The Road Trip - Idaho

So, in Utah we saw my Grandma Evans, my Grandpa Cannon, Nate's sister Erin and husband Brent, my older sister Corey and her husband Tyler, and some friends.

Next we headed to Idaho to see my younger sisters. This was really an exciting leg of the trip since both of them had had a baby since I last saw them, and I had had one as well. We did very little outside of Kirsten's apartment while in Rexburg. But it was so fun to get all those little cousins together.

While in Utah I had had the feeling that it would be nice to be living there again to be close to family. But in Idaho...wow, that place is empty...I just thought it would be nice if Kirsten & Tatton and Lindsay & Karl move to the Midwest.

Lindsay's little girl was leading a group exercise class. She wanted everyone to stomp. If you didn't she would point at you and yell out, "Foot!"


Ever read the Shel Silverstein poem, "There's too many kids in this tub..."? Well, yeah...

The Road Trip - Utah

Living thousands of miles from all of my immediate family and Nate's older sister, it's a big deal deciding who and where to visit for our yearly vacation, especially since the yearly vacation only comes once every two years. This year, we decided to visit them all, well not quite, but close.

We rented a van, packed it full and headed off for 16 days and 5,000+ miles of driving. We feared that it would be endless crying and sleepless nights. And though there were those moments, they were not every night nor every drive. In fact, I'm very proud of how well the kids did.

We pulled out of Des Moines at 11:30 PM on Friday June 9th, turned around once for a forgotten item and then left for real. We made stops in Nebraska and Wyoming and made it to Grandma Evans's house in Springville, UT just around dinnertime Saturday night and just in time to eat the lasagna she had prepared. Evander, who loves Garfield by the way, decided it was his favorite food and ate it for every meal he had at Grandma's house.

While in Utah: lots of time hanging out with Grandma talking, Evander and Nate went camping up Hobble Creek Canyon right by a very swollen and noisy river, visited Grandpa Blaine in Payson and got to meet Bob the goat, roasted hot dogs and marshmallows at Erin and Brent's.

I was happy with how well Jayne took to Grandma. It was really helpful the first night when Caleb was having a hard time calming down to fall asleep. Jayne was absolutely content hanging out with Grandma, leaning up against her leg and "talking" to her.

Caleb loved Grandpa Blaine, though more than anything he loved stealing his cane. Best stick ever. He was so mad at us when we took it away.

On our way out of the state we got to see friends from our single days, Jill and Corey, see their home and meet their son Noah. So much fun.

One last night of crying...

...and now he sleeps. The day Caleb quit falling asleep to a bottle at night was a sad day for us. Since that time, about a year ago, we have spent at least 1 hour and up to 5 hours trying to coax, soothe and force Caleb to sleep. We never could figure out why he couldn't fall asleep and never found a consistently effective method for putting him down to bed. However, almost always...once he was asleep, he slept for the night. Last Sunday night though, something woke him up and from 2 am until some time after 6 he was awake. He didn't cry the W-H-O-L-E time but enough that neither Nate nor I could sleep. It compounded our concern about our road trip this summer to full-blown dread. Then, unexpectedly, Monday night he let Nate lay him in his crib and fell asleep quickly on his own. Each night this week has been the same. We put the other two to bed, spend some good 2 on 1 time with Caleb and then we lay him down. REALLY!?!?! I am holding my breath, hoping this lasts.

As long as I'm sharing great things about Caleb...He's standing! He stands up on his own everywhere now. He still feels insecure but he is so steady. He doesn't use anything to pull himself up, just slowly rises up and then raises his hands to the air and squeals. Yep! He's a champion! One day he's going to start walking without letting me know. I'll wet my pants when I turn around and am startled by him standing right behind me or something.

Reading books has become more fun with Caleb too. We've been trying for months to get him to touch the texture books. What he prefers to do is bend the pages to see how they move and to test the strength of the binding until it breaks. But we have had some success lately getting him to touch the fake feathers or fur. Tuesday night I was reading him a book called That's Not My Truck. Caleb did touch the wavy ridges on the cement truck after I did, but then he grabbed my hand and made it so my fingernail went up and down the ridges. Ever since then, that is what he has been doing. It is funny that his teacher has been doing "hand-over-hand" movements for at least a year to teach him to do things on his own. But the lesson he has learned is that he can use someone else's hand to do the things he wants.

Jayne's First Step

...was up not forward. Tuesday I looked over and there she was on stair #2. Caleb, sitting on the landing, stared at her in horror likely thinking, "What?! You've got to be kidding me!" The stairs have been his last refuge from a persistent and pesky baby sister who is now able to follow him ANYWHERE he goes. Since Tuesday Jayne has continued going up and now easily makes it to the landing without help. Time to barricade.

