More Fun with Mema and Papa

There were many more adventures to be had during Mema and Papa's two-week visit.  Below, we walked around a park in the Provo Canyon one afternoon.  It was chilly.

While Ben and I were at the hospital with Luke, Mema and Papa took all the kids to Salt Lake City one day.  Here are a few pictures they snapped of the kids at the Book of Mormon Celebración exhibit in the Church History Museum.  This children's exhibit is one of my kids' favorite things to do.

Once I was home from the hospital with Luke, Ben and Eliza showed Mema and Papa Squaw Peak while Cat and Jack were at school.  Apparently there were quite a few paragliders gliding around that day, so they got a good show.  I love that it was so windy that Eliza is holding on to her hat in all of the pictures.

Another day, everyone went up to do some sight-seeing in Northern Utah while Luke and I napped and enjoyed the quiet.  They went to the train museum in Ogden:

The building also housed a Browning Museum, which, thank goodness, captured the grown-ups' interest more than the kids'.  (There was also an antique car museum, not pictured.  Cool place, huh?)

The next stop was Hill Air Force Base to see the big aircraft in their museum:

There were also plenty of every-day activities.  Mema and Papa were able to attend a couple of Cat's soccer games, in very cold weather.  And we did a lot of hanging out at the house, too.

ASIDE: I think a perfect illustration of what's most important to kids is the fact that the above picture, the picnic in the back yard, is what Eliza said was her favorite memory from Mema and Papa's visit.  She happens to not be in the picture, but she was there too.  I love that she valued the picnic lunch more than the tours and outings and trips, more than the treats or fast food meals, and more than the gifts and surprises.  It reminded me of this part of the talk "Good, Better, Best" by Elder Dallin H. Oaks:

In choosing how we spend time as a family, we should be careful not to exhaust our available time on things that are merely good and leave little time for that which is better or best. A friend took his young family on a series of summer vacation trips, including visits to memorable historic sites. At the end of the summer he asked his teenage son which of these good summer activities he enjoyed most. The father learned from the reply, and so did those he told of it. “The thing I liked best this summer,” the boy replied, “was the night you and I laid on the lawn and looked at the stars and talked.” Super family activities may be good for children, but they are not always better than one-on-one time with a loving parent.

I am thankful for Eliza's reminder that the things we think are big and exciting aren't necessarily the best way to bond and create memories.  The most important thing is just being together.  I try to remind myself of that, though I'm still not as good at it as I should be.


We had a great time with Bill and Cleo while they visited.  The sight-seeing was fun, but it was definitely secondary to just enjoying their sweet company and beautiful spirits.  Their visit was planned around Ben's graduation, and I had hoped that Luke would be born before Bill and Cleo arrived, but it was wonderful that they were here to take care of the older kids while we were in the hospital with Luke.  We knew the kids were well taken care of, and they were so happy to have that time with Mema and Papa.  Thank you, once again, for making the trip all the way to Utah.  Now I think we should plan another one.

Bridal Veil Falls with Mema and Papa

The first Sunday of Mema and Papa's visit we decided to go on a walk at Bridal Veil Falls.  The paved path takes you to the base of a beautiful waterfall in Provo Canyon, and it was a lovely way to spend a cool spring afternoon.  The kids did a pretty good job of walking, and they loved playing in the water, despite its temperature.  They also fed the fish, which is always a hit.  Unfortunately, this walk didn't seem to help to induce labor at all, either, darn it.  But it was still a fun outing for everyone.

The Stomping Grounds

The afternoon of Cat's piano recital, we all drove to BYU to walk around the campus and take pictures for a graduation gift I was putting together for Ben.  We also walked around the Provo Temple and, of course, got some ice cream at the Creamery.  (I also thought this would be a good opportunity to try to "walk the baby out" but I guess we didn't do quite enough walking, cause he didn't come out until a few days later, when we forced him out.)

BYU Campus

First we hung out at the Cougar statue in front of the football stadium, then in and around

the Tanner Building, which houses the Marriott School of Management.

You can see the Tanner building to the right of this sign, and the Y on the mountain behind it.

Provo Temple

BYU Creamery on Ninth

Let's Rewind - Cat's Piano Recital

Time to start catching up on the posts I'm Oh So Very Behind On.  In order to save time, the posts will probably be shorter than normal.  I just want to try to continue to represent the things that have happened in our lives, since I consider this a family history log.

Cat worked really hard to learn the two pieces she performed at her recital.  Unfortunately, I didn't do a good job of ensuring she perfect either of them, so her performance wasn't as good as it could have been.  (I was preoccupied with trying to get Luke to be born, and Ben's upcoming graduation, and Ben's parents' visit, and getting the house in order for our move...)

