WHOA!

As Hattie says when she sees a big truck or something cool or something she can't believe her eyes, she says "WHOA!" That's what I have to say about the last week. I should probably break this up, but I'm not gonna.


We started on Labor Day with a fun family trip into Boston. We went to the public "gahdens" and rode the famous Swan Boats. Harriet and Grace went wild over the birds in the pond. We spent some time walking around downtown Boston - anything to help us orient ourselves a bit more to the city. Every time I go down, I wish I knew where I was and where I was going! After the gardens, we went to dinner and then Hattie and I bugged out and went home while David took Grace to a Red Sox game. The game experience consisted mostly of eating a chocolate ice cream, watching a few innings (the least exciting of the innings of the game as he found out after getting home and having to hear about it from Jared!) and then calling us for a ride from the subway stop only minutes after we had gotten home and settled. Still, Grace got to see a baseball game with her daddy and ride the subway!We took a break on Tuesday, and then on Wednesday, we went to the barn for a horsey ride. Grace hadn't ridden since early this summer when Janie came. Also, Harriet is LOVING the barn and the ponies and seems to like riding even more than Grace does, so Tink earned her hay for the day by going round and round the ring with the two tiniest riders at Hybid. I told Rita I'm going to start a toddler riding class - diapers required, NO BINKIES! Grace is really quite great with her sister at the barn. I thought it would be a huge source of sibling rivalry to share the pony, but she is so helpful and shows Hattie how to do everything and lets her do it and leads Tink while Hattie rides. It is a great thing we can do together!

THEN, Grace started pre-school on Friday. It turned into somewhat of a "false-start" as we found out very late in the game that the first day of school was really only a parent open house and school didn't start until the following Monday. Grace was and is SO excited to go to school. She's wanted to go to school since she could say "I want to go to school." She loves raising her hand and learning and playing and figuring things out and doing new things. I am really excited for this year for her.

THEN, on Saturday, we made our pilgrimage to Carver, MA (Edaville Railroad) to go to the Day out with Thomas.

Grace is still obsessed with trains and tells us she will be a choo-choo train driver when she grows up. She frequently tells David that she's not going to college and tells me that she's not going to be a mom, but that she is going to drive TRAINS. I half believe her too! Edaville is pretty fun. Along with the Thomas activities, there are lots of "train" things to do and see and also some carnival rides and attractions. Still, it was a long, hot, sweaty day filled for parents filled with too many circular rides for me, and a nearly lost wallet. We made it home with our kids and wallets and cameras and accessories, so it was a successs in the end...THEN, on Sunday, I got called to be in the Relief Society presidency! Alrighty then!

THEN, today, was the ACTUAL first day of school. Grace went school shopping with me last month and chose her own school clothes. Today, she wore her favorite new outfit (pink camo) and got ready for school pretty painlessly. The teachers greet the kids at their cars and take them inside. Grace jumped out of the car to go with her teacher and didn't even look back. She was all over it. I pulled the knife out of my heart and drove away totally happy that she is so ready for school. Hattie was a little disturbed that we just left Grace on the side-walk, but she and I are going to have some good times together now that we have a little time to ourselves.Keep checking our flickr button for ALL the pictures!

I knew I was good lookin'

Despite my general disdain for the "celebrities" around us, my friend Bryan inspired me to do this one. I just don't want to hear from him about blog content anymore!

I have to say that George Clooney and David Beckam I can live with. Even Matt Dillion. I'm not so sure about Mark Hamil or Patrick Swayze (I couldn't bring myself to include him on the collage).

I also have to say that I would look pretty good as a woman.

French Bistro

In Grace's words, a French picnic! (are tuna fish sandwiches French?)
It's nice when your kids remind you to do things like eat lunch on the deck for no reason. :-)

(check flickr for other pics)

what they're doin' these days

Grace is (and likes):
*bossing Hattie around
*bossing ME around
*NOT brushing her hair
*being more reverent during prayers
*writing letters in the alphabet
*learning to spell
*reading everything from road signs to packages to books
*watching Dora the Explorer and Go Diego Go!
*speaking Spanish (inspired by Dora and Diego)
*saying things correctly that she couldn't say before (this is sad)
*singing loudly with the car stereo
*listening to Gracie's Grooves, Cars soundtrack, Dixie Chicks, and the Primary songs
*favorite songs "Three Little Birds" - by Bob Marley, "Real Gone" - by Cheryl Crowe, "Life is a Highway" - by Rascal Flatts, and "The Long Way Around" by the Dixie Chicks. Oh - also "Wild Thing" - by X
*swinging on the swingset
*watering her garden
*eating salmon and clam chowder whenever she gets the chance
*favorite stuffed animals: Foxy (a fox), Bluis (a blue horse), Chloe (a paint horse), and her white polar bear she took from Grandma Barbara.
*favorite animals: horses and penguins
*favorite book: Halloween Opposites (we've read it every day since last Halloween)
*snuggling with purple B
*going to story time at the library
*going to Drumlin Farm
*visiting Tink at Hybid Farm (hasn't ridden since camp)
*going for walks to Erikson's Dairy

Harriet is (and likes):
*walking all over the house and yard
*saying "eh, eh, eh!"
*saying da da!, WHOA!, and woof woof woof!
*trying to imitate animal sounds or talk to animals when she sees them
*giggling
*throwing temper tantrums
*climbing up the stairs
*bobbing her head to the music in the car or anywhere
*NOT watching TV - not a single shred, not a minute, no TV for Hattie!
*taking things apart
*fussing if anything is on her hands or feet - she wants it off!
*folding her arms before eating - she always reminds us to say a prayer
*brushing her own teeth
*brushing her own hair
*doing flips like a fish in the tub
*her pink fuzzy blanket. she cannot go to bed without it. I can't get it away from her long enough to wash it without a major crisis.
*SHOES SHOES SHOES!!! She wears her crocs at all times. She likes everyone else to have shoes on too. She loves taking shoes on and off. She loves wearing shoes that are too big for her.

