A Leisurely Sabbath Day

Our friends left earlier than us because we had plans to go to the Consulate the next day and renew Chloe's passport so we had some extra time to kill in Canmore.

We attended church in Banff.  There was just a little branch there.  It was so fun to catch a glimpse of what life would be like there.  I loved it.   After church, we had a picnic next to a beautiful waterfall.  It started to get so cold though that we had to flee.

That evening we went for a walk along a river.  We saw a family of Osprey in a big nest which Greg, the bird watcher, loved and then the kids threw some more rocks.  Why is throwing rocks so fun?  Gavin was so content and cute just throwing rocks in there.  We were afraid he'd get swept up in the current but luckily that didn't happen. ;-)

It was a great weekend get away.  Alberta really does have so many scenic places.

In the Mountains

We were so lucky to go and visit in the Banff area again with some friends.   Both times we've been it has rained and been super cloudy so we joke that it is because of us.   They keep assuring us there are actually mountains there and not just clouds.  Luckily, it was clear for part of the time so we were stoked.

We did my idea of a perfect hike with the family and Tati walked the whole thing--even though the way down was hot and she was super tired.  She ended up conking out in the car as we drove down the mountain.  Gavin on the other hand slept in the backpack on the way down so once we got to the car he was wide awake.

It was a lake hike but the lake was on top of the mountain so as we hiked, there were baby waterfalls and little creeks off shooting along the trail.  It was quite steep but so fun. There were even some built in stairs and a few bridges to get there.

  I would do this hike every Saturday if we lived here.  I LOVED it!

Up at the lake we had lunch and the kids found a cave to play around in.  Whenever they start getting excited about rocks and rock formations, Greg gets so proud.

Then it was time to throw some rocks.

I might be the last person ever to learn how to do this but I learned how to do a animated gif.  Fun huh?  The girls threw a ton of rocks in the water but it was so windy so some rocks also fell off the nearby mountain in the background that was full of rock climbers so we decided to evacuate.  Nothing like a giant boulder almost smashing your head to give you a little energy to hike down a mountain.



And at the end of the day we were all so tired, that we all slept hard  I went to put Gavin to bed and ended up sleeping myself.  Gavin cozied right up to me.  There is nothing like a little baby spooning you.  He is such a sweetie pie.

Rapunzel

Tati chopped her hair off just like Flynn Rider chops Rapunzel's hair off at the end (of the current movie version) of the story.  It even looks way darker now just like in Tangled.  Funny.

It has been sad and hard to let go and not have to do so much with her hair dos but she loves it.  I actually chickened out at the salon and told the girl to just trim her hair but then Chloe said, "Mom, I know this is hard but Tati really wants short hair and Daddy was excited about it.  You should let her."  What was I supposed to say to that?

Here she is Before.  This is the Tati who would complain about snarls and brushing her hair and though she'd let me do them, she really didn't like getting hair dos.

Here she is during with the stylist, Lauren.  She was so brave and excited. Yes Mom, I saved the braid. I'll send it to you. I liked the idea of keeping it but now I don't know what I'll do with it.

Here she is after.  She says that she really like feeling it flip around and she likes the wind blowing through it.  Now all I have to do is brush it and put a clip to the side. 

It is cute and I love how into her cut she is but I'll also be glad when it grows out again.  ;-)

Freeze Frame

I wanted to include some pictures from Chloe's b-day photo shoot.  It has taken me FOREVER to process them and narrow them down to the ones I LOVE.

We love Chloe.  She is a fantastic child and a wonderful big sister but she is not perfect by any means.  Sometimes we expect perfection from her--which we shouldn't-- so it seems extra dire when she is struggling with stuff.  Lately it has been with her lying.  Greg tells me he used to lie all the time when he was little and his parents were none the wiser.  What?  I can't imagine that his parents would believe everything he said especially since sometimes the lies are so obvious.  I'm sure I lied because everybody does but it doesn't stick out in my mind as something I did regularly.  I do, however,  remember sneaking food and treats into my room when I was supposed to be fasting.  And when my mom would ask me if I had eaten a Nutty Bar because of my peanut butter breath, I would deny it.  That was lying too.  I was talking to somebody older and wiser about this, and they told me that these things aren't really "lying" in the bad sense of the word like I'm thinking, but rather like fear of consequence reactions.  The "I didn't do it" or "It was an accident"  "I forgot...", etc.  We've been talking to her about it and she really is improving but it just seems like she's going through a rough patch.  Having no plan for our future and being so teetering on moving or not moving has been stressful on the parents but sometimes we don't realize how much stress it puts on the kids as well.  Chloe is old enough that she is understanding it more.  This is a hard time for her.  Sometimes I think Chloe takes too much upon herself.  She feels like it is her job to make other people feel happy if they are sad or relaxed if they are stressed, etc.  She worries about including everybody and doing everything she is supposed to be doing.  She gets that from me I fear.  We really try to balance her and each other.  I just hope we're doing enough.  But this is my sweet, empathetic, fun, optimistic, cautious girl and we think she is pretty darn cute and great.

For Sale

We had a big Yard Sale in our front yard last Saturday. 

Chloe and Tati were supposed to sell lemonade and popsicles but Tati had a fever that day which was extra gross considering it was so hot so she mostly laid around in the shade.  Chloe recruited the help of a couple of her friends and they made a killing.  She made $18.  Then she paid her "employees" each $2.  We had fruit juice pops for $0.25, frozen Go-Gurts for $0.50 and lemonade for $0.25.  Honestly during the heat of the day, people were just giving her more than a quarter.  They advertised as refills on lemonade were one penny (which in case you didn't know the penny was discontinued in Canada).  There was one little boy who kept coming back with pennies for refills on his drink.

I love visiting Yard Sales but I've never had one before.  We had been going through stuff for a while to try and declutter the basement full of kids clothes mostly and other misc. and before you knew it we had enough to merit a sale.  We had a few other families join also.  It turned out to be one of the hottest days EVER in the city so the turn out maybe wasn't as awesome as we thought it would be.  Things started to pick up around mid day and we ended up staying open way after we planned to into the evening.  At the end of the day, Chloe went around to our neighbors and told them they could come and check the stuff out for free or the rest we were going to donate.  It felt good to have some people come out and take some stuff that they wanted.  There was this little boy who kept coming out with pennies and buying random toys and lots of lemonade.  We dropped off a bike at his house that he'd been eyeballing all day.

It was a lot of work but also a lot of fun.  It made me feel like maybe someday I'd want to own a thrift store.  How's that for crazy?  After we had everything all cleaned up, we all put our bathing suits on and got wet.  Super fun, hot, crazy day.

The Hills Are Alive

Greg recently posted about our car Edel.  The reason I named her Edel is because I super LOVE the music The Sound of Music.  But really, who doesn't?  While my Mom was here, she volunteered to make the girls some dresses and I got to pick out the fabric and the style.  Here's how they turned out.

I call them the Sound of Music dresses because they reminded me of the clothes Maria made for the children out of the curtains.  Obviously my fabric is much better, so fun and so summery.  Now we  just need to get a canoe and move to Switzerland.

Auf Wiedersehen, Edelweiss

She was an integral part of our family for over 12 years: Edelweiss (aka Edel, aka our 1996 Nissan Sentra) is no longer with us. We sold her to a family in our ward for their children to drive around in and are certain she will be cared for there. This was not an easy decision to make for us for sentimental reasons, but we felt it was time considering we usually had three vehicles parked at our place with only one driver at home during the day (I usually commute on my bike or on the bus). So this blog post is a dedication to Edel and all the memories she was associated with.

Edelweiss came into Julie's family when her father bought her from the Ventura, California mission. Mission cars, although frequently driven, are well maintained and in good shape so Julie's dad likes to pick up cars from them. Julie ended up with Edel after her parents drove to UT in her for a visit and they decided she would be a better choice over her original car (a Ford Country Squire station wagon with fake wood paneling and the works) for her student teaching assignment. After getting married, we then officially inherited her and she has been a family member since then.

