazy. We also enjoyed an all-girl shopping spree that lasted most of Friday. Fun! Beebs is always such a great host and it was great to hang out with family. I was pretty bummed when I had to leave, but glad to see Scott and the kids again. Wow do I wish we lived closer together sometimes!
Love and miss you all so much!
Ali
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