Home Again, Home Again, Jiggity Jig

We are home.

After 6 weeks of visiting family, going TDY to San Antonio, and being on the road, we are home. It was a fantastic vacation. I loved seeing our children getting to know their grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins.

Here are some of the highlights that come to mind:
--Going to Temple Square and then grabbing some Thai food with my brother, Kevin.
--Having a "Salon Party" with cousins Sophia, Azure, and Eliza. We painted their nails, cut their hair, and gave them a fancy hair style. The girls had such a fun time together.
--Reconnecting with some good friends from Maryland who had moved to Utah. Our kids are the same age and were BFFs before we moved.  We loved seeing them again.
--Attending the blessing of my beautiful new niece, Ruby.
--Going to the zoo and feeding a giraffe.
--Playing games with my brother, Matt, and his wife.
--Commiserating with Megan about stupid dating experiences. And good dating experiences. And eating the most delicious waffles on the planet. And watching MST3K. Man, I miss my sister.
--Going to the beautiful Payson Temple with Mike.
--Arriving in Oregon from San Antonio and having Mike take me on a very nice, romantic date the next day. Underground Portland tour + Voodoo Donuts + Saturday's Market + Moroccan food + Papa Haydn desserts = Best. Date. Ever.
--Spending time talking with my sister-in-law, Debi.
--Driving to the Oregon Coast with Mom Clark, my niece, Katelyn, and my nephew, Daniel. We met Mike's brother and his wife at Cape Kiwanda. While I stayed on the beach with a deeply unhappy Ryan, Mike, Sophia, and everyone else climbed up a huge dune. I was impressed that Sophia made it to the top by herself. What a trooper! The Oregon coast is stunning. Mike and I have a pie-in-the-sky dream to buy some property and build a summer vacation home there.
--Our last night in Oregon, we stayed up late with Mike's siblings and their spouses playing games and talking. We were exhausted, but we didn't quite want the day to end. My in laws are the most fun, wonderful people.

Usually, when we leave family, we have a plan in place when our next visit will be. Although I'm sure it's not too far away, we don't have a plan in place this time and it's making me miss family more. I wish we lived closer.  I regret that my kids don't have consistent opportunities to play with their cousins and get to know their grandparents, aunts, and uncles. I feel bad that Mike is the one sibling that doesn't live within walking or driving distance from the others. And it's hard not to have a pity party for myself sometimes, too. It's hard not to live closer to family.

We arrived home just in time to watch General Conference. I love listening to the inspired words of our leaders. It was truly a spiritual feast this weekend. During General Conference, we were invited to "ponderize" the scriptures by picking a verse a week and contemplating it throughout each day. This is the scripture our family picked tonight at FHE:

Interestingly, when I spoke with my mom tonight, she said she picked the very same verse. What are the chances??

I'm not sure, but it was one of those non-coincidental coincidences that makes family feel closer despite the distance.

Head, Shoulders, Knees, and Nipples

One of Sophia's many toddler off-and-on interests (alternating with colors, numbers, Cars, Mickey Mouse, Frozen, clay, and animals) is body parts. She loves labeling them and pointing them out on other people. Luckily, she hasn't quite noticed diaper area boy vs. girl body parts yet. I'm bracing myself for that day, though, because it's coming. 

Lately, Sophia had started talking about other people's body parts in terms of relative size. She goes through this litany of comparative anatomy along the lines of "Daddy has big hands. Mommy has small hands. And Sophia had teeny tiny hands. And Ryan has teeny tiny hands." 

She was doing this in the grocery store the other day and the first few times I appropriately responded. But as she kept the repetition going with eyes, ears, head, and tummy, I started tuning her out with an occasional "uh huh, honey" that's enough to placate toddlers into thinking you're actually paying attention. (Except when she said that "Mommy has a small tummy" I may have gone overboard in praising her.)

After one or two minutes of Sophia's continued recitation, my attention was pulled back to her when I heard a couple of people snickering and noticed they were looking at my daughter--my beautiful and brilliant daughter who was proudly pounding her chest as she said, "Daddy has big nipples. Mommy has small nipples. And Sophia has teeny tiny nipples. And Ryan has teeny tiny nipples." 

To their credit, neither of them looked at my chest to see if what she was saying was true. 

The remainder of the shopping trip passed without incident except that I would randomly start giggling.

Sophia: Mommy, why are you laughing?

Mommy: Oh, I guess because I'm happy. 

Sophia: You're happy?

Mommy: Yes, you can tell by my smile and my happy eyes. 

Sophia: Daddy has big eyes...

If your tummy kinda hurts and you feel you've got the squirts...

So I feel I should clarify something from my last post. The reason Mike showed up after the cleaning was because he was fulfilling his calling by spending his Saturday morning supervising the Stake youth at an activity. 

In all fairness, he has to clean up waaaaay more messes than I do. Case in point, take a look at the picture (taken after Ryan woke up from his nap) Mike texted me while I was at work today along with the following caption: 

Guess how his shirt is doing that. 😷

If you guessed, as I did, that it was being stuck by poop, then you are correct. Mike further elaborated, "I noticed while wiping him that he had it up his back and, oh no....all over the carpet! I dangled him up to the bathtub, and then noticed it was all over my favorite pajamas - as I'd held him when I got him up from his nap. Sob sob. :,( "

Of course, all parties involved required extensive bathing. 

He hates having his hair washed. Ryan was also deeply offended that Mike had the audacity to clean out his mouth after he (Ryan) ate a bath crayon. Parents are such killjoys. 

He looked so handsome once he had cleaned up. 

It took Mike considerably longer to get the house back to pristine (ie poop-free) condition. 

Fun Activity of the Day

I've started this thing with Sophia we call "The Fun Activity of the Day." We've only been doing it a week or so, but it's something she really looks forward to. Poor Ryan always seems to be excluded because of his age. Also because the "fun activities" seem to be inherently messy and Ryan can amplify messy by a factor of about a trillion. ٩(๏̯͡๏)ゞ

While Ryan is napping, Sophia is helping me make mango cupcakes. 

She put all the liners in the cupcake tray, then ate dough and mango curd while I put the rest of the ingredients together.

After she licked all the dough off the whisk, she became quite bored. I ended up finishing the cupcake making myself and, in true "Little Red Hen" fashion, watched the rest of the family come by to help me eat the cupcakes after clean up was done. 

Worth it for the memories and to be able to get this picture: