My (Epic) Summer Vacation Part 1: the drive

We drove to Utah this year.  It took five days.  And several weeks of stressing.  Because driving with children, especially with a baby is a pain.  

Here's how we did it:

1. Packed by night, not by person--that way we only had to unpack 2 bags at each stop, one for clothes and one for toiletries.  Best idea ever.  Thanks Pinterest.

2. Lots of DVDs.  Ok, we really didn't have that many, but why do you need more than two right?  Who doesn't like to watch Frozen and Harry Potter twice a day for five days.  I loved it.  LOVED IT!

3. Pack a big box and toys--play dough, foam, crayons, coloring books, felt board and then number them.  Put all the numbers in a jar and then have the kids pull a number out to tell which toy they get to play with. Also make each kid a tray out of dollar store cookie sheets that attaches to their car seat to put their toys on. Then have the kids complain about their toy, throw them on the floor or just want to play toys.  Give up and watch Frozen, again.  I take it back--the kids played along with my games the first day.  Day 2, we just watched movies.  I did try to make them take a 30 minute break between each movie.

4. Ate breakfast before we left each morning.  We tried to leave between 6 and 7 each morning, which normally I'd try to sneak the kids in the car so they'd sleep a few more hours.  I don't know how the parents on Pinterest managed to do that one, but we failed every time we've tried to do that in the past and end up having to stop an hour after leaving for breakfast.  So this time, I just woke the kids up at 5:30 or so, dressed them and fed them.  Then we only had to stop once for lunch and usually once more for gas and potty--or 2 or 3 more times because Alice is a pregnant 2-year-old and can't pee in all out in one sitting.  Seriously, she'd ask to pee, we'd stop, she'd pee then repeat 20 minutes later.  

We ended up getting to our destination for each night around 3 or 4, which was nice because it gave the kids a chance to run around an play.

5. Bring a super nice breast pump and then fill Henry full of so much formula mixed with breast milk that he can't cry.

Now that we've done all that planning, our actually trip went fairly well.  But I forgot to take many pictures.

Day 1: Drive 503 miles to Nanna's in Princeton, KY

 Day 2: Drive 585 miles to Travis and Emma's in Manhattan, KS

We picniced at the St. Lois, MO temple--because it was on our bucket list and I love picnics.

When we go to Emma and Travis', the boys were tired from sitting and watching DVDs all day, so they sat and played XBOX instead--eventually, Emma and I walked the kids to a park to get out their squiggles.

 Day 3: Drive 584 miles to Evan, Amber, Autumn, Ethan and Ella's (good guess Amber?)

Cheyenne has a super rad public library--we played a few hours, while Greg went to his store-crush, Sierra Trading Post

And we obviously had to take a picture with a boot--it's the thing to do in Cheyenne

 Day 4: Stay in Cheyenne an extra day to hang out

Alice and Autumn being semi-twinners at church

After church Greg and Evan took the kids to a super rad and mildly dangerous park while Amber took a nap and I hung out in case Henry woke up from his nap--meaning I also fell asleep on the couch.

Then the kids ran in the sprinklers because it was soooo hot (like 80),  we had a picnic out back, played with chalk and in general had a good time.

Day 5: Drive 462 miles to Grandma and Grandpa Robins in American Fork, UT and being phase 2 of our (epic) vacation.

You've had a birthday

I turned 29 on Friday.  Kind of a weird birthday.  Not quite young, not quite 30--the one age that everyone lies about being.  As in my father and I are now the same age.  You'll have to have him explain that one or maybe he just needs to have a chat with his bishop.

Now before I go and rate my birthday good/bad, I need to explain a bit about having an August 1st birthday:  In the words of my sister who's daughter was born on Christmas--I'm not sure which is worse, August 1st or Christmas Eve.  That's right: there could be a birthday worse than Christmas: mine.  People just forget my birthday, especially when I was in school and I mostly only saw my friends at school and my birthday is the middle of summer and during Girls' Camp or a family reunion.  It just slide by year after year--except the one year we went boating and I wanted to see how far my parents would let me go so I asked if I could invite a boy and they said yes but I didn't really want to invite him so I was sort of hoping they'd be lame and say no but then they said yes and I didn't want them to call my bluff and so I invited him and it was horrible because I was like 15 and didn't know what to do with a boy and my parents around.  Sometimes I wish my parents were a little less cool.

