Utah: Part 3 (Stewart Falls and Sushi)

On June 29th, after a day of relaxing with Sarah, we decided to take the kids on our favorite hike to Stewart Falls. We lathered the kids in sunscreen, grabbed water bottles and snacks, and started our drive up the canyon.

Once we were all at the parking lot and had emptied our bladders in the BIFFY, we started what would be one of the craziest hikes up Stewart we have EVER had!

For starters, all the little kids who we thought would have to be carried, INSISTED on walking the whole 3 mile round trip BY THEMSELVES! And on top of that, all the older kids who we thought would walk the whole way, wanted to be carried!

Then, when all the adults were wasted from carrying the big kids and prompting the little ones to stop poking things with sticks and keep walking, we stopped for a snack break. While we were sitting there, another group came along and asked if we wanted them to take a picture. We said yes, of course, and just as they were taking the shot, Malia vomited all over Rachel! You can actually see it on and under Rachel's leg in this picture! The lady was pretty grossed out and hurried away while we tried to help Rachel get cleaned off.

While Rachel was scrubbing her legs with baby wipes, Lily and Noa sat down in the dirt and got themselves sufficiently dirty :) By the time we got home Lily had about an inch of dust on her face!

After about 2 hours of hiking (we only covered 1.5 miles) we finally reached the beautiful waterfall!

Lily was at peace in her natural surroundings and quickly began rolling in more dirt, splashing through the water, and collecting sticks and rocks.

Brooklyn, however, had developed a pretty nasty fever at this point and couldn't even see straight! She was wobbling around, blinking her eyes closed repetitively, and complaining of a headache. At first I thought she was dehydrated or that she had heat exhaustion, but we found out later that she was just one of MANY Adrenal Virus victims. Poor thing!

Liz and tony were also feeling a little sick by now, and Tony was pretty wasted from carrying Brooklyn most of the way to the falls. They ended up having to leave early and wait at the car for the rest of us... which turned out to be a VERY long wait!

Before the rest of us left, we let the kids play in the water for a little while and tried to wash off as much dirt (and vomit) as we could. (This is one of my favorite pictures. Tau and the boys look so cute together.)

Those who were NOT sick seemed to really enjoy playing in the water and exploring their surroundings. But alas, the kiddos soon wore out and we started the long trek back to our cars.

Rae and her kids made it down first. I was about 15 minutes behind them, BEGGING Lily to let me carry her and trying to convince Brooklyn that she was strong enough to walk part of the way. After I made it down I went back for Tau, who carried both his boys the WHOLE WAY down the mountain. He was only 3 minutes behind me, but I grabbed Micah and we finally made it back to the car!

5 hours after we first left our house, we finally arrived home with a van full of wasted little children. The whole trip turned out to be a CRAZY adventure for sure, but I will always have fun memories from it and I'm glad we went :)

Later that night my mom was wonderful enough to watch the girls so I could go out for Sushi with Liz, Tony, and Sarah. We were all pretty tired, but had a good time laughing about our epic hike and stuffing our faces full of delicious Sushi in preparation for another crazy, fun-filled day!

To be continued...

Utah: Part 2 (Bean Museum, BYU Creamery, & The Manti Pageant)

On June 27th, Sarah and I drove down to Provo with our kiddos. We met our sister Becca there and took 10 of the 12 Uda-Grandkids to the BYU Creamery for some delicious ice cream!!! It was pretty chaotic trying to keep 10 little kids from smearing ice cream all over the world, but oddly enough, when you are wrestling 10 little kids in Provo, nobody thinks twice about you. If we had done that here in Chicago, we'd have people staring, tisking, and asking if they could be seated elsewhere :)

After we finished our ice cream, we headed over to the Bean Museum to check out all the animals.

I usually try to visit the museum when I am in Utah, but this was the first visit ever where I didn't have to do any work! With all the cousins together, we implemented the buddy system and all the kids kept an eye out for each other while the adults got to sit down and relax!

Which we did in the awesome playroom! Sarah got dibs on the "comfy" chair and Becca and I sat on the counters while the kids explored the room. It was pretty fun to watch how different the boy cousins and the girl cousins were. All the girls were circling the room, picking up the animal toys, rocking them, singing to them, and playing house. The boys, on the other hand, were repetitively building a tower and then chucking the animal toys at it to knock it down. KABOOM!

Later that night me and Brooklyn hopped in the car with Rachel, Munro, Mason, and Maile to drive down to Manti, UT for the Mormon Miracle Pageant.

We arrived on time to get seats close to the temple and then we were able to get some scones and shaved ice! Yummo... I think I want to make scones tonight... drool!