Here's our little Amelda Marcos wearing Grace's "Aunt Em" shoes.

A Decade Later...

We've been having a stand-off, I think, to see who would write about this. Ok, I'll do it!

David and I had our 10th wedding anniversary last Tuesday, August 21st. It was the day after David got back from Utah. (absence, does make the heart grow fonder!)

Seriously, what the heck did we do with 10 years? Well, for starters:

*David spent, um, 7 of them in school.
*I spent 1 in school and 6 more teaching high school.
*David started his career in materials research at MIT Lincoln Lab.
*We spent 1.5 years in a rented apartment in downtown SLC, 6 years in a house we bought in South Salt Lake, and the last 2.5 years in a house we bought in Massachusetts. (does that add up to 10?)
*We got our dog, Velvet upon moving into our first house and our second dog, Shadow the next year.
*We have not traveled the world together, but we honeymooned in exotic Stanley, Idaho (seriously - exotic!), we have made road-trips to Southern Utah, Vegas, Lander, Wyoming, and Denver from Utah and a road-trip to Pittsburgh from Massachusetts. We flew to DC for a friend's wedding and to spend some time with my sister in Virginia. We have flown back and forth from Utah to Massachusetts. I spent July of 2001 in Kenya, and David has traveled on business here and there. Ok - really - we haven't really gone "anywhere". Maybe we'll save our world travel log for our Golden Anniversary and have finally made a trip to Brazil and to Europe. Who wants to travel these days anyway? (and, seriously, traveling with tiny kids is for the birds.)
*We have given up and taken up our favorite sports a number of times. I gave up my horse, but now work at a riding stable. David has given up back-packing (for now), but has taken up road cycling and commuting to work by bike.
*We have reproduced and now have 2 B-E-A-UTIFUL children. Grace is 4 and Harriet is 1. They are our lives now.

Our 10 year celebration started as we woke up in bed - together - separated by our 2 munchkins. After sleeping by himself in King size hotel bed for 2 weeks, 1/4 of a queen bed didn't quite feel the same for David, but he said that he would rather sleep with us than without us.

Since Grace was "in" on our gifts, we exchanged them in bed with the kids. Normally, we really don't do extravagant anniversary presents, but we decided that 10 years together deserved something a little extra special so we spent a little cash... David gave me a strand of salt-water pearls with matching earrings. He has promised me pearls the whole time we've been married, so that was a really nice surprise. I gave him a new watch. It's one of those new Citizen Eco-drive things. The face is a solar panel, so it doesn't have a battery and it's super thin and pretty cool. He has never had a really nice dress watch (I know - he would probably rather have the latest GPS sport watch), but now he can dress up in his suit and have a watch to wear with it.

David took a day off from work and so did I! He stayed home with the kids for the morning while I went to a spa and had a massage. VERY NICE. Then, I took Grace shopping for the afternoon. I know - doesn't sound too romantic yet, but after almost 3 weeks without any time to myself, it was a fantastic treat and after 3 weeks without the kids, he had a good time too.

For, let's see, maybe the 4th time since we moved here, we left the kids with a non-family member, our good friend Rita, and went OUT! We dressed up, put our new jewelry on, and went to dinner at our favorite local place, Scupper Jack's for a filet mignon dinner. What a great end to a fantastic day!

Oh - and sorry, no one took a picture of us all dolled up. Too bad too - we aren't too hard on the eyes, yet! That's ok we were probably still cuter when we got married. When I get a minute, I'll dig up a wedding picture and post it.

Well babe, Happy Anniversary! Love you! Add to this if you want :-)

Daddy's Home!

Well, we did it. We survived 18 days without David. The first week-end was by far the worst with so many things going wrong. After that, it was just a count-down until he got home. Once we got use to feeding the dogs early in the morning, taking out the trash (this is a pretty big chore here - including dragging the trash out for trash day - no nice big trash cans on wheels just outside your back door), mowing the lawn, picking up the mail, throwing away old food in the fridge, and organizing the tupperware cupboard (all of David's chores), we were pretty set.

I have to say though, that it got pretty tiring being the 24 hour entertainment committee. No one to walk through the door at 6pm to squeal "Hey!" at the girls and have a fresh set of hands for the evening. No one to stay home with the girls in the evening while I run out for a quick errand. In fact, 2 nights after David got home, I left Harriet in bed and Grace on the couch with David and went to the library, the pharmacy, and the paper store in a land-speed record of 30 minutes! This would have taken 90 minutes with the kids!

We didn't cook too many "tasty" dinners either, but we did eat well. We cooked for ourselves and we were invited to dinner 4 different times at friends' houses. Rita took care of us on Sundays which is by far my hardest day of the week.

