the "very relaxing" recovery week

Tucker figured out how to rock this thing on his own. See video below. He got pretty wild with it after awhile.
Because I can't resist sleeping baby pics. Tucker's new tie has dog prints on it!! I got it from a friend that sells them online.
More irresistible sleeping baby
Relaxing after the vaca. Daddy saw these chairs and he couldn't resist buying them for them, but they love them. See how they love them in video below.



So this week was the recovery week. I didn't realize just how long we were gone. It didn't seem like we were gone for 10 days until I came back to weeds and grass literally up to my knees. Oopps. And a big pile of poop left in our yard by my neighbor because I didn't scoop for 10 days and she probably mowed her lawn twice while we were gone (the grass is greener on the other side, according to the dogs). Another Oopps.

The first day of the recovery week went like so. Monday. "Oh. I guess we don't have any clean clothes. Better spend all day washing them." Then Tuesday was a "Oh dear. We REALLY don't have any fresh food to eat. Lots of cans, but no milk, cheese or yogurt. heaven forbid." Wednesday was a slap in the face because it rained a ton, as well as Thursday. I spent those days wondering why I ever left Utah, the sun, and exactly what am I doing with my life that has any purpose...... I think I did more laundry or cleaned the floor or somethings those days. Don't remember. All I know is that going to a sunny, warm place made me realize how much I need the sun.

Today was also a beautiful day, so I took the babies on a walk in the stroller before church. I need to do that more often. That was the least stressful church day I've had in a long time. Probably because I went for a walk in the sun.

Friday was our 7th wedding anniversary!! We ate together. By our big bad selves. We went rock climbing with our friends and the babies the next day. It was really fun to do that together. I think I really like climbing with my hubby. Hopefully he likes it, too. The climbing wall was outdoors. Not well used due to less than optimal conditions with the rain, but there was a playground right next to it. Perfect!! That's where we got the pics of the babies. I think Jim had fun as he got all motivated to clean the garage that afternoon. What an awesome anniversary present!! Seriously. It's been bothering me since we moved here. The babies and I cleaned Jim's truck (sucked up a bunch of dried out peas and cheerios. Wiped off a bunch of milk splatters, too) for his anniversary present. Yep. I guess we've been married a bit if we do that for the anniversary.

Tuesday was a beautiful night and I talked a friend into going kayaking on the lake last minute. First time out and it's June.

While I was on the phone with my mom this morning, Whitney did a really funny thing. She pulled the cup out of the dog food bag, tucked it under her left arm and was scattering dog food on the floor like she was feeding chickens. It was so cute! But then Tucker tasted a few and the picture was suddenly less cute.

One other video is of Whitney being what Jim calls "baby shark" We were at this park in Pendleton OR. If anyone has been to Pendleton, they would know all these things we did at that park were fine. We fit right in with the locals. Whitney crawled up on the table and begged for food like a baby shark. (she leans forward toward the food she wants, opening her mouth wider and wider until she gets it). We stripped them down to change diapers in the parking lot and put them in their pjs. All quite right for this park.

Anyway, this week ended well due to all the fun and relaxing we had after the vaca. (see pics above). 2 more sundays until nursery. Then we'll call them the kidlets instead of the babies, Ryan.

this blog is subject to change

Whitney running through the grass. "I'm free of my carseat!!!"" They loved the long grass and wearing sandels
Their favorite toy at Izana's house. Henry is on the floor next to them

Whitney has always been a very messy eater. So this picture is to show that she is properly motivated with smoothies. Note: there are only four spills. The bowl is almost empty. She doesn't miss a single bit. This is how she officially learned to use a spoon.
Whitney playing with chopsticks (and looking kind of cross-eyed). She wanted to take Daddy out to dinner (one foodie to another) for Father's day, so we met him early for dinner on Monday near his work.

