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A story from the trip. (I hurt my back yesterday and can’t get out of bed, so you might hear a lot from me.)
So. It was one of the planned activities to hike the Y on Sunday morning, meet at Aunt LeNae’s for brunch and go to church at 1:00 p.m. It would be a family event – anyone who wanted to would go! Multitudes of cousins were present at the reunion so the boys never were friendless at any of the events.
Now, for those of you unfamiliar with the term “hike to the Y”, it is a BYU thing. Almost a rite of passage. I thought it was a Utah thing, although after sitting around with Mark’s cousins after church I found that half of them had lived in UT for many years and never done it. Sad! Anyway, the new BYU freshmen are almost required to traipse up the side of the mountain. There is a HUGE “Y” up there, demarking the nickname for BYU. The Y is up there pretty high. It is kind of intimidating… and Sammy did NOT want to go.
We were kind of iffy anyway about whether we’d actually do it. Nobody else was going… one uncle had been sick throughout the night, wiping out a whole family of potential comrades… it had been raining, creating possibly unfavorable trail conditions. But we had NOTHING else to do. We had already walked around BYU twice, the kids were sick of the Bus, and we couldn’t show up unannounced at unsuspecting family’s doorsteps in all good conscience. We kicked around the idea of walking around one of the various LDS temples in the area, but Josh was being such a turkey and needed an outlet for his energy (as did Ben and even Jill), and I had just the night before bought shoes suitable for hiking, so we decided to just go.
As we wound through the streets in the Provo foothills (I never remember where the trailhead starts – we always walked up when I was a student – now there’s a parking lot!) Sam was teary eyed and adamant that he was sure this was a bad idea. I looked at Mark out of the corner of my eye and said, “Well, maybe we’ll only go up part way and come down.” He shot back, “No, let’s do the whole thing! We can DO this! What else are we going to do?” So I slunk into my seat for a minute and listened to the whimpering from the middle row. And popped some excedrin. I knew I was about to need it.
We found the trailhead – wow, they have improved it. Josh, Ben and Jill were off in a flash. Sammy didn’t even want to get out of the Bus. I put on my best encouraging voice and said we’d do it together. I handed him a water bottle and he got OUT. Half the battle.
I won’t bore you with the details, but suffice it to say, I had to hold his hand and literally DRAG him up the mountain for parts. We linked arms and I dragged him. I distracted him from the arduous task at hand by regaling him with funny stories of my childhood. And every time he sat down I’d stop talking. He’d say, “What happens next?” And I’d say, “I can’t tell you until you start walking again.” I kept VERY CHEERFUL, I tell you. It was helpful that I have some great stories.
We made it to the top, took pictures, and Jill AND Sam were both afraid of being up so high. Then Jill was being a momma’s girl and wanted me to carry her down… then she fell asleep on me almost instantly. So I carried a sleeping three year old all the way down the mountain, and my calves are still feeling it. Mark got the job of coaxing Sam down the mountain. Mark sent Josh ahead to catch up to me with the Bus key so I could put her down when I got there. Josh was in remarkable spirits through the whole hike. Amazing. And Ben was incredible. A total little trooper.
He asked several times, as we were going up, “What is the point of this??” We told him, so you can say you did it. For bragging rights. Because some of your friends in KS have never even SEEN a mountain, much less climbed one, and you can now tell them YOU have CLIMBED a MOUNTAIN!!! He was unimpressed. I thought giving him a few days’ space would give him some perspective on things, and the sense of accomplishment would begin to sink in. But as we drove home, we had to pass the Y from a distance. I said, “Look guys – the Y! Doesn’t it look high? Amazing that we were sitting on that thing.” Sammy didn’t even bother to look up. I think he’s still holding a bit of a grudge.
I am easily distracted. Do you all know that? Right now I am sitting here, getting ready to tell you all about the trip we just had to Utah, and I am distracted by what looks like green watercolor sprayed across my bedsheet. How did that happen? Why do I even ask? I have four kids. Mark asks questions like this all the time. He called yesterday from his first day back to work, and I picked up the phone and instead of saying hello, allowed the screams in the background to greet him, and he at first sounded alarmed. He said, “What *IS* that? Is something wrong?” And I said, “No, this is completely normal. Everything is fine. How’s your day going?”
