Dr. Suess Bday

Our next home...

So we just found out we are moving to Virginia Beach this summer.  HUGE surprise!  I did not see that one coming.  So I mourned for the afternoon (poor Dad was there to have to see me cry for a little) and then Adam and I smilingly told the kids at IHOP.   They took it like champs.  Seth said he didn't want to move, but then Adam reminded him that he said the same thing in Sitka and now he loves it here.  So we talked about all the cool things we would do there, like living by the beach, seeing the Navy jets,...  I told them that we would have their "friends" birthdays before we left, so we're having 3/4 birthdays this year. (Yes, everybody, I missed the 1/2 birthdays, but 3/4 will work just as well, hehehe)  Anyway, it just went over so easily.  After my little mourning period that afternoon and reminding myself that no crying was going to keep us here, no matter how perfect everything was seeming with so much family near, Adam and I are excited about our new home.  After my wonderful spiritual experience with finding our kitty a couple weeks ago, I remembered again that the Lord knows me and loves me and is watching out for our family.  And there are so many other families seperated from each other and in much more difficult situations, that as long as Adam and the kids and I are together, we will be happy.  I love our life together!  And we are ready for some more fun together (even if it is away from Pleasantville :).

The Tramp

We just got a new trampoline last night and while Ryan and I went swimming, Adam and Seth set it up.  We all jumped on it when we got home in the dark.  It reminded me of when we were little.  We played "break the egg" and the kids taught us some "1,2,3,4,5 singing thing" that made me think of "Snake".  Anyway, it was fun!  It's fun doing the same thing with my kids that I did when I was a kid.

Seth after Fiesta watching Magic School Bus

Seth's Mexican Fiesta

Ryan vs. The Bread

Sitting at dinner, eating brie and bread, Ryan grasping a chunk of bread:
"Who d'ya think is going to win?  Me or the bread!"

BITE!

Trip to Grandma's house

Obviously Daddy doesn't live there because according to Seth adn Ryan it's Grandma's house.  Although the last night at family prayer, Ryan said thanks for being able to visit Papa's house, so I guess he does live there after all.  With Mom and Daddy moving sometime, we thought it might be our last chance to visit.  We had a great time!  We saw friends (Em, Paula, Melissa Husband) and family (Aunt Marty, Uncle George, Dixie and Bonnie, Hayley, Skyler and Cody) and we stayed a couple of nights with Shanna.  Seth loves being with Chace and Ryan loves getting her fingernails painted by Chelsee and Shyenne.  I did a "radio show" with Chantz for homework.  Shanna and I had a great time just hanging out and I love my rides up and down the hill with Frank.  I don't know if I have ever written that when I was in high school, I loved that I liked "Aerosmith" and could pick their songs off the radio because Frank like them to.  It was something that we both liked and because I thought Frank was so cool, I liked being like him.

Other than visiting people, we had a great day at Tom's Farms.  The kids jumped forever on the bounce house, fed the goats in the petting zoo (Seth got bit by a baby pig but he took it like a man (that is something Daddy would say)), and we went on some rides.  The kids loved the Silver Bullet- the one where they sit next to each other in a little car and go round in a big circle forward for awhile and then backward.  Ryan was trying to hold herself to the edge so she wouldn't smush Seth.  It didn't really work.  It never worked when Lacee and I tried it either.  In fact, sometimes we would drag ourselves to the inside just so we could let go and smush each other.  Then we went on the spinning one (like the tea cups).  When I realized that the kids had to spin themselves, I went too.  They of course wanted faster and faster, especially after the guy told them their job was to make me sick.  They took him serioulsy!  By the time it was finally over, I really did think I was going to be sick (which, of course, was my fault since I was the one spinning us really, really fast), but how could I not go fast when they were having so much fun.  Before we left, we spent a couple of quarters at the shooting gallery.  I loved those when I was a kid and so did Seth and Ryan- she made the chicken cluck and Seth hit just about everything.

As always, we made a trip to Chuck E. Cheese.  The kids, as always, had a great time and this time Dad and I got hooked on the bubble popping game and "Let's Make a Deal".  Mom sat and laughed at us all.

Then we missed the HUGE snow storm that hit DC and stayed a couple of extra days.  It was just a great trip.  The kids love being with Grandma and Papa and Puck.

HA HA HAA HAAAA!

Lacee sent me a text: Utube Total Eclipse of the Heart: Literal Version 
Oh my goodness, she was right, it was HYSTERICAL!!

Ryan and soccer

We were at Shy's soccer game and Ryan and I were playing kick-back.  She went off to get the ball, did a triple dribble, popped it over the little sidewalk and said,

"Check out that move!"  "And I don't even go to soccer."  How does she even know what "move" is?  What a sillyhead!

