Pictures to go with Post

And now for the pictures to go with my previous post!

These fine Seattle babes had a going away dinner for me before I left. So sweet! We ate at Jai Thai in Fremont (TDF!!) and shared desserts from (my fave) Simply Desserts and Bluebird Ice Cream. Then we hiked up the road to the famous Fremont Troll under the bridge which I had never been to! Isn't she a beaut! (Weirdest piece of "art" I've ever seen, but I can appreciate it because of the fairy tale it matches. I think...)

Adam's hard work all stacked with precision in our garage below.

Our last supper in Seattle was at Tutta Bella. Great Neopolitan pizza, my friends. Great. I could eat that stuff all day.

Goodbye 8513! We have loved you so!

 The kids at Seattle airport.

 And landed! In SLC! At Liberty Park with Mim and co!!

 Sister Twin Heather with a pudgy looking Noah who outgrew his rash guard before he even had a chance to really wear it.

 Mom holding Mim's Harper and Dad with a sad Mr. Noah and the Culprit Sienna.

 I took this picture at our hotel room in SLC and realized we, mother and daughter, look nothing alike. (Isn't she a beauty, though? It terrifies me to think what that face will do to unsuspecting young gentlemen in years to come.)

 With KarieAnn, Hunter and Roger at the Pow Wow. Waiting for Indian tacos that were never to be. So I just had fry bread. Yep, it's just fry bread, people. It needs something on it.

Pow Wow colors.

They are not messing around with these moccasins. $300 folks! Handmade wonders.

The children were a sight in their full costumes. It was a feast for the senses - sound and colors and textures and movement. I can't wait to go again sometime!

Sienna living it up in the backyard at my parents' house. She chucked everything in the universe in that pool. Sorry about your drum and accordion, Mom! (She assured me that she will be buying a new one, no worries, especially because everybody hates it! Haha. Classic Mom.Teaching through torture. )

Speaking of which, she insisted we see the new dinosaur museum in Vernal! It was actually lovely. However, the most uproarious of creatures was not among the ancient ones. Sienna was a PILL that day. 

Uncle Owen has been home all summer and we love a good dose of him when we can get it!

My mom always has the cutest aprons. I donned this to make brunch.

 Pictures out of order alert! Here are the kids jumping on the tramp with sprinklers and cousins Isabelle and Hunter.

 Is there a picture yet that doesn't have Noah crying?

 Oh! Here we go! A cuter boy never existed. But he was a little unsure of all that bounciness.

Ah, back to brunch. Not pictured: the panna cotta.

Bird! In cute little her-sized chairs.

Friends Shanna and Kassie plus offspring.

Christy with offspring.

Noah saying his first word: UH OH. CUTEST. THING. EEEEEVVVVVEEEEERRRR. He even will do it with a growl now if I instigate it, and Sienna and I die laughing every time. His little "O" shape he makes with his tiny mouth. PRICELESS.

And just like that we are in the land of heat, pools, brown, strip malls, chains, wide, new streets, large intersections, cacti, and adobe.

In-N-Out is a beautiful thing. We've been twice already.

 Sienna now requests "cheesebuggas."

I've had tons of motivation since I got here to just get things done and out of the way. I'm losing steam now that I've been here 2 weeks, but MUST. GO. ON. I'm almost done with the kids' room, then it's onto the office and our bedroom, then I'll be done. Done enough I guess. Decorating is always evolving. I have found some gems at Savers and Goodwill, though, so that has been fun. And IKEA is a mere 2 miles away. BLISS! More home photos pending.

 We enjoyed a full week with Adam home before he had to start work.

And thus it begins. Two years of school over and back to the working life.

He has been in Seattle all week for training and gets home tomorrow.