ANYWAY. The TRIP. We got a whole 1 1/2 hours away from home before the van started smoking and slipping out of gear. (We were on our way to Utah for Mark’s family reunions – 17 hours away!) We pulled over, got it cooled down and were able to get it to a mechanic who didn’t have what we needed, but told us we could last to the next Honda dealer in Salina, and we got there just before they closed, so they had just enough time to advise us not to drive it any further and get it in first thing in the morning. Woohoo!
Luckily there was a hotel right behind the dealership and they had a two room suite with a bunk bed and a great pool and breakfast, and the kids had a blast… while Mark and I fretted about what to do about our van. We were already set back a day of driving, so we were faced with a LONG 15 hour drive to make the reunion in time. Mark went over to the dealership and found that we’d need a new transmission – over $4000. And they wouldn’t be able to do it until the next afternoon.
Ideas that were tossed around over the phone while I sat in the stairwell of the hotel, and he was at the dealer…
1) go home, scrap the reunion thing all together
2) buy a new van – but there were no Odysseys on the lot – and I pointed out that that would take hours, and we don’t have extra time
3) rent a vehicle from the dealer – they had 2 types available… an Impala (6 passenger, 3 in front, 3 in back NONONO!!!) or a 12 passenger VAN. No minivans available!!!! A quick internet check of other car rental places in the Salina area showed no minivans available anywhere. Sigh. So – 12 Passenger van, here we come.
It took him an hour or so to do paperwork and transfer all our junk from the minivan to the “bus” as Jill called it. Josh and Sam each had their own row. The kids were in great spirits! What an adventure!!! Until we hit about 10 minutes in and realized there was nothing to do. I had only brought DVDs and a couple of books to read out loud to them for entertainment. And a coloring book. With about 5 crayons. The older boys had a couple library books, Josh had his crappy iPod that used to be MY iPod, that I got rid of for a reason (it doesn’t hold a charge for longer than 45 minutes) and his cell phone that he could text on. Oh, and a few audio CDs mixed in with the DVDs. That’s about it.
So… throughout the course of the trip, Sammy had a mental breakdown in the form of sobbing quietly into his blanket for 20 minutes, and since we were in such a big van I was able to go back and talk with him and help him feel better. Before that, Josh had HIS major freakout when I tried to play Les Miserables and he started screaming and crying – “Turn this music OFF!!! You are torturing me!!! This is TORTURE!!!! You are doing this just to try to KILL ME!!!!” etc etc etc. I refused to turn it off, however, because there was nothing else to listen to, I don’t give in to fits, and he was being ridiculous. I did however, after he calmed down a bit, figure out how to balance the audio up to the front so it wouldn’t be *quite* so painful to his ears. After I had my counseling session with Sam I was able to have a session with Josh, then with Ben and Jill. Being in a big van had its benefits.
We arrived at around 12:30 a.m. Utah time. We had lots of fun seeing Mark’s awesome family, both his Mom’s and his Dad’s side. Lots of people put in tons of work and it was fabulous, and went too quickly. There are certain people in the family I particularly love to sit and visit with and wish I could see more often. I’d elaborate but this is getting really long… and my kids are starting to drive me nutso over here.
We decided to do half the trip overnight to cut down on fighting and whining about nothing to do. So we drove to Denver to see my parents, which was wonderful – we had missed them on the way out. It was too short of a visit. My mom has been losing weight, she looks fantastic. We left around midnight and drove all night to reach the dealership in the morning and pick up our newly transmissioned minivan and say goodbye to the Bus. We had vacuumed it out the night before and threatened the kids not to eat anything in it so we wouldn’t be charged with a cleaning fee. We’ve already spent enough! Sigh. So, $500+ for the rental. $4000+ for the transmission. Who knows how much for gas. Etc etc etc for food, lodgings, reunion stuff, an inverter for the bus to watch movies on the laptop, a haircut for Josh so he wouldn’t be nagged by his grandfather anymore…. Much deniero.
These are the things with which memories are made… right?
Can they take away your blog for non-usage?
Here’s the latest…
The disaster in the pantry -
Powdered milk tastes yucky
Sammy turned 9 -
Jill stays cute…
Josh thinks he doesn’t need much sleep but he DOES…
And Jillian got bangs! She saw me give Sam and Ben haircuts the other day and very much wanted her hair cut also. I had trimmed the back before when she had asked before, but I love her hair and am afraid that she will get the idea of cutting her own… Anyway, she pulled out the stool I used for the boys and climbed up and patiently sat. So I decided it was time to give her bangs. She’s always sweeping her hair out of her face anyway.
