So,

This happened:

We are parents!

June Evaleen Fenton was born in June 23rd, at 6:50am after a long night of labor. She was 7lbs. 7oz. This was a nice surprise since the sonographer was estimating her to be 8 1/2 pounds!!

No words can express how much we love this little girl.

Let’s talk about her name. Contrary to quick thinkers, June is not named June because she was born in June. We actually had three different names we were deciding between and we’re close to settling in on Vivian. About a month ago I realized I wasn’t convinced on the name we had picked and so Cardston and I went back to the drawing board. Stumbling across June was a total accident, but we fell in love with the name and it felt right.

We are firm believers in using family names for children. We love the connection it can bring to grandparents and even long gone ancestors. Cardston and I both have family names for our middle names and so we set to work. We searched our family trees for the right fruit but couldn’t find a good match. We finally came closer to home and went with Evaleen — Cardston’s great-grandmother who still lives on the family farm. She is a rock to her whole family (over 300 descendants!) and is a great example of faith, charity, and love.

After three days in the hospital we were finally able to bring her home!

Currently she loves morning snuggles with daddy, being wrapped tight in a swaddle, and eating.

She hates diaper changes, cold hands, and towels.

She is so cute and has the cutest expressions.

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Oh, and did I mention her hair?!

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She’s got a ton of dark curly hair! (Coincidentally, it was when we washed her hair that we discovered she hates towels)

To sum up: we have a baby! She’s cute! We love her to death!

The end.

On day 5 I could share how we went to an old quarry that is now flooded from the many rainstorms that have occurred.

I could talk about the very interesting archeology site we saw and what we learned about the archeological process.

I could bore you with details of an old drugstore and many things to look at.

Or the opportunity we had to crack open our own geode!

But I would like to spend this post on the reason we’re here in the first place.

Family.

Here we are all together.

We live literally scattered across the country but we came together for 5 days of fun and spending time together.

The best thing about our family is that we like to laugh. So many movies, shows, songs, and family stories get quoted, retold, reviewed, and replayed that makes us laugh until we’re crying. We’ve compared ears, noses, knuckle wrinkles, and hands (which the in-laws find very weird and embarrassing).

Like all families we don’t always get along. Sometimes we have miscommunications. Sometimes we get frustrated. Sometimes we get in each other’s way. Sometimes we argue. Sometimes we need our space. That’s a part of being in a big and extended family.

We’re still growing up. We’re still learning the basic skills of being a family. Sometimes we’re really great at putting those skill to use.

But what I’ve learned from teaching is that kids don’t grow up. They just get bigger.

We’re still kids. And just like my little students sometimes we just need our space for a little while. Maybe we need a break before we rejoin the group. That’s ok!

Because we’re still friends. We’re still family.

We still love each other.

So as the sun sets on our last night together we sit (and play) in exhausted heaps. Tired. Worn out. And happy that we all took the time to be together and continue making memories as a family.

Well today was jam packed!

We started off with a carriage ride and learned more about the cool homes and people here.

Our horses were fantastic and huge! This is where I would go on a soliloquy about when I will own my own Clydesdale horse with a good Scottish name like angus and I’ll ride through the highlands… but that’s a different post.

We also got to see how bricks were made in the mid nineteenth century. We learned that over cooked bricks went in the middle, perfect bricks went out side, and undercooked bricks go inside.

We went to this old house and went up (and down) the steepest stairs I’ve ever seen. It was basically a glorified ladder.

At the tinsmith we learned that a tinner was a very profitable and could make double the average daily wage. Which in the 1840’s the daily wage was $1. So, to all my teacher friends, we’re doing pretty good!

In case you didn’t know, browning guns originated in Nauvoo, Illinois. We went and saw the house and gun shop of Mr. Browning himself.

We watched a demonstration on making bread in a brick oven which came with delicious samples.

Now. For a little history.

In 2005 we came here on a family reunion with my aunts and uncles and grandparents. One of the great things we saw was a show called “Sunset by the Mississippi”. There was a gentleman who played the iconic (and possibly nefarious) Yakety Sax on a tenor saxophone. As a youth I saw it and fell in love. That was in the summer of 2005. In September of that year my parents surprised me with a saxophone for my birthday and the next January I started band in middle school.

So I’ve always credited my musical career to this one little variety show in rural Illinois. And now, 14 years later we got to go back to the start of it all! It was toe-tapping, rootin-tootin, old fashioned fun!

It was a busy day from start to finish! And an overall great day!

Day three started off with church. With all the tourists in town it was a very full service with every pew filled. Our family took up three pews by ourselves.

After lunch we took a short trip down the road. We saw a door with a bullet hole in it and had a very special time together.

On our way home we went up the Mississippi River road.

Y’all.

I don’t get rivers.

