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Showing posts from May, 2014

Kindergartenorama, or All Good Beginnings Must Come To An End

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 The morning carpool. These three kept their parents in stitches most mornings on the way to BYU. One of my favorite stories about them involves their imaginary friends. K has had an imaginary friend, Nadine, for a long time. Nadine actually sickens and dies each month along with the waxing and waning of the moon (you guessed, it. At BYU kindergarten, all of the children are above average, aka quirky). L joined in with two imaginary friends, Nobody and No One. Not to be outdone, Joss cooked up Bob and Hobo Joe pretty fast. One day, in what I can only assume was a waning crescent phase, K and Joss were already loaded up in Rob's truck when Nadine threw up all over the only empty seat. The kids informed L when she climbed in that Nadine had vomited on the upholstery. L was beside herself. "But I don't waaaant to sit in imaginawy bawwwwf!" she wailed. Never underestimate the real chaos that imaginary friends can cause.  Joss on his last day of BYU preschool

Canyonlands Needles: the Hike, the Water Hole, and the Rain

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It rained during the night, but had cleared up by Sunday morning, leaving a damp ground that was not so bad. We had a campfire church meeting for the kids, singing primary songs, and the adults met in our tent and we read part of a keynote address from Rob's cousin. Then we went out on this scenic loop:  This is very nearly the whole group. I think we're missing two people here. In the afternoon, there was a big need to go get in some water. We'd heard about a place outside Canyonlands on BLM land, and we tried to find it, but couldn't. About six of us went back to the campsite and then the others found this great orange puddle.  This was tucked back off a trail, which is why our scouts had missed it.  The kids were pretty happy to get wet.  And there were these very handy places for the adults to sit too.  Having our own environmental scientist on hand was nice. As he said: if it's orange, nothing is living in it. Pretty clean in terms o

Canyonlands: Needles

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Molly had made reservations for a campsite in Canyonlands months ago for Memorial Day weekend. But as is the custom, we were thinking about skipping out when it comes to the week of. This time it wasn't just the weather, there was also a dread flu bug running through our families. I personally couldn't think of anything worse than having the flu while camping in the rain. But in the end, we decided to go and we hit one spot of absolutely crazy weather just before Moab, and then it all looked fine. We were staying here, down in this little hollow of rock in the Needles area. I think it was the Squaw group campsite.  The kids immediately discovered that they could scramble up the rocks next to the campsite and explore up above all of the adults who were busy setting up tents, cooking meals, or just being grateful that the kids weren't underfoot. We did have to howl to them once or twice to come down or get away from the edge, but no one fell off, and they had a grand

A Visit to Chicago

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 Earlier this year my sister moved to Chicago. She helped open up a Chicago office of her Manhattan firm even though she really didn't know anyone in the city. Mom and I went back to visit her in May, just to check out her new digs and see where she was. I'd never been and really didn't know much of anything about Chicago. Sebi kept referring to it as Gangster City. Mom and I met K at work and saw her swanky office in the downtown, then we walked past this giant silver coffee bean (Cloud Gate) to the Art Institute.  I loved this VanGogh in person. It's not one I would have expected, but that's exactly why I go to museums. The texture of the worn floorboards especially impressed me, and I would have rented this room on the spot.  Seurat was great in person too, but how could it miss after Ferris Beuller's Day Off? I took a picture of the little boy blowing his horn for Will.  There is so much great stuff there! I was disappointed that the Hopper was