My return to blogging, part 1

Hi. It's me. Remember me?? I know...it's been a long time. So long, actually, that I'm almost embarrassed to start blogging again. But I suppose it's time. Especially with all that's happened in the last few months. I'll spare you the excuses and just leave it at saying there was enough going on that blogging moved pretty far down the list and motivation was pretty non-existant.

I also won't try to recap everything that's happened in the last 5-6 months. Most of it would seem pretty lame to talk about this far after the fact anyway (assuming any of it was really blog worthy in the first place). But I'll hit some highlights - mostly those leading up to the big news that I'm sure everyone knows by now...we up and moved to Clearfield.

After 5.5 years as an assistant manager at Wal-mart, Erik decided it was time to move forward, so he started applying for the next level. We knew there would be some openings in both of the Logan stores as well as the Perry store sometime in the fall or late summer, so he started throwing his name in the ring for some other stores for the practice. When those Logan openings came, everyone, including his store manager, assumed he was a shoe-in. But when the decision was delayed week after week, we knew something was up. In the end, some political and personal issues meant Erik didn't get the position.

It was pretty discouraging, but another opportunity popped up pretty quickly. The market HR manager wanted Erik to apply for a position he was having a hard time getting qualified applicants for. Only it was in Taylorsville. Tay. Lors. Ville. For those who don't know, Taylorsville is about 1.5 hours from Logan. Not exactly commutable when he would already be working a 13-hour shift. It would definitely require a move. We were also wary of leaving my super flexible job. Because of some past precedent set by my office, we decided to pose the possibility of working from home. I was already doing it one day a week anyway and had done it three days a week the year Lily was born. My position had changed dramatically from what it had been 5 years earlier, but we figured it was worth a try. Let's just call that day a roller coaster. I ran it by the first person, who thought it was worth a try, and we both posed the option to the others who would need to be consulted. Three of the four were on board and were super optimistic. So I told Erik to go ahead and apply...it was going to happen! About an hour later, I was told it was a no-go. I was crushed to say the least.

Erik could now either withdraw his application and look bad, or we could move forward anyway. So he moved forward. In the end, once again, some political issues prevented his being offered the position, even though he was later told he was their first choice. Having the same outcome after all the stress was really frustrating. But it was almost a relief since I wouldn't have to quit after all. We figured we'd just wait until something a little more commutable came up. About a month later, the Centerville store had an opening. We had decided this was really the farthest he was willing to go, even with a move, and with the outcome of the last two stores, he applied almost planning that it wouldn't pan out. I didn't even mention it to my bosses since I knew my options there. We had crunched some numbers during the Taylorsville interviews and had decided to give my staying at home a try...maybe with the occasional freelance work. This time, he got the job.

A commute to Centerville from Logan was still a little over an hour, so we started looking for houses in Davis County right away. He ended up commuting for about 2 months before we moved to Clearfield, which is not quite 30 minutes away. We closed on our new house two days after Christmas, and I gave my notice after the start of the year. Once he'd been offered the position, I did let them know a move would be coming, but since we would need my income to qualify for two mortgages, I didn't want to make anything official or put anything in writing in case our new lender somehow found out. I knew they were already interviewing for my position since it would eventually be combined with another position they were filling, so I didn't feel too bad about springing it on them even though I'd know for over a month when my last day would be.  In the end, it all worked out. I spent the last two weeks (really about 5 days with the New Year's holiday and only working 4 days a week anyway) wrapping up what I needed to and feeling very conflicted about leaving a job I'd had for almost 11 years.

My last day was a Thursday. While I was eating cake and saying goodbye, the moving company hired by Wal-mart packed most of our stuff. (Let me give an aside about hiring movers. When you tell people movers will be doing all the work, including the packing, they tell you how lucky you are. And I suppose that's true. It was one less thing to worry about. But that's not in my nature. I did worry. Like I said: I knew my moving date a month out. But I couldn't do anything except think about moving. Being able to pack up and declutter as I went would have been super helpful. I did try to declutter a little, but it seemed ridiculous to pull everything out, trash the stuff I didn't want to take, and put it all back again. Then there's the issue of unpacking. I admit to being a little OCD, so maybe this wouldn't have bothered anyone else. But unpacking was so random. It was a mystery box every time. Sure, they said dishes or living room but one kitchen box had items from three cupboards but no one complete cupboard. Each cupboard was strewn among several boxes. So I guess what it boils down to is there are some things I'd rather do myself...) Friday, they loaded it into the truck (and trashed our carpet while doing it). Saturday, January 12, we moved in. (I will admit, though, that having them bring everything in the house was AWESOME.)

