What's Up?

Here's a few fun things that we've been up to lately. I tend to forget my camera everywhere I go, thank goodness the camera on my iPhone is at least decent or I would have nothing to show!

These first pictures were from UEA weekend. My sister-in-law, Casi and I decided we needed to do something fun with the kids since they didn't have school on Thursday or Friday. So, we drove out to Thanksgiving Point to CornBelly's, a fun place for kids. They have lots of things for the kids to do and explore like mazes, bounce houses, huge bounce pillow things, fun little trains and much, much more. It was a bit expensive and it really bites that they make parents pay to get in when parents can't do anything there, but watch their kids (really a rip off!) but the kids had a blast with their cousins.

You can't get any cuter than this, can you? Quincy and Lewis.

Here are Gabby, Lily, Corb, Mallory and Quincy (not shown are Lewis and Ed).

There was a cute play area for little guys. Here is a make-shift cow that the kids could milk. It sprays out water and it is actually really cool! Quincy and Lewis hung out with me here while Casi had the older kids over at the big slide area. After Cornbelly's we went back to Jared and Casi's house and let the kids play. When Jared got home from work he babysat while Casi and I went shopping. What a great day!!
At the end of September Corban had sports day at his preschool. He was thrilled that his dad bought him a BYU football jersey so he could wear it. It's cool that his teacher, Mrs. Baird is a big BYU fan too and was wearing all of her BYU stuff. It made Corban feel really special.

While Bump was on his annual father/son fishing trip with his dad and brother's I wanted to do something fun with the kids, but didn't have a lot of money to spend. Lucky for us Temple Square is free and not too far away. It's been awhile since the kids have been so we went and hung out in Salt Lake for the day. They absolutely loved to see the temple and the little mini temple replica that is in the South Visitor's Center where they could see what it looked like inside.

After visiting Temple Square we went across the street to the Church History. Sad for us, they took down the "I am a Child of God" children's display/area just days before. I had been promising the kids some play time in there and they were a bit bummed, but a nice missionary or volunteer let them color some pictures and they thought that was pretty neat. Overall it was a really fun day!

Catching Up

I am a mess with time management right now. Well, I shouldn't say that. I should say that I am busier than usual and haven't taken the time to blog on what's going on in our lives lately. Is that better? So, here is a quick update on our lives at the moment. And this is in no particular order, I just threw the pictures on and that's the order I am going with.

I started school again with one math class at the USU Tooele Regional Campus. I attend Tuesday and Thursday evenings from 5:15 to 7:15. It's been a good experience, but going to school with a husband and kids is very different from my Snow College days where I only had to think about me. I can't imagine trying to go full time! So far it's a great experience and I always love to learn. I have a long road ahead of me, but I am taking it in baby steps and I do not regret my decision to go back.

Quincy is 3 and her personality is just shining through, for good or bad. One day while I was gone and Bump was watching the kids there was a pretty good rain storm that hit. Quincy was worried about the chickens and decided to go out and save Bumblebee (our black Cochin chicken). She got soaked in the process, but she got her out of the rain. All of our chickens have started laying now, by the way. Chickens are so easy and are great animals to have around. I would highly suggest them to anyone. All of the kids love them and rarely do I look out the window an not see at least one being held.

Here's the freaky picture of the post. Bump was released from the bishopric of our ward last month and made the new Young Men's President. The day before he was released they had a bishopric BBQ for our families. I was the only wife that knew that Bump was being released, of course, so it was a big shock to everyone the next day when everything happened. I asked for a quick picture of the bishopric before we left the BBQ that night and here it is. This was taken with Bump's new Iphone and it has a flash that made the bishop's eyes kind of freaky. This was a really neat group of men and Bump was really sad that he wouldn't get to spend time with them like he had. Notice Bump in the BYU hat and Dean Johnson in the UofU shirt? Bishop Killian was pretty neutral on the subject. They all got along so great! Bump will be a great Young Men's President and the boys in the ward are thrilled, but being in the bishopric was really good for him and I know he will miss a lot of things about it.
Corban started preschool after Labor Day. He is back at Bee Bright Preschool (across the street from us) with Mrs. Baird for his second year. Since Corb's birthday is the end of August I decided to have him wait to start Kindergarten until next year. I would rather him be the oldest in his class than the youngest, and he doesn't care a bit. He loves preschool and is such a good kid. We have been working on memorizing the articles of faith and he has 1 through 9 memorized and we are working on 10 now.

Gabby started 1st grade this year and gets to go to school all day now. She loves having school lunch and won't stop talking about having 3 recesses. She is one of the top readers in her class and is friends with everyone.

Her teacher this year is Mrs. Jennings. After her first day of school Gabby came home and I asked her how she liked her teacher. She said that she really liked her, but that she wasn't like a teacher, she was more like a mom. I asked her what she meant and she said that she wasn't old and fat like other teachers she was just a regular looking mom like you (meaning me). I guess it's good to know that I'm not old and fat, at least in my daughters eyes. :) Her teacher, Megan Jennings, has been teaching for 4 years and has been at Willow Elementary for 3 of those years. She is young and fun and really pushes the kids to their full potential. It should be a great year for Gabby!

She started dance this year also and LOVES it. She is taking a ballet/jazz/tap combo class and it's really a good outlet for all of her energy. She also has the first through the 9th articles of faith memorized.

So, there you have a short and sweet update on life at our house. I will try to not let things on the blog slide, but you know how crazy life gets! Enjoy!

