Tour de famille (and a stop in Banff and BC)

Rachel will be set apart as a missionary in about a week. She and Auntie Josie took a road trip up to Canada to see some family and some places before Rachel settles down to business. 

Here they are at Elizabeth's house on the first night of their journey. She lives in Rexburg, so they didn't get too far their first day, but there's just something about driving 10 hours versus driving 13 hours that feels so much more doable, so I'm glad they stopped. Plus they got to visit with Elizabeth and her family!

WECOME, WELOME

This morning Zoë sat down to make a "welcome" sign for her friends (who are coming to sleep over tomorrow—because sleeping in an empty house sounds so exciting for any of the neighbourhood kids to pass up).

This morning Andrew also had the follow-up appointment for his toe and the doctor thinks it's coming along nicely. I think so, too. Andrew has other feelings about it, but also is noticeably in less pain so overall I think he's improving. He just doesn't like to look at it.

He picked up doughnuts on his way home and while we were enjoying them together we...fell into what we call "lecture mode."

Let's just say that Zoë and Benjamin are transitioning to being the oldest and most responsible young humans in the home and it's been a rough transition. They've been used to having four older humans waiting on them hand and foot so perhaps haven't realized that they've become capable older humans, themselves. That comes with great expectations. 

For example, Zoë was like, "I want half of that doughnut and have of that doughnut."

And Andrew was like, "Great, go for it."

And Zoë was like, "Like...what do you mean?"

And Andrew was like, "Cut the doughnuts you want in half and take them."

"By myself?"

"You're eleven!"

Yes, we cut a doughnut in half for Phoebe, who is four. But you're eleven. You can cut your own doughnut!

It's just been a bunch of things like that that they haven't ever considered doing because their bossy older sisters would step in to cut doughnuts (or whatever) if we as parents didn't do it, ya know? So we had to clue them in that they were getting older and wiser and needed to just step in and do...stuff.

In their defense, we took the chore chart down (and with it went any sense of responsibility, apparently).

"Like, if you see something that needs to be done, you can't just say, 'Someone else can do that!'" Phoebe added.

Exactly. 

At least she's been listening to our "please do stuff" lectures. 

Of course, the dishwasher is still full of clean dishes, so she's quite happy to ignore her own assigned chore...but...growing up is a process.

Anyway, we were deep in lecture mode and then—still in lecture voice—Andrew said, "And you're going to want to remake that sign, Zoë."

"What? Why?!" she asked.

"Go ahead and read your sign out loud."

"Welcome. Come and find me."

"Try again."

"Wel...oh."

Thoughts two days out from swim team and two weeks out from moving

My brother recently sent a video of "bedtime" at his house, which was really of his 4-year-old and 2-year-old running in circles around him and jumping on the bed while declaring that they were not going to go to sleep. 

I don't know why he thought they'd go to bed.

It's late July in Southern Alberta. The sun even doesn't think about setting until around 9:45 PM so those children had no indication from the universe that it should be bedtime (and why should they trust their father about a thing like that?). Soon enough (like in December) the universe will be telling them it's bedtime by 4:00 in the afternoon...perhaps he'll have an easier time then. 

On the other hand, I'll bet he didn't take them to the pool for four hours in the middle of the day (like I did today). That somehow doesn't guarantee my kids will be worn out at the end of the day, but it sometimes works to shorten bedtime shenanigans. 

I didn't tell him anything, though. 

I just "laughed" at his video—the kids are cute even if they're driving him crazy. 

My mom, though, simply told him that parenting is...hard... 

And that is absolutely true. 

*****

We lasted two days without swim team to keep us busy before I threw in the towel and told the kids to get started on their math curriculum.

Waterpark with swim team friends

One of my swim team mom friends started a group chat with about a dozen swim team families, suggesting that we meet up at a water park this afternoon. So that's what we did! 

When we took this picture we had about 25 kids (though some more came later). You might think it would be difficult to gather 25 kids from several different families together for a picture, but this waterpark enforced "adult swim" for the last 15 minutes of each hour. 

Adult swim is not my favourite concept, but I do admit that it has a few perks. It forces the kids out of the water so they check in with their parents. You can reapply sunscreen, make sure kids go to the bathroom, take a group picture...and so on. 

We really took advantage of the first adult swim that was called. 

"Come on, moms!" one of my friends called. "We've got the pool all to ourselves. That's right—all of us. Miriam grab Phoebe. Who will take Baby Red?"

She marched us all over to the water slide and demanded we head up the stairs. It was really quite fun! We all went several times. 

And then the kids suggested a jumping contest off the high dive. 

It was also fun to just float around in the pool, taunting the children that we were swimming and they weren't!

Is that the Chattanooga Choo-Choo?

We left to pick Zoë up from spending a week at Rosie and Austin's house right after church on Sunday last week. She had a good and busy time at Rosie's house—they went to a stake primary activity, a water park, a fun farewell party at a playground for one of Rosie's friends, and did a lot of other fun things! 

