Trip Out West

Although in the spring we were set on not making the trip this year, when my brother told us he was getting married in September we booked the tickets.  We spent two wonderful weeks visiting with family.  Actually, it was mostly me and the girls as Jeremy went about his job hunting from South Dakota to St. George, Utah to Washington.  That will be another post, but for now we'll just look at pictures.  

 At first, we weren't supposed to be there when Jeremy's parents were, but as our plans kept changing we were able to spend just about a week with them.  Those girls loved spending time with Grandma and Grandpa, Grandpa even gave them a ride on the four wheeler.  He later rescued us when I took the stroller to feed the ducks about a mile away and had both tires of the stroller flattened by some weird weed.  

 The girls adored having big girl cousins to play with.  I wish I would have got pictures of everyone, but here they are with two of their cousins running down the hill during one of their other cousin's baseball game.  

 Katie even got a pony ride out of the trip.  The twins weren't quite as adventurous as she was, she would have stayed on till the cows came home if she could.

 We then made the journey to Southern Utah and Katie LOVED showing her Grandma how fancy she could be.  

 Syd wanted a turn.  

 So did Cora.  

 I had forgotten about these flowers that are all over on the drive from Salt Lake to Cedar.  I really wanted to get a good picture of them in the flowers.  Too bad the flowers were in better focus that the girls and that Katie hit Sydney shortly after this picture was taken, preventing any retakes.  

 My mom's friend brought over extra dress up clothes which Katie couldn't get enough of.  

 The weather was so nice I took the girls up the canyon with my brother for a hike.  They were so excited for pictures, can you tell?  Maybe it's just the photographer.  I don't really like taking the pictures, or trying to stage the right picture, I'd rather just enjoy the time, but then I want to have something to help me remember what we've been doing.  It's a never ending battle.  

 And the family was reunited (from Jeremy's travels) in Salt Lake for the wedding.  Here we are taking a lovely picture at the fountain that about 10 minutes after this picture split Sydney's eyebrow open.  Our kids are talented like that.  And it was really great that it happened about 5 minutes before Jeremy and I were supposed to go in the temple for my brother Jeremy's wedding.  Good thing it wasn't too deep and someone had some tape so we could just tape it shut.  

 Cora, Katie, and Sydney.  

 Here we are with my dad waiting for Jeremy and Kate (How confusing is this with the double names?) to come out of the temple.  Notice the tape on the side of Sydney's head?  

 My Dad and Mom, smiling so big now that all of their kids are out of the house!  They were great fun the whole time, and great supporting their daughter that at times may be semi-psychotic trying to be a happy mom, especially on a trip far from home.  At least no one needed a hospital visit this time!  

 There's my sister Melissa next to Jeremy and my sister Ann sitting in the lower right corner all trying to manage the nine little grand kids who have no desire to be quiet or still in the lovely reception hall.  

 Aren't they sweet?  I have a new sister!  I'm so proud of both of them.  

 And here's our princess Katie with her friend, Kate (new sister-in-law)'s brother Tate.  She just thought the world of him.  Notice the flowers in her hair and her tiara?  She still tells people about her Aunt Kate's wedding where she got to dress like a princess and wear a sparkly tiara, have a princess dress with a ribbon on it, and flowers in her hair.  I have no idea what to do with such a fancy daughter other than to just let her do it.  

The Lost Summer

After waiting forever to get these uploaded, I'm remember why I haven't been blogging for so long.  I figured I better get something posted about our summer adventures, and, unfortunately, the pictures are backwards because blogger has changed on me and I have to figure this all out again.  

Adventure to Lake George:  So last February (maybe?) I read the book The Last of the Mohicans because a friend mentioned one of the main characters was named Cora and that she was an awesome character.  It was a really good book for any looking for something new to read, but you have to get through a very long and boring first chapter first.  Anyway, turns out it's historical fiction and took place just over two hours west of us.  We went to the town Glens Falls that had the cave that was in the book (I haven't seen the movie, so I don't know about that), there in the middle of a river, surrounded by factories and the town.  Then we drove up to Lake George to Fort William Henry.  It's now a big resort town and it was so strange to see all of the fancy cars and hotels and realizing there had been a horrific massacre there centuries before.  I got the girls out and we played at the lake.  The drive was unbelievable.  Anyone who only thinks of New York as a big city needs to see upstate New York.  It was rolling hills, rivers, farms, forests.... I was glad we made the trip.  