Oh, and, yes, we did miss Daddy for more than just his tupperware (ok gladware) organizing skills. It was very nice to get him home. Hattie had been saying "Da! Da!" for days and days every time she saw his picture or his car. She really wondered what had happened to him.

Now it's our turn to travel! The girls in the house are leaving in about 3 weeks. If you live in Salt Lake, we'll be seeing you soon!

FRIENDS

Well it hasn't happened much in the last 5+ years, but tonight the stars and planets were aligned and I got together with Bryan and Jared for dinner and discussions in Park City. It was very enjoyable even if I know now not to talk up Guiliani or put down Obama. Politics aside, we had a very nice evening. It was one of those nights in Park City that really make me miss leaving in the Rocky Mountain west.

While I haven't done as good a job in keeping in touch with friends, I know that we will always have a connection. I think of the line at the end of Stand By Me when Richard Dreyfus is finishing typing up the story that has been related. I don't remember word for word what he says, but it is to the effect that "I had really good friends, do you ever have friends like those you had in youth?" That is how I feel. I was so lucky to have good friends through high school. And while life's changes have taken us separate ways, I believe that we all still consider each other friends. While that friendship has evolved over the years and while it will never be like it was in high school, I don't know that it is any less important in my life. While I have some nostalgia for the carefree days of high school friendship and more frequent interactions, it is still rewarding to interact and share my life with those who I love and call friend.

Day - whatever, what day is it anyway?

(this photo has nothing to do with anything, but it is much cuter than a picture of a flat tire or even a new lawnmower... read on...)

Well, it has been a long week without Daddy. I think he left last Thursday? Who knows - all we know is that it's been a while and the days have blurred together. That tends to happen when each day isn't separated by a block of sleeping time!

We did well for a couple of days, and then:
Problem #1 - Saturday morning, I decided to be ambitious and mow our 1/2 acre lot with the tiny push mower that we originally got to mow our little postage-stamp yard in Salt Lake. I have been telling David to get a new lawn mower since we moved in, but he has been too stubborn to do it. He also says he likes the cardio work-out that he gets mowing the lawn. I say, get the lawn mowed quicker and go for a bike ride!

Well, since Hattie only has about 90 minute naps, I don't have time to mow the whole thing before she wakes up. Still, I was willing to try it since we were starting to disappear out of sight from our growing grass. After about 10 minutes mowing then 20 minutes ripping my shoulder out trying to start it again, I called David and told him that even if HE didn't want a new mower, that I was going to buy one for MYSELF! (In between - I even called all the deacons in the ward to see if they would come and mow it for some spending money - apparently, they all have fun things to do on Saturday!) I got off the phone and called my mom to see what kind of mower they had. My dad, instinctively, was already on the hunt to figure out how to get a lawn mower delivered to my house that very day. He had no idea I had called, and I had no idea he was doing it.

Long story short - my sweet dad had a brand new lawnmower WITH oil and gas in it delivered to my driveway at 4:00 that afternoon. I have to say, I never thought I'd be so excited to get a freakin' lawnmower, but it was a beautiful sight (real nice, Clark) and especially nice that I didn't have to drag my kids around shopping for it and getting it home. I started 'er up and between a 10 minute session on Saturday and another 30 minute session on Monday, I got the lawn mowed in half the time or less than it takes David to do it with the other one. He can still get his cardio if he wants with the other one, this mower is MINE! Problem #1 solved - lawn mowed.

Problem #2 - David's great little 10 year old Subaru has had a leaky tire for a while. Never bad and the air lasts a week or so. BUT, Sunday morning on our way out the door for church, Grace says "uh-oh Mommy - look at Daddy's car!" The tire was flat as a pancake with the car resting on the rim. I left for church in my car and didn't worry about it until we got home. Then, I filled it with air to get it off the rim and 3 hours later it was flat again. Well, I'm not filling this thing with air every 3 hours until David gets home. My home teachers are all out of town. I have no way to get a car into a service shop (can't drive that one anyway.) I'm not going to jack it up myself to change the tire and risk having a car fall on me when I'm home with 2 little kids. So, Monday morning, I did what anyone who worked at State Farm Insurance for 15 years would do. I called a tow truck and had a guy with a VERY cool cordless power lug wrench put the donut on it in about 5 minutes and charged it to my insurance. Now, his poor car is sitting in the driveway waiting for a kind soul to take the other tire and fix it. Maybe we'll do it - maybe we won't :-) Problem #2 solved - car off the ground.

Problem #3 - Hattie ran a 103 temperature for 3 days and then broke out in bumps on the 4th day - Wednesday. Thought for sure it was a reaction to chicken pox or measles vaccine from the week before. Nope, she's had roseola. Oh, that's why no sleepy between calendar days. She woke up this morning fever free, almost rash free, and willing to NOT be held by me.
Problem #3 solved - Hattie all better.
Off to Drumlin Farm! (look at flickr for the more photos!) Today was a WELCOME change in every way. Happy kids, beautiful pretty New England summer day, perfect weather, fairly clean house, working equipment, and my car is even clean (thanks Grace!) I think I might live through the week-end, but this Saturday better start better than the last.

