For the Record Books

As this expat season of ours comes to an end we got a little curious and wondered where we had the good fortune to travel. I was amazed my the number of places we had been in this beautiful world. We will sure miss the chance to travel!

Here is where we have been as of 2015 with most of the travel occurring between 2011 and 2013. 

Lived in USA, Singapore and Saudi Arabia

Ben age 11

Madison age 8

Jacob age 6

Lived in Singapore and Saudi Arabia

Ashlyn age 3 

Visited by all six of us:

Nepal

India

Vietnam

Indonesia

Cambodia

Thailand

Singapore

Malaysia

United Arab Emitates

Switzerland

France

Angie, Brian, Ben and Madison visited:

Hong Kong

China

Angie, Brian, Ben, Madison and Jacob visited:

Australia

Canada

Ashlyn visited:

USA (haha)

Angie and Brian visited:

England

Mexico

Brian visited:

Italy

Netherlands

Japan

Belgium

Layovers:

Japan

Turkey

Qatar

It's been a wild ride and we honestly hope to do it all again real soon. 

Familiar Asia

I'm off on a fun adventure this week to Hong Kong with my girlfriends from Saudi. Four years I missed this weekend retreat with Singapore ladies for one reason or another while I lived nearby. Now that I'm crazy far away and it's way less convenient, I've found a way to make it happen. I recruited a few Saudi friends and we booked tickets!

I'm excited on so many fronts, not the least of which is the joyous reunion I am about to have with my Singapore sisters. From what I see on facebook, 10 + of my dear friends are coming to Hong Kong this week too. One of whom, sweet Teena, is coming three days early with us to tour and shop and play before the conference even begins!!

I'm currently sitting watching the inflight map with a little digital airplane creep across the tiny TV screen. I am getting more giddy by the hour. (That would be American giddy, not Singapore giddy which means feeling like you may pass out. Haha.) Just fifty five minutes left until I am in proper ASIA again!!! 

When we approached the gate to board this flight, I began to feel a little more at home. There were so many Asians! During the flight I slept then got up to brush my teeth and stretch a bit. As I stood waiting for the stewardess and her cart to move slowly along so I could return to my seat I stood in the dim cabin peering around at the beautiful sleepy faces on board with me and I got a little choked up. These are my people. I yearn to live in Singapore again. To be able to walk freely and safely among the people and shop in Chinatown or get chicken rice at the hawker. To sweat as I wait for a bus or train, to carry my groceries home in a granny trolly from the local market and know the weather will be the exact same all year long. And I miss Gina. 

My Saudi home is my home now. My family is happy. I am happy there too, but I feel so incredibly torn. Seeing my Asia love spike again today floods my heart with happiness. I want to feel attached to Saudi, to feel fiercely loyal to the people and the culture but compound living with drivers and rules about everything is so exclusive. Abayas and security worries and company lock downs hamper that effort every single day. I have wondered how I will ever feel a part of my new place. It isn't impossible. And the more good Saudi women I have the chance to meet the more my heart will grow loyal to a new people. I'm sure in our three years it will come. I even bet that six months into Singapore I still felt a similar out of place-ness, like a spectator in a silly game.

So, this week I will revel in the fun of Hong Kong. Shop and eat. Soak up the sisterhood of renewing old friendships. Listen and learn how to be brave and have courage. That is what I am here for. A refresh to bouy me up another few months to make me a better wife and mother to my sweet family. And soak in Asia!!!

White Kids Everywhere!

Dec 31, 2014

First thing I noticed in the Istanbul, Turkey airport was all the white kids! I forget we stick out after just a few short weeks abroad. It's just who we are, so the absence of those who look like us doesn't register until I am transplanted back to a place where the hair color extends beyond black and the skin tones lighten.

Second was tha I felt like I was in a high end shopping mall, not an airport. There were shops and ambience. 

Ashlyn, Butter and Grandma Maleta Robinson

Sorting through pictures tonight I stumbled across this one that had me reminiscing during the flight from SLC to Saudi this summer. Ashlyn is two and she has a first class ticket on this trip. She is well taken care of to say the least but the food isn't always too familiar to her. At this meal she received bread and a small bowl with butter. Because I was flying solo this time with four kids, mealtimes were anything but relaxing. I would go from seat to seat cutting meat, opening silverware packets, telling them what the strange and fancy food was. I had to take a picture when I noticed Ash had eaten the chilled, molded butter patty like a piece of candy while I was distracted. Then she put her binkie in and was totally happy watching a Mickey Mouse movie before she fell asleep.

The situation is particularly hilarious to me because I have vivid memories of Grandma Robinson doing the same darn thing at about 90 years old. My cousin Rick and I both lived with her in her apartment for a while. Grandma was well known for her addiction to the buffet style restaurant Chuck-a-rama. It really was the perfect place. Always room to seat the entire family (I figure we frequently had 30+ at a standard cousin gathering by that time). Because Rick and I lived with her we went out with her every now and then just the three of us but it was always to Chuck-a-rama no matter the size.