A month and a half later, we're almost completely out of boxes. That's normal, right??? To still have half unpacked boxes?? There's only two or three. Ok...maybe 7. Out of something like 120. Just tell me it's normal.

(Part 2 to follow, hopefully with pictures and what we think of the whole thing and what's happening with the Logan house...)
 

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Summer fun

Here are some of the things we've been up to this summer.

Summerfest: Kid Art

Chillin' it at the pool.

Fourth of July fun...including homemade ice cream

Awesome finger painting...masterpieces, every one.

Lazy days at the park

UPSTART graduation - Kindergarten starts in three weeks!!!

Cruising Boston and Canada (more about that later)

Hope your summer has been as fun as ours!
 

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Our Christmas

Christmas was two weeks ago, so it seems almost silly to bring it up now. But I thought I should post about our holiday. Last year, we split the day between our two families - Springville in the morning and Roy in the evening. And it made for a lot of driving and it felt like we were in the car for a good chunk of the day. So this year, we tried a different tactic. We went to Erik's parents' house on Christmas Eve for their annual bash and then headed home to get everyone tucked into bed for Santa. Since the kids fell asleep on the way home, it was a good thing we put the cookies out before we left.

Although, I wonder how Santa felt about milk that had been sitting out for 12 hours. Yummm!!

Christmas day was nice and relaxed. Lily actually managed to stay in bed after 7:30, so we got to sleep in just a little. The anticipated bike was there and made her day. Timothy is teething and continued his cranky mood, but we did manage to make him happy with some candy, and he finally consented to open one present. The rest of the day was spent lounging with absolutely no where to go. It was fabulous. This kids stayed occupied playing with their new toys and each other. (Actually, Lily was more interested in Timothy's toys than hers. Next year, I'm just going to decide what I'm getting Timothy and then get two.)

We headed to Springville the week after Christmas. We had a nice lunch with Nana and Grandpa Len and Uncle Garrik and Sariah. More presents of course and just hanging out without worrying about having to be somewhere else. I think we've figured out how to do the whole holiday thing....finally.

Hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas and started out the New Year doing something fun!

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Christmas Lights

On Monday, we made our annual trek to Salt Lake to see the lights. (And can I just say again how much I love Frontrunner. Taking the train downtown is so much easier than dealing with traffic and parking.) It was my mom's birthday, so we met up Nana and Grandpa Len for the adventure.

It actually wasn't too crowded, so I wasn't overly concerned about Lily getting lost. Last year, she refused to hold a hand and was constantly running away. Luckily, she adores Grandpa Len, so she stuck pretty close to his side all night. Timothy was pretty content in the backpack, even with all the bundling. I was so afraid he would freeze (and it was super cold), so he was dressed to the nines. When we piled everything on just before getting off the train, he wasn't too thrilled. He didn't fuss about all the layers, though. It was more of a silent protest with frequent escapes to his happy place. (That's what we call it when he closes his eyes to avoid us.)

But once we got going, he had a pretty good time and probably had a pretty good view of it all. After seeing all there was to see, we stopped for some (very) hot chocolate and headed home. Since Erik misread his watch, we actually left about an hour later than we planned. It made for a late night, but it was worth it. Lily had a great time, and since she's really starting to remember what we do for the holidays, I wouldn't miss this tradition for the world.

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Halloween

Halloween was pretty fun this year...as always, really. Since last Halloween, Lily has wanted to be a mermaid, so that's what she was. While crawling the web for the perfect mermaid costume, I also came across an adorable golfer costume for Timothy. I decided on a flapper. And Erik...well...Erik was a pink unicorn. Which I didn't actually get any good pictures of, but there's one later in this post that will at least give the general idea.

As soon as the pumpkins hit the stores, Lily was begging to paint one, which is what we did last year. No knives to worry about. Minimal mess. She loves to paint. It's win-win. But this year, she wanted to carve her pumpkin, too. I think it was mainly to take out the seeds. I actually ended up carving it. With very specific direction, mind you.

