How much longer?

Now that I am settled and getting back into the routine of life I am wondering if I can make it two more months before having this baby. Yesterday I hit the "I can't do this any more" wall. Josh just looks at me in bewilderment and questions what choice I have. Our dear friends gave us their crib and it is now set up in "the boys room." Caleb is looking forward to the new baby too. Lately, in anticipation of the baby's arrival Caleb has told me the following:

"When Andy is born he is going to have to run and go poop in the potty."

"When is Andy going to crawl out?"

Caleb: "When Andy is born I am going to teach him how to walk."
Me: "When he is born he will be really little so you will have to wait until he gets bigger to teach him."
Caleb: "Don't worry, I will teach him gently."

"My baby brother isn't going to cry because he is a boy."

I think we are in for an adventure if I can make it through these next few months.

The Trip of a Lifetime!

Of all of the things I should be doing to recover from being gone for a week blogging is not one of them, but I just can't resist posting a few pictures and journaling about the trip we just returned from. It was amazing! We hope to do it again someday and hope that our friends will be able to do it too so while I can still remember where we went, here is my best attempt to journal the experience.

On Thursday the 24th of July we took a redeye flight to St. Thomas in the Virgin Islands. We began the trip with our friends Shawn and Lisa and spent two nights in St. Thomas. Unfortunately we lost our camera after the first few days so our pictures in St. Thomas are currently limited, but we had a great time. We ate some of the best food we have ever tasted at Glady's Cafe, Cuzzin's Caribbean Restaurant, and Hook, Line, and Sinker. We stayed at a quant little bed and breakfast called the Green Iguana. I couldn't believe all of the Iguana's we saw all over the island. They were so big I would almost call them dragons.



The first night we enjoyed the sunset on Magen's Bay.



We toured the Island in our cute little Jeep Wrangler.



We saw some fantastic views of the Virgin Islands from the mountaintops. It is amazing how close together the islands are. At any given time on the trip you could see islands in every direction.



While in St. Thomas we snorkeled at Coki Beach, which is where Josh and I learned that 45 minutes in the sun without sunscreen is way too long. Needless to say I applied 50 sunscreen over every exposed part of my body at least twice a day for the rest of the trip. We sang Karaoke on Saturday night at Iggies Beach Bar.

We learned to appreciate the price of groceries here in the states as we shopped for provisions on the boat. For a gallon of milk it was $8 just to give you an idea. One thing we don't get here in Utah is fresh mango's and banana's growing on the wayside which we took occasion to pick and eat. It is ironic that Josh would work to get a banana sense he doesn't even like them, but I think it was the adventure he liked.



We also found coconuts off of a beach. Josh put his determination to work and got this one husked and amazingly it even tasted awesome.



We attended the small branch on Sunday morning and were total inspired by the faith of the saints on the island. Following church we loaded our catamaran, The Moon Shadow, for five nights of sailing. Just in case you don't know what a catamaran is following is a picture of ours. Ours is 42 feet sailboat (with two motors if you don't want to sail). Ours slept 10 and we had it almost maxed out with three other couples (our long time friends Dave and Erica, Shawn and Lisa, and Spencer and Amy) and our skipper, Daniel. Sunday afternoon we left St. Thomas for our first destination on St. John.



On our way to Leinster Bay, where we anchored the first night, our Skipper/Caption Daniel stopped at his favorite Lobster hole and caught us an all you can eat fresh lobster dinner. The size of these lobsters would put any Maine lobster I have ever seen to shame. They were unbelievably large. You can see in this picture that they spanned almost the entire dingy.



Having Daniel as our Caption proved to be a highlight of the trip. His expertise of the islands was impressive. He has been a skipper for nine years. Also, being the son of two scientist, having grown up in the Virgin Islands, exploring the islands with his parents on weekends, he knew the in's and out's of every stop. He also has a master’s degree in marine biology. Snorkeling with him was like entering an underwater petting zoo. We snorkeled almost every day and he would bring up creatures of the sea that we would have never seen. We saw sharks on occasion and he took the opportunity to pull on their tail so that we could see them swim away. He taught us the difference between "good" and "bad" jelly fish. We even gained the courage to pet the "good" ones, but always preferred not to run into them by surprise.



Unfortunately, none of us had an underwater camera to capture the snorkeling experience, but take my word for it - it was the best I have ever experienced.

