It's all in the Family

It was family reunion week!  And we went for it!  For the first time ever we attended a Lee Family Reunion, that's my Grandma Davis' side of the family.  The two day event was hosted at the Davis Compound in Idaho Falls and was complete with T-shirt contests, talent shows, games & unbearable heat.  My favorite part was most certainly learning more about the Lee Family!  My Grandma told stories of their life growing up.  We had some games where we learned different little trivia and tidbits about the Kirk & Carry Family.  And spending time and getting to know a little more about the different families, reminded me that I've got some really awesome relatives!

We of course, attended the annual Sakaguchi Reunion at the end of the week.  Dave was excited he actually got to attend his own family reunion this year (that last couple years I've gone with the boys while Dave is stuck back here busy with work.)  He was also excited to get his fix of sports and golf for a while.

But I also had an unanticipated reunion this week with my Grandma Woffinden.  A recent widow, getting over shingles, and 98 years old, lately when I see my Grandma she's glum, often withdrawn and can't remember who I am.  This is very uncharacteristic of her.  I remember the Veda who watched me often as a child.  Who taught me how to play Skip-Bo, came and cheered me on at all of the softball games, & who made the BEST tuna fish sandwiches!  I remember the Veda who would unexpectedly pop over during the week to check on my parents garden (which in all truth was Bill & Veda's garden) and would get after me for running around without shoes on.  We'd go inside to find my mom for her & she'd get after us for leaving the kitchen such a mess for my mom to have to clean up.  My Veda was a constant teacher, expected great things from you & would also quickly praise you.  And yesterday at lunch, my Veda was back...and my boys got to be there for it!

She had more energy and enthusiasm than I'd seen in her for quite a while.  Charlie was climbing all over her, smiling and giggling in her face.  I thought this would bother her or hurt her, but she loved it!  She did a pretty good job remembering all their names and ages, and my sweet boys were good sports about telling her some of the same things over and over again.  I missed hearing some of the stories she told them, while I was helping with the meal.  But she was doing such a great job entertaining all three of my boys that I even had time to go down and do some packing before we ate.  It was a more casual meal, but my grandma spent the ENTIRE meal working on teaching and reminding all three of my boys about their manners (something I've almost entirely given up on for the time being.)  It was priceless!!!  A little hopeless during some parts, but she had my boys attention throughout the meal.  She even gave them an impromptu boxing lesson during part of it (I'm not sure where that falls into manners, but it seemed very important & now they know how to hit like a 98 year old woman.)  Several times she would turn to me and ask "Three boys?!  What do you do?  Go up to your room and lock the door and lay down for a while?!" (Yes, Grandma, I've done that once or twice.)  And over and over again she kept telling them, what a wonderful girl I was growing up and that they needed to "mind their mother" and they'd grow up to be handsome wonderful boys.

I hope parts of it stick with them!  I admit it was such a nice meal I was in no rush to get out the door.  As the boys followed Dave out to the car to load the last few things, I had some alone time with my Grandma.  Who burst into tears as she watched them leave, and told me she wished she had her purse.  They were such good boys she wanted to be able to give them each a quarter, so they could buy whatever they wanted in the store (her sense of inflation didn't come back with her gumption.)  It was a tender moment to see the tears welling up in her eyes as she told me what a great family I had, what a wonderful beautiful mother I'd become, and she wished we didn't have to go.  And I remembered the Veda who always told it like it was, who didn't give compliments for flattery's sake, who always believed in me, and I teared up too.

There's nothing like family.

Priesthood Preview?

My Heath has been asking me a lot about the Priesthood lately.  Often the same questions over and over again.  How old do you have to be to get it?  Does so-and-so have the priesthood?  Is that why they carry around the sacrament?  Why do only the boys have the priesthood and not the girls, this one really concerns him.  Luckily our YW lessons have been about the priesthood, so I felt pretty brushed up for all the questions.  But Heath did have one I wasn't prepared for.  A couple weeks ago, on the way home from Wade's T-ball game Heath asked me, "Mom, what's the Ironic Priesthood for?" You know...it's funny you should ask that....  It took half the drive home (after I suppressed my giggling) to get him to correctly pronounce it.

