Here we are with my crew! Funny story: a woman helping out with the Halloween party tripped over a baby doll Bea had wrapped up and left on the floor and she thought it was my baby(since I had actually left her on the floor for a minute about an hour prior to that to help Clementine and take a photo of my baby) and let out a loud scream and did a crazy freak out dance that scared all the kids. I scared someone for Halloween and didn't even try! Muah ha ha ha! I suppose my relaxed parenting style scares women on a daily basis anyway.
Today me and my four kids(still can't believe it) went to a little Halloween activity with sister in law, Tracie and at one point I noticed Henry lagging behind. I called out to him and waited and he eventually caught up to the group and as he ran up to me he announced with a beaming face, "Mommy, you were lost but I said a prayer and I found you!" Probably one of the most proud moments I have had as a mother. That's my boy:).
It snowed last Friday and Justin took him on a hike up in the mountains to play in the snow. The mountains look spectacular with the fall colors and the snow. This little boy can't wait 'till winter.
Henry has been playing soccer every Wednesday and Saturday this fall and
yesterday he finally got the spark in him and had some awesome fast
breaks. He didn't score, but dribbled the ball down the field several
times, maneuvering around kids and actually focusing. Yay! So far we
have played the black ninjas who should have been playing against
professional teams(score about 20 to 0), the orange team who were all in
his kindergarten class so during mid play Hen would stop to chat, hug
and flirt with the girls, and other teams who were all a head and
shoulders taller than everyone on our team (except for Henry who is also
a head and shoulders taller than every kid on his team as well). There
are only one or two kids on our team who can actually run fast enough
to score and so far we usually only score zero to three goals per game
and have never won. During this game he got pushed a few times and I told him that's just how soccer is and to brush it off. Then he got the idea that he should push and trip the kids on the other team if they were doing it to him, but the most funny part about that was that he would try to guard people (like in basketball) and trip kids during non play time while they were just standing around waiting for the action to start. Thankfully none of them were even moving so they didn't get tripped. He was even hugging some girls on the other team at one point. I think it's good for Henry to know that his team
doesn't win, but everyone still has fun, he still gets a treat and
everyone goes home happy. We just love watching Henry play sports.
I've been trying to pack stuff in before the baby comes because it's
going to be a long month of nothing planned after the baby comes, so
live it up Henry! You are awesome and I love you!
Today I woke up to the lovely voice of Stef who called and woke me up at 8:20(I know she was jealous:). She told me how much she loves homeschooling and I told her Henry loves Kindergarten and riding the bus where he learned that "what the F" was a bad thing to say. Another mark for reasons to homeschool. Anyway, we went to Bea's ballet class which is always the most darling thing to watch and then my friend Alissa and I with all our girls headed up to Heber to pick free organic apples in someone's front yard. I was in heaven.
We probably picked 100 lbs of apples which we will make into sauce for all our babies. Clementine was banished to the stroller after multiple attempts to cross the super busy street and Bea and Ella were intent on climbing the ladder no matter how many times we told them it was the "mommy" job. The sign advertising the free apples had a very minor spelling error on it. No biggie.
The best part is that they used the lower case "L" so it looks more like "apies" which is even more hilarious than leaving out one "p". lol.
Really great apples we just couldn't reach. These trees were not pruned so they grew really tall and the apples were tiny, but hey, who can argue with free and organic?
Happy "apie" eaters
Clementine banished to the stroller. Poor Clemmie!
We raced home to Justin who was all ready to go up Big Cottonwood Canyon for a bonfire where we, along with Alissa and Ella who decided to join up with us, roasted hot dogs, marshmallows, played on a playground and let the kids put on a show at the amphitheater.
afraid of the fire
Clementine, once again, banished to a life of restricted access. As long as she had a marshmallow she was happy to be there:)
Bea was unfortunate enough to get an ember in her hair and now has a nice little bald spot right where her only head freckle and part usually is, so we'll see how that looks in the morning. After scrubbing the kids down and putting them to bed Justin came home with probably $60 worth of produce from our CSA and I spent quite a bit of time scrubbing down multiple winter squash, potatoes, carrots and fruit galore. My counter tops are overflowing with fruits and vegetables and I am reminded of the good ol' days in Pittsburgh when I had no kitchen space left after buying multiple bushels of peaches and had a garden full of giant heirloom tomato plants that would produce more tomatoes than we could possibly eat.
