Rain, rain go away

Late this afternoon it started to rain. It rained, and rained, and rained. We are normally fans of rain (it's free water from heaven), but tomorrow we're having a Labor Day BBQ and we'd prefer that it not rain on our parade.

The girls, on the other hand, were loving it. They had to search the house for coats and then went outside and got soaked. Wet clothes, wet towels, muddy shoes, and happy faces; all the joys of a summer rain storm.

Weekend Wildlife

Friday night we decided to drive up Butterfield Canyon on the west side of the Salt Lake valley. We had heard people say it was a beautiful canyon and had never made our way up there ourselves. We got a little bit of a late start as Robert had to work until 6:30 (something about a conference call that started at 4:30 on a holiday weekend - who does something like that?), but were still able to make it up and down the canyon before dark.

The canyon truly was beautiful with all sorts of trees and vegetation as well as some cows and deer running around. The view of the valley from the road was breathtaking and reminded us of what a beautiful corner of the world we are lucky enough to live in. It was a nice drive and Robert may even venture back to cycle up the canyon as we saw numerous people doing that.

On Saturday, we also set out to enjoy a Utah attraction that we had yet to go to in our 10+ years living here. Antelope island is the largest island within the Great Salt Lake and provides various hiking trails and wildlife to watch. There is a causeway that you can drive across to get to the island and enjoy the sights. The island is known for the large heard of buffalo that roam freely and we saw many of them. The girls liked mooing out the window of the car at the buffalo who acted like they did not hear them. We even got to see some antelope not too far from the road. We also ventured out of the car and completed a short hike to the top of a peak on the north side of the island. The girls enjoyed running around the rocks and posing as explorers. The view from there was beautiful.

Brace Yourself!

Today was a big day for our firstborn. We're not quite sure how we are old enough to have a child in braces, but Aubrey now has a heavy metal smile. For those of you not involved in the world of orthodontia in the past few years, it has become more patient friendly in recent years. Aubrey was able to choose the colors she wanted for the bands and came out of the appointment with a whole bag of loot.

One nice change is that braces are much more common these days and have gone from a stigma to a stylish accessory. Aubrey was excited to show her friends, that is until she realized how much the braces hurt. Hopefully she will get used to them soon as she has not ate much and been in a lot of pain since the appointment. Oh well, in 18 to 24 months it will all be worth it, right?

Oregon Fun

For my birthday, Robert decided to send me to Oregon to visit my friend Becky. This is something I've wanted to do for awhile now. Becky and I became friends about 10 years ago while living in the same ward in Provo. Despite the fact that we have lived hundreds of miles apart since that time, our friendship has grown and blossomed. She is such an amazing woman and mother, and I feel honored that her husband Chris thinks we are two peas in a pod.

Becky is the mother of 7 children and we enjoyed spending time caring for them. On Friday, I was able to get a free eye exam from Chris and then attend a very small temple session with Becky. The two of us enjoyed a quiet dinner at Olive Garden, with all the salad and bread sticks we desired. Saturday, all 10 of us headed for the coast. Becky and I stayed on the sand with the twins, while Chris took the older children into the water. They created sand castles and played in a near by river. On Sunday we attended church and enjoyed preparing dinner and a pie with the Asian blackberries Chris and the children had picked Saturday morning. So yummy!

Sunday night, my cousin Bob and his wife Julie, drove out to pick me up. It was hard to leave Becky, but we both know our hearts our closely knit together. Once at the Tomlinson's, we spent much of the night making plans for our one day together. We were ready to pack in as much as we could. We started with a tour of the Intel Museum there in Hillsborough. Bob has worked in Finance at Intel for the past 11 years, and was able to teach me all about microchips. Absolutely amazing how far the technology has come even in just the last few years. From there we headed to Burgerville, an Oregon original. I'd have to say, they have the best blackberry shakes and onion rings. In the afternoon we started our Gorge to Coast trek. We traveled to the Vista House on the Columbia River at the Oregon/Washington border. What a beautiful place. We then headed the other direction to visit Cannon Beach on the coast. I have always been a coast lover, and this one was breath taking. The view, the sound of crashing waves, I love it!
We were then headed to Mo's for dinner. There's nothing like eating a clam chowder bread bowl while over looking the ocean. After a brief and frantic search for a gas station, we filled up and headed back home. We were surprised to find ourselves passing the infamous Oscar Meyer Wiener-mobile. Our family had seen a PBS show about it's travels across the country, but had never been lucky enough to spot it before. I probably gave the driver a heart attack as my camera flash lit up the hot dog. So fun! We also stopped to drink from a natural spring that is found just off to the side of the highway. Our day together was fun-filled and fabulous.

