I can tell this is going to be the Best Summer Ever

My little ballerinas

The last two summers were crazy.  Just having so many really little kids, always having a newborn, and moving twice in two years has really been hard on summer activity enjoyment. Even the summers before that were difficult because no one was really coordinated enough to play soccer or tennis.   This summer has been so different.  Henry and Bea are both doing tennis lessons(during which I either do a swim workout, run or bike ride for an hour) and then they, along with Clementine jump in the freezing pool and do a swim lesson every day.  We stay and play at the park for a minute before going home to eat a delicious meal and the kids do Rosetta Stone Italian, practice instruments, read books and play outside until Vivi wakes up from her nap and then we go do something fun like play at the pool or go to a park, museum or friend's house.  Henry had basketball camp this past week as well.  The kids are going nuts because they are so happy! It's just so refreshing to have kids all old enough to be self sufficient.  Even Viv just follows the other kids around and just goes with the flow.  This past week Clementine and Bea had their big ballet performance of Pinocchio.  Bea was a schoolgirl and Clementine was a jack-in-the-box. The girls have so much fun getting into their costumes and putting their hair up and make up on.  It's also the only time of the year they're allowed to wear red lipstick.  They strictly stick to a "light pink only" rule with all make-up and nail polish for the rest of the year.  I even took them to get their nails done at the salon for the first time ever and they were totally behaved and loved every minute of it!  I have to say it was the ultimate girls week.  Anyway, next week we're off to a family reunion and we can't wait to see our long lost cousins! I love you summer and I love you little kids!

Last minute 10K

At the finish line

Justin and I along with our brother-in-law, Garrett did an XTerra trail race today.  Justin and I did the 10K while Garrett did the half marathon.   I got 6th place which wasn't so great because there were only 11 women competing in my race.  I didn't train at all for this race and I wasn't feeling strong at all, so I kind of wimped out.  My time was 58 min and I got passed by a lot of people.  The terrain was hilly and technical, which made it really fun, but I basically jogged and didn't have an ounce of power in my weak lead legs.  Not sure what happened, but it was fun anyhow!  Thanks Garrett for inviting us to run with you!   

The best part of the day was going to the spa and lunch afterward for a few hours.  I napped and relaxed and then we had a delicious gourmet lunch.  Then we rushed home to grab the kids for a campfire cookout up Big Cottonwood canyon with the Bradshaw family.  I think I can say I lived my life to the fullest today. No regrets!

Woman of Steel Triathlon

Me and Lucy after the race.  Check out my new triathlon suit! It looked hideous on me but it was so functional!

A couple weeks ago I did the Women of Steel triathlon sprint with my sister Lucy.  For the first time in my life, I actually felt pretty prepared for this race and I felt strong throughout the entire race.  The competition was steep, especially in my age group so I didn't do as well as I had hoped, but I still felt great about my performance.  I finished 7th in my age category of 70 women and 33rd overall out of over 400 women.  I have to also say that I love sprint races.  I can't think of anything more boring than running or biking for hours upon hours.  I just love the quick transitions and events of a sprint tri.  I am, however, doing an Olympic length at the end of the summer and I'll let you know if it was fun or not. 

The day was cold and it rained for the entire drive until I reached the event location.  It threatened rain and sprinkled a couple times during my race, but never let loose. I believe a lot of prayers kept the ran at bay because it was pouring everywhere else around the entire valley.  Before the race started, all the women were standing around the pool trying to hear what was being said at the pre-race meeting, laughing, dancing to try to keep warm and making sure they were in the right line.  We were all supposed to line up according to our projected swim line.  I got in line at the end of the 5 minute group, but I noticed that there were many women in front of me who were not swimming fast at all.  Looking back, I should have gone in the four minute group, even though I know I couldn't have gone that fast.  If I had been in that first group of women, I bet I would have had someone to keep up with during the bike portion because all the first women were the ones who won, even if they didn't have great swim times.  The swim was in a 50 meter pool, which made it an individual start and also made it so I wasn't competing with the women who were in my same category and ability.    So, for the swim, we started in an outside lane, did one lap, then ducked under the lane line and did another, ducked again and did another-it was very strange.  As I ran across the timing mat to start my swim, I slipped and fell.  I hit my knee, but the rush of adrenaline was too high so I didn't feel anything until the end of the race.  It wasn't too bad anyway, but kind of embarrassing, ya know.  The swim was hard for the first 100 meters and I felt like I wasn't getting any air, but then my blood started to flow and went faster and felt stronger.  I passed a couple women and so did Lucy.

I hopped out and ran to my bike in the freezing cold.  I pulled on my shoes, my arm warmers and started the two loops.  During the bike, I was only passed by one woman.  I was hoping to catch up to someone who was going hard, but I didn't and all the women in the second lap had all just started and were in the slower groups so I had no one to ride with.  I was disappointed to see that there was a bunch of glass in the bike lane and I saw at least 5 women changing their tires right after that.  I would think that they would have checked the route for any serious hazards.  Thankfully, I avoided getting a flat.  I lost about 10 seconds because my chain fell off, but I fixed it quickly and made up lost ground.  It was pretty cold outside and as I was riding I was so glad I borrowed Justin's biking sleeves, but I didn't want to waste time putting on my gloves so my hands were freezing as well as my feet.