I don’t think anyone’s really missed my blog, since I “see” many of my old friends on facebook these day, but just in case…
The middle of nowhere. Just kidding. It’s actually a nice little town and we’re enjoying it. But I just barely got the internet working, have been unpacking like crazy, Jilly is sick, we have had technical difficulties with the sprinklers enough to tick off the neighbors, etc.
And I can’t find my dumb camera! I swear I have seen it in this house (meaning I don’t think we left it at one of our stops along the way out here) but I can’t find it now. It is driving me nuts.
Also I miss my friends! I have more pics of friends on my CAMERA but I hadn’t downloaded them yet. 
Ladies and Gentlemen, thank you for your patience. All I do is keep the status quo with the kids and clean this house, waiting for a buyer. By the way, our virtual tour is at http://www.3280whitfielddrive.com if you’re interested in buying our house! 
Actually, we’ve had some big events – Sammy (or Samuel, as he’s decided he wants to be called once we move) just got baptized, and Grandma, Grandpa, Andrea and Matt were able to visit for it.
(The kids were rioting so we had to start cutting the cake before a picture was taken!)
And Josh had has final Chorus concert and Piano Recital where he played one of his own compositions, and last Saturday he got his Green Belt!
Josh with his teacher, Master Terry.
And Jilly is now a “yellow belt” – she karate chops Ben ALL the time. Hmmm.
And Ben, well…. He’s a master fixer-upper. Independent and fascinated with tools, wanting to do anything and everything… and see how Jill’s looking at him? She follows him wherever he goes and tries to do everything he does.
We’re in trouble with this pair.
Hope you’re all well… thanks for checking in! Sorry the posts are so infrequent – I’ll try to do better.
We went househunting during our spring break – and we took the kids so they could have a (small) vote in where we would live. Mark will say that we ended up in the town I wanted, with the house I wanted, and nobody else got a say in anything, but I really did consider everyone’s opinions, but the house I liked the most really was the best one.
I scheduled the houses I wanted to see with the realtor before we left, and I hunted around on the internet to find floorplans for some of the new construction houses we’d be seeing. I really liked the flow of 2 of them especially, one in particular. It happened to be the most expensive one… but it has a lot of upgrades, because it was the model home. It is in the Parade of Homes in Wichita, so when we had narrowed the 12 houses down to 3 on the 2nd day, we met the builder, who happened to be there for the Parade. It was good to talk to him – I think he really helped us decide on buying. We were also able to customize a few things with him while we were there. So anyway, wanna see pictures? Of course you do!
First, I was going to include a link to the floorplan, but it may have too much information – so email me if you’d like to see it and I’ll email you the link.
More – MUCH more – after the jump…. Read the rest of this entry »
Grape jelly!
Brownie Batter!
A new hat and dress from Grandma T!
A favorite neighbor and babies! (She calls them bubbies right now!)
We had our SECOND snowstorm yesterday! The first was on Wednesday, and the kids have been beside themselves with joy! Josh’s teacher told the class that the trick to making it snow was to sleep with your pajamas inside-out and flush ice cubes down the toilet. They fully invested themselves in these rituals, were thrilled with the large flakes that fell during the afternoon (instead of night, so they could actually enjoy it!) and played until their toes were frozen like popsicles.
The next morning (Thursday), we checked to see if the schools were closed – which was a possibility, because the entire Atlanta area tends to shut down with even a hint of bad weather – but, no. School was in! I was secretly rejoicing but I put on my sad face for the kids. I didn’t even have to wake them up. First Sammy came bounding in – “Is school canceled?” “No, honey… school’s not canceled.” He flopped on my bed in despair. The he shuffled off to his room right as Josh came in my room, wrapped in his blanket. “It’s a snow day, right?” “No, sweetie, there’s school today. Sorry.” A look of disbelief landed on his face and didn’t leave until he left the house. There were tears, there were angry words… come to think of it, I think we saw the 5 stages of grief right here in our house that morning.
Denial and Isolation – he went into the study and tried to prove me wrong by looking it up on the news sites on the internet.
Anger – “They should NOT have school on a day like this – there are TWO inches of snow on the ground!!!”
Bargaining – “I shouldn’t have to go to school on a day like this. They should not have school when there’s snow!”
Depression – Quietly crying into his cereal
Acceptance – Slinging his backpack onto his back and trudging out to the van (yet still complaining all the way to school about various injustices past and present being done unto him)
Anyway, here are some pictures from the Saturday snow!
