Remembering

Saturday night when we pulled off the by-pass highway onto that so-familiar road I've driven hundreds of times, I couldn't help remembering. For me the long trip was almost over, but for little Josie in the back seat, that last hour still seemed a long way.

Back when Nathan and I were dating, that road seemed to stretch out eternally before me-- the distance between Nathan's house and mine. I was always running to him or him to me. That road was the gap we were always trying to close. I would speed, of course, but I could never get there fast enough. The days were much like the miles--a gap to be closed until we no longer had to live apart. Now, all of a sudden, it's been fifteen years, and here I am driving that familiar road and coming home again.

We never intended to leave. When Nathan was in school and I was working, we thought we would make a smooth transition from my career to his. He would graduate and find a job nearby. I would resign and stay home with the kids. We were happy here. We were going to stay. But that didn't happen. He couldn't find a job nearby that paid near enough. He found a great job out of state, and we went. It happened really fast. We just closed our eyes and leaped. That job led to another, which led to another, which let to another, until we had been in Montana for four years, had a beautiful home and friends that we loved. We were happy. We were pretty sure we were never coming home.

The Lord took some pretty drastic measures to get us here. The Sunday after Nathan lost his job, Traci Ronneberg spoke in our branch. Her topic was adversity. I can't tell you who she was quoting or the exact words, but she said something about like this: "If we are truly in touch with the Lord and trust him completely, we would be grateful for our trials because they are opportunities for the Lord to bless us." I remember thinking our life had been so good. How was it possible that this would turn out to be a blessing and not just another trial to be endured? We had worked so hard to get to where we were. Our home wasn't just a home to us; it was two years of hard work and lots of love. It was our first real home-- a house that was ours. It was hard t think if leaving it-- especially if there was no one to buy it and move into it.

Now we are back in Nathan's home town. Both of our boys were born while we lived here. I taught here at the high school. We know nearly everyone in the ward and a fairly large number of people in the community. Still, it's been a transition. Nathan seems to be happier than he was in Utah. Our kids are enjoying some much-needed freedom outside. Little Josie is so happy to be able to roam around in a real yard. We've planted the garden and the boys mowed the lawn. Soon we'll be working on this little house-- the one we left behind when we moved.

Maybe this has all been a test of humility. It is going to be hard adjusting from our beautiful, newly remodeled 2700 sq ft home to a 14 x 70 single wide. But what we lack in space inside, we make up for outside. It is so nice to finally be out of town. Last night my sister-in-law and I walked five miles and didn't meet another soul. Ethan spends half the day on the four-wheeler, which had been sitting idly in our yard for months. Mazie has been at play nonstop with her cousins, and so far is delighted. Dylan, too, is enjoying being home. He remembers living here. He's glad to have his dog back. Probably the only person for which this might be a trial is me. I'm glad to be closer to my mom. I'm glad my husband is finally happy.

It's been an important lesson for me. When Nathan was unemployed, we were sitting in Sacrament meeting one Sunday, and we sang "We Thank Thee O God for A Prophet" as the rest hymn. These words stood out to me, "We doubt not the Lord nor his goodness; We've proved him in days that are passed." This whole process has taught me that the Lord will be good to us when we are faithful to Him. We wondered why he wasn't answering our prayers. We wondered why some of our trials weren't resolved more quickly when we had done all we could to resolve them. If he had answered our prayers then, we wouldn't be here now. I've wondered many times if this was something Nathan and I both needed, but we didn't know we needed. I guess I've learned that the Lord knows us better than we know ourselves.

The State of Things

Tomorrow is the big day, and I'm almost ready. Now I'm to the point where I need things out of the house so I can see what else needs to be done-- those last-minute items and, of course, the clean-up. At the moment, here is the kitchen. All the cupboards are cleaned out, but everything is still in the middle of the floor, and I left a few dishes out for us to use tonight and tomorrow. Then I can close the boxes and have them ready to load.
The bathroom... I still have some work to do there.
The ever-helpful Josie eating a box.Here she is watching a movie with the boys.This is the boys' bedroom. Their beds are all taken apart, so I moved their mattresses into the living room.They have loved it!
My living room is the gathering place for all the boxes right now. Moving would be so much easier without food storage!
Josie making good use of those moving boxes...
So much fun!

Just One more Pix!

