If we approach adversities wisely, our hardest times can be times of greatest growth, which in turn can lead toward times of greatest happiness...Come what may, and love it! -Joseph B. Wirthlin
It has been a merit badge extravaganza this week. The boys had two classes at Hogle Zoo for Soil and Water Conservation and Bird Study. They also worked hard on finishing up their Insect Study badge and got that passed off when they went back for these classes this week. Whew. Getting to Eagle is not easy, that is for sure. Yesterday was the soil class and I dropped them off at nine and then had to kill three hours before I could pick them up again. There was no way I was going to drive home and back again. Not worth it.
Instead, I took my little kids to Liberty Park. They have completely redone the playground area and it is now quite fabulous. There is a splash pad and all new equipment. Three hours sped by, especially since we made a quick stop at Trader Joe's for some treats to hold us over.
Noelle just loved the swing.
And she loves her brother Eli. He was so cute with her. Julia and Harry each found kids to play with and keep them occupied, but Eli seemed content to just hang around with me and play with her. It was charming.
Then when we got home from the zoo, the boys spent another hour finishing up their insect scrapbook. It took us about 5 hours to find bugs and then have them sketch and observe and research. Oy.
Today, I decided to take the little ones to the University of Utah bowling alley, a popular spot for my husband all through college. He wasn't too sure where the library was, but he found the billiards and bowling alley the first day of school. And boy, my kids fit in well. We played with bumper lanes. I even bowled one game. And I really, truly stink at bowling. Believe me, I tried. I think my score was 65, with bumpers! Harry and Eli beat me handily.
Harry even managed to get two spares in a row, and Eli threw a strike. Julia has inherited my bowling prowess, unfortunately. And I think she is about as interested in it as I am. But Harry and Eli really enjoyed lobbing those balls down the lane. They bowled a second game and Julia quite after the 4th frame. Harry and Eli would each bowl her frame for her. And they both broke 100 on their second games. I think Harry's score was like a 114. He has got his daddy's skills for sure.
We then walked down to the bookstore and got a couple of kids books so that I could get the parking validated. It was free popcorn Wednesday, so four bags of popcorn was a nice consolation prize as well.
We then picked up Raef and Zach, got some lunch, and then went to the Jordan Water Plant in Sandy. The boys did a tour to learn about how we get our drinking water and then I made them write everything down when we got home. Like I said, it was a Boy Scouting extravaganza these past few days.
My goal this summer is to get out and do things and see things. I want my kids to live each day to its fullest. So when I saw an advertisement in the paper for the Utah Arts Festival, I was sure that it was something I did not want my kids miss. Fortunately it was on a Thursday and Rinar was home, so I was able to leave Noelle at home for a much needed nap.
There was a kids section with lots of opportunities to do and experience art. Summerhays music had a booth with lots of real instruments that the kids could play. Eli was enthusiastic to play the violin. He was all fired up from going to Suzuki camp and wanted to show off. So he stood there and played all of his Twinkles. It was quite darling.
They also did some artwork and enjoyed the chance to express themselves.
We did a very quick tour of the real art booths but the kids definitely did not seem too interested. But they were interested in getting a treat. So I ponied up and bought them some smoothies, which they enjoyed immensely.
I decided to catch a music act on the big stage. It was nice to be able to sit down and relax in the shade and let the art come to us. Amazingly enough, the lead singer of the band was my next-door neighbor, Lindsey. She goes to a performing arts school in Lehi and did a great job. She has a strong voice. I was pretty impressed. My kids enjoyed it too.
The arts festival was a hit with the kids: 2 hours of cultural fun. I am glad we went.
We had a surprisingly good time a few weeks ago when we did a field trip to the Salt Lake City Cemetery. It was a Relief Society activity. It was a small group of women, but we made it count. The cemetery is right next to downtown in the Avenues and it is the largest municipal cemetery in the country.
