black watch

I love summer.

Our has been wonderfully low-key thus far. Jack turned 7 and finished up baseball. Ana did tennis lessons. The kids have eaten loads of otter pops, set up huge box forts in the backyard, played with neighbor friends. We visited my sister in Boise, too, and that was fun.

I have also tried to encourage a little bit more cooperation and help in the housework, so it hasn't been all fun and games. But mostly fun and games.

For the next few weeks, we will be spending time with my parents before they head to Arizona on their mission.  I love their stories.  Being young in my family and having a horrible memory, I don't remember much until my parents were well into their 40's, so it is a treasure to glimpse them when they were my age. They share little snippets at random times. Nothing formal, but still beautiful.

One story came as we were sorting through bins of fabric. Dresses with patterns pinned on, maybe even cut out. We came across a small piece of plaid fabric and my mom said, "Oh, I am not giving this away" and she handed it to my dad. To me it was just a scrap, so I asked them to tell me the story.

It was about 1975. That year Dad was away from home more than he was in it. He had a quick stop in Scotland, and wondered what he could bring home to Mom as a gift.  A friend suggested he bring her home something that she can sew. He picked out some real Scottish Black Watch Wool. He brought it home and she made a suit out of it. Though she hasn't worn it in years, it still hangs in her closet, and even the scraps still brings a smile on her face.

Just a small thread in a beautiful tapestry. 

mother, tell me a story

I love stories. I read and I write because I think stories are important. We all know that what makes a good book is the way the characters develop over time as they interact with conflict and hardship.  We all have our own stories, too. We have experiences that shape us and mold us. I am drawn to these stories. When we discover, uncover, and hear others' stories, we can't help but love them. We see their heart. This week as I had a chance to gather with women and they shared their stories. There were stories of heartache and stories of grace. It was beautiful. Everybody's stories are beautiful.

As I have thought about mothers this week, I have been particularly drawn to the women in my family (because my family has a lot of women) and their stories. My mother and my sisters are amazing women and though we seem similar on the surface, we all have our own stories and they are all beautiful.

My wedding 2005

My oldest sister Kelli is one of the smartest women I know. And she is also incredibly gracious, patient, and most of all, selfless. She has given up so much to give her 6 girls every opportunity in the world.

Teri's story is one of love and support to her husband as he battled cancer and then to support him some more while he served in 3 bishoprics, a high council and now again as Bishop of his ward. She also has 6 young kids.

Karianne amazes me with her ability to teach her kids to work.  And now she is a working mother herself and I know it is hard. Her family knows how to dig in, to take risks and to do hard things.

Wendy's story includes moving every few years and sending her husband off to 3 military tours in the middle east. She does it without complaining because she knew what she was getting herself into. She digs in and deals with it.

My sister-in-law Lori definitely is the cool, fun mom. She looks for any reason do special things with her kids and to celebrate them. Her story is also one of heartache when her own mother passed away from cancer. My brother definitely married up.

And then my 3 other sisters, Shari, Heather and Cindy, who aren't mothers yet but who love all their nieces and nephews (all 28 of them!). They are also women of faith and fortitude. Shari has stories of heartache and yet presses on with a smile on her face. Heather is a loyal friend to those around her and has a great sense of humor. Cindy's story is one of perseverance, particularly over the last few years as she has worked on getting her Master's degree.

I am so blessed to have such remarkable women for my sisters. I could go on and talk about Dave's sisters, who are equally amazing and of course my amazing mother-in-law, who is the best one on the planet. I am sure of it.

And of course, my own Mother. I don't know all her stories. I hope to know more of them.  I know a little of the heartaches she has experienced.  Becoming a mother myself has helped me see a glimpse of her incredible mother heart. It is full of love and worry for her children. And it is full of faith.  I think her story is one of faith. I am so grateful for the way she taught us to believe in God. I can say, like the Army of Helaman, "I do not doubt my mother knew it." (Alma 56:48)

I am so incredibly grateful and humbled to be a tiny part in the stories of these fantastic women in my life.

starting off with a bang

I have been trying to get to posting this for 2 days. I finally have a minute in between cleaning up Christmas and getting the kids back into routine.

