Last of Utah and Going Home

January 23, 2017 by

Surrounding the excitement of Christmas and playing in the snow every day, this Utah trip was chock full of lounging around, visiting family and friends, playing games and taking lots of naps… a true vacation; although, we were definitely wondering why we hadn’t done Utah with the kids first, and then taken off to Hawaii by ourselves to escape the madness. We did things backwards!

Since my sister was in Key West for the holidays, she graciously let us borrow her car so that we wouldn’t have to pay for a rental while we were there, and since it wasn’t a minivan, we had to split up whenever we went somewhere since we didn’t all fit. So, one morning, Meredith stayed with me exploring the house and taking a walk to the playground, while the twins went on a Daddy Daughter date up to Ogden to visit Grandma Celeste and Aunt Valisa.

I’m sure Meredith was wondering why it was so frigid!

Meredith loves to play games and giggled playing peekaboo and reaching her hand out for me to grab in the tunnel.

Meanwhile, the twins took Ogden by storm.

After their stroll through the Christmas Village, the girls were treated to an art lesson from Grandma.

I had no idea who actually went to Scheels, that giant monstrosity of a sporting goods store on the side of the I-15, but now I know. Jake took the girls there on a pit stop and to ride the ferris wheel inside, which afforded views of the plentiful taxidermy.

 

Those animals are dead, girls.

Later in the week, Uncle Mike and Ali came to visit from Wyoming and Meredith was happy to play with more members of her fan club.

Working on her latest concerto.

The day after Christmas the water of Lindon City was officially declared unconatimnated and the infamous Boil Order of Christmas 2016 was finally lifted (rejoice!) Since we didn’t want to deal with cooking and clean up while the boil order was in effect, we postponed Christmas dinner and decided to have it mid-week when Uncle Mike and Ali could join us. I’ve never been so grateful for tap water in my life! It really made a huge difference not having to boil bottles, dishes and bath water anymore!

Meredith especially enjoyed the garlic mashed potatoes during her first Christmas dinner.

 

The girls were bribed to behave during dinner with the promise of being able to pop open their party crackers, each of which contained a cute paper crown and mini xylophone. It’s the simple things. 

Meredith got a xylophone lesson from Grandpa after dinner.

Meanwhile, the twins learned how to doodle with their new spirograph, and were excited about their cute personalized Santa bags from Mike and Ali.

We played a round or two of Hungry Hungry Hippos every night, and I’ve never seen the twins so focused.

Such a classic.

Down by Utah Lake, they had a drive through Christmas lights extravaganza set to music we checked out one evening.

Mesmerized!

One of our favorite stops is the free Bean Museum at BYU, and the girls ended up going twice; once with me, and once with Grammy. They had a really cute story time which the girls loved, and we spent the rest of the time wandering around, looking at the animals.

Uh… where are the cute, fuzzy creatures you promised?

Amelia and Samantha reenacted what they learned about predators and prey from story time.

Hunter and the hunted.

The girls and I met up with my friend, Sarah, and her four littles to play at the Museum of Natural Curiosity. The girls have been there several times in the past, but this was the first time they were really old enough to be into more of the science and exploration activities. It was crazy at times corralling all our kids to go in the same direction, but Alec, Ava and Beckham were great tour guides!

Whenever they could manage to wrestle the Rock ‘Em Sock ‘Em Robots away from Mike and Jake (which wasn’t often), the girls had a few epic battles of their own. Things got especially intense when their robots fought to the death atop the table.

When we weren’t outside, the girls occupied themselves decorating windows, playing with Polly Pockets, and lining up all the stuffed animals in the playroom to play “school.” Other people’s toys are always so much more fun!

The girls did really well this trip, considering all the Christmas-induced sugar, excitement, and travel. By mid-week, however, all three were noticeably more cranky, and by the time our week was up, we were all ready to get back to a routine, even though the twins argued otherwise. “WE DON’T WANT TO GO HOME!” they wailed on the car ride to the airport.

We spent a ton of time looking out the windows at the airport to keep the girls occupied. Jake boarded with Meredith first to take advantage of having first dibs on the overhead baggage, while I waited until the last second to board with the girls to minimize the time they would have to sit there waiting.