 

She genuinely felt it was fair to take a doggie bag to the buffet and take a little home because she paid the same price as people that ate three times more than her so she always had a ziplock bag in her purse to stash away a little something for tomorrow. Rick would chastise her in the most hilariously serious voice telling her, "Grandma you ought to be ashamed of yourself. Stealing from a restaurant!" He is such a great, light hearted tease.

On this particular day we sat down and filled our plates at the salad bar first. Grandma always got a little of everything to try. We talked and ate and after a very long while Grandma finally asked Rick to taste her jello salad. She didn't particularly like it, but being raised not to waste a bit of food she had been trying to power through for quite a long time. Rick obliged by taking a little taste and promptly proclaimed, "Grandma!! THAT'S BUTTER!! You're eating a pile of butter!" She was greatly relieved and pushed the plate aside to be cleared by the bus boy because she no longer felt she had to finish the whole thing. Rick hassled her the rest of the meal in his natural good natured way and I'll never forget it. She was a wonderful woman and I really miss her some days.

So seeing Ashlyn had just polished off a big pile of butter made me smile and think of my sweet Grandma and all the good times we shared together.

Bali: Night One

We got to our hotel after 11pm. Maddie was in full melt down after bring woke up to disembark the airplane then again after the hour ride to the hotel. The kids did fantastic on the plane. Well, as far as I could tell. I got Ashlyn to the side. Brian had jake one row ahead of grandparents with Ben and Maddie.

This place rocks. There are no other guests and its fancy. We get the run of the whole villa. It's fancy but Indonesian outdoorsy. As in the showers are kinda outside. Grandma Zufelt is gearing up for her shower and checking the curtains to stretch and pull them as big as she can. No worries. It's big enough. Just barely but enough.

Maddie has had her dreams fulfilled. She's sleeping on a bed with a fancy, flowing canopy suspended over her bed with a big hoop. Never mind that it's a mosquito net with an actual purpose in our open air accommodations. She's pretty stoked to close herself in the bed and drift into dreamland a few minutes past midnight.

Jacob loved that they made him fresh pineapple juice and did the happy dance to prove it.

Ben really thought this place was amazing for at least 15 minutes. Then he started realizing what all the rustic-mess meant. He told me, "I really like this place. I just with it was more like our house and not so much like camping.

Ashlyn is happily sleeping in a pack n play with the mosquito net I happened to toss in the suitcase. Those little things God puts in our heads can really help, even if they help someone some other time.

Brian found fireflies in the rice paddy fields the we over look from our own pool. This vacation is going to be awesome!

Now it's well past bedtime. I've given up finding Vietnam visa info for the night at least. The frogs are chirping and the jungle is humming with night life. Time to sleep.

Bangkok Day 1: Silver Shopping and Harmonic

Today we flew to Bangkok. Just three moms and three little babies, 7 months, 6 months and 4 months. After the flight, clearing immigration and the taxi ride where lane lines are a colossal waste of paint we relaxed at the hotel for a few minutes while we surveyed the city map. We decided to get the important things done first and went to the silver shop. Brian and Santa bith vicariously did a little shopping for my birthday in two weeks and a little something for Christmas.

Then we got dinner at Harmonic. It was fantastic food and beautifully displayed. The restaurant was down a tiny street a little walk and the place is a bit old and run down. Really it's just an old building they shoved tables and chairs into and packed with decorations like the a fountain and the cart looking shelf withy they put the statues of their gods. It felt very authentic for sure and the owner was at our table multiple times through dinner to engage us in conversations like, "I know everything take care babies. My sister-in-law have many I take care them." She was a hoot and had pretty good command of English I thought. Despite us ordering smallish portions of seven different things Ashlyn stuck with rice cereal. I tried to give her a bite of squished up mango but it came right back out with a sour face. She missed out!.

As usual caucasian kids are adored here in Asia. Yesterday in Singapore i had all my four kids at the bird park and the Indians were taking pictures of the birds. They saw Jake and stopped watching the birds and started photographing him. He wasn't having it that particular day. Ashlyn was great today though. She smiled and cooed at any and everyone. She had her picture taken a number of times and the hotel staff dote on us three women with our three white babies.

Just because Jake and Maddie love them I made sure to get a picture of a PINK taxi tonight.

When we got back to the hotel we planned the Saturday schedule. Looks like JJ Market, Wat Arun and the Grand Palace. It was a great day in Thailand. I hope my family had a great day too. I love you guys.

Question of the day for the Zufelt kids: Which picture shows Ashlyn's dinner and which ones did mom eat for her dinner? Can you name any if the foods? Anyone who gets the right answer can have one trick or treat.

Answers: Ashlyn had rice cereal
Mom had cashew chicken, steamed rice in flower shaped bowls, pumpkin cheese deep fried muffin things, spring rolls, chicken satay, pad thai and mango sticky rice. Yummy!

