Sand Castles and Sunshine

Sounds like my kind of vacation. I still miss my spring break beach trips to San Diego with my friends. David still says that he liked our Smuggler's Notch ski trip better, but I was cold and the kids had the flu, so I'm going to say that the beach beats it all (edit by David-I actually didn't say I liked Smuggler's Notch better. I said that I would prefer a ski trip to a beach trip. I completely agree that this trip was the best family vacation we have done. The Dotys were great to hang out with and the house was nice, the beach was fun). Plus it was only 2 hours away and the kids slept most of the way there and back. Utter paradise!
Actually, I think that this was the best trip we've ever taken as a family. Our trips to Salt Lake have elements of vacation in them - time away, fun things to do, etc, but I don't really consider them a "vacation." It is a necessary part of life to stay in touch with family. Plus, David rarely comes with us, so they don't really count as a family vacation anyway.Our friends, the Doty family, rented a beach town-house for 2 weeks in Hyannis. They graciously and generously offered to let us come down for a week to share the house which was more than plenty big enough for all of us with 6 levels of rooms. The very best part of the house was that you stepped out the back door and your feet hit the sand of the beach. My personal heaven. Hyannis was surprisingly bug free too and it only rained the first day we were there. It was 70-80 degrees every day. Not too hot, but just hot enough to enjoy the ocean and the pool.This trip was so great. I almost wished that we wouldn't have had internet access. I'm too addicted to e-mail to avoid checking it and David is too addicted to the computer to avoid taking a laptop with us. But, I spent very minimal time checking e-mail.
We did go on a 2 hour train ride to Sandwich. The kids slept 3/4 of the trip, so we called it the nap train, and then on our last day, we went on a pirate adventure ship in the harbor which was an extremely fun outing, but other than that, we simply played on the beach or at the pool with the kids. We didn't go out to eat except for lunch at a clam shack after the pirate cruise. We cooked 3 (totally divine, might I add - Linda is AMAZING) meals a day and stayed at the beach house. I loved every second of it.
The Dotys have 2 little boys. Benjamin is 3 years old. He and Grace have identical alpha personalities, so they had a lot of clashes over toys. Hattie and their little boy Jack (one year old) were totally delightful most of the time. It helps that they both still take naps!

My favorite memories are:

Watching Grace gather seashells. She never met a shell she didn't like. It didn't matter the size, color, or condition. Every one was something to take home.

Watching Hattie play in the surf and look at the sea creatures. The harbor was full of jelly fish, little tiny fish, crabs, and sea weed and kelp. It made swimming a little tricky and ominous, but wading along the tide was excellent.

Taking long walks down the beach with the girls to see what we could see and find.

Looking out at the harbor at night at all the lights on the sailboats and ships.

Smelling the sea breeze in the morning.

Going out on the beach as many times a day as wanted or needed.

Shopping on main street in Hyannis with Linda. We found lots of treasures.

Watching the Olympics on TV at night with Grace. She is so into all of the events!

Putting the kids to bed in their huge bedroom with blue and white twin beds and fish pillows and reading "Good Night Cape Cod" to them every night.

Driving there and back with the kids asleep in the car and getting to talk to David uninterrupted, while seeing the bridges over the Cape Cod canal.

Grace's imaginary friends

I want to write about this before I forget about it. This summer, Grace has had many imaginary friends come to live at our house. Their names change. Her current imaginary friends are "Wakefield" and "Arrow."

The name "Wakefield" comes from a Weezer song "My Name is Jonas." This is Grace's current favorite song to play on guitar hero and listen to on Daddy's ipod. Grace will be asking Santa for an ipod for Christmas (really??!!, she's ONLY FIVE YEARS OLD!!!) Anyway, she's named one of her imaginary visitors after a line in the song. She says that Wakefield is a horse.