Monday morning before leaving Leinster Bay we went on a hike and explored an old sugar mill. It was fascinating and beautiful. We picked fresh key lime's for the trip and some other local fruit that Dave called Gobstoppers and the rest of us referred to as snot covered balls, natives call them genips. (They don't taste bad, and they don't taste good, it is the texture that got most of us.)

Sugar Mill Picture to be added shortly.

We spent the afternoon at a beautiful white sand beach at Sandy Cay. Everyone, except me, enjoyed an intense game of ultimate Frisbee. I enjoyed bobbing weightlessly in the water while they ran their legs off on the beach. Then Daniel taught us a beach game of his childhood, NASCAR Racing. It is played by creating a track in the sand with obstacles. Then you use a round nut and flick it through the track. Dave was the winner by a landslide. You can see our well designed track in the picture below.



We spent that night at White Bay on Jost Van Dyke in the British Virgin Islands and headed off Tuesday morning for Guana Island where Josh and Shawn scuba dove and the rest of us snorkeled.



We ended that day at Spanish Town of Virgin Gorda where we filled our water storage and got a few provisions. Up to this point we had not even been around other people. We had been eating on the catamaran and sticking too secluded island gems.

Wednesday morning we were just a stones throw from The Baths, which was a highlight of the trip for some of us. Daniel was up making us a pancake breakfast before dawn and we were to the baths by about 6:30 in the morning. We left at about 10:00 just as people began to arrive. It was awesome to be there by ourselves. The baths are a geographical phenomenon where house size granite boulders come up to the sea creating beautiful pools. As always Daniel showed us things we would have never found on our own. He took us to a spot where we could jump from a bolder into the ocean and then swim under a tiny hole in the rocks. I was going to abstain from this activity as Daniel joked I may have plugged the small hole that you would swim though to get back onto the trail. I did prove him wrong by swimming through to see everyone jump, but I didn't feel a need to jump myself.



There were some tight squeezes for my big belly, but I was able to participate in everything at the baths except a hike that I understand was so scary jumping from bolder to bolder that I probably would not have liked it anyway. There is just no way for pictures to do justice to how big or how beautiful this place was.



It was worth the time spent sailing to see the Baths!



After leaving The Baths we set sail for Norman Island where we had one of our two meals off of the boat. We went to Willy T's a floating ship for burgers. It was a fun atmosphere, and a few of us jumped off the second floor of the ship into the bay. The awesome part of Norman Island and a highlight for me was snorkeling in and around the caves that inspired Robert Lewis Stevenson’s, Treasure Island. The snorkeling was unbelievable and the fish flocked to the bread and granola bars we brought with us.



Our final full day of sailing took us from Norman Island to Honeymoon Beach on St. John via the Indians and, against the council of Daniel, Trunk Bay. (Trunk Bay was beautiful but much more crowded than the other bays we had been too which is why Daniel advised against it.) We did capture some beautiful pictures at Trunk Bay. You can see our catamaran in the background.



The Indian's were the best snorkeling spot of all for some with breathtaking rock walls covered with coral and only accessible via boat. Staying at Honeymoon Beach we were a short dingy ride from Cruise Bay where we had dinner at the Lime Inn.



Nothing Like nine adults in a little overloaded dingy. The poor thing got us around.



Friday morning some of the group went for one last snorkel run while the rest of us took a last opportunity to sleep in. (We woke up early every other morning.) We returned our catamaran to CYOA (Choose Your Own Adventure) Charters by 10:00 in the morning ate in St. Thomas and prepared for a very long trip home.

Each day we had time on the boat while we were sailing. Some people had to concentrate to avoid getting sick, but others of us found great ways to entertain ourselves.

The more adventursome found that they could get a huge lift from the waves as they jumpped on the tramp on the front of the boat.



Each night we mixed drinks (virgin of course) while we played cards and visited. We were surprised by how early it gets dark, but it was fun to socialize on the boat after dark. As you can see inside the boat was small for Josh, but he coped well.



What can I say; it was the trip of a lifetime! If you are interested in seeing a map of where we went and different pictures you can go to Erica's blog at http://ericalow.blogspot.com/. I love her perspective.

Kid Heaven

Caleb and Cara went to kid heaven this week while Josh and I enjoyed a piece of paradise in the Virgin Islands. The kids spent most of the week at my parents with their cousins (Cathie’s kids, Colter, Emi, and Corbin). They also spent a few days at Cathie’s house causing her all kinds of stress. She says that five kids five and under are to many!! Thanks so much to my mom, Cathie, and Connie for tending!

