Daddy-Daughter Time

With Veteran's Day tomorrow I have a long weekend away from work. I was hoping to be able to get some good family time in, but Michelle was busy today and has things scheduled for Monday. So, I still get family time, but instead of all of us doing something together it is just Hats, Grace, and me.

We had a blast today despite the colder than normal temperatures. I actually woke up early and started raking leaves as soon as the sun was up. It was frigid outside and I had to come in every few minutes to warm up my hands. Once Michelle was out the door the fun began. We played one of Hattie's and Gracie's favorite games with Dad, dump'ems. Grace actually captured some good action shots of Hattie getting dumped.

"Hey Dad, do you want to play?"

"Hattie relax, lean back, don't worry about a thing."

And she is down!

After they wore me out playing dump'ems we moved to something a little less physically demanding and add some fun with Photo Booth. We got some great shots in before Hattie was done with the artsy stuff and she was ready to do some work.

Honest, my hair use to look like that!

Headless Daddy

Seeing double.

Cyclops Hattie

It had finally warmed up enough for the kids to bundle up and go out so after I tracked down some mittens for Harriet, we went outside and raked some more leaves. Grace even got her wheel barrow out to help me as we piled leaves in the wheel barrows and then pushed them up the hill to dump the leaves in the mulch pile. Harriet had the best time as she got to ride in the wheel barrow up and down. Someone had to keep the leaves from falling out.

After everyone's noses were red, it was time to come inside. We all came in to warm up with Grace's favorite meal (ramen noodles) and it was only then that I finally heard the dreaded, "I wish Mommy was home." I quickly convinced her that we didn't need Mommy and we finished lunch, put Hattie down for her nap and had some more fun until Mommy came home.

Stayed tuned for more fun on Monday. Plus, tomorrow Grace has a speaking part in the Primary program. I hope she doesn't get nervous in front of everyone.

Dear Blog, David's tired.

So I once heard a story about Heber C. Kimball. Supposedly he was known for his praying. One night he had a visitor in his house who decided he wanted to listen in on one of Heber's personal prayers. This is what he heard, "Dear Lord, Heber is tired, goodnight. Amen."

So it is tonight that I say Dear Blog, I'm tired, more in the morning.

Potty Time

Harriet turned 18 months 2 weeks ago and is starting to show a lot of interest in the toilet. This a big change from Grace. We had a hard time with her showing any interest and it took a while to get Grace potty trained. Hopefully with Harriet it will happen much quicker. The sooner I don't have to buy diapers the better.

As you can see from the pictures she has the process down: 1) sit on toilet, 2) get the TP, 3) flush it all away.

Leaves, leaves, and more leaves

The bane of my New England fall life was in full force tonight. Not only did I have to drive an hour from my house, but then I had rake leaves, and then drive the hour back to my house. You have to love service, but I sure could do without the drive. But, what can you do when you live on one side on the ward and the other side of the ward is where the service is at.

Of course with any good Mormon service project there were plenty of donuts and hot chocolate afterwards. We actually had a really good turnout (~25 people) so we made fairly quick work of the leaves. Then we enjoyed our treats and were done for the night.

Now if I could just get 25 people to help rake my leaves. I do however have some pretty good helpers.

Fall back and Spring forward

Well it is official. I am already gearing into winter mode. Something just isn't quite right when I leave work and come home in the dark. It is depressing to leave my office and have the sun already set.

If there is one thing I don't like about living in Boston it is the early night. Even during summer the sun sets quite early. I miss the days of dusk being at 9:30 at night. Here, we are lucky to have light past 8:30. If you are in the woods, it is getting pretty dark at 8. Now, couple that with the end of daylight savings, and the approaching winter and we have sunset at 5 PM or so. The native New Englanders begin their hibernation until March and we all get ready for the long New England winter.

I wonder sometimes if it would be smart to stay on daylight savings year round. I know that I would appreciate the extra hour of light at night much more than in the morning. I also hate the changing. It is hard with kids. It has taken until today for Hattie and Grace to get back on their normal routine. Sunday was very difficult. Hattie normally takes a nap around 1 PM so church is already pushing it. This Sunday, Hattie's second in nursery, didn't go well for her partly due to the time change. Just after 12, one of the workers came out to find me. Despite the fact that they were in the middle of snack time, Hattie wanted out. She really wanted to sleep, but that wasn't about to happen. With both Michelle and me teaching during the third hour, I was desperate to get Hattie to go back to nursery. No luck despite my reasoning with her. I tried to convince her that she needed to cherish her nursery days, playtime, snacks, singing, etc. Church only goes downhill after nursery. My arguments fell on deaf ears and I was stuck with her in deacon's quorum. Luckily, she was quiet and my lesson went well.

Anyway, I am rambling, but I still think that we should stay on DST year round. What would the harm be? If anyone is interested in time check out http://www.time.gov/exhibits.html for some interesting website exhibits about time.

Mothers who know

Last month in the LDS General Conference, Julie Beck, president of the Relief Society, gave a talk entitled Mothers Who Know. While most of the talk is rather benign and standard fare, President Beck said several things that have really caused a stir, especially among LDS women. A couple of weeks ago, Radiowest spent an hour discussing the talk with several active LDS women. I came away from that program feeling depressed for LDS women. There are several groups that struggle inside the church such as boys who are worthy but choose not to go on missions and singles over 30. I came away from the Radiowest program thinking the same thing about LDS women. On one hand they are told to become educated, but on the other hand they are told to stay at home raising kids, cleaning, cooking, and making sure to "... bring daughters in clean and ironed dresses with hair brushed to perfection; their sons wear white shirts and ties and have missionary haircuts." That is an ideal that Michelle and I never achieve. I don't know if we even really try. Sunday mornings are a struggle especially if I'm not around. Why add one more stressful item onto an already stressful situation?

After reading the talk, I felt that President Beck is missing one key ingredient, fathers. Times have changed and it is no longer 1950. Fathers play an important role in not just providing financially and providing priesthood leadership, but they should also be participating in the day to day nitty gritty. I try my best to help clean the house, dress the kids, cook meals, and help raise the kids. Most dads of my generation participate more fully in "homemaking" as President Beck called it and I believe they should. This sometimes means that I sacrifice personally in not being able to do something that I want, but that is what being a good father and husband is all about.

I am a firm believer that we aren't all cut from the same cookie cutter. While it is easy and convenient to think that all situations can be fixed in the same way, life is never that simple. When it comes down to it, we are a church that believes in personal revelation. Whether that means waiting five years after marriage to have kids (as Michelle and I did) or having mom work while dad stays home with the kids, we should have the faith and trust from our leaders and those around us to be able to decide those things for ourselves without having the judging eye upon us.

Recently friends of ours in the ward made a decision for him to quit his job and stay home with their two kids. Personally I think this was great, and I'm sure that they think it is the right decision. Being a stay at home mom (or dad) is hard work and is under appreciated. Does this make her any less of a "mother who knows"? I would suggest no.

Plus, many families don't have the option and both parents must work to make ends meet. I am thankful that Michelle can stay home with the kids while I earn enough to support the family. We have to do without some things, but our kids our better off. It is a sacrifice I am willing to make, but I feel for those who don't have that luxury.

What are the proper roles for mom and dad in today's world? Should we still have traditional roles, or should both parents (in the case of two) be a hybridized parent? Let me know what you thought of the talk.

Halloween 2007

(Grace and Hattie on our road with their Thomas trick-or-treat buckets)

Sorry it took almost a week to post about Halloween, but, well, we're a busy bunch. Halloween was seriously a crazy day. From the moment we woke up we were on the run.
Grace had school that day. I dropped her off and ran to do some quick visiting teaching treat drop-offs and came back for her school Halloween party at 10:30. They did a "play." Mrs. Reardon read a scary story and the kids acted it out. They worked on it for a long time before-hand and it turned out really cute. Then, they had Halloween games and TONS of treats.Oh, wait, excuse me. In Massachusetts where everyone is politically correct to a fault, we can't call it a Halloween party. The school called it a "Harvest Party." We were told to NOT wear halloween costumes, but that the kids were making harvest masks to wear. Unfortunately, you get punished if you follow the rules. I told Grace she couldn't wear her costume to school, but half of the other mothers let their kids come in costume, so the kids whose parents did as they were asked were tortured to watch their friends parade around in costume. I was really mad about that. Anyway, they did parade through the high school with their masks. (Grace's pre-school is a high school program where high school kids help certified teachers to run a real pre-school.)

