Dinosaur museum

October 21

Winter may now begin!

Yes, that is a 25 pound bag of hot chocolate powder. And yes, we will use it all. Kate and Daniel are both lovers of hot chocolate and toast (a habit I picked up on my mission), especially on cold winter mornings.

Sand Box!!!

October 2019

So, it's been months now that I've wanted a sandbox for the Littles to play in.  Matt wasn't too keen on the idea initially, but was soon convinced that they would love it.  They would play in them forever at Brett and Caroline's houses.  We looked at different places we could put it in the yard and talked about how to make it.  We looked at the price of sand at Home Depot and realized it was going to be more expensive than we thought.  When we asked Caroline what kind of sand they used, she mentioned they got their sand for $35 per truck load.  SOLD!  

Matt borrowed the Dahmer's truck and planned it so he could get the sand and wash out the truck to be returned before they needed it that afternoon.  We wanted two kinds of sand, if possible (one course and one fine).  The cement company that we bought it from said they would need to charge us for two truck loads of sand (that still would have been more than half of the cost if we'd gotten the sand from Home Depot).  In the end, they said the truck was so small that they would only charge us for one load even though we got two.  Sweet!  Matt had already build the sandbox and was ready for the sand.  Here's the first load of sand.

 

 Daniel and Kate were sold on the idea from the get go.  They wanted to "help" whenever they could.  It was during their nap time that we filled it with sand.  They were all sorts of excited.  Here they are in mid "HOORAY!" (as coached by their mama).  One of my favorite things about it is that it is right below our bedroom window.  So I could be feeding Oliver or folding laundry and hear them and check in on them.  It will also be shaded for much of the day (when heat becomes an issue in the summer).

 

UPDATE:  It was admittedly late in the season to be completing this outdoor activity, but should their be any question as to whether or not it was enjoyed as much as possible, I offer the following picture (taken November 11) as evidence:

Waterfall Hike

17 October 2015

We'd had such a great trip to Idaho/Bear World but we missed our Dad/Hubby.  It was fun to be home from that trip and still have the weekend with him.  We decided it was such a nice day that we should hike up to the Battle Creek waterfall.  I sure hope we make a habit of doing so because it was delightful!  We packed a few snacks and our best hiking clothes (uh, whatever we were wearing) and drove to the parking lot at the base of the hike.  I wore Oliver in the carrier and Matt had the hiking backpack for Daniel and/or Kate. 

Daniel and Kate were excited to wear their cool sun hats that change when exposed to sunlight.  Oliver was basically asleep they entire hike.  I sure love having a little person snuggled up next to me :)

As we started on the trail I watched for "wishing rocks" so that I could tell Kate and Daniel about them.  It took me a while to find one but they noticed I was picking up rocks and asked what I was doing.  As soon as I told them Kate was anxious to find one.  We talked about trees and sounds and rocks and water.  I l-o-v-e-d it!  Here we are at our first snack stop (we had a few). 

Once we got to the pond Daniel was anxious to get out and throw rocks.  Kate was equally excited.  What is it about throwing rocks into water that is so interesting?  I know not, but we had a good time doing it.

Matt pointed out a few fish in the pond as well.

 

As we continued on our way Kate, in her very-excited-hands-expanded-and-arms-pumping-in-and-out-way said, "LOOK!  The SKY is MOVING!!"  The clouds above were low and it was easy to see their movement.  It was a pretty exciting discovery for Kathryn Elaine.

 

 

As we walked along Matt or I would ask the kids if they could find different things.  Matt knew this little cave was coming up in the hike so he told them to look for it.  They thought it was pretty cool to go inside.  It's perfectly sized for little people.

 

Matt and I don't take too many pictures of us together.  I'm working on doing that more.  I like this guy a whole lot.  There were quite a few people at the waterfall, but taking a selfie means we have to snuggle in close for us to both be in the picture.  Kate and Daniel wanted to play in the water but it was really cold.  They both dipped their hands in it and watched others, but then they were done.

