Maxwell Falls hike

Venice and I stayed home from church today because I have pinkeye and a cold. On Monday, Keller and Lincoln woke up with it, but by Thursday I thought that we’d finished it off and somehow Wes, Nissy, and I had escaped. Thursday night brought on lots of awake time between the kids and ample time to clean out my nasty eyes. We hoped they’d clear up by today, but my body seems to be the slowest to recover; granted it’s doing a great job and I’m quite impressed that I’m only mildly sick and still able to care for our family. Wesley hasn’t felt 100% for almost three weeks, but he has not completely succumbed to anything. Hurrah for our miraculous mortality!

As a result of our germs, we’ve tried to avoid interacting with the outside world. We picked up my new glasses and went to two parks on Thursday when I thought we were no longer contagious. Sorry, world.

We’ve had a few incidents this week that have helped me reflect on how protected we are. Last Sunday while I tried to maneuver the van out of the tight one-way parking lot, I scratched the front driver’s side corner of someone’s shiny new(ish) truck with the middle passenger door of our van. Our van has a tiny scratch you can’t see through the dirt. The truck didn’t get out so well. Lincoln: “Mom! We just had a car wreck! Why did we hit their truck?” (It was his door that hit, I don’t blame him for curiosity or concern…) This story is still in progress. Then! On Wednesday I was backing out of our driveway to share our grape juice with sick friends. I looked behind me six times. The mail truck was parked across the road. Crunch. The mail carrier was making arm motions like, “What the heck?” and the mail truck was actually parked right in front of our driveway. Coupled with Sunday’s incident, lack of sleep, and my emotional self—I totally lost it. The poor woman told me that the mail truck couldn’t be hurt and that it is “a piece of [crap] anyway” as she gave me a hug. Bless her. Nothing scratched. No one hurt. Lincoln: “Why do you keep hitting people’s trucks?” Good question. I didn’t answer sufficiently because I was gasping for air in my hysterical response. I’m pretty sure our fireman neighbor witnessed the whole thing. I hope he laughed because it is comical. We tried not to drive for the rest of the week.

During this, we received Venice’s hospital bill. There has been a mix-up with the insurance and records. Thankfully, Blue Cross Blue Shield has been extremely helpful in figuring it out. Bless them!

As I pulled myself together midweek I remembered (understatement: the Spirit reminded me) President Uchtdorf’s talk on gratitude. We are to be grateful “in whatever circumstances we are in” and not just grateful for things. While I am extremely grateful for our safety, protection, near invincible vehicle, strong bodies, kind neighbors and mail carriers and insurance providers and insurance employees, I realized that the Plan of Happiness, my covenants, our wonderful little family fill me with deeper, eternal gratitude. Even with swollen mucus eyes and stupid mistakes, I have a lot of joy—a kind of joy that isn’t going to go away. What a blessing to see this.

Yesterday we hiked on the Maxwell Falls trail. It is a true mountain trail: boulders, roots, huge trees. We saw bright yellow aspens, felt a variety of evergreen needles, and rejoiced in the beauty of the earth. Levi and Lincoln climbed an enormous rock. Keller almost burst with happiness as he scrambled up and down on the trail rocks, counted dogs, pointed out water. Venice snuggled in her wrap and slept peacefully. While we didn’t make it to the falls, we had a wonderful time and heard some entertaining comments about our “very large family” all out on the trail. We kind of flabbergast people. Who knew that we would testify of family and its importance in God’s plan just by going on hikes or running errands?

Levi’s class has a “morning meeting” each day where they talk, do some breathing exercises, and just prepare for the day. His teacher pulls out a few kids’ names to have a turn talking. Monday she pulled out Levi’s name. He told them all about pinkeye. His friends ran away faster in tag that day than usual! Ha! As he went to bed on Friday he sighed, “Oh, I’m so excited for Monday to find out who the new Superkid is!” (Superkids is a reading program they use. I like it so far. Each Superkid teaches them about a letter and its primary sound.) We are all so excited to see him after school and he’s ready to cool down. He has learned the purpose of “I don’t really want to talk right now”—it has helped us all chill out. He has blossomed into a social little creature. He wants to talk to everyone. As a result, Keller wants to as well. Everywhere we go they shout out, “Hi! How are you?” and then fill in anyone who pauses with myriad information: names, ninja turtles, favorite animals, pinkeye, etc. A sweet older gentleman sat down at the pharmacy with us on Friday. He gave each boy a shiny new penny and talked away with them. He was totally awesome.

Lincoln cracks me up. I finished Levi’s GT application this week. As I reflected on the “15 Traits of Giftedness” that Levi has, I looked at Lincoln’s as well. This chart has been extremely helpful to me in re-contexting some of the stuff we deal with everyday. Our kids are from completely different spheres, but all are so gifted—with all that comes with it. Lincoln tells me amazing stories all day long—especially as I have folded laundry and disinfected everything a billion times this week. He tells me the origin of his Lego creations, what he’ll do when he grows up, the many “fires” he put out that day, what he does when he’s a monster, etc. He determined that he will stop saying, “I will kill you!” because it’s mean, but he can say, “I will kill you—bad guy!” Lincoln wanted to sit by me while I read a story during the day. Keller wanted to sit there also. Lincoln invited Keller to sit on his lap. Problem solved. Did I mention he ran most of the way back to our van on the hike? In boots.

Keller wants to tell us more than he currently can. He’s so expressive. Unfortunately, the understanding gap frustrates him. He threw an impressive tantrum in the middle of our road (quiet cul-de-sac, few cars during the day) for ten minutes. He knows how to kick, roll, and scream. He also knows how to jabber. When he heard the fridge grumble during lunch, he widened his eyes in mock-fear then whispered, “MONSTER! HIDE!” So hilarious. He runs to Venice, “HI!” then he tells her about the things she’s touching—particularly if she swipes him. Then he squeals like, “You got me!” His new way to love her is to lay his head on her tummy while she’s in her bouncy seat. Then they coo at each other. He read her Smile, Pout-Pout Fish! this morning.

We made some rattles for Venice, opened up the baby toys, and thoroughly enjoyed her wakefulness this week. Her hair sticks up everywhere. She smiles and talks. “MOM! She just said ‘hi!’ to me!” She loves to lay on the floor and wiggle. She loves the warmth of cuddling, but sometimes she just needs some space—which is just fine for all of us. Most nights she only wakes up twice. We’re all enthralled with her.

Wesley attended a local AIChE meeting and talked with some great people on Tuesday. He connected more with another post-doc from NREL. He learned more about hydro-fracking. Good experience. He was able to go to ward temple night on Thursday. We love having a temple so close! Work progresses well. Wesley progresses even more. We all erupt when he comes home. We are so happy to have him around so often these days.