Rosie and Austin were kind enough to drive down and meet us in Chattanooga (we took a 5-seater car and left Miriam and Benjamin at home because our van is...the way it is) so it wasn't too far of a drive. 

We met at a park by the zoo and the kids enjoyed playing with each other for a couple of hours (even though it was hot) while the grown ups visited. 

A tribute to me because it's almost my birthday!

I rather enjoy when things come full circle.

My niece Rosie was born on a chilly January morning when I was 11 years old. That summer, soon after I turned 12, our family took a trip down to Utah (from Alberta, where we were currently living) and left me with my sister Kelli to be a mother's helper for a week or two.

A visit with Rosie and Austin!

I can't believe how fast the summer is flying. That feels strange to say, considering it's only the middle of June...but it is going fast. We fly out in 51 days (Miriam leaves for Utah in 31) and we have quite a lot left to do!

Rosie wanted to be sure to get one more visit with us, but her calendar is also rather packed with various grandparents coming out for visits (sometimes back-to-back). Our van is on its last legs and we're planning on selling it (for parts, mostly) so don't really want to fix its issues if we can manage. It's okay for getting around town but we really don't know that it has another long-distance trip left in it, especially through those mountains in Tennessee. 

So Rosie came to us! It was a quick overnight visit, but it was so fun to get to see Rosie and Austin and their kiddos! Here's Phoebe and Zoë saying hello to Dean (who was quite relieved to be allowed out of his car seat):

Decision fatigue and things like that

The human heart contains four valves that act as one-
way doors, each opening and closing forcing steady

onward flow. Hello, goodbye,
hello, goodbye, hello, goodbye, hello...

This summer it feels as if my heart has shattered one-
hundred times, then pulled itself together again and 

again and perhaps that's just life pushing me forward
and closing the door, ensuring I take the next step

without looking back, without turning
into a pillar of salt. Hello, goodbye, 

hello, goodbye, hello, goodbye,

hello. 

Birthday Buddies

Our family has (in my opinion) a surprising  number of birthday buddies! 

Growing up, my grandfathers (my mom's dad and my dad's dad) shared a birthday (September 8) so I was used to the idea of sharing birthdays. And then, of course, they also shared that day with my grandpa's twin sister (on account of being twins). 

Later, my brother David and Andrew's Grandpa Frank would share a birthday (they're not related, but they're on my mental calendar together).

Then my sister Kelli had twins, so they share a birthday. 

All of that doesn't feel too cluttered or unusual. But then...

• Our cousin Carter was born on our cousin Kayl's birthday 
• Alexander was born on Auntie K's birthday
• Ethan was born on Naanii's birthday
• And just recently Chloe was born on Benjamin's birthday!

Those last four feel particularly funny to me because whereas before all the shared birthdays had been either through marriage (in-laws with the same birthdays) or twinship (sharing a womb), all of a sudden we have a spate of blood relatives sharing birthdays through random happenstance! 

Of course, my extended family is ginormous and there are lots of birthday buddies when we start counting, like, second cousins and things. But among first cousins? We didn't have so many people overlapping!

Here's a picture of Benjamin in the wee hours of his birthday (he stayed up late playing Hand and Foot and then left for scout camp in the morning, so we haven't really celebrated his birthday yet, although I did send him to camp with cupcakes).

And here's my brother David holding his third baby, Chloe, who was born in the afternoon on Benjamin's birthday!

What a wonderful birthday present!

Eurovision!

When we found out that we'd be in Vienna for Eurovision we jumped through all the necessary hoops to get tickets. We had to apply to get in the lottery to have the chance to buy tickets at all? Something like that. All I know is that Patrick, Josie, and I all got through the first lottery round (Hadis did not) and then Patrick and I managed to buy a set of four tickets (the maximum number you could buy) while Josie did not. So Patrick sold/transferred his tickets to some friends and we used the tickets that I got. 

All of our tickets were really bad, but not really, really bad, so we felt okay about them. 

It helped (or hurt?) that they were only 15 euro each. 

We attended on Tuesday afternoon. It was cold and drizzly. 

The security for the event was...significant. Each ticket had to be designated for one person and one person only, and the name on the ticket had to match the name on whatever government ID you chose to present to prove your identity. We had to walk through metal detectors and get a pat down. We were allowed to bring only a few things that could fit in our pockets (no bags of any sort were allowed). We had to check our jackets at the counter. People who had brought umbrellas had to throw them away. 

It was pretty intense (but that's the kind of world we live in). 

Here we are, having all found our seats:

Vienna's First District (and Better than an Iranian Restaurant)

Patrick had a meeting with his advisor Monday afternoon, so we went into Vienna's First District in the morning. This worked out well because Josie and I still had valid 24-hour passes in the morning and because a tremendous thunderstorm rolled in later in the afternoon (completely shutting down all Eurovision activities for the evening). 

Speaking of which, who's got two thumbs and accidentally planned a trip to Vienna during Eurovision and over Mother's Day? 

It's me! 

Really Josie and I were going off of cheap airfare, which meant that we had to fly as close to the end of the semester as possible, which meant that I flew out the day after my semester ended. That sounded good in theory as well...when we initially made these plans. It felt a little less good when I was in the middle of finishing up all my final projects. 

