last snow cone of the summer

Grateful Sunday

Miles telling me something important at the park this afternoon.

This week was exhausting. Getting back into our school routine was hard for everyone, but we're optimistic that everything will feel more rhythmic as the weeks wear on. This week, I'm grateful for:

• the incredibly great weather we've had this weekend. It's only been the 80s, so we've been spending lots of time outside, which is always so helpful for keeping a clean house (even if the kids end up dirtier!).
• Parker, and that he happened to be the kid I had with me at the grocery store yesterday. He is my easiest child to take places, no question about it.
• helpful teachers at church today. We're getting ready for a big childrens' performance that I'm heading up. Today we tried our seating arrangement out and it went so smoothly, mostly thanks to the kids' teachers!
• great friends. I feel like I have some really spectacular friends in my life. What a blessing.
• the friendship my kids have with each other. Although Miles is sometimes the odd man out, and A & P need encouragement when it comes to including him, they've got a strong bond. Audrey and Parker chose each other as reading buddies at school on Thursday. A first and a third grader pair up and read together once a week. I thought it was so great that they wanted to be together.
  

Quotes of the Day XXI

There was lots of Disney Channel viewing during the down time at our beach house last week. Of course, Disney channel means High Scho()l Musical, which my kids have never seen (but now will probably want to). Miles was watching Zac Efr()n dancing on tv during a commercial and said to Neal and our friend, Ed:

"That guy thinks he's so awesome, but he's not. He thinks he knows everything."

So true, little dude. Isn't he perceptive about celebrities already?

For some reason our kids have started making Christmas lists this week. Among the things on the lists are Miniature Dachsund (PJ) and a big book of blue construction paper (MJ). Our favorite item in on Miles' list (which Parker helped him assemble):

an "eye-patch" (iTouch)

Happy Weekend!

three oh.

Stephanie, my little sis by 20 months, turns thirty today. We grew up living pretty much the same life. Same room, same clothes, same blonde hair and blue eyes. We played teddy bears and dollies and Nadia. She even let me jump in her bed when I was scared of earthquakes. I couldn't imagine anyone better to share a childhood with. Now that we're grown, we share many of the same experiences as mothers of young kids, and I'm sure our lives will continue to parallel each other in all the best ways. Too bad New Mexico is between us.

I love you, Steph! Happy Birthday!

random pretzels

Sometimes Neal does the most random things. Like on Sunday, when instead of napping on the couch (normal), he decided to make authentic soft pretzels from scratch (random).

But oh, they were good.

recipe here.

Florida II

Back to the recap, I know you were having H family vacation photo withdrawals for a minute there. Here you go. :)

One day, we decided to drive down to Panama City Beach and rent pontoon boats. We had heard about a place called Shell Island and wanted to check it out (we were all dedicated shell seekers). Here we are with Jared & Melanie, their son, Luke, and Callie L. I like Jared & Melanie because they're both freckly like me. And fun, they're fun, too.

Once we got set up on the beach on Shell Island, a storm started to move in (sensing a pattern, here?). We lowered the QuikShade and Carolyn, Ed and I held down the fort while the storm moved through. Good times.

Me and the stormy sky. (Thanks for the picture, Melanie!)

On our way back to Destin, we stopped at a great restaurant called The Love Shack. Instead of a playground for the kids, it had a pool. A pool! Here are Raegan, Audrey and Callie cavorting.

The men, back on the beach by our house. Talking about man stuff, probably.

I just loved this supermodel shot of Audrey. Her hair is the stuff of dreams.

I don't even really know what to say about this picture.

We took some family photos on the beach, too, but I'm saving them for our Christmas card or some other sort of occasion. I put some of them in the sidebar, though. Fabulous mementos of an unforgettable trip!

Florida I

Florida was amazing. The sand is pure white, so bright it hurts your eyes (and makes for great photo lighting), and the water goes from emerald green to dark teal blue in the deeper spots. I could have stared at this view all day. Well, we kind of did. This is an afternoon rainstorm moving onshore. So beautiful to watch it move in.

Audrey and Parker were boogie board maniacs. They got pretty good at it! Here's Parker getting ready to go back out.

Audrey flying a kite.

Audrey and her ultra BFF, Callie. They were so happy to be reunited and spent every waking (and sleeping) minute together. It makes my heart happy to see how much they love each other.

The boys, soaking in the sun on one of the patios. Our house was three stories high, with gorgeous wood floors, beautiful original artwork (like a trio of Kim Parker paintings) throughout, and Viking appliances. It had sleeping space for about 14 people. I could have stayed forever.

Miles isn't really a fan of the water; he stayed covered up in his sunscreen clothes and dug in the sand a lot. In the afternoons, we'd crawl into his bed and take a rest, swimsuit, sand & all.