My transition to the run was very fast.  All I had to do was take off my helmet and I was out of there in a flash.  My muscles felt a little strange, but since I had done quite a few bike to run workouts I felt better than I had felt during all my other triathlon transitions from bike to run.  The only problem was that my feet were frozen and couldn't feel a thing!  It took a little while to get up to the speed I wanted, but I was glad that I still felt like I had energy to push myself and wasn't just dragging myself along.  I was running hard and passing everyone, except for one woman who passed me.  She looked so fresh.  I wonder if she was in the relay or something.  Anyway, only one woman passed me on the run, so I felt great about that.  The last half mile was downhill, so it felt great to be sprinting downhill approaching the finish line.  I caught up to a lady who was running pretty fast at the end and had a sprint to the finish with her.  It was fun, until her children ran out and almost tripped me.  I beat her though.  Woo hoo! 

That was the end.  I was hoping to get podium, but the winner was in my category and there were a few women who were at least 5 minutes faster than me.  The two right ahead of me were only about 30 seconds ahead, so I might have been able to get 5th, but 4th place was way faster than I think I could have done so the podium was totally out of reach.  I was happy nonetheless.  I got a cute necklace instead of a lame medal and waited for my sister to finish.  She came in about 7 minutes behind me, but got 6th in her age group.  She did awesome!  It was so fun watching her run in and cross the finish line.  We ate some fruit and then headed to the car because the threat of rain that entire morning came to fruition and it started coming down.  We were so fortunate to have finished before it really started coming down and I had to get back to meet my family at the movie theater, so we left before the awards ceremony.  Lucy and I both thought, "why am I doing this to myself?" during the race, but afterward we both agreed that it was so rewarding we would do it again. 

Mother's Day Meltdowns

Last Mother's Day was wonderful.  Kids behaved, we went to church, I got way too many cards and all my delicious meals were taken care of by my wonderful family.  This year was a little different...

I woke up from tent camping after not sleeping due to the fact that I had to relieve myself all night but didn't want to get out of my warm sleeping bag and/or disturb my sleeping baby, so I just held it and woke up every time I found myself on my back feeling the need even more.  When I finally got up, I made breakfast for the entire camp and we spent the first part of the day with our cranky children, trying to have fun in Goblin Valley.  Both Clementine and Violette were not enjoying themselves and I ended up carrying them both.  After we ate lunch we hopped in the car and drove with a lot more screaming and crying all the way to my mom's place for Mother's Day dinner...which was re-heated Indian food.  Hmmm.  Not my favorite.  Of course my children didn't eat much and so my mom gave them 4 ice cream bars each because she "wanted to get rid of them".  I wasn't aware my children look like garbage cans because that's exactly where those bars should have ended up.  I didn't say anything because, hey, it's Mother's Day, right?  Justin gave me the gift that I found on the kitchen table a couple weeks ago because he forgot to hide it(still in the bag I put it in, not wrapped and not even one card from my husband or kids) and then we finally got home at 9:30 at which point Bea was having a meltdown because she couldn't find her blankie.  I told her to get ready for bed and brush her teeth and I would look for it while I was cleaning out the car.  She just stood there screaming at the top of her lungs that she wouldn't leave the garage without it and was angrier than I have ever seen her.  Could it have been the lack of sleep mixed with four desserts? Yeah.  Then came the kicker...After she didn't listen to me for the 10th time I said to her, "you're not being nice to me and it's Mother's Day".  Bea responded in the loudest scream she could muster, "I hate mothers and I hate Mother's Day!"

The only consolation is that she ended up having a fever in the morning so I can only imagine how she was feeling that night...so I forgave her.  She's been making up for it all week by giving me dandelions from our horrible lawn.  Then it was all made better when I woke up the next morning to our beautiful lilac hedge completely covered in flowers and it was so warm and smelled so good outside.  I gathered 36 delicious eggs from my chickens, took 4 roosters and my mean, mean turkey to slaughter and did an awesome workout to get ready for my triathlon this weekend.  It is good to be home. 

Let the races begin!

Pre race excitement with Becky

Well, I'm dedicated to keeping up on my blogs now that my farm is finally getting established.  I have been working from dawn until well after dark pruning, mulching, clearing woods, creating a giant garden, planting an orchard, and trying to get my pile of sticks and leaves that is taking over my driveway to disappear! That doesn't include taking care of chickens, turkeys, cooking, cleaning, driving around town, and taking care of kids...and keeping tabs on where our hairless rats are.  More photos to come on the subject of the farm, but I had to blog first on the duathlon I did a few weeks ago because it's the first official race I have done after Vivi was born!  I was such a slacker last summer from moving into my house and trying to survive with horrible allergies I have never had and just didn't quite feel up to it, but now I'm feeling great and started the year off good with a second place finish.  If any of you know me, I pretty much always get second place for some reason, but I'm actually fine with it, especially because I don't really train like I should for any of these races, so I don't even expect to do well at all.  The duathlon was called the Legacy Duathlon and it consisted of a 1.5 mile run, 11 mile bike and another 1.5 mile run and I loved it(a duathlon is different from a biathlon because in a biathlon there aren't three segments).  I am a sprinter at heart and being able to just book it as fast as I could run was so fun.  There was no pacing involved in the run and that's the way I like it.  The bike was tricky and I lost a lot of time because I just got a bike for the first time in my life 5 days before the race, so I couldn't remember what gears were which and had to concentrate too much on that and I got passed by quite a few people.  I ran it with my friend Becky who got first place(woot woot!) and the best part was at the awards ceremony they called the third place winner and they called Amelia and I thought it was me(and I screamed and high fived Becky lol), but then they said a different last name and another lady ran up, but then they announced second place and said it was another Amelia and it was me.  Phew! Then they announced the winner and said "first place is not Amelia" and then called Becky's name.  haha. It was hilarious.

On our rickety podium.  This race was ghetto.

Post race at the finish line.  They tents and blow up finish gate blew over in the wind.  lol.

Change of Seasons

Well, I was really happy to have my super simple life of ski, ski, ski every day but now that spring has sprung here in Utah (a lot earlier than the East coast I may add), there is a lot to do around the farm!  I'm busy getting areas ready to plant our orchard, raspberries and vegetable garden. I am so excited I think I may jump out of my skin.  More to come with that. 

I giant fish we caught

Posing on the bow

Justin attempting to be pulled behind the wimpy dinghy on a paddle board

One of many critters I dragged up from the bottom of the sea

Also, I've been asked to do a nutrition booth at the BYU Women's Conference and I got some friends to help me and we're really going full force with our nutrition ideas.  It's basically what has been known as "alternative" nutrition which is actually becoming a little more mainstream these days.  If any of you want to know what I'm talking about and want to know how to actually eat healthfully and avoid the health problems and cancer plaguing our country even though everyone is supposedly on the "recommended" diet, then you can go to the BYU Women's Conference 2013 website and find our booth title "Got Real Food" and look at our handouts.  They're a lot easier to read than the giant books we have been reading to put them together in the most condensed format for your convenience.  Or, you can come to the conference May 2-3 and visit us there!

The Captain and crew: Me, Erik and Emily Orton, Heidi and Paul Clark, York and Jane Young and Justin

The beautifully developed island of Virgin Gorda.  Every island was different and this one was the fanciest for sure

Playing around with the camera again.  I love the moon in this shot

Perfect beach

We've been traveling a lot lately as well. Justin and I went on an epic sailing trip for our 10th anniversary to the British Virgin Islands for a whole entire week after Henry's Birthday. I couldn't believe how relaxed a person could be!  I kept thinking every morning that I couldn't believe I had more days left because after three days I was good to go home.  I scuba dived for the first time ever and was in heaven at the bottom of the ocean.  I always say I was a mermaid in my former life.  I really love being underwater. 

Some interesting shells and coral I collected for the kids

Our catamaran, the Catatonic

We also traveled to Chicago with Henry for a weekend to visit the Chou family and let Henry play with Wee-o while the dads went to the AAOS meeting (orthopaedic surgeons).  It was fun to see some of our old friends and to explore Chicago.  It was really freezing there, but they make up for the weather by having some of the best museums I have ever been to and the best restaurant I have ever eaten at.  Justin and I went to Alinea, which is a 3 Michelin star rated restaurant and the food and presentation were more amazing than I can even describe. What a wonderful meal.

At the top of Willis Tower(formerly Sears Tower)

This past weekend we went camping in San Rafael Swell with some of our great friends here in our new ward and we explored two slot canyons, Ding and Dang (don't forget Ding Dang Dome in the middle) while we lowered 12 children down 10 food drops into freezing cold red muddy water for 7 hours.  It was an epic adventure that I may never do again unless I'm not with children.  I am Ding Dang Done with that slot canyon! That was pretty much nuts.  We saw some awesome Native American pictographs on the canyon walls which we were amazed by.

Amazing layers of rock at San Rafael Swell

Three of the cutest girls in the world! Clementine, Bea and our friend Emma Stapel

View from our campsite

Clementine holding her lizzard.  She loves this thing!

Vivi hiking through a goblin at Goblin Valley

Can't really tell what the artist was trying to depict with this super long arm.  Any guesses?

How cool are these? We got to get up really close to these pictographs which are just about the oldest things in our country

Bread rises again

The bread comes out like this every single time.  It's like having a new baby every day.  Pure joy to look at.

As soon as I start making bread, I know my life is back to normal.  I got a new dutch oven for Christmas and along with my older and larger one, I have been making delicious, crusty on the outside and squishy on the inside, bread pretty much every day.  I am basically obsessed.  I also got a bread book that has many more recipes for breads that I would love to try, so I'm going to be experimenting with those if I have enough time during the day.  The great thing about this bread is that it takes almost no time at all.  The night before you want bread, you mix 3 Cups flour, 1 tsp yeast, 1 heaping tsp salt and 2 C warm water in a bowl, cover and let stand for at least 12 hours and not more than 24 hours, preferably less than 18 hours. An hour before you want to bake your bread, warm your dutch oven up in your oven for a half hour at 475.  Let it sit in there for a half hour to get it nice and hot.  While it's warming, pour your bubbling bread mixture out on a well floured countertop and cover with flour for easy handling.  When your dutch oven is hot, carefully take it out of the oven, open the lid and plop in your ball of dough.  Replace the lid and put back into the oven for a half hour with the lid on and then 15 minutes with the lid off at the end.  Every time I take the lid off to see what lie inside, I am astounded at how beautiful it is and it seems like a miracle that it's so delicious and easy at the same time.  This bread is definitely easier than regular bread and doesn't take up a huge chunk of time all at once.  I make this bread every morning and sometimes twice every day because if I'm just home cooking dinner, why not throw in another batch of bread and take it over to neighbors and friends? It's that easy. 

