Utah's Aftermath

It's been so long since I've written that I won't even bother trying to say what we've done, I'll just let the pictures tell stories.

For two weeks after we came home, none of us wanted to be here.  Tom kept asking for Suzanne's house, and would cry, "No Tom's house!" every time we came home from somewhere.  We had a hard time with sleeping arrangements.  Tom missed his castle so much.  But then all that excitement died down.

We had a family frisbee golf night with a cute little caddy.  In the picture on the left, he's trying to block his face from the paparazzi.

 

Katie got to sit in the basket.

 

 

We felt it was neccessary to go up to Geneva for Labor Day weekend, because Vern was getting pretty depressed, having not seen his grandkids since May and seeing no light at the end of the tunnel.  So we brought the kids to him.  We went up Friday morning so that we could stop in Kearney for some shopping.  We returned wood that we bought in May, but couldn't get money back.  Just in store credit.  Why yes, I would like to paint my laundry room.  We also had an early anniversary lunch while we had options to choose from.  We discovered this delightful Thai restaurant that had fantastic food, portions, prices and customer service.  I can still taste my Drunken Noodles.  You get to select your meal and the meat that goes in it, and they also have a number scale for you to select the spice level of your dish.  The hostess asked if we wanted anything for Tom, and we said that he'd just share with us.  She still brought out a complimentary plate of watermelon and orange slices for him, free of charge.  Then when she saw that Katie was not sitting in her high chair, but trying to climb into our plates, she asked if we wanted her to take care of Katie.  She entertained Katie for 15-20 minutes while we finished our meal.  She showed her all around the restaurant, talked to her, played with her, played music for her, and made a napkin rose for her.  We are looking forward to going back this month when we'll be up there for stake conference.

 

And so, with full bellies, we continued driving to Geneva to surprise Bumpa. We had a fun weekend with them.  We played at the park and laughed at the grandparents trying to take pictures.

Tom got to swing so high with Momma.



 

We went to York on Saturday for the other Kendells' church barbeque.  Tom saw a soccer game at the park there, and since then he runs in circles yelling, "Soccerball! Soccerball!"  No ball.  Just Tom.  He's also learned about football since then.  And that looks similar to soccerball, only he falls down after he runs.

 

We saw this cool house on our way home.

 

 

And these interesting mounds just east of Hastings, NE.  They were about 5 rows deep and we must have passed over a hundred of them.  I'd love to know what they are. And why.

 

 

We thought it'd be fun to stop at the Pioneer Village Museum in Minden, NE, but we found out that it's $13 per person.  Sorry Dad, we no longer feel the need to go there the next time you come visit.  But I did get to use the restroom, which provided me with this lovely Ladies' Urinal.

With history and directions posted on the wall above it!

 

Gotta get the kids off to bed, so I'll write more later.  Tom skipped his nap today and it's 8, so I think that merits an early bedtime:)

 



Coming home and putting life back together

I've had these pictures loaded and ready to go for a month!  Just haven't gotten around to them until now.  Oops!

 

We decided to take I-70 home from Utah (back in August), and really enjoyed the scenery.  The last time I drove that, it was at night. 

 

We drove straight to Jerusalem.  Okay, Jerusalem RESTAURANT in Denver.  It's been so long since we've eaten that goodness, that we really saw no reason not to stop there for dinner and invite a bunch of friends to join us. 

 

Like a good girl, Katie loved her Jerusalem food.

 

 

Just chowed down on her pita (stolen directly from my hand) and hummus.

 

And falafel.

 

And really, anything that she could reach and steal off of any given person's plate.

 

Tommy was more interested in looking at the cars driving by.  He wouldn't even try dessert!  He did eat his french fries, though.  At least the ones I didn't ruin with ketchup.  Ryan did a good job being a protective big cousin.

 

 

Sunny and Judy, Shad's adopted grandma.  Tom wanted his shirt off. 

Sunny, Shad, two goofy kids, me, Sharley and Alice

 

(Dan and Ryan both came to Jerusalem, but I forgot about taking pictures until after Dan got in his car and I didn't wanna trouble him and make him get out.)

