When he joined us

Drew arrived conference weekend.  I watched the morning session at my parents' house, then I spent the afternoon session packing up stuff and moving it to the Forbes's.  The kids elected to stay behind at Grandma's house rather than go to the airport; too long of a drive, they said.  And they would've had to change out of their pajamas . . .

I think the escalators coming down into baggage claim at SLC airport are so funny.  You see a pair of shoes and legs, and you think it could be your person . . . and then it's like a 65 year old man with a flowing white beard.  Drew did finally come down the escalator though, accompanied by my violin, which he had couriered safely across the seas as a carry-on for me, for which I am grateful.  It does not like the severe climate and temperature changes associated with airplane travel.

Sometimes when I've picked Drew up at the airport after being separated for awhile I have this horrible feeling that he will have forgotten that he likes me, so I find myself awkwardly watching him closely for signs of genuine affection.  It was better this time.  We're going to have lots of practice with goodbyes and homecomings this duty station.  I don't know if I have it in me to do the high heels and flirty dresses and cutesy signs, but I think I can manage to tone down the suspicion.

The kids were delighted to have their Daddy back.  Annie has a smile just for her Daddy that is heart melting.  And it was nice to have my bedtime helper around again.

Vivi and Rafe share a bedroom right across from Grandma Paula and Papa Mark's room when we stay there.  This arrangement works well as long as Rafe falls asleep quickly.  Otherwise, they will play/fight for hours.

We gave Drew a couple of days to sleep off the travel (we're definitely going to need to review our conference Ensign this time around), and then the eating began, because that apparently is what Americans do.  We were watching a movie on TV one night, and after only seeing AFN commercials for the last 3 years, we were blown away by the food commercials--dish after dish of food that is so blatantly unhealthy, I feel like they're going for shock factor instead of actual taste.  My mom was on a very strict diet while I was staying with them so we ate at home most of the time.  Drew was on no such diet.  We woke up on his birthday morning and went to IHOP to celebrate.  We thoroughly enjoyed not having to wait an hour for our breakfast.

After IHOP we met my mom and Rose at the Thanksgiving Point Farm, because that is what you do on your birthday when you turn 31.

 Happy Happy Birthday, from all of us to you.  We're glad that it's your birthday, so we can party too!

Once Drew joined us we had to start doing all the adulty things, like getting US phones and finding vehicles and updating insurance, etc.  So, after the farm we went car shopping.  We found a nice 2006 Kia Sedona in Orem but had a devil of a time finding a place to pull enough money out for it since we bank with USAA and they don't really have any physical locations nearby.  We thought about doing money orders from the post office, but they were going to have to do a whole bunch of separate transactions and it sounded like it was going to be kind of a pain for the car dealer, so we left and just pulled out money from a nearby partnering bank (worth the detour, since we got to admire the Provo City Center Temple).  So, Drew walked around for the rest of his birthday with $6,000 in cash in his jacket pocket, and we were suddenly very worried about getting mugged. . .

We met everyone that could make it at Los Hermanos for dinner that night.  They seated us in my favorite room with my favorite people.  Drew graciously endured his birthday "song" from the waiters.  

 When we stay at the Forbes's, it is a very long day for the kids before Grandma and Grandpa come home from work, so we have to keep ourselves busy.  We continued to enjoy spending time outside.  Paula grew these beautiful pumpkins from seeds she's collected annually from the fruit for the last 4 years.  

 Vivien did a little collecting and then lent her unique style to Paula's interior decor.

And when being home isn't going to cut it anymore, we go out!  I had seen pictures of a park in Saratoga Springs on a friend's Instagram profile several months ago and was intrigued, so we decided to visit.  It was awesome!  The structure Drew is on in the picture below has a bunch of buzzers that light up different colors.  There were several different games you could play, either by yourself or on teams (matching, memory, push all the buzzers before the time runs out, etc.).  It was very easy to feel like a kid again, until I had to climb or jump for any of the buzzers.  Then I definitely felt like the semi-active, pregnant, almost-30-year-old that I am.  

 With assistance and encouragement from Daddy, both older kids climbed to the top of the pyramid.  Vivien is already on the way down in this picture.  She did not enjoy the climb up.

 Annie stayed groundside with me to eat dirt and sticks.  Her favorite.  I would definitely go to this park again!  It is called Neptune Park.

