We Went Home for Christmas

So, for our big plane ride, I was going to make these toys for the kids by taking 4 pictures of each them in different outfits, dividing the pictures into head, torso, and legs, then modpodging them onto wooden blocks that had a hole drilled in the middle so they could sit on a dowel and spin.  It was going to be fun, right?  Vivi wouldn't make a face other than this one:

The other day (after watching Inside Out), she told me that Joy is annoying, and Sadness is her favorite.  I was not surprised.  This little guy's favorite is Anger, but he's a lot less like his favorite character than others.

Pretty awesome genu valgum going on here

But even though the game didn't work out, we had plenty of other things to pack.  Drew took the day off work so he could help me clean and get ready to go (full points to The Husband!), then when the kids got home from school we were off!  We decided to eat at Coco's Curry for dinner, so we didn't have to worry about dishes.

As we went over the bridge we saw this huge gulp of cormorants out on the river, diving for fish.  It's a bad picture, but it was really cool.  To me.

I'm going to miss this restaurant.  While I do prefer Thai to Japanese curry, it is still really good, and was the perfect way to kick off our journey.

The kids were excited to be at the Iwakuni airport.  The seats in the lobby are a bunch of 5x10x2ish ft leather seats that the kids spent 15 minutes diving headlong onto after a running start.  I didn't take a video, but I should have, because the dives often turned into the kind of face plants where your legs keep going over your head.  We had quite an audience by the end.

We were visited by Vivien's Japanese alter-ego, Bibichan, while we waited for the plane.  Bibichan is my favorite.  She only comes out every once in awhile, but she's very big on rules and teaches us about them with all the authority of a sensei.  She lectured us for a long time about how "purain cana rando on buriji" (the plane cannot land on a bridge), along with other safety instructions for the flight.  Thanks to Bibichan's direction, our flight from Iwakuni to Tokyo went very smoothly.  Andelynn spent her maiden voyage sleeping.

Spending the layover in the children's area.  I love having an excuse to hang around here, because we meet parents and their children from all over the world.  

But she spent her maiden layover not sleeping.  And unfortunately, the roar of the airplane over the ocean failed to knock her out, so I think we spent all but 2 hours of the long flight bouncing in the aisles that night.  By the time we got to SFO, she could no longer keep her heavy lids from veiling her red-rimmed eyes

All the chins that I thought were tucked into my jacket collar were actually resting on top. Oh well.

Vivien stayed up till about 4am (her time) playing "the haircut game."  It's a Toca Boca app.  Highly recommend!

Rafe also stayed up far too late watching movies on the iPad.  He was pretty done by the time we had to pick up our bags to go through customs.  

But we made it!  And it was wonderful to crash into bed at Grandma Paula's house.

I have a hard time documenting our trips in Utah.  So much of my motivation for picture taking comes from that "wish you were here" feeling I get whenever I do fun things without my family, so when we're with family, I don't feel prompted to get my camera out as often.  Luckily other people take pictures for me, so all the fun things we got to do can be remembered!  

Snowshoeing up the canyon

Every year the Webster's decorate a tree for the animals on Christmas Eve with things like PB pinecones and hay and apple slices.  Because they are good people.  And it's fun!

Annie and I stayed behind for a much needed nap, but everyone was great to pitch in carrying the rest of the littles

I love to see the hats I made for the kids being well used!

Snow angels with cousin Jackson.  Rafe's not sure.

Skiing with brothers

I'm going to make Drew do a guest post one of these days so he can tell you about the fun things I wasn't present for.  All I can say about this activity is that they had fun!

Ice Skating at the Gallivan Center

Vivi did awesome.  She was scooting along without help by the end, though we had to stay pretty close because when she lost it, she lost it fast and hard!  I want to say ice skating with Rafe was like dragging a sack of potatoes, but I think that would've been much easier to take around the rink than Rafe was.  His feet kept getting crossed or shooting out to the side for us to trip over.  I only biffed it really hard once.  As we were leaving Drew ran into the girl he was dating right before we got engaged.  It was an exciting day!

Cross Country Skiing up the Canyon

This was a daddy daughter date one morning after it had snowed.  It was absolutely gorgeous up the canyon.

The clouds in the valley gave way to blue skies the further up we drove.

As we glided along I started thinking about how fun it would be to live in the far North and have to cross country ski everywhere I needed to go.  Then I thought about towing groceries home on skis, and how I have a hard enough time getting to the grocery store that's a two minute walk from my house . . .

But I had a fun time with my Daddio.

Isaac's Ice Hockey Game

It was his first game back after a 6 game suspension for "almost" hitting someone with his stick after they checked him into the side of the rink (it's a no-checking league).  He kept telling us he was out of shape and slow, but he can skate exponentially better than any of us, so we were having a hard time tempering our admiration.  They won!  But the combination of sweaty hockey pads and the girls indoor soccer league games going on on the other side or the rink made for a pretty pungent viewing experience.

Snow Tubbing

The kids would've sat in the hot tub every day we were there.  

Christmas

We didn't give Andelynn any presents for Christmas this year.  She was perfectly content to gum everyone else's.

Rafe took a minute to warm up to the idea of opening Christmas presents, preferring to snuggle with Grandma Paula instead.  

Santa brought a lot of little things this year.

