Lucky 13

Yesterday, Cory and I celebrated our 13th anniversary. Actually, it's kind of hard to celebrate it on a Monday night, so we celebrated it on Saturday. Today I thought it would be funny to post 13 things we have learned about each other after 13 years of marriage.

1. Cory is not a huge fan of fish, and yet his favorite ethnic food is sushi? Go figure.

2. Cami will never learn to like the NFL.

3. Our first fight as newlyweds was over a Scrabble game. Thirteen years later and we have never played Scrabble since.

4. Cory has to turn a fan on before he goes to sleep every night, even if it 17 degrees below zero.

5. Cami refuses to clean out the catbox.

6. When we go out to dinner, we can't share an entree because we have completely different taste.

7. Cory would think writing a list like this is goofy and sentimental.

8. Cami LOVES the fact that Cory is not cheesy and overly-sentimental.

9. Cory still remembers to buy flowers for our anniversary.

10. Cami would rather work with Cory on a Saturday than play with him.

11. Cami does most of the family finances, but Cory is like-minded in her spending style so it works.

12. Cory makes better waffles than Cami.

13. Cami makes better everything else.

Here's to 13 years!

Merry Christmas Everyone

My family is watching Kung Fu Panda at the moment, so I took a second to sneak away and send out my holiday greetings. It has been a wonderful, quiet day--I'm still wearing my pajamas. It has been snowing pretty much non-stop for the past 24 hours and we are happy to have the excuse to stay indoors where it's cozy. See, I guess snow is good for something after all. We actually woke up to things not so cozy--our main level heater was not working. After some reading of the manual, some tinkering with the starter, a phone-call to our "handyman" in Des Moines, and a Herculean effort not to swear, we found a repairman willing to come over and fix it. In a blizzard. On Christmas morning. And he only charged us time and a half! We consider it something of a Christmas miracle.

All of our little monkeys had a wonderful day. Though their lists to Santa were not all checked off 100 per cent accurately, every one of them told me independently at some point in the day that this was the best Christmas ever. I guess Santa really does know best. Isaac even said, "Don't worry Dad. I remember the true meaning of Christmas."

Here are a few pictures of our holiday week:

Here is the gang dressed in Christmas Sunday best. They are a good-looking crowd if I do say so myself.

Here is part of the cast of the annual "Talbot Family Christmas Pageant." Anna insisted she wanted to be the angel so I was Mary yet again. It's getting kind of hard to pull off the role in my 30s.

I got a sewing machine for Christmas this year, but I opened it early so I could make the kids some Christmas pajamas.

They were all impressed.

They are never that impressed when my mom or mother-in-law do the sewing. Of course, it took me an entire day to do what either of their grandmas could have cranked out in an hour. I guess the key to impressing your children is low expectations.

Merry Christmas everyone! I hope you have had a wonderful day, and don't worry, I remember the true meaning of Christmas too.

In Loving Memory

On Friday evening I received a phone call from a friend in Phoenix to tell me that the husband of a mutual friend had been killed in a tragic bicycle accident. For the past two days, I have been stunned and reeling. He leaves behind my friend, their two married daughters and what he always jokingly referred to as his "second family"--a 9 year-old and 7 year-old.

I haven't been able to sleep the past two nights, and so in a selfish attempt for closure, I have decided to post some of my thoughts. I hope to do so both humbly and respectfully.

First of all, if there is anyone in this world I would aspire to grow up to be, it is Jana. Her strengths are in every area where I long to be strong but fall short. She is soft-spoken and patient. She never draws any attention to herself, but fills needs quietly, does the lion's share of work in every setting, is careful and observant in every word and action. She is always the one to say the right thing, to make the needed phone call, to quietly lift the soul in distress. She is the most genuine person I know. I didn't know Gerry as well, but have always liked him as a cheerful and loving father. He had a dry and smart sense of humor, an astounding gospel intellect, a cool head and a generous hand. He was someone who deserved a wife like Jana.

In moments like these, I find myself reevaluating my own life--how I spend my time, how I treat my family, where my faith lies. My heart aches for my friend and her family. My faith as a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints teaches me that "families can be together forever." I don't doubt that my friend will one day be reunited with her husband...this is a source of both hope and comfort. In the meantime, however, there is a lot of loneliness and sadness in the separation. I know that there are some trials that can only be faced with time and the comforting presence of the Holy Ghost. I believe that the gift of the Atonement of Jesus Christ has power not only to redeem us from our sins, but to ease the pain of our trials and burdens.

