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My mom had two back surgeries to try to help relieve some of the pain she has been in.  After a stay in the hospital and a rehab center she was finally released to come home.  I flew to CA to help her in her recovery last week and I'm so glad I did.  It was a great week.  I didn't do too much to help my Mom and Dad except cook and offer moral support but it was just nice to have that time with them.  It's been a while since I've been back at home all by myself and with quite a bit of time to myself.  I found that I was getting a bit nostalgic and just feeling grateful for my family and for the fact that I have a place to come back to where the air is thick with happy memories.   I even started taking pictures of some things that I was nostalgic about.  

One morning, my dad took my mom to an appointment so I had the morning to kill by myself.  I decided to go hit tennis balls at the park.  This was one of my favorite pastimes as a kid, mostly in high school once I got really into tennis.  It was a great way to go get some aggression or extra energy out.  I was even hitting balls against this wall when Joe called me to ask me on our first date.  The surface is really messed up now and there have always been constant battles against graffiti, so it doesn't look like much, but it sure means a lot to me.

That park holds so many memories for me, too.  There's the oak tree we used to climb as kids.  I wonder how I got up there--did we climb on trash cans?  It's looking a bit dead now.  There's the swing that I sat on and tried to count as high as I could.  I think I got past 500 before giving up. There's the gazebo that I tried to climb on top of as a kid and where I slipped and scraped my thigh on a bolt. I still have the scar from that.  There's the field where we played sports as a family, where my mom taught me to make daisy chains, and where we had church parties with good friends.  So many happy memories, in what to anyone else would just look like a dingy, worn-down old park.  

When my mom first came home, she couldn't move much so we were bringing her meals to her in bed.  My dad was using this tray:

I love that tray.  We used that same green tray whenever we were making breakfast in bed for someone when I was growing up.  I remember my mom bringing meals to me on that tray when I was sick, too.  Just the sight of it makes me happy. :)

 I got to go to one of my favorite spots in Stockton with one of my favorite people, too:

 

That Chili's holds so many great memories for me.  I went there probably an average of once a week in high school.  I also decided on this trip that it is one of the best Chili's restaurants.  We've been disappointed in the food at the ones we've been to in other places.  It was so fun to catch up with Jessica in our regular spot.  We stayed there talking for hours.  I'm sure the waitress was happy to see us go.  I love that it's like hardly any time has passed when we get together.

I also discovered a new place and a new reason to love my hometown when I was there.  I had to get in my long run for the week so I decided to just take the path I would always run on when I was younger and follow it.  This time I ran way past the point I would in high school (I was never much of a distance runner, even when I was in great shape) and just kept going and going.  The pavement ran out and turned to gravel.  It was another foggy morning in the valley and I loved just running by the water watching the birds.  There was hardly anyone out there.  It was so beautiful to me that I risked my remaining battery power on my phone because I just had to take pictures:

 

Sure enough, my phone died right after I took those so I had to run the whole way home without any music.  That is a big challenge for me, but I did it!  I ran farther than I've ever run in my life--over 8 miles!  I felt really good, despite some minor pains.  I'm feeling like this half-marathon might just be a possibility now.

Stockton gets a really bad rap, what with crime and bankruptcy, but I just love that place.  I think it's a pretty rare and special thing to be able to go back to the house I spent all of my childhood in.  Still, even if my parents sell the house and move away some day, I'll be alright.  I'll have all of my happy memories to hold on to.

Lastly, I have to give a shout-out to my amazing husband who held down the fort while I was away.  He has been feeling kind of swamped with work that needs to get done but when I mentioned that I wanted to go he didn't hesitate to encourage me.  Somehow, he managed to juggle it all while I was gone and did a pretty darn good job, too.  He never fails to support me in anything I want or need to do and for that I am so grateful. He's the best. :)

Elizabeth is 10!

We had another big milestone around here when our oldest entered the second decade of her life!  It's still hard to believe.  We had a fun time celebrating, though.

She wanted to make her own cake this year:

I love that she put a book on it.  :)

We had a delicious breakfast of German pancakes with berries.  Then it was off to school.  I brought her some cowboy cookies to share with her class.  She asked for "bread bowl soup" as she calls it, which is this delicious cauliflower soup that a friend made for us after Nate was born, complete with bread bowls.  The other kids weren't too thrilled about this choice but Joe and I were :).  Then, we opened presents.

Elizabeth had begged for a pet.  It was funny to see her birthday list of basically any animal she could think of to write down, with certain preferences starred.  Sadly, her parents are kind of anti-pet (at least for now) but we did relent and decided on some fish to start:

She was still excited:

She picked out three goldfish.  Sadly, one died soon after it came home (poor Crimson).  We're all slowly learning how to take care of the fish.  

 She got a movie she loves--Born to Be Wild (one of those Disney nature movies):

She also got an ice skating trip to take place the next day:

Plus a cool Hogwarts shirt:

The next day we drove up to the closest ice skating rink in Sun Valley.  We weren't sure it would be worth the drive but it ended up being a really fun day.

Here's our little ice skater having a blast:

This guy did a complete 180 after the last time we tried ice skating:

He was so brave and ended up being a pretty good skater.  He took some tough falls but kept skating.