Back to this year.  As I was re-oiling my counters and sweeping my floor and pondering on the dreariness of a mid-summer birthday, the thought struck me that birthdays aren't really about me.  It's about my mom.  I didn't do anything to be born.  My mom carried me about on swollen ankles and stretching ligaments for nine months minus two weeks (you're welcome) and then birthed me in a too-sterile hospital with too-touchy doctors and nurses.  And yet it's my mom every year who's made sure to make me a sign at Girls' Camp or a cake a family reunion or let me invite a boy to my party to celebrate my birthday.  In recent years, Greg has added his own flare to the festivities.  But today I would like to say thank you to my mom for having me.  And then for keeping me.  And then for raising me.  And she did a pretty good job.  I'm witty, clever, lovable, super funny, brilliant, nice(ish), clean--what more could she ask for?  OK, maybe humble, but let's not get carried away here.

So today, two days after my 29th birthday, I would like to say thank you Mom.  You done good.

My mom on her birthday in March

For those who would like a play-by-play of the day: we started with opening presents, because we're cool like that and didn't want to wait until after breakfast, let alone after dinner.

Rex and Alice got me a knife so I could join their knife club

 That night, Greg and I were supposed to go boating with the youth (because I LOVE boating and it's even better with a boy you actually like and your parents aren't around to chaperon--bow chick-a bow wow) but it rained and was only like 70 so that got cancelled.  Since I got a babysitter for Rex and Alice, we still decided to go out.  We got sushi, which was amazing.  But since it took so long to get our food, Henry got mad so we left even though I could have gone for another roll.  We put Henry to bed then headed to the Wheatley's to get Alice (Rex was having a sleepover), ate some of their pizza, got made fun of a bit by their oh-so-young teenage boys, came home put Alice to bed and did dishes while Greg stayed and played video games with the tween Wheatleys.  Then we had cake just me and Greg around 10, watched some Netflix and went to bed.  And that's what you do when you're 29.  And since my dad has been 29 for about 20 years now, looks like I have a lot more of that to look forward to.

Miss Spit and Vinegar

After requesting her fourth bottle (yes, bottle--she spends at least an hour, if not more, a day whining for a bottle so that by bedtime, I cave) of milk at 10 o'clock tonight and I refuse and tell her to go to bed, hangs her head Charlie Brown style and runs mildly duck-footed from the room, "WHY IS THIS HAPPENING?!? WHY IS THIS HAPPENING?!?"

Well, dear because you already drank your milk that's why.

My Pinata Buisness

I made a pinata.  A blue star pinata.  For the Fourth of July--no better way to show our love of freedom than to smash the symbol of that very freedom with a bat.  It was easy to make.  Decide on desired shape; trace onto cardboard twice; cut out; cut 5 inch strips of cardboard to go between the two shapes...ok I won't go into all the details, but it was easy.  So easy in fact that as I was making it I daydreamed myself an Etsy superstar making all sorts of custom pinatas.  And then I finished it and we took it to the shin dig at my sister-in-law's in Greensboro, and I bragged a bit because I was pretty proud of my first attempt at a pinata.  Then I mentioned my pinata business to my father-in-law and figured out how much I would make: pinata's on-line are about $13--mine was exceptionally large so I might be able to charge $30; $5 worth of supplies; and 7 hours worth of labor.  That comes to a grand total of $3.50 an hour.  And my two days worth of day dreams came to a crashing halt.  Not worth it.  But the kids enjoyed it, and we knocked another one off our bucket list.

We also did other 4th of July things. Alice, however, said she was tired around 6, put on the pj's she had packed all by herself and went up to Cora's room where she spent the rest of the evening lying on Cora's bed.

 Rex helped set off some fireworks.

 One of the highlights of the night was Greg and his watermelons.  In case Homeland Security is reading this oh-so-malicious blog, I won't go into details, but this is what was left of the watermelon.  It was pretty cool.