As I sat in my church Christmas program yesterday, the words of one Christmas carol took on new meaning. "Be near me, Lord Jesus, I ask thee to stay close by me forever, and love me, I pray." I pray that my friend and her family will feel the Savior closer by them this Christmas. I am grateful in a world where life is fragile, that I--and my friend--have a foundation that is sure.

Snow and Other Four Letter Words

Two years ago my husband tried to soften the blow of leaving my warm and sunny Arizona home by saying--and this is a direct quote--"don't worry, they only get 3 or 4 snowstorms a winter in Utah. It's not that bad." Then last year we had a doozy of a winter with snow from October until May. Here is Isaac in our driveway last January:

This is January, mind you, we got at least another foot in February alone.

All the locals reassured me that last year was a fluke...the worst winter in a hundred years.

Here we are on December 19th and we've already had 4 BIG snowstorms... this week. They're expecting more for tomorrow, Monday, and Wednesday. And while some people use words like, "transformative, ethereal, and magical" to describe this weather phenomenon, I prefer, "bitter, treacherous, and messy." Anyone who tells you how "snow makes the whole world seem quiet and clean" has clearly never had to mop up the tracks left by snowboots all over the wood floors. I am well aware that everyone I know is getting a little tired of all my whining about snow; I'm pretty tired of it myself. I have a solution though--I just need to convince my husband that we can afford that winter home in Phoenix. After all, "they only get 3 or 4 heat waves there every year. It's not that bad."

There are NO Christmas Shopping Shortcuts

Two days before Thanksgiving, I was almost completely finished with my Christmas shopping. I was one of those smug people that go around bragging about how much easier it is to shop before the crowds and post-Thanksgiving clamor. I made all the usual self-righteous statements about how I'm simplifying my preparations this year so that I can savor and enjoy this holiday time. Note to self: keep your smug and self-righteous declarations to yourself next year...the shopping gods are listening. Now we are less than two weeks away from Christmas, and I have spent the better part of every day this week shopping, returning, mailing, making lists, checking them thrice. I thought I was so with it this year..I had planned and organized every detail, but somehow, I managed to overlook some things.

Like the fact that I bought the perfect Christmas present for my dad....in July...and then forgot all about it...and sent him something else that is pretty much the grandpa equivalent of getting socks and underwear for Christmas...and then I woke up at 6:24 a.m. two days ago with the sudden realization of that perfect gift...now where did I put it? Two hours later it turned up, and now I'm looking at it and wondering if I really want to go back to the post office after I've already managed to mail everything else...or maybe I should just save it for next Christmas...after all...it's not like I would forget I had it.

And then there is the issue of the sweater vests. This one is one part my fault for being in "hurry-hurry-don't check it-hurry" mode, and one part department store error. Every year, I get Anna a darling Christmas dress for church, but nothing for the boys. I decided this year to buy them coordinating sweater-vests so that they wouldn't be left out. I looked everywhere for something I loved and after 6 stores of searching, I finally settled on something I liked instead. They had green, red, and white sweater vests all laid out on the same table. I picked a different color for each boy, including 2 size 8/10 for Zachary and Noah who wear the same size. Now here is my problem.

Here is vest number one..you'll understand the close-up in a second.

Here is vest number two. Same brand, same size, same style, same table.

Guess who is headed to the mall this afternoon to make an exchange.

Then my boys brought home lists of things they needed for class parties. On Monday, I got Noah's list and grabbed the things he needed while I was out. On Tuesday, I got Zachary's list and made a quick run to the grocery store for his things and a few odds and ends. On Thursday I got Isaac's list and made my third trip to the grocery store this afternoon. I had hoped to do all my Christmas baking this week, but it will have to postponed indefinitely because at the rate I'm going I will be making 429 more trips to the store and post office between now and Christmas.

This last picture isn't really about Christmas shopping directly, but if you take an Arizona-bred kitty, add a sudden cold-snap in the weather , mix in so many hours of shopping that my bedroom has not been cleaned once this week, you get this:

So much for this planning thing...next year I plan to procrastinate.

Nutcracker Take 2

Okay, I think I did it. I posted the whole thing on youtube; the link is below. Unfortunately, the night of the performance, my memory card ran out of space for the last 15 seconds. This is when the mouse king dies and all the little mice run over and cry over his body. Soooo cute! I'm sorry I don't have it recorded.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8L-mqAr1H-w

Angelina Ballerina (she's a mouse who dances too)

This is mostly for Anna's grandparents, but if you have an extra minute, I think it's pretty cute. I actually spent the whole morning trying to upload the entire 2 minute 44 seconds I recorded from the audience, but it apparently is too big for this site. I'm sure if I was more technically savvy, I could figure out a way to do it, but instead, I'm uploading 2 shorter video clips from backstage. Sorry for the bouncy quality; I was holding a 2-year-old gingerbread cookie at the time. For what it's worth, Anna is the mouse with red, white, and black ribbon on her tail. (I know it's hard to tell, even Cory and I had a hard time picking her out.)

