Catching Up: The Final Installment - Christmas

We have been talking about taking the kids to Temple Square to see the lights this year, but trying to find an open evening in this family's schedule is not easy. We finally decided that Monday night - the 23rd - would be the night. What added to my desire to go was that Sully saw a story in the Children's Friend some time ago that talked about the Christus statue at the visitor's center at Temple Square. He told me he wanted to go there and see it. He has been persistently asking when we were going to see the statue of Jesus. Every time he asked, I felt a growing urgency to make sure he could have that experience.  So on Dec. 23rd we drove down town and braved the crowd. I have NEVER seen it that crowded. As we came into the visitor's center  my heart sank a little as I realized how long the line was to see the Christus. It wrapped around the main floor of the visitor's center, with people shoulder to shoulder 5 or 6 across. I looked at Mike and then got down on my knees to break the news to Sully that the line was just too long for us to wait. I told him, and then asked if it would be ok if we just looked at it from outside through the big glass windows. He didn't hesitate, but with the faith of a child, simply said, 

"No, I want to see Jesus. There will be room for us."  

What could I say to that? I looked at Mike and then at the other kids and shrugged my shoulders. The expression on Jessie's face said, "Are you serious?"  But there was no way I could tell Sully no. So we followed the line to the end, and took our place, all the while I was saying a silent prayer that this would work out for Sully, that his sincere desire to be closer to Christ would be granted. I had a lump in my throat as I thought of his words, "I want to see Jesus. There will be room for us." We waited and waited as the sister missionaries took up one group after another. Noble took Abner a few times to look at the exhibits on the lower floor and Jessie and Noble took the younger kids to the bathroom while we held the place in line. The kids stayed remarkably patient. I was proud of them. After what seemed like hours, we made our way to the top floor to see the Christus. Sully's face was full of awe as he saw the Christus come into view. We found a prime spot right in the center of the front row of seats, to listen to the short presentation. Sully looked for a moment at the statue and then announced confidently to me, "Look! I see the holes in his hands. He's showing them to us." I just sat there amazed at his perception.

I can't help thinking about the significance of those words, "room for us" especially at Christmas time. We don't always make room for Christ in our lives, but he always makes room for us. My 5 year old son had pointed this out to me in a profound way. And just as he predicted, there was room for us.

Sully and Ab in  front of the carpenter Christmas tree in the visitors center.

Sully gets his wish.

After seeing the Christus and the lights, we headed over to City Creek Center for a pizza, and let the kids run wild at the big dinosaur play area.
We had a wonderful time.

And now, a brief digression, just for the heck of it...  a random moment of awesomeness from last week...

DSCN6097 from Angie Melton on Vimeo.

ha ha ha ha! Thanks, Noble for capturing that priceless footage.

And on to Christmas...
Christmas eve we had lunch with the Melton's and then met at Sullivan's for the annual Nativity. It was beautiful. I even had pictures. But I can't find that memory card at the moment. Sorry. Maybe I will update later if I can track it down.

Later, when we got home, we read the story of the first Christmas in America from the Book of Mormon with the kids. I like adding that to our yearly observance.

Just before bedtime, the Melton's stopped by so the kids could "open" their gift to them, a ping pong table, in the basement. It's pretty awesome. If you want in on the action, let me know. I'll put you in the brackets.
After a few rounds of table tennis, the 5 oldest bunked out together in the basement family room as is their tradition, to wait for Christmas morning.

As a gift to us, the kids slept in a half an hour more this year, giving us till 7:30 Christmas morning. I thought that was pretty nice of them.

Sibling gifts - first thing Christmas morning.

Santa came through with that Tummy Stuffer dog that Sully had been fixated on for months.

Super fans.

Grace lucked out and scored a hamster from Santa...making this a 3 pet household again. (Sorry no picture.)

She named it Mars. Our kids LOVE the planet names.

Sleepy-excited

You wouldn't believe how hard it is to find a white Beastie Boys Check Your Head t-shirt in the USA. This was my Christmas triumph.

Mike also received the entire Gem State as a Christmas gift (actually, just a sound bar for the tv)

For the second year running, I received a John Stockton themed gift (last year it was a #12 jersey) --- this time his autobiography. I have been reading it every chance I get! Thanks Mike and kids!