Spring

A couple of weeks ago spring came. And we had some days of truly beautiful weather. I saw my first flower outside, a small purple thing letting me know winter was really gone.

Nate and Evander started to work on the wood pile. Some year maybe we'll actually burn the wood instead of just collecting it. All of our trees survived and are budding, even though the deer took a good deal of bark off our aspen. The rose bushes have leaves and are looking healthier than ever, maybe because they got a whole summer without being transplanted...well, some of them did.

We got a new swing set that I love. I mean that I LOOOOVVVVE. Oh, this summer is going to be amazing!!!

Evander has been reading labels of boxes and has been letting me know all of the toys and games that are not suited for his younger siblings. So, being the responsible older brother he needs to take them away from Caleb and Jayne. "Mom, this car track says for 3+, Caleb is not 3. He is 2. He can't play with it."

And I'm just going to toss in some random other pics because my kids are funny.

Canstruction

A chance for architects, engineers and others to use their creativity and skill to build something with cans. A design/build competition that benefits the Food Bank of Iowa.

Nate's team made a canned peas replica of the Burj Khalifa in Dubai, the tallest building in the world.

Evander came as Superman that day. After he told a woman the name of the building, she asked him, "Are you going to be an architect like your daddy when you grow up?" To which he responded, "No, I'm going to be a construction worker. I will build skyscrapers!" I do not doubt that he will.

Road Trips

I have it in my mind that I can drive from here to Utah with my 3 children whether or not Nate is able to go. In the past two weeks we've done two practice runs.

I realized that Kansas City is close and that 6 years is way too long to have gone without seeing my dear childhood friend Maren. Since last seeing her I have gotten married and we each have 3 more children. So, early one Wednesday morning I packed the sleeping munchkins in the car and headed off. With just one stop to feed them breakfast and get them dressed we made it to Maren's house by 10:45, just shy of 4 hours. Promptly after arriving, Jayne puked her breakfast all over me. So, we spent the day doing just what I would have been doing at home. But this was much better since mundane tasks are always better with friends. At 7 pm, we repacked the car and headed back north, getting home at 10:30 on the dot. Caleb did cry most of the way, but Jayne and Evander slept through it so I consider it a success.

Trip number 2 was to Le Mars, Iowa. We all went up for the groundbreaking of the new St. Joseph's Catholic Church that Nate designed. Jayne must have a weak stomach because she threw up twice on the way up, soaking herself and her car seat in formula and a purple/orange mix of regurgitated baby food. Pretty disgusting. We let her sleep in it for an hour after the second episode. I am so glad I didn't have to clean that mess up on my own.

It was very windy and Caleb doesn't like wind, or the sound of microphones, so he and I spent the ceremony sitting in the old church on a pew enjoying a cookie. The church is 130 years old and in spite of the peeling paint on the ceiling, it is beautiful and a pleasant place to sit. I always enjoy my quiet sit times with Caleb anyway.

Outside, the Bishop of the Sioux City Diocese walked the footprint of the new building sprinkling holy water and blessing it, then all of the parishioners participated in turning the soil. Evander brought up his 1/32 size excavator and used that. Father Kevin noted that Evander's machine was like the excavator sitting there that would start the real digging tomorrow. Evander corrected him and said, "Yeah, but that is a Volvo, mine is a Caterpillar." That boy LOVES his construction vehicles. Recently, someone asked him, "Are you going to be an architect like you're Daddy when you grow up?" To which he responded, "No, I'm going to be a construction worker. I will build skyscrapers!" I do not doubt that he will.

We stopped at the Blue Bunny Ice Cream Parlor for a quasi-lunch and then headed on home. Le Mars is the Ice Cream Capital of the world, apparently. I would have figured that such an amazing dessert would render a larger capital than this small town. But it is great to look at the huge white factory on the hill and know that it's sole purpose is to make ice cream.

So...I feel the kids and I have spent today getting caught up and recuperating from our trip. Nate's working, so I don't know what he feels. But it does make me wonder, could I do a multi-day trip with them? They must learn to road trip if they are truly my children, so I guess we'll just have to do it and see what happens.

Observation: Apparently Catholics are not refreshment ravenous wolves like I often feel we Mormons are. There was a munch and mingle after mass and before the groundbreaking that included punch and an impressive variety of cookies and dessert bars. Three full platters remained untouched during the ceremony. Then afterward, teenagers and kids came up, grabbed a napkin and a dessert and walked away. No hovering over the table or hoarding one of each kind of dessert. It was remarkable.