In the end, a good time was had by all. We raced home from school to eat a quick lunch and get Hattie down for a nap. I promised Grace that we could carve pumpkins, so we did that together and then she wanted to make Halloween drawings on the driveway which required picking up leaves first, so that took quite a while. Then we raced inside to clean up our house a bit for some friends to come over and shortly after that, Hattie woke up and it was 4:00 and time to trick-or-treat the neighborhood!

We only have about 4 or 5 houses to go to in our neighborhood. They are mostly retired couples who delight at seeing the kids which makes it really fun. We have lived here for 3 Halloweens and have only had a sum total of 3 trick-or-treaters at our house. None this year.
Our first stop was to Roger and Jeanne's. They are our dear people and wonderful neighbors and fantastic friends. They are the elderly couple across the road from us - I'm sure we've mentioned them before. They are like grandparents to Grace and Hattie.After this quick trick-or-treat run, we headed to the other side of our town to our friends the Smith's house. They invited us to go around their cul-de-sac and stay for pizza. So, more trick-or-treating. Grace was in a full run around the neighborhood and we could not keep up with her. Hattie was just mellow and was so polite and took one treat for her bucket and just went with the flow.We got home after 8pm stuffed with pizza and candy and way too tired to light our jack-0-lanterns. In fact, we just lit Grace's today! We had to light the one that she picked on her pre-school pumkin patch trip.

Are you ready for some football?

If there is one good thing about being Mormon and living on the east coast it is being able to watch the entire schedule of football games. Church is from 10-1 which means that I am generally home by 1:30. I miss a few minutes of the first quarter and then it is all football from 1:30 until midnight.

Of all the sports I enjoy playing and watching, I most enjoy NFL football. Michelle will tell you that I would watch any game that is on. Probably true. I can't stand the Patriots and yet have had to endure many games of their's over the last 3 years. While I cheer for the Steelers, I will watch any game. I won't do that with baseball or basketball, but football has a hold on me. It is the one sport that I wish I would have played in high school.

As I mentioned, one of the down sides to living in Boston is having to watch the Patriots games. This despite the fact that often (especially this year) better games are being played elsewhere. Still, I am of the philosophy that a bad football game is better than no football game. Perhaps I shouldn't speak too soon because I don't know if I would watch a Miami-St. Louis game.

Today I finally got to watch a Patriots game that I enjoyed. It was the first time in NFL history that teams a combined 15-0 were playing each other. While I was cheering for the Colts and was disappointed by the 24-20 loss, at least it was finally a good game. Of course that thing that concerns me now is that my Steelers are the only real obstacle left for the Patriots. Hopefully they can come into Foxborough and pull off the upset and keep them from going undefeated.

The People Roundup

Today we went through the roundup. You know what I'm talking about. While this was my first time, Grace, Harriet, and Michelle are old timers when it comes to getting flu shots. I generally have felt that being healthy, I should let those truly in need get their shots. However, with everyone claiming that there is plenty of vaccine to go around I headed down. Besides, after yesterday's rant I decided that I should maximize my return on my investment in health care and go and get a flu shot.

I don't know if it was the people sharking in the parking lot, the long lines to get the shot, or the police officer (herding) standing around. But whatever it was I sure felt like a piece of livestock. I waited in line, I filled out my paper work, I received my shot. It was get me in and get me out. Knowing my luck, the shot will do me no good and this will be the first year of me getting the flu. Check back the end of the month and see if my prediction comes true.

At least everyone was a trooper. Harriet didn't even cry and either did Mom or Dad. Only Grace had tears but a couple of slug bugs on Daddy's arm where he got the shot and everyone was in a good mood again.

How about you, did you get your flu shot?

Health Care in Crisis

I often wonder what it will take the politicians in this country to actually act on something that is in crisis before it is too late. Washington D.C. is so polarized right now with neither Democrat nor Republican doing much to help this country. I am disgusted with them. The revolution of change that the November 2006 election was suppose to bring fizzled out before it even started. The only thing lower than President Bush's approval rating is Congress' approval rating. The only thing lower than Congress' approval rating is Vice President Cheney's. Can we actually reach out across the aisle and work together to solve one of the three most important issues confronting the people of the United States?