Arrow is also a horse. There is a real horse at our barn named Arrow. He is a grey half-arab horse. He is always very social with Grace. She has never ridden him, but she loves to chat with him in his stall as she comes in or find him in the pasture. One day, she was desperate to pet him and he was way out in the middle of a muddy pasture. I wouldn't walk out to see him. She called to him and he RAN to the gate to let her pet his nose. It was seriously the sweetest thing. I don't know if imaginary Arrow is related to real Arrow, but she seems to like both of them quite a lot.

Sorry, we don't have any photos to post of our imaginary friends. Grace says she has about 10 imaginary friends in all including herself.

ps - David just reminded me - Grace calls her imaginary friends her "air buddies." Playing guitar hero, she has mastered the art of playing air guitar, so anything pretend is "air."

Birds visiting our feeders

This list was fun to build as we fed the birds around our house. Unfortunately, we've run out of new birds to add to the list (either that, or we need to switch what we're feeding to attract some new ones... our neighbors just put up orange slices to attract the Orioles.) Anyway, we'll take the list from the side and put it in the "vault" for our journal. These are the birds who visit us each day:

• red-breasted nuthatch
• rose breasted grosbeak pair
• cardinal
• tufted titmouse
• house finch
• house wren
• black-capped chickadee
• goldfinch pair

Hattie's Words

While I'm waiting to load the pictures from our Cape Cod trip onto the computer, I thought I'd clean up the blog page a bit. Hattie's word list has gotten very long and she is becoming an expert at communicating. I want to save all of her little words in a post so that I can delete the list on the side. I also need to add a few new phrases. These are Hattie's current favorite phrases:

"ana sound???" which means "what's that sound?" She says it at least 10 times an hour. The tiniest creak of the house, the neighbor's tool in the garage, an airplane flying overhead, a dish clanking in the kitchen, really, anything will draw it out from her. She wants to know exactly what is making every sound she hears and it's not good enough to say "I don't know", or "it's just Daddy" or something. You have to be specific in your description. It has gotten tiring, but it is very cute.

"di dis come from???" which means, "where did this come from?" Anything that isn't immediately familiar to her, or something significant that might be out of place in the house draws out this question.

"sim" or "simming" for Swimming. Hattie likes "a sim in a ocean" and " a sim in a pool"

"bye bye ocean" this is what she said as we were heading back to the beach house after putting our toes in the ocean for the final time on our trip.

"nigh nigh tape tod" this is what she said every night as she went to bed on our trip. Brought on by reading the book "Good Night Cape Cod" which was given to us by our friends the day we arrived at their beach house.

"ana go Sean's house, moon bOUnce" cousin Sean in Salt Lake has a moon bounce. Hattie wishes she lived at Sean's house in the moon bounce.

Ok, here's the rest of the list; Hattie's words from early to mid 2008:

• ana heeere (and here)
• another one
• huv (hug and a love)
• more apple juice please
• didn't get to play
• bowei (brownie)
• good girl
• sure
• bus
• Gacie (Gracie)
  
• shower
• flush
• moweeee (more)
• Sharow (shadow)
• Seaaannnnnn
• boyee (boy)
• buh (book)
• tie
• nigh nigh
• mine!
• puppy!
• showwwwww (to watch Shrek)
• ball
• beeebeee (for blanky)
• babeee (for baby doll)
• GOOOOO! (as in let's go!)
• mak (milk)
• yeah yeah yeah
• oweeeee
• fry! (as in French)
• purple
• ana heeere (and here)
• another one
• huv (hug and a love)
• more apple juice please
• didn't get to play

SLC in July - The Mitchells

Ok, I have to wrap up posting about this Utah trip before we go on another one! We're going local this time - to Cape Cod and the islands nearby. I'm sure no one out there is still interested in our travel log, but again, it's for me!