Here are some pics from Katie's 4th birthday.  She still sleeps with this pink castle stuffed with 5 ponies on her bed.  

And these are pictures of lakes of the clouds.  I think I mentioned Jeremy and I did Mt. Washington for our anniversary, and now I'm finally getting the pictures up.  The lakes are maybe a few hundred feet below the summit?  I don't know, but you're up there.  

I had to get pictures of our garden in.  It was another mostly successful year.  We branched out with green beans (which we loved), beets (which I never really found something to do with), and all kinds of delicious tomato plants.  Pele remained citation free this year, much to my relief.  

 That funky striped tomato is called a pear tomato.  They were yummy.  

I had to put a picture of Katie in a bonnet in.  Our church congregation had a primary activity for Pioneer Day (only known to us Mormons outside of Utah) and someone had an extra bonnet for Katie to where.  Love that girl.  

Four and Five

Landmarks, that I intended to have great pictures for, but all I'm going to do is talk.  Today little Katie Bug is four years old.  To start the morning off we had to wash her mouth out with soap for biting her sister.  We had invited two friends over for a little party around lunch time and I suddenly realized this morning that meant I needed to have a plan for lunch for not just my kids, but the others and and moms hanging out.  Considering most meals I'm happy to get food done for the three and I'm often an afterthought, not to mention my husband, this put me into a bit of a panic.  Along with realizing I should probably clean the house and have something for them to do while they're here.  This is why I don't plan parties.  

So the girls played with sidewalk chalk on the driveway, ate lunch, ate cupcakes, opened presents, and called it good.  We had a minor rerun tonight with Jeremy home.  I think she had a good birthday.  I may have to hire out one of my more creative friends for future bigger events if it should involve more than quesadillas and sidewalk chalk.  

For the current update on the little lady, she currently weighs 37 lbs, loves to ride the two-wheel bike with training wheels that the neighbors left behind, loves to dance and sing all kinds of songs to herself (that she usually makes up and will sing absolutely anywhere), loves to draw people and cut paper with scissors, loves to play with ponies, loves any story you read to her, will tell you if she thinks a song isn't good to listen to, is now swimming in the deep end and jumping into the water by herself as long as her life-jacket is on, cannot talk fast enough or long enough, loves and misses her best friend Jane (the neighbors that moved away), loves her new best friends Maddy and Zoe (quick turnover time), loves to participate in Primary, help walk Pele, spend time with her mommy or daddy, play with her sisters, fight with her sisters, and talk to her grandparents for brief moments on the phone.  

Just a few weeks ago in July, Jeremy and I celebrated our 5 year anniversary.  We didn't do much until the Saturday before Jeremy took his boards.  We decided to hike Mt. Washington, the second highest peak in New England, part of the Appalation Trail, and one of the record holders of worst weather recorded in the world.  The peak is 6,288 ft, and you make just over a 4000 ft ascent up steep, beautiful terrain.  It was a great hike, though we were surprised at how many people were there, especially once you reach the top.  There is a train, and a road that can get people to the top, so I guess it's not exactly the place for solitude, but it was beautiful and nice for us to spend a whole day hiking.  

As for looking back over our first five years of marriage, I think sometimes we both feel like it's been ten for how different life has become.  In the time we've been married we have both graduated from school, started and finished residency, started Jeremy's fellowship this year, moved to Spokane, Washington, moved here to New Hampshire, had Katie, had Sydney and Cora, adopted Pele, got a new car after we had Kate, bought a house in New Hampy, learned how to care for three little people (OK, that never really stops), dealt with an ankle fracture, stitches, hospitalized child on vacation, diapers, vomit, and sleepless nights more than I'd ever dreamed, learned a bit about gardening, and a lot about ourselves.  It doesn't sound like as much written out as it feels as I think about how drastic each change has been.  I think we can both look at each other and say - man, this is hard sometimes and I sure love you and wouldn't want to go through all this with anyone else.  We've both been richly blessed from our decision to marry and more so to have kids.  

