illguthlife: Catching up before Yellowstone

Hey there, it's been a while since I've updated this blog. There are several reasons for that.

1. I challenged myself to write 30 posts in 30 days over on my travel blog, www.51centadventures.com so most of my writing time (and a lot of my other time) is being spent on that project. I wanted to get somewhat caught up on that blog before we go to Yellowstone. So far I've written 12 posts in 14 days so things are going well there.

2. My job with Snowbasin ended in the middle of the month and it took me exactly one day to have a minor nervous breakdown about being a full time stay at home mom again. I just kind of wandered around the house wondering "what do I do here all day?" It took me a few days to re-calibrate and remember how to keep myself busy. But it was a nice (or maybe not-so nice) reminder that I have a hard time being home all the time. (Hence the 30 posts in 30 days)

3. We are still living with my in-laws. Overall it's been good. But it's still difficult that a situation I hoped would only last 6 weeks will, in fact, last six months. I really don't know how I feel about it, and I definitely don't know how to write about it.

4. I've just felt lost. Towards the end of my job I had a bit of free time. I found myself re-reading this blog. I was reading stuff from last year when we were still in Fort Rucker. I kept thinking, "Who is this girl? She gets so much done, and is so sure of herself. Am I really this same girl? Where did she go?" So much of who I used to be seems to be packed up and in storage along with all my stuff. I'm hoping that with the return of warm weather and sunshine I'm able to find more of myself again.

But anyway, I have free time right now and I'm going to do one of those catch up blogs that I am oh so good at.

Starting with, the Art Show at the kids' elementary school. The twins are budding little artists bursting with talent from their dad's side of the family. So I wanted them to enter the art contest. Everything was on display on the evening of April 17th. In addition the the stuff they entered some other pictures they's drawn with their class were up on display. Here's Lydia's with hers.

And Charlotte with hers.

This is the close up. Charlotte was so excited to see something she drew on display.

Lydia's was a picture of her teacher teacher her class.

Then we looked for their official entries. The theme was "To infinity and beyond." Charlotte drew a family.

Honestly, she's done more creative stuff than this, but I didn't want her to get hung up on it "being perfect." (I'm dealing with enough of that myself) So when she said this picture is the one she wanted to enter I happily helped her turn it in.

Here's Lydia with hers.

It was a mommy cow with her three babies. She was super proud of it and was actually really mad that she had to turn it in and not see it for several weeks.

This is what they gym looked like. I thought we have to sit through some awfully boring program where we watched kids get awards, but instead it was just like an art show where you walked around and looked at art and then could leave at your leisure. THANK YOU to who ever made that decision.

My last official day of work was April 14th. But I went in on Wednesday April 19th to help with some tidying up and data entry. I really liked my job and I'm glad I get to do something similar this summer. It was really weird though to admit that it was over. Part of me had always expected that we'd move before the ski season ended. I never thought I'd stay for the whole season. And yet I did. Here's the view of "my mountain."

Charlotte wanted me to take her picture with the roses I got for Valentines Day.

This one was really cute.

She came up with this idea.

We had the sister missionaries over for dinner one night. Charlotte wanted to take a picture of the fancy table. The kids were so confused when we ate in here. Usually we eat at the counter height table in the kitchen.

Charlotte and Lydia made a "fairy" out of sticks or something. They called her Tinkerbell. Then they made a whole house for her in a drawer. They got very enterprising and put up a sign that said other fairies could stay there for 5 cents. I had fun with that and put a few nickels into the house. They were so excited.

It took Derrick about 4 days to finally decide to eat his Easter Candy. He'd been carrying it around in a gallon size ziplock bag and would get mad at anyone who even looked at it. I'd been sneaking into it and stealing candy after he went to bed. Finally on Thursday evening he plopped down at the counter and proceeded to eat half his candy. He ate the other half the next day.

On earth day I took the kids to the library so they could get free lady bugs. We discovered that Veronica is terrified of lady bugs. She wouldn't even hold her package. That night we let the lady bug loose. Derrick liked trying to hold them.

Oh I totally forgot to get a picture of this, but Derrick talked about soccer balls for like two weeks straight. So I when I found soccer ball at DI for $3 I bought it for him. When I showed it to him he gave the ball a big hug, kissed it, and said, "I love you too soccer ball." The he proceeded to run around the yard kicking the ball to his hearts content.

Brandon and I have spent a lot of time on the RV. I'll be doing a big before and after post on my travel blog soon. But I need to mention something that took a lot of Brandon's time. We discovered a leak and rotten wood under the loft area where the girls sleep. This was not good at all.

But Brandon is amazing and got everything as good as new within a few days. He's amazing. I'm really excited to show you all the things he's been doing.

On Wednesday April 26th we went to see a big steam train in Ogden. We waited in a line for a chance to peek into the engine.

The kids were fascinated by the water that came out of the watertank.

Charlotte kept running over to these pillars and I thought she looked like a model.

We were at the Ogden Trainstation where other trains are on display.

Derrick was pretty happy about the whole thing.

Veronica had to copy him.

