Monthly Archives: September 2008

This was taken just moment before Cal fell and split his lip

At the picnic table

Autumn Glory

The light was really low – too low for an in-focus shot. I should have had my tripod.

Last night for FHE (Family Home Evening) we went to Silver Lake at the top of Big Cottonwood Canyon with the Enghs. We had a bucket-o-chicken from KFC, and then walked the board walk around the lake. The autumn colors were BEAUTIFUL! Everything had turned, but nothing had dropped yet, so it was very vivid and lovely. Of course I forgot my tripod. I’ve found myself in probably 1/2 dozen prime photo ops lately without a tripod! UGH! But tonight I plan to go to the Alpine Loop WITH tripod to take more pics. You can check out my photoblog for some of my recent images.

Anyhow . . . the lake was beautiful, the kids had fun. Calvin fell and bit his lip really bad. Poor baby. Now he has a fat lip and a black eye (from falling on the windowsill on Sunday). But he didn’t want to be carried or ride in the stroller. He wanted to walk with the big kids. He loves playing with the other kids.

Thanks Enghs for the great idea! It was tons-o-fun!

Brendan is one of Wyatt’s buddies from the MBA. He has the maturity of . . . well, a Wyatt. It makes them perfect for each other. I was reading his blog the other day, and these really made me laugh!

Okay, so here’s the story. Wyatt approached me three or four weeks ago and told me he had been putting aside money (pilfering our budget – which is funny because Wyatt always accuses me of pilfering our budget because I always have an emergency cash stash. BUT the difference is my cash stash comes from my fudge money, not our actual budget. Stink eye at Wyatt) to take me on an anniversary trip. We began planning a great getaway. Then Wynn super-generously offered us two buddy passes. With deeply discounted airfare, the options sprung wide opened. We’d fairly settled on Alaska as our destination of choice. We had a babysitter lined up for ten days, we had airfare, we had it all!

Then came THE HOME IMPROVEMENT PROJECT. We’ve known forever that we needed to cut a door into the basement. People think I’m kidding when I say we can’t get furniture or sheet rock or anything into our basement, but trust me, I’d've forgone the project, time and expense if I could have. We need the door into the basement to get the materials in to finish the basement. While we were at it we decided to enlarge the windows (as they were, they were windows of death in case of fire). We decided this fall would be the time. Olivia is only getting older, and we need a yard for her to play in. To fix the yard up we first needed to tear everything up to get the cutting done.

This cabin has a sign on it that says “Moose Track Inn”

Okay, long story short, the guy who came to do the excavating came the weekend before our planned trip. The concrete cutting guys took a day longer than planned, the excavation therefor was held up, then Jared was out of town and couldn’t help us put in windows and doors (at this writing, it’s been two weeks of project, the door is half in, no windows). So . . . the trip got . . . postponed . . . indefinitely. But, I got to be here for Leslee’s homecoming, and Lois did take the kids for two days while we were kinda at a standstill. Wyatt and I got to go to Galleons Lap (saw TWO baby moose), eat dinner at the Road Island Diner, finalize our cabin plans, eat lunch at Mamma’s Cafe, and otherwise hang out. Today Jared came to help with the doors and windows. Lois still has the kids. Tonight we’re going to Ruby River and a movie.

We’re thinking of using the tickets (which are still good) for Puerto Rico in January.

This past week brought the return of Sister Leslee Brock. She’s been serving faithfully in Rancagua, Chile. She came home on Tuesday, and was greeted by her favorite niece and nephew. After the airport hullabaloo, we went to La Puente, where Carrie had planned a little surprise welcome home party with some of her favorite peeps. I pressed, but she doesn’t seem to have plans for the rest of her life (seriously, what’s the problem?) But I do think she’ll probably live in St. George at least until the start of next semester. But she will be back in Salt Lake on Sunday for brownies and a movie.

Yesterday I was making Leslee’s “Welcome Home” poster. As I wrote, Olivia told me each each of the letters. She knows her entire ABC’s, and can recognize about 3/4′s of them in their written form, and about half of those’ sounds they make. She also knows her shapes, she’s constantly pointing out “that’s a triangle, mommy” or what have you. She knows her colors . . . known those for a long time. Funny thing though . . . she always forgets her five when she’s counting.

