Something to aspire to

I was reading an article on the passing of Sister Barbara B. Smith, former Relief Society general president. I really liked how her son described her:

"She was a shining example-- no one doubted that she had an absolute sureness of the gospel of Jesus Christ, and knew that by following the precepts and teaching of the gospel, we would receive eternal joy and happiness. She taught that to her children.

She was the same in her private life as she was in her public life.... She associated with kings and queens and leaders throughout the world, and she treated her family just the same as she treated them."

Our Week

Monday we went up to Snowbird and used a free tram pass I was given to see the fall colors. It was a pretty drive, and the girls had fun riding the aerial tram. The top was super windy, so they saw a few views and afterward just wanted to eat snacks in the warming shed until the next tram went down. Sigh. Oh well, at least it was free!
We hit the Farmer's Market on Tuesday. I love getting the fresh produce, and I love that there are markets not too far from us almost every day of the week!

I saw Hamlet on Thursday-- I'm volunteer ushering again this year at Pioneer Theatre. Hamlet was my least anticipated play of the season. Good, but long. The end was a surprise since I haven't revisited the play since sophomore History and Lit class at BYU. Yes, just about everyone dies in the end.

Friday we did a nice fall visit to Wheeler Farm, where the main attraction was sitting on the old farm equipment, not the animals who were all hiding due to the high temperatures.

Saturday was another fun day outside. We all headed to the SoJo races. I ran the 5K, Cora ran the kids race, and Kissie ran the marathon.

Here I am! The race was actually pretty easy for me since it was flat and I'm used to running the hills around here. No, it did not take me an hour and a half, the time clock is for the half marathoners who started coming in a bit after me. I ran it in 29.5 minutes, and maybe could have run faster had I not forgotten my running watch at home and had an inkling of my pace and distance! It was a lot of fun.
Cora has been asking to run in a race for months-- I think inspired by us watching Kissie run her marathons. Cora was so excited! She insisted on wearing these tall pink socks.
Here she is at the back of the group at the starting line. She was the smallest one by far!
Kevin ran with her for a little way to keep her company. Here she is going into the finish-- I loved that they let the little kids use the same finish line as the grown-up racers!
There she is at the finish. It was a half mile run. Later that afternoon she asked if she could run another race next week! We'll have to go do more running at our park. I think the end of race treats helped her enjoy it even more though. They had a ton of stuff-- icecream, fruit, chicken sandwiches, muffins, cookies. It was stocked!
Then we hung out at the park and waited for the marathoners to come along. Luke was a great sport and did so well in the stroller pretty much the whole time.
I don't have any pictures of Kissie finishing, but she did a great job too! It was SO HOT that day, and she finished a little after noon, really late in the day to be finishing a marathon. I think they had them start later because of possibly cooler fall weather. In Utah you just never know!

Today we went for a drive on the Alpine Loop after church. Yup, us and just about everyone else in Northern Utah. It was so crowded, we had to wait quite a while at the entrance and there was a lot of traffic on the road. But we saw some pretty scenery! We stopped at Cascade Springs, which I've only been to once (and that was 7 years ago when I was touring wildfires for my job-- so this was much more scenic). It was a fun place, and I'd love to go there again sometime-- with fewer crowds. Violet was tired and reclined in the stroller the whole time, Luke enjoyed people-watching from the Snugli, and Cora was a trooper walking a bunch in the heat-- no cooler mountain temps today! (Yes, Cora insisted on this outfit this afternoon. I only got to steer her a little bit, this is better than it could have been! I might have insisted more had I realized just how many people we would be seeing. Yes, I realize I should let go of wanting to decide what she wears when.)
We'll definitely have to visit again, maybe in June during the day midweek!

Fire

Sunday night at dinnertime Kevin noticed smoke on the mountain west of our house. We didn't think too much of it, and got busy putting tired kiddos to bed. After bedtime though, the clouds of smoke got bigger and darker.
Then, about 8:30, we saw the first flames at the crest of the mountain.
It was an incredible sight to see the flames jump up with the heavy winds .
We had the best view on the street due to the empty lot across from us, so we got to trade info on the fire with our neighbors off and on most of the night.
After the sunset you could see the flames even more. They spread to from being at just one part of the crest of the mountain to all along the ridge.
And then we saw the flames start to work their way down the mountain-- scary!
And they continued to work their way more south too.
It was so helpful that Herriman city sent out updates on Twitter and Facebook several times an hour to let everyone know about the status of the fire and the firefighters' progress. I can't imagine seeing a fire like that so close and not knowing what was going on. We were so lucky that we were directly east of the fire, so with the south winds, we didn't get any smoke smell. It was pretty heavy in other nearby areas.

