Good Journey - Take One

Usually we take a summer trip to visit family in Utah. This year, because hopefully most of the family will be able to come out here for Ellie's baptism, we decided to take a different sort of vacation for Spring Break. Both Dee and I had only been to Zion's National Park once in our lives, even though we had only lived about 7 hours away from it. We decided that would be a great place to start our vacation. James and Amber live about 45 minutes away and the let us stay with them and were able to play with us the whole time we were there. Talk about fun - and beautiful!

Day One: James and Amber knew of a place about 15 minutes away from them just as beautiful as Zion's but not as crowded or as far. Red Rock Trail.

The scenery was breathtaking. The red rock, the snow, the clouds. Every corner we took while hiking was followed by a "WOW!"

Amber, James and baby Dax. He loved being outside. He loved all the kids entertaining him. The hike was perfect for us - especially with the little ones. They were troopers. The weather was beautiful too.

L-R: Carter & Savannah resting in a hole; Tyler's self portrait; Jonas peek-a-booing through the top of the hole; Diantha & Dee; Diantha by some amazing cliffs; McKenna above the waterfall. The kids had taken off their shoes to hike around the waterfall and I pulled the mom thing of, "Even if your shoes get wet you're still going to have to wear them when we hike Zions!" Then I tried throwing Ty's shoes up to where Dee was and guess what? It slid down the wall - right into the water. Nice, mom!

The cousins on a "horse" L-R: Jonas; Ellie (she said she's doing a lasso and cowgirls don't smile...); McKenna; Tyler; Carter and Savvy

This was at the very beginning of the hike. Around the first corner we had to take pictures. It was all SO beautiful!

And this was just day one. More to follow!

A groovy time

Ty and McKenna were in a play last weekend for their school performing group. It was a 60's show and they were totally groovy!

There's good and bad parenting...and this

So I have four kids. What does this mean? This means that I have already seen fits. I have already seen tender-heart-melting moments. This means I have seen successes in my parenting skills as well as Homer Simpson moments (not so much the beer-underwear thing as the Do'h! head slapping.) I have seen kids shine and make decisions that are wonderful with chest bursting pride and also the moments where they have to live with consequences for a bad decision I want to just fix for them but know with hear-wrenching truth it is something they have to do for themselves.

Where am I going with this? Just a little story. You can judge where it puts me on the parenting scale.

One of my children (I won't specify which one, but he still needs a carseat...) is the most stubborn thing EVER. I do mean ever. He is also super smart. Having three other kids (again, not saying which one...) did not prepare me for all my parenting tricks to be tossed out the window for someone who can outlast/out maneuver/out-think me. **I want to throw in a disclaimer here. I love this child. I love him more than life itself and would give my life for him. He brings me joy everyday and I am thankful to my Heavenly Father every single day he sent him to us. I thought I'd make sure you knew that before I continue with the story.**

This particular child has developed a bad habit of trying to hide from me. He thinks it's funny when it's time to get shoes on to hide behind the curtain. When it's time to go pick up kids he hides under his bed. When we're at a store with clothing (rarely with him) he hides in the center of the rack. His latest thing is when we're about ready to go I'll open the van doors (from inside the house) and tell he and daughter #2 to get in the car. She does. He does not. He thinks it's hilarious to hide behind the tree or even worse, behind the van. Now you responsible adults can see the safety issues involved in this. He just sees the fabulous reaction he gets which generally involve a slightly raised voice, counting backwards from 5, and stomping around to find him with veiled threats (because I'm also usually running late) and a quick frog march to the car and buckling his seatbelt with grumpy force. Can you guess what he does during this time? Is he repentant? Is he sorry for the added anxiety he has caused? Oh no. This little turkey grins. It's one of those times it is a darn good thing I can't read his mind.

This happens a few times and I explain to him why it's dangerous. I explain to him how worried and grumpy it makes mommy. You can picture the scene as we pull out of the driveway and the cartoon word bubbles are floating around from my mouth to one of his ears and right out the other as he grins on the way to school.

I've tried various tricks. I've tried anger. I've tried guilt. I've tried starting to back out (while he was behind the tree of course, not behind the car.) Momentary panic, but the second time I tried it he waited me out until we actually were going to be late unless we left NOW. See "frog march" above.

Which brings us to today. This morning he does it again. Fast forward to this afternoon when it's time to pick up said daughter from school. Usual routine, "Come on (insert name here), it's time to go get the kids. Go get in the car and I'll grab my purse." I see out the window he has taken off behind the tree. I grab my purse. I grab a piece of chocolate. I walk out the door and say in a very loud voice, "I'm so proud of you for getting in your carseat like I asked! I brought you a piece of candy." Imagine a groundhog poking out of it's hole - that kid shot right up. He says, "Thank you mama!" I say, "Oh, too bad you didn't do what mom asked. I guess I'll eat it." CODE RED. His eyes bug out of his head and he bolts into a flat out run as - that's right - I put the whole thing in my mouth and chew slowly while making the most delicious thing in the whole wide world face.

Melt down. He falls to the ground. He is screaming. I'm sure if the neighbors were to see that scene CPS would have been called. "There is a little boy who is OBVIOUSLY dying on the ground and his mom is in the mini-van about to drive away. Not just that but she is grinning."

More Winter Fun

The kids had last week off of school. Don't ask me why, it's basically comes down to, "Well why not?" Regardless, Dee had to work but we needed to get out of Dodge for a bit. Our friends have a second house in Mt. Shasta they offered to let us use for a couple days. AWESOME! Close enough for Dee to work and far enough we could get away and have fun.

Monday we were absolutely lazy. This is how the day started. Love it!

