Where have I Been? Finding Buried Treasure!

Well, pretty much everywhere. This month I've been to the Denver airport four times and drove across state lines twice. I was living out of a suitcase for three weeks and home long enough to do laundry and then fill it again. It's been a crazy month of travel and time away from my hubby but I really had a good time (other than the away from hubby part but it has been a lot of fun to be with him again, distance does make the heart grow fonder even after 6 years of marriage).

So what's happened since my last post? Goodness... where do I begin?

I FINALLY, after 5 years of talking about it and trying to figure it out, made it to Minnesota to visit my Grandma and my Aunt and her family. It was long overdue and I am so grateful that it worked out that I could go. It was a very worthwhile trip. It was so good to see my grandma and to be her guest and get the royal treatment (which ment being offered hostess cakes and pop every couple of hours). My grandma is a sweet, kind and self-sacrificing woman. She will be 84 on her birthday next month. It was also wonderful to see my aunt and uncle who I haven't seen since my wedding and my cousins who I haven't seen in just about as long or longer. My aunt and I stayed up too late most nights just talking.


I went out there with a goal to take note of and steps to preserve the family heirlooms, photos, and documents in my grandma's hands. It turned out to be a bit more work than I thought it would be. It was literally buried. I went through just about every nook and cranny of her basement apartment, 27 years worth of stuff, looking for family photos and turning up all sorts of interesting things (along with a lot of garbage like bank statements from the 80's). In the end it was very rewarding. I was able to pull together a lot of her original photos some from the mid 1800's, as well as funeral cards, obituaries, my grandpa's honorable discarge, marriage certificates and notices, birth records, and much more. A GOLD MINE! I then set to work to scan it all and then put it in a binder so it will all be in one place. My goal is to share the stuff I found on my family history blog in the months to come. It's going to take me awhile, I came away with about 600 images between scans and photos I took of heirlooms that my aunt and grandma have as well as a stack of old family group sheets to go through. I was also able to take along a digital recorder and record some of our conversations.

In addition to family history items I found a stash of personal history items for myself. My grandma had a lot of my family photos that my mother doesn't have copies of (including ones of my brother Daniel) as well as original art work from when I was 2 years old on up.


If any of you have older relatives I would strongly encourage going through their stuff with them. I came across a few items that only have meaning when you know their history and that history will be lost unless someone takes the steps to preserve it. It was also nice to talk to my aunt who knew her grandparents and was able to tell me stories too. It is a very rewarding thing to do (though I might be a bit biased being a family history buff).


Picture is of my grandma at my grandpa's grave.


I wasn't out their nearly long enough. I could have stayed a few more days. As it was I was working down to the end trying to get this recorded. I hope to make it out there again soon. I hope with my boys in tow.


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After my Minnesota trip I had an evening to do laundry and then Josh and I were off to Utah to pick up our boys the next day. We got to see Josh's family for Pioneer Day and then had the long awaited beach party at my parents before driving home again. More posts on that to come!

On the Edge

July is looking to be a busy month for us. The boys and I will be traveling most of the month and Josh will be frantically working to prepare for an interview in Baltimore and applying for a postdoc grant.

I am really excited for our trips though worried about not being here to support Josh in such a stressful time. The boys and I are flying to Utah where I will stay for a week and then leave the boys and fly back to Colorado. After a day with Josh I will be flying to Minnesota to visit my Grandma and my Aunt and her family. I'm super excited to see them and happy that I will finally be able to make it out there; I've been wanting to for awhile. I haven't been to my grandma's in over 10 years! I will then be flying back to Colorado and Josh and I will drive to Utah for the 24th and bring the boys home with us.

Meanwhile Josh will be flying to Baltimore sometime while I am gone to interview with Northrop Grumman for a REAL job. It's exciting and very scary at the same time. It makes me sick to think of moving so far away. If anyone has experience with living in the Baltimore area (Southwest side) I would love to pick your brain! He is also applying for a grant for a postdoc position available here in Colorado at the lab he is currently working in but with a different group. Graduation is finally in sight, Josh will be walking in December, and it is looking like after that we will either end up in Maryland or stay here (ironically the same choices he had for gradschool). STRESSFUL! Pray for Josh and for us as we decide were it is we should go.

