A Walk Down Memory Lane

This is my Grandma, Bea. (I credit her for giving me the stubborn and independent streak, in a good way.  She is one tough cookie.)  I also love her to pieces.   Growing up just 45 minutes away from Grandma's house meant most holidays were spent there celebrating with my other cousins.  I have the fondest memories of Easter Sunday BBQ's and Christmas Eve's at her house.  Those were the days... my Grandma knows how to host a holiday, that's for sure.

This last visit had me feeling nostalgic about the growing up years visiting her at her home.  So, I walked around and took some pictures of things that haven't changed in her house in the last 30 years.  This clock has been over her TV as long as I can remember.  I don't know where it came from, but I've never seen another one like it,  and I can't imagine her house without it.

This key sticker went up on the back sliding glass door after one of my uncles ran into it and hurt himself pretty badly.  It was a running family joke for years.

Just a sampling of the gorgeous flowers she keeps growing in pots on her patio.  I wish I had inherited her green thumb.  I didn't get that gene.

This has also been in her yard forever, yet I don't even know what it's called. 

The back patio, where many BBQ's and Easter Egg Hunts have been hosted over the years.  It will be a sad and emotional day when this house is no longer in our family.  Everytime I visit, I remember how many wonderful childhood memories I have of this place. 

When we got back to Vacaville, we watched the World Cup game, which Spain won!  Yay!   And then the boys took Charlie outside to learn how to play soccer.  Charlie loved chasing around the giant ball.

Megan and grandma also started working on a Lego house.  Those girls love building their Lego houses.  The boys build armies, but not the girls...  it cracks me up how much my mom loves to build Legos with her grandkids.

The finished product... three stories of Lego architecture... James May would be proud, guys!

A Day in which a slice of Humble Pie costs $75

For years, I've been trying to convince my husband to let me make a trip home to see the grandparents without him.  I'm a good long-distance driver and our kids are good travellers.  Now that Brayden is 5, they are down right easy in the car.  And besides that, I practically have the road memorized between here and there.  It's 800 miles, but it's all interstate the whole way.  This summer, he finally relented.  He knew how badly I wanted to make a trip home and he didn't have enough vacation time to do it.  Being the self-sufficient-spirit that I am, (code for stubborn and independent), I was determined to make this trip and have it be successful, too.

I only told a couple people I was coming.  My kids didn't even know until the day before we left.  I made them take a vow of "radio silence" (code for texting and facebook), and we were off the next morning.  All was going well until we had some car trouble in Santa Nella, CA.  I was only 130 miles from my destination.  We stopped for a bathroom break at a truck stop and when we came back out to hit the road, my car wouldn't start....and it wasn't a dead battery.   Trust me, I've had my fair share of those. 

I called Eric and my parents... not sure what to do, and to my husband's credit, he didn't say, "I told you you shouldn't make this trip alone... look what happened and I'm over 600 miles away and can't help you out."  He was much nicer than that.  The employees at the truck stop helped me get in touch with a mobile mechanic who came to help us out.  He suspected the fuel pump on my car was going bad and it couldn't get the pressure it needed to start the car.  So, once he used his magical "starting spray" to get the engine started, he told me not to turn the engine off until I reached my destination and I should be able to get where I'm going.  However, once I turned the engine off, it would be likely that I wouldn't be able to start it again on my own.  $75 and 20 minutes of mechanical work later, I was back on the road.

130 miles of white-knuckled driving later, we made it to Vacaville, where we drove straight to the dealership and parked my soon-to-be-broken-down-car in the service parking area.  It was late on a Friday night, so I left a note with it and we transferred all our stuff to my parents cars and headed back to their house to crash.  (I must insert a big shout-out to Elise for suggesting that idea to me... I was too stressed to think through the solution logically at that point, and I was trying to figure out how to avoid paying for a tow across town on Monday morning.)

The next day, rested and relaxed once more, we headed over to Elise's house for my mother-in-law's birthday party.  She didn't know we were coming so it was a big surprise for her.  None of the kids knew we were coming either, so I had fun freaking them out when I, not Elise, opened the front door.  And although I took my camera everywhere with me, I somehow didn't take any pictures of my nieces or nephews that day.  I honestly don't know how that happened.  But, we got Jon.  So all is not lost, right?

Back to School Photos

I was so frazzled last year that I never got one single "first day of school".  Not one... and later that week, I could have taken them, but never did... and the longer it got from the first day of school the more I regret not getting any photos of them last year.  So I got extras this year to make up for it.

Taylor had a great first day yesterday.  He liked all his teachers, including the new Seminary teacher, who we have heard nothing about.  His biggest disappointment?  Getting "C" lunch.  We'll have to pack extra snacks for him to eat after he gets done with Swim Academy.

