My Mom's Visit

My mom flew in Friday and we had a whirlwind of fun! She left as we were leaving for church (strategically so that Carter would be kept busy instead of his usual crying). Friday we picked up Carter from school and headed over to the Trellis Cafe at Thanksgiving Point Gardens. I've always wanted to take my mom there and eat out on the patio to look at the view and hear the waterfalls. I was so thrilled that we got to do that. We walked around the gardens and I was bummed that I had forgotten my camera. :-( We had a lovely time together. Over in the Monet garden we saw the biggest frog ever! It wouldn't have fit in my hand if I had tried to pick it up. At first I even thought it was a statue. I had Matt take a picture with his cell phone so that I'd have proof of it. It's just insanely big and made a big splash when it jumped into the water after Carter got too close. Carter also found a snake skin while we were there so it was quite an adventurous trip to the gardens!

Saturday we drove up the Alpine Loop to Cascade Springs. That's another place I've always wanted my mom to see. It has a really neat boardwalk that leads you up to the source of the springs and bridges and paths along the way. The drive was so heavenly as we looked at the gorgeous aspens and pine trees and listened to the water in the stream. We met Matt's parent's and had a picnic in the parking lot since you can't eat within the springs territory now. I took this great picture of Carter eating lunch on a rock with a breathtaking landscape behind him. The springs were gorgeous as well and I was so thankful to be able to share their beauty with my mom. She and Carter acted out the story of The 3 Billy Goats Gruff on the biggest bridge and Carter being the literal child that he is decided that since he was playing the troll he should fall off the bridge. He was hanging over the side barely holding on. I was scared for him but laughing at the same time because it was such a Carter thing to do. Here's a picture once he finally got one knee up on the bridge I felt it was safe enough to take a picture instead of running over to rescue him. Katherine really loves the outdoors just like Carter and she had a fun time watching the water and scenic views. We drove down through Sundance (so gorgeous) and dropped Matt and the kids at Matt's parent's house while my mom and I hit the outlets. I got some amazing new clothes (hooray!!!) and I enjoyed not having to share her with the kids. After getting home Carter and grandma played games of checkers, Old Maid, Go Fish, and a Mario video game. I'm so thankful she came to visit us and for all the fun! I miss her already.

Birthday Build A Bear

My MIL took Katherine and I out to lunch and to build a bear on Thursday. From these happy pictures you'd never guess that she screamed and cried and threw her bear out of the stroller. She had some fun cute moments too though.

Katherine's Birthday!

Yes I planned for her to wear a completely over the top outfit for her birthday! I wanted to see as much pink as possible. I remember when we found out that our baby was going to be a girl I was pretty intimidated. I don't think girly would be an adjective used to describe me since I'm a no frills (for the most part) kind of girl. I felt completely comfortable helping Carter find bugs and learning about dinosaurs. I worried that I would be not a great mom for a girl. Now she is 1 and I guess I didn't need to worry so much. I find myself buying bows and wanting lots of pink and already buying disney princess stuff. I'm sure she'll learn about dinosaurs and catch bugs too but I just think it's funny how much fun I'm having since I have the best of both worlds.

Today I got my first email that said "Your toddler" instead of "your baby." I'm signed up for like a billion different parenting themed emails but getting my first email indicating the transition was bittersweet. I can't wait for her to walk but part of me wants to keep her my little baby. Maybe it's knowing that she's my last but then again maybe it's just something every mom feels.

Katherine has had a nice birthday. We spent a couple of hours at the gardens with friends and she enjoyed the time there very much. She loves to crawl around and spends a lot of time cruising along the fountain wall. She's played with the present Carter gave her this morning and we picked up her Cinderella birthday cake that is adorable! It's an upright cake with the cake being Cinderella's dress. It's adorable and not too big and for the bargain price of $5.88 walmart can be assured I'll be back for these darling cakes again and again.

