Niagara and Palmyra

A few months ago, we were trying to figure out what to do for our anniversary. We asked a few people for ideas, and they suggested Toronto.

That sounded pretty fun, so we thought maybe we'd do it sometime (though not for our anniversary). Then we thought about what would be fun to do in Toronto, realized it would all cost money and require driving/mass transiting in a big city with little ones, and scrapped it. Then the trip turned into a Niagara Falls trip, possibly with Kirtland thrown in. And then we realized a few nights before we left that it would make more sense to go to Palmyra than Kirtland since Kirtland is much closer to us, and so we scrapped Kirtland. And then the night before we decided to borrow our friends' minivan so we could all travel together. (Oh, I just realized . . . the "we" in all this is more than just Kevin and Joseph and me. Haha. I'm not feeling like editing it though.)

Despite all our last minute plan changes, it ended up being a pretty good trip! The one thing I regret is using Groupon, since I'm not convinced that it really saved us money. (I mean, it did, but we would have spent money differently and probably more cheaply if we hadn't felt obligated to use at least some of the vouchers or stay at that hotel.) Or maybe it was just fine and it was just the Outback we went to where the waiter never refilled our water that is skewing my perception. Or maybe it was that they used American dollars when it would cost us more and Canadian dollars when it would save us less. Oh well. Am I weird for not super loving Groupon after this?

The falls! They were so amazing.

He was excited to go on a boat, but not to be on one. Especially one where you got wet.

But he liked the lower level fine.

Had to.

We also went to a culinary institute on the American side (holy mustard, Batman!) and a chocolate factory somewhere north of Niagara, which was a little less Willy Wonka and a little more large silver vats (but oh those chocolate covered strawberries were divine). Good times.

The next morning we headed off to Palmyra. We'd all been before, but it had been about 15 years for both Kevin and me so we were excited to see it again.

At the top of Hill Cumorah. It was pretty cool to see the place that Joseph Smith found the plates. And it was also pretty cool that we could drive up there because boy was I having lots of Braxton Hicks! Also, photo credit to one of the Garretts who I have no good pictures of. But they were there, I promise.

Lovely country

The Sacred Grove

We were encouraged multiple times to visit the Whitmer farm 27 miles away. The wonderful thing about it being 27 miles away was that it shielded Joseph Smith from a lot of the nearby persecution. The unfortunate thing was that it was 27 miles in the wrong direction. so we didn't really want to go. Instead, we stopped by E. B. Grandin's printing shop. Yay books.

After that, we headed home in some of the stormiest weather of my life. We had sort of considered stopping by Lake Erie so we could say we had been to all 5 of the Great Lakes together, but it was way too rainy to even consider anything more than sort of seeing it from the road. (That, and, now that I look at a map, I'm not so sure we ever got super close to Lake Ontario. But I'll count it anyway.) We were grateful to make it home in one piece and grateful that the little ones traveled well (Joseph had a tantrum which ended just in time for the 3+ hour storm . . . believe me, it was white-knuckled enough with tantrum and storm occurring separately.)

And that was our trip! Hooray for friends who come along with us on crazy trips, even the ones that require international travel.

Maybe sometime we'll make it to Toronto.

We Are in a Book!

At Joseph's 3-year checkup (oh, I guess that was sort of interesting . . . we actually had to schedule a follow up appointment with the cardiologist because the doctor suspected a bicuspid valve, but everything was just fine), he got a new book! When we got home I read it to him twice, and then he basically had it memorized.

So, last night, I finally decided to document it. Twice. Once for each character.

The second time is better, I think, but they're both pretty cute. Even if you don't know what the story's about.

Since I'm a little camera shy, it's fun to have a child who definitely isn't.

Dinosaurs are the worst things ever

The title says it all, but I guess people might want to know why.

And before I continue, I suppose I should make a few disclaimers. Dinosaurs are the worst things ever, but things change when you have a toddler. As in, the museums are much better because you get pictures like this:

and this

You can also get decent family pictures at dinosaur museums, which proves that they aren't entirely the worst.

We are smiling, after all.

As a side note, I think my parents once tried to take us to this museum in Vernal, and I think I sat out in the car the entire time. I think once they realized the museum was full of dinosaurs, they realized it wasn't worth it because they weren't gone that long. (This is also about the age where I sat in the car when we went to Arches and had the chance to hike up to Delicate Arch and didn't want to because a) we had already done a lot of hiking and b) Delicate Arch was already on lots of license plates, so why see it in person?)

Also, although books about dinosaurs are almost the worst things ever, if your kid consistently chooses those ones at the library, then you just have to decide that literacy is more important than proper opinions about dinosaurs. That or hide the books.

