I basically took a summer vacation from my blog. No big deal... except a lot of fun stuff happened and I need to document it! We have kind of had a crazy summer where I feel like I have been flying by the seat of my pants trying to figure out my life. But the seasons are changing and with that I feel like I am getting a fresh start in a new season.
Hopefully.
So I'm going to try to catch up one vacation/month at a time, how does that sound?
In June it was my birthday! I am now a grand 26 years old. Logan got me a few things but one of my favorite things was when he took me to the mall and told me to pick out a necklace. I thought that was pretty fun. And Elsy helped out and somehow ended up getting a necklace of her own as well. On the official day of my birthday we spent most of the day packing and driving to Tri-Cities. That was the week of the Bean Reunion and we drove the first three hours to my parents house and then spent the whole next day in the car driving to Eden, Utah where the reunion was.
Tommy really knows how to party I guess...
So we spent a day at my parents house and can I just say, I wish we lived where they do!? They really know how to have a real summer... none of this rain, rain, rain, few short weeks of sun, and then "Oh my goodness! Are the leaves already changing and its only the end of July?!" (Yes, I am not joking this actually happened here in Issaquah... excuse me while I vomit.) Anyway, I took a picture while laying in the pleasant grass. So beautiful! Its like a carpet. Not a soggy, patchy, weedy, area like here but an actual spot to sit on the ground outside without getting your bum wet.
We only spent a day at my parents before we left but my kids love their cousins. My sister Sharee moved in with my parents while her husband travels around for the next year doing clinical rotations all over the north west. So there are even more cousins there to love.
Auntie Lenise was home from college for the summer as well. Here she is hosting an iPad session. ;)
On Tuesday we packed up and headed to Utah. We were really nervous because we haven't done a long drive like that since Elsy was three months old and just really didn't know what to expect. I prepared by getting them new, cheap toys to keep their attention. I bought some fun magnets and put them on a cookie sheet. I was really excited about that one but this picture of Elsy smiling was the first minute she had it out, and the second minute was her saying something along the lines of, "Mom, this is the most boring thing in the world and what do you expect me to do with all this? Can't I just have the iPad back?" Whatever.
They did amazing in the car though and were pretty content to just watch a lot of movies, eat a lot of M&Ms from Logan's trail mix and listen while I read them a million books I got at the library.
The cabin was BEAUTIFUL! I had never heard of Eden but it is located just on the other side of the mountains from Orem. Logan's sister Holly lives in Orem so she set the whole thing up. The weather was just magic and we were content to just hang out in the yard all day. Logan put together a contraption to try and make large bubbles and this is a picture of them out playing with it. Elsy had a big bat she would try to hit them with and kept shouting something about it being the "BEST DAY EVERRR!" before throwing the bat in the air.
There was also a slack line at the cabin that all of us adults did almost all day long while the kids played around. Here is Marshall helping Elsy. One day Tommy came running to me a little concerned and I noticed ants crawling all over his body. He had been standing on an ant hill. I started stripping his clothes off and found some even in his diaper but luckily he wasn't bit or stung. We had a good laugh at how fast we got his clothes off.
We did about one outing a day and that turned out to be just perfect. We drove into Orem one of the days to go to the Dinosaur Museum. That was a ton of fun! And apparently very memorable because today, before naps, Elsy told me all about the T-Rex and the Triceratops that were fighting there. They had a large, electronic t-rex and triceratops that were getting ready to fight in the opening area and Elsy and Tommy were blown away. I still wonder if they thought they were real...
Elsy just kept roaring. If you can see her little mouth she is in the very act when I took this picture. She didn't want to leave that room and we had to go back a few times because it was just so exciting for her.
Something nice about traveling to see family is there are always a bunch of babysitters! Haha! And they are so willing to watch the kids because they never see them. Rachel chased Tommy all around for us.
I wondered if anything in that museum was really real, haha! Everything seemed to be replicas but the kids didn't mind and I didn't feel bad letting them crawl all over replicas... real bones I would have thought twice about.
Outside of the museum was a big playground with dionos you could climb on and things. Here is Logan and all his siblings: Rachel, Marshall, Hiatt (who got off his mission like a week before the reunion!), and Holly (with her newborn Jonah). We were sad that Logan's brother Gordon and their family couldn't make it. Gordon did fly down for about a day so that he could participate in Jonah's baby blessing so that was really cool.
