Pregnant, 3 little kids, 12 day long road trip? Why not!!

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!

Pregnancy moment...

So I forgot to bring Justin's clothes to a nice dinner after his bike ride up to Sundance to eat at pretty much the nicest restaurant around. Here's the story if you care to have a good laugh...

http://blog.ryanandalissa.com/2011/07/dinner-jacket.html

Sorry Justin and congratulations on finishing your boards.  Can't believe we have three weeks vacation!!!

Super Boy!

Yay! Daddy's home!

Henry riding his bike really fast with his super hero outfit on, mask, cape and stickers on his shirt.  Such a happy boy!

 I think this summer has been instrumental in the growth of Enrico.  He has all of a sudden learned to really ride his bike and I don't have to force him to go on rides, he just wants to go, he has been doing his chores and is becoming more obedient.  He's happier and more confident.  He's even taking beat boxing lessons and will soon start on guitar.  I am enjoying this stage so much and I can't wait for him to become more capable.  Justin just learned that his buddy's son, who is only 6, rides mountain bikes with him up in the hills and now Justin wants to get Henry some crazy expensive bike with shocks and hand breaks.  Haha! He's just as impatient as I am for him to grow up. 

Blue snow cone lips holding the fire hose at a street fair

Henry and Bea doing a little dance to make their floor sweeping chore more fun. 

Henry just learned how to do a real back float and couldn't be happier with himself.  I'm just happy that he knows how to float in case he feels like he's in water that's too deep

Grandpa bribed Henry with a popsicle if he would go down the really slow waterslide at our pool.  He refused to do it thus far, but then he realized he loved it and kept going again and again.  He can even swim to the side.  Go Henry!

Henry and Bea on the Ferris wheel at Liberty Park, having the time of their lives!

In the pool with Nanna B.  See Bea dunking her head. She's so wild in the water!

So, we've spend a lot of time riding bikes around and playing at the pool.  The kids are also super awesome swimmers.   I got them all these new floatation devices that are made from life vest type foam but look like floaties with a tube around their waist, but it's coastguard approved which means you can use them in public swimming pools like the one behind our house.  I also bought them tiny goggles that finally fit their tiny faces and heads so now they can see underwater and all they want to do is go underwater and wave at me.  haha! Every mom with a two year old clinging to her leg at the pool asks me what I did to get Bea so comfortable water and I tell them, "Puerto Rico!"  Haha.  She has those floaties on, but they aren't that super buoyant, so she does backwards dives and rolls and does this thing where she dunks her own face in the water like 6 times before she takes a breath and she thinks it's so funny.   I seriously think she could be legitimately swimming by the end of the summer. 

All the kids having a great time in the car.  Guess who loves Clemmie?

We went to the Children's museum with Tracie and her kids plus my friend Alissa that lives on our street on Wednesday and then we played in the fountains(since they're both at the Gateway mall in SLC) and then we went swimming at our pool directly after that, which was an insane day, but totally fun. 

All the kids in the helicopter at the museum.  Bea's friend Ella is in the window.  It's a great exhibit.

Then on Friday we went to the aquaraium, which is just around the corner from us and found out that it was only $36 for a year membership for all of us, so we got that and the kids were in love with it.  We went with a few friends from the neighborhood which included a couple five year old boys and at one point there was this one exhibit that had a red light with some fog machine spilling out fog over the water and the two other boys were saying, "woh, that's a fire on the water!" and Henry was like,"there's no way that could be fire guys.  Fire cannot be on the water.  That's probably just a light with some dry ice or something."  They totally argued and didn't believe Henry, but when he asked me what it was I told him that he was right, but that it was meant to look like fire, he felt so good that he didn't give in.  

Packed in to look at salamanders. So cool!

My mom moved into her new place, which is so awesome, so we went down to Provo to hang out and help her unpack a little. She lives on the bottom floor in this really fun complex in a super nice condo that has almost no one living there and she's right next door to a giant room with a huge flat screen TV, kitchen area, eating area that is also right next to the indoor pool and hot tub.  Then just across the lawn from that is a tennis court(that needs a little TLC).  I put Clementine down for a nap, walked 30 seconds to the tennis court to play with the kids and then we went swimming, all the while I would be totally in range of the baby monitor(when I bring one down)! Yay! It's the sweetest setup ever. 