Thanks so much to Robert for my trip, and for holding down the fort at home. I enjoyed my journeys and came home refreshed and rejuvenated and so very, very, very grateful for all of the wonderful people in my life. Thanks to the Johnson and Tomlinson families for taking such good acre of me.I could not keep back the tears when I saw the girls outside the airport holding up the sign they made for me. They were so happy to have their Mom home, and their mom was so happy to be home again as well.

Mom's Home!

Mom's home! Is there a more beautiful 8 letters in the English language? Our home has regained the complete wonderful sweet spirit that was not present in its full glory the past five days.

The girls enjoyed making a few signs to welcome Jenna back. We made our first sign on Sunday and taped it to the stucco above the garage Monday night only to find it had blown down in the night. We looked throughout the neighborhood but could not find it, so after breakfast we made another sign and taped it to the garage door so it would be more secure (tape doesn't work too great on stucco). Once the sign was up, we jumped in the car and headed to the airport to pick up Jenna. On the way, Robert ran into a store to pick something up and the older girls jumped into the back of the car so they could color another sign on the back window of the car. It was the sign they were holding up at the airport (the big picture on the top of the post), so we really wanted to finish it. Since they weren't done, and Robert thought he saw Jenna's plane fly overhead as they were driving (and true enough it was Jenna's plane), the girls stayed in the back/trunk coloring the sign as we drove along Bangerter Highway. To make the event even more memorable (and we don't do the no seat belt thing very often), we even saw a policeman and Robert had to yell at the girls to get down and not move in the back of the car. We put so much effort into trying to be good parents and set a good example and now I can just hear the girls telling their sunday school class how they had to duck from the policeman in the back of the car as dad sped down the highway. Oh well. It was all worth it. Jenna is home. JENNA IS HOME!

Zoobies

Whenever I asked what the girls wanted to do on Saturday, Emily always wanted to go to Lagoon. While I am sure we could have a good time at Lagoon, I wasn't prepared to take the five girls by myself to a theme park that includes a water park. So instead, we decided to use our annual pass to the zoo and check out Enrichment day. It was fun to see the animals actually out doing things as many had toys or puzzles (we watched a zoo keeper give the gorillas a canister with holes in it with frozen watermelon inside that they had to devise a way to get out) or something. Brenna was fascinated by this burrow of little foxes. She just stood there are stared at them for 10 minutes or so while the other girls ran off and were busy looking at snakes and lizards. It is too bad Jenna wasn't there or she would have enjoyed keeping Brenna company and missing out on the reptiles. The older girls enjoyed the leopard, and got a little nervous when it looked through the glass right at Lindsay. I think she may have flinched a little. Even though your mind knows it is safe behind the thick glass, I have to admit that my heart raced a little at that moment as well. Such a big animal staring at your child like it would make a nice snack makes you think about all the people involved in creating the exhibit and making sure it is safe. I am glad it is.

We spent the remainder of the day getting some yard and house work done as well as washing our unbelievably dirty cars. Like many other nights, we capped it off with some Olympic viewing. Oh, and the breakfast dinner theme did end as we ate a frozen pizza and sandwiches for dinner.

What a day. Only two more days and Jenna will be home. I may be happier to see her than the girls. I don't know how she stays home with them and listens to all the talking everyday. It may be worse since I am sick, but I think my ears may literally fall off. Amazing how much patience and love a mother has. It is a good thing our girls have such a good one.

Day 2 and No Casulties...Yet

Well, day 2 of the mom out of town experiment came and went and we are all still accounted for. I am feeling somewhat good that we have not had to call any friends to ask for help or found any crayon wall drawings or the like. For now I will just call it luck. We did have Emily call Jenna while I was at work and ask her to come home. I am sure all moms would love to hear their five year old cry to them over the phone and ask them to come home now. The girls were able to get her to calm down and when I got home from work at 2:00 everything was fine.


Aubrey and Kayla invited some friends over and we spent the afternoon in the pool and playing in the back yard. My philosophy on dinner had not changed, but I was able to improve on Thursday's carb-fest of waffles and syrup with some scrambled eggs, hash browns, and cantaloupe. The breakfast theme will probably end as I may want something normal tomorrow. We'll see.

To cap off the night, we decided to use our annual pass to the Olympic Oval skating rink in Kearns (where they held the speed skating competitions). For those of you in Utah, it is an awesome deal... for $99 you can get an annual family pass that includes skate rentals. They also have a 440 meter running track along the outside of the ice oval, so Jenna and I used that in February and March while we were training for the Salt Lake City half marathon. Everything went smooth until we got to the stairs up to the rink and Brenna insisted on climbing the stairs with no help while wearing her ice skates. I don't know where she gets this intense independence streak, but she definitely likes to do almost everything with no assistance from anyone. After about 15 minutes she made it up the long flight of stairs and we were ready to start skating. The three older girls headed off around the oval and I took turns skating backwards holding onto Brenna and Emily. The girls are all getting quite comfortable on the ice and show great improvements every time we go. Even Brenna is getting more comfortable and Emily can skate some on her own. I am not one who is much into shoes, but I have to admit that those tiny ice skates on Brenna are awfully cute.