Christmas dinner with the Melton's! (not pictured: the 3 youngest boys at the island counter)

We had a Christmas to remember.

Catching Up: Part Dos

Getting ready for Christmas came a little later than in past years because of our trip to St. George. The kids were pretty anxious when we finally did dig out the Christmas boxes and put up the tree.

This year I got my way again with an open, untrimmed, candlestick style fir (aka, the Charlie Brown variety), despite Noble's protestations. (He wanted a big fat one this year.) I can't help it. I just love a natural-looking tree. (Plus, they last longer when they are un-trimmed.)

It's a beaut!

Here's Abner meeting Santa at the ward Christmas party!

And........more basketball. It seems like this is all we have been doing for the past couple of months. Jess has been playing point guard for the Lady Miners. They are much younger than just about every Sophomore team they have played in preseason action (Bingham's system fills the Sophomore roster with freshmen while every other team they've played plays all their sophomores on the Sophomore team - no matter if those girls also play JV and Varsity.) Consequently, our girls have had a tough time in the preseason. They won their first game the Friday before Christmas, and you would have thought they had just won the world championship. They were SO excited. Jessie is learning a lot about basketball, team dynamics, demanding coaches...but mostly she's learning a lot about herself.

Jess isn't the only one playing basketball. Tillman has been having a good season so far. His team has been wracking up the wins. Grace's team scored their first win the Saturday before Christmas. Grace was beside herself with excitement. Apparently we need to remember to take some pictures at those Jr. Jazz games too. Somehow I don't have any yet. (note to self)

We  got our first really good snow storm and the kids were all over that.

The little brothers suited up and ready to go.

DSCN5849 from Angie Melton on Vimeo.

 A blurry Tillman launching off the backyard sledding hill jump.

Noble and his buddies (along with a very eager Sully) spent an entire day building this GIANT snow cave in our front yard. (It was way bigger than it looks in this picture.)

After which, Noble served dinner to the little boys inside. Noble had great plans to sleep in it, but that didn't work out before the weather warmed and the snow cave collapsed. Another time, Noble.

Catching Up: Part One

Hello again. It's been a while.

There's a lot that I have missed. I'll pick up where I left off. November (now that December is almost over).

We have been in desperate need of some garage shelving since we moved in over 3 years ago. I found a guy on KSL classifieds who makes custom bike stands, and had him make one for us. (The cool story behind that is that when I contacted his wife to arrange for a pick up I discovered that she was an old middle school basketball teammate from my youth. It was awesome to catch up.) 

So when a Saturday came up on the calendar without a trip or camp out or major commitment, I pounced. I showed Mike the YouTube garage shelf tutorial, pointed to the pile of lumber leaning against the side of the garage, and then went to borrow a power saw from my dad's shed. A few hours later....presto!! (Now we just need to find a few more Saturdays to build shelves for the north and east walls of the garage.) 

Thanksgiving highlights...

We hosted Thanksgiving again at our house this year with the ever-expanding Sullivan clan. Before the meal, we gathered for a big group shot in the side yard.
Here we are breaking ranks after the photo shoot ...I love all the candid moments captured in this photo.
I love my family.

...and my own family...

Thanksgiving cousins

 More moments from the day...

The day after Thanksgiving we packed up and hit the road for St. George to spend some time with the Melton's.

As you can see, Jess picked up some driving hours on the way down. Her first freeway driving. She did really well, but it was still a white-knuckle experience for me and Mike. Turning over the wheel to our 15 year old with all our other children on board... at 80 miles per hour. (breathe....)

Chillin' at grandma's house...

Tim and Gary and Val came up from LV.

The weather was gorgeous and it was great to see everyone.  

The Big Time

Big time indeed.

