Mission to Mars

Christmas time in Salt Lake City

We went to Salt Lake last week for some Christmas festivities. Of course we checked out the lights at Temple Square, as well as doing a special star hunt at the Grand America. They have display windows throughout the hotel that have scenes from a special children's book. In each scene you look for a star, and then you look at your card to find out which clue goes with the star you found. The kids thought it was so much fun -- Kale loved finding the windows, Hallie loved to find the stars before everyone else, and Rachel thought it was cool to figure out which clue correlated with what (especially since she was the only kid who could read). Once we found all 18 stars, we took our little cards to the bakery and they gave us 5 huge star cookies. All in all, a super fun activity.

Before we left the house Rachel and Hallie determined that they were going to bring their money so they could buy something. So, they emptied out their piggy banks (even Kale -- I think his amounted to about 60 cents), and we headed off to Salt Lake. We went to Gateway Mall, but they don't have any kid/toy stores except Build-a-Bear, and frankly the kids didn't have $30 to spend. We kept telling the kids that they didn't have to spend their money. They could just go home and put it back in their banks. Hallie was not about to let that happen -- she would have bought anything, just so long as she got to buy something.

As it turned out, we stopped in at a Barnes and Noble and the kids bought some magical treasures there. Rachel bought a stuffed raccoon (which she loves and brings with her everywhere), and Hallie bought a little doll (which she doesn't care about -- in fact it's still sitting in the car). It's crazy how much Hallie loves to buy things, even if she doesn't really like it, she still has to buy it. Hopefully we don't have a shopaholic on our hands, but it's starting to look like we might.

This Santa was just sitting outside The Little America hotel, so we had the kids sit on his lap and take a picture. It's the only Santa they got to see this year, so hopefully they told him what they wanted for Christmas.

Our other Salt Lake adventure happened on Monday. We went to the Delta Center (or whatever it's called now) for a Christmas carol sing-along. Ruth let us know about it and almost the whole Hansen clan went for family night. It was so much fun and it was free! They handed out donuts and coupons as we came in the door, and then it was just an hour of singing carols with an orchestra, dancing in the aisles, etc. I don't know if the kids appreciated it as much as they should have (it started at seven, and that is bedtime at our house), but I loved every minute of it! We are for sure doing it again next year.

It's been a while since I've posted because Jon and I have been living our lives in the basement the last few weeks -- literally. Jon has been going to work, coming home, changing clothes, and then immediately heading into the basement. And on weekends, he doesn't even come up for meals -- I usually make something for the kids and myself, and then bring down something to Jon. This is what Jon looked like after he was done painting the ceilings -- Rachel called him our snowdad (you know, like snowman).


Our kids have been fantastic about the whole thing. The older kids have been keeping Sky entertained so that I can also live my life in the basement. I have been coming up 3 times a day in order to make meals and put Sky to bed, and other than that the kids have been ruling the household. There have been a few times where I've come up to chaos (holes being cut into clothes, hair being cut off -- nothing too drastic), but overall they have done an awesome job of being ridiculously responsible little kids. They have been so patient, and now that patience is finally paying off.

I believe my basement crazy days are now over. We put the last coat of paint on (fingers crossed) during the wee hours of the morning today (pictures will follow later), so I think I get to go back to being a regular mom, and frankly, a regular person with a normal life. It feels pretty good. Jon and Nick are going to do tile this weekend, and then we just have to wait for the cabinets and carpet to be installed (minus putting on doors and installing light fixtures/switches). We're almost to the end, and it's gonna be awesome.


In the midst of this basement madness, we managed to attend Amber & Sterling's wedding/reception (look at all those sisters!), and Thanksgiving/family pics at Mom and Dad's (thanks for hosting and letting us sleep over). It was a super fun break in the midst of a few crazy weeks.


Now that the basement is almost finished, I can't wait for the holiday festivities to begin!

Fall Time

On Friday the kids and I played in our leaves. About half of our trees had lost their leaves, and the kids could not wait to make the most of it. Everyone helped get the leaves in the pile; we only have 2 real rakes, so the other kids used whatever they could find -- shovel, broom, hands -- whatever seemed to work.
I was nervous about the kids throwing the leaves around with Sky, but she loved being in the leaves. She even let the other kids bury her in the leaf pile -- face uncovered, of course.
I felt like watching was good enough for me, but the kids were convinced that I should have a turn jumping into the pile. I wasn't going to, but I knew that if Jon were there, he probably would have had a turn, so I decided I could be just as fun as he is. Kids are pretty brave jumping into leaves -- they have no thought for the injury that could come to them. I tell you what, that ground is awfully hard when you throw yourself down onto it, but it was worth it to see the delighted faces of my kids.

