November in Review

December 15, 2016 By

I know, I know, we’re well into December but November passed by in such a blur that I was barely able to document any of it. Here are a few our happenings.

Hadley turned 12 in May and that marks a major milestone when she enters the “Young Women” organization at church. And since May, my wonderful mother-in-law has been trying to organize a special afternoon tea at the Grand America in her honor. We finally made it happen several months later and what a wonderful afternoon it was!

Minus the fact that I dropped a macaron in Hadley’s tea. You can’t take me anywhere.

Speaking of Macarons, Tammy organized a cooking lesson for us to learn how to make them. I’m not a huge fan of macarons (I find they rather tastless and dry) and never had even one when I lived in France. But I’m tellin you, it’s homemade or bust because our creations were amazing. But the three hours to make them were not.

Fall in the Heber Valley was so incredibly mild and beautiful! It’s not very often we find an outdoorsy family of four with kids our same ages and genders. When the Frisbys took us on what they deemed the “flat” trail along Deer Creek and it was mostly uphill, I knew they were our kind of friends. 

I tagged along on Bode’s cub scout hike to Dutch Hollow and somehow managed to lead them on the wrong trail adding a couple of miles to an already long hike (disclaimer: I’d only explored the area once before).

It’s important to teach them survival skills while they’re still young.

We likely won’t be able to afford a greenhouse next season but Jamie has still been prepping the pumpkin patch. This was possibly the scariest moment of my life watching him operate heavy machinery. He only ran into the fence once…or twice.

We’re still getting acclimated to our house. In most ways, our former two-story, five-bedroom house in Colorado was a much better fit and I often regret downsizing to a ranch…but I know it will all be much better when we finally finish our basement. Our current biggest headaches: The tiny laundry room/mudroom and Hadley waking us up at 5:30 a.m. as she bangs around in the bathroom. Top priority: Scrape together enough funds to build her a bathroom in the basement.

The one thing that makes me happy (in addition to our amazing view) is our kitchen nook. I searched long and hard for the perfect farm table and found one at a luxury consignment store in Park City. We bought a black bench and puke-brown chairs from the same store that needed to be repainted and restored. We fretted over the colors and ultimately decided to take a chance and paint them white. I LOVE how everything turned out (thanks to Jamie’s awesome mom who reupholstered them).

Thanksgiving was low-key. We woke up to a Thanksgiving miracle: Our first snow (and visitors) at our new house!

Not-so miraculous: sick kids.

We drove to Salt Lake City to spend Thanksgiving and Black Friday with Jamie’s family where we ate Jamie’s famous bacon-wrapped smoked turkey, overindulged on Tammy’s pies and went to see “Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them.”

I slipped out on Friday morning to meet my friend Lori and her daughter for a hike to the Living Room. We never made it. I’ve hiked the trail several times before but the previous day’s snow had turned to ice due to the sheer volume of gut-busting hikers trying to burn a few calories.

Our freshman year during Natural Science Field Expedition, we backpacked hundreds of miles through Yellowstone, the Tetons, Zion and the Grand Canyon. What started as a casual hike that day turned into ice chutes, snowy bushwhacking and steep muddy slopes.

I guess some of us don’t know how to do casual.

Later that weekend, I invited a few families over for dinner before we headed over to Midway’s charming tree lighting complete with hot chocolate, cookies, skating, entertainment, Santa (who got the name of our town wrong) and Bode who, whenever his candle blew out, he’d ask “anyone got a light?”

And wouldn’t you know it, Bode, Eli and Charlie landed on the front page of our community newspaper.

So, for anyone keeping track: Since we moved to Utah, Bode was on KUTV with the pumpkins at Thanksgiving Point, BYU’s Jumbotron, The Broadmoor’s holiday campaign…

And now, the Wasatch Wave. If he keeps it up, he’ll be more famous than even The Pumpkin Man. And that’s really saying something.

Filed Under: Bode, Hadley, Utah

BYU Fans for Life

December 14, 2016 By

When I was at BYU, I attended my fair share of football, basketball and volleyball games. Some of my most memorable moments were going to the BYU football games every week with my friend Garritt, even though I was (and still am) clueless about the game. Give me a puck and a penalty box and this Canuck can talk for hours. But tight-ends and first downs? No thanks. Despite my lack of appreciation for football, we still had a lot of fun sitting in the student section.

