Toward the middle of June we received a funny bit of mail from our Bramwells. Inside was two tri-fold brochures advertising vacation spots.... Backstory-- we made them similar ads for all the random day hikes and adventures we went on with them while they lived here. The first ad was for Park City. Inside "BEEN THERE, DONE THAT!" Well that describes us just fine. We are generally content to vacation vicariously, hearing the tales and seeing the footage of others. Our kids think that a hotel in Park City is the best vacation on the earth, until... cue second brochure. It featured an unlimited stay in the Bramwell Hotel and various Southern California attractions.

When our boys saw Legoland featured, well there was no turning back. There is simply nothing that gets Noah's heart a flutter like Legos. Caitlyn picked out Disneyland because she's on to the fact that all the "princesses actually really live there mom." It wasn't too hard to turn her attention to whales and dolphins and SeaWorld went into the agenda instead of Disneyland.

Don't be too shocked when we didn't politely say no thank you as our past behaviors would indicate. I guess we got a little excited too. Before you know it we have shocked Kyle and Julie by calling to plan dates. Once the kids got wind of the plans we had to enforce a new family rule: No talking about the vacation except at lunch or dinner. I am positive that Noah dreamed Legoland because I haven't seen him so quiet-- he had nothing to say that didn't relate to the vacation.

Here are a few stats on the drive:

3 kids, 2 adults, one 5 person sedan

10 1/2 hours

3 Stops

692 miles

26.6 gallons of unleaded gas

1 GPS named Molly who navigated, but reminded us "to remain on the current road" a little too often.

ZERO whining, complaining, fighting or even asking when we'd be there.

WHO are these children? They fight just driving 15 minutes. I guess they know us too well. Can't act up and risk getting Legoland stricken from the record.

one mom, raised on the grid system, driving in the spaghetti mess of the California highway system; white-knuckled.

one dad who turned right back into a California driver, managing with the greatest of ease.

Conversations in a Cemetary

During our Memorial Day decorating Noah was freaking out that Caitlyn stepped on a headstone, worried that something catastrophic was going to occur. I tried to explain that we don't step on the headstones out of respect for the people whose bodies are resting there waiting for the resurrection.

Noah: But mom, some of those bodies are not right.

Mom: Like how?

Noah: Well, from car crashes and guns and also broken bones.

Mom : But Heavenly Father has power to fix all those bodies. The Atonement is so powerful that it can make all the bodies right.

Noah: Well that's good Mom, since grandma is such a good person, she won't have to have braces at the resurrection, right?

Mom: That's right, good idea bud.

Grandma's response: I was actually hoping to get rid of the braces before then.

And the Drama Continues...

We have had a whirlwind week of family togetherness, the plan of salvation and another funeral. My paternal grandmother found out she had cancer three weeks after my grandfather's death. Within another three weeks of oncology consults, she ended up with a 14 inch incision and without two very large tumors. During the last three weeks she struggled with incessant nausea and six of eight fatal maladies. Her remaining sons took her home to be in peace. I got to spend a couple hours with her. She tried her best to tell me all sorts of things, but I am no lip reader, so the secrets from beyond the veil will remain a mystery to me. I swabbed her mouth, talked, applied lip gloss, talked, and talked. I can be incessant you know. I told her how beautiful the cemetary was at Memorial Day and how we finally found her grandparents and sweet Aunt Gladys. And won't it be great to see Gladys without the infirmities of her handicaps. I read her mail (TO HER-silly). I joked about the cards that said things like 'get well soon' and ' you can beat cancer' saying that these people had no idea how soon she would feel better and beat the cancer to the finish line. While I talked she was calm and everyone left me to it. In a quiet moment she opened her eyes, said my name and told me that she loved me. Although we had a great visit in the hospital a week earlier, I really will treasure the time I spent with her because it quelled my grief. I am actually mostly content and only a little sad because it was only two months and a few days and she got to be back with her sweetheart. Death gets harder the closer to me it gets. I hope it is a long time before my own parents go.