For both plane rides to and from Utah, I sat with the girls, while Jake took charge of Meredith (I’m still traumatized from the last time I flew alone with her!) She loved playing peekaboo with us through the seats and was so wild, Jake had to pass her to me a few times while he rested his baby-wrangling muscles.

The trip home is usually the hardest leg, and this one was no exception. The twins did pretty well on the plane ride, and only melted down on the twenty minute ride home from the airport, but Meredith was a cranky little one from start to finish! She sat with Jake behind us on the plane ride and was constantly bopping up to say hello and then screeching when he wouldn’t let her on the floor. I’m pretty sure she hit or threw random objects at the passengers next to her several times. Poor thing just wanted OUT.

It was a good thing we had a very low key New Year’s weekend at home to recuperate from the trip. Meredith alone made us exhausted for days!

Lots of love,

 

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More Utah Sledding Fun

January 23, 2017 by

The rest of our Utah trip treated us to gorgeous weather and it almost made us miss living in a colder climate where there’s snow… almost. We love playing in the soft white fluff set against a backdrop of stunning snowcapped peaks, but we don’t miss the snow gear hassle, heating up the car twenty minutes before we had to go anywhere and scraping ice off the wind shield in the frigid mornings. We love to visit and get all that “winter stuff” out of our systems!

Down the hill from Grammy and Grandpa’s is my old junior high school, and the best sledding hill in town. Jake, Uncle Mike and Ali took the twins while I stayed home getting Meredith up from her nap and getting her dressed. By the time Meredith and I arrived on the scene, Samantha and Amelia had had enough and were trudging back to the car, exhausted and sweaty in their snow suits. I made them stay for another twenty minutes so I could watch them sled and take Meredith down the hill, but that was definitely pushing it. They were cranky, fighting over the sled constantly and at one point, went limp in the snow, refusing to move and too tired to plea for help.

Meredith didn’t want to wait for the twins to return her sled, so she just went for it in her slippery snowsuit.

After ten minutes of fighting over who got to steer, the girls compromised and shared.

Cant. Go. Any. Further.

That’s one way to carry a baby.

Many of the girls’ tantrums were induced fighting over who got to ride with Meredith. I’m pretty sure Amelia is out of the frame somewhere kicking and punching the snow.

WHOA.

Help me!

Meredith was feeling a little scared at this point.

My little snow angel.

Uncle Mike took his new drone out for its maiden voyage and captured some overhead shots of the girls’ sledding adventures.

A video posted by Mike Arnoff (@mike.minex) on

Then it was home to Grammy’s for some hot chocolate and a long winter’s nap!

Lots of love,

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Snow Fun in Utah

January 12, 2017 by

On Christmas, we woke up to a winter wonderland and Samantha, Amelia and Meredith spent the rest of the week begging to sled and play in the snow… for about twenty minutes at a time. I have no idea how families who live in colder climates deal with this, because the effort it took just to get all the snow gear on wore me out for the rest of the day, not to mention the cost of all the gear that will only fit them this year and maybe next. I couldn’t imagine this being a daily reality of just getting to school! We were happy to get our “snow fix” and then return to home to the warmth where we only deal with rain jackets once in a while!

There were absolutely zero options for snow gear around where we live, so my mom shopped around locally for some cost-effective options and the house looked like a department store filled with snow gear by the time we got there. This bunting for Meredith was the only practical option that fit her, and worked well, even though we were not excited about the navy color! Poor Meredith transformed into a boy for our sledding adventures, but still managed to look cute.

Grammy with a bundled up Amelia, 2013:

After narrowing down some finalists for clothing, and after 45 minutes of tugging and squeezing clothes and boots on, we were ready to go.

That picture of the girls going down the stairs reminded me of one taken a few years ago, with Uncle Mike holding on for dear life with Amelia down the stairs!

Samantha and Amelia fought over who got to hold Meredith for their epic ride down the hill. Meredith looked slightly terrified, but didn’t complain.

WHAT IS HAPPENING TO ME?

HELP.

2013– the twins’ first encounter with snow:

Meredith is normally wiggly and high-energy, but the snow seemed to have a calming effect on her high octane personality. She was totally mesmerized and just lay flat on her back in the sled, almost comatose!

Timber!

The girls had to try out the frozen playground.

Sammy with icicles hanging down her hat.