Here's me in my marathon shirt, holding a delicious loaf of bread.  How ironic.  haha.

As well as bread rising again, I have gotten back into my exercise kick since I was knocked down by horrible allergies that I can't believe I've developed after all these years of being allergy free.  I'm almost considering moving to Antarctica just to live allergy free because I almost killed myself this summer because my body was interfering with my big plans!  So, now I'm finally training for the Moab half marathon in March.  I am not a distance runner and I should lose like 10 lbs if I want to be lighter on my feet and actually run this race well, but I'm just not built for it.  My dad and step mother are running it with me as well as a couple friends from my neighborhood and all I can hope is that I keep up with or beat my 57 year old step mother.  I may not even realize that goal.  She's pretty awesome.  Well, I've weighed in around 138 lately and if I can get down to 130 I think running will be easier for me.  Eating all this delicious bread is probably doing nothing for my weight loss goals, but I'm sure I'll get sick of eating it all day long soon and I won't be tempted. 

One of the other reasons I want to get in shape is that Justin and I are going on a sailing trip to the BVI's for our 10 year anniversary the end of February.  I really don't want to take a bunch of fat photos for our trip.  The ones of me in Italy look like I'm overweight, even though I'm really not.  So, fat, please melt away so I can not cringe at my anniversary trip photos!

Happy Happy Happy Happy...Thanksgiving, Christmas, 10th Anniversary, New Year

Singing Jingle Bells around our Christmas tree in their Sunday outfits.

Wow, now that the time intensive holidays are over I thought I would feel glad, but I feel like Thanksgiving and Christmas came and went too quickly.  I was really enjoying all the parties and the sharing and now it's over:(.

First of all, I have to say that I did kill and prepare our 20 lbs Thanksgiving turkey this year and it was a pretty traumatic experience for me, even though I acted like I was ok with it while I was doing it.  For a few days afterward I couldn't think of anything else but slitting the turkey's neck and that I had killed a living creature.  I am going to have to buck up if I'm going to get some meat chickens this spring! After pulling out all the organs and feathers(which took hours and hours) I injected the bird with a delicious maranade of Meyer lemons, roasted garlic and tons of other spices and it turned out wonderful! I almost cried because of all the time it took to raise, feed, kill and prepare that bird.  I was so worried it wouldn't be good and it would all have been wasted energy.  Even though there was like an inch of breast meat on that skinny bird, it was cooked to perfection.  I guess that's what a free range turkey is like.  His gizzard was full of grass so he was eatin' lean and not the fattening food I had bought for him.  We had Thanksgiving dinner at Tracie's house and it was delicious!

I have to say that I have such a wonderful neighborhood and received so many delicious treats from people I just met at our neighborhood party.  I spent time crafting some really fun stuff, including candy trees, Christmas tree boxes filled with different kinds of fudge, cinnamon ornaments and my favorite, candy canes.  I threw a party with a bunch of new friends and family where I taught everyone how to make the candy canes and fudge.  It was so fun and I finally did the party right and set out a food table for everyone with snacks, drinks, and delicious breads, desserts AND food for all the 20 kids who were running around my house.  I didn't have one kid come up to me and ask me for anything all day long.  It was miraculously relaxing and enjoyable! Clementine was so darling and stuck with us the whole time, rolling out cinnamon dough and trying to stamp them out with cookie cutters.

I also hosted three other Christmas parties all in one week.  The Thursday night before Christmas I had my dad, step-mom and step sister over for a Christmas Eve type party where we all opened our presents to each other.  We had such a fun time eating and letting the kids play.  My dad randomly came up to visit because he had to have a revision on his deviated septum surgery he had a few months ago so it all worked out to get together that Thursday.

Then the next day on Friday I hosted Justin's siblings Christmas party where I roasted the entire giant Costco pork loin in the most delicious Meyer lemon/caper/roasted garlic maranade that it was soaking in for days.  It was so delicious.  I have also been making crusty bread in my dutch oven and made two perfectly crusty loaves for the evening's festivities.  We had so much delicious food to eat and the kids had so much fun.  After trading presents we were supposed to do the Nativity recreation, but the promised costumes hadn't actually been delivered yet because the company shipped them out a day late(even though on their website they guarantee everything) and I almost cried when I announced that the costumes didn't arrive. I went upstairs to get the standard towels and belts we always use for the Nativity and started wrapping all the kids like burritos when the doorbell rang and the UPS delivery truck delivered our costumes not a moment too soon!! It was truly a Christmas miracle! We had wings and a halo for Henry, a Mary and Joseph costume.  Three shepherds crooks for Joseph and the two shepherds, three crowns for the wise men and two fluffy lamb costumes.  It couldn't have been more adorable!  Aunt Courtney was the donkey and Bea got to ride on her back while Colton led her into the room by the fire.  Clementine and Eli were shepherds trying to herd Lincoln and Violette in the field while Henry came in as the angel and had his lines almost memorized.  He was so cute!  Then they came to see Mary, Joseph and the baby Jesus, played by our very own new baby boy cousin, Grant.  It was great to finally have a boy for the baby Jesus and not one of my girls.  haha.  The wise men were played by my Justin, Uncle Caleb and Uncle Kirk.  They had sheets and my furs on over their shoulders and looked more like gangsters than wise men.  I laughed so hard! They came and presented their gifts to the baby Jesus and we were done!  My camera was out of battery and I was the narrator so I have to collect some photos from my family.  It was really sweet.  Bea was such a sweet little mother Mary and sat there so quietly and pet the little baby's head so softly.  She had a sweet little smile on her face as she rode the donkey into where she lay the baby.  She just might be an actress some day.