It was a beautiful evening to watch a play outside, and we were all super pumped for the pageant to begin.

While we were waiting, Brooklyn walked around telling the cast members how beautiful their costumes were and asking them if they were good guys or bad guys :) They all thought she was so cute that she ended up coming home with a stack of stickers and pictures that the cast had been handing out.

Then right before the pageant started, we rushed over to get a few pictures by the temple. Brooklyn loved being so close to it, but she was a bit bummed that we couldn't go all the way inside :)

When the pageant started Brooklyn was really into it... but half way through she looked up at me with tears in her eyes and said, "This isn't a good play, its a BAD play! EVERYBODY DIES!" I guess she's not a big fan of history, unless it involves rainbows and some type of unicorn/Pegasus :) The volcanoes also caused Brooklyn a bit of concern! When they started spouting fire she just about came undone! (Her cousin Mason, however, thought it was the best part of the whole show!)

Toward the very end of the pageant I looked down at Brooklyn and she was laying on her back staring into the sky. I asked her if she was going to watch the rest of the play, but she kept staring at the sky and then said, "No mom. I'm just gonna stare at the happy, happy stars in the happy, happy sky until we can go back home to happy grandma's house." Hahahaha! Why don't you tell us how you REALLY feel Brooklyn!

At the end of the play I asked Brooklyn what her favorite part of the pageant was and she told me, very sincerely, "When it was all over." Well, the pageant might have been a bust to my 4 year old, but she had a blast spending one-on-one time with her mommy, and mommy loved revisiting a favorite childhood memory!

Anyway, I had one WASTED little girl when I finally tucked her in bed at 2 in the morning, and I was pretty wasted myself! It was a long day, but it was totally worth it!

To be continued...

Utah: Part 1

On June 20th, my beautiful mother flew into Chicago. She spent the night, and then woke up bright and early the next day to help me drive myself and my two little girls to Utah! My mom totally ROCKS!

22 hours later, we arrived in Pleasant Grove where we were immediately met with hugs and hellos from all my awesome siblings! We ate and chatted and then, when most of my brothers and sisters went home, me and Sarah and Tau stayed up super late laughing our heads off about all the silly things we use to do :)

Our late night came back to haunt us when we had to wake up super early the next day to catch my sister, Becca, finishing her half marathon! But no worries, we were given a delicious french toast breakfast for our efforts.

Later that day we celebrated my niece Malia's 3rd birthday! Rachel and Munro set up the backyard with a small swimming pool and buckets full of water balloons for the kids to play with, and Rachel made the yummiest cake EVER! But the best part of the party was when Tau and Munro sacrificed themselves as human targets for the kids to throw water balloons at. (top left) But don't worry, they got back at the kids after all was said and done :)

Oh yeah! And while Rachel and Munro were setting up for the birthday party, me, Sarah, and Tau took all the kids down the street to watch the Strawberry Days Parade! We got tons of candy and a lot of stares for lugging 8 young children around!

The next day was Sunday and me, Rachel, Becca, and Sarah got to sing at church together. Its been a while since we were able to sing together but the performance turned out great (despite the fact that we were all losing our voices!)

Monday the 25th was mostly spent with my sister Sarah. I was helping her to get things together for girls camp and a baby shower she was throwing. It was so fun just to hang out with my little sister again and have adult companionship throughout the course of a regular day :)

On the 26th, my selfless mother volunteered to watch 10 of her 12 grandchildren while HER kids went out to eat at Bajio's. It was really fun to be kid-less for a change and have a chance to hear each other speak. As it turns out, my siblings are very funny and pretty darn political to boot! I never really knew they felt so passionate about our country and it's governing bodies (especially my little brother Jake! He is one smart cookie!)

That night, the power went out in my mom's neighborhood... resulting in an epic game of Truth or Dare! It was pretty spontaneous really. It started out with Becca making Jake call our little sister Liz (who was still in California) and confessing his undying love for her (CREEPY!) She immediately knew we were playing Truth or Dare and retaliated by daring Becca to go upstairs to my sleeping mother, wake the poor woman up, and tell her she had pooped her pants and needed to be wiped... and yes... My 31 year old sister complied!

Sooner or later I ended up having to walk in to the house next door (thankfully it was  my sister's house) and tell my bro-in-law that I was starving and needed him to make me a peanut butter and jelly sandwich! He just looked at me like, "what the heck..." but then he started to chuckle and said, "That's funny! Who put you up to this?!"