After making fun of Jake for collapsing after his fiftieth round as head sled dog, he gave me the reigns so I could see for myself what it was like pulling 95 pounds on a flimsy sled. EASY.

It was actually pretty grueling. I didn’t even make it up the hill once.

Peekaboo, Meredith.

The girls were fascinated with the concept of snow angels. Later in the week, they went on a walk with Grammy and she said they had to stop in every single neighbor’s yard to make a snow angel.

The last time the girls played in snow was in 2014 when they were not quite three years old, so they didn’t really remember what it felt like. The freshly fallen snow was too powdery for making snowmen this go around.

Loved Samantha’s circa 1985 snowsuit!

The girls couldn’t get enough of tasting snow. We educated them about yellow and brown snow just in time.

  

Jake attempted to teach the twins about how to have a snowball fight, but they were completely uninterested and instead took the snowballs he made them and carried them around in their sled, pretending they were “their kids.” I overheard them asking each other how many kids the other had and then each would practice counting their little bundles of joy. Such girls!

Despite Daddy pelting them with snowballs, the girls didn’t fight back.

More sledding with Samantha guiding the sled.

Amelia takes the reigns…

 

Sledding into the sunset.

The poor snowballs sat unused until the twins decided to eat them instead of throw them.

More snow fun included Jake and I going on an anniversary date to Sundance for some skiing (we also spent half the time relaxing in the lodge for lunch and hot chocolate). We have both snowboarded for the past fifteen years and I hadn’t even been on skis since I was a kid; although it felt very different from snowboarding, it wasn’t as hard as I thought it would be. When we put the girls on skis, I’m sure they will be better than me in about five minutes because they have no fear, whereas I kept freaking out and tried to reduce my speed at all costs.

We can’t wait to be entertained watching the girls learn to ski next time… is it mean to start laughing while imagining them doing the splits on skis?

Lots of love,

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Christmas 2016

January 9, 2017 by

After surviving the airport and plane ride to Utah, and shell-shocked by the chill in the air, we made it to Grammy and Grandpa’s house for Christmas week. We received a lovely early Christmas present from the city of Lindon in the form of a Boil Order hand-delivered to all the residents the day before Christmas Eve! Apparently, a routine water test taken a few hours earlier that day, had tested positive for E Coli!! Cue my complete nervous breakdown and panic.

Luckily, before we even heard about the Boil Order in Lindon, Grandma Celeste in Ogden had heard it on the news and had called Jake about it while he was driving home with the twins from visiting. He stopped to pick up the very last of the bottled water on the shelves in town! The city workers toiled non-stop through Christmas weekend, but the Boil Order was not lifted until the day after Christmas, which meant we drank only bottled water, had to wash our hands with bottled or boiled water, boiled the bottles and dishes, and sponge-bathed the kids with boiled water all weekend! We ate off paper plates, cups and silverware to minimize the dish boiling and postponed Christmas dinner for a few days. We felt like we had gone back in time to the 1800s… or to a third world country! Costco lasagna was our Christmas dinner this year! At least we didn’t have a huge party or relatives coming from all over the place that weekend, as did some of the angry souls posting livid comments on the city Facebook page.

Our precautions were probably overkill, as we ran into some city workers testing the water across the street from the house, who told us our block was fine, but that they had to shut down the entire city’s water as a precaution. It was better safe than sorry. Despite the annoyance, it definitely made us more grateful for safe running water and gave us a small slice of what other people around the world deal with on a daily basis. Nothing like a mini disaster to teach us a lesson on gratitude this Christmas!

Onward to Christmas Eve… (Boil Order in effect, me freaking out, and everyone else chilling and making do with paper plates and plastic silverware!)

The twins made cookies for Santa and Elfie and left some reindeer treats as well. We had to cordon off the Christmas tree with furniture, as Meredith was attracted to that giant sparkling tinderbox like a moth to a flame, but she still managed to wiggle over there and knock down ornaments like she was having the time of her life.

Our Christmas caroling attempt pretty much sums up our life on a daily basis… chaos! And a few sweet notes.

Christmas morning! The twins thankfully didn’t wake up earlier than normal, but leaped out of bed and ran downstairs in excitement the moment they awoke. Santa had left footprints leading out from the fireplace, which Samantha and Amelia quickly deduced were fakes. “This feels like chalk!” exclaimed Amelia after investigating. “And it doesn’t melt!”