A necklace and nail polish for the Vivs . . .

. . . and hot wheels cars for Rafe.  He especially likes his helicopter.

Always after Christmas Day Drew and I turn to each other and say "Seriously good haul this year!"  Because it always is.  We have good gift givers in our family!

Going to the dentist

Neither child wanted to go by themselves, so Dr. Greenwood did them both at once.  And he did a great job teaching me about how to care for kids teeth.  I learned that apparently you're supposed to brush your teeth for two minutes, which I'm pretty sure I'd never done in my life before they sent us home with little sand timers so we can't cheat.  But the best part of the day is that there were no cavities (not even me, after my 3 pregnancies in the last 2 years!), so everyone got a Tuffy Tooth shirt.

Puppy Barn with Tia Kate

Let's just say there was a lot of oooohing and aaaaaaahing going on at the Puppy Barn.  

Kaitlyn is really good at juggling puppies and babies and kids.  It must be because she's a teacher!

I promise there were other puppies there, but apparently we only took pictures with these boxer pups.

 I was a little worried about Rafe because he has a phobia of wolves.  I mean he's afraid of dogs.  But he seemed less hesitant than disinterested, and spent most of our visit climbing on the hay bales and doing his best to knock over the puppy buckets unintentionally.

Hanging out with family

We were so grateful to be able to spend some time with Marcus and Melanie and Daniel and Camille.  Many games were played, many laughs were shared.   

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Andelynn and Baby Rett got acquainted in 4-month-old fashion (i.e. trying to gouge each other's eyes out but not being coordinated enough to do it). 

Andelynn started figuring out how to roll while we were there and spent a good deal of time getting wedged against furniture.

Unless someone picked her up and snuggled her.

Auntie Coco is very good with all her nieces and nephews.

They had a great time playing with her.

Celebrating marriage

Happy 7th anniversary to us!  We went to the temple and did sealings together, then we went and saw Star Wars (again!) that night.  

We drove past the new Provo City Center temple and were sad we wouldn't be around for the open house, but glad we got to see it.  That didn't really have anything to do with celebrating marriage, but it's a temple, so I stuck it here anyway.

Haley and Jacob had a lot to do with marriage this trip though!  Yay!  Married!  Happy!

Reception finery.  And burp cloth.

There were a lot of these pictures where Kait and I were actually looking at the camera, but this is my favorite one.  Someone was funny!

The kids enjoyed looking at all the knick-knacks decorating the reception.

And Andelynn was surprisingly happy through it all.  I looked down at one point during pictures to find her totally passed out in my arms.  It was a long day for the babes.  And it got longer; I hadn't been able to pump a bottle for Annie, so when Mark and Paula took her home for me that night they had to give her formula, and she spent the next 4 hours vomiting pitifully.  But she looked beautiful at the reception!

All too soon, it was time to go home.  My first flight with 3 children and no Drew . . . Thankfully there were many kind people in the airports that night.  In Salt Lake we sat next to this beautiful Armenian family.  We also saw Uncle Clair on his weekly commute, so that was fun.

The nice ANA people helped me get set up in a bassinet seat for the long flight.  The kids were asleep as soon as we left the gate, and Andelynn slept a good chunk of the night as well.

We spent a lovely layover in Tokyo, playing in the kids area in the sunshine.

And then Drew was there to pick us up when we got home!  I had left our creepy little cocooned caterpillar in the care of a neighbor while we were gone, but I don't think she noticed it hatching, because it was still in the jar when Drew got home . . .

In other news, I'm losing all my hair.  This is how much of it falls out of my head every single time I wash it (all the husbands cringe in disgust at the dreaded shower-wall hairball).

And it's back to life as usual!
Some funnies, before I close . . .

Me: (when Vivi started crying again after an especially hard day) Oh Vivi! You are just so fragile today.
Vivi: sniffing I'm really fragile. And special to God

Vivi's been trying to find matchy sounds in words lately.  Usually they're things like, "'Grover' is the same as 'grow'."  But sometimes they're a little more obscure.  Like when we had sour cream and chive Triscuits the other day, she said, "Like me!"  It took me a minute, but then I said, "You're right!  'Chive' and 'Vivien.'

Sometimes I get tired of saying "you're right!" so I throw in a different word every now and then.  But now Vivi's started describing herself as "correct," as though it were a physical characteristic, like being blonde.  "I am correct."

I walked in on Rafe the other day sitting on the ground chanting, "My skinny LEGS!  My skinny LEGS!"

After family prayer that Drew gave the other day, Vivi made a frustrated noise and exclaimed, "That was too long!  My neck is sore."

At dinner I turned to Drew and said, "I'm really enjoying Memoirs of a Geisha." (I was reading it at the time).  He thought I said, "I'm really enjoying the Mars Litigation."

The other day Vivi was dangling her foot in front of something I was working on, "Try to get it!  Try to get it!"  So I grabbed it, and when she couldn't get away, she quickly changed her tune to, "Try to let it go!"

Cleaning up Vivi's room I started singing the dance music from the Ice Cream Social in The Music Man.
Vivi: Where did you learn that song?
Me: It's from The Music Man.
Vivi: flatly Who?
Me:  . . .
Vivi: Who is the Music Man?

Vivi, looking at Andelynn's gums: When I was a baby my teeth were stuck in my goo's.