This cemetery is where a lot of pioneers and leaders of the church are buried. If you know church history, this is the place you want to go. It is seeped in church history. I think that most of the prophets are buried here. It is special.
This was a wooden grave site of a handcart pioneer. I thought that was pretty groovy. I also enjoyed the fact that people still care greatly about these grave sites. Many of the markers have been replaced due to weathering. These are beloved people that have been buried here.
The cemetery also has an incredible vista of the city. I was wowed by the view. It was quite astounding.
Here is the grave marker of President David O. McKay. It is just below the grave of Gordon B. Hinckley. I just loved that man so much.
Here are the ladies. Melissa K., Chris K., Sharon F., Landon C., Marlene M., Brady C., and Melissa C. is not pictured because she is behind the camera.
After our tour of the cemetery we went to a nearby park and ate lunch. The kids played on the playground and we were able to visit for a while.
My mom told me that I have relatives buried in this cemetery. I had no idea! I am going to have to go back and visit again, but maybe without the kids.
There is always something adventurous to do in your own backyard. Now this may not look very adventurous, but I would really put it right up there: swimming in the Great Salt Lake.
I think it would be safe to say that the Great Salt Lake is not a big beach destination for anyone. And there is a good reason for that.
I got a surprise email from my homeschool friend Kelly R. She lives in Reno and her family is top-notch. They were planning a trip to Yellowstone and wanted to make a stop in Salt Lake City, because their oldest son Adam really wanted to swim in the Great Salt Lake. Crazy kid. He had heard that you really float in the water and he wanted to try it out.
We were game. They got to our house Sunday, August 4, late. Then after a delicious pancake breakfast, we hit the road for Antelope Island, which is on the way to Yellowstone.
Antelope Island has a lot of wildlife living there, including a herd of bison. And yes, we did get to see one bison out on the lonely prairie.
After a buffalo burger lunch, everyone headed down to the "beach".
As you arrive at the seashore, you are greeted by a phalanx of tiny flies: the official welcoming committee of this wondrous body of uber-salty water. I walked past them as fast as I could. It was like Moses parting the Red Sea. The water is pretty shallow and nice and warm. And there are these tiny krill floating everywhere in the water. That is all that can live in this exceptionally salty water.
I was a little late to the swimming party and had to walk out quite a ways to where everyone was. I also was commanded to bring a towel because if you get any water near your eyes, it does not feel so good.
This is Gabrielle floating, toes high up out of the water.
And Rachel. She just loved the floating action.
Marc was not as thrilled as his kids were about being in the lake, but he was still a good sport.
Kelly wasn't going to miss the chance to float. She did it but then she was out of there.
And Zach...
Oh look. There is Marc. Look at those feet!
When I started walking out of the lake, I started to panic just a tiny bit inside of myself. The whole idea of it just started to gross me out. And then I waited for those rotten kids to get out of the water and they sure took their time. Meanwhile, those Moses flies started attacking me, coating me, harassing me. I almost went bonkers. Forget water boarding. This lake is really America's answer to updated, humane torture techniques. At least I think so. We made sure to get a picture with everyone before we parted ways. I hope they come back soon. We just love this family. Hey, they love to ski and I have heard the skiing is fairly good around here.
But in all seriousness, everyone must swim in the Great Salt Lake one time in their lives. I did my tour of duty, and it was a worthwhile, fun adventure.
Several months ago Rinar and I scheduled our family vacation time. Rinar has to do that now because of his extensive travel schedule. Unbeknownst to us, we scheduled vacation number 2 the same week as football tryouts. Yes, for some reason here in Utah 11 year-old boys have to try out for the football team to see where they get put. You know, because when you are 11, these things are vitally important, on the same level as the North Korean missile crisis and preventing world hunger. It is that important around here, apparently.
Hence, vacation became staycation. Bummer. But we tried to make the best of it.