Ok dude, we CAN take care of things on our own, but we really don't WANT to, so we DO miss you. It's way more fun to make you help with this stuff! (of course, we'd miss you even if we didn't need you to help...)

Day 1 without Daddy

It is much different to be away from Daddy when we are the ones left at home rather than the ones traveling and surrounded by family. We took David to the airport about 24 hours ago, and this is how we've spent the last day without him:

- went out to dinner last night at Grace's favorite restaurant (NOT McDONALD'S) because, well, who's going to cook for the next 17 days?
no one around to request a home-made "something tasty."
Grace drank her clam chowder with a straw! The kid loves the stuff!

- went over to a pond made by a dam in the Assabet River to see some ducks. Harriet wanted me to let go of her so she could throw her body into the water after them. Grace waded, a little more cautiously, into the water to look at the fish and see the ducks up close.

- as we're driving home at 7:15 - on our way to watch the Simpsons at 7:30, Grace says "I am really starting to miss Daddy."

- came home to bathe kids separately - no one here to get Grace out of the tub while I put Hattie to bed

- went to bed at midnight in a large, empty, well, let's face it, comfy bed.

- woke up at 5:45 am to feed our dogs, (Harriet saw David's car in the driveway and said "da da!" and waved bye-bye.) then, go over to our friends', the Doty's to feed their dogs, and then drove to the barn at 7:20 with kids in tow to teach a riding lesson

- came home at 9am long enough to give Hattie a nap and do some stinky dishes (all glasses and cups!)

- went back to the Doty's for a doggie play-date with kids and dogs in tow. Dogs threw up in the back of the car - lovely.

- came home to clean dog vomit out of the car. When I ran out of paper towels and discovered a spare roll placed by my dear husband under the kitchen sink (instead of having to go to the basement for another), I had a true " 'Til Death" moment. If you watch that show - it's the toilet paper pyramid moment. David will know what I'm talking about. Ok - I miss you!

- now I'm blogging in mid-afternoon while Grace watches movies and Hattie sleeps - it's 95 degrees outside with lots of humidity. Not going anywhere else today - now, what's for dinner? I'm sure it won't be tasty.

I know I won't be blogging every day, but there's your first installment of how much we miss you babe.

Pittsburgh Chapmans

David's brother, Brian and his wife Wendy and their family came to our house for the first time this week. They finally got a chance to meet Harriet and we got a chance to get to know them again. We were great friends when we all lived in Salt Lake, but since both of our families have moved, we haven't done such a good job in keeping up with their lives.

We were most surprised by how much Alec has grown up since we last saw him (2 years ago at their house at a family reunion.) He went from little boy to teen-ager quite quickly. He is probably embarrassed that we use to think of him as a little boy. I use to tend him along with his little sister Clare when they were tiny. We've never lived near Jeremiah, so this was also our first opportunity to get to know him really well.

All said and done, they were great house guests! The kids were awesome and their new puppy, Argos, was very entertaining and cute. We thoroughly enjoyed having them here and hope that we can see them more often now that we are re-acquainted. Since they are the only relatives within "driving" distance, we have little excuse. (however, I use "driving distance" lightly as it took them about 14 hours to drive to our house - not an afternoon ride in the car...) We still can't believe that Jane and family drove as far as they did to get here either. Ok, I guess I should say that the MITCHELL definition of driving distance is 8 hours or less. The CHAPMAN definition tends to stretch a little further!

Although they were only here a couple of days, we packed quite a bit in and they did some family outings as well. My favorite was probably candle-pin bowling with them along with a little walk to Erikson's Dairy for lunch.

I think Grace is hungry for family. She has been thrilled with her cousin time this summer. She's been able to spend lots of quality time with many of them and was SO SAD to see them go. So, this is my "call" out to the family to help us do a better job of knowing what is going on in your lives in our long-distance relationships.

Thank you, though, to everyone who made such big efforts to come and see us this summer. We have very much enjoyed the revolving door of company that we have had for the past 8 weeks (well really, for the past several months) and we're sad that we have the house to ourselves now for a long while.

stuff we're doin'

First, I have to start with the pictures I took before church on Sunday. The girls are just too darling in their dresses outside.


Last night we went candle-pin bowling for family home evening. It's a lot different from regular bowling. You get to bowl 3 times a frame and it's a lot harder to make the pins knock each other down. David won with 81, then me with 64 and I think Grace had a 45. At the very end, we figured out how to do it a lot better, so hopefully our scores will break 100 the next time. Being from Lander, Wyoming, it is shameful to have a score less than 100! I haven't been bowling for ages. I avoid it because I get "bowler's butt." Maybe you don't understand bowler's butt, but basically, your left "cheek" hurts like heck the next day from swinging your weight to it all night. I thought I was safe with candle-pin because the balls are much lighter and you don't have to throw them so hard... not so... I can't walk today. David calls me his BBB - bowler's butt babe. Seriously though, my hip hurts. It doesn't help that both Grace and Harriet burrowed a hole in it when I was pregnant. I'm going to have to start bowling with the under-hand straddle technique! (and no, I'm not throwing Hattie down the lane here...)
Grace had an absolute blast. It was her first time bowling. She bowled a pretty good game too (gutter guards on.) She also had a great time at the arcade. I forgot how much I love an arcade. I could play skee-ball all night. Hattie had a pretty good time too. She wanted to pick up the bowling balls and toss them herself. We had to keep her away from the fast-rolling bowling balls coming up the tracks though.