You can see all my home made ornaments on my tree.  I really love my tree. 

Finally, I hosted the actual Christmas eve party with my mom, step dad, and my cousins, Ben, Kate and Margie and my aunt and uncle, Kris and Tim.  We had the most delicious 7 fish dinner.  I was in charge of the lobster so I got 5 lobster tails and cooked them a la French Laundry(5 star Michelin rated restaurant) and poached them, cracked them out of their shells and finished cooking them off in a vat of butter and then poured a Meyer lemon(can you tell I love Meyer lemons?) and shallot burre blanc sauce over the top.  It was spectacular! We had steamed crab legs, oysters Rockefeller, creamed and pickled herring, shrimp, anchovies, and clam chowder.  Could I love a meal more?  No, I could not.  I LOVE FISH! The fishier the better. We also did a recreation of the Nativity but didn't have a baby young enough to play the baby Jesus so we had Bea put a baby doll in her shirt and Henry ripped it out of her shirt, held it up in the air like a prize trophy and slammed it down into the cradle.  Everyone had a good laugh at that and Henry loved the attention.  I think we got that one on film so maybe I'll post some of that when I get that back.  Well, it was a lovely night.

Sunday was pretty crazy.  I had to sing a solo, play in a mandolin quartet and sing in the choir for Sacrament meeting and then tell a story and sing a song in Relief Society.  I ended up not singing in Relief Society because of time constraints but I was glad.  My voice was shot by that point.  I told the story of how I was mugged on the way to see the Messiah sing in they do every year in the Stake Center in Manhattan and how it was just so powerful to me to feel to low and then have such a spiritual high right after that.  It was such a testimony to me how the atonement of Christ really works and how real the power of faith and forgiveness is.  The spirit was so strong that day.  

Angelina Ballerinas!

Christmas was probably the best we've had in years.  Henry woke us up at 7:15 telling him that Santa brought him a giant table with "bumps" all over it for putting Legos on.  I groggily said, "Henry, don't you remember I told you I was building something for you all these weeks? I made you that table, silly!".  He stood back for a second and said breathily, "Oooohhh, yeaaaa..." Then he leaned over and gave me a sweet hug saying, "Thank you mom".  What a way to start Christmas.  My mom and step father stayed overnight so they could see the morning festivities.  My mom sewed the girls the most adorable Angelina Ballerina skirts for ballet play complete with home made ears and three different tutus.  She also made the cutest robes for all the girls with giant bows kind of like the old fashioned kinds.  I can't believe she went to all that trouble!  The girls loved their present and spent the entire morning dancing around in their costumes.  Most everything else was just little toys that I need because all the toys we have, have lost parts and they don't work properly, so now they have some fun ball toys and my little pony stuff.  Henry got mostly books and one Lego set to go with his table.  The kids loved their stocking stuff.  I love buying things for stockings:)  I love being Santa.  The kids were so good and happy the whole morning.  We didn't have any bratty complaining or selfish behavior.  To top it all off, we had a huge snowfall on Christmas eve and we all went skiing all afternoon!  After the most delicious pancake, bacon, sausage, egg, juice and fruit breakfast made by my step father, the breakfast master, we took the three older kids up and were amazed that Bea could go down the green circle run all by herself and Clemmie could ski down the bunny hill unassisted!  She laughed the whole way down and hardly fell.  We met our friends, the Stensons up there and went on a few runs together.  I have to say that I am actually having more fun watching the girls ski on the bunny hill than I thought I would.  I don't even mind staying there and running up and down.  We came home to my favorite home made rolls made by my mom, (who can't even eat them anymore.  Darn gluten) and ham and finished off the day with a relaxing evening amidst all the giant mess of my house.  I didn't even care though.  lol.  What a perfect ending to a busy Christmas season.  At the end of the day, I finally sat down and just relaxed for the first time since Thanksgiving. That felt so wonderful.

On the 26th I recorded a secret recording for Justin's family that's soon to be revealed.  It took all day in Provo and I can't wait to hear how it turned out.  

This is one of the first Christmas' that I haven't been pregnant or have had a newborn since Henry was born and I can't even believe how much I loved being so capable to do so many things.  I really enjoyed myself and loved participating in everyone's parties, actually giving something to neighbors for once, singing in church, going skiing with my darling family, and being hormone fluctuation free!

On the Lover's Walk in Cinque Terre this summer. 

The most important thing about today is probably that it's my 10th anniversary! I have been married for 10 years.  Those years seemed long at times, but I can't believe I'm this old.  I still feel like I'm 21 and that those years went by really fast.  It's strange that when you want to grow up, time goes by so slowly, but when you want to stay young, time flies by!  I think time has flown by mostly because I have been having such a fulfilling life and that's all thanks to my hard working, darling husband who I love very much.  He is finally back from living at the hospital and I and the kids have someone else to lean on!  I am so much happier being married to him now.  haha!  I admit it was a struggle for these past 9 years, but it was all worth it baby!  I love you. Here's to 10 years and four darling children.

Happy 2013 everyone! Next year is going to be a grand adventure for sure!

