California Trip Day Two – USS Midway

Today’s big activity was to take a tour of the USS Midway air craft carrier. We rode the trolley downtown. It is pretty much the same as riding TRAX, but the kids seemed much more impressed with San Diego’s version. They were actually pretty impressed with everything on the trip down . . . mostly the “gigungus” palm trees and the taxi cabs (Elise: “That’s the first taxi I’ve seen in my first life!”). The ship was amazing. I was worried that the kids would be bored, but they seemed to like it and did really well (unless we count Abby). I am glad this is our last vacation with a two year old. She wanted to do everything by herself . . . until she didn’t. She was a bit of a stinker. She did like watching the airplanes take off and land at the airport across the harbor while we were on the flight deck. She couldn’t have cared less about the planes sitting right next to her, but every time one would come into or leave the airport she would scream, “I SEE AN AIRPLANE!”

The rest of the day was pretty low key with some swimming, cable TV, and stuffed crust pizza from Pizza Hut (with the slowest delivery time ever!). There is a bit of a back story with the pizza. We had it when we came to California three years ago. When we got home Ben said he wanted to get some. I didn’t want to spend extra money for stuffed crust pizza, so I told him that we’d have to see if they did that in Utah or if it was just a California thing. We never got it, so he assumed that they only had it in California. He still believes it. Once he figured out where we were headed yesterday, he said “maybe we can get some pizza with cheese in the crust!” I’m all over keeping kids easy to please.

Elise fell asleep waiting for the pizza to arrive and had a major meltdown when we woke her up so she could eat. Fun times.

California Trip Day One – Surprise

Today is day one of our twelve day adventure in California. Nate and I have been planning this trip since January, but we decided to keep it a secret from our kids until the last minute. Lots of our friends, family, and neighbors knew about it, so I was a little afraid someone would spill the beans, but we managed to keep them in the dark. Last night we told them that we were going to go to a hotel for a couple of days so they could pick a few things to take. We didn’t tell them where we were going, but they were just sure it was the Abbey Inn (Cedar City). We let them believe that.

We had a bit of a rough start this morning. Abby had fallen asleep on her bedroom floor and had a major diaper leak, so Nate had to bust out the carpet cleaner. Then I flooded the laundry room floor when I was filling up the sink to rinse out her nightgown. Love those last minute catastrophes. We still managed to hit the road by 6 a.m. The kids kept asking how long the drive was to get to the Abbey Inn. They were convinced that they had figured out the secret. I did love it when Ben said, “I wish we could go to California, but that is too much money.” We pointed out the Abbey Inn as we drove through Cedar City. The kids still didn’t believe us that we weren’t stopping. They kept saying “You’re kidding” and were just waiting for Nate to turn the van around. They didn’t really believe we were coming to California until we crossed the state line. They were mostly excited . . . and a little bummed about spending another five hours in the car. All in all, they were remarkably good on the trip down. We made it here in great time with only two potty breaks, one Arby’s stop, and very little complaining. We are thankful for portable DVD players.

We made a goal last year to take our kids to all 48 continental states before Ben is 19. I thought it would be fun to have our picture in front of all the “welcome to our state” signs. That might have been a lousy idea. We stopped at the Arizona and Nevada signs. It was 107 degrees outside. Not so much fun. Then California is apparently too cool to have a welcome sign, so no picture there. I’m rethinking the whole state sign picture plan (especially since I just looked at them and the Nevada pictures are blurry . . . grr).

Cousin Time - Toadally Frogs

This week for our cousin playdate, we took the kids down to the University of Utah’s Natural History Museum to see their frog exhibit. Holly was in California, so it was just me and Jody and nine kids. We rode the FrontRunner down to Salt Lake and then rode TRAX up to the university. The museum was great. The kids loved the frogs . . . and the geology and biology exhibits upstairs. After we had seen all there was to see at the museum, we stopped at the Gateway for lunch and then headed home. It was a full, fun day. I didn’t realize how much the kids had learned until we got home and they were telling Nate about it at dinner. They had picked up all sorts of interesting facts. I love that their brains are like little sponges.