Today, Grace went to her second swimming lesson of the summer. She LOVES the water and loves learning how to do new things. She is getting much braver and much better about using her water skills. I hope she can actually swim a few strokes on her own soon so I don't have to worry about her so much in the water. Now, we're prepping for more company - the last of the summer. Where did summer go? It's almost over and I'm just getting started!

A night at Fenway

Well it has been a week since we took the whole family with Jared and Tara to catch a Red Sox game. It was Harriet's first game and Grace was enjoying her second Fenway action. Unfortunately we didn't have enough tickets that were together, so Jared and I took one for the team and sat in the seats under the infield grandstand. It was rough being so close to hear the ball hit the mitt, but someone had to do it. Meanwhile the womenfolk were out enjoying a nice summer night in the right field.

Eventually in the sixth inning we were able to consolidate at our seats in the infield. Grace enjoyed cheering for the Blue Jays and egging on her daddy, but I know she really is a Red Sox fan. I can say that both of my girls know how to charm the crowd.



Harriet was having a great time for the first few innings. After that though all I can really say is that Harriet outlasted Julian Tavarez. Unfortunately the Red Sox lost which means Jared and I are 0-2 watching the Red Sox together. Despite the loss, it was fun. Fenway really is a fun ball park and I can't wait for our next game on Labor Day. If only I could see someone besides the Blue Jays.



The next night Jared and Tara returned to see a Red Sox victory. So at least they were able to see a victory.

Ambition

I had to post about this little chipmunk. He really wanted to get to the food in our bird feeder. He tried yesterday and couldn't figure it out. However, he was back today and he finally succeeded. Unfortunately I don't have pictures of his triumphant victory, but I got to hand it to the little guy. Let's hope the goldfinch pair don't mind sharing their loot with the chipmunk.

Bad picture? There are no bad pictures of Michelle!

See. The famous picture of Michelle eating ice cream was taken during the summer of 2007. The photographer, Chappo, thought that this model was the crowning moment of his photographic career, and notice how the people are enjoying it as if they can taste the ice cream.

Basketball, Basketball, Basketball

Today Jared, Tara, Grace, and I drove the 75 minutes to Springfield to visit the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame. Despite having lived here for over 2 years and having driven past the Hall of Fame a couple of times it took Jared to get me to make the trek. Grace was excited about the "Basketball Museum" and she was a trooper. She got bored as I walked around the shrine level reading about the inductees, but as we got to some interactive items later on she had fun. While it wasn't a religious experience for me, it was interesting to read about some of the people and the history of basketball. I'll have to go back when John Stockton becomes eligible.

On a side note, Jared is becoming Grace's best friend. She didn't want daddy to hold her hand she wanted Jared. All I was good for was holding her hat. I also played a couple of games against Jared and while I lost it reminded me of the Shasta days back in junior high. I lost to Jared then and I lost to Jared today. But, I am winning this week in fantasy baseball. Let's hope I keep it up, so that I can get some payback.

Take a look at the pictures on Flickr.

TERRIBLE PICTURE!

I cannot believe that David put that picture of me eating ice cream on our blog. The worst part is, that there isn't a better one to replace it! I just went through our 10,000 some-odd pictures and, apparently, I HAVE TAKEN all of the pictures in the last 5 years except for the rare occasion when David gets a photo of me eating. I do have pictures of me with the kids here and there, and lots of me leading a pony with a kid on top, but none just of myself. I guess I am going to have to get dolled up and have someone take a glamor shot of me so that I have a decent picture to put up. I guess I could go search for those school pictures I had taken when I was a high school teacher. They're decent, but they drudge up memories of a job I've left in the past for a reason. I guess, at least, that he didn't post a naked picture or something... (not that there are any of those either - I might take a naked shot over one of me eating... well, maybe not these days...)

Baby Steps

Michelle will probably want to add to this, but on July 3, Harriet took her first steps. It wasn't much. Just a couple of steps to span about a foot, but it was her first steps. We now are 10 days later and progress hasn't been as fast as I would like, but before the end of the month we will have a toddler instead of an infant. She already is quite the explorer and loves going up stairs so we will have our work cut out for us to keep her from making a huge mess and endangering herself. It won't be long before she is out running around with Grace.

You're right, I will add to this. 2.5 weeks later, and Hattie is still an almost walker. She's doing more each day, but it's slow. She's standing on her own quite a bit. Hopefully she'll be walking well by the end of summer.

Look who came to visit

Well June and July this year have been very busy. It started with visits from Grandma Debbie and Aunt Em while Michelle had jury duty. Then after a week downtime we had some of my family including Janie who came out to do horse camp with Grace. Well after all the family we finally have some friends visiting. And you know what I always say, "Friends welcome, family by appointment only!" While that isn't really true it is nice to have some friends visit. I know that if it weren't for conferences and the Red Sox that Jared and Tara probably wouldn't be out here, but I can live with that. It will be a fun filled weekend so stay tuned for the adventures.

Got Moose?

Well it has only been a month and 4 days since I got back from my high adventure trip to Maine. It was a lot of fun as 7 of us went up north to Maine to climb Mount Katahdin and do some white-water rafting on the Penobscot River.