And we actually managed to get tickets to see Eurovision live (well, a rehearsal anyway) so that's today's activities. 

Anyway, the first district, or the Innere Stadt is the city centre, where all the administrative buildings and things are...and it's also where a big Eurovision village is set up, where the opening ceremonies were on Sunday, and...let's just say it's been bustling!

Andrew and I visited downtown Vienna in April of 2006 while on a 14-hour layover on our way to spend our summer in Jordan (also to secure cheap tickets, I'm sure). I only remembered that we'd shared some fries (and didn't understand how to validate our transport tickets), but apparently we had pizza and ice cream as well (good for us). That is to say, it's been a hot minute since I've been here (20 years, to be precise). A few things were familiar to me, but I was glad to have a knowledgable guide in Patrick. 

I believe Patrick lives in the sixteenth district, which is actually much closer to the first district than you might assume—only the eighth district separates it from the first district. We left his apartment in the morning when Hadis needed to leave for work since we were all going the same direction.

Here's one of his streets with gardens filled with allium blossoms: 

Vienna Central Cemetery

On Sunday we went to Vienna's Central Cemetery, which was not very central according to Vienna residents in 1863 when the cemetery was established. In fact, it was so far removed from city life that hardly anyone cared to visit the graveyard at all...until city authorities began Ehrengräber (honorary graves) and even exhumed and reinterred famous people who died before the cemetery's opening (such as Beethoven and Schubert). 

See—here's Beethoven (who died in 1827)...

Salzburg: The End (and an Iranian restaurant)

We more or less just slept in on Saturday morning. We didn't have to check out of the hotel until 11:00  am, our train wasn't until 1:11 pm, and we didn't have much else on our Salzburg to-do list. It was nice to be unhurried in the morning. 

We went to the Billa (grocery store) to get some breakfast pastries and then went for a walk to St. Sebastian's Cemetery, which was immediately so peaceful compared to the street outside. 

There are some Mozarts buried here (but not the Mozart, who got a pauper's funeral in Vienna).

Salzburg: Hohensalzburg Fortress and more

We made our way up to the Petersfriedhof (cemetery) at the base of Festungsberg and debated whether and how we wanted to get up to Hohensalzburg Fortress. 

Here you can see part of the Salzburg Cathedral at the end of the street: 

Salzburg: from the Sound of Music to Mozart (and a little bit of Mother's Day)

We stayed up way too late on Thursday night and then could hardly sleep because we knew we had to wake up early on Friday morning to catch the train to Salzburg. Optimistically we had told ourselves that we could sleep on the train, but we didn't really do that, either. The views were beautiful—I was surprised by how much countryside there was (that is, there was much less urban sprawl than I would have expected). 

Fortunately, it's a fairly short trip. When we arrived and found our hotel (to ask if we could store our bags while we walked around) the receptionist offered to see if she had any rooms available right then (though our check-in time wasn't until much later in the day). As it turned out she did have two rooms available, so we checked in and had a quick little rest before hitting the town. 

Georgia > Turkey > Austria

I survived the semester! 

I turned in all my final papers! 

...and then I hopped on a plane to join Josie in visiting Patrick and Hadis in Austria! 

I flew on Turkish airlines, which boasts ample legroom, but which did not feel ample (perhaps because the man I sat next to was rather large and kept blowing his nose...on his blanket...and perhaps because the seat in front of me was broken and stuck in a recline). It wasn't an unpleasant flight, though! I finished a book (Looking for Palestine) and watched a movie (Nuremberg) and slept. 

After landing in Istanbul, I had time for a quick jog through the airport, hopping in line to board my flight to Vienna just in time. So here is my one picture from Turkey: 

Dean's Blessing and Tennessee Skies

Our main reason for driving up to Tennessee last weekend was because Dean was blessed last Sunday! It was so nice to be able to be there (and for Andrew to participate in the blessing circle). 

We unfortunately missed our opportunity to get a lovely little family picture, arriving too late to manage to get one before church, and then...well...Dean "decorated" his blessing outfit shortly after the event, sending lovely newborn-yellow poop right up his back in the middle of the sacrament.

Rosie took him out to change him and—to her dismay—discovered that she'd left his emergency onesie at home on the kitchen counter...so he went through the rest of the services wearing only his diaper. 

More Tennessee Pictures

Here are a few more pictures of the kids playing together....

So many piggyback rides

Admittedly, this first picture isn't a piggyback ride. It's a picture of Andrew diffusing a temper tantrum. These three little girl cousins—ages 3, 4, and 5—have a lot of fun when they get together, but emotions can sometimes run a little high:

Infantilizing and Brachiating

Rachel held Dean for a quite a while at the ward party. He is, as I've mentioned, a rather chill baby and is happy in most any position (as long as he is being held at all times, if you please). So for a while Rachel was walking around with him held vertically, like this:

Granted—this picture is not at the ward party. This picture is from Rosie's house. But you get the picture, right? Dean was held upright, vertically, perpendicular to the ground.