Last week was the Famous Preston Night Rodeo so the kids got to enjoy three nights of parade, carnival, and on Friday night Grandma and Grandpa even took them to the rodeo. Anticipating seeing the “bunking” bulls has been the highlight of July for Caleb. He loved it and has been playing “bunking” bulls ever sense. Unfortunately among the kids he is always the bull, but he sure knows how to buck people off.

Gratefully, Cathie is good about pulling out the camera and capturing the moment. Following are a few of my favorite photos from while we were gone.



My mom got a new truck, and Caleb thought it was the greatest thing ever to ride in the back. The kids all love it.



The kids got to ride the horses. I am certain that my dad would have never allowed us to go in sandles or bare foot, but I guess the grandkids can get away with anything.



Cara got decked out for the rodeo. I think she makes a fine cow girl especially when Aunt Connie curls her hair.



Of course you can't go to the farm during hay season without doing a little old fashion work!



When you are four and five hauling hay takes some super powers.



With all of that work and fun a cookout is always welcome!



A dirty kid is a kid who is having fun!

4th of July Weekend

We had a fantastic 4th of July weekend. We spent the 3rd and 4th with the Coombs family and had all kinds of adventures with them. You can see more of the adventures on Cathie's blog at: Cathie's Blog. Unfortunately I am really bad about carrying a camera. Of course the parade is a highlight of any July 4th. Caleb didn't eat anything but candy for a good 12 hours.



Last minute we decided to stay in Salt Lake with Josh's sister Christina. We went to the Sugar House fireworks with her and then spent Saturday doing a connect pass again. If you haven't read about the connect pass in my earlier posts you can check out a link to it here: Salt Lake City Connect Pass. I am a huge fan because it is such a fun family thing to do and it is only $20 for adults for all of the days activities including dinner.

We started out at the Zoo which I can only handle for about an hour, but going first thing in the morning the crowd was small and we made it through in no time at all.



The kids loved riding on the carousel. I thought the turkey was perfect for Cara as the picture depicts two silly turkeys.



Caleb was of course excited but frightened. He really wanted to ride on the bench, but he was a little less stressed if Josh was holding onto him.



Caleb was obsessed with the map and wanted to know where we were going next at every move so he could find it on the map.



This picture of Josh and the gorella had to be included as it really does help the argument of evolution.

From the Zoo we went to the This Is The Place Heritage Park. It is right by the zoo, and I was totally impressed. It was a fantastic place for the kids to learn about the pioneers. The cabins are all staffed with people dressed as pioneers teaching crafts and pioneer chores. I would encourage every single person to take their kids there this summer. You can learn more at their web site: This is the Place Heritage Park.



Of course a highlight for the kids was taking a wagon ride, the train ride, and the petting zoo. Personally I was a fan of all air conditioned buildings.

This time doing the connect pass we made it to both an iMax show and a star show at Clark Planatarium. This gave the kids a good nap and Josh and I enjoyed sitting down and being entertained. The connect pass includes dinner at the Lion House which gave us a chance to attempt a family picture in front of the SLC temple.



Josh says we should never ask people to take our pictures as that is when the kids decide to show their power.



The highlight of the day for Josh and I was taking a ride on the tram at Snow Bird. I have skied Snow Bird, but the tram ride seemed to be especially thrilling when there were only a few of us flying through the sky. The temperature dropped 15 degrees from the bottom of the mountain to the top. The view was breathtaking!! It was a great way to celebrate our 6th wedding anniversary as a family.

Summer Happenings

Now that we have our new blog figured out it is about time for me to update you on the summer happenings. I am feeling much better as long as I stay on Zofran, my medication for throwing-up, I am hardly sick at all. There is nothing like feeling really sick to make you feel great once you’re are better. Time is going really fast for me in this pregnancy as I am doing my best to enjoy my cute kids through the summer. My motto for the summer is: “IF YOU MISS THE BOAT WITH YOUR KIDS, YOU MISS THE BOAT.” I am trying to take every moment to enjoy teaching my little ones and watching them learn and grow. I have even slept in a tent twice this summer in order to provide good experiences with them. (For me that is a huge stretch.) Sense pictures say a thousand words the following should give you a good idea of what we have been up to this summer.