The trip was incredible. I was very impressed with Katahdin after having been less than overwhelmed by some of the White Mountains. I am a Rocky Mountain native after all. The knife edge was very fun and the weather was perfect for my weekend in Maine. The trip started out a little rough as I had to give a group talk at work in the morning and that made me a little late for the rendevouz. Then, as we start driving on the freeway my car starts shaking because a tire is out of balance. The tire stemmed for a slow leak that I thought I would fix with "fix-a-flat". Long story short, don't use that stuff. We ended up stopping at a service station in South Lawrence and getting the tires rebalanced and rotated. Sum total of 75 minute delay.

But, we finally made it up there. We stayed at the New England Outdoor Center in Millinocket, ME which I highly recommend. The food was great and the price was very reasonable. On Friday we headed up to Baxter State Park to climb Katahdin. I really enjoyed the hike. Take a look at my Katahdin Album on Flickr to see pictures taken by Spencer and me. Some great views. I would go back and do it again tomorrow if it wasn't a 6 hour drive. The hike started out slowly with about a 2 mile hike along the river up to some cabins and a lake. Then it got interesting as we climbed straight up the face to get to the ridge. We ate lunch on the peak while enjoy perfect 65-70 degree weather and then headed out across the knife edge. A few reckless actions with our lives and then down the mountainside. All in all a success except for some minor knee pain coming down.

The next day I was gearing up for some white-water rafting. The Penobscot is one of the better rivers to run on the east coast and the rapids were pretty fun. We had two class V's and one class IV. I can say that I stayed in the boat, but that can't be said for everyone and I helped haul several people into our boat after they fell out of our boat or some of the other boats on the trip. The highlights were probably see Spencer surf the raft down several rapids and the whole crew surfing one of the rapids. It was a short trip, but it was a lot of fun. Next year perhaps we will go sea kayaking.

I should add one more note. Good thing I am not Senor Chappo as the border patrol set up a stop on I-95 and all cars had to go through it. Luckily my accent must be good because I wasn't asked to show ID.

Ponies Rule!

Grace’s little cousin, Janie, is just as horse crazy as we are. She has been planning a trip to our house for over a year now to go to horse camp with us. The barn where I work runs a summer day camp that is pretty cool. You have to be 6 years old and she came to the first week of camp after her 6th birthday. Grandma decided to help her get here, so Grandma, Grandpa, and Aunt Christine left SLC about 3 weeks ago and headed to Denver. In Denver, they picked up Aunt Jane, Janie and Evan (and their car) and headed East.

They all got to our house Sunday night 2 weeks ago. The first week they were here, Janie, Grace, and I went to horse camp at our barn every day. I taught some of the riding lessons (not theirs) at camp while they went to camp. They are both tiny, young, beginning riders and went to our “Ponies Rule!” program. There, they were in a class of 8 riders with an instructor, 4 counselors, and 3 ponies, Tinkerbell, Peter Pan, and Peppe. Everyone knows that Tink is Grace’s favorite pony and the one she calls her own. I have schooled her for months on sharing Tinkerbell and she was all set to let the other kids ride her. However, I wasn’t prepared that she wouldn’t want to share Peppe! She had a few disappointing moments when she really wanted to ride Peppe and couldn’t.

During Ponies Rule! The kids get to have a 45 minute riding lesson every day in a small class of 3. They also learn how to clean stalls, groom a pony, put tack on and off, etc. They do a few other campy type activities like arts and crafts and singing. This year they learned the cutest song set to a “Sound of Music” song – the one about “these are a few of my favorite things.” Just so I have it written down somewhere, I’m going to type in the words here…

Clinics and riding and mucking out stalls,
Learning to ride and learning to fall,
Swimming and ponies and all sorts of stuff
Riding at Hybid Farm isn’t so tuff.

When the horse bites,
When I fall off,
When I’m feeling sad,

I go to my pony and give him a hug,
And then I don’t feel, so bad!
There are 2 rules at camp: You are not allowed to say "can't" or you have to ride backwards! and, if you fall off, you have to bring your instructor chocolate. It looks like Janie had to ride backwards. I think Grace did too. Neither had to take their instructor chocolate, but I did receive chocolate as an instructor from one of my students.

Each day after they are finished with their ponies and chores, we head over to the pool for lunch and swimming. Grace isn’t a good swimmer yet, but Janie is a fish! Grace wore a lifejacket so she could keep up with some of the other kids. At the age of 4, Grace is by far the youngest kid to go to camp. Of course, her mother was there with her to deal with the 4 year old stuff like temper tantrums and going potty and watching to make sure she didn’t drown!

By about Wednesday, the kids were getting pretty worn out from the hectic schedule of getting up early every day and having so many physical activities. They were troopers though and finished out the week well.

I know Janie was especially sad to leave the barn on the last day of camp because she knew she wouldn’t be coming back for a long time. So, the next week, when most of the ponies were “on vacation” at a camp-out in NH, I took Janie and Grace AND Evan back over to the barn for a farewell ride. I could NOT believe how much the girls had learned at camp. They really had learned to ride. Janie was amazing – quite the little horsewoman, and Grace had learned so many things I hadn’t taught her yet. I had no idea she was ready to learn so much. I’m going to have to do more with her. Even Evan who had been too scared to ride or even touch the horses got on Peter Pan and had a ride before going back to Colorado. I was really proud of him too.