When we came to find a house to rent, we drove by Dylan's. I promised my Dylan that we would have to go sometime and take his picture with the sign. Well, we were running out of time, so we went through the drive through, and Dylan hopped out to have his picture taken (with my phone, so it's not great quality). By the way, Dylan's has great malts. They are like Blizzards. I had a Grasshopper. Dylan had a Reese's and Ethan had Oreo. Josie got a little bit of everyone's, of course.

The Utah "Bucket List"

There were several things I wanted to do in Utah when we moved here. Now that we're leaving, I've been trying to get in as much of my "list" as possible. Unfortunately, Lagoon will have to wait. I wanted to take the family this summer, but we'll have to do something else. I also wanted to visit BYU's campus. I was planning to attend a writing conference there in June, but that, too will have to wait.

We did, however, get in some of the sights recently. First, I wanted to see the Conference Center in Salt Lake. I had been to Temple Square twice since it was completed, but once there was a concert going on while we were there, and the other time we didn't have time to tour it.
We went on a Wednesday afternoon when the boys had early release from school. Nathan decided to stay home with the girls.
The view of Temple Square from the balcony of the Conference Center. Downtown Salt Lake City seems to be under construction constantly.
The fountain on the roof of the Conference Center.
Also on the roof. It was beautiful.
This is the top of the five-tiered waterfall.
Next, we went to Temple Square. If you look very closely you can see my boys in front of the reflection pool.
Looking up...
The organ in the Assembly Hall.
The tabernacle. They had someone playing the organ while we were there. It is so cool.
Then we went to the Visitor's Center because I wanted to boys to see the Christus.
Next, we walked across the street to the Church History Museum. I lived in Salt Lake before I had kids, but I had never been to the Museum. It was one of the things I really wanted to do before leaving. Upstairs they had a children's room. The boys tried on costumes for this Nativity Scene.
... and had to have a picture with Moroni.
Next on my list of things to take the kids to see was Hill Aerospace Museum. I have driven by so many times and thought it looked like a very cool place. Plus, it's free!
Below are the boys next to the wheels...
... of this monster! They are still there if you look closely.
Ethan liked this one because it was painted in camo.
The B-52.
Inside they WW I and WW II flight section.

This balcony photo gives you a better view of the collection. It's pretty impressive. With two young boys, I didn't get to stop and read all about the different planes. I'm sure I could have learned a lot more if we had been moving slower.
One picture of Josie and I before leaving.
JoJo with her souvenirs.
I'll blog about the charms I added to my collection later. We had fun, but all this sight-seeing is kind of exhausting. I'm taking a break now.

Transitioning

Josie is transitioning from the young toddler stage into the older toddler-preschool stages. For one thing, baby safety features are not working anymore. She can climb over the gate I put on the bathroom. She can climb out of her crib. She can now open the refrigerator. The one thing she hasn't figured out yet is doorknobs, but I'm sure it won't be long. She is also learning several new words and using them regularly.

The other day I found her pouring her bottle all over my cedar chest. I said, "Stop! What are you doing?"

Josie answered, "Mess! (Which sounds like Meth.) Ba Gurl!"

I didn't teach her "bad girl." That was Mazie's doing. Every time Mazie found Josie getting into her stuff, she would tell her she was a bad girl.

This morning I found rocks and toys in Josie's crib. They were on Mazie's bed last night. The only way Josie could have gotten them was if she crawled out of her crib, crawled up on the bed, got the toys, moved her crib over and climbed back in. Can I just say, "Wow!" I never imagined she could do all that. I did think I heard the crib being moved last night, but it's on wheels on a wood floor. I thought maybe she had rocked it really hard from the inside and it moved. It never occurred to me that she was moving it to the bed so she could climb back in. Like I said, the only saving grace has been that she can't get out of her room, or else who knows what kind of havoc she will wreak on our house.

I remember when Mazie was two, we called her the destroying angel. Everything she got her hands on, she broke. I don't think I'm ready for that stage again. Josie is a little more mellow than her sister. Hopefully, it won't be quite as bad this time around.

Speaking of Mazie... I am missing her so much. I had Nathan take her to Washington because I needed a break from that girl. I admit, my house has stayed much cleaner without her here, but I keep finding little scraps of paper all over the house with Mazie's little drawings on them, and I missed her terribly. I called her yesterday, and sweet girl that she is, she was kissing the phone telling me how much she missed me. I am so glad Nathan decided to move us a week earlier. I don't think I could handle another week without her!