And all this talk about the Priesthood is starting to sink in and not just with Heath.  Monday night Wade learned how to ride a bike without the training wheels!  (I wasn't home, so this is a second hand report.)  It was starting to get dark outside and the boys headed in for the night.  Wade was still beaming with pride of his new accomplishment but then quickly asked if it would be okay if Dad gave him a blessing ("you know, the one with your hands on my head") that he wouldn't get hurt riding his bike.

But the most tender Priesthood moment I've gotten to have these last few weeks was at the baptism of our oldest son Heath.  I think baptisms are very special moments in our lives when we are blessed to fill so purely of our Heavenly Father's love for us.  I still remember my own baptism 22 years ago and that's how I felt--burning with joy and love.  And that's how I felt as Dave took that step 11 years ago at his baptism (well that, and a little uncomfortable at all the comments people made to me about marriage.)  I've felt those sweet feeling of love for others as I've attended several baptisms.  But I can't express how sweet it was to have my very own husband stand in the font worthy and prepared to perform that ordinance with our very own Heath.  They are just both so wonderful to me!  The whole weekend was best described by my Aunt Missy and Grandparents Davis as "heaven."  I have a deep gratitude for the priesthood holders in my life grandfathers, uncles, brothers and a brother-in-law (just to name a few) who hold and honor the Priesthood in their homes.  I know I'm deeply blessed by the outstanding example of my own Dad, and grateful he continues to set a high standard for my husband and sons to follow and learn from.  I love him very much, I love my husband and sons very much, and I love my Heavenly Father very much.
I'm grateful for an eternal plan of happiness.

Tuesday

Today was Wade's first day of preschool. We did a co-op preschool last year at home, but this year he's out into the big wide world! His preschool isn't even in our neighborhood! It started out as a usual day, quite nice actually.

And this is how the day turned out...

It probably looks a little worse than it is. Charlie was racing Wade and tripped, full speed, and flew mouth first into a dumbbell. Besides multiple cuts in his mouth, one of which goes all the way through. He also broke a tooth (what is it with my kids and smashing their teeth) and needed four stitches in his chin. Sedation was needed because as you can imagine he was freaking out. However, I couldn't help but leave the ER in a spirited mood after watching Charlie wake up from it. Sedated kids are hilarious! He became very fixated with Optimus Prime and kept talking about him. He kept slowly slurring out "Optimus," then wanted to sing the Popcorn Popping song. When we went to pick up his antibiotic we tried to find some transformer band-aids, but the store didn't have any. I found Buzz Lightyear ones though, and asked him if he wanted Buzz or brown band-aids. He chose brown, if he can't have optimus he doesn't want anything.

California

Summer is flying by! Sorry, nothing thoughtful to this post, just wanted to get some of my favorite pictures of our trip to California up. We spent 9 days on vacation with Dave's family doing the kid oriented San Diego & Anaheim attractions. It was a lot of fun and a lot of work. I think everyone was ready to be done the day we flew home. Let's begin:

The San Diego Zoo! Heath begged to use my camera at the zoo because his cousins Grace and Holden had their own cameras. So the majority of our pictures from the zoo are like this. (there are also a lot of blurry images that if you stare at long enough they start to look like animals.)

Luckily there were other cameras in the hands of adults who captured the love Charlie had for the zoo. He was a major fan of the elephants (in fact any elephant he saw the entire week, real or not, he was obsessed with!) It also took us a long time to pry him away from the lions. And I'm proud to report we only lost one child the entire trip and it was only for a couple of minutes. Charlie wandered back towards the polar bears because he wasn't ready to move on yet.