On Monday, July 29th we headed down to Provo to go to Seven Peaks with my sister Catye and her husband Mike. Catye worked at Seven Peaks last year and she had a whole bunch of free tickets. Staycation was looking pretty darn affordable. The kids had a blast, but we had to hurry back to get Raef to football tryouts on time, so we didn't get to stay as long as we would have liked.
On Tuesday, we headed up to Hogle Zoo. But it was blazing hot. The kids only lasted a few hours and then it was time to get some pizza.
And if you are going to get pizza, the obvious place to go is The Pie. Where else? The kids thoroughly enjoyed the fare. Then we had to call an audible for afternoon activities, because our original plan did not give us enough time to hurry back for...yep, football tryouts. This meant a quick trip to the Church Museum to see the kid's Book of Mormon exhibit.
Wednesday was my favorite. We dedicated the whole day to This is the Place Heritage Park. It happens to be across the street from the zoo. It is a pioneer village with oodles of things to do, a hands-on, living museum. Harry and Zach enjoyed a "shave" at the barber shop while the other ones waited by playing checkers.
They got to ride the ponies, and totally loved it. There was also a petting zoo, and lots of historic buildings.
This little pioneer house was a big hit. They washed clothes on a real scrub board, beat the rug with a wire whisky thing, plowed the soil with a real hand plow, played toss-a-ring, and even gave it a go at stilt walking.
When it got too hot, they spent a bit of time playing in the splash pad. I had no idea there was one there, so we were woefully unprepared. But after ringing out the shirts and staying outside for a little bit, they were dry in a short amount of time. We also rode a train, panned for gold, made an arrowhead necklace, and ate ice cream at the old hotel. And then we packed the kids up and hurried home. Surprising, I know, but had to get to football tryouts on time. We were tuckered out by Thursday and hung around the house. Rinar did take them swimming for a little while and then it was off to football again. On Friday, Rinar took Raef, Zach, and Eli to Lagoon, or as Eli calls it...Magoon. We made sure that they got there right when it opened. They stayed as long as they could before they rushed back for football tryouts. After football, Rinar took Raef and Zach back until closing time. As for football, I might have been a little annoyed. Okay, maybe a lot. We gave up a week of vacation so that he could tryout for teams that were pretty much already decided before anyone showed up for the first day of tryouts. Most of those boys had played in the system before. Everything was predetermined. There is an A team. Yep, that never happened. There was a B team. Nope, didn't make that one. And then there were the color teams, like gray, blue, white, etc. The color teams are for all the rest of the boys, whether they tried out or not. Raef is on the gray team. I am just so glad we had to lose a vacation and rush back from every activity early so that he could be on the gray team, a team he would have probably been put on even if we had gone to Yellowstone for the week. But whatever!
After an invigorating drive down the California coast, we were able to get an amazing breakfast Monday morning at First Awakenings. My cousin Sue and her husband Chris own this gem of a restaurant in Salinas and it did not disappoint. Since it was the Monday after Easter and a pretty rainy, drizzly day, the restaurant was pretty slow. This was quite wonderful for us because we were able to visit with both of them for a while. It sure was awesome to be able to reconnect with family. Sue is my Uncle Ron's daughter. She and her sister Debbie are the only cousins I have on my Dad's side of the family.
The restaurant is so charming, situated in downtown Salinas, the home of John Steinbeck. It is a very quiet farming community really close to the Pacific ocean. This is what I ate for breakfast, and it was delicious.
We headed up the coast after breakfast and stopped at a beach along the way. It was overcast and a little cold, but the kids were in heaven. They got so absorbed in playing that the time we spent there was but a moment. It was interesting to see their little personalities and how they chose to spend their time. When we were at Cape Cod a few years ago, Zach stood in front of the waves and "conducted" them, while Raef busily built something in sand. Nothing much has changed after all these years. Raef found something to build while Zach stood in front of the waves.