Our church had a trunk or treat the Friday before the big day, so we got to make Halloween stretch out a few days. It also meant the kids got to wear their costumes more than once. I'm pretty sure Timothy didn't care a snit about putting on those golfer tights again, but Lily was thrilled to don the tail a few times.

On Halloween proper, Erik brought the kids into my office for some yummy treats and then took them into Walmart. It helps to be a kid of the boss since all the associates handing out candy were sure to load a couple handfuls into Lily's bucket. That night, we headed over to the annual Mullahkhel party where Lily got to do some honest-to-goodness real trick-or-treating. Until now, we've let Walmart suffice. There will be no going back I'm sure.

Between all the candy-begging events, Lily ended up with a huge bowl full of candy. 24 cups worth to be exact. And we've barely made a dent in it. I'm thinking it will slowing start heading into the trash, soon. Unless anyone's interested. You know where you can reach me...

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Fall at the Farm

It seems like fall is flying by. And it seems like we've actually had one this year. It seems like last year, fall came and went way too quickly. There wasn't a long leaf display. There were no piles to be raked and jumped in. The weather went from sweltering to freezing. But this year, I feel like the leaves seemed to be prettier. They seemed to stick around longer. And we actually had some nice fall weather. And another fall means another trip to the American West Heritage Center. Lily loves going to the farm. How could she not with train and pony rides? In the fall, they also have a hay fort, a huge slide, and a corn maze. We opted out of the corn maze this year, but Lily enjoyed every last bit out of the rest of the activities.

Our first stop was the train.

 Lily is in LOVE with this little train. It doesn't go very fast, and its route is just a loop around a sorry little pond. But this train is better than any other ride out there. Just ask her. Timothy got to chill in the back pack on the train since Erik decided it was too much of a pain to take off.

 As a side note, we've hit a phase where any picture taking opportunity elicits the cheesiest, most fake smile you've ever seen from Lily. Most of our pictures now look like this:

Fantastic, right? Hopefully it won't last long.

Our next stop was the big slide. Two years ago when we Erik took Lily down it, her response was, "That was fun, Daddy. Let's not do it again." This year, it was all we could do to get her to move on to the hay fort. Although brave as she is for most things, she was not about to go down by herself. But I think Erik was having just as much fun as she was, so it was ok.

When we were finally able to convince her to move on, we headed to the hay fort. There was jumping and hopping and throwing of hay. Oh, and Lily had fun, too.

We went to the farm with a few friends who have kids both Lily's and Timothy's ages. Lily honestly wasn't too interested in playing with boys closer to her age. But she latched on to one of the little boys who's about 4 months older than Timothy (and much more mobile). Sully didn't really seem to mind...

She led him around and he showed her the planes flying overhead. It was pretty adorable, really.

Before two more rides on the train before heading home, we stopped at the pony rides...another favorite must do.

Going to the farm each year just confirms to me how much and how fast Lily is growing. The first time we did the pony rides, the helmet was way too big. Now she rides without any help and takes the helmet off on her own. Doesn't she look so big in this picture? It blows my mind...

And Timothy continued to chill in the back pack.

Next year, he'll be running around with Lily having a great time. (He's walking a little and could all the time if he wasn't such a fast crawler. Why stumble around when he can get anywhere he wants in .02 seconds?) I'm sure we'll have another train and pony lover in our midst. And I'm looking forward to it...

Hope everyone's fall has been as fun as ours!

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Busy July, part 3 (the end)

And now...for the conclusion of our July festivities. I know what you're thinking: Finally!!! Can we move on already? Almost...this won't be long. :)

This year, Walmart made the mistake of putting Erik in charge of the associate summer party. He decided they needed a bounce house. He ordered the bounce castle for the kids and then went ahead and ordered two more. The blow-up jousting/boxing ring and the huge slide. Because the adults would want to participate in the fun, too. Lily thought the castle was great and spent a little time there. And then she spent most of the night at the playground on the swings and monkey bars. Go figure. She did give the slide a try, and looked terrified on the way down the first time. I could just see her little mind thinking, Was that fun? Or just crazy? She must have thought it was ok because she spent probably the last hour of the night going up and down. Erik took a few runs, too, including this one, which resulted in a nice vinyl burn on his elbow.

Lily must have enjoyed the bouncing in general because she was very dramatic when they started deflating. I wish I would have filmed that. The castle was last, and the moan when the turrets fell was fantastic.