She began learning her pieces back in January and it was a painstaking process.  She chose both of them after listening to them, and they were much harder than anything she'd attempted in the past.  She didn't have the background to know how to learn the pieces on her own - the rhythms, accidentals, hand movements, etc., were tough - so I had to sit down with her and we figured it out together, measure by measure.

She was so excited to master each section of these pieces and loved playing them.  Below is the best recording I have of her doing the harder of the two pieces, the 1st Movement of Hadyn's Sonatina in C Major.  (She'd performed it even better, I just don't have it recorded...)  This was a couple of days before the recital.

When she performed the Hadyn during the recital, she got off part-way through and couldn't get back on track.  I was really proud of her that she didn't quit right away.  She continued until she came to a reasonable stopping place.

Below is the other piece from the recital, Beethoven's Russian Folk Song, which was shorter and not as technically difficult.

The recital was the weekend before Ben's graduation from the MBA program, so Ben's parents were able to arrange their visit to be in town for the recital as well as the graduation.  It was wonderful to have them there!

Cat has worked really hard to come so far in piano in such a short time.  I'm so proud of her!

 

And I have to include this picture of Jack and Eliza after the recital.  Eliza is enjoying her chocolate cupcake.  Can you tell that Jack already ate his?

Remember me?

It's finally time for an update.  You'll understand why.  

When we moved at the end of June we had a few simple goals:

Goal #1 - Get a job.

Goal #2 - Visit family and friends.

Goal #3 - Have as much fun as possible while remaining focused on Goal #1.

Now I get to share the good news.  We achieved all three goals.  Yeah!!

We left Utah at the end of June, drove to Florida, traversed the Southeast visiting family and friends, then when Ben was offered a job, we turned around and headed right back to where we came from.  We put 9000 miles on the car in 6 weeks, beginning and ending in the same city in Utah.  (Ben's office is 4 miles from the house we lived in during grad school.)  It was quite a whirlwind, but we loved getting to see so many friends and family members, though we wish we could have seen more.

We arrived back in Utah three days before school started, which was a huge blessing - Cat had been really worried about missing the first day of school.  The kids are going to the same school Cat attended last year, and they're loving it.  Cat began 3rd grade on Monday, and Jack started Kindergarten today.  It's been a big week.

Enjoying some 1/2 price slushes during Sonic's happy hour
in celebration of Jack's first day of Kindergarten today.

And just because you might want to see the littler kids, I'll share these tidbits.

This morning Eliza put a glow bracelet into a broken-off
piece of hairbrush then exclaimed, "I maked a guitar!" as she strummed.

Earlier this week Eliza insisted on Luke wearing this headband.
And she had some fun with a few sheets of stickers she found.

So that's our (brief summary of our) story.  It has indeed been pretty crazy around here, but we're beginning to catch our breath now.

We've learned and grown so much through this whole experience.  We appreciate all of your support and prayers - we've felt strengthened, sustained, and humbled.

We are also thankful to have made some wonderful memories during our weeks of forced family togetherness.  (I'll share more of those with you eventually.)  We have been truly blessed.

Still Here, err... Somewhere

So, just to check in, since I kind of dropped off the grid.

We moved.  Well, we began moving, though we haven't completed a move yet.  We loaded up some movable storage boxes (thank you U-Haul for providing us a cheap, though perhaps not secure, plywood option) and left Orem.  We went to St. George, UT for a week-long family reunion, then left Utah.

Ben is still job searching, so in lieu of a final destination, we traveled east, seeing family and friends along the way.  I'll blog specifics on the trip later on, but for now I'll tell you that we're with Ben's parents in Florida, and look forward to seeing more family and friends soon.  The trip to Florida was long (stopping every 1-2 hours between the 4 kids) but, really, it went pretty smoothly.  No accidents or other car issues, not too much traffic, and relatively well behaved children.

We've loved being back in the South.  We've loved the green, the rain (and we've had lots of it!), the beach, and the food.  But mostly we've loved getting to see so many people we care about.  It's just good to be back.

The kids have handled this time of transition pretty well.  We've had some behavior issues here and there, but mostly they're okay.  During our drive across the country, we would sometimes have a child get upset and want to "go home" and we would just remind them that we're going to Mema and Papa's house and leave it at that.  This morning Jack was crying because he misses his trains, but I found a train for him to play with after Church and he hasn't mentioned it since.

So that's what's going on with us for now.  I'd like to go back and catch up on all of the stuff I've missed, but no promises.  We'll just see how it goes.  If you're itching for some current pictures, here are a few to tide you over:

This was before all of the kids were completely covered in mud.

Jack finally got to go fishing with Papa!

Check out that catfish.

"It's a cicada.  We don't want to eat it."

That's right, Eliza.

My not-so-skinny baby and me, by photographer Eliza.