10, 6561, 84081

Utah. We lived there for 9 years. A lot longer than I expected, but it was right and we loved it. All of my kids were born there. All of them with the same doctor and the same hospital. (Except G. He was born in the new one. But it was essentially the same one) We lived in a duplex, an apartment, and a house. I wish I could have enjoyed the last days I was in Utah a little more. It was kind of crazy and hectic. I will probably forget a lot, but these are the things I will miss about Utah. Mixed in with some pictures of our last days there.

1. The mountains, of course. I know that is a given but I couldn't leave it out. The mountains made me stop and look almost everyday that I was there. Especially around the changing of seasons, and on super clear days.

2. My neighborhood. I already said this but it really is the greatest place to live. The people who buy my house will be lucky to be there.

3. Leatherby's, Red Iguana, and Mountain Mike's. When I visit there is no way I won't go to Red Iguana. In fact, I might visit just to go to Red Iguana.

Here we are at Leatherby's for the last time in a few years. We spent a lot of time, and consumed a lot of calories, there. We got to the point where we didn't even look at the menu. I'm sure the servers got sick of us because our orders were so complicated. Delicious!

4. North Star Academy. Great school. I will never forget how awesome all of our teachers are. Plus, the girls got a great education that prepared them for the international schools. I'm not going to miss the drive though.

5. Having a church (or two or three) within a mile of my house. Having a lot of Mormons around isn't so bad.

We spent a few of our last days in Utah looking for shoes for Nate. Nice outfit, huh? If you don't know him very well, he is particular to say the least. It's okay though. He is happy with his selection and we were able to spend our time like this...

Playing with the camera!

Mads loves to take pictures.

6. Fry sauce. I don't even like fry sauce. I've only ever eaten it at Red Robin, and then very little. I just like that I could get it if I wanted it. Pretty much anywhere.

7. Temples. I lived within a half hour drive of 7 (about) temples. We watched the Oquirrh Mountian Temple being built. We drove by it almost every day, and I was able to clean the Celestial Room one night. That temple will always be special to us.

The kids were able to take swimming lessons the last month that we were in Utah. They loved it. Too bad the last class was cancelled.

8. The weather. I'll admit, there were a few late winters that I wished it would warm up, but for the most part, I loved the weather in Utah. The springs a falls were amazing. The summer was warm, but cooler at night. And the winter brought us snow that was beautiful and fun to play in.

This was the last night we spent at our house. B.A. was a little sad.

9. Outdoors. We camped, hiked, rode bikes, and went to parks. I will miss the open air, and large spaces. I think apartment life will be challenging.

10. Costco, Smith's, Harmon's, Walmart, and Target. Yes, I have a Costco and grocery stores, but I think I will miss the familiarity. I think about that crappy Jordan Landing Walmart every time I need something. And the Costco here doesn't have the same stuff! It is very disappointing. No more uncooked tortillas.

This is as we drove away from our house the last time. Watch out for Wesley. If he gets mad enough, those glowing eyes will shoot lasers at you.

Check the Cable

I have so much to catch up on!

But I am finally online in my new home. We were having issues with our internet connection. That is not good. Very bad.

Just a few thoughts that I am having right now...

- I don't want to get lost driving around anymore. I don't want to buy a GPS either. I'm in a pickle.

- DC is beautiful. The trees are huge. And they are everywhere. The homes here are amazing. Like from a story.

- I miss Nate's beard.

- I made cookies the other night with only a tablespoon measure. Just for the record, that is 4 TBS white sugar, 20 TBS of brown sugar, and a whopping 44 TBS of flour. And I used a baking sheet that only fit 6 cookies on it. But they tasted like home. So it was good.

Here are a couple of pictures from our trip to Arizona that we took at the end of March. I will probably never get around to blogging about it.

I know we only saw these guys once a year, but I miss them already!

'Twas the Night Before...

There are no pictures for this post. In fact, I haven't been thinking too much of blogging the last few weeks. Especially the last few days. I had all kind of ideas about my blog posts that I would do for my final days in Utah. Those will have to wait because all I can think of is this will be the last night I spend in my house. Ever.

I'm not going to lie. It's kind of weird.

