Charlie and I met up with our weekly play group to go apple picking recently. This is one of the many New England traditions that I have really grown fond of. This year, Charlie and I had so much fun. We have gotten into our own little system together that is working for us. We are total buds.
Being at the orchard, though really made me miss this little Miss.
...and this little dude.
I realized that while I've been in Boston, I've watched my kids grow up. These are the best memories of my life. I am (need to be) determined to live it to the fullest. Ten years from now I am going to laugh at the memory of my 32 year old self. Why did I sweat the small stuff like dishes, the ant trail that's formed under the dining room table, the endless loads of laundry that can't seem to stay folded... Sometimes you just need to ignore it and watch the end of Star Wars: A New Hope with a little buddy. These days won't last forever. Sniff.
When Charlie says "cheese" it looks like he's snarling at the camera!
I have to admit, we associate with some cute people too.
Here I go again! I am back in the saddle of teaching joy school as preschool to my little one and buddies. I still can't believe Charlie is even old enough for pre-school. I have to admit, I was a little nervous. This time around we are teaching three weeks straight of Tuesday and Thursday classes for three hours each. I don't know what I was so worried about now though. After my first day (today) I was feeling like a rockstar teacher! :) I'm sure it was because of the groundwork laid by those that taught before me, but wow! I got through so much material. I think Charlie actually knows what the Earth is. I didn't think a tiny guy could grasp that (who knows to what extent he gets, but still...) We had a lot of fun and the time whizzed by. These were great kiddos. Here they are at lunch:
I forgot how much I loved the "Earth" unit in Joy school. We went on a nature walk and collected leaves for our pretty collages. It's so fun that little kids force you to stop and smell the roses. They are so interested in examining everything. We are starting to get some great color on trees out here. Mainly yellows, the reds are coming though. I have to credit my friend, Lindsey for teaching me to make these. This kids loved it and I adore how they look hanging in my windows. The lesson said to do this just on construction paper or poster board, but I like this method way better. It's like leaf stained glass.
How to:
SUPPLIES
contact paper- near the kitchen scrubbers and dust pans at Target
scissors
leaves
WHAT TO DO (self explanatory, but here it is anyway!)
Collect the leaves. Then cut two rectangles of contact paper roughly the same size. Peel one rectangle from its paper. Place the leaves in a pretty way on the paper. Peel the second rectangle from it's paper and stick that sheet on top of the other with the leaves. Trim the edges to remove excess leaves hanging out or uneven sides. Hang on your window an enjoy!
One of the biggest events of our trip to Utah was at the very end when Josh joined us on our trip and baptized Noah. In our church, children are baptized at age 8. Turning eight years old is a big deal.:) We had been noticing Noah grow and mature so much in the past few months. He is more perceptive and aware of others and their feelings. He is more helpful and conscientious in his decision-making. I was baptized when I was eight and my brother-in-law, Richard baptized me. It was really cool that Josh could be the one to baptize Noah. Noah looks up to him so much. I couldn't think of a better person for my kids to look up to.
Such a great day!
Denise made another awesome cake for the occasion. Noah chose a favorite Book of Mormon story that we kind of tied in as a theme. It was about Samuel the Lamanite. The story is about a person in Ancient America who was standing on a wall getting shot at by arrows. Samuel's faith kept him safe from getting hit by the arrows. I gave a short talk and mentioned Noah's great faith and ability to dodge life's arrows.
We had an amazing meal with almost all of the Utah family.
We gave the little guys lots of red punch!
Here is our group. Thanks for coming guys. It was such a special night.