Draper Temple Open House

My friend Christina from Oklahoma and I had the opprotunity to go the the Draper Temple open house last Thursday (before LDS temples are dedicated they are opened up to the public to walk through). We have been plotting and planning to drive out for the open house for months. It took a bit of scheming but we made it. And it was well worth the drive!

The temple is a small one and is tucked next to the mountain in the southern part of Salt Lake Valley. With the snow and the dormant trees the temple really blends into the mountain scape but when you drive up to it it beautifully stands out. The interior is even more breath taking. The beauty of the building, inside and out, the symbolism throughout, and the doctrine of temple work are central to our religion and I was very excited to share then with Christina who is a recent convert to the church. The temple truly is the House of the Lord. It is a building where His spirit can be strongly felt.

Take a deep breath---and just dive in

Long time no see!
Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

I'm sure some of you are wondering where in the world I have been. Well, we made our annual 2+week trip to Utah for the holidays and thus I was mostly AFK (gaming term for "away from keyboard" for those lucking enough not to know the lingo). We got home Sunday night but I'll be honest and say I've been avoiding blogging. With the things that have built up, like all the holiday news and events, I have been waiting for the perfect moment to regurgitate it all for your reading pleasure. Unfortunatly days have passed and the ideal moment has not come along. So I sit here writing while my husband and two year old mess up the kitchen making dinner just to let you know that I'm alive and well and I am still planning on keeping my blog up and going.

I will say that we did have a wonderful trip seeing family and friends. I love the holdiay season because it's all about FAMILY, and it is one of the few occasions when all of Josh's family is in town at the same time. Elijah and Sam had such a great time with their grandparents, aunts and uncles. It was so hard to pull them away from them. We were lucky enough to have storms come through that initiated us to leave a little earlier than planned and stay a little longer than planned. I'm sure the extra time with family was appreciated by all.

I am so grateful for the blessing of family- my little family, the family I grew up in, and the family I married into. Their unconditional love supports me and sustains me even from a distance. I am grateful for the Christmas season and the opprotunity it gives me to focus my thoughts and efforts more on my Savior and the special gift of His birth and life. I am grateful for childhood and the wonder and joy of seeing life through the eyes of my children. I love sharing that joy with our extended family. I am grateful for the New Year and the symbolism of renewal and the resolve to change. (Expressing gratitude is a renewed goal of mine)

Well, I'm still trying to dig myself out of the residue of Christmas decorations and chaos. After I do I have a few projects and cute pictures to share!

Tomorrow's the Day

... that I finally get to see my lover man after a week and a half of being apart.

I would say I definitely had the easier side of this separation, getting to be with family, and Josh the harder because he has been home alone chugging along at work. I sure have missed Josh though. My life is just not complete without him. It's hard. He is an amazing, loving husband and friend. He does so much for me. He calms me down, he keeps me grounded, he supports me, he a great father and backs me up when it comes to disciplining the boys, he makes me laugh, when I'm worn thin and tired he picks up the pieces and puts me back together again.

I just can't wait to get off that airplane, off the shuttle train from the gate, and into the arms of my best friend for a big hug.

Ready or not... here I come!

(I'm just not sure how I'm going to do it when he goes to Chicago in August and it is me left home alone with the two boys.)

Southern Utah Trip: Just the Two of Us

Josh and I had the greatest time on our belated 5th Anniversary trip to Southern Utah. It was absolutely gorgeous down there and the weather was rather pleasant.

The following is a travel log of our trip:

We drove the three plus hours to Boulder, Utah along US 24 and US 12. The drive on US 12 was breath taking. I would highly recommend it and be sure to take a camera. (I was camera crazy the entire trip and I love my new camera! I included just a few of my favorite shots above.) The highway goes through Dixie National Forest which is full of stunning aspen trees, tall pines, and many cattle. There are a few campsites along the road that look rather nice (and the rest stop had flushing toilets). Once you get south of Boulder it runs along a ridge part of the time with beautiful views from either side and winds up and around stunning mountains and rock formations.

