March, March, March

So, time is marching on into Fall.

 

One day, Jimi pointed out that he is starting to "forget" Piper.

It is a bittersweet thing. We don't acutely miss Piper anymore, but it is sad that we can't remember her as clearly.

I still hear her phantom noises around the house. Like, sometimes I swear I hear her panting, or her collar dingalinging, or her barking outside.

 

Avery started joy school again.

This little girl is never "bored". She is always pretending something, or has some little project going, or knickknacks around the house gathered up in a basket for some reason.

 

Evan has a new fascination with Olivia books.

He has never been a book kid, but lately he reads Olivia over and over.

He has his first speech class tomorrow morning. I still can't understand him very well, but I swear the day I made the speech appointment he started saying more words.

 

Olivia in the morning sun.

It is starting to get really chilly in the morning, so when the sun comes up...

aahhhh. It's nice and warm. Like lizards.

Leave Me Alone!

The other day, I just wanted to be left alone.

And that same other day, both kids wanted to be right near my side and/or touching me at all times.

I switched couches probably four times in an attempt to be free of digging elbows and hands perched on my shoulder.

 

But they just kept following me from couch to couch.

Touch, hang, lean.

 

And the worst was when Evan decided not to take a nap.

NOT TO TAKE A NAP! In case you didn't hear me.

 

That is mommy hell right there.

By the way, he can climb out of his crib and open his door.

We've since installed a backwards locking doorknob...

 

But when little boys refuse a nap - especially on days that I just want to be left alone - they can do no right. There is no forgiveness for the entire day.

He just made me mad all day long no matter what he did -which happened to be mostly whining and screaming because he was TIRED from NOT TAKING A NAP.

 

Here's dinner time. I just want to eat my dinner,

 (that my awesome friend brought us, you know, because I'm pregnant and it was the most thoughtful thing ever and I hope I return the favor to a pregnant friend one day)

and Evan is whining and clawing to sit on my lap.

Sorry little boy, but I don't let you sit on my lap to eat on a good day. You've got zero chance at it today. Go ahead and whine.

 

He had a perfectly fine plate of his own at his own place, so it's not like I was neglecting to feed him.

 

Go away! Everyone!

 

I knew this day was going to end great though, right around bed time both kids were going to zonk out, and I'd renew my love for them...fill my cup of mommy adoration...when they were properly asleep and not touching me.

 

Yep.

and yep.

 

Sweet little babies.

Zion!

Oh man...Zion.

My favorite National Park.

Partly because it's beautiful from the top of an outlook, yet has so many secret breathtaking discoveries when you're close up...like this little sandstone overhang...

 

...and partly/majorly because it reminds me of my college days. We used to come here almost every weekend when the weather was nice.

 

Let me see if I can explain this...you know the image you have of someone before you get to know them? But it's hard to recapture what you remember them "looking like" after you know them really, really well? Sometimes I will get a flash of the Jimi at SUU before I knew him.

 

 I used to pass him walking up the stairs to the ELC.  He was always this cute boy with a red Northface backpack on that I had an obscure crush on.

 

I had a flash of that unknown Jimi while we were at Zion. I love those memories.

 

So you can go from the secret treasures of the up close sandstone erosion,

to major beauty in the overlook vista just like that *snap*.

 

This is the trail right after you drive through the tunnel.

 

 

 

This is the pregnant lady's peach eating perch.

 

I love eating fruit at the top of a hike.

Me and my roommate/friend used to call the love/discovery of fruit after a hot, tired hike a "fruit epiphany".

Hippies.

 

Minus the guy by the railing, this was our party.

Joe, Jim, Lance, Sharley, Susan.

 

 

Then we went into the heart of the park to Emerald Pools.

There were a few little waterfalls that felt lifesavingly wonderful to this gal.

 

Go ahead and get drenched in the desert - you will be dry in about an hour.

In Washington, you are soaked and soggy until you go home and change your clothes. Tough luck.

 

I've never hiked to the top pool. It was another secret treasure (not secret to people...there was a mall full of us up there, but secret in the sense that you can't see it unless you walk all the way up there).

 

An Oasis.

 

 

 

We were both snapping pictures, then looked at each other and took twinner phone pics. 

Me eating my second peach, shoes off, hair still wet from the waterfall.

Paradise - besides the European behind me smoking...oh no, me and my unborn fetus don't mind second hand smoke. You go ahead.

I love this place. I can't stop thinking about it.

That's how I know I really really loved something - I think about it for days after.

 

Oh but here's the best part.

Dinner at Oscar's. Garlic Burger.

 

Jimi went to the bathroom and came back with this picture.

It was hanging on the wall coming out of the bathroom, and he wanted to look at it and show it to us.

It's a cool view of Angel's Landing, but it makes me laugh that he just helped himself to it.

 

Don't worry, it was properly returned to it's place on the wall.

 

My view from the plate of food in front of me.

A Week in St. George

On the bright side, we didn't have to find lodging for Piper while we were away...

