We have been absent for quite awhile and it's hard to believe that winter is already threatening! Fall has been filled with all the harvesting/preserving busy-ness. We also sold four of our donkey foals and sent them off to their new homes. School started up again and mostly involves a lot of read alouds, since that is what I can do while holding Dane. Now it's time for picture overload!
Wowza I’m the worst and writing in here! Life has been pretty busy for the last few months, so I’ll try to catch you up on the most important parts!
We bought a house in Kentucky and both got jobs at the StretchZone. Cam is a manager and practitioner and I make phone calls all day :) Cam works full time and does all the consultations for the new clients and he really likes it. I love what I do and I’ve made lots of friends with the clients and practitioners which has been really fun. Oakley really likes her big house and backyard. Because we both work, she has to be in her kennel for about 4-5 hours a day. Before you think we’re abusive, don’t worry. She gets 3-4 walks a day because we feel so bad. She’s also getting fat because we give her way too many treats to make up for our abuse ;) she’s a spoiled puppy to say the very least.
Cam surprised me and took me to see Hamilton the other night which was so fun! Neither of us has gone to a Broadway and it was sooooo well done. Cam is always so thoughtful and does things that I love even when they’re not something he’s familiar with. He’s the best ever.
Other than that, life is pretty normal. Baby boy loves kicking me all the time, but most particularly when I go to sleep or sit down. Or eat. Or try to relax. Ya know, the usual. It’s very fun to feel him kicking around! In case anyone was wondering, he’s as big as a rutabaga (whatever the heck that is), so that means he’s almost 2 pounds and just over a foot long.
Fall is on its way to Kentucky. It’s cooled off this weekend and looks like we won’t break 80’s again this year which will be nice! It’s been really hot so it’s been nice to have a cold front. We’re excited for the fall colors that are on their way! Kentucky is very lovely in the fall, if anyone wants to come see ;)
Anyway, love you all! Hope you have a great week!
2022 SUMMER HIGHLIGHTS:
This summer has gone by in a blur so we wanted to share just a handful of highlights from our summer.
* lots of bike rides on our new e-bikes
* Belliston Family Gathering - scavenger hunt, lots of cousin playing time, visiting among the adults, the Belliston Olympics Water Edition, the Day in the Life videos, hauling hay, the birthday party!
* Singing in the Rain at Hale Center Theater
* Anniversary Celebration for Alex's parents. All of his siblings came into town and they are very silly when they get together.
* Peter set a record for playing with friends
* Lots of Spikeball for Jack
* Good visits with friends from New York
* First Spikeball high school Nationals hosted by Idaho Spikers League (aka Alex)
* St. George trip and Tuacahn shows
* Ian toured Church History archives
* Elise's cutting garden provided endless delight
* Alex and Jack did camp with the Teachers Quorum
* A few outings with our homeschool group for a hike and a lake day
* Trip to Montreal
* Ian and Addy put on another great show with Bright Side Performing Arts
We are ready for things to settle down and to get back into our routines but we really enjoyed the warm weather and less structured days. We had our homeschool co-op kickoff last week and it got us looking forward to the co-op starting back up on Sept 12. I am teaching a History Fair class. Who remembers History Fair? Woot Woot!
We spent some time with the Nilssons this weekend going to a local trampoline park and then the next day hitting up great little pool in Shelley.
Peter has started parkour again, Jack is going full tilt in soccer (they won their first game on Wed. by a landslide), and Ian is doing early morning seminary again and hitting an intense final week of rehearsals in preparation for Tuck Everlasting to open a the end of this week.
The garden is still going strong thanks to the continued 90 degree temps we are having here. It's been so nice for it to have some extra time to finish growing, especially given how long and cold our spring was. I've loved seeing all the different bouquets and flowers from everyone's gardens this year. Thanks for texting me the pics!
We are going to do a separate post about our trip to Montreal and bombard y'all with pictures.
Right now I am being summoned for a game. Adios!
Life in Snowflake is pretty soggy right now but thankfully the kids are loving all of the rain! We bought them each an umbrella and they love to run around in the rain.
A week and a half ago we (Scott) helped Randy move their storage container (we watched) from a lot across the highway to their yard. In the process they disturbed a bee hive and were both stung multiple times. 6 days later, Scott's stings flared up with a vengeance. No fun, but he is feeling better now.
