May

The day after we got back from Hawaii, we had the missionaries over for dinner. I decided they would make good birthday guests for our family birthday dinner for Trav. :) It's really handy that his favorite cake is Funfetti. :)

Happy 311 birthday, babe.

I was having a really hard time getting out of bed one morning after getting back from our trip. Collin sees a problem and likes to draw pictures to help. So one morning I heard movement behind my closed eyelids and when I finally crawled out of bed, I had this picture folded up, waiting for me next to my pillow. He explained that it was a picture of me driving him to school. (Read as... come on mom, get up and do what you're supposed to, haha! Even though Travis always takes him.)

Maybe it was getting back to real life or maybe it's that Olive screamed all week and the kids either seemed to be crying or fighting. But I had HAD it by Thursday. And Travis is always gone on Thursdays from about 5:15pm to 10pm at the church. I hit a wall around 3pm. It was leftovers and TV and yelling, "Please leave me alone!" Collin had a t-ball practice at 6pm. I bribed them with ice cream if we could just stay home. They happily agreed. I ate my dinner in the car so I could just have 5 minutes to myself without listening to crying. Then I was SO proud of myself, because I calmly bathed all the kids and put them to bed with no yelling. (As in.. I didn't yell.) And even read an extra book, sang songs, hugs and kisses, answered questions, the whole 9 yards. I had just come downstairs and sat on the couch when 3 minutes later, the door opened and Trav walked in. Poor man didn't deserve the glare I gave him, but what the heck??!!!! He NEVER.. I mean NEVER gets home early on Thursdays. But he sails in at 8:05pm, just minutes after I get the kids down. I tell ya what...

Collin's school had a "Kindegarten Celebration" one afternoon.

They put on a show for all the parents in the gym, singing songs about animals and the jungle and reciting parts. Then announced some awards and had cake and juice.

 Cutest tiger ever.

T-ball is in full swing and up until last week, we still FROZE every time. Olive and Weston would last for about 10 minutes before they were begging to go back in the car.

 Very begrudgingly, I ordered some Keen hiking boots for the trek. They came in the same day I wore my new favorite shoes in the whole, wide world! Marcie gave us jellies to say thanks for her baby shower. I shrieked when I opened them!! They are SO dang cute! I feel like I have Cinderella feet when I wear them. :) The Keens on the other hand.... triple ugh!

 If I can time it right, I like to do my grocery shopping on Tuesday, when it's just me and this gal. Something about the way she looked this day made me pause. She just looks so grown up! Where's my baby?!?

 Friday night pizza couldn't be eaten anywhere but Daddy's lap.

 One Saturday night we got a date all to ourselves. I'm obsessed with Fratelli's "Lisa D's salad", so that's where we were.

Now, being surrounded by Native Americans ain't nothing new. But there was something about this guy.... he caught my eye.

(Look beyond Trav. ;) I made him pretend to let me take his picture.)

I mean this in the best way possible, but he looked like he was straight out of a history book. Very stately and.... I don't even know.... a quality that can't be described. I wanted to talk to him. His family looked regular, if regular is the right word. Just, nothing out of the ordinary. But him.... there was something about him! I told Trav, he looks like he could be on a nickel. Very regal. I had a hard time not staring. I don't know why he intrigued me so much. Just another dinner in Gallup.... :)

But on the flip side of that coin...... on our way out we got to watch a drunk guy in the parking lot, get picked up by the Community Aid van. They take people to the detox center. We were just walking past him when he decided we must have been most vile creatures and earth and decided to double bird us and start shouting every variation of the F word he could think of. SIGH. Just another evening out in Gallup.

 The last two weeks of May was all the end of the school year hoopla! It made me realize that my last class of 5th graders was graduating. So. surreal. I can't be that old! I loved this class so much. (I loved my first class too, but I struggled a lot more that year.) I'm still friends with a few of them on Facebook. I wish I could see them all now and know what they're doing... what college they'll attend and what major they'll pick. Who they'll marry. It made my heart ache to look back on pictures. I miss teaching.

 The day before the last day of school, I walked to the school to pick up the kids. When the weather was nice, we liked to do that. Otherwise, Megan and I carpooled.

Here come Collin and Lilly. Kabren would come with us too. They always bounded into the car with lots to say, excited about their day, with only the kind of excitement that Kindergarteners have. ;)

 One of Collin's very favorite activities is drawing. He especially loves to draw a picture, stuff it in an envelope and present it to us as a gift. His way of showing love. He'll often surprise us with a picture then quietly lament that HE never gets pictures drawn for him. Break my heart! I always feel so bad and vow to draw one soon. Well, for the last day of school, I was determined to finally draw him a picture and put it in his lunchbox. I knew he'd love it. I was so excited for the surprise. Then- the day before the last day of school, Collin specifically asked if I'd draw him a picture and put it in his lunchbox. He reminded me several times. Hummpf! Well that took all the fun outta that! Regardless, he still loved my picture and it was all he could talk about later. Even his teacher was told all about it and mentioned it to me when I came in to visit. I included a Starburst with a little gold star, which he saved then got scotch tape to tape it to his shirt for the rest of the day. And when it was time for bed, he transferred it to his pajamas and wore it proudly. I am going to miss this age. He can be so darn cute.