Photography lessons meets slot canyons

Had to get down low for this shot

So, I took a photography class about a week ago and then went down to Southern Utah with the family to camp and explore slot canyons.  I tried to use my newly learned skills and try to not use the auto function, which took a long time to adjust every time in those dark slot canyons.  I felt like I missed some really cool shots, but it's fun to know how to finally use my camera.  I don't really have an eye for what's a great shot or not, but I feel like I got some cool ones, but I'm not even sure what I took would have been better than the camera being on auto.  Here are some of the ones I thought were the most interesting...not necessarily good photos...because I'm really not sure.  Tell me what you think...

Trying to get some light and shade on Henry's face.  I think it was too bright.  How do you change that?

I like getting his character on film.  He's so cute!

This one is overexposed, but I like her eyes her expression is because she bobbled a little bit and she got scared of tipping over. 

I got this one of the fire crackle.  I tried a million times to get another one somehow, but this was the best shot of the fire.  The kids wouldn't hold still enough to get them un-blurry. 

For some reason I like this photo a lot.  I like the sky and trees in the background with Clementine standing there, the glow of the fire and the movement of Henry's face.  It tells a story. 

Ok, here are the canyon shots.  The entrance to the slot canyon was really amazing.  Tons of arches. 

I could see the light streaming in through these rocks and finally got it captured on film a little bit. 

I loved this bright stripe of light coming through.  It was really tough to get the light just right in this shot. 

I didn't have time to get this shot better, but I thought the bumpy rock flow was interesting.  Had to document it. 

I really like Vivi in this shot.  She was the only one who easily fit through the canyon....very slowly.

Family Halloween Pic

Here is the whole crew this Halloween.  I didn't spend a penny on the girls' costumes since they were all just some version of ballerina, but I actually sewed Henry's costume this year, which I have never done.  The kids at school were laughing at him, which I think was just because his costume was funny, but he thought they were being mean.  Personally, I like it that he wanted to be the Lorax and not a zombie or super hero.  He's such an innocent little boy still and we're going to try to keep it that way. 

Day 26 Home Again

We woke up super early to take a cab to the airport and said goodbye to our beautiful Italia.  I don't remember much of the plane ride home.  Everyone just slept and cried and watched movies.  Lucy and I got on an earlier flight home from Atlanta so she could make it back early to be ready for her first semester back from her mission at BYU.  Justin and Henry and Bea took the later flight and ended up pulling up to our house around 2am.  As we ran around the yard looking at the chickens, gathering eggs and checking out our garden, our neighbor said he was surprised to hear little kids voices over here so late at night.  Yes, that would be rather strange. Henry and Bea stayed up all night long until Bea fell asleep at 6am and I made Henry take a one hour nap before I took him to his first day of Chinese school! The babies and I were over the jet lag in about two days, while it took Justin, Henry and Bea over a week to adjust.  Now we are settled back to normal farm life and lovin' it.  I do miss speaking Italian or French every day and I really miss the kids trying to speak in Italian.  We're trying to speak Italian in the house for a couple hours a day.  I hope they continue to pick it up.  If any of you are considering a similar trip.....do it!

Day 25: Tour of Rome

Today we actually made it to church for the first time on our trip! Luckily both Justin and I lived in Rome so we were confident we could make it to church.  We still had to leave an hour early to catch the bus and every person that got on the bus was put through my rigorous test of whether or not they were LDS or not.  There ended up being only one lady who was a member of the church on the bus and I suspected that she was because she was dressed way modestly for August in Italy and she was Peruvian! She was kind enough to show us the way there from the bus stop and learned that she was seduced by an Italian man who wanted to marry her and bring her back to Italy.  She ended up convincing him that he should just help her get to Italy and didn't end up having to marry him.  Phew!  Well, when we got to church Justin and I saw a guy who Justin and I knew as a young kid from another city we served our missions in at the church with his wife and a baby.  We couldn't believe it.  I didn't serve in that branch(now a ward) so I didn't see anyone I knew except for him.  Church was really wonderful and it was so nice to hear the gospel in Italian again.  The talks were great, the lessons were really insightful and the spirit was strong.  It's so nice to see that the church isn't in it's infantile state in Italy.  The people are really understanding the doctrine.  We said our goodbyes and walked back to our bus stop.  We were like 5 minutes late to get to the grocery store to get some fruit and bread, so we had to stop with our starving children at this place called Pizza Planet.  It was run by a man and his wife from Morocco and had probably the worst pizza we have ever tasted.  The kids wouldn't even touch it.  Only Violette ate some.  After tasting the pizza we asked them owner what the best thing there was and he brought us out these delicious gyro wraps that we devoured and had to get another for Henry and Bea because they even loved them.  This man was so generous.  He brought out some special tea for us to drink, washed our grapes for us and even gave the kids some macaroons for free just to be nice.  He was so excited that we came all the way from the US and were in his little shop in the middle of suburban Rome.  After eating, we waited for the bus in the blazing hot heat back to our apartment.

Once at the apartment, Justin decided to stay behind and pack while Lucy and I took Henry and Bea to see the Colosseum.  Since the kids didn't get much sleep the night before they were cranky the whole time.  We got a video tour of the Colosseum and Lucy and the kids learned about all the fights and deaths that happened there.  It was pretty incredible to think about what went on in that place.  One thing I learned is that the women were probably not allowed in the main area, but were separated from the men up in the highest section inside the walls and could barely peak out at what was going on.  Reminds me of how the Pittsburgh Steelers won't let women with newborns in to see their games because they're trying to protect the enjoyment of their fat, drunken male fans.  Looks like things haven't changed much since then.  Henry and Bea took a million photos with Lucy's camera and threw an hour long fit because we wouldn't him keep taking photos of every single artifact even though we were a half hour late to meet Justin.


