Farrah

In an earlier blog post I mentioned that I had Farrah Fawcett hair in junior high.  Little Peter wanted to know what that looked like so I did a google image search and showed him this picture.  He was quiet for a long time.  He started to say something.  Then stopped.  Then looked at me with a questioning look.  Then opened his mouth.  Then closed it.  Finally, he said, "Mom, do you still think this is an attractive hair style?"  He was so relieved when I told him that I didn't think it was as beautiful as I remembered it.

Pumpkin Patch

We couldn't have had a more beautiful day to go to our favorite pumpkin patch, Anderson Farms.  It was crazy crowded.  I don't know if it was because it was great weather or if the word is out that this is an awesome place to play, but boy, did we have to fight the crowds.  When we were still way out on the freeway, we could see this pumpkin that had been placed high up on a silo.  Since we were so far away, the pumpkin looked pretty small.  Someone (who wants to remain anonymous) in my car asked if it were a real pumpkin.  As we got closer and our child realized how huge it was, she felt quite sheepish.  She heard no end of the teasing about it when we got there.  We kept cracking jokes like, "If someone gets lost, is there a landmark that we could all meet at?  Maybe something big and high that we could see from all areas of the farm?"  

Here is Thomas doing a pumpkin/gourd slingshot.  You can see the huge red pumpkin cannon in the background.  It shoots pumpkins a quarter of a mile!

                                    Peter and Katie pedaling the go carts!

 I told Thomas that unless he could carry it, he couldn't buy it.  He tried really hard, and even got some help from his friend, Trevor, but this ghost pumpkin was just too big.

Thomas didn't quite make it home.  He fell asleep on grandpa's shoulder.  That's how you know you've had a great time.

Halloween

This Halloween the kids all had a fun time dressing up.  Katie went as Madeline.  She found this outfit at the Goodwill.  It was a size 3T and was supposed to be a dress.  She wore it as a shirt with jeans and it worked quite nicely.  She also found the hat at Goodwill.  Score!

Peter decided to be Napoleon Dynamite.  That's what Katie was last year so Peter knew it would be easy.  He added a wig and some glasses and he was great.  Too bad you can't see his moon boots in this picture.  They were sweet.

Thomas is still really into Captain America.  Since he was the Captain for Halloween last year, he wasn't sure what to do.  So he decided to still be Steve Rogers/Captain America, but wear the WWII battle dress clothes the character wears before his iconic red white and blue costume was created.  

Thomas went all out trick or treating with a friend.  Katie and Peter wore their costumes to a party and then helped some little kids go house to house.  The two big kids feel a little too old for trick or treating, but don't want to miss out on the action. Taking little kids out helps them to get to do it all.  Plus, the kids they took out didn't like chocolate so they came away with plenty of candy!  It was a great Halloween!

Sea World

I love Sea World.  This is surprising because it was at Sea World that an 800 pound walrus once spit a gallon of water into my Farrah Fawcett hair do when I was 15 years old.  I've gotten over that and now embrace this park.  While we were in California, half of the family went to Disneyland and the other half went to Sea World.  Here we are riding Shamu in the killer whale show.  Not really.  The photographer cracked us up a lot.  He was worried that the picture wouldn't look real with so many people in it.  Really?  Who would think we were really riding a KILLER whale?

The dolphin and whale show is always a favorite.  But I don't love how Sea World tries to weave a story into their presentation.  We really just want to see the sea animals do their amazing tricks, enough of the trainers in wet suits designed to look like pajamas because this is all supposed to be a dream sequence.  Note to Sea World: These trainers are at the top of their fields in marine biology, don't make them embarrass themselves by doing dumb dance moves.

One show was like Cirque de Soleil.  Thomas was so impressed with the strength and awesomeness of these performers.

The flamingoes at the park go for a walk every day.  They looked a little confused and amused.

Katie and Maddie loved the penguin house.  It was nice and cool inside.