Bye Family

We will miss you but have fun with Daddy!!

One Hour In

Everything is smooth so far. Just 24 more flight hours to go. This trip will take 30 hours door to door. Yikes.

Coming Home Again

We are on the way back home to Singapore. One hour down. Twenty three left to go. I'm enjoying the view of Idaho now and love the farm fields that dot the countryside and make such fun circle designs.

We weighed in at 20, 50 and 51 pounds for checked baggage. Then 40 and 45 pounds for our carry on bags. We had to leave plenty of our shopping treasures behind but we will pick them up when we return for summer vacation in July.

Brian has made traveling easy with his ingenious luggage train. With our super easy to maneuver Costco luggage driving this train is a snap!

Christmas in Cambodia

Though I always want to do good and help people, I'm skeptical by nature. Used to massive government waste in the US I raise an eyebrow when I'm asked to donate to a charitable cause, particularly one far away. I recall my junior high school raising money to buy land in the rainforest to save the world. As nice as it sounded, I couldn't make myself go out and sell magazines to raise funds because I really felt like it was a scam. Who from Bonneville Junior High School was going to hop on a plane and go verify we actually bought land and didn't just give all that money away to a scam artist? No one.

The kids school here has a very close and involved relationship with Caring for Cambodia. I liked what I saw and felt that donating items instead of funds made lots more sense to me. There is lots less chance of a scam when you are giving bars of soap and toothbrushes instead of $10 bills. Then I found out that the way they get the supplies to the people there is to ask people traveling to the area to bring along extra luggage. I loved the idea so when I put two and two together and realized we were booking our last minute Christmas holiday trip to Siem Reap Cambodia I was excited to see just what Caring for Cambodia was all about.



I contacted them and got the details, then paid the airline for two extra bags on our departing flights so we could haul 30 kg (60 lbs) of hygiene kits to the Cambodian people, all donated by the families at Singapore American School and other local community groups. This being our first true exposure to a country with poverty I took the opportunity to get the kids involved and we set up a time to serve the children at one of several of the Caring for Cambodia Schools.
 

Bright and early at 5:30 am a tuk tuk driver showed up at our hotel to take us out to serve the children breakfast. They arrive as early as 6:00 am to eat the free breakfast provided by the school.

 

Maddie with one of the cooks at CFC School. The children wash their own dish and spoon after eating so the next child can eat because they have only about 60 bowls and spoons and 500 kids though we didn't see that many come this morning so I think that number might be a total for all the kids in all the schools.

 

Jacob playing peek-a-boo with the cooks, a game that seems to cross all language barriers. This is the entire kitchen with two huge pots of rice porridge for breakfast, a gas burner to cook with and a shelf to put the full bowls on for serving.



Maddie serving the children. When the school first opened they found that the children got restless and couldn't concentrate well in school. The learned that most children didn't get breakfast before they came to school. To help the children be ready to learn, they began providing breakfast and the children did better in school.



Two rows of five or six long picnic benches for the children to eat breakfast and lunch.



Jacob loved serving breakfast. He was so wildly excited to get the next bowl and deliver it that he had to have an adult help slow him down and steady the bowl so it didn't end up all over the floor.



The entire time we were there the monks were chanting next door. The man in charge of the school that greeted us explained that they were doing a ceremony while they cremated the bodies of people who had died.

There were constant drum beats and chanting over loud speakers and traditional worship music. It set quite the authentic mood and made me feel very much immersed in Cambodian culture as I looked at the children, the school, the temple and listened to the music.



The kids were so cute. They were excited to have their pictures taken, but so shy around my older kids.



Finally some of them warmed up enough to stand near Ben though they were obviously daring each other to do it first and playfully pushing their friends close to him.



Jake, of course, had no trouble with the kids. He knows just how to play with everyone and made loads of friends easily. The kids loved his light skin, blonde hair and thought it was so funny to see glasses on such a little baby boy.




These boys were smiling and friendly from the time they arrived at breakfast. Since they are not wearing uniforms we know they weren't students attending class, but breakfast is free to any children that come. Notice how one boy has two jackets but no shirt. He didn't seem to care. He was happy to have a full belly and a swingset to share with his buddies.




This guy couldn't have been much older than Jacob, my three year old, and he was a tiny little guy. I thought he was so sweet. He had uniform shorts and short sleeved shirt with mittens that had holes in them. It is winter in Cambodia and the people feel cold, though we wore shorts, t-shirt and flip flops the entire trip. We would often see people with scarves, gloves or jackets, sometimes even coats I wouldn't have considered wearing until it had dropped at least 20 more degrees. I suppose when you aren't used to snow, their winter could feel a bit nippy.




These guys were our tuk tuk drivers. They picked us up at 5:30 and waited for us to finish before returning us to our hotel. A tuk tuk is just what you see there and they pull it with a motorcycle. It's a pretty fun way to travel and the kids loved it! The sweet guy on the left hung around our hotel the entire five days we were there hoping to be hired for any of our trips downtown or out for dinner, etc. He was really a nice guy.