Mystery Solved

So, this is why my kids aren't allowed into playland!

A happy adult? Not a responsible adult... not a supervising adult... not a keep-your-socks-on, no-you-can't-take-pop-up-the-slide adult. A HAPPY adult. I guess we'll stick to parks. At least there, I'm allowed to be grouchy when my kids fight.

Mom's Mathematics

This...

plus this...

... equals...

...and some much needed peace and quiet for Mommy!

I simply cannot believe how much Josie loves this movie. If we try to put in any other movie, sometimes even other Barbie movies, she will take me by the hand, walk me to the bookshelf and point. The other day, clear as ever, she said, "Barbie!"
She has taken a liking to the Nutcracker,
but Princess and the Pauper is her all-time favorite.

Temptation

Ever since I read this post I've been craving this...
... the American Chocolate Cake from Costco.

Well, yesterday we went to Costco. Since my birthday is Friday, we went ahead and bought the cake. As soon as we brought it home, we put it in the freezer, so it would stay fresh. However, last night was Monday night and the kids were talking about treats for FHE. We didn't do a real family home evening with a lesson and prayer. We went for a hike by the river, but when we came home, I couldn't stop thinking about that cake in the freezer.

So, I decided we would have a late-Mother's Day/early birthday party. I actually like the cake best when it's frozen, because I love frozen frosting, and let's admit it, this cake is mostly frosting. I took the picture after we'd all had some. Because it is so rich, none of us had more than a half a slice. So, we can have birthday cake all week and still have some for Friday, I think.

Yum! Yum! Yum!!!

Oh My, Oh My, Oh Dinosaurs!

Every Wednesday our elementary school lets out at 1:00 p.m. This makes for a very long stretch between school getting out and dinner time. With the weather finally getting nice, and us planning to move, I decided we'd better get out and do some of the fun things we'd been planning and putting off. First on our list was the dinosaur park. I visited the website for the dinosaur park, but I wasn't that impressed with what I saw for the amount of money that you pay to get in. However, my awesome son won a family pass in a poster contest, so we got in for free. Once I went, I changed my mind. The playground was great, and all of the kids had fun. The whole park is totally fenced, so Josie couldn't run away. I was sold from the very start. If we were staying, I would definitely buy a family pass. As it is, this was probably our only visit, so I took LOTS of pictures.
The dinosaurs are sculpted to scale. This one stands over the entrance to the playground. I won't even attempt spelling all of their names. I'm better with the cartoon versions. This is a long-neck. Ha Ha!

Here's Mazie sitting on a hatchling in the playground.
This slide was fun, and the outside is painted like a giant bird-like dinosaur. The kids loved climbing all over it.
Then Dylan took Josie down the slide. She screamed for joy, of course.
Josie and Dylan climbing around in the dinosaur skull.
There is also a plain playground for toddlers. It's the first playground we've been to that Josie could climb up and slide down all by herself, and she was delighted! She always slid face first. Hasn't quite figured out the sitting down thing yet.
I love this picture. She looked at me at just the right moment.
I looked at this picture and thought, "Wow, my kids all look so grown up." How'd they get so big?
This is funny. It' looks like the dinosaur is nibbling on Mazie's hair.
The three-horn. We liked him especially because we have seen the actual skulls at the Museum of the Rockies in Bozeman. They have a large collection of triceratops. They are enormous.
A nest of babies beside the walkway.
Look out everyone! You're about to be eaten!
Below is the T-rex. The sculpture includes the dead one in front that he just killed. In another area there is a fight scene and huge speakers playing the dino roars. At the dinner table that night I said to Josie, "Did you see the dinosaurs today?" In replied she roared. It's amazing what they pick up.
In another area, there is a dinosaur dig. The fossils are sculpted like the dinosaurs, and they're buried in sand. They have brushes available for the kids to uncover the fossils.

This was Josie's favorite part, and she screamed when I finally pulled her away from the sand.
Future archaeologists and paleontologists.
Inside the museum. This photo just cracked me up, so I included it. She was petting him a moment earlier. Don't ask me what it is. It's like a water buffalo with a horn on his nose.
This was one of those rare occasions when 1) the kids weren't fighting 2) no one was complaining and 3) we all had fun. If all our outings were like this, we might get out more often!