Favorite Photos: "Cheese Face"

I read a lovely entry on this blog (the Nie Nie Dialogues, whom most of you have heard about, by a lovely woman who writes on motherhood and her family. She is now in a hospital in Arizona after she and her husband were in a plane crash. Read about it here).

She quotes Elder Ballard (one of the leaders of our church) who quotes Anna Quindlen:

"Author Anna Quindlen reminds us not to rush past the fleeting moments.{or if I could enter here-the basket-head mother syndrome} She said: “The biggest mistake I made [as a parent] is the one that most of us make. . . . I did not live in the moment enough. This is particularly clear now that the moment is gone, captured only in photographs. There is one picture of [my three children] sitting in the grass on a quilt in the shadow of the swing set on a summer day, ages six, four, and one. And I wish I could remember what we ate, and what we talked about, and how they sounded, and how they looked when they slept that night. I wish I had not been in such a hurry to get on to the next thing: dinner, bath, book, bed. I wish I had treasured the doing a little more and the getting it done a little less”(Loud and Clear [2004], 10–11).

I've been trying to do ths more recently. Rocking Evie before bed, really playing and trying to remember that I'm loving what I'm doing. And I want to remember -- what my children were like, what they sounded like, what they did. So I'm going to write it down. So, when I look back, I will remember.


This is Evie's "cheese" face. Her response to you pulling out the camera (followed by "deese!" at the top of her little lungs). Or pointing at the fridge at snack time (or any time, frankly. that child eats more cheese than anyone I know). It's the "I know you're looking at me" face. Or the "I really want this so I'll ask really nicely" face. Or the "I know I'm doing something I'm not supposed to and I'm watching you to see if you notice" face. And, it generally works.

Asking

I found Luke kneeling by the bed this morning (he's had a cold and his ear's been hurting).

"Mom," he said, " I just said a little prayer. I asked Heavenly Father to make my ear quit hurting and feel better. And after I take some medicine, it will."

Sometimes, it seems, they remember what we've taught them. And I'll remember a little boy's simple faith.

Photo via flickr.

School Days

My first "first day of school" as Luke is a big preschooler now. He is in the same class with his friends Calvin and Natalie (though today he informed me that he didn't play with Natalie because "I play with the boys."

Every week, they have a "letter of the week". His pick for "A"? At first it was Allosaurus, but the picture in our dinosaur was a little too graphic for preschool, I thought (the bloody remains of some poor dinosaur hanging out of its mouth), so we settled for ankylosaurus. Brontosaurus is already packed in his bag for tomorrow.

He made a poster all about himself last week as he was that week's VIP. His magazine of things he liked were pretty predictable (dog, dinosaur, Capri Sun, football) and he wanted to be a football player when he grows up. His list of things he didn't like was a little funnier: tomatoes, messy floor, flowers (?), chocolate milk. His teacher said he was the perfect person to go first "because he's great a public speaking -- not shy at all." Yep.

Painting

I suppose it had to happen sometime. I'm not talking about with paint or brushes (just dirty, dirty fingers). I just expected it to be my boy, not my sweet little daughter. To make it better, I had just finished congratulating myself on the fact that the kids were quiet during nap time. That's when I found Evie, elbow deep in dirty diaper, with Luke cheering her on. Ken said it would be funny the next day**.

**he was right.

Yellowstone

I loved Yellowstone. Loved it. We stayed in cabins instead of camping because it was really cold at night (and, after seeing a buffalo wandering around in the campsite, hearing about an injured coyote in the area and being warned to keep an extra close eye on the kiddos, plus Ken's Bear drama, believe me I was more than happy to stay in a "real" room.")

The colors were gorgeous, the landscape amazing. We saw, close up, a buffalo just cruising down the side of the road and a huge bull elk coming up to the wooden walkways were were on. Not to mention tons of elk, mountain goats, herds (herd?) of buffalo, and a couple of grizzlies (see Ken's post below). Luke was a great hiker and a great "animal-spotter." Evie was great at hanging out in the backpack and looking cute. It was fun having Caroline's family there too.

Here are a few (million) pics:

Ken and the little boys posing in front of some elk (not too close, of course, not with this paranoid mommy)

Walking around near the hot pots

Luke and cousin Ryan

One of our favorite hikes - exactly 328 stairs straight down (yes, we counted every one up and down) into the canyon almost to the bottom of the waterfall. Plus, Ken let Luke pee off of the balcony into it. That was his favorite moment, I think.

Luke, champion hiker

Evie, champion smiler

The Moores, looking cute

Luke checking out all the cool colors.

Luke and Ryan posing some more. And neither one is screaming "don't touch me!" Miracle!

Let the posting begin . . .

We've been back for a week now, but have been pretty busy with starting new jobs (well, just one) and a fun visit from Grandpa/Grandma Barringer. We had a great trip out west.

We . . .

Flexed our muscles in front of the big men on the mountain

Met some new relatives. Is that Great Grandma Walton? No, just baby Calvin, all dolled up with nowhere to go. Hiked the "Y" - Luke insisted on going to the very top and made it up and down by himself.

Pretended we were 16 again and screamed our heads off at a Boyz II Men Concert (oh, yes, we really did).

Got crafty - notice the oh-so-cute and over-the-top gigantic head flower (thanks, Caroline, for helping out my collection of enormous hair flowers and cute baby gifts)
Watched the boys meet a snake (and a huge spider. I was no where near them, no sireee)

Had a great time pouncing on Grandma and Grandpa (and generally driving them crazy, I think!)

And did a whole host of other cool things including going fossil hunting, seeing a BYU game, spa day at Sundance, lots of fishing for Ken, dinner with some old friends, and shopping (of course). Thanks for a great trip, Mom and Dad!

A Near "Bear" Experience

This is a guest blog by Ken. I need to preface this with a saying that I used to always say " I only run when something bigger than me is chasing me..." Thats a stupid saying now.

This event happened on thursday, September 4th at 4pm. Sorry it took so long to publish this.

It all started when we where in Yellowstone on our family vacation. Michael and I wanted to take a break from family time and decided to go fishing. We were told of a lake with great fishing that was 3.5 miles off the beaten path and that very few people venture out there. We were very dissapointed. We hiked out to Grebe Lake and on the way to the Lake we passed 10 people who were leaving. When we got there we found three people fishing. They also had a dual jogging stroller with two infants bundled inside trying to stay warm.

We fished for an hour and decided to leave after not having a single sign of a fish in the entire lake. We hiked back to the road and passed another two people heading for the lake. For a lake that was seldom fished, we certainly saw alot of people! I would hate to see a heavily fished lake... We were moving very fast and I was out of breath (elevation). We did not talk or make much noise as we hurried through the woods. If Kelly was with us, she would have been in song the entire way to avoid any misfortunate confrontations. She is the smart one of the family. I Always thought seeing a bear in the woods would be a great experience. Another saying I used to always say was " anything for a picture". I usually always have my camera strapped to my hip for a great memory shot.

We made it 3/4 of the way back to our car when Michael notices that a small bear was ahead of us in the trail coming towards us. The bear was a small grizzly, most likely a very old cub or a young adult. On all fours it stood about waist high. The rangers later estimated it around 200lbs. It was ahead of us by about 50 yds. When it saw us it stopped and stared. Then a second bear poked his head around the first to see what was in the trail. Two siblings. When seeing this we began to start finding ways to avoid any contact with these bears. We looked away and started to walk backwords down the trail. The bears started to huff and slap the ground with their paws as a warning. We decided to get off the trail and stepped into a strand of young pine trees which was a bad move. When we took one step off the trail, both bears decided to charge. I did not want to confront bears in such a dense stand of trees and so we also began to run. We ran a total of 30 feet or so through thick pines, hurdling stumps and fallen trees. I do have to say that is the fastest I have ever run. When I turned to look behind me both bears have made up the 50 yards and were mere feet behind me. I ran out of the pines into a meadow and dove to the ground. I no longer wanted to be chased. I covered my head and said the fastest prayer in my life. It was less than a second before both bears emerged from the trees. Then came the strangest thing. Seeing us lying on the ground, they both stopped, turned and ran back through the trees breaking branches as they left. Their reaction looked as if they were scared by us lying in the grass instead of being easy targets. I was expecting a bit more contact than that at this point, but up till now I was never afraid. The fear kicked in when the thought that the momma bear was out there somewhere and we did not see her. The two little bears could have killed us, but didn't. If there was a momma bear present we would have certainly had a different outcome. When we finally continued our hike to the car we decided to make as much noise as possible.

I never got a picture. It is hard to pull the camera, press the start button and position the camera when sprinting through the trees. I didn't have enough experience in this situation to get the camera out. Sorry.

Next time I decide to hike in the woods for a little fishing, I will remember the bear spray.