So long, farewell, auf wiedersehen...

I moved.
No, not that move. Just a little bloggy move.
I have combined all my blogs and am now over HERE.
Please come visit me. And comment. It's lonely there.

How many reunions can you sandwich into one week?

I was not able to see everyone I might have hoped to visit while in Utah but we had our share of little reunions. At one point, my mother in law asked "You're leaving AGAIN?"
Don't worry, we also spent plenty of time underfoot but how could I drive all the way across country and not see a few of these dear friends?

Reunion #1 -
A dear friend from home who deserted me a year ago to go back to her home in Utah. Her older daughter (Monkey) is the same age as my twins and they have played well together almost since birth. Monkey is madly in love with my boys as was once evidenced by her
shrieking Tackler's name in glee in the middle of testimony meeting. Though better told in person, I included the story here just because my friend loves to remember it. (hee hee). Her younger daughter was "my" baby - she is just a few months older than Pretty Girl and I was quite upset to see she grew in the year away from me. The 3rd daughter to be will hopefully someday be friends with my baby on the way.

Reunion #2 -
The most creative friend I ever had. She introduced herself to me at Girls Camp when we were 12 and asked if we could be penpals (she lived in a podunk town far from the big city). We were penpals for years and years with occasional meetings at camp, dances or each others houses. We attended BYU for a couple overlapping years and then she moved an hour from my parents. Two bad I never made it to Colorado during those years but thankfully she ended up in Utah where I got to see her again. It was great fun to see her unchanged from the busy bubbly 12 year old I once knew. Plus she has cute kids.

Newunion #3 -
If you are truly a blogger, you have some online friends whom you really wish lived nearby. Lara was one of those people so at the risk of scaring her off, I asked if we could meet. I spent a wonderful day in the park with her family and then followed them to a chess day at the library. I would have followed them home for dinner but thought that was pushing it a little for a first date, besides I had a mother in law at home whose comment above was made as I left for this outing.

Lara is a much better photographer than me so go here to see a couple darling pictures of our two little girls who hit it off as well as their mommys did. Now that we've met Lara is a true friend instead of just an internet friend. Too bad our friendship is still limited to online because now I really really REALLY wish she lived next door.

Thanks to all 3 of you for taking time to play with us. It was wonderful and I can't wait to see you again.

Final Destination #2

In case you missed the part where I am crazy, I drove across country "alone" as most people called it ... despite my protestations that I wasn't alone - I was accompanied by 3 1/2 kids ages 5 and under. My job is transportable (all 3 1/2 of them) so why stay at home?

Dad's job is somewhat less transportable (no one wants him to bring HIS job with us), so we decided to let him stay home and earn money, then fly out to meet us. There were a lot of airports along our path and we drove directly past 2 or 3 of them. Each time the boys wanted a detailed explanation for why THIS wasn't the airport where we were picking up dad.

So we finally left the land of wild animals (Colorado):

And headed toward the land of stoplights and traffic (greater SLC area). As we pulled around the point of the mountain the boys exclaimed "It looks like New York City!" My first reaction was to scoff and explain to them the difference between that massive city and these small Utah towns but on 2nd thought, I realized they were completely correct. Lights went on forever. Most of Utah is pretty sparse but that narrow strip south of SLC is nothing but lights and slow moving traffic. However, there are also family members we adore so we keep returning.

We arrived just in time to buy some 4th of July supplies and introduce our children to our favorite childhood memories. What our celebrations of independence lacked in excitement, we made up for in longevity. The kids were so exhausted, they all went to bed early - but on alternate nights. They had to take turns celebrating so it took us several nights but we eventually introduced them to Snap Pops from dad's childhood ...

And sparkler's from mom's childhood.

Happy Independence Day! Despite my claims that I want to move to Texas because they can cecede from the Union, I love America and all that our founding fathers envisioned for us here in the promised land. I wish certain people who are trampling on everything America represents would learn a little history (Ammonihah comes to mind along with a dozen other examples of fallen civilizations) and to them I say, "In God We Trust" and "One Nation Under God Indivisible". Happy 4th of July!
(um, and happy September too).

Day 93. Final Destination 1.

And then suddenly, as if we had not just driven 2200 grueling miles, we arrived.
Ok, it didn't take us 93 days and there was nothing grueling about it. Though I do not recommend asking my kids to back me up on that claim. I do not exactly believe in stopping. Except for gas. That's kind of important. Otherwise, we pretty much don't get out of the car. So maybe that's a little grueling.
But the reward is, when we finally arrive, and the kids get to walk again, we get happy faces like this:

During our 10 day stay at my parents house, my mom and I spent most of our time organizing her sewing room...um, and I promise we also watched the kids who spent most of their time swimming in my parents pool. I have a method of teaching my babies to swim. The only flaw in my method is that I only have access to a pool for a week every year when we go to Florida. We really enjoyed having a 2nd opportunity to swim. The boys (who for once only had to wait 6 months instead of 12) made a lot of progress and are fairly capable now.

Pretty Girl was still a mermaid who much preferred being either underwater or high above it. Her favorite activity was being thrown into the air. After plummeting under the water and rising to the surface, her first words were "up. again." The kids also thoroughly enjoyed the "Bunk House". Hopefully I can snag some pictures from my mom to show you.

Many moons ago (10 years worth) I made a friend. We clicked almost immediately and spent many long hours talking amidst the chaos of her 2 and eventually 4 kids. 5 years ago we moved across the state from their family and were only occasionally able to reconnect. Last summer (which feels like EONS ago) she moved an hour away from my parents. I spent a heavenly afternoon at her house reconnecting through the chaos of our combined 7 kids. Our two girly princesses enjoyed some comraderie amongst the 5 boys while her boys introduced mine to skateboarding. My kids have added skateboards to their dire need list and I am incredibly thankful to my friend for that. Not that you'll ever read my blog dear friend but thanks for a wonderful reunion. I miss you already.

