We went to Arizona the weekend after school got out for my cousin Emma's wedding. Drew had been in Minneapolis all week for an IH conference and came home Thursday on the kids' last day of school, then I had changed my schedule to work that night and Friday night so I could be off Saturday. But I got sick Thursday and my charge nurse got tired of listening to my sniffling and sneezing behind my mask all night and told me I should call in sick for Friday, and Drew worked from home for part of the day Friday while I napped and I got to sleep all Friday night before we left Saturday morning and it was wonderful! And I had worked hard on my dog kennel, so we didn't even have to board the doggies this time. Michelle came over to feed them and let them out for the day and tuck them up inside for the night, then the Asburry's took them on a walk once a day.
It would be nice if we could just leave them in the yard, but they cannot be trusted to not destroy things and dig.
We went straight to the Grandparents Woods' house for a good swimming session which the kids spent mostly lying cheek-down on the warm pool deck anxiously observed by Grandpa George from the Arizona Room, and everyone else spent playing Jump or Dive (with many a flop), Shark on Deck (where Rex went back and forth like a great unstoppable tidal wave and Drew jumped in at absolutely nothing once with a great "hiyah!"), and Dibble Dabble (which Dad was convinced is actually called Dipple Dapple, but we all know that's just an excuse to say something that rhymes with his favorite word). Then Colette went in to do her hair for hours (I jest) and Rex did some flips with me before we had to get out. When you are an old, boring, out of shape mom and your cool little brother will still play with you, it is pretty great.
After swimming we were shuttled out the side gate so as not to bring all the crazy into the house and we rushed off to Larry and Julie's to get ready for the reception. We met Mom, Dad, Coco, and Rex for a pre-reception dinner at Ned's Krazy Sub where we were idiots and ordered sandwiches with mustard for our children that they of course got all over their nice clothes. At the reception there was picture-taking and visiting and dancing. All the girls but Haley (who had to work and couldn't come) sang Moon Glow after a very last minute rehearsal off in one corner of the reception venue. I had just enough voice after being sick to sing the Alto II part.
Sarah kept getting lipstick on her teeth and looked like a beautiful vampiress for our song.
We had a grand time dancing like nerds with Lauren and Ellie and Tanner and Wesley. Dad did a lovely foxtrot with me for one of the slow songs. Tia Kate had brought my children their costumes, so Rafe was dancing like mad outside in his Jedi robe. After the reception we hung out at Larry and Julie's for a little while with Emily and Kyle (KYYYYLE!) then we all went to bed.
Sunday morning we woke up and I took my early risers on a warm Arizona walk to the Grandparents Woods' where we were having breakfast. Drew met us there with the car. We were again shuttled around the side entrance because we are "too much kids." I think the best thing that happened at breakfast was when Drew accidentally dropped a box of Captain Crunch in the worst possible way so that half the cereal ended up all over the ground. Do you even know what a good sport Drew is that he will endure the raucous Brunsdale laughter and still love us?
The kids explored the yard until it was time to go to church.
I got one of Annie and her namesake.
Since it was Memorial Day weekend, when I took Vivien to her class she had no teachers, so I filled in for awhile until the Primary President found some. After church we went to Grandma Brunsdale's community room and tried to keep all the children confined to a porch outside so they wouldn't break anything, disrupt the diners downstairs with their thumpings, or play in the fountain while we waited for what felt like a very long time for everyone to arrive so we could eat lunch. Oh, but also on the porch they were not allowed to get too close to any of the edges. It was...trying. Grandma had not been expecting children to be there. I kind of wish we had gone somewhere else! But we did our best. We went through Duck, Duck, Goose and London Bridges and Ring Around the Rosie and then I had the great terrible idea to play Red Rover on the cement amongst sharp-edged patio furniture supporting 25 people in a 8x20 foot rectangle; it predictably ended in tears. Everyone was relieved when it was time to eat and visit.
We said goodbye to Kenley's family then drove out to Queen Creek for an afternoon at Cami's. They were still at church when we arrived, so we stretched out on their lawn for a little nap.
Their house is amazing. I don't know why I didn't take pictures of it. Maybe Google Maps has an aerial? Indeed! It's old. I'll color it.
It was a very good place to pass an afternoon. That evening we had a fun Brunsdale family party at Chad and Nicole's house. Look how brave they were, they had all these people over at once! It was fun to see cousins we haven't seen in awhile and be together.
Viera decided she liked me. She fed me granola. She is the best squishiness there is.