In general though, dinosaurs are the worst things ever. All these people are so excited to see Jurassic World and I'm just baffled. Why would you want to see yet another movie where people get eaten by dinosaurs?

I dunno, maybe I was too young when I saw Jurassic Park. I was only the impressionable age of 19, after all, and even at that age I could tell there was something wrong with a world where people thought it was a good idea to bring back dinosaurs. Especially when they let the dinosaurs into the kitchen. That was a really, really bad idea. Honestly, the only good thing that came from this movie was the story my AP Bio teacher would tell about his father-in-law Don Burge who discovered the raptor that starred in the film, and he picked up Steven Spielberg from the airport in a dusty old truck to go show him the bones. If the story had ended there, without the movie being made, that probably would have been okay. Fewer dinosaurs in our lives.

But people seem to disagree with me! So allow me to enlighten all of you as to why dinosaurs are the worst things ever.

10. They eat people. Straight out of their cars.
9. I spent most of school learning that dinosaurs were cold-blooded, and then I learned in high school that they were actually warm-blooded. I asked how long people had known that and my teacher said since the 70s. So I was getting fed inaccurate information all along. Why was I even learning about dinosaurs, come to think of it? Also, how would they even know? (Incidentally, I just googled it, and the consensus is still out as to warm or cold blood. Take that, science in schools.)
8. For some reason, if you ever mention a brontosaurus people correct you. Because a rose by any other name is just unacceptable.
7. Most of the names are hard to pronounce. How can books full of words like that really promote literacy?
6. Birds are so much better. (And don't try to tell me that birds are dinosaurs. I already discussed that for several bus rides home in middle school.)
5. Land Before Time sequels exist because of them.
4. They ruined Fantasia, and also Stravinsky.
3. At my school, 2nd graders got to go to the dinosaur park in Ogden. But I skipped 2nd grade, so I never saw them, and people rubbed it in. Which shows they weren't really that cool to start with.
2. Fossil fuels smell bad.
1. Littlefoot's mom dies.

So, save your money this weekend. If you want to see a movie about big animals, watch something about elephants.

Now three

Once upon a time, I had a baby. And three years after that baby was born, he turned three!!!

All of us have been excited about this birthday for months. I think Joseph told us every day starting when he was 2 1/2 that he was going to have a birthday and have another bus cake. He and I went to a few super cute birthday parties for his friends and it made me really want to plan a party for him. And, after several weeks of talking about it, he started to be excited about turning three (he spent a long time insisting that he was two and would be "forever").

As it turned out, it was sort of a low-key day. Because we went to Utah, I put off party planning until it was too late. (And to be honest, the idea of having a guest list stressed me out. Do you invite older and younger siblings? If you invite one kid, do you invite that kid's neighbors too? What sort of activities do you even do? Once I realized there were 17 children that I had to invite to not have my conscience searing me, my conscience relieved me of birthday duties altogether.) I had also flirted with the idea of having sprinklers and cupcakes for the neighbor kids, but the thunderstorm forecast (albeit incorrectly) made me decide against it. So, just decorations, presents, playing, and cake.

The night before was sort of hard because I had a lot of decorations I still wanted to put up and presents to wrap (ie cover with blankets), and all he wanted was for me to stay with him. 9:30, 10, 10:30, on and on and on. Kevin was at the store getting a few last-minute things, so he couldn't help.  I knew that what my son needed more than streamers was love and attention (in fact, I could almost hear President Uchtdorf's voice in my head telling me that) . . . but I knew that he would appreciate the streamers a lot more the next morning than a bit of love and attention. Thankfully, he finally went to sleep so we could finish getting ready for the day.

And then . . . it was his birthday! We had streamers dangling right outside his bedroom door, so when he left his room it was the first thing he saw. "Oh," he said in a tone of happy yet subdued surprise. Then he saw his stuffed animals waiting to wish him happy birthday on the stairs. "Oh," he said again in that chipper voice.

And then, there were presents! As in years past, we used a combination of wrapping paper and blankets to hide the presents. (And since this year he got a few presents that might have been less exciting [new sheets, new socks, and new underwear], we made sure to put those in the most exciting wrapping paper. For the record, he is still excited he got those for his birthday.)

As a side note, my life got so much easier when I realized balloons on the ground were just as good a decoration  as balloons on the wall.

After opening presents (thanks, by the way, to grandparents, aunts, and uncles for making sure he opened fun things too!), it was breakfast time. While Joseph was eating breakfast I decided to get started on the cake before it got too hot to use the oven. By this point I had decided to make a smallish chocolate cake from cake mix, use the remaining batter to make some chocolate cupcakes, and then some cupcakes from yellow cake mix. That way we could still share cupcakes with friends at a potluck the next day.

