I think this blog is going to be long with a lot of pictures. We have done a lot of stuff since our last post. Right before school started, we went to Arizona to visit grandpa and grandma. We went to the new Children's Museum in Phoenix and it was by far the best children's museum I have ever been to. Fun, super creative and educational. My kids had a blast! From AZ, we went to Cali for some fun in the sun! My family had a little reunion there so the kids had plenty of cousins and playtime. My kids LOVE the beach! They caught sand crabs, hauled seaweed to look for starfish and other interesting ocean creatures I have no idea what to call, built sand castles and sand turtles, played in the waves, walked to the pier to see the fresh local catches and have some hot chocolate, had weenie roasts, and dug holes in the sand halfway to China. They are going to remember trips like this for the rest of their life and so will I. We also went to Disneyland while we were there, which was so great! The kids (I left Maren at the beach house with Grandma :) were the perfect age and we had a long, but SUPER fun day. Thanks Dad and Mom for having us. The long (long) drive was totally worth it!
I even tried surfing for my second time. Didn't go as well as my first which was pre-kids. In fact, my legs were so banged up from getting smashed against the rocks on the beach, I had to ice them for days. But it was a fun experience and my teacher was awesome (thanks cousin Jay!).

Kaia started second grade and still tolerates school. She does great, but if given the choice she would definately stay home every day. She just turned eight and got baptized. She's fortunate to have two sets of grandparents who flew out just for her and her cousin Maddie. We had a lot of fun with everyone and it was a special week for her. She's still a tomboy and my best helper. She and Brandt used to pair off all of the time, but now that Tatum is getting older, Kaia and Tatum have become better playmates, much to Brandt's disappointment. Sometimes he finds the only way they'll play with him is if he is the prince (getting married to Princess Tatum of course). But he really goes the distance. He came down one afternoon with his white shirt on and then went in the bathroom to fix his hair. I was like, "What are you doing?" He said he was Prince Eric and he was getting married. (A shout out to Roger, for going through the same things :) Brandt is a voracious reader. He reads everything. He's still Maren's greatest pal, she adores him because he loves to play with her.

Tatum is my cheerful one. We know she can throw the attitude around like a teenager, but most of the time she is helpful and has a love for life. She loves to talk (trying to get her to wait her turn to speak is something I still don't know how to accomplish), and loves to sing and dance. She knows all the words to 3 verses of Follow the Prophet and sings them constantly. At Disneyland, there was a funky, retro dance party in the middle of the street where some teens in spandex outfits and neon lights were showing their moves. Tatum literally stood right in front of them and started dancing for 40 minutes straight (and mind you this was at 11pm!). One of the highlights of my career as a mother so far :) I just died watching her. It's the highs and lows with her. After Halloween, Tatum, Maren and I were all outside (Kaia and Brandt were at school) and Tatum goes inside while Maren and I are playing outside still. About 5 minutes later we head inside too and I find the door locked (deadbolt). So I'm yelling at Tatum to come open the door and after several minutes realize she's either ignoring me or can't hear me. So I go around the back gate to the front of the house and use the garage code and luckily she hadn't locked the garage door. So I go in and find Tatum hiding under Brandt's bed, Kaia and Brandt's empty Halloween buckets close by, and candy wrappers strewn about the room. Big trouble.
Maren is growing so dang fast. She's not really my baby anymore. She is still kind of attached to the hip though. She's a bully to her siblings and has started talking a lot more lately. She is also a big time climber. The other week I looked up from my breakfast to see her standing on the kitchen counter! Yikes! More to come on Christmas, San Francisco, and birthday fun!

Maine Baby!

So, Jared and I have decided every 5th year anniversary we will take a trip together, without kids. (Just holding out until we are empty nesters and then its every year!!) Can you believe we just celebrated 10 years of marriage?!?! I can't. I really don't feel that old. Anyways, Acadia National Park was our destination of choice and Oh.My.Stars. We LOVED Maine! It was like actually stepping into one of those scenes you see in 1000 piece puzzles. It is so quaint it hurts. I mean, people still hang their clothes up on clotheslines and use push mowers! The whole time we were there we were thinking, "Let's move here! Seriously." I have never seen such a diverse, beautiful place in my life. And the people there are so, so nice. So don't be too surprised if someday we pick up and move even farther across the country! You'd still visit, right? :)

Day 1: Drove into Acadia early that morning and drove the Park Loop Road, including the top of Cadillac Mountain. Stopped at Jordan Pond house and had some of their famous popovers and hiked about 8-10 miles and saw some absolutely breathtaking scenery. Hiked Gorham Mtn. and the Beehive, saw ancient sea caves at the Cadillac Cliffs trail, and the prettiest coastline you have never seen on the Ocean Path. We also went to Sand Beach where I couldn't resist taking my shoes off and rolling up my pants to wade around. But I honestly couldn't stay in the water for longer than 2 minutes or so it was so cold. If you have ever dunked your leg in a bucket of ice water, that's what it felt like. The weather was nice when we were there, about 72 degrees every day, but that ocean is COLD! Afterward, we checked into our cute little bed & breakfast late that afternoon and walked around the town of Bar Harbor to shop and eat.












Day 2: Woke up early to drive to the quiet and serene west side of Mount Desert Island and go sea kayaking. What a great way to see the islands and the ocean! We kayaked for an hour or so and then beached at Bartlett Island for lunch and headed back out. We saw seals, bald eagles, porpoises and even a jellyfish while we were out and it was so much fun. After we came back, we stayed on the west side of the island and did some more hiking to the top of Saint Sauveur and Acadia mountains. They are called mountains, but in reality they are only about 600-1300 feet, so don't think we are superhuman ;) Hiking in Acadia reminded me of the Lord of the Rings movies. The same terrain and scenery and so beautiful! And the water is SO clear it's amazing. I know it doesn't look too clear in some of our photos since we took them when it was overcast, but the water is glass clear. We also drove to the Bass Harbor Head lighthouse where we walked (or jumped rocks) down to the ocean and found some fun tide pools. That evening we went to a lobster pound (where the lobstermen bring their catches at the end of the day and weigh them and sell them) and literally grabbed our own lobster out of a tank to be cooked especially for us right there.
