There were also big statues of dinosaurs all over the place and we spent some time walking through those. Haha, Tommy just loved them all.
One of my favorite parts of probably my entire summer, though, was sitting with Elsy in the sand pit digging for 'fossils'. Everyone went to have our packed dinner but Elsy had already eaten her food as she walked around so she and I sat and talked while we dusted for bones. It was so peaceful and it just felt like time stood still. While I was sitting there getting dust brushed into my face (Elsy wasn't really careful about where she swept!) I just kept thinking, "This is what life is all about!" I know someday Elsy wont want to sit with me and sweep out dino eggs for 45 minutes straight, but I hope that our relationship is always one where she can feel trusted and loved and in return trust and love me.
After a while, Logan and Tommy came back to us and helped us uncover some more eggs. :)
The next day we went to a fun petting zoo that was there in Eden. Each kid got a little bucket of food to feed any animal they wanted and they just went crazy!
We got to hold baby sheep and kittens, and feed goats, chickens, pigs, etc all by hand and I think I was having more fun than the kids haha! Someday I want my own zoo I think... :P
Along with the admission the kids also each got to go on a horse ride. Neither of my kids have ever done that before and it was really fun. Tommy loved it, Elsy not so much. She got on and kept saying "I'm getting nervous!" and "I'm scared!" About three steps in she started crying but the lady leading the horse kept going so we just did the whole ride with Elsy bawling. She did start to calm down a little toward the end and got excited to feed the horse a little apple bite so that was good. She has shown quite the fear of all things animal and I am worried because I love all things animal. I am trying to be patient, though, and hopefully she will get excited about them soon!
There were old buggies and tractors all around for the kids to climb up and on.
Elsy's car toy she got was a Rapunzel soft doll. She carried it all around with her for the first half of the trip.
We also went on little walks and even did a little hike up on a trail we found. Logan and I are starting to have a little itch to hike and are still figuring out logistics of how to do that with Elsy. Tommy does pretty good in the backpack but Elsy likes to walk and she is a very slow walker.
The third outing we went on was to a water park in Orem. That was a ton of fun because the water was super shallow in a lot of places and the kids could just roam everywhere.
Cousin Ella was so fun to play with and she was always giving little hugs and was just so chipper all the time. We love her!
Half way through the week Grandpa and Grandma Atkin came up to stay with us. We hadn't seen them in a while so it was fun to get to chat with them. Last time we saw them was when Elsy was Tommy's age!
When Grandma Atkin is around there are always card games and we had a lot of fun playing all sorts of games.
In the evenings we would go sit out in the hot tub and have some interesting conversations. Something I love about Logan's family is they are always delving so deep into things and they are all so book smart that I learn so much every time we have one of those deep conversations. They came to be known as the Hot Tub Talks while we were there.
On Sunday Jonah Hanes was blessed and so we had a luncheon at the cabin with lots of relatives. Logan's Grandma Bean was there so we had to take a picture with her! Grandpa Bean was also named Thomas.
And here are the kids with Great Grandpa and Ma Atkin!
And I had to add this one because Tommy is getting a special kiss and his face looks so peaceful.
I can't believe after that whole week I didn't end up with any pictures of Elsy or Tommy with Logan's parents! I am realizing we are great at taking candid photos but are terrible at taking photos where everyone looks at the camera and smiles. I think that is going to be my new goal, because its so important and fun to see peoples faces! Here is our tribute to Grandma Bean because Elsy is wearing her glasses. ;)
Logan bought me the game pie face a few weeks before the trip so we brought it. Elsy sat with Great Grandpa Atkin and played it (without cream) forever. It was to funny.
We were sad to leave but were grateful to get to see everyone and can't wait until next years reunion!
Here is a cute picture of my cute boy.
Now! Flash forward to this last week! We have been preparing for a few things over here in this house.
Elsy is starting Joy School! I bought her a tracing book this summer to learn how to correctly hold a pencil. She wakes up before Tommy does at nap time and will sit on the bed next to me and trace. She has asked every day if Joy School is tomorrow yet. I am so excited for her but also don't know what I will do without her around. Tommy already gets so sad when I take her to play dates and he is with me alone. He just wanders around saying, "Za Za!!" (That's how he says her name) and cries when he doesn't get out too.
