We currently live in Ann Arbor, MI where Brad is attending and teaching at the University of Michigan. We have 5 children; Hyrum, Isaac, Asher, Samara, and Harper.
Friday, May 15, 2009
Thursday, May 14, 2009
Independence, MO
About a month ago over the kids' Spring Break, we drove to Independence, MO. It was an 11 hour drive each way, but nothin' we couldn't handle. Our kids love music (who doesn't?) and we listen to everything - Elton John, Air Supply, Queen, Bonnie Tyler, Elliott Smith, A Perfect Circle, Tool... you get the idea! Here's Ash singing Queen's Bohemian Rhapsody. Just hang in there. It starts getting good about 35 seconds into it. (I still don't know how to edit videos... Anyone volunteer walking me through it?) This would have been about 10pm Michigan time.
We got there late and checked in a went straight to sleep. Sooo, on every vacation I go on, I forget something! Usually it's something either cheaply replaceable or something I can live without. Examples of recently forgotten items are contact solution, glasses, hairbrush, toothpaste and/or toothbrush, razor, etc. This trip... I forgot pants!! I just made good use of the laundry facilities at our hotel. I did somehow remember jammie pants. I also managed to pack all of everyone else's clothes. sigh.
On Thursday, Brad had research at the Community of Christ Temple. We drove over there to pick him up. We didn't go inside there, but we went across the street to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints Visitor's Center. They had a lot for the kids to do to keep them busy while learning about time in the late 1830s.
Hy looks thrilled, huh?
Friday, we drove up to Adam-Ondi-Ahman. There is actually no address for it, so finding it on google maps/ mapquest was pretty tricky. We finally got a rough idea of where it was and started driving. About an hour later, we saw an itty bitty sign that said "Adam-Ondi-Ahman take exit" whatever. I looked up and the exit was right there!! That's how all the signs were - small and sudden. On the way there we talked to the kids about how this place is dedicated to Adam and Eve and how when we got there we would think about them and their family playing on the fields and such. We pulled in and got our picnic out and all the fields were black!! They had just burned the fields to re-nitrogenate (?) them. It was rather disappointing. We hiked around and tried to enjoy any beauty we could find. We realized that that must have been how Adam and Eve felt after being cast out of the Garden... kinda disappointed by the ugliness. We took the family picture above with a timer because NO ONE else was there. There was an occasional missionary sighting, but they all seemed busy.
After we left Adam-Ondi-Ahman, we drove to Liberty Jail. Hyrum said, "Doesn't 'liberty' mean freedom? It doesn't make sense." Asher and Samara were, let's say 'tired' (melted down messes), so I stayed in the car with them while Brad took the older boys in.
Saturday Brad was in the Conference, so I took the kids to downtown Kansas City and we went to Science City. It was the Earth Day Festival, so the kids planted seeds and got a tree to plant - everything died and/or spilled in the car on the way home. :(
Making cloth fly.
Digging for dinosaur bones.
Sunday we drove home and I can honestly say it was the worst day weather-wise of driving for me ever. It rained from the moment we left our hotel in the morning until the time we got to our house in Michigan. The 11 hour drive took almost 14 hours! We got home around 1am. I couldn't fall asleep for at least another hour because my senses were so heightened. Honestly, the lights and the glare of the road and everything else was just too much!
Fun fact: I found what has to be the longest name for a street anywhere - Higashimurayama Drive. The sign was twice as long as it usually is. It's in Independece, close to the corner of Noland Road and Truman Road.
We got there late and checked in a went straight to sleep. Sooo, on every vacation I go on, I forget something! Usually it's something either cheaply replaceable or something I can live without. Examples of recently forgotten items are contact solution, glasses, hairbrush, toothpaste and/or toothbrush, razor, etc. This trip... I forgot pants!! I just made good use of the laundry facilities at our hotel. I did somehow remember jammie pants. I also managed to pack all of everyone else's clothes. sigh.
On Thursday, Brad had research at the Community of Christ Temple. We drove over there to pick him up. We didn't go inside there, but we went across the street to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints Visitor's Center. They had a lot for the kids to do to keep them busy while learning about time in the late 1830s.
Hy looks thrilled, huh?
Driving the covered wagon.
Getting water from the well.
Going into the house.
For dinner, we went to a famous BBQ place called Arthur Bryant's. It is in the bad part of town and was an interesting dining experience. The food was outstanding, some of the best smoked brisket I've ever had. Part way through our meal though the police came and addressed a situation outside. I didn't know what was going on (and my imagination can run quite wild) so I just tried to distract the kids for the rest of the time. We got out and realized that they were taking care of a woman who was publicly intoxicated. Hy's version - "She was pulling faces through the window at a restaurant and that is inappropriate."
Friday, we drove up to Adam-Ondi-Ahman. There is actually no address for it, so finding it on google maps/ mapquest was pretty tricky. We finally got a rough idea of where it was and started driving. About an hour later, we saw an itty bitty sign that said "Adam-Ondi-Ahman take exit" whatever. I looked up and the exit was right there!! That's how all the signs were - small and sudden. On the way there we talked to the kids about how this place is dedicated to Adam and Eve and how when we got there we would think about them and their family playing on the fields and such. We pulled in and got our picnic out and all the fields were black!! They had just burned the fields to re-nitrogenate (?) them. It was rather disappointing. We hiked around and tried to enjoy any beauty we could find. We realized that that must have been how Adam and Eve felt after being cast out of the Garden... kinda disappointed by the ugliness. We took the family picture above with a timer because NO ONE else was there. There was an occasional missionary sighting, but they all seemed busy.
After we left Adam-Ondi-Ahman, we drove to Liberty Jail. Hyrum said, "Doesn't 'liberty' mean freedom? It doesn't make sense." Asher and Samara were, let's say 'tired' (melted down messes), so I stayed in the car with them while Brad took the older boys in.
Saturday Brad was in the Conference, so I took the kids to downtown Kansas City and we went to Science City. It was the Earth Day Festival, so the kids planted seeds and got a tree to plant - everything died and/or spilled in the car on the way home. :(
In a helicopter.
In a colon.
Making cloth fly.
A dark slide that was supposed to be a sewer playground (?)
Making a cloud.
Digging for dinosaur bones.
Sunday we drove home and I can honestly say it was the worst day weather-wise of driving for me ever. It rained from the moment we left our hotel in the morning until the time we got to our house in Michigan. The 11 hour drive took almost 14 hours! We got home around 1am. I couldn't fall asleep for at least another hour because my senses were so heightened. Honestly, the lights and the glare of the road and everything else was just too much!
Fun fact: I found what has to be the longest name for a street anywhere - Higashimurayama Drive. The sign was twice as long as it usually is. It's in Independece, close to the corner of Noland Road and Truman Road.
Saturday, April 25, 2009
Wednesday, April 22, 2009
Broken Arm
I bet you can't guess which member of our family broke their arm today!!
IT
WAS
SAMARA!!!!
WAS
SAMARA!!!!
How is it that with 3 boys, my girl is the one that breaks a bone (other than a nose) first?!?! And none of the brothers had anything to do with it. She fell off of Asher's bed. No amazing story or anything, she just fell off.
I'm pretty sure we could blame the whole thing on Lightening McQueen. She was looking at Asher's stickers when it all happened. I was in the room going through winter and summer clothes, so I know Asher was not a part of it. Hyrum and Isaac were at school. It happened at 9:30am. I didn't think anything was wrong, I mean, she was crying and stuff, even harder than usual, but I really downplayed the whole thing, until around 10:30 I noticed that she was not using her arm at all and was just letting it dangle there. She would not give 'fives' or clap her hands. She also screamed when we tried to get her dressed and her arm through her shirt. Her arm was not swollen or discolored and I had heard that broken bones always cause that, so I just thought it was sore. I called the doctor and she said to take her to the ER. My dear neighbor took Asher and I went with Samara. Brad was home when it initially happened, but he had to go teach, so I dropped him off on the way to U of M Hospital. Samara and I got there and the Resident and Med Student were probably thinking the same thing I had been...this arm isn't broken, this little girl's just a baby and doesn't want to use her arm, but my gut now said there was something wrong. They did x-rays and concluded that she has a buckle fracture in both bones of her forearm (radius and ulna). She fell asleep as we were waiting for the results of the x-ray and she slept throughout the entire splinting process. We will see a Pediatric Orthopedic doctor in the next few days and she will likely be in a cast after that for a few weeks.
I'm pretty sure we could blame the whole thing on Lightening McQueen. She was looking at Asher's stickers when it all happened. I was in the room going through winter and summer clothes, so I know Asher was not a part of it. Hyrum and Isaac were at school. It happened at 9:30am. I didn't think anything was wrong, I mean, she was crying and stuff, even harder than usual, but I really downplayed the whole thing, until around 10:30 I noticed that she was not using her arm at all and was just letting it dangle there. She would not give 'fives' or clap her hands. She also screamed when we tried to get her dressed and her arm through her shirt. Her arm was not swollen or discolored and I had heard that broken bones always cause that, so I just thought it was sore. I called the doctor and she said to take her to the ER. My dear neighbor took Asher and I went with Samara. Brad was home when it initially happened, but he had to go teach, so I dropped him off on the way to U of M Hospital. Samara and I got there and the Resident and Med Student were probably thinking the same thing I had been...this arm isn't broken, this little girl's just a baby and doesn't want to use her arm, but my gut now said there was something wrong. They did x-rays and concluded that she has a buckle fracture in both bones of her forearm (radius and ulna). She fell asleep as we were waiting for the results of the x-ray and she slept throughout the entire splinting process. We will see a Pediatric Orthopedic doctor in the next few days and she will likely be in a cast after that for a few weeks.