Day 3: Went to the local bike shop first thing in the morning and rented bikes to take on the carriage roads throughout the park. Long ago John D. Rockefeller paid for 50 or so miles of carriage roads so people could enjoy the park from the convenience of horse-drawn carriages. Most people bike or walk it now, but you can still take carriages through. We biked about 20 miles of them passing by so many scenic spots Jared got sick of stopping and waiting for me to take another picture. We stopped halfway at the Jordan Pond house again and had lunch with popovers and also hiked to the top of Penobscot Mtn. on a little detour which offered great views of Jordan Pond, and a gorgeous trail as well. We were so beat after we rode in just before the bike shop closed, we drove the 1/3 of a mile to a restaurant (Poor Boy's) which had gotten rave reviews from the locals but we weren't too impressed. Lobster again :) Got an ice cream cone and went to the pier for the sunset. Afterwards, just walked around downtown Bar Harbor again.










Day 4: Our flight home was supposed to leave at 3pm, so we had about 3-4 hours to spare so we drove to a part of the park we hadn't been to before on Deer Isle and are so glad we went. It was a foggy Sunday morning, and we got to the southern tip of the island, Stonington, mid-morning. Stonington is one of the busiest lobster ports in the U.S. It was so quiet (no fishing or lobstering on Sunday in Maine--it's against the law), and so peaceful. Everything just seemed to be frozen in time but the tiny fishing village just oozed character. We walked around a bit and then left for the airport. On our way back to Bangor we stopped at a flea market in Searsport which was really cool and really odd too. Jared didn't like it much and thought people just put price tags on junk, but I walked around for a while wide-eyed. They had civil-war relics and I found a Bible from 1890, lots of lobstering memorabilia and antique tools and toys. I thought it was neat! Just another education of the great state of Maine. Thanks for humoring me, dear :)












So the trip home was pretty eventful because our flight was 3 hours late leaving Maine and so we missed our connecting one in Detroit and so stayed the night there and the next day had to fly through 4 cities just to get home! But I don't want to overshadow the wonderful time we had (I hate Delta!). A huge, huge thanks to my mom and dad for staying with the kids and rearranging flights. So glad they have such great grandparents!

So where to for the 15 year anniversary?? :)

2010 Part II

Yes, I am a total slacker. Okay, not really. We are busier than we have ever been and it is just hard to keep up the blog. It tends to fall towards the bottom of the priority list. And Jared is keeping the camera at his office a lot so I think I need to invest in another camera in the near future. So let's fast forward through Spring :) Spring is park, zoo, fishing and yardwork weather! We did a lot of all of the above. Our front yard was deperately in need of some trees and flowers and so we went and picked some out at the tree farm. The kids got to ride on the Gator which they thought was pretty darn cool. We all helped plant and water, and even Maren got the sandbox shovel and chipped in. (She did fall in the hole I dug for the tree though! Oops!) Now, we are just trying to keep everything alive in this heat!










We celebrated Cinco de Mayo (a Smith/Christensen tradition),







Brandt had a birthday,



and tried out his new rocket at the park.



It drew a serious crowd. People were pulling over just to watch. And that thing went at least 100 feet in the air! It was fun, but short lived. We only got three launches out of it before it quit working on us.

We also went camping one weekend (the only weekend we could find to go in the last 4 months--Jared's weekends are usually pretty busy with his church calling), and picked the worst night possible I think. It was a downpour complete with lightening and thunder from 10pm to 6am. The kids slept through it all, and Jared and I just lay there staring all night long. We were all drenched when we woke up. I don't think cheap tents are meant to be waterproof at all! We are going to have to redeem ourselves (right Barnetts? ;) sometime soon I think.





(catching lightening bugs)



Kaia and Brandt finished up school at the end of May. They were definately glad to be done. They tolerate school. Don't love it and don't hate it. They are taking swimming lessons and getting to be pretty good swimmers. Kaia is still taking horse riding lessons and Brandt starts T-ball next week. And they are doing the library summer reading program so they are keeping pretty busy this summer, but still having fun too. Kaia is into those jelly bracelets shaped like animals. It's kind of cute to see her embracing fads now. Well, at least this one is cute. I'm sure there will be some down the road that I won't really like at all, right?


Tatum is taking swimming lessons as well and getting used to the water. We have a neighborhood pool (with a lifeguard) so if I take all four by myself they have to be comfortable with the water. Tatum is a runner. She runs everywhere and has been so obedient lately I'm wondering if I just got a double dose of terrible two's and three's when she was two? She is so cheerful all of the sudden it is a nice change. Maybe she just transferred the attitude to Maren. She whines, cries, pushes, hits and grunts her displeasures frequently. She is also super clingy which means I am doing a lot of things with one hand these days. Like typing this blog :) She is one of the gang though too. She is climbing bunk bed ladders, jumping on the trampoline and hiding TV remotes in the sandbox (don't ask). I love these kids!



One more thing--you may have noticed the red hair...I have always wanted to die my hair some crazy color and finally decided to do it. Jared said no blue, so I picked red. It was there for about 2 months and then chopped it off. Thanks to Holly for helping! I loved it--what do you think? (Jared and Celeste, no need to comment here!)





Stay tuned for our MAINE trip!!