I love this house. I love that we fell in love with it the first time we saw it. They didn't have anymore available, but then a couple weeks later we came to see it again and there was one! We were so happy. This is the first house we ever bought. The first house that has ever been mine. I love our front room with the bookshelves. I love the kitchen with it's yellow paint. I love the front patio. I love that our kids grew up (so far) here. I love that we let B.A. choose what color of paint for her room. And it is still that color. We brought both our boys home from the hospital to this house. We rode bikes outside countless times. We painted. We fixed. We mowed lawns. We had a garden, and planted flowers in the front yard. We even put in a beautiful new floor! Even though our driveway is super steep, I love that our house is high. We have a great view. I love our neighbors. We have the best next door neighbors you could ever wish for. On both sides. And two houses down on each side. I will probably never live in a neighborhood like this again.

I'm kind of sad. I wonder what it will be like to live in a new home, with new neighbors, and new views.

That being said, I hope someone buys it. Soon.

My Bed

Don't even ask where I was supposed to be sleeping.

Chill

I'm not going to lie. Before I had Mads, I didn't really care about having a boy. I thought I was going to have all girls, and I was okay with that. I was in my girl groove. Very comfortable. When they told me my baby was a boy, I was a little shaken up. A little freaked. It took me a few months to get used to the idea. Good thing I had that long before he came. Right away having a boy was pretty much the same. All except for the fact that when he peed when he didn't have a diaper on it squirted rather than dribbled like a girl would do. One time while changing his diaper, he peed. I remember being pretty impressed with the speed and distance a little boy part could create. It went right over his head and about 3 feet behind him onto the floor.

But shortly after babyhood he became "boyish" quickly. And I like it. I'm glad he is mine.

Mads at four...

You have bad dreams a lot. Sometimes you wake up screaming. It makes me sad. You sleep in my bed more often than not.

You still carry your Dark Dark Blue Blanket everywhere.

You love to quote Nacho Libre.

When you draw a picture, there is always a person fighting a snake. I love them.

Video games are your favorite. We have limited your game playing to Saturdays only, so every day you ask me if it is Saturday. If not, you ask how many days until Saturday.

You love to eat. You savor your food and enjoy every minute of eating. There is nothing you won't eat.

You still have the most expressive face ever. Lots of looks.

You are reading a little, and you still love to have me read to you.

You are asking a lot of questions.

You are taking swimming lessons for the first time. You love it. You tell me you can swim, but then you sink like a stone.

You are a groover. If you hear music, you will dance. It is awesome.

You love Vampire Weekend. Your new thing is to ask me what the lyrics mean.

You love playing outside. You love your new scooter.

You always ask me when we are going to fly on a plane.

You will put yourself to bed when you are tired.

I hope you let me carry you to bed a few more years. You are a cool kid. I love you.

Flood

The other day I told Mads to get dressed and this is what he came up with...

He looks like a miniature person with a huge head!

Explanation: I sold his and G's dresser. At the time all of their clothes were in piles on the floor. I guess it was hard for him to distinguish between his and G's clothes. He put G's pants on and that is his shirt but the buttoning job is awesome. The picture doesn't really do it justice. You know how there is often an extra button on the inside of the shirt? He even used that button! It was hilarious.

He was so proud of himself too. I felt bad making him change.

Four? Gimme a break, right? Wrong!

Mads turned four this week. He has been asking when he turns four everyday for the last 6 months. He was so excited when it got closer. Finally the day came. As soon as I saw him I told him happy birthday. Then I told him how cool it was to be a four year old. He said, "I'm not four." I told him he was, and he said, "I don't feel four." It was pretty funny to me. I think he expected some sort of change. He told me maybe in eleven days he will be four. It took quite a bit of convincing, but we finally got to believe he was four. (That is, until the next day. We had to convince him all over again.)

He got into it a little more when I told him he could play video games. (He is usually only allowed to play on Saturdays.) Then he got to choose what he wanted for lunch. Arctic Circle. Corn dog. Playplace.

When we got home, he made sure Dare knew he was special. "It's my birthday, and I can do whatever I want!" is what we heard from him a few times. It's true! He got to play what he wanted to play, and watch what he wanted to watch.

Later, Grandma and Mark came over for some cake and ice cream. He got a new scooter, and helmet. He was pretty stoked about his Ben 10 helmet.

1000 Piece

I LOVE this picture!

There are so many stories being told in this picture.

I wish I could make it into a puzzle. Maybe I can.

Bones

Well, the floor is done. It has consumed my life enough, so we decided to finish it. And you know what's worse than a month of hard work to make your house look better? I'll tell you. A month of hard work making your house look better only to move a few weeks later. Yes, I'm moving. I'll go into that later. I have a lot of catching up to do first. Anyway, the floor looks awesome! I love it. The kitchen is my favorite part. It just looks so nice.