We stopped in Boulder for dinner on our way down to our Inn in Escalante. We ate at the Boulder Mesa Restaurant. The food was a little pricey, but it was rather good (though our least favorite of the trip-we were spoiled as far as food goes). I had their tostada, which was as big as my plate, and Josh had the trout. We ate out on the deck and were surrounded by hummingbirds buzzing all around.

We easily found the Slot Canyons Inn, just west of Escalante off Hwy 12, and were immediately impressed with it. The property was beautiful and the Inn was stunning. We were met by the owner, Joette, and she showed us around the main floor and then to our room which was on the ground level. I liked her immediately and she proved very helpful, kind, and informative on top of making wonderful breakfasts (we especially liked Aunt Mildred's Eggs). We really like our room, by far the best place we have ever stayed. (our only, ever so little complaint, was that you could hear your neighbors a bit more than usual.)

Friday morning we spent exploring the Inn's property. They have 160 acres of beautiful land. There is a cliff behind the Inn that we were able to climb up rather easily that gives you a cool view of the property. We also found some pictographs while we were climbing around and some amazing rock formations. Apparently there were Native Amercians living on the property hundreds and thousands of years ago. BYU is actually doing an excavation project on the property just behind the Inn at the bottom of the cliff. We went and talked to them for a bit and looked at the site (which wasn't that impressive unless you knew what you were doing). They have found evidence of people living there back 8-11 THOUSAND years ago! Can you imagine?

We had lunch at the local frosty shop in Escalante (per Joette's recommendation) and then drove around Escalante a bit, which doesn't take long, and explored some of the shops. I was not impressed with the shopping in Escalante. There were a few podunk shops that sold very expensive art and jewelry and then other junky stuff. Supposedly there were a couple antique shops but they weren't open at the time. There were a lot of cool old houses from the pioneers era. I just love those old houses made out of the rough red brick. The people were really nice and willing to give directions and suggestions on things to do.

For dinner we ate at the Escalante Outfitters Cafe (another recommendation by Joette that proved amazing). They serve gourmet pizzas to die for, well at least the one we had. It was their Chicken Pesto Pizza and it had a pesto sauce instead of a tomato sauce, mozzarella cheese, sliced tomatoes, chicken, mushrooms, and red onions. Oh so Yummy! I'm going to try and reproduce it at home with my homegrown basil. They also have a shop with camping and hiking gear and some souvenirs.

Friday evening we went to the Petrified Forest State Park. We had tried earlier in the day but it was too hot to do the uphill climb to the bluff. They have a 1 mile loop hike that takes you up and around the top of the bluff to see multiple pieces of petrified wood. The hike is very pretty and I would recommend it. Because it was so late in the day we were the only ones up there which was really nice. The bluff provides a great view of Escalante to the East and Wide Hollow Reservoir to the West. There is also a campsite near the reservoir at the base of the trail, though I wouldn't recommend it unless you enjoy seeing all your close neighbors.

Saturday morning we left right after an excellent breakfast at the Inn and headed on our way to Boulder. We stopped at the Escalante River to do a bit of hiking to find the Indian dwellings pictured above that were pointed out to us by the locals. It was a short easy hike along the river and cliffs edge. Well worth the time. If we had had more time we would have walked more of it. We then went on to Boulder to see the Anasazi State Park and Museum. The park and museum are fairly small but well worth the stop (and $4 each entrance fee). The Museum includes many artifacts taken from the site and information about the Indians that lived there. The park out back has a replica of an Indian dwelling and then the excavation site that you can walk around.

Our lunch in Boulder was also amazing. We ate at the Burr Trail Grill. It is a pretty laid back atmosphere (through out both Escalante and Boulder) and the food was well worth stopping for. Josh had their Blue Volcano Burger which had blue cheese and a chili sauce on it, and I had their Turkey Cran Pesto Sandwich which had a cranberry sauce, roasted turkey, spinach, and a pesto sauce. Mouth watering goodness! We also had their half order of nachos which were also really good.

