The UPs and DOWNs of a Road Trip

If you are just joining us, we are on day three of my week of blogging. These are going to be out of order, because I'm waiting on some pictures that I thought I would have already - but I DON'T! So this post will be about our road trip from Texas to Utah.

We first headed to Carlsbad Caverns. None of us had ever been. I was very excited. Joe is slightly closterphobic, so he was saving his opinion for afterward. Our hotel was the closest, and only hotel right at the entrance of the park. We got there and checked into our hotel, about 15 minutes AFTER their free water park CLOSED for the night. This was our first DOWN, especially since they only let you use it the day you check in, not the day you check out. The hotel's internet was also down, so we had no computer time that night. Our room smelled like a nursing home. Breakfast was not provided, and the only restaraunt was ridiculously expensive - Ridiculous as in the owners should be shot! Those were all DOWNS.

The UP was the caverns themsleves. Amazing! My pictures do them no justice. Since we didn't have all day to spend there, we just went to "The Big Room". First you go downt this elevator about 750 feet, and then you step into this cavern that is HUGE! It is about 1 1/4 mile walk around the perimeter. Immediately JT was upset, and wanted to know if there were spiders and bats down there. That kind of got Madelyn and Alex a little nervous. It was kind of dark, so you can understand their apprehension.

But after we calmed their fears we began our walk.

Everyone seemed to be in a hurry, but I wanted to take my time.

It's not every day that you get to see things like that.

At one point I made everyone stop, and take a moment to just be amazed. I told them I was reminded of the scripture that says, All Things Denote there is a God. I don't want them always hurrying through life, and missing out on the amazing things that are right in front of them. I want them to be grateful for the opportunities they have to see new things, and explore new places.

Next we headed out of Carlsbad, and on to Roswell. We did not get there in time enough to explore the shops in town like I had wanted to, but we did stop at the McDonald's that was shaped like a spaceship, and that was an UP for the kids.

It ended up being a good thing that we didn't stay longer in Roswell, because we drove all the way to Durango, CO, and we didn't get there until after 10pm. We found a room at the Best Western, which was an UP. The room was the opposite in every way to the one we had stayed in the previous night. There was a hot breakfast in the morning. It was lovely. We got up early and drove to Mesa Verde, and walked down the trail to the Spruce Tree House ruins, which are the most intact ruins there.

The DOWN part of this was Alex, because he is a 2 year old. If you've ever had a 2 year old, you'll understand. The trail isn't WAY dangerous, but you still want to hold a 2 year old's hand so they don't slip and fall down the hill/cliff. Well our 2 year old didn't want to hold hands (of course), so Joe put him on his shoulders, and then he just started screaming. Once we got to the ruins there are signs all around that say don't climb on the rock walls. Well our 2 year old wanted to climb on the rock walls (of course).

Needless to say, we weren't there for very long, but it was an UP anyway (and I'm not just talking about the UPHILL we had to climb to get back to the car, during which time ALL of our kids started complaining that they were hot, and why didn't we bring a water bottle). It was so interesting imagining people actually living there, and it made us think of the people in the Book of Mormon.

The next stop was 4 Corners. I remember as a kid going to 4 corners, and I thought it was so cool that you could be in 4 states at the same time. The kids thought so too. It was an UP.

We let each of the kids pick out an Indian-made suvenier, and I got a nice turquosie bracelet for myself.

Then we drove past Lake Powell, and stopped at Glen Canyon Dam. I made everyone get out of the car and go into the visitors center. There were protests at first, but it turned out to be another UP. Inside the visitors center they have a serious of photographs that show the building of the dam - it was Amazing!

Even though this dam was man-made, the water it controls is not. Again I was reminded of the scripture, "All Things Denote there is a God". When you see the beauty and the calmness of the water, and then think about the power and force it has, the life that it gives and sustains, and how essential it is to every living thing, it is no wonder that Christ is called the Living Water. I was really glad we took the time to stop there. Hmmm, maybe the above statement doesn't go so well with the picture below.

Oh well, below was the Kids favorite part of the dam - a little lizard. They made sure I took a picture of it.

On to St. George, we drove through Zion's National Park - SO BEAUTIFUL!!! I'm pretty sure that I was NOT being a safe driver, because I couldn't help looking, and looking, and looking all around be at the beauty we were driving through. UP, UP, UP. I was trying to the get the kids to look too, but they were having a hard time concentrating on the scenery because they were watching classic Micky Mouse cartoons. They informed me that the old ones are so much better than the new ones on the Disney channel. I couldn't argue with that. We got in to St. George after 10pm...again. We stayed the night with Joe's brother and his family, and most of the next day. Lots of UPs there - they're always lots of fun to be with. They cooked us Korean food, to send us off in the right way. We went to the St. George temple and walked around with the kids and went to the visitor's center. Then that evening we got to Joe's parent's house in Manti, and thus ended our rode trip.

