Museum adventures

I'm finally looking at pictures that Mark took in Utah nearly 2 months ago..... I'm late, I know.

The first day we were there, we took an adventure to the Utah Museum of Natural History. It's still the same small, lame, boring place it has been for the past 50 years. But the kids always love it. Science rules. It will be very exciting when they move into the new fancy building next year.

Then we went to Hill Air Force Base. Another snoozer for me, but always a favorite for the kids. We didn't anticipate them closing at 4:30, however. We had about 5 minutes to literally run through the museum.

Then Seth had the idea to go to a train museum in Ogden. The kids loved it. What kid doesn't love to climb all over trains?

Then we went back to my mom's house to watch Seth play with his homemade flamethrower. My kids are so lucky to have such an uncle.

Snooze you lose!

Snooze you lose is a common phrase used at our house. The kids know they might miss out on something if they are not fast. Like cookies out of the oven. 9 people in the house means cookies can disappear fast. Or a ride to school. Mom leaves at a certain time, and if you aren't ready, you'd better put on your walking shoes.

When Mark was in dental school, he lived by this motto. He knew that if the lab/bookstore/school had something available at a certain time, then he'd better be there when it opened or it would be gone. No mercy.

Remember this day back in June when Mark qualified for the Boston Marathon 2011?

He came home and put a big REGISTER FOR BOSTON MARATHON 6AM on October 18th on every calendar in the house. He didn't want to miss out.

Last year, the Boston Marathon sold out its 25,000 spots in 9 weeks. It was a record. We figured this year would sell out even faster, with all those people who got a qualifying time after registration closed last year making sure they got in this year.

When we were in Connecticut a couple of weeks ago, Mark drove to Hopkinton to see the start line of the marathon. He drove the route all the way to Boston. He has been excited to register for the race from the moment he crossed the finish line in Newport. Nothing was going to stop him from getting in.

So, at 6AM on Monday morning, we logged on to the BAA website to register. No problem. We got a confirmation number, and didn't think anything more about it.

The following morning I got a text message from a friend. She asked if Mark had gotten in to Boston. I told her that he had. She then told me a very sad story. Her husband had run the Portland Marathon on October 10th in 3:09, which is even faster than Mark's qualifying time. He was ecstatic. He logged on to the BAA at about 5pm, and was heartbroken to see that the 25,000 spots had filled up in 8 hours and 3 minutes. He was out of luck.... No mercy. No waiting list. No second chances.

Snooze you lose.

Happy Trails!

Our backyard has been through many transitions in the past 8 1/2 years. Logging, re-foresting, many versions of a small backyard, the patio project, filling, grading, filling, grading, more grading, and finally 2 years ago real landscaping. But the part we landscaped at that point was just the upper section directly behind our house. We had a gravel path around the big lawn, but if you wanted to go anywhere else, you were in for an adventure. Much of the 4 acres was pretty wild. We had planted thousands of trees all over, but you still had to have a machete on hand to get through the weeds and blackberries.

This fall, that all changed. We hired an amazing artist of the earth to make some gravel trails for us. Now we can get all around the whole property without any trouble.

It makes for a beautiful stroll through the trees and we can finally get to the orchard and archery range without trouble. It's almost finished, and I took a few pictures with Zachary yesterday. We still need to take down all the dead weeds, but thankfully we have Mark and 2 teenage boys who are experts with the brush saw.

This is the archery range down below the big lawn. They have been making it a little more flat and much, much easier to get to. Soon the targets will be back out and my little archers can get busy.

This is a view from the south end of the property, looking across a gully toward our lawn.

I love the color that the Sourwood tree turns in the fall.

This is the view from the "secret hideout" as the kids call it. It needs some weed-whacking big time, but it is such a beautiful view of the river from this point.
Another view from the "secret hide-out."
Zack loves all the big rocks they have been bringing in to line the trails with.
Nandina. Such a beautiful plant all year long.

This is the bridge through the south gully with the river down below.

The other big addition to our yard is that we finally got a swingset. Four swings and 12 feet high. It's not just for little kids.

If you come to the door and I don't answer, come on back, because Zack and I are probably outside exploring.

My Zacky Buddy

Although I dearly love all seven of my children, I really love my alone time every day with Zack when the 6 oldest go to school. I don't know what I will do when Zack goes to Kindergarten next year. He is so fun to hang out with. He loves to play soccer, make cookies, color, snuggle up to watch movies, and he loves to help me clean. He is great at sorting the laundry. He pretty much just likes to hang with me. Once the six kids are all delivered to their three schools, he sighs and says, "Is it just you and me now?"

