Homecoming

A lot of this week was spent gearing up towards the university's Homecoming. Dan got put in charge of a float for the college of science, and when his student volunteers didn't show up to help with the banners, he conscripted me.

So this is what I accomplished on Friday while Dan watched Oliver--because a 3 year old is hardly helpful when you need to paint precise lines. (a 20 ft banner reading "ReDVOLuTiON" with chemical symbols)

Saturday ended up being a little complicated. Dan had to leave early for the parade, and I had inadvertently scheduled a primary inservice meeting at the same time--and didn't realize the mistake until it was too late to change it. So I took the kids to a kind neighbor who was going to the parade with her family, then had a lovely meeting with some of our teachers. (Next year, I'll have to make sure this doesn't happen: last year the primary program practice was the same time as the parade).

We had a little mix-up with the kids: I'd talked to Dan about picking them up, and he'd agreed, but then the end of the parade got crazy and he had to do other things, so when he showed up without the kids, I panicked a little. (I knew where they were, I just felt badly for our neighbor who was waiting on the parade route for someone to show up). We got it worked out, the kids were fine--if hyped up on candy.

Then we had a chance to go to our cousin Vince's baptism (actually, second cousin; Dan's cousin Tony's oldest). It was a lovely service for him and his cousin, and afterward we had pizza and fruit salad and cupcakes and brownies in the pavilion near the church.

In other news, everyone seems to be healthy and relatively happy. Even the goldfish Evelyn won two weeks ago at a school party (named Cyclops because he only has one eye) is still amazingly alive.

And, just because he's cute, here's Oliver trying to make an angry face to go along with the book we were reading (I don't think he knows how):

Capitol Reef

I don't remember last week. I'm not sure if it's just routine days blending together, incipient old age, or the fact that the weekend dramatically overshadowed the week.

Oh, my camera reminds me we had a massive rainstorm earlier this week: Oliver wasn't happy that he had to play inside at preschool. But we did have a double rainbow!

And this rather terrifying creature is Oliver, wearing a racoon mask from preschool. They read The Kissing Hand, a lovely little story about taking your Mama's kisses to school with you. I've always had a soft spot for that book because we were given a copy by the hospital when Andrew was born.

This weekend was our (nearly annual) Dutch family reunion at Capitol Reef. (You can read one of my favorite posts about Capitol Reef at Segullah).

We missed having Sarah and her family (and her cookies!) with us, but we did our best to compensate. I spent Friday morning before we left making two batches of bishop bars (from America's Test Kitchen From Our Grandmothers' Kitchens)--which were all gone before breakfast the next morning.

We arrived Friday evening right around dinner time, which Bubby and Poppy had well in hand when we finally rolled in (chicken enchiladas and a yummy corn pudding). We provided the dessert.

Oliver and I (again!) spent the night at a nearby hotel. I think next year I might finally be brave enough to bring him in the tent. He only woke up 3-4 times per night. But he was so wiped he went right to sleep.

We showed up just in time for breakfast the next morning, although Oliver had already had cereal at the hotel and only wanted hot chocolate.

We hiked Cohab trail as a group. I was a little nervous about the hike post last week's 1/2 marathon and this week's shin splints (oh, yes, I do remember this week--I spent most of it hobbling around! And avoiding stairs). But I enjoyed most of it.

 This is the point where things started to go a little awry. See all the kids enthusiastically marching up the trail? We didn't notice until much later that there were no adults in the early group--they were all taking pictures by the trail head.

It was really gorgeous watching the sunlight fill the canyon. And Dan was a good sport to let me take so many pictures of him and Oliver. We hiked in our little threesome for a long time--until Jodi caught up with us and asked if we knew where the kids were, and if any adults were with them. (Up to that point, I'd assumed some were, but Jodi said she'd just passed most of them.)

Oliver looked at the holes in the rock and asked, "Is that where the ghosts live?" (I have no idea where he came up with that--Dan thinks pokemon, since Evelyn is obsessed with ghost types).

We did find a few kids on the trail. They were more interested in playing with the dirt than hiking.

 Shortly after this point, the trail branched upward. Dan and I were both concerned that the kids might not have seen the (somewhat subtle) trail markers, or bothered to read the sign at the trail head. Sure enough, not much farther down the trail we spotted Jodi and Jason down the wash with a whole group of children. They'd been following one of the adventurous older cousins like the proverbial children of Hamlin. Most of them were smart enough to stop when they came to a 10 foot drop, which is where Jodi caught up with them and started bringing them back up the ravine, where they met Jason. A few (my oldest included), climbed down the drop anyway, and Dan had to hurry up the trail to tell them they were on the wrong trail (actually, on no trail at all).

Jodi and Jason helped most of the kids climb up to where Dan and I were on the upper trail and took the littlest ones back up to the fork in the trail where they could join us. As Poppy said later, if there's not a little danger, there's not any fun! But I'm still glad Jodi caught up to the kids when she did.

