Walking the Plank

For Family Home Evening on Monday we talked about how important it is to listen at church. Bryan started by having everyone share one thing they learned from their classes the day before.

Phoebe said she learned about snacks, which is probably the highlight of nursery for her. Peter learned about being a missionary. Bryan and I both learned about ordinances. And Cooper said he learned about saving people. When we dug a little deeper we discovered that Cooper learned about saving people from pirates.

We both thought he was telling us a tale. Our children are known for their excellent imaginations, so this was not out of the realm of possibility. We moved on with the lesson.

In preparation to move, I've been sorting through piles and piles of papers. These include papers from school, papers from church, art projects from home. I've photographed and discarded many and saved a few. It was during this project that I came across Cooper's paper from church on Sunday.

Need a closer look at the words?

I guess he wasn't spinning a yarn after all.

Can You Tie It In a Bow?

I had a "well, duh" kind of epiphany last week. Phoebe found a ribbon and brought it to me. I asked if I could put it in her hair. Phoebe has uber-fine hair, like me. That means I can't do much with it because it slips through my fingers like sand. But a ponytail? That I can handle, though it never looks terribly polished.

I tied a bow around her ponytail and witnessed a transformation. She changed from, "Gee, that poor girl's hair is kind of all over the place, why doesn't someone brush it?" to "Oh how sweet! Her hair looks darling."

Seriously, who knew one ribbon could have such power?

To the Sea

Jumping back in time a bit, on our last full day in Oregon we drove to the coast. We passed through the town where The Goonies was filmed and landed in Seaside, Oregon. Phoebe kept telling us that she needed her swim suit to go to the beach; we kept telling her that this was not that kind of beach. when we finally got out of the car and were almost blown away by the wind, she finally believed us.

We found shells on the beach.

We found a good touristy photo-op.

We went to a tiny little aquarium that was kind of sad. We didn't take any pictures there. I guess the Monterey Bay Aquarium has ruined us for other aquariums.

Then we drove south and visited the Tillamook Chesse Factory. Not only were the cheese samples delicious, they had the best sugar-free ice cream I've ever tasted. I heard the full-sugar stuff was pretty good too.

It was a good day.

Girl Power

During church on Sunday Phoebe motioned toward the hymnal and said she wanted "that."

I pointed to it and said, "Do you want the hymn book?" She said yes, but sadly couldn't have it because she'd been irreverent.

A few minutes later she asked, "Mommy, can I have the human book?"

She took it one step further later in the meeting when she asked for the book again.

I prompted her to call it by its name and asked, "Do you want the hymn book?"

She set her face in an indignant expression and said, "No! I want a HER book."

My little feminist...

Stadium of Fire

For the night of the 4th of July we got to cross off one of the big items on our Utah bucket list. Thanks to Bryan's brother, we went to Stadium of Fire. Dallin had access to discounted tickets and he and his wife treated us as birthday gifts to me and Bryan. We had never been, but had wanted to for quite some time.

Stadium of Fire is a huge concert and fireworks show that the city of Provo puts on every year at the BYU stadium. During the show, the organizer told the crowd that it was the largest stadium fireworks show in the country. This year the headliner was Kelly Clarkson.

Peter does not like fireworks, he never has. They're too loud and he's not a big fan of things that burn. When we told the kids we would be going, Cooper and Phoebe were excited, Peter was terrified.

He sat and worried all through the welcome and opening dance number, he continued through the color guard and the National Anthem. The opening act of Carly Rae Jepsen didn't assuage his fears, nor did the performance from Cirque du Soleil. But when Kelly Clarkson broke into song, he forgot about the fireworks. I think she's gained a new fan.

Seriously though, she put on a great show. Granted, I don't have anything to compare it to. If you don't count shows of the choir and band variety, this was my first concert. It only took me thirty-three years to get to one. The whole crowd danced and sang along, but no one danced quite as much as Phoebe. She was feeling it. That girl has dancing in her soul.

Cooper enjoyed it too, but by the time the fireworks started he leaned over and asked if it was bedtime yet. Considering it didn't even start until an hour past bedtime, I don't blame him for being tired.

Peter handled the fireworks, mostly. He didn't start to fret until after they'd been going on for some time. Cooper snuggled against me and watched the lights explode over our heads. And Phoebe? About a quarter of the way through she nodded off. I knew she was good at sleeping through the boys' din, but that night she exhibited true powers of blocking out noise.

We got home around 11:30, Phoebe still asleep and the boys dragging. Cooper put himself to bed without being prompted, the first time in his life that has happened. Peter finally submitted to sleep sometime after 12:30. We warned Dallin and Melody, who were staying at our house that night, that everyone would wake up at seven, regardless of what time they'd gone to sleep.

But guess what!? We were wrong! Phoebe was the first one up (and I was a close second due to her insistent calls) and she didn't rouse until 9:20! I call that an Independence Day miracle.

Thank you Dallin and Melody!

 Red, white, and blue

 Uncle Dallin, Aunt Melody, and Peter at the stadium

 Oh, look! Cooper's there too!

 Proof Phoebe and I were there

Phoebe starting to dance

Proof that Bryan was there and that Peter was nervous

Colonial Days

For our Independence Day we went to a recreated colonial village. It was awesome.

We learned about bread baking, the creation of the flag, and helped work an actual printing press. The weather was hot and the kids were grumpy about being at a park but not playing at the playground, but we still got to do a few cool things.

We tried on costumes.

Cooper got to see where his name came from.

Oh, and more costumes.

We also had a fun evening, but that post will have to wait for another day.

What did you do to celebrate?