As a way to honor her memory we sat in her as a family one last time and reminisced about a few of the memories (some big, some small) we have with her. Here are some of the highlights of our memorial service:

• Julie and I had our first date in her - it was Wendy's, in the parking lot of Kiwanis Park in Provo, after finishing our shift at the MTC.
• Our first kiss was in her (two months after the previous entry).
• Julie and I had our first road trip together in her (to California) before we were married.
• Our entire road-trip honeymoon was in Edel and she needed to be repaired in Cupertino, CA and Richland, WA (not high points of the honeymoon).
• After picking me up from field school at BYU, Julie dropped her credit card into the door cavity while we were sitting in El Azteca's drive-thru.  She had to pay for her order with my card and later I had to take the entire door apart to access her card.
• Bringing Chloe and Tati home from the hospital (it was a beautiful spring day in UT for Chloe's first ride and a blood-freezing winter day in Edmonton for Tati's)
• Chloe's first campout was in Edel. We drove up the Alpine Loop and camped with Stephan, Marnie and Larry.
• While Julie was teaching, she carpooled every day with a group of other teachers to Sandy (a very packed car). One carpooler was an old man who pooped his pants one day. Julie discovered this after dropping him off and noticing an obvious stain on the back of his pants. When she got to her school she borrowed some cleaning supplies from the janitor to clean the mess and stink out of the back seat.  She never told Leonard anything about it.  How could she?  Poor guy.
• She has been through six moves in three cities and two countries.
• Julie would like to take credit for teaching me to be a good driver in this car (still a work in progress). Now I actually check my blind spot before changing lanes and don't draft just inches behind the car in front of us on the highway.
• I taught Julie about "overdrive."
• I really earned my car repair merit badge on her: spark plugs, distributor cap (and wires), adjusted the timing, replaced the ignition switch, O2 sensor, window buttons, brakes, oil changes, a few flat tires, tie rods, engine block heater and a variety of interior repairs.
• We experienced numerous snow storms, off-road adventures, scenic drives and vacations.
• Chloe and Julie went on a breakfast date the day she was sold.

Edel has had a wonderful life as far as lives of cars go.  Before I finish this ode to her, I wanted to include some of her little quirks that really endeared her into our hearts.  When you get to know a car like this, you really do feel like she's "alive".

Personality quarks:

• When it rained, we could not use the auto windows.  If we did unroll the window, it would not roll up again until the window was completely dried out.
• We could not open the gas door alone.  One person needed to push the gas release button while another person pried the door open.  We have made many a friend at a gas station whenever we went to fill up alone.
• Hills were much better to climb when we turned the A/C off.
• We still had bits of white shoe polish that was used to write messages on our windows at our wedding reception that never washed off.
• The trunk had a bit of a leak so if it rained super hard we would end up with a pool of water at the bottom of the spare tire well. Luckily their was a plug at the bottom of it that we could pull to drain the water.
• The trunk was also difficult to pop.  Here again, one person had to pushing the button while another was pulling up on the trunk.  This was another chance to meet people if we needed to open the trunk in public.
• If it is super, duper, cold outside, Edel hated it.  As we drove, we would hear the doors lock and unlock spontaneously.  It was a good idea to have a spare key with you on those extra cold days.
• The front bumper was cracked.  It was  held together with electrical tape (turns out duct tape is worthless when it is below -15ºF).  Somebody did a hit & run at a baptism of all places. 
• There was no visor for the driver’s side.  Whenever the sun was a problem, we just put a hat visor (which we conveniently kept in the car) on and were good to go.
• The glove compartment was spacious however, it could not open unless you used a screwdriver. 

Like I said, we have had many memories in her and these are just a small sampling. We loved her very much and will miss her.

Auf Wiedersehen, Edel