On a side note: Noah's one request for a family activity was for all of us to play capture the flag together after the baptism. Noah loves competitive games like that. He's got a huge sense of adventure. A storm was rolling in and these dark clouds made it dark earlier than expected. We decided to play anyways in the dark. We played at a park that was in Josh's parents' housing development so it was a block away from the house. It turned out that Noah's team didn't win the game. We all rounded up the kids and Noah went home a little ahead of the group. We got inside and started chatting. I wanted to check on Noah to make sure he wasn't upset about losing and I couldn't find him anywhere. I searched the house for like five minutes. I got really nervous and the guys went out in the neighborhood and started searching for Noah. After a minute or so (which seemed like a eternity) Noah was found a few blocks away! It turned out that Noah to lost in the neighborhood which is very maze-like. He was got pretty scared and was crying when we found him. When we brought him inside he told us that the bishop who was overseeing the baptism an hour earlier had found him after Noah had said a little prayer. Not to get too mushy or anything, but I was so grateful Noah felt like he had someone to turn to when he was scared. Noah felt that his prayer was answered and I believe it was too. We feel very blessed to have God in our lives.
High on our priority list when we came back to Utah was to spend time with Josh's sister Annalee and her cuties, Madison and JJ. We wound up braving the Dinosaur Museum at Thanksgiving Point on a discount day. The place was packed!! It was so much fun, though.
Time with family has to be my all time favorite thing.
I can't help but notice what a good song writer Alex Ebert is. I'm cleaning this morning with no kiddos at home and you better believe the music is blasting. Just when you wonder if the romance in modern music is lost....
40 Day Dream
Well, I been sleeping for forty days and I know I'm sleeping 'cause this dream's too amazing She got gold doorknobs where her eyes used to be, yeah One turn and I learned what it really means to see
It's the magical mystery kind, must be a lie Bye bye to the too good to be true kind of love Oh no, I could die Oh, now I can die
Hey, I been sleeping for sixty days And nobody better pinch me I swear I'll go crazy
(love the line below:) She got jumper cable lips She got sunset on her breath now I inhaled just a little bit Now I got no fear of death now
It's the magical mystery kind, must be a lie Bye bye to the too good to be true kind of love Oh no, I could die Oh, now I can die
It's the magical mystery kind, must be a lie Bye bye to the too good to be true kind of love Oh no, I could die Oh, now I can die
It had been way too long since Denise and I had gotten together with Linda and Heather as a group. They were our first off campus roommates. We had known Heather since our moms were pregnant with us. It was such a plus that when we got to BYU, she had such an amazing cousin, Linda that who meshed with the three of us so well. Heather lives just blocks away from the Santa Monica Pier, so once again, we headed to the beach!
Heather's house is a vacation! It was dreamy.
It was so awesome to get our kids together. I had been dying to meet her little Ella. What a DOLL! She was such a seasoned beach goer. :) Gotta love those Shirley Temple curls.
This guy was an absolute terror when we got to the beach. Everything made him cry. He was really mad at the sand, and the boogie board, and the towel, and momma...
...Then this happened:
and it was all good. I guess traveling and staying up late all the time takes it's toll. Poor little guy. He slept for three hours on the beach! (Don't worry, I built a little tent for him right after this picture).
It was so fun to build these beach memories with the kids. They got to see a slice of our childhood
and they loved it! Jack fell asleep in my arms for half the time. What an angel!! I miss all of these guys to pieces. So fun to see everyone's personalities and interestes.
I couldn't believe how interested in reptiles and sea creatures Joel was. He had so much focus with his sand crab searches.
Denise's daughter Anora was so confident in water. She was an excellent swimmer and took to the ocean like a fish! The waves were thrilling to her. She body surfed and boogie boarded like a natural. So cute! Here is a video of here and Denise. I wanted to catch Denise riding a wave, but Anora caught one first, then we got moved by the life gaurd because of surfers.
Watch Anora on the right.
These guys were so cute together:
So hard to say goodbye to such a wonderful place.
That night, we had dinner and Heather's incredibly generous husband offered to watch all of our kids for us while we went out on the town and got dessert. How sweet is that? He had one baby under two, one three year old, his own two year old, a four year old, a pair of six year olds and an eight year old. YIKES! Love ya Chris!!
We shopped around and talked and talked.
we also indulged! Mmmm.