Natalie lasted as long as Elizabeth out on the rink (much longer than the rest of us) and improved a lot, too:

Eli enjoyed Joe and I basically carrying him around the rink a few times until our backs couldn't take it anymore.  Then he enjoyed eating snacks on the sidelines with Dad (who isn't much of a fan of ice skating).

We couldn't resist taking some pictures here:

Except Nate...he could resist.  :)

Elizabeth has had a great year and has learned a lot.  She is still a voracious reader and lately we have been able to talk her into pushing herself a little more in the kinds of books she reads.  She read The Hobbit, almost all of the Anne of Green Gables books, a lot of the Diary of Anne Frank (not sure if she finished it) and has made good progress in Little Women.  Because of this, she has quite the vocabulary and I love it when I hear her say some sophisticated-sounding word in normal conversation.  You just can tell that she is beginning to understand some complex things a lot more and it is fun to have discussions with her.  Of course, we are still working on teaching her moderation, even in her reading.  We found out not long after we moved here in parent/teacher conferences that she was reading during her recesses.  Her teacher asked if we wanted to allow that and we said no.  I think her teacher now lets her read during one recess but not the other.  She is making more friends so I think that is helping.  I know well the relief of escaping into a book when life gets hard (since I tend to do that myself) and so I'm trying to be patient.  Elizabeth is really extraordinarily brave.  I think my kids have already had way more experiences with adjusting to change and new experiences than I had by the time I left for college.

Anyway, she does enjoy getting some energy out, too.  She still loves to climb, swim, hike, and ride her bike.   One of the things that I love about Elizabeth is that she isn't in any hurry to grow up (at least yet).  She still loves to play pretend with her younger siblings and I love to hear the scenarios that they come up with.   She loves to play Wii with Nate.  She is so kind to Eli and is very responsible with him.  We're starting to slowly transition into letting her babysit a little bit.  

She loves Greek mythology (thanks to Percy Jackson) and knows way more about it than I do.  She also loves all things Egyptian and even copied down hieroglyphics for fun one day.  She still loves crafting and sewing in particular.  She can be a bit of a perfectionist about some of the things she makes and doesn't like it when they don't turn out how she was hoping.  She loves to cook.  If I could get my act together and start teaching her how to make more things she would gladly take over some of that.  She is an excellent salad maker, at least.

She is thoughtful, inquisitive, kind, responsible, fun-loving, independent, and we love her with all our hearts.  Happy Birthday, Lizzy!

Little Things

I wanted to catch up on some little things that have been going on around these parts.

One day it was finally warm enough to go to the park so we took advantage.  We were the only ones there (until a little boy came for a bit) but it was so nice to get out and let the kids run around.  Nate loved climbing as high as he could in this tree.

Can you spot him?

I got talked into running a half-marathon with Katie and Kari and so I'm trying my best to stick to a training schedule.  I could only run about 2 miles when I started.  We'll see how this goes!  It has been so good for me to get up early and run, though.  There is something magical to me in being outside early in the morning, watching the sun come up or looking at the stars--even when it's freezing cold.  It makes me feel so alive! :)  

I loved this view of the temple one morning:

Unfortunately, I wasn't so smart one morning as I left.  There was a bit of snow on the ground and I couldn't get out the back gate like I normally do because the snow was piled up behind it.  So, I moved over one of our patio chairs and thought I could hop the fence and then move the snow to get back in.  Sadly, the plastic chair was very brittle in the cold temperatures and the armrest snapped right off when I stepped on it.  I scraped my leg up pretty bad on the way down:

With the cold and the adrenaline, it didn't hurt too much so I put a piece of paper towel on it and wrapped it with an ace bandage to go back out and run (although not very far because of all the time I had spent on all of that).  It was only when I got home that it hurt like crazy!  Anyway, another painful lesson learned! :)

One day Eli and I went out for a little bike ride to the temple just the two of us:

He loves bike rides and wishes we could go every day.

I guess you could say I'm trying to implement some healthy habits in my life like getting outside (even when it's cold), exercising, eating more vegetables, and reading my scriptures every morning.

I put this favorite of mine up on our quote board:

I'm learning that getting up in the morning is a battle every day but once I do it everything else becomes more automatic and life is so much better.

I still quite like the snow:

Ask me again in April or May.  :)

I made my first legit snowman with the kids.  You know, the kind where you can just roll the snow into a ball?  We decided to make Harry Potter:

One night as I was getting ready to go to bed, I looked outside and saw this:

It was light!  At 11pm!  It was so weird and I still don't have any idea what caused it.

My boys sure love to steal my phone and take pictures these days.  I have to post some of the gems I've found recently:

Pizza night!

It's fun to see how the world looks from a kid's perspective:

These are from a Sunday afternoon.  Eli was mad Nate had the phone and then he got it:

I LOVE those cheeks.

My feet:

:)

Here's one from scripture time one morning:

Finally, these boys have taken to sleeping together lately (not always Nate's choice) and it melts my heart every time:

I also got this shot of a night when the girls shared a bed, too:

I love those kids.