They let different mice get "shot" at every rehearsal, but Anna always refused to be the mouse to take the bullet.

Here is our sweet little mouse in the dressing room. She was nervous for the first performance, but after she stepped foot on-stage she loved it! The whole production was charming, but the mice really did steal the entire first act.

A Little of This, A Little of That

I was just reading through my Thanksgiving posts and said to myself, "Boy, that was really self-indulgent." And then I remembered, "Oh yeah! This is my personal blog, I can be self-indulgent whenever I want." And then I made an appointment with a shrink to discuss the fact that I'm talking to myself.

But on that self-indulgent note--since this is for all intents and purposes my only personal history--I thought I'd take a minute today to write about the little happenings of my immediate family. For my personal record--not because I have any grandiose ideas that someday historians are going to piece together the rise and fall of modern civilization as it relates to my life.

Cory has been much busier with work since we got back from our vacation in October. He carpools to work most days with his best friend from high school who recently moved back to Utah and took a job at Cory's firm. This is convenient for them both because whenever they are running late, they can blame it on each other so their wives do not get mad at them. Or so they think. He has also recently been called to be the Assistant 11-year-old scout leader and Valiant 11 Primary teacher. Zachary LOVES having Dad as his teacher and leader. Cory insists to our kids that he is the "meanest Dad in the world," but they don't buy it. Mom is much meaner.

Zachary has become such a dependable boy the last few months. He takes on his chores and schoolwork with responsibility and focus in a way I was afraid would never happen. He is extremely upset with the BCS at the moment because how dare they put Texas in the rankings below two of the teams they beat this year. (Don't ask me...I try to lay low every Saturday from here to the end of December.) He just won his school's Reflections contest in literature for an essay he wrote titled, "Why I Loathe the Kansas Jayhawks."

Noah has officially started the Junior Jazz basketball season. I haven't been to a single one of his games/practices yet because I am just too darn busy, but I hear he is a dynamite rebounder. I had parent-teacher conferences last week, and his teacher basically told me that she can no longer evaluate him on reading because he has passed off every level available in his school. They do individualized spelling in his class as well, and she is set to run out of lists for him in February. She says that she is taking it as a personal challenge to make sure that Noah is challenged...I really like her.

Isaac has hit that magical stage where reading suddenly and dramatically clicks! He taught our FHE lesson last week and had everyone write lists of things they are grateful for; he was so proud to write his own list instead of drawing pictures as he has every year before now. He is still so sweet and compliant, but he definitely is used to being one of the "little kids." He has a hard time believing that I really expect him to do all of his chores every day.

Anna is all set to perform her role as a mouse in this year's Utah Artists School of Ballet Presents: The Nutcracker. I went to the dress rehearsal yesterday and had the time of my life. This is the greatest stage performance I have ever witnessed...I could watch it every day for the rest of my life! I laughed until I cried. Fox 13 News came to the dress rehearsal too, and there was a sweet close-up of Anna (yawning) in her mouse costume on the 5:00 news.

And then there is me..I am busy with Relief Society, classroom work, driving kids to and fro, maintaining my home, preparing for the holidays, and a million other seemingly little things that somehow fill up my days to bursting.

The Results

Happy Thanksgiving everyone! I hope you all had as wonderful day as we did. So wonderful, in fact, that I haven't quite made it to the computer yet to finish off my Thanksgiving thread...I know none of you are exactly hanging in suspense, but here is the final preparation result.

The turkey went in the oven at 9:36 a.m.

We sat down at the table at 2:13.

We were finished by 2:47.

17 hours of preparation? Worth every last bite.

Oh, and on a side note...one of the families we invited for pie didn't make it so we have just a leetle bit of leftovers if anyone wants to stop by.

Pie Day

Chocolate Cream

Coconut Cream

Pumpkin

Triple Chocolate Pumpkin

Boysenberry

Crumb-top apple

Peach

One of my slaves


12 hours and counting (although I guess technically there's a lot of down-time while pies are baking)

Thanksgiving Update and a really exciting opportunity!

I've been thinking about adding a tally of the number of sticks of butter used in this meal, but trust me, you don't want to know.

Yesterday I finished all the rest of the piecrust and put them in my freezer...one more hour and we're up to 7 now I believe. Today is going to be a pie-baking marathon; I think my 2 ovens will be running continually for about 8 hours. I'm looking forward to this part though, because my kids get out of school early today and I can't wait to put them to work. They will love it for about the first hour, and anything after that is pure and simple "character building!"