Trying to get a good shot in the boat. Clemmie would have nothing to do with it:(

My sister-in-law had her baby on Friday so I went to see her yesterday and when I walked into the room, I burst into tears because I was so happy for her to finally have her baby and because I'm pregnant and emotional about everything, AND because he looked a lot like Henry with his red hair and big eyes.  I just couldn't help thinking back to my first moments with Henry and how special that was. She was so happy.  I am so happy that she had a baby because all I ever want to talk about is babies!!!

So we've been late to church lately and it was raining cats and dogs today so I went to sleep super early so I could wake up at 6:30, get myself ready, get the church bag all ready, I made a gourmet breakfast and got all the kids clothes and shoes out, even their hair bows all ready before I woke them up. I marched them all downstairs and they ate breakfast while I did their hair and then quickly got them dressed and out the door totally on time for church! I was a little late though because it was raining so hard and I had to coordinate Henry helping Bea with the umbrella and me with Clementine and all my bags and it took an extra 5 minutes to get in from the car, but we were basically on time.   So at church we had the greatest lessons.  The RS one was on missionary work and a few guest speakers spoke about their conversion or their missions and the spirit was so strong, then in Sunday School we learned about the last day of the Savior's life and what he did in the last moments before he was betrayed and was captured and sent to be judged.  Basically the point was that if one of us knew that we were going to die a horrible death soon, we would probably be thinking a lot about ourselves, but Christ was so focused on teaching the apostles and serving them until the last moments.  It was such a showing of love and unselfishness.  Such a great lesson.  One funny thing is that there were two funny men who decided to sit in the front right corner of the room instead of the rows, which is where I had strategically planned on cornering Clementine with chairs so she didn't walk all over the room, but I didn't care that they were there and I blocked her(and them) in anyway.  When the teacher saw this he said, "welcome to Sunday school everyone" and then looked over at me, the two old men and Clemmie and said, "And welcome to Junior Sunday school.  If anyone misbehaves you will go to time out in the Junior Sunday School".   Haha.  It was really funny. 

Visit from Daddy

Many of you know that Justin still has a month left in Pittsburgh before he can join us out here, so he came to visit for his Birthday last weekend and he had many adventures with the kids and his buddies.  If any of you know Justin, he has a plan for every moment of his life, so there was no stop to the action.  Since I hate long posts, here's a list of each day's activities, a photo, and short funny stories if any....

Henry and Lisa

Thursday
-Drove up to Snowbird, kids went sledding with some Australians, decided to send the kids to ski school this winter.
-Went down the mountain where there was no snow and did a .2 mile hike up to Lisa Falls and ate snacks, let the kids get wet and rock climb.  The river and falls were raging and freezing cold, plus it was less than 60 degrees out, and it was raining.
-Wait, are we still in Pittsburgh?
 -BTW, it was the rainiest May in recorded history in Utah and you wouldn't believe how much snow is still in the mountains and how green everything is: gorgeous!
-Justin went on a 4 hour road bike ride partly in the rain
-Justin and I went out to Chimayo restaurant in Park City for his Birthday.  Delicious.

How awesome is this huge tire!?  Henry was amazed.

The copper mine from outside.  My camera died before I got the inside shots:(

Friday
-The kids and I went out to the Bingham Canyon Copper mine with some friends, ate lunch at a fun park and hung out with a ton of new awesome sistas from my ward and their bazillion kids.
-Justin went snowboarding
-We went to see Kung Fu Panda 2 3D together.  I almost cried three times, Henry LOVED it, Clementine slept(yesssss) and Bea finally left the glasses on and watched the action.
-Visited the Mayan Restaurant next door where they put on a show every half hour with people who throw fire and dive into their indoor pond from a giant waterfall.  We'll definitely return.
-Mom got to go up to Snowbird for a girls night out with my new neighbors/friends