California

My whole extended family gets together at a beach house in California every summer.  This year my youngest brother, Devon, and his wife Mary had fun in the waves.  Here they are being cute and showing how only their feet are getting cooled by the waves.

 Aren't they perfectly situated?  Just close enough to get their ankles and feet wet.

But then a huge waves comes and drenches them.  I especially love how my brother is laughing at his pregnant wife getting clobbered by a wave.

They turn to the camera as if to say, "Can you believe that wild wave?"

But then it happens again with the very next wave.  After that, they moved a little higher up on the sand.  This was just a snap shot of our fun week in southern California.  Great memories!

More Chicago

Here are Paul and Gloria at the reception.  We love Gloria and are really happy that she is joining our family!

We spent a day in downtown Chicago and went to the Navy Pier.  You could see so much from the Ferris Wheel.

Gloria took us to a Chinese restaurant in China Town.  It was really authentic.  We were the only white people there.  Gloria and her nephew Dennis, ordered for us all.  My kids were troopers and tried almost everything.  Most of it was delicious.  Some of it was unusual.  Here are Dennis, Katie, and our cousin Jen trying to read a Chinese menu.

 We also went to the Field Museum.  Here is Paul with Thomas and Peter.  This museum has the first and most complete T-Rex fossils ever found. The T-Rex's name is Sue.

Here is Katie dancing with her grandpa.

We took the kids to see our old apartment building in Evanston.  Our block had hardly changed at all.  We couldn't get in to our apartment but could see the mailboxes and elevator area.  It was as shabby as ever.  The kids were sad that we had to live there.  It's a good thing we were newlyweds and madly in love.  We didn't care how bad it was.  Boy, the kids are goofy in this picture.

One day we hung out for a while at Northwestern where Peter did his undergrad.  The campus is right on Lake Michigan.  The kids were impressed.  We also ate pizza at our favorite place.  We drove to my college and found it is now a soccer field.  It was this huge, gorgeous 100 year old building.  It was kinda sad to see that it was gone.  The college still exists, it just changed locations.  Weird.

We had a great trip.  It was full of happy occasions.  We saw family we hadn't seen in a while and had lots of adventures.  Weddings are the best!

Chicago: John Hancock Building

This summer we went to Chicago for a wedding.  Peter's little brother Paul married Gloria.  We love Gloria.  And she lives in Chicago so it was a great reason to go back to one of our favorite cities.  Peter and I spent the first few years of our marriage in Chicago.  It is where we learned that we were city people.  Coming from such a small New Mexico town, we had no idea that we were urbanites.  Chicago shaped the rest of lives by introducing us to city life.  It will always hold a special place for us.

Anyway, we were excited to take the kids.  One of the first things we did was head downtown to go to the John Hancock building.  

The outside of the windows were covered with spiders.  I guess they don't have a lot of predators 96 stories up.  They were fat and huge and bigger than anything I've seen in the wild.  Can you call downtown Chicago the wild?

We love the movie Ferris Bueller at our house.  Katie tries to recreate a scene from the movie.  It was shot in this exact spot.

Peter was pretty impressed by the enormity of the city.

Thomas wanted to look from every angle.  It was a fun part of our trip.  More blogging to come.

School Starts

I really hate it when school starts.  But, I try to remember all of the good things about it.  Sure it's good to be on a schedule.  To eat breakfast in the am hours.  Its good to be reading classic literature and not just Pokemon graphic novels.  It's good to do deeper math than just the figuring out how much it will cost for 5 fresh peaches at $2 per pound at the Farmer's Market.  

Peter's last year of middle school.  I'm not gonna lie, middle school is tough.  It's good to be at the top of the heap though.  He is glad to have Mr. Vesceri for math.  Mr. V. is a very calm, deep thinking soul.  Peter says he reminds him of a monk.  Not that Peter has ever met a monk.  But that math teacher is very serene.