Touché.

The girls’ favorite presents of the day were probably their stocking stuffers. Glow dough, reindeer noses, nail polish, bouncy balls, necklaces, kaleidoscopes, candy canes, chocolate oranges, and little eggs that hatched into animals when you put them in water… who could ask for more?

Got your nose!

Mommy was obviously not in the room for this:

Our Pinterest attempt at Christmas breakfast: reindeer pancakes and candy cane pastry.

The girls opened a few presents before Meredith had to go down for her morning nap, and were amazingly patient waiting another hour and a half for her to wake up so we could open the rest.

Samantha and Amelia cleaned baseboards and completed other family responsibilities early in November to earn money to be able to buy Christmas presents for their siblings. I took them individually to the store to pick something out and it was interesting to see what they chose for each other. Amelia picked out a matching number locks game for Samantha, which was a smash hit, while Samantha’s gift for Amelia, a shapes brain game, may take a while to warm up to! While at the store, I tried to point out different things I thought her sibling would like, but each girl turned up her nose at my suggestions! So independent.

Samantha picked out some sensory pokey balls for Meredith, while Amelia gave her a fire truck. Random, but Meredith loved all her gifts!

Amelia had asked for a Vet Kit, and Samantha a castle from Santa this year, and the fat man delivered, apparently overlooking all the painting catastrophes, candy-swiping, and tattle-telling that went on this year.

The girls loved their Utes necklaces, wooden people painting kit, personalized stickers of their favorite people (themselves), and the aptly titled, “Chaos Reigns” photo calendar Aunt Sarah gave us.

Meredith mostly got clothes, but was only interested in the wrapping paper this year.

I love my first Christmas!

  Jake gave me something I’ve wanted forever– my blog in print! The other years of the blog are currently in the works, but Jake gifted me a tome of 2015– made in Belgium and 600 pages long! As much as I love having everything clutter-free and in the Cloud, it was immensely satisfying to hold a real live book of our writings and pictures from last year! Loved it!

My mom gave Jake what he always wanted as a kid– RC cars! Meredith spent the better part of our vacation chasing them around.

This Christmas thing is exciting!

Grammy cuddles.

Amelia’s favorite gift was the kitty that came with her Vet Kit from Santa. Kitty sat by her at every meal, went sledding with us, and still sleeps in her bed at night. Jealous at her lack of kitty, Samantha asked to “borrow” the super cuddly, soft Jellycat kitty Meredith received. I have a feeling they will be begging for a really kitty soon.

I’ve been looking for a good poetry book to read with the girls for ages, and all the ones we have are too long or old for the twins, so I decided to make my own. I collected a bunch of my favorite classic, age-appropriate poems and commissioned Grandma Celeste to do the drawings. Her watercolors came out totally adorable and I am in love with our new book!

Amelia of Christmas Past:

Samantha:

The twins:

Our new addition, Meredith, of Christmas Present!

In between presents, I forced the girls into taking a few pictures before there were no more wrapped presents to sit on.

Amelia Christmas 2016:

Some of my favorite Christmas morning memories from the past:

Amelia now races that scooter through the neighborhood like nobody’s business.

Sammy, that little cuddlemuffin!

We had some mischievous elves at our house last year….

I just loved their haircuts last year!

This year, one of their other favorite gifts were their mermaid tale blankies from Meredith. Whenever we cuddle up to watch a movie with them, they flip flop on over to Meredith, give her a hug and say, “Thanks for the gift, Meredith!”

 

Please rescue me!

Yay shoes!  

Meredith ripped off her My First Christmas sticker for the photo, so we had to tape it around her outfit, just to get it to stay on. I think it gives it character!

   

There wasn’t any snow on Christmas Eve, but Christmas morning, we woke up to a world blanketed in snow. The girls couldn’t believe their eyes!

Meredith watched the girls build a snow fort from her cozy spot by the window.    

Samantha the snow beast.

The fun of twins… they can make it look like one of them has really long legs!

Stuck. Again.

The twins and Grammy ended their busy day with an epic Hungry Hungry Hippos tournament (their new favorite game).

Despite the water situation, Meredith’s 1st Christmas was full of sweet memories and it was solidified what Christmas was really all about. Costco lasagna and all!

Lots of love,

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