Moving Madness

I was doing pretty well (for me, anyways) at updating the blog but as you faithful followers can see, I have totally slacked again. That is because we are in the middle of moving madness. We are actually moving back to Visalia on Friday so I'm not sure when I'll actually get internet hooked up again (hopefully by next week so i don't go crazy!) but then I promise I will get back to the blog. Toodles...

S'mores in our Neighbors' Backyard

We've made some really good friends in our cul-de-sac that we are so sad to be leaving. Some of them are Kami and her kids, Jacob and Emma who are the same ages as Kolby and Eliza, and her parents Karen and Glenn. They were sweet to invite us over for a mini campout on Thursday night to make S'mores in their backyard. We were going to get elaborate and set up tents and all, but figured, especially after spending almost the whole day at urgent care that we would just do S'mores and hang out and chat while the kids played around. We felt kind of like crazy people roasting marshmallows in 100 degree weather, but through the sweat it was a blast and the kids were running around like crazy having so much fun. Makes it even harder to leave...Thanks Kami for a fun little evening!

Camping in Tehachapi Mountains

We've been promising the kids that before we move from Bakersfield, we would take them camping. Geoff and Kolby and Carson discovered Tehachapi Mountain Camp when they went there for the ward Father/Son campout. The great thing about it is that it really is only one hour away, the facilities are great, it is in the mountains so it gets cool at night and it is really pretty. So this weekend was the weekend we put on the calendar. In spite of my broken toe, we went and had a great time. We are not a super camping family so we did things as simply as possible. We grabbed Subway to eat in the car on the way up there, got there just in time to set up camp and then Kolby and Geoff went hunting for firewood so we could have a campfire and roast marshmallows and make yummy S'mores. The kids were pretty tired by the time we were done with marshmallows and chocolate and were begging to go get in the tent and go to sleep. So we headed to the tent and everyone cozied up in their little sleeping bag. The kids were envious that mom and dad got to sleep on an air mattress, but hey, we have spent plenty of nights sleeping on rocks so now it is someone else's turn. The night was so cool. We could see tons of stars through the netting at the top of the tent. It was so pretty and the temperature was just right. I was amazed at how well everyone slept. Even though the sun was shining bright and early our kids didn't get up until 8:00. That is a record. They have NEVER slept that late. We might have to do a little more camping!

The kids were so cute. Eliza definitely wasn't fond of how dark it was and having to go use the potty in the dark (even though we had flashlights) and she definitely didn't like all the bugs, but Carson and Kolby had few complaints and just loved playing with sticks in the dirt, searching for big walking sticks, going on "hikes", chasing after squirrels, learning how to build a fire and how to properly put out the fire when we were done with it. Carson was pretty giddy the whole time because he was just having so much fun. And Geoff had to be superdad because I sure couldn't move around very easily, especially in the uneven ground. I think Geoff and his 3 boys are going to have lots of fun camping trips in the future. Maybe the girls will come along, but maybe not...

After we cleaned/packed everything up we headed to downtown Tehachapi. My friend's parents own the new yogurt shop that is there and so we thought we would go check it out. That took us on a tour of some other shops downtown, the train museum, which was pretty cool, and then to the yummy yogurt shop. Everyone was in heaven and filled their tummies to the brim so they were ready for a nice nap in the car on the way home. It was a perfect little family camping trip. We spent the rest of the day at home making banana bread, swimming and doing laundry. Fun times for the Howards...

What a Day!

The day just started off all wrong...have you ever had a day like that? Hopefully I am not the only one. Well, we were planning to go to a sprinkler park with some friends and the kids were so excited about that. I had envisioned that we would go in the a.m. before it got too crowded and too hot and my kids were all excited about it. However, my friend had envisioned that we would go in the afternoon, right during Carson's naptime, when the place would most likely be packed. I was trying to be flexible and agreed that would be fine, but knew I was going to have a fight on my hands. Well, that meant we had time to do our "miracle music" and our school work before we went to the sprinkler park. Eliza was pretty good about doing it, Kolby was rebelling and crying and so I left the room and told him when he calmed down and was ready for me to help him, I would come back. I could hear the kids all bickering at the kitchen table over silly things and then Eliza came and told me that Kolby was breaking all of the crayons in half. Well, that obviously is not ok, so I was coming to remind him of that. Not only was he breaking crayons, but he was sitting on the kitchen table breaking crayons. I hate to admit it but I did slap his hand that he was breaking crayons with and told him he needed to go to his room for a timeout. (Of course by this time Carson was happily breaking crayons too because anything he sees his big brother do he thinks he should do!) As he was getting off the table his foot caught on the kitchen table wooden bench and kicked it over so that it landed perfectly on my big toe. It hurt! Kolby said, "See, that's what you get!" ooohh. I don't think he really was happy about it, though. He later apologized and did cry with me when he saw how much pain i was in. Who would have thought from a broken toe bone???