A few days later, we hit the Mendon Pioneer Day fireworks and then did some driveway fireworks with the Mullahkhels and their cul-de-sac. Timothy, I think, is rather indifferent to fireworks of any sort. Even in Mendon when you're close enough for fall out, he just sort of glanced to see where the noise came from and then went on with his business. Lily thought the sparklers were pretty fantastic, but her favorite thing of the day was probably the pop-its. She would have been happy as a clam if we'd just given her an entire case of those and let her go to town.

So that wraps up our July. It was super fun, but I'm sort of relieved we're heading into a more low-key August. This summer has definitely flown by, but I think I'm ready for fall...

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Busy July, part 2

We weekend after our 4th of July activities, we headed up to La Platta to do a little camping with Erik's family. Lily had a absolutely awesome time hanging out with Addison. Timothy did a lot better than I expected, honestly, considering he had to be held a good chunk of the time. He got to crawl around a bit in Grandma and Grandpa's trailer and on Patt's porch, but that was about it. There's just not many places for a baby to crawl in the wild. ;)

Laddie had a great time, too. We tied him to a tote bag filled with rocks so he could move around if he had the gumption, but if he got too excited and took off, he'd get tangled fairly quickly and we'd be able to find him. But you should have seen his pathetic little face when he decided he was too exhausted to move that rock. He'd lie down and whine his little heart out until someone had pity on him and picked up the bag so he could find a suitable lap. If a squirrel wandered by, though, you'd think that bag was empty. He also found a certain log to be very interesting.


It wasn't long before we couldn't see him at all.

We did all the things you should do when camping, including smores with HUGE marshmallows, some dutch oven potatoes (that the guys cooked in the down pour that started just as they got them on the coals), some off-roading (in 2-wheel drive...oops!), and getting completely filthy.

That next week was our anniversary, but we didn't actually celebrate until the weekend. We dropped the kids with Nana and Grandpa Len and we headed to Salt Lake for some dinner at the Garden Restaurant. After dinner, Erik was nice enough to indulge my Harry Potter weakness, and we headed to the movie at the IMAX in 3D. It. Was. A. Mazing. Plus, to top it all off, I sat next to Professor Snape of all people. Harry Potter has been a 10-year obsession (although not as much since the final book came out), so it was kind of weird to finally have an end to it. And it was great to have a husband willing to go with me since he's not really into it.

You might have noticed the ankle brace Erik's wearing in that picture. One day that week, he hopped in the bed of his truck to do...something...I don't remember what. But when he hopped out, he twisted his ankle. This is how it looked when he got home that night...

It actually hurt bad enough he went to have it looked at. Not broken, but a nasty sprain. 12 weeks in a brace. Anyway...since we hit the late showing of HP, we stayed the night in Salt Lake before heading to grab the kids (making a pit stop at IKEA, of course) and worked on the 4th (or 5th?) installment of Mission: Fix Allen Sprinklers.

And that wraps up part 2. I think I can close out the rest of the month with one more post that will include a video of Erik tumbling down a big blow up slide. How's that for a teaser?

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Busy July, part 1

The problem with working retail is you usually end up working on holidays and weekends. With Erik's schedule, we end up with three weekends free and then three weekends when he's working. We lucked out that July happened to be a (mostly) weekend-free month. This means we've packed a ton of activities into those weekends. That also means my blogging of those activities has been very sub-par since activities I usually save for the weekend have been smooshed into the rest of the week and blogging is low on the list. In an effort to document our summer fun, I'm finally starting the blogging...

Our 4th of July weekend was jammed packed and super fun. On the 1st, we hit up the Cache Valley Cruise In. I'll be honest: it's gotten to the point we're reluctant to take Lily anywhere in public, especially where there will be lots of people and lots of new things to see. She gets distracted easily and won't listen to us, and it's almost always a fight to get her out of there. But she was soooooo amazingly good that I'm almost starting to believe she might turn out a productive member of society after all. Before we left the house, we told Lily she couldn't touch any of the cars at the car show because they were very expensive. When we met up with Derek and Daxton, she was sure to remind them, too. Several times. But it worked. She was very good about not touching the cars, which was a good thing since several of them had very threatening signs about fingerprints. They had an area with kid games, and she patiently waited her turn (mostly) and left when we said it was time. I almost didn't know how to leave an activity without carrying a flailing toddler. It was very nice!

