Spring Break

Happy April Fools day! The three older kids each asked me separately if I was going to the Jell-o trick this year. "You do it every year," they said. I've done it once and certainly not in the last few years. James is the only one that got tricked because he was the only one that hadn't heard of it. "James, do you want some kool-aid?" And as soon as I started to pour, he saw that it wasn't punch but Jell-o. He was kind of mad because He would have rather had kool-aid.Erica, on the otherhand, loves Jell-o. For some reason they really leaned into the joke and slurped it out of a cup each time.

The next day general conference began. We used our conference bingo cards to average success. The kids stay super quiet listening for words the speakers use but after the first session the novelty wore off. Even with a prize for each bingo they get, they would rather just eat the candy and go play. *Note to self: Buy non-rollie candy for next year.

We also got cinnamon rolls from Shirley's bakery which are my favoritest cinnamon rolls.

Between sessions we worked on the new swingset. The kids pretended the slide was a rowboat.

We got the swing set assembled the day before but we had to dig the holes for the concrete footings. I mostly watched.

Erica and Henry mostly played gophers.

Then after the next session we stirred up the concrete and set the swing set in. The kids tried to put handprints on the concrete but it was pretty gravelly and didn't show up.

Sunday the kids kind of gave up on bingo but sometimes there were quiet moments.

Behind the couch the puzzlers got to puzzling.

Monday morning I went for a walk and walked past this ginormous house with an airplane in the yard. Rumor is it's for their grandchildren to play in.

The farther east you go in Mapleton, the bigger the houses get and the nicer the views.

When I got back from my walk, Sarah and I installed the slide on the swing set which made it complete. The kids played with friends the rest of the day while I nursed my sore back (I did something weird trying to pull out the concrete stakes and was hurting pretty bad the rest of the week. Just love getting older.)

Tuesday everyone threw up. 

Well just Sarah and Henry. Erica was running a fever and felt nauseated but never barfed. The weather was terrible this day too so no big loss.

Wednesday the throw ups were over but we took it nice and easy and Justin bought a new truck!

Thursday we went to Goblin Valley

The park was at capacity which meant there was a line of cars to get in at the gate and they'd only let a car through when a car came out. I wasn't surprised, since nearly the entire state has spring break at the same time. We ate lunch once we got to the parking lot and then we headed out on a hike to Goblin's Lair.

I am so glad it was like in the 50s and not any hotter. You walk in the sun and desert for over a mile before you get to this.

The opening to the cave (or lair) was pretty spectacular. This is as far as most of us went.

James slide from the rock to Justin's left and fell and hit his head pretty bad and landed in a crevice. I hadn't come around the bend yet and Justin was far below. It was kind of a bad parenting moment for both of us, losing track of where the littlest was. Here Justin is tending to his wounds.

Justin and Henry continued down to the bottom of the cave but the rest of us didn't. James was crying and my back still hurt pretty bad from earlier in the week. The girls got freaked out by James's tumble too and didn't dare risk it on their own since I was holding crying James.

By the time we worked our way back down he had stopped crying and his wounds didn't look so bad. He was pretty cautious and clingy the way back of course.

We made it back to the car for a drink and a snack and then we went to play with the goblins.

The kids played hide and seek forever.

We didn't get too far in this area because they found a grouping of hoodoos that they played in but since it's all the same, I didn't feel like we missed out on anything. (Don't tell me if I'm wrong and we missed out on some amazing unique feature.)

We stopped for dinner in Price and then got home just in time to unload the car and get the kids into bed. We were dirty and tired but the good kind of tired. James tells everyone he hates Goblin Valley except for playing hide and seek in the hoodoos.

Friday Justin had to work so the kids played with friends again and visited my mom and played on the swing set some more.

I saw these deer on a walk so I sent this photo to Justin because he loves spotting deer. Mapleton is so pretty but it seems like developers are determined to put a house on every open spot, dang it.