We have had a memorable first week of 2014. Its been kind of a little crazy, truthfully. Here is a recap:

Wednesday: Took the kids the see Frozen. Such a cute movie! It was Katie's first movie in the movie theater. I wasn't sure how she would do but she sat on my lap watching intently the entire time. We have been singing "Let it go" all week. The kids were super grumpy this day, given the fact that they were up til midnight the night before. Are we the only ones that let our kids stay up? The movie was a welcome ray of sunshine in the day.

Thursday: Jack and Ana and went back to school. Half way through the day I picked up Dave to take him to a dentist appointment when we heard the heartbreaking news from the Larsen family that one of our nephews died. He was 21. He was a fun, kind, unique guy and he will be missed. We wish we could have been there this week with the family.

Saturday: We went to Dick's Sporting Goods to make a return and afterwards ran into Old Navy to check out their clearance. When we returned to the car I realized I had locked the keys inside. So in the freezing cold weather we walked our kids a couple blocks to the grocery store where our neighbor and friend, Sara, happened to be grocery shopping. When she finished she took Dave home where he picked up the Buick and the extra keys to come back and get us. I did our grocery shopping while we were waiting. He stopped on the way to get gas and then the Buick wouldn't start back up again. At all. By this time I was done shopping but it was too freezing to go anywhere so the kids and I camped out on a bench while we waited. I had a bag of Reese's Pieces in my purse so I asked the kids questions they had to answer to get one. They really did great. We were there about an hour. Meanwhile, Dave called our friend to come back and pick him up, push the car into a parking space and drive to get us. Dave knew what the Buick needed - there was a screw into the battery that was completely stripped and wasn't functioning anymore - so we stopped at the parts store to pick up a new part. At this point we were 2 hours late for some dinner plans. Later that night Dave went back to fix the Buick. He replaced the part and now it starts right up.

Monday: While the rest of the country was getting freezing temperatures, we had a day of warm(ish - 40*) weather and rain, rain, rain. Which happened to flood our basement just a little. Nothing too major, though.

Tuesday: Temperatures dropped and everything froze. So now we have a nice, thick sheet of ice on everything. So thick actually that Ana strapped on her ice skates and was skating on the sidewalks and driveway.

( It is supposed to be warm again this weekend. (Warm is relative when you live in the Northeast). I hope it melts everything.  Then it can go back down to cold and we can have a nice snow. Right now it is ice on top of snow on top of ice on top of snow. )

So, now that we have that week behind us, it is time to get in full gear into my New Year's Resolutions. I have made my list and feel like I have been doing pretty well. A post on that will be forthcoming.

Here's to 2014!

family pictures

There are some people that make you feel cooler just by being around them. We have met so many cool people here. One of those families is the Dahles. Even our kids know they are cool. Ana one time said, "The Dahles can do anything."  Any time something is broken Ana thinks we need to call them because they can fix anything. They are also amazing photographers and they took our family pictures for us this year.

 I had a very specific thing in mind. I wanted to dress up, but I also wanted them to look cozy and warm. And I wanted to take them in my house.  Maybe that is weird, but Heather totally made it work and I love how they turned out.

This is the one we chose for the Christmas card. I love how Ana is leaning on my shoulder and I love Jack's face.

The classic formal shot.

They look like they love each other!

I am totally in love with the genuine smiles and happiness on their faces here. I could eat them up.

This one is the closest to real life. It really shows personality.

I really like doing family pictures every year. I am not quite sure why, but ever since Ana was born I have made sure we have taken a current family photo every year. I like to document the passing of time. I like the snapshot of what our family looks like at different phases. I like to see the change and think about the growth that has happened over the year.  And I think it is important for my kids to see pictures of us as a family and pictures of me and Dave together with them - both formal pictures and informal. I am not a great photographer, but I love that it is so easy to document life by taking pictures. A picture is worth a thousand words, and taking pictures can be a powerful way to send a message to the next generation. I love the pictures I have of me as a child and of my family when we were young. They are treasured possessions. I hope my children feel the same way.

mommy vacation

I have been itching for a break. For whatever reason, my skin has been crawling and aching for just a little get-away. The stress of residency applications and interview scheduling, along with the realization that I will be flying solo for days while Dave travels, have been grinding at my patience and productivity until there was not much left. Luckily for me, I had a trip to DC planned just in the nick of time.