"This is how you properly eat with chopsticks!"
Their favorite box. It's great for putting on shoes.
"Here's my belly button, Daddy! How come you keep asking me, silly?"
"I love my stool. Love it."
"Even better than running through the house in only a diaper is driving while only wearing a diaper. You should try it."
"Look ma! No hands!" (Daddy showed her this new trick)
Tucker prefers to use his hands (although he does occasionally like to try the toe trick). And he can multitask. Honk the horn while eating, all at the same time.
Tucker content in the car
Tucker still content in the car.
Again, Tucker likes road trips.
More content Tucker pictures. Note: there are no content Whitney pictures (except the toe trick) in the car. She doesn't like road trips. And she told/screamed this for 3.5 hours straight, too. Jim was so desperate to not listen to her for 14 hours, that, driving into Salt Lake, he was seriously considering putting Whitney and me on the plane and meeting us at home. (He didn't, but thought about it).
Tucker eating watermelon on his own.
Whitney's turn.
Slinky's are cool.
OK. Maybe there is one picture of Whitney content in the car.
Tucky rock climbing, just like Daddy and Mommy
Tucker preventing neck strain. His head did flop around a bit. I thought the arm thing was so cute.
This is the first thing the babies did when we got home from our trip. Sit in these chairs. They love them that much. Thanks Izana!
Whitney also loves the doll bed from Tia Izana

Whitney loves the swing. Happy Father's day.


So. This post is, as stated above, subject to change. I will probably finish it in pieces, but I have all the pics up, so that's all that matters.

We had a great time at the family reunion. We learned a lot about each other and felt the glorious sun every day. What follows are the details.

Whitney doesn't like car rides. Tucker doesn't like them much either, but spends a significantly less time talking about it. They only slept in the car 45 minutes total for each leg. Shoot me now. They (Whitney) was much better on the way back as there was one video (out of 9) from the library that she liked. It was educational. All in Spanish. Daddy learned the words for "birdie" "kitty" "airplane", etc all in Spanish. It helps to get 8 hours of repetition to learn a new language. Whitney also doesn't like to sleep in the cold. The first night we went camping. The next three nights, we hotel camped. And everyone was happier. To give Whitney credit, we were all cold. It was 36 degrees that night (something we wouldn't have to worry about in WA) and she was so cold that when I brought her into my sleeping bag, I could feel her cold toes through her socks, sleeper and my pajamas as well on my thighs. Poor thing! Tucker just flopped around a ton and cried, hoping to get warm.

We went and hiked Mt Timpanogos caves the next day. If the rest of Jim's family wasn't mad at us by then, they were after this. We got to the top just fine. Aunt Hannah carried Whitney the whole way. That is a lot of work. Then we went in the caves. It started out with a bit of fussing until it got to full on melt downs. The ranger (finally) asked if I wanted to leave the caves at this point. I could barely hear her with both babies screaming in my ear, in a cave. Very memorable. I'm pretty sure I'll never forget that trip. Daddy was gone rock climbing with his brother and Dad, and hiked up to meet us at the end of the cave tour. Thank heavens! As soon as there was one baby to a parent, they both fell fast asleep, 2.5 hours after they should have started taking a nap.

Thursday was touring Salt Lake City. Believe me, I was in no mood to have a repeat of the previous day, so we stayed in camp. We had a great time digging in dirt, pulling dandelions and other yellow flowers, sitting in mini chairs, and climbing on the playground to worry about them in Salt Lake. Much, much better. The babies and I also slept for 3 hours together while Daddy went to see a movie. He claims he can't nap. Poor man.

Friday was really fun. Grandma and Grandpa watched Whitney and Tucker for 4 hours while we went rock climbing together. It was so much fun! The sun was shining, I was with my hubby and rock climbing is really fun. It is like a puzzle as far as knowing where to put your feet and I already knew I love repelling. I really want to be my hubby's climbing buddy, now. Grandma and Grandpa took Tucky and Whit on a nature hike and threw rocks in the stream. Whitney's fan club probably fed her lots of Red vines and gold fish crackers.

That was another really cute thing that happened on this trip. Whitney's fan club and how much Whitney loved the attention. There were about 5 girl cousins ages 7-15 that followed Whitney around camp, and Whitney followed them around, too. She had this little grin the whole time she was with them.