 Tomorrow cannot come soon enough! Because life alone with these 2 all day and all night is .... well, judge for yourself:

Roosy Time & Phoenix Phun & My Pumper

I have lost all desire to put together a proper post with pictures, so tonight you shall have only words! Sorry. But not really. Because blogging takes way too much time anymore. If you really want to know what I'm up to you can follow me on Instagram. My handle is @mwaregram. It's Facebooking and blogging combined and is the easiest and most fun way to share bits and pieces of our everyday life. It's the best way for me to find the silver lining in my everyday madness whether I share pictures on it or just enjoy everybody else's snapshots of daily life.

First off: Roosy Time. I spent a week in Roosevelt with my family while Adam and his dad drove our moving truck from Seattle to Phoenix. Adam really must get the Medal of Honor for this one. He worked tirelessly without help for days getting all our crap together while the kids and I had the best vacation I could've asked for. His dad was so generous to offer his help as well. They had a looooong drive. And, I repeat, it was all done while the kids and I were PLAYING. Husband and father-in-law of the year, I tell you! After getting to our new apartment and putting everything back together Adam declared: "I will never do that again!" I don't blame him. I married a good man.

Anyway, upon landing in Utah the kids and I met up with my parents, my sister, Heather, and my friend, Miriam, plus all our kids at Liberty Park in SLC. That was a fantastic reunion. Way too short, of course. But I have hope that there will come a day when we can all escape together on a trip without kids and really have time to talk about life as we know it all these years after getting married and having kids. We could all talk for days and never stop. Alas, we are not the carefree girls of yore. Family beckons, and we must heed. Thank goodness for Facebook, blogging, and, yes, Instagram.


My parents and I stayed the night in SLC and then headed to Roosevelt. The more I visit Roosevelt, the more I want to live there. I'd wake up or sleep in depending on whether my parents scooped up the early-rising children. Sienna would say, first thing, "I want to go outside." Before breakfast, before diaper-change, before anything. We'd open the back door, and that's where she'd stay for the majority of the day: out back somewhere, being free. It does my heart good to see that kind of freedom being reinvigorated into the heart of a city child. It made me realize how much I worry about her on a daily basis - will she get hit by a car, will she get snatched up by a stranger, will she run too far away at the park? Living in a cramped city is exhausting that way, especially since we didn't have sidewalks on our side of the street. But living in a rural place is so refreshing! I didn't worry about crime or cars! They do still exist in Roosevelt, but not as far as I was concerned. Every morning my mom or dad would watch the kids while I walked to the gym. Walked! To the gym! In the SUN! Nobody anywhere, just leash-less dogs! It was glorious. Then I showered and emerged, feigning interest in caring for my children. My mom knows the truth: I just want to forget about them completely when I'm in Roosy. And she is a very willing fill-in mom, yay, grandmom. (I just, for the first time, realized why that's what we call them! They really are grand!) I got to make Harvest Halo pancakes, the long lost mix resurrected by my mom. They weren't as good as I remembered them. But still, a taste of home. I had some friends over for brunch one morning, Shanna, Kassie and Christy. Always, always good to see them! Yes, the more I stay away, the more I treasure the people I grew up with. You don't have to explain anything to these people. It's a relief. I got ambitious and made two Ina Garten recipes I'd been eyeing for awhile, lemon yogurt pound cake and panna cotta with berries. Both quite fantastic, if I do say so myself. There were several trips to the pool with the kiddies, including on July 4th, the day I most look forward to during the year, and the day that the whole family went separate ways. Owen played in a volleyball tournament all day, Roger and Karie took a whole brood of kids boating, mom and dad went to a family reunion in SLC, and Sienna, Noah and I .... had a picnic in the park with Taco Time and then went to the pool. Haha. Next time we'll plan ahead better, no? Hmm? I also became addicted to Downton Abbey while in Roosevelt. I brought mom's DVDs home and Adam joined me in watching both seasons. So, so good. Roosevelt was fantastic as it always is in the summertime. And what I really meant to say is that I want to move there ... kind of.