 

Another snack stop on the way back down.

Kate was getting tired and Matt wanted to see if the hiking backpack would work for both kids so Kate got on the back.  She didn't love it, but it did work... for a few minutes anyway.

 

As we got towards the bottom of the trail, I noticed Kate as she kept stopping and looking at rocks and leaves.  I'm not sure what she was doing, but it was fun to watch her.  She had handfuls of rocks and dirt and would loose some every time she tried to get some more. I hope to teach her to enjoy the beauties of this world, to respect them, and to see God all around her.

Bear World Trip (day 2)

16 October 2015

It took a while for us to wind down that night but eventually we were all in bed, Kate and I in one bed, Daniel and Mom in the other.  I was worried that Mom wouldn't get much sleep because Daniel was a mover and a shaker while he slept.  Turns out that I should have been more worried about Kate.  She was all over the place, including on top of me, throughout the night.  

I was dosing off while feeding Oliver the next morning and didn't watch the clock.  It was after 8 when we got into the breakfast room for a yummy start to the day. Everyone else was at least dressed if not packed up.  So after eating we rushed back to the room to get ready for "BEAR WORLD!"  I was a little frazzled trying to get everything done, but the family was so patient and helpful.  Tufa and Ann-Marie showed up at the door to help carry stuff out to the car.  Caroline and her family waited in the parking lot until we were ready, and Brett's family made sure we knew where we were going just in case we got separated on the way.  

We made it!

So the first thing you do after you pay is take a drive through the bear country portion of the park.  There were not just bears, we say mountain goats, dear, bison (not buffalo), wolves, geese.  It was kinda crazy to see them so close.  Kate and Daniel were straining to see all the animals, so Mom (who was sitting in the middle seats next to Oliver) got them out of their seats so the could look out the windows and move from one side of the car to the other.  Their little pointer fingers got a real work out as the exclaimed, "LOOK!" dozens of times.  Some of the pictures aren't very good because we had to leave the windows up while we drove through (some pictures look quite clear because I may have been overcome with wanting a few clear pictures so I rolled down my window a titch).

 

There were way more bears than I was expecting to see.  I thought there would be 6-8, but there were more than 60 in the park.  They were wondering all over the place.  There are little "caves" like the one in this picture all over as well.  We learned later that they have enough of these for each bear to have one to hibernate, but some bears like to have a buddy to snuggle with while hibernating.  All of the bears are brown bears even though they have different colors of fur.  It was such a fun drive! We could have gone through several more times, but we decided to sign up for the "Feed the Bears" tour where you get on one of their trucks with high walls.  I'll get to that later.

 

After driving through the bear portion we headed to this little area where there are several rides.  The rides were all free and for a while it was basically our group and a few other kids.  This place really was made for kids about 2 - 10, and for kind cousins who are older than that but willing to help out with the Littles in the group.  Oh, and for 72 year old Grandma's who are just plain fun to have at times like this.  I'm not sure what this ride is... alien blueberries (see the little antennae on the little guys sitting on the branches?)  Perhaps eggs in a nest?  I don't know, but it was where we started.  Kate had no fear and ran to the line with Sadie, Claire, and Juliet.  

Daniel, on the other hand, was not in his normal cheerful mood.  I don't know if it was the lack of sleep or what, but he was having a rough time.  I tried to comfort him and convince him to get on the ride, but he only wanted Grandma.  It didn't take too much persuading for Grandma to be willing to get on the ride.  Her facial expression changed and she tried to squeeze into the seat that was clearly made for a smaller okole.  She persevered and organized the kids on the ride to cheer and wave their hands in the air. 

I thought this picture was especially cute of Daniel talking to Mom. 

 

 Next to the alien blueberry ride was a little roller coaster.  They could only have 10 people total on the ride at a time.  As you can see here, Sadie was loving it!