Here is Nate working so hard. This was near the beginning of the process so I was still in a good enough mood to take pictures.

One of the highlights of the process was the day I didn't have time to make the kids lunch so I let them eat chicken right off the carcass. I just threw a couple of pieces of bread at them and called it good. It cracked me up! They loved it though. They thought I was an awesome mom that day even though I knew better.

Looking back now, I'm actually pretty impressed that they were dressed that day. Maybe it was one of those days that we crammed in a trip to the grocery store and I was able to throw some clothes on the boys. No shoes though. Who needs them? It was probably at least 35 degrees that day. That is perfect barefoot weather!

Did you know that talc is the softest mineral on the Mohs scale?

"I like minerals. I like rocks."

Rhon had a play a couple weeks ago. There was singing, arm movements, rock clanking, and they each got to say a part about minerals and rocks. It was so awesome. I love going to that stuff. A few days before, she made an invitation for me AND Dad. Since he was invited, and he was able to, he came too. Then we decided to invite Grandma. So she came too! Grandmas are awesome. Rhon was so excited. She did such a good job.

It was pretty funny because Mads was totally into the music. He was smiling and grooving the whole time. He is so cool.

Right after school that day, we went straight to Leatherby's for dinner. We got two orders of fries and ice cream. You know you wish you had that for dinner.

This Was Two Weeks Ago

It wasn't the first snowfall in the Spring, and it won't be the last.

We went outside, and the boys had a blast.

That sounded like a poem, didn't it? I can't keep it going. I'm not that clever.

They were sliding down the driveway on a strip of ice. They went down on their butts, and backs, and bellies. G would run down the driveway, and if he didn't slip he would make himself slip. It was quite dangerous. They both got a tiny flesh wound. It was a great day for playing in the snow because it was really slippery and it wasn't very cold out. I was happy they got another chance to play in the snow before it is gone for a while.

It was cracking me up because G had "frozen face", so even though he was laughing and smiling, it looked like he was in pain.

Yes, they were so cute I ate them for dinner that night.

When I got the sleds out, they stopped sliding down the driveway. It would have been smart to get them out right away, but I'm not that quick.

The Cat's Meow

Sunday isn't always the best of days. But today, it was. I wish I could figure out what we did on days like this to make it feel so good. Just so I could do it every Sunday. Today wasn't just good, it was awesome.

I slept in late. I got up when it was almost eight.

We laid in bed while listening to the kids play nicely together.

We had our hourly talk about the upcoming events in our life.

We fasted.

B.A. and Rhon fasted too. It was their first time.

Getting ready for church went smoothly. I even had time to make the girls' hair look cute.

We got to church almost on time, and got seats. That is a big deal, I promise.

I bore my testimony.

G wouldn't go to nursery. Which isn't actually good, but I didn't have to go to Sunday School because of it.

RS was good. It made me want to be a better visiting teacher.

We made cookies a little while after we got home. We had to try out our new scooper.

They were delicious!

I fell asleep, the kids watched a movie, and Nate made dumplings.

We had a yummy Chinese dinner.

We talked again about upcoming events.

The kids were happy all day. I don't think there was one fight. (Oh wait. They fought about which movie to watch.)

Mads played with cars by himself. This never happens. He hasn't learned to play by himself very well.

We only had to threaten G once to stay in bed or we would shut the door.

Now I am blogging, and Nate is playing video games.

Perfect.

Time Turned Fragile

I've been inspired to write about my Valentine's Day. I don't know what inspired me, but here it goes.

It the best one ever! Nate surprised me with plane tickets to Phoenix and concert tickets to see my favorite band in Tucson.

That's not entirely true. I pretty much planned the whole thing. But it sounded much more romantic that way, didn't it? I'm not really much for romance, so I'll just tell the truth. In fact, this had nothing to do with Valentine's Day at all. It just happened to fall on the same weekend. Nate and I just killed two birds with one stone. How resourceful of us.

I had been planning this night for 10 years! Okay, more like 2. Alright, it was just a few months. But I love Motion City Soundtrack and I was desperately hoping when they started touring again they would come to Utah. Nope. Then I thought, well maybe we could go to Vegas. That would be really cool. Nope. Phoenix? Nope. Then we saw that they had added Tucson to their tour list. Tucson? Really? It was close enough to Phoenix to make it work.