As a family with a lot of girls, we've been trying to get into a regular routine of getting together just as sisters, but this year only 3 of us could attend.  So on Friday I farmed out the kids to my wonderful friends and flew to DC for a little weekend. My only goals were to sleep uninterrupted (success!) and have fun (also success!).

Clockwise from top left: National Cathedral, Capitol Building, National Cathedral (outside and inside), LDS DC Temple, a sign that said, "Because of the Federal Government Shutdown, all national parks are closed." (we didn't listen to the sign and walked on the mall anyway), Me and Shari in the airport, our view from our hotel room, and the Supreme Court (center pic)

I had such a fun time! I actually came home feeling relaxed and rejuvenated. One thing I love about hanging out with my sisters is the conversation. We talked about everything from politics to parenting to our love of absurdity.

After dinner tonight Ana said to me, "Mom, I haven't heard about your trip yet." Then she let me tell her all about it. I loved that she asked about it and that she listened when I told her. I feel like I used up all my brownie points and now I have big IOUs to great friends who watched the kids while Dave worked, and it was so worth it.

summer wrap up

Man. Summer flew. It always does. And as it was possibly my last summer in Vermont, I am especially sad to see it go. As wonderful as fall is here, sometimes summer gets overlooked, but man is it wonderful here.  I didn't write about half the things we did. Let me explain.

No; there is too much. Let me sum up.

1.) Weekly trips to the beach.

 Photo Credit: my friend Jill

2.) Ana's birthday party

3.) Camping with the Morey's

4.) A visit from my amazing oldest sister and 3 of her beautiful daughters.

5.) Jack learning to ride a bike

6.) Shelburne Museum

7.) Moss Glen Falls with our great friends. 

Not to mention play groups and the farmer's market and the slip n' slide and bike rides and visits to the farm. I'm probably missing something. And tomorrow we are going to the fair.  Perhaps some of these will be expounded upon sometime.  There was also stuff we didn't do that I wanted to: go to a baseball game, go blueberry picking, and camp in Maine.

School starts tomorrow. I think I am ready....

God be with you til we meet again

This is a very awkward photo I took with my kids and Dad and Grandma Phippen right before we moved to Vermont.

Today was my Grandma Phippen's funeral. She passed away last weekend at the age of 93. She had a hard life, and I am glad that she is finally at peace. I wish I could have been there today, but the Gospel of Jesus Christ brings peace in knowing that I will see her again.

Things I remember:

*For a lot of years I got birthday card from Grandma with five dollars inside. She couldn't give much, but she did what she could.

*She always wore shoes. Even in the house, which I thought was strange. She also insisted that we wore shoes all the time. I suppose Grandma had days when shoes were a luxury and she never took them for granted.

*Grandma loved sports. When I visited her as a young girl clear up to when she lived at my parent's house, she always had a game on TV.  I like sports, too, so I guess that's something we have in common.


I am glad I stopped to see her in May when we visited. She didn't remember me, though after a while she remembered that my husband was tall and going to medical school.  My sister wrote a touching tribute to Grandma back in July.  Rest in Peace, Grandma.

laugh : (mini-challenge #5)

Friday was the last of my mini-challenges. Now, granted, this week was a little skewed because - let's face it - I can't be gloomy when in the company of my sisters. On Friday Kelli and I loaded up the kids and headed down to the Ben and Jerry's factory - about a 40 minute drive. The kids were in somewhat close quarters so, of course, there was whining coming from the back seat. I was driving, and Kelli was pulling out every trick in her 18-years-of-motherhood book, but to know avail. At one point it seemed we were going to be successful with the "I'm going to Ben and Jerry's and I am bringing something that begins with the letter A... etc." game, but it ended in hysterics at the letter D. Kelli and I just looked at each other and started laughing. There was nothing else to do. If I was on my own, I probably would have started yelling, but laughing worked out so much better. We were soon at our destination, and good times were had by all.

The same technique worked again on Saturday when I caught a certain child with crumbs down their front while insisting that it was their sibling that got into Katie's birthday cake while it was cooling. With a "Grr..." I went huffing downstairs when Kelli's daughter said, "Our Mom 'Grrs' at us too." And then once again we started to laugh. And then we realized that we get it from our mother and that at least one other sister also "Grrs" at their kids. Even though I was still annoyed about Katie's deformed cake, life moved on, Katie didn't care and I felt much happier having taken a moment to laugh.