Unfortunately, this will be our last year at Erick and Maurine's.  Again due to Homeland Security reasons, all I can say is that Erick promised his neighbor no more.  And so comes the end of 4th of July fun.  Greg and I have spent 5 of our 8 married 4th of July's at Erick and Maurine's, but no more.  At least we have a too-good-for-the-blog story to finish it out with.

Another one bites the dust

That is, another from our summer bucket list.  Cash spent 2 nights with us.  And our cousin sleep over was accomplished.   The kids all insisted on sleeping on the floor together, and since sleeping in sleeping bags with my Gosney cousins in Bakersfield is one (I have others, all of my non-Gosney cousins) of my fondest cousin memories, so I had to say yes.  They actually slept surprisingly well.  Cash even fell asleep while I read stories the first night.  And it really made me wish that Rex was a twin.  That boy needs constant attention, and some times Alice, who likes to be alone a bit more, just wants to be alone.  But Cash, he did just what Rex said and they had so much fun.

First, they got out all the toys we own.

The next day we went to the pool, and it was just too much for some of us.

 On the 4th of July, we hit up the Harrisburg parade, because we all know how much I love parades.  This time we came prepared with bags for all our candy.  And I did not bother with chairs because I know kids don't sit in chairs during parades because there is candy.

 And Henry wore his super festive Christmas PJs because we just did not have time to dress him.

Almost half way done with our list and our summer.

7 Memories for 7 Years

Coming out of the temple, June 29, 2007

Year 1: I was a first year teacher and Greg was working part time and going to school full time.  We went our separate ways in the mornings but met up at our apartment around 5 or 6.  I'd make dinner (mini pizzas or BLTs mostly) then we head up to campus--Greg would drop me off at the track then I'd meet him on the first floor of the library.  We'd study until 11 then head home exhausted.  To sound very apostle-y, those are fond memories.

We spent the night at the Hotel Monaco, where we stayed the first two nights we were married.

Waiting for the stadium of fire to start July 4, 2008

Year 2: For our second anniversary, we decided to hike Mt. Timpanogos.  While it was late June, there was still snow about half way down the mountain.  I think we may have made it to Emerald Lake before we turned back and discussed how much neither one of likes hiking very much the whole way down.   We haven't been hiking since.

Year 3:  Our evenings changed significantly by this point.  We had Rex and I was now a stay-at-home mom while Greg worked full time and went to school part time.   After dinner each night, Rex, Greg, and I would go to Rex's room to play.  Rex had these super tight green, thermal pants he wore to bed sometimes that Greg called his fancy pants.  Greg often danced Rex around the room singing, in a high falsetto, "I'm a little dancing boy.  Dancing's what I like to do."  Rex thought this was hilarious and the night usually ended in a fit of giggles. 

We spent two nights and three days in Charleston.

At Bridal Veil Falls, May 2010

Year 4: We painted the kitchen.  Our kitchen was a cornucopia of colors--dark red cabinets, yellow walls, and dark beige wanes coating.  I hated it from the day we moved in.  So we finally painted the kitchen--reflective white cabinets and Crayola crayon green walls.  It was awful.   Still is actually.  It took us about a month to paint it because we wanted to do it right--took all the hinges off the cabinets, cleaned them, put them back on, tried to remember which doors went to which cabinets.  Neither one of us liked the final outcome but because we took so long to do it and we didn't want to offend each other, we didn't say anything for about a year, and then we moved so...

We went camping for a night on the back side of Mt. Nebo for our anniversary--June 2011

Year 5:  We moved.  Just after our fourth anniversary, we moved to Charlotte and Greg tried everything he could to make me happy.  He paid the bills (which is usually my chore, and I HATE it), he let me buy whatever I wanted, he helped me paint Rex's room florescent green.   Again, at the risk of being corny and slightly apostle-y (you know how they get when they talk about their early married lives), it was bitter sweet.  I hated Charlotte but I soaked up the effort Greg poured into the relationship.

Year 6: We moved again.  Just before our sixth anniversary we moved again.  Most of that year was marked by moving.  I decided in August that I wanted to move again, so I started looking for houses.  In January, I started packing, and in June we finally moved.  And Greg put up with it all.  Whenever he couldn't find something, he'd quietly go to the box pile I was making and unpack a box or two like it was normal for people to live out of boxes for six months.