 The last day! Sniff sniff. I DID NOT expect to be so emotional. I wasn't sad one bit on the first day. And lest you think it's just because now he'll be home for the summer, that really wasn't it. Endings are just hard for me. I'm not ready for him to graduate from Kindergarten!! I got a babysitter to stay with Olive and Weston for the last hour of school so I could go into his classroom for the party (which... lame... they were just watching a movie), but it was all I could do to not start bawling in the hallway as I walked to his classroom!!! My heart was just so sad that this year of his life is over and he is growing up. I know that sounds really dumb, but it's just how I felt. I love this freckly face so much. He is a ball of energy but also a tender heart and has such a loving nature. I'm so grateful he's mine!

 I really loved his teacher, Mrs. McClure. She had a very calm demeanor and was organized and caring with the kids. There was also an aid in his class, so I got them both Baskin Robbins gift cards with homemade bread and jam.

(We also gave Mrs. McClure a Book of Mormon. It was Travis's idea and made me really nervous. I wrote my testimony in the cover and slipped it inside the bag.... the cowardly way so that I didn't have to hand it to her outright. She text me later to thank me for the gift card and to tell me the bread and jam were yummy. No mention of the book... haha. Oh well. I gave it a small effort. Why is it so darn SCARY to do that?!)

 We took the kids to Baskin Robbins for a celebratory ice cream after school, then to the park to play. Of course Baskin Robbins had to be obliterating their parking lot on this only day we've ever taken the kids out for ice cream!! It was LOUD and smelly and dirt was spraying everywhere. So pleasant. Weston didn't mind one bit. He could hardly lick his cone for how mesmerized he was by the construction.

 K, this is SUPER lame of me, but I didn't order a yearbook. But Brinn did and Kabren left it in my car. Sooo I took some pictures of the pictures, haha. So here you go, Collin.

 To wrap up May, we had our overnight Ma and Pa training for trek. This was required. It was supposed to be 4 1/2 hours away in Colorado but due to tons of rain, it got moved 2 hours closer to us in Hesperus, Colorado. I was over the moon happy!! Totally dreading the 9 hours of driving before. We drove up with the Valgardsons on Friday afternoon. Aubrey was nice enough to come to Gallup to stay with our kids.

After we pitched our tents, the food committee went over some of the meals we'd be preparing. I was so happy that Sylvia was our instructor! I used to visit teach Sylvia in Farmington and I LOVE her. She's the sweetest woman alive. Since this trek encompasses 5 stakes, it's been fun to see old friends from Farmington.

That night we had a devotional. It started out cold, but then went to freezing. My toes were numb and I found myself wondering how I got myself into this predicament. My goal in life is NEVER to be cold!!! How do I forget this?!

The concluding speaker was President Rogers from another stake. He told a story about a miracle in his life that occurred recently, related to the trek. Then he started to tell us... then corrected himself and with a quivering voice said he PROMISED us, we would see miracles in our lives connected to the trek, if we hadn't already. The tears immediately started down my cheeks as I realized I'd already had a miracle in my life. The day before I had hurt my back when exercising. Like, I laid on the floor while Trav finished the workout because I was in too much pain to continue. It hurt the rest of the day, even though I was really careful and mostly just laid on the couch rubbing oils on it and keeping a heating pad on it. But by the night is was much worse and I could barely move. I laid on my bed wondering what I should do. We had our overnight training the next day and there was no way I could pull a handcart. By the way I felt, I knew I'd be out for a week and in pain for at least another couple of weeks. The trek was in 2 weeks! Travis offered to give me a blessing and I of course accepted. I could barely get myself to the edge of the bed so he could put his hands on my head. He blessed me that I would be healed and that my body would be able to do all the righteous things I desired. After he finished, I started to slowly ease myself back on my pillow, very tense and wincing from pain.... but about half way down I realized I was wincing for no reason. My pain was gone. I could easily move, just as I would if I had never hurt my back. In amazement, I told Travis. Then I stared up at the ceiling and said, "That's incredible", over and over. EVERY time I think about it, even just writing about it, makes me cry. I do not have the words accurate enough to describe my gratitude. I KNOW that was a blessing from the Lord. And I am so incredible humbled and grateful. It's been overwhelming to see how much time and effort has already gone into this trek by so many people. I know we are being watched over and blessed.

Saturday morning we made breakfast, had a first aid overview, practiced some of the games and activities we'll do with our families, then put together the handcarts and did a mini hike with them. There are 5 "companies" going, so we assembled 5 handcarts. We got done early at 1pm which was a huge bonus. That gave us enough time to do some Sam's Club and JoAnne's shopping in Farmington and eat at Si Senor!

Adios, May! You were good to us!