Despite claims to the contrary neither party listens to the poor in this country. They only nominally listen to the middle class. This despite our huge majority in the populace. Health care is becoming such a huge issue in the life of the middle class that it won't be long before either, a) it is completely broken, or b) Congress and the President attempt a half-ass (sorry but I had to say it) fix of the system. As you can tell I don't hold out much hope of a workable system. All of this and I am actually one of the lucky people who has employer based health care. However, since starting in 2005 at MIT, I have seen my premiums increase by 33%. Premiums that were already 300% higher than I was used to. Health care now comprises around 7% of my annual salary despite the fact that I cost the system a grand total of about $300 in 2007 (admittedly my family cost more, but even with that we are one of the families insurance relies on thanks to our good health). I have no problem with the idea of pooling resources and risks across a broad swath of the populace, but things are getting out of control.

The reason that I bring this up is that yesterday we were notified of our new benefits package for next year. Working for MIT has been great. I have been willing to accept a lower salary in part because of the work environment, the "prestige" of the MIT name, and the generally good benefits. However, with the steady increase in health care costs, I have been asking myself what benefits do I have for working for MIT? I could easily be making more money in industry to cover any "lack" of retirement benefits. If I lose my edge in benefits, what is left, prestige? After working here for 3 years, the prestige has some foundation, but if other institutions received the same amount of research dollars as MIT, they would also have some of this prestige.

Anyway, when health care finally starts becoming an issue for the middle class will Congress finally act? And if Congress acts, what should it do? I have my theories for what has broken the health care system and I think there is plenty of blame to pass around, pharmaceuticals, insurance, physicians, nurses, lawyers, and even us. There is no easy fix and no easy answers. How do you tell a profession that they easily need to take a 50% pay cut. I would be upset if people told me that as well. But in reality, the amount of schooling they go to is no more than your English professor, your philosophy professor, or your average physicist/scientist. We have created the god myth among the populace about health care and we pay accordingly. If things go wrong we can't believe the MD (major deity) was human and we seek restitution (certainly not justice) in the courts. We drug ourselves into better health when we get too lazy to exercise, too lazy to eat right.

What is the answer? Can we actually have an affordable health care system in this country, and still maintain our edge in innovation? I recently listened to a NPR piece about Michael Moore's movie Sicko. While I believe he has some valid points, he painted a way too, "the grass in greener over there" scenario of other countries. In France for example, they have two health care systems, one for the common man, and one (much better) for those one can afford it. Is that what we are destined for? Can the common man really have uncommonly good health insurance? I hope so, but for now I will begrudgingly pay my premium each month while still grateful that I can actually afford health insurance. I don't now for how much longer, but at least for now.

NaBloPoMO

When talking with Jared the other day he asked if I had given up on the blog. Sure, I hadn't posted for awhile, but given up, no. Of course he was probably egging me on since I have been a slacker. Sure I wanted to blog about sleeping in a tent with Grace, Janie, and Evan. Sure I wanted to blog about my Mother's big 70 birthday party held here. Sure I wanted to blog about our big summer that saw visits from Debbie and Emily, my parents, Christine, Jane and her kids, Jared and Tara, Brian and Wendy and their kids, Michelle's jury selection, Mount Katahdin, Scout Camp, Park City, OMVPE workshop. I could go on and on. But for what reason? I already know that my friend Bryan hates to read the boring mundane stuff of my blog.

Than along comes Nablopomo. How can you resist a name like that? Jared challenges me to it, and I accept. I will blog every day for the month of November and maybe I will just get back into the swing of things. Maybe I will even post about important and weighty matters, not just the fluff about the weather and what not. Anyway here is to Nablopomo, may I blog every day.

FREEDOM!!!

This past Sunday was the Sunday that every Mormon parent of a toddler dreams about. After 18 months of not being able to pay attention in Sunday School and Priesthood/Relief Society, we finally have relief. No longer do we have to chase the little monkey doodle all over the building. After Sacrament Meeting is over, simply take Harriet down to nursery and let her play with the other 16 kids under 3 and let the 3 nursery workers (shouldn't they have more with all those kids) deal with the little noise makers.

Harriet was great. We have slowly adjusted her over the last couple of weeks with Michelle or me going in with her for the first hour. When Michelle dropped her off on Sunday there were no tears, no looking back and she was in and having fun. What isn't to like? Treats, toys, friends, church only goes downhill from there. Where is my treat between Sunday School and Priesthood?

Here's hoping that I can actually get something out of church the final two hours. All I know is that nursery is a great idea. Why can't we do it at 12 months?