Granted, it is a lot easier to laugh with someone. I'll have to try this challenge again when I am on my own. (Perhaps I should have tried it today when I was taking a screaming Jack out of Sacrament Meeting during a prayer. ... )


Overall, I feel much happier this week. I would say my mini-challenges were a success.  I think it was a good way to kick-start a path to a happier mood. Every person has down times and good times, seasons of sorrow and seasons of joy. I don't mean to say that we can't or shouldn't feel down or sad sometimes. Sometimes the best thing is a good cry. It is great to know, however, that I have power within me to get myself out of a rut and to feel better. 

back to "normal"

Well, after our month long vacation to see family and friends out west, we are back in the swing of things at home. We had so much fun. The kids, especially Ana, seeing their cousins and playing with Granny's neighbor girls all day.  We had some good adventures and now we are back. I came home to a sparkling clean home, thanks to my wonderful friend Patrice and her mother who looked after the house while I was gone. (I have the most wonderful friends.) But, not to worry, it is nice and messy now as I get laundry all put away, backpacks unpacked, drawers organized (since it is finally nice weather consistently) and trying to keep motivated to get it all done. I am seeing some things a little more clearly now that I took a breather away from the mundane things. And I realized how much I love the people here in Vermont. Oh, how I missed them.

Here are some highlights:

*Going to City of Rocks, which was really cool and made me want to go rock climbing.
*Going to Boise Zoo with one sister and the Idaho Falls Zoo with another. I like zoos.
*Helping my mom sort through some of her old slides and seeing pictures of me as a baby and my siblings as kids. Man we were cute.
*Going to the temple and out to eat with Dave for our anniversary. (8 years. I love him.)
*Seeing "Hello Dolly!" at a dinner theater with my mom and 2 of my sisters. So fun!

It was a grand ole' time. My camera battery died half way through so I don't have too many pictures. But sometimes it feels good to not worry about it and just enjoy myself.

It is wonderful to be back in Vermont and I feel refreshed and rejuvenated and ready for summer vacation.

Now if I can only get Jack and Ana to get along....

these women in my life

The other day I sent a group text to most of my siblings asking them whether I should cut my hair short or keep it long.

That simple act made me realize just how often I turn to my family for their opinions and advice. From trivial little questions to political philosophy to parenting, I often seek to talk (or text) my thoughts out with at least one member of my family.  (And I will pretty much agree with my Dad on any political statement.)

Much of what I write has inklings of conversations I have had with family members. In fact, my theme for the year, living purposefully, was inspired by my sister Karianne. She was the one who told me about President Uchtdorf's quote a few months ago. She also said that she recognizes much of what I write because of our chats. Perhaps I need to be better at giving credit where credit is due.

I am so amazed by the wonderful women in my life that fill it will so much inspiration. My mother, sisters, sisters-in-law (who are just like sisters to me), and my mother-in-law have inspired me to be better.  The inspiration has come by way of their examples, their words, and sometimes even their rebukes.  I am a better wife, mother, homemaker, sister and friend. I am more patient, more calm and more intellectual because of them. They are all women of strength and brains and love.

And it doesn't end there. Today in Relief Society I felt so inspired by the sisters I have here in Vermont. Their words and examples have filled my heart with love. Through them I have learned, among other things,  to put judgments aside and see others as God sees them. I am not perfect at it, but I am better. They have helped me do that.

There are others too. Other fabulous women that I have known in my life that have helped to shape me and inspire me. I couldn't even begin to name them all, but their impression is there. 


I am so grateful to God for such amazing women that I know and love.

capturing december: family

Spent the morning texting most of my siblings. What started as a conversation of our favorite Christmas movies morphed to gun control, Christmas songs, and finished with Christmas memories, which made me cry.

I love my family.

forty two down, infinity to go

I've talked to my dad a few times on the phone the past few days. Whenever I feel worked up or passionate about something, talking to my dad always levels my head.  My dad has that wonderful quality in a parent so that each of his daughters think they are the favorite. (Though I know that I am for real.) He is smart and thoughtful and kind and happy.