Eli is also a builder, I guess. This is what he did the entire time we were there and he just loved it. He made a canal system and then he wanted water. I gave him a cup, but he soon realized it was not easy to fill a cup from an incoming wave. It was near impossible. But Eli made a discovery: when you dig down in the sand there will be a pool of water. Way to go, kid!
A lady found this washed up on the shore. Isn't that fantastic? Harry and Julia just loved it.
We soon were on our way to San Francisco. We got there at the perfect time, right after lunch. We dropped Rinar off at the hotel and then I hit the road. I wanted to get through Sacramento before rush hour, and I did. After a brief stop in Reno to pick up some frozen elk meat, we made it all the way to Winnemucca and then stayed in a little hotel off of the freeway. The drive was uneventful, thank goodness. On Tuesday, April 1 we pulled into Salt Lake City and were ready to start our new life in a new place.
Well, the last few weeks have been an absolute whirlwind. It has gone by so fast and there are so many changes happening.
Rinar has accepted a new position with his company and that means that we are moving to Utah. Once again, Rinar will be a traveling man. After two years in Reno, it is time for our family to put down some roots and it looks like the roots will be planted in Draper, Utah.
Several months ago, Rinar mentioned to people in his company an interest in relocating to Utah. Then the job offers came from everywhere. He ended up seriously considering two positions. Every day he would come home from work and explain to me why job A was the perfect one. And then the next day, it was job B. Job B was the perfect one. Oh boy. He just couldn't make up his mind. We both knew we would be moving. We have known since Christmas time. We just didn't know what the details would be; the most important detail being what job he would be doing.
Finally, in mid February he accepted a job with Fidelity's charitable group. It was not an easy decision. But it was his decision. I couldn't make it for him. I am not the one who has to wake up every day and go to work. I just wanted him to be happy in the choice that he made. And he finally did make a choice. Thank goodness. It is tough when everything is in limbo.
A few days after Rinar accepted the offer, we headed off to Utah to find a place to live. I really didn't want to live in corporate housing again. I wanted to move straight from Reno to our house and make a direct transition. Moving to Reno was very hard on all of us. I don't want to make the same mistakes this time.
As soon as we stepped off the plane, we met our realtor and started looking for the perfect house. I have come to the conclusion that the perfect house does not exist. There is no such thing. You can always find something wrong with any house you look at. And I sure did find lots of things wrong with lots of houses. A house becomes perfect when you make it your own. But what is most important is the location. A house might not be perfect, but you can't change the location. Location has to be perfect. Rinar and I looked all over the Salt Lake valley. I tried to keep my mind open to all kinds of possibilities. I didn't want to wonder later if I had made a mistake.
It became very clear after a couple of days that the best place for our family was in Draper. It is a beautiful small town in the big city. There are tons of trails and rural spaces. There are beautiful homes and neighborhoods. It is just the kind of place I have always imagined for raising a family and being a part of the community.
There were three beautiful homes in Draper that we found. We ended up picking this one.
Well, it is half of the house. But it really is a beautiful home. It isn't perfect, but it is close enough. If you notice to the right is the Draper temple. It is so lovely to be in the shadow of the temple. It is a pretty darn big house, probably much bigger than we need. But that just means there will be plenty of room for lots of visitors. I love having visitors. I have missed that with living here in Reno. Reno is not really on the way to anything.
Now we are going to be much closer to both of our families. I have some siblings in the Salt Lake area, Rinar's family is in St. George, and Salt Lake City has a major airport, unlike Reno.
Life is moving forward for our family very quickly.
To top that all off, when I got home Tuesday evening I found out that our landlord wants to sell our rental house. So I have to keep it clean for the endless stream of people who have been looking at it.
I had a prolonged moment of insanity and decided to drive to Provo alone with my kids. Rinar did a brothers trip and since he was going to be gone for the week, I thought, "oh, why not?"
Did you know it takes over 8 hours to get there?
Sheesh.