In the west our rivers are pretty small. I can throw a rock all the way across.

I have crossed the Mississippi a number of times. And every. Single. Time. I am blown away by the width of this beast.

I have been boating on lakes smaller than this river.

Blows. My. Mind.

Can you imagine the explorers seeing this for the first time? The trees are so thick that you can’t always see the water.

So you’re walking along, minding your business, and then BOOM! There’s a huge river in your way.

I had an epiphany while driving though. Westerners always say that easterners don’t know what mountains are. Well westerners don’t know what rivers are.

So. That’s all I got for day three. A little less.

Tomorrow is going to be jam packed.

Be ready!

Today started early with some cousin games and art. There was also an impromptu salon.

After breakfast we wondered around town and saw the sights. It was a perfect morning with a little sun and a good breeze.

We watched some street performances that were fun interactive. The kids especially enjoyed dancing with the performers

We got to go watch a blacksmith demonstration and everyone got a prairie diamond. What is a prairie diamond you ask?

A horseshoe nail that is bent into a ring. The story goes that there was a poor farm boy that wanted to propose to a girl he was courting but didn’t have money for a ring so he gave her a ring made out of a nail. Cheesy right? Good thing I like cheese. 🙂

After lunch we saw a fun song and dance show that told about the lives of some of the residents that lived here. We also took a carriage ride with all 22 people in our family. Besides the smell of horse dung, it was a lot of fun.

Please ignore my less than impressed face. I promise I did enjoy it.

This evening we spent as a family and took it a little slow. I did get this great shot of the sun setting over the Mississippi River!

And the peonies smell and look amazing!

I’d call day 2 a busy and fulfilling day

All 22 of us found the rental house. That’s impressive. As self appointed vacation manager, I arrived first with the food. Here’s why I had the food: I organized the trip.

Ok. That’s an exaggeration. I put together a rough itinerary and organized the food calendar so people could claim a day to provide food.

We started a thing a few get-togethers ago where each family provides all meals for one day. The thought process is so that at least one day kids will like the food. This also reduces fridge use, food waste, etc. Being the organizer brings the benefit of first choice of day. So I happily took that responsibility.

So why did I have the food? Since we were at the in-laws house an hour and a half away we offered to go to Costco and do mass shopping and bring it down. Most families took us up on the offer and promised to pay us back.

After the staggering (and frightening) $500 bill at Costco we still needed to go to Walmart and spend money. When we finally got everything in our car (I regretfully did not get a picture of that) we took off.

Somehow everything fit in the fridge and we had a delicious dinner of pizza (provided by my fantastic parents.

The 12 grandkids had a blast running around and playing with cousins and it has been a challenge getting them to quiet down and sleep. But as of 10pm the last whispers can be heard floating down the stairs.

The grown ups are shooting the breeze and I’m still watching for fireflies.

Day 1 — Successful

Let’s talk about Iowa. Try and describe Iowa in three words. Here’s mine:

Tornadoes

Corn

?

At least that’s how I would have used to describe it. Then my in-laws moved there two years ago and my perspective has changed.

One of our go-to activities are the Amana Colonies. Unfortunately, I didn’t take pictures of our last jaunt through this cute collection of villages. The Amana were a group of anabaptist immigrants from Germany in the later 1800’s. They lived a religious communal lifestyle and worked the land and built whatever they needed. Today people still live there but it’s also been turned into a historic recreation. They have stores, canned goods, old fashioned goods, and our new favorite hobby: antique stores!

We love going to antique stores so much that we can spend (and have spent!) a whole day going through old things looking for treasure. Sometimes we find amazing things (last year I got a bible published in 1876(?) that is beautiful). This year we came out empty handed (I wasn’t going to spend $185 on a cute plate). But we did love the journey.

The Amana Colonies also have an amazing store called: The International Christmas Market. It is more amazing than it sounds. They play Christmas music and have dozens of trees decorated more than my wildest dreams. And the trees are themed! There’s the beach tree. The coca-cola tree. The Victorian tree. The Irish (no joke) tree. The classic tree. The tree with all crystal ornaments. The kid tree. Should I continue or do you get the idea? It might be the most magical place on earth. Sorry Disneyland!

Of course any big town will have museums and the natural history museum is pretty great. But we found some hidden gems that I want to share.

I have a book called Atlas Obscura. It has weird and unusual things to see at places around the world. We discovered they also have a website that will take your location and tell you how close things are to you. Here are two that we found.

The black angel

In a cemetery in Iowa City there is a statue. It was erected in 1912 to mark the graves of some (apparently wealthy) people. It is an angel made of bronze that has since oxidized to a black color.