Jessie played a little basketball last year. Church ball and one season of county rec. She liked it a lot and decided that she wanted to try out for the high school team. But as the year passed and then the week of tryouts approached she got cold feet, telling us she didn't think she wanted to try out after all. What if she embarrassed herself? What if she got cut right off the bat? She knew she lacked experience and she was worried. We told her to just try. Mike told her about how he regretted not showing up for wrestling tryouts in high school, and told her to avoid the same regret. Either way it would be a good experience. She asked me if I thought she could make it. I told her I had no idea, that it depended on the competition, what the coaches were looking for, etc. I had a pretty good idea that they would be looking for as many freshmen as possible, and told J. she had an advantage there. I knew this because I was cut myself as a Sophomore at BHS during basketball tryouts, ending my dream of becoming a professional basketball player. True story. ...ha ha ha...

As tryouts progressed throughout the week, and she survived one cut after another, we became more amazed. We had given her an outside chance, but now we dared to hope. We also became more nervous for her, because the stakes got higher every day.

It was an awesome moment that last day of tryouts when they called her over and then sent her jogging to the team locker room to claim her spot. I know parents sometimes get a bad rap for living their dreams vicariously through their children. But I have to admit, I am pretty stoked. For the record, I did not drive her toward basketball in any way. She was the one who asked to play rec. last year, and practiced on the driveway for hours. I sometimes worked with her on some fundamentals, but we didn't sign her up for any camps (we couldn't justify the cost this past year).

As a side note, we had to pull her out of the school she's been going to since 1st grade (that was a teary day for both of us) and put her in our boundary middle school so she could make it to daily workouts and games. What a fiasco. Did you know that in Utah if your boundary school is at capacity they do not have to accept  mid-year transfers of students living within their boundaries if they are transferring from a charter school? Neither did I. There was some high drama around here for about a week, as we made phone calls and visits to both of our nearest middle schools, the district, the high school, and met with the head coach. It basically came down to the principal (a really good guy) taking pity on us, and the head coach at BHS putting in a call to the middle school to plead our case. We were grateful that they made it work in the end. She transitioned fairly smoothly, although the first day when I picked her up after school she was in a state of emotional shock and awe. It's tough to come from a small, strict, simple, and academically heavy environment to such a crowded, chaotic place. I felt for her. We were able to get her into a few honors classes, and release time seminary (yippee!! --after half a year of early morning seminary). But she has been blown away at how little time teachers spend teaching, how disrespectful kids are in some of her classes, how watered-down the curriculum seems to be at times, how kids dress, the language, the lunch room. On the flip side, she's been pleasantly surprised at the social opportunities (for Jessie this is big...so many new people to meet!), the technology in the classrooms (every kid has an iPad), her honors Lit. class, how welcoming teachers and kids have been, not wearing a uniform... and the cute boys.
:)    

Middle school USA.

She has a whole new perspective now... and an appreciation for where she's been. So do we. I love NPA more than ever.  I worried that she would wither on the vine - academically and socially...but I think she'll be fine. We feel like it's the right thing to let her play.
This is going to be great. Go Miners!

Come to Zion

The hamster wheel has been going full-tilt around here for a long time.

Mike has been occupied launching his newest role at work (yay!), teaching econ and doing his calling. The kids are busy, busy, busy of course.  But it's the span of emotionally draining issues (between toddlerhood and teenagedom, there are a lot and varied of those at this house) on top of everything else that have been taking their toll on me.

After Mike returned from being out of town for the second straight weekend, he hatched a brilliant plan to avert my complete emotional / psychological unraveling. He proposed that we take the next weekend for ourselves and go to Zion - just the two of us. He might as well have told me that all of my wildest dreams were about to come true. That's how much of a relief  it was for me to hear that.

We made arrangements with family to help watch the kids. Mike's parents and my sister, Kay, took over for us. We are really grateful to them. Mike's parents let us stay at their new house in St. George. So we got to enjoy first-class accommodations too. Thanks Jacque and Howard!

We set out Friday afternoon and got in about 8:00 PM. Too late to do a session at the temple like we'd planned, so we just went out to dinner instead at the Thai place Mike and his dad and brother had scoped out the weekend before when they moved the Melton's furniture to the new house.

The next morning we headed out for Zion. I think we managed to come on the most beautiful day of the year. Temperatures in the low 70's, clear blue skies, fall colors. It was unbelievably beautiful. I think a lot of other people got the same memo...because it was also really crowded. We we were packed into the shuttle  pretty tightly, but it was so lovely I don't think that anyone minded.