My father-in-law bought season tickets to BYU basketball so Jamie has met him in Provo a few times. Last month, our whole family attended “Boomshakalak,” a fun kick-off to the season. It was my first time in the Marriott Center in 20 years and it was Bode’s first time ever so it was only appropriate that my tweet landed him on the Jumbotron. Repeatedly.

And we were so delighted to run into our besties from Colorado, the Larsons, who were visiting their three kids at BYU. I had no idea they would be there but saw they posted a picture on social media. We didn’t tell Hadley about Alexis so it was a funny, surprising reunion in the foyer. 

Fast-forward a few weeks later. We attended the wedding luncheon of the kids’ first babysitter Alexis, daughter of our longtime friends and neighbors, the Haymonds (how can these kids be old enough to get married?)

We high-tailed it over to BYU’s football game, another first for the kids. When Jamie bought the tickets a couple of months prior, it was risky. Late- November games are often miserable and snowy so we kept our fingers crossed and hoped for the best…and we got better than the best.

He bought nosebleed seats (because, you know, money) but as we were getting ready that morning, Jamie’s sister called to ask if we wanted her lobbyist neighbor’s awesome two seats on the 40-yard line. OH YEAH. We planned to just take turns.

We were late to the game because of the luncheon and arrived just before half-time. My friend Sarah texted me, “You should come sit by us. There’s an entire row of seats are empty.”

And these weren’t just any seats. Her husband Ben’s uncle is a major donor to BYU sports so these were even better seats at the 50 yard line. Bode was able to sit with Sarah’s boys and Hadley’s bestie Alex (they were in town for the wedding) hung out with her.

So, here’s how you do BYU football:

Sit in VIP seats.

Take full advantage of their VIP Legacy Tent wristbands with gourmet food but make sure you accidentally go to the wrong tent first (one reserved for sponsors) so you’ll get double the amount of food before realizing you’re in the wrong place.

Then go back to those seats and enjoy your individual coolers of beverage and treats.

The takeaway?

Buying cheap seats totally pays off.

Oh, and BYU won 51-9 but we were the real winners that day.

Filed Under: Bode, Hadley, Humor, Jamie

The evolution of things

December 11, 2016 By

It started yesterday in Heber’s darling Wigglish toy store. The kids were doing their Christmas shopping for each other surrounded by hundreds of the coolest toys and games…and Hadley wasn’t interested in any of them. Her Christmas wishlist includes a laundry list of wants that will never be filled–a fancy camera. A phone. Clothes. Make-up. Perfumes and lotions.

That morning, Jamie and I attended a baptism and helped a new friend move. Hadley has been so exhausted lately from waking up at 5:30 a.m. that I just let her sleep and that she did. Several hours later, I went downstairs to rummage through our basement and found her still slumbering at 1 p.m.?!!!! I laughed, dragged her out of bed and marveled at my new teenager.

Later that evening, my friend Sarah invited us to enjoy their Trader Joe’s spoils of steak and veggies. Jamie had the BYU basketball game with his dad and Hadley had homework so it was just Bode and me. Sarah helped me tremendously during those two months we commuted from Park City by letting me drop off Bode before school and during that time, our kids formed a wonderful bond. As I watched Bode play effortlessly with her three boys, I had an epiphany:

Hadley and Bode don’t play together anymore.

And that made me crazy sad. This move has been difficult on so many levels but this was such an unexpected one that has less to do with our location and more to do with age. For their entire lives, they’ve been besties conjuring up imaginary worlds with their toys and stuffed animals. Sure, they’ve bickered from time-to-time as siblings do but they also had each other, thrown together by extensive travel and circumstance.

Now when they get home after school, they go to their separate corners. Hadley will start on homework, watch make-up tutorials on YouTube or mess around with silly filters. Bode will play math games or chess. They still enjoy laughing at Studio C together and their interactions aren’t bad, they’re just different.

I commented to Jamie yesterday before my epiphany that we have to do better. We’ve been in survival mode for so long that sheer exhaustion lands us in front of the TV every night. It doesn’t help that winter’s evenings are dark and cold but we need to get back to that fun-loving family who traveled and played together.

