Time to get out...

Yesterday I took Liv on a wagon ride. She loved it. She always loves it. I pulled the wagon into the garage and shut the garage door and tried to bring her inside. She refused. She just kept repeating, "More wagon ride," over and over and over. I told her the wagon ride was clearly over and that we had other things to do like bubble bath, books, and songs. She refused to move. I tried a classic parenting technique and said that I was leaving and going inside thinking that the threat of her staying in garage isolation would instantly prompt her to get up. It failed. 2 min later when I checked on her she repeated with even more zeal, "More wagon ride."  I took this picture over 10 minutes later. She hadn't moved and was adamant about sitting in the wagon, refusing to believe that the ride was really over.  I thought about how lately I have been doing that.  How even though a season of life is past, or the "wagon ride" is over, I keep mentally sitting in the wagon.

The mission wagon ride was unlike anything else and sometimes a certain smell will take me back Puyo Ecuador, or I will hear Spanish in the grocery store and want so badly to go back to the simple life of just preaching, loving, teaching, itching lice and enjoying having nothing to do but the thing that mattered most.

Lately when I am singing along with all the "Wiggles" songs, and watching Sesame street reruns and I already know the number of the day before Elmo announces it and my nursing bra is irritating, I miss being able to work as a nurse and be around adults and have a paycheck and a badge where I could check out after a certain number of hours.

I think as long as I live I will always miss this job more than any other wagon ride I've been on in life.  Teaching seminary was the greatest, most fun privilege I could have imagined for a job.  I miss laughing in Kay's office. I miss being around teenagers. I miss feeling the spirit and testifying all day. I miss laughing so hard that it hurt because I worked with the funniest most amazing people I have ever met on Earth.

There's nothing like the single adulthood ride. There's no one to worry about but yourself. I loved having money, going on trips when I felt like it with whoever was game to whatever country sounded fun. Now I get overwhelmed thinking about a trip to the grocery store.  I miss having crazy experiences and being so free to do anything that sounds fun without thinking about babysitters or budget. I remember staying up all night and feeling like sleep was a waste of time because there was too many fun things going on to shut my eyes.

And as annoying as living with 6 menstruating moody women can be, there is nothing as fun as having women to analyze and discuss every detail with until you couldn't stay awake any longer. 

Thinking about all these phases or "wagon rides" in my life made me realize how silly it is to wish that I could transport back to any of them when they are over.  They are apart of who I am and the season of life I am in is another ride that I am going to miss if am I constantly just sitting in the garage waiting to go back when life has moved on. Just like Liv was going to miss a sweet bubble bath and books if she sat all night in garage thinking about how fun her wagon ride was.   Every ride is good, every ride is hard and every ride is to be enjoyed while it is going on, but when it's over, it's time to get out of the wagon. I'm so blessed and I don't want to miss the ride I'm currently on....

Gar's new flame...

Gar and I had to have a little chat when this arrived in the mail.  No matter how many times I call the HOA and tell them the correction, we get this letter monthly.  Once I saw a show where some guy was married to four different women and none of them knew about each other. I told Gar about that. He said that was ridiculous. I just wanted to know if Stacey makes better lasagna than I do.  Stacey is now an important part of our family, whoever she is.  Sometimes when Gar says, "I know I told you that already," I just tell him that maybe he told Stacey instead and to try to remember which wife is which...

Liv's chair...

I bought Liv this car walker gadget at a garage sale last summer when she was learning to walk and since that day it has been a great source of frustration for her as she has attempted for months to fit inside the red car when the red car is a pure deception and not to be ridden in.  The point is to push the cart, not fit in the car. Well, after a year, Liv finally has made peace with the contraption and figured out how to make it work for her...

It's her own personal Sesame Street watching seat.  She was proud. Moral of the story, don't buy a walker that looks like you should be able to fit inside it. 

Gummy worm breakfast from Kody...