After 45 minutes of pain and icing my foot, I tried walking on it and couldn't and realized I needed to call Geoff. He came home so quickly, I was impressed. I felt bad he had to come home and take care of his lame wife, but he never made it seem like a problem. He just took care of everyone and took me to urgent care. After being there for 4.5 hours, we did see a bad break in my big toe that possible might have gone into the joint so I have to see a specialist next week. But I left on crutches with my foot in a special boot, toes taped together and an estimated 4-6 weeks for recovery. What a pain! Injuries are so inconvenient. Don't you know I am pregnant, have three kids to take care of and am moving in 2 weeks! Arggghhh! That is how I felt. Well, now it is 2 days later and I am hobbling around and living life in the much slower lane. The day got much better as we picked up a costco pizza for dinner and then headed to Kami's for S'mores around the campfire (see later post).

The day definitely made me feel grateful for such a great husband and a healthy family. After spending the day in urgent care, I can't imagine what it would be like to have to spend a lot of time in doctor's offices. Knock on wood...

Update: Went to the specialist. He started cursing when he saw my x-ray. Said usually you can't do anything for a broken toe, but my little toe bone broke into 3 floating pieces and if they don't put themselves back together in the next 2 weeks, they will need to do surgery and put pins in my toe. I am faithfully wearing a huge, hot 1/2 leg boot to immobilize my foot so that i have the best chance of the bones fusing back together on their own. I'll be back with new x-ray results in 2 weeks.

It's another BOY!!!

4th of July 2010

We had a fun 4th of July weekend with lots of out-of-town visitors. The Lawrence family stopped by for our neighborhood parade on their way from St. George to Fresno. It's always fun to see them and their cute 6 kids. The parade was awesome for our kids. They have been looking forward to it and were so excited to get their bikes ready for it and ride around the neighborhood. Of course they don't mind getting snow cones, cotton candy and popcorn and popsicles at 8:30 in the morning. Geoff had a little part in the parade activities this year...he shared a few quotes from the Founding Fathers from the Constitution and encouraged people to study the Constitution. he did a great job.
That afternoon, Geoff's parents came out to visit for 4th of July weekend. They always like to come visit before we move from a house and it worked out perfectly to be on 4th of July weekend. We headed out to a yummy dinner at Camille's and then to Dewar's to treat them to some Bakersfield ice cream. When we were all satisfied we went to Shafter for the big fireworks show. It was perfect. We got perfect parking, set up on the football field, let the kids do the bounce houses for a few minutes, the fireworks began and were so beautiful and then we headed to our car and got right out of there. It was such a nice evening.
The next day was Sunday, the actual 4th of July. We were trying to keep in the right spirit so we stayed low-key and went over to an elderly rehab center that our friend runs and hung out there where he and his kids put on a fireworks show for the elderly people. Fireworks and friends and watermelon and family and a bunch of elderly folk...how could we go wrong. Thanks Meldrums for inviting us out for the evening. Our boys loved the fireworks. Eliza wasn't too thrilled and thought they were going to burn her, but Carson was more than happy to twirl the sparklers around and the Meldrum kids were crazy with the fireworks. So glad nobody singed their eyebrows off!
To top off the long weekend, Monday morning was a patriotic ward pancake breakfast. It was delicious and fun and Geoff gave a little patriotic speech there too that I think was appreciated. My future politician husband...After breakfast, Geoff and Grandpa took the boys to the driving range and then we went swimming and had one of my mission companions and her family stop by and swim, which was such a nice surprise, along with the Crawfords and then had a pretty low-key evening. Grandma and Grandpa Howard left the next morning. We were so glad they came to enjoy the 4th of July with us!