Perfectly roasted marshmallows with chocolate stuck inside. One of my all time favorite treats
What's not to love about the fall?
Rare view of my pregnant-ness
I really love the fall for every reason: winter squash, pumpkins, Halloween, my Birthday, this baby finally leaving my body soon, cool nights and fall colors. All you East Coasters who say that the fall is the best on the east because there are so many trees, believe me when I say that it's way more beautiful when you're looking at those colors up super steep canyons on breathtaking mountains. The leaves are already changing here and with all the rain we had this year the colors should be extra vibrant. I miss Pittsburgh, but it's so amazing to be up the canyon in a matter of minutes doing what we did today. What a fabulous day!
A special thanks to Alissa for providing me with all my photos since my camera is acting up. You've got skills, sista!
My Mom, Henry, Bea, Uncle Will and Oliver in Island Park, ID. We got to work on that fake smile, buddy.
Henry in front of Old Faithful. My Brother said he started running toward it to get a look down the hole. Good thing they stopped him. Crazy boy!
Today was officially the end of summer and boy did it feel like it too. We went for a hike around Silver lake up at Brighton ski resort and we actually had to put on long sleeve shirts and jackets. It's pretty sad that summer's coming to an end especially because that means the new baby is coming right when it get cold and I will not have the option to send the kids outside or go to the pool where they all just play carefree in the water for hours without bothering me so much. I would have totally preferred to have this baby in the spring, but Irish twins were not in the stars this time.
Henry, Will and Bea at the lake
Cousins Henry, Jefferey, Lisa, Luke, Bea, Miles and little Anthony with Aunt Mary as a support
Henry and Bea went last weekend on a road trip up to Idaho to spend some time with my mom and step family which worked out wonderfully. They had a fabulous time playing with their cousins and uncle Will and I had an extremely relaxing and productive time here while they were gone. My mom took them up to Island Park, ID where they went to Old Faithful and did a lot of outdoorsy stuff. They slept well and were perfectly behaved! That's usually how they are when there's a lot of fun going on, so I was very grateful for that. Clementine and I had some wonderful bonding time and I even got down on the floor and played with her for hours like I used to do with Henry when he was little. I miss that time of discovery.
Heinrich and Beatrice dancing a jig with Daddy peaking over the top
Another thing we did this weekend was go to Oktoberfest up at Snowbird. Other than people waiting in line to drink tons of beer we saw some interesting German bands, danced the chicken dance up on stage(well, I did with Bea just standing there and Henry hiding under the bell table up on stage) and let the kids bounce on the bouncy castle. They enjoyed watching people go down the Alpine slide, which I did many times as a kid, and seeing other people go up the lifts and come down the zipline. I have vivid memories of my brothers flying off the alpine slide and getting really beat up. They always wanted to go as fast as humanly possible which always landed them off the track with bloodied limbs. Anyway, we had a fun time up there. We are so blessed to live in such a beautiful place! Justin and I always comment all the time that we would fly halfway around the US just to come to places like this on vacation but now we live here and it's nice to just drive 15 minutes and we're in the most beautiful mountains ever!
Henry in front of the Snowbird Tram
Also, I have to note that after all my raving about homeschooling I decided to put Henry in Kindergarten this year. Things like busing both ways, half day afternoon class, and having a baby in 6 weeks weighed heavily on my decision and I knew as soon as the baby came he would just be playing video games all afternoon while I took a nap while the babies slept. I figured that Kindergarten had to be better for him even if he does have 30 kids in his class and he's way ahead of them in most areas. At least he'll learn some normal social behaviors which I think he actually needs. I definitely have a problem with him doing things that just aren't appropriate and he really doesn't realize that they aren't. He just thinks he's invisible when he hoists himself up on a restaurant counter to grab 10 cups and lids and 20 straws because, hey, they're free anyway!
