There and back again

My last post was 50 days ago. How do I even begin to talk about how the last month went? It was amazing. Stressful. Wonderful. Intense. Relaxing. Taxing. And so, so many other things. We had the time of our lives playing with siblings, cousins, aunts and uncles, and grandparents. We went to two family reunions, stayed overnight at a dear friend's house I haven't seen in person for 14 years, drove roundabout 5000 miles, swam, hiked, played at playgrounds and splash pads, spent as much time as possible with cousins, grandparents, aunts and uncles, and siblings, and spent no less than $2100 on van repairs. Whew! It was an intense month. I'm so glad I did it. I probably will do a bit shorter trips in the future. Six weeks is a LONG time to be away from home, but if I had never done this I always would have wondered how it went.

The kids adore every single member of the family they spent time with. Genevieve sometimes pretends to be standoffish at first, but there were very few, if any, people she didn't eventually warm up to.

Aaron turned one in Utah. We had a couple little parties for him. He got covered in chocolate frosting and loved it. He ate that cupcake like a boss. There was no food wasted. He just went to town. That kid knows how to eat.

I had a different experience at my family reunions than in the past. Chasing three kids all over, perpetually wondering which one I couldn't see and who was going to have a problem next made for less relaxation than expected, but times change, life moves on, and eventually it won't be like this anymore. It was so good to be with all of my siblings together for the first time in 12 years.

But anyway, enough typing, let's just get to some pictures, because that's all that really matters, right?

We found these stickers all over the van, but it was worth it for a bit of fun on the way out to Utah.

First personal ice cream cones at Little America.

First night sleeping together. I couldn't help but snap a picture while they were peacefully asleep.

Cousin "nap time"

 These two played hard and fought hard. They're already great friends.

Ziegler Family Reunion. My siblings and I haven't been all together at the same time since 2003. It was great to see everyone.

 

She got a bit tired at the reunion and found herself a cozy little spot to nap.

 Trampoline fun.

 These two loved each other two. They're only five weeks apart and look so much alike it's uncanny.

 Uncle Josh was much loved.

 This "sand box" (horseshoe pit) entertained them for hours.

 He was pro at getting in. Not so much at getting out.

 Genevieve gave herself a goose egg and big cut one night falling out of bed and hitting the exercise machine. I contemplated whether I needed to take her to the ER at 11PM, but we settled for a trip to the store for butterfly bandaids while a very nice neighbor sat with the boys, who were asleep. My in-laws were gone, so it was more complicated than normal to run to the store.

 Park time.

 Pure joy at the splash pad.

 Silver Lake. We nearly ran out of gas on this trip and barely made it back out of the canyon to fill up the tank. I was able to immediately pay forward that blessing when I guy came up and asked for help filling a gas can to go take care of his stranded car, literally five minutes after we got out and were filling up our gas tank. It was very surreal and I felt very blessed.

More Uncle Josh love.

 Park City with our favorite new friends Rix and Grace and Uncle Josh!

 Trying out the play food.

 Aunt Tori and cousin Daniel were also instantly loved on as well.

 A quick moment to try for a photo shoot at the American Fork Amphitheatre.

 This girl loves her new life vest.

 And Grandma's necklaces.

 Swim time with the cousins! Turns out three Diono car seats do fit in the row in our van!

 Provo Freedom Parade. The kids were enthralled.

 Swimming at Grandpa Doug's and Grandma Suzanne's.

 Fourth of July Fireworks!

 Hanging out with Grandpa, eating some fruit snacks, waiting for sacrament meeting to start.

 Just playing with a zippered hedgehog while sitting under an umbrella wearing a fire hat. No biggie.

 Temple Square take one. I took the three kids by myself for a speedy trip one morning before heading off somewhere else.

 I worked on this quilt the entire time I was there in the evenings after the kids were asleep or when they were watching movies, etc. My lovely MIL is going to do the quilting for it on her awesome new machine and I'm so excited tos ee how it all turns out in the end. It probably won't be finished for a few months, but I really love how it turned out. It's so colorful, just perfect for Genevieve. It's going to go on her bed.

 Spencer rocking the little climb at the park with Ashman cousins.

The sandbox at Grandma Suzanne's house was a huge hit. 

 Another park trip to an old school park with a tower and awesome swings and generally way cooler than more modern parks.

 We took the train to Temple Square. The kids were in heaven!

Aaron's Birthday.

 My niece helped him open presents.

 My brother the baker got Aaron his first set of rolling pins. So far they're a big hit, emphasis on the hitting. :) I guess Aaron figures it's time to jump into the fray with his older siblings.

On the way home, Aaron, who is now one, apparently thinks he's big enough to stand while he eats. What a little card!

Garden Update

We've lived in South Carolina for two and a half years. Time has just flown by. It really doesn't seem like that long ago that we got here, but so much has happened that it has to be true. Genevieve will be three at the end of the summer and she was only four months old when we moved. Aaron turns one in just a bit over a month. This last year especially has just flown. It was like each day was slow but then suddenly weeks and months had just disappeared.

We haven't done that much traveling since we moved here. I site grad school income limitations for that travesty as both Bill and I love to travel, but that's as it is. Let's just say I've gotten very settled in and very used to the weather as it happens to be around here. And let me tell you, that weather is glorious. The winters aren't that cold. The summers aren't that hot, at least not compared to other places. It's humid as can be in the summers, but calms down late fall through early spring. I find I actually like the way the humidity makes me feel and I've been here long enough that the fact that I'm always about ten seconds from breaking out in a sweat regardless of my body temperature has just become normal. That probably sounds awful to everyone out west but you'd be surprised how fast that becomes normal and okay. It happens to everyone, so we're all in the same boat. People are more understanding of it.