I told him that when he goes to school next year I am going to cry. He said, "I'm not." I guess he is excited to join the world of big kids, but he still does love to play with me.

I love this face when he is concentrating.
This is his scared out of his mind face. When we visited the Salt Lake Temple this summer, the other kids were all happy to stand up in the little alcove at the top of the stairs for a photo. Zack thought for sure he was going to fall and die. He is very afraid of heights, and of being alone.
Zack is an incredible artist. He will sit and color very detailed pictures for hours. He always stays in the lines, and he is starting to make his own pictures. He loves to color and paint. It is probably his favorite thing to do--besides make gingerbread cookies.
He also loves to do whatever the big kids are doing. This picture was a Hill AFB this past summer. The other kids all took a turn in the airplane seat, and he couldn't be left out. It's a happy face and he is doing a happy dance in the photo.
Zack is a happy little dude. He will go wherever, whenever, do anything, eat anything. He begs to go to bed, and wakes up early, almost always in a very happy mood. Every now and then something random will completely make him come unglued (like when he didn't quite get the hymnbook open to the right page by the time we were finished singing the hymn at church on Sunday), and he will cry inconsolably. Just as fast as the crying started, something else will snap him out of it and he will be fine again. He is so sweet and so super snuggly.

Zachary is slowly beating his fear of water. At the beginning of the summer, he didn't even want to get in the pool, although he loved to wear his swimming suit. But now, he will be in a pool, as long as he knows it is shallow and it doesn't go above his shoulders. He will be really brave and dunk his head in the water, but only if he is standing on a step in the pool, and his face is also over the stairs. As long as he knows there is only 1 foot of water below his face, he will dunk his whole head over and over. But if I am holding him in the pool and ask him to dunk his head, he is terrified.

I love this guy. I love to hear him talk and describe things to me. He is very vivid with words, and paints a very clear picture of what he is thinking or seeing. I love having that insight into his big brain and the way it sees the world.

My favorite Zacky quote of late is, "Everyone's heart sounds like a skateboard on the sidewalk."

NYC

I went to NYC one time before in my life. It was one hour of a month-long trip in the station wagon during the summer of 1987. We went through Nebraska, Iowa, Ohio, Illinois, up through Michigan, Canada, Niagara Falls, Boston, upstate New York, and then down through New York City as we worked our way south to Washington D.C. I was excited to see New York City, but at the time, it really wasn't the safest place to visit, and my parents were terrified. I remember driving through the city looking up at the Empire State Building and wishing I could get out of the car. But my dad gave us strict instructions to leave the doors locked and the windows up. Once we were safely across the bridge and in New Jersey, he pulled over and took this picture of the statue of liberty. It is as close as we ever got.

I have always wanted to go back. For many reasons. One of them is because of listening to my grandfather talk about the day he sailed into New York harbor when coming home from WWII. He has some photos of himself and other soliders on the boat that day with the statue in the background, and when he tells the story he always tears up. And so do I. He says that seeing the statue was the moment he knew the war was really over and he was finally home.

So Lady Liberty has always been an obsession of mine. I have 3 books about the statue and its creation. I just had to go see her from the harbor the way my grandpa had.

Mark and I flew to Hartford a couple of weeks ago to run in the Hartford 1/2 Marathon. We arrived on Wednesday morning, and I immediately jumped on a bus for New York City. My sister Nancy joined me later that evening in Manhattan, and we had quite an adventure. Mark stayed in Hartford with his brother and had his own adventures for a couple of days.

My friend Emilee lives in Manhattan, and she and I had not seen each other for many years. When I got off the bus, I took a taxi to The Plaza Hotel where she was finishing her gig. She gave me a tour of that beautiful hotel, and introduced me to her good friend Emilio Delgado, AKA Luis on Sesame Street. I can't believe I didn't take a picture of him. I basically spent every morning of my childhood with him. He and his wife were so nice. I wish I could have spent more time with them. Then we met Nancy for the most delicious Indian food I've ever had in my life at Amma. Scrumpdiddlyumptious. Then we went to the Waldorf and listened to Emilee's gig. She is amazing and so talented. While we were there, this oldie guy (who claimed to be French but I could tell his accent was Italian) grabbed my hand and sat me down by him in the lobby to "talk." He offered me a drink, which I refused for many reasons, and then he saw my ring. He asked me about my husband, and about my kids. When he found out I had 7 kids, he couldn't believe it, so I showed him a picture. He wanted me to email it to him......yeah, right. Anyway, it was nice to finally break away from him and get out of there.