Every once in a while, the kids would run and dip themselves into the little soaking pool on the lower patio. Two other families (the Rs and the Fs) were sharing the portion of the house on the right. We stayed on the left.

Audrey and her bud, Raegan.

Neal and me in the shade. The shade structure we bought was the best purchase ever. The day I ventured out of it for more than 20 minutes, I got a major sunburn. Curse my whiteness!

Weird jellyfish washed up all over the place after the tropical storm on Sunday night.

More photos tomorrow, from Shell Island and elsewhere . . .

I've had a few people ask about the property at which we stayed. Here is the link to the house we rented (you can see more interior pics), and here is the link to the property management company through which it (and many others) are offered.

Day One

Off they went to Third and First Grades today. Parker still has sand in his hair. He has about the densest head of hair I've ever seen; I can not get all the sand out!

N'awlins

On our way down to Florida, we stopped in Louisiana for a bit. First we visited with a wonderful friend of Neal's family from way, way back, Aunt Carmen. She was so pleased to see us, and we felt the same way. She and Neal talked about old times, reminisced about his mom (Aunt Carmen says Annis was the best friend she ever had.), asked her about her husband and their life together, and heard stories about when Neal and his siblings were young. Oh, and the kids happily received lots of sugar.

Then we headed down to New Orleans to get a little flavor of that fascinating city. We strolled the streets of the French Quarter and stayed the night in a lovely hotel in the middle of it all. It had a fancy lobby.

The next morning, our first stop was Cafe du Monde in Jackson Square. We needed a beignet fix, and it did not disappoint. Mmmm. {Natalie, you would have loved it! Sugar pillows galore!} The ground of this place was COVERED in powdered sugar. And so were we.

Fresh squeezed orange juice was perfect with our quick breakfast.

All of the architecture was so fun to see up close. Beautiful courtyards and small details like windows, hardware and ironwork were just what I had imagined.

We were walking by St. Louis Cathedral just as these priests were preparing for Saturday morning mass. They looked cool.

We drove through the Garden District on our way out of town; we stopped into a sweet shop and strolled among the beautiful old houses. Neal and I marveled at how well preserved many of the buildings are in New Orleans, considering the difficult (damp) environment in which they were built. It must take constant care to keep the Garden District homes in such remarkable condition. All in all, we really loved New Orleans, we'd love to go back in the springtime when the weather's a bit more palatable for walking tours.

Grateful Sunday

Audrey watching for a wave last week in Destin, Florida.
She and Parker were fearless in the ocean; it was so fun to watch! (Miles, not so much.)

This last week of summer was pretty near perfection, we are so blessed. I'm grateful for:

• our safe and seemingly quick trip home yesterday. I'm usually one for breaking up a long drive, but we managed to do the whole thing (13 hours) in one day. The kids were great, even slept through most of Louisiana.
• my loving husband, who is so easy to be around and just makes my life better in countless ways.
• my mom, who celebrated her birthday this week. When I called, she was on her way out to perform service. Her example is perpetual, thanks mom.
• family friends with whom we spent the week in Florida. It was good to reconnect, see their children growing up, and eat really good seafood. Hoping to do it again next year!
  

Grateful Sunday

This Sunday, I'm grateful for:

• a safe drive through 4 states and our arrival here in Florida (free wireless means vacation blogging!)
• my long-awaited trip to New Orleans. I've wanted to go there for many years; we almost had a trip planned in 2005, right before Katrina hit. It was a fascinating place; we had a lot of fun, especially since we are old house/architecture junkies.
• a very secure beach house, even if it is right on the sand. Tropical Storm Claudette is expected to nail us in the next 24 hours. We're not worried, and I have a good book to read while the rain comes down outside. (Family--I have zero cell signal, but I gave mom and dad our house phone number. Plus, we have email. We'll keep you up to date if there's any news, but just assume we're fine. In case you were worried.)
• several more days of lounging and playing and relaxing on the beach. I don't think I'll ever tire of ocean sounds 24/7.

Tomorrow, I'll try to post some pictures.

bums

We're off to the beach to bum around for a few days with some friends. Our rental house is one of these above. Um, yay.

Big Boy

Miles turns three today. We can hardly believe it! Luckily for me, he's staying the size (28 pounds) of some 18-month-olds, so he'll feel like our baby a bit longer than usual. We celebrated last night with two of his little friends (& their siblings) at Chuck-E-Cheese's (his choice). Super high class stuff around here.

He wanted a guitar cake. I wish you all could see him rock out with his toy guitars. It's precious.

Happy Birthday to our little Moe!

That Day

This is the year I'm recording all my birth stories. The other two are here and here.