 

Sunday morning breakfast at Dan's place.  Katie is getting so grown up!

 

Lori always accuses me of doing crazy things with Katie's hair, but the truth is that I usually do nothing with Katie's hair.  Nature is her stylist.

 

Tom instantly understood the coolness of a lightsaber.

 

Katie just loves her Dan and Ryan!

 

Overall, this picture was a fail, but I just can't bring myself to delete it.  Ryan's face is just too awesome!

 

Ryan, Tom, Dan and Katie

 

One of our garage sale scores.  Katie put me through a frustrating week of training with this.  She's just so quick to get to Tom's unfinished food, and Tom doesn't tell me when he gets up from the table.  So his leftover bowl of cereal and milk ended up on Katie and the floor every day that first week.  I almost gave up and threw that table out.  But I made it through basic training and can handle anything now.

 

Not something we got in Utah, but still a garage sale find.  What's going on in this picture is that Katie crawled herself to sit in the bottom saucer, and Tom came to spin her.

 

More to come later, but the kids are awake and it's time to get back to work.

Down South and More Salt Lake

Thursday was our day down south that entailed time with the Rogers in American Fork, then on to Orem and Provo.  We started the morning with a good, hearty banana chip muffin breakfast...and a full scrub down in the sink.

 

 

We took Suzanne and her kids, minus Hannah and baby Emmie frisbee golfing.  It was quite an adventure trekking through a field of weeds, over pipes on a drainage ditch and up rocks to get from their backyard to the park.  Then there was the course itself, located in shady woods...and all through the trees, hills, ravines, etc.  To say that, with 3 adults (me carrying Katie in a hiking backpack), a 14 year old, 8 year old, 5 year old, 3 year old and 2 year old, it took us 20 minutes per hole is probably a severe underestimate.  It took serious effort and time to find each basket and tee, let alone to get all those frisbees to said baskets without losing any heads.  We only golfed 7 holes and called it good enough.  Here we have Suzanne with Jacob, Drew and Camden in front of her; me, with Katie in pack; Callie, Shad and Tommy.

 

Katie fell asleep on the trek back to Suzanne's house.  With a 12 lb baby and a back pack like this, doin the whole Sacagawea thing wasn't bad at all.

Tom was very curious about is sister sleeping in the pack on the porch like this.  I wasn't about to wake her up by moving her, though.

Being the awesome boy that he is, Tom's first request after taking off his shoes was that I help him wash his feet.  I think everyone made a direct path to the sinks to do the same thing.

After that, we headed down to Orem.  We went to shoe store after shoe store looking for dress and athletic shoes for Shad, as those two pairs of his shoes finally gave up the ghost upon arrival in Utah.  Tom didn't mind the shopping so much, as he's real big into shoes right now.

 



 

We finally had success at Runner's Corner in Orem.  The store, in its current location, is newly built from the ground up.  It is owned by one of my dad's running friends from when the folks lived in Utah back in the day.  They have an indoor track for testing out the shoes, and when we walked in, there was a herd of kids running laps around it.  Tom took a couple seconds to realize what was going on, before jumping in and joining them.

 

 

He also tried on a pair of shoes that his grandpa would approve of.

 

 

We moved on to a music store for me to look at some music, since I haven't added anything to my collection in 4 years.  I didn't buy, but Tom enjoyed testing out the pianos.

 

We met up with our friends, Will and Heather, who were our newlywed neighbors in Colorado back when we were also newlyweds.  We dearly loved that friendship we had, and were happy to catch up with them in Provo.  We started the evening out right--with dessert first.  The BYU Creamery.

 

Katie, upset that the ice cream is gone.

 

Tom loved it.

 

 We went bowling.  Let me tell you about Will.  Will is legally blind.  He went to blind kid camps as a kid, where they told Helen Keller jokes; he learned to read braille because they thought he'd go lights out.  He didn't.  He can't recognize a person's face about ten feet away from him, however he can score a 151 in bowling--double that of the 3 other adults with unimpaired vision.  That's right, we got our butts in bowling handed to us by a blind guy.  He told Heather a while ago that she's not allowed to use bumpers anymore.

