Joys of Spring

Oh, my, how great it is to see the sun after so many months of dismal grey and cold! Another beautiful spring day had us outside all afternoon. I promised Jack way back around Christmas that when it was warm again, we'd start teaching him how to ride a "real" bike. Today was the day! We've taken the pedals off so he can start learning to get his balance without having to worry about pedaling also. His first try was a disaster, down he went and it almost put him off the whole idea. But, Daddy and I told him that was just the way it goes, adjusted his seat a little bit, and he was ready to try again. He had a great time padding around the circle, then asked me to push him so that the could go faster. Normally he's got a great sense of balance, but the bike has really thrown him off, so we'll see how long it take to get the hang of things. Poor guy would really quite like to keep riding his (admittedly awesome) huge blue tricycle, but even I have my limits of ego. Five and riding a tricycle round the neighborhood with his mom, oh no!

While tooling around the cul de sac, Jack spotted this huge clump of ants on the ground in our neighbor's driveway. On close inspection, it turned out to be hundreds and hundreds of ants all clustered together, mostly paired off facing each other with antennae wiggling like mad. Seemed to me maybe they were battling each other? Or perhaps some had suffered some horrible accident (given the location, I'm thinking they got squashed by a car?) and the others had come to cart them off to ant hospital. I asked Jack what he thought was going on. He said "I think maybe they are having a parade!" Far nicer way to think of it! I didn't have the heart to point out that they weren't actually making any progress anywhere. Our friendly neighborhood (well, not really, he lives in California) scientist-uncle has been consulted and we'll try to get back to you with an answer to this ant mystery.

Ahhh, the surprises of parenthood

At least, around our house, you just never know what you're going to find when you turn on the camera! We have a little shutterbug, who likes to steal the camera, when we make the mistake of leaving it within his grasp. He's actually got quite an interesting eye....but then again, I suppose we could be biased??

Doesn't it just make you wonder what might have been going though his mind? He looks quite pleased with himself, doesn't he? The boy is scarily good at manipulating the camera, and I can just see him snapping a picture, then flipping it over to see the result, getting a good laugh, and doing it all over again. I wish I'd seen him!!

General Conference Weekend

This is living! 8 hours of inspired counsel (10 for the men!) piped right into the comfort of our living room, our wonderful friends to share it with, kids happy to see each other, and the first truly gorgeous weekend of spring to enjoy in between sessions. It's impossible to say what gave me the greatest pleasure. Highlights would be hearing Elder Ballard talking directly to me and my friends who struggle to know how best to mother our families; tossing sticks for Shelby in the creek and seeing her bound with unbridled joy through the current time after time; running with the kids down the bike path in the sheer excitement of being loose in the warm sunshine; reading bedtime stories with the kids piled all around me; watching and listening to the new First Presidency and feeling that we are in such good hands going forward; the gentle assurance as I listened to Conference that the Lord knows and loves me and that the Gospel is true. It was really a marvelous weekend. If only we could have days like these more often -- only then I suppose we would not value them as much as we do.


I grew up in the Air Force. We moved around all the time. With the exception of three years , from when I was four until almost seven, we never lived less than a full day's drive from family. It's so sweet to me now that, even though much of my "actual" family is far from me, I have this wonderful conglomeration of "real" family here. Friends that we've known for years, their kids that we've known from infancy. I adore watching these kids (not to mention my friends) grow up. It's a privilege to be a part of it. And better yet is seeing Jack grow up with this huge extended family of people whom we adore, and who know us to our core. This picture is of Jack and a few of his honorary cousins, in the midst of the woods as we take our intermissionary walk.




Don't you just love a good joke?!? We found this tree man along the bike path, quite in the middle of nowhere (as much as you can be in the city). What kind of amazing mind not only conceives of doing this, but then carries it out? It makes me smile every time I see it!!

Jack pictures, age 5

Alright, so I'm a bit behind the curve, as it's a month past Jack's fifth birthday, but I've been a shade busy lately driving to Cleveland and back with Mum in the hospital (let's hope THAT's behind us!) Finally last week Jack and I got out to the picture studio and here are the results. I could be biased, just a tad, but is he not a gorgeous boy??