For years there have risen rumors and legends about the statue. For instance if you kiss the statue you will drop dead on the spot. While I don’t put a lot of stock in urban legends, I didn’t take the chance. It really is huge and quite dramatic. And while it more of a drive, park, look and drive away sight, it was fun to see and try to find. As a bonus it really does make for a great Instagram post

The future birthplace of Captain James T. Kirk

I’m not joking.

According to Star Trek canon. Captain Kirk was born in Riverside, Iowa in the 23rd century. His birth has been memorialized in our time with a marker at the place of his (still future) birth.

When you arrive in Riverside you are welcomed with banners announcing the beginning of “The Trek”.

This is the first indication of your arrival to the trekkiest place I’ve ever seen. In the sleepy town the main road is full of mostly empty storefronts. But as you walk down the sidewalk keep your eyes peeled for the enterprise.

This is at the entrance of a small alley. As you walk a short ways down it opens up into a small courtyard that thousands of fans flock to every year dressed in federation uniform to pay tribute to the great captain of the enterprise.

Who would’ve thought that nestled among the cornfields is something so small and so fun to see!

Without Atlas Obscura we wouldn’t have found these cool things to see! And they were free!!

So definitely used the Atlas to find things out of the ordinary.

Iowa still has corn. They still get tornadoes, which is a whole other post (if I remember).

But now I can add unique, nerdy, unexpected, and historical to my list of words to describe this often forgotten state.

I have a student who is… interesting.

This student doesn’t usually participate in class, screams if things don’t go their way, argues with teachers, doesn’t follow directions, and the list goes on.

This student has finally started to behave in my class. They have been participating in activities. They have even been listening to directions. It’s been amazing.

Well, yesterday they had a rough day and our wills collided. Bad. To the point that they were screaming at the counselor at the end of school. I thought all the progress they had made had gone out the window.

Today as I was walking through the hall this same student stopped me and actually apologized! I’ve never seen this kid accept responsibility or attempt to make amends. And they apologized for their outburst and behavior.

I’ll take it.

These are the days that make the hard days worth it.

Well. It has been awhile!

Since we last spoke I have graduated from BYU, had an internship fall through, crash land at my parents house, got a job teaching music, visited Wales for an audition, obtained my teaching license, and changed jobs to a new school.

Hopefully I will get around to sharing all of those adventures one day. But today I’m determined to get back to something I didn’t realize I missed.

Writing.

I know my mom is probably going to laugh out loud when/if she reads this but I genuinely miss writing. Lemme explain.

I am in the middle of applying to masters degree programs. One of the applications asked for an academic writing sample. And when I read that I inwardly groaned. I hated writing essays in college. Why would they need to see my awkward college essays?

So I pulled up all my old essays on my computer and started reading them. That’s when I realized it. I missed writing. A lot. But I also realized I needed to like my subject.

My cousin also reminded me that my Myers-Biggs personality type is INFP and creativity is in my nature.

I don’t like writing fiction. I over think it and it turns out terrible. So I’m going to stick to non fiction.

So I’m going to attempt (fingers crossed here) to start writing once a week. I’m looking for prompts to jumpstart my thinking. Please stay tuned.

you know when you make a plan, and it’s perfect, and it’s borderline genius?

yeah. me too. and let me tell you, those plans don’t work out.

lemme explain.

when fall semester started, i had signed up for a pretty hefty load. i was taking my last writing class, my last music literature class, and a mythology class. the plan was that i was going to have a busy semester and then have an easy last semester. i would only need to take maybe eleven credits. i’ve averaged fourteen to fifteen during my college career. it was perfect.

then it fell apart. i needed more electives than i thought. i needed an art class. and last minute i got thrown into a quartet because they were short one person. so, long story short i took organ literature, harp literature, intro to drawing, and my recital (which is zero credits) totaling a whopping seventeen credits. not my plan at all.

my recital prep was hectic and taxing.

the recital was the most stressful and fulfilling performance i’ve ever done. but it was finally over. when it was over every other class became a lot easier. later, there was some drama and i wasn’t sure what would happen or if i would be able to graduate. but everything turned out and i have a bachelors degree.

as we were looking at post graduation plans i thought i had an internship lined up working with an orchestra. but as i continued to talk to them (a trial in and of itself) it went from a regular internship to a part-time unpaid internship, to a part-time, unpaid internship working in the ticket office selling tickets to the concerts. so we said no. that was something a high school kid could do and was essentially free labor. but we needed to do something. our contract for our apartment was sold, CW (classy wife) had given her notice at work and i couldn’t work at my job on campus as a graduate so we packed up and moved in with my parents for the time being.

now what?

i’m looking for some kind of work that will give me experience in music and prepping for applications to masters programs. if i get into my school of choice this blog will get 1000x more interesting 😉 more on that later.

but for now i’m on vacation 🙂 and it’s pretty great