And of course, every time we finished up somewhere my kids passed out! They were even falling asleep in the restaurant at dinner one night. Here's Grace taking one for the team, she sat between Heath and Wade almost the whole trip. She is a saint!

LEGOLAND!!! While I will openly admit most of the rides were not worth the wait, Legoland was really cool. Wade's favorite ride of the whole trip was this super cheesy horse ride. Heath was so upset he had to wait for Wade to ride it, but he went on it because everyone else was going on it. He was trying so hard to look ticked off about it the whole ride, I could see him enjoying himself during parts of it, then he would see me and remember he was supposed to hate this ride because it's for babies. But Wade was beaming through it all!

Our favorite part of Legoland was by far all the miniatures. Although, not many of them are actually "mini"

And in a sad sort of way it was like taking my kids to a museum. They had so many questions about all the cities that were recreated. I got to explain about the monuments and had to teach them about 9/11 and the Twin Towers (which was weird to have to teach someone about that, it's hard to believe there are people who didn't live through that day. It made me think about when my parents would tell us about the Cuban Missile Crisis.)

And of course, the main reason we made the trip:

Awesome! Exhausting! Over stimulating! You name it, Disneyland covered it! The characters, the parades, the roller coasters, the fireworks...it's a good thing we took pictures because there was way too much to remember without them.

Don't worry, I won't tell you everything. We did three days there, and I think day two when we did California Adventure was probably our favorite. Even though it was sprinkling on us most of the morning it was fantastic! We got to see Disney Jr. Live, which Charlie and Wade loved and it was a nice break from the rain.

Another major check off the list happened that day too. We got to meet BUZZ LIGHTYEAR! I thought Charlie might explode while waiting in line. He went through every emotion a two year old has before it was actually our turn (and our wait was under 10 minutes.) He walked up to him in pure awe, and Buzz was so cool. He gave high fives and shook hands, he let Charlie try pushing his buttons. And of course the entire time Charlie just kept yelling in his super high pitched excited voice, "It's BUZZ LIGHTYEAR!"

All the kids but Charlie earned their Senior Wilderness Explorer Badge, but Russell gave Wade his. That was actually a really cool part of the park, with rope swings and rock climbing it really did have the feel of a mini scout camp.

And you may have seen the whole sequence on Facebook, but I loved taking our kids on the roller coasters! Their faces are priceless!!! We loved checking the pictures that was taken during the ride because between all the cousins, there were some winners every time! The kids loved it too, I woke up to get in the shower one morning and heard Wade talking in his sleep. "I wanna go! I'm tall enough..."

Here's Heath on his THIRD time through his "favorite ride." He's still freaked out during it.

And of course, where there are hotels (esp. in CA) there are swimming pools. There was lots of swimming. Which has paid off in swimming lessons this year. The boys aren't nearly as timid in the water, and I'd like to keep it that way.

That sums things up! Thanks for reading if you made it this far. It didn't make for a witty post but it did make for a fun week and a lot of memories! Thanks Mom & Dad Arnold for the good times!

Taking Back My Mac

Last week I sat down and read some blogs of family and friends, and just reveled in them. Loving that I felt like I could still be a part of their life despite distance and lack of actual verbal communication. I loved that their stories were shared and saved, and I reprimanded myself for lack of effort in that area. But I feel like I do have some sort of excuse...

You see, my computer is now overrun by dinosaurs (including the innocent looking toddler who can probably out "roar" any dino.) My already OCD prone two year old has set up shop on the computer desk, where none of his brothers bother him. Where none of his dinosaurs fall over by a passerby. Where they are out of reach to many of our visitors. Where he can lay out his dino books and study them. Where he has figured out how to use iTunes and can access his favorite movie moments with just a quick click or key stroke. Where his brothers don't change his cartoon to play the wii. Where mommy doesn't scoot him out of the way so she can exercise. It has become his Dinotopia, and he's showing no signs of moving out.