I can't figure out how to rotate this picture. Anyways, Tommy is really getting into the pillow thing. He always is climbing into Elsy's toddler bed and snuggling into her pillow. So I bought another one and let him practice with it. Here he is on the floor. Once he lay like this for forever we decided to start putting it in his crib to practice for naps. The last few nights we have let him keep it and he just loves it.
I made him a cars pillow case and that sealed the deal!
When we went to the store to get fabric we also stopped off at Old Navy to get Elsy some winter boots (because it is already freezing in the mornings here!) While I was sitting on the floor helping Elsy with her shoes I started noticing a gross wet drip on the ground next to me. I looked up to see this so I quickly snapped a picture. We laughed and laughed and so he kept doing it. The poor lad is teething and has two new teeth finally but has had a rough time of it. And now he has a nasty cold. Elsy is on the tail end but Tommy is feeling it bad.
On Friday during morning scripture reading Logan was reading about Alma spending time teaching his sons Helaman, Shiblon, and Corianton... I think thos are their names. Anyway he said something about, "Isn't it great to spend time with your parents one on one?" and I just added, "Like you and Daddy are tonight on your date!" Logan just looked at me and we had a laugh. He has been wanting to take her out on a little date for a while but we keep forgetting so we laughed and finally had a set time. That night! Elsy was so excited and I let her wear her church dress. He took her to Ben & Jerry's for ice cream. She had so much fun but kept saying afterward, "I NEVER WANT TO GO ON A DATE AGAIN!!!" We took a recording so we can hold it over her head when she is 16.
On Saturday we went out as a family and walked around Bellevue. Poor Logan probably didn't realize how much entertaining he would have to do when he married me. I have to get out of the house EVERY day or I go stir crazy. And I often lean on Logan to think of what to do. He never disappoints though with his fun ideas. Last weekend we went dream house hunting, and he took me to visit my family on the spur of the moment. This weekend we went to Bellevue and walked around the Downtown Park and then shopped around Bellevue Square. Then we went out for lunch at Chipotle.
My kids loved the water fountain!
This Sunday was a rough one for us. Right before church Elsy reached up to grab some of my makeup and put her hand right into the open mouth of my straightener that was set at 375 degrees. She got several burns all on different angles of her hand but the worst was a big blister on her thumb. It was so so very sad. After soaking her hand in the water pitcher from the fridge for a while we arrived late for church. I put some stickers on a zip lock bag with ice in it (she was nervous about that for some reason) and she carried that with her all through nursery.
Tommy was also not feeling good at all. He just cried and cried and cried and even though he is old enough for Nursury he still has never gone for the full time on his own yet. We walk him around the temple and I rock him to sleep in the mothers lounge since church is in the middle of nap time He was just miserable all day. It was just one of those days where you can't wait to get to bed.
We went to feed the ducks at Yellow Lake because sometimes when the kids are going ballistic it helps to get them out of the house and distracted so you all can survive the last few moments before bed time. Luckily that trip ended with Tommy doing a face plant in the gravel and getting two horns on his head (as seen above). He woke up this morning with a big scab but the second horn has gone down some.
I am starting to teach piano lessons this week. Its just something I have always wanted to try out, and with money getting tight in these parts we thought it would be something to try. I have been wanting more money to get our food storage in order so we are going to be using it for that. I have just been feeling really strongly this summer that that is something I need to do. So we are! Its coming together slowly but surely. I am a little nervous to start piano but I think once we get going I will really enjoy it. If anyone has a beginner piano student in the area let me know! I would be glad to take them on! :)
My goal this week is to not complain. I have been focusing on trying to ask the Lord what he wants for me each day and while I was taking the sacrament this week that was something that came to my mind. I keep praying to be more positive about what we go through each day but I realize I haven't been taking any action to be more positive... just expecting it to happen. So if you hear me complain this week, give me a whack! I think I will probably need the reminder...(Now that I am writing this I am realizing how many times I complained about the weather and how bad my Sunday was and what not just in this blog post... oops... maybe I need to pray for more reminders to keep my goal haha!)
Well I feel like this post was a quick skim but I really wanted to get back in the habit of doing my journaling. I am to lazy to re-read today and check for spelling errors so sorry about those. Tommy is waking up from his nap though so I best get back to my life. Hopefully once I'm caught up I will be able to share a little better what we are doing from day to day. :)
