From Here to There to Here

Last week I flew from my local airport to Chicago, from Chicago to Denver, then from Denver to Idaho Falls. I now know that the Chicago airport has a dinosaur in it.

I also learned that United gives these gluten free goodies out as a snack.

Here I am with one of the people I came to visit, my youngest brother, Isaac.

It snowed while I was there. I was not pleased. I had to use my hotel key envelope to scrape the frozen stuff off my rental car. When that turned into a pulpy mess I resorted to just shoving the snow off with my arms.

My sister-in-law Falisha and I went to an art museum that included these lovely pieces. The combination of art and the written word really speaks to my soul.

She and I also enjoyed walking along the Snake River.

I took advantage of staying in a hotel less than a mile from the Idaho Falls Temple and walked over to do a session on Saturday morning. It was lovely. I especially appreciated that the weather cooperated, this was the nicest day we had while I was there.

On Tuesday I flew from Idaho Falls to Denver in a tiny plane.

As soon as we landed in Denver I took my phone out of airplane mode and discovered that my next flight (from Denver to Chicago) was delayed. Then as I exited the plane it was delayed even further. By the time I was in the Denver airport my next flight had been delayed so much that I was going to miss my connecting flight to get home.

I texted Bryan to update him on what was happening and we tried to find a solution. The United app gave me the option of rescheduling to a flight that would change my arrival time from 9:33 Tuesday night to 11:15 Wednesday morning. I didn't want to do that.

I decided to walk to my gate, even though the flight was so delayed. As I went I noticed a gate saying the next flight was going to Philadelphia. I had the thought that I needed to get on that plane. I tried to call United customer service and was bumped to a text conversation with an AI. 

When I got to my gate I saw that my Chicago flight was next, followed by a flight to Philly. I opened the app again and this time it gave me the option of a video chat. I was put through to a person almost immediately. I explained that my flight was delayed so I was going to miss my connecting flight. I said that if I could get to Philadelphia I could get home. I asked him if I could move my seat to the later Philadelphia flight. He said that plane was full, but there happened to be a flight to Philly leaving at 1:40 that had space that he could move me to.

It was a few minutes after 1:00 at this point.

While he changed my ticket I turned around and booked it back to the first gate I had passed, the one that I felt I should get on. That was the flight! I walked up as they were already boarding, told the situation to the gate agent, got a new boarding pass, then walked on to the new plane. The customer service agent stayed on the call with me until it was all fixed and I was walking down the gangplank.

I was so thankful that it worked out. Bryan was able to shift his schedule to pick me up and Cooper and Phoebe took over bedtime duties with Topher and Sophie (Peter was at work).

This is what the middle of the county looked like from the plane.

This is what Pennsylvania looked like from the air.

I exited the flight, so happy to be on the ground two hours earlier than my original itinerary dictated. I was waiting for Bryan at the curb outside the airport when I discovered that my third flight, the one I was going to miss, had been delayed. And delayed again. And then canceled. If I hadn't switched my flight I would have been stuck in Chicago.

I think that experience was a tender mercy.

Thanks for letting me visit, Falisha and Isaac!

Charity Suffereth Long and Is Kind

With all the stress and worry and difficulty of last week, we would have been much worse off if not for some help that we received.

On Monday evening of last week I got a text from my brother that lives just a few hours away, offering to help. Then his wonderful wife sent a text saying that she didn't work the next day and that they could be at the hospital/house in three hours. At that point I had only slept for two and a half hours during the last two days, so I said yes. They drove two cars up; Leah came to the hospital and held Topher so I could sleep and Jordan came to the house to help Bryan. They were an answer to prayer.

After transporting the girls to and from dance and doing the bedtime routine so Bryan could come to the hospital, Leah drove home Tuesday night. Jordan stayed and worked remotely for the next two days. In the early hours of Wednesday morning I learned that my brother Isaac and his fantastic wife Falisha had offered to fly out from California to help. They would arrive on Thursday and Friday. That meant I just needed to get through another few days flying solo at the hospital.

Later that morning, after the sun was up, a friend from church texted and asked if she could come hold Topher so I could sleep. This was shortly after I had started pumping and was feeling a little frantic about taking care of both of us. I said yes. I did the same when four other friends made the same offer. These marvelous women came and held my baby and kept me company and made it possible for me to sleep. I don't know how I would have handled everything without these sweet ladies from church.

Isaac and Falisha have been a great help, first at home so Bryan could come to the hospital, then to me and Topher when Bryan was home with the other kids, and finally in taking care of all of us when we were home again but exhausted. They've both gotten sick while here, but continued to help anyway. They will go home today and we will miss them so much.

Our family has been blessed by so many people through these hard weeks, those that came and gave their time and those that prayed and checked on us from afar. These are the best Valentine's Day gifts we could have hoped for.

Family Pictures 2015

On Thanksgiving Day we delayed dinner, donned our fancy clothes, and gathered in our living room for pictures.

My favorite might be this one where no one is looking at the camera.

We also have several where almost everyone is looking at the camera and almost everyone is smiling. These are the best two from that batch.

The last time all of my siblings were together was almost four years ago at Paige's wedding. That is simply too long. We need to figure out how to see each other on a more regular basis.

The best picture of the session was made possible by the promise of fruit snacks if everyone smiled and looked at the camera. It totally worked.

Question Eight

I'm following questions one and two with question eight on the personal history project. Yes, I realize I'm missing some numbers in there. Three through seven were about other people and I decided to answer those in a more private setting. Question eight is also about other people, but it's my memory and perspective of them, so I'm going to allow it!

What are the names of your brothers and sisters?  Describe one or more things that stand out in your mind about each of your siblings.

I am the oldest of the kids in my family. Next is my brother Ian. As a family, we are a funny bunch of people. Humor is a highly valued trait. Of my siblings and I, Ian is the funniest. He can spin tales that send you into peals of laughter. And it's not just how he constructs the stories, it's also how he delivers them. An eyebrow pop here, a head tilt there, he instinctively understands what will get the best reactions from those that are listening. 

After Ian is Jordan. I mentally have two version of Jordan that compete for space in my head. As a child Jordan was larger than life. He was tall and loud. Despite being the youngest for almost four years (or perhaps because of it) he was often the loudest person in the house, regardless of the situation. His laugh is still loud, but adult Jordan is not the same kind of loud that he was as a child. He has grown much more reserved and understated. His humor has become so dry you have to know him well to catch all of his jokes, and even then I'm sure there are some that I miss. He is the tallest of my siblings and his height still gives him a larger than life quality, but now instead of being boisterous, he carries an air of gravitas.

Paige, my only sister, was born after a long gap. According to my mom, Paige was more of an oldest child than a fourth. True to her name, Paige is an excellent example of service. When Peter was born she came and lived with us for five months and took care of him so I could go back to work. She did something similar for my brother. When we moved out here she came and helped wrangle children so I could unpack. She spends her time taking care of those around her.

Isaac is the youngest. When he was a child he liked to tell people that he was named after a prophet. It is appropriate then that Isaac is so spiritual. He lives his faith. He prays for answers, then follows those promptings no matter what. I love talking to Isaac about spiritual experiences he or I have had. I think that it is his spiritual nature that has helped him to be such a good husband to his sweet wife.

The Reunion Tour

It's time for me to inundate you with pictures!

I know you've been itching to find out how our drive across the country went. Well my friends, your wait is over, at least partially. I'm not going to cover a whole week in one post; that would be crazy.

But I will write about a weekend.

We finished cleaning and checked out of our Washington house on the last day of July. It took longer than we had planned for (as always) so we didn't even start our drive until dinner time. This meant that we didn't arrive in Boise, Idaho (our night's destination) until 3 in the morning. We had lots of late nights on the trip, but that was the latest.

Since I knew we were traveling across the country I looked to see which friends and family members we would be passing. It turned into quite a reunion tour. First we saw my friend Elise. She lives halfway between Boise and Utah Valley (which was our next stop) and let our motion-starved kids run wild through her house, for which we were thankful. And she fed us! It was lovely.

That night in Utah we had a big ol' sleepover. Remember the friends that drove up to see us when we were in Utah in May? Well they offered to let us crash at their house. It was sooooooo fun. It was also the best night sleep I had had in weeks. The next morning we didn't want to leave. We just wanted to stay and play with our friends. We finally pulled ourselves together and returned our friends' home to a normal decibel level. Thank you Brett and Ben!

As luck would have it, my brother Isaac and sister-in-law Falisha happened to be visiting Utah Valley from Idaho, so they spent the afternoon wandering around BYU with us. I loved getting to see them and the kids loved getting to play with them. Bonus: we went to the Museum of Art on campus and saw the exhibit advertised in the picture below. It was really cool. Phoebe especially loved all the ball gowns they had on display.

Bryan's brother Spencer came and spent time with us as well, including a stop at In N' Out, which really doesn't require an explanation. Also, I found it amusing that my youngest brother and Bryan's youngest brother had a great time chatting about math, calculus if memory serves. Sure boys, whatever makes you happy.

We also saw two more dear friends that day, but somehow I failed to take pictures. I've been kicking myself about it ever since. Charlynn, thank you for taking time to come see us! Gretel, thank you for letting us stop by! I'm so happy I got to see both of you.

