CVL: August 2013

Saturday, August 31, 2013

August Round-up

Violet lost tooth #4! Such a big gap!

Kevin and I turned 35.

We had more fun times at City Creek. The kids got super soaked and had so much fun!

August 28, 2013

Thanks for the birthday well-wishes friends! It's been a nice day-- I put away the to-do list and even got to read in the afternoon! The kids didn't get the memo about no whining on my birthday, but they are in for an early bedtime so I can watch my favorite show and eat yummy treats without any refereeing . And a PS-- Violet loved her first day of kindergarten!

August Grandparent letter

Dear Grandpa and Grandma,

The summer has slipped away from me! I’m sorry it’s been so long since I’ve written. But I am glad we got to see you this summer!

We had a great summer filled with family reunions, a camping trip, day trips around Salt Lake, swimming at the neighborhood pool and local reservoir, weekly trips to the library, swim lessons, tumbling camps, playing with neighbor friends, and bouncing in the backyard bounce house. We had fun celebrating Pioneer Day and the Fourth of July, as well as Cora’s 7^th birthday, and Kevin and my 35^th birthdays.

Our biggest trip of the summer was a 13 day trip to Portland, the Oregon coast, and Reno. We loved spending time with family, playing on the beach, and exploring. What might have been the best part of the trip though, was that all of the kids slept through the night in their own beds every single night! This is a first for us on vacation! And all the daytimes went so much more smoothly as a result!

This summer Evelyn learned to walk and got 4 molars. She is getting her eye-teeth now and is not too happy about it. She is saying words and phrases more and more, although we often don’t understand as much of what she is saying as she would like. At 16 months old she finally added ‘mama’ to her vocabulary! She loves racing to Kevin when she hears the garage door open after he gets home from work, and is quite put out that she isn’t old enough to play in the front yard with the big kids! She is beginning to be interested in cartoons, but the only thing that will hold her attention for very long is a pile of picture books.

Luke started preschool (twice a week) and loves it! He was a little nervous the first day, but now asks every day if he can go to preschool. He can go super fast on his balance bike and loves playing in the sandbox. He wants to read just like his sisters and makes up a story to tell to you while he is ‘reading’. He is an angel in nursery and is working on being more angelic with his sisters at home J. He is excited to start a weekly sports class (for ages 3-5) soon where they learn a new sport each month.

Violet started kindergarten this year! She has only gone for 2 days so far, but it has been a positive experience so far. She goes in the afternoon so she can have the same wonderful teacher Cora had, so the mornings might feel like a long stretch this school year. She lost her fourth tooth today and now is sporting a smile without her two front teeth. Violet is already reading so well. She only knows one friend n her kindergarten class, so it will be a good chance for her to make more friends! She loves to play games and her latest favorite is skipbo.

Cora is now in second grade! She loves her new teacher and is excited to walk to school with her neighbor friends every day. Cora is a great reader and has had fun finding new chapter books to read. She has recently decided to stop tumbling class at the more competitive studio she has been going to for the last year. She’ll keep her skills sharp with a less intense class and maybe try swimming stroke classes or another sport this fall. Cora is a super helper with her siblings!

Kevin is excited to have season tickets to the BYU football games this fall. He also has a work conference in California in September that he is looking forward to. His job is still going well, although not as exciting as he would always like. But he is always home at 5:15, which I really value J.

I am adjusting to our new schedule and trying to make sure we are where we are supposed to be when we are supposed to be! I’m sure we will settle in soon. We are also busy harvesting and preparing carrots, tomatoes, tomatillos, kale, peas, squash and peppers from our garden. It has been so fun to have a garden this summer! I love all of the fresh produce! I teach the CTR 4 class and play the piano for choir, so that adds variety to life too.

We love you and miss you!

Wednesday, August 28, 2013

Firsts

August was a month of firsts, both happy and sad.

Sadly, my aunt Zeann passed away after a long fight with cancer. She is the first of my parents' siblings to pass away. I was so lucky that I was able to visit her in July when we could visit and talk before things got worse. It was a pretty Sunday morning and we talked about little things happening now and memories. It was a special visit that I'll always treasure. Zeann endured years of treatments, relapses, and pain, but not in a complaining way. I didn't realize most of what she was going through because she always was talking about happier things.

When Kevin and I were dating, Zeann invited us to her family dinners at her house with all her kids. Then, and especially after we got married, it was so nice to have a place where we could go to be with family, since we didn't have as much family around as we do now. It was wonderful to be around Zeann's family and get all kinds of advice while we were becoming new home-owners and new parents, have fun, get to know cousins better, and eat great food too of course. We've noticed in Utah that so many people have so much family around, they don't make as many good friends, so it can take hard work to make friends when you don't have lots of family around here. We always felt welcome with Zeann's family, and never like we were intruding. It was a valuable gift they gave us. Zeaan also started and kept alive some of our favorite extended family traditions!