I thought this was funny

Saturday
-The kids and I went to our Stake activity called Family Fun Day where every ward is in charge of a booth or activity and people come and play.  There was two giant slip-n-slides, three bouncy houses, snow cones, ice cream, pop corn, food tent, crafts, a giant climbing wall, sand box, face painting, nail painting, and some other things we didn't even have a chance to check out.  Henry was obsessed with the slip n slide and Clementine ate watermelon for about 2 hours straight, even the rind.
-Justin went on a mountain bike ride with a buddy
-Had Justin's Birthday party with about 6 old friends/mission companions and their wives plus his sister and husband
- Embarrassed Justin by singing him his Birthday song, but was already extremely sunburned from snowboarding so you couldn't notice him turning red.

Henry on the rock used to build the temple

Henry soaked at Temple Square after falling into the reflection pool

Sunday
-Decided to skip church since we have sacrament meeting last and wouldn't have been able to go because of Justin's flight departure time(lame)...so we did some research on the Salt Lake Temple quarry trail which is 5 minutes from our house and is a nice paved Sunday walk with historical plaques to read along the way.  We saw where the pioneers cut the stone, saw a broken chisel from 150 years ago and collected a lot of bugs. Henry was screaming with excitement every time he saw the chisel marks in the stone and any signs the pioneers left behind.
-Henry was disappointed that we didn't see any dead pioneer bones on the trail
-Drove to the Temple and let Henry see the stone on the temple that was dragged all the way there. 
-While posing for a photo, Henry slipped and fell into the reflection pond, completely drenching him from head to foot.  I was in the car with the two sleeping babies and missed the whole thing:(.
-Drove Justin to the airport
-Met tons of new people on our street, including three new boys Henry's age(That makes 10 total just on our street). 

The boys at the temple

Dirty Dash!

Henry crying with Bea wondering how she's going to clean her hands

There is an insane race called the Dirty Dash that is held in Midway, UT up by Park City at a venue that was created for the Olympics and it is the craziest race ever.  There are tons of start times and categories of racers that do a 5 or 10K and other stuff, but I did the Piglet Plunge with the kids which is basically a mile race(more like a walk for me) starting on a giant muddy slope, then across a field and down a muddy slip n slide to another mud field and then down to this huge mud puddle that you have to wade through and then climb up a giant mud mountain, slide down and cross the finish line.

Henry screaming as he runs down the slip n slide

Nice view though!

Almost at the end and still protesting

Henry worried about the giant mud puddle

Behind Clementine is the mud mountain/slide before the finish line.  Check out those muddy people!

By the time it's all over, people are totally covered in the thickest, blackest mud you have ever seen.  You don't have to get super dirty, as you can tell from my kids only being muddy from the waist down, but most people go all out and just get super dirty.  I got there and couldn't find my friends who were supposed to take my kids through the race, so I just found a straggler family at the back and got them to take the kids.  Henry cried the whole time saying that he didn't want to get his socks dirty and seriously just cried and freaked out until he was all cleaned off.  He was running down the hill screaming, "I never want to do this again! Waaaaa!" while Bea was so happy to play in the mud and get super dirty.

Check out these super muddy kids with my almost clean children.  I wish they had gotten  into it more!

Not happy Henry with pensive Bea

Since my kids didn't know this family and I didn't know them either I had to run along side them pushing my stroller through all these bumpy fields to avoid all the mud and Clemmie was laughing the whole time as she was bouncing around.  She didn't cry all day long and just fell asleep anywhere and was such a trooper.  Her little chubby feet got burned though since I forgot to put sunblock on them. Poor baby. At the end you can pay a little money for a hot shower(which I totally did) or take a super cold shower that's directly from the stream nearby to wash off and then most people donate their shoes to charity.  They clean them off really well and give them away.  I can't WAIT to do it again next year together as a family.  I convinced Henry that it would be really fun if we were all holding hands and getting muddy together.  Even Clemmie will be able to do it next year since you just have to be two years old to participate.

Almost to the finish line.  They could hardly walk with the mud that was on their shoes!

