Can you feel the crispness in the air? No? Yeah it is 95 degrees. Give it another week and we'll be so comfortable.
The construction of a massive subdivision is creeping closer to my house. I can hear and see trucks every day. I don't appreciate them starting at 7 am on Saturday. It will be weird to have rear neighbors.
Justin and I went on a real date that he planned. It was awesome. We ate at a Chinese restaurant then toured the BYU art museum. They had a cool photography exhibit of railroads across the country to commemorate the Golden Spike anniversary here in Utah. This photo caught our eye because of the unique geology and were surprised to see that "Devils Slide" is in Utah and we'd never heard of it.
I googled it later and learned that it is in Morgan County. I anticipate a detour the next time we drive to Logan.
One night James climbed into the front seat and said he was going to drive home so Justin played along and sat in his seat.
James was totally serious.
I found this in my photos on my phone. The cursive writing leads me to believe it was Sarah.
I do this thing where I take pictures of stuff at the store as an idea of gifts to buy or to price compare with other stores. Is this a better deal on printer paper than Walmart? Stay tuned.
Sunday we spent the day at the cabin in Scofield with Justin's extended family. He continued on to camp with his parents and brother and I brought the kids home and caught this amazing sunset.
Sadly my cellphone camera doesn't do it justice. The lake was completely luminescent blue and the moon was so bright and low in the sky.
Labor Day was "the best day ever" according to Henry. We packed a lunch and headed to a splashpad we'd never been to in North Orem. We got there just a few minutes after it turned on and there were just 6 other kids.
Don't mind the stranger toddler playing with your toes, Henry.
It has 3 waterfalls off a concrete Mt. Timpanogos replica. It was pretty breezy this morning and my kids were cold. I think if it was hotter outside we would have stayed longer.
By the time we left an hour later, the park was pretty packed. Goodbye to splashpads until Memorial Day.
From there we went to Days Market in Provo where according to Google reviews has amazing doughnuts. They were pretty dang good. Plus most of them were only 59 cents. I think we'll stop there again anytime we go to anything at BYU. Then we came home and cleaned the house and then Henry and Sarah went to Violet and Dexter's apartment for the afternoon, James slept and Erica and I didn't do much (it was a holiday, after all). Justin came home in time to get unpacked then we picked up the biggles and headed up to my mom's for a bbq of brisket and pulled pork. Splashpad, doughnut, friends, cousins, videogames. It might as well have been Henry's birthday.
My aunt Melanie is moving and selling her house. Her house was my Grandma's house my entire life. Melanie bought it when my grandma died in 2002 and I think I just took it for granted that this house was always going to be accessible. A couple of weeks ago Melanie invited us over to say good-bye. Even though my kids have been to her house many times over the years, I neglected to show them some of my favorite features. Here goes.
This is her front porch. I learned to play King's Corner, spit watermelon seeds and whistle with a blade of grass on this porch. This was the gathering spot nearly every day. Aunts and uncles and cousins sharing stories, laughing, and eating vanilla ice cream in cake cup cones. We washed cars on the front lawn and played Annie-I-over in the summer. We had snowball fights and built forts in the winter.
If you were lucky you got a seat on the steps. If you were a kid, you most likely stretched out on the grass.
Melanie beautifully renovated the kitchen. The skinny cupboard to the left of the window was where the cups were, including the red cup I still have. The cupboard above Melanie, in a silver bowl was where my grandma kept the saltines. I think she served saltines with every meal. Or maybe she just served soup at every meal. The cabinets, appliances, and countertops are different but the layout is the same. My grandma had big round black stools at the bar that I fell off of all.the.time.
The front door is the same! I think this is why I am drawn to leaded glass. All growing up I was too short to see through the peephole. Now I am too tall.
Here are a couple of videos. They aren't great because I wasn't planning on sharing them but here they are.
I always thought this little cubby was so funny between the shower and window in the basement bathroom.
And here's a picture of the ceramic tile window sill/frame. They don't make them like they used to.
This is still the longest hallway everrrrrr. I got a black eye from the doorknob on the door on the right. Cousins were throwing the big huge heavy green square pillow back and forth in the hall and I was trying to look into the hall through a keyhole (which didn't exist) in the doorknob. The door smacked all the way closed and the knob hit my eye.
This is a little door on the chimney. You could talk to someone who was at the fireplace. I'm not sure what the little door is for.
Besides squirrels hoarding walnuts, I mean.
The backyard looks nothing like it did in the 90s. There were several cherry trees and a rickety picnic table. I picked cherries for my grandpa for $5 a gallon bucket in this backyard. And cut the heads off fish with my uncle Chad on that picnic table.
Other fun and not so fun memories about the house:
- I carried a cup of red punch down the stairs (not sure if I was supposed to) but I tripped half way down and punch went all over the wall. My aunt Irene helped me clean it up.
- The door at the top of the basement stairs swung into the stairwell. So if the door was shut and you were 5 years old, it was impossible to open the door standing down a step, not to mention swinging it open by stepping down one or two more. I figured out how to duck down under the door and swing it open that way.