I felt pretty safe, because although the fire was only 2 miles away from us, it would have had to burn through hundreds of houses and jump a 7 lane road to get to us, or move miles south along the ridge line and come up the gully south of us to be a real threat. But as the rumors of evacuating swirled and neighbors were leaving with their kids, we did get uncertain and worried. The fire was too close to go to bed and sleep well. I felt so lucky our kids were already in bed, making it a more desirable option to just stay put and see what happened. We were nervous enough though to make a video of our house and belongings for insurance purposes-- a task I've been putting off for years now. We alternated checking the web updates, going outside to exchange information with the neighbors and check the progress of the fire, and watching the news.

We saw reports that 3 homes had burned. What a terrible loss! Those people and their neighbors had very little warning and most of them were running out of their homes as flames were approaching their backyards and weren't able to save anything.

Homes near us started being evacuated around 10:00pm. This included about half our ward who lives across a main road from us, up by the reservoir beach we go to. About midnight rumors of the evacuation of our neighborhood began. We packed up our computers, file drawer of important papers, and clothes and necessities for 3 days. Interestingly enough, there weren't a LOT of items that were completely essential.

Herriman updated the evacuation parameters several times between midnight and 2:30am, but they weren't very clear-- they listed our neighborhood as mandatory evacuation, but then had the wrong coordinates. Very confusing. The evacuation of Juniper Point was announced and revoked and announced and revoked. We knew that if we left, there was no way of knowing when we might be allowed back in. The flames looked like they were dying down a bit, and we were so tired, we decided just to go to bed. If they were going to get serious about evacuating the neighborhood, we would be ready to jump out of bed and go when we heard the bullhorns coming down our street. Lucky for us, they didn't.
Here's what the fire looked like the next morning--Monday. Still lots of hot spots, and only 20% contained. The fire continued to burn mostly on the other side of the mountain, but the winds were due to pick up and change direction Tuesday morning, so there was still much cause for concern.

Last night, Tuesday, the people in our ward were allowed to return to their homes. And finally today, at 4:00pm, the evacuation order was completely lifted for everyone.

I feel so sad for the people who lost their homes. The firefighters did an amazing job in fighting the fires and it was incredible that more homes weren't lost. It could have been so much worse. I'm grateful for technology that allowed us to stay informed about the fire and understand what was happening. It was a unique opportunity to get to know our neighbors more and bond-- nothing like a crisis to bring everyone together. And I feel so grateful that as close as the fire was, it really had very little impact on our family's lives.

The experience made me think a lot about Hurricane Katrina and other major disasters. We were worried about this fire, but we knew if we needed help it would be close by and easily accessible-- not like a massive widespread disaster where no hotels were open, no food was available. We were so tired that night and the next day but we did get to rest-- not like the poor people in Haiti who must have been SO tired and distraught as their ordeal went on day after day with no relief in sight. We are lucky and blessed to live in a community that has the resources to combat a calamity and that the fire was quite localized. It was reassuring to have the Elders Quorum president call to ask Kevin to check on his home teaching families, and to have our home teacher call and check on us.

Now we just have to hope the professionals are able to prevent the mudslides that inevitably follow a wildland fire.

Here are a few more pictures that were shared via facebook.
This one was taken from Utah County, that's the Timpanogous temple.
I believe this one was taken from the Draper bench.
This was taken around the corner from our house, a five minute walk away.
You can see our reservoir on the left side of this picture. It is less than a mile away from our house.

Here are the stats:

~Equipment used: 35 fire engines, 7 fire crews, 2 helicopters, 2 single engine air tankers, 3 heavy air tankers, 6 bulldozers
~1 day of school closures
~121 people filed claims for compensation
~over 1,400 homes evacuated
~3 homes destroyed
~400 properties with damage
~4,351 acres burned
~50 percent contained (as of today)

Trafalga

I found some discount tickets to a local mini amusement park-- I thought it would be fun for the girls to ride some little rides. It was a little rinky-dinky, and was short-staffed the first 45 minutes after they opened, but I think we had enough fun to make it worth it. At the beginning, there were only two staff members out, so they rotated which rides were in operation. Since there were only 3 or 4 families there it worked out ok. The girls got their fill of rides with minimal waiting in line in the 3 hours we were there!

The airplane ride was a favorite, although I'm not sure Cora and Violet ever did figure out how to make their plane go up and down.
Kevin did the boat ride with Violet, who burst into tears the first time she got squirted, so they ended early. Cora and I got drenched going under a waterfall--at least it was at the beginning so I had plenty of time to dry off!
I think Violet's favorite was this boat that swung back and forth. But she also loved the rollar coaster too.
I think this ride was Cora's favorite. It was quite jolting-- but she had the biggest smiles the whole time. Violet said she wanted to go on it, so I went with her, and she cried after the first bump til the end.

We all did multiple rides on the carousel too, which was fun. Bonus? the girls both slept 12 hours straight that night.

August Family Pictures

Can you tell this was the last shot of the day??

The Neighborhood Pool

I'm hoping that with the warm weather this week, we'll be able to get a few more swim days in. We didn't take nearly as much advantage of the pool this year as we should have!

Our Saturday...

