We came back from Arizona and hung out for a day or two.
We let Rafe try out his Christmas bike, which is maybe a touch too big, but he grows at an alarming rate so I don't feel too badly.
I worked that weekend. Sometimes when I come home everyone is still asleep. Other times they are up and waiting for breakfast! Annie says, "What's for breakfast?" "LIFE cereal." "Hurray! It keeps us aliiiiiiiiiive!"
We love our Annie-bo-bannie.
She is impossibly cute.
On the night of the 29th the Alworths got in a car crash and Kaitlyn broke her wrist and her ankle and tweaked her back. Then the next day the kids asked me when they were going to see their Forbes grandparents and I felt guilty. Also, we had to get the golf clubs, so we decided last minute to drive to Utah for a few days. Drew had to work. Vivien left him a love note.
We stopped one time on the way up and it was so fast! I got gas, then we stopped at Subway and I had them all go to the bathroom while I paid for the food, then I used the bathroom, then we loaded up and ate in the car. Less than 10 minutes. Amazing!
We had gorgeous driving weather. Sun, snow, clear roads.
We made it almost through the canyon into Spanish Fork before the sun set.
We were greeted at the Forbes by many people in fancy dress. They were having a fun adult Murder Mystery Dinner. I took me and my sweatpants and car-hair downstairs to hide in the basement as quickly as possible to hang out with the kids. Grandma Paula came down to play a fun mouse-trap game.
Then we had early New Years!
There are no children I would rather welcome the New Year with than these! Oh how I love them.
After kids were asleep we waited around for actual New Year. I think we played some card games for awhile. There was some sparkling cider to pass around as well. Then to bed!
Vivien brought her sweatshirt that I mucked up cutting out as a security lovey.
My kids were all sick, and if we had been responsible we probably would have stayed home. Here is Vivien demonstrating the cough we brought to Utah with us.
Annie had lost her voice as well.
And Merrick was definitely not 100%.
(One more of those, just for the sweetness)
But we were not responsible infection controllers, and came anyway. Sorry Gabe and Eva...
We spent January 1st playing in the snow.
We had to pick Vivien up some snow boots at the Walmart. She hopped them back to the car.
I used bread loaf pans to build a snow structure. Jessie and Seth came out to help me with the arch. It lasted just long enough for a picture. It was pretty wonky from the side.
But it looked pretty cool in the solitary night, despite being structurally unsound.
On the 2nd we went to Kaitlyn's in the morning so she could go to the hospital to get some blood work done (she was in the middle of the first of two blighted ovum pregnancies this year and had to get that taken care of before she could get all her broken things treated). I took not a single picture. We mostly lazed on the couch because she was not feeling well. What did we do the rest of the day? I do not remember. But on the 3rd we went to Nana and Papi's. I went to an exercise class with Nana at the Rec Center on this glorious Utah winter morning:
Then we hung out here the rest of the day. I think Papi might be showing Vivien the map of his mission.
There was also some sledding to be done.
And some wrestling.
The Red Room is no more. It is now Rex's Man Cave.
He's a funny brother.
We had delicious posole for dinner that night with everyone and a beautiful dolce de leche cake con frutas!
On Saturday we went to the Butterfly Biosphere with Grandma Paula and Papa Mark.
Here follows many butterfly pictures:
I love this one sooo much.
I looked for dead ones on the ground so I could study their wings more closely.
ooooOOOoooo!
They had a creature corner where you could hold bugs. We "got" to hold these horrible roaches.
Here are my sillies climbing all the things at Thanksgiving Point.
That evening Daniel, Camille, Seth, Jessie, and I went to Labyrinth Reality Games and tried to be clever and observant and dexterous and quick-thinking. There were 16 multi-level games. Every time you finished one of the first 15 games, you would get a clue to help you with the 16th game. We went in full of promise, but after 2 hours we had finished a total of one game. They know how to keep you coming back! It was lots of fun, even if we almost ruined Seth and Jessie's trip back to CA by making them late for picking up their car from the shop. All ended well! Please enjoy Seth peeking up from the floor to make sure we don't hit the pole while we try to get this metal ring to the top of the box.
Here's a note of Vivien's we found at Grandma Paula's.
We went to church with my parents on Sunday. Lauren Johansen Burns was there. We spent second hour walking the halls with her sick baby chatting. It was fun to catch up with an old friend. We hung out all together the rest of the Sunday. The boys played backgammon like a bunch of old men at the park. I love them all so!
We sang some tunes around the piano. Kaitlyn sang an excellent "I Don't Wanna Show Off" and Haley brought down the house with her "I'm Telling You." Here is Nana's New Year's Resolution/Prep for Guatemala daily diet.
And here is a bundle of goodbyes.
We drove home Monday without incident. Forgive the lackluster recounting. There are too few of the wonderful moments I try to remember and record...but I must catch up to March! Here are a couple funnies I had texted to myself. They all happen to be contributed by Rafer:
When Vivs was sick, Rafe told her the story of the Polar Express to cheer her up.
Me: It's time to clean up!
Rafe: I don't want to clean up!
Me: Ohhh, nobody wants to clean up, so what should we do?
Rafe: Call the cleaning guys!
Me: Who are the cleaning guys?
Rafe: The guys who clean for you.
Me: But you have to pay the cleaning guys. Who wants to pay the cleaning guys?
Rafe: You do!
Me: I don't want to pay the cleaning guys. I want to spend my money on other things.
Rafe: Call the paying guys!
Me: Who are the paying guys?
Rafe: The guys who pay for things!
Rafe: Does the Easter bunny live in the east pole?
No comments:
Post a Comment