The trail ended near a parking lot by the river, and of course none of the cousins could resist the combined lure of mud and water.

After the excitement of the morning, the afternoon was spent talking, playing, picking apples in the orchard, walking to the small museum for pie (Dan and Oliver and I) and generally enjoying things.

Apparently I missed a rousing game of capture the flag that night where the kids wore glowsticks (Andrew and Evelyn's favorite part). We packed up this morning and drove home via Panguitch and the mountain (starting to show some lovely fall colors).

All told, a pretty successful weekend.

Getting Outdoors

Last week, we celebrated Labor Day in SG. We had breakfast at the Golden Corral, which the kids love, but this might be our last time for a while: after three plates of food, Andrew went back to the dessert bar and came back with a bowl of ice cream so full that it was dripping over the sides . . . and then he only ate a fraction of it. (Dan and I were both horrified).

Later, we went out into the sand dunes at Snow Canyon Park. We had a lovely hike past some lava tubes and petrified sand dunes (aside from the slightly scary bit about losing Andrew at the end because he didn't follow directions--i.e., stay where we can see you!--but we found him again shortly).

I enjoyed the hike; the kids preferred the sand.

This picture below, is, incidentally, where Andrew got lost. Dan had walked back up the road to get our car and I didn't want to go higher with Oliver. I told Evelyn and Andrew they could climb up as long as I could see them. Evelyn came back soon after I shot this picture, but Andrew kept inching higher. Finally, it was time to back to the parking lot to meet Dan, and I told Andrew to come down. He did--and then disappeared. I couldn't leave Oliver and Evelyn to go look for him, but as soon as Dan appeared, I climbed up to find Andrew, getting increasingly panicky when I couldn't see him and he didn't respond to my shouts. Finally, I heard Dan shouting back at the car--Andrew had climbed down a ravine, around the hill we were standing on, back to the parking lot, and we'd never seen him do it. But I'd been picturing him lying dead or unconscious, so I was pretty upset by the time I made it back to the car. (Relieved, too, of course.) Needless to say, Andrew got grounded from his iPod for not following the "stay where I can see you" instructions.

 Dan and the kids buried Andrew in the sand. (I was still calming down from the whole thinking Andrew-might-be-dead episode, so I just took pictures).

The intervening week passed pretty quietly. Evelyn continues to enjoy gymnastics, Andrew Tae Kwon Do, and Oliver his preschool.

Yesterday, I ran my first half-marathon. It was kind of intense. Dan and I both signed up in January (buy one get one free!), but then Dan decided he'd rather stay home with the kids (5:30 a.m.--the time we were supposed to be at the park--was a little early to ask anyone non-family to watch our kids, and I had been training more than Dan had. Which isn't saying much). I've been trying to run more regularly--but, um, mostly only about three miles. Thirteen miles is a LOT longer than that. I did pretty well the first bit: I ran the first four miles (all downhill, which helped early on with wind, but hurt later), walked just a bit for each of the subsequent 3-4 miles, and then started walking more. I walked most of the last two miles--to be fair, mile twelve was all *uphill.* But overall I was pretty happy--I'm not a great runner, but I still managed to run more than I walked, I wasn't last (not even in my category!), I finished faster than I expected, and I didn't die.

But I've spent the rest of the weekend recovering and I had NO IDEA my legs could be this stiff. The only other time in my life I've been this physically uncomfortable was right after having babies. So. If you see me walking like an old lady, you know why . . .

Pre-game picture on the bus with my writing friend Elaine (who finished a whole lot faster than I did!)

  View of the road early on.

This one was shot by one of the city's photographers--I'm in the back in the red SUU shirt.

 View toward the end (around mile 9 I think?)

And no pictures of me afterward because I was dying and then when I wasn't dying anymore I forgot.

But I do have a lovely purple toenail and blisters as souvenirs.

Back to Reality

My baby started preschool this week, and he never looked back. He was so thrilled to go to school and wear a backpack like the big kids.

And of course, I got back to the house to find I'd locked myself out. I had to walk up to campus and find Dan and get his keys. Needless to say, one of my errands this week was to Home Depot for a new spare copy.

Not much else to say about our week: Evelyn started gymnastics. The kids went to school. I tried to write (mostly this meant reworking my outline and giving feed back to other writers).

This was Oliver at dinner a couple nights ago when we didn't let him say the prayer. He didn't stop crying until I videotaped him and he wanted to see the picture.

We celebrated Dan's FAAR (Faculty Annual Activity Report)/ tenure packet submission on Tuesday with dinner at the Ninja. We've got our order down to a science, and the waitress didn't have to ask to know that the three miso soups were for the kids.

We spent several nights this week and last assembling these for the backyard. The aeroplane was harder than it looks. There may have been cusswords involved.

And the reason I didn't post last week? I spent the weekend at a professional writing retreat in Missouri, in the Ozarks, learning lots about plot structure and marketing. It was fun, but I was glad to come home to my kids.