After breakfast we were ready to go, but were asked to stay so as not to disrupt the morning flag ceremony. The older children lead the younger children. The manager explained simply that they teach of the history of Cambodia and the horrible death and destruction in the last 30-40 years so that the children know the history and can make sure it is never repeated. Most of the adult population lost family members that were murdered during that time.

An average home just outside the school gates. Most the children probably come from homes like this.



More average homes in the school neighborhood.



Man fishing and repairing his net to catch food for lunch or dinner that day. The fish were so small it would have taken a long time to catch enough to feed a whole family.



In October we were asked to donate supplies for hygeine kits. We sent in toothbrushes, toothpaste, washclothes and bars of soap. A week or so later I noticed as I passed the soap box in Maddie's school lobby that it smelled so strong!  I peeked into the big box and noticed the children had unwrapped all the soap. I thought it was a bit odd to spend the time to do that.

Ben's class actually did the assembly of the kits for families and he reported that his class had done the exact same thing. They unwrapped everything! When I asked why, he explained that the people just threw the wrapping on the ground and it made a big mess in their cities. My first thought was totally American, "Why would you do something so irresponsible? What a mess!"

Once in their country, I began to understand. It's so simple to think they should just throw it away. But where? There is no garbage man to haul stuff away. We feel inconvenienced and over run when the garbage man misses because of Christmas Day. Imagine if they never came at all. There is simply no where to put the trash in Cambodia. I saw a woman walk to the shallow, nearly stagnant stream behind her home and literally dump a big bucket of trash right in the water. I couldn't believe my eyes, but in her defense, the water would take it away eventually. What other good option did she see?



Next time I want to complain about laundry, I will try to remember this guy. Two buckets and a string. That's all he had.

Finally, since we knew we were going to be in Siem Reap, Cambodia on Christmas Day this year, which fell on a Sunday, I searched for a Christain church to attend for worship services. We ended up finding one or our own denomination, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. We were invited to their congregation Christmas Party on Thursday afternoon. Of course we couldn't understand the language. They had a short speech/lesson then the youth group acted out the nativity story. My friend Gretel put it best, "At least we knew the plot of the story so we could follow along."

Our friends left on Saturday, Christmas Eve but apparently bought the last tickets out that day. We stayed on through Sunday evening. We forgot to ask when services began so after no success calling the empty building on Saturday decided to just show up at 9am. If it was later, we'd come back. We were greeted at the door and quickly realized the service had started at 8am. The only seats left in the building were the very front and center five seats so we attempted to sneak in an hour late. Again, we couldn't understand the language, so maybe it wasn't all bad that we didn't have a long service. We listened about seven minutes, sang a traditional Christmas song to close the meeting and then the fun began.

They had purchased a Christmas present for all the children. Each child was given a Coke and one small piece of candy. It was a fantastic treat for all the kids there and they were all smiles to have been given something so delicious. I felt bad allowing my children to get anything at all but they were so eager to make sure our kids were included that I couldn't turn them down such genuine kindness.

This is nearly the entire LDS ward primary with our kids included. Such a happy bunch on Christmas morning. Their open arms made it a Christmas to remember.

Who would have ever thought a little girl from Utah would spend Christmas in Siem Reap Cambodia? Not me but here I am living my dream of travel and sharing the world with my children. I hope they remember what they saw in this gorgeous, lush green country and felt in their hearts the difference they can make when they give and serve people who have less than they do. It was a fantastic trip.

God Bless the USA

There are days that I am reminded of how great it is to be an American. Sometimes in very profound ways as I think of our freedoms. Today because we were just told "No problem. Just come back in thirty minutes." at the check in desk at the airport ten minutes ago. We are off to see my brother and sister in laws family in Brisbane today and I forgot to apply for visas to enter the country. Blast! How did that slip my mind? I'm grateful that the USA is good buddies with our friends down under so the visa application is super quick. Otherwise this could have been a major disaster! Only down side is it would have been cheaper if I had done it. Now it's my $250 mistake. Half that cost is for the express service fee for my mess up. Oops. I'll take it over canceling the trip though. Just better not forget again because next time I may not be so lucky.

GRRRRRR! My Darn Accent

Maddie ended up with a fever today. She was limp and weepy. Then I gave her magic juice (ibuprofen) and told her she could lay on the couch and rest instead of do her writing. About 15 minutes later she was up and bouncing around. After two hours like that I decided we probably still shouldn't go to the water park for playgroup like I planned but we could at least go return our library books and hit the travel agency for a quick visit to book a beach getaway next week. She’d be fine.

Library was quick and fine. Only fifteen minutes. Then off to the travel agent at Causeway Point. We got ourselves there at lunchtime and grabbed McDonalds where the kids are totally doted upon like nowhere else. They have never gone to McDonalds here where they didn’t leave with a balloon and a free toy – no not the toy in the happy meal. A free toy.