It was interesting to stay at my parents' house with David. It just occurred to me, he has never stayed with me at their house before, ever. Kind of weird in (almost) 11 years of being married. Our deal is that since I get to go back so much more than he does, that we stay with his family when he comes. This time though, the Chapman house was a tad too crowded to add us when the Mitchell basement was free and clear with our own bathroom just a couple miles away, so we all bunked up with Lyle and Debbie. My baby sis, Jessica, just moved to Houston a couple months ago to start a business. This makes life even harder! I used to be able to go to Utah and see all of my family, but now one is gone. She made a huge effort though and flew in for less than 24 hours so that she could see me and come to my mom's birthday party. She did all of our hair too! I counted at least 7 of us who got a cut or color or both. I love how she does my hair. I will go months without getting it done so that she is the only one who touches it.

After the reunion, I took off to Cedar City with my mom and my girls for 2 days to see my grandparents there. Let's just say the ride in the car could be done without! I VOW to never drive cross country with the likes of Hattie in the car. I thought my mom and I were going to need psychiatric and/or medical help by the time we got to FILLMORE. No, actually, I think we pulled off in Santaquin first. 'nough driving for me. Kudos to y'all who drove to the reunion. But, you did not have Hattie with you!
My grandparents in Cedar are beloved by all of us. Staying at their house is so great. We always joke that we go to Grandma Primmer's house so that we can take a nap. But that's exactly what we do! We get in the door, eat her perfect lunch, and sit on her comfy couch and seriously snooze all afternoon while Grandpa does the same in his big chair. It is so nice to relax there. Also, we LOVE to go shopping in Cedar City! I know - New York, Milan, Paris, Cedar City! It's true. There's a store down there that has the best kids' shoe selection I've ever seen. They also have great little main street shoppes where you can find anything and everything you ever and never wanted. What can I say - I live near Boston, near what should be some of the best shopping in the world, but I always save half a suitcase to shop in Utah. It's more fun and easier to shop with my mom and sisters anyway.Other things... well, the Mitchell clan is pretty predictable, but we like it that way. Don't surprise us or make us be spontaneous, we'll have a heart-attack! We hung out at Aunt Lis' house, played with Sean, played in the yard with Aunt Em, stayed up late talking to 'mo Deb, and stayed up real late to get a glimpse of Grandpa Lyle coming home or early to see him going. Once in a while, you can catch him fixing sprinklers on his morning off or on a Sunday afternoon. We always go see my other grandparents too who live 1/2 mile from my parents. Picking raspberries in Grandma Pearlie and Grandpa Hal's garden is a summer must.The other thing that we did; one of the best things about our trip; is David and I got to go places by ourselves! Lots of family, lots of free, instant, and trustworthy babysitting. Every little errand we could think of to go and do without the kids, we did. We even went on a date. This is becoming more common than before, but it is still a rare occurrence, especially since moving to MA. We went to eat at the Red Iguana. I can seriously still taste the mole I had. It was SO good. We spent the rest of the night walking around the Gateway and talking, uninterrupted. We were going to catch a movie, but then decided to wait and do an old-school lazer U2 at the planetarium. I loved every second of it! They've jazzed it up a bit and, of course, added new songs, but it felt like the good ol' days when a lazer show at the planetarium was a common thing to do at night.

Well, good-bye Utah for now. This time, I didn't really cry when we left. Usually, I tear up for a couple of days when I know I have to leave. This time, I was ok...until we got home. When we started driving home from the Providence airport in the heavy, wet, sticky air with the claustrophobic forest of thick green trees on all sides, I started to lose it. When we pulled up to our house and saw that the yard had grown into a jungle that looked like we hadn't lived there for 6 months, I did lose it. I cried on and off for 2 days. I'm good now. I can't complain too much. There are many places that I would rather not live than here and my life is actually pretty great here. It's just hard to make the transition when you've just spent 12 days in absolute sunshine, and clear open spaces with light until 9:30 at night, where the kids played with their cousins and got to know their grandparents, and where I got to see my sisters and best friends...
no worries - I'll be back! I have to see what pops out of Lissie's belly in October! She made me swear not to put a picture of her belly on the blog.
Oh, I almost forgot... this is a picture of us in the cockpit of our plane home! As I was sulking onto the plane, the captain grabbed us and said, do your girls want to sit in the pilot seats?! I was dumbfounded, but anxiously said Yes! So, in they went. The pilots left so we could have the whole space. Then, they asked if I had a camera. I only had my phone on me. But, David (already back in his seat) had the big camera with him. They paged him to come up front and then they offered to take a pic of the whole family in the cockpit. I didn't think they did things like this anymore after 9-11, but apparently, we got lucky. It was pretty dang cool! By the way- Northwest airlines has the NICEST people out of any of the airlines I've ever flown. They always make things nicer and easier with my kids.

What do you do...

...on a chilly, rainy summer day?

Play a little Mario Kart on the wii...




Take a little nap...while mom catches up on chores...

July in SLC - Reunion

(Hattie and Janie)

David's Family reunion pseudo-started on Monday, the 7th as everyone gathered. Christine, Jane, Brian and their families got there that day. John's family came on Thursday. Everyone but us left on the following Sunday or Monday. Grace and Hattie were thrilled to play with their cousins about 16 hours a day for the whole week. It was just a tumble of activities. They got lots of time to just run around Grandma's yard and play in the sprinklers. We went on a bunch of outings as well. (The Chapman geeks with their mac books)

This is just a quick list for the journal so we can remember what we did together:

*Janie, Grace, and Hattie went riding.
*David, Brian and Wendy rode their bikes to the top of Mount Nebo!
(David can do a blog about that one...)
*Wii time in the basement - many turns were taken. (and I mean TAKEN)
*Hot-tubbing in Grandpa's spa.*Ladder-ball in the yard.
*Horse-shoes in Grandpa's new horse-shoe pit.*Drive-in movie with Jane's family and Christine. We saw Wall-E and left before the second feature.
*Lunch in the park nearby.*Rode the tram to Hidden Peak at Snowbird. (I didn't get altitude sickness like I did the last time I rode the tram!)*Cousins slept in a tent in Grandma's Yard with Uncle David.
*This is the Place Park. (Heritage Park?)*Sibling lunch (David and siblings)
*Cousin lunch at Training Table.
*Fun party in the yard with a birthday cake for Grandma, Christmas ornaments for the cousins, and Grandma's FAMOUS prizes. She gave each person a book she had chosen with a personal hand-written note about why she wanted us to have each book (dated March 2008! She's been putting things together for a whole year. Good thing, with breaking her right arm 2 weeks before the reunion.) She also gave the women each a set of hand-made cards, the kids all a cross-stitched bookmark, and finished it off with a yankee swap of her prize box. Grandma always has a box full of things from a roll of toilet paper to a bag of M&M's to something she found at a yard-sale. She always makes sure there is something in there that everyone will like. This time though, they were wrapped and we did the Yankee swap. David ended up with a nice girly-looking journal. Hope he writes some deep thoughts in it! By the end of the night we all had stacks of things to take home. We ended the night inside where Grandpa told us all how much he loves us and gave us some good Grandpa advice. I really wish I had the video camera on when he was talking. Then, Alec played the piano for us. He's gotten really good lately and was even in Time magazine in an article about school musicals.
*After most everyone had left Salt Lake, we went with Brian's family to Antelope Island in the Great Salt Lake. Buffalo point is a favorite of Brian's and he's converted us too. We love to go see the sun set over the lake. It was pretty funny to drive across the causeway both ways with Hattie. The lake was pretty stinky and she was absolutely gagging. She kept putting her hands in her mouth trying to get the taste out and was actually crying that it was so smelly. If I didn't feel so bad for her and it wasn't so tiring to listen to her complain, I would have laughed really hard.

Well, I know that we had some meaningful moments and some great experiences together. Nothing specific comes to mind right now, but I am always brought to tears by how much the cousins get along and how much they really love each other when they get together. I start getting really upset that we don't live closer to at least some of them so that we could play more often than we do. In between those things, I spent my time warding off Hattie's continual temper tantrums brought on by her crazy schedule of outings and playing and when I wasn't doing that, I was making sure that everyone ate, had the right clothes to go to the right places, sunscreen on, cleaning up after so many kids...well, it was a terribly fun and exhausting week to say the least! Again, David needs to chime in here and post about his family...

