A Fine Day for a Blizzard

Mitch-darling, the snow man.

We had made plans with some friends to do some snowshoeing on Saturday. So when that storm rolled in, we weren't about to throw in the towel. We did, however, compromise and head for a lower canyon.
It turned out to be one of our best snowshoeing excursions to date. We decided to leave the little boys at home for this one (something we've never done...but may again, as it turned out). Grace enthusiastically volunteered to babysit. (You would think trudging through the snow in a blizzard with the family wasn't her idea of fun or something. Go figure???)

It was really coming down. We all  had to keep brushing the snow off as it piled up on our jackets and back packs, to keep from being buried in it, or getting too wet as our body heat melted it. The melting snow froze zippers and pack straps. But it was BEAUTIFUL. I kept thinking how so many people would be hunkering down indoors on such a day...and how much they were missing.

We snowshoed farther up Neff's Canyon than we have ever gone in the past...which was awesome, since we brought some sleds along, and Mike and all the kids had a nice long ride back down. It was so much fun to jog along behind them, chatting with good friends, listening to the kids yelling and laughing ahead of us.

Ang looking surly

Thanks to J. we have a couple of pictures. We didn't bring a camera, but luckily, she had her  iPod.

Afterward, we loaded up kids and gear and headed to my new FAVORITE Vietnamese restaurant, which Mike and I discovered the night before, for some warm Pho ..and the best banh mi EVER. (You've got to try it.)

All in all, it was a great day to be alive.

Rites of Passage

We finally bit the bullet and put braces on 2 of our 6 kids. (I am hoping we don't have 4 to go.) So last week there was a lot a drama at our house about sore teeth and not being able to chew. Thankfully, that's ebbing.

J. just wants to make sure it's all over before high school.

Potty Talk at Target

Hopefully, we won't offend anyone with this post.  It was too good not to share. Let me just preface with this: kids are skilled humiliators. If you don't know that before you have kids, they will waste no time teaching you.

Out shopping with Sully, he frantically told us, " I have to poop!" So, I walked him into the women's bathroom at Target, and got him situated in a stall to do his business. He started chattering away about this and that. A few seconds later a lady walked in and took the stall next to Sully, and he really launched into his commentary. (at FULL volume)

Sully: (grunting) "I just have one more big poop!"

Me: (hoping this will be the end of it) "Let's hurry and get done, buddy."

Sully: (more grunting, louder than before) "It's a really big poop. It's hurting my bum when it's pushing out!"

Me: mortified silence...hoping the lady next to him will not be embarrassed by all this potty talk...but Sully saved the best for last...

(**As the lady in the next stall started doing her business**)

Sully: (after a  pause to consider, & directing his remarks to the occupant of the next stall)  
"Is that me peeing or is it you?!"

Oh, yes he did.

I had to hold my hands tightly over my mouth to keep from laughing out loud, tears welling up in my eyes.

I am so glad the lady was a good sport. As she left she grinned at me (while I stood there sheepishly) and said, "Aren't they so funny at this age? I don't know how you kept from laughing."

I will miss moments like this when they are all old enough to know better.

How Did You Spend Valentine's Day?

I spent it shuttling children to and from lessons and stuff. And making heart pizza -- from whole wheat natural yeast dough, of course.. :) -- for the kids' dinner.

The kids spent it learning at school, piano lessons, basketball games, and delivering cards to their friends around the neighborhood.

Grace kept asking me, hopefully, if I had anything special planned. I mean, I tried. I did make valentines to put in their lunch boxes, and  special valentines cupcakes for dessert...but I felt a little guilty telling her that we weren't making Valentines Day THAT big of a deal. She was bummed that they did not have the day off from school, feasts and presents and ceremony Anything more exciting than the nearly normal day that it turned out to be. Sorry G. You'll survive.

My parents spent Valentines exploring the wilds and legends of Death Valley, and other desolate places on their first post-retirement vacation. A little bit ironic. Retire, and immediately make tracks for Death Valley. To each his own. They played some golf in Death Valley and toured Scotty's Castle and visited the Ale'Inn (read: "alien") Cafe near Area 51 in central Nevada, drove through deserted mining towns, hiked around weird geological features (my dad loves a good geology trip)...all the stuff that dream vacations are made of.

