San Diego 3: The Temple

Thursday night after washing sand from all our bodies, we headed over to the San Diego Temple -- which was just down the road a bit from where we were staying. What a gorgeous building!!! As we'd been driving down the freeway the day before, we'd been shocked to see it. It's an incredible sight as you come around a corner and I'm sure the beauty of it has caused more than one slow-down.

I'd been here once before. When the temple had been built in the 90's, my parents brought us down for the open house, but I don't remember much of it.

Nels and I will have to return sometime when we can go through a session.

The girls had a wonderful time exploring the grounds.

My "stop playing with your camera and spend some time with your family" -- look. A look I'm sure all too many amateur and professional photographers are familiar with. :)

As I said, the girls all loved being at the temple, but I must admit, probably the most enjoyable part of the evening for Hazel and Lilie was collecting a family of snails. :) My kids are awesome like that. :) They had about 8 or 9 of them.

Nels preferred the exciting past time of taking time-lapse photos of them. :)

Oh - before I finish this post, I just have to record that on the drive back from the temple, Lilie decided that she was going to count to 1000. That's right One Thousand. And she did. She's an unusually awesome five-year-old. :)

San Diego 2: The Beach

Wow. Well, two and a half months after the fact, I'm going to attempt to finally finish posting about our San Diego vacation!! Hallelujah! Let's see if any of the details are still in this old brain of mine, shall we? 

The day dawned cool and grey, but that would never stop a bunch of Chicks from Idaho heading to the beach. :) I was pretty surprised at how much cooler the weather is next to the ocean as opposed to inland even a mile or two. However, regardless of the clouds and light breeze, we simply had a fabulous day together as a family. 

We first headed to one beach, but once we arrived, we read that the beach was closed due to a private fiesta--siesta that was going on. A very exclusive party. In fact, you had to have no earlobes and several inches of blubber encasing your body to be invited.

We all had lots of fun walking out of the concrete breakwater to get a better look at the cute seals. There were several babies and a few playing with each other out in the waves. Very cool to see them just doing their thing. After getting "sprinkled" by several big waves bringing in the tide, we decided to head over to La Jolla Beach.

What a lovely beach! The sand is silky-smooth and just perfect for body surfing. The water wasn't frigid, but Nels still never convinced me to go in any further than up to my knees. I'm getting wimpy in my old age. :) Had it been sunny, I would have been happy to oblige, but getting out of the cool water and sitting on a breezy, grey, 65 degree beach with a squirmy little baby, just didn't sound like any fun to me. :) Nels, however, jumped right in and started working on his body surfing technique. :)

A while later, he made friends with this kid 

who offered him the use of their extra boogie board. :) They spent about an hour and a half playing together. :)

Until they got eaten by some sharks.

Just kidding.

Just some dolthins. (As my children call them. :)

My little chickies, just loved everything about being there. They played

Sweet Hazel. Sea water is heavy! :)

and played

and played.

Hazel carried bucket after bucket of water up the beach to her sisters. :) So cute!

Violet really wanted to play and play as well, but I didn't feel like cleaning sand out of her diaper every time I changed her for the rest of the vacation, so she didn't get to eat nearly as much sand as she'd originally been anticipating. :) Poor baby.

She's pretty darn cute, huh?

Eventually my little shadow fell asleep in her car seat and the girls and I were finally able to play together.

It started with Lilie doing this . . .

Then moved on to this . . .

Then we decided to get a little more elaborate. 

'Cause like any true Utahn knows, 

if it's worth doing at all, then it's worth going overboard. :)

After the three of them broke free, they decided to make me into a SPINX. Yes. I typed that correctly.

All in all, our day at the beach together was wonderful. We were all sandy and fairly chilled when it came time to leave, but we had a lot of fun.

Imagine Me and You, I Do

Today it's just me and Violet. Just the two of us.

How strange it feels to know that as I clean today, it will stay that way . . . I feel a little like I'm in some alternate reality.

Grandpa Chick came yesterday to do some video work with Nels. He left this morning with my three older girls. They wanted to go to Grandma and Grandpa Chick's house early. Nels, Vi, and I will follow - to spend Thanksgiving in Mountain Home. But for now, they have G&G all to themselves for a couple of days and since Nels went in to work today to finish up a project, Violet is napping, so I'm all alone.

I'm excited that as I get things cleaned up -- floors vacuumed and mopped, laundry washed, bathrooms cleaned -- they will remain so. I don't have to do all of that three times in the next 24 hours. It will be great (what will I do with all my extra time?!). But I must admit, although I trust my father-in-law implicitly, I am nervous. I get nervous every time we are split up as a family. I don't like it. I don't like that it's snowing.


I'm so excited for the coming week. We will get to spend some wonderful time with Nels's family. I realized yesterday that I don't think I've been to my in-laws house since maybe February -- maybe longer! I'm fairly certain that I've never taken Violet to their house. That is very weird. A testament to how our lives have changed since both girls have been in school and to how busy our summer was. As newlyweds and for the first several years of marriage, we made a trek to both our parents' homes once a month --- or at least every other month. We were gone at least one weekend a month traveling. Wow. How much money did we spend on gas!?

I love Nels's family. I'm excited to spend time with his parents and siblings. I love big families. I love holidays. I'm so thankful to have such a wonderful in-law family. I truly could not have asked for better. (We will miss you Melyni, Uncle Alma, and Cade!)


Wish me luck today. I'm not sure what to expect with just me and Violet. This is not something I've experienced in years. Hopefully I can spend my time wisely and then be able to enjoy the rest of my day preparing my Relief Society lesson and playing with my baby!

Want to read a good post?

This is one of my favorite posts that I've ever read in my life. It's the kind that I wish I'd written myself. Another one of my favorites? The one that she links to.

My Last Lecture, If I Had One

Thank you, Lynsey. For sharing these sweet, honest truths with me. I love you for it -- and so many other reasons as well.

Homemade Christmas Presents

I loved this post. Here.

Oh, man. Have I had those days. I loved what she said about how motherhood permeates everything. So true -- and so good.

So, that being said, I'm going to tell you about a few things. I've been thinking over how I'd like to share with you some of my favorite things that I find online. Whether crafts that I want to do, furniture makeovers that I love, fabric that speaks to my heart, and whatnot. I find things that I like all the time, and I'm going to start a weekly post where I share a couple of them with you -- 'cause let's face it, good things need to be shared.

To start with, I'm going to share a couple ideas that I've had for Christmas presents for my kids this year. Most of our Christmas money got eaten up by our vacation to San Diego last month. Our kids declared that was just fine with them --- and it will be --- but let's face it, the little squirts are still going to need some presents, not a lot, but probably more than two. :) They'll get some fun things from grandparents and a little something from the Man in Red, but I also want to be able to give my kids something from me or help them with things to give one another. However, they're going to be mostly homemade this year and I'm excited.

This teepee is something that I've had on my list for probably more than a year. I think I'll make one for each of my three older girls. They'll take up a lot of room once they're opened, but even during the winter, they'll make fabulous forts in the basement! :) Plus they'll be easy to store neatly under their beds.

Second is this Birdie Cat Pillow by Amy Butler. Sorry, you've got to scroll clear to the bottom of the page. I think it's way cute, plus, when my kids saw it - as I was browsing through her gorgeous patterns - they didn't stop asking about it for hours. :) By the way, did you see that unbelievable "Bloom Quilt"??? Holy smokes, what an idea! I am GOING to find a way to incorporate this into the girls bedroom makeover at some point.

That's it for now. What do you think? What are you doing for your kids? I'd love more ideas!

{Printing}

I had a couple of questions about where I printed my poster that I thought I'd quickly answer.

I called around to a couple of printers / copy places here in town (well, the first one was out of business, so it was really the first operating printer I called. :) In my experience, most places that do any kind of serious copying also do printing. For those in Idaho Falls, I went over to United Mailing Direct, on 1st Street. They printed it for me for a dollar and they did an awesome job at making sure the color looked good. Gotta love that! I'd guess that most copy places would charge about that for a print of that size. If you go much bigger, I believe that the price may go up dramatically (like maybe between $15 and $20) -- like if you were to print an 18 x 20, or something. (I think at that size, they have to use a different printer.) Either way, it's a pretty inexpensive, fun piece of artwork.

I suppose my only stipulation on anyone using my design would be that I'd love to know that you're using it! Even better if you sent me a picture! :) So drop me a comment and let me know!

Cool New Linkity Links

So, for quite a while, I've been wanting to figure out a way to put a link to files on my blog. Every once in a while I have a project that I make up as a .pdf and I want to be able to easily share it with anyone else who'd like it. Things like my little paper animals that I put in Elsie and Vi's room or like that "Keep Calm and Sing a Song" poster that I just made.

Well, I don't know why I didn't just do a google search on how to do it earlier, but it just occurred to me and within 15 minutes, I've figured it all out. :) If you'd like the info for yourself, here's the link.

So, for your pleasure, here are a couple of links for you.

Mod-podge Animals

Keep Calm and Sing a Song

This second file is formatted as 12"x16". You may or may not be able to just get it printed at whatever size you want, but if you shoot me an email, I'll make it whatever size you want it -- or change the background color for you. I've already done all the hard work, those kind of tweeks are easy-peesy.

Thursday, Thursday . . .

 . . . can't trust that day.

For the past hour, I've thought it was Monday. That's weird. I actually named my post "Monday, Monday".  Wow. No wonder I'm going grey. I'm OLD!

This morning I feel like posting, however, I don't feel like posting about anything important. -- Like about the remainder of our California trip . . .

Last week was lovely. I had a few spray painting projects that I NEED to finish and it was perfect weather - in the 60s! I spent most of the week in my basement organizing my laundry room. I finally pulled out my projects on Saturday night as the sun was going down and it was hours from dropping down to freezing. I'm awesome like that. Monday it snowed all day.

And hasn't really stopped flurrying since. Winter has come. I don't know whether to wish it away and long for the sunny, warm days of last week, or just embrace it with gratitude that we were able to enjoy such a long Fall. Probably the latter, but {{sigh}}. The snow is heavy and wet and blanketing everything in a lovely way. The girls have been thoroughly enjoying it.

Since it's a lazy morning, I'll share with you a few of my most recent projects. Neither of them are ones I've been planning and working on for months. They were both spontaneous, random ones that I finished in a couple of hours. I love them.

First, my new lampshade. I've been stewing in my head for quite a while about how to make light, single layered ruffles without having them fray. With my ruffly pillow I never figured it out, but a couple weeks ago, I was making fabric flowers with a friend of mine and I had an epiphany. MELT the edges!! Hooray!! Cut the strips, melt the edges (only occasionally lighting my fabric aflame), and gather. Add some hot glue, a $5 drum shade, and you're done.

Easy and inexpensive. By the way, I love this lamp. I found it at a thrift store. It's very old and grandma-ish and totally my cup o' tea. I've debated about painting it, but I don't think I ever really will. I just love that milky-white glass and paint would probably just ruin it. Also, what do you think? Have I officially taken over any masculinity left in this room? Yes. Poor Nels. I don't think anyone "really understands how hard it is to be the only man in a house full of girls." (I'm not quoting anyone in particular, by the way. *wink* *wink*)

Second up is a spin off I made of this now popular English WWII poster.

I'd envisioned putting it in my bathroom, but when I hung it above my dresser, I couldn't bear to move it. :) I love the oval frame. It took me quite a while to find it, but the very day I was going to buy one off Etsy, I happened upon this perfect one at the DI. I love it when that happens. I'd originally planned to paint the frame white, but I'm not so certain now. As much as I've always abhorred goldy, brassy stuff, I actually kinda like it. What do you think?

Last of all, I'll just show you my last two little projects that are forever in the works and yet perfect just the way they are, all at the same time.

The look you get when the "anti red eye" flash goes off first.

Ahh. The definition of Adorable.

This kid loves her daddy's iPod.

Service

I just have to record quickly that after the . . . interesting morning that we had at our house, things went much better.

Primarily because of my sweet Hazel.

After getting off the computer, I went and yelled at Lilie, who was screaming at the top of her lungs and dropped her into a chair for a "time out forever". -- Or at least until she stopped bawling, which seemed like it would pretty much be forever. I turned on some church music and tried to calm down.

Shortly Hazel came upstairs telling me that she and Elsie had cleaned up her room "so good!" I gave her a big hug and told her thank you SO MUCH. I went to talk to Lilie again and explained to her that I really thought it would be good for her to take a nap. She agreed! and laid down in my bed. While she slept, Hazel cleaned up the living room for me, picked up pillows, cleared off the table, and played with Elsie. All without being asked, while I finished dinner.

Lilie slept for only about 20 minutes, but it was obviously enough for both of us to "reboot".

I love my sweet, sweet girls. I so appreciated Hazel's willingness to serve and help. She really is growing up so much. She is such a tender girl and wants so badly to help and show her love. What a wonderful girl I have. It's amazing how far just a little loving service can go. - Especially in the heart of an overwhelmed mommy. :)

It's kind of sad when the one to change the attitude in your home is not you, but your seven year old -- but you know, it was a day when there was a great need for someone else to step up to the plate.

Thank you, Hazel!!!

What the . . . . ?

What on Earth is going on in my house today???

Halloween has been over for a week. Daylight savings ended today -- so we actually GAINED an hour. I've been trying to be pleasant all day. But

each of my children are acting as if they are going to spontaneously combust today!

Nels went to work this morning at 6:30. I got up early and got ready before the girls got up. - We were off to a good start. I got all five of us ready and we made it to church before the Sacrament was passed. All four girls acted like maniacs during Sacrament Meeting. Crawling all over the chairs, under the chairs, talking full-voiced, squealing, whining, bothering. We finally made it through but Violet whined all during Sunday School and wouldn't take a nap. I finally stepped out into the hallway to try to get her to sleep as Relief Society started. She did, thank goodness! Lilie needed to give the scripture in Primary today. With Nels gone, I got to help her, while holding Violet. I step up to help her and she starts grabbing the microphone, making weird noises and kneeling down so that no one can see her. I semi-wrestle her (while holding my sleeping baby) to get her to stand up and let go of the microphone - telling her that it's her turn to share the scripture and I'll help her. I finally hand off my baby to my friend, but Lilie still won't stand up straight and refuses to talk. Lovely. I just said the scripture for her and carried her into the hall to talk to her. She starts crying. My friend brings Violet out as well, who is now awake and starting to whimper because I'm not holding her. We get through church and walk out to the parking lot, while Hazel is asking why I won't let her go into the gym to run and play. All three of the older girls whine all the way home. We get here, they keep whining. Now Lilie is bawling like a maniac in Elsie's bedroom because I put her in there until she stops crying about nothing.

We've only been home for 45 minutes!!!

{{sigh}}

Man, these days don't come very often, but I sure don't like them when they do.

Let it be known . . .

. . . I am not, nor have I ever been a weenie. However.

Today.

As I was screeching talking to Nels on the phone

I realized that I sounded like a hysterical Lilie.

And I couldn't help myself.

Nor did I care.



Here I was, at my computer. Minding my own business and talking to the optometrist's secretary on the phone, when I glance up to see a small, dark shape streak from behind my bedroom door and scurry down my hall and into the kitchen!

AHHHhhhh!



Enter this guy . . .

What??!! Oh no you didn't! just run down my hall!

(Luckily I was on hold, as what came out of my mouth would have sounded very strange to the secretary.)


I quickly finished my business on the phone and went directly to get a mouse trap. I can't have MICE running through the house with my little children crawling on the floor! No mice in my house. It's a standing rule.

I immediately set it with some peanut butter and put it next to the dishwasher. I called Nels to make sure that peanut butter was the best choice and figured that I'd just go downstairs and if Mr. Mouse actually came out and got trapped before Nels got home, well, he could just wait and die and I wouldn't have to see it.

NO!

As I was talking to Nels on the phone, that stupid mouse came right out from under the dishwasher WHILE I WAS STILL STANDING 3 FEET AWAY!! and started eating it!!!!

Enter hysterical little girl screaming/talking.

Long story a little bit shorter, as I am screeching in Nels's ear, the trap goes off. I try to convince Nels that he needs to drive the 15 minutes home from work to pick it up and put it in the garbage can. --- (Because, after all, I'VE SEEN NELS KILL A MOUSE WITH HIS BARE HAND BEFORE!!!)

He won't come.

I resolve to just leave it there -- but am secretly thinking that I might ask Lilie to cover it with a piece of paper or something. You know, because what if it's brains are squished out or something???!!!! When all of a sudden Lilie, who has been attracted by my hysterics says that it's not in the trap and it's MOVING!!! I then decided that while it was still stunned, I'd let Gertie in and she could just eat it. After all, she catches mice all the time (and leaves them dying in the grass or on my back doorstep). However, because I'm acting so crazy and talking so loud, she runs away from me and won't come back.

Therefore.