October in New England

Most people just rave and rave about the leaves. Around here, they call it "foliage." When we left for Salt Lake, the only thing anyone was worried about was that we weren't going to be "back in time for foliage!" I assured our friends and neighbors that we wouldn't miss foliage. Actually, the for the 2 autumns that we've lived here, the foliage has been pretty disappointing. The first one, David's parents flew all the way out here to see the leaves and all they got were not-quite turned trees and horrible rain storms. By the time the rain storms were done with the trees, the foliage was gone. Last fall, things were so dry that the foliage just sort of crinkled and fell off without changing too many colors. This year is by far the most beautiful that we've seen. My neighbor, Jeanne, called me over one day to stand on her porch and look back at my yard to appreciate how pretty it is (was.) That was really nice of her because I had no idea how many colors were in my yard. She told me that she wishes I could have a quaking aspen to remind me of mountain foliage, but, we looked it up on the internet and you have to have 4,000 feet of elevation to grow a quakie. Guess I'll have to stick with my maples. Things were just starting to get really interesting this week when the rain came again. Probably won't be much left of it by the time the storms blow through. Moral of the story - "FOLIAGE" is not all it's cracked up to be sometimes - especially when you have to rake the remains. It is beautiful though and we have thoroughly enjoyed our fall thus far. So far, our classic October activities have been:

*apple picking at the Shelburne Farm Orchards - yep, for you westerners, we go out into the orchards and pick our own apples.*Grace's pre-school pumpkin picking field trip - also go out into the farm field and pick your own pumpkin.

*Grace's pre-school friends costume party (Grace was the ONLY girl at the party not dressed as a princess. I'm proud of my little zebra.)
*the Littleton Ward Trunk-or-Treat
This year, Hattie really got the hang of putting treats into her bucket. She is a total candy-a-holic like her mommy and she was quite excited to have a bucket full. Grace would rather stand in the apple orchard and eat apples.
Check out flickr for all of the fun pics, and Happy Autumn!
Hopefully, pictures of Halloween will follow soon.

Tag, I'm it...

I owe my friend, Kara, a tag. She tagged me a long time ago, and I'm just getting around to it. Sorry about that. Ok, the tag is:

The Rules:

“Each person links to the person who tagged them. Then each person posts the rules before their list, then they list 8 things about themselves. At the end of the post, that person tags and links to 8 other people and then visits those peoples’ sites and comments letting them know that they have been tagged, and to come read the post, so they know what they have to do.”

8 things about me (that you don't already know? -ok, at least something I haven't blogged about before...)

1. I am a fanatic about U2 and in particular Bono. I have been since maybe 8th grade - sometime after Rattle and Hum was released. I remember hearing their music on tape on a boom box as we were rehearsing for a ward road show. I quickly loved Joshua Tree, and shortly thereafter, Achtung Baby changed my life. In high school, I would have given just about anything to have been able to see that show. Good things come to those who wait though - I did get to see them live at Popmart tour (not at their best) and again at the Elevation tour just after 9-11 (definitely at their best). I still get chills when I hear "Where the Streets Have No Name" start up. I also get a rush when I hear Bad, With or Without You, Elevation, and Beautiful Day. I am now a huge Bono "solo" fan. I so much admire him and all the work he is doing in the world to help people and to use his fame and fortune for positive change. Seriously, if you are a U2 or a Bono fan, you should read the book Bono, by Michka Assayas.

2. This goes with #1 - I love music of almost all kinds (everything except the rap/hip-hop thing that happened in the last 10 years). I am a closet 80's hard rock fan. Give me some Van Halen or Bon Jovi and turn me loose in my car. It's embarrassing. Grace won't let me sing. I also desperately miss going out dancing.

3. I really like fashion and I wish I could look more trendy, but I don't like buying fashionable clothes, and I don't like spending time to get ready. Every time I go shopping for clothes or shoes, I gravitate to black t-shirts, basic jeans, and FLAT shoes - usually of the clog type. I was telling David the other day that I went from "Doc's" (high school) to "Birkenstocks" (college) to "Crocs" (mommy shoes.) I think I had some decent shoes when I taught high school, but those years of dressing nice were short lived. I don't know why all my shoes end in "ocs", but they tend to be big and bulky and comfy rather than sleek or stylish, or heaven forbid, pointy. Seriously, I would break my neck in a pair of heels. I have to remind myself of this when I wish that Grace would dress more girly and well, brush her hair. Who does she have to look up to except me?! She needs to pay more attention to my sisters...