We have spent a lot of time this summer with family. We love having Cathie and her kids only an hour away. There is something special about cousins. Cody makes a great horse, and all of the kids want to ride him at once. It is good practice sense he and Stephanie are expecting a baby in January. Connie took over Sami's room in the basement as Sami is no longer with us. We love having Connie. We only wish we saw her more often.



Caleb has his own special style. My mom couldn't believe that I let him go to the grocery store dressed like this. I figure there are far more important battles. He is mister social. To be home without a friend for even an hour is like torture to him. When he wakes up in the morning the first words out of his mouth are "who can come over and play today" and then he lists off all of his friends and neighbors while I make up silly excuses as to why it just wont work out, at least for a couple hours. He just can't get enough of friends.



Cara is such a joy. She brings me so much happiness as her personality is friendly and ambitious, yet easy going. She is so easy to get along with even for a two year old. The hardest thing about Cara is her independence. She insists on doing up her seat belt herself which can take a long time, and moving the car before she has finished her project is not acceptable. Her speech is improving, and although there are few words, she loves to sing primary songs. She gives Caleb a run for his money as she isn't afraid of anything!



Cara loves to wear her sun glasses. Grandpa Neil calls her Hollywood as she struts around in her glasses knowing how great she looks. The kids have gotten really comfortable with swimming this summer. I try to take them once a week. We went to Glendale Reservoir, near my parents home a few weeks ago. Caleb and Cara both had their life jackets on. Cara jumped off the dock over and over even without anyone to catch her. She would simply paddle and kick to someone to help her back on so that she could jump again. On the other hand Caleb sat right in the middle of the dock, sweating in the heat, wondering and talking about sharks or other unknown critters that may be in the water to get him. He finally showed his bravery and got in the water as we were all leaving.



I sure love my silly kids.

BOY!

Today we learned that we are having a BOY!  We are very excited.  We had no preference, but there are defiantly advantages.  One advantage to having a boy in the fall is that will make him one of the older kids in school, which should give him a good advantage (something girls don’t usually need as much).  I also think that it is great for boys to get on their missions before starting college.  Cara won’t notice or care much at this point, but Caleb is really excited about having a brother.  He measures in the 90^th percentile for his due date, but the doctor didn’t change the date.  Caleb has been totally off the charts for height most of his life so we just might have another big boy.

 

The main disadvantage of having a boy is that Josh and I don’t have a name we agree on.  (There are a couple of girl names we both like.)  I would like to name him Andrew (Andy) or Benjamin (Ben or Benji), Andrew being a family name and Benjamin being from the Book of Mormon.  I have also considered Paul from the Bible.  I guess I need to look at some family history and see what else I can come up with.  Josh thinks those names are too boring.  I remind him that he didn’t like the name Caleb until I had been calling him that for about a month.  It had to grow on him.  Any ideas?

A Cure for Spring Fever

Last Friday I sent a text to Josh in the afternoon threatening to make him do yard work all weekend if we didn’t get out of here.  (I am experiencing some cabin/spring fever to say the least.)  He sent me a text a 4:00, which I didn’t receive until he called and was headed home at 5:00.  His message was pack your bags.  Needless to say we had our bags packed, a hotel booked, and we were headed out of town by 5:45.  We had no idea what we were going to do, but we were getting out of here.  If you have never used hotwire to book discount hotel I recommend it. (www.hotwire.com) We stayed at the SLC downtown Hilton for $85.  It was a fun adventure for the kids and for us too.  On the way down we stopped and had dinner with the Coombs’ family and went to the donut factory, aka Crispy Cream.  While swimming at the pool Friday night we ran into one of Josh’s friends who introduced us to the Salt Lake City “Connect Pass” which was THE BEST PART. 

 

I had to get home and spread the word because it was such a great deal.  If you want more info go to http://www.visitsaltlake.com/what_to_do/connect.html.  The pass was only $18 for adults and $14 for children for a one-day pass.  I had no idea there were so many fun things to do with kids in SLC.  It included so much that I almost felt like I was cheating.  There are 14 SLC venues to choose from with the pass, and you can do as may as you can fit into the day.  We did the following in one day and all for $50 for the family.  We went to the Hogle Zoo. We had lunch at the Lion House Pantry. (Amazingly lunch was included with the pass.)  We got tickets to the Clark Planetarium IMAX show but missed the show because we were distracted at the Discovery Gateway Children’s Museum.  We went to The Living Planet Aquarium.  (At this point Cara and I took a nap in the car, but Josh and Caleb were going strong.)  Finally, we went to the worlds largest dinosaur museum at Thanksgiving Point.  It was so fun!  We really felt like we were on vacation.  The only unfortunate part of the day is that I didn’t grab the camera.  We did have our phones and took a few phone pictures.  I guess we will have to do it again to get some more pictures.