As was Kathryn Elaine... (Sure love that face!  It reminds me of Emily's smile.)

Daniel...?  He wanted "Gwaaaamaaaa!"  I had Oliver, so Caroline tried taking Daniel O on the ride, but he was clearly distraught.  So I tried to take her place.  He didn't want anything to do with me either.  He just wanted his Grandma! 

  

After this ride we convinced Daniel to try the flying cars.  I thought it would be one of those rides where the cars slowly moved up and down as it spun around.  Nope.  The little cars bounced up and down much faster than I expected.  Tasi put his arm around Daniel and that seemed to calm him some, though he still wasn't loving it.  We tried Daniel on one more ride, the spinning bears.  Each time his bear swung by, we could hear him saying, "OUT!"  And so after that he was content to go to the petting zoo, watch the baby bears (so cute!) and putter around with cousins. 

Jess.  Sure love this kid.  Josiah and Johno were good sports with all of these little cousins.  All the other cousins were having a great time.  Love them.  And love that my little kids love them.  I was impressed at how patient they were with each other. How grateful I am for family!

  

We ate lunch and then had lunch and then headed over to the big "Feed the Bears" truck.  They gave us some brief instructions and then we were off.  The truck was pretty cool.  It's really tall and has a narrow balcony around the edge of the truck that we climbed up on. I tried to balance Daniel on my knee.  There was a 2 inch metal bar parallel to the floor that I tried to keep my foot on so Daniel could sit/stand on my knee.  It worked pretty well for the first half, but it was shaky for the last bit and sore the next day.  They gave each person a big tray of bread and bagels to toss to the bears.  It was so fun!  Piper and Tasi broke their bread up and saved it so they would have plenty.  Others (Kate and Daniel) wanted to toss it all out in the first minute.  I always love listening to tour guides tell interesting tidbits.  The gal that was with us said the bears have distinct personalities and that she knows each of their names.  They have little shelters that they can hibernate in - some like to be alone and others like to snuggle in with others.  

The truck drives the same path that we did when we first arrived.  It stops periodically and the bears lumber over to the truck.  They know the routine.  It was so fun to watch them and listen to the kids talking to them.  How cute are these bears?!

We planned on heading out soon after we fed the bears but somehow we ended up in the petting zoo for a bit and over on the dock looking at the ducks.  Everyone was just chatting and enjoying the perfect weather (and perhaps delaying the long drive home).  Daniel found some interesting things to keep him busy in the petting zoo (and yes, that is another bruise on his cheek)...

  

Kate was really nervous to pet any of the animals, but Jess was patient with her and showed her how fun it was to feed the goats.  They kind of lick the pellets out of your hand and it tickles.  She eventually tried it and half giggled/nervously squealed. I hope to be able to teach all our children how to do hard/scary things.

 There was no convincing Kate to pet the big potbellied pig despite Johno's valiant efforts to make it look super fun!

How I love this girl.  She's in the midst of the tumultuous threes, which can make for challenging days.  But it never takes but a second to look at her and ache for her (and her siblings') happiness and want to do all I can to prepare them to find happiness in this life.

Eventually we all ended up at a duck pond to the side of the petting zoo chatting and decided to take a picture of the group.  The picture didn't turn out too well...


 but this one of Oliver did.  What a joy this little soul is, our little "Oviva" (which is how Daniel says it).

The drive home was long.  Matt called while we were on the road saying he was done with work (it was about 4:30pm).  WHAT?!?  When does that ever happen??  Only when we're not there :(  We talked briefly about the idea of him coming up since it was a Friday and find a place to stay for the rest of the weekend, but in the end we decided to just head home.  We hit some bad traffic in SLC and were at a complete standstill for a while.  Matt looked up the best route for us to get home and I called the other cars in the group and we were able to eventually get off the freeway and be on our way.  Bless that Matthew Jared Cornish.  Even when he's not with us he makes our trip run smoother.  Even with all the crazy it was a super fun trip. It's a challenge to keep track of all the Littles on my own, but we weren't on our own.  I'm grateful for so many. 