There's never a happier boy than one dressed in pirate gear. He can't wait for it to rain!
The Finch kids(oldest to youngest) Alivia, Rex, Lucy and Jack
Me with my most favorite mission companion ever! She's the best!
So, here's Henry in his new pirate rain coat, umbrella, backpack and boots. I still have to get him a backpack that isn't big enough for him to fit inside of. The one he's using hangs down to his knees. haha. On his first day of school my MTC companion Sister Schill, now known as Julie Finch, came for a visit from Australia with her four kids whom I have never met and we hung out for the morning. It was so hectic that on his first day I forgot to feed him lunch, his hair wasn't even combed, his clothes and face were dirty and we almost missed the bus. I didn't even take a photo. The other mothers took photos of their kids getting on the bus and then went up to the school to take a photo of their kids getting off the bus, but my girls were already asleep in the car by that time so I just told my friend to take a photo for me with her phone and I went home. It was so anticlimactic. As soon as I put them down, I took a nap.
This is going to be a super long post so just skim through the photos and captions if you want the good stuff. This is a post for posterity's sake...This road trip was to
Bryce Canyon
Lake Powell
Grand Canyon
San Deigo
Los Angeles
Las Vegas
Home(and we didn't even want to come home)
Balancing on a rock
Family hiking
Could it get more scenic than this?
Henry going behind the waterfall
Can you see Justin and Henry up there in that arch formation?
First we met my dad and Teri down in Bryce Canyon to watch them run their half marathon. It started at 6am and they finished in record time so I didn't get to see them actually running it, but we met them at the end and celebrated with a big pancake breakfast and we got to scream for Dad who won third place in his age category. Henry was bummed that he didn't get a big trophy, but Dad was totally happy that he did so well. So cute. Teri got 5th in her age group, so not too bad either. We went on a couple fun hikes and went swimming and marveled at the amazing landscape. I hope I can do that race next year since it's down hill the entire way and it's only a half marathon. I think I'll be able to do it.
My Dad and Teri with their medals
From there we met some of Justin's childhood buddies at Lake Powell with their kids and it was kind of a nightmare. The water right now is 30 feet higher than usual so all the nice beaches are covered up and all that was left was horrible prickly bush, fire ant infested, no shade beaches that were more mud than sand with tons of debris that washed up on shore to create a swampy water's edge. So disgusting! There were also tons of bugs every morning, including so many bees that were attacking our food table and two of them stung Clementine, once when she tried to pick one up that had landed on a piece of fruit she was eating and another that had flown under her chubby little leg while she was again sitting in her booster seat. The prickly bushes were particularly annoying for us because we were the only family with really little kids, so every time Clementine or Bea tripped, their legs and hands would get covered by super jagged thorns and so there were many tears. By the end of the four days Clemmie's hands were all covered with red marks and pricker splinters that we couldn't even get out. By the last day, she wouldn't even cry when she would fall. She would just find the nearest adult and show them her hands covered in thorns for them to pull out. We had to buy pants, water shoes, and a couple rakes to rake the beach so the kids could have a place to play and that worked out alright. Anyway, that was the beach we stayed at. Oh, and there was a scorpion living under our tent that I caught when we were packing up to leave. Super! Haha. If you're already tired of this rant, you can skip to the bottom, but it gets worse if you care to read on.
Clif jumping the first day -- not too high
Last day cliff jumping was way higher. I can't believe Bea loved it so much!