Yesterday was our anniversary. Seven years baby! To celebrate . . . well, lets see . . . Wyatt got up early to go to his Sunday meetings. Meanwhile I wrestled the babies into their Sunday clothes. At church Wyatt referreed between Calvin and Olivia until Calvin finally passed out from exhaustion (church time = nap time). After church we got Cal down for a nap, Olivia watched Peep, Wyatt surfed the internet, and I attempted to clean the house. Seven years, baby!

I’ve mentioned a few times before about my neighbor, Kathe. She’s an aging widow who is feeling the effects of time. She’s essentially losing the ability to speak. She can’t remember words, she can’t remember how to read or spell. The inability to communicate has caused her severe distress over the past several months. Finally about six weeks ago Kathe approached us and told us she was going to move to Arizona to live near her daughter. We’ve been helping her get ready.

I’ll admit, there are times when her inability to speak frustrates me. It’s when there’s one baby crying and another running away to who knows where. There are times when I brace myself for her company, knowing that the time with her will be slow and arduous. But then I think to myself: who will take care of my Olivia when I am gone and can’t take care of her. . . when she is old, and lonely, and can’t remember things as she should. That thought breaks my heart, and I go over to see Kathe to see how I can help her. I do so selfishly. I negotiate with God (if He negotiates, this is how it goes in my prayers) that if I do so, Olivia will have someone to take care of her too.

I heard Olivia whimpering in the middle of the night last night. Hoping she’d go back to sleep, I ignored her for a few minutes until I heard her door close. I got up to find her climbing up on her chair as if about to attempt climbing back into her crib. She wasn’t crying. And when I asked her what she was doing, she whispered in a half coherent way that she couldn’t find her milk. I held her in her chair for a few minutes and asked her what she was doing up. She told me she didn’t like her crib. She wanted to come to my bed. I told her that perhaps tonight we could have a sleep over on her floor, and wouldn’t that be fun. And then tomorrow we would make her bed into a new “Big Girl Bed.” She seemed as happy as a two year old could be at 5:30 in the morning.

So today we finally did it. I know, most parents would be shocked and horrified to learn that Olivia, at age 35 months still sleeps in a crib. I always said . . . until she climbs out of it on her own or turns 3 – which ever comes first. Well, she FINALLY learned to climb out a few weeks ago. Even though she’s had the knowledge, she’s only done it a half dozen times. But today we got out our screw drivers and hex wrenches and made her crib into a toddler day bed. As we began the process, she looked up at me and said “But I will miss my crib.” I told her it was okay to be sad. But things change, and it would be a good change and she would be happy. Boy, was she ever, when she saw she could now climb out AND IN her own bed by herself. Wyatt ran through a bathroom drill with her a few times, and she enjoyed putting all her babies on the bed. She’s such a big girlie!

Olivia is Calvin’s favorite. She’s the first one he wants to see in the morning. He gives her hugs and kisses over and over again (sometimes to Olivia’s dismay). He hits her in his excitement, and Olivia whines and I have to show Calvin (again) how to be soft with his Olivia. Olivia bears it all very patiently. Secretley he’s her favorite too.

I stole this picture off the Smith’s website. Rick edited it. He edited another one too. But I won’t post that one here. He thinks he’s so funny!

I have set up a new photoblog as a subdomain of this website. You might remember my old photography website. I took it down a little over a year ago. Since then I haven’t had a place to really post my “photography” which hasn’t bothered me in the least since 9 out of 10 pictures are simple snapshots of my little family and our adventures; and I post those here. But now I have a site to show some of the other work I do. You can check it out by going to “Andrea” at the top of the home-page, and clicking on “Photoblog” on the drop-down menu. Or you can just click here.

You can post comments to the images, and feedback is greatly appreciated. I’ve posted most of my old work, though I’m sure I’ll find more that I’ll want to put on as I go through my old files. But in the mean time, I’ve also just started showing some of my “new work,” starting in September!

This picture was taken on a shoot (not guns) with photography super-hero Rick last weekend in Manti.