Every night before bed, we read scriptures and say family prayers. Jamie was still at the game so Hadley, Bode and I piled onto my bed.

“Don’t turn on the light,” I suggested. “Let’s just do dark snuggles.”

I don’t even remember what we talked about but we were transformed back to how it used to be. We laughed. Shared stories. Wrestled. Gazed in wonder as the moon illuminated the snow with a lovely pearly blue-white glow.

It was a piece of magic that this bruised mother’s heart so desperately needed. Things will be different. They have to be–it’s the natural order of things as Hadley and Bode change and grow.

But it gave me hope that they’ll find their way back together again….should we all survive Hadley’s teenage years.  #JesusTakeTheWheel

Filed Under: Bode, Hadley

Small Town Livin’ Updates

November 16, 2016 By

I’ve never lived in a small town. Sure, I went to college in Rexburg, ID and served as a missionary in several small villes in France and Switzerland but it’s just not the same. I find it rather humorous that when I was single, I was the PR rep for a popular musician who lives in the Heber Valley…and I remember thinking “why on earth would anyone ever live out there?”

Park City has many of the amenities of a big city (Home Depot, Walmart, numerous franchises) so it’s been interesting to adapt to our little hamlet with a population of just 4,000.

A few observations thus far:

  • The mountains, views and sunrises. When we sat on our front porch one evening before we moved in, it was complete stillness and peace under a blanket of stars. It took me exactly 20 seconds to get used to it.
  • Whenever I hear Salt Lake City’s traffic reports, I give a little chuckle of gratitude and am SO glad I don’t have to deal with that on a daily basis.
  • There are very few radio stations out here so KPCW public radio in Park City has become my go-to station in the mornings. I love all the evidences of small-town life including their lost and found reports.
  • There are a few private Facebook groups for the Heber Valley that crack me up on a daily basis as people sell, swap and ask any question under the sun. Takeaway: people in small towns are ready to help their neighbors. And sometimes get snippy with them, too.
  • The kids’ recreation guide included gems like “hunter safety, concealed weapons class and wilderness circuit rodeo finals.
  • Bode’s teacher “rodeos” and she was absent from class because her husband won the lottery…for a sought-after hunting permit.
  • Bode missed the competitive soccer tryouts and by fifth grade, most kids are playing competitive. We’ve found out why on his rec team this year. Some of these boys have never played before (which is fine) but our frustration is the league’s horrid policies on rules…as in they don’t enforce them. Offside? No problem. Let’s teach kids to cherry-pick. You’ve stepped three feet over the line for a throw-in? Throw away! I’m surprised how much it has bugged me. I don’t expect perfection but my gosh, can we please teach the kids how to play soccer?  The good news is not only was Bode the oldest but he was the superstar of the team–he scored more goals this season than he did the last few years combined in our city league. It’s been great for his confidence but not his skills. Better luck next season!

 

  • We were given a stipend from our builder for our front lawn so we immediately hired someone to do the sprinklers and sod. The problem was there was no grass to be found this late in the season so we are lucky enough to be the only house in the neighborhood who will have a mucky lawn all winter.
  • There are so many things we need to buy for this house in order to truly fit–cabinets for the laundry room and garage, an end table, lamp, rug and an addition to our too-small couch (that’s just the tip of the iceberg) but my top priority has been getting these kids skiing. We can’t afford season passes this year so are biting the bullet to do the skiing through our rec program. For just $350/kid, they get six weeks of half-day ski lessons and passes to Sundance Ski Resort and transportation up there. There goes our entire budget but really, all I want for Christmas is to get these kids of ours on the slopes.
  • Juggling my new job with Mosaico Travel along with all my other gigs has kicked my can. The good news is it’s been baptism by fire and I’ve been literally thrown into their busy Christmas travel season.
  • I look forward to life calming down a bit so I can actually get out and explore this glorious place we get to call home. Soon, right?
Filed Under: Bode, Hadley, Uncategorized, Utah

Hardworking Kids, Proud Mama

November 15, 2016 By

Moving is hard but I could not be more proud of these kids for working their butts off in school. They came home with their report cards and both mostly received Straight As except for Bode’s A- in flute (a minor miracle because he couldn’t even make a sound the first several weeks).