I write a birthday letter every year as my way of excusing the fact that I don't have a journal. I'll save the milestones and fun memories for that but I do want to acknowledge how incredibly blessed I feel to have this sweet baby in our family. She makes me laugh and I'm in awe of how something so little can have such strong opinions and emotions. She makes me grateful for so many things not the least of which are words. Katherine is truly a miracle for us. So many times I'd decrease my meds hoping that I could get off of them completely so that I could have another child. Time and time again my hopes were crushed as I'd flare up. After the miracle of healing I experienced we still had 14 months during which I worried constantly that I wouldn't be able to conceive or that my arthritis would flare up again making our precious window of time close. It is with so much gratitude and joy that I wish my Cricket a very happy first birthday. I am passing down to her my little number doll for age 1. My parents bought me these at each birthday and I've had them boxed up for years. I'm so thrilled that they'll be out once again and this time for my little princess.

Starting School and My Solace

Carter started 2nd grade today! I can't believe my baby (he'll always be my baby) is a big 2nd grader! I was definitely sad to see him go and got all choked up this morning when he sat by his sister and told her how much he was going to miss her while he was at school and to not be sad because he'd be home in 6 hours, etc. It's been a wonderful summer and I'm so glad to have gotten to spend so much time with him. He's quite a wonderful kid if I do say so myself. And a great helper and jester for Katherine. I can't count how many times I've started to cry and stopped myself in the last 24 hours. Transition is difficult for me. Wow, that's a gross understatement.

After taking Carter to school I knew I couldn't come home to a quiet house so we went straight to the gardens. It's a secret that pass holders can go to the gardens earlier than the general public. It's absolute heaven on earth. I walked the paths and listened to the wonderful morning sounds of the garden. It's like all the little creatures are busy and you can hear them rustling in the shrubs, chirping, beating wings, the sound of the water, and it's just all so faith sustaining. I was able to see a cute little bunny, almost had a head on collision with a couple hummingbirds playing chase, stopped to admire tiny dew drops on several plants, and watched the rushing water in the streams. It's so great for my soul. I only saw 3 other people there in the entire time that I was there. There was so much solitude I had no problem quietly singing a couple of my favorite songs along the paths. Katherine loved the trip of course and I stayed until I felt full and ready to face the rest of my day. There is so much beauty. As I walked out I saw a couple coming in. The woman was blind and it hurt my heart that she wouldn't be able to see the colors and the beauty, but then I remembered just how sensory rich the gardens are and I was so thankful that they were coming early enough to hear the beauty, take in the rich smells of the garden, and touch the flowers as Katherine and I had. I can't help but rustle the bamboo as I walk by so I can hear it and feel it's dry stringy texture. The garden provides so many textures and so many ways to take in all the beauty of the earth. It just makes me want to cry happy tears.

New Project

My latest big find. It may look dirty and run down but I'm fixing it up and am thinking of 2 words. Christmas Cash!

A Day in Ogden

So a bunch of the stuff I was selling on ksl sold this weekend and I was so excited to have made $130 from stuff in my house that I decided the kids and I should go do something we normally wouldn't do. I can think of a few reasons why I should have saved it all instead of spending some but the reality of school starting next week hit me and I just wanted one more really big fun thing to do before then. Quite honestly, the idea of Carter being gone all day M-F makes me want to cry. He is so fun to be around and such a good helper to Cricket and I. She and I are going to have to stay really busy so that we don't get really sad. On a whim, I asked Carter if he'd like to go to that Dinosaur Park in Ogden. He got really excited and didn't remember going there when he was 3 (go figure) so we got the diaper bag stocked and off we went! I got to the 4 corners when I started having second thoughts. I hate driving and I'm not a good driver. The directions said stay on I-15 until exit 344 so I hadn't looked up how long it would take. :-) Good thing I didn't! Oh the way there we passed the Hill AFB aerospace museum. There were several planes outside and I made a mental note to check into it. I stopped by a hotel on 12th street hoping they had discount coupons to the Dino Park but they were all out. While there we picked up a brochure for that aerospace museum and found out admission is free! Headed to the Dino Park and had a blast! It was really fun to walk the paths and see Carter running from sign to sign to read about the dinos. He's quite a trail blazer so we had to go down every dirt path that had a trail sign. So funny to be pushing my Peg Perego through the mud. Oy! But it was so fun to see Carter happy and see Katherine enjoying the sites too! She was laughing and clapping at the mechanic dinosaurs that moved and growled. No survival instincts I tell you! If you go to the Park remember to find the Education building. It is hidden/tucked behind the playground and it's easy to miss but we found it thanks to the map. Inside there are puzzles, books, computers, projects, and cool velcro make a dinosaur boards. Katherine loved cruising along the walls and pulling pieces off the board and Carter had a lot of fun on the computers, playing with tangrams, and putting together puzzles. We stayed later than I thought we would and headed towards the aerospace museum. It closes at 4:30 so we had 1 hour to walk around. The museum is incredible! There are SO many planes! One huge room for vintage and one huge room for all kinds of fighter jets. There were also war time artifacts on display, uniforms and helmets throughout the history of flight, a cool small display about Navajo Code Talkers, and all sorts of neat stuff to look at. We closed the museum down and honestly need to go back when we have like 3 hours to spend there. I was able to show Carter the B-24 bombers that my grandfather flew in and repaired during WW2. It's amazing how huge they are and hard to believe they can even stay in the air! My camera battery was dead so I don't have any pictures but here is the website http://www.hill.af.mil/library/museum/index.asp and there are some really good pictures of the planes on exhibit.