Don't you just love the fact that no two pie plates are the same? There's a metaphor in that somewhere I believe.

And now in news unrelated to cooking, I had something really exciting happen yesterday. Many of you know that our Stake is the host Stake for the new Draper Temple. It's nearing completion and the open house will start in January; the dedication is scheduled for the end of March. I had a meeting with a member of the Stake High Council last night and was given an official call to sing in one of the Dedication choirs. This is a wonderful and humbling privilege since only 16 members of our Stake will be asked. I am so grateful for the talent I have been blessed with and the opportunity I have to use it to praise its Source. This really is a once-in-a-lifetime event!

Tabula Rasa

Aren't these piecrusts so full of potential as they sit here naked on my counter? Who knows what they will grow up to be? Will they live a wholesome life of fruit ala mode, or pursue a richer existence of cream and chocolate? Only time will tell.

Two picrusts down, only five more to go...and yes it would have made more sense to make and freeze all the piecrust yesterday, but my life sort of interfered with pie-making. Out of curiosity, who came up with the phrase, "easy as pie?" Either it's someone who never actually made one or that phrase used to connotate something entirely different.

Preparation Count at 6 hours.

5 Days of Cooking for 20 Minutes of Eating

In order to keep an historical record of what it takes to put a Thanksgiving Dinner on the table, I have decided to make a daily update this week of all the preparations. Don't get me wrong, this is not an effort to complain or make my husband feel guilty for watching football on Thursday. I LOVE Thanksgiving...I love to plan, I love to cook, I love to get the family together and EAT. I think in recent years Thanksgiving has become my favorite holiday. But it's also a lot of work, and I thought it would be enlightening for my own benefit to document exactly what it takes to pull off this kind of event.

So here is where we are so far. I have already decided the menu...we're pretty traditional around here. I have done Thanksgiving about 7 years now, so I'm sticking with my old tried and true standbys for the most part. However, I do like to try out a couple of new recipes every year. This year I'm making a new stuffing recipe, I'm replacing my usual broccoli with brussel sprouts, and I am even tweaking the pumpkin pie a little. That's right, I'm a rebel with a cause.

Once the menu was finalized, I did the grocery shopping on Friday and Saturday last week. So between planning and shopping, we're up to about 4 hours of preparation.

Last night the actual cooking began. I made the cornbread for the stuffing so that it would have enough time to get nice and dry and stale. I actually made double cornbread because I knew that if I filled the house with the aroma of hot cornbread and then told the natives they couldn't eat any, I would have a mutiny on my hands.

It was hard work getting them to leave the second half alone, but boy aren't they going to be grateful when they see this beautiful stuff in its second life on our Thanksgiving table.

So by the end of Sunday, the preparation count is at 5 1/2 hours. No one has cried yet.

Do we have to talk in order to agree, or agree in order to talk?

One of my early childhood memories is of an adult friend of the family calling me, "Chatterbox." Even though I was probably only 6 or 7, I could distinctly detect the sarcastic and unkind edge to the seemingly innocuous remark. It apparently did no lasting damage; however, because as an adult I talk every bit as much as that chattering child. I've heard it all through the years...motor-mouth, jabber-jaws, and my personal favorite, diarrhea mouth. And I will be the first to admit that I talk way too much.

But there is something I have discovered about this weakness of mine. Talking is how I figure things out...it's part of how I learn. For some reason it helps me to understand if I vocalize my thought process. I have many friends who are exceptionally internal. There are days and times when I long to be silently reflective like them, but that nature is as foreign to me as I'm sure my talkative one is to them. So I hope those of you stuck within the sound of my voice will be patient with my endless discussion. If you only knew how hard I work at keeping things to myself and listening better to others; I think you would truly be amazed. And despite this trait/flaw? I am an ironclad secret keeper.

You may wonder what brought on this moment of introspection? This morning, I sent Zachary upstairs to do 4 things. I sat in the office responding to email where I could clearly hear his progress. He did not stop talking for one second in the 20 minutes it took to complete his tasks-- (including brushing his teeth, by the way). Finally, I yelled upstairs for him to just be quiet long enough to finish so that he would not be late for school!

And then the phone rang, and I picked it up, and it was the pot. He said, "Hey kettle, you're black!" and then he hung up. Pots can be really rude sometimes.

Happy Birthday Noah!

On Sunday, I was lamenting the fact that Noah has already grown out of another pair of church pants. I keep telling the kids to knock it off and stop getting bigger, but they are either not listening or grossly disobedient. I swear, I just bought those pants like a month ago for Noah's baptism. And then I remembered that Noah's 9th birthday was the next day! How does this happen?

