San Diego is good for the Soul

Two weeks ago we went on our big vacation for the year! We drove down to San Diego to spend the week on the beach. It was just the relaxation we needed!

Dave had never been to Las Vegas so we stopped and stayed on the strip on the way down. The kids had fun seeing the Bellagio and mirages water shows and really enjoyed the circus tight rope act at Circus Circus. Vegas isn’t my favorite place, but it reminds me very much of Grandpa Yoder (who always love to take us downtown for the Buffet at the Rio or to the Pirates show at Treasure Island).

When we arrived at the apartment I rented for the week, we discovered the beach was 400 feet away. It was easily walkable, which was great because the kids always seem to forget something that we had to run back for. Or Logan decided he was too covered in sand and needed in immediate shower so he could get some more swimming in. I swear the kids had at least 2 showers a day (sometimes more)

The weather was perfect! It was low 80s and high 70s the entire time we were there and the water was far warmer than we ever expected. The kids all had a blast running from the waves. After I thought Dave to boogie board he loved teaching all the kids and they had a blast riding the waves to shore.

We swam for at least six hours each day, combed the beach for Sand dollars and seashells at low tide. We pretty much all decided we wouldn’t mind living near the ocean, or at least visiting annually.

Logan‘s favorite part about staying on the beach was all the swimming we got to do. Brooklyn loved boogie boarding. And Dustin loved being so close to the beach that we could go every day. Or that we could walk to the grocery store daily to get ice cream.

On Thursday we headed north to check out Legoland. The kids have been begging to go to Legoland for as long as they’ve known it’s a thing, and although Dave and I are not amusement park people we told them we’d take them once in their life (although Dustin has decided he'll be back with his kids one day).

And mid week during a pandemic was the perfect time to go! There were no lines for anything. The only time we were closer than 6feet away from anyone was the gift shop (and masks were required inside). 

Lego land was fascinating! It was cool to see all the huge projects and get to explore it all. The rides were mostly wimpy with one big ride in each section of the park. But they were perfect for 5-10 year old kids. Nobody was bored. I would worry that much older would not be impressed with the rides.

The kids road each ride 6 to 8 times apiece and had a blast trying out the Legos and racing them down tracks or rivers. They also got  to meet a lot of Lego movie characters and see a lot of really cool large Legos.

Dustin was fascinated with this dragon because he has the regular size set at home and built it all himself!

The build and race it sections are a place the kids probably could have spent all day on, but sadly we had to move them along to make sure we saw everything.

Brooklyn’s favorite thing at Lego man land was hot dog man, Dustin loved all the roller coaster rides and Logan loved at all!

We made the mistake of riding the scariest ride first so Brooklyn was scared when she got on each ride (before she realized it wasn't too bad and she really liked it).

I made each of the kids a Lego Land shirt with a quote from the Lego Batman movie. If you haven't watched it, the movie is hilarious! ALL of us love it and the shirts crack me up each time I see them wearing them.

On our way out of town we swung by to see the San Diego temple (it was closed the whole time we were in town, so we just got to look through the fence). It was beautiful, and the kids were very impressed.

When I was driving Dave would get in the back with the kids and play, watch movies or snuggle with the kids.

During all the driving of our trip I was able to work on binding the quilt for Dave in my bed. I’m so happy with it! It turned out great. Many of the squares are scraps that Grandma Yoder gave me, but I also took some material from my mom, Tenille, and my stashes to tie everything together. Every time I look at it, I smile!

Getting back into the swing of things has been a lot of work, but it was totally worth it! I did 5 loads of laundry upon returning (why?!? We were on the beach all day in swim suits). Somehow the house was trashed and I had piles of dishes to wash too. Going on a trip is a lot of work, but so is recovering from one!

We got caught up on homework by Wednesday, which was a good thing because Wednesday was very busy. We had parent teacher Conferences and helped my Mom move the remainder of her furniture into her Utah home. My dad's was attending a funeral in Arizona so Mom was in charge of the final move. And I had Young Women's that night.

Also Wednesday I had an appointment with the ENT who thinks he MIGHT be able to fix my migraines. I have a severely deviated septum and on top of that the right side of the deviated septum has a bone spur growing and pressing into one of my sinus cavity. The Dr suspects that when my sinus swells (from poor air quality which is pretty much always a problem in the Salt Lake Valley) that the pressure against the sinus is what is causing my migraines.

He gave me a test to determine if having surgery to straighten the nasal passage and remove the bone spur will result in no more headaches. Unfortunately the air quality has been perfect for the past few days and I can't test his theory until we have bad air and I get another 3 headaches. So here I am rooting for bad air so I can test and see if I need surgery.

It was busy, but I am close to feeling caught back up. Hopefully next week everything will be back to our normal craziness!

Labor Day & the Labors of Life

The last two weeks have been busy, but with squeezed in a lot of good stuff. The kids are back into the swing of things with school. We had their annual back to school picnic lunch with the family right before Labor Day weekend.