Our original plan was to drive with the kids and stay for the weekend. I couldn't get over how terribly boring that sounded for the kids. Wake up early drive for 12 hours. Play with grandparents for a day, and then get up early and drive 12 hours again. Yuck. Then we thought that we should bum plane tickets off of Jut again! Of course. He always comes through for us when we need him the most. And he did. We got the tickets and the plans were formulating.

What to do with the kids? Those darned kids. They always ruin my fun. Lucky for me my brother married a wonderful, wonderful, wonderful lady who not only offered to watch them (well, I asked her first), but did it with a smile, and actually thanked ME for letting her do it. She is my new best friend. And her sweet daughter came to help and entertain. Big big smiles.

So we were all set. The plane left at 10-ish, and that puts us in Phoenix around 12. Didn't happen. No space. We tried the next plane. No space. No space on the one to Vegas either. We decide to go to LA. I guess less people want to go to Phoenix from LA than from Salt Lake, or Vegas. Sheesh. But we didn't make the first plane to Phoenix once we got in LA either! No space. I was frantic with worry! I had friends waiting for me and a show to see! Well, we finally made it to Phoenix. It was about 7 1/2 hours from the time we got to the airport in Salt Lake. It was okay. Nate and I walked around the airport in LA looking at all the latest styles in clothing, wishing there was someplace we felt like eating that wasn't a total rip off. We got some frozen yogurt.

So our friends picked us up at the airport and we drove straight to Tucson. Here is proof of our road trip...

Liz. She will love the band someday. But bless her heart for tagging along just because she thinks I am a bucket of laughs. And Mike. I will be forever indebted to him for saying yes. And also for loaning me 10 bucks so I could by a shirt.

Speaking of Mike, I will never forget about the "cheese journal". I hope to witness pages being added to it someday.

Sheri. The driver. She did so good. Kept her eyes on the road almost the whole time. She even drove around looking for a free place to park so we didn't have to pay 5 bucks.

Ian and Nate. I almost made Ian eat the cake I brought because I made it, and you have to be crazy not to love a homemade cake. I didn't though. I just turned away as the tears streamed down my face.

Don't ask me what face Nate is making. Hopefully it isn't what it looks like.

My favorite memory of our car trip conversation was when I was telling whoever would listen that if I ever got mugged, I would swallow my wedding ring. Good idea, right? Apparently Liz thought it was better to just go straight for the bum hole. Why go through the whole digestive system when going the other way serves the same purpose? Touche.

We got there. I was beside myself with excitement. But I was also starving. Remember? No food in LA. So we ventured out to find something to eat. We found a diner-ish type place. I got a reuben sandwich. It was pretty good. Nate got the same thing. He only got away with that because we were sitting at different tables. Sheri got a chicken sandwich that was dry. But there was a sauce on it, so it made it all better.

Finally we are in the venue. It was small. And there were teenagers everywhere! We were definitely some of the oldest fans there. There were a couple opening bands. The one I remember was called Set Your Goals. They were very energetic. I was impressed.

Then the moment of truth.

It was a really good show! MCS didn't disappoint at all. The music sounded good. Justin didn't act like an idiot. He was even funny. My favorite part was when they were singing Attractive Today, and the part where he says, "Say you like me," he had the crowd sing, "I like you". And then he said thank you. I loved it. I also liked how he said thank you after every song. I didn't bring my camera. I was afraid I would lose it. I regret that decision. But I stole this picture off of their website. They will never find out!

I'm pretty sure that's the same place.

The car ride home was a bit more relaxed than the way there. Sleepiness kicked in. We slept at Ian and Sheri's. They debated over who would drive us to the airport in less than 6 hours. (I didn't want to get stuck. We took the earliest flight out.) It worked out. We made it home.

It was one of the coolest things I have ever done.

Grand Illusions

My new floor.

No, it is not done yet. Ask me in a few months.

: )

You Couldn't Pay Me To Do This Again. Ever.

All I am going to say is that Nate and I will never buy a old house and experience the joys of fixing it up.

'Fixing it up' is not a joy for us.

Here is where our books and bookshelves started...

The carpet is gone!

Then the books ended up here... (the shelves are crammed in our bedroom)

It wouldn't have been too bad if it stayed in those neat piles. But, of course, they are all messed up by now.

Here is where we are trying to live...

Luckily the kids are adaptable. They went from tumbling all over the carpet, to running and jumping all over the plywood, to dancing and sliding all over the laminate flooring. Everything is a toy to them.

Socks have never played such a prominent role in floor related recreation. But there has also been butt sliding, blanket sliding, back sliding, and belly sliding. It's been great fun. I think they all have a head start if they ever need to learn how to slide into home.