- My grandma had an organ with pre-recorded accompaniments on cartridges. I wish I could remember the name of our favorite. It was peppy and made us laugh and drove all the adults crazy.
- When a bunch of cousins slept over together, we lined up our sleeping bags in the basement family room. They seemed to go on forever (there's like 50 grandkids). In the morning we'd play Hugga Bunch Land. Fun fact: I had this entire episode memorized when I was 5 and would recite it with voices and everything. I'm listening to it right now.
- Thanksgiving was a big deal at Grandma's. Tables everywhere. I loved the only little yellow kid chair at the little table. It easily tipped over. Strange feature for a child's chair.
- When we moved from Logan to Mapleton when I was 7, that ended the week-long trips to Grandma's and I'm still kind of sad about that.
- Living in the next town meant we saw them every Sunday after dinner. One time we were driving over there and realized my brother Thomas didn't have a shirt on so we had to turn around so he could put one on. He was like 4.
- We also got to be there whenever any cousins came from out of town--not just when our trips matched up.
- We trick-or-treated in her neighborhood every year since she had a better neighborhood for that than our more rural neighborhood in Mapleton.
- When I went to middle school n Springville, I discovered so many fellow students lived in her neighborhood. Worlds colliding. Several of them were in her ward and knew my grandma and aunt.
- We would walk to Reams from her house with money we scrounged up in couch cushions. I drive to Springville every week to shop at Reams and think of my grandparents every time. My grandpa would cut a tiny square plug out of his watermelon and taste it. If it was good, he'd cut it up in triangles for all of us. If it was no good, he'd return it to Reams.
- My grandpa would invite us over to watch movies he rented. I saw "Deceived" and "It Could Happen to You" and many others in their living room.
- One of my cousins shut my fishing pole in the door of our car and snapped the rod.
Grandpa Baadsgaard and I. Meredith and my uncle John in the background.
Halloween circa 1993. I was a cleaning lady, Thomas a vampire.
Thanksgiving 1992
My cousin Katherine and I and our improvised pool. 1988?
There are so many more memories in that house and I'm sad to say good-bye as I think even more memories will fade. It's the end of an era. I am so grateful for wonderful grandparents that created a safe and warm place to gather and escape.
It's the most wonderful time of the year! First off, the openhouse when the kids meet their teachers and find their desks and all that fun. Erica was introduced to the concept of a cubby.
Henry didn't even want to go in his classroom until he saw a bunch of his friends in there. I asked him if he was excited about school and this is the face I got.
Sarah, in stark contrast, didn't want to leave her desk.
I did all their clothes shopping online in July so there was little back to school prep right before. There was the matter of de-PJ Masking Henry's sandwich box. There were slim pickings on sandwich boxes at the dollar store. (Last year he lost 3 sandwich boxes. We have no idea how.)
Henry is in 3rd grade with Mrs. Painter and cute little Daphne and a bunch of his friends. I hope he doesn't get in too much trouble.
He has a bad attitude about homework but he is always my first kid ready and rides his bike with Wayne so they can get there early and play basketball before the bell rings.
Sarah is in 5th grade with Mrs. Hunt. She already loooooves her teacher. She's a veteran teacher and looked me in the eyes and asked me with all compassion if I was ready for the year to start. Yes, yes I am. I actually said something like I'm not completely prepared but we're just going to do it.
I can already tell Sarah is going to love her class. She tells me everyday the funny stories Mrs. Hunt told and is super gung-ho to make honor roll.
Fast-forward a week--the longest week of Erica's life. Erica is in kindergarten with Mrs. Chidester. Henry and Sarah both had her so Erica was super excited to get her.
James likes to tell everyone, including strangers, that he is going to preschool. He is only 2 and he is not.
Erica said she was fine with Sarah walking her in but I insisted. I needed to know she wasn't left crying or something. We arrived suuuuper early because they were ready and got in the car.
Mrs. Chidester was nice and let her come in the classroom even though there was a good 15 minutes before the bell rang.
Once she was all settled, James and I waited in the hall watching to make sure she was okay. As soon as a couple more kids arrived, we waved good-bye.
I don't get many details out of what she actually does during the day but she has told me a lot about recess and her new best friend Finley who was in her preschool class and she missed all summer long.
I am getting used to yet another new schedule. Erica is in morning kindergarten so we drop her and Sarah off and James and I hang out together in the mornings. We pick her up, come home for lunch and then James goes down for a nap and Erica and I hang out in the afternoon. It's fun having some one on one time with the littles.
Erica at 2 years 9 months
James at 2 years 9 months
We are now in uncharted parenting territory. I don't know how to have a baby this old without another baby around too. I don't know parenting without diapers or naps (I imagine we'll be there by the end of the year). I don't know parenting without a crib, sippy cups, a tricycle, Winnie the Pooh (Those days are numbered, too). What's parenting without a child to carry, a child to rock? AND Erica starts school next week and then it will just be me and the Jamester every morning, staring at each other and he'll have no need to fetch me my book while I'm nursing a newborn. These are unknown waters.