After lunch we were off home to see our boys and my family. Overall it was a laid back, much needed trip. We really had a great time. There was so much that we didn't have time to do. I would love to go back and do some of the Slot Canyons and do some of Bryce Canyon which is about an hour west of Escalante. I really enjoyed discovering the pictographs and Indian dwellings and would love to explore some more (supposedly the visitors center outside of Escalante on US12 can show you some maps etc). Here's hoping we make it back sometime!

Once again... we managed to make it

We finally made it to Utah. We actually made pretty good time once we got on the road, four hours after we started. Turns out that our brake pads were down to the nub, over heating, and boiling our brake fluid. Thus the sparadic functioning of our brakes. Thankfully the auto shop got us in quickly and $300 dollars later we were on the road again.

The boys were great the entire ride. We only stopped once for gas and a potty break (plus a brief break at the side of the road for a toddler stop, Elijah thought I was teasing when I offered him a chance go peepees in the grass). It was sure great to finally get to my parents house. There was quite a welcoming committy when we arrived, complete with Abby dog hugs.

Well, they're pulling out the Wii Fit to show it off.
Let the fun vacation begin!

slight delay

I was rather proud of us this morning. We were up early and had the car packed and ready to go at 7:30 this morning. We had left the house and were about twenty minutes down the road, taking the scenic route through Golden, when our brakes decided not to work! (well, not 100% of the time)

We stopped at a place near where we were but they weren't sure they were going to be able to look at our car this morning. So we called our old reliable auto shop and they said they would look at it so we turned around and drove carefully home. Josh dropped us off at the house and then took the car in. I still haven't heard a verdict or timetable. I'm really hoping we make it out today! There always seems to be bumps on our adventures.

I am grateful that we decided to take the more scenic route as opposed to the freeway and discovered this problem before we were too far from home (and on the windy, hilly roads of I-70). I am grateful I wasn't driving and Josh was able to stay calm despite me panicing. I am grateful that we made it home safe.

Packing Break and Skates

Elijah begged to take his roller skates to the park last week. We haven't really had a chance to use them much since I found them last year at a garage sale (for a dollar). He did very well rolling along with just a little bit of help in the beginning. Eventually he turned around and made it all the way to the pavillion by himself with his little scooting rolling moves. What a cute kid! I'll just take him home with me!

Well, the week of our long awaited vacation has finally come! I'll be spending today and tomorrow getting everthing cleaned up around the house and everything gathered and packed for our trip. It takes quite a lot of my mental power to make sure everything gets done and packed that needs to. I have quite a few lists that I keep adding to and marking off.

We will be driving out on Wednesday, hopefully pretty early so we can make it to Grammie's house and participate in the much anticipated "Cowboy Party" (I'm sure there will be pictures to come of that exciting event). Josh and I are then off for our anniversary trip to Escalante at the Slot Canyons Inn. Sadly the trip is being cut short for Josh. He has too much going on at work right now to take another week off. He will be driving home by himself on Monday and the boys and I will be staying through to the 31st and flying home.

I'm excited to spend time with our families. An added bonus is that my grandma is visiting my parents right now. I haven't seen her in 3 1/2 years, not since Elijah's first Christmas. She hasn't even seen Sammy yet. I'm excited to spend time with her and glean some family history information out of her. (I'm having the slight buzz in my head that I have said all this before but can't remember when/where. I appologize if this is all a repeat.)

Anyway, I guess my break is up. Lots to do!

I'll catch ya on the otherside of the mountains!

A day of FUN!

Grandma and Grandpa Strong and Cuyler are visiting us for a long weekend. Saturday we went out for a grand day of fun. In the morning we had Elijah's favorite green whole wheat buttermilk pancakes (and yes green food coloring is part of the recipe). After that, Allan, Chris and I went out and hit some garage sales. Then we were off to the Butterfly Pavilion.

We love the Butterfly Pavilion! We have been there a couple times but this time was especially fun for Sam who is really into noticing bugs. The pavilion has a room full of exotic bugs including an indoor beehive, multiple varieties of tarantulas, scorpians, cockroaches, stick bugs etc. They also have a tarantuala named Rosie that you can hold. Elijah wasn't interested but Sammy (with a little help) had the huge spider walk on his hand. He was then the proud recipient of a "I held Rosie" sticker. He wore his badge the rest of the day.

It was then on to the small aquarium section. They have a tank with Nemo and Dory and some open tanks where you can touch a horseshoe crab, sea urchin, and starfish. Again, Elijah wasn't interested but Sammy was very involved in getting his hands wet.

Then the main attraction --the butterfly garden. The pavilion has a large, very humid, tropical garden in which the butterflies live. There are pathways throughout the garden and you are actually walking amid the butterflies as they flutter around, eat of fruit and blossoms, and rest on leaves. Sam was full of "oohs" (for those of you that have heard his repeated sound of interest). This is where I really wish I had a better camera. I was unable to catch any good pictures of the butterflies. Oh well, maybe this week.

The pavilion also has a hands on play area. They boys had great fun climbing around the huge honey comb, doing crayon rubbings of bugs, watching other kids climb the spider web, playing with microscopes and mechanical representations of various bug functions (chirping legs, mosquito and butterfly noses, termite talk etc.) They also have huge, larger than human robot insects. Elijah steered clear of them but Sam would stare and point at them.

We finished the pavilion trip by watching one of their daily butterfly releases. The pavilion imports cocoons from around the world and then release the butterflies into the garden when they emerge. It was pretty cool to see the new butterflies up close, learn a little more about them, and see them flutter away when released.

After our visit to the Butterfly Pavilion we went to see the new animated movie Kung fu Panda. We had all heard great things about it and were not disappointed. The story was entertaining, the kung fu was amusing and silly, the music beautiful, and the message was good. A great movie for the entire family (though Sam did get a little bored in the middle, but Elijah was interested the entire time).

With all this playing the boys were exhausted and the rest of us were hungry. We decided to take the long road to an amazing resturant in Golden called Ali Baba Grill. It is probably a good thing this resturant isn't closer to home. I dream of this food! They serve middle eastern cusine, have the most heavenly hummus, excellent kababs, and fresh pita bread. Oh my, my mouth is watering! It is well worth the trip to eat there.

Overall it was an amazingly fun day spent as a family. Thanks, Grandma and Grandpa we all had a great time!

Vacation Plans

With Josh adjusting his schedule to put more hours in at work and my suragate family moving away, I've been in need of a vacation. We have been trying to pull together our plans for a trip to Utah in July. Today I solidified when we are going and made reservations for Josh and I at an inn in southern Utah.

The plan is to drive out to Utah July 16th, drop the kids off and spend the 17th and 18th at the Slot Canyons Inn outside of Escalante. I'm very excited about the inn and their property and I hope it is not too hot for us to enjoy the great outdoors, just the two of us. After that we plan on spending time with our families and staying through the 24th, probably leaving Saturday the 26th.

It's still a month away, but I am so ready and very excited! I know that the grandparents are building up lists of what they want to do with the kids while we are out there and Elijah and Sam are excited to see family.

Drooling Over Vacation Rentals

I've been looking for somewhere for Josh and I to spend a few nights for our anniversary in the Utah area. I came across this website that features vacation rentals by owners and ended up spending hours drooling over all the rental properties available nation (even world) wide.

The houses are gorgeous, some of the locations are to die for, and the prices are crazy resonable when you compare them to hotel rates. Especially when you factor in how many people are traveling and that you have a kitchen to eat in rather than eating out every meal.

There are so many places I would love to visit and this looks like an economical way to do it! The question now is how to get there, when, and where's the money coming from. But I'm totally there!

yay!!! (and not so yay)

Last night we got to go to my sister's university band concert at BYU. I guess technically they boys weren't allowed to go in, but they were kind enough to lift the band on children as long as they were quiet.

The boys did really well and were getting into the music, especially Sammy. He was dancing and reading the program. Then when the song ended, and the conductor is still at attention, and everything is silent... Sammy let out a big "Yay!" and enthusiastically started clapping his hands. I was totally caught off guard by his outburst, but man was it cute! Later we asked my sister if she had heard him and indeed she had all the way on stage (even the conductor noticed and laughed). So here's for cute little boys that don't hold back when they are moved by good music.