Swimming Lessons

Carter has enjoyed swimming lessons for the past couple of weeks. We checked into those lessons at a new, local pool and it ended up being like $4 a lesson (4 days per week for 2 weeks 30 min sessions for $35). I loved that it was so much closer than driving to Lehi and I loved that he could stay and play in the pool afterward. We usually stayed about 2 hours there each day (sometimes longer) and it was really fun to get in the pool with Katherine while Carter was having his lesson. I also loved having some time with Carter after his lesson to teach him how to have an underwater tea party and just be silly with my kids. Some of the time Katherine fell asleep and so I was able to swim some laps and read my book poolside. I'm really bummed that this was the last session before school. I'd love to be able to keep him swimming since he loves it so much. I need to look into a swim team or something. The teacher said that Lehi swim requires kids 10 and under to be able to swim 25 yards first. So the dilemma is, he needs to work on distance since he can swim but about each 1/4 of the pool stops to catch his breath but now we don't have access to the pool so he can't work on it. So....I'm trying to figure something out. He loves swimming and he's so proud of his new skills. I love to watch him glide through the water instead of the flailing and thrashing that he was doing before lessons. :-)

The Morrison version of The Christmas Story

Think about that classic moment in The Christmas Story when the mom "accidentally" breaks the glorious leg lamp. We can remember the crazed frantic look of the dad, the sheepish, quiet reaction of the mom, and the blank stares of the children looking on. We had a very similar experience this past weekend. As I was reaching for the cinnamon from the top shelf of my pantry I accidentally knocked over the glorious gumball machine. It's a magnet for all kids who enter our house. It gives the simple yet engaging moment of suspense as you wonder what color you'll get and then watch it descend the maze and are finally able to grab it. I'm sure Matt saw it plummet to the kitchen floor in slow motion, an agonizing groan escaping from his lips. It hit the floor like a meteorite and shattered into three jagged edged pieces. After the groan there was silence. It lasted moments. Then as the shock lifted Matt lamented. No it wasn't planned but I admit the reaction was the same as the mom's in The Christmas Story. While I was sad for making Matt and Carter sad, I found a silver lining. Now I didn't ever have to worry about refilling it or being the bad neighborhood mom for rationing gumballs and then banning them. After a few unheeded warnings and scraping wads of chewed gum out of my basement carpets after playdates I had banned them. Just as I had the candy after picking up too many wrappers on the floor, and then the otter pops after the clear sticky wrappers could be seen littering the yard. The machine sat on the counter lonely and gathering dust until finally the last gumball was eaten by Matt or Carter and then I put it on the top shelf in the pantry hoping it would be forgotten and there it sat until it met its demise. Late at night while I snuggled in my bed I listened to Matt's tale of how he had won the gumball machine at Discover where he worked when we were first married. He told me its tale with all the details about how he loved it, how his coworkers had stolen it from his desk and hid it, and how he had played along with them in order to get it back. I remember how proud he was and how wide his grin was, how bright his eyes were the day he brought it home to our little 400 something bachelor sq ft apartment in Murray. We strolled down memory lane (okay I was dragged) as he recounted how Carter loved to push the top and see the gumball roll down when he was little. He said he was sad that Katherine won't have those memories. I listened and was thankful for the darkness so he couldn't see my grin.