We're gonna ride, ride, ride . . . the Dinosaur Train

My kids used to love the PBS show Dinosaur Train (it was even the theme for Andrew's fourth birthday) and they still enjoy watching it.

So when we had a chance to get tickets for the Heber Creeper's "Dinosaur Train," I jumped at the chance.

It was not quite what I expected.

I'm used to European trains, both from backpacking as a college student and my mission, and I pictured something a little sleeker . . . and newer . . . than the train we found.

Also, more dinosaurs.

The train itself was old, rusty, and the seats had seen better days. 

The "activities" at the train depot were also a little underwhelming.

And only one of the two dinosaurs at the depot accompanied us on the train (the green one).

Despite all this, we enjoyed ourselves. Andrew and Evelyn got to dance with the dinosaur in the aisle of the train, and Evelyn got to rock out to Taylor Swift.

Oliver got to bite Grandma. I think he enjoyed it, though I don't know if Grandma did.

The view of the rural side of Heber valley was lovely, and we spotted a family of sandhill cranes on our way out, plus two more further on, and a pair of osprey on our way back. My budding bird-watcher (Andrew) was thrilled. (I was pretty stoked too. I've only ever seen osprey one time before, and that was also in the Heber valley).

 But I think the kids enjoyed the shakes at Granny's Drive-In more than anything else from the trip.

Thursday, after spending most of the previous month away from home, we finally arrived back in Cedar. Well, the kids and I arrived, with Grandma. Dan didn't make it back until Friday. It was nice to sleep in our own beds again.

That night, my mom and I were set to go to a production of Starlight Express in Tuacahn. I had a baby sitter lined up and everything. But we sat through the first half and weren't terrible impressed: the outdoor ampitheater had been baking in 110+ temperatures during the day and was still hot. The performers sang and roller skated around the rink in impressive costumes, but we weren't won over by the songs and we didn't particularly care for the characters. So we came home at intermission and were in bed before midnight.

A side note: I asked one of my young women to babysit, and she brought along a friend (with my permission) since she was going to be here after midnight. We arrived home to find that a third girl (also one of my Mia Maids) had joined them--she'd been across the street babysitting my friends' kids earlier and came by for some pizza. I didn't care: I knew her and she's a terrific girl. But she was excruciatingly embarrassed (I think she planned to be gone well before our early return). She apologized at least three times that night--and it was the first thing she said to me in class today. I had to laugh, because it really didn't bother me. But I remember fifteen: everything seemed so huge then.

Oliver--amazingly--slept until almost 8 the next morning. (Well, he woke up twice during the night, but that's pretty typical). But I suppose the universe must have felt out of balance as a result, and so the next night he woke up at 4 thinking it was morning, and refused to go back to sleep until after 5.

We didn't do much this weekend: got our house back together, did laundry, cleaned the fridge. I went to my friend Anna's baby shower--her first girl after three boys--and the big kids ran errands with Bubby and Poppy.

I mentioned earlier that Oliver has gotten four teeth in the last couple of weeks. One negative side of this is that he's started biting. More to the point, he's bitten me a couple of times while I'm nursing. Not fun. So, I've resorted to the same trick I was advised to use with the other kids: I flick his chin and then set him down on the ground, so he can associate negative things with biting during feeding times. The flicking doesn't really seem to bother him. But putting him down? He looks at me like I've just killed his favorite pet. This is the look of ultimate betrayal. And then he cries. (And then I relent and pick him back up). I'm hoping he stops biting soon, because the other alternative is to stop nursing, but I'd really like to make it to at least twelve months (developmentally), because I think it's good for him, especially given his prematurity.


 Some pictures to make up for the ones I haven't posted.

At a splash pad with Grandma and Brielle and Joshua:

 At Enoch and Oliver's joint birthday party a week ago.

 And a video of Oliver when he first started crawling. At this stage, he still needed motivation to go very far. For some reason, he really wanted this diaper. My dad joked and said I should post that I'm training him to fetch his own diapers.

One last thing, and then I'm done. For Father's Day a few weeks ago, the kids were interviewed about their dads. We only found the papers this morning. Andrew's answers weren't particularly funny, because he's old enough and smart enough to actually know things about his dad. But Evelyn's answers were hilarious.

When asked, "How old is your dad?" Andrew was closest, at 34. Evelyn said "13."

What is your dad's favorite food? Andrew said, "Grits." Evelyn said, "Tomato soup" (which is apparently what we had for lunch that day and Dan tried to sell Evelyn on them)

And my favorite question:

What does your dad do for his job? Andrew said, "Chemistry." Evelyn said, "Coke hour."*


*Coke hour being the ritual 10 a.m. run for drinks, when Dan and other College of Science faculty/staff hang out for a while. Apparently this is Evelyn's only association with her dad at work.