Sarah and Rachel eventually followed suit and had to write weird things on their Facebook statuses, such as: "I'm taking the Browns to the Superbowl" (code for I have to go #2) and "I'm so scared..." But poor Tau got the worst of things and had to have his toenails painted and post the picture on Facebook for all the world to see. We tried to get him to walk into my dad's room and randomly start giving my dad a shoulder massage, but he wimped out :) BEST. NIGHT. EVER!

To be continued...

REWIND!!!

I confess! I got a little behind on my blogging as of late... so here is a little rewind to show some things I missed over the past few months:

We've been adjusting to living in our new house quite well. There is a lot of extra space to work and play in, and it is starting to really feel like home. But one thing we can't quite get used to is the water. It is well water and occasionally comes out yellow, orange, red, or brown! This is a picture of the tub right after we filled it up... and no, that color did NOT come from Lily!

In April we were able to take our friends, the Robinettes, to Waterfall Glen to see some Chicago-style nature. Their kids are the same ages as ours and we all had so much fun hiking the trails, throwing rocks, and playing in the water together!

In May, Kevin was able to take Brooklyn with him to the Priesthood Commemoration Camp out. I think traditionally it was a father and sons camp out, but since a lot of men in our ward only have daughters, Brooklyn got to enjoy an evening of camp fires and S'mores with her daddy!

At the end of May, Brooklyn graduated from her second year of preschool (one more to go). She LOVED going to preschool with her ward friends and will miss her Teacher Missy (who just moved to Seattle) and her little class very much. At the graduation party we were able to enjoy healthy snacks prepared by the kids and a cute singing program. Next year I'll be on my own for preschool... I only hope I can do half as well as Missy did!

In June we walked with our Good friend Lucy to support research for Ulcerative Colitis. It was a beautiful day and it felt great to support Lucy with her cause.

Kevin and I also ran the Ragnar again this year... and it was kind of a miracle. Our team lost one member after another to injuries, sickness, and surgery, but we were able to pull together 12 runners one week before the race and make it happen. We had so much fun getting to know the other runners and are very grateful to the Cotton's who, once again, made it all possible.

In the midst of all this, Kevin continued being Kevin...which resulted in a busted tooth, a hole in his shin, and the loss of a toenail... all in the name of exercise! Bless his little heart :)

I was also able to finish our office makeover during the last few months and am proud to say that EVERYTHING in our office is either refurbished, up-cycled, or handmade. Most of the furniture was just given to us so the entire project only cost $50, paint and all!

And last, but not least, I was able to visit the Brookfield Zoo with my friend Diana and her son Aiden right before we left for Utah (that will be covered in another post...or two). The kids all had so much fun together and it was nice for me and Diana to have a little adult time while the kids watched the animals play! Unfortunately, I was unable to get a picture of my favorite thing that happened at the zoo. Lily started feeding Cheetos to a chipmunk, who in turn sat next to Lily and allowed her to pet it until the Cheetos were all gone! Very cool!

Anyway, it's been a crazy past few months and it only got crazier after this! Stay tuned for more posts on our Utah and Idaho adventures!

Mother's Day 2012

So, a few years ago I made these...

And my life has never been the same since! I am more tired then I used to be, less put together, and a little bit crazy at times, but I am also more organized then I used to be, less self absorbed, and a little bit wiser. My sweet little girls have taught me more about life, love, and happiness in the past 4 years than I ever learned in the 25 years prior to meeting them. They make up some of my hardest trials and my greatest joys and I am TRULY blessed to be called their mother.

And to let me know that they also feel blessed to call me mom, they spent today spoiling me ROTTEN! (Although at this stage in life I think it important to note that KEVIN is the one who really put the thought, time, money, and energy into my special Mother's Day.)

So this is how it went. I woke up this morning to creamed eggs on toast with FRESH HOMEMADE BREAD that Kevin got up at 5:00 am to bake for me! I was then gifted the blue-ray boxed set of Lord of the Rings (extended edition!), a new pair of running shoes, an AWESOME pink tool box complete with electric screw driver, and some BEAUTIFUL flowers!

Then after church...

Kevin let me nap while he made me Honey Dijon Chicken, Crash Hot Sweet Potatoes, and a Pear Gorgonzola salad with homemade croutons! It was AMAZING!

Anyway, I just wanted to say that I am so grateful today to be blessed with such wonderful little girls, an incredible husband, and two wonderful mother's of my own! Happy Mother's Day everyone!

The Illinois Marathon... Oh YES he DID!

In case you were wondering... after Kevin kind of missed his goal at the DC Marathon, he was feeling a little blue. And since I love him SOOO much, I couldn't just sit idly by and watch him feel bad about himself. So I did what any good wife would do and signed him up for another marathon (6 weeks after DC) so he could prove to himself that he does, in fact, ROCK! 