Things come more easily and naturally to him but he is a hard worker. That’s his talent: to put his heart and soul into everything he does. His teacher recognized this in her comments: “Bode is such a great kid who has a love for learning. He’s so fun to have in class and he’s always striving to do his best.”

Hadley got straight As except for a B in math. Some parents might be sad about that but for years, all I’ve wanted is for her to be at grade level and for years (and lots of tutoring) she has fallen short.

To put this in perspective, at the beginning of sixth grade I had her tested for learning disabilities and now she’s almost got straight As. I still feel like the public school education is geared to linear learners like Bode and not visual-spatial, experiential kids like Hadley so in some sense, she might always struggle. But she’s figuring out how to make it work for her. Never once have I had to remind her to do her homework, a huge departure from elementary school.

Two of the people who were instrumental in getting Hadley on the right path were her teachers last year. I sent them this note at the beginning of this school year:

Mr. Lewis and Mrs. McLean,

With the new school year upon you, I have to thank you for last year. My daughter Hadley came to sixth grade at Vanderhoof struggling in school and doubting her academic capabilities. By year’s end, she was a completely different person, thanks in large part to both of you. She fell in love with learning and most importantly, came to realize that she is good and smart enough.
We moved to the Park City-area over the summer and she has delved head-first into her new middle school, joining both the science club and taking a journalism elective to write for the school’s newspaper. Neither of these things ever would have happened had she not had such rock star teachers in sixth grade.
Thank you for opening the doors to her future. Sixth grade is a year we’ll never forget.
To reward the kids, we went out for ice cream. And not just ice cream, but Jamie proposed ice cream for dinner, which was about the best reward EVER.
I personally in hoping they perform just as well next term for that very reason.
Filed Under: Bode, Hadley

Our first Utah soiree

November 9, 2016 By

We had so many wonderful neighbors help unload our PODs that I wanted to thank them sooner than later…so concocted an informal caramel apple dipping soiree for FHE. It was fun, casual and oh-so delicious.

Now, when I say “informal,” I mean it. We had only been in the house for five days, had been hanging the insulation all morning (horrid) and our big farm table was camped in the garage because it was too big to fit through our front door. My mother-in-law was reupholstering our chairs (read: nothing to sit on), our accent chair wasn’t finished yet and we had a gazillion other projects. Bonus: We finally got the table into the kitchen at the last minute.

In Jamie’s words: “WHO PLANS A PARTY WHEN YOU’VE BEEN IN YOUR HOUSE LESS THAN A WEEK?”

In Amber’s words: “MEEEEEEE!”

It was so fun to have the Seversons, Frisbys, Collettes and Noonans as our first official guests. I made five batches of caramel, which is a nice way of saying we’ll be eating caramel for weeks (a.k.a. winning).

Bode had a blast with his buddies Cole, Andrew, Charlie, Jonas and Eli while Hadley and Zoe?

I think they had more fun than any of us.

Filed Under: Bode, Hadley, Utah

A family that speaks together, stresses together

October 27, 2016 By

Last Sunday, we were asked to speak in church on the talks of our choice from the 2016 General Conference. In my past congregations, children 12 and older give talks in Sacrament Meeting in front of the entire congregation so Hadley was expecting to give her first talk in our new ward. What surprised us is that younger children are also called upon to speak so our entire family shared our testimony on Sunday.

The crazy thing is Facebook’s timehop memory of the day was from six years ago when the kids participated in the Arvada 2nd Ward’s Primary Program. This is one of my all-time favorite pictures of them:

What a difference six years makes!

Bode based his talk on President Monson’s talk The Perfect Path to Happiness. Bode was so cute as he joked around while the microphone was being lowered lowered lowered and did an awesome job sharing our his personal path to happiness. My favorite lines from his talk:

I was baptized when I was 8 because I wanted to follow Jesus’ example. As I stepped into the font, I felt peaceful. When I was underneath the water, I felt like nothing could hurt me.

A few minutes later, my dad put his hands upon my head. When he said “Receive the Holy Ghost,” my head felt like it was lit up with fireworks. I felt the spirit charging through my head and body!

I’ve just started on this Perfect Path to Happiness but I know that no matter how old you are—if you’re 10 like me or 90 that you can feel the spirit. And that God knows who you are and that you are an important part of His plan.