We all went to her viewing Sunday night, and just Kevin, Evelyn, and I went to the funeral on Monday. Crowds and crowds of people were there, Zeann influenced so many through her needlepoint shop, church, family, and community. The speakers were touching and it was a great day celebrating her life.

As for happier firsts, here are a few for Evelyn.

First self-fed cup of yogurt, first slide down the big slide.

First rings-- strong girl! And first time saying mommy-- finally! At 16 months old!

Luke had his first day of preschool (Violet took our picture).

We got Cora and Violet ready for their first days of school with back-to-school double manicures and pedicures.

Cora had her first day of second grade.

We celebrated with a trip to the bakery. Evelyn was so excited to sit with the big kids and hold her own cookie-- well, smash the frosting in her face at least!

And, last but not least, Violet had her first day of kindergarten!

(Luke took our picture!)

The kids got to play on the playground for a few minutes, then we said goodbye and they lined up to go inside!

It was a big month of firsts!

Monday, August 12, 2013

On our way home

We said our goodbyes and spent Monday driving down the coast. We stopped by to see the sea lion caves (but no sea lions were in the cave that day, so we just saw them from afar). Amazingly we got this wonderful picture-- four kids happy and looking at the camera! It's a miracle! Of course, within ten minutes two were screaming and heading back to the car.

We also made a stop at Devil's Churn, one of our favorite places Kevin and I visited on our honeymoon drive down the Oregon coast. Exploring tide pools by steep drop-offs to a wild ocean was a lot less terrifying without children! But this trip was filled with much more wonder and excitement too.

Here's a far off picture of Kevin, Cora, and Luke.

This is one of my favorite pictures of our whole trip.

We then got all our tired kiddos in the car for the last stretch... after stopping for take-out at Mo's, of course. The kids were pretty good, but it was a looooong drive to Reno, especially after all the other driving. After a stretch on the freeway, it was a lot of driving through wilderness and national forest. We realized after sunset that we had spent too much time playing along the way and we just wren't going to make it until way too late to be good guests. But there weren't many hotels where we were driving! We finally found one, super late, and crashed. The we were able to get a decent night's sleep and take a short drive to Kurt and Jen's house. It was great to take a bit of time to explore the coast, it might be a long time before we get to do it again. Plus we got to see Kurt, Jen, and Kenny! Reno only added 5 hours to our trip, so we couldn't pass that opportunity up.

We had lots of fun with Kurt, Jen, and Kenny. Jen and I went out for pedicures, Kevin and Kurt went out shooting. We all took a trip to Scheel's and the kids took a ferris wheel ride. We ended with a trip to a fun park in the morning, and then were we on our way home.

It was quite the marathon of trips, but it was wonderful! A pretty grand adventure before getting ready for back-to-school!

Beach time!

After 4 days of fun in Portland, we headed off to the coast. Cora and Violet rode with cousins, and Evelyn and Luke fell asleep (after eating a powdered donut). The drive was our most peaceful yet!

We stopped for icecream at Tillamook-- yum!

And then we were at the beach! Dawn was able to get two beach houses next to each other, there were so many of us! We were lucky to have the master suite. With Evelyn in the walk-in closet, the girls sharing another room, and Luke on a mattress on the floor, it was so nice to really have room for all of us. It was our best sleeping for all of us of any vacation we've taken for a long time (so best energy and attitudes too!). Wonderful!

We spent 5 nights at the beach house, filled with games, crafts, walks, day trips, yummy food, and of course, most of all, the beach! The ocean is such a novelty for our family, no one cared it was overcast most of the time and highs were in the 60's with cold water. We all had so much fun!

Kevin, Dawn, and the kids worked so hard on this sandcastle!It was fun to watch the tide come in a fill the moat.

We were so close to the beach, which was so handy, especially for the kids.

We took a day trip to Seaside and enjoyed window shopping along the boardwalk.

There was a big volleyball tournament going on.

The kids were so excited to look in a lot of shops (especially the candy shop!) to spend their souvenir money. Now, there is one way for a parent to practice patience!

The big kids loved the tilt-a-whirl so much that Luke begged to go too. I think he said it was fun afterward, but he didn't want to go again!

Kristen captured this great picture of the cousins wearing the sarongs Dawn brought them back from Hawaii.

And now here are a whole bunch of beach pictures! I loved them all so much, it was hard to cut them out. Such great memories!

All the kids loved collecting seashells. Luke would sing the clean-up song while he filled his bucket. That's a big tidying up job!

The kids spent a lot of time wading and running from waves.

Here Cora wasn't too thrilled when she got caught!

Run, run, run!

Evelyn wanted to be in the ocean as much as possible. It took constant supervision to keep her safe!

Luke and I took a selfie while on a mommy-son beach walk.

Evelyn and I took a beach walk by ourselves too. It happened to be the lowest tide in a two week time period, and we saw tons of intact sand dollars. Evelyn waded and crawled in the little pools.