Our 2nd Van-niversary!!

Man, time flies, doesn't it? Especially when you're busy cruisin' the streets in this beaut:

 I can't believe we've been proud minivan owners for two years now. The actual anniversary is on Saturday, but that falls too close to Clyde's birthday on Sunday - hence the celebratory post today. 

  We love our van. A lot. For a multitude of reasons - first and foremost being that it's comfortable and reliable transportation for our family. I'm well aware that having a vehicle that fits everyone that we can afford AND starts 99.9% of the time is the stuff of wishes for some people (it was certainly for me two summers ago when the truck was slowly dying) and I shouldn't take that for granted. 

  But more than that, we just really love our minivan. And if my sole existence in this world is just to prove this e-card wrong, then so be it :).

 Having said that, I sincerely hope that my love of the Uplander doesn't place me in this orbit of soccer mom cheesiness:

 But I think I'm safe. Mostly because A) we don't have a dog and B) by the time I've yelled "GET IN AND GET BUCKLED" for the 18th time, we're all too on edge to be smiling :). Our motto would be more like "Driven by Deep Breaths, Guilt, Apologies, Good Music on the Radio, and Eventually Love".

 The minivan has definitely proven its worth on the road; in two years we've added something ridiculous like 37,000 (that might be a lie, I can't remember what it had when we bought it and it sounds like a lot of work to find out...) miles to the odometer. It's been to Nevada three times, Utah four times, Oregon once, Twin Falls three times, Scout Camp twice, eastern Idaho once, and here, there, and everyone around the greater Treasure Valley.

 And I have to say, my appreciation of the Uplander for road-tripping purposes increased immensely as we traveled to Oregon with me primarily in the middle and back rows (our cute carsick passenger scored shotgun). It was loads more comfortable and roomy than I even realized, and interior roominess had been one of my requirements back in our car-shopping heyday.

 The minivan also reinforces one of my favorite things about Chuck: the confidence he possesses in his own manliness that leaves him totally unfazed by the prospect of driving such a vehicle. This possibly has something to do with the fact that were someone to challenge his manliness, he could very easily produce a highly enviable beard within hours that would effectively quiet all haters.

Our minivan also stands as a reminder that every day I get to do what I grew up wanting to do: driving wee children to school/church/doctor's appointments/soccer/basketball/t-ball/McDonald's/etc/etc. And by that I mean, you know, be a mom. I'm grateful that Chuck and I have three sweet, rascal-y boys that necessitated the minivan purchase. Which is why I'll try to summon extra love/gratitude/patience next time I'm on a "GET IN AND GET BUCKLED" rant. Wish me luck.

And finally, I think this e-card eloquently sums up the most important aspect of owing a minivan:

Daaaang straight he does! Happy van-niversary honey!

Cute little schoolboys

 School started for Clyde and Will this week, which means I somehow have a kindergartener AND a second grader:

Gosh, I love their little faces!

This also means every other day I have an only child:

With an equally cute [if slightly more foreboding...] face!

Pictures by the tree before we left for school:

Clyde and Will were both so, so psyched for school to start. Clyde has Mr. Eilers and I think he's going to have a splendid year. Will's teacher is Mrs. Keene and she seems like an excellent fit for him. Chuck and I are planning on spending a lot of time in the boys' classrooms this year (Chuck already helped out in Will's yesterday for a bit) and we look forward to getting to know both teachers better.

Last shots before they headed in to school; Clyde hid his slight impatience with me pretty well:

Kindergarten is full day (every other day) but they eased the kids in by starting with just a half day and inviting parents to eat lunch with them. Or maybe the purpose was easing the parents... worked for me! (Although I still had to blink back tears when we left the cafeteria and he turned left and I turned right. I'm a lightweight.)

Jack and I used our two hours of 'mommy and me' time to make a Savers run (I really think Jack is going to enjoy this only child thing, haha) and then headed back to the school to reclaim our sweet boys.

Posing in front of the school while everyone and their mom drove by in the pick-up lane might not have been the ideal spot for my distraction-prone children...

but this one works for me!