Cute Linda. I really need to do a family portrait session at night in the city. Any takers?? I love those city lights and store windows!
In 1999 the four of us as roommates made a time capsule! How funny is that? We had this vintage suitcase that we filled with magazines, photos, momentos, letters, notes to each other, etc. It was the most hilarious thing going through all that stuff. Heather was laughing uncontrollably! Chris got a million pictures. --Send some my way, will ya?? We were so sweet together as roommates though. We'd write little notes to cheer each other up. We'd help each other out as much as we could. We were there for each other. I think a lot of people must go through this period of adjustment when they get married and suddenly they aren't surrounded by their girlfriends.
The other event of hilariousness was when Noah, Joel, and Anora were sound asleep on an air mattress near where we were up talking. Anora made a little coughing sound in her sleep then rolled over. We went to check on her to find a huge amount of throw up all over Joel's left side! Anora puked on her brother in her sleep and never woke up! since none of the kids were awake and crying, we gave it the green light to pretty much DIE LAUGHING at that one! WE were the ones in tears as we all pitched in to carefully clean up the mess. Not waking a single little soul. It was unforgettable! Chris got plenty of photos of that one too. Ah hem. I'll be waiting for that email mister!
Tonight we went on a fabulous, spontaneous date thanks to my friend Brittany. The Bishop (or pastor) of our church in Cambridge is an expert in the history and architecture of the area. Every year he guides a boat cruise on the Charles River. Josh and I wanted to go, but didn't have the energy to find a sitter to watch all three kids. We totally forgot about the whole thing. Then My sweet friend Brittany called saying her and her husband couldn't go and they would love to give us their tickets + watch our kids for us while we went. She called it a late b-day present. Holy cow! It was a wish come true! After a week of drenching rain, today was gorgeous and Josh and I had been postponing date after date lately. This was PERFECT.
Isn't Boston cool?
Don't we look happy? Unexpected dates are the BEST.
This sunset was the reward after putting up with all the rain. I actually liked the rain (as long as I wasn't shuffling kids in and out of the car in it). It is getting me excited for fall. We are already planning a fun Halloween with a visit from Josh's cousin, Porter. Yay for visitors!!
We watched one of the many specials about 9/11 last night. I can't believe it's been 10 years. I was in Mexico doing my student teaching when it happened. It was four months before I met Josh.
Right after the special, the news came on and said NYC is on high alert on bridges and tunnels. They said Boston will be too, just to be safe. It kind of creeped me out. Then we wind up on the river, cruising right underneath most of Boston's bridges!! I was on high alert for any suspicious activity. All was clear:) You can rest easy guys.
Since Labor Day was the day before the kids started school, we decided to spend the morning getting rooms cleaned and things organized. Josh bought a fire proof safe to keep all our birth certificates and important papers in. I think it was a huge highlight of the weekend for him!
In the afternoon, we went to the Museum of Science and saw an Omni movie where the screen is a half dome and you feel like you are in the movie itself. It was "Dinosaurs Alive!" That we actually saw in Utah, but we got to see it with Josh this time and now my kids know all about the amazing finds in the Gobi Dessert (as narrated by Michael Douglas). We also went to the Planetarium and watched the Collision Constellation show. We learned how the moon was formed and what is going to happen to our galaxy in millions of years! We also saw this guy sitting right by us:
He is the creator of Family Guy. Josh thought he looked familiar, then we looked him up on Josh's smart phone. It was the spitting image. Josh heard some other couple ask if he was Seth McFarland. His girlfriend answered no for him, but you could tell she was lying.:)
I snapped some photos at the park where we left our car. This park is one of my favorite photo locations.
Great variety and cool Boston scene with tall buildings, Charles River, The T, and boats. Plus our Bishop from church designed it. So we think it's pretty cool.
There's the museum behind us!
I LOVE this guy. I am really getting used to this "Holidays Off" stuff. Presley took this photo:
