Long Live the Brotherhood

This last weekend we got together for a ten-year reunion with Jon's junior high and high school friends: the famous Brotherhood of the Scooters. There aren't words to describe this awesome group of people...I love each of these guys and their wives and their kids. So happy that we could all get together and enjoy Laguna Beach. Sadly, Matt and Briana Reynolds couldn't make it and we missed them sorely.

We had a blast and in doing so, didn't get a ton of pictures so I have borrowed some from the rest of the gang! 

hanging out in the beautiful beach house of Steve Nelson (thank you sooo much!)

strolling around Balboa Island, eating delicious boardwalk pizza and taking the ferry

notice the "bs" - leaving our mark

being serenaded by good music from Emily, Nate, Meg, & Swin (check out Emily Golightly's music)

playing at Aliso Beach in awesome beach weather - killer volleyball, sand throwing, Bocci ball, tin foil dinners, dolphin watching, skim boarding

(dolphins!)

stuffin' face -- i've never seen her eat so much as she did this night on the beach

hanging out, waiting for the tin foil dinners to finish

our sprawl

playing toothpics and hanging out in the hot tub

playing at Crescent Beach - reaching 152 hits with the volleyball, boogie boarding, sand castle building 

lounging at Swindle's house (thank you Karen) and taking our family photos

the boys

harrassment

the ladies

check out Addie playing peekaboo

 thanks for all the fun and memories, B-hood. Can't wait till the next time!

Birthday Bash!!

sweet adalyne turned one last saturday! where did this last year go? a year ago she was this adorable newborn...

now she is this adorable walker, runner, talker, climber, clapper, giggler, snuggler, dancer, ball-thrower, squealer, girly, toddler girl. 

she is still our tiny toddler girl, though

16lbs 14oz -- 1%ile

28.5 in long -- 28%ile

her birthday was a blast! we had so many family members come celebrate with us and Addie soaked up the attention and smashed the daylights out of her cake. enjoy the pictures!

The Vintage Carnival Setup

The Singing

The Smashing

(a.k.a. - the demolition. notice her frosting fists and the fact that she hardly eats a thing but thoroughly enjoys getting completely messy while raking her cake to pieces)

not sure if you can tell, but this girl was haaaaappppy

The Spoiling

(not awesome quality photos, but oh well)

Opening Nana's present - a book with her voice recorded!

she knew exactly where to look for her presents

taking off with her ball...she ran away with her favorite presents: her ball and her doll

we finished the night with a warm swim in the pool, complete with sharks-n-minnows and fruit basket with the younger cousins. addie, as always, loved splashing in the water. it was an awesome night for a first birthday! we love you baby girl. 

Biggums

(Warning: Long, full of video, and about a month overdue)
Biggums is what Grandpa Randall calls his little grandchildren and that is what Jon calls Addie. Unfortunately, this 11 month old biggums girl seems to be interested in things that I shouldn't have to teach her about yet:

Make Up
Credit Cards
Cell Phones
Board Games

Tampons, Maxi Pads, and Nursing Breast Pads

But there are things that are right on track.

Talking
Unfortunately, the endearing first words of "mama" or "dada" are never to be. Her first word is officially "balloon", pronounced "buhgoon" with the "goon" ending in a high squeal. As if she could have chosen a harder first word. However, she has now officially begun saying "hi" and "Da" for Dad. Lucky guy. 

She has become an incredibly good mimicker: she can repeat "stop" "ouch" "up" and "ball" remarkably well. It's funny how when I ask her to say "mama", she just cocks her head and stares at me. 

She is also a serious babbler using intonation and cocking her head as she speaks. It is darling. 

Walking

New bump on her left side, old bump on the right side. 

She has been an official walker since the middle of May. Every day she gets more and more confident and has now decided that she is good enough to haul things around that are just as big as she is. Unfortunately, she also goes faster. We will be running very soon! (How weird is it to watch your 16 lb, 12 oz baby walk. She is way too tiny!) The best part is that she knows that she is doing something totally awesome and she makes sure that she gets praised for her accomplishments! The worst part is she gets at least one bruise or bump a day!