I'm so grateful for the public school system and the boys' elementary school in particular. It's no secret that the Nampa School District is having a pretty rough go of it financially, but the teachers and staff at Park Ridge are so friendly and positive and work so hard to ensure that the kids stay as unaffected as possible. Clyde had such a terrific year in first grade there, and I credit his lovely teachers (both in his classroom and in library, P.E., etc) for so much of his success. 

Chuck and I were discussing this yesterday; we might be a bit biased as children of elementary school teachers, but we both have so much respect and admiration for teachers. They're charged with an incredible task of being mothers/fathers/disciplinarians/guidance counselors/miracle workers/cheerleaders, all the while teaching a variety of subjects and skills to kids at varying levels of preparedness to understand and learn those subjects and skills. And they have to do this while parents and administrators and politicians look over their shoulder and hold bonuses and job security over their heads! Ridiculous!

Whew, sorry about that :). My point was that we love school and teachers and buying new boxes of crayons, so we couldn't be more thrilled that school has started up again! 

UT trip // day three // Temple Square family pics

After getting a few short hours of sleep after our Lagoon adventure, Sunday morning meant time to reconvene with the fam for some church and Temple Square and pictures! Someone (probably me, ugh) had the bright idea to go to Sam and Terri's ward for sacrament meeting at NINE A.M. And we were staying with Quinn and Eden a solid forty-five minutes away (thanks again for putting us up, guys!!). Next time let's find a nice 11:00 meeting to crash, eh? 

The important thing is that we made it to church, regardless of exactly when and how many times we were in and out of the chapel (turns out my boys are not at their most reverent/well-behaved running on seven hours of sleep...). And then it was time for Temple Square and some quick family pictures before our reunion wrapped up.

Suuuuuch a good-looking group!

Naturally we had to try the 'stick Grandpa with all six kids and see which baby cries the most' shot:

Isaac was the clear winner. I think Hazel was too squished to make much of a ruckus, and Jack opted just to gouge poor Will's ears...

before sliding off the couch and making his escape.

By the end of the year, there will be two new babies to add to this picture sooo that should help... right? :)

 Next we braved the heat to get some pictures outside.

There may have been some adorable dawdling as we walked...

All of us in front of the Salt Lake Temple:

(Sam, Bailey, Terri, Hazel, Eden, Quinn, Isaac, ME, Jack, Chuck, Will, Clyde, Cody, Cory)

We tried to mix it up and use the tripod and self-timer for this one:

Worked great, except that no one was behind the lens to tell us that Cody was completely blocked by Quinn, haha.

Some of the behind the scenes action.

I have such cute nieces:

Until the two new ones arrive this winter, Bailey and Hazel are my only nieces on my side (we have five darling ones on Chuck's side) and it's so fun to watch how sweet and adorable and spunky they are.

We did quick shots of each of us kids with our families/pondering our future families in Cody's case :).

By this point the wee ones were d.o.n.e. so we grabbed a couple quick pictures of the four siblings and called it a day:

Ohhh, brothers. At various times I've wanted to throttle each and every one of them (occasionally the desire resurfaces...) but I sure do love them and I count myself very lucky to be their [favorite, smartest, prettiest, funniest, most loved] sister.

We said our good-byes there and then piled into the van for the drive home, at which time all three little boys promptly fell asleep and stayed asleep for like four hours. Evidence of an awesome trip!

Thanks again Dad for such a fun family reunion; we loved spending this time with you and making such excellent memories!!

UT trip // day two // LAGOON!

Saturday was Lagoon Day, yeeehaw! We gathered the whole family at a bus stop across the freeway and counted the shuttle as our first ride of the day:

I'm pretty sure everyone hated us by the time we all got loaded on the bus (eight adults, six kids, three strollers, two coolers). Whatev, Quinn and I had already made a pact to go with the flow; nothing could ruin Lagoon Day!

Once inside the park, we unceremoniously dumped all our stuff in a nice grassy area and split up to hit the rides:

Will and Jack tested out the little kiddie whale ride. Well, first they let their girl cousins try it out and Hazel gave it a hearty thumbs-down, so I was a little worried about Jack. Luckily, my sweet religious boys said a quick mid-flight prayer and all was well! 

(Or I yelled at them to fold their arms so Jack would stop reaching out and trying to touch machinery that looked like it shouldn't be touched. One of the two...)

Will did such a swell job with Jack that his services were engaged to ride with Isaac next. Isaac went in with some pretty serious doubts, but seemed to calm down as the ride went on - we're pretty sure his arms were quivering out of excitement, not fear...

Next up was Red Rock Rally, aka some jeeps that seemed pretty chill but then you got in and were basically catapulted around each turn. It was brutal. I should know; I went on that ride at least four times and hated it almost as much as Jack loved it. Hence me getting on again and again - who can resist that little smile??

The  boats! Good times were had on the boats, we returned a few times throughout the day. Our favorite (and I use that term loosely) was the worker in the evening who insisted on carefully getting each child in the boat and buckling them with painstaking precision... and showing them individually how to turn the wheel and ring the bell... before returning to let the next child in and through the gate. I applaud his attention to detail and commitment to his work, but in the meantime the wait was like twelve times longer than the actual ride :).

At about this time we met up for lunch (we may have borrowed a reserved table. If anyone asks, we were absolutely part of the 'REGIS' company gathering). Quinn and Eden are grocery shoppers extraordinaire, and we had a pretty awesome spread for sandwiches and fruit and chips and cookies.

This is also when I was reunited with Chuck and Clyde, who had spent the morning living out my worst nightmares:

Anyone else's stomachs drop just looking at these pictures?? Just mine? Well, Clyde is definitely his father's son and happily rode Wicked, Colossus, Wild Mouse, the Spider, and the white roller coaster. RIDICULOUS. 

Almost as ridiculous? After lunch it was Will's turn to go out with Daddy and ride crazy rides!! We knew Will would be borderline on being able to get on the big rides (he's 46 inches if you squint) so when he got the go-ahead for Colossus, they opted to stick around and ride it FOUR times in a row.

There was also some Flying Aces action for most of the group; I wisely chose to stay close to the sleeping Jack and not lose my lunch so soon after eating it :).

Some merry-go-round fun! Will loved his ride on the giraffe, which he apparently named Logan, possibly after his friend from church :). It was around this time that thrill-seeker Clyde took one look at the kiddie-rides and quickly recruited Uncle Cody to take him on some more big rides. Goofs!

A few random shots. My three brothers may have gotten suckered into a throwing game, although seeing as how we walked out with five or six prizes, maybe they weren't suckers after all!

We reconvened around five to make a plan for the rest of the day; we had all kind of thought we'd be done with Lagoon by this point but the kids were still doing awesome and we had just enough food for dinner, so we decided to stick around longer. We relaxed and ate dinner and then headed in to Lagoon-a-Beach, which is always a good time. 

We didn't have too much time before they closed for the evening, so we had to use our time wisely. Jack and Will and I plopped into a tube and made it around the lazy river a few times (thanks Dad for helping a lot in that endeavor!!) and right at the end I handed Jack off to Grandpa so I could made a couple runs down a super fun water slide.

As we were leaving Lagoon-a-Beach, Jack and Clyde and I all became a bit mesmerized by this seemingly-cool roller coaster right next door. 

It looked pretty mild and played Beach Boys music and my little niece Bailey was tall enough to ride it, so in my water-logged mind I thought it would be fun. I passed Jack off to Grandpa once again and got in line:

It. was. dreadful. I sat next to Clyde and he helpfully told me beforehand to close my eyes if I was scared... let's just say my eyes were closed basically the whole time. At the highest point I briefly opened them and thought "WHY did I think this was a good idea?? My body should not be suspended this high above the ground! I have children!!" So I was happy when it was over. Everyone else got back in line to ride it again, crazies!

Random shots from the day:

Quinn makes me laugh.