I was really proud of Hadley because she wrote her own talk. She based her remarks on Elder Juan Useda’s harrowing experience at Machu Picchu in The Lord Jesus Christ Teaches Us to Pray. 

 Unfortunately, I realized that recently I have a very similar experience to Elder Useda. A few months ago my parents decided I should go to both this wards girls camp and my previous wards girls camp. I moved here from Denver and it happened to be high adventure week. We did a whole lot of really cool things but the big one that was really shaking every one up was the fourteener we had to climb. Colorado has 54 peaks higher than 14,000 feet—pretty amazing! To put this in perspective, Utah’s highest mountain is King’s Peak and is around 13,500 feet. The leaders did a very good job with making it high adventure!

 This was the second fourteener I had climbed and I was with the faster group so I summited fairly quickly, and was in the very first group to come down. At the steepest and most dangerous part of the trail it started to hail. A lot of the people with us were crying and really scared! I didn’t have the proper gear for hail so I used my friend’s bandana for protection—that didn’t work so well. After a few minutes of wondering if I was going to die my thoughts tuned to the slower group, and realized that they were at the very summit of the mountain. I said a prayer in my heart afraid that if I took my hands down from my head that I would get hurt, but after only a few minutes the hail lessened.

Once everyone got back to the car, their side of the story was that they were literally in the cloud getting pounded by the hail and electrocuted by the shocks. Screaming and crying someone suggested they say a prayer. Not too long after that a group of experienced hikers helped them get to a safe spot until the hail stopped. It makes me wonder what would have happened if no one prayed!?

I’d like to share my testimony that I know that prayer can help us through big and small things in the name of Jesus Christ Amen.

I based my talk on Elder Schmutz’s General Conference talk “God shall wipe away your tears,” a super powerful talk for anyone who has ever wondered why bad things happen to good people and why we have to go through hardships in our lives. I spoke about some of the struggles we had the last 10 months during our move and some of the miracles along the way (which is another post for another day).

The kids and I wrote our talks shortly after receiving the assignment. The Master Procrastinator a.k.a. Jamie waited until the morning of church to start pulling his talk together. As he walked into the bedroom, I asked him how to pronounce “Schmutz,” to which he held up MY topic. 

“You can’t steal my talk!” and I proceeded to go through his papers, crossing out everything I was planning to talk about.

Procrastinators never prosper…or do they? He ended doing an amazing job winging it, talking about some of his miracles in our move as well as giant pumpkins. because (in his words) is God not the Master Gardener?

At least there is full disclosure of our craziness in our new ward.

Filed Under: Bode, Hadley, Humor, LDS, pumpkins

Tween Scene

August 4, 2016 By

They call them “tweens” for a reason. Not quite kids, not quite adults and, at times, not quite human.

One thing Hadley has going for her: she’s not an overly emotional kid so while her friends are reduced to tears the drop of…well, anything, Hadley just chooses moodiness. And to be obstinate. Thankfully, it’s only sometimes and for the most part, she’s pretty darn fun and is really growing into a beautiful young woman.

As she packed for her first Young Women Girl’s Camp ever, she was testing out my new sleeping bag. It reminded me so much of when we tried to swaddle her as a baby. No matter how tight we made the blanket, that colicky baby of ours refused to be controlled and we’d always find her stubbornly sleeping with one little arm out that she had somehow finagled out of her straight jacket. Just call her Houdini.  I asked her to reenact that and this is all I got. 

Stubborn baby meets stubborn tween.

Sometimes she really surprises me. As we were leaving King Soopers, she stopped at the little horsey ride she did as a toddler and went for the ride of her life.

I didn’t bother to tell her I finally won by snapping that shot with just one arm in the air.

Filed Under: Hadley, Humor

Outdoor Lab High-achieving Week

July 11, 2016 By

If there are two things Hadley loves in this world, they are art and the outdoors. Combine the two and that girl of mine is in her element.

In November, she joined all the sixth graders from her school to attend Outdoor Lab, the longest continually running outdoor education program in the western United States with two locations: Windy Peak and Mount Evans. For five days, she was immersed in an outdoor academic setting while learning about herself and how she fits into the world around her.