We did Angel's Landing first. Neither of us had ever been, and I was nervous. I hate shear cliffs. I am terrified of them actually. As the shuttle announcement repeatedly warned visitors about the hike, especially the part where they say, "There have been deaths on this trail. You are responsible for your own safety." I thought about skipping it. Mike reassured me, and off we went. The first few miles of the hike were just amazing. The views, the crisp morning air, the steep but safe trail on terra firma. The last half-mile, where the trail scrambles out onto the pinnacle I was at times almost paralyzed with fear.  I don't know how a person can look down on either side of them and see shear 3,000 foot drops and still be able to casually climb on. Believe me, I was hanging on to the anchored - chain that runs along that part of the trail for dear life. At some points we had to wait for hikers coming the other direction to squeeze past us. It was all I could do not to panic. I don't know why, but fear of heights is my Achilles heal. I had to talk myself through it. The worst part was that I was scared for every other person I saw. Especially the kids. While I was clinging to the chain, more than once a 10 year old kid would come trotting past me, and I would almost die worrying about them. Mike kept saying that he wanted to bring the older kids to hike it. I could NOT stand being up there with my kids. So there will probably be further discussion about that I am sure.

Mike got some pretty cool pictures along the Angels Landing trail (while I repeated compulsively, "Mike, put the camera away and hold on to the chain. Hold on to the chain right NOW." He was very patient with me).

After Angels Landing we visited the Emerald Pools. That is a cool little trail. On the way out we passed a bunch of wild turkeys along the river. Mike took some great pictures there too, but in trying to clear some old pictures off the card to make room he accidentally deleted all of our pictures from the morning. It was super disappointing to loose the pictures...Mike was especially bummed since he'd been behind  the camera working on taking great shots all morning. So there's no proof that I made it to the top of Angels Landing (which is probably best because the pictures would probably scare me to look at).


After some late lunch we went for a really short hike to Weeping Rock, a spring cascading over a wide rock overhang. It was pretty spectacular, especially in the setting sun.

Lunch at the Zion Lodge (Mike was still unhappy about accidentally deleting all the pictures from the morning)

Walking up to Weeping Rock. 

Looking out from under the overhang / spring

On the drive back to St. George we were treated to a sublime desert sunset. Mike stopped at the Orange Julius drive thru in Hurricane and we sipped away as we drove into the sunset and listening to Don Williams. 

Back at the house we cleaned up and drove to the temple for a session. Turns out it was a multi-stake regional conference that weekend...so pretty much every temple recommend-carrying adult within a hundred miles was at their Saturday evening session of conference. We almost had the temple all to ourselves. 

I felt so content the entire session. Relieved, like taking a drink of water when you're thirsty. I needed it.

After the temple we picked up some Cafe Rio, and went to the house to kick off our shoes, relax our tired muscles, and enjoy a quiet dinner. 

That day will go down in my memory as one of my perfect days.

The next morning, with everyone in the vicinity at Regional Conference meetings there was no place for us to go for church, so we took a walk around the neighborhood, and then headed north. First to Hurricane to visit my grandparents' graves, then to Holden to visit Mike's grandparents' graves. It was a peaceful Sabbath day.

We arrived home about 4:00. It would have been sooner, but about a mile away from home someone pulled along side us and pointed to our rear tire. We pulled off to look at it and found that it was almost completely flat. We put a little air in it at the nearest gas station and then went home, and Mike took it to have it repaired the next day (it actually had to be replaced). I feel super blessed that we drove 500 miles over the weekend without a problem until we were within walking distance of home. That was a tender mercy.

Sometimes you just NEED a break. I am so grateful that we got to go. Weekends without some major commitment for us are few and far between, so I am extra grateful that we took advantage of this one. it was important. Thanks again to everyone who helped us make it happen.       

Fall Back (autumn in a bazillion pictures)

Tonight is the end of Daylight Savings (I am making a mental note so we don't show up an hour early to church tomorrow). I don't know what you are going to do with your extra hour, but I am going to use mine to catch up with those things I never get to...such as updating the blog.