After that we went to a hotel pool with our friends to relax and hang out until I found my phone face down in a puddle of water that was created by Bea trying to find candy in my purse and dripping water in the stroller undercarriage and letting my phone drop in it.  I just turned it on for the first time a few minutes ago and it still works, but the screen is really messed up.  I got the super insurance plan for it so hopefully I can just get a new one tomorrow.  The kids fell asleep on the way home around 6 pm and didn't wake up until 8:30 this morning.  That's the most all three have slept in together.  Oh, the saddest part the whole day was when I was trying to get my stuff out to the car with Clementine asleep in my new double stroller and I had the big cooler on the other seat that is facing the seat she was sleeping in, along with a whole bunch of stuff, and I was so stressed out about my phone and I just wanted to get in the car to get home and I forgot to hold the cooler and when I stopped the stroller for something, the cooler slid forward and smashed into Clementine's chubby, sleeping face.  I couldn't imagine a worse way to wake up than having a giant cooler smash into your face.  I almost cried I felt so bad.  Luckily there's no bruise or anything, but it was not a good mothering moment for me.

We're Here....

This might scare you.  This might excite you.  This might make you cry.  We have finally moved to Utah.  I first want to say that I have always said I would never live in Utah again, but here I am.  I should have known because just about everything I have ever said I would never do has come true. This is how I know God exists.  I will make a short list of a few of these things..

1. Said three times that the last place I would want to go on a mission is to Rome, Italy.  Result: Mission call to Rome, Italy
2. Said I did not want to boy first or two girls really close together.  Result: Boy, Girl, Girl
3. Said I would never ever, ever live in Utah again.  Result: Just moved here and will probably say until I die(I kind of have a feeling)

I learned my lesson and have stopped saying and thinking about anything I want. 

BTW, if you hadn't heard, I'm pregnant again and it's another girl! Yay for me!  Henry will be so sad.  Sorry sweet boy.  Maybe the zillions of boys on our new street will make it easier to hear you're getting another sister.  I love you!

Road Trip #2 Revisited:Boston

The last road trip we took was to Boston to see Teri, my step mom, run the Boston Marathon.  We took it with my friend Gulzat and her son Daniel.  We had done this trip last year and this time it was a lot more difficult with my three kids even though last year I was 9 months pregnant with Clemmie.  It took us 9 hours to get to CT and we spent some fun time with The Hohl Grandparents and then we headed up to Boston and spent a lot of time with my dad and Teri, going out to eat, playing at the Science Center, taking a Duck Tour and going to church with Courtney(who is dating some fabulous guy and we're all thrilled about it but that's another blog post).  We found the best spot to watch the marathon from the windows from Lord and Taylor department store and they were kind enough to let our whole entourage stay there.  While we were waiting for Teri to run by LUCY CALLED FROM CALIFORNIA JUST BEFORE SHE WENT TO JAPAN ON HER MISSION!!! It was so thrilling to have two really great things happen at the same time. The kids sang to Lucy and told her how much they loved her.  I miss her so much.  Just today I called the guest bed, Clemmie's bed and Bea yelled, "No! Lucy's bed!"

Anyway, Teri did great and we did get to see her run by.  Henry cried because he said he couldn't see her.  I was busy taking photos and so I couldn't point her out even though I was yelling, "She's the one with the orange hat!!!" a million times and he was crying, "I can't see her mommy, where is she!?!!!?".  We also took Gulzat to Harvard Square and ate some pretty good Thai food.  The biggest trial of the trip was that we had Bea and Clemmie who both woke up once per night and woke each other up the first night for a couple hours which almost killed me the next day.  Gulzat let Bea stay in her room so I could get some sleep and so I survived....but that's about it. 

On the way home we stopped off in NYC for some delicious treats, Saigon Grill, Dinosaur BBQ, and Grom and then made the long drive home. I was driving that day for almost 12 hours.  Needless to say I spent the entire next day on the couch.