If I could describe my parents in one word it would be dutiful. They always do their duty with willing and faithful hearts.  In their 42 years together, they have seen their share of trials, including spending weeks apart at times, and other times living paycheck to paycheck. Yet I have rarely heard a murmur of complaint.  They always humbly thank God for their blessings, always serve faithfully whenever they are asked, and still often take the opportunity to bear testimony of the Gospel to their children.

I thank them for teaching me where to turn to find answers to life's most difficult questions, and for their wonderful examples of faith and fortitude that they have provided for me.

Happy Anniversary, Mom and Dad! 
Love, Little E

capturing december 3: red

My fabulous mother-in-law always has a candy dish full of nuts (cashews are her favorite) or M&Ms or chocolates on her coffee table. During the holidays, I like to follow suit. I think every candy dish I own is from her. (Although that snowflake one is a votive, but whatever.)

tell me a story

I like life stories.

Sometimes when I go downtown and I see all the old buildings and I think of how old Vermont is, I want to know the stories that go along with those big houses.

My Poppy told great stories. Many were stories of faith that have added so much to my life.

My mom doesn't tell too many stories from her life, but every once in a while, one comes out. One in particular that I remember is the story of when Dad was writing his masters' thesis. He didn't really know how to type, but my mom had taken a typing class in school, so into the night he would hand write a page and give it to my mom to type. She was pregnant with her 4th child and she would type up each page, and then lay down to doze while he finished the next page.  That story is such a tribute to my mother: always quietly doing her duty.

Since I like stories so well I often think of my life as a collection of stories. I wonder what stories I will tell when I have been married 30 or 50 years.  I will probably tell the story about the run-down little house we rented in Rupert on the other side of the tracks, and how I had to turn off the heat to vacuum in the winter so I didn't trip the circuit.

***

I wonder if I will tell today's story.

The story of how despite the rain, we packed the kids, kicking and screaming (literally), into the car with a picnic dinner to go "leaf peeping."

We endured the whines and the "how much longer?"s and wondered at God's magnificent paintbrush. Though the clouds blocked our view of the mountains, the rain made the colors surrounding us much more vibrant, and I found myself saying, "I'm glad that I live in this beautiful world Heavenly Father created for me."

Then as the kids settled down and the sun began to set and we headed home, I felt perfectly at peace as we listened to hymns and the rain on the roof and passed by farms and magnificent red and orange trees.

I think as the years go by and we look back to this time in Vermont we will say, "remember that time..." and we will tell this story.

my eternal family

The last week has been filled with busy-ness. Katie and I flew home last Friday for my Grandpa's funeral. So between finding a flight and arranging rides and child care for the older two and packing and being gone I haven't had much computer time.

I was actually excited to go. It was the first time all of my siblings were together since my wedding over 7 years ago. It was wonderful to be with all of them together and we had a wonderful time chatting and joking and talking and laughing and staying up way too late.

The funeral was really nice. Poppy lived a full life and had a strong testimony of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. He will be missed by his posterity, of which there are many, (13 children, 74 grandchildren) but we are glad he is reunited with his wife and one of his daughters.

Dave's Mom and Dad came down from Rupert and picked me up at the airport on Friday night. We stayed in Salt Lake that night and spent the day with them in downtown Salt Lake. I love Dave's parents and it was wonderful to see them.





Saturday night was spent at the hotel. Dave's sister Janet stopped by and we had a wonderful visit, and then one of my sisters came and we chatted it up. My dad had spent the day Saturday doing a bike race, so my parents didn't make it to the hotel until Sunday morning. We went to a sacrament meeting, hung out at the hotel, then headed to Morgan for the viewing. The viewing was packed with cousins and aunts and uncles, some of which I haven't seen for a long time.

Cousins!!! I love these girls.

Sunday night was spent swimming, chatting, painting toenails and having a marvelous time with the fam at the hotel. I love my sisters and my brother. I think they are awesome.