Last week I woke up to 2 text messages from my brother in law Kody. Let me just say that if you don't know Kody Seibold, you should. He is one of my favorite bonus items of marrying Gar. He has two modes: Extremely funny humor that is so clever you don't get the joke until you've had time to ponder and ridiculously intelligent and deep. His brain thinks of things that makes my brain lobes shrivel up from the attempt.  I've always loved talking to Kody. He's as real as it gets and I fully intend on living in his same culdesac for the rest of my life when we settle down.  Anyway, let's get back to the text messages. The first one asked if I was awake and wanted to make some breakfast. The second one said that he had left us some breakfast on our porch and to eat the healthy doughnuts before the gummy worms. I felt like I must be having a weird dream because Kody lives 10 hours away but I went to our porch to check and sure enough there was a pack of gas station crumb doughnuts and gummy worms.  Apparently he had driven through the night and booked a flight out of Denver to visit a friend that needed him.  He didn't want to wake us up so he drove himself to the airport. I was livid that we didn't get to see him but my rage was diminished when he came for dinner when he came back. 

 Liv is a blur because the camera lens could not keep up with her incredible speed at which she rushed to hug uncle Kody. Who wouldn't?

The visit wasn't nearly long enough but we'll take any minute we can, not to mention the free gummy worms and crumb doughnuts for breakfast on our door step. I'm so glad I inherited Kody Seibold as a grafted branch on the family tree. He's the best.

Clubbing at Sams...

Gar and I are always talking about how we need to spice up our dating life, and by spice up I mean do something besides get a red box and fall asleep before its over.  Let's compare and contrast dating pre and post marriage:

Pre: We went to fun restaurants, did adventurous activities like night skiing, watching the Chinese acrobats, had theme dinners, and parties. 

Then we got married. And pregnant. And vomitous. And then pregnant again. And suddenly 10 o'clock feels like 4 am and the thought of changing out of sweat pants to go anywhere seems not worth the effort.  For the last few months, the most consistent place, in fact the only place we go for our Saturday night date is Sams Club.  Last week I decided to overcome the sweat pant/Sams Club barrier and bought us a groupon to an African grill which I thought would be really exotic. We sat down and it did not smell like Colorado, or America for that matter. I was feeling less confident about my adventurous dating endeavor.  Reading the menu did not help when I saw these options as their recommendations:

I got a secret pic while the woman read the entire menu to Gar...

We were getting very wary.  (Check out the paper voo doo cut out behind Gar's head) There was a peanut butter fufu soup. Yes fufu. And a bunch of fried things that should never be fried and we were both feeling very nervous.

Well, except for Liv. She played it cool and insisted on wearing her favorite sun glasses inside and was loving all the decor (I'm not sure what happened to Gar's eyes in this photo).  The more we read, the more we realized that this maybe wasn't what we were looking for and Gar said it would be smart to cut our losses, realize that we were culturally not refined and leave. Which we did. I can't believe we really did that.  We gave the nice lady a different excuse but really, the main problem was that there was not a single thing on that menu that looked edible to our fat white burger accustomed tastebuds.  By that time it was too late to cook dinner, there was no way we were going somewhere nice with our two girl sidekicks and fast food sounded bad so where did we end up?

That's right. Old faithful. Our Saturday night tradition prevailed despite my best attempts.  One of the funniest things about Sam's is the menu font size. Name me one other restaurant that you can see from a mile away... You can't because only Sam's makes their restaurant menu billboard size. Any 95 year old can see what is available without busting out bifocals.  You just can't beat the hot dog combo for $1.50....

I mean think about it, you get a delicious hot dog (although that is a bit of an oxymoron considering I am anti hot dog) but the styrofoam big gulp equivalent can't be beat. Liv loves it.  Free refills which means you can sip and shop the night away. Delicious. 

Until Liv dumped the whole 64 ounces and they had to bring out the official wet floor orange warning because of us. Slightly embarrassing. We'll get over it considering it will probably happen again. In fact, guaranteed it will happen again. 