Spring Break, Part 2

All immature animal loving aside (see next post), my favorite outing of Spring Break was to COSI, the children's museum. This time, it was just my boy and me. We had a lovely time, getting to go just where we (he) wanted and do just what we (mostly he) wished. Our first stop, as it always is, was Outer Space. To get into Outer Space, you have to walk through a long, black-lit walkway around which is swirling a black cylinder with tiny lights in it. From much observation this seems patented to enthrall anyone under the age of about 10 and instantly nauseate anyone over the age of about 21. I, being WELL over 21, have not much tolerance for it. Jack, age 5, wants to stand in it for hours. I find if I either look very very intently at the floor or perhaps close my eyes and think of Tahiti, I can make it about 2 minutes. Luckily on the other side of the Tube of Lost Lunches there is a model of one of the early space ships, which simulates (very badly) takeoff. Thus, it is possible to bribe one's enthralled five year old onward and escape with one's cookies intact.

This day , we took a page out of Uncle Hugh's book and tried taking pictures of ourselves together. The first is us eating pizza -- yes pizza! -- at three o clock in the afternoon. (Guess who suggested the lovely banana as a snack, and guess who stuck by his very great desire for a pizza?!?) The other picture is the two of us in a tunnel under the playplace for kids under 7 (perhaps I count as mental status, sub-7?) The kids were quite taken aback to find this huge adult-type person plugging up their tunnel, but after a bit of surprise they didn't seem to mind. Not sure about the other parents..but then again, most of them were busy texting on their blackberries!

Lunch-busting space rides and greasy pizza aside, the best part of the day for me, and something I hope will always stay with me, was the look on Jack's face. He has this intoxicating combination of eagerness and wonder, mixed in with just happiness at us being out together. It lit up his whole being. It's such a privilege getting to have these moments with him, watching him discover things about the world, being there to enjoy all that discovery together. Reminds me of something I heard Julia Roberts say once -- I always knew I would love my kids, I just never knew they'd be my best friends, that I'd love spending time with them more than anything else in the world. That's the truth, folks.

Spring Break, Part 1

Ok, so perhaps the Preschool curriculum is not as tough as, say, Graduate School, but Spring Break is still Spring Break and Jack and I made the most of it. The first Great Outing was to the Zoo. We loaded up with some of our best friends in the whole world and trekked over. Those of you who know me well will not be surprised to find out that I am perhaps the most interested in the zoo out of any random group of kids 2-12. So Clay, Cregan and Jack had some competition in deciding which animals we should see first. Luckily for me, I have by far the best map-reading skills, and have the zoo's layout pretty much committed to memory, so I was able to steer things somewhat the way I wished.

Unfotunately, that did not include avoiding the dreaded Reptile House. I did my best to uphold my cool-Mommy, afraid-of-nothing reputation. It was tough.

Jack was HIGHLY excited (I mean, he is a knight, after all) to hear that there were dragons in residence at the zoo. It was our great mission all day long to find the dragons. Here's Jack riding one that had apparently already fallen prey to some witch or other that turned it into a statue. Somehow this did not dampen the excitement at all, although the boys were all really quite sad when they came face to face with the real thing. Slimy drool, snakey tongue and everything, it couldn't quite live up to their imaginations. The poor thing couldn't even fly, let alone breathe fire. Although they were all quite impressed that it's mouth is so foul it can kill you just by biting you and letting the bacteria take over. We all agreed we would brush our teeth anyway.

Here's Jack reconnecting with some old friends -- the gorillas. They were pretty fed up with the Spring Break crowds by the time we found them, and rarely even deemed to look round at us. Very different from the last time I remember seeing them. It was wintry and the crowds were small, and Jack, about 3 years old and in a stroller, had a very large lollipop, the kind you can only get at fairs and zoos. The Zoo had a young, maybe a year old?, gorilla baby who was playing about in his area. All of a sudden, he caught sight of Jack's lollipop, stopped playing, and came right up against the glass with exactly the kind of look at the lollipop that Jack had had when HE first saw it. I guess some things ALL babies have in common.

Despite dragons and impressively huge, if un-impressively napping, gorillas, all the boys decided, at day's end, and to no one's very great surprise, that the thing they liked best was the "monkeys with the huge butts". Ah well, boys will be boys. We'll try to work in the eco-awareness next time!!