Life has basically revolved around baby Dane. We have had family here every week since he was born which has been so helpful. Garrett went on a work trip to California for several days and mom was able to come and stay during that time. We enjoyed our first family outing altogether up to Swan Valley for Eliza's fiddle competition. She played really well and even participated in the tiny fiddle contest where the contestants had to play a song on a fiddle that was almost the size of a tree ornament. Everyone sounded equally horrible but it was pretty hilarious to watch!
We had Dane's blessing today which was delightful and he barely fit into his blessing outfit. This boy is putting on the pounds! We weighed him a week ago and he was 11.3 pounds, having gained 3 pounds since birth. Today we weighed him and he was 12.15 pounds! It's no wonder my back feels like it's breaking; it hasn't had a chance to catch up! He also wore a 3-6 month size outfit yesterday. He will not look like much of a newborn when you guys get to meet him in a couple of weeks. We are so excited to see everyone and hang out with the best family ever!
As you all know, our big news was the arrival of Dane Biorn Nilsson. We are so glad he is here! After a lot of "false starts," things finally kicked in and labor went fast! Active labor started around 6:30p.m. and he was born at 8:03 p.m. The kids are totally enamored with their new brother and it has been nice for life to slow down a bit. We always love having grandma here and it never ceases to amaze me how clean she can make a space. No matter how hard I scrub, I never can get it quite as clean! Garrett has been able to be home which has been a huge blessing. I just hope my list of daily to-do's hasn't been insanely overwhelming for him and the other kids.
It has been a couple of weeks but there isn't much to report. The wind is still blowing which is making garden maintenance difficult. Hopefully I'll be able to weed sometime soon.
Robin seems to be recovering from what we think was a bad case of dehydration. It has taken several days but she is eating and not throwing up which is a blessing. The boys are benefitting because they are getting loaded with electrolytes and getting lots of water to drink.
We still are waiting to announce the "big news" but feel like it will be fairly soon. The fun event we did have this week was the arrival of Nibbles the goat's babies. On Monday morning we suspected that she was in labor. After about an hour, the first baby goat arrived and it was a pretty big girl so we thought maybe there would be twins or triplets. About 20 minutes later, a second was born, another big baby, a boy. A short time later, a third popped out and she was itsy bitsy. We were trying to get these babies dried off when Nibbles pushed out a fourth and it was another girl! Quadruplets! They are all nursing great and up and bouncing around. We are grateful that everything went so well and that we were there to help out a little. In keeping with our Shakespeare naming theme, Addy named them Claudia, Horatio, Titania, and Viola.
Aside from that, we have been working on projects in the yard. Not yet planting everything in the garden since the weather continues to go up and down. We are expecting another freeze tonight and then hopefully we will be out of the cold.
Addy had her National clogging competition at Lagoon and she did the best that she has ever done. Practice surely pays off! The other kids have enjoyed jumping on the tramoline and being outside more. Garrett is ready to take a few weeks off of work when our baby gets here. He was sure the baby would get here early so he lessened his work load and now he is trying to find more to do while he waits- and all of us wait.
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Things in Snowflake are starting to warm up but gratefully they cool off in the evening. We have nearly everything planted in our garden that we are going to plant. I'm hoping to find some cantaloupe, watermelon and peppers but haven't seen any yet. We have potatoes and onions coming up and our tomatoes are looking like they may survive.
The wind is starting to settle down which is nice. There is a week of wind in the forecast but there are a handful of nice days before and after.
The kids get bigger and smarter every day. I am constantly amazed with the infrmation processing that Rand and Robin do all of the time. It is fascinating.
We went to a place called Bearizona on Friday. It was a lot of fun. It is a drive through wildlife park with a walk through portion. The kids enjoyed hanging out the car windows to see bison, reindeer, big horn sheep and mountain goats. The bears and wolves were viewed behind rolled up windows! They also got to see a skunk, raccoon and porcupine up close in an animal encounter show as well as feeding fish to the otters. It was a really fun day.
Well life has been pretty good and very loud and energetic as usual.