The weekend after conference we had a Brunsdale family reunion up in Park City (my children were understandably disappointed by the lack of amazing children's parks on every corner.  That was a cruel trick, Park City.).  My parents rented a house near the Silver Star Ski Resort.  It was a really nice house.  When we arrived Rafe and Vivien raced from room to room, taking it all in.  After they'd made the full circuit, Rafe pounded into the kitchen and shouted, "THIS IS THE BEST LIFE I NEVER HAD!"  I think we all had similar feelings.  We had a room per family with children, then Rex, Colette, Mel and Isaac, and Haley and Jake were all downstairs in "the kid room."  We all came up Friday evening for dinner, then afterwards Kaitlyn led us in some grandchildren games.  

Ring around the rosie . . .

 . . . followed by a fun craft with beads and pipe cleaners.

 In the morning we got up and did breakfast, then Rex led an impressive devotional about the parable of the sower.  He did such a great job facilitating discussion, even with all the baby-related distractions.  He is a stellar young man.

 And then it was off to the park for fun and games.  We started with some street hockey.  This is a perfect game for our family.  There are so many of us that it kind of evens the playing field as far as skill and fitness level.  You hardly have to move, and you get lots of chances to touch the ball.  The only bad thing about this game is how much it hurts to get hit in the foot by the ball--it's heavy and moves fast!

Rafe was all over the family games.  He wanted to play everything.  Vivien did not.  You can see her sulking pointedly on the side lines in her pink hoodie in the background of the picture below.

There was a good playground conveniently on the other side of the court, so it was easy for people to rotate in and out of the game to take a turn watching babies.   

After hockey we headed to the baseball diamond.  

 I wanted to weep with gratitude, watching everyone help Rafe have a good time.  After he hit the ball everyone started telling him to run, but I don't know if he's actually ever watched a game of baseball, so he was a little unclear on the directions.  When he ran past, Drew told him to run around the bases, so he did.  He ran a neat little circle all around second base and then continued on to third.  I think he ran around the whole diamond without actually touching a single base.

 It is fun to have so many brother-in-laws now.  I mean, we can kind of hold our own.  Kaitlyn's about to catch the fly ball I just hit.  So, we can hit and catch marginally well.

But they are, generally, slightly more athletic than we are.

 So we cheat where we can to make up for the difference.

 One more of Haley, because I love it so much.

 Luckily we have enough babies interfering with games that it can never get too competitive.  Except my dad managed to break his rib in this game of volleyball.  He fell back to reach for a ball over his head and landed on his side with his arm under him.  He spent the rest of the night palpating the break gingerly and crying out in grim satisfaction as he fully experienced what his patients come in with . . . He has a weird relationship with pain.

 After games the moms went home to let babies nap and the not-moms and not-moms-yet went for a bike ride.

 They all came back rather tired and muddy.

 Nothing a little hot-tubbing couldn't fix.

 After dinner that night we had another round of kid games with Tia Kate.  Rose was the leader for Do As I'm Doing.

 And there were pictures for The Wheels on the Bus.

 Then everyone pretended to be flowers and Vivien and Rafe pretended to be butterflies and bees sipping nectar.

 Then we drew gardens on green paper and decorated them with butterfly stickers.  It is really handy to have an elementary school teacher at gatherings with lots of small children.

 In the morning we got up and went to church at the visitor ward in Park City. I think they said they've had anywhere from 30 to 1,500 people show up on any given week, so they are good at being flexible.  It was fast and testimony meeting.  I love to go to fast and testimony meetings in wards like that; so many people from so many different places and experiences, but what we share is instantly bonding.  It was also nice that we didn't know anyone, because Drew stood up to go change a diaper halfway through (we were on the second row) and as he was sidling past everyone to get to the aisle, Rex credit carded him in plain view of half the chapel.  I heard some guys congratulating him on his antics after the meeting.  I am so glad Drew is good-natured.

Sarah and Ronnie had to take off early because Sarah's the primary song leader in their ward and the Primary Program was the next week, so their girls are missing from the matching-dresses cousin picture.  

After the reunion we had some good times with the Forbes family, like Sunday dinners (where Wild Rafe must be escorted from the premises during preparation) . . .

 . . . and Sunday walks around the neighborhood to see all the animals.