Monday, April 20, 2009
Easter and Robot
I have not posted in a long time!!! Isaac made a robot for school and he did it all by himself. All the other kids had their parents help wrap theirs in foil, but Isaac wanted his to stay like it was!! It was 100% recyclable!
Our Easter was eventful. We had a passover meal on Thursday night of lamb, veggies, flatbread, and baked beans. The beans have nothing to do with passover, but they sounded so good and we made them from scratch. We had lessons all weekend on the last week of Christ's life, His death and resurrection. On Easter Sunday, Asher got so sick. He had repeated 'explosions' during the night and was just exhausted all day. We took him to church, but only for the first part. We usually do a formal family picture on Easter, but with Ash being sick, it just wasn't worth it. I did snap a few pics of Samara though.
The Saturday before, though, we did go to the Big House for a Spring Scrimmage. It was free, so we all went. It was fun to go to something like that all together and even though we had to leave after 45 minutes, we didn't feel like we had wasted money.
Our Easter was eventful. We had a passover meal on Thursday night of lamb, veggies, flatbread, and baked beans. The beans have nothing to do with passover, but they sounded so good and we made them from scratch. We had lessons all weekend on the last week of Christ's life, His death and resurrection. On Easter Sunday, Asher got so sick. He had repeated 'explosions' during the night and was just exhausted all day. We took him to church, but only for the first part. We usually do a formal family picture on Easter, but with Ash being sick, it just wasn't worth it. I did snap a few pics of Samara though.
The Saturday before, though, we did go to the Big House for a Spring Scrimmage. It was free, so we all went. It was fun to go to something like that all together and even though we had to leave after 45 minutes, we didn't feel like we had wasted money.
Friday, March 20, 2009
Hair and sleeping
So, we finally cut our boys' hair. This happened because Asher was mistaken for a girl at Wendy's a few weeks ago, but that lady was a little crazy... Anyway, here are the before and afters.
This is how I found Asher at 9pm the other night when I rounded the corner to go to the bathroom. I'm so glad he didn't roll in his sleep! I'm also so glad I had to go potty when I did. From the looks of it all, he went potty after bedtime and took the top of his jams off. The sleeves went inside out, so he couldn't get them back on by himself. He was probably on his way down to ask for help and just got tired.
Thursday, March 12, 2009
Our February
We are all pretty sick for most of February. I neglected a lot of things...including the blog. :( There were some fun parts too though.
Brad and I celebrated our 8th anniversary in February! He surprised me with a trip to Chicago!!! He got babysitters for the kids (thanks Katie, Steve, Janel, and Derek) and we drove the 4 hours and had a really good relaxing weekend. We went to the Second City Comedy Group. We didn't take the camera anywhere around town with us, go figure, but here is a pic in our hotel. (Sorry Brad, not your best pic.)
We came back and most of us were sick for a lot of the month. But then, the kids and Brad got out of school for the last week for Mid-Winter Break and we were all healthy enough that we decided to drive the whole fam to Boston! The drive was about 13-14 hours each way. It was quick - we were only there for a few days. And we forgot our camera and had to settle for the pictures our video camera took (no flash, very pixel-y). We stayed with dear friends who took really good care of us. We walked around hung out at the house, had meals with other good friends, Brad and I walked around Salem, we all went to the Aquarium and saw
downtown and the Atlantic Ocean, we walked around Harvard and Cambridge Commons. The weather was quite cooperative and we missed that huge storm by hours. We drove back and all is well.
Asher downtown.
A very windy day in Cambridge.
Brad and I celebrated our 8th anniversary in February! He surprised me with a trip to Chicago!!! He got babysitters for the kids (thanks Katie, Steve, Janel, and Derek) and we drove the 4 hours and had a really good relaxing weekend. We went to the Second City Comedy Group. We didn't take the camera anywhere around town with us, go figure, but here is a pic in our hotel. (Sorry Brad, not your best pic.)We came back and most of us were sick for a lot of the month. But then, the kids and Brad got out of school for the last week for Mid-Winter Break and we were all healthy enough that we decided to drive the whole fam to Boston! The drive was about 13-14 hours each way. It was quick - we were only there for a few days. And we forgot our camera and had to settle for the pictures our video camera took (no flash, very pixel-y). We stayed with dear friends who took really good care of us. We walked around hung out at the house, had meals with other good friends, Brad and I walked around Salem, we all went to the Aquarium and saw
downtown and the Atlantic Ocean, we walked around Harvard and Cambridge Commons. The weather was quite cooperative and we missed that huge storm by hours. We drove back and all is well.Asher downtown.
A very windy day in Cambridge.
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