But we still had fun. We stayed the first night in Wendover and I pulled in to the hotel registry Thursday night at about 10pm. I was tired and I just wanted to get my kids to bed. First, I couldn't find the room and thought I was going to go crazy. Then, I go to open the door. It is three floors up, Eli is asleep in my arms and my older ones have to go to the bathroom. The key did not work! I got so mad and frantic I decided to take it out on the door so I kicked it as hard as I could. I had on my sandals, so I only managed to stub my big toes pretty bad.
After a trying ordeal of trying to get the babies to go to sleep, they finally succumbed to their eyelids and I fell asleep, sort of. But I had this really achy big toe. It felt like it was broken. What an idiot!
We spent Friday with my good friend Melanie and her crew. It was a blast. Except, because of sleep deprivation, Harry and Julia were horrible. So I strapped them into their car seats, turned on a movie, turned on the car and left it idling for about 1.5 hours. I say it is cheaper than a babysitter and can you really put a price on sanity?
Isn't this the most scrumptious little baby? This is Melanie and Jared's latest girl, Taryn. She is a good little baby.
On Saturday I went the the Despain Family Reunion in Provo. Despain is my grandmother's grandmother's family and her posterity. There were a lot of people there. They have quite the posterity. Here is my Grandma N. and my uncles Barry and Dave.
They just had a little moment here. Brotherly love, you know?
My sister Catye is getting married in October and here is her man, Mike. My kids LOVE him. Hence, I love him. He will make a great addition to the family.
My Great-Grandmother May was one of 12 children. She was number 5. The church sent her parents to Lovell, Wyoming in 1905 on a mission to settle the area. It was one of the last wagon trains. The guy standing up in this picture is Gordon. He is one of two surviving kids and my Grandma's uncle. I am not sure who the other two are, but I bet they are important.
We belong to the May faction.
On the drive back, Raef wanted to touch the salt. This is the famous salt flats. This is where they break land speed records and where the unfortunate Donner party planted the seeds of a horrible demise in the Sierra Nevadas.
We limped to the finish, but we made it all in one piece. The more I see Nevada, the more I realize that it is an incredible beautiful state. Elko and Winnemucca are beautiful country and I look forward to going back that way again.
It was a big week for me. You remember how before everyone thought I was totally crazy for taking my kids by myself on a little jaunt through Arizona? That was just a warm-up for the week I just experienced in Utah.
I took Raef and Zach to the Intermountain Suzuki String Institute camp this week in Draper, Utah. Wow, what a week, huh? Let me see...me, check. Raef, check. Zach, yep him too. Oh yeah, then there was Eli, check. Harry and Julia, check, check. Yep, uh huh. Just me and five little ones at a rather serious Suzuki string camp for 6 days. I didn't have a clue what I was getting myself into when I went.
It was at a private high school and it was me against all of them. I mean, me and all of them together. One big happy family.
My thought was that I would stay the whole first day and get them oriented to their classes. I had arranged babysitting with Melanie, superwoman! After that first day, I would drop them off in the morning and spend time with Melanie and go to a few classes in the middle of the day.
There was only one teensy weensy little problem.
"Mom, are we done yet?" spoken by Zach after the first class was finished. He only had 3 more on the first day, and 5 more days ahead of him.
"Is this my last class?" spoken by Zach after his second to last class, to his fiddling teacher, the guy who was teaching 6 different classes in a large high school where every single room was being used for classes.
"Are you Zach's mom?" spoken by Zach's violin performance teacher Andrea Sanderson, on Tuesday when it became painfully obvious that Zach was very wiggly and disruptive to the entire group.
"I couldn't find my class." spoken by Zach when I needed him to go to his next class on his own, as I had to deal with my little ones. I had only physically walked him to his class twice so that he would know where it was and had also written down his schedule with all the class numbers, so he could ask someone if he got lost. He lost the schedule on Tuesday morning.
"Your violin bow is not a sword." spoken by me.