Luray Caverns- Stalactites and Stalagmites

I have been to lots of places that are beautiful- lakes, sunsets, waterfalls.  There are also places that are so beautiful that you can't help but feel the Spirit, that make you feel good inside, peaceful, awe, love- the redwoods, being out on the water in Sitka, the red sunset in Maryland.  However, the "Dream Lake" is beautiful, so beautiful, but also magical, mystical, incredible.  I stood there and just couldn't stop saying how amazing it was.  It reflects the stalagtites and looks like a magical tiny city.  The feeling was so strong!  However, before we had even left the caverns, I couldn't really feel it anymore.  I remember knowing that I felt it that strongly, but I couldn't quite capture the feeling again.  It reminded me of the Spirit.  Sometimes we have one of those magical moments and the Spirit is so strong, but once life starts up again, it is easy to lose that peaceful feeling.  So I just have to trust that knowledge and live so that I can feel it again someday. 

The kids loved it so much too.  They wanted to go back today already.  They liked it as much as Great Wolf Lodge.  It's impressive that the Lord's handiwork can, in kid's minds, compare with an indoor waterpark hotel.

Flash Forward to teenage boys

I'm listening to Seth and his three friends wrestling in his room with Bon Jovi's "Shot through the heart, and you're to blame, you give love a bad name" blaring in the background.  "Pulling on ears-- not allowed!  Shirts off--- allowed!  Throwing off the bed-- not allowed!"  I knocked and went in a little bit ago and they were all lipsynching with thir pretend mikes.  Funny!

What a Great Christmas!

We had a wonderful Christmas!  That warm, feel good, like in the movies Christmas.  It was just perfect. We started decorating right after Thanksgiving and got right into the season.  Mom was here for a couple of weeks before. She got to be here for the three day putting up lights disaster (and still ending up with dead spots on the strings).  

Dad (Roger) came on Christmas Eve with the Luz, Heidi and the missionaries. We ate corn chowder and honeybaked ham, of course. And then dressed up for the Nativity story (Yes, that is the elder on his first day of his mission as the "Angel" in Ryan's purple fairy wings), decorated the "meanings of Christmas" Christmas Eve tree, and listened to Adam read us the 'Littlest Angel'. After exchanging gifts, Adam, Dad and I spent quite a bit of time "getting ready" for Christmas morning.




On Saturday, Mom and Dad came to play with the kids while Dad took Adam and I to see "Young Frankenstein" at the Kennedy Center and then to the Melting Pot for dinner. We came home to kids and grandparents playing hide and seek with night vision goggles, and cooking in the Easy Bake oven.



Monday, we went ice skating in Annapolis with Melissa, Bill, Zoe and Jacob, our next door neighbors from Astoria.



Wednesday, Mom and Dad came back for New Year's Eve. We all went to Benihana's for Seth and Ryan's first time. They loved it! They got the kid-style chopsticks and loved the onion volcano and the brand new inverse-volcano boiling water hot tub. After, we all went to the DC temple to see the amazing lights, the life size camel at the Nativity, the decorated Christmas trees, the international creche display and the Christmas light countdown. As we arrived home, the brothers had another crazy light display going on and the kids got to drive their rolling robot. Then we celebrated our New Year's Eve at 10 o'clock with a countdown and fireworks in the front yard.



The kids missed Grandma reading to them in bed each night and Grandpa's great hiding spots, but they played with some friends to get them over their sadness and we were all ready to move on to the New Year!

We forgot our Anniversary again!

While we were at Andrew's, Dad, Andrew and I were discussing our "wedding story" and all of a sudden, we realized that today was our anniversary.  On the way home, I mentioned to Adam and as usual we laughed that we had forgotten it again.  But, he said that we didn't need to make this day special because "Life is a celebration of our love!"  Yeah, that't right, he said it.  That goes right up there with "Eteranl Teammates"!  However, he is making us brownies as my present!  And I would say that ends a pretty good anniversary-  Wow, 12 years!

Mom and Dad

I took a video of the whole house on my trip home so I wouldn't forget what  it looked like when Mom and Daddy ever moved.  So when I finished I made them pose for a picture, too.  They are on the swing Daddy bought for Mom after the wagon finally died.  Also, in the other pic, notice the gigantic pumpkins from their garden in the lower corner.

Family Sunday Dinner

Andrew invited us all over for dinner at his great row house.  It was awesome and so was dinner.  I was raving about the tomato sauce on the way home and Adam said that it was probably Dad's sausage recipe- he remembered it from growing up.  I'll have to ask Andrew about it.  Anyway, it was fun to have a family sunday dinner with Andrew, Aaron, Liz, Lincoln and Mom and Dad.  It doesn't happen that often, except now that we've moved to DC, at least there's more potential.  We exchanged presents and took a family picture right after Ryan slipped on her tights going up the stairs.  A few tears and hugs from Daddy and she was ready to give a big smile in Grandma's arms.