 

Friday night we went to Orem to a Flash game.  Flash is a semi-pro team that feeds into the Jazz and another pro team that I don’t remember.  NAI, the company Josh works for, is a major sponsor and has box seats.  It was fun to see how that works.  We ended up extending our vacation one night and spending Saturday night with my cousin Tamie Bateman.  I had no idea that Josh and I would have so much fun with Tamie and her husband Nate.  We laughed and laughed.  It goes without saying that our kids had fun together too.  It was so fun to get away.  I loved spending the quality time with the kids, and of course I loved that I was getting a deal.

Take a look - Help me with my book.

Many of you know that I have had the intention of writing a book on transitioning into motherhood for a few years. The transition was rocky for me, and I still feel like I am figuring things out. I work on the book in phases and have found much joy in compiling information, mostly from questionnaires you have filled out for me. I have it compiled to a point that I am now requesting help. If you can ever spare a few moments to spend some time on my wiki found at http://mommyworld.pbwiki.com/FrontPage I would appreciate it. I would like to allow you to edit and add, but I have to send you access so if you are interested in helping please email me or reply to this blog entry. One word of warning, don't go to the wiki looking for a finished product. It is NOT EVEN CLOSE. I would like to spend another year editing and writing, but I just can't seem to make the time. The other day I was writing an email to my friend who recently had her first baby and I decided that there is no reason for me to keep the information I have pulled together to myself. What I have compiled is a reference guide, not a story, so click around and see if there is something that might help you on the crazy journey we call parenting.

"Mommy I fixed Cara's hair."

This morning Caleb came into my bathroom where I was getting ready for the day, scissors in hand, smiling ear to ear, and said, "mommy I fixed Cara's hair."  The phrase every mom dreads hearing from her four year old son.  My heart sunk to my toes.  "You didn't cut it did you???"  "Yep, I did."  I held my breath as I hurried into the living room to see the damage.   I have to admit it could be much worse he took a few sections out of the back that will not affect pulling it back.  Basically he gave it a serious thinning, but all in all didn't cause major damage.  Unfortunately their piggy bank puppy, Daisy, wasn't so lucky with her ears.  Daisy is one of Cara's favorite toys.  Just before the hair cut I took a picture of Cara feeding Daisy breakfast.  At least we can hold onto the memory of her cute long ears.  I am glad that Cara's hair is only partially redesigned, and I am hoping Caleb has learned that cutting hair is not acceptable.

 


 

Easter!

Our Easter celebration started on Saturday morning at the park next to Cathie's house with a big West Point, Easter Egg Hunt.  The kids have had a little practice with Grandma Iva and at the Lows so we thought they were good to go.  Well. . . we were wrong.  In the 0-3 category Cara couldn't wait until they said go.   She kept dashing out into the eggs upsetting the children around her.  When it was finally time to go she ran, and ran, and ran.  It took some coaching to help her remember that she needed to pick up eggs.  She and Emi did well. 


 



On the other hand Caleb was excited and ready to go right up to the point that they said go.  That is when he started to freak out.  He broke into tantrum mode which put him way behind the other kids.  When Josh saw that Caleb was about to have no success he took him to the "special needs section.  Josh's comment was, "it was obvious that he had special needs."  The poor kid buckled under pressure. 


 



The Easter Bunny made it to our house this year even though Josh didn't understand why the Easter Bunny needed to bring presents.  He thought hiding eggs would be sufficient.  He tried to tell me it wasn't Christmas, but I held out and the kids scored a $120 swing set from Walmart.  I say if the cheapest swing set worked for me (my family had an identical one to the one we have for 15+ years) it will work for my kids too.  The kids love it even with the snow still in the back yard.  Josh was not happy trying to put it together on Easter afternoon when ALL of the screws were just a little bit too short.  It is amazing what a hammer and a frustrated man can do.  Caleb informed Cara's speech therapist on Monday morning that his dad is a builder and "he can build anything."






Our eggs didn't get colored until the Monday after Easter, but I am quite proud of myself for even embracing the messy tradition.  Honestly, it was quite fun.  I think we came up with some egg-celent designs.