Not only are there great deals to be had and samples to enjoy, but the child entertainment can't be beat. Liv's favorite part is playing in this cabin.  It works great until it's time to go and then its a bit of a challenge since she goes to the back wall of the cabin and there's no way we can climb up to get her out. Smart. Oh so smart.

Where else can you get the double wide cart? Motherhood heaven.  Maybe someday we'll go back to exotic, thrilling, spontaneous dates, but for this season of life, Saturday night at Sam's is the only type of clubbing for us.

This is the place.

 I know Brigham Young stated those prophetic words over 100 years ago but they are ever so applicable to me. Every time the plane lands in the Salt Lake airport I feel like putting my stick on the cement (if I carried a stick, more like a diaper bag) and yelling, "This is the place."  It's a little embarrassing how much I love to be home. This trip was no exception. We only had a few days and spent some in Heber in family lock down mode and I loved every second.

We did a lot of "just chillin" (in the words of my brother Jeff).

Thanks to Mary Kay, Taylor will be entering the MTC with satin lips.

Games and desserts (plural intended on both) were a delight and we learned some interesting unforgettable tidbits while playing loaded questions that I will not disclose here.

The grandparents came to join the sleepover and Liv was in heaven with the swingset in the back yard.

They say you gain at least 5 pounds on a cruise. I have found that fact to also be true when I go home.

(Cole looks very exasperated and bored here but you would probably make the same face if you were the only male in a glob of girl cousins)

There was constant cousin play although they are too young to play at all. Mostly they just squawked at each other if someone took something they wanted.

Liv was in pure paradise. She slept an extra hour longer than usual because she would be so exhausted at the end of every day from the constant playing and fun.  Disneyland would have paled in comparison to her experience.  She fed chickens, pet the pony, went on walks, pretended with Grandma, chased the cats, helped Tay feed massive fish and albino frogs, and had an avalanche of attention everywhere she went.

 We had girl craft time and B came down from SLC which is always a delightful treat. I miss being around these women. I need them to be my neighbors for the rest of my life. I feel a way deeper connection to each of them than just the same family tree branch. 

 I just wish I could have cool double vision like Eevie.  This picture is one of my faves.

I've said it before and I'll say it again. Family is everything.

Farewell Elder Savio...

Sometimes I get blog bogged. That is a condition in which I feel obligated to put things in chronological order in which they have occurred with catchy captions and pleasing pictures etc. and have so many things to update that I feel I can't blog anything until I blog what happened prior and then feel too overwhelmed to blog anything at all. To avoid that, I am going to free myself from blogging pressure (which is self induced considering the only people that read this is my own mother and sisters) and simply give a few highlights.  One of highlights of the month was my brother Taylor's farewell.  He will be in Dallas Texas in less than two weeks and as cliche as it sounds, I am so proud of him.

 Tay took me to an all you can eat sushi lunch and I was in digestive heaven. There is no food I love more than good sushi so to have an unlimited amount took my sushi love to a new level. It was so fun to sit and talk and feast although the flying fish eggs on one of the rolls was a little too much...

 Taylor is one of the most interesting combinations of qualities and quirks that I have seen. Taylor is a people magnet and a natural leader. Taylor knows the breeding patterns and facts of every reptile created. Taylor bought these overalls at a garage sale and loves good deals. Taylor can eat more than anyone I know. Taylor owned an alligator for a pet.

 Taylor loves to read and if you mention any random fact, talking to Tay is like typing in a key word to google and he always knows something about what you are discussing. Taylor loves to have fun. Taylor loves to be with people. Taylor once had a tooth of a snake embedded in his knuckle.

 Taylor is spontaneous and likes to create memories wherever he goes and whoever he is with. Taylor and I once drove to 5 different gas stations because I was craving a krispy kreme. Taylor is a leader. Taylor is a wrestler. Taylor loves pecan pie.

 

Dallas Texas has no idea what an impact this 220 lb reptile guru, people loving, ginger Elder has to offer. I am so excited for him and proud that he where he needs and wants to be.

 It is most definitely our family's loss and Dallas' gain. I love my brother Taylor.