They did okay at the travel agent while I tried to book some fun in Bali. It was coming to over $5,000 for a three night stay. WHAT?? I guess I came with the wrong idea. Wasn’t Bali supposed to be a close and cheap getaway? Nope. Just close. We started looking at other places to go and we settled on Krabi. Yep. We’re heading back to Thailand. Before booking the hotel I came home to book the airline on my own since the agent said she had to charge me $25/person if she did it. Sweet. Cheaper vacation AND save $125.

When we got home I read stories to Jacob and put him down to nap. Then I spent a full hour trying to book our flight online. It wouldn’t go through. And I had to enter all the data including everyone’s passport numbers and expiration dates a zillion times. Grrrr.

In addition to it locking up and then not processing the payments I kept getting messages that all the “non-credit card on the internet” methods were currently not working so if I chose to book anytime in the foreseeable future the only way was to incur the $70 convenience fee of using the credit card. (This means I can’t pay cash at the 7-11 like last time to save the fee.) It would book it no matter what I tried and kept telling me to call them but listed no phone number. Grrrr

Finally I was able to dig up a phone number to call and trust me, they didn’t make it easy. Grrrr.

Sit on hold. Grrrr

Lady confirms I didn’t purchase a ticket. That’s good news that I didn’t pay for twelve sets of airline tickets. I ask her to book a ticket. “We don’t offer aldsjflask;jdf;ladjfl ticket.” Pause. “Sorry can you repeat that?” She repeats twice more something I totally can’t understand then without warning she drops me back in the hold queue. Grrrr.

Hold.

Purchase ticket. I try so hard to spell everything I say using Z-zebra U-umbrella F-frank E-England L-Larry T-Tom. She was soooo patient and so was I. I thought we had everything worked out. She kept calling Brian Brain. I confirmed the spelling. Okay. Hang up and wait for email confirmation.

Twenty minutes later it arrives.

Brain and Madifun will be traveling with us. Oh yeah and Beechwood Grove has turned into Dee Wood Road for the billing. Grrrr.

Call back.

Hold.

Fix it. Spell all three items slowly and I mean S-L-O-W-L-Y.

Wait for email.

Brian is now coming and our address is fixed but Madifon, another fun variation on her name, is coming on the trip now.

Call back.

Hold.

Fix it.

Wait on hold while they confirm.

It’s all correct and it only took three hours (uninterrupted by children – what a waste of that golden time).

Now to book the hotel. I’m exhausted.

I HATE having an accent!!!!! It’s so hard to communicate sometimes. That’s the whole reason I tried to book tickets online in the first place and that I drug all three of my children down to a mall to talk to the travel agent instead of calling them. I KNOW I need body language and clues to confirm we are saying the same thing to each other. I did not chose to take them down there because it was easy, fun, a good chance for family bonding or any of the like. Because I have an accent. Being a foreigner sucks sometimes.

Kirtland Rocks. Driving Doesn't.

Final Stats 3 nights away 1 hotel room and a basement 1 crowded truck 6 1/2 hour drive 9 hours to drive it 6 stops 4 cups of vomit plus... 200 people fed 7 meals in 3 days 1080+ miles driven We finally got home from our Youth Conference trip to Kirtland last night just before 10pm. We left at 12:30 for the 6 1/2 hour drive. All three kids have fevers and Ben filled a big gulp sized cup 4 times with vomit. The last hour and a half we just let Jacob scream his guts out because we had stopped six times already. Poor kids. They are all still sick today and Jacob must have it the worst. He won't stop crying. While I was sitting in the truck miserable listening to Jacob scream at the top of his lungs and Maddie break down in tears because she was at her wits end (he was screaming directly into her ears) Brian had a different take on things. His comment was that we were missing some prime teaching opportunities. WHAT?!?! "What was he thinking?" was all I could think. Once explained, I had to begrudgingly agree. Ben has always been our rock star snuggling baby. He would crawl up on top of my shoulder and perch in my arms for a nice long nap or to just be near me. When we had Maddie she was only two days old when I figured out that she wasn't going to calm down that way. She wanted, no demanded, to face outward. She would never settle down unless you faced her away from your body. When she was nine months, she got a rotten fever that lasted about five days. She was absolutely miserable. Sometime during that sickness, she must have felt bad enough that she relented and wanted to be cuddled and cradled in our arms. She's been a decent snuggler ever since, though no one will ever hold a candle to Ben. Jacob hasn't exactly been a rock star snuggler either. Not as bad as Maddie, but lets just say closer to the Maddie side of the spectrum that the Ben side. Brian was simply stating that if Jacob was so sick, maybe he would learn to want to snuggle too. In any case, Kirtland was great. Dispite the rotten drive home, we had three other fantastic days together touring and serving.