Megan was also nervous about her first day.  We didn't know any of her core teachers going in, but come to find out one of her best friends from the ward next door is in every single class with her but one.  Seriously... what are the odds of that?

Ian had a great day too, despite the fact that his best friend is in another class.  They have been together for 3rd and 4th grade now, and I didn't realize what a comfort that was to my special little homebody.  Last night well after the other kids were asleep, I went into his room to put something away only to find him sobbing in his bed.  Apparently, he didn't make any new friends on the first day, and he doesn't know anyone in his class very well, and he wanted to stay home and be home schooled.  No kidding.  As if staying home with me would solve his problem of making friends.  This kid is the sweetest boy you ever met, but he sure has a hard time with change.   I'm hoping today goes better and he finds a new friend in his class to pal around with.

Brayden was so excited to go to school yesterday.  He did really well, and I didn't get any phone calls after the lunch hour, so he must have survived the cafeteria.  He has a severe dislike of bread and crackers and can smell it from a mile away.  Whenever we sit next to him with those things, he wigs out.  I've been worried sick all summer that he would have a screaming fit on the first day of school when all the kids around him had sandwiches, but he says he was good.  My mother-in-law (bless her soul) came up with the idea for him to "use the Force" to keep the bad smells away from him.  Most of the time it works.  Notice we got him a special Jedi t-shirt to wear on the first day of school to help him remember. 

I felt so bad for him this morning though... I don't think he understood that he's going to school every single morning.  It was hard to convince him that he had to put the Lego's away and get dressed and ready this morning.  If it wasn't for the promise that he would get to ride the school bus to school this morning, I would have had a real battle on my hands. 

Just walking to the bus stop gets you hot and sweaty right now... can't wait for things to cool down a little bit.  He was so excited to get on the bus today... thank goodness all the buses are now equipped with a/c.

Now I just need to prepare myself for the meltdowns tonight.  They are inevitable for the next two weeks while the kids get used to their homework load, their new teachers and the routine.  Maybe I should make a trip to Dollar Tree to arm myself with some good old' fashioned bribery.  Works like a charm!

The Beginning of the End

I'm going to interrupt my summer-travel-log-catch-up-marathon to blog about a big day.  Today is a BIG day.  It's the first day of school.  But, not only that, it's Brayden's first day of all day Kindergarten.

I have dreamed about this day for five years... and thought it would never come.  Brayden was excited about school, and walked into the classroom without a worry in the world.  I said my good-byes and hustled out of there before my emotions got the better of me. 

I'm not sad about sending my last born child off to school... I know he will love it, and thrive in the new environment.  I'm just overwhelmed with  the implications for me.  I feel like this is the first stage of the Empty Nest.  Good thing I have a good 13 years to go before I will be kid-less at home.  I'm no where near ready for that.

For the better part of the last 15 years I have been a Homemaker,  or Stay at Home Mom, or whatever you want to call it.  It was what I always wanted for my family. I have enjoyed being the one to raise my children.  But even when the older ones went off to school, I always had at least one of them home with me.  It's a weird feeling to be sitting here at the computer all by myself in the house.  Over the last six months I've given a lot of thought to what I should do with my new found freedom.  Should I work?  Should I go back to school?  Should I join some time consuming volunteer group to fill the void? 

And then I came to my senses.  Thank heavens for that! For the last 2 years, I've struggled with keeping up with my responsibilities.  Certain things have been inevitably put on the back burner during that time, when I only had the time or the energy for just the essentials.  Case in point... I am still trying to finish up the scrapbooking pages for a trip we took to Maui in 2006.  Yes, I know... pathetic.  And I realize that some women find scrapbooking overwhelming and laborious, but I love it.  It's therapeutic for me.  I love cutting the paper and gluing it on.  I find it immensely satisfying.  And even better is when my kids pull out their books to relive the good ol' days.  That makes it all worth while.  And let's not even discuss the sewing projects that are piled around my sewing machine and serger.  Yes, I have a serger... and I never have time to do anything with it.  And working out?  Whenever there was a crisis or something came up, going to the gym was the first thing to be axed off my "to do" list.

So, when my husband asked me the other day (he was kidding) if I was going to go job hunting this week, I looked at him like he was nuts.  Maybe when the sewing projects are all caught up, and when the scrapbooks are caught up, and when my house can stay clean for more than one day, and when I have time to learn and use my camera and photoshop better, I will think about getting a job.  Oh yeah, one more thing... once I'm released from my super demanding church calling... then I will think about expanding my horizons outside the comfort of my own home.  But for now, I'm just thrilled to have 40 hours a week to do the things I should have been doing all along... not just squeaking by on the bare essentials. 

(First day of school pics to be posted very soon!)