 Teething
She has 5 official teeth. Her newest tooth is her left canine. She has her two middle teeth and her right canine hovering just below the surface, and due to the recent pain and tears, I can predict they are about to show their pearly heads. 

Making Friends
She has discovered the incredible world of stuffed animals. She was so indifferent to toys before...no favorites, moving on quickly between toys. But she recently became very attached to a large sheep pillow pet we call Sherpa and a small stuffed elephant named Ellie. If we ask her where either one is, her face lights up and she goes off on the hunt. When she finds them, she throws herself on top of them and gives them loves. Then she wants me to snuggle both of them, so she'll bring me the animal and then climb into my lap for a big group hug. Melts my heart every time. 

 Dressing Up
She has recently realized that she can make anything into a necklace and she has learned how to put them on and take them off (sometimes, not very smoothly). She will put on a bow or the handle of a bag and then pose for us by tilting her head to the side. Such a personality. 

this is the "posing" look she gives us...head tilt to the side, small smile

Finding a Groove

She has discovered that she has rhythm in her tiny body and finds the funniest ways to express it. She rocks back and forth in her high chair, claps things together, shakes things, and has recently learned how to rock herself in her rocking chair.

She has also discovered that she can dance! Any time music comes on - in the car, in a store, on the TV - she starts to wiggle her shoulders and rock her head back and forth. She can also dance on command!

 Playing
She is never as happy as when both her mama and daddy are home and playing on the floor with her. She becomes very hyper-active, showing off for both of us. Her most favorite activity of late is being chased around our ottoman. I have never heard her laugh so much as when we chase her.

Reading
She LOVES her books. She will sit and turn their pages all day. She doesn't have a long enough attention span to look at the pages but she loves turning them. My favorite is when she will bring me a book, turn herself around and plop herself in my lap. Love, love. 

Grandma Frandsen

Today my great grandmother, Marjorie Frandsen, passed away at the age of 95.

She was the most perfect example to me of what I hope my life with Jon will look like as we grow old with one another.

She had been married to Grandpa for 73 years. And when you watched Grandma and Grandpa together, you could feel the love they had for each other. They still held hands, still wanted to be close. And I know that they will not tolerate being apart for very long.

She had 6 children and countless grandchildren and great grandchildren, and even one great great grandchild, Adalyne. She cherished her posterity and I always felt so loved in her home because of the time she took to know me personally. She and Grandpa established traditions that brought our extended family together, that created memories and friendships that I treasure today. Memorial Day camping, Thanksgiving, Christmas Eve party, New Year's sledding and homemade chili.

5 generation photo

One of the most memorable lessons I took from her as a teenager was the value of a woman's education. She was one of the first women to attend college and she took advantage of the opportunity. Whenever we discussed my schooling, she would press upon me the importance of getting a higher education and I always wanted to follow in her footsteps. And once I began attending BYU, she always wanted to know how my studies were coming and what path I was going to take for my career.

Grandma was a blast to be around. She was so sharp, so witty. I loved talking with her, listening to her sarcasm and humor. She always made me laugh and her laugh was contagious. And she was such a classy lady. She took great pride in being well dressed and well groomed, saying that you always feel better about yourself when you take the time to get ready.

Two months ago, we had the chance to go to Utah and see her and I am so grateful that we took that opportunity. We knew that she was struggling to recover from surgery and I was worried that being so far away, this would be our last chance to really spend some time with her, and that turned out to be the case. Adalyne was older and got to interact with Grandma and we took some very special pictures.

Addie was very interested in her squishy skin. Grandma had a great sense of humor!

While it is sad to know that she will no longer be able to be there to make a witty comment and I wish that my daughter could have known her the way I did, it is al so wonderful to know that she is with her Father in Heaven, no longer in pain. She's probably making someone else laugh up in heaven.

A Memorial Day to Remember

Memorial Day is always a huge treat for me and my family. I look forward to it every year. In fact, this year, I thought we couldn't go and I cried. Literally cried. 