Jon's first costume attempt was pretty good (above), but once Bree got done with him, he was looking truly fantastic.

Halloween was tons of fun. We spent the day at Becky's, which is always fun, but this time was even better because she had Halloween games for the kids to play. They absolutely loved it! Hallie has been asking to play the "straw" game and Don't Eat Jack ever since.

We got home with just enough time to get the girls hair fixed and go. When we got here Jon was ready and waiting. When Hallie mentioned that he needed to hurry and put on his costume, he told her that he wasn't dressing up this year. Her response -- "That's bowing!" (boring). So, the girls peer-pressured him into dressing up. I think we did a pretty good job for a 5 minute costume.

We went down to Sandy for trunk-or-treating with the Hansen's, then went back to their house for an Anita-style party, and a quick trick or treating around the circle. It was tons of fun to be there with everyone.

Sunday Fun Day

On Sunday Jon thought up this awesome game for the kids to play. It was actually pretty scary to hold the pillow and wait for someone to plow into you -- I couldn't believe the kids held their ground against Jon. I almost didn't even dare to stay when Rachel was the runner. Anyway, it was super fun -- the kids have asked to play at least 5 times since then.

Laundry Day

Yesterday I spent a few hours at the laundromat -- I know, pretty glamorous. There aren't any laundromats close by because everyone who lives in this area is pretty rich, and I guess they don't do their own laundry (that's what the concierge told me). And, there truly weren't any laundromats in the immediate vicinity. I had to take a 15 minute train ride before I was even within a 10 minute walk of the place.

The washer/dryers were pretty hard to figure out -- they aren't like the US machines that you put money right into the machine. Lucky for me I asked just the right person for help -- she was from Hungary and had a sweet little baby about Sky's age; and the best part, she also only spoke English but could read German. So, we hung out together at the laundromat; she helped me learn how to start the machines, and I took care of her baby while she folded her clothes. It was fun to have a friend in the city for a few hours. It made the time go by much faster. It was kind of hard to find the laundromat from the subway, and way hard to find my way back, but eventually I ended up at the right place (after asking for directions from about 4 different people).

On Friday night Jon was done with work by 5, so I took him out to see some of the places I've been spending my time. We went to Gendarmenmarkt, Bebelplatz, and Museum Island. Of course we didn't go in anywhere because everything was closing, but at least he got to see all the different places. I've been on vacation since we got here, but Jon's vacation had just started that night.

On Saturday we went to Potsdam (a little city to the South of Berlin). There are a million palaces in that city. There is a big park called Sanssouci Park, and within the park are 4 palaces -- actually they were all built by the same king, but there are 4 different buildings. The first one we saw was the Sanssouci Palace. Apparently it was the first palace that Frederick the Great built.

The whole palace was so over-the-top fancy, so I was getting pretty excited to see the bedrooms, especially the big, grandiose beds, and then this teeny little bed was all they had. I couldn't even believe it.

These were what the park grounds looked like. It really was a park (just like Charlottenburg's grounds), so there were tons of people going for bike rides with their families, etc.

This was the Orangery -- and yes, it really was used to house oranges in the winter. But, not only was it an orange house, it also was a humongous palace, because 2 just wasn't enough.

Last but not least, was the New Palace. It was built by the same guy as the first 3. Apparently there just wasn't enough room in his other palaces to hold all his closest friends, so he built one more just for good measure. It was so crazy. Who needs 4 palaces all within a 25 minute walk?

On the way back to the train station, we stopped at a little cafe that served Austrian food. We both felt slightly nervous, but it was really good. I can now officially say that I like wiener schnitzel (although, I still don't know exactly what it is). They also had a super delicious chocolate cake which restored my faith in European delicious desserts -- I was starting to doubt their dessert making abilities because up to this point I hadn't had anything that great.

This is one of 2 identical buildings that used to be a University.

On Sunday we went to a German speaking ward. Luckily, a missionary couple noticed us and gave us a little headset that had someone translating into English. We must not have looked German enough. Although, I felt quite pleased with my memory of German pronunciation while we were singing the hymns. I listened to the people around me and I said my words just like them. I was obviously meant to be German.

After church we went to the Sachsenhausen Concentration Camp. We only took a picture of the front gate because it was just a sad place, and I didn't want to have all the pictures to remind me of it over and over again. Luckily, it wasn't as sad as I was expecting because it was pretty factual. They didn't have a very personal spin on anything, which was helpful to me because I can read the factual things with no problem; it's the personal letters and experiences that are too hard to handle. Anyway, we were glad that we went, but I don't think I would want to visit again.

This is our hotel. From the outside it looks just like any other building, but it's super fancy inside. I love Jon's work that pays for us to have awesome accommodations!