So in honor of his birthday, I decided to document some of the great things about Noah today. (Actually, I'm a day late, his birthday was the 10th, but somehow yesterday I blinked for about 2 seconds, and then the day was over.)

Noah is one smart cookie! He has been able to read anything since he was 5. It is a joy to me that my passion for reading has been passed on to my child. As a toddler he could sit on my lap literally indefinitely and listen to stories...now he disappears for hours with his books, surfacing only when he has finished.

I am still waiting for the day when Noah will need my help with his homework, but he is so capable and independent that I think it will never come. At some point, maybe he'll ask me about trigonometry and I'll have to confess that I don't remember anything about it. That will be a sad day because right now he thinks I know everything.

Noah takes good care of his little brother and sister. He is the one who is always willing to play board games with Isaac, to read stories to Anna, and to play inventive games with his siblings in the back yard.

Noah is cheerful. When I picture Noah at any stage of his life..baby, toddler, boy... it is always with a big smile on his face.

For his birthday yesterday, I brought lunch from Taco Bell to him at school and ate with him in the cafeteria. For dinner, we made individual pizzas, topped however we wanted, then we went to a juggling show at the library. We came home and ate birthday cake (chocolate...it's not fair that all of my children insist on chocolate birthday cakes when I don't like it) and opened presents. On Saturday, he is having a birthday party with a few friends from school. It seems such a short minute ago that he was baptized last year, and only slightly longer when we brought him home from the hospital on an unusally warm November afternoon.

Happy birthday Noah!

Boo to the end of Daylight Savings!

Did you know that in the state of Arizona they don't ever do any daylight savings? This means you don't go through the whole "spring forward, fall back" clock-changing episode twice a year that the rest of the country puts up with. So it has felt something like a cruel joke to move back to Utah and suddenly just as I'm psyching myself out for approaching winter, losing an entire hour of evening daylight. When it gets dark before dinner, I begin to panic and even feel a little claustrophobic as if the whole day is suddenly closing in around me and I have still not finished all I've meant to accomplish for the day...and now it's a heavy darkness and my kids aren't finished with their homework...and Cory hasn't even gotten home from work so he must be staying late, except he's not really late, it just feels like he is...and I still have a load of laundry running...and I have to rush, rush, rush to get kids ready for bed or it will be too late for me to have a moment of quiet...and HELP! I'm having trouble breathing, I'm running around trying to do something without enough focus to see anything through. So my point is, who do I need to get in contact with to eliminate this whole frustrating system? My local Congressman? The governor? Oprah?


Then, to add insult to injury, I woke up this morning to this:

Ah, the humanity!

It almost makes me think that the daylight savings guys got together with Mother Nature and decided to suck the joy out of my life all in the course of one weekend.

The Psychology of Halloween Costume Selection

Here is my obligatory Halloween costume posting. All my little ghouls and goblins are buzzing and bouncing and shooting around the house on sugar highs. It's clearly going to be several hours before they come down to earth long enough to fall asleep, so I thought I would take this time to hide in the office and upload their costume pictures. The choices they made this year are very revealing about their individual personalities, I think.

Zachary chose to be a football player. Yeah, yeah, I know you already know this child is obsessed with anything to do with sports, but I don't think that's the real reason he chose this. And maybe you think he wanted to be a football player because that's what all his friends are going as this year, and he is in sixth grade when things like that really begin to matter to these guys, but that's not really why either. The real reason he went as a football player is that it meant he didn't have to make any effort whatsoever to be creative...I just love that kid.

Noah made a list sometime back when he was in preschool of all the costumes that are scary, and he has been systematically working his way through that list ever since. We have done vampire, mummy, and ghost. This year he chose to get skeleton out of the way. Unfortunately, we didn't try on the costume before we bought it, and when he pulled it on Halloween night and discovered it was 3 inches to short, it was just way too late to do anything about it. It turns out that skeletons just aren't that scary with three inches of ankle and wrist showing. Just call him, "Stretch."

Isaac's choice went something like this, "Isaac, you can be a vampire, a pirate, or a Jedi." Isaac's reply, "Umm....vampire!" There are some disadvantages to being the 3rd boy in a family.

Anna's choice I'm sure comes as a shock to no one....she wanted to be a pink noonicorn. What is shocking, however is that I actually found a pink unicorn costume. She loved it! Then the boys told her that Halloween costumes were supposed to be scary. She thought long and hard about that one. Then she offered her own solution. "I can get a shotgun!"