We got home and geared up for our last night in Italy.  We started our magical night at the Piazza Venezia(the wedding cake) which houses the tomb of the unknown soldier.  I ate the hardest sandwich in my life and we went on a stroll to all the closest interesting Piazzas.  After that we hit the Pantheon and the largest gelateria with over 150 flavors to choose from.  It, of course, took forever for everyone to choose what they wanted, especially since it was the last gelato we were going to eat in Italy.  Then we wandered back to the piazza and let the kids run around.  We played tag, and hide and seek in the columns of the Pantheon.  Of course, everyone in the piazza thought it was really entertaining.  The cutest was when I was running around holding Violette out, chasing Clementine and Bea and they were all laughing their heads off.  They found a fountain and got all wet trying to get drinks from it and I ended up falling down while I was holding the baby and hit my knee really bad that ended up as a giant bruise.  Ouch! The stairs were so slippery!  The worst part is that tons of other people slipped while I was recovering on the steps and it seemed like it was just entertainment for the people sitting around there.  They were just waiting for the next person to slip and fall and keep the night lively. 


After that we debated about going home because it was like 11pm already, but we were really close to the Trevi fountain and we just could leave without seeing that.  We were so close! We walked there and spent a few beautiful moments looking at the newly cleaned fountain with super clear water.  I remember it being really dirty, so it was awesome to see it so sparkling clean.  We debated about going to the Spanish Steps, but we were not close at all so we abandoned that idea and waited for a bus to take us home.  I think we got home around 1am and crashed hard.  We and the kids were exhausted!

Day 24: Adieu Positano,

As we were leaving our beloved Positano I thought up a poem...

Adieu Positano, ci vediamo il prossimo anno. This means, Farewell Positano, we'll see you next year.  I said it with a glimmer and a wink to Justin.  I doubt we'll be there next year, but I won't give up hope. 

We left our dear Praiano and Positano and took a cab ride(thank you Justin) instead of the bus and the train to Napoli to take the train up to Rome.  As we were situating our stuff at the Napoli train station I saw an old Italian man look down at Bea and shake his head and hands at her and then I looked down to behold one of the most horrible sights I have ever seen…Bea in the gutter with her hand inside a giant, purple, Italian sized used condom.  We immediately ripped it off of her and wiped her hands off.  Lucy and I were so disgusted that we couldn’t contain our laughter and finally Justin chimed in and finally had a good laugh. I've never been so disgusted in my life.  

We loaded all our stuff on the wrong train, which I was suspicious of because it left at the wrong time and said Milano on it.  I ended up having to sit in the hot vestibule in between cars and we had to pay 8 Euro per person extra because we were on the wrong train.  The guy had no mercy on us.  Justin bought some pizza and food that ended up getting all over the floor and Justin's pants and our kids were all disgusting.  We basically looked like gypsies and were acting like them too.  I wasn't very happy.  I don't like travel days and after four weeks of carrying the baby on my shoulders and in my arms, I was exhausted.  I just wanted to sit in a regular seat.  Anyway, it was really embarrassing.  We tried to save money on expensive hotels by finding a one star hotel.  We had two rooms, one without air conditioning.  For the two nights we spent in Rome, it was cheaper than one room for one night in most other hotels.  Plus,we got free breakfast delivered to our door every morning.  They even went out and bought another pack-n-play because they told us they had two, but one ended up being broken.  I don't think they made any money from our stay. haha. 

When we got to Rome it was still pretty early so we decided to head right out to St. Peter's Cathedral to show Lucy the amazing building.  After checking out the inside, which is enormous and filled with so much art, as well as my favorite sculpture, Michelangelo's "the Pieta'" We bought tickets to go up to the top of the dome and hoped that the kids would be up for climbing up 500 steps up to the top.  They loved it and even Clementine climbed the entire way up.  At one point we were in the walls of the dome and they were so slanted that it was hard not to bonk your head.  Every time Clemmie hit her head against the wall, she said softly, "ow, ow" without another word of complaint.  haha.  We stopped at the bottom of the dome to see the paintings and mosaics around the inside of the dome where we decided we wanted to do mosaics of our kids instead of photo portraits.  Clementine's hair bow also got stolen by a very obese little Mexican girl who Bea saw take it.  I told the mother and when she asked her daughter about it, she had been sucking on it and then gave it back to me.  Yuk.  We climbed up to the top and looked out at the highest point of Rome at all the gardens and buildings.  It was windy and cool up there compared to inside the passageway.  We took some photos and then headed back down.  We stopped at a half way point to let the kids run around since it was way safer than any place down on the ground.  I spoke to a family from Iran who were truck drivers in Canada.  They were so nice.  The kids started to freak out so we tried to find a place to eat.  All the good places were closed for the holiday so we ended up eating at a place where giant tour buses of tourists eat and it was surprisingly pretty good.  They even had french fries which the kids were excited about.  We got gelato next door and then took the bus back to our one star hotel. 