Onto Phoenix Phun! The only temperatures registering on my thermometer are Hot as Blazes and Torture. But wait! A wild card in July! There's something called Monsoon Season. It's a fancy way of saying it gets cloudy and rains. That happened a few days ago and it was delightful! I am really loving Phoenix so far. We moved into a great ward with our friends Curtis and Candace and their two kids, so it'll be so fun to spend more time with them. I have other friends scattered around here. It's fun to play "spot the Mormon" everywhere I go. The place is swarming with them, I'm pretty sure, mostly because long shorts and sleeves is only something a cuh-razy Mormon would wear in 100 degrees, me included, which is why I have not bothered to get ready from day one of arriving. Why when I just sweat through everything anyway? No point. Phoenix has every chain known to mankind. How easy this makes my life! I will embrace it wholeheartedly. Although I am already done with Walmart after 3 trips. No worries, Target is just a bit further down the way. Seriously, chain heaven! Embrace! Most importantly, we have 4 pools in our enormous apartment complex, one of which is a 30 second walk. It is saving our sizzling bacon every morning around 11. Adam started work today in Seattle (har har), but will be back on Friday. Amazon in Arizona, here we come! 


And now, for the real matter at hand: My Pumper. I found out at the beginning of June that I have to have a little something called open heart surgery. I've had a faulty valve my whole life and have known that surgery was inevitable, but I always thought it'd be much later in life, like my 50s or 60s. Surprise! It's happening right at the beginning of my 30s. Bad timing because of the move, for sure, but bad timing because surgery of any kind is never on good timing! Right?! When we went to the appointment and found out Adam and our kids were there. It ended up being a 3 hour visit and was rather chaotic. Would've been a good time to have a nanny pop out of the wall. Hey, pop-out-nanny, someone needs to get on that business idea. After the doctors told us the news, they were kind enough to track down two men who've had the surgery who happened to be at the hospital filming a documentary called Flat Line to Finish Line about one of the men who'd flat-lined on the operating table and is now about to finish his third IronMan triathlon in a few months. HELLO aortic valve replacement success story! They were kind enough to talk to me for about an hour about their experiences with the surgery. They were very positive and have led active lives before and after the surgery, so that gives me great hope. However, mine is complicated by the fact that I also have an enlarged heart muscle, so I won't ever be doing things like IronMan triathlons because it's always been that element of my heart that has limited my activity the most. They both have tissue valves (from pigs! one knew his was from a Jimmy Dean farm! awesome! if only i could be so lucky!) and my other option is a mechanical valve. There are both huge pros and cons to both. The tissue valve requires replacement surgery in 10-15 years but I could have children on it. The mechanical valve lasts forever but requires blood thinner medicine everyday that has side effects and would cause birth defects (I'd get my tubes tied on that one). I have NO IDEA which one to choose. Good and bad arguments for both. I'm not dying to have more kids but I'm also not dying to have blood thinners every day. Meh. Time will tell. We are just in the thick of trying to find a good doctor on our insurance. The health care system!!! That is a paragraph for another day.

Goodnight.

A V-V-Vacation

Adam and I were lucky enough to get away for a week to Victoria and Vancouver without kids thanks to Diane, Adam's mom, and our friend Morgan, who split the babysitting in half. We left Monday morning and got back last night and I must say it was the first time since having Sienna that I came home from a vacation totally rested and ready to return to my daily life as a SAHM. It was three years coming ... and it was amazing. I missed the kids a little, worried zero, and came home sick enough of peace and quiet that I was ready to embrace chaos. That's the mark of an excellent break indeed.