Solstice

We've been enjoying the middle of June, with its temperate weather.

Dan started the week recovering from his surgery of last week (he seems to be doing much better). On Wednesday, we went back to my mom's house. Andrew and Evelyn spent the afternoon romping with cousins Brielle and Joshua, who'd spent the night at Grandma's house. We took them to a splash pad where they got soaked and loved it.

Friday night, Dan and I managed to have a date for the first time in a long time. We saw Star Trek: Into Darkness and really enjoyed it. (I think Dan may be one of the few people out there who knew nothing about the big secret of the villain's identity, so he was able to enjoy the movie as it was meant to be experienced). I think I could watch and enjoy just about anything Benedict Cumberbatch was in. (I love the BBC's Sherlock).

Yesterday, we celebrated Enoch and Oliver's birthdays together with a party at a park/splash pad in Spanish Fork. Jared and his kids were there, along with Jeni and her family and my parents. We're looking forward to the end of the summer when Justin and his girls can come play too.

But the biggest happening of this week is Oliver: he can officially crawl now. And he is officially a menace, getting into anything he can reach and trying to eat everything. Especially paper. He loves paper. It's a good thing he's so cute, because I think life is about to get very busy.

One year old

Guess who's one today?

This kid. (I know I just posted, but he really does deserve his own post).

In 365 days, we've gone from this

To this. It's pretty miraculous. I know all babies grow--it's what they do--but he started out so small and fragile that it seemed almost impossible then that he would not only grow, but thrive.

Also, he's much more attractive now.

 He wasn't quite sure about the whole present thing. Like most babies, he was much more interested in the wrapping than what was inside.

 And much more interested in the candle than in the cupcake.

 This is Oliver crying because Dan took the candle away from him. (He also blew out the candle before Oliver could grab it).

 Oliver: Not sure about this cupcake thing. I think I'll just mash it up.

 He didn't like mashing it up either. This is Oliver, crying over his cupcake. (He was also really tired at this point).

Next year, kid, I think you'll be all over that cupcake.

Unexpected Things

This is a long-ish post, so if you're not in the mood to read, you can just skip to the pictures. I promise I won't be offended.

This has been a week for the unexpected--experiencing new things and remembering old cataclysmic events.

One year ago today, we survived the somewhat traumatic unexpected birth of our son Oliver. Since then, he's grown more delightful with each passing day. We're still paying off his hospital bill, but we are so glad he's here and healthy.

Last Wednesday, my mom and I took my kids to Lagoon, where we met up with Jared and his kids. I didn't manage to take many pictures (and most of the ones I took were bad), but we did have a lot of fun. The kids were so well-behaved that we stayed much later than I'd intended, not getting back to my parents' house until nearly 11 p.m. Oliver flirted with anyone who would smile back at him, and Andrew revealed his inner speed demon (I think Mitcee called him an "adrenaline junkie"): he loved all the roller coasters. The faster, the better. He even went on the Colossus with Jared--no one else would go with him--and wanted to go again. Evelyn, on the other hand, was the opposite of a speed demon. We scared her with an early ride (though she'd loved the same ride at Disneyland, so go figure) and after that she was overly cautious about which rides she'd go on. She was happiest on the kiddie rides, including the one picture below--the boat ride. (Which was a total waste. It must be one of the longest and lamest rides in the park, because it takes so long to load the kids individually in the boats and then unload them).

This last week was also a family reunion for Dan's family. We loved seeing all the aunts and uncles and cousins--the only thing that marred our excitement was Dan's persistent stomach pain. On Friday, he finally gave into outside pressure and went to see a doctor. The doctor sent him to the hospital for a CAT scan, and the hospital kept him for an emergency appendectomy. In reality, it was less dramatic than it sounds--there was lots of waiting in between each new bit of information. But the surgery went smoothly and Dan was actually home late Friday night.

We could not, however, have made it through this without family--especially Bubby and Poppy who kept Evelyn and Andrew with them at the family reunion.

Also, we appreciate the timing of things. If this had to happen, it's best to have it happen like it did: with lots of family around, and two weeks left to run before our insurance year starts over again.

In addition to being Oliver's birthday, today we managed to lock ourselves out of the house on our way to Bubby and Poppy's. As in, I thought Dan had his keys (he always has his keys), and he thought I had my keys, but in fact *all* our keys were locked in the house and we're missing our spare key, as we gave it to the handy-man who finished our new kitchen counters while we were at my parents' house. Oops.