Thomas was born going to Steck Elementary.  Katie was there in kindergarten when Thomas was born.  I've been PTSA president, class room mom, book fair chair etc there.  Something every year.  So Thomas went to Steck almost every day before he was even in kindergarten.  He knows this school inside and out.  Now he is in his last year there.  It will be hard to say goodbye to such a wonderful school and community.  Thomas will embrace this year.  He gets to go to Balarat, an overnight camp in the mountains, with his classmates.  And, no parents are allowed.  

Katie is looking forward to school this year.  It will be her third year in high school.  She is confident.  She's not worried about friend drama, finding her way around, or getting her homework done.  She knows she can do it.  She's ready to tackle her insane schedule of honors and AP classes as well as early morning seminary every day.  It starts at 6:15 am people.  But she does it.  And usually with a smile.  Katie is going to have a great year.

So, I will dwell on these positives.  I will embrace my roll as a nagging mom. Did you turn in your homework?  Where is your spelling list?  Is your name on that water bottle?  Go to bed!  And I will count the days until it's summer vacation once again.

Independence Day

The fourth of July is one of my favorite holidays.  There is very little pressure to cook, clean, decorate, or buy.  We just revel in our tradition and enjoy the moment.  Our tradition is going to Thornton for a picnic with friends and then watching the fireworks.  Every year we think about going out of town during the holiday. It is a day off of work and there are lots of friends and family we could take a quick trip to go and visit.  But we don't go because we just can't stand the thought of missing our routine.  We love it so.  This year Katie was at BYU for a camp.  It was hard not having her with us.  But she had a blast watching Stadium of Fire fireworks with her cousins, camp leaders, and new friends.

This year we went with super simple food.  I wrapped up warm bratwurst in buns.  The foil kept them crispy and warm.  We had chips and dips.  Then for dessert, we made the red, white, and blue berry delight.  It has strawberries, raspberries, blackberries, and blueberries.  You put them in a bowl, add a dollop of sour cream, sprinkle with brown sugar and stir.  The perfect 4th of July dessert!

This year there were a ton of families in our group.  There are new families every year.  There are families that have moved away.  But there is a core group that is dedicated to making this celebration our thing.  

We eat dinner, share dessert, listen to the live symphony playing patriotic songs, check out the food stands, and pass out glow sticks when it starts to get dark.  Then we wait for the parachuters.  This year there were 5 skydivers.  They jump out the plane with sparks coming out of their shoes.  The last one is trailing a huge American flag.  They play the song Glad to Be An American.  It sounds cheesy but it makes me well up with tears every single year.  As soon as the parachuters land in the tiny fenced off spot right behind us, the fireworks start.  They last a good 20-30 minutes and are pretty impressive.  They play music during the show and it's good.  They usually do a country song, but I can overlook it.  Getting out of the parking lot can take forever after it is all over, but again, we overlook that part of the night.  This year there were so many wildfires in Colorado.  Many cities cancelled their firework shows.  But Thornton still did theirs.  I hope we will be doing this every fourth of July for the rest of my life. 

Random DC

I'm so behind on blogging!  I thought I'd throw in the last few Washington DC trip pictures before I tackle documenting our summer.

Here are the kids at the Lincoln Memorial.  You can see the Washington Memorial in the background.  They were doing construction on the reflecting pool.

Thomas at the Museum of Natural History.  There was an exhibit about the extinct snake named the Titanoboa.  It was 50 feet long, weighed 2,500 lbs. and ate crocodiles.  We were impressed and glad that it is extinct.

Katie in front of the Iwo Jima memorial.  I love that it has a real cloth flag that waves in the wind.

We were in DC at the height of the Cherry Blossoms.  They were so beautiful.

We also went to Ford's Theater where President Lincoln was shot.  We had a great tour guide and learned a lot.  Here is a picture of the balcony box seat that Lincoln was in when he was shot.  After shooting the president, the assassin John Wilkes Booth jumped out of the box to the stage.  His foot got tangled in the treasury flag decorating the outside of the box and he landed awkwardly and broke a bone in his foot.  Big Peter, the Lincoln expert, loved this stop on our tour.