So we got there a day before one of the families and when we stopped to pick them up, we went to Wal Mart for some things we needed and they dropped our friends off at our camping site to set up their tents and then came back to pick us up. While they were picking us up, a huge storm came through with hurricane force winds, and totally ravaged our whole camp site. The port-a-potty we had set up(tent with a small toilet in it) totally blew away, out tent broke, both of the other families brought a canopy to put up for shade that broke, one of them borrowed, and all our food was blown off the table that was turned over so there was sand in everything. The rain got in our tents since we didn't have the rain flies on and by the time we got back, it was almost dark and so much had to be fixed to just survive. Seriously, this whole time I was thinking about what the pioneers went through and felt like I might be experiencing something somewhat similar to what they had to deal with on their journey out west. hahaha!
Our campsite with my hot, rugged husband, Clementine and Uncle Dave
The worst part of the whole trip was that Henry was a total disaster. He regressed into his three year old self for the entire trip. He didn't get enough sleep and he was with a bunch of cousins who all know and love each other and you know how Henry likes to be the boss of everything? Well that TOTALLY backfired! He was trying to boss these older kids around and they just wouldn't give him the time of day. So he was literally crying ALL DAY LONG. They were calling him a cry baby and ganging up on him(which I really don't blame them because he was being a real pain), then he started bugging them by throwing things at their legs or poking them with sticks and they had no patience for him at all. They were all telling him that they didn't want to be his friend the whole time, which made him cry even more. He would bawl his eyes out for every tiny problem, like the chips he wanted were all gone, or we ran out of Oreos, etc. He was the total outcast. He got maybe 9 hours of sleep each night which makes him so much more vulnerable and emotional so it was a deadly combination and I was embarrassed the entire time. I kind of felt like a irresponsible mom because here I am pregnant with #4 and Henry is out of control. Luckily Bea and Clementine were super cute and everyone was in LOVE with them so they seemed to tip the scales a little bit back to normal. Having said that, we had the BEST time out on our speed boat rental. I can't tell you how grateful I was to get on that boat every day and speed around Powell. The kids were cliff jumping, we found caves to explore, I caught three pink lizards and a tree frog and the water out in the middle was really clear and was a perfect temperature. One of the most entertaining parts of the trip was Clementine's new favorite word which is "Bea!!" She says it all day long and will repeat it every time provoked so all the kids would follow her around everywhere and say "Bea, Bea" to her and she would respond by saying it over and over and over. Thank heaven it never got old because it was the only entertaining thing going on on the beach from Hell. So, Bea is officially Clementine's first word that she knows the meaning of.
I love Henry's face in this shot as Justin takes him outside the wake
On the rim of the Grand Canyon
My camera ran out of batteries at this point so I have to get shots from my sister in law to update the rest.
Singing
Gabe, Bea, Clementine, Alta, Henry
After that we stayed in a really awesome suite at the oldest hotel at the Grand Canyon that night called El Tovar, looked at the Grand Canyon in the morning and then headed out to California. We drove through the hottest desert ever and the car registered 120 degrees. While we were driving, the edging of our new windshield came unglued because of the heat and it started peeling off. It could have totally flown off our car! Plus, our car almost overheated when we were going up this really big hill in the heat, but we made it to the top just before it hit the red. So scary!! In California we have been staying with Paige which is really fun and the kids are doing much better and getting a lot more sleep. We have a 5,4,3,2,and a 1 year old and one on the way living in this house right now.
Action shot of Hen running from the waves. What's more fun than the ocean?
I cannot believe we got them all under the sand. Poor Clementine!
The best part is that Henry and Bea are both just older than Paige's kids so they can be in charge and they all seem to play pretty well together. We've spent a lot of time at the beach and also went to the Wild Animal Park to hang out. We ate at this fantastic sushi place with Paige and Garrett as a thank-you for having us at their house and it was so delicious. My favorite specialty roll was called the Bomb James Bond. Yummmmmm. It was warm with scallops and some yummy sauce all over the top. Delicious! We ate sushi until we were stuffed. We also ate some great tacos at our favorite taco place today after hanging out at the Camp Pendelton Marine Base beach which we have access to because Garrett is in the Marines. The beach is so nice and not crowded at all. Then we met up with another one of Justin's childhood friends from New Canaan who have two boys and a girl just Henry's and Bea's ages and we roasted hot dogs and made s'mores on the beach and then ate ice cream. The boys names are Gunnar, Hunter, and the little girl is Fiori, which means flowers in Italian. I love her name. Bea and Fiori were instant best friends and they both have Italian names. So adorable. Fiori was obsessed Clementine just like Bea is so they just chased her all around everywhere. It was a really great dynamic.