Then a walk in the woods. They were super excited to find snow. Not much, but plenty to play in. I think everybody got hit in the face with a snowball.

Back for hot chocolate, more board games, more TV. Heaven!

Dee was able to get Tuesday off and he took the three oldest skiing/snowboarding. Carter and I met them for lunch and to play in more snow, then home.

It was so great to get away for a bit. To play, to relax, to not have distractions pulling at us from every side. Love family time!

For a couple extra pictures, the first is Tyler's last Pinewood Derby car/snowboard Turned out pretty awesome.

Next is a picture at my Great (Grand?) Uncle Les Wheeler's 90th birthday celebration. He's the one in the center. This was just a portion of the people there to celebrate him. What a great man! My dad came from Utah, my Aunts, Uncles and cousin came from Idaho. It was so fun to see them!

Awesome Webelo and things that make me smile

Ty officially received his Webelo Scout badge. The Blue and Gold dinner was this week where he was presented with the patch. We're so proud of his work and so thankful for his great leaders who take the time and put forth so much effort to helping him.

As tradition dictates, the Scouts make a cake with their fathers. The theme was Wild West. There is a story behind this one, but let's just say it couldn't BE more scout-ish! Love how it turned out. :)

I mentioned a few things that make me smile. One is the rounding up of our poor dog. Did I mention how very patient Pete is? Love his look in the last picture.

Ellie has become quite the monkey. The picture on the left is at a birthday party she went to at the gymnastics place. She is much higher than she looks and climbed probably 5 times all the way up. Amazing girl! The picture on the right is her Valentine box for school.

Another thing that makes me happy is Tyler's grades. I had a picture on here but it stated his school and stuff, figured I'd better just leave it off. He's really been struggling in math this year and has finally brought all his grades up. Wa hoo!

The next smile probably won't make McKenna happy, but maybe she'll stop taking pictures with my phone... :)

And last for today - Ellie's LOVE for reading. There is a point my kids have all hit where it stops being hard or a chore to read and they can't get enough of it. She's hit it!

Hiking In January

Lovely weather here. I know at least one of you reading this just made a grumpy face at me (mom) but that is one of the joys of being in the North State. To celebrate we thought we'd try on the gift my parents gave us (National Park Pass - Awesome gift!) and go for a hike.

I'd love to be able to tell you where we are. Somewhere around Whiskeytown somethin or other. All I know was on the other side of this wall was a long and beautiful way down. You know the kind where for a fleeting moment you wish you had wings? Maybe that's just me. And it's not so fleeting. Anyway...

I don't know if you can see Carter's face in the next one. He looks worried as if he's going to fall.

As you can tell, he doesn't worry long.

Love this picture. Can you tell who Pete's favorite is?!

Some Days Are Better Than Others

Some days are better than others.

This was my post on FaceBook yesterday and I thought I'd expound a little for you. At first the day sounded like a disjointed country song... (even if it is actually a U2 song quote)... but I added the good parts in italics so we could see them. It took me a day to see all the good stuff.

• Dee's Grandma passed away last week. She lived a good long life and it was not unexpected, still his Grandma passed away. We were able to see her over Thanksgiving. She made a surprising connection with our little Ellie that was precious for me to see. The funeral is tomorrow in Utah so he made arrangements to leave with his brother yesterday and drive out returning Sunday. The weather has been horrible and I was so worried they'd be caught in the storm, but they made it ahead of the storm - no stopping for snow at all.
• He was already away on business when he found out so he came home for one night this week and left again the next day. This is the first and last week it hasn't been packed with extracurricular activities for the kids. Although it's busy, it's not so busy I have to pick which place to be, because I can't be two places at once.
• At work he is launching a new medicine soon. What does this mean? It means additional travel, it means study at home, it means tests to take and pass, it means work mode. Not necessarily a bad thing when expected, but all consuming. He planned on taking his last big test before he left so he didn't have to worry about work while he was with family. More on this in a minute.
• We've had incredible weather here until a couple days ago. Again, not unexpected. Before he left yesterday morning he cleaned out the fireplace from the night before and filled our woodpile. Love that man! He dumped the ashes on our burn pile, which was pretty high. It caught fire immediately. I'm talking 4 foot flames. Glad he didn't throw the ashes into the trash! I went out to turn the hose on (just in case) and realize the pipe had a crack in it from the freeze the night before. Not a big one, just a leak. However, Dee was going out of town and wanted to fix it before it got worse. He turned the nozzle and a 4 foot high spout of water shot from the pipe not too far from the flames. Irony. Again, of all pipes to break that was the best one. Not by the house, no risk of flooding. Glad it happened before he left and not after, also. He was able to fix it and the burn pile was no hazard after the initial flames settled down.
• The kicker of the day, however, was when he sat down to prepare for his test. He was checking his email and there was a new one from work. It basically said there would be a conference call tomorrow (this morning) to announce a layoff and who would be affected. Not. Again. Sick. Angry. Frustrated. Scared. Unsure. Numb. Now, we all know what a worrier I am. On the outside I was just fine and on the inside all this was happening. As Bono so simply stated, "Some days are better than others." Dee still had to leave. Time would not go any faster or slower. All we could do - again - was pray. After Dee left, after the fires were out and the floods had stopped I fell to my knees and prayed. I started with counting blessings which took a while because it's hard to do that when you're angry. After a while the pleading came and the hope for understanding until I was through saying what was filling my heart and mind. When I stopped and listened I was filled with peace. I knew it would be okay, whatever "IT" was. God has a plan.

Today we know he was not laid off. He still has a job. A job which, even though it requires him to travel or study late into the night, he enjoys it and it provides for our family. Today is more like a U2 song, and less like a country song. Today is better than yesterday.