Brooklyn was so excited to be able to attend as one of the school kids this year and loved introducing me to all of her friends. Dustin has always had a gang of friends following him around and funny enough, Brooklyn’s friends were great friends with Dustin‘s friends. Since they have the same recess they all play together often.

I got to meet Bailey, the girl that has a huge crush on Dustin. She followed him around almost the whole time constantly giving him hugs. She’s not in his class this year so I was hoping the crush would die down. But it looks like it’s not going to do that anytime soon.

We’ve gotten to see a lot of my parents lately as they slowly transition into their new home here in Taylorsville. The kids have loved all the time with grandma and Papa! The Saturday of Labor Day weekend we hiked up to twin Lakes near solitude and Brighton. It was a longer hike than I thought, but we had a good time finding rocks and exploring nature.

It's always healing for all of us to be out in nature! We love spending time decompressing. Dustin is doing a geology segment in science class, so he enlisted us in collecting enough pieces of Mica to share with all his class. He was so proud to bring them in and share them the next week.

Memorial day Monday we worked like crazy on our master powder room. We’ve got the vanity installed, installed and touched up the trim, put in the toilet, and cut the vanity top to size. I found a few pieces of quartz countertop somebody was giving away free, so we spent a lot of time researching how to finish it off as well.

Brooklyn got a new/her first bicycle last week. It’s pink, princess, and plays magical songs when you hit a button. It also has a baby carrying seat in the back. She’s In heaven and insists on going on at least one ride around the block each day.

It’s also been down pouring a lot lately! We’ve had several major storms which we needed so bad. It’s been a bad drought here, and hopefully the winter will continue with lots of storms (even if that means I have to shovel a ton). The kids love every minute of it! They put on their rain gear, and then splash and float things down the gutters.

This weekend was full of more construction. We got the holes cut into the vanity countertop and buffed the edges that we cut so that way they would be smooth like the top. It turned out better than expected, although somehow we managed to crack part of it. I purchased the supplies to fix the crack tonight, and we should be able to finish this bathroom by the weekend. Overall the countertop has cost us $25. $20 for a tool to do the buffing and $5 to fix the crack we put in it.

The kids also got to play with Mike’s kids yesterday while I was in my marathon of meetings. And then last night Dave’s parents came over to play games and eat dessert with us.

I’m finally starting to feel like I will have some free time during the days to get some projects done. Up until now I’ve had dentist and Doctor appointments filling up my free mornings. But I only have one dentist appointment this week, and hopefully I’m done fixing my broken tooth. And then I have one more ENT appointment in two weeks. I've been having major sinus pressure/swelling which cause migraine headaches for a few years now. 

I thought it was due to allergies, and have been treating it with allergy medication. But it's gotten progressively worse and more frequent over the past year so I went to see an allergist a few weeks ago. Turns out I'm not allergic to anything. At all. So I'm off to see if an ENT can cure me. And I’m really hoping he'll know immediately what's wrong and that will be the last of my doctors appointments for at least a year. Here's hoping anyway

Back to School

The kids were SO excite to be back in school! Logan is happy to have Mrs. Graham again for 5th grade (he had and loved her in 3rd grade). Dustin was excited to get Mrs. Porter for 2nd grade (Logan had her when he was in 2nd grade too). And although you can't tell from the pic, Brooklyn has been counting down the days until she started Kindergarten with Mrs. Lafferty for about a year. She was upset though that Kindergarten didn't start until the week after the boys.

Logan has really come into his own over the past year. He's learned to get along with everyone pretty well. All summer long I was impressed with him (mostly) not fighting with his siblings. He's a pretty happy kid and LOVES to read! I had to limit him on how many books he could check out at a time this summer because he had so many he started loosing them.

This picture pretty much sums up our goofy Dustin! He's a crack up and always into everything. The kids decided they wanted to design their own shirts for the first day of school. My mom commented "I get Logan and Brooklyn's choices in shirts, but what's up with Dustin's???" He told me it's because he "loves burgers and fries. They're pretty much my favorite food". When I told my mom that she responded "He did tell me about a dream he had about hamburgers and fries" What can I say? My kids are fast food deprived.

Brooklyn was over the moon excited when her first day finally came. I was a little nervous for her, because she can be extremely shy, but she did great! She came home from school and told me she made 3 new friends that love beautiful things too. Every day she tells me about the new friends she made, or worries if someone isn't in class (hoping they aren't sick).

Brooklyn's our little girly girl. She loves all things pink, sparkly, and beautiful. I have no idea where she gets if from. 

 She had a blast with all the new things at school, and on day two she was so worn out from playing so hard I found her asleep on a Luv Sac when I called everyone in for dinner. It made me smile because my parents have a picture of me napping on the couch after my first day of Kindergarten too.

We've pretty much gotten back into the swing of the school year now. Brooklyn's first week of school I had scheduled all my doctor and dentist appointments that I had missed over the past 1.5 years (corona makes it hard to get out without the kids, or even with them). But I'm hoping the second week will be more laid back.

