Nifty Fifty

Last month, the boys and I headed to Utah for a week to celebrate my mom's 50th birthday. Everyone not on a mission managed to be there, so it was a lot of fun.

I've talked before about how awesome my mom is, and my sister did a fun tribute to her as well, so this post will be more of a recap of what we did while we were together.

Here are some highlights:

• Not being on an airplane anymore.
  

  

  This was such a lovely, welcome sight . . . for the last 20 minutes.
• Sitting on soft Kentucky bluegrass. Seriously the stuff feels like velvet compared to the poky grass in the Midwest.
  

  

  
  

• Joseph surviving this slide.

  

  
  

• Meeting my 9-day-old nephew G., who is pictured here, but only sort of.

  

  
  

• Enjoying the lovely Logan River trail at its loveliest.

  

  
  

• Hanging with my niece (and soul sista) K., who mistook me for her mom enough to not be scared of me.

  

  
  

• Seeing Kaylie laugh at this sign.

  

  
  

• Going to a splash pad and running into our friends the Tanners there! (not pictured. oops.)
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
• Taking pictures of beautiful baby G.
  
  
  
  

  

  There are about 40 other pictures but I figured you couldn't handle the cuteness overload.

• Heading up to Utah State with my dad and sons. Kevin's train is still in safe hands.

  

  
  

• Watching my talented brother-in-law Matt win a few matches of tennis. He's pretty much famous.
• Sending Joseph to the backyard to go camping for two nights. (The other nights he slept diagonally in my bed, so this was really nice!)

  

  
  

• Dealing with Joseph going to bed at 10 pm Mountain Time and waking up . . . too early. (Actually, this was not a highlight . . . it was part of most every day. My poor child.)
• Seeing all my family members sleep-deprived, stressed, not feeling well, etc. and still trying oh so hard to be polite and patient with each other. And mostly succeeding.
• Attending the temple when my brother received his endowment. Spain is going to get an awesome missionary!
  

  

  
  

• Vacuuming a lot.
• Reaping the blessings of having a sister on the mission such as being able to borrow her swimsuit. (And lots of her other clothes made it home with me.)

  

  
  

• Enjoying a beautiful day at Bear Lake, complete with some sugar-coma shakes.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  

  

  This girl had no fear.

  
  
  
• Having my mom give my boys haircuts because it always looks better when she does it.
• Driving very fast on I-15 down to Orem and still getting tailed. It was crazy land! (But I was never scared, which was a blessing.)
• Getting to see most of Kevin's family!!! They were so kind to all meet up with us, even for just a few hours. I don't think I have enough good things to say about them.
• Watching Matthew love on Craig's shirt.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
• Watching Joseph play with his cousins.
• Watching Joseph play with second cousins.

  

  At one point, the three big boys all had their legs out and Matthew crawled through, but by the time I grabbed my camera they were just doing this.

• Seeing my grandma. She even fed us dinner!
  
  
  
  
  
  
• Attending my sister's stake play. I think this was one of my favorite versions of "Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat." Just the right amount of silliness. And it is the perfect musical to take a toddler to, even when it's way past his/her bedtime. (Especially with a child named Joseph.) And of course, Leslie was the most fun to watch of all the cast members.
• Talking with Spencer on the ride home about dating and whatnot.
• Not getting the gum and sunglasses stolen from my car.
• Not hiking the Wind Caves.
• Still vacuuming a lot.
• Not brushing my teeth with tap water from Mexico.
• Not buying my mom a tree because it was a rainy day. (We really did consider, it Mom!)
• Hanging out with Leslie.



The rain hadn't started by the time this picture was taken, but it started pretty soon after.

• Eating at Elements for my mom's birthday meal. (It wasn't actually her birthday, but we counted it.)
• Playing the "Person Game" with my family. We are hilarious.

  

  And cute.

• Celebrating K.'s first birthday with cherry chip cake. She ate a lot of it, and what she didn't Matthew ate off the floor for her.

  

  Happy cousin story time.

• Only being in the room for the cool parts of "Independence Day" when my dad was watching it.
• Being introduced multiple times at my parents' ward as Kyra Moon Moon (never by my parents, I might add). This never happens when I go to Duchesne.
• Losing a wipes box I had just found/claimed as my own/received as a gift from a friend who said she didn't need it anymore even though it probably wasn't the one I had lost. (I had been pretty excited to have it back, so it was funny that I lost it so fast.)
  