 

Helping grandma,

 

playing with grandma.

This is me and Jim going out for a night on the town sans kids.

Oooh yeah baby! Look out town, kid less parents are gonna light it up!

(Texas Roadhouse and Larsen's Frost Top)

 

He's majorly addicted to Toy Story.

Instructing grandpa about the Dora characters before church.

 

One day it rained allll day. I swear we bring rain with us whenever we come visit the desert.

It smelled so good.

A foot in the gutter.

 

 

Later we went golf ball hunting and found lots of dead bumble bees. I don't think this guy is gonna fit. You better get your best engineers on that, ants.

 

Hunting. We found two this time,

and added them to the collection.

Jim and I decided to count the lot. Grandpa has been collecting golf balls for about 5 years now; he finds them while on his long walks.

 

We counted them out in tens, then grouped 50 together.

 

And then we grouped them all together, took a picture, and posted it on insta with the challenge:

"how many? winner gets a prize"

Avery guessed 20,

a few of my family guessed in the 500-800s,

Joe guessed an even 1000,

Mom and dad were getting closer with guesses in the 1300ish,

but Jamie took it with a guess of 1770ish.

 

There are 1684 balls.

So Jamie gets a prize. But we don't know what the prize is, and we haven't sent anything. It was an empty promise, I'm afraid.

 

The next day, after the balls were all put back in their tubs, we dug through them again looking for all the college ones. That hurts your fingers, digging through a thousand golf balls.

(we were actually outside dinking around while gma and gpa re-cleaned the house for the arrival of Joe and his girlfreind, Susan - squeal!)

 

We moved out to Sharley's house to stay for the rest of the vacay.

Found a little scooter...took the kids for a two mile per hour ride.

 

Oh I love Brindle (their dog).

She was the closest thing to petting Piper. We tried to get her to come sleep in our room at night, but she's got other loyalties and preferences. Understandably.

No hard feelings, Brindle.

 

I told Avery to take a nap because we had a late night planned at Tuachan.

 

I was worried about leaving Evan with a babysitter, but he didn't even know we all left. I introduced him to the nice girl, and they just chatted it up - talked about the deeper themes in Toy Story 3 - while the rest of us slipped out of the house.

 

Walking up to the stage, Avery insisted on closing her eyes so that she would be surprised.

 

It was so exciting waiting for the show to start...

 

 

 

She loved it.

I am sure I loved watching her more than even watching the show.

At one point, Aladdin and Jasmin fly above the crowd on a magic carpet, and Avery waved her little arm up at them.

 

 

 

This is Evan - fat and old.

Creepy, I know.

 

Our tie dye shirts drying on the pomegranate bush.

 

Driving to the airport.

 

Jimi's buddy hanging out the window, saying hi.

Me and Avery were waiting for Jim to bring the car around.

She suddenly didn't want to be near me, all sassy.

 

 

Get In Bed, Get In Bed, Get In Bed

 

Maybe you didn't know what a good napping buddy Piper was.

 

Back before we had kids...you know when you could just go get in bed and take a two hour nap? We used to get Piper all excited by chanting, "get in bed, get in bed, get in bed!" as we ran up the stairs to take a nap.

 

(annndd, side note: that chant was originally from some weird game we'd play when we were kids - my brother Aaron would chase us back to mom and dad's bedroom yelling,

"get in bed! get in bed! get in bed!"

giggle giggle.)

 

Anyway though, Piper would just settle in, like she knew it was time to get horizontal and lazy. She would make some sticky noises, then you knew she was good and settled when she let her tell tale sigh.

 

Nothing cozier than a dog sleeping at your feet.

 

Kinda Like Rapunzel

One night, after a bath, I was brushing Avery's long hair.

She said something about how scissors didn't hurt, and she wanted hair like Rapunzel's on the ground.

So I thought she wanted a haircut, naturally.

I asked, do you want me to cut your hair?

Yes.

So I cut her hair and threw it on the ground in circular tufts around her chair, just like Rapunzel.

 

She looked in the mirror and cried a little because she wanted it LONG to the ground like Rapunzel.

So confusing - I don't know - but she was only sad for a little while.

 

Jimi was downstairs and didn't know any of this was going on. So we went down, told him to close his eyes, and...surprise!

 

He totally did a double take. It was funny.

 

Anyway, as you can see, I didn't do an awesome job. It needed some evening out.

(Also, we had a stray cat come into our yard. We are so hungry to pet an animal, so it was really exciting. His name is Benjamin. He hung around a little while then jumped over the fence. See ya.)

She didn't say a word the whole time. Just sat there like a statue while the "nice lady" cut her hair.

The nice lady didn't speak English very well, so about four times just I smiled and nodded.

The nice lady was really good a cutting hair, though!

 

Before: pretty

 

After: so extremely beautiful

It's perfect because she never lets me do her hair anyway.

Now she wakes up looking like I spent a half hour round brushing and styling.

I wish I had her hair!