4th of July

We had a great day on the fourth. We started the day off with the parade. Nate and Ben went early to make sure our spot was still saved and I walked down with the girls just in time for the third float (we were a tiny bit late). Heidi and Aaron and their boys came to hang out with us. The kids got lots of candy and loved it. Ben declared it “the best parade ever!” He got a plastic football AND a miniature frisbee. That pretty much sealed the deal for him.

I found a cute new star hairdo to try on the girls. I did Emily’s and Elise’s before the parade. They loved it. Abby was a little sad that I didn’t do hers, so I gave it try after we got home. It turned out super cute.

After the parade, Heidi and Aaron came back here for some Pizza Man pizza and breadsticks. The kids had fun playing with Zack and Austin and I had fun testing my skills at making Gavin smile. We’d had a late night the night before, so we passed on the invitation to go swimming at Heidi’s parents’ house and instead had some much needed downtime here. The kids watched An American Tale while Nate slept and I hung out with Abby (who was apparently on a sugar high from the parade candy).

That night, we had my family over for a BBQ. It was a good fun time. We usually watch the fireworks from our backyard, but this year everyone left in time to see fireworks in their own towns. Since we didn’t have guests we decided to try going closer to the show. We took a little hike up the canal road and watched the fireworks from right above the high school. It was a perfect spot and we loved it. It was nice to actually be able to hear the music that was synchronized with the fireworks. Abby fell asleep in the wagon on the way up and slept through the whole show (and the walk home). That poor girl just doesn’t know what to do with all these late nights.

We finished off the festivities on Monday night with sparklers. We got home too late to do them on Saturday, so Emily picked that as her Family Home Evening activity. I’m glad our kids are still so easily entertained. No $200 packages of fireworks at this house. They’re good with an $8 supply of sparklers and pop-its.

Nate's Friends

Nolan and Lori are here from Connecticut this week, so we had a little get together with Nate’s friends on Friday night. It was fun to see everyone. We went to Layton Park and had dinner and hung out for a while. The boys (and Jenny) even got in a little game of Ultimate Frisbee. The kids had a great time playing with their new friends. We stayed until after dark and they were still upset about leaving. When we got home we noticed that Elise had provided quite a feast for some mosquitoes at the park. She probably has 60 or 70 bites on her arms and legs. I’ve never seen anything like it. Poor girl!


Nolan came to our house afterward and he and Nate stayed up talking until after 1:00. It’s funny that we used to always stay up late. These old bodies aren’t used to it. We were sure tired the next day!

Raspberry Time

We’ve picked about 18 cups of raspberries in the last three days. That’s not counting the 73 berries that Abby begged off of Nate while we were picking. She is a raspberry purist. She’ll eat berries by the handful straight off the bushes, but if we give her a bowl of raspberries and ice cream she won’t touch it. “I don’t like strawberries on mine's ice cream!” (She’s a little confused with the whole concept of different varieties; everything is a strawberry to her.) That was her argument when we were picking raspberries last night. Nate would say “Only a few more; we need to save them for our treat tonight.” Then Abby, “But Dad, I don’t like strawberries on mine's ice cream.” They had the exact same exchange 20 times. She sounded so cute and persuasive the Nate just kept giving her more. She’s got him pretty well wrapped around her finger.

Random Photos

I finally got around to renaming all of our photos from the last month. We take way too many pictures. 715 in the month of June! These are a few of my favorites:

Ever since the kids saw Bedtime Stories, Elise has been doing Bugsy impressions. She thinks she is hilarious!

Abby likes to help with the cooking these days. What she lacks in technique, she makes up for in enthusiasm.

I remember sleeping in curlers on a lot of Saturday nights as a kid. I hated it. I swore I would never make my girls sleep in curlers. I lied. In my defense, these curlers are fabulous and the girls said they didn’t hurt to sleep in. Plus, they looked so beautiful the next day.

Ben learned how to play chess at scouts. It is his new favorite, although he gets really mad when Nate wins. It has been good for us to work on strategy and sportsmanship with him. He still likes to win, so he taught Emily how to play. They are much more equally matched.