Monday was the funeral and luncheon with time to catch up with some cousins. 65 of Poppy's grandchildren were in attendance. It was incredible to be there together. Of course we had to snap a family photo. (Props to whoever can guess age order. )

Katie and I took a red-eye Monday night back home. She was stellar for all the flights. Mostly because of the 4 total legs she slept through 3 of them. The other one was only an hour so it was doable. She was ready to come home though. She saw a picture of Jack and Ana and got so excited that after that she kept bringing me shoes and pointing to the door.





It was wonderful to go, and it is great to be back. Hopefully we can get together before another 7 years go by. Or another funeral. I am so grateful that families can be together forever!

sweet is the peace the gospel brings

When we moved away, we made a stopped by my Grandpa's house in Utah. He was approaching his 90th birthday then. We visited for a bit with him and my aunt (my 2nd mom). As we drove away, heading for Vermont, I shed tears for Poppy because I knew it would be the last time in a long, long time.

Last night, at the age of 92, Poppy passed away.

He was a man of incredible faith and fortitude. Even in his last few days, he used his lucid moments to bear his testimony.

He is now reunited with his beautiful wife who died 10 years ago.

I've been thinking about Poppy today.

I've thought about every time I saw him he grabbed my hand really, really tight and said,

"Said Aaron to Moses,
'Let's cut off their noses.'
Said Moses to Aaron,
'They're better for wearin'. "

I thought about a few years ago when he told me his favorite hymn was "Have I done any good in the world today." And how he recited those words every evening and tried to live by that.

I thought about all the stories of incredible, miraculous faith he told at family reunions.

I thought about how much I loved spending time at their house, and seeing his beautiful flower garden.


Poppy will be missed. I am so glad for eternal families, and the "peace the gospel brings."

to my dad, on father's day

Every so often a big C-130 flies over our house here. It makes me think of my Dad. I always watch it and point it out to the kids and say, "That is what Gramps used to fly." Then I try to imagine him in his younger days dressed in his flight suit and dropping tanks out of the sky.

A few weeks ago was a repeat of the Hope of America program that Ana did last year. Once again, the band played the songs from each branch of the military and I imagined my Dad standing up at the line, "Off we go, into the wild blue yonder."

I have always been proud of my Dad. He is smart. He is faithful and faith-full. He is funny. I remember him being "tickle monster" when we were little and hiding our bowls of cereal when we weren't looking as we got older. He has also managed to convince each of his 8 daughters that they are his favorite. (Though I really AM his favorite.)

I remember driving in the car with my Dad once and asking him what is favorite scripture was and he said 2 Kings 6:16. I had never heard that story before and it has been a favorite of mine ever since. I have always loved talking about the scriptures with him.

He loves me. He has blessed and taught me. He even sometimes rescues me. And I feel so lucky to have such an amazing Dad.

Happy Father's Day!

travelouge

I've been on vacation. And while I could have written about our comings and goings while we were vacationing I decided not to.

Two weeks ago Dave took Step 1 of the USMLE (United States Medical Licensing Exam). Early Monday morning we packed up the kids and drove to Hartford, CT where we flew back home. It was a perfect storm. Dave had 2 weeks off, Ana had 1 week off of school, and we got good ticket prices. So we scraped together our change and took off.

*The flights there went really well. We had a 4 hour layover in Dallas, where they had a kids play area and Katie had fun crawling around. We got to my parents house late Monday night.




*Tuesday my sis from Idaho Falls drove down to visit. Ana decided she's marrying her cousin Seth.

*Wednesday we headed up to Rexburg. Of course, it wouldn't be Rexburg if it didn't blizzard while we were there. We drove around town, ate at Arctic Circle (milkshakes!!!), toured campus with Dave's nephew who wants to go there, including the new BYU-I Center and the unrecognizable student life building, and stopped by a good friend's house for a wonderful visit. We saw an entire sunset on the drive home.

*Thursday was a nice relaxing day, where Dave and I snuck away sans kids for a lunch with his brother and then hung out with Granny and Gramps the rest of the day, including a rousing game of Mexican Train Dominoes and chatting late into the night.

*Friday we were joined in Pocatello by 5 of my sisters, which resulted in good food and lots of laughs. Ana and Jack had great fun re-uniting with their cousins.