Peter in front of the White House.

We also took a river boat cruise down the Potomac to Mount Vernon.  It was George Washington's farm for 40 years.  It still has animals and crops.  The kids loved sitting on his front porch in the rocking chairs looking out over the grounds to the river below.

Ice Blocking

Ice blocking is a crazy sport that my kids love to participate in.  You buy a block of ice, put a little dish towel on top of it, (so you don't freeze your bottom) find a grassy hill, and go sliding.  It's like sledding in the summer time.  This summer the kids did it for a Wednesday night church activity.  Such fun!

 Here is Thomas flying down the hill.  Cousin Maddie happened to be in town and had never done it before.  She loved it!

Peter was fast!  It takes a few trips down to get the ice melty and the grass wet and pressed down.  But by the third or fourth run, you really get moving.  It's tricky staying balanced on the little piece of ice.  

Katie looking cute sitting on her little ice block.  If you haven't tried ice blocking, you should!  It will make you laugh really hard!

The Average Day in the Life of a Teenager (By Katie Krumholz)

School Day
5:34- Wake up and ready myself for school
6:10- Emily picks me up for seminary
6:15- Go to Seminary (Where there are usually 2 of us, so if you sleep people notice)
7:00- Go to school
11:10- Eat lunch somewhere on Colfax Avenue after a relaxing morning (not) of AP Human Geography, Photography, Spanish, and Chemistry.
12:05- Come back to school ON TIME lest I be smitten by hall sweepers
2:45- Done with afternoon school consisting of World Religions (International Relations last semester), Algebra 2, and American Lit
3:00- 7:00- Depending on the day go to choir, gymnastics, tutoring or Young Womens and do home work for about 3 hours
9:30-10:00- Sleep

Summer Day
8:47- Wake up, grin because its summer and fall back asleep
9:23- Wake up for real and eat breakfast (Today it was chocolate, a fortune cookie, and a glass of milk)
9:43- Watch 4 episodes of Ben 10 with Thomas and tell myself I am NOT enjoying it
10:50- Shower
11:20- Do something fun like a movie, library, aquarium, or read
1:23- Eat Lunch
2:12- Sometimes go to Elitch's Amusement Park
5:03- Go home clean room (Heh sometimes)
5:32- Eat more chocolate
5:43- Watch So You Think You Can Dance (Which I don't), or Touch, or Person of Interest
7:44- Eat Dinner
8:25- Facebook
8:43- Watch Movie
10:23- Read Scriptures, write in Journal, brush teeth (all that jazz)
11:11 Make wish
11:12- Sleep

Differences? Many!

National Cathedral

My favorite stop in Washington DC was the National Cathedral.  Maybe I loved it most of all because I had never seen it before.  Maybe it was because it reminded me of all the churches we toured in Italy.  Maybe it was because we had the best tour guide ever.  Maybe it was because we went with wonderful friends.  It was probably all those reasons and more. 

                     The inside of the cathedral is stunning, really quite impressive.

Our tour guide took us outside to see if we could see the Darth Vader Grotesque.  We learned that a gargoyle has water running through it.  If it is just a design to ward off evil, it is a grotesque.  There was a lot of construction going on because of the DC earthquake they had a few months back.

The National Cathedral held a contest among school children to let them decide what evil grotesque they wanted to add to the cathedral.  They chose Darth Vader.  He is very hard to spot because he is placed so high on one of the towers.

You can tell the kids were riveted by our tour guide.  We were supposed to be assigned this little old lady who read a few things off of a card to us.  But she had to go early and this wonderful man named David stepped in.  He was from LA and flies to DC one weekend a month just to give tours of the cathedral.

This was the coolest stained glass window.  It was a tribute to the moon landing and actually had a moon rock right in the center of it.

There was one chapel called the Resurrection Chapel.  It had butterflies all over it to symbolize the resurrection.

If you are planning a trip to DC, you should put the National Cathedral at the top of your must see list!  It was wonderful!