Mike spent Valentine's Day evening working. He had to teach that night. (He did call me. And he brought me an awesome, clever, personally-authored card when he got home later.) Mike and I went out to breakfast the next day for our official Valentines Day observance. After which, we dropped over to the kids' school to watch my Russian sister, Elena, talk to Jessie's class about growing up in Soviet Russia. They have been studying the Cold War. That was fun. Mike was impressed with some of the kids' questions, especially the one who asked about inflation and currency exchange. He wished some of his adult students were as bright.

Bendy and Roy spent part of their evening doing a good deed. That is, they took pity on me slogging it out at home alone, and brought me chocolate covered strawberries and grapes and half of Beth's giant heart shaped cookie to share. How cool are they?! Thanks, guys.

Hope you all had a good one too. :)

A Boys' Day on the Slopes and Our Past Returns

I felt bad about not posting these pictures earlier from Mike & Noble's father & son day on the slopes...more than a week ago. It was definitely worth mentioning. Here you go.

Mike had promised Noble a snowboarding day, just the 2 of them,  if his grades were up to standard. So, Noble worked hard, and 2 Fridays ago Noble was excused from school (legitimately), for a more important pursuit: a day of snow and sun with his dad. Mike said Noble was greatly improved from the last time he went snowboarding (a couple of years ago), and crossed an important threshold in his snowboarding development: HE WORE HIS DAD OUT.  Noble went all day without even stopping for food (it was a good thing Mike had a few Cliff bars on him), riding every lift and run he could get to, even tackling some blacks. The snow was great, and they made some priceless memories.

Speaking of memories...
Saturday evening Mike and I got together with some of our high school friends (actually mostly mine) for dinner. This was an historic event, as many of us hadn't seen each other in almost 20 years. Some of them I have met up with from time to time, some I had reconnected with on Facebook, and some were MIA.  It was kind of surreal because in many ways it felt like nothing was different. We seemed to have the same dynamic together as ever: the same jokers, the same edge-sitters, the same senses of humor, same mannerisms...in some ways I felt like I was sitting back at the lunch table at Bingham High School all over again. That part amazed me. Even with the baggage (and added inches) of 20 years, we could still connect so easily.
It was a LOUD, happy 3 hours. Lots of hugs and raucous laughter. I told Mike that I just felt super pleased and content watching these people with whom I shared so much all those years ago totally enjoying each other's company again. Like a family reunion. The funny thing is that back then we actually jokingly referred to ourselves as the Family Tree. That's weird.

 We had so much fun, everyone wanted to get together again soon...this time at Tadd's Splash Lab at BYU. That should be awesome.

** photo creds, Annie's phone **

Patches

Yesterday (among other things) I kept more than busy patching stuff.

For starters, several pair of pants. Noble is HARD on school pants, and I can't bring myself to buy a new pair every time he rips a knee. So I keep one old pair (left) for cutting patches from. If they aren't really bad I can usually patch them up well enough so you can't tell without a closer look. Now, they'll last a few more months, maybe long enough to get us through the school year. (...if I could keep him from outgrowing them before then...) Thanks to my mom, who had the right color of Salmon thread, I also patched a little hole in Jessie's favorite pair of pants.

After spending several (VERY frustrating) hours attempting to remediate a few Abner-initiated disasters in the basement, I finally finished and came up to make the little boys a late lunch. TWO MINUTES later I heard Abner crying...the REAL kind of crying. You know what I mean, like you-might-want-to-get-911-on-the-phone kind. According to Sully, and consistent with the evidence at the scene, he had been running laps around the playroom, and pummeled head-first into Grace's doll house. I put lunch on hold for another hour while I tried to wrestle a screaming toddler, clean up the blood, scour through my cupboards and closets looking for the butterfly bandages I thought I had, put a band-aid on it only to be promptly ripped off... twice....Finally, I just threw my hands in the air and called it good, oozing gash notwithstanding. I was tired. So tired. Later, after a quick run to Walgreen's for butterfly bandages, in between getting Jessie to guitar lessons... Abner is all patched up. Good as new. Maybe there will be a scar to remind him. That's ok too.

Encouraging Movie Monday

I came across some gems last week (some of you may have already seen these, but we could all do with a review), and thought I would share a couple of make-you-smile-so-you-can-have-a-nice-day videos for your Monday...

...because we all need a pep talk...

Have a good one!