Saturday Justin sold his old truck and the guys paid in cash. Some hundreds but there is a ridiculous amount of 20s and 10s and 5s in this stack that make it ridiculously big. Oh plus 60 cents in change.

That evening Justin and I drove all the way to Provo to eat at Burgers Supreme because I was craving my favorite fries and fry sauce. It was such a splurge to drive 10.5 miles with gas prices as they are.

March: The Spring Half

Since I couldn't see any more snowstorms I the forecast, James and I set up the trampoline one afternoon before the kids got home from school. Life is right again.

It was still too cold for me to be out there but they sure had fun. 

In case you wondered what it's like to be colorblind, Justin says these two bags of rolls look the same to him. In case you were wondering why there were green rolls at the store, it was for St. Patrick's Day (this holiday is seriously so dumb).

Erica made this house out of blocks right in the middle of the entryway from the front door to the rest of the house. She wanted a picture of it before I made her take it down so here it is. Aaaand then she has remade it there every day since. ::sigh::

I don't know why Henry is scowling. He's asking me if he can have this bison in his room. I got this from the Hurricane house. My parents sold it this month and moved a bunch of stuff home. My aunt had a lot of things from travels but I really just wanted this. Everyone in the house wants it but it will stay in the living room.

Not pictured but also happened this month.

1. Erica and Sarah are allergic to earrings. Sarah gets headaches and Erica breaks out in a rash on her neck and temples. 

2. I had a mild case of shingles.

3. Erica threw up at school again. Luckily this time it was at recess in the grass.

4. James had the stomach flu.

5. St. Patrick's Day. I forgot it was St. Patrick's day for most of it. Just how I like it.

6. I got the kids registered for swimming lessons. Let's hope we don't move that week like last summer.

7. James is registered for kindergarten. My doctor's office was all out of the polio vaccine when I took him for his shots so now I have to take him to the health department. Nothing like dragging out vaccinations.

8. Sarah is registered for junior high. I'm already sad about the first day of school.

9. We are getting a swing set today. I'll have pictures after this weekend if we get it set up.

10. Dr. Tipton is retiring. He has been our doctor for 14 years and delivered all my babies and has taken care of all of us for so long. I am so sad about it. And I don't know how to find a new doctor. Plus I'll just really miss him. It's nice having someone so capable and wise in your life.

An Ode to Our Amish Table (And before and after pics of the living room and dining room)

Our table and chairs finally arrived! This is a milestone for me--finally getting my dream table. I have been looking and dreaming of tables for years and had my eye on this one for like 3 years. It also took that long to save up for it. 

We ordered it from an Amish furniture website in August. I got to pick the table and chair styles, the wood, the stain and the finish. It was kind of nerve-racking since this is going to be the table I have for the rest of my life so I wanted to make sure I really really liked it. I chose cherry wood in a walnut stain. 

The table is 4 feet wide which is really wide for the room and for our kids to reach across while playing games or for food. It's five feet long but we also got 4 12" leaves so we can pull it out into the living room and make it 10 feet long for big parties.

There were 3 major criteria that led me to an Amish table. Solid wood, sturdiness and trestle style. My parents' table is trestle style and after having a 4 legged table the last 8 years I realized how lovely it is to not have legs in the way. Plus they look like they belong in a castle or Tudor mansion. But it also had to be sturdy. When we walked through furniture stores I would lean on a table and shake it before I would even consider it. Fails all around. But mostly I wanted it to be solid wood--no veneers, no cheaper cuts in the less important parts. I have and will probably still buy cheap wood furniture everywhere else in my home but for a table solid was the only way.

Googling solid wood furniture led me to an Amish furniture website but I wanted to see it in person so like 3+ years ago Justin and I went to a furniture store in Sandy that sold Amish stuff. At this point I was thinking we'd buy an Amish table and then get cheaper upholstered chairs.

But then we sat in an Amish dining chair at the store and it changed everything.