Christmas Break

We had a nice Christmas break.  We kicked it off with some gingerbread houses with cousins.

Here was Matt's:

We all scarfed down plenty of candy:

Elizabeth's:

Natalie's:

Nate's:

TJ's:

We discovered that TJ is quite gifted at making gingerbread houses.  I mean look at that thing!

Here was mine:

We had a nice few days before Christmas full of last-minute shopping (like usual), looking at Christmas lights, delivering some neighbor gifts, and watching plenty of Christmas movies.  

Christmas Eve night we had a nice dinner of homemade tomato soup and crackers then we had our little Christmas program.  We had a mix of scriptures and songs.  The girls and I played songs on the piano, Joe played his guitar, we all played handbells, and we even had some drumming.  I really loved it.  Then it was off to bed.  We had a Christmas miracle that night---SNOW!  It was actually crazy windy, too, and it was keeping me awake but it was so exciting.  The kids were thrilled when they saw the snow.  

Sadly, when I tried to take video of the kids coming out Christmas morning, I took a picture instead.  So here's the pathetic picture that should have been a video:

They did love their gifts.  

Natalie got a big slinky and the movie The Lady and the Tramp (she always seems to be our child with pretty simple wishes---remember the broom and the butterfly net?)

Elizabeth got some Magnaformers.  They love playing with those at their cousins' house.

Nate got the wish of his heart--a Harry Potter remote control wand!  We programmed it to the TV in the loft.

Eli got two stuffed animals--Gerald & Piggie! 

Some more Christmas pictures:

Eli loved these Sesame Street people he got from cousins:

Nate took these pictures later that morning of some of our gifts.

I thought they were cute:

We got this firepit and wood for our patio from Grandma & Grandpa:

We're excited to use it.

Then it was time to play in the snow!

Eli is riding on Joe's Christmas gift--a kayak!  I had to store it in our side yard to keep it a surprise and it got covered in snow.  I was happy to have pulled off that surprise, though.

We're excited to use it once it warms up a bit.

That afternoon we visited Joe's aunt's house and then went over to his Grandma's.  It was fun to visit with family.  That night we came home and had a super delicious dinner.  We decided to go with steak this year and it was funny to watch Joe out grilling in the freezing cold.  It was so worth it, though.  We had steak, twice-baked potatoes, these cheesy garlic bread swirls, and a raspberry pomegranate salad. It was good and we all stuffed ourselves silly.

The day after Christmas we got up and at 'em early to drive to UT.  We planned to see a bunch of our family.  Sadly, it didn't work out that way.  Joe woke up feeling sick, but Natalie had had a really short-lived sickness of some kind and Joe's was manageable with ibuprofen so we decided to stick with our plan.  Unfortunately, by the time we got to Chris and Regina's house he was pretty wiped out.  Still, it was so fun to see them and where they lived.  It was my first time in Eastern Utah and I have to say it was a pretty drive.  It was so wide open where they live, too, and so quiet.

I took this picture from their front porch: 

Here's a quick shot of the kids playing in the snow:

Here are some that Regina took of the kids devouring their Gingerbread train:

 And watching something:

We had a blast there, despite the sickness.  They were such troopers to let us come crash right after Christmas and they took care of us well.  Sadly, the visit was over too soon.  We pressed on to our next stop--the BYU/Gonzaga basketball game.  We'd gotten the tickets for Christmas and didn't want to miss it, even though Joe was sick.

I thought the view of this sleeping guy during the drive to Provo combined with the endless snow was pretty cool:

We had fun at the game.  It was a really exciting one.  Eli had trouble at times so we took turns taking him out but the older kids all loved it.  It was too bad they let it go in the end.  I was out with Eli at the end of the game and who do I happen to see? Mitt and Ann Romney!  That was fun :).  They were trying to sneak out early without being mobbed and having a hard time of it. 

By the end of the game, Joe was really wiped out.  We picked up some food and then headed to our next stop--Richard and Toni's house.  Joe just basically stayed away from Archer and slept while we were there.  By then we realized we needed to just go home.  It was so fun to see Richard and Toni's place.  It is super nice.   I loved getting to hold Archer and our kids loved running around with Jace.  Richard made us a yummy breakfast too.  So, we headed for home.  We were so sad to miss having dinner with Matt & Melissa and Brad & Kelli and kids, and seeing Jon and Jaime and kids.  But, it was good to get Joe home and resting.  He crashed for a few days and slowly started to come out of it.  It was a rough flu that he had.  I don't think I'd seen him that sick before.  The kids and I stayed pretty close to home.  We did invite some friends over for a play date one day since they had been begging me.  

By New Year's Eve he was feeling better so we decided to head to Grandpa Tom and Grandma Lorna's house like we had planned.  We had a fun few days there with Tom and his kids for the first part, Richard and his boys, then Chris and Regina and kids.  The kids always love being at Grandma and Grandpa's house.  We had a fun New Year's Eve having a Back to the Future movie marathon. 

One night I left to meet Kari and Katie for dinner and dessert.  We had a blast like always.

 

I guess I missed the memo about the red lipstick. :)

That was our Christmas break!  It was a fun one.

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