 Annie and I got to go to Thanksgiving Point with Meme, Aunt Marilyn, and Paula to look at the Light of the World exhibit.  I can't remember where Drew was, and Mark had taken the other kids to the Dinosaur Museum.  Angela Johnson, the sculptor and founder of the garden, is in Paula's ward and had taken them around for a Relief Society activity, so Paula knew the backstories for each of the pieces.  Angela had wanted to be a professional opera singer (you can definitely hear her singing at church), and one day it suddenly hit her that it was never going to happen.  She was feeling lost and depressed and went to a craft store to pick up some clay to take her mind of things.  She'd never sculpted before, but she sat down with the clay and effortlessly made a beautiful sculpture of a little girl, and then she knew that was what she was going to do with her life.  I love how strong her women look, and the expressions she's able to give Jesus and her other subjects are incredible.  I'm going to need to take my older kids back.

 We walked through the gardens afterwards.  The rose garden was gorgeous; some of the blooms are unreal.  "It's like a fairyland!"

 Daniel and Camille were in town for their fall break and to get Baby Gabriel's cast taken off (yay!).  This called for something special, so we met Jack and his girlfriend at Getout Games in Provo one evening.  They have a couple different rooms (avoid a nuclear meltdown, take down a mafia boss, infiltrate an Egyptian tomb, evade a ravenous zombie) and you have an hour to get out.  We chose the Indiana Jones route.  It was so fun.  Lots of puzzles, clues, codes, and riddles.  I got to learn a new alphabet and decode secret messages, which I love.  We had to complete 5 tasks to get out, and we got the first 4 really quickly but were struggling with the 5th.  We were all hunched over our pile of clues trying desperately to figure out what more there was to do, when the game moderator's voice came over the intercom and said we had finished.  We all kind of turned around in surprise to find Drew standing sheepishly by the finished puzzle.  He'd had a hunch and just went for it.

 We had left our kids with Aunt Haley.  When we went to pick them up we found them in the study playing with the molecular structure of the universe.  We were so impressed, we brought Haley with us to 180 Tacos for dinner.  It is a tasty place.  Mark and Paula had been on a bike ride a few weeks previously up Provo Canyon and had collided with another biker, whose then-ruined bike was his only source of transportation.  They felt bad, so they took him to get his bike fixed, and in return he introduced them to the restaurant.  I had all the Asian tacos.  

 Other fun Forbes things included an early Halloween Party.  Camille made this cute pin the tail on the black cat (without any templates or anything--she is very clever).

 There was a doughnut eating race, and then cupcake decorating.  My favorite is the little blob up in the right hand corner.  There was one cupcake left so I kind of just started putting things on it without any plans.  It looks like a cross between Large Marge's scary face from PeeWee Herman and the poop emoji.

 On Drew's last Saturday we went for a hike at the top of American Fork Canyon.  Lots of the leaves had already fallen from the aspens, but it was still beautiful.

 Annie and Vivien enjoyed themselves.

 Rafe was less enthused about the physical exertion.

 We saw some cool things though, like this huge wasp nest.

 And this even BIGGER wasp nest.

 Vivien started developing blisters, so Papa Mark carried her the rest of the way.

 Rafe was made to walk.  We appointed him as scout of the expedition to soften the blow.  At one point he was a little ahead and we watched him disappear off the side of the trail into a huge hole.  He pulled himself out and dusted himself off, then turned around and said, "Be careful.  There's a really big hole right here."  Thank you, Rafe.

 Annie wanted to hike as much as she could, but then she got tired and snuggly and wanted to be held.  I'll do it while I still have arms for her!  

 Drew left very early Sunday morning, then I went to see Sarah's Primary Program (which was wonderful--she played the piano and the violin for it and her kids did a great job singing).  I was glad to be there with available hands to help Ronnie with his two babies.  Later that night Melanie and crew arrived from Iiiiiiioway.  Vivien and Rafe were too excited to stay in their beds.  They had a blast playing with Jackson and Rett (and fighting over toys).  And I'm afraid this is the only picture I have of all of them together.  I think the jets in Grandma Paula's fancy tub prevented any indecent exposure . . .

We went to Thanksgiving Point with them one of the days, as I mentioned out of order last post.  And they came with us to meet Haley and Jake for one last lunch at Thai Village.  Soooo yummy . . .

  And then it was time to pack up.  Again.  Melanie helped me heft stuff out to the car, then graciously drove me over to my parents' house to drop me off.  We were headed to AZ next, but needed to leave the car for Drew to drive to WA once he was finished with his training in VA.  It was so good to see these cousins!  We wished they lived closer.  Or we lived closer.  Or both.