No Pictures of Number Three

So I’m realizing now, we barely took any pictures on our Kirtland trip. I also figured out why I don’t have pictures of my kids anymore like I used too. I’m simply out of hands. Even with Brian around, we’re running short on hands to be taking pictures. Until Jacob can walk at a minimum, I think we’ll continue to be short on pictures. I can’t carry a camera as well as juggle three kids. I wish I had more to offer of our trip. It really was lovely. Maybe others will publish their pics on their blogs or facebook for me to steal.

Patrick Hotel

A few months before June, I was thinking through what we might do with the kids when I was doing stake stuff and they were bored to tears. I had the thought that our old buddy Patrick might live nearby, but couldn’t quite remember the city. Turns out it wasn’t Cleveland, it was two hours away in Columbus. So we couldn’t arrange a playdate for Brian and the kids with his old high school friend and college roommate, but if you know Patrick, it is just an honor and a privilege to be graced by his presence. We couldn’t possibly pass up the chance to stop in and say hello. (Since he has gone to some effort to remain aloof online, I will not post pics, or names of his family). Lucky for us, Patrick had already become my Facebook friend and I made a reservation to take up some prime real estate in the basement for Youth Conference weekend. Brian says it was the perfect way to visit Patrick. After all, our romance began as a result of a trip we took back in 1998 where we (along with about 30 other college kids) slept on the floor of Patrick’s basement. It was almost like walking back in time. Except that we didn’t have three kids then, Patrick didn’t have three kids, the basement was in Ohio instead of Cedar City, Utah and a couple other minor details. Still, Brian is right. There may be no better place in the world to sleep than Patrick’s basement. Unfortunately our kids were just 100% wiped out. Maddie had developed a nightmare diaper rash (yeah, I know, if she were potty trained that wouldn’t be an issue). She could barely walk and was in lots of pain so she didn’t really want to play much. Ben really enjoyed playing with the Carroll kids and was really disappointed that our trip was so short. They have really cool train tracks, a tire swing in the backyard and the kids were both really fun. We got them bathed and in bed later than we should have, but they slept well. When they woke, we were treated to a wonderful breakfast and then the kids played until it was time to go to church. Once settled in the pew, Maddie and Ben laid down on the bench. Maddie fell asleep. Ben said he had a terrible headache and remained pretty still. I spent most the time in the hall or mother’s room with Jacob and before we knew it, it was time to head home. Too short a visit to be sure, but I have lots of searching to do on Facebook now. I hear tell that lots of old friends are there just waiting to be found. After the service was over, we loaded up our sleepy, tired kids into the truck and said our goodbyes. Ben was sobbing about his headache. I encouraged him to take a drink of water thinking he could be dehydrated still from all our time outside in the heat this weekend. Thinking that as sleepy and whiny as the kids were, they must not feel spectacular, we made the decision to stop and pick up some Motrin. I stayed in the car while Brian went in. Soon Ben started crying and in a voice that quickly became more and more urgent said, “Mom, I think I’m having tummy yuckies coming out!” I was on the phone with Brian calling from inside the store right then. As I tossed down the phone, I yelled, “Hold on!” I whipped open the glove compartment where I keep an oversized plastic cup reserved for occasions such as this and got it under his mouth just in time. He filled the cup, tears coming out his eyes and vomit from his nose and mouth. Poor guy. I hollered at the phone “Buy whatever you have, Ben’s throwing up” and turned it off. I soothed Ben and helped him clean his chin. After a few minutes he appeared a bit better and said in a very relieved voice, “At least my forehead doesn’t hurt at all anymore.” Bad call by my about the water. He is naturally prone to be car sick. Add that on top of a splitting headache and something had to give. On the up side, hopefully all three kids will be so wiped out that they will sleep the whole 6 ½ hour drive. I know I’m crossing my fingers. Right now they are all three sleeping peacefully.

Seven Hours Later

We left Columbus at 12:30. It is five minutes to 8:00 pm. We just passed a sign that says we have 128 miles left to Washington, DC. I think we may never get there. Jacob has been screaming at the top of his lungs for almost an hour. We have stopped four times. Three of those stops included vomiting by Ben. My patience is thin. I am so glad I have Brian here to keep me focused and calm. As unpleasant as Jacob thinks this trip is, it could be worse. Or, if we didn’t have car sick boy, we could actually be home now. The drive is only 6 ½ hours afterall. Typically we take 7 ½ to do a 6 ½ hour drive. This trip may never end. We have discussed installing a cone of silence in the truck like in the old Get Smart movie. Where can I rent that by the way? Is Netflix that good? Maybe I should sign up. The other option might be a minivan or the like. If I do ever end up doing that, I’m requesting the license plate to be “YUCK” to adequately describe my feelings.