After haircuts and a mall stop for some new jeans (I don't recommend eating bread and jam while traveling at 2 in the morning, you'll probably spill), we headed up to Bryan's grandparents' for the night.

The next day we went to church with Bryan's brother Dallin and his wife Melody. Phoebe adores both Aunt Falisha and Aunt Melody, so seeing them in the same weekend was kind of a big deal for her. Sadly, I again failed to pull out my camera for most of the day. I did catch this fun exchange between Dallin and Sophie.

I squeezed in one more friend visit before the traditional family Sunday dinner at Bryan's grandparents' house. Sophie and I drove twenty minutes to see my friend Makana and meet her sweet newborn baby girls. If we had come through the next weekend I would have missed her, but I caught her before she and her family moved to Texas.

Bryan and I stayed up late on Sunday night making sure the laundry was clean and the car was packed to begin the big drive across the country the next morning.

Storytime

We had a short visit from Uncle Isaac and Aunt Falisha tonight. They got here in time to read bedtime stories and they were very helpful as I got kids into pajamas and brushed teeth.

Hooray for aunts and uncles!

Wedding Bells

We've spent the last two days recovering from the weekend. I didn't post on Friday because we had so much going on and I wasn't organized enough to post in advance. What were we doing that took so much time, you ask?

We were celebrating these two.

Isaac, my youngest brother, got married on Friday evening.

I've gotten to spend some time with my new sister-in-law and she's swell. She's a good match for Isaac. And the small people at my house happen to think she's fantastic. Last week they stopped asking when Uncle Isaac was going to come over and started asking when Falisha was going to come play.

I helped with the family dinner after the sealing and spent the better part of Friday morning and afternoon getting ready for it. And I didn't take any pictures.

Blargh.

Just know that it turned out well. For centerpieces I covered mason jars with tissue paper in the wedding colors (half in teal and half in cream) and tied a ribbon around it to hold the paper in place (like this, but my bows were much smaller). Then my amazing visiting teachers (who had helped us setup that morning) came while we were at the sealing and filled the jars with wildflowers. It was simple, but it was nice.

We had the dinner catered by Kneaders. It was superb. I highly recommend them.

At every table was a stack of 4x6 cards and a few permanent markers. Each guest was instructed to write marriage advice for Isaac and Falisha. After the dinner we

gathered them all up and I put them into a photo album for the bride and groom. Most of the advice (which I read while I was compiling it) was sweet, some was funny, and at least two contradicted each other. My favorite was Peter's. He included an epilogue.

We all had to be gussied-up on Friday and then again on Saturday for the reception. All four of the sisters (between Isaac and Falisha) were bridesmaids. Our outfits were really cute, I actually wore mine to church yesterday. But of course, I didn't take pictures of it either. Well, I took this picture while Cooper was throwing a tantrum (that happened a lot this weekend) (tantrums, not me taking pictures during tantrums) so at least you have an idea of the color scheme.

All the men had teal ties, including the miniature men.

The best pictures I have are of Phoebe. And, next to the bride, I think Phoebe was the most popular girl at every wedding function. (Thanks to Paige for letting me use some of the pictures she took.)

Phoebe was fascinated by the goldfish in the centerpieces at the reception, can you tell?

Congratulations Isaac and Falisha!

Uncle Time

North

Once upon a time there was a big sister who wanted to visit her youngest brother. She suggested the trip to her family and they agreed to drive five hours one way, visit for a few hours, and drive five hours back.

They were completely insane.

Though the trip was grueling (especially with the three small people they invited to join them) they very much enjoyed their time with the youngest brother.

They look forward to seeing the brother again soon, but hope that he will make the trek to them next time.

The End.

Mr. Water Bottle

My youngest brother made this and posted it on his blog yesterday.

And I think it's awesome.

With his permission, I'm putting it here.

I'm proud of Isaac, and not just because of this sweet video that he made. Isaac starts his first semester at BYU-Idaho on Monday and I'm thrilled for his new adventure.

I Hope They Call Me On a Mission

I had the privilege of seeing my two youngest siblings into the Missionary Training Center on Wednesday. I also got to do this for my other two brothers as well as Bryan's sister and brother. I didn't serve a full-time mission, but I've put in a nice amount of time in the MTC anyway.

Paige is going to the Washington D.C. South Mission and Isaac is going to the North Carolina Charlotte Mission. Some of the volunteer missionaries that direct you where to go in the MTC noticed that Paige and Isaac had the same last name on their tags and commented about what a neat coincidence it was that they were going into the MTC on the same day. I do think it was neat, but I don't think it was a coincidence.

As a side note, Peter spent most of Wednesday afternoon singing "Called to Serve" at the top of his lungs. It was awesome.

Here are some pictures from our very rainy trip to the MTC.