By this point we were winding down a bit - which makes sense, considering we'd been there a solid twelve hours. Everyone made the rounds to fit in a few last rides:

Poor Coders didn't have time to make it back over to Blast-Off or Re-Entry, so he settled for the Ladybug Drop with Bailey. Honestly, it looked just about as terrifying...

Jack and Hazel got hooked up at the car ride. There was seriously NO line, so Terri and I would drop them off at the start and then walk over to the finish just in time for the worker to pluck them out and hand them to us... so we could walk back over the start and buckle them in to start again.

I tried to get the guy to let us leave them in there, but it was a no-go. 

It was around this time that we checked the UTA schedule and realized we had a short window of time to get to the shuttle, lest we have to wait a whole half hour for the next one. This led to a comical (albeit not at the time) Home Alone-type mad dash out the gates and across the parking lot. Somehow we made it with all eight adults, six kids, three strollers, and two coolers in tow!!

And thus concluded our fantastically fun and looong day at Lagoon - we opened and closed the park! :) Thanks Dad for sponsoring such a fun adventure for all of us and thanks to Quinner for doing so much of the leg-work and planning!! We had a GREAT time!

UT trip // day one // reunions!

At the beginning of August we road tripped down to Utah for a reunion weekend with my dad and brothers and it was LOADS of fun.

 We left bright and early Friday morning - so bright and early that my boys insisted they needed sweatshirts to start the drive. Goofs! Our friend Dan caught a ride with us as far as Ogden, which added some fun to the trip, especially when he bought us all donuts in Burley - thanks buddy!!

 Thanks to our on-time departure, we ended up with an extra hour which meant a quick visit to see the Smiths and Hugos, yayyyyy!! I got to briefly meet baby Hudson (he went down for a nap pretty quick after we rolled in) and see Gloria and Nate and it was lovely!

 Me and Courtney. One of us is a legitimate redhead, one is a fake. I'll let you decide. Ahhh, I just love Courtney. I haven't seen her since last August, but we keep in very close contact via email and phone convos. The only thing that would have made our little BFSC reunion better would have been Heidi's presence!!

The little boys were so happy to be out of the car and at the happiest place on earth: the Smiths' house! Chase adorably ran around after the boys and they ended up at the piano.

 For our collective sanity, we cut their recital short and they quickly moved on to hide-and-seek.

We wrapped up our quick visit with an attempted photo shoot of the four big boys:

 I'm not gonna lie; it was rough. Finally I told them all to close their eyes and then open them on the count of three, and it (mostly) worked!! LOVE you guys, thanks for letting us stop by and say hi!!

Our next stop was across town at Chuck's sister Amanda's house. The boys were excited to see cousin Anna on her birthday, but Steve and Amanda were delayed on their mountain hiking trip (best wishes to Steve's sister Amy who broke her leg!!) and we weren't able to see them after all.

 The boys contented themselves with dropping off Anna's gift and playing with all her toys (and checking out their Lord of the Rings DVDs!) while Chuck and I admired Steve and Amanda's super cool new house. And Chuck's dad rolled in right before we left, so we got a quick bonus visit with him!

 Next we drove south for another bit to meet Queden and Isaac and start off the Braden family reunion:

 Isaac and Jack were hilarious to watch together. I love Isaac's somewhat dubious expression in the bottom picture - like, "Are you sure this guy is my future best friend??" Yep, we're sure!!

 We let the boys run around on the playground for a bit:

 I attempted a short nap, but Jack put an end to that pretty quickly. So onto the swings it was!

Then it was time to head over to Sam and Terri's so that Bailey and Hazel could complete the little cousin reunion:

Six of the cutest kids around!! Terri hooked us all up with a delicious dinner and the wee ones played and played and played.

And then my dad and Cody rolled in, complete with books and toys for all the kiddos:

We finally broke up the party and drove down to Provo to spend the night at Quinn and Eden's with plans to meet early the next morning for our Lagoon adventure, which will be blogged about very soon. Teaser: Two members of our family rode (and LOVED) Wicked, and I definitely was not one of them...