The concert was really enjoyable. Josh and I haven't been able to go to one in awhile. I love seeing music performed live. I not only love hearing the powerful sounds but seeing the expressions of the musicians and their movements in sync with each other. I also love watching the conductor (I miss being under the command of a conductor) and how he can pull the music out of the musicians with his precise little movements.

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Unfortunatly we are still in Utah. We got delayed by weather, diahrea, and now weather again. I haven't often come across 100% precipitation, but today it's all over the board, especially in Vail, with below freezing temperatures. We decided with a baby with diahrea and a sore sore bum, and bad weather conditions with our little prism, it wasn't the best idea to travel today. The sad thing is tomorrow isn't looking much better. It is not often that I say this, but I am ready to just get back to Colorado and back to our normal lives.

Trip extended...

We are all finally beginning to feel better (no more throwing up in the middle of the night) and we decided to extend our trip through Monday. Instead of coming out in May to see Dallin off on his mission we thought we would stay and go with him when he goes through the temple. Overall it means we get to spend more time with family and less time driving! what a deal!

Tuesday my mother worked it so we could go on a fieldtrip with the girls to a farm in Springville. Elijah and Sam were very excited to see the animals. We ended up spending most of our time hanging around them and ditching our tour group.

Yesterday Josh and I got away and got to go to the Museum of Art at BYU and see the Minerva Tiechert exhibit. It was really nice to get away just the two of us and to be on BYU campus together was a walk down memory lane. I really enjoyed the exhibit. My favorite pictures were the First Vision and Jesus teaching Mary and Martha. I had never seen the Mary and Martha one before. I would love to get my hands on a print. Afterwards we explored some of the other art they have on display including the Carl Block Jesus at the Pool of Bathesda. That painting is so impressive and moving. There was also a painting of three bows representing the water, spirit, and blood mentioned in Moses 6:59-60. It was neat to have a visual to go with that scripture.

After grabbing a bite to eat at the museum cafe (very yummy, I would recommend the curry chicken salad and their wild rice soup-- mmm) we went to the Bean Life Science Museum and met Grammie and Papa with the boys and Rachel. Elijah was SO into the animals and acutally was relieved that they weren't alive. Sam would go up to the animals and growl at them. I'm going to have to figure out if CU has a similar museum and take the boys to it. They seemed to eat it up!

Of course we couldn't end the BYU day without a trim to the creamery for their yummy icecream. Elijah ate an entire cone (minus the cone) of raspberry sherbet and Sam was nibbling at all of ours. We were surprised when we walked to the creamery from the museum that DT is gone! All of it.. there was only one skeleton of a building left and a bunch of rubble. Wow! That is where Josh lived his freshman year and it is gone! it was a bit of a shock! I was feeling a little old and out of place on campus. Life has gone on while we have been gone and things are continuing to change... it's just a little weird.

plans pushed back... again

We are still trying to make it out to Utah this month. Our first attempt didn't happen becuase Sam got sick. This weekend is our nephew's baby blessing and we would love to get our hands on that new baby! We were planning on leaving today, but Josh has the wonderful opprotunity to be serving on a jury. (great timing, I know) They did jury selection and started the trial yesterday and it has continued through today. Josh was pretty sure they would be done today and I was hopeful that they would be done early enough that we could still leave today. Alas the time is slowly slipping by and I still haven't heard from Josh. I'm afraid we will just have to leave tomorrow. Here's keeping our fingers crossed! We haven't had the best of luck with travel this month.


Side Note:
We have now counted TEN baby fish! I just don't know where they are coming from! Is she still popping them out? I'm feeling a little overwhelmed by all the fish. They simply can't stay here, there are just too many, and Mat(now matilda) and Daniel will have to be split up so as to prevent any more babies. I'm not sure what I'm going to do. Does the pet store take fish back, take babies, or trade females for males??

phew! we made it home!

we safely made it home Tuesday. There were a few moments that I was sure we just weren't going to make it but prayers were answered and we are all home again. our day consisted of Elijah throwing up, pouring rain, a flat tire, a dead battery, switching cars, rushing to the airport-grateful that my flight was 2 hours late, standing in two lines before I actually knew I was going to be able to get on the plane, and flying with two tired boys. phew!