Ben’s last two requirements for his Wolf badge were to build a birdhouse and make a collection. Nate helped him with the birdhouse.

I helped with the bug collection. I was very proud of myself for pretending not to be grossed out by sticking pins into dead bugs. The girls were so excited about Ben’s collection that they want to do their own. Hurray. Another month of having a jar of frozen bugs in the freezer. I must say it is worth it just to hear Abby yell “Mom! A spider! Get it for Ben’s collection!” She has really caught the spirit of bug collecting.

The girls hung out in Nate’s car while he was working in the garage. I love that they put on their seatbelts for their imaginary road trip.

I started training Ben up on how to mow the lawn. Maneuvering a lawnmower can be tricky when you only weigh 57 pounds. He felt pretty cool that I let him do it, but he’ll probably need another year or two before he is really ready.

Abby is in the “curl up in the fetal position and take a spontaneous nap” phase of life. No naps are a blessing and curse.

Elise inherited the Joey Tribbiani-like love of jam from her dad. She’s always happy to lick the spatula when I am done making a batch.

I was worried about the girls feeling crowded with all three of them in the same bedroom, but apparently they don’t have a strong need for personal space.

Nate set up the slip n slide for the kids on Saturday. Everyone loved it, except for Abby. She was happy to just watch.

End of an Era

. . . and we started taking the child safety latches off of the cabinets that don’t contain toxic chemicals or knives. We are excited about this new chapter in our lives.

Quality Friends

Keri is visiting from Hawaii, so we got the crew together (most of us anyway) for a little party today. It was great to see everyone. We had some yummy take and bake pizza and Kaylynn made homemade fazookie cookies for everyone. DELICIOUS! It’s fun to get together now that the kids are getting older and can self-entertain (with the help of some DVDs, toys, and the Wii). They played really well together so we had lots of time to talk and laugh and catch up. It was fabulous. I’m glad I have such awesome friends!

Retro Post - Kawasaki Disease

June 22-25, 2006 – Ben spent a few days in the hospital three years ago this week. They were a lousy few days! It all started with Ben having a fever. We didn’t think much of it. We gave him some Tylenol and figured he would be fine. We even took him boating (a fact that makes me feel guilty to this day). The next day he added a rash, red swollen eyes, a stiff neck, and extreme lethargy to his list of symptoms. He was one sick boy. When I googled his symptoms I got lots of “fatal if not treated” results, so I took him to the doctor . . . and she admitted him to the hospital. They didn’t know what was wrong with him, so they started doing tests to rule things out. The biggest concern was meningitis, so they did a lumbar puncture to test his spinal fluid. It was quite the ordeal. They wouldn’t let us in the room with Ben (probably a good thing), but we could hear him screaming from down the hall. It was pretty horrible. Once the lab ruled out meningitis, they drew blood to test for everything from West Nile disease to Rocky Mountain spotted fever. Ben quickly lost all patience with being poked and prodded and woken up. He hated the IV and pretty much everything else about the hospital. So did we. The doctors were baffled and we felt helpless. Nate and Shane gave Ben a blessing and we prayed lots, but it was frustrating not to be able to do more.

After two days they decided that to treat him for Kawasaki Disease even though they still weren’t sure that was the problem. It was a little tricky to diagnose since there isn’t a specific test for Kawasaki and Ben’s rash was a little atypical for the disease. They gave Ben a quality $2000 bag of intravenous gamma globulin (the treatment for Kawasaki). It was the best money we’ve ever spent. Within hours he was himself again . . . wanting to play with his Thomas trains and laughing hysterically at the Myth Buster guys dropping buttered toast. They let us bring him home the next day. We were all so excited to be done with the IV and get to sleep in our own beds that night. Ben was up and running a day or two later.

June 21:


June 22:

June 23:


June 24 (after the gamma globulin):

June 25:

We got to do other fun things like giving Ben 12 aspirin a day for a while and taking him to Primary Children’s hospital several times for echocardiograms to see if there was any lasting damage to his heart. After a year or so of testing, the cardiologist determined that there was no noticeable damage. I was (and still am) so grateful for modern medicine.