Road Trip #1 Revisited:DC

For some reason I have a hard time blogging about road trips but I have to blog about the trips we've been on these past few months.  We took a trip to the Washington DC temple March 26th and we hung out with our great friends the Romneys (woot woot!) and spend all day Saturday amongst the beautiful cherry blossoms.  It was the first day of the Cherry Blossom Festival so the blossoms were absolutely perfect and we got some really fun photos of the kids playing by the trees.  Henry actually got in trouble from security a couple of times because he was venturing in the flower beds and tried to climb up some trees.  I felt bad because we have really never found a tree that he could climb around here.  Our neighborhood and the parks around here do not have climbing friendly trees and I can see the desire to climb  coming out in him.  I was a super tree climber back in the day, climbing up really tall trees to watch baseball games and dreaming up really cool tree houses in the huge horse chestnut trees in Lindsey Gardens.  I am actually kind of excited to go back to SLC and go to the old trees I used to climb and let Henry climb up.

Anyway, Justin and I got to go to the temple to pray and meditate about a job opportunity while the Romneys watched our kids and they had a blast playing in the mud.  Luckily they have a plethora of clothes of all sizes and we got all the kids dressed in clean clothes for the festival.  On Sunday we attended their Spanish ward which was fun trying to understand what was being said.  I understood maybe 60% of everything and got the gist of all the talks. We drove home with no problems.  We love that place and visiting our friends!

Easter fun and madness

Our big handsome boy.  5 years old....with a short baby tie on.  Nice going dad.

It shouldn't come as a surprise to any of you that Henry is crazy about candy and there has been a lot of it at our house recently.  This morning the kids woke up extra early and ate a ton of candy for breakfast, wouldn't even eat their eggs and had candy fits and meltdowns in sacrament meeting.  Henry left primary twice asking for candy from Justin and Bea was in a sugar low during nursery and didn't say a word or move, but just sat there observing all the fighting(someone actually drew blood today in a battle over a car) so I guess it was a good thing that she wasn't down there in the brawl. 

As soon as I said for Henry to put his arms around the girls this is what he did...and then they both cried.

We did have a nice little photo session today after church and we actually got all the kids smiling in quite a few photos. Finally!!! The girls are wearing their home made dresses and Henry is actually wearing an outfit that fits him! It's a miracle!

Henry wanted me to take multiple photos of himself eating the candy. 

We had our best friends/family over for dinner, watched a video from Easter three years ago and laughed our heads off and ate wonderful lamb steaks with middle eastern side dishes.  Yum, yum, yum.  Seriously, you would have been jealous of our meal.  Then we ate tiramisu for dessert(mormon style using Italian orzo, a wheat drink). We talked and laughed and had a wonderful time.  I just love my friends and family here and I'll be sad to leave them in a few weeks.

I made Henry button his shirt for the photos.  I love how it turned out.

Little Sponge

I am so glad for those moments when you realize your child is actually listening when you think they're not and when they're absorbing information when you think their brain is in outer space.  Last week we were in the Boston Science museum hopping from exhibit to exhibit not really knowing if he was taking in any of the actual science of the displays.  Henry and I ended up putting together a model of the human body and I told him a lot of things about what was going on with the heart and lungs and other physiology of the body and today while Justin was getting his blood drawn at home for a disability insurance quote Henry looked down at Justin's arm and told the nurse, "This vein is blue and that means it has no oxygen in it.  The red one is the one that has the oxygen." The nurse said to Justin, "oh, you must be a doctor or something" but Justin responded, "well, yes I am, but I didn't teach him that." Well, I have news for you.  I did!

Eggosaurus

These were a fun craft I found at Aldi.  I babysat three kids today who were the same age as my three so it was basically like having three sets of twins.  They were all boys too and were all super attached to their mom, which I'm not accustomed to.  When we leave our kids anywhere, they're like, "see you in a few days mom.  We're having a sleepover!!!" They have no attachment complex, which I am totally fine with.  Luckily they didn't mind being cuddled by me so we spent a lot of time on the couch snuggling and reading stories since they all wanted to be held all at the same time(not going to happen). Good thing they're all so darn cute!