I had booked a hotel room near Times Square through Hotwire. Sounds fine, right? Biggest mistake of my life. On Hotwire, all you can see is the price and location and star rating of the hotel before you buy. And their website says, "Our 2-Star hotels may be La Quinta, Best Western, Holiday Inn Express, or other quality hotels." Sounds great. I bought, and found out I had booked at the Portland Square Hotel. I checked out the website, and it looked fine, maybe even nice. And the location was great. Nancy and I hoofed it with our suitcases across town to the hotel, and when we got to the front door, my heart sank. It was the grossest rat-hole of a place I could imagine. Threadbare, filthy carpet, drywall construction going on all around, and just dirty. I told the guy at the front desk that I hoped our room looked better than the lobby, and he just gave me a nervous laugh. He told me the renovated rooms were available for an upcharge, but they had their old rooms that they give people who buy through Hotwire. And he said that was the last room he had available.

So Nancy and I took our suitcases down a creepy, tiny hallway, and I tried to open the door. THUD! The door hit the bed. I squeezed myself into the room, and I nearly cried. The room was honestly 6 feet wide and about 8 feet long. It was dirty and the carpet was even worse than the carpet in the lobby. There was not room for 2 people and 2 suitcases in the room. I called Hotwire. They first told me that if it was a useable room, there was nothing I could do, as there was no money back. I told them this hotel had given me a hostel room and not a 2-star room, and then after I got a supervisor, he called the hotel and told them to make it right. The hotel then magically had a another room available. It was indeed bigger, and the carpet not as sick, but the rest of the room was filthier. Cobwebs honestly coated every corner of the room and ceiling. The sheets had hair on them, and drops of bodily fluid. The shower had hair on the walls. We marched back out the creepy hallway and down the creepy elevator back to the lobby. It was 1:30 AM at this point. He told me that for $79 we could have a renovated room, and so I got on the phone with Hotwire. Hotwire had told me the last time I called that they do guarantee a "clean and comfortable room" and that if the hotel couldn't make it right, they would give me my money back. I told them this time that the hotel and told me if I wanted a clean room I had to pay $79 more, and Hotwire decided to refund my money. We left in a hurry.

That was good news, but now we were in Times Square at 1:30 AM with 2 suitcases and no hotel. I remembered that La Quinta had been a good price when I was looking online, so I called them, and they had one room left. We hopped in a taxi, and I swear angels were singing when we pulled up and saw the beautiful lobby. It was even better when the only room they had was the top floor suite for that night. We got a few hours of sleep before getting up at 6:30 to take the subway to see Lady Liberty.

We had a few subway mishaps that morning, missed the right stop, and ended up way into Brooklyn before we could get off. Then the tunnel was blocked and we had to wait quite a while for a new train. But it all turned out well, because we got to Liberty Island just as the world's funniest park ranger was starting a tour. We laughed until we cried as Jim told us all the details about Liberty's design, construction and dedication, adding his own dry wit and humor with side-splitting jokes and tangents. My favorite two lines: "The largest street fighter in the world," and "It's a diadem and a nimbus, of course."

We then climbed the steps to the top of the pedestal in 2 minutes flat. Who wants to wait 30 minutes for an elevator ride? What an incredible view of Manhattan from the pedestal. I don't know how long I just stared out at the harbor and the city. We didn't have time to get off at Ellis Island, because we were in a rush now to get to the Manhattan LDS Temple for the 2:00 session. We took the train to the hotel, changed our clothes and took a taxi to the temple. I told the driver to take us to Lincoln Center, which is just across the street. But he was so creepy. He kept staring at me instead of looking at the road. He didn't even start the meter for 5 minutes because he was so distracted. I was very glad to hop out of that cab and run to Angel Moroni. What a beautiful, beautiful temple it was inside. I loved it.

The whole time I was in NYC, I had the song "NYC" from Annie running through my head. "NYC, what is it about you? You're big, you're loud, you're tough..." I know there are lots of New York songs, but that's the one I had in my head.

After West Side Story, Nancy and I walked around Central Park and met up with Emilee again at the Plaza. She took us to an excellent restaurant for some NY pizza at Cer Te, and then we headed back to our hotel to change again. This was the night I had waited most of my life for--BROADWAY! I had scored a half-price ticket to see West Side Story from the best seat in the house. I have been singing the songs most of my life, and I have watched the movie at least 40 times. Probably more. Here's a picture of the stage. Lame, I know. But I was there.