 

Friday morning started out with two boys running out to the sandbox in rubber boots.

 

After cleaning up, we saw Grandma again, then went to have an Arby's picnic in the park with Shad's cousin, Stacey and her son, Oliver.

 

In the evening, we had a sushi date with Shad's mission trainer, Tom Turley and family.  While waiting for them to arrive, Tommy played with the waterfall behind us in the picture.  There were coins in the bottom, so I gave him all that I had in my wallet, one by one, to run from the front to the back to drop them in.  A couple ladies waiting for their to go food pulled out their coin purses full of pennies to give to him.  The waiter and hostess thought he was cute, so they dug pennies out of their tip jar.  The waiter taught him to THROW the pennies in, instead of just dropping them.  He had loads of fun.

Wednesday in Utah

Tuesday was a pretty low-key day.  Shad and I went to the Salt Lake temple, then spent the rest of the day at Suzanne's.  We ventured out to the grocery store, where Tom discovered that grocery carts exist with toddler cars on the front.  He climbed right on in with this girl.

 

 

We also went to a Goodwill.  Tommy started getting a bit fussy while we were there and so I made him sit in the cart.  A minute later I saw droopy eyelids.  I put my hands on his cheeks and he looked up at me and said, "To-y seepy."  What a sweet little thing!  He sure melts my heart.  I picked him up and stroked his forehead until he fell asleep in my arms.

 

 

After picking pears at Grandma Howes' house on Wednesday, we went up the inclines east of Salt Lake City that surround Eagle Ridge Golf Course (nearly killed our van!) to meet up with Shad's uncle Ross and aunt Nancy.  We toured their enormous, lavish home, and they pointed out the houses of Church General Authorities that they could see from their balcony--Uchtdorf, Bednar, Hales, Sheri Dew...Holland is in their ward.  Then we went down the mountain to El Matador for lunch.  Shad and Ross talked about what life was like growing up, and Nancy and I exchanged horror stories of kids leading other adults to believe that their mothers hit them. (On our way to Utah, Tom was covered in bruises and abrasions due to being a two year old who accidentally found a tree and the driveway with his face the day before.  I took him in to a gas station to walk around.  Holding my hand, he went to a corner and started yelling, "Ow! Ow! Ow!")

 

Tom liked standing on the back of Katie's high chair to give her kisses.

Katie loves the attention she gets from her Tom.

 

After lunch, we travelled north to Antelope Island.  It was much further than we had expected, having not done any research beforehand, and Callie was right--it really is an all day thing to do it right.  However, we still enjoyed what bit of it we saw.

 

Driving on the road out to the island.

 

Holy cow!  Okay, it's a buffalo outside the visitor's center.

 

Please click on the picture to see it enlarged, or you won't even see what it's showing!  There was a mass swarm of birds flying above the visitor's center.  A few people exiting advised that we run to better avoid bombings.

 

See that poop splattered window?  Well we did make it in and out unharmed.

 

The road from the island to the state.

 

Katie discovered her reflection.

Set the camera on timer on the top of the van.

 

Buffalo!

 

Buffalo butt.

 

We tried to walk across the beach to the lake, but it was way too much effort when our feet would sink into the sand this much and we were toting two kids with us.  We gave up.

 

After our failed attempt to reach the water.

 

Masonic temple we passed on the way to Primary Childrens' Hospital to see my cousin Marie and her 4 month old son, Walter.

 

Marie was off pumping when we got to her room at the hospital, so this is what the kids did while we waited for her.

 

Tom thinks it's fun to help Katie practice walking.

 

He also likes to give her piggy back rides.

He had so much energy to burn off that it was hard to keep him from running all up and down the halls of the Infant Unit.

We were so happy to get to visit Marie, who has essentially lived in the NICU since her son was born in April.  My NICU experience was miserable, and that was only 4 days alone.  Marie's husband has been away for school, and then moved to Washington to start a job, so she's been alone through much of this ordeal.  Walter was released two days later, so they now get to experience life at home.  In two weeks they'll go back to the hospital to make sure Wally is still doing well, and then be approved to go move to Washington and finally be together as a family again.