Summer Time

This summer was BUSY! We started out with a trip to the Green River up at Flaming Gorge with my parents and most of my siblings. Dave's boss has a cabbing up there and he let us stay and borrow his 12 man raft to enjoy the river. The kids had a great time playing with their cousins.

Brooklyn and her cousin Petra were enamored with the horses that were on the land beside the cousin's hotel. They made as many trips as possible to visit and feed these guys.

This summer was crazy busy with church stuff. I'm working with our congregation's teenage girls and we had a girls camp, a youth conference, hosted a carnival for neighborhood kids, and weekly activities. It was a ton of work and I finished the summer completely exhausted and ready to ask for another job. But I hung in and am hoping that I will have more energy with everyone back in school. Hopefully after the first few weeks I'll be able to catch a few quiet moments to rejuvenate.

My friend Tenille came and visited us a few times. The kids enjoyed messing around with their bonus auntie. She always brings a million projects for them (and me) to work on.

We took Tenille to the Upper Provo Falls for an adventure. It's not a tough hike down to the water, and from there you can go up or down stream. trek through the water and enjoy several water falls.

It's a little bit of a drive, but totally worth it a few times a year. The kids loved getting wet and sharing the hike with Tenille.

The boys decided they wanted to take on sewing plushies this summer. They sewed the facial features on by hand, picked out the colors, and I sewed it all together. They each made a stuffed animal, then they made this penguin to give to our friend's baby for his first birthday.

We also hiked up to silver lake a few times. The kids love scaling every rock they can for the entire hike. They always enjoy this hike, but unfortunately the stream they usually damn up was dry due to the drought. That was very disappointing for them, but hopefully we'll get enough rain this winter that it will be back next summer.

Every summer we also go to the library to make Harry Potter crafts. This year the kids enjoyed making a time turner, golden snitch (out of chocolate), some flying keys, a notebook with a Hogwarts logo on it, and a quill. They also got to play wizard's chess with some other kids at the library. They kicked the other kid's butts! Logan's been practicing his chess and the bigger kids were a little put out that little kids were beating them.

The weekend before school started we did a 2 night campout with a family from the neighborhood. It was so nice to get away from the city and just enjoy nature. 

Right behind our camp site was a stream that the kids had a blast wading in and floating things down the river. It was the perfect temperature and we saw a few animals (squirrels, a moose, a snake...).

The kids went with me shopping to get the food for the trip and BEGGED me to get a monster tub of cheetoes puffs. They decided they tasted best roasted over the fire.

We also hiked up Doughnut falls with our friends. It was fun to hike with friends, and although Logan got stung by a wasp, it was a great adventure. It's been a bad year for wasps here! Dave also got stung, and Brooklyn had 3 stings earlier this year!

Over all it was a good summer. Busy, and over way too fast, but we had a lot of fun.

March thru June

 Since I seem to only write in my blog quarterly lately, I've decided to just go with it. So a little update of our spring! Dave's Grandfather Pete Plastow passed away from Covid 19 and we made a trip out to Moab to attend his funeral. It was good to see Suzy and the extended family and for Dave to get to be there when he was laid to rest. He was able to go through his grandpa's house and select a few items to take to remember him by. Also he was given a painting his Grandfather created that we framed. His grandfather was a western artist (some of his work is on display in the Smithsonian).

So of course while we were there we had to hit up Arches. What trip to Moab is complete without a little hiking?

The kids were great hikers and had a blast scrambling up everything we let them. We probably need to schedule some rock climbing into our busy lives.

The weather was perfect for hiking too, not too hot (like you get in the dead of the summer), and not too busy. I guess that's one thing we can thank Corona for.

We like to go on Sunday "hikes" and by hike I mean casual walks on trails unless it's over 100 degrees. But even then we will drive up the canyon and enjoy the 10-20 degree cooler weather. This pic is from a portion of the Jordon River Trail near our home. It's one of our favorite sections of the trail.

This spring we also registered the boys for a basket ball clinic. Dustin has done basketball in the past and he was excited to take another class to hone his skills.

This was Logan's first class and although he was a little nervous he got the hang of it quickly. He wanted to learn how to do basketball since our new house has a basketball hoop.

They both got pretty good and made "over 200 shots" each. Hopefully they'll continue enjoying the sport because I suspect both with end up tall.

We've enjoyed having my brother Mike's family in the neighborhood. The kids love getting together often to play at each other's house. They've become pretty good friends and get along most of the time.

At the end of a tough school year, the boys got to participate in their school fun run. Logan usually loves running, but due to corona they made the kids run in masks. And it was HOT out. So he started out running but ended walking. Can't say I blame him, I hate wearing masks and can't imagine working out in one. But he still had a good time.

Dustin also enjoyed the race. He was able to get 6th place for his grade and was quite proud of himself. He's a fast runner and made sure to wear his "sports mask" so it wouldn't be so sweaty.

They were so glad to be in person this year, and to get to see their friends. Even if things were a little different, they still were glad to be back in person. It was a tough year for all of us with all the added precautions of Social Distancing and face masks. But we made it through and are hoping for more interaction now that the vaccines are out.