That’s Josh, building a snowman. Even Jill got out in it and loved it! I’m surprised at how many of these southerners have sleds – there were many sled tracks in the front yards of the neighborhood. However, many of us are transplants so that could explain it. That’s why we have one.
On a side note, I’ve lost 12 lbs since November 26th – I’m in a weight loss challenge with some friends here. So yay for me!
Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for your patience. Now that we are officially through with Christmas I can focus on something other than what’s going under the tree, and… what was I talking about? I can’t remember, I’m so sidetracked. I’ve had to get up 5 times while writing that last sentence to help kids with stuff. So nothing’s changed, I still don’t have any free time, but I’m going to try to write up a quick recap. Aaaand now it’s 22 minutes later. I just broke up a big argument over the intricacies of why Ben’s Wii remote is no longer the “#1 remote” because he refused to remain in front of the tv when it was loading up. The boy doesn’t listen to me these days.
Anyway. Back to Paris. You know, when I’m having a tough time, or even when I’m changing a diaper or doing something mundane my mind will just drift back to Paris – to priceless works of art, to amazing architecture, to beauty and culture and life-changing experiences. End of sidenote.
A picture of me in Paris for Robin – and I’m not changing the title of my previous post, Robin – I really was dead when I came home. 
Day 2: I met up with my mom and we headed up to Montmartre, on our way to Sacre Coeur, a huge cathedral on the top of a hill. A BIG hill. Lots of stairs. We shopped on our way towards the stairs and then climbed and climbed. We were rewarded with amazing views and blue skies. Behind the Sacre Coeur is an Artists’ Square where artists paint and sell their art. I didn’t buy anything but I was sorely tempted. I did take pictures. Then we headed down to Notre Dame. Here is the slideshow from this section of Day 2:
Day 2 Section 1 – Sacre Coeur and Artists’ Square
So then we went through the magnificent Notre Dame. There was a class of elementary school students going on a fieldtrip to Notre Dame and the teacher was telling them about the religion and the saints on the outside, I thought that was neat. The pictures do more justice than my descriptions can. Then we had some Berthillion ice cream, recommended to me by a local, and it was indeed very good… then we were off to Sainte Chapelle, which was the perfect day to see this particular chapel. You want to see this one on a sunny day because of all the stained glass, and this was the only sunny day of my trip, so we lucked out. It was gorgeous! Here’s the slideshow if this section of Day 2:
Day 2 Section 2 – Notre Dame and Sainte Chapelle
Afterwards, we went to see the Place de la Concorde and walk through the Jardin des Tuileries on our way to the Louvre, where we’d meet up with Mark afterwork that night. But we’d make a detour on our way on the Rue de Rivoli to stop at a place called Angelina for the best hot chocolate in the world. THE BEST. And the best quiche I’ve ever had too. Pricey but worth it. So worth it I had to take Mark back the next day. The hot chocolate was 7.5 Euros per person and the quiche was 13.5 Euros? I think? Anyway, I took pictures of the hot chocolate. It’s in the slideshow. Then we went off in search of a bookstore and then to the Louvre just in time to meet Mark, and probably saw about 25% of what the museum had to offer, it’s that massive… We saw the Renaissance art, including the Mona Lisa. There are signs all around the Mona Lisa that have the icon for “no photography”, and two guards sitting on either side of the painting, but the guards looked bored and obviously didn’t care if people took pictures, because everyone WAS. So I took a couple. No flash, of course. My favorite piece we saw that night was Winged Victory - it is placed where several staircases come together and is bigger than you’d think. It is just gorgeous.
Day 2 Section 3 – Place de la Concorde to the Louvre
Day 3: Before Mom had to leave, we went over to the Champs Elysees to do a little shopping. She and I bought scarves as gifts… she bought a beautiful green one for me as an early Christmas present! I wore it the rest of the day and wear it all the time here. So we went back and got Mom packed up in time for her shuttle to come, and she left. It was great to have her come, I had a lot of fun with her! Afterwards, Mark and I went to the Paris Opera House, famed for the Phantom of the Opera – we were unable to go inside, because they were rehearsing at the time. But the architecture was amazing – every lamppost is art. There is a wonderful sculpture right on the front of the Opera House called “The Dance” and it is reproduced in the Musee D’Orsay also, and I just love the joy in it. Then we decided to go back to the Louvre. The night before I spied the Egyptian wing right as we were leaving and I wanted to go see it. But first I took Mark to Angelina for lunch! Quiche and hot chocolate again! YUM! So the Louvre, the we walked all the way back to Pont de l’Alma to do a boat tour on the Seine. We watched a group of drunk Korean businessmen get half naked and take pictures in front of the Eiffel Tower before we even left the dock. Then the tour started and they’d announce what we were seeing on “port” or “starboard” and if you didn’t know the difference you were out of luck… and the little blurbs about the sights came in 6 different languages, one right after the other, so you had to listen hard for English. We were up in the open air but it got a bit chilly so we moved down to the heated indoors. Then we went to a nice dinner up one of the side streets off the Champs Elysees. We also went to the top of the Arc du Triomphe – I can’t remember how many steps there were but it was a LOT. That thing is huge. We also walked by the George V hotel, the lobby of which was filled with lillies – I had to take pictures.