Love,

Minnie Mouse (I'm not sure what this says about me besides the fact that I aready had the dress. I love Halloween!)

"Alamosa, we hardly knew ye."

October has been a golden, glorious succession of crisp mornings and sunshiny afternoons this year. Or so I hear. I have been out of town for most of the month.

I think I'm recovering from our trip to Alamosa, CO last week with four children and no spouse. This is surely karma for my relaxing getaway of the week before. Cory needed to stay here and catch up on all the work that was piling up while he frittered his time away on a beach, and I felt obligated to take my children somewhere while they are off-track, since this is the last year they will all be in year-round school. So...we made a long overdue trip to south central Colorado to visit my sister and her chillins. (They live in the middle of nowhere so I feel obligated to include as many country phrases as possible. When else will I be able to say things like "dag-nabbit" or "I was fixing to?")

My sister is one of those people who makes you feel like the biggest sloth in the universe. You know the type...teaches her kids Latin, sits on the board for the community homeless shelter, cooks a full breakfast for her family...every day. She makes her own cheese, for crying out loud!

(Just a little side note here. My children have become so accustomed to cold cereal for their morning repast that when Cory got up one Saturday and made pancakes, Anna told him, "Daddy, pancakes are for dinner!")

But my sister, Larissa, (the old goody-two-shoes) is also my biggest blog fan, so I feel extra pressure to make sure I get an account of all the goings on with the "country cousins" included in this here history.

Monday-We drove the 9 1/2 hours to their house, including a 30 minute stop for lunch. Thank goodness for books on CD, a DVD player, and a navigation system. Seriously, traveling with kids has become so easy now that I feel like I should cut a check to my parents to pay them back for all the whining, fighting, and car-sickness their generation was forced to endure without the distraction of "Bugs Bunny" cartoons on continuous play in the back seat.

Tuesday-We got up early to attend the children's play "Grimm Pajamas" at Alamosa's local college, Adams State. It was darling, but I still have not figured out a way to get the theme song out of my head...especially since Zachary has adopted it as his own personal soundtrack. After the show, we drove straight to Great Sand Dunes National Park. Imagine an endless sandbox blowing around the base of the Sangre de Cristo mountains. Now imagine six boys age 6-11. They had a fabulous time. Anna, on the other hand, betrayed her sissy, city roots and spent the morning terrorized. It might be my fault. As she got more and more frustrated on the walk to the nearest dune I may have inadvertently scared her boots off by the following conversation:

Me: It's kind of hard to walk in all this sand, isn't it sweetie?

Anna: Why is it hard?

Me: Well your feet sink into the sand a little, and it makes it hard to lift them back out.

Anna: (face pales, eyes grow wider, I see an image of sinking in quicksand flitting through her mind)...oops.


When the afternoon wind picked up, we packed up the shovels and loaded up the ol' cowpokes for a trip to the pool. (My sister is so smart...what better way to clean off a couple of van-loads of sand-encrusted kids than a dip in the pool? It must be all of that book learning she done got at college.) The pool is actually filled via a local hot spring and was more like taking a long and luxurious bath. I had to threaten, cajole and bribe my kids out of that place.

Wednesday: Here's where the sloth part comes in. While my sister productively checked things off her to-do list (meetings, meal preparation, world peace) I hung out with the kids reading, watching movies and playing board games. In the late afternoon, we all went downtown (through 2 whole streetlights!) to attend the grand opening tour of the city's new water treatment plant. Anna of course was terrified because water treatment includes a lot of ear-piercing machinery pulsing out decibels just slightly higher than your average Ozzie Osbourne concert. That girl is such a wuss...I really must figure out a way to toughen her up to country standards. The boys were interested for the first 5 minutes, and then, driven by boredom, spent the rest of the time trying to turn my hair gray by running around open vats of chemicals. Everyone managed to survive (even through the mayor's speech and reporters' interviews...my brother-in-law is the city manager, so his kids are more inured to this particular type of activity.) We finished the day off by eating ourselves sick at the local Mexican buffet. Isaac thought he had gone to heaven...all the cheese and taco shells he could possibly ever want.