We finally got back in by pulling the screen off a back window and hoisting Andrew in through the window and he let us in the house. I foresee a visit to Home Depot this week to make another set of spare keys, as this is not something I want to repeat.

I promised pictures, so, without further comment, here are some of the things we've done in the last few weeks:

7 of my parents' 12 grandkids:

 My siblings and I. I can't remember how long it's been since all four of us were together.

At the zoo with Sarah's kids:

Brielle's birthday

 Grandma's kitchen

 Lagoon

New kitchen! Well, counters anyway. And a new sink.

 Family reunion

Summering Part II

My kids have been living up the lazy days of summer this week.  Unfortunately, I no longer remember what happened at the beginning of the week.

Wednesday, Andrew, Evelyn and I went swimming at the city aquatic center again (Oliver got to bond with Grandma). I traumatized my daughter by trying to convince her to go down one of the small kiddy covered slides. She refused. Half in jest, I suggested she try one of the *big* slides. She said okay, but wanted me to go first. After climbing all the stairs, I rethought this idea. I was pretty sure she would chicken out, and I had a horrifying vision of me at the bottom of the slide and Evelyn wailing at the top. So we sent Andrew down first. Andrew went down the slide and still had time to climb back up to us while I talked to Evelyn (who, as predicted, chickened out). She said she'd do the little slide instead. Only, when we got down there, she wouldn't go on that one either. I was tempted by the bad parent demon: I nearly pushed her down the slide just so she could see that it wasn't nearly as bad as she thought it was. But I resisted.

So, aside from making my daughter cry, everyone had fun. I think.

Thursday, we went up to the zoo with Sarah and her kids. We didn't make it to all the exhibits, but I imagine we'll be back again. I was really impressed with the new exhibits, especially the sea lions and polar bears, which are light years beyond the tired, old exhibit they'd had before.

Friday morning I met some old friends from high school at a local splash pad/park. It was so delightful to see them and catch up (amid the crazy chaos of our combined 13 children). Sometimes I still feel like a newly minted adult myself: it's hard to believe we've been out of high school for half our lifetime.

And Saturday, we spent most of the day up north again: first hanging out at Sarah's, and then at Jared's house at a birthday party for Brielle. The kids had a blast sliding down the inflatable slide and splashing in the pool; Oliver wasn't as big a fan of the water (it was too cold for him), but he was fascinated by Jared's puppy.

I apologize for the daily log summary style of this post--my brain is a little scattered tonight. Pictures will be forthcoming as soon as I can connect to a computer that can read my camera. :)

Next week: Oliver turns one! He might even crawl by then.

Weeping, wailing, and gnashing of teeth

(Disclaimer: blog title is in no way indicative of the quality of our week, which was quite nice, thank you.)

One of my favorite phrases in Hungarian is the translation for "weeping, wailing, and gnashing of teeth": "Siras, rivas, es fog-csikorgatas." I've been thinking about it lately partly because I'm trying (operative word: try) to write a novel set in 19th C. Hungary--and partly because it seems that Oliver's teeth have been erupting lately.

We were trying to figure out why he's had such a lousy sleep schedule lately (waking up every 2 hours, sometimes with just 1 hour intervals between waking). At first we thought it was adjusting to grandma's house; then maybe ear infection. Then we realized that in the past couple of days he has cut two new teeth and a fourth one is about to break. That might explain the wild crying Friday night about midnight. Aside from that, he's our usual happy baby.

This has been a good week, starting with a Memorial Day dinner with my sister and her family, and my brother Jared and his family. Lots of cousins always equals chaos, but I'm so glad that my kids know their cousins. (I lived too far from most of my cousins to see them more than every other year or so).

While Dan has been doing some research at the BYU library, the kids and I have tried to fill our schedule with various activities. This week, said activities involved crafts with Jeni's kids, a trip to the Riverwoods where we rode the carousel, played games, and visited and old-fashioned toy store. We had planned a hike, but then Jeni wasn't feeling well, so we played with cousins instead.

Yesterday, we went up to SLC to see our cousin Katie play her final soccer game. Bubby and Poppy showed up for the festivities as well, and we capped it all off with a picnic at the "Cinderella Park" (See previous post).

In the afternoon, we met up with *all* of my siblings for an impromptu afternoon of ultimate frisbee and pick-up soccer. Justin was in town to buy a house  (which he did--a lovely Tudor style house that I think he bought just because it looks like Shakespeare's house), so he was sans kids, but the rest of us had fun. My poor mom, though, was heartbroken because she had a temple shift then--higher duties and all that. But we'll be able to get *everyone* together in a couple of months.

Summer. It's a hard life, isn't it? (I could use more sleep, though . . .)