Another time Whitney had her little grin on was when Aaron and Joseph dressed them while I was at Izana's house. Aaron and Joseph really wanted to dress the babies, but since the babies don't really like getting dressed, I said no. I went to get their clothes out and turned around to find them gently undressing them. The babies weren't protesting, so I let them process. Whitney had her little cute grin on that said "I love being the star of the show" the whole time those boys dressed them. Tucker let them be extra rough without protesting, as if to say, "It's ok. I'm learning too"

The cutest thing by far that has happened this week it that Whitney and Tucker have figured out to fold their arms for prayer. Whitney figured it out first, but Tucker soon followed. It's really fun to see this new skill.

I'm sure I'll keep adding to this blog as I remember stuff, but maybe not. We'll see.

come have your family vacation with us!!

Joseph with Mommy on the way to visit Tia Mandy
Sarah enamored with Mommy at a rest stop on the way to visit us.
Babies welcoming Daddy home for the weekend with Sarah looking cute.
Izana with Henry in our driveway
Whitney ready to go home while waiting for the car to get fixed.

Tucker at the gas station spot, waiting to go home

A typical afternoon playing while eating snack
Henry playing while waiting to go home
Not again!
Izana and Aaron, so excited to be traveling together

The babies on the way to go clamming in Daddy's truck
Henry scouting for food. I'm sure he was also noting the advantages of being a twin. Food at his disposal
Campfire night
Sarah loving her "birthday" dinner
Three babies
Lunch at the beach. Only one child ran out of the picture
Us without our kids trying to look skinny. Which doesn't really work when we are holding ice cream
Playing at the sand hill. Whitney learned to shovel dirt in her bucket before Tucker took it away. Now she is working on snapping straps together.
Whitney enjoying the sunny view on the ferry ride
Tucker snapping the straps of the stroller on the ferry. He is looking up at Sarah

Whitney at the light house
The lighthouse.
Tucker and Henry (sleeping in the back) at the light house.

Wow! What an adventure filled week. I don't think I've done that much stuff in one week since before the babies were born. Who said naps are good? Anyway, my friend Izana and her family came to visit. They drove 14 hours straight through with 4 kids ages 9 months to 6 years. I still can't believe they did it, did it with a smile and even considered doing it in the first place, but I'm really glad they came.

It all started a week ago today. I kept calling to see if they really were going to be at our house Saturday night. Every time they answered the phone, they said they were making good time and sounded like they were in a good mood. For any mothers of small kids wondering exactly how this was done, I'll tell you what she told me. They started at 6 am their time, so they were a little sleepy and looking out the window. When they started getting restless, she gave them some special bags prepared ahead of time with activities for each kid, like coloring, for example. They also had some new music and story cd's. She said the story cd was a bunch of short stories about dads, so it held their attention and then they would talk about each story after. They ate while driving. She said it took time to eat. The snack would start with one kid and get passed to the next, very slowly. Eating always keeps 'em quiet. They also brought a dvd player with videos like Wall-e where having the volume loud to get the point of the movie wasn't a big deal. At each rest stop, they would run hard around with their dad for 1/2 hour. Then there were a few naps in there, too. The 9 month old was weaned to a bottle. The 6 year old sat next to the 2 year old and the baby sat next to the 4 year old, the best play/family dynamics possible for them. I'm still amazed, but there you have it. They are driving home today, but I'm afraid to find out how the trip home is going. Hopefully they are sleeping more from being worn out from this week. Aaron, the 6 year old, asked us, as soon as he got out of the car at 9:30 pm our time last Saturday where the Star wars legos were and if he could play with them. Sometimes kids have amazing memories. It's been a year since he's played with them at our house. Star wars legos are that cool. Thanks grandma Ann again.

We went to church together. No idea what happened, as usual. But I did notice something that any mother would appreciate. We were spread out over several chairs, with each one in their separate chair reading a book or snacking on crackers in the beginning. By the end we were in two clumps, with each Mommy being in the center and bottom of these clumps. Sushi, I think you know what I mean. It was a little hard to keep the Sabbath rules of no playing wild outside with those guys as they wanted to explore our backyard. After a two days of behaving well, we gave in and let them go outside, but no bikes or balls. It worked, with some supervision. Once again, Star wars legos saved the day.