Thursday: It must be a rare sight for a town this size to have such a metropolitan presence because when we woke up Thursday morning, we discovered a picture of ourselves on the front page of the Alamosa paper. Don't believe me? Follow the link below to a search of the local paper. Under the date, enter 10/22/08-10/23/08 and under article text type "water treatment." If you look closely, you can even see Isaac behind Zachary.

http://www.alamosanews.com/V2_search_archives.php?heading=3#

Of course we had to leave town that afternoon to avoid the autograph-seeking masses, so we hitched up a team (okay, so we really just drove in minivans) and rode off to the nearby Alligator Farm. Some local entrepreneurs have taken advantage of their own hot spring by raising Tilapia to sell to nearby restaurants. Many years ago, they hit upon the idea to introduce a few alligators into the system to eat up the waste...kind of organic waste management. With the warm waters, the experiment thrived, and pretty soon, they were the proud caretakers of hundreds of prehistoric reptiles. Always thinking about that bottom line, they hit upon the idea of selling entrance tickets to tourists interested in getting a close-up view of gators far outside the Everglades. I had heard about this place prior to our visit and had always imagined something akin to a zoo...and it is exactly like a zoo...that is if a group of rednecks got together and opened a zoo. Imagine a zoo without any kind of codes or regulations. Imagine power cords dangling precariously over open fish tanks. Imagine a zoo, where the only thing separating you from ferocious, wild animals is a chain link fence, jury-rigged together in several places with ropes and plywood. Imagine a zoo whose sole security system is a kennel of junk-yard dogs and a couple of fractious ostriches. The alligator farm is everything that is great about America and a free-market economy.

We took turns holding the little alligator. I'm a little afraid to post this blog lest the EPA come and shut down the entire operation.

Gives me chills just thinking about it.

Across the entrance from the farm is a "playground." You walk over a bridge, through a gate into a pen with a swing set and slide 30 feet high, a couple of goats, a donkey, a pond, piles of old tires, and a mountain of animal droppings. The only rule here is, there are no rules. On our way out, Zachary forgot to close the gate and we soon discovered we were being followed by a very tall, very stubborn goat. You would think maybe there would be some kind of staff on hand to deal with this kind of thing, but no in the end, we sent our kids off to chase it back. When that didn't work, we told them to try to lure it back to the pen with hay. When that didn't work, we told them to slap it in the right direction. Finally, I had to stop laughing long enough, join the kids, and push the stubborn animal with every ounce of my strength back into the enclosure. I'm pretty sure the owners of the "establishment" were watching these proceedings from their office just to poke fun at us poor, helpless city folk.

Oh, and did I mention that Anna was terrified? When we pulled in, we saw some ducks in a separate pond, and she said, "Um, I don't think those ducks should swim with the alligators."

Friday-We did lots of down-home cooking this day...or Larissa did. I did lots of down-home eating this day. In the afternoon, we attended the college's "Chemistry Magic Show." Just one more way for me to traumatize my daughter. They exploded balloons filled with gas in one of the "tricks." I don't think she'll ever go near a balloon again. The rest of our crowd had a marvelous time however, and even Anna enjoyed going to the lab and doing some experiments of her own after the show.

Doing a little ph-testing.

Saturday-Why is it that the drive home always seems to take twice as long? We survived it though, and came home with colds instead of souvenirs. It was a wonderful week.

Here's what the kids said were their favorite parts of the trip:

Anna-"playing dollies with Nicole" Those two little girls are peas in a pod...we hardly saw them the whole week.

Here they are putting makeup on in the bathroom. After the photo, Anna told Nicole, "She's taking our picture because we are so beautiful."

Isaac-"the sand dunes and swimming"

Noah-"playing boardgames"

Zachary-"I don't have a favorite thing." How typical...you know those city cousins...they are so wishy-washy!

I apologize to all those who may have been offended by the content of this post...especially any alligators or goats who may have seen themselves depicted in an unflattering light. It was intended to be all in good humor.

Travelogue Stardate 10-1-1

Don't you hate it when people send you email bragging about their most recent exotic vacation? That's why I like to post my bragging vacation accounts right here on my own blog instead. So much less obnoxious that way.

Cory and I just got back from a week in Oahu...that's right...just us..no kids (thanks Mom and Dad!) and now it's time to journal the highlights of a relaxing, tropical getaway. I promise only to hit the high points and not record an annoying play by play of all the relaxing hours on beautiful beaches with a refreshing, tropical drink in one hand.

Here are a few of my favorite things (cue Julie Andrews in the Sound of Music).

We tried to balance the week out by spending complete days sitting on the beach doing nothing but reading, snorkeling, and the crossword puzzle and days driving around to all the spectacular sites on the island. I can't decide which kinds of days I like better. Snorkeling was a surprising highlight--we didn't go anywhere special, just right there at the resort where we were staying. I was pretty sure I would see rocks, sand, and maybe a fish or two if I got lucky. Imagine my surprise when I put my mask in the water and discovered entire schools of brightly colored fish, urchins, corals and even sea turtles within arm's length. Completely surreal to see the white legs of tourists splashing in the surf just yards away from me while I followed a brightly colored humuhumunukunukuapua'a along the rocks (yes, it's a real fish, look it up). Then after soaking up enough salt water, I was perfectly content to dry off on a chair in the sand while Cory played volleyball.