 Since I have what's called Over-documentation Syndrome, a condition where I take way too many pictures and want to blog them all, I really held back on this trip and will therefore hold back on this blog post. These are basically the photos I deemed worthy of Instagramming during our trip. If you follow me on Instagram (which I'm pretty sure you don't), this will be a repeat of that with just a tad more info. The photo above is us waiting for the ferry. Monday was not well planned and after chasing around trying to figure out what ferry to take, we ended up in Vancouver taking a ferry to Victoria at 7 pm. Yeah, it was a day of driving and waiting and stressing. But it ended well with us in Victoria, hitting up Denny's at 10 pm for the Sausage Slam. Thank you, Canada, for having Denny's! (And just about every other American chain known to man.)

The ferry! It was a beautiful 1.5 hour trip on the ferry during which we saw killer whales! SHIVER! Their fins were craggly and terrifying.

Tuesday brought a zipline adventure! It was really fun. I learned how to zip upside down. Awesome!

Post-zip, we went for a hike. It was gorgeous.

One of the first things I bought in Canada was this fantastic candy item, the Wunderbar. My former college roommate, Renee, was Canadian and had a huge box of Canadian candy bars under her bed. I would secretly hope that she'd offer me a Wunderbar. She was very generous and did from time to time. They were just as good as I remember. (Think soft Butterfinger with caramel.)

Wednesday was Butchart Gardens!

It was pretty magical.

We stayed at an adorable B&B on Wednesday night after two nights at the ever-lovely and not-so-quiet Travelodge. We had been striking out on food thus far on the trip - well, you heard about Denny's already (which is never a strike out, but, still, I know we could do better), then there was some mystery Chinese food, there was the penne pasta with a sad and underwhelming brie cheese sauce and red grapes and smoked chicken (it tried, but not hard enough), meanwhile Adam is eating salads with a vengeance! So,Breakfast at this B&B was the first win!

 
Over easy egg atop asparagus and tomato on crusty bread plus charred yams and black forest ham. And a cute little fruit cup.

After that breakfast we headed back on the ferry over to Vancouver. We rented bikes and went around Stanley Park and enjoyed beautiful views like these.

Lion's Gate Bridge was spectacular. Like a green version of the Golden Gate Bridge. We kind of accidentally went around the park 1.5 times and were biking for 2.5 hours. This did not phase Adam, of course, because he bikes much harder for that amount of time on any given day, but I was famished by the end as well as walking like a bowlegged cowgirl. My friend from Vancouver gave us great recommendations for places to eat, and that evening's meal at The Banana Leaf did not disappoint. One of the best meals of my life in fact.

 This was something like chili coconut prawns with coconut rice. But it was so much more. I can't explain what was really in this mixture, but it was absolutely to die for.

Next day: kayaking at Deep Cove! Gorgeous day for a kayak! Deep Cove itself was really gorgeous beyond imagination.

Here's our fearless steersman:

And I in the front.

Our final day was spent at the Capilano Suspension Bridge.

 Adam was mesmerized by Lucy the Owl.

 And ... trip over. Here's what we brought home for souvenirs. Bueno indeed!

Mr. MBA

Adam graduated with his MBA on June 9th! Woo hooooooo

Apparently we missed the memo about bringing your infant child on stage with you. Oh, right, we don't have infant children anymore. 

A congratulatory kiss. 

A slightly awkward attempt at recreating that famous dip depicted in that one black and white picture. ???

And done! (With HONORS, mind you.)

Adam with Kalen, his fellow TA. He probably saw more of Kalen than me in the past 2 years.

Adam's parents, plus the UW library in the background.  Congrats, Adam! Now what?

Noah's First Haircut

The day after Noah's first birthday I decided it was time to say goodbye to baby hair. 

I am not sentimental at all when it comes to baby hair. Sienna got a buzz at 6 months. Noah got lucky and lasted a year (thanks to full-time tummy sleeping, he never developed the unfortunate baby bald spot).

He was my adorable blondie.

Yes, there were swirls of blond feathers ...

... but all good things must come to an end ...

... and that mullet had to go.

He was not happy about it.

But I am. Now I can see his cherubic little face and nuzzle his soft little neck.

Goodbye baby mullet.