Kirtland Youth Conference 2009

We are now departing our Kirtland Youth Conference 2009 Adventure. Brian is driving. All three kids are exhausted and crashed out in the back seat. It was a fantastic success. The youth group had an amazing time. The friendships were deepened. The history was rich. The spirit of the Lord was strong. I suppose Brian and I are exhausted too. We were the support crew. When we originally started registration, a contract was made on the charter buses for the kids based on years past totals of about 120 youth. We collected registrations. Then more came in, and more and more. We had a total of 161 kids registered as we approached the date and almost all of them checked in on the day of departure. Our budget didn’t allow for excess hotel rooms to that degree and we couldn’t cut in the chaperone department, so we had to brutally slash our support crew. We got ourselves down to 4 support people for the entire group of over 190 people. Brian and I decided (wisely) to take the truck instead of the tiny little Honda Accord. It proved to be a very good choice. We were able to transport coolers, tables, grills, massive amounts of Costco groceries and ice anywhere, anytime without being held up waiting for the three buses and the kids to finish their activities. We were free to go ahead and set up meals, pick up catered food and stay late to let the grills cool before they were loaded up. My original expectation was that I was going to go see the sights in Kirtland just like the kids were. Then I realized I had better shift my expectations into reality so that I wasn’t sorely disappointed when I didn’t get to attend a single tour. And that is how I left for the trip. Truly thinking I wouldn’t get to do anything but attend the evening sacrament meeting in the Kirtland Temple because all the meals would be over for the day and it was late enough that my kids would be back at the hotel with Brian. To my pleasant surprise, I was able to do all the tours except a few houses at historic downtown Kirtland because Maddie was tantruming and disturbing the other people in our tour group and the Morley Farm. Not bad for a support crew member. What I still cannot believe is that we fed 200 people for three days out of a cooler and three tour buses. CRAZY!! I couldn’t even imagine how we would have done that before this trip. I have also thought a million times over the last six months, “I don’t WANT to know how to do this!” The people that develop the skills to plan for group meals in that manner will inevitably ALWAYS get stuck planning, ordering, shopping and ultimately serving in the kitchen and cleaning up after every meal and miss ALL the fun stuff. I’d rather just appreciate the people who know how to do that wonderful work. I’m happy to help them execute the pre-made plans, just not create them. All three of our kids were near angels. Maddie only really had one real rough patch when we were well beyond her nap anyway and she was tired and hot and demanding some grapes. Jacob was the hit of the trip. The last day I put him in a cute little red shirt that says “Babe Magnet” because it was so true. All the cute 14-18 year old girls swooned over his cute little toothless grin and ready smile. Ben made a great new friend, Kara, that he wants to come babysit. When we were at the Whitmore store, Brian and I were tag teaming squirmy Jacob and whiney Maddie Mae. Ben was sort of left to fend for himself and Kara stepped in and took him under her wing. What a great girl. The rest of the trip he was constantly asking if Kara was coming to this place or that place or where she was right now. All the kids also enjoyed playing with Marina who is one of our favorite babysitters we have used. She loves our kids and they adore her. Today we toured the Johnson Farm and used the chapel within walking distance for our festivities to serve breakfast, lunch and pack a sack lunch dinner. I can attest to the fact that we have some very loving, dedicated adult leaders in our ward. My friend, Tashia, was a work horse. She never rested once for three days. We missed our cohorts Heidi and Carol though. It’s rotten to break up our team like that, but Heidi had some lame excuse like she was having a baby any day now and wasn’t really feeling it. Carol had to multitask and be YW President and group “Mom” so she was too swamped to hang out and laugh with us while we sliced bagels, muffins, watermelons, lettuce, tomatoes and whatever else we chopped in our three day marathon. The kids have traveled very well so far. Ben wanted to help out wherever he could, including setting up and taking down chairs and tables. Maddie loved trying out the toys in the nursery classrooms in each of the chapels. Probably the highlight for both of them was the swimming pool at our hotel, which they got to use twice on Friday—once in the afternoon while I was making a food run, and once in the evening before bed. Overall, it was a fantastic trip. While it isn’t always true, I do believe if we both show and tell our kids what is expected of them, they will surprise us with their ability to meet or exceed our expectations. What a blessing we received this weekend that our children were so great. I think God was on our side, saw the sacrifices we were willing to make and helped us and them by picking up some of the slack or sending others to be our angles so we could serve and create and incredible experience for everyone involved. Many thanks are in order to those who organized, planned and executed an amazing, spiritual, testimony building youth conference where we could feel the spirit of Christ and grow closer to him and renew our efforts to become more like him. I am very grateful for the chance I had to learn through service this weekend and to spend time with my cute little family while teaching them a lesson in service and sacrifice too. I think our parents can be proud of the people we turned out to be, at least in that respect. They deserve credit for teaching by example. Just glad we learned something from it.