At first, things were going well. Made the chocolate cake and cupcakes. Got the cupcakes out of the muffin tin and put the yellow cake batter in. Made the yellow cupcakes. Got them out of the oven and then tried to get the cupcakes out of the muffin tin. But I had forgotten to regrease it so they came out crumbly. I planned on texting a few neighbors to come over and eat them (and maybe have a mini party while they were in here), but Joseph headed out the door right then, so I followed him out with the plate in tow. When we went out there was maybe one other kid, but when I stepped back in for a minute to dry my hair (I had taken a shower sometime in the midst of all the cooking), I watched as about ten kids came out of nowhere and swarmed the plate. It was amazing. And hey, I didn't want those cupcakes.

But the cupcake drama was not yet finished. Earlier, Joseph had been nibbling on chocolate cupcakes, so I put the plate on top of the fridge. But I forgot about it there until I opened the freezer, which knocked the plate off balance and sent most of the cupcakes to the floor. If Joseph hadn't cried, I might have.

Anyway, other than that, it was a great birthday! Just a nice, regular, low-key day. After Kevin came home, we ate pasta for dinner, and then it was time for cake!

So, on Joseph's birthday last year, I made this cake for him.

And, although he didn't appreciate it so much on his birthday, nearly every day since he's told me about it.  So, even though I suggested other cakes, he ended up getting one like this for his 3rd birthday:

Why is it that when I'm doing things like spelling words with sprinkles, I hear the phrase "good, better, best" playing through my head? Also, how many bus cakes do you have to make in a year before they actually start looking better each time?

After a fun evening eating cake and non-melted ice cream (thanks, new fridge!), Joseph went to bed. "Will it be my birthday tomorrow?" (Or the next day, or the next day, or the next day.)

No, but most of the decorations are still up.

Joseph with a birthday blower

We sure like him.

The couch

Until I cleaned it out ten minutes ago, I think our couch operated as a Room of Requirement for our home. If we had really wanted something, we probably could have reached down and found it.

Except we never used it. So it was just a Vanishing Cabinet instead. One with lots and lots of hiding places.

I still remember the time about a year into our marriage that we were sitting watching a movie when Kevin reached down into the couch and pulled out a flattened Diet Coke can. Not from us. Or from anyone since we had acquired the couch.

Or the time there was a toy car there. Also not from us.

Anyway, I was looking for a dry erase marker and suspected it might be in the couch. I didn't find it, but I found these things instead:

-A baby toy
-a blue pen
-a black pen
-a purple pen (I thought I lost it in Relief Society more than two years ago. This is also weird because I have looked in that part of the couch before and never found a purple pen.)
-a red marker
-a blue scrunchie
-a white scrunchie
-a black hair thing
-an old cell phone
-two bobby pins
-another pen or two
-a medal
-a pretzel

The strangest thing is that some of these must have been missing for at least a while, but I know it hasn't been that long since I found a little ball in that part of the couch, and I didn't see any of this junk that time. At least, I thought it was that part of the couch. I also sort of feel like this couch has new hiding places each time I look. (Fyi, this isn't even the couch cushion part of the couch. It's some back flap that only opens up when the seats are reclined. So I don't even know how things got there.)

So where did I find the dry erase marker? In the other couch. Under a cushion I had already checked.

I think that just proves that our couches are magical.

"Why?" "Z."

As Joseph has made the transition into three-hood, he's started doing a few very three-ish things.

The first is the jokes. I don't know how long this one was going on before it finally hit -- he was telling jokes! Unfortunately, we've only told him lame jokes his entire life, so that's what we get in return.

For example, as I was putting him in his car seat, he said, "We're not in our car. We're in . . . Peter's car! We're in . . . Hudson's car! Is that funny?" And then he laughed hysterically.

I guess it beats knock-knock jokes.

The other one is all the "why" questions. "Why is there a car next to us? Why is it dinner time? Why does it get dark?" Why? Why? Why? And of course, no answer is going to satiate his curiosity. He's learning a lot, but it comes at the expense of his parents' sanity.

Anyway, yesterday I had an epiphany. I think he asked, "Why are you eating lunch?" "Why are you hungry?" and so on and so on. I gave some answer and he asked, "Why?"
And then, I said in an explanatory voice, "Z."
"Why?"
"Z."
"Why?"
"Z."
"Y?"
"Z."
"Y?"
"Q."
He then laughed and sang the ABC's. After he finished singing he went back to asking "Why?" but now it was a game to hear me say "Z" instead of some convoluted explanation. This trick will probably only work when he's in a good mood, but at least it's something.

Again, it beats knock-knock jokes. Well, maybe.

"I want the Africa song"

"This one is my favorite."