We thought that was the end of it until we were notified that her art teacher Mrs. Counterman nominated her to attend Outdoor Lab’s High Achieving Week during summer break. It’s an honor to be nominated in any subject–from astronomy to art to wildlife forensics–and only the best and brightest attend from our entire county. I really wanted to do it but with the uncertainty with our move and finances, I didn’t think we could swing it so was grateful when Jamie’s mom offered to send her.

Unbeknownst to us, Hadley’s two very best friends at school, Alex and Ellie, had also been nominated for the art program at Mount Evans. Talk about serendipity!

Their week went something like this:

Monday: Initiatives rope course; raku glazing and firing; make sketchbooks/journals
Tuesday: fly tying and fishing; drawings; fish carvings and prints
Wednesday: morning hike (mandalas); afternoon hike (oil pastel landscapes)
Thursday: cyanotype prints; finish projects; artist statements
Friday: hang artwork for display; surveys, artist trading cards
Alex’s mom Lisa and I drove up on Friday for parent’s day and Hadley was positively beaming as she showed me all her treasures from the week with 14,000-foot Mount Evans as a backdrop.

Mandala

As we were leaving, there was a prominent ranch gate displayed with this quote from John Muir:

Climb the mountains and get their good tidings. Nature’s peace will flow into you as sunshine flows into trees. The winds will blow their own freshness into you, and the storms their energy, while cares will drop off like autumn leaves.

We couldn’t agree with him more.

Filed Under: Colorado, Hadley

Summer Fun in the Mile High City

June 29, 2016 By

The silver lining to our inability to sell our house is we’ve have an extended amount of time with our Colorado friends. We kept busy in June with all the fun things I love about living in Colorado. Bode wrapped up two weeks of swim lessons with his besties and also did four days of Cub Scout Twilight Camp.

Hadley has had so much fun with friends. They’re climbing a 14er (14,000-foot peak) for YW Girl’s Camp this week and I have taken them on a couple of training hikes up up up 11,7oo to the top of Chief Mountain, complete with sunshine, rain, gorgeous views and a touch of altitude sickness.

And then Hadley, Alex, Maeve, Addison and I explored my beloved Chautauqua Park where we hiked to a little-known spot with a quarry of rocky chaises, armchairs and sofas overlooking a killer view. We rewarded ourselves with a  very civilized lunch at the Dining Hall, the best outdoor dining in Colorado. 

A couple of weeks ago, we had our biggest ever turnout for our weekly hiking group at Lair ‘O the Bear. This is an annual summer tradition where we hike to hidden castle in the woods and I took the older kids on a more challenging loop and we then cooled off in Bear Creek.

Not to be forgotten, our family’s annual pilgrimage to St. Mary’s Glacier. It never disappoints!

Now that Hadley is 12, she is now able to receive a limited-use recommend to our LDS Temple. She did the work for her Great Grandma Mary Wilczynski, my dad’s grandmother on his mother’s side. We were so grateful to have her besties Maeve, Addison and Alex at her side (not pictured: Alicia), followed by a traditional stop at Chick-Fil-A. Her goal is to visit all 19 temples in Utah and it’s a pretty awesome goal to set.

I was contacted by goodnessknows snack squares about hosting a group ride for Bike to Work Day and we had a blast discovering hidden bike parks, playing in Ralston Creek, rope swinging, and tree climbing with some of our closest friends!

During some house showings, we had the ultimate downtown Denver playdate with Our Favorite Things: Flagship REI, playing at Confluence Park, exploring the Platte River Trail, Little Man Ice Cream and the movie Finding Dory. 

On the day we found out our house contract had fallen through for the second time, we drowned our sorrows at Bear Creek Lake Park with our besties.

Between Outdoor Lab High Achieving Week, our current ward’s YW Girls’ Camp and our new ward’s girl’s camp in Utah next week, Hadley will be gone for three weeks this summer. Bode has had plenty of down-time but I’ve also tried to keep him entertained. He’s had a blast at basketball camp  with his buddies, Porter, Carson and their little brothers this week.

Not included in our busy summer list: working and selling our house.

Let’s hope the latter happens sooner than later.

Filed Under: Bode, Colorado, Hadley
« Older Posts
Newer Posts »