Looking at sand crabs in a bucket. They collected seaweed, sand crabs and then Clementine ate them.
We left San Diego and went up to hang out with some friends, the Heath family, who live in Thousand Oaks for a night and it was so fabulous. If California wasn't such a bad place for doctors to live I think we would seriously consider it. They have the best yard ever and if it weren't for so many rabbits it would be the ideal spot for a farm. They have a pool, hot tub, trampoline, chicken coop, horse corral, grazing field and some sheds, plus a stream running along the back of their property that's filled with tadpoles and frogs which Henry was trying to catch the entire time. Their girls were totally into it as well, so Henry got along with them just fine. We had a blast chatting and watching the kids play and trying to get Bea and their three year old Greta to get along. At one point Bea asked if they could be friends and Greta shook her head and said "no". haha. We're hopefully going to get together with them next summer for a Disney trip. We were supposed to go but Henry was so cranky and we could only go for one day so we decided to make a real trip out of it and go for a few days next year.
After that stop we were going to drive home, but decided to stay the night in Vegas so we found a fun hotel, which wasn't a casino in this new section of town that was is super modern and connected to a high end mall called Vdara. That name bugged me a little because everyone pronounced Vadara but they just HAD to leave out the "a" to be cool. Pa-leez. Well, Justin and I got the 16 year old boy cousin of a friend to come sit in our hotel room while the kids were alsleep and Justin and I went out to dinner and ate a delicious steak dinner at this nice restaurant called Craft that is also in NYC. We woke up early the next morning an walked around the strip with the kids, which was nice because there weren't any people on the street and they had already cleaned up all the cards with naked ladies on them from the night before so it was relatively family friendly. We were bummed because they had changed the Treasure Island show to "the Sirens of TI" which probably showcased scantily clad pirate chicks and we were warned that it wasn't for kids. We showed him the ships and where the volcano show was and told him how cool they were, but that they didn't start until later and after a while, he said sadly, "mom, this wasn't as cool as I thought it would be". I felt so bad. That's what we get for doing the strip at 8am. hahaha. Oh, and on the way in the night before Bea was yelling from the back seat, "Mommy, this place is for you! This is for you guys!!!" with her super happy face expression and nodding her head. She is just hilarious. We swam at the pool which is where Bea learned how to swim completely on her own!!! she was totaly swimming and coming up for air and then would swim again. I am so amazed at how much of a fish she is. Then she totally put on a show at the pool by diving and doing belly flops from the side of the pool. The water came up the the deck level, so it wasn't that far down, but she would stand on the side with her huge sideways grin, eyes wide open and belly poking out, arms outstretched, and would just tip over and do a full on belly flop into the water. All the people in the pool were watching and were totally cracking up and everyone was talking to us about how cute the kids were. Then just before we left we went to this buffet at the Cosmopolitan that our friend recommended called the Wicked Spoon and it was the most gourmet buffet ever, plus all the kids got to eat for free. Yesssss! They had a lot of things in little tiny pans, about as big as the play pans we have in our play set with gnocchi, delicious soups, a huge meat bar, sushi, desserts, breakfasts, cheeses, fruits, etc. I couldn't even eat half of what I wanted to taste because my belly is getting so big that my stomach doesn't fit what it used to. Blasted baby! haha. The kids had a ball and we must have eaten $100 or more of food for $44.
Then we drove the 5 hour trip home on Tuesday and have been recovering ever since!