The whole week before I had Miles was kind of a bummer. It was the last week of summer for Audrey, who was about to start kindergarten, and my youngest sister, Julianne, was visiting me in Houston. I had all these fun things planned for us to do, but was pretty much laid up trying to keep my contractions at bay. But in the end, Julianne was there for Miles' birth, and it was so perfect.

Mostly what I remember from the two days prior to his birth was me laying in my bed, having contractions, and calling out to Julianne each time I felt one. She was timing them, and they weren't going away. I was 37 weeks along; I had my other two babies at 36 and 37 weeks, so I knew my time was probably short, but I was hoping to go a little longer; I knew the baby wasn't very big (read: chubby). Neal came home that evening, found me in bed telling him that this might be it, and so we just rested. At 2:30 in the morning, I woke Neal and said, "You call the doctor; I'm getting in the shower." Because I knew that once we called the doctor, he'd tell us to come in and I'd end up having the baby. I had a C-section scheduled for week 39, but never expected to make it that far!

I peeked in on Julianne, who was sleeping in the guest room, and said, "Jooj, we're going to the hospital. We'll call you in the morning." Jooj sat up quickly and said, "SERIOUSLY?" So off we went, racing up the FB Toll Road in the middle of the night, the classic labor-in-the-car scenario. It was exciting.

When we arrived, they assessed me and had me rest in a waiting area while they got me hooked up to an IV and other things. They told us they'd wake me when the doctor arrived. Five hours later, and after a fitful "sleep" (pain meds were not among the liquids in the IV), the doctor came in and told us we were going to go ahead and have the baby. Hooray! Miles was born within the hour. He was only 5 lbs 13 oz, and our only baby who came out crying (the other two required suction and some work to get them going). We never found out "what we were having" during my pregnancy, but I was so grateful to hear Neal say, "It's a boy!" "I knew it!" I said. Because I did. It was all happiness and snuggling after that. I had a few minor complications during my recovery (walking pneumonia and an air embolism), which lengthened it by at least a week, but of course, only the sweet memories remain. (PS, thanks again to my mom for taking Audrey to kindergarten her first 2 weeks and to Julianne for being there so we didn't have to wake the kids!)

How is this the same person? When did the craziness come into play? :)

Having a baby is so amazing.

Here he is, that beautiful day, three August 13ths ago.

Grateful Sunday

12 out of 14 ain't bad. Littlest girls, Stella & Sadie are missing from this shot of the P* side cousins in front of the Anchorage Alaska LDS Temple

This Sunday, I'm grateful for:

• the promise of an eternal family. There is no greater joy or comfort in my life than the knowledge I have that I will be with my husband and children for eternity. They're ours, and we belong to each other forever. Gratitude for that principle was confirmed again in primary today; we're talking about temples this month. Hooray.
• functioning air conditioning. We had 3 days without upstairs AC and it put a major cramp in my style; the kids had to sleep on our floor (I actually like it when we're all in one room; I just sleep better.), and I allowed masses of toys to be brought downstairs (not normal). I'm glad the repairman finally showed up on Saturday. Right before the AC in my car went out.
• our second car, as sad and humbling of a vehicle as it is, it got us to church today, as my car's out of the picture.
• a husband who doesn't sweat the small stuff. I'm grateful that we can laugh at life when it's just not really going our way sometimes. Even the guy at the auto repair shop laughed and said, "maybe your car's possessed." There were that many things wrong with it. Oh well.
• a week at the beach starting this Saturday, we can't wait to dig our toes into the sand!
• another wonderful video from our church. All about the virtues of womanhood.

Alaska III

There was lots to do on the cruise ship, of course. When we weren't winning trivia contests (at least once a day; I determined that we must have been the most educated people on board, not to brag or anything!), we found lots to keep us busy. The kids visited the Kids' Club a few times, but mostly just had fun wandering together.

Miles couldn't get enough of Sadie. She is quite scrumptious.

In port in Skagway. We were right up against this gorgeous mountainside.

The kids put their stuffed animals in our stateroom window so we could get an idea of where it was located once we were off the ship. The very large ship.

Miles relaxing on deck.

We did a lot of group ocean observing. Some days the water was so glassy, it was hard to believe it was the ocean.

Formal night on the cruise was lots of fun. The kids gathered around the window before we arranged them for a photo sitting. Photo sittings are big on cruises, in case you didn't know.

After dinner most nights, the kids let loose in the dance club. Until the boring old people kicked them off the floor!

We spent our last 3 days exploring Vancouver, BC. We found a few parks and took over a restaurant.

It was such an unbelievable trip. Alaska is everything we hoped it would be! Thanks, Mom & Dad!