If I am to save my family from a bloody mouse running all over my house, I must take care of it myself ----- with the assistance of Lilie.

A broom, a dustpan, a lot of screaming (from me and none from Lilie), to the backyard garbage can, to remembering that the garbages are in the front yard, with a live mouse skittering around in the dustpan!!! {{sigh}} He is gone.

Well. Technically he is still alive, but now trapped in my garbage can. Where he will die a sad and hot, long and hopefully agonizing death. Thank you.

And I saved all my family from the plague.

Thank you very much.

No thanks to this guy ---

Who just wanted to put me on speakerphone for all the guys in his office.

San Diego 1: Sea World

FINALLY! I'm recording our wonderful, wonderful vacation! Hopefully I can remember some of it after being home for several weeks now. :)

Our little ladies have been asking for YEARS to go to Sea World. You would think that with as young as they are, "years" would be an exaggeration, but I can honestly say, it is not. Lilie in particular has been asking since she was at least three. Our girls have an incredible fascination with dolphins and killer whales. What better place could there be than Sea World? You all know that no one is going to have to twist my arm to go see some of the most amazing aquariums in the world and Nels was just happy to be going to the ocean and away from work. :)

Hazel's school had the entire week from October 11-15 off of school for their Fall Break. It seemed like a perfect time to pull Lilie out of school and head to California. Nels needed to work that Monday, but was able to steal away early. We packed the van to the brim and headed off at about 3 in the afternoon. We stopped for a breather at my sister Wendie's house in Kaysville, where she very graciously fed us dinner before heading out again to make it to Las Vegas at about 2:30 in the morning! We took what seemed to be a very brief pit stop in Vegas --- with our kids entirely waking up as we got into the hotel and then an uncomfortable few hours' sleep with a hard pillow and a squirmy baby in bed with Nels and me (when in doubt, just bite the bullet and bring the port-a-crib into the hotel!).

The next morning, we made it to San Diego by about 4:00 in the afternoon. Our kids did a pretty good job throughout the drive, but we were so happy to be there and to be able to smell the ocean! We got checked in to our hotel, which the kids thought was the "best hotel ever!" :) We'd gotten a suite that had a kitchen, a sofa sleeper, and a separate bedroom with a king bed. :) It was heavenly. :) After getting situated and making dinner, we decided to make a quick trip down to the beach. In so doing, we also found that California is not the same as Utah, or even Idaho for that matter, and even if you know the direction that something is located in, it does NOT necessarily mean that you will be able to GET THERE without directions. :) It's amazing to me that finding something as big as, say, the OCEAN, is difficult. :) We finally made it down to the beach as is was getting really dark. We walked out onto the beach, let the water lap up to our knees, and Lilie promptly lost her flip-flop to the tide. :)

Wednesday we got up bright and early and after a brief stop at the beach, we made it to SEA WORLD.

Our first stop was the dolphin show. We absolutely loved everything at Sea World, but the dolphins we definitely a favorite!

"So long, and thanks for all the fish!"

We also had a great time at the dolphin interaction pool. The dolphins can swim right up where you can pet them and watch them. They are very playful animals and not ones to take splashing lightly. :) As we were watching, a girl in front of us flicked a bit of water at one as he swam by. Before we could blink, he'd turned back and splashed an entire tail-full straight at Lilie, Violet, and me. :)

Vi got the worst of it with her soaked onesie, but she was still in high spirits. :) I wish I could claim that the water was the only thing that made my hair look a bit . . . unkempt :), but while humidity can do beautiful things for many people with curly hair, all it does for mine and my children's is undo all the work that I did with the straightener that morning. :)

Don't they just look so happy?! :)

The Shamu show was a lot of fun and we all loved it, but as far a the killer whales went, I think even more than the show, I liked standing on their viewing deck and watching them swim around their pools. Those beautiful animals swim with such incredible grace and agility. I honestly think I could just sit and watch them swim for hours on end. :)

There are so many wonderful things to see! It would be great to be able to spend an entire day at each exhibit. :) We loved the sharks, the fish, the sea lions, . . . Everything was just so amazing.

We all had a great time at this exhibit (well, except for Elsie who ran away at one point to go see the eels by herself :), but Hazel especially loved the rays.

It was, all in all, a fabulous day with lots of walking and even more wonderful memories with our sweet little children!