It's amazing how fast time flies. We have now been in Utah for four months! I can't believe it. It's a mixture of feeling like we've always lived here and the excitement that comes with being in a new place. We are still learning so much about the area as well as the local attractions. We most recently went for a drive along the Alpine Loop to look at the amazing color transformation that is happening on the mountain. Unfortunately I forgot my camera. Suffice it to say it was AMAZING! Hopefully we will get to do it again before they close the road for winter and this time I won't forget my camera. Oh, by the way, we got our first snow yesterday. I can't believe it snowed. We of course we're the only people outside laughing and playing in it. We'll see if we still like the snow after winter is over.
We're going to spice things up a little, I usually go from oldest event to the most recent, but not this time (did I totally blow your hair back or what). Hey I've got to find excitement anywhere I can get it. Being a stay at home mom is wonderful, but also very much like the movie "Groundhog's Day". Only without the receding hairline and bad clothes. So to change things up I fill you in on what's happening now, first!
The girls are currently in school and loving it. I'm loving it too. Five kids at home 24/7 for three and a half months makes for a cranky mommy and kids for that matter. Funny enough the name of their school is Cedar Ridge Elementary, which was the name of their school in Georgia. Well at least it's easy to remember. Both girls have wonderful teachers. Jason and I have had a harder time with adjusting to their new school. It's a wonderful school, it's just a few things are done differently. Coming from a school where you had to have a special tag in your car to pick your kids up from school. Where they had to wait in the cafeteria for their name to be called to go outside to get in the car. Where there were lots of teachers making sure kids didn't just wander off or get snatched, to a school where when the bell rings 900 hundred kids come bursting through the doors to either walk home (not something you saw very often in Georgia), ride their bike or scooter home, catch one of the buses (they only have three buses, not many kids ride the bus) or wait for their parents to arrive to pick them up. I have only seen a crossing guard and one teacher out when the kids get out. I have to admit I still worry about someone being able to just grab one of our kids with so little supervision. For example (about to show how great we are as parents here), every monday is a short day for the kids. They normally get out at 3:30 pm, but on Mondays they get out at 2:45. We are still getting used to this new schedule. The nice thing is Jason has Monday and Tuesday of each week so we walk the girls to school and walk them home from school on these days. One particular Monday we decided we would take a nap with the boys before we went to get the girls from school (come on who doesn't love a nap in the middle of the day). Our alarm went off and we got the boys up and as usual we were running late (I mean when are we ever on time, that's rhetorical). We haul booty to the school and are only like 10 minutes late.....or so we thought. As we are getting closer to the school I notice there are no cars waiting to get anyone and there are no kids outside. I look at Jason and ask what time it is. Jason says,"It's 3:40pm". Just then it dawns on me that it's Monday and the girls have been out of school for almost an hour! We hit total freak out mode because we don't see our girls waiting by the flag pole where they are supposed to be. They had decided to walk down the street a little ways hoping to spot us. When we got up to them they were crying so hard, telling us they thought we forgot them (I'm talking big crocodile tears with the giant sobs, talk about feeling like a big pile of dung). I was surprised that no teacher came out and asked where their parents were or that no one took them inside to wait for us. Needless to say after this incident we haven't forgotten or been late.
This past weekend Jason and I had the wonderful opportunity to attend the Sunday morning session of General Conference. What an amazing time. I don't even have to words to describe how peaceful and wonderful the morning was. The Mormon Tabernacle Choir is so amazing. I got so much out of that session. Jason and I both realized how fast it went by. We couldn't figure out why it seems to go by so slow at home, but seemed to fly by when we were at the Conference Center. Then the light bulb went off. It was because no one was talking during it, making us rewind (thank you DVR), or making us pause it to get them a snack or a drink. We were able to just listen. It was really wonderful. I would love to go again when the kids are all teenagers. To have our whole family there together would be just so amazing.
Another totally awesome thing we got to do was go to a BYU football game (we are people with hook ups now, when did we become "cool"?). It just happened to be the night they played the Utes. Not a good night for BYU, but Jason and I had a wonderful time despite the awful loss. Thanks to Brandon Halsey for the free tickets and to my parents for watching the kiddos!
Oh, yeah and we got to meet Jimmer...and he signed our tickets from the game. Tried not to act like a complete idiot (epic fail by the way), we were the totally nerdy fans. "Hey Jimmer can we get your autograph? We're from Sacramento! Can't wait to watch you play for the Kings." (Yeah, we splurged and got tickets to the Utah Jazz vs. Sacramento Kings game in Jan) He was super nice. Not sure why we took a picture of him with the ROTC cadets and not us. Didn't want to be to pushy. Those tickets are so going to be framed with his picture.
