A day with the Heiss cousins (June 13)

Spanish Fork has funded a number of social spaces since we moved away. They built a beautiful new library, for example, as well as this beautiful splash pad. I think they got an all-abilities playground and there's talk of building a recreation center as well. Not everyone is happy about these plans, finding public spaces to be superfluous to society (I'm friends with many of these people on Facebook), but I personally love to see my tax dollars at work in this way! Public spaces are so important to communities! 

I'm sad that they didn't have anything like this while we were there, but we survived without them...and got to enjoy them when we visited!

Grandpa suggested that we spend the day at the splash pad with our cousins on Tuesday the 13th, so that's what we did! Emily had driven down from Idaho with her kids; they stayed at Uncle Jacob's house. We didn't expect Uncle Jacob to come to the splash pad (because we were under the impression that he had to work), so we were surprised when not only Emily but also Jacob showed up! It was fun to have them both there. Andrew, Emily, and Jacob had a nice little visit together while the kids played. 

Carter and Dean were with Aunt Shayla this particular day. Aunt Shayla had taken the boys to go stay at her mom's house...because Jacob just recently asked her for a divorce. But Jacob hadn't yet told any of us this (silly guy), so there was some obvious tension in the air surrounding things unsaid. I believe their split is public knowledge at this point (like, I think they've signed papers and everything). Jacob is living in a friend's basement up in the SLC area and Shayla is in the house with the boys for the time being. So, yeah...that was a bit of a...tension...throughout the day. But it seems like things are going better now. 

Anyway, Carter and Dean missed out on the fun, and we missed seeing Shayla. But the rest of the cousins present had fun together.

Below are some pictures of them playing (I'll try—but will probably fail—to limit the commentary):

Yellowstone: Fountain Paint Pots, Black Sand Basin, Emerald Pool, and things (June 21: coauthored by Benjamin and Mom)

On Tuesday night (June 20) we slept in Rexburg, a city in Idaho, at the AmericInn where I slept on a couch. The next day we had a two hour drive to Yellowstone. It took us a long time to get to the entrance gate, but once we got inside the park things were smooth sailing. 

We started to drive a twisting mountain road. A few moments later we saw steam rising off of the hills. 

Mom said we should probably pull over to explore, so we drove down the road to investigate and stopped at a parking lot next to a trailhead. 

Mount Rushmore (June 22)

The drive from Devils Tower, WY, to Mount Rushmore, SD, is only 2 hours and 20 minutes (130 miles or so). Alexander, who had been feeling find at Devils Tower began wilting at Mount Rushmore. 

It's been so long now that I can't quite remember which of the children got sick when. Phoebe got sick first. On a Sunday? I feel like it was on a Sunday. Was it on June 18th? Andrew ended up going home from church early with her because we realized part way through sacrament meeting that she had a fever. She was a miserable baby all day Sunday, but woke up feeling better on Monday. 

Zoë was the next child to get sick. I can't quite remember when she got sick, but her illness followed the same trajectory as Phoebe's. She felt sick for a day and then felt better. She must have been sick on Monday because I don't remember her feeling sick while we were traveling and we were counting our lucky stars until Alexander started feeling sick at Yellowstone (June 21). 

At first he attributed his feelings of malaise to breathing in vapours from the geysers and things, so he kept saying that he wanted to "get out of here," away from all the steam. Now, granted, "toxic gases may accumulate to dangerous levels in some hydrothermal areas"so he his assumption wasn't necessarily unwarranted. But everyone else seemed fine, so we were pretty confident it wasn't toxic gasses (and we didn't spend a ton of time at any particular hydrothermal area). 

But, boy, that steam was just blowing into his face and stinging his eyes! And that sulphur smell sure was giving him a headache!

It took us an embarrassing long time to realize that he had, in fact, spiked a fever and was downright miserable. (Fortunately, all our activities were outside, so we felt we were giving others plenty of fresh air around us). 

He was so happy when we finished dragging him in and out of the car at Yellowstone and let him have a big, long rest in the car while we drove through Wyoming!

The next morning he was feeling much better, as we assumed he would be (if his illness followed the same course his sisters had experienced), and was running and climbing all over everything at Devils Tower. As I mentioned, however, he began to wilt at Mount Rushmore.

Here we all are standing in front of the monument (you may also note the thunderstorm gathering behind the hills):

 

Zoo trip (June 16)

Knowing that she would be doing a lot of entertaining this summer, my sister Kelli bought a fancy-schmancy pass to the zoo that allowed her a generous number of guest passes, so she treated our family to zoo visit while we were out in Utah. (Later she'd take her daughter Amy and Amy's three kids, as well as some other grandkids to the zoo; she sure is a lot of fun!)

We haven't been to the zoo since June 2019—right before we moved to Georgia—the trip that ignited Alexander's passion for all things owl. He's been quite the strigiformesphile ever since!

At first I thought it was interesting that we always take pictures of the giraffes when we very first get to the zoo, but then I realized that they're the first major attraction after the entrance, so it only makes sense to start with them.

So here we are looking at the giraffes:

The Cursèd Bathroom

We have come to the conclusion that our hallway bathroom is officially cursed. 