  

  Bright side is, I got to see him that day, too. He's cuter than a wipes box.

• Watching people make boats to sail down a nearby irrigation ditch.

  

  

  Joseph might have been cheating.

• Watching people extricate the boats from a long tunnel in the ditch using sticks and poles of all varieties.

  

  I think the milk jug was the main culprit, but there were others.

• Going on a walk with my parents again on the Logan River Trail, and having a picture taken by the Logan City mayor who was walking by.

  

  
  

  
  
  
  

• Watching the end of a really cool lightning storm.
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• Going through TSA Pre Check. It's been a while!
• Not being on an airplane anymore, and most importantly . . . seeing Kevin again!

It was a great trip, and at least 70% of the time it made me want to live in Cache Valley. (The other 30% of the time was probably when I was sleep-deprived and grumpy and trying to get Joseph to eat foods he didn't want to, so those probably shouldn't be factored into the statistics that much.)

Happy birthday mom! Thanks for letting us celebrate with you!

Kin Keeping in Utah

We recently got back from a two week trip to Utah. While late February/early March is not a typical time to visit Utah (well, except for all the other passengers with ski-shaped luggage), we decided to go then for a few reasons. It lined up well with Kevin's spring break and potential job-interview season (which is what we were planning when we got the tickets, though we're not going that route right now . . . more on that later). Also, since I found out my song was going to be performed on Temple Square during that time (lots more on that later), well, we decided to go!

When we go to Utah, I usually like to use it for a bit of "kin-keeping" to catch up with friends and family. This time was no exception, and before we went I created a detailed itinerary of who we'd see and when. I sent texts, emails, and Facebook posts left and right to make sure we didn't miss anyone.

We did miss plenty of people, of course. There were some people I never heard back from, some who I didn't think to reach out to in time, and some who I only got to see briefly. There were kids with ear infections and kids with fevers and kids with stomach bugs that shouldn't be sharing germs, so we missed a few friends here and there.

But overall, we saw a lot of people.

To be honest, I sort of felt like a woman living during the Regency era who spent all her time visiting people, such as Elizabeth Bennet or Anne Elliott. It was more exhausting than I usually give credit for when I read such books, and I could see how it could become a full-time job.

I mean, even with all the people I didn't see, there were still high school friends, college friends, my mom's side of the family, my dad's side of the family, Kevin's high school friends, Kevin's siblings, my siblings, and more. Each time, we'd catch up, talk about future plans, discuss children, discuss friends or family that weren't there, and so on.

The joke is, I am not a fan of those kinds of conversations these days. I told Kevin about a month ago before a social gathering that he was not allowed to talk about post docs or machine learning that night because I was sick of that being the focus of every conversation. (As it turned out, that was the first question people asked him when we sat down.) He has likewise told me that he gets bored in conversations where people talk about people he doesn't know (which happens more than to him than to me). So there were times when it was hard. When I was with friends talking about jobs and grad school and whatnot, I just wanted to blurt out, "How about we just play psychiatrist or fruit basket right now?" (I didn't, but maybe I should have.)

And perhaps that is the most exhausting part of kin-keeping -- to work to maintain important relationships even when they don't seem as fun as they used to. I admit at times to being drained by this work, even when it doesn't involve face-to-face conversations. I have gone through internal struggles like, "Oh. I better text so-and-so to wish her child happy birthday. Too late to get a present now. They always send a present for my kids. Is texting too lame to even bother doing?" I have struggled to make thank you notes meaningful, even when we have substantive things to say to each other. I sometimes think of my bishop my sophomore year, asking me in our first interview if "is it possible to have too many friends?" I said "yes" emphatically then, and even though it was technically the wrong answer at the time, I still agree with it.

So was it worth it? Even though it was exhausting, I think it was. It was great to see Joseph playing with his cousins and my cousins (girls, no less!) and forming friendships there. It was fun to see Kevin invigorated after spending an evening with his high school friend that I had gently pestered him to contact. It was satisfying to have real conversations with friends after the "current and future plans" conversations, to hear their funny stories and opinions. And even those times when we didn't make it past the "future plans" conversations, it just felt good to see people's faces again and hear their voices again. And of course, it was magical to spend so much time with immediate family and see Joseph and Matthew get to know grandparents, aunts, and uncles.