Monday Jim had off, so we went, guess where, clamming. Boy. Talk about an adventure. We went with another family that has moved here that we knew from Orem. Three cars. Two mini vans and one truck with a cab. A total of 10 kids and 5 adults. Talk about group rates. Since it was Memorial Day, the parking lot was full, so we parked on the road. The older kids had tons of fun looking for clams with the daddies while the Mommies talked, held crying kids (wet, cold, hungry all at different times) and threw out food to the clammers. Of course, the kids needed to go to the bathroom. Which actually saved us a ton of money. My friend was up at the bathroom when a policeman showed up to give everyone (us) parked on the road parking tickets unless we moved our cars in the parking lot. Lucky for us about this time, the tide had started to come in, so lots of people started leaving, letting us park where we wanted without getting a ticket. The third family decided to just go home, instead. We hung out at the beach a while longer. And then, the long trip home.

About 10 minutes into the 1.5 hour drive back, my friend's van broke down. Water pump was out and it broke a bunch of belts. Hmmmm. Last time we went on a trip with them, we piled 7 people into the truck to get back home as that car's transmission broke down 4 hours away from home. Back luck, me with that family and their cars. Lucky for us, Jim had decided he didn't want to drive my car there and we had moved the carseats into the truck, which has a handy-dandy tow rope. We towed it, passengers an all about 20 long minutes to a gas station that was close to an auto parts store open on Memorial day. This gas station also has a beach behind it while the tide is out, and some grass higher up. We hung out with the kids for 4 hours while the hubbies fixed the car. My friends husband had put his whole tool kit in the car last minute before they left Utah, just because he felt he should. We had plenty of food for the kids as my friend hadn't felt like unpacking all the car snacks at my house. We got home by bedtime. It couldn't have worked out better! It also was a dry, sunny day. Not bad. There is a God.

Tuesday my friend and I decided we had had enough adventures and sent her older two boys with her husband to the space needle for the day. They had a blast looking at the science museum that was there while we let the babies have normal naps and food for a day. We exercised during baby nap time.

Wednesday was raining. Hard. 6 kids under 6 that all want to go outside. I tried making Play-dough and realized my mistake. Making it took longer than the length of time they played with it and clean up was more involved than I thought. My friend decided to take her family and run errands for the trip home. They ended up fixing my vacuum (that we noticed was broken upon cleaning up the play-dough) while they were out and it was sort of dry enough for them to play at a playground for a bit to get energy out. yeah!

Tuesday and Wednesday night we swapped babysitting while the other couple went to the temple for the evening. I got the lucky end of the deal. Her kids were on Utah time and are more used to babysitters than mine. When we left, Tucker wandered around the house looking for us. Upon discovering that we weren't around, he cried until we came back. Grrrrr.

Thurday dawned dry, so we packed up to go for a hike to a waterfall that turned out gorgeous. The sun came out the last part of the hike. One hike highlight: 41 slugs were counted on the trail back to the car. After dinner, we had a campfire and a birthday party for everyone. When my friend called me back in February to ask if they could visit, she asked if she could come for my birthday, so we decided to celebrate everyone's birthday for the year, since we don't get to celebrate them together. Her daughter has the same birthday as I do. That night my friend and I went downtown, shopping together. We stayed out until all hours of the night. 9:30 pm, baby. It wasn't even completely dark yet!

Friday we rode the ferry. My friend's hubby bought ice cream for everyone on the way back to make it special. One of the workers on the ferry let her oldest push the button to let the arm down (it looks like an arm that stops traffic for a train) to stop traffic before we walked onto the ferry. There were beaches within walking distance on both sides of the ferry terminal that we enjoyed, as you will see in the pictures.

Today we are cleaning, doing laundry, and taking regularly scheduled naps (hence the post time of my blog) to recover, but it is worth all the fun memories we have now. Although, today, I decided to vacuum the car to get all the sand, dirt, shells, cheerios and dried up peas out from all those day trips. Tucker saw me going to the car and really, really wanted to get in his seat to go for another adventure. This morning Tucker got up to look for his play buddies. He searched every room, didn't find them, and then promptly sat down to play with his toys like he hadn't seen them for a week.

So, if you want a family vacation, come stay with us in the summer. Hope you enjoy the ferry ride via Tucker and Whitney's eyes