Our trip to Oklahoma to visit the Reeds was a whirlwind roller coaster, full of twists and turns, ups and downs, with some throwing up along the ride. (i think i'm ready for a vacation after my vacation) unfortunately my blogging fell by the wayside and now you get a massive jumble.

Last Sunday I had the opportunity to go to the ward in Ponca City with Christina and all four boys. I'm sure we were quite a spectacle sitting in sacrament meeting of the small ward wrestling the boys to be reverent and quiet. It was a relief when we survived. I am so grateful for Josh! I haven't had the opportunity to visit many wards but it was reaffirmed to me that the Church really is the same everywhere. It is just amazing that where ever you are you can find a ward to attend, feel welcomed, hear the same gospel teachings, and feel the spirit.

The topic of religion was one that came up and was on my mind a lot during the trip. Ponca City is dotted everywhere by many different Churches. The town has a population of around 30,000 and you can't drive down any major street without passing at three or four different churches. I have a hard time just figuring out what denomination they all belong to and how they all fit together. It is just boggling to me.

Presley has decided that he wants his family to attend the First Baptist Church in Ponca City (so named because it was the first Baptist church in town, there is a Second Baptist Church in town too). Christina has been stuck in the middle and thrown back into the Baptist religion. It has been an eye opening and frustrating experience for her. (I'm convinced she needs to write a book)

The beginning of last week was rather rough. Poor Caleb got really sick with an ear infection and eventually ended up in the hospital for a night because he wasn't keeping fluids down. While all that was going on, I was lucky enough to get the 24 hour flu, complete with nausea and fever. Poor Presley was left with three boys and a store to juggle. I am very grateful no one else got sick and Caleb was able to come home sooner than predicted but the whole scenario left Christina and I wiped out.

The rest of the week Christina and I kept busy keeping the boys alive, doing family history, touring Ponca city, visiting Enid and Christina's old stomping grounds, watching some good movies (more on that to come later), and talking religion. I was also able to attend the Baptist church.

It turned out to be a whirlwind trip made crazy with four boys, three and under. By the end Christina and I were ready to run away and leave our kids with the highest bidder. I am grateful that we were able to go. It was sooo good to be able to see Christina and see where she is living and what she is up to. I miss that girl so much! We are scheming to get both of us in Utah this summer, hopefully kid free!

we made it!

we made it to Oklahoma in one (sane) piece. We had some delays in the Denver airport, we eventually ended up with a new plane and were a few hours late. I was sooo grateful that Josh went through security with us or I would have been dead meat! The flight itself went pretty smoothly. We got a warm welcome from Caed- a big yealling, running hug. I was amazed at how small the Oklahoma City airport is.
After we got our luggage we were off to Chuck E. Cheese! Elijah and Sam have neve been there so we were off to another adventure. Elijah just didn't know what to think let alone what to do first. He and Caed ran wild and had great time. Sam was big eyed with wonder.

After chuck E. Cheese we were off to Caed's house. The boys crashed in the car on the way home. Talk about a long day.

Ooook--lahoma!!!

the boys and I are off on an adventure tomorrow (isn't everyday an adventure with two little boys? well, this will be extra ordinary). we are flying, just the three of us, to Oklahoma! I am very excited though a little nervous about the whole traveling while out numbered bit.

here's hopin' in goes smoothly!

I'm definitely planning on posting during the week and a half we will be there. I'm sure with four boys three and under there is bound to be some good material for blogging. Christina also swears that the sunsets are a lot better in Oklahoma than ours with mountains. I'm hoping to catch a picture to prove it, we'll see.

on the road again...

well, today is the day where i scrounge the house looking for all the things we need to take with us on our regular road trip to Utah. I can't tell you how many times i have written down lists of things to take with us. I've got this all down to a system. This trip will be a really fast four day weekend --two days driving one day with my family and one day with Josh's-- a real whirl wind of a trip.

The biggest trick is keeping the kids occupied in the car for 8 hours.

Anyone have any new and bright ideas for entertaining a 3 year old and a 1 year old while traveling? (I'll also be flying to Oklahoma next week alone with the boys, any travel tips for planes would be appreciated too!)