4. I am a total nerd. I love science and math. The way that a chemistry problem will work out with a perfect answer at the end gives me goose-bumps. I love lab reports that allow you to write (expect you to write) with passive voice and take yourself completely out of the writing. Here, I'll try it now: A blog is being written. Words are typed into the page. Magically - no one knows WHO is doing it all! Very cool.

5. I really like to read. As a kid, I couldn't read enough books. I could read well before kindergarten. At night, I use to read in bed with a flashlight well after my mom told me to go to bed. I gave up reading for fun sometime in high school when reading became a means to an end of getting a score on an AP test. In college I read nothing except text books. Some English teacher friends of mine got me reading again when I taught high school and now I'm in another book group here in New England. I seriously have no time to read (or blog) for that matter, but the small amount of time I take to read something good is such a great escape. It has to be good though - no time for anything that is really depressing, really sad, or really stupid. It has to be uplifting, really intriguing, and a page turner, or I fall asleep. This explains why sometimes I go to book group having only read half a book.

6. I have a serious addiction to chocolate. Seriously. (It's the only vice I have left - I gave up my Coke (a-cola) addiction a long time ago...)

7. I, like Kara, have ALWAYS had an extra job to make some extra cash. My resume of extra jobs on the side has included:
-veterinary technician
-car detailer
-office cleaning lady
-insurance photographer (took photos of houses for insurance company)
-math and chemistry tutor
-book keeper for a horse farm - this is my current extra job. My main job is of course being a stay-at-home mom.

8. I know some people will judge me for this, but I watch what I call the night time soaps! I DVR Desperate Housewives, Ugly Betty, and Grey's Anatomy. I would watch more shows, but it's all I can do to get caught up with these each week since David doesn't watch them and I have to find time when the kids aren't around AND when David isn't home to watch them. Hey it's better than those freaky reality shows the rest of you watch. Ya - I'm doin' the judging now...

9. You know what, I'm throwing in an extra. After reading this over, I thought of something that people don't really know, but that keeps coming up over and over in my life. Apparently, I am a really good letter writer (I know - you'd never know by reading my blog!) My letters have always gotten results. I wrote letters for the insurance company I worked for that were always complimented and attention given. I wrote letters when I was a high school teacher that always saw results. I write letters and newsletters for the horse barn here and I get lots of results with those too. My latest success was a form-letter e-mail I sent to the Massachusetts State Highway asking for a bridge near our house (currently under construction) to be re-designed so that it was 10 inches higher so that my neighbor could drive his boat underneath. Within 2 days, I got several e-mails back from Mass highway engineers saying that they would most definitely take my suggestion and re-do the bridge design. My neighbors can't get over it. They've been asking for the same thing for 7 years via letter, phone, and fax and have seen no results. Like I said - I seem to have a knack. I was just most happy that I could help my neighbors who have done so much for me. Really, I don't want to brag - I am more surprised than anyone when I get what I ask for from a letter I write. Maybe I need to write a letter to Santa...

Ok - there you go - 8 or 9 things about me in no particular order. None of them extremely important either. I blog about the important things already. I am not really defined by most of this, but it does contribute to who I am.

I tag, let's see...MELISSA. You need to blog sis, so I'm tagging you. I'm tagging my nephew EVAN as well. I keep waiting to see something new on both of your blogs! Also, some newcomers to the blogging family - I tag Molly J, Jen Z, and anyone else who wants to share :-) There, that's at least 8, right? I'm not goin' to your sites - you'll have to read my blog to know you've been tagged!