Fireworks

Happy Independence Day!

It's So Much Fun Not Knowin' Where You're Goin'

In addition to finding a new place to live, Bryan took a few hours one day and met his new boss. The kids and I had the choice of either sitting in the parking structure for an undetermined amount of time or waiting around the hotel. We chose the latter.

We had done enough driving over the last few days that I had a vague idea of my surroundings, so I decided the kids and I would take a walk. It was raining (shocking, being in the rain forest of the Northwest, I know), but we donned our raincoats and braved the elements.

Really, the brave part came from just walking and wandering and not really knowing where we were. I've written before about my sense of direction, so we could have ended up anywhere. Luckily, I started us heading the right way and soon we came to a green belt, possibly meant for local business people to enjoy during breaks and lunch hours. We wandered around that for a bit and found a small amphitheatre. The boys took the opportunity to run around the performance space. Phoebe felt that it was the perfect spot to put on a show. So she did.

After that we kept walking, but not back in the direction from which we came. By my calculations Bryan was probably finishing his meeting and would no doubt be willing to pick us up wherever we landed.  I was right on both counts.

Soon the children started to complain that they were tired. They had walked too far, shouldn't we turn back? I realized that this was the first real physical activity they'd had in days since they'd been stuck in a vehicle for so long. Their usual boundless energy had been curtailed by hours of sitting.

Luckily, just as the whining had grown intense, Bryan called to ask where we were. We were near an intersection and a store (double win for the girl who can't find her way out of a paper bag), so I was able to give him our location. He swooped over and rescued the children from additional exercise.

By the way, if you know the origin of the title of this post, I will give you a prize.

New Digs

I mentioned last week that we found a place to live. And good news, it's bigger than where we live now. Granted, most things are bigger than where we live now.

I saw a listing for the house two nights before we drove out there. After looking at the pictures I announced to Bryan, "Well, I found our new house." We both filled out applications that night and when Bryan called in the morning we discovered we were the first in line for the property. He made an appointment to see it the following Monday.

We had been counseled by a few different people to look at Vancouver, Washington as well as Portland, Oregon and its suburbs. We drove all day Saturday and then, after going to church, spent most of Sunday driving around getting a feel for the different towns.

Portland is cool, and it knows. It's also dirty in a big city kind of way. Now, we're not talking LA or Paris dirty, just generally rundown. Also, Portland is uber friendly to homeless people. I'm afraid I'm simply not cool enough for Portland. The towns south of Portland were nicer, and the area around the Temple was especially lovely. It reminded me of La Jolla (where the San Diego Temple is located), I just needed to switch out the palm trees for pine. But it was also more expensive down there. And it was a farther commute for Bryan.

Our hotel was actually across the Columbia near Vancouver. I was impressed with how clean and well maintained everything appeared. I did a little research and found that the cost of living is twenty percent lower in Vancouver than it is in Portland. The schools, in general, are rated higher. And that house we found that we had an appointment for? It was on the Washington side of the border.

We saw the house and we liked it. The biggest drawback for me is that the school district has all-day kindergarten. Some people like that; it was almost a deal-breaker for me. Cooper has never done preschool, aside from one semester of Joy School. I'm really concerned about how he's going to handle it.

Other than that, it was nice. It has four bedrooms, two and a half baths, a backyard, a garage, and no registered sex offenders living nearby. Yeah, that's one of the things I check on whenever we move and one reason we're so darn picky. And the ward that we found to attend while we were there is the ward we're moving into.

After we saw the house we spent several hours trying to see other houses, just to have a comparison. Everything we saw was either already rented, looked scary in person, gave us weird vibes (for real), or the property managers wouldn't answer their phones. The one we saw was really and truly the only one we could see.

We took the hint and prayed about the house. Like I said, I was really uncomfortable about the kindergarten thing. But we both felt good about it. So, now we have a place to live.

Want to see a few pictures? In keeping with tradition, I'm not going to show you the front of the house or even tell you exactly (or approximately) where it is, but I'll show you a few shots I pulled off the listing.

Peter has been requesting three things from each prospective domicile for the last three years. This house has all of them.

Number One: Backyard 

Number Two: Fireplace 

(This will be my first fireplace too and I will most likely never turn it on, but it looks pretty.) 

Number Three: Stairs

It also has the things I wanted like a dishwasher and washer/dryer hookups and more than one bathroom. The kitchen is smaller than the one we had in our condo, but at least twice as big (probably more) than our current kitchen.

There are bedrooms upstairs, but they all look similar, so I won't add those pictures. We're both in a bit of shock that we found a place so fast. We have friends that went on house-hunting trips and returned empty-handed. We're very thankful.

When we told the kids we would be living there they were excited. Peter asked if we could have the keys right away so we could go run around the new house. He was disappointed to learn that we wouldn't get them until later. But we did drive by the house everyday we were there, no doubt making our new neighbors nervous and suspicious.

Bridge Over Troubled Water

Oregon has a lot of bridges, did you know? The kids loved them. I had different feelings that I tried to keep to myself.

Have I ever written about my feelings for bridges? They're tall, and skinny, and generally span massive crevasses in the earth. I suppose they wouldn't give me such pause, except for the fact that I have a recurring nightmare about them. In this dream I'm driving and suddenly the car is breaking through the guardrail and flying through the air. Dark, huh?

Bryan knows about my bridge phobia. By the end of the trip, I was handling them much better, especially the wide bridges. But the extra skinny/tall bridges? Well, whenever we went over one Bryan had to speak to me in a soothing voice to tell me we were okay.

The bridges will take some getting used to.