My mom's whole side of the family gets together for one big camping weekend somewhere in Southern Utah, this year was in Kodachrome Basin. It was a tradition started by my great grandparents who are now great great grandparents. This includes my great aunts and uncles, my aunts and uncles, my first cousins, my second cousins and my third cousins, (not sure what Nicole and Tyler and Porter are exactly in relation) my parents, and my brothers. I love this family. Despite it sounding like we would hardly know each other, we are all so close and we LOVE spending time with everyone. Our family is awesome! (Pics are thanks to family members Dennis and Mike!)

Our campsite

My dad and bros spent one night riding their longboards down insanely steep sandstone

This weekend is a sort of ritual. In fact, it has come to be known as the rite of passage for new members entering our family in marriage. Jon had to go through it the first year of our marriage and he swears that he almost died trying to prove that he could keep up with the adventurous monkey boys of the clan. We hike, hike, and hike some more. And we're not talking about a little jaunt up some pretty nature walk. We're talking about clambering up and down slot canyons with 15 foot drops and 800 foot ascents at 70 degree inclines. My family has been blessed with monkey abilities. Oh, and did I mention that we do this all with children. Yep. Our most recent hike had some serious 12 - 15 foot overhanging drops and our crazy family packed two two-year olds and two couple-of-months old babies and little Addie down this slot canyon. Oh, and Jon came too...with his broken ribs because he's crazy and didn't want to get left out. We rock.

The hike in

One of the large drops

Hanging out in the tight slot canyon

Notice the car? In the 1950s a couple drove off the cliff and their car was wedged here. After authorities removed the bodies, they left the car and built up a bridge over the top of it. You can still see the original tires and everything. 

The miserable hike out...beyond steep and full of sliding rocks and dirt. You can see a person on the far right side to give perspective. 

Everyone happy to be to the top!

This was our first attempt at camping with Addie and despite being pampered by a trailer, there were some fairly awful times. We have learned quite a bit for our next camping trip:

1. Addie is afraid of heights. The kind that induces fits of screaming hysterics. Those 12-15 foot drops just sent her over the top...I have never seen her so frantic. Although she did get better with them once she learned to trust me, despite being in the backpack. Holding her hand while she was in the backpack did wonders.

We are about to descend into the slot canyon and Addie didn't like the look of the 200 foot drop to the bottom. Holding hands to give comfort. 

2. Trailers have heaters that can run off of battery power. We did not know this the first night and we froze. Poor Addie got sick because of the cold on her first night.

3. The trailer battery must be FULLY charged in order for the pilot light to kick on in the heater. Night two, the heater stopped working and since we are not trailer gurus, we didn't know how to fix it although we tried everything we could think of. That night it was in the 30s. Addie became even more sick and ended up sleeping on my chest from 5 -9am so that she could breathe through her snotty nose and so that she could be warmer.

4. It is worth any amount of money to have a warm baby. That includes finding and getting warm water for bottles, microwaves or stoves to heat food, and packing baby gloves.

5. There is no such thing as too much sunscreen for a baby.

6. Our baby hiking backpack is incredibly awesome. I highly recommend the Snugli Cross Terrain. I packed Addie for 4-5 hours in that crazy canyon and up the steep walls too. The sorest things were my legs because I was out of shape, not my shoulders or my back. Thank goodness. (She wouldn't let anyone else carry her, or else I would have passed her off.)

7. Don't let your husband go hiking with broken ribs, even if he really REALLY wants to. Jon is still sore from our intense slot canyon hike.

7. Hippie hikers stink. We were passed by a group of hippie hikers who were going on a three-day journey down the same slot canyon. They had next to nothing to deal with the freezing weather at night, didn't know where they would get water, the girls were wearing pioneer skirts, and one girl was bare footed--no shoes at all as she walked down the canyon layered with sharp pebbles. Her feet were like little hobbit feet!

Unfortunately, we missed out on a great hike on Monday through a river because Addie was running a fever, Jon was ultra sore, and I had an allergy attack. But Memorial Day is always awesome no matter what happens because the people are so awesome. We had delicious food, good stories, and fun hanging out in our camping chairs kicking soccer balls at each other. We're so glad we could go so that we could see Brian and Kim to say goodbye before they head off on their East Coast adventure and it was so wonderful to see all the family who lives far away who traveled long distances to get there! We can't wait till the next Memorial Day and next time, we'll be more prepared!