The next morning we woke up and had what has now become our annual Memorial Day breakfast of Kneaders cinnamon bread French toast and buttermilk syrup with strawberries with Uncle Larry and Aunt Julie (we were on our way to Utah last Memorial Day and took a detour to Mesa to do family night with Jennifer and her family before she died). After breakfast we hopped in the car and drove home. The kids watched movies on the iPad. I guess Annie enjoyed it? She was watching Deep. I haven't been able to bring myself to sit through it yet to see what about it merits this face.
Almost there! Isn't it such a wonderful feeling when you see your home mountains in the distance?
2. We Are Visited and Pay a Visit
Drew's cousin Jarom's wife Sarah makes a cross country road trip with her kids in the summer from Ohio to visit her family in Oregon and happened to come through Albuquerque this time, so she stayed with us. She's got it all down to a science. She even made us breakfast from the farm fresh eggs she'd been given at the friend's house she'd stayed at just prior to coming to our house.
I took them out to the Kissing Turtles, because I think it's good for the mind and body and spirit.
The wildflowers were in perfect form for our hike.
My children are almost all big enough to scramble. Merrick still needs a little help.
The Webster kids were more hesitant, but I think by the end they were having fun. There were definitely some moments of terror. So, I let them do what they wanted and mostly just took pictures of my babies.
They are so fun.
And I think they are cool.
Someone has grafitied one of the boulders into an old man. Clever, but definitely a scar on the landscape. Not a great Leave No Trace moment.
Sarah was planning to visit Jack in Los Alamos, so we decided to stop by the Prestwiches on our way home to see their agave plant that is blooming this year.
And ride the zip line, of course.
Mike offered to take a picture of all of us with the plant. This is the best we got.
3. We Are Visited
Nana and Papi came out to visit us for a few days. Sunday I was post night-shift so I don't remember what we did. I think Nana and Papi took the kids over to the temple grounds while I slept. But the gates were closed maybe? It's a fog. On Monday we woke up and drove out to the Jemez for a tour of all the old familiar places. We decided to hike the long way to Jemez Falls. I forgot to get a picture of the cool wildflowers that lined the trail this time. They looked like little galaxies. The flowers were teeny tiny and white, spreading out from the stalks in a globular way but sparse, so they looked like they were just hanging in the air, all on different planes. They were beautiful!
It was much colder than we had prepared for, so we bundled up the kids in whatever we could find in the car, like a Jedi robe and a baby blanket.
Look how cute! Mom didn't wear water shoes so chivalry had its day.
Here are Mom and Dad chatting with the hikers that warned me I was "really pushing my luck" as I carried Annie and Merrick down a rocky slope in my wet bare feet. They were probably right. I think I was raised to push my luck. I distinctly remember zip-lining off this waterfall and skimming over the pond as a child...
Here is Rafe wading through the water that is obviously a very comfortable temperature.
My beautiful Vivs esploring.
My best dad in the whole wide world.
Vivien and Rafe and I at the top of Jemez Falls. Dad had my camera. I wish I'd had another one to take a picture of him perched on the edge of the cliff to take this.
This is how Vivien and Rafe felt about being at the top of the waterfall and getting all wet (their choice).
We didn't really want to hike all the way back to the car with the cranky small people when the Jemez Falls campground parking lot was so close, so Papi booked it back to the car while Nana and I took a leisurely walk to the observation area.
For glamour shots.
And bark smelling.
And finally a picnic at the parking lot...
...with a silly Nana.
On the way back we stopped at Los Ojos for lunch/dinner. The waitress told us it's called that because if you look down from above it's supposed to look like eyes, but I'm not seeing it on Google maps. Maybe you need the angle...
Tuesday was spent installing the zip line of my dreams. Papi picked up a 10 foot post on his way to mi casa from the hotel. We researched zip line kits...
...and then went to Home Depot to pick up all the other hardware we'd need while Nana played with the kiddies.
Then Papi spent a couple sweaty hours digging a hole.
There is something fascinating and kind of unnerving to me about holes. It seems like such a solid thing; The Ground. But when you dig a hole you must confront that it is made of millions of small things, and as you unearth a small portion of those things your mind starts wandering to all the other little unknown things that are there under your feet all the time, just hidden. Look, a whole person could fit down in that little hole! The unknown depths! What else is there? It's kind of like the ocean . . .
Papi helped the kids make some dead men to be our post back-up anchors. We had a funeral for them.
Then we laid them to rest.
Goodbye deadmen. You are now covered in cement.