Nancy walked around Times Square while I was at the show, and then we met up for a walk through Rockerfeller Center on our way to the Waldorf. After Emilee's gig was over, her friend who is a security guard there took us to the Presidential Suite and some other interesting places in the Waldorf. It was so fun. When I see Emilee, it is always amazing how we just pick right up where we left off, and always laugh our heads off and some old stories, and many new ones. The best line from this trip was definitely, "It had to be done."The night was still young when we left the Waldorf at 1:30 AM. I was hungry, and this was New York City. We went to The Midtown Restaurant, which is a 24-hour diner. Their menu was hilarious. It had absolutely every possible dish you could ever imagine. I stuck with the cheeseburger and fries. It was the best burger of my life--even better than Hires. And you know how much I love my Big H.

We said goodbye to Emilee at about 2:30 AM, and took a taxi to La Quinta for a few brief hours of sleep. My cousin picked us up later that morning for the drive to Hartford, as he and his wife were also running there. We got to meet their precious Piper at the children's hospital where she lives. She is a little miracle, and it was so inspiring to finally meet her and play with her. And then my trip to New York was over.....

To be continued with the trip to Harford.

Soccer mom

I have never been a soccer mom. With so many kids, I have been very hesitant to get anybody going on team sports. Because I can't just let one person play. It's got to be the whole crowd. The kids have begged for soccer for years. This fall, I finally consented, with their understanding that they might not make it to all the games or practices, but we'd make it work as well as we could.

So the end part of August the practices started up. Joel's and Savanna's teams have one practice per week. Noah's coach decided to have 3. I told Noah I was sorry, but he could only go to one. It has been absolute craziness getting the kids to their practices. They are all within 4 miles of home, but in different directions, and sometimes at the same time. The kids have been so sweet about understanding the complications of shuttling them around when they are supposed to be at different places at the same time. They are so happy to be playing soccer that they don't really care if they are late, or I am late to pick them up.

Add into that 3 games every saturday, and occasionally a weeknight game, and it has been absolute chaos. Our dinners have been not exactly ideal. But we love soccer, and that's all that matters.

However, I may be the only person with "trophy" issues. The teams are all collecting money for the kids to each get a trophy. I don't want to buy a trophy for my kid. I think a trophy should be earned and represent a great accomplishment. It's not a participation award. Like when I won a 1st place ribbon for my vegetable art project in 3rd grade--that was an occasion where I prevailed over stiff competition....or not. But at least I won. Or when I won 4th in my age group at a 15K last fall--that was something I actually was proud to have accomplished, and a ribbon was a great momento. Medals for training for and finishing a 1/2 marathon? I've got 4 of them, and I earned every one. But a trophy because you played on a rec soccer team for 10 weeks?

Do I rebel and not pay for a trophy? My kids don't need one more piece of junk in their rooms, and I want them to learn that you don't earn a trophy for just existing. Or do I cave and buy a trophy like all the other people do for their kids? Skip the post-season pizza party where they hand out the trophies?

This soccer mom doesn't know what to do.

Ancient Chinese Secret

So, it's been a while since I've blogged. Pretty much the last time I blogged coincides with the beginning of soccer season. 3 kids in soccer is killing me. But the kids love it, so it's all good.

We've been to Utah for 12 days, started school, gone on a trip to Connecticut for a race, I went to New York, Jacob turned 14, and Abram got his drivers license. I know there are many pictures of all of these things on Mark's camera, but I have been way too busy to download them and shrink some down to be web-friendly. But I may get around to that today.

But first, I want to share a very special treat with you. Mark's brother Stephen learned this trick in China many years ago. It is the never-failed way to get rid of the hiccups. Seriously. I have never had this NOT work, and I've seen it work at least 100 times on many different people. Nobody believes it at first, but it honestly works.

The only tools you need are a medium-ish glass of water and a spoon or fork.

You put the spoon or fork into the cup of water.

Next, position the handle of the spoon so that it applies pressure to the very center of your forehead as you tilt the cup up and drink the water. By the time you finish drinking the water, the hiccups are gone.

Yeah, it looks stupid.

The size of the cup and spoon aren't critical, but they just need to work together so that you can get the pressure on your forehead while you are drinking. Apparently there is an accupressure point triggered that makes the hiccups stop. Or maybe not. But who cares? It works!