*Saturday my younger sister Heather, a.k.a. H-word, a.k.a. H, went through the Temple for the first time. I felt so much peace. It had been far too long since I had been to the Temple and it was a wonderful time to spend in the Temple with so much of my family. We went to lunch as a group, too, which was fun and yummy even though I did get a plastic honey jar ring in my sandwich. We then headed to Rupert for the remainder of our trip.



*Sunday we were able to see the blessing of our neice's baby (that's right, I am a great-aunt - 9 times!) and then spend the afternoon at Dave's sister Leanne's house. The weather was warm (65 degrees) and the sky was blue. I soaked up the sun. All 7 Larsen children were together. We even got a picture!



*Monday was full of visits by family, driving around town, and late night card games. Good times were had by all.

*Tuesday I went to my friends' house for a lunch/playdate. I had some pretty stellar friends in Rupert and I loved catching up with them. Ana decided she's going to marry her new friend Carson. They were even holding hands.

*Wednesday we said our goodbyes and then Mom and Dad L drove us down to Salt Lake. We visited Temple Square, ran into a friend from Vermont (random!) and visited the new Deseret Book across the street.



*Early yesterday morning we woke up, hugged Grandma and Grandpa tightly, and headed home to Vermont. THAT was the real adventure. We had scheduled a 1 hour layover in Dallas. We were late getting in, so we hurried to our gate, only to find out that our flight was delayed. Long story short, we changed gates 3 times, and due to our plane being rerouted, then weather keeping it from getting in, then needed a new flight crew, then waiting for a new flight crew, our 1 hour layover turned into a 7 hour layover. Surprisingly, the kids did amazing! We set up "camp" in a cozy corner at our gate. The kids played and danced and skipped and sang and found letters and ate snacks and played on Dave's iPhone. Katie crawled and crawled and crawled and ate a napped and crawled. Through the course of the day, we had several people tell us how good our kids were. One guy even came over to our "camp" just to say how impressed he was with our kids and how they were not obnoxious but just normal, happy kids. Finally we got the kids in their jammies and boarded the plane. Katie and Jack were asleep before we took off. Ana was asleep before the seat belt sign dinged off. We landed late, we drove for a while, then stayed at a hotel about an hour and half away from home.



That's the gist of it. I may post more snippets as they arise. We are so glad we were able to go. The kids miss everyone already. Re-entry (into real life) is always a little turbulent, but I'm sure in a few days things will be back to normal.

We are so glad we were able to visit our family. 4 years is a long time to be away, but we are enjoying our life here in Vermont, and we are already half way done.

kids and freedom

I was talking to a friend this week who recently got married. She made the comment, "Kids scare me. I love my freedom too much." I know others that share the sentiment. It seems like most of society shares the sentiment. So I started thinking.

Why wasn't I scared to have kids? I came up with 4 ideas that may have influenced me.

1. I grew up in a big family. My mom liked being a mother. We had a good time. She taught us to make bread and cookies and how to sew. She wanted us all to grow up and be mothers. And though my parents definitely encouraged their daughters to get an education (all 8 girls went to college, 5 have bachelor's degrees, 2 of those have a masters) they also encouraged having a family.

My mom and 7 of her 9 children, May 2011

2. I grew up in a big family. And I was near the end. That means that I watched 5 older siblings flirt, date, get married and have kids. I saw that they were happy. Kids were often around. I knew that they were sticky and noisy and dependent. But I also knew that they were sweet and innocent and adorable.

3. I grew up in a big family. I didn't have a lot of freedom. I didn't have many things that were my own. We shared chores, clothes, toys, bikes and rooms. We had curfews and responsibilities and we didn't have our own car unless we got a job and purchased one.

4. I got married young. I went from having no freedom at home, to having a little more freedom at college, to being married. I think I have had my own room for all of 5 years. (And that is probably longer than some of my other siblings.) I didn't own a car until I was married. I paid for college myself and I didn't have a lot of extra money lying around to go off and have adventures. Dave and I got married and we didn't have a lot of extra money lying around to go off and have adventures. And we both wanted kids. So we had kids.

And, actually, I feel like I have lots of freedom. I can take a nap when I want to. I don't have to answer to anyone but myself. I can choose when to do my work and when to play. I swap kids with my neighbors to exercise or run errands.

Mostly, there is nothing like my little girl handing me a note that says, "I lev you, mam." It brings me a lot of happiness.