What? This is a wood chair? This is the most comfortable chair I've ever sat in. Wood chairs should not be this comfortable.

See the curve of the back? Best lumbar support.

See this curve in the seat? Holds you right in.

So then it became all about the chairs. Which also meant twice the money but since we were still in our smaller house then, time was on our side.

I placed the order in August hoping we could have the new table for the holidays but due to supply chain issues and lumber shortages the lead time was 26 weeks instead of 16. So we ordered and we waited patiently.

The man that delivered it came from an Amish upbringing but is no longer part of the Amish community. From what I was told by him and the online store I bought from, Amish furniture makers haul their products to a distribution center in Indiana (which is also where my furniture was made). Drivers pick up orders for a specific route. My driver lives in Minnesota, drove to Indiana to pick up orders and delivered all along the northwest and will finish up in San Francisco before heading back.  He has about a week off and then does it all again. I wish I could have had more time to ask him more about himself and his upbringing. I was kind of geeking out over the whole thing.

Speaking of furniture delays, these gray chairs I ordered in October were scheduled to arrive in December but they arrived in January.

And this couch I ordered in July and it arrived 4 days before the table--8 months later. I could have nearly grown a baby in that time. I had forgotten what it looked like.

So now the living room has plenty of places to sit.

And the view is much better now. Here are some before and after photos because that's fun.

And somehow I still catch myself sitting on the stairs.

March: The Winter Half

When I come to tell him goodnight I'm either greeted by a nerf dart or this face. 

James got to spend a couple of hours with Justin's parents while I had a hair appointment. He is defintiely in that phase where he wants a picture taken of everything he makes before he has to put it away.

This is one of the trees we planted last fall. It is a hackberry tree. I hated how the nursery pruned it but I had to wait until early spring to do any shaping. The first day the snow melted I was out there with my pruners.

Okay, it's hard to tell in these pictures what I did but I trimmed the trunk up to that lower white tape and then cut off any branches growing down. I basically made it look more like a tree and less like a dishbrush.

The egg on the left is a grocery store large egg. The egg on the right is from Justin's coworker's chicken. Amazing, right? I love it when Justin brings home eggs from work. Not enough to get our own coop, mind you.

For two days Erica and James worked on this elaborate game out on the patio. It was a cross between hopscotch and a board game. I played it with them and besides being totally magical, it was also confusing but I just went along. To move you close your eyes and think of a number between one and ten, say it aloud and then move that many spaces and do what the square tells you to do. There's not exactly consensus between the two of them of what each space means though. Sometimes you get to pick someone to move back to where you are or you get to pick up an item that has special powers that mostly don't help you win, they are just a fun power like flight or invisibility. I did not win.

Erica finished up her second round of gymnastics. She had to abruptly end the fall class when she dislocated her elbow. She really liked going but wasn't sad at all when the 8th and final class came. She thinks she wants to do it again in the fall if she can get a brother to go with her.

Henry woke me up one Saturday morning to show me the huge pancake he made and then he wanted to send a picture to Justin who was at the church. (Justin got called to the high council and he's in charge of baptisms so he spends second Saturdays at the stake center)

Sarah played in her spring concert on Thursday. She surprised us all with a solo during one of their songs. I was so proud of her! She is loving the violin and orchestra is her favorite class and her orchestra teacher is her favorite teacher. I hope she still loves it at the junior high next year.

If I ask James if he wants to go on a walk he'll say yes. But to him that means riding his bike around the block to play in the Finch's yard. That's his idea of a walk.

Me: How did you learn how to pump?

James: The way Sarah taught me is to pretend to kick Henry in the face and the way Henry taught me is to pretend to kick Sarah n the face.

Coming up this week: St. Patrick's Day but I barely acknowledge that and I guess there's some basketball going on this weekend. And I hope to get some furniture delivered. 8 months is a long time to wait for a couch, especially when they tell you 4-6 months.