Too Bad We Aren't In Kansas Anymore

I loved being back in Omaha for a day. Driving through our old neighborhood made me feel so at home. I called my brother the next day and asked if I was insane for considering Omaha for our next destination. He said no. Omaha tempts him the same way. And then he remembers the weather. After LOVING every stinkin hot moment of the heat and humidity the first day, I have to admit that on day 2 I was feeling a little stiffled and a little too drippy.
So how about Kansas? My favorite way to drive from Omaha to Colorado is to drop off the freeway and meander through the fields so that is just what we did. Kansas is simply beautiful. I love the rolling green fields and how can you not love a state with skies that look like this?
Pretty Girl enjoyed the scenery too. Everyone assumed she would be my toughest rider but she was the best. She entertained herself by becoming a tattoo artist (can you see the markings on her arms? The bottoms of her feet matched). At every stop she asked for the keys and she asked to be unbuckled. Even if only for a minute (I only stop for gas). And then she would obligingly hop back into her seat. The boys are also good travelers but are more street wise than they were on our last trip. They offered some constructive criticism - "next time we should fly", "it would be faster if we fly", "why didn't we fly?".
You don't get to enjoy skies like this when you fly. Okay, maybe you do but only through a teeny plastic window. We got to enjoy it through a large glass window. Such a difference!

Stop 3 Day 2

Before leaving my old stomping grounds I had to take a quick look at our old house. It hasn't changed much since my last visit two years ago but I still had to snap another picture for my family and any old friends who might happen to read my blog.
And then we drove out of town. Almost. We drove many miles past what was the edge of town back in my day. Our timing was fortunate - a high school friend moved back into town just days before we arrived. She had spent the last several years living near my brother, becoming friends with my sister in law. Their daughters are just months apart in age and became very best friends. S was missing her friend dearly and was quite excited to see her best friend's cousin. The kids enjoyed a little toy reprieve and I enjoyed catching up a bit. Thanks for making time to visit - it was great to see you!

Stop 3 Part B and Stop 3 and a half

After enjoying the Temple grounds we wandered over to the visitor's center. I remember going to the visitor's center when I was a kid. There was pretty much nothing there at the time. Now it is quite a neat place. We studied maps of the trek west, loaded our own (miniature) wagons, pulled a handcart, talked to oxen (the largest display oxen in the USA or World), and arrived at the Salt Lake Temple (um, also miniature). As we were leaving they invited us to visit another visitors center back in Iowa. I declined on account of Iowa being East of us. They kindly pointed out that it was about 10 minutes away. I explained that I came from the Atlantic and still had to cross the rockies. I didn't plan to backtrack even a block east. Next time.

After our wonderful spiritual experience we re-entered the "world" by attending a tailgating party complete with gigantic tubs of beer. The boys began digging in the barrels of ice and cans looking for rootbeer. I redirected them to the bottled water. One of my fondest memories of growing up in Omaha were walking around in the middle of the night (don't tell my parents) in a hot rain. There is something so awesome about peaceful summer nights in a warm rain. I really missed those warm nights when we moved to Colorado. The other greatest memory is attending the Baseball College World Series. My brother and his friends and I bought huge packs of tickets and spent many a fabulous summer night soaking in baseball. Some of our friends have returned to Omaha and every year my brother pledges to return for the World Series. Just to make him jealous (because that's what sisters do) I returned to Omaha just in time. One of our friend's husband is the president of a bank in town and has a season long tailgating party just blocks from the game and invited us to party with them.

We ate our fill of hotdogs and brisket, then wandered over to the stadium to take pictures. As we were standing there a man walked by and handed our friend 2 tickets and said he was going home, we could have them. They suggested I take the kids and show them the inside of the stadium. Somehow I got in w/ 3 kids and once we were inside the boys were enthralled and didn't want to leave. So we made our way back out to apologize to my friend for ditching them and went back in. Pretty Girl decided to make life fun in the way that babies often do so I got to do some major cleanup in a crowded public bathroom. Then we searched for seats. Our tickets were way off yonder (almost in Iowa) so we started asking people if the empty seats next to them were vacant. They weren't.

So we scrunched ourselves against a wall for a few minutes. I thought people might get annoyed with us. Afterall, I'm from the east where just breathing is highly offensive. I forgot I was in the midwest where people have social skills. Pretty Girl became the mascot of the aisle and more than one person stopped to take a picture of her antics. On our way to the outer banks I made one more attempt at seats and scored. We got to sit almost directly behind home plate. Notice the extremely wet hair - that is all from sweat. It was HOT. It was HUMID. I still loved every sweaty moment of warmth. We had a blast as you can see:

I'm not sure why Prince is frowning in this picture because his eyes were GLUED to the game. He watched every second of it and refused to leave, much to the dismay of Tackler who was tired of sweating and remembered an airconditioned pimped out tour bus back at the party. The game was pretty tame until the very end. We had 2 more outs to go when suddenly it was tied up. Not long after that Prince decided we could leave (it was only 2 hrs past bedtime) and everyone looked at us like we were insane for leaving JUST as the game started to get interesting. We went back to the party for a little while, then left to drive back to our friends house. When we got there at 10:30, the game was STILL going on. What a night!
I was able to visit some with our friends. I felt like a rotten houseguest for spending more time at the game than with them but they had insisted. Hopefully next time (will I really do this trek AGAIN?) we'll get to spend more time with them. Omaha felt like home. I love that town. And it's so fun to still have some old friends there. I'm really not in touch with anyone from college or earlier so it was fun to relive some old memories.