It was a fun night. I am sure we will all sleep well after all these activities. I know that I will.

Momless

Jenna decided to turn the tables on us and flew to Portland today to visit some friends and family we have in the Pacific Northwest. Robert is usually the one leaving town (anyone want to go on a business trip to Chicago or New York?), so it will be interesting to see how the next few days go. If the first night is any indication, the girls will be enjoying dinner more than normal. As you can see in the picture, we enjoyed a well balanced dinner of waffles tonight. I guess I am just not as good of a sport in the cooking department as Jenna. The last thing I wanted to do today was spend 45 minutes making something that only I would eat and then watch the girls start rummaging through the cabinets before the dinner dishes were done. Fortunately, the girls are off track, so the fact that they were all awake watching the Olympics at 10:30 will not cause problems at school tomorrow. Who knows, maybe they will actually sleep in. That would be good as I plan on going into the office early to try and get some stuff done before heading home to survey the damage of a morning without mom. I have a feeling that someone is going to be nice and refreshed on Tuesday morning (when Jenna returns from Oregon) and someone is going to be exhausted. We will let you guess who will be who.

Thanksgiving Point

With the girls are off track, Jenna thought it would be the perfect time to take the kids to the Thanksgiving Point discovery gardens. We are surprised that in our 10+ years in Utah, we have never actually gone to the gardens at Thanksgiving Point, which are the main attraction at the site. Robert wished he could go, but something about work and all the executives being in town chained him to his desk.

The gardens lived up to their billing and proved to be very beautiful. The girls especially liked the man-made waterfalls (supposedly the largest in the world) and the garden patterned after the book The Secret Garden. We actually read the book as a family last year and then went to Hale Center Theatre and watched the play. The girls liked seeing what it may have looked like.

It was a beautiful place and made for a beautiful morning.

Bear Lake Fun

We took off mid-day Friday and spent the weekend in Southern Idaho camping at Bear Lake with the Gonzalez and Bloxham families. It was a great break from the regular routine.

We arrived at our campsite at about 7:00pm on Friday, just in time for us to set up the spacious three room tent we borrowed from Matt and Rachele. It would have been a challenge for all of us to pull off the weekend in our little tent. Considering we are a family of seven, we should probably have a larger tent. While we finished setting up the tents, Mike and Amy cooked us a wonderful dutch oven dinner with chicken and potatoes and we capped off the night with s'mores and banana boats.

After the good start for the weekend, things went downhill during the night. Brenna woke up completely disoriented and started screaming at 1:00 am. Ten minutes after we got here settled down, Lindsay told us that Brenna woke her up and she now had to go potty. From there, the kids took turns whining and crying in the night, most likely because they were cold.

Robert was the first one up and discovered how truly cold it was. As others at the campsite woke-up, Robert and "tropical island" Leo (who brought only shorts and tee-shirts) loaded up a Suburban and headed off to a gas station to buy $20+ of hot chocolate. On the way the car registered an outside temperature of 43 degrees. Considering it was 90+ degrees at home with lows in the mid 70s, it never even occurred to us that it would be so cold at the lake. With the hot chocolate, we decided to head off to the lake and get a good spot and make breakfast there.

We spent the entire day at the lake with Mike taking kids out on the boat and people playing (or reading / sleeping) on the beach. While the day started off somewhat cold, it did warm up and got to the mid 70s by the afternoon. The water was a little cold, but a beautiful aqua blue. It almost looked like Cancun. The girls enjoyed playing in the sand / mud on the beach and riding on the tubes behind the boat with their sisters and friends. In the afternoon, we went out on the boat with Mike and Amy and left all the kids on the beach and did a little wake-boarding and water skiing ourselves. Jenna was quite impressive on the wake board getting up on the first attempt. The water was nice and calm at 4:30, and quite empty as we had nearly the entire lake to ourselves.


We said good bye to the Gonzalez family who headed home (Brenna and Mason had become good friends during the day) and went back to the campsite in the evening and finished off the day with a yummy dutch oven peach cobbler. The day in the sun and water completely wiped out the girls and only three of the eight kids were awake to enjoy the special desert. The night was much warmer, and we were much more prepared as the Gonzalez' left us some of their warm blankets to use.