We had to wait awhile for the cement to harden and the zip line kit to arrive, so Papi didn't get to witness the first ride, but the kids have already put many miles on this zip line. I wake up to the sound in the morning. BzzzzzzzzzzzzzZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZIP! Zzzz Zzzz Zzzzz SO MUCH FUN!
Nana had to take her car in to get looked at that afternoon, then we all met at the hotel for a refreshing swim. That evening Kallie came over to babysit while Drew and I got to go on a date with my parents to El Pinto. Then Drew embarrassed me by telling them to their faces how much I want them to be proud of me. But it's true. I do want them to be proud of me because I love them and am so proud of them! Thanks for coming to visit me padres!
School ended May 23, and that was over a month ago. Can I remember what happened? I'll use the pictures to jog my memory.
We had a Cinco de Mayo Celebración Cultural at Puesta del Sol for the Bilingual Program families. I signed up to help and they assigned me to make beans. I was nervous about making beans for a bunch of latino families, but I thought they turned out pretty well. Maybe a little underdone. Someday I'd like to be able to make beans as delicious as the ones at Sadie's here in town. I can practice. Vivien got to wear a big skirt and flowers in her hair.
Oh hello, myself in child-form with blue eyes.
The celebration began with a parade of Spanish-speaking countries' flags.
Are the pictures as blurry as my vision was? All the tears.
The kindergartners always dance to "El Son de la Negra" which is like the second national anthem of Mexico. Rafe has a fine skip.
Vivien's class danced to Pideme La Luna. I was going to trim the video, but I forgot. So here it is in its entirety.
Here's Vivi's class afterwards. I don't think we got one of Rafe's.
We stayed after for some dinner, then everyone got a snow cone and got all sticky, much to Daddy's chagrin. I went straight in to work from here. Hurray Spanish!
The kids had a bunch of Sunshine Generation performances for the end of the year. Here's Rafe working the crowd before the show.
And The Vivs goofing off.
I will spare you videos of my children knowing half the words and standing there with blank looks on their faces while their bodies twitch in the direction of what might be the choreography, standing next to the director's children who are just absolutely hamming it up. This is not their favorite thing to do, and I am done making them do it! So enjoy one last picture of my children in their Sunshine outfits. Rafe stands in his default on-the-spot posture. It's like a chicken wing/nail biting combination. I missed a lot of this performance because there is a recent convert who has a life story that I'm still not sure is 100% accurate that knocked over an enormous horchata onto the carpet a few minutes into it. I ran to the custodial closet to start getting it cleaned up and we were awkwardly mopping up horchata in the middle of the performance and then she asks me in a whisper if I think they would allow her to adopt a child, because she'd really like to raise a child in the gospel. I just really didn't know what to say to that one.
Let's see. There was an end of school dance for Activity Days. Here are Vivien and Aria getting ready to go.
We had Rafe's kindergarten graduation. I happened to have Allen that day and Drew was out of town, so it was SO much fun.
Please take note of what Rafe decided to wear for graduation. He woke up that morning and was adamant Ms. Stovall had instructed them to wear stripes. I have my theories that she was referring to a nice striped dress shirt, not striped t-shirt and non-matching striped wool socks with pants rolled up.
It's not much different than what he usually wears to school.
I guess he's just...different.
The ladies don't seem to mind.
Nor did Ms. Stovall.
Goodbye for the summer Puesta del Sol!
Goodbye 1st grade!
Goodbye kindergarten!
And goodbye watching Allen twice a week!
One day Annie threw a big fit because she didn't want Allen to sit next to her in the wagon "because he's gross!" Patrick heard her say it and told Krista, who asked me about it the next day. I sent her this picture and said that Allen likes to suck on things, which leads to slobberiness, which some 3 year old girls might find gross.
The very last day I watched Allen I had to go to Lowe's to pick up a bunch of bags of pea gravel to level the ground underneath the decking in my dog kennel. The cart was exceedingly heavy-laden and unwieldy, and the kids were all being hyper-crazy-nuts. I had navigated the entire store and checked out and the minivan was in sight when Allen tried to climb up on the cart that was stacked 3 feet tall, slipped, and fell into the road getting his hand wedged between the cart wheel and the asphalt.
There was weeping and wailing all the way home until I could get it dressed. I wrapped that sucker with a whole roll of gauze and he walked around the rest of the day with a white, gauzy boxing glove. Poor little guy!
It healed up just fine. And my children have enjoyed going over to the van Langen's house to play with Allen this summer because they are hard at work on their yard and have a fun play set now!
Also, good dirt that is now free of goat heads after they burned them all away with a torch.