Seasonal Trip to Utah

We just got back from Salt Lake last night. We stayed for 2 weeks and did all of our favorite things from visiting all the grandmas and grandpas many times, to playing with aunts, seeing a few old friends, going riding, to the zoo, shopping, and hanging out, getting our hair done by Aunt Jess, and our dentistry done with Uncle Randy. Grace and Hattie went to Little Gym with Sean and on an outing with Grandma Barbara and Grandpa Earl to Cabellas to see the animals there. We took the kids to Gardner Village in their Halloween costumes to try to get a cute picture with all the decorations there, but Hattie and Sean just run away from the camera, so we didn't do very well with that. I also went to dinner with all my college friends which is so nice to still be able to do.
This trip, Aunt Lis treated us to a week-end trip to Park City so that we could all be together for a few days and be able to do all the late night and early morning stuff together with the kids. It's hard when the babies go to bed at 8pm, so this way, we were together no matter the nap/sleep schedule. We stayed in this big townhouse right between main street and the Park City ski resort. As we looked through the guest book of the house, we felt pretty cool to see that Tom Hanks had stayed there during the Sundance Film Festival this year. We went on the alpine slides the first night there. I haven't been since I was a teenager. It was Grace's first time on a ski lift I think too. We took Sean which turned out to be a little dangerous because you couldn't strap him in and he tried to squirm out of Melissa's arms. We were so scared he was going to squirm right out of the lift chair, but luckily, he made it to the top WITH both shoes! We had a blast cruising down the mountain. Hattie was pretty mad she couldn't go, but after watching Sean, I am so glad I didn't try to take her. Grace and I spent a long time in the hot tub on the deck Friday night and watched the moon rise over Park City's main street. It was very nice.We did lots of shopping at the Park City outlets too. The weather was nice on Friday to do the slides and to go hot-tubbing at night, but on Saturday, it snowed a lot (I guess it snowed in the Salt Lake valley too.) Seeing snow for the first time of the season was actually kind of fun - even more fun that it melted and warmed up the next day.
Harriet is the opposite of Grace. She warms up to the Grandmas pretty fast, but is scared of the Grandpas. Luckily for my dad and Earl, she liked them a lot before we left. It made me glad that we stayed 2 weeks so that she could get to know everyone really well again. Grace LOVES her grandpas, but tolerates her grandmas. She does love them, but she likes to pretend that they are a bother to her. You know she loves them though, when she talks about them when they aren't around. One thing is for sure, Grandpas give the best horsey rides.
Also, for the first time, Sean decided that he likes us too. Up until now, he has only tolerated us at best. This time around, he had fun playing with the girls and even let me pick him up and smiled and laughed with me. That made me really happy. We don't take offense since he treats everyone but Melissa and Randy and my parents with the same scrutiny.

We were excited that we could be there (almost) for Aunt Christine's birthday. We threw a party for her on Thursday night and had fun giving her presents and getting her a cake. Happy Birthday tomorrow Christine!

The one other thing that took a lot of my time in Salt Lake was shopping for fabric to recover my dining room chairs. We inherited David's parents first dining room set. It is really nice and I like it a lot. It will be in the family for as long as it lasts, so we wanted to do a really nice job of getting the chairs recovered. Our neighbor who built and upholstered our kitchen nook is going to cover them for us, so I just had to find fabric. (easier said than done when shopping with kids which is why I did it in Salt Lake WITHOUT them!) After lots of looking and hemming and hawing, I found some that I think will be really nice and will hopefully last a long time. I am so excited to get this done!
We really stayed too busy to get very homesick, but Harriet did miss things. She kept trying to find daddy everywhere we went - hoping that he would catch up with us somewhere. She would see someone who looked like him and yell "da da! da da!" and then was crushed when they didn't give her the time of day. She also missed her doggies. She tried really hard to make friends with my mom's cats (and my sisters' too) and also with Jessica's new puppy. She was only returned with cat paw swats to the face and jumpy puppy paws to knock her down. She is use to throwing her body on top of Shadow and Velvet and petting them for minutes at a time without them even flinching. She was SO excited to get home to them last night and has spent lots of time giving her attention to them. Both girls were happy to have all of their toys back last night and were excited to go into their rooms that they had almost forgotten about.I will say that the airplane trip home was excruciatingly exhausting. We had a 1.5 hour delay to take off (after we were already in the plane on the runway) and then a 3.5 hour (shortened to 2.5 hour) layover in Minneapolis. By the time we got on the second plane, I didn't think I was going to make it except that we were at least on the vehicle that would physically take us to Boston and then maybe someone could carry us out of the plane to the car! Luckily, Hattie fell asleep on take-off and Grace shortly after, so I got to add an hour or so of sleep to the 45 minutes of sleep I got the night before.

Needless to say - I have done a lot of complaining today about being tired. I will try to stop complaining. I guess it's a small price to pay to travel that far with my kids to keep them close with family.

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!