So here's to many more anniversaries and birthdays to come.  Katie told me today she won't make it to her 5th birthday during one of her tantrums.  Sometimes, I wonder about that too, or if I'll make it another year.  Last week they dumped our maple syrup all over the pantry floor, then a few hours later got the regular syrup and put it all over the living room floor and our couch.  Both bottles were up pretty high, they just helped each other get up there.  For the life of me, I don't know if I'll ever figure out how to feed everyone without a major fight, a catastrophe, or multiple fights and catastrophes happening.  Oh, well.  That will be a post for another day.  Tonight, we'll just celebrate our four and five landmarks.  

And That's Why We Lock Their Door....

As always, there's so much more I wish I were posting, but we'll settle for this right now.  Last night, we set up a tent in the living room to let the girls have a "camp out."  It was too much fun for the twins and they had to go to bed in their room, but Katie seemed all right, so we let her sleep in the tent.

However, this morning at 6:20 am I heard her just outside their bedroom door.  I came out to see what she was doing and she started telling me how she was looking for me and couldn't find me.  Then she went on to tell me how she'd already been in the back yard, then out the gate to the front yard and around the house looking for me.  She said she'd checked our bed first and didn't see us (that's interesting since we were there asleep), which if you add all that up she'd been awake for quite a while.  She got herself out of our locked doors and gave herself a tour of the world.

So no more camp outs.  We may need to keep a lock on their door for years.  I'm just glad we live in such a mellow neighborhood!

Where Have We Been?

I can't keep up with this to save my life.  Between the Handel Society's last concert (err, that was in May) and then Girls Camp (that was a week ago), just about every spare second went to preparation for something more than documenting the insanity of it all.  So since I finally got these pictures put on a CD, and as of tonight actually got them onto the computer.  Anyway, I'll try to catch up on whatever I can remember.  

 Above is a picture of Cora and myself with Sabaday Falls behind us.  It's a beautiful waterfall in the White Mountains.  Jeremy had a week's vacation the first week of June, and we just used it to run here, there, and everywhere.  It was a nice break.

 I thought this would be another picture from the falls, but instead it's Sydney giving Pele loves.

 So in the merry month of May a very good friend of mine got married and asked our girls to be her flower girls.  It was one of the funnest (is that even a word?) days I've had with our girls.  The wedding was in Ipswich, Mass, Jeremy was on call, so I spent the day having an adventure with the girls.

 I tried so hard to get a picture of all three of them coming down the isle, but only Katie got it, the twins ran around to try to find me.

 Here's Cora on the left and Syd on the right.  They look so sweet in their dresses.

 There's Rachel and Mark.  I love when you have those friends that just understand you instantly.  She is one of those.

 I took them to the beach before we got to that insane castle/mansion.  Katie was excited!

 On our way down we happened to find a snapping turtle on the side of the road.  I couldn't believe how big he was, we had to stop so I could show the girls.

 These are some of our favorite people and occasional slave laborers, the Deweys.  Our girls love them, and they called to ask if we wanted to hike Mt. Cardigan with them.  Everyone took turns hauling different kids, and we made it up the beautiful peak, despite the wind that nearly blew Cora off her daddy's shoulders.

 Lunch time.

 There's Syd playing possum on her daddy's shoulders.

 We made it to the top.  I wish they could move in with us!  It makes life so much more fun to have additional hands with these rascals!

 Can you believe the view?

 The beginning of our hike.

This is actually part of the Sabaday Falls hike.  They wanted to "be united," so they all held hands on the way  down the hill.

There's a heck of a lot more to talk about and more pictures, but I'm not a huge friend of technology, it's late, I don't want to stay up longer to stare at a screen, so hopefully I'll get more in before another however many months go by.