Day 23: Epic boat ride

Today we decided to rent a boat and ride up the Emerald Coast searching for fun places to play.  First, however we packed up our stuff for the next day, then we took the bus down to  “La Grotta dello Smeraldo”, the Emerald Cave.  It was an easy access trip because instead of going down a million steps down to the water level like we usually have to do each time we go anywhere.  They actually had an elevator!.  Our guide looked like a lumberjack and was actually pretty animated in his description of the cave.  It was pretty large and the bottom of the cave was very blue.  The blue is caused by natural light that comes into the cave from a hole in the rock below sea level.  He took us around and told us the facts of the cave with a mysterious voice.  The coolest part was when he used his oar to splash the water on next to the blue spot and the whole cave turned into a million sparkling blue droplets.  Then came the cheesy part of the boat ride.  In Italy everyone tries to find Mary, “ the Madonna” or Jesus in everything from a piece of toast(actually seen), a chip(actually seen) to a rock or even a stain.  I’m not sure why, but someone put some statues that were the same color as stalagmites at the bottom of the cave of the manger scene and tried to make us think they were just created like that.  It was obviously fake, but it was just funny that they tried to do that.  As we left, we passed by a giant group of Japanese tourists that Lucy impressed with her Japanese and after we bought a bunch of fruit from an awesome fruit vendor that gave us a bunch of free stuff, we headed to the beach for an hour before we rented our boat.  At the beach we encountered the same crowd that was telling me that my baby had rocks in her mouth as usual.  There was also an obese Italian man who told us we couldn’t put our stuff in front of them, even though there was plenty of room.  We had a small argument with him and the people around us were embarrassed so everyone was being extra nice saying we could be close to them.  Then the rest of his large family came over and they all started doting on my kids saying, “look how blonde and beautiful these kids are!” to their fat father, and then I made friends with their family.  Aaah haah.  He was pretty embarrassed.  I ended up talking for about a half hour to Laura, our neighbor, about the restoration of the church and she seemed really interested.  It’s so interesting to do missionary work now that I’m not called as a missionary.  As a mother of four, people have a lot of respect for me here and it seems like they listen to me.  It feels easier to share the gospel with women.  I feel like I really connect with them, unlike when I was younger and single.  I kind of wish I could go on a mission as a young mother here in Italy somehow.  I just love sharing the gospel in Italian.  I think I will love going on a mission when I’m older.  After Justin yelled at me 5 times that I needed to come right in the middle of my testimony, ugh, we went and waited for the boat for 15 minutes.  Double ugh.  We got on the boat and headed off on our epic adventure.  We hunted down awesome places to jump off, found a giant cave with a beach inside it, swam out in the middle of the ocean, jumped off the boat, and caught tiny crabs.  Henry and I climbed up into an arch and jumped off into the ocean.  It was probably about 15 feet up, which is a lot for Henry.  He’s a brave boy.  We took a million photos of the beautiful hillside and even let the kids drive the boat a little bit.  The water was a perfect temperature, the sun was shining, the kids were happy and we had a wonderful time.  At 6pm we returned the boat and ate gelato on the beach.  I met some really beautiful people at a restaurant that turned out to be the restaurant owner’s son, his actress girlfriend and their friend who was a high fashion designer.  They were pretty much the most beautiful Italians I have ever met.  I invited them to our house in Utah to go skiing.  The actress girl said she was a snowboarder, so maybe I can convince her to come out to ski.  We waited for the bus for a half hour and finally got home around 8pm and tried to go to our neighborhood party, which we missed most of and put the kids to bed.  I found Laura and gave her a pass along card with the Italian information for the church on it.  There really isn’t a ward around where she lives, but maybe she would be able to go to Sorrento, which is about an hour away.  Just as we were finishing our dinner of Buffalo mozzarella and tomatoes, we heard the disco party music start.  We even saw an Italian family arriving at 11:30 with their three small children.  My jaw was pretty much on the floor.  Incredible.

Day 22: Aug 23: Happy Birthday Bea!!

Today is Bea’s 4^th Birthday.  We have a few presents for her that we bought in a darling little toy store in France and a few little things we got from Napoli.  One is a small ceramic tea set and the others are tiny wooden little tea sets and utensils.  She’s going to love them!  This morning Lucy and I went on an epic run up the Pathway of the Gods or “Il sentiero degli dei” and ate a bunch of figs and found a lifesaving water spigot half way up.  Most people who were going on the trail had giant backpacks and those ridiculous walking sticks and there we were, running up a zillion steps without any water.  Haha.  We met this cute Austrian family as Lucy was climbing up a giant fig tree to reach the ripest ones and we handed them some delicious ripe ones.  Then, instead of running back down all the sketchy rock stairs, they offered to drive us if we just went on and ran up and around this little canyon.  They assured us that it was just 3 miles from their car back to our town so we decided to take them up on it.  Turns out, it was more like a 30 minute drive down because we had to go in the opposite direction for 20 minutes and then go back to our little town. When we got to our house, their son threw up in our pasta bowl and Bea drew them some pictures.  Justin went to make reservations for the train while we cleaned up and made Birthday lunch.  Justin came home, we ate delicious pasta and let Bea open her presents.  Bea was so adorable when we were giving her all the attention.  She was so happy to get her tea sets and happily played with them for about a half hour while we cleaned up.  Henry even bought her a box of Popsicles that we all shared in lieu of a Birthday cake.  It was really sweet.  Then, we spent the rest of the day at one of our favorite beaches the beach, lazily playing at the beach with the kids.  It was a lovely day.