I was hoping they'd let us go inside the engine. But we could just look in over a railing.

A lady on the inside took a picture of the engine gauges and then she took a picture of us. This is the best family picture we've taken in a while.

Check out how big those wheels are.

Here we are in front of the train.

Derrick in heaven. He liked seeing the train, but he really wanted to ride on it.

The RV had basically been a construction zone for the past few weeks and I was starting to wonder if it would ever be a home. Then Brandon spent a whole day cleaning it up. He didn't tell me what he was up to so I was very surprised when he took me out there and showed me a clean home. I was so excited.

He'd even put our rug on the floor. Suddenly this whole, move-to-yellowstone-and-live-in-a-RV seemed like it might actually work.

The girls' loft area was even all back together. Like I said, Brandon is amazing.

Lydia lost her third tooth on April 28th. We didn't even know it was that loose. She bit into a hard roll and basically pulled it out. We were planning on sleeping in the RV that night so I had to call the tooth fairy and give her very clear instructions on how to find Lydia's pillow.

One of the things my amazing husband installed in the RV was a TV. Actually it's a computer monitor that he bought for $15 at the Weber State University Surplus store. He connected it to a computer console that we already had. He installed the monitor upside-down under one of the cupboards. And then he instructed the computer to always rotate the image. It's pretty impressive. So we had movie night before we went to sleep in the RV. We watched Matilda because I'd just finished reading the book with the girls.

Here are the girls getting ready for bed. It had actually been SNOWING that week and the weather was very cold that night. We made sure they were dressed in warm pajamas.

We decided that we'd rather have Derrick sleep on the couch. Last time we slept in the RV Derrick had slept on the bed in the dinnette area. That had been a problem when he was still asleep when everyone else wanted breakfast. So we decided we'd sleep there and he'd get the couch. That suited him just fine since he's always asking to sleep on the couch in the house anyway.

Our night went well, and everyone was warm. But in the morning we all hurried inside to eat breakfast where it was warm.

The next day we went to the Safe Kids Fair in Ogden. We were there to buy bike helmets for only $5. But we also went around to the booths. The kids liked this little seat belt crash demo.

Derrick thought it was fun too.

After that we went to the USU Botanical Gardens in Kaysville. We drive passed this place all the time on I-15 and we've always wanted to stop. We had a family get together at my uncles in Kaysville later that day so this was the perfect chance to visit the gardens.

This was the wetlands discovery building. It was closed.

But the wet lands were open. The kid loved looking at the water. We even saw a turtle.

Charlotte wanted to pose with this statue.

And Lydia did too.

The girls all pretended to be tigers in the grass.

Veronica said she was making a snowman.

This tunnel was cool. It took us under the road to the things on the other side.

Derrick loves blowing dandelion tops and there were tons of them all over the place.

The girls pretended to be lions and tigers in this grass too.

Here's Charlotte.

And Veronica.

We went for a little hike. and then it was time to go to my uncle Johnny's house.

Derrick had been talking about "go to Johnny's house, see kitty cat." the whole week. So as soon as we got there he went to find the cat. Charlotte and Lydia had been looking forward to playing Lego Dragons with my cousin Lucy. So that's what they did as soon as they walked in the door. And Brandon and I had fun catching up with my family.

When it was time to go home, Charlotte and Lydia went home with my sister Hillary. They were going to have a sleep over with her and had packed special overnight bags. Brandon and I planned to pick them up and bring them back home the next day. But as we talked it over with Hillary we decided it made sense it we all stayed over at her house on Sunday night as well. She wanted me to watch Arrival and I wanted her to dye my hair. So that is what we did.

And here is my new hair color. I can't have "extreme hair" in Yellowstone and I'm pretty sure that pink streaks count as extreme. I figured if I had to dye them out of my hair I might as well make it interesting. So I'm going to be a red head for the summer. Hillary also cut my hair because I'm not really interested in growing it out right now. I'm super happy with it.

Derrick found some big bubble wrap and that kept him entertained for several hours one day.

I made a big batch of granola while Derrick was busy with the bubble wrap. The girls wanted to eat oatmeal and so I introduced them to "Oatmeal and sugar" which is exactly like it sounds and was one of my ~~only~~ favorite treats when I was little. They loved it.

Derrick gets attached to different things that he will carry around for days. At one point it was pass along cards from our church. He was so happy to point out the temple and Jesus Christ. Derrick loves Jesus.

Brandon's been doing amazing things with the RV like getting the generator running, testing the water system, and fixing the electrical system. Meanwhile I lined these shelves (that he also built) with contact paper. But Brandon doesn't mind that he has all the big projects. He's incredibly happy when he's working on the RV. This big project has helped us realize that he is going to LOVE being an airplane mechanic.

On Saturday I went to a baby shower for the wife of my friend David from the ward I grew up in. David's family and my family were really good friends. It was really fun to see a lot of my old friends. It was the first time I've been back to Kearns in three years. I drove by my old house. It was strange to see it. I definitely have good memories there, but I've also definitely moved on.

Today we took the kids to the Pine View Reservoir. They weren't supposed to get into it, but they did anyway.