Our kids are very good travelers, and we're really lucky. When we drove to Manti from St. George, they asked how long it would take to get to Grandma's. When we said 3 1/2 hrs, they replied, "Oh, that's not too long". We've trained them well - It's an UP to traveling.

I've discovered that sunflower seeds help me be a safer driver, because it's impossible to fall asleep while your chewing on sunflower seeds. It's a snack AND an activity - It's a snacktivity! The DOWN to this is that if you eat too many sunflower seeds, your tongue gets raw. Now add to this the lemon heads that my friends Polly gave me for our trip, and it is BAD! Note to self - do not go back and forth between seeds and lemon heads, EVER:) I still have half a bag left of each.

One time during the trip JT said, with much furvor, "Mom, you HAVE to stop the car! I have to go to the bathroom really bad! I've been plugging my privacy!" I'm sorry if that offended anyone, but I almost peed my own pants when he said that because I was laughing so hard, so I just HAD to add it. JTisms are always an UP for me:)

I feel like I'm forgetting something, but if I am, I can't remember it - hence the forgetting.

First Time Buyers / First Time Sellers

I almost missed my deadline, but here is day two of my week of posts.

So we recently sold our first home. This was an interesting process. Interesting meaning scary, stressfull, and therwise non-enjoyable. However, we were VERY blessed during this process. We only had 1 1/2 months from start to finish to sell our house, and we actually did it. With the help of some very good friends we put our house up for Sell By Owner, and ended up getting about what we wanted out of it. There were some ups and downs along the way, but when all was said and done, we were very happy.

We put a lot of blood, sweat and tears into this house, as well as a lot of love. Down at the bottom of this post is a video that shows the house as it was when we first moved in. Then it shows what we first did to the living room and bathroom. Then there are pictures (sorry they are out of order) that show what our bathroom and kitchen looked like in the end (the living room we kept the same color).

As part of selling our house we had to have our roof replaced. Thankfully our insurance company covered that.

The new owner chose green shingles, as opposed to the brown ones that were on before.
We loved the way this bathroom turned out.
Of course, the kitchen was our favorite renovation.

Boy, the lady who bought it sure is lucky:)

It was weird to watch the movers pack up our stuff. It was crazy to see the house empty. It was very, very strange as we were doing the final walk-through, and then as we pulled out of the driveway for the last time. A little sad, yes. But we were also ready to move on, and it is such a relief not to have to worry about the mortgage or any more repairs. So now we are temporarily homeless. We can't wait to get into our new place.

Messy Birthday

Well, I realize that I am WAY behind in my blogging. So, to catch up on everything, I'm am going to TRY to blog a new post every single day for one week. You might be wondering what I'm doing right now, but you'll have to tune in later in the week to find out that. To start it off I have to backtrack to Madelyn's fourth birthday party....

We decided to have a MESSY birthday party for Madelyn this year. We invited all her friends from her Sunbeams class at church. We started things off by covering the kitchen table with shaving cream, and letting them go at it.

This was very interesting to watch, seeing the different reactions of the different children.
Some jumped in with both hands.

Some were cautious.

Some took time to warm up to the idea, but then like it. And some didn't want to have anything to do with it at all. It was TOO messy:) Surprisingly this did not take long to clean up, and all the kids helped. Then we broke out the finger paints, and each child had their own little canvas to paint on. Everyone wanted to do this. I don't really understand what the difference was between the finger paints and the shaving cream was - maybe they just liked the colors.

Again, I noticed the different techniques.

Some just using their fingertips.

And others using their whole hands. We made sure to give each child an old, oversized t-shirt, so they wouldn't Mess up their own clothes - aren't we thoughtful?

Next came cupcake decorating. We had brightly colored frostings and a variety of sprinkles.

Everyone got their own candle in their cupcake.

Make a wish!

Happy Birthday Madelyn!!!

Madelyn loved all the presents she got. Thankyou everyone!

There's not better way to clean up from a Messy party, then to swim afterwards.

I thought the party was a big success. Madelyn had really been looking forward to it all month. "It's my burp-day, it's my burp-day", she kept saying. JT finally said, "Madelyn, it's not BURP-day, it's BURF-day!" Good one JT:)

Oh my little Madelyn, growing up so fast. She turned from our Hurricane (because she left a wake of destruction wherever she went) to our Dust Devil. Explanation? Definition - a dust devil is a strong, well-formed, long-lived whirlwind; usually harmless, but can grow big enough to threaten people and property; also known as a dancing devil and a whirly-whirly. That makes me laugh, because that really does describe Madelyn. She's very strong-willed; she's a beautiful child; she is a whirlwind of activity, from dress-up to dancing to jumping on the trampoline; she keeps us guessing, and we never know if we're going to get the sweet little Madelyn who gives us kisses and says, "I love your face Mom", or the little devil Madelyn who twists up her face and says "No Mom!" and other such sassy things; She is relatively harmless, but darned if she doesn't lash out at her siblings sometimes. We'll keep her though, forever and ever. We love our Madelyn, and are so grateful to have her in our family.