When it Rains

Bah. I hate to say it, but this is a venting post. A necessary one whose purpose is to help me keep in the tears and avoid becoming a blubbering mess and instead, I will end up with a documentary of one of those times when things were rough and I'm sure I'll be able to smile about and look back to see how much I was able to grow. Right now, that is not my perspective.

I'm not sure if all mothers and wives feel this way, but I am learning that the hardest part of being a mother/wife is that not only do you carry your own pain, emotional and physical, but you also carry the pain of your husband and your children with you. And when you aren't carrying the pain, you are carrying the worry, which can sometimes be even worse. I am learning that this part of my role is exhausting and lately, with the events in our lives, I feel that it is sometimes too much to do on my own.

With Jon's broken ribs, I hurt because I know that he is in serious physical pain...more pain than I have ever seen him in. I hurt because I also know that he really can't stand being unable to help me with the difficult things of moving and unpacking and cleaning and caring for Addie by myself. I hurt because I know that he is in physical pain more than he will tell me because he is trying to be brave because he knows that I really can't handle much more right now. I worry because on top of the pain in his ribs and lungs, he has developed a fever and pounding headache and sore throat.

I hurt because Addie is teething and it feels eternal and I can't do much to help the three teeth that are breaking through and causing so much pain. I hurt because I hear her cry at night and I know that she is in pain. I hurt because she has had a fever on and off.  I worry because she seems to never be free of diaper rashes (and I worry about what the heck keeps causing them) and I hurt because her latest rash bleeds every single time I need to change her and I hate being the cause of her pain.

My own pain and worry right now lie in the fact that there is too much to do and I am beyond tired...I am so exhausted. With the move and the days and days of cleaning and the no-end-in-sight unpacking and all the little things that seem to come with moving, I am one large ball of worry and stress and movement and exhaustion. When I close my eyes, I see the list of things that are pressing and they are oh so long. And I know that I really need to keep moving. And I am worried because on top of the ER visit and the CAT scan and the blood work and the two x-rays and the Urgent Care visit and it's additional x-ray and the bills that they will rain down upon us, I also just walked out of the car shop with a new oil change and a larger-than-we-can-afford bill for a brand new clutch and possible new transmission parts.

It just seems that when it rains, it pours. And when it pours on those we love, we mothers and wives get wet too.

Richard Simmons and My Gym Buddies Would Be Friends

I currently work out Monday, Wednesday, and Friday mornings at my gym. This is not unusual. 

What is unusual is that I have a team of coaches...you might call them my personal trainer team.

They are a group of women, age fifty and older, who kick my butt each morning with their seriously intense 4x6 index card workouts. 

We met in a team fitness class. I was the youngest woman in the class by at least two and a half decades. The class was great, but I was paying with my sign-up bonus points, and the day they ran out, so did I. 

I had been working out on my own, saying hi to them from afar, but a month ago, the three of them decided they could do it on their own, and they invited me along. 

My personal trainer team consists of : 

Lisa, who is at least a foot shorter than me; who can lift 4 times as much weight as I can on any machine (I hate following behind her on a circuit...I feel like an 8 year old).

Cathy, who has the most chipper attitude I have ever seen and often yells loudly in excitement; who smokes a cigarette the minute we get out of the gym; and who recently told me that she once attended a nudist summer camp and has since decided that nudity is the new clothing.

And Jen, who mothers everything; who leaned over to me from two treadmills away yesterday and said, "Your eye is looking a little pink. YOU HAVE PINK EYE!" as if I had just killed half the population with my infectious disease (which was, in all reality an irritated eye from a torn contact).

These women rock. I have never been so consistently sore from working out (mostly because I get lectured about trying harder and not giving up "because you're in the prime of your life and I'm old enough to be your mother and if I can do it you can do it too" if I do feel less than perky) and, thanks to their special workouts and occasional enthusiastic yells, I have also never been so conspicuous at the gym.