Weekend with Haymonds

Friday we dyed eggs

Friday night the Lofthouses came to dinner

Saturday egg hunt

Then we hiked the Piedra Lisa

Monday at the Aquarium

You might get me to admit

That Alaska is quite pretty.

J and his comp

too cold for me, but very pretty.

J says the earthquake woke him up, but they are fine and dandy and enjoying the increasing sunshine.  Pictures are of an outing to Hatcher Pass.    

snow

Cookies making snow angels

Our winter has been kind of weird, with the occasional snow dump (so far only on weekends) (and only when we have guests visiting) with snow in-between.  When D was home for Christmas we got one weekend of loads of snow, which means loads of shoveling.  Noah loves to shovel and loves to go out and play in the snow.  Perhaps this is the result of being born in Utah?  

 Except, my California baby also loves to go out and play in the snow

And I (born in Utah) dislike the cold rather quite a lot.

We lost the good camera over winter break, ('lost', in that I couldn't find it because I put it away in the right place, but on the wrong shelf)  and didn't take many phone pictures.  I guess I'm too old-fashioned to remember the tech I keep always in my pocket!

giving thanks

Us at Thanksgiving, 2015.  I'm a little overwhelmed by church obligations and was planning a miminal-effort, no decorations dinner, etc, but Emma insisted we get out the china and candles.  Most of the kids helped out with cooking the various dishes which made the whole shebang go quite well.  Much to our sorrow, we only had 6 pies for the 7 of us.  Don't tell grandma.

Deanna caught a ride home from a neighbor, so we got to have her home this weekend.  We all enjoyed having her here.  Except maybe Morris, who wasn't happy at getting snuggled so much.  Poor cat.

This morning D left around 7 and I was supposed to help out a friend to plan her visit tomorrow to the cancer center.  My friend canceled so I was tidying up the house this morning (surfing facebook) feeling at loose ends when I heard a blood-curdling "MOM!"  yelled from my garage door.  I had quite a few moments of disorientation until I realized it wasn't one of my little cookies, but the nieghbor's child who couldn't find her mom and wandered over to my house to look for her.  I wrapped her up in the tardis blanket and returned her home, explaining that her mom was in the shower.  Boy do I remember those days when grabbing a bathroom break was a major accomplishment.  Luckily I know how to start their DVD player and peace was restored.

It made me remember one particularly interesting day in California when I got out of the shower to find that one of my kids was missing.  I completely panicked, running outside in a towel, screaming the kid's name, to find one of my angel neighbors coming up the street with her.  I am so grateful that my 'village' at that point in time included sympathetic and helpful friends.

How grateful I am for friendship and family and the ways we choose to be in each others lives.  Thanks for being in mine!

Attack

This is Zak, mere minutes after he was born.  He doesn't look very happy about it, does he?  

Even now, when he is really disgusted at something his mother does his smile is a perfect grumpy cat half moon.  

Happy 14 Zak attack!

August

Bandelier National Monument is just a few hours away from us and has cliff dwellings where you can climb the ladders and go inside to explore.  I've wanted to go there ever since we were living in the TLF (2012) and finally we made it!  

Mighty cozy on the insides

We climbed 4 tall ladders to get to the cave at the top

We kept seeing this guy, whose shirt reads 'keep calm and don't regenerate'  The kids loved it

The abundant rain this summer meant the creek at the bottom of Bandelier was running high and everything was amazingly green.   The kids all agreed that frijoles was a good name for the creek since it was the exact color of refried beans.

The kids started school on August 13.  I only got one picture which wasn't fuzzy and it's of Noah.  I bet the kids will say it's because he's the baby and the favorite.  They might be right.  

I would like to point out that at 7:20 it was already 80 degrees.  Wearing his new jacket nonetheless

the cub scouts visited a police station.  

wilson arch, on the way to deliver D to her freshman year at BYU

This year 2 of our kids have headed out to be on their own.  For the first time ever in the history of our marriage, each kid has his or her own room.  Plus a guest room.  The weirdness of this would be overwhelming if I hadn't just spent an entire day trying to clean the house and do the laundry which didn't get done while I was driving D up to BYU.  We drove up one day, spent that night with Aunt Holly, then spent one day getting D moved in and settled.  Here's what she accomplished in that one day:

checked into housing
moved in
got a bike
got a job
grocery shopping
boots for winter
ID on campus
Books
Walked all the way around campus
Bought every flavor Stephens hot cocoa (oh wait, that's all for me)

My pedometer says we did 5 miles that day.

One advantage of not living in the dorms would be the welcoming committee when she moved into her apartments.  The EQ presidency unloaded my car--I didn't have to carry anything!  And then, after grocery shopping they helped carry everything again.  I saw them helping other people throughout the day, so it's not just the cute Ms D they helped.  Her roommates seem nice (she was freaked out because they're SO OLD (maybe 20))  I only cried a little bit. . .

Until the drive home where I actually stopped in Redmesa to the cemetery to tell Grandma and Grandpa Slade how proud I am of their great granddaughter.   Maybe I just needed to give myself permission to be all sad and stuff, but I bawled for a bit and then when I felt better got back into the car.  10 hours is a long drive to make all by my lonely.

Now I have to learn to count to 4.

July

By July I was mostly able to walk as long as it wasn't too far.  So we did stuff.  

butterfly house at the botanical gardens

Hiking down in the Bosque.  

Playing ultimate with friends.  

Or maybe Cole was dog piling on Deanna and Lia and Nathan joined in

Zoo.  Elephants.  

Dad had a birthday

There were more swim meets

road trip to Jemez

Jemez is kinda pretty