The last two pictures represent the great sushi episode known as "Before and After." Okay, I know they are out of focus, but they're also priceless so into the blog they go! Cory is pretty into sushi these days and so convinced his sister Kim and her friend Becky to try it for the first time with us. Can I take a minute here to point out that neither Kim nor Becky are exactly known for great culinary adventure and risk-taking. I think their Island dining highlights include Wendys and Taco Bell at the top of their Zagat rating system. But they were good sports and went along with us to "Banzai Sushi Bar." After much trepidation, spit, and tears, they formed a firm and unchangeable opinion on this particular type of cuisine. This is a case where a picture is definitely worth any of my thousand words...even if it is out of focus.

Cory and I took one day to drive down from the north shore where we were staying, to follow along the eastern coast of Oahu. This drive is fairly rural and dotted with small, charming villages, agriculture, beaches, and shrimp farms. We made it all the way to Pali Lookout, which is a jungle-covered cliff where you can see everything along the eastern shore. It was spectacular..cliffs covered in dense growth, Diamond Head Crater, enormous suburbs tucked between the ocean and the mountains, inland lagoons, all in the same view.

Here is sunset from our hotel. The whole week, I was disappointed with my inability to transfer the gorgeous surroundings into my photography. This picture still doesn't quite do the scene justice, but was something of a triumph for my photo-inept self.

I'm no World War II buff, but our trip to the U.S.S. Arizona Memorial was sobering. It's hard to view this peaceful, isolated place as the site of battleships and torpedoes. Nearly 70 years after the Arizona and most of her crew were sunk to the bottom of the harbor, the ship remains there and even continues to emit oil into the water.

The dwindling survivors refer to this phenomenon as "the tears of Arizona."

The gold at the end of this rainbow is the Dole Pineapple plantation...mmm...sorry, got a bit distracted there...hold on a minute while I go wipe off a little drool.




In honor of my father--aka "waterfall hunter"-- we made a valiant effort in this trip to visit a waterfall...Hawaii is famous for them right? Our first effort to seek out "Sacred Falls" involved a drive down the coast, a visit to "Uncle Bobo's," some quick Blackberry research, and the discovery that even though this waterfall shows up on the tourist map, it's been closed for almost ten years after a tragic Mothers' Day landslide that killed 3 people. Not to be discouraged, a few days later, we paid the $10 park fee for "Waimea Falls," hiked the paved trail, began to grow concerned as we ambled next to a very dry river-bed, and discovered that October is the dry season for waterfalls in Hawaii. The guides at the top assured us that they were expecting the falls to open up at any moment, but in the meantime, this pathetic trickle was the only fruit of our earnest labors.



Try as I might, I just can't find a way to capture 15 foot waves into pixels. Surfing looks fun and terrifying at the same time. We watched one surfer ride the waves into shore with a little boy no more than 4 riding along the same surf board on his tummy.





My favorite "field trip" for the week was to the Polynesian Cultural Center. The grounds are divided into different island nations, and at each "village" natives of the island teach you about their history and culture. I love folk music and dancing...and it was great to hear young people who are passionate about their heritage. If we had the time, I would have gladly devoted another complete day to the PCC. The video above is something I taped for Anna at the pageant of canoes. (she's crazy about hula dancing)

Our village tours and activities were followed by a traditional luau and an evening show complete with grass skirts, ukuleles and fire dancers...amazing!

We got to attend the Primary Sacrament Meeting Presentation in the Laie 2nd Ward. Guess what? Sunbeams everywhere are shy and scared about saying their parts into the microphone. And the popcorn effect that happens when kids get up to sing a song must be a universal phenomenon. We also were able to visit the Hawaii, Laie temple just before it will be closed for 18 months of refurbishing.

Someone told us not to miss out on "Puka Dog" in Honolulu because despite the unappealing name, this was the greatest hot dog you would ever have. I wouldn't call myself a hotdog connoisseur, but I have to admit that it was delicious. They toast the bun on the inside, fill it with garlicy-lemon sauce, pineapple salsa and tangy mustard, and then stick the hot dog in. In an ironic twist, while reading the Honolulu newspaper dining section, there was an article about this Cult-following Restaurant. You'll never guess where they ship the hot dogs from? If you guessed Utah, then give yourself a pat on the back for understanding the meaning of the word "ironic."

After a tedious day of travel, we are home with sunburns and sandy suitcases. Next up? It's the kids' turn. I'm taking them to Colorado to visit with cousins while they are off track next week.