Who brought the Ultra Charmin?

We just finished up a visit from my family. It might have been a little crazy to host my parents, Christine, Jane and her 2 kids at the same time, but I'll take feast over famine everyday. With 10 people and 2 dogs in the house it made for some interesting times, especially in the bathroom. Careful scheduling and we didn't have too many problems, but I have to warn the rest of you that if the Chapman clan gets together in large numbers beware the clog! In 2005 at Brian's house with everyone there we had a toilet incident that ended up overflowing and sending water down through the ceiling into the dining room. Well now I have my own toilet experience. It was a nice Friday and I was coming home from work after only working a half day when the call came, "David, there is slight issue with the toilet."

Sure enough, when I got home a very clogged toilet was awaiting. Two augers and two hours later and the decision was made to remove the toilet. That was going to be the only way to get the toilet unclogged. So the toilet came off. To make a disgustingly dirty story family friendly, let's just say that there was a clog and it was cleared.

Just beware if you invite more than one of us to your house that you take proper precautions.

super dooper wooper busy week

lots to do... no time to write about it... see pictures of horse camp and our day in Boston on flickr button!

Dancensation 2007

Someone go get Grandma Pearlie...

Grace danced in her first formal dance recital last weekend. It was complete with all the bells and whistles - professional costumes, lighting, big nice auditorium, reserved seating, and awards at the end.

Grace is the youngest and smallest in her dance class. She was so amazing. I couldn't believe what a good job she did at getting up and trying really hard to do her steps and not goof off onstage. She had the best time and I think that's what is most important. There were several little girls backstage with their "stage moms" who cried for much of the recital. Not Grace - she loved every aspect of it except for the waiting time to go onstage. The only thing that was stressful for me was the dress rehearsal and pictures on Friday. I had Hattie with me and it was a 2 hour ordeal. The recital was a breeze in comparison.

I danced as a little girl and so did all my sisters. Even after I quit taking dance lessons, I have always liked to go out dancing and to watch dancing. It is so fun to have a little girl to take to dance class and to watch her perform. I have to say too, that the recital was pretty fun to watch as a whole. The other dance numbers were entertaining and the older girls were quite good.
When Grace came onto the stage in her ballet costume, I seriously started crying. She is so beautiful and I am so proud to be her mom. Her tap number was really cute too. She had the job of picking up birthday present props one by one and passing them out to the dancers as the dance started. I was really surprised at how much coreography the kids had learned along with their dance steps.At the end, we gave Grace the traditional dancer flower bouquet. She got one at her little Christmas recital and now knows that it is what she should get. She asked if she might get one this time too. She was also given a pink ribbon at the awards ceremony. That was pretty cool for her too.The evening was also a new experiment with Harriet. Since the recital didn't start until 7pm, we decided we just couldn't take her without real fear of her crying through the whole thing to go to bed. So, I hired my first teen-age baby sitter ever. She reported that Harriet was perfect and went right to bed and never cried or fussed. I was so relieved that it worked out. Now I have someone that I know I can leave Harriet with at night. We use to take Grace out when she was a baby because she would fall asleep anywhere and didn't go to bed until late anyway. Not Hattie - she goes to bed promptly at 8pm and really likes to do it in her crib!
I am really glad that Grace has done dance this year. She has learned so much. She has really grown into a big girl and dance has been part of that. She has also made some great little friends and so have I in the process. We will be sad to leave dance for the summer.

JURY DUTY

I did my civic duty, so y'all better appreciate it! After post-poning it for a year (due to having a freshly newborn baby last year), I reported for jury duty on Monday 2 weeks ago. I naively went in thinking that I would be there until lunchtime and then would be dismissed to go home and play with my mom for a week.

NOPE - NO FUN FOR YOU!

In the words of Judge Chernoff (after I had pleaded with every valid excuse I had) "we would like you to serve as a juror with us, will you serve." Why didn't I yell NO WAY! ? It was a little intimidating as I was standing there at the judge's stand with an accomplished and senior judge, 3 attorneys, a court reporter, an accused murderer and 3 armed court guards staring me in the face in close proximity. Ok, FINE, I'll do it, but again, y'all better be appreciatin' it.

So, I was called to be a juror on a murder case, no less. When they told us earlier that morning, the 2 cases that were a possibility and one was a homicide, a sinking feeling in my stomach told me I wouldn't be leaving anytime soon and I was right.

I have had lots of people ask me about the details of the case and I couldn't talk about it when I most wanted to (during the trial) and now that it's over and a week past, I have no desire whatsoever to drum up the yucky details of it. Still, I know all you freaky CSI fans want to hear the gore, so I will tell you what it was like to decide if a man should be put in prison for the rest of his life for strangling a woman to death and leaving her body in the alley way behind his apartment.

Basically, it was like reading a novel. Each day, new details and information to the story were given in court and you were always left hanging at the end of the day with a lack of closure in the story. The next morning brought more details and evidence and then the same thing again - no closure. I thought there would be more closure by the end of the case, but there were some seriously wide open holes in the story left and it was really frustrating to have to decide if we had enough information to recreate new details or if we had to ignore even more of the ones we had.