Bear World Trip (day 1)

15 October 2015

A few weeks ago Caroline sent a text out saying her family was going to "Bear World" for fall break and we were all invited if interested.  I replied, "Sounds great!  What is Bear World?"  And so began this little adventure.

Brett & Tufa's family came (minus Ben and John), Ann-Marie and Ash-Anna, and our family with Mom (minus Matt).  Bear World is near Rexburg, Idaho and approximately 3 hours and 51 minutes from Pleasant Grove.  In order to enjoy as much time together and break up the drive we came up with a few stops along the way.  The first one was the "UP!" house in Herriman, Utah.  It was darling.  We were quite impressed with the detail (even had a hose wound up on by the front porch) and quality of the materials.  We took a few pictures and played in the park across the street and then we were off to SLC.

Caroline had heard of this little spot called "Gilgal Sculpture Garden."  I'd seen pictures of it here and there and Caroline told me about a few of the pieces, like the Spinx with Joseph.  A little odd.  But then we read about the man who created it, Thomas Child.  He was a stone mason and very active member of the church who expressed some of his testimony and thoughts through his art.  The garden was originally part of his yard.  I've since read several explanations of his pieces and found them quite interesting.  We wanted to be respectful of the garden and had a little discussion about how sometimes we represent things with symbols and the Savior used parables to teach principles.  So even though we might think some of the things in the garden were kind of strange, the man who created them hoped they would make us think and wonder.

Daniel was not being especially reverent during our discussion (perhaps because he was being swung into the air by his cousins) so Uncle Brett helped out.

 Caroline found a scavenger hunt for the garden online.  So we divided up into teams and set off in search of everything from brick pants to "count your blessings" etched in stone.  Here are the teams...

 Team Johno: Tufa, Johno, John, Piper, and Sadie.

 Team Joshia: Claire, Josiah, Vicki, Kate, Oliver, and Caroline (taking the picture)

And team Jess: Brett, Jess, Ash-Anna, Juliet, and Tasi

The rules were that each team had to take a picture with each item on the list and every person on the team had to be in the picture (except the one taking the picture).  And we're off...

 

 

We all ran around frantically trying to find each item.  It is a pretty small place (the size of a yard) so it was easy to see another group taking a picture so another group would run over and take a picture in the same place before we knew what it was.  After a while there wasn't as much frantic running but a lot of meandering though the carved stones.  We realized everyone had found everything on the list except one thing - the phrase "It was. That was. He was." carved on a stone.  We gave up after several more minutes and Caroline handed out the prizes (TicTacs).  In the process of handing out the goods John started trying to gather his team without being noticed.  Quickly everyone realized he'd found the stone under a tree by the man with the brick pants and there was a mad dash to see which group could get all their members together for a photo op.  It was pandemonium for a few minutes.

  

As Mom and I were driving to the Gilgal Garden I explained where we were going and some of the pieces in the garden.  She said it reminded her of a place she used to explore as a young girl when she was sent to the "day old bread place" by her mom.  She said she saw things through the fence of the yard next door to the bread place and started peeking in to see more.  She eventually went inside the yard and looked around a few times.  Once we arrived at Gilgal Garden she said she thought this was the very yard and saw this next door...

 

 The house Mom lived in the longest as a young girl was only a few blocks away, so of course we wanted to stop by 700 east and see if it was still there, which it was!  She lived on the left side of the duplex and was so delighted that it was still there.  She was full of stories like...