For a while I let him have his little space in the house. A place of comfort amongst the often busy and loud background. But it's becoming a problem. He's getting too comfortable, and probably spending too much time at his beloved dino-land.

No longer will I maneuver the mouse within the two inch opening that is not covered by dinosaurs. No longer will I type gingerly about the dinosaurs surrounding the keyboard. I need my Mac back!!! I need my Mac back, so I can tell you that Heath played baseball this year and actually had fun (instead of crying in the outfield that he didn't get a turn.)

I need my Mac back so I can tell you Wade and I survived a year of co-op preschool and really loved it!

I need my Mac back so I can tell you we are going to try out camping with the boys this summer. But we're starting small, think of the untamed wilderness of the backyard!!!

I need my Mac back so I can tell you that I went on a girls weekend trip and my boys all thought I ran off to audition for So You Think You Can Dance.

I need my Mac back so I have a chance to write down and save some of the funny stories that happen every week, that I've already forgotten about.

So sorry Charlie! Dinosaur land has got to relocate. I'm taking back my Mac.

Sweetness or Sabotage?

After church on Sunday, I was upstairs helping Wade change out of his church clothes. Making conversation I asked him if he enjoyed Primary today? He nodded his head in affirmation. The last couple weeks he hasn't wanted to go to class, which is a new thing for Wade to do. Maybe it's a stage, maybe it's the change of time of day, or maybe it's the new teachers. So I asked him if he liked his Primary teachers. He nodded yes again (you can see he got his conversation skills from his dad.)

"They're super nice, huh?"

Another nod.

"I'm glad you like them Wade."

Another nod. But then wait...he speaks:

"But I still love you the most mom."

As my heart melted I couldn't help but give him a big hug and reply "I love you the most too." Was that why he always wanted to stay with me or Dave, he didn't want us to think he liked his friends at church more than us? Of course we love our family the most. What a sweet thoughtful little boy I have, but wait...he speaks again:

Running to the stairs he yells down "HEATH! MOM LOVES ME THE MOST!"

That little weasel, how did I get tricked into that.

Dear Cameron,

I played in the snow today and thought of you. I've been thinking about you a lot this week. Maybe it's because your birthday is approaching, maybe it's because a family in our ward lost a son this week, or maybe it's because I've been seeing your pictures everywhere lately. But you've been on my mind, today especially. Today, Heath had his first snow day from school. He loved it, we don't get many days of good run and play and role in it snow here. So we bundled up and went outside. And while building a snow fort for a snowball fight I remembered about the giant one you and Jeremiah built out in the tennis court. I loved that you never got too old to play in the snow. I remember how you used to ride your bike in the snow all winter long. I still remember running errands for the office in the middle of a snow storm and I saw you riding your crappy little bmx bike the best you could through all the slush and ice. You couldn't have liked it could you? Were you just that determined to do things on your own? Although you did happily accept a ride home, throwing your bike in the back of the truck. You were always so tough. Do you remember when you walked all the way home from Edwards theater in the snow? We drove all over trying to find you, once we realized you had started walking. I don't know how we couldn't find you, but I remember when you got home you weren't mad, or felt abandoned-you just laughed. You looked completely frozen over and you just stood there laughing and proudly relayed the whole experience of your trek. I thought about all the mornings mom and dad would wake us up at 5am to shovel snow before school. I don't know why I remember it this way, but you always seemed to have some fun doing it. You were always a bit of an early bird, and the awe of a good snow fall always seemed to energize you.
I've had the song Becca and Mandy performed at your funeral stuck in my head most of the day and I've been reflecting. I just wanted to write it down and tell you that you're always loved and always missed. I would have loved to have had you over today, playing out in the snow with me and my boys, so I'm going to pretend that you were. They would love you! I look forward to the day you are more than just a name to them. You still bring a smile to my face and make me laugh. Just wanted to say I missed you a lot today.