Our anniversary was particularity nice that year--we spent a night in Columbia, South Carolina and went to the temple.  We also went to a super fancy restaurant and ate some nasty food--every time we eat somewhere nice now, we will bring up that duck pate and how we should have sent it back.  It was gross.

At Promontory, Utah, July 2013

 Year 7: This has been a good year for us.  We've finally figured out all those weird thing about each other so we are better able to discuss rather than argue (not that we ever fought that often anyway), which is good because this year has been the year of the house.  We've had a series of bad tenets in our Provo house necessitating many hairy conversation about what to do with the house and how best to handle situations.  We've decided to sell it, but that's not really going anywhere.

To celebrate this year, we recalled some good old Provo times and went to Dish It Out Pottery, where we painted some pottery.  We went once while we were dating and then twice more after we were married to Color Me Mine in Provo.  We followed that up with ice cream at a Cold Stone knock off, another Provo favorite.  That was Friday.  Saturday, we continued the fun with dinner (nursing babies make it difficult to leave the house for more than an hour or two) at Cajun Queen.  Again, Greg recalled old times by reminding me how I'll eat anything at Communal (our favorite restaurant, also in Provo) so I should try whatever weird thing he'd ordered.  It was ok.

Taking an anniversary picture--June 29, 2014

 And there you have it.  Seven years of...I won't say bliss because it's a silly word that trivializes marriage and makes anything that's not perfect not good enough.  But I will say, I'm still surprised sometimes that I somehow convinced the Great Greg Baker to marry me--and that he's still married to me because I can be a little...crazy, difficult, stubborn, rude, etc. at times.  But he's still got a few more years to go to beat out Amber as my longest running roommate.

Swim Lessons

I finally did it.  After three summers of saying I was going to put Rex in swim lessons and then waiting too long that summer was nearly over, so what was the point?  Or we're about to go on vacation so after this and then summer's bascially over, what's the point?  I did it.  June 2nd I signed both him and Alice up .  And it was a fun, but tiring two weeks.  Here's how it went Monday through Thursday for two weeks:

wake up

8:30 rush out of the house because no matter how early, I get up it's still a rush at the end

8:50 (hopefully): arrive at swimming lesson.  Drop Rex and Henry off at child watch

9: Mommy and me lessons with Alice

9:30 change, fed Henry, drop Alice and Henry off at child watch, pick Rex up from the older child watch, Rex changes into swimsuit

10: drop Rex off at swim lessons, hurry up to fitness floor for a quick workout

10:30 pick Rex up, pick Henry and Alice up, eat a snack, change back into now wet swim suits, swim for fun

12 take a very tired and often screaming Henry home for a nap

It was exhausting.  But productive.  Ms. Alicia was great--played lots of games to entertain the children so they didn't know they were practicing swimming.  I loved having half an hour each day devoted just to Alice, time she doesn't normally get.  Alice learned not to jump into pools but to cautiously climb in and then how to monkey arm along the side of the pool to the ladder to get out.  Exactly what I wanted her to learn.

 Rex, on the other hand, learned to jump in the pool and how to paddle back to the side.  In our free time swimming after lessons, he jumped in, swam back, jumped in, swam back, jumped in, swam back, jumped in, swam back...you get the point.  He also learned how to float on his back and how to hold his breath under water.  And he enjoys it.  I think he liked tee ball because we wanted him to like it.  I think he liked swimming because he likes it.  It suits his personality better--more movement, more silliness, more games--less standing around.  He practiced specific things he wants to get better at, such at diving under water to get toys and floating on his back.  Not to go lie, I like that he likes swimming.  It's just a good sport--individual so he can swim past high school when he'll no longer have publicly sponsored teams; low impact so he'll preserve all his precious cartilage; full body so he'll stay fit.  Love it--it's like running, but wetter and better.  It's unfortunate that I can't swim and you have to get wet to swim and there's no such thing as a swimming BOB or I'd be a swimmer too.

I was so pleased with all the children learned that I nearly signed them up for a second session, but then decided that I wanted some summer time to swim for fun, so I didn't.