All Broken Up

Part of my offline life has incorporated a short nursing stint... the RN type if you're wondering.  Two weeks ago, my parents were ATVing in Moab on a trail called Metal Masher.  Yes, that is the foreshadowing part of the post.  My mom was on a very steep part of the trail when her machine started back and rolled over her chest and face.  After a blessing and some ibuprofen, she rode back two hours with two broken ribs, a punctured lung and a mouth full of twisted teeth.  After a crazy night in Moab's hospital, she finally started her rounds to all the specialists to fix everything up.  The ironical part was that I got to take her to get braces put on her loose teeth... reminds me that she had the same honor on my behalf when my teeth were knocked out. My dad had scheduled surgery for his torn medial meniscus on Braces day, so Cait and I found had a sleepover.  They wore me out.  Everytime Cait would say she needed a drink or anything, one of them would jump up and beat me to the punch.  Finally at midnight, I turned down their beds, posted their pill schedules and left them to their own devices-- exhausted.  The good news is that the knee only took 12 minutes, which means a quicker recovery and the teeth are all back to where they should be.  They are both off pain meds and hopefully they don't bounce back too soon or they will never get a rest.  With all the medical drama in my family for the past couple years it was kind of nice to feel like I could actually do something to help out.  Generally, everyone is closer so they get first dibs on the service opportunities.  

The Primary Colors Are...

Well I can barely remember, but they don't even sing that song anymore... do they?  I guess I will find out with my great new assignment in Primary.  I am really excited and maybe the sheer adrenaline will keep me rolling until I really figure out what I am doing.  

I have had a great couple of weeks focusing on some revelation and getting ready to do what needs to be done in our ward.  I have amazing counselors who are patient and loving and that's what the kids really need.

Lapse

It appears that a lapse has occured.  I must of blocked the need to blog about moving again because let's be honest-- I love moving.  We moved into our new house in the middle of March and it was a lot less work than previous moves.  Hopefully we have pefected it well enough to never do it again. Even though we were excited about our new garage, we couldn't use it for nearly a week because all the boxes were stacked there.  While the move was easier, the unpacking has presented a huge challenge because we didn't think to differentiate between what we packed in December from what we packed in March.... so it's a mixed bag.  We couldn't find the essential things, but found plenty of randomness.  Our car has now made the transition to the garage and we have only about 30 remaining boxes to worry about.  I uncovered a whole wall in our family room just last weekend.  I also got brave enough to crack some of the "decorations" boxes open and frustrate my brain.  The inside is starting to come together and we have managed to haul a few hundred rocks from the yard, find some lingering mulberry tree roots, discover our own earthworm hideout and have Jeff's TAs over for some harmless FearFactor fun.  I thought that not having a set of stairs to climb was going to make me lazy, but rest assured that I hit the pillow snoring at around 9:30 most nights -- completely worn out. The yardwork alone could turn out to be a great workout program.  Don't worry, when I get a room done, I will take a picture... but until then, you'll just have to live with the suspense.

Girls Night Out

WICKEDgood

I spent Thursday night with my mom, sister and sister-in-law in the Capitol Theater in SLC.  Wicked was fabulous.  It was amazing how they did so many effects with just the lighting/shadows.  I would gladly pay the outrageous price to see it again.  The actresses that played Galinda and Elphaba were incredible.  The audience was crazy with cheering and loud  applause after every number.  By the end I was waxing philosophical, political and emotional which boils down to me looking like a leaking faucet.  Aside from the show, I enjoyed the people watching.  Ordinarly, I am entertaining the group with my craziness, but due to a rather raucous cold, I could barely speak above a whisper-- so I watched from my aisle seat.  Luckily, my SOL notices people too, so I barely had to turn her direction and we were thinking the same things.  Best dressed, the brunette in the sassy white short dress--minus the snakeskin gladitor heels.  Worst-- 75% of the audience, but especially the woman who managed to pair Birkenstocks with Sequins....here comes the rant.  I was shocked at how casual people were.  I realize that people wear everything from sequins to jeans, but some people looked as if they made no effort to de-frumpify themselves in the least... and let's be honest, this is not NYC where people have traveled to town and get last minute tickets.   Wicked sold out in something like 4 minutes-- last fall.  People have been waiting over 4 months to see this and they wear whatever frumpy poly thing they would wear to the grocery store.   CRAZY... at least comb your hair and act like you paid out the nose to be there..... RANT finished.   To end on a high note, I thought that finally seeing the show would cure me of the need to listen to the soundtrack relentlessly, but I still want to hear it-- almost as much as Miss Caitlyn.