We woke up in the morning and quickly got ready (did we mention that the campsite had bathrooms and showers - nice) and went to church. The meeting was quite crowded with about 350 people in attendance, most of whom were vacationers like us. After church, we enjoyed some breakfast back at the campsite and set off on a hike. The Bloxham's and us piled in our car (don't ask how you get 12 people and a dog in a car for eight) and drove to the trailhead. The hike was easy and lead us to a beautiful glacier lake high in the mountains. As you can see in the videos, there was a rope swing on the edge of the lake and Robert and the girls enjoyed swinging out into the lake, even if the water was extremely cold. After recovering from there, we went back to our campsite and had lunch and cleaned up the campsite and drove back home.

It was a great weekend. We should probably get away for weekends more often as we all had a wonderful time and felt refreshed for the begining of the week. Thanks go to Mike and Amy for all of their work organizing, cooking, boating, etc.

Olympic Fever

What is it about the Olympics that causes rule enforcing parents like us to allow our 4 children to stay up until 11:00pm on school nights? What is it that causes our children to call us on our cell phones while we are on a run, to tell us who just won a swimming race? It has become quite the phenomenon in our house. Robert and the girls love watching together at night and it has given Jenna a few extra hours at night to work on her new job as the PTA President. I know that some of you reading this are currently living abroad, so I'm wondering what the Olympic experience is like from your perspective? As for our house, we'll enjoy it, and then return to our regularly scheduled bedtimes.

Teacher Appreciation BBQ

At church I work with the people who teach the children from ages 18 months to 12 years old. They teach lessons, do bi-weekly activities, scouting activites, and have a great love for these children. Those of us that oversee this program are so grateful for all of the time, work, and effort that they put forth and we wanted to do something special for them.
So, tonight we had our 1st Teacher Appreciation BBQ. We'd been watching the weather all week, and Saturday always looked clear. In fact, it looked clear until about an hour before the BBQ. Then the clouds moved in and eventually the rain began to fall. Though we had BBQ chicken, it was more of an inside dinner party than a BBQ, but it was great! We have such wonderful people in our area and we appreciate so much all that they do to help our children learn about Jesus Christ and his tremendous love for each of them individually. Due to the busy nature of the event, I never got the camera out, but here's a picture of the parting gift - Chocolate mints from Mrs. Cavannah's (some of the best melt in your mouth chocolates in the Salt Lake Valley) Thank you to all of you that touch our childrens' lives.

Happy 34th Birthday!

While the rest of the world was busy getting married (something about the whole 8/8/08 thing) or watching the opening ceremonies of the Olympics, the Miller home was busy celebrating the birthday of the most wonderful person we know. Only one more year and she can move up a division in her running races... there aren't many mothers of five in the 30 - 34 division.

The day started with Jenna's favorite breakfast in bed, strawberry puff-pancakes. From there, it was a busy day of friends and family stopping by and calling with birthday wishes. When Robert arrived home at 4:15, we all headed off to Jenna's favorite place to shop, Gardner Village. She likes it because it is peaceful and pretty and has eccentric shops with unusual items, since we get our fill of mass produced products from Target and Costco. We didn't buy anything, but enjoyed window shopping, purusing Twiggs and Moore art gallery, and watching Brenna chase ducks. We had dinner at Archibald's and came home for a yummy Baskin-Robins ice cream cake. It was an eventful and fun day to celebrate the woman who brings so much joy to our lives. Jenna is a special soul who has a sweet spirit and loving heart. We feel honored to call her wife and mother.

First Day of Kindergarten

After a week of individual assessments, Emily got to head off with the neighborhood crew this morning and go to her first day of kindergarten. She had all ready met her teacher, so she was ready and excited. The day went well, although Emily thought the school was trying to starve her by not feeding her lunch before she left at 11:18am. She walked the one block home holding her tummy not sure if she could make it through the hunger pains.

It feels kinda weird having four kids in school, but not as weird as having a sixth grader. It is amazing how fast kids grow.

Speedy Kayla Wins the Race!

Jenna and Kayla participated in a 5k race this morning. They had been training together since the July 4th run with the extended family (see that post for more details) and have enjoyed spending time together running.

The race was to benefit military families, so there were a lot of "army dudes" running along side them. For much of the race they ran in front of an army seagant, so people would call out "Sir" as they approached. It was pretty funny. The other racers were friendly and supportive towards Kayla, they just didn't want her to beat them.

Kayla and Jenna ran fast and finished in a time of 29:20 compared to the 33:30 Kayla ran in her last 5k. (There was a 12 second lag time between finishing and officials tearing off their race tags, due to the fact that breakfast wasn't sitting well at that point) Kayla was so fast, that she finished first out of all the girls 11 and under. We have included a video of her finishing the race and receiving her first place medal from a local news weatherman. It was an exciting day for our whole family. You Rock Kay!