We woke up early to meet Kissie and Pata and pick out our favorite fruits and veggies... and a few muffins and cookies... from the Salt Lake Farmer's Market. I made some of these veggies into baby food for Luke today, so even he gets to taste some of the yumminess!

We stopped to swing at the playground afterward. Even Luke!
We hiked up to Ensign Peak to see the view. It was Kevin and Pata's first time! And everyone who can walk walked, with very minimal whining!
Ate lunch at Settebello, an authentic, certified (!) pizzeria Napoletana. Yum!

Watched BYU struggle against Air Force (Kevin, Pata, and the girls).

Enjoyed the sunshine and watched my cousin Jason finish his 100 mile race--about 35 hours straight of running, and he is just 18! Wow! (Mom, Luke, and I-- I think we got the better option!).

Ate icecream in the park across the street from my parents' apartment.

Had two exhausted girls fall asleep on the way home and transfer easily into their beds.

And just had an all-around fun, busy but not too busy interesting day.

Celebrate Others

I read this on a blog I follow and loved it. It's from last week's Music and the Spoken Word. What a great reminder to celebrate the accomplishments of others instead of comparing and competing!


Celebrate Others Delivered By: Lloyd D. Newell

Three mothers were sitting together at a school ballgame. Two of them were gushing about their children’s talents and latest achievements. One’s son had just won an athletic scholarship, and another’s daughter had just been chosen as valedictorian. The third mother’s son had no such accomplishments, but she seemed unruffled, even happy about the success of the other two. She almost sounded as proud of those children as their own mothers were.

Later, when asked why she hadn’t felt jealous, she simply explained that it was much easier to celebrate than to compete. She certainly wanted success for her child as well, but she knew that victories for others don’t mean failures for us. She felt confident that her son would excel in his own way and in his own time.

The ability to forget oneself and praise another’s achievement is a key to contented living. It’s natural to feel pangs of envy at another’s success—as if their success cancels out our own. But, in reality, life is a roller coaster, and we each have our ups and downs. When we remember and cherish our own values and growth, we realize we wouldn’t trade places with anyone else. When we are confident in the motives of our own hearts, we can then reach out to commend others for a job well done or good fortune that comes their way.

This big-heartedness is also easier when we adopt the stance of the mother at the ballgame: If we can look upon others with an almost parental sense of love, then we can rejoice in their achievements the same way a gardener rejoices in stunning flowers that bloom in the garden. We discover that we have surrounded ourselves with winners, and they inspire us rather than threaten us.

It has been said that “one of the marks of true greatness is the ability to develop greatness in others.” If we make it our life’s work to bring out the best in others, how can we feel anything but personal success when they shine?

Luke at Eight Months

Luke is 8 months old! My the time does fly. Here's a bit about what Luke's been up to the last month.
The first thing Luke does when he wakes up is to look for his sisters. Usually he doesn't have to look for long! If he can hear their voices in another room, he'll crane his neck around to try to catch a glimpse. That being said, he loves them, but does get a little frustrated when Cora wants to hold him too often and feels free to (try to) heft him around and when Violet steals his toys. Poor guy!Luke has discovered doorstops and their pleasing sound. He knows where most of them are in the areas he often gets to hang out in. He'll make a beeline for them when I set him down.

How fascinating!

Here he just discovered that he can use his feet to do it too!

Luke loves buttons, both clothing buttons and electronics buttons. He also loves shiny things, so the remote is a favorite. He likes to watch cars go by and is easily distracted by all the shiny things in the inside of the car while he's supposed to be nursing during an errand break.
Luke is a great eater. He's still eating baby food three times a day, and nursing about 4-5 times a day. He's trying bits of regular food here and there too. He's loved sweet potato pancakes, cheerios, bits of noodles, and a lick of icecream here and there. He's pretty good at sippee cups, and loves water. He likes his puffs during church (or whenever else we're trying to keep him still and occupied) and often makes appreciative grunts every time one gets in his mouth. One of his favorite things to do while eating is to grab his high chair buckles and smear them with his veggie oatmeal goop. That high chair needs to sprayed off sometime soon!
Luke is getting the hang of high fives. It takes him a few tries to clue into what you are doing, but he must like it because he gets a big smile on his face and keeps his hand open if you keep it up.
Luke's two top teeth are on their way in! He's been a little miserable on and off the last week or so. I can feel the bumps and even see the white spots of the corners of the teeth through his gum, but no breakthroughs yet. I hope they come in soon!

On September 5th, Luke went from laying down to sitting up by himself for the first time. He seems to love being able to have more control over his body-- what a huge boost of freedom to be able to change your view!

We tried to get a better tower-knocking-over video, but Luke is too fast! He feels he is duty-bound to destroy those towers. Luckily the girls don't mind (yet!).

By far, Luke's biggest accomplishment of the month is crawling! He's not a full-fledged crawler yet, but has his own caterpillar crawl he uses to get around pretty well. And he's getting faster every day.

Three cute kiddos...

And one funny outtake that I just had to include.