Both Hyrum and Payton celebrated a birthday in September! Hyrum turned 3 and little baby Payton turned 1! They are growing too fast. I made them chocolate cupcakes with a strawberry buttercream frosting. This is the first year Hyrum actually ate a cupcake instead of a muffin. Not sure if that is necessarily a good thing :) My parents were in town so they helped us in the celebrating (which really means they helped us eat all the cupcakes, can't have to many of those left lying around).
Also while my parents were here we went to go find the grave of my great, great, great-grandfather, Gen. Patrick Connor. He is known as the father of mining here in Utah. You can google him to learn more. Pretty cool that we have family ties to Utah. He actually had several dealings with Brigham Young. He was buried on Ft. Douglas which is now owned by the University of Utah (he's probably a Utes fan). We found his grave along with those of his wife (at least we think it's his wife), son and daughter in law and what appeared to be that of a child. So neat to go see his grave as well as the other graves there. It was a very moving experience. The amount of people who lost their lives during those early years of settlement was really sad. Even though there is no way to tell exactly who was LDS and who wasn't they were all pioneers. The paved the way for what is modern day Utah.
For Labor Day weekend we decided to go camping (because you can do that stuff out west). Now some might say it wasn't real camping, but let me just tell you, when you have 5 kids, sleeping in a tent, on air mattresses in a 8 x 14 space, that is real camping. Going where there are no bathrooms or running water is just plain suicidal. We had such a blast! The kids loved cooking out side, ok let's be honest they loved watching me cook outside while running away from the bees. They also loved catching their marshmallows on fire. I made pancakes, bacon, eggs and hot cocoa each morning. We would sit around the fire enjoying our breakfast. Then we would spend the afternoon playing in the water, feeding the ducks and coloring (or in the adult case reading a book, although I might have colored). It was relaxing and fun. I was really sad when we had to break down camp (let's face it it's a lot of work to get it all up and to have to take it down just two days later is no fun) and head home. We are planning on making that our Labor Day weekend tradition and who knows maybe one day, when the kids are older, we'll go "real" camping (hopefully by then we'll have a fifth wheel).
At the end of August the girls started school. What should have been a day of excitement and tears as they had their first day at a new school, turned into Charlie throwing up into a bucket in the back of the truck, while Faith is yelling at him to keep his head over the bucket so she doesn't get barfed on. So maybe there were tears. After Jason took the girls inside and dropped them off at their classrooms, while I waited with barf boy, we brought Charlie home where he spent the rest of the morning sleeping in the bathroom. Yes, I'm that mean. It didn't want a trail of multi-colored chunks to clean up. He didn't seem to mind too much. After a nice long nap he was back to his normal self. The girls had a great first day of school so I guess everything worked out. Hopefully that won't be a tradition on the first day of school though.
Also in August we went to California for the first time in almost three years. Still haven't decided if driving 12 hours is more painful than flying with 5 kids from Georgia, but I'm gonna have to say it's probably flying. The kids know we can't just dump them in the middle of nowhere on a plane, but the threat of being left on the side of the road in the middle of the desert, now that will put the fear of God into them. Maybe that's why they were so good.
We had a wonderful time staying with my sister for our first day and a half. She, Tyler and their two beautiful girls welcomed us with open arms and maybe some earplugs. The cousins had a wonderful time playing together and my parents got to meet Payton for the first time. Thank you again Molly and Tyler for letting us invade your home. We love you so much.
The day after we got into town we headed over to my parents house for swimming and b-b-q! We were so happy to see that my grandparents, The Greats (as they're called now), Auntie Pantie (ok she's not really a pantie, but it sure is fun saying it. Her name is really Patti) and my cousin Theissen. We had such a wonderful time. Wish it could have been a little longer of a visit. The kids really loved playing in the pool with all the big kids (which would be Jason, Tyler and Theissen, big kids that they are). Faith and Emma even started jumping into the deep end of the pool. Ok, let's be honest, I pushed Faith in when she wasn't expecting it. If we had waited for her to do it on her own we'd still be there right now. So I gave her a little "nudge". Can you guess how happy she was with me after that? Emma didn't all on her own! Lots of fun and laughs had by all.
Now to gear up for the holiday season, Faith's birthday and baptism! Can't believe 2011 is almost over.