One funny thing that Madelyn said a little while ago - She had a dentist appointment, which she did not like. Then she overheard me talking about her needing another appointment. She insisted that she did not want another appointment. I told her that I understood that she didn't WANT to, but that she needed to go anyway. A few minutes later she said, "Mom, my friend told me that I can't go to any more appointments, so I can't go!" It didn't work, but it was a cute try anyway.

Yeah, it's been a while...

Okay, okay, okay, okay - I know it's been a long time since my last post. We've been a little busy. But out of the love of my heart for all who read my blog (and I know there must be millions out there), I will take the time out of my busy life, to update you on mine. I'll start with some things I missed from the beginning of summer, and then get you squared away on the more recent happenings.

School ended with a bang as JT graduated from Kindergarten. Personally, I think the whole Kindergarten graduation thing is a little silly, but I am still the devoted mother who goes and takes pictures. Here is a picture of JT in his cap and gown with his teacher.

And here is Cora with her 2nd grade teacher.

I really loved my kids' teachers this year, and tried to get in and volunteer in the classrooms as often as I could. Here is a sample of the kids' artwork from school this past year.

At the beginning of the summer we had an interesting Family Home Evening activity. In our town there are these artistically painted sheep placed all around town at different businesses and city buildings. So we did a kind of scavenger hunt to look for as many as we could, and then took pictures of the kids with each one. The kids absolutely loved this. The weather was as perfect as it could have been that day, and we all enjoyed walking around down town. Below are some of the pictures we took.

Now, you already know what we've been doing most of our summer - working on the house. Our poor kids have suffered terribly because we haven't done swimming lessons, or soccer camp, or weekly library trips, or anything. Don't worry, we're going to make it up to them in a BIG way (that will come in a later post - I don't want to give away any surprises). But we got everything done that we could, and now we are in escrow with a buyer for our house, waiting to see if she's going to accept our price adjustment in order to paint the outside of the house and fix the roof. Selling this house has not been what I call fun. And we have also run into a lot of problems with paperwork for the military, trying to get everything worked out for our move to Korea. But time and time again, we have been blessed when we thought we had hit a dead-end, and all of the sudden things have worked out. It has happened with our command sponsorship, it has happened with accompanied travel, it has happened with getting movers, and being able to leave from the port we wanted, and having our insurance say they would cover us for the roof, and on, and on, and on. Heavenly Father is truly mindful of us. And we did have a nice break from all the chaos when Joe's brother and his family came to visit us for the 4th of July weekend. One of the reasons they came was for Joe's re-enlistment. Joe's brother is an officer in the Air Force, and he as able to swear Joe in, at our home. It was short and sweet, just like Joe wanted it - no fuss. After that we just enjoyed our time together. And of course we went to see fireworks, first at the river on Friday night, and then at the rec camp on Saturday.

So now you're caught up with us, and I'll try not to leave you hangin' so long next time:)

State of Chaos

To Do List:
1) Paint master bedroom (done)
2) Paint master bathroom (done)
3) Tile master bathroom (done)
4) Put in new vanity and fixtures in master bathroom (done)
5) Put in new toilet in master bathroom (done)
6) Change light fixture in master bathroom (done)
7) Re-caulk tub/shower in master bathroom (done)
8) Paint both kids' bedrooms (done)
9) Paint kids' bathroom (part-done)
10) Change fixtures in kids' bathroom (not done)
11) Fix crack in living room wall (done)
12) Re-paint living room wall (part-done)
13) Finish tile on kitchen counter (done)
14) Tile the buffet/desk/thingy in dining room (done)
15) Paint buffet/desk/thingy in dining room (not done)
16) Make three cabinet doors for kitchen, paint them, put on hardware, and hang on cabinets (done)
17) Yard work (mow lawn, hedge bushes, plant flowers, etc.) (done, but ongoing of course)
18) tear down old rotting siding over the garage, and some eaves (done)
19) Paint the trim, eaves, etc. on front of house (not done)
20) Put up new shutters on front of house (not done)
21) Clean windows, doors, base boards and trim (not done)
22) Clean the back enlcosed porch (done)
23) Take five million trips to the dump (done)
24) Try to keep the house from being too messy while doing all of the above things, and with four kids out of school and home all day (what do you think?)