As many of you know, I love eggs.  I make a ton of Easter egg crafts and Christmas eggs stuff and I love to eat eggs, in fact, I think I ended up eating four soft boiled eggs(my all time favorite snack) today since the kids didn't finish theirs and I was in heaven.  I put freshly ground salt and pepper on them from my gourmet pepper mix combo with red(I know they're not really pepper), white and black peppercorns smashed on a piece of toasted super crusty bread from my favorite bread store and I am in heaven.  That is up there with dark chocolate for me.  I really have to stop myself from eating eggs all day long.  Don't tell Justin though because he's convinced that the cholesterol in eggs is basically poison, which I don't believe at all.  Read all about it if you google cholesterol myth.  Anyway, I love eggs and so do my kids!

Hentropy

When I finally got the entire house clean, it was time to bathe the babes.  Here they are all clean, pink and smiley.

This morning I got up really late because I'm still recovering from still not getting any sleep since the kids are used to crying for water all night long and Clementine had a blow out that took a half hour to get cleaned up.  So anyway, I got up around 9:15, got dressed, found Clementine who had pooped all over herself again, so I gave her a quick bath, tidied up the upstairs and came down at about 9:50, ten minutes before this lady was scheduled to come over to give us a moving quote and I couldn't believe how horrible the house was.  It looked like a tornado had hit our kitchen.  Henry and Bea had been cutting stuff out all morning and had crumbled crackers all over the place, peeled string cheese, ate pasta, craisens, paper was strewn all over the place, markers were all over the floor and they had colored all over the table and spilled water all over the table and it was all underneath the table and there were still dishes in the sink from the day before, which I was hoping was the only thing I had left to do before this lady came and as I was standing there contemplating the mess, she rang the doorbell, like 9 minutes early!  I don't think anyone has ever seen my house that disgusting.  Not only was it cluttered, but it was covered in food and filth.  There was almost no place to walk around.  At least she was a woman and the upstairs was clean. 

Straight from Henry's Head

Henry and Wee-o digging for dinosaur bones at the Nat. His. Museum

Since we have sold our house and I'm not cleaning and organizing every day, Henry doesn't get to play Little Big Planet or watch TV anymore and his mind has gone into make-believe overdrive.  He pretends so many different things every day and creates elaborate paper objects ranging from Pirate flags, hats, full body armor, alien heads, and always gives me and Justin a present that says, "I luv yoo mom/dad, frum Henry".  Many times when I come downstairs in the morning he has a treasure hunt all planned out with either clues or a map.  The best part is that he treats me like I treat him when he can't find what I have hidden for him and starts talking to me in a baby voice, "can you see it mommy?, just look a little harder right around HERE" and basically points right to it.  Haha.  He's so creative.  He also writes and illustrates at least 10 pages of something every day.  Today he made me a drawing of me in "the savannah" with two trees, a lion and a giraffe that were amazingly cute.

Grinding corn Native American style

The other day when it was uncharacteristically warm outside we had some friends over and Henry and his friend Thomasin started digging for bugs.  Every bug they found was either mauled to death, drowned, or suffocated and every time they discovered that they had killed their new pets they felt really bad about it.  They they found a big worm they named Skipper that eventually died after also being drowned and they decided to have a funeral for it under our front yard mailbox.  They found a stone from the back yard and used crayons to color it and put stickers all over it.  Henry wrote a note to him and brought out a napkin, which supposedly his favorite blankie,  and tucked them both under the rock while they had his funeral. The mail lady drove up to deliver the mail and they told her the whole story and I could hear her from my window as she struggled to keep in her laughter.  It was so amusing.  We have also played vikings, dragons, dinosaurs, cowboys, etc.  I am really enjoying having a five year old.  He's so much more emotionally stable, is so sweet, tells me he loves me every day just out of the blue, kisses and hugs me often, takes care of his little sisters, is usually obedient, talks about Jesus and is curious about religious topics often.  I am so grateful for him and what he is becoming.  Just watching him being so proactive and independently interested in so many things is making me so excited to start seriously home schooling him.

Henry and Lucy having fun with phone games on the Culebra ferry