My New Favorite Camping Location

The last time Eric and I came to Sedona it was winter time.  We didn't have a lot of time to spend, but we quickly found out that it wasn't a super kid friendly town.  Think of it like the Santa Cruz of Arizona (without the ocean).  Lots of hippies and tree huggers.  (Not that those are bad things to be... but you don't find a lot of either in the desert, generally speaking.) 

I was thrilled beyond words when I was able to make a camping reservation on the banks of the infamous Oak Creek Canyon.  As luck would have it, we got the best spot in the campground.  Literally.  There are only 19 sites, and some of them are terrible.  But ours was perfect!  Just 100 feet from our tent was the creek, with these spectacular views.

On top of that, we had a Dairy Queen a mile down the road, and Slide Rock State Park a mile up the road.  How can you beat that?  If you are super nice, I might even share the info for the campground so you can visit this little piece of paradise too. 

If we hadn't had such limited time, and if we hadn't just spent hours in the creek a mile upstream at Slide Rock, my kids would have been playing in the water all afternoon.  The creek was deserted.  They did have fun watching the tiny fish (or tadpoles, not sure which) nibble on their feet in the water.  It was hard to leave this beautiful place and go home.  I already want to plan a trip back up there next summer.

On our way home, we had to stop by this place.  Eric wanted to replenish his hot sauce supply (and this store has an amazing collection to choose from) and I wanted to take pictures of all the cool signs in the parking lot. 

Next summer, a trip to Oak Creek Canyon will be on the top of the priority list.  Anyone want to join us?

Cousin Reunion, Part Two: Slide Rock

We've only lived in Arizona five years now, and we finally made it to a local attraction I've been wanting to visit ever since we got here... the infamous Slide Rock State Park.  One great thing about AZ, is that they still respect people's right to be stupid and reckless.  At almost every state park we have visited, you can climb on, touch and play in whatever the state park is showcasing.  None of this CA attitude... "don't touch, you might hurt yourself, ruin the park for others and then sue the state" business.  Slide Rock is a prime example of that!  But it's so fun, and that's why hundreds of people flock there every single day of the summer.... to have some good ole' fashioned fun!

This picture is worth a thousand words... see the shocked faces as we come up out of the freezing cold water.  I think the temp is in the mid 60's.  Fortunately, the intense sun helps you dry out and warm up really quickly.

Here's some photos of all the kids riding down the "slide"...

Here's more pictures of the older kids cliff jumping.  This cliff was probably 10-15 feet up.

Proof that Eric is no coward... he was jumping with the rest of the teenagers!

This is Taylor jumping off a 40 foot cliff.  He had no fear at all and did it several times.  The rest of us were thinking he was crazy, but he loved it!

Everyone had such a blast up here, we've decided to make it an annual tradition.  We've even found the perfect place to camp by Oak Creek just a mile down the road, which we definitely plan to visit again. 

Cousin Reunion, Part One: The Lake

Thus begins the long awaited cousin reunion... 3 out of 4 of my kids were born within 3 weeks of 3 out of four of their kids.  Those are some pretty scary stats considering we never consulted each other in advance or hinted to each other a pregnancy was coming.   I now present:  (left to right, top to bottom):  Dallyn, Ashlyn, Taylor, Ian, Ethan, Brayden, Megan and Lyndi. 

The very first item on the agenda was a couple days at the lake.  The first day we went to Bartlett Lake.  Not our favorite, but parking isn't an issue if you get a late start on a Saturday, which we did.  The second day we went to Saguaro Lake... our favorite lake to visit.  We went on Monday and had the whole lake to ourselves... it was awesome!

Megan and Lyndi... sometimes I think they wish they had been born twins. 

This picture cracks me up every time I look at it.  Poor Ashlyn was the brunt of A LOT of teasing that day, which doesn't happen often, so we were milking it for all it was worth.  To her credit, she was a really good sport about it, and I won't even disclose what she did that brought the teasing on in the first place, but it would be a really fun story to tell!

This shot took about 15 "takes" to get... but they were having such a good time doing it.   We call these four the "little boys"... although poor Ian... he's anything but little right now.  But he is a good sport about it all, even when he has 3 obsessed younger boys following him around all day long!

Everyone knows that Jeff and Eric are brothers.... you can't help but tell when they walk into a room together.  I think they look very different, but out of the corner of my eye, I have gotten them mixed up... and when I was looking at a picture from the lake trip, I thought it was Jeff, but when I zoomed in, it really was Eric!

We call these four "the teenagers"... they were hardly ever apart from each other the entire visit.  I am so glad they have stayed close, especially in the years since we've moved away.  I seriously think I can thank Facebook and Cell Phones for that.  They do have their purposes!

Stay Tuned for more cousin adventures...