Day 4: Sunday – So we got ready for church. I brought a skirt and boots but my feet were hurting so badly at this point that I decided God would forgive me if I wore pants and walking shoes to church. (We wouldn’t be going back to the hotel after church to change.) We found the English-speaking branch with no problem since Mark had been attending it for several weeks, and helped another lost-looking couple, since it is hard to find. The buildings are interesting in Paris – big doors open right from the street that your car drives through and into a courtyard where you park. That’s where you really find the entrance to the buildings. Anyway, at church, Mark gave the opening prayer, I led the music and gave the closing prayer, and members of the regular Paris 1st ward gave the talks. The man leading the meeting seemed very grateful to have Mark there, since he’d been there so many Sundays in a row. Consistency isn’t very normal in that little branch, obviously.
We saw the outside of the Pompidou Museum and considered going in but decided not to, walked past the Hotel De Ville and saw the end of a parade on our way to Notre Dame and Sainte Chapelle, since Mark hadn’t seen them yet. We stopped at the same place where we had previously gotten ice cream and this time we got a sandwich and a hot dog, they were delicious. Afterward, we went to the Museum of Middle Ages (Musee National du Moyen Age, or Musee du Cluny), the Picasso Museum, then we decided we WOULD gosee the Pompidou, which is a modern art museum, and boy do I wish I had been taking pictures in there. I thought photography was not allowed. All day long I’d been told in all the other museums “No photo!” so I thought I couldn’t take pics here either. There was some cool, wacky stuff going on in that museum.
Then we headed up to another restaurant that my friend, the local, recommended. This one was back in Montmartre, and had wonderful french onion soup and did this unique thing with potatoes that I wish I could duplicate. We thought about going up to Sacre Coeur but it was getting late, and it was a lot of stairs. So instaid we rode the metro to La Defense, where Mark worked. He showed me around and we saw the Modern Arch up close. It is ENORMOUS. So we walked around a bit, enjoying the views from that part of the city, and decided to go back to the hotel when the cold got the best of us.
The next day I left for home very early in the morning. The kids were all happy to see me, and I loved feeling like an adult for a few days. It was an amazing trip!
I’m back and I’ve uploaded all my pictures from Paris to my photobucket account!
We had a fabulous time. Our hotel was right down the street from the Arc de Triomphe.
Day 1, I got in (after missing my initial flight, long story), got to the hotel where Mark was waiting to see me before going to work (my flight arrived at 6:15 am), met up with my mom, and we walked to the Arc de Triomphe to buy my Metro Pass and Museum Pass. Then we were off to see stuff! We got off near the Pont Alexandre and looked around (beautiful! statues everywhere, for no reason other than to make the place gorgeous!) Then saw the Army Museum and Napoleon’s Tomb at the Hotel les Invalides. Then we went to the Rodin Museum and walked through the amazing sculpture garden. Then we went to see mom’s apartment (teeny and cute, but functional) and back to my hotel for a sec, then on to the Musee D’Orsay, which is a gorgeous museum. The Louvre keeps art up to about 1850 AD, and the Orsay holds art from 1850 to the present. We met up with Mark, saw more of the museum, then ran off to see the Eiffel Tower. It was lit up with thousands of strobe lights! We went up – you take three separate elevators to go to the top – and the top is enclosed, thank goodness, because once we got to the top it began to rain, HARD. Also, the tower sways up there. Very interesting. I’m not used to that since I’m never at the top of tall buildings but apparently that’s normal. Then we got a very very late dinner. I massaged my poor owie feet and went to bed.
Here’s the short slideshow of day 1:
(I’ve never done a slideshow before so let me know if that doesn’t work!)
I have over 400 pictures of the trip so if anyone wants to see the whole thing let me know and I’ll give you the address and password. I’ll post the other days soon!