Anyway, the beautiful weather means we have maximum opportunity for awesome gardening. I'm a total novice in that area, but it's hard not to grow things here. They just flourish. My garden is out of control at the moment. I saw a picture of my SIL's container garden today, and she is a rather skilled and knowledgeable gardener, and all the plants are just a few inches tall. The difference in weather makes such a huge difference. Her garden will be incredible in a few months too, but mine just got a two-month start already. My tomatoes are literally three to four feet tall and so heavy with tomatoes I'm having to prop them up beyond the cages they're in. I had to tie them all together so the end one stopped falling over from the weight. The strawberries that I expected to not grow that many berries this year are doing surprisingly well. We have a critter of some kind swiping the ripe berries unfortunately, but hopefully soon we'll get a few for us. Today I discovered one of our pickling cucumbers looks to be ready to pick. There are gobs of tiny ones on the plants too, but this one is fully grown.

 I did make a few mistakes with my garden. I initially planted the cucs in the same box as the strawberries and sugar snap peas. That was just way too much in there. I ended up moving them and they're much happier now. Next year I'll build more boxes and let the strawberries have their box to themselves. I planted the carrots and onions and lettuce in the shadow of the tomato plants. It didn't occur to me when I put them in that the tomatoes would get so huge and block the sun. So those will probably not do so well. They're still alive but virtually not growing. We'll see what happens throughout the summer. Apparently I also planted some cooler weather plants that won't do well when it gets hot, but it's already hot and they're okay, so the mistake isn't too bad for now.

But regardless, we are going to have more tomatoes than we know what to do with, and tons of them are going to be ripe when I am in Utah, so I need to figure out what Bill can use them for and the best ways to process them. The cucumbers show tons of promise. The sugar snap peas are already prolific. Hopefully we'll be eating off those all summer.

Spencer dumped a whole pile of onion seeds in one spot by accident when we were planting, so we have a little forest of onions and he and Genevieve snack on them when we go water the garden. That may be my favorite part of my garden this year. Spencer, my poor little stressed out food son, is snacking on onions and mint leaves and talking about when the tomatoes get ripe and contemplating whether he'll try the peas. They're just little steps here and there, but for me, who has struggled through with him since he was 18 months old with the food troubles, these are huge forward steps. Things are getting easier for him with food in the most incremental way. I don't know how many times I've wished for a magic button to just make it all work for him, but the small steps feel good.

My little side hobby

I build furniture. It's a hobby that evolved out of a necessity five years ago that is just starting to grow into something bigger.

A little background. When Bill and I got married our first apartment was furnished so we used our excess wedding money to buy random other things we needed to setup a house, but no furniture. When we moved from there we had a bed and two saddle stools to our name. That summer I was not working full time due to a series of events surrounding Bill and my search for internships. We would be moving back to a normal, unfurnished apartment after that time and the lack of furniture was weighing on my mind. Around that time I happened upon a new blog, ana-white.com, that had knockoff wood plans of Pottery Barn furniture. That blog has evolved over the years to include a huge readership and thousands of plans, but I've followed it from just months after its founding. I still love it.

I had done some wood and metal working in middle school and my freshman year of high school, so I wasn't unfamiliar with building things, but just little boxes and pens and wind chimes and things like that.

Anyway, I decided at the time that building furniture sounded like a fun challenge, so I took it on. I guess I could have just shopped at DI and Walmart and other places I could afford to find some furniture for our place, but I chose to learn to build stuff myself instead and that has actually become a trademark decision for lots of aspects of my life.

Five years later I am much more skilled at this hobby. I can design my own plans now. I use other's ideas as a base, but rarely make exactly the same thing as others. Instead I fit furniture to the needs we have and the style I like. It's an awesome hobby. I've built loads of different things: tables, chairs, a pantry, several beds including our current one, a porch swing, a kitchen table, and many other things. Some we still have, some didn't make it through all the heavy use. My biggest limitations are access to some expensive tools I don't currently own as well as the cost of quality wood. Oh, and fitting my efforts around my three kids, though they love to help, so that's not as hard as I would have thought. I've also built all the easy things now for the most part and I'd rather build things that will last for years now instead of just to fill a need that will probably not last. My expectations for the quality of the final product have gone way up over the years, so I don't build things as cheaply anymore.

Building is a deeply ingrained part of my life and something I miss when the break between builds gets too big. Lately that hole has been filled in a way I never expected. People have started to commission me for projects they need built. It's only happened a couple times but I'm thoroughly enjoying it and it's totally filling my need to build when I can't do it for me.

Earlier this year I looked very closely into expanding the work I do for my job into some other areas and possibly walking away from my current job that has filled a need for the last decade. I nearly jumped head first into it, but I had some trouble committing to going down that path because I just don't love editing or designing for other people as much as I like some other things. If people would pay me to go hiking or play sports or read books or run, or play with my kids, heck, I'd be all over that. But editing or designing PowerPoints and teaching people how to make better decisions? Yep, I'm skilled in those areas and I find a decent level of fulfillment there, but sometimes it just seems like entirely too much work and not enough enjoyment. And it feels like I do entirely too many things that feel like work and not enough that feel like fun. And since I spend my days with three little buddies that focus entirely on how to best have fun, I feel like I'd like some of that too. Haha! Well it turns out that there is something that I consider fun, building furniture, that others will pay me for. So hey, I'm trying it out a bit. No plans to quit my day job, but you never know what might happen. Though I can pretty much guarantee that if I do more of this that some new tools will make their way into our possessions. Hahahaha!

So who knows, maybe I will pull the trigger on those other work ideas sometime and maybe I won't. Maybe I will start doing a lot of building for friends, maybe I won't. For now the few projects I've done so far are fulfilling and we'll see what happens. Suffice it to say I'm open to requests.