• Sleeping out on the lawn of the apartment complex next door all summer long with her friend, Sandra Porter, because it was so hot.  The two girls would ride the bus to a barn near the zoo (she thinks) and pay a dollar to ride a horse for an hour in the mountains.  They decided they didn't like boys, they just liked horses, so their theme song was "Ruben, Ruben, I've been thinking, what a fine world this would be, if the boys were all transported, far beyond the northern sea."  
• The kindly black woman that lived in the tidy house further down the street.  The woman attended a Baptist church near by that was "a sweet little white church with a steeple and a little porch out the front like in a 1940's movie."  The congregation would open up their windows at night and sing out beautifully.  
• I'd heard the story of Duckadoodle many a times and this is the house where he lived.  It was at the end of the porch (left side) where there is a little step that she would sit and rib Duckadoodle's tummy until he'd fall asleep.

 

 It was such a fun stop on our trip to see Mom's house and hear her stories.  She chatted more about it throughout the trip and it was the first thing she mentioned to Dad when we got home.  What a lady this Mom of mine is!

Our next stop was in Logan at the Gossner Dairy.  We were going to stop by last December when our family was visiting Logan, but we didn't make it.  It was another fun stop.  They had samples of different kinds of milk - cookies and cream, rootbeer float, and banana, were among the favorites - and different cheeses.  Johno and I both agreed that squeaky cheese just isn't right.  They also had yummy ice cream which we enjoyed.  Kate and Daniel think that any time they eat food it will change the color of their tongue to the color of the food.  So here they are showing me their "pink" and "bown" (brown) tongues.  They could not have enjoyed playing with their cousins more.  While I was feeding Oliver in a little sitting area different cousins took turns taking them around the store and trying out different things.  I got some of the milk to take home for Matt to try as well as some raspberry honey that I thought he'd like.

It was a little crazy trying to keep track of the Littles and keeping them happy, but all in all I was very impressed with how the trip had gone so far.  We had a few bumps coming our way, but nothing a little prayer and some wipes couldn't fix :)

The last stretch of driving, from Logan to Rexburg, was going to be the longest which mom and I unintentionally made even longer.  From Logan Caroline and John's car wanted to go through Preston, Idaho where "Napoleon Dynamite" was filmed.  Brett's family and ours headed toward Rexberg.  We made it about an hour before we needed to stop for a potty break and some food for the natives who were getting restless.  Brett's family was planning on meeting a friend from Samoa who had just started school at BYU-Idaho so they kept on going.  I thought we'd be able to just pull off and and back onto the freeway pretty quick, but we ended up trying to feed and calm Oliver who was tired of sitting in his carseat, moving Danield's carseat in the very back with Kate so Mom could sit beside Oliver, calming Kate who apparently enjoyed the back of the van to herself and didn't want Daniel "in my space", and trying to eat.  It took about 30 minutes.  Then we missed the exit and wouldn't you know it, there wasn't another exit for 10 more miles.  When we finally pulled off into the darkness of I-don't-know, Idaho, there was a lone store with a single light bulb outside as a sign of life.  Mom went in to ask for directions and we eventually pulled into our hotel about 20 minutes later.  

It was about 8:30pm when we arrived and we were tired, but Kate remembered that I'd told her we'd be able to go swimming when we arrived.  Thankfully, Ann-Marie had offered to be dropped off (she'd been in Brett's car) and was waiting for us in the lobby to help with the Littles, bless her heart!   Brett family then headed to BYU-Idaho.  The pool closed at 9pm, so we had to hustle our bustle to get in before it closed.  The next twenty minutes are a bit of a blur.  Within that time frame we rushed to get kids into swimming suits and had one accident on the chair in the hotel room during the change from diaper to swimming suit, another accident on the bed with a diaper bursting at the seams, an overflowing toilet at first flush, trying to keep up with two toddlers in the pool, a mad dash out of the pool back to the room to avoid a super smelly disaster of significant proportions only to experience it in the still-not-functioning bathroom of the hotel room, and then removal of a very distraught toddler from the pool who felt she'd been robbed of appropriate swimming time and a quick clean up of the bathroom before the only employee at the hotel came back to check the toilet again.  Somewhere in the middle of all that I snapped this picture of the three Littles in their swimming suits.  And then it was 8:50pm.