What to Do On the Road

I love having a laptop and a power inverter. I don’t have internet access on the road, but I have been able to catch up on blog posts from mid-March. It feels amazing to have been able to catch up so much! Seriously, I have single spaced typed out eighteen pages of blog posts and which pictures I need to retrieve to post with them. I’m so excited to upload everything!! I made it all the way to the end of May just before we went to California. Still some big posts (California wedding, Grandma’s funeral, Jacob rolling, sitting, crawling, standing up a few seconds, preschool graduation, family campout, primary talent show, installing baby gates, buying and selling houses out of state, regression on crying it out, Ben progressing in swim team and more). For now, I’m going to revel in the progress I’ve made catching up the blog and hope that my kids have moved onto a new and better stage where I have a few minutes to myself each day rather than running to attend to the needs of one of the three of them at every waking moment. I can’t believe we’re almost to July already. Time used to be so methodical, so measurable and trackable. Then I had Ben and in an instant I had three kids. My first year with Ben seemed to drag, but time has been passing steadily faster and faster with each year. Jacob will be seven months in a week and it seems like he just joined our little family. I don’t want to miss, neglect or forget any of it. Ben is especially fun now since we can do so much together. He is a huge help. I love to work with him, teach him piano/reading/math, play with him. Sometimes my heart yearns to not be bound down by a million other things so I could give him all the love I have for him. On Wednesday last week, Maddie asked me at least five different times through the day to read her a story she loves. Each time was a bad time for me and I put her off. Finally, I had time and snuck into her room with the book at 9pm after she was in bed. I fully expected her to be awake. She is our night owl and usually is up about an hour after climbing in bed. It broke my heart that she was gone. I could feel my heart ache to know I had put her off, let her down and disappointed her five times. She never once complained. It happens to every mother. The stars just cannot be aligned every moment of the day. When they are, I need to be better at seizing the moment and reveling in it because; the days are short lived that she will want to snuggle in my arms and read a magical fairytale story.

Temple Meeting

I had such a fantastic experience at the Kirtland temple. When I went in the day with my family for the tour, we got to see all the rooms, including the elusive third floor. We tried to join one of the youth tour groups, but they couldn’t fit us in. Then there were only a few of us that couldn’t make the first group, so we got our own tour. Since there were so few people, we got to go to the third floor and see those rooms. It was amazing to see how they built it back in the 1800s. Such a tall, brick building. So big it bankrupted the church at the time. Such sacrifice by the early Christian saints to toil and work for so many years to build a temple to God. It was humbling to see it. Later that night I was able to return. Brian kept the kids, took all three swimming and then put them to bed while I was gone. Having time to sit and reflect on the intricate woodwork done by hand, the detail in the podium area, simple beauty of design, grandness of size and the unique windows was amazing. I felt connected to their building and their souls. I appreciated their toil, sweat and tears. Amazed at the sacrifice of the women to crush their irreplaceable fine dishes and nice things to mix into the mortar so that the temple would sparkle in the sunlight and be beautiful to look at and to honor God. I imagine it would have been an interesting time to live, during all the revivals of the 1800s. So much religious excitement, contention and yet many good people found Christ in those times. What a blessing to them and their posterity to have the knowledge of Christ in their daily lives. While sitting that evening in the lower room of the temple, staring at the product of their love of God, I felt the spirit of God so intensely. When the stake president, Pres Erickson, spoke, I listened. He shared so many great feelings and impressions and messages for the youth and for the adults present. He emphasized how important our daily decisions were in obtaining exaltation because the small things really do matter. He shared with us God’s deep love for us as daughters of God and about the huge responsibility placed upon the shoulders of the young men in the group. I realized that I was not listening with my mind and taking in the message to process it. I could feel a tangible, physical warmth and stirring in my chest instead. I was listening with my soul that night. The feelings I had were so real and so difficult to describe. Kirtland is a special place where you can feel the history and God’s love. I hope to go back when the kids are older and can listen, learn and appreciate the sacrifice of the early saints.

Travelin' Fools

On our kitchen wall I have a framed map of the United States of America. Okay, a huge map of the United States of America. We track our travels there and pinpoint where all our close family members live. The kids know their cousins names from the wall map and I love to look at all the highlighted roads. We've driven all of them, Brian and I at least. We started the map on our honeymoon, then driving to and from internships during college and from there, have visited 46 of the 50 states together. We love to see new things and places but we're in a slump. We haven't been anywhere new in a year and a half. Actually, we haven't been much of anywhere but home to Utah for a wedding and a funeral in the last year and a half. Plus several trips to Buffalo. This summer we've got another wedding (the last one I might add) in San Diego/LA area we're excited about. We've got a "beachhouse" that is a mile from the beach. Huh? How is that a beach house again. Whatever. Then there is Disneyland. These kids are really slowing us down though. We still need to visit Hawaii, Alaska, Washington and Oregon (we have an invite to Oregon!). If we just didn't have a nursing baby, maybe we'd try a getaway for our tenth anniversary this summer. I'm just getting antsy to go do something fun (without kids, naps or chicken nuggets on the menu).

P.S. To Family on the Map - Send me updated family pictures if you have any!