Gus is a mover. He may just stick with crawling forever because he is so blasted fast and will get into everything. It is impossible to work outside with him because he is right in the dirt eating it and digging like a dog. He also loves the attention he gets when he screams at the dinner table. We love this little crazy one.
Chet and Wesley both decided to have their own garden space which basically means they took over the whole garden. They both wanted to try pumpkin and wheat. When we went to the greenhouse, we couldn't decide on one pumpkin so we came home with three. So we will have a pumpkin garden and their wheat is coming up. Hopefully something will produce since I don't know how to do either.
We tried to finish off the school year with vigor but that didn't really happen since February or so! But they are still learning and Wesley has really gotten into piano which is very fun. Mom and Dad came down yesterday for a little school show and tell which is always an adventure but we had a good time.
Nick has been so busy lately. He helped the tennis team which was very busy in April and May. He teaches guitar, has high council stuff and he is going to front sight as much as possible because they may shut down. He is also being moved to Orem high next year. American Heritage has been a dream seminary teaching job and we will miss being there.
After Nick spent five weeks trying to get an appointment with the board of adjustments to figure out our house, we learned there isn't a board of adjustments. It just kind of dissolved and maybe he can talk with them if they come back together. There's good government for you! In the meantime we will be grateful for our little house and our mortgage payment!
We hope you are well and can't wait to see you!
The crazy busy time we had earlier this year has passed and things are slowing down enough that we think we will be able to make time to post on the blog more regularly. The hard thing about that is... when things slow down and there is time to write, there isn't much to write about!! But we will try to be a presence, at least.
Thanks to everyone who posts fun things on the family blog. We love the history that we have here. It's great to hear about your adventures and all the goings on - good and challenging.
We were happy to go to Arizona together to pick Jenn and the littles up to bring them back to Utah for a few days. We hit quite a storm on the way back and actually had to pull over and the night in Utah County because the wind was so bad we couldn't see to drive. Since it was likely to get worse instead of better, we stayed at a hotel in American Fork and had lovely weather to drive to Smithfield the next morning.
While the Flake family was here, we were delighted to have a baby shower/birthday party for Ruth/Emma while Jenn was in town. Thanks to Lauren and Elise making an effort to be here, as well. The most fun part of it all was that both Ruth and Emma were quite surprised! They each thought the party was for the other and looked authentically surprised. We made lots of freezer meals for both families to be used while packing in one case, and while recuperating in the other case. Hopefully, the meals were and will be helpful. We had a blast cooking together, as well as opening gifts for both sisters. Peter was the champion baby sitter during the party and all the kiddos were happy while the moms were busy. I've been thinking that we should do that regularly for everyone - regardless of having a baby or moving!
Our next adventure took us to Houston for a few days, which was so much fun! Thomas and Torie are excellent hosts! We went straight from the airport to Barry's, where T works. Torie stayed for a class Thomas was teaching and we took JJ to a local park. We used every ounce of energy we had to keep the little guy from breaking his neck!! He is so fast and carefree that we feared for his life as he climbed up and down the stairs and went up and down the slides! It was very fun to see him have such a good time. We slept really well that night. Thomas interviewed Dad for his podcast, which is really good, and we enjoyed eating at some fun places. Dad is entirely converted to Texas barbeque at Truth Diner. So, so yummy. We also had a great time at the beach in Galvaston. We walked the "Strand" and marveled at the very old building that house fun shops and a quaint ice cream shop with the most delicious, creamy ice cream ever. JJ tried unsuccessfully to drown in the ocean. Torie has very quick reflexes and pulled him up out of the water numerous times. We will definitely get down there again!
The only dismal part of the last few weeks was when Emma and Cameron left for Kentucky. It was a sad day for me and I was fairly dysfunctional after they pulled their trailer away early in the morning on Emma's birthday. It feels terribly lonely just knowing we have no children and no grandchildren in Cache Valley. But, they are off on an adventure! They will likely only be back to visit on occasion, so we will plan to travel east from time to time in the future,
We are looking forward to the July family gathering in Idaho Falls! Can't wait for that great event! But there are some fun things happening in the meantime... including the addition of another Nilsson family member! Here are the predictions of when this little fellow may join the family... (prizes to come for the winner who guesses the actual birthday!)