Memorial Day

Since we never seem to be home on holidays, I wanted to take advantage of this one! There are actually quite a few things in our general area that are worth seeing.

I knew nothing of the Petrified Forest until last year, when my cousin Leah said it was big on her list of things to do with her kids. It's almost exactly an hour away from us, on the west. Right before you hit Holbrook. I was excited to see it! We invited the Shaheens and Hatches to come along too. Turned out to be a really good move, because Megan and I forgot our cameras, but Tania remembered hers! So most of the following are pictures she took. I was stoked to have so many pictures of a family outing and actually be in them! Novel! I told her I was tempted to hire her out for all future occasions. ;)

We started off on the north end at the Painted Desert Visitor Center.

We wanted to do some hiking, but got distracted by the beautiful view at the first lookout point and pulled over. ;)

 It wasn't much farther before we parked and got semi-lost looking for the first trail head- the Painted Desert Rim.

Disaster struck in the form of moody clouds, rain in our faces, cold wind and crying children. Rubi fell and went hysterical, so Megan took her back to the car. It seemed like not much later that 75% of the children were screaming or saying they wanted to go home. None happened to be my children which was great except that I was feeling mighty guilty about inviting everyone! 

Despite it all, I couldn't help but stare at the view, mesmerized. These pictures don't do it justice in the least. The northern end of the park is the Painted Desert. It looks just like the postcards, but better. I felt like I was the only one entranced though because I was the only one that kept ooooing and ahhhhing. I could have sat there looking at it for hours. The bitter weather was just a minor determent. 

Almost everyone got picked up by Megan at the end, but we huffed it back to the parking lot with Tania. Everyone was soaking wet and cold, but we had just started! We couldn't turn back now! So on we went!

It's 28 miles to drive from the northern end of the park to the southern end. We had maps we got from the visitor's center that showed us various stops along the way. 

Next, we stopped at Puerco Pueblo. It was a 0.3 mile walk among a partial excavation of 100+ room village, occupied 1250-1380 CE. We got a view of ancestral Puebloan homes and petroglyphs.

We laughed when we saw a plaque showing a woman with a baby strapped to her back. Not much has changed in a thousand years! 

And thank goodness the sun started shining! We had warm weather the rest of the day!

It was hard to believe these petroglyphs were real. I just imagined some Indian, teenaged pranksters, scratching them out then giggling at the excavators when they thought they'd hit pay dirt.

This shot cracked me up! Yawwwn! I think I've seen enough old people villages for today!

Don't even ask me what this is! I still haven't found out! Abraham sacrificing Isaac?? Only Bron.

(I should mention, Megan's parents were in town visiting, so they came along too!)

Again with Mr. Collin. What a turkey.

Some puffy tufts of grass looked like good chairs to these two!

Next, we stopped at Newspaper Rock. It was a lookout point that you could see over 650 petroglyphs, some as old as 2,000 years old. It's really hard to make them out in these pictures, but they're at the base of the rocks.



 Lunch time!

Little miss was none too interested in her PB & J, but bring on the Cheeto puffs!

Don't even remember what her sobbing was about, I just remember the straight fingers to the eyes was TOTAL DIVA. I love Weston's no sympathy face... "Yeah... a likely story".

This makes me laugh because it looks like she's taking a selfie. She was just insistent I watch her try to stick her sucker up her nose. This entertained her entirely 'til our next stop.

Agate Bridge was just a large, petrified log spanning a gully. You can see the concrete they built underneath it to support it.



I look like I'm coping a feel on the Agate Bridge. Sorry, tree. I know we just met. 

From there we drove to Crystal Forest. It was a .75 mile looped trail that showed an area full of petrified logs. It was so hard to wrap my mind around the fact that these trees are 250 million years old. How can anything be MILLIONS of years old?

Also, how can anyone take a picture of 8 children and get everyone looking? Impossible. We were just missing Rubi, who stayed with tired Bron, napping in the car.

Steel wins for best faces.

Tania caught a little PDA in the background.... we like to put on a show for the children. ;)

We debated whether we should go all the way to the south end, because we had already been out several hours, but "Old Faithful" was yet to be seen. So we persevered to the "Giant Logs", near the southern visitor's center. Here Collin sits atop Old Faithful. It's nearly 10 feet across at the base.

(In all, we spent about 6 hours at the park. It definitely provides a full day of sight seeing.) 

Megan took Tania's camera to capture the wearied mother, now carrying TWO tired children. Hooray for slings!

 On the drive back to the northern end, I noticed "Blue Mesa". I feel like anyone reading this would think I was cuckoo for thinking this was cool, but I swear you had to be there. Everything we saw really was pretty neat. I'd have to say I enjoyed the Painted Desert more than the Petrified Forest, but I'm glad we got to see all of it!

 We probably should have taken this picture on our way in, instead of out, but oh well. Trav stayed with Olive, who fell asleep in the car.

We ended our day with a BBQ at the Shaheens. The guys played corn hole and it was cute to watch the kids cheer their dads on.

I think this will be a particularly memorable Memorial Day!