When we bought the place, we knew we'd have to redo the bathroom floor. We still haven't done that, but we knew that we would have to do so eventually. The tiles are all just falling apart. 

For a while the shower was leaking into the basement, but we got that fixed.

And then the upstairs bathroom fell into the hallway bathroom (both bathrooms were cursed, honestly).

And then most recently we found out that we'd screwed our towel rack into a pipe in the wall. 

As we stand, our ceiling has "naked" drywall up (to replace all the drywall that fell down when the upstairs collapsed into the downstairs), the tile floor is completely cracking up, and we have a couple of lovely holes cut into our wall. 

Well, today, Zoë was washing her hands and...water started running out of the bathroom cabinet and streaming all over the floor. 

The sink pipes have completely corroded and just...popped apart! 

To fix it, I think we'll have to do something like this (which doesn't look too complicated):

For now we just have a big "OUT OF ORDER" sign taped to the faucet. 

Springville Museum of Art (June 15)

Uncle Rod has a lovely piece on exhibition at the Springville Museum of Art, so visiting the museum was on our list of things we had to do while in Utah. We unfortunately didn't get to see Uncle Rod in person, but it was fun to see his photograph. 

When is a $30 towel rack a $600 towel rack?

We came home from Utah to a leaky basement and ten billion fruit flies in the kitchen. 

Finding the cause of the fruit fly problem was relatively quick and easy—we'd left a singular banana on the kitchen counter. And then let it sit in the house for three weeks. So...fruit flies. 

We're still battling them a bit, but they're much better controlled than they were when we first arrived home. They were everywhere. Why did we leave a solitary banana to rot on the counter? I'm sure I had planned on feeding it to Phoebe with breakfast, or something. And then didn't.

Much like the cucumbers in the fridge that I had meant to prepare to take with us...and then didn't...

Anyway, the fruit fly problem was easy to diagnose. The drip? Not so much. 

Strm damage and sblng beatngs (and thngs)

I'm supposed to be working on my thesis right now, and I am! But I'm also taking a quick break to write a few funny stories about our day. Because those are important, too. Perhaps more important? Like so many things in life that are seemingly less pressing but ultimately more important. 

I really ought to hurry though because we're under a severe thunderstorm warning (it's already getting dark and stormy outside) and we all know what happened last time we were under a severe thunderstorm warning. To that end, allow me to share some pictures of Grandpa's house and yard (which suffered quite a bit more than our house and yard):

The tree that is resting horizontally in this picture? It used to be vertical.

Rachel is 16!

Today was Rachel's birthday and in the spirit of Throwback Thursday, we had a massive storm roll through right at dinner time, which knocked out the power, so we celebrated her birthday in the dark...just like we did four years ago!

Fortunately, Miriam had already finished decorating the cake and Andrew had already finished cooking dinner, so all we really had to do was break out the candles and finish eating. The lights flicked off and on a few times before snapping off completely. This was soon followed by a big crash, which set half the table to screaming. 

Grandpa was sure our house had been hit by lightning, but it was only a branch that had landed on our roof. Alexander and Zoë were already panicking and Phoebe evidently wasn't feeling too safe, either, when I decided to stand up to find the emergency candles. At that point Phoebe started screaming bloody murder, so I sent Rachel and Miriam down into the basement to find the candles while I calmed down the children. And then we all finished our dinner (which was orange chicken, made by Andrew (who didn't eat any because he doesn't like chicken)).

After we finished eating we got the cake ready...and went outside to assess the damage to our house (which all seemed to be superficial, thank goodness—when Grandpa went home he discovered that his neighbour had two big trees topple, though both trees decided to land away from any buildings, which was good news).

Here's the cake that Miriam made for Rachel:

Sweet Alexander

This morning (after catching up on reading the blog), Alexander spontaneously ran to me, gave me a big hug, and said, "Mom, thank you for creating Heissatopia! Because I love to read it and remember good memories about our family!"

I realize that sounds nothing like what a five-year-old kid might say, but rest assured that Alexander often talks like a 90-year-old man and he routinely melts me into a puddle of sentimental goo. 

The other night I heard my door creaking shut around 3:00 in the morning. 

Quizzically, Phoebe was not in bed with us yet and I knew it was not her in the hallway because the light flicked on and then off really quick. I decided to get up and investigate what was going on and found Alexander slowly turning circles in his bedroom. He was suffering in terrified confusion, unsure of what his next move would be. 

"What's up, buddy?" I whispered.

"Oh, Mom! You're awake! Good!"

"What's going on?"

"Well, I woke up and it was dark and I was afraid! I tried to turn on our fairy lights but it's so dark that I couldn't find the switch, so I thought I would turn on the hallway light—but I made sure to close your door first so that I wouldn't disturb you with the light—but then when I turned the hallway light on it was too bright even for me, so I turned it off and then my eyes felt like things were even darker than before and I want to go back to sleep but I really need a light on and I don't know what to do!"

I helped him switch on the fairy lights (a string of gently-glowing LED lights), tucked him back into bed, and didn't hear from him until the morning. 

He's just the sweetest little thing though.

(I mean, sure, he has his rough and tumble moments, but overall he's just the sweetest little thing!)