On April 27th, we handed the girls off to our AMAZING friends, the Browns, and then started our 3 hour drive south-ish toward Champagne-Urbana. We got there just in time to pick up Kevin's race packet before the Expo closed!

Once we got the packet and made sure that Kevin was indeed signed up for the race, we drove to Pizza Hut for one last round of carbo-loading before we made the hour drive to our hotel. (It turns out if you try to get a hotel 6 weeks before a marathon, an hour away is the closest you can get!)

On the morning of the 28th, we woke up at 4:30 to prep for the race and make the hour drive back to the start line. Unfortunately, when Kevin started getting all geared up, he realized that he had packed one of MY running shirts instead of his own! Hahahahahaha! Luckily he had an extra long sleeved running shirt in his bag that he was able to wear instead :)

When we got back into Champagne we got really lucky and were able to park right next to the start line AND the porta-potties! It was a little wet and cold, but because of our rock star parking space, we got to stay warm in the car until the race started.

Which gave Kevin plenty of time to freak out!

But it wasn't long before they sang the national anthem and asked everyone to get in their corrals.

Kevin got to start in the same corral as the elite runners because of how fast his predicted time was!

Once the gun sounded, the wheelchair racers took off, then the elites with Kevin hot on their tails!

He was definitely feeling good when he started out and was cruising despite the fact that he was trying to hold himself back for the first half of the race.

Once Kevin passed me, I started walking toward the half marathon point. On my way there I got my first real look at a non-BYU college town. There were hundreds of drunken frat boys lining the streets (at 7am) laughing, drinking, barfing, dressing like penguins, and trying to see who could collect the biggest pile of discarded running clothes. It was... interesting, and a bit smelly to tell the truth!

Anyway, I made my way passed the big crowds of runners and to the halfway point where it was mostly empty and silent. Most marathoners wouldn't be passing for 2 hours, but I knew Kevin would come through sooner so I decided to wait.

This is where the race got interesting for me. I sat next to the only other lady there and we started talking about our husbands. Both Engineers, very similar personalities, both had just missed their goal on their last marathon (her husband ran Boston 10 days before this race), and both came to the Illinois Marathon to redeem themselves and move passed their bad feelings about their last race!

The interesting part came when the elites finally started passing us. 3 Kenyans were leading the pack, then a Brazilian dude, and then Brett, the lady's husband came rounding the corner in 5th place!!! We both started freaking out and cheering. It was pretty awesome!

20 more runners passed and then my incredible husband came hauling through in 25th place overall. I was so excited that he was doing so well on his first half that I didn't even realize how freezing cold it had gotten outside! (However, that is something I WOULD discover later on.)

After Kevin passed, me and Lisa (the lady with the super fast husband) started walking to the stadium to see the finish. We spent the whole day together and had a blast! It really made the time go by faster having someone to talk to.

When we got there, the half marathoners were coming through, but it would be a while before the marathoners were finishing. So we people watched! 3 of my favorite people to watch at the finish were a guy who ran the whole half marathon carrying an American flag (he got TONS of cheers), a man who did a karate chopping motion throughout the entire race (yes... I saw him at the start, middle, and end, and he NEVER stopped chopping), and a 70 year old man with a bum leg who limped his way through the entire half marathon. VERY cool!

But enough about that, a little after 2 hours in to the race, the elites started coming through. At 2:40:00 Lisa's husband (41 years old) came through STILL in 5th place! We were ecstatic and celebrated together before she finally took off to greet her husband and left me alone in the cold to stress over my own husband. :)

It was VERY cold and I was VERY stressed out as I watched the clock tick away. Soon Kevin's goal time of 3:05:00 passed with no Kevin... I started fidgeting and biting my lips. His PR time in Chicago of 3:13:00 passed... I started praying out loud. 3:15:00 came up on the clock and I started threatening imaginary Kevin that he better not be dead somewhere or I was gonna KILL him! Then at last, I saw him round the corner at about 3:19:00. I was so relieved that he was OK but also stressed that he would be unhappy that he didn't qualify for Boston...

But once we finally found each other in the bleachers, I knew everything was OK. Kevin ran 26.2 miles in under 3:20:00 and he was proud of himself. He cramped up around mile 23 and got lost at mile 25, which is what really hurt his time, but despite those setbacks he ran an AMAZING marathon and we are both proud of his accomplishment! Of course... the first thing he said to me after the race was, "I WILL qualify for Boston! I don't know when, but it IS going happen!"