I LOVE FALL. Always have. It's my favorite season of the year. The colors are spectacular. The light glows. Everyone starts nesting. And the anticipation of the approaching holidays is in the air.

Here are some of the things we've been up to this fall.

Out in Nature

The view up Yellow Fork

We spent a lovely warm afternoon strolling leisurely up Yellow Fork

It was so beautiful.

An afternoon at Gardner Village to see the witches

If you think Mike looks eerily like the Uni bomber with his hood up like that (especially when he has his sunglasses on)....you're not the only one.

Caramel apples outside the sweets shop. Delish.

Putting the garden to bed for the year...

Last of the carrots and beets

Eating the super SWEET fall carrots. The cool-weather carrots are the BEST.

The last few pumpkins ready for picking

Speaking of PuMpkins...

We made our annual pilgrimage to our favorite patch kind of late this year...the day before Halloween. They still had plenty of pumpkins to go around, and we got what we came for...in record time too. Since we also had to carve our pumpkins the same night, I told the kids we had to be outta there in 15 minutes or less. They came through. I was pretty impressed.

Not a bad view

This year's creations included several corporate and team endorsements. My lawyers have advised me not to comment on the question of whether we were paid or not. I'll leave it at that.

And then of course, there was Halloween

Party #1. Neighborhood harvest party / trunk-or-treat

Sully's and Abner's costumes were inspired by their nightly bed time stories which chronicle the adventures of the Super Kids, "Super S" and "Super A". They always save the day!

Here is a video of "Super S" and "Super A" getting pumped up before the big neighborhood party with the official Super Kids cheer that Sully made up. (I love how Abner can only see out of one eye hole of his crooked mask.)

DSCN5555 from Angie Melton on Vimeo.

Tillman and his bff came up with this costume duo for the neighborhood party. They were perfect.

Party #2. @ the Sullivan Hacienda
We celebrated again at the annual Sullivan Halloween bash. We had some fresh brew out of the witch's cauldron, a hay ride, festive food and dancing the night away.

Here are the Super Kids in flight with Mike (aka "Si") giving them a little push.

 The Super Kids took their super strength to the horse pasture where they rolled these 50 gallon barrels around while everyone else got busy on the dance floor...

Boogie time.

DSCN5627 from Angie Melton on Vimeo.

Party#3. Mike's company party for families. No pictures...but lots more candy.

Party #4. (Not technically a party) All Hallows Eve itself.
Halloween finally arrived, with Sully almost beside himself with excitement. After all the Halloween parties we'd been to over the previous week, I had a hard time of it trying to keep things laundered and together. We soon discovered that more than one necessary piece of clothing was still in the dirty clothes, and even more distressing, we couldn't even find certain crucial accessories. As I was getting frustrated searching for things, with the kids chomping at the bit and trick-or-treaters arriving, Mike reminded me, "It's just Halloween. Relax."  That was good advise. So what if Abner went trick-or-treating without his mask and a mismatched cape. He didn't even notice.

Halloween dinner. Spaghetti squash with marinara and meatballs, salad, french bread and strawberry soda.

The whole gang. Napoleon and Pedro were joined by Kip and Deb.

Noble and friends. Noble is in that grey area where it's about time to stop trick-or-treating, but then he's not sure what to do instead. He's embarrassed to wear a costume, but wants the candy. We told him if he went trick-or-treating he HAD to be dressed up. He rounded  up a few friends and some half-hearted costumes and hit the road.  We later learned that most of those friends were not supposed to go trick-or-treating per their parents' policy of no trick-or-treating after 12. I apologized  the next day when I found out, for being that irresponsible parent who allowed her son to trick-or-treat at 13, and drag everyone else along. Sorry again guys. 

J. and her good friend manned the door and the candy bucket at our house. They were pretty good: teasing the older kids and being sweet to the little kids. (Although I was a little disappointed when they didn't chase down that one kid dressed as Beetlejuice after he absconded with and extra fist-full of candy. Little punk.)

Abner expounding on his trick-or-treating adventures over some of his cheese puffs and a strawberry soda.

Happy Fall!!! (And don't forget to set your clocks back tonight.)