Thank you Grandma Barbara and Grandpa Earl for all the thought, planningm and hard-work you put into this gathering. We are all very grateful for everything you have done for us, but mostly grateful that you helped us to get together and see each other.

July in SLC - Friends

Like I said before, our trip this time had so many layers and we did SO MUCH. It was much different than the usual trip with my girls to shop and play with my sisters and mom and go see David's family. One difference being... David came with us!

This trip was designed around David's family reunion. The Chapman siblings are rarely together all at once. In our 11 years of marriage, they've only all been together maybe 4 times? This time not one person was missing either - all spouses and children were gathered too.

Well, actually, I want to do a separate post about the family reunion, maybe a couple. I'm starting with friends because that's kind of how I started and ended the trip...

We flew in on Sunday, the 6th. On Monday, the 7th, my college friends were getting together for their monthly dinner. I'm sure I've posted about these women before. Spending my college days with them and keeping in touch since, has changed my life. They are amazing. We are a fairly diverse group in terms of personalities and interests, but somehow we became fast friends and have seen each other through everything from boyfriends and weddings, serious problems, sad times, fun trips, jobs, children, to...you name it. They meet every first Monday of the month for dinner and have been doing it almost since we graduated. I can't believe it's been 11 years since I graduated from the U!

Whenever I go to Salt Lake, I anxiously look at the dates for my plane tickets and hope that the first Monday of the month is included so that I can go to dinner with these friends. Chris, Kara, Holly, Tiff, Stacey, and Angie are the regulars. These girls are amazing. When we were all in our sorority together, it was said that we would be eternal friends. At the time, I thought that sounded cheesy, kind of lame, and pretty un-likely to happen after graduation and getting married. I have been proven completely wrong. They truly are eternal friends. We will always "have each other's backs" and help each other in any way we can.

I am so glad to keep in touch with my friends through blogging. This has been one of the biggest blessings in my life. I can instantly access their lives and they can get to mine too. It's nice, though, to see them all face-to-face and have one of our famous dinner time conversations. I could kick myself that I didn't snap a picture of us (again!) Maybe next time.

Another friend I always see is my friend Jaimy. She and I grew up riding together as teenagers. We lost touch when her family moved out-of-state, but re-connected a couple years before Grace was born. I kept Jax at her stable during that time and we totally gelled again. She is awesome. She has 2 little kids now too and we relish in getting together at the barn each time I visit to let our kids ride together. We always lament that I don't live nearby anymore so that we could just hang out at the barn all day and let our kids run around and play with the ponies. This time, I took along my niece, Janie, to the barn too since she's also a fellow horse addict!

(Hattie, Reesie, Gracie, Janie, and Tucker!)(the horse addicts in their "Tink" shirts)

We make a point of spending time with our friends the Covilis each time we visit too. I'm going to let David blog about that because he was able to reconnect with an old friend of his and Jared's and he spent quite a bit of time with Jared too.

At the end of our trip, I was able to visit with our friends, the Jacksons. Although we did not know each other very long before our family moved to MA, we somehow clicked and made a connection. We've gone long intervals without talking or seeing each other, but again, the blogging has kept us right in each other's living rooms and we feel like we haven't missed a beat. I was so grateful to squeeze in a visit with them before I left. I have been wanting to see them so badly and talk to them. We had a really great conversation and I was totally reminded of why I get along with them so well. They are just great people who are easy to be with and who let you be yourself.

To all of my friends, whether I am able to physically squeeze in a visit to see you or not, I truly miss you and I'm so thankful for any contact we have. Keep me posted!