"IT'S NOT FAIR!!!!!! YOU ARE CHEATING!!!!! YOU DON'T PLAY FAIR!!!!" spoken, I mean, tearfully screamed by Zach at lunch break when he didn't like the way the game was going because the other kids were bigger and he was constantly losing.
We went to Melanie's house a few times to hang out when camp was over in the evenings. It was a lot of fun and the kids really enjoyed reconnecting.
This gal is the best. She totally saved me. When it became woefully apparent that I was going to have to do a lot of hand holding for the entire week, she stepped right up and watched my babies the majority of the time. They got lots of naps and attention and fun. Whew! She totally saved me. At night we stayed with my Uncle Barry and Aunt Sue in Orem. It was a lot of fun being able to reconnect with them and just hang out. I was grateful for the opportunity. There was one tiny, little thing that I didn't like. Bedtime. I mean, Eli and bedtime. Those two things just didn't really go together very well. You remember how I chronicled his bedtimes problems at our house? I am not going to rehash that, but needless to say it was quite painful. It was Act III. Every night it took hours to get all three of them to sleep. The problems really revolved around Eli. Errrrrrr!
So I seemed to go to bed every night around 12pm, but we were always up bright and early around 5:45 to 6am. And somehow I survived.
But look at these faces...
Oh, come on! How could I be mad at that???
I made sure to take some pictures with their teachers. This is their orchestra teacher, Denise Willey. She was fantastic; dynamic, funny, instructive, helpful. Everything you would want in a teacher, she fit the bill. The kids loved her class. Raef was the only viola.
There he is...all by himself, holding down the fort and doing a mighty fine job.
Oh yeah, that is Zach...
Now unlike Zach, who struggled all week...Raef thrived. He is just a cool kid. There were not very many viola players and he was by far the youngest kid in his group. He is very advanced for his age. He is going into the 3rd grade and the next youngest kid was headed to 7th. But he fit right in and made lots of friends. In this picture he is getting instruction from his master's teacher, David Becker. He helped Raef work on his dynamics.
David Becker is from Wisconsin. Because the viola group was so small, Raef was able to get a lot of needed attention with his instrument. It was fantastic.
These are some of the kids he studied with this week. They are just the cream of the crop, wonderful kids with great personalities and so kind. I loved the environment he was in. The vibe in the viola class was cool. There was a camaraderie that really worked for him.
His performance and technique teacher was Dee Martz. She is also from Wisconsin. I loved her class and so did Raef. They would make up stories about the songs they were playing and this really worked for Raef. It helped him with dynamics quite a bit.
One neat thing about Dee is the viola she is holding. It was made in 1773! It is a Guadagnini and there were only 12 made, with 4 known to exist. The university she works for owns it and lets her play it. Isn't that cool? It has its own name and everything...Cosio. Whoa!
Raef made a friend at camp named Tyler. He came from South Dakota to study. They really hit it off and Raef and him would go play rugby in the field during lunch break. Raef thought that was the coolest thing ever.
Zach reminded me several times this week that he will never be an aborigine. But he did enjoy this exercise where they actually got to wander around while they played. He felt right at home as that is how he usually practices at home.
Zach with Andrea Sanderson. She is a very compassionate lady. She was very patient with him and pleasantly surprised when he didn't do anything outrageous during the final performance.
This was Zach's master's teacher, Deborah Moench. She is a well-known pedagogue in Salt Lake City and I believe her daughter is a world-renowned violinist. She is soft-spoken, but tough.
On Saturday we enjoyed the fruits of our labors and the kids did a concert in the main auditorium. The babies were terrible when it was time for the show. Luckily I brought my brother Jamie along and he watched them so that I could see it. Julia listened to a little bit of the pre stuff on the floor. Oooohhhh! So cute.
Of course I made a couple of videos if you want to hear what it sounded like. The actual concert footage is terrible, but it sounds good. There is a faculty orchestra that accompanied them and that was really cool.