That night, we grabbed some KFC and headed to our reserved spot for the Cruise In parade. Erik had worked until midnight the night before, so he dropped a blanket off in front of the tabernacle on his way home. He snagged a spot in front of a tall building thinking we would be the first to get shade. Unfortunately, he didn't take into account the angle of the shade...and as the sun was setting, we sadly watched our shade cover the people to the left of us, leaving us squinting and sweltering. He'll know better next year. :) It was still fun and continued our tradition...so that's what matters.

 On the 4th, we woke up to ominous rain clouds, and since our plans included a trip to the aquatic center, we were a little bummed. Lily especially since we'd already told her our plans. But we did a little errand running to keep her distracted and grabbed some do-it-yourself fireworks. We finally decided a few gray clouds weren't going to keep us from going swimming, so we decided to risk it. Good thing we did because apparently everyone else was just as leery of potential rain. The pool wasn't nearly as crowded as we expected and the clouds made it a little cooler. Timothy enjoyed just sitting in the water but held on for dear life most of the time. He decided he'd had enough after one too many splashes. But Lily's our little fish and had a great time showing off the skills she learned from her swimming lessons this year and even went down the slide a couple times. We wrapped up swimming with some ice cream and went home to get ready for fireworks.

We usually head to the Hyrum soccer field for the festivities, but the traffic afterwards is always so bad that we decided to try a different approach this year. Instead, we parked at the high school and just hung out in the bed of the truck with our pizza. We ended up with a great view, and the truck bed kept the kids contained. And we were on the road in no time. It may become our new viewing spot.

Definitely a busy weekend, but so much fun.

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Memorial Day Weekend

Every once in a great while, the planets align just right and Erik ends up with an honest to goodness long weekend like a normal person. It just so happens the planets were kind to us for Memorial Day this year. So we packed up the kids and headed down to St. George with some friends.

We weren't sure how the kids would do on a six-hour drive, but they were both actually really good. Lily only asked, "Are we there yet?" about 5 times, and it could have been sooooo many more. I think by the end, they were both ready to get out, and so were we, but they were definitely troopers.

Once we'd made the official arrangements to go, we told Lily we would be taking a vacation, which would mean staying in a hotel - where you can jump on the beds! Apparently, this is what Erik remembers most about vacations. So the first thing Lily had to do when we arrived was...

That night, we took a dip in the pool. Timothy had never been swimming before, but he seemed to enjoy it...without a single tear being shed until we pulled him out and he was cold.

Getting everyone to bed that night was a little rougher than usual since Timothy could still hear us milling around while he was in the travel crib. But it wasn't too long before he dozed off. Even though we played up the advantage of having a great big bed all to herself, Lily decided she wanted someone to sleep with her, so for the first two nights, Erik had the privilege. I was nice and took the last night.

On Saturday, we headed into Vegas. The last couple times we've been down there, we've talked about going to the shark reef at Mandalay Bay. We decided it was time we finally did it...plus, Lily would LOVE it. And she totally did. They had some huge, beautiful fish and two tunnel aquariums you could walk through. She was severely tempted to touch the stingrays, but she couldn't quite reach and I don't think she really wanted to anyway.

After the aquarium, we headed to the M&Ms store...our must see in Vegas. Lily was grabbing things left and right, and although we planned on buying her something, we were sure we would have a major melt down when we made her narrow it down to one. As we were getting ready to go, we helped her pick out a star-shaped box of M&Ms. Then she remembered the wall of candy dispensers. She wanted some in a bag, too. We helped her get them, and then said we'd get a smaller box instead of the star one. Then she surprised us completely and said she just wanted the bag. Since they're sold by the pound, we managed to get out of there for about 2 bucks. Sometimes, she amazes me. (I just wish I could predict when she's going to be easy going and when I should brace myself for a fight. I never seem to get it right.)

We rounded out the evening with some shopping in St. George and some pizza for dinner. A great day, really.

On Sunday, we drove the little ways out to Snow Canyon. We stopped at the dunes for a bit, but it was pretty windy, and sand and wind are not a great combination. So we headed to a trail a little further in to climb on some of the great red rocks. So gorgeous!

For our first real family vacation, I think we can call it success. The kids behaved themselves for the most part. We had some fun. We got some great pictures. There wasn't any fighting. No one got hurt, at least not majorly. (Timothy did fall off the bed and get a rug burn on his nose, but that's a completely different story.) And Lily got to jump on some beds.

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