The 4th

Ok, before I get to the many layers of our big trip west, I want to share a bit about the 4th of July. The holiday landed just about a day before we got on the plane to Utah. We debated about which state we wanted to be in to celebrate and decided on MA in the end.The 4th has always been one of my favorite holidays. It was a holiday that my dad made really fun. When we were little, we used to go to the "big" parade on Main St. in Lander, WY. Melissa and I even rode our little horse in it one year. We have lots of memories of out-of-control home fireworks shows, watching the fireworks at the Cottonwood Club across the street after we moved to SLC, bbq's with crazy uncles and lots of cousins, and wearing jeans and cowboy boots (no matter how hot the weather). I still have the urge to put on my ultra cool cowboy boots for the 4th, but quite frankly, I'd look like an idiot here where it is so humid and maybe every millionth person might own a pair.
Since fireworks (even sparklers!) are illegal here, we can't pyro it up in our own driveway (I'm the pyro in the family - not David!), so we seek out the bigger shows. There is a fantastic, actually, the best fireworks show I have ever seen in a nearby town. We have gone 3 times now. We skipped last year for various reasons and Grace didn't forgive us for literally the entire year. She also loves the 4th of July and couldn't wait to go this year.
I've decided that the 4th is ALWAYS a little on the warm side and VERY humid in these parts. Grace's hair is always at its curliest during this season. Hattie's ringlets couldn't get any tighter either. I'm in love with the soft curls of their hair having spent most of my life trying to get mine into some sort of curl. I couldn't resist taking pictures of their hair while we were sitting around waiting for it to get dark.
Oh, and this picture does not do that piece of meat justice. David bought what was seriously a turkey leg the size of my thigh to eat for dinner at the park.
Nothing too amazing to say, just had a great night...

Spring turns to Summer

In an effort to keep the journal going, I need to do some major catching up. We've done so much in the last few weeks and I want it to be here so that when I print up my 2008 book, I have it to keep.

June, where did June go? It seemed like the year went from Mother's day to the 4th of July in about a week. I guess that's what happens when you stay busy. We have kept ourselves busy with of course finishing up the school year, soccer, swim lessons, dance recital, play dates, taking the girls riding once a week, YARD WORK!, and a bunch of other little things that all added up in the end.For myself, I am always too busy. I frequently realize this and wish I could undo some of the commitments I make for myself and just chill out more with my kids. Grace wishes this too. Sometimes, I do just make a whole bunch of phone calls and clear the calendar for the week so that I can have my life back. This is what made my month of June too busy (in no particular order):

1- working for the barn from home (camp registration and a small business sort of emergency made things quite busy)
2- taking on 3 math and chemistry tutoring students by the end of the school year
3- being in the relief society presidency
4- being a member of too many enrichment groups - I need to drop out of one!
5- trying to finish book club books (the summer one just isn't going to happen - Atlas Shrugged, or Eclipse? tough choice, but the vampire wins! book club will just be something I go to for friends and food in Sept.)
6- trying to get to some spring cleaning - gave up - it still looks the same, so what's the point?!!
7- taking on YouthLinc again! (this is the group that I traveled with to Kenya when I was a high school teacher... now I'm getting a group started here - they're going to Peru... not me...) www.youthlinc.org

Hattie and Grace always keep me busy, but I do wish I had more time to just be with them than to be busy with them. Like right now, should I go play with them, or should I blog? If I don't blog, then I won't have a family journal. If I don't play with them, then what's the point of having a family to write about? I always feel this conflict no matter what I'm doing.

That's what is so great about getting away though. We just got back from 2 weeks in Utah where I spent lots of time with them, and little time worrying about busy details. That will be the next blog. For now, here are some final spring pictures:(Oh hello little froggy, says Velvet!)

(I like blue birthday cake!)

(two eastern cottontails having a conversation in our road)

(Peter Cottontail in OUR garden!)

(Grace's soccer team, FIRE, with their coach)

(Daddy and Hattie enjoying Grace's last soccer game)

(Grace teaching her friends yoga instead of going after the soccer ball!)

(Grace and her soccer medal)

(male and female woodpeckers on one of our trees - click and make it bigger!)