Corban Turned 5!

Corban's birthday comes at a really tough time of year, poor guy! It's right at the start of school. Last year it was the first day of school and this year it was just after school started. It will be interesting to see how things go when he starts Kindergarten next year.

But this year things worked out really well. We do a babysitting co-op with a few families from our ward and I asked if we could have it at our house on the 27th just so that Corb could have a fun birthday party with his friends.

He wanted to have a sports party. So we did a few things outside when everyone first got there, luckily it stopped raining just in time. We had contests to see who could throw a ball the farthest, a frisbee the farthest, who could jump the farthest and we had some races. Everyone won a small trophy cup and got a medal for participating. And we also played some Wii Sports and Wii Resort.

He chose to have a football cake, chocolate, of course (because it's brown) with a number 5 candle instead of 5 candles on his cake. It was a really fun party and I think he had a great time!

Germany

It’s hard to describe what an amazing trip I had to Germany. I haven’t sat down to write anything down, because I just know that I won’t be able to do the experience justice.

Tera and I had talked for months about what would happen when she had her baby in August and how great it would be if I could be there. She and Erick talked about flying me out if Erick was going to be out in the field, but as it got closer it looked like things were going to work out to have Erick there and for him to be able to take some time off to help out for the first 10 days or so. She was feeling good about things and was very positive about how things were working out. The doctor was even going to induce her early enough that her in-laws could see the baby before they headed back to the US from their visit.

Well, then we got the call that Tera’s induction didn’t go as planned and she ended up having an emergency c-section. I was devastated for her because I knew that it would take her longer to recover and worried about her being left just a few weeks later when her husband needed to be gone. It was one of those times when I wished that I had loads of money and I would have just hopped on a plane immediately to give her encouragement and support. Instead she was in the hospital completely unreachable for a week! It killed me not to be able to talk to her. I went through some major withdrawals. I am sure Erick was sick of me calling to find out anything new, but he was patient with me and gave me good updates.

Then I got a phone call from my brother Lee telling me that they would pay a large chunk of money to get me to Germany if I could make up the rest. I couldn’t believe that they would do that for me and for Tera! I think that they understood a little bit of what Tera was feeling since Trish had to have a c-section in South Africa and they were grateful that my mom could be there to help. Well, I called and told my parents what Lee had said and they said that they would make up the difference and that, of course, I needed to be there. So, I bought a plane ticket and called to tell Erick the good news. We both decided that it would be fun to surprise Tera with my arrival, so we kept it secret.

So, I left on August 6^th and flew to Chicago and after a 4 hour layover took off for Munich. I arrived the next morning at about 9 am. Erick and TJ picked me up and we drove about an hour and a half to their house. I have a video of Tera’s reaction when I showed up, so see the next post for that. So fun!

Most of the time I spent with Tera at home, helping out with the kids and cleaning up the house and, of course, holding that new sweet baby! I was really there to do just that, but they were nice enough to take me around and show me a few fun things that are just so close to where they live!

That first Sunday after church we went to Flossenberg where there is a really cool old castle ruin that you can hike up to (Tera and baby David stayed in the car) then we walked around the Flossenberg Concentration camp that was build and used during WWII. It was beautiful and peaceful – very opposite of what it once was.

The next weekend Tera was feeling better and so they decided to take me down south to see the Alps and stay at the Edelweiss Lodge in Garmisch, Germany. Garmisch has a military base and a resort just for military personnel and their families. It was so beautiful! It rained on and off the entire time, but it seemed just perfect and didn’t rain on us when we wanted to be out walking around. While down there we saw the “Sleeping Beauty castle”( Neuschwanstein) and Hohenschwangau Castle, and also Schloss (or Castle) Linderhof with its beautiful grounds. We also walked around Oberammergau where they do the famous passion play every 10 years for 100 days. They had just finished the play a few weeks before I got there. The shops there are amazing there with wood carvers galore. It was such a beautiful place! I came to help Tera and Erick and felt like a queen, they took such good care of me! The baby traveled so well and loved sleeping in the car.

I just can’t say enough how much fun I had. I got to try new German foods – I now know what schnitzel is and had some wonderful German brats (different kinds). I also had a few Turkish Doners that tasted a lot like gyros in a ciabatta-type of bread. So yummy!

The best part of the trip and the part that I didn’t get any pictures of, was hanging out and spending time with my closest sister and best friend (besides Bump, of course). I miss her so much and was so grateful for the chance I had to spend some good quality time with her! She is an amazing person and I am grateful for all the help she has been to me over the years. I am so glad for the entire German experience and I can’t wait to take Bump back for a real tourist visit!!

Here are a few pictures from the trip. They aren't really in order, and I have many more, but here is a taste of my adventure at least.

The town of Flossenberg as we climbed to the ruins

Just a cool old cemetery that we drove by and I had to have a picture of

Downtown Weiden (pronounced Viden), the town that Tera lives in

Flossenberg ruins

Flossenberg concentration camp guard tower

Concentration camp cemetery/memorial garden

Trying Nuremberg Brats and saurkraut for dinner

More pictures of Weiden

We had to have a little photo shoot of baby David - what a cutie!

Erick in uniform with the kids

Cool buildings everywhere! Check out the murals.

My Turkish Doner

Weight limits for trucks and tanks - just in case you are driving your tank around and wondered

Neuschwanstein and Hohenschwangau Castles

The view from my hotel window in the morning in Garmish

Edelweiss Lodge

Schloss Linderhof with amazing gardens