So I guess I'll keep up the kin-keeping.

Although, I might plan it a little better next time. Just so Joseph doesn't have to tell me that he's tired of being in the car so much.

Duchesne in August

There's something about going to Duchesne in August that just feels right. Perhaps I have positive memories because the first time I went there was just hours after Kevin and I first told each other we loved each other. Perhaps it's that we're there when the roses are still in bloom, when the hay is being cut. And since the past few years have been so wet, it's still beautiful and green, even in August.

In a lot of ways, Duchesne is predictable and nice. We will always go four-wheeling at least once. We (or at least Kevin) will help out on the farm at least once. We will watch a few too many movies. It's just a nice, laidback lifestyle for a few days (at least for us as guests . . . his parents always stay busy).

This year had a special treat -- the D'Nerdz reunion. Kevin's senior year, he and a few other friends created a band as part of his friend Derek's campaign. The summer after Kevin graduated, they performed at some dances and other events. But after the members of the band started leaving on missions, it never came together again.

Until now.

There I was again, back in high school, listening to "Kryptonite" and "The Middle" and "Swing Swing." And they actually sounded pretty good! It made me so happy.

There Are Two Sides to Every Taco

Winter Semester of 2010 was an extremely busy one for Kevin and me. We had 13.5 credits together, with 13 of those being junior/senior Electrical Engineering courses (and we both had 3 additional time consuming credits), planning our wedding (or at least responding to all the emails from my mom who was planning our wedding), working, church, trips to Logan and Duchesne . . . and we still had to eat sometimes. A good chunk of the time, our meals were tacos at Kevin's apartment. They've got lettuce, right? . . . totally healthy.

Anyway, by the time Brant and Margaret (Kevin's brother and sister-in-law) invited us to Color Me Mine one night in February or March, tacos had become quite entrenched into each of our subconsciouses. As we perused the shelves for something to paint (absolutely NO MUGS . . . I had spent way too long in apartments with mismatched cups and dishes), we suddenly both glanced at the napkin holder.

It was useful (a must for a home occupied by two engineers). It wouldn't become some annoying mug or ridiculous bowl that wouldn't stack in the shelf, since it wasn't a mug or ridiculous bowl in the first place. And most importantly, it looked like

"A taco!" we said simultaneously. It was decided. The taco napkin holder would be our first real decoration.

As we painted it, we basically let each other paint however we wanted. Kevin took a more methodical approach and I took a somewhat random approach, which is typical of our personalities. At times we'd compare our work and laugh about how differently we'd chosen to paint things such as the lettuce or cheese. (This was when the incredibly profound phrase "There are two sides to every taco" was first coined, which is likely to become a family saying in the same category as "there are always more dishes than you think.") However, by the end, our styles somewhat converged and we had a masterpiece on (and in) our hands.

Oh, how we loved that taco napkin holder. I would point it out to just about every guest who came to our apartment. It was always a welcome guest at the table.

Kevin's side

My side

But the good times were not to last. One afternoon I came home from campus, opened the freezer to see what meat we had, and realized too late that the napkin holder was kind of perched on the top of the freezer door. In horror, I watched as the taco napkin holder fell from the top of the refrigerator, bounced off the counter in slow motion, and then smashed onto the floor with a shattering "CRASH."

Then, silence. I sighed, picked up a broom, swept up the mess, and didn't cry until Kevin came home to the tragedy.

But life goes on. You don't have to have your napkins in a napkin holder. Still, we wanted to recreate it someday.

And that day came last Friday. Kind of. When we went to Color Me Mine, there was no taco-shaped napkin holder. Nor was there a moment of "aha" where we both somehow "knew" what we wanted to paint.

Nevertheless, I think we found something that represents our lives the same way the taco did while we were engaged: a darling little yellow house.

Kevin's side (the windows have shutters over them)

My side (the back of the house)

(and yes, that is an offshoot of Rice Chex in the background)

Just as the taco represented our life while we were engaged, this house represents where we are now (both metaphorically and geographically . . . the house across the street looks a lot like this one). We are starting to build a home together. Each day we discover new similarities and new differences. But each side of the house is needed to make it whole. There are two sides to every taco.