Here's the gore: it was basically a crack party gone bad. A woman in her forties who had just come from her daughter and grandchildren's house, (previously just released from jail) went looking for a good time and found it at this little sad apartment building with a bunch of strangers. It was seriously a soap opera - you couldn't have written a more convoluded story. The new strangers invited her up for some crack smoking and she met a 50+ year old guy who was renting a room in one of the apartments - a basic stranger to the others as well. They exchanged phone numbers at the end of the night and he called her at 2:15 in the morning and she was never seen again until her body was found in the alley 4 days later. The reason it took 4 days for the body to turn up in the alley was because he left her in his bed in his room and only threw her out when his room-mate (who had been in a hospital since before the party for attempted suicide) came home from the hospital. The crime scene photos weren't pleasant, but of course having watched way too much tv, most of us were desensitized enough to be able to handle looking at them. We had the works from phone records to DNA evidence to boxes of bloody stuff. (no bloody glove, and the "knife" was missing!)

The trial only lasted 7 days (and I say ONLY as in comparison to some of the high-profile trials that take weeks and months.) It was short and sweet because the accused actually confessed to the murder on tape at the police station. The purpose of the trial wasn't to prove that he did it, it was to decide whether he had premeditated it and whether it was extremely atrocious enough to qualify for 1st degree murder and send him to jail forever. He also claimed self defense and said that the 118 pound 5'6" woman came after him with a knife. (Why would you get rid of the one piece of evidence that would set you free?! EVERYTHING else was in his room!) After about 5 hours of back and forth deliberation, we decided that it was NOT self defense and he was too "coked up" to have premeditated anything and also that (although atrocious to kill) the killing was not EXTEMELY atrocious. We could think of much worse ways to die and much more suffering that could have happened to a person. So we came to the conclusion that he would be guilty of 2nd degree murder which still allows for some of those same feelings, but not to the extreme degree that is 1st degree. He will be sentenced to life in prison with possibility of parole at 15 years. He's already like 52 years old, so he'll be in jail for the better part of the rest of his life.

The judge said that if we were picked to be on the jury that it would be one of the greatest experiences of our lives and that at the end we would be glad we did it. I have to say, it was really interesting to see how the justice system works (it's really not like what you see on tv - but what is?) and it was also good to learn about new things. I know all sorts of things about crack and cocaine now! However, at the end, I don't know that I am glad I did it. It was extremely hard to leave my kids for that long and I do wish I had been able to see more of my mom and Emily. David even ended up giving some vacation time to the trial because the trial was still going when my family left. He stayed home with the kids until the trial was over.

I think that if you could sign up for jury duty and do it when it didn't disrupt your life so much (like when would that happen?!) that you really might enjoy it and be glad you did it...

At least I can say I helped put a criminal behind bars and gave a little peace to a family who has been suffering for over a year since their mother and grandmother was killed.

first of many

I "owe" a bunch of blogs. I have had so many noteworthy things happen this month and they deserve space on the blog. I just have had so many that I haven't had a chance to sit down and record them.My mother came to visit on June 9th. She came to tend my kids while I had a jury duty assignment (see next blog.) My sister, Emily, came too. Grace told her she had to come. "If you buy 2 plane tickets, then 2 people can come!" Emily is probably our most frequent and regular visitor and we love to have her. She also loves to have a "grace and hattie fix."

We ended up not having much time to play since I was called as a juror. (We had a fantasy that I would have to go in for only 1 or 2 days and then we could spend the rest of the week playing.) The kids and I were also really sick when my mom got here and my kids stayed sick for much of the week, but we did do a few fun things at the end of the week. We went out to dinner at The Quarterdeck, Grace's favorite. We also did lots of "bumming" in Maynard, our favorite thing to do together. They took the girls to Erikson's Dairy for ice cream. We also did our Father's Day shopping and mailing and of course, lots of gabbing.

Other than me getting called to jury duty, the craziest thing to happen was that their plane ride home turned into a plane ride to Vegas, a car ride through the desert at 3am to St. George and then a small plane ride home to Salt Lake just in time for Father's Day brunch!

It is always nice to have them here and I am so extremely bummed that I didn't get to see them much before they had to leave.

Surprise Birthday Velvet!

blog by Grace
Happy Birthday Velvet. You are 9 years old! You are my favorite dog. I love you Velvet. I made you a surprise card. My mom helped me make party hats. We gave you and Shadow doggie bones for cake. I loved Velvet's surprise party.

(Velvet has been a member of our family for 8+ years. We know she was 9 months old in March of 1999, so that makes her birthday sometime in June 1998. We don't know the exact date because we rescued her. Today, Grace decided that we should have a birthday party for Velvet, her favorite dog. I told her that would be a great idea because her birthday is in June, but we don't know the day. So, now Velvet's real birthday will be June 6th. PS - Shadow's birthday was in early April. Happy Belated Birthday to Shadow too. She is 7 years old and we rescued her at 8 weeks old.)

swing

blog by Grace
Daddy is the best Daddy ever for building me a swingset. Putting together my slide and house. I like the swinging teeter-totter and the regular swing. Harriet has her own swing on it too. My friends came to swing with me yesterday.

(It took Daddy 5 hours to build on Saturday. Mommy would have taken an action shot of Daddy and Grace building the swingset together, but she was busy tending a 6 week old baby and Harriet.)

Hooray for swings! Good job Daddy!